The Manchester Regiment

 A West Suffolk regiment-the 63^rd-had for its linked battalion the 96^th; and these were combined as the Manchester Regiment in 1881.  The first-mentioned was originally a 2^nd battalion to the 8^th, and became independent under its late number in 1758, receiving the county name of “West Suffolk” in 1782.  “General Wolfe’s Regiment,” as it had been once called, first came under fire in the expedition to the West Indies in 1759, when Martinique, Guadaloupe, Grenadam St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and many other islands, such as Defeada and Santos, were captured.  It returned home after these exploits, but was sent back to take part in the war of Independence, fighting at Bunker’s Hill, Brooklyn, Brandywine, Fort Clinton, New Jersey, Charleston, Hobkirk’s Hill, and Eutaw Springs. Men were heavily weighted in those days.  Those of the 63^rd twice “returned to the charge, in the middle of a hot summer’s day, encumbered with three days’ provisions, their knapsacks on their backs, which, together with cartouche box, ammunition, and firelock, may be estimated at 125lb. Weight.  Many of the men, too, served as Mounted Infantry, under Colonel Tarleton, one of the most enterprising of the “partisan” leaders in the war; and they behaved with conspicuous gallantry at the affair of Sherar’s Ferry in 1780. In 1794 the regiment served in Holland, and fought at Nimeguen, but returned to the West Indies in the following year, sharing in Sir Ralph Abercromby’s expedition 1796, and in the defence of Honduras in 1798; after which it came home reduced to only 150 men.  Recruited to full strength, it again served under Abercromby in the Holland campaign, seeing much hard fighting at the Helder, Zuyp, Schagerburg, Bergen-op-Zoom, and Egmont-op-Zee. The expedition to Ferrol gave the regiment its next employment, and during the operations Sergeant-Major Nugent was promoted for gallantry in having disarmed and made prisoners two Spanish sentries.  But its West Indian services were not yet completed.  After the capture of Madeira in 1807, it again assisted in the capture of Martinique two years later-when the articles of surrender were signed by Major O’Rourke of the 63^rd-and at Guadaloupe, St. Martin, and St. Eustatia; but on the outbreak of hostilities again in 1815, the 63^rd for  the third time shared in the capture of Guadaloupe, when “the eagles and standards of the French” were surrendered, and Captain Lynch with the light company covered the landing at Bailiffe, and checked the advance of three hundred French soldiers, who had been sent to oppose the debarkation.  In 1819 the regiment came home, and, after general service on various stations, it was sent to Burmah in 1838, and suffered loss in the fighting at Moulmein. 

           In the Crimean campaign the 63^rd was present at the Alma, Inkerman, and through out the whole siege of Sevastopol, losing altogether 947 off all ranks during the war.  In the Afghan War it joined the 2^nd division of the Kandahar force, but was not present in any of the more important actions.  From India it was transferred to Egypt in 1882. The 63^rd had a 2^nd battalion from 1804 to 1814, but this saw no active service. The 96^th was recruited in Manchester in 1824 and was preceded by five of the same number-viz, the first, which served from 1760 to 1763; the second, from 1780 to 1783; the third, from 1793 to 1798; the fourth, formed from a 2^nd battalion of the 52^nd, and numbered the 96^th in 1803, but disbanded as the 95^th in 1818; and the fifth, raised in 1798 as the “Queen’s Germans,” was called the 97^th in 1802, and disappeared as the 96^th (“Queen’s Own”) in 1818.  The last saw service in Egypt in1801, and in the Peninsula.  It bore the name of the “British Musketeers,” and from it comes the Sphinx badge, and the words “Egypt” and “Peninsula,” which appear on the appointments, etc.

           The work of the present battalion, as far as active service goes, began in 1844, when a detachment-the rest of the regiment being in New South Wales-was sent to New Zealand, and fought at Kororarika and Stokes Pah.  In 1881, as the 2^nd battalion of the Manchester Regiment, it was sent to Egypt, and formed part of the garrison of Alexandria during the operations which led to the battle of Tel-el-Kebirand the fall of Cairo.  Since then it has seen no active service. The badge of the “Fleur-de0lys,” formerly worn by the 63^rd, is supposed to have been bestowed in commemoration of its long and brilliant services in the West Indies against the French; but its use was forbidden in 1856 “because written authority sanctioning its wear could no be found.”  The coatee was replaced in that year by the tunic, and it was certainly worn before that date on the former by the officers and sergeant-major.  It is scarcely likely it would have been used without permission, and some might well have been granted; but the only record disappeared when the regimental baggage was lost at Helvoetsluys in 1795.  The green facings of the 63^rd and the yellow of the 96^th were altered to white in 1881.  Those of the 63^rd had been first black, then very deep green (1768), with white and green lace, and deep green with silver lace in 1813.  Gold lace was worn after 1832.  The badges are the arms of the city of Manchester, and the Sphinx with “Egypt,” which was worn by the 96^th, but can only have been derived from the regiment that was disbanded in 1818; an eight-pointed star, however, bearing the number, was once the decoration of the buttons and breast-plate of the 63^rd.  The star was worn in remembrance of its good work under Tarleton from 1775 to 1781.  The button now bear the Garterand its motto, and within it the Sphinx and “Egypt,” crowned.  The Sphinx also appears on the collar on an eight-pointed star, on the waist-plate with the name of the regiment, and on the forage-cap.  The helmet-plate bears the arms of the city of Manchester. The 6^th Royal Lancashire Militia, raised in 1855, furnishes the 3^rd and 4^th battalions.  The volunteer battalions are the 4^th Lancashire, Manchester (green and scarlet); the 6^th Lancashire, Manchester (scarlet and yellow); the 7^th Lancashire, Ashton-under-Lyne (scarlet and white); the 16^th Lancashire, Manchester (scarlet and white); the 20^th Lancashire, Ardwick (green and scarlet); and the 22^nd Lancashire Oldham (scarlet and white). The 63^rd once had the name of the “Bloodsuckers.” The depot was at Ashton-under-Lyne. 

How Second Lieutenant James Leach And Sergeant John Hogan, Of The 2^nd Battalion, The Manchester Regiment, Won The V.C. At Festubert

  By the end of the third week in October 1914, our 2^nd Corps, which had crossed the Bethune-La Bassee Canal some days previously, had fought their way through the difficult country to the northeast of it until they held a line pivoting on Givenchy in the south, and then running east in a salient north of the La Bassee road to the village of Herlies, whence it bent westwards to Aubers.  The 5^th Division, which included the 14^th brigade, in which were the 2^nd Manchester’s, was on the right; the 3^rd Division to the north of it.  The strength of the two divisions amounted to some 30,000 men.  Sir Horace Smith Dorrien’s aim had been to get astride the La Bassee-Lille road in the neighbourhood of Fournes, and so, with the help of the French 10^th Army, to isolate the enemy on the high ground south of La Bassee.  But he was not then aware how overwhelming were the forces opposed to him, and he was soon obliged to forgo this plan, and to devote all his energies to holding his ground. On the morning of the 22^nd, the enemy made a determined attack on the southern part of the British line, held by the 5^th Division, and drove us out of the village of Violaines, between Givenchy and Lorgies; but a dashing counter attack, in which the 2^nd Manchester’s greatly distinguished themselves, prevented their advancing farther.  That night, however, Smith-Dorrien withdrew to a new line running from just east to Givenchy, by Neuve chapelle to Fauquissart.  The Manchester’s were posted near Festubert.   On the 24^th the enemy attacked heavily all along this new line, and fierce and obstinate fighting continued with little intermission during the remainder of their month.  On the 27^th, the Germans, coming on in great force, got into Neuve Chapelle, from the greater part of which, however, they were ejected on the following day, after desperate hand to hand fighting, by three native battalions of the Lahore Division of the Indian Corps, which had been brought up to support the exhausted British.

            Next morning on our right at Festubert, the 14^th Brigade were fiercely attacked, the trenches of the Manchester’s being assailed with especial violence.  Second Lieutenant James Leach, a lad of twenty, recently promoted to a commission in the Manchester’s from the ranks of the 1^st Northampton’s, occupied with thirty-four men an advanced trench, which, after being subjected to a very heavy shelling was attacked by between two and three hundred of the enemy.  The Manchester’s put up a right gallant fight, and received the advancing Huns with so withering a fire that before the latter reached the parapet fully half of them must have fallen.  But the odds against our men were still too great to be denied, and, by sheer weight of numbers, the remainder of the Germans succeeded in carrying the position and forcing them to retire down the communication trench to the support trenches, with the loss of about a dozen men.

             The position was very important, and the men who had been forced to retire were determined to make every effort to recover it.  Headed by Lieutenant Leach and Sergeant John Hogan, a veteran of the South African War, they made with these object two gallant counter attacks; but the Germans had brought up machine guns, and each attempt failed. Two brave failures against a much superior force, strongly posted and assisted machine guns, would have left any regiment with its honour intact, but that kind of negative glory did not satisfy Lieutenant Leach.  He had made up his mind to retake the position at all costs.  He waited until night fell, and then crept cautiously up to ascertain what the Germans were doing.  The result of his reconnaissance was not exactly encouraging, since he found the enemy in the occupation of three out of the four traverses.  He therefore decided to do nothing for the moment, and crept back as quietly as he had come.  At eleven o’clock the young officer made another journey of inspection, and on this occasion he found the Germans occupying all the traverses.  Thereupon he decided upon action, and, sending for Sergeant Hogan, called for ten volunteers.  They were readily forthcoming and the little party of twelve set out their perilous enterprise. Lieutenant Leach conducted his men along the communication trench, which led into the right of the advantage trench.  They had to crawl all the way, for fear of alarming the Germans.  His plan was to push the enemy as far to the left as he could, and entrap them in the cul-de-sac formed by the traverse on the left.  The Germans were taken completely by surprise, and, after some stern bayonet work, the little band succeeded in pushing the enemy into the next traverse.  The lieutenant and the sergeant now went forward alone.  They had reached a point where the captured trench turned sharply at right angles.  Leach was armed with a revolver, and was able to reach his hand round the corner and fire along the sections without exposing himself.  The Germans, being armed only with rifles, could not shoot without exposing part of their bodies.

             Meanwhile, Hogan watched the parapet to ward off attacks from above since it was quite possible that the Germans might climb over from the section and shoot the two men from above, or take them in the rear; but nothing untowed happened and they advanced to the next section.  Taking their stand at the next corner, they repeated the manoeuvre, Leach being now obliged to fire with his left hand.  Another section was won, and then came the advance to the third.  During their progress Hogan put his cap on the end of his rifle, and raised it above the parapet, with the object of letting his comrades behind know how far they had progressed, so that they would not sweep the part of the trench, which had been retaken with their fire.  All the while the Germans kept up “an inferno of bullets” to borrow Hogan’s own expression-and at places fierce hand to hand encounters between them and the two heroes occurred.  But they all ended in the discomfiture of the Huns, who were finally driven along the left traverse until they could get no farther, and Leach and Hogan had them at their mercy.  Then the Germans decided to surrender.  Leach was surprised to hear a voice calling in English: “Don’t shoot sir!”  The speaker turned out to be one of his own men who had been taken prisoner in the morning.  He had been sent by the German officer to say that they wished to surrender.  Proceeding round the corner of the traverse, the young lieutenant found the officer and about fourteen Huns on their knees, with their hands raised in supplication.  At sight of him a chorus of “Mercy” arose the word these gantry usually employ when cornered by the British.  Leach told them to take off their equipment and run into the British main trench.  This they did with all speed, being evidently in fear of being shot down by their comrades in the German trenches.  Leach then learned that two more of his men had been captured by the Germans that morning, and that the officer who had just surrendered, and who could speak English, had promised them “a good time” when they were sent to Berlin as prisoners.  In all, Leach and Hogan killed eight of the enemy, wounded two, and made sixteen prisoners, besides regaining possession of an important advance trench.  For his magnificent work they were each subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross, and well did they deserve the coveted bronze medal.  They had been brave as few men have been, and had risked their lives freely at the call of duty. Lieutenant Leach may be said to have been in the Army, for his father was colour-Sergeant in the King’s Royal Lancaster’s.  As a boy, he lived in Manchester and attended the Moston Lane Boy School.  Some years ago his family removed from Manchester, and young Leach eventually joined the 1^st Northampton’s.  He went to France as a corporal, having received his stripes within six weeks of the war breaking out.  He was shortly afterwards promoted sergeant, and on October 1^st was gazetted second lieutenant in the 2^nd Manchester. Sergeant Hogan is thirty years old.  He was a postman in Oldham until he rejoined his regiment as a reservist on the outbreak of war.  He is a very modest hero.  “I only did what others would have done and what others have done,” he remarked.  That is the spirit of brave men and of brave deeds.  Extracted from 'Deeds That Thrill The Empire'         

J. PITTS  (Private)  1^st Battalion Machester Regiment             The Victoria Cross was awarded to Private Pitts for his indomitable courage and endurance on January 6^th 1900, when with Private Robert Scott (V.C.), he held a Sanger on Caesar’s Camp during the attack on the garrison of Ladysmith.  Further details of the affairs are given in the record of Robert Scott.