Battle of Ginchy - Page 2

The 4th Battalion Grenadiers were trying to relieve the 47th Brigade, but could not locate it, and there was no one on Bromfield’s right. All through the night Bromfield made exhaustive efforts to get in touch with the 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards, but found nothing but Germans, who fired and disappeared in the darkness, though a few were caught. No. 2 Company also rounded up a few small parties on their front.

It was a misty dawn, and at 7 o’clock there was very little light. Very rightly, Bromfield was still anxious about his flank, and had sent yet another patrol to try and get in touch with someone. Actually Sergt. Ashford, in command of this patrol, had found troops: a mixed company of some seventy men of the 48th Brigade, under a gallant young officer who had been shot through the neck, but, although he couldn’t talk, was still active and eager; these troops were in a trench near the sunken road on the east of the village.

Sergt. Ashford had just returned to the right of the Prince of Wales’s Company, and was making his report there to Bromfield, when the enemy attacked from the north-east. It was a strong attack, and Bromfield seems to have realised that he would be enveloped, for he gave an order to the right of his company to fall back into the wood. This they proceeded to do, but the enemy’s left swept round into the wood, and hand-to-hand fighting ensued. Nos. 2 and 3 Companies were able to fire across the front of the Prince of Wales’s Company, and the right of the German attack melted away; but the situation was very serious.

This news was brought to the Commanding Officer about 10 o’clock by Dickens, who was wounded in the head, but he had already heard of an attack from Lieut.-Col. Monck Mason, of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, who was in touch with the mixed company of troops of the 48th Brigade (he asked, too, to be relieved, as his men were without food or water), and had sent half of No. 4 Company to get in the gap between the 48th Brigade and the Prince of Wales’s Company. This half company, however, became engaged in the trees just past the church. More than this he could not do, as the enemy was reported to be on the south-east of Ginchy, and on the right of the 48th Brigade troops. To meet any attack from this quarter he had half of No. 4 Company in hand.

The lodgment the enemy had gained in the wood made it very hard for Ashton to find out exactly what had happened on his right. Fighting was continuous. The ground immediately behind his company was clear, and he knew the Prince of Wales’s Company was still fighting on his right, on the other side of the road through Ginchy. Just before midday the young officer in charge of the 48th Brigade troops observed another enemy force, which he estimated at a battalion, advancing through the mist, and undoubtedly he did much to help break up this second attack. But more of the enemy reached the wood, and Ashton sent Goetz for reinforcements.

Goetz returned with Power and the other half of No. 4, they being made up to seventy rifles by men from a Grenadier carrying party, which had arrived at Battalion H.Q., and had been retained by the Commanding Officer as a further reserve. Meanwhile Capt. N. M. Vaughan had reported at Battalion H.Q. with No. 3 Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, and had been ordered to relieve the 48th Brigade troops. This he did at 12.30 p.m., but the situation there was not good, as his left platoon shared a trench with the enemy, and there was no one on his right.

The critical nature of the situation does not seem to have been quite clear to the enemy, who twice attacked Vaughan with fury, but he beat them off, and at 3.30 p.m. was able to report his trench and immediate front clear. Slowly Ashton was getting news of his right. Bromfield, Bagot, Wernher were killed, and Pugh had been carried out by Sergt. Ashford with a broken leg. A few of the men of the Prince of Wales’s Company had joined No. 2 — others were still in the shell-holes over the road, and Sergt. Nicholson and a few men had joined the half of No. 4 near the church.

With the arrival of Power and the other half of No. 4 Company, Ashton determined to try and cross the road, and drive the enemy from the eastern side of it. The task was given to Power, who tried to rush the road and was at once killed. It must be understood that this wood was a mass of deep shell-holes — it had been bombarded by the British heavy guns for some weeks — and there were heaps of brick from the demolished houses by the side of the road, and large heaps of earth from German dugouts; there were fallen trees, too, and a great number of standing ones. It was a confused jumble, and the men taking cover in one shell-hole could not possibly tell if anyone was in the next, or if it was friend or foe.

Battle of Ginchy - Page 3

The situation after the second German attack, and soon after midday, seems to have been that Vaughan, with his company of 1st Battalion Grenadiers, had taken over the trench about 150 yards to the east of the village, but the enemy was in the northern end of it, and was being bombed out; half of No. 4 Company was in the village on the east of the road, and about 50 to 100 yards north of the ruins of the church; the other half of No. 4 was on the left of the road and facing east; Nos. 2 and 3 Companies held their original trenches.

The enemy was in the trench from which the Prince of Wales’s Company had tried to get back into the wood, and the north-east end of the wood was occupied by a number of the enemy and a few of the Prince of Wales’s men. There was also a belief, which seems to be well founded, that some of the enemy, who had been hiding in dugouts in the village, had once more taken up their arms — runners passing on the western side of the village were being picked off in an unaccountable way, and men trying to move from one shell-hole to another were being shot in the back.

Ashton now tried to bomb his way forward with rifle-cup adaptors. He gained a little ground, and reoccupied the end of the old Prince of Wales’s Company trench, but it was not an enviable position, as the enemy were in shell-holes on either side of it. The losses in N.C.O.’s was very heavy — four well-known figures, Sergt. “Bob” Richards, Sergt. Williams, Sergt. G. Davies, and Sergt. Jellyman were killed in gallant attempts to clear the enemy out. All the fighting was so close that the artillery could do very little to assist. They searched all the ground outside the wood, but could do nothing with the wood itself.

German fire, however, which had been directed against the southern half of the village, was in the afternoon directed to the northern half; this was the first indication that they had given up hope of retaking the place. As the day wore on the situation improved in other ways; fifty men of the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards were sent to Ashton with 100 boxes of bombs, and remained as reinforcements.

Two more companies of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards reported at headquarters about four in the afternoon, but were held back till night; and at 10 p.m. two companies of the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards arrived. With the night there was further improvement, and the Germans began to surrender in small groups.

At 11.30 p.m. Capt. Drury Lowe, with the King’s Company 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, filled up the gap on Vaughan’s left; Capt. Jack Stirling, with G Company 2nd Battalion Scots Guards, came in on King’s Company’s left, and cleared the eastern side of the Ginchy road; Capt. Fisher Rowe, No. 4 Company 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, relieved No. 2 Company Welsh Guards; and Left Flank Company 2nd Battalion Scots Guards relieved Fox-Pitt and his company.

Two companies 1st Battalion Irish Guards also reported, and were put in position in support north-east of Guillemont. The Welsh Guards went into reserve trenches north-west of Guillemont.

Bromfield had a very difficult task. It was the first time he had been in action in the war, the night was dark, the attack by the 16th Division had only just taken place and no one knew rightly what the situation was: the 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards were led to the wrong line, somewhere on the east of Guillemont; the 47th Brigade seemed to have gained their first objective, but after that lost direction and really made no progress; the XV Corps attack had failed; and finally the repeated German attacks were strong and determined.

Eddy Bagot died gallantly by the side of Bromfield; Power as he was leading his men; Cazalet was killed by a shell; Wernher was hit first in the leg, and was being carried out, when a sniper killed him. Pugh, Dickens and Hebert were hit in the fight; Evan Thomas and Rice as they were going up to the line with officer reinforcements. With all the officers of the Prince of Wales’s Company out of action, Sergt. Ashford took command of what was left and kept the remnant together — fighting until the battalion was relieved. He also undoubtedly saved Pugh’s life. Ptes. 1,037 F. Aspinall, 423 J. R. Evans, and 1,360 D. J. Evans were conspicuous for their gallantry in rescuing wounded.