Part 4

On the way we stopped at Brigade Headquarters to ask permission for Hay to go, and the General said that before going down to the trenches we must present his compliments to the Brigadier-General of the Brigade in occupation of the trenches, and get his sanction for the effort. On we went and halted at the moated farm and saw the General. He said we might try if we liked, but that an attack had been ordered for 9.30 that night and another for 3 a.m., preceded by bombardment, and that we must be clear of trenches before the second one began, and in any case we must see the Commanding Officers of the Battalions holding the trenches, to be sure that we did not interfere with any of their arrangements. So on we went to the reserve trenches, and there we saw the Commanding Officers of the two Battalions in the fire trench. They were not encouraging. They had ration parties in the communication trenches and water parties, and a certain amount of ammunition had to be taken up before the second attack began. The first attack was said to be going on at the moment, and there was certainly a good deal of rifle fire, but they could get no news of its progress as the wires were cut. Three working parties had already been told off by them to go out between the first and second attack, should the first prove unsuccessful (as they seemed to think it would), and bridge the ditches, &c., preparatory to the second show, and it was expected that these parties would do all they could to bring in wounded.

All this was most unsatisfactory. Everything seemed against us. Ralston and Hay and I went up the communication trench a short way, and we then very reluctantly decided that we must abandon the attempt. It was hard to have to give up. Our hope of being able to bring in any of our own men had never been very strong, as we knew only too well that the same front as the Battalion had attacked over had yet again been swept with fire in the attack that had followed ours on the next night. But faint though the hope was, no stone must be left unturned to try to realize it, and now even that last hope was taken away. They lie where they fell.

And yet in the midst of the bitterness and the sadness one cannot keep back the feeling of pride that it should be so with our comrades.

We carried the packs of the Battalion back to the transport that we had brought with us, and after a long march reached our billets again about 5 a.m. Our mission had been unfulfilled but we had tried. I thanked the men on your behalf, Sir, for coming.

Next day General Hibbert came to see us, and got a description of what had happened--chiefly from Ralston, Hay and Campbell.

By this time Graham had returned from hospital and had taken command. He has done splendidly since, and has made every effort to pull what was left of the Battalion together, and to keep them from thinking that all further need for effort was over for them.

General Hibbert inspected the Battalion on Saturday, 19th, and Major-General Sir R. Bannatine-Allason on Monday, 21st. They both thanked the Regiment for the good work they had done. They deeply regretted the very heavy losses, and said that although the attack by the Battalion had not been in the end entirely successful, yet it had had an important influence on the operations at other portions of the Allies' lines.

But the work was not yet finished, there can be no stopping, and we must refit and 'carry on.'

I am trying to carry out the duties of acting Adjutant. J. C. Wilson has reported for duty with the Battalion till further instructions from the Royal Flying Corps, and we are glad of his help.

On Tuesday, 22nd, we moved forward again to what the Division called an 'intermediate position,' and on Monday a working party of 200 men with full proportion of Officers was called for.

We just managed to furnish this with the equipment available and sent all four Officers with it. It returned at about 4.30 a.m. in safety.

To-day, Thursday, 20th, a message has come that the Brigade is to be prepared to move to a new area about 8 p.m.

_Tuesday night, 29th_.--I shall carry on the tale from where I left off.

It was the greatest possible satisfaction to the Battalion to learn that the new area was very close indeed to the district it last served in under its old Division. Nothing could be more grateful to all of us, than to leave the places that had been associated with so much unhappiness and misfortune, and return to places that had brighter memories for us.

We moved by night march to a large town and billeted in a factory near a river, as we had done once before. Next day we moved again, this time to a deserted village with a much battered church. We knew the village well by name, but had never before been billetted in its streets. Here we stayed till Sunday morning, when a message came that C.O. and Adjutant were to report to Headquarters 23rd Infantry Brigade along with Brigade Major of 154th Brigade, to make arrangements for taking over a section of trenches that night. Strange that eventful days should almost always be Sundays! Our strength for the firing line is a C.O.; Acting Adjutant; 5 Subalterns and 330 other ranks. We took over the section from a Regular Battalion on Sunday night, and carried out the relief (including three posts) in less than an hour.

The trenches are good ones and the front is quiet. We shall probably do six days and perhaps nine days. They can tell us very little about it, but we are getting on famously. Two new Vickers Machine Guns were issued to us, and they are very light and a great improvement on the older pattern.

We hold a section to the right of the one we occupied when Lawrie was killed. Trench headquarters is in a house that has had all the roof tiles knocked off, and, in spite of some well meaning tarpaulins spread on the rafters, it leaks when it rains. Hamilton is doing the work of Transport Officer as well as his own work, and comes up to trenches cheerily every night as of old. I have been trying to write up the Adjutant's War Diary, but know that I cannot do justice to the tale of that attack.

The Battalion has been re-organized as far as was considered necessary, and a good many promotions among N.C.O's have been given effect to. Just now it is doing duty in the trenches as two Companies under Campbell and Hay, with Ralston as Machine Gun Officer.

It is rumoured that a draft of Officers is on the way out to us, but of this we have no official intimation.

The men are quite cheerful, and seem to be rapidly getting over the ill effects of their experiences of the 15th.

We know that you have crossed the Channel, and so I shall send this to your own home. I do hope the shoulder is not giving you much pain. Best wishes for a good recovery.

I am, Your obedient Servant, J. LUSK.

A few extracts from letters to his Mother will reveal in a more intimate way what he experienced on the night of the 15th, and during the strenuous days which followed it. The first of them illustrates his readiness for the post of greatest danger, and the chivalry of his devotion to his friends:--

TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 15, 1915.

When I was up in the trenches last night, I asked the Colonel if he would let me take John's place in 'A' Company, as the Quartermaster had said he would be quite willing to do his own work and the work of the Transport Section if required.... But the Colonel would not let me do it, and the Adjutant was of the same opinion, so I had to come back again.

THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 17, 1915.

My news is not so good to-night. The Battalion attacked the enemy on Tuesday night and did splendidly, but our losses have been very heavy indeed.... A party is going up to-night to try to get some of our wounded back. I am very well, but these days have been trying ones. God has helped me wonderfully at every turn of the way, and will still lead on.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON, JUNE 18, 1915.

I am quite well though tired. I was out all night with a party at the trenches, but we all got back safely.

What is left of the Battalion is being re-organized. Captain Graham is in command meantime, and I come next, and so shall act as Adjutant.

SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1915.

Will you please excuse only short hurried notes just now? There is a tremendous lot of work to be done in connection with the recent fight. Reports of all sorts are being called for and are all wanted at once. I am acting Adjutant and must do all I can. I don't know when I shall be able to give you any description of what took place on Tuesday night, but I shall do so as soon as I can.

They have taken us back a bit to rest and re-fit, and will likely re-inforce us from the 2nd/6th Battalion at home. We shall need a good many Officers and men, and we don't know whether they may still require us,--short though we are of both. I had a good sleep last night and am quite well though rather tired out. The weather is very good, and we have much to be thankful for. I haven't even written to the Colonel yet to tell him what happened to his Battalion after he left it, but I must try to do so to-day if I can.... I am being greatly helped.

SABBATH, JUNE 20, 1915.

The events of the last week are upper-most in our minds, and seem to overshadow everything else. By this morning probably, the friends of those whose lives have been lost will get the letters telling them of it, and it will be sad news for them.... I cannot feel thankful enough that John got his slight hit before that fateful charge on Tuesday evening.

MONDAY, JUNE 21, 1915.

We are getting on as well as we can, and the men are resting. Our Divisional General inspected us this morning, and thanked what was left of the Regiment for what they had done.

TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1915.

I haven't got a minute to spare to-day to write to you properly. We are moving to new billets in the afternoon, and I have to make all billeting arrangements as well as do the Adjutant's work, but I am getting through it. Fortunately the weather is still good.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1915.

We are carrying on very short indeed of Officers, and are trying to make the best of it.... It is only too true that young Jack Wilson has been killed. He did splendidly in the attack, and his father and sister have every reason to be proud of him. I shall write to Mr. Wilson when I can get a spell to do it properly. I must be off to attend a Court Martial several miles away.

THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 1915.

They are moving us again by night march to-night to a new area, and we don't know what they are going to do with us. There is a good deal of work involved in re-organizing a Battalion that has lost so heavily, and we can only do it up to the capacity of the personnel we have got left. They do not appear to consider it necessary to take us really far back to do this, as we had four Officers (all we could spare) and 200 men out working near the trenches last night.

SABBATH EVENING, JUNE 27, 1915.

I am sorry I missed our Church Parade this morning. We got a message early that we were to go to a place to make arrangements for taking over a section of trenches to-night, so Captain Graham and I went and made the necessary arrangements.

We feel so glad that they have taken us away from the section of trenches that has such unhappy associations. Graham and I went into the trenches this morning to see the section that we are taking over to-night. They are well made, and are quite close to the section we held many weeks ago under our last Division that we liked so well. Things are quite quiet, and there is no suggestion of anything more than just the holding of the line. This we are very thankful for.

In the Colonel's letter to Captain Lusk in reply to the long letter given above, the following sentence occurs:--'I want to thank you, my dear fellow, for the absolutely splendid way in which you took hold of things under very, very trying circumstances. The Regiment will never forget it.'

The mother of one of the fallen Officers wrote to Mrs. Lusk on June 20th:--

'Your dear son is still spared to be a comfort and help to others, and he so bravely led the party who tried to find our dead and wounded, but alas! they had fallen, I fear, within the German lines. It would have brought comfort to know that our dear son was buried by loving hands, and that they knew his grave, and I'm sure they _nobly_ tried to reach the place. I read yesterday a letter from one of the men (spared, though his brother is "missing"); he said "Our Captain wept, I think, when the General told him it would be certain death to venture." I felt sure this was your dear son. God bless him.'

The official statement of the matter is found in the Divisional Orders which mention the award as being 'for gallantry displayed at Rue d'Ouvert on 15th June, 1915; when a large number of Officers had been killed he voluntarily proceeded to the firing line, took command of what was left of the Battalion and successfully brought the troops out of action.'

Captain Lusk was gazetted Adjutant of the Battalion shortly after the Battle of Festubert, and continued to act in that capacity to the end. During Major Graham's absence on leave, he acted as Commanding Officer as well.

The Battalion was moved south to the neighbourhood of Albert and the Somme[5] about the end of July:--

[5] They occupied lines near Aveluy and Authuille.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON, JULY 23, 1915.

I missed sending you a letter yesterday. I had to go off on my horse a distance of some six miles or so to find new billets for the Battalion. This work is usually done by the Senior Major and the Interpreter, but as the Interpreter is on leave and the Major is killed, I did it.

We are being relieved in our Posts to-night by an English Regular Regiment and are going back six or seven miles by route march. We expect to set out from here at about 10 p.m. and should reach our new Billets in about two hours or so by night march.

The method of allotting billets to a Battalion is as follows. The Brigade gives each Battalion under it a certain area on the map, and the Battalion Billeting Officers go to that area in advance as I did yesterday, and select the most suitable farms or houses or other buildings, and chalk the name of the Regiment on the doors, and tell the inhabitants that troops will occupy their premises on a certain day. When the Battalion leaves these billets the owners are given a certificate with the number of Officers and men accommodated, signed by the Commanding Officer; this is counter-signed by the Mayor of the district, and later on the owner receives payment at a fixed rate for Officer or man.

I left here at about 2 p.m. and returned at about 7 p.m. pretty tired.

This move of ours to-night is a part of a greater move. Our whole Division is being taken by a train journey sometime next week to a part of the line a great many miles further South. This will probably mean helping the French with a portion of their line.

So that the next week or so should be a change of surroundings for us all. A train journey after a spell of four months without ever seeing one will be rather strange.

FRIDAY MORNING, JULY 30, 1915.

We arrived at the station of de-training about 5 p.m. on Wednesday, after a railway journey that we all enjoyed. It was a great change for all of us, and the country was looking at its best. From the station we had to march for about six miles to a billeting area where we are now. The headquarters is in a very nice old French Château, owned by an old lady, but ruled by her manservant. The house has not been properly cared for and is falling to pieces, but there is a beautiful garden and beautiful trees round it. The orchards in this country abound in fruits--apples, pears, plums and peaches--but chiefly apples and pears. Of course nothing is ripe yet. There is a pond literally covered with water-lilies and green stuff, and alive with green frogs with black spots on them. If you run your stick along the edge of the pond a dozen of them will jump into the water. We have had the luxury of beds with sheets on them these last two nights. I have not experienced that all the time we have been in this country, and that is over four months now. We leave this place this evening immediately after an inspection by our Army Commander, and that takes place at 4 p.m. to-day. We go to a forward area, and spend the night in Billets there (it is about six miles away from here), and then on Saturday night we take over our portion of the trench line from the French Army. Our Battalion is just immediately behind the front line in support of other Battalions. We shall be in 'dug-outs' probably for a week or ten days, I expect, and just a few hundred yards behind the front line. Since Graham left I command the Battalion, and this taking over from the French Army is a little more difficult to arrange than usual, and of course the country is new to all of us. It is much more pleasant country to look at than the country we have left. It is more hilly and much more closely wooded. The harvest is getting ripe, and in some parts is cut already. Old men and boys do the reaping of it, and in some cases, where even these are not available, soldiers are set to do it.

SABBATH EVENING, AUGUST 1, 1915.

On Wednesday night we moved away from our nice Château at 10.30 p.m., and at 1.30 a.m. reached the village where we were to stay the night. The moon was good, and the march was a good one of about seven miles or so. At 2.15 that morning I lay down on the top of a bed with just my boots and jacket off, and slept till 6 a.m. Then I got up and shaved, and drank a cup of cocoa that my servant made, and was in the saddle again by 7 a.m., and rode about five miles to the headquarters of a French General in a Château. Officers Commanding Battalions were ordered to go there at 8 a.m., and we were provided with French guides who could speak English, and went over the trenches that our Battalions were to take over on Saturday night. This we did, and were much pleased with the construction of them and the general conditions of everything; so last night we marched off from our Billets in the village to the trenches, and we are here now. Our Battalion is not actually in the front line just now, but is in 'dug-outs' just behind the first line. It is in a wood, and is so picturesque in places that one would never connect it with war, were it not for occasional shells that come over our heads.

MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 1915.

I am well, and busy all day with many varied things. I am acting just now both as Commanding Officer and Adjutant, but we are getting on nicely. We are a few hundreds of yards behind the front line just now, and, beyond a little shelling now and again, we are very quiet.

We are living in a wood with high trees and undulating ground, and the French Army, who have just vacated the place have constructed most elaborate shelters from shell-fire. They are much more palatial places than any 'dug-outs' we have seen or made elsewhere. They go so deep down into the ground, or are built up with such thick sides and roofs, that they are considered quite safe things to be in, even if they do get a direct hit upon them with a big shell. We are going to make application for leave for other two Officers.... Then perhaps it will be my turn to come. Yes, I am waiting till all the others have had leave, as I would rather be the last to go.

SABBATH NIGHT, SEPT. 19, 1915.

To-day has been my birthday and I am getting very old, but I don't feel it, so it doesn't matter, and the best thought is that we grow old all together. And I have more to be thankful for than most. Our mails have been delayed one day, and that has had this result, that to-day's mail brought me no fewer than eight letters, and six of these were partly written for my birthday, and if the mails had not been delayed I would likely have had all these birthday letters one day too soon! So that I am quite content to see a purpose in all that concerns me, and I am especially rich in real friends.

SAME DATE.

I am thirty-seven to-day.... but I don't feel old, and pray that I may be given more strength to give more and do more, and to keep nothing back that should be _given_.

There is an inspiration in giving, and in being spent for the greatest things, that knows no limits and never knows what it is to give too much.

He was disappointed several times of the leave which he was looking forward to, but he never grumbled. When it came at last in October it was spent chiefly in seeing his many friends and especially the relatives of his comrades in the Battalion. One friend has seen in this a new instance of the fact that he 'always thought first of others.'

It was in November that the unlooked for honour came to Captain Lusk:--

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1915.

I have got a little piece of news for you to-night that will cheer you. Intimation came to us this morning that a French decoration was to be given to your first-born son. It is called 'Chevalier, 5th Class, Legion of Honour.' I don't know what it is for, but someone--I don't know who--has been so kind as to recommend me for it, and it is to be given to-morrow, Sabbath, by the Commander of the Third Army at a little village behind the lines.

I don't know what there has been in the work of each day that has seemed to those in authority to be worthy of some mark of approval.... It has come as a complete surprise to us all, and I try to say that it is an honour more to the Battalion than to me.... It is exactly one year to-day since I took up my duties as Staff Captain of the Scottish Rifle Brigade at Falkirk.

NOVEMBER 9, 1915.

Saturday night was a busy one; I think I only got a few hours' sleep altogether. We were to be relieved in trenches on Sabbath morning. It was a day sooner than we had expected, and there were many arrangements to make, besides the ordinary routine-work of messages and telephones and counter-messages. I got up before 6 to lead a working party up to the front trench, and when I had done that I lay down again for less than an hour; then got up and washed and shaved, for this was a great day for my Mother and my Sister, and through them for me! The orders for the relief reached us at 8 a.m., and I had much arranging to do in the hour that followed before I had to be off on my errand. I got something to eat, put on a pair of cleaner boots, and tried to take at least some of the mud from my clothes. My grey mare was waiting for me in the wood, and I rode about three miles back to Hamilton's billet in his little village. I met him in the middle of the street. He had just heard about it the night before, and was _very_ kind about it and extremely pleased. He is _such_ a keen soldier. I took off my web equipment, and borrowed his leather cross-belts, which he always keeps polished to the last degree, and dug out my new glengarry from my valise that was in his keeping what time we were in the trenches.