Major Monteith
Friday 1st October 1915: The adjutant of the 2nd Bedfords, still holding the front line near Hulluch at Gun Trench tells us that last night, about 9 pm Germans were seen running over the open on the Battalion’s right as they had penetrated into the gun emplacement held by the 2nd Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers adjoining the Bedfords’ position.
The enemy were then working round the rear of a post of Bedfordshire Regiment bombers near the Scots and they were the assailed by bombs from three sides. This party of bombers made its way back to the rest of the Battalion with great difficulty.
Meantime the men holding the right of the Battalion position had been forced to give way and were holding a block made about 20 yards down the trench. The Germans came on, bombing with great violence, and owing to the clumsiness of the Ball Grenades with which our bombers were mostly armed, it was found hard to cope with them(1).
Two Machine Guns that had been in Gun Trench and had got isolated, managed to extricate themselves by moving alternately and covering one another's retirement with machine gun and rifle fire. These guns were mounted on the parapet of a trench called Stone Alley, and assisted to prevent the enemy's bombers coming across the open.
At about 1 a.m. a counterattack by grenade-throwers was attempted, this made some progress but the supply of good bombs was very limited to give a chance against the great numbers thrown by the enemy. At this point Second Lieutenant E F S Dyer was wounded.
Towards dawn under Orders from Brigade Headquarters 30 yards of Stone Alley was filled in and a block established. The Germans had been throwing bombs hard all night, and had been trying to work round the flanks. They had also brought up a machine gun to fire down Stone Alley. The Battalion’s own machine guns were able to deal with this.
We have just heard some additional and sad news from the adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, that their commanding officer was killed a few minutes ago. Their old CO, Lieutenant-Colonel Cranleigh Onslow was wounded on 25th September and Major John Cassels Monteith had assumed command. He was shot whilst directing work on the block in the trench mentioned above. He was 39, the son of a minister, Rev. John Monteith of Glenluiart, near Moniaive in Dumfriess-shire.
The adjutant reports that since the opening moments of the Battle of Loos on 25th September the Battalion has lost 355 men. Of these just 45 have been killed, 40 are missing believed killed or captures and 270 wounded.
Source: X550/3/wd
(1) The ball grenade is shown at the top of the page, it was replaced by the Mills Bomb by the end of 1915
No comments:
Post a Comment