1916
February 1916 was spent in training and re-equipping near Doullens.
On 1 March 1916 the 7th Argylls joined the 154th Brigade of the 51st Division and almost immediately proceeded to the notorious "Labyrinth" in the Arras sector. The remainder of the Battalion's service during the war was with that Brigade.
Until July the Division held the line in front of Ecurie. On 1 July the Battle of the Somme began. On 20 July the Highland Division moved to the neighbourhood of High Wood and prepared for attack. On the night 21-22 July the 51st relieved the 33rd Division, the 154th Brigade taking over the front line with the other two Brigades in reserve.
On 22 July the attack was delivered on the North-East and North-West edges of High Wood and a switch trench running from the North-East edge westwards. The 5th and 19th Divisions were on the right and left respectively. The objectives were taken, counter-attacked and held. One Company of the 7th Argylls went out over the top to meet the enemy as they advanced and occupied a new line in front which had formerly been held only by isolated posts.
The casualties for the unit were one officer killed, two officers wounded, eight other ranks killed, and about 80 wounded.
On 1 August the 6th Gordon Highlanders were relieved by the 7th Argylls in the support positions at Mametz Wood where, owing to exceptionally heavy shell-fire, numerous casualties occurred.
On 14 August the 51st relieved the Anzacs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) at Armentieres and held the line there until 22 September when the front was taken over by Brigade groups of the 5th Australian and 34th Divisions. This period is notable for a series of raids.
The beginning of October found the Battalion at Bus-les-Artois, whence it marched by stages to Forceville, back into the Beaumont Hamel area, this time, indeed, in preparation for the capture of that stronghold, which was culminated a few weeks later.
Those who served in that area then had ample opportunities of becoming very familiar with the lie of the land. The “White City” for example, still remains in their memories as a very sticky stretch of white clay soil in which our trenches had been dug and in which doubtless to this day there lie many long-lost articles of personal equipment.
The anniversary of 13 November 1916 is still commemorated by the survivors of the 51st as "Beaumont Hamel Day" for on that day, the supposed impregnable fortress of Beaumont Hamel, with its almost ridiculous depth of intricate wire entanglements, its fabulously deep cellars and caves, and its picked garrison of the best of the enemy's troops, fell at the onslaught of the "Jocks".
It was literally an uphill fight. To walk over the ground after the battle was to be filled with amazement that men found it possible to get into contact with the enemy at all. Yet they surmounted what seemed to be superhuman difficulties and carried the whole objective strictly according to the time-table planned out beforehand. Beaumont Hamel itself was the Divisional objective. Simultaneous attacks were made on right and left by the 63rd and 2nd Divisions respectively. The attack com- menced at 6 am, and by 6 pm the village and system of trenches beyond it constituting the German third line of defence were completely in our possession.
At the commencement of the battle the 154th Brigade was in reserve. Our Battalion lay in Mailly Wood, in huts there, and stood-to when the battle commenced. About noon two Companies were sent up to the line, where they were held in support. At 6 pm the remaining two Companies together with Headquarters were ordered forward. Orders came about midnight that half of the Battalion with one Company of the 9th Royal Scots were to form up before dawn on 14 May and take Munich and Frankfort trenches, which were then in German hands and about 600 yards in front of the ground already gained. This order was cancelled about ten minutes before the actual time to go over, and the men took shelter in German dug-outs, where all kinds of souvenirs were collected. About 11 am two platoons each of our "B" and "C" Companies were sent forward to bomb along the communication trenches and to take Munich trench. This was done without much loss, but it was impossible to hold the trench. It was not only already shelled into un-recognisability, but was being heavily bombarded at that time both by our own and the enemy's guns. The two Companies therefore held a communication trench that ran roughly parallel to Munich trench and at night dug firing positions in front.
One Company of the 9th Royal Scots and "C" Company of the 7th Argylls were relieved before dawn on 15 November by "A" and “D" Companies of the 7th. The latter attacked at dawn from the new trench dug the previous night, "B" Company being in support. The attack failed because our barrage opened on our own troops, causing severe casualties, which were augmented by the fact that the Division on the left, presumably having lost direction, opened their Lewis Guns on our men as they were entering the German trenches.
During the same day the enemy launched a counter-attack which was successfully driven off with great loss.
About 1 am on 16 November the Battalion was relieved by the 4th Seaforth Highlanders and returned to German dug-outs in Beaumont Hamel.
During that battle runners and stretcher-bearers specially distinguished themselves, and it is worthy of note that on 15 November the 7th Argylls were 400 yards further forward (their flanks being completely in the air) than any other troops on that part of the British front.
On relief, interesting sights might have been seen in the erstwhile German stronghold of Beaumont Hamel. "Pickelhaubes" and long cigars appeared mysteriously in amazing numbers, and it is recorded that one Company had the good fortune to be billeted in a deep cellar lined with cases of Seltzer water which made excellent tea. This soda water was used in preference to the water which had to be carried up with the rations in petrol tins, and which had a mingled flavour of petrol and chloride of lime. The serious work of the day was the evacuation of wounded, the collection of salvage and the inevitable and ever unpopular working parties.
Relief arrived on 19 November and the Battalion went back to the wood at Mailly Maillet, whence after a brief spell it moved along the Ancre and held the line in front of the village of Pys. The month of December was spent in and out of the line, and will never be forgotten by those who were there. The mud in that locality was worse than any our men ever experienced during the war. A more bleak and desolated countryside would be hard to imagine.
The blackened and flattened ruins of Pozieres, Courcellette and Contalmaison, the pathetic wooden notice-board that alone marked the site where Ovillers had been, the sombre blotches of charred, twisted and stunted trees where woods had once been green, the mud, the rattling limbers and straining mules that scattered the mud to each side of the sodden roadways - all these combined to make war in that area a dismal horror.
To give particular examples: there was no trench from Battalion Headquarters to the front line. There had been one, but it was no longer decipherable in the mud. Lengths of ship's rope were laid along the surface of the ground and fastened to iron pickets. Men had to grasp the rope, struggle on waist deep and keep their heads down, for even so much of them as was visible could be clearly seen by a number of active snipers. The front line itself, consisting of detached posts, was more or less a straggling pool of soft mud, and but thirty yards distant from the enemy. Several cases are remembered of poor lads who stumbled exhausted and were drowned in that awful mire.
The enemy, too, evidently suffered severe discomforts. So difficult was it on both sides to carry down wounded or to bury dead, that the Red Cross Flag was scrupulously respected. German infantry and Argylls could have been seen there at dawn every day almost side by side, burying their dead in No Man's Land, and shivering in the December sleet.