Short History of the London Rifle Brigade Part 2

Training, which consisted chiefly of trench digging and artillery formation, was carried out daily regardless of the weather.

The Battalion was apparently considered to be up to the required standard of efficiency and hardness, or else the authorities had not the heart to keep it there longer, for on the 15th orders were received to march the next day.

[Sidenote: =Nov. 16th.=]

The distance was 17 miles, and the roads _pavee_ almost the whole way.

There was also some rain. In spite, however, of the absence of other Battalions to keep them on their mettle, not a single man fell out of the column.

[Sidenote: =Nov. 17th.=]

Except for bruised feet, the march next day, about 11 miles, was not very trying. Two nights were spent at this town, where the Artists and Honourable Artillery Company were also in billets.

While on the march it had been possible, for the first time, to see aeroplanes being sh.e.l.led, and, while in these billets, the Battalion learnt what it meant to see the remnants of a Brigade come out of action.

[Sidenote: =Nov. 19th.=]

The Battalion moved one stage nearer to the firing line in a snow-storm.

[Sidenote: =Nov. 20th.=]

Brigadier-General Hunter Weston paid the Battalion a visit, and addressed the Officers. He gave a short account of the 11th Infantry Brigade, which he commanded, and to which the London Rifle Brigade was attached, and outlined the scheme of training. Half-companies were to be attached to Regular Battalions for a spell in the trenches, the men being scattered amongst the Regulars. As soon as their worth had been proved, half-companies were to be put in the line intact, and later whole companies.

At dusk on this date half the Battalion proceeded via Ploegsteert to the trenches.

[Sidenote: =Nov. 21st.=]

For some unknown reason the Battalion had not been permitted to adopt the "double company system" in England, but on this date the change was made with half the Battalion absent in the trenches.

"A" and "D" Companies became No. 1, under Major King.

"E" and "O" Companies became No. 2, under Captain Soames.

"G" and "P" Companies became No. 3, under Major Burnell.

"H" and "Q" Companies became No. 4, under Captain Bates.

_To face page 12._

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLOEGSTEERT.

_Experimenting with a Rifle Grenade._

From Left to Right:--LIEUT.-COL. EARL CAIRNS, C.M.G., COL.-SGT. OVER, STAFF-SGT. (NOW REGTL. SGT.-MAJ.) ADAMS, AND CAPT. OPPENHEIM, D.S.O.]

For the purposes of reference, these companies will be referred to as A, B, C, and D respectively, though, owing to the confusion that might have arisen with the old letters, this nomenclature was not actually adopted till after the second battle of Ypres.

Up to December 18th the trench training of the London Rifle Brigade continued. Platoons and whole companies, gradually working more and more on their own, were attached to the Regulars. When not actually in the line, the whole day was invariably taken up with "fatigues" of all kinds.

A support line in the wood was remade and named Bunhill Row.

It was during this period that the Battalion gained the nicknames "London fatigue party" or "Fatigue Fifth," and other affectionate t.i.tles which would not look well in print.

The Battalion also learnt what it meant to have the "dripping swung on it."

The 11th Infantry Brigade was composed of the following Battalions:--

1st Somerset Light Infantry.

1st East Lancashire Regiment.

1st Hampshire Regiment.

1st Rifle Brigade.

[Sidenote: =Dec. 19th.=]

The object of the attack by the 11th Infantry Brigade in front of Ploegsteert Wood on this date was to clear its edges, including German House, and, if possible, establish a line in front in the part afterwards known as the "birdcage."

_To face page 13._

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLOEGSTEERT WOOD.]

The Somerset Light Infantry and Rifle Brigade attacked. The London Rifle Brigade was in support. The weather could not have been worse, and the ground was impossible. The result was that the wood was cleared, and German House remained in No Man's Land.

The London Rifle Brigade was not called upon to continue the attack.

This was the first experience the Battalion had of anything like heavy artillery fire, and also of the difficulty of consolidating at night in an unknown bit of ground. Two half-companies were engaged in a.s.sisting in this work, while the rest of the Battalion spent a miserable night in the marshes in the wood.

[Sidenote: =Dec. 23rd.=]

Each of the four companies was definitely attached, as a fifth company, to one of the Regular Battalions--"A" to the East Lancs, "B" to the Somerset Light Infantry, "C" to the Hants, and "D" to the Rifle Brigade.

All four companies of the London Rifle Brigade being in the front line on the same night, it so happened that before the end of 1914 a Territorial Battalion held the whole of a Regular Brigade's front with the exception of half a company on the extreme left.

[Sidenote: =1915.=]

[Sidenote: =Jan. 5th.=]

The London Rifle Brigade was taken out of the trenches preparatory to taking over a bit of line of its own on the right of the 11th Brigade.

Owing to the incursions of the river Warnave, this trench was in a very poor state of repair and badly flooded.

The dispositions of the Battalion were--one company in the front trench, one in London Farm and its environs (this supplied the night-carrying and working parties), one company, which was used for general fatigues for the Brigade, in reserve in Ploegsteert, and one company resting, washing, and cleaning in billets at Armentieres. Every company spent three days in each place, and in many ways this was the most comfortable tour of duty the Battalion ever had.

The men made themselves thoroughly at home in the cottages of the village, while the three days' rest in Armentieres owed much of its enjoyment to the initiative shown by the 4th Division in organising both divisional baths and divisional Follies.

Headquarters and various details, which included for the first time a permanent working and wiring party, were, of course, always "in action"

in Ploegsteert.

[Sidenote: =Mar. 11th--20th.=]

This was a period of "standing by" and various small moves, but eventually, after three days in the East Lancashires' trenches in front of the Convent, the Battalion took over the centre section in the wood on the 21st March.