9th Battalion Devonshire Regiment

[swift1914]

Where were the 9th Devons on 12th March 1917?

The person I'm intereted in is Private Edwin Dare-service no 16786, who according to the reference I have, died of wounds that day in the pursuit of the Hindenburg Line.

The book of "The Devonshire Regiment 1914-18" seems a little vague on this point and places the 9th Devons somewhere near Croiselles.

Can anyone elaborate?

[brindlerp]

9th Devonshire Regiment, 20th Brigade, 7th Division, V Corps, 5th Army, the German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line.

Extracted from pages 348 and 349 "The Seventh Division 1914 - 1918" by C.T. Atkinson, for the period 27th February 1917 to 13th March 1917:-

"

348 RETREAT TO HINDENBURG LINE [Feb.-

That evening the Royal Warwickshires relieved the Borders, but when they prepared to renew the attack next morning (Feb. 27th) they found the enemy vanished and Puisieux clear. The 20th Manchester were ordered up to relieve the Welch Fusiliers, who had suffered severely, having over 150 casualties including 6 officers, and meanwhile the Royal Warwickshires' patrols reached the high ground overlooking the valley which runs up between Puisieux and Bucquoy. These got within rifle range of Bucquoy, but it was evident that the Germans were not intending to quit Bucquoy without a fight: they could be seen digging in vigorously just South of the village.

With the capture of Puisieux the Seventh Division's advance came for the moment to a standstill. Until the Nineteenth and Thirty-First Divisions could get forward on its left a direct advance against Bucquoy was inadvisable. Accordingly the 20th Brigade, who relieved the 22nd on the night of March 2nd, had a relatively uneventful three days in the line. Still their patrols were active enough, pushing up as close to Bucquoy as the state of the ground and the enemy's alertness would allow, and there were several brisk little encounters which did not prevent the gleaning of much useful information. However, no move forward had been made before, on the night of the 5th/6th, the Division was relieved and drawn back for a brief rest. These last days cost the Division a serious loss, Captain Lowson of the Signal Company being killed on the 5th when reconnoitring near Puisieux. He had joined the Company as a 2nd Lieut. in October 1914 and had served almost continuously with it ever since, doing admirable work all along, and had proved himself an excellent commander of his company, whose work was always up to a very high level.

The main difficulty in following up the German retreat was the lack of roads. Theoretically there was a main road from Serre through Puisieux to Bucquoy : actually even the line of the road could hardly be traced. Not

MARCH 1917] THE OBSTACLES TO THE PURSUIT 349

only had the village of Serre been completely obliterated, but Serre hill, the scene of so many attacks, had been shot to pieces by our heavy guns and was a mass of huge shell-craters filled with water or liquid mud. The R.E. and Pioneers, assisted by large infantry working-parties, were at once set to work to construct a road over Serre hill, but the craters swallowed up any amount of road metal and large numbers of railway sleepers had to be used before at last a practicable roadway was created. This was a costly as well as a lengthy affair ; the hill was an easy mark and was constantly shelled by the Germans, causing many casualties among the working-parties and seriously impeding the work. But till the road was made it was extremely hard to get rations and ammunition to the front line, evacuate wounded and carry out reliefs, and the moving forward of the guns was also greatly retarded.

Divisional Headquarters during this rest were at Bertrancourt, the brigades being at that place, Mailley Maillet, Acheux and Beaussart, only a short distance back from the front. To go farther would hardly have been worth while, for after a bare week out of the line the Division was ordered on March 13th to relieve the Thirty-First opposite Bucquoy and to prepare to attack that village two days later and to employ five battalions. However, the very day that the 91st Brigade went into the line indications of a general retreat of the Germans were reported to the Corps, and about midday urgent orders were received from the Fifth Corps to push patrols into Bucquoy and, if it should prove to be still held, to attack it that evening. The line was held at the moment by the Queen's and a company of the 22nd Manchester.[1] The patrols, which were at once pushed forward, came back

[1] Six batteries had been got forward to support the attack, the 12th and 31st had been in action for over a week and the 105th, 106th, 25th, and 58th had recently managed to reach a position South of Puisieux. Every round of ammunition, however, had to be brought forward by pack animals and only a limited amount of wire-cutting had been possible.

"

regards

Richard

[swift1914]

Thanks Richard for the info-very helpful

Cheers - Swift

[brindlerp]

Another relevant map of Serre attached.