March the 21st.
The morning of the 20th broke calm and the enemy did nothing to
indicate that anything out of the ordinary was about to take place, but
this did not deceive us, as it was known to our Command that the blow
was going to fall on the following morning. Silence reigned supreme,
except for the ordinary harassing artillery fire, up till midnight, but
shortly afterwards the German guns opened out their annihilating fire,
and drenched our forward system and battery positions with a severe gas
bombardment.
In this area the majority of batteries had, at the last moment, taken
the precaution to change their positions, as these were known to the
enemy, and thus avoided being entirely demolished by the heavy
concentration which poured all manner of shell into those they had
lately vacated.
At dawn, which, unfortunately for us, broke in a thick mist, after a
sustained bombardment of some four to five hours’ duration, the enemy
launched his gigantic attack over an area of fifty miles, from
Guenappe, immediately below Monchy in the North, to the neighbourhood
of La Fere in the south. Under cover of the mist, he congregated large
numbers of field guns, which were able to accompany and closely support
the attacking waves, while at some places he employed his new Tanks.
These, however, though rendering some assistance to him, by no means
came up to expectations, and were ponderous and clumsy, in spite of the
fact that he had previously captured several of ours from which to
copy, but they proved to be far behind ours, both in construction and
usefulness.
A “Chinese barrage” was put down by the enemy on our sector, but no
attack developed. The same evening the Division was hurriedly withdrawn
from the line, and heading in a southern direction arrived in the
neighbourhood of Tilloy and prepared for instant action.
In spite of the favourable conditions, our foes made little or no
ground, throughout the day, on the whole of the Army front, and were
held in our forefield. Further south, much the same thing happened,
although they penetrated further in some places, but nowhere had they
broken through, so the news on the whole was good and reassuring.
The German attack was renewed on the following day, and still the
Northern Army remained firm, but they succeeded in effecting a serious
breech in the Army to the south, where the British had lately taken
over from our French allies. So swift was the enemy’s progress at this
point that our troops on either side of this bulge soon became
endangered, and a general retirement was immediately necessary in order
to keep the line straight.
This applied to the Northern Army also, but not to anything like the
same extent. The Division again moved south, and took up positions
behind the Henin Ridge, between the village of that name and St. Leger,
for the purpose of covering the retirement.
The whole line thus became mobile, and, for several days, a stiff
rear-guard action was fought, which resulted in very heavy casualties
being inflicted on the enemy. He was by this time flushed with his
success further south, and attempted to advance as if he were already
the conqueror, which led to his own undoing, as virtually he was only
permitted to gain ground at our time and will. It cannot be denied,
however, that the days were anxious ones and the infantry were kept
very heavily engaged and became much exhausted. However, they made the
most of their opportunities, and had hitherto rarely found such ready
targets, and their machine guns effected great execution on the enemy
ranks as the men came along laden with full packs. A story is told, and
is believed to be true, of one machine gunner that, in the course of
his morning’s work, he slaughtered over 200 German’s single handed with
his weapon, after which he became a raving lunatic and had to be
forceably removed.
The infantry, too, admitted that they were getting tired of killing
Boches, and the casualties inflicted on our men were a mere nothing as
compared with those suffered by our foes. The gunners were equally busy
dropping into action here and there and falling back as the
circumstances required, until at the end of a week, the line became
more or less stationary. The front line now ran through Mercatel,
Boisleux and Moyenneville and thence, in a south westerly direction,
towards Serre. Thus the Germans were again almost back on the line they
had held, prior to the big retreat on the Hindenburg line in the spring
of 1917.
It seemed a great pity to vacate the Henin Ridge, for the opposing
sides found themselves facing each other in a hollow, with rising
ground on either side, which made battery positions difficult to
conceal. So many disused trenches, which had previously formed part of
the old German line system, helped to shelter us, to a great extent,
for we were at this point nearly two miles east of the permanent line
of a year ago.
Everyone feverishly sat about digging and constructing new trenches,
and an enormous amount of work was accomplished in a comparatively
short space of time, for it was felt that the enemy had by no means
expended all his strength, and would endeavour, in the near future, to
resume active operations. There could be no doubt that he would be
dissatisfied to remain where he was, especially as, so far, he had
little to shew on this particular part of the front for his gigantic
effort and huge loss of men.
It was no surprise therefore when, at the beginning of the second week
in April, after a short sharp bombardment, the enemy made a strong
attack from Monchy, north to the Vimy Ridge, with the object of seizing
Arras and the heights before mentioned. The result was a costly
failure, as he was everywhere held up in our forefield system, and the
British Divisions opposed to him had the time of their lives. We were
very interested to hear about this battle, as, of course, it was fought
over the sector in which we had lately spent a number of happy months
and where we had done such an amount of work. It was distinctly
gratifying, too, when a wire was received from the Division who took
over from us thanking our Division for the wonderful defensive
construction made by us. It was due to that work that they were enabled
to bring the enemy so quickly to an abrupt standstill.
They had seemingly experienced a veritable field day and thoroughly
enjoyed themselves on that occasion.
After this unsuccessful effort, the enemy evidently gave up the attempt
to gain possession of Arras and Vimy by a frontal attack and turned his
thoughts elsewhere.
Unfortunately, however, in the course of these operations, Monchy had
to be evacuated by the British, which enabled the Boche to gain
observation on the city which, thereafter, came in for a good amount of
shelling, and again the inhabitants were forced much against their will
to leave the stricken place.
All manner of heavy shell fell in the town, and the damage caused was
considerable, and it was no longer the haven of rest for the troops
which it had been a few months previously. Our wagon lines, meanwhile,
had not escaped undamaged, and were forced to change positions on
several occasions until, at last, comfortable quarters were obtained in
the little village of Bretencourt, where the houses still had roofs
covering them, as the hamlet was just outside the devastated area. When
affairs settled down once more, the battery positions were gradually
advanced, and we dug a new position east of Ficheux, where the guns
were meanwhile situated.
A forward section was established ahead in the railway cutting of the
Arras-Albert line, and we subjected the enemy to as much unpleasantness
as it lay in our power to devise.
We were not, however, any length of time in this sector, and were
removed to the adjoining one immediately to the south.
The line required rectifying in several places, and in a brilliant
minor operation, the village of Ayette was carried and remained firmly
in our hands.
Our new position was situated on the high ground to the north of
Adinfer Wood, immediately behind the village of the same name, but the
neighbourhood was much more peaceful than that which we had recently
quitted, as everywhere we had observation over the enemy, and naturally
he never created trouble under such circumstances.
The wagon lines were again moved, this time much further behind, to the
small village of Gaudiempre, where one might have imagined one was
completely out of the war area, it appeared so quiet.
The place was intact and all were ensconced in snug little billets,
while the horses were well off also, as opportunities for grazing were
afforded round about the neighbourhood.
Then the enemy’s second great offensive opened on the Lys, and all eyes
were turned in that direction, but everyone held the opinion that,
sooner or later, he would be brought to a standstill, which proved to
be the case.
In fact, throughout the whole of this trying period, the confidence
among all ranks was extraordinary. No one had the feeling that we were
going down and under, and it would have done the pessimists at home a
world of good to have caught a glimpse of conditions out in France and
of the cheery optimism that prevailed there. There was even
disappointment, in some quarters, that the enemy had not attempted to
attack us on this front, but he evidently thought discretion was the
better part of valour, for the defences were, by this time, very
strong, and it would have been strange if he had managed to penetrate
to any depth.
About the middle of May, it was the will of those in authority to rest
the Division a while, and although we were not in any urgent need of a
rest, we were not disinclined for it, as the season of the year was
favourable, and we pictured all manner of good times in store.
The Brigade, therefore, withdrew to the wagon lines, marched the
following day to Humbercourt, the village appointed for our resting
place.