The Terrors
by Stuart N. White
16th Pioneer Battalion
Royal Irish Rifles
Preface:
In 1914 the Second County Down Volunteers were recruited as the 16th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles shortly to be designated the Pioneer Battalion of the 36th Ulster Division. This meant that the men had to become skilled field engineers as well as competent infantrymen in a war bringing many opportunities for them to display their dual capabilities. Formed at Brownlow House in Lurgan, it was in and around Lurgan that the battalion carried out it's training; and in Lurgan and district that it experienced the warm-hearted hospitality of the people, establishing a bond with the town which lasted as long as there were veterans to amintain it and is now continued by the presence of their standard in Shankill Parish Church. The story in these pages recounts how the battalion was raised and trained and how the men met challenges demanding extreme courage and physical endurance. It is an account of tremendous achievement under terrible condiditons and records why in bringing freat credit to itself and to the Ulster Division, the attainments of the 16th Reifles merit the justifiable pride of the people of Ulster. Within three months of going to France in 1915, the battalion was building a railway over which was moved a great deal of the material required for the battle of the Somme. It took part in that battle and remained to work on the battlefield for several days after the Ulster Division had been withdrawn. Indeed it worked, and on some occasions took part in combat, on all the battlefields on which the Ulster Division fought; and, pioneer skills being in great demand, on some when the Division was not engaged. At the Somme, Messines, Ypres, Wytschaete, Cambrai, Paschendaele, the German offensive of 1918, and the final Allied advance the 16th Rifles performed with valour and contributed to British successes. The title of the book is drawn from the
battalion's adaption of the 'South Down Militia' as their regimental song and march. In
it's version the last line of the chorus runs: Price £16.95 |