Lieutenant Gerald Phillip Day
Dan Hill’s research, edited by Ellie Grigsby
Gerald Phillip Day was born into a wealthy family in the spring of 1897 in the Parish of St. Giles, London. Studying the 1901 National Consensus we can find Gerald was residing in his family home at at 18 Bloomsbury Square. Gerald’s father was an architect, attributing to their affluent life style, as we can see the family had two domestic servants living with them in the family home. Gerald was only six years old when his father died. Richard Phillip Day died on April 6th, 1903, leaving behind a grieving widow and a small child who would no longer know their father, facing a life-time without him. Despite Day’s death, freezing the grand financial income the family were accustomed to, there were enough funds for Gerald to attend the prestigious, Haileybury College in his father’s home county of Hertfordshire, where we find George in 1911 as a student.
As The First World War erupted across the world stage in July of 1914, Gerald, like so many young men of his generation, enlisted to‘ do his bit.’ Using Day’s service record card we can see Day’s appointment as 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd battalion of the Lincolnshire regiment. The record informs us that Day was sent to join his units that were already serving in France, on June 2nd, 1915, landing in Boulogne. Once in France, young Gerald made his way up to the front lines to join the 2nd Lincolnshire regiment who were holding the lines around Laventie, somewhere mid-way between Ypres and the Somme. The surviving battalion war diaries provide us with a more generalised enlightenment of Day’s first few months on overseas service.
With reference to Gordon Corrigan’s chapter: The Horrors of the Trenches, the perception of soldiering and trench life in the Great War is of a young chap, patriotic through to his bones, rushing to colours in 1914 and then being shipped off to god forsaken France. Arriving at one of the channel ports he marches up to the front signing ‘it’s a long way to Tipperary’ before being put into a filthy hole in the ground for years on end. Surviving on a meagre diet of stinking bully beef and stale biscuits, if he is lucky enough to survive, most days, if not being bombed or shelled, he is forced to go ‘over the top’ attacking nearby Germans. He never sees his commanding general and has to watch the rats gnawing at the bodies of his comrades in no man’s land, whilst uncontrollably itching has he rarely gets to change his lice infested clothes. Real life was very, different.
The British army took great pains to ensure that men were regularly rotated between front-line positions and billets to the rear. British soldiers did not spend four years of war in the firing line, or even at the front. Men were regularly rotated from the firing line to the support and reserves lines and then back to billets, ( generally civilian houses in villages appropriated by the army) usually well behind the battle area. But, if the system, put you in the wrong place at the wrong time, even if in the trenches for a day and night, your risk of death was considerable. Trench life, although fraught with danger, could be incredibly monotonous. When reading battalion war diaries it can seem difficult to imagine what life may have been like, especially when we are trying to envision the first few months of Day’s service. This is solely because requirements imposed over the war diarist meant emotive writing had to be omitted and a foundation of facts as commentary only, was desirable. Therefore, it is perhaps useful to dissect certain days and events from the battalion diary, so we can realise some of what must have been extraordinary days, for 2nd Lieutenant Day in the early phase of his service. On June 15th, the ‘enemy’s artillery was busy all day’ and by 10:00am, Day’s parapet was ‘violently shaken by the explosion of one of (their) counter mines.’ We can picture Day, no doubt frozen with fear and perhaps awe as he felt the ground beneath his boots shake from the intensity of vibration. By the 16th June, at around 10/11:00am, Day would have watched one of his first ‘dog fights.’ ‘A British Morane aeroplane caught an aviatik and after firing upon it, forced it to descend behind the German lines.’ Then, by the early evening at 17:30pm one of the British aeroplanes dropped a bomb behind the German parapets, causing a ‘big explosion.’ This would have been a huge spectacle, evoking a mixture of emotions amongst the men; it is important not to overstate or presume the gravity of realisation of the fight was felt amongst all men by imposing our modernised views of war and the value of life, but we must realise this probably was very exciting for men like Day at that time to watch. It is almost definite Day and his fellow battalion would have cheered at the site in jubilation of a small victory.
By June 26th at around 20:00pm, Day’s battalion marched to take over trenches south of Bois Grenier. The following day, the trenches were quiet, but a patrol went out, led by a fellow officer of Day, a Lieutenant Robertson and upon their return, he is missing. The trenches fell quiet once more with no enemy action until the 30th when a retaliation attack damaged Day’s parapet. Robertson was still missing and 14 were wounded and death suffered. Thus marked the end of Day’s first month in the Great War.
July was once more a ‘quiet’ time for Day and his battalion until around the 10th July when we are met with quite a horrific description. As discussed, the war diarist had to omit emotive speech, yet this diary entry perhaps uncontrollably due to its nature, leeks a vivid scene that evokes a cold reaction when the imagination begins to generate:
“…Very quiet… In evening a party of the enemy cutting grass were seen out on front of their parapet. Y company at once opened fire on this party and from groans and shouts apparently did some damage.”
Spending no more than around 4 days or so in the trenches maximum, sometimes even one night, Day’s battalion was relieved from the front trenches regularly with a striking presence of frequent quietness from the enemy. August begins however with shells whizzing and banging over Day’s head as impressive enemy howitzers of great size were firing shells ‘ the shape of a bottle which rose to a considerable height and detonating on impact’ caused a ‘terrific’ explosion that inflicted ‘considerable’ damage. By August 10th, Day was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant which even made it into print in local press at home.
A new experience was awaiting Day. For this newly promoted soldier, tougher times laid ahead of him. Day and the 2nd battalion Lincolnshire regiment were to form reinforcement for the battle of Loos. On 25 September 1915, the British Army launched a major attack against the German defenses between the La Bassée Canal and the village of Loos. This was the last attempt to drive the German army from France before the onset of winter 1915, but the German defenses proved too strong and losses were heavy for little gain. On that day, the war diary informs us that 60 men were killed, 60 families were soon to learn the news their loved one would forever remain in France, 36 were declared missing (many of whom would subsequently be reported as killed) and a further 229 were wounded in action. Following the attack, the Lincolnshire men were moved away from the fighting front for a period of time to boost their depleted ranks and strengthen the battalion. The remainder of the year of 1915 was spent much as it had been before Loos: rotating between the front and support lines. It was not until April of 1916 that we see a change, as the Lincolnshire men received orders to turn south, to an area of the battlefield, so far unknown to them, as The Somme.
A Franco-British offensive on the Somme was planned as the major Allied effort on the Western Front in 1916. The start of a desperate struggle between French and German forces at Verdun in February meant that the British Army would have to assume the main role. Thus, an attack on the Somme front in the summer of 1916 was devised.
Day’s battalion war diary for the month of June simply writes on the 24th: ‘bombardment commenced.’ This bombardment was like a massive preparatory bombardment, meant to destroy the German defenses. Over 1.7 million shells were fired but a high proportion, some 30% failed to explode as the ministry of munitions had abandoned any semblance of quality control in order to be able to produce the quantities needed in time. Tunneling companies dug hollowed out chambers underneath key German strong points and filled them with explosives. The shelling had started on ‘U’ day (June 24th) and was meant to go on until ‘Z’ day, which was June 29th. But heavy rains caused the approach roads, trenches and crater ridden no man’s land to get too sloppy and muddy, so due to these poor conditions, the assault was postponed until July 1st. A date forever seared into British military history consciousness as the bloodiest day in her history. Day’s battalion were all in position on this day by 02:30am.
As Day’s battalion lined up in positions opposite Ovillers on the heart of the Somme, they would have been petrified in the very moments before the attack when a gigantic mine opposite their positions known as the ‘Lochnagar mine’ was detonated. Half a mile to the south of the village of La Boisselle, at 07:28am a mine was blown. With two twin charges of 36,000 lbs and 24,000 lbs of ammonal, placed in two chambers at 60ft apart the explosion blew almost half a million tons of chalk into the surrounding fields, sending debris over 4,000 ft into the air. It created a vast hole of 300ft across and 90ft deep. Known now as the Lochnagar crater after the trench from where the main tunnel was started, it remains the largest crater made in warfare to this day. The sound of the blast was considered the loudest human-made noise in history up to that point; with reports suggesting it was even heard, in London.
Evidence suggests that Day, was not at the Somme that day. His name is not on the list of officers attacking Ovillers on July 1st. We will never know why he was not with his men on this day. We would have assumed if wounded this would have been recorded, and it is unlikely as an officer he would have been granted home leave at such a crucial stage, but we cannot be certain on either of those points. Day’s battalion moved north shortly after July 1st, back to the old battlefields of Loos where they were employed in holding the frontline trenches, which is where they remained throughout all of September. Day, did not go with them, is seems he remained on the Somme. There would be a few potential reasons as to why Day remained behind; it is a shame this phase of his war time story is a little bit hazy here. However, it does appear, that Day was temporarily attached to the 1st battalion of the Lincolnshire regiment. Records relating to the 1st battalion on the 25th September reveal that Lieutenant Day was wounded on this day whilst waging an ongoing attack, near the village of Flers, on the Somme. Records of the 64th Infantry Brigade (the brigade the 1st battalion of the Lincolnshire regiment had been temporarily attached to), offer a conclusive, brief overview telling us more about that fateful day for Day:
“at 7am. Sept. 25th, the Brigade was in position for the attack… At zero (12.35pm) September 25th, the leading battalion 10th K.O.Y.L.I on right, and 1st E. York R. on left, attacked GIRD trench from N.32. d. 78. 34 to N.32 B.20.60 Owing to uncut wire, heavy M.G fire, and the enemy be on the alert, the attack failed to reach the objective. The two assaulting battalions remained in shell holes in front of German wire for the day… At zero, the 1st Lincoln R. advanced from SWITCH Trench to occupy the front line. They became disorganised owing to the heavy German barrage. At the same time the 9th K.O.Y.L.I occupied GAP and SWITCH trenches. At 1.50pm a message was received from 10th K.O.Y.L.I that 1st objective had been taken and touch gained with units on both flanks. This proved to be incorrect. At 2.58pm message was received that 1st Lincoln R. had not advanced to attack 2nd objective, and orders were issued to O.C 1st Lincoln R. to reorganise his battalion preparatory to advancing. At 9.11pm 1st Lincolns were withdrawn from front line…”
Day died from his wounds the day after the attack. Day is buried in Grove Town military cemetery, he was buried at only 19 years of age. ‘Peace, perfect peace’ is inscribed on Day’s headstone marking where his body lays.