The battle of Le Cateau
-
by
Stork
I'm now tagging the diary 107 Infantry Brigade, 1 Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers (31 Jul 1917 - 30 Dec 1917). I just finished August, 1917, and along with the usual end-of-the-month Operation Orders there is a nominal roll of men who took part in the Battle of Le Cateau. At the top of the nominal roll it says that the battle took place on 26-8-14, three years before this 1917 diary. I checked online, and sure enough, the Battle of Le Cateau took place on 26-8-14, three years before. At the bottom of the page is the date the nominal roll was made, and that date is 31-8-17. Every other page I've tagged in this diary so far has also been from 1917. So, why in 1917 did someone decide to make a roll of men who took part in a battle that occurred 3 years previously? Three of the officers listed at the top of the page are names I recognize from the diary pages I've tagged earlier in this diary, so it was probably one of them who made up the list, since they were in the battle in 1914 and are still in the same unit 3 years later. It's page 15 of this diary, if a moderator wants to take a look at it.
Posted
-
by
ral104
moderator, scientist
I imagine it was probably because of the anniversary - they might have wanted to recognise the men who had been with the battalion from its first engagements. I forget which diary it was, but I saw another one where they had compiled a nominal roll of men who had mobilised with the battalion in 1914 and were still with them in 1918. There were a surprising number of them, but what was sobering was to imagine how many more there were who weren't included in the list.
Posted