Major Ellice, having made the acquaintance of his new Battalion, appointed Lieutenant Ian Bullough, Coldstream Guards, to be Adjutant, while Captain Jones, who had hitherto occupied that post, became Quartermaster. The Battalion was divided up into four companies: No. 1 Company Grenadiers under Captain M. Lloyd, No. 2 Coldstream under Lieutenant Viand, No. 3 Scots Guards under Lieutenant Maitland, and No. 4 Irish Guards under Lieutenant Hanbury. The billets in which the men lived were not only uncomfortable but also extremely inconvenient, being sometimes over a mile apart, and so cramped were the men for room that pigsties even were made use of to house them: it was therefore with pleasure that Major Ellice received instructions to move the men to Wood Camp, which was no paradise, but still preferable to the pigsties, and much nearer the trenches. An old stone quarry, worked by a gang of twelve quarry-men under a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, provided the material for draining the camp and improving the roads. Water carts were obtained to provide sufficient water for cooking parties, and fatigue parties were sent every evening to draw water for other purposes from the Somme.
The great advantage of an entrenching battalion was quickly seen by the rest of the Army, since the battalions that came out of the front line were relieved of working during their rest. It had formerly been the custom for resting battalions to dig reserve lines, but now this duty was taken over by the entrenching battalion. All reserve trenches were made by it; emplacements for field-guns, howitzers, and machine-guns constructed, brushwood cut for revetting, roads repaired, carrying parties for all materials necessary for trench warfare supplied.
The staff of the Battalion was kept as permanent as possible, but the Battalion itself was used as a stepping-stone from the base battalion to the Battalions in the front line. The training the officers received was invaluable, as it accustomed them to shell-fire. One or two shells invariably fell near the working-parties; sometimes as many as thirty to forty shells would explode in the neighbourhood. This showed the officers that the effect was local, unless the shell happened to strike a hard surface. It gave them confidence, and they gradually became used to unaimed shell-fire.
At the end of December 1915 Captain Bullough was ordered to join his Battalion, and Captain M. K. A. Lloyd, Grenadier Guards, succeeded him as Adjutant.
1916.
In January 1916 the Entrenching Battalion was employed on the second-line trenches, and in constructing gun emplacements for the artillery. This latter duty involved technical knowledge on the part of the officers, who had to work from plans supplied to them by the gunners. About this time it was found that the Amiens—Somme Canal afforded better means of transport for rations and road-making material than the lorries, which had hitherto been used for that purpose; and it was necessary to make a light railway across some marshy ground between Bray road and the Canal. The Entrenching Battalion was employed in making 3000 fascines for this purpose, and the men became so expert at their work that there was keen competition between the various companies as to which should turn out the most fascines.
In April 1916 preparations for the offensive operations on the Somme were begun, and the Entrenching Battalion played a great part during this battle, which lasted six months. The Guards Division was not employed in the initial stages of the battle, and it was therefore not until July that the Entrenching Battalion moved up to the vicinity of Fricourt, to take over the forward roads in the battle area. The constant shelling, combined with the heavy traffic, made it peculiarly difficult to keep the roads in sufficiently good repair for constant use, but in spite of all difficulties the roads were kept open all the time, and this was entirely due to the ability and energy of the officers and the efficiency and discipline of the men. Throughout the year the duties of the Entrenching Battalion were many and various, and at times the work was very heavy, but it was always cheerfully undertaken, because the men prided themselves on being part of the Guards Division, and knew that more than the average amount of work done by the other entrenching battalions was expected from them.
1917.
In January 1917 the Battalion was employed in strengthening the defences of Ginchy and Combles, and in the successful operations against the Germans early that year it participated in the various works, on which all arms were engaged. In April it was encamped for some months in the neighbourhood of Havrincourt Wood, and was employed in preparations for the offensive in the direction of Cambrai, which, however, did not take place till November. In June the Battalion made a farther move to Roisel, where for some months it was busily employed in digging a line of trenches some nine miles long, from Epeley to within three miles of St. Quentin. The strength of the Battalion had now risen to over 2000 men. The work on these trenches was very interesting, as it was in sight of the Hindenburg line, and although works of some importance were undertaken, Major Ellice and his Entrenching Battalion were given complete charge of this area.