On the 19th, after being ordered to go into the line at FRICOURT, where were the 1/8th King’s Liverpool Regiment, we were suddenly ordered to vacate the trenches and proceed to bivouacs at MAMETZ, where six days were spent in Company training, during which specially large working parties were employed in digging a communication trench through LONGUEVAL.
On the 24th a Battalion of the 165th Infantry Brigade was relieved by us in front of DELVILLE WOOD close to FLERS. On the 25th and 26th one Other Rank was killed and 22 wounded. On the latter day we relieved the 1/7th King’s Liverpool Regiment in GIRD TRENCH, close to GUEDECOURT. That day we had 17 wounded and 3 missing.
Following great activity by our artillery, the 164th Brigade attacked in the afternoon of the 27th, the Battalion being in support. The 8th Irish captured the part of GIRD SUPPORT still occupied by the enemy, and in the course of the evening we relieved the Irish in the captured trench, one Company occupying a sunken road running into GUEDECOURT. The casualties were very slight, but Second Lieutenant R. Forrest was killed and Second Lieutenant G. Duerden and 4 Other Ranks were wounded.
The following morning mist hung low over the battlefield, and when it cleared a large enemy party was observed to be digging-in along a line rather more than half a mile away. Rifle and machine gun fire was directed at them, and they ceased work abruptly after suffering a number of casualties. During the afternoon the enemy artillery retaliated, killing 6 men and wounding 30.
The 10th Royal West Kents relieved us on the 29th, and we went into billets at DERNANCOURT. Thus ended an eventful month, in which the Battalion had suffered somewhat heavily, the total casualties being 3 Officers and 33 Other Ranks killed, 9 Officers and 211 Other Ranks wounded, 82 Other Ranks missing, and 2 Officers and 54 Other Ranks sick.
CHAPTER V.
TRENCH WARFARE IN THE SALIENT: October 1st, 1916, to July 14th, 1917.
On the 1st October we left MANANCOURT and entrained at EDGE HILL, arriving in billets at L’ETOILE at 11 p.m. The following day we marched to LONGPRE, where we entrained for POPERINGHE, where we were billeted for the night. The next day we marched to BRANDHOEK, where we were in huts for the next few days, furnishing a daily working party to dig a cable trench near RIGERSBERG CHATEAU. During this period Second Lieutenant G. Duerden joined us again, and the following Officers as reinforcements:—Captain A. Walsh, Second Lieutenants G. Tong, F. C. Jenkinson, V. Mather, A. O. Knight, I. Haworth, F. L. Vernon, E. G. Faber, A. Bardsley, A. Ashton, E. E. Tweedale, H. Holden, H. Swaine, R. V. Reed, B. H. Williams, J. E. Ordish, R. Bissett, J. H. Ogden, and H. K. Vipond.