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Report on 9th Royal Scots activity, 21 - 31 March, 1918

Unknown, 1918, Document
Report on 9th Royal Scots activity, 21 - 31 March, 1918
Report on 9th Royal Scots activity, 21 - 31 March, 1918
Report on 9th Royal Scots activity, 21 - 31 March, 1918
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Library Item
Item no
33765
Title
Report on 9th Royal Scots activity, 21 - 31 March, 1918
Description
Abridged text: Our reports show that on March 21, 1918, the 9 Royal Scots were holding trenches in the front, N. W. of St. Quentin. They were brigaded with the 8 Argylls and 5 Gordons and formed part of the 61 Division. Early on the 21st the Germans opened their great offensive in overwhelming force, and 'our troops East of Holnon Wood were forced to withdraw from their battle-zone trenches!' (Sir Douglas Haig's 6th Despatch.)

Our troops, fighting continually, were gradually forced back, but the battalion made a firm stand at Marteville on March 22. In the next two days our line had to be withdrawn W. of the Somme, and on March 24 the battalion was heavily engaged at the town of Nesle, and was retiring westward through Etalon. An eye-witness say:

'I saw several of our men killed there. The Germans drove us back on the morning of the 24th as far as the station outside Etalon, where I was wounded myself'.

The battalion retired still further for the next two days and on March 26 were near Villers-Bretonneux, a few miles East of Amiens, which proved to be the limit of the German advance. Early on March 28 they made a counter-attack at Lamotte, but this 'gallant attempt by troops of the 61 Division to regain Warfusie-Abancourt adn lighten the pressure from the North proved unsuccessful.' (Sir D. Haig's desp.)

The battalion suffered many casualties; and of these many remained unreported, if not unobserved, because the enemy was continually occupying the ground on which our men had fallen. One informant says:
'I was in a shell-hole with another private, when the Sergeant told us to retire further. The private and I made a rush, while the Sergeant took shelter for a minute in the shell-hole which we were leaving. Just at that moment he was hit in the head by a sniper, and I believe that he was killed, but we had to leave him.'

Such incidents, in which the fate of a fallen man could not be verified, were constantly occurring during that long withdrawal.
Artist / maker
Date
1918
Size
26.3 x 21.5 cm
Type