Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private W. Coulson, 2nd Battalion, Royal Munster Fusiliers, who was captured and taken Prisoner of War at Etreux during the Battalion’s epic rearguard acting during the retreat from Mons on 27 August 1914

1914 Star, with copy clasp (7989 Pte. W. Coulson. R. Muns: Fus.); British War and Victory Medals (7989 Pte. W. Coulson. R. Mun. Fus.) nearly very fine (3) £500-£700

William Coulson attested for the Royal Munster Fusiliers and served with the 2nd Battalion during the Great War on the Western Front, landing at Havre on 14 August 1914 and moving forward to Mons where the battalion was held in reserve for the fighting on 24 August.

During the retreat, the 2nd Munsters occupied the position of honour as rearguard to the 1st Guards Brigade which, in turn, acted as rearguard for the 1st Division commanded by Major General Lomax. On the morning of Thursday 27 August 1914, the Irishmen, supported by two 18-pounders of the 118th Battery R.F.A. and a troop of the 15th Hussars, held the villages of Fesmy and Bergues, together with two important road junctions in that immediate area. Approaching them in an arc from North to East was an entire German Army Corps preceded by masses of cavalry and backed by an impressive array of artillery. Early in the afternoon, having inflicted savage casualties on 12 battalions of the German 2nd Guards’ Reserve Division which had attacked Fesmy, the Munsters began to withdraw to the South to the village of Oisy, and on to Etreux. At 5.30pm the battalion was located at a crossroads just east of Oisy. Jordan’s “B” Company, however, was missing and the retreat was held up. The company reappeared at about 6.30pm but the delay, according to Captain McCance’s regimental history, proved ‘fatal to the battalion’.

Approaching the village of Oisy, the battalion came under heavy fire from the houses on the northern outskirts, followed by salvoes from eight German field guns positioned south-east of the village. Now, for the first time, the Irishmen began to fall thick and fast and although the one remaining 18-pounder promptly came into action, its ammunition was nearly exhausted. After a series of desperate bayonet attacks, and with the artillerymen all dead and wounded about their gun, the gallant Munsters fell back to an orchard on the west of the road. Despite a further bayonet charge, at odds of fifty to one, which had temporarily held the enemy, the orchard was now ringed by Germans against whom the survivors, lining the four sides of the orchard, made every shot count.

Ultimately, due to appalling casualties, lack of ammunition and the overwhelming superiority of enemy numbers, the survivors of the Battalion were compelled to surrender around 9pm. They had been fighting for 12 hours and their senior surviving officer was a Lieutenant but their sacrifice had ensured that Haig’s 1 Corps could continue unharassed on its way.

Coulson was amongst those taken Prisoner of War at Etreux on 27 August 1914 and was held at Giessen P.O.W. camp.

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