Friday 21 July 2017

The Umbrella Hill Raid

Umbrella Hill from The History of the Fifth Battalion Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment (TA)

Saturday 21st July 1917

The adjutant of the 1st/5th Bedfords has managed to telephone me all the way from Palestine with details of last night’s raid. At 5.40 a.m. yesterday morning the General Officer Commanding 162nd Brigade inspected the raiders of 1st/5th Battalion and watched a rehearsal by the six new rifle sections added to the raid. Between six and eleven o’clock the Regimental Sergeant-Major and his party laid out stores at the place of assembly in proper dumps. The afternoon passed without incident.

At seven o’clock last evening the whole raiding party marched out, arriving at the place of assembly at about 20.15. Stores were issued. Everything was quite ready by about 20.50 and all stores issued. The raiders left the place of assembly at 20.55 in accordance with programme and the raid was carried through very successfully in accordance with the programme.

By sheer bad luck the enemy had put up an intense bombardment of 5.9 inch high explosive shells onto a very small area near the place of assembly and almost the whole of the casualties are due to this except for the missing and probably two or three killed on the hill and perhaps eight or ten wounded there.

Captain Miskin

About 9.45 pm the raiders, followed by the supports, came back to our front line. With so many men and in view of the tremendous noise and dense smoke some confusion was inevitable but the officers and non-commissioned officers of these parties quickly appreciated the situation and with the assistance of some parties organised by the reserve commander Captain Miskin, managed to retain most of their men in our front trench which was comparatively safe as the enemy barrage was plastering a zone some fifty to one-hundred -and-fifty yards in the rear of the front line. After some reconnaissance it was found possible to move the men to the flanks along the front line and so out of the barrage. They were then passed down communication trenches or in small parties in the open. The garrison had been relieved and all except wounded evacuated by 01.30.

The large number of wounded were evacuated by about 2.30 a.m. At 3.30 a patrol of one officer and five other ranks went in the direction of the Beanfield, about 150 yards short of Umrealls Hill, but found nothing. Everything was quiet on the hill itself. The remnants of the smoke and a thick mist made visibility difficult.

At four o’clock this afternoon a patrol of two went out, just as the dawn was breaking and the lifting mist enabled one to see. They only stayed out about ten minutes and found one dead body - from a former engagement - and some equipment which was brought in.

Today the dead, comprising one from the Royal Army Medical Corps, one from the divisional signalling company, one from 484th Company, Royal Engineers, one from the Machine Gun Corps, one from an unknown unit and sixteen from the Bedfords were buried in a cemetery near the headquarters of the raid(1). The remainder of today has been spent resting and writing reports.

One feature of the reports was that every commander of a Unit from officers commanding supports, reserves and raiders down to individual "mopping-up sections" has been asked for a written report of his own work. These will be forwarded to divisional headquarters.

Source: X550/6/8

(1) Now Gaza War Cemetery

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