PRIVATE JAMES STRANG
SEAFORTH HIGHLANDERS
18TH APRIL 1918 AGE 21
BURIED: ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
Jimmy's inscription was chosen by his father, Thomas Strang, a blacksmith from Glasgow - Jimmy was the youngest of his six children. He served with the 1st/5th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders and died of wounds in a base hospital at Etaples on 18 April 1918. There is no indication of how, when or where he received his wounds but a glance at the war diary, edited by Captain Sutherland and published in 1920 shows the numerous opportunities the desperate times offered.
Having spent January, February and early March in the usual round of trench warfare, with the additional task of preparing for the long expected German offensive, the 1st/5th, part of the 51st Highland Division, found themselves in the eye of the storm when the attack was launched on the 21 March.
"At 5 am to the minute, after a quiet night, every gun on the German front opened out as hard as they could fire, the front lines being heavily barraged, whilst his heavies systematically shelled support and reserve lines and billeting areas far in the rear. Thousands of guns must have been massed for his great offensive.
After five hours of this systematic and devastating shelling, his infantry advanced to the attack, masses upon masses of men pouring forward towards the British front line. It is reckoned that nine German Divisions attacked our Divisional front alone; while in guns he must have had ten to one."
For the next six days the 51st were involved in a savage, fighting retreat leading the diarist to comment:
"Many sad hearts will there be in Highlands and Lowland bornes over this six day's battle; but this sadness should be tempered with pride at the glorious fight for freedom and right made by our Northern battalions against the powers of darkness as typified by those brutal adversaries, the Boche. Pessimistic you may be at times at home, pessimistic we may be sometimes out here, but bear in mind we are fighting for our lives, our liberties, and all we hold dear, and that, if we do not persevere to the bitter end, to the sacrificing of our last man and our last gun, our race is doomed, our past is wiped out, and we are no longer a free nation, but a race of slaves under the most cruel, vindictive and blood-thirsty tyrants that ever tried to rule the world - a nation with no sense of honour, no sense of chivalry, no sense of decency even; a nation which will grind us into the dust if it once gains the supremacy, and will make us wish we had never been born."
The times were desperate and seven days before Strang died General Haig issued his Special Order of the Day telling his Army:
"There is no course open to us but to fight it out. Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause each one of us must fight on to the end. The safety of our homes and the Freedom of mankind alike depend upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment."
It was at some point during this maelstrom that Strang received his fatal wounds.