THE BATTLE OF ARRAS
About three weeks after the enemy had retired on our front opposite
Beaurains a series of operations started which were afterward known as
the battle of Arras. These were practically started with the splendid
capture of the Vimy Ridge by the Canadians. All our fellows were
highly delighted at this event, mainly by reason of the fact that we
had served there for three months in the previous spring, and could
appreciate the extraordinary difficulty of the task of the Canadians
in capturing it, especially La Folie Farm. These positions were
captured on April 9. Many other villages to the north and south of
Arras were captured on following days. It was reported that the First
and Third Armies took over 13,000 prisoners in the first few days of
this offensive.
Unfortunately, on the 12th of April the inevitable bad weather ensued,
and this considerably handicapped our efforts everywhere in this
vicinity. The tanks were again much in evidence, being used in
hundreds. They were brought up at night along the sunken roads and
behind ridges, camouflaged very ingeniously, and then used at dawn the
following mornings in attacking with the infantry.
Two types of tanks were used by the British, male and female, the
female being the smaller variety. The male tank was equipped with six
Lewis automatic rifles and two 6-pounders, the latter firing
armor-piercing shells, while the smaller tanks were provided with
Lewis guns only. I noticed one of the female tanks was equipped with
6-cylinder silent Knight engines and developed approximately 120 H.P.
It had 12 inches of clearance above the ground and was about 8 feet
high by about 12 feet wide in the centre, and 25 feet long. The male
tanks were larger and heavier, some of these being, I think, more than
45 tons in weight. Afterward in conversation with one of the tank
commanders he informed me that they had struck Boche barbed-wire
entanglements that day over 10 feet in height and extremely thick. All
the tanks have pet names given them by their crews.
The bombardment preceding these daily attacks was very intense, more
so even than those of the Somme operations. It was a very interesting
spectacle both by day and night. Close up one could hear the
continuous roar from the guns and at night the flashes would light up
the sky all around. Most of the batteries were set up on the sides of
roads. In the retreat and the fast succeeding offensive there had been
neither time nor opportunity for the gunners to construct their usual
emplacements. It was appalling to consider the cost of some of these
bombardments. As an example, the 9.2-inch howitzer shells, thousands
of which were fired weekly by each battery, cost about $150 apiece.
In many of the daylight attacks the assaulting infantry would wear
small tin plates on their backs. These would flash in the sunlight and
enable the gunners to keep them in sight as they advanced over the
ridges while they maintained an effective barrage ahead. Many
difficulties were encountered in bringing up guns, ammunition, and
supplies. On account of the state of the roads, which for a long time
were almost impassable, the traffic had to be handled with much
judgment and care. One-way traffic routes were established in many
places, and military police, usually from cavalry units, were posted
by the road control officers at all crossroads. Tie-ups frequently
occurred, often resulting in a line of traffic a quarter to half a
mile long being held up. The Boche airmen promptly took advantage of
this situation by flying over and dropping bombs on us. While we were
on road-work it was our business to keep the trucks and wagons
steadily moving along. Whenever a truck was ditched we made every one
climb down and get behind the wheels and move it off into a field out
of the way, or get it out onto the road again.
Since the retreat had started we had been living half the time on our
"iron rations," the latter consisting of bully-beef (corned beef),
hard biscuits, small cubes of Oxo, with tea and sugar. The tea and
sugar were usually carried up in a sand-bag, and when boiled formed a
curious concoction which tasted strongly of sand-bag.
The open warfare which developed in this retreat was welcomed by all
ranks, and their increased cheerfulness and rise of spirits were very
marked. The enemy losses must have been extremely high. In every
village, and alongside all roads, the bodies of German soldiers could
be seen. I was in Neuville-Vitasse the day after it was captured and
saw their dead lying in hundreds in the ditches, on the wire, and in
the brick ruins. Ghastly sights they were too. The front line of the
famous Hindenburg trenches ran through this village. As we walked into
the village we noticed a broken German machine-gun left on a simple
earth platform, in a shallow trench by the side of the road. It
appeared that the man in charge of this gun had sold his life dearly,
for fifty yards beyond some sixty of our poor fellows had been killed
by its fire and were already buried there. The infantry were fighting
hard at Chérisy, a short distance on our right, and many of their
"walking cases" and "stretcher cases" (wounded) passed us going back
to the nearest ambulance-station.
The fighting in the air was very active. Observation-balloons were up
in large numbers. During this time I saw one of our planes bring down
six enemy balloons in less than half an hour. The airman's usual plan
was to suddenly drop out of a cloud away above them and let fall a
bomb on the hydrogen bags. These would at once burst into flames, and
the observers would seldom have time to get into their parachutes.
It was a common practice when the Huns were shelling our balloons,
which, by the way, afford a nice large target for shrapnel, for our
observers to signal the crew on the winch-truck below to pull them
down and then send up an empty balloon again for the Huns to shoot at.
No doubt the same ruse is adopted on each side of No Man's Land, but I
can vouch for the fact that much German powder was wasted in this way.
The work of the Canadian railway-construction engineers was very fine
here. They rebuilt the old standard-gauge French lines which the
Germans had destroyed and carried the new roads up to within a mile of
the then front lines in the Hindenburg trenches. They were forced to
rebuild many trestle-bridges, and their pile-driver crews carried on
the work with great rapidity, calmness, and efficiency. The steam from
their upright boilers provided an excellent target for Fritz and they
were shelled consistently, but nevertheless the Canucks accomplished
the work successfully. Twelve-inch naval guns were run up on this
standard-gauge railroad and often fired from one to two miles back of
the trenches. Previous to the retreat of 1917 it had evidently been
more or less the policy of the British to rely mainly on their
mechanical transport rather than on light railroads and standard-gauge
railroads for transportation of supplies to the most advanced zones.
Since that time the general tendency has been to construct the light
railroads almost up to the support-line, or to points within a mile or
less behind the front trenches. The standard-gauge railroads also are
now carried up much closer. On most sectors on the British fronts the
light railways are now laid right up to the front line and supplies
sent up on them at night. Previous to this time it was the exception
rather than the rule to take them up so far. In this change they have
more or less followed the example of the Boche engineers, whose light
and standard-gauge roads are run up very close to their forward
trenches.
The main difficulty in the constant use of large trucks or
motor-vehicles was that the roads could not stand the constant and
heavy wear on them. Adequate maintenance for the roads for the last
two or three miles was out of the question, on account of the lack of
men and material necessary for their repairs, to say nothing of
constant hostile shelling. During the previous winters, road control
had been established, and the most direct routes to the
firing-trenches were often closed for weeks at a time, while all heavy
traffic was routed along third-class roads, which were often double
the distance of the more direct roads.
During the first week or two of this offensive we were employed on
repairing the destroyed roads or building new ones. In many places
where they crossed the old trenches we were obliged to take out the
timber from the German trenches and dugouts, and corduroy the roads
with it. Their lumber proved very useful. In many other instances we
used the only material available--brick from the ruins of the
buildings near by. These brick roads were naturally not much good, but
they served our purpose for a week or two. We found considerable
quantities of German high explosives in various dugouts. These we used
in demolishing many of their own concrete emplacements, being able
later to utilize the concrete so obtained in our work of
road-repairing. The large trees which they had felled in such numbers
across our path gave us much trouble.
The drainage was of first importance. With the exception of the main
metalled or pavé roads, which invariably have ditches running along
each side, the majority had no culverts of any description. It was
very necessary for us to construct narrow drainage ditches along the
sides and run these off into deep sumps dug in the adjoining fields
from ten to twenty feet on either side of the road. This is
practically the same method that we adopted in draining most of the
communication-trenches. In the advance and the half-open warfare then
proceeding, the infantry and gunners would carve little "funk-holes"
or shelters under or into the banks of the roads, or use their
waterproof sheets to cover the little huts they built with low walls
of sand-bags filled with dirt.
On account of the Germans having destroyed practically all of their
dugouts and shelters, there was little protection for us from their
constant and heavy bombardment. Our only resource was to jump into the
trenches which lined almost every road. As a matter of fact, trenches
are fairly good protection and we were always glad to use them.
In addition to our rebuilding the highways we were engaged in making a
reconnaissance of all the captured district in this area, and
perfecting plans for the thorough salvaging of all enemy material left
behind. The amount and value of this was very great and included
rails, timber, iron, ammunition, explosives, and many other useful
things. A light railway was constructed for several miles in the old
No Man's Land and millions of dollars' worth of material recovered,
even including the iron knife-rests for supporting barbed wire.
We used very large quantities of the old German dugout timber in
constructing new dugouts in our recently captured positions.
It was common practice by this time to start the construction of new
deep-mined dugouts if the trenches were occupied a week only. In the
past the British were always optimistic about capturing the other
fellows' trenches before long and had contented themselves with very
frail, easily built shelters. As a natural result the casualties had
been enormous.
It was not surprising to us that the morale of the German troops
should be so inferior to ours. The fact that they practically lived
underground most of the time, and even when on duty in the trenches
above usually occupied one of their heavily reinforced concrete or
thick steel-plated "pill-boxes," readily explained their rooted
objection to facing the music on top. When our sentries were on duty
they had practically no protection except, perhaps, the very
occasional use of a sort of steel breastplate and always a sharp pair
of eyes.
The German emplacements or strong points, often referred to as
"pill-boxes," were built in the most solid manner. The reinforcing of
the concrete was usually accomplished with the use of round steel
bars, rails, and I-beams placed at very close intervals in a rich
mixture of concrete, while the foundations were deep and also well
constructed.
Many of the steel-plate emplacements were used. These were usually
constructed of steel plates two or more inches thick, bolted together
and embedded in a concrete foundation. As in the case of the concrete
strong points, they would nearly always withstand direct hits from
shells of average caliber. We found many "pill-boxes," with three-inch
shells sticking out of the steel reinforcing rods.
We were camped under canvas for several weeks at the village of
Boyelles, about two miles back. Within a hundred yards of us was
placed a large ammunition-dump, including many gas-shells. No cover
for them could be obtained, so the shells were merely placed on the
ground and covered with tarpaulins. Every night we were strafed hard
at this camp, but, luckily, the dump was not hit. One night, we were
quietly playing cards in our camp when a Taube dropped five bombs in
quick succession within twenty yards of our tents, killing four horses
and two men. This bomb-dropping was then, as now, a common occurrence
behind the lines.
The work of the ambulance men and drivers during these days was
splendid. On May 3 another man and I were watching with our glasses
from an assembly-trench very near the shelling of an aid-post with
Boche eight-inch shells. This post was in a dugout off the side of the
road and the Huns were placing nearly every one of these heavy shells
squarely on top of it or on the middle of the road. During the thick
of this terrific bombardment we saw several Ford ambulance drivers
bring their cars up, load their cases, and drive calmly away again.
The next day one of the infantry officers on our front who was
scheduled to lead an attack "over the top" got started through some
miscalculation five minutes before the appointed zero hour. The whole
of his party ran into our own barrage and were nearly all blotted out.
The same officer survived--but reached a dressing-station near us
quite out of his mind.
Up the road a short distance from our camp was an infantry company
officers' dugout, with another near them occupied by their orderlies.
One night in May a Boche eight-inch shell burst on top of the
orderlies' dugout and buried them completely. Unfortunately, the fact
was not discovered until daylight, and when the entrance was cleaned
out again the men had been dead for some time. So many were buried by
shell explosions in this way that all dugouts are now constructed with
two or more entrances.