Historical records of the Buffs, East Kent Regiment (3rd Foot)

by R. S. H. Moody

I. Preparations

It has been noticed that the great German offensive had been foreseen by our commanders long before the storm actually broke. The transfer of German divisions from their Eastern to their Western front began as early as November, 1917, and it was known that the Russian guns and munitions were at our enemy’s disposal. In fact, it became a question of the French and English holding their own till the Americans could make their weight felt, and thus the war was for the present to be a defensive one and all preparations were made to this end. The defensive area or belt was divided into the forward, the battle and the rear zones, and each of these was carefully chosen; but there was a tremendous amount of work to be done in the way of preparing the ground to be defended, as well as the construction of roads, railway lines and so on. The men, too, required much, training in defensive tactics. The whole military art is not taught in a few months, nor is a man an educated soldier when he can take his part in a route march or a field day. Most training had to be imparted during intervals of fighting, and until now the chief subject of study had been the preparation for the offensive.

Very early in 1918 the British had taken over from the French another considerable extension of front, one, in fact, of over twenty-eight miles, and this brought our line down to the River Oise and gave no less than 125 miles of country to our care. At the same time the indications of an imminent attack became more marked than ever, particularly in front of the 3rd and 5th Armies. Now at this time the 1st Battalion the Buffs was with the former of these and the 7th Battalion with the latter. The enemy’s immediate objective would seem to have been to separate the French and English armies, which joined where the 7th Battalion was, and to capture Amiens, a very important centre of communications.

The 3rd Army was under General the Hon. J. H. G. Byng, K.C.B., and held a front of twenty-seven miles with four Corps; and the 5th Army, under General Sir H. de la P. Gough, K.C.B., occupied forty-two miles, also with four Corps. The weakest part of our line perhaps was that portion so recently taken over from the French, where the defences were not quite so good as elsewhere.

Sir Douglas Haig reckoned that sixty-four German divisions took part in the operations on the first day of the battle; “the majority of these divisions had spent many weeks and even months in concentrated training for offensive operations and had reached a high pitch of technical excellence in the attack.” To meet the enemy’s assault the 3rd Army had eight divisions in line with seven in reserve. The 5th had eleven divisions in line with six divisions (three being cavalry divisions) in reserve. Later on, when it was found the enemy was using his whole strength in the battle, Haig was able to bring eight more divisions from north to south, and by the end of March the supreme German effort was broken. This, however, did not result until after a terrible period of danger had been passed through.

On the 21st March the attack opened after a short but very violent bombardment and, owing to dense fog, the Germans were able to penetrate the British front and force the 5th Army to retreat precipitately. On the 25th of the month the enemy reached Albert, and this day was perhaps one of the most important in history because Marshal Foch, by agreement between the Allies, was appointed to the supreme command of the armies of the West; and from that time onward final victory was secure, whatever troubles might intervene. On the 27th March the Germans took Montdidier.

To meet the crisis all the available reserves, totalling 350,000 men, were hurried to France from England, Palestine and the East, and this brought the 10th Battalion The Buffs on the scene. The despatch of American troops was greatly accelerated, so that between 200,000 and 300,000 men a month were embarked for France. The Germans were stopped before they could reach Amiens by the united efforts of English, French and American troops, yet another offensive south of Ypres developed on the 9th April which was only really stayed three weeks later. During these offensives the German casualties were enormous, but so were ours; and our loss in guns, aerodromes, ammunition, machine guns, trench mortars, tanks and rolling stock was stupendous.

It will be convenient now to trace the history of the 1st, 6th, 10th and 7th Battalions of the Buffs one by one from the 21st March till the 8th August, the date usually ascribed to the commencement of the Allies’ great counter-offensive, which, once started, was maintained without intermission till the end of the war. It may be as well to take the 7th Battalion last, for it was heavily engaged on the 6th August, and the 8th of the month found it practically in the midst of a great battle.