Battle of St Quentin March 1918

[Lorand]

My grandfather, Pte. Archibald McCall (Mac Call) was with the Wiltshire Reg. # 26982 and was captured at the Battle of St Quentin in 1918 and in a German POW camp until the end of the war.

 I am hoping to find any other information about his WW1 service prior to this.  He had previously been in the Dorset Reg # 27987 and they were merged in with the Wiltshires at some stage.  He may have been at the Codford Training Camp in Wiltshire at the start of the war.

I have not been able to find much on any of the websites and hope someone with similar records might be able to help.

Thanks Lorand

[KGarrad]

The site to look at is The Long Long Trail www.1914-1918.net

Do you in which battalion he served?

1st Battalionn transferred to 25th Division
2nd Battalion transferred to 30th Division.
etc.

[Lorand]

Thanks very much.  I will have another look at the various battles on the "Long long trail"

 Trouble is I have not been able to find out which battalion he was with at the time of his capture,  and don't know how long he was in the Dorset Regiment at the beginning of the war before going to the Wiltshire one.


Lorand.

[whiteout7]

Lorand, if you Join the forum at the long long trail and post your question there, the guys on the forum may be able to tell you more about your soldier and his battalion as some of them are really into battles and newpaper reports
 http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php

They were able to tell me quite a bit about my gr.grandfather.

Also have you got his medal card from the British Archives?
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_fn=Archibald&_ln=+McCall&_no=+26982&_crp=&_ttl=&_cr1=WO+372&_dt=M&_col=200&_hb=tna&image1.x=62&image1.y=15
Unfortunately sometimes you have to buy them, the card will tell you the dates of his transfers from unit to unit

[KGarrad]

Ancestry not only has the Medal Index Card, but also the Regimental Index Rolls.

Duke of Edinburgh's Wiltshire Regiment
25982 Private McCall, Archibald

5th Bn Dorset Regiment, 27987 Private
2nd Wiltshire Regiment, 26982

Transferred to Z class, 2.4.1919 (That's being placed on Reserve)


So, going back to LLT, we find:

Dorsetshire Regiment
5th (Service) Battalion
Formed at Dorchester in August 1914 as part of K1 and moved to Belton Park (Grantham), initially attached as Army Troops to 11th (Northern) Division.
8 January 1915 : transferred to 34th Brigade in same Division.
Sailed from Liverpool on 3 July 1915, going via Mudros to land at Suvla Bay on 6 August 1915.
16 December 1915 : evacuated from gallipoli and went to Egypt via Mudros.
Moved to France, arriving Marseilles 9 July 1916.

Wiltshire Regiment
2nd Battalion
August 1914 : in Gibraltar. Returned to England, landing Southampton 3 September 1914.
September 1914 : moved to Lyndhurst where came under command of 21st Brigade in 7th Division.
7 October 1914 : landed at Zeebrugge.
19 December 1915 : transferred with Brigade to 30th Division.
13 May 1918 : transferred to 58th Brigade in 19th (Western) Division


If we assume that Archibald stayed with the Dorsets through to Gallipolli, he would have joined the Wiltshire's in late 1915 or early 1916?

The 30th Division (http://www.1914-1918.net/30div.htm) took part in:
1916
The Battle of Albert* including the Division's capture of Montauban and subsequent fighting in Trones Wood
The Battle of the Transloy Ridges*
* the battles marked * are phases of the Battles of the Somme 1916

1917
The pursuit of the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line
The First Battle of the Scarpe**
The Second Battle of the Scarpe**
** the battles marked ** are phases of the Arras Offensive 1917
The Battle of Pilkem Ridge, a phase of the Third Battles of Ypres 1917

1918
The Battle of St Quentin^
The actions at the Somme Crossings^
The Battle of Rosieres^
^ the battles marked ^ are phases of the First Battles of the Somme 1918
The First Battle of Kemmel Ridge^^
The Second Battle of Kemmel Ridge^^
The Battle of the Scherpenberg^^
^^ the battles marked ^^ are phases of the Battles of the Lys

21st Brigade    
Brigade joined from 7th Division on 20 December 1915 in exchange for 21st Division
2nd Bn, the Wiltshire Regiment    left May 1918

[Lorand]

Thank you both so very much for this information.  I will certainly get into more of the research again - have left it for a couple of years, but now with the centenary have taken it up again.

I have a photo of my grandfather in uniform from WW2, where he served with the S African forces in Tobruk and Al Alamein, and his colour badge reflects his first world war service record, but unfortunately, is too small to see it clearly. 

Now that I have the Battalions, I can get into it more.

Thanks once again
Lorand