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.