May.
The first few days in May were spent in the trenches, which the enemy's artillery at times shelled very heavily. It was thought at first that this denoted an attack, but although the Battalion stood to arms nothing serious in the way of an attack developed. On the 3rd Captain J. Morrison was wounded, and there was a certain number of casualties. On the 2nd Captain T. Dickinson, 16th Cavalry, Indian Army, was attached to the Battalion, and on the 12th Captain W. S. Pilcher arrived.
On the 9th the 1st Battalion Grenadiers with the remainder of the 20th Brigade moved up to the support trenches in rear of the Eighth Division, but was not called upon to go into action.
CHAPTER XI
THE BATTLE OF FESTUBERT
The 1st Battalion
May 1915.
In May the French resolved to make a determined attack on the German line in Artois, and in order to prevent the enemy moving up any reinforcements to support that part of the line, Sir John French agreed to attack simultaneously at Festubert, where the German Seventh Corps was posted.
May 9.
Sir Douglas Haig, who was entrusted with the task, began operations on May 9, when the Eighth Division captured some of the enemy's first-line trenches at Rougebanc, while the First and Indian Divisions attacked south of Neuve Chapelle. But the enemy's positions proved much stronger than had been expected, and little progress was made in either place. During this attack the 1st Battalion Grenadiers was never engaged, but remained in close support. Lieut.-Colonel Corkran himself accompanied the Eighth Division, and remained with it in case the services of the Battalion should be required.
May 10-11.