The 20th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, The 4th Salford Pals (Ypren Bogen)

The 20th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, The 4th Salford Pals (Ypren Bogen)

By mid October the Lancashire Fusiliers Bantams had been brought up to Ypres. As part of the 35th Division's 104th Brigade they arrived at Proven Camp, moving up to support in the Langemark area by the 16th of October. On the 17th of October the men were visited by the Prince of Wales, the staff captain at X1V Corps headquarter, These Lancashire Bantams were then about to be launched into three months of the most squalid and filthy conditions of warfare which could be imagined. The location, in an area utterly saturated with the effects of constant shelling, broken drainage and the autumn's persistent rainfall, meant that any attempt to dig shelter were immediately swamped as the water table rose inexorably to fill every ditch. on the night of the 20/21st the Bantams were 'bivouacked' in shell holes in Artillery Wood. The Battalion was already very much under strength, details having being drafted in the 241st and 104the Machine Gun Company as well as the 104th Trench Mortar Battery for duties as carrying parties for ammunition. The following day was spent in working parties before the 4th Salford Pals moved up in to Brigade Reserves on a line between Vee Bend and Pascal Farm, south of Houthhulst Forest. On the 22nd of October the 104th Brigade was due to attack in partnership with the 105th on their left and the 101st on their right. The 104th objective included a five hundred yard depth within the southern end of Houthulst Forest. the forest stood in a commanding position to the north of Ypres Salient and capture of this area would provide much improved observation and artillery support for troops still involved in the even more horrendous struggles of the Passchendaele area. The attack cost the 104th Brigade roughly 900 casualties of which 213 were suffered by the 4th Salford Pals. Although the Regiment's Bantams, including the 4th Salford Pals, had already been directly engaged here in the actions of Houthulst, by the time the 1st Salford and 2nd Salford Pals arrived the 4th Salford Pals had simply ceased to exist, their officers and men redistributed in equal shares between the 17th and 18th Lancashire Fusiliers, just as they had been for Salford's now defunct Bantams.

Created by: , Desmond1478

  • Profile picture for Harold Brierley

    Born 1886

    Died 1918

    British Army 21756 Private Lancashire Fusiliers

    British Army 374216 Private Labour Corps 20th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers (Bantams)