The Seventh Manchesters, S. J. Wilson [most important books to read TXT] 📗

well. His departure was followed by a long illness, and it was a

great blow to his friends to hear of his death after the armistice in

his own home at Cheadle Hulme. His name can be added to the long list of

victims of the great German offensive in March.

 

Strict training was indulged in during these weeks, and in addition hot,

laborious days were occupied by rehearsals of the manning of the Red

Line in the neighbourhood of Souastre, to say nothing of skeleton

counter-attacks upon Beer Trench, Rum Trench, and Stout Trench, near

Gommecourt. We never knew the point of these names unless they were to

act as a stimulant to the vigour of our thrusts, the troops labouring

under the delusion that the trenches were filled with the liquids

indicated. At all events they were not there during the rehearsals in

spite of the hot weather. But if these diversions caused us to attain

the boiling point of excitement, the arrival of General Byng on May 21st

to witness a special stunt by the 7th almost burst the thermometer. A

source of some interest was the presence of an American battalion

consisting of raw troops of three weeks’ New York training, to which the

127th brigade was acting as godfather. They worked diligently and with a

keen appreciation of any hints supplied to them by their British

friends. Also, not to be outdone by our frequent displays of football,

they regularly utilised our ground for baseball, of which game they

possessed a few brilliant exponents. We soon grew to like our new

allies, and we were rather sorry when they departed to join their own

division.

 

On June 6th the 42nd division took over the line once more and were not

relieved of responsibility of the front until Sept. 6th, sixteen days

after the big offensive had commenced. The 7th occupied the part of the

front which we knew so well at Hebuterne, relieving a battalion of the

New Zealand Division. The “Diggers” had worked hard upon these trenches

with the result that they were now in excellent condition. A good spell

of weather also assisted in the comfort of the troops. Col. Manger’s

policy was to give the Hun no rest, and he began to put his principles

into practice at Hebuterne. As soon as we arrived, a thorough

reconnaissance of the enemy positions was made, and we began to make

preparation for a raid of some magnitude. This was carried out by “B”

company, of which Capt. Grey Burn was now in command, and the officers

selected to go over with the raiders were Lieut. Wender, D.C.M., who had

previously served with the 1st Battalion in Mesopotamia, 2nd-Lt. Milne

and 2nd-Lt. Goodier. Goodier had been a sergeant in “C” company, and for

his excellent services at Bucquoy had been recommended for promotion in

the field to the commissioned ranks, a distinction which came through

while we were at Henu.

 

It was known that the enemy held his front line in a series of isolated

posts, each armed with light machine guns. Curiously enough, whether

through lack of material or not we never knew, he paid little or no

attention to wiring in these days, except in utilising what old wire lay

about. One of these posts was located within one hundred yards of our

front line in Fusilier Trench, and this, it was decided, should be

raided. At 1 a.m. on the morning of June 16th a three minutes’ shrapnel

barrage was opened on the enemy’s trench, while a box barrage of H.E.

was placed all round the portion to be raided. At the end of this time

the boys leapt over in four parties, three to make for the trench and

the fourth to act as support and as a covering party for withdrawal.

Then it was found that the shelling had hardly been sufficient for

numerous enemy flares went up, throwing daylight over the whole scene,

and our men were greeted by heavy machine gun fire. Wender, who was on

the right, jumped over first and rapidly dashed off for the Boche

trench, leaving his men well behind. He was never seen or heard of

again, and it must be presumed that he was killed in the trench. Goodier

got his men across on the left and they jumped into the trench, only to

find it filled with concertina barbed wire, so they came out again and

worked their way along the top to the centre, being by this time heavily

bombed. They came to a party of Huns who immediately fled, but Goodier

seized one and he and his now tiny party returned triumphantly with

their prisoner and with fragments of bombs in their bodies. Milne,

having ranged over part of the Boche trench to find no one, covered the

withdrawal and then brought his party in. It was an extraordinary show

in which everyone had displayed considerable pluck, and the taking of

one prisoner had just converted it into a success, but we had sustained

a large number of casualties, most of them, fortunately, only slight. Of

the officers, Goodier was scratched, and Milne had a bullet through his

arm, whilst among those who were not actually with the raiders Lt. C. S.

Wood, the signalling officer, was somewhat badly wounded, his work being

taken over later by 2nd-Lt. Smith, and Lt. S. J. Wilson was slightly

wounded. 2nd-Lt. Goodier was awarded the M.C., Sgt. Fleetwood and Sgt.

Green the D.C.M., while five others received the M.M. for this night’s

work. This was the concluding page of our first chapter in the front

line, for we then moved out to Sailly in reserve.

 

When the brigade went into the line again it was to take over the sector

to the right of Hebuterne on the ridge previously mentioned. The most

important feature about this part of the line was La Signy Farm, which

lay just below the crest on the eastern side of the ridge. The ruins of

the farm building were in Boche hands, but the eastern side of the five

hundred yards square hedge that surrounded the grounds ran along our

front line. North of the grounds our line was echeloned forward and then

ran due north to the corner of Hebuterne. Skeletons of large trees stood

up like tall sentinels over the piles of bricks and stones which had

once made up the farm buildings. At the farthest corner of the hedge was

a shell-pitted patch of ground in a slight depression marked on the map

as Basin Wood. This was known to be honeycombed with deep dug-outs and

galleries and was therefore a frequent target for our heavy howitzers.

Further south the two opposing lines were almost parallel as far as the

vicinity of Watling Street—then a Boche trench. In the dead ground

behind our line was Euston Dump, which had gone up with a tremendous

roar in the early days of the March fighting, leaving a large hole.

Stoke’s mortar shells, “footballs,” etc., were scattered about in all

directions. Not far away from here was the Sugar Factory, which, from

the attention it received, the Hun regarded as more important than we

did.

 

The C.O. maintained his policy of worrying the Hun in every possible

manner, the fullest use being made of the artillery liaison officers and

the Stokes and Newton trench mortars for this purpose. Every night

little strafes were planned which must have kept Fritz in a constant

state of speculation as to what might happen next. To assist in these

annoying tactics a special company of R.E., whose particular devilry was

gas, came up and dug in 1,000 gas projectiles behind the support lines.

On two separate nights, after everything had been considered favourable,

they gleefully let them off at La Signy Farm and its environs, and then

disappeared down their dug-outs to gloat over the picture of choking and

writhing Huns. We consoled ourselves with the probability that the enemy

had sustained more casualties than we had.

 

On July 8th Corps had a sudden recurrence of “attackitis,” and,

doubtless at the instigation of a junior intelligence officer, they sent

out a frantic request to “all whom it may concern” to ascertain who the

enemy were in front. They had feared a relief by large German soldiers

who were anxious to smell the blood of the Hated English. This message,

or an adulterated form of it, filtered “through the usual channels” and

so reached the 7th in the late afternoon. Two hours before darkness it

had been answered in the following manner.

 

Reconnaissance had indicated an enemy post within eighty yards of our

line close to where the Serre road crossed it, but it was protected by

concertina barbed wire. “D” company were holding that part of the line,

and they were asked to furnish a party prepared to go over almost at

once for a Hun. An enterprising artillery liaison officer, Lt. Bates,

obtained permission to make use of a couple of 4.5 howitzers which he

said were new and very accurate, and these, firing graze fuse shells at

his correction would smash the wire. The only place from which

observation on this wire could be obtained was in our front line

directly opposite to it, and here a temporary O.P. with telephonic

communication to the battery was rigged up, the garrison of this part

being moved off left and right for safety. It was a nerve-racking

experience in that O.P., as may be gathered from the fact that we were

trying to hit an object less than 70 yards away! It took over an hour to

get a satisfactory result, and then 2nd-Lt. Gorst, Sgt. Horsfield and

seven other men, in shirt sleeves and armed with revolvers, hopped

quickly over, ran along a shallow trench or ditch, and entered the Hun

post. It was empty with the exception of one dead man who had just been

killed by one of our shells. He was quickly carted back, but with great

difficulty for he was a big heavy fellow, while Gorst and Horsfield

searched along the trench both ways for more Huns. None were to be

found, however—evidently our inexplicable shelling had scared them off

altogether. Still the dead man was good enough for the purpose, for he

furnished the required identification, and his regiment was immediately

wired to H.Q. There had been no relief, so calm reigned once more.

 

The spirit of “Go one better” inspired Lieut. Wilkinson and a few of his

transport men to perform deeds of “derring do” in the line, for one

night they came up and captured a German G.S. wagon from No Man’s Land.

It lay just in front of our line near the Serre Road and had evidently

been abandoned during the New Zealand counter attack in March. A bridge

of duck boards was put over the trench and Wilkinson and his men went

out and skilfully dragged their prize back to safety. Its arrival at the

transport lines next morning was naturally the occasion for great

rejoicing and hero-worship, after the sensation caused by dressing up

the driver in a Boche tin hat and great coat. On another night Sgt.

Aldred with a small party made an exceptionally plucky effort to enter

an enemy post and was afterwards awarded the M.M. After eight days of

such work as this in the front line we moved out to Bus in divisional

reserve to enjoy a most pleasant few days under canvas.

 

We lost Padre Hoskyns at this period. He had received an order which

filled him with chagrin to report for duty as Senior Chaplin to the 6th

division, so he journeyed at once to the divisional H.Q. and told the

major-general he would sit on his doorstep until he got permission from

him to stay with the battalion. Efforts were made but they