Exceptional Naval and Polar Awards from the Collection of RC Witte
Such was Edwards’ keenness to get to grips with the enemy that he was one of only a handful of the Howe Battalion to reach the Turkish positions in the Battle of Krithia on 4 June 1915, albeit wounded. The ferocity of the enemy’s fire is best illustrated by the official casualty returns: in just 45 minutes the Naval Brigade lost 60 out of 70 officers and 1300 of its 1900-strong contingent of P.Os and ratings.
He was mentioned in despatches for gallant services during the period of General Sir Charles Munro’s command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, from October 1915 right up until the final evacuation (London Gazette 12 July 1916 refers), and was advanced to the temporary rank of Lieutenant-Commander.
Having then spent early 1916 in hospital in Mudros, suffering from ‘debility and exhaustion’, he was given temporary command of Howe Battalion and embarked for France in May 1916. And once again, he quickly came to the notice of his superiors for distinguished conduct, not least during the Battle of Ancre on 13-14 November 1916, when he fell seriously wounded after assisting in an attack on the German redoubt at Beaumont Hamel. Ignoring his wounds, which would lead to the loss of a eye, Edwards regained his feet and continued to direct the advance. The ferocity of the enemy’s fire is again well illustrated by the relevant casualty returns: in the desperate fighting that month, the R.N.D. lost 100 officers and more than 1600 men killed, and 160 officers and 2377 men wounded.
Back in London, after being evacuated via the Duchess of Westminster’s Hospital at Le Touquet, Edwards attended a Medical Board in January 1917:
‘This officer received shrapnel wounds (i) in the head (ii) right arm (iii) back and right buttock. The wound on the face was on the left side just below the zygoma and crossing the nose cavity and emerging below the right eye. The shock caused a rupture of the left optic nerve, causing complete blindness of that eye. The wound has slowly healed and vision in the right eye is good. There was a perforating wound of the upper arm through the fleshy parts without damage to important structures. There was a superficial perforating wound from the outer side of the right buttock to the right side of the spine, not involving important structures. The wounds have all healed and his general health is completely re-established.’
Edwards had witnessed, to his cost, the two most disastrous actions yet experienced by the Royal Naval Division. It is rather ironic, not forgetting the lack of recognition he received for Gallipoli, that the History of the Royal Naval Division should credit him with a D.S.O. for his latest deeds. Regrettably no such honour was forthcoming and, remarkably, Edwards was once more to lose out on the same decoration after being recommended for his gallantry on the occasion of the Zeebrugge raid.
Zeebrugge - more wounds and another “mention”
Having then been employed on port duties on the west coast of Africa for much of 1917, Edwards, determined as ever to do his bit, volunteered ‘for an undertaking of real danger’ - the audacious attempt to block the canal at Zeebrugge. And he was subsequently interviewed by Vice-Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, Commanding the Dover Patrol, who recalls their meeting in his memoirs:
'Davidson also recommended me to take Lieutenant-Commander Harrington Edwards, R.N.V.R., a one-eyed bearded warrior who had been all though the Gallipoli campaign, and had since been badly wounded in France. Apparently he was resting to recuperate at the balloon station and was spoiling to get into the ring again. He had been though the mill of close trench fighting for the best part of three years, so I sent for him, and after a short conversation had no hesitation in selecting him for service with the Naval assaulting force. I have recently read some extracts from an account he wrote at the time. He certainly showed no signs of the doubts he appears to have had as to my sanity; and of the many people to whom I unfolded the plan, I can think of no-one who appeared to be more genuinely delighted at the thought of being allowed to take a hand, than that hardened warrior. In his account of the interview, Edwards says that after I had explained the plan to him I asked him what he thought of it:
"Phew, what did I think of it? My mind rapidly revolved round all the strikingly original, hopeless, brilliant, practically impossible schemes that I have been in, or nearly in, in the way of attacks on land, but never anything like this for rank, sheer madness and - yes - impertinence; but there was the pleasant smile of a proud father on the Admiral's face, and I could not tell him my real opinion, so tried to get time, and asked: "What about the mines; how will our ships ever get there?" "Oh," he said, "you need not bother about that, the Navy will look after that; what you have to think of is the landing part. Davidson said you were all through Gallipoli and have had lots of experience, and it is your land experience I want, as the training of the landing party will be your job" ... When I arrived back at Chatham I was full of it. I thought it was quite hopeless. It was desperate, but I realised our position and the frightful losses the U-boats were inflicting on our shipping were also desperate. The boats engaged were of no great fighting value; the officers and men? Ah! That was another matter. I went off to my cabin that night, but I could not sleep. How lucky I was to be in it.'
Edwards was duly appointed to command one of the Seaman Storming Parties in H.M.S. Vindictive, arguably one of the most dangerous occupations of the raid, for, as the Vindictive neared her objective, she was subjected to a devastating fire from the Mole battery just 250 yards distant. The number of personnel in exposed positions was meant to be limited mainly to those manning the guns, rocket apparatus and flame-throwers, but the senior officers of the storming parties, however, stationed themselves in the most handy position for leading and directing the assault, with the result that they were exposed to the full blast of the hurricane of fire from the Mole battery - of the fourteen landing-brows only two were eventually serviceable, Captain Halahan, commanding the naval storming forces, quickly being shot down and killed.
For his own part, as described by Keyes in his memoirs, Edwards was standing alongside Halahan at the same moment, and ‘fell shot through both legs; finding that he could not move, he ordered two men who passed to carry him on to the Mole, as things did not seem to be going too well. However, in spite of his protests, they carried him below and thus probably saved his life.’
As cited above, he was recommended for the D.S.O., but, in the event, received another “mention”. He also participated in the V.C. Ballot.
North Russia - Double D.S.O.
After recovering from his wounds, Edwards was chosen to command the Anglo-Russian Naval Brigade in North Russia, where he had charge of volunteer Russians employed in river vessels under R.N. command. Thus, in addition to the monitor M-25, and a brace of M. Ls, his force comprised the Russian paddle-steamers Advokat, Gorodok and Razlyff, each armed with 12-pounders, and all of which participated in operations up river on the Dwina, including engagements at Bereznik, Troitsa, Borka and Chamovo, while Bolshevik gunboats sometimes ventured down river. But with the advent of winter, and the arrival of ice, the flotilla was withdrawn in November 1918.
Edwards was awarded the D.S.O. and the Russian Order of St. Vladimir, 4th Class, awarded in the Provisional Government’s despatch of 23 April 1919:
‘He has rendered valuable service in the formation of the Russian Allied Naval Brigade and subsequently in command of it on service on the Onega front.’
Subsequently seconded for land duties, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, under General Ironside, and on attachment to the Salvo- British Legion, he participated in the military operations in Archangel, North Russia, and was rewarded with a Bar to his D.S.O., a unique award for this theatre of war; so, too, presumably, with the Russian Order of St. Anne, 2nd Class, though confirmation of this latter distinction has yet to surface.
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