The Companies changed round on the second day, and in the evening of the third day the Battalion was relieved by the 1st Herts Regiment, and returned to the college at Bethune. The troops now felt they were real soldiers, though doubtless some were surprised to find that they could spend three days in the line without seeing a German. The only unpleasant feature in an otherwise very satisfactory forty-eight hours in the line was the casualty just before the relief to Private R. Pulman, of “D” Company, who was badly wounded in the head by a bullet. Private Pulman died in hospital in Bethune the following day, and his platoon attended the funeral.
The only other casualties were also in “D” Company—Sergeant G. F. Anderson and Private I. Spielman—both wounded.
The novelty of front line trenches had not yet worn off, and having had a not unpleasant taste of trench life, the troops were quite keen to go in again. So it is recorded that “We had heard a rumour that after doing our forty-eight hours in the trenches we were to return to Cauchy, so we are now pleased when we hear that we are to go again to the trenches to-day (the 19th of April)”.
The second trip to the line was very much like the first one, but on the first morning the Battalion lost one who for many years had served with great distinction. Private A. E. Snellgrove, of “B” Company, who was killed outright by a bullet through the head, had been a crack shot in the Regiment as long ago as the Volunteer days. Although he had left the Regiment some time before the war, he was one of the first men to rejoin in August, 1914. A quiet, modest and unassuming fellow, Private Snellgrove had many friends in the Regiment, to whom his death came as a great shock. He was buried in the Guards’ Cemetery at Givenchy.
The Battalion was holding a section of the line immediately north of the previous sector, and the area now held included what was known as the “Keep” at Givenchy. This was an old farm building with a courtyard in which the Guards had made a flower bed, which they called St. James’s Park. Here were regimental badges of various Guards Regiments worked in box or privet hedging. Not to be outdone, the Civil Service Rifles planted their crest in privet hedging alongside the others.
Two days in this sector, one day’s respite in billets at Le Preol, and then two more days in the former sector B1, brought to a close the first experience of the 140th Infantry Brigade in holding the front line, for on the 24th of April the Brigade was relieved and the Civil Service Rifles marched via Beuvry, Bethune and Chocques to rest billets at the village of La Beuvrière—a village a little larger than Cauchy and a little more pleasantly situated.
The village lay between two well-wooded uplands. Companies were billeted in small farms by the side of main roads and the men slept warmly on straw of suspicious character. As often as not there was a pigsty next door. Battalion Headquarters was in a house in the square next the grey old monastery—then used as a hospital. The parade ground was down the hill over the railway, bounded on one side by a swift-flowing brook good for a dip after a game of football. A favourite morning’s training was to steer a way by compass through the thick undergrowth of a wood, six square miles in area, to the east of the village.
The troops now felt quite familiar with the trenches, and were glad to have an opportunity of talking over their experiences in the comparative comfort of the estaminets. As there had been no further casualties there was a fairly cheerful atmosphere to greet the remainder of the first reinforcement—twenty-eight N.C.O.’s and men who joined from Havre on the 27th of April. The Battalion had, however, lost a good many men through sickness—an outbreak of measles being the chief cause. Already two officers, Lieutenants Radice and Benké, had returned to England through sickness, and, in addition, 2nd Lieutenant F. J. Smith, “A” Company, was so badly injured in a football match at La Beuvrière on the 2nd of May against the Post Office Rifles, that he had to return to England. The loss of Frank Smith was keenly felt in the Battalion, of which he had been a member since 1906. As a sergeant in “B” Company he was very popular, both with his brother N.C.O.’s and with the men. He was a thorough sportsman in every way, and his appointment to a commission in the Regiment only about a month before was very popular with all ranks.
It was while at La Beuvrière that the Battalion received for each Company a travelling kitchen. Hitherto cooking had been done in the camp kettle, or “dixie,” and there had been very little variety in the meals. After a long march, there was always a tedious waiting for meals, but the “Company Cooker” was to revolutionise that, for dinners could be cooked on the march—and what is more, they were. So the infantryman salutes the inventor of the “Company Cooker.”
After nearly a fortnight’s rest the Division went back to war, and the Civil Service Rifles, pausing for one night in very dirty reserve billets at the village of Gorre, found themselves on the 9th of May on the fringe, as it were, of the battle of Festubert, where they were holding the intermediate line of breastworks, behind the 6th London Regiment.