Circumstances Leading to Death (Normally from War Diary)           

The attack on La Boutillerie was started by B Company on the right led by Captain Haddon, advancing in two lines; A Company advanced on the left in two lines with D Company in the centre. C Company formed the third line, with entrenching tools. A machine gun was on each flank. Immediately the attack was opened, the enemy opened a very heavy rifle and machine gun fire. The battalion advanced under this with steadiness, suffering very heavy casualties.

The Queen’s had managed to get into the trench from which the Warwicks attacked by about 4.45pm but could only guess at the carnage ahead of them as it was now dark and the air full of smoke. About fifteen minutes later, an NCO from the Warwicks returned to ask for support from the Queen’s but there was no reliable information about exactly what had happened. Leaving half a company behind to defend the trench in case of a German counter attack, the Queen’s now also advanced into the continuous hail of fire. A message went to the 1^st Royal Welsh Fusiliers, the brigade’s reserve company, to prepare to move forward to reinforce the attack. The Queen’s found that the Warwicks had apparently crossed the first half of no man’s land without too much trouble, but the piled corpses and wounded near the German wire told their own story.

Reports suggested that a party of the Warwicks had entered the German trench. As they crossed the fire-swept no man’s land, the Queen’s also took severe casualties: Captains Lee and Fearon, who commanded the two companies, were both wounded. The Warwicks’ commanding officer Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Brewis and three of his officers had been killed at the head of their men, Haddon was taken prisoner, and battlefield command inevitably broke down. The survivors of both battalions were scattered in groups, taking cover as best they could. Runners sent to take information back to battalion and brigade headquarters failed to arrive, and even by 6pm Lawford had no clear idea of the progress made by his men, or their position. The British artillery fire, having stepped forward as instructed, continued to fall on the German support trenches and had no effect on the fight for the front line. At 7.15pm Capper instructed Lawford to call off the attack but it appears to have been at about 7.52pm when Captain Francis Montague-Bates, who was in command of the 2^nd Queen’s and back in the original trench, ordered the men to withdraw from no man’s land and sent out parties to attempt to bring in the wounded. These tired remnants arrived in their old front line, finding them now full of the recently arrived 1^st Royal Welsh Fusiliers.

When roll call was taken, it was found that the Warwicks had lost twelve officers and 383 men killed, wounded or missing, and the Queen’s had lost six officers and 89 men: a terrible toll for no gain whatever.

Taken from The Long Long Trail website - Winter Operations 1914