A Superb 1st Ypres, Langemarck Distinguished Conduct medal – 1st battalion Loyal North Lancs regiment(transferred to 3rd battalion), later Royal Flying Corps from 1917.

Description A Superb 1st Ypres, Langemarck Distinguished Conduct medal – 1st battalion Loyal North Lancs regiment(transferred to 3rd battalion), later Royal Flying Corps from 1917. Distinguished Conduct medal (Geo V) 6651 C.Sjt S. Arrowsmith 3/L.N. Lanc. Reg.; 1914 Star 6651 Sjt W. Arrowsmith L.N. Lan.R.; British War and Victory medals, 6651 WO. Cl.2. W. ArrowsmithL.N. Lan.R; Royal Air Force L.S.G.C. (Geo V) 104662 S.M.2 S. Arrowsmith . R.A.F. (court mounted for display) note different initials. With Old Contemptibles badge. William Arrowsmith was born in Whitchurch, Shropshire on 19th October 1882 and enlisted on the 8th November 1901. M.I.C confirms his entitlement to a 1914 Star and bar trio landing in France on the 12th August 1914, his transfer to the Royal Flying Corps with service no 104662.. Wounded in Action 23rd October 1914, Gunshot wound to right side at Ypres, (During the action for which he received his D.C.M.)and sent back to England on the 26th October 1914. Distinguished Conduct Medal: London Gazette – 11th March 1916 “6651 Colour-Serjeant S. Arrowsmith 3rd Bn, Loyal N. Lanc R (Formerly 1st Bn)  For conspicuous gallantry. By his brave example he restored the confidence of his men at a difficult period.  He was wounded during the attack.” The Iron Wall: The 1st Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment at Langemarck In mid-October 1914, the “Race to the Sea” had concluded, leaving the BEF relocated from the Aisne to the pastoral fields of Flanders. The 1st Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment (1/LNL), serving in the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division, arrived in the Ypres Salient with the expectation of a continued advance. They believed they were flanking a defeated German army. Instead, they were about to collide head-on with a massive new German offensive in a clash that would define the early war: the Battle of Langemarck. The Collision at Koekuit On October 21, 1914, the 1st Division was ordered to advance northeast towards Poelcapelle and Passchendaele. The 1/LNL moved out with the objective of securing the line, but the fog of war was thick. Unbeknownst to the British command, the German Fourth Army was launching a massive offensive with newly raised reserve corps—enthusiastic but untrained student volunteers. As the 1/LNL advanced near the village of Langemarck, specifically around the hamlet of Koekuit, the two armies smashed into one another. The fighting was not the static trench warfare that would characterize later years, but a confused “encounter battle” fought in ditches, hedges, and open fields. The battalion immediately came under withering machine-gun fire and shrapnel shelling. The “Loyals” were professional soldiers—the “Old Contemptibles.” Their pre-war training emphasized marksmanship and fire discipline, skills that proved critical on October 21. As the grey waves of German infantry advanced, the men of the 1/LNL utilized the “mad minute”—15 aimed rounds per minute with their Lee-Enfield rifles. The volume of fire was so intense that German reports later claimed they were facing massed machine guns, unaware it was merely the rapid fire of well-drilled infantry. The Crisis of October 23 Despite the tactical success of their musketry, the strategic situation was dire. The British advance stalled, and by October 23, the 1/LNL found themselves on the defensive. The Germans launched a concerted effort to break the line at Langemarck to capture Ypres. The 1/LNL held a section of the line near the Langemarck-Koekuit road. The position was precarious; the ground was flat, offering little natural cover, and the shallow scrape-trenches provided minimal protection against heavy howitzers. Throughout the day, the battalion endured a relentless bombardment that churned the wet Flanders soil into a quagmire. Following the artillery, the German infantry surged forward. The pressure on the 2nd Brigade was immense. To the flank of the Loyals, the line held by the Cameron Highlanders was temporarily breached, threatening to surround the North Lancs. In the chaos and smoke, the discipline of the battalion held firm. Officers, many of whom would not survive the month, rallied their platoons, directing fire into the flanks of the German breakthrough. A critical counter-attack was organized. Alongside elements of the Queen’s Regiment and the Gloucesters, the 1/LNL fixed bayonets and pushed back. The fighting was savage and close-quarters, but the line was restored. By nightfall on the 23rd, the German advance at Langemarck had been blunted, largely due to the immovable resistance of battalions like the 1/LNL. The Cost of Professionalism The defence of Langemarck was a tactical victory but a strategic tragedy for the regiment. By the time the 1st Division was relieved and shifted south to face the next crisis at Gheluvelt, the 1st Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment had suffered grievous losses. The casualty returns for late October tell a grim story. The battalion lost a significant portion of its officers and NCOs—the repository of years of experience. The men who held Langemarck were the elite of the British Army, but they were a finite resource. The “Kindermord” (Massacre of the Innocents) had destroyed the German volunteer corps, but it had also bled the British regulars white. He transferred into the Royal Flying Corps on 7th October 1917 and served in 37th and 49th squadrons. With a newspaper article on Arrowsmith: “A true “Old contemptible”-survivor of the historic battles of Mons, the Marne, Aisne with over 20 vears’ service the Loyal (North Lancashire) Regiment and the Royal Flying corps, last week visited Nantwich, his home town. He is ex-Warrant Officer Samuel Arrowsmith, D.C.M., a native of Nantwich, now an inspector in the Royal Air Force Constabulary, who has had almost a lifelong association with the Armed Forces. JOINED AT 15 In an endeavour to take part in the Boer War, Mr. Arrowsmith joined the Loyal Regiment in 1901 when only 15. Although too young then to be sent to the fighting line, he saw service for nine of the following thirteen years in the foreign stations of Mauritus Gibraltar and South Africa. At the outbreak of World War 1 he was stationed at Aldershot and was mobilised in the 2nd Battalion of the famous 1st Division-the army that turned the Kaiser’s retort  “Kitchener’s contemptible little army ” into a glorious epitaph. Within a week the Battalion moved to Southampton, and after a gruelling 24-hour Journey standing upright in the holds of an old T- boat, the men disembarked at Le Havre and entrained immediately for the front line. That day they were flung into the teeth of the German advance at Mons where the Brigade of Guards, in the Ist Battalion, had already held the Kaiser’s attack for several days. From Mons after some of the heaviest fighting ever known. The Division retired to the Marne and later the Aisne. After the first month of that terrible fighting. only 200 remained of the original 800 men of the Loyals.  Despite its sadly depleted strength, the reg went went into the attack across the Aisne, making the crossing on a rope, and captured a hill before moving to Ypres, where the sudden German attack threatened the Channel ports. BLASTED BY SHELL It was at the first battle of Ypres that Mr. Arrowsmith, then a Colour-Sergeant, won the D.C.M. and was severely wounded. He was blasted by a Shell while making a charge into a German machine-gun post, and for his conduct he was decorated on the field. Before leaving the battlefield, he learned that the 200 survivors of the regiment had not only captured the enemy’s guns, but had taken 500 prisoners as well Moreover, the line they held than was never broken in the four years of fighting that followed. After being in hospital in Dublin, Mr. Arrowsmith was promoted to Company Quartermaster – Sergeant and transferred to the R.F.C., from which he was invalided out in 1921. Recounting the opening phases of the First World War to a “Chronicle” reporter, Mr. Arrowsmith said “I have marched over every inch of the ground from Mons to the Marne, from the Marne to the Aisne and back to Ypres. We marched, marched, marched-always fighting for months on end. “We owed our victory then to the spirit and marksmanship of the men The British were the best shots in the world, and what the German had in artillery we had to fight with only rifles and bayonets. We were tired and worn out but we went or fighting. building our army into phantom size by deploying force and digging imitation trenches.” CHEAP BEER AND TOBACCO Mr. Arrowsmith said times had changed from what he described a “the good old days,” when the men enjoyed a communal gallon of beer at Is a time -the mere pint bain: 1 1/2d.-and an ounce of tobacco was 3d. Since leaving the Services. Mr Arrowsmith has kept his connections first with the British Legion (helping in the forming of the Farnborough branch) and latterly with The RAF association of which he  is an active member at Andover. After going into business on his own in the South of England, he joined the R.A.F. Constabulary in 1935, rising to his present rank of inspector. Son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Arrowsmith, who owned a smallholding at Ravensmoor, Nantwich Mr Arrowsmith who lives near Andover has a number of relatives in Nantwich.” William Arrowsmith died 27th October 1948. Condition GVF