THE WAR THE INFANTRY KNEW 1914 - 1919 (EXCERPT)
[preface] [chapter 9] [chapter 10] [chapter 11]

CHAPTER IX

Somme-Ancre -- Facing Bazentin Ridge -- High Wood -- Amiens -- Old Army into New -- Moles

Contributors: ARMOUR; BOREHAM; COLTART; CRAWSHAY;

CROCKETT; CROMBIE; FOX; FYSON; HYDE SMITH; C. JONES ('200); MODERA; MOODY; POWELL; RADFORD; ROBERTS; RODERICK; SMITH; T. SPENS; STOCKWELL

Sketches: 1, 11, I2, 13, I4

[July 7th] The Division goes south: a battalion at Gorre had 20 minutes notice to be clear of its billets. We were relieved

[July 9th] at 2 o'clock, and marched through Béthune, in the quiet and freshness of the morning, to Fouquières. In the forenoon I rode in again, to the Bank. With few troops in it Béthune looked rather tawdry, even on this perfect summer day. It is a small, rather drab provincial town, surrounded on three sides by a coal field; its streets and buildings, even its Gothic remains, are without distinction, the newer part is formal. The Battles of La Bassée and of Loos, and the coming and going of resting brigades, cast on it -- for the B.E.F. -- a passing glamour; and the eleven months we had spent in its area were to be looked back to with longing by those who lived them and were to know camps and billets elsewhere.

In the afternoon our late C.O. rode over to see us. His division, after sharing in the disaster at Serre, has come to convalesce on a quiet front to the north. He looked as if he would gladly be back with us.

We entrained at midnight, the last unit of the Division to go.

[July 10th] At 7 we arrived at Longueau : 20 officers and 686 other ranks, a magnificent battalion for its strength, not more than a dozen unreliables in it. At 8:15 we moved off. The route was through Amiens, so I slipped away to have a glimpse of the Cathedral. Little of the detail of the lower storey can be seen because it is protected by sand-bags. Our march was by Poulainville through rich, boldly rolling country, a delightful chequer of cultivated, hedgeless fields. The people of Cardonnette, where we billeted, were shrilly insistent on their "rights". The rapacious French peasantry is battening on the War, doubly so in the British zone, and their laborers can't buy sugar or coal on the paltry two francs paid for a long day. Might one know if the blood of the Ancre smells sweetest to a French farmer, or a British tradesman, or an American manufacturer.

[July 11th] Yesterday's march was 6 1/2 miles: today's 4 miles to Daours, through the same charming country still seen in sunshine. On entering the village I heard, added to the crunch of many feet on a gritty surface, the sound of running water, and presently a stream tumbled towards us, broken over a stony bed. A vision of a Highland glen appeared in the clear brown water. It was gone in a moment --like the snowflake in the river, for, raising my eyes to mind my step they rested on an unplaned, weathered board on which an unskilled hand had painted, "rue napoo". The pleasing illusion had vanished, but I looked at the water, and listened, because it was said to be the Ancre. Actually it was a mill-lade; the river was farther over, and the Ancre farther up the valley. Other village paths had been named as sardonically -- "verité," "grand mari" -- by the French troops from whom our Fourth Army had taken over. We were packed for the night into the top floor of a mill, dear knows how.

[July 12th] -- At the beginning of an afternoon march of 8 miles up the right bank of the Ancre we saw Corbie across the Somme. It cold-shouldered Henry V when he marched along its ridge, to turn at Agincourt on the host that beset him. Its church looked as if it would repay a visit. But from what unnamed church nearby did Bardolph take the deceptive pyx? -- and for the theft be broken on Fortune's furious fickle wheel. On the road we passed the transport of the Welsh Division coming out after the mauling at Mametz Wood. Arrived at Buire, we settled into tents in an orchard. The battle-front is only 7 1/2 miles away, but not a sound can be heard although the gun-flashes play brightly on the sky after dark and a big gun must be fairly close. Having come through the II Corps, we are now in the XV Corps for business; Hone, our G.O.C. of Loos days, commands it. We are the reserve battalion of the reserve brigade of its present reserve division.

[July 13th] A body of cavalry passed up when we were at breakfast. Afterwards the C.O. and Company Commanders went to prospect the forward area, so we should be "for it" soon. On their return Higginson wrote to Blair: "You can guess where all good troops are now. I am enjoying it immensely. This is real war; no burrowing, no wind(1), no boredom, plenty of marching and changing of scene, and I am splendidly fit."(2) And Moody wrote: "the whole outfit is splendid." Mann was ecstatic.

At night the guns became increasingly audible: an atmospheric change.

[July 14th] An early morning drizzle was followed by an hour of heavy rain beginning at 8 o'clock. "The situation is satisfactory" is the best that Comic Cuts (3) can say of it. Then why was a cavalry division sent up yesterday? If only we had no cavalry the operations might not be spoiled. This is an infantry and artillery war. From all one hears it is plain that the infantry, "the Queen of Battles", is being subordinated to the artillery. Fritz has two new well-wired lines on this front, and it is the conviction of those who have tried him that he is full of fight.

At 11 o'clock we moved to Méaulte, a squalid, only slightly damaged village, where we had a haversack lunch: then the whole Brigade bivouacked on a forward slope one kilometer farther on. On that bit of the way we passed 900 prisoners, then a smaller party, being marched down; a major who looked very haughty and resentful was mocked by the men. At 10, in the dusk, three 5.9 duds fell in the bivouac and one woolly burst above it. Since the Brigade had been in full view of two observation balloons, which were still up, no one need have felt surprise. A new Brigadier had come to us at Buire in place of Robertson, who had been promoted. He came from his quarters and, running along the lines, himself told the men to get to the cover of the reverse slope; so the less disciplined elements of his Command swarmed over anyhow, and the unsteady ran devil-take-the-hindmost. Comment on the incident was that the Brigadier deserved better of the change. As the air rarefied, and the noisy bivouac fell asleep, there arose from the Fricourt road below us the steady grind of heavy tragic. At midnight it became intermittent, then it stopped, for the enemy was putting a barrage of large shell

[July 15th] about the road -- 2, 3, and 4 to the minute. Between the bursts the neighing and snorting of horses and the raised voices of men came from the valley with singular clearness. This lasted for an hour, then the shelling ceased and the halted traffic rolled along again.

Brigade reveille. was at 2.30. Kit is reduced to groundsheet and haversack. At 4 o'clock the Battalion moved down to the Fricourt road through a duck mist. A few broken wagons, dead horses and drivers -- casualties of the midnight shelling -- were passed soon after the road was reached. The soil gave off tear-gas, making eyes and noses run, and spoiling the taste of tobacco. Ambulances, stragglers, detachments, messengers, broken guns passed down. A dead German lay on a stretcher by the roadside. Where the front line of July 1st was crossed we came to ground all pitted with old and new shell-holes; rifles, equipment, clothing, and the litter of a recent and an older battlefield strewed it. The villages of Bécordel, excepting the church tower -- strangely, and Fricourt were flattened. Beyond Fricourt a detour to the right was made because of a barrage of 5.9 shell on the road. The march had been interrupted many times, but at 8 o'clock a halt was ordered and we fell out. Suddenly the mist cleared, the sun shone down, and we saw that we were among the dead of the Welsh Division. Friends were recognized, and buried in haste lest we had to move on. "The cavalry are in Martinpuich", so said report. The truth, when we got it, was that a squadron had been sent up to the Bois des Foureaux, "High Wood", hopefully; it was driven back by heavy fire. The 2nd Queen's, 7th Division, had occupied a corner of High Wood on the 13th, had failed to advance, and had been withdrawn. Whether their report was misleading or thoughtlessly misread, infantry operations were stopped that cavalry night come up and push through: as if the Germans would not use the respite to mend any weakness of their position. Now the task of the Division is the capture of a Switch trench which runs from High Wood to Martinpuich ("Martin's push"). The village is expected to be the Brigade's morsel.

The attack began at 9 o'clock. Again easy progress was seemingly looked for. The 100th and 98th Brigades, the latter in echelon on the left, were sent forward. The first reports were all smiles. Then there was an uneasy blank. Another short move took us across the road to the south-east corner of Mametz Wood. The gossip and grouse of time that hangs heavy began again. A runner going down was asked, "Any news?" "They've got it in the neck." An understanding look and an unspontaneous smile passed round, "We'll be for it now." Meanwhile there was nothing to do but loaf about and seek diversion in small things. Large letters in white paint on a German gun proclaimed it a trophy of our 1st Battalion, also in the XV Corps. Our 17th Battalion had claimed it already in chalk. Two lively Irishmen in our Field Ambulance sent their Pioneer to claim it in yet larger lettering than Colonel Stockwell's. In the afternoon Stockwell and others from the 1st Battalion visited us, and told the bare outline of their doings here, and at Bazentin Cemetery two days ago: both good Shows. Some of us went, exploring in Mametz Wood, where the Welsh Division was so mishandled, and there were nasty sights. A little spasmodic shelling of our area was going on, harmlessly. Scraps of talk filtered through from 100th Brigade H.Q., and from the front. There was angry complaint that our artillery support was poor and misdirected, and that messages to Division were unheeded. As the scraps were put together a local disaster took form. The German guns were splendidly served, the machine-guns were sufficient and artfully placed. Hidden by the long grass and covering the Switch were new wire and unreported posts which stopped all progress. Smitten in front and enfiladed, the two broken brigades ended the day where they began it.

After sunset flights of 0.77 shell twittered over and burst about us with a quiet plop. My first notion was that the German ammunition was strangely defective. It was noxious gas-shell, and we were encountering it for the first time although some had been in use for several months. Drift gas was no longer used. These shells gave off bromine fumes which were choking only to anyone who was close to a burst. A few casualties occurred, so a move forward of 100 yards was made, and we bivouacked by

[July16th] the roadside. At 1:30 the Argylls, withdrawn from the front, passed through to bivouac in rear. We became support brigade. We are assured that "the G.O.C. has the situation well in hand", and we are promised that officers of the Staff will come up -- from Fricourt -- to view the scene in daylight. We are duly impressed on observing how seriously Division takes itself -- at Fricourt.

The night was spent close behind our main artillery position. The noise was more nearly "ear-splitting" than anything I have known. A battery of French seventy-fives had taken station at dusk just in rear. Their high-pitched bark repelled sleep, and attracted the German artillery, whose overs reached the Indian Cavalry picketed close behind the French guns. The fine physique of the French gunners was a revelation. To the noise of their guns and ours had to be added that of ammunition limbers, an occasional squealing mule, constant shouting, and a frequent German shell-burst. The 'where' -- no less than the 'how' -- of sleep baffled me quite, although most of my neighbors solved it. Any shell-hole or scraping in a bank was a couch, whatever attitude of recumbancy it imposed. I tried one such scrape for a time; it was too short and narrow to give even relaxation of muscles: I lay wondering whether a shell, a limber, a mule or man -- dead or alive -- would fall on me. Some men seeking "a better 'ole" in the dark, and not seeing that mine was fully occupied, tried it. Two men dodging a startled mule team stepped, one on my wind and one just not on my face. After that I sat down in the open and longed for day. One of our Sapper officers slept beside a several-days-old corpse without noticing any unpleasantness. All about us the air was heavy with the reek of the dead in Mametz Wood.

In the morning the Brigade transport, which had followed us, was sent away, but Yates chose to keep ours where it was. Throughout the day batteries rolled into the Happy Valley, the prosaic called it the Valley of Death, east of Mametz Wood, and on to the slight rise of Caterpillar Wood until these sites were stiff not with guns but with batteries. "The shelling on both sides is, tremendous," Higginson wrote to Blair, "but nobody worries. Whole brigades sit down en masse in a field, and we bivouac in close order every night. The whole show is in the open; guns and all. Think of us, in your nice white bed with beautiful Sisters floating round. I sleep in my burberry, and we are down to bully, biscuits, etc." Rain came on in the afternoon.

[July 17th] The rain and the noise lasted all night. H.Q., which alone had any shelter, occupied a warren of joined-up shell-holes roofed with shell-punctured iron sheets, through which the rain dripped or streamed to the sodden ground on which we sat or lay. The sun came with day. Ground and wet clothing dried. Orders and counter-orders arrived. There was nothing to do but watch the guns beside us in action and the enemy's counter-battery. Again and again the gunners were driven to cover, and guns were disabled; once the tire of a wheel went spinning 20 or 30 feet into the air. The German gunners could not have shot better over open sights. There was a story next day of an observer with signaling gear having been found up a tree in Bazentin Wood. The overs were few, but they caused us some casualties. Our total so far was 5 killed and 21 wounded; 2 or 3 of the latter were bromine gas cases. In the afternoon G.1 came among us, charged with another official platitude, "The morale of the Division is unimpaired" : a sure index of failure and loss.

The Division was relieving the 21st Division north of Bazentin-le-Petit; it had already relieved the 7th in the village Cemetery. At midnight the Battalion moved through a light barrage of explosive and bromine shells to relieve the 4th King's between the Cemetery and the Martinpuich road. A corporal had been sent to guide D Company to the Cemetery. "The blighter lost his way," says the C.S.M., "and my language quite shocked such a hardened sinner as von R. Graves." There were a few casualties

[July 18th] going up. The night was noisy and wet, the morning quiet and fine. An appalling lot of our dead strewed the easy rise of the High Wood-Martinpuich glacis. Towards midday a gunner subaltern galloped up a gun-team, hooked in an abandoned German gun which no infantry seemed to lay claim to, and galloped away with it. His men, who had never been so near the front, looked as if they thought the earth would open and swallow them. For four hours of the afternoon our position was under a bombardment that caused losses in which H.Q. Details shared largely. One of the first to be wounded was a sergeant. I turned at the sound of a coming shell and saw it burst. Almost at the same moment he shouted, "I'm hit," in a joyful tone, flung off his equipment, and, grinning, came to me for his "ticket to Blighty, sir." It didn't occur to him to have the wound in his back looked at. We had 5 killed and 32 wounded during the day. Dinner was prepared for the C.O. in a deep cemented "dug-out" the servants discovered. Our stomachs turned at food which had been left unfinished before search showed that the floor was removable; it was the lid of a cesspool. After dark the Battalion side-stepped to the right. "Hordes of rats came over D Company's ground. They made a noise like wind through corn. It was uncanny."

[July 19th] There was rain most of the night. For the first time since the night of the 13th I slept for more than an occasional snatch of a few minutes: had a real good sleep, swathed in silk brocade curtains. Two large and very substantially built dug-outs had been found in an Engineers yard. They were furnished with the spoil of some opulent house. All the work in this German yard was thorough, it had the solidity and finish of permanent work. There was reinforced glass in the workshop windows, and in the frames and hot-house of a well-cultivated kitchen garden the like of which I never saw anywhere else in France. The day was fine. There was more activity in the air than usual. We watched the superiority of our airmen with much satisfaction, for the Germans had been having the best of it of late. The Battalion had a quiet, easeful day after several days of physical discomfort and broken sleep, of the exhaustion of mere drawn-out waiting, of being amid almost incessant noise, and of suffering appreciable losses. In all, 10 had been killed and 53 wounded so far.

An early morning operation tomorrow is substituted for yesterday's cancelled night operation against High Wood. It looks like "the goods" this time. High Wood is about a mile east and north of Bazentin-le-Petit, at the waist of a tactically important ridge which it would be good to bestride. The Wood is roughly diamond-shaped with the angles to the cardinal points. Its western angle and the adjoining westerly, and slightly higher, ground was organized as a strong-point to which the partly sunken road to Flers, bounding the north-west side of the Wood, gave the Germans their simplest access. An incomplete trench ran through the Wood from the middle of the north-east side to the Point; it was part of the Delville ("Devil's") Wood-High Wood-Martinpuich Switch. The 800-yard south-west face of the Wood was to be attacked by the 5th Scottish Rifles and The Cameronians, the latter taking on the strong-point. The 20th Royal Fusiliers were to support the attack, follow the 5th S.R., and, pivoting on their own left, mop up the Wood from east to west. The 11th Field Company R.E, was to be at hand for the making of strong-points at the east, north, and west angles. Our approaches are over open ground that rises, in two long shallow billows, to about 60 feet above the Longueval-Contalmaison road. The 7th Division, on the right, and the 5th beyond it, would attack Black Road and Wood Lane at the same time. These were entrenched cart-tracks running from the southern and eastern corners of High Wood to Longueval. The 2nd Worcesters were to cover the left of the Brigade's assembly, but once the advance began the left flank would be open. Such in barest outline was the problem, and the scheme of a Corps operation.

By midnight the units of the Brigade were moving to their assembly

[July 20th] positions. The Battalion was relieved amid confusion, and held in reserve among the shell-holes between the Longueval-Contalmaison road and Flat Iron Copse. Any exit from the Happy Valley was usually a busy traffic route, so our position was an obvious barrage area. All night the Germans dropped crumps about it. Our massed artillery was behind us; H.Q. and its Details were under the muzzles of two batteries. In the dark hours guns fired. Not even youth could sleep; from zero, 3.30, for what seemed a long time we had to shout to be heard. For hour after hour of daylight guns fired. The crumping of the area increased, but the Companies suffered little. That was largely because so many men were detached for Brigade carrying-duty between the dumps at Montauban and the front. Traffic, perhaps fortunately, was nearly all through Montauban. During these hours little happened to interest the rest of us. A man was walking along the Contalmaison road when a 5.9 burst beside him; out of the smoke and dust he was flung in a series of somersaults, just like a rabbit shot when at full stretch: like the shot rabbit he lay all of a limp heap. Another 5.9 tossed D Company's officers, sending Nigel Parry to hospital to lose an eye. They moved. About 10 o'clock there was more commotion among them after a fresh burst. When Barkie detached himself Mann said, "He's coming for you, Doctor." We laughed quietly at the quaintness of his stooping gait, straddling as he ran; it was the agile man's usual run over shell-pocked ground under fire. Graves had a bad chest wound of the kind that few recover from. And so, while we just waited on events and orders, the hours sped.(1)

The events on which our orders would depend were taking place about a mile, as the crow flies, to our right front, on top of the slope that rose before us. We could not see anything of them, and no news or rumor came our way; but without a knowledge of these events an account of our later concerns would be meaningless. When the attacking troops were moving in artillery formation from their assembly position to their line of deployment the German barrage fell on the middle of the column. The casualties were mostly among the 20th R.F. -- two score or so of whom thereupon fell back to the cover of the roadside ditch -and the Sappers. On the right: as the Wood was approached the German barrage was nasty but there was no rifle or machine-gun fire. Proceedings, however, became confused, the assault troops and their supports got all mixed up, and thus 5th S.R. and 20th R.F. pushed through to the other side of the Wood; any who went beyond it were fired on from farther forward, where there was a strip of trees. About a dozen Germans had been captured in an abandoned gun-emplacement: others had been seen bolting back to a trench, the Switch, outside the Wood. Parties of both battalions began to dig along the boundary hedge on the far side. There was scarcely any firing then: the Gordons, on the right; were moving about in the open. After it became light, however, a lot of rifle and machine-gun fire developed, inflicting loss. On the left: The Cameronians right half-battalion came under small-arms fire, but it pushed through to its objective, the far side, without much loss. The left half-battalion was held up by heavy small-arms fire from the edge of the Wood, some riflemen were up trees, and by machine-guns farther to the left. Trench-mortars were sent for to cope with the machine-guns, and they did good work in knocking them out. Upwards of two hours elapsed before The Cameronians, with R.F. cooperation, drove the Germans from their strong-point. Dead and wounded of both these battalions lay in the Flers road. It is doubtful if the strong-point was actually occupied, owing to the fire poured into it from farther west, but The Cameronians and the Germans denied it to each other. The north of the Wood was still in enemy possession, so the Acting O.C. Cameronians asked for reinforcements. By that time men of all three battalions were mixed in the middle of the Wood. German shelling, which had been on its approaches, had shortened on to it; and our guns were firing a lot of shorts(4) into it. As the morning advanced German small arms fire from three directions became more active. There was a wide drive the Germans had used for vehicles, that ran from side to side east of the middle of the Wood; it was littered with bodies; some of them were from an earlier attack (that by the 2nd Queen's). Anyone entering that drive was fired on. Casualties mounted up everywhere: officers became fewer; men fell back singly and in small parties to the lee side. "From quite early the unfortunate R.F. men seemed to be getting killed all over the place to no purpose. The whole operation had been conducted in confusion almost from the start, and for want of superior direction it became a shambles." (The foregoing paragraph has been written from statements by Royal Fusiliers, Cameronians, and Scottish Riflemen.)

The C.O. became impatient in the absence of news, so he sent Conning and Sergeant Roderick forward to learn what had happened. Soon afterwards, getting on for 9 o'clock, he had a message from Brigade saying that nothing [recent] of the situation was known there, asking if he knew anything, and suggesting that he send to find out. About an hour later the O.C. 20th R.F. was seen coming along the road, wounded. He was intercepted. After summarizing the situation he added, in a torrent of ejaculations, that nothing was being done; everything was chaotic; no one was in command; not a reply to a message, not an order, had been received from Brigade. When the C.O. had recovered his breath he suggested to Colonel Bennett to call at Brigade before going to the Dressing-station: but this he did not do.

The passing. of messages, assuming they were sent, between front and rear was always a difficulty, and a vexation at both ends. Before the action Radford had been asked for by Brigade to be employed as Forward Liaison Officer. He was detailed with some signalers to use Bazentin-le-Petit Windmill, 200 yards east of the Cemetery, as the forward post of a relay system. The Windmill had been the target of our artillery, then of the enemy's as the Germans and then we occupied it. It had been mostly destroyed during the week. Being near the village and the Longueval-Bazentin road it was bombarded at every period of enemy activity. "At the beginning of the morning attack the enemy barrage cut the wires. The barrage smoke made lamp signaling impossible, even if adequate preparations had been made for it. The wireless set provided was for transmission only so it was not known if messages were being received. The supply of runners was soon exhausted and was not replaced. At noon I went to Brigade to report the futility of it all." (Radford). Brigade was in poor quarters, a thinly roofed trench in the south-east bight of Mametz Wood, nearly two miles from High Wood, although deep and roomy dug-outs made for a German division were in Bazentin-le-Petit within a few yards of screened view-points from which the face of High Wood and the Flers road could be seen. Advanced Brigade, so-called, in the quarry by the Cemetery, roadside, was a mere relay post. This remoteness was laid down in a General Routine Order, issued because of casualties earlier in the War. The Order was circumvented by Brigadiers who knew when and how to do it, but times without number it warranted the utter negation of Command when prompt and authoritative decision was needed, especially if more than one unit was concerned. Prompt decision and action were essential this day, 'yet none of our Brigade Staff came within hundreds of yards of its dissolving units.' The cost in all the lower ranks of preserving some Generals of brigade and division, and some members of their Staff's, is beyond reckoning, but must be stupendous.

About 11 o'clock the situation in front changed suddenly. A confused mob of all units fell back on the southern side and made for the open. The Second-in-Command of the 5th S.R. was one of the officers and N.C.O.s who rallied them; he met them as he was coming over from Advanced Brigade, having been sent for when his C.O. was wounded early in the morning. A line was re-formed upwards of 200 yards from the southern corner. The Germans had counter-attacked and recovered their western strongpoint, but they did not penetrate the Wood elsewhere, or to any depth there. Nothing was known about it half an hour later to a R.F. party whom one of their officers found on the north-east side, to the left of the fatal drive, and recalled. The newly-come O.C. 5th S.R. was killed when he was reconnoitering with a view to recovering abandoned ground. (This paragraph is from R.F. and Scottish sources).

An Order to complete the capture of High Wood was delivered at H.Q., also about 11 o'clock. Said to have been issued by Division at 8 o'clock, it was seemingly a compliance with the Cameronian early morning call for reinforcement. Company Commanders where summoned to H.Q. for orders and instructions. Conning and Sergeant Roderick arrived with them to help at the talk; they had little to tell except of confusion, and that no one could say much about the situation. The Wood was to be mopped up from east to west. Dispositions were simple: the C.O. added that no obstacle was to cause delay.

A large part of the Battalion was still on fatigue. Little time was needed to fall-in the small body that remained. The perfect steadiness with which the weak Companies formed up on the shelled road was a stirring sight. They marched off in columns of platoons in fours, later in file, at 100 yards interval. Moody led D Company, followed by B, C, and A. "The day was bright, the sun was high, and I was pleased to be moving. Colonel Crawshay and Mr. Mann stood on the left of the road (near the Blasted Tree) and cheered our happy band of about eight men, which comprised the whole of No. 8 Platoon.' (Roderick) Of the full mile to be covered more than half was in a howitzer barrage line. Good though the shooting was it caused neither check nor disorder. Two or three shocked men dropped out: a shell bursting on a section ended it: casualties, however, still were remarkably few. Near Crucifix Corner, before we turned left off the Longueval-Bazentin road, the jovial R.C. Chaplain, McShane, chaffed and cheered us. He had assumed virtual command of the R.F. fainéants there. As the Wood was approached the Intelligence Officer of the 5th S.R., being carried down wounded, was met and questioned, but still the enemy's dispositions remained a mystery to us. Elements of the entire Brigade were seen lying mingled half-way along the southwest side. Part of A and B Companies' carrying-parties were there; they rejoined their Companies. A feeble 5th S.R. company in the eastern angle was the only organized body any of us saw. Moody and two of his subalterns went into the Wood at once to reconnoiter. They had gone beyond where some 20th R.F.'s were, upwards of 200 yards, and learned very little, when Moody was hit in the foot and Barkworth through the cheek. Meanwhile D Company, waiting for the others to come up, was sheltering from machine-gun fire from its near front, and long-range fire from its right or right rear. D, B, and C were deploying along the south-east side of the Wood, with two platoons of A in close support. They were in three columns of three lines each. 'Waiting to attack is like what waiting for the hangman to come and do his job must be. Everyone is eager to get going, one way or the other, for the uncertainty of being launched into eternity or of coming back in pieces is not comforting in these tense moments, but once the button is pressed and the machinery set working all such thoughts are dispelled." (Roderick) By 2 o'clock all were ready. Few of us can credit the flight of three hours since the first stirring of this adventure.

"It was the quietest part of the day in my corner of the Wood when I heard movement behind me, and saw Moody forming up his Company. These Welch Fusiliers were a magnificent sight. They were very weak, their platoons were only the size of sections, but they were out for business. This small controlled force was a most effective contrast to the large loose mass that had been herded into the Wood in the morning, when one attacking battalion and one in support, not mixed with it, would have been ample. Immediately after the Welch Fusiliers had all formed up (their C.O. ordered the advance). They were obviously out for blood, and were most heartening. The platoon sergeant(5) of their right platoon was shepherding his men like a mother, picking up spades, ammunition and anything likely to be useful." (Coltart)

The going was not bad just at the start; but the luxuriant July foliage on the low-hanging. and broken branches, and fallen beech trees, --the result of ten days' shelling -- made keeping any sort of alignment or direction more and more difficult.

"Beyond the 20th R.F. Details was Sergeant Hinder and his Vickers gun. He was one of ours who, along with his team, had been transferred to the Machine Gun Corps. I was going on by myself when I came on him. He said, 'For God's sake, don't go on, the place is full of Gerries.'" (Roderick). Roderick, however, went on ahead of his Company, B, until he arrived on a road outside the Wood without seeing a German. "After looking north I turned south and saw a machine-gun in a T-sap across the road. It let me have a burst, two bullets in the forearm and pieces in the thigh; I found afterwards that a bullet had broken up on the Verey pistol in my pocket. Naturally I made back for the Wood. The Battalion had been held up and was advancing again, but my chapter of the War in France was ended."

A machine-gun which D Company had been feeling since their arrival gave a lot of trouble. They lost another officer, Crockett, and were held up. The gun was spotted near the middle of the north side, in a trench without the Wood. Sergeant '200 Jones turned Corporal Shearsby's section of his platoon half-right. "They silenced it' -- is all I have been able to learn of the incident. The Company barged forward again in rushes from cover to cover such as tree-trunks and shell-holes. In the middle of the Wood the artillery of both sides had to be faced, for the Germans were putting shells into it and our guns were still firing short. Small-arms fire was more and more met as the Companies advanced. A's platoons had closed up on B. C Company, on the left, had passed parties of the other battalions. All were converging on the western corner whence a deadly fire came, but they thrust forward without counting the cost. D Company's last officer fell wounded in a bit of trench near the far side of the Wood. He saw his men "pass on in a hopeless mix-up, bombing and firing at very close range". (Roberts) The C.O., standing near H.Q. at the southern corner, saw a lot of Germans bolt from the Wood to the open beyond the Flers road. Not long afterwards a message informed him that the Wood had been captured. '200 Jones, however, reported that the right of D Company was held up 80 yards short of their objective, and that they were too few to push forward farther against the volume of fire coming from their front. He was told to dig-in: that was as far as his platoon got. The C.O. made a short tour of inspection, and sent Higginson up to order the Companies to make the western corner secure. The shelling had ceased by then.

Soon after the C.O. launched the attack a Brigade Order arrived appointing him "O.C. High Wood." The other units were thereupon told of the attack in progress, and the Trench Mortar Battery was called on to cooperate -- it did not, however, fire during the operation, or any more that day; the subsequent cooperation of all units in consolidating was detailed: "everybody must work at high pressure". Until the arrival of an amending Order the 20th R.F. were not included in his authority. In the interval the officer on whom their command had devolved entrenched himself in the Army List. "I am sainior to Major Cra'shay," he reiterated, and sat tight; and he let his men at Crucifix Corner sit tight.

When approximate casualty reports were made up it was found that 150 of all ranks of the small number in action had been killed or wounded. Every officer who took part in the attack was a casualty. Heastey, the last of the likeable gallant trio of youngsters who joined from Sandhurst in June, was killed: at night his platoon carried him back two miles for burial. Bowles, who came home from Argentina to serve, was brought out smiling, dying. As O.C. High Wood the C.O. was dismayed on learning that the other units were in no better case than we. The Cameronians had lost their Adjutant, all four company commanders and eight other officers, and a great many rank and file. The 5th S.R had only one officer left. The R.F, were disorganized; their losses were nearly two-thirds of the strength with which they began the day. Few Engineers were left; they had no wire and scarcely any other stores. The bulk of the men were enlisted "for the duration", or were Territorials; being without leaders they were a difficult lot to get started on work. In these circumstances Brigade was advised that fresh troops should relieve those on the ground if the holding of the Wood was to be reasonably assured.

Roberts is mentions "a flare-up like a counter-attack by the Germans" on their lost strong-point about 3 o'clock. Some Cameronians joined in the affray, during which a small party of Germans ran from among the trees on the left and escaped into the Flers road. Of the 5 he saw, one, in passing, had a shot at him as he lay. Nothing of the affair was seen by the right of his Company. It is not unlikely that it arose from Germans who had been cut off making a dash for their own side. Apart from that the Wood was a peaceful spot for a couple of hours, cool to walk in on a rather airless afternoon. One could step clear of its north-eastern side with impunity, and at the north end of the beech hedge bounding the Flers road one could stand in gaps apparently unseen, certainly not fired at. But from Delville Wood the enemy kept up a dropping long-range machine-gun fire on the south-east side and southern corner. Exposure near the western corner was apt to draw fire from across the Flers road: perhaps because there was no officer among them earlier our men were not dug into effective possession there. Meanwhile all our working-parties and the Sapping Platoon had rejoined, providing a much-needed reinforcement, and an officer became available for each Company. Chaos had been lessened, and a start was being made with work.

Some time about 5 o'clock the original defense scheme was superseded by an Order to dig and wire a trench running diagonally across the Wood to face the German Switch. The Order to the Battalion to complete the capture of the Wood had been issued by Division, or higher authority, before the successful German counter-attack was made. We never heard what was known behind of the situation when this latest Order was issued. The new line simplified the work to be done, but we on the spot were concerned at handing back to the enemy his strong-point at the western angle and the Flers road that gave entry to it, the only parts of the Wood by which he seemed to set much store. An hour or more later the G.S.0.2 came to H.Q. and explained that the reduction of the ground to be held was because of the machine-guns across the Flers road. To us it seemed that an extravagance of effort had been asked for in ordering, twice, the assault, and capture of a position it was imprudent to hold or deny to the enemy. Had not the whereabout and strength of that armament been known since the disaster to the 100th and 98th Brigades a week earlier? Yet an effectual means of dealing with these machine-guns had no place in the scheme of either of the day's attacks. Nothing, however, was so maddening as his parting remark, "the General has the situation in hand" -- spoken with a straight face. The situation never was grasped. Fumbling fingers far away had trifled with opportunity for hours; and days ago a hopeful infantry advance was stopped that cavalry might be brought up. Now, before our Companies were withdrawn, all was quiet across the Flers road. A R.F. sergeant-major, Armour (of The Cameronians), entered the road, although our men protested that he would draw fire, and walked leisurely round the corner without being fired at.

A fresh start was made. The digging and manning of the new line was divided between D Company, to which Conning was transferred, and B, Coster's -- about 70 all told, on the right; and two R.F. companies, actually elements of all their companies, on the left. Sergeant '10 Jones's attenuated platoon occupied a bit of the Switch as our covering-party. There was a machine-gun where the two battalions joined and one on each flank. A. Company, Higginson's, and C, having Moulsdale Williams in temporary command, were withdrawn to support; H.Q. and they occupied and improved 150 yards of Black Road. The 2nd Gordons continued this line to the right. Elements of the rest of the Brigade still lay mingled along the south-west of the Wood; the 5th S.R. company was in the eastern corner; and there were overlooked oddments inside, but that detail was learned later.

The day had been warm and still with a slight haze, the evening was serene. The escorts of our Air observers and the German fliers met over the Wood, and regaled us with some great art as they maneuvered and fought. The trees masked much of it from us, but our 1st Battalion at Bazentin-le-Grand saw it all. About 8 of our slow planes were patrolling, or spotting for guns, when two Fokkers appeared. One of them marked down a spotter, and had driven it almost to the ground when one of the escort came to its help, and the Fokker fled. A few minutes later a Fokker pounced on another of ours, like a hawk on a bird; the bird, turning and twisting to escape, was being forced always farther down. Our plane was down to about 300 feet when one of the escort rushed to its rescue in a swoop of about 3000 feet. The Fokker gave up its quarry -- which went off groggily, -- swerved and tried to mount, but our fighter was too quick for it. A Lewis gun rapped out short, sharp bursts. Then the Fokker came evenly over us, at only 300 feet, with seemingly splendid bravado, but it was out of control: the pilot had been hit. Our fighter left it to its fate. As it glided slowly over Bazentin Cemetery the troops there fired at it: when above Bazentin-le-Petit Wood it crashed and burst into flames, and a great cheer went up behind. It was a splendid fight, both sides. Guns and all stopped while everyone stood agape.

Shelling by the Germans had begun again before this; intermittent for a time, it became continuous although not at all heavy, and our answering guns fired short so often. A good deal of movement was seen on the right front beyond the Flers road; if the information about it that was sent back reached the artillery no action was taken. Between 7 and 8 o'clock the Sapper officer inspected the new line. He reported to the C.O. that D and B Companies had dug a good trench, but that the R.F. had made very uneven progress; in parts they were down only 6 inches and there was barely cover anywhere. Manual labor was distasteful to them, and was not seriously enforced, for they were officered from their own ranks. The trench did not then follow the line of one dug later at more leisure; it began on the north-east side and ran diagonally across the Wood; near its middle a short piece of earlier, probably German, trench was used.

That the enemy had taken heart of grace, and was closing on the dearly bought ground that had been handed back to him, was apparent after sunset. What looked like a ration-party came up in the direction of the strong-point. Soon afterwards a solitary German strolled across the open towards D Company's right flank. Someone shot him, unaware that others hoped to take him for what he might tell. By this time any detected movement by our covering-party drew such accurate small-arms fire from the west that they were glued to the ground. Since that fire increased until it became continuous the party rejoined its Company when the light faded among the trees. The small-arms fire ceased after that, and there was a short time of quiet. Next, the Germans started a heavy creeping barrage eastwards through the Wood. It stopped short of the trench and lifted on to the communications.(6) The R.F. were feeling comforted at the lifting of the guns when a mixed party of their men, Cameronians and 5th S.R., about 20 altogether, drifted in from the front, past the center machine-gun, shouting excitedly, "He's coming over." They were not demoralized, just leaderless. A R.F. officer had no difficulty in stopping them and bringing them back. He was shot just after doing so. The R.F.s belonged to some posts which had been overlooked. Their H.Q. promptly informed the C.O. that their line, or outpost line, had been rushed and that an attack was developing. It was then about 9 o'clock.

No connected account of the bush-melee in which D and B Companies became involved was ever given me, or any real detail of what happened to B, by those who could have told most. Statements made then, and much later, agree that not a few of them failed to connect the sudden coming of loose bodies of Germans on to their front with an intended attack, consequently it had much of the advantage of surprise. "A strong body of Germans appeared advancing without formation or apparent leadership towards D Company's right. (They came through the Wood from the direction of the Flers road.) It looked as if they were going to give themselves up when they started firing, and we replied. Sergeant Hinder, who was on the Company's flank, ran forward, clear of the Wood, with his machine-gun to try to enfilade them; the wonder is he wasn't killed or captured. Feeling we were outnumbered I ordered the men with me to retire to the edge of the Wood. I had exhausted my own bombs, to good effect I think, when I had to jump quick and beat it as a German aimed at me point-blank and fired." (Powell). One of our wounded, -whether of B or D cannot be learned, told a R.F. stretcher-bearer who dressed him that a party of Germans came over with the seeming intention of surrendering, but on getting within bombing distance they began to sling bombs which they had been carrying hung behind them. "The Welch quickly stopped them" can refer only to a temporary check. No one knew what was happening beyond a very limited circle of himself. Some men lost their heads and fell back, and could not be recalled by their N.C.O.s. That night Conning told how he had tried to pivot his broken Company and maintain a fighting front. Of B Company, it was said at the time that rifle-fire at close range was opened on them, and the attackers closed quickly to bombing range, and that they had to fight on front and rear. C.S.M. Miners, a most dutiful soldier, and half the remnant of the Company became casualties. Coster, a stout, level-headed officer, got away with the residue when they were being rolled up. The right of the R.F.s "heard the Germans coming through the Wood from a north-westerly direction, but none were seen. The men were ordered to fire in the direction of the sounds, and fire was opened among the trees." "The Vickers gun in the center was trained on the direction of the sounds, but it did not fire, it could not do so for fear of hitting the Welsh." Singly and in twos and threes men of ours came back, clear of the Wood behind the strong-point at the eastern angle, and a machine-gun took position there. In the dim light that blurred their forms they were looked on with suspicion when first they were seen, and were not being fired on from Wood Lane or the Switch; but the support Companies were steady enough not to fire. There came to be such a jumble at the edge of the Wood that it was not easy to sort out the two Companies again. Nothing was heard by the C.O. from Conning or Coster, or of them, until they had time to report in person at the end of the affair.

The Germans had reoccupied the Wood up to the Switch; then they made a left-hand drive of the ground in front of it, and attacked our part of the Brigade line. By 10 o'clock they had mopped up a dozen unwounded prisoners of the Brigade. The last to be taken, the witness to these details, was a 5th S.R. lance-corporal who had spent the whole day lying among dead and severely wounded men in a 'gun-pit' beside the traffic gap on the north-east side. His companions were mostly victims of the machine-gun that fired through the gap. From daylight, for hours, men and groups who entered the ride along which it fired had been shot down.

Very soon after all was over a fresh Engineer company arrived with wire and other stores that had been wanting since morning; and the Divisional Labour Battalion came to dig a communication trench. But an inept Command had let the unforgiving hours go by, bearing opportunity with them. When O.C. Labour heard of the altered situation he marched his battalion down again, although the need for a communication trench was greater than when he was sent up. The only fresh troops who might have been used for action were our ration-party under R.Q.M.S. Boreham, and 98 drafts he had brought up; they were all kept as a reinforcement. It was not understood when renewed action was under consideration that the R.F. part of the line was intact until a subordinate officer withdrew his men on hearing . that the Labour lot had arrived. Anyhow, a night attack on an unlocated enemy in a wood was not undertaken. And at 10 o'clock the Germans began a bombardment so merciless that any attempted operation would have been vain. "They plastered the Wood with heavies, machine-guns, and what appeared to be most of the guns on the Somme. This lasted for an hour or more."

The hours of darkness were a time of strained suspense. The experiences of seven such days and nights as had been ours, and the chagrin at the end of them, made nerves susceptible to trivial impressions. A large shell coming from the right rear at intervals and bursting beside the right of the Battalion was, in fact, the only disturbance, but it caused intense exasperation because it looked as if one of our own guns was firing short. We learned two days later that it came from a German enfilade gun at Combles. At

[July 2lst] 1:30 two companies of the 1st Queen's and one of the16th K.R.R.C. appeared unexpectedly and announced our relief. To change over was an affair of minutes. The difficulty of communicating with Brigade continued to the end. Battalion runners had been very unlucky in the barrage: as we went out the last of them to be sent, a corporal of the Signals, was found at the side of a track, wounded in both legs. When we passed through the Happy Valley it was quite silent for the first time since our coming a week ago.

Arrived at our bivouac on the south-east of Mametz Wood, some, even of the hard-bitten, showed signs of the strain through which they had passed now there was no more need to key themselves up. Everyone lay down where he found himself and slept, though the imaginative shouted, cried horrors, and gesticulated in their sleep.

The morning and early afternoon were spent in peace and quiet, cleaning up, and resting in the warm sunshine. Our casualties

yesterday were 2 officers and 29 other ranks killed, 9 officers and I80 other ranks wounded, 29 other ranks missing. Many of the missing were of B Company, the result of the German counter-attack at dark. D Company began the day with 4 officers and 101 other ranks, there were 43 other ranks on relief. One of those wounded at night escaped capture, and crawled out two days later; he wrote from hospital that the Germans behaved well in collecting the wounded. A German N.C.O. was in charge of the left-hand mop-up. He marched the unwounded prisoners of the Brigade to the rear. About two miles back he halted them at a canteen, went in and bought a box of cigarettes and a bottle of brandy; each prisoner was given six or seven cigarettes and a pull at the bottle.

Our disappointment was great that what had been gained so dearly had been lost so supinely. Weakness behind us had ruled the day, but our Companies ought not to have been deceived by the appearance of the oncoming Germans at dusk. Many of us had never seen Germans attacking; those who had seen them had forgotten that they ambled forward in a purposeless-like way, in a very loose line however open the ground; and it was not known, or forgotten, that the German stick-bomb was carried hooked to the back of the belt. The surprise apart, "duration" men felt themselves helpless without bombs to reply to bombs; even the Old Army's ready dependence on the rifle had yielded to the cult of the bomb, and few of our men had one left since the afternoon.

About 3 o'clock the Battalion and its Transport marched to Buire. We passed the 5lst Division going up: they were a fine body of men, although the kilt is a costume that flatters. Our Division was coming out. By holding the south-east of the Wood the net gain of its costly operations was the High Wood approach, from which Corps or Army withdrew the 7th Division eight days ago to give the cavalry a run.

[July 23rd] A Divisional Order pats its own back enthusiastically. The full flavor of it is only for those who know that an acrimonious quarrel rages between Division and Corps. Each blames the other for the recent mismanagement. The affair has gone to Army.

[Judy 24th] Corps, now the 5th, 51st, and 19th Divisions, is said to have failed again dismally against the Delville-High Wood Switch. -- Our camp is a pleasant, restful place by a musical stream with the tones of a rocky bottom, and birches overhanging its steep verdure-clad banks. The excitable have ceased to call out in their sleep.

[July 25th] At Corbie : a large party of newly captured Germans, a fine body of men, marched by in sullen pride. The church is

[July 27th]. heavy, cold, uninspiring. Albert, the Encre of Agincourt days, is a very ordinary little industrial town: if the Cathedral had been destroyed nothing of value would have been lost.

[July 28th] Inspected by the Brigadier. We looked quite passable: if only we were so in fact. How superficial and farcical such inspections are!

This was the hardest-worked rest I remember. The quality of the drafts made those of us who were used to a different personnel fearful of the immediate future, so every working hour was given to trying to get them into some sort of shape. We made up with 540 of all ranks. Whether Volunteers, Derbyites or Conscripts, the average physique was good enough, but the total included an astonishing number of men whose narrow or misshapen chests, and other deformities or defects, unfitted them to stay the more exacting requirements of service in the field. Permission to send back a very few was accompanied by a peremptory intimation that a complaint of any future draft passed by the Base would not be listened to. Route-marching, not routine tours of trench duty, made recurring temporary casualties of these men. The truly disquieting fact about the drafts was that a large number had been attested only six weeks before they came to us, so unready had the War Office been to replace losses properly. What was called training hardly amounted to a "lick and a promise", it did not fit the men to take part in any operation. They had fired only five rounds of ball cartridge; many of them did not know how to load and unload a rifle, to fix and unfix a bayonet. Hitherto training in the Battalion had been the pursuit of specialists or a formality, now it was a matter of H.Q. anxiety and arduous company detail. Men recruited and trained for the Cheshires, Shropshires, and South Wales Borderers arrived resentful of their transfer and unwanted by us. There was a like mix-up in the other battalions of the Brigade. At the time we thought it was owing to confusion at the Base, and incompetence beyond understanding. A rumor, which time proved to be true, was dismissed as a silly joke. Some hairy-eared theorist, in whom the new War Lord trusted, had told him that the way to win was to destroy the Regiment, the immemorial foundation of armies, and nationalize the Army. Roger Poore, who came to us the following year, was commanding a second-line draft-finding unit at home. He told how, in answer to questions at an inspection, he gave his reasons for certain of his methods of training. At a point of his tour the inspector said, "I suppose this is another piece of your esprit de corps. Well, there's to be no more of it." When a chance offered the Shropshires were bartered for half their number of R.W.F. from a neighboring division. As drafts came in we became less English and more Welsh. One draft was purely Welsh from North Wales, ordinarily the leanest recruiting district in the country; the men were mostly clerks, small tradesmen and assistants, farmhands, schoolmasters and such like. The worst element of all had been combed out of our Garrison Battalion in Egypt. These men paraded protesting, one after another, their unfitness for anything but garrison duty. In general fitness they were well up to the average of the other drafts. Throughout the War it was characteristic of men transferred from category units and subsidiary services to resent re-posting to front-line service, and to scheme to get away from it. I noted only two such re-postings who showed enough keenness to earn promotion. An indication of the Home organization was that the drafts said the food was better than in the camps at home. Yet we had been having tinned food almost entirely since they joined us, and only travelling cookers in which to prepare it.

[July 29th] Something of the French was to be seen at Bray. Their transport is a mixed lot of Army and civilian vehicles. It looks simple compared with ours, but very practical -- down to the bits of string with which harness is held together. They work their German prisoners mighty close to the shells. The German artillery shooting at the observation post in the church steeple was good enough to flush the French observers. Just behind the village the corn harvest was being hastened in.

[July 31st] On a route-march of 6 miles no one fell out! -- When the death of Bowles and of Graves was reported through the Field Ambulance, nine days ago, the customary letters were written to their kin. Now Graves writes to the C.O. that the shock of learning how much he is esteemed has recalled him from the grave, said that he has decided to live for the sake of those whose warm feelings he has misunderstood.

[August 1st] In Amiens: a dusty drive with a merry party: a day off for the C.O., who has got whiter about the gills with the coming of each draft. Amiens must be the cheeriest provincial town in France: it is stiff with Lines of Communication limpets; with officers who have been in the soup and are for it again, with French troops, and with perfumed "refugees" robed with disarming modesty. It is good to see that the ancient rue des Corps nues sans Testes and the rue des Trois-Cailloux have not been renamed after some modern politician or writer of a day. We lunched at the Hotel du Rhin, where Gibbs, Thomas, and Co., the official journalists attached to G.H.Q., live in state. It was diverting to contrast the supercilious indifference with which they jostled past the mere front-line officer, and frowned on his unwitting approach to their reserved tables, with their alert deference when a Red-tab entered the room. After Drinkwater had led the way into every bar in or off the rue des Trois-Cailloux, and I had bought some things for the Mess, he said there would "be no damned shopping next time" he came to Amiens. I did not know until later that "Drinkwater" was a nickname, I thought it a coincidence. Dinner at "The Godbert" was good, even at the money, and decorous, although Colonel P., lamenting, after the sweet, that he had not had any dressed lobster, did get down on all-fours to stalk an unwatched dish on another table; and he devoured it with help.

We must have owed the day's outing to some legerdemain by Yates's staff. The O.C. Field Ambulance had to refuse the use of a car unless we found the petrol. The time is supposedly past when a motor-transport man scoops a hole in the ground and fills it with petrol every time he wants to cook a stew, or wash a shirt, or heat shaving water. Petrol is rationed, and car journeys are logged. Since there is no aerodrome near to spare a few tins, Yates was consulted; as usual he said, "It can't be done". Next morning, however, he mentioned, in the course of his official talk after returning from Refilling Point, that "there are two tins of petrol round at my place". In time, as scraps of talk were pieced together, it was learned that the Field Ambulance Quartermaster counted on the roadside the twenty tins of petrol he had indented for; turning about to check his count he made the number eighteen, and no subsequent recount made it more, nor could he or Supplies explain the discrepancy. His C.O. always said he had a "very simple Quartermaster".

[August 2nd] Dolling rejoined from hospital; one good draft anyhow.

[August 4th] Thanks to Division and the C.O. I am one of 5 battalion officers sent by car for a few hours at the sea. We started at 5 in the morning and ran through Amiens, Picquigny, Abbeville, the lower Somme valley and St. Valery to Cayeux, a fourth-rate holiday resort. The sun beamed on us all the time.

[August 5th] The night air is getting nippy. The Somme at Cayeux has not the scenic interest of the Canche at Etaples. Returning, we broke the journey at Abbeville to have a look at St. Wolfram's.

From time to time stories get about of somebody's darling being kept in cotton-wool when a unit is in action. Of one in whom a Higher Command had been induced to take an interest, and convey it to his C.O., is this note: his C.O. got a telegram -- "Has my poor nephew come through all right?" It wasn't for his safety that her "poor nephew" had been left out on kit-guard.

A remark by one of our artillery subalterns explains some erratic shooting: "If we fire over you, God help you; we've only one trained gunner per gun left." Of one group in Caterpillar Wood 75 per cent. became casualties. In our recent operations the 19th Brigade had heavier losses than the 98th or 100th. (The 51st Division came out of High Wood with only two-fifths of the 33rd Division's losses).

Some of our Old Sweats have been returned by the 10th Battalion to which they had been posted. They were such a nuisance, there being neither company officers nor N.C.O.s who could handle them, that they were gifted to us. The Old Lot in the area have been doing well; between the fleecing of drafts at "Crown and Anchor", and the gleanings of the battle-field, they have lined their pockets.

Army's verdict is for Division: Corps has been strafed for the High Wood mess. It is just: the fault began at Corps. But the feeling in every H.Q. in the Division is of remand on probation, not acquittal, and that Corps will have the G.O.C. fired yet. The Division is returning to the line with every Brigadier and O.C. on tenterhooks lest he be made the scapegoat of the man above him.

[August 6th] We marched at 10 in the morning to the hillside behind Bécordel, and bivouacked. Report says that 9,000 horses and mules water at Bécordel and 17,000 at Méaulte: immense, if true. For most of a week we were there the weather was broiling.

[August 10th] One wet night was followed by a dull day, and an inactive front: fortunate, for the King was about. On most days a time of drum-fire suggested a local attack on this unstable front.

The Staff Captain, a near relative of the Army Member of the Canteen Board, was with the G.O.C. when our prices were asked about. We sell "Gaspers" at 30 centimes, taking the full trading profit; the Expeditionary Force Canteen charge is half a franc, and the Church Army Huts one franc, for the same packet; their prices up here for other articles are likewise extortionate. There had been questions in Parliament because of an outcry at E.F.C. prices, which were thereupon reduced.

Training continued, and recreational training was added to supple unused muscles. It was surprising how few of the drafts, whether townsmen or country-bred, even the young, could clear a series of 20-inch hurdles: more surprising that some of the young officers failed, one a Sandhurst boy. Our awkwardest recruits were coming on, but some of our number had taken an active dislike to the outlook. A stalwart, self-assured boy, proud of the full rank he was given at home, pleaded his youth, and sulked until his mother's proof that he is only seventeen arrived. Another model of robust health, who had tried hard to get away, paraded before the C.O. "It's no use reporting sick," he protested, "you know what the doctor is." "We have a cheerful time in store," Higginson wrote to Blair, "we are going in with about 40 of the Béthune men per company" [B had less than 20], "the others are recruits, and the proportion of officer recruits is much the same."

[August 13th] In the dark of morning a short move was made to Fricourt Wood. We reported the outgoing unit for leaving filthy lines. At the close of the ensuing correspondence the two C.Os. were not on speaking terms. The German gunners have made our last month's bivouac unoccupiable; they have many more guns: their infantry is well wired in. -- Summoned to attend the Brigadier: found him a self-willed patient. The German dug-out in the village, which Brigade occupies, is a three-storied, many-roomed dwelling underground, with heating and sanitary arrangements; its electric lighting has ceased to work.

[August 16th] Moody is back: another asset. A German airman he met in hospital at Rouen said their game is up, Austria has let them down, but they will fight to the end: he was quite ignorant of our side of things, thought our Navy was scuppered at Jutland.

[August 17th] A German plane, coming out of a cloud, found one of ours on top of him; about a dozen shots had been fired when the German turned on his side and planed down behind us ablaze, like a comet. It was a fine sight against a deep blue sky and great cumulus cloud, but terrible to think about if the pilot wasn't shot dead.

For six days we found large working-parties to dig a communication trench to High Wood, and to carry from the Bazentin Dumps. They came in for enough shelling to light up the picture of "shell-shocked", and "gassed", for which two years of lurid journalese in the home papers had prepared the minds of the drafts; so the Dressing Station nearby had many importunate applicants for admission. After three weeks of ideal camping conditions the weather had broken, and the drafts were having to make their first crude attempts to get themselves some shelter and comfort.

[August 18th] Another chilly night, and noisy. A gray morning broke. fine. More noise from 11 till noon. 2.45 was zero for a push through Wood Lane and High Wood by the 100th and 98th Brigades while demonstrations were made on the right and left. The gun-fire was over in little more than an hour. Through it all the Band of the 6th Welsh Pioneers practiced: it's a good Band, and plays good music of the "popular" kind: a great din of guns made the strangest of obbligatos. We had rumors of success everywhere. There appeared to be a local counter-attack, or renewed attack, of short duration about 6 o'clock. At 7.30 we heard that "nothing has been gained," that "the situation is obscure." A warning order for us followed. We moved forward and, after many wearisome halts, arrived in the dark on the Longueval-Bazentin road below High Wood, and hung about.

[August19th] When day was breaking we resumed movement, still more wearisome; through a communication trench near Crucifix Corner. We were foodless and sleepless. A few widely dispersed shells came over at intervals, as from one howitzer firing at random. Drafts filtered to the tail of the Battalion, persuaded they were "shell-shocked," and formed a little party who would not be convinced by gentle suasion alone that the burst of a shell 100 yards off would not be taken as proof of shell-shock. At last they rejoined their Companies, reluctantly but with heads fairly erect. We relieved the 2nd Argylls. Yesterday they lost 180 men out of 400. High Wood had broken another of several attacks since July 20th.

B, C, and D Companies hold a trench about 100 yards from the Germans, A is again in support. In the autumn heat the air is fouled with the smell of innumerable dead so lightly covered that in unsuspected, though extensive, places one's tread disturbing the surface uncovers them, or swarms of maggots show what one is seated near. An added smell was from charred wood, for an attempt had been made to burn the enemy out by projecting wads of ignited oily rag from old oil-drums converted into mortars. Most of these had been smashed by the bad shooting of our own heavies. And an attempt to sap across No Man's Land by a mole, driven by a water-ram, had resulted in the blowing of a gap in our own line, which gave the German snipers targets until we repaired it. In the morning a shell killed the R.A.M.C. Orderly attached to infantry aid-posts in those days. The day was quiet on the whole. In the late evening the German field-guns and 4.2 howitzers plastered the support and H.Q. position along the south-west border of the Wood. An enemy attack seemed the likeliest explanation, so the support line wondered whether our drafts from the front or the Germans would be the first to leap through the. beech hedge on to it. After the strafe ended the German gunners continued to be offensive spasmodically. They frustrated two attempts at H.Q. to cook a dinner, by putting shells into the cookhouse and upsetting the pots; they swept our rustic Mess of its contents a moment after we had gone out of it; a shell burst on a Sapper who took a seat from which I had just risen to attend to the trench-mortar team, of whom a shell had killed 5 and wounded 2. When it became dark Radford took out a small patrol from D Company; he found the German trench stiff with men, and No Man's Land a tangle of fallen branches and trees that made movement both difficult and noisy.

The C.O. had no news from the front until routine reports came in, so there was nothing after all to be anxious about. There were 6 casualties in the three front Companies in the twenty-four hours, and two dozen in H.Q. and A Company in that lively hour. Two Companies mentioned the shelling in rear, and quiet where were. One Company's report that 'an enemy bombing attack had been broken up' was received with unquestioning thankfulness and passed on to Brigade. Since only Orderly Room knew the contents of these reports the rest of us suspected Brigade or Division of some invention when G.H.Q.'s daily summary was published: "quiet on the British Front except in High Wood where an attack by the enemy was driven off", it said in effect. In was a phantom attack. The Company Commander saw it in the smoke-wreaths of a guttering candle in his shelter. The reality may be described in two scenes. The Company Subaltern on Duty was feeling none too sure of himself as the stream of shells swished overhead and burst behind, for it was his first hours in a trench, so he was immensely heartened by the sight of his C.S.M., Dealing, leaning at ease over the parapet and looking round. "See anything, Sergeant-Major?" he asked with what unconcern he could put into his voice. "It appears to me, sir, that there's sweet damn-all." And Dealing found a well-meaning young draft sitting on the floor of the trench, zealously firing his rifle skywards. "Indirect fire on Bapaume! Indirect fire on Bapaume!" was Dealing's rebuke, for sergeants rule by sarcasm. Never can there have been an Army without its Falstaffs and its Pistols. During the War some were hit, many were "invalided with rheumatism", others were sent to jobs by a tactful C.O. Some breathed life enough into their men in buckram to get away with a decoration, and some did earn one; not a few got promotion, which might be repeated, at home or in some eddy overseas.

[August 20th] In the morning Dolling and his C.S.M. were killed by a shell : a great loss. In the afternoon a few of us watched a 1st Division battalion scrambling up the slope beyond the Flers road; the Germans, after failing to outflank them, bolted over the crest. It was a good little surprise rush, though checked by our guns firing short.

Since our Division has not yet made any progress this tour the G.O.C. is pressing, and the Brigadier very pressing, to "do something". D Company is for it tonight. All arrangements have been made behind by some person or persons unknown to us. Sketchy is not the word for the Order. There is no word one dare utter of the prospects. I went with the C.O. to see our 4.5's register. We thought their observer uncommonly easily satisfied. At zero his battery fired without attracting much attention from those most interested, and no one heard anything of the trench-mortar fire. It was possible that the sounds were drowned by the clatter of arms and equipment in tremulous hands, which someone likened to "a runaway tinker's cart". Anyhow, the senseless scheme of an attack in a thicket after dark by tyros was a washout from the start; the men didn't follow their officers out of the trench.

[August 21st] Wilson, Dolling's successor as O.C. B Company has been killed at the same place. Our 13-pounders persistently fire short on our right, in contrast to the German guns which we see fire with great accuracy close in front of their own line. -- The creeping barrage has been revised; the lifts are to be 50 yards per minute. The where and length of pauses matter more. -- An Engineer specialist came to prospect the use of a smoke-screen: the prevailing wind is contrary. -- Division and Brigade are calling for skilled patrolling and exact observation. The fun of it is that the trained Scouts of Brigade's original battalions have been kept at Brigade, doing only menial jobs for close on two years, and "can't be spared". No one from the Staff has come to examine the position in our time. Once the Brigadier did come -- and go after a hasty look at it.

"'Sunny Jim' was the name by which the troops best knew Private Edge of B Company. He was a bit on the weak sire, although he had stuck all the marching of the Retreat, and ordinary duty afterward s until the M.O. gave him a job on the Canteen Staff. High Wood and the ground in rear was an unhealthy place in August 1916. One morning Sunny Jim appeared. He had no equipment but a pack slung by the supporting straps. 'What do you want?', I asked. Edge had a slight impediment in his speech. "I fort the boys would want some sigawettes, so I've bwought some up.' He had come about 7 miles because he 'fort the boys wanted cigawettes.' He went round the Companies, sold his stock, and went off again as if it were nothing out of the ordinary." (Boreham).

All the Companies are rattled. The Old Lot show it too, although there are some splendid stoics. This morning three of B, all good men, came and begged to be sent to the Transport for a rest: they said that they could not stand being in with the drafts any longer. One fell on his knees and wept when told that they must stick it and show a good example, but they were taken for a few hours rest to a trench where I had slept. Going later to see how they were I found them gone: found too that the trench was floored with very lightly covered dead. I had said it was warm and soft to lie in. When next we met their smile of greeting was sickly.

At midnight the Germans had the wind up. They put up flares all round; threw out their defensive screen of bombers, and dropped

[August 22nd] all their barrages. At 5 a.m. we were relieved, and went into support at Crucifix Corner. Ever afterwards these three days were spoken of by the experienced officers, N.C.Os. and others as "a nightmare". Our casualties for the tour were upwards of 70. The German is master of the air here at present, he flies all over us, scatters our scouts, and slips away from our fighters. These were the days of the supremacy of the Fokker monoplane.

[August 24th] There was a tremendous din for two hours in the early morning. The 100th Brigade made some progress between Delville and High Woods: we got the overspill of the shelling. We were often under dispersed shelling during four days of finding day and night working-parties. A dud made a trench cave in on two men; although dug out ever so quickly they were dead. -- Some of our Old Lot were offered an extra tot of rum to bury a more than commonly unburied body. After dark they had a funeral, and got the rum. In daylight next morning another squad earned the rum.

[August 26th] At 4 a.m. we returned to High Wood through a barrage, slight but unpleasant enough; there was one casualty; only two of the drafts jibbed. A suggestion by the C.O. to make a dash at the flanks and bomb in was vetoed by Brigade, where he is not persona grata. Anyhow, our Division is marking time; High Wood is to give luster to another. Untaught by what happened eight days ago when the propulsion of end-to-end tubes charged with ammonal, the leading tube shod with a mole, was tried as a means of blowing communications to the German line. Someone has six moles at work. Our G.S.O.1 came and asked to see them, giving a long technical name in which "hydraulic", was the clue; he looked more dangerous than peeved at a scoffing response, "Oh, you mean the Heath Robinson stunt." None of us pedestrians understands how a mole can be expected to keep direction among the roots of even such shallow-rooted trees as beeches. Sure enough, it was not long before a sentry was seen, standing spell-bound by an object in front of his post; like a fabulous monster it rose out of the earth jerking and waggling. It was a dislocated mole. (I never heard of the mole being used at the front in soil where it might have been practicable.) Flame projectors and other gadgets are on the ground to ensure a spectacular capture of the Wood by the 1st Division. A current view among those who knew the G.O.C. 1st Division as Brigadier in the 33rd is that if hot air be the further means to success he has a never-failing supply in himself. (The attack was made a week later. Again the "pipe-pushers" tore gaps only in our own line; and again the Germans had the laugh at the oil-rags; this time a Stokes mortar fired short, lighting them too soon. The rest was tragedy. High Wood was never captured by assault except on July 20th. In the second half of September an attack on a wide front, led by caterpillar tanks armed with guns, making their first appearance, carried the line beyond Flers on both sides of the Wood; the German garrison was cut off from support or escape, and surrendered to the Civil Service Rifles.)

[August 27th] Relieved by the 1st Black Watch, we withdrew to Fricourt Wood in rain. The mud is inches deep in what was a pleasant sylvan retreat nine days ago.

[August 28th] The Gazette with the Givenchy decorations is out. That sort of list always has surprises for those who saw most of the Show; not infrequently, the most deserving and the undeserving are rewarded equally. Some details of a shelling of Béthune have reached us. Favorite haunts are said to be holed and tenantless, and some familiar inhabitants are casualties; the proprietor of The Globe is one of them.

[August 29th] At 6 a.m., we moved to a trench in front of Montauban; the trench, in its first state, was a ditch. We are lent to the 98th Brigade who nibble at Wood Line. A bit for C Company has been cancelled owing to the heavy rain. Operations are at a standstill; our working-parties come back through the mud at one mile an hour. Some of the drafts are singing, others have had to be sent to the Transport for shelter and rest.

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(1) "Graves": Robert Graves. The story of Graves' injury is discussed in greater detail by Graves himself in his Goodbye to All That.

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[preface] [chapter 9] [chapter 10] [chapter 11]