Hard Fighting Around le Cateau

Thursday 17th October 1918

As good as his word yesterday General Rawlinson's Fourth Army attacked the enemy positions along the River Selle today, after a four-day bombardment by over a thousand guns. During the misty light of dawn the men of seven divisions (including the American 27th and 30th Divisions) went forward.

It has been a tough fight all day across the swollen river, the Americans, for example, could not even take their first objective and an enemy counter-attack prompted 50th (Northumbrian) Division to give up some of the ground it had taken. However, 66th (2nd East Lancashire) Division, with the South African Brigade to the fore, has taken the village of le Cateau. Tomorrow will see the attack resumed and there is a determination that the enemy are not going to prevail.

2nd Bedfords in the Front Line Again

Sunday 5th May 1918

The Composite Battalion containing the 2nd Battalions, Bedfordshire and Wiltshire Regiments, after the shortest of rests, is once more in the front line. They are holding the section shown in the map above in the square numbered 10 just west of Vierstraat. They have relieved the South African composite brigade of 9th (Scottish) Division. 

Number 2 (Bedfordshire) Company is on the right (facing south) and Number 4 (Wiltshire) Company is on the left (facing east) with Number 1 (Bedfordshire) Company in reserve and Number 3 (Wiltshire) Company in immediate support. 

Source: X550/3/wd

Day One Hundred and Eleven on the Somme

Thursday 19th October 1916 From our Correspondent in the Field

It has rained again all day today, turning the battlefield into a vile soup of mud and filth dotted with bodies and destroyed equipment. German flame-throwers and infantry attacked the South African Brigade this morning near a position called The Nose east of Le Sars. This caused them to retreat but artillery halted any further German advance. Meanwhile a trench north-east of Gueudecourt was found to be empty of enemy and was occupied by 4th Division.

Day Twenty on the Somme

Thursday 20th July 1916 From our Correspondent in the Field

Today the South Africans were relieved from the evil Delville Wood, now being referred to by all and sundry as Devil’s Wood. The rescue was effected by two battalions from 53rd Brigade, 18th Division, the division which has so greatly distinguished itself in the first three weeks of this great battle. 8th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment and 6th Battalion, Royal Berkshire Regiment finally broke through German defences to bring out the encircled South Africans. Only two wounded officers, we understand and 140 men, out of a total of several thousand who went in, came out of the wood. There is a story doing the rounds, which I cannot verify, that they were piped out by a man of the Black Watch who had fought against the Boers at the Battle of Magersfontein in 1899(1).

A few hundred yards to the north-west 33rd Division attacked High Wood this morning. In vicious fighting they have managed to occupy a portion of the southern edge of this place. Attacks this afternoon saw men of the division reach the northern part of the wood. Sadly they were driven back to the southern end by heavy German shelling.

(1) This was Piper Sandy Grieve.

Day Nineteen on the Somme

Wednesday 19th July 1916 From our Correspondent in the Field

Early this morning 3rd (Transvaal) Battalion, South African Battalion in Delville Wood suffered an attack from the rear which succeeded in capturing nearly two hundred of their number. The remaining battalion members seem to have been killed meaning that the formation has, effectively, ceased to exist. An attack by Scottish battalions of 9th Division into the wood was repulsed by the strong point in the north-west corner of the wood. Their failure to capture this on the first day of their attack has been quite deadly to the South Africans. The situation in Delville Wood now looks very grave. There is a feeling that the sacrifice of the men from the veldt must not be allowed to be in vain and there seems a quiet determination amongst those in the army to avenge them and their Scottish comrades.

Day Eighteen on the Somme

Tuesday 18th July 1916 From our Correspondent in the Field

I have heard from the adjutant of 1st Bedfords that they have been reconnoitring the ground in the area of High Wood, which is still firmly in German hands. Meanwhile the adjutant of 7th Bedfords tells me of a rumour in the division (18th) that it will not be called on to attack Guillemont due to the heavy casualties it incurred on the first day of the Battle and subsequently in the taking of Trônes Wood.

This afternoon the Germans have launched an attack on the village and wood at Longueval. The South Africans have been engaged in bitter hand-to-hand fighting in the shattered remains of that dreadful wood but, as I write, they are still hanging on. Australians to whom I have talked seem to see the failed invasion of Gallipoli last year as a badge of honour for their country blaming, of course, its failure on the British. One wonders if, in years to come, Delville Wood will not be seen by South Africans as similarly definitive for their nation.

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

Day Seventeen on the Somme

Monday 17th July 1916 From our Correspondent in the Field

Word has reached us that 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, is about to join the struggle on the Somme, now in its seventeenth day. The battalion has marched to the town of Ville-sur-Ancre after a series of four route marches in the last four days. The 2nd Battalion is at Vaux and has been training after its struggle in Trônes Wood. The 7th Battalion, meanwhile, received fresh orders this morning to assault the village of Guillemont in co-operation with 53rd Brigade from the same division (18th). Again these have been cancelled but the battalion remains under orders to move at a moment’s notice.

Again the reason for the delay in any assault on Guillemont is the failure to secure the northern parts of the village of Longueval and the north-west of Delville Wood. Further attacks by the Scots and the South Africans early this morning ground to a halt around noon.

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

Day Sixteen on the Somme

Sunday 16th July 1916 From our Correspondent in the Field

Today I understand from the adjutant that 7th Bedfords, currently out of the front line at Maricourt, were ordered to be prepared to attack the village of Guillemont but as they began to move off around 2 pm the order was cancelled as the Germans were still holding parts of Delville Wood and Longueval village, immediately west of Guillemont. Sadly the South Africans have been so decreased in numbers that their attempts to take the last portion of the wood (the north-west tip) have come to nothing. An attack to take the northern part of Longueval village by other units of 9th Division was also repulsed.

Elsewhere the village of Ovillers has finally fallen after sixteen days of attacks. The victors, we believe, were units from 25th and 48th Divisions. In High Wood the units of 7th Division in the wood were withdrawn just before midnight in the face of overwhelming German numbers and strong defensive positions.

Source: X550/8/1

Day Fifteen on the Somme

Saturday 15th July 1916 From our Correspondent in the Field

Alas! My report of yesterday was written in high spirits, filled with expectation that a major rip had been made in the enemy line at High Wood and that cavalry, pouring through the gap could burst the whole front wide open. Sadly cavalry en-masse could not be brought up in time and, though the gallant 20th Deccan Horse did indeed charge into the wood and do great execution, it was a lone hand. Today 7th Division attacked High Wood at 9 am but found it now heavily garrisoned. There are, I believe, still units of 7th Division in the wood, contesting it with the German garrison even as I write.

Yesterday parts of the village of Longueval, immediately south of High Wood, were captured but the whole could not be gained. This morning the South African Brigade, part of 9th (Scottish) Division attacked the wood, determined to take it at all costs. The 2nd (Natal and Free State) South African Battalion attacked from the south-west at 6 am and the southern half of the wood was quickly taken. Soon after all but the north-west tip, where a German strong-point was located adjacent to the village of Longueval, was in South African hands and they began to dig in, at least, in-so-far as the roots and shattered trees would allow which, I understand from those who have spoken to South African wounded, was not very far.

At 11.30 this morning the Germans began launching counter-attacks, which were all repulsed with loss. This has continued all day but the men from the veldt have stood firm through it all and as I write a tremendous bombardment can be heard coming from the direction of Longueval village and its wood. 

Today 6th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment took its first active part in the Battle of the Somme, having formed a defensive flank for the capture of Contalmaison. It is part of 112th Brigade, attached to 34th Division and made an attack on the village of Pozieres from south of Contalmaison as part of a brigade attack. Hostile machine-guns meant that the attack petered out about one hundred yards from the cemetery north of Pozieres where the men dug in. In this action the battalion lost 3 officers and 32 other ranks dead, 25 other ranks missing and 9 officers and 174 other ranks wounded. Clearly this village will not be easy to take but it must be taken as it is one of the highest points on the whole battlefield with commanding views west, south and east.

Source: X550/8/1

Day Four on the Somme

Tuesday 4th July 1916 From our Correspondent in the Field

It has been another busy day, if a very wet one, the fourth day of what we are now calling The Battle of the Somme. 18th Division, of which 7th Bedfords forms a part, occupied a small wood called Marlboro’ Wood, just north of Caterpillar Wood which was taken yesterday, unopposed. Just over the ridge to the north lies the village of Bazentin-le-Grand and its accompanying wood to the west, both, no doubt, full of Germans. The battalion itself is resting further south around Carnoy Wood. Total casualties for the battle so far have been calculated by the adjutant as 2 officers killed and 13 wounded; 79 other ranks killed, 212 wounded, 6 missing and another 9 who subsequently have died of their wounds – a total of 306 officers and men.

The 2nd Battalion continue to consolidate the division’s positions, again under considerable shellfire, which wounded a number of people including Lieutenant Leonard Dolman(1). This evening they hope to be relieved by the South African Brigade. This Battalion has also been totting up its casualties so far: 2nd Lieutenant W. E. Boulton was reported as suffering from shell shock on 1st July(2). Seven other ranks have been killed, eight are missing, five also have shell shock and two, though wounded, are still at duty; 56 have been wounded making a grand total of 78.

Lieutenant Dolman [X550/1/82] (left) and Second Lieutenant Boulton [X550/1/81] (right)

Elsewhere another attack was made on the hamlet of la Boisselle by 19th and 23rd Divisions. The attack was hampered by the flooded ground which has turned to a deep, sucking mud. The attack began at 8.30 and by 2.30 most of the village was in British hands, despite counter-attacks. 17th Division made a short advance north towards Contalmaison, much hampered by the weather and state of the ground and so an attack is prepared for the hours of darkness tonight.

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

(1) He died on the last day of 1917, from wounds received in a trench raid by the Germans on 21st December, whilst serving with 8th Battalion, and is buried at Achiet-le-Grand Communal Cemetery Extension.

(2) Neurasthenia was the medical name given to this ailment. Today it would probably be labelled as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.