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
That everyone inside was not killed instantly was due, no doubt,
both to the sloping character of the stairs, which made some bombs
explode before they reached the bottom, and to the small size of the
bombs themselves. A gas bomb finished the German side of the argument.
Hunt's useful knowledge of German commenced the answer. We 'surrendered.'
I went upstairs at once and saw three Germans almost at touching
distance. In place of a docile prisoner they received four revolver
shots, after which I left as soon as possible under a shower of bombs
and liquid fire. Shortly afterwards, but too late to follow me, Hunt
also came forth and found the enemy had vanished. Afterwards the
Sergeant Major and Uzzell, sanitary lance-corporal, who on this
occasion showed the genius of a field marshal, emerged and prevented
the return of our late visitors.
After an hour's struggle through mud and barrage I reached the two
platoons in Trench Roumains, who (I mention this as a good paradox of
trench discipline) were engaged in sock-changing and foot-rubbing
according to time table! From there the counter-attack described in
Sir Douglas Haig's dispatch of March 1st was carried out. I fear this
'counter-attack' was better in his telling than in the doing, for the
Germans had already decamped an hour before, taking with them
Lieutenant Guildford and some 20 prisoners from C Company, several
Lewis guns, and their own casualties.
Against a front line crowded with untried troops (I refer to the new
draft of which the platoons holding C Company front line were
principally composed) a well-planned raid powerfully pressed home
under a severe box barrage and assisted by gas and liquid fire, was
almost bound to succeed. The mud, strange trenches and weak artillery
support were other factors for which allowance might have been made
before such degree of blame was laid upon the Battalion as was seen
fit for it to receive. The only cure for being raided is to raid back.
That was happily done exactly two months later against the very
regiment to which the German raiding party on this occasion belonged.
Nor was it true that the enemy was not fought with. Some parties which
attacked Brown's front were, under the able example of that officer,
driven off with Lewis guns, and D Company, whose loss in prisoners was
nil, also maintained its front intact. Casualties were inflicted on
the enemy, but these mostly regained their own lines or were carried
back by stretcher parties. Our loss in killed that night amounted to
some twenty. The story of this raid I should not have allowed to reach
this length but for the fact that the affair created some stir at the
time, and correspondence raged on the subject till long afterwards.
Hunt, who was with me during the bombardment and the bombing of my
H.Q., was not captured on emerging from the dug-out, but himself, some
hour or more afterwards, while wandering among the blown-in trenches
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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