On the 2nd the Battalion exploded three mines successfully near Sunken Road, and in doing this blew in some of the enemy's galleries, and that night the Irish Guards exploded three more mines. In each case the positions were consolidated after much bomb-throwing, but the occupation of the craters was always difficult, on account of the bombs from the enemy's Minenwerfer.
On the 5th Brigadier-General Feilding and the Prince of Wales came round the trenches, and inspected the sap-heads and craters.
On the 6th in the early morning the enemy exploded two mines in the orchard near the shrine. At the time Captain Clive and Second Lieutenant Crookshank were taking out a working party, and had they gone a little farther, all the men must inevitably have been killed, but fortunately they were just short of where the mine exploded. The whole ground moved up in one great convulsion, and when it settled down several men were completely buried. Captain Clive himself was severely cut and bruised by the mass of debris that was blown past him, and after being shot up in the air he came down so doubled up that his teeth were nearly knocked out by his knees. Second Lieutenant Crookshank was completely buried in about four feet of earth, and would inevitably have died had not Captain Clive remembered where he stood before the explosion, and directed the men to search for him. When he was finally dug out it was found that beyond a few bruises and the inevitable shock from the explosion he was not hurt. He was sent back to the dressing-station, but pluckily insisted on returning to his Company in the evening. One N.C.O. was killed by the explosion, and eighteen men who had been buried were sent back suffering from shock and contusions. The work of digging out these men was much retarded by the constant rifle-fire from the enemy's trenches, and the enemy's guns also commenced shelling the neighbourhood of the craters, but were not accurate enough to prevent our consolidating the position.
These two mines wrecked the trench connecting our sap-heads and filled in parts of the saps with debris. The Battalion received orders at once to reoccupy the sap-heads and dig out the saps again. On the 5th Lieutenant D. Abel-Smith was slightly wounded.
On the 7th a draft of drummers arrived, and proved a great acquisition. When the Battalion was in billets at Le Preol, they played "Retreat" in the village street, much to the delight of the remaining inhabitants. On the 10th the enemy again exploded two mines near the Sunken Road, destroying some of their own wire, and the explosion formed a new crater on the northern side of a crater known as "Bluff." Second Lieutenant Hon. G. S. Bailey was killed by a bomb, and Lieutenant A. V. L. Corry was badly wounded. The casualties from mining and bombing in addition to those from rifle-fire and shells were very heavy while the Battalion was at Givenchy, and the digging was most unpleasant on account of the bodies thrown up by mine explosions. On the 12th Lieutenant E. G. Williams was accidentally killed in the Trench Mortar School at St. Venant, where he was undergoing a course of instruction.
Some ten days later the following order was published:
The Commander-in-Chief has intimated that he has read with great interest and satisfaction the report of the mining operations and crater fighting which have taken place in the Second Division area during the last two months. He desires that his high appreciation of the good work performed be conveyed to the troops, especially to the 170th and 176th Tunnelling Companies, R.E., the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards, the 1st Battalion Irish Guards, the 1st Battalion King's Royal Rifles, 2nd Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment.
The 4th Brigade now received orders to join the newly formed Guards Division.
On the 18th, before their departure, the officers of the 2nd Battalion Grenadiers entertained General Horne, Brigadier-General Feilding, the Commanding Officers of the other regiments in the 4th Brigade, and the principal Staff Officers of the Second Division at dinner in the house of Madame Richepin, who placed all her plate, china, and glass at the disposal of the officers' mess.
The following order was published by Major-General H. S. Horne, C.B., commanding the Second Division: