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
They assembled next morning (the 10th) in the dark, and, reinforced
by seven Corps Cyclists and a Battery of field-guns, went forth
into France at large, after a retiring enemy. Nothing happened
for a couple of miles, when they reached the outskirts of
Beauvais-en-Cambrensis, on the Cambrai-Le-Cateau road, where a single
sniper from one of the houses shot and killed 2nd Lieutenant V. J.
S. French, No. 4 Company. A mile farther on, up the Beauvais-Quiévy
road, they found the village of Bevillers heavily shelled by the
enemy from a distance, so skirted round it, and sent in two small
mopping-up parties. Here No. 4 Company again came up against
machine-gun and sniper fire, but no casualties followed. Their
patrols reported the next bound all clear, and they pushed on, under
heavy but harmless shelling, in the direction of Quiévy. At eight
o’clock their patrols waked up a breadth of machine-gun nests along
the whole of the front and that of the battalions to their left and
right. They went to ground accordingly, and when the enemy artillery
was added to the small-arm fire, the men dug slits for themselves
and escaped trouble. For some time past the German shell-stuff had
been growing less and less effective, both in accuracy and bursting
power, which knowledge cheered our troops. In the afternoon, as there
were signs of the resistance weakening, our patrols put forth once
more, and by five o’clock the Battalion had reached the third bound
on the full battalion front. Then, in the dusk, came word from the
New Zealand division on their right, that the division on _their_
right again, had got forward, and that the New Zealanders were
pushing on to high ground south of Quiévy. With the message came one
from No. 4 Company, reporting that their patrols were out ahead, and
in touch with the New Zealanders on their right. There is no record
that the news was received with enthusiasm, since it meant “bounding
on” in the dark to the fourth bound, which they accomplished not
before 10.30 that night, tired officers hunting up tired companies by
hand and shoving them into their positions. These were on high ground
north-east of Quiévy, with the Battalion’s right on a farm, called
Fontaine-au-Tertre, which signifies “the fountain on the little
hill,” a mile beyond the village. The 1st Scots Guards were on their
left holding the village of St. Hilaire-les-Cambrai. Then, punctual
as ever, rations came up; Battalion Headquarters established itself
in a real roofed house in the outskirts of Quiévy, and No. 1 Company
in reserve, was billeted in the village.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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