Historical records of the Buffs, East Kent Regiment (3rd Foot)

by R. S. H. Moody

On the 30th this spell of peace was over and the Buffs went into line again on the last day of the month, this time near and a little south of Warloy, the fighting lines being now at this part of the front somewhere about thirty miles westward of their position after the Somme battles of the last year. But by now the great American army was in France and reinforcements were pouring in. The tremendous German efforts to snatch victory between the collapse of Russia and their arrival had failed and our enemy was, so to speak, anxiously looking over his shoulder towards the dear homeland. By the 1st August he had already withdrawn from one or two dangerous points in France and Flanders, and there was a general feeling amongst our people that it was time he was on the move. However that may be, the 7th Battalion patrols on the 4th discovered that the Germans were still on its immediate front, and next day considerable movement was observed in the hostile lines.

Then, on the 6th August, a most unexpected event took place. For the last three days the brigade had been warned to expect and to look out for an enemy’s withdrawal, yet on this morning, before it was fairly light, the 27th German Division astride the Bray-Corbie road actually advanced to the attack at a time when we were relieving certain companies by others. Only a couple of hours or so earlier some of the Buffs had rushed an enemy’s post and found it empty. The authorities, being so certain that the German was going, attributed the movement noticed above as merely a blind on his part to cover an imminent retrograde movement. The battle that followed, though it commenced with a German attack on the 6th, lasted some days, and towards the finish the rôle of the two armies was reversed. It will therefore be convenient to relate what occurred in the following chapter, which will deal with the Grand Advance of the Allies.

CHAPTER XV
THE GRAND RESULT

I. 7th Battalion: Battle of Amiens

The 7th Battalion of the Buffs on the morning of the 6th August, 1918, was holding the brigade frontage which was north of the Bray-Corbie road and was in a trench which had recently been taken from the enemy and occupied by an Australian force. South of the road at the time of dawn a relief of companies was in progress, and the East Surrey Regiment was experiencing certain difficulties in connection with the operation. The Germans, discovering this fact, seized the opportunity to launch a very sudden and resolute attack which succeeded in piercing the British line. This unfortunate event seems to have been due to a variety of causes, such as incomplete relief and extension of front, but the element of surprise figured largely. Our troops were holding the ground very thinly; the men were anything but fresh; the forward trenches were knee-deep in mud, and their occupants were expecting to leave them only for a forward and not a retrograde movement. The German barrage commenced at 4.20 a.m. No “S.O.S.” signal was made for some time and the general idea seems to have been that the enterprise was merely a raid, but the bombardment lasted two hours and cut the telephone wires, which was the greater disaster because the shape of the ground forbade visual signalling. After about an hour it became clear enough that this was no raid, but a determined attempt to gain and hold on to our trenches and position. The hostile troops succeeded in penetrating along the road to a considerable distance, about eight hundred yards, in fact. The south of it being held but lightly, the 34th Brigade was requested to be responsible for this portion of the line, and a counter-attack by men of the East Surreys was attempted along the highway itself. At 8.36 it was clear to the headquarters in rear that part of our old first line was now in the hands of the enemy; but at 9.45 the Buffs were in the Burke line behind it, had established posts at all the junctions of trenches, and had pushed patrols out to the front, after which there was a lengthy bombing fight for the various trench junctions. During the morning the 55th Brigade had consisted of two battalions only, because the Queen’s had been sent back to rest and get fit, prior to our attack on the 8th. The enemy having anticipated our programme and date of fighting, this battalion was now ordered to the front again and arrived about noon. At 4.45 a conference was held, the principal point for consultation being the possibility of a counter-attack by the 54th Brigade. The leader of this force objected that he required another battalion to make such an attempt feasible, but this objection being overruled, the counter-attack was decided on and one company of the East Surreys placed at the disposal of the 54th Brigade. During the following night the lines were subjected to very heavy shelling, but at 4.40 a.m. the counter-attack was launched and proved a great success, the 54th Brigade gaining all their objectives, as did the detachment of the East Surreys; the latter at 5.47 reported themselves as being where they had been told to go and as having several prisoners and two of the enemy’s machine guns.

Areas retaken by the various armies August to November 1918.

The following day saw the commencement of the allied offensive, but the 55th Brigade was practically only represented by the 7th Queen’s, which battalion had been nursed for the occasion. Extraordinary efforts had been made to keep the coming operations a dead secret. Only battalion commanders were supposed to know anything whatsoever about the matter, and they only the barest outline of the plan. The job the Queen’s were given was to form the extreme left of the defensive flank of the 4th Army. The battalion was to be accompanied by certain tanks. The morning was almost as misty as on that dreadful day, the 21st March. The tanks failed to turn up and the Queen’s were forced to start without them. In the fog the battalion appeared to have missed its way, and while endeavouring to get right again and into good order it suffered a terrible loss, in that its gallant colonel was mortally wounded. Christopher Bushell, V.C., D.S.O., was a very prominent hero in an army of good soldiers, and his regiment must deeply have felt his loss. Lt.-Colonel Ransome, of the Buffs, was, immediately the news came in, placed in command of all troops in the foremost zone, with directions to clear up the situation and to establish the flank with all speed. In the words of the official account, “He handled the situation most ably.” He was well and worthily assisted by Captain Snell, adjutant of the Queen’s, by Captain Hayfield, of the Buffs, now attached to brigade headquarters, and by Captain Heath, who commanded the 55th Trench Mortar Battery.

The following day, the 9th August, the 55th Brigade was squeezed out as the English armies advanced and so became reserve troops, the Buffs proceeding to Warloy, where they received two large drafts from home which were badly needed. Most of these men were miners and munition workers who all did good work later on. On the 13th August the Buffs moved into line beyond Senlis and with them went American soldiers, one platoon being attached to each Buff company, and the Buffs leaving four platoons of their own in the transport lines. On the 19th, the battalion having relieved the Royal Berkshire Regiment west of Albert, its patrols got touch with the enemy in and about that town, and on the night of the 21st/22nd assembly positions were taken up for battle almost on the western edge of Albert.

The great battle, or rather series of battles and pursuits, which now commenced in this area was fully shared in by other divisions besides the 18th in which the 7th Buffs were serving. Amongst these was the 12th, and in that division was the 6th Battalion of the regiment. These two Kitchener units, then, were during the latter part of August and early September serving shoulder to shoulder, or very nearly so. Therefore before the tale be told of how the enemy was driven from the Ancre river step by step over the Tortille and back to his Hindenburg Line, it would be as well to note how the 6th was spending the time from the 9th to the 21st August.