The 7th Border Regiment attack on Bayonet Trench, 23 April 1917

By Chris BakerArticles

This article is developed from research into Pte 28434 Clifford Watson Platt, which I carried out for a private client in 2019. He transferred into the Border Regiment on 19 March 1917, shortly after he landed in France, ad was posted next day to its 7th (Service) Battalion. By then a Lance-Corporal, Clifford was admitted to number 51 Field Ambulance on 28 April 1917, having sustained wounds to his right arm and leg. He was evacuated later the same day to a Casualty Clearing Station. Fortunately, he made a good recovery and later served with the 18th Welsh Regiment in the final actions of the war. Clifford was born near Bolton in Lancashire in January 1898.

The 7th (Service) Battalion of the Border Regiment was under orders of the 51st Infantry Brigade of the 17th (Northern) Division at the time of the action described below, which was part of the Second Battle of the Scarpe, a phase of the Battle of Arras, 1917.

Events

In March 1917 the 17th (Northern) Division was located in a relatively safe rear area behind the Somme sector of the front, with its units carrying out training and reorganising as new drafts arrived. Just before Clifford Watson Platt arrived the division made a short move northwards, coming into the rear of the Arras sector. The exact date of his arrival is not known with certainty but is likely to have been on or very close to 20 March 1917 when the battalion was at Chériennes, a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department, south of the town of Hesdin, and out of range of all but German raid from the air. By 23 March it had moved a short way to Le Souich, where it then spent more time in training as well as providing working parties for road mending. Early in April it made another relatively short move, northward to Buneville.

The British Third Army, of which the 17th (Northern) Division was now a part, was in the final stages of preparation for carrying out a major offensive: it is generally known as the Battle of Arras, 1917. The attack was carried out somewhat reluctantly but at French insistence, for they were about to launch an ever larger offensive further south and the Third Army’s assault would act as both an action to protect the French flank and to act as a diversion. The attack began on 9 April 1917 on a day of snow and wind, but succeeded with most encouraging results: on the northern front of the attack the Canadian Corps captured the difficult Vimy Ridge; in the centre, the 9th (Scottish) Division made the deepest advance into enemy territory yet achieved by the British Expeditionary Force. Almost inevitably, though, the battle slowed to the attritional slog experienced on the Somme, as both sides brought in more and more reserves.

Part of map from the British Official History of Military Operations, showing the central part of the attack frontage just before the Battle of Arras was launched on 9 April 1917. At this point, the 17th (Northern) Division lies to the west of the area shown and off this map. The red line is the British front before the assault, held in this area by (north to south) the 15th (Scottish), 12th (Eastern) and 3rd Divisions. The hilltop village of Monchy-le-Preux can be seen on the right, just north of the Arras to Cambrai road. The railway triangle, quickly captured by the 15th (Scottish) Division on the first day and to which the 7th Border Regiment would soon move, can be seen east of Blangy.

The 17th (Northern) Division had been left as a reserve when the battle began. The 7th Border had been moved to Lattre St. Quentin, well within a day’s march of the fighting front. During the afternoon it received orders to move: the war diary describes a tiring, frustrating sequence of events and it was not until 10 April that the battalion was billeted in the shelter of cellars in Arras. Next day, other elements of the division relieved other divisions in the new front line near Monchy-le-Preux, but for the while its 51st Infantry Brigade was to remain in reserve.

Same source. This map still shows in solid red the start line of 9 April 1917. The red dotted line is the position reached by British forces by the end of 12 April. Elements of the 17th (Northern) Division are now in the front line north of Monchy-le-Preux, and Clifford and his battalion comrades are in reserve in cellars in Arras (just on the left hand edge of this map). Next day, they moved to captured German trenches and dugouts at the railway triangle.

On 13 April, the battalion was ordered to move to the railway triangle east of the city. Next day, a brigade of 29th Division made an attack and the 51st Infantry Brigade was put on alert ready to relieve it. As things turned out, orders to carry out this relief were cancelled several times and the battalion remained in position at the railway triangle until 18 April when it finally moved to relieve a battalion of the Manchester Regiment north of Monchy-le-Preux.

On 18 April 1917 the battalion was ordered to relieve another unit in the front line north of Monchy-le-Preux. The war diary gives grid references for the left and right extremities of this position, which we have marked on this map using blue Xs (using Linesman). The guides sent from the outgoing battalion lost their way and it proved to be a slow, difficult process: two men of the battalion were killed and five wounded on this day, falling to enemy shellfire. The stay in this position proved to be short and by 21 April the battalion was back at Arras.
On 23 April 1917 the British renewed the attack. It proved to be a costly affair with heavy casualties, particularly in the area of the chemical works north of Roeux, although some ground was gained. The red dash-dot line marks the front at 24 April. The 7th Border Regiment participated in this attack and its experience is explained in great detail in the war diary: it was during this attack that Clifford sustained multiple wounds. The battalion’s position was slightly to the north of the position it had held before and lay just south of the River Scarpe, south of Roeux.
The various diary reports give several locations and much detail, but the important fact is that the battalion attacked against the German-held “Bayonet Trench” and its communication trench known as “Rifle Trench”. They can be seen in the centre of this image. Clifford’s battalion attacked the southern half of “Bayonet Trench”.
Part of a map from the published history of the 17th (Northern) Division.
A simple and objective report on the action in the divisional history. For the Borders, the assault was a costly faulire mainly due to shortcomings in the artillery and tank support which were meant to have enabled the enemy’s barbed wire defences to be penetrated.
The arrangements for evacuation of casualties. From the war diary of the division’s Assistant Director of Medical Services. The text “Br” means “Bearer” (Stretcher Bearer); “RAP” means “Regimental Aid Post”; “ADS” means “Advanced Dressing Station”; “MAC is “Motor Ambulance Convoy” and CCS “Casualty Clearing Station”.
Clifford was admitted to 51st Field Ambulance on 28 April 1917, as were two comrades from the battalion (National Archives MH106. Crown Copyright). All had sustained multiple wounds from shells. I noted from the service record of the man listed next to him, Corporal 16897 Thomas Hyde Smith, his date of wounding was 23 April: four or five days between being wounded and admission to a Field Ambulance dressing station was unusual and hints of difficulties in moving men from the battlefield. Either that, or the date was wrongly entered in the admissions register.
The two Advanced Dressing Stations that handled casualties for 17th (Northern) Division in late April 1917. Men needing longer or more complex treatment were then taken to the group of Casualty Clearing Stations west of Arras at Agnez-les-Duisans.
From the battalion’s war diary (National Archives WO95/2008. Crown Copyright). The battalion’s casualties for the whole month of April 1917. Almost all relate to the attack on Bayonet Trench.

The battlefield today

I have overlaid “Bayonet Trench” onto a present day map (using Linesman). The general geography of the area is much as it was in 1917 except for the additional of the high-speed TGV railway line situated in the area from which the division attacked on 23 April 1917. Please note the point marked “73” on the brown D33 road and where an electricity power line crosses it to the south of that point – I refer to it below.
It is not easy to obtain a good close-up photograph of the battalion’s position other than by approaching it on foot along the farm tracks shown in the map above. Thanks to Google Maps we are on the D33 and standing below the power line. That is, we are in the German-held area when the attack began on 23 April 1917. We are looking westwards towards the area held by the 17th (Northern) Division. The 7th Border Regiment was advancing towards our position, approximately in the centre of the image. The flat, open nature of the ground and lack of any form of cover for assault troops is all too evident.

Links

Border Regiment

17th (Northern) Division

The Arras Offensive, 1917