1st Battalion at Arras & Monchy-le-Preux (1917): Difference between revisions

As we saw in the previous chapter, the 1st Battalion saw the old year out at Hangest. By the opening of the new year, 1917, they were still very much engaged in training until the 12th January when they moved onto Bresle via train and then march. Their stay was a short one as they soon packed up and moved again, this time by march again to Meaulte, Carnoy and finally to Guillemont on the 17th. Here they remained for 10 days before being ordered to take positions alongside the 1st Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers to attack an area just south of Le Transloy, particularly the Landwehr Trench. This attack, which commenced in the early hours of the 27th was seen through to success and as a result of the first stages, 117 German prisoners had been taken and passed back behind British lines. Each of the objectives had been achieved, a further 45 prisoners had been captured shortly after and by mid morning so had another 75 prisoners. The ground that had been taken was however difficult to consolidate owing to a combination of shelling, [[sniping]] from the enemy, and the frozen ground before them did not make matters any easier.

By 1pm the Battalion Headquarters had been moved again back to the Château dugout and later on after dusk, to yet another dugout, larger in size. Two platoons set up a defensive flank that was parallel to the Sunken Road, because the situation was neither clearing nor satisfactory. For the time being, the men had to settle in for another night in the firing line as relief would not be possible for another 24 hours. The evening came quickly and passed by without too much action. The day's fighting had been fierce and had taken its toll on both sides. Full scale bombardments had died down and there was now only intermittent shelling as the hours rolled by. The morning of the 24th saw no change and throughout the day the main cause of losses to the battalion was through [[sniping]]. If the enemy spotted movement of any kind it was fired upon. It wasn’t until the following morning on the 25th that three of the Battalion companies were relieved. The full relief of the Battalion was not possible owing to the recommencement of the enemy barrage, which meant that D Company had to remain in the front line for further 24 hours. On the 26th D Company rejoined the Battalion at Duisans where all men were accommodated in Nissen huts<ref name="ftn5">The semi-circular prefabricated multi-purpose hut designed and developed during the WW1 by Peter Nissen of the 29th Company Royal Engineers and was usually made from corrugated steel sheets. It was patented in 1916 and brought into production in August of the same year.</ref> Depending on the condition of the huts, the accommodation would have been a welcomed improvement than that of the front line. The 1st Battalion spent the remainder of the month at Saulty. Considering the hostility of the barrages and fighting that took place over the previous few days, the communication carried out by the runners was nothing short of amazing. Even though telephone communications between Battalion Headquarters and the rest of the lines had been destroyed on more than one occasion, they were soon repaired only to be destroyed again by further enemy shelling, lasting only for about ten minutes each time. Casualties were heavy by the men carrying these messages but there was never any sign of delay or hesitation when the time came to pass the messages on to those who needed them; the devotion to duty was remarkable under such circumstances. The total number of casualties of all ranks came to 156; 2 officers, Second-Lieutenant G.F. Kemp and R.S. Pooley, along with 22 NCO’s and men were killed; Captains B.H. Spear-Morgan and W.B. Wamsley (the medical officer), Lieutenant R.G. Cullis and Second-Lieutenant V. Blomfield along with 107 other ranks were wounded. Of this figure, 21 men were missing.