Sir John French replied:
Your Majesty's most gracious message has been received by the officers and men of Your Majesty's Army in France with feelings of the greatest gratitude and pride. We beg to be allowed to express to Your Majesty our most faithful devotion and our unalterable determination to uphold the highest tradition of Your Majesty's Army, and to carry the campaign to a victorious end.
Lord Kitchener telegraphed:
The splendid courage and endurance of our troops in the battle in which you have been engaged during the last few days, and the boldness and capacity with which they have been led, have undoubtedly given the enemy a severe blow, successfully frustrating their efforts. Let the troops know how much we all appreciate their services, which worthily maintain the best traditions of our Army.
Having been placed in Corps Reserve for four days, officers and men of the Battalion were under the impression that they were going to have a quiet time for that period, sleeping in peace at night and resting during the day. But they were mistaken. In reality, they spent three of the nights marching about the whole time, and each day they were moved up in support of this or that part of the line, to the invariable accompaniment of considerable shelling. To begin with, the relief took most of the first night, and it was not till 5 A.M. that the Welsh Regiment and Munster Fusiliers finished taking over the trenches. Then at last the Battalion was able to march over to the dug-outs at Bellewaardes Farm, north of Hooge.
Nov. 11.
The worst of it was that those placed in reserve were at the beck and call of any General who wanted reinforcements. At one time the Battalion was placed under four Generals, and received different orders from each, which came about because the units in front got hopelessly mixed, and the battalions were constantly changed from one brigade to another. For instance, when the 2nd Battalion Grenadiers arrived at Bellewaardes, Lieut.-Colonel Smith rode over to see General Monro, who congratulated him on the good work his men had done, and said he would come round later and say a few words to them. By the time Lieut.-Colonel Smith returned, he found that the Battalion had been ordered to move to a wood north-east of Hooge Château, in order to be in a position of readiness to reinforce the line near Polygon Wood, where the Prussian Guard was reported to have broken through. He sent one company up into the wood, and scattered the rest about the grounds of the Château. It was chiefly shrapnel-shelling that they were exposed to during this operation, and there were few casualties.
In the afternoon orders were received to support an attack which was to be carried out by the Sussex Regiment, Oxfordshire Light Infantry, and Gloucester Regiment. They were to retake the trenches which had been captured by the Prussian Guard in the morning, south-west of Polygon Wood. The Battalion was severely shelled, as it crossed the open ground towards the wood east of Hooge in artillery formation, and had thirty to forty casualties in a few minutes. Then Lieut.-Colonel Smith sent Major Jeffreys forward to find General FitzClarence, under whose orders the Battalion had been placed.
The enemy now began to shell this spot with shrapnel, and with every one underground it was no easy matter to find the General or his Staff. Major Jeffreys was joined by Lieut.-Colonel Smith; they searched and searched in vain, and came across Major Corkran, Brigade-Major of the 1st Brigade, who had been engaged on the same fruitless errand. Deciding to wait, Lieut.-Colonel Smith sent Major Jeffreys back to the Battalion, where he found Captain Pike, who was almost immediately afterwards wounded by a shell.
Meanwhile the Battalion had been waiting for hours under shell-fire, and had suffered about thirty further casualties. It was now night, pitch-dark, and pouring with rain; and to assemble the men, who were spread out in artillery formation, was by no means easy, but Major Jeffreys managed to get them together near Nonne-Bosschen Wood. Eventually Lieut.-Colonel Smith found General FitzClarence, and got permission to give the men a meal before taking them up to the front. Having returned to the Battalion, he marched it back to the Château grounds, where after some delay the cookers arrived, and the men settled down to a meal in the pouring rain. Lieutenant the Hon. W. R. Bailey was appointed Adjutant in Captain Pike's place, and at once took over his duties.