Lancashire Fusiliers

“ We were relieved on the night of the 16th/17th July by the 1/4th Royal Lancaster Regiment, about 10 p.m., and moved off to reserve billets near Headquarters. Detachments from A Company, under Second Lieutenant Evans, and C Company, under Second Lieutenant R. A. Ostrehan, garrisoned “fort” supporting points behind the line. There was a heavy trench mortar bombardment of the trenches held by the 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers on the night of the 19th/20th July, which caused a Brigade “stand-to,” but nothing happened. The 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers had rejoined the Brigade the week before. ”

“ On the evening of the 7th we relieved the 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers on the left sector—a very difficult relief, Companies having to move up their sectors through a heavy bombardment of 4.2’s, 5.9’s, whizzbangs, and minenwerfers. This was the enemy’s retaliation for our bombardment in connection with a raid carried out on our flank by the 1st Cameronians. One Other Rank was killed and six wounded. The next few days were spent in the usual routine and working and wiring parties, and were fairly quiet, our casualties for the tour being:—Seven Other Ranks killed and eight wounded. ”

“ They witnessed the bombardment of the enemy’s positions from sea and land; and some, with good glasses, were able to follow the movements of the Lancashire Fusiliers during the heavy fighting of the 6th and 7th of May, and could actually see them move forward to attack, their bayonets flashing in the sun, and concentrate on certain points when the advance was held up. On the right the French Colonial troops were seen, carrying all before them with their usual dash, only, alas! ”

“ At midnight on the 24th March our Artillery opened a heavy barrage of all calibres, including trench mortars, machine guns, rifle grenades and thermite, on the enemy trenches, and a successful raid was carried out by the 5th King’s Liverpool Regt. on our left, and nine prisoners were taken. Enemy retaliation was practically nil. On examination, these prisoners stated that an attack was imminent. In view of this statement the 5th Lancashire Fusiliers were ordered up to the Village Line to strengthen the defences, one Company being attached to our Battalion. ”

“ The 11th Brigade, which was more to the north, had only a constant shell-fire to endure, but the 12th, pushing forward through Bucy-le-long, found itself in front of a line of woods from which there swept a heavy machine-gun and rifle-fire. The advance was headed by the 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers, supported by the 2nd Inniskilling Fusiliers. It was across open ground and under heavy fire, but it was admirably carried out. In places where the machine-guns had got the exact range the stricken Fusiliers lay dead or wounded with accurate intervals, like a firing-line on a field-day. ”

“ Contingents of the East and North Lancashire Regiments arrived from Preston. The Militia, including battalions of the Liverpool Regiment, the South Lancashire Regiment, the Lancashire Fusiliers, and other regiments in the command, were hurried to the scene of action outside Sheffield. From every big town in the whole of the North of England and South of Scotland came straggling units of Volunteers. ”

“ Altogether the Lancashire Fusiliers lost 8 officers and 400 men in this action.
The succession of British successes which have been recorded in their order was broken at this point by a temporary reverse, which involved no permanent loss of ground, but cost many valuable lives. It is a deplorable thing that, when fighting against men who are usually brave and sometimes heroic, we are obliged continually to associate any success which they may obtain with some foul breach of the ancient customs of war. ”

“ So great had been the drain upon the man-power of the empire that it had become necessary to reduce the establishment of infantry brigades from four to three battalions. A number of officers and men of the 6th Lancashire Fusiliers, the 4th East Lancashires, and the 9th Manchesters were posted to other battalions of the Division, and the remainder transferred to the 66th Division. As the 126th Brigade thereby lost two battalions, the 8th Manchesters were transferred to it from the 127th Brigade. ”

“ At sundown the Brigade was relieved, and the Lancashire Fusiliers rested on the cliffs until the following evening, when they were moved to a less exposed bivouac further inland, among the trees near Morto Bay. The Territorials had been severely tested and had stood it well. They had been thrust at once into the fighting line because they were badly needed. When they landed the position of the depleted 29th Division was precarious. The men were exhausted, for there is a limit to human endurance, and that limit had almost been reached. ”

“ At 6 a.m. on the 18th, the Battalion moved off to pass through the 5th Lancashire Fusiliers. “C” and “D” were Outpost Companies, with “A” and “B” Companies in support. The patrols pushed on and entered Peronne. The enemy were holding the bank of the river La Marque in considerable strength, and there was a good deal of shelling, the fort at Sainghin, and Peronne, being the chief targets. Bas Sainghin caused “D” Company a good deal of trouble, and it was not until the afternoon that it was cleared. A heavy mist hung over the area of operations, and greatly assisted us in moving forward. ”

“ It was an Act of God which could not be foreseen or provided against, and the hardship inflicted upon the troops was very great. For a time the Krithia Nullah was impassable, and many dead Turks were carried down. The Lancashire Fusiliers Brigade Headquarters was under four feet of water for several hours, and the Signal Office was washed away. One battalion was enjoying beef-steaks in the dug-outs when a roar of water was heard, and a stream twenty feet wide quickly filled every dug-out. With British tenacity the men held on to chunks of bread and of steak as they scrambled for higher ground. ”

“ This was at Minden, the other five regiments being the Lancashire Fusiliers, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, King's Own Scottish Borderers, Hampshire Regiment and the Yorkshire Light Infantry. The regiments passed to the battlefield through gardens of roses in full bloom, and the soldiers picked the blossoms and fixed them in their hats, and in commemoration of their victory they enjoy the right of wearing roses in their head-dress on the anniversary of the battle. ”

“ From Carlisle came the Reservists of the Border Regiment, from Richmond those of the Yorkshire Regiment, from Newcastle came what was left of the Reservists of the Durham Light Infantry, and the Northumberland Fusiliers, from Lancaster the Royal Lancashires, while field artillery came from Seaforth and Preston, and small bodies of Reservists of the Liverpool and the South Lancashire Regiments came from Warrington. ”

“ Their country may indeed be proud of these men who are so lavishly giving their blood on her behalf, and she will follow their efforts with her love and prayers.”
“Le Petit Parisien,” April 12th, 1918:—
“At the beginning of the attack, after the Portuguese had been forced back, the plan of the German High Command was checked thanks to the indomitable resistance which was offered by the British right flank. There the enemy found established a Lancashire Division—the 55th—which will certainly be mentioned in the communique. It is the least that can be done for this Division. ”

“ It has invariably acted up to that motto, and it is my pride to be able to say that never has the Division been called upon to undertake an operation in which it did not succeed, and never was it set a task which it did not more than accomplish.
Such honours have not been won without a heavy toll in wounded and in dead. Many a gallant Lancashire lad lies in a soldier’s grave in Gallipoli, Sinai, France and Belgium, but the memory of their glorious deeds will live in our hearts for ever. ”

“ Be mangled—be slain—but yield not. Hear your leader’s vow. Upon this good sword, I swear, that as long as steel can cut, flesh shall wield.—Charge! Upon them! The king! the king!” and they dashed on to meet the enemy.
Colonel Lilbourne, who commanded the enemy, instantly arrayed his men, to bear up against the attack, and a dense square was formed from hedge to hedge, of the regular troops, while the militia of Lancashire and Cheshire were formed into a wing, to close in upon the royalists, when they engaged with the main body. ”

“ The various batteries, battalions and corps, no longer scattered and independent units, were organized and trained as divisions, and the force was actually treated as a valuable and even essential element in the system of national defence, with the result that the Territorial Force soon reached a higher state of efficiency than the Volunteers had ever been permitted to approach. The East Lancashire Division had the reputation of being one of the smartest and most efficient of the whole force. ”

“ On November 6, 1715,218 the insurgents were at Kirkby Lonsdale, and being told that the town of Lancaster had ceased to make preparations for defence, they decided to march on to that place, outside of which they arrived the day following, being met by Lord Widdrington and others, who roused their drooping spirits with the intelligence that the Lancashire gentlemen were willing to join them, and that Manchester (as an instalment towards the 20,000 promised) had got arms for 50 men besides other volunteers. ”

“ The whole terrain through which the Division passed on its three miles’ journey to the trenches was stiff with guns. The 18-pounders had been brought close behind the infantry, and they stood in mud and shell-holes almost wheel to wheel. They appeared to be innumerable, and it was something of a shock to the Lancashire gunners to find so many guns within a radius of one hundred yards. The 4·5-inch howitzers were in groups, also close to the front ”

“ These were the most trying hours that the Lancashire men had ever known. “If ever man knew terror, I knew it that night,” said one of the officers, and the others admitted that his experience was theirs no less. It cost them a real effort to appear calm and collected, and to talk to their men in tones of apparent unconcern. No sound pierced the stillness of the night save the occasional crack of a Turkish rifle, or of one of the fixed rifles left in the trenches, and now and then the bursting of a shell on one of the southern beaches. ”

“ Though he took no part in the miracle of the landings, the East Lancashire Territorial proved himself worthy of comradeship with even "the incomparable 29th Division." He ranked with the Anzac and the Lowland Scot in the great adventure. The original 1st-line of our Battalion were really destroyed in Turkey with their comrades of the same Brigade, but their gallantry in the early assaults and their inflexible fortitude in the trenches—pestered by flies, enfeebled by dysentery, stinted of water, and worn out by hardships—are a lasting title to honour. ”