. The story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry . nkment at Hombleux, for it was fearedthat the enemy had already commenced to cross theSomme at Ham. During the morning of the 23rdDavenport received peremptory orders to make acounter-attack against the town with the object ofregaining possession of its bridgehead. Consider-able success resulted; Verlaines was cleared of theenemys patrols, and the advance reached the ridgeeast of that village. With fresh troops acting on a concerted plansomething might have been accomplished. Daven-ports men were a disorganised mixture o
. The story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry . nkment at Hombleux, for it was fearedthat the enemy had already commenced to cross theSomme at Ham. During the morning of the 23rdDavenport received peremptory orders to make acounter-attack against the town with the object ofregaining possession of its bridgehead. Consider-able success resulted; Verlaines was cleared of theenemys patrols, and the advance reached the ridgeeast of that village. With fresh troops acting on a concerted plansomething might have been accomplished. Daven-ports men were a disorganised mixture of manybattalions, including, besides the Oxfords and otherrepresentatives of the 184th Brigade, a number ofCornwalls and Kings Liverpools. They were un-fed, and the demoralisation of the retreat was be-ginning to do its work. As always on these occa-sions, when officers of different services were throwntogether, divided counsels were the , an officer who could have been reliedupon to make the best of the situation, was wounded The Retreat behind the Sonne. Sketch map illustrating the rearguard actions of 184 INF BdEbetween. HAM and NESLE od M^RCr! 24-dnd25 [918 168 THE BRITISH RETREAT, MARCH, 1918. in the leg- during a moonlight reconnaissance withDavenport. By March 24 the position was unaltered; thetroops were still lining the ridge east of Ver-laines and awaited the enemys next move withtheir field of fire in many cases masked by, ormasking, that of their comrades. Against thistype of defence the enemys tactics did not requireto be as infallible as they perhaps seemed. Ourpity is drawn to these English troops, disorganised,without their own proper commanders, unsuppliedwith rations—the stop-gaps thrust forward in thelast stages of a retreat. At 9 the enemy, whose patrols had duringthe night of March 25 24 been feeling their wayup the slopes from the Somme Canal, commencedto press forward in earnest. The mixed troops,who were lining the ridge, had been do
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