CHAPTER XI

EAUCOURT L’ABBE AND THE BUTTE DE WARLENCOURT

The so-called camp in Bottom Wood was the essence of discomfort, but after a meal and a few hours rest, a welcome move was made in the evening of the 20th September to Albert, where one night was spent in deserted houses.

The march was continued the following day, and the Battalion arrived at a tented camp in a wood just outside the village of Henencourt, where Corps Headquarters was situated in a magnificent château, the grounds of which were a replica of those of the Palace of Versailles. There was little to suggest the luxury of Versailles, however, in the camp occupied by the Civil Service Rifles, for although the Battalion was depleted, the accommodation was scarce and every one was crowded.

The process of refitting and reorganisation was begun, and to a draft of one officer and 375 other ranks, who joined at Henencourt was added a fair sprinkling of officers, N.C.O.’s and men who had missed High Wood through leave, courses, or other causes. Thus the strength of the Battalion was restored on paper, but in actual fact it was still but a shadow of its former self.

The officers spent most of their time at Henencourt Wood in writing letters of condolence to bereaved parents, and the Company Quartermaster Sergeants and senior N.C.O.’s were busy packing up and sending off the personal effects of the killed and wounded, so that on the whole, the ten days’ sojourn in this camp was not a joyous one. The Divisional Follies tried to cheer things up by giving a show one evening, but the proceedings fell flat, and those who wanted a little diversion while the Battalion was at Henencourt sought it in Amiens.

The last day of the month of September, 1916, found the Civil Service Rifles once more on the way back to war, for after spending one night in Albert, they occupied some disused trenches, entirely devoid of dug-outs, in what was known as the Quadrangle, near Mametz Wood. Here they waited eagerly for news of the attack by the 141st Brigade on the village of Eaucourt L’Abbé, for which the 140th Brigade was in reserve.

Numerous contradictory reports reached Colonel Warrender during the few days spent in the Quadrangle, but at last it became known definitely that Eaucourt L’Abbé had been captured, and that the 140th Brigade would go there to relieve the 141st, but would only hold the line--there would not be any further attack!

The relief which took place on the night of the 4th October, when the Civil Service Rifles relieved the Poplar and Stepney Rifles in the Flers Line at Eaucourt L’Abbé, was an ordeal almost as trying as a battle.

The march from the Quadrangle began at 4.0 p.m. on the 4th, and the tail of the Battalion reached the Flers Line at dawn the next day. The event was so unique that no apology is offered for a somewhat lengthy description:--

All was going well until the corner of High Wood was reached, where, according to plan, guides would be picked up. There were, however, several corners to High Wood, and the Lewis gun limbers, mess cart and medical cart were not taken to the same corner as the one to which the Battalion went.

After a very long delay, while Lewis guns, etc., were carried through the wood from the limbers to the Battalion over many awkward obstacles such as wide trenches and barbed wire, a start was made by half the Battalion, and about two hours afterwards the remainder of the Battalion was ready. The way was along a track of sticky mud of the typical Somme variety. The night was pitch black and the men slipped about and frequently their feet stuck in the mud. It was often necessary for two men to pull at another man to get him out of the mud, and as they got their man out they found themselves stuck in in turn. At one time Colonel Warrender was heard to tell the M.O. that a man had fallen down, but he feared it was no use going back to him “as he must have been trampled in by now.” The progress along the track, slow as it was, became slower still when one after another the guides announced that they were lost and had not the slightest idea in which direction to go. A touch of humour crept into the adventure when Colonel Warrender, addressing a guide who said he hadn’t the remotest idea where he was, told him to go back to his Commanding Officer and report that he was of no use!

After many hours the Cough Drop was reached by the party bringing up the rear, which included Battalion Headquarters, and here one of the other Companies was met coming in the opposite direction. They, too, had a guide who was lost. The Adjutant now took up the running alone and plunged into the darkness on an exploring tour. He soon came back, and then led the whole party, now consisting of a good many more than half the Battalion, through Drop Alley to the Flers Line. The going now began to tell on the exhausted troops and several there were who collapsed unconscious in Drop Alley, weighed down by the heavy loads they were carrying, and did not finish their journey until the following day.

The Flers Line is chiefly remembered for the number of dead, both English and German, who were still lying about on the floor of the trench and on all the firesteps. There were a few hurriedly-made dug-outs, but these were in such a filthy state as to be unfit to occupy, and although much hard work was done for the next two days, the cleaning of the trench was still unfinished when the troops learnt to their astonishment, on the 7th of October, that they were to attack the Butte de Warlencourt and the Warlencourt Line--an objective some 2,800 yards distant.

Zero was at 2.0 p.m., and the Companies occupied the same relative positions as at High Wood, “A” Company again being on the right. The three Companies on the left were unfortunate once more, for they had to file through the village of Eaucourt l’Abbé soon after leaving their assembly trenches and extend into waves again after negotiating the village. They were caught by the full fury of the German artillery barrage, and those who got through the village were swept down by a most intense machine-gun fire. “A” Company on the right made some little progress, and after crossing the Eaucourt l’Abbé-Le Barque road dug a new line alongside the remnants of other units of the Division, all of whom had met a similar fate. Another attempt was made at night by the 142nd Brigade, but as these troops had not even seen the country in daylight, their attempt failed so completely that they were all withdrawn shortly after zero.

The attack on the Butte de Warlencourt failed, like many attacks subsequently delivered by other Divisions, and the famous Butte did not fall into English hands until the German retreat from the Somme battlefield during the winter of 1916-17.

The attack of the 7th of October differed in many respects from that of the 15th of September. On this occasion there had been no training, no rehearsal over a marked-out course, and in fact some of the troops did not even know there was to be an attack until an hour or so before zero. Even then there were many who were not sure what was the objective. To this day there are some in the Civil Service Rifles who talk of it as the attack on Eaucourt l’Abbé. There was an artillery creeping barrage on this occasion, it is true, but as it moved at the rate of 100 yards per minute and there were 2,800 yards between the jumping-off trenches and the objective, the advancing waves of infantry soon got badly left behind. Tanks were said to be co-operating, but nothing was seen of them.

There were only two officers per Company present on this occasion, and the C.S.M. and one or two senior N.C.O.’s of each Company were kept out of the fight, so the experienced soldier was in a distinct minority. More than half of the Battalion had never been under fire before, and, as these had only joined a few days previously, a good many of them were not known even by name to the older members of their Platoons. Thus it came about that many men were reported missing on this occasion, and, as none of the survivors knew them, it was impossible to say with any certainty where they had last been seen.

The losses on the 7th of October amounted to five officers, 344 other ranks, and although numerically they are not quite so great as at High Wood, it should be remembered that on this occasion the Battalion was not more than 500 strong at the outset.

During the operations around Eaucourt l’Abbé there was one member of the regiment who added to his already brilliant reputation as a soldier. The work of Lieutenant W. E. Ind on this occasion was more than wonderful. Quickly grasping the situation when the attack failed, by his hard work and resourcefulness he succeeded in restoring something like order out of chaos, not only in his own unit but also in several neighbouring units.

The relief by the 7th Seaforth Highlanders on the 9th of October was a welcome contrast to the previous relief in this sector. The troops quickly found their way out and before midnight had reached the transport lines in Bottom Wood.

Three nights were spent in Albert before the Division entrained on the 13th of October for Longpré, near Abbeville, en route for the Ypres Salient.

Before leaving Albert, the Quartermaster aroused the wrathful indignation of the C.Q.M.S.’s by the issue of a quantity of clothing and equipment which had been applied for at Henencourt. Many of the men for whom it was intended had now become casualties, but that made no difference to the Quartermaster’s stores of the Civil Service Rifles. The most important article of clothing was the clean shirt which was issued just before leaving Albert. The troops had not had a clean shirt for many weeks, and the one they discarded was naturally somewhat the worse for wear. One C.Q.M.S. on inquiring at the Orderly Room what should be done with the old shirts was told by an Orderly Room clerk to burn them. The clerk was trying to be funny, but the Q.M.S. missed the point of his humour, and all Companies thereupon threw their old shirts on the dust heap. When he was demobilised some years later the C.Q.M.S. was still explaining to the authorities why he had destroyed his ultra lousy shirts.

The train journey from Albert to Longpré is surely a record even for the R.O.D. A distance of just over thirty miles was covered in the astonishingly short time of twenty-six hours, during which time many men had left the train, dined in Amiens, visited the local cinema, and still caught the train up again without being recorded as absent. Indeed, during one part of the journey there seemed to be more men walking than were riding. At the same time every one seemed conscious of the fact that he had said good-bye to the dreaded Somme battlefield, so few felt disposed to complain of the shortcomings of the R.O.D.

After detraining at Longpré, two happy days were spent in the village of Villers-sous-Ailly. The men received a hearty welcome from the natives and M. le Maire, who seemed to be the greatest French authority on the organisation of an English infantry battalion. This worthy was very popular with the billeting party, for he had his village completely mapped out, and could tell them whether a particular barn was big enough to hold a platoon, a section, or a Lewis gun team.

The Battalion returned to Longpré on the 16th of October and entrained for Caestre, which was reached in the early hours of the following morning, whence a long and uninteresting march brought the Battalion to scattered billets outside the village of Boeschepe, and after another long march on the 19th, the Civil Service Rifles relieved the 16th Battalion Australian Infantry in support to what was called the Bluff Sub-sector (or Canal Sub-sector) south of Ypres, and close to what had once been the Ypres-Comines canal.