2nd Lieutenant Walter Gordon Ainslie
33RD TRENCH MORTAR BATTERY, ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY
RIGHT AT THE NORTHERN END of the Somme battlefield was a young officer working in a type of unit that did not even exist at the outbreak of war. Twenty-one-year-old Walter Ainslie was from Purley. Educated at Eastbourne College, where he was an active member of the OTC, Walter left school in 1914 and became a clerk. He joined the army in line with conscription, registering for service in January 1916 as a gunner for the artillery. Mobilised in April, Walter applied for a commission and was given one a few weeks later. His first posting at the front was the 156th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery, arriving a few days after father and son George and Robert Lee were killed at the beginning of September. Just three weeks later, Walter was undergoing special training in the use of trench mortars.
At the beginning of the war, the BEF did not have a single trench mortar, nor a round to fire from one. Designed to send ordnance up and back down again at a high trajectory from trench to trench, at relatively short range, they evolved steadily, but rather haphazardly depending on the division they were in. There were three types, light, medium and heavy, and by the end of 1915 it had been ordained that the first would be manned by the relevant infantry and the latter two by the Royal Field Artillery. Walter Ainslie would join a medium battery, and in doing so was part of the divisional artillery.
A working trench mortar attracted enemy fire, so their crews were far from popular when they appeared in any given length of trench, but they were immensely useful. Walter Ainslie’s had many uses in the line, including targeting machine-gun positions or sniper posts, with their ability to destroy a fair amount of trench in one hit. They could also take on bigger jobs, such as cutting wire in locations where it was too dangerous to see in friendly troops to range a field gun.
Australian troops load a heavy trench mortar. (Authors’ collection)
By 1916 each division had three medium batteries, designated X, Y and Z. Walter had completed his training and by the beginning of November had joined X battery in his original division, the 33rd. One week later he was in front of Hébuterne, to the west of Bapaume. At 2pm on 10th November Walter met an orderly and the two set off in the direction of the front line. They were never seen again. When Walter’s father pressed the issue, he received an unusually callous response from the authorities. ‘The body of the orderly was found almost blown to pieces, but no trace of the officer’s body could be found.’ His 21-year-old eldest son was presumed to have been killed by shellfire while making his way forward. Walter Ainslie’s remains, if recovered, were never identified and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Pier & Face 1a/8a.