Bright's Bligny account

"Major Warneford came up from Battalion HQ at Chamuzy and told me that the Brigade Commander had ordered him to make a counter attack on Bligny Hill in the hope of regaining the position on the crest.

"The attack was to start at 12.45pm, after 10 minutes' barrage by our artillery... From 12.30pm we waited expectantly for our gunners to open up, but nothing happened.

"All keyed up as we were, the waiting became intolerable and I began to wonder whether the CO had made a mistake in timing, so it was quite a relief when zero hour arrived and we climbed out of our slit trenches and formed up.

"Our line of attack was across a mile of open country, through standing corn most of the way and in full view of the enemy... We were under observation the whole way and there was no hope of concealment.

"As soon as we started, the Germans put down a barrage of low bursting shrapnel, and when we got within a few hundred yards of the foot of the hill we came under a machinegun barrage, but we were extraordinarily lucky. The shrapnel seemed to burst in the gaps between the waves, and the machinegunners must have had too much elevation on their sights, for during the advance we only sustained about 80 casualties.

"Probably it was due to the rapidity with which the advance was carried out, for I must say, that even after 42 years I still remember how splendidly each Company kept a straight line with correct six yards intervals and I can still hear the NCOs barking out orders just as if it had been an ordinary peacetime exercise, and all this under extremely heavy fire.

"At the foot of the hill we discovered Major Martin of the Cheshires with the remnants of the other two Battalions still hanging on. We halted while I had a conference with Major Martin and took his orders for the final assault.

"While we were talking a shrapnel hit him in the neck and so I found myself in command. I gave the order to advance and the first three waves of the KSLI swept up the hill through the vineyard, and the fourth wave remained with the remnants of the Cheshires and Staffords in reserve...

"It was soon over, the first wave under Lt Colin was in the enemy trenches in five minutes, and as I arrived with the second and third waves, Lt Colin and Lt Marinden, his second in command, were both casualties, and Jerries were rushing out from their slit trenches with their hands up...

"Forgive an old man for his reminiscences, but I can still see in my mind's eye a boy from my Company, Tom Goodman, a quiet decent sort of chap, lying dead, face to face with a dead German - they had both transfixed each other with their bayonets."

Worse was to come, as Bright and around 150 men were unsupported and their position was precarious.

"About half an hour later we were subjected to an intense bombardment, not from Jerry, but from our own gunners.... We all pressed ourselves as close to the ground as we could and I am sorry to say we suffered a lot of casualties, for by the time the barrage lifted our total strength was less than 100 all ranks."

As they clung to the crest, orders came from Brigade HQ to retreat to the foot of the hill - and then attack it again along with other troops.

"You can imagine my reaction," wrote Bright. They sent back a message saying it was impossible to comply, and later another runner arrived, this time with a message from a General Jeffreys which ended: "Stick it, Shropshires, I'm doing my best to sent reinforcements."

"That message, which I passed round the Companies, did much to help us to hang on to our precarious position."

Bright says they were shelled and sniped at, and his chief worry was that the Germans would launch a counter attack in force when darkness fell.

"Mercifully, nothing happened."

It was, he says, a great relief to them all when at about 11pm he was told the rest of the Brigade was following close behind, and the Shropshires were relieved during the night.

"A whole Brigade took over that half mile that less than 100 Shropshires had been holding for over 12 tense hours.

"It was a very tired column that marched back into Brigade Reserve some four miles behind the line in the Bois de Coutron, just as day was breaking."