"The Affair at Néry"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                   

A further account of the "Affair at Néry"   covers in more detail the role played by the Battery Sergeant Major G. T Dorrell:-

Lt.Col. George Thomas Dorrell, V.C., M.B.E.L Battery, RHA  Died 7^th January 1971

 

 

This article describes the action of "L" Battery at Nery. Indeed, the then Battery Sergeant Major George Dorrell, was awarded one of the 3 V.Cs for the events of September 1^st 1914.

George Thomas Dorrell was born in Paddington, London on 7^th July 1880. He was 15 years old when he joined the Army, but he said "they put me down as 19". His later records show that he was 6ft tall, so it would probably not have been difficult to add a few years. By April 1905, he was a Sergeant in the R.H.A. at Lucknow, India, having taken a course on equitation, qualified as a Battery Rough Rider and being recommended for a course as a riding master. He was given very good reports in all aspects of his course, i.e. riding, swordsmanship, drilling and training remounts. By the outbreak of war in 1914 he would have been an experienced and highly trained gunner.

The artillery were taught that guns must be fought to the last, and that cavalry and infantry should be supported to the last possible moment, even if it meant the loss of the guns. This would have been second nature to George Dorrell, by now a Battery Sergeant Major, as he left for France in August 1914 with "L" Battery RHA. On the 24^th August, during the retreat from Mons they held up a German attack near Quievrain by knocking out the German guns, stopping the attempt to outflank the left of the BEF and two days later they were in the great artillery duel at Le Cateau. By the 31^st August the BEF had retreated behind the Aisne and "L" Battery, with the 1^st Cavalry Brigade, was exhausted after fighting until 1600 hours. It must have come as a relief when they were told to bivouac at Nery, near the Oise, with orders to be ready to march at 0430 the following day.

Thinking that the nearby ridge was still held by the French and despite a warning from a local farmer that the Germans were advancing, the Brigade was instructed to settle down for the night. L Battery was positioned in an orchard south of the village and near the sugar factory. Opposite them, alongside a road that was in a deep cutting, were the 2^nd. Dragoon Guards (Queen’s Bays.)

At 0230 hours on 1^st September, the men of L Battery got up, rubbed down the horses, breakfasted, harnessed up and hooked in, ready to move at a moment’s notice. However, due to a thick mist they were told to stand fast until further notice. Sgt. Maj. Dorrell took the opportunity to water the horses, so the right half battery was taken a short distance away, to a pond behind the sugar factory, watered, brought back and hooked into the guns and wagons while the left half battery went off to water.

Meanwhile, in the mist, a patrol of the 11^th Hussars had almost run into the German cavalry, but the alarm that they raised was too late. The French had pulled off the nearby ridge and been replaced by 10 German guns and 2 machine guns.

At 0540 hours a ranging shell smashed into "L" Battery, followed by shrapnel and machine gun bullets that caused havoc among the battery and the Bays, killing a number of men and bringing down about 150 horses. Capt. Edward Bradbury shouted "Come on, who’s for the guns!" as men raced to get the guns into position. Guns were damaged as horses bolted in panic, and one of them overturned on a steep bank. Only 3 could be unlimbered and manhandled into action and one of these soon had its spokes blown out while the second was hit and its whole detachment killed.

As the mist cleared, the last 13 pounder, capable of firing 15 rounds a minute, went into action. Gunner Darbyshire desperately fired for 20 minutes until concussion left him bleeding from his nose and ears. Lt. Campbell took over the firing position while the gunner supplied ammunition, but the lieutenant was blown off the gun and killed. Captain Bradbury, who had been acting as layer, had his leg blown off but carried on directing the firing until he died from his wounds, still propped against the side of the gun. Sergeant Major Dorrell had already taken over from Lt. Mundy who had been wounded, but now he took over command and with the dead and dying all around them, he and Sergeant Nelson kept firing until the last shot was brought up by Gunner Darbyshire and Driver Osborne. They had, in true artillery style kept their blood stained, battered, gun firing to the end and they had managed to silence the German guns. The action went down in regimental history as "Dorrell’s Duel" for by a quarter to nine in the morning the battle was over and the Germans had been given a distinct shock.

They had given 4^th. Cavalry time to arrive on the scene, supported by "I" Battery R.H.A. and they were able to attack the Germans from the flank, capturing all but 4 of their guns.

Dorrell’s Victoria Cross, gazetted in November 1914, was one of the 3 awarded for L Battery’s historic stand at Nery, with one going to Sgt. Nelson and the other being a posthumous award to Capt. Bradbury. Before bringing what remained of his battery home to the U.K., the Battery Sergeant Major received a commission in the field, and later returned to France as battery commander of "A" battery, 119^th Brigade RFA in the 38^th (Welsh) Division.

He left the Army in 1921 as a Lieutenant Colonel and served with the Home Guard during the 2^nd. World War. His heroic action was remembered in the regiment, and he was asked to inspect the Battery during the celebrations for Nery Day.

When he died at Stoke D’Abernon on January 7^th 1971 he was 90 years old and is said to have "just faded away". He was survived by his sister, a son, two daughters and eight grandchildren. Although he had been long retired from the army, Lt. Col. Dorrell was accorded the honour that would have been given to a serving officer. He was given a regimental funeral with his coffin on a gun carriage escorted by King’s Troop RHA to the cemetery at Leatherhead and laid to rest as trumpeters played the Last Post.. His last journey was, as he would have wished it, as an old horse-artilleryman.

Here is the diary account of Jack Giffard, a Lieutenant with 'L' Battery,
Royal Horse Artillery:

"Tuesday, 1 September 1914

Got up at 4 am with orders to be ready by 5 am to move at a 1/4 hrs
notice, we had the teams all hooked to their carriages, poles down and
everyone dismounted on our bivouac. I was trotting a horse down the road
for lameness and was examining his hind fetlock, when suddenly a terrific
burst of shrapnel and rifle and machine gun fire was opened onto us at a
range of 600 to 800 yards. No one had the slightest idea of their being
any Germans in the vicinity, and I am not sure if it was the fault of our
own Cavalry or the French outposts.

The horse was killed at the first burst and I and Sgt Weedon dropped onto
the road and crawled along to one side of the camp and got up close to it
under cover of some stacks. We found Bradbury, John Campbell and Mundy
and about a dozen men there or so, we rushed out and got 2 guns into
action, myself on one with 1/2 dozen men and Brad, John, Mundy, the Sgt
Major and Sergeant Nelson on the other. I had only fired a few rounds
when the whole of my crew were wiped out, so I went on till I'd finished
the ammunition and then got hit through the left leg above the knee by a
splinter and peppered on the right arm and back and grazed along the hip
bone by a whole shell or a very large fragment. Then a shell pitched on
the gun wheel and smashed it, something getting me on the top of my head,
as I could do no good there, I crawled back to stack where some of our
wounded were sheltering, they were terribly knocked about most of them. A
few minutes later a shrapnel swept along our side of the stack, a fragment
going clean through my right leg, missing the main artery by an eigth of
an inch and I think missing the bone. 2 or 3 more pieces pierced the leg
as well, several fellows were killed by it and horribly wounded. The
terrific fire was kept up for some time and eventually the Household Bde
and 'I' Battery came up on the right and the Middlesex Regt on the left
and drove them off. I think we did a great deal of damage and must have
fired about 150 rounds." (from: 'Guns, Kites and Horses: Three diaries
from the Western Front', edited by Sydney Giffard ISBN: 1 86064 906 .

Jack was taken prisoner by the Germans and transferred to a German
military hospital. He was freed when the French reoccupied the area
during the German retreat to the Aisne. Jack recovered but never returned
to the war. His wounds troubled him for the rest of his life.

There is the discrete mention of this action in General von Kuhl's account
'Der Marnefeldzug 1914'. He was Chief-of-Staff in General von Kluck's 1st
Army Command. Von Kuhl noted on the 1st September: 

   

 

 

 

On the 1st September each year the battery celebrates Néry Day. In the past before the battery was cadreised this celebration was a full program starting the day with a church service for all ranks, during which the Battery Commander would recite the "Affair at Néry", followed by The Battery Alarm Stakes, a competetive re-enactment of the "Affair at Néry" with the Battery Captain calling "Who's for the Guns". When the battery was eqippped with the 105mm Pack Howitzer this involved all gun crews in sleeping bags beside their guns which were stripped down to component parts. At the BK's call the competition was for all six crews to dress, assemble their guns, manhandle them through an obstacle course and fire a blank round as they finished. The first gun to fire won the competition and the No1 would be presented with the Bradbury Alarm Stakes cup for the year. As the battery changed equipment so adjustments were made to the competition to compensate. The afternoon on the program was usually an athletics, football or potted sports between the three troops in the battery, Bradbury, Dorrell and HQ. In the evening the day finished with a battery dance usually in the NAAFI lounge.

The committments of the battery over the last two to three decades has severely curtailed the way in which the day was celebrated. Furthermore since cadreisation and other MOD restructuring, operational and training committments the celebration of Néry Day has become a much reduced celebration but still an important item in the battery's calendar.

The battery has visited the village of Néry on a number of occasions as close as possible to the 1st September. On one of the first visits in 1966 the battery, at full strength with a 5.5 gun, camped on the outskirts of the village and held the church parade on the 1914 1st September Gun Position. Later visits were much curtailed due to operational and training committments but a number of visits by both individual former members of the battery and the OCA have kept the contact with the village and it's community alive. The most recent visits by the battery took place on September 1st 2012 and September 1st 2013, the latter as a recce for the centenary event in 2014.   See Néry 2014 on this web site for photos.