8th Bedfords in Action Again

Friday 21st December 1917

The adjutant of 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment spoke on the blower this morning about a welcome back to the front line they received from the enemy this morning. About 6.30 a patrol of fifteen attempted to raid a block of the Battalion’s in one of their trenches. A block is an obstruction put up in a trench to prevent movement along it, usually when part of the trench is still held by the enemy. The Battalion are in trenches south-west of Riencourt-lèz-Cagnicourt and their block is shown by an x on the map above.

The raiders were dealt with by Lewis gun and rifle fire, but Second Lieutenant Dolman was wounded(1). In retaliation the Battalion’s snipers were zealous during the day and reckon to have hit three of the enemy.

Second Lieutenant Dolman [X550/1/81]

At six o’clock this evening, the rations were delivered by D Company which is responsible for delivering rations to the entire Battalion. At that time 150 men of The Buffs - 1st Battalion, East Kent Regiment, turned up to work on a new trench line. They will need to put their backs into it as the ground is hard with frost. After their successful defence earlier in the day the adjutant signed-off by stating that all the men were in good spirits.

X550/9/1

(1) He would die ten days later.

A Chinese Attack

Monday 25th June 1917

The adjutant of 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, at Hulluch, still smarting from the events of three days ago has reported, with some satisfaction that at nine o’clock last night the 1st Battalion The Buffs on the battalion’s left raided the enemy trenches remaining in their line for about two and-a-half hours. The 8th Battalion co-operated by putting up a smoke barrage and exposing dummy figures representing troops leaving their trenches, which drew the enemy's fire. This use of dummies is known, for reasons that escape your correspondent, as a Chinese Attack.

The Buffs captured fifteen prisoners and two aerial dart machines, many dugouts were blown-in and many of the enemy killed. Other correspondents have remarked that the performance of The Buffs yesterday and the Bedfords three days ago exemplifies the difference between the Regular Army and the volunteer “Kitchener Men” though as the Bedfords have been at the Front for two years now this seems somewhat unfair.

Source: X550/1/9

8th Bedfords Attack at Loos

Sunday 15th April 1917

Yesterdays rumours, it seems, were true. There have been no attacks at Arras today. This is familiar to us from the events on the Somme last year. A few days of violent offensive would be followed by a period of consolidation and planning before the next paroxysm of violence.

Looking back on the battle so far it is very reminiscent of the struggles of last year from the middle of July onwards. The first day was, overall, successful, though with some disappointments. Each successive day saw the enemy defences harden, communications between our own formations increasingly difficult and so our attacks increasingly less well co-ordinated and so less successful, with the inevitable effect on the casualty rate. As one of my waggish colleagues remarked last night, it is a pity that every offensive does not stop after the first day, wait a few days then have another first day. There are rumours that our French allies will begin an offensive of their own further south around Saint-Quentin in a few days’ time. We all hope their first day will be a success(1).

4th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment is in the frontline at Gavrelle, north of Arras. Today it has been conducting a reconnaissance of the enemy village, along with 10th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers. This has been a hazardous business as the Germans are alert to any forward movement, and two officers, Second Lieutenants Frear and Marshall, have been killed, three officers and fifty five other ranks wounded.

The fighting in France is not limited to Arras. The 8th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment is on the old Loos battlefield of 1915, this morning it was in a position between the villages of Vermelles and Grenay. I have spoken with their commanding officer, Lord Ampthill, who told me that the battalion, along with the 1st Battalion, The Buffs attacked and seized a position south of Loos under heavy shell fire from which the Germans were spotted retiring two days ago. They are now in a trench which prolongs a feature known as the Double Crassier (two long spoil heaps of waste material from coal mining) and will, it is believed, over the next few days work their way towards a position called Hill 70 to the east.. This small action has cost twenty eight other ranks wounded.

Sources: X550/5/3; X550/1/9

(1) The French commander, Robert Nivelle intended to have a short breakthrough battle which, as soon as it started to run out of steam would be halted. Sadly it proved more difficult to halt an offensive than Nivelle realised. The French, by this stage of the war, had already had vastly more casualties than the British, and from a smaller population, by the end of the war the French would have suffered around 1,150,000 deaths (from a population of 40 million – 2.875%), Britain would suffer 750,000 deaths (from a population of 45 million – 1.6%) This left the French army’s morale fragile. It is tragic that this “Nivelle Offensive” proved to be the straw which broke the camel’s back leading to mutinies in the army and robbing it of any offensive value for some time.