C. R. M. F. Cruttwell

“ As dawn was breaking we detrained on the long platform of Cassel, and after the transport was unloaded moved up that steep hill which is so well known a landmark in Flanders. When we reached the summit, leaving the town on our left, we looked over the great Flemish plain, and heard for the first time the faint pulsing of the guns. The sun had now fully risen, and dissipated the thin morning mist; the level country parcelled out into innumerable farms and clumps of trees stretched endlessly to the east. ”

“ The whole neighbourhood was a mass of troops rehearsing the Somme battles on specially prepared areas, where officers remarked on the advantage of being able to move freely without fear of damaging the crops. Some days in succession were spent in Battalion, Brigade and Divisional Training, and all learnt by experience how much the inevitable stagnation and immobility of long-continued trench warfare dull the initiative and lessen the quickness of mind and body. ”

“ The cold was coming, but at present was only sufficient to chill the mud through and through, not to freeze it into hardness. No buildings were available for the great army echelonned along this area, and few dugouts; the vast majority of all ranks lived out in rough shelters, or under the scanty protection of sodden tents. Though the infantry were glued to their shell-holes the artillery still maintained the characteristic activity of battle areas: and the few roads and paths available for transport and communication were their constant targets, especially during the hours of darkness. ”

“ It stands greatly to the credit of the Battalion's fitness and discipline that not a man fell out during all those marches in the rain over indescribably miry roads.
On October 31st an eastward move of the Brigade settled us in a camp at Millencourt, the village on the western hill looking down at Albert, on the fringe of the old battlefields. The fighting had died down, but an enemy had to be encountered more insidious and more trying to endurance and moral—namely, the mud and the cold. ”

“ Smoke-clouds were emitted from our trenches, while the skilful manipulation of life-sized dummies successfully produced the illusion of lines of men issuing from their trenches, who drew on their wooden bodies the desired effect of heavy enemy fire. On November 14th Savy and Villars Brulin received the Battalion. These little villages, some 12 miles from the firing line near the source of the Scarpe, were, though we knew it not, to be the last billets of the Battalion in France. Every autumn the enemy had replied to our offensive in France with a furious blow elsewhere. ”

“ It lies in the valley of the Authie River, between downs of chalk, beech-covered, which put on beautiful colours as soon as the first frosts of autumn touched them. The whole countryside is indeed strangely reminiscent of the Chiltern Hills of Oxfordshire and Bucks. Battalion Headquarters were at the Château, a substantially-built, comfortable house under the southern slopes of the hills, belonging to a widow, Madame De Wailly, who lived there with her two daughters. ”

“ Sailly was full of camps and dumps; the bare and desolate slopes to the east harboured tier upon tier of guns. Reliefs from the Brigade worked day and night without a pause in Hébuterne and the adjacent trenches. When the Battalion took over H. Sector on the 16th, they found every nook and corner of the trenches by night filled with parties digging new dugouts and Stokes mortar emplacements, bringing up gas-cylinders, smoke candles and all the diverse paraphernalia of the modern offensive; while the enemy's artillery and machine guns incessantly harassed these suspected activities. ”

“ The bombardment had begun on the 25th, and night after night from the hilltop at Couin watchers saw with exultation and confident expectation, reflected in many letters, the great shells picking out the enemy's lines with fire. ”

“ G.O.C., 2nd Corps, in forwarding his message to General Fanshawe, added his own tribute: 'Will you please express my gratitude and thanks to all the units under your command for their devotion to duty, and for the way they have fought and worked.... All ranks of artillery, engineers and infantry have carried out their tasks with such spirit and co-operation that the results have exceeded expectations. You have all done nobly and I congratulate you and your officers on the way the Division has worked. ”

“ The actual routine of life in the trenches was pleasant enough. The men knew exactly where they were. There was a time to eat, a time to sleep, a time for fatigues, and a time for sentry-go. There was little rain, and no bitter nights. The shelters, which held two or three men a-piece, though mere flimsy shell-traps, were comfortable, and either boarded or lined with straw, which was frequently renewed. When the Warwicks took over from us they exclaimed in admiring surprise, 'Why, they're all officers' dugouts.' Each section had its little oven made of a biscuit tin built round with clay. ”

“ Along the road which ran obliquely from Les Essarts to Gommecourt came cyclists, fatigue men, and occasionally formed bodies of troops, who, when assailed with long range machine gun fire, extended and advanced in short rushes. One day two fat Huns carrying a dixie walked along the side of the great chalk communication trench, who, when Sergeant Daniels fired a shot at 1,200 yards, dropped their burden and leapt nimbly into the trench. ”

“ The men began, therefore, in accordance with orders to edge into a shallow communication trench only half finished, which the 5th Berks had started from their old line to 6th Avenue. It was a poor shelter, but offered a chance of safe return. Captain Lewis reached it with his orderly's help, and, though grievously wounded, was brought back. Captain Attride was shot through the head as he reached the very edge, and pitched forward dead. He had commanded D Company for nine months with the greatest tact and ability; his many friends mourned the best of comrades. ”

“ March came in with a return of frost and snow, but the front was gradually waking into life. It was obviously the German policy to mask the moment of their withdrawal by lively activity, and their artillery and machine guns showed considerable vigour. On the other hand, though the British had not yet realised that the front was about to give along a stretch of 80 miles it was clear from the events round Bapaume that the enemy had for the first time begun to entertain the idea of ceding ground voluntarily. ”

“ Headquarters, with one reserve Company, inhabited the Piggeries, the enormous bricked and covered sties of which easily accommodated 200 men. The owner had only just completed his venture before war began, and the place was unmarked on the map, which possibly accounted for its immunity from shell fire.
Life in the wood would have been wholly pleasant but for two things, fatigues and lack of sleep. There is little doubt that if the war had gone on for fifty years, its last month would have found the men as strenuously employed in improving and strengthening the defences as in those early days. ”

“ Men began to advance against the enemy on the whole front of 25 miles; the second act of the great struggle had begun.
The attack was, on the whole, a complete failure, (p. 122) though on the left the French made progress through the swamps towards Houthulst Forest, and the 23rd Division took Langemarck. In the centre, where our Division was engaged, progress was infinitesimal. The enemy troops, hidden in their deep and inconspicuous labyrinth of defence, were fresh and fought stoutly. ”

“ But anyone who had become familiar with the labyrinth would at once admit that for purposes of relief and inter-communication it was far superior to anything he had yet seen.
Another useful novelty was the systematic use of saps for night-posts. A sentry in the fire trench will always find his attention distracted to a certain degree, especially when he is 500 yards from the enemy, but put him in a sap-head with only a few yards of wire to protect him, and the acuteness of his vision and hearing will be marvellously increased. ”

“ The whole sector, indeed, closely resembled the crater areas, which the experiences of the Somme were to render familiar. The first week in this dreary spot passed uneventfully; the enemy guns and minenwerfer, the latter of the largest calibre, whose explosion was deafening, were active, but not unusually so, and up to the 15th the Battalion could congratulate themselves on an absence of casualties during the tour. They were to be relieved next day, and it seemed that the trouble always expected here would be reserved for others. ”

“ Meanwhile the constant exercise in hill-climbing for men and pack ponies, the schemes of attack and defence suggested that our next destination would be northward in the mountains. Nor was expectation falsified; for by the 23rd the Battalion had climbed up out of the warm, showery spring of the valley, and billeted in Italian huts at Granezza, about 4,500 feet above sea-level in storms of snow and hail. They were in Brigade Reserve immediately behind the lines on the Asiago plateau, which they were destined to guard until the advance to final victory at the end of October. ”

“ During the 16th the whole divisional front was without exception re-established, and patrols were pushed forward into No Man's Land; the Austrians continued to surrender in little bodies, until the Division had collected over 1,000, with eight mountain guns abandoned and picked up. The casualty list of the Battalion afforded happy proof of the ineffectiveness of the enemy. We lost no more than five killed and 13 wounded. Thus ended ignominiously the great Austrian attack. ”

“ The great attack of 20th September had rolled forward the tide of battle for more than a mile, and the British, now ensconced in the demolished farms on the east side of the Gravenstal Ridge, were preparing to carry out another stage of that painful and bloody progress. At dawn on 4th October the 143rd Brigade attacked through us, advancing some 1,500 yards. The Battalion spent the next three days in an uneasy reserve, changing (p. 129) their quarters every 24 hours, continuously soaked by the rain, which again fell pitilessly. ”

“ It almost seemed as if an infantry attack might be imminent, and colour was lent to this theory by an aeroplane message saying that what appeared to be gas cylinders were observed along the enemy trenches between Gommecourt and Serre. Accordingly we stood-to all night repairing the shattered trenches and re-erecting the wire. The hostile infantry who probably disapproved of their artillery's activity as likely to bring future trouble upon themselves, made no attempt to hinder with rifle or machine-gun fire our all-night task. ”

“ The batteries concerned gave a five-minutes intensive bombardment with wonderful accuracy in the darkness. This, however, was the only part of the attack which was destined to go smoothly, for the enemy replied at once by a furious artillery and machine-gun fire, (p. 078) causing many casualties, and made it almost impossible for the attack to develop. One bombing party pushed forward a few yards, only to lose every man but two from a concentrated shower of rifle grenades. The Germans, in fact, were in great force, and held every approach to the strong point resolutely. ”

“ The light railways on which they depended for a regular supply of shells often sank themselves from lack of solid foundation. Far behind, junctions, dumps and rest camps were attacked by long-range fire and bombs, with a violent persistency quite unprecedented until the March days next year. The ordeal was bitterly hard, and the prize incompletely won, but the spirit of the British Armies rose supreme over all, and the German defence was taxed to the uttermost. ”

“ One platoon joined hands with the 7th Gloucesters, whose successful attack from the west had put them in possession of the joint hamlets of Lempire and Basse Boulogne. The remainder, moving to the right, occupied (p. 109) a bank 800 yards south-east of the village, which had been designated beforehand as the left of the new outpost position. This long advance of 1-1⁄2 miles over unknown country with the successful division of forces just after the assault, when disorganisation is most wont to occur, reflects the highest credit on all concerned. ”

“ Two sandbags were tucked in front of the belt; one Mills bomb was in each of the bottom pockets of the tunic; 50 extra rounds of ammunition were slung in a bandolier over the right shoulder. In his haversack each man carried one iron ration, cardigan waistcoat, soft cap, and pair of socks; the waterproof sheet was folded and strapped on outside, and the mess-tin fastened to the lowest buckle of the haversack. Every other man carried a pick or shovel slung; and the Brigade, with a more intimate solicitude, advised all ranks to carry a pipe, matches and tobacco. ”

“ The length of the village was about 900 yards, and its average breadth about 500 yards. Almost every house was a one-storied farm of three to four rooms, with considerable outbuildings of mud and plaster, capable of accommodating in close billets one or two platoons. There were no large houses, the so-called château on the Bucquoy road being a very moderate mansion, and, apart from it, the rectory, mairie, the mill by the pond used as Brigade Headquarters, and the pleasant villa called Poste Cambronne, alone stood out in modest prominence. ”

“ Although a man of nearly 45 he made light of every hardship; his constant cheerfulness and devotion to duty were an inspiration to all. Intense bombardments of short trench sections also became more common, as the art of raiding, first practised by the Canadians at Messines, developed. The 6th Gloucesters were the first Battalion in our division to indulge in this amusement in November, 1915, when they successfully penetrated the German lines at south-east of Gommecourt Wood. Our Battalion took neither an active nor a passive part in such operations during the winter ”