The Grenadier Guards in the Great War of 1914-1918, Vol. 2 of 3Ponsonby, Frederick
History
The Grenadier Guards in the Great War of 1914-1918, Vol. 2 of 3
Ponsonby, Frederick
Great Britain. Army. Grenadier Guards; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
When the 4th Grenadiers moved up on the night of the 24th, No. 4
Company under Second Lieutenant Constable on the right and No. 2
Company under Captain Britten were sent to the support trenches in
front of Ginchy, while No. 1 Company under Captain Goschen and No. 3
under Captain Stewart remained in Trônes Wood. On the left of the
Grenadiers was a battalion of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry,
but it was to start from a line quite 100 yards in front of the
assembly trench occupied by No. 2 Company, which made communication
difficult. Captain Britten, realising that it was essential to keep
touch with the battalion on the left, made his men deepen a shallow
communication trench which ran in that direction. For the last five
nights the 4th Grenadiers had been constantly employed in digging, and
had been obliged to get what sleep they could during the day――not at
all the same thing as a good night’s rest.
From 10 to 12 noon the artillery bombardment continued, and was
supplemented by the Stokes mortars in the support trenches. During
these preliminaries Second Lieutenant Maine was wounded in the foot,
and sent down to the dressing station. As zero time approached the men
fixed bayonets and remained motionless, waiting for the whistle which
was to be the signal to advance. The officers in each company had
carefully explained to the platoon and section commanders exactly what
was expected of them, and each non-commissioned officer therefore knew
as much as the captain.
At 12.35 P.M. the line advanced, preceded by a creeping barrage, which
moved 150 yards ahead at the rate of 50 yards per minute. In perfect
order, with not a man out of his place, the line swept on until it
came to the two intermediate lines, which the officers had been warned
to expect somewhere in front of the first objective. These had only
recently been discovered, and no one quite knew how strongly they were
held. Although the leading companies closed up as near as they could
to the creeping barrage, they were met by a terrific machine-gun and
rifle fire from the intermediate lines, and terrible gaps were made in
the ranks. But the companies pressed on, and made short work of the
Germans in these lines. Over 150 were killed there with the bayonet.
Re-forming again, the Grenadiers rushed the first objective, which, to
their surprise, offered comparatively little resistance. Our guns,
however, had dealt effectively with the first objective, and forced
the occupants into dug-outs, whereas the intermediate lines had only
been passed over by the creeping barrage. On the right the Scots
Guards met with little opposition, and easily secured their first
objective with no serious loss.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account