You must be wearying for news of the Battalion, and I seem to have
allowed far too long a time to pass without reporting to you what
happened after you left. Truth to tell there has been little
inclination to write to anyone these last days, and a real shrinking
from having to tell all that must be told. First of all let me say
how glad I am to hear that you are getting on well. Colville writes
to me to say that you and Hill and he are at the same hospital. We
have been anxious about Hill, but later news seems better. I don't
know what news you have already had about things, so will you forgive
me if I repeat things you already know?
It had been arranged that on the night of the fight Hamilton and I
would bring up water in dixies to the reserve trenches after dark,
and furnish a carrying party for this from the transport men.
I got together thirty men for this, took both watercarts down to the
cross roads in the ruined village of ----[1], filled the dixies
there, and I reached the reserve trenches with the first lot about
10.45 p.m. How I wished then that we had come earlier, but we had
purposely come about one hour later than the usual time. I found the
Doctor in his dug-out doing simply splendid work, and it was from him
that I learned the state of affairs--how that so many of the Officers
had been killed and so many more wounded. The Sergeant-Major was
wrestling with an ammunition party, and they were dropping shells
pretty thickly round us.
[1] Festubert.
I arranged with Hamilton that he would go back with the transport and
its carrying party, and I would go on and see what I could do to
help. It took some time to reach the fire trench, as the
communication trench was very crowded with stretcher-cases coming
back and wounded being helped back on other men's shoulders, and as
you know well, it is very narrow.
I got up at last and found the 8th Liverpool Regiment holding the
fire trench, with what was left of our men dotted in between them. I
made my way along, asking for Officers of the 6th, but for a long
time there was not one to be found. I had passed Stewart on the way
going out wounded, but he didn't seem to be badly hit. Then at
length I found Ralston and later Campbell and Hay. They seemed to be
quite certain that there were no other Officers left except Wishart,
who had been badly wounded. A great many of our wounded men were
being taken out, and it was a difficult business in so narrow a
trench. In some parts stretchers were of little use, and waterproof
sheets had to be used instead. We soon came upon Wishart being
carried along on a sheet. His face was very pale; I gave him a drink
from my water bottle, but I scarcely think he knew me. About 3 a.m.
I got the reserve trench on the telephone, and tried to get somebody
on the Brigade Staff to speak, but there was no one there except a
Major of the Liverpool Regiment, who told me that the Brigade had
sent a message that the 6th Scottish Rifles and the 'King's Own' were
to reform in the reserve trenches, and were to move out _via_ M 6.
It took some time to get them all collected. I started down the
communication trench. Ralston led the way and they went in sections,
and I waited until everyone I could find had gone,--all except two
wounded men whom I left in charge of a Sergeant and two
stretcher-bearers, who brought them out in course of time.
It was about 5 a.m. when I reached the reserve trenches. There I
found a Brigade message--this time a written one--waiting for me. It
bore the hour 4.37 a.m. 16/6/15, and was as follows--'As many
Officers and men of your Battalion as can be collected should be
taken back to Le T----,[2] where arrangements are being made for food
and rest A.A.A. As two Battalions are remaining as trench garrison,
you should not crowd trenches by waiting A.A.A. As soon as small
parties are collected they should start at once for Le T----.'[2]
[2] Le Touret.
The Doctor was still sitting in his dugout with the blood stains
round about him, in the quiet calmness that has been his strength
these days. What a night he had had, and what news of the fate of
his friends he had had to: listen to in the midst of the strain of
that night's work! The shells had not been few, and some had struck
the back of his dug-out, but through it all his devotion to duty was
beyond all praise.
He had a specially good word to say for the two stretcher-bearers
Craig and Hannah, who had brought out Erskine Hill in the afternoon
of the 15th. It had been specially difficult work. Sergeant
Hillhouse of 'B' Company died beside the 'aid post,' and we buried
him near by. By Companies we marched down the road towards
Fes----[3] and the last was clear by 6 a.m.
[3] Festubert.
I went back to the Brigade Headquarters and saw the General and some
of his staff and told him as much as I had by this time been able to
gather of what had happened in the attack.
The Battalion had done superbly! They did what was required of them;
they took what they were told to take; and tried hard to hold it
alone.... At last an order came to withdraw; it came from the right,
but from whom no one knows. Then they came back--all that was left
of them.
'A' Company who went over the parapet first have had the heaviest
losses, Murray, Macdonald and Kennedy all killed, McLean's nerves
completely shattered, and every Sergeant gone save Downie.
Of the other Companies, Brown killed, J. H. Keith twice buried in
shell holes and dug out with shattered nerves, and Capes in much the
same condition. Poor Pat Keith killed, Stewart, Brown and Logan all
wounded. Young J. B. Wilson killed, Wishart very badly hit, died
later, and Major MacKenzie wounded.
Poor Major Shaw! it is so sad about him, Ralston bound up his first
wound on the chin, and still he cheered on the men, and got well
forward when he was shot dead. Ralston succeeded in getting one of
his guns planted right in the German lines, when it was put out of
action by shell fire. His other gun under Sergeant Thompson got into
difficulties at a ditch, and was splendidly led on by J. B. Wilson,
who came across it after being cut off from his own men. Wilson did
splendidly in taking that gun forward till he was shot dead.
Sergeant Thompson was also killed, and the gun is reported to have
been smashed by bombs.
In a field opposite the Transport lines the men were fed and rested,
and that same morning before noonday the Companies held their
roll-call. Out of the total number of Officers and men who went into
the trenches on Sunday night, 13/14th June, exactly half answered
their names.
That same afternoon orders came for the Battalion to move back to the
same billets at Le C---- M----[4] as had been occupied before the
fight. That was Wednesday afternoon.
[4] Le Cornet Malo.
What haunted me most was the thought of those still lying out in
front. Another attack had been ordered for Wednesday night, and that
made a search party out of the question for that night. The attack
took place with much the same result as on Tuesday night. The
Battalion that attacked was cut to pieces like one man. On Thursday
afternoon I asked permission from the Brigade to take up a party of
volunteers to try to bring in wounded. Leave was granted and there
was no lack of willing men to go. We set out in the early evening
and Ralston and Hay came too. Fifty men had been selected, _i.e._,
ten from each Company and ten from Transport, &c.
On the way we stopped at Brigade Headquarters to ask permission for
Hay to go, and the General said that before going down to the
trenches we must present his compliments to the Brigadier-General of
the Brigade in occupation of the trenches, and get his sanction for
the effort. On we went and halted at the moated farm and saw the
General. He said we might try if we liked, but that an attack had
been ordered for 9.30 that night and another for 3 a.m., preceded by
bombardment, and that we must be clear of trenches before the second
one began, and in any case we must see the Commanding Officers of the
Battalions holding the trenches, to be sure that we did not interfere
with any of their arrangements. So on we went to the reserve
trenches, and there we saw the Commanding Officers of the two
Battalions in the fire trench. They were not encouraging. They had
ration parties in the communication trenches and water parties, and a
certain amount of ammunition had to be taken up before the second
attack began. The first attack was said to be going on at the
moment, and there was certainly a good deal of rifle fire, but they
could get no news of its progress as the wires were cut. Three
working parties had already been told off by them to go out between
the first and second attack, should the first prove unsuccessful (as
they seemed to think it would), and bridge the ditches, &c.,
preparatory to the second show, and it was expected that these
parties would do all they could to bring in wounded.
All this was most unsatisfactory. Everything seemed against us.
Ralston and Hay and I went up the communication trench a short way,
and we then very reluctantly decided that we must abandon the
attempt. It was hard to have to give up. Our hope of being able to
bring in any of our own men had never been very strong, as we knew
only too well that the same front as the Battalion had attacked over
had yet again been swept with fire in the attack that had followed
ours on the next night. But faint though the hope was, no stone must
be left unturned to try to realize it, and now even that last hope
was taken away. They lie where they fell.
And yet in the midst of the bitterness and the sadness one cannot
keep back the feeling of pride that it should be so with our comrades.
We carried the packs of the Battalion back to the transport that we
had brought with us, and after a long march reached our billets again
about 5 a.m. Our mission had been unfulfilled but we had tried. I
thanked the men on your behalf, Sir, for coming.
Next day General Hibbert came to see us, and got a description of
what had happened--chiefly from Ralston, Hay and Campbell.
By this time Graham had returned from hospital and had taken command.
He has done splendidly since, and has made every effort to pull what
was left of the Battalion together, and to keep them from thinking
that all further need for effort was over for them.
General Hibbert inspected the Battalion on Saturday, 19th, and
Major-General Sir R. Bannatine-Allason on Monday, 21st. They both
thanked the Regiment for the good work they had done. They deeply
regretted the very heavy losses, and said that although the attack by
the Battalion had not been in the end entirely successful, yet it had
had an important influence on the operations at other portions of the
Allies' lines.
But the work was not yet finished, there can be no stopping, and we
must refit and 'carry on.'
I am trying to carry out the duties of acting Adjutant. J. C. Wilson
has reported for duty with the Battalion till further instructions
from the Royal Flying Corps, and we are glad of his help.
On Tuesday, 22nd, we moved forward again to what the Division called
an 'intermediate position,' and on Monday a working party of 200 men
with full proportion of Officers was called for.
We just managed to furnish this with the equipment available and sent
all four Officers with it. It returned at about 4.30 a.m. in safety.
To-day, Thursday, 20th, a message has come that the Brigade is to be
prepared to move to a new area about 8 p.m.
_Tuesday night, 29th_.--I shall carry on the tale from where I left
off.
It was the greatest possible satisfaction to the Battalion to learn
that the new area was very close indeed to the district it last
served in under its old Division. Nothing could be more grateful to
all of us, than to leave the places that had been associated with so
much unhappiness and misfortune, and return to places that had
brighter memories for us.
We moved by night march to a large town and billeted in a factory
near a river, as we had done once before. Next day we moved again,
this time to a deserted village with a much battered church. We knew
the village well by name, but had never before been billetted in its
streets. Here we stayed till Sunday morning, when a message came
that C.O. and Adjutant were to report to Headquarters 23rd Infantry
Brigade along with Brigade Major of 154th Brigade, to make
arrangements for taking over a section of trenches that night.
Strange that eventful days should almost always be Sundays! Our
strength for the firing line is a C.O.; Acting Adjutant; 5 Subalterns
and 330 other ranks. We took over the section from a Regular
Battalion on Sunday night, and carried out the relief (including
three posts) in less than an hour.
The trenches are good ones and the front is quiet. We shall probably
do six days and perhaps nine days. They can tell us very little
about it, but we are getting on famously. Two new Vickers Machine
Guns were issued to us, and they are very light and a great
improvement on the older pattern.
We hold a section to the right of the one we occupied when Lawrie was
killed. Trench headquarters is in a house that has had all the roof
tiles knocked off, and, in spite of some well meaning tarpaulins
spread on the rafters, it leaks when it rains. Hamilton is doing the
work of Transport Officer as well as his own work, and comes up to
trenches cheerily every night as of old. I have been trying to write
up the Adjutant's War Diary, but know that I cannot do justice to the
tale of that attack.
The Battalion has been re-organized as far as was considered
necessary, and a good many promotions among N.C.O's have been given
effect to. Just now it is doing duty in the trenches as two
Companies under Campbell and Hay, with Ralston as Machine Gun Officer.
It is rumoured that a draft of Officers is on the way out to us, but
of this we have no official intimation.
The men are quite cheerful, and seem to be rapidly getting over the
ill effects of their experiences of the 15th.
We know that you have crossed the Channel, and so I shall send this
to your own home. I do hope the shoulder is not giving you much
pain. Best wishes for a good recovery.
I am,
Your obedient Servant,
J. LUSK.
A few extracts from letters to his Mother will reveal in a more
intimate way what he experienced on the night of the 15th, and during
the strenuous days which followed it. The first of them illustrates
his readiness for the post of greatest danger, and the chivalry of
his devotion to his friends:--