This section of the Long, Long Trail will be helpful for anyone wishing to find out about the day to day activities of the army.

Coverage

This is not an extract from a war diary but is an article describing the activities of the 2/2nd Battalion the London Regiment on 21 March 1918.

Background

On the 21st March 1918, the 2/2nd Battalion of the London Regiment, part of 173rd Brigade within the 58th (2/2nd London) Division, held the front line between the villages of La Fere and Travecy south of St Quentin, a frontage of some 5,000 yards.

The 58th Division were at the extreme, southerly end of the British held line at the junction with the French. The British Army was rapidly adopting the German method of "defence in depth", where there would no longer be continuous defensive lines but a succession of "zone"s, the forward of which comprised heavily defended strongpoints that could cover each other with fire. Four keeps or redoubts had been prepared in the Divisional area, one of which was in Travecy village at the extreme left of the line held by the 2/2 Londons and was in an isolated position.

Travecy Keep was held by A Company, numbering no more than 200 men and commanded by Captain Maurice Harper MC.

Captain Maurice Harper led the defence of Travecy Keep

The German attack

At 4.50am on the 21 March, the German bombardment began, with one artillery piece firing for every 10 yards of the line. Gas shells and trench mortars also rained down on the London men. The bombardment lasted until 7.00am and under its cover the enemy infantry crossed the St Quentin Canal and assaulted the 2/2 Londons positions in the Forward Zone. Dense fog weakened the defensive positions which relied on good visibility to cover the gaps. The Germans exploited the fog and were soon behind the Forward Zone positions.

Two of the keeps (Japy and Brickstack) held by 2/2 Londons fell early on but the Main Keep held out until after midday before it was finally taken. At Travecy Keep the artillery bombardment lasted until 8.00am, by which time all communication links had been severed and, in thick fog, A Company were without support and completely isolated. As the barrage lifted the enemy attacked and took a number of the forward posts and briefly penetrated the Keep's outer defences to the north and south and heavy fighting developed on the right flank held by one platoon quickly reduced to 10 men and an officer. By 10.00am the surviving two men of this platoon fell back to the Keep. An hour later an attack, assisted by an aeroplane, developed to the north forcing two sections of A Company back to the Keep which was now under continuous machine gun and rifle grenade fire. An advance section were still undetected forward of the Keep and they inflicted many casualties on the enemy during this attack with a Lewis Gun before retiring.

During the afternoon the enemy made a number of determined assaults on the Keep, all of which were repulsed. At 5.00pm Captain Harper called for two volunteer runners to report to Brigade HQ. The men, Privates Banks and Ancliffe, returned two hours later with the news that the enemy had penetrated 2 miles to the north west and nearly 3 miles to the west and south west. With its flanks driven in and the enemy behind it, Travecy Keep was completely surrounded. At this point Captain Harper's force consisted of 3 officers and 60 men.

Just before dusk the Germans launched a further assault on all sides of the Keep and the fight raged for an hour before the enemy fell back. During the night the Germans continued to bomb the Keep and sweep it with machine gun and rifle fire. Thick fog greeted dawn on the 22nd March and still A Company resisted the continuing German attacks. During lulls in the fighting the men would crawl out of the Keep in ones and twos into the ruins of the village and fire on enemy machine gun teams nearby. By midday the fog had lifted and the men of A' Company took the opportunity to fire on a column of enemy transport seen on the St Quentin to La Fere road. They even fired on a group of German Staff Officers and a working party on the Travecy to Achery road. The Londoners were rewarded with an attack by a German aircraft which dropped two bombs on the Keep. Later in the afternoon further aircraft bombed the Keep, one of which was shot down by Lance Corporal Long with a Lewis Gun.

At 7.30pm Captain Harper held a council of war with his remaining officers and CSM. Their ammunition had virtually run out, they were completely cut off and there was no hope of a counter attack. The London men were completely exhausted, hungry and outnumbered at least 50 to 1. Their casualties were exposed to enemy fire and needed treatment. Captain Harper decided that it would be futile to resist further as this would lead to the deaths of all those that still survived. He gave orders to destroy all maps and plans together with the remaining 2 Lewis Guns and trench mortars. Shortly after midnight the Germans began another attack. Captain Harper went out to meet them and surrendered, 44 hours after the initial German bombardment had commenced. A' Company had fired over 18,000 rounds of ammunition, had launched over 200 trench mortars and had thrown more than 400 hand grenades. With the capture of the remaining 44 men (including the wounded) of A Company, total losses of the 2/2 Londons stood at 570 men of all ranks from a trench strength of 610. More than 60 were dead and many had been captured including the Commanding Officer, Lieut-Col AR Richardson.

In connection with the heroic defence of Travecy Keep, Captain Harper was awarded a Bar to his MC and 2/Lieutenant PD Gibson was awarded the MC.

The location of Travecy: north of La Fere.

Credits

Thanks to Mark Smith for the preparation of this article.