CROCKER John Tredinnick 2/Lt

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Surname: CROCKER;

Forename(s): John Tredinnick;

Initials: JT;

Rank: 2/Lt;

Previous Regiment: London Regt;

MGC Branch: Infantry;

MGC Unit: 174 Coy;

Other MGC Unit Served (1): 174 Coy;

Other MGC Unit Served (2): 59 Bn;

Awarded: DSO, MC, MID;

Gallantry Notes: DSO: For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When in charge of four machine guns, he broke down two strong enemy attacks, holding on from 10am till dusk, when infantry and reinforcements arrived. The following day he maintained his position till outflanked, when he stood up between two of his guns and directed their fire on the enemy who were within 30 yards, then covered the withdrawal with bombs and rifle fire, killing many himself at close range, took up a fresh position until almost surrounded again, when he again went out with bombs. His example throughout was magnificent.

MC: For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty as section commander in a machine gun battery. He stuck to his battery until it was blown up, and then going forward to the barrage, he salved two guns and took them forward to support the infantry, where the situation was uncertain.;

Other Data: reported to 174 Coy Apr 1917
See Folder 59 Bn Who's Who 1943:Lt Gen J T Crocker, CBE 1940, DSO 1918, MC, late RTC; a Commander since 1940. Born 3/1/1896, son of Isaac Crocker. Married, 1920, Hilda May, d. of EJ Mitchell, Beckenham Kent, one son(killed on active service). Served Gt War, Artists Rifles & MGC. Posted to Middx Regt 1920. Transf RTC 1923.

Who was Who: Died 9/3/1963: GCB, cr 1948 (KCB cr 1947, CB 1943) KBE cr 1944 (CBE 1940) DSO, MC. Lord Lt of Middx since 1961, Vice Hairman CWGC 1957-63. Commanded an Armoured Be in France 1940, 9 Corps in Tunisia 1942-43 (wounded) and 1 Corps France & Germany 1944-45, GOC Soouthern Cmd 1947-50. Adjt Gen to Forces 1050-53. ADC General to the King 1948-51. Legion of Honnour (Commander) 1943, Virtuti Militari (Poland) 1945, Order of Orange-Nassau (Grand Officer) 1945, Croix deGuerre 1946. Address: The King's House, Ingram Ave, NW11.
C-in-C Middle East - see article "The Times" 27/12/1946

See: WO95/3017 - war diary of 59 Bn for 21/3/1918

King's College London
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives

Survey of the Papers of Senior UK Defence Personnel, 1900-1975
Name
CROCKER, Sir John Tredinnick (1896-1963), General

Service biography
World War I 1914-1918; in ranks, Artists' Rifles 1914-1917; commissioned, Machine Gun Corps 1917; posted to Middlesex Regt 1920; transferred to Royal Tank Corps 1923; World War II 1939-1945; Commander, Armoured Bde, France 1940; 9 Corps, Tunisia, North Africa 1942-1943; 1 Corps, France and Germany 1944-1945; General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Command 1945-1947; Commander-in-Chief Middle East Land Forces 1947-1950; Adjutant Gen to the Forces 1950-1953; retired 1953; Vice Chairman, Commonwealth War Graves Commission 1957-1963

Papers
No reply to approach letter to family, 1982: LIDDELL HART CENTRE FOR MILITARY ARCHIVES: The papers of Capt Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart include correspondence with Crocker 1940-1959 (one file, ref: LH 9/28/40), including; notes by Crocker on the evacuation of 3 Armoured Bde from France, May-Jun 1940; correspondence on the final stages of the campaign in North Africa, Feb-Jun 1943; correspondence relating to Liddell Hart's The tanks: the history of the Royal Tank Regiment (Cassell, London, 1959); further correspondence with Crocker relating to the Royal Tank Regiment and its history (ref: LH 9/28/29 and 9/28/33-35); notes by Liddell Hart on discussions with Crocker, Jul and Oct 1943, on the progress of operations in Tunisia (ref: LH 11/1943/46, 11/1943/64-66); the papers of Reginald William Winchester ('Chester') Wilmot, war correspondent and war historian, include postwar correspondence with Crocker relating to the events of D-Day, 6 Jun 1944 (ref: LH 15/15/159); the papers of Gen Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor include correspondence with Crocker, Jul and Oct 1944, relating to the deployment of Armoured Divisions in France (refs: O'Connor 5/3/17, 5/4/49); the papers of Gen Sir Harold English ('Pete') Pyman include correspondence with Crocker 1957-1960, relating to the Royal Tank Regiment (ref: Pyman 10/1-7) No other papers have been traced

This is John Crocker’s contemporary account of a five day battle during the First World War in the early spring of 1918. The account was found amongst his letters and other papers and was obviously written during or immediately after the battle on twelve sheets of rough notepaper.
The action took place in an area about 4 km north of the town of Bapaume, 135 km south-east of Calais, an area that is today bisected by the Autoroute du Nord. It was during this battle – in the afternoon of 22 March when commanding a Section of 198th Company of The Machine Gun Corps, attached to the 58th Division – that he won the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).
John Crocker was then a 2nd Lieutenant, aged 22. He had been sent to France almost exactly a year earlier, on 8 March 1917, and in the autumn of that year had fought in the 3rd Battle of Ypres (Paschendale) where he had won the Military Cross.
21 March 1918
At 4.45 am 21/3/18 heavy bombardment opened on front system. Section immediately stood to. The district in vicinity of VRAUCOURT, especially VRAUCOURT-NOREUIL valley a little later was considerably shelled – ‘A’ Battery position included. About 7.0 am remainder of section arrived.
Bombardment kept up for some hours. About midday it considerably diminished. No sign of our infantry returning. About 1.0 pm, however, large parties of troops were seen moving west of NOREUIL – these could not be distinguished even by means of glasses. As they came nearer they were seen to be Germans. Some thousands could be seen over the ridge and all along the valley.
The battery immediately opened heavy fire which was seen to be very effective at 2000 yards range.
The enemy, however, were so numerous they continued to advance seeking shelter in large numbers in VRAUCOURT COPSE. Two of our guns were continually firing into this copse the whole time.
About 2.30 pm the enemy came out of shelter and cover in large numbers and made for the new trench (HAIG TRENCH?). Some hundreds were knocked out at this time, all guns firing continuously at tremendous targets at 1100 yards range. (22,000 rounds were fired in all.)
There was no sign of any of our infantry coming up to support – the battery was absolutely isolated. I moved one of my guns to protect my right flank, a great deal of dead ground making it very vulnerable.
About 3.0 pm parties of our infantry (they were RSFs and REs) began to move
forward in open order from direction of SUCERIE in VRAUCOURT. I sent my sergeant
across to these when they had got to within a few hundred yards behind my
position. He guided some of them up to me to act as escort. The remainder gradually
dug in across the valley.
As soon as it became dusk reinforcements (14th Argyles) came up and during the
night our line was dug including my battery position as a strong point in it. I got in
touch with the CO of the RSFs and got to know exactly what he intended doing. The
RSFs had got in touch with Buffs on [the] left and the REs on the right. The Argyles
during the night bombed the enemy out of HAIG TRENCH so that the new line just
dug became automatically a support line.
22 March 1918
Dawn was very quiet and except for machine gun sniping etc. the morning was
uneventful.
About 1.0 pm the RSFs informed me they were going out of line to dig a new line by
MORY (Army line.) This they did, evacuating our trenches. The Argyles at once
followed suit so that once more I was unsupported. Although we tried repeatedly it
was impossible to rally them. Enemy movement was quickly seen and many more
good targets presented themselves.
About 3.0 pm (21/3/18) enemy had worked his way up dead ground on my right
flank and a party was seen 30 yards away in the new trench dug the night
previously. The gun I had put out again to protect this flank was put out of action by
a bullet through the breach casing – Mr Newton was wounded at this point.
A bombing block was formed in the trench but enemy were soon seen behind us on
the right and heavy rifle fire was being brought to bear upon us from that direction.
No targets to fire at so I gave the order to retire back to a trench 150 yards towards
VRAUCOURT.
This we did with remarkably few casualties. One No.1 being hit while carrying his
gun, the No.2 picked it up but he was captured with his gun by the enemy who by
this time were within twenty yards of our battery position.
From the trench, seeing it was hopeless to try to hold it, we retired by gun teams,
bringing in casualties, to the SUCERIE VRAUCOURT.
Leaving Sgt Harwood in charge I ordered him to stay there with the men whilst I
reported to CHQ at ‘C’ Battery. Here I received orders to bring the remainder of my
section to ‘C’ Battery position which I did and I mounted my 3 remaining guns in or
near the position.
The enemy continued to advance and the infantry again withdrew having arranged with us to cover their withdrawal at about 7.0 pm.
The enemy seen within 500 yards across the ECOUST- VRAUCOURT road on our right and our infantry were all back in the support line of the third system before we retired again after getting a good many good targets.
We retired gun-by-gun under heavy rifle fire and took up a position along a bank 200 yards in [the] rear of the third system.
We stayed here until the infantry withdrew again and eventually went back about 9.0 pm and took up a position on the railway in front of RE camp [in] MORY.
After about 2 hours here the Germans were getting very close up, his lights falling often in or in rear of us. We got in touch with Col. Colquhoun of the Leicesters and he was forming up his men to retire. He said we’d better go back too. This we did. We were now at absolutely a loose end. We were not sure where the enemy was on our flanks and could get no orders from anybody.
23 March 1918
We therefore decided to go back to Burrow Camp MORY and try to get in touch with either our CO or a Brigade.
Mr Sulley (?) and I set out to do this after leaving our men in a hut under the charge of Mr Nicholls [or Nicholl?]. The men were absolutely done and got a good rest here.
Mr Sulley and I walked several miles trying to get in touch with somebody without success. About 1.30 [am] we returned to Burrow Camp. I then set off to EVILLERS where I had heard 177 Bde HQ were. I found them and they gave me orders to bring the section to Dysart [?] Camp and to get into defensive positions there.
I had no sooner got back to Burrow Camp than heavy rifle fire was directed seemingly at the camp. We at once formed up and marched to ERVILLERS and got into positions for its defence.
We stood to all night and at 7.0 am (23/3/18) Mr Iredale met us with his section and he too got into positions for the defence of the village.
Soon after Major Garden came up and we reported what we were doing.
We had now the remnants of three sections, A, C & D, making 11 guns in all, but only four could be mounted owing to a tremendous shortage of belts, there being about 16 in all.
During the morning we got in touch with Major Davy of 40th Bttn MGC who was in charge of all the MGs in the vicinity and he included us in his defence scheme, slightly altering our positions.
About three or four targets presented themselves during the day.
24 March 1918
About midnight (23/24th) orders came through from Major Davy for our relief by ‘C’ Coy 40th Bttn.
This relief turned up at 3 am and we marched back to GOMIÉCOURT to report to 177 Bde HQ who sent us to take up positions in a trench 300 yards in rear of BÉHAGNIES. We got into these positions about 5.30 am (24/3/18) and an hour or two later discovered our CO there and [the] remainder of ‘A’ section.
We stayed in these positions all day and were to be relieved that night but the enemy attacked again about 11.0 pm and we were unable to go.
25 March 1918
The situation became very obscure during the night and we had to stand to and form a defensive flank facing left as that flank seemed threatened.
Two guns were sent off to take up positions in [the] front line under 2/Lt Nicholl [or Nicholls?]
At dawn no sign of the enemy could be seen and although there was a good deal of excitement, artillery and rifle and machine gun fire apparently in direction of MORY & ERVILLERS.
We could now see our infantry digging in in front of BEHAGNIES water point.
At about 10.0 an (25/3/18) our infantry could be seen retiring across the ARRAS-BAPAUME road on [the] right of BEHAGNIES. Capt Stewart went to Bde HQ in GOMIÉCOURT to find out [the] situation, returning two hours after. During [this time] infantry were continually falling back through BEHAGNIES and news from the right was that SAPIGNIES was in enemy hands. At 2.0 pm a counter attack was made on the right of BEHAGNIES but was apparently not very successful as soon after the last of our infantry came back and were with difficulty stopped at our trench by the OC.
Enemy targets began to appear on [the] ridge to the left of BEHAGNIES. They were engaged with great success.
At this time we were considerably shelled with light shells by our own artillery which served to demoralize the infantry rather badly.
About 4.0 pm I received orders to take my guns back to the partly prepared trench on the ridge in front of GOMIÉCOURT. This I did with no casualties, despite considerable machine gun fire, and took up two positions. The remainder of the guns stayed in the trench behind BEHAGNIES and covered the retirement of the infantry.
During the remainder of the daylight my guns did a good deal of firing at 2000 yard range on the MORY ridge where parties of enemy were seen moving. We could not fire as much as we would have liked owing to a serious shortage of SAA.
As soon as it was getting dark our heavy artillery began shelling our trench and succeeded in burying a gun team and causing three casualties. Enemy was very quiet during the night. At about 10.0 pm I took back my sergeant (who was one of the casualties) and put him on the road to a dressing station and coming back found ‘A’ & ‘C’ sections who were standing by for a relief. Going back to my section I found they had been taken out of the line with the 4th Lincolns who had received orders to retire to BUCQUOY. I therefore went to inform ‘B’ & ‘C’ sections and went out with them to BUCQUOY which we reached about 3.30 am (26/3/18).
26 March 1918
The men were put in a hut to rest whilst we tried to get in touch with [the] CO of 4th Lincolns but failed. At 6.30 am we decided to march back to HANNESCAMPS as we had… [the account ends at this point;

Other Notes: DSO: LG 26/7/1918
MC: LG 17/12/1917 (23/4/1918) (In Routine Orders 59 Div 5/11/1917)
MID: LG 30/12/1918;

END OF RECORD.

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