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SSgt. Joseph Bergin
British Army 2nd Btn. Irish Guards
from:Togher, Portlaoise, Co. Laois, Ireland
Joseph Bergin was my grandfather and he joined the Irish Guards in Dublin on the 30th of January 1914. He trained at Warley Barracks and was drafted to France in August of 1915, initially to the guards division base which was at Harfleur near le Harve. He spent about 4 weeks with the 7th Entrenching Battalion operating near the Somme region, and then joined his battalion as he saw his first action at Neuve Chapelle in October 1915. He moved north for the 2nd Battle of Ypres. He got sick, 'disordered action of the heart' and came home for 1 year before going out again in July 1917.
He saw action near Langemark at the crossing of the Broenbeeke river during October 1917, and was moved south with his battalion for the Battle of Cambrai in November that year. During that battle he was injured receiving gunshot wounds in his right eye and right leg during an offensive in Bourlon Wood about 4 miles from Cambrai. He was taken back to Southampton on board the hospital ship the Carisbrooke Castle and then on to another hospital in Cardiff for treatment and recovery. In November 1918 he was resuming training and preparing to go to the front for the 3rd time when the war was ended.
I only knew him for a short time, I was 6 when he died. From what I remember he did not speak much about the war, but he did tell me that he once went into a wood with 12 comrades and only 2 of them came out alive. He must have been referring to Bourlon Wood, as the Irish Guards and other regiments of the Guards division took heavy casualties on that day 27th of November 1917.
