Regt.-Quartermaster-Sergt. F. A. Ifould, Cpl. H. R. Verrall.
PHASE VIII
TRENCH WARFARE AND “PEACEFUL PENETRATION” AT LENS—DEAN’S V.C.
_May-September 1918_
On April 10 Brig.-Gen. R. W. Morgan, D.S.O., inspected the Battalion on
parade. He afterwards addressed the Battalion, and congratulated very
warmly all who had taken part in the recent operations.
At St. Blimont we were reinforced by a draft of 222 and the return of
160 who had been on leave to England. The Battalion was finally made up
to a strength of 850 rifles.
The work of reorganisation of companies was taken in hand immediately
and completed by April 12. The remainder of the month was devoted to
intensive training. The instruction of new section commanders and the
training of a large number of new Lewis gunners was actively carried
out. During the month our Lewis guns were increased to twenty-four,
including four for anti-aircraft work.
The Battalion was fortunate in its drafts. About 40 per cent. were men
who had had previous experience in the field; the remainder were men of
the A4 class from England—about nineteen years of age and very keen.
On April 17 the Battalion moved to Ourton, near Pernes, where the
Division was in General Headquarters reserve and ready to move at six
hours’ notice. Every third day the Canadian School Training Ground at
Pernes was at our disposal, where there was an excellent 20-target rifle
range, bayonet fighting courses, and drill grounds. At Ourton we made
two rifle ranges, and much valuable musketry training was done.
A large draft of officers joined us at Ourton, including Capt. H. S.
Brown from a six months’ tour of duty at home. Capt. Brown became
2nd-in-command, and the Battalion organisation at this time was as
follows:
Commanding Officer, Lieut.-Col. H. J. Wenyon, D.S.O.
2nd-in-Command, Capt. H. S. Brown.
Adjutant, Capt. R. P. Baker.
Transport Officer, Capt. J. N. Arnaud.
Quartermaster, Capt. J. R. Wood.
Company Commanders:
A Company, Capt. J. H. Selfe.
B Company, Capt. R. G. Rogers.
C Company, Capt. S. G. Thompson.
D Company, Capt. F. Proctor.
There was very little time for pure recreation now, but we got a holiday
one Saturday, and Capt. Brown organised a very successful athletic
sports meeting held on April 27. There was some very good running, one
feature being the winning of the 100 yards officers’ race by Gen.
Morgan. The meeting did a lot of good, as the men were in danger of
getting a little “stale” with the pressure of continuous training. The
events in which mules participated caused considerable amusement.
A Brigade rifle meeting was held at Pernes on April 29. On the total
points scored for shooting the Battalion was first, and on the points
scored for field work, particularly section commanders’ control, the
Battalion was also very easily first. This was a very satisfactory
feature, and was a direct result of very hard work by the officers and
N.C.O.s during the previous weeks. Of the total prize money of about 550
francs, the Battalion took 385 francs.
On this day we heard rumours of a move to the line, the region of Lens
being hinted at as our probable destination. On April 30 representatives
were sent to reconnoitre the line in front of Lens—the very front, as it
happened, on which the Battalion was fighting a year before when the
enemy withdrew after the battle for Vimy Ridge.
On May 1 we found ourselves in old familiar spots—Sains-en-Gohelle,
where we stopped for tea, Bully-Grenay, and Maroc, where we spent the
night in cellars. At dusk on the 2nd we moved up the Fosse 11 road,
along which the Battalion had fought its way in April 1917, into Cité
St. Pierre, where we took over from the Canadian Cameron Highlanders,
and became battalion in support. The 72nd Brigade took over the St.
Emilie Sector. This had been a thickly populated mining district, and
the trenches wound about through the ruins of old houses and under
roads. The whole district was a mass of demolished houses, brick rubble,
and debris of every description.
The front line ran just short of the northwestern outskirts of Lens. Two
main roads, the Lens-Bethune and the Lens-La Bassee roads cut through
our trenches and joined in the city just behind the enemy’s line. All
our trenches here were old German lines captured a year before. There
was a lot of the enemy’s concrete work everywhere, chiefly in the shape
of reinforced cellars and houses and forward observation posts. One of
these observation posts formed the inter-battalion boundary in the front
line.
No Man’s Land on the right was a tangled mass of ruins of every
description: broken houses, old demolished mine buildings, wire
entanglements, the whole churned up by shells in a remarkable way. On
the left there were not so many buildings in front, and No Man’s Land
was old grass land, with here and there an isolated ruined house. On the
left within our lines was the Canteen Tunnel, an elaborate underground
work with about fourteen entrances, stretching from the support line,
Douglas Trench, up to the front line, Chicory Trench, where an exit
could be made into Mason’s House, an old ruin just in front of our
parapet. This tunnel was always more trouble than it was worth. All the
entrances had to be guarded, and it became later the favourite
hunting-ground of Hun raiding parties.
The fact that this had been once a flourishing and thickly populated
district made it the most desolate-looking sector we were ever in, and
yet one of the most interesting. It offered neverending opportunities
for exploration. Searching for good places for Lewis gun or rifle posts,
cellars worth reinforcing as shelter for the men against bombardments,
salving and building—all became sports which were developed to a high
degree. Small wonder was it that this was the sector we shall always
remember for its defence schemes, changing nearly every tour and
baffling overwrought company commanders by their intricacies. At the end
of our stay here, any company commander who could tell where every one
of his sections was, and where they would be in case of attack, was
established as a Pelmanist of no mean order.
The 72nd Brigade front at the outset was held by two battalions, with
one battalion in support, but this was changed almost at once to one
battalion in the line distributed in depth, one battalion in support at
Cité St. Pierre, and one battalion in reserve at Bully-Grenay.
We started with three days at Cité St. Pierre. Battalion Headquarters
was in a dug-out under a ruined house known as Hodson’s House, and
everyone in the Battalion had pretty good billets in the cellars of the
ruined houses. During these three days we were reconnoitring the left
battalion front which we were to take over.
[Illustration:
CITÉ ST. PIERRE—THE OPERA HOUSE.
]
On the 5th we moved up after dark and relieved the 1st Battalion North
Staffordshire Regiment. B and D Companies were in the front line, A
Company in support, and C in reserve. Battalion Headquarters was well
forward in a dug-out in Counter Alley, the main communication trench.
The enemy was quiet, and we settled down at once to learn the new front.
On the 8th we got alarming news from a prisoner captured on another
front. Lens was to be the next jumping-off place for a big enemy
offensive. He was to attack in force on the night of the 9th/10th on the
front from Lens—Robecq. His bombardment was to commence at 10.30 p.m.,
and his attack, with twenty-two divisions, was to be launched at about 3
o’clock in the morning. May 8 and 9, therefore, we spent in fortifying
our positions as much as possible. By the afternoon of the 9th all
possible preparations were completed. Gen. Morgan came round our front
during the afternoon. Every man was in his appointed place, and we
settled down to a weary wait for the Hun to start. There was no “wind
up” in the trenches. We felt we could do no more than we had done.
[Illustration: