UNEVENTFUL DAYS
The Battalion now moved back to Bus, that shady village with its white
château so long used as Divisional Headquarters in the old days. Here
General Fanshawe inspected the Battalion, addressed them on their late
exploits, and presented Military Medals to Privates S. Smith and T.
Russell. He spoke of the importance of practising open fighting, which
he said might be the next task of the Battalion, a prophecy which, as
we shall see, was fulfilled when we fought at Ronssoy in the German
retreat next April. He added that the responsibility of officers and
N.C.O.'s would be even greater than that in the late fighting, where
all realised by experience how much depended upon them.
A short spell of 48 hours in the trenches followed in front of
Auchonvillers, facing the coveted spur of Beaumont-Hamel, which was to
fall in November. Here we sustained our only casualties during the
month, one killed and one wounded, a happy contrast to August, when
286 men were put out of action. During this tour the Huns loosed a
number of small balloons, which drifted behind our lines, scattering
leaflets. These effusions, written in French for the benefit of the
civil population, commented with brazen and comic impudence on the
action of French aviators in bombing innocent German towns. The German
military authorities, they amusingly remarked, believing that the
French were incapable of such barbarity, thought that the airmen must
have mistaken their objectives. But, no! The origin of these crimes
is now known. They were expressly ordered by M. Poincaré, 'the slave
of England.' (This new title for the President is printed in thick
black type.) They are part of a devilish plan, conceived by England to
revive the dying hatred of France against Germany, by forcing the
latter Power to reprisals on French civilians, reprisals which she
would be most reluctant to take. This illuminating specimen of German
psychology deserves, I think, to be recorded.
The remainder of the month was divided between Beauval and Candas, a
new village, whose inhabitants, with a curious naiveness, imagined
that the blue hearts, which the Battalion wore as distinguishing
badges, were the hallmark of a dangerous brand of storm-troops, and
signified their desire to have the hearts of their enemies. So strong
was this conviction among them that they locked their houses and
refused us an entry until matters were explained. The barns allotted
to the men were found half full of the produce of the harvest. The
usual work was carried on; new drafts arrived steadily, men of good
quality, but of little experience, though always with a leaven of old
1st/4th men returning after wounds and sickness. A number of new
officers, 17 in all, also joined the Battalion from a variety of
regiments, 5th Norfolks, 4th Northants, 4th Royal Sussex and 10th
Middlesex, no supplies from our own Reserve Battalion being at the
moment available. Further awards also of decorations won during July
and August kept coming through with gratifying regularity, and will be
found in the appendix. Finally the C.O. was awarded the D.S.O. to the
delight of all ranks, who trusted him implicitly, knew how minutely he
studied their comfort, and how much of their success was due to his
untiring thoroughness in every detail of organisation.
October, that wettest of months, in which the last fires of the Somme
flickered out, quenched by the everlasting rain, was spent by us in a
variety of places, mainly well behind the lines, but far from
comfortable. Such was Sombrin, 9 miles south-west of Arras, where
officers were faced with the unpleasing alternative of sleeping in
barns or in dripping and unboarded tents. Then we revisited Souastre
after thirteen months, overlooking the ruins of Fonquevillers and the
splintered remnants of Gommecourt Wood ravaged by 15-inch shells. Here
again the liveliest activity was manifest. That successful finale to
the year's fighting known as the Ancre Battle had been planned for
October 14th, though owing to repeated postponements it was not
launched until a month later. Again, day after day enormous working
parties descended into Hébuterne, some to pursue mining operations
under the R.E.'s, others to bury cable between the village and Sailly.
Two strenuous days (12th and 13th) spent in the trenches immediately
opposite Gommecourt cost us 16 casualties. Our line here still bore
witness to the terrible bombardment which had frustrated the efforts
of the 56th Division on July 1st, for long sections of trench then
levelled and rendered impassable had not since been opened out. Every
man not on duty was employed with one or other of the multifarious
details for the expected attack, while on the morning of the 13th
heavy shells were poured upon us, amongst them being many 11-inch.
About this time Major Aldworth left the Battalion, to which he
afterwards returned as Second-in-Command, to attend General Kentish's
school for senior officers at Aldershot. B Company, as we have seen,
did extraordinarily well under his command. The following N.C.O.'s
were promoted to commissioned rank at Souastre for bravery and good
conduct in the field: Sergts. Wickens, Ross, Turner, Rogers, Cawley
and Crust. The two latter gained command of B and A Companies
respectively during 1918. These appointments were most gratifying to
officers and men of the Battalion. During the remainder of the month
we moved about from place to place in the neighbourhood of Beauval and
between it and the Somme. It stands greatly to the credit of the
Battalion's fitness and discipline that not a man fell out during all
those marches in the rain over indescribably miry roads.
On October 31st an eastward move of the Brigade settled us in a camp
at Millencourt, the village on the western hill looking down at
Albert, on the fringe of the old battlefields. The fighting had died
down, but an enemy had to be encountered more insidious and more
trying to endurance and moral--namely, the mud and the cold.