1914-15 Star & Victory Medal (+ Plaque)
To:
6165, JOHN HAWKINS. 9th Bn RIFLE BRIGADE.
Killed in Action. 24th August 1917.
Remembered with Honour
TYNE COTT MEMORIAL CEMETERY, BELGIUM.
On 24th August 1917 the 9th Battalion Rifle Brigade were in Railway Wood, (left sector) when Rifleman Hawkins was killed, almost certainly by the huge shell barrage fired by the Germans. On the 25th they were taking part in an attack by the 14th Division on the Bellewarde Farm position, the task allotted to the Battalion being to seize and hold the enemy trenches. The casualities in this action were totally horrendous.
24th August 1917 - In Railway Wood, left sector. Battalion found the wood much damaged by shells, and many of the trenches were in such a bad condition that it was hard to allot them for bombardment during the day.
The enemy bombarded heavily from 3.50 to 4.30.
Orders came round to Companies at 7.30 p.m. for an attack by the 14th Division on 25th, the objective being Beelewarde Farm position, the task allotted the Battalion to seize and hold the enmy trenches, A.42, A.72, A.24 and A.84. The Oxford and Bucks L.I. and K.S.L.I. to attack on our right and the 9th Battalion K.R.R.C. to be in support in Railway Wood. The 9th Battalion K.R.R.C. moved into the wood in the evening, and Companies of the Battalion took up their positions for the attack.
We finished cutting wire during the night
Lieutenant Hugh Montague Butterworth of in a letter to his family just before the attack says the following.
(I am posting this just before leaving. Perhaps I shan't be killed)
I am leaving this in the hands of the transport officer, and if I get knocked out, he will send it to you. We are going into a big thing. It will be my pleasant duty to leap lightly over the parapet and lead "D" Company over the delectable confusion of old trenches, crump holes, barbed wire, that lies between us and the Bosche, and take a portion of his front line. Qou facto I shall then proceed down various communication trenches and take his second line. In the very unlikely event of my being alive by then I shall dig in like blazes and if God is good, stop the Bosche counter attack, which will come in an hour or two. If we stop that I shall then in broad daylight have to get out wire in front under machine gun fire and probably stop at least one more counter attack and a bomb attack from the flank. If all that happens successfully, and I'm still alive, I shall hang on till relief. Well, when one is faced with a programme like that, one touches up one's will, thank heaven one has led a fairly amusing like, thaks God one is not married, and trusts in providence. Unless we get more officers before the show, I am practically bound to be outed as I shall have to lead all these things myself. Anyway if I do go out I shall do so amidst such a scene of blood and iron as even this war has rarely witnessed.
One does see life doesn't one?. Of course there is always a chance of only being wounded and the off chance of pulling through. Of course one has been facing death pretty intimately for months now, but with this ahead, one must realize, that in the vernacular of New Zealand, one's numbers are probably up. We are not a sentimental crowd at the Collegite School, Wanganui, but I think in a letter of this sort, one can say how frightfully attached one is to the old brigade. Also, I am very, very much attached to the school, and to Selwyn in particular. There are two thousand things I should like to say about what I feel, but they can't be put down, I find.
Live long and prosper, all of you.
Curiously enough, I don't doubt my power to stick it out, and I think my men will follow me.