Wednesday 31st
January 1917 from our correspondent in
the field
As it is the
end of the first month of the new year your correspondent has tried to contact
all the Bedfordshire Regiment battalions in France and Flanders. The 1st
Battalion are in billets in Béthune, struggling to train in the extreme cold.
The 2nd
Battalion are at Beaurepaire east of Doullens. The whole battalion is employed
in a railway fatigue but some members were given time-off to take part in the
Divisional Inter-Battalion Cross Country Race. This was won by 20th Battalion
King’s (Liverpool) Regiment with 2,769 points. The 2nd Bedfords had to be
content with a close second place on 2,763 points but did have the satisfaction
of having the winning runner - Corporal Joyce.
The 4th
Battalion are in the front line north of Beaucourt-sur-Ancre. They have been
under shell fire today as well as the usual sniping and have lost four men
killed outright, another who died of wounds and fifteen men less seriously wounded.
The 6th
Battalion are in 63rd Brigade reserve area at Zelobes near Béthune. 7th
Battalion are in huts in Martinsart Wood on the Somme. They are furnishing
working parties for Royal Engineers’ work, with one company digging
communication trenches near the front Line. This company is billeted in the
Support Line, sleeping in tents and working during the night. The adjutant
remarked to me: “In spite of the intense cold, frost and snow the men appear
very fit and are changed over every third day”. He went on: “Every opportunity
is being taken to improve backward men with classes for drill, musketry,
sniping, scouting and signalling, also for non-commissioned officers and young
officers who require extra tuition are kept going daily except when the Battalion
is actually in the trenches”.
The 8th
Battalion adjutant has given me the field state for the battalion which stands
at 29 officers and 1,106 other ranks. During the month the Battalion has lost
one man killed, two men missing, seven men wounded and 88 sick in hospital, of
whom 52 have returned to duty.The adjutant remarked: “The majority of the sick
are men recently out from England”.
The last we
heard from the 1st/5th Battalion in far-away Egypt they were moving from Suez
into the Sinai Desert. The adjutant told me the speculation was of an imminent
campaign to drive the Turks out of Palestine, victories in December and January
having taken the army to the borders of this territory.
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