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Instead, however, these troops passed through them, and the whole line fell back to the wood south-east of Caix. Here the remains of the Battalion were re-organised, and going forward again, re-occupied the Caix line. For this action Capt. G.E. Cardew and 2nd Lieut. R. Wilson received the Military Cross.
The enemy breaks through. The Battalion's mid-winter respite was brief. On New Year's Eve, 1917, the 2/4th Oxfords quitted the wretched Suzanne huts and marched through Harbonnières to Caix. No 'march past' was necessary or would have been possible, for so slippery was the road that the men had to trail along its untrodden sides as best they could.
Either the angel or the goblin who goes a wayfaring with me led me this time into a heated little auberge infested by myriads of flies, which, getting into the steam of the soupe caix choux in their anxiety to be served first, fell upon their backs in the hot mixture, and made frantic signals to me with their legs to help them out.
The best type of the Territorial officer, his death was a personal loss to every officer and man who served under him. The same day Capt. H. Walton, M.C., commanding Z Company, was also killed. The three Companies in the Caix valley occupied a wired trench facing Rosières, and were told that the troops in front would retire and occupy the line with them.
Old 61st Divisional sign-boards left standing nearly a year ago greeted the return to an area which was familiar to many. The destination should have been Vauvillers, but the inhabitants of that village were stricken with measles. Better billets and freedom from infection compensated for a longer march. At Caix the Battalion was comfortable for a week.
Y Company then moved to Vrely to cover the withdrawal of the remainder of the Battalion to a line near Caix. It was during these operations that Lieut.-Col. F.W. Robson, D.S.O., was killed. He had commanded the Battalion for nearly a year, and could truly claim that he had realised his ambition of making it one of the finest in France.
The drive was straight along the great road from Amiens to St. Quentin on which the Germans had made their westward thrust in March; and the first day saw them seven miles back at Framerville. To the south they lost Moreuil, Mezières, Demuin, Cayeux, and Caix, and to the north Morcourt, Cerisy, and Chipilly, while 7000 prisoners and 100 guns had been taken by 3 p.m.
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