After many hours the Cough Drop was reached by the party bringing up the rear, which included Battalion Headquarters, and here one of the other Companies was met coming in the opposite direction. They, too, had a guide who was lost. The Adjutant now took up the running alone and plunged into the darkness on an exploring tour. He soon came back, and then led the whole party, now consisting of a good many more than half the Battalion, through Drop Alley to the Flers Line. The going now began to tell on the exhausted troops and several there were who collapsed unconscious in Drop Alley, weighed down by the heavy loads they were carrying, and did not finish their journey until the following day.
The Flers Line is chiefly remembered for the number of dead, both English and German, who were still lying about on the floor of the trench and on all the firesteps. There were a few hurriedly-made dug-outs, but these were in such a filthy state as to be unfit to occupy, and although much hard work was done for the next two days, the cleaning of the trench was still unfinished when the troops learnt to their astonishment, on the 7th of October, that they were to attack the Butte de Warlencourt and the Warlencourt Line—an objective some 2,800 yards distant.
Zero was at 2.0 p.m., and the Companies occupied the same relative positions as at High Wood, “A” Company again being on the right. The three Companies on the left were unfortunate once more, for they had to file through the village of Eaucourt l’Abbé soon after leaving their assembly trenches and extend into waves again after negotiating the village. They were caught by the full fury of the German artillery barrage, and those who got through the village were swept down by a most intense machine-gun fire. “A” Company on the right made some little progress, and after crossing the Eaucourt l’Abbé-Le Barque road dug a new line alongside the remnants of other units of the Division, all of whom had met a similar fate. Another attempt was made at night by the 142nd Brigade, but as these troops had not even seen the country in daylight, their attempt failed so completely that they were all withdrawn shortly after zero.
The attack on the Butte de Warlencourt failed, like many attacks subsequently delivered by other Divisions, and the famous Butte did not fall into English hands until the German retreat from the Somme battlefield during the winter of 1916-17.
The attack of the 7th of October differed in many respects from that of the 15th of September. On this occasion there had been no training, no rehearsal over a marked-out course, and in fact some of the troops did not even know there was to be an attack until an hour or so before zero. Even then there were many who were not sure what was the objective. To this day there are some in the Civil Service Rifles who talk of it as the attack on Eaucourt l’Abbé. There was an artillery creeping barrage on this occasion, it is true, but as it moved at the rate of 100 yards per minute and there were 2,800 yards between the jumping-off trenches and the objective, the advancing waves of infantry soon got badly left behind. Tanks were said to be co-operating, but nothing was seen of them.
There were only two officers per Company present on this occasion, and the C.S.M. and one or two senior N.C.O.’s of each Company were kept out of the fight, so the experienced soldier was in a distinct minority. More than half of the Battalion had never been under fire before, and, as these had only joined a few days previously, a good many of them were not known even by name to the older members of their Platoons. Thus it came about that many men were reported missing on this occasion, and, as none of the survivors knew them, it was impossible to say with any certainty where they had last been seen.
The losses on the 7th of October amounted to five officers, 344 other ranks, and although numerically they are not quite so great as at High Wood, it should be remembered that on this occasion the Battalion was not more than 500 strong at the outset.
During the operations around Eaucourt l’Abbé there was one member of the regiment who added to his already brilliant reputation as a soldier. The work of Lieutenant W. E. Ind on this occasion was more than wonderful. Quickly grasping the situation when the attack failed, by his hard work and resourcefulness he succeeded in restoring something like order out of chaos, not only in his own unit but also in several neighbouring units.
The relief by the 7th Seaforth Highlanders on the 9th of October was a welcome contrast to the previous relief in this sector. The troops quickly found their way out and before midnight had reached the transport lines in Bottom Wood.
Three nights were spent in Albert before the Division entrained on the 13th of October for Longpré, near Abbeville, en route for the Ypres Salient.