2nd Royal Irish Rifles - 24 march 1918

[Jon]

Does anyone have any information on the fighting on 24 March 1918 - First Battle of Bapume - specific to 2/RIR. A WD extract perhaps, including any specific trench map refs to aid location(s) on the ground? I would be most grateful.

Jon

[ulsterlad2]

Hi Jon

On that date the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles were engaged in "The actions at the Somme crossings" not Bapaume. Here is an extract from Falls' "First Seven Battalions"

III. - THE ACTIONS AT THE Somme CROSSINGS.

About 10 a.m. on the 24th a new attack developed on the 2nd Battalion, the enemy making desperate efforts to debouch from Cugny, and also sweeping in on the flanks. Once again the attack was beaten off. By this time, however, there was a shortage of ammunition, and orders were given to fire at good targets - that is, at considerable groups of Germans - only. In view of the isolation of the position, orders were likewise issued for the companies on the flanks to be slightly refused. In executing this movement, D" Company had heavy losses, Lieutenant Marriott-Watson being among the killed. Soon afterwards Captain Thompson met a like fate, courting death in his efforts to inspire his men. The bravery and good leadership of this fine officer on the Messines Ridge has been recorded in an earlier chapter. Captain J. C. Bryans now assumed command, and took advantage of a short lull to reorganize the line. This had hardly been completed when a new attack began. Colonel McCarthy-O'Leary sent forward messengers with orders for the 2nd Battalion to withdraw through the 1st. No answer was received, runners being all killed or wounded. In any case, Captain Bryans had orders to fight to the last, and had, more-ever, come to the conclusion that an attempt to retire over open ground, with machine guns on either flank, would mean annihilation. If his little force was to be destroyed ii: should die to better purpose. The attack, accompanied by a flight of low-flying aeroplanes, swept in in overwhelming strength from the left, and a desperate hand-to-hand fight ensued. Sergeant-Major Ferris, commanding " B " Company, stood out as one of the most heroic of an heroic band. When the Germans finally closed, many men had not a round left to fire. They sprang from their entrenchments and met the enemy with their bayonets. In a few minutes all was over. The defenders were simply engulfed by superior numbers. It is impossible to give exact figures, but Captain Bryans estimates that there were some hundred and fifty men in the final fight, and that over a hundred were killed or wounded in the last hand-to-hand struggle, among the former being the Acting-Adjutant, Lieutenant M. E. J. Moore, M.C.; Lieutenant J. K. Boyle, M.C., aid and-Lieutenant E. C. Strohm were wounded and taken prisoner with Captain Bryans. There cannot be many instances, even in the late war, of a battalion being blotted out so completely as this. Only the transport, a handful of employed with it, a few officers kept back, and those on leave were left. And if the incident was exceptional in this respect, it also stands out as an example of supreme heroism that should live forever in the Regiment's memory. While the war lasted its details could only be guessed at, and it never received the public recognition it deserved. By 3.30 p.m. the 1st Battalion also was almost surrounded, and was compelled to fall back on Villeselve, where it took up a covering position north and west of the village. Here it held the enemy in check by its fire till 6.30 p.m., when it received orders to fall back, through Guiscard and Bussy to Sermaize, near Noyon, arriving about 3 a.m. The 36th Division had been relieved by the French 62nd Division. It was not, however, to enjoy a long respite. The French were fighting a delaying action, and it was quite clear the bone-weary men would have to move quickly. And, in fact, at 9 a.m. on the 25th the 1st Battalion marched along the main Amiens Road, to Avricourt, which was reached at noon. Here there was a halt of six hours, during which men slept like logs as they had fallen out. Accompanying the Battalion was a force of fifty officers and men, who were all that could be collected of the 2nd Battalion. At 6 p.m. the retreat was continued to Guerbigny, on the bank of the Avre, a march of over twelve miles. This last move was a nightmare. The men had reached a condition of fatigue when they seemed lost to all sense of what was happening about them. In some cases their boots were giving out. The roads were choked with pitiful columns of refugees, carrying their goods piled high on country carts, the poorest actually pushing wheel-barrows. It is certain that a proportion of the men simply could not have completed the march had it not been that a few lorries were placed at General Withycombe's disposition, which took the most footsore to their destination and then returned to meet the slowly advancing column and pick up a second load. Even with this aid it took seven and a half hours to complete the move.

[Jon]

Many thanks for that Ulsterlad. It is much appreciated. I realise all was chaos after 21 March but there any informative sketches/maps of specifically 2/RIR dispositions prior to the German assault that day that you are aware of?

Jon