On the 1st February, 1917, Germany very foolishly declared unrestricted submarine warfare: that is, she issued a notice that, within what she was pleased to lay down as a War Zone, she intended to sink both combatant and neutral shipping at sight. This directly brought her into a state of war, which was declared on the 6th April, with America, and the first American contingent landed in France on the 25th June, and on the 27th October infantry and artillery belonging to that nation were actually in action. Of course, the armies from across the Atlantic were at first very small, like our own had been in 1914, but, like the British forces, they swelled with rapidity.
On the 12th March of this year of 1917 a revolution started in Russia and three days later the Czar abdicated. Notwithstanding this, however, the Russians, under General Brusilov, commenced a determined offensive in Galicia, which was at first successful, but which soon died away. On the 21st October the new government practically determined on peace, though there was a mutual agreement between the three countries of England, France and Russia that no one of them would make peace without the other two. These kinds of arrangements, however, did not affect the new rulers very much, and, on the 22nd November, Lenin authorized the troops at the front to negotiate for cessation of hostilities, and next day he started to work to disband the army. Preliminaries being signed with the enemy at Brest Litovsk on the 5th December, it became actually necessary for Rumania to follow suit. On the 21st June the Order of the British Empire was established.
At the end of October our friends the Italians were suffering disaster at the hands of the Austrians, and early in November a British force had to be sent to their assistance.
II. The 7th Battalion—The Ancre
Meanwhile war went on steadily in France and Belgium, and the 1st, 6th, 7th and 8th Battalions of the Buffs were all there and taking part; so we must now take up their history from the 18th November, 1916, which is the date Sir Douglas Haig assigns as marking the close of that lengthy struggle called the Battle of the Somme. Of the units mentioned above, the 7th was the first to participate in a general action, for it must be understood that fighting in the neighbourhood of the Somme and the Ancre rivers by no means ended on the fixed date mentioned; in fact, our 7th found itself in the thick of a fierce battle on the 18th November itself. Sir Douglas Haig, in describing his plans for the winter, makes it clear that it was desirable to allow the enemy no respite during the cold season, and he tells us why he resolved to keep up as much offensive work in the neighbourhood of the River Ancre as the weather and the state of the ground would allow. In fact, the German was to have no rest until the new spring offensive was brought into being, and further operations on the Ancre, as well as many minor enterprises and raids, were organized to annoy him while, at the same time, all troops that could be spared from actual touch with the enemy were to undergo a period of training and refitting as well as the rest they so much required; for after all rest is only a change of occupation, just as in civil life a man who daily fatigues his body rests in a long chair under a tree; so an office man, sedentarily employed, rests himself on a holiday by a game of cricket or football.
To get back to the history of the 7th Battalion, then, it was on the 16th November that it received a message from its brigadier that operations might recommence on the following day, and, together with the 7th Queen’s, it went into trenches in relief of the Cheshire and Welch Regiments, and on that date 2nd Lieut. I. H. Hess and two men were killed and six wounded. Near Mouquet Farm and stretching eastwards from the village of Grandcourt was a trench of the same name, and about five hundred yards south of it, also stretching east from the southern edge of Grandcourt, and covering the village of Miraumont, lay a long trench line called Desiré; both these were occupied by Germans. Facing Desiré trench, about six hundred yards from it and nearly parallel, ran the English line called Regina, and in it had been for some few days the East Surrey and West Kent Regiments. The line was prolonged to the left by the Queen’s and Buffs on the 17th November, so it came about that on the morning of the 18th, on which day Desiré was to be assaulted, the ground was new to these two regiments. Behind Regina was Hessian trench, and Zollern trench was behind that again. The ground was very difficult to move over and it was snowing when the attack began at 6.10 a.m. The enemy opened fire almost at once, and at 6.45 his barrage was intense. No news from the assaulting companies could be got at the Buffs’ headquarters and several runners were killed in trying to obtain information; but at last the officer commanding the Queen’s sent news that the Buffs and Queen’s were in touch and that they were consolidating. It was, however, only at 6.30 p.m. on the 19th that the whole of the original objective of the Buffs was secured by the help of D Company (Captain Wood). The ground over which the original attack had passed was now examined and the secret of the heavy casualties discovered: it was found that in front of A Company, particularly opposite its right flank, a number of shell holes about thirty yards the English side of Desiré had been improved by the enemy into most excellent cover and connected backwards to their trenches by well-constructed narrow slits or passages. The Germans had remained covered in this place till our barrage lifted over it and then come to life again, so to speak, and opened quite unexpected and very deadly fire on every living man who approached. Captain Dyson was killed, and there remained but one unwounded soldier of A Company. The 7th Buffs’ casualty list for this Battle of the Ancre amounted to 3 officers killed, 4 wounded and 1 missing, and 23 other ranks killed, 76 wounded and 124 missing.
A discovery was made by Captain Wood on the evening of the 19th which, to the disgrace of our enemies be it written, was practically unique in the history of the war. He found an officer, several men of A Company and two of the West Kent all severely wounded in a dug-out in Desiré trench; they had been carried in by the enemy and had been bound up and treated well by them.
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