Showing the concrete Pill Box recaptured on September 9, and the Menin
Road
]
The attack, with 2nd Lieut. Pfeuffar and Sergt. Purfield very much to
the fore throughout, was a great success, and resulted in the complete
re-establishment of the line and the capture of fifteen prisoners, one
machine gun, and one light trench mortar, while in addition the enemy
casualties both in the attack and counter-attack were known to be heavy,
and several of their dead were left in and around the post. The Lewis
guns of D Company on the north side of the road did great execution and
were very valuable. After the attack L.-Cpl. Cook worked his way with
his Lewis-gun team along the embanked Menin road, 100 yards in front of
our positions, and covered the work of consolidation.
The success of the counter-attack clearly demonstrated the value of
immediate action being taken by the troops on the spot, based on a bold
but simple plan, and supported solely by the infantry weapons, thereby
saving the time required in making elaborate arrangements for artillery
support, which the enemy would gain for consolidating and organising his
defences. Capt. Wenyon was to be heartily congratulated on the result.
The following decorations were awarded for this action: Capt. H. J.
Wenyon, acting 2nd-in-Command, D.S.O.; 2nd Lieuts. K. Pfeuffar and H. W.
Beattie, C Company, M.C.; and Sergt. Purfield, C Company, and L.-Cpl.
Cook, A Company, the D.C.M.
2nd Lieut. H. C. Walton, of D Company, was killed in the bombardment,
and Lieut. W. R. C. Hodge, also of D Company, was severely wounded. The
casualties to other ranks during the day included twelve men killed.
While we were there the enemy made no further attempt to clear us from
our footing in Inverness Copse, and the rest of that day and the next
were as quiet as could be expected in such a very volcanic
neighbourhood. On September 11 we were relieved in daylight by the 1st
Battalion Royal Fusiliers, and we returned to Mic Mac without undue
molestation by the Hun.
It turned out that we were about to shake the mud of Flanders from our
feet for the last time, and it was with mixed feelings that we learnt of
our impending departure for pastures new. It may surprise many of those
who read the foregoing account of our stay up north to hear that there
could be anything but joy at the prospect of departure. They read of
shells and mud, of battles, gas, and air-raids, with particular emphasis
on shells and mud, and it must be admitted that the dominant sensation
on getting our orders for the move was one of joy—and yet somehow the
life up there was not all bad. In spite of night bombing and long-range
shelling there was something quite restful about Mic Mac Camp and those
camps at Dickebusch, and the good fellowship throughout the Battalion
seemed to increase in the mud of those Ypres trenches. If the tours in
the forward area were bad, the arrangement of reliefs was such that, at
least for the two final months, we got more time out of the line than
ever before or since, and so we were leaving evils which we knew for
evils which we knew not, and there was at least a possibility that the
last state might be worse than the first.
In the early morning of September 14 we got into motor-buses and lorries
which took us to Merris, a very nice farming village six miles
south-west of Bailleul. The billets, which were scattered about the
various farms, covered an extended area. It was good to be out again in
fresh country unspoiled by shell-holes, and the place had an air of rest
and peace which was very pleasant. It is sad to think now of the state
to which this area was reduced by the fighting of 1918.
First we set to work cleaning up, and then training was started, but not
too strenuously. Some football was played, and a very good match between
the officers of the Battalion and Brigade Headquarters ended in a draw,
one of the features of the match being the goalkeeping of Gen. Sweny. A
great rugby match was also played, the only one we remember in France in
our Brigade, in which The Queen’s Own and Brigade Headquarters beat The
Queens, East Surreys, and North Staffords by one goal and one try (eight
points) to nil.
On the 18th Maj. Whitty went on leave, and Capt. Wenyon took over
temporary command. The Battalion was inspected on that day by Maj.-Gen.
A. C. Daly, the new Divisional Commander, who succeeded Maj.-Gen. L. J.
Bols, C.B., D.S.O., when the latter left to join Gen. Allenby in
Palestine as Chief of the General Staff. Gen. Daly remained in command
of the Division until it was disbanded in 1919. Capt. T. P. P. Walker
here rejoined the Battalion, and resumed the command of C Company.
We finally left the area on September 21, when we marched out of Merris
at 5.30 a.m. and entrained at Caestre, which we left about midday. B
Company had gone to Caestre the day previous, and had been engaged in
entraining the transport for the whole Brigade.
And so we left the Salient for the last time. There were few square
inches of mud there from the Menin road southwards with which the
Battalion had not been closely associated, either in the autumn and
winter of 1915–16 or in the summer of 1917, and our experience had
always been of fighting and shelling and mud, never of the more peaceful
periods which were known in its history; and as our train moved out of
the station at Caestre, we thought of the many good comrades who
remained behind sleeping beneath the wooden crosses in Flanders’ fields,
which marked the places where the Battalion so dear to us all had fought
and won; and we were proud that it was ours to hold high the torch which
their hands had thrown to us.