FIGHTING IN A SEA OF MUD
Inspecting a Tank that was _Hors de Combat_--All that was
Left of Mouquet Farm--A German Underground Fortress--A Trip
in the Bowels of the Earth--A Weird and Wonderful
Experience.
After our successful attack and capture of Lesboeufs and Morval on
September 25th, 1916, beyond consolidating our gains there was
comparatively little done in the way of big offensives until the capture
of Mouquet Farm and Thiepval and the capture of Beaumont Hamel--that
fortress of fortresses--on November 13th, and I devoted the interval to
recording the ground won.
One interesting incident occurred when I filmed Mouquet Farm situate
between Pozières and Thiepval. Looking at the Farm from the strategical
point of view, I feel quite confident in saying that only British troops
could have taken it. It was one of the most wonderful defensive points
that could possibly be conceived, and chosen by men who made a special
study of such positions. The whole place was thickly planted with
machine-guns, so cunningly concealed that it was impossible to observe
them until one was practically at the gun's mouth.
To get here it was necessary to go down a long steep glacis, then up
another to the farm. The Germans, with their network of underground
passages and dug-outs, were able to concentrate at any threatened point
with their machine-guns in such a manner that they would have our troops
under a continual stream of lead for quite one thousand yards without a
vestige of cover. The farm had been shelled by our artillery time after
time, until the whole ground for miles round was one huge mass of
shell-craters, but the Germans, in their dug-outs forty and fifty feet
underground, could not be reached by shell-fire. I will not go into
details of how the place was eventually taken by the Midlanders--it will
remain an epic of the war.
The weather was now breaking up. Cold winds and rain continually swept
over the whole Somme district, invariably accompanied by thick mists. I
wanted to obtain a film showing the fearful mud conditions, which we
were working hard and fighting in and under. And such mud! You could not
put the depth in inches. Nothing so ordinary; it was feet deep. I have
known relief battalions take six hours to reach their allotted position
in the front line, when, in the dry season, the same journey could be
accomplished in an hour; and the energy expended in wading through such
a morass can be imagined. Many times I have got stuck in the clayey
slime well above my knees and have required the assistance of two, and
sometimes three men to help me out. To turn oneself into a lump of mud,
all one had to do was to walk down to the front line; you would
undoubtedly be taken for a part of the parapet by the time you arrived.
I asked a Tommy once what he thought of it.
"Sir," he replied, "there ain't no blooming word to describe it!" And I
think he was right.
On one journey, when filming the carrying of munitions by mule-back--as
that was the only method by which our advanced field-guns could be
supplied--while they were being loaded at a dump near ---- Wood, the mud
was well above the mules' knees, and, in another instance, it was
actually touching their bellies. In such conditions our men were
fighting and winning battles, and not once did I hear of a single
instance where it affected the morale of the men. We cursed and swore
about it; who wouldn't? It retarded our progress; we wallowed in it, we
had to struggle through miles of it nearly up to our knees; we slept in
it or tried to; we ate in it, it even got unavoidably mixed up with our
food; and sometimes we drank it. And we tolerated it all, month after
month. If it was bad for us, we knew it was far worse for the Bosche,
for not only had he to live under these conditions, but he was subjected
to our hellish bombardment continually without rest or respite.
Thus it was I filmed Mouquet Farm and other scenes in the neighbourhood.
I went to Pozières and then struck across country. On my way I passed a
Tank which, for the time being, was _hors de combat_. It naturally
aroused my interest. I closely inspected it, both inside and out, and,
while I stood regarding it, two whizz-bangs came over in quick
succession, bursting about thirty feet away. The fact immediately
occurred to me that the Tank was under observation by the Bosche and he,
knowing the attraction it would have for enquiring natures, kept a gun
continually trained upon it. I had just got behind the body of the thing
when another shell dropped close by. I did not stop to judge the exact
distance. I cursed the mud because it did not allow me to run fast
enough, but really I ought to have blessed it. The fact that it was so
muddy caused the shell to sink more deeply into the ground before
exploding, its effective radius being also more confined.
When I got clear of the Tank, the firing ceased. I mentally vowed that,
for the future, temporarily disabled Tanks near the firing-line would
not interest me, unless I was sure they were under good cover.
I continued my journey to the farm, but kept well below the top of the
ridge. At one section, to save my dying a sailor's death, duck-boards
had been placed over the mud to facilitate easier travelling. It made me
feel like going on for ever, after ploughing for hours through mud the
consistency of treacle.
Eventually I arrived on the high ground near Mouquet. Many of our
field-gun batteries had taken up their position near by: they had turned
old shell-holes into gun-pits--occasionally a burst of firing rang out,
and Bosche was doing his level best to find them with his 5.9 crump.
Here I managed to obtain several very interesting scenes.
The farm, as a farm, did not exist; a mass of jumbled-up brickwork here
and there suggested that once upon a time, say 100 B.C., it might have
been. In due time I reached the place. A machine-gun company were in
possession, and I found an officer, who offered to show me over the
Bosche's underground fortress. I entered a dug-out entrance, the usual
type, and switching on my electric torch, proceeded with uncertain steps
down into the bowels of the earth. The steps were thick with mud and
water; water also was dripping through all the crevices in the roof, and
the offensive smell of dead bodies reached me.
"Have you cleaned this place out?" I called to my friend in front.
"Yes," he said. His voice sounded very hollow in this noisome, cavernous
shaft. And it was cold--heavens how cold! Ugh!
"There was one gallery section; where it leads to we cannot find out,
but it was blown in by us and evidently quite a few Bosches with it;
anyway, we are not going to disturb it. There is a possibility of the
whole gallery collapsing about our ears."
"We are at the bottom now; be careful, turn sharp to the left."
"Why this place must be at least forty feet deep."
"Yes, about that. This gallery runs along to more exits and a veritable
rabbit warren of living compartments. See these bullet-holes in the side
here," pointing to the wooden planks lining the gallery. "When our men
entered the other end the Bosche here had a machine-gun fixed up and so
they played it upon anybody who came near; lit up only by the gun
flashes it must have been a ghastly sight. It must have been the scene
of devilish fighting judging by the number of bullet-holes all over the
place. There are plenty of bloodstains about, somebody caught it pretty
badly."
I followed my guide until eventually we came to a recessed compartment;
it was illuminated by two German candles stuck in bottles, and a rough
wooden table with two chairs, evidently looted from the farm when the
Bosche arrived.
We made our exit from another shaft and came out at a spot about one
hundred yards from the place we had entered.
This will give you some idea of the way the ground was interlaced with
subterranean passages, and this, mind you, was only one tunnel of many.
It was quite pleasant to breathe comparatively fresh air again after the
foul atmosphere down below.
Bosche was more lively with his shell-fire and they were coming much too
near to be pleasant. I fixed up my machine and filmed several very good
bursts near some guns. He was evidently shooting blind, or by the map,
for they dropped anywhere but near their objectives. Anyway it was his
shoot and it was not up to us to correct him.