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
Sniping on Hun lines was a novel experience to the Battalion. They
judged it strange to find a man apparently dead, with a cloth over
his face, lying in a hollow under a ridge commanding their line, who
turned out to be quite alive and unwounded. His rifle was within
short reach, and he was waiting till our patrols had passed to get to
his work. But they killed him, angrily and with astonishment.
On the morning of the 18th September Lieut.-Colonel Lord Ardee,
Grenadier Guards, arrived and took over command from Major Stepney.
The following officers--the first of the long line--also arrived as
reinforcements:
Major G. Madden; Captain Norman Orr-Ewing, Scots Guards, attached;
Captain Lord Francis Scott, Grenadier Guards, attached; Captain the
Hon. J. F. Trefusis, Lieutenants George Brooke, L. S. Coke, R. H.
Ferguson, G. M. Maitland, C. R. Harding, and P. Antrobus.
The Battalion reorganized as follows after less than four weeks’
campaign:
Lieut.-Colonel Lord Ardee C.O.
Major Herbert Stepney Senior Major.
Capt. the Hon. J. Trefusis Adjutant.
Lieut. E. J. Gough Transport Officer.
Lieut. C. A. S. Walker Quartermaster (acting).
Capt. Hon. A. E. Mulholland O.C. No. 1 Company.
Capt. N. Orr-Ewing O.C. No. 2 Company.
Capt. Lord Francis Scott O.C. No. 3 Company.
Major G. Madden O.C. No. 4 Company.
The trench-war was solidifying itself; for the Diary of that same day
notes that the enemy “shelled the trenches and the two howitzer-guns
which were in position below.” Ours was an army, then, which could
count and place every gun that it owned. As many as three howitzer
batteries per division had accompanied the Expeditionary Force, and
more were being sent from home.
The night of the 19th was very wet. They were relieved by the 3rd
Coldstream, and went into billets at Soupir, “having been in the
trenches for five days.” There was an alarm in the afternoon, and
the machine-guns and 100 men of No. 1 Company were sent to help the
Coldstream in the trenches, whilst the rest of the Battalion marched
at 6 P. M. to be ready to assist the 2nd Grenadiers on the left of
Cour de Soupir farm. Only “the machine-guns,” however, came into
action, and the Battalion returned to its billets at 10 P. M.
Much the same sort of thing occurred on the 20th--a furious fusillade
from the trenches, the despatch of reinforcements up a “muddy
lane,” not yet turned into a communication-trench, to help the 3rd
Coldstream, while Nos. 2 and 4 Companies went out to reinforce the
Oxfordshire Light Infantry and to hold the road at the back of it
“in case of a retirement,” and the rest of the Battalion with the
machine-guns stayed as a reserve in Soupir market-square. But beyond
shrapnel bursting over the village and the wounding of two men by
stray machine-gun bullets, there were no special incidents. Major G.
Madden this day had to return to England, ill.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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