Franvillers and district was used as a kind of “finishing school” for troops in training for any particular phase of the battle of the Somme in 1916, and as it was fairly near to the battlefield, it had become an unusually busy centre. Troops from all parts of the United Kingdom seemed to have passed through and every available inch of space was used for billets. The billets, owing chiefly to overcrowding, were very uncomfortable and very dirty, and the natives were beginning to get tired of the troops.
The training was of the very strenuous type—drills before breakfast, attack practice after breakfast, musketry and digging in the afternoon, and route march in the evening. It was now known that the attack which was being practised daily over a taped course was to be on a certain wood, but the name of the wood was so far kept secret.
But in spite of this crowded programme, there were some who found time for trips to Amiens, and there were many who enjoyed the excellent bathing in a natural pool in the Ancre at Heilly, a village south of the Amiens-Albert road.
It was at Franvillers that Sergeant R. F. M. Bigby earned the gratitude of his comrades by securing an issue of rum for all. According to his story he was drinking beer in an estaminet, when the Regimental Medical Officer came in on a tour of inspection, accompanied by the A.D.M.S. A mild outbreak of enteric in the Division was causing the medical fraternity some anxiety at the time, and efforts were being made to discover the cause of it. The A.D.M.S. asked Sergeant Bigby what he was drinking, but, on being informed, instead of ordering any, as Bigby had expected, the doctor inquired about the quality of it. The gallant sergeant assured the medicos that the quality was poor, but that if followed by a ration of rum there were no ill effects. On the contrary, a ration of rum at night, especially during bad weather and in bad billets, had been found to be a pretty sure prevention against enteric, which complaint, added Bigby—as the medicos were doubtless aware—was getting rather troublesome at Franvillers. But then, there had not been an issue of rum so far in that village, so could one be surprised?
When, very shortly after this interview, a ration of rum was issued to the troops, there were few in the Division who did not acclaim the name of Bigby!
Early in September it became known that the 47th Division was to attack the German positions in and around High Wood—positions which had already been captured by more than one Division, but afterwards retaken by the Germans, who, throughout six weeks of heavy fighting, had resisted all attempts to dislodge them permanently. To the Civil Service Rifles were allotted the first German lines in the wood itself, with the 7th Battalion on their right and the 17th Battalion on their left. Henceforth there was a state of suppressed excitement in the Battalion, and all ranks took the very keenest interest in the full dress rehearsals over a marked-out battlefield, which occupied the last days of training at Franvillers. These “shows” were attended by the whole Division, including Artillery, Trench Mortars, and the contact aeroplanes attached to the Division, and the attack was practised with zero at every possible hour of the day or night.
By the time Franvillers was left, on the 12th of September, every man understood what he had to do and where he had to go in the battle.
A few privileged persons had been to see a demonstration of the great secret of the war—the Caterpillars, as they were called in those days, also frequently referred to at this time as the “Hush! Hush!” These new engines of warfare, which soon became known as Tanks, were to make their first bow to the public by assisting in the attack on High Wood, where two of them were eventually allotted to the Civil Service Rifles in place of an artillery barrage.
After leaving Franvillers, the Battalion took the fine Route Nationale to Albert, “a city of empty and ruined houses, some occupied by our troops, others barred and bolted as if a very plague had taken off the population.” The Civil Service Rifles passed right under the shadow of the ruined cathedral with the gilded Madonna and Child hanging face downwards from the top of the steeple. From Albert the Battalion marched to Becourt Wood and relieved the 2nd Royal Sussex in what looked like a big rubbish tip, remaining there in reserve until the 14th.
The scene which met the eye after passing through Albert has been recorded by Corporal De Ath, who was attached to the 140th Trench Mortar Battery.