The Cologne is a small stream which, rising in the high ground which separates the headwaters of the Escaut or Scheldt from the Somme, runs in a westerly direction and joins the latter river at
Peronne. It flows through a broad open valley, and is quite a small stream, but with a wide, marshy bed in many places. In the summer of 1918 it had no surface water above Tincourt.
For the pursuit of the enemy beyond Peronne the 11th Brigade Group, with the addition of the 3rd Pioneers as an extra Infantry Battalion, and some British Horse Artillery, was organised as an advance guard, and moved forward after very short notice on the afternoon of the 5th. The 11th Field Company attached No. 2 section (Lt. Rhodes) to the 42nd Battalion in the vanguard, No. 1 section, with its own transport and No. 2 transport to the 41st Battalion (main body). No. 3 section, with Coy. Headquarters, moved with the 11th Brigade H. Qrs., and No. 4 was allotted to the special task of repairing a bridge at Peronne. The move was slow and difficult owing to the congestion on the roads, and if ever the enemy bombing ’planes missed an opportunity they did so that night. Company Headquarters established itself in a trench on the Northern slopes of Mt. St. Quentin, and it says a great deal for the “Bump of locality” of the unit generally that touch was maintained throughout, and not one of the numerous detachments into which the Company was split got lost or mislaid in the darkness, in strange country rendered most difficult to traverse by old trenches and barbed wire.
It would be tedious to trace the movements of the various sections and detachments during the next few days, when the 11th Brigade pushed rapidly forward on the heels of the enemy, and captured Buire, Tincourt, and Roisel. No. 2, split into detachments, searched fruitlessly for booby traps and patched up accommodation for Battalion Headquarters. No. 3 did the same for Brigade, and also repaired an important bridge near Mt. St. Quentin and opened up a well or two. No. 1, after some smaller jobs, started work on repairing the river crossing at Courcelles Mill leading to Cartigny, and was joined by No. 4, whose bridge at Peronne had been found not necessary, and who did quite a lot of walking in the meantime. By noon on the 7th two bridges across the branches of the Cologne stream, each strong enough to take 17-ton axle loads, had been completed. The transport which had started from near Curlu succeeded in keeping in the race, and in delivering supplies to the sections. Company Headquarters moved to Three Tubs Wood, N.E. of Doingt, on the 6th, and on the 8th to the outskirts of Boucly, across the river from Tincourt. The Boche had been driven too rapidly from the neighbourhood of Peronne and Doingt to have time to carry out demolitions; not only were the bridges at Doingt untouched, but there were many useful hutments in the vicinity. Further up the Cologne valley, however, all the extensive hutments built by us about 1917 had been burnt, and every bridge was destroyed between Doingt and Tincourt. A small bath house near Brusle had been deemed worth a charge of explosives.
In Buire an enamelled bath in an officers’ bathroom had been thoroughly perforated with an axe, as had the large copper used in conjunction with it. A number of small pumps were eagerly rushed by the water supply sappers, but each had had an essential lug or something of the sort broken off with a hammer. The camp which the Company occupied near Boucly had not been destroyed, possibly because the shelters were steel, the German equivalent of our “Large English” or Elephant shelters. The park in which this camp was situated was full of an extraordinary assortment of German vehicles, many in good order. There were wagons light, heavy, and extremely heavy; field cookers and field bakery ovens, ambulances, patent telescopic observation towers on wheels, and other curiosities.
The Company annexed from this collection a useful light wagon and a brand-new cooker.
The villages in this area had all been systematically destroyed by the Boche in his retreat of 1917, and had never been rebuilt. It was quite easy to see that many of the houses had been burnt out, and not destroyed by shell-fire. In some places all the trees along the road side had been cut half through with axes, evidently at the same period, and had subsequently had the gashes filled with cement and strapped with iron. Most of them seemed to be flourishing.
On the South side of the valley there were mine craters at most road junctions. On the evening of the 7th, when No. 3 section moved to Boucly, its attention was drawn by a certain battalion to a suspected mine on the road near Brusle. It was useless explaining that the section with its transport had just marched right over the place; the Battalion H. Qrs. was insistent, so the section officer and a couple of his men went back to investigate. The Boche had evidently intended planting some anti-tank mines, and had dug holes across the road for them, but had been disturbed or had changed his mind. There was nothing in the holes but loose stones. Very early the next morning the O.C. of the Company, on his way to visit No. 3, saw the holes, and, not knowing of the previous night’s incident, got off his horse and investigated. He had just finished raking the stones back when a Pioneer Company Commander, whose men were filling in some craters a little further back, panted up on a bicycle, saying he had heard there was a mine about somewhere, and he was responsible for roads, so he also investigated. Later in the morning the O.C. met two subalterns of another Field Company, who asked if he had heard anything of a road mine near Brusle, because they had special orders from the C.R.E. to examine it thoroughly and report. They were directed to the spot, and when last seen were carefully removing the stones from the holes.
While the caution shewn in this was perhaps excessive, that care was necessary was evidenced by the delay action mine which
blew up where the main road crossed the railway at Roisel, long after the division had left the area.