[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration:
_To illustrate Phases II and V._
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[Illustration:
[_Reproduced by permission of the Geographical Section, General
Staff._
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PHASE VI
TRENCH WARFARE IN THE DEVASTATED AREA AT HARGICOURT
_September 1917–March 1918_
For a troop train journey, the one from Caestre was quite good, and we
arrived at the desolate and demolished station of Miraumont in Picardy
about 11 p.m., and marched to camps at Beaulencourt, just outside
Bapaume. By no means all the roads in this neighbourhood were as yet
repaired, and we had to make a long detour, marching in all eleven miles
when the actual distance was only seven. We stayed here a few days, and
many of the Battalion took the opportunity of visiting the old scenes at
Guillemont and Delville Wood. We heard indefinite reports of the front
at Hargicourt, which we were soon to take over. There had just been a
battle there to straighten our line by taking the Cologne Ridge. The
attack had been successful, and the front was said to be still noisy and
unpleasant.
On September 25 we moved to camp at Haut Allaines, near Péronne. From
here, on the 26th, parties went up to reconnoitre the positions at
Hargicourt. On the 27th we moved by motor-bus to Roisel for the night,
and on the night of 28th/29th the Battalion relieved the 9th
Northumberland Fusiliers (34th Division) as support battalion.
Our Battalion Headquarters were at Cote Wood, and the Battalion was
disposed in trenches running up hill and down dale in the region of Cote
Wood and Fervaque Farm. The weather was beautiful, all was quiet, and we
had an opportunity of reconnoitring the front line thoroughly. The whole
Division was in the line here, the 17th Brigade on the right, 72nd
Brigade in the centre, and the 73rd Brigade on the left.
We were to share the left subsection of the centre section with the 9th
East Surrey Regiment. The 8th Queen’s Regiment and the 1st North
Staffordshire Regiment worked the right subsection. Our front section
consisted of a front line—tumbling to pieces—called Railway Trench on
the right, and Pond Trench and Bait Trench on the left, a support line
just being dug about 200 yards behind, and reserve positions with
Battalion Headquarters in a chalk quarry, known as The Egg, just outside
the ruined villages of Hargicourt and Villeret. There were good
communication trenches, Club Trench and Onion Lane.
From the front line at Bait Trench we had a splendid view of the
Hindenburg line and the village of Bellicourt. The ground sloped down
steeply from this part of our positions, and we could see almost the
whole of the valley called Buckshot Ravine, across which the Hindenburg
front line and switches in front of Bellicourt had been dug. The country
behind our lines was undulating and splendidly open. All villages had
been totally destroyed by the enemy on his retirement in the spring.
The position of the support battalion at Cote Wood was quite
comfortable. Protected from view, the trenches were well dug on the
reverse slope of a ridge.
Our transport lines and Quartermaster Stores were established some four
miles back in an orchard and paddock close to an old destroyed sugar
factory, known as Montigny Farm. There was a rest camp here for the
battalion out of the line in Divisional Reserve. From time to time our
quarters when in Divisional Reserve were changed. We started at
Montigny, later we used the ruined village of Hancourt, and last we were
very comfortably quartered at Vendelles. Great improvements were made in
the accommodation by the 24th Division during its long stay in this
region.
The weather was fine when we arrived at Cote Wood, and we immediately
took advantage of this to set our house in order for the winter. We were
up working at full strength on the communication trenches to start with.
By strenuous efforts, before the weather broke, we succeeded in getting
our front and support lines and communication trenches into a state
which would hold up in the winter. In the support line we started making
deep dug-outs on our own, and Capt. Proctor and 2nd Lieut. Holliday did
great work in this direction. Everywhere was a scene of strenuous
activity. Fortunately the Boche interfered very little with us during
this period, and later on, when things livened up considerably, we
reaped the benefit in the shape of dry trenches and comparative safety.
Half-way through the winter we side-slipped to the left a bit, taking
over a piece of trench from some other people who had not seen fit to
take advantage of the dry spell in October. This piece of trench—Fish
Lane locality—caused us more trouble than the whole of the rest of our
line together. Down at Montigny Farm there was a lot of work for the
transport and Quartermaster’s Stores personnel. When they got there they
found just a few huts and no covered standings for horses at all.
Material for building was very difficult to obtain by indenting on the
R.E.’s, and there was nothing for it but to “find” the stuff for
building if we were going to make men and horses comfortable for the
winter. Capt. Arnaud moved in a mysterious way his wonders to perform at
Montigny. G.S. wagons and limbers used to creep out of the camp during
the evening. No one knew where they were going or when they returned.
But a growing dump of corrugated iron, timber, and bricks and some
feverish activity in the building world might have given some clue to
any one good at putting two and two together. By the importunity of our
asking we finally got half an Adrian hut supplied, and made out of it a
really splendid Quartermaster’s Stores.
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