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diff --git a/20395-8.txt b/20395-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca48829 --- /dev/null +++ b/20395-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6583 @@ +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*** + + +******* This file should be named 20395-8.txt or 20395-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/3/9/20395 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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