13 March

Lonsdale Battalion events that took place on 13 March.
For events that took place elsewhere, see our sister project The Great War On This Day

1915 (Saturday)

Memo from lt-Col. Machell: From this time onwards should make every endeavour to get their men together and smarten them up after the prolonged rest entailed by vaccination. The immediate destiny of the Battalion will largely depend upon the impression formed of its merits by the Inspecting General Officer.^[1]
W. Waddington (13652) of B Company and W. Shaw (13485) of C Company are promoted to the rank of Sergeant.^[2]
J.A. Martindale (13433) of C Company and J. Armsgtrong (17352) of D Company are promoted to the rank of Corporal.^[2]
J.C. Ruddick (13745) of B Company is appointed Lance Sergeant.^[2]
J. Cherry (13681), G. Hay (13799), J.R. Hind (15550), J. Isles (13654) and A. Mitchinson (13865) are appointed Lance Corporal.^[2]

Battalion holding the front line. Patrols are sent out and preparations made for the raid as discussed on 9 March.

Battalion situated in the line. Quiet during the day, however, the enemy puts down a heavy trench mortar and machine gun barrage on 'Egypt Ho' and the frontline of posts from 'Colombo' to the right and left at 7.30pm.
An enemy party attempts to raid posts, but are driven off by Lewis gun and rifle fire.
Posts 17, 18 and 19 are heavily shelled, but none of the raiders are able to reach them. Casualties: 1 officer wounded, 1 other rank missing, 1 killed, 1 wounded and missing, 4 wounded.
Relieved by the 10th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and move into Brigade Reserve. Relief is complete by 1am. Reserve and Headquarters located at La Chaudière and Companies are scattered in shelters.
Arthur Sager (28499) is killed in action.

Notes

References

Acknowledgements

Various sources contemporary to the war have been used to compile The Lonsdale Battalion On This Day. The majority of the events shown on this day (13 March), including any supplementary notes, enlistments and statistical data etc., have been primarily sourced from the Lonsdale Battalion War Diary (November 1915 to June 1918), Record of the XIth (Service) Battalion (Lonsdale) and abridged material from Timeline and Chronology of the Lonsdale Battalion (September 1914 - May 1915), which are sourced from the original DLONS/L/13/13 Lowther Estate Archives. Events from that chronology are reproduced here with kind permission of Jim Lowther (2016). They are identified and referenced separately by their unique DLONS numbers. Please do not publish these events without prior permission from the Lowther Estate. All casualty names, numbers, ranks, date of deaths and places of burial/commemoration have been sourced from Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19, Volume 39, The Border Regiment and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database respectively.