{"id":891,"date":"2014-10-14T23:59:22","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T22:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-249197-772718.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=891"},"modified":"2014-10-15T00:02:15","modified_gmt":"2014-10-14T23:02:15","slug":"14-10-1914-bols-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/14-10-1914-bols-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bols from the blue"},"content":{"rendered":"

14th October 1914<\/h3>\n

The only good news anyone had experienced\u00a0for a couple of days crawled back through the battlefield during the night. Lieutenant Colonel Bols had dragged himself back to the Dorsets at Pont Fixe. His escape\u00a0is\u00a0a story straight out of the pages of Boys’ Own.\u00a0The Germans had let a great prize slip\u00a0through their hands.<\/p>\n

Bols\u00a0lay injured on the ground as the Germans surged over their position. Any immobile British wounded were taken prisoner. The German stretcher bearers soon arrived to pick among the wounded and Bols was told to wait for an\u00a0ambulance. So he waited. And waited. Dusk came and so he began what much have been an agonising crawl back to the British line. Agonising because of his wounds, but also mentally as he crawled through the fallen heaps of his once proud Battalion.<\/p>\n

Sadly there’s no first person account of his adventure, nor is there any more information about this other than the story above. We’ll catch up with Bols in the future but for now the Dorsets were\u00a0in the capable hands of Major Cyril Saunders.<\/p>\n

One more\u00a0officer crawled back to the lines. Captain Francis Hans Bunbury Rathborne had been assisting the 18-pounders by the spoil heap when he was severely wounded. I’m happy to say that\u00a0he survived the war and lived a long life, dying in 1976 aged 87.<\/p>\n

First thing in the morning the sad remnants of the three Companies, B, C and D were merged into, what the war diary calls,\u00a0a Composite Company. They were led by Captain Henry Beveridge who must have been an officer from\u00a0the previous reinforcements as he’s not on the original\u00a0list sent out from Belfast. They were sent away\u00a0along the canal to the west out of the action.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the battle continued for a third day. The British continued to try to push through to La Bass\u00e9e. The 15th Brigade was trying\u00a0to move on, so that the 3rd Division to their north could swing round into the gap. Again the 13th Brigade was held up and the Dorsets\u00a0couldn’t\u00a0get forward without experiencing\u00a0the\u00a0dreadful enfilade fire from\u00a0the Germans hidden behind the raised bank on the south side of the canal.<\/p>\n

Gleichen’s hand drawn map shows the situation\u00a0in more detail. Some of the positions aren’t the same as they stand today; Cuinchy is now more to the left directly south from the Pont Fixe.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/a>
Gleichen’s map showing\u00a0the situation on the 14th October 1914<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Frank and the rest of A Company hunkered down in the factory at Pont Fixe and soon came under withering shellfire. A message came fro Gleichen. “Pont Fixe must not be given up. I know I can rely on you to stick to it with the help of the Devons”. Two more companies from the Devons arrived to support the skeleton 1st Battalion Dorsets.<\/p>\n

At 2pm the French attacked at Vermelles to the south. At 5pm A Company got the orders they must have been dreading. They were to support an attack by the Devons along the same line north of the canal they had tried for the last two days. But they weren’t to move until the 13th Brigade advanced on the south bank of the canal.<\/p>\n

Luckily for A Company, the Germans attacked the 13th Brigade and pushed them back. By 8:30pm the Germans were now attacking the north side of the canal. A Company and the Devons held on and only three men were wounded, although three deaths are listed on CWGC, presumably they died from\u00a0wounds sustained over the last couple of days.<\/p>\n

Frank had survived another day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14th October 1914 The only good news anyone had experienced\u00a0for a couple of days crawled back through the battlefield during the night. Lieutenant Colonel Bols had dragged himself back to the Dorsets at Pont Fixe. His escape\u00a0is\u00a0a story straight out of the pages of Boys’ Own.\u00a0The Germans had let a great prize slip\u00a0through their hands. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A Bols from the blue http:\/\/wp.me\/p4Wjz3-en #dorsets #ww1 #100yearsagotoday #LivesOfWW1","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12],"tags":[30,14,116,8,141],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Wjz3-en","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":875,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/12-10-1914-beginning-end\/","url_meta":{"origin":891,"position":0},"title":"The beginning of the end","author":"ellimondo","date":"12th October 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 12th October 1914 II Corps, of which the Dorsets were part of in 1914,\u00a0were the first British troops to be sent into the gap on the left hand edge of the French. To the north lay Flanders. The 7th Division had recently landed at Zeebrugge\u00a0and was now moving south\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Great War"","block_context":{"text":"The Great War","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/the-great-war\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image of a map of Cuinchy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_7312_zpsf19afd35.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_7312_zpsf19afd35.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/IMG_7312_zpsf19afd35.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":884,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/overwhelmed\/","url_meta":{"origin":891,"position":1},"title":"Overwhelmed","author":"ellimondo","date":"13th October 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 13th October 1914 The 15th Brigade resumed their attack along the canal\u00a0at 5:30am. B and C Companies were sent into the firing line. D Company was put in support and A Company was held in reserve. A single machine gun was positioned in a cottage\u00a0near to the lock. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Great War"","block_context":{"text":"The Great War","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/the-great-war\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":815,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/05-10-14-new-bols-please\/","url_meta":{"origin":891,"position":2},"title":"New Bols please","author":"ellimondo","date":"5th October 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"5th October 1914 The Dorsets remained in billets for the rest of the day. Supplies began to arrive. Hats and boots, according to Glechen, although socks remained much in demand. Operationally, things began to change within the battalion. Captain Ransome had been replaced by Lieutenant Pitt the previous day as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Great War"","block_context":{"text":"The Great War","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/the-great-war\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1529,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/1-2-1915-tommies-cooper\/","url_meta":{"origin":891,"position":3},"title":"Tommies, Cooper","author":"ellimondo","date":"1st February 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 1st February 1915 At 12.25 pm the 15th Brigade, including the Dorsets, was relieved by the 13th Brigade, marched to Bailleul and went into billets there. Lieutenant-Colonel Bols left the Dorsets and took over command of the 13th Brigade because its current commander, Brigadier-General Cooper, was taken ill. According\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Great War"","block_context":{"text":"The Great War","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/the-great-war\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":564,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/9-09-14-abandoned-battery-hill-189\/","url_meta":{"origin":891,"position":4},"title":"The abandoned battery on Hill 189","author":"ellimondo","date":"9th September 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"9th September 1914 In 1914 the commander of a battalion had access to a remarkable arsenal of technology to help them locate and fight the enemy. They had machine gun sections, long and short range artillery, plane spotters, telephones, metalled roads, railway lines, motorcycle dispatch riders and engineers. These were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Great War"","block_context":{"text":"The Great War","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/the-great-war\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50,"url":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/we-are-off-on-friday-to-the-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":891,"position":5},"title":"We are off on Friday to the War","author":"ellimondo","date":"17th May 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Dateline Belfast 13.8.14. Letter in pencil Dear Till Many thanks for your welcome letter which I thought was about time. Pleased to hear that you enjoyed yourself and also had lovely weather. Sorry to hear about May not being able to go with you, ...","rel":"","context":"In "Letters"","block_context":{"text":"Letters","link":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/category\/letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/26369389-SS_Antony.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/26369389-SS_Antony.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/26369389-SS_Antony.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":895,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions\/895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frankcrawshaw.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}