13th November 1916

[michaeldr]

the first day of the Battle of the Ancre

"After some four hours of horrendous fighting a small body of Nelsons, mostly from the first two waves, had reached the Yellow Line, about 150 yards south-west of Beaucourt, at around noon under the command of Sub Lieutenant Ernest Gardner. The troops on their right were of Hood and Drake Battalions under Lieutenant Colonel Freyberg. These battalions, on the right of the line had been spared the worst of the attentions of the machine guns in the German redoubt and had made somewhat faster progress forward but still suffering heavy casualties. They reached the Yellow Line about ninety minutes earlier than the remnants of Nelson and Hawke and there they consolidated for the rest of the day, digging in and bringing all the troops who had made it that far into one composite unit under Freyberg's command. Sub Lieutenant Gardner had made contact with Lieutenant Colonel Freyberg by 5.00 pm and the Nelsons were directed to dig in on the Hood's left flank and extend the line. After darkness had fallen, Lieutenant Truscott brought forty to fifty reserve men forward to reinforce the small number of Nelsons and, as senior officer, took over command from Sub Lieutenant Gardener, who was the only Nelson officer remaining in the action. However the number of Nelsons in the force in front of Beaucourt was now so small that, as the Nelson War Diary succinctly puts it:
'From this time the Battalion ceased to exist as an identity.'"

from 'Nelson at War 1914-1918' By Capt Roy Swales RN [published by Pen & Sword Select, 2004]