Johnathan West

Jonathan West was born in 1897 at St. Winnow, near Lostwithiel on the River Fowey. His parents were Jonathan Found West & Annie West. His father worked as a platelayer for Great Western Railways.   He had three siblings, Roderick, Hilda, Dorothy – all born St Winnow – and Ambrose, born in Probus.  In the 1911 census the family are living at Bank Cottage, Probus.  They later moved to 1 Railway Tce, Grampound Rd.   

 

Jonathan volunteered for service with the county regiment, the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry.  He enlisted at Truro. After his training was complete, he arrived on the Western Front on 26th October 1915.  

 

Jonathan was likely to have been in action, prior to his last action.  In 1916, the 6th DCLI fought on the Somme at Delville Wood and Flers-Courcelette.  

 

The attack on ‘Fitzclarence Farm.’

 

In August 1917, the 6th DCLI were making their way to the front line again, this time to relieve the 7th Bn King’s Royal Rifle Corps.  The 6th were given as their ‘front line’ a stretch of trench between areas known as ‘Glencorse Wood’ and ‘Inverness Copse.’  In front of their stretch of trench lay their objective for the coming assault, a cluster of shattered buildings known as ‘Fitzclarence Farm,’ held by the Germans who were firmly dug in. 

 

The Battalion paraded at 4.15pm on the 20th August, 1917.  Dress was to be “full fighting kit.”  Wire cutters, wiring gloves, rifle grenade cups, bomb carriers etc were drawn by companies and issued to the men.  Each man carried 120 rounds of ammunition and his rations for the next day.

 

The 4 companies of the battalion were to go into action in four waves, with separate objectives.  The attack was planned for the 22nd August.  Unfortunately, a German aeroplane flew over and observed the entire battalion forming up behind the ridge.  Surprise was lost.

 

The attack went ahead none-the-less, but was held up at 50 yards by heavy machine gun fire from both flanks. German machine gun fire was also coming from Glencorse Wood and from the centre of the German line.  The men of the 6th DCLI could clearly see the Germans being reinforced, filling their defences with more and more men. To stem the tide, British Vickers and Lewis machine gunners inflicted heavy losses amongst them.

 

A single tank intervened.  It destroyed a concrete strongpoint holding 50 or so men; the survivors were killed as they emerged.  Another strong point was taken by a British bombing party.  Ground was thus gained, but any further advance held up by more German machine gun fire.  Jonathan had survived this days’ fighting, but the struggle rolled on into the darkness and the early hours of the 23rd.   An attack with tanks was planned for this day which went ahead, being met head on with a German counter attack, which was defeated by a combination of the tanks and British rifle and machine gun fire.  It was seen that the German infantry “had fairly large numbers, but were advancing slowly from shell hole to shell hole, with little energy.”

 

However the assault with these tanks faulted; one was destroyed by a German anti-tank gun; another broke down, and the third retreated.

 

In the daylight hours of the 23rd August, the British tried to consolidate their position.  But the Germans were not going to allow their enemy any respite, and “bombarded our new line and old line very heavily, inflicting heavy losses....” 

 

At 4.30am in the dawn of the 24th, the Germans made a very strong counter attack: they attacked using ‘flammerwerfer’, or flamethrowers on the right and centre of the DCLI line, also taking by surprise garrisons in two defensive positions with “strong bombing attacks.” The centre of the line was driven back, and the flanks followed.  After an hour of this, the British counter attacked once again; the War Diary states that this counter attack was “delivered on the right about 5am, composed of all troops that could be gathered on the right flank, and this was successful on the south of the Menin Road, but could not get across the open ground to the north of the Menin Road.  On my left flank, when I got across, I could find only about 40 of my battalion. They were reorganised and the only officer I had left, put in charge.”

 

A barrage was arranged to be bought down on the Germans, but this went ahead without due notice, and was therefore of no use for any counter attack by the British.   “In conjunction with the Commanding Officers of the 9th Rifle Brigade and the 8th King’s Royal Rifles, I decided that, with the few troops left, if the counter attack was successful, the holding of the original line would be endangered.....the enemy made no further attempt to gain ground.”

 

Barricades were put up and the line held.  The 6th DCLI withdrew that night.

 

This action typifies the deadlocked trench warfare that made up the bulk of the fighting that took place on the Western Front.  The 20 year old Jonathan West lost his life in this murderous and bitter warfare.  He was killed most likely when the Germans shelled heavily, on the 23rd, the second day of the fight.   He was a long way from the quiet Cornish village he had lived in, and a long way from the waters of the River Fowey, by which he had been born.  

 

Between 21st and 24th August, the 6th DCLI sustained 350 casualties: 7 officers and 55 men of other ranks killed; 8 officers and 282 other ranks wounded; 28 men remained missing.  Jonathan has no known grave, and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, in West-Vlaaderen, Belgium.  Along with 34,997 other men, all of whom have no known grave.