JOHN W. MASON 

John William Mason is my wife’s maternal grandfather. John was born in the December “Q.” of 1897 in Seacombe, Cheshire. It was always known he had service in WW1 but the family did not now know anything about his service. Fortunately his Army Service Records are available through Ancestry, there being 24 images to view. Having said that a couple appear to be duplicates, some difficult to read others impossible to read. Image 3 is his Short Service Record, Army Form B2505.

John William Mason enlisted on the 30th Oct. 1915 with a second date - Joined 2nd Nov. 1915, the document being stamped Great Yarmouth and it does appear that he joined at Great Yarmouth. (There is a witness signature which I cannot read.) John’s Regimental Number was 60895 with the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA). Great Yarmouth was No 4 Depot of the RGA. The document states “Service towards limited engagement reckons from 30th Oct. 1915”. This Short Service Record asks “did you receive notice?” which is answered Yes.

 

The Descriptive Report on Enlisting records the following information; age at enlisting is recorded as 30yrs – 4days. John’s height, 5ft - 8.5 inches, his girth is 35 inches which can be expanded by 3.5 inches, it is recorded that he has a distinguishing mark of a Tattoo on his left forearm. Trade is recorded as Cotton Porter. Next of kin is his wife, the records then show that he is married to Bertha Ellen Isaac. This was on the 11th Nov. 1906 at St Paul, Seacombe. (Church opposite Seacombe Ferry Terminal.) It is recorded that he lived at 9 Demesne St. Seacombe, Cheshire. Children are recorded as – Esther Bertha born 20/4/1907; Clara born 25/6/1908; John Henry born 23/9/1910; Beatrice Maude born 27/12/1912. Image 15 makes reference of an additional Child – William James born 31/1/1917.

The Statement of Service is very difficult to read, the following are the best I can do; attested and Posted 30/10/15. Attached to No 38 Company RGA 6/11/1915, appointments/posted 28/12/1915; 20/2/1916; 23/5/1916; and 11/7/1916, still with No 38 Company. (No. 38 Company, Western Section (Plymouth) South Western Coast Defences.) So it looks like his first section of the war was in England, training. Posted 11/11/1916 with 289 A/Corp. (This likely to be with 289 Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery which was formed at Plymouth in November 1916.) It would be about this time 289 Seige Battery would have been posted to a Theatre of War. It looks like John was appointed Sergeant 12th March 1917

Image 18 titled “Inside Sheet” records that John was gassed on the 17/6/1918, (I can just about make out the word Italy which helps to confirm his location with respect to the location of 289 Siege Battery, other comments are passed but not understood or are just not readable.)

One document states his “Medical Category” B2, from the Army table he should be; “Able to walk 5 miles, see and hear sufficiently for ordinary purposes.” On the 23/12/1918 he was at Catterick; the records state he was awarded a pension of 13s a week from 21/1/1919 which was to be reviewed in 26 weeks. It also states that he had 5 children.

 

Discharged 1/11/1919, demobbed 20th Dec. 1919. This would suggest that the “system” had kept an eye on John for some time and or reflects when his pension was made permanent or just stopped. A document states he received his War Medals, still ranked Sergeant, on the 13th Aug. 1921

N.A.M.C. have a medal card for a John W. Mason, with Royal Garrison Artillery, Reg’t No 60895, Rank Serjeant. Awarded the British and Victory medals, Theatre of War and Date of Entry not addressed.

 

Back ground to the Royal Garrison Artillery; With the new long-range small arms available to the infantry in the era before World War I, artillery fighting in the infantry line was increasingly brought under fire. The solution to this was the principle of standing off and engaging the enemy with indirect fire. However, even after this became official military doctrine, field and horse artillery on both sides kept trying to fight in the old way. One instance was a gun duel fought between British and German horse artillery units using open sights during the Retreat to the Marne. In the quagmire of trench warfare that followed it was finally realised that it was not the place for the artillery to be in the infantry line. Henceforth the artillery would be positioned well behind the infantry battle line, firing at unseen targets, at co-ordinates on a map calculated with geometry and mathematics. As the war developed, the heavy artillery and the techniques of long-range artillery were massively developed. The RGA was often supported by the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) who had devised a system where pilots could use wireless telegraphy to help the artillery hit specific targets. The RFC aircraft carried a wireless set and a map and after identifying the position of an enemy target the pilot was able to transmit messages such as A5, B3, etc in Morse code to a RFC land station attached to a heavy artillery unit, such as Royal Garrison Artillery Siege Batteries. The Siege batteries (such as 9th Siege Battery at the Battle of the Somme) had the largest guns and howitzers; mounted on railways or on fixed concrete emplacements.

289 Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery was formed at Plymouth in November 1916. At some point in 1917, 289 Siege Battery was posted to France. (A. Wallace Johnson from 289th Siege Battery was K.I.A in July 1917 and is remembered at the Dickebusch New Military Cemetery in Belgium, which gives a location for the Battery at that time.) In November 1917 they were sent to Italy as part of 80 (Mobile) Brigade RGA, (80th HAG, Heavey Artillery Group) and remained there for the rest of the War. The War Diary states they arrived at Montagnana on the 30th Nov.1917. The Siege Battery was equipped with six-inch howitzers, the commonest weapon of the siege batteries. At first it only had four, but this was increased to six in August 1917 as part of a general increase around that time. [A four-gun battery had seven officers and 208 other ranks; a six-gun battery had eight officers and 291 other ranks.]

 

The Long, Long Trail will be helpful for anyone wishing to find out about the fighting in the little-known campaign in Italy. “This was a forgotten front indeed: British troops were sent to Italy to stop the collapse in late 1917. This movement was a brainchild of David Lloyd George and it was against the wishes of the 'Westerners' in the High Command. From Long, Long Trail. HAG “Heavy Artillery Group” The 289th Siege Battery was part of the 80th HAG which was posted to Italy and included the 90th Heavy Battery, 137th Siege Battery, 176th Siege Battery, 181st Siege Battery. Also posted to Italy was the 94th HAG, including 315th Siege Battery 316th Siege Battery and 317th Siege Battery and 104th HAG, including 19th Heavy Battery, 240th Siege Battery and 293rd Siege Battery.”

 

There is a book; “The Forgotten Front – The British Campaign in Italy 1917-1918 by George H. Cassar.

The first section of the book details the political discussions between the political leaders and the way they would like the war to go and the Army Chiefs and what they think should be done to progress the war. There were three fighting fronts, i.e. The Western Front, the British, French, Belgium and our Colonial friends, our allies fighting Germany, the Eastern Front, basically Russia fighting Germany and finally the Italian Front, Italy against Austria and Germany.

Lloyd George, by then the PM, wanted to progress the war and he felt that forcing the campaign on the Italian Front could be the way to do this. The discussion had started late 1916 and went on much of 1917. (It was seen that Austria was the weakest link in the enemy, Germany would need to send support troops to the Italian Front thereby weakening their Western army which would give greater opportunities for the Allies on the Western Front.) The Army Chiefs did not agree, they did not want to lose control of any of the troops from the Western Front supporting the Italians, also army plans for 1917 where set by the end of 1916. The Italian Front was in the North of Italy down from the border with Austria in the hills and mountains of that region and was weather dependant, i.e. little fighting in the winter just the odd skirmish and artillery barrage. Late spring, summer or early autumn would bring the offensive action from one side or the other.

During the late summer of 1917 the Austrians, with the German support, attacked the Italian line breaking through. The Italian 2nd Army collapsed and it would appear, scattered in retreat. Fortunately the logistics of war slowed the offence down as the line of communication and restocking of arms were stretched. In September guns from the Western Front were sent to Italy (I assume just the weapons and not the men.) but then were withdrawn late September when the offensive action had stalled/stabilised.

The British fear was that Italy would just sign a peace pact with Germany and Austria and it was due to this fear that some agreement was finally made to send troops to Italy. Late October/early November 1917 the British sent 4 Divisions along with a corresponding force of Heavy Artillery, Planes and other war material. (The 289 Siege Battery diary, April to Nov. 1917 records that arrived in Italy on the 30th Nov. at Montagmama, taking 6 days to travel from ?) It would appear this is when John Mason would have been sent to Italy, which does tie-up with the notes above. The French also sent 4 Divisions. The book states the British Divisions sent first were the 23rd & 41st and the 7th and 4th being second but does not detail the artillery units. That winter of 1917/1918 and spring was all about organising the troops for defensive action should Austria and Germany attack and for any offensive action planned by the Army Chiefs. The Italian Front was always to be led by the Italians; they had the bulk of the force, probably over 50 Italian divisions but with British and French support. (The lads could not have home leave due to the distance so arrangements where made for the lads to have leave time/sight seeing with trips to Venice and Lake Garda.) The war cabinet was pushing for offensive action in the summer of 1918 but the Italians feared an attack by the enemy and did not think there troops had fully recovered from the previous battle and were not keen to lead any offensive action.

The Austrians’ planned offensive action took place on 15/16th June 1918. (P149-P162) A barrage was started at 3am on the 15th, with up to 7000 guns sending high explosives and gas shells, this continued until about 7:30am. The main attack which was lead by the Austrians, by up to 500,000 men, started at 7am and was in two parts; half the force attacked an area known as the Piave cross the river and a plain, the second half attacked an area known as Trentino (about 100 miles north west of Venice.) which was a mountainous area. The British troops had been split across the two areas with divisions from France and the 50 divisions from Italy. (I would suggest this is likely to have been the action that John Mason will have been gassed, as he’s recorded as being gassed on the 17th June.) (Page 151 starts the description of the attack.) The Austrian offensive, after breaking through in one or two places was beaten back within hours, the main action being finished within 24/48 hours and with that was seen as a complete failure. The British casualties are listed as 1478. (It is assume this will be both killed and injured.) The book does state that there were 150,000 Austrian casualties and the Italians 90,000 casualties.

The war cabinet tried to put pressure on the Italians to take advantage of this failed action by the Austrians, stating that they would be very vulnerable to an attack at this stage. The Italians would not support such an attack arguing that the troops were not ready and that it would be better planned for spring 1919. It was only after the breakthrough at the Western front did the Italians wish to take on an offensive action on the Italian Front. This was organised for the 24th October, postponed due to weather and started on the 26/27th October with the British Divisions of the 23rd and 48th and the French Division of the 24th. , the British taking a major role by leading the bridge head, this had not been planned but.…

An armistice was agreed that all action should cease on the 4th November at 3pm. British killed and wounded from the 24th Oct. to the 4th Nov. was 1662. The troops returned in stages throughout 1919, with the last of the troops and equipment leaving in April 1920 by sea.

 

John died in February 1968 aged 80 therefore born 1887.

Research Bob H.