“I shall never forget the sight that met our eyes on the other side of the town,” writes De Ath. “It took us some time to realise that we were looking on what was to us, an almost incredible and unheard of thing—a vast armed camp just behind the trenches and well within shell fire. As far as the eye could see there were miles of tents, bivouacs, limbers and horse lines. Huge dumps of supplies and ammunition covered the ground, and between them, in any old corner, were the big guns—huge monsters roaring incessantly and devouring the great piles of shells stacked around. Everywhere were scenes of the greatest activity, and one could only rub one’s eyes and gasp at this astounding spectacle. The colossal cheek of that great camp rather shocked us, but there it was, unconcerned and undisturbed, thanks to our magnificent aircraft, constantly patrolling above with never an enemy plane daring to do likewise.
“We pitched our bivouacs on the crest of a ridge just behind the old front line, and to the left of Becourt Wood. From that high point we got a good view of the surrounding country. At our feet the usual flotsam and jetsam of abandoned trenches with their tangled heaps of barbed wire. Away behind us was the wooded country-side which came as a change after the drab monotonous scenery of the Flemish Flats. Closer at hand the ruined Cathedral caught one’s eye.
“But away in front, in the wake of the advance, the picture was entirely different. It was a scene of desolation—a desert of low ridges, scarred and marked by blurred lines of chalk trenches and shell holes. Here and there a few jagged tree stumps stood out, but nearly every feature of the landscape had been swept away by the furious pounding of our shells.
“All along the sky line our heavy shells and shrapnel were bursting continually, so that the smoke never ceased. Now and again it would slacken only to break out again with double intensity. Behind and around us the ‘Heavies’ boomed and roared, whilst in front in every little valley and hollow, even in the open without pretence of cover, our 18-pounders snapped and barked viciously, alternating with the deeper notes of the 4·5’s and the 60-pounders. Between whiles one heard the heavy ‘crump’ of the Hun shells.
“A confused blur showed where a village once stood, but only a heap of rubble and dust was left, revealed more often than not by the junction of several roads. In the dip below lay Fricourt, to the left Thiepval and Pozieres where bloody fights raged on July 1st. Further away the green mass of Mametz Wood, still providing excellent cover in spite of the thinning out it had undergone. Further on lay Contalmaison, Montauban and the Bazentins, with Delville Wood to the right, and there on the crown of the ridge a little bunch of tree stumps marked the wood that was to be our goal, the key to the desperate game that we were to play on the morrow. The country seemed surprisingly difficult. A series of low hills and ridges plentifully dotted with woods and villages and traversed by numerous sunken roads, culminated in the ridge which overlooked the plain of Bapaume. Most of that ridge was already ours, but in many places the enemy still hung out with stubborn tenacity. It looked terrible country to fight through—naturally strong and made almost impregnable by German science and skill.
It was realised that the Civil Service Rifles were about to go through the most severe test in their history, by the side of which Festubert, Loos, and even Vimy Ridge would be insignificant. The thorough training which had just been completed, however, had filled all ranks with confidence, and the great Somme trek, which ended on the 14th of September with the relief of the 1st Surrey Rifles in the front line trenches in High Wood, brought to a close a period of training which for really strenuous work has never been beaten. Some, in fact, allege that the Division was overtrained at this time, and that the “finishing school” at Franvillers had nearly finished them off. But in spite of these allegations, it is believed that the Battalion had never been better prepared for battle.
CHAPTER X
HIGH WOOD
What a wonderful scene it was along the New German Road on the afternoon of the 14th of September—a never-ending transport column moving along in broad daylight, conveying ammunition and R.E. material for the big fight. An object of special interest to the Civil Service Rifles was one of the tanks which was passed on the road. The men studied it critically and expressed a pious hope that it would turn up all right on the day.
Although the road was so crowded with traffic, there was little shelling, and after passing Bazentin-le-Grand the long communication trench was entered and the front line reached without loss.
High Wood was about the last vantage point that the enemy held along the ridge. Only a few jagged trees remained and the ground was littered with broken limbers and pitted with innumerable shell holes which literally intersected one another. Various trenches ran through the Wood, of which the greatest part was held by the enemy.
The relief over, it became known that zero for the attack would be at 5.50 a.m. on the morrow, and thereupon a weird silence fell over all the area of the assembly trenches, where the men were packed like sardines in a tin. Many chapters have been written in an attempt to describe the eve of a battle, but the finest description ever written falls very short of expressing the feelings and thoughts of the men as they wait in their assembly trenches for the dawn.
No attempt will be made here to describe the eve of High Wood. Suffice it to say that it was a very quiet night; that the troops, as they stood squashed up in Black Watch Trench, fervently hoped that their fate on the morrow would be better than that of the Battalion whose name the trench bore; and that the only fellows who got any sleep were those who crept out into No Man’s Land to lie down in shell holes. Rum was issued at dawn, and after a sleepless night it was unusually welcome.
And now zero hour approached, and thoughts turned to the tanks, which were due to be on the German front line five minutes before zero. The time drew nearer, but no tanks appeared, and a few minutes before zero, Company Commanders received a message telling them to send an officer to guide the tanks, if seen. Thus, the Civil Service Rifles were handicapped at the start, for the tanks were neither seen nor heard.
Owing to the irregular formation of the assembly trenches, “B,” “C” and “D” Companies had been instructed to creep out before zero, so that when the attack started they would be forming a straight line with “A” Company, who were on the extreme right. These Companies accordingly began to creep up soon after 5.30 a.m. The fight, therefore, can be said to have started well before zero, for at once as these men left their trenches, German rifles opened fire, followed by machine guns, and by zero hour the three left Companies of the Civil Service Rifles, together with the Battalion on their left, were already being treated to a murderous fire from a multitude of machine guns and rifles in the German front line trenches. At the same time down came the German artillery barrage on the assembly trenches. As there was no artillery support whatever, the attack at this point was held up, but not before about four-fifths of “B,” “C,” and “D” Companies had been either killed or wounded.