The British Campaign in France and Flanders—January to July, 1918

by Arthur Conan Doyle

On April 17 the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders had come into the line, relieving the 18th Middlesex Pioneers. About 10 A.M. this battalion was violently attacked, but drove back its assailants, as did the Thirty-fourth Division on the left at about the same hour. At six in the evening another very severe attack developed upon the front of the 4th King's. For a time the line appeared to be penetrated, but the 1st Middlesex and units of the One hundred and thirty-third French Division, which had newly arrived, made a brisk counter-attack, and the situation was completely restored. It must indeed have been discomposing to the enemy to find that each success which he won, whether it was the taking of Neuve Eglise, of Bailleul, or later of Mount Kemmel, instead of being an opening which led to victory, was only a passage to further trials and further losses in an unending vista. The edge of the attack had now been completely blunted in this quarter. April 18 was quiet, and on the 19th, as the Australians and French were up, arrangements were made for drawing the Thirty-third out of the line which they had so splendidly made good. Their losses in the six days amounted to 145 officers and 3302 men. A few days later Monsieur Clemenceau arrived to convey to General Pinney and his battle-worn men the thanks of the French Republic for their iron defence of an essential line.

The Thirty-fourth Division was last mentioned in this narrative when it fell back from Nieppe on April 12, and was afterwards compelled to take position on the right of the Twenty-fifth Division in the De Seule neighbourhood. Among other losses during the retreat was a tried soldier, General Gore of the 101st Brigade.

Northern Area. April 13 onwards.

On the 13th the enemy made several tentative attacks, but had no success. Late in the afternoon, however, he had succeeded in penetrating the line of the Twenty-fifth Division between Neuve Eglise and De Seule. This success left the left flank of the Thirty-fourth in the air. The 103rd Brigade had moved to the Ravelsberg Ridge, however, and so gave a definite line upon which to withdraw, extending from Bailleul Station to Crucifix Corner, which was a very important position. The 103rd Brigade was now on the left of the line, and the 102nd on the right. There followed, on April 15, a day of very severe fighting, the enemy making continual and very fiery attacks along the whole line, especially upon the three points, Steam Mill, Mont de Lille, and Crucifix Corner. The latter was carried by the enemy and then was retaken by the 9th Northumberland Fusiliers. Mont de Lille was held by the 74th Brigade, and Steam Mill by the 147th, each the centre of a very deadly combat. Steam Mill was lost and yet again retaken by the Yorkshire Territorials who were aided by the 1st Middlesex from the Thirty-third Division. It was a long and arduous day of battle, inexpressibly trying to the wearied troops engaged. General Nicholson had under his hand six brigades that day, and senior officers upon the spot have testified to the masterly use which he made of them. That night the Fifty-ninth came up into the front line and relieved the exhausted infantry. The relief, however, was but a momentary one, for on the afternoon of April 15 the Germans delivered yet another strong attack upon the Ravelsberg line, now held by the Forty-ninth, Fifty-ninth, and Thirty-third Divisions. The Fifty-ninth, as already described, fell back through the Thirty-fourth Division, which again found itself in the front line. The two flank divisions both fell back to conform, and lined up with the remains of the Thirty-fourth on the new line near St. Jans Cappel, which held firm from April 16.

On April 17 there was yet another day of heavy fighting upon this line, both flanks and the Meule Hook being strongly attacked, but the position was successfully held, and one more limit seemed to have been reached in the advance. The same six brigades under General Nicholson, reduced now to the strength of battalions, were still throwing an iron bar across the German path. From the right the 147th, 74th, 101st, 102nd, 103rd, and 88th, all of them with set teeth, held on to the appointed line which receded under pressure and was yet again re-established. The 88th, under that remarkable young soldier, General Freyberg, had some especially hard work to do.

Late on April 20 this goodly fellowship in arms was dissolved, the three separate brigades returned to their divisions, and the Thirty-fourth was relieved by the French. The artillery of the Thirty-eighth Welsh Division fought throughout these awful days at the back of the infantry, who could not say too much for these guns or for General Topping who commanded them. Save two howitzers hit on April 9, no gun of this division was lost during all this close and severe fighting. South of the Lys many of the Royal Army Medical Corps remained with their wounded, and were taken prisoners, sharing with their charges the wretched treatment which was still meted out to British captives, especially behind the lines and before reaching the camps in Germany.

It should be added that the sappers of the 207th, 208th, 209th Field Companies and the 18th Northumberland Fusiliers Pioneers fought like ordinary infantry, and did splendid and essential service in holding the line.

We shall now turn to Jeffreys' Nineteenth Division which we left on the 12th of April, holding on to the Wulverghem-Wytschaete front, with formidable enemies in front of them, but an even more formidable menace upon their right flank, whence came constant rumours that the enemy had at last penetrated the hard-pressed Twenty-fifth Division, had occupied Neuve Eglise, and was pushing up along the lines of the northward roads which would turn the whole of the position. Late at night on April 12 it had been ascertained that these reports were premature. The units of the 108th Ulster Brigade on the right of the line and connecting with the Twenty-fifth Division had been penetrated and driven back, but were strengthened and stayed by the advent of the 8th Gloucesters. The situation was obscure on the right, and there was a dangerous gap which was filled early in the morning of April 13 by the energy and initiative of Captain Macintosh of the 94th Field Company Royal Engineers, who with a handful of the 10th Worcester's pushed his way in, and showed a bold front to the enemy.

The 2/5th Sherwood Foresters from the 178th Brigade (Stansfeld) of the Fifty-ninth North Midland Division had also been ordered to face south and with the help of some machine-guns to hold off the turning movement from that quarter. All these movements were carried out in pitch darkness and amid a situation so confused that it was impossible to define which was the attacking line and which the line of defence. The general scheme of the battle in this area on the morning of April 13 was that the Twenty-fifth Division, with the help of the 148th Brigade of Yorkshire Territorials, was fighting desperately in and around Neuve Eglise to the north of those units of the 100th Brigade, whose defence of the town has already been described. Next to them on the north lay the remains of the 108th Brigade, then the battalion of Sherwood Foresters, and then the 57th Brigade with the 8th Gloucesters on the southern flank. All the morning the roar of battle rose from Neuve Eglise where the German stormers fought hand to hand with the British infantry, who had been strengthened by the addition of that fine battalion, the 4th Shropshires from the Nineteenth Division. The contest swung and swayed as fresh German troops were thrown into the struggle, but at last about half-past ten in the morning the attack was defeated, the German infantry fell back in sullen groups under the constant fire of the defenders, and the British line was pushed forward to the south of the village.

During the day, which was spent under heavy fire of artillery and the imminent menace of attack from the grey clouds seen gathering upon the Messines Ridge, the remaining battalions of the 178th Brigade, the 2/6th and the 7th Sherwood Foresters, were pushed into the line to relieve the exhausted 108th Brigade. It was clear that great German concentrations were being made upon Neuve Eglise, and that the village was in danger, so every arrangement was made to accommodate the line to the situation which would arise if that important point were taken, and the Wulverghem position became in consequence untenable. This new line would run from Meteren through Kemmel and Spy Farm to Spanbrockmolen. The night of April 13 would have been quiet upon the front of the Nineteenth Division had it not been for the constant pre-occupation and alarm caused by the varying fortunes of the fighting at Neuve Eglise, in which they were well aware that their own fate was concerned. The attack had been renewed with fresh forces, and the Twenty-fifth Division was extremely exhausted and could only be helped by other units which were in no better case. Again and again the Germans were deep in the village. Again and again they were evicted. It seemed to be the beginning of the end, however, when it was announced towards morning that the Twenty-fifth Division was out of touch with the British troops upon its south flank, and that the Germans filtering through this gap had got to Nordhoek, west of Neuve Eglise, and were pushing to the north in the rear of the British position, By morning of April 14 Neuve Eglise had been abandoned, though it does not appear to have been solidly occupied by the enemy until mid-day, and snipers of both armies infested the ruins.