June.
On June 5 Lieut.-Colonel A. F. A. N. Thorne was obliged to go to hospital with a strained leg, and Captain Craigie temporarily commanded
the Battalion until the 10th, when Major Rasch returned. On the 17th the Battalion relieved the 1st Battalion Scots Guards in the support line with their headquarters at Bluet Farm, and although at first there was not much firing the shelling increased in intensity each day, with the result that there were quite a number of casualties. On the 22nd the Battalion was relieved, and returned to Roussel Farm, where it remained until the end of the month. There were a great number of hostile aeroplanes over this part of the line, and the men had constantly to be warned to keep under cover. The Battalion spent another two days in the trenches on the 26th, and came in for a great deal of shelling. Second Lieutenant B. J. Dunlop had a lucky escape; he had just been called away from the bomb-store, where he had been all day, when a high-explosive shell pitched on it, killing the men to whom he had been speaking.
July.
The officers of the 3rd Battalion on July 1, 1917, were:
On July 1 the 3rd Battalion went to Wylders, and the following day moved on to Herzeele. Every detail of the projected attack on the 31st was carefully rehearsed over specially prepared trenches, and every officer and N.C.O. was made familiar with the plan of the German lines and the prominent landmarks. On the 12th Lieut.-Colonel Thorne resumed command of the Battalion, and Major Rasch went to hospital, his place as Second in Command being taken by Captain Ridley. On the 13th the Battalion moved up to the Forest Area and was bivouacked in two fields. The enemy’s aeroplanes were so busy overhead that the greatest attention had to be paid to “camouflage,” and everything had to be hidden as far as possible. The men were constantly employed in carrying up ammunition and war material to the front trenches, an arduous and dangerous task since they were continually under shell-fire. Private Bignell of
No. 4 Company behaved with great coolness and gallantry in carrying from a dug-out a box of Véry lights which had been set on fire by a pineapple bomb. For this he received the Military Medal.
On the 18th Second Lieutenant W. H. S. Roper joined, and on the 21st the Battalion took over the right Brigade Sector near Boesinghe, with Nos. 1 and 2 Companies in the front trench. For five days the Battalion remained in the trenches, during which time it suffered much from shell-fire. Second Lieutenant H. R. Ogle was wounded but remained at duty, and the casualties among other ranks were 27 killed, 11 died of wounds, 45 wounded, 10 gassed, 7 to hospital from concussion. Second Lieutenant G. Webster made an excellent reconnaissance of the Canal, and discovered four places where it could be crossed without the men getting very wet. No. 4 Company was to have carried out a raid to ascertain the strength of the enemy, but at the last moment the order was cancelled. On the night of the 26th the Battalion was relieved by the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards, and retired again to the Forest Area to rest before the attack by the Division on the 31st.
The 4th Battalion