The outstanding New Years Honours 1947 Southern Rhodesia Colonial service Order of the British Empire, Great War Final Advance 1918 Tank Corps Section Commander’s Military Cross and Southern Rhodesian Territorial Forces Efficiency Decoration group awarded to Captain B.B. Hill, Tank Corps, formerly West Yorkshire Regiment and attached to the 1st/8th Ardwick Battalion, Manchester Regiment. Hill saw service with the 1st/8th Manchester’s out in Egypt from January 1916, and may well have taken part in the disastrous August 1916 two-day march across the Sinai Desert from Pelusium Station to Katia when some 800 men of his brigade, the 127th Brigade, died owing to marching through heavy sand in the mid summer heat with insufficient water. Having transferred to the Tank Corps in December 1917, he saw active service during the final year of the war with the 13th Tank Battalion out on the Western Front, and commanded a section of ‘B’ Company during the opening of the Battle of Amiens on 8th August 1918. His Battalion equipped with Mark V Tanks, supported the 2nd and 5th Australian Divisions, and the Canadians, in what became the largest deployment of tanks during the war, in an action which was said by German General Ludendorff to be ‘the black day of the German Army in the history of war’. He said he had not been defeated by General Haig but by “General Tank”. Hill went on to command the second section of ‘B’ Company during the Battle of Epheny on 24th September 1918, when he attacked the Quadrilateral. He was apparently severely wounded, and was awarded a Mention in Despatches for gallant and distinguished services in December 1918 and a Military Cross for his services in June 1919. After the war, Hill would become a school teacher out in Southern Rhodesia from 1920 through to 1947 and would go on to play a significant part in that Colony, being the Principal of Umtali High School from 1931 through to 1947 and for which service he was appointed an Officer of the Civil Division of the Order of the British Empire in January 1947. In addition he worked with the Boy Scout movement in Southern Rhodesia. At Armistice Day in 1938, and in the immediate aftermath of the Munich Crisis, he had given a speech to the Umtali High School in which he drew on his experiences during the Great War, and told his pupils: “War was not a glorious opportunity for boys to go forth and win shining laurels on the battlefield but a ghastly nightmare that ended in ruin and desolation.” No doubt his involvement in the failed attack on the Quadrilateral in the Battle of Epheny was brought to mind when he gave that speech! Hill’s campaign medals for the Second World War remain unconfirmed, however he must have returned to uniform and seen some form of active service as he was a Temporary Major in the Southern Rhodesia Territorial Force when he was awarded the rare Efficiency Decoration with Southern Rhodesia top bar at some stage during the mid-late 1940’s. Hill would live out his days in Southern Rhodesia after his retirement as Principal in 1947. He sponsored the Child Welfare Association and was its chairman for many years, and also helped found the Young Men’s Club and the Adult Education Centre. He served on the Southern Rhodesia Education Committee, was president of the Rhodesia Teacher’s Association, and on numerous occasions was chairman of the Heads of High Schools’ Association. He went on to be appointed a Trustee of the Southern Rhodesia State Lottery.
Group of 7: The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Officer, O.B.E., 2nd type, Civil Division, mounted on original presentation pin; Military Cross, GVR GRI cypher, unnamed as issued, and mounted on original presentation pin; British War Medal and Victory Medal; (CAPT. B.B. HILL.); 1939-1945 Star; War Medal; Efficiency Decoration, GVI GRI 1st type cypher, Commonwealth issue complete with Southern Rhodesia top brooch bar, reverse officially engraved: ’T/MAJ. BASIL B. HILL, M.C.’.
Condition: some tarnishing and verdigris marks, overall Very Fine.
Sold together with a presumably related Zimbabwe Independence Medal 1980, rim officially numbered: ‘53352’, this with similar tarnishing to the above medals, and clearly having been stored together. Possibly awarded to the recipient’s son who is known to have been running a farm, “Leap Year”, at Marandella in Southern Rhodesia in the mid 1960’s.
Basil Benjamin Hill was born on 14th January 1889 in Kensington, London, but by 1901 was living in Yarm, North Yorkshire, he being the son of William Havelock Hill, who was the headmaster of the Queen Elizabeth School at Yarm-on-Tees, his mother being Ada Mary Hill. He was then educated in his father’s school before going on to study at King’s College with the University of London where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree.
Owing to the Great War he was commissioned from Cadet with the Officer Training Corps as a 2nd Lieutenant with the British Army Regular Infantry on 18th December 1914, and was then appointed to the West Yorkshire Regiment, before being attached to the 1st/8th Ardwick Battalion, Manchester Regiment, for service out in Egypt from 14th January 1916.
His battalion formed part of the 127th Brigade in the 42nd (East Lancashire) Division, which having been evacuated from Gallipoli around the time that Hill joined it, then found itself on service in Egypt as part of the Suez Canal Defences when located around Kantara. It then entrained for the railhead at Pelusium on the first day of the Battle of Romani on 4th August 1916. On arrival late in the day, the 127th Brigade including the 1st/8th Manchesters, took over outpost duties at 1930 hours while the New Zealand Mounted Rifle and 5th Mounted Yeomanry Brigades, which had been heavily involved in fighting during the day, withdrew to water and rest at Pelusium. On the second day of battle, 5th August 1916, the 42nd Division along with the 52nd (Lowland) Division, which had fought the previous day from their entrenched position, were ordered to move out to support the Australian Light Horse and New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigades in a pursuit of the enemy. The 42nd Division was not prepared for the conditions they found in the Sinai desert. They had not been trained to operate in heavy sand in mid summer heat, and with insufficient water, extreme distress and tragedy followed. The mounted troops alone, were unable to stop the enemy making a disciplined withdrawal to water at Katia and to fall back in good order, the following day. The 127th Brigade, 42nd Division eventually reached Katia the next day, 6th August; 800 men had died in the two-day march from Pelusium Station.
By December 1916, the 42nd Division was furnishing units to protect the lines of communication at Salmana, Abu Tilul and the railway station Maadan and took part in a practice attack on 13th December. On 21st December, 42nd and 52nd Divisions marched from Kilo 128 to Bardawil and continued to move eastwards towards Masaid. On 17th January 1917, the 42nd Division was no longer in the Sinai Campaign, having been among the first of the Territorial Force to receive orders for the Western Front. The 42nd Division departed Egypt early in February 1917.
Whilst still a temporary 2nd Lieutenant he was appointed to the rank of Acting Captain from 20th July to 27th August 1917, and held this rank whilst commanding a company of a Reserve Battalion of the Manchester’s, before eventually relinquishing it on 27th November 1917, and around this time transferred into the Tank Corps on 11th December 1917 as a temporary 2nd Lieutenant with seniority backdated to 18th December 1914. Hill got married to Gladys M. Smith sub Darlington, County Durham, in December 1917. He was soon afterwards posted out to the Western Front where he joined the 13th Tank Battalion, a unit of the 5th Tank Brigade, and joined ‘B’ Company as a temporary Lieutenant and Acting Captain.
On the eve of the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, the 5th Tank Brigade had established its advanced headquarters at Hospice Fouilloy with a report centre at the north-west corner of Kate wood. Its battalions were distributed as follows : the 2nd Battalion and one company of the 13th Battalion, namely ‘B’ Company, to the 2nd and 5th Australian Divisions; the 18th Battalion less one company to the 3rd Australian Division; the 8th Battalion to the 4th; the 15th Battalion was split into halves of eighteen tanks each, one half operating with the 4th and the other with the 5th Australian Divisions. The remainder of the 13th Tank Battalion was then allotted to the Canadian’s for this action.
The 8th August 1918 was said by German General Ludendorff to be ‘the black day of the German Army in the history of war’. He said he had not been defeated by General Haig but by “General Tank”. Interestingly there is a Road in Bovington Camp, the home of the Tank Corps, named 8th of August Road.
By the time of the opening of the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, Hill was a Captain in command of a section of tanks in Major F.D. Griffin’s ‘B’ Company, which company comprised four sections, which operated in support of the 3rd Australian Division. For the remainder of his Battalion, ‘A’ Company operated in support of both the 3rd and 5th Australian Division’s, and ‘C’ Company was with the 5th Australian Division. However it would be most heavily engaged when supporting the attack by the 12th Canadian Brigade, who flanked the advance of the 9th Australian Brigade, and who were tasked with securing a line running from Hattencourt through Hallu to the railway junction south of Chaulnes. The assembly point was the railway line at Rosieres. The attack was scheduled to start at 10.15 am, with the tanks to move forward in daylight, pass through Rosieres in single file, and then deploy southwards in front of the infantry. The tanks were then to mop up the villages of Maucourt Chilly and Halle and then advance to the final objective with the infantry. Captain Hill’s section was tasked with guarding the left flank, whilst with other three sections were given different objectives. Lieutenant Thomas’s was to capture Maucourt; Captain Stewart’s to capture Chilly; and Captain Willard’s to capture Hallu.
For the attack, all tanks started at Zero Hour. There was no barrage and the shelling of the villages was slight. The enemy put up strong resistance, the tanks first encountering enemy machine guns 300 yards east of Rosieres, these being silenced before the tanks deployed. The tanks advanced 1500 yards across ground which was good going, but then encountered the old 1916 trenches which were overgrown and partially collapsed. As a result of this obstacle some tanks ditched, and 7 reached the final objective. The infantry and tanks in this sector did not work well together, the infantry saying the tanks were too fast, and the tanks saying the infantry were too slow. Of the 13th Tank Battalion tanks which are identified in this action, Tank No.9062 (‘B’ Company) went forward 600 yards and engaged some enemy machine gun nests, the tank then became ditched and was fired at by about 20 machine guns which riddled it with armour piercing bullets and all its Hotchkiss guns were disabled, the infantry took over 3/4 of an hour to advance and rescue the tank. Tank No.9055 (‘C’ Company) was hit and damaged, but the officer commanding and one crew member then worked on top of the tank until it was repaired, and it then rallied. Tank No.9091 (‘A’ Company) was hit by an enemy battery, attempted to outflank it and was hit twice more and knocked out. According to the Canadians, the tanks assisted in the early stages of the attack but were slowed up by the trenches. One helped clear a machine gun nest at “the Halt” on the railway. On the right the tanks supporting the 85th Battalion were held up by an unexpected intricate abandoned trench system near to the Amiens-Meslne railway, and only two tanks ended up assisting the advance as far as Chilly. There was very nearly a friendly fire indigent when one tank fired its machine guns and 6 pounders at a party of German prisoners and their Canadian escorts, but it ceased fire after the Canadian officer in command attracted the tanks attention.
As mentioned ‘B’ Company was primarily tasked with supporting the 9th Australian Brigade that ran alongside the advance of the 12th Canadian Brigade. The first objective was the Green Line. “B” company’s tanks Nos. 9165, 9051, 9124, 9033, 9079, 9386, 9346, 9062 all ditched before reaching the Green Line, possibly in Accroche Wood which covered the brigades entire front. No.9062 was eventually un-ditched and continued. The other seven tanks all went straight to the rally point after un-ditching. 9084 ran over a land mine and was disabled near Accroche Wood. The 9th Australian Brigade’s 33rd and 5th Battalions captured their objectives by 7:15am, against minimal opposition. The tanks were of little use in the first part of the attack, as they followed the infantry in the dense mist; when the mist cleared they proved very useful. The first objective (Green Line) was taken and the tanks rallied in the Cerisy Valley. The Official history incorrectly states 18 of the 24 tanks reached the first objective.
For the second objective, the Red Line, the 4th Australian Division now passed though the 3rd Australian Division. The 8th Tank Battalion was operating directly with the 4th Australian Division, however, as arranged “B” company of the 13th Tank Battalion, then followed the 8th Tank Battalion who passed through on the Green Line: The four surviving tanks of “B” company followed to the second objective, the Red Line, which was the old Amiens outer defence line with the intention of exploiting to the Blue Line if possible. The tanks supported the infantry who would stop before a crest line, the tanks then advanced into the valley below and cleared it of machine guns then stop on the next crest. The infantry would then advance. “B” Company wound up leading the attack and led their infantry onto the final objective north of the main road. Tank No.9081 turned back and rallied halfway between the Green and Red Lines, when its commander, 2nd Lieutenant Maitland was wounded but remained on duty; Nos. 9441 and 9087 were both knocked out just before the Red Line. 2nd Lieutenants Rawlinson and Edwards were both wounded, the later remained on duty; No.9062 reached the Red line and rallied.
For its part, Captain Hill’s section on the left flank sent a tank to deal with enemy machine guns firing from Lihons ridge, which was not held by the Australians as had been believed. This tank silenced many machine guns then ditched in the old trench system. This may have been Tank No.9033 which appeared from Rosieres and moved about in that area. This tank silenced many machine guns around “the Halt” and enabled the Australians advance. Prisoners taken from Maucourt stated that the tanks had moved and and down in front of the trenches firing on them and this depleted the infantry and allowed the Canadians to advance.
By the end of the day ‘B’ Company had suffered Capt. Bromley, 2nd Lieutenant Copland, and 29 Other Ranks wounded and out of action, and 2nd Lieutenant Maitland and four other ranks who were also wounded but remained on duty. Five other ranks were missing, and would presumably be later confirmed as killed in action. Out of the 13th Tank Battalion tanks, of the 36 Mark V tanks who went into action that morning, 18 received direct hits, eight broke down, two were ditched, and only 8 were fit for action the next day!
On 8th August 1918, some nine heavy battalions (324 tanks) had lead the attack together with two light battalions (96 Whippets). In add-on some 42 tanks were in mechanical reserve; a further 66 were tasked to work with infantry and 22 were gun carriers, a total of 604 tanks. It would be the largest tank battle of the Great War.
The Battle of Amiens officially came to end on 9th September 1918, and the men of the 13th Tank Battalion then found itself involved in the period of the final advances which became known as the Battles of the Hundred Days, he being specifically noted as in action on the 24th September 1918 at the Battle of Epheny when he had command of the 2nd Section of what was now ‘B’ Composite Company, which was by then commanded by Major Maurice. The 13th Tank Battalion now only comprised two company’s, namely ‘B’ and ‘C’ Composite Companies, and had 20 tanks in action on this day. For this action ‘B’ Company supported the 6th British Division on the right in the south, and was tasked to attack in a southeasterly direction starting from Badger Cops with 16th Brigade. No.1 Section was to attack the trench system joining up Dom Wood to the Quadrilateral and No.2 Section under Hill was to attack the Quadrilateral itself. This was a continuation of the attack on the previous days and thus the enemy was expecting tanks. All the tanks started on time with their infantry.
As such Hill’s No.2 Section came under concentrated shell fire which hit one tank twice and knocked it out soon after it started. The other three tanks advanced on the Quadrilateral, a system of entrenchments that now included two sandbagged tanks from the 2nd Tank Battalion which had been knocked out on the 13th September. The three tanks made it into the quadrilateral and inflicted heavy casualties, one was split in half by a landmine, only one NCO and an infantry observer escaping alive. The second tanks was hit twice and set afire, the crew bailed out with their Hotchkiss guns and joined the infantry. This may have been Hill’s tank. 2nd Lieutenant Benson’s tank became ditched in the high bank at the back of the quadrilateral and was then hit and set afire, the crew bailed out and were captured. Without the tanks the infantry were unable to overcome the Quadrilateral. By the end of the day, one “B” Company tank and eight “C” Company tanks rallied, some were towed in. Nine remained in the field under enemy fire. One officer and six other ranks were killed and four officers and 26 other ranks wounded, of whom two officers and nine other ranks remained on duty. 2nd Lieutenant Benson and all his crew were captured. This action was the last for which Hill would appear by name in any of the histories viewed. He had at some stage been severely wounded in action, though this was possibly prior to his transfer to the Tank Corps.
Later in life Hill, when a headmaster, would give a speech on the eve of the Second World War to the boys of Umtali High School in Southern Rhodesia, to whom he would state: “War was not a glorious opportunity for boys to go forth and win shining laurels on the battlefield but a ghastly nightmare that ended in ruin and desolation.” No doubt his involvement in the failed attack on the Quadrilateral in the Battle of Epheny was brought to mind when he gave that speech!
As a temporary Lieutenant and Acting Captain, Hill was promoted to temporary Captain on 25th October 1918, and was awarded a Mention in Despatches for gallant and distinguished services in the London Gazette for 30th December 1918, and then awarded the Military Cross in the King’s Birthday Honours List as published in the London Gazette for 3rd June 1918, this being in respect of gallant and distinguished services during the war whilst with the 13th Tank Battalion, and it is gazetted with his rank being shown as Temporary Lieutenant and Acting Captain, he cited for his earlier actions. Sadly no actual citation has been found but it would have been an accumulative award for his command of sections of ‘B’ Company, specifically on 8th August 1918 during the opening of the Battle of Amiens, and on the 24th September 1918 at the Battle of Epheny.
After the war, Hill was transferred to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers, and was as such then promoted to Captain on 30th March 1922 with seniority backdated to 10th May 1920, when shown as late Tank Corps. As a Captain in Royal Tank Corps with the Regular Army Reserve of Officers, he would attain the age limit and then cease to be liable for call-up from 14th January 1939.
Having left the regular army in 1919, he had gone to teach at Prescott School in Lancashire, before moving to Southern Rhodesia in 1920 where he would throw himself into the life of the Colony, and was initially a teacher at The Public School in Gwelo, where he was as of May 1920 when he claimed his Great War campaign medals. He then taught for ten years at Chaplin School in Gwelo, before being promoted to the position of Principal of the Umtali High School in 1931. In an article in the school magazine for 1931, Hill stated: “I should like to express my thanks and gratitude to my predecessor and his staff for the very fine school he has handed over to me.” He then went on to say “the most vital part of all our acts and thoughts in school should be the endeavour to seek truth, in search of which we should always be honest and unprejudiced” - a policy that Hill kept closely to for the next fifteen years as Principal.
In April 1938 the Governor of Southern Rhodesia, Sir Herbert Stanley, had visited Umtali High School to present Hill with the Boy Scout’s Medal of Merit ‘in recognition of his services to the Scout movement’ in Southern Rhodesia. As previously mentioned, just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War he gave a warning speech to the boys about the horrors of the battlefield. This was given on Armistice Day in November 1938. In this speech Hill also stressed that a war at that moment would have far more horrible results and that the civilian population would be the chief victims. This speech was given in the recent aftermath of the Munich Crisis, when the British Prime Minister, Sir Neville Chamberlain had sought assurances of Adolf Hitler that a war would not break out. “There will be peace in our time”. Summing up Hill said that the School should be thankful to the Grace of God and the fine statesmanship which had so recently delivered them from another overwhelming disaster. Unfortunately he spoke too soon.
Hill’s campaign medals for the Second World War remain unconfirmed, however he must have returned to uniform and seen some form of active service as he was a Temporary Major in the Southern Rhodesia Territorial Force when he was awarded the rare Efficiency Decoration with Southern Rhodesia top bar at some stage during the late 1940’s.
In the immediate aftermath of the war, Hill would make another memorable speech to the School at the Memorial Service held in 1945. “We remember with proud thanksgiving those of this school who went forth to fight in the cause of freedom, many of whom, alas, have not come back. Those who gave their lives shall always be remembered. I often hear masters and Old Boys speaking of those who have gone as those who were still alive. They live in the hearts of us all and we remember them with love and affection as they went forth. The deeds wrought in this war by the Old Boys of this school will form a glorious page in the history of the School. They indeed have brought honour and glory to their own names and to the name of the School.” At the Speech Day in 1946, he would list the Honours and Awards given to the Old Boys, it would be an impressive list.
Hill would remain the Principal of Umtali High School through to 1947, and on his retirement would be appointed an Officer of the Civil Division of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, the award being announced in the New Years Honours List as published in the London Gazette for 1st January 1947, with the gazette confirming that it was awarded for his services as headmaster of Umtali High School in Southern Rhodesia, he had shown outstanding leadership.
In addition to his work at the school, Hill sponsored the Child Welfare Association and was its chairman for many years. He also helped found the Young Men’s Club and the Adult Education Centre. He served on the Southern Rhodesia Education Committee, was president of the Rhodesia Teacher’s Association, and on numerous occasions was chairman of the Heads of High Schools’ Association. He was a great supporter of the Old Borderers’ Association, and was always present at the annual reunions. He went on to be appointed a Trustee of the Southern Rhodesia State Lottery and it was in this capacity that he opened the swimming baths at Umtali Boys High School in 1957, and the Umtali Girls High School in 1958. Hill did on his sons farm, “Leap Year”, at Marandella in Southern Rhodesia on 4th February 1964.