Bucquoy

[Joe Walsh]

My man William Till won his MM with the Labour Corps in 1917 at Bucquoy. Would anyone be able to tell me waht happened there around March that year.

Joe

[bmac]

Around this time the Germans withdrew from their lines on the Somme and withdrew to the Hindenburg lines to the east. The German withdrawal from the Gommecourt salient was pursued by, amongst others, the 31st and 46th Division each of which suffered a small number of casualties.

After 27 February 1917, in an attack on German rearguards by the 16th West Yorkshires of the 31st Division, 43 men of the West Yorkshires were buried in a German trnech known as Owl Trench. Another action took place on 14th March involving the 1/5th North Staffs and 1/5th South Staffs occurred in the area and the casualties plus a number of German casualties from then and from 1st July 1916 are buried in Rossignol Wood Cemetery.

These actions took place about 3 1/2 km west of Bucquoy and I would imagine that your man won his award as the Germans withdrew eastwards from these positions through Bucquoy and the other towns and villages. A lot of booby-traps were left behind, roads were blocked by bringing down trees and bridges were blown. In other words, plenty of opportunities for a man from the Labour Corps to get involved!

[Joe Walsh]

Tyanks Bill,

I'm sure your right about oppurtunities for a LC man to get an award, espeacially a CSM, which he was.

Someone before mentioned railway tracks and reinforcements and the tracks being shelled, and I was double checking to see if any one could confirm that.

Joe

[egbert]

There was a light railway coming from Achiet, running right in the middle between Puisieux and Bucquoy towards Waeldchen 125 =Rossignol Wood, ending there