The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light InfantryRose, Geoffrey Keith
History
The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
Rose, Geoffrey Keith
Great Britain. Army. Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
How I should introduce appropriately and with becoming respect a
reference to our Major-General has somewhat puzzled me. Sir Colin
Mackenzie, K.C.B., had commanded the 61st Division through many
difficult vicissitudes. His watchful eye and quiet manner gained
everywhere the confidence and admiration of his regimental subordinates,
who saw in him great soldierly qualities. The General's bearing and
his string of real war-ribbons made many an eye rove at an inspection.
By a wound he was obliged in June, 1918, to retire from command of the
Division. He was much missed.
Towards the end of May Colonel Wetherall returned to take command of
the Battalion. To be his Second in Command was both a pleasure and a
privilege. Similar feelings were evoked towards the Brigadier, General
Pagan, in whose small frame beat a lion's heart. When the frontage of
the Brigade was changed from one to two battalions, we had to give up
Baquerolle and Carvin and occupy instead the barren fields on the
other side of the Calonne road, where most wretched front-line
accommodation existed. Headquarters for the new sector were in Les
Amusoires; and rations came up each night as far as a farm, called
Tripp's Farm, forward of which neither cooking could be done nor any
water obtained. One night German shelling, that tune to which rations
were usually carried, set light to Tripp's Farm. Quartermaster-Sergeants,
mules' heads, and guides were mingled in the glare, while from a
concrete pill-box hard by machine-gunners (its rightful occupants)
were compelled to avoid roasting by flight. About this time both St.
Venant and Robecq were burning for several days. Of the former, most
of the remaining houses near the church (which had been frequently
struck) were destroyed, but in Robecq the fire almost confined itself
to the famous cafe near the cross-roads. To quench these conflagrations
no measures were, or could be, taken, for their occurrence was a
great gratification to the German artillery, which always redoubled
its efforts in the hope of spreading a fire as far as possible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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