Lives of the First World War

WO95/2763 (PRO)-War Diary of 1/1st Bucks Battalion I have read the war diary of the battalion many times with reference to the fighting of 16th August 1917, but I felt it necessary to gain an understanding of the life and movements of the unit during their time "in the field". They left Chelmsford by train at 5pm on 30th March 1915 on route to Folkestone.They embarked for Boulogne on the steamship "Invicta", arriving in France at 10.40pm. They proceeded to march to a rest camp at Osterhove where they spent the night. The next morning, the marched to Pont de Briques station, entrained to Cassel and then marched to Tergenhem. The men were billeted in farm-houses close to here.The ration strength at this time was 31 officers and 1002 men. During April, the battalion were being "shown the ropes" at Ploegsteert ( known as "Plugstreet" to the men ) by the 12th Infantry Brigade. On 8th April, "D" Company (Jack's company) were trained in the rear trenches. It appears that one man was wounded and died later. This appears to be the battalion's first casualty. It seems that the sector that they were in was not very active at this time. There is mention of some intermittent shelling and sniping at night. Heavy shelling is mentioned on 30th April when two men from D Company are wounded at around 5pm. The next few months continued in much the same manner. They were in a rotation with the 1/5th Glosters; manning the reserve line and then resting in Romarin. During "rest" periods, training continued in trench digging, bomb throwing, using rifle grenades etc. A number of patrols were sent out during this period at Ploegsteert, but no raids or major action took place. The end of June found the battalion on the move again. The travelled to Hebuterne, carrying out training on route. On 24th July,the relieved a battalion of the Glosters and began a year ofin a well known "quiet" sector of the line. The men rotated between the trenches at Hebuterne and the relative safety of billets in Couin. It should be noted that on 10th November, the battalion had a route march. The weather was very wet. On 12th November, Jack was admitted to 1/2nd S. Midland Field Ambulance with symptoms of influenza. He was transferred on 20th November to No.4 Casualty Clearing Station, having been diagnosed with debility. On 22nd November, he was moved to No.10 General Hospital in Rouen with a diagnosis of N.Y.D.--. (I am unsure as to the final letter. I will discuss this below). According to Jack's casualty record, he was moved to a convalesent camp.................****** Meanwhile, the battalion continued as before in Hebuterne. The most notable event was on 1st April 1916 when a night patrol ran into a German patrol. Many Germans were killed in the ensuing firefight and the men involved were praised for their calmness and resourcefulness. On 31st May, the battalion moved to Oneux for training in attack methods. It is interesting to note that the practised attacking towards high ground ( in preparation for the Somme offensive). They returned to Hebuterne by the middle of June and had more training during "rest" at Couin in bombing, musketry and bayonnet fighting. On 1st July 1916, they marched to Mailly Maillet and were in reserve during the great slaughter, awaiting a planned offensive for 3rd July. This was cancelled ( due to the failure of the first day of the Somme) and the battalion returned to Couin. The weather on the 9/10th July was very wet. Jack was admitted to the 48th Division.......**** on 10th July with pyrexia 16/3/2019- I retrieved this document from an old floppy disk; it was last accessed in 2000 and I have uploaded for the IWM record as the closing date for adding information approaches. Much has been learned since these words were written and the most important thing to make clear is that the story is ongoing, to this very day.

Created by: , Mike11837