SUMMER AND AUTUMN IN ARTOIS
During the six weeks after our arrival the weather was very broken,
with many violent thunderstorms and very little heat. Except for eight
days at Sailly, where fear of aeroplanes was fortunately sufficient to
prevent parades, but not cricket in the orchards, we spent all our
time at Hébuterne. The Battalion, for the most part, relieved itself
as at Plugstreet, but had no fixed dwelling-place, sometimes extending
as far to the right as Trench Bugeaud, half way up the north slope of
the hill of Serre, where the ground was littered with the debris and
decomposing bodies of the June fighting, sometimes as far to the left
as Trench Morand, about 300 yards north of where the Bucquoy road
crossed the trenches. From Morand to Hoche the lie of the land was all
in our favour; the trenches were sited just in front of the gentle
rise which covered Hébuterne; 500 to 600 yards away, at the bottom of
the dip lay the enemy, about 40 feet below us, and behind him the
ground again rose leisurely and showed its slope towards us for 3,000
yards, with the hand of the Hun writ large in chalk, revealing his
second and third line with the great covered communication trenches
which connected them. The left of the picture was closed by Gommecourt
Wood, of sinister memory, with its pretty little red-roofed village
encased therein, and its gaping cemetery sticking out from the
south-east corner. On the skyline appeared several battered farms, La
Brayelle, Les Essarts, and Rettemoy, each surrounded by copses and
orchards, and on their right the Bois de Biez, which provided a home
for those thorns in our flesh, the 5.9-inch howitzers. On its right
flank again running down the hill towards us was the Bois Rossignol,
where an active battery of field guns made music less tuneful than
that of the bird whence the wood was named.
Straight in front of Trench Bataille, about 900 yards away, stood the
skeleton of the little farm called by the French Sans Nom. It was the
favourite point on which every type of gun registered, and the Germans
attached great importance to its bowels, for night after night
hand-carts unloaded there, and men could be heard by patrols talking
and hammering. Much interest and amusement could be obtained from this
panorama with field glasses and telescope. Along the road which ran
obliquely from Les Essarts to Gommecourt came cyclists, fatigue men,
and occasionally formed bodies of troops, who, when assailed with long
range machine gun fire, extended and advanced in short rushes. One day
two fat Huns carrying a dixie walked along the side of the great chalk
communication trench, who, when Sergeant Daniels fired a shot at 1,200
yards, dropped their burden and leapt nimbly into the trench. One
morning when Goolden and I were looking through a telescope we noticed
a trestle table being put up near Rettemoy Farm: this was followed by
half a dozen German officers accompanied by two ladies dressed in
white, who, after surveying the view, sat down to lunch. We thought
this too good an opportunity to miss, and informed the F.O.O. By
describing this little gathering as a working party, he obtained the
major's permission to fire, and the ladies' meal was soon interrupted
by four rounds of shrapnel.
Opposite Lassalle a shoulder ran out towards the German lines with its
steep northern face covered with dense thickets of thorn, apt cover
for night adventures; this shoulder so restricted our view that from
one trench the field of fire amounted to no more than 10 yards. If
you walked south you passed the Puisieux road, opposite which and some
500 yards away was a clump of tall poplars between the lines generally
known as the Seven Sisters. There was a superstition that this was
held by the enemy, but when explored by a daylight patrol of the 5th
Gloucesters nothing was discovered in the nature of defences. South of
the road the line curved south-west into lower ground and became
separated from the opposing trench by 900 yards. From here another
wide prospect unfolded itself, with Puisieux 2 miles away, lifting its
white spire from a knoll enclosed on three sides by beech woods.
Behind an occasional wisp of smoke showed that a train was making its
way between Achiet and Miraumont, whose supply depots were frequently
visited by our bombarding squadrons. A mile to the south the hamlet of
Serre, twice fruitlessly attacked next year, topped a barren and
shell-blown ridge. About this point, notorious for frequent visits
from the earth-shelling aerial torpedo, began the lines of the 4th
Division, once again our neighbours. They were our sister division in
the 7th Corps, which was completed by the arrival at the end of August
of the 37th Division, who after spending some days with us for
instruction relieved the French on our left at Fonquevillers and
Hannescamps. The commander of the 3rd Army, which was gradually
increased until its line extended to the southern marshes of the
Somme, was at this time Sir C. Monro, afterwards Commander-in-chief in
India.
The month of August passed quietly with us, though rendered notable by
the great German successes in Russia. The fate of Warsaw moved the
enemy to put up notice-boards announcing the event, one of which had
on one side 'Warschau Gefallen,' and on the other, apparently
reversable by a string, 'Gott Strafe England.' With commendable
caution, however, they were planted so near their own trench that it
required a field glass to read them. A few days later, when the German
Fleet met with misfortune in the Gulf of Riga, Sergt. Tester posted a
board with details of that reverse just in front of their barbed wire.
The French batteries remained with us for a month, while our gunners
were registering, and given a free hand in accordance with the British
custom of annoying the enemy incessantly, showed a complete mastery
over him.
Throughout the night at uncertain intervals their guns threw shells
into Gommecourt. It was difficult to believe that the terrible
explosions which resulted were caused by a shell lighter than our 18
pounders, whose shrapnel burst with an almost inaudible 'pip.'
Practically the only retaliation indulged in by the Germans was to
shell our batteries as they were getting into their gun-pits, though
without serious damage. About the end of the month, however, a serious
misfortune befell A Company, one of whose platoons was half destroyed
by a 4.2-inch, which struck the Brickfields, a dangerous and
conspicuous supporting point. The men had just returned from bathing
in the village, when the shell fell among them, killing five and
wounding nine. At the same spot also Lance-Corpl. Boston, of B
Company, was blown to pieces while gallantly remaining out to see that
the working party under his charge had taken cover safely.
On September 3rd, Captain (now Major, O.B.E.) Porter, Secretary of the
County Association, spent a night with the Battalion in the trenches,
and was thus able to assure the people of Berkshire, if such assurance
was needed, that its Territorial Battalion was doing its fair share of
the laborious task of holding the British front line. Next day, after
a month's continuous residence in Hébuterne or the trenches, we were
relieved by the 144th Brigade. The relief was carried out in daylight,
both Brigades marching boldly along the Sailly road, the crest of
which was in clear distant view of the enemy. The two intermediate
communication trenches, Larrey and Jena, some 2,500 yards long, were
not yet sufficiently repaired for our passage. This labour of love was
accomplished by the 5th Sussex, who were attached to the Brigade as
Pioneer Battalion, and lived at Sailly. We marched to Authie, 7 miles
back, and remained there 12 days; this village was until January to be
the rest billets of ourselves and the 4th Gloucesters for alternate
periods. It lies in the valley of the Authie River, between downs of
chalk, beech-covered, which put on beautiful colours as soon as the
first frosts of autumn touched them. The whole countryside is indeed
strangely reminiscent of the Chiltern Hills of Oxfordshire and Bucks.
Battalion Headquarters were at the Château, a substantially-built,
comfortable house under the southern slopes of the hills, belonging to
a widow, Madame De Wailly, who lived there with her two daughters.
Most of the best billets were occupied by the elderly heroes of the
A.O.D. and the Ammunition Column, but it is a roomy village, and
accommodated us without difficulty. The measure of its prosperity may
be gauged by the fact that whereas before the war there were three
shops, there were now 27. Our principal work was to make thousands of
hurdles in the Bois de Warnimont, which greatly to the men's disgust
mysteriously disappeared as soon as made; for when we indented for
them in the trenches we received no more than 17 for the whole
Brigade. Presumably they went to beautify the corps line, which was
such a model of perfected trench artistry that it seemed almost a pity
that it was never likely to be used. In this wood in company with a
few fallow deer, a Navvies' Battalion lived under canvas, who
performed most useful work in digging flints and repairing the roads.
In age they ranged from 40 to 70, and were a cheery crew, mainly from
Wales. Their notions of military discipline were, as may be imagined,
singular, and it is credibly reported that on one occasion, when
General Fanshawe rebuked a navvy for not saluting him, the offender
beckoned with his thumb towards a pal and exclaimed, ''Ere, Bill, come
and 'ave a look at this.'
On September 7th General Monro, G.O.C. 3rd Army, inspected the
Battalion, who were drawn up in old quarter-column formation with 12
paces interval in the Berkshire field on the west outskirts of the
village. He was greatly pleased with the appearance of the Battalion,
and in his subsequent address thus expressed his satisfaction:--
'After hearing what your Divisional General has said of you, I
expected to see a very fine body of men on parade to-day, and I can
assure you--I say so straight out--that I am not in the very least
disappointed. Your bearing as well as your order and steadiness in the
ranks, and the way in which you put your equipment on, all go to show
that you know the right thing, and prove the high standard which you
set before you. I am well acquainted with your 1st Battalion, and have
served with them in this present war. They have lived up to the high
traditions which attach to the regiment, and to the good name which
they have won in the past. You are proud to belong to such a regiment;
you have already reached a high standard, and I hope and believe you
will continue to retain that high standard.... I hear from your
Divisional Commander that you have conscientiously carried out all the
work allotted to you. In the sentry line your vigilance has been
beyond all criticism. You have done good work in all that pertains to
the work of the trenches, digging and so on. Moreover, your conduct in
the village and in billets has been uniformly good.'
During this stay at Authie rumours began to be active. It was
persistently reported that the 'great offensive' would be in full
swing before September was out. Some of the A.S.C., who had been
buying coal at Marles-les-Mines, reported that the country round
Béthune was incredibly thick with guns, while a similar and more
detailed forecast was brought back by officers who had dined with the
4th Divisional Headquarters. Then leave, which had been on more or
less regularly since the beginning of June, was indefinitely stopped.
Thus, though no one yet knew the date arranged for the opening of the
battle, expectations were abroad, and each morning the significance of
any unusual cannonade was eagerly discussed. Amidst such an atmosphere
of uncertainty we relieved the 4th Gloucesters at Hébuterne on
September 17th, making the passage from Sailly over the brow of the
hill for the first time by the congested Boyau Larrey.
For a few days we lived our ordinary trench life, and helped to
instruct a company of the 13th Manchesters; but on September 21st the
bombardment from the sea to the Vosges opened in our sector, with
short fierce bursts of fire on the enemy villages and roads. On
September 23rd, at 7.30 a.m., a squadron of 21 aeroplanes, spread
loosely over the sky, flew over Hébuterne to attack the station of
Valenciennes; throughout this day the roar of the guns to north and
south was continuous; as the sun set a fierce thunderstorm came up,
and the rival rumblings and flashes of nature and machinery in the
dusk made a sufficiently lurid prelude for battle. On the 24th it
became generally known that in certain contingent events, carefully
kept secret, the Brigade would attack between Gommecourt Wood and the
Puisieux road, with the Berks and the Bucks in the leading waves.
Accordingly, the gunners got to work, and the 18-pounders cut three
narrow lanes in the enemy wire (which each night the patient Hun
carefully repaired), while the howitzers played on the forts and
beehive structures in Gommecourt Wood and near Ferme Sans Nom. It was
far and away their biggest show up to date, but the number of rounds
fired by the Divisional Artillery in the three hottest days was only
5,000, an amount which, by present-day standards, appears ludicrously
small. Meanwhile, two platoons of 5th Sussex, cursing the fortune
which had brought them up again to the trenches, were packed into the
battalion sector to look after our belongings, if we went over.
Saturday, the 25th, broke wet and misty; the lovely autumn weather of
the past fortnight had gone for good. The gunners were unable clearly
to see their targets, or to mark by the spurt of dry earth the exact
strike of their wire-cutting shrapnel. Through the mist on that most
inappropriate morning appeared a herd of cows and men harvesting
between Rossignol and Puisieux, not much more than a mile from our
lines.
During the day a notable series of messages came through from G.H.Q.,
and it seemed at first as if the attack had broken the German lines,
as we identified on our maps those names then unfamiliar--Loos, Hill
70, Hulluch, Cité St. Elie, and Cité St. Auguste--which successive
messages announced as having passed into our hands. Then came the
reports from Champagne with their impressive and ever-growing lists of
guns and prisoners. The men were in high spirits, and some of B
Company were heard making bets as to who would take the first German
prisoner. Towards evening, however, the messages spoke only of
violent counter-attacks and ground lost, while it was announced that
the attack of the French Corps on our immediate left had failed
completely. When this message reached Major Hedges in the Keep just as
he was turning in, he summed up our general feeling by his remark:
'Well, I think I can take my boots off now.' Throughout the whole of
Sunday expectation was at its highest pitch, for all believed that if
the general advance was coming it would come quickly. But there was
little positive news beyond the short French statement: 'We have taken
Souchez.' Yet in the evening all the last preparations for attack were
hastily carried through. A Berks and a Bucks dump were dug in the
trenches, in which were collected all the engineering material
required for an assault--tools, sandbags, trench bridges and flags for
marking out positions in the captured line. The Brigade Signallers
were busy putting up directions everywhere for the Bucks, who were to
take over the left of our line: and new maps were issued to come into
use at midnight. The night was very disturbed with bursts of rapid
fire, and once a great cheer from the Warwicks at Fonquevillers, who
were simulating an attack; while thousands of spent bullets from the
37th Division in the loop north of Gommecourt came wearily to rest in
our trenches, several of which struck sentries in the sap-heads
without doing them any harm. Early next morning a British aeroplane
flew very low over the enemy trenches and, as desired, drew heavy
fire, thereby proving them to be full of men, a matter in doubt
before, as they had not responded to our attempts at provocation. But
during the day it became increasingly clear that the great scheme had
failed; for, although a message came from 3rd Army saying 'that in
view of the great Allied successes both north and south it is
possible that the Germans may evacuate their trenches, and in that
case you must be prepared to slip quietly into them at a moment's
notice,' its effect was more than discounted by a simple message which
read: 'Work may now be resumed as usual in the trenches.' The enemy,
meanwhile, appeared to be well acquainted with our plans, for voices
were heard calling out, 'Come on, Bucks, come on, Berks!' 'The Royal
Berks will lead the attack,' while a humorist shouted from the fort at
Gommecourt, 'Run away, English; go away home.' The enemy had indeed
good reason to be confident in the strength of these positions, which
twice next year were to defy capture after the most elaborate
preparation. The turmoil of the last few days was now succeeded by a
complete calm in which scarcely a gun spoke.
On September 30th we were relieved in due course by the 6th
Gloucesters, but went not to Authie, which was considered too far
away, but to Souastre, a village in the area of the 37th Division,
five kilometres west of Fonquevillers. As we approached we were played
into the village by our band of drums and fifes, which had just
arrived from England. Here the Battalion remained for six days in
readiness to move at half an hour's notice, with baggage and transport
reduced to a minimum, before we returned to Authie and resumed for
many months to come our customary alternation of trench duty and rest,
though the respective periods were in future lessened from 12 days to
8.
By our next return to the trenches autumn was already merging into
early winter in this chilly tableland, with sharp night frosts and
thick white mists. For days on end it was almost impossible to
distinguish the hostile lines: and so the guns maintained their
silence, for it was unprofitable to fire where you could not observe,
and our own people had the strictest orders to economise rigorously
until the expenditure of the Loos battles had been again made good.
Such weather gave the finest opportunity for patrols, whose wanderings
were made easier by the apparent indifference of the enemy. His saps
and barbed wire were examined more than once, but though hares were
started constantly in the thick tangled grass, only once were his
patrols encountered. On this occasion a party of ten, moving in a
dense fog and pitch darkness along the enemy wire, was challenged, and
a lively fight ensued for a few minutes with rifles, revolvers and
bombs, in the course of which Private A. Gibbs, of D Company, a huge,
stout-hearted soldier, specially distinguished himself. As generally
happens in these blind affrays, there was more noise than damage, and
our patrol, which was considerably outnumbered, made its way safely
back. One man who became separated from his comrades remained,
uncertain of his direction, in No Man's Land for eight hours, until
sunrise showed him his bearings. An officer and sergeant of the 10th
Royal Irish Rifles, who formed part of the patrol, were spending their
first tour of instruction with us in the trenches.
On October 17th-18th the general calm was rudely broken by the
performance of the Bavarian Circus, a travelling siege train of 5.9's
with a few heavier pieces, which retaliated effectively from the Bois
de Biez for our September bombardments. The first day's firing was
directed on the forward billets, Hébuterne, Sailly and Colincamps,
with short fierce bursts from six or seven batteries firing
simultaneously. Next day it was the turn of the Trenches. On the left
of the battalion sector part of D Company held a little salient
position which enclosed a thicket standing steeply some 12 feet above
the Bucquoy road. The enemy apparently believed it to be used for
observation purposes, and frequently directed fire upon it, but in
point of fact it was untenanted by day. On this salient and on its
approaches, a total trench line of about 150 yards, the Bavarians
threw during an hour about 400 5.9's, not to mention smaller shells,
while two field guns galloped into Gommecourt Park and unlimbering in
full view fired obliquely at the wire from point-blank range. They
were harassed and eventually forced to retire by the action of Lieut.
Coombes, of the Bucks, on our left, who gallantly got a machine gun
into the open and took them in the flank. Our own guns were not
available at the time, as they were themselves engaged in a 'shoot'
and busy on pre-arranged targets. Although the trenches were cut to
pieces and the thicket levelled by the fire, which was of extreme
accuracy, not a single serious casualty was incurred. Captain Thorne
had his Company Headquarters just behind the salient, and his dugout
received several hits, and bulged ominously, but did not give way. All
wires were cut, but were promptly repaired by the Company Signallers
in the heat of the bombardment. Meanwhile, the Oxfords had been
assailed with much greater violence, and over 2,000 shells fell in
their lines; while their communication trenches were barraged with
lachrymatory shells. It almost seemed as if an infantry attack might
be imminent, and colour was lent to this theory by an aeroplane
message saying that what appeared to be gas cylinders were observed
along the enemy trenches between Gommecourt and Serre. Accordingly we
stood-to all night repairing the shattered trenches and re-erecting
the wire. The hostile infantry who probably disapproved of their
artillery's activity as likely to bring future trouble upon
themselves, made no attempt to hinder with rifle or machine-gun fire
our all-night task. This was by far the heaviest and most concentrated
bombardment which the Battalion had yet sustained.