Location: SUVLA (Lone Tree Gully)
Date: 17 August 15
Quiet day in trenches. Reinforcing draft under Capt Collins arrived. Effort made to get companies reorganised and men of the battalion withdrawn as far as possible from other battalion trenches.
Date: 18 August 15
Quiet day in trenches. Shelling and sniping at intervals and a few casualties. Battalion now practically accounted for.
Date: 19 August 15
Quiet day in trenches. Three men sniped. Battn relieved at 8pm by 1/4th NORTHANTS.
Date: 20 August 15
Battn resting until 8pm. Whole battalion other than base details and sick and including. Captain Collins’ draft paraded during the morning and nominal roll completed. Casualty roll also completed to date.
Date: 20 August 15 Hour: 8pm
Trenches of 1/5th Bedfordshire taken over. Uneventful night. Reconnoitring patrol reported small numbers of Turks in immediate vicinity of trenches.
Date: 21 August 15
Heavy firing on right of line during early morning. Companies in reserve warned to be prepared to stand to arms.
Lieut Maxwell badly wounded in front line trenches. Battalion warned to be prepared to take part in possible advance during afternoon.
Date: 21 August 15 Hour: 3pm
Batt Hqrs and companies in reserve moved up to immediate vicinity of front line trenches. Very heavy artillery bombardment of Turkish positions on extreme right of the line and advance by the 53rd Division (29th & 11th)
162nd Brigade not called upon and after a quiet afternoon, half battalion withdrawn into next trenches.
Night uneventful on our front.
More Information
The Finsbury Rifles were very lucky not to be called upon on the 21 August, as that attack was as catastrophic as the one on the 15 August. Had the Battalion been involved it might well have been more or less wiped out.
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