Several raiding operations were carried out by us. On the night of the 25th May our guns supported the 57th Division in a raid which resulted in the capture of eleven prisoners, and at 1 a.m. on the 18th June we fired off a thousand gas projectors at Ablainzeville, the guns and trench mortars firing a barrage through the village at the same time. The mortars that took part in this operation were firing from a position barely 400 yards from the Boche line, which had been selected by Bottomley, who had succeeded Powell as Trench Mortar Officer. It was a very dangerous and badly "strafed" place, but the risk was well worth taking, and the mortars were a constant thorn in the enemy's side. For obvious reasons the results of operations of this sort could very rarely be ascertained, but in this instance we were more fortunate for we learned from a document, captured in the following August, that the Germans lost in this gas attack two officers and 51 men killed, and 66 gassed, all of the 12th Bavarian R.I.R.
There were two rather notable events in the wagon lines during this period. On the 19th May, Whit-Sunday, General Braithwaite attended a parade service there and presented a large number of Military Medals. He took the occasion to make us a very graceful speech and to congratulate all ranks on their courage and fine behaviour during the trying days of the great offensive.
On the 16th June he inspected the D.A.C. and presented three Distinguished Service Medals which had been won by Indian drivers. The Indians, as I have said before, were a very useful lot of men, and could always be counted upon to obey orders, however difficult and dangerous the execution of them might be. In fact, as the following incident shows, the literal way in which they tried to obey their orders was sometimes carried to excess. Sometime during April, when the fighting was at its hottest, some wagons of the D.A.C., driven by Indian drivers, were carrying ammunition up to a battery near Essarts. The drivers of one of the wagons were making their first trip up to the battery area, and one of the instructions given them was that they must on no account leave anything behind them when they returned, however heavily they might be shelled. As luck would have it this wagon had a very bad time of it, the British N.C.O. with it being badly wounded, and two out of the six mules being killed. The drivers behaved very well, finished their job of delivering ammunition, and brought back the wounded man safely. They were, however, full of apologies on their return to camp; they had done their utmost, they said, to load up the two dead mules on to the wagon, but although they had tried their hardest for about an hour under heavy fire, they had had to give it up at last as beyond their powers.
On the 14th June a rather disturbing order came out, reducing our establishment of horses and mules; the first line wagons and all the ammunition wagons of the D.A.C. were henceforth to be drawn by four instead of six horses. No doubt this step was unavoidable owing to the shortage of animals, but it added enormously to the difficulties of ammunition supply for the rest of the war.
On the 18th the 312th Brigade, which had been supporting the Division on our right for some time past, moved across to the neighbourhood of Foncquevillers and joined its own division again.
In the Gazette of the 3rd June, Lieut.-Colonel F. A. Woodcock and Major C. A. Eeles were awarded the D.S.O.
Nine Military Medals were awarded during May and June (v. Appendix), and two Military Crosses—to Lieuts. H. O. Schofield on the 9th June and Harold Smith on the 23rd:
"When a shell burst in a gun pit, set the camouflage on fire and damaged the gun, Lieut. Schofield, with a non-commissioned officer (Corpl. Edwin Burton, D.C.M.) rushed to the spot, and, despite continuous enemy shelling and the dangerously overheated condition of the ammunition, they removed the clinometer and a large number of rounds to a place of safety and put out the fire, thereby saving much ammunition."
"During a destructive shoot on the battery, Lieut. H. Smith, with the assistance of a N.C.O., removed all dial sights from the guns, carrying them to a place of safety. Later, when the camouflage on the pit caught fire from a direct hit, he, with the help of two men, cleared the burning stuff away and removed ammunition whilst rounds were exploding and the battery was still under heavy fire. He eventually put out the fire, and thereby saved a gun from destruction."
On the 25th June the Division withdrew from the line to go into G.H.Q. reserve, and the sorely tried batteries at last got a brief spell of peace, and went into rest billets in and about Orville, Amplier, and Sarton.