Casualties and Awards

Sunday 19th November 1916 From our Correspondent in the Field

Today the battlefield on the Somme is as quiet as we have heard it during the last five months or more. There is no sustained barrage anywhere that we can hear, just occasional muffled reports from rifles or the occasional chatter of machine guns, brief and widely spaced. There is a rumour in the army that the bad weather and the approach of winter mean that the battle is likely to have come to an end, probably to be taken up again in the Spring.

Readers might be interested in news from 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, which exemplifies a battalion’s tour in the front line when no attack is made. The adjutant, Captain Bridcutt, has sent me a list of named of those who have become casualties in the last few days:

• 28991 Lance Corporal Robert Dungay, A Company, killed 16-11-16;
• 15760 Private Arthur Turney, A Company, killed 16-11-16
• 40532 Private Walter Ward, A Company, killed 16-11-16
• 40506 Private Frederick Charles Osborne, A Company, killed 16-11-16
• 40508 Private Herbert William Thompson, A Company, killed 16-11-16
• 40535 Private Amos Hickmore, B Company, killed 16-11-16
• 16524 Private Nathan Cain, C Company, killed 15-11-16
• 29774 Private Herbert Rolfe Halls, C Company, killed 14-11-16
• 43309 Private Robert Marshall Johnson, C Company, died of wounds 15-11-16
• 27348 Private William Charles Pitts, B Company, missing 16-11-16
• 29786 Private J W Moore, A Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 28039 Private H Fuller, A Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 28084 Private Herbert Eric Berry, A Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 40501 Private J B Saunders, A Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 40519 Private F A Ovenden, A Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 14135 Corporal W Dean, B Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 10034 Private J Hammond, B Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 26234 Private G Bottomley, B Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 29793 Private G S Parker, C Company, wounded 15-11-16
• 18255 Private W G Ellis, C Company, wounded 15-11-16
• 29859 Private W North, C Company, wounded 15-11-16
• 15491 Private A Miles, C Company, wounded 14-11-16
• 4366 Private F H Hughes, C Company, wounded 14-11-16
• 27855 Private T Swain, C Company, wounded 14-11-16
• 3/8636 Lance Corporal J Holmes, D Company, wounded 14-11-16
• 3/7661 Lance Corporal R Smith, D Company, wounded 14-11-16
• 27627 Lance Corporal M Skevington, D Company, wounded 13-11-16
• 13581 Private A Dillingham, D Company, wounded 13-11-16
• 14854 Private W Hargford, D Company, wounded 17-11-16
• 29772 Private C Selsby, D Company, wounded 14-11-16
• still at duty Second Lieutenant L E Taylor, C Company, wounded 14-11-16
• 29796 Private Bertie Redding, killed, 15-11-16, C Company

The adjutant also tells me that the following mken have been awarded the Military Medal for gallantry:

• 15400 Company Quarter Master Sergeant A Fountain
• 12827 Private B F Silsby
• 15198 Private A Chandler
• 18176 Company Sergeant Major R M Brand
• 17642 Lance Corporal G S Clarke
• 15333 Pte G B Fuller

Lloyd George’s Cough Tablets

British Heavy Trench Mortar at IWM Duxford

Friday 24th September 1915: Private W Fuller of 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, writing to his wife at 46 Pilcroft Street, Bedford said: “I am sending you the photograph of a piece of German culture. Of course it is only a rough sketch in front of a once beautiful chateau in France(1)”.

“Not ten yards from the front door lie the victims of German culture in their graves, the mother, two daughters and one infant, who were foully murdered by the Germans. A rough cross marks their resting place. Let the stay-at-home brigade only realise it. If it were their homes and people that the Germans had murdered it would fill their hearts with revenge and the sooner they come out here the better I say, and my comrades say “Three cheers for the little man from Wales”. They know who I mean – Lloyd George (2). Only the other night, whole on look-out, the Germans were singing “Love, I am lonely” but they did not remain lonely long, for the Major gave them about twelve, in their abode of love, of Lloyd George’s patent cough tablets(3) and they did not sing any more”.

“I see German prisoners are given nosegays and go for nice walks. They will get none of those things out here. The finest thing to give them is a high explosive of Lloyd George’s type”.

Source: Bedfordshire Times 1st October 1915

---

(1) Obviously destroyed by shell-fire

(2) Minister of Munitions at this date.

(3) Probably from a trench mortar.

A Wymington Sergeant's Story

Sergeant Fuller

Wednesday 17th February 1915: Sergeant H. Fuller (New Wymington) of the Bedfords has paid a five days' visit home from the Front. In conversation with a newspaper representative he said "I ought to have hit a few Germans, but it is impossible to say. You see, there is no real fighting being done at present. The snipers are the only chaps very busy with the rifle now. It is impossible to get a move on as things are, on account of the bad condition of the roads. But just recently the weather has been very nice and we haven't hurt a bit. There is plenty of food, including fresh meat, which can now be brought right up to the trenches. Very few of the men seem to be suffering from colds or rheumatism".

"I left my billet which is about two miles from the firing line on Monday night and I arrived home on Tuesday evening. From this fact you will realise how near the Germans are to England, but in my opinion they have got about as near as they ever will get. When I came away, practically all that was taking place in the nature of fighting was artillery fire, and it has been like that for two months past. It has been almost impossible to engage in any other sort of military operations owing to the sodden state of the ground. Out there, there is mud enough and to spare. Before proceeding to the Front, I had seen two years' service in Pretoria, South Africa. I arrived in England about the middle of September and after two weeks in the New Forest, was sent straight to the Front with my Regiment. We landed at Zeebrugge in Belgium, which, as you know, is now in the occupation of the Germans. From Zeebrugge we went to  Bruges and from thence to 'Wipers' (Ypres). We saw this place before the Germans started dropping their shells into it and it was then a fine town but is now, I understand, a mass of ruins".

"The German gunners are destructive devils and will shell anything they see just for the sake of doing it. If they spot a barn they will not rest content until they have set fire to it".

"On one occasion I got the fragments of a shrapnel shell through my pack, which was on my back, and on another occasion a bullet passed through my cartridge belt and shattered five rounds of ammunition which were in the clip ready for insertion into my rifle magazine. Some of the bullets were carved out of the edge of the cartridges and the others were cut clean in two. Fortunately, none of the cartridges exploded, and so far I have come through with a whole skin, although I have seen chaps struck on either side of me".

"The men play football within the range of the enemy's guns. As a matter of fact a league has been formed in my division (the 7th) and league matches are being played. My regimental team has played a couple of matches. The first was a draw and the second was proceeding when I came away, so I shan't know the result until I get back"(1).

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 19th February 1915

---

(1) 8420 Sergeant Herbert Fuller of 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, was killed in the Battle of Festubert on 16th May 1915 and has no known grave, being commemorated on the le Touret Memorial.