Thus the brigade system was in abeyance, and battalions worked the line in a regular cycle, always going and returning to the same camp or portion
of the line. All blankets and cookers were made camp stores, to reduce the work of the transport.
Dec.
On December 1 the 3rd Battalion moved to a camp at Maltzhorn Farm, and on the following day marched via Trônes Wood, Guillemont, and Combles to Haie Wood, where it was taken by French guides into the front line of trenches north of Sailly-Saillisel and south of Morval. This portion of the line had been only recently captured by the French, who had not had time to organise it properly. The parapets were extremely thin, and there were few if any fire-steps, while communication with the front was entirely overground. There was not a single strand of wire on the frontage, and the enemy was hardly eighty yards away. While the relief was being carried out, forty to fifty Germans attempted to make a raid, and got right up to the parapet, where they shot a French machine-gunner who was sitting on the saddle of his gun. The remainder of the gun-team retreated hastily down a small communication trench, and met No. 4 Company coming up. Rapid fire was at once opened on the raiders, who disappeared carrying off the machine-gun with them, and any further development of the attack was successfully frustrated, although the German barrage on our front line continued for some time. The following day a patrol that went out found the bodies of seven Germans belonging to a storm section of the 23rd Grenadier Regiment of German Infantry, and close by the machine-gun that had been lost. This gun was subsequently returned undamaged to the French.
The rest of the time in the trenches passed without incident, but a great deal of work was done in thickening the parapet and making fire-steps. On the 5th the 3rd Battalion was relieved and marched to Maltzhorn Farm. The following days were spent in going by train to Bronfay Farm and then on to Bouleaux Wood. On the 11th the Battalion returned to the trenches, which it found in a deplorable condition, the parapet having fallen in along the greater part of the frontage. Most of the men had to stand with the mud above the knee, and in some places above the waist; some had to be dug out on the way up. Nor did matters improve, as the weather conditions became still worse and rain and snow came down intermittently. So bad were the trenches that it was decided to hold the front line in islands, and to concentrate the work on them. The three days spent in the trenches were some of the most unpleasant the men had ever had, and when they were relieved they were in a most exhausted condition, being encased in mud and quite wet through. After four days’ rest, when all the arms and equipment were overhauled, the Battalion returned to the front line for forty-eight hours, but the trenches had already been very much improved. Two days in and two days out of the trenches became the routine till the end of the month, and by degrees the “islands” were made habitable. There had been casualties almost every day in addition to cases of trench feet and chills, but with the trenches in such a state this was inevitable.
4th Batt.
Sept. 1916.
The 4th Battalion was sadly depleted after the battle of the Somme, having lost nearly half its number, and a reorganisation and redistribution of the officers and non-commissioned officers was therefore necessary. On the 28th September Major-General Feilding addressed the men on parade, and paid a great tribute to their share in the battle. On the 30th the 4th Battalion moved to the sandpits at Méaulte, and the next day Oct. to Morlancourt, where it got into motor buses belonging to the French, and proceeded via Amiens to Epaumesnil. There it remained for five weeks; the billets were good, the weather on the whole was fine, and the Battalion was able gradually to recover its spirits and normal proportions. Company training was carried out in addition to musketry practice on the rifle-range and Lewis-gun instruction. On the 4th Brigadier-General C. E. Corkran, commanding the 3rd Guards Brigade, addressed the Battalion on parade, and said that their splendid behaviour during the recent fighting could not have been surpassed. He thought that the part played by the Battalion in the battle of the Somme equalled in brilliance what it had achieved in any of the battles whose names were embroidered on the Regimental Colours.
The following officers joined the Battalion during the month: on the 2nd, Captain the Hon. F. E. Needham; on the 4th, Captain E. G. Spencer-Churchill; on the 5th, Captain E. O. Stewart and Lieutenant R. Farquhar; on the 6th,
Second Lieutenant A. C. Adams; on the 14th, Lieutenant H. J. Boyton and Second Lieutenant the Hon. A. H. L. Hardinge; on the 17th, Captain M. Williams and Second Lieutenant E. H. Tuckwell.