THE BATTLE OF FESTUBERT, MAY 9TH, 1915
The signal for the bombardment was given by a big gun at 5.30 a.m.,
when all the guns commenced to blaze off. It was just as if all hell
were let loose! The German trenches, like ours, were built up of
sandbags; and within five minutes they represented the waves of the
sea beating against the rocks. Débris was flying in all directions,
and we men stood on the tops of our trenches to see the fun; but were
very soon down again, as the enemy during the whole of that bombardment
repeatedly sniped at us, and had the impudence to shout at us: "Come
on--we've been waiting for you for twenty-four hours." At 8 a.m. the
bombardment ceased, and the attack commenced in earnest. Our position
was the centre, and we were led by the 2nd Royal Sussex, followed by
the Northamptons, North Lancashires, 5th Royal Sussex, and we also had
the 9th King's Liverpools, a Territorial Regiment that had recently
joined our Brigade. They were in reserve, with the 1st Brigade Black
Watch holding the front line whilst we attacked. The distance between
the two lines of trenches was not more than three hundred yards, but we
could advance only halfway: we had to yield to the enemy's machine-gun
fire. Some of the men had to lie there all day until nightfall, when,
at 11 o'clock, the whole of the 2nd Brigade retired to the reserve line
of trenches to reorganize, the 1st Brigade still holding the front
line. We accounted for 430 of all ranks, not including machine-gun men,
who were still in position in the front line.
Another bombardment was commenced again at 2 p.m., and, going into the
front line, we prepared for another attack. Towards 4 p.m. an order
came through for the North Lancashires to stand fast, and the Black
Watch, sending up two companies, took our places, and then charged the
enemy's lines. After repeated attempts, they eventually got into their
trenches. Words cannot describe that glorious piece of work--no praise
could be high enough. When they got into the trenches the Germans took
their rifles and equipment from them, and, turning them out unarmed,
told them to get back to their own lines the best way they could,
turning their machine-guns on them as they did so. We, of course,
dared not fire, on account of the possibility of hitting our own men.
We had the misfortune to lose our Armourer Sergeant, who had taken
part in the charge; also three Captains killed, Captains Hay, Hill,
and Adcock. Lieutenant-Colonel Bowlby was wounded; Lieutenant Fisher,
machine-gun Officer, killed; Lieutenant Garrod, sniping Officer, killed
on the enemy's barbed wire--altogether we lost nearly three hundred
of all ranks, the Northamptons losing more than we did, and the whole
Division losing nearly 8,000 men, without succeeding in taking a single
trench.
We held the front line until 3 a.m. of the morning of the ninth, when
we were relieved by the 2nd Division and the Highland Light Infantry,
5th Infantry Brigade. Proceeding to Le Touret, the Battalion joined up,
and, after calling the roll, we marched on to Lannoy, there to rest.
On the twelfth of May we left Lannoy and marched to Bethune, where we
occupied billets for four days. I was fortunate enough to procure a
pass, and paid a visit to St. Omer, where my father was stationed with
a Motor Transport Company. There I spent two very enjoyable days, but,
on getting back to Bethune, I found the Regiment had departed, taking
with them my rifle and equipment. They had not, however, gone far--only
to Beuvry, where I soon found them. That night the 47th Territorial
London Division had by mistake taken our billets. We, of course, turned
them out, upon which they began to sing:
"Though the North Lancs pinched our billets, never mind!
We have slept in the fields before,
And we'll do the same as of yore,
So the North Lancs can have our billets--never mind!"
There we stayed six days, finding working parties, etc., and then we
moved up to Annequin for three days in reserve. At Annequin there was a
coal-pit, which was shelled each day and nearly every night, although
the civilians still occupied it. The church, typical of churches in the
French villages, came under the enemy's fire first. Just behind and
in rear was an estaminet run by two French girls. How they could live
there beats me, as there were three large shell-holes in the walls, and
a corner had been knocked off the house. They had placed barrels filled
with earth over these holes, and carried on business in the same old
way, making quite a good living from the English troops billeted there.
On Sunday afternoons they used to take walks with some French Officers
around what was then the French section of the line; our line finished
on the left of the La Bassée Road. We stayed here four days, and on
the afternoon of May the twenty-fourth moved into the trenches, taking
over from the King's Liverpools the right of La Bassée Road, originally
occupied by the French. We found on this part of the line the trenches
very good, with four lines of them, a front line, a support line, and
a reserve, called Maison Rouge: there were three red-bricked houses
in this line. Some of the dug-outs in this line were also splendid,
containing beds and furniture brought by the French from the ruined
village of Cambrin just behind. Whilst we were here the enemy blew up a
mine, but we had few casualties. In this village we had our Transport
1st Line, and also the Brigade Office. The Germans were quite eight
hundred yards from us, and in between the two lines was an aeroplane,
English or French, which had been hit and brought down by the enemy.
On several occasions we went out at night to try to bring it in; but
we found the engine had been buried too far in the ground, and all we
could do was to take away parts. One day I watched a man go out in
broad daylight collecting German helmets.
We were relieved on the twenty-eighth by the Regiment which we had
relieved four days before, the 9th King's Liverpools; and we returned
to our old billets at Annequin. Around this sector of the line we were
well backed by the famous French 75 gun.
On June the first we relieved the 9th King's Liverpools from trenches
at the brickfields at Quinchy. They had been moved from the trenches
on the right of La Bassée Road during our time of reserve to those at
the brickfields. We had a rough time here for three days: the enemy
exploded two mines, which sent up the largest part of one of our
Companies (C Company) with them. We were also much nearer the enemy
than before, and were continually bombed.
On the fourth we were relieved, and proceeded to Bethune, where we were
billeted in a school. The very first night we were again shelled. We
spent seven days here, enjoying the luxury of a large swimming-bath.
On June the eleventh we left for Cambrin to relieve the 1st Brigade,
and put two Companies in reserve on the left of the road and in rear of
Quinchy and one on the right of the road at Maison Rouge, one Company
being in billets at Cambrin. At Maison Rouge we had a transmitting
station to the King's Royal Rifles, and from the 2nd Brigade
Headquarters, the King's Royal Rifles occupying the front line on the
right of the road, nicknamed "Bomb Alley," on account of its being so
near the enemy and continually under bombardment. We used sentries on
each traverse to look out for bombs: on seeing one coming and at what
position it would be likely to drop, the sentry would yell out "Bomb
right," or "Bomb left," as the case might be, when the men would at
once clear to the opposite direction.
On June the fourteenth we were relieved by the 2nd Division, and left
for Bethune, where we went into Corps reserve for four days.
On the seventeenth we left Bethune for La Pugnoy, there to rest:
whilst here we received a draft of 183 Officers and men who had been
transferred from a service Battalion of the Manchesters, on account of
the shortage of our own reinforcements at the feeding Battalion then at
Felixstowe.
On the twenty-seventh we marched to Cambrin, a distance of about
sixteen miles, having our dinner on the road in a thunderstorm;
and, on entering the trenches, we received a welcome from the Herts
Territorials, who had decorated the fire-step with pieces of chalk
(these trenches were of a chalky nature), out of small pieces of which
they had built the words: "Welcome to Kitchener's Army." Fancy what
the reading of that meant to us men, some of whom had been through the
war since the very commencement! We did indeed feel grateful, and we
had cause to be so, as we were supposed to have gone back to La Pugnoy
for a Divisional rest and were expecting at least a month, whereas we
got only three days of it. Whilst at La Pugnoy several Brigades of
Kitchener's Army had passed through us and the 1st Division, those of
which occupied the trenches at the time expected to get relieved by
them. However, we had to go, and we were shelled pretty heavily here;
we had three Companies in the front line, and D Company in reserve. On
July the fourth we were relieved from the trenches, after having been
in them for six days, and we returned to Salle-la-Bourse. We had then
taken over trenches in front of Vermelles, and, after spending a few
days at Salle-la-Bourse, we journeyed two kilometres to Noyelles; from
there, four days afterwards, we again occupied the trenches for eight
days. During this time operations were very calm, and all around the
district one could see for some considerable distance--from Vermelles
one could see the "Tower Bridge" at Loos; and I often used to gaze at
it and wonder when it would become our property, little thinking that
my hope would be realized within a couple of months. We did another
few days in the trenches, and then went back to Verquin, near Bethune.
The observation balloon used to go up here at the back of the village,
and on several occasions the enemy shelled it, but never succeeded in
hitting it.
On July the twentieth we were again at Noyelles, and on the
twenty-third of that month I obtained leave for the purpose of
proceeding to England for eight days, after having been on active
service for a period of nearly twelve months. I had nearly ten miles to
walk, fully equipped, to the railway station to get my train. I need
not describe my brief visit home; needless to say I enjoyed myself
never better in my life.
Arriving back at Bethune on August the first, we learnt from
Headquarters that the Regiment were in the trenches at Vermelles, and,
on arrival at that place, we were just in time to see the Battalion
relieved, and had to march back that same night again to Bethune, where
we spent eight days, the Division holding a horse-show and sports.
From the eighth of August until a fortnight before the Battle of Loos
we took our turn, with other Regiments in the Brigade, to go into
the trenches; and a fortnight before Loos we returned to Lozingham
to rehearse the coming battle. While at Lozingham we did Battalion
training, and generally prepared ourselves. I had become somewhat run
down and felt fairly bad with sickness, etc.; when the doctor examined
me he found I had a temperature of over 100. He asked me where I felt
ill, and on my telling him, he said: "You ought to be admitted to
hospital, but I'm afraid I can't do that, as you are a signaller and we
are short of signallers." He told me to lie down in my billet and rest.
I was like this for nearly a week, and did not feel much better at the
end of that time; but, as we were again on the move, I did not trouble
him any more.
It was on September the twenty-first that we moved to Marles, a village
one kilometre from Lozingham. On the twenty-second we marched to the
trenches at Vermelles in readiness for the battle, arriving there at
3 a.m. on the twenty-fourth, throughout which day we were busy teeing
in wires, etc., in readiness for our run to the German lines on the
morrow.