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Norman MacLeod, James Walter Sandilands
The History of the 7th Battalion Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066125585
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 2. THE BATTLE OF LOOS.
CHAPTER 3. HULLUCH LOOS SECTOR.
CHAPTER 4. THE SOMME BATTLE, 1916.
CHAPTER 5. BATTLE OF ARRAS, 1917.
CHAPTER 7. THE BRITISH WITHDRAWAL AND GERMAN ATTACK, 28th MARCH, 1918.
CHAPTER 8. AMALGAMATION OF 6th AND 7th CAMERON HIGHLANDERS.
OFFICERS WHO SERVED WITH THE BATTALION.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
| The 7th Camerons on Hill 70, | Frontispiece |
| Facing Page | |
| Colonel J. W. Sandilands, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., | 40 |
| Lieut. Colonel Norman Macleod, C.M.G., D.S.O., | 80 |
| Monument Erected by the 17th French Division to 15th Scottish Division | 144 |
FOREWORDS.
By Divisional Commanders.
Lieut.-General Sir F. W. N. M'Cracken, K.C.B., D.S.O.
Major-General H. F. Thuillier, C.B., C.M.G.
Major-General H. L. Reed, V.C., C.B., C.M.G.
Having commanded the 15th (Scottish) Division for two years and a quarter, I have followed with deep interest this history of the 7th Cameron Highlanders.
I am convinced that all who read of the gallant deeds performed by this Battalion, in company with the other Battalions of the 15th (Scottish) Division, in the service of their King and Country, will be stirred with an intense feeling of pride in the achievements of their countrymen recorded in this little book.
The Battalion has indeed nobly maintained the splendid traditions of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders.
F. W. N. M'CRACKEN.
Lieut.-General.
24/3/22.
This is a great story. A narrative of the adventures in training camps, in billets and trenches, in battles and in periods of rest, of one of the units of that splendid body of men known as the "New Armies" which sprang into being in 1914 under the inspiration of Lord Kitchener. A story of comradeship, endeavour and sacrifice in the great cause.
By far the greater part of it deals with the periods of fighting, and it is doubtful whether any of the New Army units saw more, for the famous 15th Scottish Division, of which the 7th Camerons formed part, was one of the earliest of the new divisions to go to the front and take a place in the line, and its record includes the battles of Loos, the Somme, Arras 1917, Ypres 1917, the German attack on Arras in 1918, and the capture of Buzancy in the Soissons area in August 1918, as part of the 10th French Army under General Mangin.
I had two opportunities during the war of judging the fighting qualities of the 15th Division. The first was when serving with the 1st Division, which attacked alongside the 15th at Loos. The energy and enthusiasm with which the Scotsmen prepared for the attack, and the dash and determination with which they executed it, excited the highest admiration of their regular comrades of the 1st Division. The two divisions served in the same Corps for some months in the ensuing winter, succeeding each other in and out of the water-logged trench lines of the Loos Salient, and the admiration aroused by their action in the battle was deepened by the observation of their soldierly qualities under the trying conditions of trench warfare in winter.
The second time I was a more intimate observer, for I had the supreme privilege of being appointed to the command of the 15th Division in June, 1917, just as it was entering the Ypres Salient to take part in the desperate and bloody fighting of the efforts to capture the Passchendaele Ridge. Its personnel had largely changed, owing to the casualties of the Somme and Arras, but the Scottish fighting spirit was there still, and the dour and stubborn valour with which, after seizing and holding the Frezenberg Ridge, they essayed again and again to win the concrete defences of Borry Farm, Beck House, Iberian House, etc., under indescribable conditions of mud, shell-fire and gas, forms a story which has not yet been fully told.
In this fighting, as in all the other operations of the Division, the 7th Camerons bore a full and gallant share. The last of the German efforts to retake the Frezenberg Ridge was broken up by a skilfully led counter-attack by a company of this Battalion with one of the 8th Seaforths.
The last time I saw the 7th Camerons was after the return of the Division to the Arras Sector in September, 1917, when they were encamped in Blangy Park in the Scarpe Valley. To men who had been through what they had it was, as the narrator says, a delightful change and rest. But rest, although more than well earned, was not accompanied by any slackness or loss of discipline. I was particularly struck by the state of their camp, its excellent order and cleanliness; cooking and sanitary arrangements all that they should be, the men healthy and in