Acting Bombardier (Cpl.) Charlie Darch was the third child of a family of eight children, the son of William Jesse and Mary-Jane Darch, a labourer living in 1901 at Hollocombe, Winkleigh. By the time he was 18, in 1911, the family was living at Marshall’s Farm, Hollocombe, where James worked as a labourer, and Charlie aged 11 attended Hollocombe School together with his brothers Frank and William. Some time between then and 1917 the family moved again, this time to Narracott farm, Winkleigh, where Charlie worked a labourer with his father for Mr. Tout. Three of the four brothers served in the war, William in the Royal Field Artillery, and Frank who joined the Devons luckily missing the last draft going to France as the armistice was declared. After the war there was much unemployment and William became a coal-miner for a time in Wales.
Charlie served in the 322 Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery, part of the 95th Brigade of the RGA, a heavy artillery group in 21 Corps, 7th Division. He had enlisted at Plymouth, at the number 3 depot of the Royal Siege Artillery, one of 5 such depots in the country. It is possible that he had travelled to Plymouth to enlist a few weeks later than the others in the 6th Devons, who were now based there, but being still rather young and determined to enlist, and the battalion full for the time being, he had found instead the Royal Siege Artillery depot. His niece, Mary Darch, passed on a story told her by her uncle, Charlie’s brother-in-law who was married to Charley's sister Florence, of how his mother would always pause on the railway bridge crossing the line at Exeter station to remember the day she last saw off Charlie going away to Italy in 1917 at the end of his embarkation leave. Charlie was one of few British soldiers to serve in Italy, and one of the very few to have died there.
In spite of being part of the pre-war Triple Alliance of Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy, Italy had longed to regain ‘Italia Irredenta’, the Italian speaking provinces ruled by Austria. The war gave Italy a chance to fulfil this dream. On 26th April 1915 Italy signed the secret Treaty of London bringing Italy into the war on the promise that after the war she would acquire the whole Trentino as far as the Brenner Pass, Trieste and also parts of the Dalmatian coast. The war thus involved two areas of Northern Italy, the foothills of the mountains along the eastern edge of the Lombardy plain (often referred to as the ‘Venetian Plain’) an area known as the Trentino, and the area east of the Isonzo and Piave rivers, the aim here being the capture and occupation of Trieste. The Italians and Austrians fought twelve major battles along the Isonzo, as ferocious and costly as anything seen on the Western front.
The town of Gorizia, well defended on the western side by three mountains, of which the highest is Mt. Saboyino (609 m.) lies on the edge of the Carso, an infertile limestone plateau stretching south from Gorizia to the coast, 100-200 metres above the river Isonzo. The Carso was a huge defensive barrier with innumerable bunkers and gun positions dug into the limestone rock. North of Gorizia is an equally foreboding plateau, the Bainsizza, less well defended, but leading nowhere. It was not until the 6th Battle of the Isonzo, in August 1916 that the Italians captured Gorizia and pushed the front line to the edge of the Carso, but little progress was made in the following three battles. Italy was desperately short of heavy artillery, and General Cadorna appealed to the British and French for support, to prepare for the 10th battle.
On 7th December 1916, Asquith resigned and Lloyd George became Prime Minister and head of a new coalition government. With stalemate on the Western Front, and in spite of the failure of the Gallipoli campaign, Lloyd George was convinced that the war might be won if Germany could be attacked on other fronts. Immediately on achieving office he insisted on answering Cadorna's plea and sending heavy guns to support the next attack on the Carso. The Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Robertson, together with the other Western Front Generals, were against the plan. On 12th December Robertson wrote to Haig : ‘He is after sending some of your big guns to Italy during the winter. I've no doubt we can keep him straight.’ Shortly afterwards, an allied conference was held in Rome in January 1917 and Lloyd George now presented a plan without first briefing Robertson, to send aid to Russia, increase the British contingent in Salonika and give heavy artillery support to Italy. Italy, he hoped, would with British help, seize Trieste, defeat Austria and open a way to drive up into Germany. Cadorna, however, asked for 300 heavy guns and 8 divisions of Infantry, an impossible request. All we could offer was two Brigades of siege artillery and a similar number from the French - and even those the French required back for an offensive planned for April 1917, long before Cadorna could launch his next battle.
1917 was the year of renewed and ultimately unsuccessful attempts of the allies to achieve the break-though on the Western Front that would ultimately bring the war to an end. On the Western Front, on Easter Monday, April 9th, British and Canadian forces launched simultaneous offensives at Arras and Vimy Ridge, using a new method of protecting the infantry in an attack, the so-called ‘creeping barrage’, but the German third line could not be penetrated, snow blizzards weakened the troops and after a dent of four miles was made in the German lines the battle was closed down on April 15th. The following day the French offensive on the Aisne began under General Nivelle. The result was a disaster, the troops advancing no more than 600 yards, and suffering about 100,000 casualties. In Palestine, the British launched a second attempt to capture Gaza, but again there was nothing but failure. On the Salonika front on April 24th, the British attacked the Bulgarian positions above Lake Doiran, but with no success. The day before, and against the advice of his generals, Haig renewed the Arras offensive at Monchy-le-Preux. By 7th May the British were reduced to the last reserves and the battle was finally closed down. Meanwhile, the Russian front was crumbling and their armies disintegrating. It was against this background of failure and disappointment that General Cadorna was urged to open the 10th Battle of the Isonzo, to give some relief to the Allies, desperate to draw down some at least of the Austrian forces on the Russian front.
At the end of March 1917 Robertson and General Weygand visited the Italian Front and saw for themselves how the Carso front lacked depth, the lack of co-operation between the artillery and the infantry and the almost total absence of battlefield communications. They had grave misgivings, but Italy needed support to encourage her to contain as large an Austrian army as possible, and so as a compromise it was decided that two Brigades of Siege Artillery, 40 guns, would be sent in early April to the Carso. This was the area reached by Charlie’s battery on 7th April 1917, to join the Italian third army on the east bank of the Isonzo, south of Gradisca.
Thus it was largely for political reasons that the 94th and 95th Brigades of the Royal Garrison Artillery took part in both the 10th and 11th Battles of the Isonzo, in the area of the Carso. Both Brigades were ‘New Army’ units, consisting of 5 Siege batteries, officered and commanded by regulars. Each Battery consisted of four 6” howitzers, each gun weighing 3.25 tons, capable of firing high explosive shells weighing 112.5 lbs with a maximum range of 5,200 yards. Charlie had so far not left England - the Brigades were both stationed in Aldershot for training - when on 5th April the order arrived for mobilisation to proceed to Italy. Embarkation leave was quickly granted, and after a week of frantic activity the Battery, complete with its heavy guns, entrained for Southampton, and embarked for Le Havre on the cross-channel ship the S.S.Courtfield. It took more than a day to load the guns and Le Havre was reached only on 14th. Seven days of drill, route marching and gas drills followed before entraining on 21st for the long journey across France. After 4 days in the cattle trucks (20 men per truck, sleeping on a handful of straw), with the officers of course in carriages, the exhausted troops arrived at the rail head at Cervignano. From there the Battery proceeded to Palmanova and finally arrived at Fogliano, with Brigade H.Q. stationed at Casa Bianca under the code name of ‘B1 Group’. The XC1V Group were based just south of the junction of the Isonzo and Vipacco rivers, while the XCV Group were further south, on the east bank of the Isonzo river, south of Gradisca. Three Batteries were in emplacements at Doberdo, two, including 322 Battery at Debeli. All were close to each other. On 30th April 1917 the 322 battery opened fire for the first time on the Austrian lines, and remained in constant action until 5th October.
The 10th battle was due to begin on 7th May, bad weather delayed the start for 5 days, during which the artillery, in greater numbers that seen before, were ordered to keep up a steady rate of bombardment on the Austrian lines. This initial bombardment, in support of the first phase of the battle in the area of Goriza, began on 12th May. The battle was in two phases, with the action on the Lower Isonzo by the Italian Third Army opening on May 23rd. Here, the effective display of artillery, the fiercest seen on the Carso Plateau, was very much to the credit of the British siege batteries, who were in action over a period of six hours. The Italian 3rd army, commanded by the Duke of Aosta, consisted of 16 Divisions, 530 heavy guns, 1670 field guns and 63 trench mortar batteries. Facing them on the southern Carso and defying any attempt of the Italians to push through and capture Trieste, the Austrians held the ground with only 6 Divisions and 1400 guns. They were, however in a series of strongly entrenched positions, and held the higher ground. In spite of immense Italian casualties no ground was gained in the first assaults. On 24th and 25th the infantry rolled over three Austrian lines to capture a band of territory three miles deep from the central Carso to the sea. The battle lasted 18 days until 29th May, and although many of the hill-tops gained were lost again, it was an Italian victory of sorts with over 23,000 Austrians taken prisoner. The 10th Battle was, however, horribly expensive. The Italians had 36,000 killed out of a total of 150,000 casualties. The Austrians lost only 7,300 killed. The inevitable counter-attack by the Austrians opened on 6th June : the enemy attack on the Selo Ridge was repulsed thanks to the British guns : 3031 rounds were fired in that one day alone.
On August 19th the Italians attacked again, in the 11th Battle of the Isonzo. This time no less than 51 divisions would attack along a 60 kilometre front, with massive supremacy in artillery. The main area was to be north of Gorizia, an area known as the Bainsizza Plateau. Six kilometres of ground were gained in a most spectacular advance, necessitating moving the heavy artillery across the river but in the rocky terrain the attack petered out and the Italians had to withdraw. The attack was also be made in the Southern Carso. Here the Third Army dented the Austrian lines in three places, the biggest advance being in the hamlet of Selo, long since completely destroyed of course. The battle opened with a huge barrage, the infantry going over at 5.33 on 19th, pushing the Austrians back four miles and out of range of the supporting Heavy Artillery. This necessitated a move across the Isonzo to the right bank. By the 6th September, in the lower Carso area, after repeated attacks and counter-attacks the Italians were back again in their old front-line and the battle was closed down. Between the Carso and Gorizia a push up the Vipacco valley gained some ground but the Italians were pushed back to their start line. The Austrian counter-attack on August 28th was repulsed, and the 11th battle was finally closed down on 20th September. On 18th December Cadorna put all the Isonzo forces on the defensive and Britain and France decided to recall the Siege Artillery, since the Italians seemed to have little further use for them.
The 11th battle of the Isonzo compares well with Passchendaele. In all, Italy had gained 6 miles of mountainous terrain, including five mountain peaks, the most important of which was Monte Santo east of Gorizia. Between the Bainsizza and the Carso, the major obstacle was now San Gabriele : 25,000 Italian infantry died on that peak alone without securing it. In all some 40,000 Italians were killed out of 166,000 casualties. The Austrians lost 140,000 men killed, missing or wounded together with 20,00 Austrian and German prisoners. It was a technical victory that felt very much like a defeat. In addition, the Italians were beginning to desert in large numbers, 10,000 alone in July and August, in return for which General Cadorna, in revenge, now began the notorious policy of ‘decimation’ - executing every 10th man in a unit. Austria, too, was weakening by mid-September 1917 in this somewhat senseless war of attrition, and appealed to Germany for help. In spite of Germany (in the words of Ludendorff) being ‘shackled to a corpse’, the Germans could not afford to see Austria defeated and drop out of the war: reinforcements were sent to her aid. The result was the massive Italian defeat at Caporetto (the 12th Battle of the Isonzo) with the Italian forces driven right back to a defensive line in the River Piave. It was only after the 12th Battle that 2 British and 4 French Divisions were rushed to the new front on the Piave to save the Italians from total defeat. This support was further increased in the summer of 1918 to bring the total to 5 British and 6 French Divisions, all ‘reserves’ sent out from home rather than front-line troops that could not be withdrawn from the Western Front.
As Robertson and Weygand had already reported, the Italian army was woefully inadequate, lacking either competent commanders or working communication systems between the artillery and infantry in both defence and attack. The British Artillery Groups, commanded by regular and experienced officers who had served in France, were horrified. They were supplied by the Italians with virtually no information on targets or the timing of infantry attacks - indeed even when a timed attack was planned, the hours were never adhered to. Because of this, and fearful of inflicting casualties on the Italian troops, the barrage was usually lifted far too soon, thus giving no support to the infantry in passing over the last four or five hundred yards of open and difficult ground before reaching the enemy trenches. On 20th September after the supreme commander, General Cadorna, closed down the struggle, the British batteries were withdrawn on 5th October, to move to Egypt.
Situated well behind the front and firing their massive shells over the heads of the infantry, the Battery was in no danger from snipers, and virtually none from retaliatory fire. Almost as soon as they arrived, however, the Austrians became well aware that the Italian 2nd Heavy Artillery Group supporting XI corps, Third Army, had been massively reinforced and were keen to find out what was going on. The Brigade war diary records what happened next.
‘On the night of 3.5.17 two enemy aeroplanes dropped bombs on Fogliamo. Raid commenced at about 11.0pm 3.5.17 and lasted until 1.00 am 4.5.17. Huts were set on fire as a result of bomb explosions. Anti-aircraft guns were fired at the aeroplanes but without visible effect. British Casualties : 1 killed, 19 injured. Italian casualties : 16 killed, 30 injured. 5.5.17 : Bombardier Darch 322 Battery died of wounds received in the air raid.’
Further air raids produced no further casualties, but on 10th May the Brigade suffered its second death when Gunner George Johnson of 304 Battery was drowned at Fogliamo, presumably in the river. His body was recovered on 13th May. Both men were buried in the Gradisca communal cemetery.
The Royal Garrison Artillery guns in action a few days after Charlie Darch died.
On 28th September the orders came for the Brigade to move from Italy to Egypt, entraining at Cervignano, still part of the 95th Heavy Artillery Group. Arriving in Egypt on 20th October the Battery became part of the 61st Heavy Artillery Group, remaining in Egypt until 4th April 1918. They then moved to Salonika where they remained until the end of the war.
Charlie Darch had been extremely unlucky to have been killed, as the Brigade suffered only 4 deaths and 49 wounded during their entire Italian campaign.
May, 2 killed, 19 injured.
June and July, no casualties.
August, 1 killed, 14 wounded.
September, 1 killed, 16 wounded.
Following initial burial in the area of his death in the Gradisca communal cemetery, in 1973 Charlie’s body, one of the 30 First World War casualties buried there, was moved and re-buried in the second world war cemetery which lies near the village of Piangpiane, just outside Ravenna.
Charlie’s parents made the request that was so earnestly desired after the war by so many, that his body should be returned to his family in Winkleigh, but no exceptions could be made to the rule. Instead the Director-General of Graves Registrations of the then Imperial War Graves Commission authorised photos to be taken of the cemetery at Gradisca and Charlie’s grave, and sent with an acknowledgement to the family. Preserved too is the memorial card sent by the loving parents to friends and relatives, containing the inscriptions and a poem:
