Two accounts of the action at Le Pilly, 18-20 October 1914

Accounts of the Battle of Le Pilly by Captain (later Lieutenant Colonel) Michael Charles Cooper Harrison, 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment, 19 October 1917, and Lieutenant Martens, commander, 6th Company, 56th Active Regiment, German Army, 27 January 1915.

During the Battle of La Bassee the 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment, was ordered to capture the village of Le Pilly. This was accomplished at the cost of around 150 casualties. However, the battalion then found itself exposed to an enemy counterattack, which resulted in it being surrounded and wiped out. Of the 800 men of the battalion approximately 500 were killed. The remaining 300 survivors were taken prisoner. Many of these prisoners were seriously wounded and only 100 were capable of walking.

These accounts by Captain Harrison and Lieutenant Martens relate this encounter from both the British and German perspectives. Martens is particularly damning, describing how 'the Irish Regiment was in a hopeless predicament, there seemed no escape except they surrendered, and it was exceedingly foolish that they did not'.

Kept together with a related newspaper cutting.