The British Army's Main Battle Tank. To ditch or not to ditch.

My late grandfather was a regular in the Somerset Light Infantry, but during the First World War he was transferred to the Royal Tank Corps and took part in the Battle of Cambrai where tanks were first used successfully, and en masse.

Therefore I was interested to see in the press that there are those in our Conservative government who advocate abandoning the use of tanks in the British Army.  I came across an article and a letter in The Week (5 September) which argued for and against the retention of the tank.

The case against was made by Jack Allen, a former Cold War tank commander, in an article originally published in Reaction. Life.  I reproduce the points I found of interest below:

Tanks for the memory, not for war today.

MBTs were already proving ineffective when I was a tank commander at the end of the Cold War: they’re even more so today.  For a start, being huge (some weigh 70 tons) they’re hard to move around the battlefield, hard to hide from drones and attack helicopters, and notoriously bad at fighting in cities.  On the modern battlefield – think Iraq or Syria – they’re easy prey to the lone operator on a moped with an anti-tank gun.  Or to roadside IEDs.  Even if the attacks only damage a tank, it all adds to the vast amount of support needed to keep the tanks on the road.  It’s not as if NATO general staff believe the next conflict will be fought on the open North European Plain, where MBTs come into their own.  No, Moscow prefers to work by destabilising governments and infiltrating militias.  By all means let’s invest in light armoured vehicles.  But let’s ditch the tank.    

The case for retaining tanks was originally made in The Times. I reproduce it below as published in The Week.

Why tanks are vital.

To The Times.

In all the articles (about the rationale for scrapping tanks), we could find no mention of deterrence.  Is there anyone left in Whitehall who understands deterrence strategy, which we are all signed up to in NATO?  Simply put, it requires an ability to outdo an enemy at all levels of conflict up to and including nuclear; if you can’t do this at each level, with a reasonable level of assurance, the strategy loses credibility.  The test for disposing of a capability that an enemy might retain is whether whatever is deemed to be a replacement will deter that enemy.  If not, then escalation or capitulation are the only responses.

When our conventional forces are as limited in number compared with those of our potential enemies as they now are, escalation could quickly rise towards a nuclear conflict.  Under these circumstances, our nuclear capability might well become a cuckoo in the nest.

Air Chief Marshall Sir Michael Graydon; Vice Admiral Sir Jeremy Blackham.

 

Without a big increase in attack helicopters to replace the tanks, I lean towards agreeing with Sir Michael and Sir Jeremy.

The South Somerset village of Merriott and its Church of All Saints.

Merriott is a village and civil parish in South Somerset 7 miles west of Yeovil and a similar distance east of Ilminster. 

In the nineteenth and earlier centuries, due to the nearby River Parrett and its associated watermills, Merriott was prominent in the flax, canvas and sailmaking trade - all vital products in the age of sail.  Paul Newman in his Somerset Villages (Robert Hale, 1969), informs us that: “. . . the bellying sheets of HMS VICTORY were produced by local craftsmen.” 

In more modern times many residents have earned their living at Westland Helicopters in Yeovil.  The firm has changed hands many times in recent years and is now owned by Leonardo - an Italian multinational company.

On a less serious note, writing of village folklore, Paul Newman tells us: “Curiously enough the place was known as “Little Ireland” on account of an entirely baseless tradition of colonization by the Irish in the distant past and a predominance of dark hair coupled with a distinctive dialect.”

Earlier this month, on a beautiful day of sunshine and blue sky, I decided to drive over to Merriott with my camera and take some photos of the church.  I also intended to visit the four Commonwealth War Graves in the churchyard.

Edward Sutton in his Highways and Byways in Somerset (Macmillan and Co., 1912), writes of Merriott’s Church of All Saints: “. . . the church is a curious and interesting building of many ages.  The chief attractions are perhaps the old gargoyles all around the building, the pretty niche over the doorway, the curious relief over the vestry door, called the “Fighting Cocks”, and a very crude and ancient crucifix.”

It was easy to park outside the church near the lych-gate which gave entrance into what seemed a very large churchyard for a village.  I took some pleasing photographs of the church and its gargoyles.

The Church of All Saints in the South Somerset village of Merriott.

Gargoyles and battlements above the south porch of the Church of All Saints in Merriott, South Somerset.

The tower and south porch of the Church of All Saints in Merriott, South Somerset.

All Saints stands on rising ground and from the highest point in the graveyard, looking north-east, the Ham Hill war memorial can be seen on the skyline about 4 miles away. The memorial is just about visible in the photo below.

The view north-east from the churchyard of the Church of All Saints in the village of Merriott, South Somerset.  Ham Hill is on the skyline to the right of the picture.

Unfortunately, although the churchyard was extremely well maintained, I could find only one of the four war graves; that of Private H. Lawrence of the 6^th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry, who died on 22^nd January 1918.  I intend to return one day to search for the others.       

The war memorial at the Church of All Saints, Merriott, South Somerset.  It commemorates 33 men who died in World War One and 10 who died in World War Two.

Private A. A. Trott of the 12th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry, at rest in a Gloucestershire village churchyard.

A couple of months ago, while holidaying in the West Country, our good friends L & C visited the churchyard of St. Peter and St. Paul in the Gloucestershire village of Westbury-on-Severn.


They came upon the Commonwealth War Grave of Private A. A. Trott of the 12th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry. Knowing my interest in the SLI they sent me a photo of the headstone.


Private Trott died on the 13th December 1918, aged 38, after World War One had ended.  Did he die of wounds received during the war or was he a victim of the Spanish Flu epidemic, perhaps a tragic accident befell him?  I have been unable to find answers to those questions.


The words on his gravestone read “A DEAR HUSBAND AND FATHER NEVER FORGOTTEN BY HIS LOVED ONES”.  Intriguingly the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records state that Private Trott was the “HUSBAND OF FLORENCE AMELIA ANN HALLETT (FORMERLY TROTT) OF YEOVIL SOMERSET”.  Make of that what you will! 


12th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry.
The 12th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry was formed from the West Somerset Yeomanry, a cavalry regiment, in February 1917 at Ismailia in Egypt.  After the dismounted cavalrymen had retrained as infantryman the Battalion joined the 229th Brigade, part of the newly formed 74th Division.  The Division campaigned in Palestine against the Turks until it was transferred to France in April 1918.

The Battalion’s first action in France was on the 18th August 1918 when it fought in Picardy before taking part in the Battles of the Hindenburg Line.  It took part in the Final Advance in Artois during October and November.

The Battalion suffered its last battle casualties on the 22nd October when 2 men were killed and 20 wounded.  Its total casualties during the War were 147 killed in action, 53 died of wounds, and 12 died.

Everard Wyrall chronicles the record of the 12th Battalion in its final months of service in his The Somerset Light Infantry 1914-1919 (Methuen & Co., 1927).  He concludes: “The 12th Somersets, who on the 11th November were on the road to Escalette when the Armistice was announced, marched on to Ollignies and took part in a peace celebration, the Burgomaster presenting the Battalion with a Belgian flag, which now rests in St. Mary’s Church Taunton.  It was not, however, until the middle of June 1919 that the Somerset Yeoman were reduced to cadre strength and returned to England.  The cadre reached Taunton on 21st June and received a great welcome from the townspeople as it marched through the streets behind the cadre of the 1st Battalion of the Regiment – a fitting close to a most wonderful period in the history of the Regiment.”

Sources:
Commonwealth War Grave Commission website.
Edward Wyrall, The Somerset Light Infantry 1914-1919 (Methuen & Co., 1927).

A stroll around Vivary Park in Taunton, Somerset.

Last week my wife and I had cause to visit Taunton.  We parked the car in the Orchard multi storey car park and, while my wife met up with a friend from her university days, I went for a quick stroll around Vivary Park with my camera.

The gates to Vivary Park on Upper High Street in Taunton, Somerset.

Just inside the park’s impressive cast iron gates on Upper High Street is a war memorial remembering the fallen of World War One and World War Two together with 3 who lost their lives serving in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s and 1 who died in Afghanistan in 2009.  The memorial was erected in 1922.

The war memorial in Vivary Park, Taunton, Somerset

A little further on is a fountain in memory of Queen Victoria which was unveiled in 1907.  It was built by the Saracen Foundry of Glasgow which, in 1895, also built the park gates mentioned previously.

The Queen Victoria Memorial Fountain in Vivary Park, Taunton, Somerset.  The Keep of Jellalabad Barracks is in the background.

The plaque on the Queen Victoria Memorial Fountain in Vivary Park, Taunton.

At this point I took cover in a wooden shelter as a shower of rain passed.  From the shelter I took some photos of the very well-kept flower beds and the Keep of Jellalabad Barracks which towers over the eastern side of the park.  

Jellalabad Barracks was completed in 1881.  It takes its name from the siege of Jellalabad in 1842 during the First Afghan War.  The 13th Regiment of Foot, which later became the Somerset Light Infantry, held the fort at Jellalabad for 5 months before being relieved.  Hugh Popham writes in his The Somerset Light Infantry (Hamish Hamilton, 1968): “The honours quickly began to flow.  Even before the regiment left Jellalabad it was announced in the London Gazette that ‘Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to approve of that Regiment assuming the title of the 13th or Prince Albert’s Regiment of Light Infantry; and its facings be changed from yellow to royal blue’.  By the same order, a ‘mural Crown, superscribed Jellalabad’ was added to the Colours and appointments, where it has remained ever since, to mystify those to whom the First Afghan War is as remote as the Peloponnesian.”  I suspect Afghanistan’s troubled history is far better known today than when Hugh Popham wrote those words 50 years ago!

With more rainclouds on the horizon I took advantage of a sunny spell and hurried off to Taunton Library in nearby Paul Street.  There I settled down in the Military History section where my wife and I had arranged to meet before heading back across the Blackdown Hills for home.

Colonel John Chard VC, who led the defence of Rorke's Drift during the Zulu War of 1879, at rest in a Somerset churchyard in the village of Hatch Beauchamp.

Today is the anniversary of the action during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 in which John Chard, then a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, led the successful defence of Rorke’s Drift.  Earlier on the 22nd a Zulu army had overwhelmed and all but annihilated a British force of around 1,500 at nearby Isandlwana before moving against the mission station at Rorke’s Drift and its 130 defenders. The Zulus attacked in the late afternoon and the fighting continued overnight.

What connection has John Rouse Merriott Chard with Somerset?

He is buried in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist Church in the village of Hatch Beauchamp around 5 miles south-east of Taunton.  While still serving in the British Army, having attained the rank of Colonel, he was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue - he was a life-long pipe smoker - and spent his final weeks staying with his brother who was the Rector at Hatch Beauchamp.  Unmarried, he died on November 1st 1897 just short of his fiftieth birthday.

Another connection with Somerset is that Chard was present at the final defeat of the Zulus at Ulundi, on July 4th, a battle in which the Somerset Light Infantry played a prominent role.  My great-grandfather, a regular soldier in the Somerset Light Infantry, also took part at Ulundi.

Colonel John Chard VC has an impressive marble tomb in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist Church and also a memorial window in the south chancel.