page_title: 2nd Gloucestershire Rifle Volunteers
section_title: Ypres and Cambrai
hierarchical_section_title: 2nd Gloucestershire Rifle Volunteers / World War I / 2/5th Gloucesters / Ypres and Cambrai
caption_attribution_description: English: Canadian soldiers survey a destroyed German bunker.
context_page_description: The 2nd Gloucestershire Rifle Volunteers, was a Volunteer unit of the British Army recruited in Gloucestershire from 1859. After becoming a Volunteer and later Territorial Force battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, it fought on the Western Front and in Italy during World War I. Its 1st Line battalion fought a last-ditch defensive action at the Piave and one of its number won a Victoria Cross in the closing weeks of the war. The 2nd Line battalion was involved in an epic rearguard action at Holnon Wood during the German Spring Offensive. In the early part of World War II the battalion distinguished itself at the defence of Ledringhem before being evacuated from Dunkirk. It then served as a unit of the Reconnaissance Corps with 43rd Infantry Division through the campaign in North West Europe. It returned to the Glosters in the postwar Territorial Army until amalgamated with other units in 1967.
context_section_description: 61st (2nd SM) Division moved to Ypres in July, and was put in as a fresh formation at the end of the Battle of Langemarck on 22 August. With 2/5th Gloucesters in close support behind the leading battalions, 184th Brigade made slow progress against the concrete pillboxes and machine-gun nests hidden in the farm buildings on their front. 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (OBLI) failed to take the Pond Farm strongpoint, but two platoons of D Company, 2/5th Gloucesters, and then two platoons of C Company finally succeeded in killing or capturing the whole garrison, at heavy cost to themselves. A German counter-attack temporarily recaptured Pond Farm that night, but it was easily secured next morning. The battalion was relieved for refitting, and did not participate in the division's final attacks.
  While the Ypres fighting continued, 2/5th Gloucesters moved by train to the Arras sector, where C Company carried out a trench raid on 23 October. In late November 61st (2nd SM) Division moved south to relieve exhausted British formations after the Battle of Cambrai. By the time it arrived the Germans had launched a heavy counter-offensive. 2/5th Gloucesters spent a day in support behind 3rd Guards Brigade, which had been fighting for eight days, then moved up the following night (2/3 December) to a position behind Welsh Ridge. D Company had just halted in a sunken lane when a German night-bomber hit a nearby ammunition dump: the company lost 16 killed and 53 wounded in the resulting explosion. At dawn a German attack drove 183rd (2nd Gloucester and Worcester) Brigade back from La Vacquerie to the slopes of Welsh Ridge, where 2/5th Gloucesters stabilised the situation. The next few weeks were spent in consolidation.
  In January 1918 61st (SM) Division took over a sector from the French in front of St Quentin and began constructing the new system of defences mandated by General Headquarters. These were designed to economise on manpower because the BEF was suffering severe shortages. During February the 2/4th and 2/6th Gloucesters of 183rd Brigade were disbanded, many of their men being drafted to bring 2/5th Bn up to full strength.
caption: Captured German pillbox or 'Mebu' at Ypres
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