#36044 Private Merrill Price
10TH CHESHIRE REGIMENT
WHILE THE BRITISH AND CANADIAN troops at Regina Trench suffered repeated misery at the hands of stubborn German resistance, more of Gough’s men fought on in the Thiepval sector. Among them was Merrill Price, a painter and decorator from Ellesmere Port in Cheshire. Enlisting in Chester in December 1915, he received minimal training before being sent to the front. Having been wounded, he returned to France again and was posted to the 10th Battalion in August 1916.
On Gough’s front, the latest attacks were designed to press the German line eastward from positions such as Beaumont Hamel and Thiepval, towards objectives like Grandcourt and Miraumont. But all of these plans were being held up by the weather at the beginning of October. ‘The weather seems dead against us,’ wrote the colonel of Merrill Price’s battalion, knowing that as soon as it cleared he and his men were expected to move on Stuff Redoubt, still in German hands after September’s efforts to the north-east of Thiepval. Whilst they awaited dry weather, new orders were received, expanding their objectives.
After more setbacks owing to the weather, by 10am on 9th October Merrill and the rest of his battalion had returned to the lines ready to make their attack on Stuff Redoubt. As they waited they were served a hot meal while the heavy artillery pummelled their objectives. At dawn, another battalion had been sent forward, but found itself forced back by enemy fire. The Cheshires were told that they would make a second attack at 12:35pm.
At zero hour field batteries opened an intense barrage, but the shells flew long and overshot the enemy positions. Merrill Price formed up alongside his comrades in no-man’s-land and went forward ‘in excellent style, keeping good direction’. Germans began sniping at the advancing line, ‘their shooting, however, was wild and our advance so rapid that our men were in the trench before the enemy could man it in strength and fortunately before they could bring a machine gun into action’. A bombing party also met with little resistance. At one end of the attack, a watchful officer noted that the artillery had barely touched the German front line and, fearing for the leading waves of his men, he ordered them to close up on those in front as quickly as possible, so that they could all rush the enemy line together ‘with great dash’. Many Germans simply gave themselves up, glad to be out of the mud and out of the way of flying bullets and shells. Others poured out of dugouts. ‘A melee ensued,’ resulting in dugouts being bombed, more men surrendering and others being killed at close quarters.
Throughout the afternoon the fighting continued. Dugouts were set on fire, trench blocks were put up and beaten down, double blocks put up in their place, and prisoners were taken and sent down the line. All communication with the artillery was cut, wires ‘torn to shreds’ and Cheshire posts came under fire from British guns. At one point, the Germans made a concerted effort to bomb Merrill and his battalion away from the redoubt, attempting to push through their trench blocks. But using stick grenades the Cheshires, although they had to cede ground and casualties, eventually managed to fend them off. Reinforcements were thrown in and all the while the Germans targeted the southern side of Stuff Redoubt with their guns along with the trench running into it, preventing bombs and other material from getting up to the battalion.
As evening came on, the Germans sent a weighty counter-attack up a trench towards the redoubt, but the Cheshires beat them back with a Lewis gun and their rifles. A Wiltshire battalion had been sent up to reinforce the British position and to help carry up supplies of bombs. But as the Cheshire battalion clung on, the Germans refused to give in. At about 6pm they put down another heavy barrage and tried to advance, but were checked by the British artillery. An hour later activity at Stuff Redoubt had died away to intermittent shelling and the odd mortar round. Engineers came up to help deepen the trench and put up sturdy barricades. Stuff Redoubt had fallen, and the Cheshires’ commanding officer was immensely proud. ‘It was a treat to see the men coming with a grin from ear to ear, with German helmets and other [stuff] hanging all over them.’
It was almost inexplicable why some attacks on the Somme should succeed, and others should fail, but one thing was clear: in terms of the two armies’ wider objectives, they were not progressing nearly as quickly as would be required to achieve what they wanted before operations were suspended for winter. Men were repeatedly attacking the same objectives. And, of course, there was a price to pay. The 10th Cheshires lost 143 men in the capture of Stuff Redoubt, twenty-six of them missing in action, which more often than not meant dead. Merrill Price was among their number. In November, the War Office accepted he had been killed in action on 9th October. The 25 year old’s body was later retrieved from the battlefield and he was laid to rest at Grandcourt Road Cemetery, plot D.49.
Grandcourt Road Cemetery. (Andrew Holmes)