Through the Hindenburg Line.
Before the serious work ahead of us could be undertaken, it was
necessary to shear off an awkward little bulge in the enemy’s line,
which included the ruined hamlet of Moyenneville. The corps on our
right were to take part in an assault two days previous to the
commencement of our own advance, so it was considered expedient to
accomplish the above task at the same time. Consequently, during the
big attack, delivered in the south on the 21st of August, which brought
our troops level with the Arras-Albert railway line, our small
side-show passed off successfully almost unnoticed. Desperate fighting
had also taken place in the neighbourhood of Morlancourt, just north of
the river Somme, in which the enemy troops had been driven back after
stubborn resistance. They thereupon evacuated the town of Albert, as
the place was getting too hot for them, and retired on positions to the
east of it. Our guns were now moved into their battle positions, and on
the eve of the attack everything was ready and in order. For once in a
way the weather was favourable, and this augured well for the speedy
advancement of the guns, which was essential for the success of the
operations.
At dawn, therefore, on the 23rd inst., without any preliminary
bombardment, but, preceded by a dense creeping barrage and supported by
innumerable tanks, the infantry set out on their long journey. The men
swept on, capturing the villages of Boyelles and Hamelincourt at an
early hour, without meeting much opposition or suffering undue
casualties. The day went well throughout and all objectives were taken,
and by nightfall, the vast machinery in the rear commenced to move
slowly forward. Batteries were advanced and supplied with ammunition,
by their echelons, ready for the next bout, and wagon lines occupied
the positions only just vacated by the guns. The attack was continued
on the following morning, which necessitated the moving up of the guns
once more, and the same thing continued day after day. The enemy was
slowly and relentlessly pressed back without a pause or breathing
space, and once this gigantic force was set in motion it was
exceedingly difficult to stop it, as our opponents were soon to find
out to their cost.
As the fight proceeded, our comrades on the left joined in, and
gradually the battle spread further north, assuming huge dimensions,
until it reached the river Scarpe. The enemy was caught napping before
Monchy, and the Dominion forces in one bound everywhere overwhelmed
their opponents, not only capturing the village but gaining ground to
the extent of two miles beyond it. By this time, Croisilles and St.
Leger had fallen into our hands, but the enemy made a most determined
stand in front of Ecoust, and a very stiff tussle took place for
several days before we eventually gained possession of it.
Some extraordinary incidents took place during the course of these
operations. The long-hoped for open warfare was upon us at last, and
the gunners’ dream of galloping into action and firing with open sights
at close range was an accomplished fact almost before we were aware of
it. On one occasion, the whole Brigade, immediately at the close of
executing a creeping barrage, limbered up, and topping the crest in
front came face to face with the enemy, and dropped into action
alongside our advancing infantry. The enemy machine gunners were lined
up on a ridge some four hundred yards away, but on seeing us they
decamped with all speed, probably believing us to be a regiment of
cavalry. At any rate, if they had stood their ground and manned their
guns, they would have assuredly wiped us off the face of the map almost
before we could have opened fire on them. At the end of another day’s
work, our battery position was scarcely two hundred yards behind our
front line, where the infantry had installed themselves.
The wagon lines were now well over late enemy territory, on the ground
where his batteries had been situated, and the mess was almost beyond
description. In some cases his positions were entirely obliterated,
which spoke volumes for the accuracy of the fire of our heavies,
directed by our gallant airmen, and if it had not been for the
quantities of ammunition and dead horses littered around, it would have
been impossible to have known that positions ever existed there. Mine
shafts had been entirely closed up by the explosion of the great
shells, and a conglomeration of huge craters marked their locality.
There was no rest for anyone these days, and no men were called upon to
perform more strenuous work than our little drivers, whose untiring and
never failing energy was worthy of the highest praise and admiration:
not only had they to care for their pair of horses, but were
incessantly on the go twixt gun positions, dumps, and wagon lines under
the most trying and difficult circumstances, and, at the same time, the
latter were changing positions frequently. However, they never faltered
or grumbled, and had always a cheery smile on their faces, even when
they returned in the middle of the night dead beat. For days on end it
was impossible to get out of one’s clothes, and sleep was almost an
unknown quantity: however, what did it matter as long as we continued
to advance, and in spite of everything—this was a long way better than
the monotonous routine of trench warfare. Everybody looked upon it in
this light, and the excitement and never ending novelty of the
experiences under which we were living, carried us on through thick and
thin.
The corps on our left, meanwhile, had by a superhuman effort penetrated
the great Drocourt-Queant switch of the Hindenburg line, and firmly
maintained their grip on the ground to the east of it, and all counter
attacks made by the enemy, to dislodge them, proved unavailing. The
troops to the south had also effected good progress, and the ill-fated
town of Bapaume had again changed hands and passed for the last time
into the keeping of the Allies. Thus it came about that the enemy
troops, in spite of their very determined resistance in the
neighbourhood of Ecoust and Mory, found themselves in a most perilous
position, as the Dominion forces were now well in their rear, and were
carrying out a turning movement from a northerly direction. Therefore,
they were forced to do something, without further delay, which resulted
in a swift retirement on to the Hindenburg line some six miles to the
rear.
It was a most interesting and instructive chase, and the enemy
retreated so fast that it was with the greatest difficulty that we
could keep up and maintain contact with him. The battery had
reluctantly to abandon a captured German field gun which had been doing
valiant work as the seventh gun for several days against its late
owners, for we had neither time or the means to convey surplus
equipment along with us. It was the kind of day that one reads about in
“Field Artillery Training” or even endeavours to imitate while
manœuvring out in rest, but for the first time we were doing it in
reality. The battery dropped into action on innumerable occasions
during the course of the day, and had only time to fire a few rounds
before the enemy had decamped out of range. Then we would limber up
with all speed, the teams waiting the orthodox two hundred yards in
rear and to the flank, and gallop forward and take up a new position
right out in the open, and help the enemy on his way with a few
reminders that we were up and after him, and that he would do well to
hurry.
By evening our foes had snugly entrenched themselves behind the great
Hindenburg barrier, and we again came face to fare with this formidable
obstacle. The line had, meanwhile, been kept in an excellent state of
preservation, and it was quite out of the question to make a frontal
attack on it without first cutting the belts of broad wire and treating
the emplacements to a prolonged bombardment. Another formidable
hindrance in our way and placed between us, moreover, was the famous
Canal Du Nord, which was entirely dry in most places. It was a
considerable breadth across, and could obviously not be bridged as long
as the enemy kept watch over it from the opposite side, and it varied
from forty to seventy feet in depth. Thus, for the time being, the line
settled down stationary until this task could be accomplished, for it
was not the intention of our Command that we should sit down for the
winter before this great fortress, as our enemies wished and expected
us to do.
Our opponents were too busily engaged removing their heavy pieces of
Artillery back to a place of safety to subject us to a great amount of
annoyance, and, as the weather remained good, the work of bringing our
heavies up was accomplished quickly and effectively. The battery took
up a position in our former front line facing Bourlon Wood, with the
ruined village of Mouevres immediately ahead, while the forward section
was placed in part of the Hindenburg line itself, south-east of
Pronville. Wire cutting was undertaken and carried out by all field
batteries, and the heavies pounded enemy emplacements and communication
trenches in the rear.
Bombing by aircraft became intensive on both sides, and the enemy
adopted new tactics by coming over after dark, and, waiting for the gun
flashes, proceeded to drop bombs on the batteries. A fine spectacle was
witnessed two nights in succession in the form of a super-Gotha bombing
machine brought down in flames. Our small fighting planes were in the
habit of flying at a high altitude, keeping watch over our lines and
lying in wait for these monsters. As soon as one of them was picked out
in the rays of a searchlight, others would concentrate at once on it,
whereupon the archies immediately opened fire. Then far above a light
would twinkle out several times, which was a sign for the anti-aircraft
batteries to cease fire. Everything remained still for a while, the
searchlights always focused on their prey, which endeavoured to dodge
out of the brilliant light, but in vain, owing to its unwieldiness.
Then suddenly from out of the darkness a little object shot alongside
the giant plane and spat tracer bullets into it, whereupon it instantly
caught fire, and slowly heeling over commenced its downward journey to
destruction.
Fierce fighting continued to the south, and by a series of brilliant
operations our troops had everywhere come in contact with the
Hindenburg Line, and commenced pounding its defences for the further
advance. At the beginning of the fourth week in September preparations
were almost complete for the coming assault, which would require all
the energy and fortitude we could display. The Division was
side-slipped down to the neighbourhood of Havrincourt, as it was
familiar ground to us, after our experiences in November and December
of the previous year. The policy at this juncture was, as far as it
could be carried out, to place Divisions in localities with which they
had already become acquainted. Our battle position was situated on the
outskirts of the small hamlet of Demicourt, and we were to cross the
canal a few hours after zero by means of a ramp already prepared and
carefully camouflaged at a point where it passed through our lines. If
all went according to expectations we were to follow a line due east,
and, passing to the north of Havrincourt, take up a position, already
known to us, on the railway cutting south of Flesquieres, although as
yet it was in enemy possession.
The great battle opened on the morning of the 27th inst., under
excellent conditions, and it is now known to everyone how the crossing
of the canal was effected by means of scaling ladders, and, in some
instances, by the use of life-belts.
From first to last the day went smoothly and well, and by nightfall the
great Hindenburg Line, upon which the enemy depended so much and in
which he had such faith, was everywhere behind us, and we were through,
at last, to open country beyond!
It only remained for the Allies’ great Commander-in-Chief to deliver
the final knock-out blow at his own time and discretion.
At this time the writer was reluctantly forced to leave the Battery on
account of ill health, and was sent home, and it is a source of keen
regret to him that on that account he missed the closing weeks of the
great campaign.
It is now a matter of history how our Armies, after hot and incessant
fighting, swept the enemy divisions out of France.
On Armistice Day, the Division was in possession of Maubeuge, and thus
the Guards found themselves on territory which they had occupied in the
early days of the War, prior to the retreat from Mons.
After three and a half years of strenuous warfare, the Battery is now
lying at rest in Cologne, where it keeps its silent “Watch on the
Rhine.”
THE END.