CHAPTER XXIII

THE GREAT ADVANCE

A sensational change came over the military situation on the Divisional front during August, 1918. When the month opened, the front line Brigades were still holding the trenches outside Albert, and were kept in a state of readiness to meet a German attack. It soon became evident, however, that there would be no German attack from that quarter, for it became known on the 3rd of August that the Germans had withdrawn from Albert and the positions around that town, and by the end of the month the troops of the 47th Division, instead of being on the defensive, were in pursuit of a broken enemy several miles east of Albert, and open warfare prevailed once more.

When Colonel Segrave left it was not known who was to be his successor, but in the meantime Major G. G. Bates, M.C., acted as Commanding Officer.

The first indication of the coming advance was a big attack launched by the Allies at 4.0 a.m. on the 8th of August. The Civil Service Rifles were at that time holding front line trenches just outside Albert, on the north side of the Albert-Amiens road. No attack was launched in that area, but there was increased artillery activity throughout the day. On the following day an attack was delivered by the 58th Division immediately south of the 47th Division and an Australian Division further south. Their objectives were the villages of Ville sur Ancre, Dernancourt, Morlancourt, and the German positions in the vicinity. In spite of a ground mist, which made it difficult to follow the operations, the attack was a big success. The Civil Service Rifles were not affected, though the Battalion scouts were sent as spectators to a point of vantage to watch for any developments likely to affect the front held by the 47th Division. It was a curious sight to see a small crowd on a slope on the left flank of the attack, watching the fight at fairly close quarters, like a crowd at a football match.

About this time enemy aeroplanes were active at night, bombing transport lines and billets at Warloy, and the Civil Service Rifles lost their Acting Quartermaster, Second Lieutenant A. L. Mills, and their Assistant Adjutant, Second Lieutenant P. J. Spencer, both of whom were bombed in their billet, which was completely destroyed, the officers being dangerously wounded.

On the 13th of August, after a short stay in support in Baizieux, the Division moved south of the Albert Road and relieved the 58th Division in the neighbourhood of Bray. The Civil Service Rifles relieved the Queen Victoria Rifles in the forward position of the support Brigade. The trenches occupied were the old British and German front lines west of Morlancourt. The Transport Section and Quartermaster’s stores moved to the village of Bonnay, which was visited nightly by enemy bombing planes.

On the night of the 16th of August the Battalion moved up to the front line and relieved the 22nd London Regiment on the right of the Divisional front in the Bois des Tailles, just north of the village of Bray.

The Bois des Tailles had doubtless been a very pretty wood in peace time, but it was now strewn with the debris remaining after the German occupation. It had afforded good natural cover for German guns, and in the valley which ran through the middle of the wood were some rather palatial dug-outs. The German guns were still in position, though the emplacements had been destroyed and the ammunition was scattered about the ground. Throughout its occupation by the Civil Service Rifles, the Bois des Tailles was subjected to a steady bombardment, gas shells being used freely every night. The aforesaid valley became saturated with gas and the dug-outs were rendered uninhabitable. Casualties were pretty heavy, and the five days spent in what became known among the troops as “_toute de suite_ wood” were distinctly unpleasant.

At midnight on the 20th of August the 20th London Regiment took over the positions in the Bois des Tailles, and the Civil Service Rifles moved back to support positions in a valley near Marett Wood, close to Mericourt L’Abbé. Here the new Commanding Officer, Lieut.-Colonel R. C. Feilding, D.S.O., Coldstream Guards, took over the command of the Battalion.

Colonel Feilding had not had time to get to know his troops before he was leading them in battle, for after one day’s rest in support positions, the 140th Brigade moved up on the 22nd of August and was the Reserve Brigade in a big attack launched that morning by the 47th Division, in conjunction with the 12th Division on the left, and an Australian Division on the right.

The programme for the 47th Division was that the 141st Brigade holding the front line was to move forward at zero, and capture and consolidate the first objective, known for this battle as the Brown Line, running parallel with the Bray-Albert road and about 500 yards east of it. The 142nd Brigade was to pass through the 141st Brigade ten minutes after zero, and capture and consolidate the second objective (known as the Green Line.) Corps cavalry and twelve whippet tanks were then to pass through the 141st and 142nd Brigades, and capture the Blue Line (a line of defences from Fricourt to the woods known as Great and Little Bear), the 140th Brigade remaining in Divisional Reserve, ready to move forward and consolidate the Blue Line when captured.

Soon after 6.0 a.m. on the 22nd of August, the Civil Service Rifles marched forward from the positions near Marett Wood, and by 7.50 a.m. the Battalion was in position at the rendezvous--the sunken road running north and south along the western edge of the Bois des Tailles. Here a squadron of cavalry, about 80 strong, was waiting its turn to go forward, and just before 8.0 a.m. this squadron advanced to the attack, accompanied by tanks, but both tanks and cavalry came dribbling back about an hour later, having met with serious opposition.

The Companies of the Civil Service Rifles were now disposed in the fields on either side of the road, awaiting orders. There followed a long interval without any news, and throughout the whole morning nothing definite was heard as to how the attack had developed. Late in the afternoon, however, orders were received as to the part to be played by the Civil Service Rifles in an attack to be delivered by the 140th Brigade the following morning upon the Blue Line. Colonel Feilding had only just explained matters to Company Commanders, when the order was cancelled owing to the withdrawal of the 142nd Brigade from the Green Line, under pressure from the enemy, and the reoccupation by the latter of the Happy Valley (a valley just to the east of the Bray-Albert road, and about a mile north-north-west of Bray).

A gap existed between the right of the 141st Brigade and the left of the Australians, and the Civil Service Rifles were ordered at 7.0 p.m. to fill the gap. Colonel Feilding sent two of his Companies to the front line to dig themselves in along a bank where the gap existed, and two Companies to be in support along the Etineham-Méaulte road, just in front of the old front line in the Bois des Tailles. He established his Headquarters temporarily in the old front line north-east of the Bois des Tailles.

Darkness was falling as the Companies went to take up these positions, and when Colonel Feilding arrived with his Headquarters Company in the old front line in the Bois des Tailles he found the Headquarters of the 141st Brigade close by. He went into these Headquarters to see what further information he could gather, and learnt that the enemy was breaking through, and was believed to be coming on in large numbers. The trench, he was told, should be put in a state of defence, and every rifle would be needed. Headquarters Company was thereupon ordered to line the trench and each man had to make himself a good fire position. Officers’ servants and signallers, who had not used their rifles since the Retreat, had visions of a repetition of the Bourlon Wood incident, and every man got to work with his entrenching tool, and made every preparation for the coming fight. Colonel Feilding pushed off into the darkness ahead to find out how much truth there was in the story of the counter-attack. He found all quiet in the front line, which was nearly two miles ahead, and he decided to take his Headquarters Company and two support Companies to the foot of a bank close to the front line. These positions were occupied throughout the next day, when there was considerable shelling from the enemy.

Early on the morning of the 24th of August, an attack was delivered on the Green Line and the Happy Valley. The 140th Brigade was on the left and the 175th Brigade (58th Division) on the right. The Civil Service Rifles were to move through the Happy Valley behind a Battalion of the 175th Brigade, and deal with the enemy in the many dug-outs in the valley. After clearing the valley they were to take up positions just north of Bray and on the east side of the Bray-Méaulte road, in support to the 17th and 21st Battalions, who were to be by that time in the Green Line.

The attack began at 1.0 a.m., and by 2.0 a.m. large parties of German prisoners began to arrive at Battalion Headquarters. The operation had been entirely successful, the Civil Service Rifles having captured 300 prisoners in Happy Valley, as well as a considerable number of machine guns and some trench mortars.

After spending the whole day under heavy shell fire in the positions near the Bray Road, the Battalion moved through the Happy Valley again at night and assembled for a further attack, which was to commence at 2.30 a.m. on the 25th.

For this attack the 140th Brigade was in front, with the 175th Brigade on its right. The Civil Service Rifles were on the right of the 140th Brigade, and the centre of the Battalion’s assembly position was an old German prisoners-of-war cage on the Bray-Fricourt Road. It was dark when the men reached the assembly position, and the country was quite strange to all the attacking forces, none of whom had even so much as seen it by daylight. The objective was just over 2,500 yards beyond the assembly position, and was a line of old German trenches on the western edge of Billon Copse, about two miles south of Mametz. In spite of the strange surroundings, total darkness, and the fact that no reconnaissance had been made, the attack went well, and the objective was reached with very few casualties--not more than thirty-five all ranks. The opposition was slight, but a thick fog which settled down before daylight made it very difficult to find even so prominent a landmark as Bronfay Farm, which was about the southern boundary of the Civil Service Rifles’ objective. The result was that when Colonel Feilding reached the front line soon after 4.30 a.m., he found that the troops were a few hundred yards short of the real objective. However, he was able to guide them to the so-called old German trench, which “A” and “C” Companies manned as front line Companies, “B” and “D” remaining in the railway loop behind in support.

So ended the first stage of the part played by the Civil Service Rifles in the final advance of the Allies. It had been a long drawn out battle, and the troops had had little or no rest since leaving the trenches near Marrett Wood on the morning of the 22nd of August. The fighting, however, had not been severe, and the total casualties during the few days were only sixty all ranks, of whom only nine were killed.

The men were, therefore, in very good spirits when they marched back, on the 26th of August, to the trenches near Marrett Wood, taking with them one captured minenwerfer, four heavy and ten light enemy machine guns.

There followed the usual visits from the Brigade Commander and Divisional Commander, both of whom congratulated the Battalion on its work during the past few days. They added, however, the news that the advance would be resumed very soon. Major General Gorringe explained that there would be no more coming back to rest while the Division was taking part in this advance. In future the transport lines would move up to the Battalion after a battle, as the general scheme would be that Brigades would be continually passing through each other, and so the front line area of to-day would become the support or reserve position to-morrow.

On the 29th of August the Civil Service Rifles marched to huts in an old French brickfield about a mile north of Maricourt, and close to Montauban. Battalion Headquarters was at Carnoy Craters on the Carnoy-Montauban Road. These craters were a relic of the Somme battle of 1916, when the attack often opened with the blowing of a few mines. The Germans had only recently left this district, and a sharp look-out had to be kept for “booby traps.”

The 47th Division continued the advance on the 30th of August, the 142nd Brigade being in front, the 141st in support, and the 140th Brigade in reserve. The Civil Service Rifles moved off from the Brickfields soon after 7.0 a.m., and after a short cross country scramble, halted in Maurepas Ravine about midday. Cookers and limbers followed the Battalion, and soon after halting, the troops received a pleasant surprise in the shape of hot dinner. A draft of two officers and 100 other ranks, who had been following the Battalion for some days, managed to catch it up in Maurepas Ravine during the afternoon of the 30th of August. It was quite a novelty for a draft to join during battle.

The Battalion bivouacked in Maurepas Ravine, and spent the whole of the next day there, but on the morning of the 1st September there began what proved to be the last battle in which the Civil Service Rifles were to take an active part. It was a battle worthy of the occasion, and during the six days while it lasted, the men lived up to the very best traditions of the Regiment. There were very few indeed among them who had embarked with the Battalion in 1915, or even of those who had fought on the Somme in 1916, but the spirit was still there, and the achievements of the 1st Civil Service Rifles in this great battle are worthy of a detailed description. The following account of the operation is founded upon the official report written by Colonel Feilding when the action was over. The narrative can best be followed by reference to the map on page 211.

On the 1st September the 140th Brigade, in conjunction with the 141st Brigade on the right, and the 18th Division (55th Brigade) on the left, was to advance and capture Rancourt and the line of trench following the south-west edge of St. Pierre Vaast Wood. The 1st Surrey Rifles were on the right, the Civil Service on the left, and the Poplar and Stepneys were to follow up and “mop up” Rancourt and the trenches around that village.

The assembly position for the Civil Service was a line about three quarters of a mile south-south-west of Rancourt, between the road leading from Rancourt to Le Forest and the road from Rancourt to Marrieres Wood. Battalion Headquarters was at the cross roads about half a mile east-north-east of Le Forest, with advanced Headquarters in a shell hole near the assembly position.

A certain amount of shelling was encountered on the way up to the assembly position, and the Battalion lost, among others, Sergeant Moore, signals sergeant, one of the few remaining “17th of March men,” who had been present with the Civil Service Rifles throughout their stay in France.

The assembly position was reached at 5.0 a.m., and zero was at 5.30 a.m.

Some anxiety was felt when, at three minutes before zero, the 1st Surrey Rifles had not arrived, but thanks to Second Lieutenant Gray, the Civil Service Intelligence Officer, touch was established before zero.

After a five minutes’ “crash” by the artillery, “C” and “D” Companies moved forward behind a creeping barrage to take the final objective, followed by “A” and “B” Companies, who were to be in support in trenches running north and south, quarter of a mile east of Rancourt.

The attack was completely successful, prisoners beginning to come down within ten minutes of zero.

Lieutenant E. R. Lascelles, commanding “C” Company, was killed early in the advance, but otherwise the losses were slight, and by 7.30 a.m. all objectives had been reached, and were being consolidated. Touch was obtained with the East Surreys (55th Brigade) on the left, but there was a gap on the right, the 1st Surrey Rifles having been held up.

During the process of consolidation “B” and “D” Companies were shelled heavily from a German Field Gun Battery which remained in action in the open, firing over open sights from about 1,000 yards’ range.

An attempt by the enemy to rush through the gap on the right was prevented by Lewis gun and rifle fire from developing, and this brought to a close a good day’s work in which the Civil Service Rifles had taken 150-200 prisoners and ten machine guns.

The battle, however, was by no means over, and at 11.30 p.m. the Battalion was relieved by the London Irish and marched to an assembly position on the Rancourt-Peronne road, just S.W. of Bouchavesnes and 300 yards north of the old quarry there, in readiness for a further attack the next morning. Arrived at this assembly position, the Company cooks again earned the gratitude of their comrades by producing an excellent hot meal.

The operation of the 1st of September had been simple and straightforward, and had been carried out without a hitch, but a much more complicated attack took place on the 2nd.

The plan was that the 74th Division should attack from trenches immediately south of Moislains Wood and, after capturing and mopping up Moislains, should take the village of Nurlu. The 140th Brigade was to follow them closely, the Civil Service on the left, the Poplar and Stepneys on the right, and the East Surreys in support. After crossing the Canal du Nord east of Moislains, the 140th Brigade was to wheel left, forming a defensive flank on the high ground to the north of Monastir trench, where they were to join up with the 142nd Brigade, who were to capture this trench. The order from left to right on the defensive flank was First Surreys, Civil Service, Poplar and Stepneys. The 140th Brigade was to follow the 229th, who would also prolong the defensive flank, facing north as far as Nurlu.

The Battalion was in position at 3.0 a.m. and zero was at 5.30 a.m., but, in order to get well up behind the 229th Brigade “A” and “B” Companies led off at 5.0 a.m. with “C” and “D” in support and Headquarters bringing up the rear.

The 140th Brigade was to pass Moislains on the south, and the formation of the defensive flank therefore presupposed the capture by the 74th Division of that village.

From the outset the Brigade came under heavy shell and machine gun fire, and as it moved down the slopes to the south west of Moislains, under still heavier machine-gun fire directed from the village and from both flanks.

The casualties caused by this fire were enormous, amounting to more than half the strength of the Battalion, but the men went forward without any hesitation, and, as Colonel Feilding said afterwards, as though they were beating up partridges. The behaviour of the Civil Service under this sweeping fire was commented on by the Commanding Officers of other units present, who said they had never seen anything like it. The determination of all ranks was ultimately rewarded when they succeeded in establishing themselves in Moislains trench, with details of the First Surreys on the left, the Poplar and Stepneys on the right, and an officer and about a dozen other ranks of the North Devon Yeomanry.

The garrison of Moislains trench now had to fight hard to hold the position, for the enemy were occupying the same trench to the left and Quarry trench in the left rear, while they could clearly be seen moving in Moislains a quarter of a mile in front, and assembling in the village and around the huts immediately south of it.

Simultaneous counter-attacks were, in fact, developed on the left rear and on the right front, while the enemy at the same time attempted to bomb up the trench on the left.

Both parapet and parados were manned, and the attacks across the open were beaten off, but the bombing attacks continued all day, and, owing to scarcity of bombs, were with difficulty held up.

It was at once obvious that there were no British troops in front of the 140th Brigade, though elements of the 74th Division could be seen in the distance on the right, on a level with Moislains trench. In the face of the very heavy flank and frontal machine-gun fire, of the heavy casualties incurred and of the fact that one flank at least was “in the air,” it did not seem practicable to Colonel Feilding or to Colonel Dawes, commanding the First Surreys, for their Battalions to assume the rôle allotted to the 74th Division, and to attempt, without a barrage, to capture the village, which, as a result of the failure, or absence, of that Division, was still strongly held by the enemy.

A small local attack by about two Companies was actually delivered by the 74th Division on the right, but, though it made some little progress, and at one point crossed the Canal, it hardly did more than establish the right flank of the 140th Brigade. With this exception, there was no indication of any attack having been delivered by the 74th Division in the vicinity of Moislains. A German Field Gun Battery was, in fact, in action for some four hours in the open, immediately south of the village, and less than 1000 yards east of the Canal, firing over open sights on to the part of Moislains trench occupied by the 140th Brigade.

Colonel Feilding was able to confirm the foregoing account by a very careful examination of the battle-field made afterwards. He saw no British dead either in Moislains or between Moislains trench and the village. The only dead in the vicinity of Moislains trench were those of the 140th Brigade and of Germans killed in the counter-attack previously referred to. Twenty-five men of the Civil Service were found and buried in an hour in this area alone, and others of the Brigade were still lying there.

To quote from Colonel Feilding’s report:

“The only dead of the 74th Division whom I personally saw in the section of ground with which my Battalion was concerned were lying about 300 yards from our starting point--the Rancourt-Peronne road. Since these dead were not there when we originally advanced, I can only come to the conclusion, which is shared by all who were with me on the battlefield during the action and after, that here, at least, the 140th Brigade, instead of being in support, found itself with its flanks unsecured, and with the barrage so far ahead as to be useless, carrying out the main attack on a strong enemy position, and that the 74th Division, so far from being in front of us, was behind us.”

The position in Moislains trench was held until 10.30 p.m. on the 2nd of September, when the Brigade Commander withdrew the troops, and the survivors of the Civil Service Rifles marched back about three miles and rested in trenches just east of Rancourt.

The Battalion rested here for two days, but even then the fighting was not over, and, reorganised owing to heavy losses on a two Company basis each with two platoons, the Civil Service Rifles took part in another fight on the 5th of September. At 5.30 a.m. on that day, the 141st Brigade passed through the 142nd, and was followed by the 140th at 8.0 a.m., the Poplar and Stepneys in front with the Civil Service and one Company of the First Surreys attached in support.

The Civil Service assembled in Pallas trench, south-west of Moislains Wood, and at noon the two Companies had moved forward and occupied Sorrowitz trench (a continuation of Moislains trench, north-west of Moislains) with Battalion Headquarters and the attached Company of the First Surreys in the sunken road 300 yards behind. Half an hour later, “A-B” Company under Lieutenant R. Upton, crossed the Canal and occupied a position facing north-east on the Canal bank in a continuation of Monastir trench about a quarter of a mile north-east of Moislains. At the same time “C-D” Company, under Captain L. D. Eccles, crossed the canal and occupied a trench further south, parallel with the canal and facing east, formed a defensive flank. The remaining Company was kept in reserve in and around Sorrowitz trench.

At 7.0 p.m., considerable opposition having been met with from the enemy, an organised attack was made on the Peronne-Nurlu road by the Poplar and Stepneys in conjunction with the 141st Brigade and the 12th Division on the left. The right was protected by Captain Eccles’ Company and the operation was entirely successful.

At 6.0 a.m. on the 6th of September the advance was resumed. The 19th and 20th Battalions (141st Brigade) moved across the Peronne-Nurlu road, and at 8.0 a.m. the London-Irish and the Civil Service, who had formed up behind in conjunction with the 12th Division on the left and the 74th Division on the right, advanced on a position running north and south, just south of the village of Lieramont.

The Civil Service reached the objective about noon and the men came under heavy machine gun fire from the left, where the London-Irish had not yet arrived. In addition, rapid fire from enemy field artillery raked the men as they appeared over the crest in front of the final objective. Colonel Feilding accordingly took his men back to the reverse slope, where they immediately turned and dug in.

This position turned out to be the “farthest east” of the Civil Service in the advance on this part of the Allied front, for during the night of the 6th-7th September the Battalion was relieved by the Queen Victoria Rifles (58th Division) and moved back to bivouacs in a valley about a mile east of Moislains, close to the position occupied by Captain Eccles’ Company on the afternoon of the 5th of September.

The fighting, so far as the Civil Service Rifles were concerned, had come to an end for a time, and the short rest in this valley near Moislains enabled a thorough search to be made of the scene of the heavy casualties on the 2nd of September. The bodies of all the killed of the Civil Service in that battle were buried before the troops left. There was also an opportunity to count the cost, and it was found that the casualties suffered during the first six days of September numbered 12 officers and 317 other ranks, out of a total trench strength of less than 500 all ranks.

It has already been mentioned that Colonel Feilding had not had time to get to know his men before he was leading them in battle, but what he saw of them in the battles of August and September filled him with genuine admiration for and pride in the men whom he commanded and he at once became fired with the enthusiasm of his two predecessors. The troops, on their part, were not slow to see that the Regiment had been fortunate in gaining a worthy successor to Colonel Segrave for in these final battles Colonel Feilding’s energy knew no bounds. He was constantly faced with unexpected developments but he was never at a loss as to how to deal with them. From start to finish he was “here, there and everywhere” moving about among the Companies seeing things for himself. What struck the troops most forcibly perhaps was his coolness, for although on the 2nd of September particularly, he was faced with difficulties sufficient to put the best soldier “off his game” he was perfectly calm and unruffled throughout.