(Killed).
Lieut. J. T. RILEY.
(Killed).
Capt. S. S. GREAVES, D.S.O., M.C., R.A.M.C.
On the evening of July 5th the Battalion relieved the 5th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regt. in the front line, just in front of Thiepval village. It was responsible for a sector about a thousand yards in length, and all four companies held portions of the front line. These trenches were the very ones from which the attack had been launched on July 1st—no permanent advance had been made on that front, nor was there to be any until late in September. No Man’s Land was thick with dead; occasionally a wounded man, who had lain out for days, succeeded in crawling into the British lines. Trenches and shelters had been so terribly battered that all work had to be concentrated on the necessary repairs. The enemy artillery was extremely active, and many men were killed or wounded before the two days’ tour came to an end. When the Battalion was relieved on July 7th, partly by the 6th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regt., and partly by the 5th Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, it withdrew to the assembly trenches in Aveluy Wood, which it had occupied on the morning of July 1st. The relief was very late, everything was sodden with rain, and the one night which was spent there was little enough rest for anyone.
On the way back to Thiepval Wood the next night, a shell near Lancashire Dump wounded several men and killed Sec.-Lieut. W. S. Booth. He had been bombing officer for some time and was a tower of strength to the Battalion.
Then began the longest continuous stretch of duty, under battle conditions, which the men were ever called upon to perform.
Tucked away near the point of the angle, between the enemy front line and the River Ancre, was Thiepval Wood. It was bordered on the west by the marshes of the river, and on the south and south-east by the Johnstone’s Post valley; on the east and north-east the ground sloped steeply up to the German lines on the heights above. With its trees, its thick undergrowth and numerous “rides,” it must have been a pleasant spot in pre-war days. But, during the early weeks of the Battle of the Somme, it rapidly became a desolation little better than the woods in the Ypres Salient the following year. Such was the home of the Battalion from July 8th to August 19th. Never, during the whole of that time, did the men leave it. Reliefs were carried out every few days with the 5th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regt.; but periods in Brigade Reserve were little improvement on those in the front line, for both were passed in the wood.