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diff --git a/old/64638-0.txt b/old/64638-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 282369a..0000000 --- a/old/64638-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12528 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Irish Guards in the Great War, Volume I -(of 2), by Rudyard Kipling - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: The Irish Guards in the Great War, Volume I (of 2) - The First Battalion - - -Author: Rudyard Kipling - - - -Release Date: February 27, 2021 [eBook #64638] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRISH GUARDS IN THE GREAT WAR, -VOLUME I (OF 2)*** - - -E-text prepared by Tim Lindell, John Campbell, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made -available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original maps. - See 64638-h.htm or 64638-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/64638/64638-h/64638-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/64638/64638-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/irishguardsofgre01rudy - - -Transcriber’s note: - - Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). - - Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes - have been placed at the end of the book. - - Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the - book. - - - - - -THE IRISH GUARDS IN THE GREAT WAR - - - * * * * * * - -BOOKS BY RUDYARD KIPLING - - - ACTIONS AND REACTIONS - - BRUSHWOOD BOY, THE - - CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS - - COLLECTED VERSE - - DAY’S WORK, THE - - DEPARTMENTAL DITTIES AND BALLADS AND BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS - - DIVERSITY OF CREATURES, A - - EYES OF ASIA, THE - - FEET OF THE YOUNG MEN, THE - - FIVE NATIONS, THE - - FRANCE AT WAR - - FRINGES OF THE FLEET - - FROM SEA TO SEA - - HISTORY OF ENGLAND, A - - IRISH GUARDS IN THE GREAT WAR, THE - - JUNGLE BOOK, THE - - JUNGLE BOOK, SECOND - - JUST SO SONG BOOK - - JUST SO STORIES - - KIM - - KIPLING ANTHOLOGY, PROSE AND VERSE - - KIPLING STORIES AND POEMS EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW - - KIPLING BIRTHDAY BOOK, THE - - LETTERS OF TRAVEL - - LIFE’S HANDICAP: BEING STORIES OF MINE OWN PEOPLE - - LIGHT THAT FAILED, THE - - MANY INVENTIONS - - NAULAHKA, THE (With Wolcott Balestier) - - PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS - - PUCK OF POOK’S HILL - - REWARDS AND FAIRIES - - RUDYARD KIPLING’S VERSE: Inclusive Edition, 1885-1918 - - SEA WARFARE - - SEVEN SEAS, THE - - SOLDIER STORIES - - SOLDIERS THREE, THE STORY OF THE GADSBYS, AND IN BLACK AND WHITE - - SONG OF THE ENGLISH, A - - SONGS FROM BOOKS - - STALKY & CO. - - THEY - - TRAFFICS AND DISCOVERIES - - UNDER THE DEODARS, THE PHANTOM ’RICKSHAW, AND WEE WILLIE WINKIE - - WITH THE NIGHT MAIL - - YEARS BETWEEN, THE - - * * * * * * - - -[Illustration: - - _ITINERARY - of the - FIRST BATTALION IRISH GUARDS_ - _AUGUST 1914-DECEMBER 1918._ - - _Emery Walker Ltd. del. et sc._] - - -PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY EMERY WALKER LTD., LONDON - - -THE IRISH GUARDS IN THE GREAT WAR - -Edited and Compiled from -Their Diaries and Papers - -by - -RUDYARD KIPLING - - -[Illustration: (decorative diamond icon)] - -VOLUME I - -The First Battalion - - - - - - -Garden City New York -Doubleday, Page & Company -1923 - - -[Illustration: (personal colophon of Rudyard Kipling)] - - -Copyright, 1923, by -Rudyard Kipling - -All Rights Reserved, Including That of Translation -into Foreign Languages, Including the Scandinavian - -Printed in the United States -at -The Country Life Press, Garden City, N. Y. - -First Edition - - - - - CONTENTS - - PAGE - INTRODUCTION ix - - - 1914 - - MONS TO LA BASSÉE 1 - - - 1915 - - LA BASSÉE TO LAVENTIE 53 - - - 1916 - - THE SALIENT TO THE SOMME 130 - - - 1917 - - THE SOMME TO GOUZEAUCOURT 194 - - - 1918 - - ARRAS TO THE ARMISTICE 252 - - - - - LIST OF MAPS - - - Itinerary of the First Battalion Irish Guards _Frontispiece_ - - The Retreat from Mons, 1914. Northern Section _Facing page_ 6 - - The Retreat from Mons, 1914. Southern Section ” 14 - - The Ypres Salient. First Battalion Actions ” 32 - - Actions and Billets. First Battalion ” 58 - - The Somme. First Battalion _Between pages_ 164, 165 - - The Final Advance, August-November 1918 _Facing page_ 288 - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -These volumes try to give soberly and with what truth is possible, -the experiences of both battalions of the Irish Guards from 1914 to -1918. The point of view is the battalions’, and the facts mainly -follow the Regimental Diaries, supplemented by the few private -letters and documents which such a war made possible, and by some -tales that have gathered round men and their actions. - -As evidence is released, historians may be able to reconstruct what -happened in or behind the battle-line; what motives and necessities -swayed the actors; and who stood up or failed under his burden. -But a battalion’s field is bounded by its own vision. Even within -these limits, there is large room for error. Witnesses to phases of -fights die and are dispersed; the ground over which they fought is -battered out of recognition in a few hours; survivors confuse dates, -places, and personalities, and in the trenches, the monotony of the -waiting days and the repetition-work of repairs breed mistakes and -false judgments. Men grow doubtful or oversure, and, in all good -faith, give directly opposed versions. The clear sight of a comrade -so mangled that he seems to have been long dead is burnt in on one -brain to the exclusion of all else that happened that day. The shock -of an exploded dump, shaking down a firmament upon the landscape, -dislocates memory throughout half a battalion; and so on in all -matters, till the end of laborious enquiry is too often the opening -of fresh confusion. When to this are added the personal prejudices -and misunderstandings of men under heavy strain, carrying clouded -memories of orders half given or half heard, amid scenes that pass -like nightmares, the only wonder to the compiler of these records -has been that any sure fact whatever should be retrieved out of the -whirlpool of war. - -It seemed to him best, then, to abandon all idea of such broad -and balanced narratives as will be put forward by experts, and to -limit himself to matters which directly touched the men’s lives and -fortunes. Nor has he been too careful to correct the inferences of -the time by the knowledge of later events. From first to last, the -Irish Guards, like the rest of our armies, knew little of what was -going on round them. Probably they knew less at the close of the war -than at the beginning when our forces were so small that each man -felt himself somebody indeed, and so stood to be hunted through the -heat from Mons to Meaux, turned again to suffer beneath the Soupir -ridges, and endured the first hideous winter of the Salient where, -wet, almost weaponless, but unbroken, he helped in the long miracle -of holding the line. - -But the men of ’14 and ’15, and what meagre records of their day were -safe to keep, have long been lost; while the crowded years between -remove their battles across dead Belgian towns and villages as far -from us as the fights in Homer. - -Doubtless, all will be reconstructed to the satisfaction of future -years when, if there be memory beyond the grave, the ghosts may -laugh at the neatly groomed histories. Meantime, we can take it for -granted that the old Regular Army of England passed away in the mud -of Flanders in less than a year. In training, morale, endurance, -courage, and devotion the earth did not hold its like, but it -possessed neither the numbers, guns, nor equipment necessary for -the type of war that overtook it. The fact of its unpreparedness -has been extolled as proof of the purity of its country’s ideals, -which must be great consolation to all concerned. But, how slowly -that equipment was furnished, how inadequate were our first attempts -at bombs, trench-mortars, duck-boards, wiring, and the rest, may -be divined through the loyal and guarded allusions in the Diaries. -Nor do private communications give much hint of it, for one of the -marvels of that marvellous time was the silence of those concerned on -everything that might too much distress their friends at home. The -censorship had imposed this as a matter of precaution, but only the -spirit of the officers could have backed the law so completely; and, -as better days came, their early makeshifts and contrivances passed -out of remembrance with their early dead. But the sufferings of our -Armies were constant. They included wet and cold in due season, -dirt always, occasional vermin, exposure, extreme fatigue, and the -hourly incidence of death in every shape along the front line, and -later in the furthest back-areas where the enemy aeroplanes harried -their camps. And when our Regular troops had been expended, these -experiences were imposed upon officers and men compelled to cover, -within a few months, the long years of training that should go to -the making of a soldier--men unbroken even to the disturbing impact -of crowds and like experiences, which the conscript accepts from his -youth. Their short home-leaves gave them sudden changes to the tense -home atmosphere where, under cover of a whirl of “entertainment” they -and their kin wearied themselves to forget and escape a little from -that life, on the brink of the next world, whose guns they could hear -summoning in the silences between their talk. Yet, some were glad to -return--else why should youngsters of three years’ experience have -found themselves upon a frosty night, on an iron-bound French road, -shouting aloud for joy as they heard the stammer of a machine-gun -over the rise, and turned up the well-known trench that led to their -own dug-out and their brethren from whom they had been separated -by the vast interval of ninety-six hours? Many have confessed to -the same delight in their work, as there were others to whom almost -every hour was frankly detestable except for the companionship that -revealed them one to another till the chances of war separated the -companions. And there were, too, many, almost children, of whom no -record remains. They came out from Warley with the constantly renewed -drafts, lived the span of a Second Lieutenant’s life and were spent. -Their intimates might preserve, perhaps, memories of a promise -cut short, recollections of a phrase that stuck, a chance-seen act -of bravery or of kindness. The Diaries give their names and fates -with the conventional expressions of regret. In most instances, the -compiler has let the mere fact suffice; since, to his mind, it did -not seem fit to heap words on the doom. - -For the same reason, he has not dealt with each instance of valour, -leaving it to stand in the official language in which it was -acknowledged. The rewards represent but a very small proportion of -the skill, daring, and heroism actually noted; for no volume could -hold the full tale of all that was done, either in the way of duty, -under constraint of necessity and desire to keep alive, or through -joy and pleasure in achieving great deeds. - -Here the Irish rank and file by temperament excelled. They had -all their race’s delight in the drama of things; and, whatever -the pinch--whether ambushed warfare or hand-to-hand shock, -or an insolently perfect parade after long divorce from the -decencies--could be depended upon to advance the regimental honour. -Their discipline, of course, was that of the Guards, which, based -upon tradition, proven experience, and knowledge of the human heart, -adjusts itself to the spirit of each of its battalions. Though the -material of that body might be expended twice in a twelvemonth, the -leaven that remained worked on the new supplies at once and from the -first. In the dingy out-of-date barracks at Warley the Regimental -Reserves gathered and grew into a full-fledged Second Battalion -with reserves of its own, and to these the wounded officers and -men sent home to be repatched, explained the arts and needs of a -war which, apparently always at a stand, changed character every -month. After the utter inadequacy of its opening there was a period -of hand-made bombs and of loaded sticks for close work; of nippers -for the abundant wire left uncut by our few guns; of remedies for -trench-feet; or medicaments against lockjaw from the grossly manured -Belgian dirt, and of fancy timberings to hold up sliding trenches. -In due course, when a few set battles, which sometimes gained several -hundred yards, had wasted their many thousand lives, infallible forms -of attack and defence developed themselves, were tried and generally -found wanting, while scientific raids, the evolution of specialists, -and the mass of regulated detail that more and more surrounded the -life of the trenches, occupied their leisure between actions. Our -battalions played themselves into the game at the awful price that -must be paid for improvisation, however cheery; enduring with a -philosophy that may have saved the war, the deviations and delays -made necessary by the demands of the various political and other -organisations at home. - -In the same spirit they accepted the inevitable breakdowns in the -business of war-by-experiment; for it is safe to say that there -was hardly an operation in which platoons, companies, regiments, -brigades, or divisions were not left with one or both flanks in the -air. Among themselves, officers and men discussing such matters make -it quite clear how and why such and such units broke, were misled, -or delayed on their way into the line. But when a civilian presumes -to assist, all ranks unite against his uninformed criticisms. -He is warned that, once over the top, no plans hold, for the -machine-gun and the lie of the ground dictate the situation to the -platoon-commander on whom all things depend and who sees, perhaps, -fifty yards about him. There are limits, too, of shock and exhaustion -beyond which humanity cannot be pressed without paying toll later. -For which cause it may happen that a Division that has borne long -agony unflinching, and sincerely believes itself capable of yet more, -will, for no reason then apparent (at almost the mere rumour of -noises in the night) collapse ignominiously on the same ground where, -a month later, with two thirds of its strength casualties, it cuts -coolly and cleanly to its goal. And its fellows, who have borne the -same yoke, allow for this. - -The compiler of these records, therefore, has made little attempt -to put forward any theory of what might or should have happened if -things had gone according to plan; and has been scrupulous to avoid -debatable issues of bad staff-work or faulty generalship. They were -not lacking in the war, but the broad sense of justice in all who -suffered from them, recognising that all were equally amateurs, saved -the depression of repeated failures from turning into demoralisation. - -Here, again, the Irish were reported by those who knew them best, to -have been lenient in their judgments, though their private speech -was as unrestrained as that of any other body of bewildered and -overmastered men. “Wearing down” the enemy through a period of four -years and three months, during most of which time that enemy dealt -losses at least equal to those he received, tested human virtue upon -a scale that the world had never dreamed of. The Irish Guards stood -to the test without flaw. - -They were in no sense any man’s command. They needed minute -comprehension, quick sympathy, and inflexible justice, which they -repaid by individual devotion and a collective good-will that showed -best when things were at their utter worst. Their moods naturally -varied with the weather and the burden of fatigues (actions merely -kill, while fatigue breaks men’s hearts), but their morale was -constant because their unofficial life, on which morale hinges, made -for contentment. The discipline of the Guards, demanding the utmost -that can be exacted of the man, requires of the officer unresting -care of his men under all conditions. This care can be a source of -sorrow and friction in rigid or over-conscientious hands, till, -with the best will in the world, a battalion may be reduced to the -mental state of nurse-harried children. Or, conversely, an adored -company commander, bold as a lion, may, for lack of it, turn his -puzzled company into a bear-garden. But there is an elasticity in -Celtic psychology that does not often let things reach breaking-point -either way; and their sense of humour and social duty--it is a race -more careful to regard each other’s feelings than each other’s -lives--held them as easily as they were strictly associated. A jest; -the grave hearing out of absurd complaints that might turn to tragedy -were the hearing not accorded; a prompt soothing down of gloomy, -injured pride; a piece of flagrant buffoonery sanctioned, even -shared, but never taken advantage of, went far in dark days to build -up that understanding and understood inner life of the two battalions -to which, now, men look back lovingly across their civilian years. -It called for a devotion from all, little this side of idolatry; and -was shown equally by officers, N.C.O.’s, and men, stretcher-bearers, -cooks, orderlies, and not least by the hard-bit, fantastic old -soldiers, used for odd duties, who faithfully hobbled about France -alongside the rush of wonderful young blood. - -Were instances given, the impression might be false, for the tone -and temper of the time that set the pace has gone over. But while -it lasted, the men made their officers and the officers their men -by methods as old as war itself; and their Roman Catholic priests, -fearless even in a community none too regardful of Nature’s first -law, formed a subtle and supple link between both. That the priest, -ever in waiting upon Death or pain, should learn to magnify his -office was as natural as that doctors and front-line commanders -should find him somewhat under their feet when occasion called for -the secular, not the spiritual, arm. That Commanding Officers, to -keep peace and save important pillars of their little society, should -first advise and finally order the padre not to expose himself -wantonly in forward posts or attacks, was equally of a piece with -human nature; and that the priests, to the huge content of the -men, should disregard the order (“What’s a casualty compared to a -soul?”) was most natural of all. Then the question would come up for -discussion in the trenches and dug-outs, where everything that any -one had on his mind was thrashed out through the long, quiet hours, -or dropped and picked up again with the rise and fall of shell-fire. -They speculated on all things in Heaven and earth as they worked in -piled filth among the carcases of their fellows, lay out under the -stars on the eves of open battle, or vegetated through a month’s -feeding and idleness between one sacrifice and the next. - -But none have kept minutes of those incredible symposia that made for -them a life apart from the mad world which was their portion; nor -can any pen recreate that world’s brilliance, squalor, unreason, and -heaped boredom. Recollection fades from men’s minds as common life -closes over them, till even now they wonder what part they can ever -have had in the shrewd, man-hunting savages who answered to their -names so few years ago. - -It is for the sake of these initiated that the compiler has loaded -his records with detail and seeming triviality, since in a life where -Death ruled every hour, nothing was trivial, and bald references to -villages, billets, camps, fatigues, and sports, as well as hints of -tales that can never now fully be told, carry each their separate -significance to each survivor, intimate and incommunicable as family -jests. - -As regards other readers, the compiler dares no more than hope that -some of those who have no care for old history, or that larger number -who at present are putting away from themselves odious memories, may -find a little to interest, or even comfort, in these very details and -flatnesses that make up the unlovely, yet superb, life endured for -their sakes. - - RUDYARD KIPLING. - - - - -THE IRISH GUARDS IN THE GREAT WAR - - - - -1914 - -MONS TO LA BASSÉE - - -At 5 P. M. on Tuesday, August 4, 1914, the 1st Battalion of the Irish -Guards received orders to mobilize for war against Germany. They were -then quartered at Wellington Barracks and, under the mobilization -scheme, formed part of the 4th (Guards) Brigade, Second Division, -First Army Corps. The Brigade consisted of: - - The 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards. - “ 2nd “ Coldstream Guards. - “ 3rd “ Coldstream Guards. - “ 1st “ Irish Guards. - -Mobilization was completed on August 8. Next day, being Sunday, -the Roman Catholics of the Battalion paraded under the Commanding -Officer, Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. G. H. Morris, and went to -Westminster Cathedral where Cardinal Bourne preached; and on the -morning of the 11th August Field-Marshal Lord Roberts and Lady Aileen -Roberts made a farewell speech to them in Wellington Barracks. This -was the last time that Lord Roberts saw the Battalion of which he was -the first Commander-in-Chief. - -On the 12th August the Battalion entrained for Southampton in two -trains at Nine Elms Station, each detachment being played out of -barracks to the station by the band. They were short one officer, as -2nd Lieutenant St. J. R. Pigott had fallen ill, and an officer just -gazetted--2nd Lieutenant Sir Gerald Burke, Bart.--could not accompany -them as he had not yet got his uniform. They embarked at Southampton -on a hot still day in the P. & O. s.s. _Novara_. This was a long and -tiring operation, since every one was new to embarkation-duty, and, -owing to the tide, the ship’s bulwarks stood twenty-five feet above -the quay. The work was not finished till 4 P. M. when most of the men -had been under arms for twelve hours. Just before leaving, Captain -Sir Delves Broughton, Bart., was taken ill and had to be left behind. -A telegram was sent to Headquarters, asking for Captain H. Hamilton -Berners to take his place, and the _Novara_ cleared at 7 P. M. As -dusk fell, she passed H.M.S. _Formidable_ off Ryde and exchanged -signals with her. The battle-ship’s last message to the Battalion -was to hope that they would get “plenty of fighting.” Many of the -officers at that moment were sincerely afraid that they might be late -for the war! - -The following is the list of officers who went out with the Battalion -that night: - - - Lieut.-Col. Hon. G. H. Morris Commanding Officer. - Major H. F. Crichton Senior Major. - Captain Lord Desmond FitzGerald Adjutant. - Lieut. E. J. F. Gough Transport Officer. - Lieut. E. B. Greer M. Gun Officer. - Hon. Lieut. H. Hickie Quartermaster. - Lieut. H. J. S. Shields (R.A.M.C.) Medical Officer. - Lieut. Hon. Aubrey Herbert, M.P. Interpreter. - - -_No. 1 Company._ - - Capt. Hon. A. E. Mulholland. - Capt. Lord John Hamilton. - Lieut. Hon. H. R. Alexander. - Lieut. C. A. S. Walker. - 2nd Lieut. N. L. Woodroffe. - 2nd Lieut. J. Livingstone-Learmonth. - - -_No. 2 Company._ - - Major H. A. Herbert Stepney. - Capt. J. N. Guthrie. - Lieut. E. J. F. Gough. - Lieut. J. S. N. FitzGerald. - Lieut. W. E. Hope. - 2nd Lieut. O. Hughes-Onslow. - - -_No. 3 Company._ - - Capt. Sir Delves Broughton, Bart. - (replaced by Capt. H. Hamilton Berners). - Capt. Hon. T. E. Vesey. - Lieut. Hon. Hugh Gough. - Lieut. Lord Guernsey. - 2nd Lieut. Viscount Castlerosse. - - -_No. 4 Company._ - - Capt. C. A. Tisdall. - Capt. A. A. Perceval. - Lieut. W. C. N. Reynolds. - Lieut. R. Blacker-Douglass. - Lieut. Lord Robert Innes-Ker. - 2nd Lieut. J. T. P. Roberts. - - -_Details at the Base._ - - Capt. Lord Arthur Hay. - 2nd Lieut. Sir Gerald Burke, Bart. - -They reached Havre at 6 A. M. on August 13, a fiercely hot day, and, -tired after a sleepless night aboard ship, and a long wait, in a -hot, tin-roofed shed, for some missing men, marched three miles out -of the town to Rest Camp No. 2 “in a large field at Sanvic, a suburb -of Havre at the top of the hill.” Later, the city herself became -almost a suburb to the vast rest-camps round it. Here they received -an enthusiastic welcome from the French, and were first largely -introduced to the wines of the country, for many maidens lined the -steep road and offered bowls of drinks to the wearied. - -Next day (August 14) men rested a little, looking at this strange, -bright France with strange eyes, and bathed in the sea; and Captain -H. Berners, replacing Sir Delves Broughton, joined. At eleven -o’clock they entrained at Havre Station under secret orders for the -Front. The heat broke in a terrible thunderstorm that soaked the new -uniforms. The crowded train travelled north all day, receiving great -welcomes everywhere, but no one knowing what its destination might -be. After more than seventeen hours’ slow progress by roads that were -not revealed then or later, they halted at Wassigny, at a quarter to -eleven on the night of August 15, and, unloading in hot darkness, -bivouacked at a farm near the station. - -On the morning of August 16 they marched to Vadencourt, where, for -the first time, they went into billets. The village, a collection of -typical white-washed tiled houses with a lovely old church in the -centre, lay out pleasantly by the side of a poplar-planted stream. -The 2nd Coldstream Guards were also billeted here; the Headquarters -of the 4th Guards Brigade, the 2nd Grenadier Guards, and 3rd -Coldstream being at Grougis. All supplies, be it noted, came from a -village of the ominous name of Boue, which--as they were to learn -through the four winters to follow--means “mud.” - -At Vadencourt they lay three days while the men were being inoculated -against enteric. A few had been so treated before leaving Wellington -Barracks, but, in view of the hurried departure, 90 per cent. -remained to be dealt with. The Diary remarks that for two days “the -Battalion was not up to much.” Major H. Crichton fell sick here. - -On the 20th August the march towards Belgium of the Brigade began, -_via_ Etreux and Fesmy (where Lieutenant and Quartermaster Hickie -went sick and had to be sent back to railhead) to Maroilles, where -the Battalion billeted, August 21, and thence, _via_ Pont sur Sambre -and Hargnies, to La Longueville, August 22. Here, being then five -miles east of Malplaquet, the Battalion heard the first sound of the -guns of the war, far off; not knowing that, at the end of all, they -would hear them cease almost on that very spot. - -At three o’clock in the morning of August 23 the Brigade marched -_via_ Riez de l’Erelle into Belgian territory and through Blaregnies -towards Mons where it was dimly understood that some sort of battle -was in the making. But it was _not_ understood that eighty thousand -British troops with three hundred guns disposed between Condé, -through Mons towards Binche, were meeting twice that number of -Germans on their front, plus sixty thousand Germans with two hundred -and thirty guns trying to turn their left flank, while a quarter of a -million Germans, with close on a thousand guns, were driving in the -French armies on the British right from Charleroi to Namur, across -the Meuse and the Sambre. This, in substance, was the situation at -Mons. It supplied a sufficient answer to the immortal question, -put by one of the pillars of the Battalion, a drill sergeant, who -happened to arrive from home just as that situation had explained -itself, and found his battalion steadily marching south. “Fwhat’s all -this talk about a retreat?” said he, and strictly rebuked the shouts -of laughter that followed.[1] - - -THE RETREAT FROM MONS - -The Brigade was first ordered to take up a position at Bois Lahant, -close to the dirtier suburbs of Mons which is a fair city on a hill, -but the order was cancelled when it was discovered that the Fifth -Division was already there. Eventually, the Irish Guards were told -to move from the village of Quevy le Petit, where they had expected -to go into billets, to Harveng. Here they were ordered, with the 2nd -Grenadier Guards, to support the Fifth Division on a chalk ridge -from Harmignies to the Mons road, while the other two battalions of -the Brigade (the 2nd and 3rd Coldstream Guards) took up position -north-east of Harveng. Their knowledge of what might be in front -of them or who was in support was, naturally, small. It was a hot, -still evening, no Germans were visible, but shrapnel fell ahead of -the Battalion as it moved in artillery formation across the rolling, -cropped lands. One single far-ranging rifle bullet landed with a -_phtt_ in the chalk between two officers, one of whom turning to -the other laughed and said, “Ah! Now we can say we have been under -fire.” A few more shells arrived as the advance to the ridge went -forward, and the Brigade reached the seventh kilometre-stone on the -Harmignies-Mons road, below the ridge, about 6 P. M. on the 23rd -August. The Irish Rifles, commanded by Colonel Bird, D.S.O., were -fighting here, and Nos. 1 and 2 Companies of the Irish Guards went -up to reinforce it. This was the first time that the Battalion had -been personally shelled and five men were wounded. The guns ceased -about dusk, and there was very little fire from the German trenches, -which were rather in the nature of scratch-holes, ahead of them. That -night, too, was the first on which the troops saw a searchlight used. -They enjoyed also their first experience of digging themselves in, -the which they did so casually that veterans of after years would -hold up that “trench” as a sample of “the valour of ignorance.” At -midnight, the Irish Rifles were ordered to retire while the Irish -Guards covered their retirement; but so far they had been in direct -contact with nothing. - -The Battalion heard confusedly of the fall of Namur and, it may be -presumed, of the retirement of the French armies on the right of the -British. There was little other news of any sort, and what there was, -not cheering. On front and flank of the British armies the enemy -stood in more than overwhelming strength, and it came to a question -of retiring, as speedily as might be, before the flood swallowed what -remained. So the long retreat of our little army began. - -The large outlines of it are as follows: The entire British -Force, First and Second Army Corps, fell back to Bavai--the First -without serious difficulty, the Second fighting rear-guard actions -through the day. At Bavai the two Corps diverged, not to unite -again till they should reach Betz on the 1st September. The Second -Army Corps, reinforced by the Fourth Division, took the roads -through Le Quesnoy, Solesme, Le Cateau, St. Quentin, Ham, Nesle, -Noyon, and Crépy-en-Valois; the First paralleling them, roughly, -through Landrecies, Vadencourt, La Fère, Pasly by Soissons, and -Villers-Cotterêts. - -[Illustration: - - _The RETREAT from MONS_ - 1914 - _Northern Section_ - - _Emery Walker Ltd. del. et sc._] - -PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY EMERY WALKER LTD., LONDON - -At 2 o’clock in the morning of August 24 the Battalion, “having -covered the retirement of all the other troops,” retired through -the position which the 2nd and 3rd Coldstream Guards had taken up, -to Quevy le Petit, where it was ordered, with the 2nd Grenadiers, -to entrench another position north of Quevy le Petit (from the -third kilometre-stone on the Genly-Quevy le Petit road to the tenth -kilometre-stone on the Mons-Bettignies road). This it did while the -whole of the Second Division retired through the position at 4 P. -M., the Battalion acting as rear-guard. Their notion of “digging-in” -was to cut fire-steps in the side of the handy bank of any road. At -nine o’clock that night the Battalion “came out of Belgium by the -same road that it had marched into Belgium” through Blaregnies, past -Bavai where the First and Second Army Corps diverged, and through La -Longueville to Malgarni, where they bivouacked in an orchard “having -been forty-four hours under arms.” Here the first mail from England -arrived, and was distributed by torchlight under the apple-trees in -the warm night. - -On the afternoon of August 25 the Battalion reached Landrecies, an -unlovely, long-streeted town in closely cultivated country. The -German pressure was heavy behind them, and that evening the 3rd -Coldstream Guards on outpost duty to the north-west of Landrecies, -on the Mormal road, were attacked, and, as history shows, beat -off that attack in a night-fight of some splendour. The Battalion -turned out and blocked the pavé entrance to the town with improvised -barricades, which they lined, of stones, tables, chairs, carts, and -pianos; relieved the Coldstream at 1.30 A. M., August 26; and once -again covered the retirement of the Brigade out of the town towards -Etreux. The men were very tired, so weary indeed that many of them -slept by the roadside while waiting to relieve the Coldstreams at -Landrecies fight. That night was the first they heard wounded men -scream. A couple of Irish Guards officers, sleeping so deeply that -only the demolition by shell-fire of the house next door waked them, -were left behind here, but after twenty-four hours of fantastic and, -at that time, almost incredible adventures, rejoined safely next day. -It was recorded also that one of the regimental drums was seen and -heard going down Landrecies main street in the darkness, strung on -the fore-leg of a gun-horse who had stepped into it as a battery went -south. A battalion cooker, the sparks flying from it, passed like -a fire-engine hastening to a fire, and men found time to laugh and -point at the strange thing. - -At Etreux, where with the rest of the Brigade the Battalion -entrenched itself after the shallow pattern of the time, it had -its first sight of a German aeroplane which flew over its trenches -and dropped a bomb that “missed a trench by twenty yards.” The -Battalion fired at it, and it “flew away like a wounded bird and -eventually came down and was captured by another division.” Both -sides were equally inexperienced in those days in the details of -air war. All that day they heard the sound of what they judged was -“a battle in the direction of Le Cateau.” This was the Second Army -Corps and a single Division of the Third Corps under Smith-Dorrien -interrupting our retirement to make a stand against four or more -German Army Corps and six hundred guns. The result of that action -caused the discerning General von Kluck to telegraph that he held -the Expeditionary Force “surrounded by a ring of steel,” and Berlin -behung itself with flags. This also the Battalion did not know. -They were more interested in the fact that they had lost touch with -the Second Division; and that their Commanding Officer had told the -officers that, so far as he could make out, they were surrounded and -had better dig in deeper and wait on. As no one knew particularly -where they might be in all France, and as the night of the 26th was -very wet, the tired men slept undisturbedly over the proposition, -to resume their retreat next day (August 27) down the valley of the -Sambre, through Vénérolles, Tupigny, Vadencourt, Noyales, to the -open glaring country round Mont d’Origny where the broad road to -St. Quentin crosses the river. It was in reserve that day, and the -next (August 28) was advance-guard to the Brigade as the retirement -continued through Châtillon, Berthenicourt, and Moy to Vendeuil -and the cross-roads west of the Vendeuil-La Fère road while the -Brigade marched on to Bertaucourt. After the Brigade had passed, the -Battalion acted as rear-guard into Bertaucourt. Here No. 2 Company, -under Major Stepney, was sent to Beautor to assist a section of the -Royal Engineers in demolishing a bridge across the river there--an -operation performed without incident--and in due course joined up -with the Battalion again. By this time, the retreat, as one who -took part in it says, had become “curiously normal”--the effect, -doubtless, of that continued over-exertion which reduces men to the -state of sleep-walkers. There was a ten minutes’ halt every hour, on -which the whole Battalion dropped where it stood and slept. At night, -some of them began to see lights, like those of comfortable billets -by the roadside which, for some curious reason or other, could never -be reached. Others found themselves asleep, on their feet, and even -when they lay down to snatch sleep, the march moved on, and wearied -them in their dreams. Owing to the heat and the dust, many suffered -from sore feet and exhaustion, and, since ambulance accommodation was -limited, they had to be left behind to follow on if, and as best, -they could. But those who fell out were few, and the Diary remarks -approvingly that “on the whole the Battalion marched very well and -march-discipline was good.” Neither brigade nor battalion commanders -knew anything of what was ahead or behind, but it seemed that, since -they could not get into Paris before the Germans and take first-class -tickets to London, they would all be cut off and destroyed; which did -not depress them unduly. At all events, the Battalion one evening -forgot its weariness long enough to take part in the chase and -capture of a stray horse of Belgian extraction, which, after its -ample lack of manners and mouth had been proved, they turned over for -instruction and reformation to the Transport. - -From Bertaucourt, then, where the Battalion spent another night in -an orchard, it marched very early on the 30th August to Terny _via_ -Deuillet, Servais, Basse Forêt de Coucy, Folembray, Coucy-le-Château, -then magnificent and untouched--all closer modelled country and, -if possible, hotter than the bare lands they had left. Thence from -Terny to Pasly, N.W. of Soissons. Here they lay down by moonlight in -a field, and here an officer dreamed that the alarm had been given -and that they must move on. In this nightmare he rose and woke up all -platoon-officers and the C.O.; next, laboriously and methodically, -his own company, and last of all himself, whom he found shaking and -swearing at a man equally drunk with fatigue. - -On the 31st August the Battalion took position as right flank-guard -from 9 A. M. to 3 P. M. on the high ground near Le Murger Farm and -bivouacked at Soucy. So far, there had been little fighting for them -since Landrecies, though they moved with the comforting knowledge -that an unknown number of the enemy, thoroughly provided with means -of transportation, were in fixed pursuit, just on the edge of a -sky-line full of unseen guns urging the British always to move back. - - -VILLERS-COTTERÊTS - -On the 1st September, the anniversary of Sedan, the Battalion -was afoot at 2 A. M. and with the 2nd Coldstream Guards acted as -rear-guard under the Commanding Officer, Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. G. -Morris. There had been heavy dew in the night, followed at dawn by -thin, miserable rain, when they breakfasted, among wet lucerne and -fields of stacked corn, on the edge of the deep Villers-Cotterêts -beech-forests. They fell back into them on a rumour of advancing -cavalry, who turned out to be troops of German infantry running -from stack to stack and filtering into the forest on their either -flank. Their first position was the Vivières Puiseux line, a little -south-west of Soucy village: the Battalion to the right of the -Soucy-Villers-Cotterêts road, and the Coldstream to the left on a -front of not more than a mile. Their second position, as far as -can be made out, was the Rond de la Reine, a mile farther south, -where the deep soft forest-roads from Soucy and Vivières join on -their way to Villers-Cotterêts. The enemy ran in upon them from -all sides, and the action resolved itself into blind fighting in -the gloom of the woods, with occasional glimpses of men crossing -the rides, or firing from behind tree-boles. The Germans were very -cautious at first, because our fire-discipline, as we fell back, gave -them the impression that the forest was filled with machine-guns -instead of mere trained men firing together sustainedly. The morning -wet cleared, and the day grew close and stifling. There was no -possibility of keeping touch or conveying orders. Since the German -advance-guard was, by comparison, an army, all that could be done was -to hold back as long as possible the attacks on front and flank, and -to retain some sense of direction in the bullet-torn woods, where, -when a man dropped in the bracken and bramble, he disappeared. But -throughout the fight, till the instant of his death, Lieut.-Colonel -the Hon. G. Morris, commanding the Battalion, rode from one point -to another of an action that was all front, controlling, cheering, -and chaffing his men. And so that heathen battle, in half darkness, -continued, with all units of the 4th Brigade confusedly engaged, -till in the afternoon the Battalion, covered by the 2nd Coldstream, -reformed, still in the woods, a mile north of the village of -Pisseleux. Here the roll was called, and it was found that the -following officers were missing: Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. G. Morris, -Major H. F. Crichton, Captain C. A. Tisdall, Lieutenant Lord Robert -Innes-Ker, 2nd Lieutenant Viscount Castlerosse, Lieutenant the Hon. -Aubrey Herbert, and Lieutenant Shields, R.A.M.C. - -Captain Lord Desmond FitzGerald and Lieutenant Blacker-Douglass were -wounded and left with the field-ambulance. Lieut.-Colonel Morris, -Major Crichton, and Captain Tisdall had been killed. The others -had been wounded and captured by the Germans, who treated them with -reasonable humanity at Villers-Cotterêts till they were released on -September 12 by the French advance following the first Battle of the -Marne. Colonel Morris’s body was afterwards identified and buried -with that of Captain Tisdall; and one long rustic-fenced grave, -perhaps the most beautiful of all resting-places in France, on a -slope of the forest off the dim road, near the Rond de la Reine, -holds our dead in that action. It was made and has been religiously -tended since by Dr. Moufflers, the Mayor of the town, and his wife. - -The death of Colonel Morris, an officer beloved and a man noticeably -brave among brave men, was a heavy loss to the Battalion he -commanded, and whose temper he knew so well. In the thick of the -fight during a lull in the firing, when some blind shell-fire opened, -he called to the men: “D’you hear that? They’re doing that to -frighten you.” To which someone replied with simple truth: “If that’s -what they’re after, they might as well stop. They succeeded with _me_ -hours ago.” - -As a matter of fact, the men behaved serenely, as may be proved -by this tale. They were working their way, well under rifle-fire, -across an opening in the forest, when some of them stopped to pick -blackberries that attracted their attention. To these their sergeant, -very deliberately, said: “I shouldn’t mind them berries, lads. -There’s may be worrums in ’em.” It was a speech worthy of a hero -of Dumas, whose town Villers-Cotterêts is, by right of birth. Yet -once, during their further retirement towards Pisseleux, they were -badly disconcerted. A curious private prodded a hornets’ nest on a -branch with his bayonet, and the inhabitants came out in force. Then -there was real confusion: not restored by the sight of bald-headed -reservists frantically slapping with their caps at one hornet while -others stung them on their defenceless scalps. So they passed out of -the darkness and the greenery of the forest, which, four years later, -was to hide a great French Army, and launch it forth to turn the -tide of 1918. - -Their march continued until 11 P. M. that night, when the Battalion -arrived at Betz, where the First and Second Army Corps rejoined -each other once more. No supplies were received that night nor the -following day (September 2), when the Battalion reached Esbly, where -they bathed--with soap, be it noted--in the broad and quiet Marne, -and an ox was requisitioned, potatoes were dug up from a field, and -some sort of meal served out. - -The Diary here notes “Thus ended the retreat from Mons.” This is not -strictly correct. In twelve days the British Army had been driven -back 140 miles as the crow flies from Mons, and farther, of course, -by road. There was yet to be a further retirement of some fifteen -miles south of Esbly ere the general advance began, but September 3 -marks, as nearly as may be, slack-water ere the ebb that followed -of the triumphant German tidal wave through Belgium almost up to -the outer forts of Paris. That advance had, at the last moment, -swerved aside from Paris towards the south-east, and in doing so had -partially exposed its right flank to the Sixth French Army. General -Joffre took instant advantage of the false step to wheel his Sixth -Army to the east, so that its line ran due north and east from -Ermenonville to Lagny; at the same time throwing forward the left of -his line. The British Force lay between Lagny and Cortecan, filling -the gap between the Sixth and Fifth French Armies, and was still an -effective weapon which the enemy supposed they had broken for good. -But our harried men realized no more than that, for the moment, there -seemed to be a pause in the steady going back. The confusion, the -dust, the heat, continued while the armies manœuvred for position; -and scouts and aerial reconnaissance reported more and more German -columns of all arms pressing down from the east and north-east. - -On September 3 the 4th Brigade moved from Esbly, in the great loops -of the Marne, through Meaux to the neighbourhood of Pierre Levée, -where the Battalion fed once more on requisitioned beef, potatoes, -and apples. - - -THE ADVANCE TO THE AISNE - -Next day (September 4), while the British Army was getting into -position in the process of changing front to the right, the 4th -Brigade had to cover a retirement of the 5th Brigade between Pierre -Levée and Le Bertrand, and the Battalion dug itself in near a farm -(Grand Loge) on the Pierre Levée-Giremoutiers road in preparation for -a rear-guard attack that did not arrive. They remained in position -with what the Diary pathetically refers to as “the machine-gun,” till -they were relieved in the evening by the Worcesters, and reached -bivouac at Le Bertrand at one o’clock on the morning of the 5th -September. That day they bivouacked near Fontenay, and picked up some -much-needed mess-tins, boots, putties and the like with which to make -good more immediate waste. - -On the 6th they marched through Rozoy (where they saw an old priest -standing at the door of his church, and to him the men bared their -heads mechanically, till he, openly surprised, gave them his -blessing) to Mont Plaisir to gain touch between the First and Second -Divisions of the English Army. Major Stepney, the C.O., reported to -Headquarters 1st Brigade at 9 A. M. half a mile north-east of Rozoy. -At the same moment cavalry scouts brought news of two enemy columns, -estimated at a thousand each, approaching from the direction of -Vaudoy. Nos. 3 and 4 Companies were ordered forward to prolong the -line of the First Division, while Nos. 1 and 2 Companies “with the -machine-gun” entrenched themselves on the Mont Plaisir road. - -[Illustration: - - _The RETREAT from MONS_ - 1914 - _Southern Section._ - - _Emery Walker Ltd. del. et sc._] - -PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY EMERY WALKER LTD., LONDON - -In the afternoon Lieutenant the Hon. R. H. Alexander, reconnoitring -with a platoon in the direction of the village of Villeneuve, which -was to be occupied, reported a hostile battery at Le Plessis had -fired on the Battalion and killed 4 men and wounded 11. One of these, -Sergeant O’Loughlin, died later. This was the Battalion’s first -fighting since Villers-Cotterêts, and they went into action while -the bells of the quiet countryside rang for church. The battery was -put out of action by our guns in half an hour, Villeneuve occupied -without further opposition, and the Battalion bivouacked at Tonquin -on the night of the 6th September. The enemy had realised the threat -to their flank in General Joffre’s new dispositions, and under cover -of rear-guard and delaying actions were withdrawing north all along -their line. - -On the 7th September the Battalion made a forced march from Tonquin -to Rebais, where there was a German column, but the advance-guard of -the Brigade was held up at St. Simeon till dark and the Battalion -had to bivouac a couple of miles outside Rebais. The German force -withdrew from Rebais on the afternoon of the 7th, and on the 8th the -Brigade’s advance continued through Rebais northward in the direction -of Boitron, which lay just across the Petit Morin River. Heavy -machine-gun fire from some thick woods along the rolling ground, -across the river, checked the advance-guard (the 3rd Coldstream) and -the two companies of the Irish Guards who supported them. The woods, -the river valley, and the village of Boitron were searched by our -guns, and on the renewal of the attack the river was crossed and -Boitron occupied, the enemy being heavily shelled as he retired. Here -the Battalion re-formed and pressed forward in a heavy rainstorm, -through a flank attack of machine-guns from woods on the left. These -they charged, while a battery of our field-guns fired point-blank -into the thickets, and captured a German machine-gun company of six -guns (which seemed to them, at the time, a vast number), 3 officers, -and 90 rank and file. Here, too, in the confusion of the fighting -they came under fire of our own artillery, an experience that was -to become familiar to them, and the C.O. ordered the companies -to assemble at Ferme le Cas Rouge, a village near by where they -bivouacked for the night. They proudly shut up in the farm-yard the -first prisoners they had ever taken; told off two servants to wait -upon a wounded major; took the parole of the two other officers and -invited them to a dinner of chicken and red wine. The Battalion, -it will be observed, knew nothing then except the observances of -ordinary civilized warfare. 2nd Lieutenant A. Fitzgerald and a draft -arrived that day. - -This small affair of Boitron Wood was the Irish Guards’ share of the -immense mixed Battle of the Marne, now raging along all the front. -Its result and the capture of the machine-guns cheered them a little. - -The next five days--September 9 to 13--had nothing but tedious -marching and more tedious halts and checks, due to the congestion -of traffic and the chaos in the villages that had been entered, -sacked, defiled and abandoned by the enemy. The Marne was crossed -on the 9th at Charly, where--the inhabitants said that the Germans -detailed for the job had been too drunk to effect it--a bridge had -been left ready for demolition, but intact, and by this means the -First and Second Divisions crossed the river. The weather turned wet, -with heavy showers; greatcoats had been lost or thrown aside all -along the line of retreat; billets and bivouacs made filthy by the -retreating Germans; and there was general discomfort, enlivened with -continuous cannonading from the front and the appearance of German -prisoners gathered in by our cavalry ahead. And thus, from the Marne -the Battalion came by way of Trenel, Villers-sur-Marne, Cointicourt, -Oulchy-le-Château, Courcelles and St. Mard to the high banks of the -Aisne, which they crossed by the pontoon bridge at Pont d’Arcy on the -morning of September 14 and advanced to Soupir in the hollows under -the steep wooded hills. - -That day, the 2nd Grenadiers formed the advance-guard of the -Brigade, followed by the 3rd Coldstream, the Irish Guards, and the -2nd Coldstream. After they had cleared Soupir village, the force -was shelled and an attack was made by the 3rd Coldstream, the Irish -Guards in support, on a steep ridge near La Cour de Soupir farm, -which stood on the crest of the bluff above the river. The heavily -wooded country was alive with musketry and machine-gun fire, and the -distances were obscured by mist and heavy rain. The 3rd Coldstream, -attacking the farm, found themselves outflanked from a ridge on their -right, which was then attempted by three companies of the Irish -Guards. They reached to within a couple of hundred yards of a wood -cut up by rides, down which, as well as from the trenches, heavy -rifle-fire was directed. Here Captain J. N. Guthrie (No. 2 Company) -was wounded and Captain H. Hamilton Berners killed, while Lieutenant -Watson, R.A.M.C., was shot and wounded at close quarters attending -a wounded man. Here, too, the Battalion had its first experience of -the German use of the white flag; for Lieutenant J. S. FitzGerald -with No. 8 Platoon and a party of Coldstream under Lieutenant -Cotterel-Dormer found some hundred and fifty Germans sitting round -haystacks and waving white flags. They went forward to take their -surrender and were met by a heavy fire at thirty yards’ range, -which forced them to fall back. Lieutenant E. B. Greer, machine-gun -officer, now brought up his two machine-guns, but was heavily fired -at from cover, had all of one gun-team killed or wounded and, for the -while, lost one gun. He reorganized the other gun-team, and called -for volunteers from the Company nearest him to recover it. After dark -Corporal Sheridan and Private Carney of No. 3 Company and Private -Harrington, a machine-gunner of No. 1 Company, went out with him and -the gun was brought in. A further advance was made in the afternoon -to the edge of the wood in order to clear out the snipers who held it -and commanded the cultivated fields outside. Towards dusk, Captain -Lord Guernsey, who was Acting Quartermaster, reported himself to the -C.O., who posted him to No. 2 Company, then engaged in clearing out -the snipers, in place of Captain Guthrie, who had been wounded. He -went forward to assist Captain Lord Arthur Hay in command, and both -were immediately shot dead. - -The Battalion bivouacked in battle-outpost formation that night -on the edge of the wood, and got into touch with the 60th Rifles -on their right and the 2nd Grenadiers on their left. Here, though -they did not know it, the advance from the Marne was at an end. Our -forces had reached the valley of the Aisne, with its bluffs on either -side and deep roads half hidden by the woods that climbed them. -The plateaux of the north of the river shaped themselves for the -trench-warfare of the years to come; and the natural strength of the -positions on the high ground was increased by numberless quarries and -caves that ran along it. - - -THE HALT AT SOUPIR - -On the 15th September patrols reported that the enemy had fallen back -a little from his position, and at daylight two companies entrenched -themselves on the edge of the wood. Judged by present standards those -trenches were little more than shallow furrows, for we did not know -that the day of open battle was ended, and it is curious to see how -slowly our people broke themselves to the monotonous business of -trench construction and maintenance. Even after they had dug the -casual ditch which they called a trench, it cost some time and a few -lives till they understood that the works could not be approached in -the open as had been war’s custom. Their first communication-trench -was but three hundred yards long, and it struck them as a gigantic -and almost impossible “fatigue.” - -The enemy had not fallen back more than a thousand yards from the -Cour de Soupir farm which they were resolute to retake if possible. -They fired on our burying-parties and shelled the trenches all -through the 16th September. Patrols were sent out at dawn and -dusk--since any one visible leaving the trenches was fired upon by -snipers--found hostile infantry in full strength in front of them, -and the Battalion had to organize its first system of trench-relief; -for the Diary of the 18th September remarks that “Nos. 1 and 4 -Companies relieved 2 and 3 Companies in the trenches and were again -shelled during the day.” - -Sniping on Hun lines was a novel experience to the Battalion. They -judged it strange to find a man apparently dead, with a cloth over -his face, lying in a hollow under a ridge commanding their line, who -turned out to be quite alive and unwounded. His rifle was within -short reach, and he was waiting till our patrols had passed to get to -his work. But they killed him, angrily and with astonishment. - -On the morning of the 18th September Lieut.-Colonel Lord Ardee, -Grenadier Guards, arrived and took over command from Major Stepney. -The following officers--the first of the long line--also arrived as -reinforcements: - -Major G. Madden; Captain Norman Orr-Ewing, Scots Guards, attached; -Captain Lord Francis Scott, Grenadier Guards, attached; Captain the -Hon. J. F. Trefusis, Lieutenants George Brooke, L. S. Coke, R. H. -Ferguson, G. M. Maitland, C. R. Harding, and P. Antrobus. - -The Battalion reorganized as follows after less than four weeks’ -campaign: - - Lieut.-Colonel Lord Ardee C.O. - Major Herbert Stepney Senior Major. - Capt. the Hon. J. Trefusis Adjutant. - Lieut. E. J. Gough Transport Officer. - Lieut. C. A. S. Walker Quartermaster (acting). - Capt. Hon. A. E. Mulholland O.C. No. 1 Company. - Capt. N. Orr-Ewing O.C. No. 2 Company. - Capt. Lord Francis Scott O.C. No. 3 Company. - Major G. Madden O.C. No. 4 Company. - -The trench-war was solidifying itself; for the Diary of that same day -notes that the enemy “shelled the trenches and the two howitzer-guns -which were in position below.” Ours was an army, then, which could -count and place every gun that it owned. As many as three howitzer -batteries per division had accompanied the Expeditionary Force, and -more were being sent from home. - -The night of the 19th was very wet. They were relieved by the 3rd -Coldstream, and went into billets at Soupir, “having been in the -trenches for five days.” There was an alarm in the afternoon, and -the machine-guns and 100 men of No. 1 Company were sent to help the -Coldstream in the trenches, whilst the rest of the Battalion marched -at 6 P. M. to be ready to assist the 2nd Grenadiers on the left of -Cour de Soupir farm. Only “the machine-guns,” however, came into -action, and the Battalion returned to its billets at 10 P. M. - -Much the same sort of thing occurred on the 20th--a furious fusillade -from the trenches, the despatch of reinforcements up a “muddy -lane,” not yet turned into a communication-trench, to help the 3rd -Coldstream, while Nos. 2 and 4 Companies went out to reinforce the -Oxfordshire Light Infantry and to hold the road at the back of it -“in case of a retirement,” and the rest of the Battalion with the -machine-guns stayed as a reserve in Soupir market-square. But beyond -shrapnel bursting over the village and the wounding of two men by -stray machine-gun bullets, there were no special incidents. Major G. -Madden this day had to return to England, ill. - -On the 21st the Battalion relieved the 2nd Grenadiers on the left -at Soupir farm at 3.30 A. M.--the safest hour, as experience was to -prove, for reliefs. Nos. 2 and 3 Companies were in trenches, and Nos. -1 and 4 about 300 yards in the rear, with the Headquarters in one of -the caves, which are a feature of the country. The word “dug-out” had -not yet been invented. The nearest approach to it is a reference in -a private letter to “a shelter-recess in the side of the trench to -protect one from shrapnel.” The Diary marks that the “usual alarms -occurred at 6.30 when the patrol went out and the enemy fired a good -deal of shrapnel without effect.” Soupir, like many French villages, -was full of carefully planted spies of singular audacity. One was -found in an officer’s room. He had appeared from a cellar, alleging -that he was an invalid, but as the Gunners’ telephone-wires near the -cellar had been cut and our movements had been reported to the enemy -with great regularity, his explanation was not accepted, nor were his -days long in that land. - -Patrols, too, were elastic affairs. One of them, under Lieutenant R. -H. Ferguson, went out on the night of the 21st, came on the enemy’s -trenches half a mile out, lay down to listen to the conversation -there, were all but cut off by a wandering section of snipers, and -returned to their lines unmolested, after the lieutenant had shot the -leading pursuer with his revolver. - -On the 22nd September the Battalion--both entrenched and in reserve -in the caves behind--experienced four hours’ high-explosive howitzer -fire, which “except for the effect on the nerves did very little -damage.” (They had yet to learn what continuous noise could do to -break men’s nerve.) This was followed by a heavy fusillade, varied by -star-shells, rockets, and searchlights, which lasted intermittently -throughout the night. The rocket-display was new to the men. -Searchlights, we know, they had seen before. - -On the 23rd a telephone-line between Battalion Headquarters and -the advanced trenches was installed (for the first time). Nos. 2 -and 3 Companies relieved Nos. 1 and 4 in the trenches, and a man -bringing back a message from No. 4 Company was killed by a sniper. -The Battalion was relieved by the 3rd Coldstream in the evening and -returned to its billets in the barns and lofts of Soupir village, -where next day (September 24) the Diary observes they spent “a quiet -morning. The men got washed and shaved, and company officers were -able to get at their companies. There are so many new officers who -do not know their men that any rest day should be made use of in -this manner.” They relieved the 3rd Coldstream again that evening, -and “digging operations to improve existing trenches and make -communication-trenches were at once begun.” (Here is the first direct -reference in the Diary to communication-trenches, as such.) - -Snipers were active all through the 25th September. The trenches were -heavily shelled in the afternoon, and “one man was hit in the leg -while going to fetch water.” They returned to Soupir in the evening -and spent the 26th standing to, in anticipation of enemy attacks -which did not develop into anything more than an artillery duel, and -in digging trenches for the defence of Soupir village. This work, -however, had to be stopped owing to heavy shell-fire brought to bear -on the working-parties--presumably through information from the many -spies--and after a wearing day relieved the 3rd Coldstream in the -trenches at night. The Diary gives no hint of the tremendous strain -of those twenty-four hours’ “reliefs” from being shelled in a trench -to being shelled in a village, nor of the inadequacy of our artillery -as it strove to cope with the German guns, nor of the rasping -irritation caused by the knowledge that every disposition made was -reported almost at once to the enemy. - -On September 27--a Sunday--the enemy’s bands were heard playing up -and down the trenches. Some attempt was made by a British battalion -on the right to move out a patrol covered by the fire of No. 2 -Company, but the enemy shells and machine-guns smothered every -movement. - -On the 28th September (their day in billets) stakes were cut out of -the woods behind Soupir, while the Pioneers collected what wire they -could lay hands on, as “the Battalion was ordered to construct wire -entanglements in front of their trenches to-night.” The entanglements -were made of two or three strands, at the most, of agricultural -wire picked up where they could find it. They heard heavy fighting -throughout the night on their right--“probably the First Division.” -Both sides by now were feeling the strain of trench-work, for which -neither had made preparations, and the result was an increasing -tension manifesting itself in wild outbursts of musketry and -artillery and camp rumour of massed attacks and breaks-through. - -On the 30th September, F.-M. Lord Roberts’s birthday, a -congratulatory telegram was sent to him; and “a great quantity of -material was collected out of which huts for the men could be built.” -These were frail affairs of straw and twig, half dug in, half built -out, of the nearest banks, or placed under the lee of any available -shelter. The very fabric of them has long since been overlaid with -strata of fresh wreckage and the twig roofs and sides are rotted -black under the grass or ploughed in. - -The month closes with the note that, as it was a very bright -moonlight night, the Battalion’s usual relief of the Coldstream was -“carried out up the communication-trenches.” Some men still recall -that first clumsy trench-relief. - -October 1 was spent in perfecting communication-trenches and -shelters, and “the Brigadier came up in the morning and was taken -round the trenches.” Two officers were sent to Chavonne to meet the -5th Brigade--one to bring the Worcesters to the Battalion’s trenches, -the other to show the Connaught Rangers their billets in Soupir. The -3rd Coldstream marched out of Soupir and took up the line to the left -of the 2nd Grenadiers near Vailly, and next day, 2nd October, No. 1 -Company of the Irish Guards dug a connecting-trench between those -two. Otherwise, for the moment, life was smooth. - -It may be noted for the instruction of generations to come that -some of the Reservists grumbled at orders not to talk or smoke -in the trenches, as that drew fire; and that a newly appointed -platoon-officer, when he had admonished them officially, fell them -out and informed them unofficially that, were there any more trouble, -he would, after the C.O. had dealt with the offenders, take them on -for three rounds “boxing in public.” Peace and goodwill returned at -once. - -On the 3rd October, a platoon was despatched to help the Royal -Engineers in the construction of a road across a new bridge they -had put up between Soupir and Chavonne. The Battalion relieved the -3rd Coldstream in its new position three-quarters of a mile east -of Vailly, and next day “quietly improved trenches and head-cover,” -which latter is mentioned for the first time. It was all casual -timber picked up off the country-side. - -On the 5th October a patrol explored through the wood, in front of -the right trenches, but found only dead Germans to the number of -thirty and many half buried, as well as five British soldiers killed -in some lost affair of a fortnight before. Private O’Shaughnessy, -No. 1 Company, was shot dead by a sniper when on observation-post -at the end of this wood. He had only arrived that morning with a -draft of one hundred men, under Lieutenant Gore-Langton, and had -asked to be allowed to go out on this duty. In the afternoon three -shells burst on the road near Battalion Headquarters, and fatally -wounded Lieutenant G. Brooke, who was on his way to Soupir to take -over the transport from Lieutenant E. J. Gough. He was sent in to -Braisne, where he died on the 7th October. The Diary notes “he -would not have been found so soon had not the shells broken the -telephone-wire to Headquarters. A message was coming through at the -time and when communication was stopped the Signalling Sergeant -sent two men to repair the wire and they found him.” He was brought -in to the A.D.S. at Vailly-sur-Aisne by his own men, who made the -R.A.M.C. stretcher-bearers walk behind as they would allow none but -themselves to carry him. They bade him farewell before they returned -to their trenches, and went out openly weeping. When he was sent to -Braisne that evening, after being dressed, his own men again got an -ambulance across the pontoon-bridge, which had been hitherto reckoned -impassable, for his convenience. His last words to them were that -they were to “play the game” and not to revenge his death on the Hun. - -On the afternoon of the 6th October, which was cold and misty, the -Germans pushed a patrol through the wood and our standing-patrol went -out and discovered one German under-officer of the 64th (Imperial -Jäger Guards) dead, and the rifle of another man. - -The enemy sent out no more patrols. Men had grown to be cunning -among the timber, and noticed every tree they moved under. When the -Coldstream relieved the Battalion that night, one of our patrols -found a felled tree had been carefully placed across their homeward -path by some unknown hand--it might have been the late Jäger -under-officer--who had expected to attack the patrol while it was -climbing over the obstacle. - -On the 7th the Battalion rested in Soupir all day, and on the 8th -Lieutenant G. Brooke’s body was brought in from Braisne and buried in -Soupir cemetery. - -The 9th was a quiet day except for an hour’s shelling, and a good -deal of cheering from the German trenches in the evening, evidently -in honour of the fall of Antwerp. It annoyed our men for the reason -that they could not retaliate. Our guns had not a round to throw away. - - -THE MOVE TOWARD THE SEA - -The opposing lines had been locked now for close upon a month and, -as defences elaborated themselves, all hope of breaking-through -vanished. Both sides then opened that mutually outflanking movement -towards the west which did not end till it reached the sea. Held up -along their main front, the Germans struck at the Flanders plain, the -Allies striving to meet the movement and envelop their right flank as -it extended. A British force had been sent to Antwerp; the Seventh -Division and the Third Cavalry Division had been landed at Zeebrugge -on the 7th October with the idea of helping either the Antwerp force -or co-operating with the Allied Armies as circumstances dictated. -Meantime, the main British force was being held in the trenches of -the Aisne a hundred and twenty miles away; and it seemed good to -all concerned that these two bodies of British troops should be -consolidated, both for purposes of offence, command and, by no means -least, supply, on the Flanders flank covering the Channel. There -were obvious dangers in moving so many men from high ground across a -broad river under the enemy’s eye. It could only be effected at night -with all precautions, but as the western pressure developed and was -accentuated by the fall of Antwerp, the advantage of the transfer -outweighed all risk. Our cavalry moved on the 3rd October by road -for Flanders, and a few days later the infantry began to entrain for -St. Omer. The Second Corps was the first to leave, the Third Corps -followed, and the First was the last. - -Orders came to the Battalion on Sunday, October 11, to be prepared -to move at short notice, and new clothes were issued to the men, but -they did not hand over their trenches to the French till the 13th -October, when they marched to Perles in the evening and entrained on -the 14th at Fismes a little after noon, reaching Hazebrouck _via_ -(the route is worth recording) Mareuil-sur-Ourcq, Ormoy, St. Denis, -outside Paris, Epluches, Creil, Amiens (10.15 P. M.), Abbeville (3.15 -A. M.), Etaples, Boulogne, Calais and St. Omer, every stone of which -last six was to be as familiar to them as their own hearths for years -to come. - -At 5 P. M. on the 15th the Battalion went into billets at Hazebrouck. -It was a sharp change from the soft wooded bluffs and clean chalky -hills above the Aisne, to the slow ditch-like streams and crowded -farming landscape of Flanders. At Hazebrouck they lay till the -morning of the 17th, when they marched to Boeschepe, attended church -parade on Sunday the 18th, and marched to untouched Ypres _via_ St. -Kokebeele, Reninghelst and Vlamertinghe on the 20th with the Brigade, -some divisional troops and the 41st Battery, R.F.A. The Brigade -halted at Ypres a few hours, seeing and being impressed by the beauty -of the Cloth Hall and the crowded market-place. The 2nd Coldstream -and the 2nd Battalion Grenadiers being eventually sent forward, -the remainder of the Brigade billeted in St. Jean, then described -impersonally as “a small village about one and a half kilometres east -of Ypres.” They halted at the edge of the city for dinner, and the -men got out their melodeons and danced jigs on the flawless pavé. -Much firing was heard all day, and “the 2nd Coldstream came into -action about 4 P. M. and remained in the trenches all night.” - -That was the sum of information available at the moment to the -Battalion--that, and orders to “drive the enemy back wherever -met.” So they first were introduced to the stage of the bloody and -debatable land which will be known for all time as “The Salient.” - -The original intention of our Army on the Flanders flank had been -offensive, but the long check on the Aisne gave the enemy time to -bring forward troops from their immense and perfectly prepared -reserves, while the fall of Antwerp--small wonder the Germans had -cheered in their trenches when the news came!--released more. -Consequently, the movement that began on the Allies’ side as an -attempt to roll up the German right flank before it could reach the -sea, ended in a desperate defence to hold back an overwhelmingly -strong enemy from sweeping forward through Belgium to Calais and the -French sea-board. Out of this defence developed that immense and -overlapping series of operations centring on Ypres, extending from -the Yser Canal in the north to La Bassée in the south, and lasting -from mid-October to the 20th November 1914, which may be ranked as -the First Battle of Ypres. - -It will be remembered that the Second and Third British Army Corps -were the first to leave the Aisne trenches for the west. On the 11th -October the Second Army Corps was in position between the Aire and -Béthune and in touch with the left flank of the Tenth French Army at -La Bassée. - -On the 12th of October the Third Army Corps reached St. Omer and -moved forward to Hazebrouck to get touch with the Second Army Corps -on its right, the idea being that the two corps together should wheel -on their own left and striking eastward turn the position of the -German forces that were facing the Tenth French Army. They failed -owing to the strength of the German forces on the spot, and by -October 19, after indescribably fierce fighting, the Second and Third -Army Corps had been brought to a standstill on a line, from La Bassée -through Armentières, not noticeably differing from the position which -our forces were destined to occupy for many months to come. The -attempted flank attacks had become frontal all along the line, and in -due course frontal attacks solidified into trench-warfare again. - -North of Armentières the situation had settled itself in much the -same fashion, flank attacks being outflanked by the extension of the -enemy’s line, with strenuous frontal attacks of his daily increasing -forces. - -The Seventh Division--the first half of the Fourth Army -Corps--reached Ypres from Dixmude on the 14th October after its -unsuccessful attempt to relieve Antwerp. As the First Army Corps had -not yet come up from the Aisne, this Division was used to cover the -British position at Ypres from the north; the infantry lying from -Zandvoorde, on the south-east, through Zonnebeke to Langemarck on -the north-west. Here again, through lack of numbers and artillery -equipment, the British position was as serious as in the south. Enemy -forces, more numerous than the British and Belgian armies, combined, -were bearing down on the British line from the eastward through -Courtrai, Iseghem, and Roulers, and over the Lys bridge at Menin. -Later on, it was discovered that these represented not less than five -new Army Corps. The Seventh Division was ordered to move upon Menin, -to seize the bridge over the river and thus check the advance of -further reinforcements. There were, of course, not enough troops for -the work, but on the 18th October the Division, the right centre of -which rested on the Ypres-Menin road, not yet lined throughout with -dead, wheeled its left (the 22nd Brigade) forward. As the advance -began, the cavalry on the left became aware of a large new German -force on the left flank of the advance, and fighting became general -all along the line of the Division. - -On the 19th October the airmen reported the presence of two fresh -Army Corps on the left. No further advance being possible, the -Division was ordered to fall back to its original line, an operation -attended with heavy loss under constant attacks. - -On the 20th October the pressure increased as the German Army Corps -made themselves felt against the thin line held by the Seventh -Division, which was not amply provided with heavy batteries. -Their losses were largely due to artillery fire, directed by -air-observation, that obliterated trenches, men, and machine-guns. - -On the 21st October the enemy attacked the Division throughout the -day, artillery preparations being varied by mass assaults, but still -the Division endured in the face of an enemy at least four times -as strong and constantly reinforced. It is, as one writer says, -hardly conceivable that our men could have checked the enemy’s -advance for even a day longer, had it not been for the arrival at -this juncture of the First Army Corps. Reinforcements were urgently -needed at every point of the British line, but, for the moment, the -imminent danger lay to the north of Ypres, where fresh German forces, -underestimated as usual, might sweep the Belgian army aside and -enter the Channel ports in our rear. With this in mind, the British -Commander-in-Chief decided to use the First Army Corps to prolong the -British line, already, as it seemed, nearly worn through, toward the -sea, rather than to strengthen any occupied sector. He posted it, -therefore--until French reinforcements should arrive--to the north, -or left of the Seventh Division, from Zonnebeke to Bixschoote. - -Our front at that date ran from Hollebeke to Bixschoote, a distance, -allowing for bends, of some sixteen miles. To protect this we had but -three depleted Infantry Divisions and two Cavalry Brigades against -opposed forces of not less than a hundred thousand. Moreover, the -ground was hampered by the flight, from Roulers and villages in -German possession, of refugees, of whom a percentage were certainly -spies, but over whom it was impossible to exercise any control. They -carried their goods in little carts drawn by dogs, and they wept and -wailed as they straggled past our men. - - -THE SALIENT AND THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES - -The orders for the Guards Brigade on October 21 to “drive back the -enemy wherever met” were not without significance. All their news -in billets had been of fresh formations coming down from the north -and the east, and it was understood that the Germans counted with -confidence upon entering Calais, _via_ Ypres, in a few days. - -The Brigade, less the 2nd Coldstream, “assembled in a field about -four kilometres along the Ypres-Zonnebeke Road, and after a wait -of three hours No. 4 Company of the 1st Irish Guards advanced to -the support of the 2nd Grenadiers, who had been ordered to prolong -the line to the right of the 2nd Coldstream. This company and both -the advanced battalions suffered somewhat severely from shell-fire -and occasional sniping.” Thus coldly does the Diary enter upon -what was in fact the first day of the First Battle of Ypres, in -which companies had to do the work of battalions, and battalions of -brigades, and whose only relief was a change of torn and blood-soaked -ground from one threatened sector of the line to the next. - -It was not worth while to record how the people of Ypres brought hot -coffee to the Battalion as it passed through, the day before (October -20); and how, when they halted there a few hours, the men amused -their hosts by again dancing Irish jigs on the clattering pavements -while the refugees clattered past; or how it was necessary to warn -the companies that the enemy might attack behind a screen of Belgian -women and children--in which case the Battalion would have to fire -through them. - -On the evening of the 21st October the Battalion was ordered up to -the support of what was left of the 22nd Brigade which had fallen -back to Zonnebeke. “It came under a heavy burst of artillery -fire and was forced to lie down (in a ploughed field) for fifteen -minutes”--at that time a novel experience. On its way a hare started -up which was captured by a man of No. 2 Company to the scandal of -discipline and the delight of all, and later sold for five shillings. -At Zonnebeke it found No. 4 Company already lining the main road on -the left of the town and took up a position in extended order on its -right, “thus establishing the line into Zonnebeke.” The casualties, -in spite of the artillery fire, are noted as only “one killed and -seven wounded,” which must have been far under the mark. The night -was lit by the flames of burning houses, by which light they hunted -for snipers in haystacks round the village, buried stray dead of a -battalion of the Seventh Division which had left them and, by order, -did a deal of futile digging-in. - -The next day the 22nd Brigade retired out of Zonnebeke about a -kilometre down the main road to Ypres, the Battalion and half the -2nd Coldstream conforming to the movement. This enabled the Germans -to enter the north of Zonnebeke and post machine-guns in some of the -houses. None the less, our patrols remained in the south end of the -town and did “excellent work”; an officer’s patrol, under Lieutenant -Ferguson, capturing three mounted orderlies. One man was killed and -8 wounded in the Battalion that day. - -On the 23rd October “the enemy brought up more machine-guns and -used them against us energetically all the day.” A platoon of No. -1 Company, under Lieutenant the Hon. H. Alexander, attempted an -outflanking movement through Zonnebeke, towards the church, supported -by a platoon of No. 4 Company, under Lieutenant W. C. N. Reynolds, -in the course of which the latter officer was wounded. The trenches -were shelled with shrapnel all the afternoon, and a German advance -was sprayed down with our rifle-fire. In the evening the French made -an attack through Zonnebeke helped by their .75’s and established -themselves in the town. They also, at 9 P. M., relieved the Battalion -which moved at once south-west to Zillebeke and arrived there at -2 A. M. on the morning of the 24th, when it billeted “chiefly in a -brick-yard” ready to be used afresh. - -The relieving troops were a division of the Ninth French Army -Corps. They took over the line of our Second Division, while our -Second Division in turn took over part of the front of the Seventh -Division. At the same time French Territorials relieved our First -Division between Bixschoote and Langemarck, thus freeing us of all -responsibility for any ground north of the Ypres-Zonnebeke road. Our -Army on the 24th October, then, stood as follows: From the Zonnebeke -road to a point near the race-course in the historic Polygon Wood -west of Reutel was the Second Division; on its right, up to the Menin -road, lay the First Division; and from the Menin road to Zandvoorde -the Seventh Division with the 3rd Cavalry Brigade in the Zandvoorde -trenches. Our line had thus been shortened and strengthened; but the -enemy were continuously receiving reinforcements from Roulers and -Menin, and the pressure never ceased. - -In the early morning of the 24th October, and before the transfer -of all the troops had been effected, the British Ypres front was -attacked throughout in force and once more the shock of the attack -fell on the remains of the Seventh Division. Reserves there were -none; each battalion stood where it was in the flood and fought on -front, flank, and rear indifferently. The Irish Guards had a few -hours’ rest in the brick-fields at Zillebeke, where, by some miracle, -it found its mail of home-letters and parcels waiting for it. Even -before it could open them it was ordered out from Zillebeke[2] along -the Ypres-Menin road to Hooge to help the 20th Brigade (Seventh -Division), which had been attacked on the morning of the 25th -October, and parties of the enemy were reported to have broken -through into Polygon Wood. - -[Illustration: - - _THE YPRES SALIENT_ - _First Battalion Actions_ - - _Emery Walker Ltd. del. et sc._] - -PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY EMERY WALKER LTD., LONDON - -That attack, however, was repulsed during the day, and in the evening -the Battalion was despatched to act in support of the 5th Brigade -near Race-course (Polygon) Wood, due north of Veldhoek, where the -Battalion bivouacked for the night in a ploughed field. This was the -first time it had marched up the Menin road or seen the Château of -Hooge, of which now no trace remains, sitting stately among its lawns. - -On the 25th October, after a heavy bombardment, as bombardments were -then reckoned, the whole Division was ordered at dawn to advance -against Reutel; the 2nd Grenadier Guards and the Irish Guards being -given the work of clearing out Polygon Wood, of which the enemy -held the upper half. They were advancing through the woods, and the -trenches of the Worcester Battalion there, when a big shell burst -in Lieutenant Ferguson’s platoon, No. 3 Company, killing 4 and -wounding 9 men, as far as was known. Ferguson himself, knocked down -but unwounded, went back to advise No. 2 Company coming up behind -him to deviate a little, “for the ground was a slaughter-house.” -The Battalion fought its way to a couple of hundred yards north of -Reutel and was then brought under heavy rifle-fire from concealed -trenches on a ridge. The 2nd Grenadiers on the right had, earlier, -been held up by a German trench on their left, and, as dark came -on, touch between the battalions there was lost, and the patrol -sent out to regain it only stumbled on the German trench. The left -of the Battalion lost touch by nearly a quarter of a mile with the -5th Brigade, and as the wet night closed in they found themselves -isolated in darkness and dripping autumn undergrowth, with the old -orders “to hold ground gained at all costs.” Meantime they hung -with both flanks in the air and enemy patrols on either side. The -nearest supports of any kind were the trenches of the Worcesters, -six hundred yards behind, through the woods; so the Battalion linked -up with them by means of a double front of men, back to back, strung -out tail-wise from their bivouac to the Worcesters. The manœuvre -succeeded. There was sniping all night from every side, but thanks to -the faithful “tail” the enemy could not get round the Battalion to -make sure whether it was wholly in the air. The casualties this day -were reported as 4 killed and 23 wounded. - -At 4 A. M. on the 26th October, just after the night’s rain had -ceased, word came from Brigade Headquarters that the 3rd Coldstream -were to be expected on the Battalion’s right. They arrived an hour -and a half later and the Battalion attacked, again to be held up in -a salient heavily enfiladed from every angle by machine-guns, and -though No. 2 Company carried a couple of farm-houses outside the -woods, they were forced to retire from one of them and lost heavily. -An attack by the 6th Brigade in the afternoon relieved the pressure -a little, and helped the Battalion to get in touch with, at least, -its brigade. Lieutenant Shields (R.A.M.C. attached) was killed here -while attending our wounded. He had been remonstrated with only a -few minutes before for exposing himself too much, and paid as much -heed to the rebuke as did the others who succeeded him in his office. -The casualties for the day were 1 officer and 9 men killed and 42 -wounded. The night was memorable inasmuch as the Battalion, which had -had no food for forty-eight hours, was allowed to eat its emergency -rations. - -There was a German attack on the night of the 27th October, lasting -for less than an hour, but the advance of the 6th Brigade on the -Battalion’s left, together with the advance of the French still -farther to the left, threatening Passchendaele, kept the enemy -moderately quiet till the Battalion was relieved in the evening of -the 27th by the 3rd Coldstream, and went into bivouac just west of -Race-course Wood. It was shelled while settling down here and at -intervals throughout the night. Major Herbert Stepney was slightly -wounded in the back by a bullet when at supper in a farm-house; 2 -men were killed and 3 wounded. Captain A. H. L. McCarthy, R.A.M.C., -joined for duty, replacing Lieutenant Shields. - -Next morning (October 28) the 5th Brigade was attacking and the -Battalion was ordered to support. It was heavily shelled again in -the wood and dug itself in north-west on the race-course, where it -stayed all day ready to support the Coldstream, and had a quiet -time. The C.O. (Lord Ardee) went to hospital with a bad throat; -Lieutenant Greer was wounded while serving his machine-gun, which had -been lent to the 3rd Coldstream, and a couple of men were wounded. -Drill-Sergeant A. Winspear joined the Connaught Rangers as 2nd -Lieutenant--one of the earliest of the army officers promoted from -the ranks. - -The enemy at that date were so sure of success that they made no -attempt to conceal their intentions, and all our spent forces on the -Ypres front were well aware that a serious attack would be opened -on them on the 29th. Rumour said it would be superintended by the -Kaiser himself. But, so far as the Battalion was concerned, that day -was relatively quiet. The 2nd Brigade had been ordered to retake -the trenches lost by the 1st Brigade east of Gheluvelt, and the -Battalion’s duty, with the 2nd Grenadiers, was to fill up whatever -gaps might be found in a line which was mainly gaps between the left -of the 2nd and the right of the 1st Brigade near Polderhoek. It -reached the light railway from Gheluvelt to Polderhoek, discovered -that the gap there could be filled up by a platoon, communicated with -the C.O.’s of the two brigades concerned, sent back three companies -to the 4th Brigade Headquarters, left one at the disposal of the -1st Brigade, and at night withdrew. For the moment, the line could -be held with the troops on the spot, and it was no policy to use -a man more than was necessary. The casualties to the men for that -day were but 4 killed and 6 wounded, though a shell burst on the -Brigade Reserve Ammunition Column, west of Race-course Wood, and did -considerable damage. - -The 30th October opened on the heaviest crisis of the long battle of -Ypres. The Battalion, to an accompaniment of “Jack Johnsons,” dug -trenches a quarter of a mile west of Race-course Wood in case the -troops at the farther end of it should be driven back; for in those -years woods were visible and gave good cover. German aeroplanes, -well aware that they had no anti-aircraft guns to fear, swooped low -over them in the morning, and men could only reply with some pitiful -rifle-fire. - -In the afternoon orders came for them and the 2nd Grenadiers to stop -digging and move up to Klein Zillebeke to support the hard-pressed -Seventh Division on whose front the enemy had broken through -again. When they reached what was more or less the line, Nos. 1 -and 2 Companies were sent forward to support the cavalry in their -trenches, while Nos. 3 and 4 Companies dug themselves in behind Klein -Zillebeke.[3] A gap of about a quarter of a mile was found running -from the Klein Zillebeke-Zandvoorde road north to the trenches of the -2nd Gordon Highlanders, and patrols reported the enemy in force in a -strip of wood immediately to the east of it. Whether the gap had been -blasted out by concentrated enemy-fire, or whether what the guns had -left of our cavalry had retired, was never clear. The Battalion was -told off to hold the place and to find out who was on either side of -them, while the 2nd Grenadiers continued the line southward from the -main road to the canal. Beginning at 11 P. M., they dug themselves -in till morning light. A burning farm-house blazed steadily all -night in a hollow by Zandvoorde and our patrols on the road could -see the Germans “in their spiked helmets” silhouetted against the -glare as they stormed out of the woods and massed behind the fold -of the ground ready for the morning’s attack. Two years later, our -guns would have waited on their telephones till the enemy formation -was completed and would then have removed those battalions from the -face of the earth. But we had not those guns. During the night the -Oxfordshire Light Infantry came up and occupied a farm between the -Battalion and the Gordon Highlanders and strengthened the situation -a little. Company commanders had already been officially warned that -the position was serious and that they must “hang on at all costs.” -Also that the Kaiser himself was in front of them. - -On the 31st, after an attack by the French towards Hollebeke which -did not develop, the full storm broke. The Battalion, backed by -two R.F.A. guns, was shelled from seven in the morning till eleven -o’clock at night in such trenches as it had been able to construct -during the night; while machine-gun and infantry fire grew steadily -through the hours. The companies were disposed as follows: No. 4 -Company immediately to the north of the main wood; then No. 3 with -No. 1 in touch with the Oxfordshire Light Infantry at a farm-house, -next to the Gordons; No. 2 was in reserve at a farm with Headquarters. - -On the afternoon of the 31st October, Lord Ardee arrived from -hospital, though he was in no state to be out of it, and was greeted -by the information that the Gordons on the left, heavily shelled, had -been driven out of their trenches. The Oxford L.I. and also No. 1 -Company of the Battalion which was in touch with them had to conform -to the movement. The section of R.F.A. had to retire also with the -Gordons and, after apologies, duly delivered among bursting German -shell, for “having to look after their guns,” they “limbered up and -went off as though it were the Military Tournament.” There was a -counter-attack, and eventually the enemy were driven back and the -line was re-established before night, which passed, says the Diary -“fairly quietly.” The moonlight made movement almost impossible; nor -could the men get any hot tea, their great stand-by, but rations were -distributed. The casualties among officers that day were Lieutenant -L. S. Coke killed, and buried in the garden of the farm; Captain Lord -Francis Scott, Lieutenant the Earl of Kingston, and Lieutenant R. -Ferguson wounded. There were many casualties in the front trenches, -specially among No. 3 Company, men being blown to pieces and no -trace left. The depressing thing, above all, was that we seemed to -have no guns to reply with. - -Bombardment was renewed on the 1st November. The front trenches were -drenched by field-guns, at close range, with spurts of heavy stuff -at intervals; the rear by heavy artillery, while machine-gun fire -filled the intervals. One of the trenches of a platoon in No. 3 -Company, under Lieutenant Maitland, was completely blown in, and only -a few men escaped. The Lieutenant remained with the survivors while -Sergeant C. Harradine, under heavy fire, took the news to the C.O. -It was hopeless to send reinforcements; the machine-gun fire would -have wiped them out moving and our artillery was not strong enough to -silence any one sector of the enemy’s fire. - -In the afternoon the enemy attacked--with rifle-fire and a -close-range small piece that broke up our two machine-guns--across -some dead ground and occupied the wrecked trench, driving back the -few remains of No. 3 Company. The companies on the right and left, -Nos. 4 and 1, after heavy fighting, fell back on No. 2 Company, which -was occupying roughly prepared trenches in the rear. One platoon, -however, of No. 1 Company, under Lieutenant N. Woodroffe (he had -only left Eton a year), did not get the order to retire, and so -held on in its trench till dark and “was certainly instrumental in -checking the advance of the enemy.” The line was near breaking-point -by then, but company after company delivered what blow it could, and -fell back, shelled and machine-gunned at every step, to the fringe -of Zillebeke Wood. Here the officers, every cook, orderly, and man -who could stand, took rifle and fought; for they were all that stood -there between the enemy and the Channel Ports. (Years later, a man -remembering that fight said: “’Twas like a football scrum. Every -one was somebody, ye’ll understand. If he dropped there was no one -to take his place. Great days! An’ we not so frightened as when it -came to the fightin’ by machinery on the Somme afterwards.”)[4] -The C.O. sent the Adjutant to Brigade Headquarters to ask for help, -but the whole Staff had gone over to the 2nd Brigade Headquarters, -whose Brigadier had taken over command of the 4th Brigade as its own -Brigadier had been wounded. About this time, too, the C.O. of the -Battalion (Lord Ardee) was wounded. Eventually the 2nd Battalion -Grenadiers was sent up with some cavalry of the much-enduring 7th -Brigade, and the line of support-trenches was held. The Battalion had -had nothing to eat for thirty-six hours, so the cavalry kept the line -for a little till our men got food. - -A French regiment (Territorials) on the right also took over part -of the trenches of our depleted line. Forty-four men were known to -have been killed, 205 wounded and 88--chiefly from the blown-up No. -3 Platoon--were missing. Of officers, Lieutenant K. R. Mathieson had -been killed (he had been last seen shooting a Hun who was bayoneting -our wounded); Captain Mulholland died of his wounds as soon as he -arrived in hospital at Ypres; Lieut.-Colonel Lord Ardee, Captain -Vesey, Lieutenant Gore-Langton and Lieutenant Alexander were wounded, -and Lieutenant G. M. Maitland, who had stayed with his handful in No. -3 Company’s trench, was missing. Yet the time was to come when three -hundred and fifty casualties would be regarded as no extraordinary -price to pay for ground won or held. One small draft of 40 men -arrived from home that night. - -On November 2 the Battalion was reduced to three companies since in -No. 3 Company all officers were casualties and only 26 men of it -answered their names at roll-call. They were heavily shelled all that -day. They tried to put up a little wire on their front during the -night; they collected what dead they could; they received several -wounded men of the day’s fight as they crawled into our lines; they -heard one such man calling in the dark, and they heard the enemy turn -a machine-gun on him and silence him. The regular work of sending -forward and relieving the companies in the front line went on, varied -by an attack from the enemy, chiefly rifle-fire, on the night of -the 3rd November. On that date they received “a new machine-gun,” -and another draft of sixty men (under Captain E. C. S. King-Harman) -several of whom were killed or wounded that same afternoon. The -night was filled with false alarms as some of the new drafts began -to imagine crowds of Germans advancing out of the dark. This was a -popular obsession, but it led to waste of ammunition and waking up -utterly tired men elsewhere in the line. - -On the 4th November there was an outburst of machine-gunning from a -farm-house, not 300 yards away. One field-gun was brought up to deal -with them, and some of the 2nd Life Guards stood by to help in event -of an attack, but the enemy contented themselves with mere punishing -fire. - -On the evening of November 5 they located our one field-gun which was -still trying to cope with the enemy’s machine-guns, shelled it for an -hour vigorously, blew up the farm-house that sheltered it, but--clean -missed the gun, though it had been firing at least one round every -ten minutes. One of our wounded of the 1st November managed to crawl -into our lines. He had been three days without food or water--the -Germans, who thought he would die, refusing him both. There was heavy -shelling and about thirty casualties in the line “as far as known.” - -On the 6th after an hour’s preparation with heavy-, light-, and -machine-gun fire, the enemy attacked the French troops on the -Battalion’s right, who fell back and left the flank of the Battalion -(No. 2 Company) open. The Company “in good order and fighting” -fell back by platoons to its support trenches, but this left No. -1 Company practically in the air, and at the end of the day the -greater part of them were missing. As the Germans occupied the -French trenches in succession, they opened an enfilade fire on the -Irish which did sore execution. Once again the Adjutant went to the -Brigadier to explain the situation. The Household Cavalry were sent -up at the gallop to Zillebeke where they dismounted and advanced -on foot. The 1st Life Guards on the left were detailed to retake -the Irish Guards’ trenches, while the 2nd Life Guards attacked -the position whence the French had been ousted. A hundred Irish -Guardsmen, collected on the spot, also took part in the attack, which -in an hour recovered most of the lost positions. Here Lieutenant W. -E. Hope was killed, and a little later, Lieutenant N. Woodroffe fell, -shot dead in the advance of the Household Cavalry. Two companies, -had these been available, could have held the support-trenches -after the Household Cavalry had cleared the front, but there were -no reinforcements and the unceasing pressure on the French drove -the Battalion back on a fresh line a couple of hundred yards behind -the support trenches which the cavalry held till the remains of the -Battalion had re-formed and got some hot tea from the ever-forward -cookers. In addition to Lieutenants Hope and Woodroffe killed, -Captain Lord John Hamilton and Lieutenant E. C. S. King-Harman, who -had come out with the draft on the 1st November, were missing that -day. - -On November 7 the Battalion relieved the cavalry at one in the -morning, and dug and deepened their trenches on the edge of the -wood till word came to them to keep up a heavy fire on any enemy -driven out of the wood, as the 22nd Brigade were attacking on their -right. That “Brigade” now reduced to two composite battalions--the -Royal Welsh Fusiliers, with the 2nd Queens and the Warwicks with -S. Staffords--both commanded by captains, did all that was humanly -possible against the pressure, but in the end, as the Diary says, -“having failed to get the line required, withdrew under heavy -shell-fire.” Their attack was no more than one of many desperate -interludes in the desperate first battle of Ypres--a winning fight -against hopeless odds of men and material--but it diverted attention -for the moment from the Battalion’s particular section of the line -and “the enemy did not shell our trenches much.” Early in the day -Major Stepney, commanding, went out from the support trenches and -was not seen again alive. His body was found late in the evening -between the lines. The command of the Battalion now fell to Captain -N. Orr-Ewing. - -Since October 31 6 officers had been killed, 7 wounded, and 3 were -missing. Of N.C.O.’s and men 64 were dead, 339 wounded, and 194 -missing. The total casualties, all ranks, for one week, were 613. - -The remnant were made into two shrunken companies next day (the 8th) -which was a quiet one with intermittent bursts of shelling from -French .75’s on the right, and German heavies; the enemy eighty yards -distant. Captain A. Perceval, who had been blown up twice in the past -week, and Lieutenant J. S. N. FitzGerald were sent to hospital. - -On the night of the 9th November the Battalion of four platoons, -three in the firing-line and one in reserve, was relieved by the S. -W. Borderers; drew supplies and men at Brigade Headquarters, moved -back through Zillebeke and marched into bivouacs near a farm south of -the Ypres-Zonnebeke road, where they settled down with some Oxford -L.I. in deep trenches, and dug-outs which had been dug by the French. - -They spent the 10th in luxury; their cookers were up and the men ate -their first hot meal for many days. Blankets also were issued, and -a draft of about two hundred men arrived under Lieutenant Hon. W. -C. Hanbury-Tracy, which brought up the strength of the re-organized -two-company Battalion to 360 men. Major Webber, “S.R.” (this is the -first time that the Diary makes mention of the Special Reserve), -arrived the day before and as Senior Officer took over from Captain -Orr-Ewing. The other officers who came with him were Captain Everard -and Lieutenant L. R. Hargreaves, both Special Reserve, with -Lieutenant St. J. R. Pigott, and, next day, 2nd Lieutenant Straker, -Machine-gun Officer, with “two new guns.” All these reinforcements -allowed the Battalion to be organized as two companies instead of -four platoons. - -On the morning of the 11th November, they were moved out by way of -the Bellewaarde Lake and under cover of the woods there, in support -of the Oxfordshire L.I. who cleared the wood north of Château Hooge -and captured some thirty prisoners of the Prussian Guards. This was -the first time, to their knowledge, that they had handled that Corps. -Though heavily shelled the Battalion lost no men and spent the rest -of the day behind the O.L.I. and the Grenadiers, waiting in the -rain near the Headquarters of the First Division (Brigadier-General -FitzClarence, V.C.) to which it was for the moment attached. - -It was here that one of our officers found some enemy prisoners -faithfully shepherded under the lee of a protecting haystack while -their guard (Oxford L.I.) stood out in the open under casual -shrapnel. A change was made at once. - -At 9 P. M. the Battalion was told it might go back and get tea and -supplies at some cross-roads or other in the darkness behind it. -The cookers never came up and the supplies were not available till -past midnight on the 12th. As their orders were to return to 1st -Brigade Headquarters at 2 A. M. to take part in an attack on a German -trench, the men had not much sleep. The trench had been captured by -the enemy the day before, but they had abandoned it and dug another, -commanding, in the rear, whence they could deal with any attempt at -recapture on our part. The composite force of the 2nd Grenadiers, -Munster Fusiliers, Irish Guards, and Oxfordshire L.I. discovered -this much, wading through mud in the darkness before dawn, at a cost -to the Battalion of Major Webber and Lieutenant Harding and some -twelve men wounded. They were caught front and flank and scattered -among the shell-holes. General FitzClarence was killed by enemy -fire out of the dark, and eventually the troops returned to 1st -Brigade Headquarters where a company of the Grenadiers were told off -to dig trenches in a gap which had been found in the line, while -the remainder, the Irish Guards and the Munsters, were sent back to -the woods near Hooge Château which was full of fragments of broken -battalions, from Scots Guards to Zouaves. - -The Battalion reached its destination at 6 A. M. of the 12th. -Three-quarters of an hour later it was ordered up to the woods on -the Gheluvelt road. They occupied “dug-outs”--the first time the -Diary mentions these as part of the scheme of things--on the north -side of the road near the end of the wood west of Veldhoek; sent -a platoon to reinforce the Scots Fusiliers who were hard-pressed, -near by; and were heavily shelled at intervals all day, besides -being sniped and machine-gunned by the enemy who commanded the main -road towards Hooge. None the less, they were fed that night without -accident. Captains Everard and Hanbury-Tracy, Lieutenant Pigott were -sent to hospital, and 2nd Lieutenant Antrobus rejoined from hospital. -This left to the Battalion--Captain Orr-Ewing, Captain the Hon. J. -Trefusis, Adjutant R. M. C. Sandhurst who had joined a day or so -before, Lieutenant L. R. Hargreaves, and 2nd Lieutenant Antrobus, who -was next day wounded in the arm by a shell. Lieutenant Walker, Acting -Quartermaster, was sick, and Captain Gough was acting as Brigade -Transport Officer. At that moment the strength of the Battalion is -reported at “about” 160 officers and men. A draft of 50 N.C.O.’s and -men arrived on the 13th November. - -On November 14 they were ordered to return to 4th Brigade -Headquarters and take over trenches near Klein Zillebeke from the -S. W. Borderers who had relieved them there on the 9th. “The day -passed much as usual,” it was observed, but “the shelling was -fairly heavy and the enemy gained some ground.” Lieutenant and -Quartermaster Hickie returned from a sick leave of two months. The -Sussex Battalion relieved the Battalion in their dug-outs on the edge -of the Veldhoek woods at 11 P. M.; the Battalion then moved off and -by half-past three on the morning of the 15th had relieved the South -Wales Borderers in their old trenches. Here they received word of the -death of their Colonel, Field-Marshal Lord Roberts, from pneumonia -while on a visit to the Indian troops at the front. C.S.M. Rogers -and Pte. Murphy were selected as representatives of the Battalion -to attend the funeral service at St. Omer. The Battalion spent the -day under constant shell-fire in improving trenches, “but there was -some difficulty as snipers were busy, as they had been all day.” One -officer wrote: “Our men are very tired and the rifles are in an awful -state. It rains continuously, and it is very hard to get any sort of -rifle-oil.” - -The 16th November, a day of snow and heavy firing, ending in an -attack which was suppressed by rapid fire, was grimly enlivened by -the appearance of one German deserter with two fingers shot off who -announced that he “had had enough of fighting.” - -On the 17th November, Brigade Headquarters were blown in by -shell-fire, both of the Irish Guards orderlies on duty were injured, -and both of the Battalion’s “two new machine-guns” were knocked to -pieces. There was five hours’ heavy shelling from 7 A. M. till noon -when the enemy came out of their trenches to attack in force, and -were dealt with for an hour by the Battalion, the Grenadiers on its -left and the cavalry on its right. It was estimated that--thanks to -efficient fire control and good discipline--twelve hundred killed and -wounded were accounted for in front of our trenches. Our only man -killed in this attack was C.S.M. Munns who had been just recommended -for his commission. He was a born leader of men, always cheerful, and -with what seemed like a genuine love for fighting. A second attack, -not pressed home, followed at three o’clock; another out-break of -small-arm fire at half-past nine and yet another towards midnight, -and a heavy shelling of the French on our right. “Then all was -quiet,” says the easily satisfied record. - -They endured one day longer, with nothing worse than a “certain -amount of heavy shelling but not so much as usual,” and on the 18th -their battered remnants came out. They were relieved by a company of -the 3rd Coldstream (Captain H. Dawson) and marched off to billets -at Potijze on the Ypres-Zonnebeke road, where the men got plenty of -food. Hard frost had followed the soaking wet and downpour of the -previous days; snow succeeded, but there were hot meals and the hope -of rest and refit at Meteren behind Bailleul, fifteen miles from -Potijze. - -They reached that haven on the 21st November--eight officers and 390 -men in all--“desperately tired” in a cold that froze the water in the -men’s bottles. Not a man fell out. Captain Lord Desmond FitzGerald, -recovered from his wound, arrived on the same day and took over the -Adjutancy. - -The Battalion had been practically wiped out and reconstructed in -a month. They had been cramped in wet mud till they had almost -forgotten the use of their legs: their rifles, clothing, equipment, -everything except their morale and the undefeated humour with which -they had borne their burden, needed renewal or repair. They rested -and began to clean themselves of their dirt and vermin while the -C.O. and company officers went round billets and companies--to see -that the men had all they needed--as is the custom of our Army. It -was a comprehensive refit, including everything from trousers to -ground-sheets, as well as mufflers and mittens sent by H.I.H. the -Grand Duke Michael of Russia. Steady platoon and company drill, which -is restorative to men after long standing in dirt, or fighting in the -dark, marked the unbelievably still days. - -On the 23rd November the Reverend Father Gwynne, the beloved R.C. -Chaplain, arrived to take up his duties; and on the 24th they were -inspected by the Commander-in-Chief, Sir John French. - -On the 28th a draft of 288 N.C.O.’s and men reached them, under -command of Captain P. L. Reid with the following officers: Lieutenant -G. Gough; 2nd Lieutenants H. S. Keating, H. Marion-Crawford, Hon. -H. A. V. Harmsworth, A. C. Innes, and L. C. Lee. With this draft -the strength of the Battalion stood at 700 men and 15 officers. Of -the latter the Diary notes that nine are in the Special Reserve, -“seven of them having done no sort of soldiering before the war.” -Mercifully, men lived but one day at a time, or the Diarist -might have drawn conclusions, which would have fallen far short -of what the future was to bring, from the fact that as many as -twelve machine-gunners were kept at the base by the order of the -authorities. There was need to train machine-gunners, and even -greater need for the guns themselves. But the Battalion was not -occupied with the larger questions of the war. They had borne their -part against all odds of numbers and equipment in barring the German -road to the sea in the first month-long battle of Ypres. They knew -very little of what they had done. Not one of their number could have -given any consecutive account of what had happened, nor, in that -general-post of daily and nightly confusion whither they had gone. -All they were sure of was that such as lived were not dead (“The Lord -only knows why”) and that the enemy had not broken through. They had -no knowledge what labours still lay before them. - -On the 3rd December, after an issue of new equipment and a visit -from Sir Douglas Haig, commanding the First Army Corps, they lined -the road from Meteren towards Bailleul for the visit of the King who -walked down the lines of the 4th (Guards) Brigade and, after shaking -hands with the four Commanding Officers of the Brigade, said: “I am -very proud of my Guards and am full of admiration for their bravery, -endurance, and fine spirit. I wish I could have addressed them all, -but that is impossible, so you must tell them what I say to you. You -are fighting a brave and determined enemy, but if you go on as you -have been doing and show the same fine spirit, there can be only one -end, please God, and that is victory. I wish you all good luck.” - -D.S.O.’s had been awarded to Captain Orr-Ewing and Captain Lord -Francis Scott; and the Distinguished Conduct Medal to Company -Sergeant-Major Munns, who, it will be remembered, was killed in -action just after he was recommended for a commission; to Sergeant -M’Goldrick, Brigade Orderly, who was one of the orderlies injured -when the Brigade Headquarters were blown up on the 17th November; -Corporal Riordan (wounded), Private Russell (Brigade Orderly), -and Private Glynn (since wounded and missing). The King decorated -Sergeant M’Goldrick with the D.C.M. that afternoon. The others named -were, from various causes, absent. It was the first of many such -occasions where those honoured could not be present to receive their -valour’s reward. - -The Diary notes the issue of cardigan waistcoats and goat-skin coats -for each man, as well as of a new American pattern boot, with a hard -toe which, it conservatively fears, “may not stand the wear of the -old ammunition-boot.” Route-marches increased in length, and the -men marched as well as they ate. Indeed, they volunteered to the -Brigadier, who came round once to see the dinners, that they had -never been so well fed. It kept them healthy, though there were the -usual criticisms from officers, N.C.O.’s. and surviving veterans of -the Regular Army, on the quality of the new drafts, some of whom, it -seems, suffered from bad teeth and had to be sent away for renewals -and refits. As a much-tried sergeant remarked: “A man with a sore -tooth is a nuisance an’ a danger to the whole British Army.” - -On the 9th December Sir Douglas Haig came over to present the -Médaille Militaire, on behalf of the French Government, to certain -officers, N.C.O.’s, and men of the Guards Brigade. Drill-Sergeant -Rodgers of the Battalion was among the recipients. Captain Orr-Ewing -was ordered to rejoin the 1st Battalion of the Scots Guards (his own -battalion), to the regret of the Battalion whose lot he had shared -since September--the most capable of officers as the most popular of -comrades. - -A party from the Brigade was sent to Headquarters of the 11th -Engineering Company “to be taught how to throw bombs made out of -jam-pots, which apparently are used against the enemy at close -quarters in the present trench-warfare.” There were at least -half-a-dozen more or less dangerous varieties of these hand-made -bombs in use, before standard patterns were evolved and bombing took -its place as a regular aid to warfare. The “jam-pot” bomb died early -but not before it had caused a sufficiency of trouble to its users. -The others will be mentioned in due course. - -“Aeroplane duty” was another invention of those early days. A company -was told off daily to look out for aeroplanes and, if possible, to -bring them down--presumably by rifle-fire. The war was still very -young. - -F.-M. Earl Kitchener’s appointment to Colonel of the Battalion in -succession to F.-M. Earl Roberts was marked on the 12th in the -following telegram from Earl Kitchener: - - His Majesty the King, having been graciously pleased to appoint - me to be Colonel of the Irish Guards, I desire to take the first - opportunity of expressing to you and through you to all ranks how - proud I am to be associated with so gallant a regiment. My warmest - greetings and best wishes to you all! - -The C.O. replied: - - All ranks, 1st Battalion Irish Guards, greatly appreciate the - honour conferred on them by His Majesty the King, and are proud to - have such a distinguished soldier as Colonel of the Regiment. - -On the 13th December a further draft of 100 men and three officers -arrived under Captain Mylne; the other officers being Lieutenant -Antrobus who was wounded exactly a month before, and Lieutenant -Hubbard. This brought the Battalion’s strength to 800 with the -following officers: Major the Hon. J. Trefusis, C.O.; Captain Lord -Desmond FitzGerald, Adjutant; Lieutenant C. A. S. Walker, Transport -Officer; 2nd Lieutenant L. Straker, Machine-gun Officer; Captain -A. H. L. McCarthy, Medical Officer; Captain Rev. Father Gwynne, -Chaplain; Lieutenant H. Hickie, Quartermaster. No. 1 Company, Captain -E. J. Gough, Lieutenant L. Hargreaves, 2nd Lieutenant A. C. Innes. -No. 2 Company, Captain E. Mylne, 2nd Lieutenant H. S. Keating, 2nd -Lieutenant F. H. Witts. No. 3 Company, Captain P. L. Reid, 2nd -Lieutenant P. H. Antrobus, 2nd Lieutenant Hon. H. V. Harmsworth, 2nd -Lieutenant H. Marion-Crawford. No. 4 Company, Lieutenant G. Gough, -Lieutenant G. Hubbard, 2nd Lieutenant Lee. - -Lieutenant C. A. S. Walker had to go to hospital with bronchitis and -Lieutenant Antrobus took over from him. - -Major Arbuthnot (Scots Guards) arrived on the 14th December with -Queen Alexandra’s presents to the Battalion which were duly issued to -selected officers, N.C.O.’s, and men, but at the time, the Battalion -was under two hours’ notice to move either to support an attack then -being delivered by the Third Division upon the wood at Wytschaete, -or “for any other purpose.” The attack was not a success except in -so far as it pinned the enemy forces to one place, but the Battalion -was not called upon to help. It lived under “short notice” for a week -which naturally interfered with extended route-marches or training. -Companies were sent out one by one to dig in the water-logged soil -and to extemporise means of keeping their feet out of the water by -“blocks of wood made in the form of a platform at the bottom of the -trenches.” Thus laboriously is described the genesis of what was -later to grow into thousands of miles of duck-board, plain or wired. - -Meantime, between the 20th and 22nd of December the fierce and -unsatisfactory battle of Cuinchy, the burden of which fell heavily -on our devoted Indian troops, had been fought out on a front of -half-a-dozen miles from south of the Béthune Canal to Festubert. -Nothing had been gained except the all-important issue--that the -enemy did not break through. There was a long casualty-list as -casualties were then counted, and the Indian Brigades were withdrawn -from their wrecked and sodden trenches for a little rest. The Guards -Brigade was ordered to relieve them, and on the 22nd marched out -from Meteren. The Herts Territorial Battalion (to be honourably and -affectionately known later as “The Herts Guards”) led that first -march, followed by the 2nd Coldstream, 1st Battalion Irish Guards, -the 3rd Coldstream, and the 2nd Grenadiers. They billeted at Béthune -where, on the 23rd December, the 2nd Coldstream in support, they -took over their share of the Indian trenches near Le Touret between -Essars and Richebourg L’Avoué, and on Christmas Eve after tea and the -distribution of the Christmas puddings from England, the Battalion, -with the Hertfordshires relieved the 4th Dogras, 6th Jats, and 9th -Gurkhas. It is recorded that the Gurkha, being a somewhat shorter man -than the average Guardsman, the long Irish had to dig their trenches -about two feet deeper, and they wondered loudly what sort of persons -these “little dark fellas” could be. - -The Christmas truce of 1914 reached the Battalion in severely -modified form. They lay among a network of trenches, already many -times fought over, with communications that led directly into the -enemy’s lines a couple of hundred yards away. So they spent Christmas -Day, under occasional bombardment of heavy artillery, in exploring -and establishing themselves as well as they might among these wet and -dreary works. In this duty Lieutenant G. P. Gough and Lieutenant F. -H. Witts and six men were wounded. - -Earl Kitchener, their Colonel, sent them Christmas wishes and the -King’s and Queen’s Christmas cards were distributed. Their comfort -was that Christmas night was frosty so that the men kept dry at least. - -Boxing Day was quiet, too, and only four men were wounded as they -dug in the hard ground to improve their communications with the -2nd Coldstream on their left. Then the frost broke in rain, the -clay stuck to the spade, the trenches began to fill and a deserter -brought news of an impending attack which turned out to be nothing -more serious than a bombing affair which was duly “attended to.” Some -of our own shells bursting short killed one man and wounded six. -Princess Mary’s gifts of pipes, tobacco, and Christmas cards were -distributed to the men and duly appreciated. - -The impossibility of keeping anything free from mud forced them to -reduce their firing-line to the least possible numbers, while those -in support, or billets, made shift to clean rifles and accoutrements. -The days went forward in rain and wet, with digging where water -allowed, and a regular daily toll of a few men killed and wounded. - -On the 30th December Captain Eric Gough was killed by a stray bullet -while commanding his Company (No. 1) and was buried next day in a -cemetery a few miles along the Béthune-Richebourg road. He had been -Transport Officer since the Battalion left London in August, but -had commanded a company since the 21st November, and was an immense -loss to the Battalion to which he was devoted. Lieutenant Sir G. -Burke and 2nd Lieutenant J. M. Stewart came from England on the same -day and were posted to No. 1 Company now commanded by Lieutenant L. -Hargreaves. - -The Diary ends the year with a recapitulation more impressive in its -restraint than any multitude of words: - - The country round this part is very low-lying, intersected with - ditches with pollarded willows growing on their banks. No sooner - is a trench dug than it fills with water.... The soil is clay, and - so keeps the water from draining away even if that were possible. - In order to keep the men at all dry, they have to stand on planks - rested on logs in the trenches, and in the less wet places bundles - of straw and short fascines are put down. Pumping has been tried, - but not with much success. The weather continues wet, and there - does not seem to be any likelihood of a change. Consequently, we - may expect some fresh discomforts daily. - - - - -1915 - -LA BASSÉE TO LAVENTIE - - -They were not disappointed. New Year’s Day was marked by the flooding -out of a section of forward trenches, and by experiments with a -trench-mortar, from which 2nd Lieutenant Keating and some Garrison -gunners threw three bombs at an enemy digging-party a couple of -hundred yards away. This is the first reference to our use of -trench-mortars in the young campaign. The enemy retaliated next day -by bombing from their real trench-mortars, at a distance of seven -hundred yards, the small farm-house where Battalion Headquarters -lay. The bombs could be seen “coming at a very steep angle, but the -house was only once hit.” Daylight showed the work of the Irish -trench-mortar to have been so good--it had blown a gap in the German -trench--that they continued it and inflicted and observed much damage. - -They were relieved on the 3rd January by the King’s Royal Rifles -and got to billets near Vieille Chapelle late that night. A London -Gazette announced that the Distinguished Conduct Medal had been -awarded No. 2535 Sergeant C. Harradine; No. 1664 Corporal C. Moran; -No. 4015 Private W. Moore (since killed in action); No. 2853 -Lance-Corporal W. Delaney. Also “the new decoration called the -Military Cross” had been awarded to Lieutenant the Hon. H. W. Gough. - -The Battalion, as a whole, had its reward for the past ten days -when the Brigadier expressed his approval of the work of the Guards -Brigade “and especially that of the Irish Guards.” - -Cleaning and refit, classes in bomb-throwing (both by hand and from -rifles) under the Engineers and an elementary machine-gun class -under 2nd Lieutenant Straker, filled in the week; but the most -appreciated boon at Vieille Chapelle was some huge tubs in which the -men could be boiled clean. Father Gwynne held service in the roofless -shell-wrecked church, long since wiped out. - -They took over trenches from the Worcesters on the 8th with a cold -knowledge of what awaited them; for the Diary notes, the day before: -“Another wet day, which will probably completely fill trenches on -the left of the new line with water.” But it did not fill them more -than two feet deep, though the whole line was afloat, and in the -communication-trenches seven men got stuck in the mud; one of them -was not extricated for six hours. The relief took six and a half -hours in pouring rain, with one man killed and two wounded. The -front line of the Guards Brigade was held by the 3rd Coldstream on -the right, the 2nd Coldstream in support; one Company of the 2nd -Grenadiers in the centre, and the rest of the Battalion in support; -the Irish Guards on the left, the Herts Territorials in support. The -Grenadiers relieved their front company every twenty-four hours, -the others every forty-eight. This meant that Battalion C.O.’s had -to spend most of their time in the front line studying what was, in -effect, the navigation of canals. - -On the 9th January, for example, the water averaged three feet in -the trenches and, as that average rose, it was decided to leave -a few strong posts in comparatively dry positions and withdraw -the others along the Rue du Bois into the destroyed village of -Richebourg L’Avoué. Luckily, the enemy, not two hundred yards away, -had his own troubles to attend to and, despite his lavish flares and -musketry-fire, our men were extricated, bodily in some instances, -with but 3 killed and 2 wounded. - -On the 10th January the Herts Regiment relieved them, and the whole -Battalion billeted at Richebourg St. Vaast. Casualties from small-arm -fire had been increasing owing to the sodden state of the parapets; -but the Battalion retaliated a little from one “telescopic-sighted -rifle” sent up by Lieutenant the Earl of Kingston, with which -Drill-Sergeant Bracken “certainly” accounted for 3 killed and 4 -wounded of the enemy. The Diary, mercifully blind to the dreadful -years to come, thinks, “There should be many of these rifles used as -long as the army is sitting in trenches.” Many of them were so used: -this, the father of them all, now hangs in the Regimental Mess. - -Then trench-feet and rheumatism developed, and in forty-eight hours -fifty men had to be sent to hospital for one form or other of these -complaints. - -A draft of a hundred fresh men arrived between the 11th and 12th of -January with six officers: Captain P. S. Long-Innes, 2nd Lieutenants -F. F. Graham, J. R. Ralli, R. B. H. Kemp, D. W. Gunston (Derek) and -J. T. Robyns. Economy in officers and men was not yet possible; for -when an officer was not in the front line he had more than all he -could do to look after what comforts were obtainable for the men. -Yet concessions were made to human weakness; for when the Battalion -returned to its trenches on the 12th an order was received and, to -some extent, obeyed that “men were not to stand in the water for -_more than twelve hours at a time_.” This called for continuous -reliefs of the platoons, as it took a man most of his rest in -billets to scrape himself moderately clean. To save the labour of -portage through the mud, each man was given two days’ supplies -when he went into the trenches, plus some dry tea and a couple of -tins of maconochie to heat up over the braziers. The idea worked -satisfactorily; for the days of the merciless air-patrols had yet -to come; and the braziers flared naked to heaven while the Irish -“drummed up,” which is to say, stewed their tea or rations on them. - -The hopeless work of improving positions in soil no stiffer than -porridge was resumed, and the “telescopic-sighted rifle,” in the -hands of Sergeant-Major Kirk and Drill-Sergeant Bracken, who were -later congratulated by the G.O.C. Second Division, continued its -discreet and guarded labours among the enemy. Only 1 man was killed -and 1 wounded on the 13th January, and the night of that easy day -passed off quietly, “the enemy occupying himself chiefly with singing -songs or playing on mouth-organs.” Here and elsewhere he was given -to spasms of music for no ascertainable reason, which the Irish, who -do not naturally burst into song, rather resented. Between morceaux -he sent up many coloured flares, while our working-parties silently -completed and christened by the name of “Gibraltar” a post to command -a flooded gap in the oozy line. - -They were relieved on the 15th January by the Highland Light Infantry -of the 3rd Brigade (Lahore Division) which was taking over the line -held by the 4th (Guards) Brigade. The Battalion went back to Brigade -reserve billets at Locon.[5] - -Their last week in the trenches had cost them 82 casualties including -sick, but it is worth noting that, at this time, Captain McCarthy, -the Medical Officer, by issuing mustard mixed with lard for the -men to rub on their feet, had in three days got the better of the -epidemic of “trench” or, as they were then called, “swollen” feet. - -It was while in reserve that 2nd Lieut. Keating, Bombing Instructor -and in charge of the trench-mortars, lost his life and 13 men were -wounded owing to the premature explosion of an old-type fused bomb -with which he was instructing a class. Second Lieutenant Keating was -buried next day in the cemetery near Le Touret, where many Guardsmen -were already laid, and his epitaph may worthily stand as it was -written--“A very capable officer, always ready to undertake any task -however difficult or dangerous.” - -After a few days the Battalion went into Corps Reserve and spent a -week in being “smartened up” behind the line with steady drill, -rifle exercises, route-marching and kit inspection, on rainy days, -lest life in the caked filth of the trenches should lead any one -to forget the standard of the Brigade of Guards which under no -circumstance allows any excuse. - -Their work was interrupted by another “Kaiser-battle,” obediently -planned to celebrate the All Highest’s birthday. It began on the -25th January with a demonstration along the whole flat front from -Festubert to Vermelles. Béthune was also shelled from an armoured -train run out of La Bassée, and a heavy attack was launched by -Prussian infantry on a salient of our line, held by the 1st Infantry -Brigade, where it joined the French line among the tangle of railway -tracks and brick-fields near Cuinchy. Owing to the mud, the salient -was lightly manned by half a battalion of the Scots Guards and half -a battalion of the Coldstream. Their trenches were wiped out by the -artillery attack and their line fell back, perhaps half a mile, to -a partially prepared position among the brick-fields and railway -lines between the Aire-La Bassée Canal and the La Bassée-Béthune -road. Here fighting continued with reinforcements and counter-attacks -knee-deep in mud till the enemy were checked and a none too stable -defence made good between a mess of German communication-trenches and -a keep or redoubt held by the British among the huge brick-stacks -by the railway. So far as the Battalion was concerned, this phase -of the affair seems to have led to no more than two or three days’ -standing-to in readiness to support with the rest of the Brigade, and -taking what odd shells fell to their share. - -No institutions are more self-centred than a battalion in the face -of war. “Steady drill,” and company kit inspections were carried on -in the lulls of the waiting, and their main preoccupation was how -much water might be expected in the new trenches when their turn -came to occupy them. The Germans were devoting some of their heavy -artillery to shelling the lock of the Aire-La Bassée Canal at Pont -Fixe, between Givenchy and Cuinchy, in the hope of bursting it and -flooding the country. They spent more than a hundred eight-inch -howitzer shells on that endeavour in one day, and later--long after -the lock had been thoroughly protected with sandbags--used to give -it stated doses of shell at regular intervals. Similarly, they would -bombard one special spot on the line near Béthune because once in ’14 -an armoured train of ours had fired thence at them. - -The Battalion had just been reinforced by a draft of 107 men and -4 officers--Captain Eric Greer, Lieutenant Blacker-Douglass, 2nd -Lieutenant R. G. C. Yerburgh, and 2nd Lieutenant S. G. Tallents. -They were under orders to move up towards the fighting among the -brick-fields which had opened on the 25th, and had not ceased since. -Unofficial reports described the trenches they were to take over -as “not very wet but otherwise damnable,” and on the 30th January -the Battalion definitely moved from Locon, with the 2nd Coldstream, -_via_ Béthune to Cuinchy. Here the Coldstream took over from the -2nd Brigade the whole line of a thousand yards of trench occupied -by them; the Irish furnishing supports. The rest of the Brigade, -that is to say, the Herts Territorials, the Grenadiers, and the 3rd -Coldstream were at Annequin, Beuvry, and Béthune. - -The companies were disposed between the La Bassée-Béthune road -and the railway, beside the Aire-La Bassée Canal. The centre of -their line consisted of a collection of huge dull plum-coloured -brick-stacks, mottled with black, which might have been originally -thirty feet high. Five of these were held by our people and the -others by the enemy--the whole connected and interlocked by saps and -communication-trenches new and old, without key or finality. Neither -side could live in comfort at such close quarters until they had -strengthened their lines either by local attacks, bombing raids or -systematised artillery work. “The whole position,” an officer remarks -professionally, “is most interesting and requires careful handling -and a considerable amount of ingenuity.” - -[Illustration: - - _FIRST BATTALION_ - _Actions & Billets._ - - _Emery Walker Ltd. del. et sc._] - -PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY EMERY WALKER LTD., LONDON - -Except for railway embankments and culverts, the country about was so -flat that a bullet once started had no reason to stop. The men were -billeted in solid-built Flemish houses with bullet-proof partitions, -and therefore, unless noticeably shelled, were inclined to walk about -in front of the houses in the daylight, till they were sternly set -to work to clean their billets of months of accumulations of refuse -and to bury neglected carcases. War and all connected with it was -infinitely stale already, but houses and the ruins of them had not -yet been wholly wiped out in that sector. - -They were installed by the last day of the month with no greater -inconvenience than drifts of stray bullets over the support trenches, -and unsystematic shelling of Battalion Headquarters two or three -hundred yards in the rear, and some desultory bombing in the -complicated front line. - -Early in the morning of the 1st February a post held by the -Coldstream in a hollow near the embankment, just west of the Railway -Triangle--a spot unholy beyond most, even in this sector--was bombed -and rushed by the enemy through an old communication-trench. No. 4 -Company Irish Guards was ordered to help the Coldstream’s attack. The -men were led by Lieutenant Blacker-Douglass who had but rejoined on -the 25th January. He was knocked over by a bomb within a few yards of -the German barricade to the trench, picked himself up and went on, -only to be shot through the head a moment later. Lieutenant Lee of -the same Company was shot through the heart; the Company Commander, -Captain Long-Innes, and 2nd Lieutenant Blom were wounded, and the -command devolved on C.Q.M.S. Carton, who, in spite of a verbal order -to retire “which he did not believe,” held on till the morning in the -trench under such cover of shell-holes and hasty barricades as could -be found or put up. The Germans were too well posted to be moved -by bomb or rifle, so, when daylight showed the situation, our big -guns were called upon to shell for ten minutes, with shrapnel, the -hollow where they lay. The spectacle was sickening, but the results -were satisfactory. Then a second attack of some fifty Coldstream and -thirty Irish Guards of No. 1 Company under Lieutenants Graham and -Innes went forward, hung for a moment on the fringe of their own -shrapnel--for barrages were new things--and swept up the trench. It -was here that Lance-Corporal O’Leary, Lieutenant Innes’s orderly, -won his V.C. He rushed up along the railway embankment above the -trenches, shot down 5 Germans behind their first barricade in -the trench, then 3 more trying to work a machine-gun at the next -barricade fifty yards farther along the trench, and took a couple -of prisoners. Eye-witnesses report that he did his work quite -leisurely and wandered out into the open, visible for any distance -around, intent upon killing another German to whom he had taken a -dislike. Meantime, Graham, badly wounded in the head, and Innes, -together with some Coldstream, had worked their way into the post and -found it deserted. Our guns and our attack had accounted for about -30 dead, but had left 32 wounded and unwounded prisoners, all of -whom, with one exception, wept aloud. The hollow was full of mixed -dead--Coldstream, Irish, and German. - -The men who remained of No. 4 Company did not settle down to -the work of consolidating their position till they had found -Blacker-Douglass’s body. At least a couple of his company had been -wounded in the first attack while trying to bring it away. Lee’s body -was recovered not far off. - -A quarter of an hour after the post had fallen, the Engineers were -up with unlimited sand-bags and helped the men who worked as they -ate among the piled horrors around them, while everything was made -ready for the expected German counter-attack. It did not come. Not -only had the post been abandoned, but also a couple of trenches -running out of it to the southward. These were duly barricaded in -case the enemy were minded to work back along them at dusk. But for -the rest of the day they preferred to shell; killing 2 and wounding -5 men of the two companies which were relieved by a company of the -3rd Coldstream and one of the 3rd Grenadiers. Our men returned to -billets “very tired and hungry, but very pleased with themselves.” -That day’s work had cost us 2 officers and 8 men killed; 3 officers -and 24 men wounded, and 2 men missing. In return, two machine-guns, -8 whole and 24 wounded prisoners had been taken, the post recovered -and, perhaps, sixty yards of additional trench with it. Such was the -price paid in those years for maintaining even a foothold against the -massed pressure of the enemy. It is distinctly noted in the Diary -that two complete machine-guns were added to the defence of the -post after it had been recaptured. Machine-guns were then valuable -articles of barter, for when the French who were their neighbours -wished to borrow one such article “for moral and material support,” -a Brigadier-General’s permission had to be obtained. - -This experience had shown it was better for each battalion in the -line to provide its own supports, and they reorganized on the 2nd -February on this basis; the 2nd and 3rd Coldstream Guards taking over -the left half of the line up to within fifty yards of the Keep, while -for their right, to the main La Bassée road, the 2nd Grenadiers and -the Irish Guards were responsible--each with two companies in the -fire trench and two in support, and all on forty-eight hours’ relief. - -The enemy continued to shell the captured position, killing 2 and -wounding 9 men that day, but no counter-attack developed and a few -days later it was decided to straighten out the front then held -by the 4th (Guards) Brigade. The fighting on the 25th had left it -running irregularly through the big brick-yard, before mentioned. Of -the dozen or more solid stacks of brick, four or five connected by -a parapet of loose bricks and known as the Keep, were in our hands. -The other eight, irregularly spaced, made a most awkward wedge into -our line. They were backed by a labyrinth of German trench-work, and, -being shell-proof, supports could be massed behind them in perfect -safety. The nearest were within bombing distance of the Keep, and, in -those days, the Germans had more and better bombs than we. On every -account, then, the wedge had to be cleared, the stacks and their -connecting trenches overrun and the line advanced a hundred and fifty -yards or so to get a better field of fire. As a preliminary, a small -but necessary piece of German trench on the flanks of the Keep was -captured by the Irish on the 5th February with a loss of but 2 killed -and none wounded. - -At 2 P. M. on the 6th of February the stacks were heavily bombarded -for a quarter of an hour--a large allowance. Even “Mother,” a -neighbouring 9.2, probably of naval extraction, took part in it, -and some French artillery ringed the approaches on the German side -with screens of black melenite fumes, while No. 2 Company from -the front trenches swept the German parapet facing them with five -minutes of that old “rapid fire” which the Germans in the Salient -and elsewhere had so often mistaken for machine-gun work. Then two -assaulting parties of thirty men each from Nos. 3 and 1 Companies, -under 2nd Lieutenant T. Musgrave and J. Ralli, opened the attack on -five of the eight stacks. The other three were fairly dealt with on -the same lines by the 3rd Coldstream. As there was no wire left on -the trench before our stacks, our party got there almost at once, -but Musgrave, ahead of his men, was shot by a group of five Germans -who showed fight behind a few fatal unbroken strands in the rear. -They were all killed a moment later when the men came up. Then the -supporting parties under Lieutenant Innes were slipped, together -with the Engineers under Major Fowkes, R.E., and the combined attack -swept on through the brick-stacks, in and out of the trenches and -around and behind them, where the Germans were shot and bayoneted as -found, till--fighting, digging, cursing and sand-bagging--our men had -hacked their way some seventy yards beyond their objective and dug -in under a shelf of raw ground about three feet high, probably the -lip of an old clay-pit. Our guns had lifted and were choking off all -attempts at possible counter-attacks, but the German supports seem -to have evaporated in the direction of La Bassée. There was a ridge -in front of the captured position whence a few bullets were still -dropping, but the back of the defence had been broken and, as firing -diminished, first one and then two out of every three men were set -digging in and filling sand-bags. The fortunes of the little campaign -had gone smoothly, and when it was necessary, in the rough and tumble -of the trench-work, to bring up reinforcements or more shovels and -ammunition for the digging-parties, the indefatigable and brotherly -Herts Territorials were drawn upon. The Coldstream had carried their -share of the front and lay in line on our left, and at dusk, while -the Engineers were putting up more wire, under rifle-fire at 150 -yards’ range, the position was secure. - -Our casualties, thanks to the bombardment and the swiftness of the -attack, were only 1 officer and 6 men killed and 25 wounded. Father -Gwynne, the Chaplain, was severely wounded by a piece of shrapnel -while watching the attack “from an observation-post,” which, as the -Father understood it, meant as far forward as possible, in order -that he might be ready to give comfort to the dying. The Coldstream -gathered in twenty-eight prisoners, the Irish none, but among their -spoils is entered “one Iron Cross” won rather picturesquely. At the -opening of the rush the Germans made a close-range bombing-raid on -one of the corners of the Keep and at last pitched a bomb on to the -top of a sand-bag redoubt. This so annoyed one of our bomb-throwers, -a giant of the name of Hennigan, of No. 1 Company, that he picked up -a trench-mortar bomb (no trinket) which lay convenient, cut down the -fuse for short range and threw it at a spot where he had caught a -glimpse of a German officer. The bomb burst almost before it reached -the ground, and must have made a direct hit; for nothing upon the -officer was recognisable later save the Iron Cross, which in due time -went to the Regimental Orderly Room. Hennigan was awarded the D.C.M.; -for his bomb also blew in and blocked up the communication-trench -through which the bombers came--a matter which he regarded as a -side-issue compared to his “splendid bowlin’.” - -The companies were relieved in the evening by a company of -Grenadiers, and as they wandered back through the new-taken trenches -in the winter dusk, lost their way among all manner of horrors. -One officer wrote: “I fell over and became involved in a kind of -wrestling-match with a shapeless Thing that turned out to be a dead -man without a head ... and so back to Beuvry, very tired and sad for -the death of Tommy” (Musgrave). - -There were other casualties that moved laughter under the ribs of -death. A man reported after the action that his teeth were “all broke -on him.” His Company Officer naturally expressed sympathy but some -surprise at not seeing a bullet-hole through both cheeks. “I took -them out and put them in my pocket for the charge, Sorr, and they -all broke on me,” was the reply. “Well, go to the doctor and see if -he can get you a new set.” “I’ve been to him, Sorr, and it’s little -sympathy I got. He just gave me a pill and chased me away, Sorr.” - -A weird attempt was made at daybreak on the 7th February by a forlorn -hope of some fifty Germans to charge the newly installed line at a -point where the Coldstream and 2nd Grenadiers joined. They dashed -out across the ground from behind a stack, the officer waving his -sword, and were all killed or wounded on or close up to our wire. Men -said there seemed no meaning or reason in the affair, unless it was -a suicide-party of Germans who had run from the attack of the day -before and had been ordered thus to die. One of their wounded lay out -all day, and when the Irish were taking over the relief on the 8th -some Germans shouted loudly from their trenches and one stood up -and pointed to the wounded man. Said the Grenadiers who were being -relieved: “Come and get him!” A couple of German stretcher-bearers -came out and bore their comrade away, not thirty yards from our -trench, while our men held their fire. - -In the same relief it fell to the Irish to examine the body of a -single German who had crept up and of a sudden peered into our -front-line trench, where a Grenadier promptly shot him. He dropped on -the edge of the parapet and lay “like a man praying.” Since he had -no rifle, it was assumed he was a bomber; but after dark they found -he was wholly unarmed. At almost the same hour of the previous night -another German came to precisely the same end in the same posture -on the right flank of the line. Whether these two were deserters or -scouts who would pretend to be deserters, if captured, was never -settled. The trenches were full of such mysteries. Strange trades, -too, were driven there. A man, now gone to Valhalla, for he was -utterly brave, did not approve of letting dead Germans lie unvisited -before the lines. He would mark the body down in the course of his -day’s work, thrust a stick in the parados to give him his direction, -and at night, or preferably when the morning fog lay heavy on the -landscape, would slip across to his quarry and return with his -pockets filled with loot. Many officers had seen C----’s stick at -the back of the trench. Some living may like to learn now why it was -there.[6] - -A draft of one hundred men, making good the week’s losses, came in -on the 8th February under Captain G. E. Young, Lieutenants T. Allen -and C. Pease, and 2nd Lieutenant V. W. D. Fox. Among them were many -wounded who had returned. They fell to at once on the strengthening -and cleaning up of the new line which lay less than a hundred yards -from the enemy. It supported the French line where that joined on -to ours, and the officers would visit together through a tunnel -under the roadway. Of this forlorn part of the world there is a tale -that stands best as it was written by one of the officers of the -Battalion: “And while we were barricading with sand-bags where the -old trench joined the road, a dead Coldstream lying against a tree -watched us with dull unobservant eyes.... While we were trudging -along the _pavé_, mortally weary (after relief), said the Sergeant -to me: ‘Did you hear what happened last night? You saw that dead -man by the tree, Sir? Well, the covering-party they lay all round -him. One of them tapped him on the shoulder an’ asked him if he were -asleep. And presently, the C.S.M. that came down with the relief, he -whispered to the Corporal, “How many men have ye got out, Corporal?” -“Five, Sir,” says the Corporal. “I can see six meself,” says the -C.S.M. “Five belong to me,” says the Corporal. “Count ’em, lad,” -says the C.S.M. “Five came out with me,” says the Corporal, “and the -sixth, faith, ’tis cold he is with watching us every night this six -weeks.”’” - -For a while the days and nights were peaceful, as peace was counted -round the brick-stacks. The unspeakably foul German trenches were -supplemented with new ones, communication-trenches multiplied and -marked with proper sign-boards, and such historic main-arteries -as the “Old Kent Road” trench paved with bricks from the stacks. -By night the front line sat and shivered round braziers in the -freezing dark while bits of new-made trench fell around them, and -listening-posts at the head of old saps and barricaded alleys -reported imaginary night-attacks. When they worked on a captured -trench they were like as not to find it bottomed, or worse still, -revetted, with an enemy corpse, which the sliding mud would deliver -hideously into the arms of the party. On such occasions the sensitive -would be sick, while the more hardened warmed and ate their food -unperturbed amid all the offal. But there were compensations. - -On the 11th February, for example, it is noted that the men had baked -meat and suet pudding “for the first time since the war began”; -on the 13th not one man was even wounded through the whole day -and night; while on the 15th more than half the Battalion had hot -baths “for the first time since January.” The diaries record these -facts as of equal importance with a small advance by the French on -their right, who captured a trench but fell into a nest of angry -machine-guns and had to retire. The Battalion’s share in the work was -but to assist in keeping the enemy’s heads down; in return for which -the Germans shelled them an hour, killing 1 and wounding 5. Our men -persisted in under-cutting the sides of the trench to make dug-outs, -in the belief that unsupported caves of earth were safe against high -explosives. Timbers and framing, indeed material of any kind, were -still scarce, and doors and boards from wrecked houses were used in -erecting parapets. Sand-bags were made out of old petticoats and -pyjamas, and the farmers’ fences supplied an indifferent sort of -wire. Sand-bags, wires, and stakes did not arrive at the front in -appreciable quantities till the spring of 1915, and telephones about -the same date. There was no abundance of any of these things till -late in 1915; for the country had not made any preparation for war -till war began, and the price of this was the lives of men. - -The simplicity of our battery-work is shown by the joyous statement -that “we now have a Gunner officer to live with us in our -headquarters in the trenches and a telephone to the battery so that -fire can be brought to bear quickly on any part of our front as -necessity arises.” At times there would be an error in the signals, -whereby the Battalion coming up from billets to the trenches through -the dark would be urged to make haste because their section was being -attacked, and after a breathless arrival would find the artillery -busied on some small affair away on a flank. - -Characteristically enough, the Germans when bombarded, as they -were with effect by the French, would retaliate by shelling our -lines. The shells worried the Irish less than the fact that three -of their officers--Major the Earl of Rosse, Lieutenant Rankin, and -2nd Lieutenant D. Parsons, who arrived at 2 A. M. with a draft from -home, were found to be temporarily attached to the Scots Guards. -At that time the Battalion was 25 officers and 900 men strong, and -the wastage from snipers and shells, both in the trench and while -relieving, was not more than six daily. - -There were reports that the enemy was now mining under the -brick-stacks, so a mining company was formed, and an officer -experimented successfully in firing rifle-grenades point-blank from -the rifle, instead of parabolically which allowed the enemy time to -see them descending. This was for the benefit of a few persistent -snipers seventy yards away who were effectively moved and their -dug-out set ablaze by the new form of attack. - -Towards the end of the month our men had finished their -trench-cleanings and brickings-up, had buried all dead that could -be got at, and word went round that, if the situation on the 25th -February could be considered “healthy” the Prince of Wales would -visit them. The Germans, perhaps on information received (for the -back-areas were thronged with spies), chose that day to be very -active with a small gun, and as a fresh trench linking up with the -French on the La Bassée road had been made and was visible against -some new-fallen snow, they shelled that too. For this reason the -Prince was not taken quite up to the front line, at which “he was -rather annoyed.” The precaution was reasonable enough. A few minutes -after he had left a sector judged “comparatively safe” 2nd Lieutenant -T. Allen was killed by a shell pitching on the parapet there. Three -privates were also killed and 4 wounded by shell or bomb on that -“healthy” day. The same gun which had been giving trouble during -the Prince’s visit was thought to be located by flash somewhere on -the north side of the La Bassée road and siege-howitzers kept it -subdued till the evening of the 25th, when, with the usual German -scrupulosity, it began to shell the main road, by which reliefs came, -at ten-minute intervals for three hours, but with no casualties as -far as the Irish were concerned. One shell, duly noted, arrived -near Brigade Headquarters and a battery of ours was asked to abate -the nuisance. It is curious that only a few hours later the Germans -were shelling a French battery not far from Béthune with ten-inch -stuff which, if expended on the main road, would have disorganised -our reliefs very completely. This was on the eve of going into Corps -Reserve at Béthune, where the Battalion took over the Collège de -Jeunes Filles from the Worcesters, the best billets since the war -began, but, alas! furnished “with a large square where drill can take -place.” - -The month’s losses had been 4 officers and 34 men killed, 5 officers -and 85 men wounded, or 128 men in all. - -At Béthune they enjoyed nine days’ rest, with “steady drill and -route-marches,” concerts in the local theatre, inter-regimental -boxing with the 2nd Grenadiers, and a Divisional football competition -for a cup presented by the Bishop of Khartum. Here they defeated the -6th Field Ambulance and lost by two goals to nil to the Oxford and -Bucks L.I. Major Trefusis, C.O., Captain Mylne and 2nd Lieutenant -H. Marion-Crawford went home for a week’s leave--for that wonderful -experience of “first leave” was now available--while Major the Earl -of Rosse, who had been recovered from the Scots Guards, took over -command. - - -NEUVE CHAPELLE - -By the 9th March every one had returned and with them a draft of a -hundred men under Lieutenant C. Wynter, 2nd Lieutenant T. E. Nugent -and 2nd Lieutenant Hon. W. S. P. Alexander, just in time to take -their share in the operations before Neuve Chapelle. - -This village, which lay four miles under the Aubers Ridge, at the -entrance to the open country round Lille and Tourcoing, had been in -German hands since Smith-Dorrien’s Corps were turned out of it on -October 26th and 27th of the year before. Assuming that our troops -could break through at that point, that no reinforcements could be -brought up by the Germans over all their well-considered lines of -communication, that the Aubers Ridge could be surrounded and held, -that cavalry could follow up infantry armed with machine-guns across -trenches and through country studded with fortified posts, it was -considered, in some quarters, that an attack might be driven through -even to Lille itself. - -Our armies, penned for months in the trenches, had suffered heavy -wastage, though they were being built up from behind with men, -material and guns on a scale which, by all past standards, was -enormous. The enemy, with infinitely larger resources, had meantime -strengthened and restrengthened himself behind belt upon belt of -barbed wire with uncounted machine-gun posts and an artillery of -high explosives to which the world then held no equal. His hand was -heavy, too, in offence, and the French armies to the eastward felt it -as soon as the spring opened. To ease that pressure, to release our -troops from the burden of mere wasteful waiting, and to break, as far -as might be, the edge of the enemy at the outset of the ’15 campaign, -were presumably objects of the battle only second to the somewhat -ambitious project of entering Lille. - -Neuve Chapelle proved in large what the men in the trenches had -learned in little throughout the winter--that unless artillery -utterly root out barbed-wire trenches, machine-gun posts, and -fortified houses, no valour of attacking infantry can pierce a modern -defensive line. More than three hundred guns--say 5 per cent. of -the number that our armies had in the last years of the war--opened -upon Neuve Chapelle and its defences at 7.30 on the morning of March -10 for half an hour “in a bombardment without parallel!” Where the -fire fell it wiped out everything above the sodden, muddy ground, -so utterly breaking the defence that for a while the attack of -Rawlinson’s Fourth Army Corps went forward with hardly a check -across shapeless overturned wreckage of men and things. Then, at one -point after another, along the whole bare front, battalions found -themselves hung up before, or trapped between, breadths of uncut wire -that covered nests of machine-guns, and were withered up before any -artillery could be warned to their help. This was the fate of the -6th Brigade, whose part in the work on that sector was to capture -two lines of trenches in front of Givenchy. Three battalions of -the 4th (Guards) Brigade--the 2nd Grenadiers, 1st Irish and 2nd -Coldstream--were attached to it as Divisional Reserve, and the -remaining two battalions of the brigade--the 3rd Coldstream Guards -and the Herts Regiment under Colonel Matheson--as Corps Reserve. - -The Battalion left billets near Béthune in the early dawn of the 10th -March and moved to a wood just north of the Aire-La Bassée Canal, -where it remained till midnight, when it went forward to take over -some trenches held by the King’s Liverpool and South Staffords (6th -Brigade) whose attack had failed. Our guns had only succeeded in -blowing an inadequate hole or two in the enemy’s wire which at many -places was reported as ten yards deep, and the assaulting battalions -had, as usual, been halted there and cut down. The only consolation -for the heavy losses in men and officers was the news that the attack -farther north had gone well and that a thousand Germans had been -captured. - -A fresh attack was ordered on the morning of the 11th, but the -bombardment was delayed by fog and did so little damage to the -wire that by afternoon the idea was abandoned, and in the evening -the 4th (Guards) Brigade took over the line that had been held by -the 6th Brigade. They were filthy trenches; their parapets were -not bullet-proof, and the houses behind them blown to pieces; -Headquarters Mess lived in one cellar, the C.O. of the Battalion -slept in another, and the communication-trenches were far too -shallow. Part of our front had to be evacuated while our bombardment -was going on as it was too close to the enemy for safe shelling. -The failure of the 6th Brigade’s attack in this quarter reduced the -next day’s operation to a holding affair of rifle and heavy-gun -fire, delayed and hampered by the morning fog, and on the 13th March -the Battalion went into billets at Le Préol. The battle round Neuve -Chapelle itself, they were told, had yielded more prisoners; but -heavy German reinforcements were being moved up. - -Late that night a draft of eighty N.C.O.’s, and men arrived under -Lieutenant J. S. N. FitzGerald, among them the first detachment of -specially enlisted (late) R.I. Constabulary--large drilled men--who -were to play so solid a part in the history and the glory of the -Battalion. The strength of the Battalion at that moment was 1080 with -some 26 officers--much greater than it had been at any time during -the War. They were all turned into the endless work of cleaning out -and draining foul trenches, and the dog’s life of holding them under -regular and irregular bombardments. - -It was safer to relieve by daylight rather than by night, as darkness -brought bursts of sudden rifle and machine-gun fire, despatched at a -venture from behind the five-deep line of German _chevaux-de-frise_ -not seventy yards away. Tempting openings, too, were left in the wire -to invite attack, but the bait was not taken. Neuve Chapelle had been -a failure except in so far as it had shown the enemy that winter had -not dulled any of our arms, and it was recognized we must continue -to sit still till men and material should accumulate behind us. The -documents and diaries of those weeks admit this with the unshaken -cheerfulness of the race. Yet, even so, the actual and potential -strength of the enemy was not realised. - -Very slowly, and always with the thought at the back of the mind -that the deadlock might break at any moment, the Army set itself, -battalion by battalion, to learn the war it was waging. - -On the 15th of March 2nd Lieutenant H. Marion-Crawford was appointed -Brigade Bombing Officer to the Guards Brigade with sixty men under -him attached to the Irish Guards. The “jam-pot” grenade of 1914 -was practically obsolete by now; the “stick” hand-grenade of the -hair-brush type and the grenade fired from the rifle had succeeded it -and were appearing on the front in appreciable quantities. The Mills -bomb, which superseded all others both for hand and rifle, was not -born till the autumn of 1915 and was not lavishly supplied till the -opening of the next year. - -On the 16th March, or five days after their share of the battle of -Neuve Chapelle had ended, and they lay in the trenches, a moaning -was heard in the darkness of No Man’s Land and a corporal sent out -to report. He came back saying that he had got into a trench some -thirty yards from the front line where he had seen a lighted candle -and heard what he believed to be Germans talking. Another patrol was -despatched and at last came back with a wounded man of the King’s -Liverpools, who had been lying out since the 10th. He said he had -been wounded in the assault, captured as he was trying to crawl back, -stripped of boots, equipment and rations, but left with a blanket, -and the enemy apparently visited him every night as they patrolled -the trench. An attempt was made to capture that patrol, but in the -darkness the trench was missed altogether. - -The enemy celebrated the day before St. Patrick’s Day and the day -itself, March 17, by several hours of brisk shelling of Givenchy, -timed to catch the evening reliefs, but luckily without casualties. -Queen Alexandra sent the Battalion their shamrock; telegrams wishing -them good luck were duly received from Lord Kitchener, Colonel of the -Battalion, Brigadier-General Nugent, and a letter from Sir Charles -Monro commanding the First Army Corps. Father Gwynne held an open-air -service in the early morning, and every man was given a hot bath at -Béthune. More important still, every man who wanted it had free beer -with his dinner, and in those days beer was beer indeed. - -The end of the month was filled with constructive work and the -linking up and strengthening of trenches, and the burial, where -possible, of “the very old dead”--twenty-nine of them in one day--and -always unrelaxing watch and ward against the enemy. At times he -puzzled them, as when one evening he threw bombs just over his own -parapet till it seemed that he must be busy blowing holes in his -own deep wire. But it turned out at last to be some new pattern of -bomb with which he was methodically experimenting. Later came a few -aeroplanes, the first seen in some weeks. It may have been no more -than a coincidence that the first planes came over on the day that -the Prince of Wales was paying the Battalion another visit. But it -was the continuous rifle-fire at night that accounted for most of the -casualties in the trenches and during reliefs. Second Lieutenant T. -Nugent was wounded in the back of the neck on the 24th by an unaimed -bullet, and almost each day had its count of casualties. - -The Battalion took life with philosophic calm. Food and rest are the -paramount considerations of men in war. The former was certain and -abundant; the latter scanty and broken. So the Commanding Officer -made no comment when, one night going round the line, he found a man -deeply asleep with his feet projecting into the fairway and, written -on a paper on his chest, the legend: - - Sleep is sweet; undisturbed it is divine, - So lift up your feet and do not tread on mine. - -A certain amount of change and interest was given by the appearance -on the scene of the Post Office Territorials (8th City of London), -commanded by Colonel J. Harvey, an ex-Irish Guardsman, and a platoon -of that regiment was attached to the Battalion for instructional -purposes. Later, three, and at last seven platoons, were placed at -the disposal of the Irish Guards, whose C.O. “found them work to do.” -They “made themselves quite useful” but “wanted more practice in -digging”--an experience never begrudged them by the generous Irish. - - -TRENCH-WORK AFTER NEUVE CHAPELLE - -Thanks to Neuve Chapelle, a breathing-space had been won during -which Territorial troops were taking their place in the front line -and such supplies as times afforded were coming up. The Diary -records many visits of Colonels, Brigadiers, and Inspectors of the -Territorial Forces to this section, which, when it had been brought -up to the Guards’ standard, was considered a model for instruction. -The month closed with bright moonlight and the mounting of two motor -machine-guns, one south of Duck’s Bill and the other in Oxford -Street, for protection against aeroplanes. - -April opened with the death of 2nd Lieutenant J. M. Stewart, killed -before dawn while looking over the parapet of the trench at Duck’s -Bill, and buried at noon in the cemetery near “Windy Corner.” He was -one of the best of the younger officers of these days and had proved -himself on many occasions. The lull after Neuve Chapelle continued, -the Battalion relieving the Grenadiers every other day at 6 P. M. -with almost the regularity of a civilian department. When it was -fine, aeroplanes, taking no notice of the anti-aircraft artillery, -ranged over them in search of certain heavy naval guns that had been -reaching into enemy back-areas. - -There was very little bomb-dropping on infantry, and the monotony -of rifle-fire and occasional hand-bombing was only broken when -our artillery, with a few shells to spare, fired into the enemy’s -second line near Couteleux, where the Germans, behind heavy wire, -were singing and “making much noise.” The effort drew a return fire -of high explosives and a shell wounded 8 and killed 1 man of No. 3 -Company. Our gunners said that they had killed many more than nine -Germans, but sporadic outbursts of this kind were not well seen in -the front line, which has to abide the result. As one officer wrote: -“I am all for determined bombardment but do not appreciate minor -ones, though I quite see it makes the enemy use his ammunition.” The -2nd London Territorial Artillery registered their guns also, for the -first time, on April 12, and a platoon of the 15th County of London -with its machine-gun was attached to the Battalion for instruction. - -It is no sort of discredit to the Territorials that at first they did -not know what to expect in this war, and reading between the lines -one sees how thoroughly and patiently the Regulars performed their -extra duties of schoolmasters, guides, philosophers, and friends -to battalions whose most extended training had never dreamed of an -ordered existence, half underground, where all things but death were -invisible, and even the transport and tendance of the wounded was a -mystery of pain and confusion worked out among labyrinths of open -drains. - -Among the distinguished visitors to be shown the trenches was -Lieut.-Colonel R. S. de Haviland of the Eton O.T.C.--a man of many -friends in that company. The come-and-go of visitors cheered and -interested the men in the front trenches, since their presence even -for a little proved that, somewhere in the world, life continued on -not inconceivable lines. They jested naturally enough at those who -looked on for a day or two at their hardships and went away, but -the hardships were lightened a little by the very jest. Even while -the Commandant of the Eton O.T.C. was with them the Battalion was -energetically devising means to drain out an unspeakable accumulation -of stagnant water down hill from a mine near the Shrine under the -White House barricade (the White House was scarcely more than a name -even then) into some German trenches at the foot of the slope. This -work necessitated clearing a ditch by the roadside in which were -found four German corpses, “besides pieces of other human beings,” -which were buried, and in due course the whole flood of abomination -was decanted on the enemy. “As it was very horrible, I don’t suppose -they will like it,” writes one of the officers chiefly concerned. - -On the same day, April 16, while 2nd Lieutenant H. Marion-Crawford, -who it will be remembered was Brigade Bombing Instructor, was -schooling some men of the 3rd Coldstream with live grenades one -exploded and killed him instantaneously. He had shown the greatest -ability in organizing the bombing work and his loss at that time, -where bombers were being more and more leaned upon, was very -seriously felt. He was buried four hours after his death in the -cemetery near Givenchy. - -On the 17th the Battalion went back to the Collège des Jeunes Filles -at Béthune for a four days’ rest while its place in the trenches -was taken by a couple of Territorial Battalions--the Post Office -Rifles and the 15th County of London. While it was route-marched, -and instructed, and washed and steadily drilled, the battle for Hill -60 was being fought with mines and hand-grenades, hand-mortars, -and the first gas-shells, a score of miles to the north, where it -was made known to the Germans how, man for man, their fresh and -fully-trained troops could not overcome ours. The demonstration cost -some three thousand casualties on our side, and, it may be presumed, -strengthened the enemy’s intention to use gas on a larger scale in -the future. But no echo of the little affair interfered with the work -at Givenchy. The question was how the new Territorial battalions -would hold their trenches, and one sees in all the documents a -justified pride in their teachings when the Battalion went up to the -front again on the 22nd and found the Territorials were keen and had -kept their trenches clean. For the Guards teach, not unsuccessfully, -that unless a man is clean he cannot be the best sort of soldier. - -On the night of the 22nd April the sector was held by the 15th -County of London, the Irish Guards and the Post Office Rifles, the -remainder of the Guards Brigade being in rest. To the normal strain -of a watching front line in foul weather was added a fresh burden. A -few days before, the enemy had blown a mine in an orchard about fifty -yards short of our trenches. It did no damage at the time, but the -R.E. Mining Officer, Lieutenant Barclay, in counter-mining towards -the crater it had made, saw, through the wall of his mine, Germans -engaged in turning the crater into an advanced-post. Trench-mortars -were fired at once to discourage them. Then came reports of -underground workings heard in other directions and, notably, close -to the parapet of a trench near the White House. This was on the -evening of the 24th. Hardly had orders been given to clear the White -House trench, when the ground at the junction of Lieutenant Barclay’s -countermine and the German crater went up and the Lieutenant was -killed. At the same time an explosion occurred near the White House. -Two privates of the Irish Guards (2845 J. Mansfield and 3975 M. -Brine) volunteered to enter our mine and see what had happened. -They recovered Lieutenant Barclay’s body at great risk from the -asphyxiating gases, and both men were recommended for the D.C.M. The -explosion near the White House was, after inspection, put down as the -work of a heavy shell, not a mine; but listening parties reported -more underground noises and another section of trench was evacuated -accordingly. To prevent the Germans consolidating themselves further -in the crater which connected with Lieutenant Barclay’s mine, our -4.5 howitzers bombarded it on the 25th, and it was decided to -blow our end of the mine as soon as possible to prevent the enemy -working up it. This was difficult, for the galleries were full of -foul gas--whether leaking from some adjacent coal-pit or laid on by -the enemy was uncertain. The R.E. officer who went down to lay the -charges was asphyxiated and several of his men were injured. - -Not till the 29th of April were the difficulties overcome; by which -time the enemy had driven a fresh shaft into it. After the explosion, -a field-battery (17th R.F.A.) and the 47th Howitzer Battery fired a -salvo at the German trenches. “There was a little rifle-fire, but -soon all was quiet.” Mining, like aerial and bombing work, was still -in its infancy, and the information supplied by the Intelligence was -said to be belated and inadequate. - -An interesting point is the unshaken serenity with which the men -took the new developments. They were far too annoyed at being -shifted about and losing their rest to consider too curiously the -underlying causes of evil. They left the 3rd Coldstream to deal with -the situation and went into billets in Le Préol, and the next day -(April 26) into Béthune for their hot baths. A draft of 3 officers -(Captain T. M. D. Bailie and 2nd Lieutenants A. W. L. Paget and R. -S. G. Paget) with 136 N.C.O.’s and men reached them on the 27th, -when there was just time to give them a hot meal and send them at -once to the trenches in the bright moonlight under “a certain amount -of rifle-fire and intermittent shelling from small guns which did -not do much damage.” An enemy field-gun, long known as an unlocated -pest, spent the morning busily enfilading the trenches, in spite of -the assurances of our artillery that they had found and knocked it -out several times. Appeal was made to an R.A. Brigadier who, after -examining the ground, left the Battalion under the impression that -“it was likely a gun would be brought up early to-morrow.” Nothing -more is heard of the hope: but guns were scarce at that time. - -There were other preoccupations for those in command. The second -battle of Ypres, that month’s miracle of naked endurance against the -long-planned and coldly thought-out horror of gas, had begun near -Langemarck with the choking-out of the French and Canadian troops, -and had continued day after day with the sacrifice of battalions -and brigades, Regulars and Territorials swallowed up in the low -grey-yellow gas banks that threatened Ypres from Langemarck to Hill -60, or beaten to pulp by heavy explosives and the remnant riddled -anew by machine-guns. Once again England was making good with her -best flesh and blood for the material and the training she had -deliberately refused to provide while yet peace held. The men who -came out of that furnace alive say that no after experience of all -the War approached it for sheer concentrated, as well as prolonged, -terror, confusion, and a growing sense of hopelessness among growing -agonies. If a world, at that time unbroken to German methods, stood -aghast at the limited revelations allowed by the press censorship -reports, those who had seen a man, or worse, a child, dying from -gas may conceive with what emotions men exposed to the new torment -regarded it, what kind of reports leaked out from clearing-stations -and hospitals, and what work therefore was laid upon officers to -maintain an even and unaffected temper in the battalions in waiting. -The records, of course, do not mention these details, nor, indeed, -do they record when gas-protectors (for masks, helmets, and boxes -were not evolved till much later) were first issued to the troops on -the Givenchy sector. But private letters of the 25th April, at the -time the German mine in the orchard occupied their attention, remark, -“we have all been issued out with an antidote to the latest German -villainy ... _i.e._ of asphyxiating gases.... What they will end by -doing one can hardly imagine. The only thing is to be prepared for -anything.” - -The first “masks” were little more than mufflers or strips of cloth -dipped in lime water. A weather-cock was rigged up near Headquarters -dug-outs, and when the wind blew from the Germans these were got -ready. False alarms of gas, due to strange stenches given off by -various explosives, or the appearance of a mist over the German -line, were not uncommon, and on each occasion, it appeared that -the C.O. had to turn out, sniff, and personally pass judgment on -the case. The men had their instructions what to do in case of -emergency, concluding with the simple order, perhaps the result of -experience at Ypres, “in event of the first line being overcome, the -second immediately charge through the gas and occupy the front-line -trenches.” - -But to return to the routine: - -The casualties for the month of April were 2 officers and 8 men -killed and 1 officer and 42 men wounded. The strength of the -Battalion stood at 28 officers and 1133 men, higher than it had ever -been before. - -The following is the distribution of officers and N.C.O.’s at that -time, a little less than three weeks before the battle of Festubert. - - -_Headquarters_ - - Major the Hon. J. F. Trefusis Commanding Officer. - Major the Earl of Rosse Second in Command. - Capt. Lord Desmond FitzGerald Adjutant. - Lieut. P. H. Antrobus Transport Officer. - Lieut. L. S. Straker Machine-gun Officer. - Capt. A. H. L. M’Carthy Medical Officer. - Lieut. H. Hickie Quartermaster. - The Rev. John Gwynne (S.J.) Chaplain. - - -_No. 1 Company_ - - Capt. J. N. Guthrie. - Lieut. R. G. C. Yerburgh. - 2nd Lieut. V. W. D. Fox. - 2nd Lieut. Hon. W. S. P. Alexander. - No. 2535 C.S.M. Harradine. - No. 3726 C.Q.M.S. P. M’Goldrick. - - -_No. 2 Company_ - - Capt. E. G. Mylne. - Lieut. Sir G. Burke, Bart. - 2nd Lieut. R. B. H. Kemp. - 2nd Lieut. S. G. Tallents. - No. 3949 C.S.M. D. Moyles. - No. 2703 C.Q.M.S. J. G. Lowry. - - -_No. 3 Company_ - - Major P. L. Reid. - 2nd Lieut. J. R. Ralli. - 2nd Lieut. C. Pease. - 2nd Lieut. E. W. Campbell. - 2nd Lieut. C. de Persse (attached 7th Dragoon Guards). - No. 2112 C.S.M. H. M’Veigh. - No. 3972 C.Q.M.S. R. Grady. - - -_No. 4. Company_ - - Capt. G. E. S. Young. - Lieut. J. S. N. FitzGerald. - Lieut. C. D. Wynter. - 2nd Lieut. D. C. Parsons. - No. 2384 C.S.M. T. Curry. - No. 3132 C.Q.M.S. H. Carton. - -The first ten days of May passed quietly. Mines, for the moment, gave -no further anxiety, bombing and bombardments were light, reliefs -were happily effected, and but 1 man was killed and 1 wounded. Two -officers, Lieutenant H. A. Boyse and 2nd Lieutenant R. H. W. Heard, -joined on the 2nd. - - -THE BATTLE OF FESTUBERT - -It was judged expedient while the second battle of Ypres was in full -heat that the Germans should, if possible, be kept from sending any -help to their front near Arras, in Artois, which at the time was -under strong pressure from the French thrusting towards Lens. To this -end, our First Army was ordered to attack the German Seventh Corps -over the flat ground between Laventie and Richebourg on a front of -some ten miles. The affair opened very early on the morning of the -9th May with a bombardment, imposing in itself by the standards of -the day, but, as before, insufficient to break the wire or crush -enough of the machine-gun nests. The Germans seem to have had full -information of its coming, and dealt with it severely. The whole -attack from north to south--Indian, Scottish, Territorials, and the -rest--was caught and broken as it rolled against the well-wired -German trenches. - -The Battalion, whose part, then, was to maintain the right of our -Army where it joined the French, heard the French guns open on the -night of the 8th May, and by dawn the English gun-fire was in full -swing to the north--one continuous roar broken by the deep grunt of -our howitzer-shells bursting; for these were so few that we could -pick them up by ear. The Guards had no concern with these matters -till the trouble should thicken. Their business was to stand ready -for any counter-attack and keep up bursts of rapid fire at intervals -while they waited for what little news came to hand. It was uniformly -bad, except that the French in the south seemed to be making some -headway, and so far as aeroplanes and artillery observers could make -out, there was no concentration of troops immediately in front of -them. The Germans were too busy with the immediate English front -to extend their commitments to the southward, and the next two days -were, for the Battalion in their trenches, the quietest that they had -known for some time. Then came orders to hand over to the 1st Scots -Guards and rejoin the Second Division near Le Touret in readiness -to carry on the attack which had broken down on the 9th. They -bivouacked in the open, and the weather turned cold and wet, but the -men, relieved from the trenches and assured of a change of work, sat -it out “singing songs and playing games in the wet!” They had been -forbidden to light fires, lest they should accidentally use the local -farmers’ tobacco-drying poles or hedge-stuff. And while they waited -under their mackintosh sheets the armies waited on the weather. A -fresh attack was to be launched from Richebourg by the Rue du Bois, -and southward as far as Festubert, but, this time, by night not by -day, and after longer artillery preparation. The 5th and 6th Brigades -were to open it, with the 4th (Guards) Brigade in support. It began -at 11.30 on the 15th, when, at huge cost, something like half a mile -in breadth and a quarter of a mile in depth of trenches was screwed -out of the Germans by the morning of Sunday the 16th. The Battalion -was moved from bivouac in the dawn of that day to support the 5th -Brigade which had not gone so far forward as the 6th, and spent -the day in trenches at Rue du Bois under incessant mixed artillery -fire, which killed 1 man and wounded an officer and 28 men--the -whole without being able to inflict any damage on the enemy. Indeed, -the survivors of the battle here agreed that they saw no German -dead other than some corpses left over from previous attacks. They -returned to bivouac in wet and mist, and on the afternoon of the 17th -were, with the 2nd Grenadiers, ordered to occupy the line then held -by the 21st Brigade, and to push forward and dig in near a farm (Cour -l’Avoine) bristling with machine-guns across a stretch of dead flat, -muddy ground, pitted with water-logged shell-holes. The left was to -keep touch with the 6th Brigade and the right with the Grenadiers, -the whole line facing north-east from Quinque Rue. - -They extended in the dusk. The left flanking company, No. 4, found no -sign of the 6th Brigade, but received a message from the 5th King’s -Battalion that their brigade orders were that the right of that -battalion should get into touch with the Irish but would not be up -till late; so one machine-gun was sent to strengthen that company’s -flank. No. 2 Company, on the right flank, had reached its objective -and dug itself in under bursts of raking machine-gun and rifle-fire -directed against the dykes and bridges, which unfortunately wounded -both Captain Mylne and Lieutenant Kemp, and the company command -devolved on 2nd Lieutenant S. G. Tallents. The left flank, meantime, -was in the air without tools or sandbags, but luckily the night was -wet and it was allowed to dig itself in unmolested. The casualties -for the day were only 2 officers wounded, 3 men killed, and 5 wounded. - -The 18th dawned in wreaths of driving rain and mist that wrapped -the flats. The preliminary bombardment of farm Cour l’Avoine was -postponed for lack of good light, and in that lull a Brigadier -whose men had already attacked the farm unsuccessfully came -across the trenches to the Battalion and gave his experiences and -recommendations. The weather made one low cluster of devastated -buildings seen across the levels look remarkably like any other; and -it seems pure luck that the attack, as originally intended, was not -launched against the wrong objective. From noon on, the enemy began -to shell the Battalion severely in its shallow trenches, and there -were forty casualties while they lay awaiting orders. The attack -began at 4.30 P. M. Cour l’Avoine was then so bombarded by heavy -shell-fire that, as usual, it seemed that nothing in or around it -could live. But as soon as the attacking companies rose and showed -over the ground-line, the hail of machine-gun fire re-opened, and -for the next three hours, the Irish suffered in the open and among -the shell-holes, beaten down, as the other battalions had been -before them, round the piled wreckage of Cour l’Avoine farm. In one -trench, abandoned by the enemy, they fell into a neat German trap. -Its parapet facing towards the British was bullet-proof enough, -but the parados, though proof against the casual splinters of our -shrapnel, which had no back-blast, had been pared thin enough to -pass all bullets. Consequently, when the trench was occupied, -accurately ranged machine-guns opened on the parados, and riddled -the men to such an extent that one company had to get out and take -refuge behind what had been the parapet. The greatest distance gained -in all was about three hundred yards, and this with their left -flank still in the air and protected by the one machine-gun which -Lieutenant Straker, the unflinching enthusiast of the weapon, had -brought into a communication-trench. At last they dug in where they -were; the next brigade on the left linked up to the one machine-gun -communication-trench, and with their old friends the Herts Battalion -and the East Anglian Field Company, with whom they had tested mines -together, they began to consolidate. The C.O. writes: “I tried to -find out what officers I had left. Out of twenty-eight there were -twelve, but four of these had been left behind with the transport a -day or two before.” Of the eight who had come through the affair on -their feet, only two were absolutely untouched. Here is the list: -Captain J. N. Guthrie and 2nd Lieutenant V. W. D. Fox, killed by -shell-fire, while leading their company--No. 1--to reinforce the -line; 11 officers were wounded, Major the Earl of Rosse very severely -in the head by a piece of shell; Major Reid, concussion from the -explosion of a shell; Captain G. E. S. Young, hand; Lieutenant H. -T. A. H. Boyse, head; 2nd Lieutenant S. G. Tallents, thigh; 2nd -Lieutenant J. R. Ralli, stomach; 2nd Lieutenant E. W. Campbell, head; -2nd Lieutenant Hon. W. S. P. Alexander, neck; 2nd Lieutenant R. S. G. -Paget, arm; 2nd Lieutenant J. K. Greer, leg and hand; 2nd Lieutenant -C. de Persse, head. Twenty-two men were killed, 284 wounded, and 86 -missing. The Battalion came through it all, defeated, held down at -long range, but equable in temper and morale. - -Small wonder that in the cheerless dawn of the 19th their Brigadier -came and “made some complimentary remarks to the men who were -standing about.” - -The four officers who had been left behind were then ordered up to -fill the gaps, and in that dawn the company commands stood: No. 1, -Lieut. R. G. C. Yerburgh; 2nd Lieut. R. H. W. Heard. No. 2, Lieut. -Sir Gerald Burke; 2nd Lieut. A. W. L. Paget. No. 3, Capt. T. M. D. -Bailie. No. 4, Lieut. J. S. N. FitzGerald; Lieut. C. D. Wynter. - -Almost at once shelling opened again, and Lieutenants Burke and Paget -were wounded and 10 men killed or wounded by three high explosives -bursting right over the line. It was sheer luck that, though -shelled at intervals for the rest of the day, there were very few -further casualties, and the Battalion returned “in small parties” -to their bivouacs near Le Touret, where a hot meal, great-coats and -a rum-ration awaited them. They were wet, tired, chilled, and caked -with dirt, and cheerful; but next day, when they paraded before going -into rest while they waited for reinforcements, there was hardly a -speck of mud to be seen on them. Rest-billets at Lapugnoy, some seven -or eight miles back, were out of range but not out of hearing of -the guns, in a valley between delightful beech-woods carpeted with -blue-bells. Here they lay off and rejoiced in the novel sight of -unscathed trees and actual hills. - - -FROM FESTUBERT TO LOOS - -On the 24th May General Horne came to inspect and complimented them. -His compliments are nowhere recorded, but it was remarked with -satisfaction at his parade that the men “stood very steady and moved -their arms well considering that they have not had much practice in -steady drill lately.” They had merely practised unbroken discipline -among the dead and the dying in a hopeless fight. - -A draft of 126 men, under Lieutenant A. F. Gordon, arrived, and -Lieutenant R. Rankin, who had been attached to the 1st Scots Guards -since February, joined them at Lapugnoy, and the Rev. S. Knapp, R.C. -Chaplain from the 25th Brigade, took temporary charge of spiritual -affairs while their own Father Gwynne, who never spared himself, was -trying electric treatment in Paris for lumbago, induced, as every one -knew, by unsparing exposure. - -On the 25th May they moved from Lapugnoy _via_ Chocques to Oblinghem, -some five miles to the north-east, a village of many and varied -smells, close to an aerodrome where they lay at a moment’s notice, -which meant that no one could take off his boots. A new type of -gas-mask was issued here, and the men drilled in the use of it. -Captain A. H. L. McCarthy, the medical officer who had been with them -since October 25, accidentally broke his arm, and his duties were -taken over by Lieutenant L. W. Bain, R.A.M.C. - -On the 28th May a draft of 214 N.C.O.’s, and men under Lieutenant L. -R. Hargreaves, 2nd Lieutenants N. F. Durant and L. C. Whitefoord, -arrived, and the next day (29th) twelve more officers came in from -England: Major G. H. C. Madden; Captain V. C. J. Blake; Captain -M. V. Gore-Langton; 2nd Lieutenant J. T. Robyns; 2nd Lieutenant -K. E. Dormer; 2nd Lieutenant Hon. H. B. O’Brien; 2nd Lieutenant -R. J. P. Rodakowski; 2nd Lieutenant K. W. Hogg; 2nd Lieutenant J. -Grayling-Major; 2nd Lieutenant F. H. Witts; 2nd Lieutenant W. B. -Stevens; 2nd Lieutenant P. H. J. Close; bringing the Battalion up to -28 officers and 958 other ranks. - -Headquarters and Companies then stood as follows: - - -_Headquarters_ - - Major the Hon. J. F. Trefusis Commanding Officer. - Major G. H. Madden Second in Command. - Capt. Lord Desmond FitzGerald Adjutant. - Lieut. P. H. Antrobus Transport Officer. - 2nd Lieut. L. S. Straker Machine-gun Officer. - The Rev. S. Knapp Chaplain. - Lieut. L. W. Bain Medical Officer. - Lieut. H. Hickie Quartermaster. - - -_No. 1 Company_ - - Capt. M. V. Gore-Langton. - Lieut. R. C. G. Yerburgh. - 2nd Lieut. F. H. Witts. - 2nd Lieut. R. H. W. Heard. - 2nd Lieut. J. Grayling-Major. - - -_No. 2 Company_ - - Capt. T. W. D. Bailie. - Lieut. R. Rankin. - 2nd Lieut. W. B. Stevens. - 2nd Lieut. K. E. Dormer. - 2nd Lieut. L. C. Whitefoord. - 2nd Lieut. Hon. H. B. O’Brien. - - -_No. 3 Company_ - - Capt. V. C. J. Blake. - Lieut. C. D. Wynter. - 2nd Lieut. J. T. Robyns. - 2nd Lieut. N. F. Durant. - 2nd Lieut. K. W. Hogg. - - -_No. 4 Company_ - - Lieut. J. S. N. FitzGerald. - Lieut. L. R. Hargreaves. - 2nd Lieut. A. F. L. Gordon. - 2nd Lieut. P. H. J. Close. - 2nd Lieut. R. J. P. Rodakowski. - -There is no hint of the desperate hard work of the 2nd, reserve, -Battalion at Warley, which made possible the supply at such short -notice of so many officers of such quality. These inner workings of -a regiment are known only to those who have borne the burden. - -On the 31st May the 4th (Guards) Brigade was shifted from Oblinghem -to billets near the most unpleasing village of Nœux-les-Mines, -farther south than they had ever been before, as Divisional Reserve -to a couple of brigades of the 2nd Division in trenches recently -taken over from the French. The Brigade moved off in two columns, -through Béthune down the main road to Arras, where they were seen by -the Germans and shelled both _en route_ and as they were billeting, -but, as chance chose, without accident. The billets were good, -though, like most in the early days, they needed cleansing, and -a rumour went about that the trenches to which the Battalion was -assigned were peculiarly foul, in very bad shape and would probably -need re-making throughout. - -Bombing classes with a new and an “absolutely safe” bomb (Mills), -the routine of company drills and exercise, sports and an Eton -dinner on the 4th June, filled the warm, peaceful days till it left -Nœux-les-Mines for Sailly-Labourse. This was not the sector they had -expected, but one farther to the north and nearer Cuinchy. Their -trenches were an unsatisfactory line with insufficient traverses, -not too many dug-outs, and inadequate parapets facing fields of -fast-growing corn, which marked the German front two hundred yards -away. They were reached from Cambrin through a mile and a half of -communication-trenches, up which every drop of water had to be -carried in tins. A recent draft of fifty had increased the Battalion -to over a thousand men, and, apparently by way of breaking in the -new hands, it was suggested that the Battalion should dig a complete -new line of trenches. They compromised, however, by improving the -existing one, which they shared with the 2nd Grenadiers, changing -over on the 12th June to a stretch of fifteen hundred yards, held by -the 2nd Coldstream. This necessitated three companies instead of two -in the front line and the fourth in support. - -The enemy here confined themselves to shelling timed to catch -reliefs, but rarely heavy enough to interfere with working-parties -digging or wiring in the tough chalk. On one occasion a selection -of coloured lights, red, green, and white, had been sent up for -the battalions to test. They chose a night when the enemy was -experimenting on a collection of lights of his own, but soon -discovered that rocket-lights were inadvisable, as their fiery tails -gave away positions and drew fire. This disadvantage might have -been found out in England by the makers instead of at 1 A. M. by a -wearied Commanding Officer, whose duty was to link up and strengthen -his trenches, keep an eye on the baffling breadths of corn in front -of him, send reconnoitring parties out on all possible occasions, -procure wire and Engineers to set it up, and at the same time keep -all men and material in readiness for any possible attack that might -develop on the heels of the bombardments that came and went like the -summer thunder-storms along the tense line. - -Sometimes they watched our own shells bursting in the German trenches -opposite Givenchy, where the Battalion had stayed so long; sometimes -they heard unexplained French fire to the southward. Next day would -bring its rumours of gains won and lost, or warnings to stand-to -for expected counter-attacks that turned out to be no more than -the rumble of German transport, heard at night, moving no one knew -whither. When our stinted artillery felt along the enemy’s trenches -in front of them--for the high corn made No Man’s Land blind and -patrol-work difficult--the German replies were generally liberal and -not long delayed. - -On the 17th June one such outburst of ours loosed an hour’s heavy -shelling, during which Staff-Captain the Hon. E. W. Brabazon -(Coldstream), on his rounds to look at a machine-gun position under -the Battalion Machine-gun Officer, Lieutenant Straker, was killed -by a shell that fell on the top of the dug-out. Lieutenant Straker, -who was sitting in the doorway, had his foot so pinned in the fallen -timber that it took an hour to extricate him. Captain Brabazon, in -the dug-out itself, was crushed by a beam. He was buried at Cambrin -next morning at nine o’clock, while the Battalion was repairing the -damage done to the blown-in trenches and the French were fighting -again in the south. - -The brotherly Herts Battalion had been doing all the work of digging -in their rear for some time past, and on the 20th the Battalion -took over their fatigue-work and their billets at Annequin and -Cambrin, while the Herts went to the front line. It was hot work in -that weather to extend and deepen unending communication-trenches -that cut off all the air. The Prince of Wales looked in on them at -Annequin and watched the German guns searching for a heavy battery -which had gone elsewhere. The movements of the Heir to the Crown, -even as guardedly recorded in this Diary, not to mention others, and -the unofficial stories of his appearance, alone, on a bicycle or -afoot in places of the most “unhealthy” character, must have been a -cause of considerable anxiety to those in charge of him. He spent -his birthday (June 23) visiting along the line, which happened to be -quiet after a bombardment of Annequin the day before. The place drew -much fire at that time, as one of our batteries lay in front of it, -and a high coal dump, used as an observation-post, just behind it. -The Battalion was still on fatigues, and, in spite of many rumours -and alerts, had suffered very little. Indeed, the total casualties -of June were but 2 men killed and an officer and 22 men wounded. -Meantime, the new drafts were learning their work. - -The really serious blow they took was the departure at the month’s -end of Lord Cavan, their Brigadier, to command the Fiftieth -Division. They had known and loved him as a man who understood their -difficulties, who bore his share, and more, of their hardships, and -whose sympathy, unsparing devotion and, above all, abounding cheery -common-sense, had carried them at every turn so far through the -campaign. - -He bid them farewell at Béthune on the 28th, where they were in -rest-billets, in these words: - - I have come to say good-bye to you, as I have to go away and take - command of the Fiftieth Division. I wish to thank the Irish Guards - for all they have done since they have been under my command. - Before the war they had had no opportunity of proving themselves - worthy to take their place in the Brigade of Guards. But during the - course of this war they have always conducted themselves worthy - of taking their place with the other illustrious Regiments of the - Brigade of Guards--and more so. It is part of all of you young - officers, who have taken the place of those who have fallen, to - keep up the reputation of the Battalion, and you have a difficult - task, as its reputation is very high. I need hardly say how much - I feel leaving the 4th (Guards) Brigade, and I would rather remain - its Brigadier than be a Field-Marshal elsewhere. - - General Feilding, whom you all know, is coming to take my place, - and I could not leave you in better hands. I wish you all luck. - -His special farewell order ran: - - _28th June 1915._ - - On leaving the Brigade to take Command of a Division it would not - be seemly to recall the various actions since 18th September in - which it has been my privilege and my delight to command you, but - I may say this--whether in action, in trenches, or in billets, no - unit of the 4th (Guards) Brigade has ever disappointed me, nor has - any Battalion ever fallen short of that great standard set us by - our predecessors. - - We welcomed the 1st Herts Territorials at Ypres, and most worthily - have they borne their part with the rest of us. - - To you all I convey the gratitude of a very full heart, and I wish - you Good-bye and God Speed. - - (Sd.) CAVAN, - Brigadier-General - Commanding 4th (Guards) Brigade. - -And for recognition of their work in the trenches for the past three -weeks, the following was sent from the G.O.C. Second Division to the -Officer commanding the Irish Guards: - - The Brigadier-General has received the following letter from the - G.O.C. Second Division, and he would like C.O.’s to arrange that - all the men hear it, so that they may realise how fully their - splendid efforts are appreciated both by General Horne and himself: - - “Since the 4th (Guards) Brigade went into ‘Z’ Section on June - 6, it has really done splendid work. In addition to opening up - and deepening the communication-trenches and the construction of - several different minor works in rear, you have dug and wired a - new line across a front of at least 2000 yards. The 4th (Guards) - Brigade and the 11th Company R.E. have done great work on many - previous occasions, but I think that this last achievement - surpasses them all.” - - _26th June 1915._ - - The C.O. directs that the above is read to all platoons, and not - more than one platoon at a time. - - (Sd.) DESMOND FITZGERALD, - Captain Adjutant, - 1st Battalion Irish Guards. - - _26th June 1915._ - -It was the Brigadier’s reference to their having proved themselves -worthy to take place with the other regiments of the Brigade of -Guards, “and more so,” that delighted them most; for the Battalion -felt that it had won its spurs in every field. Yet, for all that, the -Diary which, under the well-worn official phrases, represents the -soul of the regiment and knows how that soul is made and tempered, -emphasizes the fact that at Béthune there are some “quite good -parade-grounds, where a good deal of steady drill will be carried -out” and plenty of country for route-marching, where the men could -learn how to bear themselves without “budging” beneath the casual -shells that dropped miles behind the line. - -So they “rested” at Béthune and gave a concert in the theatre, to -which they invited many inhabitants of the town who, being new to -the manners and customs of the Irish, “could not understand much,” -but a French officer sang the “Marseillaise” with great effect, and -at dinner afterwards, when the Prince of Wales was among the guests, -there were not only red and white roses on the table, but, according -to one account, “silver spoons and forks,” provided by the owner of -the house. If Béthune did not yet comprehend the songs of these wild -outlanders, it had full confidence in them. - - -CUINCHY - -The first week of July saw them returned to their own old trenches -at Cuinchy--the fifty times fought-over line that ran from the La -Bassée Canal to within a hundred yards of the La Bassée-Béthune -road. A couple of companies of the Herts, one on each side of the -La Bassée road, lay on their right, and right of those again, the -2nd Coldstream. They boasted as many as six machine-guns in position -belonging to the Battalion, and three to the 2nd Grenadiers, their -relief. The trenches had not improved by use since February. There -were mine-craters directly in front of them, their opposing edges -occupied by our men and the enemy; the breastworks were old bursten -sandbags; fire-steps had broken down, dug-outs were inadequate -against the large-size trench-mortar bombs that the Germans were -using, and generally the condition and repair of things was -heart-breaking to the new-comers and their Brigadier, who spent most -of his time, night and day, in the front line. - -Annequin, where two of the companies were billeted, had become more -than ever a shell-trap full of English batteries for which the -Germans were constantly searching; and, since experts told them -that we now had got the upper hand of the enemy at mining, the -cynical expected that, at any moment, some really big mine would -go up beneath them. As an interlude, the companies in billets were -employed in making dug-outs without any material; which trifling task -they somehow accomplished. The big shells and the bombing from the -trench-mortars forced them to deepen all dug-outs to ten or twelve -feet. These were shored with bricks and topped with rails as material -became more plentiful. - -On the 17th July Captain A. H. L. McCarthy, R.A.M.C., who had broken -his arm at Lapugnoy six weeks before, returned to duty and was -made welcome. His sick-leave, which he seems to have filled with -beseeching letters to the C.O., had been darkened by a prospect -of being detached from the Battalion and sent to the Dardanelles. -Father Gwynne, also, came back from his two months’ rheumatism -cure, relieving Father Knapp. He was not quite restored and so was -forbidden by the C.O., to show himself in the front line for at least -ten days. It is to be hoped that he obeyed, but in a battalion where -the call for the priest goes out with, or before, the call for -stretcher-bearers, neither shepherds nor flock are long separated -under any circumstances. They tell the tale of one of their priests -who, utterly wearied, dropped for an hour’s sleep in a trench that -was being deepened under fire. He was roused by a respectful whisper -from the working-party: “We’ve dug to your head an’ your feet, -Father, an’ now, if you’ll get up, we’ll dig out under the length of -ye.” - -The Brigade’s system of forty-eight hours’ reliefs enabled them -to do more in a given time than battalions who went in for four -days at a stretch, as a man could carry two days’ rations on him -without drawing on the fatigue-parties, and the knowledge he would -be relieved at the end of the time kept his edge. A Brigadier -of experience could tell any section of the line held by the -Brigade as far as he could see it, simply from the demeanour of -the working-parties. This state of things was only maintained -by unbroken discipline and the gospel that if one man can keep -himself comparatively clean in all that dirt and confusion every -one else can. It behoved the Battalion, also, to make and leave a -good name among the French upon whom they were quartered, as well -as with the enemy over against them. They were at that time, as -for long afterwards, almost unmixed Irish, and for that reason, -the relations between officers and men were unlike anything that -existed elsewhere, even in nominally pure Irish battalions. If there -be any mystery in the training of war that specially distinguishes -the Brigade of Guards from their fellows it is that the officers -lie under discipline more exacting than that of the rank and file; -and that even more than in any other branch of the service they -are responsible for the comfort of their men. Forced together as -they were in the stark intimacy of the trenches, that at any moment -may test any soul to the uttermost; revealed to each other, every -other day at least, in the long and wearisome march to billets, -where the companies and platoons move slowly and sideways through -the communication-trenches, gambling against death--if the German -heavies are busy--at each step of the road, officers and men came -to a mutual comprehension and affection--which in no way prevented -the most direct and drastic criticism or penalties--as impossible -to describe as it would be to omit, since it was the background -against which their lives ran from day to day. The Celt’s national -poise and manner, his gift of courtesy and sympathy, and above all -the curious and communicable humour of his outlook in those days -made it possible for him and his officers to consort together upon -terms perhaps debarred to other races. When the men practised “crime” -they were thorough and inventive in the act and unequalled in the -defence as the records of some court-martials testify. But the same -spirit that prompted the large and imaginative sin and its unexpected -excuse or justification (as, for example, that three sinners detected -in removing a large cask of beer were but exercising their muscles -in “rowling it a piece along the pavé”) bred a crop of forceful -regimental characters. Many, very many of these, have perished and -left no record save the echo of amazing or quaint sayings passed from -mouth to mouth through the long years; or a blurred record of some -desperately heroic deed, light-heartedly conceived and cunningly -carried through to its triumphant end and dismissed with a jest. The -unpredictable incidence of death or wounds was a mystery that gave -the Irish full rein for sombre speculation. Half an hour’s furious -bombardment, with trenches blowing in by lengths at a time, would -end in no more than extra fatigues for the disgusted working-parties -that had to repair damage. On another day of still peace, one sudden -light shell might mangle every man in a bay, and smear the duckboards -with blood and horrors. A night-patrol, pinned down by a German -flare, where they sprawled in the corn, and machine-gunned till -their listening comrades gave up all hope, would tumble back at last -into their own trenches unscathed, while far back in some sheltered -corner the skied bullet, falling from a mile and a half away, would -send a man to his account so silently that, till the body slid off -the estaminet bench, his neighbours never guessed. The ironies and -extravagances of Fate were so many, so absurd, and so terrible, -that after a while human nature ceased to take conscious account of -them or clutched at the smallest trifles that could change a mind’s -current. The surest anodyne and one that a prudent commanding officer -took care to provide was that all hands should have plenty to do. -To repair a breach or to cut a fire-step was not enough. There was -a standard in these matters to be lived up to, which was insisted -upon through all the days of trench-warfare. None knew how long the -deadlock would last or when the enemy, wearied of mining, bombs, and -heavy artillery, might attempt a break-through. When the first line -was cleaned and consolidated and finished with what was deemed then -ample dug-out accommodation, supporting parties behind it had to be -brought up to a like level; and so on. - -The enemy at that time, on that line, interfered very little. -They rigged a searchlight on one of the brick-stacks in their -possession one evening, but took it down after our guns had -protested. Occasionally they shelled Béthune, while trying to hit -an observation-balloon near the town; and sometimes they bombed -with trench-mortars. There were, however, days on end when nothing -could stir them up, or when a few authoritative warnings from our -guns would cut short a demonstration almost as it began. They were -bombed for some hours to keep them out of the craters and to cover -our men at work. In this work No. 4906 Private Henry won the D.C.M. -in continuing to throw bombs though twice wounded (the Irish are -gifted at hurling things) till he was at last ordered off the field. -The enemy replied with everything except rifle-fire and in the -darkness of a rainy night “his machine-guns caused some annoyance,” -till, after our artillery had failed to find them, the Battalion -trench-mortars silenced them and allowed us to finish digging the new -trenches and sap. The whole affair lasted four hours and was carried -out by No. 1 Company, under Captain M. V. Gore-Langton, at the cost -of 1 man killed, 1 officer, Lieutenant the Hon. H. A. V. Harmsworth, -slightly wounded, and 7 men wounded. - -On the 3rd August Lieutenant H. F. Law was sent out with a patrol -to examine yet another mine-crater close to the two which the -Battalion had occupied on its first night. He threw bombs into it, -found it empty, and the companies began at once to dig up to it from -two points and make it all their own. The enemy “interfered” with -the working-parties for a while but was bombed off. At daybreak he -retaliated with a methodical bombardment along the line of seven-inch -minenwerfers--one every three minutes--for an hour and a half. These -could be seen dropping perpendicularly ere they exploded but they -did no great damage, and the rest of the day was peaceful till a -sudden thunderstorm made everything and everybody abominably dirty. -(Additional fatigues are always more resented than any additional -risks of death.) - -When they came up again on the 6th August they found that an enemy -mine in the orchard had exploded, wounding several of the Grenadiers -whom they were relieving, and done damage to some of our own work. -While they were making good, the Mining Company overheard Germans at -work in a gallery a few feet from one of ours. The men were withdrawn -at once from the forward line till dawn, when our mine was sprung “to -anticipate enemy action.” It might have injured some of the enemy’s -work, but it certainly disorganized several of our own sap-heads -which had to be re-dug. - -Into the variegated activities of that morning dropped a staff -officer of the First Army Corps anxious to get the C.O.’s notes and -instructions on mining for new troops who might later have to hold -that line “in accordance with the manner taught by experience.” -Captain J. H. T. Priestman of the Lincolnshires, a Sandhurst -instructor, arrived with him and was attached to the sector for a -few days “to see how things were carried on.” As he was being taken -round the trenches by the C.O. and the Adjutant, next morning, a -private, on sentry with a bomber, tried to throw a bomb on his own -account, but, says the Diary, “not knowing how to, he blew himself up -and wounded the bomber.” By breakfast time the enemy were shelling -the line in enfilade from the direction of Auchy and two men were -blown to pieces. A couple of hours later the bombardment was repeated -with, from first to last, 6 killed and 9 wounded. The instructor was -but one of many whose unregarded duty was to study at first hand -every device of the enemy in action and to lecture upon it at the -training-centres in England a few days later. - -The Battalion relieved the Grenadiers once more on the 10th August, -after another German mine had been exploded on the salient, and had -carried away so much German wire that it seemed possible to effect -an entry into their trenches across the new-made crater. A patrol -under Lieutenant A. F. L. Gordon was therefore sent out at night but -reported the slopes too steep to climb and, since another mine had -gone up and destroyed four of our own sap-heads with it, the night -was spent in repairing these under intermittent bomb-fire on both -sides. - -On the 11th August fresh attempts were made to work some sort of -foothold across the crater-pitted ground into the enemy’s trenches, -specially at the spot where a crater had been partially filled -up by the explosion of a fresh mine. The day was quiet. Captain -M. V. Gore-Langton spent the evening of it in reconnoitring the -enemy’s wire, went out across the partly filled crater, found yet -another crater which ran into the enemy’s line, and there met one -German lying out within a few yards of him, whom Private Dempsey, -his orderly, killed, thereby rousing the enemy in that particular -point. They opened with bombs on a party of ours at work on a sap -in one of the innumerable craters, and were discomfited for the -moment. An hour later, Captain Gore-Langton, with one man, went -out for the second time across the same crater to put up some more -wire. He fell into the arms of a German bombing party, was knocked -down thrice by explosions of bombs around him and only got back -to the trenches with great difficulty. The C.O., Colonel Trefusis, -then “remonstrated” with him on the grounds that “it is not the -Company Commander’s business to go out wiring.” On the heels of -this enterprise, a really vicious fight with machine-guns as well -as bombs developed in the dark. It was silenced by four rounds -of our howitzers when the roar of the bombs stopped as though by -order. A third affair broke out just on dawn when our men found -enemy working-parties in craters below them and bombed with them -exceedingly, for the Germans were not good long-range throwers. - -On the morning of the 12th August came General Horne to look at the -position, which he examined leisurely from every part of the line -instead of merely through the covered loop-holes which had been built -for his convenience. “I was glad when I got him safely out of it,” -wrote the C.O., “for one never knows when bombs may come over.” Just -before they were relieved, the C.O., Colonel Trefusis, was telephoned -word that he was to command the 20th Brigade and was pathetically -grieved at his promotion. He hated leaving the Battalion which, after -eleven months of better or worse, he had come to look upon as his -own. No man could possibly wish to command a better. He was going to -a brigade where he knew no one, and his hope was that he might be -allowed to remain one day more with the Battalion “when it goes to -the trenches” before going into reserve. He had his wish when they -went into the line on the 14th August, and he faced the ordeal, worse -than war, of saying good-bye to each company in the morning, and at -evening “went round to make sure that the night companies had plenty -of bombers in the proper places.” Bombs were the one tool at that -time which could deal with nests of occupied craters, and since the -work was dangerous the Irish were qualifying for it with zeal and -interest, even though they occasionally dropped or released bombs by -accident. - -They were relieved (August 15) by a battalion from the 5th Brigade, -who “had heard all sorts of dreadful stories about the position.” -“But I told them,” said Colonel Trefusis, “it was not so bad, -provided their bombers kept on bombing at night. Mines, of course, -one cannot help, and the only way to minimise their effect is to keep -as few men in the front line as possible.” - -And so, Colonel the Hon. J. Trefusis passes out of the Battalion’s -story, to his new headquarters and his new staff and bombing -officers, and his brand-new troops, who “simply out of curiosity to -see what was going on put their heads over the parapet while under -instruction and so lost two men shot through the head, which I hope -will be a lesson to them.” - -He had commanded the Battalion since November, 1914, and no sudden -occasion had found him wanting. The Diary says: “It is impossible -to say all that he has done for the Battalion,” and indeed, -high courage, unbroken humour, a cool head, skill, and infinite -unselfishness are difficult things to set down in words. He was -succeeded in the command by Major G. H. C. Madden who arrived from -England on the 16th August, when the Battalion was in rest at Béthune -and the hands of their company and platoon officers were closing upon -them to make sure once more that such untidy business as mining, -counter-mining, and crater-fighting had not diminished smartness -on parade. This was doubly needful since the 4th (Guards) Brigade -ceased, on the 19th August, to be part of the First Army and became -the 1st Guards Brigade in the newly formed Guards Division of four -Battalions Grenadiers, four Coldstream, two Scots, two Irish, and the -Welsh Guards. - -The 2nd Battalion of the Irish Guards, raised at Warley, left England -for France on the 17th August. - -Preparations on what was then considered an overwhelming scale, -were under way to break the German line near Loos while the French -attacked seriously in the Champagne country; the idea being to -arrive at the long-dreamed-of battle of manœuvre in the plain -of the Scheldt. Guns, gas-smoke apparatus, and material had been -collected during the summer lull; existing communications had been -more or less improved, though the necessity for feeder-railways was -not at all realised, tanks were not yet created, and the proportion -of machine-guns to infantry was rather below actual requirements. -As compared with later years our armies were going into action with -hammers and their bare hands across a breadth of densely occupied, -tunnelled and elaborately fortified mining country where, as one -writer observed “there is twice as much below ground as there -is above.” Consequently, for the third or fourth time within a -twelvemonth, England was to learn at the cost of scores of thousands -of casualties that modern warfare, unlike private theatricals, does -not “come right at the performance” unless there have been rehearsals. - -The training of the men in the forms of attack anticipated went -forward energetically behind the front lines, together with -arrangements for the massing and distribution of the seventy thousand -troops of the First Army (First and Fourth Corps) assigned to the -attack. For the next six weeks or so the Irish Guards were under -instruction to that end, and the trenches knew them no more. - -There was a formal leave-taking as they left Béthune for St. Hilaire, -when the ex-4th (Guards) Brigade was played out of Béthune by the -band of the 1st King’s Liverpools and marched past General Horne -commanding the Second Division between lines of cheering men. A -company of the trusty Herts Territorials, who had been with the -Brigade since 1914, took part in the ceremony. It was repeated next -day before Sir Douglas Haig at Champagne and again in the Central -Square of St. Omer, when Sir John French thanked all ranks for “the -splendid services they had rendered” and was “much impressed with -their soldier-like bearing.” - -Major-General Horne’s special farewell order ran as follows: - - _18th August 1915._ - - The 4th (Guards) Brigade leaves the Second Division to-morrow. - The G.O.C. speaks not only for himself, but for every officer, - non-commissioned officer, and man of the Division when he expresses - sorrow that certain changes in organisation have rendered necessary - the severance of ties of comradeship commenced in peace and - cemented by war. - - For the past year, by gallantry, devotion to duty, and sacrifice - in battles and in the trenches the Brigade has maintained the - high traditions of His Majesty’s Guards and equally by thorough - performance of duties, strict discipline, and the exhibition of - many soldier-like qualities, has set an example of smartness which - has tended to raise the standard and elevate the morale of all with - whom it has been associated. - - Major-General Horne parts from Brigadier-General Feilding, the - officers, non-commissioned officers, and men of the 4th (Guards) - Brigade with lively regret--he thanks them for their loyal support, - and he wishes them good fortune in the future. - - (Sd.) J. W. ROBINSON, - Lieut.-Colonel, - A.A. & Q.M.G. Second Division. - -General Haig on the 20th August handed the following Special Order of -the Day to the Brigade Commander: - - HEADQUARTERS 1ST ARMY, - _20th August 1915._ - - The 4th (Guards) Brigade leaves my command to-day after over a - year of active service in the field. During that time the Brigade - has taken part in military operations of the most diverse kind and - under very varied conditions of country and weather, and throughout - all ranks have displayed the greatest fortitude, tenacity, and - resolution. - - I desire to place on record my high appreciation of the services - rendered by the Brigade and my grateful thanks for the devoted - assistance which one and all have given me during a year of - strenuous work. - - (Sd.) D. HAIG, - General Commanding 1st Army. - -And the reward of their confused and unclean work among the craters -and the tunnels of the past weeks came in the Commander-in-Chief’s -announcement: - - GUARDS DIVISION, - - The Commander-in-Chief has intimated that he has read with great - interest and satisfaction the reports of the mining operations and - crater fighting which have taken place in the Second Division Area - during the last two months. - - He desires that his high appreciation of the good work performed - be conveyed to the troops, especially to the 170th and 176th - Tunnelling Cos. R.E., the 2nd Battalion Irish Guards, the 1st - Battalion K.R.R.C., and the 2nd Battalion South Staffordshire - Regiment. - - The G.O.C. Second Division has great pleasure in forwarding this - announcement. - - (Sd.) H. P. HORNE, - Major-General, - Commanding Second Division. - - Second Division, - 21.8.15. - -They lay at Eperlecques for a day or two on their way to Thiembronne, -a hot nineteen-mile march during which only five men fell out. It was -at St. Pierre between Thiembronne and Acquin that they met and dined -with the 2nd Battalion of the Regiment which had landed in France -on the 18th August. There are few records of this historic meeting; -for the youth and the strength that gathered by the cookers in that -open sunlit field by St. Pierre has been several times wiped out and -replaced. The two battalions conferred together, by rank and by age, -on the methods and devices of the enemy; the veterans of the First -enlightening the new hands of the Second with tales that could lose -nothing in the telling, mixed with practical advice of the most grim. -The First promptly christened the Second “The Irish Landsturm,” and a -young officer, who later rose to eminent heights and command of the -2nd Battalion sat upon a table under some trees, and delighted the -world with joyous songs upon a concertina and a mouth-organ. Then -they parted. - - -LOOS - -The next three weeks were spent by the 1st Battalion at or near -Thiembronne in training for the great battle to come. They were -instructed in march-discipline, infantry attack, extended-order -drill and field-training, attacks on villages (Drionville was one -of them selected and the French villagers attended the field-day -in great numbers) as well as in bussing and debussing against -time into motor-buses which were then beginning to be moderately -plentiful. Regimental sports were not forgotten--they were a -great success and an amusement more or less comprehensible to the -people of Thiembronne--and, since the whole world was aware that -a combined attack would be made shortly by the English and French -armies, the officers of the Guards Brigade were duly informed by -Lieutenant-General Haking, commanding the Eleventh Army Corps, to -which the Guards Division belonged, that such, indeed, was the case. - -The domestic concerns of the Battalion during this pause include the -facts that 2nd Lieutenant Dames-Longsworth from the 2nd Middlesex -was attached on the 9th September “prior to transfer” to the Irish -Guards; Captain C. D. Wynter, Lieutenant F. H. Witts, and 2nd -Lieutenant W. B. Stevens were transferred (September 10, from the -1st to the 2nd Battalion) and 2nd Lieutenant T. K. Walker and T. H. -Langrishe transferred on the same day from the 2nd to the 1st, while -Orderly-Room Quartermaster-Sergeant J. Halligan, of whom later, was -gazetted a 2nd Lieutenant to the Leinster Regiment. Captain L. R. -Hargreaves was on the 13th “permitted to wear the badge of Captain -pending his temporary promotion to that rank being announced in the -_London Gazette_,” and the C. O., Major G. H. C. Madden, was on the -6th September gazetted a temporary Lieutenant-Colonel. These were the -first grants of temporary rank in the Battalion. - -On the 18th September the C.O.’s of all the battalions in the Guards -Division motored to the Béthune district, where a reconnaissance -was made “from convenient observation-posts” of the country between -Cuinchy and Loos that they might judge the weight of the task before -them. - -It was a jagged, scarred, and mutilated sweep of mining-villages, -factories, quarries, slag-dumps, pit-heads, chalk-pits, and railway -embankments--all the plant of an elaborate mechanical civilization -connected above ground and below by every means that ingenuity and -labour could devise to the uses of war. The ground was trenched and -tunnelled with cemented and floored works of terrifying permanency -that linked together fortified redoubts, observation-posts, concealed -batteries, rallying-points, and impregnable shelters for waiting -reserves. So it ran along our front from Grenay north of the plateau -of Notre Dame de Lorette, where two huge slag-heaps known as the -Double Crassier bristled with machine-guns, across the bare interlude -of crop land between Loos and Hulluch, where a high German redoubt -crowned the slopes to the village of Haisnes with the low and -dangerous Hohenzollern redoubt south of it. Triple lines of barbed -wire protected a system of triple trenches, concrete-faced, holding -dug-outs twenty feet deep, with lifts for machine-guns which could -appear and disappear in emplacements of concrete over iron rails; -and the observation-posts were capped with steel cupolas. In the -background ample railways and a multitude of roads lay ready to -launch fresh troops to any point that might by any chance be forced -in the face of these obstacles. - -Our armies were brought up for the most part on their own feet and -lay in trenches not in the least concreted; nor were our roads -to the front wholly equal to the demands on them. The assaulting -troops were the First and Fourth Army Corps (less some troops -detached to make a feint at Festubert and Cuinchy) disposed in the -trenches south from the line of the Béthune-La Bassée Canal to the -Vermelles-Hulluch road. Their work, as laid down, was to storm -Auchy-La Bassée, Haisnes, capture the Hohenzollern redoubt to the -south-west of it and the immensely fortified Mine-head Pit 8 (with -which it was connected), the Hulluch quarries, equally fortified, and -the long strip of wood beside them, and the village of Cité St. Elie -between Hulluch and Haisnes. South of the Vermelles-Hulluch road, -the Fourth Army Corps was to occupy the high ground between Loos and -Lens, including the redoubt on Hill 69; all the town of Loos, which -was a museum of veiled deaths, the Double Crassier, the Chalk-Pit, -the redoubt on Hill 70 on the Loos-Haisnes road, and the village of -Cité St. Auguste. After which, doubtless, the way would be open to -victory. The Eleventh Army Corps formed the main infantry reserve -and included the newly formed Guards Division, the Twenty-first and -Twenty-fourth Divisions of the New Army and the Twenty-eighth. The -Twenty-first and Twenty-fourth were brought up between Beuvry and -Nœux-les-Mines; the Twenty-eighth to Bailleul, while the Guards -Division lay in reserve near Lillers, ten miles north-west or so -from Souchez; the Third Cavalry Division near Sains-en-Gohelle, and -the British Cavalry Corps at Bailleul-les-Pernes ten miles west of -Nœux-les-Mines, in attendance on the expected break-through. - -On the 21st September the Battalion was inspected by Lord Kitchener -at Avroult, on the St. Omer road--the first time it was ever paraded -before its Colonel-in-chief--who in a few brief words recalled what -it had already done in the war and hinted at what lay before it. Lord -Cavan commanding the Guards Division, in wishing the men God-speed -on the eve of “the greatest battle in the world’s history,” reminded -them that the fate of future generations hung on the issue and that -great things were expected of the Guards Division. They knew it well -enough. - -By a piece of ill-luck, that might have been taken as an omen, the -day before they moved from Thiembronne to the front, a bombing -accident at practice caused the death of Lance-Sergeant R. Matthews -and three men, which few casualties, on the eve of tens of thousands -to come, were due subjects of a court of inquiry and a full report -to Headquarters. Then they marched by Capelle-sur-Lys to Nedon in -mist and gathering rain as the autumn weather broke on the 24th, -and heard the roar of what seemed continuous bombardment from Vimy -to La Bassée. But it was at dawn on the 25th September that the -serious work of the heavy guns began, while the Division crawled in -pouring rain along congested roads from Nedon to Nœux-les-Mines. All -they could see of the battle-front was veiled in clouds of gas and -the screens of covering smoke through which our attacks had been -launched after two hours of preliminary bombardment. Our troops -there found, as chance and accident decreed, either broken wire and -half-obliterated trenches easy to overpass for a few hundred yards -till they came to the uncut stuff before which the men perished as -their likes had done on like fields. So it happened that day to the -6th Brigade of the First Division north of La Bassée, and the 19th -Brigade south of it; to the 28th Brigade of the Ninth Division by -the Hohenzollern redoubt and Pit 8. These all met wire uncut before -trenches untouched, and were slaughtered. The 26th Brigade of the -Ninth Division broke through at a heavy cost as far as Pit 8, and, -for the moment, as far as the edge of the village of Haisnes. The -Seventh Division, working between the Ninth Division and the road -from Vermelles to Hulluch, had better fortune. They penetrated as far -as the edge of Hulluch village, but were driven back, ere the day’s -end, to the quarries a thousand yards in the rear. One brigade, the -1st of the First Division of the Fourth Army on their right, had -also penetrated as far as the outskirts of Hulluch. Its 2nd Brigade -was hung up in barbed wire near Lone Tree to the southward, which -check again exposed the left flank of the next (Fifteenth Highland) -Division as that (44th, 45th, and 46th Brigades) made its way into -Loos, carried Hill 70, the Chalk Pit, and Pit 14. The Forty-seventh -Division on the extreme right of the British line at its junction -with the French Tenth Army had to be used mainly as a defensive flank -to the operation, since the French attack, which should have timed -with ours, did not develop till six hours after our troops had got -away, and was then limited to Souchez and the Vimy Ridge. - -At noon on the 25th September the position stood thus: The First -Army Corps held up between the Béthune-La Bassée Canal and the -Hohenzollern redoubt; the Seventh Division hard pressed among the -quarries and houses by Hulluch; the Ninth in little better case as -regarded Pit 8 and the redoubt itself; the Highland Division pushed -forward in the right centre holding on precariously in the shambles -round Loos and being already forced back for lack of supports. - -All along the line the attack had spent itself among uncut wire and -unsubdued machine-gun positions. There were no more troops to follow -at once on the heels of the first, nor was there time to dig in -before the counter-attacks were delivered by the Germans, to whom -every minute of delay meant the certainty of more available reserves -fresh from the rail. A little after noon their pressure began to -take effect, and ground won during the first rush of the advance was -blasted out of our possession by gun-fire, bombing, and floods of -enemy troops arriving throughout the night. - -Both sides were now bringing up reserves: but ours seem to have -arrived somewhat more slowly than the Germans’. - -The Guards Division had come up on foot as quickly as the traffic on -the roads allowed, and by the morning of the 26th the 1st Brigade -(2nd Grenadiers, 2nd and 3rd Coldstream, and 1st Irish) were marched -to Sailly-Labourse. The weather had improved, though the ground was -heavy enough. Loos still remained to us, Hulluch was untaken. The -enemy were well established on Hill 70 and had driven us out of Pit -14 and the Chalk Pit quarry on the Lens-La Bassée road which had -been won on the previous day. It was this sector of the line to which -the 2nd and 3rd Brigades of the Guards Division were directed. The -local reserves (21st and 24th Divisions) had been used up, and as the -Brigade took over the ground were retiring directly through them. The -1st Guards Brigade was employed in the work of holding the ground to -the left, or north, of the other two brigades. Their own left lay -next what remained of the Seventh Division after the furious wastage -of the past two days. - -On the afternoon of the 26th September the 2nd and 3rd Coldstream, -with the 2nd Grenadiers in support, occupied some trenches in a -waste of cut-up ground east of a line of captured German trenches -opposite Hulluch. The 1st Irish Guards lay in trenches close to the -wrecked water-tower of the village of Vermelles, while the confused -and irregular attacks and counter-attacks broke out along the line, -slackened and were renewed again beneath the vault of the overhead -clamour built by the passage of countless shells. - -The field of battle presented an extraordinary effect of dispersion -and detachment. Gas, smoke, and the continuous splash and sparkle of -bombs marked where the lines were in actual touch, but behind and -outside this inferno stretched a desolation of emptiness, peopled -with single figures “walking about all over the place,” as one -observer wrote, with dead and wounded on the ground, and casualties -being slowly conveyed to dressing-stations--every one apparently -unconcerned beneath shell-fire, which in old-time battles would have -been reckoned heavy, but which here, by comparison, was peace. - -A premature burst of one of our own shells wounded four men of the -Battalion’s machine-gun group as it was moving along the Hulluch -road, but there were no other casualties reported, and on Sunday -27th, while the village of Vermelles was being heavily shelled, No. -2 and half of No. 3 Company were sent forward to fetch off what -wounded lay immediately in front of them on the battle-field. There -was need. Throughout that long Sunday of “clearing up” at a slow -pace under scattered fire, the casualties were but eleven in all--2nd -Lieutenant Grayling-Major, slightly wounded, one man killed and nine -wounded. Three thousand yards to the left their 2nd Battalion, which, -with the 2nd and 3rd Guards Brigades, had been set to recapture Pit -14 and Chalk-Pit Wood, lost that evening eight officers and over -three hundred men killed and wounded. Officer-losses had been very -heavy, and orders were issued, none too soon, to keep a reserve -of them, specially in the junior ranks. Lieutenants Yerburgh and -Rankin, with 2nd Lieutenants Law, Langrishe, and Walker, were thus -sent back to the first-line Transport to be saved for contingencies. -2nd Lieutenant Christie and twenty men from the base joined on the -same day. The Battalion lay at that time behind the remnants of -the 20th Brigade of the Seventh Division, whose Brigadier, Colonel -the Hon. J. Trefusis, had been their old C.O. His brigade, which -had suffered between two and three thousand casualties, was in no -shape for further fighting, but was hanging on in expectation of -relief, if possible, from the mixed duties of trying to establish -a line and sending out parties to assist in repelling the nearest -counter-attack. Fighting continued everywhere, especially on the left -of the line, and heavy rain added to the general misery. - -By the 28th September we might have gained on an average three -thousand yards on a front of between six and seven thousand, but -there was no certainty that we could hold it, and the front was -alive with reports--some true, others false--that the enemy had -captured a line of trench here, broken through there, or was massing -in force elsewhere. As a matter of fact, the worst of the German -attacks had spent themselves, and both sides were, through their own -difficulties, beginning to break off their main engagements for the -bitter localised fightings that go to the making of a new front. - -In rain, chalky slime, and deep discomfort, after utter exhaustion, -the broken battalions were comparing notes of news and imperturbably -renewing their social life. Brigadier-General Trefusis slips, or -wades, through rain and mud to lunch with his old battalion a few -hundred yards away, and one learns indirectly what cheer and comfort -his presence brings. Then he goes on with the remnants of his -shattered brigade, to take over fresh work on a quieter part of the -line and _en route_ “to get his hair cut.” - -The Battalion, after (Sept. 29) another day’s soaking in Vermelles -trenches, relieved the 3rd Brigade, First Division, in front-line -trenches just west of Hulluch. - -The ground by Le Rutoire farm and Bois Carré between the battered -German trenches was a sea of shell craters and wreckage, scorched -with fires of every sort which had swept away all landmarks. Lone -Tree, a general rendezvous and clearing-station for that sector of -the line and a registered mark for enemy guns, was the spot where -their guides met them in the rainy, windy darkness. The relief took -four hours and cost Drill-Sergeant Corry, another N.C.O., and a -private wounded. All four company commanders went ahead some hours -before to acquaint themselves with the impassable trenches, the -battalions being brought on, in artillery formation, by the Adjutant. - -On the 30th September, the English losses having brought our efforts -to a standstill, the troops of the Ninth French Army Corps began -to take over the trenches defending Loos and running out of the -ruins of that town to Hill 70. Foch and D’Untal in their fighting -since the 27th had driven, at a price, the Germans out of Souchez, -and some deceptive progress had been made by the Tenth French Army -Corps up the Vimy heights to the right of the English line. In all, -our armies had manufactured a salient, some five miles wide across -the bow of it, running from Cuinchy Post, the Hohenzollern redoubt, -the Hulluch quarries, the edge of Hill 70, the south of Loos, and -thence doubling back to Grenay. On the other hand, the enemy had -under-driven a section south of this at the junction of the Allied -forces running through Lens, Liévin, Angres by Givenchy-en-Gohelle -over the Vimy heights to the Scarpe below Arras. There may, even on -the 30th, have remained some hope on our part of “breaking through” -into the plain of the Scheldt, with its chance of open warfare to -follow. The enemy, however, had no intention of allowing us any -freedom of movement which localised attacks on his part could limit -and hold till such time as his reserves might get in a counter-attack -strong enough to regain all the few poor hundreds of yards which we -had shelled, bombed, and bayoneted out of his front. The fighting was -specially severe that day among the rabbit-warrens of trenches by the -Hohenzollern redoubt. Sections of trenches were lost and won back or -wiped out by gun-fire all along a front where, for one instance of -recorded heroism among the confusion of bombs and barricades, there -were hundreds unrecorded as the spouting earth closed over and hid -all after-knowledge of the very site of the agony. - -A section of trench held by the Scots Fusiliers on the immediate left -of the Irish Guards was attacked and a hundred yards or so of it were -captured, but the Battalion was not called upon to lend a hand. It -lay under heavy shell and sniping fire in the wet, till it was time -to exchange the comparative security of a wet open drain for the -unsheltered horrors of a relief which, beginning in the dusk at six, -was not completed till close on two in the morning. The last company -reached their miserable billets at Mazingarbe, some three miles’ away -across a well-searched back-area at 6 A. M. One N.C.O. was killed and -ten N.C.O.’s and men were wounded. - -They spent the next three days in the battered suburbs of Mazingarbe -while the Twelfth Division took over the Guards’ line and the Ninth -French Army Corps relieved the British troops who were holding the -south face of the Cuinchy-Hulluch-Grenay salient. The 1st Battalion -itself was now drawn upon to meet the demands of the 2nd Battalion -for officers to make good losses in their action of the 27th. Five -officers, at least, were badly needed, but no more than four could -be spared--Captain J. S. N. FitzGerald, as Adjutant, Lieutenant R. -Rankin, Lieutenant H. Montgomery, who had only arrived with a draft -on the 1st October, and 2nd Lieutenant Langrishe. Officers were a -scarce commodity; for, though there was a momentary lull, there had -been heavy bomb and trench work by the Twenty-eighth Division all -round the disputed Hohenzollern redoubt which was falling piece by -piece into the hands of the enemy, and counter-attacks were expected -all along the uncertain line. - - -THE HOHENZOLLERN TRENCHES - -On October 3 the Guards Division relieved the Twenty-eighth round -the Hohenzollern and the Hulluch quarries. The 3rd Brigade of the -Division was assigned as much of the works round the Hohenzollern as -yet remained to us; the 1st Brigade lay on their right linking on to -the First Division which had relieved the Twelfth on the right of the -Guards Division. The 2nd Guards Brigade was in reserve at Vermelles. -The 1st Battalion acted as reserve to its own, the 1st, Brigade, and -moving from Mazingarbe on the afternoon of the 3rd bivouacked in -misery to the west of the railway line just outside Vermelles. The -2nd Grenadiers, in trenches which had formed part of the old British -front line north-east of the Chapel of Notre Dame de Consolation, -supported the 2nd and 3rd Coldstream who held the firing-line in a -mass of unsurveyed and unknown German trenches running from St. Elie -Avenue, a notorious and most dismal communication-trench, northwards -towards the Hohenzollern redoubt, one face of which generously -enfiladed our line at all times. The whole was a wilderness of muck -and death, reached through three thousand yards of foul gutters, -impeded by loops and knots of old telephone cables, whose sides -bulged in the wet, and where, with the best care in the world, -reliefs could go piteously astray and isolated parties find -themselves plodding, blind and helpless, into the enemy’s arms. - -Opinions naturally differ as to which was the least attractive period -of the war for the Battalion, but there was a general feeling that, -setting aside the cruel wet of The Salient and the complicated barren -miseries of the Somme, the times after Loos round the Hohenzollern -Redoubt and in the Laventie sector were the worst. Men and officers -had counted on getting forward to open country at last, and the -return to redoubled trench-work and its fatigues was no comfort to -them. But the work had to be done, and the notice in the Diary that -they were “responsible for improving and cleaning up the trenches -as far as the support battalions”--which meant as far as they could -get forward--implied unbroken labour in the chalky ground, varied by -carrying up supplies, bombs, and small-arm ammunition to the front -line. There were five bombing posts in their sector of the front with -as many sap-heads, all to be guarded. Most of the trenches needed -deepening, and any work in the open was at the risk of a continuous -stream of bullets from the Hohenzollern’s machine-guns. High -explosives and a few gas-shells by day, aerial torpedoes by night, -and sniping all round the clock, made the accompaniment to their life -for the nine days that they held the line. - -Here is the bare record. On the 6th October, two men killed and -three wounded, while strengthening parapets. On the 7th, Lieutenant -Heard and three men with him wounded, while superintending work in -the open within range of the spiteful Hohenzollern. On the 8th, six -hours’ unbroken bombardment, culminating, so far as the Battalion -knew, in an attack on the 2nd Coldstream whom they were supporting -and the 3rd Grenadiers on their left. The Grenadiers, most of their -bombers killed, borrowed No. 1 Company’s bombers, who “did good -work,” while No. 1 Company itself formed a flank to defend the left -of the Brigade in case the Germans broke through, as for a time -seemed possible. Both Grenadiers and Coldstream ran out of bombs and -ammunition which the Battalion sent up throughout the evening until -it was reported that “all was normal again” and that the Germans -had everywhere been repulsed with heavy loss. The Battalion then -carried up rations to the Coldstream and spent the rest of the night -repairing blown-in ammunition trenches. They had had no time to -speculate or ask questions, and not till long afterwards did they -realise that the blast of a great battle had passed over them; that -the Germans had counter-attacked with picked battalions all along -the line of the Cuinchy-Hulluch-Grenay Salient and that their dead -lay in thousands on the cut-up ground from Souchez to Hohenzollern. -In modern trench-warfare any attack extending beyond the range of a -combatant’s vision, which runs from fifty yards to a quarter of a -mile, according to the ground and his own personal distractions, may, -for aught he can tell, be either an engagement of the first class or -some local brawl for the details of which he can search next week’s -home papers in vain. - -The battalions got through the day with only six men killed, eleven -wounded, and one gassed, and on the 9th, when they were busiest in -the work of repairing wrecked trenches, they were informed that -certain recesses which they had been cutting out in the trenches for -the reception of gas-cylinders would not be required and that they -were to fill them in again. As a veteran of four years’ experience -put it, apropos of this and some other matters: “Men take more -notice, ye’ll understand, of one extra fatigue, than any three -fights.” - -A few aerial torpedoes which, whether they kill or not, make -unlimited mess, fell during the night, and on the morning of the 10th -October Lieutenant M. V. Gore-Langton--one of the Battalion’s best -and most efficient officers--was shot through the head and killed -by a German sniper while looking for a position for a loop-hole in -the parapet. He was buried six hours later in the British Cemetery -at Vermelles, and the command of his company devolved on Lieutenant -Yerburgh. Our own artillery spent the day in breaking German wire -in front of the Hulluch quarries at long range and a little more -than a hundred yards ahead of our trenches. Several of our shells -dropped short, to the discomfort of the Irish, but the wire was -satisfactorily cut, and two companies kept up bursts of rapid fire -during the night to stay the enemy from repairing it. Only 5 men were -killed and 5 wounded from all causes this day. - -On the 11th our guns resumed wire-cutting and, besides making it most -unpleasant for our men in the front trenches, put one of our own -machine-guns out of action, but luckily with no loss of life. - -The tragedy of the day came later when, just after lunch, a shell -landed in the doorway of Headquarters dug-out, breaking both of -Colonel Madden’s legs, and mortally wounding the Rev. Father John -Gwynne, the Battalion’s R.C. chaplain (Colonel Madden died in -England a few weeks later). The Adjutant, Lord Desmond FitzGerald, -was slightly wounded also. The other two occupants of the dug-out, -Captain Bailie, who had gone through almost precisely the same -experience in the same spot not three days before, and the Medical -Officer, were untouched. It was difficult to get two wounded men down -the trenches to the Headquarters of the supporting battalion, where -they had to be left till dark. And then they were carried back in the -open--or “overland” as the phrase was. Father Gwynne died next day -in hospital at Béthune, and the Battalion lost in him “not merely -the chaplain, but a man unusually beloved.” He had been with them -since November of the previous year. He feared nothing, despised no -one, betrayed no confidence nor used it to his own advantage; upheld -authority, softened asperities, and cheered and comforted every man -within his reach. If there were any blemish in a character so utterly -selfless, it was no more than a tendency, shared by the servants of -his calling, to attach more importance to the administration of the -last rites of his Church to a wounded man than to the immediate -appearance of the medical officer, and to forget that there are times -when Supreme Unction can be a depressant. _Per contra_, Absolution -at the moment of going over the top, if given with vigour and good -cheer, as he gave it, is a powerful tonic. At all times the priest’s -influence in checking “crime” in a regiment is very large indeed, -and with such priests as the Irish Guards had the good fortune to -possess, almost unbounded. - -Colonel Madden was succeeded by Captain Lord Desmond FitzGerald as -commanding officer, and the rest of the day was spent in suffering -a bombardment of aerial torpedoes, very difficult to locate and not -put down by our heavy guns till after dark. Besides the 3 wounded -officers that day 3 men were wounded and, 3 killed. - -On the morning of the 13th, after heavy shelling, a bomb attack on -the 2nd Grenadiers developed in the trenches to the right, when the -Battalion brought up and detonated several boxes for their comrades. -Their work further included putting up 120 scaling-ladders for an -attack by the 35th Brigade. - -Next day they were relieved by the 7th Norfolks, 35th Brigade of the -North Midland Division of Territorials, and went to rest at Verquin, -five or six miles behind the line. It took them nearly seven hours -to clear the trenches; Colonel Madden, on account of his wounds, -being carried out on a sitting litter; Lord Desmond FitzGerald, who, -as Adjutant, had been wounded when Father Gwynne had been killed, -overdue for hospital with a piece of shrapnel in his foot, and all -ranks utterly done after their nine days’ turn of duty. They laid -them down as tired animals lie, while behind them the whole north -front of the Cuinchy-Hulluch Salient broke into set battle once again. - -A series of holding attacks were made all along the line almost from -Ypres to La Bassée to keep the enemy from reinforcing against the -real one on the Hohenzollern redoubt, Fosse 8, the Hulluch quarries -and the heart of the Loos position generally. It was preceded -by bombardments that in some cases cut wire and in some did not, -accompanied by gas and smoke, which affected both sides equally; it -was carried through by men in smoke-helmets, half-blinding them among -blinding accompaniments of fumes and flying earth, through trenches -to which there was no clue, over the wrecks of streets of miners’ -cottages, cellars and underground machine-gun nests, and round the -concreted flanks of unsuspected artillery emplacements. Among these -obstacles, too, it died out with the dead battalions of Regulars and -Territorials caught, as the chances of war smote them, either in bulk -across open ground or in detail among bombs and machine-gun posts. - -There was here, as many times before, and very many times after, -heroism beyond belief, and every form of bravery that the spirit -of man can make good. The net result of all, between the 27th of -September and the 15th of October, when the last groundswell of the -long fight smoothed itself out over the unburied dead, was a loss to -us of 50,000 men and 2000 officers, and a gain of a salient seven -thousand yards long and three thousand two hundred yards deep. For -practical purposes, a good deal of this depth ranked as “No Man’s -Land” from that date till the final break-up of the German hosts in -1918. The public were informed that the valour of the new Territorial -Divisions had justified their training, which seemed expensive; and -that our armies, whatever else they lacked at that time--and it was -not a little--had gained in confidence: which seemed superfluous. - - -AFTER LOOS - -But the Battalion lay at Verquin, cleaning up after its ten days’ -filth, and there was Mass on the morning of the 14th, when Father S. -Knapp came over from the 2nd Battalion and “spoke to the men on the -subject of Father Gwynne’s death,” for now that the two battalions -were next-door neighbours, Father Knapp served both. No written -record remains of the priest’s speech, but those who survive that -heard it say it moved all men’s hearts. Mass always preceded the -day’s work in billets, but even on the first morning on their return -from the trenches the men would make shift somehow to clean their -hands and faces, and if possible to shave, before attending it, no -matter what the hour. - -Then on the 14th October they moved from Verquin to unpleasing -Sailly-Labourse, four miles or so behind the line, for another day’s -“rest” in billets, and so (Oct. 17) to what was left of Vermelles, a -couple of miles from the front, where the men had to make the wrecked -houses habitable till (Oct. 19) they took over from the Welsh Guards -some reserve-trenches on the old ground in front of Clerk’s Keep, a -quarter of a mile west of the Vermelles railway line. - -The 20th October was the day when the 2nd Battalion were engaged in -a bombing attack on the Hohenzollern, from which they won no small -honour, as will be told in their story. The 1st Battalion lay at -Vermelles, unshelled for the moment, and had leisure to make “light -overhead cover for the men against the rain.” The Division was in -line again, and the Battalion’s first work was to improve a new -line of trenches which, besides the defect of being much too close -to the Hohenzollern, lacked dug-outs. In Lord Desmond FitzGerald’s -absence, Major the Hon. H. R. Alexander from the 2nd Battalion took -command of the Battalion, and they relieved the 2nd Coldstream on the -21st and resumed the stale routine--digging saps under fire, which -necessitated shovelling the earth into sand-bags, and emptying it out -by night; dodging snipers and trench-mortars, and hoping that our -own shells, which were battering round the Hohenzollern, would not -fall too short; fixing wire and fuses till the moon grew and they -had to wait for the dawn-mists to cloak their work; discovering and -reconnoitring old German communication-trenches that ran to ever-new -German sniping-posts and had to be blocked with wire tangles; and -losing in three days, by minenwerfers, sniping, the fall of dug-outs -and premature bursts of our own shells, 7 men killed and 18 wounded. -The two companies (1 and 2) went back to Vermelles, while 3 and 4 -took over the support-trenches from the 3rd Coldstream, reversing the -process on the 24th October. - -When letters hint at “drill” in any connection, it is a sure sign -that a battalion is on the eve of relief. For example, on the 24th, -2nd Lieutenant Levy arrived with a draft of fifty-eight men, a -sergeant, and two corporals, who were divided among the companies. -The Diary observes that they were a fair lot of men but “did not -look too well drilled.” Accordingly, after a couple of days’ mild -shelling round and near Vermelles Church and Shrine, we find the -Battalion relieved by the Norfolks (Oct. 26). All four companies -worked their way cautiously out of the fire-zone--it is at the moment -of relief that casualties are most felt--picked up their Headquarters -and transport, and marched for half of a whole day in the open to -billets at pleasant, wooded Lapugnoy, where they found clean straw -to lie down on and were promised blankets. After the usual clean-up -and payment of the men, they were ordered off to Chocques to take -part in the King’s review of the Guards Division at Haute Rièze on -the afternoon of the 28th, but, owing to the accident to His Majesty -caused by the horse falling with him, the parade was cancelled. - -“Steady drill” filled the next ten days. Lieutenant the Hon. B. -O’Brien started to train fresh bombing-squads with the Mills bomb, -which was then being issued in such quantities that as many as twenty -whole boxes could be spared for instruction. Up till then, bombs had -been varied in type and various in action. As had been pointed out, -the Irish took kindly to this game and produced many notable experts. -But the perfect bomber is not always docile out of the line. Among -the giants of ’15 was a private against whom order had gone forth -that on no account was he to be paid on pay-days, for the reason that -once in funds he would retire into France at large “for a day and a -night and a morrow,” and return a happy, hiccuping but indispensable -“criminal.” At last, after a long stretch of enforced virtue, he -managed, by chicane or his own amazing personality, to seduce five -francs from his platoon sergeant and forthwith disappeared. On his -return, richly disguised, he sought out his benefactor with a gift -under his arm. The rest is in his Sergeant’s own words: “‘No,’ I -says, ‘go away and sleep it off,’ I says, pushin’ it away, for -’twas a rum jar he was temptin’ me with. ‘’Tis for you, Sergeant,’ -he says. ‘You’re the only man that has thrusted me with a centime -since summer.’ Thrust him! There was no sergeant of ours had not -been remindin’ me of those same five francs _all_ the time he’d been -away--let alone what I’d got at Company Orders. So I loosed myself -upon him, an’ I described him to himself the way he’d have shame at -it, but shame was not in him. ‘Yes, Sergeant,’ he says to me, ‘full -I am, and _this_ is full too,’ he says, pattin’ the rum jar (and it -was!), an’ I know where there’s plenty more,’ he says, ‘and it’s all -for you an’ your great thrustfulness to me about them five francs.’ -What could I do? He’d made me a laughing-stock to the Battalion. An -awful man! He’d done it _all_ on those five unlucky francs! Yes, -he’d lead a bombin’ party or a drinkin’ party--his own or any other -battalion’s; and he was worth a platoon an’ a half when there was -anything doing, and I thrust in God he’s alive yet--him and his five -francs! But an awful man!” - -Drunkenness was confined, for the most part, to a known few -characters, regular and almost privileged in their irregularities. -The influence of the Priest and the work of the company officers -went hand in hand here. Here is a tribute paid by a brother officer -to Captain Gore-Langton, killed on the 10th October, which explains -the secret. “The men liked him for his pluck and the plain way in -which he dealt with them, always doing his best for the worst, most -idle, and stupidest men in our company.... One can’t really believe -he’s gone. I always expect to see him swinging round a traverse.” The -Battalion did not forget him, and while at Lapugnoy, sent a party to -Vermelles to attend to his grave there. - -On the 31st October Lieut.-Colonel R. C. McCalmont arrived from -commanding a battalion of the New Ulster Army Division and took over -the command from Major Alexander who reverted to the 2nd Battalion, -from which he had been borrowed. - - -LAVENTIE - -On the 10th of the month the Guards Division were for duty again -on the Laventie sector, which at every time of the year had a -bad reputation for wet. The outcome of Loos had ended hope of a -break-through, and a few thousand yards won there against a few -thousand lost out Ypres way represented the balance of the account -since November 1914. Therefore, once again, the line had to be held -till more men, munitions and materials could be trained, manufactured -and accumulated, while the price of making war on the spur of the -moment was paid, day in and day out, with the bodies of young men -subject to every form of death among the slits in the dirt along -which they moved. It bored them extremely, but otherwise did not -much affect their morale. They built some sort of decent life out of -the monotonous hours; they came to know the very best and the very -worst in themselves and in their comrades upon whom their lives and -well-being depended; and they formed friendships that lasted, as -fate willed, for months or even years. They lied persistently and -with intent in their home letters concerning their discomforts and -exposure, and lent themselves to the impression, cultivated by some -sedulous newspapers, that the trenches were electrically-lighted -abodes of comfort and jollity, varied with concerts and sports. It -was all part of the trial which the national genius calls “the game.” - -The Battalion (Lieut.-Colonel R. C. McCalmont commanding) was at -Pacaut, due north of Béthune, on the 11th, at Merville on the 14th, -training young soldiers how to use smoke-helmets--for gas was -a thing to be expected anywhere now--and enjoying every variety -of weather, from sodden wet to sharp frost. The effects of the -gas-helmet on the young soldiers were quaintly described as “very -useful on them. ’Twas like throwin’ a cloth over a parrot-cage. It -stopped _all_ their chat.” - -On the 20th November they took over reserve-billets from the 1st -Scots Guards near Bout Deville, and the next day, after inspection -of both battalions by General Feilding, commanding the Division, -and the late Mr. John Redmond, M.P., went into trenches with the -happy fore-knowledge that they were likely to stay there till the -2nd of January and would be lucky if they got a few days out at -Christmas. It was a stretch of unmitigated beastliness in the low -ditch-riddled ground behind Neuve Chapelle and the Aubers Ridge, -on the interminable La Bassée-Estaires road, with no available -communication-trenches, in many places impassable from wet, all -needing sandbags and all, “in a very neglected state, except for the -work done by the 2nd Guards Brigade the week before the Battalion -moved in.” (It is nowhere on record that the Guards Division, or -for that matter, any other, was ever contented with trenches that -it took over.) The enemy, however, were quiet, being at least as -uncomfortable as our people. Even when our field-guns blew large -gaps in their parapets a hundred yards away there was very little -retaliation, and our casualties on relief--the men lay in scattered -billets at Riez Bailleul three miles or so up the road--were -relatively few. - -In one whole week not more than four or five men were killed and -fifteen or sixteen wounded, two of them by our own shrapnel bursting -short while our guns experimented on block-houses and steel cupolas, -as these revealed themselves. Even when the Prince of Wales visited -the line at the Major-General’s inspection of it, and left by the -only possible road, “Sign Post Lane,” in broad daylight in the open, -within a furlong of the enemy, casualties did not occur! There -is no mention, either, of any of the aeroplane-visitations which -sometimes followed his appearances. As a personal friend of one of -the officers, he found reason to visit along that sector more often -than is officially recorded. - -At the beginning of the month the 1st Guards Brigade was relieved -by the 3rd of its Division, and the Battalion handed its line -over to the 4th Grenadiers, not without some housewifely pride at -improvements it had effected. But, since pride ever precedes a fall, -the sharp frost of the past week dissolved in heavy rain, and the -neat new-made breastworks with their aligned sandbags collapsed. If -the 4th Grenadiers keep veracious diaries, it is probable that that -night of thaw and delayed reliefs is strongly recorded in them. - -La Gorgue, under Estaires, upon the sluggish Lys in sodden wet -weather (December 3-8) gave them a breathing space for a general -wash-up and those “steady drills” necessary to mankind. The new -stretch that they took over from their own 2nd Battalion was about -two miles north of their previous one and south-east of Laventie, -running parallel to the Rue Tilleloy, that endless road, flanked, -like all others hereabouts, with farm-houses, which joins Armentières -to Neuve Chapelle. The ground was, of course, sop, the parapets were -perforable breastworks, but reliefs could arrive unobserved within -five hundred yards of the front, and the enemy’s line lay in most -places nearly a quarter of a mile from ours. More important still, -there was reasonable accommodation for Battalion Headquarters in a -farm-house (one of the many “Red Houses” of the war) which, by some -accident, had been untouched so far, though it stood less than a mile -from the front line. Where Headquarters are comfortable, Headquarters -are happy, and by so much the more placable. Only very young soldiers -grudge them protection and warmth. - -For a few days it was a peaceful stretch of the great line that -buttressed on Switzerland and the sea. Christmas was coming, and, -even had the weather allowed it, neither side was looking too -earnestly for trouble. - -A company of Welsh Fusiliers with their C.O. and Adjutant came up for -eight days’ instruction, and were distributed through the Battalion. -The system in the front line at that moment was one of gangs of -three, a digger, an armed man, and a bomber, relieving each other by -shifts; and to each of these trios one Welshman was allotted. - -The Welsh were small, keen and inquisitive. The large Irish praised -their Saints aloud for sending them new boys to talk to through the -long watches. It is related of one Welshman that, among a thousand -questions, he demanded if his tutor had ever gone over the top. The -Irishman admitted that he had. “And how often _does_ one go over?” -the Welshman continued. “I’ll show you. Come with me,” replied -the other Celt, and, moving to a gap in the parapet, lifted the -Welshman in his arms that he might the better see what remained, -hung up in German wire, of a private of some ancient fight--withered -wreckage, perhaps, of Neuve Chapelle. “_He_ went over wanst,” said -the Irishman. The working-party resumed their labours and, men say, -that that new boy put no more questions “for the full of the half an -hour--an’ that’s as long as a week to a Welshman.” - -All four companies were held in the first line except for three -posts--Picantin, Dead End, and Hougoumont--a few hundred yards behind -that were manned with a platoon apiece, but on the 12th December -rumours of a mine made it wise to evacuate a part of the right -flank till one of our 9.2’s should have searched for the suspected -mine-shaft. Its investigations roused the enemy to mild retaliation, -which ended next day in one of our men being wounded by our own 9.2, -and three by the enemy’s shrapnel--the first casualties in four days. - -The wet kept the peace along the line, but it did not altogether damp -the energies of our patrols. For a reason, not explained officially, -Lieutenant S. E. F. Christy was moved to go out with a patrol -and to hurl into the German lines a printed message (was it the -earliest workings of propaganda?) demanding that the Germans “should -surrender.” There is no indication whether the summons was to the -German army at large or merely to as many of them as lay before the -Battalion; but, the invitation being disregarded, Lieutenants Christy -and Law made themselves offensive in patrol-work to the best of their -means. On one excursion the latter officer discovered (December 15) -a water-logged concrete-built loop-hole dug-out occupied by Germans. -Being a hardened souvenir-hunter, he is reported to have removed the -official German name-board of the establishment ere he went back for -reinforcements with a view of capturing it complete. On his return -he found it abandoned. The water had driven the enemy to a drier -post, and the cutting-out expedition had to be postponed. Too long -in the line without incident wears on every one’s temper, but luck -was against them and an attempt on the 20th December by a “selected -party” under some R.E.’s and Lieutenants Law and Christy was ruined -by the moonlight and the fact that the enemy had returned to their -concrete hutch and were more than on the alert. By the light of later -knowledge the Battalion was inclined to believe that the dug-out had -been left as bait and that there were too many spies in our lines -before Laventie. - -On the 21st December the Battalion came out for Christmas and -billeted at Laventie, as their next turn would be in the old sector -that they had handed over to the 4th Grenadiers three weeks ago. The -same Battalion relieved them on this day, and, as before, were an -hour late in turning up--a thing inexcusable except on one’s own part. - -Their Adjutant’s preoccupations with officers sick and wounded; -N.C.O.’s promoted to commissions in line battalions, and the catching -and training of their substitutes; and with all the housekeeping -work of a battalion in the field, had not prevented him from making -strict and accurate inquiries at Headquarters as to “what exactly is -being sent out for Christmas Day. Is it plum-pudding only or sausages -alone? Last year we had both, but I should like to know for certain.” - -All things considered (and there was no shelling), Christmas dinner -at La Gorgue 1915 was a success, and “the C.O. and other officers -went round the dinners as at home” in merciful ignorance that those -of them who survived would attend three more such festivals. - -Major-General Lord Cavan, commanding the Guards Division, who had -been appointed to command the newly formed Fourteenth Corps,[7] -addressed the officers after dinner and half-promised them the -Christmas present they most desired. He spoke well of the Battalion, -as one who had seen and shared their work had right to do, saying -that “there might be as good, but there were none better,” and added -that “there was just a hope that the Guards Division might eventually -go to his corps.” They cheered. - -The quiet that fell about Christmastide held till the birth of the -New Year, which the inscrutable Hun mind celebrated punctually on -the hour (German time) with twenty minutes’ heavy machine-gun and -rifle-fire in the darkness. One killed and one wounded were all their -casualties. - -Here is the roll of the Officers and Staff of the Battalion as the -year ended in mud, among rotten parapets and water-logged trenches, -with nothing to show for all that had gone before save time gained -and ground held to allow of preparation for the real struggle, on -the edge of which these thousand soldiers and all their world stood -ignorant but unshaken: - - -HEADQUARTERS - - Lieut.-Colonel R. C. A. McCalmont Commanding Officer. - Major Lord Desmond FitzGerald Adjutant. - Lieut. T. E. G. Nugent a./Adjutant. - Hon. Lieut. H. Hickie Quartermaster. - Capt. P. H. Antrobus Transport. - Lieut. C. Pease Brigade Company. - Lieut. L. C. Whitefoord “ - Lieut. J. Grayling-Major Depot. - Capt. Rev. A. H. A. Knapp, O.P. Chaplain. - Capt. P. R. Woodhouse, R.A.M.C. Medical Officer. - No. 108 Sgt. Major Kirk Sgt. Major. - No. 176 Q.M.S. J. M. Payne Q.M.S. - No. 918 Drill-Sgt. T. Cahill Senior Drill Sgt. - No. 2666 Drill-Sgt. G. Weeks Junior Drill Sgt. - No. 1134 O.R.Cr. Sgt. P. Matthews Orderly-Room Sgt. at Base. - No. 3933 Sgt. Dr. W. Cherry Sgt. Drummer. - No. 1119 Sgt. R. Nugent a./Pioneer Sgt. - No. 837 Armr. Q.M.S. S. Bradley Armr. Q.M.S. - No. 3874 Sgt. M. Greaney Transport Sgt. - No. 4166 Sgt. J. Fawcett Signalling Sgt. - No. 2900 Sgt. P. J. Curtis Orderly-Room Clerk. - - -_No. 1 Company._ - - Capt. R. G. C. Yerburgh. - Lieut. D. J. B. FitzGerald. - 2562 C.S.M. P. A. Carroll. - (3726 C.Q.M.S. P. M’Goldrick.) - 3303 a./C.Q.M.S. J. Glynn. - - -_No. 2 Company._ - - Capt. V. C. J. Blake. - Lieut. C. E. R. Hanbury. - 3949 C.S.M. D. Voyles. - 999 C.Q.M.S. H. Payne. - - -_No. 3 Company._ - - Capt. T. M. D. Bailie. - Capt. A. F. L. Gordon. - Lieut. S. E. F. Christy. - Lieut. K. E. Dormer. - (2112 C.S.M. H. M’Veigh.) - 3972 C.Q.M.S. R. Grady. - 2922 a./C.S.M. J. Donolly. - - -_No. 4 Company._ - - Capt. P. S. Long-Innes. - Lieut. Hon. H. B. O’Brien (Bombing Officer). - Lieut. R. J. P. Rodakowski. - 2nd Lieut. M. B. Levy. - 3632 C.S.M. M. Moran. - (2122 C.Q.M.S. T. Murphy.) - 798 a./C.Q.M.S. J. Scanlon. - - - - -1916 - -THE SALIENT TO THE SOMME - - -Brigadier-General G. Feilding, D.S.O., as we know, succeeded Lord -Cavan in the command of the Guards Division, and the enemy woke up -to a little more regular shelling and sniping for a few days till -(January 4) the 1st Guards Brigade was unexpectedly relieved by a -fresh brigade (the 114th), and the Battalion moved to billets in St. -Floris which, as usual, were “in a very filthy condition.” There they -stayed, under strong training at bombing and Lewis gunnery, till -the 12th. Thence to Merville till the 23rd, when Lieutenant Hon. H. -B. O’Brien, a specialist in these matters, as may have been noticed -before, was appointed Brigade Bombing Officer. The bomb was to be the -dominant factor of the day’s work for the next year or so, and the -number of students made the country round billets unwholesome and -varied. There is a true tale of a bombing school on a foggy morning -who, hurling with zeal over a bank into the mist, found themselves -presently being cursed from a safe distance by a repairing party -who had been sent out to discover why one whole system of big-gun -telephone-wires was dumb. They complained that the school had “cut it -into vermicelli.” - -The instruction bore fruit; for, so soon as they were back in the -trenches at Ebenezer farm, which they had quitted on the 4th, bombing -seems to have been forced wherever practicable. A weak, or it might -be more accurate to say, a sore point had developed on the front in -a crater thrown up by one of our own mines, which it was necessary -to sap out to and protect by intermittent bombing. This brought -retaliation and a few casualties nightly. A trench-mortar battery -was imported to deal with the nuisance and, as might be expected, -drew the enemy’s artillery. - -On the 28th January a single stray bullet in the dark found and -killed Captain V. C. J. Blake, No. 2 Company, while he was laying out -some work in wire for his company, and a bombing attack round the -mine-crater ended in three other ranks killed and one wounded. - -On February 1 our mine-shaft in the same locality flooded without -warning and drowned a couple of men in a listening-post. Our pumps -could make no impression on the water; it was difficult to put up -any head-cover for the men in the forward sap, and the enemy’s wire -was being strengthened nightly and needed clearing away. This was -routine-work undertaken by our artillery who blew gaps in it in three -places, which the Battalion covered with machine-gun fire. It kept -the enemy reasonably quiet, and H.R.H. Prince Albert, who was out on -a tour from England, breakfasted with Battalion Headquarters the same -morning (February 5). Once again the enemy’s information must have -been inaccurate or delayed since there is no mention of any shelling -or aeroplane work on Headquarters. - -They came out of the line on the 7th and billeted near Merville. -Reckoned by their standards it had been an uneventful stretch of -duty, and those officers who could be spared had gone on short leave; -for there was a rumour that leave would be stopped after the 20th of -the month. The French and their English allies knew well that the -great German attack on Verdun was ripening (it opened in the third -week of February) and the world had no doubt of the issues that -depended upon that gate to the heart of France holding fast. The -whole long line stiffened to take the weight of any sudden side-issue -or main catastrophe that the chance of war might bring about. But a -battalion among hundreds of battalions knows as little what its own -movements mean as a single truck in a goods yard knows of the import -and export trade of Great Britain. The young officers snatched their -few hours’ leave at home, loyally told their people that all was -going well, returned--“to a most interesting lecture on the Battle -of Neuve Chapelle,” delivered at La Gorgue by a Divisional Staff -Officer, and to an inspection of the 1st Guards Brigade by Lord -Kitchener on a vile wet day when they were all soaked to the skin -(February 10), and “to the usual routine in very poor weather.” - -Lord Desmond FitzGerald, being now second in command by seniority, -resigned his adjutancy and was succeeded by Lieutenant T. E. G. -Nugent; No. 2, Captain Blake’s, Company was commanded by Major the -Hon. A. C. S. Chichester, fresh from home, and Father S. Knapp, -their priest, who had been transferred to the 1st London Irish, -was followed by Father J. Lane-Fox from the same Battalion. Of the -six Fathers who served the two battalions, two--Fathers Gwynne and -S. Knapp, D.S.O., M.C.--were killed, one--Father F. M. Browne, -M.C.--wounded twice, and one--Father F. S. Browne, M.C.--wounded once. - -On the face of it nothing could have been quieter and more domestic -than their daily life round Merville, and after a week of it they -were moved (February 16) north towards Steenvoorde, in a hurricane -of wind and rain, to the neighbourhood of Poperinghe, on the -Ypres-Poperinghe-Dunkirk road, and a camp of tents, mostly blown -down, and huts connected, for which small ease they were grateful, -by duck-boards. This brought them into the Second Army area and into -the Fourteenth Corps under Lord Cavan, precisely as that officer had -hoped. He explained to them there was “a small German offensive” on -the left of the line here, and that “if it came to anything” the -Brigade might be wanted. - -The “small offensive” had opened on the 13th with a furious -bombardment of the extreme southern end of the Ypres Salient between -the Ypres-Comines Canal and Ypres-Comines railway, a little to the -south of Hill 60, followed by the springing of five mines under -the British front line and an infantry attack, which ended in the -capture by the enemy of four or five hundred yards of trench and -the low ridge called “The Bluff,” over which they ran. The affair -bulked big in the newspaper-press of the day; for a battalion, -the 10th Lancashire Fusiliers, was literally buried by one of the -mine explosions. The German gain was well held, but prevented from -extending by a concentration of our artillery, and later on (March 2) -the whole position was recaptured after desperate fighting and the -line there came to rest. - -For the first time the Battalion seems impressed by the hostile -aircraft with which the Salient was filled. Poperinghe and Hazebrouck -were bombed almost as soon as they came in, and their camp was -visited by four aeroplanes at high noon, after a snow-fall, which -showed up everything below. They had been attending a demonstration -to prove the harmlessness of a Flammenwerfer if only one lay flat -on the ground and let the roaring blast hiss over. Ribald men have -explained, since, that these demonstrations were more demoralising -than the actual machine in action, especially when, as occasionally -happened, the nozzle of the flame-shooter carried away and, in the -attempts to recontrol the thing, the class, bombed from above and -chased by fire below, broke and fled. - -But the whole Salient was a death-trap throughout. The great shells -crossed each other’s path at every angle, back and forth, single -or in flights. For no certain cause that our side could guess, -fire would concentrate itself on some half-obliterated feature of -the landscape--a bank, the poor stumpage of a wood, a remnant of a -village or the angle of a road, that went out in smoke, dust, and -flying clods, as though devils were flinging it up with invisible -spades. The concentrated clamours would die down and cease; the -single shells would resume their aimless falling over a line of -fields, with the monotony of drips from a tap, till, again, it seemed -as though one of them had found something worthy of attention and -shouted back the news to its fellows who, crowding altogether in one -spot, roared, overturned, and set alight for five or ten wild minutes -or through a methodical half-hour. If the storm fell on bare ground, -that was churned and torn afresh into smoking clods; if upon men in -trenches, on relief, or with the transport, no eye could judge what -harm had been done; for often where it had seemed as though nothing -could live, dispersed units picked themselves up and reformed, almost -untouched, after inconceivable escapes. Elsewhere, a few spurts of -stinking smoke in a corner might cover all that remained of a platoon -or have ripped the heart out of a silent, waiting company. By night, -fantastic traceries of crossing fire-lines ran along the shoulder of -a ridge; shrapnel, bursting high, jetted a trail of swift sparks, -as it might be steel striking flint; dropping flares outlined some -tortured farm-house among its willow-stumps, or the intolerable glare -of a big shell framed itself behind a naked doorway; and coloured -lights dyed the bellies of the low clouds till all sense of distance -and direction was lost, and the bewildered troops stumbled and -crawled from pavé to pot-hole, treading upon the old dead. - -Dawn brought dirty white desolation across yellow mud pitted with -slate-coloured water-holes, and confused by senseless grey and -black lines and curled tangles of mire. There was nothing to see, -except--almost pearl-coloured under their mud-dyed helmets--the -tense, preoccupied faces of men moving with wide spaces between their -platoons, to water-floored cellars and shelters chillier even than -the grave-like trenches they had left, always with the consciousness -that they were watched by invisible eyes which presently would choose -certain of them to be killed. Those who came through it, say that the -sense of this brooding Death more affected every phase of life in the -Salient than in any other portion of the great war-field. - -The German offensive on the Bluff and the necessary measures of -retaliation did not concern the Battalion for the moment. After a -few days’ aimless waiting they were sent, in bitter cold and snow, -to rest-camp at Calais for a week. They were seven hours slipping -and sliding along the snow-covered roads ere they could entrain at -Bavichore Street, and untold hours detraining at the other end; -all of which annoyed them more than any bombing, even though the -C.O. himself complimented them on their march “under very trying -circumstances.” The Irish, particularly in their own battalions, have -not the relief of swearing as other races do. Their temperament runs -to extravagant comparisons and appeals to the Saints, and ordinary -foul language, even on night-reliefs in muddy trenches choked with -loose wires and corpses, is checked by the priests. But, as one said: -“What we felt on that cruel Calais road, skatin’ into each other, -an’--an’ apologisin’, would have melted all the snows of Europe that -winter.” - -Bombing instruction and inter-platoon bombing matches on Calais beach -kept them employed. - -On March 3, during practice with live bombs, one exploded -prematurely, as several others of that type had done in other -battalions, and Major Lord Desmond FitzGerald was so severely wounded -that he died within an hour at the Millicent Sutherland (No. 9. Red -Cross) Hospital. Lieutenant T. E. G. Nugent was dangerously wounded -at the same time through the liver, though he did not realise this -at the time, and stayed coolly in charge of a party till help came. -Lieutenant Hanbury, who was conducting the practice, was wounded in -the hand and leg, and Father Lane-Fox lost an eye and some fingers. - -Lord Desmond FitzGerald was buried in the public cemetery at Calais -on the 5th. As he himself had expressly desired, there was no formal -parade, but the whole Battalion, of which he was next for the -command, lined the road to his grave. His passion and his loyalty had -been given to the Battalion without thought of self, and among many -sad things few are sadder than to see the record of his unceasing -activities and care since he had been second in command cut across by -the curt announcement of his death. It was a little thing that his -name had been at the time submitted for a well-deserved D.S.O. In a -hard-pressed body of men, death and sickness carry a special sting, -because the victim knows--and in the very articles of death feels -it--what confusion and extra work, rearrangement and adjustments of -responsibilities his enforced defection must lay upon his comrades. -The winter had brought a certain amount of sickness and minor -accidents among the officers, small in themselves, but cumulatively -a burden. Irreplaceable N.C.O.’s had gone, or were going, to take -commissions in the Line; others of unproven capacities had to be -fetched forward in their place. Warley, of course, was not anxious to -send its best N.C.O.’s away from a depot choked with recruits. The -detail of life was hard and cumbersome. It was a lengthy business -even to draw a typewriting machine for use in the trenches. Companies -two thirds full of fresh drafts had to be entrusted to officers who -might or might not have the divine gift of leadership, and, when -all was set, to-morrow’s chance-spun shell might break and bury the -most carefully thought-out combinations. “Things change so quickly -nowadays,” Desmond FitzGerald wrote not long before his death; “it is -impossible to see ahead.” And Death took him on Calais beach in the -full stride of his power. - -He had quietly presented the Battalion the year before with service -drums. “No mention need be made of who paid.” They were the only -battalion of the Brigade which lacked them at that time, and they had -been the only battalion to bring them out of the beginning of the -war, when, during the retreat from Mons, “the artillery drove over -the big drum at Landrecies.” - -Temporary Captain A. F. L. Gordon followed Lieutenant Nugent as -Adjutant, and the Rev. F. M. Browne from G.H.Q. replaced Father -Lane-Fox. They moved into the Salient again on the 6th March, -billeting at Wormhoudt, and were told several unpleasant things about -the state of the line and the very limited amount of “retaliation” -that they might expect from their own artillery. - -The snow stopped all training except a little bombing. Opinion as -to the value of bombs differed even in those early days, but they -were the order of the day, and gave officers the chance to put in -practice their pet theories of bowling. A commanding officer of great -experience wrote, a year later, after the Battle of Arras, thanking -Heaven that that affair had “led to the rediscovery of the rifle as -a suitable weapon for infantry,” adding, “I swear a bomb is of all -weapons the most futile in which to specialize.” - -The French were as keen on the bomb as the rest of the world, and -parties of officers visited our bombing competitions at Wormhoudt, -where the Battalion lay till the 16th March, moving to billets -(Brandhoek) near Vlamertinghe for St. Patrick’s Day and the sports -sacred to the occasion. They were played into camp by a naval party -to the tune of “A Life on the Ocean Wave,” not a little to their -astonishment. A little later they were to be even more astonished. - -Then the 1st Guards Brigade took over their sector of the Fourteenth -Division’s new front from the Sixth Division and, as usual, -complained that the trenches which ran from the east to the town were -in bad condition. The Brigade Reserve camp near Vlamertinghe was not -much better. It is significant that, at this date, a train, specially -oiled and treated to run noiselessly through the night, used to take -the reliefs up into Ypres--a journey that did not lack excitement. - -On the 23rd March, as the Battalion was going into the trenches -on the Ypres Canal bank, the meaning of that “naval party” at -Vlamertinghe became plainer. Three naval officers and twenty-five -petty officers on special leave appeared among them for the purpose -of spending a happy four days with them at their labours. They wore -the uniforms of private soldiers without pack or equipment, and were -first seen joyously walking and talking on a well-observed road, -which combination of miracles led the amazed beholders to assume -that they were either lunatics or escaped criminals of the deepest -dye; and it was a toss-up that the whole cheery picnic-party was -not arrested--or shot to save their lives. One officer, at least, -had the liveliest memories of chaperoning for several hours a naval -officer with a passion for professional souvenirs in the shape of -large-calibre shell fragments. “I’ve never been at the wrong end of -this size gun before,” the mariner would say as the German heavies -fell. “It’s tremendously interesting! I _must_ just make sure about -that fuse, if you don’t mind.” The host, to whom 5.9’s, and much -larger, were no novelty (for the Canal bank dug-outs did not keep -them out) had to feign an interest he did not feel till it dawned on -the sailor that if he pursued his investigations too far he would -be cut off by German patrols. The visitors all agreed that ships, -under normal circumstances, were the Hotel Ritz compared to the daily -trench-routine of the army. We vaingloriously fired several rounds -from a 9.2 to please the Senior Service who, naturally, had seen such -things before. The enemy replied with two days’ full “retaliation” -after the navy had left. - -Yet, as things went in the Salient, it was, like their reserve -camp, “not too uncomfortable.” Though there was only one workable -communication-trench (The Haymarket) to their line, and that a bad -one, the main St. Jean road could be used after dark at reasonable -risks. No work was possible by daylight, but, except for general and -indiscriminate shelling, they lived quietly, even when, as happened -on the first night (March 23), No. 1 Company and Headquarters were -solemnly misguided down the Menin road in the dark _over_ Hell Fire -Corner to within a few hundred yards of Hooge and returned “without -even being fired at.” The regimental transport, too, managed to come -up as far as Potijze with supplies, on three of the four nights of -the Battalion’s first tour, and had no casualties, “though the woods -were regularly shelled.” This was an extraordinary stroke of luck for -the Battalion since other transports had suffered severely. - -The outstanding wonder that any one in the Salient should be alive -at all, is not referred to in the Diary. Men who watched the shape -of that cape of death, raken by incessant aeroplanes and cross-cut -by gun-fire that fell equally from the flanks and, as it seemed, the -very rear, sometimes speculated, as did the French in the livelier -hells of Verdun, how long solid earth itself could hold out against -the upheavals of the attack. Flesh and blood could endure--that was -their business--but the ground on which they stood did not abide. As -one man said: “It ’ud flee away in lumps under the sole of your foot, -till there was no rest anywhere.” - -Their first four days’ tour saw three men killed in the line by -a single whizz-bang in a dug-out; one wounded, and an officer, -Lieutenant R. J. P. Rodakowski, slightly hit by a piece of shrapnel. -They buried their dead by night at Potijze. Reliefs were the real -difficulty; for the line and the roads were continuously shelled, -and at any moment in the dusk they might find their only sound -communication-trench impassable. They watched it go up from end -to end, one dreadful night on the 29th of March, when they were -in support and the Grenadiers in the line, and the King’s Company -was wiped out almost to a man. It was a prelude to an attack that -never arrived--a suddenly launched, suddenly arrested, wantonness of -destruction. Coming, going, standing, or sitting still gave no minute -of guaranteed safety. A party returning from home-leave were caught -by a single shell in the streets of Ypres on April 2. Sergeant-Major -Kirk and a private were killed, and an N.C.O. and three men were -wounded. Men dropped, too, almost in the hour when they took their -leave. They worked up the line of nights, half the shift at a time -repairing damage, and the remainder standing by for attacks. - -On the 3rd April, after an untouched turn of duty, eight men were -wounded by blind fire during the relief. - -At Poperinghe, on April 4, they were billeted in the Convent which -supplied them with variety entertainments, cinemas, band concerts, -and performing troupes, all liable at any moment to be dispersed by -the enemy’s artillery or ’planes and therefore doubly precious. -The Battalion had its share of professional honour, too, in a -matter of ceremonial. As regards the outside world the Brigade of -Guards is one; as regards the various battalions of it, there are -allowable internal differences of opinion. Consequently when a -Russian General, late Chief of the Staff to the Grand Duke Nicholas -of Russia, visited Poperinghe, and the 1st Battalion of the Irish -Guards--out of five Guards Battalions within reach--was chosen as -the one for him to inspect, life smiled upon them, and they rose to -the occasion. Hear the words of an observer, experienced, if not -altogether disinterested: “The day (April 5) was lovely, and our -fellows, in spite of their months of trench-work, did magnificently. -The wonderful precision of their drill excited the admiration even of -officers belonging to some of the other regiments. The Huns missed a -grand opportunity.” - -The Huns had their revenge a few days later when the Battalion’s -billets and Headquarters at Poperinghe were suddenly, on April 11, -shelled just as the Battalion was going into line at Ypres. The -thing began almost with a jest. The Regimental Chaplain was taking -confessions, as is usual before going up, in Poperinghe Church, when -the building rocked to bursts of big stuff obviously drawing nearer. -He turned to open the confessional-slide, and smelt gas--chlorine -beyond doubt. While he groped wildly for his gas-helmet in the -dusk, the penitent reassured him: “It’s all right, Father. I’ve -been to Divisional Gas School to-day. That smell’s off my clothes.” -Relieved, the Padre went on with his duties to an accompaniment -of glass falling from the windows, and when he came out, found -the porch filled with a small crowd who reported: “Lots of men -hit in an ambulance down the road.” Thither ran the Padre to meet -a man crazy with terror whom a shell-burst had flung across the -street, half-stripped and blackened from head to foot. He was given -Absolution, became all of a sudden vehemently sick, and dropped into -stupor. Next, on a stretcher, an Irish Guardsman crushed by a fallen -wall, reported for the moment as “not serious.” As the priest turned -to go, for more wounded men were being borne up through the dusk, -the lad was retaken by a violent hæmorrhage. Supreme Unction at once -was his need. Captain Woodhouse, R.A.M.C., the regimental doctor, -appeared out of the darkness, wounded in the arm and shoulder, his -uniform nearly ripped off him and very busy. He had been attending -a wounded man in a house near headquarters when a shell burst at -the door, mortally wounded the patient, killed one stretcher-bearer -outright and seriously wounded two others. The Padre, dodging shells -_en route_, dived into the cellars of the house where he was billeted -for the Sacred Elements, went back to the wayside dressing-station, -found a man of the Buffs, unconscious, but evidently a Catholic (for -he carried a scapular sewed in his tunic), anointed him, and--the -visitation having passed like a thunder-storm--trudged into Ypres -unworried by anything worse than casual machine-gun fire, and set -himself to find some sufficiently large sound cellar for Battalion -Mass next morning. The Battalion followed a little later and went -underground in Ypres--Headquarters and a company in the Carmelite -Convent, two companies in the solid brick and earth ramparts that -endure to this day, and one in the cellars of the Rue de Malines. - -It was the mildest of upheavals--a standard-pattern affair hardly -noted by any one, but it serves to show what a priest’s and a -doctor’s duties are when the immediate heavy silence after a -shell-burst, that seems so astoundingly long, is cut by the outcries -of wounded men, and the two hurry off together, stumbling and feeling -through the dark, till the electric torch picks up some dim, veiled -outline, or hideously displays the wounds on the body they seek. -There is a tale of half a platoon among whom a heavy gas-shell -dropped as they lay in the flank of a cutting beside a road. Their -platoon-commander hurried to them, followed by the sergeant, calling -out to know the extent of the damage. No one replied. The question -was repeated. Then: “Speak up when the Officer’s askin’,” cried the -scandalized sergeant. But even that appeal failed. They were all dead -where they lay, and, human nature being what it is, the sergeant’s -words became a joke against him for many days after. Men cannot live -in extreme fear for more than a very limited time. Normal little -interests save them; so while they lay in cellars by candle-light -at Ypres and worked stealthily at night, the Battalion found time -to make a most beautiful Irish Star, four feet across, of glass and -pounded brick from the rubbish of the Convent garden. It was a work -of supererogation, accomplished while cleaning up the billets, which -drew favourable notice from high authorities. - -On the 16th April they were shifted to relieve the 2nd Grenadiers at -Railway Wood north-west of Hooge. This was almost the most easterly -point of the Salient on the north of the Menin road by the Roulers -railway, and ranked as quite the least desirable stretch of an -acutely undesirable line. In addition to every other drawback, the -wood welled water at every pore, for the Bellewaarde Beck brought to -it all the drainage from the Bellewaarde ridge, and even the trenches -on high ground were water-logged. They were bombed from overhead as -soon as they moved in; Hell Fire Corner was shelled on the 17th April -and six men were wounded. - -The 18th April was quiet, only two men wounded, and “except for -violent bombardments, north and south, and an attack on Wieltje and -other places,” so was the 19th. Wieltje was two thousand yards, -and the “other places” even farther away. The “disturbance” was -nothing more than principal German attacks on four different fronts -of the Salient among mud and mud-filled shell-holes and craters of -old mines where men sunk and choked where they fought waist-deep -in the dirt; where the clogged rifles were useless, and the bomb -and the bayonet were the only hope. From any reasonable point of -view the Salient was a particularly weak position, always worth an -attack in the intervals of its regular use as a gunnery school for -German artillery. The enemy knew that we were on the way to take the -pressure off the French at Verdun, which had been a factory of death -since February, and argued that it would be well to make trouble -anywhere they could. They chose the 1st and 2nd Canadian Divisions -round Ypres, and fought them for two days with very little profit -beyond filling more shell-holes with more dead. - -At that date men had learned by experience the comparative values -of their flanking divisions and the battalions immediately beside -them. When a local attack fell on some of these, those unaffected -would rest as unconcernedly as the watch below takes its ease when -the watch on deck is struggling with the squall. The syren-like hoot -of the gas-horns, one or two miles off, might break their rest on -relief, but the division involved being known to be adequate, the -Battalion was not roused and “spent a quiet day.” Other divisions, -new to the line caused anxiety and interfered with regular routine, -till they had shaken into place; and yet others might be always -trusted to hoot and signal for help on the least provocation. -These peculiarities would be discussed in the cantonments and -coffee-bars of the rest-areas, or, later, out on the roadside -with an occasional far-ranging German shell to interrupt a really -pleasant inter-battalion or divisional argument where, if reports -be true, even the Military Police sometimes forget to be impartial. -And there were unambitious, unimproving units quite content to -accept anything that their predecessors had left them in the way of -openwork parapets, gapped sandbags, and smashed traverses. Against -these, experienced corps builded, not without ostentation, strong -flanks so that if their neighbours went of a sudden, they themselves -might still have a chance for their lives. The Irish had a saying -of their own--a sort of lilting call that ran down the trenches at -odd times--to the effect that God being in his Heaven and “the -Micks in the line, all was well. Pom-pom!” Every battalion, too, -had its own version of the ancient war-song which claims that they -themselves were in the front line with their best friends of the -moment immediately behind them, but that when they went to look for -such-and-such a battalion with whom they were unfriends for the -moment, they were blessed (or otherwise) if they could find them. - -Theirs was the misfortune to be the only battalion of the division -available for fatigues during their sixteen days’ tour; so they -supplied parties without intermission, both to the trenches round -Railway Wood, and in battered Ypres in the cellars where they rested -by candle-light to the accompaniment of crashing masonry and flying -pavement blocks. A fatigue-party, under Lieutenant T. K. Walker, -carrying Engineers’ stuff to near Railway Wood, was caught and -shelled on the 24th, on the last two hundred yards or so of utterly -exposed duckboards, every piece of which the enemy guns had taped to -a yard. The water-logged soil made any sort of trenches here out of -the question. Men slid, and staggered across the open under their -loads till the shells chose to find them, or they reached Railway -Wood and found some cover in the mine which was always being made -there and always pumped out. Lieutenant Walker and four men were -killed at once and seven men were wounded, of whom two afterwards -died. It was as swift as the shelling of Headquarters at Poperinghe -on the 11th; and Captain Woodhouse, the M.O., had to get forward to -the wreckage under a heavy fire of shells and aerial torpedoes. With, -or not far from him, went, crawled, ran or floundered the priest; for -if by any means the body could be relieved, repaired or eased, so -could the soul. It is true that both these men more or less respected -direct orders not to expose themselves too much, but they suffered -from curious lapses of memory. - -Then Spring came to the Salient in one swift rush, so warm and so -windless that, at the end of April, when they were in rest under -leafing trees at Poperinghe, it was possible to dine in shirt -sleeves in the open by candle and starlight. The gentle weather -even softened the edge of war for a day or two, till Ypres and the -neighbourhood were vigorously shelled on the 5th May. The Battalion -was then in Ypres prison and the cellars beneath it, where some -unloved enthusiast had discovered that there was plenty of room for -drill purposes in the main gaol-corridor, and drilled they were -accordingly to the music of the bombardments. On such occasions -men were sometimes seen to “budge,” _i.e._ roll their eyes in the -direction of plaster and stones falling from the ceiling, for which -heinous “crime” their names were justly taken. - -On the 9th May they relieved the 2nd Grenadiers on the left sector of -their Brigade’s front at Wieltje, where what were once trenches had -been bombed and shelled into a sketchy string of bombing-posts--or -as a man said, “grouse-butts.” It was perhaps one degree worse than -their stretch at Hooge and necessitated companies and posts being -scattered, as the ground served, between what was left of Wieltje, -St. Jean, and La Brique. The enemy opened by shelling the Reserve -Company (No. 4) at St. Jean and wounding eight men, while their -machine-gun fire held up all work in the front line where No. 1 -Company was trying to dig a communication-trench through old dirt and -dead to No. 2 Company in support. - -The demonstration might have meant anything or nothing, but to be on -the safe side and to comply with Brigade orders, regular observation -and snipers’ posts were posted henceforward, and Lieutenant -Rodakowski was struck off all trench duties as “Intelligence (and -Sniping) Officer.” The arrangements and supervision of a dozen or so -snipers, imaginative, stolid or frankly bored, as the case might be, -and the collation of their various reports based (for very little -could be actually seen) on the Celtic imagination operating at large; -the whole to be revised and corrected from hour to hour by one’s own -faculties of observation and deduction; make Intelligence work a -little strenuous. - -On the 12th May St. Jean, which included Battalion Headquarters, half -way between St. Jean and Wieltje, was heavily shelled for eight hours -of the night with heavy stuff--but no casualties beyond a couple of -men wounded. - -On the 18th May, when they were in the line once more, the enemy -who had recently been remarkably quiet made an attempt to rush a -bombing-post, but, says the Diary, “Lieutenant Tisdall and 4182 -Private A. Young came upon them unexpectedly, and owing to the -former’s coolness and the latter’s vigorous offensive action with -rifle and bombs, the hostile party, about twenty, fled.” The Diary -is never emotional in such little matters as these, and the officers -concerned say less than nothing. It is the old-timers among the men -who cherish memories of the “vigorous offensive” action. No pen dare -put on paper the speech of the orderly who, with rifle and bomb, -erupts along the trench or over the edge of the shell-crater either -in deadly silence or with threatenings and slaughter in his own -dialect, and, when the quick grisly business is over, convulses his -associates with his private version of it. - -The orderly got the D.C.M. and the officer the Military Cross. - -The enemy retaliated next night by shelling the support line and -wounded seven men just as the Battalion was going into rest and -was relieved late, which they noticed with deep displeasure, by a -battalion of the Twentieth Division. - -The 20th May saw them in the clean back-area at the pleasant -well-treed village of Longuenesse, three miles south-west of St. -Omer, all together in good billets and plenty of clean straw at one -farm; Headquarters at a neighbouring château, the 2nd Coldstream, -their particular friends with them, and the other battalions of their -brigade at villages near by. The weather was good; for a week at -least work was reasonable, and they all went to pay a visit disguised -as a “Battalion Drill” to the parade ground of the cadet-school at -Blendecques, of which Lieutenant J. Halligan, late Orderly-Room -Quartermaster-Sergeant of the Battalion, was Adjutant. It is -reasonable to infer that the Russian General at the Poperinghe camp -got no better in the way of a ceremonial parade than did their old -comrade. - -The shadow of preparations for the Somme fell over them afterwards. -They dug quadruple lines of trenches and assaulted them in full kit -with gas helmets; and found time, between whiles, to hold a boxing -competition, at which the 12th Lancers arrived with “their private -Young,” who was defeated by the Battalion’s Company Sergeant-Major -Voyles. These things are as sacred as the Eton dinner at St. Omer on -the 3rd June, which seven officers from the Battalion attended. - -On the 7th June they moved on a twelve-mile march to Hondeghem, under -Cassel, _en route_ for a Poperinghe camp once more, and developed -several cases of sore feet. This was put down to a “bad issue of -socks,” but it supports the theory of the Sergeant’s Mess, that -nothing but careful inspection, coupled with steady route-marching, -can “put a foot” on men who have been paddling in trench-mud with -twisted, water-logged boots. - -At Poperinghe they were coolies again till they went into line on the -15th June. A permanent fatigue-party of 150, under 2nd Lieutenants -Hegarty and Earle, was sent to the Engineers near Ypres. Another, a -hundred strong, helped to bury field-cables by night at Brielen on -the Ypres-Elverdinghe road, a place much sought after by the enemy’s -artillery. But digging is reckoned better than drill, and their next -tour of duty was to be a wearisome one. Lieutenant J. N. Marshall -from the Entrenching Battalion joined on the 15th, and Lieutenant J. -K. Greer took command of No. 1 Company, Lieutenant Law being on a -course. - -They relieved the 11th Essex and the 8th Bedfordshires (Sixth -Division) on the night of the 16th, in the surprisingly short time -of one hour, which was nearly a record and showed that all hands -were abreast of their work. Their new sector lay north-west of -Wieltje and due north of Ypres, covering the Ypres-Pilckem road, -with supports at Lancashire farm, and the Battalion Headquarters amid -loose bricks and mud on the Canal bank. The trenches were bad; only -one communication-trench (Skipton Road) was moderately dry, and the -parapets were thin, low and badly gapped, which gave enemy snipers -their chance. Two men were killed outright the first day; one died of -wounds and four were wounded. - -No Man’s Land at this point was several hundred yards deep, and -covered with long grass and weeds. The periscopes soon learned to -know that poppies and thistles grew brightest and tallest round the -edges of shell-holes, and since shell-holes meant cover, all patrols -directed their belly-flat course to them. - -On the 18th June officer patrols went out to look at the enemy’s -wire. Second Lieutenant F. H. N. Lee was wounded in the leg while -close to it, and was carried back by No. 3836 Corporal Redmond; dying -later of gangrene. Another officer, Lieutenant Hon. P. Ogilvy, ran -by mistake into wire on his return journey, and had to fight his way -back with his orderly. One man was killed and one wounded, besides -the wounded officer. - -On the 19th Lieutenant J. N. Marshall, while out with a -working-party, was sniped in the arm, but finished his work before -reporting it. A man was killed and two were wounded. “The day was -normal--probably the quietest of the tour,” says the Diary, but -one may be certain that certain inconspicuous German snipers were -congratulating themselves on their bag. The bulk of the trouble came -from five old dug-outs known as the “Canadian dug-outs,” some two or -three hundred yards away, which had once been in our hands. These had -been wired round collectively and individually, and their grass-grown -irregular moundage made perfect snipers’ nests. - -The Battalion lay, from the 21st to the 23rd June, in shelters round -and cellars beneath Elverdinghe Château, the trees of which were -still standing, so that it was possible to put in an inspection and -a little drill beneath them, but careful watch had to be kept for -hostile aeroplanes. Drill under these circumstances is discipline -of the highest. “’Tis not the dhrill, ye’ll understand, but the -not budgin’ in the ranks that’s so hard to come by. For, ye’ll -understand, that you can’t help liftin’ an eye when you hear _them_ -buzzin’ above. And, of course, if a man budges on parade, he’ll be -restless when he’s shelled.” - -Our artillery had been cutting German wire on the front of the -Division with the idea of raids to follow. Consequently, there was -night-firing on both sides when the Battalion went back on the 24th. -The trenches had been a little improved, and one man only was killed -and one wounded by the snipers. - -On the 26th June four men were sniped. On the 27th June wire-cutting -by our guns drew heavy retaliation from the enemy. Lieutenant F. L. -Pusch, D.S.O., as brave a man as the War made, who had only come up -from the Entrenching Battalion a few days before, was sniped and -killed at once. He had gone with his orderly to pick up a wounded man -in a trench, and both were hit by the same bullet. The sniper did his -best to kill Private Carroll, who dragged the wounded man and the -officer’s body under cover. Private Carroll was awarded the Military -Medal for this. Four dead and seven wounded were that night’s total. - -The 28th June was the worst of that tour. The enemy opened on -the trenches and supports through night and day with everything -available, down to aerial torpedoes, killing five men and wounding -eight. - -The casualties for a “quiet” twelve days’ tour, including three days -only in the front line, were three officers and forty-seven other -ranks killed and wounded. Some of the credit of this must go to the -German snipers, who, working without noise or display, gave the -Battalion the idea there was nothing much doing. The brutal outcry of -artillery, its visible effect on the ground--above all, the deadly -accuracy of the single aimed shells on the well-registered trench -from which none must move--upset men sometimes more than repeated -single casualties in the front line, which can be hurried off round -the traverses without rousing more than a few companions. - -They lay for a week beneath the trees near Poperinghe and started -inter-platoon bombing competitions to “accustom the men to throw -overarm without jerking.” These little events forbade monotony, and -were sometimes rather like real warfare, for not every one can be -trusted to deliver a ball accurately when he is throwing in against -time. - - -THE SOMME - -Meanwhile, Verdun had been in the fire since February, there was no -sign of the attacks on it weakening, and France and the world looked -uneasily at that dread point of contact where men and stuff consumed -as the carbon of arc-lights consumes in the current. It was time -that England should take the strain, even though her troops were not -fully trained or her guns yet free to spend shells as the needs of -the War demanded. What had gone before was merely the initial deposit -on the price of national unpreparedness; what was to come, no more -than a first instalment. It was vital to save Verdun; to so hold the -enemy on the western front that he could not send too much help to -his eastern line or his Austrian allies, who lay heavy on the Italian -Army: most vital, to kill as many Germans as possible. - -The main strength, the actual spine of the position, so far as the -British front was concerned, was some twenty-five miles of high -ground forming the water-shed between the Somme and the rivers of -southern Belgium, which ran, roughly, from Maricourt in the south, -where our line joined the French, to Gomiecourt in the north. Here -the enemy had sat untroubled for two years, looking down upon -France and daily strengthening himself. His trebled and quadrupled -lines of defence, worked for him by his prisoners, ran below and -along the flanks and on the tops of five-hundred-foot downs. Some -of these were studded with close woods, deadlier even than the -fortified villages between them; some cut with narrowing valleys -that drew machine-gun fire as chimneys draw drafts; some opening -into broad, seemingly smooth slopes, whose every haunch and hollow -covered sunk forts, carefully placed mine-fields, machine-gun pits, -gigantic quarries, enlarged in the chalk, connecting with systems -of catacomb-like dug-outs and subterranean works at all depths, in -which brigades could lie till the fitting moment. Belt upon belt of -fifty-yard-deep wire protected these points, either directly or at -such angles as should herd and hold up attacking infantry to the fire -of veiled guns. Nothing in the entire system had been neglected or -unforeseen, except knowledge of the nature of the men, who in due -time, should wear their red way through every yard of it. - -Neither side attempted to conceal their plans. The work of our airmen -would have been enough to have warned the enemy what was intended, -even had his own men overlooked the immense assembly of troops and -guns in a breadth of country that had been remodelled for their -needs, above ground and below. Our battalions in the Salient, where -the unmolested German aeroplanes bombed them, knew well enough that, -in the phrase of the moment, “everything had gone south,” and our -listening-posts in the front line round Ypres could tell very fairly -when a German “demonstration” was prompted by natural vice or orders -to cover a noisy withdrawal of their guns in the same direction. It -did not need placards in English, “Come on, we are ready for you!” -which were hoisted in some of the German trenches on that Somme front -to make men wiser than they had been for weeks past. - -Side by side with this elaborate and particular knowledge, plus a -multitude of camp-rumours, even more circumstantial, was the immense -incuriousness that always exists in veteran armies. Fresh drafts -would pour out from England filled with vain questions and the -hope of that immediate “open warfare,” so widely advertised, to be -told they would know all about it when their turn came, and that, -meantime, deep trenches were not bad things after all. When they -had looked for a little on the full face of war, they were content -to copy their elders and ask no questions. They understood it was -to be a wearing-out battle. Very many men had already been worn out -and cast aside in the mere detail of preparation, in building the -light and broad-gauge railways of supply and the roads beside them; -in fetching up and installing timber, hutments, hangars, telephones, -hospitals, pipe-lines for water, and the thousand other necessities -of mechanical war. As it happened to individuals, so, they knew, -would it be with the battalions, brigades and divisions of all the -armies which General Rawlinson on the 1st of July moved up against -that fortress of a whole countryside, called in history “The Somme.” - -And while that storm gathered and broke, the Battalion went on with -its horrible necessary work in the Salient till the hour should come -for it and its Division to be cast into the furnace and used up with -the rest. - -On the 7th July they moved as a support to the broken and filthy -banks of the Canal north of Ypres and sat in dug-outs connected by -a tunnel and begirt with water and mud. Except for a mere nightly -fatigue of a couple of hundred men, the Diary noted that “there -was no training possible but there was little shelling.” The 2nd -Grenadiers were in the line which the Battalion relieved (11th July) -on a broken and marshy front, between Buffs Road and Forward Cottage -with Battalion Headquarters near St. Jean and the 3rd Coldstream on -their left. They were shelled during relief, when Lieutenant Christy, -who, but a little while before, had just escaped a sniper’s bullet -through the loophole, was killed. - -That same morning four Germans wormed their way through the rank -grass and broken ground and for a while almost captured an isolated -post of six men of No. 1 Company. They tried, indeed, to march them -off as prisoners, but the Irish edged away under cover of the next -platoon’s fire, and all got back safely. The day closed with heavy -bombardments from 5.9’s. An officer and three other ranks killed and -seventeen wounded were counted as a light casualty-list “considering -the bad cover.” No man could stand upright for an instant, and all -repairs, parapets, and drainage work were done at night, stooping and -crawling between spurts of machine-gun hose-work. - -The 13th July was another “light” day with but seven men wounded. -Second Lieutenant G. V. Williams joined from the base and Major C. F. -Fleming went sick on the 14th. The sector being rather too active and -noisy of nights just then, a patrol under Lieutenant J. N. Marshall -went out to see what the enemy might intend in the way of digging a -sap across “No Man’s Land.” The Lieutenant was wounded in the side -as he left the trench, but insisted on doing his work and was out -two hours; for which he paid by having to go into hospital a month -later. Their casualties on the 15th, when they were relieved by the -2nd Grenadiers and went back to their dug-outs by the Canal, were -five wounded, one of whom died. Out of this tense life were suddenly -chosen an officer and twenty men to form part of the contingent -representing our armies at the French review in Paris on the 14th -July. They were chiefly veterans of 1914, and under Captain J. S. N. -FitzGerald, then of the 2nd Battalion, repaired to a bright clean -city where a man could hold up his head, walking in unchoked streets -between roofed and glazed houses: and the day after the glittering -affair was over they returned to their brick-heaps and burrows in the -Flanders mire. - -On the Battalion’s next turn (July 18-22), suspecting that the enemy -might be newly relieved, our patrols worked hard night after night -to catch prisoners for identification purposes. 2346 Lance-Corporal -Hennigan, a regimental “character” and a man of strong powers of -leadership, with 5743 Private O’Brien, of whom, too, many tales are -told, were marked as “very prominent in the work.” But the Germans -took great care not to leave men or corpses about, and they got -nothing for their toil. - -On the 23rd July orders came that their expected term of rest was to -be cancelled as the Division would go “elsewhere,” which all knew -meant towards the Somme. There were five days yet ere the Battalion -drew clear of the Salient, each day with its almost unnoticed -casualty that in the long run makes the bulk of the bills of war, and -brings home the fact that the life-blood of the Battalion is dripping -away. The support platoons were reckoned lucky to have only one man -killed on the 23rd after bombardment by a six-inch high-explosive -gun. Captain Pollok, who took over command of No. 1 Company on -the same day, was wounded two days later, just after relief, by a -machine-gun bullet; and their last “normal” day in the trenches gave -one sergeant killed and three other ranks wounded. - -They were relieved on the 27th July, after dark as usual, by the -1st Royal Warwicks, “recently come from the south, having been in -the fighting there.” The Warwicks knew “The Somme.” They looked on -the clean, creosoted, deep-bayed, high-parapeted trenches they were -to hold and announced that they would feel “cushy” in such a line. -“Cushy!” said the Brigade. “Wait till you’ve had to live in ’em!” -“But,” said the Warwicks, “you see, _we_’ve been fighting.” The large -Guardsmen looked at the little worn Linesmen and swallowed it in -silence. The 4th Division, to which the Warwicks belonged, had been -part of that terrible northern attack along the line from Serre to -Fricourt, which had spent itself in vain against the German defence -a month before, and had been ground and milled day by day since. But -all that the Diary notices is that that last relief was “carried out -smoothly and quietly” in what to the Warwicks, after such experience, -must have been grateful peace. - -After their three weeks in dug-outs, the Battalion rested and washed -south of merry Poperinghe which had been heavily shelled and for -some days completely evacuated. - -Between March 18 and July 18, excluding four weeks in rest, they had -lost four officers and thirty other ranks killed; five officers and a -hundred and fifty-three other ranks wounded--a total of one hundred -and ninety-two, in the mere routine of the slow days. - -There was a saying of the war, “no one notices weather in the front -line”; and it is curious that, so soon as the Battalion was above -ground, walking under naked skies with light and air all round -it, men dwelt on weather as almost a new discovery. They found it -hot when the Division entrained at Proven for St. Pol. Forty-two -trains took the Division and forty-seven lorries bore the Battalion -itself from St. Pol to Bouque-Maison on the Doullens road. There, -Headquarters were in an orchard beneath unbarked trees with leaves on -the branches and a background of gun-voices from the Somme, to remind -the men who laughed and talked in that shadow and sun what waited for -them after this short return to real life. - -They moved on the 4th August to Vauchelles-les-Authies, the -matchboard huts of which, on the trampled ground, have been likened -to a “demobbed poultry show.” It lay just off the well-worn -Doullens-Albert road, now flooded with a steady current of troops -and material. They waited there for ten days. During that time 2nd -Lieutenant Cook (4th Connaught Rangers), Lieutenant T. Butler-Stoney -from the Entrenching Battalion, and Lieutenant N. Butler from -Hospital joined them. - -The Regimental Band arrived from England for a three months’ tour. -The officer who accompanied it wore a wound-stripe--the very first -which the Battalion collectively had ever seen--and men wondered -whether wound-stripes would become common, and how many one might -accumulate. It was removed from the officer by laughing friends, as -a matter something too suggestive in present company, and the band -played in the still warm evenings, while the dust of feet going -Sommeward rose and stretched unbroken along the Doullens-Albert -pavé. Here the very tree-boles, before they began to be stripped and -splintered by shell-fire, were worn and rubbed beneath the touch of -men’s shoulders and gnawed by the halted horses. - -The King came on the 9th August to visit the Division. Special -arrangements were impossible, so bombing-assault practice went -on, while the officers of the Battalion were presented to him “in -the orchard where the messes were pitched.” He made no orations, -uttered no threats against his enemies, nor guaranteed the personal -assistance of any tribal God. His regiments merely turned out and -cheered the inconspicuous car as long as they could see it. But there -is a story that a Frenchman, an old Royalist, in whose wood some -officers had rigged a temporary hut of which he highly disapproved, -withdrew every claim and complaint on the promise that the chair in -which the King of England had sat should be handed over to him, duly -certificated. Which was done. - -On the 11th the Brigade moved over the open country _via_ Louvencourt -and Bertrancourt to the woods south of Mailly-Maillet, a six-mile -march in hot and dusty weather, and the Brigade (2nd Grenadiers, -3rd Coldstream, 2nd Coldstream in reserve and 1st Irish Guards in -support) took over trenches east of Englebelmer and “well within the -shell area.” Thiepval and the Schwaben redoubt across the Ancre were -only a thousand yards away and unsubdued; and, for a while, it looked -as though that weary corner of death was to be the Guards’ objective. -But, next day, orders came to move out of the line again, back to -high and breezy Louvencourt in warm rain, taking over billets from -the 2nd Sherwood Foresters and, by immense good luck, coming across -a heaven-sent Expeditionary Force Canteen, a thing not often found -in front-line billets. Upon this, pay was at once arranged for, and -every one shopped at large. The incident stayed in their minds long -after the details of mere battles were forgotten, and “that canteen -at Louvencourt” is a landmark of old memories. - -By this date the battle of the Somme was six weeks old, and our -troops had eaten several--in some places as much as five or -six--thousand yards deep into the area. Two main attacks had been -delivered--that of the 1st July, which had lasted till the 14th, -and that of the 14th, which went on till the end of the month. -From Serre to Ovillers-la-Boiselle the Germans’ front stood fast; -from Ovillers-la-Boiselle to the junction with the French armies -at Hardecourt, the first tremendous system of their defence had -been taken literally a few score yards at a time, trench by trench, -village by village, quarry by quarry, and copse by copse, lost, won, -and held again from three to eight or nine times. A surge forward -on some part of the line might succeed in making good a few hundred -yards of gain without too heavy loss. An isolated attack, necessary -to clear a flank or to struggle towards some point of larger command, -withered under enormous far concentrations of enemy guns, even as -the woods withered to snapped, charred stickage. At every step and -turn, hosts of machine-guns at ground-level swept and shaved the -forlorn landscapes; and when the utmost had been done for the day, -the displaced Germans seemed always to occupy the crest of some yet -higher down. Villages and woods vanished in the taking; were stamped -into, or blown out of, the ground, leaving only their imperishable -names. So, in the course of inconceivable weeks fell Mametz and the -ranked woods behind it, Contalmaison, Montauban, and Caterpillar -Wood, Bernafay, Trônes Wood, Longueval, and the fringe of Delville -(even then a charnel-house among shattered stumps), both Bazentins, -and Pozières of the Australians. The few decencies and accommodations -of the old settled trench-life were gone; men lived as best they -could in the open among eternal shell-holes and mounds of heaped -rubbish that were liable at any moment to be dispersed afresh; under -constant menace of gas, blinded with the smoke-screens of local -attacks, and beaten down from every point of the compass either -by enemy fire, suddenly gathered and loosed, or that of their own -heavies searching, from miles off, some newly cleared hollow or -skyline of the uplands where our troops lay indistinguishable from -the skinned earth. - -Battalions, brigades, and divisions went into the fight, were worn -down in more or in less time, precisely as the chances of the ground -either screened or exposed them for a while to the fire-blasts. -Sometimes it was only a matter of hours before what had been a -brigade ceased to exist--had soaked horribly into the ground. The -wastage was brought down and back across the shell-holes as well -as might be, losses were made good, and with a half, two thirds, -or three quarters, new drafts, the original Battalion climbed -back to its task. While some development behind the next fold of -land was in progress or brought to a standstill, they would be -concerned only with the life-and-death geography of the few hundred -yards immediately about them, or those few score yards over which -profitable advances could be made. A day, even an hour, later, the -use and value of their own hollow or ridge might be altogether -abolished. What had been a hardly won foothold would become the very -pivot of a central attack, or subside into a sheltered haven of -refuge, as the next dominating ridge or lap of the large-boned French -landscape was cleared. Equally suddenly, even while the men thanked -God for their respite, German batteries or a suddenly pushed-forth -chain of German machine-guns would pound or spray their shelter into -exposed torment once more. - -As one philosopher of that unearthly epoch put it some time -afterwards: “We was like fleas in a blanket, ye’ll understand, seein’ -no more than the next nearest wrinkle. But Jerry and our Generals, -ye’ll understand, they kept us hoppin’.” - -“Our Generals,” who, it may be presumed, knew all the wrinkles of -the blanket, shifted the Brigade on the 16th August opposite Serre -on the far left of the line, which was not destined to be pierced -till the next year. It was a fleeting transfer to another Army Corps; -their own, the Fourteenth, under Lord Cavan, having joined the Fourth -Army. They took over from the Somerset L.I. (61st Brigade) a set of -trenches which, after their experiences in the Salient, struck them -as dry, deep and good, but odd and unhomely. They had been French, -were from six to nine feet deep, paved in places with stone, which -our men had never seen in trenches before, and revetted with strange -French stickwork. The dug-outs, too, were not of their standard -patterns. The front line was badly battered, but reliefs could be -effected in broad daylight without casualties. The activities and -comforting presence of our aeroplanes impressed them also as a great -contrast to Ypres, where, naturally, our troops for the moment held -only a watching-brief and every machine that could be spared had gone -to the Somme. The dead of the opening battles lay thick about the -place. The Irish buried two hundred of a division that had passed -that way, five weeks or so before, and salved, with amazement at -its plenty, the wreckage of their equipment. “There’s the world -and all out there, Sorr,” said a man returning from his work. “The -very world an’ all! Machine-guns and”--his voice dropping in sheer -awe--“rum-jars!” They were unmolested, save by a few minenwerfers. -Undertaker’s work does not hearten any troops, and they were glad to -get back to hutments in the untouched woods behind Authie, near their -old “poultry-show.” During these days 2nd Lieutenants J. N. Ward -and T. Gibson joined from home, the latter going to the first-line -transport and Captain L. R. Hargreaves took over No. 2 Company on -joining from home on the 20th. - -On the 23rd August they moved with the Brigade across to Beauval on -the Doullens-Amiens road (where camps and hutments almost touched -each other), and on the 25th embarked at Canaples in a horror called -a “tactical train,” which was stuffed with two thousand of their -brigade. After slow and spasmodic efforts it bore them quite fifty -kilometres in seven hours to Méricourt l’Abbé, whence they marched to -Méaulte in a green hollow under the downs, and found themselves once -more in their own Fourteenth Corps under Lord Cavan. More immediately -to the point, and a thing long remembered, their billets were damp, -dirty, and full of fleas; the weather that was destined to ruin the -campaign broke in torrents of rain, and the continuous traffic of -stuff had knocked the very bowels out of all the hard-worked roads. -This was the first time they realised what the grey clinging Somme -mud meant. - -They trained in that wet at bombing, at assaulting from trenches, at -visual signalling to aeroplanes, and at marking out trenches by night -with white tapes, as scores of thousands had done before them, while -the roar of the guns rose and dropped without explanation, like the -tumult of unseen crowds; and rumours and contradictory orders for -standing fast or leaving on the instant kept them in tension for ten -days. But, most wonderful of all to the men from The Salient, where -silence and guarded movement were automatic, was the loud life of -this open-air world of troops around them--men and guns spread over -the breadth of counties--horses in the open by thousands ranked in -endless horse-lines--processions of roaring lorries and deep-rumbling -heavy guns; and, only a few miles away--the war in full blast. It was -possible to catch a ride in a lorry and go up and see “The War,” as -the saying ran. Yonder, but a very little way, stretched horizons, -downs, and tablelands as far as imagination could range. All the -firmament groaned to the artillery hidden and striving within them; -and statelily, and regularly and unceasingly, the vast spaces of -open were plumed with vertical columns of changeful shell-smoke. -Men perceived that everything they had known, till then, had been a -field-day. Here was The War! - -A story that a wonderful new weapon would soon appear was very -general. Some one had half-seen or been told about the tanks in their -well-screened shelters; one or two over-zealous English journals had -been industriously hinting at the developments of science; the enemy -was uneasy, and, German-fashion, had issued portentous instruction to -his men to be on their guard against something. But, however short -his training, the British infantryman is a born scoffer. “We had -heard about moving forts that weighed thirty ton,” said one of them. -“Whatever it might be, we knew we’d have to take the thick o’ the -coffee.” - -The local battles and operations on the southern stretch of the -front, now immediately in front of the Battalion, were almost as -indistinguishable as waves on a beach that melt into or rise out of -each other in the main flood. But there was a fresh tidal movement -at the beginning of September, when our whole line attacked again, -in conjunction with the French. We gained nothing of any account in -the north, but in the south Guillemont fell, and, after desperate -attack and counter-attack, almost all of Ginchy and the whole -thousand-yard-square of Delville Wood and the south end of High Wood. - -The net result up to the middle of September had been to advance and -establish the centre of our line on the crest of the high ground -from Delville Wood to the road above Mouquet farm (Thiepval and its -outworks still untaken), so that we had observation over the slopes -ahead. From Delville Wood eastward to Leuze--historically known as -“Lousy” Wood--overlooking the little town of Combles on our right -flank, our advance held the main ridge of land there, but had not -gone beyond it. Still farther east, across the valley where Combles -stood, the French were working north along the heights towards -Sailly-Saillisel, three thousand yards away. Their line was pinched -on the right by the big St. Pierre Vaast woods, fortified throughout. -Their left was almost equally constricted by the valley where -Combles, among its quarries and hidden shelters, squatted and dealt -death, which all the heights to the north--Morval, Lesbœufs and Le -Transloy--joined, with Sailly-Saillisel and St. Pierre Vaast in the -east, to make more sure. It was necessary, then, to free the ground -at the junction of the two armies in the direction of Morval, which -commanded far too complete a fire; and also beyond Ginchy towards -Lesbœufs, where the outlying spurs of high land raked “Lousy” Wood. - -That clearing-up, a comparatively small detail on a vast front, fell -to the lot of the Fourteenth Army Corps (Lord Cavan commanding), -which lay between Ginchy village and Leuze Wood. The Corps was made -up of the Fifty-sixth London Territorial Division, on the extreme -right or east, next to the French; the Sixth Division, a little north -of Leuze Wood, facing the Quadrilateral, a veiled defensive work as -strong as ample time and the ground could make it, and destined to -turn the fortunes of that day; and on the left of the Sixth, again, -the Guards Division in front of what remained of Ginchy, Ginchy farm -and orchard, all strongly held by the Germans, and some battered -brick-fields hard by. - -Lord Cavan did not overstate the case in his message to the Guards -Division just before the attack when he wrote: “The Corps Commander -knows that there are difficulties to be cleared up on the left and in -front of the 1st Guards Brigade and on the right of the 2nd Guards -Brigade, but the Commander-in-Chief is of opinion that the general -situation is so favourable that every effort should be made to take -advantage of it, etc., etc.” - -A battalion looks at life from a more limited standpoint. Brigade -Orders issued on the 11th September announced: “The French Army -will attack the enemy defences between Combles Ravine, and -Martinpuich on Z day, with the object of seizing Morval, Lesbœufs, -Gueudecourt and Flers, and breaking through the enemy’s defences.” -But what interested the Irish, who prefer fighting light, even as -the Frenchman can shuffle into action under all his high-piled -possessions, was the amount of weight they would have to carry up -there. It included two days’ rations, a couple of bombs, two extra -bandoliers of ammunition, a pick or a shovel and three sandbags -per man, plus wire-cutters and other fittings. On the other hand, -greatcoats and packs were discarded and cardigan waistcoats worn -beneath their jackets. - -On the 10th September the Battalion, with the 1st Brigade, moved in -from Méaulte to the valley behind Carnoy, and, after dark that night, -Nos. 3 and 4 Companies, under Major T. M. D. Bailie, were ordered up -through Bernafay Wood to a line of what passed for trenches behind -Ginchy, and next morning Nos. 1 and 2 (Captain Hargreaves and Captain -Rankin) bivouacked in some old trenches at the north end of Bernafay, -where they were used in carrying-fatigues for the 3rd Guards Brigade, -then in the front line. The other two companies were heavily shelled -in their Ginchy trenches, and lost seven killed and thirteen wounded. -A bombing accident in bivouac the day before had also wounded six men. - -On the 12th September No. 1 Company, stationed in a small copse near -Trônes Wood, which was choked with wreckage and dead, had three of -their Lewis-gunners killed and five wounded by a single shell. - -On the 13th September the Battalion spent a quiet day (with only one -killed and seven wounded), except for a deadly tiring fatigue of -carrying bombs to Guillemont under shell-fire. Our artillery began -on the 12th, and continued day and night without much break till the -hour of advance on the 15th, when it changed to the duly ordered -stationary and creeping barrages of the field-guns. - - -THE 15TH SEPTEMBER - -On the evening of the 14th, the 1st Brigade of Guards moved out -to the shell-holes and fragments of trench that formed their -assembly-positions, on a front of five hundred yards between Delville -Wood and the northern flank of Ginchy. There it lay in the cold with -the others till “Zero,” 6.20 A. M. of the 15th. The 2nd and 3rd -Coldstream had the front line, for they were to lead the attack; -the 2nd Grenadiers lay behind to support them and consolidate -the first objective--a line of trench about twelve hundred yards -north-east--and to hold it till the 1st Irish Guards came up and -had passed through them. Then, if the flanks were secure, the 2nd -Grenadiers were to come on and support in turn. The 1st Irish Guards -were to pass through the 2nd and 3rd Coldstream after the latter -battalions had reached the third objective, another line of trench -twenty-five hundred yards off, and were thence to go and take the -final objective--the northern outskirts of Lesbœufs, thirty-five -hundred yards from their jumping-off place. There was a limited -objective, three hundred yards beyond the first, which worked in with -the advance towards Flers of the divisions on the left of the Guards -from Delville Wood to Martinpuich. It was supposed to concern only -the Battalion (2nd Coldstream) on the left flank of the 1st Brigade. - -Incidentally, it was announced that as soon as all the objectives had -been seized, “Cavalry would advance and seize the heights ahead.” - -The Battalion formed up north-west of Ginchy in two lines, facing -north-east. Nos. 3 and 4 Companies in the first line; 1 and 2 in the -second on the right, commanded as follows: - - No. 1, Lieutenant J. K. Greer, M.C. - No. 2, Captain R. Rankin. - No. 3, Captain C. Pease. - No. 4, Captain P. S. Long-Innes. - -Captain L. R. Hargreaves, Lieutenants the Hon. P. J. Ogilvy, and -R. Rodakowski, 2nd Lieutenant T. C. Gibson, and C.S.M. Voyles and -Farrell were left in reserve. Lieutenant L. C. Whitefoord and his -section of the Brigade Machine-gun Company was attached to the -Battalion. - -[Illustration: - - _THE SOMME_ - _First Battalion_ - _1916-1917-1918_ - - _Emery Walker Ltd. del. et sc._] - -PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY EMERY WALKER LTD., LONDON - -They waited the hour and occupied themselves, many times over, with -trivial details, repetitions of orders and comparisons of watches and -compasses. (Their compass-bearing, by the way, was N. 37, or within -a shade of North North-east.) Every one noticed that every one else -fussed a little, and rather resented it. The doctor and the priest -seemed to loom unnaturally large, and the sergeants were busier than -was necessary over shortcomings, till ten minutes or so before Zero, -Father Browne, who had given Absolution, spoke to the companies -one by one as they knelt before him, their bayonets fixed and the -searching dawn-light on their faces. He reminded them that that day -was one set apart to Our Lady, and, ere many minutes, not few of them -would be presenting their homage to Her in person. They realised that -he told no more than truth. - -Through some accident, Zero had been a little mis-timed, and the -troops left their lairs, not under the roar and swish of their own -barrage, but in a silence which lasted perhaps less than a minute, -but which seemed endless. They felt, one man averred, like amateur -actors upon whom the curtain unexpectedly rises. The enemy, not -looking for the attack, were only expending occasional shots, which -emphasised the awful loneliness and exposure of it all, till, with -a wrench that jerked the ground, our barrage opened, the enemy’s -counter-barrage, replied, and through a haze of flying dirt No. 1 -Company of the Irish saw a platoon of Coldstream in front of them -crumped out of existence in one flash and roar. After that, the -lines moved into a blizzard of shell and machine-gun fire where all -landmarks were indistinguishable in the upheaval of explosives. (“We -might as well have tried to guide ourselves by the waves of the -sea--the way they spouted up.”) - -There naturally cannot be any definite or accurate record of the -day’s work. Even had maps been issued to the officers a week, instead -of a day or so, before the attack; even had those maps marked all -known danger-points--such as the Ginchy-Flers sunk road; even had -the kaleidoscopic instructions about the brown and yellow lines been -more intelligible, or had the village of Ginchy been distinguishable -from a map of the pitted moon--once the affair was launched, there -was little chance of seeing far or living long. The two leading -platoons of No. 3 Company following the Coldstream, charged, through -the ripping fire that came out of Ginchy orchard, to the German -first-line trench which ran from the sunken road at that point. -The others came behind them, cheering their way into the sleet of -machine-gun fire. The true line of advance was north-easterly, but -the 2nd Guards Brigade on the right of the 1st, caught very heavily -by the German barrage on their right flank, closed in towards the -1st Brigade and edged it more northward; so that, about an hour and -a half after the advance began, what the countless machine-guns had -left of the Irish found itself with three out of its four company -commanders already casualties, all officers of No. 2 Company out -of action, and the second in command, Major T. M. D. Bailie, -killed. They were held up under heavy shelling, either in front -of German wire, or, approximately, on the first-line objective--a -battered German trench, which our artillery had done its best to -obliterate, but fortunately had failed in parts. With the Irish were -representatives of every unit of the 1st and 2nd Brigades, mostly -lacking officers, and some fresh troops of the Fourteenth Division -from the left of the line. Outside their area, the Sixth Division’s -attacks between Ginchy Telegraph and Leuze Wood had failed, thanks to -a driving fire from the Quadrilateral, the great fortified work that -controlled the landscape for a mile and a half; so the right flank of -the Guards Division was left in the air, the enemy zealously trying -to turn it--bomb _versus_ bayonet. - -Judgment of time and distance had gone with the stress and roar -around. The two attacking battalions (2nd and 3rd Coldstream) of the -1st Brigade had more or less gone too--were either dead or dispersed -into small parties, dodging among smoking shell-holes. The others -were under the impression that they had won at least two of the -three objectives--an error due to the fact that they had found and -fought over a trench full of enemy where no such obstacle had been -indicated. Suddenly a party of snipers and machine-guns appeared -behind the Irish in a communication-trench, fired at large, as much -out of bewilderment as design, wounded the sole surviving company -officer of the four companies (Lieutenant J. K. Greer), and owing -to the jamming of our Lewis-guns got away to be killed elsewhere. A -mass of surrendering Germans, disturbed by the advance of a division -on the left, drifted across them and further blinded the situation. -Nobody knew within hundreds of yards where they were, but since it -was obvious that the whole attack of the Division, pressed, after the -failure of the Sixth Division, by the fire from the Quadrilateral, -had sheered too far towards the left or north, the need of the moment -was to shift the men of the 2nd Guards Brigade back along the trench -towards their own area; to sort out the mixed mass of officerless men -on the left; and to make them dig in before the vicious, spasmodic -shelling of the congested line turned into the full roll of the -German barrage. - -They cleared out, as best they could, the mixed English and German -bodies that paved the bottom of the trench, and toiled desperately -at the wreckage--splinters and concrete from blown-in dug-outs, -earth-slides and collapses of head-cover by yards at a time, all -mingled or besmeared with horrors and filth that a shell would -suddenly increase under their hands. Men could give hideous isolated -experiences of their own--it seemed to each survivor that he had -worked for a lifetime in a world apart--but no man could recall -any connected order of events, and the exact hour and surroundings -wherein such and such a man--private, N.C.O., or officer--met his -death are still in dispute. It was a still day, and the reeking, -chemical-tainted fog of the high explosives would not clear. Orders -would be given and taken by men suddenly appearing and as suddenly -vanishing through smoke or across fallen earth, till both would -be cut off in the middle by a rifle bullet, or beaten down by the -stamp and vomit of a shell. There was, too, always a crowd of men -seated or in fantastic attitudes, silent, with set absorbed faces, -busily engaged in trying to tie up, staunch, or plug their own -wounds--to save their own single lives with their own hands. When -orders came to these they would shake their heads impatiently and go -on with their urgent, horrible business. Others, beyond hope, but -not consciousness, lamented themselves into death. The Diary covers -these experiences of the three hours between 8 A. M. and 11 A. M. -with the words: “In the meantime, despite rather heavy shelling, a -certain amount of consolidation was done on the trench while the -work of reorganization was continued.” In the meantime, also, some -of the Coldstream battalions, mixed with a few men of the Irish -Guards, the latter commanded by Lieutenant W. Mumford, had rushed -on into the wilderness beyond the trench towards the brown line, or -what was supposed to be the brown line, three hundred yards or so -ahead, and for the moment had been lost. About half-past eleven the -Commanding Officer, the Adjutant, and 2nd Lieutenant G. V. Williams -and Lieutenant L. C. Whitefoord of the 1st Guards Brigade Machine-gun -Company, who represented all that was left of the officers, went -forward with all that was left of the Irish Guards and all available, -not too badly wounded Coldstreamers, towards the next objective. -Every one was glad to step out from the sickening trench into the -wire-trapped, shell-ploughed open whence the worst of the German -barrage had lifted, though enemy machine-guns were cropping it -irregularly. Their road lay uphill through a field of rank, unweeded -stuff, and, when they had topped a little rise, they saw what seemed, -by comparison, untouched country where houses had some roofs on them -and trees some branches, all laid out ahead, in the hot sunshine -between Flers and Lesbœufs. There were figures in the landscape -too--Germans on the move with batteries and transport--an enemy in -sight at last and, by the look of them, moving away. Then a German -field-battery, also in the open, pulled up and methodically shelled -them. They came upon a shallow trench littered with wreckage, -scraped themselves in, and there found some more of the Division, -while the German battery continued to find them. In the long run, -that trench, which had been a German covered-way for guns, came -to hold about sixty of the 1st Irish Guards, thirty of the 2nd -Grenadiers under Captain A. F. S. Cunningham, and a hundred or so of -both Battalions Coldstream under Colonel J. V. Campbell, the senior -officer present. Somewhere on the left front of it, fifteen of the -Irish were found lying out in shell-holes under C. S. M. Carton and -Sergeant Riordan. They were in touch, so far as touch existed then, -with the 9th Rifle Brigade on their left, but it was not advisable to -show one’s head above a shell-hole on account of enemy machine-guns -which were vividly in touch with everything that moved. Their right -was all in the air, and for the second time no one knew--no one could -know--where the trench in which they lay was situated in the existing -chaos. They fixed its position at last by compass-bearings. It was -more or less on the line of the second objective, and had therefore -to be held in spite of casualties. The men could do no more than -fire when possible at anything that showed itself (which was seldom) -and, in the rare intervals when shelling slackened, work themselves -a little further into the ground. At this juncture, Captain L. R. -Hargreaves, left behind with the Reserve of Officers in Trônes Wood, -was ordered up, and reached the line with nothing worse than one -wound. He led out a mixed party of Coldstream and Irish to a chain -of disconnected shell-holes a few hundred yards in advance of the -trench. Here they suffered for the rest of the afternoon under the -field-battery shelling them at less than half a mile, and the regular -scything of the machine-guns from the Quadrilateral on their right. -A machine-gun detachment, under Lieutenant L. C. Whitefoord, went -with them, and Lieutenant W. C. Mumford and 2nd Lieutenant F. S. L. -Smith with their little detachments of Irish and Coldstream came up -later as reinforcements. That scattered forward fringe among the -shell-holes gave what help it could to the trench behind it, which -filled up, as the day wore on, with more Irish and Coldstream working -their way forward. Formation was gone--blown to bits long ago. Nearly -every officer was down, and sergeant after sergeant succeeding to -the command, had dropped too; but the discipline held, and with it -the instinct that made them crawl, dodge, run and stumble as chance -offered and their corporals ordered, towards the enemy and not away -from him. They had done so, at first, shouting aloud in the massed -rush of the full charge that now seemed centuries away in time, and -worlds in space. Later, as they were scattered and broken by fire, -knowing that their battalion was cut to pieces, they worked with a -certain automatic forlorn earnestness, which, had any one had time to -think, was extremely comic. For instance, when a sergeant came across -a stray private meditating longer than seemed necessary at the bottom -of a too-tempting shell-hole, he asked him gravely what he thought he -was doing. The man, dazed and shaken, replied with an equal gravity -that he did not know. “Then,” said the sergeant, “get on forward out -o’ this an’ maybe ye’ll find out,” and smote him dispassionately -with the flat of a spade. The man, without a word, rose up, lifted -his head once more into the bullet-torn air, and pitched forward, -dead, a few paces farther on. And, at one time, in a terrible waiting -pause, when it was death to show a finger, they saw one man out on -the flank suddenly taken by madness. He lifted himself up slowly, -and as slowly marched across the open towards the enemy, firing his -rifle in the air meantime. The bullets seemed to avoid him for a long -while till he was visibly jerked off his feet by several that struck -him altogether. The stiff, blind death-march ended, and the watching -Irish clicked their tongues for wonder and pity. - -The Battalion had had no communication with Brigade Headquarters -or any one else since early morning. It lacked supports, lights, -signals, information, wood, wire, sandbags, water, food and at -least fifty per cent. of its strength. Its last machine-gun had -been knocked out, and it had no idea what troops might be next on -either side. As the sun went down, word came from the advanced -party in the shell-holes where the wrecked machine-gun lay, that -the Germans were massing for a counter-attack on the blue line of -what had been the third objective. They could be seen in artillery -formation with a mass of transport behind them, and it passed the -men’s comprehension why they did not come on and finish the weary -game. But the enemy chose to wait, and at the edge of dusk the Irish -saw the 2nd Scots Guards attacking on their right through a barrage -of heavy stuff--attacking and disappearing between the shell-bursts. -The attack failed: a few of the Scots Guards came back and found -places beside the Irish and Coldstream in the trench. Night fell; -the enemy’s counter-attack held off; the survivors of the advanced -party in the shell-holes were withdrawn to help strengthen the main -trench; and when it was dark, men were sent out to get into touch -with the flanks. They reported, at last, a battalion of the Duke of -Cornwall’s on their left and the 2nd Grenadiers on their right. In -the protecting darkness, too, water and rations arrived from the -Ginchy-Lesbœufs road, by some unconsidered miracle-work of Captain -Antrobus and the other Battalion Transport Officers; and throughout -the very long night, stragglers and little cut-off parties, with -their wounded, found the trench, reported, fed, and flung themselves -down in whatever place was least walked over--to sleep like the dead, -their neighbours. Ground-flares had at last indicated the Battalion’s -position to our night-scouting contact aeroplanes. There was nothing -more to be done except--as one survivor put it--“we was busy thryin’ -to keep alive against the next day.” - -The dawn of September 16 pinned them strictly to their cramped -position, for the slope behind them ran in full view of the enemy. -Moreover, enemy aeroplanes had risen early and taken good stock -of the crowded shallow trench where they lay; and in due time the -enemy artillery began to scourge them. But some of our batteries had -moved up in the night, and one little field-battery that the Irish -thought very kindly of all that day, distracted their tormentors, so -that, though they were shelled with H.E. and shrapnel as a matter -of principle from dawn to dark, they could still make shift to hang -on. The only orders they received from the Brigade that day were -to maintain their positions and stand by to support an attack by -the 3rd Brigade. That attack, however, never was launched. They -lay still and watched, between bursts of shelling, a battalion on -their left attacking some German trenches south of Gueudecourt. -This happened once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Small -stooping or crawling figures crept out for a while over the face -of the landscape, drew the German guns, including those that were -shelling the Irish trench, upon their advance, wavered forward -into the smoke of it, spread out and disappeared--precisely as the -watching Guards themselves had done the day before. The impression -of unreality was as strong as in a cinema-show. Nothing seemed to -happen that made any difference. Small shapes gesticulated a little, -lay down and got up again, or having lain down, rose no more. Then -the German guns returned to bombarding the brown-line trench, and -the men lying closer realised that the lime-light of the show had -shifted and was turned mercilessly upon themselves again. All they -wanted was relief--relief from the noises and the stenches of the -high explosives, the clinging horror of the sights nearest them -and from the tension that lay at the back of the minds of the most -unimaginative. The men were dumb--tired with mere work and suffering; -the few officers doubly tired out by that and the responsibility -of keeping awake and thinking consecutively, even when their words -of command clotted on their tongues through shear weariness. The -odds were heavily in favour of a German attack after dark; and a -written warning from the rear said it would certainly come in the -course of the night. A party of explorers sent to look for defences, -found some sections of barb-wire on trestles in the wreck of an -enemy-trench behind them. It was man-handled and brought away by -lengths and, in some fashion, set up before the trench so that the -enemy might not actually stroll over them without warning. - -Fresh rumours of German counter-attacks arrived after midnight, in -the way that information blows back and forth across a battle-field -in reaction. The men were once more roused--in a burst of chill -rain--to strengthen the outpost line. They must have made some -noise about it, being more than half asleep at the time, but the -enemy, so far from attacking, opened with long-range small-arm fire -and sent up a myriad lights. That riot died down at last, and when -the Battalion’s third dawn in the line had well broken, a company -of Lincolns from the 62nd Brigade came up to the trench, and said -their orders were to relieve. The light was full enough now to -reveal them very clearly, and “a rapid relief was effected with some -difficulty.” The enemy shelled till they reached the shelter of the -ridge behind and there, at last, drew clear of the immediate aspect -of war. Other scattered parties of the Battalion, with little knots -of lightly wounded men, joined them on their way to the southern -edge of Bernafay Wood, where they took reckoning of their losses. -They had still seven officers left, including 2nd Lieutenant T. F. -MacMahon, who with some forty men had been left behind in Divisional -Reserve on the 16th, and the whole of the working platoon which had -not been in action “rejoined the Battalion practically intact.” The -“working platoon,” which was made up of two men from each platoon was -popularly credited with fabricating Headquarters dug-outs at enormous -distances from the firing-line and was treated rather as a jest by -men not lucky enough to be drawn for it. As for the rest, Major T. M. -Bailie, Lieutenant C. R. Tisdall, Lieutenant L. C. Whitefoord, and -2nd Lieutenant N. Butler were killed. Captain C. Pease and Lieutenant -J. K. Greer died of wounds. Captain P. S. Long-Innes, Captain R. -Rankin, Lieutenant A. C. W. Innes, 2nd Lieutenants H. C. Holmes, T. -Butler-Stoney and Count J. E. de Salis were wounded; and there were -over 330 casualties in the other ranks. The total casualties in the -Brigade were 1776. - -No one seems to recall accurately the order of events between the -gathering in Bernafay Wood and the arrival of the shadow of the -Battalion in camp at the Citadel. The sun was shining; breakfast was -ready for the officers and men near some trees. It struck their very -tired apprehensions that there was an enormous amount of equipage and -service for a very few men, and they noticed dully a sudden hustling -off of unneeded plates and cups. They felt as though they had -returned to a world which had outgrown them on a somewhat terrifying -scale during all the ages that they had been away from it. Their one -need, after food eaten sitting, was rest, and, when the first stupor -of exhaustion was satisfied, their sleep began to be broken by dreams -only less horrible than the memories to which they waked. - - -SEPTEMBER 25 - -But the cure was ready to hand. On the evening of the 18th September, -in wet and cold weather, the Brigadier sent the Battalion a letter of -praise and prophecy: - - As your Brigadier I wish to express my feelings as to your most - gallant work on the 15th September 1916 in the operations at - Ginchy. The advance from the Orchard in the face of machine-gun - fire is equal to anything you have yet accomplished in this - campaign, and once more the 1st Battalion Irish Guards has carried - out a most magnificent advance and held ground gained in spite - of the most severe losses. In this, your first campaign, you are - upholding the highest standard of bravery and efficiency for your - successors and more praise than that I cannot give you. You may be - called upon in the very near future to carry out similar work and - I know you will not fail. - - (Sd.) C. E. PEREIRA, - Brigadier-General, - Commanding 1st Guards Brigade. - -This meant that they would be moved again as soon as they could stand -up, and would go into their next action with at least 50 per cent. -new drafts and half their proper allowance of officers. Indeed, they -were warned, next day, with the rest of their Division for further -operations in the “immediate future,” and the work of re-making and -re-equipping the Battalion from end to end, saved them from that -ghastly state of body and soul which is known as “fighting Huns in -your sleep.” - -On the 19th, Major T. M. D. Bailie’s body was brought back from the -front and buried in the cemetery in the centre of the camp at Carnoy, -and on the same day Lord Cavan, commanding the Corps, rode over and -spoke to the officers on horseback of the progress of the campaign, -of what had so far been accomplished on the Somme, what was intended -for the future, and specially, as bearing on their next battle, of -what their artillery had in store for the enemy. It was a simple, -unadorned speech, the substance of which he repeated to the N.C.O.’s, -then wished the gentlemen of His Majesty’s Foot Guards all good -fortune and rode away. - -The Division had expected to be used again as soon as might be, but -their recent losses were so heavy that every battalion in it was -speculating beneath its breath how their new drafts would shape. It -is one thing to take in men by fifties at a time and weld them slowly -in The Salient to a common endurance; it is quite another to launch a -battalion, more than half untried recruits, across the open against -all that organized death can deliver. This was a time that again -tested the Depot and Reserve Battalion whose never-ending work all -fighting battalions take for granted, or mention only to blame. But -Warley and Caterham had not failed them. Over three hundred recruits -were sent up immediately after the 15th and 16th, and on the 20th -September the re-made Battalion, less than six hundred strong, with -ten officers, marched out of Citadel Camp to its detestable trenches -on Ginchy Ridge. The two Coldstream Battalions of the 1st Brigade -held the front line there; the 2nd Grenadiers in reserve, and the -1st Irish Guards in support. - -The ground was not yet a sea of mud, but quite sufficiently -tenacious. “The area allotted” was old trenches and newish -shell-holes with water at the bottom, in “the small rectangular wood -east of Trônes Wood.” They were employed for three or four days in -cleaning up the litter of battle all about the slopes and piling it -in dumps, while the enemy shelled them more or less regularly with -large black 5.9 shells--a very fair test of the new drafts’ nerves. -The stuff would drop unheralded through the then leafy woods, and -explode at large among the shelters and slits that the men had made -for themselves. They took the noise and the shaking with philosophy -as their N.C.O.’s testified. (“There was some wondherin’ in the new -drafts, but no budgin’, ye’ll understand.”) - -Reading between lines one can see that the R.C. Priest, the Reverend -Father F. M. Browne, was busy in those days on spiritual affairs, for -he was hit in the face on the 23rd, “while visiting a neighbouring -battery,” so that Mass on the 24th--the day before their second -battle of the Somme--was celebrated by the Reverend Father Casey. -They were shelled, too, that Sunday in the wood, a single unlucky -shell killing two men and wounding thirteen. The last available -officer from the base, Lieutenant A. H. Blom, had joined the night -before; all drafts were in; the ground was assumed to be walkable -(which was not the case), and about 9 P. M. of a pitch-black Sunday -night the Battalion left the wood and reached its assembly-trench, -an extraordinary bad and unprotected one, about midnight. They were -promiscuously shelled in the darkness, and the trench, when found, -was so narrow that they had to stand on the edge of it till the -Battalion that they relieved--it did not keep them waiting long--got -out. No. 1 Company (Captain L. R. Hargreaves), No. 2 Company (Captain -the Hon. P. J. Ogilvy) were in the front line, the latter on the -right, No. 3 Company (Lieutenant A. H. Blom), and No. 4 Company -(Captain Rodakowski) about 150 yards behind with the Battalion -Headquarters, in a diagonal communication-trench well bottomed with -water. Second Lieutenant T. C. Gibson was wounded on the way up, and -was replaced by 2nd Lieutenant T. F. MacMahon who had been left in -Regimental Reserve. - -The idea of the day’s work for the 25th was less ambitious than -on the 15th, and the objectives were visible German trenches, not -imaginary lines on uniformly indistinguishable landscapes. Here is -the Brigade-Major’s memorandum for the 1st Brigade on the lie of the -land, issued on the 22nd September: They were to attack and carry -the village of Lesbœufs, up the Ginchy-Lesbœufs road, about fifteen -hundred yards, on a front, again, of five hundred yards; the Irish -Guards leading the attack throughout on the left of the 1st Brigade, -and the 2nd Grenadiers on the right. It was in essence the clearing -out of a badly shaken enemy line by the help of exceedingly heavy -barrages. - - 1ST GUARDS BRIGADE NO. 262 - - The forthcoming attack differs from the last in that the whole - scheme is not such an ambitious one. The distance to the first - objective is about 300 yards, to the second objective 800 yards, - and to the last objective about 1300 yards. In each case the - objective is a clearly defined one, and not merely a line drawn - across the map. - - Between our present front line and the first objective there is - only “No Man’s Land.” During the next two nights this should be - actively patrolled to ensure that our attack is not taken by - surprise by some unknown trench, and in order that Officers and - N.C.O.’s may have a knowledge of the ground. - - It would also be of great assistance to the artillery if reports as - to the actual distance to the Green line were sent in. - - The ground slopes down to Lesbœufs, beyond which there is a - distinct hollow with a plateau the same level as Lesbœufs beyond. - On reaching the final objective Officers and N.C.O.’s should - understand the necessity for pushing patrols out to command this - hollow and give warning or prevent counter-attacks forming up here. - - Large scale maps of Lesbœufs have been sent to all battalions. - These should be carefully studied by all Officers and N.C.O.’s, - and especially by those of the companies detailed for the cleaning - up of Lesbœufs. - - All runners and signallers should know the position of the advanced - Brigade Report Centre, and that the best means of approach to it - will probably be down the communication-trench T.3.c and T.8.b. - - Finally, it cannot be too much impressed on assaulting troops the - necessity for clinging to our own barrage. It will be an attack in - which this should be comparatively easy, and on which the success - of the whole operation may depend. - - (Sd.) M. B. SMITH, Captain, - Brigade-Major, - 1st Guards Brigade. - - _September 22, 1916._ - -The Battalion’s own task was to clear the three objectives laid down, -supported by the 3rd Coldstream, to clean out the northern portion -of Lesbœufs village, and above all to secure their flanks when they -halted or were held up. They waited in their trenches while our guns, -hour after hour, sluiced the roads they were to take with an even -downpour of shell along the trenches to be attacked--over Lesbœufs -and its hidden defences, and far out into the untouched farming land -beyond. It was a fine sunny morning that hid nothing: at 12.35 our -barrage locked down two hundred yards ahead of the troops, and Nos. 1 -and 2 Companies moved out with the rest of the line towards the first -German trench three hundred yards away. The enemy put down a barrage -at once on our front-support and communication-trenches, which caused -a good many casualties (including Captain R. J. P. Rodakowski and -the Doctor) in Nos. 3 and 4 Companies who were moving up as a second -wave. Eventually, these companies found it less hampering to leave -the crowded trench and come out over the open. So far, our artillery -work was altogether a better business than on the 15th. The companies -moved almost leisurely behind the roaring arch-of-triumph of the -barrage, till the leading line reached the first trench with its -half-finished dug-outs. Here they found only dazed German survivors -begging to be taken out of that inferno to the nearest prisoners’ -kraal. Some of these captures, officers included, sincerely expected -to be slaughtered in cold blood. - -The 2nd Grenadiers, on the right of the 1st Irish Guards, had been -unlucky in their position, for the wire in front of their sector -being veiled by high crop, our guns had missed it. That Battalion -suffered heavily in officers and men, shot down as they tried to work -their way through by hand; but they never lost touch, and the advance -went on unbrokenly to the next point--a sunken road on the east side -of Lesbœufs, five hundred yards ahead of the first objective. All -four companies of the Irish were together now--Lieutenant Blom of -No. 3 had been wounded at the first trench and 2nd Lieutenant T. -F. MacMahon took over. They reached the downward slope to the sunk -road and, as at the first objective, found most of their work had -been done for them by the barrage. Even while they congratulated -themselves and sent off a pigeon, as well as runner messages, to -report the capture to Battalion Headquarters, which, “somewhat -broken” by the German shelling, had arrived in the first-taken -trench, fire fell on them from the south. Our own guns, misranging -across the fields, were supposed to be responsible for this; and a -second pigeon was despatched praying them to cease, but “there were a -number of casualties” before the advance to the last objective began. -This was shown on the map as just east of Lesbœufs village, and east -again of another sunken road. The final surge forward included a -rush across uprooted orchards and through wrecked houses, shops, and -barns, with buildings alight or confusedly collapsing round them, and -the enemy streaming out ahead to hide in shell-holes in the open. -There was not much killing at this point, and, thanks to the tanks -and the guns, a good deal less machine-gun fire than might have been -expected. The Battalion dug in in a potato field a few hundred yards -beyond the village, where the men providently laid aside the largest -potatoes for supper, if so be they should live till that meal. In -the meantime our guns were punching holes into the open land behind -Lesbœufs, where parties of dislodged enemy had taken shelter. These -preferred, at last, to bolt back through that storm and surrender to -our men digging, who received them with derisive cheers--“for all the -world as though they had been hares in a beat.” - -Then came the tragedy. Our barrage, for some reason or other, wavered -and stopped almost on the line where the men were digging in, and -there hung for a long while--some accounts say a quarter of an hour, -others two hours. At any rate, it was long enough to account for many -more casualties. Captain L. R. Hargreaves, who had fought wounded -through the 15th, was here so severely wounded that he died while -being carried back, and Captain Drury-Lowe of the King’s Company of -the 1st Grenadiers, digging in on the Irish left, was killed--both -casualties by one shell. The 2nd Grenadiers, all company officers -down, were in touch on the right, but the left was still doubtful, -for the attack there had been held up at Gueudecourt village, and -the 3rd Guards Brigade had to make a defensive flank there, while a -company of the 3rd Coldstream was moved up to help in the work. - -In modern war no victory appears till the end of all, and what -is gained by immense bloodshed must be held by immense physical -labour of consolidation, which gives the enemy time to recover -and counter-attack in his turn. The Irish dug and deepened and -strengthened their line north of Lesbœufs, while the enemy shelled -them till afternoon, when there was a breathing space. A German -counter-attack, on the left of the Guards Division, was launched -and forthwith burned up. The shelling was resumed till night, which -suddenly fell so quiet, by Somme standards, that supplies could -be brought up without too much difficulty. As soon as light for -ranging came on the 26th, our men were shelled to ground again; and -an attempt of three patrols to get forward and establish posts of -command on a near-by ridge brought them into a nest of machine-guns -and snipers. The Diary remarks that the patrols located “at least one -machine-gun,” which is probably a large understatement; for so soon -as the German machine-gunners recovered breath and eyesight, after or -between shells, they were up and back and at work again. By the rude -arithmetic of the ranks in those days, three machine-guns equalled a -company, and, when well posted, a battalion. - -The Battalion was relieved on the evening of the 26th by its sister -(the 2nd) Battalion, who took over the whole of Lesbœufs ruins from -the Brigade; and the 1st Irish Guards went back with the others -through Bernafay Wood, where they fed, to camp once more at the -Citadel. - -In the two days of their second Somme battle, which they entered -less than six hundred strong and ten officers, they had lost one -officer, Captain Hargreaves, died of wounds, and five wounded, and -more than 250 casualties in other ranks. Add these to the casualties -of the 15th, and it will be seen that in ten days the Battalion -had practically lost a battalion. The commanding officer, Colonel -McCalmont, the adjutant, Captain Gordon, and Lieutenant Smith were -the only officers who had come unwounded through both actions. - -General Pereira, commanding the 1st Guards Brigade, issued the -following order on the 27th September: - - You have again maintained the high traditions of the 1st Guards - Brigade when called upon a second time in the battle of the Somme. - For five days previous to the assault the 2nd and 3rd Battalion - Coldstream Guards held the trenches under constant heavy shell-fire - and dug many hundred yards of assembly and communication-trenches, - this work being constantly interrupted by the enemy’s artillery. - The 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards and the 1st Battalion Irish - Guards, though under shell-fire in their bivouacs, were kept clear - of the trenches until the evening of 24th September, and were given - the task of carrying by assault all the objectives to be carried by - this Brigade. Nothing deterred them in this attack, not even the - fact that in places the enemy wire was cut in the face of rifle - and machine-gun fire, and in spite of all resistance and heavy - losses the entire main enemy defensive line was captured. - - Every Battalion in the Brigade carried out its task to the full. - - The German Reserve Division, which includes the 238th, 239th, and - 240th Regiments, and which opposed you for many weeks at Ypres, - left the Salient on the 18th September. You have now met them in - the open, a worthy foe, but you have filled their trenches with - their dead and have driven them before you in headlong flight. - - I cannot say how proud I am to have had the honour of commanding - the 1st Guards Brigade in this battle, a Brigade which has proved - itself to be the finest in the British Army. - - The Brigade is now under orders for rest and training, and it must - now be our object to keep up the high standard of efficiency, and - those who have come to fill our depleted ranks will strive their - utmost to fill worthily the place of those gallant officers and men - who have laid down their lives for a great cause. - - (Sd.) C. E. PEREIRA, - Brigadier-General, - Commanding 1st Guards Brigade. - - _September 28, 1916._ - -Lord Cavan had sent the following message to General Pereira: - - Hearty thanks and sincere congratulation to you all. A very fine - achievement splendidly executed. - -To which the Brigadier had replied: - - Your old Brigade very proud to be able to present you with - Lesbœufs. All ranks most gratified by your kind congratulations. - -And so that little wave among many waves, which had done its work -and gained its few hundred yards of ground up the beach, drew back -into the ocean of men and hutments below the slopes of the Somme. -The new drafts were naturally rather pleased with themselves; their -N.C.O.’s were reasonably satisfied with them, and the remnant of the -officers were far too busy with reorganization and re-equipment -to have distinct notions on any subject except the day’s work. It -was a little later that heroisms or horrors, seen out of the tail -of the eye in action, and unrealised at the time, became alive as -rest returned to the body and men compared dreams with each other, -or argued in what precise manner such and such a comrade had died. -There was bravery enough and to spare on all hands, and there were -a few, but not too many, decorations awarded for it in the course -of the next month. The Battalion took the bravery for granted, and -the credit of the aggregate went to the Battalion. They looked at -it, broadly speaking, thus: “There was times when ye’ll understand -if a man was _not_ earnin’ V.C.’s for hours on end he would not keep -alive--an’ even _then_, unless the Saints looked after him, he’d -likely be killed in the middest of it.” In other words, the average -of bravery required in action had risen twenty-fold, even as the -average of shots delivered by machine-guns exceeds that of many -rifles; and by the mercy of Heaven, as the Irish themselves saw it, -the spirit of man under discipline had risen to those heights. - -Captain L. R. Hargreaves (killed on the 25th) and Captain P. S. -Long-Innes (wounded), with Lieutenant G. V. Williams (who was knocked -unconscious and nearly killed by shell-fire on the 25th), were given -the Military Cross for the affair of the 15th. Drill-Sergeant Moran, -a pillar of the Battalion, who had died of wounds (it was he who -had asked the immortal question about “this retreat” at Mons), with -Private Boyd, received the D.C.M., and Sergeant Riordan (wounded -and reported missing) the Bar to the same medal. Lance-Corporal J. -Carroll, Privates M. Kenny, J. O’Connor, J. White and Lance-Corporal -Cousins had the Military Medal--all for the 15th. - -For the 15th and 25th combined, Lieutenant Walter Mumford and 2nd -Lieutenant T. F. MacMahon won the Military Cross; and Sergeant P. -Doolan and Private G. Taylor the Military Medal. - -For the 25th, temporary Captain the Hon. P. Ogilvy received the -Military Cross; acting Company Sergeant-Major McMullen, the Bar to -his D.C.M.; and Privates Whearty, Troy and M. Lewis, the Military -Medal. Captain Gordon, the Adjutant, was recommended for an immediate -M.C. which he received with the next New Year honours at the same -time as the C.O. received a D.S.O. - -It was not an extravagant reward for men who have to keep their heads -under hideous circumstances and apply courage and knowledge at the -given instant; and after inconceivable strain, to hold, strengthen, -and turn desperate situations to their platoon’s or company’s -advantage. The news went into Warley and Caterham, and soured -drill-sergeants, dead-wearied with the repetition-work of forming -recruits to fill shell-holes, found their little unnoticed reward in -it. (“Yes. _We_ made ’em--with the rheumatism on us, an’ all; an’ we -kept on makin’ ’em till I got to hate the silly faces of ’em. An’ -what did _we_ get out of it? ‘Tell Warley that their last draft was -dam’ rabbits an’ the Ensigns as bad.’ An’ after that, it’s Mil’try -Crosses and D.C.M.’s for _our_ dam’ rabbits!”) - -The Battalion returned to the days of small, detailed, important -things--too wearied to appreciate compliments, and too over-worked -with breaking in fresh material to think. - -On the 27th, 2nd Lieutenant R. B. S. Reford joined from the Base; -on the 28th 2nd Lieutenant T. F. MacMahon with a party was sent to -rest-camp for a week. On the 30th Captains the Earl of Kingston and -H. T. A. Boyse joined and took over command of Nos. 1 and 3 Companies. - - -REST-CAMPS AND FATIGUES - -On the 1st October, a Sunday, after mass celebrated by a French -interpreter, which did not affect the devotion of the Battalion, the -whole Brigade were embarked in one hundred and forty “French army -charabancs,” a new and unforeseen torment, and driven _via_ Amiens -from Fricourt to rest-camp at Hornoy. Much must have happened on -that pleasure-trip; for the Diary observes that the drivers of the -vehicles were “apparently over military age, many of the assistants -being natives.” One is left in the dark as to their countries of -origin, but one’s pity goes out to all of them, Annamite, Senegalese, -or Algerian, who helped to convey the newly released Irish for eight -hours over fifty jolting miles. The Battalion found good billets for -themselves, and the Brigade machine-gun company in Hornoy itself, -where the inhabitants showed them no small kindness. “Owing to small -numbers, officers were in one mess,” says the Diary, and one can see -the expansion of that small and shrunken company as the new drafts -come in and training picks up again. - -On the 3rd October, 2nd Lieutenants J. J. Fitzwilliam Murphy and J. -N. Nash joined; on the 4th the Reverend P. J. Lane-Fox joined for -duty; on the 5th, 2nd Lieutenant the Hon. D. O’Brien came in sick -with the draft of a hundred and fifty-two and went down sick, all -within forty-eight hours, his draft punctually delivered. Major the -Hon. T. Vesey also joined as second in command during the course of -this month. - -They paraded on the 5th October for the Divisional Commander, -Major-General Feilding, who presented the ribbons to the N.C.O.’s and -men who had been awarded medals and complimented the Battalion on -its past work. Second Lieutenant E. Budd (and five other ranks), 2nd -Lieutenant E. M. Harvey, with a draft of ninety-five, not counting -eleven more who had joined in small parties, and 2nd Lieutenants -A. L. Bain, H. H. Maxwell, and J. J. Kane all came in within the -next ten days. Captain R. G. C. Yerburgh, on rejoining from the -Central Training School at Havre, was posted to the command of No. 4 -Company; and on the 8th October, a team, chiefly officers, greatly -daring, played a Rugby football match against “a neighbouring -French recruit battalion,” which campaign seems to have so inspired -them that they all attended a Divisional dinner that night at 1st -Brigade Headquarters at Dromesnil. There is, alas! no record of that -match nor of what the French Recruit Battalion thought of it; but -just before their departure from Hornoy they played a Soccer match -against the 26th French Infantry, and next day the C.O. and all -company officers rode over to that regiment to see how it practised -the latest form of attack over the open. Thus did they combine -instruction with amusement, and cemented the Sacred Alliance! - -They dined also with their own 2nd Battalion, who were billeted -five miles away--a high and important function at Hornoy where -Brigadier-General Butler, formerly in command of the 2nd Battalion, -was present, with all the officers of both battalions. The band of -the Welsh Guards assisted and they all drank the health, among many -others, of the belle of Hornoy, who “responded with enthusiasm.” -Further, they played a football match against their brethren and won; -entertained the village, not forgetting the 26th French Infantry, -with their drums; drove all ranks hard at company drills and -battalion attacks; rehearsed the review for the approaching visit of -H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, and welcomed small detachments as they -came in. The last was 2nd Lieutenant D. A. B. Moodie with 50, on the -26th October, when Lieutenant H. F. S. Law rejoined the Battalion -from his Intelligence duties with the Ninth Corps. Drill-Sergeant J. -Orr assumed the duties of 2nd Lieutenant from November 2. - -The mess was now full again. The dead of the September Somme had -almost passed out of men’s memories till the war should be over -and the ghosts return; and the Battalion, immortal however much it -changes, was ready (“forty over strength”) for the bitter winter of -’16-’17. - -On the 7th November they were warned to move back into line and -celebrated it by an officers’ dinner (thirty-seven strong) of both -battalions at the Hotel London, Hornoy. - -On the 10th they regretfully quitted that hospitable village for -the too familiar camping grounds near Carnoy beyond Méaulte, which -in winter becomes a marsh on the least provocation. They were -accommodated “in bell-tents in a sea of mud” with weather to match. - -Next day (11th November) they shifted to “a sort of camp” near -Montauban, “quite inadequate” and served by bottomless roads where -they were shelled a little after mass--a proof, one presumes, that -the enemy had news of their arrival. - -On the 13th November, in cold but dry weather, they took over a line -of trench north of Lesbœufs between that village and Gueudecourt. -These were reached by interminable duckboards from Trônes Wood -and up over the battered and hacked Flers ridge. There were no -communication-trenches and, in that windy waste of dead weed and -wreckage, no landmarks to guide the eye. Trench equipment was -utterly lacking, and every stick and strand had to be man-handled -up from Ginchy. In these delectable lodgings they relieved the 7th -Yorkshires and the 8th South Staffordshires, losing one man wounded -by shell-fire, and Major the Hon. T. E. Vesey was sent down sick as -the result of old wounds received at Loos and in ’14. The Somme was -no place for such as were not absolutely fit, and even the fittest -had to pay toll. - -Shelling for the next three days was “continuous but -indiscriminate.” Four men were killed, fourteen wounded, and three -disappeared--walked, it is supposed, into enemy ground. The wonder -was there were not more such accidents. Wiser men than they would -come up to the front line with a message, refuse the services of -a guide back because, they protested, they knew every inch of the -ground and--would be no more seen till exhumation parties three or -four years later identified them by some rag of Guards’ khaki or a -button. - -The Battalion was relieved by the 2nd Grenadiers at midnight (16th -November), but were not clear till morning, when they crawled back to -camp between Carnoy and Montauban, packed forty men apiece into the -icy-chill Nissen huts, supposed to hold thirty, and were thankful for -the foul warmth of them. Thence they moved into unstable tents on -the outskirts of Méaulte, on the Bray road, where the wind funnels -from all parts of the compass, and in alternate snow, rain, and snow -again, plumbed the deeps of discomfort. When frost put a crust on the -ground they drilled; when it broke they cleaned themselves from mud; -and, fair or foul, did their best to “improve” any camp into which -fortune decanted them. - -It was a test, were one needed, that proved all ranks to the -uttermost. The heroism that endures for a day or a week at high -tension is a small thing beside that habit of mind which can hold -fast to manner, justice, honour and a show of kindliness and -toleration, in despite of physical misery and the slow passage -of bleak and indistinguishable days. Character and personality, -whatever its “crime-sheet” may have been, was worth its weight in -gold on the Somme, where a jest counted as high as a rum-ration. -All sorts of unsuspected people came to their own as leaders of men -or lighteners of care. There were stretcher-bearers, for instance, -whose mere presence and personality steadied half a platoon after the -shell-burst when, picking themselves up, men’s first question out of -the dark would be: “Where’s So-and-So?” And So-and-So would answer -with the dignity of Milesian Kings: “I’m here! Caarry on, lads!” - -So, too, with the officers. In the long overseeing of endless -fatigues, which are more trying than action, they come to understand -the men with a thoroughness that one is inclined to believe that -not many corps have reached. Discipline in the Guards, as has been -many times pointed out, allowed no excuse whatever for the officer -or the man; but once the punishment, or the telling off, had been -administered, the sinner and the judge could, and did, discuss -everything under heaven. One explanation which strikes at the root of -the matter is this: “Ye’ll understand that in those days we was all -countin’ ourselves for dead men--sooner or later. ’Twas in the air, -ye’ll understand--like the big stuff comin’ over.” - -On Sunday the 27th November, the day of the requiem mass for the -Irish Guards in Westminster Cathedral, a requiem mass was said in -Méaulte Church and they moved out to a French camp (“Forked Tree”), -south of the town where the big French huts held a hundred men -apiece, but cook-houses, etc., were all to build and the “usual -routine improvement work began again.” Their Brigade bombing officer, -Lieutenant the Hon. H. P. O’Brien, was appointed Staff Captain to the -1st Guards Brigade, and Captain R. G. C. Yerburgh left to be attached -to the 2nd Guards Brigade H.Q. Staff for instruction in staff duties. - -They were visited by their corps and divisional commanders, inspected -by their Brigadier and route-marched till the 3rd December, when they -moved to Maltz Horn Camp. - -It had been decided that the British Army should, by degrees, take -over a stretch of the French line from Le Transloy to a point -opposite Roye; and the Battalion’s share of this was about a thousand -yards of trench at Sailly-Saillisel, held by the 160th Regiment of -the Twentieth Corps (Corps de Fer). The front line ran a little in -front of what had once been that long and prosperous village on -the ridge, and, though not continuous, “it held in places.” The -support-line, through, and among the wreck of the houses, was dry and -fairly good. That there were no communication-trenches was a small -matter--men preferred to take their chances in the open to being -buried in trench mud--but there was no road up to it and “the going -was heavy.” - -Once installed (December 6), after a prompt and workmanlike French -relief, which impressed them, they found the 156th French Infantry -on their right, a Coldstream Battalion on their left, and an -enemy in front disposed to be quiet “except when frightened” or -suspecting reliefs, when he would drop very unpleasant barrages on -the support-line. - -They were relieved on the 9th December by the 2nd Grenadiers who were -late, because they were “constantly delayed by digging men out of -mud.” From Bois de la Haie, the long, thin slip of wood under Morval -whence the relief started at a quarter-past five in the evening, the -distance to the Battalion’s sector might be two miles. That relief -was not completed till half-past one on the morning of the 10th--say -eight hours to cover four or five miles in one continuous nightmare -of mud, darkness, loss of touch and the sudden engulfment of heavily -loaded men. A Grenadier battalion claims to hold the record (fifteen -hours) for the extrication of one man. Six or eight hours was not -uncommon. They were shelled, of course, on their arrival and lost -Sergeant Wylie, killed, and eleven wounded. Captain R. V. Pollok -joined from home on that day and took over command of No. 1 Company, -Major E. B. Greer, on loan from the 2nd Battalion, who had commanded -the Battalion temporarily, handed over to Captain the Hon. H. R. -Alexander, D.S.O. acting C.O. in place of Colonel R. McCalmont on -leave. Captain the Earl of Kingston had to go into hospital on the -10th--“result of an old wound”--and on the 13th December Lieutenant -J. J. V. F. Murphy--“exposure.” - -On the 12th December, after a day’s rest in a muddy camp near -Montauban, they marched to Combles through the blackened site of -Guillemont to relieve the 2nd Battalion on a more southerly sector, -to furnish working-parties for the railway lines that were spreading -stealthily north and east, to help lay down plank roads--not the -least burdensome of fatigues, for the “planks” were substantial -logs--and to make the front line a little less impossible. It was an -easy turn, with very little shelling or sniping, “both sides being -only able to reach their front line by going over the open.” When -to this is added full moonlight and a fall of snow, moderation is -imposed on every one till they are under cover. Otherwise a local -battle might have developed--and what is the use of local battles -where both sides are stuck in the mud, and no help can be sent to -either? This question would be put to the Staff when, from the -comfortable security of their decent dug-outs, they lectured the -front-line, and were invited mirthfully to come up and experiment for -themselves. - -The Battalion had eleven wounded in three days, and returned to -Bronfay to find their allotted camp already filled up by Gunners. -Then there was confusion and argument, and the quartermaster--notable -even among quartermasters--“procured” fuel and braziers and got -the men more or less warmed and fed. “The muddle,” says the Diary -sternly, “was due to no proper arrangements being made to find out to -whom Camp 108 belonged before the battalions were moved into them.” -Thus, on paper at least, did the front line get back at the Staff. - -They returned to the Combles area on the 18th, relieved their -sister-battalion in less than three hours, and in fine frosty -weather, helped by the enemy’s inactivity, improved the trenches, -lost five killed and one wounded, and on their return found Camp 108 -also “improved” and devoid of Gunners. - -The year closed well. Their Christmas turn (December 25-27, when they -missed their Christmas dinners) was almost bloodless. The reliefs -went smoothly, and though a thaw made the trenches cave here and -there, but four men were wounded, and in their New Year turn, only -one. - -About Christmas the Brigade, to their deep regret, lost their -Brigadier-General, C. Pereira--promoted to command the Second -Division, and in him, one of the best friends that they ever had. He -knew the Battalion very personally, appreciated its value, and fought -for its interests with devotion and a strong hand. - -Nothing is said in the Diary of any attempts on the enemy’s part to -fraternise, and the New Year was “seen in without any incident,” -which means that no bursts of artillery marked the hour. And on the -3rd January the whole of the Guards Division went out of the line for -refit. The Twentieth Division took its unenvied place, and the 1st -Battalion Irish Guards lay at Sandpits Camp near Méaulte. - -The strain was beginning to tell. They had had to transfer Lieutenant -F. S. L. Smith and 2nd Lieutenant J. Kane to the 2nd Battalion “owing -to shortage in that Battalion on account of sickness,” and their own -coolies were in need of rest and change. The strongest cannot stand -up beyond a certain point to exposure, broken rest, alarms all round -the clock; laborious physical exertions, knee or mid-thigh deep in -mud; sweating fatigues, followed by cooling-off in icy blasts or a -broth of snow and chalk-slime; or--more undermining than any bodily -stress--the pressure that grows of hourly responsibility. Sooner -or later, the mind surrenders itself to a mill-round of harassing -obsessions as to whether, if one had led one’s platoon up or down by -such and such a deviation--to the left or the right of a certain dead -horse, for example--if one had halted longer there or whipped up more -cautiously elsewhere--one might have saved such and such a casualty, -entombment in the mud, or some other shrieking horror of the night. -Reason insists that it was not, and could not have been, one’s own -fault. Memory brings back the face or the eyes of the dying, and the -silence, always accusing, as the platoon goes forward. When this -mood overtakes an officer he does well to go into rest for a while -and pad his nerves, lest he arrive at that dreadful stage when he is -convinced that his next turn of duty will see all his men destroyed -by his own act. Between this last stage and the dragging weariness, -the hoarse Somme cold, and the foul taste in the mouth which are -mere signs of “beginning to be fed up,” there is every variety of -derangement, to be held in check by the individual’s own character -and that discipline which age and experience have devised to hold him -when everything else has dropped away. It is the deadly journey, back -and forth to the front-line with material, the known and foreseen -war in darkness and mud against the natural perversity of things, -that shifts the foundations of the soul, so that a man, who scarcely -regards death hunting him at large by the hour, will fall into a -child’s paroxysms of rage and despair when the wire-strand rasps him -across the knuckles or the duckboard for the hundredth time tilts -sideways underfoot. “Ye’ll understand,” says the voice of experience, -“the fatigues do it in the long run.” All of which the Diary will -dismiss with: “A few fatigues were found in this area.” - -The Somme was one overwhelming fatigue. - - - - -1917 - -THE SOMME TO GOUZEAUCOURT - - -The beginning of the year saw the British armies, now more than fifty -divisions strong, holding a front of a hundred and ten miles from -Ypres to within a short distance of Roye. Thus, allowing for changes -imposed by the fluctuations of war and attack, they lay: - -The Second Army had the Salient: the First centred on Armentières; -the Third (Gough’s) carried on to the south of Arras, where the Fifth -held all along the valley of the Ancre and a portion of the old -British line on the Somme. The Fourth joined the French left wing -near Roye, and the French pressure worked in with ours. - -From the Salient to the Somme battle-front, our line’s business was -to draw as much as possible of the enemy’s strength. Therefore, our -raids on that part of the line, during the latter half of 1916, were -counted by the hundred; and in all that time, at no point on any -given day there, could the Germans feel secure against our irruptions. - -On the Somme our pressure was direct and, except for the weather, -worked as continuously as a forest fire in fallen pine-needles. A -fold of the hills might check it there; a bare ridge or a sodden -valley hold it elsewhere for the while; but always it ate north -and east across the stricken country, as division after division -gathered, fought, won foothold, held it, dug in, and gave place to -their unspent fellows beneath the cover of the advancing guns. Here -is a mere outline of the work of a few weeks: - -The affairs of the 15th and 25th of September (1916), when the Fourth -Army pushed the line past Lesbœufs and Flers and beyond Gueudecourt -on the right, knocked out, as we know, both battalions of the Irish -Guards for the time being. - -On the 27th and 28th of September the Second and First Canadian -Divisions, with the Eleventh and Eighteenth of the Second Army Corps, -captured Thiepval, the Stuff and Schwaben redoubts on the left of the -line; while the Fifty-fifth and New Zealand Divisions made possible -an advance on Le Sars and Eaucourt l’Abbaye villages in the centre, -which, after four days’ continuous fighting by the Forty-seventh, -Fiftieth, and Twenty-third Divisions, ended in the taking of Eaucourt -l’Abbaye and Le Sars. - -On the 7th of October the French Army attacked in the direction -of Sailly-Saillisel, the Fourth Army chiming in along its whole -front from Lesbœufs to Destremont farm, which had been taken by the -Twenty-third Division on the 29th September. In this affair the -Twenty-third Division captured Le Sars, and the Twentieth Division -over a mile of trenches east of Gueudecourt. - -Then the treacherous weather broke once more, and the battered and -crumbled ground held their feet till a few days of dry cold were -snatched for an attack in the direction of Courcelette by four -Divisions (Fourth Canadian, Eighteenth, Fifteenth, and Thirty-ninth), -where a fresh line was needed. - -On the 23rd October, and on the 5th November again, as side-issues -while waiting on the weather for a serious attack on Beaumont-Hamel, -a couple of divisions (Fourth and Eighth) went in with a French -attack against Pierre St. Vaast Wood, where a tangle of enemy -trenches at the junction of the two armies was slowly smoked and -burned out. - -The 10th of November (after one day’s fine weather) gave the Fourth -Canadian Division a full day’s fighting and, once more, a thousand -yards of trench in the Courcelette sector. - -On the 13th of November the battle of the Ancre opened from Serre -to east of the Schwaben redoubt (Thirty-first, Third, Second, -Fifty-first, Thirty-ninth and Nineteenth Divisions), with the -intention of gaining command of both banks of the river, where it -entered the enemy lines six or seven miles north of Albert. This -was a sector of the old German front to the west, which had thrown -back our opening attack of July 1, and had grown no more inviting -since. Serre itself, helped by the state of the ground before it, was -impossible, but Beaucourt, Beaumont-Hamel, and a portion of the high -ground above it, with the village of St. Pierre-Divion in the valley, -were, in the course of the next few days, captured and held. - -All the above takes no count of incessant minor operations, losses -and recaptures of trenches, days and nights of bombing that were -necessary to silence nests of subterranean works, marked on the maps -of peace as “villages”; nor of the almost monotonous counter-attacks -that followed on the heels of every gain. So long as movement was -possible the Somme front was alive from end to end, according as one -hard-gained position gave the key to the next, or unscreened some -hitherto blinded works. Against every disadvantage of weather and -over ground no troops in history had before dared to use at that -season, the system and design of the advance revealed itself to the -enemy. Their counter-attacks withered under our guns or died out in -the fuming, raw-dug trenches; the slopes that had been their screens -were crowned and turned against them; their infantry began to have -no love for the blunt-nosed tanks, which, though not yet come to -the war in battalions, were dragging their smeared trails along the -ridges; the fighting aeroplanes worried them, too, with machine-gun -fire from overhead; photographers marked their covered ways by day -and our heavy bombers searched them by night, as owls search stubble -for mice. It all cost men and stuff, and the German Army Command had -little good news to send back to the German tribes. - -Yet the last six months of 1916 had advanced our front no more than -some eight miles--along the Albert-Bapaume road. At no point were -we more than ten miles from our beginnings. All that showed on the -map was that the enemy’s line to the north had been pinched into -a salient which, starting from just east of Arras, followed the -line of the old German front built up two years before, through -Monchy-au-Bois, Gomiecourt and Serre to the high white grounds -above Beaumont-Hamel. Thence it turned east across the Ancre, -seven or eight kilometres north of Arras, skirted Grandcourt, -crossed the arrow-straight Albert-Bapaume road by the dreary Butte -de Warlencourt, ran north-east of Gueudecourt, and on the rim of -the rise above Le Transloy, till it crossed the Péronne-Bapaume -road just north of Sailly-Saillisel. Here it swung south-east from -Rancourt and Bouchavesnes down the long slopes to the Valley of the -Somme, and its marshes west of Péronne. Thence, south-westerly by -Berny-en-Santerre, Ablaincourt to the outskirts of Chaulnes, ending -at Le Quesnoy-en-Santerre, where the French took on. The twenty-five -mile stretch from Le Transloy to Le Quesnoy was the new section that -had been handed over to the British care, piece by piece, at the end -of the year. - -To meet this pinch and all that they could see that it meant, -the Germans had constructed, while they and the weather held us, -elaborate second and third lines of defence behind their heavily -fortified front. The first barrier--a double line of trenches, -heavily wired, ran behind Sailly-Saillisel, past Le Transloy to -the Albert-Bapaume road, Grévillers and Loupart woods, and _via_ -Achiet-le-Petit to Bucquoy. - -Parallel to this, at a distance ranging from one to two miles, was -a new line through Rocquigny, Bapaume, and Ablainzevelle, almost -equally strong and elaborate. Behind it, as every one understood, -was a thing called the Hindenburg Line, known to the Germans as -“Siegfried”--a forty-mile marvel of considered defences with branches -and spurs and switches, one end of which lay on St. Quentin and the -other outside Arras. This could be dealt with later, but, meantime, -the enemy in the Arras-Le Transloy salient were uneasy. The attacks -delivered on selected positions; the little inter-related operations -that stole a few hundred yards of trench or half a village at a leap, -or carried a gun-group to a position whence our batteries could -peer out and punish; above all, the cold knowledge that sooner or -later our unimaginative, unmilitary infantry would shamble after -the guns, made them think well of lines in their rear to which they -could retire at leisure. Verdun had not fallen; very many of their -men lay dead outside its obliterated forts, and so very many living -were needed to make good the daily drain of the Somme that they had -none too many to spare for Austrian or Turkish needs. Their one -energetic ally was the weather, which, with almost comic regularity, -gave them time after each reverse to draw breath, position more guns, -reorganise reliefs, and explain to their doubting public in Germany -the excellence and the method of their army’s plans for the future. -The battle of the Ancre, for instance, was followed by an absolute -deadlock of six weeks, when our armies--one cannot assault and dig -out battalions at the same time--dropped everything to fight the mud, -while our front-line wallowed in bottomless trenches where subalterns -took from three to six hours to visit their posts on a front of one -quarter of a mile. - -Bitter frosts set in with the first weeks of the New Year and the -“small operations” began at once, on our side, round such portions -of the Beaumont-Hamel heights as the enemy still clung to. Here the -Third, Seventh, and Eleventh Divisions fought, shift by shift, for -the rest of January and won the high ground needed for our guns to -uncover against Serre and Grandcourt, which were the keys of the -positions at the corner of the Arras-Le Transloy salient. Thanks -to our air-work, and the almost daily improvement in the power and -precision of our barrages, that little army came through its campaign -without too heavy losses, and still further cramped the enemy’s -foothold along the Ancre, while the rest of the line enjoyed as much -peace as the Somme allowed them when “there was nothing doing.” - - -MARKING TIME - -The Guards Division, after their ten days’ rest and clean-up at -Sandpits Camp, Méaulte, supplied one brigade to take over a new -sector of trench opposite St. Pierre Vaast Wood on the extreme -east of things and left their 1st Brigade in reserve at Méaulte, -Ville-sous-Corbie, and Méricourt l’Abbé. The latter camp was allotted -to the Irish Guards who had to send one company for permanent -fatigues to the railway station--all the valley here was one long -siding for men and supplies--and another to the back of Bernafay Wood -for Decauville construction, while the remainder were drilled and -instructed in their specialties. This was the time in our armies’ -development when nearly every third man was a “specialist” in some -branch or another except, as company officers remarked under their -breaths, the rifle and its bayonet. The men’s deferred Christmas -dinners (it will be remembered they had been in the line on the day -itself) were duly issued by half a battalion at a time in the big -cinema-hall in camp, and, lest the transport officer should by any -chance enjoy himself, their transport chose this time of rest to -develop “contagious stomatitis,” a form of thrush in the mouth, and -had to be isolated. Still, setting aside the cold, which does not -much trouble well-fed men, the Battalion had some pleasant memories -of its rest by the river. Leave was possible; smoking-parties made -themselves in the big huts; the sergeants gave a dinner, which is a -sure sign of well-being; there were cinemas for the men, and no one -troubled himself too much for the noise of the guns ten miles up -stream. - -It is difficult to rediscover a battalion’s psychology at any given -time, but so far as evidence goes they had not too black doubts -as to the upshot of the campaign, though every platoon kept its -loud-voiced pessimists who foretold that they would take root in the -trenches for evermore and christened the R.O.D. locomotives “Roll on -Duration!” - -On the 1st February (1917) in “cold bright weather with snow on the -ground,” the 1st Brigade were once again in Divisional Reserve near -Carnoy, ready to relieve the 3rd Coldstream near Rancourt on the -recently taken-over French sector, in trenches a little westerly -of St. Pierre Vaast Wood which is under Sailly-Saillisel. In the -wood itself lay a dreadful mine-crater of the old days, filled, as -it seemed, with dead French Colonial troops--browned and blackened -bodies, their white skulls still carrying jaunty red caps. Our -wondering patrols used to look down into it sometimes of moonlight -nights. - -They moved out on the 2nd of February _via_ Maricourt and Maurepas, -left No. 2 Company under canvas in Maurepas Ravine, distributed the -rest in shelters and dug-outs and resumed their watch. The frozen -ground stopped much digging or “improvements,” and the enemy’s front -line gave no trouble, but a few small shells were sent over, one -of which hit 2nd Lieutenant J. Orr temporarily in command of No. 1 -Company and wounded a couple of men. The rest of their turn--February -2 to 6--was quiet, for the new-fallen snow gave away the least -movement on either side. While they crouched over their braziers and -watched each other, the operations round Serre and at the nose of the -Arras-Le Transloy salient, began again as the earth’s crust hardened. -The Sixty-third Division hammered its way for a day and a night up -the southern slopes of Serre, and our guns were threatening the line -of enemy’s trenches from Grandcourt westward. This move unkeyed the -arch of his local defences at this point, and next day he evacuated -Grandcourt and such of his front as lay between Grandcourt and the -Stuff redoubt. - -By the 7th February our troops had carried forward to midway between -Beaucourt and Miraumont, and on the 10th February the Thirty-second -Division took in hand the business of shifting the enemy out of what -remained to him in the Beaumont Valley. Their advance brought Serre -village into direct danger from our artillery, and any further move -on our part up the valley of the Ancre would make Serre untenable. - -On the 17th February that move was made by three Divisions (Second, -Eighteenth, and Sixty-third) before dawn, through heavy mist on -the edge of a thaw, and in the face of a well-contrived barrage -that caught the battalions forming up. But the positions and -observation-points, already gained, helped our guns to help the -infantry, broke up the enemy’s counter-attacks with satisfactory -losses, and, in the next few days, gave us good command over the -enemy’s artillery dispositions in the valley of the Upper Ancre and -a fair look into his defences at Pys and Miraumont. Then the game -stood thus: If Miraumont, which lay at our mercy, were taken, Serre -would go; if Serre went, Puisieux-au-Mont and Gomiecourt, the pillar -of the old German western defences, would be opened too; and it was -no part of the German idea to cling to untenable positions, whose -loss would have to be explained at home where people were asking why -victory delayed so long. Not only was the whole of Arras-Le Transloy -salient shaking by now; there was the prospect of indefinite wastage -to no good end all along the rest of the Somme front, and though -the weather, till then, had blunted the following weight of each -following blow, many considerations pointed to a temporary withdrawal -of a few miles in order to advance the more irresistibly at a more -fitting time. Slowly, methodically then, with careful screens of -veiled machine-guns behind them, and a series of scientifically -chosen artillery positions, equally capable of supporting a -counter-attack, or checking and destroying any too inconvenient -body of pursuers, the enemy moved back into ground not yet churned -and channelled by shell or traffic, over untouched roads which he -had kept in perfect order, to this very end; and left us to follow -through bottomless valleys of desolation. - -The frost broke on the third week of February, and the last state -of the ground was worse even than it had been throughout the rainy -autumn. Trenches caved in bodily; dumps sank where they were being -piled; the dirt and the buttresses of overhead shelters flaked and -fell away in lumps; duckboards went under by furlongs at a time; -tanks were immobilised five feet deep and the very bellies of the -field-guns gouged into the mud. Only our airmen could see anything -beyond or outside the present extreme discomfort, but the mists that -came punctually with the thaws helped to baffle even their eyes. - -On the 24th February the enemy had evacuated his positions in front -of Pys, Miraumont, and Serre; next day his first system of defence, -from Gueudecourt to west of Serre, running through half-a-dozen -fortified villages, was in our hands. - -At the end of the month, Puisieux-au-Mont, with Gomiecourt and its -defences, were occupied by us. The Germans had pulled themselves -cleanly out of the worst of the salient. - -By March they were back on their fortified Le Transloy-Loupart line, -except that they still held the village of Irles above Miraumont, -which was linked up to the Le Transloy-Loupart line by a peninsula -of wired trenches. Irles was carried by the Second and Eighteenth -Divisions on the 10th March. - -As soon as our guns were able to concentrate on the Le -Transloy-Loupart line itself, which they did the day after, the -enemy, leisurely as always, released it, and fell back on and through -his next line a mile or two behind--Rocquigny-Ablainzevelle--steadied -his rear-guards, and continued his progress towards the Hindenburg -defences, withdrawing along the whole front from south of Arras to -Roye. By the 17th of March word was given for a general advance of -our troops in co-operation with the French. - -To go back a month. Rumours of what was to be expected had cheered -the camps for some time past; and just as the fall of single -rocks precedes the collapse of an undermined quarry-face, so the -German line had crumpled in certain spots long before their system -readjusted itself throughout. Front-trenches, far removed from -actual points of pressure, observed that life with them was quieter -than even the state of the weather justified, and began to make -investigations. - -When the Battalion went up, as usual, on the 15th February to relieve -the 2nd Grenadiers in the trenches a little north of Rancourt and -opposite St. Pierre Vaast Wood, their casualties for the four days -were but three killed and five wounded. “Practically no sniping and -very occasional shelling.” They treated it lightly enough, for it was -here that the sentry told the conscientious officer who had heard a -shell drop near the trench: “Ah, it fell quite convenient here”--a -jerk of his thumb over his shoulder, and as an afterthought--“’Twas a -dud, though.” The ground was still hard, and, to the men’s joy, they -could not dig. - -Captain R. J. P. Rodakowski arrived from the base on the 18th of the -month. The thaw caught them in camp at Maurepas, just as the enemy’s -withdrawal got under way, and their turn in trenches from the 23rd to -26th February was marked by barrages let down on them of evenings, -presumably to discourage curiosity. So they were ordered at short -notice to send out a couple of officer’s patrols from their left -and right companies to reconnoitre generally, and see if the enemy -were falling back. The first patrol, under 2nd Lieutenant Shears, an -N.C.O., three bombers, and three “bayonet-men,” spent a couple of -hours among the wire, were bombed but returned unhurt. The second, -also of seven men, under Lieutenant Browne, were seen by the enemy, -headed back to our lines, but made a fresh outfall, which carried -them to the wire where, “finding a weak spot, they cut their way -through it” and won within a few yards of the enemy’s parapet when -they were bombed. They used up their own supplies and came back with -a good report, and four men and Lieutenant Browne wounded. On their -information a raid was arranged for the next day to take over a -couple of hundred yards of the enemy’s trench, but it was cancelled -pending developments elsewhere. They lost two killed and thirteen -men and one officer wounded in this tour, and went back to routine -and “specialist” training in a camp near Billon on the last day of -February. - -Their domestic items for the next fortnight, which, like the rest -of March, was cold and stormy, run as follows: 2nd Lieutenant A. L. -Bain went to the Fourteenth Corps School for a fortnight at Méaulte, -which, in that weather, was no special treat; and Lieutenant E. -H. Shears to Headquarters Lewis Gun School at Le Touquet, a much -superior place. Lieut.-Colonel R. C. A. McCalmont left on the 3rd -March to take over command of the 3rd Infantry Brigade just south of -the Somme, and had a tremendous send-off from the Battalion. He was -succeeded in the command by Major the Hon. H. R. Alexander, D.S.O., -M.C., and Major G. E. S. Young came over from the 2nd Battalion -as second in command--as it proved for all too brief a time. The -specialist training continued, and “open warfare” was practised -by companies. There was an irreverent camp-jest just then that -whenever the enemy abandoned one quarter of a mile of trench, the -five nearest British army corps forsook every other game to practise -“open warfare.” The Battalion learned also attacks on triple lines of -trenches, the creeping barrage being personified by their drums and -those of the 2nd Coldstream. In this sort of work, men say, there is -a tendency to lean a little too heavily on such a barrage, which had -to be checked by taking the offender’s name. (“So, ye’ll understand, -ye catch it, both ways; for if ye purshue the live barrage ye’ll -likely to be killed; an’ if you purshue a dhrummy barrage too close, -your name’s in the book. That’s War!”) - - -THE SOMME ADVANCE - -By the middle of March the German line was giving all along; and -when the Battalion moved up into Brigade Reserve on the 12th, they -understood an advance was close at hand. Their allotted and sketchy -stretch of trench, which they took over from the 4th Grenadiers (on -the 13th March), was at Sailly-Saillisel, of evil associations, -and on the 14th, on information received after patrolling under -Lieutenant E. Budd and Lieutenant Bagenal, the German front line -ahead was reported clear and at once occupied. Then they were -committed to a muddle of German works in the direction of Le -Mesnil-en-Arrouaise, which were named after the Idols of the Tribes. -There was nothing to see or to steer by except devastated earth, -mud, wire, scraps of sand-bags, heaped rubbish and carcases. The -whole line went forward on the 15th, the 1st Battalion Irish Guards -in touch by patrol with their 2nd Battalion on their right and on -the left with the 2nd Coldstream. No one knew exactly what was in -the enemy’s mind, or how far his retirement was extending, but an -hour after the Battalion had started they came under long-range -machine-gun and heavy artillery fire while they were consolidating -“Bayreuth” trench. Major G. E. S. Young was so badly wounded this -day by a shell, which came through a company headquarter’s dug-out -he was visiting, that he died in a hospital a fortnight later and -was buried at Grovetown cemetery, and Lieutenant Walter Mumford, -M.C., was slightly wounded in the leg. The next trench, “Gotha,” -was also under gun-fire. They simply moved forward, it seemed, into -registered areas, where they were held up, as by a hose of high -explosives, till the enemy had completed his local arrangements. -Then his artillery on that sector would withdraw across clean, hard -country; some long-range machine-gun or sniping work might continue -for a while; and then all would be silent, with the sudden curious -silences of the Somme, till the next step forward was made on our -side and dealt with as above. Thus the Battalion worked through the -emptied German trenches and dug-outs, and on the 20th March held -a line from Le Mesnil-en-Arrouaise to Manancourt on the Tortille -River. The German retreat was as orderly as an ebb-tide. In the -north, Bapaume had been taken on the 17th March by the First and -Second Australian Division, and Péronne was occupied on the 18th by -the Forty-eighth Division. Beyond Bapaume our troops entered the -third and last--Beugny-Ytres--line of German trench and wire-work -that lay between them and the Hindenburg defences four or five miles -behind it across open country. From Péronne southward to close upon -Germaine, where we were in touch with the French, our advance-parties -had crossed the Somme and spread themselves, as far as the state of -the ground allowed, in--it could hardly be called pursuit so much as -a heavy-footed following-up of the enemy, and making our own roads -and tracks as we moved. We found everything usable thoughtfully -destroyed, and had to reconstruct it from the beginnings, ere any -further pressure could be exercised. - -The German front before Arras was unaffected by their withdrawal, -and here preparations of every conceivable sort were being piled up -against the approaching battle of the Ancre where from Croisilles -to Vimy Ridge our Third and First Armies broke through on a front -of fifteen miles on April 9, and after a week’s desperate fighting, -hampered as usual by the weather, carried that front four miles -farther eastward, captured 13,000 prisoners and 200 guns; and, -through the next month, fought their road up and into the northern -end of the Hindenburg Line near Bullecourt whose name belongs to -Australia. - -On the 23rd of March the Battalion was taken out of its -unmolested German trenches and marched to Combles, where it was -used in road-making between Frégicourt, Bullet Cross-roads and -Sailly-Saillisel, till the 5th of April. There was just one day -in that stretch without rain, hail or snow, and when they were -not road-making they buried dead and collected salvage and were -complimented by the commanding officer of engineers on their good -work. As the men said: “It was great days for the Engineers--bad luck -to ’em--but it kept us warm.” - -Their total losses for March had been one officer, Major G. E. S. -Young, killed and one, Lieutenant Walter Mumford, M.C., slightly -wounded; fourteen other ranks killed and forty wounded--fifty-six -in all or less than 10 per cent. of the Battalion’s strength at the -time. Second Lieutenant H. V. Fanshawe joined on the 30th March. - -On the 6th April they changed over to railway construction on the -broad-gauge track between Morval and Rocquigny. The men camped at -one end of Le Transloy village and Battalion Headquarters in the -only house (much damaged) that still stood up. Here they stayed and -slaved for a week, in hail and snow and heavy frosts at night; and -were practically reclothed as their uniforms were not in the best -of condition. (“Ye could not have told us from--from anything or -anybody ye were likely to meet in those parts, ye’ll understand. -But--one comfort--we was all alike--officers an’ all.”) A village -that has not been too totally wrecked is a convenient dump to draw -up. The men “improved” their camp and floored their tents out of -material at hand, and were rewarded by finding usable German stores -among the ruins. One sees how their morale held up, in spite of -dirt, iron-rust and foul weather, from the fact that they went -out of their way to construct--even as they had done at Ypres--“a -magnificent Irish Guards Star of glass and stones all surrounded by -a low box-hedge.” Nor was it forgotten that they were soldiers; and, -in spite of the railway-work, and the demands of the Sappers, some -of the “specialists” and occasionally a company could be trained at -Le Transloy. Even training is preferable to “fatigues,” and on the -15th of April they were taken in hand in good earnest. They marched -twelve miles in pouring rain to a camp at Bronfay where “a very -strict course of platoon training for all ranks was undertaken.” It -began with twenty minutes’ walking or running (in the usual rain or -snow) before breakfast at 7.30, and it continued with a half-hour’s -break till half-past twelve. “Even after three days there was an -appreciable improvement in drill and smartness,” says the Diary, and -when their Brigadier inspected them on the 22nd April he was pleased -to compliment. Of afternoons, every one seemed to lecture to every -one else according to their seniority; the Brigadier on “Outposts”; -the commanding officer--Major R. Baggallay--on “Advance and Rear -Guards,” the officers to the platoon-sergeants on every detail of -life-saving or taking, and when their own resources failed, the C.O. -of the 2nd Coldstream lectured all officers and sergeants of the -1st Brigade on “the attack in open warfare.” It was a very thorough -shaking-up--foot and transport--from the “specialists” to the cook’s -mate; and it culminated in No. 5 Platoon (Lieutenant E. Budd) being -chosen to represent the Battalion at the Brigade Platoon competition -in Drill, Arms Drill, Musketry, Bayonet-fighting and a tactical -exercise. The 2nd Grenadiers platoon won, but No. 5 justified itself -by taking a very close second place. Survivors, who remember, assert -that the platoons of those days were in knowledge, strength, and -virtue immeasurably above all known standards of fighting men. (“And -in the long run, d’ye see, they went with the rest. All gone! Maybe -there’ll be one or two of ’em left--policemen or tram-conductors an’ -such like; but in their day an’ time, ye’ll understand, there was -nothing could equal them.”) - -The lighter side of life was supplied by the 3rd Coldstream’s -historic and unparalleled “Pantomime,” which ran its ribald and -immensely clever course for ten consecutive nights when the cars of -the Staff might be seen parked outside the theatre precisely as in -the West End. - -On the 1st May they resumed work on the Etricourt-Fins railroad and -made camp among the ruins of the village for the next three weeks -in fine hot weather. The officers and N.C.O.’s were exercised -freely at map-reading (which on the Somme required high powers of -imagination), sketching reports and compass-work and occasionally -officers and N.C.O.’s made up a platoon and worked out small tactical -exercises--such as the rush-in and downing of a suddenly raised -machine-gun after a barrage had lifted. The men were kept to the -needs of railway and transport, but it was an easy life in warm, -grassy Etricourt after months of mud and torn dirt. A swimming bath -was dug for them; there were wild flowers to be gathered, and an -orchard in blossom to show that the world still lived naturally, -and their work was close to their parade-grounds. Men spoke -affectionately of Etricourt where shell-holes were so few that they -could count them. - -A home-draft had brought the Battalion six pipers who on the 4th of -May “played at Retreat for the first time,” and thereafter followed -the Battalion’s fortunes. As everybody knows, Irish pipes have one -drone less than the Scottish, but it is not commonly understood that -the piper in his close-fitting saffron kilt plays them almost without -any movement of the body--a point of difference that has puzzled very -many Scots regiments. That immobility, as the Pipe Major observed on -an historic occasion, is “one of the secrets of the regiment.” - -On the 20th of May they marched--not without some discomfort from an -artillery brigade which was trying to use the same road at the same -time--from Etricourt to Curlu on the Somme, where they were once -more billeted in houses. Here, after so many weeks of making their -own camps to their own minds, they were introduced to other people’s -housekeeping, and found the whole village “left in a filthy condition -by previous troops.” So they cleaned it up and trained and learned -from the Divisional Gas Officer of Transport how gas-helmets should -be adjusted on horses--to which some of the scared beasts hotly -objected; and they bathed by companies in the warm Somme, making -a picnic of it, while the long-drawn battle of the Ancre in the -north died down to mere bloody day-and-night war among the villages -covering the Hindenburg Line and its spurs. The talk in the camps -turned on great doings--everything connected with the front-line -was “doings”--against Messines Ridge that looks over the flat -shell-bitten Salient where there is more compulsory trench-bathing -than any man wants. It had commanded too much of that country for -too long. At its highest point, where Wytschaete village had once -stood, it overlooked Ypres and the British positions around, and was -a menace over desolate Plugstreet far towards Armentières. Rumour -ran that arrangements had been made to shift it bodily off the face -of the earth; that populations of miners had burrowed there through -months, for miles; that all underground was riddled with workings -where men fought in the dark, up and down tunnels that caved, round -the sharp turns of boarded and bagged galleries, and on the lips of -black shafts that dropped one into forty-foot graves. Yet, even were -Messines Ridge wiped out, the enemy had large choices of commanding -positions practically all round the Salient, and it seemed likely, -by what news sifted into their area, that the Guards might be called -upon before long to help in further big doings, Ypres way--perhaps a -“break-through” towards Lille. - - -THE SALIENT AND BOESINGHE - -The Salient had been the running sore in our armies’ side since the -first. Now that we had men, guns, and material, it looked as if it -might be staunched at last. A battalion does not think beyond its -immediate interests--even officers are discouraged from trying to run -the war by themselves--but it did not need to be told that it had not -been fattened up the last few weeks for Headquarters’ pleasure in its -appearance. Men know when they are “for it,” and if they forget, are -reminded from the doors of crowded estaminets and canteens, or from -the tail-boards of loaded lorries as their comrades fleet by in the -dusk. They were not surprised when orders came for a shift. - -On the evening of the 30th May they were taken by train from their -camp, _via_ Amiens, Abbeville, and Boulogne and St. Omer to Cassel -in thirteen or fourteen hours, and from Cassel marched back along -the well-known pavé nearly to St. Omer again and billeted between La -Crosse and the dingy wide railway-crossing at Fort Rouge. All the -country round was busy raising crops; every old man, woman, and child -working as long as light lasted. Their only available training-ground -was the Forest of Clairmarais, with its two characteristic wooded -hills that stand up behind St. Omer. Here they were taught -“wood-fighting” in addition to other specialties, and the mess -found time to give a dinner of honour to a friendly Field-Ambulance -(Irish in the main) to whom they had, on various occasions, owed -much. Scandal asserts that the guests departed, in the dawn, on -their own stretchers. Here, too, on the 6th June they entered for -the Brigade horse-show and won first prize for the best turned out -limber-and-pair, and seconds for water-cart and cooker-and-pair--no -small thing when one considers what is the standard of excellence in -Brigade transport. - -On the next day (June 7), the nineteen mines of Messines went up -together in the dawn. The three army corps (Second Anzac and Ninth -and Tenth Corps) loosed behind them, broke forward over Messines and -Wytschaete, and the whole German line from Armagh Wood to Plugstreet -was wrenched backwards from a mile to two miles all along. Messines -was a singularly complete and satisfactory affair, including some -seven thousand prisoners and, better still, a multitude of dead, -killed off in counter-attacks. It opened the road for the Third -Battle of Ypres which was to win more breathing-space round the wreck -of the city. Unlike Arras, where there was almost unlimited space -for assembly in subterranean caves and cellars, every preparation -in the Salient had to be carried out under the enemy’s eyes on -known and registered ground lacking shelter above or below. Thus -the attack, which was to cover a front of fifteen miles, demanded -as much effort and pre-arrangement as any operation that had till -then been undertaken in the whole course of the war. Those were made -and carried through among, and in spite of, the daily demands of -continuous local operations, with the same thoroughness and fixedness -of purpose as when the Brigade competed for its little prizes and -trophies at Renescure horse-show. - -On the 12th June the Battalion marched thirteen miles for musketry to -Moringhem in the bare, high down-country behind Acquin, where two men -collapsed with heat-stroke. A century ago the drill-book laid down -that unaimed battalion-fire from “Brown Bess” should never be opened -at over four hundred yards. They practised slow and rapid firing with -fixed bayonets at two and three hundred; company sharp-shooters using -figures at the same range. - -On the 16th June the first drawing in towards the Salient began. -They camped that night at Ouderzeele north of Cassel, after such -heat as made several of the men fall out by the way, and on the 17th -bivouacked in sheds and shelters in the woods south-east of Proven -on the Poperinghe road, where the cultivation, all unaffected by the -war half a dozen miles off, was as thick as ever, and, except for -“specialist” training in the woods, it was difficult to find the men -work. The men bore this quite calmly. - -As a sign of the times Lieutenant H. Hickie, who had been on leave, -arrived and “again took over his duties as Quartermaster” on the -20th June. Lieutenant J. H. Nash left on the same date for the Army -Central School, and on the 22nd Captain R. Rodakowski and Lieutenant -W. Joyce were detailed for courses of instruction at Le Touquet Lewis -Gun School. - -On the 23rd June, Major-General Sir A. J. Godley, commanding the -Second Anzac Corps, came over on a visit to the Battalion and -inspected the men, and day by day the pieces required for the next -move on the chessboard of war were pushed into their places along -the Salient. The Fifth Army--of four corps and some divisions--under -General Gough was to take the weight of the affair between Klein -Zillebeeke and Boesinghe, while the First French Army--First and -Fifty-first Divisions--would relieve the Belgians from Boesinghe to -Noordschoote and extend the line along the Yser Canal north of Ypres -to Steenstraate. The Guards Division was to lie next them on the -extreme left of our line at Boesinghe. - -On the 25th June, the Battalion moved from Proven into the edge -of the battle-area near Woesten, a couple of miles or so behind -Boesinghe itself, and came under the fire of a long-range German -naval gun which merely cut up the fields round them. Both sides were -now hard at work in the air, trying to put out each other’s eyes; -and a German aeroplane brought down one of our observation-balloons -hideously alight, close to Woesten camp. All the Salient hummed -with opposing aircraft, the bombing of back-areas was cruel and -continuous, and men had no rest from strain. But our batteries, -profiting by the help of our machines, hammered the enemy line as -it had not been hammered there since war began. Oil-drums, gas and -thermite shells were added to the regular allowances sent over, and, -whenever chance offered, raiding-parties dove in and out of the front -lines sharking prisoners for identification. The Battalion’s share -in this work was the usual fatigue--“unloading trucks” and the like, -beneath intermittent artillery-fire which, on the 29th June, ended in -three direct hits on the farm-house (Roussel farm) near Elverdinghe, -where they lay. One man was killed outright and three others wounded. -Their regular routine-work of death had begun again. - -On the 1st of July they went into line on the Boesinghe sector, -relieving the 2nd Coldstream on the west or near sector of the Yser -Canal. Their trenches were of the usual built-up, sand-bagged type. -Headquarters were at Bleuet farm, well under fire of all kinds, -and though they managed their relief at night with little shelling, -early next morning, Lieutenant E. Shears was killed by shell. It -was a bad sector in every way, for not only did the Battalion link -on here to the Belgian army--later relieved by the French--on their -left, and any point of junction of Allied forces is always severely -dealt with, but the enemy were kept in tension by constant raids, -or the fear of them, all along the line. This meant that their SOS -signals went up on the least provocation and their barrages followed -with nervous punctuality. Added to this, fatigue-work was very heavy, -not only in repairs but in supply; and the necessary exposure of the -carrying-parties led to constant casualties. - -On the 5th July, for instance, at two in the morning, gas shells -fired from projectors (the Germans were searching the line in earnest -that night) fell on a working-party of No. 4 Company. Nineteen men -were at once prostrated, of whom one died then and there, and two a -few days later; while Lieutenant Bagenal was slightly affected. (It -is difficult, especially in the dark, to keep working-parties, who -have to work against time, inside their gas-masks.) They were shelled -for the rest of the day with no further casualties. - -On the 6th July Major Hon. H. R. Alexander, leaving for England to -attend the officers’ course at Aldershot, Captain R. R. C. Baggallay -took over the command, and on the 8th July they were relieved by -the 3rd Coldstream and bivouacked at Cardoen farm, where they spent -two days nominally resting--that is to say, supplying one hundred -and ten men each night for the detestable work of carrying-parties -to the front line. Lieut.-Colonel Rocke, D.S.O., commanding since -May 24, returned from leave on July 8, but unluckily on the 11th, -when the Battalion was in line, in the wreck of Boesinghe Village -(Headquarters at Boesinghe Château), slipped and broke his shoulder -while going round the trenches, and Captain Baggallay again took -over command. There was steady well-ranged shelling all that day, -particularly on Boesinghe Château, in the rear of which the aid-post -and headquarters of No. 1 Company lay. Battalion Headquarters were -shelled for half an hour separately. No. 3 Company’s Headquarters -in the support-line were wrecked by direct hits, and the entire -company shelled out, while the whole of the back lines were worked -over, up and down. All repairs had to be built up with sand-bags, for -the ground was too marshy to give useful dirt, and the labour was -unending. - -On the 12th July they were shelled more heavily than the previous two -days on exactly the same places, and their transport, which till now -had had reasonable luck, was caught fetching up water and rations. -The four company quartermaster-sergeants and the mess-sergeant were -wounded, a horse and groom killed, and, later on, the transport -officer was slightly gassed. (“’Tis the Transport, ye’ll understand, -that has to take all Jerry’s back-chat after dhark, an’ no chance of -replyin’.”) By night they found carrying-parties to fill dumps--five -of them--each dump seeming to those serving it more exposed and -undesirable than the other four put together. - -On the 14th of July there was a German raid, preceded by an hour’s -“box” barrage of trench-mortars, .77’s, and machine-guns, on two -platoons of No. 4 Company then in the front line behind the canal. -A shrapnel-barrage fell also on the supports. A “box” barrage is a -square horror of descending fire cutting off all help, and ranks high -among demoralising experiences. Luckily, the line was lightly held, -and the men had more or less of cover in dug-outs and tunnels in the -canal bank. A Lewis-gun post in a covered emplacement, almost on -the bed of the canal itself, was first aware, through the infernal -racket, of Germans crossing the canal, and fired at them straight -down the line of its bed. They broke and disappeared in the rank -weed-growth, but there was another rush over the parapet of the line -between two sentry groups in the firing-bays. The trenches were alive -by then with scattered parties stumbling through the black dark, -and mistaking each other for friends or enemies, and the ruin of -the works added to the confusion. As far as can be made out, one -officer, Lieutenant H. J. B. Eyre, coming along what was left of a -trench, ran literally into a party of the enemy. His steel helmet and -revolver, all chambers fired, were found afterwards near the wreck of -a firing-bay, but there was no other trace. It was learned later that -he had been mortally wounded and died that evening. In trench-raids, -when life, death, or capture often turn on a step to the left or the -right, the marvel was that such accidents were not more frequent. - -A wounded German was captured. He had no marks of identification, -but said he belonged to a Schleswig regiment, and that the strength -of the raid was intended to be two hundred. It did not, as the -men said, “feel” anything like so many, though the wild lights of -explosion that lit the scene showed large enemy parties waiting -either in the bed of the canal or on the opposite bank. These, too, -vanished into the dark after their comrades in the trenches had been -turned out. Probably, it was but an identification fray backed by a -far-reaching artillery “hate” that troubled all the back-areas even -up to Elverdinghe. - -Our front-line casualties in the affair were but one officer and one -man missing and one wounded. Yet the barrage blew the men about like -withered leaves, covered them with mud, plastered them with bits of -sand-bags, and gapped, as it seemed, fathoms of trench at a stroke, -while enemy machine-guns scissored back and forth over each gap. The -companies in the support-line who watched the affair and expected -very few to come out of it alive, suffered much more severely from -the shrapnel-barrage which fell to their share. - -It was their last tour in the trenches for ten days, and it closed -with heavy barrages on the front and back lines, while they were -being relieved by the 1st Coldstream. This continued till our -guns were asked to reply, and after ten minutes made them cease. -The Battalion left the trenches in a steady downpour of wet and -entrained from Elverdinghe for Proven, whence they moved into the -training-area at Herzeele, where a representation of the ground to -be attacked on the day of battle, with its trenches and farms, was -marked out, and had to be studied by company commanders, N.C.O.’s, -and men according to their rank and responsibility. The officers’ -mess at Herzeele was in the quaint old three-storied tower, built -when the Spaniards held rule in the Low Countries. - -From the 16th to the 23rd July their mornings were spent at every -sort of drill--smoke-helmet drill, musketry, wiring, Lewis-gun, etc., -and their afternoons in going over the training-ground and practising -attacks. All that time the weather was perfect. As soon as they moved -away to Proven and into the battle-area on July 25 heavy rain began, -which, as on the Somme, where the devil duly looked after his own, -was destined to baulk and cripple the battle. For an introduction to -their next month’s work, the Battalion, roused at 2 A. M. on that -day by gas-alarms from the front, provided over five hundred men for -working-parties to get stuff into the front line; lost ten men killed -by shell-fire and one officer, Lieutenant H. H. Maxwell (who had come -unscathed through the raid of the 14th), and seven men wounded; and -next evening moved to their own place, a distance of two and a half -miles, with two hundred yard intervals between the platoons, under -casual shell-fire. - -They camped (July 27) in support near Bleuet farm, and, that evening, -had word that our aeroplanes reported no Germans could be seen in -the German front-line system, and that the 3rd Coldstream had sent -patrols forward who were already established across the canal. As a -matter of fact, the enemy was holding his front line in chains of -single posts, preferring rather to fight for it than in it; and was -relying on his carefully hidden ferro-concrete block-houses--later -known as “pill-boxes”--which, as he had arranged them in the torn -and marshy landscape, and along the line of the Ypres-Staden -rail, could hold up and dissipate any average infantry attack. -They were impervious to anything except direct hits of big stuff. -Their weakness was the small size of the slit through which their -machine-guns operated, and a certain clumsiness in the arrangement -of the gun itself, which made it difficult to depress. Consequently, -cool heads could crawl up and under, and rush the thing at close -quarters. - -Whether the enemy believed there would be no serious attack at the -junction of the French and British arms in the Boesinghe sector, or -whether he drew his men out of the front line to give room for his -barrages, may never be known. It is certain, however, that he left -his front line immediately facing the Guards Division empty, and that -miscalculation enabled the Guards to launch their attack without -having first to fight their way across the canal. The Coldstream had -possessed themselves promptly of the evacuated trenches, and there -stayed for some time before the enemy realised what had happened, -sent aeroplanes to locate the raiders, and tried--without success--to -shell them back again. It was a quick, well-thought-out coup that -saved very many good lives. - -On the 28th July the Battalion, after various contradictory orders, -was sent forward in the evening to relieve the left of the 3rd -Coldstream in the outpost-line. There was a report that the enemy -meditated an attack on that Battalion at their junction with the -Thirty-eighth Division on their right. (It must be remembered that -the French, who had had some difficulty in getting their guns -forward, were not in place, and their First Division lay on the left -of the Guards.) Up, then, went the Battalion in the evening and -took over the outpost-line from Douteuse House, to where it joined -the French forces. Two platoons of No. 2 Company, under Captain R. -Rodakowski, crossed the canal in the mud on improvised bridges of -slabs of wood nailed across rabbit-wire and canvas, and lay up in -an old German front line. The other two platoons occupied the old -British front line on the canal bank. Battalion Headquarters and -aid-post were at the Château, as usual. No. 1 Company (Captain W. -C. Mumford, M.C.) in support, and No. 4 Company (Captain Law, M.C.) -had a couple of platoons forward and two back. They were all shelled -equally through that night with gas and lachrymal shells, _plus_ -barrages on headquarters and the various lines of support. The gas -was responsible for six casualties, chiefly among signallers and -orderlies, whose work kept them on the move. Nothing could be done to -strengthen the newly occupied trenches, as there was no wire on the -spot; for the R.E. parties, trying to bring it up, were pinned till -daylight by back-barrages. - -On the 29th July a patrol was sent out to look at a concrete -blockhouse which our artillery reported they were unable to destroy -with the guns that were in use at the moment. The patrol drew fire -from the blockhouse, went on into the dark, and found that the -enemy’s line behind it was held by small posts only. Returning, it -would seem that they were fired at again, an N.C.O. and a man being -wounded, but they wounded and captured a prisoner, who said that -the post held twenty men. Whereupon that blockhouse was “kept under -observation” by small parties of our men, under Lieutenant Budd, M.C. -Next morning they observed five or six of the enemy lying out in -shell-holes round the blockhouse, which was too small for the whole -of its garrison. This overflow was all sniped in due course, till -the blockhouse, with fourteen unwounded prisoners, surrendered, was -absorbed into our outpost-line, and held against the enemy’s fire. -Considering that fire at the time--which included 5.9’s, 4.2’s, and -.77’s--it was a neatly expeditious affair. The Battalion was relieved -by the 1st Grenadiers and the Welsh, and went back to camp in the -Forest area to spend the 30th July preparing themselves and their -souls for the morrow’s work. - -The Guards Division lay, as we know, between the First French -Division on its left and our Thirty-eighth Division on its right; -the line of the Ypres-Staden railway with its blockhouses marking -the limit between the two British divisions. This was an awkward -junction, which caused trouble later. Four objectives were laid -down. The first was the nearest German system of trenches, which had -lain under searching artillery-fire for some time, and would not be -difficult; the second, six hundred yards farther on, ran parallel to -the Pilckem road; the third an imaginary line a hundred yards beyond -the well-known Iron Cross Kortikaar-Cabaret road, beyond Pilckem -Ridge, and the last went up to the Steenbeek River. The total depth -of the run was about two miles from the canal bank. - -The 2nd (Ponsonby’s) and the 3rd (Seymour’s) Brigades were to take -the first three objectives, after which the 1st (Jeffreys’s Brigade), -following close behind, was to come through and take the fourth. -The 2nd Brigade, which was on the right of the division, held -the front from the Ypres-Staden railway-bridge over the canal to -Boesinghe Bridge. The 3rd Brigade continued the line to the left for -six hundred yards. The 1st Brigade, less the 1st Irish and the 3rd -Coldstream, which were under the direct orders of General Feilding, -G.O.C. Guards Division, was in reserve. - -Our barrages, conceived on a most generous scale, were timed to creep -at a hundred yards in four minutes. They were put down at 3.50 A. M., -July 31, a dark, misty morning on the edge of rain, and the whole -attack went forward with satisfying precision so far as the Guards -Division was concerned. The various objectives were reached at the -given times, and level with the French advance. By eleven o’clock the -farthest was in our hands, and what difficulties there were arose -from the division on the Guards’ right being held up among unreduced -blockhouses enfilading them from the railway line. - -Meantime, the 1st Battalion Irish Guards spent the day, after -breakfast at a quarter-past five, in reserve round the little -two-roomed, sand-bagged and concreted Chasseur farm, where there -was an apple-tree with all its leaves on; under half an hour’s -notice to move up if required. But no order came. They were shelled -intermittently all day, with a few casualties, and Captain F. S. Law -was slightly wounded. The evening, as pessimists prophesied, closed -in heavy rain, and the ground began to go. They stayed where they -were till the afternoon of the 1st August, when word came to take -over the line held by the 3rd Grenadiers and the 1st Coldstream on -the first, second, and third objectives. - -They moved out in rain into the usual wilderness of shell-holes -filling with water, but for the moment were not shelled. No. -4 Company went by daylight to its positions on the first -objective--Cariboo Wood and some half-wiped-out German trench-systems -in a partly destroyed wood. The other companies waited till dusk -before distributing themselves on the Green line--the third -objective--which was about a thousand yards this side the Steenbeek -River. While the move was in progress, a brigade of the Thirty-eighth -Division reported that they had been shelled out of their advanced -positions on the river and were falling back, which, as far as -could be seen, would leave the right flank of the Guards Division -in the air. If this were so, and the dusk and the rain made it -difficult to judge, it was imperative to put everything else aside -and form a defensive flank along the railway line that separated -the two divisions. The companies were diverted accordingly, hastily -re-directed in the dark, and, when all was done, the brigade that had -made the trouble went back to its original position on the further -objective. There was small choice of sleeping-places that night. -Such German blockhouses as came handiest were used for battalion -and company headquarters while the companies lay out in the wet and -talked about the prospect of hot meals. They were not very severely -shelled, but when August 2 broke in heavy rain and the brigade on -their right continued to send up SOS’s at intervals, thereby obliging -them to maintain their flank on the railway line, they felt that -“conditions were becoming exceedingly trying,” as the Diary says. -Then came a relief, which was at least a change. The 1st Scots -Guards relieved the two platoons of No. 4 Company back in Cariboo -trenches, where the shelling was light; and later, as darkness fell, -set the other companies free to go forward and relieve the 2nd -Grenadiers at the front of things. The change-over took five hours, -and in the middle of it the brigade on their right once more sent up -SOS’s, which brought down a German barrage, and necessitated every -one “standing to” for developments. It proved a false alarm, and “no -action was taken by the enemy”--an omission which it is conceivable -the Guards Division rather regretted. Beyond question that Brigade -had been badly held up among the blockhouses, and had been savagely -shelled in and out of shell-holes that bewilder troops; but--till -their own trouble comes--no troops go out of their way to make -excuses for a nightmare of SOS’s. (“There’s enough fatigues, ye’ll -understand, when you’re _out_ o’ the line. Extra fatigues in action, -like defensive flanks, is outrageous.”) - -They were shelled and rained upon throughout the whole of the night -of the 2nd August, and on the evening of the 3rd, still in ceaseless -rain, were relieved by the 1st Scots Guards and marched through -mud, water and darkness, over broken ground “beyond description” to -Elverdinghe Siding, where they were packed into trucks at five in the -morning and taken to Poll Hill Camp near Bandaghem for training. - -Their casualties, all things reckoned, had been very light. They had -gone into action on the 31st July with 26 officers and 1002 other -ranks and had lost only 2 officers and 125 other ranks from all -causes. - -The total casualties for the twelve battalions of the Guards Division -in the action had been 59 officers and 1876 men in two days; and rain -falling without a break for the next four days drowned out the sad -fight. The enemy’s line had been pushed back from Bixschoote, through -Frezenberg, Westhoek, Stirling Castle, and Shrewsbury Forest down -to Hollebeke. At that stage our armies, as had happened so often -on the Somme, were immobilised. The clay ground was cullendered and -punched by the shells into chains of pools and ponds. All valleys -and hollows turned into bogs where, if men wandered from the regular -tracks across them, they drowned or were mired to death. If they -stayed on the plankings the enemy’s guns swept them away. When all -had been done that man could do, the first phase of the Third Battle -of Ypres closed in a strengthened conviction that all the powers of -evil were in strict alliance with Germany. Our armies held off seven -counter-attacks along the line, settled themselves in it and then, -perforce, waited for the weather to clear. - -It rained on and off till the 15th August, and, as most of the corn -in the fields round Poll Hill Camp had, owing to the wet, not been -cut, training-ground was limited just at the very time when the new -German system of holding a line with a chain of carefully camouflaged -posts called for a change in attack methods. So the Battalion was -practised in “surprise situations”--_i.e._ discovering invisible -enemies with machine-guns in shell-holes that turned the advancing -line into a ragged scattering “scrum.” Their dummy barrages were -slowed, too, as the Diary says, “to enable the surprise situations -to be dealt with and to give time for the line to re-form behind -the barrage after having dealt with these situations.” This was a -kind of work for which, like bombing, the Irish had considerable -natural aptitudes. It was summed up, unofficially, thus: “In the -ould days, a trench was a trench, ye’ll understand, an’ something -to lay hould upon. Third Ypres was failin’ into nothin’ and then -findin’ ’twas two pill-boxes an’ a fort on your flank.” Therefore, -the specialists in the shape of the Lewis-gunner and the “mopper-up” -who dealt with the débris of attacks were important persons and were -instructed accordingly when the Battalion was not indented upon for -working-parties on the gun-tracks and bridges round Boesinghe. - - -THIRD YPRES AND THE BROEMBEEK - -On August 1 Lieutenant the Hon. P. J. Ogilvy joined the Battalion and -took over No. 1 Company from Acting Captain W. C. Mumford, who had -been appointed Town Major of the busy and occasionally battered town -of Elverdinghe; and Lieutenant E. Budd took over the 4th Company from -Acting Captain H. F. d’A. S. Law, wounded. - -On the 15th August, the eve of the Langemarck attack, they were -put on one hour’s notice, which was withdrawn the next day, when -six divisions (the Forty-eighth, Eleventh, Fifty-sixth, Eighth, -Twentieth and Twenty-ninth) struck again along the line from the -Menin road to our junction with the French in the north. The weather -once more blinded our aeroplanes so that our artillery could not -deal effectively with the counter-attacks; the pill-boxes held up -our infantry, and though prisoners, guns, and a little ground round -Langemarck were gained, the line of the Salient from St. Julien -southwards stood as it had since the first. The Battalion was -peacefully at bomb-practice on that day, and by some oversight a live -bomb got mixed up with the dummies, and caused thirteen casualties, -luckily none of them very serious, and the training went forward. As -the crops were cut ground was gradually extended and every one was -worked hard at practice attacks; for they understood that their lot -would be cast in the Salient for some time. - -On the 27th August medal ribbons were presented by the General of -the 1st Brigade to those who had won honour in the Boesinghe battle, -either by their cool-headedness in dealing with “surprise situations” -or sheer valour in the face of death or self-devotion to a comrade; -for there was every form of bravery to choose from. Lieutenant E. -Budd received the bar to his Military Cross, and Sergeant (a/C.S.M.) -P. Donohoe (No. 3056), No. 1910 Sergeant (a/C.S.M.) F. M’Cusker, No. -3224 Corporal E. M’Cullagh, No. 4278 Lance-Corporal J. Vanston, No. -7520 Private S. Nulty, No. 5279 Private J. Rochford (bar to Military -Medal), No. 10171 Lance-Corporal S. McHale, Military Medal; No. 10161 -Lance-Corporal W. Cooper, D.C.M. - -The following N.C.O.’s and men were unable to be present on parade, -but were awarded honours during the past month. No. 4512 Sergeant J. -Balfe, No. 3146 Lance-Corporal F. Coyne, No. 4386 Sergeant Macdonald, -No. 6078 Private J. Martin, Military Medal; No. 4884 Private D. -O’Brien, Croix de Guerre. - -On the last days of August they marched to Proven Siding and -entrained for Elverdinghe and thence to Dulwich Camp, well known as -being “somewhat exposed and liable to long-range shell-fire.” They -were used at once by the greedy R.E.’s for burying cables and making -artillery-tracks preparatory to the next move in the interminable -Third Battle of Ypres. - -From the 1st to the 4th September they, with the 1st Guards Brigade, -were in support to the 3rd Guards Brigade which was in the line, -and sent up about half their strength for carrying-parties every -night. The line, swampy and overlooked by the high ground under -Houthulst Forest to the north and north-east, consisted of posts in -shell-holes--the shell-holes being improved only just sufficiently -to make them “habitable.” The standard of comfort in the Salient -at that time was lower than on the Somme, where men were dying, -at least, dry. All posts were elaborately concealed from overhead -observation, for the enemy aeroplanes roved over them, bombing and -machine-gunning at large. Though the Battalion was lucky in its four -days’ turn, it lost on the night of the 4th September 2nd Lieutenant -G. P. Boyd and four men killed and twenty-three wounded. Some of the -other battalions in support suffered severely from bombing raids, and -all back-areas were regularly raked over so that the troops might be -worried by loss of sleep. - -From the 5th to the 8th they lay in Rugby Camp, in reserve to the -2nd Coldstream and 2nd Grenadiers of their own Brigade in the front -line. Here they enjoyed a “fairly quiet time,” and had only to find -a hundred men or so per night for forward-area work. Rugby, Dulwich -and the other camps were all duly and regularly bombed, shelled and -gassed, but that was accepted as part of the daily and nightly work. - -On the 9th they were up at the front among the “just sufficiently -habitable shell-holes” of the Green line beyond the Iron Cross -Kortikaar-Cabaret road from the Ypres-Staden railway to the junction -with the French. Their guides met them at Bois farm, fifteen hundred -yards back, and since, once among the holes, all food sent up risked -the life or mutilation of a man, they carried two days’ rations and -picked up their water from a Decauville railway that ran to the -terminus (daily bombed and bombarded) on the Wijden Drift road. -While the last two companies (Nos. 2 and 4) were getting their -tins at railhead, an hour and a half’s barrage was dropped on them -and twenty-seven men were killed or wounded. Relief was delayed in -consequence till one on the morning of the 10th, and, about an hour -later, a wandering covey of eight Germans, who had lost their way in -the dark, were rounded up by the forward platoons of No. 3 Company -(2nd Lieutenant Corry, D.C.M.). It was a small brisk fight, and it -came pleasantly after the barrage at railhead, and the shelling that -befell them from three to half-past five. They were annoyed, too, by -low-flying enemy aeroplanes who fired at the men in the posts but as -a rule missed them. A deserter came in and patrols were sent out to -see where the nearest enemy-post might be. One was located near the -railway line in front of the right company. Exploration work of this -sort in such a blind front as the enemy had arranged here, ends only -too often in patrols losing their way as the eight Germans had done; -and company officers do not like it. - -On the 11th September, after some artillery work on our side, the -enemy guns carried out a shoot on the pill-boxes occupied by the -right (No. 1) company while their infantry were “unusually active,” -probably because the Thirty-eighth Division on the Guards’ right -was being relieved that night by the Twentieth. As a side-issue of -the fight the Battalion on their left was attacked, which, so far -as the Irish Guards were concerned, meant that the left company -(No. 2) swiftly manufactured a fresh post on their left to improve -communication with their neighbours, and prevent the enemy working -round their flank through the remnants of a wood. In this work they -had to disperse with rifle-fire several parties of the enemy who -might have interfered with their arrangements, and Captain T. F. -MacMahon was wounded. This bald record covers a long, tense night of -alarms and fatigues, and fatigue-parties dropping like partridges -where the barrage found them, to creep forward as soon as it was -lifted; and, somewhere on the left, the crackle and blaze of an -attack on a battalion which was entirely capable of taking care of -itself. - -Their relief on the night of the 13th by the 1st Scots Guards was -“very much delayed.” Two detachments got lost, one through the guide -being killed and the other “through the guide losing himself.” Yet it -was a very dark, and, therefore, theoretically a safe, night, with -very little shelling--proof of the utter uncertainty of every detail -connected with war. - -They had lost in that fortnight one officer (2nd Lieutenant Boyd) -and fourteen men killed; one officer (Captain T. F. MacMahon) and -seventy-eight other ranks wounded. For the rest of the month they -were training in camps--Cariboo and Poll Hill--of which the former -was not out of reach of shell-fire, and studied new methods of attack -to combat the enemy’s new methods of defence in his protected and -fortified shell-holes. These he now held in depth, one shell-hole -post covering or flanking the next, so that men fought their way -up a landscape of miniature redoubts, invisible to guns, almost -invisible to aeroplanes, and much more expensive to reduce than the -narrow-slotted pill-boxes. - -On the 21st September their Brigadier-General Jeffreys saw the -Battalion on parade, near Proven, and bade them farewell on his -promotion to command the Nineteenth Division. He was succeeded in -command of the 1st Brigade by General C. R. C. de Crespigny. On the -27th Lieut.-Colonel R. V. Pollok commanding the Battalion, who had -been on leave, returned and took over from Captain A. F. L. Gordon -acting in his absence. On the 29th Lieutenant B. Reford who had been -Assistant Adjutant took over No. 3 Company _vice_ Captain T. F. -MacMahon, wounded on the 11th, and 2nd Lieutenant T. S. V. Stoney -joined for duty on the 25th. - -Among the honours mentioned as awarded to the men that month for -gallantry and devotion to duty was the D.C.M. to 5279 Private J. -Rochford for “gallantry, devotion to duty and organizing ability” -when employed as a stretcher-bearer with a working-party on September -3, the night when Lieutenant Boyd and twenty-eight men were killed -or wounded by bombs. This, it may be noted, is that Rochford whose -presence steadied, and whose jests diverted, whole platoons upon the -Somme, and for whose health the men inquired first after the platoon -or working-party had been shelled. - -And while they trained, with the utter self-absorption of men -concerned in the study of methods of taking man’s life, the Salient -heaved and flamed day after day with German counter-attacks as -our guns covered the adjustment and reinforcements and protection -of artillery troops and material in preparation for the battle of -September 20. As usual, the weather broke on the eve of it. Ten -Divisions (Nineteenth, Thirty-ninth, Forty-first, Twenty-third, -First and Second Australians, Ninth, Fifty-fifth, Fifty-eighth and -Twentieth) attacked from near Hollebeke in the south to Langemarck in -the north; pushed back the line on the whole length of their attack; -gained one mile outwards along the desperate Menin road, established -themselves in Polygon Wood, broke eleven counter-attacks, took over -3000 prisoners and left as many enemy dead. It was followed up -on the 26th September by another attack, on a six-mile front from -south of the Menin road to north-east of St. Julien, in which six -divisions (Thirty-ninth, Thirty-third, Fifth and Fourth Australians, -Fifty-eighth and Fifty-ninth) once more moved our line forward along -that frontage, in some places nearly half a mile. Our movement -clashed, almost to the minute, with German counter-attacks by fresh -divisions launched to recover the ground they had lost on the 20th -September, and the fighting was none the lighter for that coincidence. - -The 3rd October saw the weather break again just as fighting was -resumed on a seven-mile front from the Menin road to the Ypres-Staden -railway. Twelve divisions went in here (the Thirty-seventh, Fifth, -Twenty-first, Seventh; First, Second and Third Australians; the New -Zealand; Forty-eighth, Eleventh, Fourth and Twenty-ninth). Reutel, -Nordemhock, and Broodseinde villages were taken, Abraham Heights -gained, the Gravenstafel spur cleared by the New Zealanders; three -fresh German divisions were caught by our guns almost in the act -of forming up for attack, and 5000 prisoners were passed back. The -enemy’s losses here were very satisfactory and mainly due to our -gun-fire. - -On the 5th October, then, so far as the Guards Division was -concerned, the line of our working front ran through Poelcappelle -and thence back to the Ypres-Staden railway at a point some thousand -yards north of Langemarck. From that point it merged into the old -line gained on the 20th of September which followed the Broembeek -River at a short distance to the south of it, towards our junction -with the French, and thence lost itself in the flooded areas beyond -Noordschoote. No weight of attack had fallen on that sector of the -front since September 20 when Langemarck had been captured, and the -French line, with ours, advanced in the direction of Draibach and -Houthulst Forest. - - -THE BROEMBEEK - -It was decided to renew the attack, in combination with the French -here, on the 9th October, from north-west of Langemarck across the -Ypres-Staden railway down to a point in the line gained on the 4th -October, east of Zonnebeke, on a front of six miles. The weather -prepared itself in advance. Rain began punctually on the 7th, -continued through the 8th, and made the going more than usually -unspeakable. It affected the Guards Division principally, since -their share of the work involved crossing the little valley of the -Broembeek River which, should it continue to flood, offered every -possible opportunity for holding up troops under fire, loss of -direction (since men never move straight across bogs) and engulfment -of material. The Broembeek was a stagnant ditch, from twenty to -thirty feet wide and from two to five deep, edged with shell-holes -and, in some parts, carrying vertical banks four or five feet deep. -There was, mercifully, no wire in it, but night-patrols sent out the -week before the battle of the 9th reported it could not be crossed -without mats. - -The 1st Brigade of the division, which lay in reserve while the 3rd -Brigade held the front line, had trained for several days at Poll -Hill Camp over ground “marked” to represent the ground that the -Battalion would have to attack over. The certainty of being drenched -to the skin on a raw October night as a preliminary to tumbling from -shell-hole to shell-hole till dawn between invisible machine-guns and -snipers was left to the imagination of the men. - -On October 6th, “the details to be left out of the attack departed -to join the Guards Division Reinforcement Battalion at Herzeele.” -Men say that the withdrawal of these reprieved ones on the eve of -action was as curious a sight as the arrival of a draft. (“For ye’ll -understand, at that time o’ the war, men knew ’twas only putting off -what was bound to happen.”) - -Then, in foul weather, the Battalion entrained for Elverdinghe with -the 3rd Coldstream of their Brigade. The idea was that the 1st -Brigade (De Crespigny’s) would attack parallel to the line of the -Ypres-Staden railway on their right, about three hundred yards from -it, the 2nd Brigade (Sergison-Brooke’s) on their left next against -the French, with the 3rd Brigade (Seymour’s) in support. This last -brigade had been very heavily used in making arrangements for the -Division to cross the Broembeek, piling dumps and helping to haul -guns into fresh positions through the mud. The furthest objective -set, for the advance, was the edge of the Houthulst Forest, three -thousand yards across semi-fluid country with no landmarks other -than the line of smashed rail on their right, and whatever fortified -houses, farms, pill-boxes and shell-holes they might encounter during -their progress. When they had overcome all obstacles, they were -instructed to dig in on the edge of the forest. - -At 9.30 on the night of the 8th, in heavy rain, the Battalion marched -from Abingley Camp to their assembly lines (these all duly marked -by tapes and white signboards, which, to the imaginative, suggest -graveyards) from Elverdinghe to Boesinghe road, up “Clarges Street” -to Abri Wood, and then to Cannes farm till they met the guides -for their assembly areas at Ruisseau farm. From here began the -interminable duck-boards that halt and congest the slow-moving line; -and it was not till four in the morning that the Battalion was formed -up and moved off. The rain had stopped a little before midnight and -a late moon came to their help. - -The companies were commanded as follows: No. 1, Captain the Hon. P. -J. Ogilvy; No. 2, Lieutenant D. S. Browne; No. 3, Captain R. B. S. -Reford; No. 4, Lieutenant N. B. Bagenal. - -There was some shelling as they got into their assembly positions -at 5.20 A. M., but casualties were few. The 2nd Grenadiers and 2nd -Coldstream led off under a few minutes’ blast of intense fire from -field-guns and Stokes mortars, crossed the Broembeek and were away. -At 6.20 the 1st Irish Guards and 3rd Coldstream followed them. The -Battalion’s crossing-place at the river, which, after all, proved -not so unmanageable as the patrols reported, had no bridges, but -there was wire enough on the banks to have made trouble had the enemy -chosen that time and place to shell. They went over in three-foot -water with mud at the bottom; re-formed, wet and filthy, and followed -the 2nd Grenadiers who had captured the first and second objectives, -moved through them at 8.20 and formed up on the right of the 3rd -Coldstream under the barrage of our guns for their own advance on the -final objective--the edge of the forest. - -So far, barring a tendency to bear towards the right or railway side, -direction had been well kept and their losses were not heavy. The -companies deployed for attack on the new lines necessitated by the -altered German system of defense--mopping-up sections in rear of the -leading companies, with Lewis-gun sections, and a mopping-up platoon -busy behind all. - -Meantime, the troops on the Battalion’s right had been delayed in -coming up, and their delay was more marked from the second objective -onward. This did not check the Guards’ advance, but it exposed the -Battalion’s right to a cruel flanking fire from snipers among the -shell-holes on the uncleared ground by the Ypres-Staden line. There -were pill-boxes of concrete in front; there was a fortified farm -buried in sand-bags, Egypt House, to be reduced; there were nests -of machine-guns on the right which the troops on the right had not -yet overrun, and there was an almost separate and independent fight -in and round some brick-fields, which, in turn, were covered by -the fire of snipers from the fringes of the forest. Enemy aircraft -skimming low gave the German artillery every help in their power, -and the enemy’s shelling was accurate accordingly. The only thing -that lacked in the fight was the bayonet. The affair resolved -itself into a series of splashing rushes, from one shell-hole to -the next, terrier-work round the pill-boxes, incessant demands for -the Lewis-guns (rifle-grenades, but no bombs, were employed except -by the regular bombing sections and moppers-up who cleared the -underground shelters), and the hardest sort of personal attention -from the officers and N.C.O.’s. All four companies reached the final -objective mixed up together and since their right was well in the -air, by the reason of the delay of the flanking troops, they had -to make a defensive flank to connect with a battalion of the next -division that came up later. It was then that they were worst sniped -from the shell-holes, and the casualties among the officers, who had -to superintend the forming of the flank, were heaviest. There was not -much shelling through the day. They waited, were sniped, and expected -a counter-attack which did not come off, though in the evening the -enemy was seen to be advancing and the troops on the Battalion’s -right fell back for a while, leaving their flank once more exposed. -Their position at the time was in a somewhat awkward salient, and -they readjusted themselves--always under sniping fire--dug in again -as much as wet ground allowed, and managed in the dark to establish -connection with a battalion of Hampshires that had come up on their -right. - -They spent the night of the 9th October where they lay, in the -front line, while the enemy sniped them, shelled their supports, -or put down sudden wandering barrages from front to back. Every -company commander had been killed or wounded during the day; their -medical officer (Captain P. R. Woodhouse, M.C.) was wounded at duty -on the 10th, the men were caked with mud and ooze, worn to their -last nerves and badly in need of food and hot drinks. There was -no infantry action on their front, however, throughout the 10th, -and in the evening they were relieved by two companies of the 1st -Grenadiers; the other two companies of that battalion relieving the -2nd Grenadiers in the support-line. The battle, which counted as “a -successful minor operation” in the great schemes of the Third Battle -of Ypres, had cost them four officers killed in action on the 9th, -one died of wounds on the 11th, seven officers and their doctor -wounded in the two days; forty-seven other ranks killed; one hundred -and fifty-eight wounded, and ten missing among the horrors of the -swampy pitted ground. The list runs: - - Capt. the Hon. P. J. Ogilvy } - Capt. R. J. P. Rodakowski } - 2nd Lieut. A. L. Wells } killed October 9. - 2nd Lieut. T. S. V. Stoney } - 2nd Lieut. H. V. Fanshawe died 11th October of - wounds received on - the 9th. - - Capt. R. B. S. Reford } - Lieut. N. B. Bagenal } - Lieut. D. S. Browne } wounded October 9th. - 2nd Lieut. E. M. Harvey } - 2nd Lieut. T. Corry } - - Capt. P. R. Woodhouse } - Lieut. H. H. Maxwell } wounded October 10th. - 2nd Lieut. E. H. Dowler } - -It took them eight hours along the taped tracks and the duck-boards -to get to Rugby Camp behind Boesinghe, where they stayed for the -next two days and drew a couple of officers and a hundred men from -the Divisional Reinforcement Battalion to replace some of their -casualties. - -On the 13th October they, with their Brigade, took over the support -line on the old battle-front from various units of the 2nd and 3rd -Guards Brigade. The 2nd Grenadiers relieved the 1st Grenadiers -in the front line on the right and the 2nd Coldstream the Welsh -Guards on the left sector. The Battalion itself was scattered by -companies and half-companies near Koekuit-Louvois farm, Craonne -farm, and elsewhere, relieving companies and half-companies of the -other battalions, and standing by to attend smartly to the needs -of the forward battalions in case of sudden calls for more bombs, -small-arm ammunition, and lights. They were instructed, too, to be -ready to support either flank should the troops there give way. -But the troops did not give way; and they had nothing worse to -face than heavy shelling of the supports at night and the work of -continuing the duckboard-tracks across the mud. Most of the men -were “accommodated in shell-holes and small, shallow trenches,” -for water stopped the spade at a couple of feet below ground; but -where anything usable remained of the German pill-boxes, which -smelt abominably, the men were packed into them. It was in no way a -pleasant tour, for the dead lay thick about, and men had not ceased -speaking of their officers of the week before--intimately, lovingly, -and humorously as the Irish used to do. - -More than most, the advance on Houthulst Forest had been an officer’s -battle; for their work had been broken up, by the nature of the -ground and the position of the German pill-boxes, into detached -parties dealing with separate strong points, who had to be collected -and formed again after each bout had ended. But this work, conceived -and carried out on the spur of the moment, under the wings of death, -leaves few historians. - -They were relieved on the 16th October by the 20th Lancashire -Fusiliers of the 104th Brigade on their right, returned to -Elverdinghe through Boesinghe, and entrained for a peaceful camp at -Proven. During their three days’ tour, Lieutenant R. H. S. Grayson -and fourteen other ranks were wounded, mainly by shell and two other -ranks were killed. - -They had begun the month of October with 28 officers and 1081 other -ranks. They had lost in sixteen days 252 other ranks and 14 officers -killed or wounded. Now they were free for the time to rest, refit, -and reorganise in readiness, men said, to be returned to the Somme. -(“Ye’ll understand that, in those days, we had grand choice of the -fryin’-pan or the fire.”) - - -THE RETURN TO THE SOMME AND CAMBRAI - -The Salient, with its sense of being ever overlooked and constricted -on every side, fairly represents the frying-pan: the broad, general -conflagration of the Somme, the fire. They quitted the frying-pan -with some relief, entrained at Proven with the 3rd Coldstream and -the 1st Brigade Machine-gun Company, detrained at Watten between -the Bois du Ham and the Forêt d’Eperlecques, beyond St. Omer, and -marched to the pleasant village of Bayenghem-les-Eperlecques, where -they had the satisfaction of meeting the 6th Border Regiment just -marching out of the billets that they were to occupy. The place was -an intensive training-camp, specialising in all the specialties, but -musketry above all. The Somme was open country, where, since they had -left it, multitudes of tanks had come into use for the protection -of troops, and troops thus protected do not need so many bombers to -clear out shell-holes as they do in the Salient, where tanks stick -and are shelled to bits in the mud. The inference was obvious! They -enjoyed compulsory and voluntary musketry, varied with inspections -and route-marchings. - -On the 21st October His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught visited -them as senior Colonel of the Brigade of Guards, was introduced to -all the officers, spoke to most of the N.C.O.’s and the men who -had been decorated during the war. The Battalion was formed up in -“walking out” order in the streets of the village to receive him. It -is alleged by survivors that the sergeants saw to it that never since -the Irish Guards had been formed was there such rigorous inspection -of “walking out” men before they fell in. (“We looked like all -Bird-cage Walk of a Sunday.”) - -On the 24th there joined for duty a draft of six officers, Major -R. R. C. Baggallay, M.C., Lieutenant G. K. Thompson, M.C., and 2nd -Lieutenants C. E. Hammond, F. G. de Stacpoole, T. A. Carey, and E. C. -G. Lord. Lieutenant D. J. B. FitzGerald was transferred from the 1st -to the 2nd Battalion on the Twenty-fifth, which was the day chosen -for an inspection of the whole Division by Sir Douglas Haig, in cold -weather with a high wind. - -On the 6th November General Antoine, commanding the First French Army -Corps, which had lain on the Division’s left at Boesinghe, was to -present French medals gained by the Division, but, thanks to the wet, -parade, after being drawn up and thereby thoroughly drenched, was -dismissed and the medals presented without review. Lieut.-Colonel R. -V. Pollok, commanding the Battalion, received the Croix de Guerre. -It is all a piece with human nature that the miseries of a week in -liquid mud among corpses should be dismissed with a jest, but a -wet parade, which ruins three or four hours’ careful preparation, -regarded as a grievous burden for every one except the N.C.O.’s, who, -by tradition are supposed to delight in “fatigues” of this order. - -Their three weeks’ training came to an end on the 11th November, -when they moved thirteen miles, in torrents of rain, to the village -of Ecques, which was filled with Portuguese troops, and began a long -march. They did not know their destination, but guessed well where -they were going. - -Some had all the reasons in the world to know that the Division would -relieve the French on half a dozen different named sectors. Others -were certain that it would attack independently quite elsewhere. -Even Italy, where the Caporetto disaster had just taken place, was -to the imaginative quite within the bounds of luck. But their line -of route--twelve or thirteen miles a day in fine weather--dropped -always south and east. From Ecques it crossed the Lys at Thérouanne; -held over the worn road between St. Pol and Béthune, till, at -Magnicourt-le-Comte, came orders that all kits were to be reduced -and sent in to St. Pol. Elaborate reasons were given for this, such -as lack of transport owing to troops being hurried to Italy, which -dissipated the idea of light wines and macaroni entertained by the -optimists, and deceived no one. If they turned left when they struck -the St. Pol-Arras road, it would not be the French whom they were -relieving. If they held on south, it would be the old Somme ground. -And they held on south to Beaufort, marching by daylight, till the -18th of October found them in a camp of huts outside Blaireville and -well in the zone of aeroplane observation. They moved under cover of -darkness that night to a camp of tents at Gomiecourt between wrecked -Bapaume and battered Arras. - -The bare devastated downs of the Somme had taken them back again, -and they were in the Fifth Corps, Third (Julian Byng’s) Army. It -was revealed at Divisional Headquarters conference on the night of -the 19th that that army was on the eve of attack. There would be -no preliminary bombardments, but an outrush of tanks, with a dozen -infantry divisions on a six-mile front from Gonnelieu to the Canal du -Nord near Hermies. - -The affair might be a surprise for an enemy whom our pressure on -the Salient had forced to withdraw a large number of troops from -the Somme front. If the tanks worked well, it ought to result in -the breaking through of the triple-trench system of the Hindenburg -Line, which had been immensely strengthened by the Germans since -their leisurely retirement thither in April. We might expect to -push on across their reserve system three or four miles behind the -Hindenburg Line. We might even capture Cambrai twelve thousand yards -from our jumping-off place, though that would be a side-issue; but, -with luck, our attack would win us more high ground towards the -north and the north-east, whence we could later strike in whichever -direction seemed most profitable. Secrecy and hard-hitting would -be of the essence of the contract, since the enemy could bring up -reinforcements in a couple of days. Meantime the Guards Division -would stand by at two hours’ notice, ready to be used as required. -If Cambrai were taken, they would be called upon to hold it and -make good. If it were not, then the battle would rank as a raid -on a big scale, and the Division might be used for anything that -developed. That same day Major Baggallay, M.C., carried out a road -reconnaissance of the front at Doignies and Demicourt north of -Havrincourt Wood. The situation there betrayed nothing. “Apparently -the whole of that front-sector was habitually very quiet.” - -Twenty-four hours later, it was alive and roaring with our tanks -rooting through the massed wire of the Hindenburg Line, the clamour -of half-a-dozen divisions launched at their heels and the smashing -fire of our guns in advance of them and their covering smoke-screens; -while far to the north and south dummy attacks, gas and artillery -demonstrations veiled and confused either flank. The opening day was, -beyond doubt, a success. The German line went out under the tanks, -as breakwaters go out under the race of a tide; and from Gonnelieu -to north of Hermies three systems of their defence were overrun to -a depth of four or five miles. By the 21st November our attack had -punched out a square-headed salient, ten miles across the base, the -southerly side of which ran along the high ground of the Bonavis -Ridge, more or less parallel to the St. Quentin-Escaut Canal from -Gonnelieu to Masnières, which latter place we held. The easterly -side lay from Masnières through Noyelles-sur-l’Escaut and Cantaing -to Fontaine-Notre-Dame and Bourlon Wood. This latter, as the highest -point of command, was the key of the position on our north flank. -Thence, the northerly flank of the salient ran roughly westward from -the wood, south of Mœuvres till it joined our original front north of -Boursies. About one half of the salient was commanded by German guns -from the north of Bourlon Wood, and the other half from the south in -the direction of the Bonavis Ridge. - -Besides these natural disadvantages there were large numbers of our -cavalry hopefully disposed on the main routes in readiness for the -traditional “break-through,” the harrying of enemy communications, -etc. November on the Somme is not, however, quite the best season for -exploits of horse, sabre and lance. - -Meantime, the Battalion spent the 20th November, and till the evening -of the 21st, at two hours’ notice in camp near Barastre, and on the -23rd November moved to bivouac just west of the village of Doignies -behind Demicourt on the edge of the “habitually very quiet sector” -before mentioned. The 1st and 3rd Brigades Guards Division had been -detailed to relieve two brigades of the Fifty-first Division in the -line attacking Fontaine-Notre-Dame village at the extreme north tip -of the salient a dozen miles away; and on the evening of the 23rd -November they received verbal orders to get away from Doignies. At -the moment the Battalion was moving off, came written orders that the -whole of its first-line transport should accompany it; so a verbal -order was sent to the transport officer to bring it on in rear of the -Brigade column. That was the beginning of some not too successful -Staff work and some unnecessary wanderings in the dark, complicated -by the congestion of the roads and the presence of the ever-hopeful -cavalry. The Battalion, its transport all abroad, crossed the Canal -du Nord from Doignies and waited by the roadside till Lieut.-Colonel -Follett, commanding the Brigade, rode into Graincourt, picked up -guides from the 152nd Brigade, brought on the Battalion another -couple of thousand yards to the cross-roads at La Justice, found -fresh guides from the Gordons and Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders -and moved downhill straight into line at Cantaing mill after “a good -and quiet relief,” at 3.20 A. M. on the morning of the 24th. Fighting -had been going on day and night since the 20th for the possession -of Bourlon Wood and village, where the Fortieth Division had been -worn to a skeleton in alternate attack and counter-attack, but there -was no trouble that dawn or day on the Cantaing sector where the -Battalion lay and listened to the roar of the battle a mile and a -half to the north. Their concern was to improve their line and find -out where on earth the Staff had lost their first-line transport. -It appeared that varying orders had been given to the transport for -the different battalions, complicated by general instructions to -follow their own units by the light of nature; and there the orders -stopped. Naturally, as the roads boiled with traffic, all transport -was promptly stood aside to let troops get ahead, with the result -that after many adventures in the dark, including the collapse of a -bridge over the Canal du Nord when half the loads had crossed, the -Battalion’s transport got into Ribecourt at five in the morning, -still without any orders, found that no one knew where Brigade -Headquarters might be, billeted themselves in a wrecked farm and -managed to get into touch with their Battalion in the afternoon of -the 24th. About this time, the Fortieth Division with the tanks -attacked Bourlon village, captured the whole of it, only to be fought -out by the enemy on the following day. The Wood had not at that time -gained its dark name in history. All that the waiting Battalion at -Cantaing reports on the 25th November, while wood and village fumed -like the infernos that they were, is “no fighting on the battalion -front, although there was heavy fighting on the left.” - -It broke out again on the 26th towards evening (the fifth day of -continuous battle), when the 4th Grenadiers of the 3rd Guards Brigade -were sent up to support the Fortieth Division and, on the way -thither, went through a heavy German barrage as though they were on -parade. - -But the high ground above Bourlon Wood and Fontaine-Notre-Dame gave -the enemy an artillery and observation command which enabled them to -sweep our front and back areas in the northern half of the salient -almost as they chose. Pressure, too, was beginning to develop on -the flanks. The forty-eight hours in which the enemy could bring up -fresh troops had grown to nearly a week, and they had used every hour -of it. In no way could the situation be called healthy, but were -the Bourlon Ridges won, at least our gain of ground might be held. -So it was decided that the 2nd Guards Brigade, 3rd Grenadiers, 1st -Coldstream, 2nd Irish Guards and 1st Scots Guards, together with the -4th Grenadiers and the Welsh Guards borrowed, should on the 27th -attack Fontaine village and Bourlon Wood. They did so attack; they -were cut to pieces with machine-gun fire in the advance; they were -shelled out of Bourlon Wood; they were counter-attacked by heavy -reinforcements of the enemy; they had no reinforcements; they fell -back on Fontaine village in the evening; they withdrew from it in -the darkness and fell back on La Justice. It was a full failure -with heavy casualties and the news went back, with the speed of all -bad news, to the 1st Brigade, which had been relieved on the 26th, -the 1st Irish Guards lying at Ribecourt in the ruined farm where -their transport had taken refuge. They should have been in a trench -outside the village, but a battalion of another division was found in -possession of it, and so was not disturbed. - - -GOUZEAUCOURT - -There was no shelter against the driving snowy rain, and the men, -without great-coats or blankets, were “very cold, wet and miserable.” -The next day was no better, and on the 29th the Fifty-ninth -Division took over their area from them while the Guards Division -was rearranged thus: the 3rd Brigade at Trescault, the 2nd at -Ribecourt, and the 1st at Metz-en-Couture, a wrecked, red-brick -village, once engaged in the sugar-beet industry, lying on and under -a swell of the downs some four thousand yards west of Gouzeaucourt. -The Divisional Artillery was at Flesquières, more than four miles -away. The Battalion’s march to Metz was badly delayed by blocks on -the road and a general impression spread that trouble was not far -off. Individually, the soldier is easy to deceive: collectively, a -battalion has the sure instinct of an animal for changes in the wind. -There were catacombs in Metz village where one company was billeted -whereby it was nearly choked to death by foul gases.[8] This seemed -all of a piece with the bad luck of the tour, and the dawn of the -30th November was ushered in by single shells from a long-range gun -which found them during the night. Half an hour after they had the -order to move to Heudicourt and had digested a persistent rumour that -the enemy were through at Gonnelieu, telegrams and orders began to -pour in. The gist of them was that the line had undoubtedly cracked, -and that the Brigade would move to Gouzeaucourt at once. But what -the Brigade was to do, and under whose command it was to operate, -were matters on which telegrams and orders most livelily conflicted. -Eventually, the Division as a whole was assigned to the Third Corps, -the 3rd Brigade was ordered to come up from Trescault and help the -1st, and the various C.O.’s of the battalions of the 1st Brigade rode -forward to see for themselves what was happening. They had not far -to go. Over the ridge between Gouzeaucourt and Metz poured gunners, -carrying their sights with them, engineers, horses and infantry, all -apparently bent on getting into the village where they would be a -better target for artillery. The village choked; the Battalion fell -in, clear of the confusion, where it best could, and set off at once -in artillery formation, regardless of the stragglers, into the high -and bare lands round Gouzeaucourt. There were no guns to back them, -for their own were at Flesquières. - -As was pointed out by an observer of that curious day--“’Tis -little ye can do with gunsights, an’ them in the arrums av men in -a great haste. There was men with blankets round ’em, an’ men with -loose putties wavin’ in the wind, and they told us ’twas a general -retirement. We could see that. We wanted to know for why they was -returnin’. We went through ’em all, fairly breastin’ our way and--we -found Jerry on the next slope makin’ prisoners of a Labour Corps -with picks an’ shovels. But some of that same Labour Corps they took -their picks an’ shovels and came on with us.” - -They halted and fixed bayonets just outside Gouzeaucourt Wood, the -Irish on the left of the line, their right on the Metz-Gouzeaucourt -road, the 3rd Coldstream in the centre, the 2nd Coldstream on the -right, the 2nd Grenadiers in reserve in Gouzeaucourt Wood itself. -What seems to have impressed men most was the extreme nakedness -of the landscape, and, at first, the absence of casualties. They -were shelled as they marched to the Wood but not heavily; but when -they had passed beyond it they came under machine-gun fire from the -village. They topped the rise beyond the Wood near Queen’s Cross and -were shelled from St. Quentin Ridge to the east. They overran the -remnant of one of our trenches in which some sappers and infantry -were still holding on. Dismounted cavalry appeared out of nowhere in -particular, as troops will in a mixed fray, and attached themselves -to the right of the thin line. As they swept down the last slope to -Gouzeaucourt the machine-gun fire from the village grew hotter on -their right, and the leading company, characteristically enough, -made in towards it. This pulled the Battalion a little to the right, -and off the road which was supposed to be their left boundary, but -it indubitably helped to clear the place. The enemy were seen to be -leaving in some haste, and only a few of them were shot or bayoneted -in and out among the houses. The Battalion pushed in through the -village to the slope east of it under Quentin Mill, where they -dug in for the night. Their left flank was all in the air for a -while, but the 3rd Brigade, which had been originally ordered to -come up on the right of the 1st, was diverted to the left on the -Gouzeaucourt-Villers-Plouich line, and they got into touch with the -4th Grenadiers. There was no attempt to counter-attack. Tanks were -used on the right during the action, but they do not seem to have -played any material part in the Battalion’s area, and, as the light -of the short and freezing November day closed, a cavalry regiment or -“some cavalry” came up on the left flank. - -The actual stroke that recovered Gouzeaucourt had not taken more than -an hour, but the day had cost them a hundred and thirty men killed, -wounded, and missing; Lieutenant N. F. Durant killed, Lieutenant -(Acting Captain) Joyce, Lieutenant G. E. F. Van der Noot, Lieutenant -G. K. Thompson, M.C., and 2nd Lieutenant P. M. Riley wounded. All the -casualties were from machine-gun fire; men dropping at the corners of -streets, across thresholds in cellars and in the angles of wrecked -walls that, falling on them, hid them for ever. - -A profane legend sprang up almost at once that the zeal shown by the -Guards in the attack was because they knew Gouzeaucourt held the -supplies of the division which had evacuated it. The enemy had been -turned out before he could take advantage of his occupation. Indeed, -a couple of our supply-trains were found untouched on rail at the -station, and a number of our guns were recaptured in and around the -place. Also, the divisional rum-supply was largely intact. When this -fact came to light, as it did--so to say--rum-jar by rum-jar, borne -joyously through the dark streets that bitter night, the Brigade -was refreshed and warmed, and, men assert, felt almost grateful to -the division which had laid this extra “fatigue” on them. One grim -incident stays in the minds of those who survived--the sight of an -enormous Irishman urging two captives, whom he had himself unearthed -from a cellar, to dance before him. He demanded the jigs of his -native land, and seemed to think that by giving them drink his pupils -would become proficient. Men stood about and laughed till they could -hardly stand; and when the fun was at its height a chance shell out -of the darkness to the eastward wiped out all that tango-class before -their eyes. (“’Twas like a dhream, ye’ll understand. One minute -both Jerries was dancin’ hard to oblige him, an’ then--nothin’, -nothin’--nothin’--of the three of them!”) - -The next day, orders came for the Guards Division to continue their -work and attack on a front of two miles along the line of the ridge -a thousand yards east of Gouzeaucourt, which ran south through -Gonnelieu village and Gauche Wood to Villers Hill. Tanks, they -were told, would help and the Divisional Artillery would put down -barrages. The Fifty-ninth Division would be on their left and the -Cavalry Division on their right. The 1st Guards Brigade were assigned -Gauche Wood; the 3rd Brigade had the much more difficult problem of -rushing Gonnelieu village in the event of another Division who were -attacking it that morning (1st December) failing to make headway. -The 1st Brigade’s attack on Gauche Wood was undertaken by the 2nd -Grenadiers on the right, the 3rd Coldstream, in reserve, in their -trenches. They assembled before dawn on the 1st December, waited a -while for a promised detachment of tanks and finally started off -without them. Their artillery support was meagre, and the troops had -to cover three-quarters of a mile over grassy land to the fringe -of the wood. The enemy’s first barrage fell behind them; the wood -itself was crammed with much more effective machine-guns, but, once -it had been entered, the issue became a man-to-man affair. Then -some tanks turned up and some cavalry, the latter an hour late. The -tanks were eventually withdrawn, as they found no trenches to crush -in the wood and drew much shell-fire in the open; but the cavalry, -which included Bengal Lancers, were of good use on the right flank -of the attack. The two Guards Brigades, one attacking Gonnelieu to -the north, the other Gauche Wood to the south, drew a little apart -from each other as the men closed in where the machine-gun fire -was hottest, and about nine o’clock the 1st Irish Guards sent up a -company (No. 1) to fill the gap which developed on both sides of the -Gouzeaucourt-Gonnelieu road, the boundary between the Brigades. - -They do not seem to have been called upon to do more than sit, suffer -and be shelled till evening, when they were relieved by a company of -the 1st Coldstream and went back in the hard black frost to their -bivouac in Gouzeaucourt Wood. Gauche Wood was won and held, but -Gonnelieu, its houses and cellarages crammed with machine-guns, was -a hopeless proposition from the first, to troops lacking tanks or -adequate artillery aid. The sole excuse for attempting it was that -the enemy’s pressure was heavy and increasing on all three sides of -the Cambrai Salient (Bourlon Wood in the north was the point of most -actual danger) and had to be met by whatever offered at the times -and near the places. The 3rd Brigade was held up by the inevitable -machine-gun in trenches in front of Gonnelieu and round the cemetery -on its eastern outskirts; and there it stayed, under circumstances of -extreme misery, till the 3rd December, when the 1st Brigade came back -from Gouzeaucourt Wood to relieve. The 1st Irish Guards, numbering, -then, four hundred and fifty battle-strength, who took over the -2nd Scots Guards’ and half the 1st Grenadiers’ line, were allotted -what might be termed “mixed samples” of trench. No. 1 Company, for -instance, held six hundred yards of superior wired line, evidently -an old British reserve line, with the enemy dug in sixty yards away. -No. 3 Company on its right had a section mostly battered to bits and, -further weakened by an old communication-trench running up to the -enemy, which had to be blocked as soon as possible. No. 2 Company -was even less happily placed; for the enemy inhabited the actual -continuation of their trench, so that they worked with their right -flank grossly exposed. Two platoons of No. 4 Company lay close behind -No. 2 to cover a gap; while the other two platoons in Flag Ravine, -four or five hundred yards back, by the railway-line, were all the -reserve the Battalion possessed east of Gouzeaucourt Wood. By some -unexplained mercy of Providence that night, the next day and the -next day’s night were “quiet” in the sense that there was no actual -attack. The men sat in the trenches and froze; for the frost held -day and night, and the enemy shelled the line at their will, with -trench-mortars from near at hand and heavier stuff from the ridges -beyond. Just before dawn, on the 5th December, they put down a very -heavy mixed barrage behind the front line and a trench-mortar one -on the line itself, and then attacked the two weak spots--No. 2 and -No. 3 Companys’ position--with armoured bombers. The barricade to -the communication-trench of No. 3 Company was blown in by a direct -mortar-hit and a rush followed. No. 2 Company’s trench was also -rushed end-on from the right, and three or four bays of it were -taken. At this point, the Irish left the trenches all filling with -the enemy, got out into the open, where for the moment there was -no mortar-fire, and dealt with the invaders from outside, bombing -and shooting downwards into the heavily-moving queues. The Germans -wore their packs, “from which it may be inferred,” says the Diary -delicately, “that they meant to occupy our trenches.” This, and -their scientific armour, proved their undoing, and when--presumably -to make doubly sure--an infantry attack swarmed out in two lines -from Gonnelieu, it was broken up by our rifle and machine-gun fire, -till it turned round and fled. Hereupon, says the Diary, “they were -heavily bombed by their own side,” presumably as an example to His -Majesty’s Guards of Prussian discipline. The casualties in the -Battalion were one officer, 2nd Lieutenant Carey, and four other -ranks killed; and about thirty wounded, mainly by bombs and mortars. -But the affair was waste-work on both sides; for Gonnelieu was never -taken by our arms. Our line here, in the next day or so, fell back -on Gauche Wood; and of all the salient won at the Battle of Cambrai -between the 20th and the 23rd of November, all that remained by -the 7th of December was a stretch of country perhaps four thousand -yards deep running from the Gouzeaucourt-Cambrai road to north of -Demicourt. On the other hand, a cantle had been taken out of our -old front line from opposite Vendhuille to Gonnelieu. But in the -area that we held lay a sample of the great Hindenburg Line with -its support-systems, its ten-foot-deep concreted and camouflaged -trenches, covered gun-ways, machine-gun wells and shafts, and the -whole detail of its immensely advertised impregnability. Men saw it -with their own eyes, explored its recesses wonderingly, followed down -the terrible lanes that the tanks had cut in its hundred-yard-deep -beltings of wire, and settled themselves thankfully in its secure -dug-outs, not foreseeing the days next spring when they would be -swept out of it all like withered leaves. Cambrai was no success, but -it would be unjust to hold it, as some wearied and over-wrought souls -did, an unrelieved failure. The enemy had not achieved their purpose, -which was to cut off all our troops in the salient, and were quite -willing to break away and wait till the transfer of fresh divisions -from the collapsed Russian front should be methodically completed. -We, on our part, were equally ready to cut our losses, for we had no -men to spare. The Guards Division was moved out of the battle-area -on the 6th December, being relieved by troops of the Ninth Division. -On the evening of their own private battle the Battalion handed over -their none too pleasant trenches to the 5th Cameron Highlanders, and -went back to bivouac in Gouzeaucourt Wood after a “very good relief,” -which drew from the Diary the tribute that the Camerons were a “fine -Battalion.” Had they been an hour late, in that cutting wind across -the slopes, a cohort of angels with fiery swords would have been put -down as hopeless! - -They moved from the Wood next day to Etricourt down the long road -through Fins, and at Etricourt entrained for Beaumetz-les-Loges on -the Arras-Doullens road which they reached late at night, cold and -empty, and were not billeted at Berneville, two or three kilometres -to the north-east, till midnight. They had lost, in November and -December, two officers killed; Lieutenant N. F. Durant on the 30th -November, who had joined on the 1st of that month, and 2nd Lieutenant -T. A. Carey, killed on the 5th December, joined on the 24th October. -(The average expectation of an officer’s life in those days on the -Somme was still about six weeks, though some were so lucky they -survived for months.) Four officers had been wounded in the same -period: Lieutenants G. K. Thompson, Lieutenant (Acting Captain) -Joyce; G. E. F. Van der Noot, and 2nd Lieutenant P. M. Riley, all -on the 30th November. The following officers joined in November and -December: Lieutenants Zigomala, B. F. Crewdson, D. J. B. FitzGerald -and J. N. Ward; and 2nd Lieutenants H. A. A. Collett, A. W. G. -Jamrack and C. A. J. Nicholson. - -At Beaumetz-les-Loges they lay till the end of the year, cleaning -up, refitting, drilling, and not forgetting their football--the -2nd Scots Guards beat them in the third round of the Divisional -Football Competition at Arras--or their company Christmas dinners. -These were the fourth that the Battalion had eaten within sound of -the weary guns, but if any one had told them that their next would -be celebrated in stately steam-heated barracks at Cologne, hospital -would have been his portion. They could not have been called happy -or hopeful at that time; for they knew, as all our armies did, that -the year’s gain had been small, and the work ahead of them, now that -the German divisions, released from Russia were pouring westward, -would be heavy. But for the moment they were free of the Somme and -its interminable duckboards that led men to death or hard work; its -shell-holes floored with icy snow-water, the grave-like chill of its -chalk trenches, and the life-sapping damps of the uplands on which -they had lain out from nights till mornings. - -Here is a memory of those days presented by the teller as a jest. -“Aye! Gouzeaucourt and Gonnelieu! _I_’m not like to forget ’em. I was -back from leave, ye’ll understand; no more anxious to die than the -rest of us. An’ there was some new men, too--new young lads just come -over. My kit was all new, too, me bein’ back from leave. Our C.S.M. -dhrew me attention to it one of those merry nights we was poachin’ -about in No Man’s Land. ‘’Tis a pity,’ says he, ‘ye did not bring -the band from Caterham _also_,’ says he. ‘’Twould have amused Jerry.’ -My new kit was shqueakin’ an’ clicking the way they could have heard -it a mile. Aye, Gouzeaucourt an’ the trenches outside Gonnelieu! -Jerry was usin’ trench-mortars at his pleasure on us those nights. -They was crackin’ on our heads, ye’ll understand. An’ I was in a bay -with two men. Wan was a new young man, an’ the trench-mortars was -new to him. Cowld? It was all of that! An’ Jerry crackin’ this dam’ -trench mortar-stuff of his on our heads at will. It put the wind up -_me_! Did I tell you the other man in the bay was dead! He was. That -finished me new young man. He kep’ trying to make himself smaller an’ -smaller against the trench-mortars. In the end of it, he laced his -arrums round his ankles--he did--an’ rocked to an’ fro, whishperin’ -to the Saints. Shell-shock? Oh, yes, ’twas all that. Presintly I -heard Mr. ---- comin’ the rounds, walking outside the trench. Ye see -more where ye’re outside a trench, but ’tis no place I’m fond of -without orders. ‘An’ are ye all cozy down there, Sergeant?’ says he. -Yes, ‘cosy’ was his word! Knowin’ him well, ‘Why wud we not be cosy, -Sorr?’ says I, an’ at that he dhrops into the bay to have a look. We -was cosy enough, all three of us--the dead man dead an’ stiffenin’ -in the frost, an’ this fine new young lad of ours embracin’ his own -ankles an’ rockin’ back an’ forth, an’ me _so_ sorry my leave was -up. Oh! we was the cosiest party in the whole dam’ front line that -night; and for to make it all the cosier, my new young man, as soon -as he set eyes on Mr. ----, he flung his arrums around his neck, an’ -he let out a yell, an’ he hugged him like a gurrl. I had to separate -’em! I’ve laughed at it since, an’ so did Mr. ---- an’, begad, I -remember laughin’ at it at the time. Ay, ‘cosy,’ Mr. ---- said. That -_was_ the word! So I laughed. Otherwise there was not much laughin’, -ye’ll understand, at Gouzeaucourt an’ them ‘cosy’ trenches before -Gonnelieu.” - - - - -1918 - -ARRAS TO THE ARMISTICE - - -The lull lasted till the 2nd of January when they marched _via_ -Warlus to Arras and were billeted in the prison there. Battalion -Headquarters were in a luxurious house in the Rue d’Amiens, with a -whole roof and all windows repaired with canvas. It was hard frosty -weather, binding everything tight--of the kind that must be paid for -when thaw comes. - -At that moment our line, on the Somme side, ran from Lens just behind -Oppy, through Rœux, five miles east of Arras, south to Bullecourt, -south-easterly towards Boursies, round the Flesquières-Ribecourt -Salient that Cambrai fight had won for us, curved back between -Gonnelieu and Gouzeaucourt, and thence dropped, skirting St. Quentin -and the valley of the Oise, to the junction with the French at -Barisis, south of that river. This length, of close on seventy miles, -was held, from Barisis to Gouzeaucourt, by Byng’s Third Army, and -from Gouzeaucourt to Gavrelle, by Gough’s Fifth Army. North of this, -the First Army took on. The working and reserve strength of the Third -and Fifth Armies at the opening of 1918 was twenty-nine infantry -and three cavalry divisions. So far as our arms were concerned, -everything on the French and Belgian fronts was at a standstill. -The Somme had cost very heavily throughout the year, and there was, -or was said to be, a scarcity of men. The situation appears to have -been met by reducing the number of battalions in the brigades from -four to three apiece. This released the odd battalions to make what, -on paper, and in the journals, looked like additional brigades, but -threw extra work, which nowhere appeared as news, on the whole of -the army administration in the field. Sir Douglas Haig’s despatches -refer guardedly to the reorganization, which he hints “to some -extent affected” the fighting efficiency of the units concerned. The -sentiments of commanders more directly concerned were, perhaps, less -publishable; for it rarely improves an old army in the field to lace -it at the last moment, before a general attack, with new brigades -composed of battalions suddenly disassociated from the units with -whom they have been working. But thus was created the Fourth Guards -Brigade, by lopping off the 4th Grenadiers, the 2nd Irish Guards, -and the 3rd Coldstream from their respective brigades, and attaching -them to the Thirty-first Division. Further, it was necessary for -the British armies to take over another stretch of nearly thirty -miles from the French on the right--approximately from Barisis to -Vendhuille on the Oise--and this brought the British front up to one -hundred and twenty-five miles total length. - -Our enemy lay less under such burdens. His released divisions, -aeroplanes, and guns were decently entraining from the Russian front, -and arriving on the Somme in good order, a fact of which our Staff, -and in a very short time all our armies, were perfectly aware. (“We -could _feel_ Jerry pilin’ up and pilin’ up against us in those days, -ye’ll understand.”) So, as may have been pointed out, every one -stood by to prepare for the worst. The Guards Division, now of nine -battalions, instead of twelve, was assigned to the defences before -Arras, the hinge on which the coming trouble might be expected to -turn. Their trench and post system ran north and south across the -Scarpe with its lagoon and marshes, by Rœux--all old and much used -ground, but which had the advantage of being served both by canal and -a light rail from Arras. - -The Battalion, which had trained and bombed in the town till the -8th January, relieved the 3rd Grenadiers in the reserve trenches of -the right sub-sector of this defence, on the 9th January, in heavy -snow. Lancer Avenue, which commanded a fine view of our own lines -and the enemy’s, and posts K, L, and M just off it (all south of the -river), took half the strength. The remainder garrisoned Crump and -Cordite Reserve trenches on the north, and supplied an isolated and -unpleasant post (F) between the river and the lagoon which could only -be reached with comfort after dark, when an officer, twenty men, -a Lewis-gun, and a couple of signallers watched there in case an -enterprising enemy should be minded to raid along the tow-path. - -Next day it thawed and the old horrors of Ypres Salient were their -portion. The snow vanished, leaving terrible mud. The day passed -quietly. Nos. 1 and 3 Companies had to find “a carrying-party for -front companies in the evening.” The story behind the entry tells -itself. The enemy did not add himself to their burdens. A patrol, -under 2nd Lieutenant H. A. Collett, went out the next night (January -11) five hundred yards into No Man’s Land--from F post--saw and heard -nothing. F post was always a ghostly sort of place, where bullets -whistled by without explanation between the furred tree-trunks -along the tow-path; and the marshy ground behind it was filled with -shell-holes, rusty wire and the black dead of forgotten fights. -The ruins of Rœux across the river, suddenly leaping to shape in -the flare of Véry lights, looked down on it like the skeleton of -a fortress on a stage, and single unexpected shells spattered mud -across the cold waters. - -On the 13th January they relieved the 2nd Grenadiers at the front -in a fresh assortment of decayed posts--Scabbard Alley, Scabbard -Support, Welford Reserve and the like, whose names even to this day -make men who served there shiver. As thaw and rain worked on them, -the trenches “all fell in great lumps.” - -“Why troops who had held them all the summer had done nothing to -revet them and prepare for the winter, I cannot think,” one indignant -sufferer wrote. “But that is always the fault of the British army. -It _will_ not look ahead.” He prophesied better than he knew. Then -he went to visit his posts, where the men were already half buried -in mud. The enemy assisted our repairing parties with trench-mortars -at intervals, till orders went forth that, though our mortars were -nowise to stir up trouble, when once it began they would retaliate -for just five minutes longer than the enemy. By the misfortune of a -faulty shell, one of our Stokes guns burst on the 14th, killing or -wounding eight men. However, it was noted that the enemy transferred -his attentions for the next few days to a battalion of East -Lancashires on our right. - -On the 15th all wiring and defence-work ceased--“employed solely on -trying to keep trenches passable.” In spite of which the mud gained. -Men’s boots were pulled off their feet, and it is on joyous record -that when Captain Gordon, the adjutant, tried to get up Johnson -Avenue, their only communication-trench, he stuck up to his waist -in mud and water and, lest he should be engulfed, had to wriggle -out of his gum-boots, which came up to his thighs, and continue in -his socks. The gum-boots, empty, sank out of sight like a wreck on -the Goodwins. They reconnoitred new tracks for the reliefs, across -duckboards running in full view of the enemy, who, luckily, had their -own conditions to fight, and let a couple of our patrols invade No -Man’s Land unmolested, prowl round two machine-gun posts and even -enter a German front line, “being too busy talking and hammering to -notice us.” The sodden sand-bags of the revetments bulged outwards -and met across the trenches. The men worked day and night, and -blessed every battalion’s remotest ancestry that had ever used, and -neglected, that accursed line. - -On the 17th January they were relieved by the 2nd Grenadiers, which -merely meant their reverting to Crump Trench, Cordite Reserve, Ceylon -Avenue, etc., where, all being equally impassable, every movement had -to be effected in the open. - -Our artillery chose the 18th to be very active from their positions -round Battalion Headquarters near the railway cutting behind, -whereby there was some enemy retaliation that the mired front line -could have spared. (“Every one is looking like the worst form of -tramp--standing, walking, sleeping and eating mud.”) - -On the 19th they got it worse, and when No. 1 Company paraded in the -dawn dark (they were in dug-outs below the rail embankment) to go -to work, a shell which dropped at the entrance killed one (but he -was the cook), wounded two of their number, and destroyed the whole -cooking-outfit. Captain A. F. L. Gordon, M.C., was also slightly -wounded on that date, but not enough to send him to hospital. He was -riding into Arras with Captain Woodhouse, the M.O.--also a man of -charmed lives--and just behind the railway embankment came in for a -complete barrage of heavy stuff, intended for Battalion Headquarters. -Neither he, nor any one else, ever understood why they were not blown -to pieces. The doctor’s horse wounded was the only other casualty. - -On the 22nd January the relieved 2nd Grenadiers, having handed over -news of the discovery of a German listening-post which seemed to -be used only by night, a scheme was arranged to occupy it while it -was empty, and astonish the enemy on their return. But the enemy -never came, though 2nd Lieutenant Stacpoole and a party of seven, -with blackened faces and smoked bayonets, lay out for them all -night. It was the same with a German working-party, fifty strong, -located by our patrols on the 22nd, sought on the 23rd, and found -missing. The enemy were anxious not to give any chances just then, -for identifications; and, though they raided generously in other -directions, left the Guards’ sector by the Scarpe unvisited. They -delivered mortar bombardments when reliefs were due, and were -attended to by our artillery at dusk with a desultory but at the -same time steady shelling, just enough to keep the five principal -offenders’ crews in their dug-outs. It worked admirably, and the -enemy mortars, as registered on the maps, were quiet for a whole -evening. After one such treatment (the night of the 25th January) -they drenched the Decauville railway, just when the Battalion had -railed back to Arras on relief by the 1st Grenadiers, with an hour’s -intense barrage of gas-shells, and a sprinkling of 5.9’s and 4.2’s. -Battalion Headquarters were waiting to follow: and all the men had -been sent down the line because rail-head was no healthy place to -linger at. A company of the 2nd Grenadiers, newly relieved, came up -and also waited for the little train in the still moonlight night, -and drank hot tea while a spare engine was being coupled up. Every -one thought (inevitable prelude to calamity!) that, after sixteen -days in the trenches, his troubles were over. Then a gas-shell -skimmed over the line which at this point had a cutting on one side -and an embankment on the other. All hands fled to the embankment -side and hugged it for precisely one hour while the air screamed to -the curious whiplash-like noise of the gas-shells splintering, and -filled with the fumes of them. The engine bolted down the line before -it should be blown up, and when, on the stroke of ten, shelling -ceased, Battalion Headquarters, Father Browne and the Doctor, Captain -Woodhouse, and the Grenadiers’ Company stumbled as best they could -along the sleepers towards Arras. Every one missed every one else in -the confusion, while the Irish orderlies raged through the crowd like -angry nurses, in search of their officers. But at last all hands were -accounted for, blind, coughing, and, thanks to the nose-clips of the -masks, mostly with sore noses. They got into Arras at midnight, and -a good many of the Grenadiers had to be sent down for gas injuries. - -The month closed with the Battalion nominally at Arras, and actually -finding more than two thirds of its strength for working-parties in -the filthy front line--a favour which it had not received itself -while there. Its casualty list for January was extraordinarily low, -being only two men killed and twenty-six wounded, one officer, -Captain Gordon, wounded and one, 2nd Lieutenant D. A. B. Moodie in -hospital. During the month, 2nd Lieutenants A. S. Stokes and L. H. -L. Carver joined, and 2nd Lieutenant A. W. G. Jamrack rejoined from -the Reinforcement Battalion. - -On the 1st February orders came that the line was to be held by -all three brigades of the Guards Division instead of two; for it -must be remembered that each brigade was short one battalion. The -rearrangement drew more heavily on the working-parties in the forward -area where a new, foul trench--Hyderabad Support--was under way. They -supplied from two to four hundred men as need was, and lived in Arras -prison in luxury--wire beds, and palliasses for every man!--till the -6th February, when they relieved the 2nd Coldstream in the front -line. The support-trenches here were the best they had found, being -deep, duck-boarded, well revetted and with plenty of dug-outs and an -enviable system of cook-houses delivering hot meals in the actual -trenches. They sent working-parties to the insatiable engineers and -the brigade at large; for fresh trenches were being sketched out, if -not built, against the impending German attack. - -The front line from the 10th to the 13th February was remarkably -quiet but not easy. Their patrols found no enemy, nor any sign of -them in No Man’s Land; a little wiring of nights was possible; and -there were no casualties. But the trench-strength of the Battalion -was weak--16 officers and 398 ranks, and every one had to work -double-tides to keep the ways open. - -They were relieved on St. Valentine’s Day, two days after the 4th -Guards Brigade, which took with them the 2nd Irish Guards, had been -formed under Lord Ardee, and added to the Thirty-first Division. - -Three days in Arras prison saw them back again in support just in -time to get the full benefit of another day’s thaw. It was a quiet -tour. One man was killed by a trench-mortar, one badly wounded by a -rifle-grenade, seven by shell-splinters outside a dug-out, and five -men gassed. The enemy confined himself to long-range trench-mortars -and an “increase in aerial activity.” He was noticed to “object -very strongly to our air-craft crossing his lines.” Never was enemy -more anxious not to draw attention to his moves. And, far behind our -line at Arras and elsewhere, men dug and entrenched and sketched -works of defence to meet the German rush, while the front trenches -sat still and looked across deserts, apparently empty of life, till -a head moved in the open. It was a season without parallel in our -armies’ experience--this mere waiting for a certain blow to be dealt -at a certain time. No written history records the psychology of -those spring days. The Diary is concerned with the Battalion’s own -sorrow. Here is the story, as written: “During the month [February] -the Household Battalion was disbanded and eighty men were allotted -to the Battalion. This marks the beginning, and is the first -official recognition of the fact that the Irish Guards cannot keep -up the supply of Irish troops. A most regrettable epoch in the -history of the regiment.” On the heels of this comes, comically -enough, almost the sole personal expression of feeling in the entire -Diary. They went, on the last day of February, into rest at Gordon -Camp, christened after the 9th Gordons who made it. “It is without -exception the most comfortable and best-laid-out camp _I_ have ever -been in. Everything that one could possibly wish for is here--even an -officer’s bathroom with porcelain bath and hot and cold water laid -on.” It was an all-too-short interval in cold and dirty work; for -on the 2nd March the Scarpe trenches reclaimed them--Fampoux, Colt -Reserve, Pepper and Pudding--in snow, sleet, and unbroken monotony of -working-parties. - -On the 6th March the Diary notes that the 2nd Grenadiers, whom they -relieved the next day, carried out a raid, successful in itself, and -doubly so as drawing no retaliation on their own line. It resulted in -two identifiable prisoners and a machine-gun. But battalions do not -approve of their neighbours raiding when the enemy is “nervous.” - - -THE MARCH PUSH - -Their next front-line turn--6th to 10th March--was utterly -uneventful, and on the 12th they, being then in Stirling Camp, were -ordered to “stand to” for the expected German offensive. It proved -to be no more than a light shelling. So the still fine days, in line -or in support, ran out till the dawn of the 21st March when the -great shells suddenly descended on Arras, and rumours, worse than -any shelling, followed their tracks. Says the Diary: “The German -offensive has begun.” - -The evacuation of the town, during the next two days, was a -nightmare of flying masonry, clouds of dust, the roar of falling -brick-work, contradictory orders, and mobs of drifting civilians, -their belongings pushed before or hauled after them; and no power to -order them where to go. Arras, always in the front line, had been -safe so long, it was inconceivable that there should be real danger -now. Might they not camp out and return to-morrow? But the enemy -were reported almost in sight, and ready to open on the town with -their field-guns. They had broken through, men said, under cover of -the heavy morning fog--broken through everywhere along the line of -all our old gains from Lens to St. Quentin, and their whole strength -was behind the blow. No one could understand it, though all men -argued; and while the refugees fled forth, expostulating, blaming, -but seldom weeping, that sunny day, eight hundred shells fell -purposefully on the dishevelled town. By evening word came that our -Somme line had not only broken but gone out--infantry, artillery and -uncounted stores--between Chérisy and Demicourt in the north. South -of that, the old Cambrai Salient, which had not been hardly tried, -was standing but would have to withdraw or be cut off, because, from -Gouzeaucourt to La Fère, ten miles and more south of St. Quentin, the -German tide had swept in from one to three miles deep, and was racing -forward. It is not difficult to imagine what manner of reports -the mere truth gave birth to, while the Battalion waited on in the -Communal College where it was billeted, and was not encouraged to -wander about the rocking, sliding streets. - -By the evening of the 22nd March men began to understand it was no -mere break-through but a collapse such as had never befallen British -arms in the history of her people. Officers were sent out in the -morning to reconnoitre the support-line of a third system of defence -between Wancourt and Hénin-sur-Cojeul. But Hénin-sur-Cojeul was -already under the hand of the enemy, who had gained three more miles -in a few hours and, left and right, were widening the breach. - -The morning of the 22nd March had been foggy again till noon and, -under that cover, the Germans had again broken in on our surprised -or withdrawing divisions. Report said that whole battalions and -even brigades had been cut off by the flood; their wireless working -faithfully so long as it stood, and the sound of their small-arm fire -continuing for a while after their last words had ceased. Late that -evening orders came for the Battalion to move at midnight from Arras -to Boisleux-St. Marc, some six miles due south of the town on a line -more or less prepared against eventualities, and, with their brigade, -to give what help they could to the divisions who might be falling -back on that front. This was all that could be made out of the mass -of contradictory orders that afflicted them, and the growing crop of -rumours and alarms that upset men almost more than any countermanded -orders. - -The Battalion set to work on the 23rd March to dig a support-line -in rear of what was called the Army Line which ran in front of -Boisleux-St. Marc while the evacuation of Arras was being completed -and “all details and drummers marched to the Reinforcement Battalion -at Agnez-les-Duisans,” on the Scarpe well to the west of Arras. (“In -those days we was throubled the way a man is disthressed in dhreams. -All manner of things happening, ye’ll understand, and him the only -one able to do nothing. But I wisht _I_’d been a musicaner.”) - -The Diary for the 24th March merely says, “remained in same -positions,” and refers to “repeated rumours.” They sent their -first-line transport back out of harm’s way, and went on digging. Yet -the 24th was a day no rumour could have painted much blacker than -it was. From directly in front of the Guards Division at Boisleux, -the line of the German gains in the past forty-eight hours dropped -straight south to the Somme at Cléry, and thence skirted its western -bank to Ham, where it broke across to the wide marshes of the Oise -below La Fère. Two thirds of the hard-bought ground of the Somme -campaign, the scores of villages whose names smelt of blood, were -lost, and the harvesting of the remainder was a matter barely of -hours. - -Next day saw Béhagnies, Grévillers, Irles of the wired bastions, -Miraumont, Pys, Courcelette, Contalmaison, Thiepval and its myriad -dead, and Pozières of the Australians--the very hearts of the -deadliest of the first fightings--overrun; and the question rose -in men’s minds whether the drive would end, as was intended, in -the splitting apart of the French and British armies. For what was -happening north of the Somme was play to the situation south of it. -There the enemy’s swarms of aeroplanes harried the Amiens hospitals, -driving the civilians into the broadside of the country behind, where -the moonlight nights betrayed them to fresh hosts in the air. - -By the 26th March the tongue of the advancing tide had licked past -Noyon and Roye and, next day, had encircled Montdidier. Meantime, -our old Somme base on the Ancre, whence the great fights were fed -and supplied from the hundred camps and dumps round Méaulte, and -the railway-sidings between Albert and Amiens, had passed into the -enemy’s hands. To all human appearance, the whole of our bitter -year’s effort was abolished, as though it had never been. The enemy -had prepared, brought together, and struck at the time that best -suited himself, with seventy-three divisions against thirty-seven -British divisions, and the outcome was appalling defeat of our arms. - -It would thus seem that no amount of inspiring statesmanship at home, -or anxious readjustment of divisions at the front, will make troops -where troops are not. Therefore the battalions and batteries in the -full blast of the onset perished or were taken prisoners; and of the -stores captured or destroyed, lest they should benefit the enemy, -we may look to receive no account. Not the least depressing of the -sights that adorned the landscapes were the dumps lit by our own -hands, flaring to heaven when, as turned out afterwards, there was -really no need. Divisions were being raced up to reinforce the fluid -front as fast as might be, but no one knew for certain when or where -they would arrive, and Camp Commandants acted on their own judgments. -The battalions in the line swayed to conflicting storms of orders. - - -“STANDING-TO” - -On the 25th, being still at Boisleux-St. Marc, the 1st Irish -Guards were detailed to relieve “several different units,” but -more specially the 1st Coldstream just east of Hamelincourt then -practically in possession of the enemy. (One found out where the -enemy were by seeing them come over the brows of unexpected slopes -in small groups that thinned out and settled down to machine-gunning -under cover of equally unexpected field-guns.) They spent the whole -day being “hit and held” in this fashion, and, close on midnight, got -definite instructions not to wait for any relief but to go off to the -sugar-factory near Boyelles, which they did, and bestowed themselves -in huts in the neighbourhood, and there were hotly shelled during -the night. The German attack was well home on that sector now, and -the German infantry might be looked for at any moment. They removed -from those unhealthy huts to an old trench next morning, where their -first set of orders was to relieve the 1st Scots Guards. (Order, -provisional, definite and cancelled all in two hours and a half!) -Later came orders--equally definite, equally washed out later--to -relieve the 2nd Coldstream in another sector, and finally just before -midnight they relieved the 1st Scots Guards after all. That battalion -had been in the army line between St. Léger and Hénin, but the -enemy’s advance had forced it back in the direction of Boisleux-St. -Marc near the Arras-Albert railway-line. The Battalion found it a -little before dawn, and lay out with all four companies in the front -line, as did the other battalions. By this time, though it would be -not easy to trace their various arrivals in the confusion, the Guards -Brigades had got into line between Boisleux-St. Marc and Ayette, -on a front of roughly three and a half miles, while battalions of -exhausted and withdrawing divisions, hard pressed by the enemy, -passed through them each with its burden of bad news. It was not an -inspiriting sight, nor was the actual position of the Guards Brigades -one to be envied. High ground commanded them throughout, and a number -of huts and half-ruined buildings gave good cover to the gathering -machine-guns. The German advance on that quarter resembled, as one -imaginative soul put it, an encompassment of were-wolves. They -slouched forward, while men rubbed tired eyes, in twos and threes, -at no point offering any definite target either for small-arm or -artillery, and yet, in some wizard fashion, always thickening and -spreading, while our guns from the rear raged and tore uselessly at -their almost invisible lines. Incidentally, too, our own gun-fire in -some sectors, and notably behind the Fourth Guards Brigade, did our -men no service. But the most elaborate of preparations have an end, -and must culminate in the charge home. - -An intense barrage on the morning of the 27th March heralded the -crisis, but luckily went wide of all the Battalion except No. 2 -Company on the left. The attack followed, and down the trenched -line from Ayette and Boisleux-St. Marc, the Brigade answered with -unbroken musketry and Lewis-guns. It was an almost satisfactory -slaughter, dealt out by tired, but resolute, men with their backs -to the wall. Except for occasional rushes of the enemy, cut down -ere they reached the wire, there was nothing spectacular in that -day’s work. The Battalion shot and kept on shooting as it had been -trained to do in the instruction-camps and on the comfortable ranges -that seemed now so inconceivably far away. The enemy, having direct -observation over the whole of our line, shot well and close. We -suffered, but they suffered more. They ranged along the front from -north to south as waves range down the face of a breakwater, but -found nothing to carry away or even dislodge. Night closed in with a -last rush at the wire on the Battalion’s front that left a wreckage -of German dead and wounded, and two machine-guns horribly hung up -in the strands. Our losses in officers were 2nd Lieutenant Stokes -severely wounded in the morning, and in the afternoon, Lieutenant -Nash killed, and Captain Derek FitzGerald wounded and sent down. -Lieut.-Colonel R. V. Pollok and Lieutenants Bence-Jones and Bagenal -were also slightly wounded but remained at duty. When an officer -dropped and could not get up again without help he was assumed to be -unfit for work--but not before. - -(“Ye’ll understand, ’twas no question, those days, what ye could or -could not do. Ye _did_ it.”) - -And so ended the 27th of March with the German front from Lens to -Albert held up, and destined, though men then scarce dared believe, -not to advance to another effective surge. The French and British -armies were perilously near forced asunder now and, the needs of the -case compelling what might have been done long ago, General Foch in -the little city of Doullens was, on the 26th March, given supreme -command of all the hard-pressed hosts. The news went out at once -into the front line where men received it as part and parcel of -the immense situation. Nothing could have astonished them then, or, -unless it directly concerned food or rest, have made them think. - -The Battalion was placed where it was to endure, and was thankful -that the 28th was a “fairly quiet day” but for heavy shelling on -their right, and trench-mortars and shells on themselves. No. 2 -Company, who had been unlucky with the big barrage the day before, -suffered once again. - -Next day (29th March), which was another “quiet” occasion, Lieutenant -Zigomala was wounded and forty “of the most tired men” were relieved -by an equal number from the Reinforcement Battalion, which relief -became systematized, as it eased the strain a little to clear out -visibly finished men day by day. All were worn down but “remained -cheerful.” Those who have full right to speak affirm that, in -absolutely impossible situations, the Irish could be trusted to “play -up” beyond even a cockney battalion. The matter will always be in -dispute, but none know better than the men who saw the Push through -how superbly the mud-caked, wire-drawn platoons bore themselves. - -On the 30th March the attack rolled up again from the south where it -had met no particular encouragement, and barraged the Battalion’s -sector with heavies for a couple of hours; causing forty-two -casualties among the men and wounding Lieutenants Stacpoole and -Bagenal. It then fell upon the 2nd Grenadiers and 1st Coldstream -immediately to the Battalion’s left and right, and was driven off -with loss. There were other attacks, but with less venom in them, -before the Hun could be induced to withdraw. Half the Battalion spent -the night digging a line of posts in support which they occupied by -dawn. - -On the last of March “nothing of importance occurred.” Everything, -indeed, had occurred already. The old Somme salient which, English -fashion, had become an institution, was completely reversed on the -ominous newspaper maps. The Germans stood a-tip-toe looking into -Amiens, and practically the entire spare strength of the British -armies in France had been used and used up to bring them to that -stand. The French were equally worn down. The American armies were -not yet in place, and what reinforcing divisions were ready in -England somewhat lacked training. - -The Battalion, a straw among these waves, had in the month lost, -besides officers, twenty-three other ranks killed and one hundred and -seven wounded and one missing. It is even reported that there had -been many days on which, owing to press of work, they had not shaved. -(“That, ye’ll understand, is being dirty, an’ a crime. Believe me, -now, there was times when we was _all_ criminals, even Mr. ---- an’ -it disthressed him more than bloody war.”) - -The fierceness of the enemy’s attack on the 28th March--ranging from -Puisieux to north-east of Arras--had been, to an extent, his own -undoing. For he had thrown his men in shoulder to shoulder in six -lines at some spots, and our guns had caught them massed, forming up. -But the check, severe as it was, did not choke off a final effort -against the strained British and French cordon, on the 4th and 5th -of April. The main weight of it, on the first day, fell south of -the Somme, and on the second, north, from Dernancourt below Méaulte -to Bucquoy which is on the same level as Gomiecourt. Except that -the eastern side of Bucquoy was carried for a time, the northern -attack was completely held, and so at last, after a heart-shattering -fortnight, the Somme front came to rest. The Battalion, with its -Headquarters under much too direct enemy observation near Boiry-St. -Martin, reverted to its ancient routine of trench-work and reliefs -under shell-fire. - -The days included regular bursts of shelling, a large proportion of -which was blue or yellow-cross gas, and when the Battalion lay in -reserve they were kept awake by our energetic batteries on three -sides of them. - -Their St. Martin camp was a scientifically constructed death-trap. -Most of it was under enemy observation and without ground-shelter. -What shots ranged over our forward batteries or short of our rear -ones, found their camp. When our 15-inch guns retaliated, from a -hundred and fifty yards behind them, the blast extinguished all -candles. The Diary observes: “The noise and the hostile retaliation -made proper rest difficult.” That was on the 4th April, when the -attack south of the Somme was in full swing. - -On the 5th April their huts in Brigade-reserve were shelled for half -an hour, with six casualties, and when they went into the line on -a new sector, held by scattered posts, nearly every one of their -guides lost his miserable way in the dark. Headquarters here were -pitched in an old German trench and then--for they were not even -rain-proof--shifted to the edge of Boiry-St. Martin village. A cellar -had to be dug out and supported, and the rain descended on the -mud-pie that it was, and when Headquarters, and all their papers, -had established themselves, the enemy gas-bombarded the village -with perfect accuracy. The Commanding Officer, Lieut.-Colonel R. V. -Pollok, the Assistant Adjutant, Lieutenant J. N. Ward, and the M. O., -Captain Woodhouse, had to be sent down suffering from yellow-cross -gas after-effects. - -Consider for a moment the woes of a battalion headquarters in the -field. Late in January, Captain Gordon, the _pukka_ Adjutant, riding -to Arras for a bath, canters into a barrage of “heavies” and is -wounded in the hand--a vital spot for adjutants. This leaves only the -C.O. and the Assistant Adjutant, Lieutenant J. N. Ward, to carry on, -and whatever the state of the front, the authorities demand their -regular supply of papers and forms. No sooner has the Assistant -Adjutant got abreast of things, than all Battalion Headquarters are -knocked out in an hour. Luckily, they were only away for three or -four days. The enemy added a small and easily beaten off raid to the -confusion he had made in Orderly-Room; Major Baggallay took over the -command, and Captain Budd, adequate and untroubled as ever, who had -held the ghostly F Post on the Scarpe, acted as Adjutant. Officers -were beginning to wear out now. Three “of the most tired” were sent -down and replaced by substitutes from the Reinforcement Battalion. - -The following officers joined for duty on the 10th April: Lieutenant -M. Buller, Lieutenant (Acting Captain) W. Joyce, Lieutenant Hon. B. -A. A. Ogilvy, and 2nd Lieutenants T. B. Maughan, P. R. J. Barry, H. -J. Lofting, G. C. MacLachlan and J. C. Haydon. - -It was on the morning of the 9th April that the enemy opened his -second great thrust on the Lys, and the three weeks’ fighting that -all but wiped out the Ypres Salient won him Messines, Kemmel, -Armentières, Neuve Eglise, Bailleul, Merville, and carried him -towards the Channel ports, within five miles of Hazebrouck. That -the stroke was expected made it none the less severe. Spring on -that front had chosen to be unseasonably dry. The lowlands in the -Lys valley, normally their own best defences, gave passage to men -and guns when they should have been still impassable. Whatever else -may have betrayed them, the Germans had no cause to complain of the -weather throughout the war, or indeed of the foresight of their -adversaries. They had to deal chiefly with divisions that had been -fought out in the Somme Push, reinforced with fillings from England -and sent northward in a hurry. Sir Douglas Haig’s despatches give the -relative disparity thus: - - In the Lys battle, prior to the 30th April, the enemy engaged - against the British forces a total of 42 Divisions, of which 33 - were fresh and 9 had fought previously on the Somme. Against these - 42 German Divisions, 25 British Divisions were employed, of which 8 - were fresh and 17 had taken a prominent part in the Somme battle. - -These were worn out, and as the days of fighting continued many of -them were so dead to the world that they laid them down and slept -where they dropped by battalions. When orders came, it was a matter -almost of routine that each senior, handing them on, should assault -his junior into some sort of comprehension. Officers dared not trust -themselves even to lean against walls for fear they should slide -down dead asleep; and as a private of the Line put it in confession, -“I don’t know what the men would have done but for standing sentry. -They got their sleep then.” There is a story of a tattered brigade, -eight days, or it might have been ten, without closing an eyelid, -which was flung back into the fight after assurance of relief, -and, what was much worse, a few hours’ rest. They returned, like -sleep-walkers, and laid them down in some shallow hen-scratchings -that passed for trench-work, where without emotion they resigned -themselves to being blown out or up in detail. While they watched -drowsily the descent and thickening of a fresh German shell-storm, -preluding fresh infantry attacks, it occurred to them vaguely that -there were high and increasing noises overhead--not at all like the -deep whoop of “heavies.” Then all the darkness behind the enemy lit -with a low outlining ground-flare--the death-dance of innumerable -.75’s. Foch had sent up very many guns behind them, almost wheel to -wheel, and when the French gunners at last shut off, the packed enemy -trenches that were waiting to continue their march to the Channel, as -soon as their own fire should have wiped up the few British bayonets -before them, lay as still as the graves that they were. Then what -remained of the brigade that had seen this miracle was relieved by -another brigade, and stretched itself out to sleep behind it. Experts -in miseries say that, for sheer strain, the Lys overwent anything -imagined in the war, and in this, many who have suffered much, are -agreed. - -The 4th Guards Brigade, which had been in billets near -Villers-Brulin, after its heavy work on the Arras side, was -despatched on the 10th April to the flat country round Vierhoek, and -there--as will be told--spent itself in the desperate fighting round -La Couronne and Vieux-Berquin that gave time to bar the enemies’ way -to Hazebrouck and--wiped out the 2nd Battalion. - -The 1st Battalion, sufficiently occupied with its own front near -Boiry, where the support-lines were targets by day and night, -and the front-posts holes in the ground that seemed to shift at -every relief, were told on the 12th April that a German attack was -imminent, which report was repeated at intervals throughout the day. -But their patrols found nothing moving in front of them, and their -regular allowance of hostile mortar-bombs was not increased. The -rumours from the Lys side were far more disturbing. - -On the 13th April they were relieved by the 24th Lancashire -Fusiliers, marched to Blairville where they embussed for Saulty at -the head of the little river that runs in stone channels through -quiet Doullens, and there, “very cold, wet, and muddy,” found the -best billets taken by Corps and Labour troops whom they knew not. The -sentiments of men who have been digging and fighting without a break -for ten weeks when confronted with warmly billeted staffs and fat -back-area working-parties need not be recorded. - -At Saulty they rested from the 15th to the 23rd April under perpetual -short notice: one hour from 8 A. M. till noon and three hours for the -rest of the day and night. Thus “means of training were limited,” and -the weather varied from wet to snow-showers. - -On the 24th of April the enemy captured Villers-Bretonneux, staring -directly into Amiens, which ground, had they been allowed to hold -uninterruptedly even for a day, might have been made too strong to -reduce with the forces at our disposal then, and thus would have -become the very edge of the wedge for splitting the French and -English armies asunder. But that night, and literally at almost -an hour’s notice, a counter-attack by a Brigade of the Eighteenth -Division, and the 13th and 15th Brigades of the Fourth and Fifth -Australian Divisions, swept Villers-Bretonneux clear, and established -ourselves beyond possibility of eviction. Thus, the one last chance -that might have swung the whole war passed out of the enemy’s hands. - -On that same day the 1st Irish Guards returned in lorries along the -cramped and twisting roads by Bienvillers to Monchy, to relieve a -battalion of the Royal Scots in the front line at Ayette, three -miles south down the line from Boiry. Ayette village had been -recaptured on the 3rd April by the Thirty-second Division, and had -removed a thorn in the side of troops in that sector. Once again, -their guides almost unanimously lost their way, and the multivious -relief took half the night to accomplish. - -It appeared as though the enemy had skinned his line here to feed his -other enterprises in the north; for his outposts did nothing and, -beyond shelling Monchy village from time to time, his guns were also -idle. - -So on the 29th April they arranged a battalion raid on a German -post (supposed to be held by night only) to occupy it if possible. -But the enemy were in occupation and very ready. The little party -returned with their officer, 2nd Lieutenant G. C. MacLachlan, and a -sergeant wounded. A few weeks later the Battalion worked out a most -satisfactory little ten-minute return-raid without a single casualty, -and so cleared their account. - -April had been an inexpensive month for both men and officers. The -Commanding Officer, the Assistant Adjutant, and the Medical Officer -had, as we know, been slightly gassed at Headquarters, and 2nd -Lieutenants C. L. Browne and MacLachlan wounded only. Three men had -been killed and forty-one wounded. But no less than twenty-six were -sent down sick--proof that the strain had told. - -The enemy showed a certain amount of imagination unusual on that -front. One of our forward posts, expecting the return of a patrol -on the dawn on the 3rd May, saw a party of five approaching and -challenged. “Irish Guards” was the reply, followed by a few bombs -which did some damage. This peculiarly irritating trick had not -been worked on the Battalion for some time, and they felt it--as -their amused friends to left and right in the line took care that -they should. Otherwise, the enemy devoted themselves to more and -heavier gunnery, which, in a five-day tour, caused twenty casualties -(wounded) and one killed. Brigade Reserve camps were outside -Monchy-au-Bois, whence tired men were sent to the Details camp at -Pommier (regularly bombed by aeroplane), and from Pommier were drawn -occasional working-parties. One of these included the Battalion -Drummers and Pipers, who enjoyed what might be called a “day out” in -some old trenches. - -On the 5th May, Lieutenant Keenan arrived from the 2nd Battalion to -take over the Adjutancy in place of Captain Gordon, who had been -transferred to the 2nd Battalion as Second in Command, after almost -three years’ continuous service with the 1st Battalion. - -On the 7th May they went up from Monchy, by the ever-hateful, -ever-shelled Cojeul valley, to the Ayette subsector, relieving the -2nd Coldstream. Next day the devil-directed luck of the front line, -after a peaceful, fine night, caused the only trench-mortar sent over -by the enemy that did not clean miss all our posts, to fall directly -in No. 3 Post, right front Company (No. 4), instantly killing Captain -Budd, M.C., commanding the Company, and with him 2nd Lieutenant E. -C. G. Lord and seven men. Captain Budd’s energy and coolness, proved -on many occasions, were a particular loss to his comrades. He was a -large silent man, on whom every one could and did lean heavily at all -times. He knew no fear and was of the self-contained, intensely alive -type, always in danger, but never by his friends connected with any -thought of death. Second Lieutenant Lord (“Rosy” Lord) was a keen and -promising young officer. Those were the only casualties of the tour. -They were buried in the little Military Cemetery near Ayette. - -Our guns had been working steadily from behind, but till this -trench-mortar outburst, most of the enemy replies had been directed -on Ayette itself or our support-lines. - -The shelling throughout the month grew more and more earnest and our -replies, roaring overhead, worried the dead-tired soldiery. The work -was all at night--wiring and improving posts, and unlimited digging -of communication-ways between them; for whether a trench-line held -till Christmas, went up bodily next minute, or was battered down -every hour, in the making there was but one standard of work that -beseemed the Battalion; and though divisional commanders might, and -as on the dreary Scarpe posts did, draw gratified commanding officers -aside and tell them that for quantity and quality their trench-craft -excelled that of other battalions, the Battalion itself was never -quite contented with what it had accomplished. - -Their next turn--May 16 to 21--was fine and hot for a couple of -mornings and regular barrages were put down on the support-line when -they were standing-to. Four men were killed and thirteen, of whom two -died later, were wounded. - -They were heavily shelled in Brigade-Reserve camp on the night of -the 24th. Four officers--Captain Bence-Jones, Lieutenants Riley and -Buller, and 2nd Lieutenant Barry--wounded, one other rank killed, and -five wounded. - -When they went up to relieve the 2nd Coldstream on the 25th May, -they were caught in platoon-order at the corner of Adinfer Wood, a -place of no good name to marching troops, and Lieutenant Williams was -slightly wounded. Three-quarters of an hour’s intense barrage was put -down, on front and support lines, as soon as they were fairly in, -causing several casualties. - -The dawn of the 28th May began with another sharp barrage on the -front line and the dinner-hour was a continuous barrage of 5.9’s and -4.2’s directed at Battalion Headquarters. They were missed, but a -direct hit was made on an aid-post of the 2nd Grenadiers less than a -hundred yards off on our left. As a distraction, orders came in from -Brigade Headquarters the same morning that the Battalion would carry -out a raid on one of the enemy’s posts in front of the Right Company. -They were given their choice, it would seem, of two--one without -artillery-help and by day; the other with an artillery-backing and -by night. The Second in Command, Major R. Baggallay, elected for -works of darkness--or as near as might be in spite of a disgustingly -bright moon. Lieutenant C. S. O’Brien was detailed to command, with -Sergeant Regan, a forceful man, as sergeant. Only twenty-nine hands -were required, and therefore sixty volunteered, moved to this, not -by particular thirst for glory, of which the trenches soon cure -men, as by human desire to escape monotony punctuated with shells. -Extra rum-rations, too, attach to extra duties. As a raid it was a -small affair, but as a work of art, historically worth recording -in some detail. F Battery R.H.A. and 400 Battery R.F.A. supplied -the lifting barrages which duly cut the post off from succour, -while standing-barrages of 18-pounders, a barrage of 4.5’s hows. -and groups, firing concentrations at left and right enemy trenches, -completed the boxed trap. In the few minutes the affair lasted, it -is not extravagant to estimate that more stuff was expended than the -whole of our front in 1914 was allowed to send over in two days. - -The post had been reconnoitred earlier in the evening and was known -not to be wired. All the raiders, with blackened faces and bayonets -and stripped uniforms that betrayed nothing, were in position on the -forming-up tape five minutes before zero. The moon forced them to -crawl undignifiedly out in twos and threes, but they lined up with -the precision of a football line, at one-yard intervals and, a minute -before zero, wriggled to within seventy yards of their quarry. At -zero the barrage came down bursting beautifully, just beyond the -enemy post, and about two seconds ere it lifted the raiders charged -in. No one had time to leave or even to make a show of resistance, -and they were back with their five prisoners, all alive and quite -identifiable, in ten minutes. The waiting stretcher-parties were not -needed and--best of all--“retaliation was slight and entirely on -Ayette.” (One is not told what Ayette thought of it.) The motive of -the raid was “to secure identity alive or dead.” But when all was -over without hurt, one single shell at morning “stand-to” (May 28) -killed 2nd Lieutenant L. H. L. Carver in a front-line trench. - -They held the raided post under close observation that day and the -next (May 29), and discovered that it had been reoccupied by a -machine-gun party. As they particularly did not wish it to put out -wire or become offensive, they dosed it with constant bursts of their -own machine-gun and were rewarded by hearing groans and cries, and -our listening-patrol in No Man’s Land saw a man being carried away. - -On the 31st May the enemy set to, in earnest, to shell all -reserve-lines and back-area for six hours; as well as the first-line -transport in Adinfer Wood after dark, when wounded horses are not -easy to handle. Their relief by the 2nd Grenadiers was badly delayed -by heavy shelling all the way from the front line to Monchy, but -instead of any number of casualties, which might reasonably have been -expected, the Battalion got through unscathed. - -The month’s list was heavy enough as it stood. Five officers had been -wounded and three killed in action; seventeen other ranks killed, -and forty-eight wounded, and all this in the regular wear-and-tear -front-line routine with nothing more to see than a stray German cap -here and there. Twenty-two men were sent down sick, and the Diary -begins to hint at the prevalence of the “Spanish fever,” which was in -a few months to sweep France and all the world. - -June was a month of peace. It opened in reserve-trenches at the -south-west end of Monchy-au-Bois, and when they next went up into -line, a new route had been surveyed round the dreaded corner of -Adinfer Wood which saved some shelling of reliefs. - -On the 4th June the C.O., Lieutenant-Colonel Pollok, left the -Battalion to take over command of Sixth Corps Army School, and Major -R. R. C. Baggallay assumed command. Likewise three stray Germans were -captured opposite one of our posts. - -On the 5th Major Gordon arrived from the 2nd Battalion for duty as -Second in Command. - -They were relieved by the 1st King’s Regiment on the 6th June--a -somewhat hectic performance, as the front-line track-ways were -intricate, needing guides at almost every turn of them, and, for -the run-up, one guide per platoon. After which, about one in the -morning, it was discovered that the King’s had come in without their -Lewis-guns. Some divisions were in the habit of leaving and taking -over the Lewis-guns _in situ_; but the Guards Division always went -in and out of the line with their very own weapons. One cannot -delay a clear June dawn and, as the relieved Battalion had to get -off in tightly packed and horribly conspicuous lorries, and as the -last platoon could not reach those lorries till 3 A. M., it was -touch-and-go whether daylight would not reveal them “like a Sunday -School treat” to the German guns. But luck held. The last lorry was -safe in Bavincourt Wood five miles behind Monchy before day had -stripped the landscape, and the 1st King’s were left to meditate on -the wealth and variety of the Irish tongue, as delivered on empty -stomachs in whispers down packed trenches. - -The Battalion billeted at Bavincourt when the 2nd H.L.I. had got out -of their quarters, and since, like the other camps, Bavincourt was -regularly bombed, made earth walls round their Nissen huts, and slits -near them to be used against ’planes or too extravagant shell-fire. -Here they stayed till the end of the month, cleaning, refitting, and -training (in open warfare principally; and, this time, they were not -to be disappointed) at Lewis gunnery, bombing, and general physical -smartening-up. When the Brigade Sports took place at Saulty they won -every event but three, and when the Corps Commander, the following -week, inspected the different ways in the divisional methods of -carrying the eight Lewis-guns of each company all on one limber, “the -method employed by the Battalion was considered the best, and all -units were ordered to copy.” They had rigged a sort of false top on -a rear-limber which accommodated all eight guns together. - -A Divisional Horse-show was held on the 22nd, but there the Battalion -did not get a single prize. They hammered on at their trainings and -Brigade field-days--all with an eye to the coming open warfare, while -the “Spanish fever,” which was influenza of the post-war type, grew -steadily worse among men and officers alike. When H.R.H. the Duke -of Connaught visited Divisional Headquarters at Bavincourt Château -on the 30th June, and the Battalion had to find not only the Guard -of Honour but 160 men to line the avenue to the Château, there were -seventy officers and men down with the pest, out of less than 900. -Thirty-one men had been sent down sick, two had been killed in action -presumably by overhead bombing, for the Diary does not mention any -trench casualties, and twenty-three wounded. - -The following officers joined during the month of June: Lieutenant C. -A. J. Vernon, and 2nd Lieutenants E. B. Spafford, A. E. Hutchinson, -H. R. Baldwin, G. F. Mathieson, J. A. M. Faraday, E. M. Harvey, M.C., -and A. E. O’Connor, all on the 2nd June; Captain A. W. L. Paget on -the 4th, and 2nd Lieutenant A. H. O’Farrell on the 10th June. Second -Lieutenant C. S. O’Brien, who was in command of the model raid -already mentioned, was awarded the Military Cross on the 9th of June. - -After a sporting interlude on the 3rd July, when they met the 1st -Munster Fusiliers at athletics and won everything except the hundred -yards, they relieved the 15th H.L.I. in the intermediate line near -Hendecourt. As a matter of fact, they were a sick people just then. -All Battalion Headquarters except the Commanding Officer, and all the -officers of No. 2 Company, besides officers of other companies, were -down with “Spanish fever” on going into the line. A third of the men -were also sick at one time, and apparently the enemy too, for they -hardly troubled to shell by day and let the night-reliefs go without -attention. The only drawbacks were furious summer thunderstorms -which, from time to time, flooded the trenches and woke up more -fever. The front line held here by the Guards was badly knocked about -and battered, and instructions ran that, in event of serious attack, -it would not be contested. - -There is no clear evidence of the state of the Battalion’s collective -mind at this time, but from home letters it might be gathered that -the strain of the Bush and its bewilderment had given place to the -idea that great things were preparing. Battalions are very often -told tales to this effect, but they suit themselves as to the amount -that they swallow. No power on earth, for instance, could have -persuaded the veterans of the Somme, after Cambrai, that there was -“anything doing”; but as the summer of 1918 grew warmer in the wooded -and orchard country behind the Amiens-Albert line, and our lines -there held and were strengthened, and those who had been home or -on the seas reported what they had heard and seen, hope, of a kind -not raised before, grew in the talks of the men and the officers. -(“Understand, I do _not_ say there was anny of the old chat regardin’ -that the war would finish next Chuseday, the way we talked in ’16. -But, whatever they said acrost the water, _we_ did not hould ’twould -endure those two more extra years all them civilians was dishin’ out -to us. _What_ did we think? That ’19 would see the finish? ’Twud be -hard to tell what we thought. Leave it this way--we was no more than -waitin’ on mercies to happen an’--’twas mericles that transpired!”) - -They relieved their own brigade battalions with the punctilio proper -to their common ritual, and for the benefit of over a hundred -recruits. It was their ancient comrades under all sorts of terrors, -the 2nd Coldstream, whose guides from Boiry-St. Martin one night lost -their way in the maze of tracks and turns to the front line. But, as -meekly set forth in the Diary, when it came the Battalion’s turn to -be relieved by the 2nd Grenadiers, “all tracks had been carefully -picketed by _this_ Battalion to assist grenadier companies coming in -and ours going out.” The occasions when the guides of the 1st Irish -Guards lost their way must be looked for in the reports of others. - -“Little shelling and no casualties” were the order of the fine days -till, on the 29th July, taking over from the 2nd Coldstream, they -found six platoons of the 3rd Battalion, 320th Regiment, U.S.A., -which had come into line the night before and were attached for -instruction. These were young, keen, desperately anxious to learn, -and not at all disposed to keep their heads down. - -Next day the enemy opened on them, and “were rather offensive in -their shelling.” The front platoon of the Americans, attached to -the Battalion’s front company, caught it worst, but no casualties -were reported. Then things quieted down, and a patrol of Special -Battalion Scouts, a new organization of old, trusty No Man’s -Landers, under Lieutenant Vernon as Intelligence Officer, went out -on reconnaissance, across the Cojeul valley, and wandered generally -among ancient trench-lines in bright moonlight. They found a German -party working on fresh earth, but no signs of enemy patrols on the -move in the valley. This was as well. No one wished to see that dead -ground occupied, except by our own people at the proper time. - -July’s bill of casualties was the lowest of all. No officer and -but one man had been killed, and two wounded. This last was when -the enemy shelled Boiry to celebrate the arrival of the American -platoons. Seventeen men were sent down sick. Fifty other ranks were -transferred to the 1st from the 2nd Battalion, now acting as a feeder -to its elder brother. - -On the 1st of August the Battalion was still in the peaceful front -line watching the six American platoons being relieved by other -six platoons from the 2nd Battalion of the 320th Regiment. It was -observed, not without some envy--“They did not know enough to save -’emselves throuble, an’ they would not ha’ done it if they had. They -was too full of this same dam’ new ould war.” Even at this immense -distance of time, one can almost hear the veterans commenting on the -zeal and excitement that filled the stale lines where, to those -young eyes from across the water, everything was as shining-new as -death. - -On the 3rd August the Battalion made a reconnaissance of a -post with the idea of raiding it, which was a complete though -bloodless failure. Some of our back guns chose the exact moment -when the raiders were setting out (on the sure information of a -scouting-party, who had just come in) to wipe up the unconscious -little garrison and their machine-gun, and woke the night with heavy -shell dropped _in_ our own wire and in front of our objective. -Naturally nothing could be done, and the affair was called off -till the next evening (4th August), when a “crawling-party,” under -Lieutenant Vernon, of a corporal and six men went out along the same -route that the scouts had taken the night before. They were expected -and welcomed with enthusiasm. A sentry gave the alarm, a little party -ran out to cut them off, the machine-gun (a heavy one), which had not -betrayed itself before, promptly opened fire, but wide of our prone -men, and a German, as promptly, hove bombs in the wrong direction. -All this, says the report, happened as soon as some one inside the -post gave “short, decisive orders.” Then Véry lights flared without -stint, and, being some way from home, with much unlocated wire -between, the raiders got away swiftly and safely. The tracks of the -scouts through the long grass the night before had put the enemy -on the alert. But if our guns had only held their tongues on that -occasion, our coup might have been brought off. Instead of which, the -enemy woke up and shelled a front company for a quarter of an hour -with 60-pounders before he could be induced to go to bed. - - -THE BEGINNINGS OF THE END - -But all this was as light, casual, and unrelated as the throwing -of the ball from hand to hand that fills time before an innings; -and, by the latter part of July, men began half unconsciously to -speculate when our innings would begin. In the north, the enemy, -crowded into the Lys salient, which they had been at such pains to -hack out over the bodies of the 2nd Battalion, were enjoying some -of the pleasures our men had tasted round Ypres for so many years. -Our gathering guns, cross-ploughing them where they lay, took fresh -toll of each new German division arriving to make good the wastage. -In the south, outside Amiens, the Australians, an impenitent and -unimpressionable breed, had, on the 4th of July, with the help of -four companies of the Thirty-third American Division, and sixty -tanks, gone a-raiding round the neighbourhood of Hamel and Vaire -Wood, with results that surprised everybody except themselves. They -did not greatly respect the enemy, and handled him rudely. Meantime, -Amiens, raked over by aeroplanes almost every hour, was being wrecked -and strangled; and all the Labour Corps, which, from the soldier’s -point of view, could have been better used in saving poor privates -cruel fatigues, were working day and night at railway diversions and -doublings that, by some route or another, should bring the urgent -supplies of both French and British armies to their destinations. -Men argued, therefore, that the first job to be taken in hand -would be the deliverance of Amiens. There was talk, too, that all -French divisions in Flanders were withdrawn and concentrated behind -Amiens city. This might be taken for a sign that the Lys salient -was reckoned reasonably secure, and as confirming the belief that -upon the Lys, also, we had abundance of artillery. On the other -hand (these are but a few of the rumours of the time), away in the -unknown south-east of France, where few British troops had penetrated -in the memory of present fighting men, some five or six divisions, -making the Ninth British Corps, had been sent for a “rest” after the -March Push, and had been badly mauled by a sudden surprise-attack -on the Aisne where, together with the Fifth French Army, they had -been driven back towards the Marne, which all the world thought was -a river and a battle long since disposed of. The enemy there were -sitting practically outside the Forest of Villers-Cotterêts, a name -also belonging to ancient history. Much-enduring men, whom Fate -till now had spared, recounted how the 4th (Guards) Brigade, as it -was then, had first “caught it” there, among the beech-trees very -nearly four years back. Moreover, there was fresh trouble between -Montdidier and Noyon, where the enemy were again throwing themselves -at the French. Then, too, Foch, who was in charge of all, but who, so -far, had made no sign, had borrowed four more of our divisions--the -whole of the Twenty-second Corps this time--and they were off on some -French front, Heaven and Headquarters alone knew where. Likewise one -composite “Scrum” of French, American, English, and Italian troops -was holding, it might be hoped, a German capital attack near Rheims. -The old war-line that in the remote days of winter would have called -itself the Somme front discussed and digested these news and many -more. There was nothing doing on their beat to write home about, -even were they allowed to do so. The question was whether they would -be called on to repair to the Lys and free Hazebrouck, which was -undoubtedly still in a dangerous position, or stand still and await -what might befall at Amiens. There was no limit to speculation and -argument any more than there had been when the Somme front went in -March, and the more they argued the more confused men grew over the -confidential information that was supplied them. (“Them Gen’rals, and -their Staffs must ha’ done quite a little lyin’--even for them. They -had _us_ believin’ their word! I’ve heard since even Jerry believed -’em.”) - -That would appear to have been the trouble with the enemy. It was -evident to the most hardened pessimist that a French counter-attack -launched out of the Villers-Cotterêts Forests, to begin with (and -in several other places at, apparently, the same time), was _not_ -the flash-in-the-pan that some people foretold. For the second time -the enemy was withdrawing from the Marne, and, under pressure, -continuing his withdrawal. His great attack near Rheims, too, seemed -to have stuck. On the Lys, from time to time, sites of villages with -well-remembered names were occasionally returning to their lawful -trustees. Hopeful students of the war hinted that, with fresh troops -in vast numbers, more guns, and a share of luck, 1918 might see the -foundations laid for a really effective finish in 1919. A report -had come up from the south that the French down Amiens way had made -an experimental attack, or rather a big raid, on the enemy, and had -found him there curiously “soft” and willing to shift. - -The air thickened with lies as the men, who moved about the earth -by night or under cover, increased, and our air-craft were told off -to circle low and noisily at certain points and drown the churn of -many tanks trailing up into their appointed areas. All the Canadian -divisions, men said, were moving off to recapture Kemmel Hill. All -our forces round Amiens were digging themselves in, said others, -preparatory to a wait-and-see campaign that would surely last till -Christmas. For proof, it was notorious that our guns in that sector -were doing nothing. (As a matter of fact they were registering on the -sly.) Everybody round Amiens, a third party insisted, would be sent -off in a day or two to help the French in Champagne. The weaknesses -of human nature in possession of “exclusive information” played into -the hands of the very few who knew, and young staff officers of -innocent appearance infernally bamboozled their betters. - -So it happened, on the 4th August, on a misty dawn, that the Fourth -Army (Rawlinson’s) with four hundred tanks, backed by two thousand -guns, and covered by aeroplanes to a number not yet conceived in -war, declared itself as in being round Amiens at the very nose of -the great German salient. In twenty-four hours that attack had -bitten in five miles on an eleven-mile front, had taken twelve -thousand prisoners and some three hundred guns, and was well set to -continue. At the same time the French, striking up from the south, -had cleared their front up to the Amiens-Roye road from Pierrepont, -through Plessier to Fresnoy, and had taken over three thousand -prisoners and many guns. Caught thus on two fronts, the enemy fell -back, abandoning stores and burning dumps, which latter sight it -cheered our men to watch. But the work and the honour of the day, as -of the Fourth Army’s campaign from this point on, rested with the -Canadian and Australian divisions who made up the larger part of it. -The Australians Sir Archibald Montgomery describes in his monumental -“Story of the Fourth Army” as “always inquisitive and seldom idle.” -The Canadians had exactly the same failings, and between the two -dominions the enemy suffered. By the 12th August he had been forced -back on to the edge of the used, desolate, and eaten-up country where -he had established himself in 1916--a jungle of old wire, wrecked -buildings, charred woods, and wildernesses of trench. It was ideal -ground for machine-gun defence; with good protection against tanks -and cavalry. There he went to earth, and there, after a little -feeling along his line, was he left while the screw was applied -elsewhere. Our front at that time ran from Bray-sur-Somme due south -to Andechy, where we joined the French almost within machine-gun -range of Roye. - -North of Bray, to the western edge of the town of Albert, the left -wing of the Fourth Army had the enemy held, worried and expectant. -Now was the Third Army’s turn to drive in the wedge, from north of -Albert up the line to Arras where the right of the First Army would -assist. What Headquarters knew of the enemy’s morale on that sector -was highly satisfactory. Moreover, he was withdrawing out of his Lys -salient as his divisions were sucked down south to make up wastage -there. But our men still expected that they would tramp their weary -way back across every yard of their battle-fields and burial-grounds -of the past two years, finishing up, if luck held, somewhere round -the Hindenburg Line by Christmas. That the wave, once launched, would -carry to the Rhine was beyond the wildest dreams. - -The Battalion, after their little raid already mentioned, had spent -from the 5th to the 9th August in reserve-trenches at Ransart, doing -musketry and route-marching. They returned to the support-trenches at -Hendecourt-les-Ransart relieving the 2nd Coldstream, and stayed there -till the 16th August, when they relieved the same battalion in the -front line opposite Boiry-St. Martin. - -They had to patrol the No Man’s Land in front of them a good deal -at night (because it would, later, be their forming-up area), but -suffered nothing worse than the usual shelling and trench-mortaring, -and their share in the work of the opening day, August 21, was small -and simple. “At 5 A. M. the 2nd Guards Brigade on our right attacked -Moyenville with their objective just east of the railway. The 1st -Coldstream was next on our right.” There was a thick fog when the -barrage opened, as well as a smoke barrage. The tanks forming up made -noise enough to wake a land full of Germans, but apparently drew -no fire till they were well away, lunging and trampling over the -enemy machine-gun-posts that had annoyed our folk for so long. The -only serious work for the Battalion was to secure a small trench, -cover the north side of the railway with their fire, and establish -a post at the railway crossing “as soon as a tank had passed over.” -The trench had been occupied early in the night after a small -bombing-brawl with the enemy. The tank detailed to pass by that way -in the morning was warned of the occupation and told not to fire into -it as it came along and all was well. There was an idea that a couple -of companies assisted by eight tanks should capture Hamelincourt, -a mile east of Moyenville, which latter had been taken, before the -fog lifted, by the 2nd Guards Brigade. But this was cancelled after -much waste of time, and the Battalion lay still under a shelling of -mustard-gas, and pleasantly watched prisoners being sent back. - -The enemy’s front was giving before the attack of eight divisions, -but not without sudden and awkward resistances, due to the cut-up -and trenched state of the ground, that hid too many machine-guns for -comfort; and the gas-nuisance grew steadily worse. - -The Battalion lay where they were the next day (August 22), but sent -out a patrol under 2nd Lieutenant Faraday to work up a trench near -Hamel Switch, to the north of Hamelincourt. After capturing four -Germans it came under machine-gun fire from Hamelincourt. A platoon -was sent to support it, but was withdrawn as the Hamelincourt attack -had been postponed till the next day. Then the patrol had to retire -across abominable shallow trenches, clogged with wire and lavishly -machine-gunned. The Germans tried to cut them off. They withdrew, -fighting. Their Lewis-gun was knocked out and five men wounded. While -these were being helped back, the Lieutenant and two men, Sergeant -Dolan and Private Tait, covered the retreat among the wire. Next, -Faraday was wounded badly in the foot, and the sergeant and private -carried him in turn, he being six feet long and not narrow, while the -rest of the party threw bombs at the Germans, and tried to close with -them. Eventually they all reached home safe. Dolan’s one comment on -the affair was: “’Tis heavy going out yonder.” Lieutenant Faraday was -awarded the M.C. and Dolan the D.C.M. Later on, in 1919, Dolan also -received the Médaille Militaire for gallantry on many occasions. - -Seen against the gigantic background of the opening campaign, it was -a microscopical affair--a struggle of ants round a single grain--but -it moved men strongly while they watched. - -For the reason that always leads a battalion to be hardest worked -on the edge of battle, they were taken out of the line on the 23rd, -cautiously, under gas and common shell, and marched back seven miles -in five hours to Berles-au-Bois behind Monchy-au-Bois in order to -be marched back again next day to Boiry-St. Martin, where they spent -the day in the Cojeul valley, and afterwards (August 25) moved up -into support in the Hamel Switch between Hamelincourt and St. Léger. -Hamelincourt had been taken on the 23rd by the 2nd Brigade, and as -the night came down wet, the “men made what shelters they could from -corrugated iron and wood lying about.” The trenches hereabouts had -every disadvantage that could be desired. Some were part of the Army -Line and had been dug a foot or two deep with the spade as lines to -be developed in case of need. Presumably, it was nobody’s business -to complete them, so when the trouble arrived, these gutters, being -officially trenches, were duly filled by the troops, and as duly -shelled by the enemy. - -For example, when the Battalion moved forward on the 26th their -trenches were waist-deep, which, to men who had spent most of the day -in the dry bed of the Cojeul River, under gas and common shell, was -no great treat. - -[Illustration: - - _THE FINAL ADVANCE_ - _August-November 1918_ - _Route of the First Battalion_ - - _Emery Walker Ltd. del. et sc._] - -PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY EMERY WALKER LTD., LONDON - -Since the 21st August the Guards Division had been well employed. Its -2nd Brigade, with the Second Division on its right, had captured the -Ablainzevelle-Moyenneville spur; and the Second Division had taken -Courcelles. By the night of the 23rd, when the 3rd Guards Brigade -relieved the 2nd, and the Second Division had captured Ervillers on -the Arras-Bapaume road, the Guards Division, with their 1st Brigade -in support, was within half a mile of St. Léger, and in touch with -the Fifty-sixth Division on their left, which was trying to work -round the head of the Hindenburg Line and turn in from the north. At -this point resistance stiffened. The hilly ground, cut and cross-cut -with old trenches and the beginnings of new ones, lent itself to -the stopping game of well-placed machine-guns equally from round -Croisilles, where the Fifty-sixth Division was engaged; from about -St. Léger Wood, where the 3rd Guards Brigade, supported by tanks, -was renewing its acquaintance with the German anti-tank-rifle; -and from Mory, where the Sixty-second Division was delayed by the -Division on its right being held up. An enemy balloon or two hung on -the horizon and some inquisitive, low-flying aeroplanes hinted at -coming trouble. The line expected as much, but they did not seem so -well informed farther back. - - -THE AFFAIR OF ST. LÉGER - -On the 26th August orders arrived that the 1st Guards Brigade would -now take up the running from the 3rd, and advance eastward from -St. Léger towards Ecoust till opposition was met. There were, of -course, refinements on this idea, but that was the gist of it. -The 2nd Grenadiers and the 2nd Coldstream would attack, with the -Battalion in support. The men were in their trenches by tea-time on -the 26th, No. 1 Company in Jewel Trench just east of the entrance to -the little Sensée River valley, and the others disposed along the -line of Mory Switch, an old trench now only a foot deep. Battalion -Headquarters lay in an abandoned German stores dug-out. Final orders -did not arrive till after midnight on the 26th, and there was much -to arrange and link up between then and seven o’clock, barrage time. -The Grenadiers were on the right and the Coldstream on the left of -the Battalion, the latter following a quarter of a mile behind, with -Nos. 1 and 3 Companies to feed the Grenadiers and Nos. 4 and 2 for -the Coldstream. As the front was so wide, they split the difference -and kept as close as might be to the dividing line between the two -leading Battalions, which ran by Mory Switch and Hally Avenue. The -hot day broke with a gorgeous sunrise over a desolate landscape that -reeked in all its hollows of gas and cordite. A moment or two after -our barrage (field-guns only) opened, the enemy put down a heavy -reply, and into the smoke and dust of it the companies, in artillery -formation, walked up the road without hesitation or one man losing -his place. No. 1 Company leading on the right disappeared at once -after they had passed their jumping-off point at Mory Switch. Almost -the first shells caught the leading platoon, when Lieutenant J. -N. Ward was killed and Lieutenant P. S. MacMahon wounded. As soon -as they were clear of the barrage, they came under full blast of -machine-gun fire and saw the Grenadiers presently lie down enfiladed -on both flanks. Four of our machine-guns tried to work forward -and clear out the hindrances, but the fire was too strong. Both -battalions were finally held up, and the Grenadiers were practically -cut to pieces, with their reserve companies, as these strove to -reinforce the thinned line. After what seemed an immense time (two -hours or so) Captain Thompson, seeing that, as far as that sector -was concerned, the thing was hung up, ordered his men to dig in in -support, and they spent till nightfall “recovering casualties”--their -own, those of the battalions ahead, and of the Guards Machine-Guns. - -No. 3 Company, which followed No. 1, suffered just as heavily from -the barrage. Very soon their commander, Captain Joyce, was wounded -and Lieutenant H. R. Baldwin killed. Second Lieutenant Heaton, who -took over, was gassed in the course of the afternoon, and C.S.M. -O’Hara then commanded. There was nothing for them to do either save -dig in, like No. 1, behind the Grenadiers, and a little to the right -of them. - -No. 4 Company, under Captain Hegarty, following the Coldstream, -got the worst barrage of all as soon as they were clear of their -trenches, and found the Coldstream held up, front and flank, within -fifty yards of the sunken road whence they had started. No. 15 -platoon of the Irish Guards was almost wiped out, and the remains of -it joined with No. 13 to make a defensive flank, while No. 14 crawled -or wriggled forward to reinforce the Coldstream, and No. 16 lay in -reserve in a sunk road. Sunk roads were the only shelter for such as -did not wish to become early casualties. - -No. 2 Company (Captain A. Paget) following No. 4 had been held back -for a few minutes by the C.O. (Major R. Baggallay) on the fringe -of the barrage, to be slipped through when it seemed to lighten. -They also launched out into a world that was all flank or support, -of battalions which could neither be seen nor found, who were -themselves outflanked by machine-guns in a landscape that was one -stumbling-block of shallow trenches which suddenly faded out. They -crossed the St. Léger-Vraucourt road and bore east, after clearing -the St. Léger wood, till they reached the St. Léger reserve trench, -and held it from the Longatte road to where it joined the Banks -Reserve. Says one record: “At this time, Captain Paget was in -ignorance of the success or location of the attacking battalions, and -both of his flanks exposed as far as he knew.” The enemy machine-guns -were hammering home that knowledge, and one of the platoons had lost -touch altogether, and was out in the deadly open. So in the trench -they lay till an officer of the Coldstream came over and told Paget -the “general situation,” which, unofficially, ran: “This show is held -up.” He borrowed a section from No. 5 Platoon to help to build up -a flank to guard the east side of St. Léger and vanished among the -increasing shell-holes. - -Well on in the morning a message arrived from Captain Hegarty, No. -4 Company, that he and his men were on the St. Léger-Vraucourt road -and held up like the rest. Captain Paget went over, in the usual way, -by a series of bolts from shell-hole to shell-hole, trying to clear -up an only too-clear situation. On the way he found a lost platoon, -sent it to dig in on the left of No. 2 Company, and also saw the -C.O. 2nd Coldstream and explained his own dispositions. They were -not made too soon, for in a short time there was an attack on No. 2 -Company which came within sixty yards before it was broken up by our -small-arm fire. The Germans were followed up as they returned across -the Ecoust-Mory ridge by long-range shooting in which, for the sake -of economy, captured enemy rifles and ammunition were used. - -By this time the whole front was split up into small or large -scattered posts in trenches or under cover, each held down by -machine-guns which punished every movement. Two Companies (2 and -4) were near the St. Léger Trees, a clump of nine trees on the St. -Léger-Ecoust road, mixed up with the Coldstream posts. The other -two were dug in behind the Grenadiers on the right. Battalion -Headquarters circulated spasmodically and by rushes, when it saw its -chance, from one point to the other of the most unwholesome ground. -Even at the time, some of its shell-hole conferences struck the -members as comic; but history does not record the things that were -said by dripping officers between mouthfuls of dirt and gas. - -Every battle has its special characteristic. St. Léger was one of -heat, sunshine, sweat; the flavour of at least two gases tasted -through respirators or in the raw; the wail of machine-gun bullets -sweeping the crests of sunken roads; the sudden vision of wounded -in still-smoking shell-holes or laid in the sides of a scarp; sharp -whiffs of new-spilt blood, and here and there a face upon which the -sun stared without making any change. So the hours wore on, under a -sense of space, heat, and light; Death always just over the edge of -that space and impudently busy in that light. - -About what would have been tea-time in the real world, Captain -Paget, a man of unhurried and careful speech and imperturbable soul, -reported to the C.O., whom he found by the St. Léger Trees, that -there were “Huns on his right--same trench as himself.” It was an -awkward situation that needed mending before dusk, and it was made -worse by the posts of the Coldstream and some Guards Machine-Guns’ -posts, as well as those of our No. 4 Company, being mixed up within -close range of No. 2. The C.O. decided that if a barrage could be -brought to bear on the trench and its rather crowded neighbourhood, -No. 2 might attack it. A young gunner, Fowler by name, cast up at -that juncture and said it might be managed if the Battalion withdrew -their posts round the area. He had a telephone, still uncut, to -his guns and would observe their registration himself. The posts, -including those of the Guards Machine-Guns, were withdrawn, and -Fowler was as near as might be killed by one of his own registering -shots. He got his 18-pounders to his liking at last, and ten minutes’ -brisk barrage descended on the trench. When it stopped, and before -our men could move, up went a white flag amid yells of “Kamerad,” and -the Huns came out, hands aloft, to be met by our men, who, forgetting -that exposed troops, friend and foe alike, would certainly be gunned -by the nearest enemy-post, had to be shooed and shouted back to cover -by their officers. The prisoners, ninety of them, were herded into -a wood, where they cast their helmets on the ground, laughed, and -shook hands with each other, to the immense amusement of our people. -The capture had turned a very blank day into something of a success, -and the Irish were grateful to the “bag.” This at least explains -the politeness of the orderly who chaperoned rather than conducted -the Hun officer to the rear, with many a “This way, sir. Mind out, -now, sir, you don’t slip down the bank.” They put a platoon into the -captured trench and lay down to a night of bursts of heavy shelling. -But the enemy, whether because of direct pressure or because they had -done their delaying work, asked for no more and drew back in the dark. - -When morning of the 28th broke “few signs of enemy movement were -observed.” Men say that there is no mistaking the “feel of the -front” under this joyous aspect. The sense of constriction departs -as swiftly as a headache, and with it, often, the taste that was in -the mouth. One by one, as the lovely day went on, the patrols from -the companies made their investigations and reports, till at last -the whole line reformed and, in touch on either flank, felt forward -under light shelling from withdrawing guns. An aeroplane dropped some -bombs on the Battalion as it drew near to the St. Léger Trees, which -wounded two men and two gunner officers, one of whom--not Fowler, -the boy who arranged for the barrage--died in Father Browne’s arms. -On the road at that point, where the wounded and dying of the fight -had been laid, only dried pools of blood and some stained cotton-wads -remained darkening in the sun. Such officers as the gas had affected -in that way went about their routine-work vomiting disgustedly at -intervals. - -Battalion Headquarters, which had nominally spent the previous day in -a waist-deep trench, set up office at the St. Léger Trees, and the -advance of the Guards Division continued for a mile or so. Then, on a -consolidated line, with machine-guns chattering to the eastward, it -waited to be relieved. As prelude to their watch on the Rhine, the -affair was not auspicious. The Grenadiers, on whom the brunt of the -fight fell, were badly knocked out, and of their sixteen officers but -four were on their feet. The Coldstream were so weakened that they -borrowed our No. 4 Company to carry on with, and the Irish thought -themselves lucky to have lost no more than two officers (Lieutenant -J. N. Ward and Lieutenant H. R. Baldwin) dead, and six wounded or -gassed, in addition to a hundred and seventy other ranks killed or -wounded. The wounded officers were Captain W. Joyce; Lieutenants P. -S. MacMahon and C. A. J. Vernon, who was incapacitated for a while -by tear-gas in the middle of action and led away blinded and very -wroth; also 2nd Lieutenants H. A. Connolly, G. T. Heaton, and A. E. -Hutchinson. - -The Division was relieved on the night of the 28th: the Battalion -itself, as far as regarded No. 1 Company, by the 1st Gordons, from -the Third Division, Nos. 2 and 4 Companies by another battalion, and -No. 3 Company under the orders of the 2nd Grenadiers. They marched -back to their positions of the night before the battle “very glad -that it was all behind us,” and their shelters of bits of wood and -rough iron seemed like rest in a fair land. - -On the 29th August, a hot day, they lay in old trenches over the -Moyenneville spur in front of Adinfer Wood facing Douchy and Ayette, -where “three weeks ago no man could have lived.” They talked together -of the far-off times when they held that line daily expecting the -enemy advance; and the officers lay out luxuriously in the wood in -the evening after Mess, while the men made themselves “little homes -in it.” - -Next day they rested, for the men were very tired, and on the last -of the month the whole Battalion was washed in the divisional baths -that had established themselves at Adinfer. But the enemy had not -forgotten them, and on the first of September their shelters and -tents in the delightful wood were bombed. Six men were injured, five -being buried in a trench, and of these two were suffocated before -they could be dug out. - - -TOWARDS THE CANAL DU NORD - -And that was all the rest allowed to the Battalion. On the 2nd -September the Canadian Corps of the First Army broke that outlying -spur of the Hindenburg System known as the Drocourt-Quéant Switch, -with its wires, trenches, and posts; and the Fifty-seventh and -Fifty-second Divisions, after hard work, equally smashed the -triangle of fortifications north-west of Quéant where the Switch -joined the System. The gain shook the whole of the Hindenburg Line -south of Quéant and, after five days’ clean-up behind the line, the -Guards Division were ordered to go in again at the very breast of -Hindenburg’s works. No one knew what the enemy’s idea might be, but -there was strong presumption that, if he did not hold his defence at -that point, he might crack. (“But, ye’ll understand, for all that, we -did _not_ believe Jerry would crack past mendin’.”) - -The Battalion spent the night of the 2nd September, then, in shelters -in Hamel Switch Trench on their way back from Adinfer Wood to the -battle. The front had now shifted to very much the one as we held -in April, 1917, ere the days of Cambrai and Bourlon Wood. The 1st -Guards Brigade were in Divisional Reserve at Lagnicourt, three miles -south-west of Ecoust-St.-Mein, where the Battalion had to cross their -still fresh battle-field of less than a week back, as an appetizer to -their hot dinners. They occupied a waist-deep old trench, a little -west of Lagnicourt, and noticed that there was no shelling, though -the roads were full of our traffic, “a good deal of it in full view -of Bourlon Wood.” Going over “used” ground for the third time and -noting one’s many dead comrades does not make for high spirit even -though one’s own Divisional General has written one’s own Brigadier, -“All battalions of the 1st Guards Brigade discharged their duty -splendidly at St. Léger.” - -Lagnicourt was shelled a little by a high-velocity gun between the -4th and the 6th of September, and seventeen bombs were dropped on the -Battalion, wounding two men. - -By all reason there should have been a bitter fight on that ground, -and full preparation for it was made. But the enemy, after St. Léger, -saw fit to withdraw himself suddenly and unexpectedly out of all that -area. For one bewildering dawn and day “the bottom fell out of the -front,” as far as the Guards Division was concerned. It is a curious -story, even though it does not directly concern the Battalion. Here -is one detail of it: - -On the 3rd September the 2nd Brigade toiled in from Monchy, in full -war-kit, and, tired with the long day’s heat, formed up west of -Lagnicourt before dawn, detailed to win, if they could, a thousand -yards or so of chewed-up ground. They “went over the top” under -a creeping barrage, one gun of which persistently fired short, -and--found nothing whatever in front of them save a prodigious number -of dead horses, some few corpses, and an intolerable buzzing of -flies! As they topped the ridge above Lagnicourt, they saw against -the first light of the sun, dump after German dump blazing palely -towards the east. That was all. They wandered, wondering, into a -vast, grassy, habitationless plain that stretched away towards -the Bapaume-Cambrai road. Not a machine-gun broke the stupefying -stillness from any fold of it. Yet it was the very place for such -surprises. Aeroplanes swooped low, looked them well over, and skimmed -off. No distant guns opened. The advance became a route-march, a -Sunday walk-out, edged with tense suspicion. They saw a German -cooker wrecked on the grass, and, beside it, the bodies of two -clean, good-looking boys, pathetically laid out as for burial. The -thing was a booby-trap arranged to move our people’s pity. Some -pitied, and were blown to bits by the concealed mine. No one made any -comment. They were tired with carrying their kit in the sun among -the maddening flies. The thousand yards stretched into miles. Twice -or thrice they halted and began to dig in for fear of attack. But -nothing overtook them and they installed themselves, about dusk, in -some old British trenches outside Boursies, four miles and more, as -the crow flies, from Lagnicourt! At midnight, up came their rations, -and the punctual home-letters, across that enchanted desert which had -spared them. They were told that their Brigade Artillery was in place -behind the next rise, ready to deliver barrages on demand, and in due -course the whole of our line on that sector flowed forward. - -The Battalion relieved the 1st Scots Guards in the front line near -Mœuvres on the 7th--a quiet relief followed by severe gassing. Here -they passed two days in the delicate and difficult business of -feeling all about them among the mass of old trenches, to locate -enemy’s posts and to watch what points of vantage might offer. The -wreckage of the houses round Mœuvres, into which the trenches ran, -lent itself excellently to enemy activity; and men played blind-man’s -buff round bits of broken walls wherever they explored. Their left -was in the air; their right under the care of Providence; and their -supports were far off. No. 3 Company (Captain G. L. Bambridge, -M.C.), while trying to close a gap between the two front companies (3 -and 1) by peaceful penetration with a bombing-party, found enemy in -the trench, drove him up it as far as they could, built a barricade, -and were then heavily counter-raided by a couple of officers and -twenty men whom they ejected after, as the Company justly owned, “a -good attempt.” The enemy “attempted” again about midnight on the 8th, -when he was bombed off, and again on the afternoon of the 9th in an -outlying trench, mixed up with smashed cellars and broken floors, -where he captured two unarmed stretcher-bearers and three men who -had not been in the line before. Though it does new hands no harm -to realize that front-line trenches are not Warley Barracks (and -stretcher-bearers, like orderlies, are prey to all the world), still -the matter could not be passed over. Our trench-mortars attended -vigorously to the enemy posts whence the raid had been launched, and -in the afternoon sent a strong patrol to make the outraged trench -secure. Later on, a platoon of No. 1 Company got into touch with -the battalion (8th King’s) on their left, and took part in a small -“bicker,” as it was described, but with no casualties. - -They were relieved the same night, though they did not expect it, by -the 1/5th Battalion Loyal North Lancs who had not made sure of their -route beforehand, and so, in wet darkness, lost their way, failed -to meet the guides at the rendezvous, and were heavily shelled. -The relief dragged on till well towards dawn, when the battalions -straggled off into some drenching trenches without any sort of -accommodation. (“The whole thing the most appalling mess and agony -I have ever experienced.”) The worst was when a stray light went up -and showed the relieved Battalion under pouring rain playing “follow -my leader” in a complete circle like caterpillars, in the hopeful -belief that they were moving to their destination. They next took the -place of the 3rd Guards Brigade in reserve-trenches near Edinburgh -Support, where they stayed till the 14th September and were not even -once shelled. Salvage and cleaning up was their fatigue--a dreadful -job at any time, for the ground was filled with ancient offal as -well as new--lost French of ’14 mingled grotesquely with the raw -produce of yesterday’s bombing-raid. Yet men’s feelings blunt so by -use that they will scavenge yard by yard over the very clay of the -pit into which they themselves may at any instant be stamped, nor -turn a hair at shapes made last year in their likeness. The Battalion -was complimented by its Major-General on the extent and neatness of -its dump. No mere campaigning interferes with the Army’s passion -for elaborate economies. A little before this, the entire British -Expeditionary Force was exhorted to collect and turn in all solder -from bully-beef tins and the like. Naturally, the thing became a game -with betting on results between corps; but when a dark, elderly, -brooding private of the Irish spent three hours stalking a Coldstream -cooker with intent to convey and melt it down, every one felt it had -gone far enough. - -On the 15th September they relieved the 1st Scots Guards in the old -trenches west of Lagnicourt. There they managed to put in a little -box-respirator drill which at the best is a dry fatigue, but, be it -noted with gratitude, “beer was obtained for the men and sent up from -transport-lines.” The whole area reeked of the various gases which -the enemy were distributing with heavies. They hung in the hollows -and were sucked up by the day’s heat, and no time or place was safe -from them. Gas-discipline had to be insisted on strongly, for even -veterans grow careless of a foe they cannot see; and the new hands -are like croupy babies. - -On the 17th September they relieved the 2nd Scots Guards in support, -and No. 2 Company took over from a company of the Welsh Guards. Their -trenches were in what had been the British front line of the old -time--Fish Avenue, Sprat Post, Shark Support, Rat and Rabbit Avenue, -and so forth. - -There was desultory shelling on the morning of the 18th, and -heavier work in the afternoon, causing six casualties, and slightly -wounding Captain Vernon, Intelligence Officer. Then the silence -of preparation for battle falls on the record. It was nothing to -the Battalion that on the 18th September the enemy “apparently -attacked south of the divisional front along the Bapaume-Cambrai -road.” The dead must bury their dead on the Somme. They had their -own dispositions to arrange and re-arrange, as men, for one cause or -other, fell out and no unit could afford to take chances, with the -Hindenburg Line ahead of them. (“An’ we knowin’ we was told off to -cross that dirty ditch in front of ’em all.”) Their world, as with -every other division, was limited to the Reserves behind them, who -should come up to make good their casualties; their trench-mortar -batteries alongside them; and their own selves about to be used in -what promised to be one of the bloodiest shows of the war. - -Those who were for the front line enjoyed a week to work and think -things over. Those who were set aside for the second course were -bombed by night and--went mushroom-picking in back-areas between -parades, or played riotous cricket-matches with petrol-tins for -wickets! - -Their Divisional Commander, Major-General Feilding, had left on -September 11 to succeed Sir Francis Lloyd in command of the London -District, and General T. G. Matheson, C.B., had been appointed to -the command of the Guards Division. The Battalion was full strength, -officers and men, for there had been little during the past month to -pull it down. - - -THE CROSSING OF THE CANAL DU NORD - -Operations against the Hindenburg Line were to open on the 27th -September with the attack of fourteen divisions of the First and -Third Armies on a twelve-mile front from opposite Gouzeaucourt in -the south to opposite Sauchy-Lestrée, sister to Sauchy-Cauchy--under -the marshes of the Sensée River in the north. It would be heralded -by two days’ solid bombardment along the entire fronts of the First, -Third, and Fourth Armies, so that the enemy might be left guessing -which was to hit first. When the First and Third Armies were well -home, the Fourth would attend to the German position in the south, -and heave the whole thing backward. - -The share of the Guards Division in the northern attack was to cross -the Canal du Nord at Lock Seven, north of Havrincourt, on a front of -a mile; then work through the complicated tangle of the Hindenburg -support line directly east along the ridge from Flesquières village -to Premy Chapel which stands at the junction of the roads from -Noyelles, Marcoing, and Graincourt, and to consolidate on the line -of the Marcoing-Graincourt road. Meantime, the Third Division on -their right would take the village of Flesquières; the Fifty-second -Division would take the Hindenburg Line that lay west of the Canal -in the bend of it, and would then let the Sixty-third through who -would swing down from the north and attend to Graincourt and Anneux -villages. The total advance set for the Guards Division was three -miles, but, if the operations were fully successful, they were to -push on to the outskirts of Noyelles; the Third Division to Marcoing; -while the Fifty-seventh, coming through the Sixty-third, would take -Cantaing and Fontaine-Notre-Dame. In the Guards Division itself, the -2nd Brigade was to move off first, and ferret its way through a knot -of heavily wired trenches that lay between them and the Canal, take -the Hindenburg support trenches, and then form a defensive flank to -the left of the next advance till the Fifty-second and Sixty-third -Divisions should have secured Graincourt. The 1st Brigade would pass -through them and capture the trenches across the Canal to the north -and north-east of Flesquières. If resistance were not too strong, -that brigade was to go on to the spur running from Flesquières to -Cantaing, and help the Sixty-third turn the Graincourt line. The 3rd -Brigade, passing through the 1st, would carry on and take the high -ground round Premy Chapel. - -Enough rain fell the day before to grease the ground uncomfortably, -and when at 3.30 A. M. the Irish Guards moved off from their reserve -trenches west of Lagnicourt to their assembly positions along the -Demicourt-Graincourt road to Bullen Trench, the jumping-off place, -it was pouring wet. They were not shelled on the way up, but the -usual night-work was afoot in the back-areas, and though our guns, -as often the case on the eve of an outbreak, held their breath, -the enemy’s artillery threatened in the distance, and the lights -and “flaming onions” marked their expectant front. Just before the -Battalion reached the ruins of Demicourt, there was an explosion -behind them, and they saw, outlined against the flare of a blazing -dump, Lagnicourt way, a fat and foolish observation-balloon rocking -and ducking at the end of its tether, with the air of a naughty -baby caught in the act of doing something it shouldn’t. Since the -thing was visible over half a Department, they called it names, but -it made excuse for a little talk that broke the tension. Tea and -rum were served out at the first halt--a ritual with its usual grim -jests--and when they reached the road in front of Demicourt, they -perceived the balloon had done its dirty work too well. The enemy, -like ourselves, changes his field-lights on occasion, but, on all -occasions, two red lights above and one below mean trouble. “Up go -the bloody pawnbrokers!” said a man who knew what to expect, and, as -soon as the ominous glares rose, the German trench-mortars opened -on the Battalion entering the communication-way that led to Bullen -Trench. Our barrage came down at Zero (5.20) more terrifically, men -said, than ever they had experienced, and was answered by redoubled -defensive barrages. After that, speech was cut off. Some fifty yards -ahead of Bullen Trench--which, by the way, was only three feet -deep--lay the 1st Scots Guards, the first wave of the attack. On, -in front of, and in the space between them and the Irish, fell the -rain of the trench-mortars; from the rear, the Guards Machine-Guns -tortured all there was of unoccupied air with their infernal -clamours. The Scots Guards went over among the shell-spouts and -jerking wires at the first glimmer of dawn, the Irish following in a -rush. The leading companies were No. 3 (Lieutenant H. A. A. Collett) -on the left, and No. 4 (2nd Lieutenant C. S. O’Brien) on the right. -The 1st Guards Trench Mortar Battery (2nd Lieutenant O. R. Baldwin, -Irish Guards) was attached experimentally to No. 3 Company in the -first wave instead of, as usual, in support. No. 2 Company (Captain -C. W. W. Bence-Jones) supported No. 3, and No. 1 (Lieutenant the Hon. -B. A. A. Ogilvy) No. 4. They stayed for a moment in the trench, a -deep, wide one of the Hindenburg pattern, which the Scots Guards had -left. It was no healthy spot, for the shells were localised here and -the dirt flung up all along it in waves. Men scrambled out over the -sliding, flying edges of it, saw a bank heave up in the half-light, -and knew that, somewhere behind that, was the Canal. By this time one -of the two Stokes guns of the Mortar Battery and half the gunners -had been wiped out, and the casualties in the line were heavy; but -they had no time to count. Then earth opened beneath their feet, -and showed a wide, deep, dry, newly made canal with a smashed iron -bridge lying across the bed of it, and an unfinished lock to the -right looking like some immense engine of war ready to do hurt in -inconceivable fashions. Directly below them, on the pale, horribly -hard, concrete trough, was a collection of agitated pin-heads, the -steel hats of the Scots Guards rearing ladders against the far side -of the gulf. Mixed with them were the dead, insolently uninterested, -while the wounded, breaking aside, bound themselves up with the -tense, silent preoccupation which unhurt men, going forward, find so -hard to bear. Mobs of bewildered Germans had crawled out of their -shelters in the Canal flanks and were trying to surrender to any one -who looked likely to attend to them. They saluted British officers as -they raced past, and, between salutes, returned their arms stiffly -to the safe “Kamerad” position. This added the last touch of insanity -to the picture. (“We’d ha’ laughed if we had had the time, ye’ll -understand.”) - -None recall precisely how they reached the bottom of the Canal, but -there were a few moments of blessed shelter ere they scrambled out -and reformed on the far side. The shelling here was bad enough, but -nothing to what they had survived. A veil of greasy smoke, patched -with flame that did not glare, stood up behind them, and through -the pall of it, in little knots, stumbled their supports, blinded, -choking, gasping. In the direction of the attack, across a long -stretch of broken rising ground, were more shells, but less thickly -spaced, and craters of stinking earth and coloured chalks where our -barrage had ripped out nests of machine-guns. Far off, to the left, -creaming with yellow smoke in the morning light, rose the sullen head -of Bourlon Wood to which the Canadians were faithfully paying the -debt contracted by the 2nd Battalion of the Irish Guards in the old -days after Cambrai. - -At the crest of the ascent lay Saunders Keep, which marked the point -where the Scots Guards would lie up and the Irish come through. -Already the casualties had been severe. Captain Bence-Jones and -2nd Lieutenant Mathieson of No. 2 Company were wounded at the Keep -itself, and 2nd Lieutenant A. R. Boyle of No. 1 earlier in the rush. -The companies panted up, gapped and strung out. From the Keep the -land sloped down to Stafford Alley, the Battalion’s first objective -just before which Lieutenant Barry Close was killed. That day marked -his coming of age. Beyond the Alley the ground rose again, and here -the Irish were first checked by some machine-gun fire that had -escaped our barrages. Second Lieutenant O’Brien, No. 3 Company, was -hit at this point while getting his men forward. He had earned his -Military Cross in May, and he died well. The next senior officer, -2nd Lieutenant E. H. R. Burke, was away to the left in the thick of -the smoke with a platoon that, like the rest, was fighting for its -life; so 2nd Lieutenant O’Farrell led on. He was hit not far from -Stafford Alley, and while his wound was being bandaged by Sergeant -Regan, hit again by a bullet that, passing through the Sergeant’s -cap and a finger, entered O’Farrell’s heart. The officer commanding -the remnants of the Mortar Battery took on the company and his one -gun. Meantime, Collett and a few of No. 3 Company had reached Silver -Street, a trench running forward from Stafford Alley, and he and -Lieutenant Brady were bombing down it under heavy small-arm fire from -the enemy’s left flank which had not been driven in and was giving -untold trouble. No. 2 Company, with two out of three of its officers -down, was working towards the same line as the fragment of No. 3; -though opinion was divided on that confused field whether it would -not be better for them to lie down and form a defensive flank against -that pestilent left fire. Eventually, but events succeeded each other -like the bullets, Collett and his men reached their last objective--a -trench running out of Silver Street towards Flesquières. Here he, -Brady, and Baldwin drew breath and tried to get at the situation. -No. 4 Company lay to the right of No. 3, and when 2nd Lieutenant E. -H. R. Burke, with what was left of his platoon before mentioned, -came up, he resumed charge of it without a word and went on. No. 1 -Company (Lieutenant the Hon. B. A. A. Ogilvy) had, like the rest, -been compelled to lead its own life. Its objective was the beet-sugar -factory in front of Flesquières ahead of and a little to the right -of the Battalion’s final objective, and it was met throughout with -rifle, bomb, and flanking fire. Lieutenant Ogilvy was wounded at -a critical point in the game with the enemy well into the trench, -or trenches. (The whole ground seemed to the men who were clearing -it one inexhaustible Hun-warren.) As he dropped, Lieutenant R. L. -Dagger and Sergeant Conaboy, picking up what men they could, bombed -the enemy out, back, and away, and settled down to dig in and wait; -always under flank-fire. The Sergeant was killed “in his zeal to -finish the job completely”--no mean epitaph for a thorough man. By -eleven o’clock that morning all the companies had reached their -objectives, and, though sorely harassed, began to feel that the worst -for them might be over. There were, however, two German “whizz-bangs” -that lived in Orival Wood still untaken on the Battalion’s left, and -these, served with disgusting speed and accuracy, swept Silver Street -mercilessly. The situation was not improved when one of the sergeants -quoted the ever-famous saying of Sergeant-Major Toher with reference -to one of our own barrages: “And even the wurrums themselves are -getting up and crying for mercy.” The guns were near enough to watch -quite comfortably, and while the men watched and winced, they saw -the “success” signal of the Canadians--three whites--rise high in -air in front of Bourlon Wood. Then No. 1 Company reported they were -getting more than their share of machine-gun fire, and the 1st Guards -Brigade Trench Mortar Battery, reduced to one mortar, one officer, -one sergeant, four men, and ten shells, bestowed the whole of its -ammunition in the direction indicated, abandoned its mortar, and -merged itself into the ranks of No. 3 Company. It had been amply -proved that where trench-mortars accompany a first wave of attack, if -men are hit while carrying two Stokes shells apiece (forty pounds of -explosives), they become dangerous mobile mines. - -Enemy aeroplanes now swooped down with machine-gun fire; there seemed -no way of getting our artillery to attend to them and they pecked -like vultures undisturbed. Then Battalion Headquarters came up in -the midst of the firing from the left, established themselves in -a dug-out and were at once vigorously shelled, together with the -neighbouring aid-post and some German prisoners there, waiting to -carry down wounded. The aid-post was in charge of a young American -doctor, Rhys Davis by name, who had been attached to the Battalion -for some time. This was his first day of war and he was mortally -wounded before the noon of it. - -The trench filled as the day went on, with details dropping in by -devious and hurried roads to meet the continual stream of prisoners -being handed down to Brigade Headquarters. One youth, who could not -have been seventeen, flung himself into the arms of an officer and -cried, “Kamerad, Herr Offizier! Ich bin sehr jung! Kamerad!” To -whom the embarrassed Islander said brutally: “Get on with you. _I_ -wouldn’t touch you for the world!” And they laughed all along the -trench-face as they dodged the whizz-bangs out of Orival Wood, and -compared themselves to the “wurrums begging for mercy.” - -About noon, after many adventures, the 2nd Grenadiers arrived -to carry on the advance, and Silver Street became a congested -metropolis. The 2nd Grenadiers were hung up there for a while -because, though the Third Division on the right had taken -Flesquières, the Sixty-third on the left had not got Graincourt -village, which was enfilading the landscape damnably. Orival Wood, -too, was untaken, and the 1st Grenadiers, under Lord Gort, were out -unsupported half a mile ahead on the right front somewhere near Premy -Chapel. Meantime, a battalion of the Second Division, which was to -come through the Guards Division and continue the advance, flooded up -Silver Street, zealously unreeling its telephone wires; Machine-Gun -Guards were there, looking for positions; the 2nd Grenadiers were -standing ready; the Welsh Guards were also there with intent to -support the Grenadiers; walking wounded were coming down, and severe -cases were being carried over the top by German prisoners who made -no secret of an acute desire to live and jumped in among the rest -without leave asked. The men compared the crush to a sugar-queue at -home. To cap everything, some wandering tanks which had belonged to -the Division on the right had strayed over to the left. No German -battery can resist tanks, however disabled; so they drew fire, and -when they were knocked out (our people did not know this at first, -being unused to working with them), made life insupportable with -petrol-fumes for a hundred yards round. - -About half-past four in the afternoon a Guards Battalion--they -thought it was the 1st Coldstream--came up on their left, and under -cover of what looked like a smoke-barrage, cleared Orival Wood and -silenced the two guns there. The Irish, from their dress-circle in -Silver Street, blessed them long and loud, and while they applauded, -Lieut.-Colonel Lord Gort, commanding the 1st Grenadiers, came down -the trench wounded on his way to a dressing-station. He had been -badly hit once before he thought fit to leave duty, and was suffering -from loss of blood. The Irish had always a great regard for him, and -that day they owed him more than they knew at the time, for it was -the advance of the 1st Grenadiers under his leading, almost up to -Premy Chapel, which had unkeyed the German resistance in Graincourt, -and led the enemy to believe their line of retreat out of the village -was threatened. The Second Division as it came through found the -enemy shifting and followed them up towards Noyelles. So the day -closed, and, though men did not realize, marked the end of organized -trench-warfare for the Guards Division. - -The Battalion, with two officers dead and five wounded out of -fifteen (killed: Lieutenant B. S. Close, and 2nd Lieutenant A. H. -O’Farrell; wounded: Captain the Hon. B. A. A. Ogilvy, Captain C. W. -W. Bence-Jones, and 2nd Lieutenants A. R. Boyle, G. F. Mathieson, -and C. S. O’Brien, M.C., died of wounds), and one hundred and eighty -casualties in the ranks, stayed on the ground for the night. It -tried to make itself as comfortable as cold and shallow trenches -allowed, but by orders of some “higher authority,” who supposed that -it had been relieved, no water or rations were sent up; and, next -morning, they had to march six thousand yards on empty stomachs to -their trench-shelters and bivouacs in front of Demicourt. As the last -company arrived a cold rain fell, but they were all in reasonably -high spirits. It had been a winning action, in spite of trench-work, -and men really felt that they had the running in their own hands at -last. - -Back-area rumours and official notifications were good too. The -Nineteenth and Second Corps of the Second Army, together with the -Belgian Army, had attacked on the 28th September, from Dixmude to far -south of the Ypres-Zonnebeke road; had retaken all the heights to the -east of Ypres, and were in a fair way to clear out every German gain -there of the past four years. A German withdrawal was beginning from -Lens to Armentières, and to the south of the Third Army the Fourth -came in on the 29th (while the Battalion was “resting and shaving” -in its trench-shelters by Demicourt) on a front of twelve miles, and -from Gricourt to Vendhuille broke, and poured across the Hindenburg -Line, then to the St. Quentin Canal. At the same time, lest there -should be one furlong of the uneasy front neglected, the Fifth and -Sixth Corps of the Third Army attacked over the old Gouzeaucourt -ground between Vendhuille and Marcoing. This, too, without counting -the blows that the French and the Americans were dealing in their own -spheres on the Meuse and in the Argonne; each stroke coldly preparing -the next. - -The Germans had, during September, lost a quarter of a million -of prisoners, several thousand guns, and immense quantities of -irreplaceable stores. Their main line of resistance was broken and -over-run throughout; and their troops in the field were feeling the -demoralisation of constant withdrawals, as well as shortage from -abandoned supplies. Our people had known the same depression in -the March Push, when night skies, lit with burning dumps, gave the -impression that all the world was going up in universal surrender. - - -TOWARDS MAUBEUGE - -But work was still to do. Between Cambrai, which at the end of -October was under, though not actually in, our hands, and Maubeuge, -lay thirty-five miles of France, all open save for such hastily made -defences as the enemy had been able to throw up after the collapse -of the Hindenburg systems. There, then, the screw was turned, and -on the 8th October the Third and Fourth Armies attacked on a front -of seventeen miles from Sequehart, north of Cambrai, where the -Cambrai-Douai road crosses the Sensée, southward to our junction with -the French First Army a few miles above St. Quentin. Twenty British -divisions, two cavalry divisions, and one American division were -involved. The Battalion faced the changed military situation, by -announcing that companies were “at the disposal of their commanders -for open warfare training.” After which they were instantly sent -forward from their Demicourt trenches, to help make roads between -Havricourt and Flesquières! - -On the 3rd October they had orders to move, which were at once -cancelled--sure sign that the Higher Command had something on its -mind. This was proved two days later when the same orders arrived -again, and were again washed out. Meantime, their reorganisation -after the Flesquières fight had been completed; reinforcements were -up, and the following officers had joined for duty: Lieutenants H. -E. Van der Noot and G. F. Van der Noot, and 2nd Lieutenants A. L. W. -Koch de Gooreynd, the Hon. C. A. Barnewall, G. M. Tylden-Wright, V. -J. S. French, and R. E. Taylor. - -On the 4th October the Commanding Officer went on leave, and Major -A. F. L. Gordon, M.C., took command of the Battalion. Once more it -was warned that it would move next day, which warning this time -came true, and was heralded by the usual conference at Brigade -Headquarters, on the 7th October, when the plans for next day’s -battle in that sector of the line were revealed. The Second Division, -on the left, and the Third, on the right of the Guards Division, were -to attack on the whole of the front of the Sixth Corps at dawn of -the 8th October. The Guards Division was to be ready to go through -these two divisions on the afternoon of that day, or to take over -the line on the night of it, and continue the attack at dawn on the -9th. The 1st Guards Brigade would pass through the Third Division, -and the 2nd Brigade through the Second Division. As far as the 1st -Brigade’s attack was concerned, the 2nd Coldstream would take the -right, the 2nd Grenadiers the left of the line, with the 1st Irish -Guards in reserve. It was all beautifully clear. So the Battalion -left Demicourt, recrossed the Canal du Nord at Lock 7, and were -“accommodated” in dug-outs and shelters in the Hindenburg Line, near -Ribecourt. - -On the 9th October the Battalion moved to Masnières, four miles or so -south of Cambrai. Here, while crossing the St. Quentin Canal, No. 3 -Company had three killed and three wounded by a long-range gun which -was shelling all down the line of it. They halted in the open for -the rest of the day. A curious experience followed. The idea was to -attack in the general direction of Cattenières, across the line of -the Cambrai-Caudry railway, which, with its embankment and cuttings, -was expected to give trouble. The New Zealand Division was then on -the right of the Guards Division; but no one seemed to be sure, the -night before the battle, whether the Third Division was out on their -front or not. (“Everything, ye’ll understand, was all loosed up in -those days. Jerry did not know _his_ mind, and for that reason we -could not know ours. The bottom was out of the war, ye’ll understand, -but we did not see it.”) However, it was arranged that all troops -would be withdrawn from doubtful areas before Zero (5.10 A. M.), and -that the 2nd Coldstream and the 2nd Grenadiers would advance to the -attack under a creeping barrage with due precautions which included a -plentiful bombardment and machine-gunning of the railway embankment. - -The Battalion, in reserve, as has been said, moved from Masnières -to its assembly area, among old German trenches near the village -of Seranvillers, in artillery formation at 2.40 A. M., and had its -breakfast at 5 A. M., while the other two battalions of the Brigade -advanced in waves, preceded by strong patrols and backed by the guns. -There was no shelling while they assembled, and practically none in -reply to our barrage; nor did the leading battalions meet opposition -till after they had cleared out the village of Seranvillers, and -were held up by screened machine-guns in a wood surrounding a -sugar-factory north of Cattenières. The Battalion followed on in due -course, reached the railway embankment, set up Headquarters in a -road-tunnel under it (there was no firing), and received telephonic -orders that at 5 A. M. on the 10th October they would pass through -the other two battalions and continue the advance, which, henceforth, -was to be “by bounds” and without limit or barrage. Then they lay up -in the railway embankment and dozed. - -They assembled next morning (the 10th) in the dark, and, reinforced -by seven Corps Cyclists and a Battery of field-guns, went forth -into France at large, after a retiring enemy. Nothing happened -for a couple of miles, when they reached the outskirts of -Beauvais-en-Cambrensis, on the Cambrai-Le-Cateau road, where a single -sniper from one of the houses shot and killed 2nd Lieutenant V. J. -S. French, No. 4 Company. A mile farther on, up the Beauvais-Quiévy -road, they found the village of Bevillers heavily shelled by the -enemy from a distance, so skirted round it, and sent in two small -mopping-up parties. Here No. 4 Company again came up against -machine-gun and sniper fire, but no casualties followed. Their -patrols reported the next bound all clear, and they pushed on, under -heavy but harmless shelling, in the direction of Quiévy. At eight -o’clock their patrols waked up a breadth of machine-gun nests along -the whole of the front and that of the battalions to their left and -right. They went to ground accordingly, and when the enemy artillery -was added to the small-arm fire, the men dug slits for themselves -and escaped trouble. For some time past the German shell-stuff had -been growing less and less effective, both in accuracy and bursting -power, which knowledge cheered our troops. In the afternoon, as there -were signs of the resistance weakening, our patrols put forth once -more, and by five o’clock the Battalion had reached the third bound -on the full battalion front. Then, in the dusk, came word from the -New Zealand division on their right, that the division on _their_ -right again, had got forward, and that the New Zealanders were -pushing on to high ground south of Quiévy. With the message came one -from No. 4 Company, reporting that their patrols were out ahead, and -in touch with the New Zealanders on their right. There is no record -that the news was received with enthusiasm, since it meant “bounding -on” in the dark to the fourth bound, which they accomplished not -before 10.30 that night, tired officers hunting up tired companies by -hand and shoving them into their positions. These were on high ground -north-east of Quiévy, with the Battalion’s right on a farm, called -Fontaine-au-Tertre, which signifies “the fountain on the little -hill,” a mile beyond the village. The 1st Scots Guards were on their -left holding the village of St. Hilaire-les-Cambrai. Then, punctual -as ever, rations came up; Battalion Headquarters established itself -in a real roofed house in the outskirts of Quiévy, and No. 1 Company -in reserve, was billeted in the village. - -Next morning (11th October), when the 3rd Guards Brigade came through -them and attacked over the naked grass and stubble fields towards St. -Python and Solesmes, the Battalion was withdrawn and sent to very -good billets in Quiévy. “The men having both upstairs and cellar -room. All billets very dirty,” says the Diary, “owing to the previous -occupants (Hun) apparently having taken delight in scattering all the -civilian clothes, food, furniture, etc., all over the place.” Every -one was tired out; they had hardly slept for three nights; but all -“were in the best of spirits.” Brigade Headquarters had found what -was described as “a magnificent house” with “a most comfortable” bed -in “a large room.” Those who used it were lyric in their letters home. - -The total casualties for the 10th and 11th October were amazingly -few. Second Lieutenant V. J. S. French was the only casualty among -the officers, and, of other ranks, but three were killed and nine -wounded. - -The officers who took part in the operations were these: - - -_No. 1 Company_ - - Lieut. H. E. Van der Noot. - 2nd Lieut. J. C. Haydon. - 2nd Lieut. R. E. Taylor. - - -_No. 2 Company_ - - Lieut. E. M. Harvey, M.C. - 2nd Lieut. G. T. Todd. - 2nd Lieut. A. L. W. Koch de Gooreynd. - - -_No. 3 Company_ - - Lieut. F. S. L. Smith, M.C. - Lieut. G. E. F. Van der Noot. - 2nd Lieut. J. J. B. Brady. - - -_No. 4 Company_ - - Capt. D. J. Hegarty. - 2nd Lieut. Hon. C. A. Barnewall. - 2nd Lieut. V. T. S. French (killed). - - -_Battalion Headquarters_ - - Major A. F. Gordon, M.C. - Capt. J. B. Keenan. - Capt. G. L. St. C. Bambridge, M.C. - -They lay at Quiévy for the next week employed in cleaning up dirty -billets, while the 3rd and 2nd Brigades of the Division were cleaning -out the enemy rear-guards in front of them from the west bank of -the Selle River, and roads and railways were stretching out behind -our armies to bring redoubled supply of material. One of the extra -fatigues of those days was to get the civil population out of the -villages that the enemy were abandoning. This had to be done by -night, for there is small chivalry in the German composition. Quiévy -was shelled at intervals, and no parades larger than of a platoon -were, therefore, allowed. The weather, too, stopped a scheme of -field-operations in the back area between Quiévy and Bevillers, and -a washed and cleanly clothed battalion were grateful to their Saints -for both reliefs. - -On the 17th October the Sixty-first Division took over the Guards -area, and that afternoon the Battalion left Quiévy by cross-country -tracks for Boussières and moved into position for what turned out to -be all but the last stroke of the long game. - -The enemy on that front were by now across the steeply banked Selle -River, but the large, straggling village of Solesmes, of which St. -Python is practically a suburb, was still held by them and would have -to be cleaned out house-to-house. Moreover, it was known to be full -of French civils and getting them away in safety would not make the -situation less difficult. - - -ST. PYTHON - -It was given out at Brigade conference on the 17th that the -Sixty-first Division would take place on the right of the Guards -Division and the Nineteenth on its left in the forthcoming attack, -and that the Sixty-first would attend to Solesmes, while the Guards -Division pushed on north-east between St. Python and Haussy on a -mile-wide front through the village of Escarmain to Capelle, a -distance of some three and a half miles. The 1st and 3rd Brigades -would lead, the 2nd in reserve, and the passage of the Selle would be -effected in the dark by such bridges as the Sappers could put up. - -The Battalion moved nearer their assembly areas to St. -Hilaire-les-Cambrai, on the night of the 18th after Company -Commanders had thoroughly explained to their men what was in store; -and on the 19th those commanders, with the Intelligence Officer, -Captain Vernon, went up to high ground overlooking the battle-field. -It was a closer and more crumpled land than they had dealt with -hitherto, its steep-sided valleys cut by a multitude of little -streams running from nor’-west to south-east, with the interminable -ruled line of the Bavai road edging the great Forest of Mormal which -lay north of Landrecies. The wheel was swinging full circle, and -men who had taken part in that age-ago retreat from Mons, amused -themselves by trying to pick out familiar details in the landscape -they had been hunted across four years before. But it was misty and -the weather, faithful ally of the Germans to the last, was breaking -again. Just as the Battalion moved off from St. Hilaire to their -area on the railway line from Valenciennes to Le Cateau, rain began -and continued till six next morning, making every condition for -attack as vile as it could. They dug them shallow trenches in case of -shell-fire, and sent down parties to reconnoitre the bridges over the -Selle. Four bridges were “available,” _i.e._ existed in some shape, -on or near the Battalion front, but no one had a good word to say for -any of them. - -There is a tale concerning the rivers here, which may be given -(without guarantee) substantially as told: “Rivers round Maubeuge? -’Twas _all_ rivers--the Aunelle and the Rhônelle and the Pronelle, -an’ more, too; an’ our Intelligence Officer desirin’ to know the -last word concernin’ each one of ’em before we paddled it. Michael -an’ me was for that duty. Michael was a runner, afraid o’ nothing, -but no small liar, and him as fed as myself with reportin’ on these -same dam’ rivers; and Jerry expendin’ the last of his small-arm stuff -round and round the country. I forget which river ’twas we were -scouting, but he was ahead of me, the way he always was. Presently -he comes capering back, ‘Home, please, Sergeant,’ says he. ‘That -hill’s stinking with Jerries beyond.’ ‘But the river?’ says I. ‘Ah, -come home,’ says Michael, ‘an I’ll learn ye the road to be a V.C.!’ -So home we went to the Intelligence Officer, and ’twas then I should -have spoke the truth. But Michael was before me. I had no more than -_my_ mouth opened when he makes his report, which was my business, -me being sergeant (did I tell ye?), to put in. But Michael was before -me. He comes out with the width of the river, and its depth, and the -nature of its bottom and the scenery, and all and all, the way you’d -ha’ sworn he’d been a trout in it. When we was out of hearing, I told -him he was a liar in respect to his river. ‘River,’ says he, ‘are -ye after calling _that_ a river? ’Tis no bigger than a Dickiebush -ditch,’ he says. ‘And anyway,’ says he, ‘the Battalion’ll rowl across -it in the dark, the way it always does. Ye cannot get wetter than -wet, even in the Micks!’ Then his conscience smote him, an’ when his -company went down to this river in the dark, Michael comes capering -alongside whishpering between his hands: ‘Boys!’ says he, ‘can ye -swim, boys? I hope ye can _all_ swim for, Saints be my witness, I -never wint near the river. For aught I know it may be an arrum of -the sea. Ah, lads, _thry_ an’ learn to swim!’ he says. Then some -one chases him off before the officer comes along; an’ we wint over -Michael’s river the way he said we would. Ye can not get wetter than -wet--even in the Micks.” - -It was a quiet night, except for occasional bursts of machine-gun -fire, but there was no shelling of the assembly area as the 2nd -Grenadiers formed up on their right, with the 2nd Coldstream in -reserve. Nos. 1 and 2 Companies (Captain A. W. L. Paget, and -Lieutenant E. M. Harvey, M.C.) moved off first, No. 3 in support -(Captain Bambridge), and No. 4 (2nd Lieutenant O. R. Baldwin) in -reserve. The barrage opened with a percentage of demoralising -flame-shells. There was very little artillery retaliation, and beyond -getting rather wetter than the rain had already made them, the -Battalion did not suffer, except from small-arm fire out of the dark. -The first objective, a section of the Solesmes-Valenciennes road, -was gained in an hour, with but eight casualties, mainly from our -own “shorts” in the barrage, and several prisoners and machine-guns -captured. The prisoners showed no wish to fight. - -The companies had kept direction wonderfully well in the dark, and -reached the second and last objective under increased machine-gun -fire, but still without much artillery. The 3rd Guards Brigade on -their left had been hung up once or twice, which kept No. 2 Company, -the left leading company, and Nos. 3 and 4 (in support) busy at -odd times forming defensive flanks against sniping. By half-past -five, however, they were all in place, and set to dig in opposite -the village of Vertain. Then dull day broke and with light came -punishment. The enemy, in plain sight, opened on them with everything -that they had in the neighbourhood, from 7 A. M. to 10 P. M. of the -20th. The two front companies were cut off as long as one could see, -and a good deal of the stuff was delivered over open sights. It was -extremely difficult to get the wounded away, owing to the continuous -sniping. But, through providence, or the defect of enemy ammunition, -or the depth of the slits the men had dug, casualties were very few. -Battalion Headquarters and the ground where No. 4 Company lay up -were most thoroughly drenched, though an officer of No. 3 Company, -whose experience was large, described his men’s share as “about the -worst and most accurate shelling I have been through.” They were, -in most places, only a hundred yards away from a dug-in enemy bent -on blessing them with every round left over in the retreat. During -the night, which was calmer, our Artillery dealt with those mixed -batteries and groups so well that, although no man could show a -finger above his shelter in some of the company areas, the shelling -next day was moderate. The forward posts were still unapproachable, -but they sent out patrols from Nos. 1 and 2 Companies to “report on -the River Harpies,” the next stream to the Selle, and to keep it -under observation. This was an enterprise no commander would have -dreamed of undertaking even three months ago. The enemy sniping went -on. The 2nd Coldstream, who had been moved up to protect the right -flank of the 2nd Grenadiers (the Sixty-first Division, being delayed -some time over the clearing up and evacuation of Solesmes, was not -yet abreast of them), were withdrawn to billets at St. Hilaire in the -course of the afternoon; but word came that neither the Grenadiers -nor the Irish need look to be relieved. It rained, too, and was -freezing cold at night. Another expert in three years of miseries -writes: “One of the worst places I have ever been in. Heavy rain all -day and night.... More shelling if we were seen moving about. Heavy -rain all day.... Soaked through and shivering with cold.” The Diary -more temperately: “The men were never dry from the time they left -their billets in St. Hilaire on the evening of the 20th, and there -was no shelter whatever for any of the companies.” So they relieved -them during the night of the 21st, front Companies 1 and 2 returning -to the accommodation vacated by their supports, 3 and 4. - -Battalion relief came when the 24th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (Second -Division) took over from them and the Grenadiers and got into -position for their attack the next morning. An early and obtrusive -moon made it difficult to fetch away the front-posts, and though -the leading company reached the Selle on its way back at a little -after five, the full relief was not completed till half-past nine, -when they had to get across-country to the main road and pick up the -lorries that took them to “very good billets” at Carnières. Their -own Details had seen to that; and they arrived somewhere in the -early morning “beat and foot-sore,” but without a single casualty in -relieving. Their losses for the whole affair up to the time of their -relief were one officer (Captain and Adjutant J. B. Keenan) wounded -in the face by a piece of shell, the sole casualty at Battalion -Headquarters; ten other ranks killed; forty-two wounded, of whom two -afterwards died, and two missing--fifty-five in all. - -The companies were officered as follows: - - -_No. 1 Company_ - - Capt. A. W. L. Paget, M.C. - - -_No. 2 Company_ - - Lieut. E. Harvey, M.C. - - -_No. 3 Company_ - - Capt. G. L. St. C. Bambridge. - - -_No. 4 Company_ - - 2nd Lieut. O. R. Baldwin. - - -_Battalion Headquarters_ - - Major A. F. Gordon, M.C. - Capt. J. B. Keenan. - Capt. C. A. J. Vernon. - -Cleaning up began the next day where fine weather in “most delightful -billets” was cheered by the news that the Second Division’s attack -on Vertain had been a great success. In those days they looked no -further than their neighbours on either side. - -Every battle, as had been pointed out, leaves its own impression. St. -Python opened with a wild but exciting chase in the wet and dark, -which, at first, seemed to lead straight into Germany. It ended, as -it were, in the sudden rising of a curtain of grey, dank light that -struck all the actors dumb and immobile for an enormously long and -hungry stretch of time, during which they mostly stared at what they -could see of the sky above them, while the air filled with dirt and -clods, and single shots pecked and snarled round every stone of each -man’s limited skyline; the whole ending in a blur of running water -under starlight (that was when they recrossed the Selle River), and -confused memories of freezing together in lumps in lorries, followed -by a dazed day of “shell-madness,” when all ears and eyes were -intolerably overburdened with echoes and pictures, and men preferred -to be left alone. But they were washed and cleaned and reclothed -with all speed, and handed over to their company officers for the -drill that chases off bad dreams. The regimental sergeant-major got -at them, too, after their hair was cut, and the massed brigade drums -played in the village square of Carnières, and, ere the end of the -month, inter-company football was in full swing. - -A draft of ninety-one other ranks joined for duty on the 22nd -October. Lieutenant-Colonel Baggallay, M.C., came back from leave -and, in the absence of the Brigadier, assumed command of the -Brigade, and Captain D. W. Gunston joined. - - -THE BREAK-UP - -On the last day of October they moved from Carnières to St. Hilaire -and took over the 3rd Grenadiers’ billets in the factory there, all -of which, house for house, officers and men, was precisely as before -the attack on the 20th, ten days ago. But those ten days had borne -the British armies on that front beyond Valenciennes in the north to -within gun-shot of Le Quesnoy in the centre, and to the Sambre Canal, -thirty miles away, in the south. Elsewhere, Lille had been evacuated, -the lower half of western Flanders cleared, from the Dutch frontier -to Tournai, while almost every hour brought up from one or other of -the French and American armies, on the Meuse and the Argonne, fresh -tallies of abandoned stores and guns, and of prisoners gathered in -rather than captured. Behind this welter, much as the glare of a mine -reveals the façade of a falling town-hall, came word of the collapse -of Bulgaria, Turkey, and Austria. The whole of the herd of the Hun -Tribes were on the move, uneasy and afraid. It remained so to shatter -the mass of their retiring forces in France that they should be in -no case to continue any semblance of further war without complete -destruction. Were they permitted to slink off unbroken, they might -yet make stand behind some shorter line, or manufacture a semblance -of a “face” before their own people that would later entail fresh -waste and weariness on the world.[9] - -The weather and the destruction they had left in their wake was, as -on the Somme, aiding them now at every turn, in spite of all our -roadmen and engineers could do. Our airmen took toll of them and -their beasts as they retreated along the congested ways; but this was -the hour when the delays, divided councils and specially the strikes -of past years had to be paid for, and the giant bombing-planes that -should have taught fear and decency far inside the German frontiers -were not ready. - -A straight drive from the west on to the German lateral -communications promised the quickest return. It was laid in the hands -of the First, Third, and Fifth Armies to send that attack home, and -with the French and American pressure from the south, break up the -machine past repair. - -Men, to-day, say and believe that they knew it would be the last -battle of the war, but, at the time, opinions varied; and the -expectations of the rank and file were modest. The thing had gone -on so long that it seemed the order of life; and, though the enemy -everywhere fell back, yet he had done so once before, and over -very much the same semi-liquid muck as we were floundering in that -autumn’s end. “The better the news, the worse the chance of a -knock,” argued the veterans, while the young hands sent out with -high assurance, at draft-parades, that the war was on its last legs, -discovered how the machine-gun-fenced rear of retirements was no -route-march. (“There was them that came from Warley shouting, ye’ll -understand; and there was them that came saying nothing at all, and -liking it no more than that; but I do not remember any one of us -looked to be out of it inside six months. No--not even when we was -dancing into Maubeuge. We thought Jerry wanted to get his wind.”) - -On the 4th November, one week before the end, twenty-six British -divisions moved forward on a thirty-mile front from Oisy to north of -Valenciennes, the whole strength of all their artillery behind them. - -The Guards’ position had been slightly shifted. Instead of working -south of Le Quesnoy, the Division was put in a little north of the -town, on the banks of the river Rhônelle, between the Sixty-second -Division on their right and the Forty-second on their left. The -Battalion had marched from St. Hilaire, in the usual small fine rain, -on the 2nd November to billets in Bermerain and bivouacs near by. -It meant a ten-mile tramp of the pre-duckboard era, in the midst of -mired horse- and lorry-transport, over country where the enemy had -smashed every bridge and culvert, blocked all roads and pulling-out -places with mine-craters, and sown houses, old trenches, and dug-outs -with fanciful death-traps. The land was small-featured and full -of little hills, so heavily hedged and orcharded that speculative -battalions could be lost in it in twenty minutes. There were coveys, -too, of French civils, rescued and evacuated out of the villages -around, wandering against the stream of east-bound traffic. These -forlorn little groups, all persuaded that the war was over and that -they could return to their houses to-morrow, had to be shifted and -chaperoned somehow through the chaos; but the patience and goodwill -of our people were unending. - -The wet day closed with a conference at Brigade Headquarters, but -the enemy had thrown out our plan for action on that sector by -thoughtlessly retiring on both flanks of the Division, as well as a -little on the front of it, and final orders were not fixed till after -midnight on the 3rd November. - -The 1st and 2nd Guards Brigade were to attack, the 3rd in reserve. -Of the 1st Brigade, the 2nd Coldstream would take the line as far as -the first objective; the 2nd Grenadiers would then come through and -carry on to the next line, the Irish Guards in support. The Brigade’s -assembly area was across the Rhônelle River, east of the long and -straggling village of Villers-Pol, on the Jenlain-Le Quesnoy road. -Zero was fixed for 7.20. The Battalion marched from Bermerain, and -met its first enemy shell as it was going under the Valenciennes -railway embankment. What remained of the roads were badly congested -with troops, and one gets the idea that the Staff work was casual. -To begin with, the Battalion found the 3rd Grenadiers and the 1st -Scots Guards between themselves and the 2nd Grenadiers, which was not -calculated to soothe any C.O. desirous of keeping his appointment. -Apparently they got through the Scots Guards; but when they reached -the Rhônelle, its bridge being, of course, destroyed, and the R.E. -working like beavers to mend it, they had to unship their Lewis-guns -from the limbers, tell the limbers to come on when the bridge was -usable, and pass the guns over by hand. While thus engaged the Scots -Guards caught them up, went through them triumphantly, made exactly -the same discovery that the Irish had done, and while they in turn -were wrestling with their limbers, the Irish, who had completed their -unshipping, went through them once more, and crossed the Rhônelle -on the heels of the last man of the 3rd Grenadiers--“one at a time, -being assisted up the bank by German prisoners.” By the mercy of the -Saints, who must have been kept busy all night, the shelling on the -bridge and its approaches ceased while that amazing procession got -over. They were shelled as they reformed on the top of the steep -opposite bank, but “by marvellous good-luck no casualties”; got into -artillery formation; were shelled again, and this time hit, and -long-range machine-gun fire met them over the next crest of ground. -It was all ideal machine-gun landscape. The 2nd Grenadiers, whom -they were supporting, had been held up by low fire from the village -of Wagnies-le-Petit on their left, a little short of the first -objective, which was the road running from Wagnies, south to Frasnoy. -The Battalion dug in behind them where it was, and after an hour -or so the enemy opened fire with one solitary, mad trench-mortar. -Not more than a dozen rounds were sent over, and these, very -probably, because the weapon happened to lie under their hands, and -was used before being abandoned. And luck had it that this chance -demonstration should kill Lieutenant A. L. Bain (“Andy” Bain), who -had joined for duty not a week ago. He was the last officer killed in -the Battalion, and one of the best. Lieutenant F. S. L. Smith, M.C., -also was wounded. They stayed in their scratch-holes till late in -the afternoon, as the troops of the Forty-second Division on their -left were held up too, but the 2nd Guards Brigade on their right -gradually worked forward. Some of their divisional field-guns came -up and shelled Wagnies-le-Petit into silence, and at half-past four -orders arrived for the Battalion to go through the 2nd Grenadiers -and continue at large into the dusk that was closing on the blind, -hedge-screened country. There was no particular opposition beyond -stray shells, but the boggy-banked Aunelle had to be crossed on -stretchers, through thick undergrowth, in a steep valley. Everything -after that seemed to be orchards, high hedges, and sunk and raised -roads, varied with soft bits of cultivation, or hopelessly muddled-up -cul-de-sacs of farm-tracks. The companies played blind-man’s buff -among these obstacles in the pitch-dark, as they hunted alternately -for each other and the troops on their flanks. There was “very -heavy shelling” on the three most advanced companies as well as on -Brigade Headquarters throughout the night. The men dug in where they -were; and casualties, all told, came to about twenty. Very early -on the 5th November the 3rd Guards Brigade passed through them and -continued the advance. Preux-au-Sart, the village behind them, had -been taken by the 2nd Brigade the evening and the night before, so -the Battalion “came out of its slits” and went back to billet in its -relieved and rejoicing streets, where “the inhabitants on coming out -of their cellars in the morning were delighted to find British troops -again, and showed the greatest cordiality.” If rumour be true, they -also showed them how easily their Hun conquerors had been misled -and hoodwinked in the matter of good vintages buried and set aside -against this very day. “The men were very comfortable.” - -The fact that Austria was reported out of the war did not make the -next day any less pleasant, even though it rained, and “all the -windows in the Battalion Headquarters were broken by one shell.” -Battalion Headquarters had come through worse than broken glass in -its time, but was now beginning to grow fastidious. - -On the afternoon of the 7th November the Battalion marched to Bavai -over muddy roads in a drizzle. Even then, men have said, there -was no general belief in the end of Armageddon. They looked for -a lull, perhaps; very possibly some sort of conference and waste -of time which would give the enemy breath for fresh enterprise. -A few, however, insist that the careful destruction of the roads -and railway-bridges and the indifference of the prisoners as they -poured in warned them of the real state of affairs. (“It looked as -if the Jerries had done all the harm they could think of, and were -chucking it--like boys caught robbing an orchard. There wasn’t an -atom of dignity or decency about any of ’em. Just dirt and exhausted -Jerrydom.”) What the Battalion felt most was having to make detours -round broken bridges, and to dig ramps in mine-craters on the roads -to get their Lewis-guns across. They jettisoned their second-line -transport at a convenient château outside Bavai on this account; -found that there were no arrangements for billeting in the town, so -made their own, and, while Bavai was being shelled, got into houses -and again were “very comfortable.” The 2nd Brigade were in the front -line on the railway, and next day the 1st Brigade were to lead and -capture Maubeuge, seven miles down a road which cut across the line -of their earlier stages in the retreat from Mons, and three miles, as -a shell ranges, from the village of Malplaquet. - -They began their last day, half an hour after midnight, marching -“as a battalion” out of Bavai with their Lewis-gun limbers. Twice -they were slightly shelled; once at least they had to unpack and -negotiate more mine-craters at cross-roads. It was a populous world -through which they tramped, and all silently but tensely awake--a -world made up of a straight, hard road humped above the level of the -fields in places, rather like the Menin road when it was young, but -with untouched tiled houses alongside. Here and there one heard the -chatter of a machine-gun, as detached and irrelevant as the laugh -of an idiot. It would cease, and a single field-gun would open as -on some private quarrel. Then silence, and a suspicion, born out of -the darkness, that the road was mined. Next, orders to the companies -to spread themselves in different directions in the dark, to line -ditches and the like for fear of attack. Then an overtaking, at -wrecked cross-roads, of some of the 2nd Brigade, who reported patrols -of the 3rd Grenadiers had pushed on into Maubeuge without opposition, -and that the rest of that battalion was gone on. Just before dawn, -No. 4 Company of the Irish, marching on a road parallel to the -highway, ran into a company of Germans retiring. The Diary says: “A -short sharp fight ensued in which five of the enemy were wounded -and twelve captured, the rest getting off in the dark.” But there -is a legend (it may have grown with the years) that the two bodies -found themselves suddenly almost side by side on converging tracks, -and that the Irish, no word given, threw back to the instincts of -Fontenoy--faced about, front-rank kneeling, rear-rank standing, and -in this posture destroyed all that company. It was a thing that might -well have come about darkling in a land scattered with odds and -ends of drifting, crazed humanity. No. 2 Company solemnly reported -the capture of two whole prisoners just after they had crossed the -railway in the suburbs of Maubeuge, which they passed through on the -morning of the 9th, and by noon were duly established and posted, -company by company, well to the east of it. No. 2 Company lay in -the village of Assevant, with pickets on the broken bridge over the -river there, an observation-line by day and all proper supports; No. -4 Company in posts on the road and down to the river, and Nos. 1 and -3 in reserve; Yeomanry and Corps Cyclists out in front as though the -war were eternal. - - -AFTER THE ARMISTICE - -And, thus dispersed, after a little shelling of Assevant during the -night, the Irish Guards received word that “an Armistice was declared -at 11 A. M. this morning, November 11.” - -Men took the news according to their natures. Indurated pessimists, -after proving that it was a lie, said it would be but an interlude. -Others retired into themselves as though they had been shot, or went -stiffly off about the meticulous execution of some trumpery detail -of kit-cleaning. Some turned round and fell asleep then and there; -and a few lost all holds for a while. It was the appalling new -silence of things that soothed and unsettled them in turn. They did -not realize till all sounds of their trade ceased, and the stillness -stung in their ears as soda-water stings on the palate, how entirely -these had been part of their strained bodies and souls. (“It felt -like falling through into nothing, ye’ll understand. Listening for -what wasn’t there, and tryin’ not to shout when you remembered for -why.”) Men coming up from Details Camp, across old “unwholesome” -areas, heard nothing but the roar of the lorries on which they had -stolen their lift, and rejoiced with a childish mixture of fear as -they topped every unscreened rise that was now mere scenery such -as tourists would use later. To raise the head, without thought of -precaution against what might be in front or on either flank, into -free, still air was the first pleasure of that great release. To lie -down that night in a big barn beside unscreened braziers, with one’s -smiling companions who talked till sleep overtook them, and, when -the last happy babbler had dropped off, to hear the long-forgotten -sound of a horse’s feet trotting evenly on a hard road under a full -moon, crowned all that had gone before. Each man had but one thought -in those miraculous first hours: “I--even I myself, here--have come -through the War!” To scorn the shelter of sunken roads, hedges, walls -or lines of trees, and to extend in unmartial crowds across the whole -width of a pavé, were exercises in freedom that he arrived at later. -“We cannot realize it at all.” ... “So mad with joy we don’t feel yet -what it all means.” The home letters were all in this strain. - -The Battalion was relieved on the 12th November by the 2nd Grenadiers -and billeted in the Faubourg de Mons. All Maubeuge was hysterical -with its emotions of release, and well provided with wines which, -here as elsewhere, had somehow missed the German nose. The city -lived in her streets, and kissed everybody in khaki, that none should -complain. But the Battalion was not in walking-out order, and so had -to be inspected rigorously. Morning-drill outside billets next day -was in the nature of a public demonstration--to the scandal of the -grave sergeants! - -On the 14th a great thanksgiving-service was held in the Cathedral -for all the world, the Battalion providing the Guard of Honour at the -Altar, and lining the Place d’Armes at the presentation of a flag -by the Mayor of Maubeuge to the Major-General. The massed drums of -the Division played in the square in the afternoon, an event to be -remembered as long as the Battalion dinner of the evening. They were -all route-marched next morning for an hour and a half to steady them, -and on the 16th, after dinner, set off in freezing weather for the -first stage of their journey to Cologne. It ran _via_ Bettignies and -then to Villers-Sire-Nicole, a matter of five and a half miles. - -On the 17th they crossed the Belgian frontier at Givet and reached -Binche through a countryside already crowded with returning English, -French, Italian, and Belgian prisoners. One Diary notes them like -migrating birds, “all hopping along the road, going due west.” Binche -mobbed the drums as one man and woman when they played in the town -at Retreat, but it was worse at Charleroi on the 19th, where they -could hardly force their way through the welcoming crowds. The place -was lit from end to end, and the whole populace shouted for joy at -deliverance. - -Now that they had returned as a body to civilization, it was needful -they should be dressed, and they were paraded for an important -inspection of great-coats, and, above all, gloves. That last, and the -fact that belts, when walking out, were worn _over_ the great-coats -were sure signs that war was done, and His Majesty’s Foot Guards -had come into their own. But they found time at Charleroi, among -more pleasant duties, to arrest three German soldiers disguised as -civilians. - -On the 23rd they left for Sart-St.-Laurent, whose Mayor, beneath a -vast Belgian flag, met and escorted them into the town. The country -changed as they moved on from flat coal-districts to untouched hills -and woods. On the 24th they picked up a dump of eighty-four guns of -all calibres, handed over according to the terms of the Armistice; -passed through a tract of heavily wired country, which was “evidently -intended for the Meuse Line that the Germans were to have fallen back -on”; and a little later crossed (being the first of the Division to -do so) the steeply banked, swiftly running Meuse by a pontoon bridge. -Next their road climbed into Nanine, one of the loveliest villages, -they thought, they had ever seen. But their hearts were soft in those -days, and all that world of peace seemed good. They dared not halt -at Sorinne-la-Longue the next day, as the place was infected with -influenza (“Spanish fever”), so pushed on to Lesves, and on the 26th -November to Sorée, where was another wayside dump of thirty or forty -Hun guns. It is noteworthy that the discarded tools of their trade -frankly bored them. Where a Hun, under like circumstances, would have -re-triumphed and called on his servile Gods, these islanders (of -whom almost a half were now English) were afflicted with a curious -restlessness and strong desire to get done with the work in hand. All -their world was under the same reaction. They had to wait at Sorée -for three days, as supplies were coming up badly. Indeed, on the -28th November, the Diary notes bitterly that “for the first time in -the war the supplies failed to arrive. The Quartermaster managed to -improvise breakfasts for the Battalion.” It was not all the fault of -bad roads or the dispersion of the troops. The instant the strain was -taken off, there was a perceptible slackening everywhere, most marked -in the back-areas, on the clerical and forwarding sides. Every one -wanted to get home at once, and worked with but half a mind; which, -also, is human nature. - -They were on the road again by December 5 with the rest of their -brigade, and reached Méan in the afternoon over muddy roads. By the -6th they were at Villers-St.-Gertrude hill-marching through beautiful -scenery, which did not amuse them, because, owing to the state of -communications, supplies were delayed again. So, on the 8th December -at Lierneux, fifteen miles from Villers-St.-Gertrude, another halt -was called for another three days, while company officers, homesick -as their men, drilled them in the winter dirt. On the 11th they -crossed the German frontier line at Recht, and the drums played the -Battalion over to the “Regimental March.” (“But, ye’ll understand, -we was _all_ wet the most of that time and fighting with the mud -an’ our boots. ’Twas Jerry’s own weather the minute we set foot in -his country, and we none of us felt like conquerors. We was just -dhrippin’ Micks.”) At Vielsalm, almost the last village outside -Germany, they picked up a draft of sixty men to share with them the -horrors of peace ahead, and a supply-system gone to bits behind them. - -Their road wound through small and inconspicuous hamlets among wooded -hills, by stretches of six or seven hours’ marching a day. The people -they had to deal with seemed meek and visibly oppressed with the fear -of rough treatment. That removed from their minds, they stepped aside -and looked wonderingly at the incomprehensible enemy that tramped -through their streets, leaving neither ruin nor rape behind. By the -18th December the advance had reached Lovenich, and, after two days’ -rest there, they entered Cologne on the 23rd December with an absence -of display that might or might not have been understood by the -natives. They had covered more than two hundred miles over bad roads -in bad boots that could not be repaired nor thrown away, and but one -man had fallen out. The drums played “Brian Boru” when they entered -the Hohenzollern Ring; their Major-General beheld that last march, -and they were duly photographed in the wet; while the world that -saw such photographs in the weekly illustrated papers was honestly -convinced that the Great War and all war was at an end for evermore. - -Then really serious trouble overtook them, which was, in some sort, -a forecast of the days to come. Their billets at Nippes, in the -suburbs of Cologne, were excellent and clean, though, of course, -in need of the usual “improvements” which every battalion of the -Brigade is bound to make; but on Christmas Day, owing to transport -difficulties, the men’s Christmas dinner did not arrive! This thing -had never happened in the whole history of the war! Pressure of work -in the front line had delayed that dinner, as on the Somme; enemy -attentions had caused it to be eaten in haste, a sort of Passover, -as in the dread Salient, but complete breakdown was unheard of. -The Battalion, rightly, held it mortal sin, and spoke their minds -about the transport which was fighting mud and distance across -the hills as loyally as ever. It was the back-areas that had been -caught unprepared by the peace. But, on Christmas night (superb and -unscrupulous staff-work went to secure it), a faithful lorry ploughed -in from Paris with what was wanted, and on Boxing Day the full and -complete Christmas dinner was served, and for the fifth and last time -their Commanding Officer performed the sacred ritual of “going round -the dinners.” - -They sat them down, twenty-two officers and six hundred and -twenty-eight other ranks, and none will know till Judgment Day how -many ghosts were also present. For the first time since August, -’14, the monthly returns showed no officer or man killed, wounded, -or missing. The two battalions had lost in all two thousand three -hundred and forty-nine dead, including one hundred and fifteen -officers. Their total of wounded was five thousand seven hundred and -thirty-nine. Of both these the 1st Battalion, by virtue of thirteen -months longer in the field, could reckon more than a generous half. - -They were too near and too deeply steeped in the war that year’s end -to realize their losses. Their early dead, as men talked over the -past in Cologne, seemed to belong to immensely remote ages. Even -those of that very spring, of whom friends could still say, “If -So-and-so had only lived to see this!” stood as far removed as the -shadowy great ones of the pre-bomb, pre-duckboard twilight; and, in -some inexpressible fashion, they themselves appeared to themselves -the only living people in an uncaring world. Yet Cologne was alive -with soldiery; roads were roaring full, as communications were -restored; men stood guard over visible gun- and ammunition-dumps; -the Battalion joined in marches to the bridge-heads, attended -football matches, saw hosts of new faces belonging to new troops of -all breeds; and watched about them, in the wet, grey weather, the -muddy-faced Hun-folk, methodically as usual, trying to find out just -how far it was expedient to go with the heralds of the alleged new -order. - -“But ye’ll understand, when everything was said and done, there -was nothing _real_ to it at all, except when we got to talking and -passing round the names of them we wished was with us. We was lonely -in those days. The half of us was Church of England by then, too. But -we were lonely, ye’ll understand, as units. And our billets, mind ye, -ma-agnificent, with walls and lockers and doors and all. The same for -the officers! And there was Mr. ---- that I’d known well any time -these last two winters, freezing and swearing alongside of me in any -shell-hole we could find, and glad to be out of the wind--and now, -him cursin’ in his quarters because he had not the Jerry-talk for the -German for: ‘Turn off that dam’ steam-heat!’ And that’s war _al_so. - -“But ye might tell that we was lonely, most of all. Before God, we -Micks was lonely!” - - -COMMANDING OFFICERS 1st BATTALION - -FROM AUGUST 12, 1914 - - -----------+---------------------------------+-------------+---------- - Rank | Name | From B.E.F. | To - -----------+---------------------------------+-------------+---------- - Lt.-Col. | Hon. G. H. Morris | 12.8.14 | 1.9.14 - Major | H. H. Stepney | 2.9.14 | 17.9.14 - Lt.-Col. | Lord Ardee, C.B.E. | 18.9.14 | 3.11.14 - “ (temp.) | Hon. J. F. Trefusis, D.S.O. | 4.11.14 | 15.8.15 - “ “ | G. H. C. Madden | 16.8.15 | 1.11.15 - “ “ | R. C. A. McCalmont, D.S.O. | 2.11.15 | 2.3.17 - “ (actg.) | H. R. Alexander, D.S.O., M.C. | 3.3.17 | 23.5.17 - “ “ | C. E. Rocke, D.S.O. | 24.5.17 | 11.7.17 - “ “ | R. V. Pollok, C.B.E., D.S.O. | 12.7.17 | 19.6.18 - “ “ | R. R. C. Baggally, D.S.O., M.C. | 20.6.18 | To return - | | |to England. - -----------+---------------------------------+-------------+----------- - - -END OF VOL. I - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] About this time, on a distant flank of the war, there was a very -young French Lieutenant of Artillery who, in his first action, when -evening came, telephoned to his superior officer as to dispositions -for the night, in the sincere belief that, following the custom of -all wars up to date, the guns would stop as the darkness closed. His -answer was: “This will be a war in which no one ever goes to bed.” - -[2] “ ... and the next time I saw Zillebeke it was a deserted ruin, -and the small house whose inmates had been so kind to my subalterns -and me was a heap of debris.”--_Extract from a Company Commander’s -Diary._ - -[3] “At the cross-roads near Klein Zillebeke we halted, lying down -on each side the road as shells were coming over. In the centre of -the road lay a dead trooper of some British Cavalry Regiment, his -horse also half dead across him. A woman passed by.... She had all -her household treasures strapped on her back and held the hands of -two very small children. She took no notice of any one, but I saw the -two little children shy away from the dead man.”--_Diary of a Company -Officer._ - -[4] Their Brigadier, Lord Cavan, wrote on the 20th November to -Captain N. Orr-Ewing, commanding the Battalion: “I want you to convey -to every man in your Battalion that I consider that the safety of -the right flank of the British section depended entirely upon their -staunchness after the disastrous day, Nov. 1. Those of them that were -left made history, and I can never thank them enough for the way in -which they recovered themselves and showed the enemy that the Irish -Guards must be reckoned with, however hard hit.” - -[5] Brigade Reserve means in readiness to move at short notice in -any direction to support; all wagons standing packed day and night, -except that the blankets may be used by the men. Corps Reserve takes -a battalion definitely out of the line for the time being and out of -reach of all except air-bombing. - -[6] “I saw him slip back over the parapet in the mornin’ mist, the -way he always did, just behind the officer going the rounds. An’ his -pockets was bulgin’. I had been layin’ for him a long while because -I knew he had something I wanted. So I went up behind him and I said -quite quiet, ‘C----, I’ll take your night’s pickin’s if it’s the same -to you.’ He knew it had to be, an’ to do him justice he bore it well. -‘Well, anyway, Sergeant,’ says he, ‘’tis worth five francs to you, is -it not?’ ‘Yes,’ says I and I gave him the five francs then an’ there, -an’ he emptied his pockets into my hands. ’Twas worth all of five -francs to me, C----’s work that night. An’ he never bore me malice -thereafter.”--_A Sergeant’s Tale._ - -[7] He was succeeded by Major-General Feilding in command of the -Guards Division; Brigadier-General Pereira commanding the 1st Guards -Brigade. - -[8] These were vast cellars reached by a hundred steps, and at the -bottom of them resided a very old soldier, who did little more than -“boil the hot water for the officers’ baths” and look after a certain -mascot-goat which had been given them by a French Corps. When the -order to move at once came, the parting words of the Officer in -Charge of the Goat to the aged man were: “Now you look after the goat -_and_ our blankets, and don’t walk about upstairs. _You_ needn’t -worry about yourself. If you’re taken prisoner we’ll send you lots of -parcels. Look after the goat and hang on to our blankets.” He did. - -[9] This, be it remembered, gives roughly the idea at the close of -1918. - - - - - * * * * * * - - - - -Transcriber’s note: - - Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been - corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within - the text and consultation of external sources. - - Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, - and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained. For example: - duckboard, duck-board; aircraft, air-craft; blockhouses, block-houses; - unregarded; perforable; incuriousness; builded; unkeyed. - - Pg 124: ‘young soliders were’ replaced by ‘young soldiers were’. - Pg 139: ‘a N.C.O. and’ replaced by ‘an N.C.O. and’. - Pg 165: ‘undistinguishable in’ replaced by ‘indistinguishable in’. - Pg 177: ‘undistinguishable landscapes’ replaced by - ‘indistinguishable landscapes’. - Pg 200: ‘in Divisonal Reserve’ replaced by ‘in Divisional Reserve’. - Pg 206: ‘from Croiselles to’ replaced by ‘from Croisilles to’. - Pg 213: ‘and thermit shells’ replaced by ‘and thermite shells’. - Pg 219: ‘a N.C.O. and’ replaced by ‘an N.C.O. and’. - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRISH GUARDS IN THE GREAT WAR, -VOLUME I (OF 2)*** - - -******* This file should be named 64638-0.txt or 64638-0.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/4/6/3/64638 - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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