The Bantam concept did not survive the losses of the Somme, and had to be abandoned when the battalions became filled with reinforcements who were not simply undersized but actually unfit for service.

In 1917 the 23rd Manchesters became a conventional infantry battalion and saw further action during the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line and at the Battle of Passchendaele before being broken up early in 1918 to provide reinforcements to other units.

[3][4][5] However, a large number of otherwise medically fit volunteers were turned away because they did not meet the minimum height requirement of the prewar Regular Army, of 5 feet 3 inches (160 cm).

Alfred Bigland, the Member of Parliament for Birkenhead, persuaded Kitchener that this pool of potential manpower should be tapped, and he was given authority to raise a battalion of 'Bantams' (named after the small but pugnacious fighting cock).

Three Bantam battalions were quickly raised at Birkenhead for the Cheshire Regiment, many of them coal miners who had travelled long distances to enlist, and the scheme spread to other areas.

The War Office (WO) authorised each military district to recruit a battalion, attached to whichever regimental depot had sufficient capacity.

Anderson, chairman of the North Western Branch of the National Service League (NSL) pointed this out to the WO on 24 November, and the same evening the Lord Mayor received a telegram authorising him to raise a Bantam battalion.

Anderson had proposed naming the battalion 'Bobs' Own' after the popular Field Marshal Earl Roberts, who was short of stature (and president of the NSL), and had died earlier in the month.

In January he was replaced by Major Sir Henry Blyth Hill, 6th Baronet, a younger Reserve officer (he had served at the Battle of Omdurman) who had been appointed second-in-command of the 10th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Derry) on the outbreak of war and was promoted to take over 23rd Manchesters.

In March 126th Bde returned to Heaton Park for an inspection by Lord Kitchener, though the men were still clothed in a mixture of blue and khaki and many still did not have rifles.

[3][11][13][20][21][22] In August 35th Division moved by rail to Salisbury Plain for final intensive training, with the infantry at Tidworth where 23rd Manchesters went into No 1 Parkhouse Camp.

In late February the units went in to the line in the Neuve-Chapelle sector alongside the more experienced 38th (Welsh) Division for instruction in Trench warfare.

However, during the night of 19/20 July W and X Companies of 23rd Manchesters struggled forward through darkness and shelling in the Trônes Wood sector, arriving at 04.55 to hold the trench just as 15th Sherwood Foresters (105th Bde), attempted to capture Maltz Horn Farm in front.

One company of the Foresters reached the German trench but were driven out and the whole battalion suffered severe casualties; the remnants dribbled back through the Manchesters.

In this hastily planned attack the 23rd Manchesters had lost 9 officers and 192 other ranks (ORs); Lt-Col Maxwell was among the casualties, having been the first man over the parapet carrying a rifle and bayonet.

The limited attack was a success, and the divisional pioneers (19th Northumberland Fusiliers) linked up 17th LF's new position on the southern slope of Falfemont Farm ridge with 23rd Manchesters' new trench.

On 8 December his successor (Maj-Gen Herman Landon) complained that the replacement drafts he had received were not of the same tough physical standard as the original bantams but were undeveloped, unfit men from the towns.

Their places were filled with men transferred from disbanded Yeomanry Cavalry regiments; these had to be quickly retrained as infantry and a divisional depot was formed for the purpose.

[3][15][16][20][39][40][41] On arrival at Arras in September 1916, the 23rd Manchesters set about cleaning and strengthening the ramshackle trenches they had taken over from French troops (including raising the firesteps so the bantams could fire over the parapet).

On 29 July 23rd Manchesters raided 'Hawk Trench' an enemy advanced post: no live Germans were found in it after the short intense British barrage.

The ground was covered with water-filled shellholes, movement was by duckboard tracks across the mud, and positions were frequently shelled with Mustard gas, bombed at night, or strafed by aircraft in daylight.

Fifth Army was preparing for a final attempt to gain the high ground (the Second Battle of Passchendaele), and 35th Division was tasked with a preliminary advance into the wreckage of Houthulst Forest to protect the left flank of the projected attack.

From then on they met stubborn resistance with rifle and machine gun fire from both flanks, including from some huts on their left that had been missed by 18th LF.

After being relieved they went back to 'Egypt House', a group of former German pillboxes intended for the battalion HQs but actually occupied by overflowing field dressing stations.

By the time it went back to Polecapelle on 4 December, the trenches were dry and the line was quiet, but the cold weather meant that units had to be relieved after short spells.

[33][68][69] When the German spring offensive was launched on 21 March 1918, 12th Entrenching Bn was ordered up from working on defences near Frières-Faillouël to occupy positions along the Crozat Canal behind the hard-pressed III Corps while the Royal Engineers prepared the bridges for demolition.

Fighting went on until evening with mixed up units defending their positions: 12th Entrenching Bn was able to regain some of its lost ground, but the enemy now had a substantial bridgehead between Quessy and Tergnier.

The 12th Entrenching Bn and 4th Hussars were relieved during the night, but owing to fog the process was not complete at daybreak on 23 March and they were still near the front line when the enemy attacked.

When the retirement threatened the capture of some French artillery at Babœuf, two (Cheshire) companies of 12th Entrenching Bn took part in Sadleir-Jackson's effective counter-attack, which drove the enemy clean out of the village and some way back.

18th (E) Division was then relieved and sent to the Amiens sector, where at Gentelles on 1 April the survivors of 12th Entrenching Bn were absorbed into the 7th Royal West Kents.