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Pte. Archibald Mills
British Army D Coy., 8th Btn. Machine Gun Corps
Apparently, Archibald Mills originally enlisted (or maybe was conscripted – it’s unclear) as No. 21475 in an unknown battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. His birthdate is shown as 3rd January 1898 at Stenhouse. He would have completed his basic military training with that unit, and might have expected to join one of the active service units of the Argylls but instead, between 23rd and 26th of September 1917, he was compulsorily transferred to the Machine Gun Corps.
The MGC had a presence in every brigade of every division serving overseas since the beginning of 1916. At that time, each brigade comprised 4 infantry battalions, each of up to 1,000 men, plus a pioneer battalion, artillery units, a trench mortar company, medical units, Royal Engineers, and Royal Signals. It also had a dedicated machine gun company which took its designation from the brigade in which it served. The company was about 140 strong, fielding 16 Vickers Mk 1 heavy machine guns, manned 6-men to each, plus a transport section of horse- or mule-drawn wagons to bring up fresh supplies of ammunition and spare parts from dumps to the rear of the front line.
The duties of a machine-gun company were: to go forward if the infantry was attacking (usually in the second or third wave) to provide fire against counter-attacks; then to defend at all times the infantry and artillery positions; and finally, in the event that the infantry had to withdraw in the face of attack by the enemy, the gunners were expected to remain to the last, to give everyone else time to get out in good order. Hence, MGC casualties were always on the high side. Not for nothing were they known by the squaddies as The Suicide Club.
There were three brigades in each division and, therefore, three MG companies in each division. In the spring of 1917, the War Office responded to requests to beef up the fire power by sending out a fourth company that would be independent of the brigades and under the direct control of the brigadier, to be used wherever he saw fit.
Archibald underwent a six-week gunnery and tactics course at Belton Park, Grantham and on completion would have been sent out to France, probably by the end of November 1917. He joined No. 218 Company (the "fourth" MG company), which was part of the 8th Division. He may have joined just in time to see his first action at the assault on the Southern Redoubt, Passchendaele on 2nd of December 1917, which marked the end of serious fighting that year, as winter conditions prevented either side from continuing.
All then went fairly quiet, and on 20th of January 1918, in common with other divisions of the Western Front, the four machine gun companies in the 8th Division amalgamated to form the 8th Battalion MGC, which was now about 750 strong and fielding 64 machine guns. The old 218th Company became D Company in the new organization. The Division was to remain in the Ypres sector around Passchendaele until 12th of March 1918, when it was relieved in the line and sent to the Somme sector near Longuenesse. Its strength at that point was 37 officers, 777 other ranks, plus 258 horses and mules. The make-up of the 8th Division was then nine infantry battalions: 2nd Devons, 2nd West Yorks, 2nd Middlesex, 1st Worcesters, 1st Notts & Derbys, 2nd Northamptons, 2nd E. Lancs, 2nd R. Berkshires, and 2nd Rifle Brigade, with 22nd Durhams as Pioneers.
The situation in the Somme sector was disquieting. In March 1918, the Germans had finally knocked the Russians out of the war, forcing an armistice of the Eastern Front. This enabled them to transfer about 1 million battle-hardened troops to the West, which they concentrated in the Somme. The British Army was under-strength there. Political considerations at home had starved the units of reinforcements. There was a general election due and the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, withheld many young trained soldiers in the hope of keeping the electorate on his side. It was a decision which nearly lost the war.
The Germans now outnumbered their opponents at a ratio of about 3:1 and they were about to launch a massive offensive, trying to drive a wedge between the British and French armies, pushing through to the Channel ports and thus knocking Great Britain out of the war before the American Army, now arriving in huge numbers, could tip the balance against them. The 8th Division (with Archibald in D Company, 8th Battalion MGC) was at Harbonnieres, behind the Somme Canal, when the first assaults commenced on 21st of March 1918. All defending divisions were pushed quickly back all along the Somme frontage and by the 29th April the 8th Battalion MGC had lost 23 officers and 410 other ranks. Many of these were initially listed as missing and subsequently found to be POWs. The 8th Division was relieved by the 4th Australian Division.
It was clear that the whole Division was in a very poor state and needed to be rested and strongly reinforced. Along with the 21st, 25th, and 50th Divisions, all in a similar state, the 8th was sent to a "quiet" spot in the French lines farther south in the Aisne sector where a build-up of strength and recuperation could take place. The 8th arrived at Fere-en-Tardenois where they were packed like sardines into French trenches on the ridge of high ground known as the Chemin-des-Dames (The Ladies Road), which the French had taken from the Germans at enormous cost in 1917 and was the cause of the near-mutiny in the French Army.
The British were of the opinion that the positions held were very bad. They were on ground with a river to the rear and there was no strength-in-depth, a tactic used very successfully by the Brits in March/April on the Somme. There were no trenches further back and no reserve artillery points, but the French would not hear of establishing that system - they would not yield a single yard, although they told the British that there was nothing to fear anyway, that it was a very quiet spot! Unknown to the French and British, the Germans had decided to make an all-out effort to break through to Paris since they had been stopped on the Somme, well short of the Channel ports. They also knew the British were "resting" there and had decided to head straight for them, engaging 12 whole divisions.
When the battle started on 27th May 1918, the British units stood no chance. They were quickly overwhelmed and outflanked, and were forced into a headlong retreat in which thousands were killed or taken prisoner. The heaviest blows fell upon the 8th Division, and poor Archy was "in the bag" by the next day, the 28th May 1918. The overall offensive failed after the Germans had captured much ground, but at fearful cost. It would be their last gamble of the war. Fewer than half of the strength of 8th Battalion MGC escaped capture. The POWs from this period were spread among many different camps. Archy was sent to Gustrow Camp, south of Rostock on the Baltic coast.
He was released immediately after the Armistice and arrived back in the UK, at Dover, on 1st of December 1918. All returned POWs were given immediate leave unless they required hospital treatment. Archibald Mills was discharged from the Army on 28 March 1919 and went to Class Z Reserve. That meant that the Army regarded him as fit, and liable for recall in an emergency.
