The History of the 8th Royal West Kents recalls the night of the 22/23 March 1918 in Monchy Lagache:

‘All night the hangars at the great aerodrome at Monchy were burning, and lit up the country for miles. The enemy shelled the village in a random way, and the night was bitterly cold. At dawn breakfast and as fine a tot of rum as was ever drunk was issued…’

But the day was not set to go well, either for 72 Brigade or the East Surreys.

Early in the morning orders were received to withdraw to the Somme, with 72 Brigade detailed as a rearguard, to protect the Falvy bridge crossing for the 17th and 73rd Brigades. The fog would have worked to their advantage had the Divisions proceeded immediately, but the East Surreys didn’t start until 9:00, and the West Kents at 10:00. As a result the two Battalions were to cross the three miles of plain to Falvy under withering shellfire.As they left, the Rifle Brigade had begun to dig in behind Monchy to hold the village as the other Battalions withdrew. ‘D’ Company of the East Surreys remained with them to scout through woods on their left and act as a flank guard.

From: Lucas, M., The Journey’s End Battalion: The 9th East Surrey in the Great War

Retiring to Falvy, 72 Brigade – now reinforced by the 19th Entrenching Battalion, the Depot Battalion of the 24th Division and a couple of companies of the 12/Sherwood Foresters took up its rearguard position on high ground to the east, where they could see the Germans approaching. 

Meanwhile, the Brigade Diary records the dramatic adventures of its Signalling Officer, Lt G F Hopkinson who set off from Brigade HQ on his motorbike to make contact with the Entrenching Battalion. Stumbling onto a pocket of ‘Bosche’ he turned away, and, despite coming under heavy rifle fire ‘at point blank range’, he stopped to pick up a wounded soldier who was crawling back to the British lines – gallantry ‘worthy of the highest military honour’.

As it happened, the Entrenching Battalion, spotting the advancing Germans, had already made its way to the bridge at Falvy, which was just as well, as the Germans reached the east bank of the Somme, just to the south, at much the same time. The pressure was now on 72 Brigade to withdraw its men across the river before the bridges were blown. This they were able to do, apart from ‘D’ Company, which had become detached from the Rifle Brigade after some 4 miles of the retreat (fighting all the way). It had headed north, to the crossing at St Crist (where some of the cavalry and transport crossed), but by the time it made it to the river the Germans were pressing on the bridge. Michael Lucas quotes from an account given by 2nd Lt Orchard, after his return from captivity:

‘…to avoid being cut off the Company was marched to the riverbank and endeavour made to find a bridge. A disused bridge of planks was found near St Christ but it was found that there was a gap of 20 yards or so on the other side, which a few of our people swam across. The bridge at St Christ was now heard to be occupied by the enemy so we decided to tray along the river bank in an opposite direction. However , at this time we were seen by the Germans from a hill nearby and an officer and some men came forward to demand our surrender. As our Company by this time was only about 20 it was considered useless to put up a fight and we surrendered…’

By the end of a ‘horrible’ day – the worst of which might have been avoided if the Brigade had moved off earlier, in the fog (according to the West Kents History) – the East Surreys had now lost the bulk of two of their companies (‘B’ having been badly damaged on the first day of the battle, alongside the North Staffords), and suffered significant casualties in the two which remained. By about 6:00pm they arrived at Licourt, where they were fed and rested for the night, albeit in shallow trenches, mostly in the open.

[Next post: 24 March]