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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and
+Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, by G. K. Rose
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
+
+
+Author: G. K. Rose
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 18, 2007  [eBook #20395]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE 2/4TH OXFORDSHIRE
+AND BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Geetu Melwani, Christine P. Travers, Carl Hudkins, and
+the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(https://www.pgdp.net/c/) from page images generously made available by
+Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/toronto)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 20395-h.htm or 20395-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/3/9/20395/20395-h/20395-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/3/9/20395/20395-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/24thoxfordshire00roseuoft
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE 2/4TH OXFORDSHIRE & BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY
+
+by
+
+CAPTAIN G. K. ROSE, M.C.
+
+With a Preface by _Brig. Genl. the Hon. R. WHITE, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.
+(late Commander 184th Infantry Brigade)
+
+And an Introduction by Colonel W. H. AMES, T.D.
+
+With Maps and Illustrations by the Author
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A soldier of the 2/4th Oxfordshire
+and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry]
+
+
+
+Oxford
+B. H. Blackwell, Broad Street
+MCMXX
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF PLATES
+
+
+A Soldier of the Battalion                      _Frontispiece_
+Colonel W. H. Ames, T.D.                   _Facing page_     1
+Pay-day for 'A' Company                      "       "       4
+Robecq from the South                        "       "      18
+Brigadier-General the Hon. R. White, C.B.                   48
+A Front-line Post                                           68
+Company Sergeant-Major E. Brooks, V.C.                     100
+Vlamertinghe--The Road to Ypres                            128
+Hill 35, from an aeroplane photograph                      136
+A Street in Arras                                          144
+'Tank Dump'                                                146
+In a German gun-pit near Gavrelle                          150
+The Canal du Nord at Ypres                                 154
+Lieut.-Colonel H. E. de R. Wetherall, D.S.O., M.C.         168
+Robecq. Old Mill and Bridge                                185
+The Headquarters Runners, July, 1918                       198
+Corporal A. Wilcox, V.C.                                   214
+Officers of the Battalion, December, 1918                  219
+184th Infantry Brigade Staff                               219
+The Adjutant. Cambrai. The Battalion Cooks                 220
+Lieut.-Colonel E. M. Woulfe-Flanagan, C.M.G., D.S.O.
+   R.S.M. W. Hedley, D.C.M.
+   R.Q.M.S. Hedges                                         220
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
+
+
+Winchester Trench                                           11
+The March to the Somme                                      21
+Somme Trench Map                                            36
+Maison Ponthieu                                             45
+Harbonnières                                                50
+The Ablaincourt Sector                                      57
+A Duckboarded Communication Trench                          72
+The Advance to St. Quentin                                  82
+The Raid near St. Quentin                                   94
+Arras: The Grande Place                                    110
+Noeux Village                                              113
+Poperinghe from the West                                   119
+The Attack of August 22, 1917                              124
+The Attack on Hill 35                                      132
+The Retreat behind the Somme                               166
+Bird's-eye Map of the Robecq Area                          180
+The Nieppe Forest                                          202
+Merville Church                                            206
+Battalion H.Q. at Chapelle Boom                            209
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                          PAGE
+INTRODUCTION                                                 1
+
+Chapter I.     LAVENTIE, May to October, 1916                8
+
+     The 61st Division lands in France.--Instruction.--The
+     Laventie sector.--Trench warfare at its height.--Moberly
+     wounded.--B Company's raid.--Front and back areas.--July
+     19.--Changes in the Battalion.--A Company's raid.--A
+     projected attack.--Laventie days.--Departure for the Somme.
+
+
+Chapter II.    THE SOMME BATTLEFIELD, November, 1916        19
+
+     Departure from Laventie.--At Robecq.--The march southwards.
+    --Rest at Neuvillette.--Contay Wood.--Albert.--New
+     trenches.--Battle conditions.--Relieving the front line.--
+     Desire Trench.--Regina dug-out.--Mud and darkness.--A heavy
+     barrage.--Fortunes of Headquarters.--A painful relief.--
+     Martinsart Wood.
+
+
+Chapter III.   CHRISTMAS ON THE SOMME,
+               December, 1916                               33
+
+     The move from Martinsart to Hedauville.--Back to Martinsart.--
+     Working parties.--Dug-outs at Mouquet Farm.--Field Trench.--
+     Return to the front line.--Getting touch.--Guides.--An
+     historic patrol.--Christmas in the trenches.
+
+
+Chapter IV.    AT MAISON PONTHIEU, January-February, 1917   42
+
+     Visitors to the Battalion.--The New Year.--A wintry march.--
+     Arrival at Maison Ponthieu.--Severe weather.--At war with the
+     cold.--Training for offensive action.--By rail to Marcelçave.
+    --Billets at Rainecourt.--Reconnoitring the French line near
+     Deniécourt.
+
+
+Chapter V.     IN THE ABLAINCOURT SECTOR, February, 1917    53
+
+     German retreat foreshadowed.--The Battalion takes over the
+     Ablaincourt Sector.--Issues in the making.--Lieutenant Fry
+     mortally wounded.--The raid by German storm-troops on February
+     28.--The raid explained.
+
+
+Chapter VI.    LIFE IN THE FRONT LINE, Winter, 1916-1917    67
+
+     Ignorance of civilians and non-combatants.--The front line
+     posts.--Hardships and dangers.--Support platoons.--The
+     Company Officers.--The Battalion relieved by the 182nd Brigade.
+
+
+Chapter VII.   THE ADVANCE TO ST. QUENTIN,
+               March to April, 1917                         77
+
+     The enemy's retirement.--Road-mending in No-Man's-Land.--The
+     devastated area.--Open warfare.--The Montolu campaign.--
+     Operations on the Omignon river.--The 61st Division relieved
+     before St. Quentin.--End of trench-warfare.
+
+
+Chapter VIII.  THE RAID AT FAYET, April, 1917               89
+
+     A German vantage-point.--Shell-ridden Holnon.--A night of
+     confusion.--Preparing for the raid of April 28.--The enemy
+     taken by surprise.--The Battalion's first V.C.--The affair at
+     Cepy Farm.
+
+
+Chapter IX.    ARRAS AND AFTERWARDS,
+               May, June, July, 1917                       103
+
+     Relief by the French at St. Quentin.--A new Commanding Officer.
+    --At the Battle of Arras.--Useful work by A Company.--
+     Harassing fire.--A cave-dwelling.--At Bernaville and Noeux.
+    --In G.H.Q. reserve.--A gas alarm by General Hunter Weston.--
+     The Ypres arena.
+
+
+Chapter X.     THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES, August, 1917     116
+
+     A Battalion landmark.--Poperinghe and Ypres.--At Goldfish
+     Château.--The attack near St. Julien on August 22.--Its
+     results.--A mud-locked battle.--The back-area.--Mustard
+     gas.--Pill-box warfare.
+
+
+Chapter XI. THE ATTACK ON HILL 35, September, 1917         132
+
+     Iberian, Hill 35, and Gallipoli.--The Battalion ordered to make
+     the seventh attempt against Hill 35.--The task.--A and D
+     Companies selected.--The assembly position.--Gassed by our
+     own side.--Waiting for zero.--The attack.--Considerations
+     governing its failure.--The Battalion quits the Ypres
+     battlefield.
+
+
+Chapter XII.   AUTUMN AT ARRAS AND THE MOVE TO CAMBRAI,
+               October, November, December, 1917           142
+
+     The Battalion's return to Arras.--A quiet front.--The
+     Brigadier and his staff.--A novelty in tactics.--B Company's
+     raid.--A sudden move.--The Cambrai front.--Havrincourt
+     Wood.--Christmas at Suzanne.
+
+
+Chapter XIII.  THE GREAT GERMAN ATTACK OF MARCH 21,
+               January-March, 1918                         156
+
+     The French relieved on the St. Quentin front.--The calm before
+     the storm.--A golden age.--The Warwick raid.--The German
+     attack launched.--Defence of Enghien Redoubt.--Counter-attack
+     by the Royal Berks.--Holnon Wood lost.--The battle for the
+     Beauvoir line.--The enemy breaks through.
+
+
+Chapter XIV.   THE BRITISH RETREAT, March, 1918            165
+
+     Rear-guard actions.--The Somme crossings.--Bennett relieved
+     by the 20th Division at Voyennes.--Davenport with mixed troops
+     ordered to counter-attack at Ham.--Davenport killed.--The
+     enemy crosses the Somme.--The stand by the 184th Infantry
+     Brigade at Nesle.--Colonel Wetherall wounded.--Counter-attack
+     against La Motte.--Bennett captured.--The Battalion's
+     sacrifice in the great battle.
+
+
+Chapter XV.    THE BATTLE OF THE LYS, April-May, 1918      173
+
+     Effects of the German offensive.--The Battalion amalgamated
+     with the Bucks.--Entrainment for the Merville area.--A
+     dramatic journey.--The enemy break-through on the Lys.--The
+     The Battalion marches into action.--The defence of Robecq.--
+     Operations of April 12, 13, 14.--The fight for Baquerolle Farm.
+    --A troublesome flank.--Billeted in St. Venant.--The lunatic
+     asylum.--La Pierrière.--The Robecq sector.
+
+
+Chapter XVI.   THE TURNING OF THE TIDE,
+               May, June, July, August, 1918               192
+
+     Rations and the Battalion Transport.--At La Lacque.--The
+     bombing of Aire.--General Mackenzie obliged by his wound to
+     leave the Division.--Return of Colonel Wetherall.--Tripp's
+     Farm on fire.--A mysterious epidemic.--A period of wandering.
+    --The march from Pont Asquin to St. Hilaire.--Nieppe Forest.
+    --Attack by A and B Companies on August 7.--Headquarters
+     gassed.--A new Colonel.--The Battalion goes a-reaping.
+
+
+Chapter XVII.  LAST BATTLES, August to December, 1918      208
+
+     German retreat from the Lys.--Orderly Room and its staff.--
+     The new devastated area.--Itchin Farm, Merville and Neuf
+     Berquin.--Mines and booby-traps.--Advance to the Lys.--
+     Estaires destroyed.--Laventie revisited.--The attack on
+     Junction Post.--Lance-Corporal Wilcox, V.C.--Scavenging at
+     the XI Corps school.--On the Aubers ridge.--The end in sight.
+    --Move to Cambrai.--In action near Bermerain and Maresches.--
+     A fine success.--Domart and Demobilisation.--Work at Etaples.
+    --Off to Egypt.
+
+
+Composition of the Battalion on going Overseas             221
+
+
+     "          "     "        at the Armistice            222
+
+
+Index                                                      223
+
+
+
+
+AUTHOR'S PREFACE
+
+
+My cordial thanks are due to my old Brigadier for his kindness and
+trouble in writing the Preface, and also to Colonel Ames for
+contributing the Introduction.
+
+From many friends in the Regiment I have received information and
+assistance.
+
+This book is based on a series of articles, which appeared in the
+_Oxford Times_ during the summer of 1919. The project, of which this
+volume is the outcome, was assisted by that newspaper and by the
+courtesy of its staff.
+
+                                                        G. K. ROSE.
+Oxford, November 1919.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+My friend, Major G. K. Rose, has set out to describe the doings of the
+2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry during the Great
+War.
+
+If I judge his purpose rightly, he designs to paint without
+exaggeration and without depreciation a picture which shall recall not
+only now, but more especially in the days to come, the wonderful years
+during which we ceased to be individuals pursuing the ordinary
+avocations of life and became indeed a band of brothers, linked
+together in a common cause and inspired, however subconsciously, by
+one common hope and interest. If I am correct in my surmise, then I
+think that Major Rose has written particularly for his comrades of the
+2/4th Oxfords and, in a wider sense, of the 184th Infantry Brigade and
+the 61st Division. And in doing this he seems to me to be performing a
+great service.
+
+Unfettered by the necessity of drawing an attractive picture and of
+appealing to the natural desire of the general reader for dramatic and
+sensational episode, he can rely on his readers to fill in for
+themselves the emotional and psychological aspects of the narrative.
+We, his comrades, have but to turn the pages of his story to live
+again those marvellous days and to feel the hopes and fears, the
+pathos and the fun, the excitement and the weariness, and the hundred
+other emotions which gave to life in the Great War a sense of
+adventure which we can hardly hope to savour again.
+
+It is perhaps right that those who through poor health, age, bad
+luck or other causes, were unable to leave home and take an active
+part in the life of the front line, should generously speak of their
+more fortunate compatriots as 'heroes.' The term is somewhat freely
+used in these days. I am, however, happy to think that the British
+officer and soldier is not apt to consider himself in that light and
+has, indeed, a distinct aversion from being so described. Rather does
+he pride himself, in his quiet way, on his light-hearted and stoical
+indifference to danger and discomfort and his power to see the comical
+and cheery side of even the most appalling incidents in war. Long may
+this be so.
+
+Viewed in this light, Major Rose's book will in after years give a
+true picture of the experiences of an English Territorial Battalion in
+the 'Great Adventure.' Shorn of fictitious glamour, events are
+narrated as they presented themselves to the regimental officers,
+non-commissioned officers, and men who bore the heat and burden of the
+day.
+
+Having said so much, I may be allowed to think that Major Rose is
+almost too reticent and modest as regards the splendid record of his
+Battalion.
+
+After the 'big push' of July, 1916, on the Somme, I had the honour to
+be promoted to the command of the 184th Infantry Brigade, 61st
+Division. In September I found the Brigade occupying a portion of the
+line in front of Laventie, just north of Neuve Chapelle. The 61st
+Division, recently landed from England and before it had had time to
+'feel its feet,' had to be pushed into an attack against the enemy's
+position in front of the Aubers ridge. In this attack it suffered
+severe losses. The Division, naturally, was burning to 'get its own
+back.' Unfortunately it had for some weeks to content itself with
+routine work in the Flanders trenches.
+
+In this connection I may remark that the 61st Division had an unduly
+large share of the 'dirty work' of demonstrations, secondary
+operations, and taking over and holding nasty parts of the line. Those
+who have been through this mill will sympathise, knowing how credit
+was apt to go to those who took part in the first 'big push' rather
+than to the luckless ones who had to relieve attacking divisions and
+take over the so-called trenches which had been won from the enemy.
+Those trenches had to be consolidated under a constant and accurate
+bombardment. However, grumbling was not the order of the day, and
+during the last year of the war the 61st Division came into its own.
+It received in frequent mentions and thanks from the Commander-in-Chief
+and the higher command the just reward for its loyal spade work and
+splendid fighting qualities.
+
+In November, 1916, the 184th Infantry Brigade and the 2/4th Oxford and
+Bucks Light Infantry found themselves, as the narrative shows, on
+classic ground near Mouquet Farm. Here I was first thrown into close
+contact with the Battalion and learned to know and value it. The work
+was, if you like, mere routine, mere holding the line. But what a
+line! Shall we ever forget Regina and Desire trenches, with their
+phenomenal mud and filth; or Rifle Dump and Sixteen Street and Zollern
+Redoubt--and Martinsart Wood and the 'rest' there? Names, names!
+but with what memories!
+
+I am tempted to follow the fortunes of the Battalion through the
+varied scenes of its experience. I should like to talk of happy
+mornings 'round the line' with Colonel or Adjutant, or cheery lunches
+with good comrades in impossibly damp and filthy dug-outs, of midnight
+assemblies before, and early-morning greetings after, successful
+raids, and of how we inspected Boche prisoners, machine-guns and other
+'loot.'
+
+I should like to recall memories of such comrades as Bellamy and
+Wetherall, Cuthbert, Bennett, Davenport, 'Slugs' Brown, Rose, 'Bob'
+Abraham, Regimental Sergeant-Major Douglas, Company Sergeant-Major
+Brooks, V.C., and a host of other friends of all ranks.
+
+I look back with pride on many stirring incidents.
+
+Among these I recall the raid near St. Quentin on April 28, 1917,
+admirably planned and carried out by Captain Rose and his company, and
+resulting in the capture of two machine-guns and prisoners of the 3rd
+Prussian Jaeger regiment, three companies of which were completely
+surprised and outflanked by the dashing Oxford assault. On this
+occasion Company Sergeant-Major Brooks deservedly won the V.C. and
+added lustre to the grand records of his regiment.
+
+Equally gallant was the fine stand made by the Oxfords on August 22
+and 23, 1917, in front of Ypres. Captain Moberly and his brave
+comrades, surrounded by the enemy and completely isolated, stuck
+doggedly for 48 hours to the trench which marked the furthest point
+of the Brigade's objective.
+
+Few battalions of the British Army could boast a finer feat of arms
+than the holding of the Enghien Redoubt by Captain Rowbotham, 2nd
+Lieutenant Cunningham, Regimental Sergeant-Major Douglas and some 150
+men of D Company and Battalion Headquarters. From 10.30 a.m. till 4.30
+p.m. on March 21, 1918, these brave soldiers, enormously outnumbered
+and completely surrounded, stemmed the great tide of the German attack
+and by their devoted self-sacrifice enabled their comrades to withdraw
+in good order. 2nd Lieutenant Cunningham, the sole surviving officer
+for many hours, remained in touch with Brigade Headquarters by buried
+cable until the last moment. Further resistance being hopeless, he
+received my instructions, after a truly magnificent defence, to
+destroy the telephone instruments and cut his way out.
+
+But I must not encroach on the domain of our author, a real front line
+officer, who lived with his men throughout the war under real front
+line conditions.
+
+It fell to my lot for 18 months to have the Battalion amongst those
+under my command. Attacking, resting, raiding, marching, the 2/4th
+Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry not only upheld but
+enhanced the glory of the old 43rd and 52nd Regiments of the Line.
+
+                                            ROBERT WHITE,
+                                                 _Brigadier General._
+
+[Illustration: COLONEL W. H. AMES, T.D.]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+The raising of the Second Line of the Territorial Force became
+necessary when it was decided to send the First Line overseas. The
+Territorial Force was originally intended for home defence, a duty for
+which its pre-war formations soon ceased to be available. The early
+purpose, therefore, of the Second Line was to defend this country.
+
+On September 8, 1914, I was privileged to begin to raise the 2/4th
+Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the Battalion whose
+history is set out in the following pages. I opened Orderly Room in
+Exeter College, Oxford, and enrolled recruits. The first was
+Sergeant-Major T. V. Wood. By the end of the day we had sworn in and
+billeted over 130 men.
+
+The Battalion was created out of untrained elements, but what the
+recruits lacked in experience they made up in keenness. The Secretary
+of the County Association had an excellent list of prospective
+officers, but these had to learn their work from the beginning. We
+were lucky to secure the services of several non-commissioned officers
+with Regular experience; Colour-Sergeants Moore, Williams, Bassett and
+Waldon, and Sergeant Howland worked untiringly, whilst the keenness of
+the officers to qualify themselves to instruct their men was beyond
+praise.
+
+At the end of ten days sufficient recruits had been enrolled to
+allow the formation of eight companies, which exactly reproduced
+those of the First Line, men being allotted to the companies according
+to the locality whence they came. A pleasant feature was the number of
+Culham students, who came from all parts of England to re-enlist in
+their old Corps. Well do I remember my feelings when I sat down to
+post the officers to the companies. It was a sort of 'Blind Hookey,'
+but seemed to pan out all right in the end. Company officers had to
+use the same process in the selection of their non-commissioned
+officers. Of these original appointments all, or nearly all, were
+amply justified--a fact which said much for the good judgment
+displayed.
+
+With the approach of the Oxford Michaelmas Term the Battalion had to
+move out of the colleges (New College, Magdalen, Keble, Exeter,
+Brasenose and Oriel had hitherto kindly provided accommodation) and
+into billets. Training was naturally hurried. As soon as the companies
+could move correctly a series of battalion drills was carried out upon
+Port Meadow. This drill did a great deal to weld the Battalion
+together. The elements of digging were imparted by Colonel Waller
+behind the Headquarters at St. Cross Road, open order was practised on
+Denman's Farm, whilst exercises in the neighbourhood of Elsfield gave
+the officers some instruction in outpost duties and in the principles
+of attack and defence.
+
+The important rudiments of march discipline were soon acquired. Weekly
+route marches took place almost from the first. Few roads within a
+radius of 9 miles from Oxford but saw the Battalion some time or
+other. The Light Infantry step caused discomfort at first, but the
+Battalion soon learned to take a pride in it. The men did some
+remarkable marches. Once they marched from the third milestone at the
+top of Cumnor Hill to the seventh milestone by Tubney Church in 57
+minutes. Just before Christmas, 1914, they marched through Nuneham to
+Culham Station and on to Abingdon, and then back to Oxford through
+Bagley Wood, without a casualty.
+
+At the end of 1914 Second Line Divisions and Brigades were being
+formed, and the 2/4th Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry became a unit of
+the 184th Infantry Brigade under Colonel Ludlow, and of the 61st
+Division under Lord Salisbury. Those officers inspected the Battalion
+at Oxford before it left, at the end of January, 1915, for
+Northampton.
+
+The move from Oxford terminated the first phase in the Battalion's
+history. At Northampton fresh conditions were in store. Smaller
+billets and army rations replaced the former system of billets 'with
+subsistence.' Elementary training was reverted to. The Battalion was
+armed with Japanese rifles, a handy weapon, if somewhat weak in the
+stock, and range work commenced. The seven weeks at Northampton, if
+not exactly relished at the time, greatly helped to pull the Battalion
+together. The period was marked by a visit of General Sir Ian
+Hamilton, who inspected and warmly complimented the men on their
+turn-out.
+
+A minor incident is worthy of record. One Saturday night a surprise
+alarm took place about midnight. The Battalion was young, and the
+alarm was taken very seriously. Even the sick turned out rather than
+be left behind, and marched the prescribed five miles without ill
+effects.
+
+Just before Easter, 1915, the 61st Division moved into Essex in order
+to occupy the area vacated by the 48th. The Battalion's destination
+was Writtle, where the amicable relations already established with the
+inhabitants by Oxfordshire Territorials were continued. Though our
+stay was a short one, we received a hearty welcome, when, on our
+return from Epping, we again marched through the village.
+
+After a fortnight at Writtle, the Battalion moved to Hoddesdon, to
+take part in digging the London defences. We left Writtle 653 strong
+at 8 a.m., and completed the march of 25 miles at 5 p.m., with every
+man in the ranks who started. Three weeks later we were ordered to
+Broomfield, a village east of Writtle and near Chelmsford. There was
+keen competition to take part in the return march from Hoddesdon; 685
+men started on the 29 mile march, which lasted 11 hours; only 3 fell
+out. The band marched the whole way and played the Battalion in on its
+arrival at Broomfield.
+
+[Illustration: PAY-DAY FOR "A" COMPANY.]
+
+In the spring of 1915 it was decided to prepare the Territorial Second
+Line for foreign service. Considerable improvement resulted in the
+issue of training equipment. Boreham range occupied much of our time.
+A musketry course was begun but never finished; indeed, the bad
+condition of the rifles made shooting futile. Six weeks were also
+spent at Epping in useful training, at the conclusion of which we
+returned to Broomfield. The Battalion was billeted over an area about
+six miles long by one wide, until leave was obtained for a camp. For
+nearly three months the men were together under canvas, with the very
+best results. Strenuous training ensued. I am reminded of a little
+incident which occurred during some night digging at Chignal Smealy.
+The object of the practice was to enure the men to work, not only when
+fresh, but when tired. Operations opened with digging with the
+entrenching tool--each man to make cover for himself. By 8 p.m. this
+stage had been reached, so tea and shovels were issued. At 9 p.m.
+serious digging began, the shelters being converted into trenches, and
+this continued till 1.30 a.m. Coffee was then served, and work went on
+till dawn, which provided an opportunity to practise standing-to. A
+rest followed, but after breakfast work was again resumed. About 10
+a.m. an officer found a man sitting down in the trenches and ordered
+him to renew his efforts. The man obeyed the order at once, but was
+heard to remark to his neighbour, 'Well! If six months ago a bloke had
+told me that I was a-going to work the 'ole ruddy night and the 'ole
+ruddy day for one ruddy bob, I'd never 'ave believed him!'
+
+At the end of October, 1915, I consider that the Battalion reached the
+zenith of its efficiency during its home service. It was a great pity
+that the Division could not have been sent abroad then. Instead, each
+battalion was reduced in November to a strength of 17 officers and 600
+men. Individual training recommenced, until specialists of every kind
+flourished and multiplied. At a General's inspection during the
+winter a most varied display took place. Scouts were in every tree, a
+filter party was drawing water from the village pond, cold shoeing was
+being practised at the Transport, cooking classes were busy making
+field ovens, wire entanglements sprang up on every side, nor was it
+possible to turn a corner without encountering some fresh form of
+activity. I fancy the authorities were much impressed on this
+occasion, for nothing was more difficult than to show the men, as they
+normally would be, to an inspecting officer.
+
+In January, 1916, the Battalion, having been recently made up with
+untrained recruits, moved to Parkhouse Camp on Salisbury Plain to
+complete its training with the rest of the Division. We arrived in
+frost and snow and left, three months later, in almost tropical
+heat--remarkable contrasts within so short a period. The Division was
+speedily completed for foreign service; new rifles were issued, with
+which a musketry course was successfully fired, though snow showers
+did not favour high scoring. We were made up to strength with drafts
+from the Liverpool, Welsh, Dorset, Cambridge, and Hertfordshire
+Regiments, were inspected by the King, and embarked as a unit of the
+first Second Line Division to go abroad.
+
+Thus at the end of 18 months' hard work the preparatory stage in the
+Battalion's history was concluded. Its subsequent life is traced in
+the chapters of this volume.
+
+The period of home service is wrapped in pleasant memory. It was not
+always plain sailing, but difficulties were lightened by the
+wonderful spirit that animated all ranks and the pride which all felt
+in the Battalion. I recall especially the work of some who have not
+returned; Davenport, Scott, Stockton, Zeder, and Tiddy among the
+officers, and among the non-commissioned officers and men a host of
+good comrades. Nor do I forget those who came safely through. No
+commanding officer was ever better supported, and my gratitude to them
+all is unending. I think the Battalion was truly animated by the
+spirit of the famous standing order, 'A Light Infantry Regiment being
+expected to approach nearer to perfection than any other, more zeal
+and attention is required from all ranks in it.' Equally truly was it
+said that not by the partial exertions of a few, but by the united and
+steady efforts of all, was the Battalion formed and its discipline
+created and preserved.
+
+                                             W. H. AMES, _Colonel_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+LAVENTIE,
+
+MAY TO OCTOBER, 1916.
+
+The 61st Division lands in France.--Instruction.--The Laventie
+sector.--Trench warfare at its height.--Moberly wounded.--B
+Company's raid.--Front and back areas.--July 19th.--Changes in
+the Battalion.--A Company's raid.--A projected attack.--Laventie
+days.--Departure for the Somme.
+
+
+On May 24, 1916, the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light
+Infantry landed in France. Members of the Battalion within a day or
+two were addressing their first field postcards to England. Active
+service, of which the prospect had swung, now close, now far, for 18
+months, had begun.
+
+The 61st Division, to which the Battalion belonged, concentrated in
+the Merville area. The usual period of 'instruction' followed. The
+2/4th Oxfords went to the Fauquissart sector, east of Laventie. Soon
+the 61st relieved the Welsh Division, to which it had been temporarily
+apprenticed, and settled down to hold the line.
+
+It was not long before the Battalion received what is usually termed
+its 'baptism of fire.' Things were waking up along the front in
+anticipation of the Franco-British attack on the Somme. Raids took
+place frequently. Fighting patrols scoured No-Man's-Land each night.
+In many places at once the enemy's wire was bombarded to shreds. By
+the end of June an intense feeling of expectancy had developed;
+activity on both sides reached the highest pitch. The Battalion was
+not slow in playing its part. One of the early casualties was
+Lieutenant Moberly, who performed a daring daylight reconnaissance up
+to the German wire. He was wounded and with great difficulty and only
+through remarkable pluck regained our lines.
+
+That same night the Battalion did its first raid, by B Company under
+Hugh Davenport. The raid was ordered at short notice and was a partial
+success. If the tangible results were few, B Company was very properly
+thanked for its bravery on this enterprise, which had to be carried
+out against uncut wire and unsubdued machine-guns. Zeder, a lieutenant
+with a South African D.C.M., was mortally wounded on the German wire
+and taken prisoner. The casualties were numerous. Davenport himself
+was wounded, but unselfishly refused treatment until his men had been
+fetched in. It was a night of battle and excitement. To the most
+hardened troops a barrage directed against crowded breastworks was
+never pleasant. The Battalion bore itself well and earned recital,
+albeit with some misdescription, in the English press a few days
+later.
+
+During July 1916 the Battalion was in and out of the breastworks
+between Fauquissart and Neuve Chapelle. When the 184th Infantry
+Brigade went back to rest the Battalion had billets on the outskirts
+of Merville, a friendly little town, since levelled in ruins; and,
+when reserve to the Brigade, in Laventie. Brigade Headquarters were at
+the latter and also the quartermasters' stores and transport of
+battalions in the line.
+
+Some favourite spots were the defensive 'posts,' placed a mile behind
+the front line and known as Tilleloy, Winchester, Dead End, Picantin.
+Reserve companies garrisoned these posts. No arduous duties spoilt the
+days; night work consisted chiefly in pushing trolley-loads of rations
+to the front line. Of these posts the best remembered would be
+Winchester, where existed a board bearing the names of Wykhamists,
+whom chance had led that way. Battalion Headquarters were there for a
+long time and were comfortable enough with many 'elephant' dug-outs
+and half a farmhouse for a mess--the latter ludicrously decorated by
+some predecessors with cuttings from _La Vie Parisienne_ and other
+picture papers.
+
+[Illustration: WINCHESTER TRENCH.]
+
+Though conditions were never quiet in the front line, during the
+summer of 1916 back area shelling was infrequent. Shells fell near
+Laventie cross-roads on most days and, when a 12 inch howitzer
+established itself behind the village, the Germans retaliated upon it
+with 5.9s, but otherwise shops and estaminets flourished with national
+nonchalance. The railway, which ran from La Gorgue to Armentières, was
+used by night as far as Bac St. Maur--an instance of unenterprise
+on the part of German gunners. Despite official repudiation, on our
+side the principle of 'live and let live' was still applied to back
+areas. Trench warfare, which in the words of a 1915 pamphlet 'could
+and must cease' had managed to survive that pamphlet and the abortive
+strategy of the battle of Loos. Until trench warfare ended divisional
+headquarters were not shelled.
+
+Meanwhile the comparative deadlock in the Somme fighting rendered
+necessary vigorous measures against the enemy elsewhere on the front.
+A gas attack from the Fauquissart sector was planned but never carried
+out. Trench mortars and rifle grenades were continuously employed to
+make life as unpleasant as possible for the enemy, whose trenches soon
+became, to all appearances, a rubbish heap. All day and much of the
+night the 'mediums' fell in and about the German trenches and, it must
+be confessed, occasionally in our own as well. Whilst endeavouring to
+annihilate the Wick salient or some such target, one of our heaviest
+of heavy trench mortars dropped short (perhaps that is too much of a
+compliment to the particular shot) in our trenches near a company
+headquarters and almost upon a new concrete refuge, which the R.E. had
+just completed and not yet shown to the Brigadier. Though sometimes
+supplied, the co-operation of this arm was never asked for.
+
+This harassing warfare had a crisis in July. The operations of July
+19, which were shared with the 61st Division by the 5th Australian
+holding trenches further north, were designed as a demonstration to
+assist our attack upon the Somme and to hold opposite to the XI
+Corps certain German reserves, which, it was feared, would entrain
+at Lille and be sent south. That object was achieved, but at the cost
+of severe casualties to the divisions engaged, which were launched in
+daylight after artillery preparation, which results proved to have
+been inadequate, against a trench-system strongly manned and
+garrisoned by very numerous machine-guns. The objectives assigned to
+the 61st Division were not captured, while the Australians further
+north, after entering the German trenches and taking prisoners, though
+they held on tenaciously under heavy counter-attacks, were eventually
+forced to withdraw. 'The staff work,' said the farewell message from
+the XI Corps to the 61st Division three months later, 'for these
+operations was excellent.' Men and officers alike did their utmost to
+make the attack of July 19 a success, and it behoves all to remember
+the sacrifice of those who fell with appropriate gratitude. It was
+probably the last occasion on which large parties of storming infantry
+were sent forward through 'sally ports.' The Battalion was in reserve
+for the attack. C Company, which formed a carrying party during the
+fighting, lost rather heavily, but the rest of the Battalion, though
+moved hither and thither under heavy shelling, suffered few
+casualties. When the battle was over, companies relieved part of the
+line and held the trenches until normal conditions returned.
+
+Soon after these events the Battalion was unlucky to be deprived of
+Colonel Ames, a leader whose energy and common sense could ill be
+spared. This was the first change which the Battalion had in its
+Commanding Officer, and it was much regretted. A change in Adjutant
+had occurred likewise, Major D. M. Rose having been invalided to
+England early in July and his place taken by R. F. Cuthbert, formerly
+commander of D Company. Orderly Room work passed from safe hands into
+hands equally safe. Soon afterwards I joined the Battalion, having
+been transferred from the 1/4th, and received command of D Company.
+The new Commanding Officer, Major R. Bellamy, D.S.O., came from the
+Royal Sussex Regiment and assumed command early in August. Robinson,
+an officer from the Middlesex and one of the best the Battalion ever
+had, Callender and Barton also joined about this time. Brucker, of C
+Company, became Adjutant of the 61st Divisional School, and command of
+his company passed to Kenneth Brown, a great fighter and best of
+comrades, the first member of this Battalion to win the Military
+Cross. Major Beaman was still Second in Command. Two original officers
+of the 2/4th, Jack Bennett and Hugh Davenport, commanded A and B
+Companies respectively. W. A. Hobbs, well known as Mayor of Henley,
+was Quartermaster, and 'Bob' Abraham the Transport Officer. Regimental
+Sergeant-Major Douglas and Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant Hedges
+were the senior warrant officers.
+
+Higher up a new Brigadier in the person of General Dugan arrived and
+held command for a short while. The General, I regret to say, did not
+stay long enough for the full benefit of his experience and
+geniality to accrue, a fragment of a Stokes' mortar shell wounding him
+at a demonstration near Merville and causing his retirement to
+hospital. The new Brigadier, the Hon. R. White, C.M.G., joined us at
+the beginning of September, 1916, from action on the Somme, and soon
+made his cheery criticisms felt.
+
+After the operations of July 19 the former methods of trench warfare
+were resumed. The Division's casualties in the attack had been over
+2,000, and time was required to reorganise and make up these losses.
+
+Early in August an unlucky shell deprived the Battalion of one of its
+best officers. Lieutenant Tiddy had joined the Infantry in a spirit of
+duty and self-sacrifice, which his service as an officer had proved
+but to which his death more amply testified. The regrets of friends
+and comrades measured the Battalion's loss.
+
+At 10 p.m. on August 19 a raid upon the German trenches near the
+'Sugar Loaf' was carried out by A Company. The raid was part of an
+elaborate scheme in which the Australians upon the left and the 2/5th
+Gloucesters on our own front co-operated. The leading bombing party,
+which Bennett sent forward under Sergeant Hinton, quickly succeeded in
+reaching the German parapet and was doing well, when a Mills bomb,
+dropped or inaccurately thrown, fell amongst the men. The plan was
+spoilt. A miniature panic ensued, which Bennett and his Sergeant-Major
+found it difficult to check. As in many raids, a message to retire was
+passed. The wounded were safely brought in by Bennett, whose control
+and leadership were worthy of a luckier enterprise.[1]
+
+                   [Footnote 1: A failure of this kind was far less
+                   due to any indetermination of the men than to the
+                   complex nature of the scheme, which any
+                   misadventure was capable of upsetting. On this
+                   occasion the 'order to retire' was said to have
+                   been of German manufacture, but such explanation
+                   deserved a grain of salt. Owing to the danger of
+                   its unauthorised use, the word 'retire' was
+                   prohibited by Army orders.]
+
+The Battalion was not called upon for much fighting activity in
+September, 1916. Raids and rumours of raids kept many of us busy. An
+attack by the 184th Brigade upon the Wick salient was planned, but
+somewhat too openly discussed and practised to deceive, I fancy, even
+the participating infantry into the belief that it was really to take
+place. Upon the demolished German trenches many raids were made. In
+the course of these raids, the honour of which was generously shared
+between all battalions in the Brigade, sometimes by means of the
+Bangalore Torpedo, sometimes by the easier and more subtle method of
+just walking into them, the enemy's front line was usually entered;
+and rarely did a raiding party return without the capture of at least
+an old bomb, an entrenching tool or even a live German. These
+'identification' raids possibly did as much to identify ourselves to
+the enemy as to identify him to us, but they proved useful occasions
+on which to send parties 'over the top' (always an enjoyable treat!)
+and gave practice to our trench mortars, which fired remarkably well
+and drew down little retaliation--always the bug-bear of the trench
+mortar.
+
+The mention of these things may make dull reading to the _blasé_
+warrior of later battlefields, but, as there are some whose last
+experience abroad was during Laventie days and who may read these
+lines, I feel bound to recall our old friend (or enemy) the trench
+mortar, the rent-free (but not rat-free) dug-out among the sandbags,
+the smelly cookhouses, whose improvident fires were the scandal of
+many a red-hatted visitor to the trenches, the mines, with their
+population of Colonial miners doing mysterious work in their basements
+of clay and flinging up a welter of slimy blue sandbags--all these
+deserve mention, if no more, lest they be too soon forgotten.
+
+Days, too, in Riez Bailleul, Estaires and Merville will be remembered,
+days rendered vaguely precious by the subsequent destruction of those
+villages and by lost comrades. Those of the Battalion who fell in 1916
+were mostly buried in Laventie and outside Merville. Though both were
+being fought over in 1918 and many shells fell among the graves, the
+crosses were not much damaged; inscriptions, if nearly obliterated,
+were then renewed when, by the opportunity of chance, the Battalion
+found itself once more crossing the familiar area, before it helped to
+establish a line upon the redoubtable Aubers ridge, to gain which so
+many lives at the old 1915 battles of Neuve Chapelle and Festubert had
+been expended.
+
+It was a fine autumn. The French civilians were getting in their crops
+within a mile or two of the trenches, while we did a series of tours
+in the Moated Grange sector, with rest billets at the little village
+of Riez Bailleul.
+
+And then box respirators were issued.
+
+Laventie days are remembered with affection by old members of the
+Battalion. In October, 1916, however, there were some not sorry to
+quit an area, which in winter became one of the wettest and most
+dismal in France. The Somme battle, which for three months had rumbled
+in the distance like a huge thunderstorm, was a magnet to attract all
+divisions in turn. The predictions of the French billet-keepers were
+realised at the end of October, when the 2/4th Oxfords were relieved
+in the trenches by a battalion of the Middlesex Regiment and prepared
+to march southwards to the Somme.
+
+[Illustration: ROBECQ FROM THE SOUTH.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE SOMME BATTLEFIELD,
+
+NOVEMBER, 1916.
+
+Departure from Laventie.--At Robecq.--The march southwards.--
+Rest at Neuvillette.--Contay Wood.--Albert.--New trenches.--
+Battle conditions.--Relieving the front line.--Desire Trench.--
+Regina dug-out.--Mud and darkness.--A heavy barrage.--Fortunes
+of Headquarters.--A painful relief.--Martinsart Wood.
+
+
+At the end of October, 1916, the 61st Division left the XI Corps and
+commenced its march southwards to join the British forces on the
+Somme. We were among the last battalions to quit the old sector. Our
+relief was completed during quite a sharp outburst of shelling and
+trench-mortaring by the enemy, whose observers had doubtless spotted
+the troops moving up to take over.
+
+After one night in the old billets at Riez Bailleul the Battalion
+marched on October 29 to Robecq, where the rest of the Brigade had
+already assembled, and took up its quarters in farms and houses along
+the Robecq-Calonne road. Battalion Headquarters were established at a
+large farmstead subsequently known as Gloucester Farm, while to reach
+the billets allotted to them the companies marched through the farmyard
+and across the two small bridges, since so familiar to some, which
+spanned the streams Noc and Clarence. My company was furthest south
+and almost in Robecq itself; my headquarters were in a comfortable
+house with an artesian well bubbling up in its front garden. When
+fighting was taking place at Robecq in April, 1918, and I found
+myself, under very different circumstances, in command of the
+Battalion, knowledge of the ground obtained eighteen months before,
+even to the position of garden gates and the width of ditches, proved
+most useful. I am afraid the Battalion's old billets were soon knocked
+down, the favourite estaminet in D Company area being among the first
+houses to go.
+
+On November 2, 1916, the Battalion left Robecq, where it had been
+well-housed and happy for a week, for Auchel, a populous village in
+the mining district, and marched the next day to Magnicourt en Comté,
+an especially dirty village, and thence again through Tinques and
+Etrée-Wamin to Neuvillette. The civilians in some of the villages
+passed were not friendly, the billets crowded and often not yet
+allotted when the Battalion arrived, having covered its 14 kilometres
+with full pack and perhaps through rain. Nobody grumbled, for the
+conditions experienced were normal, but this march with its daily
+moves involved toil and much footsoreness on the part of the men, and
+for the officers much hard work after the men were in, and many
+wakings-up in the night to receive belated orders for the morrow.
+
+[Illustration: THE MARCH TO THE SOMME]
+
+After reaching Neuvillette, a pretty village four miles north by west
+of Doullens, a ten days' rest was made. Boots had become very worn
+in consequence of the march, and great efforts were now made by Hobbs
+to procure mending leather; unfortunately the motor car seemed to have
+forgotten its poor relation, the boot, and no leather was forthcoming.
+During the stay at Neuvillette a demonstration in improvised pack
+saddlery was arranged at Battalion Headquarters, the latest and most
+disputed methods of wiring and trench-digging were rehearsed, and two
+really valuable Brigade field days took place. More than a year
+afterwards the Battalion was again billeted at Neuvillette, whose
+inhabitants remembered and warmly welcomed the Red Circle.
+
+On November 16 we marched away to Bonneville and the next day reached
+Contay, where we climbed up to some unfloored huts in a wood. The
+weather on this march had been bitterly cold, but fine and sunny. A
+dusky screen of clouds drifted up from the west the evening of our
+arrival and the same night snow fell heavily. The cookers were not
+near the huts and neither stores nor proper fuel existed. There was
+the usual scramble for the few braziers our generous predecessors had
+left behind. With snow and wind the Battalion tasted its first
+hardship.
+
+As in all such situations, things soon took a cheerful turn. When the
+General came up next morning, the camp was reeking with smoke from
+braziers and the smell of cookers and the wood alive with sounds of
+woodchopping and cries of foragers. This change from a bad look-out to
+a vigorous optimism and will to make the best of things was
+characteristic of the British 'Tommy', who, exhausted and 'fed-up' at
+night, was heard singing and wood chopping the next morning, as if
+wherever he was were the best place in the world. I shall always
+remember Contay Woods, the huts with their floors of hard mud
+reinforced by harder tree-stumps, and the slimy path down to parade
+when we left.
+
+On November 19 we reached Albert, whose familiar church needs no
+description. What struck me principally on arrival was the battered
+sordidness of the place and the filthy state of the roads, on which
+the mud was well up to the ankles. Some civilians were living in the
+town and doing a brisk trade in souvenir postcards of the overhanging
+Virgin. Traffic, as always through a main artery supplying the
+prevalent battlefield, was positively continuous. The first rain of
+autumn had already fallen and men, horses and vehicles all bore mud
+stains significant of winters approach. Our arrival--we went into
+empty, rather shell-damaged houses near the station--coincided with
+the later stages of the Beaumont Hamel offensive, and German prisoners
+and, of course, British casualties were passing through the town.
+
+At Albert, Bennett was taken from A Company to act as Second in
+Command of the Berks. Brown assumed command of his company and
+Robinson about this time of C Company, Brucker having returned to the
+61st Divisional School, which was set up at St. Riquier. Just now much
+sickness occurred among the officers, John Stockton, Moorat and
+several others being obliged to go away by attacks of trench fever.
+From Albert C and D Companies moved forward to some Nissen huts near
+Ovillers to be employed on working parties. For the same duties A and
+B Companies soon afterwards were sent to Mouquet Farm, while Battalion
+Headquarters went to Fabick Trench.
+
+After some rain had fallen, fine autumn weather returned and our guns
+and aeroplanes were shewing the activity typical of the late stages of
+a great battle, when future movements were uncertain. A string of 30
+balloons stretching across the sky in a wide circumference (whose
+centre, as in all 'pushes,' would have been somewhere behind our old
+front) industriously watched the enemy's back area. There was probably
+little comfort for the Germans west of Bapaume, or even in it, for our
+reluctance to shell towns, villages and (formerly most privileged of
+targets) churches was rapidly diminishing.
+
+On November 21 the Brigade took over its new sector of the line and
+with it a somewhat different régime to what it had known before. It
+was heard said of the 61st Division that it stayed too long in quiet
+trenches (to be sure, trenches were only really 'quiet' to those who
+could afford to visit them at quiet periods). Still the Somme
+'craterfield' presented a complete contrast to the old breastworks
+with their familiar landmarks and daylight reliefs. Battle conditions
+remained though the advance had stopped. Our recent capture of
+Beaumont-Hamel and St. Pierre Divion left local situations, which
+required clearing up. The fragments of newly-won trenches above
+Grandcourt, trenches without wire and facing a No-Man's-Land of
+indeterminate extent, gave their occupants their first genuine
+tactical problems and altogether more responsibility than before. In
+some respects the Germans were quicker than ourselves to adapt
+themselves to conditions approximating to open warfare. The principle
+of an outpost line and the system of holding our front in depth had
+been pronounced often as maxims on paper, but had resulted rarely in
+practice. Subordinate staffs, on whom the blame for local reverses was
+apt to fall rather heavily, were perhaps reluctant to jeopardise the
+actual front line by holding it too thinly, while from the nature of
+the case, the front line was something far more sacred to us than to
+the enemy. Since the commencement of trench warfare the Germans had
+held their line on the 'depth' principle, keeping only a minimum of
+troops, tritely referred to as 'caretakers,' in their front trench of
+all, while we for long afterwards crammed entire companies, with their
+headquarters, into the most forward positions.
+
+On the evening of November 25, 1916, Robinson of C Company and myself,
+taking Hunt and Timms (my runner) and one signaller, left for the
+front line. This was being held along Desire--my fondness for this
+trench never warranted that name--with a line of resistance in Regina,
+a very famous German trench, for which there had recently been heavy
+fighting. Our reconnaissance, which was completed at dawn, was lucky
+and satisfactory; moreover--I do not refer to any lack of refreshment
+by the Berks company commander--I was still dry at its conclusion,
+having declined all the communication trenches, which were already
+threatening to become impassable owing to mud.
+
+The next night the Battalion moved up to relieve the Berks, but was
+conducted, or conducted itself, along the very communication trench
+which I had studiously avoided using and which was in a shocking
+state from water and mud. As the result of the journey, D Company
+reached the front line practically wet-through to a man, and in a very
+exhausted condition. A proportion of their impedimenta had become
+future salvage on the way up, while several men and, I fancy, some
+officers, had compromised themselves for some hours with the mud,
+which exacted their gumboots as the price of their future progress. I
+regret that my own faithful servant, Longford, was as exhausted as
+anybody and suffered a nasty fall at the very gates of paradise (an
+hyperbole I use to justify the end of such a mud-journey), namely
+Company Headquarters in Regina, where, like a sort of host, I had been
+waiting long.
+
+Desire Trench, the name by which the front line was known, was a
+shallow disconnected trough upholstered in mud and possessing four or
+five unfinished dug-out shafts. These shafts, as was natural, faced
+the wrong way, but provided all the front line shelter in this sector.
+At one end, its left, the trench ran into chalk (as well as some chalk
+and plenty of mud into _it_!) and its flank disappeared, by a military
+conjuring trick, into the air. About 600 yards away the Germans were
+supposed to be consolidating, which meant that they were feverishly
+scraping, digging and fitting timbers in their next lot of dug-outs.
+To get below earth was their first consideration.
+
+Regina dug-out deserves a paragraph to itself. This unsavoury
+residence housed two platoons of D Company, Company Headquarters, and
+Stobie, our doctor, with the Regimental Aid Post. In construction
+the dug-out, which indeed was typical of many, was a corridor with
+wings opening off, about 40 feet deep and some 30 yards long, with 4
+entrances, on each of which stood double sentries day and night.
+Garbage and all the putrefying matter which had accumulated underfoot
+during German occupation and which it did not repay to disturb for
+fear of a worse thing, rendered vile the atmosphere within. Old German
+socks and shirts, used and half-used beer bottles, sacks of sprouting
+and rotting onions, vied with mud to cover the floor. A suspicion of
+other remains was not absent. The four shafts provided a species of
+ventilation, reminiscent of that encountered in London Tubes, but
+perpetual smoking, the fumes from the paraffin lamps that did duty for
+insufficient candles, and our mere breathing more than counterbalanced
+even the draughts and combined impressions, fit background for
+post-war nightmares, that time will hardly efface. Regina Trench
+itself, being on a forward slope and exposed to full view from Loupart
+Wood, was shelled almost continuously by day and also frequently at
+night. 'Out and away,' 'In and down' became mottoes for runners and
+all who inhabited the dug-out or were obliged to make repeated visits
+to it. Below, one was immune under 40 feet of chalk, and except when
+an entrance was hit the 5.9s rained down harmlessly and without
+comment.
+
+During the day I occasionally ploughed my way along Regina Trench to
+some unshelled vantage point to watch the British shells falling on
+the yet grassy slopes above Miraumont and south of Puisieux.
+Baillescourt Farm was a very common target. At this time Miraumont
+village was comparatively intact and its church, until thrown down by
+our guns, a conspicuous object. Grandcourt lay hidden in the hollow.
+
+Such landscape belonged to the days; real business, when one's orbit
+was confined to a few hundred yards of cratered surface, claimed the
+nights. A peculiar degree of darkness characterised these closing days
+of November, and with rain and mud put an end to active operations.
+Wiring, the chief labour of which was carrying the coils up to the
+front and afterwards settling the report to Brigade, occupied the
+energies of the Battalion after rations had been carried up. In this
+last respect much foresight and experience were required and
+arrangements were less good than they soon afterwards became; food
+that was intended to arrive hot arrived cold, and, having once been
+hot, received precedence over things originally cold but ultimately
+more essential. Hot-food containers proved too unwieldy for the
+forward area.[2]
+
+                   [Footnote 2: In making these remarks I want it
+                   understood that I am intending at this point no
+                   censure of our staff, whose difficulties in their
+                   way were even greater than those of the Infantry,
+                   nor am I working up to any impeachment of my
+                   superiors in narrating those facts, the omission of
+                   which would ruin the value of this story.]
+
+Although quite a normal circumstance in itself, the extreme darkness
+at this period was a real obstacle to patrols and to all whose ability
+to find the way was their passport. Amid these difficulties there
+was an element of humour. To make one false turn, or to turn without
+noticing the fact, by night threw the best map-reader or scout off his
+path and bewildered his calculations. One night about this time a
+party of us, including Hunt and 'Doctor' Rockall, the medical
+corporal, who had accompanied me round the front posts, lost its way
+hopelessly in the dark. Shapes looming up in the distance, I enquired
+of Hunt as to his readiness for hostile encounter, whereupon the
+reassuring answer was given that 'his revolver was loaded, but not
+cocked.' I leave the point (if any) of this story to the mercy of
+those whose fate it has been to lose their way on a foggy night among
+shell-holes, broken-down wire and traps of all descriptions. Temporary
+bewilderment of the calculation destroyed reliance on any putative
+guides such as 'Verey' lights, shells, rifle fire, &c., which on these
+occasions appeared to come from all directions, and English and German
+seemed all alike.
+
+Hunt, who at this time, being my only officer not partially sick, has
+called for somewhat repeated reference, usually devoted the hours
+after midnight to taking a patrol to locate a track shown on the map
+and called Stump Road, his object being to meet another patrol from a
+neighbouring unit. Success did not crown the work. Stump Road remained
+undiscovered and passed into the apocrypha of trench warfare.
+
+At 5 p.m. on November 29, 1916, the Germans opened a heavy barrage
+with howitzers on the front line, giving every indication of impending
+attack. Regina Trench, where were the headquarters of C and D, the
+companies then holding the line, was also heavily shelled, and
+telephonic communication with the rear was soon cut. On such occasions
+it was always difficult to decide whether or not to send up the
+S.O.S--on the one hand unnecessary appeal to our artillery to fire on
+S.O.S. lines was deprecated, on the other, no forward commander could
+afford to guess that a mere demonstration was on foot; for the
+appearance of attacking infantry followed immediately on a lifting of
+the barrage, a symptom in itself often difficult to recognise. On this
+occasion I intended and attempted to send up a coloured rocket, but
+its stick became stuck between the sides of the dug-out shaft and, by
+the time the efforts of Sergeant Collett had prepared the rocket for
+firing, the barrage died down as suddenly as it had started. This very
+commonplace episode illustrates the routine of this phase of warfare.
+The trenches were, of course, blown in and some Lewis guns damaged,
+but, as frequently, few casualties occurred.
+
+While speaking of the life furthest forward I do not forget the very
+similar conditions, allowing for the absence of enemy machine-guns and
+snipers, which prevailed at Battalion Headquarters. Confined to a
+dug-out (a smaller replica of Regina) in Hessian Trench, with a
+continual stream of reports to receive and instructions to send out,
+and being continually rung up on the telephone, Colonel Bellamy and
+Cuthbert had their hands full, and opportunities for rest, if not for
+refreshment, were very limited. Nor do I omit our runners from the
+fullest share in the dangers and activities of this time.
+
+Under battle-conditions life at one remove from the front line was
+rarely much more agreeable than in the line itself, and was less
+provided with those compensations which existed for the Infantryman
+near the enemy. It was necessary to go back to Divisional Headquarters
+to find any substantial difference or to live an ordered life on a
+civilised footing; and there, too, responsibility had increased by an
+even ratio.
+
+The Battalion Transport during this time was stationed at Martinsart
+and its task, along bad roads, in bringing up rations each day was not
+a light one.
+
+On the night of November 30 the Battalion was relieved by the 2/4th
+Gloucesters and marched back to huts in Martinsart Wood. This march of
+eight miles, coming after a four days' tour in wet trenches under
+conditions of open warfare, proved a trying experience. For four miles
+the path lay along a single duckboard track, capsized or slanting in
+many places, and the newly-made Nab Road, to which it led, was hardly
+better. A number of men fell from exhaustion, while others, their
+boots having worn completely through before entering the trenches,
+were in no state to compete with such a distance. After passing
+Wellington Huts and through Aveluy the going became easier, until at
+last the area of our big guns was reached and, adjoining it, the 'rest
+billets.' The latter consisted of unfloored huts built of tarred felt
+and surrounded by mud only less bad than in the trenches. Our lights
+and noise scared the rats, which infested the camp.
+
+The relief and march occupied until 4 a.m., and were succeeded by mist
+and frost. The concussion of our neighbours, the 6-inch naval guns,
+echoed among the trees, heralding the first of December, 1916.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+CHRISTMAS ON THE SOMME,
+
+DECEMBER, 1916.
+
+The move from Martinsart to Hedauville.--Back to Martinsart.--
+Working parties.--Dug-outs at Mouquet Farm.--Field Trench.--
+Return to the front line.--Getting touch.--Guides.--An historic
+patrol.--Christmas in the trenches.
+
+
+On December 2, 1916, the Battalion moved from Martinsart to
+Hedauville, on its way passing through Englebelmer, the home of one of
+our 15-inch howitzers, but no longer of its civilian inhabitants. The
+march was regulated by Pym, the new Brigade Major, who had replaced
+Gepp a few days before. The latter had proved himself a most efficient
+staff officer, and his departure to take up a higher appointment was
+regretted by everybody.
+
+Hedauville was an indifferent village, but our billets were not bad.
+Brigade Headquarters were at the château. One heard much about the
+habitual occupation of the French châteaux by our staffs during the
+war. On this particular occasion the Brigade had only two or three
+rooms at its disposal, and on many others would be licencees of only a
+small portion of such buildings. The 184th Infantry Brigade Staff was
+always most solicitous about the comfort of battalions, and its
+efforts secured deserved appreciation from all ranks. During the
+winter Harling retired from the office of Staff Captain, and after a
+brief interregnum Bicknell, a Gloucester officer, who already had been
+attached to the Brigade for some time, received the appointment. For
+the ensuing three years Bicknell proved himself both an excellent
+staff officer and a consistent friend to the Infantry.
+
+After scraping off the remains of the mud it had carried from the
+trenches, the Battalion settled down at Hedauville to a normal
+programme for ten days. The weather was bad, and a good deal of
+sickness now occurred among the troops, until so many officers were
+sick that leave for the others was stopped. Of general interest little
+occurred to mark this first fortnight of December. At its close the
+Battalion marched back to Martinsart and reoccupied its former huts.
+Battalion and Brigade were now in support, and our energies were daily
+devoted to working parties in the forward area. As these were some of
+the most arduous ever experienced by the Battalion I will describe an
+example.
+
+I take December 16--a Saturday. My company was warned for working
+party last night, so at 6 a.m. we get up, dress, and, after a hurried
+breakfast, parade in semi-darkness. As the outing is not a popular one
+and reduction in numbers is resented by the R.E., the roll is called
+by Sergeant-Major Brooks (recently back from leave and in the best of
+early morning tempers) amid much coughing and scuffling about in the
+ranks. At 7 a.m. we start our journey towards the scene of labour,
+some 80 strong (passing for 100). We go first along a broad-gauge
+railway line (forbidden to be used for foot traffic) and afterwards
+through Aveluy and past Crucifix Corner to near Mouquet Farm.
+
+After a trivial delay of perhaps 40 minutes, the D.C.L.I. or 479 have
+observed our arrival and tools are counted out and issued, the homely
+pick and shovel. The task is pleasantly situated about 150 yards in
+front of several batteries of our field guns (which open fire directly
+we are in position) and consists in relaxing duckboards, excavating
+the submerged sleepers of a light railway or digging the trench for a
+buried cable.
+
+Perhaps the work only requires 50, not 100 (nor even 80) men. Very
+well! It is a pity those others came, but here are a thousand sandbags
+to fill, and there a pile of logs dumped in the wrong place last
+night, so let them get on with it!
+
+For six hours we remain steadily winning the war in this manner and
+mildly wondering at the sense of things and whether the Germans will
+shell the batteries just behind our work--until, without hooter or
+whistle, the time to break off has arrived. By 3 p.m. the party is
+threading its way back, and as darkness falls once more reaches the
+camp. Cries of 'Dinner up' and 'Tea up' resound through the huts, and
+all is eating and shouting.
+
+By December 20 it was once more the Brigade's turn to relieve the
+front line. Berks and Gloucesters again took first innings in the
+trenches, while the Bucks and ourselves stayed in support. Battalion
+Headquarters with A and B Companies were in Wellington Huts, near
+Ovillers; C and D went two miles further forward to some scattered
+dug-outs between Thiepval and Mouquet Farm. My own headquarters were
+at the farm, to whose site a ruined cellar and a crumbling heap of
+bricks served to testify. The Germans had left a system of elaborate
+dug-outs, some of which now housed Brigade Headquarters, but others,
+owing to shelling and rain, had collapsed or were flooded. On each of
+the four nights spent at Mouquet Farm my company supplied parties to
+carry wire and stakes up to the front line. These journeys were made
+through heavy shelling, and we were always thankful to return safely.
+My policy was never to allow the pace to become that of the slowest
+man, for there was no limit to such slowness. I myself set a pace,
+which I knew to be reasonable, and men who straggled interviewed me
+next day. By this policy the evening's work was completed in
+two-thirds of the time it would otherwise have taken, and my disregard
+of proverbial maxims probably saved the Battalion many casualties.
+
+[Illustration: SKETCH MAP to show Trenches held by 2/4th Oxf. & Bucks.
+in Nov and Dec 1916]
+
+Since our last tour in the line real winter conditions had set in.
+Shell-holes and trenches everywhere filled with water till choice of
+movement was confined to a few duckboard tracks. Those in our area led
+past Tullock's Corner and from the Gravel Pit to Mouquet Farm, and
+thence to the head of Field Trench, with a branch sideways to Zollern
+Redoubt. Field Trench, an old German switch, led over the Pozières
+ridge, whose crest was well 'taped' by the German guns. The British
+advance having reached a standstill, the enemy's artillery was now
+firing from more forward positions and paid much attention to places
+like Mouquet Farm, Tullock's Corner, Zollern Redoubt and Field Trench.
+Parties of D.C.L.I. were daily at work upon the latter, duckboarding
+and revetting, and completed a fine pioneers' job right up to Hessian.
+Field Trench ranked among the best performances of the Cornwalls,
+whose work altogether at this time deserved high praise.
+
+On Christmas eve, 1916, the Battalion relieved the front line. Brown
+and Davenport took their companies to Desire and Regina. Battalion
+Headquarters had an improved position at Zollern Redoubt, and their
+old dug-out in Hessian was left to D Company Headquarters. Robinson
+with C Company was also in Hessian, to the left of D. His headquarters
+possessed plenty of depth but neither height nor breadth. The dug-out
+entrance was the size of a large letter-box and nearly level with the
+trench floor.
+
+After the march up, the remainder of the night was devoted to the
+trying process of 'getting touch.' This meant finding the neighbouring
+sentry-posts on each flank--an important duty, for the Germans usually
+knew the date and sometimes the hour of our reliefs and the limits of
+frontage held by different units (we naturally were similarly informed
+about the enemy). For reasons of security no relief could be held
+complete before not only our own men were safely in but our flanks
+were established by touch with neighbouring posts.
+
+In the course of the very relief I have mentioned, a platoon of one
+battalion reached the front line but remained lost for more than a
+day. It could neither get touch with others nor others with it.
+'Getting touch' seemed easy on a map and was often done in statements
+over the telephone. Tangible relations were more difficult and efforts
+to obtain them often involved most exasperating situations, for whole
+nights could be spent meandering in search of positions, which in
+reality were only a few hundred yards distant. Total absence of guiding
+landmarks was freely remarked as the most striking characteristic
+of this part of the Somme area. I refer only to night movement, for by
+day there were always distant objects to steer by, and the foreground,
+seemingly a cratered wilderness of mud, to the trained eye wore a
+multitude of significant objects.
+
+My last topic introduces the regimental guide. Guides performed some
+of the hardest and most responsible work of the war. Staff work could
+at time be botched or boggled without ill-effects; for mistakes by
+guides some heavy penalty was paid. Whenever a relief took place, men
+to lead up the incoming unit into the positions it was to occupy were
+sent back, usually one per platoon, or, in cases of difficult relief
+and when platoon strengths were different, one per sentry-post. Guides
+rarely received much credit when reliefs went well, but always the
+blame when they went ill. The private soldiers, who guided our troops
+into trench and battle, played a greater part in winning the war than
+any record has ever confessed.
+
+I have already spoken of patrols, their difficulties and dangers. Than
+General White no man in the Brigade was better acquainted with its
+front or a more punctual visitor to the most forward positions. What
+'Bobbie' could not himself see by day he was resolved to have
+discovered for him by night, and thus a high measure of activity by
+our patrols was required. About Christmas the question whether the
+eastern portion of a trench, known as Grandcourt Trench, was held by
+the enemy, was set to the Battalion to answer. Vowed to accomplish
+this task or die, a picked patrol started one dark night. Striking
+in a bee line from our trenches, the patrol passed several strands of
+wire and presently discovered fragments of unoccupied trench. On
+further procedure, sounds were heard and, after the necessary stalking
+and listening, proof was obtained that a large hostile wiring party,
+talking and laughing together, was only a few yards distant. With this
+information the patrol veered to a flank, again passing through wire
+and crossing several trenches which bore signs of occupation. A line
+for home was then taken, but much groping and long search failed to
+reveal the faithful landmarks of our front line. At length, as dawn
+was breaking, the situation became clear. The patrol was outside D
+Company Headquarters in Hessian, more than 800 yards _behind_ the
+front line. The report of German wiring parties laughing and talking
+did not gratify, and on reconstruction of its movements it was found
+that the patrol had spent the entire night reconnoitring not the
+German but our own defensive system. The wire so easily passed
+through, the noise and laughter, and the final _dénouement_ at Hessian
+allowed for no other conclusion. A few nights later Brown, with a
+small party and on a clear frosty night, solved the riddle by boldly
+walking up to Grandcourt Trench and finding the Germans not at home.
+
+I mention the story of this first patrol for the benefit, perhaps, of
+some who took part in it and who will now, I feel sure, enjoy the
+humour of its recollection. I mention it more to show of what
+unrequited labour Infantry was capable. The most wholehearted
+efforts were not always successful. One had this confidence on patrol,
+that one's mistakes only affected a handful. It was otherwise for
+artillery commanders who arranged a barrage, commanders of Field
+Companies who guaranteed destruction of a bridgehead, or of Special
+Companies undertaking a gas projection. Such was the meaning of
+responsibility.
+
+The Battalion spent December 25, 1916, in the trenches under some of
+the worst conditions that even a war Christmas could bring. Christmas
+dinners were promised and afterwards held when we were in rest.
+
+As in previous years, our army circulars had forbidden any
+fraternisation with the enemy. Though laughed at, these were resented
+by the Infantry in the line, who at this stage lacked either wish or
+intention to join hands with the German or lapse into a truce with
+him. On the other hand, a day's holiday from the interminable sounds
+of shelling would have been appreciated, and casualties on Christmas
+Day struck a note of tragedy. This want of sagacity on the part of our
+higher staff, as if our soldiers could not be trusted to fight or keep
+their end up as well on Christmas as any other day, was a reminder of
+those differences on which it is no object of this history to touch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+AT MAISON PONTHIEU,
+
+JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1917.
+
+Visitors to the Battalion.--The New Year.--A wintry march.--
+Arrival at Maison Ponthieu.--Severe weather.--At war with the
+cold.--Training for offensive action.--By rail to Marcelçave.--
+Billets at Rainecourt.--Reconnoitring the French line near
+Deniécourt.
+
+
+I cannot often treat my readers to a ride by motor car. Jump into this
+staff car that is waiting--it will not take you to the trenches! You
+will have distinguished company. Colonel A. and Major Q. have decided
+to pay a visit to the Battalion. It is at Maison Ponthieu, nearly 50
+miles behind the line, whither it marched two days since to undergo a
+period of rest.
+
+Arrived there, you learn that the Commanding Officer is out, placating
+with the assistance of the Brigade interpreter the wrath of the
+village hunchback, a portion of whose wood-stack was reported missing
+last night. This is not the first time that A. and Q. have visited the
+village (their lives are martyred to the study of regimental comfort),
+so our journey opens with an inspection of the two Nissen huts on the
+village 'green.'
+
+'Disgraceful! At least two planks, which helped to line the roof of
+this hut, have been burnt. Stoves? One was sent to each battalion
+only yesterday, and ten more have been promised by Corps. Fuel? I am
+astounded to hear that the supply is inadequate. Quartermaster! How
+many pounds of dripping did you send to the Base last week? The A.S.C.
+sent twice that quantity. Who is cooking on that field kitchen? It
+will be impossible to make the war last if things are abused in this
+way. Your men have no rifle racks, more ablution benches must be
+provided and the sanitary arrangements made up to date....'
+
+This little parable has made me outstrip my narrative. You must come
+another day and see what Sergeant Parsons is doing with the vast
+quantities of timber, corrugated iron, and other stores supplied to
+make the billets staff-proof for the future.
+
+The end of the last chapter left the Battalion complaining of our guns
+and otherwise merrymaking in the front line. A day or two before the
+New Year, companies marched back to huts near Pioneer Station and the
+next morning reached Hedauville. Here, shortly afterwards, Christmas
+dinners, consisting of pigs and plum-pudding, were consumed. It was
+believed that we had left Regina and Desire for good, were leaving the
+Corps and likely to do training in a back area for several weeks.
+Colonel Bellamy went on leave, and Bennett, amid many offers to
+accompany him as batman, departed for three months' instruction at
+Aldershot as a senior officer. A new Major, W. L. Ruthven, arrived in
+January and temporarily was in command. Loewe and John Stockton
+returned from hospital and Jones from a Divisional working party,
+which had been engaged for a month on the wholesale manufacture of
+duckboards. Lyon, an officer equally popular in and out of the line,
+had found egress from the Somme dug-outs troublesome and withdrew for
+a time to easier spheres. Men's leave was now going well and frequent
+parties left Acheux Station for 'Blighty.'
+
+This list of changes is, of course, incomplete, and I only give it to
+show how constantly the wheel of alteration was turning. Comparatively
+few officers or men stayed very long with one battalion. 'Average
+lives' used to be quoted for all cases, ranging from a few weeks for a
+platoon officer to the duration for R.T.O's and quartermaster-sergeants!
+Old soldiers may never die, but I think our new soldiers 'faded away,'
+not the old, who grew fat and crafty!
+
+The Battalion marched away from Pioneer Huts--whither it had returned
+after its rest at Hedauville--on January 15. The first stage on the
+rearward journey carried us to Puchevillers, a village full of shell
+dumps and now bisected by a new R.O.D. line from Candas to Colincamps.
+Snow, which had fallen heavily before we left Puchevillers, made the
+ensuing march through Beauval and Gézaincourt to Longuevillette a
+trying one. The going was quite slippery and the Transport experienced
+difficulty in keeping up with the Battalion, especially for the last
+two miles. The road marked on the map had by that time degenerated, in
+characteristic fashion, to a mere farm track across country. The
+Battalion was in its billets at Longuevillette by 6 o'clock, but
+blankets arrived so late that it was midnight before Hobbs could issue
+them. On the next day, January 18, the march was continued through
+Bernaville to Domqueur, a distance of 11 miles, on frost bound roads.
+No man fell out. The 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light
+Infantry was one of the best marching battalions in France. On January
+19 we reached the promised destination, Maison Ponthieu, of whose
+billets glowing accounts had been received; which, as often, were
+hardly realised.
+
+[Illustration: MAISON PONTHIEU]
+
+At Maison Ponthieu the Battalion remained for nearly three weeks.
+Brigade Headquarters, the Machine-gun Company, and some A.S.C. were
+already in the village--ominous news for a billeting party.
+
+Now much snow had already fallen throughout the countryside, and the
+weather since the New Year had been growing steadily more cold. In the
+middle of January, 1917, an iron frost seized Northern France till
+ponds were solid and the fields hard as steel. This spell, which
+lasted a month, was proclaimed by the villagers to be the coldest
+since 1890. As day succeeded day the sun still rose from a clear
+horizon upon a landscape sparkling with snow and icicles, and each
+evening sank in a veil of purple haze. Similar frost was experienced
+in England, but the wind swept keener across the flat plains of
+Ponthieu than over our own Midlands. This turn of the weather was a
+military surprise. It produced conditions novel in trench warfare.
+Severe cold was a commonplace, but now for three weeks and more the
+ground everywhere had been hard as concrete, digging and wiring were
+quite impossible, and movement in our front area easier than ever
+before. It almost seemed as if our opportunity for open warfare had
+arrived. Certainly at this moment in the military situation the enemy
+could not have availed himself of his old tactics as guarantee against
+a break through, nor could he, as formerly during the Somme Battle,
+have protected himself from gradual defeat by digging fresh trenches
+and switch lines and putting out new wire in rear wherever his front
+line was threatened. No doubt there were reasons prohibiting an
+attempt to rush the enemy on a grand scale from his precarious salient
+between Arras and Péronne other than fear of being 'let down' by the
+weather; though perhaps the latter consideration alone, from a Supply
+standpoint, constituted sufficient veto.
+
+At all events the tactics of the Battalion were in quite another
+order. How to shave, how to wash, how to put on boots frozen hard
+during the night, above all, how to keep warm--these were the problems
+presented. I doubt if there was much washing in cold water before
+parade, and, as for shaving, I know a portion of the breakfast tea was
+often used for this purpose. Sponge and shaving brush froze stiff as
+matters of habit. To secure fuel provided constant occupation and
+frequent stumbling-blocks. On our arrival most rigid orders had been
+issued not to burn our neighbours' fences and I am able to say that
+the fences survived our stay. Temptation grew, nevertheless, in
+orchards and rows of small pollards (usually of ash), which formed the
+hedges in this part of France, not to mention a wood at the lower end
+of the village. That ancient trick of covering tree stumps with earth
+needed little learning. Each night for such as had ears, if not
+official ones, wood and thicket rang with the blows of entrenching
+tool on bole and sapling, till past the very door of Sergeant-Major
+sipping his rum, or company officers seated around sirloin and baked
+potatoes would be dragged trunk and branches of a voting tree, that in
+peace time and warmer weather might have lived to grace an avenue.
+There should be variety in story telling; here was one told very much
+out of school.
+
+From contemplation of this illicit forestry I pass to sterner
+matters. The first alarms of the 'spring offensive' were in the air,
+urging us infantry to deeds of arms in the back area. Pamphlets
+proclaimed the creed of open warfare and bade perish the thought of
+gumboot or of trench. Hence daily practices in attack formation, the
+following of barrages to first, second, and final objectives, the
+making of Z shaped posts and sending forward of patrols and scouts.
+
+The Brigadier was an enthusiastic spectator of the work, and woe
+betide the platoon officer whose men gave reckless answers to the
+General's questions. The 'Platoon Test' was introduced.[3] Soldier's
+catechism did not yet reach the perfection it afterwards acquired,
+when all who took part in an attack knew beforehand every practical
+detail assigned to them. While knowledge of the complexities of the
+war became steadily more important, individual training of the man
+helped to make good his deficiency in pre-war discipline. Morale was
+never learnt from sack-stabbing at home, but in France this education
+of each soldier to use his intellect and become a positive agent
+instead of a member of a herd proved a potent factor towards the final
+superiority of the Englishman over his enemy.
+
+                   [Footnote 3: Cross-examination of the men in their
+                   duties. They were asked what they would do in
+                   various emergencies. Their powers of recognition
+                   were also tested. I recollect a humorous incident
+                   when General White and Colonel Wake (G.S.O.I., 61st
+                   Division) both passed _incognito_. The situation
+                   was well seized by the former, who slapped his
+                   chest and declared, 'Such is fame'! Lay readers
+                   will find in later chapters some attempt to explain
+                   the technical expressions used in the text.]
+
+[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL THE HON. R. WHITE. C.B., C.M.G.,
+D.S.O.]
+
+On the morning of February 4, 1917, the Battalion has said good-bye
+to Maison Ponthieu and is marching to Brucamps. Another week and we
+see it on the move again, this time partly by train. Orders for that
+move were as follows:--
+
+  Reveille, 5 a.m.
+  Breakfast, 6 a.m.
+  Blankets rolled in tens and valises to be dumped outside the Q.M.
+      stores by 6.30 a.m.
+  Mess boxes, 7 a.m.
+  Parade, 7.30 a.m.
+
+The march was through Vauchelles-les-Domart to Longpré. Thence we were
+dragged by train through Amiens to Marcelçave, where we detrained and
+marched to huts at Wiencourt. We were about to relieve the French in
+the line near Chaulnes.
+
+On February 15 the Battalion marched through Harbonnières, where the
+Major-General, Colin Mackenzie (now Sir Colin, K.C.B.) was standing
+with a French General to see us pass, and on to Rainecourt. The latter
+village, where the Battalion was billeted, improved on acquaintance.
+It had lain some 3-1/2 miles behind the old Somme front and had
+suffered a good deal from German shells. French industry and French
+materials had, since the advance, converted damaged barns and houses
+into quite good billets.
+
+Several days were spent in Rainecourt in rather dismal weather, for
+the prolonged frost had broken and mist and mud followed. Into the
+little church were now dragged 6,400 pairs of gumboots, representing
+about £10,000. It was the Divisional gumboot store, phrase of awful
+significance! I feel that the very mention of the word gumboot,
+whenever it occurs, is lending a smile to certain of my readers and,
+perchance, a frown to others. O gumboots, what reputations have you
+not jeopardised, what hairs brought down with sorrow to the Base!
+
+[Illustration: HARBONNIÈRES]
+
+The Battalion was divided before it left Rainecourt, orders being
+given for C and D Companies to move forward to Herleville and occupy
+some huts and dug-outs there.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is morning of February 22, 1917. Colonel Bellamy and his four
+company commanders are setting out to reconnoitre the new front line.
+Guides are to meet us at Deniécourt Château, a heap of chalk slabs and
+old bricks, beneath which are Brigade Headquarters. To reach this
+_rendez-vous_ we pass through Foucaucourt and then along a corduroy
+road through Deniécourt Wood to the village of that name. The wood has
+been fought through and but few branches remain on the trees, whose
+trunks, like so many untidy telegraph poles, rise to various heights
+from the upheaval of shell-holes and undergrowth. Dismal surroundings
+on a dismal morning, for the frost has relented for several days and
+already sides of trenches are collapsing (flop go the chunks into the
+water!) and on top the ground is loading one's boots at every step.
+
+We change into gumboots in an old cellar and our journey commences.
+See the Colonel, Cuthbert, Marcon, Brown, Stockton, Robinson and
+myself lead off down a communication trench behind a guide, pledged to
+take us to the Berks Headquarters. The going is desperate--water up to
+our knees; however, each hundred yards brings our goal nearer, and it
+can hardly be like this all the way. We come to a trench junction, and
+our guide turns left-handed; presently another--the guide knows the
+way and again turns to the left. Confound the mud! If we do not get
+there soon we shall never be home for lunch ... but we do not get
+there soon. The guide, always protesting that he knows the way, has
+led us in a circle and here we are whence we started an hour ago!
+
+After such well-meaning mockery of our efforts, a route 'over the top'
+is tried. Soon we are outside Battalion Headquarters of the Berks.
+Whilst we are there, German gas shelling starts--a few rounds of
+phosgene--and helmets require to be adjusted. It is not everybody's
+helmet that fits, this being the first real occasion on which some
+officers have worn them. There is some laughing to see the strictest
+censor of a gas helmet (or its absence) in difficulties with his own,
+when the moment for its adjustment has arrived.
+
+The company commanders duly separate to go up to their own sections of
+the front. They see the 'posts,' or any of them that can be visited in
+daylight, make notes of local details affecting the relief, and so
+home independently.
+
+Billets never seemed so comfortable or attractive as on the night
+preceding a relief. Perhaps they would have seemed more so had the
+Battalion known, what luckily it could not, that an unpleasant tour
+was in store, and that afterwards, with the enemy in retreat, there
+would be no more billets until the summer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+IN THE ABLAINCOURT SECTOR,
+
+FEBRUARY, 1917.
+
+German retreat foreshadowed.--The Battalion takes over the
+Ablaincourt Sector.--Issues in the making.--Lieutenant Fry
+mortally wounded.--The raid by German storm-troops on February 28.
+--The raid explained.
+
+
+Early in 1917 it became known to our intelligence service that the
+enemy was contemplating retirement on a large scale from the Somme
+battle-front. Reports from prisoners and aeroplane photographs of a
+new line, famous afterwards as the Hindenburg line, running from west
+of Cambrai to St. Quentin, left in doubt only the date and manner of
+the withdrawal. To the latter question some answer was possible by
+reference to our mentors or from a text-book appreciation of the
+situation, though no one guessed until the movement had in reality
+started with what circumstances the Germans would see fit to invest
+it. The date was a more difficult problem. For its solution recourse
+must be had by commanders, staff officers and experts to the infantry.
+A competition open to all battalions holding the line (and without
+other entrance fee) thereupon commenced. To whom should fall the
+laurels of a correct diagnosis of the march-table of the German
+rear-guards, who be the first to scatter them by the relentless
+pursuit of our victorious arms?
+
+To our higher staff the question whether the enemy was still manning
+with normal garrisons the front opposite our armies seemed relatively
+simple. Readers, however, with experience of trench warfare will
+remember that in the line by day it was impossible to surmise
+correctly one item of what was happening a hundred yards away in
+hostile trenches; certainly one knew well enough when shells were
+falling, and 'minnies,' rifle-grenades and snipers' bullets argued
+that a pernicious, almost verminous, form of life was extant not far
+away: but despite all this, stared a sentry never so vigilantly,
+through his periscope he could hardly predict whether two, ten, or a
+hundred of the enemy tribe were hidden below earth almost within a
+stone's throw. At night it seemed probable that a patrol of a few
+brave men could crawl right up to the German wire and listen, or by
+setting foot in them enquire whether 'Fritz' was at home in his
+trenches or no; and so our patrols could, and did. In practice,
+however, our most active patrols were frequently deceived. Shots and
+Verey lights, which came from several directions, might be discharged
+by a solitary German, whose function it was to go the round of the
+enemy posts and fire from each spasmodically in turn. A trench entered
+and found empty might be a disused sap or bay habitually unoccupied.
+To maintain the normal semblance of trench-warfare was an easy task
+for the German, and one that he never failed in. Repeatedly in his
+retirements during the war he removed his real forces, his artillery
+and stores unbeknown to our watching infantry and their questioning
+staff. The screen of a retreating enemy is not easily caught up and
+pierced by an advanced guard not superior to it in strength and
+inferior in mobility. On the Somme in 1917 and from the Lys salient in
+1918 the Germans retired from wide to narrower divisional fronts
+(giving themselves greater 'depth' in the process), which fact,
+coupled with destruction of bridges and roads, prevented us from
+forcing an issue with their main body on the move. There were
+exceptions, as when the 32nd Division captured guns near Savy, but the
+enemy, in retiring, played for safety and denied much opportunity to
+our troops, despite their zeal in keeping touch, to deal him damage.
+
+Such was the tactical situation when the 184th Infantry Brigade
+relieved the French in the Ablaincourt sector. The Berks, who first
+held the left subsector, had an uneventful tour. Trenches taken over
+from the French were usually quiet at first owing to the different
+methods employed by us and our allies in the conduct of
+trench-warfare. Within a day or two of the relief the frost had
+finally broken and the trenches everywhere started to fall in, making
+the outlook in this respect ominous.
+
+On the afternoon of February 23, we marched up to relieve the Berks.
+Near Foucaucourt the cookers gave us tea. There also we changed into
+gumboots. Guides met us at Estrées cross-roads, a trysting place
+possible only when dusk had fallen, and the lugubrious procession
+started along a tramway track among whose iron sleepers the men
+floundered considerably, partly from their precaution of choosing
+gumboots several sizes too large. On this occasion the usual stoppages
+and checks were multiplied by a brisk artillery 'strafe' upon the
+front, accompanied by all manner of coloured lights and rockets. The
+noise soon dying down we were able to continue a bad journey with men
+frequently becoming stuck and a few lost. The relief was not over
+until nearly dawn, by when the last Berks had left and our worst
+stragglers been collected.
+
+The Battalion took over a three-company front. Brown with A Company
+guarded the left. Robinson with C (containing a large proportion of a
+recent draft now paying its first visit to the trenches) was in the
+centre, and D Company on the right. Some 500 yards behind our front
+lay the Ablaincourt Sucrerie, a dismal heap of polluted ruins, like
+all sugar factories the site of desperate fighting. Ablaincourt
+itself, a village freely mentioned in French dispatches during the
+Somme battle, was the very symbol of depressing desolation. Péronne,
+eight miles to the north-east, was out of view. Save for the low ridge
+of Chaulnes, whence the German gunners watched, and the shattered
+barn-roofs of Marchélepot--the former on our right, the latter
+directly to our front--the scene was mud, always mud, stretching
+appallingly to the horizon.
+
+[Illustration: THE ABLAINCOURT SECTOR Trenches held by 2/4th OXFORD &
+BUCKS Lt INFy. Drawn by G.K. Rose]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Students of music are familiar with the rival motifs that run through
+operas. In an earlier paragraph I have indicated one such motif, and
+if in this opera of war a curtain be lifted to shew the future act
+which this motif dominates, you would see the German staff busy with
+maps over its retreat, planning the time-table of explosion and
+burning, and designating the several duties of fouling wells and
+laying booby-traps.
+
+Another scene, in which the rival motif is heard, shews a strong body
+of ugly-looking Germans at practice over some shallow trenches some
+distance behind their line. By a quaint coincidence these trenches are
+a facsimile of those just taken over by the Battalion. The ugly
+Germans are members of a 'travelling circus.' For long past they have
+lived in the best billets and been receiving extra rations. They play
+no part in the retreat--house-wrecking, the flooding of cellars, the
+hacking through of young fruit trees and throwing over of sundials and
+garden ornaments, much as they might enjoy it, is not their function.
+
+They are a professional raiding party, with two successful raids at
+Loos, one at Ypres and one near Hébuterne to their credit. Wherever
+the English have just relieved the French they are sent for to perform.
+They are accompanied by two 8-inch howitzers and several batteries of
+5.9s and 4.2s belonging to the 'circus' and by a Minen-Werfer Abteilung.
+Their raid upon the Oxfords is fixed for February 28, when the moon
+will be a third full. The last aeroplane photograph admirably shews
+the Sucrerie, communication trenches leading forward and the
+whereabouts of all dug-outs. The pioneer detachment--whose thoughts
+are turned only to the retreat, of which rumours have been
+plentiful--must move from its comfortable dug-outs in the railway
+embankment to make room for H.Q. of the raiding party.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The front held by the Battalion was tactically not satisfactory. Being
+three on a front, with B Company placed nearly 1,000 yards in rear,
+companies had to find their own supports, which, owing to absence of
+other dug-out accommodation, were disposed in positions not only too
+far back but inadequately covering those portions of the front which
+they were engaged to defend. Moreover, practical means of
+communication to and by these support platoons were likely to prove,
+in event of need, negligible. They were, in fact, isolated in places
+themselves not defensible and equally remote from company and
+battalion commanders. This situation was bad enough as _point d'appui_
+for an advance; to resist a counter-attack or raid it was deplorable.
+Like many similar situations, it was due to the lack of habitable
+trenches on the ground that should have been occupied and defended. It
+could be no one's fault either high up or low down that the line was
+held in this way, though perhaps had fewer men been allowed to crowd
+into trenches and dug-outs in the forward line, casualties in killed
+and prisoners might have been spared to the Battalion.
+
+A few hours after the relief was complete orders came up for patrols
+to go out to see if the enemy had or had not gone back yet. Our
+artillery, which was not yet strongly represented behind this sector,
+also began to fire at extreme ranges on the German back area east of
+Marchélepot and Chaulnes. The enemy, on his part, sniped at and bombed
+our patrols at night. The behaviour of his guns and aeroplanes by day
+suggested no passive retreat in the near future. While BAB[4] code
+messages, providing mingled toil and excitement, announced the
+impending departure of the enemy and asserted the necessity for
+keeping touch, aeroplanes flew a thousand feet overhead and directed
+the fire of fresh batteries of 5.9s and 4.2s upon our trenches. No
+doubt the Germans had stocks of ammunition they preferred to fire off
+rather than cart backwards. Gas shelling became common for the first
+time in the Battalion's experience. In the front line masks had often
+to be worn. Headquarters also were gassed more than once and suffered
+much inconvenience. This activity by the enemy was reasonably regarded
+as his normal policy with which to impede our preparations for
+advance, so that complaints of registration[5] coming from the front
+line received no special attention from the authorities, who were
+themselves tossed to and fro and kept quite occupied by the many
+conflicting prophecies of the enemy's retreat.
+
+                   [Footnote 4: A secret trench code, intended for use
+                   in operations.]
+
+                   [Footnote 5: Deliberate shelling to ascertain exact
+                   range of targets for a future bombardment.]
+
+On the morning of February 27 German howitzer batteries commenced some
+heavy shelling on the Battalion sector, especially on the communication
+trenches passing under the former French titles of B.C.4 and B.C.5.[6]
+Working parties who were busy digging out mud from those trenches
+were compelled to desist. At 10 o'clock I heard that Fry, the commander
+of No. 16 Platoon, had been hit by shrapnel on his way from Company
+H.Q. to the Sucrerie. To get him to the nearest shelter (C Company H.Q.)
+was difficult through the mud, and uncomfortable enough with 5.9s
+coming down close to the trench, but the men, as always, played up
+splendidly to assist a comrade. Soon afterwards, the doctor, in answer
+to a telephonic summons, appeared at my H.Q. On our way to reach Fry
+we were both knocked down in the trench by a 4.2, which also wounded
+Corporal Rockall in the shoulder-blade. I regret that Fry, though
+safely moved from the trenches the same night, had received a mortal
+wound. In him died a fine example of the platoon officer. He met his
+wound in the course of a trivial duty which, had I guessed that he
+would do it under heavy shelling, I should have forbidden him to
+undertake. His type of bravery, though it wears no decorations, is
+distinguished, more than all other, by the unwritten admiration of the
+Infantry.
+
+                   [Footnote 6: B.C.--_Boyau de communication_,
+                   communication trench.]
+
+During that night I had a peculiar and interesting task. It was to
+report on the condition of all roads leading through our front line
+across No-Man's-Land. Mud, battle and frost had so combined to
+disguise all former roads and tracks, that to decide their whereabouts
+it was often necessary to follow them forward from behind by means of
+map and compass. Seen by pale moonlight, these derelict roads, in
+places pitted with huge craters or flanked by shattered trees, wore a
+mysterious charm. More eloquent of catastrophe than those thrown
+down by gale or struck by lightning are trees which shells have hit
+direct and sent, splintered, in headlong crash from the ranks of an
+avenue. If wood and earth could speak, what tales the sunken roads of
+France could find to tell!
+
+Morning and afternoon of the next day, February 28, were fine and
+ominously quiet. Excessive quietness was often no good sign.
+Presentiments could have been justified. At 4.15 p.m. a strong barrage
+of trench mortars and rifle grenades began to beat upon the front
+line, accompanied by heavy artillery fire against communication and
+support trenches and the back area. This sequel to the previous
+registration clearly indicated some form of attack by the enemy. The
+rhythmic pounding of the heavy howitzers, whose shells were arriving
+with the regular persistency of a barrage table, suggested that a long
+bombardment, probably until after dusk, was intended. Under such
+circumstances it was the part of the Company Commander to 'stand to'
+and await events with the utmost vigilance. This never meant that the
+men should be ordered out into the trenches and the fire-steps manned,
+for to do so would have invited heavy casualties and demoralised the
+garrison before the opportunity for active resistance had arrived. To
+keep look-out by sentries, to watch for any lifting in the barrage,
+and to maintain communication with H.Q. and with the flanks were the
+measures required. Otherwise, except to destroy maps and papers,
+there was nothing to do but wait, for only in the most clumsily
+organised shows did the other side know zero. On this occasion, at the
+moment the German raiding party came over, a patrol consisting of
+Corporal Coles and Timms had only just returned from D Company front
+line. They said that though the shelling was heavy immediately behind
+and on the flanks, the wire was intact and there was no sign of
+attack. At dusk, therefore, there was nothing save the heavy shelling
+to report to Cuthbert over my telephone, which by luck held until cut
+by German wire-cutters.
+
+Within a few minutes, shouts and a few rifle shots were heard, and the
+next moment bombs were being thrown into my dug-out.
+
+The lights went out and the interior became filled with fumes, groans,
+and confusion.
+
+A German raiding party had penetrated C Company, seized the front
+line, which was a bare 80 yards from my H.Q., and, without touching my
+own front (which indeed was 200 yards distant and to the flank), had
+picketed my dug-out, and awaited their haul of prisoners.
+
+Now, a bombed dug-out is the last word in 'unhealthiness.' It ranks
+next to a rammed submarine or burning aeroplane. For several minutes I
+awaited death or wounds with a degree of certainty no soldier ever
+felt in an attack. But in such emergencies instinct, which, more than
+the artificial training of the mind, asserts itself, arms human beings
+with a natural cunning for which civilization provides no scope. Life
+proverbially is not cheap to its owner.
+
+That everyone inside was not killed instantly was due, no doubt,
+both to the sloping character of the stairs, which made some bombs
+explode before they reached the bottom, and to the small size of the
+bombs themselves. A gas bomb finished the German side of the argument.
+Hunt's useful knowledge of German commenced the answer. We 'surrendered.'
+I went upstairs at once and saw three Germans almost at touching
+distance. In place of a docile prisoner they received four revolver
+shots, after which I left as soon as possible under a shower of bombs
+and liquid fire. Shortly afterwards, but too late to follow me, Hunt
+also came forth and found the enemy had vanished. Afterwards the
+Sergeant Major and Uzzell, sanitary lance-corporal, who on this
+occasion showed the genius of a field marshal, emerged and prevented
+the return of our late visitors.
+
+After an hour's struggle through mud and barrage I reached the two
+platoons in Trench Roumains, who (I mention this as a good paradox of
+trench discipline) were engaged in sock-changing and foot-rubbing
+according to time table! From there the counter-attack described in
+Sir Douglas Haig's dispatch of March 1st was carried out. I fear this
+'counter-attack' was better in his telling than in the doing, for the
+Germans had already decamped an hour before, taking with them
+Lieutenant Guildford and some 20 prisoners from C Company, several
+Lewis guns, and their own casualties.
+
+Against a front line crowded with untried troops (I refer to the new
+draft of which the platoons holding C Company front line were
+principally composed) a well-planned raid powerfully pressed home
+under a severe box barrage and assisted by gas and liquid fire, was
+almost bound to succeed. The mud, strange trenches and weak artillery
+support were other factors for which allowance might have been made
+before such degree of blame was laid upon the Battalion as was seen
+fit for it to receive. The only cure for being raided is to raid back.
+That was happily done exactly two months later against the very
+regiment to which the German raiding party on this occasion belonged.
+Nor was it true that the enemy was not fought with. Some parties which
+attacked Brown's front were, under the able example of that officer,
+driven off with Lewis guns, and D Company, whose loss in prisoners was
+nil, also maintained its front intact. Casualties were inflicted on
+the enemy, but these mostly regained their own lines or were carried
+back by stretcher parties. Our loss in killed that night amounted to
+some twenty. The story of this raid I should not have allowed to reach
+this length but for the fact that the affair created some stir at the
+time, and correspondence raged on the subject till long afterwards.
+Hunt, who was with me during the bombardment and the bombing of my
+H.Q., was not captured on emerging from the dug-out, but himself, some
+hour or more afterwards, while wandering among the blown-in trenches
+in an effort to follow me, entered a German listening post and became
+a prisoner. As a prisoner he was present at a German H.Q. when the
+details of an exactly similar raid upon a neighbouring division were
+being arranged; which raid proved for the enemy an equal success.
+
+The aftermath of this fighting proved a trying experience. The dug-out
+to which I returned to spend the remainder of the tour was a shambles.
+The stairs were drenched with blood. Of my companions, Thompson, a
+signaller, Timms, Smith (Hunt's servant, a fine lad) and Corporal
+Coles--one of the bravest and most devoted N.C.O.'s the Battalion ever
+had--were dead or died soon afterwards. Longford and Bugler Wright
+were severely wounded. Longley and Short had escaped before the first
+bombs exploded in the dug-out, but the remaining survivors, the
+Sergeant-Major, Lance Corporal Rowbotham, Roberts and myself were all
+partially gassed and hardly responsible for further action. Under
+these circumstances the task of carrying-on involved a strain,
+lessened, as always on such occasions, by management of everything for
+the best by Battalion Headquarters.
+
+On the night of March 2 the Battalion was relieved by the Berks, now
+under the command of Colonel Beaman, and moved back about 2,000 yards
+to some support trenches near Bovent Copse. From here companies were
+employed ration-carrying to the front line and cleaning the trenches.
+Considerable activity continued to be displayed by the German
+artillery and aeroplanes, in each of which respect we lacked
+superiority.
+
+The enemy retreat appeared postponed or cancelled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+LIFE IN THE FRONT LINE,
+
+WINTER, 1916-1917.
+
+Ignorance of civilians and non-combatants.--The front line posts.--
+Hardships and dangers.--Support platoons.--The Company Officers.
+--The Battalion relieved by the 182nd Brigade.
+
+
+So far I have said little of the hardships suffered by the Infantry.
+Indeed, in places I have laughed at them. Those scenes and experiences
+which marked a soldier's life in the front line will have been
+supplied by those who knew them as familiar background to my story.
+But I grudge leaving them to the imagination of civilian and
+non-combatant readers. I seriously doubt whether the average man or
+woman has the least inkling of what really happened 'out there.' Talk
+over-heard or stories listened to may in special instances have
+revealed a fragment of the truth. For most people the lack of real
+perception was filled in by a set of catchwords. As the war dragged
+on, the civilian mind of England passed into a conventional acceptance
+of phrases habitually read but improperly understood, until the words
+'raids,' 'barrages,' 'objective,' 'craters,' 'counter-attack,'
+'consolidation,' became tolerated as everyday commonplaces. Take a
+war-despatch of 1916 or 1917--it is made up of a series of catch words
+and symbols. Plenty of our famous men, I am sure, who went to the
+front and perhaps wrote books afterwards, on arrival there made
+remarks no less foolish (and excusable) than the old lady's 'nasty
+slippery place' where Nelson fell. The Somme and Ypres battlefields
+are inconceivable by anyone who has seen nothing but the normal
+surface of the earth. The destruction of towns, villages and farms is
+without parallel in history or fiction. To witness some scenes in the
+Retreat of 1918 was to stake one's sanity. There are no standards by
+which civilians and non-combatants can appreciate the true facts of
+the war. Deliberate reproduction would hardly be believed. Suppose,
+for instance, this winter I were to dig a large hole in a field, a
+quarter fill it with liquid mud, and then invite four or five
+comrades, all arrayed in much warlike impedimenta, but lacking more
+extra covering than a waterproof sheet each, to the hole to spend two
+nights and a day in it--I should be credited with lunacy. Yet I should
+be offering a fair sample of front-line accommodation during the Great
+War.
+
+[Illustration: A FRONT LINE POST]
+
+Reliefs took place at night. Alike through snow or rain, or in a
+biting wind, the Infantry marched up from huts or ruined barns (its
+rest billets) to reach the line--a distance normally of seven miles.
+First by road, next by a slippery track, finally through a
+communication trench deep in mud, our soldiers had to carry each his
+rifle and 120 round of ammunition, a share of rations, gumboots, a
+leather jerkin and several extras--a load whose weight was fully 50
+pounds. Many staggered and fell. All finished the journey smothered in
+dirt. Boots, puttees and even trousers were sometimes stripped from
+the men by the mere suction of the mud, in which it was not unusual to
+remain stuck for several hours. Men, though not of our Battalion, were
+even drowned.[7]
+
+                   [Footnote 7: This fact, which will hardly be
+                   credited by future generations, is related from the
+                   actual knowledge of the writer.]
+
+Parties were often shelled on the way up, or else were lost and
+wandered far. From Headquarters, reached about midnight, of the
+Company being relieved guides would take two platoons into the front
+line 'posts,' the other two to the positions in support.
+
+In the front line itself there was often no better shelter than an old
+tarpaulin or sheet of corrugated iron stretched across the trench. At
+some 'posts' there was nothing better to sit on than the muddy
+'fire-step' or at best half a duckboard or an old bomb box. Despite
+continuous efforts to keep one dry place to stand, the floor was
+several inches deep in water and mud.
+
+Movement in any direction, save for a few yards to the flanks if the
+mud had been cleared away or dammed up, in daylight was impossible. No
+visitors came by day. Stretcher bearers were not always near. A fire
+could not, or if it could, might not be lighted. Therefore no hot
+meal, except perhaps a little tea made over a 'Tommy's Cooker,' was
+procurable by day.
+
+The post would be shelled or trench-mortared at intervals. In earlier
+days it might be totally blown up by a mine, or in later times bombed
+or machine-gunned from the air. For 30 to 40 high explosive shells to
+fall all round a post was quite common. Sometimes a 'dud' would fall
+inside it, or a huge 'Minnie,' which burst in the wire, cover the
+occupants with earth and splinters. The crash of these huge
+trench-mortar bombs was satanic; and there was always a next one to be
+waited for. Sometimes whole posts were wiped out. If there were
+wounded they could expect no doctor's help before night. Often by day,
+owing to mud and German snipers, it was impossible to lift a wounded
+man from where he had fallen.
+
+Night, longer than day, was also worse. Pitch darkness, accompanied
+maybe by snow or mist, increased the strain. With luck the great
+compensation of hot food--tea and stew--would be brought up by the
+ration parties. But sometimes they were hit and were often lost and
+arrived several hours late. The sandbags containing a platoon's
+rations for a day were liable to be dropped, and bread arrived soaked
+through or broken and mud-stained. Moreover, the darkness which
+permitted parties from behind to reach the post also decreed that the
+post should get about its work. Had the wire a weak place, the Germans
+knew of it, and directly the wiring party set about mending it lights
+were sent up, which fell in the wire close to our men, and machine-gun
+bullets banged through the air. Besides the wire the parapet required
+constant attention. At one place, where a member of the post had
+been killed by a sniper, it would want building up; at another, a shell
+perhaps had dropped only a yard short of the trench during the evening
+'strafe,' the passage would be blocked and the post's bomb-store
+buried. All this had to be put right before dawn. During the night a
+patrol would be ordered to go out. Men who were sentries by day or
+were the covering party for the wiring might be detailed for this.
+After that was over the same men took turns as sentries.
+
+Sleep was confined to what those not on duty could snatch, wrapped
+only in the extra covering of a waterproof sheet, in a sitting posture
+on the fire-step. At dawn, when the men at last could have slept
+heavily, came morning stand-to. This meant standing and shivering for
+an hour whilst it grew light and attempting to clean a mud-clogged
+rifle. Those Englishmen in England (and in France) who have slept warm
+in their beds throughout the war should remind themselves of those
+thousands of our soldiers who wet through, sleepless, fed on food
+which, served as it finally was up in the trenches, would hardly have
+tempted a dog, have stood watching rain-sodden darkness of night yield
+to dismal shell-bringing dawn, and have witnessed the monotonous
+routine of war till sun, earth, sky and all the elements of nature
+seemed pledged in one conspiracy of hardship.
+
+What of the two platoons in 'support'?
+
+Their lot was preferable. They were placed about 400 yards behind the
+actual front and lived (if such existed) in deep mined dug-outs. Until
+the later stages of the war deep dug-outs, which were subterranean
+chambers about 25 feet below the level of the ground and nearly
+shell-proof, were made only by the Germans, whose industry in this
+respect was remarkable. Found and inhabited by us in captured
+territory, these dug-outs had the defect that their entrances 'faced
+the wrong way,' _i.e._, towards the German howitzers. Sometimes a
+shell, whose angle of descent coincided with the slope of the stairs,
+burst at the bottom of a dug-out, and then, of course, its occupants
+were killed. If no deep dug-outs were available, the support platoons
+lived in niches cut into the side of the trench and roofed over with
+corrugated iron, timber and sandbags. Such shelters afforded little
+protection against shelling.
+
+[Illustration: A DUCKBOARDED COMMUNICATION TRENCH]
+
+In event of attack by the enemy it was the normal duty of support
+platoons to garrison a line of defence known as the 'line of
+resistance.' They might be ordered to make a counter-attack. When no
+fighting was taking place their work was likely to consist in carrying
+up rations and R.E. materials (wooden pickets, sandbags, coils of
+barbed wire, etc.) to the front line. This work had to be done at
+night, because in winter 'communication trenches' (which alone made
+daylight movement possible from place to place in the forward zone)
+were so choked with mud as to be impassable. The day was spent in
+'mud-slinging,' _i.e._, digging out falls of earth from the trench,
+rebuilding dug-outs or laying fresh duckboards (wooden slats to walk
+on in the trenches). When the evening's 'carrying parties' were
+finished, the men had some sleep, but support troops were often used
+as night patrols in No-Man's-Land or as wiring parties.
+
+After a day or longer in support they were sent up to relieve, _i.e._,
+exchange positions with, their comrades in the front line posts. Four
+days was the usual 'tour' for a company. During it each platoon did
+two spells of 24 hours in the posts and the same back in support. When
+the four days were over, a fresh company relieved that whose tour was
+finished. The one relieved moved back to better conditions, but would
+still be in trenches and dug-outs until the whole Battalion was
+relieved.
+
+The English infantryman stands for all ages as the ensample of heroic
+patience, which words or cartoon fail utterly to convey.
+
+How did the Company Commander and his officers fare in the trenches?
+
+The Platoon Officer shared every hardship with his 25 men. If there
+was a roofed-in hole with a box for a table he had it, for his
+messages were many. To the Company Commander a rough table was quite
+indispensable, and so were light and some protection from the rain.
+Without these essentials he could never have received nor sent his
+written instructions, consulted his maps nor spoken by telephone, on
+which he relied to get help from the artillery. The Company
+Sergeant-Major, a few signallers and some runners were his familiars,
+and he lived with and among these faithful men. Quite often the
+Company Commander's dug-out was appreciably the best in the company
+area. Sometimes it was little better than the worst. In the spring of
+1918 it was often only a hole.
+
+Every good Company Commander made a point of visiting each night all
+his front line posts and spending some time with each, not only to
+give orders, direct the work and test the vigilance of the sentries,
+but in order to keep up the Company's morale. The worse the weather or
+the shelling the higher that duty was. Likewise the Battalion
+Commander used to visit Company Headquarters once a day and every
+front line post at least once during a tour. The journey to the front
+line, possible only in darkness, was very dangerous. Shells were bound
+to fall at some point on the way, the enemy's machine guns or 'fixed
+rifles' were trained on every probable approach, and the Captain in
+ordinary trench warfare was as liable to be killed as any Private.
+Responsibility, however, made these nightly walks not only necessary
+but almost desirable.
+
+To conditions such as I have described the Battalion returned to do
+another tour in the Ablaincourt sector. The line was again held by A
+on the left (owing to the former three-company system no proper
+interchange had been possible) and by B on the right. Davenport went
+to my old headquarters, which the enemy was now busy trench-mortaring,
+and held half the front previously held by C, which, with D Company,
+was now in support. To the usual evils were now added rifle-grenades
+filled with gas, which caused several casualties in A Company. D
+Company lost a good man in Lance Corporal Tremellen, who was wounded
+by a bullet through the legs when leading a ration party 'across the
+top,' and other N.C.O.'s went sick with trench fever. During this
+tour the energy of Corporal Viggers, of my company, was most
+remarkable. He did the work of ten.
+
+On the night of March 15 the Brigade was relieved by the Warwicks. The
+Battalion moved back to Framerville, where Quartermaster's Stores and
+Transport rejoined.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE ADVANCE TO ST. QUENTIN,
+
+MARCH TO APRIL, 1917.
+
+The enemy's retirement.--Road-mending in No-Man's-Land.--The
+devastated area.--Open warfare.--The Montolu campaign.--
+Operations on the Omignon river.--The 61st Division relieved before
+St. Quentin.--End of trench-warfare.
+
+
+On March 16, 1917, the Germans left their front line and scuttled back
+behind the Somme.
+
+The news of this threw everything into a miniature ferment. The Berks
+stopped practising a raid which they were to do on the Brigade's
+return to the old trenches. The General rode off apace. After orders
+and counter-orders the 2/4th marched dramatically to a map reference
+near Lihons and commenced pulling logs out of old French dug-outs.
+Much good work was done, but I believe the logs were never used. On
+the next day German aeroplanes saw the Battalion parade at X 17 c 3.
+8. and march to its old billets at Rainecourt. Never was the old song
+'Here we are again' more heartily rendered.
+
+Meanwhile Divisional Headquarters advanced and seized a colony of
+dug-outs at Vermandovillers. Great eagerness was shown by everyone to
+see what the enemy had left behind and whither he had gone. Often
+during the advance parties of Infantry detailed to clear a village
+found members of a Royal Corps already in possession. In this race of
+the curious we were severely handicapped, for it had fallen to the 182nd
+Brigade to be the Advanced Guard of the 61st Division and to the 184th
+to follow in reserve. To us the task of roadmaking in No-Man's-Land was
+assigned. This proved quite interesting work. Except where shells had
+fallen on them or trenches been dug through, the roads, when once the
+mud had been removed, were found virtually intact. Soon G.S. wagons
+and limbers and 18-pounders were passing forward. The war was on the
+move.
+
+To explore the former German trenches was a pleasing novelty. The
+front line was deep and fairly dry. Elbow marks at every 50 yards or
+so and bombs with caps screwed off vouched for the situation of old
+sentry posts. Communication trenches were derelict, nor did proper
+support nor second lines exist. The enemy's defence had been the
+merest shell.
+
+The Battalion moved to Chaulnes on March 22. That village, damaged by
+our artillery, had been finally wrecked by the departing enemy, whose
+rude notices were scrawled on any walls still standing. 'One million
+tons of English shipping sunk in the month of February,' said one more
+polite than others. In spite of all that the Germans had done, quite
+good accommodation was found for all ranks, and its improvement by old
+doors, shutters, and selected _débris_ from other ruins provided much
+amusement. Father Buggins and the Doctor, with a wheelbarrow, were
+to the fore collecting armchairs covered in red velvet. Stoves and
+fuel were abundant, and at this time booby-traps were few.
+
+March 23 was spent in road mending between Vermandovillers and
+Chaulnes. An example of how surely organisation wins wars was there
+provided. We, who had come from Chaulnes, to work near Chaulnes were
+sent to fetch our tools from Vermandovillers. In fetching them we
+passed a company of Devons, employed on similar work at
+Vermandovillers, who were fetching their tools from Chaulnes--an
+episode fit for a war-pageant.
+
+On the same afternoon we marched to Marchélepot. German sign-posts,
+old gun positions and burnt dug-outs were objects of interest on the
+way. Though cold, the weather was fine. Freedom from shelling was a
+treat. We moved again on March 25, when the Bucks arrived to take over
+our quarters at Marchélepot. Passing St. Christ, where the R.E. had
+bridged the Somme, we saw the first samples of German back-area
+demolition. At Ennemain the first big road-crater held up the
+Transport. Our destination, Athies, formerly a flourishing little town
+but since utterly wrecked and still smouldering, it was quite
+difficult to reach. Sent on ahead as member of a billeting party, I
+had to cross the Omignon river by a single plank thrown across a weir.
+Until they are blown up one rather forgets the blessing of bridges.
+
+In Athies good enough quarters in cellars and half-basements were
+found for all. Headquarters went into the only roofed house in the
+town--and afterwards questioned their own wisdom. The house had been
+foreman's shed to a large factory, had been a Boche canteen, and,
+finally, the billet of the wrecking party. Though our advanced troops
+were in touch with the enemy some seven miles away in front, we were
+made to hold an outpost line each night east of the town. To bring up
+rations the Transport had all the distance from Framerville to
+cover--about eighteen miles. Never had Abraham so long a journey for
+this purpose.
+
+The wanton mischief, now manifest everywhere that the advance carried
+us, became a favourite topic for correspondents from the front, but
+cannot be passed over without some record here. To us Infantry this
+advance was a sort of holiday from the real war. It was like going
+behind the scenes at a pantomime and discovering the secrets of the
+giant's make-up. No list of things destroyed could lend any conception
+of the wholesale massacre by the Germans of all objects both natural
+and artificial. Château and cottage, tree and sapling, factory and
+summer-house, mill race and goldfish pond were victims equally of
+their madness. Hardly the most trivial article had been spared. The
+completeness of the work astonished. Yet withal our discomfort was
+slight. It was the French civilians, whose lives and homes had been
+thus ruined, that such Prussian methods touched.
+
+Amid this wreckage signs were perceptible of the enemy's weakening
+morale. Villages in no wise organised for defence and so remote from
+the German front as to have been outside the range of our furthest
+gun-fire, inevitably contained deep dug-outs. Such precautions
+surpassed all prudence and were sufficient almost to argue lack of
+mental balance. Germans seemed crazy on dug-outs.
+
+To resume the war. On March 30 the Warwicks entered Soyécourt and
+shortly afterwards the Bucks relieved their outpost line. We ourselves
+reached Tertry on the 30th, and the next night made bivouacs at
+Caulaincourt Château, formerly German Corps Headquarters, now wrecked
+past recognition. Amid the rubbish, whose heaps represented buildings
+of grace and dignity, the eye caught the half of a gigantic Easter
+egg. During our stay a German High Velocity gun several times shelled
+the château grounds. Our own artillery was now getting to work and
+made the nights lively with noise and flashes.
+
+At 3 a.m. on April 1 C and D Companies were ordered forward to support
+the Bucks in an attack on the line of single railway which runs
+northwards from Vermand. The attack gained the ridge east of the
+railway and no support by us was wanted. Ten prisoners were captured
+by the Bucks, whose only casualties resulted from our own shells
+dropping short and an unfortunate mistake of some other troops, who
+lost direction and, pressing forward, encountered men of their own
+side. Towards evening the General ordered D Company forward to occupy
+Montolu Wood. The journey was made at dusk through a blinding storm of
+hail and rain. The wood to which I went was the wrong one altogether.
+Nevertheless to my wood my company returned twice later, till tactical
+recognition was gained for it from the failure of the staff to
+observe the mistake and my own to disclose it. The wood I went to was
+some half-mile distant from the proper one, but the same shape, as
+near the railway, and answering the General's map-description to a
+nicety. I like to think of my wood, where I was so rarely found,
+whither perplexed runners brought orders so late, where I never was
+relieved, but where my old shelters of tin and brushwood escaped
+disturbance in my absence.
+
+At midnight, April 3/4, the Battalion relieved the Bucks. B, C, and D
+Companies shared the new outpost line. Headquarters and A Company went
+to Soyécourt. The relief, the first of its kind, was difficult. In my
+own front a small brushwood copse was reputed to contain a sentry
+post. The ground was dotted with small copses which the darkness made
+indistinguishable, and no report of this post's relief was ever made.
+When dawn was breaking in the sky, Sergeant Watkins, accompanied by
+the Bucks guides, returned to say that no sentry group nor post in any
+copse could be found. The most likely copse was then garrisoned and
+the night's mystery and labour ceased.
+
+[Illustration: THE ADVANCE TO ST. QUENTIN
+Inset: 'a' company's attack, good friday 1917]
+
+Further advance was evidently in store. The smoke of burning villages
+still mounted the sky. At night a glow showed where a great fire in
+St. Quentin was ablaze. The weather now changed for the worse. Hail,
+rain and snow prevailed alternately. A fierce wind blew. Winter
+conditions were repeated in the outpost line, where no shelter other
+than tarpaulins rigged across the shallow trenches existed. Nor was
+the artillery inactive. As the enemy's resistance stiffened, shells
+commenced to fall on fields yet unscarred by trench or shell-hole.
+Better ammunition seemed to be in use--or was it a month's holiday
+from shells that made it seem so?--and more subtlety was shown by
+German gunners in their choice of targets. Our casualties, though not
+numerous, proved that the war, in most of its old incidents, had been
+resumed.
+
+In the early morning of April 4 the 59th Division, which was operating
+on the Battalion's left, attacked Le Vergier. Fighting continued till
+noon, but the village was not taken. The 59th lost heavily. As they
+formed up for their advance--which was for some 1,000 yards across the
+open and exposed to view--behind the line the Battalion was holding,
+considerable enemy fire was brought down upon us and I lost Sergeant
+Watkins, wounded in the arm, and several other casualties. It snowed
+nearly all day. In the shallow trenches, which were ill-sited both for
+drainage and concealment from the enemy, life was miserable. On the
+next night a battalion of Sherwood Foresters relieved D Company, which
+returned to its wood, but B and C Companies remained holding the line.
+John Stockton, who now commanded B, was ill, but refused to leave the
+trenches and carried on in a most determined manner under shocking
+weather conditions. A new officer, Allden, in my company also proved
+his worth about this time. Events of some sort were of hourly occurrence.
+The 2/5th Gloucesters held the line on the Battalion's right, near the
+Omignon river. One night, after a heavy bombardment with 4.2s, the
+Germans rushed one of their posts. It had recently been evacuated,
+and the enemy spent his trouble in vain.
+
+For April 6--Good Friday, 1917--an attack on a large scale had been
+arranged. The 59th Division on our left, the Gloucesters and the 182nd
+Brigade on our right, shared in the operations. The line was to be
+advanced a mile on both sides of the Omignon. The Battalion's
+objective was a line of trenches recently dug by the enemy and running
+between Le Vergier and the river. To capture them Brown's company,
+which hitherto had stayed in reserve at Soyécourt in tolerable
+accommodation, was selected. B and D Companies were ordered to keep
+close behind A to support the attack, while C remained to garrison the
+outpost line.
+
+Zero was midnight, but before that snow and sleet were falling
+heavily. It proved the dirtiest night imaginable. Companies moved in
+columns across the 1,000 yards of open fields between their old
+positions and the objective, against which our artillery kept up as
+severe a fire as possible. That fire was less effective than was
+hoped. In its advance A Company lost men from our own shells, of which
+nearly all were seen to be falling very short. The German wire, still
+the great argument to face in an attack, was found uncut. Although at
+first inclined to surrender, the enemy soon saw the failure of our men
+to find a gap. Machine-guns were manned, which swept the ground with a
+fierce enfilade fire. Brown, Aitken, and Wayte behaved in a most
+gallant manner, the line was rallied, and a renewed attempt made to
+storm the trenches. In vain. No troops will stand against machine-gun
+fire in the open when no object can be achieved. It was idle to
+repeat the attack or send fresh companies to share the forlorn
+enterprise. Before dawn our troops were in their old positions.
+
+In the attack the sergeant-majors of both A and B Companies were hit.
+Of the officers, Barton, commanding B, and Tilly, of A, were killed.
+Aitken and Wayte were wounded. Nearly 40 of rank and file were
+casualties.
+
+The attack had proved a failure, but, as often happened, hopes of
+success were reluctantly abandoned by the staff. Thus my company was
+warned that it might have to repeat the attack at dawn. Pending such a
+fate, I was sent to bivouac in a windswept spinney known as Ponne
+Copse. It was still snowing. After their week's exposure I was loth to
+inform my men of such a destiny. But a more favourable turn of events
+was in store. The weather cleared, and at 11 a.m. on the 7th I was
+allowed to return to my version of Montolu Wood. On the same day the
+Battalion was relieved by the Bucks and marched back through Soyécourt
+to Caulaincourt. There we found Bennett, who had come from the
+Aldershot course to be Second in Command. The château grounds were
+quieter than before, for our guns had now moved further up towards the
+line.
+
+At 3 p.m. on April 8 a curious noise was heard in the air. A German
+aeroplane had attacked the kite balloon, which hung, suspended by its
+gas, above the château park. A French machine, not a moment too soon
+for the balloon's safety, had swooped and shot the attacker to the
+ground. All the Battalion was out staring up at the balloon rotating
+on its wire, and the portions of the German 'plane, which amid smoke
+were fluttering to earth. A rush, as always, commenced towards the
+scene. The aeroplane, brought down from a height, was half embedded in
+the mud. It was an Albatross, painted all colours, and possessed two
+machine-guns and several sorts of ammunition for use against balloons.
+I could see nothing of its former occupant, who must have been removed
+for burial, except a pool of bright blood upon the ground.
+
+During the night orders arrived for a move forward to support the
+Warwick Brigade, which had been fighting for several days between
+Maissemy and Fresnoy. At 7.30 a.m. on April 9 we marched in wind and
+rain to Marteville, and then formed a reserve line in front of
+Maissemy and Keeper's House. All day we dug trenches and erected wire.
+A divisional relief was to take place. The weather was vile; almost
+every hour a violent squall of hail and snow swept over us. That night
+was spent in bivouac in sunken roads.
+
+Next morning many of us walked along the Holnon road to view St.
+Quentin, whose cathedral and factory chimneys were only visible
+between the storms. The town seemed undestroyed. The Germans were busy
+shelling its approaches. Salvoes of their 5.9s fell steadily, and
+black splashes of earth jumped up ever and again, whilst smoke from
+the preceding shells coiled and drifted away to the west.
+
+The 61st Division was relieved on April 11 and moved back to the Nesle
+area. The 2/4th Oxfords marched to Hombleux, a village where the
+enemy had left the church and a few houses standing.
+
+The German retirement from the Somme, now practically complete, had
+opened a new phase in the war. For the first time since 1914 ground in
+France had changed hands upon a large scale. The enemy's
+relinquishment of 30 miles of front line trench and his withdrawal to
+a depth, in places, of 40 kilometres, restored the principle of
+manoeuvre to armies which had fronted one another for two years in
+positions hitherto justifying the description of stale-mate. Strong
+moral and political effects accompanied. And this manoeuvre, though
+carried out upon a part only of the entire battle front, infused a
+sense of change and movement into the most static portions of the
+allied line. From theory open warfare had passed into practice. In its
+old sense trench-warfare was no more; its genius had departed.
+Trenches and dug-outs, which in some sectors had been visited and
+revisited with changeless repetition for thirty months, lost their
+sense of eternity. Who could say when the trenches opposite might not
+be found empty and the burning wake of a German retreat glow in the
+skies? Schemes for action in event of enemy withdrawal began to take
+precedence over trench standing orders. Corps lines ceased to be the
+show-places for Russian colonels, and the Corps Commander's gardener
+paused before sowing a new season's peas in the château grounds.
+
+G.H.Q. were agog.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE RAID AT FAYET,
+
+APRIL, 1917.
+
+A German vantage-point.--Shell-ridden Holnon.--A night of
+confusion.--Preparing for the raid of April 28.--The enemy taken
+by surprise.--The Battalion's first V.C.--The affair at Cepy Farm.
+
+
+It was hard to believe that any lofty eminence which overlooked our
+lines was not in constant use by the enemy for observation. The iron
+towers at Loos, the spire of Calonne, even the crazy relics of the
+church at Puisieux at different times contributed this uneasy feeling
+to the denizens of our trenches. But surely never was the sense of
+being spied on more justified than near St. Quentin, whose tall
+cathedral raised itself higher than all the roofs of the town and
+higher, too, than the ridges surrounding it for many miles.
+
+On April 20, 1917, a German observer from the cathedral belfry could
+have seen the divisional relief which brought the 61st Division back
+to the line. All day small parties were moving in the forward zone,
+while further back larger ones crossed and re-crossed the ridge 'twixt
+Holnon and Fayet, and in rear again, along the road through Savy to
+Germaine, columns of Infantry in fours followed by horses, vehicles,
+and smoking cooker-chimneys, were passing one another, some coming,
+others going back. Those coming made a left-handed turn at Savy,
+hugged the line of single railway as far as a crucifix at a cross-roads,
+and were then lost to distinct view amid the abject ruins of Holnon.
+Those going were the 32nd Division, whose march carried them out of
+the cathedral's eye or observation by German balloons.
+
+Among the new arrivals were the 2/4th Oxfords, of whom all companies,
+followed until the end by cookers and Lewis-gun limbers, disposed
+themselves in or around Fayet, on whose north side stood a stone
+monument commemorative of local fighting in the Franco-Prussian War.
+Near to this monument was found a deep sunken road, broken with two
+huge craters. It was A Company's position as support to the
+Gloucesters, who went into the line.
+
+The Battalion spent a week at Holnon village. A line of trenches
+linking up 'strong points' had been designed to guard the ridge which
+overlooked Fayet and St. Quentin. From Selency Château, whose thickets
+fringed the sky-line, on the right, to the high-perched windmill above
+Maissemy on the left, work to consolidate this system had commenced.
+It remained for us to excavate the chalk trenches deeper and erect
+wire. The demand for that material exceeded the supply, and it was
+necessary to salve old German stores. Some excellent coils I found--of
+American manufacture. Pickets were improvised. Thus liberated by the
+amateur assortment of our tools from the irksome tyranny of army
+wiring circulars, we set about the work and soon put up some of the
+best wire of my experience.
+
+In Holnon the life was a new sample of unpleasantness. Of
+accommodation, save for a few low walls and half-roofed cellars, there
+was no trace. What Holnon lacked in billets it received in shells.
+With intervals--possibly only those of German mealtimes--during the
+day and nearly throughout the night, 5.9s and 4.2s were throwing up
+the brick-dust, till it seemed reasonable to ask why in wonder's name
+the Battalion or any living soul was kept in Holnon. After a few bad
+nights with little sleep and some close shells, Headquarters moved
+from their shed, hard by a mound, to a dismantled greenhouse further
+back. It was a nasty time. The German aeroplanes were very active....
+
+That faint patter of machine-gun fire which comes from aeroplanes
+circling overhead ends in the descent of one of them. At first it
+seems to come down normally, yet with a sort of pilot-light twinkling
+at its head; but, when a hundred feet or so from earth, see it burst
+into a sheet of flame and shrivel up upon the ground in a column of
+dark smoke!
+
+I had my company in shelters under a bank, clear of the village but
+immediately in front of a battery of 18-pounder guns, whose incessant
+firing, added to the evil whistle of the German shells, deprived the
+nights of comfortable sleep. But passive experiences were due to give
+place to active. Events of moment were in store. The 184th Brigade had
+been warned to carry out an 'enterprise' against the enemy. During
+the morning of April 26 I was sent for by the Colonel. I found
+Headquarters in their new position, an oblong greenhouse over whose
+frame, destitute of glass, was stretched a large 'trench shelter.'
+They had passed a shell-ridden night. Bennett just now had narrowly
+eluded a 5.9. This morning shells were falling as usual in Holnon, and
+pieces occasionally came humming down to earth close by. I listened to
+the plan of a large raid which with two companies I was soon to
+perform. Moore was here to outline the scheme and also Colonel Cotton
+of the R.F.A., whose guns were to support the operation.
+
+At this point I must explain for the benefit of lay readers the
+difference between a raid and an attack. The purpose of the latter was
+to drive the enemy from ground he occupied and stay there. Early
+attacks upon the Western Front were usually directed against trenches,
+of which successive lines, reaching to a distance or 'depth' of
+several thousand yards, were often our goal or 'objective.' So that
+our Infantry could enter hostile trenches it was invariably necessary
+to destroy the wire in front or make a pathway through it. Many
+attacks failed because the wire had not been cut. Before the days of
+Tanks the means employed consisted, broadly speaking, in artillery
+fire, which it was also hoped would put the enemy's machine-guns out
+of action and frighten his garrison. Our Infantry advanced immediately
+this fire had ceased or 'lifted' to the next objective. During the
+Battle of the Somme it was found that the enemy often left his
+actual trenches and came forward into shell-holes in No-Man's-Land
+so as to escape the fire of our artillery. To counter this manoeuvre
+the 'creeping barrage' was devised. Our shells were fired so as to
+form a moving curtain of destruction immediately in front of our men
+in their advance, whilst at the same time the enemy's trenches were
+bombarded. Attacks on any scale were planned to capture and hold
+against the enemy some ridge, by losing which he lost observation of
+our lines, while we, in gaining it, saw more of his and also were
+enabled to advance our guns.
+
+The purpose of a raid was to penetrate a portion of the enemy's front,
+to kill or capture as many Germans as possible, and then retire. Raids
+differed materially from attacks in this respect, that no attempt was
+made in the former to hold the ground won longer than was necessary to
+satisfy the plan. Raids were usually supported by artillery and took
+place at night; but daylight raids, though less common or successful,
+were sometimes made, and 'silent raids,' when no artillery was used,
+were also tried.
+
+This explanation, dull to military readers, will serve to indicate
+what operation I was now about to undertake. The scheme, of which the
+General and his Brigade Major were the authors, was to pass a body of
+men through a gap in the unoccupied portion of the German trenches
+opposite Fayet, deploy, and sweep sideways against some other
+trenches, thought to be held, and through several copses which Bucks
+patrols had pronounced weakly garrisoned by the enemy. These copses,
+which were expected to yield a few handfuls of runaway boys in
+German uniform, would be attacked by us in flank and rear at the same
+time. The scheme promised well, but the proposed manner of retirement,
+which would be in daylight and across nearly a mile of open ground,
+presented difficulties. The more to overcome them and to be fresh for
+the event, D Company and the platoons of C selected for the task were
+to stay in the sunken road north of Fayet, while A and B Companies
+went to garrison the outpost line.
+
+The Battalion was mostly fortunate in the opportunity of its reliefs.
+One always prayed that the time spent in moving up and changing places
+with troops in the front line would coincide with a period quiet in
+regard to shelling. One hoped still more that no hostile attack would
+clash with the relief.
+
+[Illustration: THE RAID NEAR ST. QUENTIN BY 2/4 OXFORD & BUCKS LT.
+INFy. AP. 28 1917]
+
+Such prayers and hopes on April 26, when a quiet, easy relief was
+specially desired, came near to being falsified. At dusk, just as our
+companies were starting towards Fayet, the enemy commenced an
+operation against Cepy Farm, a ruined building near the front line,
+predestined by its position to be an object of contention. The attack
+was ably dealt with by Tubbs' company of the Bucks and had proved
+abortive for the enemy. The circumstance was accompanied by much
+erratic shelling from both sides. Orders to stand-to were issued
+rather broadcast, and as the relief was now in progress a degree of
+confusion resulted everywhere. The destination of my company and half
+of C was the sunken road leading down into Fayet, but that I found
+already crowded with troops. Almost all units of the Brigade seemed to
+be trying to relieve or support each other, and the front line itself
+was in quite a ferment, nobody actually knowing what the enemy had
+done, was doing, or was expected to do. Under these conditions it
+became impossible for me to send patrols to learn the ground from
+which the impending raid was to be launched. It happened, in fact,
+that when the time to move forward had arrived, I alone of all the
+five platoons about to be engaged knew the route to the 'position of
+assembly,' that is to say, the place where the attacking troops were
+to collect immediately before the raid. That most severe risk--for had
+I been a casualty the entire enterprise would have miscarried--was
+owing partly to the accident of the confused relief, but more to the
+short notice at which the work was to be carried out. Instead of that
+thorough reconnaissance which was so desirable I had to be content
+with a visit, shared by my officers and a few N.C.O.'s, to an advanced
+observation post from which a view was possible of those trenches and
+woods we were under orders to raid.
+
+The sunken road proved anything but a pleasant waiting place. The
+shelling of Fayet--fresh-scattered bricks across whose roads showed it
+an unhealthy place--was now taken up in earnest by the enemy. Partly
+perhaps from their own affection for such places, but more probably
+because it was our most likely route to reach the village, the Germans
+seldom allowed an hour to pass without sending several salvoes of 5.9s
+into the sunken road. My men were densely packed in holes under the
+banks. I was expecting large supplies of flares and bombs and all
+those things one carried on a raid, and had, of course, orders and
+explanations of their duties to give to many different parties.
+
+All this made April 27 a vexatious day. During the early part of the
+night men from my company had to carry rations to the front line
+companies. At midnight, while resting in a wretched lean-to in the
+sunken road, I had tidings that Corporal Viggers and several others
+had been hit by a shell, which destroyed all C Company's rations. Of
+these casualties there was a man whose name I forget, who insisted on
+going, not back to hospital, but into the raid a few hours afterwards.
+He went, and was wounded again. It is a privilege to place on record
+the valorous conduct of this un-named soldier.
+
+While I was receiving the serious news which deprived me of a valuable
+leader and several picked men, a shell pitched a few yards from the
+spot I occupied. The light went out, and I was half covered with dust
+and rubbish. To move was second nature. Followed by Taylor I 'moved'
+100 yards down the road to the rest of my company. My kit and maps
+were later rescued from the dirt and brought to my new position.
+Company Headquarters should be mobile, and on occasions like these
+were volatile.
+
+At 1 a.m. I roused the men, some 150 all told, and the responsible
+task of issuing the bombs, wire-cutters, and other things commenced.
+All these, invoiced with excellent precision by the Brigade Major,
+Moore, had been carried up by the Berks. The shelling rarely ceased,
+and I owed everything on this occasion to Corporal Leatherbarrow, who
+showed not only steadfast bravery but skill. The platoons could not,
+on account of the shells which sometimes fell in the roadway itself,
+be paraded, and each received its share of bombs piecemeal by
+sections. Food, to supplement which I did not scruple to issue some of
+the next day's rations, was partaken of at 2 a.m., but it took long,
+and half an hour later the whole party should have started upon its
+journey across the mile of open fields to reach the assembly post.
+Disposal of the bombs, the meal, and those many last attentions which
+breed delay had taken longer than I had allowed. Time was getting very
+short. I wanted to dodge the shelling, but had missed a quiet interval
+that occurred at 2.30 a.m. At 3 a.m. I moved, leading the party in a
+long column over the open ground north of Fayet to reach its eastern
+side. The inevitable 'wire mats,' an encumbrance without which few
+raiding parties ever started, hampered the progress. It was a pitch
+dark night, nor was I certain of the way. To cover the mile and then
+pass 150 men, ignorant of their whereabouts, silently and in single
+file through a gap into No-Man's-Land ere dawn broke and our
+bombardment started now seemed impossible. It was a serious quandary.
+To go on might be to compromise not only the operation, but the lives
+of 150 men, who would be discovered in daylight and in the open near
+the enemy. But to go back was to jeopardise the reputation of the
+Battalion.
+
+I went on.
+
+Great darkness preceded the dawn, which was expected shortly after 4
+a.m. I found the road, the first crater, the narrow track through the
+wire, and the empty ground beyond. A few minutes after the last man
+had reached his place our barrage opened. Shells fell spasmodically
+here and there for a few seconds; then all our batteries were shooting
+together. Their fire was admirable, heavy and well-directed.
+
+In the stumbling rush forward to reach the nearest wood--C Company to
+the second crater on the Fayet Road--waves and platoons were rapidly
+confused. The Germans, who found themselves attacked in flank and
+rear, were totally surprised. They had not stood-to and many were yet
+asleep. Some lights went up and a few sentries' shots were fired, but
+it appeared that small resistance to our progress would be made. The
+wire was trampled through, and for some minutes our men played havoc
+with the Germans, who ran, leaving draggled blankets and equipment in
+their trenches. Dug-outs were generously bombed, and explosions filled
+the air as our men hastily used the weapons brought to hurt the enemy.
+Three machine-guns fell into our hands. A miniature victory was in
+progress.
+
+But a turn of events followed; the trenches and woods beyond those we
+had first entered were neither unoccupied nor weakly held. A force
+certainly equal to ours was in opposition. After their first surprise
+the Germans recovered, manned their reserve machine-guns, and opened a
+fierce fire from front and flanks upon their assailants. Many of us
+were hit, including Taylor, the officer of No. 15 Platoon, who was
+severely wounded in the thigh. In No. 13 Platoon, which lost most
+heavily, Allden and his Platoon Sergeant, Kilby, were killed. The full
+programme could not be effected. It was getting light; so I decided to
+withdraw. Most of D Company I found had already done this in their own
+way, but the remainder now collected at my summons. Lance-Corporal
+O'Connor with his two Lewis guns did yeoman service to stem what had
+become the German counter-attack. Ammunition was running short, and
+German stick-bombs obliged me, in order to save from capture those
+less badly hit, to leave Taylor, whose wound made him quite helpless.
+The wire, through which Sergeant Mowby had been busy cutting a path,
+was safely passed, and an hour afterwards we had regained the sunken
+road. I learnt that Jones, who had led the right of the advance, had
+not returned. He with his men had narrowly missed being cut off when
+the dawn broke. During the ensuing day this party had to lie scattered
+in shell-holes till darkness enabled them to reach our lines.
+
+The raid was hailed as a signal success for the Battalion. Two
+machine-guns and one protesting prisoner had been dragged back to our
+lines. The German trenches had been over-run and many of their
+occupants had been killed or wounded. By a satisfactory coincidence
+the troops whom we surprised were a battalion of the Jaegers, the very
+regiment which after three hours' bombardment had raided us exactly
+two months previously at Ablaincourt.
+
+[Illustration: COMPANY SERGEANT-MAJOR E. BROOKS. V.C.]
+
+Our losses, considering the scope of the operation, were heavy, but
+not so proportionately to the number of troops of both sides engaged
+nor to the severe nature of the fighting. Most of our casualties had
+bullet wounds. The list, officially, was: Killed, 1 officer and 10
+other ranks; wounded, 2 officers and 41; missing, 1 officer and 2. Of
+Taylor I regret to say no news was ever heard. I left him wounded,
+probably fatally, and quite incapable of being moved. The likelihood
+is that he died soon afterwards and was buried by the enemy in the
+trench where he lay. Allden and Kilby were a serious loss to the
+fighting efficiency of D Company.
+
+For their gallantry Corporal Sloper and Sergeant Butcher received the
+Military Medal and Jones the Military Cross. Corporal Leatherbarrow
+for his steadfast conduct in the sunken road was mentioned in
+dispatches. To Sergeant-Major Brooks fell the honour of the
+Battalion's first V.C., of which the official award ran as follows:--
+
+     'For most conspicuous bravery. This Warrant Officer, while taking
+     part in a raid on the enemy's trenches, saw that the front wave
+     was checked by an enemy machine-gun at close quarters. On his own
+     initiative, and regardless of personal danger, he rushed forward
+     from the second wave with the object of capturing the gun,
+     killing one of the gunners with his revolver and bayoneting
+     another. The remainder of the gun's crew then made off, leaving
+     the gun in his possession. S.M. Brooks then turned the
+     machine-gun on to the retreating enemy, after which he carried it
+     back to our lines. By his courage and initiative he undoubtedly
+     prevented many casualties, and greatly added to the success of
+     the operations.'
+
+Infantry's recompense for raids and attacks was usually a short rest.
+This time it had to be postponed by a brief tour in the front line. So
+the next day, having exchanged positions with a Gloucester company, we
+lay in holes and watched the 5.9s raising their clouds of red
+brick-dust in Holnon. Fayet was left alone, nor did the sunken road
+receive attention. It was a balmy day, the first of spring.
+
+At night another minor operation preceded the relief. Orders were
+given for B Company, which held the right of the Battalion's line, to
+seize the much-disputed Cepy Farm and hand it over to the incoming
+Berks. Moberly, who had recently rejoined his old Battalion, was in
+command of this enterprise. The farm was reached and duly occupied,
+but when the time for handing over to the Berks arrived our post was
+driven out by a strong party of the enemy. This was the first of many
+similar encounters at Cepy Farm. Luckily it did not long prejudice the
+relief. Though chased a little on the way by shells, the Battalion had
+an easy march to Holnon Wood, in which a pleasant resting place was
+found. The trees and undergrowth, just bursting into green, presented
+happy contrast to the dust and danger of Fayet. In the sandy railway
+cutting, where the single line turns through the wood to reach
+Attilly, companies sat during the day and slept secure at night.
+Transport and cookers were near, and for a spell one was on terms of
+friendship with the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+ARRAS AND AFTERWARDS,
+
+MAY, JUNE, JULY, 1917.
+
+Relief by the French at St. Quentin.--A new Commanding Officer.--
+At the Battle of Arras.--Useful work by A Company.--Harassing
+fire.--A cave-dwelling.--At Bernaville and Noeux.--In G.H.Q.
+reserve.--A gas alarm by General Hunter Weston.--The Ypres arena.
+
+
+The next battlefield to which the Battalion's steps were turned was
+Arras. Early in May the French came to relieve the 61st Division at
+St. Quentin. It was said, perhaps with little truth, that the ban
+which forbade our guns to shell that town in such manner as, from a
+purely military standpoint, it deserved, induced this re-arrangement
+of the front. Certainly the French had tried in April, before the
+German retreat had definitely stopped, to encircle the town and
+capture it without bombardment, and possibly their staff yet hoped
+that it might fall undamaged into their hands. The attitudes of
+English and French artillerymen towards large towns which they saw
+opposite to them were naturally different. On this particular front
+St. Quentin was a potent hostage in the enemy's power and one which
+accounted for the extremely quiet conduct of the war in that sector
+after the English had left.
+
+On its backward march--moves by divisions up and down the front were
+always made at a good distance behind the line through districts known
+as 'staging areas'--the Battalion spent a few days close to Amiens,
+and thence marched through Doullens to familiar billets at Neuvillette.
+The 184th Infantry Brigade reached Arras at the end of May, and went
+into the line on June 2.
+
+During this move Colonel Bellamy, who had commanded us since August,
+1916, left the Battalion. He shortly afterwards succeeded to the
+command of the 2nd Royal Sussex, his former regiment. A man of tact
+and ripe experience, he had done much to improve the Battalion during
+his stay. He lacked few, if any, of the best qualities of a Regular
+officer. His steady discipline, sure purpose, and soldierly outlook,
+had made him at once Commanding Officer, counsellor and friend.
+Latterly he had been somewhat vexed by illness, but had refused to
+allow his activity to be handicapped thereby. His stay had not
+coincided with the brightest nor least difficult epochs in the
+Battalion's history, for which reason, since he was not unduly
+flattered by fortune, his merit deserves recognition.
+
+Colonel Bellamy's successor, H. de R. Wetherall, was a young man whom
+ability and leadership had already lifted to distinction in his
+regiment and placed in command of an important military school. From
+now onwards he is the outstanding figure in the Battalion's history.
+In the new Colonel a quick brain was linked with vigorous physique. In
+spite of his Regular training, Wetherall could appreciate and
+himself possessed to no small degree the peculiar virtues of the
+temporary officer, who based his methods on common sense and actual
+experience in the war rather than servile obedience to red tape and
+'Regulations.' He had studied during the war as well as before it,
+with the result that military tradition--his regiment was the
+Gloucestershire--and his long service in the field combined to fit him
+for command of our Battalion.
+
+The Division's share in the Arras Battle, 1917, was small. Already at
+the time of our arrival the later stages of the fighting had been
+reached. The British advance astride the River Scarpe had stopped on
+its north side beneath the low ridge spoken of as Greenland Hill and
+on its south before a wood known as the Bois du Vert. As on the Somme
+in November, 1916, local actions were continuing. To prepare for an
+attack on Infantry Hill, a position held by the enemy south-east of
+Monchy-le-Preux, the 2/4th Oxfords went into the front line on June 6.
+Orders were received to advance across No-Man's-Land and link up a
+line of shell-holes as a 'jumping-off place' for the subsequent
+attack. A Company successfully accomplished the task, and the
+Battalion earned a message of thanks from the Division which a few
+days afterwards made the designed attack.
+
+Apart from this achievement, the confused network of old and new
+trenches occupied during this period offered few features of special
+interest. C and A Companies and part of D were in the front line,
+which ran through chalk and was unsavoury by reason of the dead
+Germans lying all about. The enemy's fire was of that harassing kind
+which began now to mark the conduct of the war. In the old days
+conventional targets such as roads, trenches, and villages within a
+mile or two of our front were generally shelled at times which could
+be guessed and when such places could be avoided. These methods
+changed. Wherever Infantry or transport were bound to go at special
+times during the night, the German shells, reserved by day, were fired.
+Roads, tracks, and approaches, where in daylight English nursemaids
+could almost have wheeled perambulators with confidence, by night
+became hated avenues of danger for our Infantrymen moving up the line
+or ration-carrying to their forward companies. The fire to which they
+went exposed was the enemy's 'harassing fire,' and we, in our turn,
+very naturally 'harassed' the Germans. At this time a crater on the
+Arras-Cambrai road which must needs be passed and a shallow trench
+leading therefrom, known as Gordon Alley, were the most evil spots.
+Monchy, the hill-village which had cost us so many lives to capture,
+was heavily shelled by German howitzers both day and night; below its
+slopes lay several derelict tanks. Our gun positions, in proportion to
+the new increase in counter-battery work, were also often shelled.
+Though unconnected with any artillery, our doctor, Stobie, and with
+him Arrowsmith had a bitter experience of German shells. One fine
+summer morning the enemy commenced a programme of destructive fire
+upon some empty gunpits where the Doctor had his dressing-station.
+Stobie and Arrowsmith, with their personnel, received a high
+explosive notice to quit, and their descent into a wrong-facing shaft
+was next followed by the partial destruction of their only exit. They
+escaped safely and arrived in a state of pardonable excitement at the
+deep cave under Les Fosses Farm, where my Company Headquarters and
+many others were.
+
+This cave, perhaps, will bear a short description. In Artois and
+Picardy, where chalk strata prevailed, deep subterranean passages and
+caves abounded. Under Arras itself sufficient room existed to hold
+many thousands of our troops, who were housed underground before the
+battle opened. The Germans more than ourselves exploited this feature
+of geology. Under Gommecourt and Serre their reserve troops had lurked
+deep in caves. In the Champagne more striking instances occurred of
+whole battalions issuing from hidden passages and exits to the fight.
+The cave below Fosses Farm was about 40 feet below the ground. Of most
+irregular shape, it branched and twisted into numerous alleys and
+chambers through the chalk. In it lived representatives of the
+Artillery, Royal Engineers, New Zealand Tunnellers, the whole of B
+Company, parts of Headquarters, the Doctor's personnel, and my own
+Company Headquarters. The cave was dimly lit by a few candles.
+Throughout the day and night there were perpetual comings and goings,
+and it was common to see men, dazzled by the outside sun, come
+stumbling down the stairs and tread unseeing on the prostrate forms of
+those asleep below. The bare chalk was floor, bed, and bench to all
+alike. The shadows, the dim groups of figures, and the rough pillars
+forming walls and roof, gave the impression of some old cathedral. At
+one end a hole communicating with the ground above served as the only
+chimney for the incessant cooking that was going on. The fumes of this
+huge grill-room, which did duty, not only for the 400 men or so within
+the cave itself, but for as many situated at a distance in the outside
+world, lent a primeval stamp to the surroundings. We were cave-dwellers,
+living in partial darkness and lacking even the elements of furniture.
+
+Caves, cellars, and deep dug-outs had a demoralising influence upon
+their occupants. The utter security below, contrasted with the danger
+overhead--for often the entrances to these refuges were particularly
+shelled--and the knowledge that at any moment the former might have to
+be exchanged for the latter could deal a subtle injury to one's
+morale. It was a golden rule, one perchance followed by many of our
+leaders, to make each day some expedition afield before the sun had
+reached its meridian. On the whole one was happier without deep
+dug-outs--and safer, too, for to become a skulker was equivalent to
+death.
+
+In quoting things to show how little pic-nicing there was in the war I
+feel it opportune to mention a fresh shape in which danger now appeared,
+not only for the Infantry, but for others formerly immune in sheltered
+positions far behind the front. I refer to bombing aeroplanes. The
+warm clear summer nights were now, for the first time in common
+experience, marked by the loud droning of the enemy's machines and
+by the crash of bombs dropped upon huts and transport lines and along
+roads and railways in our back area. Arras was often severely bombed.
+The German aeroplanes on any fine night came to be regarded as
+inevitable. Bombing might be continued until nearly dawn. When no
+bombs fell close there was always the constant drone announcing their
+possibility. To men in huts or in the open, without lights or any
+means of shelter, the terror carried nightly overhead was greater far
+than that which ever served to depress Londoners.
+
+Another development which was destined to play an ever increasing part
+in the war and to make its closing phases worse in some respects than
+its early, was the long-range high-velocity gun. Though fully seven
+miles behind the line, Arras was shelled throughout the summer with
+very heavy shells. The railway station was their principal target, but
+the 15-inch projectiles fell in a wide radius and caused great
+destruction to the houses and colleges still standing in the city. Yet
+to the Arras citizens now eager to return and claim their property
+shells seemed a small deterrent.
+
+[Illustration: ARRAS--THE GRANDE PLACE]
+
+Our stay up in the line was short, but we had casualties. Lindsey, a
+new officer in D Company, was killed on his first visit to the
+trenches, and Herbert, of B, was wounded. D Company also lost as
+casualties Sergeant Buller and Lance-Corporal Barnes and half-a-dozen
+Lewis gunners in the line. The night of our relief was spent in
+bivouacs near Tilloy. A violent thunderstorm, which was the expected
+sequel to the fortnight's intensely warm weather we had been
+experiencing, drenched our surroundings and gave the hard earth,
+trampled by summer tracks, a surface slippery as winter mud. On June
+11 the Battalion was back in billets at Bernaville, a village four
+miles west of Arras, and it appeared that the Division (of which the
+184th Brigade alone had been into the line) had completed its tour in
+the Arras sector.
+
+I rejoice that the few pleasant phases of the Battalion's experiences
+in France elapsed less rapidly than I describe them. At Bernaville the
+weather continued fine and warm; in fact, some of the hottest weather
+of the year occurred. A busy training programme was in swing. To
+escape the heat, companies paraded at 7 a.m. and worked till 11, and
+again in the evening at 5 and worked till 7. This training must not be
+judged by readers according to style and methods possibly seen by them
+on English training grounds during the war. At home, after the last
+divisions of Kitchener's Army went abroad, no officers trained their
+own men whom they would lead in battle. The men were usually the
+rawest drafts, while the officers in home battalions were too often
+those who had never gone and never would go to the front. A totally
+different spirit characterised training in France. Colonel Wetherall
+was a master of the art of teaching. His emphatic direction and
+enthusiasm earned early reward in the increased efficiency of all
+ranks.
+
+At Noeux, near Auxi-le-Château, whither we moved on June 23, the
+Battalion's midsummer respite was continued; we were in G.H.Q.
+reserve. Rumour, not false on this occasion, predicted the Division's
+share in a great battle between Ypres and the coast which was due to
+happen before the autumn. Expectancy was rife to the effect that
+co-operation from the sea was to assist in driving the Germans from
+the Belgian coast. News, big in its effects, was read one morning in
+the _Daily Mail_. The enemy had attacked our lines at Nieuport and
+driven our garrison across the Yser. A valuable footing had been lost.
+
+Happy memories are associated with Noeux. It was a pretty village,
+girt by rolling hills crowned with rich woods. 'Wood-fighting' (which
+I always said should literally mean the fighting _of_ woods, and
+indeed it often resolved itself into a contest of man _versus_
+undergrowth) was a frequent feature in the training programme. What
+was sometimes lost in 'direction' was as often gained in naughty
+amusement at the miscarriage of a scheme. For off-duty hours the
+wild-boars of Auxi woods and the cafés in that small town provided
+varied attractions and romance. The General, who was delighted with
+the war and the Battalion, was more vigorous and inspiring than ever.
+It was owing largely to him that the 184th Brigade became the best in
+the Division. This good time, which had for its object, not enjoyment,
+but preparation for more fighting, came all too soon to an end.
+
+[Illustration: NOEUX VILLAGE]
+
+On July 26 the Battalion said good-bye to Noeux. Its inhabitants, of
+whom an old lady called 'Queen Victoria' (La Reine Victoria, as she
+was known even by her fellow-villagers) was typical, gave us a
+hearty send-off. Three hours after leaving it we again passed through
+the village, this time by train. We reached St. Omer in the evening
+and marched to a scattered Flemish hamlet called Broxeele. Here a stay
+longer than was expected was made; the 61st Division was in reserve to
+the 5th Army. The introduction by the Germans of the celebrated
+mustard-gas at Ypres had caused many thousand casualties in the line
+and lent new urgency to our gas drill.
+
+At Broxeele on August 6 the Corps Commander, General Hunter Weston,
+paid a memorable visit of inspection to the Battalion. Long waits,
+succeeded by tedious processions of generals and decorated
+staff-officers of every grade, are usually associated with
+inspections. General Hunter Weston was more than punctual. His
+knowledge of all military appurtenances was encyclopedic. A rigorous
+examination of revolvers, mess tins, and similar accessories at once
+commenced. Companies, instead of standing like so many rows of
+dummies, were given each some task to perform. Suddenly in the midst
+of everything a loud cry of 'Gas' is emitted by the General. Not
+unprepared for such a 'stunt' as this, the entire party scrambles as
+fast as possible into gas-helmets. I think we earned high marks for
+our gas-discipline. This inspection made a strong impression on the
+men, who afterwards remembered the occasion and often spoke of it.
+
+Towards the end of July the weather, hitherto so fine, broke hopelessly.
+Torrential rains followed, which inundated the flat country far and
+wide. After several postponements the Third Battle of Ypres
+commenced on July 31. Some two weeks later the Battalion moved forward
+by train from Arnecke to Poperinghe. We awaited our share in the
+fighting; which was to make this battle the most bloody and perhaps
+least profitable of the whole war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES,
+
+AUGUST, 1917.
+
+A Battalion landmark.--Poperinghe and Ypres.--At Goldfish Château.
+--The attack near St. Julien on August 22.--Its results.--A
+mud-locked battle.--The back-area.--Mustard gas.--Pill-box
+warfare.
+
+
+In the war-history of all Battalions there is a season when it is
+possible to say that they have reached their fulness of development,
+but have not yet lost all original identity. August, 1917, was such a
+season in my history. Of officers and men who had served with the
+Battalion in its infancy many were yet remaining. Time and experience
+of war had moulded these, with the admixture of subsequent drafts,
+into a Battalion sure of itself and well-developed. But when it
+quitted the battleground of Ypres most of its old identity had
+vanished. From that time onward the 2/4th Oxfords were a changed unit,
+whose roots were set no longer in England but in France, for in France
+had come to it the officers and men of whom it was afterwards
+constituted.
+
+On the eve of this great change importing battle a short review is not
+amiss of the Battalion's constitution. A Company still had for its
+Commander Brown, among whose officers were Coombes, Callender, and
+Webb. As Company Sergeant Major, Cairns was a tower of strength. John
+Stockton led B Company, and under him was Moberly. C Company possessed
+two Captains, Brucker and Harris, and had as platoon commanders,
+Hawkes, Matthews, and Jones. D Company was still commanded by the
+author. An acquisition to my company had recently arrived in Scott,
+the bearer of two wounds received in service with the Oxford
+Territorials. Scott was the best officer I ever had. Guest, another
+new officer, before he went into the line showed that he was made of
+the right stuff; he was commander of No. 16 Platoon. Dawson-Smith,
+Copinger, Gascoyne, and Hill were other new arrivals in my company.
+The N.C.O.'s on whom I most relied were Sergeants Palmer,
+Leatherbarrow, and Sloper, but the real backbone of the Company were
+the gallant and determined section leaders whom I had chosen for
+promotion from the ranks. Of my runners and signallers I was
+especially proud, and at Company Headquarters there was, of course,
+the redoubtable Sergeant-Major Brooks, who besides being a great
+fighter possessed also high organising powers. My total strength on
+reaching Poperinghe was over 200, which shows that at this time the
+Battalion was well found in men. It was known nevertheless that some
+reduction from this maximum fighting force was to take place. One
+hundred men of the Battalion, including 'specialists' like Lewis
+gunners, signallers and runners, were henceforward 'left out of the
+line' whenever the Battalion went forward to take part in an attack.
+They were so left in order that, if the casualties were very high,
+some nucleus of veteran soldiers would still remain around whom the
+new Battalion could be built. A like rule applied to officers. A month
+ago the Colonel had decided which of these should not take part in the
+first Ypres attack. Brown and myself stayed out of the line, and in
+our stead Callender and Scott respectively commanded A and D
+Companies.
+
+[Illustration: POPERINGHE FROM THE WEST]
+
+Our stay near Poperinghe was short. Attention was devoted to the final
+organisation of platoons and sections and to the problem of what kit
+to carry in the attack and how best to carry it. Varied experiments
+were made to see whether a pack or haversack was better and which way
+uppermost a shovel should be slung. Supply of ammunition for the Lewis
+guns raised many questions for debate. When all the sections--the
+Lewis-gunners, bombers, rifle-grenadiers, and riflemen--were finally
+complete, a new drain was made on our numbers by the demand for
+seventeen men per Company, who from their duties became known as
+'Loaders and Leaders.' Their function was to lead forward during
+battle mules loaded with rations, water, and ammunition. So little
+advancing was there that the mules, so far as this Battalion was
+concerned, were never used, and the loaders and leaders, thanks to
+their function proving illusory, escaped all share in the fighting.
+
+If Poperinghe and Ypres had quite borne out their reputations I should
+not here remark on either of them. The former was a most crowded and
+degenerate-looking town, by a few towers rendered impressive from a
+distance, but in reality of mean structure. Besides its club--at which
+I recollect that Heidsieck 1906 was then only ten francs the
+bottle--and its estaminets, the town held few attractions. Damage by
+long-range German guns around the station had been considerable, but
+to the town itself, except its windows, not very much had up till now
+occurred. The surrounding country was neither flat nor uninteresting.
+The Mont des Cats and Kemmel bounded the horizon on the south-east,
+while to the west and north gently undulating hills, covered with
+fields of hops, distinguished this area from the sodden plains
+commonly credited to Flanders. Ypres, though destroyed past any hopes
+of restoration, in 1917 still wore the semblance of a town. From
+previous descriptions of the 'Salient' I had almost expected that a
+few handfuls of ashes would be of Ypres the only vestige left. The
+portions least destroyed in Ypres compared perhaps equally with the
+worst in Arras, but of the two the Flemish city had been the less well
+built. The remains of the great Cloth Hall, cathedral, and other
+buildings revealed that what had once been, supposedly, of stone was
+in reality white brick.
+
+On August 18, starting at 4 a.m., the Battalion marched to Goldfish
+Château, close to Ypres, and the Transport to a disused brickfield
+west of Vlamertinghe. We lived in bivouacs and tents and were much
+vexed by German aeroplanes, and to a less degree by German shells. On
+August 20, while companies were making ready for the line, an air
+fight happened just above our camp. Its sequel was alarming. A German
+aeroplane fell worsted in the fight, and dived to ground, a roaring
+mass of fire, not forty yards from our nearest tents. By a freak of
+chance the machine fell in a hole made by a German shell. The usual
+rush was made towards the scene--by those, that is, not already
+sufficiently close for their curiosity. A crowd, which to some extent
+disorganised our preparations for the line, collected round the spot
+and watched the R.F.C. extract the pilot and parts of the machine,
+which was deeply embedded in the hole. For hours the wreckage remained
+the centre of attraction to many visitors. The General hailed the
+burnt relics, not inappropriately, as a lucky omen.
+
+During the night of August 20/21 the Battalion relieved a portion of
+the front eastward of Wieltje. Three companies were placed in trenches
+bearing the name of 'Capricorn,' but B was further back. During the
+night a serious misfortune befell the latter. Three 5.9s fell actually
+in the trench and caused thirty-five casualties, including all the
+sergeants of the company. On the eve of an attack such an occurrence
+was calculated to affect the morale of any troops. That the company
+afterwards did well was specially creditable in view of this
+demoralising prelude.
+
+On the following night Companies assembled for the attack. Neither the
+starting place nor the objectives for this are easily described by
+reference to surrounding villages. The nearest was St. Julien. The
+operation orders for the attack of August 22 assigned as objective
+to the Oxfords a road running across the Hanebeck and referred to as
+the Winnipeg-Kansas Cross Road. The 48th Division on the left and the
+15th on the right were to co-operate with the 184th Brigade in the
+attack.
+
+Shortly before 5 the bombardment started. In the advance behind the
+creeping barrage put down by our guns, of which an enormous
+concentration was present on the front, C, D and A Companies (from
+right to left) provided the first waves, while B Company followed to
+support the flanks. The Berks came afterwards as 'moppers up.'
+Half-an-hour after the advance started D, B and A Companies were
+digging-in 150 yards west of the Winnipeg-Kansas Cross Road. The
+losses of these companies in going over had not been heavy, but, as so
+often happens, casualties occurred directly the objective had been
+duly reached. In the case of C Company, on the right, but little
+progress had been made. Pond Farm, a concrete stronghold, to capture
+which a few nights previously an unsuccessful sally had been made, had
+proved too serious an obstacle. Not till the following night was it
+reduced, and during the whole of August 22 it remained a troublesome
+feature in the situation. Before the line reached could be consolidated
+or they could act to defeat the enemy's tactics, our men found
+themselves the victims of sniping and machine-gun fire from Schuler
+Farm, which was not taken and to which parties of reinforcements to
+the enemy now came. More dangerous still was an old gun-pit which lay
+behind the left flank. The capture of this had been assigned to the
+48th Division, but as a measure of abundant caution Colonel Wetherall
+had detailed a special Berks platoon to tackle it. This platoon,
+assisted by some Oxfords on the scene, captured the gun-pit and nearly
+seventy prisoners, but failed to garrison it. A party of the enemy
+found their way back and were soon firing into our men from behind.
+
+[Illustration: The ATTACK of AUG 22 BY 15TH 61ST & 48TH DIVISIONS
+Approx: Position of 2/4th. OXF. at 7 pm.]
+
+During the early stages of consolidation, when personal example and
+direction were required, John Stockton, Scott, and Gascoyne were all
+killed by snipers or machine-gun fire. Scott had been hit already in
+the advance and behaved finely in refusing aid until he had despatched
+a message to Headquarters. While he was doing so three or four bullets
+struck him simultaneously and he died.
+
+Throughout the 22nd no actual counter-attack nor organised bombardment
+by the enemy took place, but much sniping and machine-gun fire
+continued, making it almost impossible to move about. Our loss in
+Lewis-gunners was particularly heavy. Callender, the acting company
+commander of A Company, had been killed before the attack commenced,
+and Sergeant-Major Cairns was now the mainstay of that company, whose
+men were thoroughly mixed up with B. Upon the left the 48th Division
+had failed to reach Winnipeg, with the result that this flank of A and
+B Companies was quite in the air. On the Battalion's right the failure
+of C Company, in which Brucker had been wounded, to pass Pond Farm
+left the flank of D Company exposed and unsupported. But the position
+won was kept. Ground to which the advance had been carried with cost
+would not be lightly given up. Moberly, Company Sergeant-Major
+Cairns, and Guest--the latter by volunteering in daylight to run the
+gauntlet of the German snipers back to Headquarters--greatly
+distinguished themselves in the task of maintaining this exposed
+position during the night of August 22 and throughout August 23. Some
+of our men had to remain in shell-holes unsupported and shot at from
+several directions for over fifty hours. During the night of August
+23/24 the Battalion was relieved, when those whom death in battle had
+not claimed nor wounds despatched to hospital marched back through
+Ypres to the old camp at Goldfish Château.
+
+The attack, in which the Bucks had successfully co-operated on the
+right of our advance, earned credit for the Brigade and the Battalion.
+It had been, from a fighting standpoint, a military success. But from
+the strategical aspect the operations showed by their conclusion that
+the error had been made of nibbling with weak forces at objectives
+which could only have been captured and secured by strong. Moreover,
+the result suggested that the objectives had been made on this occasion
+for the attack rather than the attack for the objectives. The 184th
+Brigade had played the part assigned to it completely and with credit,
+but what had been gained by it with heavy loss was in fact given up by
+its successors almost at once. Withdrawal from the Kansas trenches
+became an obvious corollary to the German omission to counter-attack
+against them. Ground not in dispute 'twas not worth casualties to
+hold. On the Battalion's front Pond Farm, a small concrete
+stronghold, remained the sole fruit of the attack of August 22. It was
+after the 61st Division had been withdrawn, wasted in stationary war,
+that what success could be associated with this third battle of Ypres
+commenced. Judged by its efforts, the 61st was ill paid in results.
+
+On August 25 the Battalion, and with it the rest of the Brigade, moved
+back from Goldfish Château to Query Camp, near Brandhoek. The weather,
+which had been fairly fine for several weeks, now again broke in
+thunderstorms and rain. Trees were blown down along the main road to
+Ypres. The clouds hung low or raced before the wind, so that no
+aeroplane nor kite-balloon could mount the sky. This meteorological
+revulsion stood the Germans in great stead. Mud and delay, fatal to
+us, were to them tactical assets of the highest value. As can easily
+be appreciated, to postpone a complicated attack is a proceeding only
+less lengthy and difficult than its preparation, nor can attacks even
+be cancelled except at quite considerable notice. Thus it befell that
+some of our attacks, before they had commenced, were ruined by deluges
+of rain when it was too late to change the plans. On August 27 a
+further attack upon Gallipoli, Schuler Farm and Winnipeg was made by
+the 183rd Brigade in co-operation with the 15th and 48th Divisions.
+The mud and enemy machine-gun fire alike proved terrible. The contact
+aeroplane soon crashed, the advance failed to reach the 'pill-boxes'
+from which the Germans held out, and before night a return had to be
+made to the original line.
+
+On August 30 the Brigade went forward once again to Goldfish Château.
+The camp had not been improved by our predecessors, who had attempted
+to dig in. Holes filled with water were the result, and nearly all the
+tents and shelters had to be moved. Since the stagnation of the battle
+German shelling in the back area had much increased. The field where
+the camp lay was bounded on three sides by railways or roads. Some of
+our 12-inch howitzers were close in front. Despite our best attempts
+to sever association with such targets we had a share in the shells
+intended for them. One night especially the long howl of German shells
+ended in their arrival very near our tents. The latter had been placed
+at one side of the field in order to escape, as we expected, the
+shells more likely to be aimed by German gunners at the main road and
+railway as targets. We changed our 'pitch,' but the next morning came
+a pursuing shell on an old line of fire, which made it clear that the
+best place was the deliberate middle of the field.
+
+The passage overhead of German aeroplanes made nights uneasy. Darkness
+was lit by those huge flashes in the sky, which denoted explosions of
+our dumps of shells. The ground shook many times an hour with great
+concussions. Sometimes the crash of bombs and patter of machine-guns
+firing at our transport lasted till pale dawn appeared or its approach
+was heralded by the bombardment of our guns, whose voice pronounced
+the prologue of attack.
+
+On both sides the concentration of artillery was very great. Though
+the bad weather had shackled our advance from the start, our staff yet
+hoped to gain the ridge of Passchendaele before winter set in. The
+Germans, too, held that the stake was high. Our guns, which were
+advanced as far as Wieltje and St. Jean and stood exposed in the open,
+became the object of persistent German shelling. Sound-ranging and
+aerial photography had reached a high development, and few of our
+batteries went undiscovered. For the Artillery life became as hard as
+for the Infantry. Gunner casualties were very numerous. Our batteries
+for hours on end were drenched in mustard-gas. Into Ypres as well
+large quantities of 'Yellow Cross' shells, cleverly mixed up with
+high-explosive, were fired with nocturnal frequency. The long range of
+the enemy's field-guns made the effect of these subtle gas-shells,
+whose flight and explosion were almost noiseless amid the din of our
+own artillery, especially widespread. The enemy's activity against our
+back area was at its height at the end of August, 1917. Casualty
+Clearing Stations were both bombed and shelled. Near Poperinghe nurses
+were killed. No service forward of Corps Headquarters but had its
+casualties. Our lorry-drivers' work was fraught with danger. The
+Germans were waging a war to the knife and employing every means to
+serve their obstinate resistance.
+
+[Illustration: VLAMERTINGE--THE ROAD TO YPRES]
+
+The 'defence in depth,' practised to some extent at Arras, had become
+the enemy's reply to our destruction by artillery of the trench
+systems on which, earlier in the war, he had relied with confidence.
+Destruction of prepared positions had reached so absolute a stage
+that the old arguments of wire and machine-guns brought up from deep
+dug-outs to fire over parapets, were no longer present. The ground to
+a distance of several thousand yards behind the enemy's front line
+could be, and had been, churned and rechurned into one brown expanse.
+For four miles east of Ypres there was no green space and hardly a
+yard of ground without its shell-hole. Positions where the enemy held
+out consisted in groups of concrete 'pill-boxes,' which had been made
+from Belgian gravel and cement in partial anticipation of this result
+of the artillery war. They in all cases were carefully sited and so
+small (being designed to hold machine-guns and their teams) that their
+destruction by our heavy shells was almost impossible. These
+'pill-boxes' were also so designed as to support each other, that is
+to say, if one of them were captured, the fire of others on its flanks
+often compelled the captors to yield it up. Garrisons were provided
+from the _élite_ of the German army. One cannot but admire the
+steadfastness with which, during this phase of warfare, these solitary
+strongholds held out. Indeed, the only way to cope with this defence
+was to press an advance on a wide front to such a depth as to reduce
+the entire area in which these pill-boxes lay into our possession. By
+attacking spasmodically we played the enemy's game.
+
+Our methods of attack which had been practised through the spring and
+summer still consisted, broadly speaking, in the advance of lines of
+Infantry behind a creeping barrage. These lines were too often held
+up by pill-boxes, against which the creeping barrage was ineffectual,
+and once delay which had not been calculated on occurred, the creeping
+barrage was proved doubly useless, for it had outdistanced the speed
+of the advance. The change in tactics necessary to reduce these
+concrete strongholds was soon appreciated, but troops who had been
+trained in the older methods were slow, in action, to adopt the new
+ones requisite. Partly from such a reason the 61st Division scored
+little success against the pill-box defence, but lack of tangible
+results was not joined with lack of honest attempts. The mud, the
+nibbling tactics passed down from above, inadequate co-operation by
+the divisions fighting side by side with us, and the failure of our
+artillery to hit the pill-boxes which we had hoped could be put out of
+action by our heavy shells, further combined to paralyse efforts
+which, had they been directed to more easy tasks, would now, as often,
+have earned for the Division the highest military success.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE ATTACK ON HILL 35,
+
+SEPTEMBER, 1917.
+
+Iberian, Hill 35, and Gallipoli.--The Battalion ordered to make the
+seventh attempt against Hill 35.--The task.--A and D Companies
+selected.--The assembly position.--Gassed by our own side.--
+Waiting for zero.--The attack.--Considerations governing its
+failure.--The Battalion quits the Ypres battlefield.
+
+
+'At 4 p.m.' said the 61st Divisional Summary for the twenty-four hours
+ending 12 noon, September 11, 1917, 'we attacked the Battery Position
+on Hill 35. This attack was not successful.' A grim epitaph. The terse
+formula, as though wasted words must not follow wasted lives, was the
+official record of the seventh attempt to storm Hill 35.
+
+Against the concrete gunpits which crowned this insignificant ridge
+the waves of our advance on July 31 had lapped in vain. Minor attacks
+designed to take Gallipoli, a German stronghold set behind the ridge,
+and against the sister position of Iberian on its flank, proved
+throughout August some of the most costly failures in the 5th Army
+operations. The defence of the three strongholds, Iberian, Hill 35,
+and Gallipoli provided a striking example of German stubbornness
+and skill, but added an object-lesson in the squandering of our
+efforts in attack. Operations upon a general scale having failed to
+capture all three, it was fantastically hoped that each could be
+reduced separately. Iberian, Hill 35, and Gallipoli supported one
+another, nor was it feasible to hold any without holding all. Yet to
+take Hill 35 on September 9 the 2/4th Oxfords were specially selected.
+The spirit of A and D Companies, chosen by Colonel Wetherall for the
+attack, was excellent. We confidently believed that we could succeed
+where others failed. Optimism, so vital an ingredient in morale, was a
+powerful assistant to the English Army. It was fostered, perhaps
+unconsciously, throughout the war by the cheerful attitude preserved
+by our Generals and staff, but its foundation lay in our great system
+of supply. The A.S.C., which helped to win our victories, helped, too,
+to temper our defeats.
+
+[Illustration: THE ATTACK ON HILL 35 SEPTEMBER 10 1917]
+
+On September 7 Brown and myself went up through Ypres to view the
+scene of the attack. At Wieltje, where Colonel Wetherall and B and C
+Companies already were, we descended to a deep, wet dug-out and that
+night listened to a narrative brought by an officer who had
+participated in the last attempt to take the hill. He dispensed the
+most depressing information about the gunpits, the machine-guns, the
+barrages, and last, but not least terrible (if believed), the new
+incendiary Verey lights used by the Germans to cremate their assailants.
+The description of a piece of trench, which we were to capture and
+block, particularly flattered our prospects. 'Wide, shallow trench,
+enfiladed from Gallipoli, filled with --th Division dead,' it ran. The
+tale of horror becoming ludicrous, we soon afterwards clambered on to
+the wire bunks and slept, dripped on, till the early morning.
+
+The next day was misty. Our 15-inch howitzers on whose ability to
+smash the enemy's concrete strongholds reliance was staked, could not
+fire. The attack was postponed until September 10, but that decision
+came too late to stop our companies quitting the camp according to
+previous orders and marching up through Ypres. They could have stayed
+at Wieltje for the night, but the men's fear that by so doing they
+would miss their hot tea, decided their vote in favour of a return to
+Goldfish Château. Tea is among the greatest bribes that can be offered
+to the British soldier.
+
+Accordingly the march through Ypres, or rather, round it (for no
+troops chose to pass its market place) was repeated on the morrow. The
+tracks towards the line were shelled on our way up, but we came safely
+through. Dusk was awaited in a much war-worn trench in front of
+Wieltje.
+
+As daylight fades we file away, each man with his own thoughts. Whose
+turn is it to be this journey?
+
+Along the tortuous track of tipsy duckboards we go for a mile, until
+acrid fumes tell that the German barrage line is being passed. This is
+a moment to press on! To get the Company safely across this hundred
+yards is worth many a fall.
+
+... Presently the shattered pollards of the Steenbeek are left behind
+and flickering Verey lights cast into weird relief the rugged surface
+of the earth. At Pommern Castle our front trenches, in which figures
+of men loom indistinctly, are reached. At one corner, where the trench
+is littered with fragments, we are cautioned by a sentry, whose voice
+is a little shaken, not to linger; the entrance to a pill-box (which
+faced the enemy) was hit a short time ago. From the trench we proceed
+further into No-Man's-Land, where the Bucks are said to have linked up
+shell-holes since nightfall. (Those will be our 'assembly position'
+for the attack to-morrow afternoon).
+
+By now all shells are passing over our heads; we are level with where
+Verey lights are falling, and the sweep of bullets through the air
+shows that the enemy is not far off. Figures appear as if by magic.
+All at once there is a crowd of men, rattling equipment and talking in
+suppressed voices. A few commands, and the relief is complete. We are
+in No-Man's-Land, strung in a line of shell-holes, from which in
+sixteen hours' time the attack is to start.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Soon after 3 a.m. I set out to visit all the scattered groups of men
+to give my last instructions, for from dawn onwards no movement would
+be possible. It was an eerie situation. The night was filled with
+multifarious noise--peculiar 'poops,' the distant crash of bombs, and
+all the mingled echoes of a battlefield. At one time German howitzers,
+firing at longest range, chimed a faint chorus high above our heads;
+anon a hissing swoop would plant a shell close to our whereabouts.
+Lights rose and sank, flickering. Red and green rockets, as if to
+ornament the tragedy of war, were dancing in the sky. Occasionally a
+gust of foul wind, striking the face, could make one fancy that
+Death's Spectre marched abroad, claiming her children....
+
+Our guns fired incessantly. Their shells came plunging down with an
+arriving whistle that made each one as it came seem that it must drop
+short--and many did. Mist drifted fitfully around and hid, now and
+again, two derelict tanks, at which a forward post of my company was
+stationed. This post I was on my way to visit, when, suddenly, what
+seemed trench-mortar bombs began to fall. About twenty fell in a
+minute, the last ones very close to where I stood.
+
+They were gas. It was a sickening moment; surprise, disaster, and the
+possibility that here was some new German devilry fired at us from
+behind, joined with the fumes to numb the mind and powers. Half-gassed
+I gave the gas-alarm. By telephone I managed to report what had
+happened. The Colonel seemed to understand at once; 'I've stopped
+them,' conveyed everything of which it was immediately necessary to
+make certain.
+
+[Illustration: HILL 35, from an aeroplane photograph taken a week
+before the attack of Sept 10. Note the four derelict Tanks]
+
+For it was an attack by our own gas. Some detachment, without
+notifying our Brigade staff or selecting a target which sanity could
+have recommended, had done a 'shoot' against my company's position
+under the mistake that the enemy was in it. Two casualties, which I
+believe proved fatal, resulted. Many men vomited. I was prostrated for
+two hours. The effect on the morale of some of my men was as pitiable
+as it was amply justifiable.
+
+For this dastardly outrage I fancy that no person was ever brought to
+book. Infantry loyally condoned the so-called 'short shooting' by our
+guns. Out of thousands of shells fired at the enemy some must and did
+fall in our lines. But from such condonation is specifically to be
+excepted this instance of a gas projection carried out with criminal
+negligence upon my comrades. For or by its perpetrator no excuse was
+offered; and yet the facts were never in dispute.
+
+Proverbially the worst part of an attack was waiting for it. On
+September 10, from dawn till 4 p.m., A and D Companies lay cramped in
+shell holes on the slopes of Hill 35. In my own hole, so close that
+our knees touched, sat Sergeant Palmer, Rowbotham, my signalling
+lance-corporal, Baxter, another signaller, Davies, my runner, and
+myself. With us we had a telephone and a basket of carrier pigeons.
+
+At 8 a.m., while some of us were sleeping heavily, there came a crash
+and a jar, which shook every fibre in the body. An English shell had
+burst a yard or two from the hole wherein we lay. Voices from
+neighbouring shell-holes hailed us--'Are you all right?': and we
+replied 'We are.' We had no other shell as close as that, but all day
+long there were two English guns whose shells, aimed at the Germans on
+the ridge in front, fell so near to where we lay that we became
+half-used to being spattered with their earth. As the air warmed the
+error of these guns decreased, but we counted the hours anxiously
+until the attack should liberate us from such cruel jeopardy.[8]
+
+                   [Footnote 8: At this stage in the war the barrels
+                   of many of our guns and howitzers in use on the
+                   Western Front were very worn. That fact alone and
+                   not any want of care or devotion on the part of our
+                   Artillery or staff would have accounted for the
+                   'short shooting' which I record. To locate a worn
+                   barrel, when scores of batteries were bombarding
+                   together according to a complicated programme, was
+                   naturally impossible. Infantry recognised this.]
+
+The intolerable duration of that day baffles description. The sun,
+which had displaced a morning mist, struck down with unrelenting rays
+till shrapnel helmets grew hot as oven-doors. Bluebottles (for had not
+six attempts failed to take the hill?) buzzed busily. The heat, our
+salt rations, the mud below, the brazen sky above, and the suspense of
+waiting for the particular minute of attack, vied for supremacy in the
+emotions. The drone of howitzers continued all the day. Only at 2.30
+p.m., when a demonstration was made against Iberian, did any variety
+even occur. There was no choice nor respite. Not by one minute could
+the attack be either anticipated or postponed.
+
+Of the attack itself the short outline is soon given. Promptly at 4
+p.m. the creeping barrage started. In a dazed way or lighting
+cigarettes the men, who had lost during the long wait all sense of
+their whereabouts, began to stumble forward up the hill. Our shrapnel
+barrage was not good. One of the earliest shells burst just behind
+the hole from which I stepped. It wounded Rowbotham and Baxter (my two
+signallers) and destroyed the basket of carrier pigeons. Of other
+English shells I saw the brown splash amongst our men. Prolonged
+bombardment had ploughed the ground into a welter of crumbling earth
+and mud. Our progress at only a few dozen yards a minute gave the
+Germans in their pill-boxes ample time to get their machine-guns
+going, while correspondingly the barrage passed away from our advance
+in its successive lifts. Heavy firing from Iberian commenced to
+enfilade our ranks. Long before the objective was approached our
+enemies, who in some cases left the pill-boxes and manned positions
+outside, were masters of the situation. The seventh attempt had failed
+to struggle up the slopes of Hill 35.
+
+Despite the disappointment of this immediate failure of the
+enterprise, I realised at once the impossibility of its success. Yet
+on this occasion less was done by the men than the conduct of their
+leaders deserved. Almost as soon as bullets had begun to bang through
+the air some men had gone to shelter. Those who stood still were mown
+down. A handful of D Company, led by the company commander, by short
+rushes reached a ruined tank, close to the enemy, but the remainder
+disappeared into shell-holes, whence encouragement was powerless to
+move them. Only in A Company was any fire opened.
+
+No sense of anti-climax could be demanded of the English soldier,
+whose daily shilling was paid him whether he was in rest-billets,
+on working-party, or sent into the attack.[9]
+
+                   [Footnote 9: Nowhere is this truth better expressed
+                   than in the words of 'Tommy's' own song, the
+                   refrain of which ends:--
+                     'But you get your "bob" a day, never mind!']
+
+On the part also of the Artillery less was done than the scheme
+promised or our attacking Infantry had counted on. By shell-fire the
+issue of Hill 35 was to have been placed beyond doubt. When the
+artillery machine broke down, achievement of success demanded more
+initiative on the part of the Infantry than if no artillery had been
+used. In a sense our loss of a hundred guns at Cambrai a few weeks
+later became a blessing in disguise, for it restored the scales in
+favour of the Infantryman as the decisive agent on the field of
+battle.
+
+So ended the attack on Hill 35. Upon its slopes were added our dead to
+the dead of many regiments. But our casualties were few considering
+that the attack had been brought to a standstill by machine-gun fire.
+Of D Company officers Guest was wounded (he had behaved with gallantry
+in the attack) and Copinger missing. Viggers, a very brave sergeant,
+was killed. Three lance-corporals, Wise, Rowbotham, and Goodman, had
+been wounded. The total casualties to the Battalion, including several
+in B Company Headquarters from a single shell and others in passing
+afterwards through Ypres, were, happily, under fifty.
+
+A few days after its attack on Hill 35 the Battalion marched away from
+Ypres, never to return. What credit had been earned there by the
+61st Division was principally associated with the work of the 184th
+Infantry Brigade and of the 2/4th Oxfords. Improvement in morale
+flowed from the test of this great battle. The losses of the Battalion
+had been heavy; fourteen officers and 260 men were its casualties. The
+final winning of the war could not be unconnected with such a
+sacrifice. Like others before and others after it, the Battalion at
+Ypres gave its pledge to posterity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+AUTUMN AT ARRAS AND THE MOVE TO CAMBRAI,
+
+OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, DECEMBER, 1917.
+
+The Battalion's return to Arras.--A quiet front.--The Brigadier
+and his staff.--A novelty in tactics.--B Company's raid.--A
+sudden move.--The Cambrai front.--Havrincourt Wood.--Christmas
+at Suzanne.
+
+
+From Arras the 61st Division came to Ypres: to Arras it returned.
+After a week spent in the back area, advance by the usual stepping
+stones was made to the front line. The 184th was the last Brigade to
+go into the trenches; not till the beginning of October did it take
+over the line. The front held by the 61st Division stretched from the
+Chemical Works of Roeux upon the right to a point south of Gavrelle
+upon the left. Two Brigades were in the line at once and stayed
+twenty-four days, Battalions changing places during the period. A rest
+of twelve days back at Arras followed.
+
+This process of relief and the general conditions brought a return of
+trench-warfare almost on its old lines. As autumn waned gumboots were
+even spoken of. The trenches were mostly of chalk, and had been left
+by the 17th Division in excellent condition. The experience of a former
+winter prevented the error being made, at all events in theory, of
+leaving trenches unfloored and unrevetted, until winter, bringing its
+consequence of mud, arrived. Especially the mile-long communication
+trenches called 'Chili' and 'Civil' Avenues, if they were to be kept
+passable, required attention. A thorough programme of work with R.E.
+and the Pioneers was put in hand. Dry trenches would have repaid its
+labour spent in carrying and digging, had the Battalion stayed in this
+sector for the winter. As not unexpectedly happened, we had left the
+scene of our labours before winter set in.
+
+More than three weeks of October were spent by the Battalion in the
+trenches. This was no great hardship. Half of the time was spent
+nearly two miles behind the line in an old German trench known as the
+Gavrelle Switch. In this position there was little restriction, if
+indeed there could ever be any--short of its prohibition--on the
+making of smoke, and with good rations and day working parties the men
+were happy enough. But these long periods in the trenches, when no
+proper parades or drill were possible, though acquiesced in by the men
+themselves, were bad for the Battalion's discipline. Much regard was
+always paid--especially in the 61st Division--to what is called 'turn
+out.' This meant more than button-polishing. It was that quality of
+alertness and self-respect which even in the trenches could be
+maintained. Trench-life bred loafers, and loafers never made the
+best soldiers. It was a good thing when October 28 came and the
+Battalion moved back to Arras for a twelve days' spell in rest.
+Billets were the French prison, whose cells provided excellent
+accommodation.
+
+Arras in the autumn of 1917 was an attractive place. The clear
+atmosphere, through which the sun shone undimmed by factory-smoke,
+lent to its majestic ruins almost Italian colouring. Upon the western
+side of the town quite a number of undamaged houses still remained; at
+its centre the theatre and concert hall had luckily escaped
+destruction, and to hear the various divisional troupes most crowded
+audiences assembled every night. The streets, though unlighted, were
+thronged with jostling multitudes. The Arras front, as though in
+acknowledgement of greater happenings elsewhere, had become dormant
+since midsummer. Against the trenches themselves little activity by
+the enemy was shown, and in the back area, pending a change of policy
+by us, quietude reigned during the early autumn. A big German gun
+occasionally threw its shells towards our Transport lines at St.
+Nicholas or into Arras Station. One day a party which had come several
+hours early to secure good places on the leave train was scattered by
+the unscheduled arrival of a shell.
+
+[Illustration: A STREET IN ARRAS]
+
+During the stay of the Battalion at the prison, Thomas, our champion
+boxer, issued a challenge to the divisions near the town. A man from
+the 15th Division, heavier than Thomas, accepted. In the fight which
+ensued before many spectators the Oxford man won on a knock-out in
+the fourth round. So strong at this time was the Battalion in boxing
+that Brigade competitions became foregone conclusions.
+
+Another feature of this period was a Brigade school, with Bennett as
+its commandant, at Arras. A week's course was held for each platoon in
+the Brigade. The school was well run and partly recompensed for the
+lack of training during the long tours in the trenches.
+
+More than a year had passed since General White first took command of
+the 184th Infantry Brigade. During that time the Brigade had improved
+out of all recognition. For such result its commander was more than
+partially responsible. The General had to the full the quality called
+'drive'; that, rather than profound knowledge of military science,
+made him a first-rate Brigadier. War is a department of the world's
+business, in which capacity not only to work oneself, but to make
+others work, begets success. I should hesitate to say of General White
+that he 'used' others, but his prudent selection of subordinates
+ensured that all units in his Brigade were well commanded. He was more
+than a good judge of character: hollow prevarication was useless with
+him, and bluff--though, when he liked, he was himself a master of
+it--a dangerous policy. Among the shrewd qualities of this man there
+were the abilities to summarize rapidly whatever he had been told, and
+to remember most of everything he saw. His power of observation was so
+developed that sometimes the actual picture of some detail--such as a
+dirty rifle, a man without equipment, or a few sand bags laid
+awry--lent him a false impression of the whole. Yet his memory and
+rapid power of observation made him a real tactician--I use the
+adjective advisedly. No man who knew less, and there were few who knew
+more, of the front line than he did, could afford to argue with him
+about the position of a machine-gun, although if the matter had been
+presented as of theory at some headquarters rather than upon the
+ground, the machine-gun expert would perhaps have held his own.
+
+'Bobbie' did not interfere with his staff officers in their
+'paper-work,' but if ever occasion demanded he did not hesitate to
+draw his pen, not in self-defence, but in defence of the Brigade and
+his subordinates. He was no party to that unctuous politeness that
+sprang up during the war when staff met staff upon the telephone. He
+thought nothing of ringing up Corps, and expected speech with the head
+of a department, for he was the enemy of all high-placed
+obstructionists. His fame spread widely on the telephone. Impatient of
+camouflage, he learnt with difficulty the language of code-names under
+which it was sought to disguise our units to the enemy. 'Brigadier of
+184 speaking,' he would say; 'Are you the Bucks.... What regiment are
+you?' There was an 'amplifier' at 'Tank Dump'; it was always most
+faithfully manned about 8 p.m.
+
+[Illustration: "TANK DUMP"]
+
+The example which the General set was especially fine. He spent every
+day and nearly all day in the front line. Nothing annoyed him more
+than, say, at 9 a.m. to receive the message of a divisional conference
+fixed for his headquarters at 11. Equipped in his short overalls and
+shrapnel-helmet (conspicuous in a light cover) and carrying a white
+walking-stick, he used to quit Brigade Headquarters with matutinal
+punctuality. His outset borrowed something of the atmosphere of 'John
+Peel' on a fine morning. Battalion Headquarters, if not warned
+surreptitiously of his arrival, would scramble through their breakfast
+(not that the General designed to interfere either with rest or
+eating) as his form outlined itself in the doorway, accompanied by
+cheery greeting. In the front line itself his visits were refreshing.
+Prospects of shelling never deterred him. No post was too far forward
+for him to pay it a call. Often, when shells fell, he deliberately
+remained to share the danger. Once I knew him to return to a trench,
+which had been quite heavily shelled while he was there, because the
+Germans started on it again. A prodigious walker, he tired of daylight
+imprisonment to trenches and chose the 'top.' His figure must have
+been familiar to enemy observers. But his route was so erratic that,
+though he drew fire on many unexpected places after he had left, he
+was rarely himself shot at during his progress.
+
+The General is a great representative of _esprit de corps_, and
+believes strongly in military comradeship. In a sense his claim for
+'esprit de Brigade' was a little far-fetched, for Battalions held to
+themselves very much, and the fact that they relieved each other,
+though often a bond of alliance, was sometimes also a cause of
+friction. Between Battalions he did not shrink from making comparisons.
+'My Berks' had done this; 'My Bucks' should do the same. Much good
+resulted. The standard of efficiency was raised. Though at times he
+was discovered to be naïvely inconsistent, one thing was certain--the
+184th Brigade felt throughout its members that it was the best in the
+Division. The war has not produced many great men, but it has produced
+many great figures--amongst whom Robert White is by no means the
+least.
+
+If it was well commanded by its General, the 184th Brigade was as well
+served by its staff. Gepp, the Brigade Major at Laventie, had been the
+pattern of a staff officer. His advice was at the service of the most
+recent company commander or newest subaltern. With Gepp as author, no
+march-table ever went wrong. Moore fell no whit short of his
+predecessor in ability. He was alike eager to acquire and to impart
+his knowledge, which in military matters was both profound and
+practical. He made friends readily with regimental officers, for he
+remained one of them at heart and in outlook. His powers were truly at
+the service of the whole Brigade. When George Moore left in September,
+1917, to take command of a Battalion, the third Brigade Major who
+makes a figure in my history appeared--H. G. Howitt. In the sequence
+fortune continued to favour the Brigade. Howitt was a Territorial
+whose prowess had been proved in the Somme fighting. In place of a
+long staff training he brought business powers. He was indulgent of
+everything save fear, laziness, and inefficiency. Stout-hearted
+himself, he expected stoutness in others; this was the right attitude
+of a staff officer. Though a business man by training, he did not
+negotiate with the war; in him everything was better than his writing.
+
+Of these three, Gepp, Moore, Howitt, it would be difficult to name the
+best Brigade Major; the 184th Brigade was happy in the trio.
+
+On November 9 the 2/4th Oxfords returned to the trenches in weather
+that was still relatively fine. The Brigade sector had been changed;
+its front now stretched across the Douai railway below the slope of
+Greenland Hill. The previous quietude of the trenches now gave place
+to more activity. German shelling much increased. The ruins of the
+famous Chemical Works, which covered several acres of ground, were
+daily stirred by the explosions of shells among the tangled wreckage
+of boiler-pipes and twisted metal. In the front line trench-mortaring
+became frequent. On November 14 Cuthbert was wounded by a bomb which
+fell inside the trench, and other casualties occurred, including the
+General's runner. Many new officers and men had joined since Ypres.
+Wiltshire took up the adjutantcy when Cuthbert left.
+
+Plans were afoot for a big demonstration to cover the surprise by
+English tanks at Havrincourt on November 20. A series of gas
+projections, smoke barrages, and raids were to take place. The better
+to maintain secrecy from the German 'listening-sets' no telephones
+were used. The Battalion bore its share in the programme; already at
+Arras plans for a novel raid were under contemplation. Cuthbert had
+devised a scheme, which Colonel Wetherall adopted and chose B Company,
+under Moberly, to carry out. The details of this raid, inasmuch as
+their novelty is of some historical interest, demand an explanation.
+
+Gas fired in shells was of two sorts, lethal and non-lethal. The
+former was a deadly poison. Unless taken in large quantities, the
+latter had no fatal, nor indeed serious, effects; designed to irritate
+the throat and eyes, it caused such sneezing and hiccoughing that
+whosoever breathed this sort of gas lost temporarily his self-control.
+Lethal and non-lethal gas were intermingled both by the Germans and
+ourselves with high explosive shells; the effect of each assisted the
+effect of the other. If one began to sneeze from the effect of
+non-lethal gas, one could not wear a gas-helmet to resist the lethal;
+the high-explosive shells disguised both types. Now it was planned by
+Wetherall to fire lethal gas against the enemy for several nights. On
+the night of the raid and during it, non-lethal only would be used.
+The two gases smelt alike and the presumption was that on the night of
+the raid the enemy would wear gas-helmets.
+
+[Illustration: IN A GERMAN GUN-PIT NEAR GAVRELLE]
+
+On the evening of November 17, only an hour before the raid was to
+take place, it was announced that the wrong type of shells had been
+delivered to the artillery. Barely in time to avert a fiasco, the
+affair was cancelled. Two nights afterwards, when the wind luckily was
+again from the right direction, the raid was carried out. The Germans,
+of whom some were found in gas-helmets, had no inkling of our plan. B
+Company, though they missed the gap through the enemy's wire, entered
+the trenches without opposition and captured a machine-gun which
+was pointing directly at their approach but never fired. Wallington,
+the officer in command of the storming party, killed several Germans.
+As often, there was difficulty in finding the way back to our lines;
+in fact, Moberly, the commander of the raid, after some wandering in
+No-Man's-Land, entered the trenches of a Scotch division upon our
+right. His appearance and comparative inability to speak their
+language made him a suspicious visitor to our kilted neighbours.
+Moberly rejoined his countrymen under escort.
+
+For a long time it seemed that no material results had been achieved
+in the raid. But the next morning Private Hatt, who for his exploit
+gained the D.C.M., crawled into our lines carrying the machine-gun
+which he had hugged all night between the German lines and ours. This
+raid took place the night preceding the great Cambrai offensive, and
+the success of Moberly and B Company formed part of the demonstration
+designed to attract enemy reserves away from the area of the operation
+mentioned.
+
+On the last day of November the Division was withdrawn from the Arras
+sector: its move to relieve some of the troops who had been severely
+handled by the enemy at Bourlon Wood seemed probable. Events occurred
+to change the destination. The Battalion, after two nights at Arras,
+entrained amid all symptoms of haste on the morning of November 30 and
+travelled without the transport to Bapaume. The noise of battle and
+excited staff-officers greeted its arrival. In the back area it was on
+everybody's lips that the enemy had broken through. Bapaume was being
+shelled, many officers had travelled unprepared for an early
+engagement with the enemy, and the General was not yet on the scene;
+the situation was as unexpected as it was exciting. At 3 p.m. we were
+placed in buses under Bicknell's directions and moved rapidly to
+Bertincourt, a village four kilometres west of Havrincourt Wood. The
+night of November 30/December 1 was spent in an open field. It was
+intensely cold. At 4 a.m. a flank march was made to Fins, where some
+empty huts were found. Enemy long range shells, aimed at the railway,
+kept falling in the village. Through Fins at 10 a.m. on December 1 the
+Guards marched forward to do their famous counter-attack on
+Gouzeaucourt; on the afternoon of the same day the Battalion moved up
+to Metz, whither Brigade Headquarters had already gone. During the
+night, which was frosty and moonlight, the Colonel led the Battalion
+across country to occupy a part of the Hindenburgh Line west of La
+Vacquerie. On the following morning the enemy delivered a heavy attack
+upon the village, from which, after severe losses in killed and
+prisoners, troops of the 182nd Brigade were driven back. To assist
+them C Company was detached from the Battalion. The trenches--our
+front was now the Hindenburg Line--were frozen, there was snow on the
+ground, and the temporary supremacy of the enemy in guns and sniping
+produced a toll of casualties. It was an anxious time, but the
+Battalion was involved in no actual fighting; the German
+counter-attack, for the time-being, was at an end.
+
+The 61st Division was left holding a line of snow-bound trenches
+between Gonnelieu and La Vacquerie, consisting of fragments both of
+the Hindenburg Line, the old German front line, and our own as it
+stood before the Cambrai battle opened. Except in the 184th Brigade
+the casualties suffered by the Division during the heavy German
+counter-attacks had been heavier than those at Ypres. The 2/4 Oxfords
+by luck had escaped a share in this fighting, and the Battalion's
+casualties during these critical events were few.
+
+The German counter-attack from Cambrai was an important step in the
+war's progress. At the time it was considered even more important than
+it was. Judged by the rapidity with which they were replaced, the loss
+of guns and stores by us was not of high moment; it mattered more that
+for the first time since the Second Battle of Ypres the enemy had driven
+back our lines several miles. A counter-surprise had been effected. On a
+small scale the panic of defeat was proved by its physical results
+upon the ground. The valley north-east of Gouzeaucourt was littered
+with all kinds of relics, which in trench warfare or in our attacks
+had been unknown. Whole camps had been sacked and their contents, in
+the shape of clothing, equipment and blankets, were strewn broadcast.
+Packets of socks and shirts showed where an English quartermaster's
+stores had been, and flapping canvas and dismantled shelters were
+evidence of a local _débâcle_ to our side. The sight of derelict
+tractors, motor cars, and steam rollers, left in the sunken road at
+Gouzeaucourt, produced a sense of shock. A broad-gauge railway train,
+captured complete with trucks and locomotive and recovered in our
+counter-attack, bore witness to a victory seized but not secured. The
+battles of Ypres and Cambrai, 1917, though well-fought and not without
+results, robbed the British army for the time being of the initiative
+upon the Western Front. America became spoken of--1918, it was said,
+would be a defensive year. Yet the German success had in reality no
+effect upon our Infantry's morale. By the troops engaged in it Cambrai
+had been almost forgotten before Christmas. Less than a year
+afterwards the Germans had lost, not only Cambrai, but the war.
+
+The end of 1917 was as cold as its beginning. Snow and frost, destined
+to play utter havoc with the roads, laid their white mantle on the
+battlefield. Fighting had slackened when the Battalion went into the
+line in front of Gonnelieu. The trenches there ran oddly between
+derelict tanks, light railways, and dismantled huts; in No-Man's-Land
+lay several batteries of our guns.
+
+[Illustration: THE CANAL DU NORD AT YPRES]
+
+On December 7 the 183rd Brigade relieved the Battalion, which moved
+back to tents in Havrincourt Wood. It was bitter! Shells and aeroplane
+bombs made the wood dangerous as well as cold. On the 10th a further
+tour in the front line commenced This time trenches north-east of
+Villers Plouich were held. Wiring was strenuously carried out, but
+save for activity by trench-mortars the enemy lay quiet. The Battalion
+returned to Havrincourt Wood on December 15 and remained in its frozen
+tents until the Division was relieved by the 63rd. After one night at
+Lechelle the Battalion entrained at Ytres and moved back to Christmas
+rest-billets at Suzanne, near Bray.
+
+Huts, built by the French but vacated more than a year ago and now
+very dilapidated, formed the accommodation. In them Christmas dinners,
+to procure which Bennett had proceeded early from the line, were
+eaten. And O'Meara conducted the Brigade band.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE GREAT GERMAN ATTACK OF MARCH 21,
+
+JANUARY, FEBRUARY, MARCH, 1918.
+
+The French relieved on the St. Quentin front.--The calm before the
+storm.--A golden age.--The Warwick raid.--The German attack
+launched.--Defence of Enghien Redoubt.--Counter-attack by the
+Royal Berks.--Holnon Wood lost.--The battle for the Beauvoir line.
+--The enemy breaks through.
+
+
+The Battalion's mid-winter respite was brief. On New Year's Eve, 1917,
+the 2/4th Oxfords quitted the wretched Suzanne huts and marched
+through Harbonnières to Caix. No 'march past' was necessary or would
+have been possible, for so slippery was the road that the men had to
+trail along its untrodden sides as best they could. Old 61st
+Divisional sign-boards left standing nearly a year ago greeted the
+return to an area which was familiar to many. The destination should
+have been Vauvillers, but the inhabitants of that village were
+stricken with measles. Better billets and freedom from infection
+compensated for a longer march. At Caix the Battalion was comfortable
+for a week.
+
+The Division's move from the Bray-Suzanne area to south of the Somme
+heralded a new relief of the French, whose line was now to be
+shortened by the amount on its left flank between St. Quentin and La
+Fère. About January 11 the Battalion found itself once more in Holnon
+Wood, where a large number of huts and dug-outs had been made by the
+French since last spring. The front line, now about to be held between
+Favet and Gricourt, was almost in its old position. The outpost line
+of nine months ago had crystallised into the usual trench system.
+Those courteous preliminaries, so much the feature of a French relief,
+were, on this re-introduction to scenes soon to become so famous--and
+so tragic--a little marred by an untimely German shell which wounded
+Weller, who had accompanied the Colonel to see the new line.
+
+Industrious calm succeeded the relief. Since the Russian break-up and
+the consequent liberation from the Eastern Front of fresh German
+legions, the British army had been on the defensive. A big effort by
+the enemy was expected, and when it came, the St. Quentin front was
+not unlikely to receive the brunt of his massed attack. The months of
+January and February and the first half of March were ominously quiet.
+Shelling was spasmodic. After the artillery activity of the last
+summer and autumn our guns seemed lazy. So quiet was it that Abraham
+used to ride up to the two small copses that lay behind our front.
+
+For the time being the 'offensive spirit' was in abeyance; our paramount
+task was the perfection of our defensive system. By this time in the
+war it was acknowledged that against attacks in weight no actual
+line could be held intact. Faith in 'lines' became qualified in favour
+of the series of 'strong points' or redoubts, which were constructed
+to defend 'tactical features.' This policy, founded on our experience
+of the German defence during the Third Battle of Ypres, was very
+sound. All the redoubts constructed in the area occupied by the 184th
+Brigade were so well sited and so strongly wired that the faith seemed
+justified that they were part of one impregnable system. But against
+loss of one important factor no amount of industry could serve to
+insure. 'Strong points' must act in concert and for such mutual action
+'on the day' good visibility was essential. As we shall see, this
+factor was denied. In rear of these redoubts, which lay along the
+ridge west of Fayet, a line known as the 'Battle Line' was fortified,
+and in rear again a trench was dug to mark the 'Army Line,' where the
+last stand would be made. These lines were strong, but more reliance
+was apt to be placed upon their mere existence on the ground than, in
+default of any co-existent scheme to fill them at a crisis with
+appropriate garrisons, was altogether justified.[10]
+
+                   [Footnote 10: For the _terrain_ referred to in this
+                   chapter see the maps ante pp. 83 and 95.]
+
+Early in the year the Bucks had been taken from the Brigade (now like
+all Infantry Brigades reduced to three Battalions) and went to Nesle
+to work as an entrenching Battalion. Many old friends, including
+especially Colonel 'Jock' Muir, had to be parted with. The three
+Battalions which remained were now arranged in 'depth,' a phrase
+explained by stating that while one, say the Berks, held the front
+line 'twixt Fayet and Gricourt, the Gloucesters as Support Battalion
+would be in Holnon Wood and ourselves, the Oxfords, in reserve and
+back at Ugny. When a relief took place the Gloucesters went to the
+front line, ourselves to Holnon, and the Berks back to Ugny. The
+Battalion holding the line was similarly disposed in 'depth,' for its
+headquarters and one company were placed more than a mile behind the
+actual front.
+
+After the January frost and snow had gone, a period of fine, clement
+weather set in. This, in a military sense, was a golden age. Boxing,
+thanks to encouragement from the Colonel and Brown and under the
+practical doctrine of 'Benny' Thomas, the Battalion pugilist,
+flourished as never before. Each tour some officers, instead of going
+to the line, were sent to worship at the shrine of Maxse. The
+Battalion reached the zenith of its efficiency. Early in March some
+reinforcements from the 6th Oxfords, who had been disbanded, arrived;
+they numbered two hundred. Among the new officers who joined were
+Foreshew, Rowbotham, and Cunningham. Foreshew received command of C
+Company, whose commander Matthews went to England for a six months'
+rest. To Hobbs also, our worthy quartermaster, it was necessary to bid
+a reluctant farewell. His successor, Murray, a very able officer from
+the 4th Gloucesters, arrived in time to check the table of stores
+before the opening of the great offensive.
+
+On the night of 18/19 March the Battalion went into the front line. C
+Company was on the right, in front of Fayet; B Company, under the
+command of Wallington, was on the left, just south of Gricourt. A went
+to Fayet itself and D Company, commanded in Robinson's absence by
+Rowbotham, provided the garrison of Enghien Redoubt, which was a
+quarry near Selency Château; Battalion Headquarters also were at this
+redoubt. During the night of March 20 a raid on the Battalion's right
+was carried out near Cepy Farm by the 182nd Brigade. It was successful.
+German prisoners from three divisions corroborated our suspicion that
+the great enemy offensive was about to be launched. From headquarters
+to headquarters throbbed the order to man battle stations. Ere dawn
+was due to lighten the sky a dense mist shrouded everything and added
+a fresh factor to the suspense.
+
+Early on March 21, only a short time after the Colonel had returned
+from visiting the front line posts, the ground shook to a mighty
+bombardment. At Amiens windows rattled in their frames. Trench mortars
+of all calibres and field guns, brought to closest range in the mist
+and darkness, began to pound a pathway through our wire. Back in
+artillery dug-outs the light of matches showed the time; it was 4.50
+a.m. The hour had struck. Our guns, whose programme in reply was the
+fruit of two months' preparation, made a peculiar echo as their shells
+crackled through the mist. Some 'silent' guns[11] fired for the first
+time.
+
+                   [Footnote 11: Defensive artillery, whose inactivity
+                   prior to the German attack was intended to ensure
+                   against discovery by enemy sound-rangers and
+                   observers.]
+
+On all headquarters, roads, redoubts, and observation posts the
+enemy's howitzer shells were falling with descending swoop, and battery
+positions were drenched with gas.
+
+In the back area the fire of long-range guns was brought with uncanny
+accuracy to bear against our rest billets, transport lines, and dumps.
+Cross-roads, bridges, and all vital spots in our communications, though
+never previously shelled, were receiving direct hits within a short
+time of the opening of the bombardment. The Berks had casualties at
+Ugny. Some English heavy batteries, recent arrivals on the front and
+seemingly undiscovered by the enemy, were now knocked out almost as
+soon as they had opened fire. The Artillery level crossing was hit by
+an early shell which blocked the road there with a huge crater. Never
+in the war had the Germans flung their shells so far or furiously as
+now.
+
+By daylight all front line wire had been destroyed, and our trenches
+everywhere were much damaged. The mist hung thick, but the Germans did
+not yet attack. About 9.30 a.m. the barrage was felt to lift westwards
+from Fayet and the fitful clatter of Lewis guns, firing in short bursts
+with sometimes a long one exhausting a 'drum,' was heard. In the front
+line showers of stick bombs announced the enemy's presence. Everywhere
+it seemed that quick-moving bodies in grey uniforms were closing in
+from either flank and were behind. In the mist our posts were soon
+over-run. Few of our men were left to rally at the 'keeps.' A messenger
+to A Company's platoons, which had been stationed in support at the
+famous 'Sunken Road,' found that place filled with Germans. Before
+noon the enemy had passed Fayet and his patrols had reached Selency
+and the Cottages.
+
+At Enghien Redoubt Battalion Headquarters had received no news of the
+attack having begun; the dense mist limited the view to fifty yards.
+The earliest intimation received by Colonel Wetherall of what was
+taking place was enemy rifle and machine-gun fire sweeping the
+parapet. At one corner of the redoubt some of the enemy broke in but
+were driven out by D Company with the bayonet. Outside Headquarters
+the first three men to put their heads over were killed by Germans,
+who had crept close along the sunken road which leads from Favet to
+Selency Château. The rifles and machine guns of the garrison opened up
+and gained superiority. The defence, destined to last for many hours,
+of Enghien Redoubt proved an important check to the enemy's advance
+and helped to save many of our guns.
+
+At 12 noon, after several patrols had failed to find out whether the
+enemy had captured Holnon, the Colonel himself went out to see all that
+was happening. He did not return, and shortly afterwards Headquarters
+were surrounded by the enemy, who had made ground on either flank.
+Nevertheless till 4.30 p.m. Cunningham, the officer left in command,
+held out most manfully. Of all the companies, Jones and less than
+fifty men had escaped capture. They reached the 'Battle Line' of
+trenches east of Holnon Wood, and there joined the Gloucesters, who
+had not yet been engaged in the fighting. The enemy, having captured
+Maissemy, Fayet, and Holnon, paused to reorganise as evening fell.
+
+Towards evening on the 21st the Berks, who were in reserve when the
+attack started, were sent to counter-attack against Maissemy, which
+had been lost by the division on our left. Near the windmill, which
+stands on the high ground west of the village, Dimmer, the Berks V.C.
+Colonel, was killed leading his men on horseback. This local attempt
+to stem the German onslaught proved of no avail. At 10.30 a.m. on
+March 22 the enemy, whose movements were again covered by mist,
+pressed the attack against the Battle Line. Almost before the
+Gloucesters knew they were attacked in front, they found themselves
+beset in flanks and rear.
+
+At noon the enemy from its north side had penetrated Holnon Wood.
+Gloucesters and Oxfords fell back to join the garrison of the Beauvoir
+Line, all parts of which were heavily engaged by evening. A gallant
+resistance, in which the Gloucesters under Colonel Lawson were
+specially distinguished, was made by the 184th Infantry Brigade. The
+General encouraged the defence in person. But the line was too weakly
+manned long to withstand the enemy; though parts of it held till after
+8 p.m. on March 22, before midnight the whole of this last Army Line
+had been lost. The enemy had 'broken through.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE BRITISH RETREAT,
+
+MARCH, 1918.
+
+Rear-guard actions.--The Somme crossings.--Bennett relieved by the
+20th Division at Voyennes.--Davenport with mixed troops ordered to
+counter-attack at Ham.--Davenport killed.--The enemy crosses the
+Somme.--The stand by the 184th Infantry Brigade at Nesle.--Colonel
+Wetherall wounded.--Counter-attack against La Motte.--Bennett
+captured.--The Battalion's sacrifice in the great battle.
+
+
+After the battle for the Beauvoir Line the 184th Infantry Brigade was
+ordered back to Nesle. At Languevoisin on March 23 we find the relics
+of the 2/4th Oxfords under the command of Major Bennett, who with a
+force including other members of the Battalion had been providing
+rear-guards at the crossings of the Somme. What force was this? To
+understand the story it is necessary to go back a little and see what
+had been happening behind the line since March 21.
+
+When the attack was known to have commenced, all transport,
+quartermasters' stores, and men left out of the line were ordered back
+to Ugny, where Bennett as senior Major present formed all our divisional
+details into a composite Battalion some 900 strong. Early on March 22
+Colonel Wetherall, limping and tired, arrived. He bore the tale of
+his adventure. During the 21st we saw him disappear from Enghien
+Redoubt to go on a reconnaissance. Near Holnon he was surrounded by an
+enemy patrol and led a prisoner towards St. Quentin; but when the fire
+of 6-inch howitzers scared his escort into shell-holes, the Colonel
+escaped, and the same night, choosing his opportunity to slip between
+the German digging parties, contrived to reach our lines.
+
+As March 22 lengthened out, the tide of battle rolled nearer and
+nearer towards Ugny, above which air fighting at only a few hundred
+feet from the ground was taking place. At 7 p.m. Bennett had orders to
+move his men westwards across the Somme. Soon afterwards a runner came
+post-haste. He told of the fighting on the Beauvoir line; the intrepid
+General had been wounded in the head while with his shrapnel helmet in
+his hand he waved encouragement to his men. Colonel Wetherall had
+already started on the way to Languevoisin but was caught up at
+Matigny. He the same night (22nd) regained the Beauvoir line and took
+command of the Brigade. As we have seen, he moved back with the
+Brigade on the next day.
+
+Further developments soon diverted Bennett's force, whose fortunes we
+are following. At Matigny he was ordered by the Major-General with
+half his force to guard the Offoy bridgehead and with the other half
+to hold Voyennes. The Offoy garrison was despatched under Moberly, who
+was commanding the details of the 184th Brigade, including a hundred
+Oxfords. Moberly's force comprised many administrative personnel.
+'What your men lack in numbers they must make up in courage,' was the
+Major-General's encouragement.
+
+But the men were not at once put to the test. The 20th Division, which
+was covering the retreat across the Somme, relieved the Offoy
+rear-guard, of which Davenport had now assumed command, early in the
+morning of March 23, and Bennett was likewise relieved in his duties
+at Voyennes, where the bridge was blown up. Though the Offoy
+bridgehead had been taken over by the 20th Division, Davenport's
+troops were kept in support along the railway embankment at Hombleux,
+for it was feared that the enemy had already commenced to cross the
+Somme at Ham. During the morning of the 23rd Davenport received
+peremptory orders to make a counter-attack against the town with the
+object of regaining possession of its bridgehead. Considerable success
+resulted; Verlaines was cleared of the enemy's patrols, and the
+advance reached the ridge east of that village.
+
+[Illustration: THE RETREAT BEHIND THE SOMME.
+Sketch map illustrating the rear-guard actions of 184 INF BDE
+between HAM and NESLE on March 24 and 25 1918]
+
+With fresh troops acting on a concerted plan something might have been
+accomplished. Davenport's men were a disorganised mixture of many
+battalions, including, besides the Oxfords and other representatives
+of the 184th Brigade, a number of Cornwalls and King's Liverpools.
+They were unfed, and the demoralisation of the retreat was beginning
+to do its work. As always on these occasions, when officers of
+different services were thrown together, divided counsels were the
+result. Moberly, an officer who could have been relied upon to make
+the best of the situation, was wounded in the leg during a moonlight
+reconnaissance with Davenport.
+
+By March 24 the position was unaltered; the troops were still lining
+the ridge east of Verlaines and awaited the enemy's next move with
+their field of fire in many cases masked by, or masking, that of their
+comrades. Against this type of defence the enemy's tactics did not
+require to be as infallible as they perhaps seemed. Our pity is drawn
+to these English troops, disorganised, without their own proper
+commanders, unsupplied with rations--the stop-gaps thrust forward in
+the last stages of a retreat.
+
+At 9 a.m. the enemy, whose patrols had during the night of March 23/24
+been feeling their way up the slopes from the Somme Canal, commenced
+to press forward in earnest. The mixed troops, who were lining the
+ridge, had been 'down' too long to offer much resistance. They melted
+away, as leaderless troops will. Davenport, a gallant officer who to
+the very last never spared himself, was killed, shot through the head
+at Verlaines. The enemy, whose advanced artillery was already in
+action from behind Ham, had secured Esmery Hallon by the evening.
+Nesle was threatened.
+
+[Illustration: LIEUT.-COL. H. E. de R. WETHERALL. D.S.O., M.C.]
+
+On the same day of which I was last speaking--March 24--the 184th
+Brigade, minus those Oxfords who were in action with the 20th
+Division, though sadly wasted in numbers, formed up again to make a
+stand. Colonel Wetherall, the acting Brigadier, had received orders to
+hold the line of the Canal east and south east of Nesle. On the left
+of this line stood the Oxfords under Bennett, 200 Berks under Willink
+were in the centre, while the Gloucesters, about 120 strong under
+Colonel Lawson, guarded the right. At 11 a.m. on March 25 the enemy
+attacked. As often during these days, when a line was held solidly in
+one place, it broke elsewhere. By noon the enemy had captured Nesle,
+and the left flank of the Brigade was turned. During the fight Colonel
+Wetherall was wounded in the neck by a piece of shell and owed his
+life to the Brigade Major, Howitt, who held the arteries.
+
+The line was driven back to Billancourt and the same night (25th) the
+remnants of the XVIII Corps withdrew in darkness to Roye, a town where
+our hospitals were still at work, evacuating as fast as possible the
+streams of wounded from the battle. One of the last patients to leave
+by train was Wetherall, who at this crisis passed under the care of
+Stobie, the Oxfords' old M.O.
+
+On March 26 we see the 184th Brigade held in reserve near Mezières, to
+be suddenly moved at midnight of March 27/28 by lorries. The lorries
+made towards Amiens, and it appeared that the battered relics of the
+Brigade were being withdrawn. The belief was disappointed. At Villers
+Bretonneux Bennett received orders from a staff officer to go to
+Marcelçave, where the 61st Division was being concentrated for a
+counter-attack at dawn against the village of La Motte. In the darkness
+the route was missed and the convoy drove straight into our front
+line. Marcelçave was reached eventually, but so late that a dawn
+attack was impossible. At 10 a.m. on March 28 the forlorn enterprise,
+in which the 183rd Brigade, the Gloucesters, and the Berks shared,
+was launched from the station yard. The troops were footsore, sleepless,
+and unfed. They were mostly men from regimental employ--pioneers,
+clerks, storemen--to send whom forward across strange country to drive
+the enemy from the village he had seized on the important Amiens-St.
+Quentin road was a mockery. Such efforts at counter-attack resulted in
+more and more ground being lost. Still, the men staggered forward
+bravely, to come almost at once under fierce enfilade machine-gun
+fire. The losses were heavy. Craddock, a young officer now serving
+under Bennett, moved about among the men, encouraging them by his
+example of coolness and gallantry.
+
+When 350 yards short of La Motte the advance was driven to take cover.
+It was useless to press on; in fact, already there was real danger of
+being surrounded. Bennett, whose leadership throughout was excellent,
+with difficulty extricated his men by doubling them in two's across
+the open. Towards evening those that got back were placed in trenches
+outside Marcelçave.
+
+By now that village was being severely shelled and bombed, and in
+danger of becoming surrounded by the enemy. Soon after dark it was
+attacked in earnest. Bennett stayed too long in Marcelçave attempting
+to get news of the situation and some orders. Brigade Headquarters had
+in fact already left, before Bennett, instead of returning to his
+former headquarters, decided to join his men in the trenches before
+the village. Those trenches were no longer being fought for. Near the
+railway bridge he ran straight into the enemy as they swarmed towards
+the village and was captured. The remains of the Battalion were driven
+back on Villers Bretonneux, the contents of which village had to make
+up for absent rations. Robinson, who had returned from leave in time
+to take part in the La Motte affair, assumed command. The Australians
+were at hand; fresh troops arrived to relieve those worn out by a
+week's continuous fighting. After four days at Gentelles all that were
+left of the 2/4th Oxfords, together with the other fragments of the
+61st Division, were withdrawn for rest and reorganisation west of
+Amiens.
+
+A Battalion is too small for its historian to enter into any
+controversy upon the measures taken for the defence of the St. Quentin
+front. Whatever else the Oxfords could have done would have had no
+effect upon the main issues of this great attack. But for the mist the
+German onslaught, delivered in the preponderance of four to one, would
+hardly have achieved the same historical result. The Battalion had
+stood in the forefront of the greatest battle of the war. Accounts,
+already growing legendary, tell how our men acquitted themselves that
+day. Some posts fought on till all were killed or wounded. There were
+few stragglers. Of B Company, only one man returned from the front
+line. It is said of A Company that, when surrounded by the enemy,
+Brown formed the men into a circle, back to back, and fought without
+surrender.
+
+The monument which stands above Fayet is happily placed. It is inscribed
+to the sons of France who fell in action nearly fifty years ago. On
+March 21, 1918, it was enriched by its association with a later
+sacrifice. The credit won in this lost battle gives to the 2/4th
+Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry a share of honour in the war equal to
+that which has been earned by our most successful troops in the
+advance.
+
+The loss in all ranks had been so heavy that the killed and missing
+could only be computed by counting over those few that remained.
+Bennett and all four company commanders in the line were missing. The
+Colonel and Moberly had been sent to England wounded. Jones was the
+only officer from the front line who remained safe. Cairns, the
+Sergeant-Major of A Company, had come through and earned distinction.
+The loss in Lewis gunners, signallers, and runners had been especially
+heavy. Douglas, the Regimental Sergeant-Major, after most valuable
+work in the Battalion, had been killed. Transport and stores, for
+extricating which credit was due to Abraham and Murray, alone came out
+complete.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE BATTLE OF THE LYS,
+
+APRIL-MAY, 1918.
+
+Effects of the German offensive.--The Battalion amalgamated with the
+Bucks.--Entrainment for the Merville area.--A dramatic journey.--
+The enemy break-through on the Lys.--The Battalion marches into
+action.--The defence of Robecq.--Operations of April 12, 13, 14.
+--The fight for Baquerolle Farm.--A troublesome flank.--Billeted
+in St. Venant.--The lunatic asylum.--La Pierrière.--The Robecq
+sector.
+
+
+The closing phases of the war are so comparatively fresh and vividly
+remembered that a less close description need be attempted of them
+than of more early periods. I feel that justice cannot easily be done
+to the events of last year, events which in dramatic force eclipsed
+any since the Battle of the Marne. Of 1918, moreover, the facts have
+not yet had time to drop into that relief which a historian prefers
+before reducing them to chronicle. It is unlikely that, in years
+hence, when the full history of the war is written, the German
+offensive of 1918 will not be taken as the turning point in the great
+conflict. For the second time since the invasion of Belgium and for
+the first since conscription, readers of the _Times_ saw a black line
+sagging across the map towards the English Channel. In France at the
+end of March conditions meriting the popular description of 'wind up'
+were recognisable. Bases were crowded to overflowing. Train services
+were seriously deranged by the German approach to Amiens. The traffic
+upon the main roads in the Somme valley was an eloquent intermingling
+of troops, guns, and civilians evacuating as much of their property as
+possible upon wagons and carts, which were piled high with children,
+tables, utensils, bedsteads, farm implements, and always mattresses.
+The shelling of Amiens Cathedral and the long gun which played on
+Paris were signs of the destructive ascendancy of the enemy. Our
+railways, which depended on a few junctions now placed none too far
+behind the line, were attacked vigorously by the enemy in the hope of
+their disorganisation. St. Pol station was shelled to ruins;
+Hazebrouck, Chocques, and Doullens were nightly targets for German
+bombs. Already at Tinques and Achiet the R.T.O.s had been killed. (We
+had done the same and more to the Germans for two years). Our
+railwaymen and engine drivers showed staunch devotion to duty and were
+as much responsible as any branch of the service for keeping our
+armies fighting during the critical months of the spring and early
+summer.
+
+To Avesne, a remote village behind Amiens, the 2/4th Oxfords were
+withdrawn early in April for completion with new drafts and for
+refitting. An amalgamation--which was a great advantage to both
+units--of the Battalion with the Bucks now took place. As the 25th
+Entrenching Battalion the Bucks had been engaged in the fighting round
+Nesle, when they became attached to a Brigade of the 20th Division.
+They were now most anxious to be sent to join us or at all events to
+rejoin the 61st Division. Unable to obtain the orders they desired,
+the Bucks availed themselves of the prevailing confusion to march away
+'without authority' and were already at Avesne when the Oxfords
+arrived.
+
+The addition of some 300 N.C.O.s and men, with whom came such valued
+officers as Clutsom, Buttfield, Kemp, Lodge, Boase, Kirk, and several
+others, acted as an infusion of new blood and vigour into the
+Battalion which had given nearly all of its best in the St. Quentin
+fighting. As the senior officer now present, I was placed in command
+of the Battalion after the amalgamation, for which no more suitable
+surroundings could have been found than Avesne, whose château and
+grounds we had to ourselves. On April 7, before the regimental tailors
+had half finished substituting the red circles for the black ones
+previously carried by the Bucks, a large draft of 431 men joined the
+Battalion from England. Many of these were boys, but among them stood
+a few veteran soldiers who had been out before and been wounded. With
+this draft, which I believe was posted without the knowledge that the
+Bucks had joined us, the Battalion reached the strength of over 1,000
+men. It was a goodly force, unhampered by passengers. With Abraham,
+Murray, and Regimental Sergeant-Major Hedley (from the Bucks) those
+departments of the Battalion not purely tactical were sure to be well
+managed. I felt quite confident in the command of this force of men,
+and General Pagan, the new Brigadier, was kind enough to express his
+confidence in my ability.
+
+Our billets at Avesne--the entire Battalion was accommodated in the
+buildings of a large château from which some army school had been
+precipitated by the German advance--were too good for much hope to be
+entertained of a long stay in them. The unified command from now
+onwards brought more rapid moves than formerly had been the custom.
+Thus at a few hours' notice 'billeting parties' were ordered, not back
+towards Amiens, but to Merville and St. Venant. The 61st was to become
+a Division in G.H.Q. reserve behind the old Laventie sector. But
+before Battalions could follow their representatives and while the
+billeting was still in progress the Germans attacked and broke through
+on the Lys, south of Armentières. We marched, however, from Avesne on
+April 11 in happy ignorance of this new battle. Not till Hangest, and
+there by means of a Continental _Daily Mail_, was the changed prospect
+of our destination revealed. The Hangest R.T.O. was half beside
+himself with excitement and delay. There were several hours to spend
+in waiting, and during this time the kits were retrieved from the
+station yard and a prudent change was made from soft hats into
+shrapnel helmets and fighting equipment. After a rapid entrainment we
+at last pulled out at about 2 p.m. So strong was the Battalion that D
+Company, which itself numbered over 200, was unable to travel with us
+and had to follow by a later train. In its early stages the journey,
+though similar to most of the kind, produced one formidable incident,
+for at the top of the steep gradient between Candas and Doullens the
+train snapped in half; its hind portion was left poised in a cutting
+for an hour, until two locomotives arrived to push it on to Doullens,
+whither the forward half, in gay ignorance, had run.
+
+The night was overcast, a fact which doubtless saved us from the
+attention of enemy aeroplanes. The journey from St. Pol through
+Chocques and Lillers to Steenbecque is stamped on the memory by its
+more than many halts, the occasional glare of mines and munition
+factories which, in anticipation of another break-through, seemed to
+be working at tensest pressure to evacuate coal and manufactured
+stores from capture by the enemy; by the loud booming of artillery, to
+which the train seemed to draw specially near at Chocques and
+Isbergues; and the final sudden grinding of the brakes at Steenbecque,
+distracted railwaymen, and the small hut in which Bennett and the
+Brigade Staff were exhibiting a mixture of excitement, impatience and
+a sort of reckless familiarity with this apparent repetition of the
+Somme retreat. At Steenbecque station, which is three miles short of
+Hazebrouck and hidden behind the Nieppe Forest, we received the latest
+news of the battle into which we were being so dramatically plunged:
+the enemy had broken through the feeble resistance of the Portuguese
+and was outside Merville. My orders were to take up a line, which was
+at present covered by the 51st Division, between Robecq and Calonne
+and for that object to detrain and move forward immediately. The
+station yard was ill-suited to a rapid detrainment, there being few
+ramps or sidings, and despite the impatience of Bennett, a Divisional
+Staff Officer, who was most anxious to get finished before dawn, we
+were kept seated in the train for nearly two hours. This delay was
+really most valuable, for it enabled me to appreciate the situation
+and issue detailed orders, which otherwise it would never have been
+possible to give.
+
+As the dawn of April 12, 1918, was breaking, we set foot to the long
+pavé road which runs through the Nieppe Forest to St. Venant, followed
+by the transport and the cookers, from which at the cost of never so
+much delay I felt determined to give the men, who had had no proper
+meal for twenty-four hours, a good square feed before becoming
+involved in the uncertain and possibly rationless conflict which lay
+before us in country that was likely to have been looted by the
+retreating Portuguese. Nevertheless, during this breakfast, taken at
+the eastern edge of the great Forest of Nieppe, feverish messages
+arrived, which said that the enemy was in Robecq and already crossing
+the La Bassée Canal. This, of course, was not true, but troops who are
+moving up towards an advancing enemy, though met by exaggerated and
+conflicting reports of the hostile progress, are almost confined,
+until actual encounter occurs, to this species of information. By now
+Corps Headquarters, after a three years' sojourn at Hinges, had
+commenced to scour the country west of Aire for a suitably remote
+château. Except for Howitt there was no staff officer upon the spot,
+and we found after passing St. Venant towards Robecq that it was every
+man for himself in the task of stemming the German attack. Parts of
+the Division, notably the 5th D.C.L.I. and the 2/6th Warwicks, which
+had been detrained earlier than ourselves to join in the battle, had
+been roughly handled in fighting south of Merville during the night of
+April 11/12. The 51st Division was to all intents out of action, and
+there was a gap of more than a mile between Robecq and Calonne on the
+morning of April 12. Into, but not through, this gap German patrols
+had penetrated, and at Carvin had crossed the streams Noc and
+Clarence. As a matter of fact these enemy were but the flankers of an
+advanced guard, whose objective at this time lay in the direction of
+Haverskerque. Thus it befell that the Battalion came into no direct
+conflict with the main enemy forces on April 12.
+
+[Illustration: BIRD'S-EYE MAP OF THE ROBECQ AREA]
+
+Still the situation at 9 a.m. was both obscure and difficult. Until
+their ammunition seemed to be expended, our artillery, which had
+withdrawn behind the La Bassée Canal, kept up a fire upon the open
+ground between Les Amusoires, where the Battalion was concentrating,
+and the Calonne road, which it was necessary for us to cross.
+Doubtless this untoward shelling was due to the reports spread by
+stragglers, of whom there was a considerable number from different
+units. Shortly after this occurrence I had the good fortune to meet a
+gunner subaltern, and for the next few days, pending a reinforcement
+of the artillery, what guns there were gave us excellent support. A
+greater menace came from the long dumps of our shells north of Robecq
+cemetery, to which some irresponsible person had set fire. An acre
+of explosives was ablaze, barring progress across a wide area. Later a
+fusillade of small-arms ammunition broke out near St. Venant station,
+suggestive of fighting in our rear. There also it had been the final
+errand of some dump-keeper, in a fancied performance of duty, to
+destroy ammunition of which there was a crying need. Subsequently St.
+Venant was quite heavily bombed by our own aircraft--an example of
+what could happen during the time that our higher organisation was out
+of gear.
+
+The appearance of the Battalion, which could easily have passed for a
+Brigade of Infantry as it issued, about 10 a.m., from among the trees
+of Les Amusoires, may have been a moral factor in itself sufficient to
+indispose the German outposts to remain longer upon the outskirts of
+Robecq. From my former knowledge of the ground I decided to use no
+delay in occupying the network of orchards and as many of the farms as
+possible along the Calonne road before hostile opposition increased.
+After sharp fighting and some 30 casualties, mostly in C Company,
+which was on the left, a line was reached beyond Noc river, between
+Robecq and Calonne. On the right we linked up with the Berks (who
+placed their headquarters in the estaminet at Robecq cross-roads) and
+on the left with the 2/7th Warwicks, whose line bent back at a right
+angle across the Calonne road towards La Haye. During the afternoon
+fighting for the possession of Baquerolle Farm and its adjacent
+orchards engaged the Battalion's left flank. In this fighting Lodge, a
+young officer to whom command of C Company had fallen in consequence
+of a wound to Captain Buttfield, and also Boase much distinguished
+themselves. To them and to the N.C.O.s of C Company, and also to the
+conduct of the new draft, was owing the success of the day's
+operations. By 3 p.m. not only had the Battalion accomplished the task
+assigned to it twenty-four hours previously, when the extent of the
+German advance was unknown, but ground was being made and the enemy
+was being driven backward upon Calonne. Robecq was guaranteed.
+
+All day very severe fighting was in progress a mile to our left.
+Merville and Calonne were almost blotted out in smoke, and the air was
+thronged with aeroplanes. The heap of shells behind us still burned.
+By now the clouds which rose from this bonfire had become such a pall
+in the sky that the German balloons--the enemy was expert in moving
+forward this machinery of observation--could see nothing of the
+surrounding country. The Robecq district was remarkable for its
+well-stocked farms, and with the general flight of the civilians large
+numbers of unmilked cows, geese, goats, hens, and all manner of
+farmyard creatures commenced to stray across the fields and down the
+roads. Battalion Headquarters, which were ultimately established at a
+large farmhouse in Les Amusoires, as dusk approached, seemed to become
+the rendez-vous for lowing cattle, hens, pigs, goats, and small armies
+of geese, to manage all of which a certain number of cowherds and
+farm-hands had to be detailed. Nor was it only at Battalion
+Headquarters that these movable larders were in the process of
+congregation.
+
+At nightfall, when the companies--D Company had rejoined during'
+the afternoon--were settled into a secure outpost position and the
+Brigadier (General Pagan) had visited and approved the dispositions,
+an order from Corps was received to retreat a mile and to dig trenches
+across the open, hedgeless fields which stretched between Robecq and
+St. Venant. The whole of the Calonne road was to be abandoned. It was
+difficult to account for such a policy, which meant, not only the
+relinquishment of two bridge-heads of some importance and numerous
+farms and orchards which had been carried at expense and since
+garrisoned to good purpose, but the adoption instead of a position in
+rear, which was condemned with every tactical disadvantage and in
+which it would be impossible to remain once the enemy had secured
+possession of the ground we were now ordered to give up. I am happy to
+say that these orders, which can only have emanated from some staff
+inadequately informed upon the situation, were cancelled during the
+night and before the Battalion had acted on them. The fact is, I
+expressly remained in the forward position until at least rations had
+been delivered to the men, and by the time that had been done the
+staff pendulum had swung again. The salient of Baquerolle Farm, which
+it had cost valuable lives to reach, was retained.
+
+On the morning of April 13 the enemy, under cover of a dense mist,
+which allowed his use of close-range artillery, attacked St. Floris,
+in front of which the Gloucesters were stationed. A demonstration
+against the Battalion accompanied, and in the mist it was uncertain
+whether an enemy attack on Robecq were not developing. The attack
+died down without the Germans having penetrated the Gloucesters, who
+put up a stout defence. Our line elsewhere was firm.
+
+On the next day it was decided to use an opportunity to improve the
+position of our outpost line by occupying a group of cottages which
+lay in front. A platoon of A Company practically reached the nearest
+cottages without a sign of hostile opposition being shown. The fate of
+this little operation was the fruit of my miscalculation of the
+enemy's strength. The Germans knew better than ourselves how to sit
+still behind their machine-guns and avoid discovery. French civilians
+were moving about among the cottages at the time when our advance to
+occupy them was made and it seemed impossible that the enemy could be
+holding them even weakly. Civilians, too, were mingled in the fray as
+well on this as on later occasions. After trench-warfare days there
+was an incongruity in some episodes, which was not devoid of humour.
+One old Frenchman, at an hour when his farm was actually being fought
+over, arrived at Company Headquarters with a special passport to feed
+his beasts; and the tenacity of an old woman in clinging to her
+household goods terminated in her discovery, at the time of an attack,
+in a shell-hole in No-Man's-Land, where she was sheltering from the
+machine-gun barrage under a large umbrella (one felt that she at least
+deserved a copy of the operation orders!) During the ensuing weeks
+visits by French civilians to the front line became such that almost
+as many sentries were required to watch or restrain their movements
+as were needed against the enemy.
+
+[Illustration: ROBECQ OLD MILL & BRIDGE]
+
+A more serious attack, in which the 4th Division upon our right was
+intended to co-operate, was made by B Company at 7.30 p.m. on April 15
+against the same cottages, which formed part of the hamlet called La
+Pierre au Beurre. Our bombardment in support of this attack was almost
+due to start, when an urgent message from the line announced that
+large forces of the enemy were massing opposite our front. To have
+called for S.O.S. fire by the artillery would totally have upset the
+programme of attack, and one could only hope that our zero would be
+the earlier. Luck was in our favour. Whatever else happened that
+night, it is certain that the enemy received a severe shelling from
+our guns.
+
+The attack, carried out by B Company under Stanley, with D in support,
+was quite successful in its plan but not in its result. From a cause
+such as every series of complicated operations in open warfare
+threatened to introduce, the troops of the 4th Division on our right
+failed to co-operate as we expected. O'Meara, whom Stanley had placed
+in charge of his leading troops, after securing the cottages named as
+his objective, found himself attacked by the enemy from the very
+direction whence he had counted on assistance. After ineffectual
+attempts by our 'liaison' officer, Kirk, to get our neighbours to do
+their share, B Company had to be withdrawn to their original position.
+The 4th Division at this time were the flank division of one corps
+while we were of another. To reach the Battalion acting on our right
+a notice of our plan had to climb up through our Brigade, Division,
+and Corps to Army and down again as many steps the other side. A
+staff-officer from Army or from Corps should have been on the spot.
+
+Coucher and Kemp, two capital officers, were killed during the evening
+when this attack took place. Our other casualties were Killed, 2;
+Wounded, 18; Missing, 1.
+
+Throughout April 13 and for several days afterwards desultory
+fighting, in which our trench-mortars under Miller performed good
+service, was maintained for the possession of Baquerolle Farm and
+another lying 150 yards south of it and christened Boase's Farm. Both
+remained in our hands. With the troops on our left flank there was
+some difficulty. Their line bent back awkwardly, and when the enemy
+shelled the houses on the Calonne road, where their right flank
+rested, they showed signs of withdrawing and leaving our C Company 'in
+the air.' The Germans quickly benefited by this irresolution, for they
+commenced to push forward from house to house along the Calonne road,
+until Baquerolle Farm was in danger of being taken in its rear. The
+prompt determination of Lodge, the officer I have already mentioned as
+commanding C Company, served to avert critical consequences. He
+delivered a local counter-attack, capturing a machine-gun and killing
+several of the enemy. Our neighbours thus reoccupied their former
+positions, but were warned in Divisional Orders not to give up any
+more of the Robecq-Calonne road. This incident, which rightly
+earned for 'Tommy' Lodge a Military Cross, had a vexatious sequel a
+few days later. In quoting where the left flank of the Battalion in
+fact rested I made a slip in the co-ordinates of its map reference. By
+that mistake I was trapped, when it appeared as black and white in
+relief orders, into having to hand over 100 yards of extra frontage,
+and had the mortification of causing several hours of troublesome
+delay to the front line, besides innocently saddling my successors
+with responsibility that was not honestly theirs to receive.
+
+By April 16 the tactical situation was already stable. On that
+night--in reality during the early hours of April 17--the Battalion
+was relieved almost in the ordinary way by the Gloucesters, who came
+forward from the luxury of St. Venant and took over the line between
+Carvin and Baquerolle. St. Venant had been Portuguese G.H.Q. but was
+so no longer. It was by now receiving plenty of 5.9s and was rapidly
+losing the character of the quiet, well-to-do little town in which
+part of the Division was to have been billeted when it left the Amiens
+district. Still, for the time being, what St. Venant received in
+shells it paid for in choice vintages and fine houses. The Germans
+were not the only people to taste a glass of French wine during the
+Great War. About this time Colonel Boyle, who had commanded the 6th
+Oxfords until their disbandment, arrived to assume command of the
+Battalion. He remained till Wetherall, whose wound had taken him to
+England, returned.
+
+For the rest of April and during May the Battalion continued to do
+tours in the Robecq sector, which, owing to its proximity to Givenchy
+and Béthune, was never quiet so long as the enemy was planning to
+attack those places. An alteration of the front was brought about on
+April 23, when the Gloucesters under Colonel Lawson advanced in
+co-operation with the 4th Division and captured Riez du Vintage and La
+Pierre au Beurre. Of this victory some spoils fell to the Battalion,
+which was holding the front line. Company Sergeant-Major Moss, of D
+Company, who went out to reconnoitre two hours after the attack had
+taken place, brought in forty-five prisoners, and during the following
+night half-a-dozen machine-guns were collected by the company.
+
+German shelling at this time was often heavy. The tracks across the
+open up to the front line were rendered specially unpleasant by the
+pernicious '106' fuzes, with which the enemy's artillery was well
+supplied. From Robecq, which was steadily being shelled to ruins and
+through which one passed with reluctance, a disinterested salvage
+party, consisting of Stanley and the officers of B Company, brought a
+piano, which was destined to be an historic instrument. On more than
+one occasion the Battalion returned from its spell in the front line
+to the St. Venant Asylum, a large institution said to be the second
+largest of the kind in France. Its protesting inmates had been removed
+in lorries at the time of the German capture of Merville, and the long
+galleries and rooms thereafter became filled with troops. The ample
+bath-house, laundry, and kitchen of the Asylum, though ravaged by
+shelling and rifled by the mysterious depredations of looters, more
+than provided for the Battalion's wants. I have to record a very
+regrettable incident in connection with St. Venant Asylum. On the
+morning of May 21, during some shelling, when most of us had descended
+to cover, a German shell pierced the building where C and D Company
+Headquarters were and dropped through into the cellar, where it
+exploded. Several men were killed and also 'Tommy' Lodge, the officer
+whose conduct had earned him distinction three weeks before at
+Baquerolle Farm. Robinson, too, was wounded and was lost to the
+Battalion.
+
+At the Asylum, despite its comfort, it was difficult to feel at ease.
+On May 7 the Orderly Room was struck full on its door by a 5.9.
+Headquarters had many an anxious moment (as when a large aeroplane
+bomb was heard coming through the air; it fell 30 yards from the
+Mess). At the end of May rest billets were altered to La Pierrière, a
+small straggling village west of the La Bassée Canal, where few shells
+fell but whither the civilians were as yet timid to return. At La
+Pierrière, whenever the Battalion came out for its four days' rest,
+the Canteen was established on the most up-to-date lines with a full
+stock, including beer and the current newspapers from England. During
+the summer several local papers were kind enough to send me copies
+every week for free distribution to the men. I make this an
+opportunity to thank Mr. Stanley Wilkins and the Bucks Comforts Fund
+for most generous gifts of 'smokes,' which more than once helped to
+stave off a cigarette famine.
+
+The Canteen, though I have not before mentioned it, was a great
+feature in Battalion life. For the last eight months of the war, while
+I was President of the Regimental Institute, I was most anxious that
+our Canteen should be as good as possible. But my anxiety would have
+been worthless without the industry and enthusiasm of Lance-Corporal
+Kaye and Private Warburton, who managed every detail.
+
+At this stage in my history, when, almost reluctantly, I am drawing
+towards its close, there are many features of the Battalion life which
+crowd upon me in their demand for mention. The Pioneers lining out for
+their match in six-a-side football against the Shoemakers and Tailors,
+the Stores piled high with 'hay-packs' and wicker baskets filled with
+unissued signalling equipment, Sergeant Birt quietly demanding last
+month's war-diary, Connell the arch-footballer, Kettle, the
+Sergeant-Cook, arguing about an oven, and the four Company
+Quartermaster-Sergeants whose vote was always unanimous--to proceed
+further would be to enumerate a list of people and things over whom it
+is my regret to pass so rapidly.
+
+At the end of my chapters I have so often shown the Battalion marching
+back to rest that I shall leave it this time in the line. You must
+picture a medley of small fields and orchards, bounded on one side by
+the Calonne-Robecq road (which is the avenue of supply to the front
+line and much shelled) and on the other by the small streams called
+Noc and Clarence. Among the orchards stand numerous farmsteads, of
+which a large one known as Gloucester Farm had been our Battalion
+Headquarters in 1916, during a period of back-area rest. It has again
+been Battalion Headquarters. Recently the farm was shelled and the
+Berks Colonel, then in occupation, quitted it in favour of a
+two-storied house called Carvin. In the domed cellar of Baquerolle
+Farm--an old-fashioned building looking out across a wide midden to
+numerous cowsheds and outhouses--were usually the headquarters of C or
+D Companies and the Trench-Mortars. This farm was freely shelled. On
+April 24 the early-morning attention of the German guns set fire to
+the buildings; and Robinson was obliged to leave the cellar and repair
+with his headquarters to a trench to windward. The Posts themselves,
+as spring deepened into summer, became half lost in the crops and
+grass, until many of them could be reached in daylight. This fact,
+combined with his undaunted spirit of enterprise, led Colonel Lawson
+of the Gloucesters to crawl forward one morning to the German lines.
+His reckless bravery paid the penalty, for he was killed when only a
+short way from where a German post was lurking. Lawson was a brilliant
+soldier and a fine example of English character; his sudden and
+needless death cast a gloom over the whole Brigade.
+
+On the evening of May 13 the last raid to be made by the Battalion was
+carried out by No. 1 Platoon, commanded by Rowlerson. The affair was a
+small one but satisfactory, for two prisoners were brought in and we
+had no casualties.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE TURNING OF THE TIDE,
+
+MAY, JUNE, JULY, AUGUST, 1918.
+
+Rations and the Battalion Transport.--At La Lacque.--The bombing
+of Aire.--General Mackenzie obliged by his wound to leave the
+Division.--Return of Colonel Wetherall.--Tripp's Farm on fire.--
+A mysterious epidemic.--A period of wandering.--The march from
+Pont Asquin to St. Hilaire.--Nieppe Forest.--Attack by A and B
+Companies on August 7.--Headquarters gassed.--A new Colonel.--
+The Battalion goes a-reaping.
+
+
+Though used to being told that our army was the best fed of any in the
+war, few English people have any idea how rations reached the line.
+They came up every day from the Base by train as far as Railhead--which
+meant a convenient station as far forward as possible while still
+being outside the range of ordinary German guns--and were thence
+conveyed, normally in lorries, by the A.S.C. to the various 'refilling
+points' assigned to Infantry Brigades. From the refilling point, which
+was only a stretch of the roadside, the Transport collected the
+Battalion's rations and delivered them to the Quartermaster's stores;
+and by means of the Transport the Quartermaster, after their necessary
+division between companies, forwarded rations to the front line.
+Latterly it was rarely possible to cook in the trenches and it never
+was during active operations, so to Murray, our Quartermaster, and his
+staff fell the duty of sending up cooked food. It is impossible for me
+here to explain the system practised; but by means of food-containers,
+specially improvised from petrol tins and rammed into packs stuffed
+with hay, we were able to supply the men with hot food in the front
+line. Murray's organisation was excellent, and the four Company
+Quartermaster-Sergeants--Holder, Freudemacher, Taylor, and
+Beechey--and the Company Cooks earned equal credit in the performance
+of these important duties, which never miscarried.
+
+The Battalion was fortunate in keeping as its Transport officer 'Bob'
+Abraham. He suited the job, and the job him. He had organised the
+Transport in 1914 and brought it overseas. Several pairs of mules,
+which had come out with the Battalion in 1916, were still at work and
+thriving three years later. By a riding accident Abraham was lost to
+the Battalion for a time, but his place was taken by Kirk, who proved
+himself an excellent substitute, and when Kirk left Woodford carried
+on with equal efficiency.
+
+Long before the war was reaching its close I had ceased really to
+envy the Transport Officer, nor did our men in the trenches forget the
+responsibilities and danger of the drivers. In their turn the transport
+men felt that it was their duty to make up for the part they were not
+called upon to play with bomb and bayonet by never failing to deliver
+promptly and faithfully at company headquarters their limber-loads of
+rations. In its turn-out, whether at a Brigade horse-show, a
+veterinary inspection or on the line of march, our Transport set a
+high standard; men and animals were alike a credit to the Battalion.
+
+During the warm weather of the spring, when the canal banks were lined
+with bathers, our Transport was situated at La Lacque, a village a few
+miles west of Aire. Not far off stood the tall chimneys of the
+Isbergues steel works--a large factory, which, like Cassel and
+Dunkirk, had in the early days of the war attracted occasional shells
+from German long-range guns. Now that the line was only a few leagues
+distant the steel works became the almost daily target for 'high
+velocities.' Once the tiles had been shaken from the workshops no
+visible damage seemed to result from the many hundred shells which
+fell inside the factory's area. None the less the continuous shifts of
+workmen afforded a striking example of the national devotion of French
+industry, to be compared with that total dislocation of London
+business which even an air-raid warning was sufficient to engender.
+Isbergues village was now crowded with Portuguese, who spent their
+time tormenting dogs and washing themselves in the canal, but who
+officially were employed in making trenches, which they could be
+trusted to dig deep. At La Lacque a second Brigade School was
+established. The details of its management were under Coombes, who
+possessed considerable ability in this direction. The Battalion
+instructors were Sergeants Brooks and Brazier, both of whom were well
+versed in regimental drill and tradition and shewed much zeal in the
+work. Than Sergeant Brazier no more hearty sportsman ever belonged
+to the Battalion.
+
+At the end of May, 1918, when the whereabouts of his next attack were
+yet uncertain, the enemy's power reached its apparent zenith. A
+Canadian corps had been in reserve along the line of the La Bassée
+Canal for three weeks in expectation of a renewed attempt against
+Hazebrouck and Béthune. From prisoners' statements more than once an
+attack upon the Battalion seemed imminent and special precautions were
+adopted. All this time our artillery had been recovering its
+ascendancy, until the enemy, cooped up as he was within a salient
+bounded by canals, became faced with the two alternatives of attack or
+retreat. Meanwhile his aircraft used the fine nights of the early
+summer to wreak the utmost spite on our back area. During one night
+Aire, which had hitherto been left unscathed was so severely bombed
+that one could have fancied the next day that the town had been
+convulsed by an earthquake. St. Omer, though less damaged, was
+frequently attacked. In northern France the visits of German
+aeroplanes became such that all towns, alike by military and civil
+populations, came to be deserted before nightfall.
+
+How I should introduce appropriately and with becoming respect a
+reference to our Major-General has somewhat puzzled me. Sir Colin
+Mackenzie, K.C.B., had commanded the 61st Division through many
+difficult vicissitudes. His watchful eye and quiet manner gained
+everywhere the confidence and admiration of his regimental subordinates,
+who saw in him great soldierly qualities. The General's bearing and
+his string of real war-ribbons made many an eye rove at an inspection.
+By a wound he was obliged in June, 1918, to retire from command of the
+Division. He was much missed.
+
+Towards the end of May Colonel Wetherall returned to take command of
+the Battalion. To be his Second in Command was both a pleasure and a
+privilege. Similar feelings were evoked towards the Brigadier, General
+Pagan, in whose small frame beat a lion's heart. When the frontage of
+the Brigade was changed from one to two battalions, we had to give up
+Baquerolle and Carvin and occupy instead the barren fields on the
+other side of the Calonne road, where most wretched front-line
+accommodation existed. Headquarters for the new sector were in Les
+Amusoires; and rations came up each night as far as a farm, called
+Tripp's Farm, forward of which neither cooking could be done nor any
+water obtained. One night German shelling, that tune to which rations
+were usually carried, set light to Tripp's Farm. Quartermaster-Sergeants,
+mules' heads, and guides were mingled in the glare, while from a
+concrete pill-box hard by machine-gunners (its rightful occupants)
+were compelled to avoid roasting by flight. About this time both St.
+Venant and Robecq were burning for several days. Of the former, most
+of the remaining houses near the church (which had been frequently
+struck) were destroyed, but in Robecq the fire almost confined itself
+to the famous café near the cross-roads. To quench these conflagrations
+no measures were, or could be, taken, for their occurrence was a
+great gratification to the German artillery, which always redoubled
+its efforts in the hope of spreading a fire as far as possible.
+
+In the middle of June, during a stay at La Pierrière, the Battalion
+was ravaged by a mysterious epidemic, which claimed hundreds of victims
+before it passed. Starting among the signallers, it first spread through
+Headquarters, and then attacked all Companies indiscriminately. Among
+the officers, Cubbage and Shields (the doctor) were the first to go to
+hospital; soon followed by Clutsom, who was adjutant at this time, and
+Tobias the very doctor who had come to replace Shields. The Colonel and
+myself were the next victims, and when the time came for the Battalion
+to go into the line, it was necessary to send for Christie-Miller,
+of the Gloucesters, to take command and to make Murray from
+quartermaster into adjutant. This epidemic was not confined to the
+Battalion, nor to the 61st Division. Isolation camps had hastily to be
+formed, for the evil threatened to dislocate whole corps and even
+armies. Among the Germans the same complaint seems to have spread with
+even greater virulence; indeed, it may well have prevented them from
+launching a further offensive against Béthune and Hazebrouck. By
+doctors it was classified under the name of Pyrexia of Unknown Origin
+('P.U.O.') while in such guarded references as occurred our Press
+spoke of it as 'Spanish Influenza.' The symptoms of the illness
+consisted in high temperature, followed by great physical and mental
+lassitude. Most cases recovered within a week, but some took longer,
+nor was a second attack following recovery from the first at all
+uncommon. Such was the only epidemic of the war. Thanks to the care
+and efficiency of our Regimental M.O.s the dreaded scourges of past
+wars--cholera, dysentery, and enteric--in France could together claim
+few, if any, victims.
+
+On June 25 it was time for the 184th Infantry Brigade to move out of
+the line to Ham and Linghem, two villages south-east and south of
+Aire. The relief took place, but at the last minute it was decided
+that the 182nd Brigade was so depleted by the epidemic that it was
+necessary for the 2/4th Oxfords to remain at La Pierrière to assist
+them in holding the line. At the Brigade sports, held at Linghem on
+July 7, the Battalion easily carried off the cup offered for
+competition by General Pagan. In the relay race Sergeant Brazier
+accomplished a fine performance, while in the boxing we showed such
+superiority that no future Brigade competition ever took place.[12]
+
+                   [Footnote 12: In the realm of sport a later
+                   achievement of the Battalion deserves record. On
+                   July 27 at the XI Corps horse-show our team won the
+                   open tug-of-war.]
+
+[Illustration: THE HEADQUARTERS RUNNERS, JULY 1918]
+
+Before we left La Pierrière what can well be looked back to as a
+red-letter day was spent in sports and a full programme of
+entertainments, including the Divisional 'Frolics,' who were prevailed
+on to perform in a farmyard. Jimmy Kirk also brought his coaching
+party of clowns--who on this occasion avoided a conflict with the
+Military Police--and of course the Battalion Band regaled us with
+choice items throughout the day. In the sports a race had to be re-run
+because one of the competitors, instead of waiting for the 'pistol'
+(A. E. G. Bennett with home-made 'blanks') started at the report of
+our 6-inch gun in the next orchard, which occurred a fraction of a
+second earlier. The evening was saved from bathos by the news that the
+Division was to be relieved. Life operates by contrast, and though the
+war was going on a few miles to the eastward I believe as much pleasure
+was experienced that day in the small orchard behind Headquarters at
+La Pierrière as in any elaborate peace celebration in this country.
+Indeed, to see the crowd 'celebrating' the armistice up and down the
+Strand was enough to make one recall with regret such an occasion of
+the war as I have described.
+
+On July 10 we moved back, most of the way by 'bus, to Liettres, a very
+pretty village well behind the line and south-west of Aire. Hardly
+were we settled before we were ordered to move, which we did with no
+very good grace to St. Hilaire, a much inferior village. Two days
+later our tactical location was discovered to be still unsatisfactory,
+so we tried a march northwards to Warne, where for the third time in
+ten days a quartermaster's store had to be built from the materials we
+had managed to drag along with us. Almost before our headquarter
+runners had learnt the whereabouts of companies we were on the road
+again. This time we left the XI Corps, with which so many of the
+Battalion's fortunes and misfortunes had been associated, and passed
+into General Plumer's Army as part of the XV Corps. The paradise which
+every division, sent back for 'rest,' fancies will have been prepared
+for it, now degenerated to a mere field. Still, there are many worse
+places, if some better, than a grass field; footballs were soon
+bouncing merrily, and on the air floated the monotonous enumeration of
+'House.' One evening the Colonel, myself, and the company commanders
+returned wet-through from a voyage of inspection of the Hazebrouck
+defences, for a German attack was still anticipated. The last of these
+shuttle-cock moves occurred on July 31, from our field at Pont Asquin
+back to St. Hilaire, whose billets few of us were anxious to revisit.
+
+As I have not loaded my narrative with marches my readers shall hoist
+full pack (no air-pillows allowed!) upon their backs and fall in with
+the Battalion. It is already dusk as the sanitary men, like so many
+sorcerers, stoop in the final rites of fire and burial. Some days ago
+I taxed the band-master, Bond, with the possibility of playing in the
+dark; for a moment his face was as long as Taylor's bassoon, but since
+then by means of surreptitious practice and, I fancy, the sheer
+confiscation of his bandsmen's folios, the impossible has been
+achieved. Every band is the best in France, but only ours can play in
+darkness. Thus, as the column swings past the pond and waiting
+cookers, the Band strikes up one of its best and loudest marches....
+
+Such midnight music, if it drowned the drone of German aeroplanes,
+which ever and anon swam overhead, looking like white moths in the
+beams of our searchlights, served also to arouse the village
+inhabitants, whose angry faces were framed for an instant in windows
+as we passed. Our musical uproar set dogs barking for miles, cocks
+crowed at our passage, and generals turned in their second sleep to
+hear such martial progress in the night. The march--through Racquinghem
+and Aire--was long, lasting nearly all night. To flatter its interest
+a sweepstake had been arranged among the officers for who should name
+the exact moment of its conclusion. Years of foot-slogging in France
+made my considered guess formidable in the competition. More dangerous
+still was that of the Colonel, for to him would fall the duty of the
+decisive whistle-blast, and his entry ultimately was not accepted by
+the 'committee.' As in most sweepstakes, the first prize fell to a
+most undeserving winner.
+
+July closed with a feeling of dissatisfaction at the cycle of moves
+which had rendered futile both rest and training. Consciousness that
+one was helping to win the war was more often imputed than felt. Early
+in August, 1918, the 61st relieved the 5th Division in front of the
+Nieppe Forest. Minor attacks had already cleared the enemy from the
+eastern fringe of the forest and driven him back towards Neuf Berquin
+and Merville. At 7 p.m. on August 7 A and B Companies attacked and
+captured the trenches opposite to them, causing the enemy to retire
+behind the Plate Becque, a stream as wide as the Cherwell at Islip but
+far less attractive. We had a dozen casualties in this attack, which
+was rewarded by half as many German prisoners and a machine-gun.
+Sergeant Ravenscroft, of B Company, for an able exploit during the
+advance, received the D.C.M.
+
+[Illustration: THE NIEPPE FOREST]
+
+Already the Forest of Nieppe had become notorious for German gas. It
+was now a nightly programme of the enemy to drench the wood, which
+was low-lying and infested with pools and undergrowth, with his
+noxious 'Yellow Cross'--shells whose poisonous fumes bore the flavour
+of mustard. Throughout the night of August 7/8, when things generally
+were very active, a heavy gas-bombardment was kept up. The Colonel was
+away from his headquarters at the time. He returned after the shelling
+to find that gas helmets had been taken off. No harm was expected, but
+the next day, after the sun's heat had awakened dormant fumes, the
+Colonel, Symonds (the adjutant), Kirk, who had brought up the rations,
+and Cubbage, as well as the Regimental Sergeant-Major and many
+signallers and runners, all found that they were gassed. Their loss
+was serious. It was known that Wetherall would soon have to leave the
+Battalion, for he had been appointed to a command in the Machine Gun
+Corps; indeed already his successor, Colonel Woulfe-Flanagan, had
+arrived to take his place. Under the present unlucky auspices (for
+more than half Headquarters were knocked out) the interchange took
+place.
+
+Herodotus says of the kings of Sparta that the last was always
+regretted as the best the country had ever had. Colonel Wetherall's
+merit did not depend on his being the last of a series. Phrases such
+as 'he was worshipped by the men' have become so hackneyed as to be
+meaningless, nor shall I use an even worse commonplace, that 'he was
+sparing of his words.' Wetherall was just a rattling good Commanding
+Officer, a true friend, and a fine soldier. His successor, E. M.
+Woulfe-Flanagan, came from the East Surreys. He bore a distinguished
+record of pre-war service and had been wounded in the Mons retreat. A
+regular soldier of the old school, in ideas and methods he differed
+widely from his predecessor. But he was worth his salt every time.
+Certainly no braver officer ever set foot in France.
+
+After we had finished our first tour in the Nieppe Forest sector, both
+the Berks and Gloucester were sent forward against the enemy, who was
+rightly suspected by the staff to be on the point of retreating from
+the Lys salient. The attack had to cross the Plate Becque, whose
+eastern bank the enemy was fighting hard to hold. Gloucesters and
+Berks rushed forward at misty dawn and flung bridges over the stream;
+but the machine-gun fire was too intense, and though some parties got
+across, others did not, co-operation broke down, and the attack gained
+no result. A few days afterwards the Germans went back, giving up
+Calonne, Merville, and Neuf Berquin-villages which our artillery had
+utterly pulverised. As in the March retreat of 1917, the 184th Brigade
+had no immediate share in following up the enemy as he retired. The
+Oxfords had withdrawn on August 14 to Spresiano Camp, in the forest,
+and waited without eagerness to be ordered forward to the new devastated
+area. It is curious to reflect that at this time, so distant did the end
+of the war still seem, we grumbled at losing our comfortable base at
+Steenbecque, which we hoped to keep perhaps through the winter. Most
+thinking people could see neither value nor wisdom in pursuing the
+Germans in their retreats, planned and carried out in their own time,
+from salients. Hardly on one occasion did we hustle them, and the
+policy, deprecated by most commanders of lower formations, of snatching
+at the first morsels of abandoned territory always cost us heavy
+casualties. Between war and chess there is a close analogy. In front
+of Nieppe Forest there were now a hopeless crowding of the pieces,
+moves aimlessly made from square to square, and the reckless calling
+of 'check,' which to a good opponent means time and renewed chances to
+escape defeat.
+
+[Illustration: MERVILLE CHURCH, SEPTEMBER 1918]
+
+During the early stages of the retreat the Battalion was sent to fresh
+fields of conquest among the crops, which the German withdrawal had
+done nothing to ripen but had at least removed from shell range. Plans
+were afoot to harvest a large area adjacent to the forest and present
+its fruits to the rightful owners. If harvesting weather should be
+hot, conditions were ideal. This novel form of working-party at first
+delighted the men, who set about the crops in goodly earnest. In a
+short space of time wheat, oats, and barley were added to our
+battle-honours. But if the spirit was willing, our reaping implements
+were correspondingly weak. The Corps 'Agricultural Officer' had collected
+from surrounding farms a fantastic assortment of cast-off scythes,
+jagged hooks, and rusty sickles, which fell to pieces 'in the 'ands'
+and refused to do more than beat down the crops to which they were
+opposed. The scythes seemed hardly able to stick their points, in the
+approved manner, into the ground, sickles were back-to-front or
+left-handed, and the entire panoply issued to this Reaping Battalion
+should have been seconded for duty at a music-hall or gazetted out
+of agricultural service as old iron. The Major-General, visiting the
+scene of our labours, was scandalised to find that fewer acres of corn
+had been put out of action than reports from other parts of the
+harvest front inclined him to expect. A 'stinker' followed, to which
+we could only retaliate by posting sentries the next day to warn us of
+the General's approach. Of course he came by a fresh road. And now, to
+avoid the inevitable anti-climax, I will ring down the curtain as the
+General steps from his car, demoralised reapers bestir themselves into
+some semblance of activity, and the commander of the party simply is
+not.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+LAST BATTLES,
+
+AUGUST TO DECEMBER, 1918.
+
+German retreat from the Lys.--Orderly Room and its staff.--The new
+devastated area.--Itchin Farm, Merville and Neuf Berquin.--Mines
+and booby-traps.--Advance to the Lys.--Estaires destroyed.--
+Laventie revisited.--The attack on Junction Post.--Lance-Corporal
+Wilcox, V.C.--Scavenging at the XI Corps school.--On the Aubers
+ridge.--The end in sight.--Move to Cambrai.--In action near
+Bermerain and Maresches.--A fine success.--Domart and
+Demobilisation.--Work at Etaples.--Off to Egypt.
+
+
+While the Battalion harvested the corn behind Nieppe Forest, on the
+other side of it hue and cry were being raised after the enemy, whose
+tail was well turned in his last retreat. The Lys salient, which had
+proved so useless to him, was being evacuated. On the evening of
+August 20, 1918, the Battalion was ordered forward from Spresiano Camp
+to occupy the old trenches near Chapelle Boom, a quaint moated farmhouse
+on the eastern outskirts of the forest. We found the area already
+overstocked with troops; indeed Chapelle Boom itself, though assigned
+to us, was the headquarters of not less than two units of the 183rd
+Infantry Brigade. The arrival of the Battalion, loaded as it was with
+the encumbrances of advance, further contributed to the congestion. In
+a few days the Suffolks and Northumberland Fusiliers suddenly
+disappeared, and Chapelle Boom fell into our power. There we stayed
+until the Colonel went upon a course.
+
+[Illustration: BATTALION HEADQUARTERS AT CHAPELLE BOOM]
+
+As usually when the Germans genuinely retired, to use their own
+phrase, 'according to plan,' early immunity from shells preluded days
+when the last spite of their artillery was flung as far as possible.
+Harassing fire against our exits from Nieppe Forest was cleverly
+manipulated by the enemy. Our guns, which had the choice of few orchards
+or buildings to screen their flashes, were vigorously searched for when
+they opened fire. Bonar Farm, Dene Farm, Rennet Farm--places of ill
+name during the fighting for the Plate Becque--were freely shelled.
+From the explosion of a chance 4.2 Ellis and several men in D Company
+were casualties. Whilst in reserve we bathed in the river and for a
+time resumed our harvesting pursuits. The method became more unique
+and amateur than ever--we were directed to pluck the ripe ears of corn
+by hand. I laid down the standard task of one sandbag-full per day per
+man. Some men used nail-scissors, and it was found that a 'one hour
+day' was ample to ensure a good 'return.' Soon a pile of bags lay by
+the roadside. One wonders instinctively what became of the corn and
+whether it was used.
+
+The word 'return' should set some readers agog. I am sure no battalion
+had a better Orderly Room than the 2/4th Oxfords. Though only a
+Company Commander, I was struck by its efficiency when I joined the
+Battalion. Units were apt to be judged by the promptness and accuracy
+of their returns, and Cuthbert, who for longer than anyone was
+Adjutant of the Battalion, won a deserved reputation in this respect.
+But inside the Battalion as well as out of it his efficiency was
+understood and valued. Cuthbert was a good instance of an officer
+without pre-war training whose common-sense and agreeability made him
+the equal in his work of any Regular. In the office Sergeant Birt had
+now for two years been a pillar of reliability; few officers or men of
+the Battalion but owed something to him. Spring 1918 brought an
+interregnum in the adjutantcy, till R. F. Symonds, formerly of the
+Bucks, returned from a staff attachment to take the post. Symonds had
+a remarkable gift for office work. Wrapped up in the routine of the
+Battalion, he was never happier than in Orderly Room with a full
+'basket.' Since the gassing of Headquarters, Shilson, a recently
+arrived officer with antecedents in the A.S.C., had acted adjutant;
+right creditably did he acquit himself in the duties suddenly cast
+upon him. Other new officers were now filling important positions in
+the Battalion. Faithfull, another disciple from the A.S.C., whom also
+we got to like very much, was now in command of D Company; Clutsom
+commanded C, and Young, who had seen long service with the 48th
+Division, B Company; Jones still led A. Time had wrought changes among
+the Sergeant-Majors of the Companies. At this period in Cunningham of
+A, Mudd of B, Smith of C, and Brooks of D, we had a quartet of tried
+experience. The recurrent conflicts about 'strength'--a word which in
+effect meant the number of men employed with Quartermaster's Stores
+and at Headquarters--were now at a high pitch. After much
+'camouflage,' by aid of Bicknell, of the real facts, we had
+reluctantly to choose between the 'return to duty' in the line of
+either Band or Buglers. The choice was hard, but in the end we kept
+the Band intact, for loss of a few bandsmen as casualties might leave
+such gaps as would prevent the Band from playing at all.
+
+On August 24 we relieved the 5th Suffolks in the outpost line, which
+had remained stationary for several days. It lay upon the eastern fringe
+of Neuf Berquin, through whose scattered ruins one picked a way to
+find the posts. Headquarters were some distance back, but most
+wretchedly accommodated in an orchard close to a lonely brick-stack
+known as Itchin Farm. The German guns showed marked persistency, not
+actually against the holes which formed Headquarters, but all around.
+No area more dismal could be imagined than the flat, dyke-ridden
+country north of Merville. So thoroughly had our artillery during the
+last four months plastered the ground behind his former lines that
+little scope had been left for the retreating frenzy of the enemy. By
+bombs and shells we had driven the Germans not only from such places
+as Merville and Neuf Berquin, but from the mere proximity to roads or
+houses. They had concealed themselves as best they could in ditches
+and narrow tunnels made with corrugated iron or planks. The 'Huns,'
+indeed, had been meeting with their deserts. Their life in the Lys
+salient must have been a nightmare. One required only to read a few of
+the notices displayed to realise the difference of life behind their
+line and ours. Everywhere appeared in big letters the word
+'Fliegerdeckung!' _i.e._ cover from aircraft. No testimony more
+eloquent of British superiority could have been offered.
+
+Further behind, round Estaires and La Gorgue, the Germans were busy
+blowing up and burning ere their retreat ebbed back across the Lys.
+Black palls of smoke rose daily from where mills and factories were
+aflame. One day the tall church of Sailly had simply vanished; the
+next, one looked vainly for Estaires' square tower. Often, when idly
+scanning the horizon or watching aeroplanes, eyes were arrested by
+huge jets which sprang into the air to become clouds as large as any
+in the sky. Combining with this present orgy of destruction numerous
+booby-traps were left behind, whose action was delayed till our
+advance should provide victims for their murderous art. Cross-roads
+and level-crossings especially 'went up,' or were expected to, and so
+many houses were mined that it became impossible to rest secure in
+any. In fact, the 182nd Brigade ordered its men out of all buildings.
+Some measure of vile ingenuity must be accorded to the authors of
+these booby-traps; but whether bombs under beds or attached to pump
+handles can be included in legitimate warfare is a case for judgment.
+
+At short notice we attacked from Neuf Berquin on August 28. In some
+places the advance was quite successful, but in others not. German
+counter-attacks obliged A Company, which had made good progress south
+of the Neuf Berquin-Estaires road in the morning, to withdraw its
+patrols at dusk. A few days later, however, the opposition lessened,
+and companies went forward several miles. Soon afterwards the 182nd
+Brigade took turn as the advanced guard, the Lys was reached and
+crossed, and presently patrols were passing through the old 'posts'
+and grass-grown breastworks which used to lie behind our front-line
+system. We followed, and for several days lived in reserve among the
+scattered farms and houses north of Estaires, over the ruins of which
+Crosthwaite, an officer of mature service, who had just joined the
+Battalion, was appointed Town Major. His task was not entirely enviable.
+Houses, roofless or otherwise, had to be subdivided into safe, doubtful,
+or certain to 'go up.' I cannot help regarding this Flanders retreat
+as a subject supremely dull. The constant suspicion of mines and
+booby-traps rendered doubly sordid the polluted ruins which formed the
+landmarks of our advance. One feature alone provided interest to some.
+We were approaching, from an odd direction as it seemed, the old area
+where the Battalion had first held its trenches. La Gorgue, Estaires,
+Laventie were places rich in association. How much the two former were
+altered! La Gorgue, where in 1916 Divisional Headquarters and Railhead
+had been, was heaped in ugly ruin. Its expensive church had been blown
+in two. Of Estaires proper little more than its charred walls
+remained. In such shape was victory passing into our hands.
+
+When the enemy was holding the line Picantin--Junction Post, the
+Battalion went forward to hold an outpost line north-east of Laventie.
+On September 10, while he was taking over his new piece of front,
+Clutsom, of C Company, was badly wounded by a German shell. No officer
+could have been more regretted. I am glad to say his wound healed
+steadily and he was soon writing cheerful letters to his friends from
+England. Command of his company passed to Stanley.
+
+[Illustration: CORPORAL A. WILCOX, V.C.]
+
+Headquarters now were in the old dressing station at Laventie. It was
+a house of quite pretentious size, left standing by the enemy.
+Although its floors were heaped with shavings, prophets of all ranks
+assigned a violent end to tenants of such a residence. For the next
+tour we were content to move into Laventie North Post, but all the
+time the house belied our fears, nor have I evidence that any mine
+existed. I walked through the village, and I must say it seemed less
+damaged than I had expected. Most of its buildings were quite
+recognisable. The house formerly Battalion Headquarters might, with
+labour, have been made to serve again. The line of small plane trees,
+which gave Laventie the meretricious semblance of a garden city, was
+standing yet. In the war's passage over it Laventie suffered less
+havoc than had seemed probable.
+
+At a few hours' notice and in weather calculated to make any operation
+a fiasco, the Battalion on September 12 attacked Junction Post, a
+grass-bound breastwork where the enemy was offering a stubborn
+resistance. Though finally unsuccessful in result, the fighting, which
+was accompanied by driving storms of rain, produced two noteworthy
+incidents. Rowlerson, one of C Company's platoon commanders, after
+reaching the German trenches, somehow lost touch and was captured with
+several of his men. In A Company an exploit was performed, which
+gained for the Battalion its second Victoria Cross. Lance-Corporal
+Wilcox came to close quarters with some enemy defending a piece of
+trench with four machine-guns. Each of these guns Lance-Corporal
+Wilcox, followed by his section, successively captured or put out of
+action. Wilcox was shortly afterwards wounded and was in hospital in
+England when news of the award arrived. His deed lent lustre to a
+profitless attack.
+
+A few days later the Battalion was relieved and spent a period in
+reserve among fields and orchards west of Sailly-sur-la-Lys. We
+suffered much from the night long attention of the German 'pip-squeak'
+guns, whose range, longer considerably than that of the English
+18-pounder, was made fullest use of by the enemy. A move came as a
+welcome surprise. Under mysterious directions the Battalion was
+ordered back as far as Linghem, a village I have mentioned before as
+lying south of Aire. Arrived there, we were placed in some huts,
+destined for eventual occupation by the XI Corps school. More than a
+day elapsed before the object of our visit was explained: the
+Battalion was to sweep and clean the camp for its inspection by the
+Corps Commander. We were not present at the ceremony, but for a week
+preceding it all four companies were daily engaged weeding potato
+patches, tarring roofs, and evacuating a dump of several hundred
+thousand empty tins. Rarely were the energies of an Infantry Battalion
+more curiously devoted.
+
+At Laventie no startling events had filled our absence. But after our
+return--Junction Post had not yet fallen, so that the outpost line was
+still in front of Rouge de Bout--developments began. On September 30
+the enemy lost Junction Post to a spirited attack by the Gloucesters,
+the line that he had been holding for three weeks was broken, and his
+retreat became fast and general. After relieving the Gloucesters our
+companies were hard put to it to advance rapidly enough to keep touch.
+At last we stood upon the Aubers Ridge itself. Lille was almost in
+view; but at this point the Division was relieved by the 59th and sent
+southwards to join our armies before Cambrai, where the final issue
+between British and German arms was destined to be decided.
+
+Out of the closing phases of the war I feel there must be material
+from which historians will find that climax which so grand a conflict
+deserves as its termination. But I confess that I find scarcely any.
+
+After its dramatic and sinister opening the war seemed almost
+belittled by its tame conclusion. Years of nerve-racking experiences,
+the hardships, and the immutable association which towns like Ypres,
+Arras and Albert, and the trench-dwellings of Flanders and the Somme
+possessed, had indisposed the mind to receive new impressions from the
+last battle of the war. Patient from a hundred moves from trench to
+billet, from billet to trench, the British soldier accepted with
+characteristic resignation moves which were sweeping him to Victory.
+By gas, liquid fire, night-flying aeroplanes, and long-range
+artillery, the war had in four years demonstrated the incredible. The
+mere collapse, on one side, of the agencies military and political
+which lay behind, was in itself commonplace.
+
+The Battalion joined the XVII Corps half way through October, 1918,
+and was soon put into important fighting. The enemy, who had lost
+Lille, Douai, and St. Quentin early in the month, was now in full
+retreat between Verdun and the sea. To preserve his centre from being
+pierced and his flanks rolled up, rear-guards eastward of Cambrai were
+offering the maximum resistance. Most villages, though they passed
+into our hands nearly intact and in some cases full of civilians, had
+to be fought for. The German machine-gunners rarely belied their
+character of fighting to the end. In an attack on October 24 from
+Haussy, the Battalion, advancing rapidly in artillery formation,
+captured the high ground east of Bermerain; and the next day B and D
+Companies (the latter now commanded by Cupper) again attacked, and
+captured the railway south-east of Sepmeries. For these operations the
+weather was fine, the ground dry, and the leadership excellent. A
+period followed in reserve at Vendegies and afterwards at Bermerain,
+villages which were liberally bombarded by the German long-range guns.
+Moving up again on November 2, the Battalion made its last attack of
+the war. A fine success resulted. The objectives--St. Hubert and the
+ridge east of it--were captured, together with 700 prisoners, 40
+machine-guns, and 4 tanks, recently used by the enemy in a
+counter-attack. The fruits of this victory were well deserved by the
+Battalion, the more because so often in the course of the war it had
+been set to fight against odds in secondary operations. It was a good
+wind-up.
+
+Of some battalions it was said that on November 11, 1918 they found
+themselves standing within a mile or two of where they first went into
+action in 1914. We, naturally, could claim no such coincidence; yet a
+dramatic touch was not wanting when the telegram, which bore the news
+of the cessation of hostilities, was read out by the Colonel to a
+parade formed up at Maresches upon the very ground whence the
+Battalion had started in its last attack.
+
+[Illustration: OFFICERS OF THE BATTALION DECEMBER 1918]
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL THORNE AND 184th INFANTRY BRIGADE STAFF,
+CHRISTMAS 1918]
+
+The Battalion was never in the Army on the Rhine. After time spent at
+Cambrai we travelled back to Domart, a village mid-way between Amiens
+and Abbeville. In duration the journey surpassed all records. Three
+days we spent impatiently waiting for a train, and two more patiently
+waiting in the train itself; and we arrived at the destination faced
+with a ten-mile march in rain and pitch darkness. Happily the war was
+still sufficiently recent for such delay to pass as comedy. At Domart
+the one real topic was Demobilisation. I could set myself no harder
+task than a description of the workings of this engine. Few people
+understood how they were themselves demobilised, and fewer cared how
+others were. That the scheme worked on the whole well and justly was
+in great measure due to Symonds, whose zealous energy, though the
+Battalion was lessoning daily, never flagged. For two months Battalion
+drill and the 'Education Scheme' occupied our mornings, football our
+afternoons. Christmas was a great festival. The 'Frolics' pantomime
+visited the village, in which the Battalion pioneers, under the
+direction of Cameron, the Brigade signalling officer, had transformed
+an empty building into a capital theatre. General Thorne, who had so
+successfully commanded the 184th Infantry Brigade in its last battle,
+was unstinting in his efforts to give the men's life in the army a
+happy and useful conclusion. He secured visits from all the best
+concert parties and raised a fund to finance the department of
+Brigade entertainments, of which Nicholas, the Brigade Major, was
+chief minister. A weekly magazine was started, which ran to its fourth
+number. Truly the arts flourished.
+
+In a windy field south of the village the Battalion was in January
+presented with its colour by Major-General Duncan. The occasion passed
+off well. Its feature was the admirable speech made by the Colonel.
+
+In February the Battalion, which it was known would be made up with
+drafts and retained for service as a unit, was sent to Etaples to
+assist in the Demobilisation scheme. For a month we remained meeting
+trains, escorting parties to camps, sorting clothing, and driving
+herds of the demobilised through the intricacies of a machine called
+the 'Delouser,' until the arriving trainloads decreased, dwindled, and
+finally stopped. In March several large drafts of officers and men, to
+replace all those who had been, or would be, demobilised, joined the
+Battalion, which, after a pause at Le Tréport and some leave, sailed
+for Egypt. Thither my story does not follow it. When peace was signed,
+the cadre of the Battalion had not returned to Oxford. On Christmas
+Dav 1919 the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was
+still serving overseas.
+
+[Illustration: THE ADJUTANT AT HIS DESK]
+
+[Illustration: CAMBRAI: THE HOTEL DE VILLE]
+
+[Illustration: THE BATTALION COOKS AT STAPLES]
+
+[Illustration: LIEUT.-COL. E. M. WOULFE-FLANAGAN. C.M.G. D.S.O.]
+
+[Illustration: REGIMENTAL SERGT. MAJOR HEDLEY]
+
+[Illustration: REGIMENTAL QUARTERMASTER-SERGEANT HEDGES]
+
+
+
+
+COMPOSITION OF THE BATTALION ON GOING OVERSEAS
+
+
+_Headquarters._
+
+Colonel W. H. Ames, T. D.
+Major G. P. R. Beaman, 2nd in Command.
+Major D. M. Rose, Adjutant.
+Lieut. C. S. W. Marcon, Signalling Officer.
+2/Lieut. H. E. Coombes, Intelligence Officer.
+Lieut. G. H. G. Shepherd, Machine-gun Officer.
+Lieut. R. L. Abraham, Transport Officer.
+Lieut. W. A. Hobbs, Quartermaster.
+Captain A. Worsley, Medical Officer.
+
+
+_Company Commanders._
+
+Captain H. J. Bennett, A Company.
+Captain H. N. Davenport, B Company.
+Captain A. H. Brucker, C Company.
+Captain R. F. Cuthbert, D Company.
+
+
+_Regimental Sergeant-Major._
+
+T. V. Wood.
+
+
+_Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant._
+
+W. C. Hedges.
+
+
+_Company Sergeant-Majors._
+
+C. A. Witney, A Company.
+A. Ball, B Company.
+W. F. Campion, C Company.
+W. Douglas, D Company.
+
+
+
+
+COMPOSITION OF THE BATTALION AT THE ARMISTICE
+
+
+_Headquarters._
+
+Lieut.-Colonel E. M. Woulfe-Flanagan, C.M.G., D.S.O.
+Major G. K. Rose, M.C., 2nd in Command.
+Captain R. F. Symonds, Adjutant.
+Lieut. T. S. R. Boase, M.C., Signalling Officer.
+Lieut. W. A. F. Hearne, Intelligence Officer.
+Captain J. W. Shilson, Assistant Adjutant.
+Lieut. G. W. Woodford, M.C., Transport Officer.
+Captain W. G. Murray, Quartermaster.
+Lieut. E. P. Neary (U.S.), Medical Officer.
+
+
+_Company Commanders._
+
+Captain H. Jones, M.C., A Company.
+Captain R. E. M. Young, B Company.
+Captain J. Stanley, M.C., C Company.
+Captain J. H. D. Faithfull, D Company.
+
+
+_Regimental Sergeant-Major._
+
+W. Hedley, D. C. M.
+
+
+_Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant._
+
+W. C. Hedges.
+
+
+_Company Sergeant-Majors._
+
+C. R. Holder, A Company.
+A. J. Mudd, B Company.
+S. Smith, D.C.M., C Company.
+M. T. Brooks, D Company.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Ablaincourt, 55, 56, 75.
+Abraham, Capt. R. L., 14, 80, 157, 172, 175, 193.
+Aire, 194, 195, 201.
+Aitken, Lieut. R., 85, 86.
+Albert, 23.
+Allden, Lieut. J. H., 84, 100, 101.
+Ames, Col. W. H., 7, 13.
+Amiens, 104, 174.
+A.S.C., 43, 45, 132, 192.
+Arras, 107, 111, 144.
+Arrowsmith, Rev. W. L., M.C., 106.
+Asylum, St. Venant, 188, 189.
+Athies, 79.
+Auxi-le-Château, 111, 112.
+Aveluy, 35.
+Avesne, 174-176.
+
+
+Band, the, 200, 211.
+Baquerolle Farm, 181, 183, 186, 189, 191, 196.
+Barnes, Lance-Corpl., 109.
+Barton, Lieut. C. J., 14, 86.
+Bassett, Col.-Sgt., 1.
+Baxter, Pte., 137, 139.
+Beaman, Maj. G. P. R., 14, 66.
+Beauvoir Line, 163-165.
+Beechey, C.Q.-M.S., 193.
+Bellamy, Lt.-Col. R., D.S.O., 14, 30, 43, 51, 104.
+Bennett, Lieut. A. E. G., 199.
+Bennett, Maj. H. J., M.C., 14, 15, 23, 43, 86, 92, 145, 164-170.
+Berks, 2/4th Royal, 25, 35, 51, 55, 66, 77, 98, 102, 122, 124, 161,
+       163, 169, 170, 181, 204.
+Bermerain, 218.
+Bernaville, 111.
+Bicknell, Capt. A., M.C., 34, 152, 211.
+Birt, Sgt. J. W., 190, 210.
+Boase, Lieut. T. S. R., M.C., 175, 182, 186.
+Boyle, Lt.-Col. C. R. C., D.S.O., 187.
+Brigade, 182nd Inf., 78, 85, 87, 160, 198, 213.
+-------- 183rd Inf., 126, 169, 208.
+Brazier, Sgt., 194, 198.
+Brooks, C.S.M. E., V.C., 34, 64, 66, 101, 117.
+Brooks, Sgt. M. T., 194, 211.
+Broomfield, 4.
+Brown, Capt. K. E., M.C., 14, 23, 38, 40, 51, 56, 85, 117, 119,
+       132, 159, 171.
+Broxeele, 114.
+Brucamps, 49.
+Brucker, Capt. A. H., 14, 117, 124.
+Bucks, 2/1st, 35, 79, 81, 94, 125, 135, 158, 174, 175.
+Buggins, Father, 79.
+Buller, Sgt., 109.
+Butcher, Sgt., M. M., 101.
+Buttfield, Capt. L. F., M.C., 175, 182.
+
+
+Cairns, C.S.M. J., D.C.M., 124, 125, 172.
+Callender, Lieut. J. C., 14, 117, 119, 124.
+Calonne, 177, 179-183, 204.
+Calonne Road, 19, 183, 186, 190, 196.
+Cambrai, 217, 219.
+Cameron, Bde. Signalling Officer, 219.
+Canteen, the, 189, 190.
+Carvin, 179, 191, 196.
+Caulaincourt, 81, 86.
+Cepy Farm, 94, 102, 160.
+Chapelle Boom, 209.
+Chaulnes, 49, 56, 60, 78, 79.
+Chemical Works, 142, 149.
+Chili Avenue, 143.
+Chocques, 174, 177.
+Christie-Miller, Lieut.-Col. G., D.S.O., M.C., 197.
+Christmas Day, 41, 155, 219, 220.
+Clarence River, 179, 191.
+Clutsom, Capt. C. R., 175, 197, 211, 214.
+Coles, Corpl., 63, 66.
+Collett, Sgt., 30.
+Connell, Bugler, 190.
+Contay Wood, 22.
+Copinger, Lieut. J. P., 117, 140.
+Coombes, Lieut. H. K., 117, 194.
+Coucher, Lieut. G. W., 186.
+Craddock, Lieut., 170.
+Crosthwaite, Capt. H. T., 213.
+Cubbage, Lieut., 197, 203.
+Cunningham, C.S.M., 211.
+Cunningham, Lieut. J. C., 159, 162.
+Cupper, Lieut. H. J., 218.
+Cuthbert, Capt. R. F., M.C., 14, 30, 51, 63, 149, 210.
+
+
+Davenport, Capt. H. N., M.C., 7, 9, 14, 38, 75, 166, 168.
+Davies, Pte. A. H., 137.
+Dawson-Smith, Lieut. C. F., 117.
+D.C.L.I., 1 5th, 34, 36, 166, 179.
+Deniécourt, 51.
+Desire Trench, 25, 26, 38.
+Dimmer, Lt.-Col. J. S., V.C., 168.
+Division, 4th, 183, 188.
+          5th, 201.
+         15th, 122, 126, 144.
+         17th, 143.
+         20th, 166, 168, 175.
+         32nd, 55, 90.
+         48th, 122, 124, 126.
+         51st, 177, 179.
+         59th, 84, 85, 217.
+Domart, 219.
+Douglas, R.S.M.W., 14, 172.
+Doullens, 174, 177.
+Dugan, Br.-Gen. W. J., C.M.G., D.S.O., 14.
+Duncan, Maj.-Gen. F. J., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., 207, 220.
+
+
+Ellis, Lieut., 210.
+Enghien Redoubt, 160, 162, 165.
+Estaires, 17, 212-214.
+Etaples, 220.
+
+
+Fabick Trench, 23.
+Faithfull, Capt. J. H. D., 211.
+Fauquissart, 10.
+Fayet, 90, 94, 96, 98, 157, 158, 160-163, 171.
+Field Trench, 36, 37.
+Foreshew, Capt. C. E. P., M.C., 159.
+Framerville, 76, 80.
+Freudemacher, C.Q.-M.S., 193.
+'Frolics,' the, 198, 219.
+Fry, Lieut., 61.
+
+
+Gas, 114, 128, 136, 150, 203.
+Gascoyne, Lieut., 117, 124.
+Gepp, Bde.-Maj., 33, 148, 149.
+Gloucester Farm, 19, 191.
+Gloucesters, 2/5th, 15, 35, 84, 85, 90, 162, 163, 169, 170, 183,
+             184, 187, 188, 204, 216.
+Goldfish Château, 120, 125-127.
+Gonnelieu, 153, 154.
+Goodman, Lance-Cpl., 140.
+Gouzeaucourt, 152, 153.
+Grandcourt, 24, 28.
+Greenland Hill, 105, 149.
+Guest, Lieut. H. R., M.C., 117, 125, 140.
+Guildford, Lieut., 64.
+
+
+Ham, 166, 168.
+Hangest, 176.
+Harbonnières, 49.
+Harling, Major R. W., 34.
+Harris, Capt. H. T. T., 117.
+Hall, Pte., D.C.M., 151.
+Haussy, 218.
+Havrincourt Wood, 154.
+Hawkes, Lieut. T. W. P., 117.
+Hazebrouck, 177, 195, 200.
+Hedauville, 30, 33, 34, 43.
+Hedges, R.Q.M.S. W. C., 14.
+Hedley, R.S.M. W., D.C.M., 175, 203.
+Herbert, Lieut. S. E., 109.
+Hessian Trench, 30, 37, 38, 40.
+Hill, Lieut. T. A., 117.
+Hill 35, 131-140.
+Hinton, Sgt., M.M. 15.
+Hobbs, Capt. (Q.-M.) W. A., 14, 21, 45, 159.
+Holder, C.Q.-M.S. C. R., 193.
+Holnon, 90, 91, 102, 157, 159, 162, 163.
+Hombleux, 88, 166.
+Howland, Sgt., 1.
+Howitt, Capt. (Bde.-Maj.) H. G., D.S.O., M.C., 148, 169, 178.
+Hunt, Lieut. C. B., 25, 29, 64, 65.
+
+
+Infantry Hill, 105.
+Isbergues, 177, 194.
+Itchin Farm, 212.
+
+
+Jones, Capt. H., M.C., 44, 100, 101, 117, 162, 171, 172, 211.
+July 19th, 1916, Operations of, 12, 13.
+Junction Post, 214-216.
+
+
+Kemp, Lieut. S. F., M.C. 175, 186.
+Kilby. Sergt., 100, 101.
+Kirk, Lieut. J., 175, 193, 198, 203.
+Kettle, Sgt., 190.
+
+
+La Gorgue, 10, 212, 214.
+La Lacque, 194.
+La Motte, 169-171.
+La Pierre au Beurre, 185, 188.
+La Pierrière, 189, 197-199.
+Languevoisin, 164, 165.
+Laventie, 8, 10, 176, 214-216.
+Lawson, Lt.-Col. A. B., D.S.O., 163, 169, 188, 191.
+Leatherbarrow, Sergt. J., 98, 101, 117.
+Les Amusoires, 179, 181, 182, 196.
+Les Fosses Farm, 107.
+Le Vergier, 84, 85.
+Liettres, 199.
+Lindsey, Lieut., 109.
+Linghem, 198, 216.
+Lodge, 2/Lt. T., M.C., 175, 181, 186, 187, 189.
+Loewe, Lieut. L. L., 43.
+Longford, Pte., 26, 66.
+Longley, Pte., 66.
+Lyon, Lieut., 44.
+Lys River, 176, 212, 213.
+
+
+Mackenzie, Maj.-Gen. Sir Colin, K.C.B., 49, 165, 195.
+Maison Ponthieu, 42, 45, 49.
+Maissemy, 81, 90, 163.
+Marcelçave, 49, 169, 170.
+Marchélepot, 56, 60, 79.
+Marcon, Capt. C. S. W., 57.
+Maresches, 219.
+Martinsart Wood, 31, 33, 34.
+Matthews, Capt. C. S., 117, 159.
+Merville, 8, 10, 17, 176, 177, 179, 182, 188, 201, 204, 212.
+Miller, Capt. J. G. R., 186.
+Moated Grange, 17.
+Moberly, Capt. W. H., D.S.O., 9, 117, 125, 150, 151, 165, 166, 172.
+Monchy-le-Preux, 105, 106.
+Montolu Wood, 81, 86.
+Monument, at Fayet, 90, 171.
+Moorat, 23.
+Moore, Capt. (Bde.-Maj.), L. G., D.S.O., 92, 93, 98.
+Moore, Col.-Sgt., 1.
+Mouquet Farm, 23, 35, 36.
+Moss, C.S.M., 188.
+Mowby, Sergt. W., 100.
+Mudd, C.S.M. A. J., 211.
+Muir, Lt.-Col. J. B., D.S.O., 158.
+Murray, Capt. (Q.M.) W. G., 159, 172, 175, 193, 197.
+
+
+Nesle, 168, 169, 175.
+Neuf Berquin, 201, 204, 211-213.
+Neuve Chapelle, 10.
+Neuvillette, 20, 104.
+Nicholas, Bde.-Maj., 220.
+Nieppe Forest, 177, 178, 201-206, 209.
+Noc River, 20, 179, 181, 198.
+Noeux, 111, 112.
+Northampton, 3.
+
+
+O'Connor, Lance-Cpl., 100.
+O'Meara, Lieut. R. A., M.C., 155, 185.
+Offoy, 165, 166.
+Omignon River, 79, 84.
+Orderly Room, 210, 211.
+Oxford, Battalion billeted in colleges, 2.
+Oxfords, 6th, 159, 187.
+
+
+Pagan, Brig.-Gen. A. W., D.S.O., 176, 183, 196, 198.
+Palmer, Sgt., 117, 137.
+Parkhouse Camp, 6.
+Parsons, Sgt., 43.
+Patrols, 29, 40.
+Plate Becque, 201, 204, 210.
+Pond Farm, 122, 124, 125.
+Ponne Copse, 86.
+Poperinghe, 115, 119.
+Portuguese, 177, 178, 187, 194.
+P.U.O., 197.
+Pym, Bde.-Maj., 33.
+
+
+Raid, at Ablaincourt (by enemy), 58, 63, 64.
+  by A Coy., 15.
+  by B Coy., 9.
+  by C Coy., 191.
+  by D Coy., 92.
+Rainecourt, 49, 77.
+Ravenscroft, Sgt., D.C.M., 201.
+Regina Dug-out, 26.
+Regina Trench, 25, 27, 30, 38.
+Riez Bailleul, 17, 19.
+Robecq, 19, 20, 177-184, 187, 188, 196.
+Roberts, Pte., 66.
+Robinson, Capt. A. J., 14, 23, 25, 38, 51, 56, 160, 171, 189, 191.
+Rockall, Corpl., 29, 61.
+Rose, Maj. D. M., 14.
+Rowbotham, Capt. G. V., M.C., 159, 160.
+Rowbotham, Lance-Cpl., 66, 137, 139, 140.
+Rowlerson, Lieut. G. A., M.C., 191, 215.
+Ruthven, Maj. W. L., 43.
+
+
+Sailly-sur-la-Lys, 212, 216.
+St. Hilaire, 199, 200.
+St. Hubert, 218.
+St. Omer, 195.
+St. Pol, 174, 177.
+St. Quentin, 82, 87, 89, 90, 103.
+St. Venant, 176, 178, 181, 183, 187, 196.
+Schuler Farm, 122.
+Scott, Lieut. W. D., 7, 117, 119, 124.
+Selency, 90, 160, 162.
+Sepmeries, 218.
+Shields, Capt. (M.O.), 197.
+Shilson, Capt. J. W., 211.
+Short, Pte., 66.
+Sloper, Sgt., M. M., 101, 117.
+Smith, Pte., 66.
+Smith, C.S.M. S., D.C.M., 211.
+Soyécourt, 81, 82.
+Spresiano Camp, 204.
+Stanley, Capt. J., M.C., 185, 188, 215.
+Stobie, Capt. W., O.B.E., 26, 79, 106, 169.
+Stockton, Capt. J. G., 7, 23, 43, 51, 84, 117, 124.
+Suffolks, 5th, 209, 211.
+Sunken Road (Fayet), 90, 94, 96, 161.
+Suzanne, 155, 156.
+Symonds, Capt. R. F., 203, 210, 219.
+
+
+Taylor, Lieut., 97, 100, 101.
+Taylor, C.Q.-M.S., 193.
+Tertry, 81.
+Thomas, 'Benny,' 144, 159.
+Thompson, Pte., 66.
+Thorne, Brig.-Gen. A. F. A. N., C.M.G., D.S.O., 219.
+Tiddy, Lieut. R. J. E., 7, 15.
+Tilly, Lieut., 86.
+Timms, Pte., 25, 63, 66.
+Transport, the, 192-194.
+Tremellen, Lance-Cpl., 75.
+Tripp's Farm, 196.
+Tubbs, Capt. A., 94.
+Tullock's Corner, 36.
+
+
+Ugny, 159, 164, 165.
+Uzzell, Lance-Cpl., 64.
+
+
+Vendegies, 218.
+Verlaines, 166, 168.
+Vermandovillers, 77, 79.
+Viggers, Corpl., 76, 97, 140.
+Villers Bretonneux, 169, 171.
+Vlamertinghe, 120.
+Voyennes, 165, 166.
+
+
+Waldon, Col.-Sgt., 1.
+Wallington, Lieut. C. H., M.C., 151, 160.
+Warwircks, 2 6th, 179.
+           2 7th, 181.
+Watkins, Sgt., 82, 84.
+Wayte, Lieut. J. P., M.C., 85, 86.
+Webb, Lieut. E. S. F., 117.
+Weller, Lieut. B. O., 157.
+Wetherall, Lieut.-Col. H. de R., D.S.O., M.C., 104, 111, 132,
+           150, 187, 196, 203, 204.
+White, Brig.-Gen. the Hon. R., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., 15, 39, 48,
+       93, 112, 121, 145-148, 163, 165.
+Wilcox, Lance-Cpl. A., V.C., 215.
+Wieltje, 132, 134.
+Williams, Col.-Sergt., 1.
+Willink, Capt. G. O. W., M.C., 169.
+Wiltshire, Lieut. G. H., 149.
+Winchester Post, 10.
+Winnipeg, 122.
+Wise, Lance-Cpl., 140.
+Wood. R.S.M. T. V., 1.
+Woodford, Lieut. G. W., M.C., 193.
+Woulfe-Flanagan, Lt.-Col. E. M., C.M.G., D.S.O., 203, 220.
+Wright, Bugler, 66.
+Writtle, 4.
+
+
+Young, Capt. R. E. M., 211.
+Ypres, 58, 119, 120.
+
+
+Zeder, Lieut. J. H., D.C.M., 7, 9.
+Zollern Redoubt, 36, 38.
+
+
+
+HOLYWELL PRESS, OXFORD.
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   Page 94: The word "and" has been added in the sentence "The attack
+   was ably dealt with by Tubbs' company of the Bucks-and-had proved
+   abortive for the enemy".
+
+   Page 109: "Another development which was destined to play an ever
+   increasing part in the war and to make its closing phases worse in
+   some respects that its early, was the long-range high-velocity gun."
+   The word "that" has been changed to "than".
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE 2/4TH OXFORDSHIRE
+AND BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY***
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+<html>
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, by G. K. Rose</title>
+<style type="text/css">
+<!--
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+<body>
+<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and
+Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, by G. K. Rose</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry</p>
+<p>Author: G. K. Rose</p>
+<p>Release Date: January 18, 2007  [eBook #20395]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE 2/4TH OXFORDSHIRE AND BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY***</p>
+<br><br><center>
+<h4 class="pg">E-text prepared by Geetu Melwani, Christine P. Travers, Carl Hudkins,<br>
+   and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br>
+   (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/c/">http://www.pgdp.net/c/</a>)<br>
+   from page images generously made available by<br>
+   Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries<br>
+   (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/toronto">http://www.archive.org/details/toronto</a>)</h4></center><br><br>
+<table border=0 bgcolor="ccccff" cellpadding=10>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See
+      <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/24thoxfordshire00roseuoft">
+	  http://www.archive.org/details/24thoxfordshire00roseuoft</a>
+	</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+
+<h1><i>The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire &amp;
+Buckinghamshire Light Infantry</i></h1>
+
+<a id="imgfrt" name="imgfrt"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/imgfrt.jpg" width="500" height="804"
+alt="A soldier of the 2/4th Oxfordshire
+and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry" title="A soldier of the 2/4th Oxfordshire
+and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry">
+</div>
+
+
+<h1>
+THE STORY OF<br>
+<i>The 2/4th Oxfordshire and<br>
+Buckinghamshire Light Infantry</i></h1>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h1><i>Captain G. K. Rose, M.C.</i></h1>
+
+
+<h2>WITH A PREFACE BY<br>
+<i>Brig.-Genl. the Hon. R. WHITE, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.</i><br>
+(<i>late Commander 184th Infantry Brigade</i>)</h2>
+
+<h2>AND AN INTRODUCTION BY<br>
+<i>Colonel W. H. AMES, T.D.</i></h2>
+
+
+<h4>WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<h4>OXFORD<br>
+B. H. BLACKWELL, BROAD STREET<br>
+MCMXX</h4>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h3>LIST OF PLATES</h3>
+
+
+<p class="index"><a href="#imgfrt">A Soldier of the Battalion</a><br>
+<a href="#imgxv">Colonel W. H. Ames, T.D.</a><br>
+<a href="#img004">Pay-day for 'A' Company</a><br>
+<a href="#img018">Robecq from the South</a><br>
+<a href="#img048">Brigadier-General the Hon. R. White, C.B.</a><br>
+<a href="#img068">A Front-line Post</a><br>
+<a href="#img100">Company Sergeant-Major E. Brooks, V.C.</a><br>
+<a href="#img128">Vlamertinghe&mdash;The Road to Ypres</a><br>
+<a href="#img136">Hill 35, from an aeroplane photograph</a><br>
+<a href="#img144">A Street in Arras</a><br>
+<a href="#img146">'Tank Dump'</a><br>
+<a href="#img150">In a German gun-pit near Gavrelle</a><br>
+<a href="#img154">The Canal du Nord at Ypres</a><br>
+<a href="#img168">Lieut.-Colonel H. E. de R. Wetherall, D.S.O., M.C.</a><br>
+<a href="#img185">Robecq. Old Mill and Bridge</a><br>
+<a href="#img198">The Headquarters Runners, July, 1918</a><br>
+<a href="#img214">Corporal A. Wilcox, V.C.</a><br>
+<a href="#img219a">Officers of the Battalion, December, 1918</a><br>
+<a href="#img219b">184th Infantry Brigade Staff</a><br>
+<a href="#img220a">The Adjutant. Cambrai. The Battalion Cooks</a><br>
+<a href="#img220d">Lieut.-Colonel E. M. Woulfe-Flanagan, C.M.G., D.S.O.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;R.S.M. W. Hedley, D.C.M.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;R.Q.M.S. Hedges</a></p>
+
+
+<h3>ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT</h3>
+
+<p class="index"><a href="#img011">Winchester Trench</a><br>
+<a href="#img020">The March to the Somme</a><br>
+<a href="#img036">Somme Trench Map</a><br>
+<a href="#img045">Maison Ponthieu</a><br>
+<a href="#img050">Harbonnières</a><br>
+<a href="#img057">The Ablaincourt Sector</a><br>
+<a href="#img073">A Duckboarded Communication Trench</a><br>
+<a href="#img083">The Advance to St. Quentin</a><br>
+<a href="#img095">The Raid near St. Quentin</a><br>
+<a href="#img110">Arras: The Grande Place</a><br>
+<a href="#img113">Noeux Village</a><br>
+<a href="#img119">Poperinghe from the West</a><br>
+<a href="#img124">The Attack of August 22, 1917</a><br>
+<a href="#img133">The Attack on Hill 35</a><br>
+<a href="#img167">The Retreat behind the Somme</a><br>
+<a href="#img180">Bird's-eye Map of the Robecq Area</a><br>
+<a href="#img202">The Nieppe Forest</a><br>
+<a href="#img206">Merville Church</a><br>
+<a href="#img209">Battalion H.Q. at Chapelle Boom</a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>CONTENTS <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagev" name="pagev"></a>(p. v)</span></h3>
+
+
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page001"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></a></p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page008"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> I.&nbsp;&nbsp;LAVENTIE,
+May to October, 1916</a></p>
+
+<p>The 61st Division lands in France. &mdash; Instruction. &mdash; The
+Laventie sector. &mdash; Trench warfare at its height. &mdash; Moberly
+wounded. &mdash; B Company's raid. &mdash; Front and back areas. &mdash; July
+19. &mdash; Changes in the Battalion. &mdash; A Company's raid. &mdash; A
+projected attack. &mdash; Laventie days. &mdash; Departure for the
+Somme.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page019"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> II.&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+SOMME BATTLEFIELD, November, 1916</a></p>
+
+<p>Departure from Laventie. &mdash; At Robecq. &mdash; The march
+southwards. &mdash; Rest at Neuvillette. &mdash; Contay Wood. &mdash; Albert. &mdash; New
+trenches. &mdash; Battle conditions. &mdash; Relieving the front
+line. &mdash; Desire Trench. &mdash; Regina dug-out. &mdash; Mud and darkness. &mdash; A
+heavy barrage. &mdash; Fortunes of Headquarters. &mdash; A painful
+relief. &mdash; Martinsart Wood.</p>
+
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page033"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span>   III.&nbsp;&nbsp;CHRISTMAS
+ON   THE   SOMME, December,   1916</a></p>
+
+<p>The move from Martinsart to Hedauville. &mdash; Back to
+Martinsart. &mdash; Working parties. &mdash; Dug-outs at Mouquet Farm. &mdash; Field
+Trench. &mdash; Return to the front line. &mdash; Getting touch. &mdash; Guides. &mdash; An
+historic patrol. &mdash; Christmas in the trenches.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page042"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> IV.&nbsp;&nbsp;AT
+MAISON PONTHIEU, January-February, 1917</a></p>
+
+<p>Visitors to the Battalion. &mdash; The New Year. &mdash; A wintry
+march. &mdash; Arrival at Maison Ponthieu. &mdash; Severe weather. &mdash; At
+war with the cold. &mdash; Training for offensive action. &mdash; By rail
+to Marcelçave. &mdash; Billets at Rainecourt. &mdash; Reconnoitring the
+French line near Deniécourt.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevi" name="pagevi"></a>(p. vi)</span>
+<a href="#page053"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> V.&nbsp;&nbsp;IN
+THE ABLAINCOURT SECTOR, February, 1917</a></p>
+
+<p>German retreat foreshadowed. &mdash; The Battalion takes over
+the Ablaincourt Sector. &mdash; Issues in the making. &mdash; Lieutenant
+Fry mortally wounded. &mdash; The raid by German storm-troops
+on February 28. &mdash; The raid explained.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page067"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> VI.&nbsp;&nbsp;LIFE
+IN THE FRONT LINE, Winter, 1916-1917</a></p>
+
+<p>Ignorance of civilians and non-combatants. &mdash; The front
+line posts. &mdash; Hardships and dangers. &mdash; Support platoons. &mdash; The
+Company Officers. &mdash; The Battalion relieved by the
+182nd Brigade.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page077"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> VII.&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+ADVANCE TO ST. QUENTIN, March to April, 1917</a></p>
+
+<p>The enemy's retirement. &mdash; Road-mending in No-Man's-Land. &mdash; The
+devastated area. &mdash; Open warfare. &mdash; The Montolu
+campaign. &mdash; Operations on the Omignon river. &mdash; The 61st
+Division relieved before St. Quentin. &mdash; End of trench-warfare.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page089"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> VIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+RAID AT FAYET, April, 1917</a></p>
+
+<p>A German vantage-point. &mdash; Shell-ridden Holnon. &mdash; A night
+of confusion. &mdash; Preparing for the raid of April 28. &mdash; The
+enemy taken by surprise. &mdash; The Battalion's first V.C. &mdash; The
+affair at Cepy Farm.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page103"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> IX.&nbsp;&nbsp;ARRAS
+AND AFTERWARDS, May, June, July, 1917</a></p>
+
+<p>Relief by the French at St. Quentin. &mdash; A new Commanding
+Officer. &mdash; At the Battle of Arras. &mdash; Useful work by
+A Company. &mdash; Harassing fire. &mdash; A cave-dwelling. &mdash; At Bernaville
+and Noeux. &mdash; In G.H.Q. reserve. &mdash; A gas alarm by
+General Hunter Weston. &mdash; The Ypres arena.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page116"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> X.&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES, August, 1917</a></p>
+
+<p>A Battalion landmark. &mdash; Poperinghe and Ypres. &mdash; At
+Goldfish Château. &mdash; The attack near St. Julien on August 22. &mdash; Its
+results. &mdash; A mud-locked battle. &mdash; The back-area. &mdash; Mustard
+gas. &mdash; Pill-box warfare.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevii" name="pagevii"></a>(p. vii)</span>
+<a href="#page131"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XI.&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+ATTACK ON HILL 35, September, 1917</a></p>
+
+<p>Iberian, Hill 35, and Gallipoli. &mdash; The Battalion ordered
+to make the seventh attempt against Hill 35. &mdash; The task. &mdash; A
+and D Companies selected. &mdash; The assembly position. &mdash; Gassed
+by our own side. &mdash; Waiting for zero. &mdash; The attack. &mdash; Considerations
+governing its failure. &mdash; The Battalion quits
+the Ypres battlefield.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page142"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XII.&nbsp;&nbsp;AUTUMN
+AT ARRAS AND THE MOVE TO CAMBRAI, October, November, December, 1917</a></p>
+
+<p>The Battalion's return to Arras. &mdash; A quiet front. &mdash; The
+Brigadier and his staff. &mdash; A novelty in tactics. &mdash; B Company's
+raid. &mdash; A sudden move. &mdash; The Cambrai front. &mdash; Havrincourt
+Wood. &mdash; Christmas at Suzanne.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page156"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+GREAT GERMAN ATTACK OF MARCH 21, January-March, 1918</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageviii" name="pageviii"></a>(p. viii)</span>
+The French relieved on the St. Quentin front. &mdash; The calm
+before the storm. &mdash; A golden age. &mdash; The Warwick raid. &mdash; The
+German attack launched. &mdash; Defence of Enghien Redoubt. &mdash; Counter-attack
+by the Royal Berks. &mdash; Holnon Wood lost. &mdash; The
+battle for the Beauvoir line. &mdash; The enemy breaks
+through.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page164"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XIV.&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+BRITISH RETREAT, March, 1918</a></p>
+
+<p>Rear-guard actions. &mdash; The Somme crossings. &mdash; Bennett
+relieved by the 20th Division at Voyennes. &mdash; Davenport with
+mixed troops ordered to counter-attack at Ham. &mdash; Davenport
+killed. &mdash; The enemy crosses the Somme. &mdash; The stand by
+the 184th Infantry Brigade at Nesle. &mdash; Colonel Wetherall
+wounded. &mdash; Counter-attack against La Motte. &mdash; Bennett captured. &mdash; The
+Battalion's sacrifice in the great battle.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page173"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XV.&nbsp;&nbsp;THE
+BATTLE OF THE LYS, April-May, 1918</a></p>
+
+<p>Effects of the German offensive. &mdash; The Battalion amalgamated
+with the Bucks. &mdash; Entrainment for the Merville area. &mdash; A
+dramatic journey. &mdash; The enemy break-through on the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pageix" name="pageix"></a>(p. ix)</span>
+Lys. &mdash; The Battalion marches into action. &mdash; The defence of
+Robecq. &mdash; Operations of April 12, 13, 14. &mdash; The fight for
+Baquerolle Farm. &mdash; A troublesome flank. &mdash; Billeted in St.
+Venant. &mdash; The lunatic asylum. &mdash; La Pierrière. &mdash; The Robecq
+sector.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page192"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span>
+XVI.&nbsp;&nbsp;THE TURNING OF THE TIDE, May, June, July, August, 1918</a></p>
+
+<p>Rations and the Battalion Transport. &mdash; At La Lacque. &mdash; The
+bombing of Aire. &mdash; General Mackenzie obliged by his
+wound to leave the Division. &mdash; Return of Colonel Wetherall. &mdash; Tripp's
+Farm on fire. &mdash; A mysterious epidemic. &mdash; A period
+of wandering. &mdash; The march from Pont Asquin to St. Hilaire. &mdash; Nieppe
+Forest. &mdash; Attack by A and B Companies on
+August 7. &mdash; Headquarters gassed. &mdash; A new Colonel. &mdash; The
+Battalion goes a-reaping.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page208"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> XVII.&nbsp;&nbsp;LAST
+BATTLES, August to December, 1918</a></p>
+
+<p>German retreat from the Lys. &mdash; Orderly Room and its
+staff. &mdash; The new devastated area. &mdash; Itchin Farm, Merville and
+Neuf Berquin. &mdash; Mines and booby-traps. &mdash; Advance to the
+Lys. &mdash; Estaires destroyed. &mdash; Laventie revisited. &mdash; The attack
+on Junction Post. &mdash; Lance-Corporal Wilcox, V.C. &mdash; Scavenging
+at the XI Corps school. &mdash; On the Aubers ridge. &mdash; The
+end in sight. &mdash; Move to Cambrai. &mdash; In action near Bermerain
+and Maresches. &mdash; A fine success. &mdash; Domart and Demobilisation. &mdash; Work
+at Etaples. &mdash; Off to Egypt.</p>
+
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page221"><span class="smcap">Composition of the Battalion
+on going Overseas</span></a></p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page222"><span class="smcap">Composition of the Battalion
+at the Armistice</span></a></p>
+
+<p class="p2"><a href="#page223"><span class="smcap">Index</span></a></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h3>AUTHOR'S PREFACE
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagex" name="pagex"></a>(p. x)</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>My cordial thanks are due to my old Brigadier for his kindness and
+trouble in writing the Preface, and also to Colonel Ames for
+contributing the Introduction.</p>
+
+<p>From many friends in the Regiment I have received information and
+assistance.</p>
+
+<p>This book is based on a series of articles, which appeared in the
+<i>Oxford Times</i> during the summer of 1919. The project, of which this
+volume is the outcome, was assisted by that newspaper and by the
+courtesy of its staff.</p>
+
+<p><span class="left60">G. K. ROSE.</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">Oxford</span>, November 1919.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h3>PREFACE
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexi" name="pagexi"></a>(p. xi)</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>My friend, Major G. K. Rose, has set out to describe the doings of the
+2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry during the Great
+War.</p>
+
+<p>If I judge his purpose rightly, he designs to paint without
+exaggeration and without depreciation a picture which shall recall not
+only now, but more especially in the days to come, the wonderful years
+during which we ceased to be individuals pursuing the ordinary
+avocations of life and became indeed a band of brothers, linked
+together in a common cause and inspired, however subconsciously, by
+one common hope and interest. If I am correct in my surmise, then I
+think that Major Rose has written particularly for his comrades of the
+2/4th Oxfords and, in a wider sense, of the 184th Infantry Brigade and
+the 61st Division. And in doing this he seems to me to be performing a
+great service.</p>
+
+<p>Unfettered by the necessity of drawing an attractive picture and of
+appealing to the natural desire of the general reader for dramatic and
+sensational episode, he can rely on his readers to fill in for
+themselves the emotional and psychological aspects of the narrative.
+We, his comrades, have but to turn the pages of his story to live
+again those marvellous days and to feel the hopes and fears, the
+pathos and the fun, the excitement and the weariness, and the hundred
+other emotions which gave to life in the Great War a sense of
+adventure which we can hardly hope to savour again.</p>
+
+<p>It
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexii" name="pagexii"></a>(p. xii)</span>
+is perhaps right that those who through poor health, age,
+bad luck or other causes, were unable to leave home and take an active
+part in the life of the front line, should generously speak of their
+more fortunate compatriots as 'heroes.' The term is somewhat freely
+used in these days. I am, however, happy to think that the British
+officer and soldier is not apt to consider himself in that light and
+has, indeed, a distinct aversion from being so described. Rather does
+he pride himself, in his quiet way, on his light-hearted and stoical
+indifference to danger and discomfort and his power to see the comical
+and cheery side of even the most appalling incidents in war. Long may
+this be so.</p>
+
+<p>Viewed in this light, Major Rose's book will in after years give a
+true picture of the experiences of an English Territorial Battalion in
+the 'Great Adventure.' Shorn of fictitious glamour, events are
+narrated as they presented themselves to the regimental officers,
+non-commissioned officers, and men who bore the heat and burden of the
+day.</p>
+
+<p>Having said so much, I may be allowed to think that Major Rose is
+almost too reticent and modest as regards the splendid record of his
+Battalion.</p>
+
+<p>After the 'big push' of July, 1916, on the Somme, I had the honour to
+be promoted to the command of the 184th Infantry Brigade, 61st
+Division. In September I found the Brigade occupying a portion of the
+line in front of Laventie, just north of Neuve Chapelle. The 61st
+Division, recently landed from England and before it had had time to
+'feel its feet,' had to be pushed into an attack against the enemy's
+position in front of the Aubers ridge.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexiii" name="pagexiii"></a>(p. xiii)</span>
+In this attack it
+suffered severe losses. The Division, naturally, was burning to 'get
+its own back.' Unfortunately it had for some weeks to content itself
+with routine work in the Flanders trenches.</p>
+
+<p>In this connection I may remark that the 61st Division had an unduly
+large share of the 'dirty work' of demonstrations, secondary
+operations, and taking over and holding nasty parts of the line. Those
+who have been through this mill will sympathise, knowing how credit
+was apt to go to those who took part in the first 'big push' rather
+than to the luckless ones who had to relieve attacking divisions and
+take over the so-called trenches which had been won from the enemy.
+Those trenches had to be consolidated under a constant and accurate
+bombardment. However, grumbling was not the order of the day, and
+during the last year of the war the 61st Division came into its own.
+It received in frequent mentions and thanks from the
+Commander-in-Chief and the higher command the just reward for its
+loyal spade work and splendid fighting qualities.</p>
+
+<p>In November, 1916, the 184th Infantry Brigade and the 2/4th Oxford and
+Bucks Light Infantry found themselves, as the narrative shows, on
+classic ground near Mouquet Farm. Here I was first thrown into close
+contact with the Battalion and learned to know and value it. The work
+was, if you like, mere routine, mere holding the line. But what a
+line! Shall we ever forget Regina and Desire trenches, with their
+phenomenal mud and filth; or Rifle Dump and Sixteen Street and Zollern
+Redoubt&mdash;and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexiv" name="pagexiv"></a>(p. xiv)</span>
+Martinsart Wood and the 'rest' there? Names,
+names! but with what memories!</p>
+
+<p>I am tempted to follow the fortunes of the Battalion through the
+varied scenes of its experience. I should like to talk of happy
+mornings 'round the line' with Colonel or Adjutant, or cheery lunches
+with good comrades in impossibly damp and filthy dug-outs, of midnight
+assemblies before, and early-morning greetings after, successful
+raids, and of how we inspected Boche prisoners, machine-guns and other
+'loot.'</p>
+
+<p>I should like to recall memories of such comrades as Bellamy and
+Wetherall, Cuthbert, Bennett, Davenport, 'Slugs' Brown, Rose, 'Bob'
+Abraham, Regimental Sergeant-Major Douglas, Company Sergeant-Major
+Brooks, V.C., and a host of other friends of all ranks.</p>
+
+<p>I look back with pride on many stirring incidents.</p>
+
+<p>Among these I recall the raid near St. Quentin on April 28, 1917,
+admirably planned and carried out by Captain Rose and his company, and
+resulting in the capture of two machine-guns and prisoners of the 3rd
+Prussian Jaeger regiment, three companies of which were completely
+surprised and outflanked by the dashing Oxford assault. On this
+occasion Company Sergeant-Major Brooks deservedly won the V.C. and
+added lustre to the grand records of his regiment.</p>
+
+<p>Equally gallant was the fine stand made by the Oxfords on August 22
+and 23, 1917, in front of Ypres. Captain Moberly and his brave
+comrades, surrounded by the enemy and completely isolated, stuck
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexv" name="pagexv"></a>(p. xv)</span>
+doggedly for 48 hours to the trench which marked the furthest
+point of the Brigade's objective.</p>
+
+<p>Few battalions of the British Army could boast a finer feat of arms
+than the holding of the Enghien Redoubt by Captain Rowbotham, 2nd
+Lieutenant Cunningham, Regimental Sergeant-Major Douglas and some 150
+men of D Company and Battalion Headquarters. From 10.30 a.m. till 4.30
+p.m. on March 21, 1918, these brave soldiers, enormously outnumbered
+and completely surrounded, stemmed the great tide of the German attack
+and by their devoted self-sacrifice enabled their comrades to withdraw
+in good order. 2nd Lieutenant Cunningham, the sole surviving officer
+for many hours, remained in touch with Brigade Headquarters by buried
+cable until the last moment. Further resistance being hopeless, he
+received my instructions, after a truly magnificent defence, to
+destroy the telephone instruments and cut his way out.</p>
+
+<p>But I must not encroach on the domain of our author, a real front line
+officer, who lived with his men throughout the war under real front
+line conditions.</p>
+
+<p>It fell to my lot for 18 months to have the Battalion amongst those
+under my command. Attacking, resting, raiding, marching, the 2/4th
+Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry not only upheld but
+enhanced the glory of the old 43rd and 52nd Regiments of the Line.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="left60">ROBERT WHITE,</span><br>
+<span class="left70"><i>Brigadier General.</i></span></p>
+
+<a id="imgxv" name="imgxv"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/imgxv.jpg" width="450" height="568"
+alt="Colonel W. H. Ames, T.D." title="Colonel W. H. Ames, T.D.">
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3>INTRODUCTION
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page001" name="page001"></a>(p. 001)</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The raising of the Second Line of the Territorial Force became
+necessary when it was decided to send the First Line overseas. The
+Territorial Force was originally intended for home defence, a duty for
+which its pre-war formations soon ceased to be available. The early
+purpose, therefore, of the Second Line was to defend this country.</p>
+
+<p>On September 8, 1914, I was privileged to begin to raise the 2/4th
+Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the Battalion whose
+history is set out in the following pages. I opened Orderly Room in
+Exeter College, Oxford, and enrolled recruits. The first was
+Sergeant-Major T. V. Wood. By the end of the day we had sworn in and
+billeted over 130 men.</p>
+
+<p>The Battalion was created out of untrained elements, but what the
+recruits lacked in experience they made up in keenness. The Secretary
+of the County Association had an excellent list of prospective
+officers, but these had to learn their work from the beginning. We
+were lucky to secure the services of several non-commissioned officers
+with Regular experience; Colour-Sergeants Moore, Williams, Bassett and
+Waldon, and Sergeant Howland worked untiringly, whilst the keenness of
+the officers to qualify themselves to instruct their men was beyond
+praise.</p>
+
+<p>At
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page002" name="page002"></a>(p. 002)</span>
+the end of ten days sufficient recruits had been enrolled
+to allow the formation of eight companies, which exactly reproduced
+those of the First Line, men being allotted to the companies according
+to the locality whence they came. A pleasant feature was the number of
+Culham students, who came from all parts of England to re-enlist in
+their old Corps. Well do I remember my feelings when I sat down to
+post the officers to the companies. It was a sort of 'Blind Hookey,'
+but seemed to pan out all right in the end. Company officers had to
+use the same process in the selection of their non-commissioned
+officers. Of these original appointments all, or nearly all, were
+amply justified&mdash;a fact which said much for the good judgment
+displayed.</p>
+
+<p>With the approach of the Oxford Michaelmas Term the Battalion had to
+move out of the colleges (New College, Magdalen, Keble, Exeter,
+Brasenose and Oriel had hitherto kindly provided accommodation) and
+into billets. Training was naturally hurried. As soon as the companies
+could move correctly a series of battalion drills was carried out upon
+Port Meadow. This drill did a great deal to weld the Battalion
+together. The elements of digging were imparted by Colonel Waller
+behind the Headquarters at St. Cross Road, open order was practised on
+Denman's Farm, whilst exercises in the neighbourhood of Elsfield gave
+the officers some instruction in outpost duties and in the principles
+of attack and defence.</p>
+
+<p>The important rudiments of march discipline were soon acquired. Weekly
+route marches took place almost from the first. Few roads within a
+radius
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page003" name="page003"></a>(p. 003)</span>
+of 9 miles from Oxford but saw the Battalion some
+time or other. The Light Infantry step caused discomfort at first, but
+the Battalion soon learned to take a pride in it. The men did some
+remarkable marches. Once they marched from the third milestone at the
+top of Cumnor Hill to the seventh milestone by Tubney Church in 57
+minutes. Just before Christmas, 1914, they marched through Nuneham to
+Culham Station and on to Abingdon, and then back to Oxford through
+Bagley Wood, without a casualty.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of 1914 Second Line Divisions and Brigades were being
+formed, and the 2/4th Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry became a unit of
+the 184th Infantry Brigade under Colonel Ludlow, and of the 61st
+Division under Lord Salisbury. Those officers inspected the Battalion
+at Oxford before it left, at the end of January, 1915, for
+Northampton.</p>
+
+<p>The move from Oxford terminated the first phase in the Battalion's
+history. At Northampton fresh conditions were in store. Smaller
+billets and army rations replaced the former system of billets 'with
+subsistence.' Elementary training was reverted to. The Battalion was
+armed with Japanese rifles, a handy weapon, if somewhat weak in the
+stock, and range work commenced. The seven weeks at Northampton, if
+not exactly relished at the time, greatly helped to pull the Battalion
+together. The period was marked by a visit of General Sir Ian
+Hamilton, who inspected and warmly complimented the men on their
+turn-out.</p>
+
+<p>A minor incident is worthy of record. One Saturday night a surprise
+alarm took place about midnight.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page004" name="page004"></a>(p. 004)</span>
+The Battalion was young,
+and the alarm was taken very seriously. Even the sick turned out
+rather than be left behind, and marched the prescribed five miles
+without ill effects.</p>
+
+<p>Just before Easter, 1915, the 61st Division moved into Essex in order
+to occupy the area vacated by the 48th. The Battalion's destination
+was Writtle, where the amicable relations already established with the
+inhabitants by Oxfordshire Territorials were continued. Though our
+stay was a short one, we received a hearty welcome, when, on our
+return from Epping, we again marched through the village.</p>
+
+<p>After a fortnight at Writtle, the Battalion moved to Hoddesdon, to
+take part in digging the London defences. We left Writtle 653 strong
+at 8 a.m., and completed the march of 25 miles at 5 p.m., with every
+man in the ranks who started. Three weeks later we were ordered to
+Broomfield, a village east of Writtle and near Chelmsford. There was
+keen competition to take part in the return march from Hoddesdon; 685
+men started on the 29 mile march, which lasted 11 hours; only 3 fell
+out. The band marched the whole way and played the Battalion in on its
+arrival at Broomfield.</p>
+
+<a id="img004" name="img004"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img004.jpg" width="500" height="348"
+alt="Pay-day For &quot;A&quot; Company" title="Pay-day For &quot;A&quot; Company">
+</div>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1915 it was decided to prepare the Territorial Second
+Line for foreign service. Considerable improvement resulted in the
+issue of training equipment. Boreham range occupied much of our time.
+A musketry course was begun but never finished; indeed, the bad
+condition of the rifles made shooting futile. Six weeks were also
+spent at Epping in useful training, at the conclusion of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page005" name="page005"></a>(p. 005)</span>
+which we returned to Broomfield. The Battalion was billeted over an
+area about six miles long by one wide, until leave was obtained for a
+camp. For nearly three months the men were together under canvas, with
+the very best results. Strenuous training ensued. I am reminded of a
+little incident which occurred during some night digging at Chignal
+Smealy. The object of the practice was to enure the men to work, not
+only when fresh, but when tired. Operations opened with digging with
+the entrenching tool&mdash;each man to make cover for himself. By 8 p.m.
+this stage had been reached, so tea and shovels were issued. At 9 p.m.
+serious digging began, the shelters being converted into trenches, and
+this continued till 1.30 a.m. Coffee was then served, and work went on
+till dawn, which provided an opportunity to practise standing-to. A
+rest followed, but after breakfast work was again resumed. About 10
+a.m. an officer found a man sitting down in the trenches and ordered
+him to renew his efforts. The man obeyed the order at once, but was
+heard to remark to his neighbour, 'Well! If six months ago a bloke had
+told me that I was a-going to work the 'ole ruddy night and the 'ole
+ruddy day for one ruddy bob, I'd never 'ave believed him!'</p>
+
+<p>At the end of October, 1915, I consider that the Battalion reached the
+zenith of its efficiency during its home service. It was a great pity
+that the Division could not have been sent abroad then. Instead, each
+battalion was reduced in November to a strength of 17 officers and 600
+men. Individual training recommenced, until specialists of every kind
+flourished
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page006" name="page006"></a>(p. 006)</span>
+and multiplied. At a General's inspection during
+the winter a most varied display took place. Scouts were in every
+tree, a filter party was drawing water from the village pond, cold
+shoeing was being practised at the Transport, cooking classes were
+busy making field ovens, wire entanglements sprang up on every side,
+nor was it possible to turn a corner without encountering some fresh
+form of activity. I fancy the authorities were much impressed on this
+occasion, for nothing was more difficult than to show the men, as they
+normally would be, to an inspecting officer.</p>
+
+<p>In January, 1916, the Battalion, having been recently made up with
+untrained recruits, moved to Parkhouse Camp on Salisbury Plain to
+complete its training with the rest of the Division. We arrived in
+frost and snow and left, three months later, in almost tropical
+heat&mdash;remarkable contrasts within so short a period. The Division was
+speedily completed for foreign service; new rifles were issued, with
+which a musketry course was successfully fired, though snow showers
+did not favour high scoring. We were made up to strength with drafts
+from the Liverpool, Welsh, Dorset, Cambridge, and Hertfordshire
+Regiments, were inspected by the King, and embarked as a unit of the
+first Second Line Division to go abroad.</p>
+
+<p>Thus at the end of 18 months' hard work the preparatory stage in the
+Battalion's history was concluded. Its subsequent life is traced in
+the chapters of this volume.</p>
+
+<p>The period of home service is wrapped in pleasant memory. It was not
+always plain sailing, but
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page007" name="page007"></a>(p. 007)</span>
+difficulties were lightened by the
+wonderful spirit that animated all ranks and the pride which all felt
+in the Battalion. I recall especially the work of some who have not
+returned; Davenport, Scott, Stockton, Zeder, and Tiddy among the
+officers, and among the non-commissioned officers and men a host of
+good comrades. Nor do I forget those who came safely through. No
+commanding officer was ever better supported, and my gratitude to them
+all is unending. I think the Battalion was truly animated by the
+spirit of the famous standing order, 'A Light Infantry Regiment being
+expected to approach nearer to perfection than any other, more zeal
+and attention is required from all ranks in it.' Equally truly was it
+said that not by the partial exertions of a few, but by the united and
+steady efforts of all, was the Battalion formed and its discipline
+created and preserved.</p>
+
+<p class="left60">W. H. AMES, <i>Colonel</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> I.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page008" name="page008"></a>(p. 008)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>LAVENTIE,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">May to October</span>, 1916.</h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+The 61st Division lands in France. &mdash; Instruction. &mdash; The
+Laventie sector. &mdash; Trench warfare at its height. &mdash; Moberly
+wounded. &mdash; B Company's raid. &mdash; Front and back areas. &mdash; July
+19th. &mdash; Changes in the Battalion. &mdash; A Company's raid. &mdash; A
+projected attack. &mdash; Laventie days. &mdash; Departure for the
+Somme.</p>
+
+
+<p>On May 24, 1916, the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light
+Infantry landed in France. Members of the Battalion within a day or
+two were addressing their first field postcards to England. Active
+service, of which the prospect had swung, now close, now far, for 18
+months, had begun.</p>
+
+<p>The 61st Division, to which the Battalion belonged, concentrated in
+the Merville area. The usual period of 'instruction' followed. The
+2/4th Oxfords went to the Fauquissart sector, east of Laventie. Soon
+the 61st relieved the Welsh Division, to which it had been temporarily
+apprenticed, and settled down to hold the line.</p>
+
+<p>It
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page009" name="page009"></a>(p. 009)</span>
+was not long before the Battalion received what is usually
+termed its 'baptism of fire.' Things were waking up along the front in
+anticipation of the Franco-British attack on the Somme. Raids took
+place frequently. Fighting patrols scoured No-Man's-Land each night.
+In many places at once the enemy's wire was bombarded to shreds. By
+the end of June an intense feeling of expectancy had developed;
+activity on both sides reached the highest pitch. The Battalion was
+not slow in playing its part. One of the early casualties was
+Lieutenant Moberly, who performed a daring daylight reconnaissance up
+to the German wire. He was wounded and with great difficulty and only
+through remarkable pluck regained our lines.</p>
+
+<p>That same night the Battalion did its first raid, by B Company under
+Hugh Davenport. The raid was ordered at short notice and was a partial
+success. If the tangible results were few, B Company was very properly
+thanked for its bravery on this enterprise, which had to be carried
+out against uncut wire and unsubdued machine-guns. Zeder, a lieutenant
+with a South African D.C.M., was mortally wounded on the German wire
+and taken prisoner. The casualties were numerous. Davenport himself
+was wounded, but unselfishly refused treatment until his men had been
+fetched in. It was a night of battle and excitement. To the most
+hardened troops a barrage directed against crowded breastworks was
+never pleasant. The Battalion bore itself well and earned recital,
+albeit with some misdescription, in the English press a few days
+later.</p>
+
+<p>During
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page010" name="page010"></a>(p. 010)</span>
+July 1916 the Battalion was in and out of the
+breastworks between Fauquissart and Neuve Chapelle. When the 184th
+Infantry Brigade went back to rest the Battalion had billets on the
+outskirts of Merville, a friendly little town, since levelled in
+ruins; and, when reserve to the Brigade, in Laventie. Brigade
+Headquarters were at the latter and also the quartermasters' stores
+and transport of battalions in the line.</p>
+
+<p>Some favourite spots were the defensive 'posts,' placed a mile behind
+the front line and known as Tilleloy, Winchester, Dead End, Picantin.
+Reserve companies garrisoned these posts. No arduous duties spoilt the
+days; night work consisted chiefly in pushing trolley-loads of rations
+to the front line. Of these posts the best remembered would be
+Winchester, where existed a board bearing the names of Wykhamists,
+whom chance had led that way. Battalion Headquarters were there for a
+long time and were comfortable enough with many 'elephant' dug-outs
+and half a farmhouse for a mess&mdash;the latter ludicrously decorated by
+some predecessors with cuttings from <i>La Vie Parisienne</i> and other
+picture papers.</p>
+
+<a id="img011" name="img011"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img011.jpg" width="450" height="566"
+alt="Winchester Trench." title="Winchester Trench.">
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Though conditions were never quiet in the front line, during the
+summer of 1916 back area shelling was infrequent. Shells fell near
+Laventie cross-roads on most days and, when a 12 inch howitzer
+established itself behind the village, the Germans retaliated upon it
+with 5.9s, but otherwise shops and estaminets flourished with national
+nonchalance. The railway, which ran from La Gorgue to Armentières, was
+used by night as far as Bac St. Maur&mdash;an
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page012" name="page012"></a>(p. 012)</span>
+instance of
+unenterprise on the part of German gunners. Despite official
+repudiation, on our side the principle of 'live and let live' was
+still applied to back areas. Trench warfare, which in the words of a
+1915 pamphlet 'could and must cease' had managed to survive that
+pamphlet and the abortive strategy of the battle of Loos. Until trench
+warfare ended divisional headquarters were not shelled.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the comparative deadlock in the Somme fighting rendered
+necessary vigorous measures against the enemy elsewhere on the front.
+A gas attack from the Fauquissart sector was planned but never carried
+out. Trench mortars and rifle grenades were continuously employed to
+make life as unpleasant as possible for the enemy, whose trenches soon
+became, to all appearances, a rubbish heap. All day and much of the
+night the 'mediums' fell in and about the German trenches and, it must
+be confessed, occasionally in our own as well. Whilst endeavouring to
+annihilate the Wick salient or some such target, one of our heaviest
+of heavy trench mortars dropped short (perhaps that is too much of a
+compliment to the particular shot) in our trenches near a company
+headquarters and almost upon a new concrete refuge, which the R.E. had
+just completed and not yet shown to the Brigadier. Though sometimes
+supplied, the co-operation of this arm was never asked for.</p>
+
+<p>This harassing warfare had a crisis in July. The operations of July
+19, which were shared with the 61st Division by the 5th Australian
+holding trenches further north, were designed as a demonstration to
+assist our attack upon the Somme and to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page013" name="page013"></a>(p. 013)</span>
+hold opposite to the
+XI Corps certain German reserves, which, it was feared, would entrain
+at Lille and be sent south. That object was achieved, but at the cost
+of severe casualties to the divisions engaged, which were launched in
+daylight after artillery preparation, which results proved to have
+been inadequate, against a trench-system strongly manned and
+garrisoned by very numerous machine-guns. The objectives assigned to
+the 61st Division were not captured, while the Australians further
+north, after entering the German trenches and taking prisoners, though
+they held on tenaciously under heavy counter-attacks, were eventually
+forced to withdraw. 'The staff work,' said the farewell message from
+the XI Corps to the 61st Division three months later, 'for these
+operations was excellent.' Men and officers alike did their utmost to
+make the attack of July 19 a success, and it behoves all to remember
+the sacrifice of those who fell with appropriate gratitude. It was
+probably the last occasion on which large parties of storming infantry
+were sent forward through 'sally ports.' The Battalion was in reserve
+for the attack. C Company, which formed a carrying party during the
+fighting, lost rather heavily, but the rest of the Battalion, though
+moved hither and thither under heavy shelling, suffered few
+casualties. When the battle was over, companies relieved part of the
+line and held the trenches until normal conditions returned.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after these events the Battalion was unlucky to be deprived of
+Colonel Ames, a leader whose energy and common sense could ill be
+spared.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page014" name="page014"></a>(p. 014)</span>
+This was the first change which the Battalion had in
+its Commanding Officer, and it was much regretted. A change in
+Adjutant had occurred likewise, Major D. M. Rose having been invalided
+to England early in July and his place taken by R. F. Cuthbert,
+formerly commander of D Company. Orderly Room work passed from safe
+hands into hands equally safe. Soon afterwards I joined the Battalion,
+having been transferred from the 1/4th, and received command of D
+Company. The new Commanding Officer, Major R. Bellamy, D.S.O., came
+from the Royal Sussex Regiment and assumed command early in August.
+Robinson, an officer from the Middlesex and one of the best the
+Battalion ever had, Callender and Barton also joined about this time.
+Brucker, of C Company, became Adjutant of the 61st Divisional School,
+and command of his company passed to Kenneth Brown, a great fighter
+and best of comrades, the first member of this Battalion to win the
+Military Cross. Major Beaman was still Second in Command. Two original
+officers of the 2/4th, Jack Bennett and Hugh Davenport, commanded A
+and B Companies respectively. W. A. Hobbs, well known as Mayor of
+Henley, was Quartermaster, and 'Bob' Abraham the Transport Officer.
+Regimental Sergeant-Major Douglas and Regimental
+Quartermaster-Sergeant Hedges were the senior warrant officers.</p>
+
+<p>Higher up a new Brigadier in the person of General Dugan arrived and
+held command for a short while. The General, I regret to say, did not
+stay long enough for the full benefit of his experience and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page015" name="page015"></a>(p. 015)</span>
+geniality to accrue, a fragment of a Stokes' mortar shell wounding him
+at a demonstration near Merville and causing his retirement to
+hospital. The new Brigadier, the Hon. R. White, C.M.G., joined us at
+the beginning of September, 1916, from action on the Somme, and soon
+made his cheery criticisms felt.</p>
+
+<p>After the operations of July 19 the former methods of trench warfare
+were resumed. The Division's casualties in the attack had been over
+2,000, and time was required to reorganise and make up these losses.</p>
+
+<p>Early in August an unlucky shell deprived the Battalion of one of its
+best officers. Lieutenant Tiddy had joined the Infantry in a spirit of
+duty and self-sacrifice, which his service as an officer had proved
+but to which his death more amply testified. The regrets of friends
+and comrades measured the Battalion's loss.</p>
+
+<p>At 10 p.m. on August 19 a raid upon the German trenches near the
+'Sugar Loaf' was carried out by A Company. The raid was part of an
+elaborate scheme in which the Australians upon the left and the 2/5th
+Gloucesters on our own front co-operated. The leading bombing party,
+which Bennett sent forward under Sergeant Hinton, quickly succeeded in
+reaching the German parapet and was doing well, when a Mills bomb,
+dropped or inaccurately thrown, fell amongst the men. The plan was
+spoilt. A miniature panic ensued, which Bennett and his Sergeant-Major
+found it difficult to check. As in many raids, a message to retire was
+passed. The wounded were safely brought in by Bennett, whose control
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page016" name="page016"></a>(p. 016)</span>
+and leadership were worthy of a luckier enterprise.<a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Battalion was not called upon for much fighting activity in
+September, 1916. Raids and rumours of raids kept many of us busy. An
+attack by the 184th Brigade upon the Wick salient was planned, but
+somewhat too openly discussed and practised to deceive, I fancy, even
+the participating infantry into the belief that it was really to take
+place. Upon the demolished German trenches many raids were made. In
+the course of these raids, the honour of which was generously shared
+between all battalions in the Brigade, sometimes by means of the
+Bangalore Torpedo, sometimes by the easier and more subtle method of
+just walking into them, the enemy's front line was usually entered;
+and rarely did a raiding party return without the capture of at least
+an old bomb, an entrenching tool or even a live German. These
+'identification' raids possibly did as much to identify ourselves to
+the enemy as to identify him to us, but they proved useful occasions
+on which to send parties 'over the top' (always an enjoyable treat!)
+and gave practice to our trench mortars, which fired remarkably well
+and drew down little retaliation&mdash;always the bug-bear of the trench
+mortar.</p>
+
+<p>The mention of these things may make dull reading
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page017" name="page017"></a>(p. 017)</span>
+to the
+<i>blasé</i> warrior of later battlefields, but, as there are some whose
+last experience abroad was during Laventie days and who may read these
+lines, I feel bound to recall our old friend (or enemy) the trench
+mortar, the rent-free (but not rat-free) dug-out among the sandbags,
+the smelly cookhouses, whose improvident fires were the scandal of
+many a red-hatted visitor to the trenches, the mines, with their
+population of Colonial miners doing mysterious work in their basements
+of clay and flinging up a welter of slimy blue sandbags&mdash;all these
+deserve mention, if no more, lest they be too soon forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Days, too, in Riez Bailleul, Estaires and Merville will be remembered,
+days rendered vaguely precious by the subsequent destruction of those
+villages and by lost comrades. Those of the Battalion who fell in 1916
+were mostly buried in Laventie and outside Merville. Though both were
+being fought over in 1918 and many shells fell among the graves, the
+crosses were not much damaged; inscriptions, if nearly obliterated,
+were then renewed when, by the opportunity of chance, the Battalion
+found itself once more crossing the familiar area, before it helped to
+establish a line upon the redoubtable Aubers ridge, to gain which so
+many lives at the old 1915 battles of Neuve Chapelle and Festubert had
+been expended.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fine autumn. The French civilians were getting in their crops
+within a mile or two of the trenches, while we did a series of tours
+in the Moated Grange sector, with rest billets at the little village
+of Riez Bailleul.</p>
+
+<p>And
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page018" name="page018"></a>(p. 018)</span>
+then box respirators were issued.</p>
+
+<p>Laventie days are remembered with affection by old members of the
+Battalion. In October, 1916, however, there were some not sorry to
+quit an area, which in winter became one of the wettest and most
+dismal in France. The Somme battle, which for three months had rumbled
+in the distance like a huge thunderstorm, was a magnet to attract all
+divisions in turn. The predictions of the French billet-keepers were
+realised at the end of October, when the 2/4th Oxfords were relieved
+in the trenches by a battalion of the Middlesex Regiment and prepared
+to march southwards to the Somme.</p>
+
+<a id="img018" name="img018"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img018.jpg" width="450" height="618"
+alt="Robecq From The South." title="Robecq From The South.">
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter II.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page019" name="page019"></a>(p. 019)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE SOMME BATTLEFIELD,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">November</span>, 1916.</h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+Departure from Laventie. &mdash; At Robecq. &mdash; The march
+southwards. &mdash; Rest at Neuvillette. &mdash; Contay Wood. &mdash; Albert. &mdash; New
+trenches. &mdash; Battle conditions. &mdash; Relieving the front
+line. &mdash; Desire Trench. &mdash; Regina dug-out. &mdash; Mud and darkness. &mdash; A
+heavy barrage. &mdash; Fortunes of Headquarters. &mdash; A painful
+relief. &mdash; Martinsart Wood.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>At the end of October, 1916, the 61st Division left the XI Corps and
+commenced its march southwards to join the British forces on the
+Somme. We were among the last battalions to quit the old sector. Our
+relief was completed during quite a sharp outburst of shelling and
+trench-mortaring by the enemy, whose observers had doubtless spotted
+the troops moving up to take over.</p>
+
+<p>After one night in the old billets at Riez Bailleul the Battalion
+marched on October 29 to Robecq, where the rest of the Brigade had
+already assembled, and took up its quarters in farms and houses along
+the Robecq-Calonne road. Battalion Headquarters were established at a
+large farmstead subsequently known as Gloucester Farm, while to reach
+the billets allotted to them the companies marched through the
+farmyard and across the two small bridges, since so familiar to some,
+which
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page020" name="page020"></a>(p. 020)</span>
+spanned the streams Noc and Clarence. My company was
+furthest south and almost in Robecq itself; my headquarters were in a
+comfortable house with an artesian well bubbling up in its front
+garden. When fighting was taking place at Robecq in April, 1918, and I
+found myself, under very different circumstances, in command of the
+Battalion, knowledge of the ground obtained eighteen months before,
+even to the position of garden gates and the width of ditches, proved
+most useful. I am afraid the Battalion's old billets were soon knocked
+down, the favourite estaminet in D Company area being among the first
+houses to go.</p>
+
+<p>On November 2, 1916, the Battalion left Robecq, where it had been
+well-housed and happy for a week, for Auchel, a populous village in
+the mining district, and marched the next day to Magnicourt en Comté,
+an especially dirty village, and thence again through Tinques and
+Etrée-Wamin to Neuvillette. The civilians in some of the villages
+passed were not friendly, the billets crowded and often not yet
+allotted when the Battalion arrived, having covered its 14 kilometres
+with full pack and perhaps through rain. Nobody grumbled, for the
+conditions experienced were normal, but this march with its daily
+moves involved toil and much footsoreness on the part of the men, and
+for the officers much hard work after the men were in, and many
+wakings-up in the night to receive belated orders for the morrow.</p>
+
+<a id="img020" name="img020"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img020.jpg" width="400" height="573"
+alt="Map." title="Map.">
+</div>
+
+<p>After reaching Neuvillette, a pretty village four miles north by west
+of Doullens, a ten days' rest was
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page021" name="page021"></a>(p. 021)</span>
+made. Boots had become
+very worn in consequence of the march, and great efforts were now made
+by Hobbs to procure mending leather; unfortunately the motor car
+seemed to have forgotten its poor relation, the boot, and no leather
+was forthcoming. During the stay at Neuvillette a
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page022" name="page022"></a>(p. 022)</span>
+demonstration in improvised pack saddlery was arranged at Battalion
+Headquarters, the latest and most disputed methods of wiring and
+trench-digging were rehearsed, and two really valuable Brigade field
+days took place. More than a year afterwards the Battalion was again
+billeted at Neuvillette, whose inhabitants remembered and warmly
+welcomed the Red Circle.</p>
+
+<p>On November 16 we marched away to Bonneville and the next day reached
+Contay, where we climbed up to some unfloored huts in a wood. The
+weather on this march had been bitterly cold, but fine and sunny. A
+dusky screen of clouds drifted up from the west the evening of our
+arrival and the same night snow fell heavily. The cookers were not
+near the huts and neither stores nor proper fuel existed. There was
+the usual scramble for the few braziers our generous predecessors had
+left behind. With snow and wind the Battalion tasted its first
+hardship.</p>
+
+<p>As in all such situations, things soon took a cheerful turn. When the
+General came up next morning, the camp was reeking with smoke from
+braziers and the smell of cookers and the wood alive with sounds of
+woodchopping and cries of foragers. This change from a bad look-out to
+a vigorous optimism and will to make the best of things was
+characteristic of the British 'Tommy', who, exhausted and 'fed-up' at
+night, was heard singing and wood chopping the next morning, as if
+wherever he was were the best place in the world. I shall always
+remember Contay Woods, the huts with their floors of hard mud
+reinforced by harder tree-stumps,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page023" name="page023"></a>(p. 023)</span>
+and the slimy path down to
+parade when we left.</p>
+
+<p>On November 19 we reached Albert, whose familiar church needs no
+description. What struck me principally on arrival was the battered
+sordidness of the place and the filthy state of the roads, on which
+the mud was well up to the ankles. Some civilians were living in the
+town and doing a brisk trade in souvenir postcards of the overhanging
+Virgin. Traffic, as always through a main artery supplying the
+prevalent battlefield, was positively continuous. The first rain of
+autumn had already fallen and men, horses and vehicles all bore mud
+stains significant of winters approach. Our arrival&mdash;we went into
+empty, rather shell-damaged houses near the station&mdash;coincided with
+the later stages of the Beaumont Hamel offensive, and German prisoners
+and, of course, British casualties were passing through the town.</p>
+
+<p>At Albert, Bennett was taken from A Company to act as Second in
+Command of the Berks. Brown assumed command of his company and
+Robinson about this time of C Company, Brucker having returned to the
+61st Divisional School, which was set up at St. Riquier. Just now much
+sickness occurred among the officers, John Stockton, Moorat and
+several others being obliged to go away by attacks of trench fever.
+From Albert C and D Companies moved forward to some Nissen huts near
+Ovillers to be employed on working parties. For the same duties A and
+B Companies soon afterwards were sent to Mouquet Farm, while Battalion
+Headquarters went to Fabick Trench.</p>
+
+<p>After
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page024" name="page024"></a>(p. 024)</span>
+some rain had fallen, fine autumn weather returned and
+our guns and aeroplanes were shewing the activity typical of the late
+stages of a great battle, when future movements were uncertain. A
+string of 30 balloons stretching across the sky in a wide
+circumference (whose centre, as in all 'pushes,' would have been
+somewhere behind our old front) industriously watched the enemy's back
+area. There was probably little comfort for the Germans west of
+Bapaume, or even in it, for our reluctance to shell towns, villages
+and (formerly most privileged of targets) churches was rapidly
+diminishing.</p>
+
+<p>On November 21 the Brigade took over its new sector of the line and
+with it a somewhat different régime to what it had known before. It
+was heard said of the 61st Division that it stayed too long in quiet
+trenches (to be sure, trenches were only really 'quiet' to those who
+could afford to visit them at quiet periods). Still the Somme
+'craterfield' presented a complete contrast to the old breastworks
+with their familiar landmarks and daylight reliefs. Battle conditions
+remained though the advance had stopped. Our recent capture of
+Beaumont-Hamel and St. Pierre Divion left local situations, which
+required clearing up. The fragments of newly-won trenches above
+Grandcourt, trenches without wire and facing a No-Man's-Land of
+indeterminate extent, gave their occupants their first genuine
+tactical problems and altogether more responsibility than before. In
+some respects the Germans were quicker than ourselves to adapt
+themselves to conditions approximating to open warfare.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page025" name="page025"></a>(p. 025)</span> The
+principle of an outpost line and the system of holding our front in
+depth had been pronounced often as maxims on paper, but had resulted
+rarely in practice. Subordinate staffs, on whom the blame for local
+reverses was apt to fall rather heavily, were perhaps reluctant to
+jeopardise the actual front line by holding it too thinly, while from
+the nature of the case, the front line was something far more sacred
+to us than to the enemy. Since the commencement of trench warfare the
+Germans had held their line on the 'depth' principle, keeping only a
+minimum of troops, tritely referred to as 'caretakers,' in their front
+trench of all, while we for long afterwards crammed entire companies,
+with their headquarters, into the most forward positions.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of November 25, 1916, Robinson of C Company and myself,
+taking Hunt and Timms (my runner) and one signaller, left for the
+front line. This was being held along Desire&mdash;my fondness for this
+trench never warranted that name&mdash;with a line of resistance in Regina,
+a very famous German trench, for which there had recently been heavy
+fighting. Our reconnaissance, which was completed at dawn, was lucky
+and satisfactory; moreover&mdash;I do not refer to any lack of refreshment
+by the Berks company commander&mdash;I was still dry at its conclusion,
+having declined all the communication trenches, which were already
+threatening to become impassable owing to mud.</p>
+
+<p>The next night the Battalion moved up to relieve the Berks, but was
+conducted, or conducted itself, along the very communication trench
+which I
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page026" name="page026"></a>(p. 026)</span>
+had studiously avoided using and which was in a
+shocking state from water and mud. As the result of the journey, D
+Company reached the front line practically wet-through to a man, and
+in a very exhausted condition. A proportion of their impedimenta had
+become future salvage on the way up, while several men and, I fancy,
+some officers, had compromised themselves for some hours with the mud,
+which exacted their gumboots as the price of their future progress. I
+regret that my own faithful servant, Longford, was as exhausted as
+anybody and suffered a nasty fall at the very gates of paradise (an
+hyperbole I use to justify the end of such a mud-journey), namely
+Company Headquarters in Regina, where, like a sort of host, I had been
+waiting long.</p>
+
+<p>Desire Trench, the name by which the front line was known, was a
+shallow disconnected trough upholstered in mud and possessing four or
+five unfinished dug-out shafts. These shafts, as was natural, faced
+the wrong way, but provided all the front line shelter in this sector.
+At one end, its left, the trench ran into chalk (as well as some chalk
+and plenty of mud into <i>it</i>!) and its flank disappeared, by a military
+conjuring trick, into the air. About 600 yards away the Germans were
+supposed to be consolidating, which meant that they were feverishly
+scraping, digging and fitting timbers in their next lot of dug-outs.
+To get below earth was their first consideration.</p>
+
+<p>Regina dug-out deserves a paragraph to itself. This unsavoury
+residence housed two platoons of D Company, Company Headquarters, and
+Stobie, our
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page027" name="page027"></a>(p. 027)</span>
+doctor, with the Regimental Aid Post. In
+construction the dug-out, which indeed was typical of many, was a
+corridor with wings opening off, about 40 feet deep and some 30 yards
+long, with 4 entrances, on each of which stood double sentries day and
+night. Garbage and all the putrefying matter which had accumulated
+underfoot during German occupation and which it did not repay to
+disturb for fear of a worse thing, rendered vile the atmosphere
+within. Old German socks and shirts, used and half-used beer bottles,
+sacks of sprouting and rotting onions, vied with mud to cover the
+floor. A suspicion of other remains was not absent. The four shafts
+provided a species of ventilation, reminiscent of that encountered in
+London Tubes, but perpetual smoking, the fumes from the paraffin lamps
+that did duty for insufficient candles, and our mere breathing more
+than counterbalanced even the draughts and combined impressions, fit
+background for post-war nightmares, that time will hardly efface.
+Regina Trench itself, being on a forward slope and exposed to full
+view from Loupart Wood, was shelled almost continuously by day and
+also frequently at night. 'Out and away,' 'In and down' became mottoes
+for runners and all who inhabited the dug-out or were obliged to make
+repeated visits to it. Below, one was immune under 40 feet of chalk,
+and except when an entrance was hit the 5.9s rained down harmlessly
+and without comment.</p>
+
+<p>During the day I occasionally ploughed my way along Regina Trench to
+some unshelled vantage point to watch the British shells falling on
+the yet grassy
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page028" name="page028"></a>(p. 028)</span>
+slopes above Miraumont and south of Puisieux.
+Baillescourt Farm was a very common target. At this time Miraumont
+village was comparatively intact and its church, until thrown down by
+our guns, a conspicuous object. Grandcourt lay hidden in the hollow.</p>
+
+<p>Such landscape belonged to the days; real business, when one's orbit
+was confined to a few hundred yards of cratered surface, claimed the
+nights. A peculiar degree of darkness characterised these closing days
+of November, and with rain and mud put an end to active operations.
+Wiring, the chief labour of which was carrying the coils up to the
+front and afterwards settling the report to Brigade, occupied the
+energies of the Battalion after rations had been carried up. In this
+last respect much foresight and experience were required and
+arrangements were less good than they soon afterwards became; food
+that was intended to arrive hot arrived cold, and, having once been
+hot, received precedence over things originally cold but ultimately
+more essential. Hot-food containers proved too unwieldy for the
+forward area.<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2">[2]</a></p>
+
+
+<p>Although quite a normal circumstance in itself, the extreme darkness
+at this period was a real obstacle to patrols and to all whose ability
+to find the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page029" name="page029"></a>(p. 029)</span>
+way was their passport. Amid these difficulties
+there was an element of humour. To make one false turn, or to turn
+without noticing the fact, by night threw the best map-reader or scout
+off his path and bewildered his calculations. One night about this
+time a party of us, including Hunt and 'Doctor' Rockall, the medical
+corporal, who had accompanied me round the front posts, lost its way
+hopelessly in the dark. Shapes looming up in the distance, I enquired
+of Hunt as to his readiness for hostile encounter, whereupon the
+reassuring answer was given that 'his revolver was loaded, but not
+cocked.' I leave the point (if any) of this story to the mercy of
+those whose fate it has been to lose their way on a foggy night among
+shell-holes, broken-down wire and traps of all descriptions. Temporary
+bewilderment of the calculation destroyed reliance on any putative
+guides such as 'Verey' lights, shells, rifle fire, &amp;c., which on these
+occasions appeared to come from all directions, and English and German
+seemed all alike.</p>
+
+<p>Hunt, who at this time, being my only officer not partially sick, has
+called for somewhat repeated reference, usually devoted the hours
+after midnight to taking a patrol to locate a track shown on the map
+and called Stump Road, his object being to meet another patrol from a
+neighbouring unit. Success did not crown the work. Stump Road remained
+undiscovered and passed into the apocrypha of trench warfare.</p>
+
+<p>At 5 p.m. on November 29, 1916, the Germans opened a heavy barrage
+with howitzers on the front line, giving every indication of impending
+attack. Regina
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page030" name="page030"></a>(p. 030)</span>
+Trench, where were the headquarters of C and
+D, the companies then holding the line, was also heavily shelled, and
+telephonic communication with the rear was soon cut. On such occasions
+it was always difficult to decide whether or not to send up the
+S.O.S&mdash;on the one hand unnecessary appeal to our artillery to fire on
+S.O.S. lines was deprecated, on the other, no forward commander could
+afford to guess that a mere demonstration was on foot; for the
+appearance of attacking infantry followed immediately on a lifting of
+the barrage, a symptom in itself often difficult to recognise. On this
+occasion I intended and attempted to send up a coloured rocket, but
+its stick became stuck between the sides of the dug-out shaft and, by
+the time the efforts of Sergeant Collett had prepared the rocket for
+firing, the barrage died down as suddenly as it had started. This very
+commonplace episode illustrates the routine of this phase of warfare.
+The trenches were, of course, blown in and some Lewis guns damaged,
+but, as frequently, few casualties occurred.</p>
+
+<p>While speaking of the life furthest forward I do not forget the very
+similar conditions, allowing for the absence of enemy machine-guns and
+snipers, which prevailed at Battalion Headquarters. Confined to a
+dug-out (a smaller replica of Regina) in Hessian Trench, with a
+continual stream of reports to receive and instructions to send out,
+and being continually rung up on the telephone, Colonel Bellamy and
+Cuthbert had their hands full, and opportunities for rest, if not for
+refreshment, were very limited. Nor do I omit our runners from the
+fullest
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page031" name="page031"></a>(p. 031)</span>
+share in the dangers and activities of this time.</p>
+
+<p>Under battle-conditions life at one remove from the front line was
+rarely much more agreeable than in the line itself, and was less
+provided with those compensations which existed for the Infantryman
+near the enemy. It was necessary to go back to Divisional Headquarters
+to find any substantial difference or to live an ordered life on a
+civilised footing; and there, too, responsibility had increased by an
+even ratio.</p>
+
+<p>The Battalion Transport during this time was stationed at Martinsart
+and its task, along bad roads, in bringing up rations each day was not
+a light one.</p>
+
+<p>On the night of November 30 the Battalion was relieved by the 2/4th
+Gloucesters and marched back to huts in Martinsart Wood. This march of
+eight miles, coming after a four days' tour in wet trenches under
+conditions of open warfare, proved a trying experience. For four miles
+the path lay along a single duckboard track, capsized or slanting in
+many places, and the newly-made Nab Road, to which it led, was hardly
+better. A number of men fell from exhaustion, while others, their
+boots having worn completely through before entering the trenches,
+were in no state to compete with such a distance. After passing
+Wellington Huts and through Aveluy the going became easier, until at
+last the area of our big guns was reached and, adjoining it, the 'rest
+billets.' The latter consisted of unfloored huts built of tarred felt
+and surrounded by mud only less bad than in the trenches. Our lights
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page032" name="page032"></a>(p. 032)</span>
+and noise scared the rats, which infested the camp.</p>
+
+<p>The relief and march occupied until 4 a.m., and were succeeded by mist
+and frost. The concussion of our neighbours, the 6-inch naval guns,
+echoed among the trees, heralding the first of December, 1916.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter III.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page033" name="page033"></a>(p. 033)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>CHRISTMAS ON THE SOMME,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">December, 1916</span>.</h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+The move from Martinsart to Hedauville. &mdash; Back to
+Martinsart. &mdash; Working parties. &mdash; Dug-outs at Mouquet Farm. &mdash; Field
+Trench. &mdash; Return to the front line. &mdash; Getting touch. &mdash; Guides. &mdash; An
+historic patrol. &mdash; Christmas in the trenches.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>On December 2, 1916, the Battalion moved from Martinsart to
+Hedauville, on its way passing through Englebelmer, the home of one of
+our 15-inch howitzers, but no longer of its civilian inhabitants. The
+march was regulated by Pym, the new Brigade Major, who had replaced
+Gepp a few days before. The latter had proved himself a most efficient
+staff officer, and his departure to take up a higher appointment was
+regretted by everybody.</p>
+
+<p>Hedauville was an indifferent village, but our billets were not bad.
+Brigade Headquarters were at the château. One heard much about the
+habitual occupation of the French châteaux by our staffs during the
+war. On this particular occasion the Brigade had only two or three
+rooms at its disposal, and on many others would be licencees of only a
+small portion of such buildings. The 184th Infantry Brigade Staff was
+always most solicitous about the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page034" name="page034"></a>(p. 034)</span>
+comfort of battalions, and
+its efforts secured deserved appreciation from all ranks. During the
+winter Harling retired from the office of Staff Captain, and after a
+brief interregnum Bicknell, a Gloucester officer, who already had been
+attached to the Brigade for some time, received the appointment. For
+the ensuing three years Bicknell proved himself both an excellent
+staff officer and a consistent friend to the Infantry.</p>
+
+<p>After scraping off the remains of the mud it had carried from the
+trenches, the Battalion settled down at Hedauville to a normal
+programme for ten days. The weather was bad, and a good deal of
+sickness now occurred among the troops, until so many officers were
+sick that leave for the others was stopped. Of general interest little
+occurred to mark this first fortnight of December. At its close the
+Battalion marched back to Martinsart and reoccupied its former huts.
+Battalion and Brigade were now in support, and our energies were daily
+devoted to working parties in the forward area. As these were some of
+the most arduous ever experienced by the Battalion I will describe an
+example.</p>
+
+<p>I take December 16&mdash;a Saturday. My company was warned for working
+party last night, so at 6 a.m. we get up, dress, and, after a hurried
+breakfast, parade in semi-darkness. As the outing is not a popular one
+and reduction in numbers is resented by the R.E., the roll is called
+by Sergeant-Major Brooks (recently back from leave and in the best of
+early morning tempers) amid much coughing and scuffling about in the
+ranks. At 7 a.m. we
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page035" name="page035"></a>(p. 035)</span>
+start our journey towards the scene of
+labour, some 80 strong (passing for 100). We go first along a
+broad-gauge railway line (forbidden to be used for foot traffic) and
+afterwards through Aveluy and past Crucifix Corner to near Mouquet
+Farm.</p>
+
+<p>After a trivial delay of perhaps 40 minutes, the D.C.L.I. or 479 have
+observed our arrival and tools are counted out and issued, the homely
+pick and shovel. The task is pleasantly situated about 150 yards in
+front of several batteries of our field guns (which open fire directly
+we are in position) and consists in relaxing duckboards, excavating
+the submerged sleepers of a light railway or digging the trench for a
+buried cable.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the work only requires 50, not 100 (nor even 80) men. Very
+well! It is a pity those others came, but here are a thousand sandbags
+to fill, and there a pile of logs dumped in the wrong place last
+night, so let them get on with it!</p>
+
+<p>For six hours we remain steadily winning the war in this manner and
+mildly wondering at the sense of things and whether the Germans will
+shell the batteries just behind our work&mdash;until, without hooter or
+whistle, the time to break off has arrived. By 3 p.m. the party is
+threading its way back, and as darkness falls once more reaches the
+camp. Cries of 'Dinner up' and 'Tea up' resound through the huts, and
+all is eating and shouting.</p>
+
+<p>By December 20 it was once more the Brigade's turn to relieve the
+front line. Berks and Gloucesters again took first innings in the
+trenches, while the Bucks and ourselves stayed in support. Battalion
+Headquarters with A and B Companies were in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page036" name="page036"></a>(p. 036)</span>
+Wellington Huts,
+near Ovillers; C and D went two miles further forward to some
+scattered dug-outs between Thiepval and Mouquet Farm. My own
+headquarters were at the farm, to whose site a ruined cellar and a
+crumbling heap of bricks served to testify. The Germans had left a
+system of elaborate dug-outs, some of which now housed Brigade
+Headquarters, but others, owing to shelling and rain, had collapsed or
+were flooded. On each of the four nights spent at Mouquet Farm my
+company supplied parties to carry wire and stakes up to the front
+line. These journeys were made through heavy shelling, and we were
+always thankful to return safely. My policy was never to allow the
+pace to become that of the slowest man, for there was no limit to such
+slowness. I myself set a pace, which I knew to be reasonable, and men
+who straggled interviewed me next day. By this policy the evening's
+work was completed in two-thirds of the time it would otherwise have
+taken, and my disregard of proverbial maxims probably saved the
+Battalion many casualties.</p>
+
+<a id="img036" name="img036"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img036.jpg" width="400" height="510"
+alt="SKETCH MAP to show Trenches held by 2/4th Oxf. &amp; Bucks.
+in Nov and Dec 1916" title="SKETCH MAP to show Trenches held by 2/4th Oxf. &amp; Bucks.
+in Nov and Dec 1916">
+</div>
+
+<p>Since our last tour in the line real winter conditions had set in.
+Shell-holes and trenches everywhere filled with water till choice of
+movement was confined to a few duckboard tracks. Those in our area led
+past Tullock's Corner and from the Gravel Pit to Mouquet Farm, and
+thence to the head of Field Trench, with a branch sideways to Zollern
+Redoubt. Field Trench, an old German switch, led over the Pozières
+ridge, whose crest was well 'taped' by the German guns. The British
+advance having reached a standstill, the enemy's artillery was
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page037" name="page037"></a>(p. 037)</span>
+now firing from more forward positions and paid much
+attention to places like Mouquet Farm, Tullock's Corner, Zollern
+Redoubt and Field Trench. Parties of D.C.L.I. were daily at work upon
+the latter, duckboarding and revetting, and completed a fine pioneers'
+job right up to Hessian. Field Trench ranked among the best
+performances of the Cornwalls, whose work altogether at this time
+deserved high praise.</p>
+
+<p>On
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page038" name="page038"></a>(p. 038)</span>
+Christmas eve, 1916, the Battalion relieved the front
+line. Brown and Davenport took their companies to Desire and Regina.
+Battalion Headquarters had an improved position at Zollern Redoubt,
+and their old dug-out in Hessian was left to D Company Headquarters.
+Robinson with C Company was also in Hessian, to the left of D. His
+headquarters possessed plenty of depth but neither height nor breadth.
+The dug-out entrance was the size of a large letter-box and nearly
+level with the trench floor.</p>
+
+<p>After the march up, the remainder of the night was devoted to the
+trying process of 'getting touch.' This meant finding the neighbouring
+sentry-posts on each flank&mdash;an important duty, for the Germans usually
+knew the date and sometimes the hour of our reliefs and the limits of
+frontage held by different units (we naturally were similarly informed
+about the enemy). For reasons of security no relief could be held
+complete before not only our own men were safely in but our flanks
+were established by touch with neighbouring posts.</p>
+
+<p>In the course of the very relief I have mentioned, a platoon of one
+battalion reached the front line but remained lost for more than a
+day. It could neither get touch with others nor others with it.
+'Getting touch' seemed easy on a map and was often done in statements
+over the telephone. Tangible relations were more difficult and efforts
+to obtain them often involved most exasperating situations, for whole
+nights could be spent meandering in search of positions, which in
+reality were only a few hundred yards distant. Total absence of
+guiding landmarks
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page039" name="page039"></a>(p. 039)</span>
+was freely remarked as the most striking
+characteristic of this part of the Somme area. I refer only to night
+movement, for by day there were always distant objects to steer by,
+and the foreground, seemingly a cratered wilderness of mud, to the
+trained eye wore a multitude of significant objects.</p>
+
+<p>My last topic introduces the regimental guide. Guides performed some
+of the hardest and most responsible work of the war. Staff work could
+at time be botched or boggled without ill-effects; for mistakes by
+guides some heavy penalty was paid. Whenever a relief took place, men
+to lead up the incoming unit into the positions it was to occupy were
+sent back, usually one per platoon, or, in cases of difficult relief
+and when platoon strengths were different, one per sentry-post. Guides
+rarely received much credit when reliefs went well, but always the
+blame when they went ill. The private soldiers, who guided our troops
+into trench and battle, played a greater part in winning the war than
+any record has ever confessed.</p>
+
+<p>I have already spoken of patrols, their difficulties and dangers. Than
+General White no man in the Brigade was better acquainted with its
+front or a more punctual visitor to the most forward positions. What
+'Bobbie' could not himself see by day he was resolved to have
+discovered for him by night, and thus a high measure of activity by
+our patrols was required. About Christmas the question whether the
+eastern portion of a trench, known as Grandcourt Trench, was held by
+the enemy, was set to the Battalion to answer. Vowed to accomplish
+this
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page040" name="page040"></a>(p. 040)</span>
+task or die, a picked patrol started one dark night.
+Striking in a bee line from our trenches, the patrol passed several
+strands of wire and presently discovered fragments of unoccupied
+trench. On further procedure, sounds were heard and, after the
+necessary stalking and listening, proof was obtained that a large
+hostile wiring party, talking and laughing together, was only a few
+yards distant. With this information the patrol veered to a flank,
+again passing through wire and crossing several trenches which bore
+signs of occupation. A line for home was then taken, but much groping
+and long search failed to reveal the faithful landmarks of our front
+line. At length, as dawn was breaking, the situation became clear. The
+patrol was outside D Company Headquarters in Hessian, more than 800
+yards <i>behind</i> the front line. The report of German wiring parties
+laughing and talking did not gratify, and on reconstruction of its
+movements it was found that the patrol had spent the entire night
+reconnoitring not the German but our own defensive system. The wire so
+easily passed through, the noise and laughter, and the final
+<i>dénouement</i> at Hessian allowed for no other conclusion. A few nights
+later Brown, with a small party and on a clear frosty night, solved
+the riddle by boldly walking up to Grandcourt Trench and finding the
+Germans not at home.</p>
+
+<p>I mention the story of this first patrol for the benefit, perhaps, of
+some who took part in it and who will now, I feel sure, enjoy the
+humour of its recollection. I mention it more to show of what
+unrequited labour Infantry was capable. The most wholehearted
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page041" name="page041"></a>(p. 041)</span>
+efforts were not always successful. One had this confidence
+on patrol, that one's mistakes only affected a handful. It was
+otherwise for artillery commanders who arranged a barrage, commanders
+of Field Companies who guaranteed destruction of a bridgehead, or of
+Special Companies undertaking a gas projection. Such was the meaning
+of responsibility.</p>
+
+<p>The Battalion spent December 25, 1916, in the trenches under some of
+the worst conditions that even a war Christmas could bring. Christmas
+dinners were promised and afterwards held when we were in rest.</p>
+
+<p>As in previous years, our army circulars had forbidden any
+fraternisation with the enemy. Though laughed at, these were resented
+by the Infantry in the line, who at this stage lacked either wish or
+intention to join hands with the German or lapse into a truce with
+him. On the other hand, a day's holiday from the interminable sounds
+of shelling would have been appreciated, and casualties on Christmas
+Day struck a note of tragedy. This want of sagacity on the part of our
+higher staff, as if our soldiers could not be trusted to fight or keep
+their end up as well on Christmas as any other day, was a reminder of
+those differences on which it is no object of this history to touch.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter IV.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page042" name="page042"></a>(p. 042)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>AT MAISON PONTHIEU,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">January &mdash; February</span>, 1917.</h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+Visitors to the Battalion. &mdash; The New Year. &mdash; A wintry
+march. &mdash; Arrival at Maison Ponthieu. &mdash; Severe weather. &mdash; At
+war with the cold. &mdash; Training for offensive action. &mdash; By rail
+to Marcelçave. &mdash; Billets at Rainecourt. &mdash; Reconnoitring the
+French line near Deniécourt.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>I cannot often treat my readers to a ride by motor car. Jump into this
+staff car that is waiting&mdash;it will not take you to the trenches! You
+will have distinguished company. Colonel A. and Major Q. have decided
+to pay a visit to the Battalion. It is at Maison Ponthieu, nearly 50
+miles behind the line, whither it marched two days since to undergo a
+period of rest.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived there, you learn that the Commanding Officer is out, placating
+with the assistance of the Brigade interpreter the wrath of the
+village hunchback, a portion of whose wood-stack was reported missing
+last night. This is not the first time that A. and Q. have visited the
+village (their lives are martyred to the study of regimental comfort),
+so our journey opens with an inspection of the two Nissen huts on the
+village 'green.'</p>
+
+<p>'Disgraceful! At least two planks, which helped to line the roof of
+this hut, have been burnt.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page043" name="page043"></a>(p. 043)</span>
+Stoves? One was sent to each
+battalion only yesterday, and ten more have been promised by Corps.
+Fuel? I am astounded to hear that the supply is inadequate.
+Quartermaster! How many pounds of dripping did you send to the Base
+last week? The A.S.C. sent twice that quantity. Who is cooking on that
+field kitchen? It will be impossible to make the war last if things
+are abused in this way. Your men have no rifle racks, more ablution
+benches must be provided and the sanitary arrangements made up to
+date....'</p>
+
+<p>This little parable has made me outstrip my narrative. You must come
+another day and see what Sergeant Parsons is doing with the vast
+quantities of timber, corrugated iron, and other stores supplied to
+make the billets staff-proof for the future.</p>
+
+<p>The end of the last chapter left the Battalion complaining of our guns
+and otherwise merrymaking in the front line. A day or two before the
+New Year, companies marched back to huts near Pioneer Station and the
+next morning reached Hedauville. Here, shortly afterwards, Christmas
+dinners, consisting of pigs and plum-pudding, were consumed. It was
+believed that we had left Regina and Desire for good, were leaving the
+Corps and likely to do training in a back area for several weeks.
+Colonel Bellamy went on leave, and Bennett, amid many offers to
+accompany him as batman, departed for three months' instruction at
+Aldershot as a senior officer. A new Major, W. L. Ruthven, arrived in
+January and temporarily was in command. Loewe and John Stockton
+returned from
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page044" name="page044"></a>(p. 044)</span>
+hospital and Jones from a Divisional working
+party, which had been engaged for a month on the wholesale manufacture
+of duckboards. Lyon, an officer equally popular in and out of the
+line, had found egress from the Somme dug-outs troublesome and
+withdrew for a time to easier spheres. Men's leave was now going well
+and frequent parties left Acheux Station for 'Blighty.'</p>
+
+<p>This list of changes is, of course, incomplete, and I only give it to
+show how constantly the wheel of alteration was turning. Comparatively
+few officers or men stayed very long with one battalion. 'Average
+lives' used to be quoted for all cases, ranging from a few weeks for a
+platoon officer to the duration for R.T.O's and
+quartermaster-sergeants! Old soldiers may never die, but I think our
+new soldiers 'faded away,' not the old, who grew fat and crafty!</p>
+
+<p>The Battalion marched away from Pioneer Huts&mdash;whither it had returned
+after its rest at Hedauville&mdash;on January 15. The first stage on the
+rearward journey carried us to Puchevillers, a village full of shell
+dumps and now bisected by a new R.O.D. line from Candas to Colincamps.
+Snow, which had fallen heavily before we left Puchevillers, made the
+ensuing march through Beauval and Gézaincourt to Longuevillette a
+trying one. The going was quite slippery and the Transport experienced
+difficulty in keeping up with the Battalion, especially for the last
+two miles. The road marked on the map had by that time degenerated, in
+characteristic fashion, to a mere farm track across country. The
+Battalion was
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page045" name="page045"></a>(p. 045)</span>
+in its billets at Longuevillette by 6 o'clock,
+but blankets arrived so late that it was midnight before Hobbs could
+issue them. On the next day, January 18, the march was continued
+through Bernaville to Domqueur, a distance of 11 miles, on frost bound
+roads. No man fell out. The 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire
+Light Infantry was one of the best marching battalions in France. On
+January 19 we reached the promised destination, Maison Ponthieu, of
+whose billets glowing accounts had been received; which, as often,
+were hardly realised.</p>
+
+<a id="img045" name="img045"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img045.jpg" width="300" height="444"
+alt="Maison Ponthieu." title="Maison Ponthieu.">
+</div>
+
+<p>At Maison Ponthieu the Battalion remained for nearly three weeks.
+Brigade Headquarters, the Machine-gun Company, and some A.S.C. were
+already
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page046" name="page046"></a>(p. 046)</span>
+in the village&mdash;ominous news for a billeting party.</p>
+
+<p>Now much snow had already fallen throughout the countryside, and the
+weather since the New Year had been growing steadily more cold. In the
+middle of January, 1917, an iron frost seized Northern France till
+ponds were solid and the fields hard as steel. This spell, which
+lasted a month, was proclaimed by the villagers to be the coldest
+since 1890. As day succeeded day the sun still rose from a clear
+horizon upon a landscape sparkling with snow and icicles, and each
+evening sank in a veil of purple haze. Similar frost was experienced
+in England, but the wind swept keener across the flat plains of
+Ponthieu than over our own Midlands. This turn of the weather was a
+military surprise. It produced conditions novel in trench warfare.
+Severe cold was a commonplace, but now for three weeks and more the
+ground everywhere had been hard as concrete, digging and wiring were
+quite impossible, and movement in our front area easier than ever
+before. It almost seemed as if our opportunity for open warfare had
+arrived. Certainly at this moment in the military situation the enemy
+could not have availed himself of his old tactics as guarantee against
+a break through, nor could he, as formerly during the Somme Battle,
+have protected himself from gradual defeat by digging fresh trenches
+and switch lines and putting out new wire in rear wherever his front
+line was threatened. No doubt there were reasons prohibiting an
+attempt to rush the enemy on a grand scale from his precarious salient
+between Arras and Péronne
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page047" name="page047"></a>(p. 047)</span>
+other than fear of being 'let
+down' by the weather; though perhaps the latter consideration alone,
+from a Supply standpoint, constituted sufficient veto.</p>
+
+<p>At all events the tactics of the Battalion were in quite another
+order. How to shave, how to wash, how to put on boots frozen hard
+during the night, above all, how to keep warm&mdash;these were the problems
+presented. I doubt if there was much washing in cold water before
+parade, and, as for shaving, I know a portion of the breakfast tea was
+often used for this purpose. Sponge and shaving brush froze stiff as
+matters of habit. To secure fuel provided constant occupation and
+frequent stumbling-blocks. On our arrival most rigid orders had been
+issued not to burn our neighbours' fences and I am able to say that
+the fences survived our stay. Temptation grew, nevertheless, in
+orchards and rows of small pollards (usually of ash), which formed the
+hedges in this part of France, not to mention a wood at the lower end
+of the village. That ancient trick of covering tree stumps with earth
+needed little learning. Each night for such as had ears, if not
+official ones, wood and thicket rang with the blows of entrenching
+tool on bole and sapling, till past the very door of Sergeant-Major
+sipping his rum, or company officers seated around sirloin and baked
+potatoes would be dragged trunk and branches of a voting tree, that in
+peace time and warmer weather might have lived to grace an avenue.
+There should be variety in story telling; here was one told very much
+out of school.</p>
+
+<p>From
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page048" name="page048"></a>(p. 048)</span>
+contemplation of this illicit forestry I pass to sterner
+matters. The first alarms of the 'spring offensive' were in the air,
+urging us infantry to deeds of arms in the back area. Pamphlets
+proclaimed the creed of open warfare and bade perish the thought of
+gumboot or of trench. Hence daily practices in attack formation, the
+following of barrages to first, second, and final objectives, the
+making of Z shaped posts and sending forward of patrols and scouts.</p>
+
+<p>The Brigadier was an enthusiastic spectator of the work, and woe
+betide the platoon officer whose men gave reckless answers to the
+General's questions. The 'Platoon Test' was introduced.<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3">[3]</a> Soldier's
+catechism did not yet reach the perfection it afterwards acquired,
+when all who took part in an attack knew beforehand every practical
+detail assigned to them. While knowledge of the complexities of the
+war became steadily more important, individual training of the man
+helped to make good his deficiency in pre-war discipline. Morale was
+never learnt from sack-stabbing at home, but in France this education
+of each soldier to use his intellect and become a positive agent
+instead of a member of a herd proved a potent factor towards the final
+superiority of the Englishman over his enemy.</p>
+
+<a id="img048" name="img048"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img048.jpg" width="400" height="587"
+alt="Brigadier-general The Hon. R. White. C.B., C.M.G.,
+D.S.O." title="Brigadier-general The Hon. R. White. C.B., C.M.G.,
+D.S.O.">
+</div>
+
+<p>On
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page049" name="page049"></a>(p. 049)</span>
+the morning of February 4, 1917, the Battalion has said
+good-bye to Maison Ponthieu and is marching to Brucamps. Another week
+and we see it on the move again, this time partly by train. Orders for
+that move were as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+  Reveille, 5 a.m.<br>
+  Breakfast, 6 a.m.<br>
+  Blankets rolled in tens and valises to be dumped outside the Q.M.
+      stores by 6.30 a.m.<br>
+  Mess boxes, 7 a.m.<br>
+  Parade, 7.30 a.m.</p>
+
+
+<p>The march was through Vauchelles-les-Domart to Longpré. Thence we were
+dragged by train through Amiens to Marcelçave, where we detrained and
+marched to huts at Wiencourt. We were about to relieve the French in
+the line near Chaulnes.</p>
+
+<p>On February 15 the Battalion marched through Harbonnières, where the
+Major-General, Colin Mackenzie (now Sir Colin, K.C.B.) was standing
+with a French General to see us pass, and on to Rainecourt. The latter
+village, where the Battalion was billeted, improved on acquaintance.
+It had lain some 3-1/2 miles behind the old Somme front and had
+suffered a good deal from German shells. French industry and French
+materials had, since the advance, converted damaged barns and houses
+into quite good billets.</p>
+
+<p>Several days were spent in Rainecourt in rather dismal weather, for
+the prolonged frost had broken and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page050" name="page050"></a>(p. 050)</span>
+mist and mud followed.
+Into the little church were now dragged 6,400 pairs of gumboots,
+representing about £10,000. It was the Divisional gumboot store,
+phrase of awful significance! I feel that the very mention of the word
+gumboot, whenever it occurs, is lending a smile to certain of my
+readers and, perchance, a frown to others. O gumboots, what
+reputations have you not jeopardised, what hairs brought down with
+sorrow to the Base!</p>
+
+<a id="img050" name="img050"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img050.jpg" width="300" height="485"
+alt="Harbonnières." title="Harbonnières.">
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The Battalion was divided before it left Rainecourt, orders being
+given for C and D Companies to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page051" name="page051"></a>(p. 051)</span>
+move forward to Herleville
+and occupy some huts and dug-outs there.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<p>It is morning of February 22, 1917. Colonel Bellamy and his four
+company commanders are setting out to reconnoitre the new front line.
+Guides are to meet us at Deniécourt Château, a heap of chalk slabs and
+old bricks, beneath which are Brigade Headquarters. To reach this
+<i>rendez-vous</i> we pass through Foucaucourt and then along a corduroy
+road through Deniécourt Wood to the village of that name. The wood has
+been fought through and but few branches remain on the trees, whose
+trunks, like so many untidy telegraph poles, rise to various heights
+from the upheaval of shell-holes and undergrowth. Dismal surroundings
+on a dismal morning, for the frost has relented for several days and
+already sides of trenches are collapsing (flop go the chunks into the
+water!) and on top the ground is loading one's boots at every step.</p>
+
+<p>We change into gumboots in an old cellar and our journey commences.
+See the Colonel, Cuthbert, Marcon, Brown, Stockton, Robinson and
+myself lead off down a communication trench behind a guide, pledged to
+take us to the Berks Headquarters. The going is desperate&mdash;water up to
+our knees; however, each hundred yards brings our goal nearer, and it
+can hardly be like this all the way. We come to a trench junction, and
+our guide turns left-handed; presently another&mdash;the guide knows the
+way and again turns to the left. Confound
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page052" name="page052"></a>(p. 052)</span>
+the mud! If we do
+not get there soon we shall never be home for lunch ... but we do not
+get there soon. The guide, always protesting that he knows the way,
+has led us in a circle and here we are whence we started an hour ago!</p>
+
+<p>After such well-meaning mockery of our efforts, a route 'over the top'
+is tried. Soon we are outside Battalion Headquarters of the Berks.
+Whilst we are there, German gas shelling starts&mdash;a few rounds of
+phosgene&mdash;and helmets require to be adjusted. It is not everybody's
+helmet that fits, this being the first real occasion on which some
+officers have worn them. There is some laughing to see the strictest
+censor of a gas helmet (or its absence) in difficulties with his own,
+when the moment for its adjustment has arrived.</p>
+
+<p>The company commanders duly separate to go up to their own sections of
+the front. They see the 'posts,' or any of them that can be visited in
+daylight, make notes of local details affecting the relief, and so
+home independently.</p>
+
+<p>Billets never seemed so comfortable or attractive as on the night
+preceding a relief. Perhaps they would have seemed more so had the
+Battalion known, what luckily it could not, that an unpleasant tour
+was in store, and that afterwards, with the enemy in retreat, there
+would be no more billets until the summer.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter V.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page053" name="page053"></a>(p. 053)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>IN THE ABLAINCOURT SECTOR,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">February, 1917</span>.</h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+German retreat foreshadowed. &mdash; The Battalion takes over
+the Ablaincourt Sector. &mdash; Issues in the making. &mdash; Lieutenant
+Fry mortally wounded. &mdash; The raid by German storm-troops
+on February 28. &mdash; The raid explained.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>Early in 1917 it became known to our intelligence service that the
+enemy was contemplating retirement on a large scale from the Somme
+battle-front. Reports from prisoners and aeroplane photographs of a
+new line, famous afterwards as the Hindenburg line, running from west
+of Cambrai to St. Quentin, left in doubt only the date and manner of
+the withdrawal. To the latter question some answer was possible by
+reference to our mentors or from a text-book appreciation of the
+situation, though no one guessed until the movement had in reality
+started with what circumstances the Germans would see fit to invest
+it. The date was a more difficult problem. For its solution recourse
+must be had by commanders, staff officers and experts to the infantry.
+A competition open to all battalions holding the line (and without
+other entrance fee) thereupon commenced. To whom should fall the
+laurels of a correct diagnosis of the march-table of the German
+rear-guards, who
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page054" name="page054"></a>(p. 054)</span>
+be the first to scatter them by the
+relentless pursuit of our victorious arms?</p>
+
+<p>To our higher staff the question whether the enemy was still manning
+with normal garrisons the front opposite our armies seemed relatively
+simple. Readers, however, with experience of trench warfare will
+remember that in the line by day it was impossible to surmise
+correctly one item of what was happening a hundred yards away in
+hostile trenches; certainly one knew well enough when shells were
+falling, and 'minnies,' rifle-grenades and snipers' bullets argued
+that a pernicious, almost verminous, form of life was extant not far
+away: but despite all this, stared a sentry never so vigilantly,
+through his periscope he could hardly predict whether two, ten, or a
+hundred of the enemy tribe were hidden below earth almost within a
+stone's throw. At night it seemed probable that a patrol of a few
+brave men could crawl right up to the German wire and listen, or by
+setting foot in them enquire whether 'Fritz' was at home in his
+trenches or no; and so our patrols could, and did. In practice,
+however, our most active patrols were frequently deceived. Shots and
+Verey lights, which came from several directions, might be discharged
+by a solitary German, whose function it was to go the round of the
+enemy posts and fire from each spasmodically in turn. A trench entered
+and found empty might be a disused sap or bay habitually unoccupied.
+To maintain the normal semblance of trench-warfare was an easy task
+for the German, and one that he never failed in. Repeatedly in his
+retirements during the war he removed
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page055" name="page055"></a>(p. 055)</span>
+his real forces, his
+artillery and stores unbeknown to our watching infantry and their
+questioning staff. The screen of a retreating enemy is not easily
+caught up and pierced by an advanced guard not superior to it in
+strength and inferior in mobility. On the Somme in 1917 and from the
+Lys salient in 1918 the Germans retired from wide to narrower
+divisional fronts (giving themselves greater 'depth' in the process),
+which fact, coupled with destruction of bridges and roads, prevented
+us from forcing an issue with their main body on the move. There were
+exceptions, as when the 32nd Division captured guns near Savy, but the
+enemy, in retiring, played for safety and denied much opportunity to
+our troops, despite their zeal in keeping touch, to deal him damage.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the tactical situation when the 184th Infantry Brigade
+relieved the French in the Ablaincourt sector. The Berks, who first
+held the left subsector, had an uneventful tour. Trenches taken over
+from the French were usually quiet at first owing to the different
+methods employed by us and our allies in the conduct of
+trench-warfare. Within a day or two of the relief the frost had
+finally broken and the trenches everywhere started to fall in, making
+the outlook in this respect ominous.</p>
+
+<p>On the afternoon of February 23, we marched up to relieve the Berks.
+Near Foucaucourt the cookers gave us tea. There also we changed into
+gumboots. Guides met us at Estrées cross-roads, a trysting place
+possible only when dusk had fallen, and the lugubrious procession
+started along a tramway track among whose iron sleepers the men
+floundered
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page056" name="page056"></a>(p. 056)</span>
+considerably, partly from their precaution of
+choosing gumboots several sizes too large. On this occasion the usual
+stoppages and checks were multiplied by a brisk artillery 'strafe'
+upon the front, accompanied by all manner of coloured lights and
+rockets. The noise soon dying down we were able to continue a bad
+journey with men frequently becoming stuck and a few lost. The relief
+was not over until nearly dawn, by when the last Berks had left and
+our worst stragglers been collected.</p>
+
+<p>The Battalion took over a three-company front. Brown with A Company
+guarded the left. Robinson with C (containing a large proportion of a
+recent draft now paying its first visit to the trenches) was in the
+centre, and D Company on the right. Some 500 yards behind our front
+lay the Ablaincourt Sucrerie, a dismal heap of polluted ruins, like
+all sugar factories the site of desperate fighting. Ablaincourt
+itself, a village freely mentioned in French dispatches during the
+Somme battle, was the very symbol of depressing desolation. Péronne,
+eight miles to the north-east, was out of view. Save for the low ridge
+of Chaulnes, whence the German gunners watched, and the shattered
+barn-roofs of Marchélepot&mdash;the former on our right, the latter
+directly to our front&mdash;the scene was mud, always mud, stretching
+appallingly to the horizon.</p>
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page057" name="page057"></a>(p. 057)</span>
+<a id="img057" name="img057"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img057.jpg" width="450" height="586"
+alt="THE ABLAINCOURT SECTOR Trenches held by 2/4th OXFORD &amp;
+BUCKS Lt INFy. Drawn by G.K. Rose." title="THE ABLAINCOURT SECTOR Trenches held by 2/4th OXFORD &amp;
+BUCKS Lt INFy. Drawn by G.K. Rose.">
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>Students of music are familiar with the rival motifs that run through
+operas. In an earlier paragraph I have indicated one such motif, and
+if in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page058" name="page058"></a>(p. 058)</span>
+this opera of war a curtain be lifted to shew the
+future act which this motif dominates, you would see the German staff
+busy with maps over its retreat, planning the time-table of explosion
+and burning, and designating the several duties of fouling wells and
+laying booby-traps.</p>
+
+<p>Another scene, in which the rival motif is heard, shews a strong body
+of ugly-looking Germans at practice over some shallow trenches some
+distance behind their line. By a quaint coincidence these trenches are
+a facsimile of those just taken over by the Battalion. The ugly
+Germans are members of a 'travelling circus.' For long past they have
+lived in the best billets and been receiving extra rations. They play
+no part in the retreat&mdash;house-wrecking, the flooding of cellars, the
+hacking through of young fruit trees and throwing over of sundials and
+garden ornaments, much as they might enjoy it, is not their function.</p>
+
+<p>They are a professional raiding party, with two successful raids at
+Loos, one at Ypres and one near Hébuterne to their credit. Wherever
+the English have just relieved the French they are sent for to
+perform. They are accompanied by two 8-inch howitzers and several
+batteries of 5.9s and 4.2s belonging to the 'circus' and by a
+Minen-Werfer Abteilung. Their raid upon the Oxfords is fixed for
+February 28, when the moon will be a third full. The last aeroplane
+photograph admirably shews the Sucrerie, communication trenches
+leading forward and the whereabouts of all dug-outs. The pioneer
+detachment&mdash;whose thoughts are turned only to the retreat, of which
+rumours have been
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page059" name="page059"></a>(p. 059)</span>
+plentiful&mdash;must move from its comfortable
+dug-outs in the railway embankment to make room for H.Q. of the
+raiding party.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<p>The front held by the Battalion was tactically not satisfactory. Being
+three on a front, with B Company placed nearly 1,000 yards in rear,
+companies had to find their own supports, which, owing to absence of
+other dug-out accommodation, were disposed in positions not only too
+far back but inadequately covering those portions of the front which
+they were engaged to defend. Moreover, practical means of
+communication to and by these support platoons were likely to prove,
+in event of need, negligible. They were, in fact, isolated in places
+themselves not defensible and equally remote from company and
+battalion commanders. This situation was bad enough as <i>point d'appui</i>
+for an advance; to resist a counter-attack or raid it was deplorable.
+Like many similar situations, it was due to the lack of habitable
+trenches on the ground that should have been occupied and defended. It
+could be no one's fault either high up or low down that the line was
+held in this way, though perhaps had fewer men been allowed to crowd
+into trenches and dug-outs in the forward line, casualties in killed
+and prisoners might have been spared to the Battalion.</p>
+
+<p>A few hours after the relief was complete orders came up for patrols
+to go out to see if the enemy had or had not gone back yet. Our
+artillery, which was not yet strongly represented behind this sector,
+also began to fire at extreme ranges on the German back
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page060" name="page060"></a>(p. 060)</span> area
+east of Marchélepot and Chaulnes. The enemy, on his part, sniped at
+and bombed our patrols at night. The behaviour of his guns and
+aeroplanes by day suggested no passive retreat in the near future.
+While BAB<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4">[4]</a> code messages, providing mingled toil and excitement,
+announced the impending departure of the enemy and asserted the
+necessity for keeping touch, aeroplanes flew a thousand feet overhead
+and directed the fire of fresh batteries of 5.9s and 4.2s upon our
+trenches. No doubt the Germans had stocks of ammunition they preferred
+to fire off rather than cart backwards. Gas shelling became common for
+the first time in the Battalion's experience. In the front line masks
+had often to be worn. Headquarters also were gassed more than once and
+suffered much inconvenience. This activity by the enemy was reasonably
+regarded as his normal policy with which to impede our preparations
+for advance, so that complaints of registration<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5">[5]</a> coming from the
+front line received no special attention from the authorities, who
+were themselves tossed to and fro and kept quite occupied by the many
+conflicting prophecies of the enemy's retreat.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of February 27 German howitzer batteries commenced some
+heavy shelling on the Battalion sector, especially on the
+communication trenches passing under the former French titles of B.C.4
+and B.C.5.<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6">[6]</a> Working parties who were
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page061" name="page061"></a>(p. 061)</span>
+busy digging out mud
+from those trenches were compelled to desist. At 10 o'clock I heard
+that Fry, the commander of No. 16 Platoon, had been hit by shrapnel on
+his way from Company H.Q. to the Sucrerie. To get him to the nearest
+shelter (C Company H.Q.) was difficult through the mud, and
+uncomfortable enough with 5.9s coming down close to the trench, but
+the men, as always, played up splendidly to assist a comrade. Soon
+afterwards, the doctor, in answer to a telephonic summons, appeared at
+my H.Q. On our way to reach Fry we were both knocked down in the
+trench by a 4.2, which also wounded Corporal Rockall in the
+shoulder-blade. I regret that Fry, though safely moved from the
+trenches the same night, had received a mortal wound. In him died a
+fine example of the platoon officer. He met his wound in the course of
+a trivial duty which, had I guessed that he would do it under heavy
+shelling, I should have forbidden him to undertake. His type of
+bravery, though it wears no decorations, is distinguished, more than
+all other, by the unwritten admiration of the Infantry.</p>
+
+<p>During that night I had a peculiar and interesting task. It was to
+report on the condition of all roads leading through our front line
+across No-Man's-Land. Mud, battle and frost had so combined to
+disguise all former roads and tracks, that to decide their whereabouts
+it was often necessary to follow them forward from behind by means of
+map and compass. Seen by pale moonlight, these derelict roads, in
+places pitted with huge craters or flanked by shattered trees, wore a
+mysterious charm.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page062" name="page062"></a>(p. 062)</span>
+More eloquent of catastrophe than those
+thrown down by gale or struck by lightning are trees which shells have
+hit direct and sent, splintered, in headlong crash from the ranks of
+an avenue. If wood and earth could speak, what tales the sunken roads
+of France could find to tell!</p>
+
+<p>Morning and afternoon of the next day, February 28, were fine and
+ominously quiet. Excessive quietness was often no good sign.
+Presentiments could have been justified. At 4.15 p.m. a strong barrage
+of trench mortars and rifle grenades began to beat upon the front
+line, accompanied by heavy artillery fire against communication and
+support trenches and the back area. This sequel to the previous
+registration clearly indicated some form of attack by the enemy. The
+rhythmic pounding of the heavy howitzers, whose shells were arriving
+with the regular persistency of a barrage table, suggested that a long
+bombardment, probably until after dusk, was intended. Under such
+circumstances it was the part of the Company Commander to 'stand to'
+and await events with the utmost vigilance. This never meant that the
+men should be ordered out into the trenches and the fire-steps manned,
+for to do so would have invited heavy casualties and demoralised the
+garrison before the opportunity for active resistance had arrived. To
+keep look-out by sentries, to watch for any lifting in the barrage,
+and to maintain communication with H.Q. and with the flanks were the
+measures required. Otherwise, except to destroy maps and papers,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page063" name="page063"></a>(p. 063)</span>
+there was nothing to do but wait, for only in the most
+clumsily organised shows did the other side know zero. On this
+occasion, at the moment the German raiding party came over, a patrol
+consisting of Corporal Coles and Timms had only just returned from D
+Company front line. They said that though the shelling was heavy
+immediately behind and on the flanks, the wire was intact and there
+was no sign of attack. At dusk, therefore, there was nothing save the
+heavy shelling to report to Cuthbert over my telephone, which by luck
+held until cut by German wire-cutters.</p>
+
+<p>Within a few minutes, shouts and a few rifle shots were heard, and the
+next moment bombs were being thrown into my dug-out.</p>
+
+<p>The lights went out and the interior became filled with fumes, groans,
+and confusion.</p>
+
+<p>A German raiding party had penetrated C Company, seized the front
+line, which was a bare 80 yards from my H.Q., and, without touching my
+own front (which indeed was 200 yards distant and to the flank), had
+picketed my dug-out, and awaited their haul of prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>Now, a bombed dug-out is the last word in 'unhealthiness.' It ranks
+next to a rammed submarine or burning aeroplane. For several minutes I
+awaited death or wounds with a degree of certainty no soldier ever
+felt in an attack. But in such emergencies instinct, which, more than
+the artificial training of the mind, asserts itself, arms human beings
+with a natural cunning for which civilization provides no scope. Life
+proverbially is not cheap to its owner.</p>
+
+<p>That
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page064" name="page064"></a>(p. 064)</span>
+everyone inside was not killed instantly was due, no
+doubt, both to the sloping character of the stairs, which made some
+bombs explode before they reached the bottom, and to the small size of
+the bombs themselves. A gas bomb finished the German side of the
+argument. Hunt's useful knowledge of German commenced the answer. We
+'surrendered.' I went upstairs at once and saw three Germans almost at
+touching distance. In place of a docile prisoner they received four
+revolver shots, after which I left as soon as possible under a shower
+of bombs and liquid fire. Shortly afterwards, but too late to follow
+me, Hunt also came forth and found the enemy had vanished. Afterwards
+the Sergeant Major and Uzzell, sanitary lance-corporal, who on this
+occasion showed the genius of a field marshal, emerged and prevented
+the return of our late visitors.</p>
+
+<p>After an hour's struggle through mud and barrage I reached the two
+platoons in Trench Roumains, who (I mention this as a good paradox of
+trench discipline) were engaged in sock-changing and foot-rubbing
+according to time table! From there the counter-attack described in
+Sir Douglas Haig's dispatch of March 1st was carried out. I fear this
+'counter-attack' was better in his telling than in the doing, for the
+Germans had already decamped an hour before, taking with them
+Lieutenant Guildford and some 20 prisoners from C Company, several
+Lewis guns, and their own casualties.</p>
+
+<p>Against a front line crowded with untried troops
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page065" name="page065"></a>(p. 065)</span>
+(I refer to
+the new draft of which the platoons holding C Company front line were
+principally composed) a well-planned raid powerfully pressed home
+under a severe box barrage and assisted by gas and liquid fire, was
+almost bound to succeed. The mud, strange trenches and weak artillery
+support were other factors for which allowance might have been made
+before such degree of blame was laid upon the Battalion as was seen
+fit for it to receive. The only cure for being raided is to raid back.
+That was happily done exactly two months later against the very
+regiment to which the German raiding party on this occasion belonged.
+Nor was it true that the enemy was not fought with. Some parties which
+attacked Brown's front were, under the able example of that officer,
+driven off with Lewis guns, and D Company, whose loss in prisoners was
+nil, also maintained its front intact. Casualties were inflicted on
+the enemy, but these mostly regained their own lines or were carried
+back by stretcher parties. Our loss in killed that night amounted to
+some twenty. The story of this raid I should not have allowed to reach
+this length but for the fact that the affair created some stir at the
+time, and correspondence raged on the subject till long afterwards.
+Hunt, who was with me during the bombardment and the bombing of my
+H.Q., was not captured on emerging from the dug-out, but himself, some
+hour or more afterwards, while wandering among the blown-in trenches
+in an effort to follow me, entered a German listening post and became
+a prisoner. As a prisoner he was present at a German H.Q. when
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page066" name="page066"></a>(p. 066)</span>
+the details of an exactly similar raid upon a neighbouring
+division were being arranged; which raid proved for the enemy an equal
+success.</p>
+
+<p>The aftermath of this fighting proved a trying experience. The dug-out
+to which I returned to spend the remainder of the tour was a shambles.
+The stairs were drenched with blood. Of my companions, Thompson, a
+signaller, Timms, Smith (Hunt's servant, a fine lad) and Corporal
+Coles&mdash;one of the bravest and most devoted N.C.O.'s the Battalion ever
+had&mdash;were dead or died soon afterwards. Longford and Bugler Wright
+were severely wounded. Longley and Short had escaped before the first
+bombs exploded in the dug-out, but the remaining survivors, the
+Sergeant-Major, Lance Corporal Rowbotham, Roberts and myself were all
+partially gassed and hardly responsible for further action. Under
+these circumstances the task of carrying-on involved a strain,
+lessened, as always on such occasions, by management of everything for
+the best by Battalion Headquarters.</p>
+
+<p>On the night of March 2 the Battalion was relieved by the Berks, now
+under the command of Colonel Beaman, and moved back about 2,000 yards
+to some support trenches near Bovent Copse. From here companies were
+employed ration-carrying to the front line and cleaning the trenches.
+Considerable activity continued to be displayed by the German
+artillery and aeroplanes, in each of which respect we lacked
+superiority.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy retreat appeared postponed or cancelled.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter VI.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page067" name="page067"></a>(p. 067)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>LIFE IN THE FRONT LINE,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">Winter, 1916-1917.</span></h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+Ignorance of civilians and non-combatants. &mdash; The front
+line posts. &mdash; Hardships and dangers. &mdash; Support platoons. &mdash; The
+Company Officers. &mdash; The Battalion relieved by the
+182nd Brigade.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>So far I have said little of the hardships suffered by the Infantry.
+Indeed, in places I have laughed at them. Those scenes and experiences
+which marked a soldier's life in the front line will have been
+supplied by those who knew them as familiar background to my story.
+But I grudge leaving them to the imagination of civilian and
+non-combatant readers. I seriously doubt whether the average man or
+woman has the least inkling of what really happened 'out there.' Talk
+over-heard or stories listened to may in special instances have
+revealed a fragment of the truth. For most people the lack of real
+perception was filled in by a set of catchwords. As the war dragged
+on, the civilian mind of England passed into a conventional acceptance
+of phrases habitually read but improperly understood, until the words
+'raids,' 'barrages,' 'objective,' 'craters,' 'counter-attack,'
+'consolidation,'
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page068" name="page068"></a>(p. 068)</span>
+became tolerated as everyday commonplaces.
+Take a war-despatch of 1916 or 1917&mdash;it is made up of a series of
+catch words and symbols. Plenty of our famous men, I am sure, who went
+to the front and perhaps wrote books afterwards, on arrival there made
+remarks no less foolish (and excusable) than the old lady's 'nasty
+slippery place' where Nelson fell. The Somme and Ypres battlefields
+are inconceivable by anyone who has seen nothing but the normal
+surface of the earth. The destruction of towns, villages and farms is
+without parallel in history or fiction. To witness some scenes in the
+Retreat of 1918 was to stake one's sanity. There are no standards by
+which civilians and non-combatants can appreciate the true facts of
+the war. Deliberate reproduction would hardly be believed. Suppose,
+for instance, this winter I were to dig a large hole in a field, a
+quarter fill it with liquid mud, and then invite four or five
+comrades, all arrayed in much warlike impedimenta, but lacking more
+extra covering than a waterproof sheet each, to the hole to spend two
+nights and a day in it&mdash;I should be credited with lunacy. Yet I should
+be offering a fair sample of front-line accommodation during the Great
+War.</p>
+
+<a id="img068" name="img068"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img068.jpg" width="400" height="575"
+alt="A Front Line Post." title="A Front Line Post.">
+</div>
+
+<p>Reliefs took place at night. Alike through snow or rain, or in a
+biting wind, the Infantry marched up from huts or ruined barns (its
+rest billets) to reach the line&mdash;a distance normally of seven miles.
+First by road, next by a slippery track, finally through a
+communication trench deep in mud, our soldiers had to carry each his
+rifle and 120 round of ammunition, a share of rations, gumboots, a
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page069" name="page069"></a>(p. 069)</span>
+leather jerkin and several extras&mdash;a load whose weight was
+fully 50 pounds. Many staggered and fell. All finished the journey
+smothered in dirt. Boots, puttees and even trousers were sometimes
+stripped from the men by the mere suction of the mud, in which it was
+not unusual to remain stuck for several hours. Men, though not of our
+Battalion, were even drowned.<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>Parties were often shelled on the way up, or else were lost and
+wandered far. From Headquarters, reached about midnight, of the
+Company being relieved guides would take two platoons into the front
+line 'posts,' the other two to the positions in support.</p>
+
+<p>In the front line itself there was often no better shelter than an old
+tarpaulin or sheet of corrugated iron stretched across the trench. At
+some 'posts' there was nothing better to sit on than the muddy
+'fire-step' or at best half a duckboard or an old bomb box. Despite
+continuous efforts to keep one dry place to stand, the floor was
+several inches deep in water and mud.</p>
+
+<p>Movement in any direction, save for a few yards to the flanks if the
+mud had been cleared away or dammed up, in daylight was impossible. No
+visitors came by day. Stretcher bearers were not always near. A fire
+could not, or if it could, might not be lighted. Therefore no hot
+meal, except perhaps a little tea made over a 'Tommy's Cooker,' was
+procurable by day.</p>
+
+<p>The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page070" name="page070"></a>(p. 070)</span>
+post would be shelled or trench-mortared at intervals. In
+earlier days it might be totally blown up by a mine, or in later times
+bombed or machine-gunned from the air. For 30 to 40 high explosive
+shells to fall all round a post was quite common. Sometimes a 'dud'
+would fall inside it, or a huge 'Minnie,' which burst in the wire,
+cover the occupants with earth and splinters. The crash of these huge
+trench-mortar bombs was satanic; and there was always a next one to be
+waited for. Sometimes whole posts were wiped out. If there were
+wounded they could expect no doctor's help before night. Often by day,
+owing to mud and German snipers, it was impossible to lift a wounded
+man from where he had fallen.</p>
+
+<p>Night, longer than day, was also worse. Pitch darkness, accompanied
+maybe by snow or mist, increased the strain. With luck the great
+compensation of hot food&mdash;tea and stew&mdash;would be brought up by the
+ration parties. But sometimes they were hit and were often lost and
+arrived several hours late. The sandbags containing a platoon's
+rations for a day were liable to be dropped, and bread arrived soaked
+through or broken and mud-stained. Moreover, the darkness which
+permitted parties from behind to reach the post also decreed that the
+post should get about its work. Had the wire a weak place, the Germans
+knew of it, and directly the wiring party set about mending it lights
+were sent up, which fell in the wire close to our men, and machine-gun
+bullets banged through the air. Besides the wire the parapet required
+constant attention. At one place, where
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page071" name="page071"></a>(p. 071)</span>
+a member of the post
+had been killed by a sniper, it would want building up; at another, a
+shell perhaps had dropped only a yard short of the trench during the
+evening 'strafe,' the passage would be blocked and the post's
+bomb-store buried. All this had to be put right before dawn. During
+the night a patrol would be ordered to go out. Men who were sentries
+by day or were the covering party for the wiring might be detailed for
+this. After that was over the same men took turns as sentries.</p>
+
+<p>Sleep was confined to what those not on duty could snatch, wrapped
+only in the extra covering of a waterproof sheet, in a sitting posture
+on the fire-step. At dawn, when the men at last could have slept
+heavily, came morning stand-to. This meant standing and shivering for
+an hour whilst it grew light and attempting to clean a mud-clogged
+rifle. Those Englishmen in England (and in France) who have slept warm
+in their beds throughout the war should remind themselves of those
+thousands of our soldiers who wet through, sleepless, fed on food
+which, served as it finally was up in the trenches, would hardly have
+tempted a dog, have stood watching rain-sodden darkness of night yield
+to dismal shell-bringing dawn, and have witnessed the monotonous
+routine of war till sun, earth, sky and all the elements of nature
+seemed pledged in one conspiracy of hardship.</p>
+
+<p>What of the two platoons in 'support'?</p>
+
+<p>Their lot was preferable. They were placed about 400 yards behind the
+actual front and lived (if such existed) in deep mined dug-outs. Until
+the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page072" name="page072"></a>(p. 072)</span>
+later stages of the war deep dug-outs, which were
+subterranean chambers about 25 feet below the level of the ground and
+nearly shell-proof, were made only by the Germans, whose industry in
+this respect was remarkable. Found and inhabited by us in captured
+territory, these dug-outs had the defect that their entrances 'faced
+the wrong way,' <i>i.e.</i>, towards the German howitzers. Sometimes a
+shell, whose angle of descent coincided with the slope of the stairs,
+burst at the bottom of a dug-out, and then, of course, its occupants
+were killed. If no deep dug-outs were available, the support platoons
+lived in niches cut into the side of the trench and roofed over with
+corrugated iron, timber and sandbags. Such shelters afforded little
+protection against shelling.</p>
+
+<a id="img073" name="img073"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img073.jpg" width="400" height="509"
+alt="A Duckboarded Communication Trench." title="A Duckboarded Communication Trench.">
+</div>
+
+<p>In event of attack by the enemy it was the normal duty of support
+platoons to garrison a line of defence known as the 'line of
+resistance.' They might be ordered to make a counter-attack. When no
+fighting was taking place their work was likely to consist in carrying
+up rations and R.E. materials (wooden pickets, sandbags, coils of
+barbed wire, etc.) to the front line. This work had to be done at
+night, because in winter 'communication trenches' (which alone made
+daylight movement possible from place to place in the forward zone)
+were so choked with mud as to be impassable. The day was spent in
+'mud-slinging,' <i>i.e.</i>, digging out falls of earth from the trench,
+rebuilding dug-outs or laying fresh duckboards (wooden slats to walk
+on in the trenches). When the evening's 'carrying parties' were
+finished, the men had some sleep, but support
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page074" name="page074"></a>(p. 074)</span>
+troops were
+often used as night patrols in No-Man's-Land or as wiring parties.</p>
+
+<p>After a day or longer in support they were sent up to relieve, <i>i.e.</i>,
+exchange positions with, their comrades in the front line posts. Four
+days was the usual 'tour' for a company. During it each platoon did
+two spells of 24 hours in the posts and the same back in support. When
+the four days were over, a fresh company relieved that whose tour was
+finished. The one relieved moved back to better conditions, but would
+still be in trenches and dug-outs until the whole Battalion was
+relieved.</p>
+
+<p>The English infantryman stands for all ages as the ensample of heroic
+patience, which words or cartoon fail utterly to convey.</p>
+
+<p>How did the Company Commander and his officers fare in the trenches?</p>
+
+<p>The Platoon Officer shared every hardship with his 25 men. If there
+was a roofed-in hole with a box for a table he had it, for his
+messages were many. To the Company Commander a rough table was quite
+indispensable, and so were light and some protection from the rain.
+Without these essentials he could never have received nor sent his
+written instructions, consulted his maps nor spoken by telephone, on
+which he relied to get help from the artillery. The Company
+Sergeant-Major, a few signallers and some runners were his familiars,
+and he lived with and among these faithful men. Quite often the
+Company Commander's dug-out was appreciably the best in the company
+area. Sometimes it was little better than the worst. In the spring of
+1918 it was often only a hole.</p>
+
+<p>Every
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page075" name="page075"></a>(p. 075)</span>
+good Company Commander made a point of visiting each
+night all his front line posts and spending some time with each, not
+only to give orders, direct the work and test the vigilance of the
+sentries, but in order to keep up the Company's morale. The worse the
+weather or the shelling the higher that duty was. Likewise the
+Battalion Commander used to visit Company Headquarters once a day and
+every front line post at least once during a tour. The journey to the
+front line, possible only in darkness, was very dangerous. Shells were
+bound to fall at some point on the way, the enemy's machine guns or
+'fixed rifles' were trained on every probable approach, and the
+Captain in ordinary trench warfare was as liable to be killed as any
+Private. Responsibility, however, made these nightly walks not only
+necessary but almost desirable.</p>
+
+<p>To conditions such as I have described the Battalion returned to do
+another tour in the Ablaincourt sector. The line was again held by A
+on the left (owing to the former three-company system no proper
+interchange had been possible) and by B on the right. Davenport went
+to my old headquarters, which the enemy was now busy trench-mortaring,
+and held half the front previously held by C, which, with D Company,
+was now in support. To the usual evils were now added rifle-grenades
+filled with gas, which caused several casualties in A Company. D
+Company lost a good man in Lance Corporal Tremellen, who was wounded
+by a bullet through the legs when leading a ration party 'across the
+top,' and other N.C.O.'s went sick with
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page076" name="page076"></a>(p. 076)</span>
+trench fever. During
+this tour the energy of Corporal Viggers, of my company, was most
+remarkable. He did the work of ten.</p>
+
+<p>On the night of March 15 the Brigade was relieved by the Warwicks. The
+Battalion moved back to Framerville, where Quartermaster's Stores and
+Transport rejoined.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter VII.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page077" name="page077"></a>(p. 077)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE ADVANCE TO ST. QUENTIN,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">March to April, 1917</span>.</h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+The enemy's retirement. &mdash; Road-mending in No-Man's-Land. &mdash; The
+devastated area. &mdash; Open warfare. &mdash; The Montolu
+campaign. &mdash; Operations on the Omignon river. &mdash; The 61st
+Division relieved before St. Quentin. &mdash; End of trench-warfare.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>On March 16, 1917, the Germans left their front line and scuttled back
+behind the Somme.</p>
+
+<p>The news of this threw everything into a miniature ferment. The Berks
+stopped practising a raid which they were to do on the Brigade's
+return to the old trenches. The General rode off apace. After orders
+and counter-orders the 2/4th marched dramatically to a map reference
+near Lihons and commenced pulling logs out of old French dug-outs.
+Much good work was done, but I believe the logs were never used. On
+the next day German aeroplanes saw the Battalion parade at X 17 c 3.
+8. and march to its old billets at Rainecourt. Never was the old song
+'Here we are again' more heartily rendered.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Divisional Headquarters advanced and seized a colony of
+dug-outs at Vermandovillers. Great eagerness was shown by everyone to
+see what the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page078" name="page078"></a>(p. 078)</span>
+enemy had left behind and whither he had gone.
+Often during the advance parties of Infantry detailed to clear a
+village found members of a Royal Corps already in possession. In this
+race of the curious we were severely handicapped, for it had fallen to
+the 182nd Brigade to be the Advanced Guard of the 61st Division and to
+the 184th to follow in reserve. To us the task of roadmaking in
+No-Man's-Land was assigned. This proved quite interesting work. Except
+where shells had fallen on them or trenches been dug through, the
+roads, when once the mud had been removed, were found virtually
+intact. Soon G.S. wagons and limbers and 18-pounders were passing
+forward. The war was on the move.</p>
+
+<p>To explore the former German trenches was a pleasing novelty. The
+front line was deep and fairly dry. Elbow marks at every 50 yards or
+so and bombs with caps screwed off vouched for the situation of old
+sentry posts. Communication trenches were derelict, nor did proper
+support nor second lines exist. The enemy's defence had been the
+merest shell.</p>
+
+<p>The Battalion moved to Chaulnes on March 22. That village, damaged by
+our artillery, had been finally wrecked by the departing enemy, whose
+rude notices were scrawled on any walls still standing. 'One million
+tons of English shipping sunk in the month of February,' said one more
+polite than others. In spite of all that the Germans had done, quite
+good accommodation was found for all ranks, and its improvement by old
+doors, shutters, and selected <i>débris</i> from other ruins provided much
+amusement.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page079" name="page079"></a>(p. 079)</span>
+Father Buggins and the Doctor, with a
+wheelbarrow, were to the fore collecting armchairs covered in red
+velvet. Stoves and fuel were abundant, and at this time booby-traps
+were few.</p>
+
+<p>March 23 was spent in road mending between Vermandovillers and
+Chaulnes. An example of how surely organisation wins wars was there
+provided. We, who had come from Chaulnes, to work near Chaulnes were
+sent to fetch our tools from Vermandovillers. In fetching them we
+passed a company of Devons, employed on similar work at
+Vermandovillers, who were fetching their tools from Chaulnes&mdash;an
+episode fit for a war-pageant.</p>
+
+<p>On the same afternoon we marched to Marchélepot. German sign-posts,
+old gun positions and burnt dug-outs were objects of interest on the
+way. Though cold, the weather was fine. Freedom from shelling was a
+treat. We moved again on March 25, when the Bucks arrived to take over
+our quarters at Marchélepot. Passing St. Christ, where the R.E. had
+bridged the Somme, we saw the first samples of German back-area
+demolition. At Ennemain the first big road-crater held up the
+Transport. Our destination, Athies, formerly a flourishing little town
+but since utterly wrecked and still smouldering, it was quite
+difficult to reach. Sent on ahead as member of a billeting party, I
+had to cross the Omignon river by a single plank thrown across a weir.
+Until they are blown up one rather forgets the blessing of bridges.</p>
+
+<p>In Athies good enough quarters in cellars and half-basements were
+found for all. Headquarters went
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page080" name="page080"></a>(p. 080)</span>
+into the only roofed house
+in the town&mdash;and afterwards questioned their own wisdom. The house had
+been foreman's shed to a large factory, had been a Boche canteen, and,
+finally, the billet of the wrecking party. Though our advanced troops
+were in touch with the enemy some seven miles away in front, we were
+made to hold an outpost line each night east of the town. To bring up
+rations the Transport had all the distance from Framerville to
+cover&mdash;about eighteen miles. Never had Abraham so long a journey for
+this purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The wanton mischief, now manifest everywhere that the advance carried
+us, became a favourite topic for correspondents from the front, but
+cannot be passed over without some record here. To us Infantry this
+advance was a sort of holiday from the real war. It was like going
+behind the scenes at a pantomime and discovering the secrets of the
+giant's make-up. No list of things destroyed could lend any conception
+of the wholesale massacre by the Germans of all objects both natural
+and artificial. Château and cottage, tree and sapling, factory and
+summer-house, mill race and goldfish pond were victims equally of
+their madness. Hardly the most trivial article had been spared. The
+completeness of the work astonished. Yet withal our discomfort was
+slight. It was the French civilians, whose lives and homes had been
+thus ruined, that such Prussian methods touched.</p>
+
+<p>Amid this wreckage signs were perceptible of the enemy's weakening
+morale. Villages in no wise organised for defence and so remote from
+the German front as to have been outside the range of our furthest
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page081" name="page081"></a>(p. 081)</span>
+gun-fire, inevitably contained deep dug-outs. Such
+precautions surpassed all prudence and were sufficient almost to argue
+lack of mental balance. Germans seemed crazy on dug-outs.</p>
+
+<p>To resume the war. On March 30 the Warwicks entered Soyécourt and
+shortly afterwards the Bucks relieved their outpost line. We ourselves
+reached Tertry on the 30th, and the next night made bivouacs at
+Caulaincourt Château, formerly German Corps Headquarters, now wrecked
+past recognition. Amid the rubbish, whose heaps represented buildings
+of grace and dignity, the eye caught the half of a gigantic Easter
+egg. During our stay a German High Velocity gun several times shelled
+the château grounds. Our own artillery was now getting to work and
+made the nights lively with noise and flashes.</p>
+
+<p>At 3 a.m. on April 1 C and D Companies were ordered forward to support
+the Bucks in an attack on the line of single railway which runs
+northwards from Vermand. The attack gained the ridge east of the
+railway and no support by us was wanted. Ten prisoners were captured
+by the Bucks, whose only casualties resulted from our own shells
+dropping short and an unfortunate mistake of some other troops, who
+lost direction and, pressing forward, encountered men of their own
+side. Towards evening the General ordered D Company forward to occupy
+Montolu Wood. The journey was made at dusk through a blinding storm of
+hail and rain. The wood to which I went was the wrong one altogether.
+Nevertheless to my wood my company returned twice later, till
+tactical recognition was gained
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page082" name="page082"></a>(p. 082)</span>
+for it from the failure of
+the staff to observe the mistake and my own to disclose it. The wood I
+went to was some half-mile distant from the proper one, but the same
+shape, as near the railway, and answering the General's
+map-description to a nicety. I like to think of my wood, where I was
+so rarely found, whither perplexed runners brought orders so late,
+where I never was relieved, but where my old shelters of tin and
+brushwood escaped disturbance in my absence.</p>
+
+<p>At midnight, April 3/4, the Battalion relieved the Bucks. B, C, and D
+Companies shared the new outpost line. Headquarters and A Company went
+to Soyécourt. The relief, the first of its kind, was difficult. In my
+own front a small brushwood copse was reputed to contain a sentry
+post. The ground was dotted with small copses which the darkness made
+indistinguishable, and no report of this post's relief was ever made.
+When dawn was breaking in the sky, Sergeant Watkins, accompanied by
+the Bucks guides, returned to say that no sentry group nor post in any
+copse could be found. The most likely copse was then garrisoned and
+the night's mystery and labour ceased.</p>
+
+<a id="img083" name="img083"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img083.jpg" width="400" height="527"
+alt="The Advance to St. Quentin. Inset: 'A' Company's attack,
+Good Friday 1917." title="The Advance to St. Quentin. Inset: 'A' Company's attack,
+Good Friday 1917.">
+</div>
+
+<p>Further advance was evidently in store. The smoke of burning villages
+still mounted the sky. At night a glow showed where a great fire in
+St. Quentin was ablaze. The weather now changed for the worse. Hail,
+rain and snow prevailed alternately. A fierce wind blew. Winter
+conditions were repeated in the outpost line, where no shelter other
+than tarpaulins rigged across the shallow trenches existed. Nor was
+the artillery inactive. As
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page084" name="page084"></a>(p. 084)</span>
+the enemy's resistance
+stiffened, shells commenced to fall on fields yet unscarred by trench
+or shell-hole. Better ammunition seemed to be in use&mdash;or was it a
+month's holiday from shells that made it seem so?&mdash;and more subtlety
+was shown by German gunners in their choice of targets. Our
+casualties, though not numerous, proved that the war, in most of its
+old incidents, had been resumed.</p>
+
+<p>In the early morning of April 4 the 59th Division, which was operating
+on the Battalion's left, attacked Le Vergier. Fighting continued till
+noon, but the village was not taken. The 59th lost heavily. As they
+formed up for their advance&mdash;which was for some 1,000 yards across the
+open and exposed to view&mdash;behind the line the Battalion was holding,
+considerable enemy fire was brought down upon us and I lost Sergeant
+Watkins, wounded in the arm, and several other casualties. It snowed
+nearly all day. In the shallow trenches, which were ill-sited both for
+drainage and concealment from the enemy, life was miserable. On the
+next night a battalion of Sherwood Foresters relieved D Company, which
+returned to its wood, but B and C Companies remained holding the line.
+John Stockton, who now commanded B, was ill, but refused to leave the
+trenches and carried on in a most determined manner under shocking
+weather conditions. A new officer, Allden, in my company also proved
+his worth about this time. Events of some sort were of hourly
+occurrence. The 2/5th Gloucesters held the line on the Battalion's
+right, near the Omignon river. One night, after a heavy bombardment
+with 4.2s, the Germans rushed one of their posts.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page085" name="page085"></a>(p. 085)</span>
+It had
+recently been evacuated, and the enemy spent his trouble in vain.</p>
+
+<p>For April 6&mdash;Good Friday, 1917&mdash;an attack on a large scale had been
+arranged. The 59th Division on our left, the Gloucesters and the 182nd
+Brigade on our right, shared in the operations. The line was to be
+advanced a mile on both sides of the Omignon. The Battalion's
+objective was a line of trenches recently dug by the enemy and running
+between Le Vergier and the river. To capture them Brown's company,
+which hitherto had stayed in reserve at Soyécourt in tolerable
+accommodation, was selected. B and D Companies were ordered to keep
+close behind A to support the attack, while C remained to garrison the
+outpost line.</p>
+
+<p>Zero was midnight, but before that snow and sleet were falling
+heavily. It proved the dirtiest night imaginable. Companies moved in
+columns across the 1,000 yards of open fields between their old
+positions and the objective, against which our artillery kept up as
+severe a fire as possible. That fire was less effective than was
+hoped. In its advance A Company lost men from our own shells, of which
+nearly all were seen to be falling very short. The German wire, still
+the great argument to face in an attack, was found uncut. Although at
+first inclined to surrender, the enemy soon saw the failure of our men
+to find a gap. Machine-guns were manned, which swept the ground with a
+fierce enfilade fire. Brown, Aitken, and Wayte behaved in a most
+gallant manner, the line was rallied, and a renewed attempt made to
+storm the trenches. In vain. No troops will stand against machine-gun
+fire
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page086" name="page086"></a>(p. 086)</span>
+in the open when no object can be achieved. It was idle
+to repeat the attack or send fresh companies to share the forlorn
+enterprise. Before dawn our troops were in their old positions.</p>
+
+<p>In the attack the sergeant-majors of both A and B Companies were hit.
+Of the officers, Barton, commanding B, and Tilly, of A, were killed.
+Aitken and Wayte were wounded. Nearly 40 of rank and file were
+casualties.</p>
+
+<p>The attack had proved a failure, but, as often happened, hopes of
+success were reluctantly abandoned by the staff. Thus my company was
+warned that it might have to repeat the attack at dawn. Pending such a
+fate, I was sent to bivouac in a windswept spinney known as Ponne
+Copse. It was still snowing. After their week's exposure I was loth to
+inform my men of such a destiny. But a more favourable turn of events
+was in store. The weather cleared, and at 11 a.m. on the 7th I was
+allowed to return to my version of Montolu Wood. On the same day the
+Battalion was relieved by the Bucks and marched back through Soyécourt
+to Caulaincourt. There we found Bennett, who had come from the
+Aldershot course to be Second in Command. The château grounds were
+quieter than before, for our guns had now moved further up towards the
+line.</p>
+
+<p>At 3 p.m. on April 8 a curious noise was heard in the air. A German
+aeroplane had attacked the kite balloon, which hung, suspended by its
+gas, above the château park. A French machine, not a moment too soon
+for the balloon's safety, had swooped and shot the attacker to the
+ground. All the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page087" name="page087"></a>(p. 087)</span>
+Battalion was out staring up at the balloon
+rotating on its wire, and the portions of the German 'plane, which
+amid smoke were fluttering to earth. A rush, as always, commenced
+towards the scene. The aeroplane, brought down from a height, was half
+embedded in the mud. It was an Albatross, painted all colours, and
+possessed two machine-guns and several sorts of ammunition for use
+against balloons. I could see nothing of its former occupant, who must
+have been removed for burial, except a pool of bright blood upon the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>During the night orders arrived for a move forward to support the
+Warwick Brigade, which had been fighting for several days between
+Maissemy and Fresnoy. At 7.30 a.m. on April 9 we marched in wind and
+rain to Marteville, and then formed a reserve line in front of
+Maissemy and Keeper's House. All day we dug trenches and erected wire.
+A divisional relief was to take place. The weather was vile; almost
+every hour a violent squall of hail and snow swept over us. That night
+was spent in bivouac in sunken roads.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning many of us walked along the Holnon road to view St.
+Quentin, whose cathedral and factory chimneys were only visible
+between the storms. The town seemed undestroyed. The Germans were busy
+shelling its approaches. Salvoes of their 5.9s fell steadily, and
+black splashes of earth jumped up ever and again, whilst smoke from
+the preceding shells coiled and drifted away to the west.</p>
+
+<p>The 61st Division was relieved on April 11 and moved back to the Nesle
+area. The 2/4th Oxfords marched
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page088" name="page088"></a>(p. 088)</span>
+to Hombleux, a village where
+the enemy had left the church and a few houses standing.</p>
+
+<p>The German retirement from the Somme, now practically complete, had
+opened a new phase in the war. For the first time since 1914 ground in
+France had changed hands upon a large scale. The enemy's
+relinquishment of 30 miles of front line trench and his withdrawal to
+a depth, in places, of 40 kilometres, restored the principle of
+man&oelig;uvre to armies which had fronted one another for two years in
+positions hitherto justifying the description of stale-mate. Strong
+moral and political effects accompanied. And this man&oelig;uvre, though
+carried out upon a part only of the entire battle front, infused a
+sense of change and movement into the most static portions of the
+allied line. From theory open warfare had passed into practice. In its
+old sense trench-warfare was no more; its genius had departed.
+Trenches and dug-outs, which in some sectors had been visited and
+revisited with changeless repetition for thirty months, lost their
+sense of eternity. Who could say when the trenches opposite might not
+be found empty and the burning wake of a German retreat glow in the
+skies? Schemes for action in event of enemy withdrawal began to take
+precedence over trench standing orders. Corps lines ceased to be the
+show-places for Russian colonels, and the Corps Commander's gardener
+paused before sowing a new season's peas in the château grounds.</p>
+
+<p>G.H.Q. were agog.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter VIII.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page089" name="page089"></a>(p. 089)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE RAID AT FAYET,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">April, 1917</span>.</h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+A German vantage-point. &mdash; Shell-ridden Holnon. &mdash; A night
+of confusion. &mdash; Preparing for the raid of April 28. &mdash; The
+enemy taken by surprise. &mdash; The Battalion's first V.C. &mdash; The
+affair at Cepy Farm.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>It was hard to believe that any lofty eminence which overlooked our
+lines was not in constant use by the enemy for observation. The iron
+towers at Loos, the spire of Calonne, even the crazy relics of the
+church at Puisieux at different times contributed this uneasy feeling
+to the denizens of our trenches. But surely never was the sense of
+being spied on more justified than near St. Quentin, whose tall
+cathedral raised itself higher than all the roofs of the town and
+higher, too, than the ridges surrounding it for many miles.</p>
+
+<p>On April 20, 1917, a German observer from the cathedral belfry could
+have seen the divisional relief which brought the 61st Division back
+to the line. All day small parties were moving in the forward zone,
+while further back larger ones crossed and re-crossed the ridge 'twixt
+Holnon and Fayet, and in rear again, along the road through Savy to
+Germaine, columns of Infantry in fours followed by horses, vehicles,
+and smoking cooker-chimneys, were
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page090" name="page090"></a>(p. 090)</span>
+passing one another, some
+coming, others going back. Those coming made a left-handed turn at
+Savy, hugged the line of single railway as far as a crucifix at a
+cross-roads, and were then lost to distinct view amid the abject ruins
+of Holnon. Those going were the 32nd Division, whose march carried
+them out of the cathedral's eye or observation by German balloons.</p>
+
+<p>Among the new arrivals were the 2/4th Oxfords, of whom all companies,
+followed until the end by cookers and Lewis-gun limbers, disposed
+themselves in or around Fayet, on whose north side stood a stone
+monument commemorative of local fighting in the Franco-Prussian War.
+Near to this monument was found a deep sunken road, broken with two
+huge craters. It was A Company's position as support to the
+Gloucesters, who went into the line.</p>
+
+<p>The Battalion spent a week at Holnon village. A line of trenches
+linking up 'strong points' had been designed to guard the ridge which
+overlooked Fayet and St. Quentin. From Selency Château, whose thickets
+fringed the sky-line, on the right, to the high-perched windmill above
+Maissemy on the left, work to consolidate this system had commenced.
+It remained for us to excavate the chalk trenches deeper and erect
+wire. The demand for that material exceeded the supply, and it was
+necessary to salve old German stores. Some excellent coils I found&mdash;of
+American manufacture. Pickets were improvised. Thus liberated by the
+amateur assortment of our tools from the irksome tyranny of army
+wiring circulars, we set about the work and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page091" name="page091"></a>(p. 091)</span>
+soon put up some
+of the best wire of my experience.</p>
+
+<p>In Holnon the life was a new sample of unpleasantness. Of
+accommodation, save for a few low walls and half-roofed cellars, there
+was no trace. What Holnon lacked in billets it received in shells.
+With intervals&mdash;possibly only those of German mealtimes&mdash;during the
+day and nearly throughout the night, 5.9s and 4.2s were throwing up
+the brick-dust, till it seemed reasonable to ask why in wonder's name
+the Battalion or any living soul was kept in Holnon. After a few bad
+nights with little sleep and some close shells, Headquarters moved
+from their shed, hard by a mound, to a dismantled greenhouse further
+back. It was a nasty time. The German aeroplanes were very active....</p>
+
+<p>That faint patter of machine-gun fire which comes from aeroplanes
+circling overhead ends in the descent of one of them. At first it
+seems to come down normally, yet with a sort of pilot-light twinkling
+at its head; but, when a hundred feet or so from earth, see it burst
+into a sheet of flame and shrivel up upon the ground in a column of
+dark smoke!</p>
+
+<p>I had my company in shelters under a bank, clear of the village but
+immediately in front of a battery of 18-pounder guns, whose incessant
+firing, added to the evil whistle of the German shells, deprived the
+nights of comfortable sleep. But passive experiences were due to give
+place to active. Events of moment were in store. The 184th Brigade had
+been warned to carry out an 'enterprise'
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page092" name="page092"></a>(p. 092)</span>
+against the enemy.
+During the morning of April 26 I was sent for by the Colonel. I found
+Headquarters in their new position, an oblong greenhouse over whose
+frame, destitute of glass, was stretched a large 'trench shelter.'
+They had passed a shell-ridden night. Bennett just now had narrowly
+eluded a 5.9. This morning shells were falling as usual in Holnon, and
+pieces occasionally came humming down to earth close by. I listened to
+the plan of a large raid which with two companies I was soon to
+perform. Moore was here to outline the scheme and also Colonel Cotton
+of the R.F.A., whose guns were to support the operation.</p>
+
+<p>At this point I must explain for the benefit of lay readers the
+difference between a raid and an attack. The purpose of the latter was
+to drive the enemy from ground he occupied and stay there. Early
+attacks upon the Western Front were usually directed against trenches,
+of which successive lines, reaching to a distance or 'depth' of
+several thousand yards, were often our goal or 'objective.' So that
+our Infantry could enter hostile trenches it was invariably necessary
+to destroy the wire in front or make a pathway through it. Many
+attacks failed because the wire had not been cut. Before the days of
+Tanks the means employed consisted, broadly speaking, in artillery
+fire, which it was also hoped would put the enemy's machine-guns out
+of action and frighten his garrison. Our Infantry advanced immediately
+this fire had ceased or 'lifted' to the next objective. During the
+Battle of the Somme it was found that the enemy often left
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page093" name="page093"></a>(p. 093)</span>
+his actual trenches and came forward into shell-holes in No-Man's-Land
+so as to escape the fire of our artillery. To counter this man&oelig;uvre
+the 'creeping barrage' was devised. Our shells were fired so as to
+form a moving curtain of destruction immediately in front of our men
+in their advance, whilst at the same time the enemy's trenches were
+bombarded. Attacks on any scale were planned to capture and hold
+against the enemy some ridge, by losing which he lost observation of
+our lines, while we, in gaining it, saw more of his and also were
+enabled to advance our guns.</p>
+
+<p>The purpose of a raid was to penetrate a portion of the enemy's front,
+to kill or capture as many Germans as possible, and then retire. Raids
+differed materially from attacks in this respect, that no attempt was
+made in the former to hold the ground won longer than was necessary to
+satisfy the plan. Raids were usually supported by artillery and took
+place at night; but daylight raids, though less common or successful,
+were sometimes made, and 'silent raids,' when no artillery was used,
+were also tried.</p>
+
+<p>This explanation, dull to military readers, will serve to indicate
+what operation I was now about to undertake. The scheme, of which the
+General and his Brigade Major were the authors, was to pass a body of
+men through a gap in the unoccupied portion of the German trenches
+opposite Fayet, deploy, and sweep sideways against some other
+trenches, thought to be held, and through several copses which Bucks
+patrols had pronounced weakly garrisoned by the enemy. These copses,
+which
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page094" name="page094"></a>(p. 094)</span>
+were expected to yield a few handfuls of runaway boys
+in German uniform, would be attacked by us in flank and rear at the
+same time. The scheme promised well, but the proposed manner of
+retirement, which would be in daylight and across nearly a mile of
+open ground, presented difficulties. The more to overcome them and to
+be fresh for the event, D Company and the platoons of C selected for
+the task were to stay in the sunken road north of Fayet, while A and B
+Companies went to garrison the outpost line.</p>
+
+<p>The Battalion was mostly fortunate in the opportunity of its reliefs.
+One always prayed that the time spent in moving up and changing places
+with troops in the front line would coincide with a period quiet in
+regard to shelling. One hoped still more that no hostile attack would
+clash with the relief.</p>
+
+<a id="img095" name="img095"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img095.jpg" width="400" height="542"
+alt="The Raid Near St. Quentin By 2/4 Oxford &amp; Bucks Lt.
+Infy. Ap. 28 1917." title="The Raid Near St. Quentin By 2/4 Oxford &amp; Bucks Lt.
+Infy. Ap. 28 1917.">
+</div>
+
+<p>Such prayers and hopes on April 26, when a quiet, easy relief was
+specially desired, came near to being falsified. At dusk, just as our
+companies were starting towards Fayet, the enemy commenced an
+operation against Cepy Farm, a ruined building near the front line,
+predestined by its position to be an object of contention. The attack
+was ably dealt with by Tubbs' company of the Bucks and had proved
+abortive for the enemy. The circumstance was accompanied by much
+erratic shelling from both sides. Orders to stand-to were issued
+rather broadcast, and as the relief was now in progress a degree of
+confusion resulted everywhere. The destination of my company and half
+of C was the sunken road leading down into Fayet,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page096" name="page096"></a>(p. 096)</span>
+but that
+I found already crowded with troops. Almost all units of the Brigade
+seemed to be trying to relieve or support each other, and the front
+line itself was in quite a ferment, nobody actually knowing what the
+enemy had done, was doing, or was expected to do. Under these
+conditions it became impossible for me to send patrols to learn the
+ground from which the impending raid was to be launched. It happened,
+in fact, that when the time to move forward had arrived, I alone of
+all the five platoons about to be engaged knew the route to the
+'position of assembly,' that is to say, the place where the attacking
+troops were to collect immediately before the raid. That most severe
+risk&mdash;for had I been a casualty the entire enterprise would have
+miscarried&mdash;was owing partly to the accident of the confused relief,
+but more to the short notice at which the work was to be carried out.
+Instead of that thorough reconnaissance which was so desirable I had
+to be content with a visit, shared by my officers and a few N.C.O.'s,
+to an advanced observation post from which a view was possible of
+those trenches and woods we were under orders to raid.</p>
+
+<p>The sunken road proved anything but a pleasant waiting place. The
+shelling of Fayet&mdash;fresh-scattered bricks across whose roads showed it
+an unhealthy place&mdash;was now taken up in earnest by the enemy. Partly
+perhaps from their own affection for such places, but more probably
+because it was our most likely route to reach the village, the Germans
+seldom allowed an hour to pass without sending several salvoes of 5.9s
+into the sunken road.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page097" name="page097"></a>(p. 097)</span>
+My men were densely packed in holes
+under the banks. I was expecting large supplies of flares and bombs
+and all those things one carried on a raid, and had, of course, orders
+and explanations of their duties to give to many different parties.</p>
+
+<p>All this made April 27 a vexatious day. During the early part of the
+night men from my company had to carry rations to the front line
+companies. At midnight, while resting in a wretched lean-to in the
+sunken road, I had tidings that Corporal Viggers and several others
+had been hit by a shell, which destroyed all C Company's rations. Of
+these casualties there was a man whose name I forget, who insisted on
+going, not back to hospital, but into the raid a few hours afterwards.
+He went, and was wounded again. It is a privilege to place on record
+the valorous conduct of this un-named soldier.</p>
+
+<p>While I was receiving the serious news which deprived me of a valuable
+leader and several picked men, a shell pitched a few yards from the
+spot I occupied. The light went out, and I was half covered with dust
+and rubbish. To move was second nature. Followed by Taylor I 'moved'
+100 yards down the road to the rest of my company. My kit and maps
+were later rescued from the dirt and brought to my new position.
+Company Headquarters should be mobile, and on occasions like these
+were volatile.</p>
+
+<p>At 1 a.m. I roused the men, some 150 all told, and the responsible
+task of issuing the bombs, wire-cutters, and other things commenced.
+All these, invoiced with excellent precision by the Brigade Major,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page098" name="page098"></a>(p. 098)</span>
+Moore, had been carried up by the Berks. The shelling rarely
+ceased, and I owed everything on this occasion to Corporal
+Leatherbarrow, who showed not only steadfast bravery but skill. The
+platoons could not, on account of the shells which sometimes fell in
+the roadway itself, be paraded, and each received its share of bombs
+piecemeal by sections. Food, to supplement which I did not scruple to
+issue some of the next day's rations, was partaken of at 2 a.m., but
+it took long, and half an hour later the whole party should have
+started upon its journey across the mile of open fields to reach the
+assembly post. Disposal of the bombs, the meal, and those many last
+attentions which breed delay had taken longer than I had allowed. Time
+was getting very short. I wanted to dodge the shelling, but had missed
+a quiet interval that occurred at 2.30 a.m. At 3 a.m. I moved, leading
+the party in a long column over the open ground north of Fayet to
+reach its eastern side. The inevitable 'wire mats,' an encumbrance
+without which few raiding parties ever started, hampered the progress.
+It was a pitch dark night, nor was I certain of the way. To cover the
+mile and then pass 150 men, ignorant of their whereabouts, silently
+and in single file through a gap into No-Man's-Land ere dawn broke and
+our bombardment started now seemed impossible. It was a serious
+quandary. To go on might be to compromise not only the operation, but
+the lives of 150 men, who would be discovered in daylight and in the
+open near the enemy. But to go back was to jeopardise the reputation
+of the Battalion.</p>
+
+<p>I went on.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page099" name="page099"></a>(p. 099)</span></p>
+
+<p>Great darkness preceded the dawn, which was expected shortly after 4
+a.m. I found the road, the first crater, the narrow track through the
+wire, and the empty ground beyond. A few minutes after the last man
+had reached his place our barrage opened. Shells fell spasmodically
+here and there for a few seconds; then all our batteries were shooting
+together. Their fire was admirable, heavy and well-directed.</p>
+
+<p>In the stumbling rush forward to reach the nearest wood&mdash;C Company to
+the second crater on the Fayet Road&mdash;waves and platoons were rapidly
+confused. The Germans, who found themselves attacked in flank and
+rear, were totally surprised. They had not stood-to and many were yet
+asleep. Some lights went up and a few sentries' shots were fired, but
+it appeared that small resistance to our progress would be made. The
+wire was trampled through, and for some minutes our men played havoc
+with the Germans, who ran, leaving draggled blankets and equipment in
+their trenches. Dug-outs were generously bombed, and explosions filled
+the air as our men hastily used the weapons brought to hurt the enemy.
+Three machine-guns fell into our hands. A miniature victory was in
+progress.</p>
+
+<p>But a turn of events followed; the trenches and woods beyond those we
+had first entered were neither unoccupied nor weakly held. A force
+certainly equal to ours was in opposition. After their first surprise
+the Germans recovered, manned their reserve machine-guns, and opened a
+fierce fire from front and flanks upon their assailants. Many of us
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page100" name="page100"></a>(p. 100)</span>
+were hit, including Taylor, the officer of No. 15 Platoon,
+who was severely wounded in the thigh. In No. 13 Platoon, which lost
+most heavily, Allden and his Platoon Sergeant, Kilby, were killed. The
+full programme could not be effected. It was getting light; so I
+decided to withdraw. Most of D Company I found had already done this
+in their own way, but the remainder now collected at my summons.
+Lance-Corporal O'Connor with his two Lewis guns did yeoman service to
+stem what had become the German counter-attack. Ammunition was running
+short, and German stick-bombs obliged me, in order to save from
+capture those less badly hit, to leave Taylor, whose wound made him
+quite helpless. The wire, through which Sergeant Mowby had been busy
+cutting a path, was safely passed, and an hour afterwards we had
+regained the sunken road. I learnt that Jones, who had led the right
+of the advance, had not returned. He with his men had narrowly missed
+being cut off when the dawn broke. During the ensuing day this party
+had to lie scattered in shell-holes till darkness enabled them to
+reach our lines.</p>
+
+<p>The raid was hailed as a signal success for the Battalion. Two
+machine-guns and one protesting prisoner had been dragged back to our
+lines. The German trenches had been over-run and many of their
+occupants had been killed or wounded. By a satisfactory coincidence
+the troops whom we surprised were a battalion of the Jaegers, the very
+regiment which after three hours' bombardment had raided us exactly
+two months previously at Ablaincourt.</p>
+
+<a id="img100" name="img100"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img100.jpg" width="300" height="633"
+alt="Company Sergeant-major E. Brooks. V.C." title="Company Sergeant-major E. Brooks. V.C.">
+</div>
+
+<p>Our
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page101" name="page101"></a>(p. 101)</span>
+losses, considering the scope of the operation, were
+heavy, but not so proportionately to the number of troops of both
+sides engaged nor to the severe nature of the fighting. Most of our
+casualties had bullet wounds. The list, officially, was: Killed, 1
+officer and 10 other ranks; wounded, 2 officers and 41; missing, 1
+officer and 2. Of Taylor I regret to say no news was ever heard. I
+left him wounded, probably fatally, and quite incapable of being
+moved. The likelihood is that he died soon afterwards and was buried
+by the enemy in the trench where he lay. Allden and Kilby were a
+serious loss to the fighting efficiency of D Company.</p>
+
+<p>For their gallantry Corporal Sloper and Sergeant Butcher received the
+Military Medal and Jones the Military Cross. Corporal Leatherbarrow
+for his steadfast conduct in the sunken road was mentioned in
+dispatches. To Sergeant-Major Brooks fell the honour of the
+Battalion's first V.C., of which the official award ran as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="quote">
+     'For most conspicuous bravery. This Warrant Officer, while taking
+     part in a raid on the enemy's trenches, saw that the front wave
+     was checked by an enemy machine-gun at close quarters. On his own
+     initiative, and regardless of personal danger, he rushed forward
+     from the second wave with the object of capturing the gun,
+     killing one of the gunners with his revolver and bayoneting
+     another. The remainder of the gun's crew then made off, leaving
+     the gun in his possession. S.M. Brooks then turned the
+     machine-gun on to the retreating enemy, after which he carried it
+     back to our lines. By his courage and initiative he undoubtedly
+     prevented many casualties, and greatly added to the success of
+     the operations.'
+</p>
+
+
+<p>Infantry's
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name="page102"></a>(p. 102)</span>
+recompense for raids and attacks was usually a
+short rest. This time it had to be postponed by a brief tour in the
+front line. So the next day, having exchanged positions with a
+Gloucester company, we lay in holes and watched the 5.9s raising their
+clouds of red brick-dust in Holnon. Fayet was left alone, nor did the
+sunken road receive attention. It was a balmy day, the first of
+spring.</p>
+
+<p>At night another minor operation preceded the relief. Orders were
+given for B Company, which held the right of the Battalion's line, to
+seize the much-disputed Cepy Farm and hand it over to the incoming
+Berks. Moberly, who had recently rejoined his old Battalion, was in
+command of this enterprise. The farm was reached and duly occupied,
+but when the time for handing over to the Berks arrived our post was
+driven out by a strong party of the enemy. This was the first of many
+similar encounters at Cepy Farm. Luckily it did not long prejudice the
+relief. Though chased a little on the way by shells, the Battalion had
+an easy march to Holnon Wood, in which a pleasant resting place was
+found. The trees and undergrowth, just bursting into green, presented
+happy contrast to the dust and danger of Fayet. In the sandy railway
+cutting, where the single line turns through the wood to reach
+Attilly, companies sat during the day and slept secure at night.
+Transport and cookers were near, and for a spell one was on terms of
+friendship with the world.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter IX.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page103" name="page103"></a>(p. 103)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>ARRAS AND AFTERWARDS,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">May, June, July, 1917</span>.</h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+Relief by the French at St. Quentin. &mdash; A new Commanding
+Officer. &mdash; At the Battle of Arras. &mdash; Useful work by
+A Company. &mdash; Harassing fire. &mdash; A cave-dwelling. &mdash; At Bernaville
+and Noeux. &mdash; In G.H.Q. reserve. &mdash; A gas alarm by
+General Hunter Weston. &mdash; The Ypres arena.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>The next battlefield to which the Battalion's steps were turned was
+Arras. Early in May the French came to relieve the 61st Division at
+St. Quentin. It was said, perhaps with little truth, that the ban
+which forbade our guns to shell that town in such manner as, from a
+purely military standpoint, it deserved, induced this re-arrangement
+of the front. Certainly the French had tried in April, before the
+German retreat had definitely stopped, to encircle the town and
+capture it without bombardment, and possibly their staff yet hoped
+that it might fall undamaged into their hands. The attitudes of
+English and French artillerymen towards large towns which they saw
+opposite to them were naturally different. On this particular front
+St. Quentin was a potent hostage in the enemy's power and one which
+accounted for the extremely quiet conduct of the war in that sector
+after the English had left.</p>
+
+<p>On
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page104" name="page104"></a>(p. 104)</span>
+its backward march&mdash;moves by divisions up and down the
+front were always made at a good distance behind the line through
+districts known as 'staging areas'&mdash;the Battalion spent a few days
+close to Amiens, and thence marched through Doullens to familiar
+billets at Neuvillette. The 184th Infantry Brigade reached Arras at
+the end of May, and went into the line on June 2.</p>
+
+<p>During this move Colonel Bellamy, who had commanded us since August,
+1916, left the Battalion. He shortly afterwards succeeded to the
+command of the 2nd Royal Sussex, his former regiment. A man of tact
+and ripe experience, he had done much to improve the Battalion during
+his stay. He lacked few, if any, of the best qualities of a Regular
+officer. His steady discipline, sure purpose, and soldierly outlook,
+had made him at once Commanding Officer, counsellor and friend.
+Latterly he had been somewhat vexed by illness, but had refused to
+allow his activity to be handicapped thereby. His stay had not
+coincided with the brightest nor least difficult epochs in the
+Battalion's history, for which reason, since he was not unduly
+flattered by fortune, his merit deserves recognition.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Bellamy's successor, H. de R. Wetherall, was a young man whom
+ability and leadership had already lifted to distinction in his
+regiment and placed in command of an important military school. From
+now onwards he is the outstanding figure in the Battalion's history.
+In the new Colonel a quick brain was linked with vigorous physique. In
+spite of his Regular training, Wetherall
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name="page105"></a>(p. 105)</span>
+could appreciate
+and himself possessed to no small degree the peculiar virtues of the
+temporary officer, who based his methods on common sense and actual
+experience in the war rather than servile obedience to red tape and
+'Regulations.' He had studied during the war as well as before it,
+with the result that military tradition&mdash;his regiment was the
+Gloucestershire&mdash;and his long service in the field combined to fit him
+for command of our Battalion.</p>
+
+<p>The Division's share in the Arras Battle, 1917, was small. Already at
+the time of our arrival the later stages of the fighting had been
+reached. The British advance astride the River Scarpe had stopped on
+its north side beneath the low ridge spoken of as Greenland Hill and
+on its south before a wood known as the Bois du Vert. As on the Somme
+in November, 1916, local actions were continuing. To prepare for an
+attack on Infantry Hill, a position held by the enemy south-east of
+Monchy-le-Preux, the 2/4th Oxfords went into the front line on June 6.
+Orders were received to advance across No-Man's-Land and link up a
+line of shell-holes as a 'jumping-off place' for the subsequent
+attack. A Company successfully accomplished the task, and the
+Battalion earned a message of thanks from the Division which a few
+days afterwards made the designed attack.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from this achievement, the confused network of old and new
+trenches occupied during this period offered few features of special
+interest. C and A Companies and part of D were in the front line,
+which ran through chalk and was unsavoury by
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page106" name="page106"></a>(p. 106)</span>
+reason of the
+dead Germans lying all about. The enemy's fire was of that harassing
+kind which began now to mark the conduct of the war. In the old days
+conventional targets such as roads, trenches, and villages within a
+mile or two of our front were generally shelled at times which could
+be guessed and when such places could be avoided. These methods
+changed. Wherever Infantry or transport were bound to go at special
+times during the night, the German shells, reserved by day, were
+fired. Roads, tracks, and approaches, where in daylight English
+nursemaids could almost have wheeled perambulators with confidence, by
+night became hated avenues of danger for our Infantrymen moving up the
+line or ration-carrying to their forward companies. The fire to which
+they went exposed was the enemy's 'harassing fire,' and we, in our
+turn, very naturally 'harassed' the Germans. At this time a crater on
+the Arras-Cambrai road which must needs be passed and a shallow trench
+leading therefrom, known as Gordon Alley, were the most evil spots.
+Monchy, the hill-village which had cost us so many lives to capture,
+was heavily shelled by German howitzers both day and night; below its
+slopes lay several derelict tanks. Our gun positions, in proportion to
+the new increase in counter-battery work, were also often shelled.
+Though unconnected with any artillery, our doctor, Stobie, and with
+him Arrowsmith had a bitter experience of German shells. One fine
+summer morning the enemy commenced a programme of destructive fire
+upon some empty gunpits where the Doctor had his dressing-station.
+Stobie and Arrowsmith,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page107" name="page107"></a>(p. 107)</span>
+with their personnel, received a high
+explosive notice to quit, and their descent into a wrong-facing shaft
+was next followed by the partial destruction of their only exit. They
+escaped safely and arrived in a state of pardonable excitement at the
+deep cave under Les Fosses Farm, where my Company Headquarters and
+many others were.</p>
+
+<p>This cave, perhaps, will bear a short description. In Artois and
+Picardy, where chalk strata prevailed, deep subterranean passages and
+caves abounded. Under Arras itself sufficient room existed to hold
+many thousands of our troops, who were housed underground before the
+battle opened. The Germans more than ourselves exploited this feature
+of geology. Under Gommecourt and Serre their reserve troops had lurked
+deep in caves. In the Champagne more striking instances occurred of
+whole battalions issuing from hidden passages and exits to the fight.
+The cave below Fosses Farm was about 40 feet below the ground. Of most
+irregular shape, it branched and twisted into numerous alleys and
+chambers through the chalk. In it lived representatives of the
+Artillery, Royal Engineers, New Zealand Tunnellers, the whole of B
+Company, parts of Headquarters, the Doctor's personnel, and my own
+Company Headquarters. The cave was dimly lit by a few candles.
+Throughout the day and night there were perpetual comings and goings,
+and it was common to see men, dazzled by the outside sun, come
+stumbling down the stairs and tread unseeing on the prostrate forms of
+those asleep below. The bare chalk was floor,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page108" name="page108"></a>(p. 108)</span>
+bed, and bench
+to all alike. The shadows, the dim groups of figures, and the rough
+pillars forming walls and roof, gave the impression of some old
+cathedral. At one end a hole communicating with the ground above
+served as the only chimney for the incessant cooking that was going
+on. The fumes of this huge grill-room, which did duty, not only for
+the 400 men or so within the cave itself, but for as many situated at
+a distance in the outside world, lent a primeval stamp to the
+surroundings. We were cave-dwellers, living in partial darkness and
+lacking even the elements of furniture.</p>
+
+<p>Caves, cellars, and deep dug-outs had a demoralising influence upon
+their occupants. The utter security below, contrasted with the danger
+overhead&mdash;for often the entrances to these refuges were particularly
+shelled&mdash;and the knowledge that at any moment the former might have to
+be exchanged for the latter could deal a subtle injury to one's
+morale. It was a golden rule, one perchance followed by many of our
+leaders, to make each day some expedition afield before the sun had
+reached its meridian. On the whole one was happier without deep
+dug-outs&mdash;and safer, too, for to become a skulker was equivalent to
+death.</p>
+
+<p>In quoting things to show how little pic-nicing there was in the war I
+feel it opportune to mention a fresh shape in which danger now
+appeared, not only for the Infantry, but for others formerly immune in
+sheltered positions far behind the front. I refer to bombing
+aeroplanes. The warm clear summer nights were now, for the first time
+in common experience,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page109" name="page109"></a>(p. 109)</span>
+marked by the loud droning of the
+enemy's machines and by the crash of bombs dropped upon huts and
+transport lines and along roads and railways in our back area. Arras
+was often severely bombed. The German aeroplanes on any fine night
+came to be regarded as inevitable. Bombing might be continued until
+nearly dawn. When no bombs fell close there was always the constant
+drone announcing their possibility. To men in huts or in the open,
+without lights or any means of shelter, the terror carried nightly
+overhead was greater far than that which ever served to depress
+Londoners.</p>
+
+<p>Another development which was destined to play an ever increasing part
+in the war and to make its closing phases worse in some respects than
+its early, was the long-range high-velocity gun. Though fully seven
+miles behind the line, Arras was shelled throughout the summer with
+very heavy shells. The railway station was their principal target, but
+the 15-inch projectiles fell in a wide radius and caused great
+destruction to the houses and colleges still standing in the city. Yet
+to the Arras citizens now eager to return and claim their property
+shells seemed a small deterrent.</p>
+
+<a id="img110" name="img110"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img110.jpg" width="400" height="519"
+alt="Arras&mdash;the Grande Place." title="Arras&mdash;the Grande Place.">
+</div>
+
+<p>Our stay up in the line was short, but we had casualties. Lindsey, a
+new officer in D Company, was killed on his first visit to the
+trenches, and Herbert, of B, was wounded. D Company also lost as
+casualties Sergeant Buller and Lance-Corporal Barnes and half-a-dozen
+Lewis gunners in the line. The night of our relief was spent in
+bivouacs near Tilloy. A violent thunderstorm, which
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page111" name="page111"></a>(p. 111)</span>
+was the
+expected sequel to the fortnight's intensely warm weather we had been
+experiencing, drenched our surroundings and gave the hard earth,
+trampled by summer tracks, a surface slippery as winter mud. On June
+11 the Battalion was back in billets at Bernaville, a village four
+miles west of Arras, and it appeared that the Division (of which the
+184th Brigade alone had been into the line) had completed its tour in
+the Arras sector.</p>
+
+<p>I rejoice that the few pleasant phases of the Battalion's experiences
+in France elapsed less rapidly than I describe them. At Bernaville the
+weather continued fine and warm; in fact, some of the hottest weather
+of the year occurred. A busy training programme was in swing. To
+escape the heat, companies paraded at 7 a.m. and worked till 11, and
+again in the evening at 5 and worked till 7. This training must not be
+judged by readers according to style and methods possibly seen by them
+on English training grounds during the war. At home, after the last
+divisions of Kitchener's Army went abroad, no officers trained their
+own men whom they would lead in battle. The men were usually the
+rawest drafts, while the officers in home battalions were too often
+those who had never gone and never would go to the front. A totally
+different spirit characterised training in France. Colonel Wetherall
+was a master of the art of teaching. His emphatic direction and
+enthusiasm earned early reward in the increased efficiency of all
+ranks.</p>
+
+<p>At Noeux, near Auxi-le-Château, whither we moved on June 23, the
+Battalion's midsummer respite was
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name="page112"></a>(p. 112)</span>
+continued; we were in
+G.H.Q. reserve. Rumour, not false on this occasion, predicted the
+Division's share in a great battle between Ypres and the coast which
+was due to happen before the autumn. Expectancy was rife to the effect
+that co-operation from the sea was to assist in driving the Germans
+from the Belgian coast. News, big in its effects, was read one morning
+in the <i>Daily Mail</i>. The enemy had attacked our lines at Nieuport and
+driven our garrison across the Yser. A valuable footing had been lost.</p>
+
+<p>Happy memories are associated with Noeux. It was a pretty village,
+girt by rolling hills crowned with rich woods. 'Wood-fighting' (which
+I always said should literally mean the fighting <i>of</i> woods, and
+indeed it often resolved itself into a contest of man <i>versus</i>
+undergrowth) was a frequent feature in the training programme. What
+was sometimes lost in 'direction' was as often gained in naughty
+amusement at the miscarriage of a scheme. For off-duty hours the
+wild-boars of Auxi woods and the cafés in that small town provided
+varied attractions and romance. The General, who was delighted with
+the war and the Battalion, was more vigorous and inspiring than ever.
+It was owing largely to him that the 184th Brigade became the best in
+the Division. This good time, which had for its object, not enjoyment,
+but preparation for more fighting, came all too soon to an end.</p>
+
+<a id="img113" name="img113"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img113.jpg" width="400" height="558"
+alt="Noeux Village." title="Noeux Village.">
+</div>
+
+<p>On July 26 the Battalion said good-bye to Noeux. Its inhabitants, of
+whom an old lady called 'Queen Victoria' (La Reine Victoria, as she
+was known even by her fellow-villagers) was typical, gave
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114"></a>(p. 114)</span>
+us a hearty send-off. Three hours after leaving it we again passed
+through the village, this time by train. We reached St. Omer in the
+evening and marched to a scattered Flemish hamlet called Broxeele.
+Here a stay longer than was expected was made; the 61st Division was
+in reserve to the 5th Army. The introduction by the Germans of the
+celebrated mustard-gas at Ypres had caused many thousand casualties in
+the line and lent new urgency to our gas drill.</p>
+
+<p>At Broxeele on August 6 the Corps Commander, General Hunter Weston,
+paid a memorable visit of inspection to the Battalion. Long waits,
+succeeded by tedious processions of generals and decorated
+staff-officers of every grade, are usually associated with
+inspections. General Hunter Weston was more than punctual. His
+knowledge of all military appurtenances was encyclopedic. A rigorous
+examination of revolvers, mess tins, and similar accessories at once
+commenced. Companies, instead of standing like so many rows of
+dummies, were given each some task to perform. Suddenly in the midst
+of everything a loud cry of 'Gas' is emitted by the General. Not
+unprepared for such a 'stunt' as this, the entire party scrambles as
+fast as possible into gas-helmets. I think we earned high marks for
+our gas-discipline. This inspection made a strong impression on the
+men, who afterwards remembered the occasion and often spoke of it.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the end of July the weather, hitherto so fine, broke
+hopelessly. Torrential rains followed, which inundated the flat
+country far and wide.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name="page115"></a>(p. 115)</span>
+After several postponements the Third
+Battle of Ypres commenced on July 31. Some two weeks later the
+Battalion moved forward by train from Arnecke to Poperinghe. We
+awaited our share in the fighting; which was to make this battle the
+most bloody and perhaps least profitable of the whole war.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter X.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page116" name="page116"></a>(p. 116)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">August, 1917</span>.</h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+A Battalion landmark. &mdash; Poperinghe and Ypres. &mdash; At
+Goldfish Château. &mdash; The attack near St. Julien on August 22. &mdash; Its
+results. &mdash; A mud-locked battle. &mdash; The back-area. &mdash; Mustard
+gas. &mdash; Pill-box warfare.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>In the war-history of all Battalions there is a season when it is
+possible to say that they have reached their fulness of development,
+but have not yet lost all original identity. August, 1917, was such a
+season in my history. Of officers and men who had served with the
+Battalion in its infancy many were yet remaining. Time and experience
+of war had moulded these, with the admixture of subsequent drafts,
+into a Battalion sure of itself and well-developed. But when it
+quitted the battleground of Ypres most of its old identity had
+vanished. From that time onward the 2/4th Oxfords were a changed unit,
+whose roots were set no longer in England but in France, for in France
+had come to it the officers and men of whom it was afterwards
+constituted.</p>
+
+<p>On the eve of this great change importing battle a short review is not
+amiss of the Battalion's constitution. A Company still had for its
+Commander Brown,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name="page117"></a>(p. 117)</span>
+among whose officers were Coombes,
+Callender, and Webb. As Company Sergeant Major, Cairns was a tower of
+strength. John Stockton led B Company, and under him was Moberly. C
+Company possessed two Captains, Brucker and Harris, and had as platoon
+commanders, Hawkes, Matthews, and Jones. D Company was still commanded
+by the author. An acquisition to my company had recently arrived in
+Scott, the bearer of two wounds received in service with the Oxford
+Territorials. Scott was the best officer I ever had. Guest, another
+new officer, before he went into the line showed that he was made of
+the right stuff; he was commander of No. 16 Platoon. Dawson-Smith,
+Copinger, Gascoyne, and Hill were other new arrivals in my company.
+The N.C.O.'s on whom I most relied were Sergeants Palmer,
+Leatherbarrow, and Sloper, but the real backbone of the Company were
+the gallant and determined section leaders whom I had chosen for
+promotion from the ranks. Of my runners and signallers I was
+especially proud, and at Company Headquarters there was, of course,
+the redoubtable Sergeant-Major Brooks, who besides being a great
+fighter possessed also high organising powers. My total strength on
+reaching Poperinghe was over 200, which shows that at this time the
+Battalion was well found in men. It was known nevertheless that some
+reduction from this maximum fighting force was to take place. One
+hundred men of the Battalion, including 'specialists' like Lewis
+gunners, signallers and runners, were henceforward 'left out of the
+line' whenever the Battalion went forward
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page119" name="page119"></a>(p. 119)</span>
+to take part in
+an attack. They were so left in order that, if the casualties were
+very high, some nucleus of veteran soldiers would still remain around
+whom the new Battalion could be built. A like rule applied to
+officers. A month ago the Colonel had decided which of these should
+not take part in the first Ypres attack. Brown and myself stayed out
+of the line, and in our stead Callender and Scott respectively
+commanded A and D Companies.</p>
+
+<a id="img119" name="img119"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img119.jpg" width="500" height="348"
+alt="Poperinghe From The West." title="Poperinghe From The West.">
+</div>
+
+<p>Our stay near Poperinghe was short. Attention was devoted to the final
+organisation of platoons and sections and to the problem of what kit
+to carry in the attack and how best to carry it. Varied experiments
+were made to see whether a pack or haversack was better and which way
+uppermost a shovel should be slung. Supply of ammunition for the Lewis
+guns raised many questions for debate. When all the sections&mdash;the
+Lewis-gunners, bombers, rifle-grenadiers, and riflemen&mdash;were finally
+complete, a new drain was made on our numbers by the demand for
+seventeen men per Company, who from their duties became known as
+'Loaders and Leaders.' Their function was to lead forward during
+battle mules loaded with rations, water, and ammunition. So little
+advancing was there that the mules, so far as this Battalion was
+concerned, were never used, and the loaders and leaders, thanks to
+their function proving illusory, escaped all share in the fighting.</p>
+
+<p>If Poperinghe and Ypres had quite borne out their reputations I should
+not here remark on either of them. The former was a most crowded and
+degenerate-looking
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page120" name="page120"></a>(p. 120)</span>
+town, by a few towers rendered impressive
+from a distance, but in reality of mean structure. Besides its
+club&mdash;at which I recollect that Heidsieck 1906 was then only ten
+francs the bottle&mdash;and its estaminets, the town held few attractions.
+Damage by long-range German guns around the station had been
+considerable, but to the town itself, except its windows, not very
+much had up till now occurred. The surrounding country was neither
+flat nor uninteresting. The Mont des Cats and Kemmel bounded the
+horizon on the south-east, while to the west and north gently
+undulating hills, covered with fields of hops, distinguished this area
+from the sodden plains commonly credited to Flanders. Ypres, though
+destroyed past any hopes of restoration, in 1917 still wore the
+semblance of a town. From previous descriptions of the 'Salient' I had
+almost expected that a few handfuls of ashes would be of Ypres the
+only vestige left. The portions least destroyed in Ypres compared
+perhaps equally with the worst in Arras, but of the two the Flemish
+city had been the less well built. The remains of the great Cloth
+Hall, cathedral, and other buildings revealed that what had once been,
+supposedly, of stone was in reality white brick.</p>
+
+<p>On August 18, starting at 4 a.m., the Battalion marched to Goldfish
+Château, close to Ypres, and the Transport to a disused brickfield
+west of Vlamertinghe. We lived in bivouacs and tents and were much
+vexed by German aeroplanes, and to a less degree by German shells. On
+August 20, while companies were making ready for the line, an
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name="page121"></a>(p. 121)</span>
+air fight happened just above our camp. Its sequel was
+alarming. A German aeroplane fell worsted in the fight, and dived to
+ground, a roaring mass of fire, not forty yards from our nearest
+tents. By a freak of chance the machine fell in a hole made by a
+German shell. The usual rush was made towards the scene&mdash;by those,
+that is, not already sufficiently close for their curiosity. A crowd,
+which to some extent disorganised our preparations for the line,
+collected round the spot and watched the R.F.C. extract the pilot and
+parts of the machine, which was deeply embedded in the hole. For hours
+the wreckage remained the centre of attraction to many visitors. The
+General hailed the burnt relics, not inappropriately, as a lucky omen.</p>
+
+<p>During the night of August 20/21 the Battalion relieved a portion of
+the front eastward of Wieltje. Three companies were placed in trenches
+bearing the name of 'Capricorn,' but B was further back. During the
+night a serious misfortune befell the latter. Three 5.9s fell actually
+in the trench and caused thirty-five casualties, including all the
+sergeants of the company. On the eve of an attack such an occurrence
+was calculated to affect the morale of any troops. That the company
+afterwards did well was specially creditable in view of this
+demoralising prelude.</p>
+
+<p>On the following night Companies assembled for the attack. Neither the
+starting place nor the objectives for this are easily described by
+reference to surrounding villages. The nearest was St. Julien. The
+operation orders for the attack of August
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name="page122"></a>(p. 122)</span>
+22 assigned as
+objective to the Oxfords a road running across the Hanebeck and
+referred to as the Winnipeg-Kansas Cross Road. The 48th Division on
+the left and the 15th on the right were to co-operate with the 184th
+Brigade in the attack.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly before 5 the bombardment started. In the advance behind the
+creeping barrage put down by our guns, of which an enormous
+concentration was present on the front, C, D and A Companies (from
+right to left) provided the first waves, while B Company followed to
+support the flanks. The Berks came afterwards as 'moppers up.'
+Half-an-hour after the advance started D, B and A Companies were
+digging-in 150 yards west of the Winnipeg-Kansas Cross Road. The
+losses of these companies in going over had not been heavy, but, as so
+often happens, casualties occurred directly the objective had been
+duly reached. In the case of C Company, on the right, but little
+progress had been made. Pond Farm, a concrete stronghold, to capture
+which a few nights previously an unsuccessful sally had been made, had
+proved too serious an obstacle. Not till the following night was it
+reduced, and during the whole of August 22 it remained a troublesome
+feature in the situation. Before the line reached could be
+consolidated or they could act to defeat the enemy's tactics, our men
+found themselves the victims of sniping and machine-gun fire from
+Schuler Farm, which was not taken and to which parties of
+reinforcements to the enemy now came. More dangerous still was an old
+gun-pit which lay behind the left flank. The capture of this had been
+assigned to the 48th Division, but
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page124" name="page124"></a>(p. 124)</span>
+as a measure of abundant
+caution Colonel Wetherall had detailed a special Berks platoon to
+tackle it. This platoon, assisted by some Oxfords on the scene,
+captured the gun-pit and nearly seventy prisoners, but failed to
+garrison it. A party of the enemy found their way back and were soon
+firing into our men from behind.</p>
+
+<a id="img124" name="img124"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img124.jpg" width="400" height="507"
+alt="The Attack Of Aug 22 By 15th 61st &amp;
+48th Divisions
+Approx: Position of 2/4th. OXF. at 7 pm." title="The Attack Of Aug 22 By 15th 61st &amp;
+48th Divisions
+Approx: Position of 2/4th. OXF. at 7 pm.">
+</div>
+
+<p>During the early stages of consolidation, when personal example and
+direction were required, John Stockton, Scott, and Gascoyne were all
+killed by snipers or machine-gun fire. Scott had been hit already in
+the advance and behaved finely in refusing aid until he had despatched
+a message to Headquarters. While he was doing so three or four bullets
+struck him simultaneously and he died.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the 22nd no actual counter-attack nor organised bombardment
+by the enemy took place, but much sniping and machine-gun fire
+continued, making it almost impossible to move about. Our loss in
+Lewis-gunners was particularly heavy. Callender, the acting company
+commander of A Company, had been killed before the attack commenced,
+and Sergeant-Major Cairns was now the mainstay of that company, whose
+men were thoroughly mixed up with B. Upon the left the 48th Division
+had failed to reach Winnipeg, with the result that this flank of A and
+B Companies was quite in the air. On the Battalion's right the failure
+of C Company, in which Brucker had been wounded, to pass Pond Farm
+left the flank of D Company exposed and unsupported. But the position
+won was kept. Ground to which the advance had been carried with cost
+would not be lightly
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name="page125"></a>(p. 125)</span>
+given up. Moberly, Company
+Sergeant-Major Cairns, and Guest&mdash;the latter by volunteering in
+daylight to run the gauntlet of the German snipers back to
+Headquarters&mdash;greatly distinguished themselves in the task of
+maintaining this exposed position during the night of August 22 and
+throughout August 23. Some of our men had to remain in shell-holes
+unsupported and shot at from several directions for over fifty hours.
+During the night of August 23/24 the Battalion was relieved, when
+those whom death in battle had not claimed nor wounds despatched to
+hospital marched back through Ypres to the old camp at Goldfish
+Château.</p>
+
+<p>The attack, in which the Bucks had successfully co-operated on the
+right of our advance, earned credit for the Brigade and the Battalion.
+It had been, from a fighting standpoint, a military success. But from
+the strategical aspect the operations showed by their conclusion that
+the error had been made of nibbling with weak forces at objectives
+which could only have been captured and secured by strong. Moreover,
+the result suggested that the objectives had been made on this
+occasion for the attack rather than the attack for the objectives. The
+184th Brigade had played the part assigned to it completely and with
+credit, but what had been gained by it with heavy loss was in fact
+given up by its successors almost at once. Withdrawal from the Kansas
+trenches became an obvious corollary to the German omission to
+counter-attack against them. Ground not in dispute 'twas not worth
+casualties to hold. On the Battalion's front Pond Farm,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name="page126"></a>(p. 126)</span>
+a
+small concrete stronghold, remained the sole fruit of the attack of
+August 22. It was after the 61st Division had been withdrawn, wasted
+in stationary war, that what success could be associated with this
+third battle of Ypres commenced. Judged by its efforts, the 61st was
+ill paid in results.</p>
+
+<p>On August 25 the Battalion, and with it the rest of the Brigade, moved
+back from Goldfish Château to Query Camp, near Brandhoek. The weather,
+which had been fairly fine for several weeks, now again broke in
+thunderstorms and rain. Trees were blown down along the main road to
+Ypres. The clouds hung low or raced before the wind, so that no
+aeroplane nor kite-balloon could mount the sky. This meteorological
+revulsion stood the Germans in great stead. Mud and delay, fatal to
+us, were to them tactical assets of the highest value. As can easily
+be appreciated, to postpone a complicated attack is a proceeding only
+less lengthy and difficult than its preparation, nor can attacks even
+be cancelled except at quite considerable notice. Thus it befell that
+some of our attacks, before they had commenced, were ruined by deluges
+of rain when it was too late to change the plans. On August 27 a
+further attack upon Gallipoli, Schuler Farm and Winnipeg was made by
+the 183rd Brigade in co-operation with the 15th and 48th Divisions.
+The mud and enemy machine-gun fire alike proved terrible. The contact
+aeroplane soon crashed, the advance failed to reach the 'pill-boxes'
+from which the Germans held out, and before night a return had to be
+made to the original line.</p>
+
+<p>On
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page127" name="page127"></a>(p. 127)</span>
+August 30 the Brigade went forward once again to Goldfish
+Château. The camp had not been improved by our predecessors, who had
+attempted to dig in. Holes filled with water were the result, and
+nearly all the tents and shelters had to be moved. Since the
+stagnation of the battle German shelling in the back area had much
+increased. The field where the camp lay was bounded on three sides by
+railways or roads. Some of our 12-inch howitzers were close in front.
+Despite our best attempts to sever association with such targets we
+had a share in the shells intended for them. One night especially the
+long howl of German shells ended in their arrival very near our tents.
+The latter had been placed at one side of the field in order to
+escape, as we expected, the shells more likely to be aimed by German
+gunners at the main road and railway as targets. We changed our
+'pitch,' but the next morning came a pursuing shell on an old line of
+fire, which made it clear that the best place was the deliberate
+middle of the field.</p>
+
+<p>The passage overhead of German aeroplanes made nights uneasy. Darkness
+was lit by those huge flashes in the sky, which denoted explosions of
+our dumps of shells. The ground shook many times an hour with great
+concussions. Sometimes the crash of bombs and patter of machine-guns
+firing at our transport lasted till pale dawn appeared or its approach
+was heralded by the bombardment of our guns, whose voice pronounced
+the prologue of attack.</p>
+
+<p>On both sides the concentration of artillery was very
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page128" name="page128"></a>(p. 128)</span>
+great.
+Though the bad weather had shackled our advance from the start, our
+staff yet hoped to gain the ridge of Passchendaele before winter set
+in. The Germans, too, held that the stake was high. Our guns, which
+were advanced as far as Wieltje and St. Jean and stood exposed in the
+open, became the object of persistent German shelling. Sound-ranging
+and aerial photography had reached a high development, and few of our
+batteries went undiscovered. For the Artillery life became as hard as
+for the Infantry. Gunner casualties were very numerous. Our batteries
+for hours on end were drenched in mustard-gas. Into Ypres as well
+large quantities of 'Yellow Cross' shells, cleverly mixed up with
+high-explosive, were fired with nocturnal frequency. The long range of
+the enemy's field-guns made the effect of these subtle gas-shells,
+whose flight and explosion were almost noiseless amid the din of our
+own artillery, especially widespread. The enemy's activity against our
+back area was at its height at the end of August, 1917. Casualty
+Clearing Stations were both bombed and shelled. Near Poperinghe nurses
+were killed. No service forward of Corps Headquarters but had its
+casualties. Our lorry-drivers' work was fraught with danger. The
+Germans were waging a war to the knife and employing every means to
+serve their obstinate resistance.</p>
+
+<a id="img128" name="img128"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img128.jpg" width="400" height="541"
+alt="Vlamertinge&mdash;the Road To Ypres." title="Vlamertinge&mdash;the Road To Ypres.">
+</div>
+
+<p>The 'defence in depth,' practised to some extent at Arras, had become
+the enemy's reply to our destruction by artillery of the trench
+systems on which, earlier in the war, he had relied with confidence.
+Destruction of prepared positions had reached
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page129" name="page129"></a>(p. 129)</span>
+so absolute
+a stage that the old arguments of wire and machine-guns brought up
+from deep dug-outs to fire over parapets, were no longer present. The
+ground to a distance of several thousand yards behind the enemy's
+front line could be, and had been, churned and rechurned into one
+brown expanse. For four miles east of Ypres there was no green space
+and hardly a yard of ground without its shell-hole. Positions where
+the enemy held out consisted in groups of concrete 'pill-boxes,' which
+had been made from Belgian gravel and cement in partial anticipation
+of this result of the artillery war. They in all cases were carefully
+sited and so small (being designed to hold machine-guns and their
+teams) that their destruction by our heavy shells was almost
+impossible. These 'pill-boxes' were also so designed as to support
+each other, that is to say, if one of them were captured, the fire of
+others on its flanks often compelled the captors to yield it up.
+Garrisons were provided from the <i>élite</i> of the German army. One
+cannot but admire the steadfastness with which, during this phase of
+warfare, these solitary strongholds held out. Indeed, the only way to
+cope with this defence was to press an advance on a wide front to such
+a depth as to reduce the entire area in which these pill-boxes lay
+into our possession. By attacking spasmodically we played the enemy's
+game.</p>
+
+<p>Our methods of attack which had been practised through the spring and
+summer still consisted, broadly speaking, in the advance of lines of
+Infantry behind a creeping barrage. These lines were too
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page130" name="page130"></a>(p. 130)</span>
+often held up by pill-boxes, against which the creeping barrage was
+ineffectual, and once delay which had not been calculated on occurred,
+the creeping barrage was proved doubly useless, for it had
+outdistanced the speed of the advance. The change in tactics necessary
+to reduce these concrete strongholds was soon appreciated, but troops
+who had been trained in the older methods were slow, in action, to
+adopt the new ones requisite. Partly from such a reason the 61st
+Division scored little success against the pill-box defence, but lack
+of tangible results was not joined with lack of honest attempts. The
+mud, the nibbling tactics passed down from above, inadequate
+co-operation by the divisions fighting side by side with us, and the
+failure of our artillery to hit the pill-boxes which we had hoped
+could be put out of action by our heavy shells, further combined to
+paralyse efforts which, had they been directed to more easy tasks,
+would now, as often, have earned for the Division the highest military
+success.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter XI.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page131" name="page131"></a>(p. 131)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE ATTACK ON HILL 35,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">September, 1917</span>.</h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+Iberian, Hill 35, and Gallipoli. &mdash; The Battalion ordered
+to make the seventh attempt against Hill 35. &mdash; The task. &mdash; A
+and D Companies selected. &mdash; The assembly position. &mdash; Gassed
+by our own side. &mdash; Waiting for zero. &mdash; The attack. &mdash; Considerations
+governing its failure. &mdash; The Battalion quits
+the Ypres battlefield.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>'At 4 p.m.' said the 61st Divisional Summary for the twenty-four hours
+ending 12 noon, September 11, 1917, 'we attacked the Battery Position
+on Hill 35. This attack was not successful.' A grim epitaph. The terse
+formula, as though wasted words must not follow wasted lives, was the
+official record of the seventh attempt to storm Hill 35.</p>
+
+<p>Against the concrete gunpits which crowned this insignificant ridge
+the waves of our advance on July 31 had lapped in vain. Minor attacks
+designed to take Gallipoli, a German stronghold set behind the ridge,
+and against the sister position of Iberian on its flank, proved
+throughout August some of the most costly failures in the 5th Army
+operations. The defence of the three strongholds, Iberian, Hill 35,
+and Gallipoli provided a striking example
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page132" name="page132"></a>(p. 132)</span>
+of German
+stubbornness and skill, but added an object-lesson in the squandering
+of our efforts in attack. Operations upon a general scale having
+failed to capture all three, it was fantastically hoped that each
+could be reduced separately. Iberian, Hill 35, and Gallipoli supported
+one another, nor was it feasible to hold any without holding all. Yet
+to take Hill 35 on September 9 the 2/4th Oxfords were specially
+selected. The spirit of A and D Companies, chosen by Colonel Wetherall
+for the attack, was excellent. We confidently believed that we could
+succeed where others failed. Optimism, so vital an ingredient in
+morale, was a powerful assistant to the English Army. It was fostered,
+perhaps unconsciously, throughout the war by the cheerful attitude
+preserved by our Generals and staff, but its foundation lay in our
+great system of supply. The A.S.C., which helped to win our victories,
+helped, too, to temper our defeats.</p>
+
+<a id="img133" name="img133"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img133.jpg" width="400" height="521"
+alt="The Attack On Hill 35, September 10 1917." title="The Attack On Hill 35, September 10 1917.">
+</div>
+
+<p>On September 7 Brown and myself went up through Ypres to view the
+scene of the attack. At Wieltje, where Colonel Wetherall and B and C
+Companies already were, we descended to a deep, wet dug-out and that
+night listened to a narrative brought by an officer who had
+participated in the last attempt to take the hill. He dispensed the
+most depressing information about the gunpits, the machine-guns, the
+barrages, and last, but not least terrible (if believed), the new
+incendiary Verey lights used by the Germans to cremate their
+assailants. The description of a piece of trench, which we were to
+capture and block, particularly flattered our
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page134" name="page134"></a>(p. 134)</span>
+prospects.
+'Wide, shallow trench, enfiladed from Gallipoli, filled with &mdash;th
+Division dead,' it ran. The tale of horror becoming ludicrous, we soon
+afterwards clambered on to the wire bunks and slept, dripped on, till
+the early morning.</p>
+
+<p>The next day was misty. Our 15-inch howitzers on whose ability to
+smash the enemy's concrete strongholds reliance was staked, could not
+fire. The attack was postponed until September 10, but that decision
+came too late to stop our companies quitting the camp according to
+previous orders and marching up through Ypres. They could have stayed
+at Wieltje for the night, but the men's fear that by so doing they
+would miss their hot tea, decided their vote in favour of a return to
+Goldfish Château. Tea is among the greatest bribes that can be offered
+to the British soldier.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly the march through Ypres, or rather, round it (for no
+troops chose to pass its market place) was repeated on the morrow. The
+tracks towards the line were shelled on our way up, but we came safely
+through. Dusk was awaited in a much war-worn trench in front of
+Wieltje.</p>
+
+<p>As daylight fades we file away, each man with his own thoughts. Whose
+turn is it to be this journey?</p>
+
+<p>Along the tortuous track of tipsy duckboards we go for a mile, until
+acrid fumes tell that the German barrage line is being passed. This is
+a moment to press on! To get the Company safely across this hundred
+yards is worth many a fall.</p>
+
+<p>... Presently the shattered pollards of the Steenbeek
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page135" name="page135"></a>(p. 135)</span>
+are
+left behind and flickering Verey lights cast into weird relief the
+rugged surface of the earth. At Pommern Castle our front trenches, in
+which figures of men loom indistinctly, are reached. At one corner,
+where the trench is littered with fragments, we are cautioned by a
+sentry, whose voice is a little shaken, not to linger; the entrance to
+a pill-box (which faced the enemy) was hit a short time ago. From the
+trench we proceed further into No-Man's-Land, where the Bucks are said
+to have linked up shell-holes since nightfall. (Those will be our
+'assembly position' for the attack to-morrow afternoon).</p>
+
+<p>By now all shells are passing over our heads; we are level with where
+Verey lights are falling, and the sweep of bullets through the air
+shows that the enemy is not far off. Figures appear as if by magic.
+All at once there is a crowd of men, rattling equipment and talking in
+suppressed voices. A few commands, and the relief is complete. We are
+in No-Man's-Land, strung in a line of shell-holes, from which in
+sixteen hours' time the attack is to start.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<p>Soon after 3 a.m. I set out to visit all the scattered groups of men
+to give my last instructions, for from dawn onwards no movement would
+be possible. It was an eerie situation. The night was filled with
+multifarious noise&mdash;peculiar 'poops,' the distant crash of bombs, and
+all the mingled echoes of a battlefield. At one time German
+howitzers,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page136" name="page136"></a>(p. 136)</span>
+firing at longest range, chimed a faint chorus
+high above our heads; anon a hissing swoop would plant a shell close
+to our whereabouts. Lights rose and sank, flickering. Red and green
+rockets, as if to ornament the tragedy of war, were dancing in the
+sky. Occasionally a gust of foul wind, striking the face, could make
+one fancy that Death's Spectre marched abroad, claiming her
+children....</p>
+
+<p>Our guns fired incessantly. Their shells came plunging down with an
+arriving whistle that made each one as it came seem that it must drop
+short&mdash;and many did. Mist drifted fitfully around and hid, now and
+again, two derelict tanks, at which a forward post of my company was
+stationed. This post I was on my way to visit, when, suddenly, what
+seemed trench-mortar bombs began to fall. About twenty fell in a
+minute, the last ones very close to where I stood.</p>
+
+<p>They were gas. It was a sickening moment; surprise, disaster, and the
+possibility that here was some new German devilry fired at us from
+behind, joined with the fumes to numb the mind and powers. Half-gassed
+I gave the gas-alarm. By telephone I managed to report what had
+happened. The Colonel seemed to understand at once; 'I've stopped
+them,' conveyed everything of which it was immediately necessary to
+make certain.</p>
+
+<a id="img136" name="img136"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img136.jpg" width="400" height="568"
+alt="HILL 35, from an aeroplane photograph taken a week
+before the attack of Sept 10. Note the four derelict Tanks." title="HILL 35, from an aeroplane photograph taken a week
+before the attack of Sept 10. Note the four derelict Tanks.">
+</div>
+
+<p>For it was an attack by our own gas. Some detachment, without
+notifying our Brigade staff or selecting a target which sanity could
+have recommended, had done a 'shoot' against my company's position
+under the mistake that the enemy was in it.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page137" name="page137"></a>(p. 137)</span>
+Two
+casualties, which I believe proved fatal, resulted. Many men vomited.
+I was prostrated for two hours. The effect on the morale of some of my
+men was as pitiable as it was amply justifiable.</p>
+
+<p>For this dastardly outrage I fancy that no person was ever brought to
+book. Infantry loyally condoned the so-called 'short shooting' by our
+guns. Out of thousands of shells fired at the enemy some must and did
+fall in our lines. But from such condonation is specifically to be
+excepted this instance of a gas projection carried out with criminal
+negligence upon my comrades. For or by its perpetrator no excuse was
+offered; and yet the facts were never in dispute.</p>
+
+<p>Proverbially the worst part of an attack was waiting for it. On
+September 10, from dawn till 4 p.m., A and D Companies lay cramped in
+shell holes on the slopes of Hill 35. In my own hole, so close that
+our knees touched, sat Sergeant Palmer, Rowbotham, my signalling
+lance-corporal, Baxter, another signaller, Davies, my runner, and
+myself. With us we had a telephone and a basket of carrier pigeons.</p>
+
+<p>At 8 a.m., while some of us were sleeping heavily, there came a crash
+and a jar, which shook every fibre in the body. An English shell had
+burst a yard or two from the hole wherein we lay. Voices from
+neighbouring shell-holes hailed us&mdash;'Are you all right?': and we
+replied 'We are.' We had no other shell as close as that, but all day
+long there were two English guns whose shells, aimed at the Germans on
+the ridge in front, fell so
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page138" name="page138"></a>(p. 138)</span>
+near to where we lay that we
+became half-used to being spattered with their earth. As the air
+warmed the error of these guns decreased, but we counted the hours
+anxiously until the attack should liberate us from such cruel
+jeopardy.<a id="footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>The intolerable duration of that day baffles description. The sun,
+which had displaced a morning mist, struck down with unrelenting rays
+till shrapnel helmets grew hot as oven-doors. Bluebottles (for had not
+six attempts failed to take the hill?) buzzed busily. The heat, our
+salt rations, the mud below, the brazen sky above, and the suspense of
+waiting for the particular minute of attack, vied for supremacy in the
+emotions. The drone of howitzers continued all the day. Only at 2.30
+p.m., when a demonstration was made against Iberian, did any variety
+even occur. There was no choice nor respite. Not by one minute could
+the attack be either anticipated or postponed.</p>
+
+<p>Of the attack itself the short outline is soon given. Promptly at 4
+p.m. the creeping barrage started. In a dazed way or lighting
+cigarettes the men, who had lost during the long wait all sense of
+their whereabouts, began to stumble forward up the hill. Our shrapnel
+barrage was not good. One of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page139" name="page139"></a>(p. 139)</span>
+the earliest shells burst just
+behind the hole from which I stepped. It wounded Rowbotham and Baxter
+(my two signallers) and destroyed the basket of carrier pigeons. Of
+other English shells I saw the brown splash amongst our men. Prolonged
+bombardment had ploughed the ground into a welter of crumbling earth
+and mud. Our progress at only a few dozen yards a minute gave the
+Germans in their pill-boxes ample time to get their machine-guns
+going, while correspondingly the barrage passed away from our advance
+in its successive lifts. Heavy firing from Iberian commenced to
+enfilade our ranks. Long before the objective was approached our
+enemies, who in some cases left the pill-boxes and manned positions
+outside, were masters of the situation. The seventh attempt had failed
+to struggle up the slopes of Hill 35.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the disappointment of this immediate failure of the
+enterprise, I realised at once the impossibility of its success. Yet
+on this occasion less was done by the men than the conduct of their
+leaders deserved. Almost as soon as bullets had begun to bang through
+the air some men had gone to shelter. Those who stood still were mown
+down. A handful of D Company, led by the company commander, by short
+rushes reached a ruined tank, close to the enemy, but the remainder
+disappeared into shell-holes, whence encouragement was powerless to
+move them. Only in A Company was any fire opened.</p>
+
+<p>No sense of anti-climax could be demanded of the English soldier,
+whose daily shilling was paid
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page140" name="page140"></a>(p. 140)</span>
+him whether he was in
+rest-billets, on working-party, or sent into the attack.<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the part also of the Artillery less was done than the scheme
+promised or our attacking Infantry had counted on. By shell-fire the
+issue of Hill 35 was to have been placed beyond doubt. When the
+artillery machine broke down, achievement of success demanded more
+initiative on the part of the Infantry than if no artillery had been
+used. In a sense our loss of a hundred guns at Cambrai a few weeks
+later became a blessing in disguise, for it restored the scales in
+favour of the Infantryman as the decisive agent on the field of
+battle.</p>
+
+<p>So ended the attack on Hill 35. Upon its slopes were added our dead to
+the dead of many regiments. But our casualties were few considering
+that the attack had been brought to a standstill by machine-gun fire.
+Of D Company officers Guest was wounded (he had behaved with gallantry
+in the attack) and Copinger missing. Viggers, a very brave sergeant,
+was killed. Three lance-corporals, Wise, Rowbotham, and Goodman, had
+been wounded. The total casualties to the Battalion, including several
+in B Company Headquarters from a single shell and others in passing
+afterwards through Ypres, were, happily, under fifty.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after its attack on Hill 35 the Battalion marched away from
+Ypres, never to return.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page141" name="page141"></a>(p. 141)</span>
+What credit had been earned there by
+the 61st Division was principally associated with the work of the
+184th Infantry Brigade and of the 2/4th Oxfords. Improvement in morale
+flowed from the test of this great battle. The losses of the Battalion
+had been heavy; fourteen officers and 260 men were its casualties. The
+final winning of the war could not be unconnected with such a
+sacrifice. Like others before and others after it, the Battalion at
+Ypres gave its pledge to posterity.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter XII.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page142" name="page142"></a>(p. 142)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>AUTUMN AT ARRAS AND THE
+
+MOVE TO CAMBRAI,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">October, November, December, 1917.</span></h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+The Battalion's return to Arras. &mdash; A quiet front. &mdash; The
+Brigadier and his staff. &mdash; A novelty in tactics. &mdash; B Company's
+raid. &mdash; A sudden move. &mdash; The Cambrai front. &mdash; Havrincourt
+Wood. &mdash; Christmas at Suzanne.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>From Arras the 61st Division came to Ypres: to Arras it returned.
+After a week spent in the back area, advance by the usual stepping
+stones was made to the front line. The 184th was the last Brigade to
+go into the trenches; not till the beginning of October did it take
+over the line. The front held by the 61st Division stretched from the
+Chemical Works of Roeux upon the right to a point south of Gavrelle
+upon the left. Two Brigades were in the line at once and stayed
+twenty-four days, Battalions changing places during the period. A rest
+of twelve days back at Arras followed.</p>
+
+<p>This process of relief and the general conditions brought a return of
+trench-warfare almost on its old lines. As autumn waned gumboots were
+even
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page143" name="page143"></a>(p. 143)</span>
+spoken of. The trenches were mostly of chalk, and had
+been left by the 17th Division in excellent condition. The experience
+of a former winter prevented the error being made, at all events in
+theory, of leaving trenches unfloored and unrevetted, until winter,
+bringing its consequence of mud, arrived. Especially the mile-long
+communication trenches called 'Chili' and 'Civil' Avenues, if they
+were to be kept passable, required attention. A thorough programme of
+work with R.E. and the Pioneers was put in hand. Dry trenches would
+have repaid its labour spent in carrying and digging, had the
+Battalion stayed in this sector for the winter. As not unexpectedly
+happened, we had left the scene of our labours before winter set in.</p>
+
+<p>More than three weeks of October were spent by the Battalion in the
+trenches. This was no great hardship. Half of the time was spent
+nearly two miles behind the line in an old German trench known as the
+Gavrelle Switch. In this position there was little restriction, if
+indeed there could ever be any&mdash;short of its prohibition&mdash;on the
+making of smoke, and with good rations and day working parties the men
+were happy enough. But these long periods in the trenches, when no
+proper parades or drill were possible, though acquiesced in by the men
+themselves, were bad for the Battalion's discipline. Much regard was
+always paid&mdash;especially in the 61st Division&mdash;to what is called 'turn
+out.' This meant more than button-polishing. It was that quality of
+alertness and self-respect which even in the trenches could be
+maintained. Trench-life
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page144" name="page144"></a>(p. 144)</span>
+bred loafers, and loafers never made
+the best soldiers. It was a good thing when October 28 came and the
+Battalion moved back to Arras for a twelve days' spell in rest.
+Billets were the French prison, whose cells provided excellent
+accommodation.</p>
+
+<p>Arras in the autumn of 1917 was an attractive place. The clear
+atmosphere, through which the sun shone undimmed by factory-smoke,
+lent to its majestic ruins almost Italian colouring. Upon the western
+side of the town quite a number of undamaged houses still remained; at
+its centre the theatre and concert hall had luckily escaped
+destruction, and to hear the various divisional troupes most crowded
+audiences assembled every night. The streets, though unlighted, were
+thronged with jostling multitudes. The Arras front, as though in
+acknowledgement of greater happenings elsewhere, had become dormant
+since midsummer. Against the trenches themselves little activity by
+the enemy was shown, and in the back area, pending a change of policy
+by us, quietude reigned during the early autumn. A big German gun
+occasionally threw its shells towards our Transport lines at St.
+Nicholas or into Arras Station. One day a party which had come several
+hours early to secure good places on the leave train was scattered by
+the unscheduled arrival of a shell.</p>
+
+<a id="img144" name="img144"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img144.jpg" width="400" height="347"
+alt="A Street In Arras." title="A Street In Arras.">
+</div>
+
+<p>During the stay of the Battalion at the prison, Thomas, our champion
+boxer, issued a challenge to the divisions near the town. A man from
+the 15th Division, heavier than Thomas, accepted. In the fight which
+ensued before many spectators the Oxford
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page145" name="page145"></a>(p. 145)</span>
+man won on a
+knock-out in the fourth round. So strong at this time was the
+Battalion in boxing that Brigade competitions became foregone
+conclusions.</p>
+
+<p>Another feature of this period was a Brigade school, with Bennett as
+its commandant, at Arras. A week's course was held for each platoon in
+the Brigade. The school was well run and partly recompensed for the
+lack of training during the long tours in the trenches.</p>
+
+<p>More than a year had passed since General White first took command of
+the 184th Infantry Brigade. During that time the Brigade had improved
+out of all recognition. For such result its commander was more than
+partially responsible. The General had to the full the quality called
+'drive'; that, rather than profound knowledge of military science,
+made him a first-rate Brigadier. War is a department of the world's
+business, in which capacity not only to work oneself, but to make
+others work, begets success. I should hesitate to say of General White
+that he 'used' others, but his prudent selection of subordinates
+ensured that all units in his Brigade were well commanded. He was more
+than a good judge of character: hollow prevarication was useless with
+him, and bluff&mdash;though, when he liked, he was himself a master of
+it&mdash;a dangerous policy. Among the shrewd qualities of this man there
+were the abilities to summarize rapidly whatever he had been told, and
+to remember most of everything he saw. His power of observation was so
+developed that sometimes the actual picture of some detail&mdash;such as a
+dirty
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page146" name="page146"></a>(p. 146)</span>
+rifle, a man without equipment, or a few sand bags
+laid awry&mdash;lent him a false impression of the whole. Yet his memory
+and rapid power of observation made him a real tactician&mdash;I use the
+adjective advisedly. No man who knew less, and there were few who knew
+more, of the front line than he did, could afford to argue with him
+about the position of a machine-gun, although if the matter had been
+presented as of theory at some headquarters rather than upon the
+ground, the machine-gun expert would perhaps have held his own.</p>
+
+<p>'Bobbie' did not interfere with his staff officers in their
+'paper-work,' but if ever occasion demanded he did not hesitate to
+draw his pen, not in self-defence, but in defence of the Brigade and
+his subordinates. He was no party to that unctuous politeness that
+sprang up during the war when staff met staff upon the telephone. He
+thought nothing of ringing up Corps, and expected speech with the head
+of a department, for he was the enemy of all high-placed
+obstructionists. His fame spread widely on the telephone. Impatient of
+camouflage, he learnt with difficulty the language of code-names under
+which it was sought to disguise our units to the enemy. 'Brigadier of
+184 speaking,' he would say; 'Are you the Bucks.... What regiment are
+you?' There was an 'amplifier' at 'Tank Dump'; it was always most
+faithfully manned about 8 p.m.</p>
+
+<a id="img146" name="img146"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img146.jpg" width="400" height="272"
+alt="Tank Dump." title="Tank Dump.">
+</div>
+
+<p>The example which the General set was especially fine. He spent every
+day and nearly all day in the front line. Nothing annoyed him more
+than, say, at 9 a.m. to receive the message of a divisional conference
+fixed for his headquarters at 11. Equipped
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page147" name="page147"></a>(p. 147)</span>
+in his short
+overalls and shrapnel-helmet (conspicuous in a light cover) and
+carrying a white walking-stick, he used to quit Brigade Headquarters
+with matutinal punctuality. His outset borrowed something of the
+atmosphere of 'John Peel' on a fine morning. Battalion Headquarters,
+if not warned surreptitiously of his arrival, would scramble through
+their breakfast (not that the General designed to interfere either
+with rest or eating) as his form outlined itself in the doorway,
+accompanied by cheery greeting. In the front line itself his visits
+were refreshing. Prospects of shelling never deterred him. No post was
+too far forward for him to pay it a call. Often, when shells fell, he
+deliberately remained to share the danger. Once I knew him to return
+to a trench, which had been quite heavily shelled while he was there,
+because the Germans started on it again. A prodigious walker, he tired
+of daylight imprisonment to trenches and chose the 'top.' His figure
+must have been familiar to enemy observers. But his route was so
+erratic that, though he drew fire on many unexpected places after he
+had left, he was rarely himself shot at during his progress.</p>
+
+<p>The General is a great representative of <i>esprit de corps</i>, and
+believes strongly in military comradeship. In a sense his claim for
+'esprit de Brigade' was a little far-fetched, for Battalions held to
+themselves very much, and the fact that they relieved each other,
+though often a bond of alliance, was sometimes also a cause of
+friction. Between Battalions he did not shrink from making
+comparisons. 'My Berks' had done this; 'My Bucks'
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page148" name="page148"></a>(p. 148)</span>
+should do
+the same. Much good resulted. The standard of efficiency was raised.
+Though at times he was discovered to be naïvely inconsistent, one
+thing was certain&mdash;the 184th Brigade felt throughout its members that
+it was the best in the Division. The war has not produced many great
+men, but it has produced many great figures&mdash;amongst whom Robert White
+is by no means the least.</p>
+
+<p>If it was well commanded by its General, the 184th Brigade was as well
+served by its staff. Gepp, the Brigade Major at Laventie, had been the
+pattern of a staff officer. His advice was at the service of the most
+recent company commander or newest subaltern. With Gepp as author, no
+march-table ever went wrong. Moore fell no whit short of his
+predecessor in ability. He was alike eager to acquire and to impart
+his knowledge, which in military matters was both profound and
+practical. He made friends readily with regimental officers, for he
+remained one of them at heart and in outlook. His powers were truly at
+the service of the whole Brigade. When George Moore left in September,
+1917, to take command of a Battalion, the third Brigade Major who
+makes a figure in my history appeared&mdash;H. G. Howitt. In the sequence
+fortune continued to favour the Brigade. Howitt was a Territorial
+whose prowess had been proved in the Somme fighting. In place of a
+long staff training he brought business powers. He was indulgent of
+everything save fear, laziness, and inefficiency. Stout-hearted
+himself, he expected stoutness in others; this was the right attitude
+of a staff officer. Though
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page149" name="page149"></a>(p. 149)</span>
+a business man by training, he
+did not negotiate with the war; in him everything was better than his
+writing.</p>
+
+<p>Of these three, Gepp, Moore, Howitt, it would be difficult to name the
+best Brigade Major; the 184th Brigade was happy in the trio.</p>
+
+<p>On November 9 the 2/4th Oxfords returned to the trenches in weather
+that was still relatively fine. The Brigade sector had been changed;
+its front now stretched across the Douai railway below the slope of
+Greenland Hill. The previous quietude of the trenches now gave place
+to more activity. German shelling much increased. The ruins of the
+famous Chemical Works, which covered several acres of ground, were
+daily stirred by the explosions of shells among the tangled wreckage
+of boiler-pipes and twisted metal. In the front line trench-mortaring
+became frequent. On November 14 Cuthbert was wounded by a bomb which
+fell inside the trench, and other casualties occurred, including the
+General's runner. Many new officers and men had joined since Ypres.
+Wiltshire took up the adjutantcy when Cuthbert left.</p>
+
+<p>Plans were afoot for a big demonstration to cover the surprise by
+English tanks at Havrincourt on November 20. A series of gas
+projections, smoke barrages, and raids were to take place. The better
+to maintain secrecy from the German 'listening-sets' no telephones
+were used. The Battalion bore its share in the programme; already at
+Arras plans for a novel raid were under contemplation. Cuthbert had
+devised a scheme, which Colonel Wetherall adopted and chose B Company,
+under
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page150" name="page150"></a>(p. 150)</span>
+Moberly, to carry out. The details of this raid,
+inasmuch as their novelty is of some historical interest, demand an
+explanation.</p>
+
+<p>Gas fired in shells was of two sorts, lethal and non-lethal. The
+former was a deadly poison. Unless taken in large quantities, the
+latter had no fatal, nor indeed serious, effects; designed to irritate
+the throat and eyes, it caused such sneezing and hiccoughing that
+whosoever breathed this sort of gas lost temporarily his self-control.
+Lethal and non-lethal gas were intermingled both by the Germans and
+ourselves with high explosive shells; the effect of each assisted the
+effect of the other. If one began to sneeze from the effect of
+non-lethal gas, one could not wear a gas-helmet to resist the lethal;
+the high-explosive shells disguised both types. Now it was planned by
+Wetherall to fire lethal gas against the enemy for several nights. On
+the night of the raid and during it, non-lethal only would be used.
+The two gases smelt alike and the presumption was that on the night of
+the raid the enemy would wear gas-helmets.</p>
+
+<a id="img150" name="img150"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img150.jpg" width="400" height="303"
+alt="In A German Gun-pit Near Gavrelle." title="In A German Gun-pit Near Gavrelle.">
+</div>
+
+<p>On the evening of November 17, only an hour before the raid was to
+take place, it was announced that the wrong type of shells had been
+delivered to the artillery. Barely in time to avert a fiasco, the
+affair was cancelled. Two nights afterwards, when the wind luckily was
+again from the right direction, the raid was carried out. The Germans,
+of whom some were found in gas-helmets, had no inkling of our plan. B
+Company, though they missed the gap through the enemy's wire, entered
+the trenches without opposition and captured a machine-gun which
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page151" name="page151"></a>(p. 151)</span>
+was pointing directly at their approach but never fired.
+Wallington, the officer in command of the storming party, killed
+several Germans. As often, there was difficulty in finding the way
+back to our lines; in fact, Moberly, the commander of the raid, after
+some wandering in No-Man's-Land, entered the trenches of a Scotch
+division upon our right. His appearance and comparative inability to
+speak their language made him a suspicious visitor to our kilted
+neighbours. Moberly rejoined his countrymen under escort.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time it seemed that no material results had been achieved
+in the raid. But the next morning Private Hatt, who for his exploit
+gained the D.C.M., crawled into our lines carrying the machine-gun
+which he had hugged all night between the German lines and ours. This
+raid took place the night preceding the great Cambrai offensive, and
+the success of Moberly and B Company formed part of the demonstration
+designed to attract enemy reserves away from the area of the operation
+mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>On the last day of November the Division was withdrawn from the Arras
+sector: its move to relieve some of the troops who had been severely
+handled by the enemy at Bourlon Wood seemed probable. Events occurred
+to change the destination. The Battalion, after two nights at Arras,
+entrained amid all symptoms of haste on the morning of November 30 and
+travelled without the transport to Bapaume. The noise of battle and
+excited staff-officers greeted its arrival. In the back area it was on
+everybody's lips that the enemy had
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page152" name="page152"></a>(p. 152)</span>
+broken through. Bapaume
+was being shelled, many officers had travelled unprepared for an early
+engagement with the enemy, and the General was not yet on the scene;
+the situation was as unexpected as it was exciting. At 3 p.m. we were
+placed in buses under Bicknell's directions and moved rapidly to
+Bertincourt, a village four kilometres west of Havrincourt Wood. The
+night of November 30/December 1 was spent in an open field. It was
+intensely cold. At 4 a.m. a flank march was made to Fins, where some
+empty huts were found. Enemy long range shells, aimed at the railway,
+kept falling in the village. Through Fins at 10 a.m. on December 1 the
+Guards marched forward to do their famous counter-attack on
+Gouzeaucourt; on the afternoon of the same day the Battalion moved up
+to Metz, whither Brigade Headquarters had already gone. During the
+night, which was frosty and moonlight, the Colonel led the Battalion
+across country to occupy a part of the Hindenburgh Line west of La
+Vacquerie. On the following morning the enemy delivered a heavy attack
+upon the village, from which, after severe losses in killed and
+prisoners, troops of the 182nd Brigade were driven back. To assist
+them C Company was detached from the Battalion. The trenches&mdash;our
+front was now the Hindenburg Line&mdash;were frozen, there was snow on the
+ground, and the temporary supremacy of the enemy in guns and sniping
+produced a toll of casualties. It was an anxious time, but the
+Battalion was involved in no actual fighting; the German
+counter-attack, for the time-being, was at an end.</p>
+
+<p>The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page153" name="page153"></a>(p. 153)</span>
+61st Division was left holding a line of snow-bound
+trenches between Gonnelieu and La Vacquerie, consisting of fragments
+both of the Hindenburg Line, the old German front line, and our own as
+it stood before the Cambrai battle opened. Except in the 184th Brigade
+the casualties suffered by the Division during the heavy German
+counter-attacks had been heavier than those at Ypres. The 2/4 Oxfords
+by luck had escaped a share in this fighting, and the Battalion's
+casualties during these critical events were few.</p>
+
+<p>The German counter-attack from Cambrai was an important step in the
+war's progress. At the time it was considered even more important than
+it was. Judged by the rapidity with which they were replaced, the loss
+of guns and stores by us was not of high moment; it mattered more that
+for the first time since the Second Battle of Ypres the enemy had
+driven back our lines several miles. A counter-surprise had been
+effected. On a small scale the panic of defeat was proved by its
+physical results upon the ground. The valley north-east of
+Gouzeaucourt was littered with all kinds of relics, which in trench
+warfare or in our attacks had been unknown. Whole camps had been
+sacked and their contents, in the shape of clothing, equipment and
+blankets, were strewn broadcast. Packets of socks and shirts showed
+where an English quartermaster's stores had been, and flapping canvas
+and dismantled shelters were evidence of a local <i>débâcle</i> to our
+side. The sight of derelict tractors, motor cars, and steam rollers,
+left in the sunken road at Gouzeaucourt, produced a sense of shock. A
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page154" name="page154"></a>(p. 154)</span>
+broad-gauge railway train, captured complete with trucks and
+locomotive and recovered in our counter-attack, bore witness to a
+victory seized but not secured. The battles of Ypres and Cambrai,
+1917, though well-fought and not without results, robbed the British
+army for the time being of the initiative upon the Western Front.
+America became spoken of&mdash;1918, it was said, would be a defensive
+year. Yet the German success had in reality no effect upon our
+Infantry's morale. By the troops engaged in it Cambrai had been almost
+forgotten before Christmas. Less than a year afterwards the Germans
+had lost, not only Cambrai, but the war.</p>
+
+<p>The end of 1917 was as cold as its beginning. Snow and frost, destined
+to play utter havoc with the roads, laid their white mantle on the
+battlefield. Fighting had slackened when the Battalion went into the
+line in front of Gonnelieu. The trenches there ran oddly between
+derelict tanks, light railways, and dismantled huts; in No-Man's-Land
+lay several batteries of our guns.</p>
+
+<a id="img154" name="img154"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img154.jpg" width="400" height="267"
+alt="The Canal Du Nord At Ypres." title="The Canal Du Nord At Ypres.">
+</div>
+
+<p>On December 7 the 183rd Brigade relieved the Battalion, which moved
+back to tents in Havrincourt Wood. It was bitter! Shells and aeroplane
+bombs made the wood dangerous as well as cold. On the 10th a further
+tour in the front line commenced This time trenches north-east of
+Villers Plouich were held. Wiring was strenuously carried out, but
+save for activity by trench-mortars the enemy lay quiet. The Battalion
+returned to Havrincourt Wood on December 15 and remained in its frozen
+tents until the Division was relieved by the 63rd. After one night at
+Lechelle the Battalion entrained
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page155" name="page155"></a>(p. 155)</span>
+at Ytres and moved back
+to Christmas rest-billets at Suzanne, near Bray.</p>
+
+<p>Huts, built by the French but vacated more than a year ago and now
+very dilapidated, formed the accommodation. In them Christmas dinners,
+to procure which Bennett had proceeded early from the line, were
+eaten. And O'Meara conducted the Brigade band.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter XIII.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page156" name="page156"></a>(p. 156)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE GREAT GERMAN ATTACK OF
+MARCH 21,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">January, February, March, 1918.</span></h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+The French relieved on the St. Quentin front. &mdash; The calm
+before the storm. &mdash; A golden age. &mdash; The Warwick raid. &mdash; The
+German attack launched. &mdash; Defence of Enghien Redoubt. &mdash; Counter-attack
+by the Royal Berks. &mdash; Holnon Wood lost. &mdash; The
+battle for the Beauvoir line. &mdash; The enemy breaks
+through.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>The Battalion's mid-winter respite was brief. On New Year's Eve, 1917,
+the 2/4th Oxfords quitted the wretched Suzanne huts and marched
+through Harbonnières to Caix. No 'march past' was necessary or would
+have been possible, for so slippery was the road that the men had to
+trail along its untrodden sides as best they could. Old 61st
+Divisional sign-boards left standing nearly a year ago greeted the
+return to an area which was familiar to many. The destination should
+have been Vauvillers, but the inhabitants of that village were
+stricken with measles. Better billets and freedom from infection
+compensated for a longer march. At Caix the Battalion was comfortable
+for a week.</p>
+
+<p>The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page157" name="page157"></a>(p. 157)</span>
+Division's move from the Bray-Suzanne area to south of
+the Somme heralded a new relief of the French, whose line was now to
+be shortened by the amount on its left flank between St. Quentin and
+La Fère. About January 11 the Battalion found itself once more in
+Holnon Wood, where a large number of huts and dug-outs had been made
+by the French since last spring. The front line, now about to be held
+between Favet and Gricourt, was almost in its old position. The
+outpost line of nine months ago had crystallised into the usual trench
+system. Those courteous preliminaries, so much the feature of a French
+relief, were, on this re-introduction to scenes soon to become so
+famous&mdash;and so tragic&mdash;a little marred by an untimely German shell
+which wounded Weller, who had accompanied the Colonel to see the new
+line.</p>
+
+<p>Industrious calm succeeded the relief. Since the Russian break-up and
+the consequent liberation from the Eastern Front of fresh German
+legions, the British army had been on the defensive. A big effort by
+the enemy was expected, and when it came, the St. Quentin front was
+not unlikely to receive the brunt of his massed attack. The months of
+January and February and the first half of March were ominously quiet.
+Shelling was spasmodic. After the artillery activity of the last
+summer and autumn our guns seemed lazy. So quiet was it that Abraham
+used to ride up to the two small copses that lay behind our front.</p>
+
+<p>For the time being the 'offensive spirit' was in abeyance; our
+paramount task was the perfection of our defensive system. By this
+time in the war it
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page158" name="page158"></a>(p. 158)</span>
+was acknowledged that against attacks in
+weight no actual line could be held intact. Faith in 'lines' became
+qualified in favour of the series of 'strong points' or redoubts,
+which were constructed to defend 'tactical features.' This policy,
+founded on our experience of the German defence during the Third
+Battle of Ypres, was very sound. All the redoubts constructed in the
+area occupied by the 184th Brigade were so well sited and so strongly
+wired that the faith seemed justified that they were part of one
+impregnable system. But against loss of one important factor no amount
+of industry could serve to insure. 'Strong points' must act in concert
+and for such mutual action 'on the day' good visibility was essential.
+As we shall see, this factor was denied. In rear of these redoubts,
+which lay along the ridge west of Fayet, a line known as the 'Battle
+Line' was fortified, and in rear again a trench was dug to mark the
+'Army Line,' where the last stand would be made. These lines were
+strong, but more reliance was apt to be placed upon their mere
+existence on the ground than, in default of any co-existent scheme to
+fill them at a crisis with appropriate garrisons, was altogether
+justified.<a id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p>Early in the year the Bucks had been taken from the Brigade (now like
+all Infantry Brigades reduced to three Battalions) and went to Nesle
+to work as an entrenching Battalion. Many old friends, including
+especially Colonel 'Jock' Muir, had to be parted with. The three
+Battalions which remained were now arranged in 'depth,' a phrase
+explained
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page159" name="page159"></a>(p. 159)</span>
+by stating that while one, say the Berks, held the
+front line 'twixt Fayet and Gricourt, the Gloucesters as Support
+Battalion would be in Holnon Wood and ourselves, the Oxfords, in
+reserve and back at Ugny. When a relief took place the Gloucesters
+went to the front line, ourselves to Holnon, and the Berks back to
+Ugny. The Battalion holding the line was similarly disposed in
+'depth,' for its headquarters and one company were placed more than a
+mile behind the actual front.</p>
+
+<p>After the January frost and snow had gone, a period of fine, clement
+weather set in. This, in a military sense, was a golden age. Boxing,
+thanks to encouragement from the Colonel and Brown and under the
+practical doctrine of 'Benny' Thomas, the Battalion pugilist,
+flourished as never before. Each tour some officers, instead of going
+to the line, were sent to worship at the shrine of Maxse. The
+Battalion reached the zenith of its efficiency. Early in March some
+reinforcements from the 6th Oxfords, who had been disbanded, arrived;
+they numbered two hundred. Among the new officers who joined were
+Foreshew, Rowbotham, and Cunningham. Foreshew received command of C
+Company, whose commander Matthews went to England for a six months'
+rest. To Hobbs also, our worthy quartermaster, it was necessary to bid
+a reluctant farewell. His successor, Murray, a very able officer from
+the 4th Gloucesters, arrived in time to check the table of stores
+before the opening of the great offensive.</p>
+
+<p>On the night of 18/19 March the Battalion went into the front line. C
+Company was on the right,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page160" name="page160"></a>(p. 160)</span>
+in front of Fayet; B Company,
+under the command of Wallington, was on the left, just south of
+Gricourt. A went to Fayet itself and D Company, commanded in
+Robinson's absence by Rowbotham, provided the garrison of Enghien
+Redoubt, which was a quarry near Selency Château; Battalion
+Headquarters also were at this redoubt. During the night of March 20 a
+raid on the Battalion's right was carried out near Cepy Farm by the
+182nd Brigade. It was successful. German prisoners from three
+divisions corroborated our suspicion that the great enemy offensive
+was about to be launched. From headquarters to headquarters throbbed
+the order to man battle stations. Ere dawn was due to lighten the sky
+a dense mist shrouded everything and added a fresh factor to the
+suspense.</p>
+
+<p>Early on March 21, only a short time after the Colonel had returned
+from visiting the front line posts, the ground shook to a mighty
+bombardment. At Amiens windows rattled in their frames. Trench mortars
+of all calibres and field guns, brought to closest range in the mist
+and darkness, began to pound a pathway through our wire. Back in
+artillery dug-outs the light of matches showed the time; it was 4.50
+a.m. The hour had struck. Our guns, whose programme in reply was the
+fruit of two months' preparation, made a peculiar echo as their shells
+crackled through the mist. Some 'silent' guns<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href="#footnote11">[11]</a> fired for the first
+time.</p>
+
+<p>On
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page161" name="page161"></a>(p. 161)</span>
+all headquarters, roads, redoubts, and observation posts
+the enemy's howitzer shells were falling with descending swoop, and
+battery positions were drenched with gas.</p>
+
+<p>In the back area the fire of long-range guns was brought with uncanny
+accuracy to bear against our rest billets, transport lines, and dumps.
+Cross-roads, bridges, and all vital spots in our communications, though
+never previously shelled, were receiving direct hits within a short
+time of the opening of the bombardment. The Berks had casualties at
+Ugny. Some English heavy batteries, recent arrivals on the front and
+seemingly undiscovered by the enemy, were now knocked out almost as
+soon as they had opened fire. The Artillery level crossing was hit by
+an early shell which blocked the road there with a huge crater. Never
+in the war had the Germans flung their shells so far or furiously as
+now.</p>
+
+<p>By daylight all front line wire had been destroyed, and our trenches
+everywhere were much damaged. The mist hung thick, but the Germans did
+not yet attack. About 9.30 a.m. the barrage was felt to lift westwards
+from Fayet and the fitful clatter of Lewis guns, firing in short
+bursts with sometimes a long one exhausting a 'drum,' was heard. In
+the front line showers of stick bombs announced the enemy's presence.
+Everywhere it seemed that quick-moving bodies in grey uniforms were
+closing in from either flank and were behind. In the mist our posts
+were soon over-run. Few of our men were left to rally at the 'keeps.'
+A messenger to A Company's platoons, which had been stationed in
+support at the famous 'Sunken Road,' found that place filled with
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page162" name="page162"></a>(p. 162)</span>
+Germans. Before noon the enemy had passed Fayet and his
+patrols had reached Selency and the Cottages.</p>
+
+<p>At Enghien Redoubt Battalion Headquarters had received no news of the
+attack having begun; the dense mist limited the view to fifty yards.
+The earliest intimation received by Colonel Wetherall of what was
+taking place was enemy rifle and machine-gun fire sweeping the
+parapet. At one corner of the redoubt some of the enemy broke in but
+were driven out by D Company with the bayonet. Outside Headquarters
+the first three men to put their heads over were killed by Germans,
+who had crept close along the sunken road which leads from Favet to
+Selency Château. The rifles and machine guns of the garrison opened up
+and gained superiority. The defence, destined to last for many hours,
+of Enghien Redoubt proved an important check to the enemy's advance
+and helped to save many of our guns.</p>
+
+<p>At 12 noon, after several patrols had failed to find out whether the
+enemy had captured Holnon, the Colonel himself went out to see all
+that was happening. He did not return, and shortly afterwards
+Headquarters were surrounded by the enemy, who had made ground on
+either flank. Nevertheless till 4.30 p.m. Cunningham, the officer left
+in command, held out most manfully. Of all the companies, Jones and
+less than fifty men had escaped capture. They reached the 'Battle
+Line' of trenches east of Holnon Wood, and there joined the
+Gloucesters, who had not yet been engaged in the fighting. The enemy,
+having captured Maissemy, Fayet,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page163" name="page163"></a>(p. 163)</span>
+and Holnon, paused to
+reorganise as evening fell.</p>
+
+<p>Towards evening on the 21st the Berks, who were in reserve when the
+attack started, were sent to counter-attack against Maissemy, which
+had been lost by the division on our left. Near the windmill, which
+stands on the high ground west of the village, Dimmer, the Berks V.C.
+Colonel, was killed leading his men on horseback. This local attempt
+to stem the German onslaught proved of no avail. At 10.30 a.m. on
+March 22 the enemy, whose movements were again covered by mist,
+pressed the attack against the Battle Line. Almost before the
+Gloucesters knew they were attacked in front, they found themselves
+beset in flanks and rear.</p>
+
+<p>At noon the enemy from its north side had penetrated Holnon Wood.
+Gloucesters and Oxfords fell back to join the garrison of the Beauvoir
+Line, all parts of which were heavily engaged by evening. A gallant
+resistance, in which the Gloucesters under Colonel Lawson were
+specially distinguished, was made by the 184th Infantry Brigade. The
+General encouraged the defence in person. But the line was too weakly
+manned long to withstand the enemy; though parts of it held till after
+8 p.m. on March 22, before midnight the whole of this last Army Line
+had been lost. The enemy had 'broken through.'</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter XIV.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page164" name="page164"></a>(p. 164)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE BRITISH RETREAT,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">March, 1918.</span></h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+Rear-guard actions. &mdash; The Somme crossings. &mdash; Bennett
+relieved by the 20th Division at Voyennes. &mdash; Davenport with
+mixed troops ordered to counter-attack at Ham. &mdash; Davenport
+killed. &mdash; The enemy crosses the Somme. &mdash; The stand by
+the 184th Infantry Brigade at Nesle. &mdash; Colonel Wetherall
+wounded. &mdash; Counter-attack against La Motte. &mdash; Bennett captured. &mdash; The
+Battalion's sacrifice in the great battle.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>After the battle for the Beauvoir Line the 184th Infantry Brigade was
+ordered back to Nesle. At Languevoisin on March 23 we find the relics
+of the 2/4th Oxfords under the command of Major Bennett, who with a
+force including other members of the Battalion had been providing
+rear-guards at the crossings of the Somme. What force was this? To
+understand the story it is necessary to go back a little and see what
+had been happening behind the line since March 21.</p>
+
+<p>When the attack was known to have commenced, all transport,
+quartermasters' stores, and men left out of the line were ordered back
+to Ugny, where Bennett as senior Major present formed all our
+divisional details into a composite Battalion some 900 strong. Early
+on March 22 Colonel Wetherall, limping and tired, arrived. He bore
+the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page165" name="page165"></a>(p. 165)</span>
+tale of his adventure. During the 21st we saw him
+disappear from Enghien Redoubt to go on a reconnaissance. Near Holnon
+he was surrounded by an enemy patrol and led a prisoner towards St.
+Quentin; but when the fire of 6-inch howitzers scared his escort into
+shell-holes, the Colonel escaped, and the same night, choosing his
+opportunity to slip between the German digging parties, contrived to
+reach our lines.</p>
+
+<p>As March 22 lengthened out, the tide of battle rolled nearer and
+nearer towards Ugny, above which air fighting at only a few hundred
+feet from the ground was taking place. At 7 p.m. Bennett had orders to
+move his men westwards across the Somme. Soon afterwards a runner came
+post-haste. He told of the fighting on the Beauvoir line; the intrepid
+General had been wounded in the head while with his shrapnel helmet in
+his hand he waved encouragement to his men. Colonel Wetherall had
+already started on the way to Languevoisin but was caught up at
+Matigny. He the same night (22nd) regained the Beauvoir line and took
+command of the Brigade. As we have seen, he moved back with the
+Brigade on the next day.</p>
+
+<p>Further developments soon diverted Bennett's force, whose fortunes we
+are following. At Matigny he was ordered by the Major-General with
+half his force to guard the Offoy bridgehead and with the other half
+to hold Voyennes. The Offoy garrison was despatched under Moberly, who
+was commanding the details of the 184th Brigade, including a hundred
+Oxfords. Moberly's force comprised
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page166" name="page166"></a>(p. 166)</span>
+many administrative
+personnel. 'What your men lack in numbers they must make up in
+courage,' was the Major-General's encouragement.</p>
+
+<p>But the men were not at once put to the test. The 20th Division, which
+was covering the retreat across the Somme, relieved the Offoy
+rear-guard, of which Davenport had now assumed command, early in the
+morning of March 23, and Bennett was likewise relieved in his duties
+at Voyennes, where the bridge was blown up. Though the Offoy
+bridgehead had been taken over by the 20th Division, Davenport's
+troops were kept in support along the railway embankment at Hombleux,
+for it was feared that the enemy had already commenced to cross the
+Somme at Ham. During the morning of the 23rd Davenport received
+peremptory orders to make a counter-attack against the town with the
+object of regaining possession of its bridgehead. Considerable success
+resulted; Verlaines was cleared of the enemy's patrols, and the
+advance reached the ridge east of that village.</p>
+
+<a id="img167" name="img167"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img167.jpg" width="400" height="540"
+alt="The Retreat Behind the Somme. Sketch map illustrating
+the rear-guard actions of 184 INF BDE between HAM and NESLE on March 24
+and 25 1918." title="The Retreat Behind the Somme. Sketch map illustrating
+the rear-guard actions of 184 INF BDE between HAM and NESLE on March 24
+and 25 1918.">
+</div>
+
+<p>With fresh troops acting on a concerted plan something might have been
+accomplished. Davenport's men were a disorganised mixture of many
+battalions, including, besides the Oxfords and other representatives
+of the 184th Brigade, a number of Cornwalls and King's Liverpools.
+They were unfed, and the demoralisation of the retreat was beginning
+to do its work. As always on these occasions, when officers of
+different services were thrown together, divided counsels were the
+result. Moberly, an officer who could have been relied upon to make
+the best of the situation, was wounded in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page168" name="page168"></a>(p. 168)</span>
+the leg during a
+moonlight reconnaissance with Davenport.</p>
+
+<p>By March 24 the position was unaltered; the troops were still lining
+the ridge east of Verlaines and awaited the enemy's next move with
+their field of fire in many cases masked by, or masking, that of their
+comrades. Against this type of defence the enemy's tactics did not
+require to be as infallible as they perhaps seemed. Our pity is drawn
+to these English troops, disorganised, without their own proper
+commanders, unsupplied with rations&mdash;the stop-gaps thrust forward in
+the last stages of a retreat.</p>
+
+<p>At 9 a.m. the enemy, whose patrols had during the night of March 23/24
+been feeling their way up the slopes from the Somme Canal, commenced
+to press forward in earnest. The mixed troops, who were lining the
+ridge, had been 'down' too long to offer much resistance. They melted
+away, as leaderless troops will. Davenport, a gallant officer who to
+the very last never spared himself, was killed, shot through the head
+at Verlaines. The enemy, whose advanced artillery was already in
+action from behind Ham, had secured Esmery Hallon by the evening.
+Nesle was threatened.</p>
+
+<a id="img168" name="img168"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img168.jpg" width="300" height="418"
+alt="LIEUT.-COL. H. E. de R. WETHERALL. D.S.O., M.C." title="LIEUT.-COL. H. E. de R. WETHERALL. D.S.O., M.C.">
+</div>
+
+<p>On the same day of which I was last speaking&mdash;March 24&mdash;the 184th
+Brigade, minus those Oxfords who were in action with the 20th
+Division, though sadly wasted in numbers, formed up again to make a
+stand. Colonel Wetherall, the acting Brigadier, had received orders to
+hold the line of the Canal east and south east of Nesle. On the left
+of this line stood the Oxfords under Bennett, 200
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page169" name="page169"></a>(p. 169)</span>
+Berks
+under Willink were in the centre, while the Gloucesters, about 120
+strong under Colonel Lawson, guarded the right. At 11 a.m. on March 25
+the enemy attacked. As often during these days, when a line was held
+solidly in one place, it broke elsewhere. By noon the enemy had
+captured Nesle, and the left flank of the Brigade was turned. During
+the fight Colonel Wetherall was wounded in the neck by a piece of
+shell and owed his life to the Brigade Major, Howitt, who held the
+arteries.</p>
+
+<p>The line was driven back to Billancourt and the same night (25th) the
+remnants of the XVIII Corps withdrew in darkness to Roye, a town where
+our hospitals were still at work, evacuating as fast as possible the
+streams of wounded from the battle. One of the last patients to leave
+by train was Wetherall, who at this crisis passed under the care of
+Stobie, the Oxfords' old M.O.</p>
+
+<p>On March 26 we see the 184th Brigade held in reserve near Mezières, to
+be suddenly moved at midnight of March 27/28 by lorries. The lorries
+made towards Amiens, and it appeared that the battered relics of the
+Brigade were being withdrawn. The belief was disappointed. At Villers
+Bretonneux Bennett received orders from a staff officer to go to
+Marcelçave, where the 61st Division was being concentrated for a
+counter-attack at dawn against the village of La Motte. In the
+darkness the route was missed and the convoy drove straight into our
+front line. Marcelçave was reached eventually, but so late that a dawn
+attack was impossible. At 10 a.m. on March 28 the forlorn enterprise,
+in which the 183rd Brigade, the Gloucesters,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page170" name="page170"></a>(p. 170)</span>
+and the Berks
+shared, was launched from the station yard. The troops were footsore,
+sleepless, and unfed. They were mostly men from regimental
+employ&mdash;pioneers, clerks, storemen&mdash;to send whom forward across
+strange country to drive the enemy from the village he had seized on
+the important Amiens-St. Quentin road was a mockery. Such efforts at
+counter-attack resulted in more and more ground being lost. Still, the
+men staggered forward bravely, to come almost at once under fierce
+enfilade machine-gun fire. The losses were heavy. Craddock, a young
+officer now serving under Bennett, moved about among the men,
+encouraging them by his example of coolness and gallantry.</p>
+
+<p>When 350 yards short of La Motte the advance was driven to take cover.
+It was useless to press on; in fact, already there was real danger of
+being surrounded. Bennett, whose leadership throughout was excellent,
+with difficulty extricated his men by doubling them in two's across
+the open. Towards evening those that got back were placed in trenches
+outside Marcelçave.</p>
+
+<p>By now that village was being severely shelled and bombed, and in
+danger of becoming surrounded by the enemy. Soon after dark it was
+attacked in earnest. Bennett stayed too long in Marcelçave attempting
+to get news of the situation and some orders. Brigade Headquarters had
+in fact already left, before Bennett, instead of returning to his
+former headquarters, decided to join his men in the trenches before
+the village. Those trenches were no longer being fought for. Near the
+railway bridge
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page171" name="page171"></a>(p. 171)</span>
+he ran straight into the enemy as they
+swarmed towards the village and was captured. The remains of the
+Battalion were driven back on Villers Bretonneux, the contents of
+which village had to make up for absent rations. Robinson, who had
+returned from leave in time to take part in the La Motte affair,
+assumed command. The Australians were at hand; fresh troops arrived to
+relieve those worn out by a week's continuous fighting. After four
+days at Gentelles all that were left of the 2/4th Oxfords, together
+with the other fragments of the 61st Division, were withdrawn for rest
+and reorganisation west of Amiens.</p>
+
+<p>A Battalion is too small for its historian to enter into any
+controversy upon the measures taken for the defence of the St. Quentin
+front. Whatever else the Oxfords could have done would have had no
+effect upon the main issues of this great attack. But for the mist the
+German onslaught, delivered in the preponderance of four to one, would
+hardly have achieved the same historical result. The Battalion had
+stood in the forefront of the greatest battle of the war. Accounts,
+already growing legendary, tell how our men acquitted themselves that
+day. Some posts fought on till all were killed or wounded. There were
+few stragglers. Of B Company, only one man returned from the front
+line. It is said of A Company that, when surrounded by the enemy,
+Brown formed the men into a circle, back to back, and fought without
+surrender.</p>
+
+<p>The monument which stands above Fayet is happily placed. It is
+inscribed to the sons of France who fell in action nearly fifty years
+ago. On
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page172" name="page172"></a>(p. 172)</span>
+March 21, 1918, it was enriched by its association
+with a later sacrifice. The credit won in this lost battle gives to
+the 2/4th Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry a share of honour in the war
+equal to that which has been earned by our most successful troops in
+the advance.</p>
+
+<p>The loss in all ranks had been so heavy that the killed and missing
+could only be computed by counting over those few that remained.
+Bennett and all four company commanders in the line were missing. The
+Colonel and Moberly had been sent to England wounded. Jones was the
+only officer from the front line who remained safe. Cairns, the
+Sergeant-Major of A Company, had come through and earned distinction.
+The loss in Lewis gunners, signallers, and runners had been especially
+heavy. Douglas, the Regimental Sergeant-Major, after most valuable
+work in the Battalion, had been killed. Transport and stores, for
+extricating which credit was due to Abraham and Murray, alone came out
+complete.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter XV.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page173" name="page173"></a>(p. 173)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE BATTLE OF THE LYS,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">April-May, 1918</span>.</h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+Effects of the German offensive. &mdash; The Battalion amalgamated
+with the Bucks. &mdash; Entrainment for the Merville area. &mdash; A
+dramatic journey. &mdash; The enemy break-through on the
+Lys. &mdash; The Battalion marches into action. &mdash; The defence of
+Robecq. &mdash; Operations of April 12, 13, 14. &mdash; The fight for
+Baquerolle Farm. &mdash; A troublesome flank. &mdash; Billeted in St.
+Venant. &mdash; The lunatic asylum. &mdash; La Pierrière. &mdash; The Robecq
+sector.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>The closing phases of the war are so comparatively fresh and vividly
+remembered that a less close description need be attempted of them
+than of more early periods. I feel that justice cannot easily be done
+to the events of last year, events which in dramatic force eclipsed
+any since the Battle of the Marne. Of 1918, moreover, the facts have
+not yet had time to drop into that relief which a historian prefers
+before reducing them to chronicle. It is unlikely that, in years
+hence, when the full history of the war is written, the German
+offensive of 1918 will not be taken as the turning point in the great
+conflict. For the second time since the invasion of Belgium and for
+the first since conscription, readers of the <i>Times</i> saw a black line
+sagging across the map towards the English Channel. In France at the
+end of March conditions meriting
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page174" name="page174"></a>(p. 174)</span>
+the popular description of
+'wind up' were recognisable. Bases were crowded to overflowing. Train
+services were seriously deranged by the German approach to Amiens. The
+traffic upon the main roads in the Somme valley was an eloquent
+intermingling of troops, guns, and civilians evacuating as much of
+their property as possible upon wagons and carts, which were piled
+high with children, tables, utensils, bedsteads, farm implements, and
+always mattresses. The shelling of Amiens Cathedral and the long gun
+which played on Paris were signs of the destructive ascendancy of the
+enemy. Our railways, which depended on a few junctions now placed none
+too far behind the line, were attacked vigorously by the enemy in the
+hope of their disorganisation. St. Pol station was shelled to ruins;
+Hazebrouck, Chocques, and Doullens were nightly targets for German
+bombs. Already at Tinques and Achiet the R.T.O.s had been killed. (We
+had done the same and more to the Germans for two years). Our
+railwaymen and engine drivers showed staunch devotion to duty and were
+as much responsible as any branch of the service for keeping our
+armies fighting during the critical months of the spring and early
+summer.</p>
+
+<p>To Avesne, a remote village behind Amiens, the 2/4th Oxfords were
+withdrawn early in April for completion with new drafts and for
+refitting. An amalgamation&mdash;which was a great advantage to both
+units&mdash;of the Battalion with the Bucks now took place. As the 25th
+Entrenching Battalion the Bucks had been engaged in the fighting round
+Nesle,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page175" name="page175"></a>(p. 175)</span>
+when they became attached to a Brigade of the 20th
+Division. They were now most anxious to be sent to join us or at all
+events to rejoin the 61st Division. Unable to obtain the orders they
+desired, the Bucks availed themselves of the prevailing confusion to
+march away 'without authority' and were already at Avesne when the
+Oxfords arrived.</p>
+
+<p>The addition of some 300 N.C.O.s and men, with whom came such valued
+officers as Clutsom, Buttfield, Kemp, Lodge, Boase, Kirk, and several
+others, acted as an infusion of new blood and vigour into the
+Battalion which had given nearly all of its best in the St. Quentin
+fighting. As the senior officer now present, I was placed in command
+of the Battalion after the amalgamation, for which no more suitable
+surroundings could have been found than Avesne, whose château and
+grounds we had to ourselves. On April 7, before the regimental tailors
+had half finished substituting the red circles for the black ones
+previously carried by the Bucks, a large draft of 431 men joined the
+Battalion from England. Many of these were boys, but among them stood
+a few veteran soldiers who had been out before and been wounded. With
+this draft, which I believe was posted without the knowledge that the
+Bucks had joined us, the Battalion reached the strength of over 1,000
+men. It was a goodly force, unhampered by passengers. With Abraham,
+Murray, and Regimental Sergeant-Major Hedley (from the Bucks) those
+departments of the Battalion not purely tactical were sure to be well
+managed. I felt quite confident in the command of this force of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page176" name="page176"></a>(p. 176)</span>
+men, and General Pagan, the new Brigadier, was kind enough to
+express his confidence in my ability.</p>
+
+<p>Our billets at Avesne&mdash;the entire Battalion was accommodated in the
+buildings of a large château from which some army school had been
+precipitated by the German advance&mdash;were too good for much hope to be
+entertained of a long stay in them. The unified command from now
+onwards brought more rapid moves than formerly had been the custom.
+Thus at a few hours' notice 'billeting parties' were ordered, not back
+towards Amiens, but to Merville and St. Venant. The 61st was to become
+a Division in G.H.Q. reserve behind the old Laventie sector. But
+before Battalions could follow their representatives and while the
+billeting was still in progress the Germans attacked and broke through
+on the Lys, south of Armentières. We marched, however, from Avesne on
+April 11 in happy ignorance of this new battle. Not till Hangest, and
+there by means of a Continental <i>Daily Mail</i>, was the changed prospect
+of our destination revealed. The Hangest R.T.O. was half beside
+himself with excitement and delay. There were several hours to spend
+in waiting, and during this time the kits were retrieved from the
+station yard and a prudent change was made from soft hats into
+shrapnel helmets and fighting equipment. After a rapid entrainment we
+at last pulled out at about 2 p.m. So strong was the Battalion that D
+Company, which itself numbered over 200, was unable to travel with us
+and had to follow by a later train. In its early stages the journey,
+though similar to most of the kind,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page177" name="page177"></a>(p. 177)</span>
+produced one formidable
+incident, for at the top of the steep gradient between Candas and
+Doullens the train snapped in half; its hind portion was left poised
+in a cutting for an hour, until two locomotives arrived to push it on
+to Doullens, whither the forward half, in gay ignorance, had run.</p>
+
+<p>The night was overcast, a fact which doubtless saved us from the
+attention of enemy aeroplanes. The journey from St. Pol through
+Chocques and Lillers to Steenbecque is stamped on the memory by its
+more than many halts, the occasional glare of mines and munition
+factories which, in anticipation of another break-through, seemed to
+be working at tensest pressure to evacuate coal and manufactured
+stores from capture by the enemy; by the loud booming of artillery, to
+which the train seemed to draw specially near at Chocques and
+Isbergues; and the final sudden grinding of the brakes at Steenbecque,
+distracted railwaymen, and the small hut in which Bennett and the
+Brigade Staff were exhibiting a mixture of excitement, impatience and
+a sort of reckless familiarity with this apparent repetition of the
+Somme retreat. At Steenbecque station, which is three miles short of
+Hazebrouck and hidden behind the Nieppe Forest, we received the latest
+news of the battle into which we were being so dramatically plunged:
+the enemy had broken through the feeble resistance of the Portuguese
+and was outside Merville. My orders were to take up a line, which was
+at present covered by the 51st Division, between Robecq and Calonne
+and for that object to detrain and move forward immediately. The
+station yard was ill-suited to a rapid
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page178" name="page178"></a>(p. 178)</span>
+detrainment, there
+being few ramps or sidings, and despite the impatience of Bennett, a
+Divisional Staff Officer, who was most anxious to get finished before
+dawn, we were kept seated in the train for nearly two hours. This
+delay was really most valuable, for it enabled me to appreciate the
+situation and issue detailed orders, which otherwise it would never
+have been possible to give.</p>
+
+<p>As the dawn of April 12, 1918, was breaking, we set foot to the long
+pavé road which runs through the Nieppe Forest to St. Venant, followed
+by the transport and the cookers, from which at the cost of never so
+much delay I felt determined to give the men, who had had no proper
+meal for twenty-four hours, a good square feed before becoming
+involved in the uncertain and possibly rationless conflict which lay
+before us in country that was likely to have been looted by the
+retreating Portuguese. Nevertheless, during this breakfast, taken at
+the eastern edge of the great Forest of Nieppe, feverish messages
+arrived, which said that the enemy was in Robecq and already crossing
+the La Bassée Canal. This, of course, was not true, but troops who are
+moving up towards an advancing enemy, though met by exaggerated and
+conflicting reports of the hostile progress, are almost confined,
+until actual encounter occurs, to this species of information. By now
+Corps Headquarters, after a three years' sojourn at Hinges, had
+commenced to scour the country west of Aire for a suitably remote
+château. Except for Howitt there was no staff officer upon the spot,
+and we found after passing St. Venant towards Robecq that it was every
+man
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page179" name="page179"></a>(p. 179)</span>
+for himself in the task of stemming the German attack.
+Parts of the Division, notably the 5th D.C.L.I. and the 2/6th
+Warwicks, which had been detrained earlier than ourselves to join in
+the battle, had been roughly handled in fighting south of Merville
+during the night of April 11/12. The 51st Division was to all intents
+out of action, and there was a gap of more than a mile between Robecq
+and Calonne on the morning of April 12. Into, but not through, this
+gap German patrols had penetrated, and at Carvin had crossed the
+streams Noc and Clarence. As a matter of fact these enemy were but the
+flankers of an advanced guard, whose objective at this time lay in the
+direction of Haverskerque. Thus it befell that the Battalion came into
+no direct conflict with the main enemy forces on April 12.</p>
+
+<a id="img180" name="img180"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img180.jpg" width="500" height="367"
+alt="Bird's-eye Map of the Robecq area." title="Bird's-eye Map of the Robecq area.">
+</div>
+
+<p>Still the situation at 9 a.m. was both obscure and difficult. Until
+their ammunition seemed to be expended, our artillery, which had
+withdrawn behind the La Bassée Canal, kept up a fire upon the open
+ground between Les Amusoires, where the Battalion was concentrating,
+and the Calonne road, which it was necessary for us to cross.
+Doubtless this untoward shelling was due to the reports spread by
+stragglers, of whom there was a considerable number from different
+units. Shortly after this occurrence I had the good fortune to meet a
+gunner subaltern, and for the next few days, pending a reinforcement
+of the artillery, what guns there were gave us excellent support. A
+greater menace came from the long dumps of our shells north of Robecq
+cemetery, to which some irresponsible person had set
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page181" name="page181"></a>(p. 181)</span>
+fire.
+An acre of explosives was ablaze, barring progress across a wide area.
+Later a fusillade of small-arms ammunition broke out near St. Venant
+station, suggestive of fighting in our rear. There also it had been
+the final errand of some dump-keeper, in a fancied performance of
+duty, to destroy ammunition of which there was a crying need.
+Subsequently St. Venant was quite heavily bombed by our own
+aircraft&mdash;an example of what could happen during the time that our
+higher organisation was out of gear.</p>
+
+<p>The appearance of the Battalion, which could easily have passed for a
+Brigade of Infantry as it issued, about 10 a.m., from among the trees
+of Les Amusoires, may have been a moral factor in itself sufficient to
+indispose the German outposts to remain longer upon the outskirts of
+Robecq. From my former knowledge of the ground I decided to use no
+delay in occupying the network of orchards and as many of the farms as
+possible along the Calonne road before hostile opposition increased.
+After sharp fighting and some 30 casualties, mostly in C Company,
+which was on the left, a line was reached beyond Noc river, between
+Robecq and Calonne. On the right we linked up with the Berks (who
+placed their headquarters in the estaminet at Robecq cross-roads) and
+on the left with the 2/7th Warwicks, whose line bent back at a right
+angle across the Calonne road towards La Haye. During the afternoon
+fighting for the possession of Baquerolle Farm and its adjacent
+orchards engaged the Battalion's left flank. In this fighting Lodge, a
+young officer to whom command of C Company had fallen in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page182" name="page182"></a>(p. 182)</span>
+consequence of a wound to Captain Buttfield, and also Boase much
+distinguished themselves. To them and to the N.C.O.s of C Company, and
+also to the conduct of the new draft, was owing the success of the
+day's operations. By 3 p.m. not only had the Battalion accomplished
+the task assigned to it twenty-four hours previously, when the extent
+of the German advance was unknown, but ground was being made and the
+enemy was being driven backward upon Calonne. Robecq was guaranteed.</p>
+
+<p>All day very severe fighting was in progress a mile to our left.
+Merville and Calonne were almost blotted out in smoke, and the air was
+thronged with aeroplanes. The heap of shells behind us still burned.
+By now the clouds which rose from this bonfire had become such a pall
+in the sky that the German balloons&mdash;the enemy was expert in moving
+forward this machinery of observation&mdash;could see nothing of the
+surrounding country. The Robecq district was remarkable for its
+well-stocked farms, and with the general flight of the civilians large
+numbers of unmilked cows, geese, goats, hens, and all manner of
+farmyard creatures commenced to stray across the fields and down the
+roads. Battalion Headquarters, which were ultimately established at a
+large farmhouse in Les Amusoires, as dusk approached, seemed to become
+the rendez-vous for lowing cattle, hens, pigs, goats, and small armies
+of geese, to manage all of which a certain number of cowherds and
+farm-hands had to be detailed. Nor was it only at Battalion
+Headquarters that these movable larders were in the process of
+congregation.</p>
+
+<p>At nightfall, when the companies&mdash;D Company had
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page183" name="page183"></a>(p. 183)</span>
+rejoined
+during' the afternoon&mdash;were settled into a secure outpost position and
+the Brigadier (General Pagan) had visited and approved the
+dispositions, an order from Corps was received to retreat a mile and
+to dig trenches across the open, hedgeless fields which stretched
+between Robecq and St. Venant. The whole of the Calonne road was to be
+abandoned. It was difficult to account for such a policy, which meant,
+not only the relinquishment of two bridge-heads of some importance and
+numerous farms and orchards which had been carried at expense and
+since garrisoned to good purpose, but the adoption instead of a
+position in rear, which was condemned with every tactical disadvantage
+and in which it would be impossible to remain once the enemy had
+secured possession of the ground we were now ordered to give up. I am
+happy to say that these orders, which can only have emanated from some
+staff inadequately informed upon the situation, were cancelled during
+the night and before the Battalion had acted on them. The fact is, I
+expressly remained in the forward position until at least rations had
+been delivered to the men, and by the time that had been done the
+staff pendulum had swung again. The salient of Baquerolle Farm, which
+it had cost valuable lives to reach, was retained.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of April 13 the enemy, under cover of a dense mist,
+which allowed his use of close-range artillery, attacked St. Floris,
+in front of which the Gloucesters were stationed. A demonstration
+against the Battalion accompanied, and in the mist it was uncertain
+whether an enemy attack on
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page184" name="page184"></a>(p. 184)</span>
+Robecq were not developing. The
+attack died down without the Germans having penetrated the
+Gloucesters, who put up a stout defence. Our line elsewhere was firm.</p>
+
+<p>On the next day it was decided to use an opportunity to improve the
+position of our outpost line by occupying a group of cottages which
+lay in front. A platoon of A Company practically reached the nearest
+cottages without a sign of hostile opposition being shown. The fate of
+this little operation was the fruit of my miscalculation of the
+enemy's strength. The Germans knew better than ourselves how to sit
+still behind their machine-guns and avoid discovery. French civilians
+were moving about among the cottages at the time when our advance to
+occupy them was made and it seemed impossible that the enemy could be
+holding them even weakly. Civilians, too, were mingled in the fray as
+well on this as on later occasions. After trench-warfare days there
+was an incongruity in some episodes, which was not devoid of humour.
+One old Frenchman, at an hour when his farm was actually being fought
+over, arrived at Company Headquarters with a special passport to feed
+his beasts; and the tenacity of an old woman in clinging to her
+household goods terminated in her discovery, at the time of an attack,
+in a shell-hole in No-Man's-Land, where she was sheltering from the
+machine-gun barrage under a large umbrella (one felt that she at least
+deserved a copy of the operation orders!) During the ensuing weeks
+visits by French civilians to the front line became such that almost
+as many sentries were required to watch or restrain
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page185" name="page185"></a>(p. 185)</span>
+their
+movements as were needed against the enemy.</p>
+
+<a id="img185" name="img185"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img185.jpg" width="400" height="499"
+alt="Robecq Old Mill &amp; Bridge." title="Robecq Old Mill &amp; Bridge.">
+</div>
+
+<p>A more serious attack, in which the 4th Division upon our right was
+intended to co-operate, was made by B Company at 7.30 p.m. on April 15
+against the same cottages, which formed part of the hamlet called La
+Pierre au Beurre. Our bombardment in support of this attack was almost
+due to start, when an urgent message from the line announced that
+large forces of the enemy were massing opposite our front. To have
+called for S.O.S. fire by the artillery would totally have upset the
+programme of attack, and one could only hope that our zero would be
+the earlier. Luck was in our favour. Whatever else happened that
+night, it is certain that the enemy received a severe shelling from
+our guns.</p>
+
+<p>The attack, carried out by B Company under Stanley, with D in support,
+was quite successful in its plan but not in its result. From a cause
+such as every series of complicated operations in open warfare
+threatened to introduce, the troops of the 4th Division on our right
+failed to co-operate as we expected. O'Meara, whom Stanley had placed
+in charge of his leading troops, after securing the cottages named as
+his objective, found himself attacked by the enemy from the very
+direction whence he had counted on assistance. After ineffectual
+attempts by our 'liaison' officer, Kirk, to get our neighbours to do
+their share, B Company had to be withdrawn to their original position.
+The 4th Division at this time were the flank division of one corps
+while we were of another. To reach the Battalion
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page186" name="page186"></a>(p. 186)</span>
+acting on
+our right a notice of our plan had to climb up through our Brigade,
+Division, and Corps to Army and down again as many steps the other
+side. A staff-officer from Army or from Corps should have been on the
+spot.</p>
+
+<p>Coucher and Kemp, two capital officers, were killed during the evening
+when this attack took place. Our other casualties were Killed, 2;
+Wounded, 18; Missing, 1.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout April 13 and for several days afterwards desultory
+fighting, in which our trench-mortars under Miller performed good
+service, was maintained for the possession of Baquerolle Farm and
+another lying 150 yards south of it and christened Boase's Farm. Both
+remained in our hands. With the troops on our left flank there was
+some difficulty. Their line bent back awkwardly, and when the enemy
+shelled the houses on the Calonne road, where their right flank
+rested, they showed signs of withdrawing and leaving our C Company 'in
+the air.' The Germans quickly benefited by this irresolution, for they
+commenced to push forward from house to house along the Calonne road,
+until Baquerolle Farm was in danger of being taken in its rear. The
+prompt determination of Lodge, the officer I have already mentioned as
+commanding C Company, served to avert critical consequences. He
+delivered a local counter-attack, capturing a machine-gun and killing
+several of the enemy. Our neighbours thus reoccupied their former
+positions, but were warned in Divisional Orders not to give up any
+more of the Robecq-Calonne road. This incident, which rightly
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page187" name="page187"></a>(p. 187)</span>
+earned for 'Tommy' Lodge a Military Cross, had a vexatious
+sequel a few days later. In quoting where the left flank of the
+Battalion in fact rested I made a slip in the co-ordinates of its map
+reference. By that mistake I was trapped, when it appeared as black
+and white in relief orders, into having to hand over 100 yards of
+extra frontage, and had the mortification of causing several hours of
+troublesome delay to the front line, besides innocently saddling my
+successors with responsibility that was not honestly theirs to
+receive.</p>
+
+<p>By April 16 the tactical situation was already stable. On that
+night&mdash;in reality during the early hours of April 17&mdash;the Battalion
+was relieved almost in the ordinary way by the Gloucesters, who came
+forward from the luxury of St. Venant and took over the line between
+Carvin and Baquerolle. St. Venant had been Portuguese G.H.Q. but was
+so no longer. It was by now receiving plenty of 5.9s and was rapidly
+losing the character of the quiet, well-to-do little town in which
+part of the Division was to have been billeted when it left the Amiens
+district. Still, for the time being, what St. Venant received in
+shells it paid for in choice vintages and fine houses. The Germans
+were not the only people to taste a glass of French wine during the
+Great War. About this time Colonel Boyle, who had commanded the 6th
+Oxfords until their disbandment, arrived to assume command of the
+Battalion. He remained till Wetherall, whose wound had taken him to
+England, returned.</p>
+
+<p>For the rest of April and during May the Battalion continued to do
+tours in the Robecq sector, which,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page188" name="page188"></a>(p. 188)</span>
+owing to its proximity to
+Givenchy and Béthune, was never quiet so long as the enemy was
+planning to attack those places. An alteration of the front was
+brought about on April 23, when the Gloucesters under Colonel Lawson
+advanced in co-operation with the 4th Division and captured Riez du
+Vintage and La Pierre au Beurre. Of this victory some spoils fell to
+the Battalion, which was holding the front line. Company
+Sergeant-Major Moss, of D Company, who went out to reconnoitre two
+hours after the attack had taken place, brought in forty-five
+prisoners, and during the following night half-a-dozen machine-guns
+were collected by the company.</p>
+
+<p>German shelling at this time was often heavy. The tracks across the
+open up to the front line were rendered specially unpleasant by the
+pernicious '106' fuzes, with which the enemy's artillery was well
+supplied. From Robecq, which was steadily being shelled to ruins and
+through which one passed with reluctance, a disinterested salvage
+party, consisting of Stanley and the officers of B Company, brought a
+piano, which was destined to be an historic instrument. On more than
+one occasion the Battalion returned from its spell in the front line
+to the St. Venant Asylum, a large institution said to be the second
+largest of the kind in France. Its protesting inmates had been removed
+in lorries at the time of the German capture of Merville, and the long
+galleries and rooms thereafter became filled with troops. The ample
+bath-house, laundry, and kitchen of the Asylum, though ravaged by
+shelling and rifled by the mysterious depredations
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page189" name="page189"></a>(p. 189)</span>
+of
+looters, more than provided for the Battalion's wants. I have to
+record a very regrettable incident in connection with St. Venant
+Asylum. On the morning of May 21, during some shelling, when most of
+us had descended to cover, a German shell pierced the building where C
+and D Company Headquarters were and dropped through into the cellar,
+where it exploded. Several men were killed and also 'Tommy' Lodge, the
+officer whose conduct had earned him distinction three weeks before at
+Baquerolle Farm. Robinson, too, was wounded and was lost to the
+Battalion.</p>
+
+<p>At the Asylum, despite its comfort, it was difficult to feel at ease.
+On May 7 the Orderly Room was struck full on its door by a 5.9.
+Headquarters had many an anxious moment (as when a large aeroplane
+bomb was heard coming through the air; it fell 30 yards from the
+Mess). At the end of May rest billets were altered to La Pierrière, a
+small straggling village west of the La Bassée Canal, where few shells
+fell but whither the civilians were as yet timid to return. At La
+Pierrière, whenever the Battalion came out for its four days' rest,
+the Canteen was established on the most up-to-date lines with a full
+stock, including beer and the current newspapers from England. During
+the summer several local papers were kind enough to send me copies
+every week for free distribution to the men. I make this an
+opportunity to thank Mr. Stanley Wilkins and the Bucks Comforts Fund
+for most generous gifts of 'smokes,' which more than once helped to
+stave off a cigarette famine.</p>
+
+<p>The Canteen, though I have not before mentioned it,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page190" name="page190"></a>(p. 190)</span>
+was a
+great feature in Battalion life. For the last eight months of the war,
+while I was President of the Regimental Institute, I was most anxious
+that our Canteen should be as good as possible. But my anxiety would
+have been worthless without the industry and enthusiasm of
+Lance-Corporal Kaye and Private Warburton, who managed every detail.</p>
+
+<p>At this stage in my history, when, almost reluctantly, I am drawing
+towards its close, there are many features of the Battalion life which
+crowd upon me in their demand for mention. The Pioneers lining out for
+their match in six-a-side football against the Shoemakers and Tailors,
+the Stores piled high with 'hay-packs' and wicker baskets filled with
+unissued signalling equipment, Sergeant Birt quietly demanding last
+month's war-diary, Connell the arch-footballer, Kettle, the
+Sergeant-Cook, arguing about an oven, and the four Company
+Quartermaster-Sergeants whose vote was always unanimous&mdash;to proceed
+further would be to enumerate a list of people and things over whom it
+is my regret to pass so rapidly.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of my chapters I have so often shown the Battalion marching
+back to rest that I shall leave it this time in the line. You must
+picture a medley of small fields and orchards, bounded on one side by
+the Calonne-Robecq road (which is the avenue of supply to the front
+line and much shelled) and on the other by the small streams called
+Noc and Clarence. Among the orchards stand numerous farmsteads, of
+which a large one known as Gloucester Farm had been our Battalion
+Headquarters in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page191" name="page191"></a>(p. 191)</span>
+1916, during a period of back-area rest. It
+has again been Battalion Headquarters. Recently the farm was shelled
+and the Berks Colonel, then in occupation, quitted it in favour of a
+two-storied house called Carvin. In the domed cellar of Baquerolle
+Farm&mdash;an old-fashioned building looking out across a wide midden to
+numerous cowsheds and outhouses&mdash;were usually the headquarters of C or
+D Companies and the Trench-Mortars. This farm was freely shelled. On
+April 24 the early-morning attention of the German guns set fire to
+the buildings; and Robinson was obliged to leave the cellar and repair
+with his headquarters to a trench to windward. The Posts themselves,
+as spring deepened into summer, became half lost in the crops and
+grass, until many of them could be reached in daylight. This fact,
+combined with his undaunted spirit of enterprise, led Colonel Lawson
+of the Gloucesters to crawl forward one morning to the German lines.
+His reckless bravery paid the penalty, for he was killed when only a
+short way from where a German post was lurking. Lawson was a brilliant
+soldier and a fine example of English character; his sudden and
+needless death cast a gloom over the whole Brigade.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of May 13 the last raid to be made by the Battalion was
+carried out by No. 1 Platoon, commanded by Rowlerson. The affair was a
+small one but satisfactory, for two prisoners were brought in and we
+had no casualties.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter XVI.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page192" name="page192"></a>(p. 192)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>THE TURNING OF THE TIDE,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">May, June, July, August, 1918.</span></h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+Rations and the Battalion Transport. &mdash; At La Lacque. &mdash; The
+bombing of Aire. &mdash; General Mackenzie obliged by his
+wound to leave the Division. &mdash; Return of Colonel Wetherall. &mdash; Tripp's
+Farm on fire. &mdash; A mysterious epidemic. &mdash; A period
+of wandering. &mdash; The march from Pont Asquin to St. Hilaire. &mdash; Nieppe
+Forest. &mdash; Attack by A and B Companies on
+August 7. &mdash; Headquarters gassed. &mdash; A new Colonel. &mdash; The
+Battalion goes a-reaping.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>Though used to being told that our army was the best fed of any in the
+war, few English people have any idea how rations reached the line.
+They came up every day from the Base by train as far as
+Railhead&mdash;which meant a convenient station as far forward as possible
+while still being outside the range of ordinary German guns&mdash;and were
+thence conveyed, normally in lorries, by the A.S.C. to the various
+'refilling points' assigned to Infantry Brigades. From the refilling
+point, which was only a stretch of the roadside, the Transport
+collected the Battalion's rations and delivered them to the
+Quartermaster's stores; and by means of the Transport the
+Quartermaster, after their necessary division between companies,
+forwarded rations to the front line. Latterly it was rarely possible
+to cook in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page193" name="page193"></a>(p. 193)</span>
+the trenches and it never was during active
+operations, so to Murray, our Quartermaster, and his staff fell the
+duty of sending up cooked food. It is impossible for me here to
+explain the system practised; but by means of food-containers,
+specially improvised from petrol tins and rammed into packs stuffed
+with hay, we were able to supply the men with hot food in the front
+line. Murray's organisation was excellent, and the four Company
+Quartermaster-Sergeants&mdash;Holder, Freudemacher, Taylor, and
+Beechey&mdash;and the Company Cooks earned equal credit in the performance
+of these important duties, which never miscarried.</p>
+
+<p>The Battalion was fortunate in keeping as its Transport officer 'Bob'
+Abraham. He suited the job, and the job him. He had organised the
+Transport in 1914 and brought it overseas. Several pairs of mules,
+which had come out with the Battalion in 1916, were still at work and
+thriving three years later. By a riding accident Abraham was lost to
+the Battalion for a time, but his place was taken by Kirk, who proved
+himself an excellent substitute, and when Kirk left Woodford carried
+on with equal efficiency.</p>
+
+<p>Long before the war was reaching its close I had ceased really to
+envy the Transport Officer, nor did our men in the trenches forget the
+responsibilities and danger of the drivers. In their turn the
+transport men felt that it was their duty to make up for the part they
+were not called upon to play with bomb and bayonet by never failing to
+deliver promptly and faithfully at company headquarters their
+limber-loads of rations. In its turn-out, whether
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page194" name="page194"></a>(p. 194)</span>
+at a
+Brigade horse-show, a veterinary inspection or on the line of march,
+our Transport set a high standard; men and animals were alike a credit
+to the Battalion.</p>
+
+<p>During the warm weather of the spring, when the canal banks were lined
+with bathers, our Transport was situated at La Lacque, a village a few
+miles west of Aire. Not far off stood the tall chimneys of the
+Isbergues steel works&mdash;a large factory, which, like Cassel and
+Dunkirk, had in the early days of the war attracted occasional shells
+from German long-range guns. Now that the line was only a few leagues
+distant the steel works became the almost daily target for 'high
+velocities.' Once the tiles had been shaken from the workshops no
+visible damage seemed to result from the many hundred shells which
+fell inside the factory's area. None the less the continuous shifts of
+workmen afforded a striking example of the national devotion of French
+industry, to be compared with that total dislocation of London
+business which even an air-raid warning was sufficient to engender.
+Isbergues village was now crowded with Portuguese, who spent their
+time tormenting dogs and washing themselves in the canal, but who
+officially were employed in making trenches, which they could be
+trusted to dig deep. At La Lacque a second Brigade School was
+established. The details of its management were under Coombes, who
+possessed considerable ability in this direction. The Battalion
+instructors were Sergeants Brooks and Brazier, both of whom were well
+versed in regimental drill and tradition and shewed much zeal in the
+work. Than Sergeant Brazier
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page195" name="page195"></a>(p. 195)</span>
+no more hearty sportsman ever
+belonged to the Battalion.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of May, 1918, when the whereabouts of his next attack were
+yet uncertain, the enemy's power reached its apparent zenith. A
+Canadian corps had been in reserve along the line of the La Bassée
+Canal for three weeks in expectation of a renewed attempt against
+Hazebrouck and Béthune. From prisoners' statements more than once an
+attack upon the Battalion seemed imminent and special precautions were
+adopted. All this time our artillery had been recovering its
+ascendancy, until the enemy, cooped up as he was within a salient
+bounded by canals, became faced with the two alternatives of attack or
+retreat. Meanwhile his aircraft used the fine nights of the early
+summer to wreak the utmost spite on our back area. During one night
+Aire, which had hitherto been left unscathed was so severely bombed
+that one could have fancied the next day that the town had been
+convulsed by an earthquake. St. Omer, though less damaged, was
+frequently attacked. In northern France the visits of German
+aeroplanes became such that all towns, alike by military and civil
+populations, came to be deserted before nightfall.</p>
+
+<p>How I should introduce appropriately and with becoming respect a
+reference to our Major-General has somewhat puzzled me. Sir Colin
+Mackenzie, K.C.B., had commanded the 61st Division through many
+difficult vicissitudes. His watchful eye and quiet manner gained
+everywhere the confidence and admiration of his regimental
+subordinates, who saw in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page196" name="page196"></a>(p. 196)</span>
+him great soldierly qualities. The
+General's bearing and his string of real war-ribbons made many an eye
+rove at an inspection. By a wound he was obliged in June, 1918, to
+retire from command of the Division. He was much missed.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the end of May Colonel Wetherall returned to take command of
+the Battalion. To be his Second in Command was both a pleasure and a
+privilege. Similar feelings were evoked towards the Brigadier, General
+Pagan, in whose small frame beat a lion's heart. When the frontage of
+the Brigade was changed from one to two battalions, we had to give up
+Baquerolle and Carvin and occupy instead the barren fields on the
+other side of the Calonne road, where most wretched front-line
+accommodation existed. Headquarters for the new sector were in Les
+Amusoires; and rations came up each night as far as a farm, called
+Tripp's Farm, forward of which neither cooking could be done nor any
+water obtained. One night German shelling, that tune to which rations
+were usually carried, set light to Tripp's Farm.
+Quartermaster-Sergeants, mules' heads, and guides were mingled in the
+glare, while from a concrete pill-box hard by machine-gunners (its
+rightful occupants) were compelled to avoid roasting by flight. About
+this time both St. Venant and Robecq were burning for several days. Of
+the former, most of the remaining houses near the church (which had
+been frequently struck) were destroyed, but in Robecq the fire almost
+confined itself to the famous café near the cross-roads. To quench
+these conflagrations no measures were, or could be, taken, for their
+occurrence
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page197" name="page197"></a>(p. 197)</span>
+was a great gratification to the German
+artillery, which always redoubled its efforts in the hope of spreading
+a fire as far as possible.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of June, during a stay at La Pierrière, the Battalion
+was ravaged by a mysterious epidemic, which claimed hundreds of
+victims before it passed. Starting among the signallers, it first
+spread through Headquarters, and then attacked all Companies
+indiscriminately. Among the officers, Cubbage and Shields (the doctor)
+were the first to go to hospital; soon followed by Clutsom, who was
+adjutant at this time, and Tobias the very doctor who had come to
+replace Shields. The Colonel and myself were the next victims, and
+when the time came for the Battalion to go into the line, it was
+necessary to send for Christie-Miller, of the Gloucesters, to take
+command and to make Murray from quartermaster into adjutant. This
+epidemic was not confined to the Battalion, nor to the 61st Division.
+Isolation camps had hastily to be formed, for the evil threatened to
+dislocate whole corps and even armies. Among the Germans the same
+complaint seems to have spread with even greater virulence; indeed, it
+may well have prevented them from launching a further offensive
+against Béthune and Hazebrouck. By doctors it was classified under the
+name of Pyrexia of Unknown Origin ('P.U.O.') while in such guarded
+references as occurred our Press spoke of it as 'Spanish Influenza.'
+The symptoms of the illness consisted in high temperature, followed by
+great physical and mental lassitude. Most cases recovered within a
+week, but some took longer, nor was a second attack following
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page198" name="page198"></a>(p. 198)</span>
+recovery from the first at all uncommon. Such was the only
+epidemic of the war. Thanks to the care and efficiency of our
+Regimental M.O.s the dreaded scourges of past wars&mdash;cholera,
+dysentery, and enteric&mdash;in France could together claim few, if any,
+victims.</p>
+
+<p>On June 25 it was time for the 184th Infantry Brigade to move out of
+the line to Ham and Linghem, two villages south-east and south of
+Aire. The relief took place, but at the last minute it was decided
+that the 182nd Brigade was so depleted by the epidemic that it was
+necessary for the 2/4th Oxfords to remain at La Pierrière to assist
+them in holding the line. At the Brigade sports, held at Linghem on
+July 7, the Battalion easily carried off the cup offered for
+competition by General Pagan. In the relay race Sergeant Brazier
+accomplished a fine performance, while in the boxing we showed such
+superiority that no future Brigade competition ever took place.<a id="footnotetag12" name="footnotetag12"></a><a href="#footnote12">[12]</a></p>
+
+<a id="img198" name="img198"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img198.jpg" width="500" height="316"
+alt="The Headquarters Runners, July 1918." title="The Headquarters Runners, July 1918.">
+</div>
+
+<p>Before we left La Pierrière what can well be looked back to as a
+red-letter day was spent in sports and a full programme of
+entertainments, including the Divisional 'Frolics,' who were prevailed
+on to perform in a farmyard. Jimmy Kirk also brought his coaching
+party of clowns&mdash;who on this occasion avoided a conflict with the
+Military Police&mdash;and of course the Battalion Band regaled us with
+choice items throughout the day. In the sports a race had to be re-run
+because one of the competitors, instead of waiting for the 'pistol'
+(A. E. G.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page199" name="page199"></a>(p. 199)</span>
+Bennett with home-made 'blanks') started at the
+report of our 6-inch gun in the next orchard, which occurred a
+fraction of a second earlier. The evening was saved from bathos by the
+news that the Division was to be relieved. Life operates by contrast,
+and though the war was going on a few miles to the eastward I believe
+as much pleasure was experienced that day in the small orchard behind
+Headquarters at La Pierrière as in any elaborate peace celebration in
+this country. Indeed, to see the crowd 'celebrating' the armistice up
+and down the Strand was enough to make one recall with regret such an
+occasion of the war as I have described.</p>
+
+<p>On July 10 we moved back, most of the way by 'bus, to Liettres, a very
+pretty village well behind the line and south-west of Aire. Hardly
+were we settled before we were ordered to move, which we did with no
+very good grace to St. Hilaire, a much inferior village. Two days
+later our tactical location was discovered to be still unsatisfactory,
+so we tried a march northwards to Warne, where for the third time in
+ten days a quartermaster's store had to be built from the materials we
+had managed to drag along with us. Almost before our headquarter
+runners had learnt the whereabouts of companies we were on the road
+again. This time we left the XI Corps, with which so many of the
+Battalion's fortunes and misfortunes had been associated, and passed
+into General Plumer's Army as part of the XV Corps. The paradise which
+every division, sent back for 'rest,' fancies will have been prepared
+for it, now degenerated to a mere field.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page200" name="page200"></a>(p. 200)</span>
+Still, there are
+many worse places, if some better, than a grass field; footballs were
+soon bouncing merrily, and on the air floated the monotonous
+enumeration of 'House.' One evening the Colonel, myself, and the
+company commanders returned wet-through from a voyage of inspection of
+the Hazebrouck defences, for a German attack was still anticipated.
+The last of these shuttle-cock moves occurred on July 31, from our
+field at Pont Asquin back to St. Hilaire, whose billets few of us were
+anxious to revisit.</p>
+
+<p>As I have not loaded my narrative with marches my readers shall hoist
+full pack (no air-pillows allowed!) upon their backs and fall in with
+the Battalion. It is already dusk as the sanitary men, like so many
+sorcerers, stoop in the final rites of fire and burial. Some days ago
+I taxed the band-master, Bond, with the possibility of playing in the
+dark; for a moment his face was as long as Taylor's bassoon, but since
+then by means of surreptitious practice and, I fancy, the sheer
+confiscation of his bandsmen's folios, the impossible has been
+achieved. Every band is the best in France, but only ours can play in
+darkness. Thus, as the column swings past the pond and waiting
+cookers, the Band strikes up one of its best and loudest marches....</p>
+
+<p>Such midnight music, if it drowned the drone of German aeroplanes,
+which ever and anon swam overhead, looking like white moths in the
+beams of our searchlights, served also to arouse the village
+inhabitants, whose angry faces were framed for an instant in windows
+as we passed. Our musical uproar set dogs barking for miles, cocks
+crowed at our
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page201" name="page201"></a>(p. 201)</span>
+passage, and generals turned in their second
+sleep to hear such martial progress in the night. The march&mdash;through
+Racquinghem and Aire&mdash;was long, lasting nearly all night. To flatter
+its interest a sweepstake had been arranged among the officers for who
+should name the exact moment of its conclusion. Years of foot-slogging
+in France made my considered guess formidable in the competition. More
+dangerous still was that of the Colonel, for to him would fall the
+duty of the decisive whistle-blast, and his entry ultimately was not
+accepted by the 'committee.' As in most sweepstakes, the first prize
+fell to a most undeserving winner.</p>
+
+<p>July closed with a feeling of dissatisfaction at the cycle of moves
+which had rendered futile both rest and training. Consciousness that
+one was helping to win the war was more often imputed than felt. Early
+in August, 1918, the 61st relieved the 5th Division in front of the
+Nieppe Forest. Minor attacks had already cleared the enemy from the
+eastern fringe of the forest and driven him back towards Neuf Berquin
+and Merville. At 7 p.m. on August 7 A and B Companies attacked and
+captured the trenches opposite to them, causing the enemy to retire
+behind the Plate Becque, a stream as wide as the Cherwell at Islip but
+far less attractive. We had a dozen casualties in this attack, which
+was rewarded by half as many German prisoners and a machine-gun.
+Sergeant Ravenscroft, of B Company, for an able exploit during the
+advance, received the D.C.M.</p>
+
+<a id="img202" name="img202"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img202.jpg" width="400" height="513"
+alt="Attack by A &amp; B Coys Aug 7 1918." title="Attack by A &amp; B Coys Aug 7 1918.">
+</div>
+
+<p>Already the Forest of Nieppe had become notorious for German gas. It
+was now a nightly programme
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page203" name="page203"></a>(p. 203)</span>
+of the enemy to drench the
+wood, which was low-lying and infested with pools and undergrowth,
+with his noxious 'Yellow Cross'&mdash;shells whose poisonous fumes bore the
+flavour of mustard. Throughout the night of August 7/8, when things
+generally were very active, a heavy gas-bombardment was kept up. The
+Colonel was away from his headquarters at the time. He returned after
+the shelling to find that gas helmets had been taken off. No harm was
+expected, but the next day, after the sun's heat had awakened dormant
+fumes, the Colonel, Symonds (the adjutant), Kirk, who had brought up
+the rations, and Cubbage, as well as the Regimental Sergeant-Major and
+many signallers and runners, all found that they were gassed. Their
+loss was serious. It was known that Wetherall would soon have to leave
+the Battalion, for he had been appointed to a command in the Machine
+Gun Corps; indeed already his successor, Colonel Woulfe-Flanagan, had
+arrived to take his place. Under the present unlucky auspices (for
+more than half Headquarters were knocked out) the interchange took
+place.</p>
+
+<p>Herodotus says of the kings of Sparta that the last was always
+regretted as the best the country had ever had. Colonel Wetherall's
+merit did not depend on his being the last of a series. Phrases such
+as 'he was worshipped by the men' have become so hackneyed as to be
+meaningless, nor shall I use an even worse commonplace, that 'he was
+sparing of his words.' Wetherall was just a rattling good Commanding
+Officer, a true friend, and a fine soldier. His successor, E. M.
+Woulfe-Flanagan, came
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page204" name="page204"></a>(p. 204)</span>
+from the East Surreys. He bore a
+distinguished record of pre-war service and had been wounded in the
+Mons retreat. A regular soldier of the old school, in ideas and
+methods he differed widely from his predecessor. But he was worth his
+salt every time. Certainly no braver officer ever set foot in France.</p>
+
+<p>After we had finished our first tour in the Nieppe Forest sector, both
+the Berks and Gloucester were sent forward against the enemy, who was
+rightly suspected by the staff to be on the point of retreating from
+the Lys salient. The attack had to cross the Plate Becque, whose
+eastern bank the enemy was fighting hard to hold. Gloucesters and
+Berks rushed forward at misty dawn and flung bridges over the stream;
+but the machine-gun fire was too intense, and though some parties got
+across, others did not, co-operation broke down, and the attack gained
+no result. A few days afterwards the Germans went back, giving up
+Calonne, Merville, and Neuf Berquin-villages which our artillery had
+utterly pulverised. As in the March retreat of 1917, the 184th Brigade
+had no immediate share in following up the enemy as he retired. The
+Oxfords had withdrawn on August 14 to Spresiano Camp, in the forest,
+and waited without eagerness to be ordered forward to the new
+devastated area. It is curious to reflect that at this time, so
+distant did the end of the war still seem, we grumbled at losing our
+comfortable base at Steenbecque, which we hoped to keep perhaps
+through the winter. Most thinking people could see neither value nor
+wisdom in pursuing the Germans in their retreats, planned and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page206" name="page206"></a>(p. 206)</span>
+carried out in their own time, from salients. Hardly on one
+occasion did we hustle them, and the policy, deprecated by most
+commanders of lower formations, of snatching at the first morsels of
+abandoned territory always cost us heavy casualties. Between war and
+chess there is a close analogy. In front of Nieppe Forest there were
+now a hopeless crowding of the pieces, moves aimlessly made from
+square to square, and the reckless calling of 'check,' which to a good
+opponent means time and renewed chances to escape defeat.</p>
+
+<a id="img206" name="img206"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img206.jpg" width="400" height="552"
+alt="Merville Church. September 1918." title="Merville Church. September 1918.">
+</div>
+
+<p>During the early stages of the retreat the Battalion was sent to fresh
+fields of conquest among the crops, which the German withdrawal had
+done nothing to ripen but had at least removed from shell range. Plans
+were afoot to harvest a large area adjacent to the forest and present
+its fruits to the rightful owners. If harvesting weather should be
+hot, conditions were ideal. This novel form of working-party at first
+delighted the men, who set about the crops in goodly earnest. In a
+short space of time wheat, oats, and barley were added to our
+battle-honours. But if the spirit was willing, our reaping implements
+were correspondingly weak. The Corps 'Agricultural Officer' had
+collected from surrounding farms a fantastic assortment of cast-off
+scythes, jagged hooks, and rusty sickles, which fell to pieces 'in the
+'ands' and refused to do more than beat down the crops to which they
+were opposed. The scythes seemed hardly able to stick their points, in
+the approved manner, into the ground, sickles were back-to-front or
+left-handed, and the entire panoply issued to this Reaping Battalion
+should
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page207" name="page207"></a>(p. 207)</span>
+have been seconded for duty at a music-hall or
+gazetted out of agricultural service as old iron. The Major-General,
+visiting the scene of our labours, was scandalised to find that fewer
+acres of corn had been put out of action than reports from other parts
+of the harvest front inclined him to expect. A 'stinker' followed, to
+which we could only retaliate by posting sentries the next day to warn
+us of the General's approach. Of course he came by a fresh road. And
+now, to avoid the inevitable anti-climax, I will ring down the curtain
+as the General steps from his car, demoralised reapers bestir
+themselves into some semblance of activity, and the commander of the
+party simply is not.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Chapter XVII.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page208" name="page208"></a>(p. 208)</span></h3>
+
+<h4>LAST BATTLES,</h4>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">August to December, 1918.</span></h5>
+
+<p class="sumcenter">
+German retreat from the Lys. &mdash; Orderly Room and its
+staff. &mdash; The new devastated area. &mdash; Itchin Farm, Merville and
+Neuf Berquin. &mdash; Mines and booby-traps. &mdash; Advance to the
+Lys. &mdash; Estaires destroyed. &mdash; Laventie revisited. &mdash; The attack
+on Junction Post. &mdash; Lance-Corporal Wilcox, V.C. &mdash; Scavenging
+at the XI Corps school. &mdash; On the Aubers ridge. &mdash; The
+end in sight. &mdash; Move to Cambrai. &mdash; In action near Bermerain
+and Maresches. &mdash; A fine success. &mdash; Domart and Demobilisation. &mdash; Work
+at Etaples. &mdash; Off to Egypt.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>While the Battalion harvested the corn behind Nieppe Forest, on the
+other side of it hue and cry were being raised after the enemy, whose
+tail was well turned in his last retreat. The Lys salient, which had
+proved so useless to him, was being evacuated. On the evening of
+August 20, 1918, the Battalion was ordered forward from Spresiano Camp
+to occupy the old trenches near Chapelle Boom, a quaint moated
+farmhouse on the eastern outskirts of the forest. We found the area
+already overstocked with troops; indeed Chapelle Boom itself, though
+assigned to us, was the headquarters of not less than two units of the
+183rd Infantry Brigade. The arrival of the Battalion, loaded as it was
+with the encumbrances of advance, further contributed to the
+congestion. In a few days
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page209" name="page209"></a>(p. 209)</span>
+the Suffolks and Northumberland
+Fusiliers suddenly disappeared, and Chapelle Boom fell into our power.
+There we stayed until the Colonel went upon a course.</p>
+
+<a id="img209" name="img209"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img209.jpg" width="400" height="312"
+alt="Battalion Headquarters at Chapelle Boom." title="Battalion Headquarters at Chapelle Boom.">
+</div>
+
+<p>As usually when the Germans genuinely retired, to use their own
+phrase, 'according to plan,' early immunity from shells preluded days
+when the last spite of their artillery was flung as far as possible.
+Harassing fire against our exits from Nieppe Forest was cleverly
+manipulated by the enemy. Our guns, which had the choice of few
+orchards or buildings to screen their flashes, were vigorously
+searched for when they opened fire. Bonar Farm, Dene Farm, Rennet
+Farm&mdash;places of ill name during the fighting for
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page210" name="page210"></a>(p. 210)</span>
+the Plate
+Becque&mdash;were freely shelled. From the explosion of a chance 4.2 Ellis
+and several men in D Company were casualties. Whilst in reserve we
+bathed in the river and for a time resumed our harvesting pursuits.
+The method became more unique and amateur than ever&mdash;we were directed
+to pluck the ripe ears of corn by hand. I laid down the standard task
+of one sandbag-full per day per man. Some men used nail-scissors, and
+it was found that a 'one hour day' was ample to ensure a good
+'return.' Soon a pile of bags lay by the roadside. One wonders
+instinctively what became of the corn and whether it was used.</p>
+
+<p>The word 'return' should set some readers agog. I am sure no battalion
+had a better Orderly Room than the 2/4th Oxfords. Though only a
+Company Commander, I was struck by its efficiency when I joined the
+Battalion. Units were apt to be judged by the promptness and accuracy
+of their returns, and Cuthbert, who for longer than anyone was
+Adjutant of the Battalion, won a deserved reputation in this respect.
+But inside the Battalion as well as out of it his efficiency was
+understood and valued. Cuthbert was a good instance of an officer
+without pre-war training whose common-sense and agreeability made him
+the equal in his work of any Regular. In the office Sergeant Birt had
+now for two years been a pillar of reliability; few officers or men of
+the Battalion but owed something to him. Spring 1918 brought an
+interregnum in the adjutantcy, till R. F. Symonds, formerly of the
+Bucks, returned from a staff attachment to take the post. Symonds had
+a remarkable gift for office work. Wrapped
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page211" name="page211"></a>(p. 211)</span>
+up in the routine
+of the Battalion, he was never happier than in Orderly Room with a
+full 'basket.' Since the gassing of Headquarters, Shilson, a recently
+arrived officer with antecedents in the A.S.C., had acted adjutant;
+right creditably did he acquit himself in the duties suddenly cast
+upon him. Other new officers were now filling important positions in
+the Battalion. Faithfull, another disciple from the A.S.C., whom also
+we got to like very much, was now in command of D Company; Clutsom
+commanded C, and Young, who had seen long service with the 48th
+Division, B Company; Jones still led A. Time had wrought changes among
+the Sergeant-Majors of the Companies. At this period in Cunningham of
+A, Mudd of B, Smith of C, and Brooks of D, we had a quartet of tried
+experience. The recurrent conflicts about 'strength'&mdash;a word which in
+effect meant the number of men employed with Quartermaster's Stores
+and at Headquarters&mdash;were now at a high pitch. After much
+'camouflage,' by aid of Bicknell, of the real facts, we had
+reluctantly to choose between the 'return to duty' in the line of
+either Band or Buglers. The choice was hard, but in the end we kept
+the Band intact, for loss of a few bandsmen as casualties might leave
+such gaps as would prevent the Band from playing at all.</p>
+
+<p>On August 24 we relieved the 5th Suffolks in the outpost line, which
+had remained stationary for several days. It lay upon the eastern
+fringe of Neuf Berquin, through whose scattered ruins one picked a way
+to find the posts. Headquarters were some distance back, but most
+wretchedly accommodated in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page212" name="page212"></a>(p. 212)</span>
+an orchard close to a lonely
+brick-stack known as Itchin Farm. The German guns showed marked
+persistency, not actually against the holes which formed Headquarters,
+but all around. No area more dismal could be imagined than the flat,
+dyke-ridden country north of Merville. So thoroughly had our artillery
+during the last four months plastered the ground behind his former
+lines that little scope had been left for the retreating frenzy of the
+enemy. By bombs and shells we had driven the Germans not only from
+such places as Merville and Neuf Berquin, but from the mere proximity
+to roads or houses. They had concealed themselves as best they could
+in ditches and narrow tunnels made with corrugated iron or planks. The
+'Huns,' indeed, had been meeting with their deserts. Their life in the
+Lys salient must have been a nightmare. One required only to read a
+few of the notices displayed to realise the difference of life behind
+their line and ours. Everywhere appeared in big letters the word
+'Fliegerdeckung!' <i>i.e.</i> cover from aircraft. No testimony more
+eloquent of British superiority could have been offered.</p>
+
+<p>Further behind, round Estaires and La Gorgue, the Germans were busy
+blowing up and burning ere their retreat ebbed back across the Lys.
+Black palls of smoke rose daily from where mills and factories were
+aflame. One day the tall church of Sailly had simply vanished; the
+next, one looked vainly for Estaires' square tower. Often, when idly
+scanning the horizon or watching aeroplanes, eyes were arrested by
+huge jets which sprang into the air to become clouds as large as any
+in the sky. Combining
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page213" name="page213"></a>(p. 213)</span>
+with this present orgy of destruction
+numerous booby-traps were left behind, whose action was delayed till
+our advance should provide victims for their murderous art.
+Cross-roads and level-crossings especially 'went up,' or were expected
+to, and so many houses were mined that it became impossible to rest
+secure in any. In fact, the 182nd Brigade ordered its men out of all
+buildings. Some measure of vile ingenuity must be accorded to the
+authors of these booby-traps; but whether bombs under beds or attached
+to pump handles can be included in legitimate warfare is a case for
+judgment.</p>
+
+<p>At short notice we attacked from Neuf Berquin on August 28. In some
+places the advance was quite successful, but in others not. German
+counter-attacks obliged A Company, which had made good progress south
+of the Neuf Berquin-Estaires road in the morning, to withdraw its
+patrols at dusk. A few days later, however, the opposition lessened,
+and companies went forward several miles. Soon afterwards the 182nd
+Brigade took turn as the advanced guard, the Lys was reached and
+crossed, and presently patrols were passing through the old 'posts'
+and grass-grown breastworks which used to lie behind our front-line
+system. We followed, and for several days lived in reserve among the
+scattered farms and houses north of Estaires, over the ruins of which
+Crosthwaite, an officer of mature service, who had just joined the
+Battalion, was appointed Town Major. His task was not entirely
+enviable. Houses, roofless or otherwise, had to be subdivided into
+safe, doubtful,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page214" name="page214"></a>(p. 214)</span>
+or certain to 'go up.' I cannot help
+regarding this Flanders retreat as a subject supremely dull. The
+constant suspicion of mines and booby-traps rendered doubly sordid the
+polluted ruins which formed the landmarks of our advance. One feature
+alone provided interest to some. We were approaching, from an odd
+direction as it seemed, the old area where the Battalion had first
+held its trenches. La Gorgue, Estaires, Laventie were places rich in
+association. How much the two former were altered! La Gorgue, where in
+1916 Divisional Headquarters and Railhead had been, was heaped in ugly
+ruin. Its expensive church had been blown in two. Of Estaires proper
+little more than its charred walls remained. In such shape was victory
+passing into our hands.</p>
+
+<p>When the enemy was holding the line Picantin&mdash;Junction Post, the
+Battalion went forward to hold an outpost line north-east of Laventie.
+On September 10, while he was taking over his new piece of front,
+Clutsom, of C Company, was badly wounded by a German shell. No officer
+could have been more regretted. I am glad to say his wound healed
+steadily and he was soon writing cheerful letters to his friends from
+England. Command of his company passed to Stanley.</p>
+
+<a id="img214" name="img214"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img214.jpg" width="300" height="509"
+alt="Corporal A. Wilcox, V.C." title="Corporal A. Wilcox, V.C.">
+</div>
+
+<p>Headquarters now were in the old dressing station at Laventie. It was
+a house of quite pretentious size, left standing by the enemy.
+Although its floors were heaped with shavings, prophets of all ranks
+assigned a violent end to tenants of such a residence. For the next
+tour we were
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page215" name="page215"></a>(p. 215)</span>
+content to move into Laventie North Post, but
+all the time the house belied our fears, nor have I evidence that any
+mine existed. I walked through the village, and I must say it seemed
+less damaged than I had expected. Most of its buildings were quite
+recognisable. The house formerly Battalion Headquarters might, with
+labour, have been made to serve again. The line of small plane trees,
+which gave Laventie the meretricious semblance of a garden city, was
+standing yet. In the war's passage over it Laventie suffered less
+havoc than had seemed probable.</p>
+
+<p>At a few hours' notice and in weather calculated to make any operation
+a fiasco, the Battalion on September 12 attacked Junction Post, a
+grass-bound breastwork where the enemy was offering a stubborn
+resistance. Though finally unsuccessful in result, the fighting, which
+was accompanied by driving storms of rain, produced two noteworthy
+incidents. Rowlerson, one of C Company's platoon commanders, after
+reaching the German trenches, somehow lost touch and was captured with
+several of his men. In A Company an exploit was performed, which
+gained for the Battalion its second Victoria Cross. Lance-Corporal
+Wilcox came to close quarters with some enemy defending a piece of
+trench with four machine-guns. Each of these guns Lance-Corporal
+Wilcox, followed by his section, successively captured or put out of
+action. Wilcox was shortly afterwards wounded and was in hospital in
+England when news of the award arrived. His deed lent lustre to a
+profitless attack.</p>
+
+<p>A
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page216" name="page216"></a>(p. 216)</span>
+few days later the Battalion was relieved and spent a
+period in reserve among fields and orchards west of Sailly-sur-la-Lys.
+We suffered much from the night long attention of the German
+'pip-squeak' guns, whose range, longer considerably than that of the
+English 18-pounder, was made fullest use of by the enemy. A move came
+as a welcome surprise. Under mysterious directions the Battalion was
+ordered back as far as Linghem, a village I have mentioned before as
+lying south of Aire. Arrived there, we were placed in some huts,
+destined for eventual occupation by the XI Corps school. More than a
+day elapsed before the object of our visit was explained: the
+Battalion was to sweep and clean the camp for its inspection by the
+Corps Commander. We were not present at the ceremony, but for a week
+preceding it all four companies were daily engaged weeding potato
+patches, tarring roofs, and evacuating a dump of several hundred
+thousand empty tins. Rarely were the energies of an Infantry Battalion
+more curiously devoted.</p>
+
+<p>At Laventie no startling events had filled our absence. But after our
+return&mdash;Junction Post had not yet fallen, so that the outpost line was
+still in front of Rouge de Bout&mdash;developments began. On September 30
+the enemy lost Junction Post to a spirited attack by the Gloucesters,
+the line that he had been holding for three weeks was broken, and his
+retreat became fast and general. After relieving the Gloucesters our
+companies were hard put to it to advance rapidly enough to keep touch.
+At last we stood upon the Aubers Ridge itself. Lille was almost
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page217" name="page217"></a>(p. 217)</span>
+in view; but at this point the Division was relieved by the
+59th and sent southwards to join our armies before Cambrai, where the
+final issue between British and German arms was destined to be
+decided.</p>
+
+<p>Out of the closing phases of the war I feel there must be material
+from which historians will find that climax which so grand a conflict
+deserves as its termination. But I confess that I find scarcely any.</p>
+
+<p>After its dramatic and sinister opening the war seemed almost
+belittled by its tame conclusion. Years of nerve-racking experiences,
+the hardships, and the immutable association which towns like Ypres,
+Arras and Albert, and the trench-dwellings of Flanders and the Somme
+possessed, had indisposed the mind to receive new impressions from the
+last battle of the war. Patient from a hundred moves from trench to
+billet, from billet to trench, the British soldier accepted with
+characteristic resignation moves which were sweeping him to Victory.
+By gas, liquid fire, night-flying aeroplanes, and long-range
+artillery, the war had in four years demonstrated the incredible. The
+mere collapse, on one side, of the agencies military and political
+which lay behind, was in itself commonplace.</p>
+
+<p>The Battalion joined the XVII Corps half way through October, 1918,
+and was soon put into important fighting. The enemy, who had lost
+Lille, Douai, and St. Quentin early in the month, was now in full
+retreat between Verdun and the sea. To preserve his centre from being
+pierced and his flanks rolled up, rear-guards eastward of Cambrai were
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page218" name="page218"></a>(p. 218)</span>
+offering the maximum resistance. Most villages, though they
+passed into our hands nearly intact and in some cases full of
+civilians, had to be fought for. The German machine-gunners rarely
+belied their character of fighting to the end. In an attack on October
+24 from Haussy, the Battalion, advancing rapidly in artillery
+formation, captured the high ground east of Bermerain; and the next
+day B and D Companies (the latter now commanded by Cupper) again
+attacked, and captured the railway south-east of Sepmeries. For these
+operations the weather was fine, the ground dry, and the leadership
+excellent. A period followed in reserve at Vendegies and afterwards at
+Bermerain, villages which were liberally bombarded by the German
+long-range guns. Moving up again on November 2, the Battalion made its
+last attack of the war. A fine success resulted. The objectives&mdash;St.
+Hubert and the ridge east of it&mdash;were captured, together with 700
+prisoners, 40 machine-guns, and 4 tanks, recently used by the enemy in
+a counter-attack. The fruits of this victory were well deserved by the
+Battalion, the more because so often in the course of the war it had
+been set to fight against odds in secondary operations. It was a good
+wind-up.</p>
+
+<p>Of some battalions it was said that on November 11, 1918 they found
+themselves standing within a mile or two of where they first went into
+action in 1914. We, naturally, could claim no such coincidence; yet a
+dramatic touch was not wanting when the telegram, which bore the news
+of the cessation of hostilities, was read out by the Colonel to a
+parade
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page219" name="page219"></a>(p. 219)</span>
+formed up at Maresches upon the very ground whence
+the Battalion had started in its last attack.</p>
+
+<a id="img219a" name="img219a"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img219a.jpg" width="500" height="331"
+alt="Officers Of The Battalion December 1918." title="Officers Of The Battalion December 1918.">
+</div>
+<p class="p2"> </p>
+
+<a id="img219b" name="img219b"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img219b.jpg" width="500" height="510"
+alt="General Thorne And 184th Infantry Brigade Staff,
+Christmas 1918." title="General Thorne And 184th Infantry Brigade Staff,
+Christmas 1918.">
+</div>
+
+<p>The Battalion was never in the Army on the Rhine. After time spent at
+Cambrai we travelled back to Domart, a village mid-way between Amiens
+and Abbeville. In duration the journey surpassed all records. Three
+days we spent impatiently waiting for a train, and two more patiently
+waiting in the train itself; and we arrived at the destination faced
+with a ten-mile march in rain and pitch darkness. Happily the war was
+still sufficiently recent for such delay to pass as comedy. At Domart
+the one real topic was Demobilisation. I could set myself no harder
+task than a description of the workings of this engine. Few people
+understood how they were themselves demobilised, and fewer cared how
+others were. That the scheme worked on the whole well and justly was
+in great measure due to Symonds, whose zealous energy, though the
+Battalion was lessoning daily, never flagged. For two months Battalion
+drill and the 'Education Scheme' occupied our mornings, football our
+afternoons. Christmas was a great festival. The 'Frolics' pantomime
+visited the village, in which the Battalion pioneers, under the
+direction of Cameron, the Brigade signalling officer, had transformed
+an empty building into a capital theatre. General Thorne, who had so
+successfully commanded the 184th Infantry Brigade in its last battle,
+was unstinting in his efforts to give the men's life in the army a
+happy and useful conclusion. He secured visits from all the best
+concert parties and raised a fund to finance the department
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page220" name="page220"></a>(p. 220)</span>
+of Brigade entertainments, of which Nicholas, the Brigade Major, was
+chief minister. A weekly magazine was started, which ran to its fourth
+number. Truly the arts flourished.</p>
+
+<p>In a windy field south of the village the Battalion was in January
+presented with its colour by Major-General Duncan. The occasion passed
+off well. Its feature was the admirable speech made by the Colonel.</p>
+
+<p>In February the Battalion, which it was known would be made up with
+drafts and retained for service as a unit, was sent to Etaples to
+assist in the Demobilisation scheme. For a month we remained meeting
+trains, escorting parties to camps, sorting clothing, and driving
+herds of the demobilised through the intricacies of a machine called
+the 'Delouser,' until the arriving trainloads decreased, dwindled, and
+finally stopped. In March several large drafts of officers and men, to
+replace all those who had been, or would be, demobilised, joined the
+Battalion, which, after a pause at Le Tréport and some leave, sailed
+for Egypt. Thither my story does not follow it. When peace was signed,
+the cadre of the Battalion had not returned to Oxford. On Christmas
+Dav 1919 the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was
+still serving overseas.</p>
+
+<a id="img220a" name="img220a"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img220a.jpg" width="400" height="295"
+alt="The Adjutant At His Desk." title="The Adjutant At His Desk.">
+</div>
+<p class="p2"> </p>
+
+<a id="img220b" name="img220b"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img220b.jpg" width="400" height="293"
+alt="Cambrai: The Hotel De Ville." title="Cambrai: The Hotel De Ville.">
+</div>
+<p class="p2"> </p>
+
+<a id="img220c" name="img220c"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img220c.jpg" width="400" height="287"
+alt="The Battalion Cooks At Staples." title="The Battalion Cooks At Staples.">
+</div>
+<p class="p2"> </p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="5" width="80%" summary="" style="position: relative; left: 10%;">
+<colgroup span="3">
+<col width="50%">
+<col width="50%">
+</colgroup>
+
+<tr>
+  <td><a id="img220d" name="img220d"><img src="images/img220d.jpg" width="250" height="440"
+     alt="Lieut.-col. E. M. Woulfe-Flanagan. C.M.G. D.S.O." title="Lieut.-col. E. M. Woulfe-Flanagan. C.M.G. D.S.O."></a>
+
+  </td>
+  <td><a id="img220e" name="img220e"><img src="images/img220e.jpg" width="250" height="440"
+     alt="Regimental Sergt. Major Hedley." title="Regimental Sergt. Major Hedley."></a>
+  </td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="p2"> </p>
+
+<a id="img220f" name="img220f"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img220f.jpg" width="250" height="421"
+alt="Regimental Quartermaster-sergeant Hedges." title="Regimental Quartermaster-sergeant Hedges.">
+</div>
+<p class="p2"> </p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page221" name="page221"></a>(p. 221)</span>
+Composition of the Battalion on
+going overseas</h3>
+
+<h4><i>Headquarters.</i></h4>
+
+<p>
+Colonel <span class="smcap">W. H. Ames</span>, T. D.<br>
+Major <span class="smcap">G. P. R. Beaman</span>, 2nd in Command.<br>
+Major <span class="smcap">D. M. Rose</span>, Adjutant.<br>
+Lieut. <span class="smcap">C. S. W. Marcon</span>, Signalling Officer.<br>
+2/Lieut. <span class="smcap">H. E. Coombes</span>, Intelligence Officer.<br>
+Lieut. <span class="smcap">G. H. G. Shepherd</span>, Machine-gun Officer.<br>
+Lieut. <span class="smcap">R. L. Abraham</span>, Transport Officer.<br>
+Lieut. <span class="smcap">W. A. Hobbs</span>, Quartermaster.<br>
+Captain <span class="smcap">A. Worsley</span>, Medical Officer.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Company Commanders.</i></h4>
+
+<p>
+Captain <span class="smcap">H. J. Bennett</span>, A Company.<br>
+Captain <span class="smcap">H. N. Davenport</span>, B Company.<br>
+Captain <span class="smcap">A. H. Brucker</span>, C Company.<br>
+Captain <span class="smcap">R. F. Cuthbert</span>, D Company.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Regimental Sergeant-Major.</i></h4>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">T. V. Wood.</span></p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant.</i></h4>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">W. C. Hedges.</span></p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Company Sergeant-Majors.</i></h4>
+
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">C. A. Witney</span>, A Company.<br>
+<span class="smcap">A. Ball</span>, B Company.<br>
+<span class="smcap">W. F. Campion</span>, C Company.<br>
+<span class="smcap">W. Douglas</span>, D Company.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page222" name="page222"></a>(p. 222)</span>
+Composition of the Battalion at
+the Armistice</h3>
+
+
+<h4><i>Headquarters.</i></h4>
+
+<p>
+Lieut.-Colonel <span class="smcap">E. M. Woulfe-Flanagan</span>, C.M.G., D.S.O.<br>
+Major <span class="smcap">G. K. Rose</span>, M.C., 2nd in Command.<br>
+Captain <span class="smcap">R. F. Symonds</span>, Adjutant.<br>
+Lieut. <span class="smcap">T. S. R. Boase</span>, M.C., Signalling Officer.<br>
+Lieut. <span class="smcap">W. A. F. Hearne</span>, Intelligence Officer.<br>
+Captain <span class="smcap">J. W. Shilson</span>, Assistant Adjutant.<br>
+Lieut. <span class="smcap">G. W. Woodford</span>, M.C., Transport Officer.<br>
+Captain <span class="smcap">W. G. Murray</span>, Quartermaster.<br>
+Lieut. <span class="smcap">E. P. Neary</span> (U.S.), Medical Officer.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Company Commanders.</i></h4>
+
+<p>
+Captain <span class="smcap">H. Jones</span>, M.C., A Company.<br>
+Captain <span class="smcap">R. E. M. Young</span>, B Company.<br>
+Captain <span class="smcap">J. Stanley</span>, M.C., C Company.<br>
+Captain <span class="smcap">J. H. D. Faithfull</span>, D Company.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Regimental Sergeant-Major.</i></h4>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">W. Hedley</span>, D. C. M.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant.</i></h4>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">W. C. Hedges</span>.</p>
+
+
+<h4><i>Company Sergeant-Majors.</i></h4>
+
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">C. R. Holder</span>, A Company.<br>
+<span class="smcap">A. J. Mudd</span>, B Company.<br>
+<span class="smcap">S. Smith</span>, D.C.M., C Company.<br>
+<span class="smcap">M. T. Brooks</span>, D Company.</p>
+
+
+<h3>INDEX
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page223" name="page223"></a>(p. 223)</span></h3>
+
+<div class="index">
+<p class="p2">
+Ablaincourt,
+<a href="#page055">55</a>,
+<a href="#page056">56</a>,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>.<br>
+
+Abraham, Capt. R. L.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page080">80</a>,
+<a href="#page157">157</a>,
+<a href="#page172">172</a>,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>,
+<a href="#page193">193</a>.<br>
+
+Aire,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>,
+<a href="#page195">195</a>,
+<a href="#page201">201</a>.<br>
+
+Aitken, Lieut. R.,
+<a href="#page085">85</a>,
+<a href="#page086">86</a>.<br>
+
+Albert,
+<a href="#page023">23</a>.<br>
+
+Allden, Lieut. J. H.,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>,
+<a href="#page100">100</a>,
+<a href="#page101">101</a>.<br>
+
+Ames, Col. W. H.,
+<a href="#page007">7</a>,
+<a href="#page013">13</a>.<br>
+
+Amiens,
+<a href="#page104">104</a>,
+<a href="#page174">174</a>.<br>
+
+A.S.C.,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>,
+<a href="#page045">45</a>,
+<a href="#page132">132</a>,
+<a href="#page192">192</a>.<br>
+
+Arras,
+<a href="#page107">107</a>,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>,
+<a href="#page144">144</a>.<br>
+
+Arrowsmith, Rev. W. L., M.C.,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>.<br>
+
+Asylum, St. Venant,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br>
+
+Athies,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>.<br>
+
+Auxi-le-Château,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>,
+<a href="#page112">112</a>.<br>
+
+Aveluy,
+<a href="#page035">35</a>.<br>
+
+Avesne,
+<a href="#page174">174-176</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Band, the,
+<a href="#page200">200</a>,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br>
+
+Baquerolle Farm,
+<a href="#page181">181</a>,
+<a href="#page183">183</a>,
+<a href="#page186">186</a>,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>,
+<a href="#page191">191</a>,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>.<br>
+
+Barnes, Lance-Corpl.,
+<a href="#page109">109</a>.<br>
+
+Barton, Lieut. C. J.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page086">86</a>.<br>
+
+Bassett, Col.-Sgt.,
+<a href="#page001">1</a>.<br>
+
+Baxter, Pte.,
+<a href="#page137">137</a>,
+<a href="#page139">139</a>.<br>
+
+Beaman, Maj. G. P. R.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>.<br>
+
+Beauvoir Line,
+<a href="#page163">163-165</a>.<br>
+
+Beechey, C.Q.-M.S.,
+<a href="#page193">193</a>.<br>
+
+Bellamy, Lt.-Col. R., D.S.O.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page030">30</a>,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>,
+<a href="#page051">51</a>,
+<a href="#page104">104</a>.<br>
+
+Bennett, Lieut. A. E. G.,
+<a href="#page199">199</a>.<br>
+
+Bennett, Maj. H. J., M.C.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page015">15</a>,
+<a href="#page023">23</a>,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>,
+<a href="#page086">86</a>,
+<a href="#page092">92</a>,
+<a href="#page145">145</a>,
+<a href="#page164">164-170</a>.<br>
+
+Berks, 2/4th Royal,
+<a href="#page025">25</a>,
+<a href="#page035">35</a>,
+<a href="#page051">51</a>,
+<a href="#page055">55</a>,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>,
+<a href="#page077">77</a>,
+<a href="#page098">98</a>,
+<a href="#page102">102</a>,
+<a href="#page122">122</a>,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>,
+<a href="#page161">161</a>,
+<a href="#page163">163</a>,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>,
+<a href="#page170">170</a>,
+<a href="#page181">181</a>,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>.<br>
+
+Bermerain,
+<a href="#page218">218</a>.<br>
+
+Bernaville,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>.<br>
+
+Bicknell, Capt. A., M.C.,
+<a href="#page034">34</a>,
+<a href="#page152">152</a>,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br>
+
+Birt, Sgt. J. W.,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>.<br>
+
+Boase, Lieut. T. S. R., M.C.,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>,
+<a href="#page182">182</a>,
+<a href="#page186">186</a>.<br>
+
+Boyle, Lt.-Col. C. R. C., D.S.O.,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>.<br>
+
+Brigade, 182nd Inf.,
+<a href="#page078">78</a>,
+<a href="#page085">85</a>,
+<a href="#page087">87</a>,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>,
+<a href="#page198">198</a>,
+<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br>
+
+&mdash;&mdash; 183rd Inf.,
+<a href="#page126">126</a>,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>,
+<a href="#page208">208</a>.<br>
+
+Brazier, Sgt.,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>,
+<a href="#page198">198</a>.<br>
+
+Brooks, C.S.M. E., V.C.,
+<a href="#page034">34</a>,
+<a href="#page064">64</a>,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>,
+<a href="#page101">101</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.<br>
+
+Brooks, Sgt. M. T.,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br>
+
+Broomfield,
+<a href="#page004">4</a>.<br>
+
+Brown, Capt. K. E., M.C.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page023">23</a>,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>,
+<a href="#page040">40</a>,
+<a href="#page051">51</a>,
+<a href="#page056">56</a>,
+<a href="#page085">85</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page119">119</a>,
+<a href="#page132">132</a>,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>.<br>
+
+Broxeele,
+<a href="#page114">114</a>.<br>
+
+Brucamps,
+<a href="#page049">49</a>.<br>
+
+Brucker, Capt. A. H.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>.<br>
+
+Bucks, 2/1st,
+<a href="#page035">35</a>,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page094">94</a>,
+<a href="#page125">125</a>,
+<a href="#page135">135</a>,
+<a href="#page158">158</a>,
+<a href="#page174">174</a>,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>.<br>
+
+Buggins, Father,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>.<br>
+
+Buller, Sgt.,
+<a href="#page109">109</a>.<br>
+
+Butcher, Sgt., M. M.,
+<a href="#page101">101</a>.<br>
+
+Buttfield, Capt. L. F., M.C.,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>,
+<a href="#page182">182</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Cairns, C.S.M. J., D.C.M.,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>,
+<a href="#page125">125</a>,
+<a href="#page172">172</a>.<br>
+
+Callender, Lieut. J. C.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page119">119</a>,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>.<br>
+
+Calonne,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>,
+<a href="#page179">179-183</a>,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>.<br>
+
+Calonne Road,
+<a href="#page019">19</a>,
+<a href="#page183">183</a>,
+<a href="#page186">186</a>,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>.<br>
+
+Cambrai,
+<a href="#page217">217</a>,
+<a href="#page219">219</a>.<br>
+
+Cameron, Bde. Signalling Officer,
+<a href="#page219">219</a>.<br>
+
+Canteen, the,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>.<br>
+
+Carvin,
+<a href="#page179">179</a>,
+<a href="#page191">191</a>,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>.<br>
+
+Caulaincourt,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page086">86</a>.<br>
+
+Cepy Farm,
+<a href="#page094">94</a>,
+<a href="#page102">102</a>,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>.<br>
+
+Chapelle Boom,
+<a href="#page209">209</a>.<br>
+
+Chaulnes,
+<a href="#page049">49</a>,
+<a href="#page056">56</a>,
+<a href="#page060">60</a>,
+<a href="#page078">78</a>,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>.<br>
+
+Chemical Works,
+<a href="#page142">142</a>,
+<a href="#page149">149</a>.<br>
+
+Chili Avenue,
+<a href="#page143">143</a>.<br>
+
+Chocques,
+<a href="#page174">174</a>,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>.<br>
+
+Christie-Miller, Lieut.-Col. G., D.S.O., M.C.,
+<a href="#page197">197</a>.<br>
+
+Christmas Day,
+<a href="#page041">41</a>,
+<a href="#page155">155</a>,
+<a href="#page219">219</a>,
+<a href="#page220">220</a>.<br>
+
+Clarence River,
+<a href="#page179">179</a>,
+<a href="#page191">191</a>.<br>
+
+Clutsom, Capt. C. R.,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>,
+<a href="#page197">197</a>,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>,
+<a href="#page214">214</a>.<br>
+
+Coles, Corpl.,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>.<br>
+
+Collett, Sgt.,
+<a href="#page030">30</a>.<br>
+
+Connell, Bugler,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>.<br>
+
+Contay Wood,
+<a href="#page022">22</a>.<br>
+
+Copinger, Lieut. J. P.,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page140">140</a>.<br>
+
+Coombes, Lieut. H. K.,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>.<br>
+
+Coucher, Lieut. G. W.,
+<a href="#page186">186</a>.<br>
+
+Craddock, Lieut.,
+<a href="#page170">170</a>.<br>
+
+Crosthwaite, Capt. H. T.,
+<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br>
+
+Cubbage, Lieut.,
+<a href="#page197">197</a>,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>.<br>
+
+Cunningham, C.S.M.,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br>
+
+Cunningham, Lieut. J. C.,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>,
+<a href="#page162">162</a>.<br>
+
+Cupper, Lieut. H. J.,
+<a href="#page218">218</a>.<br>
+
+Cuthbert, Capt. R. F., M.C.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page030">30</a>,
+<a href="#page051">51</a>,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>,
+<a href="#page149">149</a>,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Davenport, Capt. H. N., M.C.,
+<a href="#page007">7</a>,
+<a href="#page009">9</a>,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>.<br>
+
+Davies, Pte. A. H.,
+<a href="#page137">137</a>.<br>
+
+Dawson-Smith, Lieut. C. F.,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.<br>
+
+D.C.L.I., 1 5th,
+<a href="#page034">34</a>,
+<a href="#page036">36</a>,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>,
+<a href="#page179">179</a>.<br>
+
+Deniécourt,
+<a href="#page051">51</a>.<br>
+
+Desire Trench,
+<a href="#page025">25</a>,
+<a href="#page026">26</a>,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>.<br>
+
+Dimmer, Lt.-Col. J. S., V.C.,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>.<br>
+
+Division, 4th,
+<a href="#page183">183</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>.<br>
+<span class="index5">5th,
+<a href="#page201">201</a>.</span><br>
+<span class="index5">15th,
+<a href="#page122">122</a>,
+<a href="#page126">126</a>,
+<a href="#page144">144</a>.</span><br>
+<span class="index5">17th,
+<a href="#page143">143</a>.</span><br>
+<span class="index5">20th,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>.</span><br>
+<span class="index5">32nd,
+<a href="#page055">55</a>,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>.</span><br>
+<span class="index5">48th,
+<a href="#page122">122</a>,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>,
+<a href="#page126">126</a>.</span><br>
+<span class="index5">51st,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>,
+<a href="#page179">179</a>.</span><br>
+<span class="index5">59th,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>,
+<a href="#page085">85</a>,
+<a href="#page217">217</a>.</span><br>
+
+Domart,
+<a href="#page219">219</a>.<br>
+
+Douglas, R.S.M.W.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page172">172</a>.<br>
+
+Doullens,
+<a href="#page174">174</a>,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>.<br>
+
+Dugan, Br.-Gen. W. J., C.M.G., D.S.O.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>.<br>
+
+Duncan, Maj.-Gen. F. J., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.,
+<a href="#page207">207</a>,
+<a href="#page220">220</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Ellis, Lieut.,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>.<br>
+
+Enghien Redoubt,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>,
+<a href="#page162">162</a>,
+<a href="#page165">165</a>.<br>
+
+Estaires,
+<a href="#page017">17</a>,
+<a href="#page212">212-214</a>.<br>
+
+Etaples,
+<a href="#page220">220</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Fabick Trench,
+<a href="#page023">23</a>.<br>
+
+Faithfull, Capt. J. H. D.,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br>
+
+Fauquissart,
+<a href="#page010">10</a>.<br>
+
+Fayet,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>,
+<a href="#page094">94</a>,
+<a href="#page096">96</a>,
+<a href="#page098">98</a>,
+<a href="#page157">157</a>,
+<a href="#page158">158</a>,
+<a href="#page160">160-163</a>,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>.<br>
+
+Field Trench,
+<a href="#page036">36</a>,
+<a href="#page037">37</a>.<br>
+
+Foreshew, Capt. C. E. P., M.C.,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>.<br>
+
+Framerville,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>,
+<a href="#page080">80</a>.<br>
+
+Freudemacher, C.Q.-M.S.,
+<a href="#page193">193</a>.<br>
+
+'Frolics,' the,
+<a href="#page198">198</a>,
+<a href="#page219">219</a>.<br>
+
+Fry, Lieut.,
+<a href="#page061">61</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Gas,
+<a href="#page114">114</a>,
+<a href="#page128">128</a>,
+<a href="#page136">136</a>,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>.<br>
+
+Gascoyne, Lieut.,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>.<br>
+
+Gepp, Bde.-Maj.,
+<a href="#page033">33</a>,
+<a href="#page148">148</a>,
+<a href="#page149">149</a>.<br>
+
+Gloucester Farm,
+<a href="#page019">19</a>,
+<a href="#page191">191</a>.<br>
+
+Gloucesters, 2/5th,
+<a href="#page015">15</a>,
+<a href="#page035">35</a>,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>,
+<a href="#page085">85</a>,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>,
+<a href="#page162">162</a>,
+<a href="#page163">163</a>,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>,
+<a href="#page170">170</a>,
+<a href="#page183">183</a>,
+<a href="#page184">184</a>,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>,
+<a href="#page216">216</a>.<br>
+
+Goldfish Château,
+<a href="#page120">120</a>,
+<a href="#page125">125-127</a>.<br>
+
+Gonnelieu,
+<a href="#page153">153</a>,
+<a href="#page154">154</a>.<br>
+
+Goodman, Lance-Cpl.,
+<a href="#page140">140</a>.<br>
+
+Gouzeaucourt,
+<a href="#page152">152</a>,
+<a href="#page153">153</a>.<br>
+
+Grandcourt,
+<a href="#page024">24</a>,
+<a href="#page028">28</a>.<br>
+
+Greenland Hill,
+<a href="#page105">105</a>,
+<a href="#page149">149</a>.<br>
+
+Guest, Lieut. H. R., M.C.,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page125">125</a>,
+<a href="#page140">140</a>.<br>
+
+Guildford, Lieut.,
+<a href="#page064">064</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Ham,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>.<br>
+
+Hangest,
+<a href="#page176">176</a>.<br>
+
+Harbonnières,
+<a href="#page049">49</a>.<br>
+
+Harling, Major R. W.,
+<a href="#page034">34</a>.<br>
+
+Harris, Capt. H. T. T.,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.<br>
+
+Hall, Pte., D.C.M.,
+<a href="#page151">151</a>.<br>
+
+Haussy,
+<a href="#page218">218</a>.<br>
+
+Havrincourt Wood,
+<a href="#page154">154</a>.<br>
+
+Hawkes, Lieut. T. W. P.,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.<br>
+
+Hazebrouck,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>,
+<a href="#page195">195</a>,
+<a href="#page200">200</a>.<br>
+
+Hedauville,
+<a href="#page030">30</a>,
+<a href="#page033">33</a>,
+<a href="#page034">34</a>,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>.<br>
+
+Hedges, R.Q.M.S. W. C.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>.<br>
+
+Hedley, R.S.M. W., D.C.M.,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>.<br>
+
+Herbert, Lieut. S. E.,
+<a href="#page109">109</a>.<br>
+
+Hessian Trench,
+<a href="#page030">30</a>,
+<a href="#page037">37</a>,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>,
+<a href="#page040">40</a>.<br>
+
+Hill, Lieut. T. A.,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.<br>
+
+Hill 35,
+<a href="#page131">131-140</a>.<br>
+
+Hinton, Sgt., M.M.
+<a href="#page015">15</a>.<br>
+
+Hobbs, Capt. (Q.-M.) W. A.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page021">21</a>,
+<a href="#page045">45</a>,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>.<br>
+
+Holder, C.Q.-M.S. C. R.,
+<a href="#page193">193</a>.<br>
+
+Holnon,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>,
+<a href="#page091">91</a>,
+<a href="#page102">102</a>,
+<a href="#page157">157</a>,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>,
+<a href="#page162">162</a>,
+<a href="#page163">163</a>.<br>
+
+Hombleux,
+<a href="#page088">88</a>,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>.<br>
+
+Howland, Sgt.,
+<a href="#page001">1</a>.<br>
+
+Howitt, Capt. (Bde.-Maj.) H. G., D.S.O., M.C.,
+<a href="#page148">148</a>,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>,
+<a href="#page178">178</a>.<br>
+
+Hunt, Lieut. C. B.,
+<a href="#page025">25</a>,
+<a href="#page029">29</a>,
+<a href="#page064">64</a>,
+<a href="#page065">65</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Infantry Hill,
+<a href="#page105">105</a>.<br>
+
+Isbergues,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>.<br>
+
+Itchin Farm,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Jones, Capt. H., M.C.,
+<a href="#page044">44</a>,
+<a href="#page100">100</a>,
+<a href="#page101">101</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page162">162</a>,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>,
+<a href="#page172">172</a>,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br>
+
+July 19th, 1916, Operations of,
+<a href="#page012">12</a>,
+<a href="#page013">13</a>.<br>
+
+Junction Post,
+<a href="#page214">214-216</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Kemp, Lieut. S. F., M.C.
+<a href="#page175">175</a>,
+<a href="#page186">186</a>.<br>
+
+Kilby. Sergt.,
+<a href="#page100">100</a>,
+<a href="#page101">101</a>.<br>
+
+Kirk, Lieut. J.,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>,
+<a href="#page193">193</a>,
+<a href="#page198">198</a>,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>.<br>
+
+Kettle, Sgt.,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+La Gorgue,
+<a href="#page010">10</a>,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>,
+<a href="#page214">214</a>.<br>
+
+La Lacque,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>.<br>
+
+La Motte,
+<a href="#page169">169-171</a>.<br>
+
+La Pierre au Beurre,
+<a href="#page185">185</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>.<br>
+
+La Pierrière,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>,
+<a href="#page197">197-199</a>.<br>
+
+Languevoisin,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>,
+<a href="#page165">165</a>.<br>
+
+Laventie,
+<a href="#page008">8</a>,
+<a href="#page010">10</a>,
+<a href="#page176">176</a>,
+<a href="#page214">214-216</a>.<br>
+
+Lawson, Lt.-Col. A. B., D.S.O.,
+<a href="#page163">163</a>,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page191">191</a>.<br>
+
+Leatherbarrow, Sergt. J.,
+<a href="#page098">98</a>,
+<a href="#page101">101</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.<br>
+
+Les Amusoires,
+<a href="#page179">179</a>,
+<a href="#page181">181</a>,
+<a href="#page182">182</a>,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>.<br>
+
+Les Fosses Farm,
+<a href="#page107">107</a>.<br>
+
+Le Vergier,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>,
+<a href="#page085">85</a>.<br>
+
+Liettres,
+<a href="#page199">199</a>.<br>
+
+Lindsey, Lieut.,
+<a href="#page109">109</a>.<br>
+
+Linghem,
+<a href="#page198">198</a>,
+<a href="#page216">216</a>.<br>
+
+Lodge, 2/Lt. T., M.C.,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>,
+<a href="#page181">181</a>,
+<a href="#page186">186</a>,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br>
+
+Loewe, Lieut. L. L.,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>.<br>
+
+Longford, Pte.,
+<a href="#page026">26</a>,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>.<br>
+
+Longley, Pte.,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>.<br>
+
+Lyon, Lieut.,
+<a href="#page044">44</a>.<br>
+
+Lys River,
+<a href="#page176">176</a>,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>,
+<a href="#page213">213</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Mackenzie, Maj.-Gen. Sir Colin, K.C.B.,
+<a href="#page049">49</a>,
+<a href="#page165">165</a>,
+<a href="#page195">195</a>.<br>
+
+Maison Ponthieu,
+<a href="#page042">42</a>,
+<a href="#page045">45</a>,
+<a href="#page049">49</a>.<br>
+
+Maissemy,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>,
+<a href="#page163">163</a>.<br>
+
+Marcelçave,
+<a href="#page049">49</a>,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>,
+<a href="#page170">170</a>.<br>
+
+Marchélepot,
+<a href="#page056">56</a>,
+<a href="#page060">60</a>,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>.<br>
+
+Marcon, Capt. C. S. W.,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>.<br>
+
+Maresches,
+<a href="#page219">219</a>.<br>
+
+Martinsart Wood,
+<a href="#page031">031</a>,
+<a href="#page033">033</a>,
+<a href="#page034">034</a>.<br>
+
+Matthews, Capt. C. S.,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>.<br>
+
+Merville,
+<a href="#page008">8</a>,
+<a href="#page010">10</a>,
+<a href="#page017">17</a>,
+<a href="#page176">176</a>,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>,
+<a href="#page179">179</a>,
+<a href="#page182">182</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page201">201</a>,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>.<br>
+
+Miller, Capt. J. G. R.,
+<a href="#page186">186</a>.<br>
+
+Moated Grange,
+<a href="#page017">17</a>.<br>
+
+Moberly, Capt. W. H., D.S.O.,
+<a href="#page009">9</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page125">125</a>,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page151">151</a>,
+<a href="#page165">165</a>,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>,
+<a href="#page172">172</a>.<br>
+
+Monchy-le-Preux,
+<a href="#page105">105</a>,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>.<br>
+
+Montolu Wood,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page086">86</a>.<br>
+
+Monument, at Fayet,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>.<br>
+
+Moorat,
+<a href="#page023">23</a>.<br>
+
+Moore, Capt. (Bde.-Maj.), L. G., D.S.O.,
+<a href="#page092">92</a>,
+<a href="#page093">93</a>,
+<a href="#page098">98</a>.<br>
+
+Moore, Col.-Sgt.,
+<a href="#page001">1</a>.<br>
+
+Mouquet Farm,
+<a href="#page023">23</a>,
+<a href="#page035">35</a>,
+<a href="#page036">36</a>.<br>
+
+Moss, C.S.M.,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>.<br>
+
+Mowby, Sergt. W.,
+<a href="#page100">100</a>.<br>
+
+Mudd, C.S.M. A. J.,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br>
+
+Muir, Lt.-Col. J. B., D.S.O.,
+<a href="#page158">158</a>.<br>
+
+Murray, Capt. (Q.M.) W. G.,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>,
+<a href="#page172">172</a>,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>,
+<a href="#page193">193</a>,
+<a href="#page197">197</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Nesle,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>,
+<a href="#page175">175</a>.<br>
+
+Neuf Berquin,
+<a href="#page201">201</a>,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>,
+<a href="#page211">211-213</a>.<br>
+
+Neuve Chapelle,
+<a href="#page010">10</a>.<br>
+
+Neuvillette,
+<a href="#page020">20</a>,
+<a href="#page104">104</a>.<br>
+
+Nicholas, Bde.-Maj.,
+<a href="#page220">220</a>.<br>
+
+Nieppe Forest,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>,
+<a href="#page178">178</a>,
+<a href="#page201">201-206</a>,
+<a href="#page209">209</a>.<br>
+
+Noc River,
+<a href="#page020">20</a>,
+<a href="#page179">179</a>,
+<a href="#page181">181</a>,
+<a href="#page198">198</a>.<br>
+
+Noeux,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>,
+<a href="#page112">112</a>.<br>
+
+Northampton,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+O'Connor, Lance-Cpl.,
+<a href="#page100">100</a>.<br>
+
+O'Meara, Lieut. R. A., M.C.,
+<a href="#page155">155</a>,
+<a href="#page185">185</a>.<br>
+
+Offoy,
+<a href="#page165">165</a>,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>.<br>
+
+Omignon River,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>.<br>
+
+Orderly Room,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br>
+
+Oxford, Battalion billeted in colleges,
+<a href="#page002">2</a>.<br>
+
+Oxfords, 6th,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Pagan, Brig.-Gen. A. W., D.S.O.,
+<a href="#page176">176</a>,
+<a href="#page183">183</a>,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>,
+<a href="#page198">198</a>.<br>
+
+Palmer, Sgt.,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page137">137</a>.<br>
+
+Parkhouse Camp,
+<a href="#page006">6</a>.<br>
+
+Parsons, Sgt.,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>.<br>
+
+Patrols,
+<a href="#page029">29</a>,
+<a href="#page040">40</a>.<br>
+
+Plate Becque,
+<a href="#page201">201</a>,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>.<br>
+
+Pond Farm,
+<a href="#page122">122</a>,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>,
+<a href="#page125">125</a>.<br>
+
+Ponne Copse,
+<a href="#page086">86</a>.<br>
+
+Poperinghe,
+<a href="#page115">115</a>,
+<a href="#page119">119</a>.<br>
+
+Portuguese,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>,
+<a href="#page178">178</a>,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>.<br>
+
+P.U.O.,
+<a href="#page197">197</a>.<br>
+
+Pym, Bde.-Maj.,
+<a href="#page033">33</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Raid, at Ablaincourt (by enemy),
+<a href="#page058">58</a>,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>,
+<a href="#page064">64</a>.<br>
+<span class="index5">by A Coy.,
+<a href="#page015">15</a>.</span><br>
+<span class="index5">by B Coy.,
+<a href="#page009">9</a>.</span><br>
+<span class="index5">by C Coy.,
+<a href="#page191">191</a>.</span><br>
+<span class="index5">by D Coy.,
+<a href="#page092">92</a>.</span><br>
+
+Rainecourt,
+<a href="#page049">49</a>,
+<a href="#page077">77</a>.<br>
+
+Ravenscroft, Sgt., D.C.M.,
+<a href="#page201">201</a>.<br>
+
+Regina Dug-out,
+<a href="#page026">26</a>.<br>
+
+Regina Trench,
+<a href="#page025">25</a>,
+<a href="#page027">27</a>,
+<a href="#page030">30</a>,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>.<br>
+
+Riez Bailleul,
+<a href="#page017">17</a>,
+<a href="#page019">19</a>.<br>
+
+Robecq,
+<a href="#page019">19</a>,
+<a href="#page020">20</a>,
+<a href="#page177">177-184</a>,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>.<br>
+
+Roberts, Pte.,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>.<br>
+
+Robinson, Capt. A. J.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>,
+<a href="#page023">23</a>,
+<a href="#page025">25</a>,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>,
+<a href="#page051">51</a>,
+<a href="#page056">56</a>,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>,
+<a href="#page191">191</a>.<br>
+
+Rockall, Corpl.,
+<a href="#page029">29</a>,
+<a href="#page061">61</a>.<br>
+
+Rose, Maj. D. M.,
+<a href="#page014">14</a>.<br>
+
+Rowbotham, Capt. G. V., M.C.,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>.<br>
+
+Rowbotham, Lance-Cpl.,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>,
+<a href="#page137">137</a>,
+<a href="#page139">139</a>,
+<a href="#page140">140</a>.<br>
+
+Rowlerson, Lieut. G. A., M.C.,
+<a href="#page191">191</a>,
+<a href="#page215">215</a>.<br>
+
+Ruthven, Maj. W. L.,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Sailly-sur-la-Lys,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>,
+<a href="#page216">216</a>.<br>
+
+St. Hilaire,
+<a href="#page199">199</a>,
+<a href="#page200">200</a>.<br>
+
+St. Hubert,
+<a href="#page218">218</a>.<br>
+
+St. Omer,
+<a href="#page195">195</a>.<br>
+
+St. Pol,
+<a href="#page174">174</a>,
+<a href="#page177">177</a>.<br>
+
+St. Quentin,
+<a href="#page082">82</a>,
+<a href="#page087">87</a>,
+<a href="#page089">89</a>,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>,
+<a href="#page103">103</a>.<br>
+
+St. Venant,
+<a href="#page176">176</a>,
+<a href="#page178">178</a>,
+<a href="#page181">181</a>,
+<a href="#page183">183</a>,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>.<br>
+
+Schuler Farm,
+<a href="#page122">122</a>.<br>
+
+Scott, Lieut. W. D.,
+<a href="#page007">7</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page119">119</a>,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>.<br>
+
+Selency,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>,
+<a href="#page162">162</a>.<br>
+
+Sepmeries,
+<a href="#page218">218</a>.<br>
+
+Shields, Capt. (M.O.),
+<a href="#page197">197</a>.<br>
+
+Shilson, Capt. J. W.,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br>
+
+Short, Pte.,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>.<br>
+
+Sloper, Sgt., M. M.,
+<a href="#page101">101</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.<br>
+
+Smith, Pte.,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>.<br>
+
+Smith, C.S.M. S., D.C.M.,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br>
+
+Soyécourt,
+<a href="#page081">081</a>,
+<a href="#page082">082</a>.<br>
+
+Spresiano Camp,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>.<br>
+
+Stanley, Capt. J., M.C.,
+<a href="#page185">185</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page215">215</a>.<br>
+
+Stobie, Capt. W., O.B.E.,
+<a href="#page026">26</a>,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>.<br>
+
+Stockton, Capt. J. G.,
+<a href="#page007">7</a>,
+<a href="#page023">23</a>,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>,
+<a href="#page051">51</a>,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>.<br>
+
+Suffolks, 5th,
+<a href="#page209">209</a>,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br>
+
+Sunken Road (Fayet),
+<a href="#page090">90</a>,
+<a href="#page094">94</a>,
+<a href="#page096">96</a>,
+<a href="#page161">161</a>.<br>
+
+Suzanne,
+<a href="#page155">155</a>,
+<a href="#page156">156</a>.<br>
+
+Symonds, Capt. R. F.,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>,
+<a href="#page219">219</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Taylor, Lieut.,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>,
+<a href="#page100">100</a>,
+<a href="#page101">101</a>.<br>
+
+Taylor, C.Q.-M.S.,
+<a href="#page193">193</a>.<br>
+
+Tertry,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>.<br>
+
+Thomas, 'Benny,'
+<a href="#page144">144</a>,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>.<br>
+
+Thompson, Pte.,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>.<br>
+
+Thorne, Brig.-Gen. A. F. A. N., C.M.G., D.S.O.,
+<a href="#page219">219</a>.<br>
+
+Tiddy, Lieut. R. J. E.,
+<a href="#page007">7</a>,
+<a href="#page015">15</a>.<br>
+
+Tilly, Lieut.,
+<a href="#page086">86</a>.<br>
+
+Timms, Pte.,
+<a href="#page025">25</a>,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>.<br>
+
+Transport, the,
+<a href="#page192">192-194</a>.<br>
+
+Tremellen, Lance-Cpl.,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>.<br>
+
+Tripp's Farm,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>.<br>
+
+Tubbs, Capt. A.,
+<a href="#page094">94</a>.<br>
+
+Tullock's Corner,
+<a href="#page036">36</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Ugny,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>,
+<a href="#page165">165</a>.<br>
+
+Uzzell, Lance-Cpl.,
+<a href="#page064">64</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Vendegies,
+<a href="#page218">218</a>.<br>
+
+Verlaines,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>.<br>
+
+Vermandovillers,
+<a href="#page077">77</a>,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>.<br>
+
+Viggers, Corpl.,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>,
+<a href="#page140">140</a>.<br>
+
+Villers Bretonneux,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>.<br>
+
+Vlamertinghe,
+<a href="#page120">120</a>.<br>
+
+Voyennes,
+<a href="#page165">165</a>,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Waldon, Col.-Sgt.,
+<a href="#page001">1</a>.<br>
+
+Wallington, Lieut. C. H., M.C.,
+<a href="#page151">151</a>,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>.<br>
+
+Warwircks, 2 6th,
+<a href="#page179">179</a>.
+ 2 7th,
+<a href="#page181">181</a>.<br>
+
+Watkins, Sgt.,
+<a href="#page082">82</a>,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>.<br>
+
+Wayte, Lieut. J. P., M.C.,
+<a href="#page085">85</a>,
+<a href="#page086">86</a>.<br>
+
+Webb, Lieut. E. S. F.,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.<br>
+
+Weller, Lieut. B. O.,
+<a href="#page157">157</a>.<br>
+
+Wetherall, Lieut.-Col. H. de R., D.S.O., M.C.,
+<a href="#page104">104</a>,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>,
+<a href="#page132">132</a>,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>,
+<a href="#page204">204</a>.<br>
+
+White, Brig.-Gen. the Hon. R., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.,
+<a href="#page015">15</a>,
+<a href="#page039">39</a>,
+<a href="#page048">48</a>,
+<a href="#page093">93</a>,
+<a href="#page112">112</a>,
+<a href="#page121">121</a>,
+<a href="#page145">145-148</a>,
+<a href="#page163">163</a>,
+<a href="#page165">165</a>.<br>
+
+Wilcox, Lance-Cpl. A., V.C.,
+<a href="#page215">215</a>.<br>
+
+Wieltje,
+<a href="#page132">132</a>,
+<a href="#page134">134</a>.<br>
+
+Williams, Col.-Sergt.,
+<a href="#page001">1</a>.<br>
+
+Willink, Capt. G. O. W., M.C.,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>.<br>
+
+Wiltshire, Lieut. G. H.,
+<a href="#page149">149</a>.<br>
+
+Winchester Post,
+<a href="#page010">10</a>.<br>
+
+Winnipeg,
+<a href="#page122">122</a>.<br>
+
+Wise, Lance-Cpl.,
+<a href="#page140">140</a>.<br>
+
+Wood. R.S.M. T. V.,
+<a href="#page001">1</a>.<br>
+
+Woodford, Lieut. G. W., M.C.,
+<a href="#page193">193</a>.<br>
+
+Woulfe-Flanagan, Lt.-Col. E. M., C.M.G., D.S.O.,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>,
+<a href="#page220">220</a>.<br>
+
+Wright, Bugler,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>.<br>
+
+Writtle,
+<a href="#page004">4</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Young, Capt. R. E. M.,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br>
+
+Ypres,
+<a href="#page058">58</a>,
+<a href="#page119">119</a>,
+<a href="#page120">120</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Zeder, Lieut. J. H., D.C.M.,
+<a href="#page007">7</a>,
+<a href="#page009">9</a>.<br>
+
+Zollern Redoubt,
+<a href="#page036">36</a>,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<h6>HOLYWELL PRESS, OXFORD.</h6>
+
+<p><a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a>
+<b>Footnote 1:</b> A failure of this kind was far less due to any
+indetermination of the men than to the complex nature of the scheme,
+which any misadventure was capable of upsetting. On this occasion the
+'order to retire' was said to have been of German manufacture, but
+such explanation deserved a grain of salt. Owing to the danger of its
+unauthorised use, the word 'retire' was prohibited by Army
+orders.<a href="#footnotetag1">(back)</a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a>
+<b>Footnote 2:</b> In making these remarks I want it understood that I am
+intending at this point no censure of our staff, whose difficulties in
+their way were even greater than those of the Infantry, nor am I
+working up to any impeachment of my superiors in narrating those
+facts, the omission of which would ruin the value of this
+story.<a href="#footnotetag2">(back)</a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a>
+<b>Footnote 3:</b> Cross-examination of the men in their duties. They were
+asked what they would do in various emergencies. Their powers of
+recognition were also tested. I recollect a humorous incident when
+General White and Colonel Wake (G.S.O.I., 61st Division) both passed
+<i>incognito</i>. The situation was well seized by the former, who slapped
+his chest and declared, 'Such is fame'! Lay readers will find in later
+chapters some attempt to explain the technical expressions used in the
+text.<a href="#footnotetag3">(back)</a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a>
+<b>Footnote 4:</b> A secret trench code, intended for use in
+operations.<a href="#footnotetag4">(back)</a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a>
+<b>Footnote 5:</b> Deliberate shelling to ascertain exact range of targets
+for a future bombardment.<a href="#footnotetag5">(back)</a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a>
+<b>Footnote 6:</b> B.C.&mdash;<i>Boyau de communication</i>, communication
+trench.<a href="#footnotetag6">(back)</a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a>
+<b>Footnote 7:</b> This fact, which will hardly be credited by future
+generations, is related from the actual knowledge of the
+writer.<a href="#footnotetag7">(back)</a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote8" name="footnote8"></a>
+<b>Footnote 8:</b> At this stage in the war the barrels of many of our guns
+and howitzers in use on the Western Front were very worn. That fact
+alone and not any want of care or devotion on the part of our
+Artillery or staff would have accounted for the 'short shooting' which
+I record. To locate a worn barrel, when scores of batteries were
+bombarding together according to a complicated programme, was
+naturally impossible. Infantry recognised
+this.<a href="#footnotetag8">(back)</a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote9" name="footnote9"></a>
+<b>Footnote 9:</b> Nowhere is this truth better expressed than in the words
+of 'Tommy's' own song, the refrain of which ends:&mdash;<br>
+<span class="poem1">'But you get your "bob" a day, never mind!'</span><a href="#footnotetag9">(back)</a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote10" name="footnote10"></a>
+<b>Footnote 10:</b> For the <i>terrain</i> referred to in this chapter see the
+maps ante pp. 83 and 95.<a href="#footnotetag10">(back)</a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote11" name="footnote11"></a>
+<b>Footnote 11:</b> Defensive artillery, whose inactivity prior to the
+German attack was intended to ensure against discovery by enemy
+sound-rangers and observers.<a href="#footnotetag11">(back)</a></p>
+
+<p><a id="footnote12" name="footnote12"></a>
+<b>Footnote 12:</b> In the realm of sport a later achievement of the
+Battalion deserves record. On July 27 at the XI Corps horse-show our
+team won the open tug-of-war.<a href="#footnotetag12">(back)</a></p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr width="50%" align="center">
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Transcriber's note:<br>
+<br>
+&mdash;Missing page numbers correspond to illustration pages, those illustrations have
+been moved out of the paragraphs they were cutting to ease the reading.<br>
+<br>
+&mdash;Page 94: The word "and" has been added in the sentence "The attack
+was ably dealt with by Tubbs' company of
+the Bucks -and- had proved abortive for the enemy".<br>
+<br>
+&mdash;Page 109: "Another development which was destined to
+play an ever increasing part in the war and to make
+its closing phases worse in some respects that its
+early, was the long-range high-velocity gun."
+The word "that" has been changed to "than".<br>
+<br>
+&mdash;Index: The number after D.C.L.I. is unclear and as been left as
+"D.C.L.I., 1 5th".]</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE 2/4TH OXFORDSHIRE AND BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 20395-h.txt or 20395-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and
+Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, by G. K. Rose
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
+
+
+Author: G. K. Rose
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 18, 2007  [eBook #20395]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE 2/4TH OXFORDSHIRE
+AND BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Geetu Melwani, Christine P. Travers, Carl Hudkins, and
+the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(https://www.pgdp.net/c/) from page images generously made available by
+Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/toronto)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 20395-h.htm or 20395-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/3/9/20395/20395-h/20395-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/3/9/20395/20395-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/24thoxfordshire00roseuoft
+
+
+
+
+
+THE STORY OF THE 2/4TH OXFORDSHIRE & BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY
+
+by
+
+CAPTAIN G. K. ROSE, M.C.
+
+With a Preface by _Brig. Genl. the Hon. R. WHITE, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.
+(late Commander 184th Infantry Brigade)
+
+And an Introduction by Colonel W. H. AMES, T.D.
+
+With Maps and Illustrations by the Author
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A soldier of the 2/4th Oxfordshire
+and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry]
+
+
+
+Oxford
+B. H. Blackwell, Broad Street
+MCMXX
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF PLATES
+
+
+A Soldier of the Battalion                      _Frontispiece_
+Colonel W. H. Ames, T.D.                   _Facing page_     1
+Pay-day for 'A' Company                      "       "       4
+Robecq from the South                        "       "      18
+Brigadier-General the Hon. R. White, C.B.                   48
+A Front-line Post                                           68
+Company Sergeant-Major E. Brooks, V.C.                     100
+Vlamertinghe--The Road to Ypres                            128
+Hill 35, from an aeroplane photograph                      136
+A Street in Arras                                          144
+'Tank Dump'                                                146
+In a German gun-pit near Gavrelle                          150
+The Canal du Nord at Ypres                                 154
+Lieut.-Colonel H. E. de R. Wetherall, D.S.O., M.C.         168
+Robecq. Old Mill and Bridge                                185
+The Headquarters Runners, July, 1918                       198
+Corporal A. Wilcox, V.C.                                   214
+Officers of the Battalion, December, 1918                  219
+184th Infantry Brigade Staff                               219
+The Adjutant. Cambrai. The Battalion Cooks                 220
+Lieut.-Colonel E. M. Woulfe-Flanagan, C.M.G., D.S.O.
+   R.S.M. W. Hedley, D.C.M.
+   R.Q.M.S. Hedges                                         220
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
+
+
+Winchester Trench                                           11
+The March to the Somme                                      21
+Somme Trench Map                                            36
+Maison Ponthieu                                             45
+Harbonnieres                                                50
+The Ablaincourt Sector                                      57
+A Duckboarded Communication Trench                          72
+The Advance to St. Quentin                                  82
+The Raid near St. Quentin                                   94
+Arras: The Grande Place                                    110
+Noeux Village                                              113
+Poperinghe from the West                                   119
+The Attack of August 22, 1917                              124
+The Attack on Hill 35                                      132
+The Retreat behind the Somme                               166
+Bird's-eye Map of the Robecq Area                          180
+The Nieppe Forest                                          202
+Merville Church                                            206
+Battalion H.Q. at Chapelle Boom                            209
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                          PAGE
+INTRODUCTION                                                 1
+
+Chapter I.     LAVENTIE, May to October, 1916                8
+
+     The 61st Division lands in France.--Instruction.--The
+     Laventie sector.--Trench warfare at its height.--Moberly
+     wounded.--B Company's raid.--Front and back areas.--July
+     19.--Changes in the Battalion.--A Company's raid.--A
+     projected attack.--Laventie days.--Departure for the Somme.
+
+
+Chapter II.    THE SOMME BATTLEFIELD, November, 1916        19
+
+     Departure from Laventie.--At Robecq.--The march southwards.
+    --Rest at Neuvillette.--Contay Wood.--Albert.--New
+     trenches.--Battle conditions.--Relieving the front line.--
+     Desire Trench.--Regina dug-out.--Mud and darkness.--A heavy
+     barrage.--Fortunes of Headquarters.--A painful relief.--
+     Martinsart Wood.
+
+
+Chapter III.   CHRISTMAS ON THE SOMME,
+               December, 1916                               33
+
+     The move from Martinsart to Hedauville.--Back to Martinsart.--
+     Working parties.--Dug-outs at Mouquet Farm.--Field Trench.--
+     Return to the front line.--Getting touch.--Guides.--An
+     historic patrol.--Christmas in the trenches.
+
+
+Chapter IV.    AT MAISON PONTHIEU, January-February, 1917   42
+
+     Visitors to the Battalion.--The New Year.--A wintry march.--
+     Arrival at Maison Ponthieu.--Severe weather.--At war with the
+     cold.--Training for offensive action.--By rail to Marcelcave.
+    --Billets at Rainecourt.--Reconnoitring the French line near
+     Deniecourt.
+
+
+Chapter V.     IN THE ABLAINCOURT SECTOR, February, 1917    53
+
+     German retreat foreshadowed.--The Battalion takes over the
+     Ablaincourt Sector.--Issues in the making.--Lieutenant Fry
+     mortally wounded.--The raid by German storm-troops on February
+     28.--The raid explained.
+
+
+Chapter VI.    LIFE IN THE FRONT LINE, Winter, 1916-1917    67
+
+     Ignorance of civilians and non-combatants.--The front line
+     posts.--Hardships and dangers.--Support platoons.--The
+     Company Officers.--The Battalion relieved by the 182nd Brigade.
+
+
+Chapter VII.   THE ADVANCE TO ST. QUENTIN,
+               March to April, 1917                         77
+
+     The enemy's retirement.--Road-mending in No-Man's-Land.--The
+     devastated area.--Open warfare.--The Montolu campaign.--
+     Operations on the Omignon river.--The 61st Division relieved
+     before St. Quentin.--End of trench-warfare.
+
+
+Chapter VIII.  THE RAID AT FAYET, April, 1917               89
+
+     A German vantage-point.--Shell-ridden Holnon.--A night of
+     confusion.--Preparing for the raid of April 28.--The enemy
+     taken by surprise.--The Battalion's first V.C.--The affair at
+     Cepy Farm.
+
+
+Chapter IX.    ARRAS AND AFTERWARDS,
+               May, June, July, 1917                       103
+
+     Relief by the French at St. Quentin.--A new Commanding Officer.
+    --At the Battle of Arras.--Useful work by A Company.--
+     Harassing fire.--A cave-dwelling.--At Bernaville and Noeux.
+    --In G.H.Q. reserve.--A gas alarm by General Hunter Weston.--
+     The Ypres arena.
+
+
+Chapter X.     THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES, August, 1917     116
+
+     A Battalion landmark.--Poperinghe and Ypres.--At Goldfish
+     Chateau.--The attack near St. Julien on August 22.--Its
+     results.--A mud-locked battle.--The back-area.--Mustard
+     gas.--Pill-box warfare.
+
+
+Chapter XI. THE ATTACK ON HILL 35, September, 1917         132
+
+     Iberian, Hill 35, and Gallipoli.--The Battalion ordered to make
+     the seventh attempt against Hill 35.--The task.--A and D
+     Companies selected.--The assembly position.--Gassed by our
+     own side.--Waiting for zero.--The attack.--Considerations
+     governing its failure.--The Battalion quits the Ypres
+     battlefield.
+
+
+Chapter XII.   AUTUMN AT ARRAS AND THE MOVE TO CAMBRAI,
+               October, November, December, 1917           142
+
+     The Battalion's return to Arras.--A quiet front.--The
+     Brigadier and his staff.--A novelty in tactics.--B Company's
+     raid.--A sudden move.--The Cambrai front.--Havrincourt
+     Wood.--Christmas at Suzanne.
+
+
+Chapter XIII.  THE GREAT GERMAN ATTACK OF MARCH 21,
+               January-March, 1918                         156
+
+     The French relieved on the St. Quentin front.--The calm before
+     the storm.--A golden age.--The Warwick raid.--The German
+     attack launched.--Defence of Enghien Redoubt.--Counter-attack
+     by the Royal Berks.--Holnon Wood lost.--The battle for the
+     Beauvoir line.--The enemy breaks through.
+
+
+Chapter XIV.   THE BRITISH RETREAT, March, 1918            165
+
+     Rear-guard actions.--The Somme crossings.--Bennett relieved
+     by the 20th Division at Voyennes.--Davenport with mixed troops
+     ordered to counter-attack at Ham.--Davenport killed.--The
+     enemy crosses the Somme.--The stand by the 184th Infantry
+     Brigade at Nesle.--Colonel Wetherall wounded.--Counter-attack
+     against La Motte.--Bennett captured.--The Battalion's
+     sacrifice in the great battle.
+
+
+Chapter XV.    THE BATTLE OF THE LYS, April-May, 1918      173
+
+     Effects of the German offensive.--The Battalion amalgamated
+     with the Bucks.--Entrainment for the Merville area.--A
+     dramatic journey.--The enemy break-through on the Lys.--The
+     The Battalion marches into action.--The defence of Robecq.--
+     Operations of April 12, 13, 14.--The fight for Baquerolle Farm.
+    --A troublesome flank.--Billeted in St. Venant.--The lunatic
+     asylum.--La Pierriere.--The Robecq sector.
+
+
+Chapter XVI.   THE TURNING OF THE TIDE,
+               May, June, July, August, 1918               192
+
+     Rations and the Battalion Transport.--At La Lacque.--The
+     bombing of Aire.--General Mackenzie obliged by his wound to
+     leave the Division.--Return of Colonel Wetherall.--Tripp's
+     Farm on fire.--A mysterious epidemic.--A period of wandering.
+    --The march from Pont Asquin to St. Hilaire.--Nieppe Forest.
+    --Attack by A and B Companies on August 7.--Headquarters
+     gassed.--A new Colonel.--The Battalion goes a-reaping.
+
+
+Chapter XVII.  LAST BATTLES, August to December, 1918      208
+
+     German retreat from the Lys.--Orderly Room and its staff.--
+     The new devastated area.--Itchin Farm, Merville and Neuf
+     Berquin.--Mines and booby-traps.--Advance to the Lys.--
+     Estaires destroyed.--Laventie revisited.--The attack on
+     Junction Post.--Lance-Corporal Wilcox, V.C.--Scavenging at
+     the XI Corps school.--On the Aubers ridge.--The end in sight.
+    --Move to Cambrai.--In action near Bermerain and Maresches.--
+     A fine success.--Domart and Demobilisation.--Work at Etaples.
+    --Off to Egypt.
+
+
+Composition of the Battalion on going Overseas             221
+
+
+     "          "     "        at the Armistice            222
+
+
+Index                                                      223
+
+
+
+
+AUTHOR'S PREFACE
+
+
+My cordial thanks are due to my old Brigadier for his kindness and
+trouble in writing the Preface, and also to Colonel Ames for
+contributing the Introduction.
+
+From many friends in the Regiment I have received information and
+assistance.
+
+This book is based on a series of articles, which appeared in the
+_Oxford Times_ during the summer of 1919. The project, of which this
+volume is the outcome, was assisted by that newspaper and by the
+courtesy of its staff.
+
+                                                        G. K. ROSE.
+Oxford, November 1919.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+My friend, Major G. K. Rose, has set out to describe the doings of the
+2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry during the Great
+War.
+
+If I judge his purpose rightly, he designs to paint without
+exaggeration and without depreciation a picture which shall recall not
+only now, but more especially in the days to come, the wonderful years
+during which we ceased to be individuals pursuing the ordinary
+avocations of life and became indeed a band of brothers, linked
+together in a common cause and inspired, however subconsciously, by
+one common hope and interest. If I am correct in my surmise, then I
+think that Major Rose has written particularly for his comrades of the
+2/4th Oxfords and, in a wider sense, of the 184th Infantry Brigade and
+the 61st Division. And in doing this he seems to me to be performing a
+great service.
+
+Unfettered by the necessity of drawing an attractive picture and of
+appealing to the natural desire of the general reader for dramatic and
+sensational episode, he can rely on his readers to fill in for
+themselves the emotional and psychological aspects of the narrative.
+We, his comrades, have but to turn the pages of his story to live
+again those marvellous days and to feel the hopes and fears, the
+pathos and the fun, the excitement and the weariness, and the hundred
+other emotions which gave to life in the Great War a sense of
+adventure which we can hardly hope to savour again.
+
+It is perhaps right that those who through poor health, age, bad
+luck or other causes, were unable to leave home and take an active
+part in the life of the front line, should generously speak of their
+more fortunate compatriots as 'heroes.' The term is somewhat freely
+used in these days. I am, however, happy to think that the British
+officer and soldier is not apt to consider himself in that light and
+has, indeed, a distinct aversion from being so described. Rather does
+he pride himself, in his quiet way, on his light-hearted and stoical
+indifference to danger and discomfort and his power to see the comical
+and cheery side of even the most appalling incidents in war. Long may
+this be so.
+
+Viewed in this light, Major Rose's book will in after years give a
+true picture of the experiences of an English Territorial Battalion in
+the 'Great Adventure.' Shorn of fictitious glamour, events are
+narrated as they presented themselves to the regimental officers,
+non-commissioned officers, and men who bore the heat and burden of the
+day.
+
+Having said so much, I may be allowed to think that Major Rose is
+almost too reticent and modest as regards the splendid record of his
+Battalion.
+
+After the 'big push' of July, 1916, on the Somme, I had the honour to
+be promoted to the command of the 184th Infantry Brigade, 61st
+Division. In September I found the Brigade occupying a portion of the
+line in front of Laventie, just north of Neuve Chapelle. The 61st
+Division, recently landed from England and before it had had time to
+'feel its feet,' had to be pushed into an attack against the enemy's
+position in front of the Aubers ridge. In this attack it suffered
+severe losses. The Division, naturally, was burning to 'get its own
+back.' Unfortunately it had for some weeks to content itself with
+routine work in the Flanders trenches.
+
+In this connection I may remark that the 61st Division had an unduly
+large share of the 'dirty work' of demonstrations, secondary
+operations, and taking over and holding nasty parts of the line. Those
+who have been through this mill will sympathise, knowing how credit
+was apt to go to those who took part in the first 'big push' rather
+than to the luckless ones who had to relieve attacking divisions and
+take over the so-called trenches which had been won from the enemy.
+Those trenches had to be consolidated under a constant and accurate
+bombardment. However, grumbling was not the order of the day, and
+during the last year of the war the 61st Division came into its own.
+It received in frequent mentions and thanks from the Commander-in-Chief
+and the higher command the just reward for its loyal spade work and
+splendid fighting qualities.
+
+In November, 1916, the 184th Infantry Brigade and the 2/4th Oxford and
+Bucks Light Infantry found themselves, as the narrative shows, on
+classic ground near Mouquet Farm. Here I was first thrown into close
+contact with the Battalion and learned to know and value it. The work
+was, if you like, mere routine, mere holding the line. But what a
+line! Shall we ever forget Regina and Desire trenches, with their
+phenomenal mud and filth; or Rifle Dump and Sixteen Street and Zollern
+Redoubt--and Martinsart Wood and the 'rest' there? Names, names!
+but with what memories!
+
+I am tempted to follow the fortunes of the Battalion through the
+varied scenes of its experience. I should like to talk of happy
+mornings 'round the line' with Colonel or Adjutant, or cheery lunches
+with good comrades in impossibly damp and filthy dug-outs, of midnight
+assemblies before, and early-morning greetings after, successful
+raids, and of how we inspected Boche prisoners, machine-guns and other
+'loot.'
+
+I should like to recall memories of such comrades as Bellamy and
+Wetherall, Cuthbert, Bennett, Davenport, 'Slugs' Brown, Rose, 'Bob'
+Abraham, Regimental Sergeant-Major Douglas, Company Sergeant-Major
+Brooks, V.C., and a host of other friends of all ranks.
+
+I look back with pride on many stirring incidents.
+
+Among these I recall the raid near St. Quentin on April 28, 1917,
+admirably planned and carried out by Captain Rose and his company, and
+resulting in the capture of two machine-guns and prisoners of the 3rd
+Prussian Jaeger regiment, three companies of which were completely
+surprised and outflanked by the dashing Oxford assault. On this
+occasion Company Sergeant-Major Brooks deservedly won the V.C. and
+added lustre to the grand records of his regiment.
+
+Equally gallant was the fine stand made by the Oxfords on August 22
+and 23, 1917, in front of Ypres. Captain Moberly and his brave
+comrades, surrounded by the enemy and completely isolated, stuck
+doggedly for 48 hours to the trench which marked the furthest point
+of the Brigade's objective.
+
+Few battalions of the British Army could boast a finer feat of arms
+than the holding of the Enghien Redoubt by Captain Rowbotham, 2nd
+Lieutenant Cunningham, Regimental Sergeant-Major Douglas and some 150
+men of D Company and Battalion Headquarters. From 10.30 a.m. till 4.30
+p.m. on March 21, 1918, these brave soldiers, enormously outnumbered
+and completely surrounded, stemmed the great tide of the German attack
+and by their devoted self-sacrifice enabled their comrades to withdraw
+in good order. 2nd Lieutenant Cunningham, the sole surviving officer
+for many hours, remained in touch with Brigade Headquarters by buried
+cable until the last moment. Further resistance being hopeless, he
+received my instructions, after a truly magnificent defence, to
+destroy the telephone instruments and cut his way out.
+
+But I must not encroach on the domain of our author, a real front line
+officer, who lived with his men throughout the war under real front
+line conditions.
+
+It fell to my lot for 18 months to have the Battalion amongst those
+under my command. Attacking, resting, raiding, marching, the 2/4th
+Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry not only upheld but
+enhanced the glory of the old 43rd and 52nd Regiments of the Line.
+
+                                            ROBERT WHITE,
+                                                 _Brigadier General._
+
+[Illustration: COLONEL W. H. AMES, T.D.]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+The raising of the Second Line of the Territorial Force became
+necessary when it was decided to send the First Line overseas. The
+Territorial Force was originally intended for home defence, a duty for
+which its pre-war formations soon ceased to be available. The early
+purpose, therefore, of the Second Line was to defend this country.
+
+On September 8, 1914, I was privileged to begin to raise the 2/4th
+Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the Battalion whose
+history is set out in the following pages. I opened Orderly Room in
+Exeter College, Oxford, and enrolled recruits. The first was
+Sergeant-Major T. V. Wood. By the end of the day we had sworn in and
+billeted over 130 men.
+
+The Battalion was created out of untrained elements, but what the
+recruits lacked in experience they made up in keenness. The Secretary
+of the County Association had an excellent list of prospective
+officers, but these had to learn their work from the beginning. We
+were lucky to secure the services of several non-commissioned officers
+with Regular experience; Colour-Sergeants Moore, Williams, Bassett and
+Waldon, and Sergeant Howland worked untiringly, whilst the keenness of
+the officers to qualify themselves to instruct their men was beyond
+praise.
+
+At the end of ten days sufficient recruits had been enrolled to
+allow the formation of eight companies, which exactly reproduced
+those of the First Line, men being allotted to the companies according
+to the locality whence they came. A pleasant feature was the number of
+Culham students, who came from all parts of England to re-enlist in
+their old Corps. Well do I remember my feelings when I sat down to
+post the officers to the companies. It was a sort of 'Blind Hookey,'
+but seemed to pan out all right in the end. Company officers had to
+use the same process in the selection of their non-commissioned
+officers. Of these original appointments all, or nearly all, were
+amply justified--a fact which said much for the good judgment
+displayed.
+
+With the approach of the Oxford Michaelmas Term the Battalion had to
+move out of the colleges (New College, Magdalen, Keble, Exeter,
+Brasenose and Oriel had hitherto kindly provided accommodation) and
+into billets. Training was naturally hurried. As soon as the companies
+could move correctly a series of battalion drills was carried out upon
+Port Meadow. This drill did a great deal to weld the Battalion
+together. The elements of digging were imparted by Colonel Waller
+behind the Headquarters at St. Cross Road, open order was practised on
+Denman's Farm, whilst exercises in the neighbourhood of Elsfield gave
+the officers some instruction in outpost duties and in the principles
+of attack and defence.
+
+The important rudiments of march discipline were soon acquired. Weekly
+route marches took place almost from the first. Few roads within a
+radius of 9 miles from Oxford but saw the Battalion some time or
+other. The Light Infantry step caused discomfort at first, but the
+Battalion soon learned to take a pride in it. The men did some
+remarkable marches. Once they marched from the third milestone at the
+top of Cumnor Hill to the seventh milestone by Tubney Church in 57
+minutes. Just before Christmas, 1914, they marched through Nuneham to
+Culham Station and on to Abingdon, and then back to Oxford through
+Bagley Wood, without a casualty.
+
+At the end of 1914 Second Line Divisions and Brigades were being
+formed, and the 2/4th Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry became a unit of
+the 184th Infantry Brigade under Colonel Ludlow, and of the 61st
+Division under Lord Salisbury. Those officers inspected the Battalion
+at Oxford before it left, at the end of January, 1915, for
+Northampton.
+
+The move from Oxford terminated the first phase in the Battalion's
+history. At Northampton fresh conditions were in store. Smaller
+billets and army rations replaced the former system of billets 'with
+subsistence.' Elementary training was reverted to. The Battalion was
+armed with Japanese rifles, a handy weapon, if somewhat weak in the
+stock, and range work commenced. The seven weeks at Northampton, if
+not exactly relished at the time, greatly helped to pull the Battalion
+together. The period was marked by a visit of General Sir Ian
+Hamilton, who inspected and warmly complimented the men on their
+turn-out.
+
+A minor incident is worthy of record. One Saturday night a surprise
+alarm took place about midnight. The Battalion was young, and the
+alarm was taken very seriously. Even the sick turned out rather than
+be left behind, and marched the prescribed five miles without ill
+effects.
+
+Just before Easter, 1915, the 61st Division moved into Essex in order
+to occupy the area vacated by the 48th. The Battalion's destination
+was Writtle, where the amicable relations already established with the
+inhabitants by Oxfordshire Territorials were continued. Though our
+stay was a short one, we received a hearty welcome, when, on our
+return from Epping, we again marched through the village.
+
+After a fortnight at Writtle, the Battalion moved to Hoddesdon, to
+take part in digging the London defences. We left Writtle 653 strong
+at 8 a.m., and completed the march of 25 miles at 5 p.m., with every
+man in the ranks who started. Three weeks later we were ordered to
+Broomfield, a village east of Writtle and near Chelmsford. There was
+keen competition to take part in the return march from Hoddesdon; 685
+men started on the 29 mile march, which lasted 11 hours; only 3 fell
+out. The band marched the whole way and played the Battalion in on its
+arrival at Broomfield.
+
+[Illustration: PAY-DAY FOR "A" COMPANY.]
+
+In the spring of 1915 it was decided to prepare the Territorial Second
+Line for foreign service. Considerable improvement resulted in the
+issue of training equipment. Boreham range occupied much of our time.
+A musketry course was begun but never finished; indeed, the bad
+condition of the rifles made shooting futile. Six weeks were also
+spent at Epping in useful training, at the conclusion of which we
+returned to Broomfield. The Battalion was billeted over an area about
+six miles long by one wide, until leave was obtained for a camp. For
+nearly three months the men were together under canvas, with the very
+best results. Strenuous training ensued. I am reminded of a little
+incident which occurred during some night digging at Chignal Smealy.
+The object of the practice was to enure the men to work, not only when
+fresh, but when tired. Operations opened with digging with the
+entrenching tool--each man to make cover for himself. By 8 p.m. this
+stage had been reached, so tea and shovels were issued. At 9 p.m.
+serious digging began, the shelters being converted into trenches, and
+this continued till 1.30 a.m. Coffee was then served, and work went on
+till dawn, which provided an opportunity to practise standing-to. A
+rest followed, but after breakfast work was again resumed. About 10
+a.m. an officer found a man sitting down in the trenches and ordered
+him to renew his efforts. The man obeyed the order at once, but was
+heard to remark to his neighbour, 'Well! If six months ago a bloke had
+told me that I was a-going to work the 'ole ruddy night and the 'ole
+ruddy day for one ruddy bob, I'd never 'ave believed him!'
+
+At the end of October, 1915, I consider that the Battalion reached the
+zenith of its efficiency during its home service. It was a great pity
+that the Division could not have been sent abroad then. Instead, each
+battalion was reduced in November to a strength of 17 officers and 600
+men. Individual training recommenced, until specialists of every kind
+flourished and multiplied. At a General's inspection during the
+winter a most varied display took place. Scouts were in every tree, a
+filter party was drawing water from the village pond, cold shoeing was
+being practised at the Transport, cooking classes were busy making
+field ovens, wire entanglements sprang up on every side, nor was it
+possible to turn a corner without encountering some fresh form of
+activity. I fancy the authorities were much impressed on this
+occasion, for nothing was more difficult than to show the men, as they
+normally would be, to an inspecting officer.
+
+In January, 1916, the Battalion, having been recently made up with
+untrained recruits, moved to Parkhouse Camp on Salisbury Plain to
+complete its training with the rest of the Division. We arrived in
+frost and snow and left, three months later, in almost tropical
+heat--remarkable contrasts within so short a period. The Division was
+speedily completed for foreign service; new rifles were issued, with
+which a musketry course was successfully fired, though snow showers
+did not favour high scoring. We were made up to strength with drafts
+from the Liverpool, Welsh, Dorset, Cambridge, and Hertfordshire
+Regiments, were inspected by the King, and embarked as a unit of the
+first Second Line Division to go abroad.
+
+Thus at the end of 18 months' hard work the preparatory stage in the
+Battalion's history was concluded. Its subsequent life is traced in
+the chapters of this volume.
+
+The period of home service is wrapped in pleasant memory. It was not
+always plain sailing, but difficulties were lightened by the
+wonderful spirit that animated all ranks and the pride which all felt
+in the Battalion. I recall especially the work of some who have not
+returned; Davenport, Scott, Stockton, Zeder, and Tiddy among the
+officers, and among the non-commissioned officers and men a host of
+good comrades. Nor do I forget those who came safely through. No
+commanding officer was ever better supported, and my gratitude to them
+all is unending. I think the Battalion was truly animated by the
+spirit of the famous standing order, 'A Light Infantry Regiment being
+expected to approach nearer to perfection than any other, more zeal
+and attention is required from all ranks in it.' Equally truly was it
+said that not by the partial exertions of a few, but by the united and
+steady efforts of all, was the Battalion formed and its discipline
+created and preserved.
+
+                                             W. H. AMES, _Colonel_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+LAVENTIE,
+
+MAY TO OCTOBER, 1916.
+
+The 61st Division lands in France.--Instruction.--The Laventie
+sector.--Trench warfare at its height.--Moberly wounded.--B
+Company's raid.--Front and back areas.--July 19th.--Changes in
+the Battalion.--A Company's raid.--A projected attack.--Laventie
+days.--Departure for the Somme.
+
+
+On May 24, 1916, the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light
+Infantry landed in France. Members of the Battalion within a day or
+two were addressing their first field postcards to England. Active
+service, of which the prospect had swung, now close, now far, for 18
+months, had begun.
+
+The 61st Division, to which the Battalion belonged, concentrated in
+the Merville area. The usual period of 'instruction' followed. The
+2/4th Oxfords went to the Fauquissart sector, east of Laventie. Soon
+the 61st relieved the Welsh Division, to which it had been temporarily
+apprenticed, and settled down to hold the line.
+
+It was not long before the Battalion received what is usually termed
+its 'baptism of fire.' Things were waking up along the front in
+anticipation of the Franco-British attack on the Somme. Raids took
+place frequently. Fighting patrols scoured No-Man's-Land each night.
+In many places at once the enemy's wire was bombarded to shreds. By
+the end of June an intense feeling of expectancy had developed;
+activity on both sides reached the highest pitch. The Battalion was
+not slow in playing its part. One of the early casualties was
+Lieutenant Moberly, who performed a daring daylight reconnaissance up
+to the German wire. He was wounded and with great difficulty and only
+through remarkable pluck regained our lines.
+
+That same night the Battalion did its first raid, by B Company under
+Hugh Davenport. The raid was ordered at short notice and was a partial
+success. If the tangible results were few, B Company was very properly
+thanked for its bravery on this enterprise, which had to be carried
+out against uncut wire and unsubdued machine-guns. Zeder, a lieutenant
+with a South African D.C.M., was mortally wounded on the German wire
+and taken prisoner. The casualties were numerous. Davenport himself
+was wounded, but unselfishly refused treatment until his men had been
+fetched in. It was a night of battle and excitement. To the most
+hardened troops a barrage directed against crowded breastworks was
+never pleasant. The Battalion bore itself well and earned recital,
+albeit with some misdescription, in the English press a few days
+later.
+
+During July 1916 the Battalion was in and out of the breastworks
+between Fauquissart and Neuve Chapelle. When the 184th Infantry
+Brigade went back to rest the Battalion had billets on the outskirts
+of Merville, a friendly little town, since levelled in ruins; and,
+when reserve to the Brigade, in Laventie. Brigade Headquarters were at
+the latter and also the quartermasters' stores and transport of
+battalions in the line.
+
+Some favourite spots were the defensive 'posts,' placed a mile behind
+the front line and known as Tilleloy, Winchester, Dead End, Picantin.
+Reserve companies garrisoned these posts. No arduous duties spoilt the
+days; night work consisted chiefly in pushing trolley-loads of rations
+to the front line. Of these posts the best remembered would be
+Winchester, where existed a board bearing the names of Wykhamists,
+whom chance had led that way. Battalion Headquarters were there for a
+long time and were comfortable enough with many 'elephant' dug-outs
+and half a farmhouse for a mess--the latter ludicrously decorated by
+some predecessors with cuttings from _La Vie Parisienne_ and other
+picture papers.
+
+[Illustration: WINCHESTER TRENCH.]
+
+Though conditions were never quiet in the front line, during the
+summer of 1916 back area shelling was infrequent. Shells fell near
+Laventie cross-roads on most days and, when a 12 inch howitzer
+established itself behind the village, the Germans retaliated upon it
+with 5.9s, but otherwise shops and estaminets flourished with national
+nonchalance. The railway, which ran from La Gorgue to Armentieres, was
+used by night as far as Bac St. Maur--an instance of unenterprise
+on the part of German gunners. Despite official repudiation, on our
+side the principle of 'live and let live' was still applied to back
+areas. Trench warfare, which in the words of a 1915 pamphlet 'could
+and must cease' had managed to survive that pamphlet and the abortive
+strategy of the battle of Loos. Until trench warfare ended divisional
+headquarters were not shelled.
+
+Meanwhile the comparative deadlock in the Somme fighting rendered
+necessary vigorous measures against the enemy elsewhere on the front.
+A gas attack from the Fauquissart sector was planned but never carried
+out. Trench mortars and rifle grenades were continuously employed to
+make life as unpleasant as possible for the enemy, whose trenches soon
+became, to all appearances, a rubbish heap. All day and much of the
+night the 'mediums' fell in and about the German trenches and, it must
+be confessed, occasionally in our own as well. Whilst endeavouring to
+annihilate the Wick salient or some such target, one of our heaviest
+of heavy trench mortars dropped short (perhaps that is too much of a
+compliment to the particular shot) in our trenches near a company
+headquarters and almost upon a new concrete refuge, which the R.E. had
+just completed and not yet shown to the Brigadier. Though sometimes
+supplied, the co-operation of this arm was never asked for.
+
+This harassing warfare had a crisis in July. The operations of July
+19, which were shared with the 61st Division by the 5th Australian
+holding trenches further north, were designed as a demonstration to
+assist our attack upon the Somme and to hold opposite to the XI
+Corps certain German reserves, which, it was feared, would entrain
+at Lille and be sent south. That object was achieved, but at the cost
+of severe casualties to the divisions engaged, which were launched in
+daylight after artillery preparation, which results proved to have
+been inadequate, against a trench-system strongly manned and
+garrisoned by very numerous machine-guns. The objectives assigned to
+the 61st Division were not captured, while the Australians further
+north, after entering the German trenches and taking prisoners, though
+they held on tenaciously under heavy counter-attacks, were eventually
+forced to withdraw. 'The staff work,' said the farewell message from
+the XI Corps to the 61st Division three months later, 'for these
+operations was excellent.' Men and officers alike did their utmost to
+make the attack of July 19 a success, and it behoves all to remember
+the sacrifice of those who fell with appropriate gratitude. It was
+probably the last occasion on which large parties of storming infantry
+were sent forward through 'sally ports.' The Battalion was in reserve
+for the attack. C Company, which formed a carrying party during the
+fighting, lost rather heavily, but the rest of the Battalion, though
+moved hither and thither under heavy shelling, suffered few
+casualties. When the battle was over, companies relieved part of the
+line and held the trenches until normal conditions returned.
+
+Soon after these events the Battalion was unlucky to be deprived of
+Colonel Ames, a leader whose energy and common sense could ill be
+spared. This was the first change which the Battalion had in its
+Commanding Officer, and it was much regretted. A change in Adjutant
+had occurred likewise, Major D. M. Rose having been invalided to
+England early in July and his place taken by R. F. Cuthbert, formerly
+commander of D Company. Orderly Room work passed from safe hands into
+hands equally safe. Soon afterwards I joined the Battalion, having
+been transferred from the 1/4th, and received command of D Company.
+The new Commanding Officer, Major R. Bellamy, D.S.O., came from the
+Royal Sussex Regiment and assumed command early in August. Robinson,
+an officer from the Middlesex and one of the best the Battalion ever
+had, Callender and Barton also joined about this time. Brucker, of C
+Company, became Adjutant of the 61st Divisional School, and command of
+his company passed to Kenneth Brown, a great fighter and best of
+comrades, the first member of this Battalion to win the Military
+Cross. Major Beaman was still Second in Command. Two original officers
+of the 2/4th, Jack Bennett and Hugh Davenport, commanded A and B
+Companies respectively. W. A. Hobbs, well known as Mayor of Henley,
+was Quartermaster, and 'Bob' Abraham the Transport Officer. Regimental
+Sergeant-Major Douglas and Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant Hedges
+were the senior warrant officers.
+
+Higher up a new Brigadier in the person of General Dugan arrived and
+held command for a short while. The General, I regret to say, did not
+stay long enough for the full benefit of his experience and
+geniality to accrue, a fragment of a Stokes' mortar shell wounding him
+at a demonstration near Merville and causing his retirement to
+hospital. The new Brigadier, the Hon. R. White, C.M.G., joined us at
+the beginning of September, 1916, from action on the Somme, and soon
+made his cheery criticisms felt.
+
+After the operations of July 19 the former methods of trench warfare
+were resumed. The Division's casualties in the attack had been over
+2,000, and time was required to reorganise and make up these losses.
+
+Early in August an unlucky shell deprived the Battalion of one of its
+best officers. Lieutenant Tiddy had joined the Infantry in a spirit of
+duty and self-sacrifice, which his service as an officer had proved
+but to which his death more amply testified. The regrets of friends
+and comrades measured the Battalion's loss.
+
+At 10 p.m. on August 19 a raid upon the German trenches near the
+'Sugar Loaf' was carried out by A Company. The raid was part of an
+elaborate scheme in which the Australians upon the left and the 2/5th
+Gloucesters on our own front co-operated. The leading bombing party,
+which Bennett sent forward under Sergeant Hinton, quickly succeeded in
+reaching the German parapet and was doing well, when a Mills bomb,
+dropped or inaccurately thrown, fell amongst the men. The plan was
+spoilt. A miniature panic ensued, which Bennett and his Sergeant-Major
+found it difficult to check. As in many raids, a message to retire was
+passed. The wounded were safely brought in by Bennett, whose control
+and leadership were worthy of a luckier enterprise.[1]
+
+                   [Footnote 1: A failure of this kind was far less
+                   due to any indetermination of the men than to the
+                   complex nature of the scheme, which any
+                   misadventure was capable of upsetting. On this
+                   occasion the 'order to retire' was said to have
+                   been of German manufacture, but such explanation
+                   deserved a grain of salt. Owing to the danger of
+                   its unauthorised use, the word 'retire' was
+                   prohibited by Army orders.]
+
+The Battalion was not called upon for much fighting activity in
+September, 1916. Raids and rumours of raids kept many of us busy. An
+attack by the 184th Brigade upon the Wick salient was planned, but
+somewhat too openly discussed and practised to deceive, I fancy, even
+the participating infantry into the belief that it was really to take
+place. Upon the demolished German trenches many raids were made. In
+the course of these raids, the honour of which was generously shared
+between all battalions in the Brigade, sometimes by means of the
+Bangalore Torpedo, sometimes by the easier and more subtle method of
+just walking into them, the enemy's front line was usually entered;
+and rarely did a raiding party return without the capture of at least
+an old bomb, an entrenching tool or even a live German. These
+'identification' raids possibly did as much to identify ourselves to
+the enemy as to identify him to us, but they proved useful occasions
+on which to send parties 'over the top' (always an enjoyable treat!)
+and gave practice to our trench mortars, which fired remarkably well
+and drew down little retaliation--always the bug-bear of the trench
+mortar.
+
+The mention of these things may make dull reading to the _blase_
+warrior of later battlefields, but, as there are some whose last
+experience abroad was during Laventie days and who may read these
+lines, I feel bound to recall our old friend (or enemy) the trench
+mortar, the rent-free (but not rat-free) dug-out among the sandbags,
+the smelly cookhouses, whose improvident fires were the scandal of
+many a red-hatted visitor to the trenches, the mines, with their
+population of Colonial miners doing mysterious work in their basements
+of clay and flinging up a welter of slimy blue sandbags--all these
+deserve mention, if no more, lest they be too soon forgotten.
+
+Days, too, in Riez Bailleul, Estaires and Merville will be remembered,
+days rendered vaguely precious by the subsequent destruction of those
+villages and by lost comrades. Those of the Battalion who fell in 1916
+were mostly buried in Laventie and outside Merville. Though both were
+being fought over in 1918 and many shells fell among the graves, the
+crosses were not much damaged; inscriptions, if nearly obliterated,
+were then renewed when, by the opportunity of chance, the Battalion
+found itself once more crossing the familiar area, before it helped to
+establish a line upon the redoubtable Aubers ridge, to gain which so
+many lives at the old 1915 battles of Neuve Chapelle and Festubert had
+been expended.
+
+It was a fine autumn. The French civilians were getting in their crops
+within a mile or two of the trenches, while we did a series of tours
+in the Moated Grange sector, with rest billets at the little village
+of Riez Bailleul.
+
+And then box respirators were issued.
+
+Laventie days are remembered with affection by old members of the
+Battalion. In October, 1916, however, there were some not sorry to
+quit an area, which in winter became one of the wettest and most
+dismal in France. The Somme battle, which for three months had rumbled
+in the distance like a huge thunderstorm, was a magnet to attract all
+divisions in turn. The predictions of the French billet-keepers were
+realised at the end of October, when the 2/4th Oxfords were relieved
+in the trenches by a battalion of the Middlesex Regiment and prepared
+to march southwards to the Somme.
+
+[Illustration: ROBECQ FROM THE SOUTH.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE SOMME BATTLEFIELD,
+
+NOVEMBER, 1916.
+
+Departure from Laventie.--At Robecq.--The march southwards.--
+Rest at Neuvillette.--Contay Wood.--Albert.--New trenches.--
+Battle conditions.--Relieving the front line.--Desire Trench.--
+Regina dug-out.--Mud and darkness.--A heavy barrage.--Fortunes
+of Headquarters.--A painful relief.--Martinsart Wood.
+
+
+At the end of October, 1916, the 61st Division left the XI Corps and
+commenced its march southwards to join the British forces on the
+Somme. We were among the last battalions to quit the old sector. Our
+relief was completed during quite a sharp outburst of shelling and
+trench-mortaring by the enemy, whose observers had doubtless spotted
+the troops moving up to take over.
+
+After one night in the old billets at Riez Bailleul the Battalion
+marched on October 29 to Robecq, where the rest of the Brigade had
+already assembled, and took up its quarters in farms and houses along
+the Robecq-Calonne road. Battalion Headquarters were established at a
+large farmstead subsequently known as Gloucester Farm, while to reach
+the billets allotted to them the companies marched through the farmyard
+and across the two small bridges, since so familiar to some, which
+spanned the streams Noc and Clarence. My company was furthest south
+and almost in Robecq itself; my headquarters were in a comfortable
+house with an artesian well bubbling up in its front garden. When
+fighting was taking place at Robecq in April, 1918, and I found
+myself, under very different circumstances, in command of the
+Battalion, knowledge of the ground obtained eighteen months before,
+even to the position of garden gates and the width of ditches, proved
+most useful. I am afraid the Battalion's old billets were soon knocked
+down, the favourite estaminet in D Company area being among the first
+houses to go.
+
+On November 2, 1916, the Battalion left Robecq, where it had been
+well-housed and happy for a week, for Auchel, a populous village in
+the mining district, and marched the next day to Magnicourt en Comte,
+an especially dirty village, and thence again through Tinques and
+Etree-Wamin to Neuvillette. The civilians in some of the villages
+passed were not friendly, the billets crowded and often not yet
+allotted when the Battalion arrived, having covered its 14 kilometres
+with full pack and perhaps through rain. Nobody grumbled, for the
+conditions experienced were normal, but this march with its daily
+moves involved toil and much footsoreness on the part of the men, and
+for the officers much hard work after the men were in, and many
+wakings-up in the night to receive belated orders for the morrow.
+
+[Illustration: THE MARCH TO THE SOMME]
+
+After reaching Neuvillette, a pretty village four miles north by west
+of Doullens, a ten days' rest was made. Boots had become very worn
+in consequence of the march, and great efforts were now made by Hobbs
+to procure mending leather; unfortunately the motor car seemed to have
+forgotten its poor relation, the boot, and no leather was forthcoming.
+During the stay at Neuvillette a demonstration in improvised pack
+saddlery was arranged at Battalion Headquarters, the latest and most
+disputed methods of wiring and trench-digging were rehearsed, and two
+really valuable Brigade field days took place. More than a year
+afterwards the Battalion was again billeted at Neuvillette, whose
+inhabitants remembered and warmly welcomed the Red Circle.
+
+On November 16 we marched away to Bonneville and the next day reached
+Contay, where we climbed up to some unfloored huts in a wood. The
+weather on this march had been bitterly cold, but fine and sunny. A
+dusky screen of clouds drifted up from the west the evening of our
+arrival and the same night snow fell heavily. The cookers were not
+near the huts and neither stores nor proper fuel existed. There was
+the usual scramble for the few braziers our generous predecessors had
+left behind. With snow and wind the Battalion tasted its first
+hardship.
+
+As in all such situations, things soon took a cheerful turn. When the
+General came up next morning, the camp was reeking with smoke from
+braziers and the smell of cookers and the wood alive with sounds of
+woodchopping and cries of foragers. This change from a bad look-out to
+a vigorous optimism and will to make the best of things was
+characteristic of the British 'Tommy', who, exhausted and 'fed-up' at
+night, was heard singing and wood chopping the next morning, as if
+wherever he was were the best place in the world. I shall always
+remember Contay Woods, the huts with their floors of hard mud
+reinforced by harder tree-stumps, and the slimy path down to parade
+when we left.
+
+On November 19 we reached Albert, whose familiar church needs no
+description. What struck me principally on arrival was the battered
+sordidness of the place and the filthy state of the roads, on which
+the mud was well up to the ankles. Some civilians were living in the
+town and doing a brisk trade in souvenir postcards of the overhanging
+Virgin. Traffic, as always through a main artery supplying the
+prevalent battlefield, was positively continuous. The first rain of
+autumn had already fallen and men, horses and vehicles all bore mud
+stains significant of winters approach. Our arrival--we went into
+empty, rather shell-damaged houses near the station--coincided with
+the later stages of the Beaumont Hamel offensive, and German prisoners
+and, of course, British casualties were passing through the town.
+
+At Albert, Bennett was taken from A Company to act as Second in
+Command of the Berks. Brown assumed command of his company and
+Robinson about this time of C Company, Brucker having returned to the
+61st Divisional School, which was set up at St. Riquier. Just now much
+sickness occurred among the officers, John Stockton, Moorat and
+several others being obliged to go away by attacks of trench fever.
+From Albert C and D Companies moved forward to some Nissen huts near
+Ovillers to be employed on working parties. For the same duties A and
+B Companies soon afterwards were sent to Mouquet Farm, while Battalion
+Headquarters went to Fabick Trench.
+
+After some rain had fallen, fine autumn weather returned and our guns
+and aeroplanes were shewing the activity typical of the late stages of
+a great battle, when future movements were uncertain. A string of 30
+balloons stretching across the sky in a wide circumference (whose
+centre, as in all 'pushes,' would have been somewhere behind our old
+front) industriously watched the enemy's back area. There was probably
+little comfort for the Germans west of Bapaume, or even in it, for our
+reluctance to shell towns, villages and (formerly most privileged of
+targets) churches was rapidly diminishing.
+
+On November 21 the Brigade took over its new sector of the line and
+with it a somewhat different regime to what it had known before. It
+was heard said of the 61st Division that it stayed too long in quiet
+trenches (to be sure, trenches were only really 'quiet' to those who
+could afford to visit them at quiet periods). Still the Somme
+'craterfield' presented a complete contrast to the old breastworks
+with their familiar landmarks and daylight reliefs. Battle conditions
+remained though the advance had stopped. Our recent capture of
+Beaumont-Hamel and St. Pierre Divion left local situations, which
+required clearing up. The fragments of newly-won trenches above
+Grandcourt, trenches without wire and facing a No-Man's-Land of
+indeterminate extent, gave their occupants their first genuine
+tactical problems and altogether more responsibility than before. In
+some respects the Germans were quicker than ourselves to adapt
+themselves to conditions approximating to open warfare. The principle
+of an outpost line and the system of holding our front in depth had
+been pronounced often as maxims on paper, but had resulted rarely in
+practice. Subordinate staffs, on whom the blame for local reverses was
+apt to fall rather heavily, were perhaps reluctant to jeopardise the
+actual front line by holding it too thinly, while from the nature of
+the case, the front line was something far more sacred to us than to
+the enemy. Since the commencement of trench warfare the Germans had
+held their line on the 'depth' principle, keeping only a minimum of
+troops, tritely referred to as 'caretakers,' in their front trench of
+all, while we for long afterwards crammed entire companies, with their
+headquarters, into the most forward positions.
+
+On the evening of November 25, 1916, Robinson of C Company and myself,
+taking Hunt and Timms (my runner) and one signaller, left for the
+front line. This was being held along Desire--my fondness for this
+trench never warranted that name--with a line of resistance in Regina,
+a very famous German trench, for which there had recently been heavy
+fighting. Our reconnaissance, which was completed at dawn, was lucky
+and satisfactory; moreover--I do not refer to any lack of refreshment
+by the Berks company commander--I was still dry at its conclusion,
+having declined all the communication trenches, which were already
+threatening to become impassable owing to mud.
+
+The next night the Battalion moved up to relieve the Berks, but was
+conducted, or conducted itself, along the very communication trench
+which I had studiously avoided using and which was in a shocking
+state from water and mud. As the result of the journey, D Company
+reached the front line practically wet-through to a man, and in a very
+exhausted condition. A proportion of their impedimenta had become
+future salvage on the way up, while several men and, I fancy, some
+officers, had compromised themselves for some hours with the mud,
+which exacted their gumboots as the price of their future progress. I
+regret that my own faithful servant, Longford, was as exhausted as
+anybody and suffered a nasty fall at the very gates of paradise (an
+hyperbole I use to justify the end of such a mud-journey), namely
+Company Headquarters in Regina, where, like a sort of host, I had been
+waiting long.
+
+Desire Trench, the name by which the front line was known, was a
+shallow disconnected trough upholstered in mud and possessing four or
+five unfinished dug-out shafts. These shafts, as was natural, faced
+the wrong way, but provided all the front line shelter in this sector.
+At one end, its left, the trench ran into chalk (as well as some chalk
+and plenty of mud into _it_!) and its flank disappeared, by a military
+conjuring trick, into the air. About 600 yards away the Germans were
+supposed to be consolidating, which meant that they were feverishly
+scraping, digging and fitting timbers in their next lot of dug-outs.
+To get below earth was their first consideration.
+
+Regina dug-out deserves a paragraph to itself. This unsavoury
+residence housed two platoons of D Company, Company Headquarters, and
+Stobie, our doctor, with the Regimental Aid Post. In construction
+the dug-out, which indeed was typical of many, was a corridor with
+wings opening off, about 40 feet deep and some 30 yards long, with 4
+entrances, on each of which stood double sentries day and night.
+Garbage and all the putrefying matter which had accumulated underfoot
+during German occupation and which it did not repay to disturb for
+fear of a worse thing, rendered vile the atmosphere within. Old German
+socks and shirts, used and half-used beer bottles, sacks of sprouting
+and rotting onions, vied with mud to cover the floor. A suspicion of
+other remains was not absent. The four shafts provided a species of
+ventilation, reminiscent of that encountered in London Tubes, but
+perpetual smoking, the fumes from the paraffin lamps that did duty for
+insufficient candles, and our mere breathing more than counterbalanced
+even the draughts and combined impressions, fit background for
+post-war nightmares, that time will hardly efface. Regina Trench
+itself, being on a forward slope and exposed to full view from Loupart
+Wood, was shelled almost continuously by day and also frequently at
+night. 'Out and away,' 'In and down' became mottoes for runners and
+all who inhabited the dug-out or were obliged to make repeated visits
+to it. Below, one was immune under 40 feet of chalk, and except when
+an entrance was hit the 5.9s rained down harmlessly and without
+comment.
+
+During the day I occasionally ploughed my way along Regina Trench to
+some unshelled vantage point to watch the British shells falling on
+the yet grassy slopes above Miraumont and south of Puisieux.
+Baillescourt Farm was a very common target. At this time Miraumont
+village was comparatively intact and its church, until thrown down by
+our guns, a conspicuous object. Grandcourt lay hidden in the hollow.
+
+Such landscape belonged to the days; real business, when one's orbit
+was confined to a few hundred yards of cratered surface, claimed the
+nights. A peculiar degree of darkness characterised these closing days
+of November, and with rain and mud put an end to active operations.
+Wiring, the chief labour of which was carrying the coils up to the
+front and afterwards settling the report to Brigade, occupied the
+energies of the Battalion after rations had been carried up. In this
+last respect much foresight and experience were required and
+arrangements were less good than they soon afterwards became; food
+that was intended to arrive hot arrived cold, and, having once been
+hot, received precedence over things originally cold but ultimately
+more essential. Hot-food containers proved too unwieldy for the
+forward area.[2]
+
+                   [Footnote 2: In making these remarks I want it
+                   understood that I am intending at this point no
+                   censure of our staff, whose difficulties in their
+                   way were even greater than those of the Infantry,
+                   nor am I working up to any impeachment of my
+                   superiors in narrating those facts, the omission of
+                   which would ruin the value of this story.]
+
+Although quite a normal circumstance in itself, the extreme darkness
+at this period was a real obstacle to patrols and to all whose ability
+to find the way was their passport. Amid these difficulties there
+was an element of humour. To make one false turn, or to turn without
+noticing the fact, by night threw the best map-reader or scout off his
+path and bewildered his calculations. One night about this time a
+party of us, including Hunt and 'Doctor' Rockall, the medical
+corporal, who had accompanied me round the front posts, lost its way
+hopelessly in the dark. Shapes looming up in the distance, I enquired
+of Hunt as to his readiness for hostile encounter, whereupon the
+reassuring answer was given that 'his revolver was loaded, but not
+cocked.' I leave the point (if any) of this story to the mercy of
+those whose fate it has been to lose their way on a foggy night among
+shell-holes, broken-down wire and traps of all descriptions. Temporary
+bewilderment of the calculation destroyed reliance on any putative
+guides such as 'Verey' lights, shells, rifle fire, &c., which on these
+occasions appeared to come from all directions, and English and German
+seemed all alike.
+
+Hunt, who at this time, being my only officer not partially sick, has
+called for somewhat repeated reference, usually devoted the hours
+after midnight to taking a patrol to locate a track shown on the map
+and called Stump Road, his object being to meet another patrol from a
+neighbouring unit. Success did not crown the work. Stump Road remained
+undiscovered and passed into the apocrypha of trench warfare.
+
+At 5 p.m. on November 29, 1916, the Germans opened a heavy barrage
+with howitzers on the front line, giving every indication of impending
+attack. Regina Trench, where were the headquarters of C and D, the
+companies then holding the line, was also heavily shelled, and
+telephonic communication with the rear was soon cut. On such occasions
+it was always difficult to decide whether or not to send up the
+S.O.S--on the one hand unnecessary appeal to our artillery to fire on
+S.O.S. lines was deprecated, on the other, no forward commander could
+afford to guess that a mere demonstration was on foot; for the
+appearance of attacking infantry followed immediately on a lifting of
+the barrage, a symptom in itself often difficult to recognise. On this
+occasion I intended and attempted to send up a coloured rocket, but
+its stick became stuck between the sides of the dug-out shaft and, by
+the time the efforts of Sergeant Collett had prepared the rocket for
+firing, the barrage died down as suddenly as it had started. This very
+commonplace episode illustrates the routine of this phase of warfare.
+The trenches were, of course, blown in and some Lewis guns damaged,
+but, as frequently, few casualties occurred.
+
+While speaking of the life furthest forward I do not forget the very
+similar conditions, allowing for the absence of enemy machine-guns and
+snipers, which prevailed at Battalion Headquarters. Confined to a
+dug-out (a smaller replica of Regina) in Hessian Trench, with a
+continual stream of reports to receive and instructions to send out,
+and being continually rung up on the telephone, Colonel Bellamy and
+Cuthbert had their hands full, and opportunities for rest, if not for
+refreshment, were very limited. Nor do I omit our runners from the
+fullest share in the dangers and activities of this time.
+
+Under battle-conditions life at one remove from the front line was
+rarely much more agreeable than in the line itself, and was less
+provided with those compensations which existed for the Infantryman
+near the enemy. It was necessary to go back to Divisional Headquarters
+to find any substantial difference or to live an ordered life on a
+civilised footing; and there, too, responsibility had increased by an
+even ratio.
+
+The Battalion Transport during this time was stationed at Martinsart
+and its task, along bad roads, in bringing up rations each day was not
+a light one.
+
+On the night of November 30 the Battalion was relieved by the 2/4th
+Gloucesters and marched back to huts in Martinsart Wood. This march of
+eight miles, coming after a four days' tour in wet trenches under
+conditions of open warfare, proved a trying experience. For four miles
+the path lay along a single duckboard track, capsized or slanting in
+many places, and the newly-made Nab Road, to which it led, was hardly
+better. A number of men fell from exhaustion, while others, their
+boots having worn completely through before entering the trenches,
+were in no state to compete with such a distance. After passing
+Wellington Huts and through Aveluy the going became easier, until at
+last the area of our big guns was reached and, adjoining it, the 'rest
+billets.' The latter consisted of unfloored huts built of tarred felt
+and surrounded by mud only less bad than in the trenches. Our lights
+and noise scared the rats, which infested the camp.
+
+The relief and march occupied until 4 a.m., and were succeeded by mist
+and frost. The concussion of our neighbours, the 6-inch naval guns,
+echoed among the trees, heralding the first of December, 1916.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+CHRISTMAS ON THE SOMME,
+
+DECEMBER, 1916.
+
+The move from Martinsart to Hedauville.--Back to Martinsart.--
+Working parties.--Dug-outs at Mouquet Farm.--Field Trench.--
+Return to the front line.--Getting touch.--Guides.--An historic
+patrol.--Christmas in the trenches.
+
+
+On December 2, 1916, the Battalion moved from Martinsart to
+Hedauville, on its way passing through Englebelmer, the home of one of
+our 15-inch howitzers, but no longer of its civilian inhabitants. The
+march was regulated by Pym, the new Brigade Major, who had replaced
+Gepp a few days before. The latter had proved himself a most efficient
+staff officer, and his departure to take up a higher appointment was
+regretted by everybody.
+
+Hedauville was an indifferent village, but our billets were not bad.
+Brigade Headquarters were at the chateau. One heard much about the
+habitual occupation of the French chateaux by our staffs during the
+war. On this particular occasion the Brigade had only two or three
+rooms at its disposal, and on many others would be licencees of only a
+small portion of such buildings. The 184th Infantry Brigade Staff was
+always most solicitous about the comfort of battalions, and its
+efforts secured deserved appreciation from all ranks. During the
+winter Harling retired from the office of Staff Captain, and after a
+brief interregnum Bicknell, a Gloucester officer, who already had been
+attached to the Brigade for some time, received the appointment. For
+the ensuing three years Bicknell proved himself both an excellent
+staff officer and a consistent friend to the Infantry.
+
+After scraping off the remains of the mud it had carried from the
+trenches, the Battalion settled down at Hedauville to a normal
+programme for ten days. The weather was bad, and a good deal of
+sickness now occurred among the troops, until so many officers were
+sick that leave for the others was stopped. Of general interest little
+occurred to mark this first fortnight of December. At its close the
+Battalion marched back to Martinsart and reoccupied its former huts.
+Battalion and Brigade were now in support, and our energies were daily
+devoted to working parties in the forward area. As these were some of
+the most arduous ever experienced by the Battalion I will describe an
+example.
+
+I take December 16--a Saturday. My company was warned for working
+party last night, so at 6 a.m. we get up, dress, and, after a hurried
+breakfast, parade in semi-darkness. As the outing is not a popular one
+and reduction in numbers is resented by the R.E., the roll is called
+by Sergeant-Major Brooks (recently back from leave and in the best of
+early morning tempers) amid much coughing and scuffling about in the
+ranks. At 7 a.m. we start our journey towards the scene of labour,
+some 80 strong (passing for 100). We go first along a broad-gauge
+railway line (forbidden to be used for foot traffic) and afterwards
+through Aveluy and past Crucifix Corner to near Mouquet Farm.
+
+After a trivial delay of perhaps 40 minutes, the D.C.L.I. or 479 have
+observed our arrival and tools are counted out and issued, the homely
+pick and shovel. The task is pleasantly situated about 150 yards in
+front of several batteries of our field guns (which open fire directly
+we are in position) and consists in relaxing duckboards, excavating
+the submerged sleepers of a light railway or digging the trench for a
+buried cable.
+
+Perhaps the work only requires 50, not 100 (nor even 80) men. Very
+well! It is a pity those others came, but here are a thousand sandbags
+to fill, and there a pile of logs dumped in the wrong place last
+night, so let them get on with it!
+
+For six hours we remain steadily winning the war in this manner and
+mildly wondering at the sense of things and whether the Germans will
+shell the batteries just behind our work--until, without hooter or
+whistle, the time to break off has arrived. By 3 p.m. the party is
+threading its way back, and as darkness falls once more reaches the
+camp. Cries of 'Dinner up' and 'Tea up' resound through the huts, and
+all is eating and shouting.
+
+By December 20 it was once more the Brigade's turn to relieve the
+front line. Berks and Gloucesters again took first innings in the
+trenches, while the Bucks and ourselves stayed in support. Battalion
+Headquarters with A and B Companies were in Wellington Huts, near
+Ovillers; C and D went two miles further forward to some scattered
+dug-outs between Thiepval and Mouquet Farm. My own headquarters were
+at the farm, to whose site a ruined cellar and a crumbling heap of
+bricks served to testify. The Germans had left a system of elaborate
+dug-outs, some of which now housed Brigade Headquarters, but others,
+owing to shelling and rain, had collapsed or were flooded. On each of
+the four nights spent at Mouquet Farm my company supplied parties to
+carry wire and stakes up to the front line. These journeys were made
+through heavy shelling, and we were always thankful to return safely.
+My policy was never to allow the pace to become that of the slowest
+man, for there was no limit to such slowness. I myself set a pace,
+which I knew to be reasonable, and men who straggled interviewed me
+next day. By this policy the evening's work was completed in
+two-thirds of the time it would otherwise have taken, and my disregard
+of proverbial maxims probably saved the Battalion many casualties.
+
+[Illustration: SKETCH MAP to show Trenches held by 2/4th Oxf. & Bucks.
+in Nov and Dec 1916]
+
+Since our last tour in the line real winter conditions had set in.
+Shell-holes and trenches everywhere filled with water till choice of
+movement was confined to a few duckboard tracks. Those in our area led
+past Tullock's Corner and from the Gravel Pit to Mouquet Farm, and
+thence to the head of Field Trench, with a branch sideways to Zollern
+Redoubt. Field Trench, an old German switch, led over the Pozieres
+ridge, whose crest was well 'taped' by the German guns. The British
+advance having reached a standstill, the enemy's artillery was now
+firing from more forward positions and paid much attention to places
+like Mouquet Farm, Tullock's Corner, Zollern Redoubt and Field Trench.
+Parties of D.C.L.I. were daily at work upon the latter, duckboarding
+and revetting, and completed a fine pioneers' job right up to Hessian.
+Field Trench ranked among the best performances of the Cornwalls,
+whose work altogether at this time deserved high praise.
+
+On Christmas eve, 1916, the Battalion relieved the front line. Brown
+and Davenport took their companies to Desire and Regina. Battalion
+Headquarters had an improved position at Zollern Redoubt, and their
+old dug-out in Hessian was left to D Company Headquarters. Robinson
+with C Company was also in Hessian, to the left of D. His headquarters
+possessed plenty of depth but neither height nor breadth. The dug-out
+entrance was the size of a large letter-box and nearly level with the
+trench floor.
+
+After the march up, the remainder of the night was devoted to the
+trying process of 'getting touch.' This meant finding the neighbouring
+sentry-posts on each flank--an important duty, for the Germans usually
+knew the date and sometimes the hour of our reliefs and the limits of
+frontage held by different units (we naturally were similarly informed
+about the enemy). For reasons of security no relief could be held
+complete before not only our own men were safely in but our flanks
+were established by touch with neighbouring posts.
+
+In the course of the very relief I have mentioned, a platoon of one
+battalion reached the front line but remained lost for more than a
+day. It could neither get touch with others nor others with it.
+'Getting touch' seemed easy on a map and was often done in statements
+over the telephone. Tangible relations were more difficult and efforts
+to obtain them often involved most exasperating situations, for whole
+nights could be spent meandering in search of positions, which in
+reality were only a few hundred yards distant. Total absence of guiding
+landmarks was freely remarked as the most striking characteristic
+of this part of the Somme area. I refer only to night movement, for by
+day there were always distant objects to steer by, and the foreground,
+seemingly a cratered wilderness of mud, to the trained eye wore a
+multitude of significant objects.
+
+My last topic introduces the regimental guide. Guides performed some
+of the hardest and most responsible work of the war. Staff work could
+at time be botched or boggled without ill-effects; for mistakes by
+guides some heavy penalty was paid. Whenever a relief took place, men
+to lead up the incoming unit into the positions it was to occupy were
+sent back, usually one per platoon, or, in cases of difficult relief
+and when platoon strengths were different, one per sentry-post. Guides
+rarely received much credit when reliefs went well, but always the
+blame when they went ill. The private soldiers, who guided our troops
+into trench and battle, played a greater part in winning the war than
+any record has ever confessed.
+
+I have already spoken of patrols, their difficulties and dangers. Than
+General White no man in the Brigade was better acquainted with its
+front or a more punctual visitor to the most forward positions. What
+'Bobbie' could not himself see by day he was resolved to have
+discovered for him by night, and thus a high measure of activity by
+our patrols was required. About Christmas the question whether the
+eastern portion of a trench, known as Grandcourt Trench, was held by
+the enemy, was set to the Battalion to answer. Vowed to accomplish
+this task or die, a picked patrol started one dark night. Striking
+in a bee line from our trenches, the patrol passed several strands of
+wire and presently discovered fragments of unoccupied trench. On
+further procedure, sounds were heard and, after the necessary stalking
+and listening, proof was obtained that a large hostile wiring party,
+talking and laughing together, was only a few yards distant. With this
+information the patrol veered to a flank, again passing through wire
+and crossing several trenches which bore signs of occupation. A line
+for home was then taken, but much groping and long search failed to
+reveal the faithful landmarks of our front line. At length, as dawn
+was breaking, the situation became clear. The patrol was outside D
+Company Headquarters in Hessian, more than 800 yards _behind_ the
+front line. The report of German wiring parties laughing and talking
+did not gratify, and on reconstruction of its movements it was found
+that the patrol had spent the entire night reconnoitring not the
+German but our own defensive system. The wire so easily passed
+through, the noise and laughter, and the final _denouement_ at Hessian
+allowed for no other conclusion. A few nights later Brown, with a
+small party and on a clear frosty night, solved the riddle by boldly
+walking up to Grandcourt Trench and finding the Germans not at home.
+
+I mention the story of this first patrol for the benefit, perhaps, of
+some who took part in it and who will now, I feel sure, enjoy the
+humour of its recollection. I mention it more to show of what
+unrequited labour Infantry was capable. The most wholehearted
+efforts were not always successful. One had this confidence on patrol,
+that one's mistakes only affected a handful. It was otherwise for
+artillery commanders who arranged a barrage, commanders of Field
+Companies who guaranteed destruction of a bridgehead, or of Special
+Companies undertaking a gas projection. Such was the meaning of
+responsibility.
+
+The Battalion spent December 25, 1916, in the trenches under some of
+the worst conditions that even a war Christmas could bring. Christmas
+dinners were promised and afterwards held when we were in rest.
+
+As in previous years, our army circulars had forbidden any
+fraternisation with the enemy. Though laughed at, these were resented
+by the Infantry in the line, who at this stage lacked either wish or
+intention to join hands with the German or lapse into a truce with
+him. On the other hand, a day's holiday from the interminable sounds
+of shelling would have been appreciated, and casualties on Christmas
+Day struck a note of tragedy. This want of sagacity on the part of our
+higher staff, as if our soldiers could not be trusted to fight or keep
+their end up as well on Christmas as any other day, was a reminder of
+those differences on which it is no object of this history to touch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+AT MAISON PONTHIEU,
+
+JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1917.
+
+Visitors to the Battalion.--The New Year.--A wintry march.--
+Arrival at Maison Ponthieu.--Severe weather.--At war with the
+cold.--Training for offensive action.--By rail to Marcelcave.--
+Billets at Rainecourt.--Reconnoitring the French line near
+Deniecourt.
+
+
+I cannot often treat my readers to a ride by motor car. Jump into this
+staff car that is waiting--it will not take you to the trenches! You
+will have distinguished company. Colonel A. and Major Q. have decided
+to pay a visit to the Battalion. It is at Maison Ponthieu, nearly 50
+miles behind the line, whither it marched two days since to undergo a
+period of rest.
+
+Arrived there, you learn that the Commanding Officer is out, placating
+with the assistance of the Brigade interpreter the wrath of the
+village hunchback, a portion of whose wood-stack was reported missing
+last night. This is not the first time that A. and Q. have visited the
+village (their lives are martyred to the study of regimental comfort),
+so our journey opens with an inspection of the two Nissen huts on the
+village 'green.'
+
+'Disgraceful! At least two planks, which helped to line the roof of
+this hut, have been burnt. Stoves? One was sent to each battalion
+only yesterday, and ten more have been promised by Corps. Fuel? I am
+astounded to hear that the supply is inadequate. Quartermaster! How
+many pounds of dripping did you send to the Base last week? The A.S.C.
+sent twice that quantity. Who is cooking on that field kitchen? It
+will be impossible to make the war last if things are abused in this
+way. Your men have no rifle racks, more ablution benches must be
+provided and the sanitary arrangements made up to date....'
+
+This little parable has made me outstrip my narrative. You must come
+another day and see what Sergeant Parsons is doing with the vast
+quantities of timber, corrugated iron, and other stores supplied to
+make the billets staff-proof for the future.
+
+The end of the last chapter left the Battalion complaining of our guns
+and otherwise merrymaking in the front line. A day or two before the
+New Year, companies marched back to huts near Pioneer Station and the
+next morning reached Hedauville. Here, shortly afterwards, Christmas
+dinners, consisting of pigs and plum-pudding, were consumed. It was
+believed that we had left Regina and Desire for good, were leaving the
+Corps and likely to do training in a back area for several weeks.
+Colonel Bellamy went on leave, and Bennett, amid many offers to
+accompany him as batman, departed for three months' instruction at
+Aldershot as a senior officer. A new Major, W. L. Ruthven, arrived in
+January and temporarily was in command. Loewe and John Stockton
+returned from hospital and Jones from a Divisional working party,
+which had been engaged for a month on the wholesale manufacture of
+duckboards. Lyon, an officer equally popular in and out of the line,
+had found egress from the Somme dug-outs troublesome and withdrew for
+a time to easier spheres. Men's leave was now going well and frequent
+parties left Acheux Station for 'Blighty.'
+
+This list of changes is, of course, incomplete, and I only give it to
+show how constantly the wheel of alteration was turning. Comparatively
+few officers or men stayed very long with one battalion. 'Average
+lives' used to be quoted for all cases, ranging from a few weeks for a
+platoon officer to the duration for R.T.O's and quartermaster-sergeants!
+Old soldiers may never die, but I think our new soldiers 'faded away,'
+not the old, who grew fat and crafty!
+
+The Battalion marched away from Pioneer Huts--whither it had returned
+after its rest at Hedauville--on January 15. The first stage on the
+rearward journey carried us to Puchevillers, a village full of shell
+dumps and now bisected by a new R.O.D. line from Candas to Colincamps.
+Snow, which had fallen heavily before we left Puchevillers, made the
+ensuing march through Beauval and Gezaincourt to Longuevillette a
+trying one. The going was quite slippery and the Transport experienced
+difficulty in keeping up with the Battalion, especially for the last
+two miles. The road marked on the map had by that time degenerated, in
+characteristic fashion, to a mere farm track across country. The
+Battalion was in its billets at Longuevillette by 6 o'clock, but
+blankets arrived so late that it was midnight before Hobbs could issue
+them. On the next day, January 18, the march was continued through
+Bernaville to Domqueur, a distance of 11 miles, on frost bound roads.
+No man fell out. The 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light
+Infantry was one of the best marching battalions in France. On January
+19 we reached the promised destination, Maison Ponthieu, of whose
+billets glowing accounts had been received; which, as often, were
+hardly realised.
+
+[Illustration: MAISON PONTHIEU]
+
+At Maison Ponthieu the Battalion remained for nearly three weeks.
+Brigade Headquarters, the Machine-gun Company, and some A.S.C. were
+already in the village--ominous news for a billeting party.
+
+Now much snow had already fallen throughout the countryside, and the
+weather since the New Year had been growing steadily more cold. In the
+middle of January, 1917, an iron frost seized Northern France till
+ponds were solid and the fields hard as steel. This spell, which
+lasted a month, was proclaimed by the villagers to be the coldest
+since 1890. As day succeeded day the sun still rose from a clear
+horizon upon a landscape sparkling with snow and icicles, and each
+evening sank in a veil of purple haze. Similar frost was experienced
+in England, but the wind swept keener across the flat plains of
+Ponthieu than over our own Midlands. This turn of the weather was a
+military surprise. It produced conditions novel in trench warfare.
+Severe cold was a commonplace, but now for three weeks and more the
+ground everywhere had been hard as concrete, digging and wiring were
+quite impossible, and movement in our front area easier than ever
+before. It almost seemed as if our opportunity for open warfare had
+arrived. Certainly at this moment in the military situation the enemy
+could not have availed himself of his old tactics as guarantee against
+a break through, nor could he, as formerly during the Somme Battle,
+have protected himself from gradual defeat by digging fresh trenches
+and switch lines and putting out new wire in rear wherever his front
+line was threatened. No doubt there were reasons prohibiting an
+attempt to rush the enemy on a grand scale from his precarious salient
+between Arras and Peronne other than fear of being 'let down' by the
+weather; though perhaps the latter consideration alone, from a Supply
+standpoint, constituted sufficient veto.
+
+At all events the tactics of the Battalion were in quite another
+order. How to shave, how to wash, how to put on boots frozen hard
+during the night, above all, how to keep warm--these were the problems
+presented. I doubt if there was much washing in cold water before
+parade, and, as for shaving, I know a portion of the breakfast tea was
+often used for this purpose. Sponge and shaving brush froze stiff as
+matters of habit. To secure fuel provided constant occupation and
+frequent stumbling-blocks. On our arrival most rigid orders had been
+issued not to burn our neighbours' fences and I am able to say that
+the fences survived our stay. Temptation grew, nevertheless, in
+orchards and rows of small pollards (usually of ash), which formed the
+hedges in this part of France, not to mention a wood at the lower end
+of the village. That ancient trick of covering tree stumps with earth
+needed little learning. Each night for such as had ears, if not
+official ones, wood and thicket rang with the blows of entrenching
+tool on bole and sapling, till past the very door of Sergeant-Major
+sipping his rum, or company officers seated around sirloin and baked
+potatoes would be dragged trunk and branches of a voting tree, that in
+peace time and warmer weather might have lived to grace an avenue.
+There should be variety in story telling; here was one told very much
+out of school.
+
+From contemplation of this illicit forestry I pass to sterner
+matters. The first alarms of the 'spring offensive' were in the air,
+urging us infantry to deeds of arms in the back area. Pamphlets
+proclaimed the creed of open warfare and bade perish the thought of
+gumboot or of trench. Hence daily practices in attack formation, the
+following of barrages to first, second, and final objectives, the
+making of Z shaped posts and sending forward of patrols and scouts.
+
+The Brigadier was an enthusiastic spectator of the work, and woe
+betide the platoon officer whose men gave reckless answers to the
+General's questions. The 'Platoon Test' was introduced.[3] Soldier's
+catechism did not yet reach the perfection it afterwards acquired,
+when all who took part in an attack knew beforehand every practical
+detail assigned to them. While knowledge of the complexities of the
+war became steadily more important, individual training of the man
+helped to make good his deficiency in pre-war discipline. Morale was
+never learnt from sack-stabbing at home, but in France this education
+of each soldier to use his intellect and become a positive agent
+instead of a member of a herd proved a potent factor towards the final
+superiority of the Englishman over his enemy.
+
+                   [Footnote 3: Cross-examination of the men in their
+                   duties. They were asked what they would do in
+                   various emergencies. Their powers of recognition
+                   were also tested. I recollect a humorous incident
+                   when General White and Colonel Wake (G.S.O.I., 61st
+                   Division) both passed _incognito_. The situation
+                   was well seized by the former, who slapped his
+                   chest and declared, 'Such is fame'! Lay readers
+                   will find in later chapters some attempt to explain
+                   the technical expressions used in the text.]
+
+[Illustration: BRIGADIER-GENERAL THE HON. R. WHITE. C.B., C.M.G.,
+D.S.O.]
+
+On the morning of February 4, 1917, the Battalion has said good-bye
+to Maison Ponthieu and is marching to Brucamps. Another week and we
+see it on the move again, this time partly by train. Orders for that
+move were as follows:--
+
+  Reveille, 5 a.m.
+  Breakfast, 6 a.m.
+  Blankets rolled in tens and valises to be dumped outside the Q.M.
+      stores by 6.30 a.m.
+  Mess boxes, 7 a.m.
+  Parade, 7.30 a.m.
+
+The march was through Vauchelles-les-Domart to Longpre. Thence we were
+dragged by train through Amiens to Marcelcave, where we detrained and
+marched to huts at Wiencourt. We were about to relieve the French in
+the line near Chaulnes.
+
+On February 15 the Battalion marched through Harbonnieres, where the
+Major-General, Colin Mackenzie (now Sir Colin, K.C.B.) was standing
+with a French General to see us pass, and on to Rainecourt. The latter
+village, where the Battalion was billeted, improved on acquaintance.
+It had lain some 3-1/2 miles behind the old Somme front and had
+suffered a good deal from German shells. French industry and French
+materials had, since the advance, converted damaged barns and houses
+into quite good billets.
+
+Several days were spent in Rainecourt in rather dismal weather, for
+the prolonged frost had broken and mist and mud followed. Into the
+little church were now dragged 6,400 pairs of gumboots, representing
+about L10,000. It was the Divisional gumboot store, phrase of awful
+significance! I feel that the very mention of the word gumboot,
+whenever it occurs, is lending a smile to certain of my readers and,
+perchance, a frown to others. O gumboots, what reputations have you
+not jeopardised, what hairs brought down with sorrow to the Base!
+
+[Illustration: HARBONNIERES]
+
+The Battalion was divided before it left Rainecourt, orders being
+given for C and D Companies to move forward to Herleville and occupy
+some huts and dug-outs there.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is morning of February 22, 1917. Colonel Bellamy and his four
+company commanders are setting out to reconnoitre the new front line.
+Guides are to meet us at Deniecourt Chateau, a heap of chalk slabs and
+old bricks, beneath which are Brigade Headquarters. To reach this
+_rendez-vous_ we pass through Foucaucourt and then along a corduroy
+road through Deniecourt Wood to the village of that name. The wood has
+been fought through and but few branches remain on the trees, whose
+trunks, like so many untidy telegraph poles, rise to various heights
+from the upheaval of shell-holes and undergrowth. Dismal surroundings
+on a dismal morning, for the frost has relented for several days and
+already sides of trenches are collapsing (flop go the chunks into the
+water!) and on top the ground is loading one's boots at every step.
+
+We change into gumboots in an old cellar and our journey commences.
+See the Colonel, Cuthbert, Marcon, Brown, Stockton, Robinson and
+myself lead off down a communication trench behind a guide, pledged to
+take us to the Berks Headquarters. The going is desperate--water up to
+our knees; however, each hundred yards brings our goal nearer, and it
+can hardly be like this all the way. We come to a trench junction, and
+our guide turns left-handed; presently another--the guide knows the
+way and again turns to the left. Confound the mud! If we do not get
+there soon we shall never be home for lunch ... but we do not get
+there soon. The guide, always protesting that he knows the way, has
+led us in a circle and here we are whence we started an hour ago!
+
+After such well-meaning mockery of our efforts, a route 'over the top'
+is tried. Soon we are outside Battalion Headquarters of the Berks.
+Whilst we are there, German gas shelling starts--a few rounds of
+phosgene--and helmets require to be adjusted. It is not everybody's
+helmet that fits, this being the first real occasion on which some
+officers have worn them. There is some laughing to see the strictest
+censor of a gas helmet (or its absence) in difficulties with his own,
+when the moment for its adjustment has arrived.
+
+The company commanders duly separate to go up to their own sections of
+the front. They see the 'posts,' or any of them that can be visited in
+daylight, make notes of local details affecting the relief, and so
+home independently.
+
+Billets never seemed so comfortable or attractive as on the night
+preceding a relief. Perhaps they would have seemed more so had the
+Battalion known, what luckily it could not, that an unpleasant tour
+was in store, and that afterwards, with the enemy in retreat, there
+would be no more billets until the summer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+IN THE ABLAINCOURT SECTOR,
+
+FEBRUARY, 1917.
+
+German retreat foreshadowed.--The Battalion takes over the
+Ablaincourt Sector.--Issues in the making.--Lieutenant Fry
+mortally wounded.--The raid by German storm-troops on February 28.
+--The raid explained.
+
+
+Early in 1917 it became known to our intelligence service that the
+enemy was contemplating retirement on a large scale from the Somme
+battle-front. Reports from prisoners and aeroplane photographs of a
+new line, famous afterwards as the Hindenburg line, running from west
+of Cambrai to St. Quentin, left in doubt only the date and manner of
+the withdrawal. To the latter question some answer was possible by
+reference to our mentors or from a text-book appreciation of the
+situation, though no one guessed until the movement had in reality
+started with what circumstances the Germans would see fit to invest
+it. The date was a more difficult problem. For its solution recourse
+must be had by commanders, staff officers and experts to the infantry.
+A competition open to all battalions holding the line (and without
+other entrance fee) thereupon commenced. To whom should fall the
+laurels of a correct diagnosis of the march-table of the German
+rear-guards, who be the first to scatter them by the relentless
+pursuit of our victorious arms?
+
+To our higher staff the question whether the enemy was still manning
+with normal garrisons the front opposite our armies seemed relatively
+simple. Readers, however, with experience of trench warfare will
+remember that in the line by day it was impossible to surmise
+correctly one item of what was happening a hundred yards away in
+hostile trenches; certainly one knew well enough when shells were
+falling, and 'minnies,' rifle-grenades and snipers' bullets argued
+that a pernicious, almost verminous, form of life was extant not far
+away: but despite all this, stared a sentry never so vigilantly,
+through his periscope he could hardly predict whether two, ten, or a
+hundred of the enemy tribe were hidden below earth almost within a
+stone's throw. At night it seemed probable that a patrol of a few
+brave men could crawl right up to the German wire and listen, or by
+setting foot in them enquire whether 'Fritz' was at home in his
+trenches or no; and so our patrols could, and did. In practice,
+however, our most active patrols were frequently deceived. Shots and
+Verey lights, which came from several directions, might be discharged
+by a solitary German, whose function it was to go the round of the
+enemy posts and fire from each spasmodically in turn. A trench entered
+and found empty might be a disused sap or bay habitually unoccupied.
+To maintain the normal semblance of trench-warfare was an easy task
+for the German, and one that he never failed in. Repeatedly in his
+retirements during the war he removed his real forces, his artillery
+and stores unbeknown to our watching infantry and their questioning
+staff. The screen of a retreating enemy is not easily caught up and
+pierced by an advanced guard not superior to it in strength and
+inferior in mobility. On the Somme in 1917 and from the Lys salient in
+1918 the Germans retired from wide to narrower divisional fronts
+(giving themselves greater 'depth' in the process), which fact,
+coupled with destruction of bridges and roads, prevented us from
+forcing an issue with their main body on the move. There were
+exceptions, as when the 32nd Division captured guns near Savy, but the
+enemy, in retiring, played for safety and denied much opportunity to
+our troops, despite their zeal in keeping touch, to deal him damage.
+
+Such was the tactical situation when the 184th Infantry Brigade
+relieved the French in the Ablaincourt sector. The Berks, who first
+held the left subsector, had an uneventful tour. Trenches taken over
+from the French were usually quiet at first owing to the different
+methods employed by us and our allies in the conduct of
+trench-warfare. Within a day or two of the relief the frost had
+finally broken and the trenches everywhere started to fall in, making
+the outlook in this respect ominous.
+
+On the afternoon of February 23, we marched up to relieve the Berks.
+Near Foucaucourt the cookers gave us tea. There also we changed into
+gumboots. Guides met us at Estrees cross-roads, a trysting place
+possible only when dusk had fallen, and the lugubrious procession
+started along a tramway track among whose iron sleepers the men
+floundered considerably, partly from their precaution of choosing
+gumboots several sizes too large. On this occasion the usual stoppages
+and checks were multiplied by a brisk artillery 'strafe' upon the
+front, accompanied by all manner of coloured lights and rockets. The
+noise soon dying down we were able to continue a bad journey with men
+frequently becoming stuck and a few lost. The relief was not over
+until nearly dawn, by when the last Berks had left and our worst
+stragglers been collected.
+
+The Battalion took over a three-company front. Brown with A Company
+guarded the left. Robinson with C (containing a large proportion of a
+recent draft now paying its first visit to the trenches) was in the
+centre, and D Company on the right. Some 500 yards behind our front
+lay the Ablaincourt Sucrerie, a dismal heap of polluted ruins, like
+all sugar factories the site of desperate fighting. Ablaincourt
+itself, a village freely mentioned in French dispatches during the
+Somme battle, was the very symbol of depressing desolation. Peronne,
+eight miles to the north-east, was out of view. Save for the low ridge
+of Chaulnes, whence the German gunners watched, and the shattered
+barn-roofs of Marchelepot--the former on our right, the latter
+directly to our front--the scene was mud, always mud, stretching
+appallingly to the horizon.
+
+[Illustration: THE ABLAINCOURT SECTOR Trenches held by 2/4th OXFORD &
+BUCKS Lt INFy. Drawn by G.K. Rose]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Students of music are familiar with the rival motifs that run through
+operas. In an earlier paragraph I have indicated one such motif, and
+if in this opera of war a curtain be lifted to shew the future act
+which this motif dominates, you would see the German staff busy with
+maps over its retreat, planning the time-table of explosion and
+burning, and designating the several duties of fouling wells and
+laying booby-traps.
+
+Another scene, in which the rival motif is heard, shews a strong body
+of ugly-looking Germans at practice over some shallow trenches some
+distance behind their line. By a quaint coincidence these trenches are
+a facsimile of those just taken over by the Battalion. The ugly
+Germans are members of a 'travelling circus.' For long past they have
+lived in the best billets and been receiving extra rations. They play
+no part in the retreat--house-wrecking, the flooding of cellars, the
+hacking through of young fruit trees and throwing over of sundials and
+garden ornaments, much as they might enjoy it, is not their function.
+
+They are a professional raiding party, with two successful raids at
+Loos, one at Ypres and one near Hebuterne to their credit. Wherever
+the English have just relieved the French they are sent for to perform.
+They are accompanied by two 8-inch howitzers and several batteries of
+5.9s and 4.2s belonging to the 'circus' and by a Minen-Werfer Abteilung.
+Their raid upon the Oxfords is fixed for February 28, when the moon
+will be a third full. The last aeroplane photograph admirably shews
+the Sucrerie, communication trenches leading forward and the
+whereabouts of all dug-outs. The pioneer detachment--whose thoughts
+are turned only to the retreat, of which rumours have been
+plentiful--must move from its comfortable dug-outs in the railway
+embankment to make room for H.Q. of the raiding party.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The front held by the Battalion was tactically not satisfactory. Being
+three on a front, with B Company placed nearly 1,000 yards in rear,
+companies had to find their own supports, which, owing to absence of
+other dug-out accommodation, were disposed in positions not only too
+far back but inadequately covering those portions of the front which
+they were engaged to defend. Moreover, practical means of
+communication to and by these support platoons were likely to prove,
+in event of need, negligible. They were, in fact, isolated in places
+themselves not defensible and equally remote from company and
+battalion commanders. This situation was bad enough as _point d'appui_
+for an advance; to resist a counter-attack or raid it was deplorable.
+Like many similar situations, it was due to the lack of habitable
+trenches on the ground that should have been occupied and defended. It
+could be no one's fault either high up or low down that the line was
+held in this way, though perhaps had fewer men been allowed to crowd
+into trenches and dug-outs in the forward line, casualties in killed
+and prisoners might have been spared to the Battalion.
+
+A few hours after the relief was complete orders came up for patrols
+to go out to see if the enemy had or had not gone back yet. Our
+artillery, which was not yet strongly represented behind this sector,
+also began to fire at extreme ranges on the German back area east of
+Marchelepot and Chaulnes. The enemy, on his part, sniped at and bombed
+our patrols at night. The behaviour of his guns and aeroplanes by day
+suggested no passive retreat in the near future. While BAB[4] code
+messages, providing mingled toil and excitement, announced the
+impending departure of the enemy and asserted the necessity for
+keeping touch, aeroplanes flew a thousand feet overhead and directed
+the fire of fresh batteries of 5.9s and 4.2s upon our trenches. No
+doubt the Germans had stocks of ammunition they preferred to fire off
+rather than cart backwards. Gas shelling became common for the first
+time in the Battalion's experience. In the front line masks had often
+to be worn. Headquarters also were gassed more than once and suffered
+much inconvenience. This activity by the enemy was reasonably regarded
+as his normal policy with which to impede our preparations for
+advance, so that complaints of registration[5] coming from the front
+line received no special attention from the authorities, who were
+themselves tossed to and fro and kept quite occupied by the many
+conflicting prophecies of the enemy's retreat.
+
+                   [Footnote 4: A secret trench code, intended for use
+                   in operations.]
+
+                   [Footnote 5: Deliberate shelling to ascertain exact
+                   range of targets for a future bombardment.]
+
+On the morning of February 27 German howitzer batteries commenced some
+heavy shelling on the Battalion sector, especially on the communication
+trenches passing under the former French titles of B.C.4 and B.C.5.[6]
+Working parties who were busy digging out mud from those trenches
+were compelled to desist. At 10 o'clock I heard that Fry, the commander
+of No. 16 Platoon, had been hit by shrapnel on his way from Company
+H.Q. to the Sucrerie. To get him to the nearest shelter (C Company H.Q.)
+was difficult through the mud, and uncomfortable enough with 5.9s
+coming down close to the trench, but the men, as always, played up
+splendidly to assist a comrade. Soon afterwards, the doctor, in answer
+to a telephonic summons, appeared at my H.Q. On our way to reach Fry
+we were both knocked down in the trench by a 4.2, which also wounded
+Corporal Rockall in the shoulder-blade. I regret that Fry, though
+safely moved from the trenches the same night, had received a mortal
+wound. In him died a fine example of the platoon officer. He met his
+wound in the course of a trivial duty which, had I guessed that he
+would do it under heavy shelling, I should have forbidden him to
+undertake. His type of bravery, though it wears no decorations, is
+distinguished, more than all other, by the unwritten admiration of the
+Infantry.
+
+                   [Footnote 6: B.C.--_Boyau de communication_,
+                   communication trench.]
+
+During that night I had a peculiar and interesting task. It was to
+report on the condition of all roads leading through our front line
+across No-Man's-Land. Mud, battle and frost had so combined to
+disguise all former roads and tracks, that to decide their whereabouts
+it was often necessary to follow them forward from behind by means of
+map and compass. Seen by pale moonlight, these derelict roads, in
+places pitted with huge craters or flanked by shattered trees, wore a
+mysterious charm. More eloquent of catastrophe than those thrown
+down by gale or struck by lightning are trees which shells have hit
+direct and sent, splintered, in headlong crash from the ranks of an
+avenue. If wood and earth could speak, what tales the sunken roads of
+France could find to tell!
+
+Morning and afternoon of the next day, February 28, were fine and
+ominously quiet. Excessive quietness was often no good sign.
+Presentiments could have been justified. At 4.15 p.m. a strong barrage
+of trench mortars and rifle grenades began to beat upon the front
+line, accompanied by heavy artillery fire against communication and
+support trenches and the back area. This sequel to the previous
+registration clearly indicated some form of attack by the enemy. The
+rhythmic pounding of the heavy howitzers, whose shells were arriving
+with the regular persistency of a barrage table, suggested that a long
+bombardment, probably until after dusk, was intended. Under such
+circumstances it was the part of the Company Commander to 'stand to'
+and await events with the utmost vigilance. This never meant that the
+men should be ordered out into the trenches and the fire-steps manned,
+for to do so would have invited heavy casualties and demoralised the
+garrison before the opportunity for active resistance had arrived. To
+keep look-out by sentries, to watch for any lifting in the barrage,
+and to maintain communication with H.Q. and with the flanks were the
+measures required. Otherwise, except to destroy maps and papers,
+there was nothing to do but wait, for only in the most clumsily
+organised shows did the other side know zero. On this occasion, at the
+moment the German raiding party came over, a patrol consisting of
+Corporal Coles and Timms had only just returned from D Company front
+line. They said that though the shelling was heavy immediately behind
+and on the flanks, the wire was intact and there was no sign of
+attack. At dusk, therefore, there was nothing save the heavy shelling
+to report to Cuthbert over my telephone, which by luck held until cut
+by German wire-cutters.
+
+Within a few minutes, shouts and a few rifle shots were heard, and the
+next moment bombs were being thrown into my dug-out.
+
+The lights went out and the interior became filled with fumes, groans,
+and confusion.
+
+A German raiding party had penetrated C Company, seized the front
+line, which was a bare 80 yards from my H.Q., and, without touching my
+own front (which indeed was 200 yards distant and to the flank), had
+picketed my dug-out, and awaited their haul of prisoners.
+
+Now, a bombed dug-out is the last word in 'unhealthiness.' It ranks
+next to a rammed submarine or burning aeroplane. For several minutes I
+awaited death or wounds with a degree of certainty no soldier ever
+felt in an attack. But in such emergencies instinct, which, more than
+the artificial training of the mind, asserts itself, arms human beings
+with a natural cunning for which civilization provides no scope. Life
+proverbially is not cheap to its owner.
+
+That everyone inside was not killed instantly was due, no doubt,
+both to the sloping character of the stairs, which made some bombs
+explode before they reached the bottom, and to the small size of the
+bombs themselves. A gas bomb finished the German side of the argument.
+Hunt's useful knowledge of German commenced the answer. We 'surrendered.'
+I went upstairs at once and saw three Germans almost at touching
+distance. In place of a docile prisoner they received four revolver
+shots, after which I left as soon as possible under a shower of bombs
+and liquid fire. Shortly afterwards, but too late to follow me, Hunt
+also came forth and found the enemy had vanished. Afterwards the
+Sergeant Major and Uzzell, sanitary lance-corporal, who on this
+occasion showed the genius of a field marshal, emerged and prevented
+the return of our late visitors.
+
+After an hour's struggle through mud and barrage I reached the two
+platoons in Trench Roumains, who (I mention this as a good paradox of
+trench discipline) were engaged in sock-changing and foot-rubbing
+according to time table! From there the counter-attack described in
+Sir Douglas Haig's dispatch of March 1st was carried out. I fear this
+'counter-attack' was better in his telling than in the doing, for the
+Germans had already decamped an hour before, taking with them
+Lieutenant Guildford and some 20 prisoners from C Company, several
+Lewis guns, and their own casualties.
+
+Against a front line crowded with untried troops (I refer to the new
+draft of which the platoons holding C Company front line were
+principally composed) a well-planned raid powerfully pressed home
+under a severe box barrage and assisted by gas and liquid fire, was
+almost bound to succeed. The mud, strange trenches and weak artillery
+support were other factors for which allowance might have been made
+before such degree of blame was laid upon the Battalion as was seen
+fit for it to receive. The only cure for being raided is to raid back.
+That was happily done exactly two months later against the very
+regiment to which the German raiding party on this occasion belonged.
+Nor was it true that the enemy was not fought with. Some parties which
+attacked Brown's front were, under the able example of that officer,
+driven off with Lewis guns, and D Company, whose loss in prisoners was
+nil, also maintained its front intact. Casualties were inflicted on
+the enemy, but these mostly regained their own lines or were carried
+back by stretcher parties. Our loss in killed that night amounted to
+some twenty. The story of this raid I should not have allowed to reach
+this length but for the fact that the affair created some stir at the
+time, and correspondence raged on the subject till long afterwards.
+Hunt, who was with me during the bombardment and the bombing of my
+H.Q., was not captured on emerging from the dug-out, but himself, some
+hour or more afterwards, while wandering among the blown-in trenches
+in an effort to follow me, entered a German listening post and became
+a prisoner. As a prisoner he was present at a German H.Q. when the
+details of an exactly similar raid upon a neighbouring division were
+being arranged; which raid proved for the enemy an equal success.
+
+The aftermath of this fighting proved a trying experience. The dug-out
+to which I returned to spend the remainder of the tour was a shambles.
+The stairs were drenched with blood. Of my companions, Thompson, a
+signaller, Timms, Smith (Hunt's servant, a fine lad) and Corporal
+Coles--one of the bravest and most devoted N.C.O.'s the Battalion ever
+had--were dead or died soon afterwards. Longford and Bugler Wright
+were severely wounded. Longley and Short had escaped before the first
+bombs exploded in the dug-out, but the remaining survivors, the
+Sergeant-Major, Lance Corporal Rowbotham, Roberts and myself were all
+partially gassed and hardly responsible for further action. Under
+these circumstances the task of carrying-on involved a strain,
+lessened, as always on such occasions, by management of everything for
+the best by Battalion Headquarters.
+
+On the night of March 2 the Battalion was relieved by the Berks, now
+under the command of Colonel Beaman, and moved back about 2,000 yards
+to some support trenches near Bovent Copse. From here companies were
+employed ration-carrying to the front line and cleaning the trenches.
+Considerable activity continued to be displayed by the German
+artillery and aeroplanes, in each of which respect we lacked
+superiority.
+
+The enemy retreat appeared postponed or cancelled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+LIFE IN THE FRONT LINE,
+
+WINTER, 1916-1917.
+
+Ignorance of civilians and non-combatants.--The front line posts.--
+Hardships and dangers.--Support platoons.--The Company Officers.
+--The Battalion relieved by the 182nd Brigade.
+
+
+So far I have said little of the hardships suffered by the Infantry.
+Indeed, in places I have laughed at them. Those scenes and experiences
+which marked a soldier's life in the front line will have been
+supplied by those who knew them as familiar background to my story.
+But I grudge leaving them to the imagination of civilian and
+non-combatant readers. I seriously doubt whether the average man or
+woman has the least inkling of what really happened 'out there.' Talk
+over-heard or stories listened to may in special instances have
+revealed a fragment of the truth. For most people the lack of real
+perception was filled in by a set of catchwords. As the war dragged
+on, the civilian mind of England passed into a conventional acceptance
+of phrases habitually read but improperly understood, until the words
+'raids,' 'barrages,' 'objective,' 'craters,' 'counter-attack,'
+'consolidation,' became tolerated as everyday commonplaces. Take a
+war-despatch of 1916 or 1917--it is made up of a series of catch words
+and symbols. Plenty of our famous men, I am sure, who went to the
+front and perhaps wrote books afterwards, on arrival there made
+remarks no less foolish (and excusable) than the old lady's 'nasty
+slippery place' where Nelson fell. The Somme and Ypres battlefields
+are inconceivable by anyone who has seen nothing but the normal
+surface of the earth. The destruction of towns, villages and farms is
+without parallel in history or fiction. To witness some scenes in the
+Retreat of 1918 was to stake one's sanity. There are no standards by
+which civilians and non-combatants can appreciate the true facts of
+the war. Deliberate reproduction would hardly be believed. Suppose,
+for instance, this winter I were to dig a large hole in a field, a
+quarter fill it with liquid mud, and then invite four or five
+comrades, all arrayed in much warlike impedimenta, but lacking more
+extra covering than a waterproof sheet each, to the hole to spend two
+nights and a day in it--I should be credited with lunacy. Yet I should
+be offering a fair sample of front-line accommodation during the Great
+War.
+
+[Illustration: A FRONT LINE POST]
+
+Reliefs took place at night. Alike through snow or rain, or in a
+biting wind, the Infantry marched up from huts or ruined barns (its
+rest billets) to reach the line--a distance normally of seven miles.
+First by road, next by a slippery track, finally through a
+communication trench deep in mud, our soldiers had to carry each his
+rifle and 120 round of ammunition, a share of rations, gumboots, a
+leather jerkin and several extras--a load whose weight was fully 50
+pounds. Many staggered and fell. All finished the journey smothered in
+dirt. Boots, puttees and even trousers were sometimes stripped from
+the men by the mere suction of the mud, in which it was not unusual to
+remain stuck for several hours. Men, though not of our Battalion, were
+even drowned.[7]
+
+                   [Footnote 7: This fact, which will hardly be
+                   credited by future generations, is related from the
+                   actual knowledge of the writer.]
+
+Parties were often shelled on the way up, or else were lost and
+wandered far. From Headquarters, reached about midnight, of the
+Company being relieved guides would take two platoons into the front
+line 'posts,' the other two to the positions in support.
+
+In the front line itself there was often no better shelter than an old
+tarpaulin or sheet of corrugated iron stretched across the trench. At
+some 'posts' there was nothing better to sit on than the muddy
+'fire-step' or at best half a duckboard or an old bomb box. Despite
+continuous efforts to keep one dry place to stand, the floor was
+several inches deep in water and mud.
+
+Movement in any direction, save for a few yards to the flanks if the
+mud had been cleared away or dammed up, in daylight was impossible. No
+visitors came by day. Stretcher bearers were not always near. A fire
+could not, or if it could, might not be lighted. Therefore no hot
+meal, except perhaps a little tea made over a 'Tommy's Cooker,' was
+procurable by day.
+
+The post would be shelled or trench-mortared at intervals. In earlier
+days it might be totally blown up by a mine, or in later times bombed
+or machine-gunned from the air. For 30 to 40 high explosive shells to
+fall all round a post was quite common. Sometimes a 'dud' would fall
+inside it, or a huge 'Minnie,' which burst in the wire, cover the
+occupants with earth and splinters. The crash of these huge
+trench-mortar bombs was satanic; and there was always a next one to be
+waited for. Sometimes whole posts were wiped out. If there were
+wounded they could expect no doctor's help before night. Often by day,
+owing to mud and German snipers, it was impossible to lift a wounded
+man from where he had fallen.
+
+Night, longer than day, was also worse. Pitch darkness, accompanied
+maybe by snow or mist, increased the strain. With luck the great
+compensation of hot food--tea and stew--would be brought up by the
+ration parties. But sometimes they were hit and were often lost and
+arrived several hours late. The sandbags containing a platoon's
+rations for a day were liable to be dropped, and bread arrived soaked
+through or broken and mud-stained. Moreover, the darkness which
+permitted parties from behind to reach the post also decreed that the
+post should get about its work. Had the wire a weak place, the Germans
+knew of it, and directly the wiring party set about mending it lights
+were sent up, which fell in the wire close to our men, and machine-gun
+bullets banged through the air. Besides the wire the parapet required
+constant attention. At one place, where a member of the post had
+been killed by a sniper, it would want building up; at another, a shell
+perhaps had dropped only a yard short of the trench during the evening
+'strafe,' the passage would be blocked and the post's bomb-store
+buried. All this had to be put right before dawn. During the night a
+patrol would be ordered to go out. Men who were sentries by day or
+were the covering party for the wiring might be detailed for this.
+After that was over the same men took turns as sentries.
+
+Sleep was confined to what those not on duty could snatch, wrapped
+only in the extra covering of a waterproof sheet, in a sitting posture
+on the fire-step. At dawn, when the men at last could have slept
+heavily, came morning stand-to. This meant standing and shivering for
+an hour whilst it grew light and attempting to clean a mud-clogged
+rifle. Those Englishmen in England (and in France) who have slept warm
+in their beds throughout the war should remind themselves of those
+thousands of our soldiers who wet through, sleepless, fed on food
+which, served as it finally was up in the trenches, would hardly have
+tempted a dog, have stood watching rain-sodden darkness of night yield
+to dismal shell-bringing dawn, and have witnessed the monotonous
+routine of war till sun, earth, sky and all the elements of nature
+seemed pledged in one conspiracy of hardship.
+
+What of the two platoons in 'support'?
+
+Their lot was preferable. They were placed about 400 yards behind the
+actual front and lived (if such existed) in deep mined dug-outs. Until
+the later stages of the war deep dug-outs, which were subterranean
+chambers about 25 feet below the level of the ground and nearly
+shell-proof, were made only by the Germans, whose industry in this
+respect was remarkable. Found and inhabited by us in captured
+territory, these dug-outs had the defect that their entrances 'faced
+the wrong way,' _i.e._, towards the German howitzers. Sometimes a
+shell, whose angle of descent coincided with the slope of the stairs,
+burst at the bottom of a dug-out, and then, of course, its occupants
+were killed. If no deep dug-outs were available, the support platoons
+lived in niches cut into the side of the trench and roofed over with
+corrugated iron, timber and sandbags. Such shelters afforded little
+protection against shelling.
+
+[Illustration: A DUCKBOARDED COMMUNICATION TRENCH]
+
+In event of attack by the enemy it was the normal duty of support
+platoons to garrison a line of defence known as the 'line of
+resistance.' They might be ordered to make a counter-attack. When no
+fighting was taking place their work was likely to consist in carrying
+up rations and R.E. materials (wooden pickets, sandbags, coils of
+barbed wire, etc.) to the front line. This work had to be done at
+night, because in winter 'communication trenches' (which alone made
+daylight movement possible from place to place in the forward zone)
+were so choked with mud as to be impassable. The day was spent in
+'mud-slinging,' _i.e._, digging out falls of earth from the trench,
+rebuilding dug-outs or laying fresh duckboards (wooden slats to walk
+on in the trenches). When the evening's 'carrying parties' were
+finished, the men had some sleep, but support troops were often used
+as night patrols in No-Man's-Land or as wiring parties.
+
+After a day or longer in support they were sent up to relieve, _i.e._,
+exchange positions with, their comrades in the front line posts. Four
+days was the usual 'tour' for a company. During it each platoon did
+two spells of 24 hours in the posts and the same back in support. When
+the four days were over, a fresh company relieved that whose tour was
+finished. The one relieved moved back to better conditions, but would
+still be in trenches and dug-outs until the whole Battalion was
+relieved.
+
+The English infantryman stands for all ages as the ensample of heroic
+patience, which words or cartoon fail utterly to convey.
+
+How did the Company Commander and his officers fare in the trenches?
+
+The Platoon Officer shared every hardship with his 25 men. If there
+was a roofed-in hole with a box for a table he had it, for his
+messages were many. To the Company Commander a rough table was quite
+indispensable, and so were light and some protection from the rain.
+Without these essentials he could never have received nor sent his
+written instructions, consulted his maps nor spoken by telephone, on
+which he relied to get help from the artillery. The Company
+Sergeant-Major, a few signallers and some runners were his familiars,
+and he lived with and among these faithful men. Quite often the
+Company Commander's dug-out was appreciably the best in the company
+area. Sometimes it was little better than the worst. In the spring of
+1918 it was often only a hole.
+
+Every good Company Commander made a point of visiting each night all
+his front line posts and spending some time with each, not only to
+give orders, direct the work and test the vigilance of the sentries,
+but in order to keep up the Company's morale. The worse the weather or
+the shelling the higher that duty was. Likewise the Battalion
+Commander used to visit Company Headquarters once a day and every
+front line post at least once during a tour. The journey to the front
+line, possible only in darkness, was very dangerous. Shells were bound
+to fall at some point on the way, the enemy's machine guns or 'fixed
+rifles' were trained on every probable approach, and the Captain in
+ordinary trench warfare was as liable to be killed as any Private.
+Responsibility, however, made these nightly walks not only necessary
+but almost desirable.
+
+To conditions such as I have described the Battalion returned to do
+another tour in the Ablaincourt sector. The line was again held by A
+on the left (owing to the former three-company system no proper
+interchange had been possible) and by B on the right. Davenport went
+to my old headquarters, which the enemy was now busy trench-mortaring,
+and held half the front previously held by C, which, with D Company,
+was now in support. To the usual evils were now added rifle-grenades
+filled with gas, which caused several casualties in A Company. D
+Company lost a good man in Lance Corporal Tremellen, who was wounded
+by a bullet through the legs when leading a ration party 'across the
+top,' and other N.C.O.'s went sick with trench fever. During this
+tour the energy of Corporal Viggers, of my company, was most
+remarkable. He did the work of ten.
+
+On the night of March 15 the Brigade was relieved by the Warwicks. The
+Battalion moved back to Framerville, where Quartermaster's Stores and
+Transport rejoined.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE ADVANCE TO ST. QUENTIN,
+
+MARCH TO APRIL, 1917.
+
+The enemy's retirement.--Road-mending in No-Man's-Land.--The
+devastated area.--Open warfare.--The Montolu campaign.--
+Operations on the Omignon river.--The 61st Division relieved before
+St. Quentin.--End of trench-warfare.
+
+
+On March 16, 1917, the Germans left their front line and scuttled back
+behind the Somme.
+
+The news of this threw everything into a miniature ferment. The Berks
+stopped practising a raid which they were to do on the Brigade's
+return to the old trenches. The General rode off apace. After orders
+and counter-orders the 2/4th marched dramatically to a map reference
+near Lihons and commenced pulling logs out of old French dug-outs.
+Much good work was done, but I believe the logs were never used. On
+the next day German aeroplanes saw the Battalion parade at X 17 c 3.
+8. and march to its old billets at Rainecourt. Never was the old song
+'Here we are again' more heartily rendered.
+
+Meanwhile Divisional Headquarters advanced and seized a colony of
+dug-outs at Vermandovillers. Great eagerness was shown by everyone to
+see what the enemy had left behind and whither he had gone. Often
+during the advance parties of Infantry detailed to clear a village
+found members of a Royal Corps already in possession. In this race of
+the curious we were severely handicapped, for it had fallen to the 182nd
+Brigade to be the Advanced Guard of the 61st Division and to the 184th
+to follow in reserve. To us the task of roadmaking in No-Man's-Land was
+assigned. This proved quite interesting work. Except where shells had
+fallen on them or trenches been dug through, the roads, when once the
+mud had been removed, were found virtually intact. Soon G.S. wagons
+and limbers and 18-pounders were passing forward. The war was on the
+move.
+
+To explore the former German trenches was a pleasing novelty. The
+front line was deep and fairly dry. Elbow marks at every 50 yards or
+so and bombs with caps screwed off vouched for the situation of old
+sentry posts. Communication trenches were derelict, nor did proper
+support nor second lines exist. The enemy's defence had been the
+merest shell.
+
+The Battalion moved to Chaulnes on March 22. That village, damaged by
+our artillery, had been finally wrecked by the departing enemy, whose
+rude notices were scrawled on any walls still standing. 'One million
+tons of English shipping sunk in the month of February,' said one more
+polite than others. In spite of all that the Germans had done, quite
+good accommodation was found for all ranks, and its improvement by old
+doors, shutters, and selected _debris_ from other ruins provided much
+amusement. Father Buggins and the Doctor, with a wheelbarrow, were
+to the fore collecting armchairs covered in red velvet. Stoves and
+fuel were abundant, and at this time booby-traps were few.
+
+March 23 was spent in road mending between Vermandovillers and
+Chaulnes. An example of how surely organisation wins wars was there
+provided. We, who had come from Chaulnes, to work near Chaulnes were
+sent to fetch our tools from Vermandovillers. In fetching them we
+passed a company of Devons, employed on similar work at
+Vermandovillers, who were fetching their tools from Chaulnes--an
+episode fit for a war-pageant.
+
+On the same afternoon we marched to Marchelepot. German sign-posts,
+old gun positions and burnt dug-outs were objects of interest on the
+way. Though cold, the weather was fine. Freedom from shelling was a
+treat. We moved again on March 25, when the Bucks arrived to take over
+our quarters at Marchelepot. Passing St. Christ, where the R.E. had
+bridged the Somme, we saw the first samples of German back-area
+demolition. At Ennemain the first big road-crater held up the
+Transport. Our destination, Athies, formerly a flourishing little town
+but since utterly wrecked and still smouldering, it was quite
+difficult to reach. Sent on ahead as member of a billeting party, I
+had to cross the Omignon river by a single plank thrown across a weir.
+Until they are blown up one rather forgets the blessing of bridges.
+
+In Athies good enough quarters in cellars and half-basements were
+found for all. Headquarters went into the only roofed house in the
+town--and afterwards questioned their own wisdom. The house had been
+foreman's shed to a large factory, had been a Boche canteen, and,
+finally, the billet of the wrecking party. Though our advanced troops
+were in touch with the enemy some seven miles away in front, we were
+made to hold an outpost line each night east of the town. To bring up
+rations the Transport had all the distance from Framerville to
+cover--about eighteen miles. Never had Abraham so long a journey for
+this purpose.
+
+The wanton mischief, now manifest everywhere that the advance carried
+us, became a favourite topic for correspondents from the front, but
+cannot be passed over without some record here. To us Infantry this
+advance was a sort of holiday from the real war. It was like going
+behind the scenes at a pantomime and discovering the secrets of the
+giant's make-up. No list of things destroyed could lend any conception
+of the wholesale massacre by the Germans of all objects both natural
+and artificial. Chateau and cottage, tree and sapling, factory and
+summer-house, mill race and goldfish pond were victims equally of
+their madness. Hardly the most trivial article had been spared. The
+completeness of the work astonished. Yet withal our discomfort was
+slight. It was the French civilians, whose lives and homes had been
+thus ruined, that such Prussian methods touched.
+
+Amid this wreckage signs were perceptible of the enemy's weakening
+morale. Villages in no wise organised for defence and so remote from
+the German front as to have been outside the range of our furthest
+gun-fire, inevitably contained deep dug-outs. Such precautions
+surpassed all prudence and were sufficient almost to argue lack of
+mental balance. Germans seemed crazy on dug-outs.
+
+To resume the war. On March 30 the Warwicks entered Soyecourt and
+shortly afterwards the Bucks relieved their outpost line. We ourselves
+reached Tertry on the 30th, and the next night made bivouacs at
+Caulaincourt Chateau, formerly German Corps Headquarters, now wrecked
+past recognition. Amid the rubbish, whose heaps represented buildings
+of grace and dignity, the eye caught the half of a gigantic Easter
+egg. During our stay a German High Velocity gun several times shelled
+the chateau grounds. Our own artillery was now getting to work and
+made the nights lively with noise and flashes.
+
+At 3 a.m. on April 1 C and D Companies were ordered forward to support
+the Bucks in an attack on the line of single railway which runs
+northwards from Vermand. The attack gained the ridge east of the
+railway and no support by us was wanted. Ten prisoners were captured
+by the Bucks, whose only casualties resulted from our own shells
+dropping short and an unfortunate mistake of some other troops, who
+lost direction and, pressing forward, encountered men of their own
+side. Towards evening the General ordered D Company forward to occupy
+Montolu Wood. The journey was made at dusk through a blinding storm of
+hail and rain. The wood to which I went was the wrong one altogether.
+Nevertheless to my wood my company returned twice later, till tactical
+recognition was gained for it from the failure of the staff to
+observe the mistake and my own to disclose it. The wood I went to was
+some half-mile distant from the proper one, but the same shape, as
+near the railway, and answering the General's map-description to a
+nicety. I like to think of my wood, where I was so rarely found,
+whither perplexed runners brought orders so late, where I never was
+relieved, but where my old shelters of tin and brushwood escaped
+disturbance in my absence.
+
+At midnight, April 3/4, the Battalion relieved the Bucks. B, C, and D
+Companies shared the new outpost line. Headquarters and A Company went
+to Soyecourt. The relief, the first of its kind, was difficult. In my
+own front a small brushwood copse was reputed to contain a sentry
+post. The ground was dotted with small copses which the darkness made
+indistinguishable, and no report of this post's relief was ever made.
+When dawn was breaking in the sky, Sergeant Watkins, accompanied by
+the Bucks guides, returned to say that no sentry group nor post in any
+copse could be found. The most likely copse was then garrisoned and
+the night's mystery and labour ceased.
+
+[Illustration: THE ADVANCE TO ST. QUENTIN
+Inset: 'a' company's attack, good friday 1917]
+
+Further advance was evidently in store. The smoke of burning villages
+still mounted the sky. At night a glow showed where a great fire in
+St. Quentin was ablaze. The weather now changed for the worse. Hail,
+rain and snow prevailed alternately. A fierce wind blew. Winter
+conditions were repeated in the outpost line, where no shelter other
+than tarpaulins rigged across the shallow trenches existed. Nor was
+the artillery inactive. As the enemy's resistance stiffened, shells
+commenced to fall on fields yet unscarred by trench or shell-hole.
+Better ammunition seemed to be in use--or was it a month's holiday
+from shells that made it seem so?--and more subtlety was shown by
+German gunners in their choice of targets. Our casualties, though not
+numerous, proved that the war, in most of its old incidents, had been
+resumed.
+
+In the early morning of April 4 the 59th Division, which was operating
+on the Battalion's left, attacked Le Vergier. Fighting continued till
+noon, but the village was not taken. The 59th lost heavily. As they
+formed up for their advance--which was for some 1,000 yards across the
+open and exposed to view--behind the line the Battalion was holding,
+considerable enemy fire was brought down upon us and I lost Sergeant
+Watkins, wounded in the arm, and several other casualties. It snowed
+nearly all day. In the shallow trenches, which were ill-sited both for
+drainage and concealment from the enemy, life was miserable. On the
+next night a battalion of Sherwood Foresters relieved D Company, which
+returned to its wood, but B and C Companies remained holding the line.
+John Stockton, who now commanded B, was ill, but refused to leave the
+trenches and carried on in a most determined manner under shocking
+weather conditions. A new officer, Allden, in my company also proved
+his worth about this time. Events of some sort were of hourly occurrence.
+The 2/5th Gloucesters held the line on the Battalion's right, near the
+Omignon river. One night, after a heavy bombardment with 4.2s, the
+Germans rushed one of their posts. It had recently been evacuated,
+and the enemy spent his trouble in vain.
+
+For April 6--Good Friday, 1917--an attack on a large scale had been
+arranged. The 59th Division on our left, the Gloucesters and the 182nd
+Brigade on our right, shared in the operations. The line was to be
+advanced a mile on both sides of the Omignon. The Battalion's
+objective was a line of trenches recently dug by the enemy and running
+between Le Vergier and the river. To capture them Brown's company,
+which hitherto had stayed in reserve at Soyecourt in tolerable
+accommodation, was selected. B and D Companies were ordered to keep
+close behind A to support the attack, while C remained to garrison the
+outpost line.
+
+Zero was midnight, but before that snow and sleet were falling
+heavily. It proved the dirtiest night imaginable. Companies moved in
+columns across the 1,000 yards of open fields between their old
+positions and the objective, against which our artillery kept up as
+severe a fire as possible. That fire was less effective than was
+hoped. In its advance A Company lost men from our own shells, of which
+nearly all were seen to be falling very short. The German wire, still
+the great argument to face in an attack, was found uncut. Although at
+first inclined to surrender, the enemy soon saw the failure of our men
+to find a gap. Machine-guns were manned, which swept the ground with a
+fierce enfilade fire. Brown, Aitken, and Wayte behaved in a most
+gallant manner, the line was rallied, and a renewed attempt made to
+storm the trenches. In vain. No troops will stand against machine-gun
+fire in the open when no object can be achieved. It was idle to
+repeat the attack or send fresh companies to share the forlorn
+enterprise. Before dawn our troops were in their old positions.
+
+In the attack the sergeant-majors of both A and B Companies were hit.
+Of the officers, Barton, commanding B, and Tilly, of A, were killed.
+Aitken and Wayte were wounded. Nearly 40 of rank and file were
+casualties.
+
+The attack had proved a failure, but, as often happened, hopes of
+success were reluctantly abandoned by the staff. Thus my company was
+warned that it might have to repeat the attack at dawn. Pending such a
+fate, I was sent to bivouac in a windswept spinney known as Ponne
+Copse. It was still snowing. After their week's exposure I was loth to
+inform my men of such a destiny. But a more favourable turn of events
+was in store. The weather cleared, and at 11 a.m. on the 7th I was
+allowed to return to my version of Montolu Wood. On the same day the
+Battalion was relieved by the Bucks and marched back through Soyecourt
+to Caulaincourt. There we found Bennett, who had come from the
+Aldershot course to be Second in Command. The chateau grounds were
+quieter than before, for our guns had now moved further up towards the
+line.
+
+At 3 p.m. on April 8 a curious noise was heard in the air. A German
+aeroplane had attacked the kite balloon, which hung, suspended by its
+gas, above the chateau park. A French machine, not a moment too soon
+for the balloon's safety, had swooped and shot the attacker to the
+ground. All the Battalion was out staring up at the balloon rotating
+on its wire, and the portions of the German 'plane, which amid smoke
+were fluttering to earth. A rush, as always, commenced towards the
+scene. The aeroplane, brought down from a height, was half embedded in
+the mud. It was an Albatross, painted all colours, and possessed two
+machine-guns and several sorts of ammunition for use against balloons.
+I could see nothing of its former occupant, who must have been removed
+for burial, except a pool of bright blood upon the ground.
+
+During the night orders arrived for a move forward to support the
+Warwick Brigade, which had been fighting for several days between
+Maissemy and Fresnoy. At 7.30 a.m. on April 9 we marched in wind and
+rain to Marteville, and then formed a reserve line in front of
+Maissemy and Keeper's House. All day we dug trenches and erected wire.
+A divisional relief was to take place. The weather was vile; almost
+every hour a violent squall of hail and snow swept over us. That night
+was spent in bivouac in sunken roads.
+
+Next morning many of us walked along the Holnon road to view St.
+Quentin, whose cathedral and factory chimneys were only visible
+between the storms. The town seemed undestroyed. The Germans were busy
+shelling its approaches. Salvoes of their 5.9s fell steadily, and
+black splashes of earth jumped up ever and again, whilst smoke from
+the preceding shells coiled and drifted away to the west.
+
+The 61st Division was relieved on April 11 and moved back to the Nesle
+area. The 2/4th Oxfords marched to Hombleux, a village where the
+enemy had left the church and a few houses standing.
+
+The German retirement from the Somme, now practically complete, had
+opened a new phase in the war. For the first time since 1914 ground in
+France had changed hands upon a large scale. The enemy's
+relinquishment of 30 miles of front line trench and his withdrawal to
+a depth, in places, of 40 kilometres, restored the principle of
+manoeuvre to armies which had fronted one another for two years in
+positions hitherto justifying the description of stale-mate. Strong
+moral and political effects accompanied. And this manoeuvre, though
+carried out upon a part only of the entire battle front, infused a
+sense of change and movement into the most static portions of the
+allied line. From theory open warfare had passed into practice. In its
+old sense trench-warfare was no more; its genius had departed.
+Trenches and dug-outs, which in some sectors had been visited and
+revisited with changeless repetition for thirty months, lost their
+sense of eternity. Who could say when the trenches opposite might not
+be found empty and the burning wake of a German retreat glow in the
+skies? Schemes for action in event of enemy withdrawal began to take
+precedence over trench standing orders. Corps lines ceased to be the
+show-places for Russian colonels, and the Corps Commander's gardener
+paused before sowing a new season's peas in the chateau grounds.
+
+G.H.Q. were agog.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE RAID AT FAYET,
+
+APRIL, 1917.
+
+A German vantage-point.--Shell-ridden Holnon.--A night of
+confusion.--Preparing for the raid of April 28.--The enemy taken
+by surprise.--The Battalion's first V.C.--The affair at Cepy Farm.
+
+
+It was hard to believe that any lofty eminence which overlooked our
+lines was not in constant use by the enemy for observation. The iron
+towers at Loos, the spire of Calonne, even the crazy relics of the
+church at Puisieux at different times contributed this uneasy feeling
+to the denizens of our trenches. But surely never was the sense of
+being spied on more justified than near St. Quentin, whose tall
+cathedral raised itself higher than all the roofs of the town and
+higher, too, than the ridges surrounding it for many miles.
+
+On April 20, 1917, a German observer from the cathedral belfry could
+have seen the divisional relief which brought the 61st Division back
+to the line. All day small parties were moving in the forward zone,
+while further back larger ones crossed and re-crossed the ridge 'twixt
+Holnon and Fayet, and in rear again, along the road through Savy to
+Germaine, columns of Infantry in fours followed by horses, vehicles,
+and smoking cooker-chimneys, were passing one another, some coming,
+others going back. Those coming made a left-handed turn at Savy,
+hugged the line of single railway as far as a crucifix at a cross-roads,
+and were then lost to distinct view amid the abject ruins of Holnon.
+Those going were the 32nd Division, whose march carried them out of
+the cathedral's eye or observation by German balloons.
+
+Among the new arrivals were the 2/4th Oxfords, of whom all companies,
+followed until the end by cookers and Lewis-gun limbers, disposed
+themselves in or around Fayet, on whose north side stood a stone
+monument commemorative of local fighting in the Franco-Prussian War.
+Near to this monument was found a deep sunken road, broken with two
+huge craters. It was A Company's position as support to the
+Gloucesters, who went into the line.
+
+The Battalion spent a week at Holnon village. A line of trenches
+linking up 'strong points' had been designed to guard the ridge which
+overlooked Fayet and St. Quentin. From Selency Chateau, whose thickets
+fringed the sky-line, on the right, to the high-perched windmill above
+Maissemy on the left, work to consolidate this system had commenced.
+It remained for us to excavate the chalk trenches deeper and erect
+wire. The demand for that material exceeded the supply, and it was
+necessary to salve old German stores. Some excellent coils I found--of
+American manufacture. Pickets were improvised. Thus liberated by the
+amateur assortment of our tools from the irksome tyranny of army
+wiring circulars, we set about the work and soon put up some of the
+best wire of my experience.
+
+In Holnon the life was a new sample of unpleasantness. Of
+accommodation, save for a few low walls and half-roofed cellars, there
+was no trace. What Holnon lacked in billets it received in shells.
+With intervals--possibly only those of German mealtimes--during the
+day and nearly throughout the night, 5.9s and 4.2s were throwing up
+the brick-dust, till it seemed reasonable to ask why in wonder's name
+the Battalion or any living soul was kept in Holnon. After a few bad
+nights with little sleep and some close shells, Headquarters moved
+from their shed, hard by a mound, to a dismantled greenhouse further
+back. It was a nasty time. The German aeroplanes were very active....
+
+That faint patter of machine-gun fire which comes from aeroplanes
+circling overhead ends in the descent of one of them. At first it
+seems to come down normally, yet with a sort of pilot-light twinkling
+at its head; but, when a hundred feet or so from earth, see it burst
+into a sheet of flame and shrivel up upon the ground in a column of
+dark smoke!
+
+I had my company in shelters under a bank, clear of the village but
+immediately in front of a battery of 18-pounder guns, whose incessant
+firing, added to the evil whistle of the German shells, deprived the
+nights of comfortable sleep. But passive experiences were due to give
+place to active. Events of moment were in store. The 184th Brigade had
+been warned to carry out an 'enterprise' against the enemy. During
+the morning of April 26 I was sent for by the Colonel. I found
+Headquarters in their new position, an oblong greenhouse over whose
+frame, destitute of glass, was stretched a large 'trench shelter.'
+They had passed a shell-ridden night. Bennett just now had narrowly
+eluded a 5.9. This morning shells were falling as usual in Holnon, and
+pieces occasionally came humming down to earth close by. I listened to
+the plan of a large raid which with two companies I was soon to
+perform. Moore was here to outline the scheme and also Colonel Cotton
+of the R.F.A., whose guns were to support the operation.
+
+At this point I must explain for the benefit of lay readers the
+difference between a raid and an attack. The purpose of the latter was
+to drive the enemy from ground he occupied and stay there. Early
+attacks upon the Western Front were usually directed against trenches,
+of which successive lines, reaching to a distance or 'depth' of
+several thousand yards, were often our goal or 'objective.' So that
+our Infantry could enter hostile trenches it was invariably necessary
+to destroy the wire in front or make a pathway through it. Many
+attacks failed because the wire had not been cut. Before the days of
+Tanks the means employed consisted, broadly speaking, in artillery
+fire, which it was also hoped would put the enemy's machine-guns out
+of action and frighten his garrison. Our Infantry advanced immediately
+this fire had ceased or 'lifted' to the next objective. During the
+Battle of the Somme it was found that the enemy often left his
+actual trenches and came forward into shell-holes in No-Man's-Land
+so as to escape the fire of our artillery. To counter this manoeuvre
+the 'creeping barrage' was devised. Our shells were fired so as to
+form a moving curtain of destruction immediately in front of our men
+in their advance, whilst at the same time the enemy's trenches were
+bombarded. Attacks on any scale were planned to capture and hold
+against the enemy some ridge, by losing which he lost observation of
+our lines, while we, in gaining it, saw more of his and also were
+enabled to advance our guns.
+
+The purpose of a raid was to penetrate a portion of the enemy's front,
+to kill or capture as many Germans as possible, and then retire. Raids
+differed materially from attacks in this respect, that no attempt was
+made in the former to hold the ground won longer than was necessary to
+satisfy the plan. Raids were usually supported by artillery and took
+place at night; but daylight raids, though less common or successful,
+were sometimes made, and 'silent raids,' when no artillery was used,
+were also tried.
+
+This explanation, dull to military readers, will serve to indicate
+what operation I was now about to undertake. The scheme, of which the
+General and his Brigade Major were the authors, was to pass a body of
+men through a gap in the unoccupied portion of the German trenches
+opposite Fayet, deploy, and sweep sideways against some other
+trenches, thought to be held, and through several copses which Bucks
+patrols had pronounced weakly garrisoned by the enemy. These copses,
+which were expected to yield a few handfuls of runaway boys in
+German uniform, would be attacked by us in flank and rear at the same
+time. The scheme promised well, but the proposed manner of retirement,
+which would be in daylight and across nearly a mile of open ground,
+presented difficulties. The more to overcome them and to be fresh for
+the event, D Company and the platoons of C selected for the task were
+to stay in the sunken road north of Fayet, while A and B Companies
+went to garrison the outpost line.
+
+The Battalion was mostly fortunate in the opportunity of its reliefs.
+One always prayed that the time spent in moving up and changing places
+with troops in the front line would coincide with a period quiet in
+regard to shelling. One hoped still more that no hostile attack would
+clash with the relief.
+
+[Illustration: THE RAID NEAR ST. QUENTIN BY 2/4 OXFORD & BUCKS LT.
+INFy. AP. 28 1917]
+
+Such prayers and hopes on April 26, when a quiet, easy relief was
+specially desired, came near to being falsified. At dusk, just as our
+companies were starting towards Fayet, the enemy commenced an
+operation against Cepy Farm, a ruined building near the front line,
+predestined by its position to be an object of contention. The attack
+was ably dealt with by Tubbs' company of the Bucks and had proved
+abortive for the enemy. The circumstance was accompanied by much
+erratic shelling from both sides. Orders to stand-to were issued
+rather broadcast, and as the relief was now in progress a degree of
+confusion resulted everywhere. The destination of my company and half
+of C was the sunken road leading down into Fayet, but that I found
+already crowded with troops. Almost all units of the Brigade seemed to
+be trying to relieve or support each other, and the front line itself
+was in quite a ferment, nobody actually knowing what the enemy had
+done, was doing, or was expected to do. Under these conditions it
+became impossible for me to send patrols to learn the ground from
+which the impending raid was to be launched. It happened, in fact,
+that when the time to move forward had arrived, I alone of all the
+five platoons about to be engaged knew the route to the 'position of
+assembly,' that is to say, the place where the attacking troops were
+to collect immediately before the raid. That most severe risk--for had
+I been a casualty the entire enterprise would have miscarried--was
+owing partly to the accident of the confused relief, but more to the
+short notice at which the work was to be carried out. Instead of that
+thorough reconnaissance which was so desirable I had to be content
+with a visit, shared by my officers and a few N.C.O.'s, to an advanced
+observation post from which a view was possible of those trenches and
+woods we were under orders to raid.
+
+The sunken road proved anything but a pleasant waiting place. The
+shelling of Fayet--fresh-scattered bricks across whose roads showed it
+an unhealthy place--was now taken up in earnest by the enemy. Partly
+perhaps from their own affection for such places, but more probably
+because it was our most likely route to reach the village, the Germans
+seldom allowed an hour to pass without sending several salvoes of 5.9s
+into the sunken road. My men were densely packed in holes under the
+banks. I was expecting large supplies of flares and bombs and all
+those things one carried on a raid, and had, of course, orders and
+explanations of their duties to give to many different parties.
+
+All this made April 27 a vexatious day. During the early part of the
+night men from my company had to carry rations to the front line
+companies. At midnight, while resting in a wretched lean-to in the
+sunken road, I had tidings that Corporal Viggers and several others
+had been hit by a shell, which destroyed all C Company's rations. Of
+these casualties there was a man whose name I forget, who insisted on
+going, not back to hospital, but into the raid a few hours afterwards.
+He went, and was wounded again. It is a privilege to place on record
+the valorous conduct of this un-named soldier.
+
+While I was receiving the serious news which deprived me of a valuable
+leader and several picked men, a shell pitched a few yards from the
+spot I occupied. The light went out, and I was half covered with dust
+and rubbish. To move was second nature. Followed by Taylor I 'moved'
+100 yards down the road to the rest of my company. My kit and maps
+were later rescued from the dirt and brought to my new position.
+Company Headquarters should be mobile, and on occasions like these
+were volatile.
+
+At 1 a.m. I roused the men, some 150 all told, and the responsible
+task of issuing the bombs, wire-cutters, and other things commenced.
+All these, invoiced with excellent precision by the Brigade Major,
+Moore, had been carried up by the Berks. The shelling rarely ceased,
+and I owed everything on this occasion to Corporal Leatherbarrow, who
+showed not only steadfast bravery but skill. The platoons could not,
+on account of the shells which sometimes fell in the roadway itself,
+be paraded, and each received its share of bombs piecemeal by
+sections. Food, to supplement which I did not scruple to issue some of
+the next day's rations, was partaken of at 2 a.m., but it took long,
+and half an hour later the whole party should have started upon its
+journey across the mile of open fields to reach the assembly post.
+Disposal of the bombs, the meal, and those many last attentions which
+breed delay had taken longer than I had allowed. Time was getting very
+short. I wanted to dodge the shelling, but had missed a quiet interval
+that occurred at 2.30 a.m. At 3 a.m. I moved, leading the party in a
+long column over the open ground north of Fayet to reach its eastern
+side. The inevitable 'wire mats,' an encumbrance without which few
+raiding parties ever started, hampered the progress. It was a pitch
+dark night, nor was I certain of the way. To cover the mile and then
+pass 150 men, ignorant of their whereabouts, silently and in single
+file through a gap into No-Man's-Land ere dawn broke and our
+bombardment started now seemed impossible. It was a serious quandary.
+To go on might be to compromise not only the operation, but the lives
+of 150 men, who would be discovered in daylight and in the open near
+the enemy. But to go back was to jeopardise the reputation of the
+Battalion.
+
+I went on.
+
+Great darkness preceded the dawn, which was expected shortly after 4
+a.m. I found the road, the first crater, the narrow track through the
+wire, and the empty ground beyond. A few minutes after the last man
+had reached his place our barrage opened. Shells fell spasmodically
+here and there for a few seconds; then all our batteries were shooting
+together. Their fire was admirable, heavy and well-directed.
+
+In the stumbling rush forward to reach the nearest wood--C Company to
+the second crater on the Fayet Road--waves and platoons were rapidly
+confused. The Germans, who found themselves attacked in flank and
+rear, were totally surprised. They had not stood-to and many were yet
+asleep. Some lights went up and a few sentries' shots were fired, but
+it appeared that small resistance to our progress would be made. The
+wire was trampled through, and for some minutes our men played havoc
+with the Germans, who ran, leaving draggled blankets and equipment in
+their trenches. Dug-outs were generously bombed, and explosions filled
+the air as our men hastily used the weapons brought to hurt the enemy.
+Three machine-guns fell into our hands. A miniature victory was in
+progress.
+
+But a turn of events followed; the trenches and woods beyond those we
+had first entered were neither unoccupied nor weakly held. A force
+certainly equal to ours was in opposition. After their first surprise
+the Germans recovered, manned their reserve machine-guns, and opened a
+fierce fire from front and flanks upon their assailants. Many of us
+were hit, including Taylor, the officer of No. 15 Platoon, who was
+severely wounded in the thigh. In No. 13 Platoon, which lost most
+heavily, Allden and his Platoon Sergeant, Kilby, were killed. The full
+programme could not be effected. It was getting light; so I decided to
+withdraw. Most of D Company I found had already done this in their own
+way, but the remainder now collected at my summons. Lance-Corporal
+O'Connor with his two Lewis guns did yeoman service to stem what had
+become the German counter-attack. Ammunition was running short, and
+German stick-bombs obliged me, in order to save from capture those
+less badly hit, to leave Taylor, whose wound made him quite helpless.
+The wire, through which Sergeant Mowby had been busy cutting a path,
+was safely passed, and an hour afterwards we had regained the sunken
+road. I learnt that Jones, who had led the right of the advance, had
+not returned. He with his men had narrowly missed being cut off when
+the dawn broke. During the ensuing day this party had to lie scattered
+in shell-holes till darkness enabled them to reach our lines.
+
+The raid was hailed as a signal success for the Battalion. Two
+machine-guns and one protesting prisoner had been dragged back to our
+lines. The German trenches had been over-run and many of their
+occupants had been killed or wounded. By a satisfactory coincidence
+the troops whom we surprised were a battalion of the Jaegers, the very
+regiment which after three hours' bombardment had raided us exactly
+two months previously at Ablaincourt.
+
+[Illustration: COMPANY SERGEANT-MAJOR E. BROOKS. V.C.]
+
+Our losses, considering the scope of the operation, were heavy, but
+not so proportionately to the number of troops of both sides engaged
+nor to the severe nature of the fighting. Most of our casualties had
+bullet wounds. The list, officially, was: Killed, 1 officer and 10
+other ranks; wounded, 2 officers and 41; missing, 1 officer and 2. Of
+Taylor I regret to say no news was ever heard. I left him wounded,
+probably fatally, and quite incapable of being moved. The likelihood
+is that he died soon afterwards and was buried by the enemy in the
+trench where he lay. Allden and Kilby were a serious loss to the
+fighting efficiency of D Company.
+
+For their gallantry Corporal Sloper and Sergeant Butcher received the
+Military Medal and Jones the Military Cross. Corporal Leatherbarrow
+for his steadfast conduct in the sunken road was mentioned in
+dispatches. To Sergeant-Major Brooks fell the honour of the
+Battalion's first V.C., of which the official award ran as follows:--
+
+     'For most conspicuous bravery. This Warrant Officer, while taking
+     part in a raid on the enemy's trenches, saw that the front wave
+     was checked by an enemy machine-gun at close quarters. On his own
+     initiative, and regardless of personal danger, he rushed forward
+     from the second wave with the object of capturing the gun,
+     killing one of the gunners with his revolver and bayoneting
+     another. The remainder of the gun's crew then made off, leaving
+     the gun in his possession. S.M. Brooks then turned the
+     machine-gun on to the retreating enemy, after which he carried it
+     back to our lines. By his courage and initiative he undoubtedly
+     prevented many casualties, and greatly added to the success of
+     the operations.'
+
+Infantry's recompense for raids and attacks was usually a short rest.
+This time it had to be postponed by a brief tour in the front line. So
+the next day, having exchanged positions with a Gloucester company, we
+lay in holes and watched the 5.9s raising their clouds of red
+brick-dust in Holnon. Fayet was left alone, nor did the sunken road
+receive attention. It was a balmy day, the first of spring.
+
+At night another minor operation preceded the relief. Orders were
+given for B Company, which held the right of the Battalion's line, to
+seize the much-disputed Cepy Farm and hand it over to the incoming
+Berks. Moberly, who had recently rejoined his old Battalion, was in
+command of this enterprise. The farm was reached and duly occupied,
+but when the time for handing over to the Berks arrived our post was
+driven out by a strong party of the enemy. This was the first of many
+similar encounters at Cepy Farm. Luckily it did not long prejudice the
+relief. Though chased a little on the way by shells, the Battalion had
+an easy march to Holnon Wood, in which a pleasant resting place was
+found. The trees and undergrowth, just bursting into green, presented
+happy contrast to the dust and danger of Fayet. In the sandy railway
+cutting, where the single line turns through the wood to reach
+Attilly, companies sat during the day and slept secure at night.
+Transport and cookers were near, and for a spell one was on terms of
+friendship with the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+ARRAS AND AFTERWARDS,
+
+MAY, JUNE, JULY, 1917.
+
+Relief by the French at St. Quentin.--A new Commanding Officer.--
+At the Battle of Arras.--Useful work by A Company.--Harassing
+fire.--A cave-dwelling.--At Bernaville and Noeux.--In G.H.Q.
+reserve.--A gas alarm by General Hunter Weston.--The Ypres arena.
+
+
+The next battlefield to which the Battalion's steps were turned was
+Arras. Early in May the French came to relieve the 61st Division at
+St. Quentin. It was said, perhaps with little truth, that the ban
+which forbade our guns to shell that town in such manner as, from a
+purely military standpoint, it deserved, induced this re-arrangement
+of the front. Certainly the French had tried in April, before the
+German retreat had definitely stopped, to encircle the town and
+capture it without bombardment, and possibly their staff yet hoped
+that it might fall undamaged into their hands. The attitudes of
+English and French artillerymen towards large towns which they saw
+opposite to them were naturally different. On this particular front
+St. Quentin was a potent hostage in the enemy's power and one which
+accounted for the extremely quiet conduct of the war in that sector
+after the English had left.
+
+On its backward march--moves by divisions up and down the front were
+always made at a good distance behind the line through districts known
+as 'staging areas'--the Battalion spent a few days close to Amiens,
+and thence marched through Doullens to familiar billets at Neuvillette.
+The 184th Infantry Brigade reached Arras at the end of May, and went
+into the line on June 2.
+
+During this move Colonel Bellamy, who had commanded us since August,
+1916, left the Battalion. He shortly afterwards succeeded to the
+command of the 2nd Royal Sussex, his former regiment. A man of tact
+and ripe experience, he had done much to improve the Battalion during
+his stay. He lacked few, if any, of the best qualities of a Regular
+officer. His steady discipline, sure purpose, and soldierly outlook,
+had made him at once Commanding Officer, counsellor and friend.
+Latterly he had been somewhat vexed by illness, but had refused to
+allow his activity to be handicapped thereby. His stay had not
+coincided with the brightest nor least difficult epochs in the
+Battalion's history, for which reason, since he was not unduly
+flattered by fortune, his merit deserves recognition.
+
+Colonel Bellamy's successor, H. de R. Wetherall, was a young man whom
+ability and leadership had already lifted to distinction in his
+regiment and placed in command of an important military school. From
+now onwards he is the outstanding figure in the Battalion's history.
+In the new Colonel a quick brain was linked with vigorous physique. In
+spite of his Regular training, Wetherall could appreciate and
+himself possessed to no small degree the peculiar virtues of the
+temporary officer, who based his methods on common sense and actual
+experience in the war rather than servile obedience to red tape and
+'Regulations.' He had studied during the war as well as before it,
+with the result that military tradition--his regiment was the
+Gloucestershire--and his long service in the field combined to fit him
+for command of our Battalion.
+
+The Division's share in the Arras Battle, 1917, was small. Already at
+the time of our arrival the later stages of the fighting had been
+reached. The British advance astride the River Scarpe had stopped on
+its north side beneath the low ridge spoken of as Greenland Hill and
+on its south before a wood known as the Bois du Vert. As on the Somme
+in November, 1916, local actions were continuing. To prepare for an
+attack on Infantry Hill, a position held by the enemy south-east of
+Monchy-le-Preux, the 2/4th Oxfords went into the front line on June 6.
+Orders were received to advance across No-Man's-Land and link up a
+line of shell-holes as a 'jumping-off place' for the subsequent
+attack. A Company successfully accomplished the task, and the
+Battalion earned a message of thanks from the Division which a few
+days afterwards made the designed attack.
+
+Apart from this achievement, the confused network of old and new
+trenches occupied during this period offered few features of special
+interest. C and A Companies and part of D were in the front line,
+which ran through chalk and was unsavoury by reason of the dead
+Germans lying all about. The enemy's fire was of that harassing kind
+which began now to mark the conduct of the war. In the old days
+conventional targets such as roads, trenches, and villages within a
+mile or two of our front were generally shelled at times which could
+be guessed and when such places could be avoided. These methods
+changed. Wherever Infantry or transport were bound to go at special
+times during the night, the German shells, reserved by day, were fired.
+Roads, tracks, and approaches, where in daylight English nursemaids
+could almost have wheeled perambulators with confidence, by night
+became hated avenues of danger for our Infantrymen moving up the line
+or ration-carrying to their forward companies. The fire to which they
+went exposed was the enemy's 'harassing fire,' and we, in our turn,
+very naturally 'harassed' the Germans. At this time a crater on the
+Arras-Cambrai road which must needs be passed and a shallow trench
+leading therefrom, known as Gordon Alley, were the most evil spots.
+Monchy, the hill-village which had cost us so many lives to capture,
+was heavily shelled by German howitzers both day and night; below its
+slopes lay several derelict tanks. Our gun positions, in proportion to
+the new increase in counter-battery work, were also often shelled.
+Though unconnected with any artillery, our doctor, Stobie, and with
+him Arrowsmith had a bitter experience of German shells. One fine
+summer morning the enemy commenced a programme of destructive fire
+upon some empty gunpits where the Doctor had his dressing-station.
+Stobie and Arrowsmith, with their personnel, received a high
+explosive notice to quit, and their descent into a wrong-facing shaft
+was next followed by the partial destruction of their only exit. They
+escaped safely and arrived in a state of pardonable excitement at the
+deep cave under Les Fosses Farm, where my Company Headquarters and
+many others were.
+
+This cave, perhaps, will bear a short description. In Artois and
+Picardy, where chalk strata prevailed, deep subterranean passages and
+caves abounded. Under Arras itself sufficient room existed to hold
+many thousands of our troops, who were housed underground before the
+battle opened. The Germans more than ourselves exploited this feature
+of geology. Under Gommecourt and Serre their reserve troops had lurked
+deep in caves. In the Champagne more striking instances occurred of
+whole battalions issuing from hidden passages and exits to the fight.
+The cave below Fosses Farm was about 40 feet below the ground. Of most
+irregular shape, it branched and twisted into numerous alleys and
+chambers through the chalk. In it lived representatives of the
+Artillery, Royal Engineers, New Zealand Tunnellers, the whole of B
+Company, parts of Headquarters, the Doctor's personnel, and my own
+Company Headquarters. The cave was dimly lit by a few candles.
+Throughout the day and night there were perpetual comings and goings,
+and it was common to see men, dazzled by the outside sun, come
+stumbling down the stairs and tread unseeing on the prostrate forms of
+those asleep below. The bare chalk was floor, bed, and bench to all
+alike. The shadows, the dim groups of figures, and the rough pillars
+forming walls and roof, gave the impression of some old cathedral. At
+one end a hole communicating with the ground above served as the only
+chimney for the incessant cooking that was going on. The fumes of this
+huge grill-room, which did duty, not only for the 400 men or so within
+the cave itself, but for as many situated at a distance in the outside
+world, lent a primeval stamp to the surroundings. We were cave-dwellers,
+living in partial darkness and lacking even the elements of furniture.
+
+Caves, cellars, and deep dug-outs had a demoralising influence upon
+their occupants. The utter security below, contrasted with the danger
+overhead--for often the entrances to these refuges were particularly
+shelled--and the knowledge that at any moment the former might have to
+be exchanged for the latter could deal a subtle injury to one's
+morale. It was a golden rule, one perchance followed by many of our
+leaders, to make each day some expedition afield before the sun had
+reached its meridian. On the whole one was happier without deep
+dug-outs--and safer, too, for to become a skulker was equivalent to
+death.
+
+In quoting things to show how little pic-nicing there was in the war I
+feel it opportune to mention a fresh shape in which danger now appeared,
+not only for the Infantry, but for others formerly immune in sheltered
+positions far behind the front. I refer to bombing aeroplanes. The
+warm clear summer nights were now, for the first time in common
+experience, marked by the loud droning of the enemy's machines and
+by the crash of bombs dropped upon huts and transport lines and along
+roads and railways in our back area. Arras was often severely bombed.
+The German aeroplanes on any fine night came to be regarded as
+inevitable. Bombing might be continued until nearly dawn. When no
+bombs fell close there was always the constant drone announcing their
+possibility. To men in huts or in the open, without lights or any
+means of shelter, the terror carried nightly overhead was greater far
+than that which ever served to depress Londoners.
+
+Another development which was destined to play an ever increasing part
+in the war and to make its closing phases worse in some respects than
+its early, was the long-range high-velocity gun. Though fully seven
+miles behind the line, Arras was shelled throughout the summer with
+very heavy shells. The railway station was their principal target, but
+the 15-inch projectiles fell in a wide radius and caused great
+destruction to the houses and colleges still standing in the city. Yet
+to the Arras citizens now eager to return and claim their property
+shells seemed a small deterrent.
+
+[Illustration: ARRAS--THE GRANDE PLACE]
+
+Our stay up in the line was short, but we had casualties. Lindsey, a
+new officer in D Company, was killed on his first visit to the
+trenches, and Herbert, of B, was wounded. D Company also lost as
+casualties Sergeant Buller and Lance-Corporal Barnes and half-a-dozen
+Lewis gunners in the line. The night of our relief was spent in
+bivouacs near Tilloy. A violent thunderstorm, which was the expected
+sequel to the fortnight's intensely warm weather we had been
+experiencing, drenched our surroundings and gave the hard earth,
+trampled by summer tracks, a surface slippery as winter mud. On June
+11 the Battalion was back in billets at Bernaville, a village four
+miles west of Arras, and it appeared that the Division (of which the
+184th Brigade alone had been into the line) had completed its tour in
+the Arras sector.
+
+I rejoice that the few pleasant phases of the Battalion's experiences
+in France elapsed less rapidly than I describe them. At Bernaville the
+weather continued fine and warm; in fact, some of the hottest weather
+of the year occurred. A busy training programme was in swing. To
+escape the heat, companies paraded at 7 a.m. and worked till 11, and
+again in the evening at 5 and worked till 7. This training must not be
+judged by readers according to style and methods possibly seen by them
+on English training grounds during the war. At home, after the last
+divisions of Kitchener's Army went abroad, no officers trained their
+own men whom they would lead in battle. The men were usually the
+rawest drafts, while the officers in home battalions were too often
+those who had never gone and never would go to the front. A totally
+different spirit characterised training in France. Colonel Wetherall
+was a master of the art of teaching. His emphatic direction and
+enthusiasm earned early reward in the increased efficiency of all
+ranks.
+
+At Noeux, near Auxi-le-Chateau, whither we moved on June 23, the
+Battalion's midsummer respite was continued; we were in G.H.Q.
+reserve. Rumour, not false on this occasion, predicted the Division's
+share in a great battle between Ypres and the coast which was due to
+happen before the autumn. Expectancy was rife to the effect that
+co-operation from the sea was to assist in driving the Germans from
+the Belgian coast. News, big in its effects, was read one morning in
+the _Daily Mail_. The enemy had attacked our lines at Nieuport and
+driven our garrison across the Yser. A valuable footing had been lost.
+
+Happy memories are associated with Noeux. It was a pretty village,
+girt by rolling hills crowned with rich woods. 'Wood-fighting' (which
+I always said should literally mean the fighting _of_ woods, and
+indeed it often resolved itself into a contest of man _versus_
+undergrowth) was a frequent feature in the training programme. What
+was sometimes lost in 'direction' was as often gained in naughty
+amusement at the miscarriage of a scheme. For off-duty hours the
+wild-boars of Auxi woods and the cafes in that small town provided
+varied attractions and romance. The General, who was delighted with
+the war and the Battalion, was more vigorous and inspiring than ever.
+It was owing largely to him that the 184th Brigade became the best in
+the Division. This good time, which had for its object, not enjoyment,
+but preparation for more fighting, came all too soon to an end.
+
+[Illustration: NOEUX VILLAGE]
+
+On July 26 the Battalion said good-bye to Noeux. Its inhabitants, of
+whom an old lady called 'Queen Victoria' (La Reine Victoria, as she
+was known even by her fellow-villagers) was typical, gave us a
+hearty send-off. Three hours after leaving it we again passed through
+the village, this time by train. We reached St. Omer in the evening
+and marched to a scattered Flemish hamlet called Broxeele. Here a stay
+longer than was expected was made; the 61st Division was in reserve to
+the 5th Army. The introduction by the Germans of the celebrated
+mustard-gas at Ypres had caused many thousand casualties in the line
+and lent new urgency to our gas drill.
+
+At Broxeele on August 6 the Corps Commander, General Hunter Weston,
+paid a memorable visit of inspection to the Battalion. Long waits,
+succeeded by tedious processions of generals and decorated
+staff-officers of every grade, are usually associated with
+inspections. General Hunter Weston was more than punctual. His
+knowledge of all military appurtenances was encyclopedic. A rigorous
+examination of revolvers, mess tins, and similar accessories at once
+commenced. Companies, instead of standing like so many rows of
+dummies, were given each some task to perform. Suddenly in the midst
+of everything a loud cry of 'Gas' is emitted by the General. Not
+unprepared for such a 'stunt' as this, the entire party scrambles as
+fast as possible into gas-helmets. I think we earned high marks for
+our gas-discipline. This inspection made a strong impression on the
+men, who afterwards remembered the occasion and often spoke of it.
+
+Towards the end of July the weather, hitherto so fine, broke hopelessly.
+Torrential rains followed, which inundated the flat country far and
+wide. After several postponements the Third Battle of Ypres
+commenced on July 31. Some two weeks later the Battalion moved forward
+by train from Arnecke to Poperinghe. We awaited our share in the
+fighting; which was to make this battle the most bloody and perhaps
+least profitable of the whole war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES,
+
+AUGUST, 1917.
+
+A Battalion landmark.--Poperinghe and Ypres.--At Goldfish Chateau.
+--The attack near St. Julien on August 22.--Its results.--A
+mud-locked battle.--The back-area.--Mustard gas.--Pill-box
+warfare.
+
+
+In the war-history of all Battalions there is a season when it is
+possible to say that they have reached their fulness of development,
+but have not yet lost all original identity. August, 1917, was such a
+season in my history. Of officers and men who had served with the
+Battalion in its infancy many were yet remaining. Time and experience
+of war had moulded these, with the admixture of subsequent drafts,
+into a Battalion sure of itself and well-developed. But when it
+quitted the battleground of Ypres most of its old identity had
+vanished. From that time onward the 2/4th Oxfords were a changed unit,
+whose roots were set no longer in England but in France, for in France
+had come to it the officers and men of whom it was afterwards
+constituted.
+
+On the eve of this great change importing battle a short review is not
+amiss of the Battalion's constitution. A Company still had for its
+Commander Brown, among whose officers were Coombes, Callender, and
+Webb. As Company Sergeant Major, Cairns was a tower of strength. John
+Stockton led B Company, and under him was Moberly. C Company possessed
+two Captains, Brucker and Harris, and had as platoon commanders,
+Hawkes, Matthews, and Jones. D Company was still commanded by the
+author. An acquisition to my company had recently arrived in Scott,
+the bearer of two wounds received in service with the Oxford
+Territorials. Scott was the best officer I ever had. Guest, another
+new officer, before he went into the line showed that he was made of
+the right stuff; he was commander of No. 16 Platoon. Dawson-Smith,
+Copinger, Gascoyne, and Hill were other new arrivals in my company.
+The N.C.O.'s on whom I most relied were Sergeants Palmer,
+Leatherbarrow, and Sloper, but the real backbone of the Company were
+the gallant and determined section leaders whom I had chosen for
+promotion from the ranks. Of my runners and signallers I was
+especially proud, and at Company Headquarters there was, of course,
+the redoubtable Sergeant-Major Brooks, who besides being a great
+fighter possessed also high organising powers. My total strength on
+reaching Poperinghe was over 200, which shows that at this time the
+Battalion was well found in men. It was known nevertheless that some
+reduction from this maximum fighting force was to take place. One
+hundred men of the Battalion, including 'specialists' like Lewis
+gunners, signallers and runners, were henceforward 'left out of the
+line' whenever the Battalion went forward to take part in an attack.
+They were so left in order that, if the casualties were very high,
+some nucleus of veteran soldiers would still remain around whom the
+new Battalion could be built. A like rule applied to officers. A month
+ago the Colonel had decided which of these should not take part in the
+first Ypres attack. Brown and myself stayed out of the line, and in
+our stead Callender and Scott respectively commanded A and D
+Companies.
+
+[Illustration: POPERINGHE FROM THE WEST]
+
+Our stay near Poperinghe was short. Attention was devoted to the final
+organisation of platoons and sections and to the problem of what kit
+to carry in the attack and how best to carry it. Varied experiments
+were made to see whether a pack or haversack was better and which way
+uppermost a shovel should be slung. Supply of ammunition for the Lewis
+guns raised many questions for debate. When all the sections--the
+Lewis-gunners, bombers, rifle-grenadiers, and riflemen--were finally
+complete, a new drain was made on our numbers by the demand for
+seventeen men per Company, who from their duties became known as
+'Loaders and Leaders.' Their function was to lead forward during
+battle mules loaded with rations, water, and ammunition. So little
+advancing was there that the mules, so far as this Battalion was
+concerned, were never used, and the loaders and leaders, thanks to
+their function proving illusory, escaped all share in the fighting.
+
+If Poperinghe and Ypres had quite borne out their reputations I should
+not here remark on either of them. The former was a most crowded and
+degenerate-looking town, by a few towers rendered impressive from a
+distance, but in reality of mean structure. Besides its club--at which
+I recollect that Heidsieck 1906 was then only ten francs the
+bottle--and its estaminets, the town held few attractions. Damage by
+long-range German guns around the station had been considerable, but
+to the town itself, except its windows, not very much had up till now
+occurred. The surrounding country was neither flat nor uninteresting.
+The Mont des Cats and Kemmel bounded the horizon on the south-east,
+while to the west and north gently undulating hills, covered with
+fields of hops, distinguished this area from the sodden plains
+commonly credited to Flanders. Ypres, though destroyed past any hopes
+of restoration, in 1917 still wore the semblance of a town. From
+previous descriptions of the 'Salient' I had almost expected that a
+few handfuls of ashes would be of Ypres the only vestige left. The
+portions least destroyed in Ypres compared perhaps equally with the
+worst in Arras, but of the two the Flemish city had been the less well
+built. The remains of the great Cloth Hall, cathedral, and other
+buildings revealed that what had once been, supposedly, of stone was
+in reality white brick.
+
+On August 18, starting at 4 a.m., the Battalion marched to Goldfish
+Chateau, close to Ypres, and the Transport to a disused brickfield
+west of Vlamertinghe. We lived in bivouacs and tents and were much
+vexed by German aeroplanes, and to a less degree by German shells. On
+August 20, while companies were making ready for the line, an air
+fight happened just above our camp. Its sequel was alarming. A German
+aeroplane fell worsted in the fight, and dived to ground, a roaring
+mass of fire, not forty yards from our nearest tents. By a freak of
+chance the machine fell in a hole made by a German shell. The usual
+rush was made towards the scene--by those, that is, not already
+sufficiently close for their curiosity. A crowd, which to some extent
+disorganised our preparations for the line, collected round the spot
+and watched the R.F.C. extract the pilot and parts of the machine,
+which was deeply embedded in the hole. For hours the wreckage remained
+the centre of attraction to many visitors. The General hailed the
+burnt relics, not inappropriately, as a lucky omen.
+
+During the night of August 20/21 the Battalion relieved a portion of
+the front eastward of Wieltje. Three companies were placed in trenches
+bearing the name of 'Capricorn,' but B was further back. During the
+night a serious misfortune befell the latter. Three 5.9s fell actually
+in the trench and caused thirty-five casualties, including all the
+sergeants of the company. On the eve of an attack such an occurrence
+was calculated to affect the morale of any troops. That the company
+afterwards did well was specially creditable in view of this
+demoralising prelude.
+
+On the following night Companies assembled for the attack. Neither the
+starting place nor the objectives for this are easily described by
+reference to surrounding villages. The nearest was St. Julien. The
+operation orders for the attack of August 22 assigned as objective
+to the Oxfords a road running across the Hanebeck and referred to as
+the Winnipeg-Kansas Cross Road. The 48th Division on the left and the
+15th on the right were to co-operate with the 184th Brigade in the
+attack.
+
+Shortly before 5 the bombardment started. In the advance behind the
+creeping barrage put down by our guns, of which an enormous
+concentration was present on the front, C, D and A Companies (from
+right to left) provided the first waves, while B Company followed to
+support the flanks. The Berks came afterwards as 'moppers up.'
+Half-an-hour after the advance started D, B and A Companies were
+digging-in 150 yards west of the Winnipeg-Kansas Cross Road. The
+losses of these companies in going over had not been heavy, but, as so
+often happens, casualties occurred directly the objective had been
+duly reached. In the case of C Company, on the right, but little
+progress had been made. Pond Farm, a concrete stronghold, to capture
+which a few nights previously an unsuccessful sally had been made, had
+proved too serious an obstacle. Not till the following night was it
+reduced, and during the whole of August 22 it remained a troublesome
+feature in the situation. Before the line reached could be consolidated
+or they could act to defeat the enemy's tactics, our men found
+themselves the victims of sniping and machine-gun fire from Schuler
+Farm, which was not taken and to which parties of reinforcements to
+the enemy now came. More dangerous still was an old gun-pit which lay
+behind the left flank. The capture of this had been assigned to the
+48th Division, but as a measure of abundant caution Colonel Wetherall
+had detailed a special Berks platoon to tackle it. This platoon,
+assisted by some Oxfords on the scene, captured the gun-pit and nearly
+seventy prisoners, but failed to garrison it. A party of the enemy
+found their way back and were soon firing into our men from behind.
+
+[Illustration: The ATTACK of AUG 22 BY 15TH 61ST & 48TH DIVISIONS
+Approx: Position of 2/4th. OXF. at 7 pm.]
+
+During the early stages of consolidation, when personal example and
+direction were required, John Stockton, Scott, and Gascoyne were all
+killed by snipers or machine-gun fire. Scott had been hit already in
+the advance and behaved finely in refusing aid until he had despatched
+a message to Headquarters. While he was doing so three or four bullets
+struck him simultaneously and he died.
+
+Throughout the 22nd no actual counter-attack nor organised bombardment
+by the enemy took place, but much sniping and machine-gun fire
+continued, making it almost impossible to move about. Our loss in
+Lewis-gunners was particularly heavy. Callender, the acting company
+commander of A Company, had been killed before the attack commenced,
+and Sergeant-Major Cairns was now the mainstay of that company, whose
+men were thoroughly mixed up with B. Upon the left the 48th Division
+had failed to reach Winnipeg, with the result that this flank of A and
+B Companies was quite in the air. On the Battalion's right the failure
+of C Company, in which Brucker had been wounded, to pass Pond Farm
+left the flank of D Company exposed and unsupported. But the position
+won was kept. Ground to which the advance had been carried with cost
+would not be lightly given up. Moberly, Company Sergeant-Major
+Cairns, and Guest--the latter by volunteering in daylight to run the
+gauntlet of the German snipers back to Headquarters--greatly
+distinguished themselves in the task of maintaining this exposed
+position during the night of August 22 and throughout August 23. Some
+of our men had to remain in shell-holes unsupported and shot at from
+several directions for over fifty hours. During the night of August
+23/24 the Battalion was relieved, when those whom death in battle had
+not claimed nor wounds despatched to hospital marched back through
+Ypres to the old camp at Goldfish Chateau.
+
+The attack, in which the Bucks had successfully co-operated on the
+right of our advance, earned credit for the Brigade and the Battalion.
+It had been, from a fighting standpoint, a military success. But from
+the strategical aspect the operations showed by their conclusion that
+the error had been made of nibbling with weak forces at objectives
+which could only have been captured and secured by strong. Moreover,
+the result suggested that the objectives had been made on this occasion
+for the attack rather than the attack for the objectives. The 184th
+Brigade had played the part assigned to it completely and with credit,
+but what had been gained by it with heavy loss was in fact given up by
+its successors almost at once. Withdrawal from the Kansas trenches
+became an obvious corollary to the German omission to counter-attack
+against them. Ground not in dispute 'twas not worth casualties to
+hold. On the Battalion's front Pond Farm, a small concrete
+stronghold, remained the sole fruit of the attack of August 22. It was
+after the 61st Division had been withdrawn, wasted in stationary war,
+that what success could be associated with this third battle of Ypres
+commenced. Judged by its efforts, the 61st was ill paid in results.
+
+On August 25 the Battalion, and with it the rest of the Brigade, moved
+back from Goldfish Chateau to Query Camp, near Brandhoek. The weather,
+which had been fairly fine for several weeks, now again broke in
+thunderstorms and rain. Trees were blown down along the main road to
+Ypres. The clouds hung low or raced before the wind, so that no
+aeroplane nor kite-balloon could mount the sky. This meteorological
+revulsion stood the Germans in great stead. Mud and delay, fatal to
+us, were to them tactical assets of the highest value. As can easily
+be appreciated, to postpone a complicated attack is a proceeding only
+less lengthy and difficult than its preparation, nor can attacks even
+be cancelled except at quite considerable notice. Thus it befell that
+some of our attacks, before they had commenced, were ruined by deluges
+of rain when it was too late to change the plans. On August 27 a
+further attack upon Gallipoli, Schuler Farm and Winnipeg was made by
+the 183rd Brigade in co-operation with the 15th and 48th Divisions.
+The mud and enemy machine-gun fire alike proved terrible. The contact
+aeroplane soon crashed, the advance failed to reach the 'pill-boxes'
+from which the Germans held out, and before night a return had to be
+made to the original line.
+
+On August 30 the Brigade went forward once again to Goldfish Chateau.
+The camp had not been improved by our predecessors, who had attempted
+to dig in. Holes filled with water were the result, and nearly all the
+tents and shelters had to be moved. Since the stagnation of the battle
+German shelling in the back area had much increased. The field where
+the camp lay was bounded on three sides by railways or roads. Some of
+our 12-inch howitzers were close in front. Despite our best attempts
+to sever association with such targets we had a share in the shells
+intended for them. One night especially the long howl of German shells
+ended in their arrival very near our tents. The latter had been placed
+at one side of the field in order to escape, as we expected, the
+shells more likely to be aimed by German gunners at the main road and
+railway as targets. We changed our 'pitch,' but the next morning came
+a pursuing shell on an old line of fire, which made it clear that the
+best place was the deliberate middle of the field.
+
+The passage overhead of German aeroplanes made nights uneasy. Darkness
+was lit by those huge flashes in the sky, which denoted explosions of
+our dumps of shells. The ground shook many times an hour with great
+concussions. Sometimes the crash of bombs and patter of machine-guns
+firing at our transport lasted till pale dawn appeared or its approach
+was heralded by the bombardment of our guns, whose voice pronounced
+the prologue of attack.
+
+On both sides the concentration of artillery was very great. Though
+the bad weather had shackled our advance from the start, our staff yet
+hoped to gain the ridge of Passchendaele before winter set in. The
+Germans, too, held that the stake was high. Our guns, which were
+advanced as far as Wieltje and St. Jean and stood exposed in the open,
+became the object of persistent German shelling. Sound-ranging and
+aerial photography had reached a high development, and few of our
+batteries went undiscovered. For the Artillery life became as hard as
+for the Infantry. Gunner casualties were very numerous. Our batteries
+for hours on end were drenched in mustard-gas. Into Ypres as well
+large quantities of 'Yellow Cross' shells, cleverly mixed up with
+high-explosive, were fired with nocturnal frequency. The long range of
+the enemy's field-guns made the effect of these subtle gas-shells,
+whose flight and explosion were almost noiseless amid the din of our
+own artillery, especially widespread. The enemy's activity against our
+back area was at its height at the end of August, 1917. Casualty
+Clearing Stations were both bombed and shelled. Near Poperinghe nurses
+were killed. No service forward of Corps Headquarters but had its
+casualties. Our lorry-drivers' work was fraught with danger. The
+Germans were waging a war to the knife and employing every means to
+serve their obstinate resistance.
+
+[Illustration: VLAMERTINGE--THE ROAD TO YPRES]
+
+The 'defence in depth,' practised to some extent at Arras, had become
+the enemy's reply to our destruction by artillery of the trench
+systems on which, earlier in the war, he had relied with confidence.
+Destruction of prepared positions had reached so absolute a stage
+that the old arguments of wire and machine-guns brought up from deep
+dug-outs to fire over parapets, were no longer present. The ground to
+a distance of several thousand yards behind the enemy's front line
+could be, and had been, churned and rechurned into one brown expanse.
+For four miles east of Ypres there was no green space and hardly a
+yard of ground without its shell-hole. Positions where the enemy held
+out consisted in groups of concrete 'pill-boxes,' which had been made
+from Belgian gravel and cement in partial anticipation of this result
+of the artillery war. They in all cases were carefully sited and so
+small (being designed to hold machine-guns and their teams) that their
+destruction by our heavy shells was almost impossible. These
+'pill-boxes' were also so designed as to support each other, that is
+to say, if one of them were captured, the fire of others on its flanks
+often compelled the captors to yield it up. Garrisons were provided
+from the _elite_ of the German army. One cannot but admire the
+steadfastness with which, during this phase of warfare, these solitary
+strongholds held out. Indeed, the only way to cope with this defence
+was to press an advance on a wide front to such a depth as to reduce
+the entire area in which these pill-boxes lay into our possession. By
+attacking spasmodically we played the enemy's game.
+
+Our methods of attack which had been practised through the spring and
+summer still consisted, broadly speaking, in the advance of lines of
+Infantry behind a creeping barrage. These lines were too often held
+up by pill-boxes, against which the creeping barrage was ineffectual,
+and once delay which had not been calculated on occurred, the creeping
+barrage was proved doubly useless, for it had outdistanced the speed
+of the advance. The change in tactics necessary to reduce these
+concrete strongholds was soon appreciated, but troops who had been
+trained in the older methods were slow, in action, to adopt the new
+ones requisite. Partly from such a reason the 61st Division scored
+little success against the pill-box defence, but lack of tangible
+results was not joined with lack of honest attempts. The mud, the
+nibbling tactics passed down from above, inadequate co-operation by
+the divisions fighting side by side with us, and the failure of our
+artillery to hit the pill-boxes which we had hoped could be put out of
+action by our heavy shells, further combined to paralyse efforts
+which, had they been directed to more easy tasks, would now, as often,
+have earned for the Division the highest military success.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE ATTACK ON HILL 35,
+
+SEPTEMBER, 1917.
+
+Iberian, Hill 35, and Gallipoli.--The Battalion ordered to make the
+seventh attempt against Hill 35.--The task.--A and D Companies
+selected.--The assembly position.--Gassed by our own side.--
+Waiting for zero.--The attack.--Considerations governing its
+failure.--The Battalion quits the Ypres battlefield.
+
+
+'At 4 p.m.' said the 61st Divisional Summary for the twenty-four hours
+ending 12 noon, September 11, 1917, 'we attacked the Battery Position
+on Hill 35. This attack was not successful.' A grim epitaph. The terse
+formula, as though wasted words must not follow wasted lives, was the
+official record of the seventh attempt to storm Hill 35.
+
+Against the concrete gunpits which crowned this insignificant ridge
+the waves of our advance on July 31 had lapped in vain. Minor attacks
+designed to take Gallipoli, a German stronghold set behind the ridge,
+and against the sister position of Iberian on its flank, proved
+throughout August some of the most costly failures in the 5th Army
+operations. The defence of the three strongholds, Iberian, Hill 35,
+and Gallipoli provided a striking example of German stubbornness
+and skill, but added an object-lesson in the squandering of our
+efforts in attack. Operations upon a general scale having failed to
+capture all three, it was fantastically hoped that each could be
+reduced separately. Iberian, Hill 35, and Gallipoli supported one
+another, nor was it feasible to hold any without holding all. Yet to
+take Hill 35 on September 9 the 2/4th Oxfords were specially selected.
+The spirit of A and D Companies, chosen by Colonel Wetherall for the
+attack, was excellent. We confidently believed that we could succeed
+where others failed. Optimism, so vital an ingredient in morale, was a
+powerful assistant to the English Army. It was fostered, perhaps
+unconsciously, throughout the war by the cheerful attitude preserved
+by our Generals and staff, but its foundation lay in our great system
+of supply. The A.S.C., which helped to win our victories, helped, too,
+to temper our defeats.
+
+[Illustration: THE ATTACK ON HILL 35 SEPTEMBER 10 1917]
+
+On September 7 Brown and myself went up through Ypres to view the
+scene of the attack. At Wieltje, where Colonel Wetherall and B and C
+Companies already were, we descended to a deep, wet dug-out and that
+night listened to a narrative brought by an officer who had
+participated in the last attempt to take the hill. He dispensed the
+most depressing information about the gunpits, the machine-guns, the
+barrages, and last, but not least terrible (if believed), the new
+incendiary Verey lights used by the Germans to cremate their assailants.
+The description of a piece of trench, which we were to capture and
+block, particularly flattered our prospects. 'Wide, shallow trench,
+enfiladed from Gallipoli, filled with --th Division dead,' it ran. The
+tale of horror becoming ludicrous, we soon afterwards clambered on to
+the wire bunks and slept, dripped on, till the early morning.
+
+The next day was misty. Our 15-inch howitzers on whose ability to
+smash the enemy's concrete strongholds reliance was staked, could not
+fire. The attack was postponed until September 10, but that decision
+came too late to stop our companies quitting the camp according to
+previous orders and marching up through Ypres. They could have stayed
+at Wieltje for the night, but the men's fear that by so doing they
+would miss their hot tea, decided their vote in favour of a return to
+Goldfish Chateau. Tea is among the greatest bribes that can be offered
+to the British soldier.
+
+Accordingly the march through Ypres, or rather, round it (for no
+troops chose to pass its market place) was repeated on the morrow. The
+tracks towards the line were shelled on our way up, but we came safely
+through. Dusk was awaited in a much war-worn trench in front of
+Wieltje.
+
+As daylight fades we file away, each man with his own thoughts. Whose
+turn is it to be this journey?
+
+Along the tortuous track of tipsy duckboards we go for a mile, until
+acrid fumes tell that the German barrage line is being passed. This is
+a moment to press on! To get the Company safely across this hundred
+yards is worth many a fall.
+
+... Presently the shattered pollards of the Steenbeek are left behind
+and flickering Verey lights cast into weird relief the rugged surface
+of the earth. At Pommern Castle our front trenches, in which figures
+of men loom indistinctly, are reached. At one corner, where the trench
+is littered with fragments, we are cautioned by a sentry, whose voice
+is a little shaken, not to linger; the entrance to a pill-box (which
+faced the enemy) was hit a short time ago. From the trench we proceed
+further into No-Man's-Land, where the Bucks are said to have linked up
+shell-holes since nightfall. (Those will be our 'assembly position'
+for the attack to-morrow afternoon).
+
+By now all shells are passing over our heads; we are level with where
+Verey lights are falling, and the sweep of bullets through the air
+shows that the enemy is not far off. Figures appear as if by magic.
+All at once there is a crowd of men, rattling equipment and talking in
+suppressed voices. A few commands, and the relief is complete. We are
+in No-Man's-Land, strung in a line of shell-holes, from which in
+sixteen hours' time the attack is to start.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Soon after 3 a.m. I set out to visit all the scattered groups of men
+to give my last instructions, for from dawn onwards no movement would
+be possible. It was an eerie situation. The night was filled with
+multifarious noise--peculiar 'poops,' the distant crash of bombs, and
+all the mingled echoes of a battlefield. At one time German howitzers,
+firing at longest range, chimed a faint chorus high above our heads;
+anon a hissing swoop would plant a shell close to our whereabouts.
+Lights rose and sank, flickering. Red and green rockets, as if to
+ornament the tragedy of war, were dancing in the sky. Occasionally a
+gust of foul wind, striking the face, could make one fancy that
+Death's Spectre marched abroad, claiming her children....
+
+Our guns fired incessantly. Their shells came plunging down with an
+arriving whistle that made each one as it came seem that it must drop
+short--and many did. Mist drifted fitfully around and hid, now and
+again, two derelict tanks, at which a forward post of my company was
+stationed. This post I was on my way to visit, when, suddenly, what
+seemed trench-mortar bombs began to fall. About twenty fell in a
+minute, the last ones very close to where I stood.
+
+They were gas. It was a sickening moment; surprise, disaster, and the
+possibility that here was some new German devilry fired at us from
+behind, joined with the fumes to numb the mind and powers. Half-gassed
+I gave the gas-alarm. By telephone I managed to report what had
+happened. The Colonel seemed to understand at once; 'I've stopped
+them,' conveyed everything of which it was immediately necessary to
+make certain.
+
+[Illustration: HILL 35, from an aeroplane photograph taken a week
+before the attack of Sept 10. Note the four derelict Tanks]
+
+For it was an attack by our own gas. Some detachment, without
+notifying our Brigade staff or selecting a target which sanity could
+have recommended, had done a 'shoot' against my company's position
+under the mistake that the enemy was in it. Two casualties, which I
+believe proved fatal, resulted. Many men vomited. I was prostrated for
+two hours. The effect on the morale of some of my men was as pitiable
+as it was amply justifiable.
+
+For this dastardly outrage I fancy that no person was ever brought to
+book. Infantry loyally condoned the so-called 'short shooting' by our
+guns. Out of thousands of shells fired at the enemy some must and did
+fall in our lines. But from such condonation is specifically to be
+excepted this instance of a gas projection carried out with criminal
+negligence upon my comrades. For or by its perpetrator no excuse was
+offered; and yet the facts were never in dispute.
+
+Proverbially the worst part of an attack was waiting for it. On
+September 10, from dawn till 4 p.m., A and D Companies lay cramped in
+shell holes on the slopes of Hill 35. In my own hole, so close that
+our knees touched, sat Sergeant Palmer, Rowbotham, my signalling
+lance-corporal, Baxter, another signaller, Davies, my runner, and
+myself. With us we had a telephone and a basket of carrier pigeons.
+
+At 8 a.m., while some of us were sleeping heavily, there came a crash
+and a jar, which shook every fibre in the body. An English shell had
+burst a yard or two from the hole wherein we lay. Voices from
+neighbouring shell-holes hailed us--'Are you all right?': and we
+replied 'We are.' We had no other shell as close as that, but all day
+long there were two English guns whose shells, aimed at the Germans on
+the ridge in front, fell so near to where we lay that we became
+half-used to being spattered with their earth. As the air warmed the
+error of these guns decreased, but we counted the hours anxiously
+until the attack should liberate us from such cruel jeopardy.[8]
+
+                   [Footnote 8: At this stage in the war the barrels
+                   of many of our guns and howitzers in use on the
+                   Western Front were very worn. That fact alone and
+                   not any want of care or devotion on the part of our
+                   Artillery or staff would have accounted for the
+                   'short shooting' which I record. To locate a worn
+                   barrel, when scores of batteries were bombarding
+                   together according to a complicated programme, was
+                   naturally impossible. Infantry recognised this.]
+
+The intolerable duration of that day baffles description. The sun,
+which had displaced a morning mist, struck down with unrelenting rays
+till shrapnel helmets grew hot as oven-doors. Bluebottles (for had not
+six attempts failed to take the hill?) buzzed busily. The heat, our
+salt rations, the mud below, the brazen sky above, and the suspense of
+waiting for the particular minute of attack, vied for supremacy in the
+emotions. The drone of howitzers continued all the day. Only at 2.30
+p.m., when a demonstration was made against Iberian, did any variety
+even occur. There was no choice nor respite. Not by one minute could
+the attack be either anticipated or postponed.
+
+Of the attack itself the short outline is soon given. Promptly at 4
+p.m. the creeping barrage started. In a dazed way or lighting
+cigarettes the men, who had lost during the long wait all sense of
+their whereabouts, began to stumble forward up the hill. Our shrapnel
+barrage was not good. One of the earliest shells burst just behind
+the hole from which I stepped. It wounded Rowbotham and Baxter (my two
+signallers) and destroyed the basket of carrier pigeons. Of other
+English shells I saw the brown splash amongst our men. Prolonged
+bombardment had ploughed the ground into a welter of crumbling earth
+and mud. Our progress at only a few dozen yards a minute gave the
+Germans in their pill-boxes ample time to get their machine-guns
+going, while correspondingly the barrage passed away from our advance
+in its successive lifts. Heavy firing from Iberian commenced to
+enfilade our ranks. Long before the objective was approached our
+enemies, who in some cases left the pill-boxes and manned positions
+outside, were masters of the situation. The seventh attempt had failed
+to struggle up the slopes of Hill 35.
+
+Despite the disappointment of this immediate failure of the
+enterprise, I realised at once the impossibility of its success. Yet
+on this occasion less was done by the men than the conduct of their
+leaders deserved. Almost as soon as bullets had begun to bang through
+the air some men had gone to shelter. Those who stood still were mown
+down. A handful of D Company, led by the company commander, by short
+rushes reached a ruined tank, close to the enemy, but the remainder
+disappeared into shell-holes, whence encouragement was powerless to
+move them. Only in A Company was any fire opened.
+
+No sense of anti-climax could be demanded of the English soldier,
+whose daily shilling was paid him whether he was in rest-billets,
+on working-party, or sent into the attack.[9]
+
+                   [Footnote 9: Nowhere is this truth better expressed
+                   than in the words of 'Tommy's' own song, the
+                   refrain of which ends:--
+                     'But you get your "bob" a day, never mind!']
+
+On the part also of the Artillery less was done than the scheme
+promised or our attacking Infantry had counted on. By shell-fire the
+issue of Hill 35 was to have been placed beyond doubt. When the
+artillery machine broke down, achievement of success demanded more
+initiative on the part of the Infantry than if no artillery had been
+used. In a sense our loss of a hundred guns at Cambrai a few weeks
+later became a blessing in disguise, for it restored the scales in
+favour of the Infantryman as the decisive agent on the field of
+battle.
+
+So ended the attack on Hill 35. Upon its slopes were added our dead to
+the dead of many regiments. But our casualties were few considering
+that the attack had been brought to a standstill by machine-gun fire.
+Of D Company officers Guest was wounded (he had behaved with gallantry
+in the attack) and Copinger missing. Viggers, a very brave sergeant,
+was killed. Three lance-corporals, Wise, Rowbotham, and Goodman, had
+been wounded. The total casualties to the Battalion, including several
+in B Company Headquarters from a single shell and others in passing
+afterwards through Ypres, were, happily, under fifty.
+
+A few days after its attack on Hill 35 the Battalion marched away from
+Ypres, never to return. What credit had been earned there by the
+61st Division was principally associated with the work of the 184th
+Infantry Brigade and of the 2/4th Oxfords. Improvement in morale
+flowed from the test of this great battle. The losses of the Battalion
+had been heavy; fourteen officers and 260 men were its casualties. The
+final winning of the war could not be unconnected with such a
+sacrifice. Like others before and others after it, the Battalion at
+Ypres gave its pledge to posterity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+AUTUMN AT ARRAS AND THE MOVE TO CAMBRAI,
+
+OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, DECEMBER, 1917.
+
+The Battalion's return to Arras.--A quiet front.--The Brigadier
+and his staff.--A novelty in tactics.--B Company's raid.--A
+sudden move.--The Cambrai front.--Havrincourt Wood.--Christmas
+at Suzanne.
+
+
+From Arras the 61st Division came to Ypres: to Arras it returned.
+After a week spent in the back area, advance by the usual stepping
+stones was made to the front line. The 184th was the last Brigade to
+go into the trenches; not till the beginning of October did it take
+over the line. The front held by the 61st Division stretched from the
+Chemical Works of Roeux upon the right to a point south of Gavrelle
+upon the left. Two Brigades were in the line at once and stayed
+twenty-four days, Battalions changing places during the period. A rest
+of twelve days back at Arras followed.
+
+This process of relief and the general conditions brought a return of
+trench-warfare almost on its old lines. As autumn waned gumboots were
+even spoken of. The trenches were mostly of chalk, and had been left
+by the 17th Division in excellent condition. The experience of a former
+winter prevented the error being made, at all events in theory, of
+leaving trenches unfloored and unrevetted, until winter, bringing its
+consequence of mud, arrived. Especially the mile-long communication
+trenches called 'Chili' and 'Civil' Avenues, if they were to be kept
+passable, required attention. A thorough programme of work with R.E.
+and the Pioneers was put in hand. Dry trenches would have repaid its
+labour spent in carrying and digging, had the Battalion stayed in this
+sector for the winter. As not unexpectedly happened, we had left the
+scene of our labours before winter set in.
+
+More than three weeks of October were spent by the Battalion in the
+trenches. This was no great hardship. Half of the time was spent
+nearly two miles behind the line in an old German trench known as the
+Gavrelle Switch. In this position there was little restriction, if
+indeed there could ever be any--short of its prohibition--on the
+making of smoke, and with good rations and day working parties the men
+were happy enough. But these long periods in the trenches, when no
+proper parades or drill were possible, though acquiesced in by the men
+themselves, were bad for the Battalion's discipline. Much regard was
+always paid--especially in the 61st Division--to what is called 'turn
+out.' This meant more than button-polishing. It was that quality of
+alertness and self-respect which even in the trenches could be
+maintained. Trench-life bred loafers, and loafers never made the
+best soldiers. It was a good thing when October 28 came and the
+Battalion moved back to Arras for a twelve days' spell in rest.
+Billets were the French prison, whose cells provided excellent
+accommodation.
+
+Arras in the autumn of 1917 was an attractive place. The clear
+atmosphere, through which the sun shone undimmed by factory-smoke,
+lent to its majestic ruins almost Italian colouring. Upon the western
+side of the town quite a number of undamaged houses still remained; at
+its centre the theatre and concert hall had luckily escaped
+destruction, and to hear the various divisional troupes most crowded
+audiences assembled every night. The streets, though unlighted, were
+thronged with jostling multitudes. The Arras front, as though in
+acknowledgement of greater happenings elsewhere, had become dormant
+since midsummer. Against the trenches themselves little activity by
+the enemy was shown, and in the back area, pending a change of policy
+by us, quietude reigned during the early autumn. A big German gun
+occasionally threw its shells towards our Transport lines at St.
+Nicholas or into Arras Station. One day a party which had come several
+hours early to secure good places on the leave train was scattered by
+the unscheduled arrival of a shell.
+
+[Illustration: A STREET IN ARRAS]
+
+During the stay of the Battalion at the prison, Thomas, our champion
+boxer, issued a challenge to the divisions near the town. A man from
+the 15th Division, heavier than Thomas, accepted. In the fight which
+ensued before many spectators the Oxford man won on a knock-out in
+the fourth round. So strong at this time was the Battalion in boxing
+that Brigade competitions became foregone conclusions.
+
+Another feature of this period was a Brigade school, with Bennett as
+its commandant, at Arras. A week's course was held for each platoon in
+the Brigade. The school was well run and partly recompensed for the
+lack of training during the long tours in the trenches.
+
+More than a year had passed since General White first took command of
+the 184th Infantry Brigade. During that time the Brigade had improved
+out of all recognition. For such result its commander was more than
+partially responsible. The General had to the full the quality called
+'drive'; that, rather than profound knowledge of military science,
+made him a first-rate Brigadier. War is a department of the world's
+business, in which capacity not only to work oneself, but to make
+others work, begets success. I should hesitate to say of General White
+that he 'used' others, but his prudent selection of subordinates
+ensured that all units in his Brigade were well commanded. He was more
+than a good judge of character: hollow prevarication was useless with
+him, and bluff--though, when he liked, he was himself a master of
+it--a dangerous policy. Among the shrewd qualities of this man there
+were the abilities to summarize rapidly whatever he had been told, and
+to remember most of everything he saw. His power of observation was so
+developed that sometimes the actual picture of some detail--such as a
+dirty rifle, a man without equipment, or a few sand bags laid
+awry--lent him a false impression of the whole. Yet his memory and
+rapid power of observation made him a real tactician--I use the
+adjective advisedly. No man who knew less, and there were few who knew
+more, of the front line than he did, could afford to argue with him
+about the position of a machine-gun, although if the matter had been
+presented as of theory at some headquarters rather than upon the
+ground, the machine-gun expert would perhaps have held his own.
+
+'Bobbie' did not interfere with his staff officers in their
+'paper-work,' but if ever occasion demanded he did not hesitate to
+draw his pen, not in self-defence, but in defence of the Brigade and
+his subordinates. He was no party to that unctuous politeness that
+sprang up during the war when staff met staff upon the telephone. He
+thought nothing of ringing up Corps, and expected speech with the head
+of a department, for he was the enemy of all high-placed
+obstructionists. His fame spread widely on the telephone. Impatient of
+camouflage, he learnt with difficulty the language of code-names under
+which it was sought to disguise our units to the enemy. 'Brigadier of
+184 speaking,' he would say; 'Are you the Bucks.... What regiment are
+you?' There was an 'amplifier' at 'Tank Dump'; it was always most
+faithfully manned about 8 p.m.
+
+[Illustration: "TANK DUMP"]
+
+The example which the General set was especially fine. He spent every
+day and nearly all day in the front line. Nothing annoyed him more
+than, say, at 9 a.m. to receive the message of a divisional conference
+fixed for his headquarters at 11. Equipped in his short overalls and
+shrapnel-helmet (conspicuous in a light cover) and carrying a white
+walking-stick, he used to quit Brigade Headquarters with matutinal
+punctuality. His outset borrowed something of the atmosphere of 'John
+Peel' on a fine morning. Battalion Headquarters, if not warned
+surreptitiously of his arrival, would scramble through their breakfast
+(not that the General designed to interfere either with rest or
+eating) as his form outlined itself in the doorway, accompanied by
+cheery greeting. In the front line itself his visits were refreshing.
+Prospects of shelling never deterred him. No post was too far forward
+for him to pay it a call. Often, when shells fell, he deliberately
+remained to share the danger. Once I knew him to return to a trench,
+which had been quite heavily shelled while he was there, because the
+Germans started on it again. A prodigious walker, he tired of daylight
+imprisonment to trenches and chose the 'top.' His figure must have
+been familiar to enemy observers. But his route was so erratic that,
+though he drew fire on many unexpected places after he had left, he
+was rarely himself shot at during his progress.
+
+The General is a great representative of _esprit de corps_, and
+believes strongly in military comradeship. In a sense his claim for
+'esprit de Brigade' was a little far-fetched, for Battalions held to
+themselves very much, and the fact that they relieved each other,
+though often a bond of alliance, was sometimes also a cause of
+friction. Between Battalions he did not shrink from making comparisons.
+'My Berks' had done this; 'My Bucks' should do the same. Much good
+resulted. The standard of efficiency was raised. Though at times he
+was discovered to be naively inconsistent, one thing was certain--the
+184th Brigade felt throughout its members that it was the best in the
+Division. The war has not produced many great men, but it has produced
+many great figures--amongst whom Robert White is by no means the
+least.
+
+If it was well commanded by its General, the 184th Brigade was as well
+served by its staff. Gepp, the Brigade Major at Laventie, had been the
+pattern of a staff officer. His advice was at the service of the most
+recent company commander or newest subaltern. With Gepp as author, no
+march-table ever went wrong. Moore fell no whit short of his
+predecessor in ability. He was alike eager to acquire and to impart
+his knowledge, which in military matters was both profound and
+practical. He made friends readily with regimental officers, for he
+remained one of them at heart and in outlook. His powers were truly at
+the service of the whole Brigade. When George Moore left in September,
+1917, to take command of a Battalion, the third Brigade Major who
+makes a figure in my history appeared--H. G. Howitt. In the sequence
+fortune continued to favour the Brigade. Howitt was a Territorial
+whose prowess had been proved in the Somme fighting. In place of a
+long staff training he brought business powers. He was indulgent of
+everything save fear, laziness, and inefficiency. Stout-hearted
+himself, he expected stoutness in others; this was the right attitude
+of a staff officer. Though a business man by training, he did not
+negotiate with the war; in him everything was better than his writing.
+
+Of these three, Gepp, Moore, Howitt, it would be difficult to name the
+best Brigade Major; the 184th Brigade was happy in the trio.
+
+On November 9 the 2/4th Oxfords returned to the trenches in weather
+that was still relatively fine. The Brigade sector had been changed;
+its front now stretched across the Douai railway below the slope of
+Greenland Hill. The previous quietude of the trenches now gave place
+to more activity. German shelling much increased. The ruins of the
+famous Chemical Works, which covered several acres of ground, were
+daily stirred by the explosions of shells among the tangled wreckage
+of boiler-pipes and twisted metal. In the front line trench-mortaring
+became frequent. On November 14 Cuthbert was wounded by a bomb which
+fell inside the trench, and other casualties occurred, including the
+General's runner. Many new officers and men had joined since Ypres.
+Wiltshire took up the adjutantcy when Cuthbert left.
+
+Plans were afoot for a big demonstration to cover the surprise by
+English tanks at Havrincourt on November 20. A series of gas
+projections, smoke barrages, and raids were to take place. The better
+to maintain secrecy from the German 'listening-sets' no telephones
+were used. The Battalion bore its share in the programme; already at
+Arras plans for a novel raid were under contemplation. Cuthbert had
+devised a scheme, which Colonel Wetherall adopted and chose B Company,
+under Moberly, to carry out. The details of this raid, inasmuch as
+their novelty is of some historical interest, demand an explanation.
+
+Gas fired in shells was of two sorts, lethal and non-lethal. The
+former was a deadly poison. Unless taken in large quantities, the
+latter had no fatal, nor indeed serious, effects; designed to irritate
+the throat and eyes, it caused such sneezing and hiccoughing that
+whosoever breathed this sort of gas lost temporarily his self-control.
+Lethal and non-lethal gas were intermingled both by the Germans and
+ourselves with high explosive shells; the effect of each assisted the
+effect of the other. If one began to sneeze from the effect of
+non-lethal gas, one could not wear a gas-helmet to resist the lethal;
+the high-explosive shells disguised both types. Now it was planned by
+Wetherall to fire lethal gas against the enemy for several nights. On
+the night of the raid and during it, non-lethal only would be used.
+The two gases smelt alike and the presumption was that on the night of
+the raid the enemy would wear gas-helmets.
+
+[Illustration: IN A GERMAN GUN-PIT NEAR GAVRELLE]
+
+On the evening of November 17, only an hour before the raid was to
+take place, it was announced that the wrong type of shells had been
+delivered to the artillery. Barely in time to avert a fiasco, the
+affair was cancelled. Two nights afterwards, when the wind luckily was
+again from the right direction, the raid was carried out. The Germans,
+of whom some were found in gas-helmets, had no inkling of our plan. B
+Company, though they missed the gap through the enemy's wire, entered
+the trenches without opposition and captured a machine-gun which
+was pointing directly at their approach but never fired. Wallington,
+the officer in command of the storming party, killed several Germans.
+As often, there was difficulty in finding the way back to our lines;
+in fact, Moberly, the commander of the raid, after some wandering in
+No-Man's-Land, entered the trenches of a Scotch division upon our
+right. His appearance and comparative inability to speak their
+language made him a suspicious visitor to our kilted neighbours.
+Moberly rejoined his countrymen under escort.
+
+For a long time it seemed that no material results had been achieved
+in the raid. But the next morning Private Hatt, who for his exploit
+gained the D.C.M., crawled into our lines carrying the machine-gun
+which he had hugged all night between the German lines and ours. This
+raid took place the night preceding the great Cambrai offensive, and
+the success of Moberly and B Company formed part of the demonstration
+designed to attract enemy reserves away from the area of the operation
+mentioned.
+
+On the last day of November the Division was withdrawn from the Arras
+sector: its move to relieve some of the troops who had been severely
+handled by the enemy at Bourlon Wood seemed probable. Events occurred
+to change the destination. The Battalion, after two nights at Arras,
+entrained amid all symptoms of haste on the morning of November 30 and
+travelled without the transport to Bapaume. The noise of battle and
+excited staff-officers greeted its arrival. In the back area it was on
+everybody's lips that the enemy had broken through. Bapaume was being
+shelled, many officers had travelled unprepared for an early
+engagement with the enemy, and the General was not yet on the scene;
+the situation was as unexpected as it was exciting. At 3 p.m. we were
+placed in buses under Bicknell's directions and moved rapidly to
+Bertincourt, a village four kilometres west of Havrincourt Wood. The
+night of November 30/December 1 was spent in an open field. It was
+intensely cold. At 4 a.m. a flank march was made to Fins, where some
+empty huts were found. Enemy long range shells, aimed at the railway,
+kept falling in the village. Through Fins at 10 a.m. on December 1 the
+Guards marched forward to do their famous counter-attack on
+Gouzeaucourt; on the afternoon of the same day the Battalion moved up
+to Metz, whither Brigade Headquarters had already gone. During the
+night, which was frosty and moonlight, the Colonel led the Battalion
+across country to occupy a part of the Hindenburgh Line west of La
+Vacquerie. On the following morning the enemy delivered a heavy attack
+upon the village, from which, after severe losses in killed and
+prisoners, troops of the 182nd Brigade were driven back. To assist
+them C Company was detached from the Battalion. The trenches--our
+front was now the Hindenburg Line--were frozen, there was snow on the
+ground, and the temporary supremacy of the enemy in guns and sniping
+produced a toll of casualties. It was an anxious time, but the
+Battalion was involved in no actual fighting; the German
+counter-attack, for the time-being, was at an end.
+
+The 61st Division was left holding a line of snow-bound trenches
+between Gonnelieu and La Vacquerie, consisting of fragments both of
+the Hindenburg Line, the old German front line, and our own as it
+stood before the Cambrai battle opened. Except in the 184th Brigade
+the casualties suffered by the Division during the heavy German
+counter-attacks had been heavier than those at Ypres. The 2/4 Oxfords
+by luck had escaped a share in this fighting, and the Battalion's
+casualties during these critical events were few.
+
+The German counter-attack from Cambrai was an important step in the
+war's progress. At the time it was considered even more important than
+it was. Judged by the rapidity with which they were replaced, the loss
+of guns and stores by us was not of high moment; it mattered more that
+for the first time since the Second Battle of Ypres the enemy had driven
+back our lines several miles. A counter-surprise had been effected. On a
+small scale the panic of defeat was proved by its physical results
+upon the ground. The valley north-east of Gouzeaucourt was littered
+with all kinds of relics, which in trench warfare or in our attacks
+had been unknown. Whole camps had been sacked and their contents, in
+the shape of clothing, equipment and blankets, were strewn broadcast.
+Packets of socks and shirts showed where an English quartermaster's
+stores had been, and flapping canvas and dismantled shelters were
+evidence of a local _debacle_ to our side. The sight of derelict
+tractors, motor cars, and steam rollers, left in the sunken road at
+Gouzeaucourt, produced a sense of shock. A broad-gauge railway train,
+captured complete with trucks and locomotive and recovered in our
+counter-attack, bore witness to a victory seized but not secured. The
+battles of Ypres and Cambrai, 1917, though well-fought and not without
+results, robbed the British army for the time being of the initiative
+upon the Western Front. America became spoken of--1918, it was said,
+would be a defensive year. Yet the German success had in reality no
+effect upon our Infantry's morale. By the troops engaged in it Cambrai
+had been almost forgotten before Christmas. Less than a year
+afterwards the Germans had lost, not only Cambrai, but the war.
+
+The end of 1917 was as cold as its beginning. Snow and frost, destined
+to play utter havoc with the roads, laid their white mantle on the
+battlefield. Fighting had slackened when the Battalion went into the
+line in front of Gonnelieu. The trenches there ran oddly between
+derelict tanks, light railways, and dismantled huts; in No-Man's-Land
+lay several batteries of our guns.
+
+[Illustration: THE CANAL DU NORD AT YPRES]
+
+On December 7 the 183rd Brigade relieved the Battalion, which moved
+back to tents in Havrincourt Wood. It was bitter! Shells and aeroplane
+bombs made the wood dangerous as well as cold. On the 10th a further
+tour in the front line commenced This time trenches north-east of
+Villers Plouich were held. Wiring was strenuously carried out, but
+save for activity by trench-mortars the enemy lay quiet. The Battalion
+returned to Havrincourt Wood on December 15 and remained in its frozen
+tents until the Division was relieved by the 63rd. After one night at
+Lechelle the Battalion entrained at Ytres and moved back to Christmas
+rest-billets at Suzanne, near Bray.
+
+Huts, built by the French but vacated more than a year ago and now
+very dilapidated, formed the accommodation. In them Christmas dinners,
+to procure which Bennett had proceeded early from the line, were
+eaten. And O'Meara conducted the Brigade band.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE GREAT GERMAN ATTACK OF MARCH 21,
+
+JANUARY, FEBRUARY, MARCH, 1918.
+
+The French relieved on the St. Quentin front.--The calm before the
+storm.--A golden age.--The Warwick raid.--The German attack
+launched.--Defence of Enghien Redoubt.--Counter-attack by the
+Royal Berks.--Holnon Wood lost.--The battle for the Beauvoir line.
+--The enemy breaks through.
+
+
+The Battalion's mid-winter respite was brief. On New Year's Eve, 1917,
+the 2/4th Oxfords quitted the wretched Suzanne huts and marched
+through Harbonnieres to Caix. No 'march past' was necessary or would
+have been possible, for so slippery was the road that the men had to
+trail along its untrodden sides as best they could. Old 61st
+Divisional sign-boards left standing nearly a year ago greeted the
+return to an area which was familiar to many. The destination should
+have been Vauvillers, but the inhabitants of that village were
+stricken with measles. Better billets and freedom from infection
+compensated for a longer march. At Caix the Battalion was comfortable
+for a week.
+
+The Division's move from the Bray-Suzanne area to south of the Somme
+heralded a new relief of the French, whose line was now to be
+shortened by the amount on its left flank between St. Quentin and La
+Fere. About January 11 the Battalion found itself once more in Holnon
+Wood, where a large number of huts and dug-outs had been made by the
+French since last spring. The front line, now about to be held between
+Favet and Gricourt, was almost in its old position. The outpost line
+of nine months ago had crystallised into the usual trench system.
+Those courteous preliminaries, so much the feature of a French relief,
+were, on this re-introduction to scenes soon to become so famous--and
+so tragic--a little marred by an untimely German shell which wounded
+Weller, who had accompanied the Colonel to see the new line.
+
+Industrious calm succeeded the relief. Since the Russian break-up and
+the consequent liberation from the Eastern Front of fresh German
+legions, the British army had been on the defensive. A big effort by
+the enemy was expected, and when it came, the St. Quentin front was
+not unlikely to receive the brunt of his massed attack. The months of
+January and February and the first half of March were ominously quiet.
+Shelling was spasmodic. After the artillery activity of the last
+summer and autumn our guns seemed lazy. So quiet was it that Abraham
+used to ride up to the two small copses that lay behind our front.
+
+For the time being the 'offensive spirit' was in abeyance; our paramount
+task was the perfection of our defensive system. By this time in the
+war it was acknowledged that against attacks in weight no actual
+line could be held intact. Faith in 'lines' became qualified in favour
+of the series of 'strong points' or redoubts, which were constructed
+to defend 'tactical features.' This policy, founded on our experience
+of the German defence during the Third Battle of Ypres, was very
+sound. All the redoubts constructed in the area occupied by the 184th
+Brigade were so well sited and so strongly wired that the faith seemed
+justified that they were part of one impregnable system. But against
+loss of one important factor no amount of industry could serve to
+insure. 'Strong points' must act in concert and for such mutual action
+'on the day' good visibility was essential. As we shall see, this
+factor was denied. In rear of these redoubts, which lay along the
+ridge west of Fayet, a line known as the 'Battle Line' was fortified,
+and in rear again a trench was dug to mark the 'Army Line,' where the
+last stand would be made. These lines were strong, but more reliance
+was apt to be placed upon their mere existence on the ground than, in
+default of any co-existent scheme to fill them at a crisis with
+appropriate garrisons, was altogether justified.[10]
+
+                   [Footnote 10: For the _terrain_ referred to in this
+                   chapter see the maps ante pp. 83 and 95.]
+
+Early in the year the Bucks had been taken from the Brigade (now like
+all Infantry Brigades reduced to three Battalions) and went to Nesle
+to work as an entrenching Battalion. Many old friends, including
+especially Colonel 'Jock' Muir, had to be parted with. The three
+Battalions which remained were now arranged in 'depth,' a phrase
+explained by stating that while one, say the Berks, held the front
+line 'twixt Fayet and Gricourt, the Gloucesters as Support Battalion
+would be in Holnon Wood and ourselves, the Oxfords, in reserve and
+back at Ugny. When a relief took place the Gloucesters went to the
+front line, ourselves to Holnon, and the Berks back to Ugny. The
+Battalion holding the line was similarly disposed in 'depth,' for its
+headquarters and one company were placed more than a mile behind the
+actual front.
+
+After the January frost and snow had gone, a period of fine, clement
+weather set in. This, in a military sense, was a golden age. Boxing,
+thanks to encouragement from the Colonel and Brown and under the
+practical doctrine of 'Benny' Thomas, the Battalion pugilist,
+flourished as never before. Each tour some officers, instead of going
+to the line, were sent to worship at the shrine of Maxse. The
+Battalion reached the zenith of its efficiency. Early in March some
+reinforcements from the 6th Oxfords, who had been disbanded, arrived;
+they numbered two hundred. Among the new officers who joined were
+Foreshew, Rowbotham, and Cunningham. Foreshew received command of C
+Company, whose commander Matthews went to England for a six months'
+rest. To Hobbs also, our worthy quartermaster, it was necessary to bid
+a reluctant farewell. His successor, Murray, a very able officer from
+the 4th Gloucesters, arrived in time to check the table of stores
+before the opening of the great offensive.
+
+On the night of 18/19 March the Battalion went into the front line. C
+Company was on the right, in front of Fayet; B Company, under the
+command of Wallington, was on the left, just south of Gricourt. A went
+to Fayet itself and D Company, commanded in Robinson's absence by
+Rowbotham, provided the garrison of Enghien Redoubt, which was a
+quarry near Selency Chateau; Battalion Headquarters also were at this
+redoubt. During the night of March 20 a raid on the Battalion's right
+was carried out near Cepy Farm by the 182nd Brigade. It was successful.
+German prisoners from three divisions corroborated our suspicion that
+the great enemy offensive was about to be launched. From headquarters
+to headquarters throbbed the order to man battle stations. Ere dawn
+was due to lighten the sky a dense mist shrouded everything and added
+a fresh factor to the suspense.
+
+Early on March 21, only a short time after the Colonel had returned
+from visiting the front line posts, the ground shook to a mighty
+bombardment. At Amiens windows rattled in their frames. Trench mortars
+of all calibres and field guns, brought to closest range in the mist
+and darkness, began to pound a pathway through our wire. Back in
+artillery dug-outs the light of matches showed the time; it was 4.50
+a.m. The hour had struck. Our guns, whose programme in reply was the
+fruit of two months' preparation, made a peculiar echo as their shells
+crackled through the mist. Some 'silent' guns[11] fired for the first
+time.
+
+                   [Footnote 11: Defensive artillery, whose inactivity
+                   prior to the German attack was intended to ensure
+                   against discovery by enemy sound-rangers and
+                   observers.]
+
+On all headquarters, roads, redoubts, and observation posts the
+enemy's howitzer shells were falling with descending swoop, and battery
+positions were drenched with gas.
+
+In the back area the fire of long-range guns was brought with uncanny
+accuracy to bear against our rest billets, transport lines, and dumps.
+Cross-roads, bridges, and all vital spots in our communications, though
+never previously shelled, were receiving direct hits within a short
+time of the opening of the bombardment. The Berks had casualties at
+Ugny. Some English heavy batteries, recent arrivals on the front and
+seemingly undiscovered by the enemy, were now knocked out almost as
+soon as they had opened fire. The Artillery level crossing was hit by
+an early shell which blocked the road there with a huge crater. Never
+in the war had the Germans flung their shells so far or furiously as
+now.
+
+By daylight all front line wire had been destroyed, and our trenches
+everywhere were much damaged. The mist hung thick, but the Germans did
+not yet attack. About 9.30 a.m. the barrage was felt to lift westwards
+from Fayet and the fitful clatter of Lewis guns, firing in short bursts
+with sometimes a long one exhausting a 'drum,' was heard. In the front
+line showers of stick bombs announced the enemy's presence. Everywhere
+it seemed that quick-moving bodies in grey uniforms were closing in
+from either flank and were behind. In the mist our posts were soon
+over-run. Few of our men were left to rally at the 'keeps.' A messenger
+to A Company's platoons, which had been stationed in support at the
+famous 'Sunken Road,' found that place filled with Germans. Before
+noon the enemy had passed Fayet and his patrols had reached Selency
+and the Cottages.
+
+At Enghien Redoubt Battalion Headquarters had received no news of the
+attack having begun; the dense mist limited the view to fifty yards.
+The earliest intimation received by Colonel Wetherall of what was
+taking place was enemy rifle and machine-gun fire sweeping the
+parapet. At one corner of the redoubt some of the enemy broke in but
+were driven out by D Company with the bayonet. Outside Headquarters
+the first three men to put their heads over were killed by Germans,
+who had crept close along the sunken road which leads from Favet to
+Selency Chateau. The rifles and machine guns of the garrison opened up
+and gained superiority. The defence, destined to last for many hours,
+of Enghien Redoubt proved an important check to the enemy's advance
+and helped to save many of our guns.
+
+At 12 noon, after several patrols had failed to find out whether the
+enemy had captured Holnon, the Colonel himself went out to see all that
+was happening. He did not return, and shortly afterwards Headquarters
+were surrounded by the enemy, who had made ground on either flank.
+Nevertheless till 4.30 p.m. Cunningham, the officer left in command,
+held out most manfully. Of all the companies, Jones and less than
+fifty men had escaped capture. They reached the 'Battle Line' of
+trenches east of Holnon Wood, and there joined the Gloucesters, who
+had not yet been engaged in the fighting. The enemy, having captured
+Maissemy, Fayet, and Holnon, paused to reorganise as evening fell.
+
+Towards evening on the 21st the Berks, who were in reserve when the
+attack started, were sent to counter-attack against Maissemy, which
+had been lost by the division on our left. Near the windmill, which
+stands on the high ground west of the village, Dimmer, the Berks V.C.
+Colonel, was killed leading his men on horseback. This local attempt
+to stem the German onslaught proved of no avail. At 10.30 a.m. on
+March 22 the enemy, whose movements were again covered by mist,
+pressed the attack against the Battle Line. Almost before the
+Gloucesters knew they were attacked in front, they found themselves
+beset in flanks and rear.
+
+At noon the enemy from its north side had penetrated Holnon Wood.
+Gloucesters and Oxfords fell back to join the garrison of the Beauvoir
+Line, all parts of which were heavily engaged by evening. A gallant
+resistance, in which the Gloucesters under Colonel Lawson were
+specially distinguished, was made by the 184th Infantry Brigade. The
+General encouraged the defence in person. But the line was too weakly
+manned long to withstand the enemy; though parts of it held till after
+8 p.m. on March 22, before midnight the whole of this last Army Line
+had been lost. The enemy had 'broken through.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE BRITISH RETREAT,
+
+MARCH, 1918.
+
+Rear-guard actions.--The Somme crossings.--Bennett relieved by the
+20th Division at Voyennes.--Davenport with mixed troops ordered to
+counter-attack at Ham.--Davenport killed.--The enemy crosses the
+Somme.--The stand by the 184th Infantry Brigade at Nesle.--Colonel
+Wetherall wounded.--Counter-attack against La Motte.--Bennett
+captured.--The Battalion's sacrifice in the great battle.
+
+
+After the battle for the Beauvoir Line the 184th Infantry Brigade was
+ordered back to Nesle. At Languevoisin on March 23 we find the relics
+of the 2/4th Oxfords under the command of Major Bennett, who with a
+force including other members of the Battalion had been providing
+rear-guards at the crossings of the Somme. What force was this? To
+understand the story it is necessary to go back a little and see what
+had been happening behind the line since March 21.
+
+When the attack was known to have commenced, all transport,
+quartermasters' stores, and men left out of the line were ordered back
+to Ugny, where Bennett as senior Major present formed all our divisional
+details into a composite Battalion some 900 strong. Early on March 22
+Colonel Wetherall, limping and tired, arrived. He bore the tale of
+his adventure. During the 21st we saw him disappear from Enghien
+Redoubt to go on a reconnaissance. Near Holnon he was surrounded by an
+enemy patrol and led a prisoner towards St. Quentin; but when the fire
+of 6-inch howitzers scared his escort into shell-holes, the Colonel
+escaped, and the same night, choosing his opportunity to slip between
+the German digging parties, contrived to reach our lines.
+
+As March 22 lengthened out, the tide of battle rolled nearer and
+nearer towards Ugny, above which air fighting at only a few hundred
+feet from the ground was taking place. At 7 p.m. Bennett had orders to
+move his men westwards across the Somme. Soon afterwards a runner came
+post-haste. He told of the fighting on the Beauvoir line; the intrepid
+General had been wounded in the head while with his shrapnel helmet in
+his hand he waved encouragement to his men. Colonel Wetherall had
+already started on the way to Languevoisin but was caught up at
+Matigny. He the same night (22nd) regained the Beauvoir line and took
+command of the Brigade. As we have seen, he moved back with the
+Brigade on the next day.
+
+Further developments soon diverted Bennett's force, whose fortunes we
+are following. At Matigny he was ordered by the Major-General with
+half his force to guard the Offoy bridgehead and with the other half
+to hold Voyennes. The Offoy garrison was despatched under Moberly, who
+was commanding the details of the 184th Brigade, including a hundred
+Oxfords. Moberly's force comprised many administrative personnel.
+'What your men lack in numbers they must make up in courage,' was the
+Major-General's encouragement.
+
+But the men were not at once put to the test. The 20th Division, which
+was covering the retreat across the Somme, relieved the Offoy
+rear-guard, of which Davenport had now assumed command, early in the
+morning of March 23, and Bennett was likewise relieved in his duties
+at Voyennes, where the bridge was blown up. Though the Offoy
+bridgehead had been taken over by the 20th Division, Davenport's
+troops were kept in support along the railway embankment at Hombleux,
+for it was feared that the enemy had already commenced to cross the
+Somme at Ham. During the morning of the 23rd Davenport received
+peremptory orders to make a counter-attack against the town with the
+object of regaining possession of its bridgehead. Considerable success
+resulted; Verlaines was cleared of the enemy's patrols, and the
+advance reached the ridge east of that village.
+
+[Illustration: THE RETREAT BEHIND THE SOMME.
+Sketch map illustrating the rear-guard actions of 184 INF BDE
+between HAM and NESLE on March 24 and 25 1918]
+
+With fresh troops acting on a concerted plan something might have been
+accomplished. Davenport's men were a disorganised mixture of many
+battalions, including, besides the Oxfords and other representatives
+of the 184th Brigade, a number of Cornwalls and King's Liverpools.
+They were unfed, and the demoralisation of the retreat was beginning
+to do its work. As always on these occasions, when officers of
+different services were thrown together, divided counsels were the
+result. Moberly, an officer who could have been relied upon to make
+the best of the situation, was wounded in the leg during a moonlight
+reconnaissance with Davenport.
+
+By March 24 the position was unaltered; the troops were still lining
+the ridge east of Verlaines and awaited the enemy's next move with
+their field of fire in many cases masked by, or masking, that of their
+comrades. Against this type of defence the enemy's tactics did not
+require to be as infallible as they perhaps seemed. Our pity is drawn
+to these English troops, disorganised, without their own proper
+commanders, unsupplied with rations--the stop-gaps thrust forward in
+the last stages of a retreat.
+
+At 9 a.m. the enemy, whose patrols had during the night of March 23/24
+been feeling their way up the slopes from the Somme Canal, commenced
+to press forward in earnest. The mixed troops, who were lining the
+ridge, had been 'down' too long to offer much resistance. They melted
+away, as leaderless troops will. Davenport, a gallant officer who to
+the very last never spared himself, was killed, shot through the head
+at Verlaines. The enemy, whose advanced artillery was already in
+action from behind Ham, had secured Esmery Hallon by the evening.
+Nesle was threatened.
+
+[Illustration: LIEUT.-COL. H. E. de R. WETHERALL. D.S.O., M.C.]
+
+On the same day of which I was last speaking--March 24--the 184th
+Brigade, minus those Oxfords who were in action with the 20th
+Division, though sadly wasted in numbers, formed up again to make a
+stand. Colonel Wetherall, the acting Brigadier, had received orders to
+hold the line of the Canal east and south east of Nesle. On the left
+of this line stood the Oxfords under Bennett, 200 Berks under Willink
+were in the centre, while the Gloucesters, about 120 strong under
+Colonel Lawson, guarded the right. At 11 a.m. on March 25 the enemy
+attacked. As often during these days, when a line was held solidly in
+one place, it broke elsewhere. By noon the enemy had captured Nesle,
+and the left flank of the Brigade was turned. During the fight Colonel
+Wetherall was wounded in the neck by a piece of shell and owed his
+life to the Brigade Major, Howitt, who held the arteries.
+
+The line was driven back to Billancourt and the same night (25th) the
+remnants of the XVIII Corps withdrew in darkness to Roye, a town where
+our hospitals were still at work, evacuating as fast as possible the
+streams of wounded from the battle. One of the last patients to leave
+by train was Wetherall, who at this crisis passed under the care of
+Stobie, the Oxfords' old M.O.
+
+On March 26 we see the 184th Brigade held in reserve near Mezieres, to
+be suddenly moved at midnight of March 27/28 by lorries. The lorries
+made towards Amiens, and it appeared that the battered relics of the
+Brigade were being withdrawn. The belief was disappointed. At Villers
+Bretonneux Bennett received orders from a staff officer to go to
+Marcelcave, where the 61st Division was being concentrated for a
+counter-attack at dawn against the village of La Motte. In the darkness
+the route was missed and the convoy drove straight into our front
+line. Marcelcave was reached eventually, but so late that a dawn
+attack was impossible. At 10 a.m. on March 28 the forlorn enterprise,
+in which the 183rd Brigade, the Gloucesters, and the Berks shared,
+was launched from the station yard. The troops were footsore, sleepless,
+and unfed. They were mostly men from regimental employ--pioneers,
+clerks, storemen--to send whom forward across strange country to drive
+the enemy from the village he had seized on the important Amiens-St.
+Quentin road was a mockery. Such efforts at counter-attack resulted in
+more and more ground being lost. Still, the men staggered forward
+bravely, to come almost at once under fierce enfilade machine-gun
+fire. The losses were heavy. Craddock, a young officer now serving
+under Bennett, moved about among the men, encouraging them by his
+example of coolness and gallantry.
+
+When 350 yards short of La Motte the advance was driven to take cover.
+It was useless to press on; in fact, already there was real danger of
+being surrounded. Bennett, whose leadership throughout was excellent,
+with difficulty extricated his men by doubling them in two's across
+the open. Towards evening those that got back were placed in trenches
+outside Marcelcave.
+
+By now that village was being severely shelled and bombed, and in
+danger of becoming surrounded by the enemy. Soon after dark it was
+attacked in earnest. Bennett stayed too long in Marcelcave attempting
+to get news of the situation and some orders. Brigade Headquarters had
+in fact already left, before Bennett, instead of returning to his
+former headquarters, decided to join his men in the trenches before
+the village. Those trenches were no longer being fought for. Near the
+railway bridge he ran straight into the enemy as they swarmed towards
+the village and was captured. The remains of the Battalion were driven
+back on Villers Bretonneux, the contents of which village had to make
+up for absent rations. Robinson, who had returned from leave in time
+to take part in the La Motte affair, assumed command. The Australians
+were at hand; fresh troops arrived to relieve those worn out by a
+week's continuous fighting. After four days at Gentelles all that were
+left of the 2/4th Oxfords, together with the other fragments of the
+61st Division, were withdrawn for rest and reorganisation west of
+Amiens.
+
+A Battalion is too small for its historian to enter into any
+controversy upon the measures taken for the defence of the St. Quentin
+front. Whatever else the Oxfords could have done would have had no
+effect upon the main issues of this great attack. But for the mist the
+German onslaught, delivered in the preponderance of four to one, would
+hardly have achieved the same historical result. The Battalion had
+stood in the forefront of the greatest battle of the war. Accounts,
+already growing legendary, tell how our men acquitted themselves that
+day. Some posts fought on till all were killed or wounded. There were
+few stragglers. Of B Company, only one man returned from the front
+line. It is said of A Company that, when surrounded by the enemy,
+Brown formed the men into a circle, back to back, and fought without
+surrender.
+
+The monument which stands above Fayet is happily placed. It is inscribed
+to the sons of France who fell in action nearly fifty years ago. On
+March 21, 1918, it was enriched by its association with a later
+sacrifice. The credit won in this lost battle gives to the 2/4th
+Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry a share of honour in the war equal to
+that which has been earned by our most successful troops in the
+advance.
+
+The loss in all ranks had been so heavy that the killed and missing
+could only be computed by counting over those few that remained.
+Bennett and all four company commanders in the line were missing. The
+Colonel and Moberly had been sent to England wounded. Jones was the
+only officer from the front line who remained safe. Cairns, the
+Sergeant-Major of A Company, had come through and earned distinction.
+The loss in Lewis gunners, signallers, and runners had been especially
+heavy. Douglas, the Regimental Sergeant-Major, after most valuable
+work in the Battalion, had been killed. Transport and stores, for
+extricating which credit was due to Abraham and Murray, alone came out
+complete.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE BATTLE OF THE LYS,
+
+APRIL-MAY, 1918.
+
+Effects of the German offensive.--The Battalion amalgamated with the
+Bucks.--Entrainment for the Merville area.--A dramatic journey.--
+The enemy break-through on the Lys.--The Battalion marches into
+action.--The defence of Robecq.--Operations of April 12, 13, 14.
+--The fight for Baquerolle Farm.--A troublesome flank.--Billeted
+in St. Venant.--The lunatic asylum.--La Pierriere.--The Robecq
+sector.
+
+
+The closing phases of the war are so comparatively fresh and vividly
+remembered that a less close description need be attempted of them
+than of more early periods. I feel that justice cannot easily be done
+to the events of last year, events which in dramatic force eclipsed
+any since the Battle of the Marne. Of 1918, moreover, the facts have
+not yet had time to drop into that relief which a historian prefers
+before reducing them to chronicle. It is unlikely that, in years
+hence, when the full history of the war is written, the German
+offensive of 1918 will not be taken as the turning point in the great
+conflict. For the second time since the invasion of Belgium and for
+the first since conscription, readers of the _Times_ saw a black line
+sagging across the map towards the English Channel. In France at the
+end of March conditions meriting the popular description of 'wind up'
+were recognisable. Bases were crowded to overflowing. Train services
+were seriously deranged by the German approach to Amiens. The traffic
+upon the main roads in the Somme valley was an eloquent intermingling
+of troops, guns, and civilians evacuating as much of their property as
+possible upon wagons and carts, which were piled high with children,
+tables, utensils, bedsteads, farm implements, and always mattresses.
+The shelling of Amiens Cathedral and the long gun which played on
+Paris were signs of the destructive ascendancy of the enemy. Our
+railways, which depended on a few junctions now placed none too far
+behind the line, were attacked vigorously by the enemy in the hope of
+their disorganisation. St. Pol station was shelled to ruins;
+Hazebrouck, Chocques, and Doullens were nightly targets for German
+bombs. Already at Tinques and Achiet the R.T.O.s had been killed. (We
+had done the same and more to the Germans for two years). Our
+railwaymen and engine drivers showed staunch devotion to duty and were
+as much responsible as any branch of the service for keeping our
+armies fighting during the critical months of the spring and early
+summer.
+
+To Avesne, a remote village behind Amiens, the 2/4th Oxfords were
+withdrawn early in April for completion with new drafts and for
+refitting. An amalgamation--which was a great advantage to both
+units--of the Battalion with the Bucks now took place. As the 25th
+Entrenching Battalion the Bucks had been engaged in the fighting round
+Nesle, when they became attached to a Brigade of the 20th Division.
+They were now most anxious to be sent to join us or at all events to
+rejoin the 61st Division. Unable to obtain the orders they desired,
+the Bucks availed themselves of the prevailing confusion to march away
+'without authority' and were already at Avesne when the Oxfords
+arrived.
+
+The addition of some 300 N.C.O.s and men, with whom came such valued
+officers as Clutsom, Buttfield, Kemp, Lodge, Boase, Kirk, and several
+others, acted as an infusion of new blood and vigour into the
+Battalion which had given nearly all of its best in the St. Quentin
+fighting. As the senior officer now present, I was placed in command
+of the Battalion after the amalgamation, for which no more suitable
+surroundings could have been found than Avesne, whose chateau and
+grounds we had to ourselves. On April 7, before the regimental tailors
+had half finished substituting the red circles for the black ones
+previously carried by the Bucks, a large draft of 431 men joined the
+Battalion from England. Many of these were boys, but among them stood
+a few veteran soldiers who had been out before and been wounded. With
+this draft, which I believe was posted without the knowledge that the
+Bucks had joined us, the Battalion reached the strength of over 1,000
+men. It was a goodly force, unhampered by passengers. With Abraham,
+Murray, and Regimental Sergeant-Major Hedley (from the Bucks) those
+departments of the Battalion not purely tactical were sure to be well
+managed. I felt quite confident in the command of this force of men,
+and General Pagan, the new Brigadier, was kind enough to express his
+confidence in my ability.
+
+Our billets at Avesne--the entire Battalion was accommodated in the
+buildings of a large chateau from which some army school had been
+precipitated by the German advance--were too good for much hope to be
+entertained of a long stay in them. The unified command from now
+onwards brought more rapid moves than formerly had been the custom.
+Thus at a few hours' notice 'billeting parties' were ordered, not back
+towards Amiens, but to Merville and St. Venant. The 61st was to become
+a Division in G.H.Q. reserve behind the old Laventie sector. But
+before Battalions could follow their representatives and while the
+billeting was still in progress the Germans attacked and broke through
+on the Lys, south of Armentieres. We marched, however, from Avesne on
+April 11 in happy ignorance of this new battle. Not till Hangest, and
+there by means of a Continental _Daily Mail_, was the changed prospect
+of our destination revealed. The Hangest R.T.O. was half beside
+himself with excitement and delay. There were several hours to spend
+in waiting, and during this time the kits were retrieved from the
+station yard and a prudent change was made from soft hats into
+shrapnel helmets and fighting equipment. After a rapid entrainment we
+at last pulled out at about 2 p.m. So strong was the Battalion that D
+Company, which itself numbered over 200, was unable to travel with us
+and had to follow by a later train. In its early stages the journey,
+though similar to most of the kind, produced one formidable incident,
+for at the top of the steep gradient between Candas and Doullens the
+train snapped in half; its hind portion was left poised in a cutting
+for an hour, until two locomotives arrived to push it on to Doullens,
+whither the forward half, in gay ignorance, had run.
+
+The night was overcast, a fact which doubtless saved us from the
+attention of enemy aeroplanes. The journey from St. Pol through
+Chocques and Lillers to Steenbecque is stamped on the memory by its
+more than many halts, the occasional glare of mines and munition
+factories which, in anticipation of another break-through, seemed to
+be working at tensest pressure to evacuate coal and manufactured
+stores from capture by the enemy; by the loud booming of artillery, to
+which the train seemed to draw specially near at Chocques and
+Isbergues; and the final sudden grinding of the brakes at Steenbecque,
+distracted railwaymen, and the small hut in which Bennett and the
+Brigade Staff were exhibiting a mixture of excitement, impatience and
+a sort of reckless familiarity with this apparent repetition of the
+Somme retreat. At Steenbecque station, which is three miles short of
+Hazebrouck and hidden behind the Nieppe Forest, we received the latest
+news of the battle into which we were being so dramatically plunged:
+the enemy had broken through the feeble resistance of the Portuguese
+and was outside Merville. My orders were to take up a line, which was
+at present covered by the 51st Division, between Robecq and Calonne
+and for that object to detrain and move forward immediately. The
+station yard was ill-suited to a rapid detrainment, there being few
+ramps or sidings, and despite the impatience of Bennett, a Divisional
+Staff Officer, who was most anxious to get finished before dawn, we
+were kept seated in the train for nearly two hours. This delay was
+really most valuable, for it enabled me to appreciate the situation
+and issue detailed orders, which otherwise it would never have been
+possible to give.
+
+As the dawn of April 12, 1918, was breaking, we set foot to the long
+pave road which runs through the Nieppe Forest to St. Venant, followed
+by the transport and the cookers, from which at the cost of never so
+much delay I felt determined to give the men, who had had no proper
+meal for twenty-four hours, a good square feed before becoming
+involved in the uncertain and possibly rationless conflict which lay
+before us in country that was likely to have been looted by the
+retreating Portuguese. Nevertheless, during this breakfast, taken at
+the eastern edge of the great Forest of Nieppe, feverish messages
+arrived, which said that the enemy was in Robecq and already crossing
+the La Bassee Canal. This, of course, was not true, but troops who are
+moving up towards an advancing enemy, though met by exaggerated and
+conflicting reports of the hostile progress, are almost confined,
+until actual encounter occurs, to this species of information. By now
+Corps Headquarters, after a three years' sojourn at Hinges, had
+commenced to scour the country west of Aire for a suitably remote
+chateau. Except for Howitt there was no staff officer upon the spot,
+and we found after passing St. Venant towards Robecq that it was every
+man for himself in the task of stemming the German attack. Parts of
+the Division, notably the 5th D.C.L.I. and the 2/6th Warwicks, which
+had been detrained earlier than ourselves to join in the battle, had
+been roughly handled in fighting south of Merville during the night of
+April 11/12. The 51st Division was to all intents out of action, and
+there was a gap of more than a mile between Robecq and Calonne on the
+morning of April 12. Into, but not through, this gap German patrols
+had penetrated, and at Carvin had crossed the streams Noc and
+Clarence. As a matter of fact these enemy were but the flankers of an
+advanced guard, whose objective at this time lay in the direction of
+Haverskerque. Thus it befell that the Battalion came into no direct
+conflict with the main enemy forces on April 12.
+
+[Illustration: BIRD'S-EYE MAP OF THE ROBECQ AREA]
+
+Still the situation at 9 a.m. was both obscure and difficult. Until
+their ammunition seemed to be expended, our artillery, which had
+withdrawn behind the La Bassee Canal, kept up a fire upon the open
+ground between Les Amusoires, where the Battalion was concentrating,
+and the Calonne road, which it was necessary for us to cross.
+Doubtless this untoward shelling was due to the reports spread by
+stragglers, of whom there was a considerable number from different
+units. Shortly after this occurrence I had the good fortune to meet a
+gunner subaltern, and for the next few days, pending a reinforcement
+of the artillery, what guns there were gave us excellent support. A
+greater menace came from the long dumps of our shells north of Robecq
+cemetery, to which some irresponsible person had set fire. An acre
+of explosives was ablaze, barring progress across a wide area. Later a
+fusillade of small-arms ammunition broke out near St. Venant station,
+suggestive of fighting in our rear. There also it had been the final
+errand of some dump-keeper, in a fancied performance of duty, to
+destroy ammunition of which there was a crying need. Subsequently St.
+Venant was quite heavily bombed by our own aircraft--an example of
+what could happen during the time that our higher organisation was out
+of gear.
+
+The appearance of the Battalion, which could easily have passed for a
+Brigade of Infantry as it issued, about 10 a.m., from among the trees
+of Les Amusoires, may have been a moral factor in itself sufficient to
+indispose the German outposts to remain longer upon the outskirts of
+Robecq. From my former knowledge of the ground I decided to use no
+delay in occupying the network of orchards and as many of the farms as
+possible along the Calonne road before hostile opposition increased.
+After sharp fighting and some 30 casualties, mostly in C Company,
+which was on the left, a line was reached beyond Noc river, between
+Robecq and Calonne. On the right we linked up with the Berks (who
+placed their headquarters in the estaminet at Robecq cross-roads) and
+on the left with the 2/7th Warwicks, whose line bent back at a right
+angle across the Calonne road towards La Haye. During the afternoon
+fighting for the possession of Baquerolle Farm and its adjacent
+orchards engaged the Battalion's left flank. In this fighting Lodge, a
+young officer to whom command of C Company had fallen in consequence
+of a wound to Captain Buttfield, and also Boase much distinguished
+themselves. To them and to the N.C.O.s of C Company, and also to the
+conduct of the new draft, was owing the success of the day's
+operations. By 3 p.m. not only had the Battalion accomplished the task
+assigned to it twenty-four hours previously, when the extent of the
+German advance was unknown, but ground was being made and the enemy
+was being driven backward upon Calonne. Robecq was guaranteed.
+
+All day very severe fighting was in progress a mile to our left.
+Merville and Calonne were almost blotted out in smoke, and the air was
+thronged with aeroplanes. The heap of shells behind us still burned.
+By now the clouds which rose from this bonfire had become such a pall
+in the sky that the German balloons--the enemy was expert in moving
+forward this machinery of observation--could see nothing of the
+surrounding country. The Robecq district was remarkable for its
+well-stocked farms, and with the general flight of the civilians large
+numbers of unmilked cows, geese, goats, hens, and all manner of
+farmyard creatures commenced to stray across the fields and down the
+roads. Battalion Headquarters, which were ultimately established at a
+large farmhouse in Les Amusoires, as dusk approached, seemed to become
+the rendez-vous for lowing cattle, hens, pigs, goats, and small armies
+of geese, to manage all of which a certain number of cowherds and
+farm-hands had to be detailed. Nor was it only at Battalion
+Headquarters that these movable larders were in the process of
+congregation.
+
+At nightfall, when the companies--D Company had rejoined during'
+the afternoon--were settled into a secure outpost position and the
+Brigadier (General Pagan) had visited and approved the dispositions,
+an order from Corps was received to retreat a mile and to dig trenches
+across the open, hedgeless fields which stretched between Robecq and
+St. Venant. The whole of the Calonne road was to be abandoned. It was
+difficult to account for such a policy, which meant, not only the
+relinquishment of two bridge-heads of some importance and numerous
+farms and orchards which had been carried at expense and since
+garrisoned to good purpose, but the adoption instead of a position in
+rear, which was condemned with every tactical disadvantage and in
+which it would be impossible to remain once the enemy had secured
+possession of the ground we were now ordered to give up. I am happy to
+say that these orders, which can only have emanated from some staff
+inadequately informed upon the situation, were cancelled during the
+night and before the Battalion had acted on them. The fact is, I
+expressly remained in the forward position until at least rations had
+been delivered to the men, and by the time that had been done the
+staff pendulum had swung again. The salient of Baquerolle Farm, which
+it had cost valuable lives to reach, was retained.
+
+On the morning of April 13 the enemy, under cover of a dense mist,
+which allowed his use of close-range artillery, attacked St. Floris,
+in front of which the Gloucesters were stationed. A demonstration
+against the Battalion accompanied, and in the mist it was uncertain
+whether an enemy attack on Robecq were not developing. The attack
+died down without the Germans having penetrated the Gloucesters, who
+put up a stout defence. Our line elsewhere was firm.
+
+On the next day it was decided to use an opportunity to improve the
+position of our outpost line by occupying a group of cottages which
+lay in front. A platoon of A Company practically reached the nearest
+cottages without a sign of hostile opposition being shown. The fate of
+this little operation was the fruit of my miscalculation of the
+enemy's strength. The Germans knew better than ourselves how to sit
+still behind their machine-guns and avoid discovery. French civilians
+were moving about among the cottages at the time when our advance to
+occupy them was made and it seemed impossible that the enemy could be
+holding them even weakly. Civilians, too, were mingled in the fray as
+well on this as on later occasions. After trench-warfare days there
+was an incongruity in some episodes, which was not devoid of humour.
+One old Frenchman, at an hour when his farm was actually being fought
+over, arrived at Company Headquarters with a special passport to feed
+his beasts; and the tenacity of an old woman in clinging to her
+household goods terminated in her discovery, at the time of an attack,
+in a shell-hole in No-Man's-Land, where she was sheltering from the
+machine-gun barrage under a large umbrella (one felt that she at least
+deserved a copy of the operation orders!) During the ensuing weeks
+visits by French civilians to the front line became such that almost
+as many sentries were required to watch or restrain their movements
+as were needed against the enemy.
+
+[Illustration: ROBECQ OLD MILL & BRIDGE]
+
+A more serious attack, in which the 4th Division upon our right was
+intended to co-operate, was made by B Company at 7.30 p.m. on April 15
+against the same cottages, which formed part of the hamlet called La
+Pierre au Beurre. Our bombardment in support of this attack was almost
+due to start, when an urgent message from the line announced that
+large forces of the enemy were massing opposite our front. To have
+called for S.O.S. fire by the artillery would totally have upset the
+programme of attack, and one could only hope that our zero would be
+the earlier. Luck was in our favour. Whatever else happened that
+night, it is certain that the enemy received a severe shelling from
+our guns.
+
+The attack, carried out by B Company under Stanley, with D in support,
+was quite successful in its plan but not in its result. From a cause
+such as every series of complicated operations in open warfare
+threatened to introduce, the troops of the 4th Division on our right
+failed to co-operate as we expected. O'Meara, whom Stanley had placed
+in charge of his leading troops, after securing the cottages named as
+his objective, found himself attacked by the enemy from the very
+direction whence he had counted on assistance. After ineffectual
+attempts by our 'liaison' officer, Kirk, to get our neighbours to do
+their share, B Company had to be withdrawn to their original position.
+The 4th Division at this time were the flank division of one corps
+while we were of another. To reach the Battalion acting on our right
+a notice of our plan had to climb up through our Brigade, Division,
+and Corps to Army and down again as many steps the other side. A
+staff-officer from Army or from Corps should have been on the spot.
+
+Coucher and Kemp, two capital officers, were killed during the evening
+when this attack took place. Our other casualties were Killed, 2;
+Wounded, 18; Missing, 1.
+
+Throughout April 13 and for several days afterwards desultory
+fighting, in which our trench-mortars under Miller performed good
+service, was maintained for the possession of Baquerolle Farm and
+another lying 150 yards south of it and christened Boase's Farm. Both
+remained in our hands. With the troops on our left flank there was
+some difficulty. Their line bent back awkwardly, and when the enemy
+shelled the houses on the Calonne road, where their right flank
+rested, they showed signs of withdrawing and leaving our C Company 'in
+the air.' The Germans quickly benefited by this irresolution, for they
+commenced to push forward from house to house along the Calonne road,
+until Baquerolle Farm was in danger of being taken in its rear. The
+prompt determination of Lodge, the officer I have already mentioned as
+commanding C Company, served to avert critical consequences. He
+delivered a local counter-attack, capturing a machine-gun and killing
+several of the enemy. Our neighbours thus reoccupied their former
+positions, but were warned in Divisional Orders not to give up any
+more of the Robecq-Calonne road. This incident, which rightly
+earned for 'Tommy' Lodge a Military Cross, had a vexatious sequel a
+few days later. In quoting where the left flank of the Battalion in
+fact rested I made a slip in the co-ordinates of its map reference. By
+that mistake I was trapped, when it appeared as black and white in
+relief orders, into having to hand over 100 yards of extra frontage,
+and had the mortification of causing several hours of troublesome
+delay to the front line, besides innocently saddling my successors
+with responsibility that was not honestly theirs to receive.
+
+By April 16 the tactical situation was already stable. On that
+night--in reality during the early hours of April 17--the Battalion
+was relieved almost in the ordinary way by the Gloucesters, who came
+forward from the luxury of St. Venant and took over the line between
+Carvin and Baquerolle. St. Venant had been Portuguese G.H.Q. but was
+so no longer. It was by now receiving plenty of 5.9s and was rapidly
+losing the character of the quiet, well-to-do little town in which
+part of the Division was to have been billeted when it left the Amiens
+district. Still, for the time being, what St. Venant received in
+shells it paid for in choice vintages and fine houses. The Germans
+were not the only people to taste a glass of French wine during the
+Great War. About this time Colonel Boyle, who had commanded the 6th
+Oxfords until their disbandment, arrived to assume command of the
+Battalion. He remained till Wetherall, whose wound had taken him to
+England, returned.
+
+For the rest of April and during May the Battalion continued to do
+tours in the Robecq sector, which, owing to its proximity to Givenchy
+and Bethune, was never quiet so long as the enemy was planning to
+attack those places. An alteration of the front was brought about on
+April 23, when the Gloucesters under Colonel Lawson advanced in
+co-operation with the 4th Division and captured Riez du Vintage and La
+Pierre au Beurre. Of this victory some spoils fell to the Battalion,
+which was holding the front line. Company Sergeant-Major Moss, of D
+Company, who went out to reconnoitre two hours after the attack had
+taken place, brought in forty-five prisoners, and during the following
+night half-a-dozen machine-guns were collected by the company.
+
+German shelling at this time was often heavy. The tracks across the
+open up to the front line were rendered specially unpleasant by the
+pernicious '106' fuzes, with which the enemy's artillery was well
+supplied. From Robecq, which was steadily being shelled to ruins and
+through which one passed with reluctance, a disinterested salvage
+party, consisting of Stanley and the officers of B Company, brought a
+piano, which was destined to be an historic instrument. On more than
+one occasion the Battalion returned from its spell in the front line
+to the St. Venant Asylum, a large institution said to be the second
+largest of the kind in France. Its protesting inmates had been removed
+in lorries at the time of the German capture of Merville, and the long
+galleries and rooms thereafter became filled with troops. The ample
+bath-house, laundry, and kitchen of the Asylum, though ravaged by
+shelling and rifled by the mysterious depredations of looters, more
+than provided for the Battalion's wants. I have to record a very
+regrettable incident in connection with St. Venant Asylum. On the
+morning of May 21, during some shelling, when most of us had descended
+to cover, a German shell pierced the building where C and D Company
+Headquarters were and dropped through into the cellar, where it
+exploded. Several men were killed and also 'Tommy' Lodge, the officer
+whose conduct had earned him distinction three weeks before at
+Baquerolle Farm. Robinson, too, was wounded and was lost to the
+Battalion.
+
+At the Asylum, despite its comfort, it was difficult to feel at ease.
+On May 7 the Orderly Room was struck full on its door by a 5.9.
+Headquarters had many an anxious moment (as when a large aeroplane
+bomb was heard coming through the air; it fell 30 yards from the
+Mess). At the end of May rest billets were altered to La Pierriere, a
+small straggling village west of the La Bassee Canal, where few shells
+fell but whither the civilians were as yet timid to return. At La
+Pierriere, whenever the Battalion came out for its four days' rest,
+the Canteen was established on the most up-to-date lines with a full
+stock, including beer and the current newspapers from England. During
+the summer several local papers were kind enough to send me copies
+every week for free distribution to the men. I make this an
+opportunity to thank Mr. Stanley Wilkins and the Bucks Comforts Fund
+for most generous gifts of 'smokes,' which more than once helped to
+stave off a cigarette famine.
+
+The Canteen, though I have not before mentioned it, was a great
+feature in Battalion life. For the last eight months of the war, while
+I was President of the Regimental Institute, I was most anxious that
+our Canteen should be as good as possible. But my anxiety would have
+been worthless without the industry and enthusiasm of Lance-Corporal
+Kaye and Private Warburton, who managed every detail.
+
+At this stage in my history, when, almost reluctantly, I am drawing
+towards its close, there are many features of the Battalion life which
+crowd upon me in their demand for mention. The Pioneers lining out for
+their match in six-a-side football against the Shoemakers and Tailors,
+the Stores piled high with 'hay-packs' and wicker baskets filled with
+unissued signalling equipment, Sergeant Birt quietly demanding last
+month's war-diary, Connell the arch-footballer, Kettle, the
+Sergeant-Cook, arguing about an oven, and the four Company
+Quartermaster-Sergeants whose vote was always unanimous--to proceed
+further would be to enumerate a list of people and things over whom it
+is my regret to pass so rapidly.
+
+At the end of my chapters I have so often shown the Battalion marching
+back to rest that I shall leave it this time in the line. You must
+picture a medley of small fields and orchards, bounded on one side by
+the Calonne-Robecq road (which is the avenue of supply to the front
+line and much shelled) and on the other by the small streams called
+Noc and Clarence. Among the orchards stand numerous farmsteads, of
+which a large one known as Gloucester Farm had been our Battalion
+Headquarters in 1916, during a period of back-area rest. It has again
+been Battalion Headquarters. Recently the farm was shelled and the
+Berks Colonel, then in occupation, quitted it in favour of a
+two-storied house called Carvin. In the domed cellar of Baquerolle
+Farm--an old-fashioned building looking out across a wide midden to
+numerous cowsheds and outhouses--were usually the headquarters of C or
+D Companies and the Trench-Mortars. This farm was freely shelled. On
+April 24 the early-morning attention of the German guns set fire to
+the buildings; and Robinson was obliged to leave the cellar and repair
+with his headquarters to a trench to windward. The Posts themselves,
+as spring deepened into summer, became half lost in the crops and
+grass, until many of them could be reached in daylight. This fact,
+combined with his undaunted spirit of enterprise, led Colonel Lawson
+of the Gloucesters to crawl forward one morning to the German lines.
+His reckless bravery paid the penalty, for he was killed when only a
+short way from where a German post was lurking. Lawson was a brilliant
+soldier and a fine example of English character; his sudden and
+needless death cast a gloom over the whole Brigade.
+
+On the evening of May 13 the last raid to be made by the Battalion was
+carried out by No. 1 Platoon, commanded by Rowlerson. The affair was a
+small one but satisfactory, for two prisoners were brought in and we
+had no casualties.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE TURNING OF THE TIDE,
+
+MAY, JUNE, JULY, AUGUST, 1918.
+
+Rations and the Battalion Transport.--At La Lacque.--The bombing
+of Aire.--General Mackenzie obliged by his wound to leave the
+Division.--Return of Colonel Wetherall.--Tripp's Farm on fire.--
+A mysterious epidemic.--A period of wandering.--The march from
+Pont Asquin to St. Hilaire.--Nieppe Forest.--Attack by A and B
+Companies on August 7.--Headquarters gassed.--A new Colonel.--
+The Battalion goes a-reaping.
+
+
+Though used to being told that our army was the best fed of any in the
+war, few English people have any idea how rations reached the line.
+They came up every day from the Base by train as far as Railhead--which
+meant a convenient station as far forward as possible while still
+being outside the range of ordinary German guns--and were thence
+conveyed, normally in lorries, by the A.S.C. to the various 'refilling
+points' assigned to Infantry Brigades. From the refilling point, which
+was only a stretch of the roadside, the Transport collected the
+Battalion's rations and delivered them to the Quartermaster's stores;
+and by means of the Transport the Quartermaster, after their necessary
+division between companies, forwarded rations to the front line.
+Latterly it was rarely possible to cook in the trenches and it never
+was during active operations, so to Murray, our Quartermaster, and his
+staff fell the duty of sending up cooked food. It is impossible for me
+here to explain the system practised; but by means of food-containers,
+specially improvised from petrol tins and rammed into packs stuffed
+with hay, we were able to supply the men with hot food in the front
+line. Murray's organisation was excellent, and the four Company
+Quartermaster-Sergeants--Holder, Freudemacher, Taylor, and
+Beechey--and the Company Cooks earned equal credit in the performance
+of these important duties, which never miscarried.
+
+The Battalion was fortunate in keeping as its Transport officer 'Bob'
+Abraham. He suited the job, and the job him. He had organised the
+Transport in 1914 and brought it overseas. Several pairs of mules,
+which had come out with the Battalion in 1916, were still at work and
+thriving three years later. By a riding accident Abraham was lost to
+the Battalion for a time, but his place was taken by Kirk, who proved
+himself an excellent substitute, and when Kirk left Woodford carried
+on with equal efficiency.
+
+Long before the war was reaching its close I had ceased really to
+envy the Transport Officer, nor did our men in the trenches forget the
+responsibilities and danger of the drivers. In their turn the transport
+men felt that it was their duty to make up for the part they were not
+called upon to play with bomb and bayonet by never failing to deliver
+promptly and faithfully at company headquarters their limber-loads of
+rations. In its turn-out, whether at a Brigade horse-show, a
+veterinary inspection or on the line of march, our Transport set a
+high standard; men and animals were alike a credit to the Battalion.
+
+During the warm weather of the spring, when the canal banks were lined
+with bathers, our Transport was situated at La Lacque, a village a few
+miles west of Aire. Not far off stood the tall chimneys of the
+Isbergues steel works--a large factory, which, like Cassel and
+Dunkirk, had in the early days of the war attracted occasional shells
+from German long-range guns. Now that the line was only a few leagues
+distant the steel works became the almost daily target for 'high
+velocities.' Once the tiles had been shaken from the workshops no
+visible damage seemed to result from the many hundred shells which
+fell inside the factory's area. None the less the continuous shifts of
+workmen afforded a striking example of the national devotion of French
+industry, to be compared with that total dislocation of London
+business which even an air-raid warning was sufficient to engender.
+Isbergues village was now crowded with Portuguese, who spent their
+time tormenting dogs and washing themselves in the canal, but who
+officially were employed in making trenches, which they could be
+trusted to dig deep. At La Lacque a second Brigade School was
+established. The details of its management were under Coombes, who
+possessed considerable ability in this direction. The Battalion
+instructors were Sergeants Brooks and Brazier, both of whom were well
+versed in regimental drill and tradition and shewed much zeal in the
+work. Than Sergeant Brazier no more hearty sportsman ever belonged
+to the Battalion.
+
+At the end of May, 1918, when the whereabouts of his next attack were
+yet uncertain, the enemy's power reached its apparent zenith. A
+Canadian corps had been in reserve along the line of the La Bassee
+Canal for three weeks in expectation of a renewed attempt against
+Hazebrouck and Bethune. From prisoners' statements more than once an
+attack upon the Battalion seemed imminent and special precautions were
+adopted. All this time our artillery had been recovering its
+ascendancy, until the enemy, cooped up as he was within a salient
+bounded by canals, became faced with the two alternatives of attack or
+retreat. Meanwhile his aircraft used the fine nights of the early
+summer to wreak the utmost spite on our back area. During one night
+Aire, which had hitherto been left unscathed was so severely bombed
+that one could have fancied the next day that the town had been
+convulsed by an earthquake. St. Omer, though less damaged, was
+frequently attacked. In northern France the visits of German
+aeroplanes became such that all towns, alike by military and civil
+populations, came to be deserted before nightfall.
+
+How I should introduce appropriately and with becoming respect a
+reference to our Major-General has somewhat puzzled me. Sir Colin
+Mackenzie, K.C.B., had commanded the 61st Division through many
+difficult vicissitudes. His watchful eye and quiet manner gained
+everywhere the confidence and admiration of his regimental subordinates,
+who saw in him great soldierly qualities. The General's bearing and
+his string of real war-ribbons made many an eye rove at an inspection.
+By a wound he was obliged in June, 1918, to retire from command of the
+Division. He was much missed.
+
+Towards the end of May Colonel Wetherall returned to take command of
+the Battalion. To be his Second in Command was both a pleasure and a
+privilege. Similar feelings were evoked towards the Brigadier, General
+Pagan, in whose small frame beat a lion's heart. When the frontage of
+the Brigade was changed from one to two battalions, we had to give up
+Baquerolle and Carvin and occupy instead the barren fields on the
+other side of the Calonne road, where most wretched front-line
+accommodation existed. Headquarters for the new sector were in Les
+Amusoires; and rations came up each night as far as a farm, called
+Tripp's Farm, forward of which neither cooking could be done nor any
+water obtained. One night German shelling, that tune to which rations
+were usually carried, set light to Tripp's Farm. Quartermaster-Sergeants,
+mules' heads, and guides were mingled in the glare, while from a
+concrete pill-box hard by machine-gunners (its rightful occupants)
+were compelled to avoid roasting by flight. About this time both St.
+Venant and Robecq were burning for several days. Of the former, most
+of the remaining houses near the church (which had been frequently
+struck) were destroyed, but in Robecq the fire almost confined itself
+to the famous cafe near the cross-roads. To quench these conflagrations
+no measures were, or could be, taken, for their occurrence was a
+great gratification to the German artillery, which always redoubled
+its efforts in the hope of spreading a fire as far as possible.
+
+In the middle of June, during a stay at La Pierriere, the Battalion
+was ravaged by a mysterious epidemic, which claimed hundreds of victims
+before it passed. Starting among the signallers, it first spread through
+Headquarters, and then attacked all Companies indiscriminately. Among
+the officers, Cubbage and Shields (the doctor) were the first to go to
+hospital; soon followed by Clutsom, who was adjutant at this time, and
+Tobias the very doctor who had come to replace Shields. The Colonel and
+myself were the next victims, and when the time came for the Battalion
+to go into the line, it was necessary to send for Christie-Miller,
+of the Gloucesters, to take command and to make Murray from
+quartermaster into adjutant. This epidemic was not confined to the
+Battalion, nor to the 61st Division. Isolation camps had hastily to be
+formed, for the evil threatened to dislocate whole corps and even
+armies. Among the Germans the same complaint seems to have spread with
+even greater virulence; indeed, it may well have prevented them from
+launching a further offensive against Bethune and Hazebrouck. By
+doctors it was classified under the name of Pyrexia of Unknown Origin
+('P.U.O.') while in such guarded references as occurred our Press
+spoke of it as 'Spanish Influenza.' The symptoms of the illness
+consisted in high temperature, followed by great physical and mental
+lassitude. Most cases recovered within a week, but some took longer,
+nor was a second attack following recovery from the first at all
+uncommon. Such was the only epidemic of the war. Thanks to the care
+and efficiency of our Regimental M.O.s the dreaded scourges of past
+wars--cholera, dysentery, and enteric--in France could together claim
+few, if any, victims.
+
+On June 25 it was time for the 184th Infantry Brigade to move out of
+the line to Ham and Linghem, two villages south-east and south of
+Aire. The relief took place, but at the last minute it was decided
+that the 182nd Brigade was so depleted by the epidemic that it was
+necessary for the 2/4th Oxfords to remain at La Pierriere to assist
+them in holding the line. At the Brigade sports, held at Linghem on
+July 7, the Battalion easily carried off the cup offered for
+competition by General Pagan. In the relay race Sergeant Brazier
+accomplished a fine performance, while in the boxing we showed such
+superiority that no future Brigade competition ever took place.[12]
+
+                   [Footnote 12: In the realm of sport a later
+                   achievement of the Battalion deserves record. On
+                   July 27 at the XI Corps horse-show our team won the
+                   open tug-of-war.]
+
+[Illustration: THE HEADQUARTERS RUNNERS, JULY 1918]
+
+Before we left La Pierriere what can well be looked back to as a
+red-letter day was spent in sports and a full programme of
+entertainments, including the Divisional 'Frolics,' who were prevailed
+on to perform in a farmyard. Jimmy Kirk also brought his coaching
+party of clowns--who on this occasion avoided a conflict with the
+Military Police--and of course the Battalion Band regaled us with
+choice items throughout the day. In the sports a race had to be re-run
+because one of the competitors, instead of waiting for the 'pistol'
+(A. E. G. Bennett with home-made 'blanks') started at the report of
+our 6-inch gun in the next orchard, which occurred a fraction of a
+second earlier. The evening was saved from bathos by the news that the
+Division was to be relieved. Life operates by contrast, and though the
+war was going on a few miles to the eastward I believe as much pleasure
+was experienced that day in the small orchard behind Headquarters at
+La Pierriere as in any elaborate peace celebration in this country.
+Indeed, to see the crowd 'celebrating' the armistice up and down the
+Strand was enough to make one recall with regret such an occasion of
+the war as I have described.
+
+On July 10 we moved back, most of the way by 'bus, to Liettres, a very
+pretty village well behind the line and south-west of Aire. Hardly
+were we settled before we were ordered to move, which we did with no
+very good grace to St. Hilaire, a much inferior village. Two days
+later our tactical location was discovered to be still unsatisfactory,
+so we tried a march northwards to Warne, where for the third time in
+ten days a quartermaster's store had to be built from the materials we
+had managed to drag along with us. Almost before our headquarter
+runners had learnt the whereabouts of companies we were on the road
+again. This time we left the XI Corps, with which so many of the
+Battalion's fortunes and misfortunes had been associated, and passed
+into General Plumer's Army as part of the XV Corps. The paradise which
+every division, sent back for 'rest,' fancies will have been prepared
+for it, now degenerated to a mere field. Still, there are many worse
+places, if some better, than a grass field; footballs were soon
+bouncing merrily, and on the air floated the monotonous enumeration of
+'House.' One evening the Colonel, myself, and the company commanders
+returned wet-through from a voyage of inspection of the Hazebrouck
+defences, for a German attack was still anticipated. The last of these
+shuttle-cock moves occurred on July 31, from our field at Pont Asquin
+back to St. Hilaire, whose billets few of us were anxious to revisit.
+
+As I have not loaded my narrative with marches my readers shall hoist
+full pack (no air-pillows allowed!) upon their backs and fall in with
+the Battalion. It is already dusk as the sanitary men, like so many
+sorcerers, stoop in the final rites of fire and burial. Some days ago
+I taxed the band-master, Bond, with the possibility of playing in the
+dark; for a moment his face was as long as Taylor's bassoon, but since
+then by means of surreptitious practice and, I fancy, the sheer
+confiscation of his bandsmen's folios, the impossible has been
+achieved. Every band is the best in France, but only ours can play in
+darkness. Thus, as the column swings past the pond and waiting
+cookers, the Band strikes up one of its best and loudest marches....
+
+Such midnight music, if it drowned the drone of German aeroplanes,
+which ever and anon swam overhead, looking like white moths in the
+beams of our searchlights, served also to arouse the village
+inhabitants, whose angry faces were framed for an instant in windows
+as we passed. Our musical uproar set dogs barking for miles, cocks
+crowed at our passage, and generals turned in their second sleep to
+hear such martial progress in the night. The march--through Racquinghem
+and Aire--was long, lasting nearly all night. To flatter its interest
+a sweepstake had been arranged among the officers for who should name
+the exact moment of its conclusion. Years of foot-slogging in France
+made my considered guess formidable in the competition. More dangerous
+still was that of the Colonel, for to him would fall the duty of the
+decisive whistle-blast, and his entry ultimately was not accepted by
+the 'committee.' As in most sweepstakes, the first prize fell to a
+most undeserving winner.
+
+July closed with a feeling of dissatisfaction at the cycle of moves
+which had rendered futile both rest and training. Consciousness that
+one was helping to win the war was more often imputed than felt. Early
+in August, 1918, the 61st relieved the 5th Division in front of the
+Nieppe Forest. Minor attacks had already cleared the enemy from the
+eastern fringe of the forest and driven him back towards Neuf Berquin
+and Merville. At 7 p.m. on August 7 A and B Companies attacked and
+captured the trenches opposite to them, causing the enemy to retire
+behind the Plate Becque, a stream as wide as the Cherwell at Islip but
+far less attractive. We had a dozen casualties in this attack, which
+was rewarded by half as many German prisoners and a machine-gun.
+Sergeant Ravenscroft, of B Company, for an able exploit during the
+advance, received the D.C.M.
+
+[Illustration: THE NIEPPE FOREST]
+
+Already the Forest of Nieppe had become notorious for German gas. It
+was now a nightly programme of the enemy to drench the wood, which
+was low-lying and infested with pools and undergrowth, with his
+noxious 'Yellow Cross'--shells whose poisonous fumes bore the flavour
+of mustard. Throughout the night of August 7/8, when things generally
+were very active, a heavy gas-bombardment was kept up. The Colonel was
+away from his headquarters at the time. He returned after the shelling
+to find that gas helmets had been taken off. No harm was expected, but
+the next day, after the sun's heat had awakened dormant fumes, the
+Colonel, Symonds (the adjutant), Kirk, who had brought up the rations,
+and Cubbage, as well as the Regimental Sergeant-Major and many
+signallers and runners, all found that they were gassed. Their loss
+was serious. It was known that Wetherall would soon have to leave the
+Battalion, for he had been appointed to a command in the Machine Gun
+Corps; indeed already his successor, Colonel Woulfe-Flanagan, had
+arrived to take his place. Under the present unlucky auspices (for
+more than half Headquarters were knocked out) the interchange took
+place.
+
+Herodotus says of the kings of Sparta that the last was always
+regretted as the best the country had ever had. Colonel Wetherall's
+merit did not depend on his being the last of a series. Phrases such
+as 'he was worshipped by the men' have become so hackneyed as to be
+meaningless, nor shall I use an even worse commonplace, that 'he was
+sparing of his words.' Wetherall was just a rattling good Commanding
+Officer, a true friend, and a fine soldier. His successor, E. M.
+Woulfe-Flanagan, came from the East Surreys. He bore a distinguished
+record of pre-war service and had been wounded in the Mons retreat. A
+regular soldier of the old school, in ideas and methods he differed
+widely from his predecessor. But he was worth his salt every time.
+Certainly no braver officer ever set foot in France.
+
+After we had finished our first tour in the Nieppe Forest sector, both
+the Berks and Gloucester were sent forward against the enemy, who was
+rightly suspected by the staff to be on the point of retreating from
+the Lys salient. The attack had to cross the Plate Becque, whose
+eastern bank the enemy was fighting hard to hold. Gloucesters and
+Berks rushed forward at misty dawn and flung bridges over the stream;
+but the machine-gun fire was too intense, and though some parties got
+across, others did not, co-operation broke down, and the attack gained
+no result. A few days afterwards the Germans went back, giving up
+Calonne, Merville, and Neuf Berquin-villages which our artillery had
+utterly pulverised. As in the March retreat of 1917, the 184th Brigade
+had no immediate share in following up the enemy as he retired. The
+Oxfords had withdrawn on August 14 to Spresiano Camp, in the forest,
+and waited without eagerness to be ordered forward to the new devastated
+area. It is curious to reflect that at this time, so distant did the end
+of the war still seem, we grumbled at losing our comfortable base at
+Steenbecque, which we hoped to keep perhaps through the winter. Most
+thinking people could see neither value nor wisdom in pursuing the
+Germans in their retreats, planned and carried out in their own time,
+from salients. Hardly on one occasion did we hustle them, and the
+policy, deprecated by most commanders of lower formations, of snatching
+at the first morsels of abandoned territory always cost us heavy
+casualties. Between war and chess there is a close analogy. In front
+of Nieppe Forest there were now a hopeless crowding of the pieces,
+moves aimlessly made from square to square, and the reckless calling
+of 'check,' which to a good opponent means time and renewed chances to
+escape defeat.
+
+[Illustration: MERVILLE CHURCH, SEPTEMBER 1918]
+
+During the early stages of the retreat the Battalion was sent to fresh
+fields of conquest among the crops, which the German withdrawal had
+done nothing to ripen but had at least removed from shell range. Plans
+were afoot to harvest a large area adjacent to the forest and present
+its fruits to the rightful owners. If harvesting weather should be
+hot, conditions were ideal. This novel form of working-party at first
+delighted the men, who set about the crops in goodly earnest. In a
+short space of time wheat, oats, and barley were added to our
+battle-honours. But if the spirit was willing, our reaping implements
+were correspondingly weak. The Corps 'Agricultural Officer' had collected
+from surrounding farms a fantastic assortment of cast-off scythes,
+jagged hooks, and rusty sickles, which fell to pieces 'in the 'ands'
+and refused to do more than beat down the crops to which they were
+opposed. The scythes seemed hardly able to stick their points, in the
+approved manner, into the ground, sickles were back-to-front or
+left-handed, and the entire panoply issued to this Reaping Battalion
+should have been seconded for duty at a music-hall or gazetted out
+of agricultural service as old iron. The Major-General, visiting the
+scene of our labours, was scandalised to find that fewer acres of corn
+had been put out of action than reports from other parts of the
+harvest front inclined him to expect. A 'stinker' followed, to which
+we could only retaliate by posting sentries the next day to warn us of
+the General's approach. Of course he came by a fresh road. And now, to
+avoid the inevitable anti-climax, I will ring down the curtain as the
+General steps from his car, demoralised reapers bestir themselves into
+some semblance of activity, and the commander of the party simply is
+not.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+LAST BATTLES,
+
+AUGUST TO DECEMBER, 1918.
+
+German retreat from the Lys.--Orderly Room and its staff.--The new
+devastated area.--Itchin Farm, Merville and Neuf Berquin.--Mines
+and booby-traps.--Advance to the Lys.--Estaires destroyed.--
+Laventie revisited.--The attack on Junction Post.--Lance-Corporal
+Wilcox, V.C.--Scavenging at the XI Corps school.--On the Aubers
+ridge.--The end in sight.--Move to Cambrai.--In action near
+Bermerain and Maresches.--A fine success.--Domart and
+Demobilisation.--Work at Etaples.--Off to Egypt.
+
+
+While the Battalion harvested the corn behind Nieppe Forest, on the
+other side of it hue and cry were being raised after the enemy, whose
+tail was well turned in his last retreat. The Lys salient, which had
+proved so useless to him, was being evacuated. On the evening of
+August 20, 1918, the Battalion was ordered forward from Spresiano Camp
+to occupy the old trenches near Chapelle Boom, a quaint moated farmhouse
+on the eastern outskirts of the forest. We found the area already
+overstocked with troops; indeed Chapelle Boom itself, though assigned
+to us, was the headquarters of not less than two units of the 183rd
+Infantry Brigade. The arrival of the Battalion, loaded as it was with
+the encumbrances of advance, further contributed to the congestion. In
+a few days the Suffolks and Northumberland Fusiliers suddenly
+disappeared, and Chapelle Boom fell into our power. There we stayed
+until the Colonel went upon a course.
+
+[Illustration: BATTALION HEADQUARTERS AT CHAPELLE BOOM]
+
+As usually when the Germans genuinely retired, to use their own
+phrase, 'according to plan,' early immunity from shells preluded days
+when the last spite of their artillery was flung as far as possible.
+Harassing fire against our exits from Nieppe Forest was cleverly
+manipulated by the enemy. Our guns, which had the choice of few orchards
+or buildings to screen their flashes, were vigorously searched for when
+they opened fire. Bonar Farm, Dene Farm, Rennet Farm--places of ill
+name during the fighting for the Plate Becque--were freely shelled.
+From the explosion of a chance 4.2 Ellis and several men in D Company
+were casualties. Whilst in reserve we bathed in the river and for a
+time resumed our harvesting pursuits. The method became more unique
+and amateur than ever--we were directed to pluck the ripe ears of corn
+by hand. I laid down the standard task of one sandbag-full per day per
+man. Some men used nail-scissors, and it was found that a 'one hour
+day' was ample to ensure a good 'return.' Soon a pile of bags lay by
+the roadside. One wonders instinctively what became of the corn and
+whether it was used.
+
+The word 'return' should set some readers agog. I am sure no battalion
+had a better Orderly Room than the 2/4th Oxfords. Though only a
+Company Commander, I was struck by its efficiency when I joined the
+Battalion. Units were apt to be judged by the promptness and accuracy
+of their returns, and Cuthbert, who for longer than anyone was
+Adjutant of the Battalion, won a deserved reputation in this respect.
+But inside the Battalion as well as out of it his efficiency was
+understood and valued. Cuthbert was a good instance of an officer
+without pre-war training whose common-sense and agreeability made him
+the equal in his work of any Regular. In the office Sergeant Birt had
+now for two years been a pillar of reliability; few officers or men of
+the Battalion but owed something to him. Spring 1918 brought an
+interregnum in the adjutantcy, till R. F. Symonds, formerly of the
+Bucks, returned from a staff attachment to take the post. Symonds had
+a remarkable gift for office work. Wrapped up in the routine of the
+Battalion, he was never happier than in Orderly Room with a full
+'basket.' Since the gassing of Headquarters, Shilson, a recently
+arrived officer with antecedents in the A.S.C., had acted adjutant;
+right creditably did he acquit himself in the duties suddenly cast
+upon him. Other new officers were now filling important positions in
+the Battalion. Faithfull, another disciple from the A.S.C., whom also
+we got to like very much, was now in command of D Company; Clutsom
+commanded C, and Young, who had seen long service with the 48th
+Division, B Company; Jones still led A. Time had wrought changes among
+the Sergeant-Majors of the Companies. At this period in Cunningham of
+A, Mudd of B, Smith of C, and Brooks of D, we had a quartet of tried
+experience. The recurrent conflicts about 'strength'--a word which in
+effect meant the number of men employed with Quartermaster's Stores
+and at Headquarters--were now at a high pitch. After much
+'camouflage,' by aid of Bicknell, of the real facts, we had
+reluctantly to choose between the 'return to duty' in the line of
+either Band or Buglers. The choice was hard, but in the end we kept
+the Band intact, for loss of a few bandsmen as casualties might leave
+such gaps as would prevent the Band from playing at all.
+
+On August 24 we relieved the 5th Suffolks in the outpost line, which
+had remained stationary for several days. It lay upon the eastern fringe
+of Neuf Berquin, through whose scattered ruins one picked a way to
+find the posts. Headquarters were some distance back, but most
+wretchedly accommodated in an orchard close to a lonely brick-stack
+known as Itchin Farm. The German guns showed marked persistency, not
+actually against the holes which formed Headquarters, but all around.
+No area more dismal could be imagined than the flat, dyke-ridden
+country north of Merville. So thoroughly had our artillery during the
+last four months plastered the ground behind his former lines that
+little scope had been left for the retreating frenzy of the enemy. By
+bombs and shells we had driven the Germans not only from such places
+as Merville and Neuf Berquin, but from the mere proximity to roads or
+houses. They had concealed themselves as best they could in ditches
+and narrow tunnels made with corrugated iron or planks. The 'Huns,'
+indeed, had been meeting with their deserts. Their life in the Lys
+salient must have been a nightmare. One required only to read a few of
+the notices displayed to realise the difference of life behind their
+line and ours. Everywhere appeared in big letters the word
+'Fliegerdeckung!' _i.e._ cover from aircraft. No testimony more
+eloquent of British superiority could have been offered.
+
+Further behind, round Estaires and La Gorgue, the Germans were busy
+blowing up and burning ere their retreat ebbed back across the Lys.
+Black palls of smoke rose daily from where mills and factories were
+aflame. One day the tall church of Sailly had simply vanished; the
+next, one looked vainly for Estaires' square tower. Often, when idly
+scanning the horizon or watching aeroplanes, eyes were arrested by
+huge jets which sprang into the air to become clouds as large as any
+in the sky. Combining with this present orgy of destruction numerous
+booby-traps were left behind, whose action was delayed till our
+advance should provide victims for their murderous art. Cross-roads
+and level-crossings especially 'went up,' or were expected to, and so
+many houses were mined that it became impossible to rest secure in
+any. In fact, the 182nd Brigade ordered its men out of all buildings.
+Some measure of vile ingenuity must be accorded to the authors of
+these booby-traps; but whether bombs under beds or attached to pump
+handles can be included in legitimate warfare is a case for judgment.
+
+At short notice we attacked from Neuf Berquin on August 28. In some
+places the advance was quite successful, but in others not. German
+counter-attacks obliged A Company, which had made good progress south
+of the Neuf Berquin-Estaires road in the morning, to withdraw its
+patrols at dusk. A few days later, however, the opposition lessened,
+and companies went forward several miles. Soon afterwards the 182nd
+Brigade took turn as the advanced guard, the Lys was reached and
+crossed, and presently patrols were passing through the old 'posts'
+and grass-grown breastworks which used to lie behind our front-line
+system. We followed, and for several days lived in reserve among the
+scattered farms and houses north of Estaires, over the ruins of which
+Crosthwaite, an officer of mature service, who had just joined the
+Battalion, was appointed Town Major. His task was not entirely enviable.
+Houses, roofless or otherwise, had to be subdivided into safe, doubtful,
+or certain to 'go up.' I cannot help regarding this Flanders retreat
+as a subject supremely dull. The constant suspicion of mines and
+booby-traps rendered doubly sordid the polluted ruins which formed the
+landmarks of our advance. One feature alone provided interest to some.
+We were approaching, from an odd direction as it seemed, the old area
+where the Battalion had first held its trenches. La Gorgue, Estaires,
+Laventie were places rich in association. How much the two former were
+altered! La Gorgue, where in 1916 Divisional Headquarters and Railhead
+had been, was heaped in ugly ruin. Its expensive church had been blown
+in two. Of Estaires proper little more than its charred walls
+remained. In such shape was victory passing into our hands.
+
+When the enemy was holding the line Picantin--Junction Post, the
+Battalion went forward to hold an outpost line north-east of Laventie.
+On September 10, while he was taking over his new piece of front,
+Clutsom, of C Company, was badly wounded by a German shell. No officer
+could have been more regretted. I am glad to say his wound healed
+steadily and he was soon writing cheerful letters to his friends from
+England. Command of his company passed to Stanley.
+
+[Illustration: CORPORAL A. WILCOX, V.C.]
+
+Headquarters now were in the old dressing station at Laventie. It was
+a house of quite pretentious size, left standing by the enemy.
+Although its floors were heaped with shavings, prophets of all ranks
+assigned a violent end to tenants of such a residence. For the next
+tour we were content to move into Laventie North Post, but all the
+time the house belied our fears, nor have I evidence that any mine
+existed. I walked through the village, and I must say it seemed less
+damaged than I had expected. Most of its buildings were quite
+recognisable. The house formerly Battalion Headquarters might, with
+labour, have been made to serve again. The line of small plane trees,
+which gave Laventie the meretricious semblance of a garden city, was
+standing yet. In the war's passage over it Laventie suffered less
+havoc than had seemed probable.
+
+At a few hours' notice and in weather calculated to make any operation
+a fiasco, the Battalion on September 12 attacked Junction Post, a
+grass-bound breastwork where the enemy was offering a stubborn
+resistance. Though finally unsuccessful in result, the fighting, which
+was accompanied by driving storms of rain, produced two noteworthy
+incidents. Rowlerson, one of C Company's platoon commanders, after
+reaching the German trenches, somehow lost touch and was captured with
+several of his men. In A Company an exploit was performed, which
+gained for the Battalion its second Victoria Cross. Lance-Corporal
+Wilcox came to close quarters with some enemy defending a piece of
+trench with four machine-guns. Each of these guns Lance-Corporal
+Wilcox, followed by his section, successively captured or put out of
+action. Wilcox was shortly afterwards wounded and was in hospital in
+England when news of the award arrived. His deed lent lustre to a
+profitless attack.
+
+A few days later the Battalion was relieved and spent a period in
+reserve among fields and orchards west of Sailly-sur-la-Lys. We
+suffered much from the night long attention of the German 'pip-squeak'
+guns, whose range, longer considerably than that of the English
+18-pounder, was made fullest use of by the enemy. A move came as a
+welcome surprise. Under mysterious directions the Battalion was
+ordered back as far as Linghem, a village I have mentioned before as
+lying south of Aire. Arrived there, we were placed in some huts,
+destined for eventual occupation by the XI Corps school. More than a
+day elapsed before the object of our visit was explained: the
+Battalion was to sweep and clean the camp for its inspection by the
+Corps Commander. We were not present at the ceremony, but for a week
+preceding it all four companies were daily engaged weeding potato
+patches, tarring roofs, and evacuating a dump of several hundred
+thousand empty tins. Rarely were the energies of an Infantry Battalion
+more curiously devoted.
+
+At Laventie no startling events had filled our absence. But after our
+return--Junction Post had not yet fallen, so that the outpost line was
+still in front of Rouge de Bout--developments began. On September 30
+the enemy lost Junction Post to a spirited attack by the Gloucesters,
+the line that he had been holding for three weeks was broken, and his
+retreat became fast and general. After relieving the Gloucesters our
+companies were hard put to it to advance rapidly enough to keep touch.
+At last we stood upon the Aubers Ridge itself. Lille was almost in
+view; but at this point the Division was relieved by the 59th and sent
+southwards to join our armies before Cambrai, where the final issue
+between British and German arms was destined to be decided.
+
+Out of the closing phases of the war I feel there must be material
+from which historians will find that climax which so grand a conflict
+deserves as its termination. But I confess that I find scarcely any.
+
+After its dramatic and sinister opening the war seemed almost
+belittled by its tame conclusion. Years of nerve-racking experiences,
+the hardships, and the immutable association which towns like Ypres,
+Arras and Albert, and the trench-dwellings of Flanders and the Somme
+possessed, had indisposed the mind to receive new impressions from the
+last battle of the war. Patient from a hundred moves from trench to
+billet, from billet to trench, the British soldier accepted with
+characteristic resignation moves which were sweeping him to Victory.
+By gas, liquid fire, night-flying aeroplanes, and long-range
+artillery, the war had in four years demonstrated the incredible. The
+mere collapse, on one side, of the agencies military and political
+which lay behind, was in itself commonplace.
+
+The Battalion joined the XVII Corps half way through October, 1918,
+and was soon put into important fighting. The enemy, who had lost
+Lille, Douai, and St. Quentin early in the month, was now in full
+retreat between Verdun and the sea. To preserve his centre from being
+pierced and his flanks rolled up, rear-guards eastward of Cambrai were
+offering the maximum resistance. Most villages, though they passed
+into our hands nearly intact and in some cases full of civilians, had
+to be fought for. The German machine-gunners rarely belied their
+character of fighting to the end. In an attack on October 24 from
+Haussy, the Battalion, advancing rapidly in artillery formation,
+captured the high ground east of Bermerain; and the next day B and D
+Companies (the latter now commanded by Cupper) again attacked, and
+captured the railway south-east of Sepmeries. For these operations the
+weather was fine, the ground dry, and the leadership excellent. A
+period followed in reserve at Vendegies and afterwards at Bermerain,
+villages which were liberally bombarded by the German long-range guns.
+Moving up again on November 2, the Battalion made its last attack of
+the war. A fine success resulted. The objectives--St. Hubert and the
+ridge east of it--were captured, together with 700 prisoners, 40
+machine-guns, and 4 tanks, recently used by the enemy in a
+counter-attack. The fruits of this victory were well deserved by the
+Battalion, the more because so often in the course of the war it had
+been set to fight against odds in secondary operations. It was a good
+wind-up.
+
+Of some battalions it was said that on November 11, 1918 they found
+themselves standing within a mile or two of where they first went into
+action in 1914. We, naturally, could claim no such coincidence; yet a
+dramatic touch was not wanting when the telegram, which bore the news
+of the cessation of hostilities, was read out by the Colonel to a
+parade formed up at Maresches upon the very ground whence the
+Battalion had started in its last attack.
+
+[Illustration: OFFICERS OF THE BATTALION DECEMBER 1918]
+
+[Illustration: GENERAL THORNE AND 184th INFANTRY BRIGADE STAFF,
+CHRISTMAS 1918]
+
+The Battalion was never in the Army on the Rhine. After time spent at
+Cambrai we travelled back to Domart, a village mid-way between Amiens
+and Abbeville. In duration the journey surpassed all records. Three
+days we spent impatiently waiting for a train, and two more patiently
+waiting in the train itself; and we arrived at the destination faced
+with a ten-mile march in rain and pitch darkness. Happily the war was
+still sufficiently recent for such delay to pass as comedy. At Domart
+the one real topic was Demobilisation. I could set myself no harder
+task than a description of the workings of this engine. Few people
+understood how they were themselves demobilised, and fewer cared how
+others were. That the scheme worked on the whole well and justly was
+in great measure due to Symonds, whose zealous energy, though the
+Battalion was lessoning daily, never flagged. For two months Battalion
+drill and the 'Education Scheme' occupied our mornings, football our
+afternoons. Christmas was a great festival. The 'Frolics' pantomime
+visited the village, in which the Battalion pioneers, under the
+direction of Cameron, the Brigade signalling officer, had transformed
+an empty building into a capital theatre. General Thorne, who had so
+successfully commanded the 184th Infantry Brigade in its last battle,
+was unstinting in his efforts to give the men's life in the army a
+happy and useful conclusion. He secured visits from all the best
+concert parties and raised a fund to finance the department of
+Brigade entertainments, of which Nicholas, the Brigade Major, was
+chief minister. A weekly magazine was started, which ran to its fourth
+number. Truly the arts flourished.
+
+In a windy field south of the village the Battalion was in January
+presented with its colour by Major-General Duncan. The occasion passed
+off well. Its feature was the admirable speech made by the Colonel.
+
+In February the Battalion, which it was known would be made up with
+drafts and retained for service as a unit, was sent to Etaples to
+assist in the Demobilisation scheme. For a month we remained meeting
+trains, escorting parties to camps, sorting clothing, and driving
+herds of the demobilised through the intricacies of a machine called
+the 'Delouser,' until the arriving trainloads decreased, dwindled, and
+finally stopped. In March several large drafts of officers and men, to
+replace all those who had been, or would be, demobilised, joined the
+Battalion, which, after a pause at Le Treport and some leave, sailed
+for Egypt. Thither my story does not follow it. When peace was signed,
+the cadre of the Battalion had not returned to Oxford. On Christmas
+Dav 1919 the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was
+still serving overseas.
+
+[Illustration: THE ADJUTANT AT HIS DESK]
+
+[Illustration: CAMBRAI: THE HOTEL DE VILLE]
+
+[Illustration: THE BATTALION COOKS AT STAPLES]
+
+[Illustration: LIEUT.-COL. E. M. WOULFE-FLANAGAN. C.M.G. D.S.O.]
+
+[Illustration: REGIMENTAL SERGT. MAJOR HEDLEY]
+
+[Illustration: REGIMENTAL QUARTERMASTER-SERGEANT HEDGES]
+
+
+
+
+COMPOSITION OF THE BATTALION ON GOING OVERSEAS
+
+
+_Headquarters._
+
+Colonel W. H. Ames, T. D.
+Major G. P. R. Beaman, 2nd in Command.
+Major D. M. Rose, Adjutant.
+Lieut. C. S. W. Marcon, Signalling Officer.
+2/Lieut. H. E. Coombes, Intelligence Officer.
+Lieut. G. H. G. Shepherd, Machine-gun Officer.
+Lieut. R. L. Abraham, Transport Officer.
+Lieut. W. A. Hobbs, Quartermaster.
+Captain A. Worsley, Medical Officer.
+
+
+_Company Commanders._
+
+Captain H. J. Bennett, A Company.
+Captain H. N. Davenport, B Company.
+Captain A. H. Brucker, C Company.
+Captain R. F. Cuthbert, D Company.
+
+
+_Regimental Sergeant-Major._
+
+T. V. Wood.
+
+
+_Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant._
+
+W. C. Hedges.
+
+
+_Company Sergeant-Majors._
+
+C. A. Witney, A Company.
+A. Ball, B Company.
+W. F. Campion, C Company.
+W. Douglas, D Company.
+
+
+
+
+COMPOSITION OF THE BATTALION AT THE ARMISTICE
+
+
+_Headquarters._
+
+Lieut.-Colonel E. M. Woulfe-Flanagan, C.M.G., D.S.O.
+Major G. K. Rose, M.C., 2nd in Command.
+Captain R. F. Symonds, Adjutant.
+Lieut. T. S. R. Boase, M.C., Signalling Officer.
+Lieut. W. A. F. Hearne, Intelligence Officer.
+Captain J. W. Shilson, Assistant Adjutant.
+Lieut. G. W. Woodford, M.C., Transport Officer.
+Captain W. G. Murray, Quartermaster.
+Lieut. E. P. Neary (U.S.), Medical Officer.
+
+
+_Company Commanders._
+
+Captain H. Jones, M.C., A Company.
+Captain R. E. M. Young, B Company.
+Captain J. Stanley, M.C., C Company.
+Captain J. H. D. Faithfull, D Company.
+
+
+_Regimental Sergeant-Major._
+
+W. Hedley, D. C. M.
+
+
+_Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant._
+
+W. C. Hedges.
+
+
+_Company Sergeant-Majors._
+
+C. R. Holder, A Company.
+A. J. Mudd, B Company.
+S. Smith, D.C.M., C Company.
+M. T. Brooks, D Company.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Ablaincourt, 55, 56, 75.
+Abraham, Capt. R. L., 14, 80, 157, 172, 175, 193.
+Aire, 194, 195, 201.
+Aitken, Lieut. R., 85, 86.
+Albert, 23.
+Allden, Lieut. J. H., 84, 100, 101.
+Ames, Col. W. H., 7, 13.
+Amiens, 104, 174.
+A.S.C., 43, 45, 132, 192.
+Arras, 107, 111, 144.
+Arrowsmith, Rev. W. L., M.C., 106.
+Asylum, St. Venant, 188, 189.
+Athies, 79.
+Auxi-le-Chateau, 111, 112.
+Aveluy, 35.
+Avesne, 174-176.
+
+
+Band, the, 200, 211.
+Baquerolle Farm, 181, 183, 186, 189, 191, 196.
+Barnes, Lance-Corpl., 109.
+Barton, Lieut. C. J., 14, 86.
+Bassett, Col.-Sgt., 1.
+Baxter, Pte., 137, 139.
+Beaman, Maj. G. P. R., 14, 66.
+Beauvoir Line, 163-165.
+Beechey, C.Q.-M.S., 193.
+Bellamy, Lt.-Col. R., D.S.O., 14, 30, 43, 51, 104.
+Bennett, Lieut. A. E. G., 199.
+Bennett, Maj. H. J., M.C., 14, 15, 23, 43, 86, 92, 145, 164-170.
+Berks, 2/4th Royal, 25, 35, 51, 55, 66, 77, 98, 102, 122, 124, 161,
+       163, 169, 170, 181, 204.
+Bermerain, 218.
+Bernaville, 111.
+Bicknell, Capt. A., M.C., 34, 152, 211.
+Birt, Sgt. J. W., 190, 210.
+Boase, Lieut. T. S. R., M.C., 175, 182, 186.
+Boyle, Lt.-Col. C. R. C., D.S.O., 187.
+Brigade, 182nd Inf., 78, 85, 87, 160, 198, 213.
+-------- 183rd Inf., 126, 169, 208.
+Brazier, Sgt., 194, 198.
+Brooks, C.S.M. E., V.C., 34, 64, 66, 101, 117.
+Brooks, Sgt. M. T., 194, 211.
+Broomfield, 4.
+Brown, Capt. K. E., M.C., 14, 23, 38, 40, 51, 56, 85, 117, 119,
+       132, 159, 171.
+Broxeele, 114.
+Brucamps, 49.
+Brucker, Capt. A. H., 14, 117, 124.
+Bucks, 2/1st, 35, 79, 81, 94, 125, 135, 158, 174, 175.
+Buggins, Father, 79.
+Buller, Sgt., 109.
+Butcher, Sgt., M. M., 101.
+Buttfield, Capt. L. F., M.C., 175, 182.
+
+
+Cairns, C.S.M. J., D.C.M., 124, 125, 172.
+Callender, Lieut. J. C., 14, 117, 119, 124.
+Calonne, 177, 179-183, 204.
+Calonne Road, 19, 183, 186, 190, 196.
+Cambrai, 217, 219.
+Cameron, Bde. Signalling Officer, 219.
+Canteen, the, 189, 190.
+Carvin, 179, 191, 196.
+Caulaincourt, 81, 86.
+Cepy Farm, 94, 102, 160.
+Chapelle Boom, 209.
+Chaulnes, 49, 56, 60, 78, 79.
+Chemical Works, 142, 149.
+Chili Avenue, 143.
+Chocques, 174, 177.
+Christie-Miller, Lieut.-Col. G., D.S.O., M.C., 197.
+Christmas Day, 41, 155, 219, 220.
+Clarence River, 179, 191.
+Clutsom, Capt. C. R., 175, 197, 211, 214.
+Coles, Corpl., 63, 66.
+Collett, Sgt., 30.
+Connell, Bugler, 190.
+Contay Wood, 22.
+Copinger, Lieut. J. P., 117, 140.
+Coombes, Lieut. H. K., 117, 194.
+Coucher, Lieut. G. W., 186.
+Craddock, Lieut., 170.
+Crosthwaite, Capt. H. T., 213.
+Cubbage, Lieut., 197, 203.
+Cunningham, C.S.M., 211.
+Cunningham, Lieut. J. C., 159, 162.
+Cupper, Lieut. H. J., 218.
+Cuthbert, Capt. R. F., M.C., 14, 30, 51, 63, 149, 210.
+
+
+Davenport, Capt. H. N., M.C., 7, 9, 14, 38, 75, 166, 168.
+Davies, Pte. A. H., 137.
+Dawson-Smith, Lieut. C. F., 117.
+D.C.L.I., 1 5th, 34, 36, 166, 179.
+Deniecourt, 51.
+Desire Trench, 25, 26, 38.
+Dimmer, Lt.-Col. J. S., V.C., 168.
+Division, 4th, 183, 188.
+          5th, 201.
+         15th, 122, 126, 144.
+         17th, 143.
+         20th, 166, 168, 175.
+         32nd, 55, 90.
+         48th, 122, 124, 126.
+         51st, 177, 179.
+         59th, 84, 85, 217.
+Domart, 219.
+Douglas, R.S.M.W., 14, 172.
+Doullens, 174, 177.
+Dugan, Br.-Gen. W. J., C.M.G., D.S.O., 14.
+Duncan, Maj.-Gen. F. J., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., 207, 220.
+
+
+Ellis, Lieut., 210.
+Enghien Redoubt, 160, 162, 165.
+Estaires, 17, 212-214.
+Etaples, 220.
+
+
+Fabick Trench, 23.
+Faithfull, Capt. J. H. D., 211.
+Fauquissart, 10.
+Fayet, 90, 94, 96, 98, 157, 158, 160-163, 171.
+Field Trench, 36, 37.
+Foreshew, Capt. C. E. P., M.C., 159.
+Framerville, 76, 80.
+Freudemacher, C.Q.-M.S., 193.
+'Frolics,' the, 198, 219.
+Fry, Lieut., 61.
+
+
+Gas, 114, 128, 136, 150, 203.
+Gascoyne, Lieut., 117, 124.
+Gepp, Bde.-Maj., 33, 148, 149.
+Gloucester Farm, 19, 191.
+Gloucesters, 2/5th, 15, 35, 84, 85, 90, 162, 163, 169, 170, 183,
+             184, 187, 188, 204, 216.
+Goldfish Chateau, 120, 125-127.
+Gonnelieu, 153, 154.
+Goodman, Lance-Cpl., 140.
+Gouzeaucourt, 152, 153.
+Grandcourt, 24, 28.
+Greenland Hill, 105, 149.
+Guest, Lieut. H. R., M.C., 117, 125, 140.
+Guildford, Lieut., 64.
+
+
+Ham, 166, 168.
+Hangest, 176.
+Harbonnieres, 49.
+Harling, Major R. W., 34.
+Harris, Capt. H. T. T., 117.
+Hall, Pte., D.C.M., 151.
+Haussy, 218.
+Havrincourt Wood, 154.
+Hawkes, Lieut. T. W. P., 117.
+Hazebrouck, 177, 195, 200.
+Hedauville, 30, 33, 34, 43.
+Hedges, R.Q.M.S. W. C., 14.
+Hedley, R.S.M. W., D.C.M., 175, 203.
+Herbert, Lieut. S. E., 109.
+Hessian Trench, 30, 37, 38, 40.
+Hill, Lieut. T. A., 117.
+Hill 35, 131-140.
+Hinton, Sgt., M.M. 15.
+Hobbs, Capt. (Q.-M.) W. A., 14, 21, 45, 159.
+Holder, C.Q.-M.S. C. R., 193.
+Holnon, 90, 91, 102, 157, 159, 162, 163.
+Hombleux, 88, 166.
+Howland, Sgt., 1.
+Howitt, Capt. (Bde.-Maj.) H. G., D.S.O., M.C., 148, 169, 178.
+Hunt, Lieut. C. B., 25, 29, 64, 65.
+
+
+Infantry Hill, 105.
+Isbergues, 177, 194.
+Itchin Farm, 212.
+
+
+Jones, Capt. H., M.C., 44, 100, 101, 117, 162, 171, 172, 211.
+July 19th, 1916, Operations of, 12, 13.
+Junction Post, 214-216.
+
+
+Kemp, Lieut. S. F., M.C. 175, 186.
+Kilby. Sergt., 100, 101.
+Kirk, Lieut. J., 175, 193, 198, 203.
+Kettle, Sgt., 190.
+
+
+La Gorgue, 10, 212, 214.
+La Lacque, 194.
+La Motte, 169-171.
+La Pierre au Beurre, 185, 188.
+La Pierriere, 189, 197-199.
+Languevoisin, 164, 165.
+Laventie, 8, 10, 176, 214-216.
+Lawson, Lt.-Col. A. B., D.S.O., 163, 169, 188, 191.
+Leatherbarrow, Sergt. J., 98, 101, 117.
+Les Amusoires, 179, 181, 182, 196.
+Les Fosses Farm, 107.
+Le Vergier, 84, 85.
+Liettres, 199.
+Lindsey, Lieut., 109.
+Linghem, 198, 216.
+Lodge, 2/Lt. T., M.C., 175, 181, 186, 187, 189.
+Loewe, Lieut. L. L., 43.
+Longford, Pte., 26, 66.
+Longley, Pte., 66.
+Lyon, Lieut., 44.
+Lys River, 176, 212, 213.
+
+
+Mackenzie, Maj.-Gen. Sir Colin, K.C.B., 49, 165, 195.
+Maison Ponthieu, 42, 45, 49.
+Maissemy, 81, 90, 163.
+Marcelcave, 49, 169, 170.
+Marchelepot, 56, 60, 79.
+Marcon, Capt. C. S. W., 57.
+Maresches, 219.
+Martinsart Wood, 31, 33, 34.
+Matthews, Capt. C. S., 117, 159.
+Merville, 8, 10, 17, 176, 177, 179, 182, 188, 201, 204, 212.
+Miller, Capt. J. G. R., 186.
+Moated Grange, 17.
+Moberly, Capt. W. H., D.S.O., 9, 117, 125, 150, 151, 165, 166, 172.
+Monchy-le-Preux, 105, 106.
+Montolu Wood, 81, 86.
+Monument, at Fayet, 90, 171.
+Moorat, 23.
+Moore, Capt. (Bde.-Maj.), L. G., D.S.O., 92, 93, 98.
+Moore, Col.-Sgt., 1.
+Mouquet Farm, 23, 35, 36.
+Moss, C.S.M., 188.
+Mowby, Sergt. W., 100.
+Mudd, C.S.M. A. J., 211.
+Muir, Lt.-Col. J. B., D.S.O., 158.
+Murray, Capt. (Q.M.) W. G., 159, 172, 175, 193, 197.
+
+
+Nesle, 168, 169, 175.
+Neuf Berquin, 201, 204, 211-213.
+Neuve Chapelle, 10.
+Neuvillette, 20, 104.
+Nicholas, Bde.-Maj., 220.
+Nieppe Forest, 177, 178, 201-206, 209.
+Noc River, 20, 179, 181, 198.
+Noeux, 111, 112.
+Northampton, 3.
+
+
+O'Connor, Lance-Cpl., 100.
+O'Meara, Lieut. R. A., M.C., 155, 185.
+Offoy, 165, 166.
+Omignon River, 79, 84.
+Orderly Room, 210, 211.
+Oxford, Battalion billeted in colleges, 2.
+Oxfords, 6th, 159, 187.
+
+
+Pagan, Brig.-Gen. A. W., D.S.O., 176, 183, 196, 198.
+Palmer, Sgt., 117, 137.
+Parkhouse Camp, 6.
+Parsons, Sgt., 43.
+Patrols, 29, 40.
+Plate Becque, 201, 204, 210.
+Pond Farm, 122, 124, 125.
+Ponne Copse, 86.
+Poperinghe, 115, 119.
+Portuguese, 177, 178, 187, 194.
+P.U.O., 197.
+Pym, Bde.-Maj., 33.
+
+
+Raid, at Ablaincourt (by enemy), 58, 63, 64.
+  by A Coy., 15.
+  by B Coy., 9.
+  by C Coy., 191.
+  by D Coy., 92.
+Rainecourt, 49, 77.
+Ravenscroft, Sgt., D.C.M., 201.
+Regina Dug-out, 26.
+Regina Trench, 25, 27, 30, 38.
+Riez Bailleul, 17, 19.
+Robecq, 19, 20, 177-184, 187, 188, 196.
+Roberts, Pte., 66.
+Robinson, Capt. A. J., 14, 23, 25, 38, 51, 56, 160, 171, 189, 191.
+Rockall, Corpl., 29, 61.
+Rose, Maj. D. M., 14.
+Rowbotham, Capt. G. V., M.C., 159, 160.
+Rowbotham, Lance-Cpl., 66, 137, 139, 140.
+Rowlerson, Lieut. G. A., M.C., 191, 215.
+Ruthven, Maj. W. L., 43.
+
+
+Sailly-sur-la-Lys, 212, 216.
+St. Hilaire, 199, 200.
+St. Hubert, 218.
+St. Omer, 195.
+St. Pol, 174, 177.
+St. Quentin, 82, 87, 89, 90, 103.
+St. Venant, 176, 178, 181, 183, 187, 196.
+Schuler Farm, 122.
+Scott, Lieut. W. D., 7, 117, 119, 124.
+Selency, 90, 160, 162.
+Sepmeries, 218.
+Shields, Capt. (M.O.), 197.
+Shilson, Capt. J. W., 211.
+Short, Pte., 66.
+Sloper, Sgt., M. M., 101, 117.
+Smith, Pte., 66.
+Smith, C.S.M. S., D.C.M., 211.
+Soyecourt, 81, 82.
+Spresiano Camp, 204.
+Stanley, Capt. J., M.C., 185, 188, 215.
+Stobie, Capt. W., O.B.E., 26, 79, 106, 169.
+Stockton, Capt. J. G., 7, 23, 43, 51, 84, 117, 124.
+Suffolks, 5th, 209, 211.
+Sunken Road (Fayet), 90, 94, 96, 161.
+Suzanne, 155, 156.
+Symonds, Capt. R. F., 203, 210, 219.
+
+
+Taylor, Lieut., 97, 100, 101.
+Taylor, C.Q.-M.S., 193.
+Tertry, 81.
+Thomas, 'Benny,' 144, 159.
+Thompson, Pte., 66.
+Thorne, Brig.-Gen. A. F. A. N., C.M.G., D.S.O., 219.
+Tiddy, Lieut. R. J. E., 7, 15.
+Tilly, Lieut., 86.
+Timms, Pte., 25, 63, 66.
+Transport, the, 192-194.
+Tremellen, Lance-Cpl., 75.
+Tripp's Farm, 196.
+Tubbs, Capt. A., 94.
+Tullock's Corner, 36.
+
+
+Ugny, 159, 164, 165.
+Uzzell, Lance-Cpl., 64.
+
+
+Vendegies, 218.
+Verlaines, 166, 168.
+Vermandovillers, 77, 79.
+Viggers, Corpl., 76, 97, 140.
+Villers Bretonneux, 169, 171.
+Vlamertinghe, 120.
+Voyennes, 165, 166.
+
+
+Waldon, Col.-Sgt., 1.
+Wallington, Lieut. C. H., M.C., 151, 160.
+Warwircks, 2 6th, 179.
+           2 7th, 181.
+Watkins, Sgt., 82, 84.
+Wayte, Lieut. J. P., M.C., 85, 86.
+Webb, Lieut. E. S. F., 117.
+Weller, Lieut. B. O., 157.
+Wetherall, Lieut.-Col. H. de R., D.S.O., M.C., 104, 111, 132,
+           150, 187, 196, 203, 204.
+White, Brig.-Gen. the Hon. R., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., 15, 39, 48,
+       93, 112, 121, 145-148, 163, 165.
+Wilcox, Lance-Cpl. A., V.C., 215.
+Wieltje, 132, 134.
+Williams, Col.-Sergt., 1.
+Willink, Capt. G. O. W., M.C., 169.
+Wiltshire, Lieut. G. H., 149.
+Winchester Post, 10.
+Winnipeg, 122.
+Wise, Lance-Cpl., 140.
+Wood. R.S.M. T. V., 1.
+Woodford, Lieut. G. W., M.C., 193.
+Woulfe-Flanagan, Lt.-Col. E. M., C.M.G., D.S.O., 203, 220.
+Wright, Bugler, 66.
+Writtle, 4.
+
+
+Young, Capt. R. E. M., 211.
+Ypres, 58, 119, 120.
+
+
+Zeder, Lieut. J. H., D.C.M., 7, 9.
+Zollern Redoubt, 36, 38.
+
+
+
+HOLYWELL PRESS, OXFORD.
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   Page 94: The word "and" has been added in the sentence "The attack
+   was ably dealt with by Tubbs' company of the Bucks-and-had proved
+   abortive for the enemy".
+
+   Page 109: "Another development which was destined to play an ever
+   increasing part in the war and to make its closing phases worse in
+   some respects that its early, was the long-range high-velocity gun."
+   The word "that" has been changed to "than".
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE 2/4TH OXFORDSHIRE
+AND BUCKINGHAMSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY***
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