One Out, One In

Monday 18th March 1918

1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment is on the move back from the front line on the River Piave. Yesterday they moved south from Arcade to Santandrà. Today they have been marching south to Castagnole where they will billet for the night.

As one battalion leaves the line, anothers enters it. The 2nd Battalion have left Villers-Saint-Christophe and are once again at Savy Dugouts, where they have relieved 17th Battalion, Manchester Regiment. There are increasing rumours here in France that a German attack is looming. Many of these rumours highlight the area around Saint-Quentin as liable to receive this onslaught. Only time will tell if these are a superior brand of rumour or just the usual stock-in-trade of the idle and fanciful.

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

The Death of Second Lieutenant Perham

Sunday 10th March 1918

The adjutant of 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, guarding a vital bridge over the River Piave at Bidasio reports that Second Lieutenant W F G Perham has died of the wounds he received yesterday. He will be buried this evening in the growing British cemetery at Arcade and several officers and a number of men of his platoon have been given leave to attend the funeral. Arcade is a village about two miles south-west of the bridge and the cemetery is about two miles or more to the west of the village

Source: X550/2/5

1st Bedfords Defend the Bridge

Tuesday 5th March 1918

1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, in northern Italy is going back into the front line today at Bisasio on the River Piave. This time they will have specific responsibility for defending a bridge across this wide, shallow, fast-flowing river, the Ponte della Priula.

Meanwhile 2nd Battalion, which has been working on trying to improve defences in the “battle zone” behind the front line, where any enemy attack is expected to be halted, has moved back to billets. They are at Villers-Saint-Christophe, a mile or so north-west of their previous billets at Aubigny-aux-Kaisnes.

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

1st Battalion Relieved

Monday 18th February 1918

1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment has completed its first spell in the front line in northern Italy. It has been at Bidasio on the southern bank of the River Piave. As I write these lines they are being relieved by the 1st Battalion, East Surrey Regiment and will be marching back to the town of Visnadello. The adjutant remarked, in his wire, that enemy aircraft have been very active at night.

Source: X550/2/5

First Night at Rotonda Bidasio

Sunday 3rd February 1918

1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment are in the front line on the River Piave at a village called Bidasio. Last night they suffered their first casualties as two other ranks were wounded by Austrian light artillery of 77 mm calibre. The night was spent clearing communication trenches.

The adjutant of 8th Battalion, at Lebucquière near Bapaume, tells us that Lieutenant Leonard Dolman has been posthumously awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre; he died of his wounds on the last day of 1917; 20454 Lance Sergeant W Cooper of A Company has been similarly honoured but is still very much alive.

Sources: X550/2/5; X550/9/1

In the Line in Italy

Saturday  2nd February 1918

The 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment will go into the front line in northern Italy for the first time today when thet relieve 14th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment at Bidasio on the south bank of the River Piave. Headquarters is at a building called the Rotonda. The adjutant described it as “a very superior type of farm with frescoes on the walls(1) and a large pleasure garden. It has suffered to a certain extent from shell fire but is sandbagged up sufficiently to make it safe against anything other than a direct hit”. The front line trenches are in an embankment above the river with the enemy about a thousand yards distant.

Source: X550/2/5

(1) Sadly destroyed later that year

Reconnoitring a New Front

Monday 28th January 1918

The adjutant of 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment has wired to say that the commanding officer, company commanders and he himself have been in the front line on the River Piave, reconnoitring where there positions will be. The river is quite broad and has a generous floodplain on either bank. This made it an obstacle formidable enough to see the end of the Austrian advance after their victory at Caporetto last year.

Source: X550/2/5

Mini Battalion Round-Up

Lieutenant-Colonel E I de S Thorpe [X550/1/82]

Wednesday 16th January 1916

The 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment are still training in northern Italy, preparing to man trenches on the front-line against the Austrians on the River Piave. The conditions at the front are likely to be very different from Belgium and northern France and a prolonged period of acclimatisation is very important. Company Sergeant Major E Johnson MM has been promoted to second lieutenant and posted to the Battalion.

Lieutenant-Colonel E I de S Thorpe only joined 2nd Battalion at the end of last year but already he has been transferred. He is going on a short leave before proceeding to Italy to take command of the 1st Bedfords.

The 4th Battalion have gone back into the front line. They have relieved the 1st/4th Battalion, King’s Shropshire Light Infantry.

The 6th Battalion is also training at Sercus, south-west of Hazebrouck. Today one of those things which happens in war or peace alike took place - a drummer was killed by a collapsing barn falling on top of him. Such an event would be a tragedy for the family of the man concerned at any time but in war, with slaughter of man by man all around, such an accident seems even more poignant.

Sources: X550/2/5; X550/3/wd; X550/5/3; X550/7/1