THE "COCKCHAFERS" ROUTED.
The Ypres Times.
187
CONSTRUCTING A BRIDGE ACROSS THE YSER CANAL DURING THE ATTACK.
Imperial War Museum PhotographCrown Copyright.
The story of how, on July 31st, the Welshmen shattered the Guard Fusilier Regiment,
or the famous Berlin Cockchafers," is almost pathetic, for it was a proud regiment.
The May Beetles Maikafer is the German wordwere the pets of their Emperor,
who, every year on the first of May, has sent them a little packet containing a live cock
chafer with his compliments. But it takes a lot of beetles to make a meal for a beast
like the Welsh dragon, and on July 31st he ate his fill. All three battalions of the Guard
Fusiliers were in the linethe first in the front system, the second in the next, and the
third in support behind. They had only been in two days and were fresh, but the first
two battalions simply crumpled up and disappeared before the Welsh attack, offering
scarcely any resistance, and the third did little better. Of the 630 prisoners which the
Welshmen took, over 500 were Cockchafers," the remainder coming from the 9th
Grenadier and the 3rd Lehr Regiments, with a few from other units.
But it was the Cockchafers' battle. They were the pièce de resistance. Of the
3,000 men nominally constituting the three battalions, we may probably assume that
some 1,800 have actually been in the trenches. Such a regiment, in fact any regiment,
can hardly have yielded over 500 prisoners, all in small detachments, until it had had at
least as many killed and wounded. So what miserable remnant of them really got away,
though the Regimental Commander and his Staff did succeed in bolting, it is impossible
to say. We took the regimental battle headquarters out the other side of Pilkem, and
a very nicely appointed headquarters they had been, but, with the discretion which so
often characterises German higher officers, the Commander and his Staff had moved
