not so easy; for it was then possible to leave the tracks and go
across country by walking round the edges of the shell craters. All
along the road there was ceaseless activity day and night. Lines and
lines of lorries going backwards or forwards, limbers, wagons, men.
When the enemy shelled the road, generally some damage was done, and
it was not uncommon to see pools of blood in the road and the litter
of broken vehicles. At intervals along the road there were vast dumps
of ammunition and stores, and on the side tracks huge piles of every
sort of salvage.
Forward again of B.H.Q. the country was perhaps not so badly smashed,
except in the spots most exposed to shell fire. But the shell-holes
were often full of German dead--I counted nearly 100 within a quarter
of a mile of Dan Cottages. And on the forward wooden tracks used by
our transport, the ground reeked like a slaughter-house. Fragments of
everything just swept off the tracks. The limbs and bodies of the
pack-mules lying sometimes in heaps sometimes at intervals all along
the route. Of course the nearer you approached to Passchendaele Ridge
the drier and firmer was the ground. But that awful swamp behind has
probably no parallel in the history of war. How the Engineers overcame
it is really a marvel. And great credit indeed must be given to this
very efficient branch of the Army, and to the men who laboured there
under the terrible conditions around them. I have mentioned the German
dead; there was no doubt little time to give to them. But I hardly saw
one body of a British soldier who had been left without burial.
On December 15 I went with General Riddell to visit the 5th N.F.
Battalion H.Q. at Tyne Cottages, some pill-boxes about half-way
between forward B.H.Q. and Passchendaele. It was a long walk, and we
went up the Zonnebeke Road till we were in the neighbourhood of that
village, then along the mule track to Tyne Cottages. Whilst we were
talking with Major A. Irwin at the pill-box a few light shells came
over and sprinkled us with earth. It was best to be either inside or
well away from a pill-box: but as the entrance to this pill-box was
like a rabbit-hole and close to the ground General Riddell preferred
to stand outside. After that we paid a visit to Dan Cottages, and
returned back along the wooden tracks to Ypres.
[Illustration: Plan of B.H.Q. (Judah House), Dan Cottages.]
Next day B.H.Q. went forward to Dan Cottages and stayed there for four
days. The Brigade observers were employed in two ways, partly as
observers and partly as a gas guard for the B.H.Q. pill-box. This
pill-box had already stood one or two strong blows from shells, but it
still appeared to be pretty sound. The door of course faced the enemy,
but was protected by a stout concrete wall and a bank of earth outside
that.
It will be seen from the above plan that the quarters were very
confined--the bunks being roughly six feet long and the room rather
over six feet high.
One observer stood in the narrow passage outside the door as sentry
and gas guard. He was of course relieved every four hours, and at
night there were generally two on duty. The other observers who were
not on this duty held a post about Hillside Farm about a mile forward
of Dan Cottages. This was not altogether a healthy spot, but a good
view was obtained towards Moorslede.
In this area observers were asked to pay special attention to the
enemy's shelling, noticing the direction from which the sound of the
firing came and the areas shelled and approximately the number of
rounds. I had of course to write out the Brigade Intelligence Report
each morning. The last night we were in these quarters a number of
gas-shells were fired round the batteries and B.H.Q. They made the
atmosphere very unpleasant; and though they were not thick enough to
necessitate wearing the respirator, I suffered, especially the
following night, from their effects.
On December 20 we were relieved and moved back to the rest area at
Brandhoek, where we were glad to have four days' rest. On Christmas
Eve we moved to our old quarters at Ypres, and the following night we
had an excellent Christmas dinner thanks to the good services of
Lieut. Behrens, our French interpreter, an old machine-gunner of
Verdun. On December 28 we again went to the front area and held the
line for four days. It was always the custom for one of the officers
of the Brigade to keep awake on duty during part of the night. We
took it in turns and did two-hour shifts. On the morning of December
31 it happened to be my turn to be awake on duty just about dawn. And
this saved me from a very rude awakening. That morning the enemy had
decided on a bombardment of our Divisional front and he commenced
proceedings by shelling Dan Cottages with a battery of 4-inch naval
guns, a very accurate weapon. We got a shell on the roof of the
pill-box which gave a nasty concussion and put all the lights out.
That woke the rest of the Staff up except the Artillery Officer. I had
hardly got the lights on again when we got another shell on the roof.
Again the lights went out, and this time a piece of concrete fell out
of the roof and crashed on to the floor, knocking over some of our
belongings, but fortunately missing the officers inside.
A few small fragments of concrete also dropped on the face of the
Artillery Liaison Officer who had slept peacefully through the first
concussion. He woke up then with a comical look of surprise, as if some
one were playing a joke on him. Although another shell struck the bank
at the doorway we had no more on the roof, and no casualties--only we
found that all our telephone wires had been cut. I wonder whether our
roof would have stood another direct hit! Later on in the day I filled
the holes in the roof outside with blocks of ice and frozen earth, in
fact anything I could find to act as a 'burster' in case of further
shelling. At 12 o'clock midnight, being the beginning of New Year's
Day, our artillery fired their usual reminder at the enemy. It has been
a point of honour with us to fire off all our guns as soon as possible
after the New Year came in. On the evening of January 1 we were
relieved and moved back to Brandhoek. On January 3 the Division was
taken farther back for a rest, and the Brigade marched to the district
about Watou on the French border.
Having served for two years abroad I applied for a month's leave--it
was a privilege granted to Staff Officers who needed a rest. My leave
warrant reached me on January 5, and next day I left Watou and
entrained at Poperinghe for Boulogne.
XXIX
GOOD-BYE TO THE 50TH DIVISION
When I returned to Ypres on February 8, 1918, I found that some very
drastic changes had taken place in the grouping of battalions. Instead
of four battalions to a brigade, there were now to be three; and every
division was to be provided with a Pioneer battalion. This meant that
the 50th Division, who already possessed a battalion of pioneers, had
to part with a battalion from each brigade. And these battalions would
have to be attached as pioneer battalions to other divisions who
possessed no pioneer battalion. As the junior battalion in the
Northumberlands, the 7th N.F. were selected to go from the 149th
Infantry Brigade; and their companions in misfortune were the 9th
D.L.I. and the 5th Border Regiment. Major-General Sir P.S. Wilkinson,
K.C.M.G., our Divisional Commander, was good enough to say that he was
parting with three of his best battalions.
Although I had been attached to the Staff of the 149th Infantry
Brigade since May 1916 I was included in the General Order that all
detached officers should join their respective battalions before they
left the Division. At the time this looked very hard. I had been a
specialist for over two years and had got completely out of touch with
company work. But I have no doubt now that in the events which
happened I was very lucky to leave the 50th Division at this juncture.
In six weeks' time I was, through the good offices of the Battalion
H.Q., given an Intelligence job with our new Division; and the
experience I had gained with the 50th Division was not wasted as I had
feared it might be. Also there went with me from the 149th Infantry
Brigade four highly-trained observers who formed the nucleus and
backbone of the 42nd Divisional observers. On returning to the 7th
N.F. I lost my acting-captaincy and became second in command to C
Company. Also I had to part with many good friends in the old Brigade:
some of them I was destined never to meet again. Lieut. E.W. Styles
who was attached to the 149th Trench-Mortar Battery was unhappily
killed during the German offensive; a great friend whom I shall always
miss. My bombing orderly, L.-C. Fairclough, was also killed during the
same operations.
When I joined the 7th N.F. they were stationed at St. Jean--in Alnwick
Camp. And here the battalion said good-bye to the Brigade.
It was a singular turn of fate that this should occur here. The 7th
N.F. had fought their first battle with the Brigade on this spot in
April 1915, and the name of the camp was of course taken from the town
where their H.Q. were stationed at home. When he came to say farewell
to the battalion, General Riddell referred to this curious
coincidence and also bade us remember the regimental motto 'Quo Fata
Vocant' (' Whither the Fates call'). So we left the Ypres Salient for
the last time. And although I went into Belgium again with the Army of
Occupation, I have never set foot in Flanders again. Of all countries
on earth it is surely the most dismal and unhappy. At least so it
appeared to me.
XXX
DIGGING TRENCHES ABOUT LOOS
Before we left the 50th Division we learnt that we were to join the
42nd (East Lancashire) Territorial Division, commanded at this time by
Major-General A. Solly-Flood, C.M.G., D.S.O. The latter Division had
seen service in Egypt and Gallipoli before coming to France, and they
were now resting in the Bethune area, having just left the trenches
between Cambrin and Loos. This was in the I Corps area of the First
Army. As pioneers to the 42nd Division the 7th N.F. became Divisional
troops, directly under the command of the Divisional Staff and no
longer in a brigade. The three brigades of our new division were the
125th (Lancs. Fusiliers), 126th (East Lancashire), and 127th
(Manchester)--all Territorial brigades. The Staff of the 42nd Division
treated their new pioneer battalion with kindness and consideration;
and I believe we were called on occasion 'Solly-Flood's Pets.' On the
other hand there was friction at times between the men of the 42nd
Division and the men of the 7th N.F.
The whole Division had hitherto been drawn from the East Lancashire
area--Manchester, Oldham, Bury, &c., and they looked upon us rather
as intruders. The Northumberlands were of course not the people to let
slip so admirable an opportunity of accepting a feud: and in October
1918 they committed the unforgivable sin of winning the Divisional
Association Football Cup, which completed their unpopularity.
And for a battalion which had seen the hard service of the 7th N.F.,
the stock jests generally levelled at a pioneer battalion were a
little out of place. The 42nd Division proved themselves a hard
fighting division in 1918, and lived up to their motto 'Go one
better.'
The 7th N.F. left the Ypres area about February 11, 1918, and after
spending a few days at Brandhock they were conveyed in motor-buses to
the small village of Fouquereuil, west of Bethune.
Here the battalion was instructed to help the pioneers of the 6th
Division, who were holding the front line trenches between Cambrin and
Loos. Accordingly three companies of the 7th N.F. were detached from
the battalion and sent to the forward area. I went with C Company
(Capt. Herriott) to Philosophe, a small colliery village still partly
inhabited by civilians, though fairly close to the front line.
Our daily work was making reserve defences, trenches, deep dugouts,
and machine-gun emplacements between Vermelles and Loos. During our
stay of about a week at Philosophe the village was quiet. But one
night the enemy's guns sent a perfect stream of shells just over the
tops of the cottages for about twenty minutes. About a week after we
left the village it was completely knocked to bits by the enemy's
10-inch howitzer shells.
Our next visit was to some reserve trenches at Cambrin, where we
stayed for about a week, improving the defences. It was a quiet, easy
time, though not far behind the front line. After this the four
companies of the 7th N.F. were reduced to three, and I was transferred
to A Company at Sailly-Labourse. Here we were some distance behind the
front line, but working-parties were taken up to the forward area, and
I used to go and inspect them. Shortly after our arrival at Sailly the
enemy began to shell the back areas, causing great annoyance and some
casualties to the civilian population, generally to children. They had
been allowed to live here many months in peace, although not five
miles away from the enemy's trenches. Even Sailly-Labourse received
almost daily salvoes from long-range guns.
I had a very unpleasant experience myself in my billet, a brick
cottage, one night about March 12. I was in bed on the first
floor--the only person in the cottage except monsieur and madame who
slept in the cellar. About midnight the enemy's 4-inch naval guns
started shelling the place. Three shells in succession passed just
over the roof of my cottage, one smashed the next house to pieces; the
next fell into our little back garden, eight yards from the cottage;
and the third struck the road on the other side. After that I got up
and joined monsieur and madame for ten minutes in the cellar, until
the shelling had ceased. Then back to bed. But next day I took the
precaution of changing my billet--going to the cellar of the broken
house next door.
It was a piteous sight to see the poor French folk as they fled from
their homes, with their most cherished belongings packed on to small
carts.
About this time the 42nd Division decided to form a party of
observers, known as 'Divisional Observers,' who were intended to keep
a watch on the enemy during a battle and to report all sudden
movements to the Division. They were really intended to collect
information for D.H.Q. at times when the ordinary avenues of
information had broken down. At first the party consisted of one
officer and nine trained observers: but later on it was increased by
the inclusion of signallers and one or two additional men.
On March 15, 1918, I was instructed to return to Lapugnoy to Battalion
H.Q. in order to organise and command this new party of men. I
obtained this job through the kind recommendation of the Colonel and
Adjutant of the 7th N.F. Although this side of Intelligence was not
perhaps the one that I had most experience of, yet I hailed my return
to an Intelligence job with delight.
When I reached Lapugnoy no observers had yet arrived, but next day I
went to interview Capt. E.C.B. Kirsopp, M.C., the G.S.O. III, who was
the officer on the Staff directly responsible for the equipment and
movements of the observers. Capt. Kirsopp was, I believe, the father
of the observers, i.e. responsible for their formation, and he showed
at all times an interest and a kindness which were fully appreciated.
His faith in the possibilities of the party never wavered, although
for some time it was difficult to know how to make their information
quick and effective. However, he never lost hope in us, and he never
ceased to try to improve the means of communication between the
observers and D.H.Q. Amongst other things he got for the observers two
very powerful telescopes, with a magnification of forty-five times.
And although these glasses could not, owing to their size and the
weight of their fittings, be used during the moving warfare, at a
later stage they proved simply invaluable for making target sketches
of the enemy's defences. Another officer who did us good service was
Lieut. C.R. Stride, the Q.M. of the 7th N.F. Without his aid the heavy
telescopes would never have gone into action, and the observers would
often have been without rations. He always took an interest in the
little party, and provided us with many welcome comforts from his
store.[16]
On March 19 the following observers reported to me. From the 7th N.F.
L.-C. J. Cowen and Ptes. J. King, W. Fail, and R. Ewart--all of whom
were old friends and observers of the 149th Infantry Brigade; from the
125th Infantry Brigade L.-C. J. Flynn; from the 126th Infantry Brigade
Ptes. F. Dunkerley and F. Turner; from the 127th Infantry Brigade
Corp. Walker and Pte. A. Morris. Owing to casualties and to the
observers being recalled to their battalions the personnel of the
party was always changing. But of the above, the four men of the 7th
N.F. and Pte. F. Turner practically remained with the observers from
first to last.
For about a week I stayed at Lapugnoy, giving lectures to the
observers and carrying out some field training with the compass and
protractor. But our peaceful existence in the back area was not
destined to last long. On Friday, March 22, I was instructed to take
the observers to the 42nd Division Signal School at Bethune, in order
that the men might go through a course of signalling. We reached the
Signal School at 4 P.M. on Friday, and at 10 P.M. the same night, we
received orders that all officers and men at the school were to be
ready to move at 6 A.M. next morning. The long expected blow had
fallen at last. The enemy had already launched the first wave of his
great offensive.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] Lieut.-Col. H. Liddell, D.S.O., M.C., was most generous in
providing men to replace casualties and in sending us four signallers
from the 7th N.F. H.Q.
XXXI
THE GERMAN OFFENSIVE 1918--SECOND BATTLE OF ARRAS
March 23, 1918 was a fine day: and that was lucky for us, for we had a
long day in the open before us. We got a hurried breakfast about six
o'clock, and were soon marching by road to the place of assembly on
the road from Bethune to Hesdigneul. Here we had a wait of several
hours on the roadside, whilst an unending stream of motor-buses
hurried past all going southwards. It was rumoured that our
destination was Basseux, five miles S.W. of Arras; and I hoped it was
true, for I knew the district better than any other in France. At last
the buses allotted to the Divisional troops drew up and we got aboard
and set off on our journey to the south. We went through Labuissière
to St. Pol, and thence through Frévent to Doullens, and then
north-east along the road towards Arras. Except for a few large and
recent shell-holes by the roadside we saw little unusual until we
began to get near Arras. We stopped for a few minutes near the C.C.S.
at Laherlière, and I got off and asked one of the hospital orderlies
how things were going on. We were told that our fellows had had a bad
day on the 22nd, but that to-day far fewer casualties had passed
through the station. Soon after that we met a number of French
civilians with carts streaming back from Arras, guarded by French
soldiers. We knew then that things were not going too well in front.
When we reached Basseux about 6 P.M. the buses were turned round and
we went on in an easterly direction till we reached Ayette. Here we
got down and marched in the darkness to the ruined village of
Adinfer. Continual flashes in the direction of Monchy-le-Preux and an
intermittent roar from our long-range guns near at hand showed that
fighting was still going on. But no shells arrived to add to our
discomfort. The observers had to bivouac in Adinfer Wood, a cheerless
proceeding after our long journey down, for we had no blankets and no
chance of getting a hot meal. Some artillerymen gave me a drink of
water, which I remember with gratitude, for I had had no chance of a
drink since 6 A.M., and the roads had been choked with dust. There
was a keen frost that night, and I could not sleep for long. When
daylight came I managed to light a small fire and to heat up a tin of
'Machonchie'; and this put a little more life into me. After that I
went to Adinfer where the Divisional Staff were quartered in wooden
huts. Here I got a cup of coffee and had a chat with the Divisional
Intelligence Officer, Lieut. G.F. Doble, M.C. I found that D.H.Q.
were moving back to Monchy-au-Bois. My instructions were to
reconnoitre the roads from Ayette towards Bucquoy, Ablainzevelle,
and Courcelles-le-Comte. So after getting quarters for my party at a
ruined cottage in the wood, I set out with most of my men and spent
the whole afternoon tramping the roads as far as Ablainzevelle and
back again towards Moyenneville. Unfortunately as events proved this
was time and labour lost. For when I reported to Capt. Kirsopp at
Monchy-au-Bois I found that the 42nd Division had received orders
from the IV Corps to hold the line farther south, towards Behagnies
and Sapignies. D.H.Q. were to move next day to a camp between Logeast
Wood and Bucquoy. I was told to send a party of observers to the east
end of Logeast Wood and to pay a visit myself to the H.Q. near
Bucquoy. The night was again spent in Adinfer Wood; but it was more
comfortable for we had collected some rations and blankets and were
less exposed to the weather.
Next morning (March 25) I moved across country with L.-C. Flynn to the
camp between Logeast Wood and Bucquoy. The country-side seemed
deserted and no sound of firing could be heard. L.-C. Cowen took two
observers to the east end of Logeast Wood and spent the day there, but
nothing of importance could be seen. They were, however, shelled by
the enemy for a time in the afternoon. Later on in the day there were
more signs of the enemy's activity. A large dump exploded at
Courcelles, but it may have been done by our own R.E.'s. And it was
reported that the Germans were advancing towards Achiet-le-Grand. I
found out that evening that D.H.Q. had moved back to the village of
Fonquevillers; so I decided to move my men more in that direction; and
after nightfall the observers marched along the road through
Monchy-au-Bois to Bienvillers.
On this road we saw guns and transport in large numbers, mostly going
south. It was fairly evident to my mind that the enemy had made
another advance during the day, but definite news was hard to get.
Hundreds of shells from the German 4-inch naval guns fell about the
roads all night, but I heard not one of them explode. They must have
been a rotten lot of ammunition. On arriving at Bienvillers the
observers got a billet in the cellars of a shattered house at the
north end of the village. A little later I went to Fonquevillers to
get news from D.H.Q.--and instructions for next day. The Divisional
Staff were quartered in some Nissen huts. When I arrived they had no
particular news, but I was asked to send a post of observers again, if
possible, to the east end of Logeast Wood, which was thought to be
still in our hands. After this I returned to Bienvillers about
midnight and arranged for an early start next day.