the way that information blows back and forth across a battle-field
in reaction. The men were once more roused--in a burst of chill
rain--to strengthen the outpost line. They must have made some
noise about it, being more than half asleep at the time, but the
enemy, so far from attacking, opened with long-range small-arm fire
and sent up a myriad lights. That riot died down at last, and when
the Battalion’s third dawn in the line had well broken, a company
of Lincolns from the 62nd Brigade came up to the trench, and said
their orders were to relieve. The light was full enough now to
reveal them very clearly, and “a rapid relief was effected with some
difficulty.” The enemy shelled till they reached the shelter of the
ridge behind and there, at last, drew clear of the immediate aspect
of war. Other scattered parties of the Battalion, with little knots
of lightly wounded men, joined them on their way to the southern
edge of Bernafay Wood, where they took reckoning of their losses.
They had still seven officers left, including 2nd Lieutenant T. F.
MacMahon, who with some forty men had been left behind in Divisional
Reserve on the 16th, and the whole of the working platoon which had
not been in action “rejoined the Battalion practically intact.” The
“working platoon,” which was made up of two men from each platoon was
popularly credited with fabricating Headquarters dug-outs at enormous
distances from the firing-line and was treated rather as a jest by
men not lucky enough to be drawn for it. As for the rest, Major T. M.
Bailie, Lieutenant C. R. Tisdall, Lieutenant L. C. Whitefoord, and
2nd Lieutenant N. Butler were killed. Captain C. Pease and Lieutenant
J. K. Greer died of wounds. Captain P. S. Long-Innes, Captain R.
Rankin, Lieutenant A. C. W. Innes, 2nd Lieutenants H. C. Holmes, T.
Butler-Stoney and Count J. E. de Salis were wounded; and there were
over 330 casualties in the other ranks. The total casualties in the
Brigade were 1776.
No one seems to recall accurately the order of events between the
gathering in Bernafay Wood and the arrival of the shadow of the
Battalion in camp at the Citadel. The sun was shining; breakfast was
ready for the officers and men near some trees. It struck their very
tired apprehensions that there was an enormous amount of equipage and
service for a very few men, and they noticed dully a sudden hustling
off of unneeded plates and cups. They felt as though they had
returned to a world which had outgrown them on a somewhat terrifying
scale during all the ages that they had been away from it. Their one
need, after food eaten sitting, was rest, and, when the first stupor
of exhaustion was satisfied, their sleep began to be broken by dreams
only less horrible than the memories to which they waked.
SEPTEMBER 25
But the cure was ready to hand. On the evening of the 18th September,
in wet and cold weather, the Brigadier sent the Battalion a letter of
praise and prophecy:
As your Brigadier I wish to express my feelings as to your most
gallant work on the 15th September 1916 in the operations at
Ginchy. The advance from the Orchard in the face of machine-gun
fire is equal to anything you have yet accomplished in this
campaign, and once more the 1st Battalion Irish Guards has carried
out a most magnificent advance and held ground gained in spite
of the most severe losses. In this, your first campaign, you are
upholding the highest standard of bravery and efficiency for your
successors and more praise than that I cannot give you. You may be
called upon in the very near future to carry out similar work and
I know you will not fail.
(Sd.) C. E. PEREIRA,
Brigadier-General,
Commanding 1st Guards Brigade.
This meant that they would be moved again as soon as they could stand
up, and would go into their next action with at least 50 per cent.
new drafts and half their proper allowance of officers. Indeed, they
were warned, next day, with the rest of their Division for further
operations in the “immediate future,” and the work of re-making and
re-equipping the Battalion from end to end, saved them from that
ghastly state of body and soul which is known as “fighting Huns in
your sleep.”
On the 19th, Major T. M. D. Bailie’s body was brought back from the
front and buried in the cemetery in the centre of the camp at Carnoy,
and on the same day Lord Cavan, commanding the Corps, rode over and
spoke to the officers on horseback of the progress of the campaign,
of what had so far been accomplished on the Somme, what was intended
for the future, and specially, as bearing on their next battle, of
what their artillery had in store for the enemy. It was a simple,
unadorned speech, the substance of which he repeated to the N.C.O.’s,
then wished the gentlemen of His Majesty’s Foot Guards all good
fortune and rode away.
The Division had expected to be used again as soon as might be, but
their recent losses were so heavy that every battalion in it was
speculating beneath its breath how their new drafts would shape. It
is one thing to take in men by fifties at a time and weld them slowly
in The Salient to a common endurance; it is quite another to launch a
battalion, more than half untried recruits, across the open against
all that organized death can deliver. This was a time that again
tested the Depot and Reserve Battalion whose never-ending work all
fighting battalions take for granted, or mention only to blame. But
Warley and Caterham had not failed them. Over three hundred recruits
were sent up immediately after the 15th and 16th, and on the 20th
September the re-made Battalion, less than six hundred strong, with
ten officers, marched out of Citadel Camp to its detestable trenches
on Ginchy Ridge. The two Coldstream Battalions of the 1st Brigade
held the front line there; the 2nd Grenadiers in reserve, and the
1st Irish Guards in support.
The ground was not yet a sea of mud, but quite sufficiently
tenacious. “The area allotted” was old trenches and newish
shell-holes with water at the bottom, in “the small rectangular wood
east of Trônes Wood.” They were employed for three or four days in
cleaning up the litter of battle all about the slopes and piling it
in dumps, while the enemy shelled them more or less regularly with
large black 5.9 shells--a very fair test of the new drafts’ nerves.
The stuff would drop unheralded through the then leafy woods, and
explode at large among the shelters and slits that the men had made
for themselves. They took the noise and the shaking with philosophy
as their N.C.O.’s testified. (“There was some wondherin’ in the new
drafts, but no budgin’, ye’ll understand.”)
Reading between lines one can see that the R.C. Priest, the Reverend
Father F. M. Browne, was busy in those days on spiritual affairs, for
he was hit in the face on the 23rd, “while visiting a neighbouring
battery,” so that Mass on the 24th--the day before their second
battle of the Somme--was celebrated by the Reverend Father Casey.
They were shelled, too, that Sunday in the wood, a single unlucky
shell killing two men and wounding thirteen. The last available
officer from the base, Lieutenant A. H. Blom, had joined the night
before; all drafts were in; the ground was assumed to be walkable
(which was not the case), and about 9 P. M. of a pitch-black Sunday
night the Battalion left the wood and reached its assembly-trench,
an extraordinary bad and unprotected one, about midnight. They were
promiscuously shelled in the darkness, and the trench, when found,
was so narrow that they had to stand on the edge of it till the
Battalion that they relieved--it did not keep them waiting long--got
out. No. 1 Company (Captain L. R. Hargreaves), No. 2 Company (Captain
the Hon. P. J. Ogilvy) were in the front line, the latter on the
right, No. 3 Company (Lieutenant A. H. Blom), and No. 4 Company
(Captain Rodakowski) about 150 yards behind with the Battalion
Headquarters, in a diagonal communication-trench well bottomed with
water. Second Lieutenant T. C. Gibson was wounded on the way up, and
was replaced by 2nd Lieutenant T. F. MacMahon who had been left in
Regimental Reserve.
The idea of the day’s work for the 25th was less ambitious than
on the 15th, and the objectives were visible German trenches, not
imaginary lines on uniformly indistinguishable landscapes. Here is
the Brigade-Major’s memorandum for the 1st Brigade on the lie of the
land, issued on the 22nd September: They were to attack and carry
the village of Lesbœufs, up the Ginchy-Lesbœufs road, about fifteen
hundred yards, on a front, again, of five hundred yards; the Irish
Guards leading the attack throughout on the left of the 1st Brigade,
and the 2nd Grenadiers on the right. It was in essence the clearing
out of a badly shaken enemy line by the help of exceedingly heavy
barrages.
1ST GUARDS BRIGADE NO. 262
The forthcoming attack differs from the last in that the whole
scheme is not such an ambitious one. The distance to the first
objective is about 300 yards, to the second objective 800 yards,
and to the last objective about 1300 yards. In each case the
objective is a clearly defined one, and not merely a line drawn
across the map.
Between our present front line and the first objective there is
only “No Man’s Land.” During the next two nights this should be
actively patrolled to ensure that our attack is not taken by
surprise by some unknown trench, and in order that Officers and
N.C.O.’s may have a knowledge of the ground.
It would also be of great assistance to the artillery if reports as
to the actual distance to the Green line were sent in.
The ground slopes down to Lesbœufs, beyond which there is a
distinct hollow with a plateau the same level as Lesbœufs beyond.
On reaching the final objective Officers and N.C.O.’s should
understand the necessity for pushing patrols out to command this
hollow and give warning or prevent counter-attacks forming up here.
Large scale maps of Lesbœufs have been sent to all battalions.
These should be carefully studied by all Officers and N.C.O.’s,
and especially by those of the companies detailed for the cleaning
up of Lesbœufs.
All runners and signallers should know the position of the advanced
Brigade Report Centre, and that the best means of approach to it
will probably be down the communication-trench T.3.c and T.8.b.
Finally, it cannot be too much impressed on assaulting troops the
necessity for clinging to our own barrage. It will be an attack in
which this should be comparatively easy, and on which the success
of the whole operation may depend.
(Sd.) M. B. SMITH, Captain,
Brigade-Major,
1st Guards Brigade.
_September 22, 1916._
The Battalion’s own task was to clear the three objectives laid down,
supported by the 3rd Coldstream, to clean out the northern portion
of Lesbœufs village, and above all to secure their flanks when they
halted or were held up. They waited in their trenches while our guns,
hour after hour, sluiced the roads they were to take with an even
downpour of shell along the trenches to be attacked--over Lesbœufs
and its hidden defences, and far out into the untouched farming land
beyond. It was a fine sunny morning that hid nothing: at 12.35 our
barrage locked down two hundred yards ahead of the troops, and Nos. 1
and 2 Companies moved out with the rest of the line towards the first
German trench three hundred yards away. The enemy put down a barrage
at once on our front-support and communication-trenches, which caused
a good many casualties (including Captain R. J. P. Rodakowski and
the Doctor) in Nos. 3 and 4 Companies who were moving up as a second
wave. Eventually, these companies found it less hampering to leave
the crowded trench and come out over the open. So far, our artillery
work was altogether a better business than on the 15th. The companies
moved almost leisurely behind the roaring arch-of-triumph of the
barrage, till the leading line reached the first trench with its
half-finished dug-outs. Here they found only dazed German survivors
begging to be taken out of that inferno to the nearest prisoners’
kraal. Some of these captures, officers included, sincerely expected
to be slaughtered in cold blood.
The 2nd Grenadiers, on the right of the 1st Irish Guards, had been
unlucky in their position, for the wire in front of their sector
being veiled by high crop, our guns had missed it. That Battalion
suffered heavily in officers and men, shot down as they tried to work
their way through by hand; but they never lost touch, and the advance
went on unbrokenly to the next point--a sunken road on the east side
of Lesbœufs, five hundred yards ahead of the first objective. All
four companies of the Irish were together now--Lieutenant Blom of
No. 3 had been wounded at the first trench and 2nd Lieutenant T.
F. MacMahon took over. They reached the downward slope to the sunk
road and, as at the first objective, found most of their work had
been done for them by the barrage. Even while they congratulated
themselves and sent off a pigeon, as well as runner messages, to
report the capture to Battalion Headquarters, which, “somewhat
broken” by the German shelling, had arrived in the first-taken
trench, fire fell on them from the south. Our own guns, misranging
across the fields, were supposed to be responsible for this; and a
second pigeon was despatched praying them to cease, but “there were a
number of casualties” before the advance to the last objective began.
This was shown on the map as just east of Lesbœufs village, and east
again of another sunken road. The final surge forward included a
rush across uprooted orchards and through wrecked houses, shops, and
barns, with buildings alight or confusedly collapsing round them, and
the enemy streaming out ahead to hide in shell-holes in the open.
There was not much killing at this point, and, thanks to the tanks
and the guns, a good deal less machine-gun fire than might have been
expected. The Battalion dug in in a potato field a few hundred yards
beyond the village, where the men providently laid aside the largest
potatoes for supper, if so be they should live till that meal. In
the meantime our guns were punching holes into the open land behind
Lesbœufs, where parties of dislodged enemy had taken shelter. These
preferred, at last, to bolt back through that storm and surrender to
our men digging, who received them with derisive cheers--“for all the
world as though they had been hares in a beat.”
Then came the tragedy. Our barrage, for some reason or other, wavered
and stopped almost on the line where the men were digging in, and
there hung for a long while--some accounts say a quarter of an hour,
others two hours. At any rate, it was long enough to account for many
more casualties. Captain L. R. Hargreaves, who had fought wounded
through the 15th, was here so severely wounded that he died while
being carried back, and Captain Drury-Lowe of the King’s Company of
the 1st Grenadiers, digging in on the Irish left, was killed--both
casualties by one shell. The 2nd Grenadiers, all company officers
down, were in touch on the right, but the left was still doubtful,
for the attack there had been held up at Gueudecourt village, and
the 3rd Guards Brigade had to make a defensive flank there, while a
company of the 3rd Coldstream was moved up to help in the work.
In modern war no victory appears till the end of all, and what
is gained by immense bloodshed must be held by immense physical
labour of consolidation, which gives the enemy time to recover
and counter-attack in his turn. The Irish dug and deepened and
strengthened their line north of Lesbœufs, while the enemy shelled
them till afternoon, when there was a breathing space. A German
counter-attack, on the left of the Guards Division, was launched
and forthwith burned up. The shelling was resumed till night, which
suddenly fell so quiet, by Somme standards, that supplies could
be brought up without too much difficulty. As soon as light for
ranging came on the 26th, our men were shelled to ground again; and
an attempt of three patrols to get forward and establish posts of
command on a near-by ridge brought them into a nest of machine-guns
and snipers. The Diary remarks that the patrols located “at least one
machine-gun,” which is probably a large understatement; for so soon
as the German machine-gunners recovered breath and eyesight, after or
between shells, they were up and back and at work again. By the rude
arithmetic of the ranks in those days, three machine-guns equalled a
company, and, when well posted, a battalion.
The Battalion was relieved on the evening of the 26th by its sister
(the 2nd) Battalion, who took over the whole of Lesbœufs ruins from
the Brigade; and the 1st Irish Guards went back with the others
through Bernafay Wood, where they fed, to camp once more at the
Citadel.
In the two days of their second Somme battle, which they entered
less than six hundred strong and ten officers, they had lost one
officer, Captain Hargreaves, died of wounds, and five wounded, and
more than 250 casualties in other ranks. Add these to the casualties
of the 15th, and it will be seen that in ten days the Battalion
had practically lost a battalion. The commanding officer, Colonel
McCalmont, the adjutant, Captain Gordon, and Lieutenant Smith were
the only officers who had come unwounded through both actions.
General Pereira, commanding the 1st Guards Brigade, issued the
following order on the 27th September:
You have again maintained the high traditions of the 1st Guards
Brigade when called upon a second time in the battle of the Somme.
For five days previous to the assault the 2nd and 3rd Battalion
Coldstream Guards held the trenches under constant heavy shell-fire
and dug many hundred yards of assembly and communication-trenches,
this work being constantly interrupted by the enemy’s artillery.
The 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards and the 1st Battalion Irish
Guards, though under shell-fire in their bivouacs, were kept clear
of the trenches until the evening of 24th September, and were given
the task of carrying by assault all the objectives to be carried by
this Brigade. Nothing deterred them in this attack, not even the
fact that in places the enemy wire was cut in the face of rifle
and machine-gun fire, and in spite of all resistance and heavy
losses the entire main enemy defensive line was captured.
Every Battalion in the Brigade carried out its task to the full.
The German Reserve Division, which includes the 238th, 239th, and
240th Regiments, and which opposed you for many weeks at Ypres,
left the Salient on the 18th September. You have now met them in
the open, a worthy foe, but you have filled their trenches with
their dead and have driven them before you in headlong flight.
I cannot say how proud I am to have had the honour of commanding
the 1st Guards Brigade in this battle, a Brigade which has proved
itself to be the finest in the British Army.
The Brigade is now under orders for rest and training, and it must
now be our object to keep up the high standard of efficiency, and
those who have come to fill our depleted ranks will strive their
utmost to fill worthily the place of those gallant officers and men
who have laid down their lives for a great cause.
(Sd.) C. E. PEREIRA,
Brigadier-General,
Commanding 1st Guards Brigade.
_September 28, 1916._
Lord Cavan had sent the following message to General Pereira:
Hearty thanks and sincere congratulation to you all. A very fine
achievement splendidly executed.
To which the Brigadier had replied:
Your old Brigade very proud to be able to present you with
Lesbœufs. All ranks most gratified by your kind congratulations.
And so that little wave among many waves, which had done its work
and gained its few hundred yards of ground up the beach, drew back
into the ocean of men and hutments below the slopes of the Somme.
The new drafts were naturally rather pleased with themselves; their
N.C.O.’s were reasonably satisfied with them, and the remnant of the
officers were far too busy with reorganization and re-equipment
to have distinct notions on any subject except the day’s work. It
was a little later that heroisms or horrors, seen out of the tail
of the eye in action, and unrealised at the time, became alive as
rest returned to the body and men compared dreams with each other,
or argued in what precise manner such and such a comrade had died.
There was bravery enough and to spare on all hands, and there were
a few, but not too many, decorations awarded for it in the course
of the next month. The Battalion took the bravery for granted, and
the credit of the aggregate went to the Battalion. They looked at
it, broadly speaking, thus: “There was times when ye’ll understand
if a man was _not_ earnin’ V.C.’s for hours on end he would not keep
alive--an’ even _then_, unless the Saints looked after him, he’d
likely be killed in the middest of it.” In other words, the average
of bravery required in action had risen twenty-fold, even as the
average of shots delivered by machine-guns exceeds that of many
rifles; and by the mercy of Heaven, as the Irish themselves saw it,
the spirit of man under discipline had risen to those heights.
Captain L. R. Hargreaves (killed on the 25th) and Captain P. S.
Long-Innes (wounded), with Lieutenant G. V. Williams (who was knocked
unconscious and nearly killed by shell-fire on the 25th), were given
the Military Cross for the affair of the 15th. Drill-Sergeant Moran,
a pillar of the Battalion, who had died of wounds (it was he who
had asked the immortal question about “this retreat” at Mons), with
Private Boyd, received the D.C.M., and Sergeant Riordan (wounded
and reported missing) the Bar to the same medal. Lance-Corporal J.
Carroll, Privates M. Kenny, J. O’Connor, J. White and Lance-Corporal
Cousins had the Military Medal--all for the 15th.
For the 15th and 25th combined, Lieutenant Walter Mumford and 2nd
Lieutenant T. F. MacMahon won the Military Cross; and Sergeant P.
Doolan and Private G. Taylor the Military Medal.
For the 25th, temporary Captain the Hon. P. Ogilvy received the
Military Cross; acting Company Sergeant-Major McMullen, the Bar to
his D.C.M.; and Privates Whearty, Troy and M. Lewis, the Military
Medal. Captain Gordon, the Adjutant, was recommended for an immediate
M.C. which he received with the next New Year honours at the same
time as the C.O. received a D.S.O.
It was not an extravagant reward for men who have to keep their heads
under hideous circumstances and apply courage and knowledge at the
given instant; and after inconceivable strain, to hold, strengthen,
and turn desperate situations to their platoon’s or company’s
advantage. The news went into Warley and Caterham, and soured
drill-sergeants, dead-wearied with the repetition-work of forming
recruits to fill shell-holes, found their little unnoticed reward in
it. (“Yes. _We_ made ’em--with the rheumatism on us, an’ all; an’ we
kept on makin’ ’em till I got to hate the silly faces of ’em. An’
what did _we_ get out of it? ‘Tell Warley that their last draft was
dam’ rabbits an’ the Ensigns as bad.’ An’ after that, it’s Mil’try
Crosses and D.C.M.’s for _our_ dam’ rabbits!”)
The Battalion returned to the days of small, detailed, important
things--too wearied to appreciate compliments, and too over-worked
with breaking in fresh material to think.
On the 27th, 2nd Lieutenant R. B. S. Reford joined from the Base;
on the 28th 2nd Lieutenant T. F. MacMahon with a party was sent to
rest-camp for a week. On the 30th Captains the Earl of Kingston and
H. T. A. Boyse joined and took over command of Nos. 1 and 3 Companies.
REST-CAMPS AND FATIGUES
On the 1st October, a Sunday, after mass celebrated by a French
interpreter, which did not affect the devotion of the Battalion, the
whole Brigade were embarked in one hundred and forty “French army
charabancs,” a new and unforeseen torment, and driven _via_ Amiens
from Fricourt to rest-camp at Hornoy. Much must have happened on
that pleasure-trip; for the Diary observes that the drivers of the
vehicles were “apparently over military age, many of the assistants
being natives.” One is left in the dark as to their countries of
origin, but one’s pity goes out to all of them, Annamite, Senegalese,
or Algerian, who helped to convey the newly released Irish for eight
hours over fifty jolting miles. The Battalion found good billets for
themselves, and the Brigade machine-gun company in Hornoy itself,
where the inhabitants showed them no small kindness. “Owing to small
numbers, officers were in one mess,” says the Diary, and one can see
the expansion of that small and shrunken company as the new drafts
come in and training picks up again.
On the 3rd October, 2nd Lieutenants J. J. Fitzwilliam Murphy and J.
N. Nash joined; on the 4th the Reverend P. J. Lane-Fox joined for
duty; on the 5th, 2nd Lieutenant the Hon. D. O’Brien came in sick
with the draft of a hundred and fifty-two and went down sick, all
within forty-eight hours, his draft punctually delivered. Major the
Hon. T. Vesey also joined as second in command during the course of
this month.