THE BATTLE OF FESTUBERT.
Suppose for a moment that, in the first week of May, a British soldier
in the captured village of Neuve Chapelle is looking towards the German
lines. Away to the north-east he sees a long ridge crowned by the
village of Aubers. He gazes upon this ridge with eyes of desire, and
recalls the many determined but, so far, fruitless efforts which the
British army has made to capture it. He remembers that, as far back as
October 17, 1914, the red-roofed village in the distance was in British
hands, and that two days later the 2nd Royal Irish, by storming the
hamlet of Le Pilly,[40] attained our "farthest east." But our grasp of
the ridge was very feeble; it could not be held, and by mid-November we
had fallen back behind the ruins amidst which our soldier now stands.
The coveted position was as far off as ever.
Fresh in his memory is that terrible day in the second week of March
1915, when he raced through the streets of Neuve Chapelle full of hope
that the goal would be reached before nightfall. Alas! he and his
fellows were again doomed to disappointment. The Aubers ridge, so near
and yet so far, was still beyond our grasp. And now the rumour reaches
his ears that another big effort is to be made. The French are striving
south of the canal to carry Lens,[41] and we are to attack for the
double purpose of preventing the enemy from sending reinforcements to
the south, and of reaching the ridge if possible. Once we are securely
established on it the flat plain to the eastward will be commanded by
our guns, and La Bassée and Lille will soon know the German no more.
* * * * *
Look at this map and find the wood of Biez, which, you will remember,
figured largely in the fighting around Neuve Chapelle. To the east of
the wood you will see a road which skirts the ridge for a mile and a
half and then climbs it to pass through the villages of Aubers and
Fromelles. We were now about to make a thrust through the wood and
through Fromelles, in the hope of reaching the ridge. On the morning of
Sunday, 9th May, the 8th Division advanced against the village, and at
the same time the 1st Corps and the Indians began to push through the
wood. The attacks were preceded by the usual bombardment. Our
high-explosive shells wrecked the first line trenches of the enemy, but
unhappily did not do sufficient damage to the second line, and our men
found themselves up against unbroken wire and unbreached parapets. Some
ground was gained, but it could not be held, and by the evening we had
made but little progress. Many fine deeds of heroism were done during
the fierce fighting of the day.
[Illustration]
On the left the 24th and 25th Brigades behaved most gallantly, and a
Territorial battalion, the 13th (Kensington) of the London Regiment,
performed a feat which won high and well-deserved praise from Sir John
French. The Kensington men carried three lines of German trenches with
the bayonet, and held on to them until the German artillery fire became
so intense that flesh and blood could no longer endure it. When they
fell back they had but four company officers left.
Sir Douglas Haig now recognized that the attack against the Biez Wood
and Fromelles had failed. Nothing daunted, he now proposed to make
another attempt to win the Aubers ridge, this time from positions
between Neuve Chapelle and Givenchy. On the map (p. 231) you will see
Festubert, which is less than a mile to the north of Givenchy. From
Festubert, and from the points to the north of it marked A and B, three
attacks were to be made. The Indians and part of the 2nd Division were
to push forward from A; the 20th Brigade of the 7th Division was to
advance from B; the 22nd Brigade of the same division, from Festubert.
In front of our positions, across the wet fields, the Germans lay in
three lines of trenches, all of which would have to be carried before
the Aubers ridge could be reached.
All day Saturday, 15th May, British troops were pouring into the
trenches, and the Germans guessed what was afoot. During the afternoon
they frequently shouted, "Come on; we are ready!" In the late afternoon
Sir John French rode along the line greeting his men with inspiring
words, and wishing them good luck in the coming struggle. A heavy
bombardment of the German front had been going on for some days. Now it
grew heavier, and shortly before midnight on Saturday evening, 15th May,
the order to assault was given.
[Illustration]
As our men at A left their trenches the sky was lit up by the white
glare of German flares and searchlights. The Indians soon found
themselves checked by the fire of many machine guns installed in a group
of farms which the Germans had turned into little fortresses. The 2nd
Division, however, carried the first line trenches opposite to them, and
broke into the second line. By daybreak five or six hundred yards of the
first two lines of the enemy's trenches were in our hands. All day
Sunday the big guns of the enemy fiercely bombarded these trenches, and
created a zone of fire behind them. Nevertheless many heroes carrying
supplies of ammunition and bombs crossed the three hundred yards which
separated them from their comrades. Shells burst around them; the whole
space was swept by machine-gun fire, and a man had to risk his life a
hundred times before he could get through.
Ammunition parties of the "A" Company of the 1st King's (Liverpool),
under Lieutenants Hutchison and Roberts, succeeded in this perilous
work, though their casualties were very heavy. Lance-Corporal Tombs of
the same regiment displayed wonderful heroism in rescuing the wounded,
lying out in the open, and was afterwards awarded the Victoria Cross. On
the 17th Lieutenant Hutchison led a party of bombers along a trench,
partly held by us and partly by the Germans. So skilfully was this work
accomplished that 200 Germans were forced to surrender, and 200 others
were driven pell-mell down their communication trench. For this fine
exploit Lieutenant Hutchison was awarded the Military Cross.
The attack in the centre made good headway. Though checked by a flanking
fire, the 20th Brigade pushed on, and when reinforced reached the
outskirts of the hamlet marked C, where it broke into the second line
trenches. Late on Sunday evening the 1st Grenadiers were brought up, and
their bombing attacks were successful in driving many Germans from their
lairs. One company of the 2nd Scots Guards on this part of the line
advanced too far ahead, and was cut off. Like the Canadians at St.
Julien, the trapped Guards fought to the last man. When we took the
ground a few days later the gallant fellows were found lying stiff and
cold, with the enemy's dead thick around them.
The movement from Festubert was still more successful. The trenches
against which the attack was launched formed a perfect maze; yet an
advance of more than a mile was made. The 1st Welsh Fusiliers swarmed
over the German parapets with real Celtic ardour, and drove the enemy
down a long communication trench into an orchard. Company Sergeant-Major
Barter of this regiment called for volunteers, and he and his eight
devoted companions did miracles of heroism in the German second line.
They cleared five hundred yards of trench, discovered and cut the leads
of eleven mines, and captured three officers and 102 men. Sergeant-Major
Barter afterwards received the Victoria Cross.
Next day rain fell heavily, but the struggle in the trenches still
continued. On this day a terrible scene was witnessed at a point between
A and C. The remnant of a battalion of Saxons proposed to surrender. As
they advanced towards our line they waved a white flag tied to a stick.
At once their comrades opened rifle fire on them, and the guns behind
dropped shells among them. In a few moments the Saxons were destroyed
almost to a man.
In the evening the 21st Brigade on the right made another advance, in
the course of which a Territorial battalion, the 4th Cameron
Highlanders, recruited mainly from Inverness-shire, Skye, and the misty
Hebrides, pushed on far before their comrades. Under heavy fire, they
advanced over country liberally seamed with ditches, one of which was so
deep and wide that most of the men had to swim across it. The third
company reached the back end of a German communication trench; but being
without bombs, and having almost wholly used up its cartridges, was soon
in desperate straits. About midnight these gallant fellows were
reinforced by two platoons; but as they had no machine guns, and as the
Germans were fast closing in on both sides of them, and they were "in
the air," they were ordered to retire. In the small hours of the morning
they made their way back through a heavy rain of shells, and by the time
that the weary, mud-stained battalion had regained the British position
it had been reduced to half its strength.
[Illustration: Playing their Comrades up to the Germans: the Pipers of
the Black Watch at Richebourg.
(_By permission of The Illustrated London News._)
During the general advance in May the Black Watch suffered very heavily.
They assaulted the German trenches a few miles east of Richebourg (point
A on the map, page 231). Their first charge in the morning only reached
the German wire, and they fell in swathes under the merciless
machine-gun fire of the enemy. During the afternoon other companies of
the Black Watch dashed up, and by a brilliant charge captured the
trenches which had defied them in the morning. It was during this charge
that the pipers showed wonderful courage. The two pipers of each company
played their comrades right up to the Germans. The skirl of their pipes
was heard above the din and crash of Maxims, rifles, and bursting
shrapnel. The lads of "brown heath and shaggy wood" rushed on to victory
with the pibroch of their sires ringing in their ears.]
Still the fight went on. The Canadians, who had recovered from their
terrible ordeal on the Ypres salient, were now sent up to relieve the
two brigades of the 7th Division. On the afternoon of 18th May two
companies of the 16th (Canadian Scottish) were ordered to advance on the
hamlet at C, to the north-west of the orchard already mentioned. One
company made a frontal attack, and the other proceeded along the
communication trench which had been won by the Welsh Fusiliers. The
advance was partly successful, and the companies dug in five hundred
yards in front of the starting point.
On the night of the 20th an attack was made on the orchard itself.
During the afternoon the little enclosure was heavily bombarded, and at
7.45, when the artillery fire ceased, the Canadians climbed over their
parapets and dashed forward. The advance was made in broad daylight, and
a torrent of fire beat down upon them. At the edge of the orchard they
discovered a deep ditch full of water, with a wired hedge on the other
side. Without pause, the men plunged into the water, and, scrambling up
the bank, pushed through gaps in the hedges and swarmed into the
orchard. On the far side there were many Germans, but they fled as the
Canadians charged. Before long the orchard was in British hands.
Early on the 20th the 10th Canadian battalion made a gallant but
unavailing attempt to seize a very strong German position known as
Bexhill. The approach to it was defended by a redoubt strongly held with
machine guns. On the evening of the next day the Canadians returned to
the attack, but it was not until the early morning of the 24th that the
redoubt was captured. Five hundred men of the 5th Brigade, along with
100 men of the 7th (British Columbia) Battalion, made an advance in the
bright moonlight across a ditch which had been previously bridged, and
by four in the morning were in possession of the stronghold. Two hours
later Bexhill itself was won, and the victors received orders to "dig in
and hang on." They did so, in spite of three very fierce
counter-attacks.
It was now clear that we could make no further headway without more guns
and more shells than we then possessed. We were meeting with the same
difficulty that had beset the French in Artois. The German lines broke
up into a series of little fortresses, each of which could only be
captured by a separate assault. It was the Battle of Festubert which
brought home to the British people the absolute necessity for providing
the army with more and more big guns and an almost unending stream of
munitions. Our losses were very heavy, and they would have been greatly
reduced had our artillery been more numerous and better supplied. Less
than three weeks after the close of the battle the Government appointed
a Minister of Munitions.
The battle came to an end on the 26th, about the same time that the
fierce struggle on the Ypres salient died down. The results were summed
up by Sir John French as follows: "Since 16th May the First Army has
pierced the enemy's lines on a total front of four miles. The entire
first line system of trenches has been captured on a front of 3,200
yards, and on the remaining portion the first and second lines of
trenches are in our possession." During the fighting we captured 8
officers, 777 men, 10 machine guns, and a considerable amount of war
material.
[Footnote 40: See Vol. III., p. 61.]
[Footnote 41: See Chap. XXX.]