Christmas Day, 1916, was spent in the line, and passed off very peacefully without anything untoward happening. We were not able to get our Christmas dinners until early in the New Year, when we were back at Souastre, and made the most of all the good things that had been sent out by kind friends at home. Each Company enjoyed a most sumptuous dinner, followed by a splendid entertainment provided by local talent, speeches, and so on.
The Battalion front remained unchanged until early in February, when we extended Northwards to include the "Crawlboys Lane" area, then held by the 138th Brigade.
About the same time we had Companies of the 2/5th, 2/8th, and 2/11th Battalions London Regiment with us for instruction, and a fine lot of men they were. Our difficulty was in knowing where to put them, for whereas we were about 80 per Company, they came out with their full complement of 250. One dreaded on occasions what might happen if the enemy suddenly decided to shell the trenches they held, for in some parts they were almost like the proverbial sardines. They came out fully equipped, with mobilisation stores made up to completion. Rumour says that when they had finished their instruction with us they were wiser not only in trench routine, but also in their Quarter-Master's Department!
This period saw several important changes in personnel. With great regret we had to part with Major Ashwell, who left to take up the duties of Commandant of the Divisional School. This post, however, he only held for a brief space, as his excellent services throughout the war were very soon rewarded by his appointment to command first the 5th, and shortly afterwards the 6th Battalion. He was succeeded as Second-in-Command by Major Lane. Capt. E. M. Hacking, who commanded A Company for a time, was appointed Railhead Disbursing Officer, and handed over his duties to Lieut. Andrews. Capt. Turner stuck to B Company, but during periods of absence of the Commanding Officer and Major Lane, acted as Second-in-Command, leaving Lieut. G. Wright to look after his Company. Capt. Piggford, after struggling on for some time, although very unfit, eventually had to go down sick, and shortly afterwards was appointed Divisional Claims Officer, to which he later added the duties of Divisional Burials Officer. When he left, C Company was handed over to Lieut. Abrams. Capt. Hill, after a long and successful period in command of D Company, also had to leave owing to sickness, and was succeeded by Lieut. Simonet. In 2nd Lieut. King-Stephens we lost a very gallant Officer, and a great favourite. He was killed one morning when returning from wiring. The fog which had been so helpful for the purpose, cleared rather suddenly and a Boche sniper picked him off just as he was getting back to the trench. Reinforcement Officers who joined during the period were 2nd Lieuts. C. H. S. Stephenson, A. E. Geary, and J. E. Mitchell. So far as other ranks were concerned there were now no discharges as the Military Service Act, which was in force, gave to very few the opportunity of getting home. We lost, however, two excellent Comp. Sergt.-Majors, G. Powell and Hotson, who went to England to train for commissions, and were shortly followed by Comp. Sergt.-Major T. Powell. George Powell was destined one day to be awarded the D.S.O., whilst Hotson unfortunately met his fate in Italy. Sergts. Slater and Rawding, and Comp. Quarter-Master Sergt. Deverall, then became Comp. Sergt.-Majors of A, B, and D Companies respectively. Our casualties in the line during this period were not heavy, amounting to seven killed and 47 wounded. Reinforcements who joined totalled 243, and included several men from the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry.
On February 19th, after handing over our portion of the front line to Battalions of the 138th Brigade, we marched back to St. Amand.
We now entered upon what turned out to be one of the most interesting periods in the history of the Battalion. The idea at the moment was that the 46th Division should take part in an early offensive against Beaurains, just south of Arras, and the immediate purpose of our relief was to withdraw to the Sus-St. Leger area and dig a model of the front to be attacked, ready for one of the other Brigades of the Division to practise over. With this object we moved back on February 20th, to Ivergny, where we spent the first few days refitting and reorganising. The latter was now becoming of great moment, for important changes were taking place. To begin with the Battalion Grenade Platoon, that picked body of specially trained Bombers, to which it was everyone's ambition to belong, ceased to exist, and the personnel rejoined their Companies, in which from this time onward each platoon had its own section of Bombers. This was only a preliminary to the absolute reorganisation of the platoon, which was now rightly coming into its own, and regarded as the most important tactical fighting unit. We had already been lectured at Souastre by Lieut.-General Sir Ivor Maxse, our Corps Commander, and later Director General of Training, also by Major-General Thwaites, on the new organisation of the platoon, which was now to consist of four specialist sections: (1) Riflemen, (2) Bombers, (3) Rifle Grenadiers, (4) Lewis Gunners. We now began the preliminaries of this new organisation, which was to remain practically unchanged for the rest of the war. The Signallers were also reorganised under Lieut. Warner, and divided into "Battalion" and "Company" Signallers.
After only a few days training in Lucheux Wood, and digging model trenches near by, we were ordered to move to Simencourt, preparatory to taking over the line near Beaurains. Just about the same time, however, the Boche began his great Somme retirement, and on February 27th, the news came through that he was evacuating the Gommecourt salient. This of course entailed a complete change in our plans, and instead of moving North, we marched back towards Foncquevillers, reaching Grenas on February 28th. There we stayed for one night, proceeding the following morning to St. Amand, where hurried preparations were made to relieve the 138th Brigade, who were busy following up the retreating enemy. We left St. Amand early on the morning of March 3rd, for Gommecourt, where we took over the old Boche lines from the 5th Leicesters. The enemy were still in the Northern and Eastern outskirts of the village, and the line was in a more or less "fluid" state. The enemy's retirement continued slowly during the day, and our troops kept moving on in close touch. The 7th Battalion were working in conjunction with us on the left, and the 31st Division on our right. On March 4th, the withdrawal was more rapid, and it became somewhat difficult to keep touch. The few dug-outs that were not set on fire or otherwise destroyed, were found to contain quantities of stores and rations, and shewed evident signs of having been evacuated very hurriedly. A neat souvenir in the shape of a Boche bugle was got from one of these dug-outs, and is now treasured with the Battalion plate at Newark. One was rather nervous of "booby traps" in some of them, but so far as our experience went at this time there were none. "Pigeon Wood" was captured during the afternoon, after some fighting and an unpleasant sort of game of hide and seek, and we also occupied Rettemoy Farm, and "The Z."
Evidently thinking that we were too close on his heels, the enemy delivered a determined counter-attack about 6 p.m. against C Company, who were holding the trench line in front of La Brayelle Farm, forcing them to withdraw slightly. During this attack Lieut. Duff did magnificent work in holding off a bombing attack, and L.-Sergt. Sansom gallantly held on to a bombing post which was cut off, until he was rescued by a party ably led by Corpl. Street, who went forward under heavy fire, and opening fire on the attacking enemy, enabled the post to withdraw. Sergt. Henley also did splendid work in holding his post against a strong bombing attack, until he was eventually wounded in the head, dying the next day.
The Battalion suffered a great loss the same day by the death of Lieut. Abrams, who was killed during the afternoon whilst reconnoitring near La Brayelle Farm. Thinking, apparently, that the coast was clear, he was walking across the open with his batman when a Boche machine gun suddenly opened fire on them at close range, killing them both instantaneously. C Company then came under the command of Lieut. A. Bedford. The casualties that day in other ranks, were seven killed and 17 wounded.
Very little happened on March 5th, except a certain number of bombing encounters, and at night the 5th Battalion took over the right portion of our front from Rettemoy Farm to "Brayelle Graben". On March 6th, we were relieved by the 6th Battalion, commanded by Major Ashwell, and moved back to dug-outs in and around Gommecourt. It was with much regret that we heard on the 9th that Major Ashwell had been badly wounded the previous night in an attack on "Kite Copse."