THE 7TH (GUARDS) ENTRENCHING BATTALION
[Sidenote: Entrenching Battalion. 1915-18.]
The enormous amount of spade work, required for the long and intricate
network of trenches, rendered some measures necessary for supplementing
the work, usually done by the fighting forces; and thus entrenching
battalions were formed, composed of drafts for the front, awaiting
absorption in their respective units; but the system of detaching
men from Battalions of Guards and sending them to fill any vacancies
that might occur in one of the entrenching battalions was not at all
satisfactory. In the first place, to allow men on arrival in France at
once to go to an entrenching battalion, where the discipline was more
lax, and the habits and customs different from those which obtained
in the regiments of Guards was a measure hardly calculated to improve
them as fighting men. And in the second place, it was contrary to the
regulations for men of the Guards to be commanded by any but their own
officers.
[Illustration:
_Frederic Robinson. Camberley. photographer Emery Walker ph. sc._
_Brigadier-General A.F.A.N. Thorne, D.S.O._
]
The idea of forming a Guards Entrenching Battalion seems to have come
from certain officers at the base. Shortly before the arrival of the
new battalions of the Guards in France, rumours were afloat that an
entrenching battalion for the Guards Division was about to be formed.
Captain Viscount Lascelles wrote a letter to the effect that a platoon
from the reinforcements of every battalion of Guards was to be diverted
to an entrenching battalion. The platoon from the 2nd Battalion
Grenadiers had already been told off, and was to be commanded by an
officer of the Connaught Rangers, while the Battalion itself was to be
placed under a cavalry captain. Captain Viscount Lascelles deplored
the fact that there was no one of sufficient seniority at the base, to
combat these proposals, and thought the whole matter should be referred
to the Lieutenant-Colonel rather than let it lapse, on the judgment of
half a dozen ensigns at the base.
Nothing, however, appears to have been done until November, when a
Guards Entrenching Battalion was formed, and Major E. C. Ellice,
Grenadier Guards, was sent out to take command. He arrived at Chipilly
on the Somme, about five miles from Bray, on December 1, 1915, and took
over the Battalion from Major Clutterbuck, who had been temporarily in
command. The Battalion consisted of 230 Grenadiers, 300 Coldstream, 250
Scots Guards, and 200 Irish Guards, with 40 tunnellers from the Royal
Engineers.
Major Ellice, having made the acquaintance of his new Battalion,
appointed Lieutenant Ian Bullough, Coldstream Guards, to be Adjutant,
while Captain Jones, who had hitherto occupied that post, became
Quartermaster. The Battalion was divided up into four companies: No.
1 Company Grenadiers under Captain M. Lloyd, No. 2 Coldstream under
Lieutenant Viand, No. 3 Scots Guards under Lieutenant Maitland, and
No. 4 Irish Guards under Lieutenant Hanbury. The billets in which the
men lived were not only uncomfortable but also extremely inconvenient,
being sometimes over a mile apart, and so cramped were the men for room
that pigsties even were made use of to house them: it was therefore
with pleasure that Major Ellice received instructions to move the
men to Wood Camp, which was no paradise, but still preferable to the
pigsties, and much nearer the trenches. An old stone quarry, worked by
a gang of twelve quarry-men under a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers,
provided the material for draining the camp and improving the roads.
Water carts were obtained to provide sufficient water for cooking
parties, and fatigue parties were sent every evening to draw water for
other purposes from the Somme.
The great advantage of an entrenching battalion was quickly seen by the
rest of the Army, since the battalions that came out of the front line
were relieved of working during their rest. It had formerly been the
custom for resting battalions to dig reserve lines, but now this duty
was taken over by the entrenching battalion. All reserve trenches were
made by it; emplacements for field-guns, howitzers, and machine-guns
constructed, brushwood cut for revetting, roads repaired, carrying
parties for all materials necessary for trench warfare supplied.
The staff of the Battalion was kept as permanent as possible, but the
Battalion itself was used as a stepping-stone from the base battalion
to the Battalions in the front line. The training the officers received
was invaluable, as it accustomed them to shell-fire. One or two shells
invariably fell near the working-parties; sometimes as many as thirty
to forty shells would explode in the neighbourhood. This showed the
officers that the effect was local, unless the shell happened to strike
a hard surface. It gave them confidence, and they gradually became used
to unaimed shell-fire.
At the end of December 1915 Captain Bullough was ordered to join his
Battalion, and Captain M. K. A. Lloyd, Grenadier Guards, succeeded him
as Adjutant.
[Sidenote: 1916.]
In January 1916 the Entrenching Battalion was employed on the
second-line trenches, and in constructing gun emplacements for the
artillery. This latter duty involved technical knowledge on the part
of the officers, who had to work from plans supplied to them by the
gunners. About this time it was found that the Amiens--Somme Canal
afforded better means of transport for rations and road-making material
than the lorries, which had hitherto been used for that purpose; and
it was necessary to make a light railway across some marshy ground
between Bray road and the Canal. The Entrenching Battalion was employed
in making 3000 fascines for this purpose, and the men became so expert
at their work that there was keen competition between the various
companies as to which should turn out the most fascines.
In April 1916 preparations for the offensive operations on the Somme
were begun, and the Entrenching Battalion played a great part during
this battle, which lasted six months. The Guards Division was not
employed in the initial stages of the battle, and it was therefore not
until July that the Entrenching Battalion moved up to the vicinity
of Fricourt, to take over the forward roads in the battle area. The
constant shelling, combined with the heavy traffic, made it peculiarly
difficult to keep the roads in sufficiently good repair for constant
use, but in spite of all difficulties the roads were kept open all
the time, and this was entirely due to the ability and energy of the
officers and the efficiency and discipline of the men. Throughout the
year the duties of the Entrenching Battalion were many and various,
and at times the work was very heavy, but it was always cheerfully
undertaken, because the men prided themselves on being part of the
Guards Division, and knew that more than the average amount of work
done by the other entrenching battalions was expected from them.
[Sidenote: 1917.]
In January 1917 the Battalion was employed in strengthening the
defences of Ginchy and Combles, and in the successful operations
against the Germans early that year it participated in the various
works, on which all arms were engaged. In April it was encamped for
some months in the neighbourhood of Havrincourt Wood, and was employed
in preparations for the offensive in the direction of Cambrai, which,
however, did not take place till November. In June the Battalion
made a farther move to Roisel, where for some months it was busily
employed in digging a line of trenches some nine miles long, from
Epeley to within three miles of St. Quentin. The strength of the
Battalion had now risen to over 2000 men. The work on these trenches
was very interesting, as it was in sight of the Hindenburg line, and
although works of some importance were undertaken, Major Ellice and his
Entrenching Battalion were given complete charge of this area.
Although the Guards Entrenching Battalion had constantly worked in
the forward areas, the other entrenching battalions had been employed
mostly in rear on work which could as easily have been done by labour
battalions or Chinese, and they had consequently diminished in
strength. In September 1917 the attention of the military authorities
was directed to these entrenching battalions, with the result that it
was decided to disband them. General Feilding asked that the Guards
Entrenching Battalion might be maintained, but this was not considered
possible. In October the final disbandment took place.