BOIS DES BUTTES 1918

From the Devonian Year Book 1922:

"On Sunday, November 6th 1921, General Berthelot, one time Commander of the French 5th Army, and at present Military Governor of Metz, unveiled the memorial that has been erected at the Bois des Buttes in memory of the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion of the Devon Regiment, who laid down their lives for their King and country on that fatal day - May 27th 1918*.

The story has often been told, and is thus recorded, in French on one side and English on the other, upon the granite base of the memorial cross:

The Devonshire Regiment Memorial at Aisne

© Roy Hewitt

The base inscription reads:

2ND BATTALION DEVONSHIRE REGIMENT

ON THE 27TH MAY 1918 AT A TIME WHEN

THE BRITISH TRENCHES WERE BEING SUBJECTED

TO FIERCE ATTACKS, THE 2ND BTN. DEVONSHIRE REGIMENT

REPELLED SUCCESSIVE ENEMY ASSAULTS WITH GALLANTRY

AND DETERMINATION AND MAINTAINED AN UNBROKEN

FRONT TILL A LATE HOUR. THE STAUNCHNESS OF THIS

 BATTALION PERMITTED DEFENCES SOUTH OF THE

AISNE TO BE REORGANISED AND THEIR OCCUPATION BY

REINFORCEMENTS TO BE COMPLETED.

INSPIRED BY THE SANGFROID OF THEIR GALLANT COMMANDER

LT. COL. R. H. ANDERSON - MORSHEAD D.S.O., IN THE FACE OF

AN INTENSE BOMBARDMENT, THE FEW SURVIVORS OF THE

BATTALION, THOUGH ISOLATED AND WITHOUT HOPE OF ASSISTANCE,

HELD ON TO THEIR TRENCHES NORTH OF THE RIVER AND FOUGHT

TO THE LAST WITH AN UNHESITATING OBEDIENCE TO ORDERS.

THUS THE WHOLE BATTALION, COLONEL, 28 OFFICERS AND 552 NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND MEN, RESPONDED WITH ONE

ACCORD AND OFFERED THEIR LIVES IN UNGRUDGING SACRIFICE

TO THE SACRED CAUSE OF THE ALLIES.

In honour of this glorious action, the Second Battalion was decorated by France with the Croix de Guerre. It is the regiment's proudest possession.

General Berthelot, whose Order of the Day is quoted in the above inscription, spoke with great eloquence as follows:

"In the name of the French Army, I express our admiration for the British troops who fought by our side during the war, who submitted cheerfully to all the hardships of the campaign and whose smiling men went to death and glory with heroic self-sacrifice.

But in particular I wish to pay special tribute to the men of the Devonshire Regiment - men I knew during one of the severest fights of the war. This ground will ever be hallowed by reason of their heroism on May 27th 1918."

The Croix de Guerre carving on the memorial at Aisne

The inscription reads

Semper Fidelis

This memorial was erected by the 2nd Battalion Devonshire Regiment in memory of the action of May 27th 1918

©Roy Hewitt