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Auction: 19001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 725

(x) Three: Private M. Thomas, King's Royal Rifle Corps, who spent over seven months in hospital suffering from shell shock and afterwards became a Prisoner of War following a German flame-thrower attack in the dunes at Nieuport in July 1917

1914-15 Star (R-3887 Pte. M. Thomas, K.R. Rif:C.); British War and Victory Medals (R-3887 Pte. M. Thomas, K.R. Rif. C.), nearly extremely fine (3)

Mansel Thomas was born at Barry, Cardiff, in August 1893. He served in France from 30 July 1915 with the 13th (Service) Battalion, K.R.R.C., and was found suffering from shell shock on 27 June 1916. Admitted to the 16th General Hospital at Le Treport from 29.6.1916 to 27.7.1916, he returned to the U.K. and recuperated at the King George Hospital, London, and the 2nd Western General Hospital, Manchester. He returned to the front in February 1917 and was posted to the 2nd Battalion, K.R.R.C., in which he served with 'D' Company in the dunes at Nieuport les Bains.

The Belgian Army manned this sector throughout the war, except for a brief period in the spring and summer of 1917. Following their flooding of the area by the opening of the Nieuport sea locks and sluices, they had maintained a bridgehead on the northern riverbank, about a mile in depth, which potentially offered a foothold from which to push up the coast towards the U-Boat pens at Bruges. As a result, it held considerable strategic value, but it was very vulnerable and lacked any sort of protection for the troops as there were no trees and the sandy soils meant underground dugouts continually collapsed.

Operations "Hush" and "Strandfest"

By early 1917 the Allies launched Operation "Hush", a plan to make amphibious landings on the Belgian coast, supported by attacks from Nieuport and the Yser bridgehead. On 10 July 1917, in anticipation of such an attack - and at the point of handover from Belgian to British troops - the Germans launched Operation "Strandfest", a spoiling attack led by the Marinekorps-Flandern. Large numbers of German infantry, supported by 30 flammenwerfers and a mass of heavy artillery, including mustard gas shells, overwhelmed the British troops who were trapped in a pocket and prevented from retreat by inadequate and poorly maintained bridges. These were strafed by German aircraft and faced continual shelling, whilst the width of the river and strength of current meant that there was no possibility of swimming across or making rudimentary arrangements. Such was the speed and intensity of the attack that British resistance crumbled. According to The Annals of the King's Royal Rifle Corps: Volume 5, 'When the German infantry arrived, they found what was left of them half-choked and blinded by sand … ' The 1917 K.R.R.C. Chronicle notes that 17 officers out of 20 and 481 other ranks out of 520 became casualties on 10 July.

P.O.W.

Mansel survived the ordeal but would spend the rest of the war surrounded by Irish soldiers, as a prisoner at the notorious Limburg an der Lahn camp. It was at this camp that the Irish nationalist and Easter Rising leader, Roger Casement, had previously attempted to convince 2,200 Irish soldiers to join his Brigade and fight against the British once the war was over; only 55 rallied to his cause. According to Private William Dooley of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment:

'The men were very restless during the (recruitment) speech, but they restrained themselves to the end. Then, as Casement passed away, they let themselves go, hushing, hissing, and calling him all sorts of names.'

Once it was clear that few would rally to Casement's cause, the German's were less accommodating to the prisoners needs, although remarkably prisoners could leave to buy rations in the town; following one such foray, Private James Kelly was court-martialled and found guilty of buying cigarettes and alcohol instead of soaps and food items, although he escaped the consequences as a result of an administrative error. Repatriated at the end of hostilities, Mansel was discharged on 11 March 1919; he died at Swansea Hospital on 3 October 1955.

Reference source:

https://www.independent.ie/life/world-war-1/stories-from-limburg-prisoner-of-war-camp-30270513.html


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