1 April

Lonsdale Battalion events that took place on 1 April.
For events that took place elsewhere, see our sister project The Great War On This Day

1915 (Thursday)

“All Barracks Room and lines to be scrupulously clean. NCO's and men on duty will be permitted to quit Barracks after 11am.^[1]
“The advance party on Monday will proceed by 7.33am Train from Carlisle, arriving Grantham 9.19pm. Breakfast for the Advance party will be served at 5.45am and cold luncheon will be carried in Haversacks.^[1]

Battalion moves forward during the night of 31 March/1 April on the Roup – Etrelliers road in fighting order. Here the men halt for a while and a ration of rum is issued out.
Moves forward at 3.30am 1700 yards to a position 500 yards south west of the village of Savy, extending into attacking formation and taking up a position along a previously laid tape.
Artillery Barrage opens up at 5am. The Battalion moves forward to make an attack on Savy.
Enemy is driven through and out of the village and the men dig in on the opposite side with the exception of one company which remains in the village to mop up any concealed enemy.
Fifty prisoners are taken and 71 of the enemy are killed.
Capture of the village is secured and consolidation therein begins, which completes at 6.30am with the village in a state of defence.
Enemy retaliates with heavy shelling at 2.30pm for approximately one hour.
Battalion takes over the line held by the 17th Highland Light Infantry, who withdraw.
Remainder of the day is spent working on the defences.

Battalion is No.2 Battalion of No.3 Brigade, holding the line in front of Moyenville and Courcelles.
D Company, B Company and C Company are in the front line, each holding approximately 300 yards, having 3–5 outposts and a length of old German trench to accommodate their supports.
A Company is in reserve along the sunken road 300 yards behind front line.
Battalion Headquarters is located in the embankment.
Day is quiet except for shelling around nearby sugar factory.
Enemy planes are active and wiring is done by night.
Wounded prisoners are captured by B Company and numerous identifications brought in from deceased Germans.

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 (1 April), 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.