Berkshire and The War: the "Reading Standard" pictorial record. Volume 2. pg250
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Losses at Loos.
Image Details
| Title | Berkshire and The War: the "Reading Standard" pictorial record. Volume 2. pg250 |
|---|---|
| Date | 1917 |
| Page number | Unknown |
| Publisher | Reading Standard |
| Description | 239 pages bound volume |
| Horizon Number: | 1246255 |
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COMPLETED: 07/10/2014: 1205
8th Batt. Royal Berkshire Regiment - continued
[photo, portrait] Pte. F. G. BURGESS, 13, Mount Pleasant, Beenham. - Wounded and gassed.
[photo, portrait] Pte. RONALD WALKER, Frilsham. - Wounded.
[photo, portrait] Pte. F. T. HEAD, Whitehouse Green, Sulhamstead. - Wounded, lost a n eye.
[photo, portrait] Pte. W. SHAW, Knowl Hill. - Wounded. [Photo by Khaki Studio.]
Losses at Loos.
8th Berks Earn Praise in First Battles.
Twice in three weeks the 8th Batt. Royal Berks Regiment experienced all the horrors of a modern charge and flung itself against the enemy with a pluck and resolution that were surpassed in no other unit of Kitchener's Army. Unfortunately, many officers and men
fell in the furious storm of shell, rifle and machine gun fire. On Sept. 25th the battalion lost 17 out of 20 officers and 680 out of 900 of
other ranks (many of the men afterwards reported, having been suffering from slight gas poisoning), while on October 13th the losses were 11 officers and 218 out of 330 men. Lieut.-Col. E. Walton commanded in the first engagement and Major F. N. Bartlett in the second. In the interval Colonel Walton had been appointed a brigadier-general and he took his departure with a sorrow tempered by the fact that a general had congratulated the battalion on its excellent work.
In the advance on September 25th, 1915, with the 1st Brigade, the battalion penetrated into the outskirts of the village o f Hulluch. On the way it took three lines of trenches. On reaching the enemy's firing line it was met with a terrible fire and there was severe fighting before it took the first line of trenches. Many Germans were captured. The Berkshires and their supports took the second line with
comparatively small difficulty, but the enemy offered a stout defence in the third line before it was taken. Roused to the highest pitch of martial enthusiasm, the Berkshires swept over the enemy lines like a great wave while the Germans fled before the bayonets
screaming for mercy. Of the Berkshires' brigade Field Marshal French stated: "The determined advance of this brigade, with its right flank dangerously exposed, was most praiseworthy, and combined with the action of divisional reserves was instrumental in causing the surrender of a German detachment some 500 strong."
In the fierce fighting on the outskirts of Hulluch on October 13th death and destruction reigned again and the losses recorded above are eloquent enough of the tenacity of the Berkshires, two officers of which - Captain D. Tosetti and Second Lieut. T. B. Lawrence - earned the Military Cross on September 25th.
[photo, portrait] Pte. WM. CHALLIS, Embrook, Wokingham. - Missing.
[photo, portrait] Pte. H. BRISTOW, Terrace Road, Binfield. - Missing.
[photo, portrait] Pte. DENNIS H. KEATE, 99, Cranbury Road, Reading. - Wounded. [Photo by Khaki Studio.]
[photo, portrait] Pte. W. WALLIS , Maidenhead. - Wounded.