59th Division were holding the Bullecourt salient near Arras on 21 March 1918 and the German assault fell on 176 and 178 Brigades, which were virtually destroyed. 2/4th Leicesters were among the units ordered up from reserve, just out of the line after 24 days of trench duty. The battalion was ordered to reinforce Ecoust-St-Mein, but Ecoust had already fallen. At the rear of the Battle Zone was a line of marked out trenches, with turf removed but no wire. The battalion deployed in one extended line of men and they piled up turfs to give some cover from the masses of German infantry advancing from Ecoust. A Leicester office with a revolver in each hand, stood on the road from Ecoust, rounding up stragglers and forcing them to take position with the Leicesters. Two men did much to inspire the battalion to stand and fight in this exposed and almost hopeless position. Lt Col Sir Iain Colquhoun, who had been court-martialled by Sir Douglas Haig while a Captain in the Scots Guards for disobeying orders not to repeat the Christmas truce of 1914 the following year, was seen as a “Soldier’s soldier” and was believed to have turned down command of a brigade to stay with the battalion. He strode up and down the thin line of men exhorting them not to give up their position. Doing the same thing was RSM Withers, muttering “Be British, be British” and “You’ll all be bloody prisoners by the morning”! However the position held that day and the battalion lost only 12 killed and 18 wounded. From 22 March, the Brigade came under the command of 40th Division and conformed with flanking units as the Germans attempted to push on to Arras.

Stuart Lyon