Military History

Frederick is listed as being killed in action on 6th November 1917. The 1st/6th Battalion war diary is not available and the following description of events is taken from the History of the 53rd (Welsh) Division (T.F.) 1914-1918 by Major C H Dudley-Ward (Charles Humble). It is available to read on the Internet Archive (click).

KHUWEILFEH

On the 6th November, at 4 a.m., in the light of approaching dawn, the artillery barrage opened and with it the sixteen guns of the 158th Machine Gun Company. From 4.20, all lifted 100 yards at a time and the advance of the infantry commenced.

The account of the opening of the battle given by the 7th Royal Welch Fusiliers is typical of all battalions. “The battalion formed up in column of route. Lewis gun ammunition was man-handled, the Lewis gun mules being used to carry spare ammunition and bombs. Arriving at the line of deployment, the battalion formed up on a four-platoon front in five lines at 25 yards distance, the fifth line being formed by Lewis gunners withdrawn from their platoons. The whole frontage of the battalion was 500 yards. ‘Two water bottles were carried and 170 rounds of ammunition, also the unconsumed portion of the day’s ration, one extra day’s ration, and the iron ration. All ranks were clearly made to understand that on no account, without an order from the C.O., was any ammunition to be fired, and all work was to be done with the bayonet. At 4.23, three minutes behind scheduled time, the battalion moved off to attack the Tell el Khuweilfeh Hill under cover of the barrage, and gained its objective at 5.3 with apparently few casualties.”

On the right, in the valley commanded by the flat-topped hill, there was a small hillock, and in the hillock a cave which was also a tomb, with a square door facing south. Here the Brigadier placed his headquarters, and had a good view of the fight. ‘With two artillery brigades, the 265th and 267th, supporting them, the infantry advanced with confidence. To us in the East it (the artillery) was a revelation; judged by the standards of France it wasn’t much. All the brigade’s 16 machine guns joined in from the hillock on which we sat, and the din was terrific.”

The whole attack went like clockwork, and all objectives were occupied just as dawn was breaking. The enemy, cowed by the creeping barrage, was bayonetted in large numbers. But the treacherous morning fog, which the 53rd Division had good cause to remember, visited them again, and robbed them of an important capture. The advance had been rapid and irresistible, and on the right Captain G. N. Berney, with a company of Herefords, came on a ravine and found nine Turkish field guns, limbered up, and about to move back. Captain Berney charged, bayonetted the personnel, and captured the guns. At that momenta thick mist came down. A certain amount of mixing of units and general confusion ensued, and the 7th Royal Welch Fusiliers, mistaking certain advance troops of the 6th [RWF] and the Herefords, who had swept on over the captured guns, for Turks, called for artillery fire. The gallant Captain Berney was killed, but whether from our own artillery fire or not is uncertain, and a general retirement took place. The guns had to be abandoned.

But for this unhappy accident, the whole position would have been captured in one and a half hours, with insignificant casualties. Troops could not, in the mist, give each other support, and the Turkish machine gunners knew the ground and the direction in which they should fire. The Herefords on the right had over-run the flat topped hill, but found that they were so enfiladed by machine gun fire that the place was untenable, and so had to retire to the forward slope of the hill, but when the Brigadier received their report he put the hill under artillery fire and was able to deny it to the enemy.

The situation was uncertain and puzzling. After a while the Brigadier ordered all artillery to cease fire, and all troops to remain where they were until the fog lifted. When it was possible to see, about 7 a.m., the Sussex were found to be on their appointed objective, forming a flank to the Brigade, the 7th Royal Welch Fusiliers were in possession of Khuweilfeh Hill, the 6th Royal Welch Fusiliers were holding a spur running south-east from Khuweilfeh, the Herefords were on the forward slope of the flattopped hill on the right, which was just short of their objective, and the 3rd battalion of the Camel Corps protected that flank.

The right of the line was, however, so swept by machine gun fire that it was deemed impossible in daylight to capture several minor features occupied by the enemy, which it would be necessary to hold before the line could be securely consolidated. A company of the 5th Royal Welch Fusiliers was moved up in support.

At nine o’clock the Turks started a series of counter-attacks by launching a strong force against the 7th Royal Welch Fusiliers on Khuweilfeh. They succeeded, by the weight of their attack, in driving the battalion off the hill, but prompt artillery support enabled the Fusiliers to advance again and retake the hill at the point of the bayonet. General Mott then sent up the Middlesex as an additional reserve, and the Brigadier ordered one company in close support.

During the day, the Turks made five separate attacks on the hill, but, with the exception of the first temporary success, spent themselves in vain. Similarly they tried repeatedly to re-establish themselves on the flat-topped hill, but the artillery and machine guns kept that place clear.

On the right, three troops of Westminster Dragoons performed useful work by keeping in touch with the Camel Corps.

And so the day passed, the Brigade holding what they had won in spite of galling enfilade fire from a few under features remaining in the hands of the Turks. At dusk, the Middlesex took over Khuweilfeh from the 7th Royal Welch Fusiliers, and also the Sussex position on the flank, the atter leaving one company in support; the 5th Royal Welch Fusiliers took over from the 6th [RWF] and the Herefords. The casualties in the Brigade had been 36 officers and §84 other ranks.

During this action Captain Fox Russell VC, R.A.M.C., attached to the 6th R.W.F., was awarded a posthumous V.C. for his gallantry in attending and rescuing wounded until he himself was killed.