The Irish Guards in the Great War, Volume 1 (of 2) : $b The First BattalionKipling, Rudyard
History
The Irish Guards in the Great War, Volume 1 (of 2) : $b The First Battalion
Kipling, Rudyard
Great Britain. Army. Irish Guards -- History; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
The Battalion billeted at Bavincourt when the 2nd H.L.I. had got out
of their quarters, and since, like the other camps, Bavincourt was
regularly bombed, made earth walls round their Nissen huts, and slits
near them to be used against ’planes or too extravagant shell-fire.
Here they stayed till the end of the month, cleaning, refitting, and
training (in open warfare principally; and, this time, they were not
to be disappointed) at Lewis gunnery, bombing, and general physical
smartening-up. When the Brigade Sports took place at Saulty they won
every event but three, and when the Corps Commander, the following
week, inspected the different ways in the divisional methods of
carrying the eight Lewis-guns of each company all on one limber, “the
method employed by the Battalion was considered the best, and all
units were ordered to copy.” They had rigged a sort of false top on
a rear-limber which accommodated all eight guns together.
A Divisional Horse-show was held on the 22nd, but there the Battalion
did not get a single prize. They hammered on at their trainings and
Brigade field-days--all with an eye to the coming open warfare, while
the “Spanish fever,” which was influenza of the post-war type, grew
steadily worse among men and officers alike. When H.R.H. the Duke
of Connaught visited Divisional Headquarters at Bavincourt Château
on the 30th June, and the Battalion had to find not only the Guard
of Honour but 160 men to line the avenue to the Château, there were
seventy officers and men down with the pest, out of less than 900.
Thirty-one men had been sent down sick, two had been killed in action
presumably by overhead bombing, for the Diary does not mention any
trench casualties, and twenty-three wounded.
The following officers joined during the month of June: Lieutenant C.
A. J. Vernon, and 2nd Lieutenants E. B. Spafford, A. E. Hutchinson,
H. R. Baldwin, G. F. Mathieson, J. A. M. Faraday, E. M. Harvey, M.C.,
and A. E. O’Connor, all on the 2nd June; Captain A. W. L. Paget on
the 4th, and 2nd Lieutenant A. H. O’Farrell on the 10th June. Second
Lieutenant C. S. O’Brien, who was in command of the model raid
already mentioned, was awarded the Military Cross on the 9th of June.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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