Sketch Map to illustrate the movements of the C.S.R. from 28 Nov. 1917 to 6 Dec. 1917
The members of the reconnoitring party had only just thrown off their equipment for a rest when it was found that they had been brought to the wrong place, so, dispensing with the doubtful services of a guide, Colonel Segrave led his officers through the wood in search of some one willing to be relieved by his Battalion. The right place was found to be in a small German dug-out in the road leading to the village of Bourlon along the western edge of the wood, and here the Colonel, learning that he was to take over that night the positions held by the 2nd Dismounted Cavalry Brigade and the 2nd/5th West Yorks Battalion, made his dispositions and set off with his Adjutant and Medical Officer to find his Battalion in the Hindenburg Line. The Company Commanders remained behind to look round their respective fronts.
On his way back, Colonel Segrave surprised a member of the R.A.M.C. at a dressing station by begging from him a tin of bully beef and a biscuit. The spectacle of a Colonel eating bully beef was too much for the R.A.M.C. man, who stared after the three officers as though he had seen ghosts.
A long wait for orders in the Hindenburg Line ended in the Battalion moving off without any at 9.0 p.m. There was a bright moon, and the night was perfectly quiet at the start, when there was nothing to suggest the exciting time that was in store for the troops before they were to arrive at the front line. But on reaching the Relay Post on the Cambrai road, where the guides and Company Commanders were to have been, the head of the Battalion became enveloped in a barrage of gas shells. The rest of the journey was what is known as “windy” in the extreme. Gas masks had to be worn, and in pushing through the barrage, some casualties were suffered, one platoon of “C” Company losing very heavily after passing Battalion Headquarters.
The relief was complete at about 2.0 a.m., and except for gas shelling the situation became much quieter.
“B” and “D” Companies held the front line, the former, under Lieutenant C. M. Kilner, being on the left, just outside the southern edge of the village, and with half a Company on each side of the road leading from Battalion Headquarters to the village. “D” Company, under Captain R. Middleton, connected with the right of “B” and held a position inside the wood and about 300 yards south-east of the village. “D” Company Headquarters was in a most palatial deep-dug out which had formerly been the Headquarters of a German artillery brigade. “C” Company, under Captain T. H. Sharratt, was in support near “D”. Soon after taking up their positions, both “B” and “D” Companies sent out patrols towards the village, but although Lieutenant W. E. Hoste took his patrol into the village, and entered one or two houses, no Bosches were found.
The quiet night was followed by a distinctly noisy day, throughout which the enemy heavily bombarded the front line positions, the whole of the wood, and the roads all round the outside of the wood.
In the middle of the morning, the Brigadier arrived with the news that there would be no further advance, and that the positions now being held were to be consolidated. “A” Company, who were in reserve, under Lieutenant L. C. Morris, M.C., round about Battalion Headquarters, accordingly spent the rest of the day in carrying barbed wire, pickets, sandbags and ammunition from a dump at the cross roads known as Anneux Chapel to a forward dump near Battalion Headquarters. The casualties during the day amounted to one officer and no less than fifty four other ranks—a pretty heavy toll for a day when no attack took place!
BOURLON WOOD FROM SOUTH-WEST CORNER, 1917.