This is the transcribed War Diary for the 8th Rifle Brigade from 28th July to the start of October 1915 covering the time Reginald Thomas served in France / Belgium. It starts with the infamous Flamethrower attack at Hooge in which the 8th Rifle Brigade suffered heavy losses. Due to these heavy losses Reginald was sent to France to join the 8th Rifle Brigade. The entry is transcribe from the National Archives WO/95/1895. There may be mistakes in the spellings of some names which were difficult to read. Words which cannot be read are marked with ??.
28/7/15 - Gingerbread Chateau + Ypres
On this day, the Battalion distributed as follows A + B Coys in the
RAMPARTS at YPRES; Headquarters with C + D coys at Gingerbread Chateau.
Transport at Vlamentinghe.
29/7/15 - Hooge
The Battalion took over the trenches at HOOGE known as G10, G15 + G4 from 7th Btn Rifle Bde. All O.C.
Coys went up early in the day to reconoite the line. Owing to the ZILLEBEEKE communication trench
been reserved for the 5th Corps the original plan of sending up one Company, Machine Guns and
Bombers was cancelled. Consequently all ranks were quite strange to the trenches.
Relief carried out quickly. Instead of issuing rations to the men they were carried by transport as the dumping ground was quite close to Headquarters.
The strength of the Battalion taking over was 24 officers and 745 other ranks. Four machine guns were taken over from the 7th Rifle Bde and one of our own was also taken up.
A dark night with moon in the third quarter.
30/7/15 - Hooge
By 2am the relief was complete except for some bombers left behind by the 7th Rifle Bde under orders G.O.C.
Distribution of the Battalion was as follows:-
Front Line in G10 on left Lt Woodroffe and one platoon ¨A¨ Coy.
Front Line in G10 on right Lt Cavey and one platoon ¨A¨ Coy.
In support in F2 Two platoons of A Coy. Lt McAfee the O.C. of A Coy in command of the whole .
A larger crater divided A Coy from C Coy which held the remainder of the front line with three platoons in G4 + G5. The left of this Coy rested on the crater, the right on the MENIN ROAD where it joined the 7th Btn K.R.R.C also in the front line. One platoon of ¨C¨ Coy was in support in G7 Capt Prors(?) commanding the Coy.
The two other Companies were in ZOUAVEWOOD. B Coy on the left in dugouts near the N.W. corner. ¨D¨ Coy on the right in S3. ¨D¨ Coy under Capt Sheepshanks and ¨B¨ Coy under Capt Cavendish.
One platoon of ¨B¨ Coy was in supporting point 100 yards due S. of ZOUAVE WOOD. Headquarters, Southern edge of ZOUAVE WOOD . Four machine guns were in the front line; one in supporting point A + C Coys both connected with the Hd (?) by telephone. The weak point of the position were as follows:- (1) There was no wire to speak of in front. (2) The front line trenches deep + narrow and communication along them very difficult. (3) The communications to the rear also difficult and inadequate. (4) Trench howitzers of the enemy daily blew in parts of the support trenches and although these trenches are shown on the map hardly any of them were habitable consequently too many men were crammed into the front line and there was not enough depth. (5) The crater divided the front line as the part blown up there was not held though bomber posts were established on each side.
At about 3-15 AM the Germans attacked. It had already been reported that they were very active in front and the whole front line was ¨standing to¨ as usual at that hour.
Part of the front trenches was subjected to an intense bombardment which lasted only about two or three minutes, then suddenly sheets of flame broke out all along the front and clouds of thick, black smoke. The Germans had turned on liquid fire from hoses apparently which had been established just in front during the night. Under cover of the flames swarms of bombers appeared on the parapet and in rear of the line. The mass of them had broken through at the crater and then swung left and right. The fighting became confused and the machine guns were soon out of action.
The extreme right and left hand platoons of the front line of the Battalion repulsed all attempts to bomb them out as they had not been affected by the flames; however the Germans had pushed through the whole centre in spite of most gallant fighting by officers and men and they (the Germans) were established with machine guns in the ruins of HOOGE on the S. of the MENIN ROAD commanding all the ground between there and ZOUAVE WOOD.
At about between 4AM and 5AM ¨B¨ Coy counter-attached but were beaten back by machine gun fire but established itself temporarily half way along Old Broad Street and covered the withdrawal of Lt McAfee and a few remnants left if two platoons of ¨A¨ Coy. When this counter-attack failed the officer commanding in G10 who was then almost surrounded, fought his way back due W. along the road to the CULVERT. Nearly all the platoon in G4 on the right were overwhelmed and the Germans established themselves along the whole of my front and were at once strongly reinforced by the machine guns + rifles. They then attempted to bomb down the two communication trenches Old Broad Street and the Strand but these were blocked about halfway up and held throughout the day. From the beginning of the action, ZOUAVEWOOD had been subjected to violent artillery bombardment and all communication was difficult and telephones were cut. Reinforcements meanwhile had arrived from the Brigade in the shape of one Coy of the K.R.R.C which got up about 9AM. The remains of the Battalion held the Northern edge of ZOUAVE WOOD.
About 12 (noon) the order was received from the G.O.C for a counter attack to take place at 2-45 PM after the artillery had bombed for 1/4 hour. The Battalion was to lead the attack on the left with its right on the STRAND and left on BOND STREET. The objective of the attack were G8 and G9 on the MENIN ROAD. Only one organised Coy remained in hand i.e. ¨D¨ Coy. ¨C¨ Coy was non existent, ¨B¨ + ¨A¨ Coys had suffered heavy losses. The O.C. Battn. Gave the following verbal orders to Capt Sheepshanks firstly that he was to attack on a front of two platoons, with two platoons in support. His right was to rest on the Strand, that a bombing attack was to be made by him up the Strand at the same time. That he was to move into his position during the bombardment and get beyond our own wire which protected the Northern edge of ZOUAVE WOOD. He was not to hope to get touch with the Coy on his left as the frontage allotted was too big, but he was to keep touch with the 7th Btn K.R.R.C on his right. The remains of ¨A¨ + ¨B¨ Coys were given practically the same verbal orders and told to attack G9 with their centre on Old Bond Street and bombers up the communication trench itself.
At 2-45 PM exactly the counter attack started, ¨D¨ Coy on the right advanced as if on parade. The enemies machine guns + rifle fire had apparently not been in any way silenced by the bombardment. The whole ground was absolutely swept by bullets. The attack was brought to a complete standstill halfway towards its objective and no reinforcements could reach it. The same thing happen on the left up Old Bond Street.
The remnants of the Battalion held on to the communication trench till dark + the front line of ZOUAVE WOOD was gradually taken over, first by the 7th Rifle Bde and then by the D.C.L.I at 2AM that morning the Battalion was taken out of action and had suffered the following casualties:- 6 officers killed, 3 officers missing almost certainly killed, 10 officers wounded . Other ranks 80 killed, 267 wounded and 132 missing in action. Other O.R. suffering from shock.
Four machine guns out of five were lost (disabled by the enemy's fire).
The men fought without rations on water throughout the day.
I attach a Trench Map to amplify this report.