The 8th (Service) Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment (8th EYR),[a] was a unit of 'Kitchener's Army' raised shortly after the outbreak of World War I.

This group of six divisions with supporting arms became known as Kitchener's First New Army, or 'K1', and was quickly followed by 'K2' and 'K3' as a flood of volunteers poured into the recruiting offices and were formed into 'Service' battalions at the regimental depots.

Throughout October drafts arrived from Beverley until on 4 November the battalion reached a strength of 25 officers and 1092 other ranks (ORs) under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel L.C.

Mud and rain brought a return to billets for the winter, with 8th East Yorkshires housed in Wendover, Aston Clinton and Weston Turville.

Although its training was still woefully inadequate (the K1 and K2 units had taken all the best instructors and staff officers), the division soon received orders to join the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front, and advance parties left at the beginning of September.

As the inexperienced battalions set out (still accompanied by their transport) they were instructed by a military policeman that according to trench routine they must open out, with intervals between sections.

The CO of 1/20th Londons tried to stop the advance, but the two Yorkshire battalions carried on in extended lines towards Chalk Pit Copse, well south of Hill 70.

A few minutes later they came under intense machine gun fire from the German-held part of the copse, 8th EYR and the leading companies of 10th Green Howards sustaining heavy casualties.

In the confusion and gathering darkness some troops trying to retrace their steps and go through Loos were mistaken for attackers and fired upon by the rear companies of 10th Green Howards.

While A and B Companies maintained their position on the Crassier until relieved the following afternoon, Lt-Col Way (who had been wounded) ordered the remainder back to the cover of the village and the support trenches where they joined 1/23rd Londons and were shelled all night.

Many of the officers and men in the ranks of 3rd Division by now were replacements with no more experience than the East Yorkshires, but the staffs and support units were very experienced, and the battalion could expect its future operations to be better planned and executed.

[1][18][19][21] On the morning of 27 March the Royal Engineers exploded six mines under the German positions at The Mound near St Eloi and 3rd Division's 9th Bde attacked the craters.

Despite the overall success, the Germans remained in possession of two of the craters and the battalion was involved in several days of shellfire and bombing attacks among the shattered trenches.

[18][19][22][23] 8th East Yorkshires spent the following weeks alternating between resting, training, and spells in the line near Dickebusch, while preparations went on further south for that summer's 'Big Push' (the Battle of the Somme).

After the disasters of the first day, 3rd Division in conjunction with three others was to make a daring night assembly and dawn attack on 13/14 July (the Battle of Bazentin Ridge).

At 03.20 a sudden intense bombardment was placed on the German barbed wire and trenches and five minutes later the whole attacking line of four divisions advanced behind a Creeping barrage.

Two platoons of the 8th EYR managed to get through on the right, the remainder had to shelter in shell holes in front of the wire or retire to the sunken road.

Later a bombing party from 2nd Royal Scots came down from the left and cleared the Germans out of the trench in front of the battalion, but of the two platoons that had penetrated, no more was heard.

The brigade's contribution to the attack was to send out two strong bombing parties from 7th King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI), supported by a company of 8th EYR, trying to clear along the railway towards Guillemont station and widen the salient.

8th East Yorkshires' companies were now down to a strength of 40–50 each, but a draft of 320 reinforcements (from the Green Howards and the York and Lancaster Regiment[c]) arrived that day.

At the end of the month 8th EYR was holding trenches in the Hulluch sector and between 21 September and 5 October 3 Division underwent training before moving back to the Somme.

[29][30] The last phase of the Somme offensive was the Battle of the Ancre on 13 November, a final attempt to secure better ground and observation points for the winter.

de la Perrelle) spent several tours in the St Sauveur trenches before a short period of training for the forthcoming Arras Offensive.

Despite attacking before dawn there was no surprise and just before Zero (03.45) the enemy guns deluged the division's front with HE and gas shells, so the men had to wear their respirators while forming up.

When it attacked, 8th Brigade fell into confusion in the darkness, partly because the enemy had pushed parties of riflemen out into shell holes in No man's land where they were missed by the barrage.

On the evening of 25 September Lt-Col de la Perrelle led 8th EYR up to their assembly positions in warm sunny weather.

There was a morning mist and the troops had to steer by compass bearings over the devastated ground; they then found that despite the dry weather the Zonnebeke stream (not expected to be much of an obstacle) was swollen into a 30 yards (27 m) wide marsh.

On 27 September the Germans placed a barrage behind the frontline troops to isolate them and massed for an attack, but the SOS call to the divisional artillery broke it up.

[18][19][43][44] After the relief, 8th EYR left the Ypres Salient and travelled south, reaching Beugnâtre by 13 October, where it underwent two weeks' training.

3rd Division did not take part in the BEF's final effort of 1917, the Battle of Cambrai, but it did carry out a subsidiary attack at Bullecourt on the opening day of the offensive (20 November).