The account of the actual fighting is necessarily meagre, for it was all over in a very short time, and during the struggle it was very difficult to get any information at headquarters as all the wires were soon broken. In fact, the Headquarter telephone dug-out was blown in before the advance had even commenced. The smoke, so carefully arranged, soon blew off and by 2 o’clock the air was clear again. Exactly at the hour, however, the battalion dashed forward, A, C and D Companies leading, with B a little way in rear in support. The keenness to attack and the precision and order with which the companies went over the top were wonderful to see. But, alas! the enemy’s protecting wire was found to be uncut, and a withering fire was opened from front and both flanks as our men tried to hack their way through with the wire-cutters carried by the leading troops. The greatest gallantry was shown and the attack was renewed again and again by ever-diminishing numbers, but it was of no avail, and of the three leading companies but very few men returned. The enemy’s machine guns were the cause of most of our casualties in this fight, as they so often were in later engagements.
Thirteen officers led the 6th Battalion into its first battle, and of these ten died in their duty, namely, Majors B. E. Furley and A. Soames, D.S.O.; Captains C. E. G. Davidson and H. W. Brodie; Lieuts. J. P. Phillimore and C. W. B. Marsh; 2nd Lieuts. C. G. Jelf, D. Lambert and C. Bainbridge. 2nd Lieut. Birkett was severely wounded. There were no less than four hundred casualties amongst the brave men of Kent who had volunteered so blithely to serve Old England at her need, and among these were the company sergeant-majors of A and C Companies, Burnett and Glover. On the 20th October the G.O.C. Division (Major-General Scott) congratulated the battalion on the gallant work it had done, and three days later the corps commander pointed out that it was because of the glorious effort made that it became possible for the regiments on the right and left to capture the enemy’s trenches. To the end of the month the battalion, very weak in numbers, was mostly employed on fatigue work, such as carrying packs for the R.E.; but in November it saw some fighting in and around the Hohenzollern Redoubt, and it suffered a particularly wet and cold tour in the trenches at Givenchy and Festubert in December, where the water was waist-deep. Colonel Eaton was invalided home in November and replaced by Major H. R. H. Pratt, Northamptonshire Regiment. Eaton departed to the great regret of all and with the enthusiastic cheers of those who recognized his worth. As in the cases of all the other battalions of the regiment, a period of monotony set in in the winter of 1915–16 with the gallant 6th. It was a weary time indeed and took its toll of human life.
VI. 7th Battalion
During the earlier portion of their history at the seat of war the experiences of the 7th Battalion were not quite as exciting as were those of their comrades in the others. Unlike the 6th and 8th, there was no violent action to record during the first few months. The story is, in fact, the usual one of trench warfare. The regular instruction in this branch of warfare commenced on the 11th August, 1915, and company by company went up in the firing line at Carnoy from that date until all had had the experience, and, of course, the battalion very soon had trenches of its own to be responsible for. It was, as the 2nd Battalion so often was, so unfortunate at first as to take over from French troops. This is not pleasant, as these have not the same ideas on the subject of sanitation as we have, and they do not bury their dead in a satisfactory manner when the burial is of necessity an informal ceremony. In addition, they were frequently not bullet-proof and very badly loopholed.
On the 1st September a German mine was exploded under the Buffs’ front-line trench, followed by an outburst of fire and a small attack, with the idea of capturing the crater. D Company had 4 killed, 5 wounded and 6 missing that day. The men behaved in the most gallant and satisfactory manner under this their first experience. The position of the line occupied by the 55th Brigade was opposite the village of Fricourt and as far as La Boisselle, and in this sector the enemy seemed to have made something of a speciality of mining, which is a mode of warfare very trying to the nerves of the adversary, as it is not pleasant to live in momentary expectation of being blown up. The brigade kept two battalions always in the line, while the other remained at Dernancourt and Ville sur Ancre; eight days being the average length of each tour of trench duty. The portion occupied by the 7th Buffs was therefore miles away from the other battalions of the regiment at this time. Dernancourt is about three miles south of the town of Albert.
VII. Life in and Behind the Trenches
Viscount French in his last despatch remarks that the exhaustion of men and materials which results after a great battle necessarily leads to a time of comparative inactivity. From August, 1914, till October in the following year the fighting, as we have seen, had been tremendous in France and Flanders, and both the Germans and ourselves had suffered casualties till then unheard of in history. It is not therefore surprising that after the comparatively unsuccessful efforts at Loos and its neighbourhood, warfare on the Western front subsided into dogged defence of the trenches occupied, into a sort of stalemate, as many people believed. It was a wearying and very trying time. The looked-for peace seemed as far off as ever. Each side appeared to be absolutely resolute to hold its own, but no progress towards a settlement could be observed. It is true that there was a good deal of fighting between the enemy and the French south of the British lines, that the Canadians made a raid south-west of Messines on the 18th November, and that another was made by British troops near Neuve Chapelle on the 12th December. It is true also that the artillery on both sides woke now and again to abnormal activity, particularly on the 30th November, and that the Germans fired, it is estimated, three thousand shells on our Ypres positions on the 10th December; but there is no first-class action to report for the remainder of the year 1915, though hundreds of interesting episodes occurred during the latter part of it, which are impossible to record here, and casualties were of daily occurrence.
People in England, both officially and by private arrangement, took care that the horrors of war should be mitigated as far as possible and that every indulgence that could be granted to our fighting men should be theirs. The greatest privilege of all and the most appreciated was a regular system of leave to England: every officer and man took his turn to go home, visit his friends and enjoy the most striking and tremendous change that can come to be the lot of man; change from the awful trenches and daily and hourly peril of life to a smiling, happy welcome in the Old Country; decent, cleanly existence for a few days; the delights of bed, baths, theatres, dinner-parties and other social delights; together perhaps with a little of the old sports and pastimes of a previous existence. Yes, leave to England was a glorious thing to live for and look forward to.
The rationing of the soldier when in France was truly marvellous. Never before had the old soldiers known the like. The food was excellent and more than sufficient and of very considerable variety. Except in cases of real emergency, too, it was punctually delivered. The Army Service Corps brought up the food, tobacco and rum to certain dumps behind the trenches; from these they were carried up by regimental transport to advanced dumps, where the stuff was packed into sandbags, eight complete rations to a bag, and carried by hand to the consumer. Half a gill of rum per man was issued in the presence of an officer two or three times a week and was naturally very much appreciated, and the Quartermaster always had a little reserve of this precious commodity in hand for emergency days.
For troops resting—that is, taking their regular turn behind the lines in billets—all sorts of sports were organized. There were divisional inter-battalion football cups to be competed for. There were long-distance cross-country races arranged and, in fact, all sorts of manly games, as well as dramatic entertainments, “sing-songs,” and even divisional cinemas. During any war the arrival of the English mail is a tremendous event, and on the Western front it was immense. Ships and shiploads of letters and parcels were constantly crossing the narrow seas and bringing loving messages and welcome presents to the fighting men.