by Simon_Fielding » Sat Feb 04, 2012 9:13 pm
From Regimental History / Stacke...
At St. Eloi the 3rd Worcestershire were in a particularly unpleasant area of activity (d).
****" It had been by a mine explosion that the opposing Bavarians had gained the Mound, and both sides
were active underground, with sap and counter-sap. North-east of St. Eloi, beyond the Ypres
Canal the British engineers were tunnelling below Hill 60.
At dawn on April 17th a distant heavy explosion followed by a furious bombardment roused
the troops in the St. Eloi trenches. Hill 60 had been mined and stormed. During the next four
days heavy firing continued and the 3rd Worcestershire suffered several casualties (e).
On April 22nd the thunder of gunfire to the northward became heavier. Before midday
startling news spread down the line: the enemy were attacking north of Ypres behind clouds of
poisonous gas. During the ensuing weeks the principal topic of thought and conversation was the
various possible means to meet that novel method of warfare. All sorts of expedients, some distinctly
unpleasant, were evolved and tried. Gas became an ever-present bogey, and the mere
sight of any tube-like object projecting from the enemy's parapet was sufficient to cause an alarm.
Although such alarms were constant, no actual gas attack was made against the St. Eloi
trenches. The 3rd Worcestershire remained actively engaged in sniping and bombing. To the
northward the thunder of battle in the Ypres Salient continued throughout the first weeks of May.
p68
During May, while the British First Army was fighting the battles of Aubers Ridge £.nd ORD
Festubert, and the bulk of the British Second Army was bearing the brunt of the German attacks
in the Ypres Salient, the 3rd Division, in between the two battle fronts, was having a less exacting
time in the trenches facing St. Eloi. No heavy fighting occurred there and apart from the casualties
from sniping and bombing (d) there were no incidents of note. But the menace of gas attacks
and the pressure of German attacks to the northward made it an anxious period.
The German attacks at Ypres continued till the 25th of May. On that day the final German
attack forced the British defenders back from the high ground about Bellewaerde and Hooge. By
that time the .British Divisions which had borne the brunt of the attacks were thinned and exhausted.
To relieve them the 3rd Division was brought up from the St. Eloi sector into the Salient.
" Though we have put in a tremendous lot of work in this part of the line," wrote an officer
of the Regiment (e), " and though we are bound to have a thoroughly unpleasant time of it in the
Salient, I am almost glad that we are going up there. Lately one has felt that one has been just
out of the big fight, and, though we have had the fag ends of the bombardments and occasional
whiffs of gas, we have been having a comparatively easy time, while the people on our left have been
having a wretched time of it. We shall now be at the point of honour."
p.73
(d) Total casualties during April were 9 killed, 1 officer and 30 men wounded.
During May losses were 2 officers (Captain E. N. L. Brock and Lieut. A. K. Chaytor) and 5 men killed, 2 officers
(2/Lieut. J. W. Snowdon and 2/Lieut. H. S. Senior) and 41 men wounded.
Researching the 75 men of the Great War Memorial of St Anne's Church, Bewdley, Worcestershire .