The Last Winter In The Trenches

24th September 1917 to the Eve of the Great German Offensive: 21st March, 1918.

I. To the end of 1917.

The majority of the Battalions of the Middlesex Regiment in France and Flanders during the year 1917 had been engaged in the desperate fighting of 1917. Some had gone into battle at full strength and had emerged from the trenches sorely depleted in numbers: others, already weakened, came out of the inferno still weaker, and in order to regain their strength had to spend lengthy periods out of the line absorbing reinforcements and training them to take their place in the front-line trenches. Between times, i.e., when major operations were not in progress, raids on the enemy and constant vigilance in the front line, kept all ranks busy. War had become a highly scientific business: indeed, when men had time to compare the conditions in the trenches in those early months of the War in 1914 with conditions prevailing towards the end of 1917, they never ceased wondering at the marvellous changes which had taken place. Things unheard of, even undreamt of, in 1914 were now an everyday occurrence: the very means of carrying on warfare-gas, bombs, guns of enormous calibre, tanks, wonderful underground dug-outs, the use of camouflage, to mention only a few-all were the results of over three years of warfare such as no military nation had ever conceived in those Elysian days before war broke out in August, 1914.

From the sanguinary fighting east of Ypres towards the end of September, the 1st Middlesex (98th Brigade, 33rd Division) had come out of the line with a loss of 249 all ranks between the 24th and 26th of that month. The first four days of October were spent out of the line at Ebblinghem, but on the 5th the Battalion moved to Esquerdes, and on the 6th to Bailleul where the Die-Hards billeted in canteen huts. They were now for the time being attached to their old Brigade, the 19th, and on the 8th took over front-line trenches in the Ploegsteert area, Battalion Headquarters being at Bristol Castle. Of this tour there are no incidents to record. On the 14th the Middlesex were relieved and marched back to Weale Camp, near Neuve Eglise, where they came again under the orders of the 98th Brigade. The remainder of October and the whole of November and December were comparatively uneventful, and when the year closed the 1st Middlesex were in billets in the Convent, Poperinghe. Lieut.-Colonel J. W. L. Elgee still commanded the Battalion.

II. To The Eve Of The German Offensive, 1918.

New Year's Day, 1918, witnessed the dawn of a year unparalleled in the military history of the nations. For three years and a little over four months the titanic struggle had been waged with a fierceness and ferocity hitherto unknown, for even in bygone ages warfare was a comparatively mild affair compared with the wholesale slaughter during those ghastly years of the Great War.

But on the 1st January, 1918, there were, at that date, no indications of the momentous things which were to take place within a few months, and it is not until early in March that it is possible from the official diaries of battalions, brigades and divisions, kept in the field, to sense the oncoming of great happenings.

Because of the necessity to conserve their strength, consistent with a vigilant watch upon the enemy's dispositions, raiding and patrol work by battalions holding front-line sectors was reduced to the lowest limits. For the first few months of the year, therefore, there is little to record, with the exception of constant work while in the line, on the defences, or training when back in the "rest" areas.

The 1st Middlesex spent a considerable portion of that period in the front line south-west of Passchendaele, though in February three weeks‘training was carried out at Meringhem. On the 19th January there is an interesting note in the Battalion Diary to the effect that a party of officers of the American Expeditionary Force were attached to the Middlesex (then holding reserve positions at Seine) for instruction. In the line the enemy is described as being "very quiet," and only four other ranks were wounded during the month. In February two other ranks were killed and four more wounded. On the 6th March, however, there is an entry in the Diary which (unbeknown at that period) was really the beginning of the enemy's preparations for his great offensive. The entry is as follows: "Considerable gas shelling in the evening." The same entry is repeated on the 7th and 8th, casualties on the latter date amounting to 2 other ranks killed, 12 wounded, and 14 "gassed." On the 9th 3 other ranks were killed, 7 wounded and 11 "gassed." This gas shelling was part of the German plan to "thin out" the ranks of their opponents before launching their great attack on 21st March. Gradually this "gassing" increased until on the 18th (the Battalion being then in the line south-west of Passchendaele) it is described as "very heavy," and on the night 17th/18th the 1st Middlesex had three officers (Captain H.I.E. Ripley and 2/Lieuts. Hardy and Garrett) and thirty-one other ranks "gassed." The enemy was using "mustard gas " the fumes of which were insidious, i.e., those affected showing signs only after several hours. On the 19th and 20th the same tactics were continued by the enemy and about twenty more men were "gassed." On the latter night hostile patrols approached the Battalion posts and threw bombs : the enemy also raided the 4th King's, on the left of the 1st Middlesex, but only succeeded in leaving four prisoners behind.

Go to The German Offensives in Flanders of 1918 or Back to list of actions