On this day

[theodore]

It was on this date in 1914 that the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment helped save the day at Gheluvelt. The Battalion lost about a third of its strengh wounded or killed.

[stevem49]

It was on this date in 1914 that the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment helped save the day at Gheluvelt. The Battalion lost about a third of its strengh wounded or killed.

Brave lads. I visited some of their graves last week.

stevem

[delta]

Nor forgetting Bulfin's force who pushed back the Germans later in the afternoon

[Staffsyeoman]

Nor the survivors of four battalions south of the Menin Road that afternoon (survivors of 2/KRRC 1/LNL, East Surreys and.... I forget. Total no more than 1100. Held off a German force four times their size. The senior rank left standing - after a shell killed the only surviving officer, the QM of 1/LNL was Company Sergeant Major Benjamin Frederick Whiteley, 2/KRRC. Immediate DCM. Commissioned four weeks later.

It wasn't ALL about the Worcesters.

[theodore]

I am aware that the Worcestershire Regiment were not the only regiment involved at Gheluvelt and that is why in my original post I said HELPED save the day. The remains of the South Wales Borderers held out under the heavy German attack until the Worcesters arrived.

[Staffsyeoman]

I wasn't sniping at you (though on reflection it could be read that way... apologies) and indeed the word was 'helped'. I just bristle that 'lazier' accounts of First Ypres on 31 October land on the Worcesters and nowhere else.

Before I get flamed by Worcesters researchers, I am in no way denigrating what they did. All were brave; I wish the men south of the road got more of their due. Fred Whiteley's account of the day astounded even a blase old historian like me.

[theodore]

The 2nd Battalion Worcesters are of interest to me in that my grandfather served with them. I thouht that a mention of Gheluvelt on the 31st October would be appropriate, but I take your point that accounts on the event can seem to infer that the Worcesters alone won the day. All those involved in holding the Germans at Gheluvelt were brave men and we remember those that gave the ultimate sacrifice.