Battalion headquarters

“ Whenever the battalion moved into the line the transport and Quartermaster’s stores remained behind together with what was known as Rear Battalion Headquarters, and they were jointly responsible for supplying to the battalion each day, food, clothes, ammunition, rum, etc., in fact all the necessaries of life, and all the necessaries of war so far as the infantry soldier is concerned, including mail and reinforcements. ”

“ A few men would be at the observatory, at a pirate piece, with the infantry, or on detail at battalion headquarters. Yet reports on these men must be consolidated and at regimental headquarters at the usual hour. ”

“ Who is there left in the Battalion that used to come to the garden at Verquin to listen to the drums and pipes playing Retreat, in the days when we first began to know that we were to take part in one of the greatest battles of the age?
The little broken-down house, which was the Battalion Headquarters at Philosophe the night before Loos, is still there. Quality Street, instead of being a peaceful little village where one lived in comparative safety, is now battered every day by German shells. ”

“ In the mess we found the Commanding Officer of the 38th Battalion A.I.F. awaiting us, and he explained that our present place of rest was the old right Battalion Headquarters, while the left was in more commodious but less conveniently situated quarters [Pg 71] in the spacious cellars of Cambridge House, some way along the subsidiary line. Half the Australians' Headquarters lived in one place and half in the other, and, though the two were connected by telephone, the disadvantages of the separation were obvious. ”

“ Battalion Headquarters was established in an old German concrete pill-box, called "Double Cotts," in which the stench was almost unbearable. On the following night (November 28th-29th) , we relieved the battalion in the front line and took over their positions, which consisted of a series of shell-holes, order of companies from right to left being as follows: "A" Company (Captain McWilliam) , "B" Company less one platoon (Lieutenant Penrice) , "C" Company plus one platoon of "B" Company (Captain Ormrod) ; support company, "D" Company (Captain Fell) . ”

“ Every man is to know the position of his platoon commander's shelter and the company headquarters.
(j) At least two men per section of the support and reserve companies must be able to act as guides to all the company headquarters of the battalion.
(k) All officers must know the shortest route from their own headquarters to those of the company on their flanks and to their own battalion headquarters.
(l) It is the duty of every officer or man to fasten any loose wire that he may see which has become temporarily detached. ”

“ Judging by the machine gun fire the village was strongly held, [82] and as no reconnaissance of the ground could be made, and only a very general direction maintained, it was decided that we would not proceed with the attack until daylight. Battalion Headquarters was established, and rations were brought forward and distributed to the companies under the very nose of the Bosch, who could have wiped us out if he had only known; and so darkness has sometimes its advantages also. ”

“ Only one man in the company was wounded.” The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; but a battalion that works strenuously on its parapets and traffic-trenches gets its reward, even in the Salient in ’16. Battalion Headquarters, always fair target for a jest, is derided as taking “a severe fright from a shell that pitched twenty yards away, but it was an obvious error in bowling, and was not repeated.” ”

“ Battalion headquarters were situated in the Hindenburg Line and the two forward companies were just on the fringe of Inchy, and accommodated in what had lately been the headquarters of the 115th Feldartillerie Regiment. The dugout was cut into the side of the road and consisted of several well-timbered rooms and there were about four entrances. This dugout was so well fitted that it actually contained a pump, to ensure an adequate supply of water for the garrison. ”

“ One hostile machine gun may completely break up the first wave or two; if there are two or more waves in rear they may successfully carry on the assault.
It is desirable to have Battalion Headquarters as far forward as possible, right up in the front assembly trenches if possible, before an attack. But it is no good placing them there unless there is some suitable shelter (however small) , and unless time is available to lay communication lines forward. Brigade Headquarters should also be right forward, provided there is some accommodation. This facilitates personal reconnaissance and liaison. ”

“ French or British or American, was an individual human being.
When you went to Summerall's headquarters by day, you were pretty certain, unless there were a big action in progress, to find him absent, looking in on divisional, brigade, regimental, or battalion headquarters, moving about among the guns and transport and troops—wherever it pleased him to go in his insistence upon keeping in close human touch with the forces under his command. He left routine to his staff officers, and he expected much of his chief of staff. ”

“ A company packs up its tin box of papers and the balance of its imprest account and is ready to move at a moment's notice, with or without transport. The move of Battalion Headquarters is a little less simple, and Adjutants have been known to look worried when moves were frequent and unexpected. Brigade is the first formation with a tendency to split into advanced and rear headquarters. Brigade Headquarters transport is of respectable dimensions, though still horse-drawn, and so able to tackle pontoon bridges and the viler roads which lead thereto. ”

“ Company, except 2nd-Lieutenant Fell and one man, became casualties. Of Battalion Headquarters there remained only one policeman and one store-keeper. The rest, including the Regimental Sergeant-Major, Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant, orderly-room, medical, sanitary, and Quartermaster's staff, the cooks, the tailors, the bootmakers, and all the other details, were evacuated. The Battalion Orchestra, who were playing when the barrage opened, were badly gassed to a man, and their instruments destroyed. ”

“ Battalion Headquarters moved out to billets by the Armentières Level Crossing on the Erquinghem road. One interesting innovation that may be mentioned here was the Pioneer Platoon, recently started under Lieutenant J. R. Paul, and then taken over by Lieutenant Jones. This consisted of about twenty men, and included the original pioneers and a number of other skilled men. It was their business to attend to all the minor construction work that promoted the comfort of the battalion, such as improving billets, making ovens, drying rooms, etc. ”

“ Company established their headquarters in the Convent, but made a speedy evacuation on being informed that it was mined. "D" Company were moved up to Trieu de Loquet; and Battalion Headquarters would have moved up to Froyennes but for the information that we were to be relieved early next morning. The enemy kept up a continual harassing fire all day, distributed generally over the front, but causing few casualties. ”

“ Thus signallers were under the Signalling Officer, runners and observers under the Observation Officer. Each section had its own battle position in defence of Headquarters, and "stood to" morning and evening in these positions under the command of their officers. If Headquarter rations had been left to the four Companies to provide, and there had been no fighting organisation, it would have led not only to great discomfort but to considerable danger, in the event of a successful attack by the enemy, such indeed as that which occurred in March, 1918. ”

“ Battalion transport wagons then bring the food and other supplies down to battalion headquarters. At these headquarters are the quartermaster sergeants of each company, and they, with their staff, during the daytime pack up and get ready for distribution supplies for each separate platoon. At night the company wagons, already packed, are drawn up as close to the trenches as conditions will permit. If the country is too torn with shells to permit the use of horses, men will drag them. ”

“ The laborious work of road-making with its daily toll of casualties continued, until one day, a note from Battalion Headquarters announced that we would not become a fighting unit as heretofore decided, but that we would be made into a pioneer battalion and be attached permanently to the 8th Brigade. ”

“ About this time a most amusing episode was witnessed by one of our Subalterns who was doing a liaison with the infantry at a battalion headquarters. This place was situated most unpleasantly, and was well known to the enemy, consequently accommodation had to be sought underground as much as possible. ”

“ The man released him and we watched him rise and circle, then head southward with word for the Commanding General fifteen miles back at Division Headquarters in Marbache that Bois Frehaut was ours—all objectives reached, were holding and would continue to hold.
Then I took my staff and Artillery Liaison officers and my runners and went back to a prearranged locality in the edge of the wood and established my permanent headquarters or P. C. in an open shell hole. A few men set to work with spades and picks to shape it up and give it a little level floor space. ”

“ The recent successes had not been achieved without heavy casualties, and when these casualties were made good by reinforcements it was quite evident that the other Battalions in our Division were not greatly superior to our own in the way of old and experienced soldiers. Their Headquarters were, of course, composed of men who had seen considerable fighting, but otherwise from now on we were all more or less on an equal footing. ”

“ Andrews disclosed that the War Department would organize an independent armored force, belonging to neither the Infantry nor Cavalry branches, in the form of "mechanized divisions." In such divisions the command and control echelon would consist of a headquarters and headquarters company and a signal company. A reconnaissance battalion with an attached aviation observation squadron would constitute the commander's "eyes," which would operate from 100 to 150 miles in advance and reconnoiter a front from 30 to 50 miles. ”

“ The Brigade-Major describes the elaborate preparation needed for every movement of the relief and the attack, and the anxiety in the Brigade Headquarters, a dug-out twenty feet below the ground, when the telephone—which is constantly cut by shell fire—fails to announce the arrival of each company at its appointed place. Presently, the left company of the battalion on the left is missing. In the darkness, and the congestion of men moving up to and back from the trenches on the narrow track, clearly something has gone wrong. ”

“ A battalion does not think beyond its immediate interests—even officers are discouraged from trying to run the war by themselves—but it did not need to be told that it had not been fattened up the last few weeks for Headquarters’ pleasure in its appearance. Men know when they are “for it,” and if they forget, are reminded from the doors of crowded estaminets and [211] canteens, or from the tail-boards of loaded lorries as their comrades fleet by in the dusk. ”

“ The battle surplus to be left behind when an Infantry Battalion took part in an attack had by this time been clearly defined by General Headquarters, and consequently a large party of “non-starters” joined the Divisional Reinforcement Camp before the Battalion left for the trenches on the 3rd of June. These included, in addition to two of the regular Company 139 Commanders, representatives of every platoon and specialist section in the Battalion-picked N.C.O.’s and men who would form a worthy nucleus on which to build a new Battalion in the event of heavy casualties being suffered. ”

“ Then I was transferred to the headquarters company, a rather uncertain and complicated organization in those days, with an authorized strength of seven officers and three hundred and fifteen men. I remained with that company until after our arrival in France.
In the infantry regiments of the Ninety-second Division the lieutenants and captains were colored with the exception of the regimental staff captains and the captains of the headquarters and supply companies. The majors commanding the battalions and the lieutenant-colonel and the colonel were old regular army white officers. ”

“ The front line Companies Headquarters were in machine gun nest dug-outs in front of our wire. They were rushed early in the attack. No-man's-land certainly was a bad place for Company Headquarters, but there was no better location available. By 8.15 a.m. we had formed a new front line running north along the switch line, being in touch with the 8/10th Gordons on our right and {121} the 6th Camerons on our left. By this time there were probably not more than 150 other ranks and 3 Company officers remaining. ”

“ I smiled in my gas mask, for I had watched the efforts of a certain battalion backed by another battalion, to come up into the woods during the afternoon. They got as far as Ferme de Belle Aire—part of them—and at dark withdrew. Very early the morning of the eleventh the “attacking” battalion got within the outer wire of Bois Frehaut. By five A. M. two officers and a handful of men had worked their way as far as the headquarters of a certain “G” Company platoon. Our barrage started on the dot. The two officers, followed by the handful of men, advanced beyond our front line and looked about. ”