Tuesday 13th March 1917 from
our correspondent in the field
At 2 am this
morning the 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment was in position ready to make
an attack on the Loupart Line east of the village of Irles. An hour later a message
was received from the Australians east of Loupart Wood to the effect that the
enemy were retiring. No patrol could be sent out by darkness but a daylight
patrol was organised which reported that the Loupart Line had been evacuated.
Thus, at 11
am D Company moved to the Loupart Line. C Company followed in support. The
companies moved in four open waves each. The companies were under shell fire
and considerably troubled with machine gun fire from Achiet-le-Petit about two
miles to the north. According to the adjutant, however, “The formations were
splendid and the men were wonderfully steady”.
By 12.15 C
Company had passed through D Company and continued in four waves, with scouts,
about 200 yards in advance until held up by heavy machine gun fire from a line
of trenches dubbed the Achiet Line. By 1 pm the Battalion occupied the Loupart
Line and, an hour later, had also taken Hill 130 after considerable resistance.
By 4 pm the
Battalion was in its final position, near a place where five roads met dubbed
The Star Roads on Hill 130. Tonight the Battalion is consolidating a line shown in blue on the map above, facing Achiet-le-Petit to the north
Coincidentally
2nd Division are also operating in this area, including 1st/1st Field Company,
East Anglian Royal Engineers. At 6.45 am the Company was told to consolidate
strongpoints behind the new front line to be taken up by 6th Infantry Brigade
on Irles-Grevillers Road. The infantry advance being successful, the Company
with attached sappers’ mates, constructed and wired 5 strongpoints as shown by blue x’s on the map above. Three other ranks were wounded during the day(1).
Source: X550/8/1; WW1/WD2
(1) Two men
subsequently died - on the day itself 522252 Sapper C A Howe of 33 Goldington
Road, Bedford, aged 24 (buried Adanac Military Cemetery, Miraumont) and 522004
Sapper Edward Stanley Moore, 25, from Sherington or Newport Pagnell in
Buckinghamshire who is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
