First World War POW Diary

Kev thank you – that would explain why on his medal records – next to the Lcpl is an asterix with above it another asterix and Pte.

I was told by the Staffordshire Regimental Museum that all stretcher bearers received the rank of Lance Corporal. (Although I have a distant memory that Lance Corporal is not a rank but an appointment?) This was to give them a little authority in difficult situations. It may be that the same applied to ambulance drivers in Aly Sloper’s Cavalry?

Regards,

kev35

Excellent sleuthing Icare – yes he was one of the Axminster Enticotts.

He also had another brother with a Kent Regiment who died in 1915. The report has a list of those who died in a single engagement – the officers by name and 400 other ranks. As he was also a Pte he was one of the 400 “other ranks”

We think Frank was an ambulance driver with the ASC. I pulled Franks medal records from ancestry and he has regiment numbers for both the ASC and the Norfolks. He was classed as a LCpl with the AWC and Pte with the Norfolks (!)

I also think the 251 was the total group from multiple regiments. I am also not sure that he was with the 3rd Norfolks as they are classed as a reserve unit that never went abroad. But the letter from Buck House has Norfolks as has his medal record so perhaps it is a transcription error and it was 2nd (?).

On aviation – I have just read Sagittarius Rising and although about fighters – the move to 40 bomb raids ( on target) seems to have been a significant move from the early attempts at bombing.

It seems he only landed in France on 7th April ’18 and was captured on 16th April, hardly time to get his uniform dirty!!
A Frank Enticott is recorded as born 4th September 1884 in Axminster, Devon, in 1891 his father Frank a fish and fruit seller, mother Lydia and one year old brother Albert Edward (b 2nd Qtr 1889) were living in the Old Lock Up in Castle Street. 1901 records them as EnDicott, 134 Lyme Street, father a grocer, Frank a grocers assistant with brothers Albert E and Edgar C and a sister Ethel N.
Frank married Rose Elizabeth Campbell on 4th January 1908 in Lambeth. He mentions he was 13 stone in January 1915.
He first served in the Army Service Corps, Regimental Number: 074730, entering France on 6th May 1915, rising to L/Cpl (acting?), then presumably after being wounded and recovered was posted to Norfolk Regiment, as a Private (?) No. 37657.
There seems to be a vast discrepancy between Franks record of around 200 dying since capture, unless he is referring to all those captured at the same time as him, not just 3rd Norfolks who only sustained 33 casualties from Jan 1918 until 31/7/21.
His brother Albert was killed in March 1918, with Probate being granted in Nov 1929.

Name: ENTICOTT, ALBERT EDWARD. Rank: Ordinary Seaman
Regiment/Service: Royal Navy. Unit Text: H.M.S. “Gaillardia.”
Date of Death: 22/03/1918. Service No: J/66195
Grave/Memorial Reference: 28. Memorial: CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL
He had married a Miss Tompkins in 3rd Qtr 1914 in Wandsworth, presumably just after War was declared and prior to joining the Navy.

Thanks Bager and Adrian!

“Neue Elyis” may have been “Neuve Eglise”.

Phase: the Battle of Bailleul, 13 – 15 April 1918

Second Army (Plumer)
IX Corps (Gordon)
19th (Western) Division
25th Division
34th Division
49th (West Riding) Division, fought in defence of Neuve Eglise
59th (2nd North Midland) Division
71st Brigade of 6th Division
South African Infantry Brigade of 9th (Scottish) Division
88th Brigade of 29th Division
100th Brigade of 33rd Division, fought in defence of Neuve Eglise
108th Brigade of 36th (Ulster) Division.

Battle of Bailleul

On 13–15 April, the Germans also drove forward in the center, taking Bailleul, 12 km west of Armentières, despite increasing British resistance. However, Plumer assessed the heavy losses of Second Army and the defeat of his southern flank, and ordered his northern flank to withdraw from Passchendaele to Ypres and the Yser Canal; the Belgian Army to the north conformed.

This is both the proper time and place for his capture… and confirms a withdrawal by British forces right when he lost contact with his unit.

Battle of the Lys (1918) (9 – 29 April 1918), also known as the Battle of Estaires or the Fourth Battle of Ypres

He mentioned being in Ypres on 10 April 1918, and arriving near Neue Elyis on Sunday which would be the 14th. Then, he was “being sent out on outpost Monday night” (15th) and wandering trying to find food and his own troops until capture at 9:30 (doesn’t say am or pm) on 16 April (Tuesday).

Since he said Batt. 9 (Battery or Battalion) was empty, I suspect there had been a withdrawal by the British troops and his unit had been sent out to delay the Germans while the withdrawal was carried out. He was captured while in B.H.Q. (Battalion Headquarters).

Wiki-waki article on the battle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Lys_%281918%29

Brian,

March 21st 1918 saw the beginning of the Germans’ spring offensive, which was effectively a last-ditch attempt to win the war before too many American troops arrived in France (simplified version, if any experts are reading!). They pushed the allies back nearly thirty miles in places and the attacks continued, with lessening success, into early June so, whatever happened to the Norfolks, it was almost certainly during one of the battles of the “Kaiserschlact”. On March 21st, for example, the 11th Battalion Essex Regiment were ordered to counter-attack and, in the ensuing chaos as they tried to find a jumping-off line already over-run by the Germans, took heavy losses. After three days in the line they were withdrawn and, of over 600 officers and men who had set off on the 21st, 80-odd marched back on the 24th. So that sort of loss rate was not unique by any means.

Have you investigated the Long, Long Trail and the associated Great War Forum?

http://www.1914-1918.net/ – link to GWF at bottom of page.

Hope that helps,

Adrian