III. 8th Battalion
The 8th Battalion of the Buffs, under Colonel Romer, C.B., C.M.G., landed in France, as we have seen, on the 1st September, or twenty-four days only before the battle of Loos. After two days at Boulogne it went into billets at Maninghem, near Etaples, and there remained a fortnight, completing divisional training, and marching on the 21st to take part in the concentration prior to the battle of Loos with the rest of the 72nd Brigade, which was commanded by Br.-General B. M. Mitford, C.B., D.S.O., himself an old Buff. The march to Bethune, which was reached in the very early morning of the 25th September, was a trying one done by night, mostly over bad roads. On the second night no less than twenty-two miles were covered and the Buffs recorded only one man as falling out. Other battalions had many more—even as many as two hundred.
At 11 a.m. on the day of arrival at Bethune the battalion formed up and Colonel Romer addressed his men. “I am not going to make a speech to you,” he said, “but only to ask you to remember that you are ‘The Buffs.’” The battalion then moved forward towards the fighting line, gradually approaching Vermelles. That very night it had orders for a night attack on Hulluch, which was, however, stopped in order to allow of artillery preparation. The first casualty occurred at this time: 2nd Lieut. Hon. H. E. J. Robinson was so badly hit that he died next day in hospital. The attack being thus postponed, the battalion got into what were the original German second-line trenches and remained there till 11 a.m. on the 26th.
At 10.30 a.m. orders came for the division to attack at 11, and then this unit of the regiment went “over the top” to take its part in a severe action only three weeks after arrival in France and without having gone through the apprenticeship and instruction under fire in the trenches, which was the rule in all cases of fresh troops arriving in the country.
The brigade, in which our battalion was a unit, advanced from the approach-trenches, which had been German and which it was then holding, to the objective, which was the third line of the German fortification running north from a point about a thousand yards east of Hulluch, which place the 1st Division was to attack simultaneously, while on the right the 21st Division had another portion of the enemy’s third line assigned to it.
The 8th Buffs were in the second line, following the 9th East Surrey, who were on the brigade right in touch with the above-named division. On the left of the Surreys were the 8th Royal West Kent, with the 8th Queen’s behind them.
There was a steady and persistent shelling on all these battalions as they advanced, and when our men got down to the depression running south of Hulluch they came under enfilade fire from several guns and machine guns, and the further they advanced up the eastern slope the more severe became the fire. All the battalions of the 72nd Brigade reached the trenches which were their objective. There they found the wire entanglement still quite intact, the wire being abnormally thick and difficult to cut. Endeavours were made to get over or under this obstacle, but to no purpose. Meanwhile the division on the right retired, leaving our people to be heavily enfiladed, with the result that the latter also had to fall back, which they did to some trenches five or six hundred yards to the west and south-west of Hulluch, and there, for four and a half hours, they were heavily bombarded.
When night came on parties were sent out to remove the killed and wounded, but the Germans after dark reoccupied their old trenches along the Hulluch-Lens road and the rescue parties therefore failed to get at the eastern slope of the shallow valley, in which Hulluch lies: the fatal slope on which the greater number of our casualties occurred. Only a dozen or so of the more lightly wounded of the Buffs managed to crawl back after nightfall.
This assault was made in daylight and over open country, and the German third-line trench which was the objective was nearly a mile away.
The men had started in what is termed artillery formation, but the lines, owing to the intensity of the fire encountered, had to be extended almost at once. The advance was carried forward very rapidly, and in half an hour the Buffs had arrived within twenty-five yards of the enemy’s wire.
No gaps could be observed, and for twenty minutes the attempts to cut it were continued without avail.
It was at 11.55 that an order came to withdraw, and from that moment the hostile fire, especially from the left flank, became hotter than ever and, of course, the casualties heavier. The Buffs—what was left of them—were relieved during the night of the 26th/27th and rested in a field close by Sailly la Bourse, remaining till 7 p.m. on the latter date, when they marched to Nœux les Mines and bivouacked in very wet weather.
The casualties in the awful fight briefly described above were tremendous. That gallant old soldier Colonel Romer was early shot in the shoulder, but continued in his place, showing an example to all, till he was killed by a bullet through his heart. What a death for a hero of sixty-four! Though he was not originally a Buff, he was one indeed when he died, and his name will ever be remembered with those of Lathom, Moyse and so many others, from Sir Philip Sidney downwards, who have covered our regiment with glory in all quarters of the globe. With their colonel were killed, or soon after died of wounds, Captains Curtiss, A. M. C. Hollist, W. Howard, J. Kekewich and T. R. M. Shervinton; Lieuts. E. F. Corner, B. H. Pickering, Hon. H. E. J. Robinson and J. R. S. Pensley (R.A.M.C.), together with too many of the gallant men who followed them so well. Lieut. E. T. Smith was also killed in the trenches near Ypres on the 19th October. Altogether, counting killed, wounded and missing, the casualties amounted to the astounding figure of 24 officers and 610 other ranks.
Would any man a few years ago have believed that a time was close at hand when a battalion of the regiment was to suffer more casualties than fell to the lot of the Buffs at Albuera? Only one officer, Lieut. J. Vaughan, came out of the hell untouched, and he was given a right well-earned M.C. for bringing his unit out of action. Four of the men’s names were sent in for distinguished bravery, but were not accepted by the War Office because they were prisoners of war; but the D.C.M.’s recorded later as bestowed on Sergt.-Major Brooker and Pte. Peet were bravely earned upon this day.
The remnants of the battalion were somewhat cheered by being informed, as they were on the morning of the 27th, that their attack drew off sixteen battalions of the enemy who were reinforcing the German line opposite the French, thus considerably helping the latter to capture Souchey and 14,000 prisoners.
The battalion was removed by train to Mollinghem, thence to Houtkerque, and later to Reninghelst. On the 4th October it was inspected by the G.O.C. of the division, who spoke of the way in which the regimental traditions had been maintained.
The usual instruction in trench warfare began on the 5th October, and Major Trueman took over command on the 7th.
On the 18th of this month the battalion passed to the 17th Infantry Brigade and two days afterwards took over the usual trench duty on its own account, and began its long acquaintance with the filthy life such duty meant: a life of danger, stinks, rats, lice, discomfort and misery such as no Englishman had ever conceived it possible that he should one day be called on to endure.
NEIGHBOURHOOD OF LOOS