THIEPVAL
Up to the 14th there came a rest, with training and the usual football and amusements, and then a three days’ march back to Albert and into the Fabeck and High Trenches from the 22nd to the 26th. This proved a very strenuous tour and involved some casualties, a few being from shell-shock. We will leave the history of the 7th Battalion here. The great Somme struggle was considered at an end on the 18th November, and up to this date trench work and rest at Albert came each in their turn. It is pleasant to note, however, that the 7th November brought the M.C. to Captain Brice, 2nd Lieut. C. D. Hayfield and Captain Orme, R.A.M.C., and the D.C.M. to Sgts. Stewart and Steel.
IV. 8th Battalion—1916
The story of the 8th Battalion for the first half of the year 1916 is that of practically all the infantry units on the Western front. Tours of trench work alternated as a rule with periods of so-called rest. The misery of the former depended, as regards intensity, on the period of the year. When the weather was fine, rats and lice were the chief enemies in addition to the recognized foe; when the weather was bad, then wet and frozen extremities were added. There were always a few casualties in killed and wounded, and even the cheeriest-hearted were bound to find a turn of trench work a bit depressing. When it was the turn for rest, men crowded into leaky barns, 80 to 100 in each, sleeping one above another in tiers. Training and instruction of new drafts from England gave plenty of occupation, but in addition there were amusements, football, running and other sports by day, and entertainments by night in many cases. There were also baths.
At the beginning of January the battalion was at La Panne. On the 6th the Buffs were transferred to the 17th Infantry Brigade, still in the 24th Division, and on that day they entrained for their new divisional area about Poperinghe. The 14th of the month saw them in trenches near Ypres, where plenty of work in the way of digging, draining and revetting awaited the men. The 26th of January brought a welcome visit from the 1st Battalion which was still in the Ypres area. Lt.-Colonel Lucas, at the commencement of the war adjutant of the 1st Battalion, took over command of the 8th on the 16th March from Major Cunningham, a staff officer, who had relieved Lt.-Colonel Trueman a month earlier, Trueman having been taken into hospital.
The 4th June brought the birthday honour list; Lieut. C. Lindsay received the M.C., R.S.M. Brooker and Pte. Peet the D.C.M., Ptes. Buzzard and Hall the M.M., whilst 2nd Lieut. Shafto heard a week later that he also had the M.C.
On the 17th June, about midnight, there arose a cry of “gas,” and the S.O.S. signal went up from the Royal Fusiliers who were on the left of the Buffs and, almost at once, a brisk bombardment broke on our front line. The gas itself arrived three or four minutes after the warning and lasted half an hour. However, it missed our companies in the front line, but spread somewhat over the reserves and headquarters.
On the 22nd June, after some rehearsal work at Bulford Camp, the battalion marched, via Bailleul, to St. Jans Capelle, where it was billeted in farms and continued its rehearsals. About this time Corpl. C. Batchelor was awarded the M.M. for his conduct during the recent gas attack.
Although they may not very greatly or directly influence the winning of the war, raids were found to be of great use in fostering a manly and martial spirit amongst our soldiers. There is something about perfectly passive defence which makes for despondency and depression, but a raid on the enemy evokes a spirit of enterprise. These are perhaps very minor military enterprises in many cases and no description of them will be found in the military despatches, but they are naturally of intense interest to all concerned and show the enemy that the spirit of those opposite them is quite undismayed.