HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY

71st and 74th Regiment of Foot

14th (Service) Battalion Formed at Hamilton in July 1915, as a Bantam Bn.

September 1915 : attached to 120th Brigade, 40th Division.
2 March 1916 : absorbed the 13th Bn, the Scottish Rifles.
Early 1917 : ceased to be a Bantam Bn.
6 May 1918 : reduced to cadre strength.
3 June 1918 : transferred to 34th Division.
17 June 1918 : transferred to 39th Division.
16 August 1918 : transferred to 197th Brigade, 66th Division.

The battle of Bourlon Wood, 23rd-28th November 1917.

When first presented with the plan for the attack, Douglas Haig recommended strengthening the left flank to take Bourlon Wood very early. He wasted his breath: Byng ignored his advice. By nightfall on the 20th, it was clear that Haig had been right. From the dominating height of the Wood, the Germans held the British advance in front of Anneux and Graincourt. There was good news, however, as the 51st Division crept into Flesquieres, abandoned during the night by the Germans. On the morning of the 21st, the 51st Div. moved forward with the aid of two tanks towards Fontaine, but were held up by fire from the Wood. Harper ordered a halt until the 62nd Division had captured the heights. The latter had a violent and costly battle for Anneux, led by the 186th Brigade, under R.B.Bradford.

To the north, the 36th Division, planning to continue their advance beyond Moeuvres, waited for the success signal, signifying that the 62nd had captured Bourlon. It never came, for the 62nd could not penetrate beyond the sunken lane facing the wood. By the evening of the 21st, Haig was satisfied that 'no possibility any longer existed of enveloping Cambrai from the south'. In other words, the rationale for the whole action had now been lost. But the British were now in an exposed position in the lee of Bourlon Wood, the capture of which would still prove to be useful, in cutting German access to key light railway lines feeding their front. Haig and Byng decided to press on, even though it meant deepening the salient that had been created, and throwing in even more troops into this northern sector of the battlefield.

On the 22nd, the GOC 40th Division at Beaumetz-les-Cambrai received orders to relieve the 62nd Division the next day. The 40th was a division of Bantams, men under regulation height. By now the roads were breaking up under the strain of thousands of men, wagons and lorries. It took 40th Divisional HQ 15 hours to travel the 9 miles to Havrincourt. A relief and assault plan was quickly drawn up: 121 Brigade to capture Bourlon, 119 Brigade to go for the Wood, both jumping off from the sunken lane. On their right, the 51st would move forward to Fontaine. On the left, the 36th would go in again at Moeuvres. 92 tanks would support these units.

They attacked through ground mist on the morning of the 23rd. Some of the units of the 40th had to cross 1000 yards down the long slope from Anneux, across the sunken lane and up the final rise into the Wood, all the while under shell fire. There was close and vicious fighting in the Wood, but after 3 hours, the Welsh units of 119 Brigade were through and occupying the northern and eastern ridges at the edge of the undergrowth. The 121st Brigade were cut down by heavy machine gun fire, and few got as far as the village. 7 tanks did, but were unsupported and the survivors withdrew. On the flanks, the 36th and 51st Divisions made little progress, against strengthening opposition.

Over the next few days, further troops were thrown into the battle, including the Guards who advanced into Fontaine. Once his troops had been driven from the Wood, the enemy switched all of his artillery onto it. Battalions in the Wood were wiped out.

Three companies of the 14th HLI miraculously penetrated to the far side of Bourlon, but were cut off and gradually annihilated.

And it began to snow. Life began to return to trench normality as the troops settled into the newly-won positions. The British now sat some way ahead of the position of 20th November, being in possession of a salient reaching towards Cambrai, with the left flank facing Bourlon, and the right alongside the top of the slope which ran down towards Banteux....

It is acknowledged that the above information is a collation from ;

Geoff Moran of Sydney, Australia and

‘The Regimental Warpath 1914 - 1918’ website owned by Brad Chappell at <http://members.tripod.com/regtwarpath/>