Page 141 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2018

REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN) 139
Aerial photo north-west of Leuze Wood on 22 September 1916, showing the Quadrilateral (Q) covered in shell craters. The red arrow shows the end of the cavalry track off the north-west corner of the wood, along the Guillemont-Combles road; the extra width of the track (meant to be 30 feet wide) and the levelled surface are visible here. The green arrow shows the ditched tank C14, some 700 yards from the Quadrilateral (photo in 16th Brigade diary)
in 1914 and 1915 respectively, Francis being the only member of the 9L to win the VC during the war. Arthur had served with the Buckinghamshire Yeomanry before the war, and was attached to the 9L in France. By the 15th September he had seen more front-line service than most officers of the regiment, having been in charge of the 1st Cavalry Division Dismounted Party on the Somme since July. The papers proved to contain many of Gren- fell’s messages to the GOC 1st Cavalry Division in September, and his report of his actions on 15th September. Although the assault on the Quadrilateral that day was unsuccessful, Grenfell’s account shows that his decision to bring his working party into action may have prevented a more costly failure, and paved the way for the eventual capture of the Quadrilateral three days later – a role of the cavalry in the battle of the Somme which has never previously been appreciated.
The tanks that my grandfather saw included the only two to make it across the front line towards the Quadrilateral that morn- ing. One of them, C14, set off before Zero hour from the cross- roads north-west of Leuze Wood, where Grenfell sent a message at 0900 saying that the cavalry track was complete to that point. From there the cavalry would have had a clear view of the tank ditched in a shell hole some 500 yards distant, where it had been bombed and two of its crew killed. The other tank was Lieuten- ant Basil Henriques’ C22, which made it into the Quadrilateral and engaged the enemy with its Vickers machine guns before being forced back, low on fuel, riddled with bullets and the crew wounded. Henriques recalled the battlefield that day: ‘It was like hell in a rough sea made of shell holes ... The sight of thousands of men dying and wounded was ghastly. I hate to think of it all.’