Sergeant Phillips

[Doug Lewis]

I'm in the middle of reading Passchendaele The Sacrficial Ground by Nigel Steel and Peter Hart.

The authors use first hand accounts

Aug 16: attack at dawn-given away by Sergeant Phillips.Bosche puts up terrible barrage before zero as we are moving into position

Captain Arthur Glanville,2nd Btn,Royal Dublin Fusiliers

(IWM DOCS G.D.J McMurtie.typescript memoir,p8)

Steel and Hart write "The enigmatic reference to Sergeant Phillips was occasioned by the belief that spread throughout the army that treachery had given the Germans advanced warning of the attack"

I was shown a report captured from a German dugout in the front line which had been translated and circulated by our GHQ. The night before,(August 15th) a sergeant of the Welsh Fusiliers who had been employed as a clerk at GHQ and had been returned to the line for disciplinary purposes had treacherously deserted to the enemy taking with him not only information of tomorrow's attack,but also a copy of a map on which indicated the position of every battery on that section of the British front.

G.E.Mackenzie.153rd Brigade,Royal Horse Artillery.

(IWM DOCS W.Collins,AC 9434)

My question is, was Sergeant Phillips his real name and does anyone know if this person was ever captured and tried for his treachery as it appears many men lost their lives because of him.

Regards Doug