It was a dull, misty
morning--perfect conditions for this form of devilry--and we could hear
the brutes whistling and whining over our heads for more than three
hours. The intention was, of course, to silence our guns, and the object
of this was to make an attack upon Bucquoy all the easier. He came over
at the L.F's. and there was heavy fighting all the morning, but he did
not progress much. The 8th L.F's. suffered severely, losing all their
officers, including Lt.-Col. Davies (previously of the 6th Manchesters),
who was killed. The enemy's intention had been to take the village and
push on with a view to straightening the line, but he only captured the
eastern portion of the village, and that only after very heavy losses.
Similar progress had previously been made against the division on the
right, and this made the L.F. situation impossible. We afterwards learnt
that a large number of gas casualties had gone down from the Essarts
district. In their solicitude during the bitterest days the division had
called upon the battle surplus of each unit, and had made a composite
battalion of them to act in reserve amongst the trenches N.E. of
Gommecourt. These people, as well as the gunners, came in for the gas
shelling, and it was very disappointing to hear of our own men, like
C.S.M. Shields, Sgt. Tabbron, etc., who had been left behind as battle
surplus, going down gassed. Fortunately, most of them rejoined the
battalion later. During this day's fighting some L.
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