The most conclusive evidence of any particular regiment's share in the honours of war is to be found in the casualty and the honours lists. Anyone consulting these records would at once concur with the view that the Bedfordshire Regiment has been as deeply concerned in the struggles which have taken place on the battlefields where British arms have appeared since August 1914 as any other contingent fighting under the British flag.

But, as so often happens, said The Luton News, honour is not always given where it is most deserved, especially by the war correspondents of the great dailies. Very, very few and far between have been the references to the Beds Regiment, especially in the great struggles.

In the present advance few regiments have been named as yet, and so there is time for the deficiency to be made good, but we do not forget that, although the County Regiment performed a tremendous task in the struggle on the Somme last summer very scanty praise or recognition was allotted by the professional writers who are supposed to follow the doings of the armies in the field.

In this present great advance the Bedfordshires are also doing a wonderful amount of work, and from the following letter, written by a Luton officer to his parents, one gets some idea of what the County Regiment has done.

[The writer was probably Capt Robert Edwin Oakley (pictured), son of former Luton Mayor Councillor Albert Oakley and his wife Charlotte, of Hillcroft, 258 High Town Road. He was in command of C Company, and the village he refers to below was likely to have been St Martin-sur-Cojeul, south of Arras.]

He wrote: "Between our front line, as it was then, and the Hindenburg Line there was a small village and it fell to the lot of our companies to capture that place. The show began at 5.30am on Easter Monday [April 9th], and by 8 am we had gained our objectives and taken six prisoners with the loss of only two men wounded. I was in charge of that little attack, and so I was delighted when it came off so well.

"In the big affair we were in a part of the line where we had to do more in the nature of a containing attack and, although we made little progress, there's no doubt our engaging the enemy at that place largely contributed to the success of the people on our flanks, and eventually the Boche had to evacuate the line and village which formed our main objectives.

"An so last Thursday morning I had the pleasure of walking right through the world-renowned Hindenburg line and into a village which the Germans had been forced to leave before they had had time to complete its destruction. In fact in one house I actually saw some clean white curtains. Another place was quite a decent billet. The wire was something enormous - simply wonderful.

"Looking back on the affair, which has been out biggest success of the war, the fact that we have pushed the Huns from such strong positions shows that they are not safe anywhere. It certainly looks as if we can take any place we like in time.

"We marched back to quite a good billet yesterday. I was the only officer left in that company. One was accidentally wounded (slightly), one had pneumonia and the other was also rather ill. But I am still quite fit and free - very bucked with life at bringing the company out of action again. We only had seven or eight casualties and did quite a lot of good work, so altogether we were very lucky.

"The same applies to the Battalion. We didn't have any officers killed, and of the seven or eight wounded only one was at all serious. Altogether it was a most interesting affair, and I had a splendid view of all the operations, including a Boche counter-attack on our left, tanks in action and cavalry moving up to do their bit.

"Now, although we have been out of the show four or five days, you would be surprised how busy I have been. For instance, today we had to attend a conference at Brigade Headquarters at which the General explained to us the recent operations...it was a most interesting afternoon.

"At present we are all pleased with a new draft which has just arrived. I have 85 new men in my company, and of them all but four or five have been out before."

[The Luton News: Thursday, April 26th, 1917]

Photo credit: BLARS X550-1-81