The Buffs (East Kent Regiment)

“ The Buffs’ Headquarters now directed D Company to be ready to make a counter-attack, and at “Clarence Keep” itself the meagre defences were manned with spare runners, cooks, sanitary men, pioneers, police and servants, and these prepared to see the matter out. Then the chaplain and doctor arrived from Vendeuil, where they had been billeted, and told how B Company had been surrounded, but that Captain Chant had escaped into the fort. Strong bodies of Germans had come down the road from the north and surprised the defenders, though some had escaped in the fog and joined C Company ”

“ The enemy’s offensive was most successful on the sector which was on the right flank of the battalion. Here he penetrated right through to the rear, and the first news the men in the line had of this success was that their own brigade headquarters was being attacked behind them. This attempt, however, was beaten off by the staff, the orderlies and the signallers, though the transport, which was bringing up water and supplies, was captured. This hostile movement of course exposed the Buffs’ flank. ”

“ For the whole of this first day our men lay in the stifling tunnels, where the heat was tremendous and the odour most offensive. It was not till 8.30 the next night that the Buffs emerged from their unpleasant surroundings and pushed forward to relieve the 3rd Rifle Brigade in our new front line, which was, however, not as far off as had been planned; for the British advance had been halted by very heavy opposition from shells, machine guns and rifle fire. ”

“ As after every war, when peace or its equivalent is proclaimed, the exiled soldier’s thoughts immediately and naturally turn to home; of course they do. However that may be, orders came that the Buffs were to be one of the regiments to remain in Mesopotamia for another hot season.
The cadre of the battalion, a very tiny remnant of those who embarked in 1914, reached home in January, 1920, under command of Lt.-Colonel J. Body, D.S.O., O.B.E. This battalion was therefore actually a few days longer abroad than the 4th. Casualties during the war were 12 officers and 118 other ranks killed ”

“ There was a fine view of the country beyond the canal from its summit. It was afterwards officially known as The Buffs’ Bank, out of compliment to the 6th Battalion. A good deal of savage hand-to-hand fighting took place here, and the success of the company was very largely due to the extraordinary courage and initiative of two private soldiers, Dunning and Cornell, who together rushed a German machine gun in a concrete emplacement, killed the team, captured the gun, and thus saved the lives and limbs of many of their comrades of A Company ”

“ Very heavy machine-gun flanking fire met the Kentish men from the left and the Queen’s from the right. A Company of the Buffs “went over” by platoons about 3.30 a.m., and the first wave suffered few casualties until the German wire was reached; but the succeeding waves of this company, and those of C Company also, suffered heavily in their advance. The few men that succeeded in getting into the German trenches, under 2nd Lieut. Farmer, at once commenced to bomb the dug-outs. ”

“ The Germans, being unable to reinforce in masses owing to our guns, dribbled up men from their rear in very small parties. As regards details of the Buffs’ advance: all companies of the battalion got clear of the front trench before the enemy’s barrage commenced, but, owing to the darkness, sections, platoons and companies soon got mingled up together and at one time part of the Middlesex belonging to the 54th Brigade came across the Buffs’ front in the dark, but the error was skilfully rectified. ”

“ While the 6th Battalion of the Buffs was suffering as briefly described above, their brethren of the 7th, on the night of the 2nd/3rd May, were opposite the village of Cherisy preparing for the attack: A and B were the assaulting companies, C the supporting company, and D was in reserve, in shell holes, in rear of the support trench. The Buffs were on the right of their brigade with the 54th Infantry Brigade on their right and the 8th East Surrey on the left. The Royal West Kent supported both Buffs and East Surreys, and the 7th Queen’s were brigade reserve. ”

“ The hostile artillery kept both Buffs and Queen’s under very heavy fire, but no infantry attack eventuated; an hour later, however, news came that Dernancourt, which is a couple of miles or so away and down in the Ancre valley, was being very hardly pressed. At 2.30 the Buffs moved forward over the ridge and occupied some old trenches there. Here a bitterly cold night was spent; rations were brought up by Lewis gunners and signallers [334] who had been left behind because they had been out at training when the sudden order to move came. The morning march cost the regiment 2nd Lieut. ”

“ Also a counter-attack, by a strong collection of British, got into and occupied the trench into which a few of the enemy had penetrated. There were no further determined attacks, and at dusk the fury of the struggle died away. The Buffs during the day, being in reserve, had suffered far less than the rest of the brigade and had been called upon to resist no frontal attack, though towards noon and afterwards their flanks [322] had always been in danger from the steady hostile advance up both the L’Hirondelle and the Lagnicourt valleys. ”

“ Very few old officers of four years back, not even perhaps Colonel Eaton himself, could have thought it possible to manufacture and train a new fighting unit, even though that unit bore an ancient and honourable name, that could do the deeds that the 6th Buffs had done, not once or twice, but over and over again, and could earn at the last such an eulogy from an experienced general as is quoted above. ”

“ As a matter of fact, the battalion debouched from the town at 10 a.m. and touch was got with the 54th Brigade, but then, heavy machine-gun fire being met with, progress astride the Albert-Pozieres road became impossible. All the country just outside Albert is dominated by Usna, Tara and Shamrock hills, which high ground was the especial objective of the 18th Division. When the Buffs emerged from the streets a false report was received that Tara Hill was occupied by the 54th Brigade, and our artillery got orders not to fire upon it. ”

“ Nothing could be seen anywhere and direction was naturally extremely difficult to maintain. The Buffs had to pass the village of Vaux Audigny in fours and to deploy outside it. The advance was made by compass bearings, and more than one instance occurred of sergeants taking the compasses from their injured officers and leading their companies on, so that the battalion reached its objective correctly, which was more than all the troops contrived to do. ”

“ Casualties, which in one of our frequent minor wars would have made a stir, were of regular occurrence and almost taken for granted; the records show almost every day something like two killed and five wounded, and drafts to replace these good fellows [22] were fairly often arriving from England. Later on the relief of units actually in the trenches by others in rear occurred at short intervals, but it may be noted here that on the 24th November the Buffs, when relieved by the Shropshire Light Infantry, had been no less than four weeks and six days in the front line, east of Bois Grenier. ”

“ Great numbers of prisoners, machine guns, field guns and material fell to the Buffs. All objectives were seized and consolidated and advance parties sent forward. By the afternoon no enemy was to be found except dead or prisoners in the “cages” or wired-in enclosures erected for the captured. On the 10th the cavalry went through and reached Monchy le Preux, where the battalion followed that night, having lost during the whole first Battle of the Scarpe 2nd Lieuts. R. G. K. Money and T. W. Buss and 23 men killed; Captain Gordon, 2nd Lieuts. ”

“ The 6th Buffs moved into its assembly position at 4.30 a.m., having C Company on the left, D on the right, A left support and B right support. The battalion had the West Kent on its left with the Queen’s in support, and the objectives were: first, the east edge of Guyencourt; second, the high ground beyond; and third, the eastern outskirt of Epehy and the railway east of Peiziere. Both the Buffs and the West Kent had with them a section of Field Artillery, another of a Trench Mortar Battery and two sections of the Machine Gun Corps. ”

“ On the 19th August the wounded officers were relieved and Captain Pearce assumed charge of the front line. 2nd Lieut. T. W. Underhill and four men were killed by shell fire during the evening and ten men wounded. On the 21st another attack was made by the Rifle Brigade, and the Buffs did what they could to help, particularly by sending up a bomb-carrying party under 2nd Lieut. Rainey over the open, which drew a tremendous fire on the Buffs’ trenches. Our friends did not reach their objective. ”

“ Economy demands that the book containing the history of the Buffs during the momentous years from 1914 to 1919 shall not stretch its length beyond a certain limit, and it is difficult to pack the stories of eight fighting battalions for four years into the required space; yet it is feared that the unavoidable price of a more lengthy volume or volumes might perhaps be prohibitive in the cases of many individuals deeply interested in the regiment. ”

“ There is something about perfectly passive defence which makes for despondency and depression, but a raid on the enemy evokes a spirit of enterprise. These are perhaps very minor military enterprises in many cases and no description of them will be found in the military despatches, but they are naturally of intense interest to all concerned and show the enemy that the spirit of those opposite them is quite undismayed.
On the 28th June, then, a detachment of the Buffs under 2nd Lieuts. ”

“ Candidly I do not think I ever saw a finer body of men in any battalion since I joined the 1st in Cawnpore in 1878. They were a fine lot averaging thirteen years’ service, but I think your lot even topped them.’”
The ceremony above referred to took place on the 31st January, 1915, and more advanced training at Aldershot lasted from about then till the 1st June, when yet another warlike body of Buffs made the great move and sailed for France to show of what stuff the old regiment was made. ”

“ Captain Whitmarsh, of B Company, was after the action ordered to send forward two platoons as patrols into St Pierre Vaast Wood and towards Sailly Saillisel, and as the enemy appeared to be greatly demoralised the 7th West Kent was ordered to attack the village at 7 p.m., which move necessitated a further advance on the Buffs’ part to conform. During the operations between the 22nd August and the 1st September the 7th Buffs had 3 officers killed and 14 wounded; 26 men killed, 84 wounded and 55 missing. ”

“ Of course, strong bodies of troops must always be behind those actually in touch with the enemy, and it was so arranged that everybody should have a turn at work nearest the foe and then be passed by some of those in rear, and so take on the business of reserve troops. On the 30th of August, therefore, the 12th Division was relieved by the 47th, the 24th London Regiment taking the place of the 6th Buffs, who retired to Faviere Wood and remained there till [369] the 4th September. ”

“ A few men got through the wire, and then the enemy emerged from his dug-outs and commenced a tremendous fire of shells and machine-gun bullets. C and D Companies, which were in front, could do nothing but take cover in shell holes, wait and hope. The supporting A Company was just as badly off as C and D and could not move, and troops on the left fell back before a counter-attack, so that the Germans who made it were, in the nature of things and merely as a result of their success, now threatening the Buffs in rear and the battalion was in a tight place ”

“ The recital of those deeds, and a description of the character of the war and conditions in which they achieved them, cannot therefore but inspire those who come after them in the battalions of the Buffs; so that should they too in their generation be called on to pass through the fiery ordeal, they also may, in the faith of their fathers, pass through unshaken to final victory. ”

“ How many of those men who route-marched with the Buffs at Aldershot in 1910 ever dreamed that in less than four years they would be fighting desperately alongside the old regiment (though, of course, a different battalion of it) in one of the greatest battles ever contested?
Sixty-one officers and nearly four thousand N.C.O.’s and men of the Queen’s Own served with this 3rd Battalion [289] during the war, and it was always commanded by one of the regiment’s own officers. ”

“ These movements, as well as others, were immensely assisted by a machine-gun battalion which showed great pluck and ingenuity in selecting positions. The Buffs held on till 4.15, when the enemy launched a very heavy attack on Vraucourt and the ridge immediately north-east of Vaulx from the L’Hirondelle valley, and this was attended by low-flying aeroplanes which were very audacious. ”

“ The next day the Buffs were standing by in readiness to proceed to Monchy, a German counter-attack being expected, but they were relieved at nightfall by the 29th Division and marched back by the Cambrai road to the caves in Arras. On the 14th they left that ruined city and marched for billets at Montenescourt with the band playing the regimental march, which is an exhilarating piece of music, especially on triumphant occasions. ”