It had been reported that the 6th Battalion was holding the Flers Line, and the Civil Service Rifles were accordingly going to occupy Drop Alley, a communication trench leading from the strong point called the Cough Drop to the Flers Line. But on arrival at the Cough Drop, Lieutenant Ind found that the report was untrue, and he had perforce to squeeze his small body of men in the western half of the Cough Drop and the afore-mentioned cable trench which ran out of it. It had been a long and weary journey, but the men set to work like niggers to dig a decent trench. There were now only two officers and about 100 other ranks, but these included a good sprinkling of seasoned warrant officers and N.C.O.’s, and the force made up in quality what it lacked in quantity. C.S.M. Callingham and Sergeant Irving of “A” Company had done their comrades a very great service by struggling along with a jar of rum, which was practically all that turned up that night in the shape of rations, unless mention is to be made of rations sent up by a thoughtful Quartermaster for the two officers—a bag of candles!
The process of digging in was no sooner finished than the exhausted troops had to stand to for about an hour and a half, on information from the 6th that the enemy was “coming over in large numbers.”
So the day went on with a constant succession of alarms, intense bombardments and standing to. It was indeed a trying time for all that was left of the four Companies and Lewis gun teams who, forty-eight hours ago, had been so full of hope. But they all “stuck it” very valiantly, and the excellent spirits of the men—prominent among whom were Lance-Corporal F. A. Coward and his Lewis gun team, Privates Hundleby, Lynch, and E. H. Lyons—together with the splendid example set by Paddy Brett and Bob Harris, served to sustain the excellent morale of the Civil Service Rifles. Special mention should be made of the excellent patrol work done by Sergeant D. Gooding, of “D” Company, who went out in broad daylight “to find touch on the left.” The left flank of the position was exposed, and it was not known whether friend or foe occupied the country beyond. Sergeant Gooding, with two men, started off, therefore, without any information and, although under rifle fire from shell holes and isolated posts, they carried out a complete reconnaissance of the country which separated the Civil Service Rifles from the nearest friendly troops, four or five hundred yards away. Many others of that little band distinguished themselves by their devotion to duty during a day when there was no communication of any kind from Battalion Headquarters, and the party in the line became attached to the 6th Battalion in the Cough Drop.
On the 18th, a small reinforcement arrived in the shape of three officers—Lieutenants W. L. C. Rathbone, G. M. Hoste, and B. K. Ware, and fifty other ranks, from the “Non Starters” camp in Bottom Wood, where a few officers and other ranks had been kept out of the fight in order to form a nucleus for reorganisation in case of heavy losses.
Before being relieved on the night of the 19th September by the 1st Battalion The Black Watch, the Civil Service Rifles undertook two more operations. The first was an advance into the Flers Line on the 18th, but as the enemy had by now evacuated this trench, the advance passed off without loss.
But the enemy still held the junction of the Flers Line and Drop Alley, and that portion of the Flers Line west of the junction. The New Zealanders had a party in the Flers Line between the Bosches and the Civil Service Rifles, but the Civil Service Rifles had a small force under Lieutenant B. K. Ware in Drop Alley. These two forces attempted, by joint bombing attacks, to dislodge the Bosches, but the attempt failed. The men were now thoroughly exhausted, for in addition to the enormous amount of work of the past few days and the excitement of the fray, the last twenty-four hours had been endured in a pitiless rain, which caused huge chunks of the trenches to give way. There was mud and rain everywhere and, as there was no shelter, rifles and Lewis guns eventually became choked with mud. It was while in this state that the enemy attempted to drive Lieutenant Ware’s party out of Drop Alley. He partially succeeded at first, but was afterwards driven back. But at 7.0 p.m. on the 19th, he came again with renewed vigour, and got down Drop Alley, where the defending troops, with rifles and Lewis guns out of action, and themselves quite worn out, were unable to dislodge him. They did not give up without a struggle, however, and Lieutenant Ware died that night in a plucky attempt to achieve the impossible. Thus ended the operations of the Civil Service Rifles at High Wood, but it was indeed a skeleton of a battalion that Lieut.-Colonel Warrender led down the New German Road to Bottom Wood on the morning of the 20th September. Round a huge bonfire these remnants threw themselves down to get their first rest since leaving Becourt Wood, and here a pause was made to count the cost of what was so far the greatest trial of the Civil Service Rifles and, at the same time, surely their greatest achievement.
To this day, High Wood is regarded by many as the finest performance of the Battalion during the war. But whether this is true or no, it is certain that this battle was the most distinctive landmark in the history of the Civil Service Rifles, for it was at High Wood where the first great changes took place in the personnel of the Battalion. Some say it was the last of the original Battalion, but such a statement is open to question.
Many old faces had gone, but the old spirit still remained, and there were enough old hands left to train drafts in the way they should go, and to tell them what manner of men they had been whose places these freshmen had the honour to fill.
There fell during the fighting at High Wood, so many of the real flower of the Battalion that it is impossible to do justice to them by any eulogy here, and it would be invidious to single out any in particular among so many illustrious dead. Their names will all be found recorded elsewhere. Suffice it to say that they died like the true Englishmen of tradition, every one gallantly and gamely carrying on against odds. In the four days the casualties amounted to 15 officers, 365 other ranks.