Connaught Rangers Training Video 1914

Sacrifice of soldiers is not forgotten

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Congratulations on the story on the 'forgotten Rangers' (Belfast Telegraph, November 8).

The west Belfast soldiers who joined the Connaught Rangers were indeed among the bravest who gave their lives for their comrades to stem the German advance of March 1918.

However, the 16th Irish Division, of which they were part, suffered from a double calumny in the rush to find scapegoats after the retreat of Gough's 5th Army.

It was suggested that they were not loyal and retreated too easily. Not the view of the German Army, who paid tribute to the outnumbered Irish who delayed the German advance and paid for it with the highest casualties of any British division, 7,149 killed,wounded and missing.

At the Somme Association we remember the contribution of all Irish soldiers and currently we have an exhibition on the 16th Irish which was recently opened by the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese.

In June, on the anniversary of the Battle of Messines, we inaugurated the annual William Redmond Memorial Lecture and published the memoirs of Charles Brett MC, a Belfast solicitor who commanded A Company of the 6th Connaught Rangers.

Erskine Holmes, Somme Association, Conlig

Forgotten Rangers suffered horrific losses in war

Friday, November 16, 2007

By Chris Thornton

The Connaught Rangers was one of six lost Irish regiments in the British Army, disbanded with partition in 1922 and largely forgotten by history.

The Rangers were formed during the Napoleonic Wars, recruiting men from the west of Ireland.

But many Northerners joined the unit at the outbreak of the First World War, when the Rangers made helped popularise 'It's A Long Way To Tipperary' by making it their marching song.

The Rangers - 'The Devil's Own' - suffered horrific casualties during the war, but also collected 42 battle honours, including a Victoria Cross at the Battle of the Somme.

Part of the regiment famously mutinied in India in 1920 over the actions of the Black and Tans back in Ireland. One of the ringleaders was the last man executed by the British Army for mutiny.

North Belfast man Robert McKillen, whose great uncle joined the Rangers in Belfast in 1914, said the end of the Troubles has helped people speak openly about Irish involvement in the First World War.

"One of my interests in retirement is in reviving the history of the Connaught Rangers," he said. "These were men who gave their lives not just for people here but for the people of Europe.

"I think that has been forgotten. What we don't remember is these young lads were promised Ireland would get independence if they went off and fought.

"There was a lot of bitterness towards them when that didn't happen, and even to this day people don't want to talk about it in some places.

"The community as a whole has been a bit late in recognising the sacrifice that was made, but the interest is growing and people are starting to recognise what they did."

Mr McKillen said the 6th Connaught Rangers - the battalion was virtually wiped out in 1918 - was "mostly recruited in west Belfast, where there was a big pool of unemployed people".

His great uncle, Patrick McKillen, was among the recruits sent to France in 1915. He received a commendation for manning a machine gun post for 24 hours, but was killed in August 1917 at the battle of Passchendaele.

"He worked in Ross' Mill before the war and he was engaged to a girl, Mary McCann of Dunmore Street," he said. "She never married and kept a photograph of him beside her bed until the day she died in her 80s.

"I went over last year and put flowers on his grave. It's surprising how many other people have done it."

The regiment was formally disbanded in 1922, along with the Royal Irish Regiment, Leinster Regiment, Royal Munster Fusiliers, Royal Dublin Fusiliers and South Irish Horse.

First World War

In August 1914 the 1st Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Hurdis Ravenshaw, was stationed in Ferozepore, India. It was part of the Ferozepore Brigade, 3rd (Lahore) Division of the Indian Army. It arrived in Marseilles, France on the 26 September 1914.

The 2nd Battalion was part of the 5th Brigade, 2nd Division which was, in turn, part of the British Expeditionary Force. It arrived in Boulogne in August 1914, the month in which war was declared. Its marching song It's A Long Way To Tipperary became famous.

The 3rd (Reserve) Battalion was based in Galway upon the declaration of war and would remain in Ireland until November 1917 when it moved to England. The 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion had been based in Boyle in August and would remain there until November 1917 when it relocated to Scotland. In May 1918 the 4th Battalion was absorbed into the 3rd Battalion. The battalion ended its war at Dover.

The 5th (Service) Battalion was a battalion of Kitchener's Army. The 5th Battalion was part of the K1 Group, the first New Army to be formed, and it was formed in Dublin in August 1914. It subsequently joined the 29th Brigade, 10th (Irish) Division at County Cork and in 1915 it was dispatched to Gallipoli, where it fought alongside the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and the Royal Munster Fusiliers.

The 6th (Service) Battalion was another Connaught battalion of Kitchener's Army. It was part of the K2 Group and was formed at County Cork in September 1914 and joined the 49th Brigade, 16th (Irish) Division. On the 18th December 1915 the battalion landed in Le Havre.

Some 2,500 Connaught Rangers were killed in World War I. Their graves lie in France, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt, Palestine, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, and England. In just over a week’s fighting in the Battle of the Somme (September 1916), the 6th Battalion lost 23 officers and 407 other ranks.^[2] On 21st March 1918, the same Battalion was “practically annihilated” during the German Spring Offensive breakthrough at St. Emilie in France. In one week the battalion lost “22 officers and 618 other ranks”,^[3] the latter figure including the 407 quoted by Denman. On the first day of the Spring Offensive the 6th Battalion found, following the opening bombardment, that the order to withdraw had not reached them so that they were left alone to face the onslaught of two fresh German divisions. Approximately 222 men were left standing after this. The Regiment lost over 300 men killed or wounded in action or missing on that day, following five weeks in the line. As a result of these heavy losses, the survivors were transferred into the 2nd Battalion, The Leinster Regiment, and the 6th Battalion, Connaught Rangers ceased to exist. Private Martin Moffat from Sligo, later a winner of the Victoria Cross, was one of the men transferred.