2nd Ypres - Gwent's Blackest Hours - Part 3 - Counting the losses
3rd Mons casualties list - South Wales Gazette, 14 May 1915 (Part 3 of 3)
3rd Mons casualties list - South Wales Gazette, 14 May 1915 (Part 2 of 3)
3rd Mons casualties list - South Wales Gazette, 14 May 1915 (Part 1 of 3)
3rd Mons casualties list - Abergavenny Chronicle, 18 June 1915, Part 2 of 2.
3rd Mons casualties list - Abergavenny Chronicle, 18 June 1915, Part 1 of 2
3rd Battalion of Monmouthshire Regiment's diary for period 10 to 24 May 1915
On 11 May 1915, the remnants of the 3rd Battalion of the Monmouthshire Regiment were finally relieved from front-line duty in the trenches near Ypres in Belgium. Losses of men from all 3 battalions of the Monmouthshire Regiment had been so horrendous that a ‘composite battalion’ had been created a day earlier comprising survivors of 3 battalions.
A note in the battalion diary for 13 May 1915 mentions that, ‘Men had baths at Poperinghe by companies’. For most if not all, this would have been the first bath that the men had had for weeks as the battalion had been in the line without relief since 17 April.
It is apparent that the majority of men in the 3rd Mons who were killed during the 2nd Battle of Ypres remained unaccounted for and were classed as ‘missing’ for some time after. Many families of the missing would have of course clung to the hope that their loved ones had been injured and were being treated in hospital or had been taken as prisoners of war. Tragically, a great number of the ‘missing’ still lie where they were killed as is testified by the long lists of names of men from the 3rd Mons commemorated on the panels of the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres.
No Comments
Add a comment about this page