to say, long before the war; and he knew all about Alnwick and the
people there. During the war he had been instructing officers at
Sandhurst for a time, and later on he commanded a battalion of the
Cambridgeshires at the Battle of the Somme. This battalion succeeded
in capturing the Schwaben Redoubt, near Thiepval. Later on he had seen
service in the battle still raging in Flanders. When he came to
command the 149th Infantry Brigade at the end of September 1917 he had
already won the D.S.O. and Bar. To this he subsequently added another
Bar during the German offensive in March 1918. He was said to be a
typical Northumbrian. A leader, gallant and war-wise, of whom
Northumberland is justly proud.
When we left the line at Cherisy we had a good idea what our
destination was to be. But first of all we moved a short way back in
the direction of Miraumont. The 149th Infantry Brigade was quartered
at Courcelles-le-Comte, a shattered village in the area vacated by the
Germans after the battle on the Somme. Here we stayed for about ten
days, and the battalions resumed training their men for offensive
operations. One field day was particularly remarkable for a
demonstration by the Air Squadron stationed at Moyenneville. We
commenced operations before dawn, and I was in charge of the messages
at a spot representing battle H.Q. Just before I left at the
conclusion of the operations, about 9 A.M., an aeroplane swooped down
over our improvised H.Q. and left a message saying 'Expect a report at
B.H.Q. in an hour's time.' We returned to B.H.Q. and, sure enough,
about 9.40 A.M. an aeroplane again swooped down and dropped a small
packet. On opening it I was amazed to find a roll of about a dozen
photographs, taken about an hour before, of the final position reached
by the Infantry during the sham attack. How they managed to develop
and print these photographs in the short space of time is almost a
mystery. But I imagine they must have had some electrical machine for
drying the negatives and prints. During this short stay out of the
line I paid two visits to the old Somme battlefield. The first in
company with Capt. H. Liddell, who had for some time been acting as
Assistant-Brigade-Major. We rode to Grevillers and went on from there
on foot to Hexham Road and Eaucourt L'Abbaye. I had visited the
ground before with Lieut. Odell in June, when we were staying at
Monchy-au-Bois. A good deal of salvage had been done since then, and
there were fewer dead men lying about. But the scene of the fighting
at Hook Sap and round the Butte of Warlencourt was still littered with
helmets, rifles, and broken equipment of all sorts. Of course by this
time the trenches had largely fallen in and were covered with rough
rank herbage. But the wire belts and the duck-board tracks were still
there. When we approached the entrance to the cellars under the ruined
abbey at Eaucourt, we noticed traces of men living there. Smoke was
rising out of the ruins and there were recent footmarks about, and
some tins of soapy water. The story was, and I believe it was quite
true, that small parties of deserters dwelt in these old deep cellars
and dugouts, living on the bully beef which still covered the
battlefield and on the money received for 'Souvenirs' sold at
neighbouring canteens. I know of one deserter who lived there from
November 1916 to June or July 1917. Apart from these slight traces of
occupation, the battle-field seemed quite deserted from one end to the
other.
On another occasion I went with General Riddell by car to Thiepval and
we rode back through Bucquoy. This was a very interesting visit, for
the General explained on the spot exactly how the Schwaben Redoubt was
stormed, and how the troops were brought forward and disposed for the
attack. We went over a lot of the neighbouring ground, and I was able
to see how the Germans were forced out of St. Pierre Divion,
Miraumont, and Beaumont Hamel. I little thought as I rode home that
night through Bucquoy that I should in little more than five months'
time be commanding a company in the front line in a muddy ditch
outside Bucquoy. However this stay at Courcelles was invaluable later
on, for it gave me a general idea of the lie of the land on the enemy
side, when we were pressed back to Gommecourt and Colincamps.
We left Courcelles about October 18, and entrained at Miraumont
station. We left the train near Cassel and marched to the village of
Arneke, where I spent two nights at the house of the curé--a kind
hospitable old man. After that we marched out of France and arrived at
a camp about a mile west of Proven, in Belgium.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Lieuts. O. Young (5th N.F.), Jessop (6th N.F.), and Richardson
(7th N.F.).
XXVI
THE HOUTHULST FOREST
I wish I could omit all reference to the operations in Flanders 1917.
Surely no one can be found to take much pride in the results of this
part of the campaign. Judged by the map alone between May 1, 1917, and
May 1, 1918, it will be found that we actually lost ground in
Flanders, and that we were at the last hard put to it to retain any
footing there at all.
It is difficult to know what motives, political or military, led to
our pressing an attack with such colossal fury on this part of the
line. Perhaps the Channel ports at Ostend and Zeebrugge were the prize
we hoped to gain. Be that as it may, the result of our attack was to
bring about a conflict of unparalleled intensity. The bulk of the
English heavy artillery seemed to be concentrated on the one side and
the bulk of the enemy's heavy artillery on the other. In a country
like Flanders the ground is bad enough in foul weather; but where it
is churned up for miles with the heaviest of shells, it becomes
impossible to use tanks and next to impossible to use infantry.
Moreover, the Germans had superiority in the air. They had
concentrated on aircraft the effort which we had expended on
perfecting the tank. The one can be used effectively in wet weather,
but the other cannot. The German had another defensive surprise for
us. Owing to the nature of the ground the deep dugout was practically
an impossibility. In the place, therefore, of this the German devised
the concrete blockhouse or 'pill-box' as it was called. For miles
behind their front line the country was dotted with pill-boxes, which
could defy the tank and all but the largest kinds of shells. As soon
as our operations started the rain streamed down, making conditions
ten times worse for the attacking force.
All honour to those that gallantly stormed the muddy slopes of
Passchendaele; to the wonderful engineers that conquered the squalid
quagmires of Langemarck and Zonnebeke; to the gunners that stuck to
their guns under a rain of bombs and shells, and to the transport
drivers that fed them. It is a tale of wonderful gallantry and heroic
endeavour. But when all is said and done, one is bound to look at the
result.
On reaching the area round Proven the 50th Division was allocated to
the Fifth Army (General Gough), and received orders to prepare to take
part in an attack on the enemy's line between the Houthulst Forest and
Passchendaele. On October 21, the day after our arrival at Proven, I
went to the Fifth Army H.Q. to get all the maps and information I
could relating to the new front. The Army H.Q. were in a large château
north of Poperinghe, and when I got there I was received by the
Colonel in charge of Intelligence with every kindness. He got me
several maps, gave me the files of intelligence to glance over, and
advised me to visit the Air Squadron at Proven for aeroplane
photographs. He also offered to turn out a Staff car to take me back,
but this kind offer I declined. My next visit was to the office of the
Air Squadron, where they had a file of all photographs relating to our
front. I was able to secure several useful copies, and the promise of
some more. After this I returned to our camp to work on the air
photos. On October 23 we marched to Proven and entrained there,
getting out at Elverdinghe. A short march took us to a camp of wooden
huts a little south of the château, where the 50th Division had their
battle H.Q. When we arrived the huts were quite empty of all
furniture; but in a short time the Brigade pioneers had made a table
and forms to use in the mess. It was decided that only the General,
Brigade-Major, and Signalling Officer should go forward to battle
H.Q., an old German pill-box called Martin's Mill, between Widjendrift
and Langemarck. The rest of the Brigade Staff were to remain at rear
H.Q. at Huddersfield Dugouts on the Yser Canal close to Bard's
Causeway. At this time I was much worried by what appeared to me to be
an attempt to tap the information of the Brigade as to the details of
the forthcoming attack. Naturally an Intelligence Officer has to be
discreet at all times, but especially so at times like this. I simply
record my impression although I cannot give any details.
On October 24 I went to the rear B.H.Q. at Huddersfield Dugouts. They
were in the northern bank of the Yser Canal about half a mile south of
Boesinghe. The front was approached by means of several long duck-board
tracks, in places more like wooden bridges than the ordinary trench
footboards. In the morning I did my best to investigate where these
tracks started, not altogether an easy matter in an entirely strange
country. In the afternoon I was asked by the Staff-Captain to see that
the hot food and tea and rum for the use of the troops next morning
were ready for delivery to the carrying-parties, and that the O.C.
carrying-party knew exactly what to do. I found that the food &c. was
ready packed up in the hot food containers by the four transport
officers, but I had great difficulty in finding the officer in charge
of the carrying-parties. After waiting about for over two hours I did
get in touch with him. And by nightfall I had the satisfaction of
seeing the hot food set off with this carrying-party up one of the
tracks leading to the front. We obtained guides for this party from the
50th Divisional Signals, who gave us every assistance in their power.
The attack took place next morning about dawn, after a heavy artillery
bombardment, and in the rain. Of this attack the Brigade has no need
to be ashamed, although by the afternoon of the same day the remnants
of its brave soldiers were withdrawn to the starting point. The 7th
N.F. on the left had a shorter distance to go than the rest, but on
their left flank was the Forest of Houthulst full of German snipers.
On the right were the 4th N.F. and in the centre the 5th N.F.
Each battalion had to attack across a treacherous swamp, and each was
confronted by a row of unbroken concrete pill-boxes, carefully
concealed from aerial observation. Each battalion made ground, but
each battalion was mowed down in heaps by the machine-guns in the
pill-boxes. I have nothing now to give as an estimate of the
casualties, except the officer casualties of the 7th N.F. Twelve
officers of the 7th N.F. went over the top that morning, and one
returned alive, Lieut Affleck. The others were all killed. It gives
some idea of the spirit of these gallant fellows, when I relate that
Lieut Affleck was preparing a further attack on the German pill-boxes
at the time he was ordered to return with the remnants of the
shattered brigade. The three battalions all suffered the heaviest
losses, but I have now no details except those I have given above.
Lieut. Odell, the Brigade Signalling Officer, and his men did wonders
in keeping the battalions in touch with B.H.Q. during the battle, and
for his great personal gallantry on this occasion he received a Bar to
his M.C. The shattered remnants of the battalions were drawn out of
the fighting zone and given billets not far from the Yser Canal. Even
here bad luck followed the 5th N.F., for a long-range shell crashed
into one of the huts at Rose Camp and caused forty more casualties.
In the transport lines on the west side of the Yser Canal Capt.
Neville, the Q.M. of the 7th N.F., was killed by a bomb next day. An
old soldier with a wonderful record of service, he had preferred to
stick to his battalion instead of taking promotion. I have already
called him the prince of quarter masters. I had also to lament him as
a very kind and generous friend.
We now received orders to retire to the rest area about Ondank, and on
October 26 I was sent to take over a camp for B.H.Q. On the way I
called at D.H.Q. at Elverdinghe Château, where I was very courteously
received by the 'Q' Staff--Col. Cartwright and Major McCracken--who
made many sympathetic inquiries after the officers in the Brigade.
We were now quartered in some old wooden huts, possibly constructed by
the French; and though very comfortable inside they were hardly
bomb-proof. At nights all the back areas round Ypres were heavily
bombed and a lot of horses were killed every night and a certain
number of men as well.
On October 27 the poor shattered remnants of my battalion passed
B.H.Q., very weary and very few in numbers. Besides the Battalion H.Q.
Company there were just enough men to make one decent-sized company.
Lieut.-Col. G. Scott Jackson stopped to speak to me, and the tears
trickled down his weather-beaten face, as he said 'Buckley, this has
fairly done me.' Only those who have had a fine battalion cut to
pieces can realise the feelings of their commander at such a moment.
I set to work with my observers packing a wall of sandbags round the
wooden huts, as a protection against bomb splinters. It was not
possible to protect the roof, but these sandbags were effective
against anything but a direct hit.
I have never known German night bombing more persistent or more heavy
than it was in the Salient just at this time. And although we never
got a bomb in the same field as our camp they dropped close enough to
be disturbing. A camp with some of the Divisional details was struck
some little way from us, and the same night D.H.Q. at Elverdinghe
Château were bombed, several motor-lorries being set on fire.
It was too far back for us to be troubled with much shelling, and the
German long-range guns fired mostly over our heads at the more
attractive targets of Poperinghe and Proven. One day during this short
rest, October 29, I had a ride round with Lieut. Odell in search of a
field-cashier's office where money could be drawn to pay Brigade
details. After a long ride to different places we landed up at a
Canadian Cashier's Office near Poperinghe; at this time the Canadians
were on Passchendaele Ridge. About November 5 the Brigade returned to
the line for a few days before the Division was taken out. On that day
I returned with the Staff-Captain and Capt. G. Bell (6th N.F.,
Assistant-Staff-Captain) to Huddersfield Dugouts. On the following
day I walked nearly as far as the Steenbeke at Martin's Mill, and the
ground around Langemarck was about as dreary and shattered as any that
I have ever seen. It was well described to me once as 'utter squalor.'
Next day I went to the camp of the 4th N.F. south of Langemarck and to
Marsouine camp, to arrange certain details of the relief. The same
night the Brigade was relieved, but I was left in charge at
Huddersfield Dugouts till the evening of November 8 when I returned to
the camp at Ondank. On November 12 the Brigade entrained at
Elverdinghe station and were taken through St. Omer to Watten station.
We marched from there in the dark to the little village of Serques. We
were now to have about a month's rest and training before returning
again to the Salient.
XXVII
DIVISIONAL REST NEAR ST. OMER
Serques was quite a pleasant little village to stay at, but the
arrangements for training were very scanty. I had to search round for
suitable spots for rifle-ranges, and to agree with the owners for
suitable compensation. Also I had to make some of the arrangements for
a ferry boat to convey the troops across the Canal De L'Aa to a good
training-ground between Watten and St. Momelin. On November 14 I paid
my first visit to St. Omer, which is a nice town with plenty of good
shops.
Lieut.-Col. G.R.B. Spain, C.M.G., of the 6th N.F. came to command the
Brigade during the absence of Brigadier-General Riddell on leave. He
was a man of remarkable erudition and a collector of prints and other
things. And I soon found that we had many things in common and many
interesting talks I had with him on a variety of subjects.
We discovered together several early flint implements and arrow-heads
about Serques, and he told me a lot about the early Stone Age, which
interested me greatly and set me looking for these interesting relics
wherever we happened to be quartered.[15] Shortly after this time
Lieut.-Col. Scott Jackson left the 7th N.F. to join the R.A.M.C. and
to take command of a base hospital. He was succeeded by Capt. H.
Liddell, M.C., who now became Lieut.-Col. in command of the battalion.
After staying at Serques for about two weeks the Brigade moved to the
area around Tournehem. This was not such a flat watery country; and we
had better quarters in the house of the curé of the place.
It was decided to hold Brigade Sports here, and I was sent off to
Boulogne to buy the prizes. I went there and back in a Divisional
Staff car. I had lunch at the Officers' Club, where the W.A.A.C.'s
were serving as waitresses; and very nice it was to see their fresh
English faces again. A visit to Boulogne when you are not going on
leave brings back rather melancholy feelings, and I was glad to leave
the place.
An incident happened at Nortleulinghem, which was rather unfortunate
for it spoilt an unbroken record. The 7th N.F., who were stationed at
this place, were ordered to provide a field-firing demonstration for
the Divisional Staff. The demonstration was to include the firing of a
number of smoke-bombs--rifle-grenades with a small can of phosphorus
at the end. Their successful discharge required considerable practice
and nerve.
As Lieut. H. Richardson, the Bombing Officer of the 7th N.F., was away
I was asked to come over and instruct the men how to fire these new
weapons off. There were only two mornings in which to instruct them
before the demonstration came off. Of course it was a very hurried
proceeding, and I was rather horrified to find that the men knew
practically nothing about rifle-grenades. (Most of the trained
rifle-bombers had become casualties in the battle at Houthulst.) I did
what I could to explain the working of the smoke rifle-bomb; but on
the first practice taking place one of the men succeeded in blowing
off the forefinger of another man, through firing too soon. Of course
that was not a fatal accident, but it put the man out of action for
the rest of the war--my only serious accident in bombing of any kind.
When the demonstration came off, there were to my great relief no
further regrettable incidents of that sort.
On December 9 we began to prepare to return to the Salient, and I went
with certain advanced details to Watten, where I spent the night in
one of the houses. I managed to get a very passable dinner at the best
local inn. We entrained next day at Watten station and were taken by
rail to Brandhoek; marching to a camp quite close to the station.
I had seen in some of our Intelligence papers that the 14th Division
was in a Corps immediately on our left, and I therefore knew that I
might have a chance of getting in touch with my brother George.
Accordingly I walked to Vlamertinghe next day and heard that his
battalion was stationed in a camp at St. Jean. On December 12 I was
sent forward to take over B.H.Q. in Ypres, at a convent at the N.E.
corner of the city. The higher floors of the convent were all in
ruins, but the ground floors were more or less intact, and in these we
had our rooms and offices. The mess room was under a pile of rubbish
outside. Having made the arrangements with the 150th Infantry Brigade,
whom we were relieving, I had still an hour to spare before B.H.Q.
would arrive. So I decided to walk over to St. Jean and inquire for my
brother's battalion. It took me about twenty minutes to get there, but
there was no difficulty in finding the battalion or their H.Q. So I
marched up to the H.Q. hut and asked to see Capt. Buckley. He came out
at once and was very surprised to see me, for he had no idea where I
was at this time. It was a hurried but exceedingly pleasant meeting. I
had only twenty minutes to spare, and he was just going forward to the
front line that night. So we had to 'swop yarns' very quickly. And he
walked back part of the way with me towards Ypres. I thought he looked
very worn out and depressed. He had had a very hard time in the
Salient, and in a few days he was back in hospital with influenza.
FOOTNOTES:
[15] At Coigneux I found a series of early implements in which the
British Museum took considerable interest.
XXVIII
THE PASSCHENDAELE RIDGE
The 50th Division were holding the line in front of Passchendaele
Village and a little to the south. On our right were the West Riding
Territorials, the 49th Division, commanded by Major-General Cameron
(once one of our brigadiers); on the left the 14th Division. Only one
brigade was in the line at a time--another remaining in support around
Ypres and the other back at rest about Brandhoek. Thus a brigade went
to close support for four days, to the front line for four days, and
then back to the rest area for four days. This seems to be an easy
method of holding the line; but, owing to the nature of the ground and
to the heavy shelling that went on most of the day and night in the
forward areas, it was impossible to keep a brigade very long in the
front line. The battle on the ridge had been over for some time, but
neither side was yet prepared to disperse its heavy concentration of
guns. But the heavy firing was gradually, very gradually, becoming
less severe.
Ypres itself had been badly knocked about during the great battle.
Most of the troops billeted in Ypres lived underground, but whilst I
was living there it was never severely shelled. Shrapnel was fired
occasionally at the balloons over the city, and also about the Menin
Gate and the roads leading towards the east end of the city. But there
were no heavy guns in Ypres itself, and there was at present no
particular reason for shelling it. We therefore had not an unpleasant
time ourselves in the city. I believe that the H.Q. at the convent
were shelled whilst we were in the front line, but that only happened
once.
On December 13 I went for a walk of inspection as far as Dan Cottages,
some old German pill-boxes, where the forward brigade had their H.Q.
For the first mile or so from Ypres the ground seemed to be recovering
from the heavy shelling it had received, and there was a good deal of
grass now growing about the old British front line trenches. But as
you got farther forward to the area of the heavy guns, the ground was
badly shattered and every shell-hole full of water. Between this point
and B.H.Q. the conditions were simply awful. A vast swamp of
yellow-brown mud divided into craters of large size--all full of
watery slime. And so it went on as far as the eye could see.
Here and there there were oases of dry ground, generally holding
several heavy guns and dumps of ammunition. Whilst at intervals the
swamp was intersected by a wooden road, used by the lorries to bring
up ammunition, and by two or three duck-board tracks which ran winding
through the awful mess of mud and water. These tracks were supported
on wooden piles driven into the mud, and were more like wooden bridges
than tracks. Sometimes they rested on firm ground, but mostly they
were held up in the air by the wooden piles. Again right through the
devastated area ran a good paved road from Ypres towards Zonnebeke.
Here and there in some of the drier spots you could see queer white
mounds--the concrete pill-boxes, some of which were still sound
enough, but others broken in and waterlogged. The pill-boxes and the
road and the wooden tracks were of course well known to the German
artillery, who lavished a great deal of ammunition every day on each
of these targets. But owing to the methodical way in which the Germans
fired on the tracks, it was always possible to mend them wherever they
were smashed. Between 2 A.M. and 8 A.M. practically no shells came
over on to the tracks, and during this time each day gangs of men went
out and mended the damage done to them.