The German Onslaught Continues

The situation this evening - the black line is the original front line and German gains are shown in red

Friday 22nd March 1918

This evening the situation at the front is still confused, as the enemy has made further advances during the day, as the hastily prepared sketch map above shows. It seems they have made progress in a continuous line from La Fère in the south nearly to Arras in the north. The ground our men had held south-west of Flesquières, separating the two enemy advances has been taken, though not without a stiff fight. The next targets seem to be the town of Bapaume, Peronne and Ham.

The two Bedfordshire Regiment battalions in the thick of the fighting are both towards the southern end of the battlefield, indeed, the 7th Battalion, part of 18th (Eastern) Division seems to be at the southernmost end. Again, your correspondent has been lucky to snatch a few moments conversation with officers of each battalion.

The 2nd Battalion began the day between the villages of Savy and Étreillers. Early this morning the enemy worked around C Company's position, in the front line, from a sunken road which was just in front of the British wire. Both A and C Companies were heavily shelled all day until they were attacked about two o'clock this afternoon by overwhelming numbers. C Company's position fell and, regrettably, it seems that some men were taken prisoner, so loathe were they to fall back from positions they had been ordered to hold. B Company which had been sent up as reinforcements hung on, with A Company, to their position until surrounded by a sea of Germans. The adjutant simply remarked, in a tired voice: "They fought very well and only a few got back". At five o'clock this afternoon the order was received to withdraw and the operation was undertaken at once. However, this manoeuvre, never an easy one in warfare, was made still more hazardous by the fact that it was made over open country under heavy machine gun and artillery fire. The Battalion is due to fall back to the village of Verlaines south-west of Ham.

The 7th Battalion began the morning south-east of Jussy at Montagne, highlighted on the map above. The 1st Bedfords fought at Jussy in the early Autumn of 1914. Today the 7th Battalion were tasked with defending Royal Engineers as they blew up the railway bridge over the Crozat Canal. However, this bridge resisted all attempts to destroy it as the right amount of explosive was lacking. About 5.45 this evening the enemy attacked this bridge in force. C Company, on the left flank, was forced back by heavy machine gun fire and the enemy crossed the bridge. C Company then helped two companies of 6th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment to restore the situation and the adjutant breathlessly told me they were in hopes of throwing the enemy back across the bridge(1).

Clearly, then, the enemy's advance is not unstoppable and he is not having things all his own way. Over the next few days all here are in hopes that the usual problems of communications between headquarters and the advancing troops together with the enemy's weariness and our increasingly solid defence will prove this success short-lived(2).

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

(1) This was achieved by 7.30 pm.
(2) In fact the offensive would go on rapidly before reaching its limit on 5th April.

Duck-Boarding for the Yeomanry

Tuesday 19th June 1917

The Bedfordshire Yeomanry are presently at Écurie a few miles north of Arras. Since 13th the commanding officer, Major Green, seven other officers and 199 other ranks have been transferred to XIII Corps to form 9th Pioneer Battalion along with contingents from the Royal Engineers, Royal Army Medical Corps and two other units. Altogether the Battalion has 20 officers, 597 other ranks and 36 horses and is under the command of Major Green.

They have been employed on strengthening communication trenches, including laying duckboards in the bottom of them to give a firm footing when wet weather turns the ground to mud.

Source: WW1/WD2

A Demonstration in Front of the General

General Sir Edmund Allenby

Tuesday 30th January 1917 from our correspondent in the field

2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment reports that two companies are still on working parties for the Royal Engineers. However, D Company spent part of today in the company of the General Officer Commanding Third Army, General Sir Edmund Allenby. He watched the men giving a demonstration of the new organisation for a company in the attack, building on lessons learned in the Somme battles last year(1).

Source: X550/3/WD

(1) Allenby would have been planning the Arras Offensive, which got under way on 9th April, 2nd Bedfords being involved in the opening day.

The Shooting Goes On

Trench Mortar at the Imperial War Museum

Wednesday 10th January 1917

A conversation with the adjutant of the 8th Battalion on the telephone today reminded me that, even though both armies are, unofficially in “winter quarters”, the firing goes on. Winter Quarters used to mean a suspension of hostilities for the winter whilst both armies built up their strength and planned and trained fro the year to some. Of course, that still happens, but in this modern, industrial war of constant siege the front lines are still manned and so fire is exchanged on a regular basis. Today the battalion gave thirty of its men to the Royal Engineers to make new dugouts in the support line. Seeing this activity the Germans fired about two hundred light trench mortars over the front line. Fortunately no casualties accrued to the Bedfords. The adjutant remarked that the enemy: “Received good retaliation from our artillery”.

Source: X550/9/1

More Patrolling in Sinai

Wednesday 26th April 1916: The adjutant of 1st/5th Battalion tells us that a column has returned to Shalufa today after a five day patrol towards Turkish outposts in eastern Sinai.  The column concentrated at Wadi el Haj where the Bedfordshire Regiment met elements of the Camel Corps, Royal Engineers and Royal Army Medical Corps. A post was established at the wadi to protect camel convoys and a signal station was set up to be in contact with Darb el Haj. Another post was set up further east next day near a ruined chapel at Wadi el Tawal, just under half way from Suez to the Turkish garrison at Nekhel. The post consisted of one officer and sixty other ranks. The men were involved in prospecting for water along with convoy protection duties. Trying to get further east was “very slow and hard work for both horse and man owing to the undulating and drifted sand” as the column commander reported.

The next day the column met up with another column to reconnoitre further east. All patrols sent out showed no sign of a Turk anywhere.

Source: X550/6/8

One Cricketer Succeeds Another

Lt Col Poyntz

Monday 3rd April 1916: The 2nd Battalion are in Grovetown Camp on the Somme and, though officially resting and finding working parties to labour for the Royal Engineers. Lieutenant-Colonel H S Poyntz, commanding officer of the battalion today takes over temporary command of 89th Infantry Brigade, He is replaced by Captain J W H T Douglas, thus one cricketer succeeds another.

Source: X550/3/wd

An Engineer in Egypt Part II

10 Piastre coin of 1916 

Monday 13th March 1916: Sapper W H James of the Royal Engineers is the son of Company Sergeant Major James of the 1st Field Company East Anglian Royal Engineers. The son is now in Egypt at Sidi Bishr Camp just outside Alexandria. He has been telling us of his experiences and giving us his observations.

“By dint of tram and route march we arrived at Sidi Bishr. The camp is a fine one, right on the sea-shore, so we get the chance of a dip in the sea two or three times a day if we feel inclined. Of course it is very hot here. After only two days I am a picture. My nose is a nice brick red colour  while my neck, so my pals say, is black. It is a glorious life here , I have been walking about all day in a pair of white sand shoes and in my shirt sleeves. It seems funny to think of you all at home enjoying (perhaps) the capricious moods of an English March, while we out here are divesting ourselves of every rag that we can, of course consistent with decency”.

“It is curious to notice how the women here undertake all sorts of work, while the men sit about and drink cooling drinks. Of course if a man has half a dozen wives and they all work there should be no necessity for him to do so”.

“The money here causes some consternation among the new-comers and they regard with great suspicion the change given them. The piastre is the chief coin here, but Tommy is not a bit particular and “pianos” and “disasters” are alternatives in the current use. One fellow in the same tent as myself bought a cake at the canteen, for which he was charged ½ a piastre and in payment for which he presented a florin and was paid the change in nickel piastres and ¼ piastres. He shot back to the tent like a thunderbolt and nearly exploded with the information that he’d got a pocketful of shillings and six pence change out of two shillings!”

Source: Bedfordshire Times 14th April 1916

An Engineer in Egypt Part I

Sunday 12th March 1916: Sapper W H James of the Royal Engineers is the son of Company Sergeant Major James of the 1st Field Company East Anglian Royal Engineers. The son is now in Egypt at Sidi Bishr Camp just outside Alexandria. He has been telling us of his experiences and giving us his observations.

“At first I was not struck with the beauty of Alexandria. It may have a history that goes back something like 3,000 years or more(1), but history will not cover the fact that near the docks the place is filthy. Nevertheless, it is interesting. Imagine row after row of ancient Eastern temples with their fronts knocked out and turned into rag shops; refreshment house, outside which sit men of all colours of the rainbow, drinking extremely suspicious concoctions; factories working at high pressure, but having no roof to them, and a great number of shops having apparently nothing  for sale, but outside which, serenely smoking in comfortable easy-chairs, sit the proprietors, their faces an object lesson in contentment, and you have some idea of Alexandria, or the parts of it nearer to the docks. Of course there are some fine streets and buildings in the main part of the town. As to its inhabitants – well, of course, the place is extremely Cosmopolitan, in other words the inhabitants are all the colours of the rainbow, or very nearly so. Coal black faces, brown faces, and faces even whiter than my own is at the present time, are to be seen at every turning. There are a tremendous number of Jews here, too, principally, I think, of Russian extraction besides, of course, Egyptians, Arabs and Europeans of every possible nationality. What excited a good deal of interest were Moslem women wearing Yash-maks, those veils covering the lower parts of the face. We could not have chosen a better time to arrive. The whole population of Alexandria, more or less, had turned out to see a fire, and we had the pleasure of inspecting the fire brigade. Some brigade. Then we passed a Moslem temple, or praying house, where in full view of passers-by, devout Alexandrians were bowing and scraping. It seemed peculiar to see the worshippers taking off their boots on the doorstep before venturing within”.

Source: Bedfordshire Times 14th April 1916

(1) It was founded by Alexander the Great, whose name it bears, about 331 BC.

Assisting with Gas Experiments

Gas masks at the Imperial War Museum

Wednesday 28^th July 1915: With some wry amusement the adjutant of the 2nd Bedfords has passed onto us a request from General Headquarters for one hundred men from the corps in which 7th Division resides to assist in experiments with poisoned gas. They are “to assist the chemists who have been specially enlisted for dealing with asphyxiating gases”.

Those wanted should be “Intelligent men with experience in trench warfare”, who should volunteer for the work. “A knowledge of chemistry or a scientific training would be an advantage, but neither is essential. Great care should be taken to select suitable men, as the work required of them is of a very responsible nature”. Of course, intelligent men such as these are just the sort of soldier that every Battalion needs are would be unwilling to part with.

These men will be transferred to the Royal Engineers and given the rank of Corporal with pay at the rate of 2/6d a day with 6d a day Engineer pay. This, of course, would be a fair incentive for any private soldier not too wary at the prospect of having to work with such inherently dangerous materials

Source: X550/3/wd

East Anglian Royal Engineers to Move to France

Royal Engineers cap badge

Tuesday 29th December 1914: The 1st Field Company of the East Anglian Royal Engineers(1) have the distinction of being the first Bedfordshire Territorials to go to the Front. Their peace station is Bedford but since mobilisation they have had a wandering mission in the Eastern Counties, engaged on coast defences and other necessary preparations, for three months. They then joined the division at their war station at Bury Saint Edmunds. For the last fortnight they have been under orders for the Front and have been receiving their special service equipment. The order to move has come today. And early tomorrow morning will be off, bound for “somewhere in France”(2).

The men of these Royal Engineers field companies will have vital work to do. They will construct field works, both in the trenches and in no man’s land, communications routes and fortresses. Often they will oversee the work of ordinary infantry units performing fatigues, sometimes they will perform the duties themselves. Thus they will come under fire, and have to return it at times, whilst performing their regular tasks. We salute them

Source: Bedfordshire Standard, 1st January 1915

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(1) Officially 483rd (1st East Anglian) Field Company (Territorial Force)

(2) They joined 2nd Division in January 1915, serving with it throughout the war.

Soldiers Take French Leave

Sunday 6th December 1914: At the recent Luton Borough Petty Sessions Private Samuel Spencer of the 5th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment was charged with being a deserter. The defendant, who was wearing a medal ribbon, said he ought to have been at Bury Saint Edmunds. He put in for a pass four times and failed, so came away on his own – Evidence of arrest was given by Police Sergeant Hunt, who said the prisoner admitted that he had taken French leave and the prisoner was remanded for an escort.

Private William Sims was charged with being a deserter from the Royal Engineers. He joined in 1908 and was arrested in Maple Road by Police Sergeant Hunt when he admitted that he deserted while on a journey from Winchester to Bedford. He was also remanded for an escort.

Private Herbert Fisher, 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment, was charged with being absent without leave. He was found in Hastings Street by Police Sergeant Hunt, he first said he belonged to the West Surrey Regiment and was on sick leave. The Sergeant, however, found identification marks on his clothing and then he admitted the charge. The prisoner, who said he failed to return at the proper time because he had been enjoying himself too much, was remanded for an escort.

Mr. G. Warren said the Bench were sorry to see three such respectable young fellows not attending to their duties. They were not getting themselves fit for the defence of their country.

Source: Luton News 3rd December 1914