THE FOURTH OF MAY
The Unofficial Armistice--The Clash of the Scouts--"Sticking It"
on the Fourth.
We suffered cruelly on the Fourth. The dawn had discovered two long
lines of men, madly digging in plain sight of one another. There was
no firing except that one little storm when the stronger light had
shown our rear guard ridiculously tangled up with a screen of German
scouts so that some of each were nearer to foe than to friend and so
had foes on either side. They shot at one another. Some of us in our
excitement shot at both, scarce able to distinguish one from the
other. Others amongst us strove to knock their rifles up. And the
Germans in their trenches shot too. Both of us of the main bodies
continued to respect the tacit truce imposed by the conditions under
which we found ourselves, insofar as we ourselves were concerned, and
fired only at the poor fellows in between.
As for them, I fear the absurd nature of their tragic plight excited
more of wonder than of concern. They merged into hedges and ditches
swallowed them. Their case was only one incident of many, and what
became of them I have never heard, except that Lieutenant Lane who
commanded our rear guard was with us on the Eighth, so I presume that
some must have crawled up to us that night and so saved themselves for
the moment. Anything else would have been a great pity for so brave a
squad.
The digging continued until the better equipped Germans had finished
their task; when they sought their holes with one accord, an example
which we as quickly followed.
This was at nine o'clock on the morning of the fourth of May. From
then on until dusk the intensity of a furious all-day bombardment by
every known variety of projectile had been broken only at intervals to
allow of the nearer approach of the enemy's attacking infantry. The
worst was the enfilade fire of two batteries on our right which with
six-inch high explosive shells tore our front line to fragments so
that we were glad indeed to see the night come. Only once had ours
replied, one gun only. That was early in the morning. It barked
feebly, twice, but drew so fierce a German fire that it was forever
silenced.
Some infantry attacks followed but were beaten off. Only a weak half
of the battalion was in the front line trench. The remainder were in
Belle-waarde Wood, the outer fringe of which was a bare one hundred
yards behind the front line. They were fairly comfortable in pine
bough huts which were, however, with some of their occupants, badly
smashed by shell fire that day.
The outcome was that although all attacks were beaten off, our losses
were well on to two hundred men, most of whom were accounted for in
the more exposed front line.
The order had been that we were to hold this front for several days
more although the regiment had been in the trenches since April the
20th, and, except for a march back to Ypres from Polygon Wood, since
early April. But after such a smashing blow on men who were already
thoroughly exhausted, the plan was changed and our line was taken over
by the King's Shropshire Light Infantry, the "Shrops" we called them,
a sister regiment in our brigade, the 80th.