CHAPTER XXXIX

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY AND FRANCE--RECONSTRUCTION--MOULLE--ST. SYLVESTER CAPPEL--MONT ROUGE--LOCRE--DRANOUTRE--MONT VIDAGNE.

On arrival at the pier at Taranto beach a short march brought us to our lines in the Base Camp. Only one day was spent here, and the following evening we entrained for France. During the day canteen stores were bought for the journey from the large Expeditionary Force Canteen, but no leave into the town was granted. Orders were issued for entraining that evening, and an amusing paragraph appeared to the effect that troops were requested not to refer to our gallant Allies, the Italians, as “Italianoes,” “Ice-creamoes,” “Chip Potatoes,” etc. The route by train was along the east coast of Italy, and the train left the camp siding about 8 p.m. on the evening of the 24th June, 1918.

The first part of the journey was practically along the seashore and there was nothing of special note about the scenery. Halts were made at Bari, Foggia, Termoli and Castellammare, which town was reached about 1 p.m. on the 25th. By the following midday we had reached Rimini, having passed through Ancona and Pesaro en route. As far as Rimini the scenery had not been above the average of the coastal scenery of Kent or Sussex, but shortly after leaving the town the railroad branched inland towards Faenza; and on this part of the journey the scenery was beautiful, the countryside being rich with summer flowers of bright colours, while the perfect blue of the sky overhead added to the richness of the colour scheme. Faenza was reached by 4 p.m. on the 25th June, and a long halt was made in a siding and men were permitted to leave the train and stretch their legs a little. Hitherto the halts had been short and just long enough to permit the issue of hot tea which had been prepared at wayside cookhouses previous to our arrival. At Faenza the long halt of several hours permitted officers to visit the town, where a decent meal was procured at one of the hotels. Time also enabled many of us to purchase and send home as souvenirs, pieces of artistic pottery for which the town is noted. Early in the evening the journey was resumed, and our next halt was made in the large station of Bologna, just after 8 p.m., when we caught a passing glimpse of the quaint Cathedral and University in the town. The people on the station cheered us as the train pulled up; a decided change from the apathetic gaze which had been our greeting from the southern Italians. While standing in the station a long ambulance train full of wounded Italian troops drew up alongside our train and fraternising between the two armies commenced, cigarettes and souvenirs were exchanged, and when the hospital train moved out we gave a hearty cheer to our wounded allies. A short time afterwards our train steamed out of Bologna, and by dawn the following morning we were passing through the glorious mountain scenery of Northern Italy. The train wended its way along deep valleys and pierced through the long tunnels which are numerous in the Apennines. The route taken was through Novi Liguire, Ronco to Sampierdarina, just west of Genoa; the railway skirting the city at this part of the journey. During the afternoon of the 27th we halted at Savona where an enthusiastic crowd gathered and cheered us; no doubt thinking that the Battalion was part of the British Forces which had so materially assisted the Italians in their recent victories on the Trentino Front. We did not disillusion these kind people and accepted their flowers, fruits and, cigarettes. From Savona the journey was continued along the sea shore, and we enjoyed the beauty of the calm, blue, sunlit Mediterranean on our left, and on the other hand the steep cliffs covered with bright flowers and dotted here and there with pretty little towns and beautiful gardens. At 11 p.m. that night the train pulled up at Ventimiglia, the frontier station where certain international formalities were gone through by the railway officials. However, such things did not worry us, and we spent the halt in the railway refreshment cafés and buffets. Unfortunately, the beauties of the Mentone-Cannes Riviera were passed at night-time and the only excitement of the night was the gamble in most carriages while we were passing Monte Carlo. Early on the morning of the 28th June we reached the outskirts of Marseilles. The railway ran along the north-eastern side of the town on high ground, and a splendid view of the harbour and city was obtained. From this point the route went northwards via Miramas, Avignon, where we crossed the Rhone to Le Tiel, which town we reached at 10.30 p.m. that night, and obtained an excellent meal at the railway buffet. The rest of the beauty of the Rhone Valley, which many of us had enjoyed some eighteen months previously, was lost in the darkness. Lyons was passed early the next morning, but it was sufficiently light to obtain a splendid view of the city and its bridges, which had been denied us in the outward journey to the East. After passing through St. Germains au Mont D’or the railway branched off to the west and a long halt was made at Paray-le-Monial, giving us the opportunity of exploring the quaint provincial French town for about an hour, when the journey was again resumed. During the night we passed through Moulins, Nevers, and Gien, and on this part of the trip we passed a train containing the London Scottish which had been delayed owing to a fire breaking out in one of the trucks. During the morning of the 30th June we arrived near Versailles about 10 a.m., at which point the network of railways is extremely intricate and hopes of passing through Paris were high at one moment when we appeared to be travelling towards the capital, only to be dashed to the ground the next when the train shot over the points in quite a different direction. Over this network of railway lines outside Versailles the train halted, shunted, went forward, moved backwards until we became quite bewildered as to the real direction of Paris, but when we eventually passed through the station of Poissy it was settled once and for all that we were not going near Paris. The day was beautifully warm and every one was getting tired of this long train journey with its constant jolting, when the train pulled up miles from nowhere. Every one descended from the train to the fields alongside and enjoyed a “leg stretch.” The signal was against us, and in spite of the frantic whistle of the engine it did not fall. None of the railway officials could account for the stoppage, so we enjoyed the freedom of the fields for about two hours. Eventually, however, the shrill whistle of the engine warned us that the journey was to be continued, and as the train slowly moved, every one made a dash for their truck. Every one was present except two officers, and we all worried about their apparent predicament or even perhaps their desertion. However, about a mile further up the line the train pulled up and the two truants appeared. Apparently they had gone off to a village further up the line in search of luxuries in the shape of eggs, butter, fruit, etc., and before leaving had made a compact with the driver (no doubt with the aid of a few francs) to wait for them at a given point if the train was permitted to pass the signal. After this incident the train crawled along until the town of Gisors was reached, and here the explanation of our delay was apparent. The train in front of ours, carrying French troops and transport, had run into a stationary engine in the station, and as the result of the collision, several carriages had been smashed up and the engine derailed, causing casualties among both troops and horses. After some delay, which allowed us to visit the cafés in the town near the station, we proceeded on our journey, and early on the 1st of July we passed through Etaples, where the large British Cemetery brought back to us the real horrors of war after a pleasant journey across the Mediterranean and the long and interesting train ride through Italy and France. From Etaples the journey to Boulogne was through a particularly dull piece of country, and consisted of a continuous line of dumps, hospitals, camps, hutments, ordnance depots, etc.

About midday on the 1st of July, 1918, the Battalion detrained at Audricques, a large Royal Engineer locomotive repair depot. The scenery at this place was not particularly pleasing; all railheads are surrounded by the same old ration and ammunition dumps, but the W.A.A.C.’s, whom we had never seen before, brightened our lives at that particular moment. It must be remembered that we had not seen a real fresh-complexioned English girl for over two years. Not that I am belittling the beauty of their French sisters or even the particular charms of the girls of Italy, Macedonia, Egypt and Palestine, but to us there were none to touch the homely loveliness of the British girl.

Orders were soon issued by the new Divisional Staff which had met us on our arrival, and we proceeded to billets at Moulle, not an excessive distance, it is true, neither were the roads dusty and rough like the tracks we had traversed out East, but after a week in the train it was a trying march.

Here we were informed that we were to form part of the 30th Division which had been recently reconstructed and was under the command of Major-General W. de Williams, C.M.G., D.S.O., and with the London Scottish and the Queen’s Westminsters we were to form the 90th Infantry Brigade under Brigadier-General G. A. Stevens, D.S.O.

The other two brigades in the Division were the 21st Brigade, consisting of the 1/6th Cheshire Regiment, 2/23rd London Regiment and the 7th Royal Irish Regiment, and the 89th Brigade, containing the 2nd Battalion South Lancashire Regiment, 7/8th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the 2/17th London Regiment.

The following extract from a brief history of the 30th Division gives an idea of the state of affairs on our joining the Division:--

“The various units of the Division were collected together at the beginning of July, occupying an area around Cassel, where Divisional Headquarters were. But the Division was hardly ready to go into the line without some training and preparation. This was particularly the case since there were indications that the enemy was going to attack again on the Kemmel-Hazebrouck Front. The French troops holding the line between Kemmel and the Mont des Cats had been relieved by British troops at the beginning of the month, and the defensive systems still required a good deal of attention, so that during the month of July the Division was busy enough. The various battalions within the three Brigades of the Division had to get to know each other. The various arms of the Division had to learn to work together for defence and offence, the Palestine Battalions had to accustom themselves to the warfare of 1918, which had changed since their departure for Salonica in 1916. While the whole Division had to prepare for, and practise its rôle as Reserve Division to the 10th Corps with a series of counter-attack programmes in the event of an enemy attack taking place. This involved careful organisation and co-ordination of each arm for the various situations that might arise, from the piercing of the line by Mont Rouge, to a thrust on the south-western slopes of the Mont des Cats.”

From the 2nd of July to the 7th the Battalion was comfortably billeted at Moulle and carried out intensive field training in the neighbourhood. Our Battalion organisation was soon revised and completed, and the Battalion was initiated into the revised methods of warfare in France in 1918. Leave was granted to the United Kingdom in limited numbers, it being in most cases the first home leave for two years.

On the 7th of July the Battalion marched to La Nieppe, between St. Omer and Cassel, and stayed there for the night. The next morning the march was resumed as far as Eecke, where the Battalion was billeted in a couple of large farms between the villages of St. Sylvester Cappel and Eecke. The Battalion, in common with the remainder of the Division, became responsible for the defence of the reserve line at Coq de Paille, south-west of Mont des Cats. Each day reconnaissances of the various routes from our billets to the position, and also a complete study of the system itself, was made by officers and N.C.O.’s. On several occasions the Battalion marched up at night and manned the trenches for practice purposes, while schemes for counter attacks from the trenches were worked out and practised. During the day field training was carried out with vigour, while on those evenings when we were not detailed to march up to the Coq de Paille defences for the night, Company concerts, assisted by our own drum and fife band, which had again been organised, were held. Except for the night time, when the enemy persisted in shelling a dump of artillery ammunition near our farms, our stay at Eecke was quite enjoyable. Leave was still granted, and parties continued to leave each day for the United Kingdom.

On the 13th of July we were inspected by General Plumer, the Army Commander, who complimented us on our turn out--The usual “splendid lot of men” business which we all know.

German attacks on our front were threatened to take place on the 18th of July in the region of Mont Rouge, and the Battalion was accordingly ordered to move up through Boeschepe and was held in reserve for the night in the rear of Mont Rouge, with orders to occupy and defend the line of reserve trenches covering Berthen should the attack develop. However, beyond the usual artillery fire the night was quiet, and we returned just after daybreak to our billets near Eecke. Training was continued for another week, and on the 25th the Battalion moved up to the line near Mont Rouge and relieved the 17th Royal Scots in the support trenches on the Locre sector. Nothing of special interest occurred beyond the usual unpleasantness of trench warfare. Movement by day was practically impossible owing to the German observation from Mont Kemmel, on our left front. For five days we remained in this sector of the line, and were relieved on the night of the 30th by the 2/14th London (Scottish) and marched back towards Boeschepe. We had suffered a few casualties from shelling, but it was great experience for the officers and men who had joined the Battalion since its departure from the French front in 1916. Those of us who remembered the old line at Neuville St. Vaast were struck by the absence of those splendid dug-outs which we had occupied during our first visit to France. On the 3rd of August the Battalion moved back as far as St. Sylvester Cappel and enjoyed a week’s rest.

At the end of the week the Battalion moved to the line and took over the Locrehof sub-sector as supports, and were moved up seven days later to the front line trenches, relieving the London Scottish. Only two days were spent in the front line, when we were relieved by the Queen’s Westminster Rifles and returned from the line to Moth Farm, which lay midway between Boeschepe and Godewaersvelde, and while in rest here it was arranged that our Division should attack the Dranoutre Ridge. We overlooked the German lines throughout their length from the Mont Noir-Mont Rouge Ridge, but the Bosche had the advantage in the possession of the Dranoutre Ridge, a long spur running down from Mont Rouge through Locre, with Dranoutre at its tip, which high ground represented, after successive ebbings and flowings, the mark of the Hun tide of advance there. This ridge, looking down as it did into our front trenches, made approach by day almost impossible; and it set bounds to movement, cooking and life there generally, which only those who had to live there could properly appreciate. The 35th Division, whom we had relieved, had long ago made up their minds to take the ridge, but wet weather set in and their patrols reported the going across “No Man’s Land” impossible; it was therefore left for us to accomplish.

The attack was fixed for the night of the 21st/22nd of August. It entailed an advance of some 300 yards over swampy ground, pocked with shell-holes, the crossing of the River Douvre here a small stream, the ascent up through the straggling Wakefield and Mowbray Woods to the crest, where stood two strongly fortified posts--the old farms of Romp and Locrehof--a total advance of about 1,000 yards. The going was really difficult in the last part, where to the usual tangle of rough grass, shell-holes new and old, odds and ends of trenches and dug-outs was added the presence of trees and some undergrowth, the navigation of which even in daylight and without an enemy or the impedimenta of attack requires a certain care.

The London Scottish represented the 90th Brigade in this show, and that the attack was carried out with courage and great credit is due to the 2/14th Londons, who showed that the Palestine troops were equal to any demands that the Western Front might make upon them.

During the night following the attack the Civil Service Rifles relieved the Scottish in the captured line, which merely consisted of odd shell holes, and there withstood a determined counter-attack delivered by storm troops. Under continual heavy artillery, trench mortar, and machine-gun fire, we helped to consolidate the new front line. Fighting patrols were pushed forward and great courage was displayed by members of the 2/15th, particularly Sergeant P. J. Kelly’s patrol, “C” Company, at Locrehof Farm, and by Lieutenant H. J. Mallett’s patrol, “D” Company.

Wakefield Wood, which was on our front, was heavily shelled with gas shells, but this did not deter the Battalion, and on the 24th of August we drove off a determined counter-attack by the Boche. Local fighting continued until the 26th; but the consolidation of the line progressed, when the Battalion was withdrawn and retired to the comparative security of the dug-outs on Mont Rouge, and on the following day returned to our old billet at Moth Farm for a couple of nights, when a return to Mont Rouge was made.

On the 1st of September the enemy withdrew from Mont Kemmel, and the British line was immediately pushed forward as far as Daylight Corner, and close to Wulverghem. On the night of the 3rd-4th of September we relieved the London Scottish near Wulverghem, which was merely indicated by a notice board with “This is Wulverghem,” and a few chipped and broken tombstones which marked the site of the church. Our orders were to carry on the same policy of advancing as far as possible without a full-dress attack. But we were now up against the outposts of the enemy’s main line of resistance; he held the high ground, and furthermore the ground was of the worst possible type for advance under fire. Hardly a yard of it but had been wired at some time in one direction or another. In fact, it looked exactly as if the wire had taken root and spread like brambles. What was not wire was shell-holes or old trenches full, or perhaps only half full, of water. Any advance at all was creditable. There was, too, from this time a noticeable increase in artillery fire of all calibres, with a fair amount of gas from our line back beyond Daylight Corner to beyond Kemmel. Wulverghem and Daylight Corner succeeded Locre and Canada Corner as targets, with Kemmel as a substitute for the Mont Rouge Hills. Thus, though the left company of the 2/15th Londons managed on the 4th to advance their right about 200 yards and establish new posts east of Wulverghem, efforts during the night of the 4th-5th yielded little in the way of progress, but more in the way of heroism when Private Cleaver stayed by his wounded comrade in “No Man’s Land” until they were found two or three days later. But even as this bald outline suggests, there was plenty of work and opportunity for both leadership and initiative, whether on the part of the Company Commander, e.g., Captain Andrew, whose bold reconnaissances were of as great value to his Company as to the Battalion, or on the part of the Platoon Commanders--Sergeant E. G. Ward, “B” Company, who held on all day in an isolated position far ahead of the general line, or Private Shepherd, “D” Company, who specially distinguished himself by keeping up communication under fire between his own platoon, which was isolated in front, and his Company. On the night of the 5th-6th we were relieved by the Queen’s Westminsters and marched back to Donegal Farm, at the foot of Mont Kemmel, leaving the 2/16th to carry on our work of “peaceful penetration.” After a couple of days’ stay here we marched back as far as Mont Vidagne, where our rest consisted of furnishing strong working parties for road making and clearing up the area near Westoutre. The Battalion transport and Quartermaster’s Stores moved up from Nonne Bosch, near Godewaersvelde, which had been their home since the beginning of August, to a place just west of Westoutre. Not only had this rear headquarters provided us with rations and letters regularly while we were in the line, but they had prepared for us a concert party, a revival of the original “Plumes,” who had worked hard and got together an excellent programme under the able leadership of Lieutenant K. P. Neall, our assistant Quartermaster. A full-dress rehearsal was given in a marquee on the 14th of September on the rear slopes of Mont Vidagne. Other units of the Brigade were invited and gave the party a great reception. One must remember that although the party did not reach the excellence of a London theatre, or even the “Barnstormers” (one of our Egyptian Divisional concert parties), it was composed of men of the transport and Quartermaster’s staff who came up the line each night with rations and shared with the Battalion the unpleasantness of enemy artillery fire and aerial bombing raids. It was not a party of selected entertainers who retired from the fray for the sole purpose of becoming efficient music-hall artists.

On the 16th the Battalion was moved to Mont Noir and Major Benké assumed command.[16] Working parties still continued to work in the Westoutre area, while parties of officers were detailed to make a thorough reconnaissance of the line just beyond Wulverghem and facing Messines Ridge, with a view of relieving the 6th Cheshire Regiment. However, this work was in vain, orders for the relief were cancelled, and we were ordered to move farther south and occupy the support area on the Neuve Eglise Sector, taking over from the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.

[16] Lt.-Col. Gaze proceeding on leave.

On the 19th of September the Battalion marched from Mont Vidagne over the captured area as far as Bailleul, which town was now completely devastated, and then turning east arrived at Neuve Eglise about midnight. The relief was carried out successfully, although everyone was tired after their march of some ten or eleven miles.