The Rangers

[Guest Russell.Gore@crawley.gov.uk]

Morning all,can any one out there supply any info about the whereabouts of the 12th Battalion,London Regiment (Rangers) for the month of August 1918,particularly the last 2 weeks of August.Cheers.

[bmac]

On the 9th August the Rangers were involved in an attack on Tailles Wood as part of a general advance north of the Somme near Etinehem.

The Rangers came out of the line on the 14th August. There they were joined by 250 men from the KRRC (which may explain your other message). They bivouacked in the Bois d'Escardonneuse.

On the 22nd they moved to Tailles Wood to cover a possible German counter-attack. On the night of the 23rd/24th they attacked further east (north of Bray sur Somme), taking their objectives but suffering heavy casualties.

On the 25th, under the cover of a heavy barrage, they took Trigger Wood. They were then replaced by the 7th Londons.

On the 28th they moved to Bronfay Farm acting as support to the 173rd and 174th Brigades. They moved forward to Marrieres Wood and on the morning of the 31st they went into Divisional Reserve at Maricourt.

[Simon Furnell]

I have the 58th Battalion MGC War Diary for the time,and there is a good write up of actions between the 8th and 13th of August,which i must admit to having never read.

I will have a proper look later,but i noticed that the 175th Brigade attacked on the 9th,with the 131st American Brigade.

I knew that the 58th Batt,MGC,had trained American Mg Companies,but had never seen anything about actually attacking with them.

The Rangers had been a little busy at this stage of the war,with the German attacks in March onwards,and serving at 3rd Ypres before that.

Last 2 weeks of August,the 58th Battalion,MGC,were around Key Wood,Heilly,Mericourt Wood,and were stationed a 1000yds,West,of a place called Bouchavesnes on the 31st.

It seems they were in action for most of the month,so the battalions in the 3 brigades can't have been far away.

I will have a proper look in the next couple of days.

Hope this is of help.

All the best.

Simon Furnell.

[Bill Braham]

Some if not all of the KRRC came from the 17th Bn (British Empire League) which was reduced to cadre strength in mid August with the rest of 39 Division. The Rangers war diary makes the comment that most of the replacement draft were two and three year men.