THE STORY OF HILL 60.
Three miles south of Ypres, close to the railway line which runs from
that city to Comines, on the Lys, stands Hill 60, now known to all the
world as the scene of a furious struggle which merged into a long and
fierce battle. You must not imagine Hill 60 as a towering peak, but as a
gentle swell of ground not rising much more than sixty feet above the
level of the surrounding country. It was, indeed, formed by the earth
taken out of a railway cutting and dumped down by the side of the line.
At the time when my story opens (17th April) it was a hillock of
ploughed land, with woods on all sides of it. Humble as it was, the
heroisms done on it have given it a fame that Mont Blanc might envy.
Hill 60 was valuable to the Germans because it overlooked the lower
ground on which the British had dug their trenches. Observers on the
hill could watch what was going on down below, and direct the fire of
their heavy guns which were stationed a couple of miles or so to the
rear. The whole hill was seamed with trenches and saps. The Germans held
the upper slopes and the summit, and their positions were only fifty
yards away from those of the British. They had strongly fortified the
hill, because they knew that its loss would force them to give up a
large part of their line. For this reason, and because it would afford
us a gun position commanding much of the German front, we now prepared a
bold attack upon it.
Since the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and the counter-attack at St. Eloi
there had been a lull in the fighting. Of course, the big guns on both
sides fired daily, and the aeroplanes of friend and foe made constant
raids and observation flights; but the infantry had been but little
engaged. On 1st April an Allied aviator played a practical joke on the
Germans. He flew over Lille, and dropped a football on the
aerodrome.[34] It bounded up to a great height, and the Germans,
thinking that it was a new kind of bomb, at once scuttled away into
cover. The supposed bomb did not explode, and after a time they ventured
out to examine it, and discovered this inscription on it: "April
fool--Gott strafe England,"[35]
In the early days of April our engineers, all unknown to the enemy, were
busy driving galleries under Hill 60, and preparing mines. At seven
o'clock on the morning of 17th April, when the 1st Royal West Kents and
the 2nd King's Own Scottish Borderers were waiting with fixed bayonets,
the mines under the hillock were exploded. There was a terrific roar,
and it seemed as though the German trenches had been struck by an
earthquake. Parapets, sand-bags, wire entanglements, and the bodies of
the men were blown high into the air. The trenches disappeared, and in
place of them yawned huge craters and mounds of piled earth. Before the
dense columns of dust and smoke could subside, our guns belched forth
shrapnel and high-explosive shells, so as to prevent the enemy from
sending up reinforcements. In the midst of the whirlwind of shot and
flame the Germans who had survived the explosions were seen falling over
one another in their efforts to escape by means of the communication
trenches. They were so panic-stricken that some of them forced a way to
safety by charging through their own ranks with the bayonet.
Then the whistles blew, and the West Kents, closely followed by the
Scottish Borderers, clambered over their parapets, and, rushing up the
slope, took possession of the craters, while some of their comrades
pursued the flying Germans and fought furiously with them in the narrow
trenches. Barricades were erected in the communication trenches, and
over these the enemy flung hand grenades. The British, however, made
good their hold on the craters, and twenty minutes after the charge was
made were strongly posted with machine guns on the coveted position.
Hill 60 was ours.
[Illustration: Hill 60.
(_From a sketch made just before its capture by the British. By
permission of The Illustrated London News._)]
Early next morning (Sunday, 18th April) the Germans in mass formation
made two attacks on the hill, but they were mown down by machine guns
and shrapnel. Nevertheless they kept up their assaults all day, and by 6
p.m. had won back part of the southern edge. The 2nd West Riding and 2nd
Yorkshire Light Infantry were now sent up to relieve the West Kents and
Scottish Borderers. Supported by heavy artillery fire, they dashed
forward and drove out the enemy at the point of the bayonet. While doing
so they captured fifty-three prisoners, including four officers. During
this advance we lost heavily, but the Germans lost more, and the slopes
were littered with the bodies of friend and foe.
For three days the struggle continued, almost without pause. The Germans
fiercely shelled the hill, and hurled upon it a constant shower of
bombs. Our men were exposed to fire from three sides, but they held on
like limpets to a rock. On the evening of the 20th the Germans made
another infantry attack, which lasted for an hour and a half, but once
more they were repulsed by the stubborn British. It was during this
period of fighting that Lieutenant George Roupell and Second Lieutenant
Geoffrey Woolley won the Victoria Cross, as you will read on a later
page.
At dawn the next morning we discovered that the Germans had dug
themselves in on the north-east edge of the hill. In the afternoon they
were driven off, and then their artillery literally plastered the hill
with shells of all kinds, some of them containing gases which blinded
and choked our men. Against a tiny table top of 250 yards long by 200
yards deep tons of metal and high explosives were flung from howitzers
and field guns at close range. It seemed to observers that nothing could
live in that zone of fire; nevertheless the defenders hung on for four
and a half terrible days. The hill was still ours on Thursday, the 22nd.
Then came a lull: the storm of battle had begun to rage over a far wider
field.
The struggle for the hill did not cease with the opening of this new
battle. Before every big attack which the Germans made elsewhere they
delivered a furious assault on the hill. At length, on 6th May, after a
series of gas attacks, they won it back, and also some trenches to the
north of it. By this time, however, it had been so blown away by mine
explosions and artillery fire as to be of little value. A friend of
mine, who visited it a week later, "could barely detect the gentle swell
among the flat meadows."
* * * * *
Before I pass on to describe the Second Battle of Ypres, let me relate
some soldiers' stories of the fierce fighting on Hill 60. A
correspondent tells us that the Scottish Borderers never lost heart
during the awful bombardment to which they were subjected. "These
astounding men," he says, "holding hastily-dug trenches by the side of a
yawning crater full of dead and wounded, with high-explosive shells
bursting all around them and often falling amongst them, actually sang
as they fired over the parapets or lobbed their bombs over the barriers
across the old communication trenches of the Germans. Amid the flares
that lit up the hilltop as clear as day, and the shells that burst with
clouds of whitish yellow smoke, they shouted in chorus, '_Here we are!
Here we are! Here we are again!_' Thus a company of the West Kents, sent
up in support, found them at daybreak. The Borderers had been obliged to
fall back from the trench on the outer lip of the crater to a trench on
its near side, so that the chasm lay between them and the Germans. Their
captain lay stark and stiff in the crater, which was so full of dead and
wounded that, in the words of a West Kents' officer, 'hardly a portion
of the ground could be seen.'" "It's dogged as does it," according to
the old saying, and never were men more dogged than the King's Own
Scottish Borderers during that fearful ordeal.
* * * * *
The same correspondent gives us some details of the splendid advance
made by the Duke of Wellington's Own (2nd West Riding) and the 2nd
Yorkshire Light Infantry, when they drove the Germans off the southern
edge. "At six o'clock the Duke's, as full of fight as ever, with
bayonets fixed, were away over the parapet of their battered trench,
followed by their fellow-countrymen of Yorkshire, some of the
K.O.S.B.'s, and the Queen Victoria Rifles, a London Territorial
battalion that did magnificent work that day. 'B' Company of the Duke's,
on the right, reached the German trenches with only slight casualties.
'C' company, in the centre, had to cross open ground, and of the hundred
men who charged only Captain Barton and eleven others got into the
German trench, where, notwithstanding their small numbers, they killed
or routed all the Germans there. 'D' Company, on the left, had likewise
to traverse the open, and lost all its officers in passing through the
heavily-shelled zone; but with the help of the gallant Yorkshire Light
Infantry it managed to secure the trench. Some fine deeds of gallantry
were performed on that sombre hillside. Privates Behan and Dryden, of
the Duke's, became separated from their company, but charged a German
trench single-handed, killing three Germans and capturing two others.
When they were reinforced by a detachment without an officer, Behan took
command, and showed great ability. Both men afterwards received the
Distinguished Conduct Medal."
* * * * *
A "Gaspipe Officer,"[36] writing in _Blackwood's Magazine_, tells us
that, on the evening of 17th April, a group of officers standing on a
little rise watched the shrapnel bursting over Hill 60, three and a half
miles away. "They were half joyful and half sick at heart. Not one of
them would have confessed it, yet each had a great pride in the old
division, and a great anxiety that it should do well. Had the charge
been successful? Had the gains been made good? They went back into their
hut, and sang . . . until it was time to go to bed.
"In the morning news came that the position had been rushed; the Germans
had been filled with such panic that they had fled from the trenches on
either side of the crater; they were heavily attacking; their guns and
bombs were sweeping the new position; there was no wire down yet.
"About nine the same night there was much cheering in the darkness of
the camp. The remains of two battalions had returned from the hill. Then
first we learned the names of the fallen. Still there was no wire down.
. . . It took five or six days before the wire was down and trenches
properly made. During those days no battalion could remain for more than
fifteen hours on the hill, and at the end of its shift it would return
broken. The men could see the guns that were firing at them. . . . The
hill was death. But the 5th Division never let go. They stuck to the
hill while the sappers put up wire and made it defensible."
* * * * *
Before I close this chapter I will give you some account of the soldiers
who won the Victoria Cross for deeds of outstanding gallantry during the
period between the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and the beginning of the
Second Battle of Ypres.
Private Robert Morrow, 1st Battalion, Princess Victoria's (Royal Irish)
Fusiliers.
Near Messines, on 12th April, some of our trenches were destroyed by the
enemy's shell fire, and several of our men were buried in the ruins.
Without waiting for orders, and under a very heavy fire, Private Morrow
dug out the men and carried them one by one to places of shelter. A
score of times he hazarded his own life in rescuing his comrades, and
the highest award of valour was the King's tribute to such fearless
self-devotion.
Private Edward Dwyer, 1st Battalion, East Surrey Regiment.
When His Majesty the King pinned the coveted cross on the breast of
Private Dwyer, he was amazed at the boyish appearance of the hero. He
was but nineteen years of age when he ran through the hail of death up
the slope of Hill 60; yet he was already a veteran, for he had fought
from Mons to the Marne, and back to the Aisne, and had played his part
in many a Flanders battle. He and his comrades of the East Surreys held
a trench of Hill 60 with wonderful doggedness. Quite early in the
encounter Dwyer went out from the cover of his trench and bandaged
several of his badly-wounded comrades. No one would have been more
surprised than Edward Dwyer if he had been told that these acts of mercy
were heroic. He considered them his plain duty--that was all.
Dwyer and his comrades were assailed by German hand-grenade throwers.
Their bombs came hurtling into the trench, and did awful execution.
Dwyer saw that unless the Germans were beaten back with their own
weapons the position would be lost. Seizing a supply of bombs, he sprang
upon the parapet, and flung his missiles so rapidly and with such
unerring aim that he broke up the enemy's advance. At once he became a
mark for the enemy's bombers and sharpshooters. Standing high on the
parapet, he was an excellent target. Grenades whizzed and cracked in the
air around him, rifles were fired at him, and only by a hair's breadth
did he escape time after time. At last he was wounded in the head, but
even then he did not cease to fling his bombs. They fell right in the
thick of the Germans, who were forced back. One man had beaten back a
whole company!
Private Dwyer came down from the sand-bags sorely wounded but
victorious. He was still unaware that he had done anything heroic. But
you and I honour him as a supremely brave man, who added to his
gallantry the charm of modesty. While he was recovering from his wounds
he addressed recruiting meetings with such burning words that many a man
forthwith offered his services to his King and country. Before the year
was out he carried the King's commission as second lieutenant.
Lieutenant George Rowland Patrick Roupell, 1st Battalion, the East
Surrey Regiment.
This young officer was in command of his company in a front trench on
that terrible April day when our men were clinging on to Hill 60 by
their eyebrows. Though wounded in several places, he remained at his
post, and led his men when they repelled a strong German assault. During
a lull in the shattering salvos of fire he had his wounds hurriedly
dressed, and then insisted on returning to his trench, which was soon
heavily shelled once more. Towards evening, when his company was
dangerously weakened, he went back to headquarters through a whirlwind
of fire, and returned, bringing with him reinforcements. With these he
held the position until his battalion was relieved next morning.
Lieutenant Roupell was one of the few survivors of his company. It was
his splendid example of courage, devotion, and doggedness that inspired
his men to hold out to the end.
Second Lieutenant Benjamin Handley Geary, 4th Battalion (attached 1st
Battalion), East Surrey Regiment.
Second Lieutenant Geary held the left crater on Hill 60 with his
platoon, a detachment of the Bedfordshire Regiment, and a few
reinforcements sent up during the evening and night. The crater was so
heavily bombarded by the enemy that the defences were broken down, and
throughout the night there were repeated bomb attacks which filled the
great hole with dead and wounded. Each attack, however, was splendidly
repulsed, mainly owing to the personal gallantry and inspiring example
of Lieutenant Geary. At one time he used a rifle with great effect, at
another time he threw hand grenades and held off the enemy. Again and
again he exposed himself with entire disregard of danger, in order to
see by the light of flares where the attack was to be made. In the
pauses between the attacks he was busy arranging for ammunition supply
and for reinforcements. Lieutenant Geary displayed all the ancient
virtues of his race--alertness in seizing opportunities, courage that is
heedless of self, leadership that inspires confidence, and steadfastness
that never knows defeat. He was severely wounded just before daylight
on 21st April. A bullet passed through his head from one side to the
other, completely destroying the sight of one eye, and seriously
injuring that of the other. He made, however, a rapid recovery.
Lieutenant Geoffrey Harold Woolley, 9th (County of London) Battalion,
the London Regiment (Queen Victoria's Rifles), Territorial Force.
At one time during the frenzied struggle which I have described in this
chapter, Lieutenant Woolley was the only officer on the hill. With a
handful of men he resisted all attacks on his trench, and continued
throwing bombs and encouraging his comrades until he was relieved. All
this time his trench was under heavy fire from the artillery, bombers,
and machine gunners of the enemy. For "sticking it" so gallantly
Lieutenant Woolley was rightly awarded the cross of valour. He had the
honour of being the first of all Territorials to win this high
distinction. Lieutenant Woolley was the son of an Essex clergyman, and
was a student at Oxford, preparing to take holy orders, when the war
broke out. Although he confessed that he hated fighting, he nevertheless
felt that he must serve his country. Shortly after his exploits on the
hill he was promoted captain.
[Illustration: The first Territorial to win the V.C. An heroic Exploit
on Hill 60.
(_From the picture by R. Caton Woodville, from material supplied by men
who fought in the action. By permission of The Illustrated London
News._)
"He successfully resisted all attacks on his trench and continued
throwing bombs"--such was the exploit which won Lieutenant Geoffrey
Harold Woolley the Victoria Cross. You will read the story of his
heroism on page 187.]
Private Edward Warner, 1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment.
On 1st May the Germans launched a gas attack against Hill 60, and Trench
46 had to be abandoned by our men. Though suffering agonies from the
poisonous fumes, Private Warner, all by himself, returned to the trench,
and prevented the enemy from taking possession of it. Reinforcements
were ordered up, but they could not reach the gallant fellow owing to
the gas. He then came back, and returned with other men, who helped him
to hold the trench until the enemy's attacks ceased. By this time he was
completely worn out, and shortly afterwards died from the effects of gas
poisoning. Thus perished a hero of heroes.
[Footnote 34: Aviation ground with hangars or sheds in which aeroplanes
are stored.]
[Footnote 35: German for "God punish England"--the common curse of the
Germans at that time.]
[Footnote 36: Military cyclists are known at the front as Gaspipe
Cavalry.]