Thursday March 7^th, 1918

Parade 8am. Drill till 12:30. No parades afternoon.

Battalion Training

Today the 13th Battalion is starting its two weeks of military and physical training.  The programme has two streams, one for a ‘Demonstration Company’ and the other for the ‘Remainder Companies’.  Both start the day with 30 minutes of physical training.  The Demonstration Company then has a lecture on the objective of the demonstration company and its work. Both streams do thirty minutes of musketry, fire positions and rapid loading.  The following hour is spent on specialist training for gunners, riflemen and bombers.  While this highlights the impact of emerging weaponry on infantry units and their tactics during WWI, it is worth noting that bayonet training remains an almost daily activity, despite being hardly used in combat.

Some time is also spent on handling arms, saluting and marching past – presumably because of the upcoming inspection of the Battalion by the Corps commanders and the Brigade Games.

There is also interest in the Army & Navy Boxing Championship, scheduled to take place later this month near the Summerhill Camp. Inter-service boxing competitions like this had taken place sporadically since well before the War.

This photograph shows CQMS James Roy refereeing a boxing tournament of men of the 6th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment. The date of this photo will be somewhere between August 1914 and July 1915, when the Battalion left for service in Gallipoli.*

13^th  (Service) Battalion War Diary – 7^th March 1918 – No 1 Sector, Olasli

Training commenced as per programme. 3 OR (Draft) having reported their arrival are taken on effective strength with effect from 7-3-18. 5 OR having rejoined are again taken on from 7-3-18. The Finals for the Navy & Army Boxing Championship will take place on March 21^st and 23^rd near Summerhill.

References & Further Reading

¹ ‘The Evolution of British Infantry Tactics in WWI‘ by Roger Daene

* Photograph on the Yorkshire Regiment WWI Remembrance site, provided by Christopher Roy-Toole, great-grandson of CQMS James Roy, the referee.