NEUVE CHAPELLE AND HILL 60
The opening of the spring campaign--Surprise of Neuve Chapelle--The
new artillery--Gallant advance and terrible losses--The Indians in
Neuve Chapelle--A sterile victory--The night action of St. Eloi--Hill
60--The monstrous mine--The veteran 13th Brigade--A bloody
battle--London Territorials on the Hill--A contest of endurance--The
first signs of poison.
We now come to the close of the long period of petty and desultory
warfare, which is only relieved from insignificance by the fact that
the cumulative result during the winter was a loss to the Army of not
less than twenty thousand men. With the breaking of the spring and
the drying of the water-soaked meadows of Flanders, an era of larger
and more ambitious operations had set in, involving, it is true,
little change of position, but far stronger forces on the side of the
British. The first hammer-blow of Sir John French was directed, upon
March 10, against that village of Neuve Chapelle which had, as
already described, changed hands several times, and eventually
remained with the Germans during the hard fighting of Smith-Dorrien's
Corps in the last week of October. The British trenches had been
drawn a few hundred yards to the west of the village, and there had
been no change during the last four months. Behind the village was
the Aubers Ridge, and behind that again {13} the whole great plain of
Lille and Turcoing. This was the spot upon which the British General
had determined to try the effects of his new artillery.
[Sidenote: The British surprise.]
His secret was remarkably well kept. Few British and and no Germans
knew where the blow was to fall. The boasted spy system was
completely at fault. The success of Sir John in keeping his secret
was largely dependent upon the fact that above the British lines an
air space had been cleared into which no German airman could enter
save at his own very great peril. No great movement of troops was
needed since Haig's army lay opposite to the point to be attacked,
and it was to two of his corps that the main assault was assigned.
On the other hand, there was a considerable concentration of guns,
which were arranged, over three hundred in number, in such a position
that their fire could converge from various directions upon the area
of the German defences.
It was planned that Smith-Dorrien, along the whole line held by the
Second Army to the north, should demonstrate with sufficient energy
to hold the Germans from reinforcing their comrades. To the south of
the point of attack, the First Army Corps in the Givenchy
neighbourhood had also received instructions to make a strong
demonstration. Thus the Germans of Neuve Chapelle, who were believed
to number only a few battalions, were isolated on either side. It
was advisable also to hinder their reinforcements coming from the
reserves in the northern towns behind the fighting lines. With this
object, instructions were given to the British airmen at any personal
risk to attack all the railway points along which the trains could
come. This was duly done, and the junctions of Menin, Courtrai, Don,
and Douai were {14} attacked, Captain Carmichael and other airmen
bravely descending within a hundred feet of their mark.
The troops chosen for the assault were Rawlinson's Fourth Army Corps
upon the left and the Indian Corps upon the right, upon a front of
half a mile, which as the operation developed broadened to three
thousand yards. The object was not the mere occupation of the
village, but an advance to the farthest point attainable. The Second
Division of Cavalry was held in reserve, to be used in case the
German line should be penetrated. All during the hours of the night
the troops in single file were brought up to the advanced trenches,
which in many cases were less than a hundred yards from the enemy.
Before daylight they were crammed with men waiting most eagerly for
the signal to advance. Short ladders had been distributed, so that
the stormers could swarm swiftly out of the deep trenches.
The obstacle in front of the Army was a most serious one. The barbed
wire entanglements were on an immense scale, the trenches were
bristling with machine-guns, and the village in the rear contained
several large outlying houses with walls and orchards, each of which
had been converted into a fortress. On the other hand, the defenders
had received no warning, and therefore no reinforcement, so that the
attackers were far the more numerous. It is said that a German
officer's attention was called to the stir in the opposing trenches,
and that he was actually at the telephone reporting his misgivings to
headquarters when the storm broke loose.
[Sidenote: Terrific bombardment.]
It was at half-past seven that the first gun boomed from the rear of
the British position. Within a few {15} minutes three hundred were
hard at work, the gunners striving desperately to pour in the
greatest possible number of shells in the shortest period of time.
It had been supposed that some of the very heavy guns could get in
forty rounds in the time, but they actually fired nearly a hundred,
and at the end of it the huge garrison gunners were lying panting
like spent hounds round their pieces. From the 18-pounder of the
field-gun to the huge 1400-pound projectile from the new monsters in
the rear, a shower of every sort and size of missile poured down upon
the Germans, many of whom were absolutely bereft of their senses by
the sudden and horrible experience. Trenches, machine-guns, and
human bodies flew high into the air, while the stakes which supported
the barbed wire were uprooted, and the wire itself torn into ribbons
and twisted into a thousand fantastic coils with many a gap between.
In front of part of the Indian line there was a clean sweep of the
impediments. So also to the right of the British line. Only at the
left of the line, to the extreme north of the German position, was
the fatal wire still quite unbroken and the trenches unapproachable.
Meanwhile, so completely was the resistance flattened out by the
overpowering weight of fire that the British infantry, with their own
shells flowing in a steady stream within a few feet of their heads,
were able to line their parapets and stare across at the wonderful
smoking and roaring swirl of destruction that faced them. Here and
there men sprang upon the parapets waving their rifles and shouting
in the hot eagerness of their hearts. "Our bomb-throwers," says one
correspondent, "started cake-walking." It was but half an hour that
they waited, and yet to many it seemed {16} the longest half-hour of
their lives. It was an extraordinary revelation of the absolute
accuracy of scientific gunfire that the British batteries should dare
to shell the German trenches which were only a hundred yards away
from their own, and this at a range of five or six thousand yards.
[Sidenote: The infantry attack.]
At five minutes past eight the guns ceased as suddenly as they had
begun, the shrill whistles of the officers sounded all along the
line, and the ardent infantry poured over the long lip of the
trenches. The assault upon the left was undertaken by Pinney's 23rd
Infantry Brigade of the Eighth Division. The 25th Brigade of the
same division (Lowry-Cole's) was on the right, and on the right of
them again were the Indians. The 25th Brigade was headed by the 2nd
Lincolns (left) and the 2nd Berkshires (right), who were ordered to
clear the trenches, and then to form a supporting line while their
comrades of the 1st Irish Rifles (left) and the 2nd Rifle Brigade
(right) passed through their ranks and carried the village beyond.
The 1st Londons and 13th London (Kensingtons) were pressing up in
support. Colonel McAndrew, of the Lincolns, was mortally hit at the
outset, but watched the assault with constant questions as to its
progress until he died. It was nothing but good news that he heard,
for the work of the brigade went splendidly from the start. It
overwhelmed the trenches in an instant, seizing the bewildered
survivors, who crouched, yellow with lyddite and shaken by the horror
of their situation, in the corners of the earthworks. As the
Berkshires rushed down the German trench they met with no resistance
at all, save from two gallant German officers, who fought a
machine-gun until both were bayoneted.
{17}
[Sidenote: The ordeal of the 23rd Brigade.]
It was very different, however, with the 23rd Brigade upon the left.
Their experience was a terrible one. As they rushed forward, they
came upon a broad sheet of partly-broken wire entanglement between
themselves and the trenches which had escaped the artillery fire.
The obstacle could not be passed, and yet the furious men would not
retire, but tore and raged at the edge of the barrier even as their
ancestors raged against the scythe-blades of the breach of Badajoz.
The 2nd Scottish Rifles and the 2nd Middlesex were the first two
regiments, and their losses were ghastly. Of the Scottish Rifles,
Colonel Bliss was killed, every officer but one was either killed or
wounded, and half the men were on the ground. The battalion found
some openings, however, especially B Company (Captain Ferrers), upon
their right flank, and in spite of their murderous losses made their
way into the German trenches, the bombardiers, under Lieutenant
Bibby, doing fine work in clearing them, though half their number
were killed. The Middlesex men, after charging through a driving
sleet of machine-gun bullets, were completely held up by an unbroken
obstacle, and after three gallant and costly attacks, when the old
"Die-hards" lived up to their historic name, the remains of the
regiment were compelled to move to the right and make their way
through the gap cleared by the Scottish Rifles. "Rally, boys, and at
it again!" they yelled at every repulse. The 2nd Devons and 2nd West
Yorkshires were in close support of the first line, but their losses
were comparatively small. The bombers of the Devons, under
Lieutenant Wright, got round the obstacle and cleared two hundred
yards of trench. On account of the impregnable {18} German position
upon the left, the right of the brigade was soon three hundred yards
in advance and suffered severely from the enfilade fire of rifles and
machine-guns, the two flanks being connected up by a line of men
facing half left, and making the best of the very imperfect cover.
It should be mentioned that the getting forward of the 23rd Brigade
was largely due to the personal intervention of General Pinney, who,
about 8.30, hearing of their difficult position, came forward himself
across the open and inspected the obstacle. He then called off his
men for a breather while he telephoned to the gunners to reopen fire.
This cool and practical manoeuvre had the effect of partly smashing
the wires. At the same time much depended upon the advance of the
25th Brigade. Having, as stated, occupied the position which faced
them, they were able to outflank the section of the German line which
was still intact. Their left flank having been turned, the defenders
fell back or surrendered, and the remains of the 23rd Brigade were
able to get forward into an alignment with their comrades, the Devons
and West Yorkshires passing through the thinned ranks in front of
them. The whole body then advanced for about a thousand yards.
At this period Major Carter Campbell, who had been wounded in the
head, and Second Lieutenant Somervail, from the Special Reserve, were
the only officers left with the Scottish Rifles; while the Middlesex
were hardly in better case. Of the former battalion only 150 men
could be collected after the action. The 24th Brigade was following
closely behind the other two, and the 1st Worcesters, 2nd East
Lancashires, 1st Sherwood Foresters, and 2nd {19} Northampton were
each in turn warmly engaged as they made good the ground that had
been won. The East Lancashires materially helped to turn the Germans
out of the trenches on the left.
[Sidenote: Gallant Indian advance.]
Whilst the British brigades had been making this advance upon the
left the Indians had dashed forward with equal fire and zeal upon the
right. It was their first real chance of attack upon a large scale,
and they rose grandly to the occasion. The Garhwali Brigade attacked
upon the left of the Indian line, with the Dehra Duns (Jacob) upon
their right, and the Bareillys (Southey) in support, all being of the
Meerut Division. The Garhwalis, consisting of men from the mountains
of Northern India, advanced with reckless courage, the 39th Regiment
upon the left, the 3rd Gurkhas in the centre, the 2nd Leicesters upon
the right, while the 8th Gurkhas, together with the 3rd London
Territorials and the second battalion of the Garhwalis, were in
support. Part of the front was still covered with wire, and the
Garhwalis were held up for a time, but the Leicesters, on their
right, smashed a way through all obstacles. Their Indian comrades
endured the loss of 20 officers and 350 men, but none the less they
persevered, finally swerving to the right and finding a gap which
brought them through. The Gurkhas, however, had passed them, the
agile little men slipping under, over, or through the tangled wire in
a wonderful fashion. The 3rd Londons closely followed the
Leicesters, and were heavily engaged for some hours in forcing a
stronghold on the right flank, held by 70 Germans with machine-guns.
They lost 2 officers, Captain Pulman and Lieutenant Mathieson, and 50
men of A Company, but stuck to their task, and eventually, with the
help {20} of a gun, overcame the resistance, taking 50 prisoners.
The battalion lost 200 men and did very fine work. Gradually the
Territorials were winning their place in the Army. "They can't call
us Saturday night soldiers now," said a dying lad of the 3rd Londons;
and he spoke for the whole force who have endured perverse criticism
for so long.
The moment that the infantry advance upon the trenches had begun, the
British guns were turned upon the village itself. Supported by their
fire, as already described, the victorious Indians from the south and
the 25th Brigade from the west rushed into the streets and took
possession of the ruins which flanked them, advancing with an ardour
which brought them occasionally into the zone of fire from their own
guns. By twelve o'clock the whole position, trenches, village, and
detached houses, had been carried, while the artillery had lengthened
its range and rained shrapnel upon the ground over which
reinforcements must advance. The Rifles of the 25th Brigade and the
3rd Gurkhas of the Indians were the first troops in Neuve Chapelle.
It is not to be imagined that the powerful guns of the enemy had
acquiesced tamely in these rapid developments. On the contrary, they
had kept up a fire which was only second to that of the British in
volume, but inferior in effect, since the latter had registered upon
such fixed marks as the trenches and the village, while the others
had but the ever-changing line of an open order attack. How dense
was the fall of the German shells may be reckoned from the fact that
the telephone lines by which the observers in the firing line
controlled the gunners some miles behind them were continually
severed, {21} although they had been laid down in duplicate, and
often in triplicate. There were heavy losses among the stormers, but
they were cheerfully endured as part of the price of victory. The
jovial exultation of the wounded as they were carried or led to the
dressing stations was one of the recollections which stood out
clearest amid the confused impressions which a modern battle leaves
upon the half-stunned mind of the spectator.
At twelve o'clock the position had been carried, and yet it was not
possible to renew the advance before three. These few hours were
consumed in rearranging the units, which had been greatly mixed up
during the advance, in getting back into position the left wing of
the 25th Brigade, which had been deflected by the necessity of
relieving the 23rd Brigade, and in bringing up reserves to take the
place of regiments which had endured very heavy losses. Meanwhile
the enemy seemed to have been completely stunned by the blow which
had so suddenly fallen upon him. The fire from his lines had died
down, and British brigades on the right, forming up for the renewed
advance, were able to do so unmolested in the open, amid the horrible
chaos of pits, mounds, wire tangles, splintered woodwork, and
shattered bodies which marked where the steel cyclone had passed.
The left was still under very heavy fire.
[Sidenote: The reserved advance.]
At half-past three the word was given, and again the eager khaki
fringe pushed swiftly to the front, On the extreme left of the line
of attack Watts's 21st Brigade pushed onwards with fierce
impetuosity. This attack was an extension to the left of the
original attack. The 21st was the only brigade of the Seventh
Division to be employed that day. There is a hamlet {22} to the
north-east of Neuve Chapelle called Moulin-du-Piètre, and this was
the immediate objective of the attack. Several hundreds of yards
were gained before the advance was held up by a severe fire from the
houses, and by the discovery of a fresh, undamaged line of German
trenches opposite to the right of the 21st Brigade. Here the
infantry was held, and did no more than keep their ground until
evening. Their comrades of the Eighth Division upon their right had
also advanced, the 24th Brigade (Carter's) taking the place of the
decimated 23rd in the front line; but they also came to a standstill
under the fire of German machine-guns, which were directed from the
bridge crossing the stream of the little Des Layes River in front of
them.
The Bois du Biez is an important wood on the south-east of Neuve
Chapelle, and the Indians, after their successful assault, directed
their renewed advance upon this objective. The Garhwali Brigade,
which had helped to carry the village, was now held back, and the
Dehra Dun Brigade of 1st and 4th Seaforths, Jats, and Gurkhas,
supported by the Jullundur Brigade from the Lahore Division, moved
forward to carry the wood. They gained a considerable stretch of
ground by a magnificent charge over the open, but were held up along
the line of the river as their European comrades had been to the
north. More than once the gallant Indians cleared the wood, but
could not permanently hold it. The German post at the bridge was
able to enfilade the line, and our artillery was unable to drive it
out. Three regiments of the 1st Brigade were brought up to
Richebourg in support of the attack, but darkness came on before the
preparations were complete. The troops slept {23} upon the ground
which they had won, ready and eager for the renewal of the battle in
the morning. The losses had been heavy during the day, falling with
undue severity upon a few particular battalions; but the soldiers
were of good heart, for continual strings of German prisoners,
numbering nine hundred in all, had been led through their lines, and
they had but to look around them to assure themselves of the loss
which they had inflicted upon the enemy. In that long winter
struggle a few yards to west or east had been a matter for which a
man might gladly lay down his life, so that now, when more than a
thousand yards had been gained by a single forward spring, there was
no desire to flinch from the grievous cost.
[Sidenote: Subsidiary attacks.]
It has already been stated that the British had made demonstrations
to right and to left in order to hold the enemy in their trenches.
In the case of Smith-Dorrien's Second Army, a bombardment along the
line was sufficient for the purpose. To the south, however, at
Givenchy, the First Corps made an attack upon the trenches two
hundred yards in front of them, which had no success, as the wire had
been uncut. This attack was carried out by Fanshawe's 6th Infantry
Brigade, and if it failed the failure was not due to want of intrepid
leading by the officers and desperate courage of the men. The 1st
King's (Liverpool) suffered very heavily in front of the impassable
wire. "Our boys took their bayonets and hacked away. It was
impossible to break through." Colonel Carter was wounded, but
continued to lead his men. Feveran and Suatt, who led the assault,
were respectively killed and wounded. The officers were nearly all
hit, down to the young Subaltern Webb, who kept shouting "Come on,
the {24} King's!" until he could shout no more. A hundred were
killed and 119 wounded in the ranks. Both the 2nd South Staffords
and the 1st King's Royal Rifles joined in this brave, but
ineffectual, attack, and lost very heavily. The total loss of the
brigade was between six and seven hundred, but at least it had
prevented this section of the line from reinforcing Neuve Chapelle.
All along the line the night was spent in making good the ground that
had been won.
[Sidenote: Second day of battle.]
The morning of the 11th broke with thick mist, a condition which
continued during the whole of the day. Both the use of the aircraft
and the direction of the artillery were negatived by the state of the
weather--a grievous piece of ill-fortune, as it put a stop to any
serious advance during the day, since it would have been a desperate
business to march infantry against a difficult front without any
artillery preparation. In this way the Germans gained a precious
respite during which they might reinforce their line and prepare for
a further attack. They essayed a counter-attack from the Bois du
Biez in the morning, but it was easily repulsed by the Indians.
Their shell-fire, however, was very murderous. The British infantry
still faced Moulin-du-Piètre in the north and the Bois du Biez in the
south, but could make no progress without support, while they lost
heavily from the German artillery. The Indians were still at the
south of the line, the 24th Brigade in the middle and the 21st in the
north. Farther north still, at a point just south of Armentières, a
useful little advance was made, for late at night, or early in the
morning of the 12th, the 17th Infantry Brigade (Harper's) had made a
swift dash at the village of {25} l'Epinette, calculating, no doubt,
that some of its defenders had been drafted south to strengthen the
stricken line. The place was carried by storm at the small cost of
five officers and thirty men, and the line carried forward at this
point to a depth of three hundred yards over a front of half a mile.
A counter-attack upon the 13th was driven off with loss.
[Sidenote: Third day.]
So far as the main operation was concerned, the weather upon the 12th
was hardly more favourable than upon the 11th. The veil of mist
still intervened between the heavy artillery and its target. Three
aeroplanes were lost in the determined efforts of the airmen to get
close observation of the position. It also interfered with the
accuracy of the German fire, which was poured upon the area held by
the British troops, but inflicted small damage upon them. The day
began by an attack in which the Germans got possession of a trench
held by the 1st Sherwood Foresters. As the mist rose the flank
company of the 2nd West Yorks perceived these unwelcome neighbours
and, under the lead of Captain Harrington, turned them out again.
Both the Indians on the right and the Seventh Division on the left
lost a number of men during the morning in endeavouring, with poor
success, to drive the German garrisons out of the various farmhouses,
which were impregnable to anything but artillery. The gallant 20th
Brigade, which had done such great work at Ypres in October, came
into action this day and stormed up to the strongholds of the
Moulin-du-Piètre. One of them, with three hundred Germans inside,
was carried by the 2nd Borders, the defenders being made prisoners.
All the battalions of the brigade--the 2nd Scots Guards, the 1st
Grenadiers, the 2nd Gordons, and their {26} Territorial comrades, the
6th Gordons--lost heavily in this most desperate of all forms of
fighting. Colonel McLean of the latter regiment died at the head of
his men. "Go about your duty," was his last speech to those who
tended him. The Grenadiers fought like heroes, and one of them,
Corporal Fuller, performed the extraordinary feat of heading off
fifty Germans by fleetness of foot, and single-handed compelling the
surrender of all of them. At the other end of the line, the 25th
Brigade, led by the Rifle Brigade, also made desperate efforts to get
on, but were brought to a standstill by the trenches and machine-guns
in the houses. The losses of the British upon this day were heavy,
but they were a small matter compared to those of the Germans, who
made several counter-attacks in close formation from dawn onwards in
the vain hope of recovering the ground that had been lost. It is
doubtful if in the whole war greater slaughter has been inflicted in
a shorter time and in so confined a space as in the case of some of
these advances, where whole dense bodies of infantry were caught in
the converging fire of machine-guns and rifles. In front of the 1st
Worcesters, of the 24th Brigade, alone more than a thousand dead were
counted. From the ridge of Aubers, half a mile to the eastward, down
to the front of the Indian and British line, the whole sloping
countryside was mottled grey with the bodies of the fallen. All that
the British had suffered in front of the barbed wire upon the 10th
was repaid with heavy interest during the counter-attacks of the
12th. Gradually they faded away and were renewed no more. For the
first time in the war the Germans finally abandoned a position that
they had lost, and made no further {27} attempt to retake it. The
Battle of Neuve Chapelle was at an end, and the British, though their
accomplishment fell far short of their hopes, had none the less made
a permanent advance of a thousand yards along a front of three
thousand, and obtained a valuable position for their operations in
the future. The sappers were busy all evening in wiring and
sand-bagging the ground gained, while the medical organisation, which
was strained to the uttermost, did its work with a bravery and a
technical efficiency which could not be surpassed.
[Sidenote: Result of Battle of Neuve Chapelle.]
Upon the last day of the fighting some 700 more prisoners had been
taken, bringing the total number to 30 officers and 1650 men. The
original defenders had been men of the Seventh German Corps, raised
from Karlsruhe in Westphalia; but the reinforcements which suffered
so heavily were either Saxons or Bavarians. The losses of the
Germans were estimated, and possibly overestimated, at 18,000 men.
The British losses were very heavy, consisting of 562 officers and
12,239 men. Some 1800 of these were returned as "Missing," but these
were the men who fell in the advanced attack upon ground which was
not retained. Only the wounded fell into the enemy's hands. The
Fourth Corps lost 7500 men, and the Indians about 4000.
Of the six brigades of the Fourth Corps, all suffered about equally,
except the 22nd, which was not so hard hit as the others. The
remaining brigades lost over 25 per cent of their numbers, but
nothing of their efficiency and zeal, as they were very soon to show
in the later engagements. When one remembers that Julius Cæsar
describes an action as a severe one upon the ground that every tenth
man was wounded, {28} it may be conjectured that he would have
welcomed a legion of Scottish Rifles or Sherwood Foresters.
Certainly no British soldier was likely to live long enough to have
his teeth worn down by the ration bread, as was the case with the
Tenth Legion. The two units named may have suffered most, but the
2nd Lincolns, 2nd Berkshires, 2nd Borders, 2nd Scots Fusiliers, 1st
Irish Rifles, 2nd Rifle Brigade, the two battalions of Gordons, and
the 1st Worcesters were all badly cut up. Of the five commanding
officers of the 20th Brigade, Uniacke of the 2nd Gordons, McLean of
the 5th Gordons, and Fisher Rowe of the Grenadiers were killed, while
Paynter of the 2nd Scots Guards was wounded. The only survivor, the
Colonel of the Borders, was shot a few days later. It was said at
the time of the African War that the British colonels had led their
men up to and through the gates of Death. The words were still true.
Of the brave Indian Corps, the 1st Seaforths, 2nd Leicesters, 39th
Garhwalis, with the 3rd and 4th Gurkhas, were the chief sufferers.
The 1st Londons, 3rd Londons, and 13th (Kensingtons) had also shown
that they could stand punishment with the best.
So ended the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, a fierce and murderous
encounter in which every weapon of modern warfare--the giant
howitzer, the bomb, and the machine-gun--was used to the full, and
where the reward of the victor was a slice of ground no larger than a
moderate farm. And yet the moral prevails over the material, and the
fact that a Prussian line, built up with four months of labour, could
be rushed in a couple of hours, and that by no exertion could a
German set foot upon it again, was a hopeful first lesson in the
spring campaign.
{29}
On March 12 an attack was made upon the enemy's trenches south-west
of the village of Wytschaete--the region where, on November 1, the
Bavarians had forced back the lines of our cavalry. The advance was
delayed by the mist, and eventually was ordered for four in the
afternoon. It was carried out by the 1st Wilts and the 3rd
Worcesters, of the 7th Brigade (Ballard), advancing for two hundred
yards up a considerable slope. The defence was too strong, however,
and the attack was abandoned with a loss of 28 officers and 343 men.
It may be said, however, to have served the general purpose of
diverting troops from the important action in the south. It is to be
hoped that this was so, as the attack itself, though fruitless, was
carried out with unflinching bravery and devotion.
[Sidenote: Action of St. Eloi.]
On March 14, two days after the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, the Germans
endeavoured to bring about a counter-stroke in the north which should
avenge their defeat, arguing, no doubt, that the considerable
strength which Haig's First Army had exhibited in the south meant
some subtraction from Smith-Dorrien at the other end of the line.
This new action broke out at the hamlet of St. Eloi, some miles to
the south-east of Ypres, a spot where many preliminary bickerings and
a good deal of trench activity had heralded this more serious effort.
This particular section of the line was held by the 82nd Brigade
(Longley's) of the Twenty-seventh Division, the whole quarter being
under the supervision of General Plumer. There was a small mound in
a brickfield to the south-east of the village with trenches upon
either side of it which were held by the men of the 2nd Cornish Light
Infantry. It is a mere clay dump about seventy feet {30} long and
twenty feet high. After a brief but furious bombardment, a mine
which had been run under this mound was exploded at five in the
evening, and both mound and trenches were carried by a rush of German
stormers. These trenches in turn enfiladed other ones, and a
considerable stretch was lost, including two support trenches west of
the mound and close to it, two breastworks and trenches to the
north-east of it, and also the southern end of St. Eloi village.
So intense had been the preliminary fire that every wire connecting
with the rear had been severed, and it was only the actual explosion
upon the mound--an explosion which buried many of the defenders,
including two machine-guns with their detachments--which made the
situation clear to the artillery in support. The 19th and 20th
Brigades concentrated their thirty-six 18-pounders upon the mound and
its vicinity. The German infantry were already in possession, having
overwhelmed the few survivors of the 2nd Cornwalls and driven back a
company of the 2nd Irish Fusiliers, who were either behind the mound
or in the adjacent trenches to the east of the village. The stormers
had rushed forward, preceded by a swarm of men carrying bombs and
without rifles. Behind them came a detachment of sappers with
planks, fascines, and sand-bags, together with machine-gun
detachments, who dug themselves instantly into the shattered mound.
The whole German organisation and execution of the attack were
admirable. Lieutenants Fry and Aston of the Cornwall Light Infantry
put up a brave fight with their handful of shaken men. As the
survivors of the British front line fell back, two companies of the
1st Cambridge Territorials took up {31} a rallying position. The
situation was exceedingly obscure from the rear, for, as already
stated, all wires had been cut, but daring personal reconnaissance by
individual officers, notably Captain Follett and Lieutenant Elton,
cleared it up to some extent. By nine o'clock preparations had been
made for a counter-attack, the 1st Leinsters and 1st Royal Irish, of
the 82nd Brigade, being brought up, while Fortescue's 80th Brigade
was warned to support the movement.
It was pitch-dark, and the advance, which could only be organised and
started at two in the morning, had to pass over very difficult
ground. The line was formed by two companies of the Royal Irish, the
Leinster Regiment, and the 4th Rifles in general support. The latter
regiment was guided to their position by Captain Harrison, of the
Cornwalls, who was unfortunately shot, so that the movement, so far
as they were concerned, became disorganised. Colonel Prowse, of the
Leinsters, commanded the attack. The Irishmen rushed forward, but
the Germans fought manfully, and there was a desperate struggle in
the darkness, illuminated only by the quick red flash of the guns and
the flares thrown up from the trenches. By the light of these the
machine-guns installed upon the mound held up the advance of the
Royal Irish, who tried bravely to carry the position, but were forced
in the end, after losing Colonel Forbes, to be content with the
nearest house, and with gaining a firm grip upon the village. The
Leinsters made good progress and carried first a breastwork and then
a trench in front of them, but could get no farther. About 4.30 the
80th Brigade joined in the attack. The advance was carried out by
the 4th Rifle Brigade upon the right {32} and the Princess Patricia's
(Canadians) upon the left, with the Shropshires and the 3rd Rifles in
support. It was all-important to get in the attack before daylight,
and the result was that the dispositions were necessarily somewhat
hurried and incomplete. The Canadians attacked upon the left, but
their attack was lacking in weight, being confined to three platoons,
and they could make no headway against the fire from the mound. They
lost 3 officers and 24 men in the venture. Thesiger's 4th Rifle
Brigade directed its attack, not upon the mound, but on a trench at
the side of it. This was carried with a rush by Captain Mostyn
Pryce's company. Several obstacles were also taken in succession by
the Riflemen, but though repeated attempts were made to get
possession of the mound, all of them were repulsed. One company,
under Captain Selby-Smith, made so determined an attack upon one
barricade that all save four were killed or wounded, in spite of
which the barricade was actually carried. A second one lay behind,
which was taken by Lieutenant Sackville's company, only to disclose a
third one behind. Two companies of the Shropshires were brought up
to give weight to the further attack, but already day was breaking
and there was no chance of success when once it was light, as all the
front trenches were dominated by the mound. This vigorous night
action ended, therefore, by leaving the mound itself and the front
trench in the hands of the Germans, who had been pushed back from all
the other trenches and the portion of the village which they had been
able to occupy in the first rush of their attack. The losses of the
British amounted to 40 officers and 680 men--killed, wounded, and
missing, about 100 coming under the last category, {33} who represent
the men destroyed by the explosion. The German losses were certainly
not less, but it must be admitted that the mound, as representing the
trophy of victory, remained in their hands. In the morning of the
15th the Germans endeavoured to turn the Leinsters out of the trench
which they had recaptured, but their attack was blown back, and they
left 34 dead in front of the position.
It is pleasing in this most barbarous of all wars to be able to
record that all German troops did not debase themselves to the
degraded standards of Prussia. Upon this occasion the Bavarian
general in charge consented at once to a mutual gathering in of the
wounded and a burying of the dead--things which have been a matter of
course in all civilised warfare until the disciples of Kultur
embarked upon their campaign. It is also to be remarked that in this
section of the field a further amenity can be noted, for twice
messages were dropped within the British lines containing news as to
missing aviators who had been brought down by the German guns. It
was hoped for a time that the struggle, however stern, was at last
about to conform to the usual practices of humanity--a hope which was
destined to be wrecked for ever upon that crowning abomination, the
poisoning of Langemarck.
A month of comparative quiet succeeded the battle of Neuve Chapelle,
the Germans settling down into their new position and making no
attempt to regain their old ones. Both sides were exhausted, though
in the case of the Allies the exhaustion was rather in munitions than
in men. The regiments were kept well supplied from the depots, and
the brutality of the German methods of warfare {34} ensured a steady
supply of spirited recruits. That which was meant to cow had in
reality the effect of stimulating. It is well that this was so, for
so insatiable are the demands of modern warfare that already after
eight months the whole of the regiments of the original expeditionary
force would have absolutely disappeared but for the frequent
replenishments, which were admirably supplied by the central
authorities. They had been far more than annihilated, for many of
the veteran corps had lost from one and a half times to twice their
numbers. The 1st Hants at this date had lost 2700 out of an original
force of 1200 men, and its case was by no means an exceptional one.
Even in times of quiet there was a continual toll exacted by snipers,
bombers, and shells along the front which ran into thousands of
casualties per week. The off-days of Flanders were more murderous
than the engagements of South Africa. Now and then a man of note was
taken from the Army in this chronic and useless warfare. The death
of General Gough, of the staff of the First Army, has already been
recorded. Colonel Farquhar, of the Princess Patricia Canadians, lost
his life in a similar fashion. The stray shell or the lurking sniper
exacted a continual toll, General Maude of the 14th Brigade, Major
Leslie Oldham, one of the heroes of Chitral, and other valuable
officers being killed or wounded in this manner.
[Sidenote: Battle of Hill 60.]
On April 17 there began a contest which was destined to rage with
great fury, though at intermittent intervals, for several weeks.
This was the fight for Hill 60. Hill 60 was a low ridge about fifty
feet high and two hundred and fifty yards from end to end, which
faced the Allied trenches in the Zillebeke region to the south-east
of Ypres. This portion of {35} the line had been recently taken over
by Smith-Dorrien's Army from the French, and one of the first tasks
which the British had set themselves was to regain the hill, which
was of considerable strategic importance, because by their possession
of it the Germans were able to establish an observation post and
direct the fire of their guns towards any portion of the British line
which seemed to be vulnerable. With the hill in British hands it
would be possible to move troops from point to point without their
being overseen and subjected to fire. Therefore the British had
directed their mines towards the hill, and ran six underneath it,
each of them ending in a chamber which contained a ton of gunpowder.
This work, begun by Lieutenant Burnyeat and a hundred miners of the
Monmouth battalions, was very difficult owing to the wet soil. It
was charged by Major Norton Griffiths and the 171st Mining Company
Royal Engineers. At seven in the evening of Saturday, April 17, the
whole was exploded with terrific effect. Before the smoke had
cleared away the British infantry had dashed from their trench and
the hill was occupied. A handful of dazed Germans were taken
prisoners and 150 were buried under the debris.
[Sidenote: Storming of the Hill.]
The storming party was drawn from two battalions of the veteran 13th
Brigade, and the Brigadier Wanless O'Gowan was in general control of
the operations under General Morland, of the Fifth Division. The two
battalions immediately concerned were the 1st Royal West Kents and
the 2nd Scottish Borderers. Major Joslin, of the Kents, led the
assault, and C Company of that regiment, under Captain Moulton
Barrett, was actually the first to reach the crest while {36} it was
still reeking and heaving from the immense explosion. Sappers of the
2nd Home Counties Company raced up with the infantry, bearing
sandbags and entrenching tools to make good the ground, while a
ponderous backing of artillery searched on every side to break up the
inevitable counter-attack. There was desperate digging upon the hill
to raise some cover, and especially to cut back communication
trenches to the rear. Without an over-crowding which would have been
dangerous under artillery fire, there was only room for one company
upon the very crest. The rest were in supporting trenches
immediately behind. By half-past one in the morning of the 18th the
troops were dug in, but the Germans, after a lull which followed the
shock, were already thickening for the attack. Their trenches came
up to the base of the hill, and many of their snipers and
bomb-throwers hid themselves amid the darkness in the numerous deep
holes with which the whole hill was pocked. Showers of bombs fell
upon the British line, which held on as best it might.
At 3.30 A.M. the Scots Borderers pushed forward to take over the
advanced fire trench from the Kents, who had suffered severely. This
exchange was an expensive one, as several officers, including Major
Joslin, the leader of the assault, Colonel Sladen, and Captains
Dering and Burnett, were killed or wounded, and in the confusion the
Germans were able to get more of their bombers thrown forward, making
the front trench hardly tenable. The British losses up to this time
had almost entirely arisen from these bombs, and two attempts at
regular counter-attacks had been nipped in the bud by the artillery
fire, aided by motor machine-guns. As the sky was beginning to
whiten {37} in the east, however, there was a more formidable
advance, supported by heavy and incessant bombing, so that at
half-past five the 2nd West Ridings were sent forward, supported by
the 1st Bedfords from the 15th Brigade. A desperate fight ensued.
In the cold of the morning, with bomb and bayonet men stood up to
each other at close quarters, neither side flinching from the
slaughter. By seven o'clock the Germans had got a grip of part of
the hill crest, while the weary Yorkshiremen, supported by their
fellow-countrymen of the 2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry, were hanging
on to the broken ground and the edge of the mine craters. From then
onwards the day was spent by the Germans in strengthening their hold,
and by the British in preparing for a renewed assault. This second
assault, more formidable than the first, since it was undertaken
against an expectant enemy, was fixed for six o'clock in the evening.
At the signal five companies of infantry, three from the West Ridings
and two from the Yorkshire Light Infantry, rushed to the front. The
losses of the storming party were heavy, but nothing could stop them.
Of C Company of the West Ridings only Captain Barton and eleven men
were left out of a hundred, but none the less they carried the point
at which their charge was aimed. D Company lost all its officers,
but the men carried on. After a fierce struggle the Germans were
ejected once again, and the whole crest held by the British. The
losses had been very heavy, the various craters formed by the mines
and the heavy shells being desperately fought for by either party.
It was about seven o'clock on the evening of the 18th that the
Yorkshiremen of {38} both regiments drew together in the dusk and
made an organised charge across the whole length of the hill,
sweeping it clear from end to end, while the 59th Company Royal
Engineers helped in making good the ground. It was a desperate
tussle, in which men charged each other like bulls, drove their
bayonets through each other, and hurled bombs at a range of a few
yards into each other's faces. Seldom in the war has there been more
furious fighting, and in the whole Army it would have been difficult
to find better men for such work than the units engaged.
From early morning of that day till late at night the
Brigadier-General O'Gowan was in the closest touch with the fighting
line, feeding it, binding it, supporting it, thickening it, until he
brought it through to victory. His Staff-Captain Egerton was killed
at his side, and he had several narrow escapes. The losses were
heavy and the men exhausted, but the German defence was for the time
completely broken, and the British took advantage of the lull to push
fresh men into the advanced trenches and withdraw the tired soldiers.
This was done about midnight on the 18th, and the fight from then
onwards was under the direction of General Northey, who had under him
the 1st East Surrey, the 1st Bedfords, and the 9th London (Queen
Victoria) Rifles. Already in this murderous action the British
casualties had been 50 officers and 1500 men, who lay, with as many
of the Germans, within a space no larger than a moderate meadow.
During the whole of the daylight hours of April 19 a furious
bombardment was directed upon the hill, on and behind which the
defenders were crouching. Officers of experience described this
concentration {39} of fire as the worst that they had ever
experienced. Colonel Griffith of the Bedfords held grimly to his
front trench, but the losses continued to be heavy. During that
afternoon a new phenomenon was observed for and the first time--an
indication of what was to come. Officers seated in a dug-out
immediately behind the fighting line experienced a strong feeling of
suffocation, and were driven from their shelter, the candles in which
were extinguished by the noxious air. Shells bursting on the hill
set the troops coughing and gasping. It was the first German
experiment in the use of poison--an expedient which is the most
cowardly in the history of warfare, reducing their army from being
honourable soldiers to the level of assassins, even as the sailors of
their submarines had been made the agents for the cold-blooded murder
of helpless civilians. Attacked by this new agent, the troops still
held their ground.
[Sidenote: Desperate fighting.]
Tuesday, April 20, was another day of furious shell-fire. A single
shell upon that morning blew in a parapet and buried Lieutenant
Watson with twenty men of the Surreys. The Queen Victorias under
Colonel Shipley upheld the rising reputation of the Territorial
troops by their admirable steadiness. Major Lees, Lieutenant
Summerhays, and many others died an heroic death; but there was no
flinching from that trench which was so often a grave. As already
explained, there was only one trench and room for a very limited
number of men on the actual crest, while the rest were kept just
behind the curve, so as to avoid a second Spion Kop. At one time
upon this eventful day a handful of London Territorials under a boy
officer, Woolley of the Victorias, were the only troops upon the top,
but it was in safe keeping none the less. {40} This officer received
the Victoria Cross. Hour after hour the deadly bombardment went on.
About 7.30 in the evening the bombers of the enemy got into some
folds in the ground within twenty yards and began a most harassing
attack. All night, under the sudden glare of star shells, there were
a succession of assaults which tried the half-stupefied troops to the
utmost. Soon after midnight in the early morning of Wednesday, April
21, the report came in to the Brigadier that the 1st Surreys in the
trenches to the left had lost all their officers except one
subaltern. As a matter of fact, every man in one detachment had been
killed or wounded by the grenades. It was rumoured that the company
was falling back, but on a message reaching them based upon this
supposition, the answer was, "We have not budged a yard, and have no
intention of doing so." At 2.30 in the morning the position seemed
very precarious, so fierce was the assault and so worn the defence.
Of A Company of the Surreys only 55 privates were left out of 180,
while of the five officers none were now standing, Major Paterson and
Captain Wynyard being killed, while Lieutenant Roupell, who got the
Cross, and two others were wounded. It was really a subalterns'
battle, and splendidly the boys played up.
All the long night trench-mortars and mine-throwers played upon them,
while monstrous explosions flung shattered khaki figures amid a red
glare into the drifting clouds of smoke, but still the hill was
British. With daylight the 1st Devons were brought up into the
fight, and an hour later the hill was clear of the enemy once more,
save for a handful of snipers concealed in the craters of the
north-west corner. In vain the Germans tried to win back a foothold.
Nothing {41} could shift that tenacious infantry. Field-guns were
brought up by the attackers and fired at short range at the parapets
hastily thrown up, but the Devons lay flat and held tight. It had
been a grand fight. Heavy as were the strokes of the Thor hammer of
Germany, they had sometimes bent but never shattered the iron line of
Britain. Already the death-roll had been doubled, and 100 officers
with 3000 of our men were stretched upon that little space, littered
with bodies and red with blood from end to end. But now the action
was at last drawing to its close. Five days it had raged with hardly
a break. British guns were now run up and drove the German ones to
cover. Bombers who still lurked in the craters were routed out with
the bayonet. In the afternoon of the 21st the fire died gradually
away and the assaults came to an end. Hill 60 remained with the
British. The weary survivors were relieved, and limped back singing
ragtime music to their rest-camps in the rear, while the 2nd Cameron
Highlanders, under Colonel Campbell, took over the gruesome trenches.
It was a fine feat of arms for which the various brigadiers, with
General Morland of the Fifth Division, should have the credit. It
was not a question of the little mound--important as that might be,
it could not justify so excessive a loss of life, whether German or
British. Hill 60 was a secondary matter. What was really being
fought for was the ascendancy of the British or the Prussian
soldier--that subtle thing which would tinge every battle which might
be fought thereafter. Who would cry "Enough!" first? Who would
stick it to the bitter end? Which had the staying-power when tried
out to a finish? The answer to that question was of more definite
military {42} importance than an observation post, and it was worth
our three thousand slain or maimed to have the award of the God of
battles to strengthen us hereafter.
This description may well be ended by the general order in which Sir
John French acknowledged the services of the troops engaged in this
arduous affair:
"I congratulate you and the troops of the Second Army on your
brilliant capture and retention of the important position at Hill 60.
Great credit is due to Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Ferguson,
commanding Second Corps; Major-General Morland, commanding Fifth
Division; Brigadier-General Wanless O'Gowan, commanding 13th Brigade;
and Brigadier-General Northey, commanding 15th Brigade, for their
energy and skill in carrying out the operations. I wish particularly
to express my warmest admiration for the splendid dash and spirit
displayed by the battalions of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Brigades
which took part under their respective commanding officers. This has
been shown in the first seizure of the position, by the fire attack
of the Royal West Kents and the King's Own Scottish Borderers, and in
the heroic tenacity with which the hill has been held by the other
battalions of these brigades against the most violent counter-attacks
and terrific artillery bombardment. I also must commend the skilful
work of the Mining Company R.E., of the 59th Field Company R.E., and
2nd Home Counties Field Company R.E., and of the Artillery. I fully
recognise the skill and foresight of Major-General Bulfin, commanding
Twenty-eighth Division, and his C.R.E., Colonel Jerome, who are
responsible for the original conception and plan of the undertaking."
{43}
It will be noticed that in his generous commendation Sir John French
quotes the different separate units of Engineers as a token of his
appreciation of the heavy work which fell upon them before as well as
during the battle. Many anecdotes were current in the Army as to the
extraordinary daring and energy of the subterranean workers, who were
never so happy as when, deep in the bowels of the earth, they were
planning some counter-mine with the tapping of the German picks
growing louder on their ears. One authentic deed by Captain
Johnston's 172nd Mining Company may well be placed upon record. The
sapping upon this occasion was directed against the Peckham Farm held
by the Germans. Finding that the enemy were countermining, a
_camouflet_ was laid down which destroyed their tunnel. After an
interval a corporal descended into the shaft, but was poisoned by the
fumes. An officer followed him and seized him by the ankles, but
became unconscious. A private came next and grabbed the officer, but
lost his own senses. Seven men in succession were in turn rescuers
and rescued, until the whole chain was at last brought to the
surface. Lieutenants Severne and Williams, with Corporal Gray and
Sappers Hattersley, Hayes, Lannon, and Smith, were the heroes of this
incident. It is pleasant to add that though the corporal died, the
six others were all resuscitated.
[Sidenote: A military crime.]
It is with a feeling of loathing that the chronicler turns from such
knightly deeds as these to narrate the next episode of the war, in
which the gallant profession of arms was degraded to the level of the
assassin, and the Germans, foiled in fair fighting, stole away a few
miles of ground by the arts of the murderer. So long as military
history is written, the poisoning of {44} Langemarck will be recorded
as a loathsome incident by which warfare was degraded to a depth
unknown among savages, and a great army, which had long been honoured
as the finest fighting force in the world, became in a single day an
object of horror and contempt, flying to the bottles of a chemist to
make the clearance which all the cannons of Krupp were unable to
effect. The crime was no sudden outbreak of spite, nor was it the
work of some unscrupulous subordinate. It could only have been
effected by long preparation, in which the making of great retorts
and wholesale experiments upon animals had their place. Our
generals, and even our papers, heard some rumours of such doings, but
dismissed them as being an incredible slur upon German honour. It
proved now that it was only too true, and that it represented the
deliberate, cold-blooded plan of the military leaders. Their lies,
which are as much part of their military equipment as their
batteries, represented that the British had themselves used such
devices in the fighting on Hill 60. Such an assertion may be left to
the judgment of the world.
{45}