#R/16519 Rifleman Cyril Kirby Bentley
12TH KING’S ROYAL RIFLE CORPS
ATTEMPTS ON GUILLEMONT HAD FAILED on 23rd July and then on the 30th, when Arthur Facer was mortally wounded with his machine-gun company, and again on 8th August, when William Gerrish fell with the 17th Middlesex. On the 18th, Morgan Hughes had been mortally wounded during his attack and, although Henry Biggs got into Z-Z Trench to the north of the village with his battalion of the Rifle Brigade a few days later, Guillemont was still in German hands. Plans to try again on 24th August had to be abandoned when the likes of Thomas Birks were hit by a German counter-attack the day before and left the area unprepared for an assault.
But Guillemont was still a crucial objective and preparations were now under way to attack the battered remains of the village again. This time, those troops flinging themselves against a mass of rubble and German machine guns would include Cyril Bentley, a 31-year-old barman originally from Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, but now living in North London. Cyril enlisted in November 1915, when he travelled to Winchester to join the King’s Royal Rifle Corps.
To the north of Beaumont Hamel, Cyril and his battalion had begun the move south towards the Guillemont sector in mid-July. They reached the front line on 26th August, relieving a battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry. It had been raining for days and the trenches were in a woeful state. The area was also prone to heavy artillery fire that was dominated by gas shells and made trying to get any work done in the wretched conditions near impossible. ‘The trenches were deep in mud and water, and were constantly being blown in; some of the communication trenches were impassable … so that it became a most difficult matter to bring up rations.’ The state of the Carnoy-Montauban Road nearby was so bad at this juncture, that on 29th August thirty-seven vehicles became sucked into the mud and broke down.
To make matters worse for Cyril, after a short preliminary bombardment on the 29th, the Germans attacked the 12th King’s Royal Rifles, although they were easily bombed back before any of the Kaiser’s men reached their lines. The following day the enemy would try again, but were once more repelled, this time with machine-gun and rifle fire.
The next British attack had been planned for lunchtime on the 29th, but the state of the trenches and the weather, punctuated by violent thunderstorms, were both so bad that it was postponed. The Germans continued to shell Cyril and his comrades. At 6pm, as thunder and lightning raged, they counter-attacked his battalion in numerous small parties of about half a dozen men. More could be seen forming up nearby. The King’s Royal Rifles opened up a galling machine-gun fire and jumped to their rifles, scattering the attackers, and then the situation calmed down for the night. Cyril resumed sitting in his wet, muddy trench as conditions deteriorated further. ‘No-man’s-land [was full of] dead bodies which had been lying out for weeks and the state of the whole line was foul … there was no time to let the men rest, for they were constantly trying to improve the conditions. They were so tired that it was doubtful just how effective they would be when they attacked Guillemont again.’
The fresh attack on Guillemont had been postponed until 30th August, but conditions were such that it was put off once again, for it was impossible to move at all in the trenches that lay forward of Trônes Wood. The Germans had also increased the intensity of their artillery fire and bludgeoned not only the front lines but the areas around Bernafay Wood to the rear. Stored in the northern part of it were dumps of small arms ammunition and bombs, and both were blown sky high. It was a miserable day for Cyril and his fellow riflemen. Many of them were buried alive by shellfire and a patrol that went out ran headlong into a band of Germans. During the course of the day Cyril was wounded by enemy fire and evacuated away from his miserable plight, but it was to no avail and he died later that day. The troops allotted to the next attempt on Guillemont had suffered so badly in their four-day stint in the lines that they had to be moved back into reserve and new men selected to carry out the assault. Cyril Bentley left behind a wife, Edith, and was laid to rest at Corbie Communal Cemetery Extension, plot II.B.48.