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The Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales') or Staffords was formed in 1959 by the amalgamation of The South Staffordshire Regiment and the North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales'). The Staffords can trace their history back to 1705 when a regiment known as the 38th Foot was raised at Lichfield by Colonel Luke Lillington .
During the Zulu War the South Staffordshire Regiment was located in South Africa and its battalions took part in a number of engagements there. One such engagement was in Hlobane , when the 2nd Battalion along with Boer troops were sent to attack that Zulu stronghold. The forces soon besieged the Zulus but a relief force of some 27,000 warriors arrived. The British and Boer forces, only 675 men in total, withdrew at the sight of this immense opposition. The next day some 25,000 Zulu warriors attacked the camp, located at Khambula , but were forced back after a onslaught from the British forces. The Zulus incurred over 2000 casualties, with the British force suffering just 29 casualties.
During WWI, there was an astonishing 35 Staffordshire battalions in existence. At the Battle of Festubert , an action designed in support of the large French action at Vimy Ridge in 1915, the 1st Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, performed with great distinction, as did every other regiment involved. The 22nd Brigade, of which the Staffords were part, were chosen to lead the right-side assault on the German trenches, though heavy machine-gun fire caused many casualties forcing the 22nd Brigade to halt, to allow a 15 minute bombardment to take place. After the bombardment ceased, the 22nd Brigade started moving again, with the Staffords now part of the assault. They succeeded in reaching the German front, despite incurring a large number of casualties. They soon worked along the trenches with the use of grenades. The Staffords and 2nd Battalion, Queens successfully secured territory from Stafford Corner to the old positions of the German front, not to mention the La Quinque Rue , achieving all their objectives. The 1st Bn. South Staffordshires, continued to have a relatively successful day, taking further ground in the German trenches and capturing at least 190 German soldiers. All these results by the Staffords were achieved on the first day of the assault, the 16th May.
The battalion suffered heavy casualties, with 261 officers and men being killed, though even this did not come near to the casualties that other regiments suffered at Festubert.
Many of the Staffordshire battalions participated in the Battle of Loos were they suffered horrendous casualties. The 1st Staffords were once again part of 22nd Brigade . Gas was used for the first time by the British in this battle, sometimes with tragic effect on their own forces. 22nd brigade moved towards its target, shrouded in the gas cloud but were cut down in swathes. Appalling losses were incurred by the 1st Staffords and 2nd Royal Warwicks, losing 70% of their men.
The 2nd Staffords were part of 6th Brigade. Their gas attack faced tremendous problems, owing to the wind. One officer from the Royal Engineers believed it to be too dangerous and risky to release the gas in such poor conditions, but Brigade HQ ordered him to proceed with the gas attack. The gas cloud, as the officer of the RE had possibly expected, incapacitated 130 men of the 2nd Staffords due the dense cloud not advancing on the German trenches. Fighting continued for the rest of the day and into the next. The Stafford battalions were in the thick of it for much of the time, even repelling German counter-attacks, against, at times, heavy odds.
The South Staffordshire Regiment battalions as a whole suffered horrendously during the Battle of Loos, losing 1,174 men. The 6th North Staffordshire Regiment itself suffered 315 dead. British casualties in all were rather high. Approximately 61,000 British casualties were incurred, mainly at the main fighting at Loos and Givenchy . 7,776 of these were killed.