page_title: High Peak Rifles
section_title: St Quentin Canal
hierarchical_section_title: High Peak Rifles / First World War / 1/6th Battalion / St Quentin Canal
caption_attribution_description: Lieut.-col. B. W. Vann, V.C., M.C.
context_page_description: The High Peak Rifles, later 6th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters, was a volunteer unit of Britain's Territorial Army. First raised in the High Peak area of Derbyshire in 1860, it fought as infantry on the Western Front during the First World War and as an air defence unit during the Second World War. Its descendants remained in the Army Reserve until 2014.
context_section_description: The division was given the most difficult task in the Battle of the St. Quentin Canal on 29 September 1918: it had to cross the canal itself, where it constituted part of the Hindenburg Line. The crossing was to be made by the 137th (Staffordshire) Brigade, with 138th and 139th Bdes following up and then attacking towards the second objective. Zero hour was at 05.50, when the Staffordshire moved out behind a creeping barrage, quickly captured the German front line trenches, crossed the canal, and consolidated on the first objective (the 'Red Line') under the protection of a standing barrage. The other two brigades then crossed the canal, and when the barrage began to roll forward again at 11.20, the Sherwoods jumped off from the Red Line with 6th Bn on the right.
  Their advance was parallel to the canal, which formed a defensive right flank as they rolled up the German trench lines. They reached the first intermediate objective by noon without trouble. However, the morning fog and initial smokescreen was clearing, there was stout resistance from German detachments on the high ground north of the village of Bellenglise, and the attack was held up by artillery fire and from machine guns on the far side of the canal. A party of 6th Bn therefore recrossed the canal and bayonetted and shot the German gunners, whose infantry escort had deserted them. Fearing that the delay would mean that the battalion lost its creeping barrage, the CO, Lt-Col The Rev Bernard Vann (a school chaplain in civilian life), dashed up to the firing line and got the attack moving again. At the objective he reorganised the men under fire to consolidate their position. He then led a dash to the nearby village of Lehaucourt where the Germans were bringing up horse teams to remove their guns. 'The Foresters won the race, and in the fight that ensued Vann personally liquidated five gunners with his revolver, boot and riding crop'. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on this day.
caption: Lt-Col The Rev Bernard Vann, VC, MC.
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