Not Again ...

Friday 26th April 1918

The 1st and the 7th Battalion were both in action yesterday, with considerable success. The 7th Battalion held the line they had taken between Villers-Bretonneux and Aubercourt and last night were relieved by a unit of French Colonial troops. They have lost three officers, including two captains, killed and seven wounded. From resources which were already slender 13 other ranks have been killed, 105 wounded and 70 are missing. About 200 prisoners were taken.

The 1st Battalion was also in action in the darkness last night. Their attack, between Merville and Lamotte, west of Estaires, was to advance their line from les Lauriers and capture a farm dubbed Bedford Farm. The attack was undertaken by A Company and one platoon of B Company and got underway at 9.15 following a barrage. Three prisoners and a machine gun were captured. All objectives were taken by 10.35. The officer in charge, Captain Hague, carried out the attack and then made sure that the new line was secure and it was only on his return to headquarters that it was discovered that he was badly wounded in the thigh and he was sent to the dressing station.

If these two battalions have had a lively couple of days one cannot but sympathise with 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. They were roughly handled during the March retreat and are woefully under-strength, indeed, they form part of a composite battalion with 2nd Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment. They are presently in positions on the Yser Canal near Ypres. This morning the enemy attacked them in strength just south of the canal. Battalion Headquarters was at Spoil Bank on the north bank but the position was evacuated as the enemy got closer. They have fallen back to, appropriately enough, Bedford House. The front line of the composite battalion is along the canal facing south and stretches from Lock 8 to Spoil Bank. As I write these lines the enemy are reported to have taken The Bluff and to have crossed the canal at Norfolk Bridge. The composite battalion has this been outflanked on its left. The situation here is, thus, critical.

Sources: X550/2/5; X550/3/wd; X550/8/1

A Round-Up from All Our Battalions

Thursday 26th July 1917

The 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment is in camp, training. Over the last few days they have had ten new officers join them. They are as follows: Second Lieutenant F Hague (B Company); Second Lieutenant S Allport (B Company); Second Lieutenant A W Matson (C Company); Second Lieutenant P N J Christie (C Company); Second Lieutenant A E Croockewit (C Company); Second Lieutenant R C Hare (B Company); Second Lieutenant F Flavell (D Company); Second Lieutenant J Cotchin (D Company); Second Lieutenant J T Dickinson (A Company) and Second Lieutenant J T Laughton (C Company) (1)

Bedford House shown in red on the extreme left

The 2nd Battalion are, like the 7th Battalion, in the vicinity of Zillebeke, east of Ypres. Today Major R O Wynne went to the staff of 30th Division as a liaison officer and Lieutenant-Colonel Bunbury proceeded to the trenches to take command of the Battalion. Two hours ago the 2nd Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment and 18th Battalion, Manchester Regiment combined to raid the enemy near the Bedfords’ positions. For his assistance in this raid 8718 Corporal F Aveling was immediately awarded a Military medal. Second Lieutenant G Lenton. Eleven other ranks were killed and nineteen wounded during the day. These included Company Sergeant Major R Kirby and a seventeen-strong party returning to the front lines who were hit by a shell near Bedford House, killing six, wounding six and inflicting fatal wounds on five more(2).

Lieutenant Timberlake [X550/1/81]

The 4th Battalion are in the front line at Oppy. Lieutenant R Timberlake, commanding a party bringing up rations was killed by a machine-gun.

As the 1st/5th Battalion continue to practise their second raid on Umbrella Hill, they have been collecting stores. The adjutant wired me no note that this is not such an easy task as might appear on the surface, material, safety pins and cotton (for identification armlets to be worn on every raider’s sleeve) had to be got from Cairo!

Sources: X550/2/5; X550/3/WD; X550/5/3; X550/6/8

(1) Second Lieutenant Paul Norman Jones Christie would be killed on 9th October 1917; Second Lieutenant Alexander Edward Croockewit, of Bedford School, would be killed on 26th October 1917; Second Lieutenant Joseph Cotchin, from Ridgmont, would be killed on 9th October 1917; Second Lieutenant Joseph Thornton Laughton, from Bedford, would die on 29th September 1918.

(2) The six fatalities are buried in Bedford House Cemetery, including Sergeant Major Robert Kirby.