31309, Lance Corporal, Frank Douglas PAINE
Aged 22
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Born in Q2-1895 in Oundle, Northants [Oundle 3b:233] to George and Florence PAINE (née REDHEAD) of Oundle.
1901 census...Frank [5] was at Brook Street, Raunds with his father George [32] a butcher's manager born Morhay Lawn (Southwick), Northants; his mother Florence [28] born Cotterstock, Oundle, and his brother Stanley S [1] born in Raunds. 1911 census...Frank [15] was an assistant to his father and was in Barnwell, Northants with his parents, brother Stanley George and his new sister Florence Elizabeth [8] born Raunds. He married Ethel Maud PRIGG in Newmarket in Q3-1916, (she was of the family butcher's PRIGG in Exning Road, Newmarket). Their son Douglas was only one when his father died. The address on the pension card was Prospect Terrace and then later at Gordon House, Exning Road |
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He enlisted in Northampton. A last gasp attempt by the Germans began the Battle of Arras (III) at the end of March 1918. The entry in the battalion’s war diary for the 25th March explains that the battalion was arranged so that ‘D’ company formed a defensive flank to the Sherwoods and the line to the north, but it was unavoidable that a large gap should exist between ‘C’ and ‘D’ companies. The 4th Yorks were put into the gap but it was too late to deter a determined attack by the Germans forcing the battalion to withdraw a considerable distance. ‘A’ company held their position but became surrounded and had to fight their way out. This action enabled the whole line to withdraw to the railway embankment near Marchelepot. The battalion lost 31 men during this battle. On the 26th the order was given to retire to defend Rosieres. The enemy pursued resulting in the loss of 10 men. The following day the enemy attacked to the right exposing the flank. A small party was formed and issued a counter attack re-establishing the line and driving back the enemy beyond their original position. A further 8 casualties were reported this day. The Germans launched an overwhelming attack on the 28th this time to the left of the Brigade, causing a complicated withdrawal and change of direction towards Caix. The enemy advanced very rapidly and practically surrounded the high ground that the Brigade now occupied. They found a way out of this tight spot and marched 16 miles to Jumel. 7 men lost this day. (the 7th Battalion also lost 6 men). This retreat before the Germans was harshly judged by some, but some time later a different perspective was recorded: The offensive saw a great wrong perpetrated on a distinguished British commander that was not righted for many years. Gough's Fifth Army had been spread thin on a forty-two-mile front lately taken over from the exhausted and demoralized French. The reason why the Germans did not break through to Paris, as by all the laws of strategy they ought to have done, was the heroism of the Fifth Army and its utter refusal to break. They fought a thirty-eight-mile rearguard action, contesting every village, field and, on occasion, yard ... With no reserves and no strongly defended line to its rear, and with eighty German divisions against fifteen British, the Fifth Army fought the Somme offensive to a standstill on the Ancre, not retreating beyond Villers-Bretonneux |
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