farm-house, not 300 yards away. One field-gun was brought up to deal
with them, and some of the 2nd Life Guards stood by to help in event
of an attack, but the enemy contented themselves with mere punishing
fire.
On the evening of November 5 they located our one field-gun which was
still trying to cope with the enemy’s machine-guns, shelled it for an
hour vigorously, blew up the farm-house that sheltered it, but--clean
missed the gun, though it had been firing at least one round every
ten minutes. One of our wounded of the 1st November managed to crawl
into our lines. He had been three days without food or water--the
Germans, who thought he would die, refusing him both. There was heavy
shelling and about thirty casualties in the line “as far as known.”
On the 6th after an hour’s preparation with heavy-, light-, and
machine-gun fire, the enemy attacked the French troops on the
Battalion’s right, who fell back and left the flank of the Battalion
(No. 2 Company) open. The Company “in good order and fighting”
fell back by platoons to its support trenches, but this left No.
1 Company practically in the air, and at the end of the day the
greater part of them were missing. As the Germans occupied the
French trenches in succession, they opened an enfilade fire on the
Irish which did sore execution. Once again the Adjutant went to the
Brigadier to explain the situation. The Household Cavalry were sent
up at the gallop to Zillebeke where they dismounted and advanced
on foot. The 1st Life Guards on the left were detailed to retake
the Irish Guards’ trenches, while the 2nd Life Guards attacked
the position whence the French had been ousted. A hundred Irish
Guardsmen, collected on the spot, also took part in the attack, which
in an hour recovered most of the lost positions. Here Lieutenant W.
E. Hope was killed, and a little later, Lieutenant N. Woodroffe fell,
shot dead in the advance of the Household Cavalry. Two companies,
had these been available, could have held the support-trenches
after the Household Cavalry had cleared the front, but there were
no reinforcements and the unceasing pressure on the French drove
the Battalion back on a fresh line a couple of hundred yards behind
the support trenches which the cavalry held till the remains of the
Battalion had re-formed and got some hot tea from the ever-forward
cookers. In addition to Lieutenants Hope and Woodroffe killed,
Captain Lord John Hamilton and Lieutenant E. C. S. King-Harman, who
had come out with the draft on the 1st November, were missing that
day.
On November 7 the Battalion relieved the cavalry at one in the
morning, and dug and deepened their trenches on the edge of the
wood till word came to them to keep up a heavy fire on any enemy
driven out of the wood, as the 22nd Brigade were attacking on their
right. That “Brigade” now reduced to two composite battalions--the
Royal Welsh Fusiliers, with the 2nd Queens and the Warwicks with
S. Staffords--both commanded by captains, did all that was humanly
possible against the pressure, but in the end, as the Diary says,
“having failed to get the line required, withdrew under heavy
shell-fire.” Their attack was no more than one of many desperate
interludes in the desperate first battle of Ypres--a winning fight
against hopeless odds of men and material--but it diverted attention
for the moment from the Battalion’s particular section of the line
and “the enemy did not shell our trenches much.” Early in the day
Major Stepney, commanding, went out from the support trenches and
was not seen again alive. His body was found late in the evening
between the lines. The command of the Battalion now fell to Captain
N. Orr-Ewing.
Since October 31 6 officers had been killed, 7 wounded, and 3 were
missing. Of N.C.O.’s and men 64 were dead, 339 wounded, and 194
missing. The total casualties, all ranks, for one week, were 613.
The remnant were made into two shrunken companies next day (the 8th)
which was a quiet one with intermittent bursts of shelling from
French .75’s on the right, and German heavies; the enemy eighty yards
distant. Captain A. Perceval, who had been blown up twice in the past
week, and Lieutenant J. S. N. FitzGerald were sent to hospital.
On the night of the 9th November the Battalion of four platoons,
three in the firing-line and one in reserve, was relieved by the S.
W. Borderers; drew supplies and men at Brigade Headquarters, moved
back through Zillebeke and marched into bivouacs near a farm south of
the Ypres-Zonnebeke road, where they settled down with some Oxford
L.I. in deep trenches, and dug-outs which had been dug by the French.
They spent the 10th in luxury; their cookers were up and the men ate
their first hot meal for many days. Blankets also were issued, and
a draft of about two hundred men arrived under Lieutenant Hon. W.
C. Hanbury-Tracy, which brought up the strength of the re-organized
two-company Battalion to 360 men. Major Webber, “S.R.” (this is the
first time that the Diary makes mention of the Special Reserve),
arrived the day before and as Senior Officer took over from Captain
Orr-Ewing. The other officers who came with him were Captain Everard
and Lieutenant L. R. Hargreaves, both Special Reserve, with
Lieutenant St. J. R. Pigott, and, next day, 2nd Lieutenant Straker,
Machine-gun Officer, with “two new guns.” All these reinforcements
allowed the Battalion to be organized as two companies instead of
four platoons.
On the morning of the 11th November, they were moved out by way of
the Bellewaarde Lake and under cover of the woods there, in support
of the Oxfordshire L.I. who cleared the wood north of Château Hooge
and captured some thirty prisoners of the Prussian Guards. This was
the first time, to their knowledge, that they had handled that Corps.
Though heavily shelled the Battalion lost no men and spent the rest
of the day behind the O.L.I. and the Grenadiers, waiting in the
rain near the Headquarters of the First Division (Brigadier-General
FitzClarence, V.C.) to which it was for the moment attached.
It was here that one of our officers found some enemy prisoners
faithfully shepherded under the lee of a protecting haystack while
their guard (Oxford L.I.) stood out in the open under casual
shrapnel. A change was made at once.
At 9 P. M. the Battalion was told it might go back and get tea and
supplies at some cross-roads or other in the darkness behind it.
The cookers never came up and the supplies were not available till
past midnight on the 12th. As their orders were to return to 1st
Brigade Headquarters at 2 A. M. to take part in an attack on a German
trench, the men had not much sleep. The trench had been captured by
the enemy the day before, but they had abandoned it and dug another,
commanding, in the rear, whence they could deal with any attempt at
recapture on our part. The composite force of the 2nd Grenadiers,
Munster Fusiliers, Irish Guards, and Oxfordshire L.I. discovered
this much, wading through mud in the darkness before dawn, at a cost
to the Battalion of Major Webber and Lieutenant Harding and some
twelve men wounded. They were caught front and flank and scattered
among the shell-holes. General FitzClarence was killed by enemy
fire out of the dark, and eventually the troops returned to 1st
Brigade Headquarters where a company of the Grenadiers were told off
to dig trenches in a gap which had been found in the line, while
the remainder, the Irish Guards and the Munsters, were sent back to
the woods near Hooge Château which was full of fragments of broken
battalions, from Scots Guards to Zouaves.
The Battalion reached its destination at 6 A. M. of the 12th.
Three-quarters of an hour later it was ordered up to the woods on
the Gheluvelt road. They occupied “dug-outs”--the first time the
Diary mentions these as part of the scheme of things--on the north
side of the road near the end of the wood west of Veldhoek; sent
a platoon to reinforce the Scots Fusiliers who were hard-pressed,
near by; and were heavily shelled at intervals all day, besides
being sniped and machine-gunned by the enemy who commanded the main
road towards Hooge. None the less, they were fed that night without
accident. Captains Everard and Hanbury-Tracy, Lieutenant Pigott were
sent to hospital, and 2nd Lieutenant Antrobus rejoined from hospital.
This left to the Battalion--Captain Orr-Ewing, Captain the Hon. J.
Trefusis, Adjutant R. M. C. Sandhurst who had joined a day or so
before, Lieutenant L. R. Hargreaves, and 2nd Lieutenant Antrobus, who
was next day wounded in the arm by a shell. Lieutenant Walker, Acting
Quartermaster, was sick, and Captain Gough was acting as Brigade
Transport Officer. At that moment the strength of the Battalion is
reported at “about” 160 officers and men. A draft of 50 N.C.O.’s and
men arrived on the 13th November.
On November 14 they were ordered to return to 4th Brigade
Headquarters and take over trenches near Klein Zillebeke from the
S. W. Borderers who had relieved them there on the 9th. “The day
passed much as usual,” it was observed, but “the shelling was
fairly heavy and the enemy gained some ground.” Lieutenant and
Quartermaster Hickie returned from a sick leave of two months. The
Sussex Battalion relieved the Battalion in their dug-outs on the edge
of the Veldhoek woods at 11 P. M.; the Battalion then moved off and
by half-past three on the morning of the 15th had relieved the South
Wales Borderers in their old trenches. Here they received word of the
death of their Colonel, Field-Marshal Lord Roberts, from pneumonia
while on a visit to the Indian troops at the front. C.S.M. Rogers
and Pte. Murphy were selected as representatives of the Battalion
to attend the funeral service at St. Omer. The Battalion spent the
day under constant shell-fire in improving trenches, “but there was
some difficulty as snipers were busy, as they had been all day.” One
officer wrote: “Our men are very tired and the rifles are in an awful
state. It rains continuously, and it is very hard to get any sort of
rifle-oil.”
The 16th November, a day of snow and heavy firing, ending in an
attack which was suppressed by rapid fire, was grimly enlivened by
the appearance of one German deserter with two fingers shot off who
announced that he “had had enough of fighting.”
On the 17th November, Brigade Headquarters were blown in by
shell-fire, both of the Irish Guards orderlies on duty were injured,
and both of the Battalion’s “two new machine-guns” were knocked to
pieces. There was five hours’ heavy shelling from 7 A. M. till noon
when the enemy came out of their trenches to attack in force, and
were dealt with for an hour by the Battalion, the Grenadiers on its
left and the cavalry on its right. It was estimated that--thanks to
efficient fire control and good discipline--twelve hundred killed and
wounded were accounted for in front of our trenches. Our only man
killed in this attack was C.S.M. Munns who had been just recommended
for his commission. He was a born leader of men, always cheerful, and
with what seemed like a genuine love for fighting. A second attack,
not pressed home, followed at three o’clock; another out-break of
small-arm fire at half-past nine and yet another towards midnight,
and a heavy shelling of the French on our right. “Then all was
quiet,” says the easily satisfied record.
They endured one day longer, with nothing worse than a “certain
amount of heavy shelling but not so much as usual,” and on the 18th
their battered remnants came out. They were relieved by a company of
the 3rd Coldstream (Captain H. Dawson) and marched off to billets
at Potijze on the Ypres-Zonnebeke road, where the men got plenty of
food. Hard frost had followed the soaking wet and downpour of the
previous days; snow succeeded, but there were hot meals and the hope
of rest and refit at Meteren behind Bailleul, fifteen miles from
Potijze.
They reached that haven on the 21st November--eight officers and 390
men in all--“desperately tired” in a cold that froze the water in the
men’s bottles. Not a man fell out. Captain Lord Desmond FitzGerald,
recovered from his wound, arrived on the same day and took over the
Adjutancy.
The Battalion had been practically wiped out and reconstructed in
a month. They had been cramped in wet mud till they had almost
forgotten the use of their legs: their rifles, clothing, equipment,
everything except their morale and the undefeated humour with which
they had borne their burden, needed renewal or repair. They rested
and began to clean themselves of their dirt and vermin while the
C.O. and company officers went round billets and companies--to see
that the men had all they needed--as is the custom of our Army. It
was a comprehensive refit, including everything from trousers to
ground-sheets, as well as mufflers and mittens sent by H.I.H. the
Grand Duke Michael of Russia. Steady platoon and company drill, which
is restorative to men after long standing in dirt, or fighting in the
dark, marked the unbelievably still days.
On the 23rd November the Reverend Father Gwynne, the beloved R.C.
Chaplain, arrived to take up his duties; and on the 24th they were
inspected by the Commander-in-Chief, Sir John French.
On the 28th a draft of 288 N.C.O.’s and men reached them, under
command of Captain P. L. Reid with the following officers: Lieutenant
G. Gough; 2nd Lieutenants H. S. Keating, H. Marion-Crawford, Hon.
H. A. V. Harmsworth, A. C. Innes, and L. C. Lee. With this draft
the strength of the Battalion stood at 700 men and 15 officers. Of
the latter the Diary notes that nine are in the Special Reserve,
“seven of them having done no sort of soldiering before the war.”
Mercifully, men lived but one day at a time, or the Diarist
might have drawn conclusions, which would have fallen far short
of what the future was to bring, from the fact that as many as
twelve machine-gunners were kept at the base by the order of the
authorities. There was need to train machine-gunners, and even
greater need for the guns themselves. But the Battalion was not
occupied with the larger questions of the war. They had borne their
part against all odds of numbers and equipment in barring the German
road to the sea in the first month-long battle of Ypres. They knew
very little of what they had done. Not one of their number could have
given any consecutive account of what had happened, nor, in that
general-post of daily and nightly confusion whither they had gone.
All they were sure of was that such as lived were not dead (“The Lord
only knows why”) and that the enemy had not broken through. They had
no knowledge what labours still lay before them.
On the 3rd December, after an issue of new equipment and a visit
from Sir Douglas Haig, commanding the First Army Corps, they lined
the road from Meteren towards Bailleul for the visit of the King who
walked down the lines of the 4th (Guards) Brigade and, after shaking
hands with the four Commanding Officers of the Brigade, said: “I am
very proud of my Guards and am full of admiration for their bravery,
endurance, and fine spirit. I wish I could have addressed them all,
but that is impossible, so you must tell them what I say to you. You
are fighting a brave and determined enemy, but if you go on as you
have been doing and show the same fine spirit, there can be only one
end, please God, and that is victory. I wish you all good luck.”
D.S.O.’s had been awarded to Captain Orr-Ewing and Captain Lord
Francis Scott; and the Distinguished Conduct Medal to Company
Sergeant-Major Munns, who, it will be remembered, was killed in
action just after he was recommended for a commission; to Sergeant
M’Goldrick, Brigade Orderly, who was one of the orderlies injured
when the Brigade Headquarters were blown up on the 17th November;
Corporal Riordan (wounded), Private Russell (Brigade Orderly),
and Private Glynn (since wounded and missing). The King decorated
Sergeant M’Goldrick with the D.C.M. that afternoon. The others named
were, from various causes, absent. It was the first of many such
occasions where those honoured could not be present to receive their
valour’s reward.
The Diary notes the issue of cardigan waistcoats and goat-skin coats
for each man, as well as of a new American pattern boot, with a hard
toe which, it conservatively fears, “may not stand the wear of the
old ammunition-boot.” Route-marches increased in length, and the
men marched as well as they ate. Indeed, they volunteered to the
Brigadier, who came round once to see the dinners, that they had
never been so well fed. It kept them healthy, though there were the
usual criticisms from officers, N.C.O.’s. and surviving veterans of
the Regular Army, on the quality of the new drafts, some of whom, it
seems, suffered from bad teeth and had to be sent away for renewals
and refits. As a much-tried sergeant remarked: “A man with a sore
tooth is a nuisance an’ a danger to the whole British Army.”
On the 9th December Sir Douglas Haig came over to present the
Médaille Militaire, on behalf of the French Government, to certain
officers, N.C.O.’s, and men of the Guards Brigade. Drill-Sergeant
Rodgers of the Battalion was among the recipients. Captain Orr-Ewing
was ordered to rejoin the 1st Battalion of the Scots Guards (his own
battalion), to the regret of the Battalion whose lot he had shared
since September--the most capable of officers as the most popular of
comrades.
A party from the Brigade was sent to Headquarters of the 11th
Engineering Company “to be taught how to throw bombs made out of
jam-pots, which apparently are used against the enemy at close
quarters in the present trench-warfare.” There were at least
half-a-dozen more or less dangerous varieties of these hand-made
bombs in use, before standard patterns were evolved and bombing took
its place as a regular aid to warfare. The “jam-pot” bomb died early
but not before it had caused a sufficiency of trouble to its users.
The others will be mentioned in due course.
“Aeroplane duty” was another invention of those early days. A company
was told off daily to look out for aeroplanes and, if possible, to
bring them down--presumably by rifle-fire. The war was still very
young.
F.-M. Earl Kitchener’s appointment to Colonel of the Battalion in
succession to F.-M. Earl Roberts was marked on the 12th in the
following telegram from Earl Kitchener:
His Majesty the King, having been graciously pleased to appoint
me to be Colonel of the Irish Guards, I desire to take the first
opportunity of expressing to you and through you to all ranks how
proud I am to be associated with so gallant a regiment. My warmest
greetings and best wishes to you all!
The C.O. replied:
All ranks, 1st Battalion Irish Guards, greatly appreciate the
honour conferred on them by His Majesty the King, and are proud to
have such a distinguished soldier as Colonel of the Regiment.
On the 13th December a further draft of 100 men and three officers
arrived under Captain Mylne; the other officers being Lieutenant
Antrobus who was wounded exactly a month before, and Lieutenant
Hubbard. This brought the Battalion’s strength to 800 with the
following officers: Major the Hon. J. Trefusis, C.O.; Captain Lord
Desmond FitzGerald, Adjutant; Lieutenant C. A. S. Walker, Transport
Officer; 2nd Lieutenant L. Straker, Machine-gun Officer; Captain
A. H. L. McCarthy, Medical Officer; Captain Rev. Father Gwynne,
Chaplain; Lieutenant H. Hickie, Quartermaster. No. 1 Company, Captain
E. J. Gough, Lieutenant L. Hargreaves, 2nd Lieutenant A. C. Innes.
No. 2 Company, Captain E. Mylne, 2nd Lieutenant H. S. Keating, 2nd
Lieutenant F. H. Witts. No. 3 Company, Captain P. L. Reid, 2nd
Lieutenant P. H. Antrobus, 2nd Lieutenant Hon. H. V. Harmsworth, 2nd
Lieutenant H. Marion-Crawford. No. 4 Company, Lieutenant G. Gough,
Lieutenant G. Hubbard, 2nd Lieutenant Lee.
Lieutenant C. A. S. Walker had to go to hospital with bronchitis and
Lieutenant Antrobus took over from him.
Major Arbuthnot (Scots Guards) arrived on the 14th December with
Queen Alexandra’s presents to the Battalion which were duly issued to
selected officers, N.C.O.’s, and men, but at the time, the Battalion
was under two hours’ notice to move either to support an attack then
being delivered by the Third Division upon the wood at Wytschaete,
or “for any other purpose.” The attack was not a success except in
so far as it pinned the enemy forces to one place, but the Battalion
was not called upon to help. It lived under “short notice” for a week
which naturally interfered with extended route-marches or training.
Companies were sent out one by one to dig in the water-logged soil
and to extemporise means of keeping their feet out of the water by
“blocks of wood made in the form of a platform at the bottom of the
trenches.” Thus laboriously is described the genesis of what was
later to grow into thousands of miles of duck-board, plain or wired.
Meantime, between the 20th and 22nd of December the fierce and
unsatisfactory battle of Cuinchy, the burden of which fell heavily
on our devoted Indian troops, had been fought out on a front of
half-a-dozen miles from south of the Béthune Canal to Festubert.
Nothing had been gained except the all-important issue--that the
enemy did not break through. There was a long casualty-list as
casualties were then counted, and the Indian Brigades were withdrawn
from their wrecked and sodden trenches for a little rest. The Guards
Brigade was ordered to relieve them, and on the 22nd marched out
from Meteren. The Herts Territorial Battalion (to be honourably and
affectionately known later as “The Herts Guards”) led that first
march, followed by the 2nd Coldstream, 1st Battalion Irish Guards,
the 3rd Coldstream, and the 2nd Grenadiers. They billeted at Béthune
where, on the 23rd December, the 2nd Coldstream in support, they
took over their share of the Indian trenches near Le Touret between
Essars and Richebourg L’Avoué, and on Christmas Eve after tea and the
distribution of the Christmas puddings from England, the Battalion,
with the Hertfordshires relieved the 4th Dogras, 6th Jats, and 9th
Gurkhas. It is recorded that the Gurkha, being a somewhat shorter man
than the average Guardsman, the long Irish had to dig their trenches
about two feet deeper, and they wondered loudly what sort of persons
these “little dark fellas” could be.
The Christmas truce of 1914 reached the Battalion in severely
modified form. They lay among a network of trenches, already many
times fought over, with communications that led directly into the
enemy’s lines a couple of hundred yards away. So they spent Christmas
Day, under occasional bombardment of heavy artillery, in exploring
and establishing themselves as well as they might among these wet and
dreary works. In this duty Lieutenant G. P. Gough and Lieutenant F.
H. Witts and six men were wounded.
Earl Kitchener, their Colonel, sent them Christmas wishes and the
King’s and Queen’s Christmas cards were distributed. Their comfort
was that Christmas night was frosty so that the men kept dry at least.
Boxing Day was quiet, too, and only four men were wounded as they
dug in the hard ground to improve their communications with the
2nd Coldstream on their left. Then the frost broke in rain, the
clay stuck to the spade, the trenches began to fill and a deserter
brought news of an impending attack which turned out to be nothing
more serious than a bombing affair which was duly “attended to.” Some
of our own shells bursting short killed one man and wounded six.
Princess Mary’s gifts of pipes, tobacco, and Christmas cards were
distributed to the men and duly appreciated.
The impossibility of keeping anything free from mud forced them to
reduce their firing-line to the least possible numbers, while those
in support, or billets, made shift to clean rifles and accoutrements.
The days went forward in rain and wet, with digging where water
allowed, and a regular daily toll of a few men killed and wounded.