Oppy Wood – Arras – 27^th to 29^th April 1917
On the night of the 27/28 the Battalion was relieved in the front line, the 17^th Middlesex coming with battle positions in front of the line. The 1^st Kings Liverpool took over the Battn HQ in Railway Cutting and Bn HQ moved to a gun pit at B.20.a.3.6, the Companies going on relief to Gin Trench and Kleemans Stellung. Bde HQ’s were at Deutscher House.

During the day the Brigade remained in reserve, the 5^th and 6^th left Bdes having attacked the German positions at 4.25am. The four companies were amalgamated, B & C Coys under Major Gregg MC, A & D Coys under Capt Thevans MC. They were equipped with battle stores. In the afternoon 3 officers and 150 OR’s of the KRRC were attached to the Battn.

The progress of events of this and the following day ate in the Narrative of Operations attached.

On the night of the 28/29^th the Battalion moved to battle position after being in the support trench at about A.17.c.9.0. The weather was extremely fine but the visibility on the morning of the 29^th was not good. [Go to next tab]

At 4am on the 29^th April 1917 the Battalion set off in good order as soon as the six-minute barrage lifted. Inevitably the attackers found themselves greeted with uncut wire. The difficulties of finding what gaps there were in two belts of wire in the dark meant most people were trapped between the first and second belts when the barrage moved on. The helpless men were simply mown down by rifle and machine gun fire.

On the left, Platoons 14, 15 and 16 of D Company appear to have been cut to shreds, with Second Lieutenant Palmer one of very few survivors, and obliged to spend the day in a shell hole. Second Lieutenant Parks and the only remaining three Lewis Gunners retired to the old British line to take up a position there. 13 Platoon at the extreme left managed to side-slip through the two lines of wire into the German trench. They formed a block on the right and bombed down to their left to meet up with the Royal Berks, whose fate they shared.

The Right Company, on the right of 22nd Battalion front, Major Gregg and all the officers barring two were casualties almost immediately. Second Lieutenant Steele lost his whole platoon apart from one man and these two survived the day in a shell hole. Second Lieutenant Jeffcoat found a gap in the second belt of wire, along with CSM Hogan and about a platoon of men. They jumped into the enemy trench. CSM Hogan, attempting get in touch with the Left Company, began bombing left, while Second Lieutenant Jeffcoat attempting to get in touch with the 63rd Division, bombed down to the right. Jeffcoat and his party managed to get to within 100 yards of the railway (some 400 yards outside 2nd Division’s boundary) where he got in touch with the 4th Bedfords of 63rd Division.

Meanwhile, anxious that he had heard little news, Colonel Barker had sent his Intelligence Officer, Second Lieutenant Hudson, forward to find out what was happening. Hudson was himself wounded but sent back news (received at 7 am) that there was great need for bombs. Colonel Barker sent forward half (two platoons) of the reserve company of 23rd RF under Captain Taylor to carry as many bombs as could be found and to garrison the old British line. He then added a third platoon of the 23rd RF. Captain Taylor arrived in time to stop CSM Hogan making a further attack – likely to be both costly and fruitless.

News arrived from Second Lieutenant Jeffcoat at 9:20 am stating: That (a) He was in touch with Bedfords (b) That I could dribble up men to him via the railway and (c) That if I sent him reinforcements and plenty of bombs, he could attack again and probably capture the line.

Colonel Barker proceeded to do just that, sending at 10 am around 100 men of the 23rd RF, under Captain Bowyer, well supplied with bombs (which had hurriedly been brought up from 99 Brigade HQ). Captain Bowyer and his team reached the German line via the railway line with very few casualties. Here they appear to have met not only the Jeffcoat force but men from a variety of 63rd Division units: 4th Bedfords and 7th RF (these being part of a composite battalion) and the Honourable Artillery Company (alias the ‘HAC’ - on the right of the composite battalion). They immediately started bombing left towards Oppy.

The KRRCs were presumably part of the company sent to reinforce the 22nd Battalion, and whose original role was that of making a defensive flank. They made a strongpoint between British and German lines down close to the divisional boundary between 2nd and 63rd Divisions. Thereafter a number of their men were sucked into the fighting in the German line, where they ‘were of the greatest assistance’ according to the official Narrative.

Battle casualties were as follows, officers: Second Lieutenant Wardley killed, Second Lieutenant Jeffcoat died of wounds, Second Lieutenant Perraton, Second Lieutenant Saword and Stevenson missing (ie killed); wounded officers: Major Gregg (who survived the loss of a leg), Captain TH Evans, Captain de Wet and Second Lieutenant Hudson. Of the officers said to have gone into battle, only Palmer, Steele and Parks escaped injury.

As far as other ranks are concerned, out of around 240 attacking, the war diary gives nineteen dead and forty-eight wounded, thirty-one wounded and unaccounted for, forty-six unaccounted for, and nineteen ‘more or less extremely gassed’. These figures amount to 163: over two-thirds of the attacking force.

What remained of the 22nd Royal Fusiliers were relieved after dark that night by the 11th East Yorks and went back to Gin Trench and Railway Cutting.