War Services of the 62nd West Riding Divisional Artillery

by Austin Thomas Anderson

On the 2nd Major-General Sir R. Whigham visited the D.A.C. and brigades with me. The former was in the Ribecourt Valley, and the brigades were still in the neighbourhood of Marcoing, where they were enjoying a short rest before being pushed forward again. They had lost a large number of horses during the few preceding days from shell fire and bombs. I remember that Lieut. G. A. Murray, the Signalling Officer of the 310th Brigade, showed us round the positions; he had only been with us for a few weeks, and I was much taken by his smiling, cheery manner, and his evident grasp of his duties. It was therefore a great shock to me when I heard next day that he had been killed while laying a line across a bridge in Masnières; it was a great sorrow to us all, and a serious loss to the brigade.

The Boche now made a peace offer in the vain hope of staying our progress—the humblest thing that had yet emanated from Berlin. There could, however, be no parleying with a foe who was destitute of honour or humanity, and the answer, on our part of the front, was a fresh attack made on the 8th October, in which the 2nd and 3rd Divisions captured the high ground running through Seranvillers, and pushed on through that village towards Wambaix. Our guns took part in the action, and Lieut. E. Smart won his Military Cross for the following act of bravery: "On October 8th he was observing officer; when the infantry advanced over the crest he was unable to observe the situation, and so went forward and kept in close touch with the infantry, then held up in a trench. He established an O.P. in the trench and there observed the enemy counter attacking, supported by three tanks. Our infantry were compelled to retire, but Lieut. Smart remained at his post for some considerable time, and sent back valuable information. Throughout the whole of the period he was under constant shell fire from the enemy barrage."

Cambrai was captured on the 9th by troops on our left, and on the 10th October we moved headquarters to Masnières. The position on that day was as follows: on our front the Guards were in Bevilly, the 4th Corps had captured Beauvois and Caudry, and the 5th Corps was closing up on le Cateau. The 310th Brigade was in action covering the Guards' Division, but the 312th were resting at and around Estourmel, and came back under my command. This day brought to a close the Battle of Cambrai—St. Quentin, 27th September to 10th October, which in ten days of victorious fighting broke through the last and strongest of the enemy's fully prepared positions, opening the way to a war of movement and an advance on the German main lines of communication. Thirty-five Infantry, 3 Cavalry, and 2 American Divisions defeated 45 German Divisions, taking 48,500 prisoners and 630 guns.

On the 10th I walked up to Estourmel with Elston, my Staff Captain, to see the 312th Brigade, which was then temporarily under Major Arnold Forster's command, vice Lieut.-Colonel Eden, who had gone home on a course a short time previously. Lieut.-Colonel R. H. Johnson, D.S.O., took over the command a few days later. I remember that we were much struck by the rapid change in the appearance of the country. Masnières, the village from which we started, was a mere heap of ruins; the next village on the road, Seranvillers, had been badly knocked about, and then came Wambaix, which was in not quite so bad a state. After that the country presented an almost normal appearance, and church spires and compact little villages were to be seen dotted about the landscape, practically unharmed by the brutal Boche, who was now retiring in such haste that he had little time to carry out the wanton destruction in which his soul delighted. In Estourmel most of the houses were in pretty good condition, and even contained furniture. The gardens were cultivated, and Elston, as good and thorough a Staff Captain in the lighter as he was in the sterner duties of warfare, was able to collect a useful load of vegetables for the refreshment of our mess. We moved our headquarters into this village on the 11th.

The 310th Brigade advanced on this day to St. Hilaire, still in support of the Guards. The enemy was now holding a strong position along the Selle river, and an attack was arranged for the 20th October in which the whole of the 3rd and 4th Armies were to be engaged. The task of the 62nd Division was to force the passage of the river to capture the town of Solesmes and the village of St. Python, and then to establish itself on a line about 3000 yards north-east of them. The 3rd Divisional Artillery was put under my orders for the battle, and these two brigades, together with the 310th and 312th, began to take up their positions on the 16th, south of the Cambrai—Solesmes road, and about 2000 yards to the west of the river. We established headquarters at Bevillers on the 18th. The barrage was rather a complicated one to make out, not only because it had to be accurately co-ordinated with the barrages of the Guards Division and the 42nd Division on each side of us, but also owing to the fact that large numbers of French civilians were known to be still living in both the town and the village, and we were naturally anxious to put them into as little danger as possible. It was finally decided not to direct any artillery on Solesmes itself, but only on its suburbs on our side of the river, and on the village of St. Python. It was assumed that the civilians would take refuge in the cellars, and as no high explosive shell were to be fired at the buildings, but only shrapnel, the risk to them would not be a serious one. These suburbs and St. Python were at the time in "No Man's Land," and for a few nights before the battle our infantry patrols used actually to enter them under cover of darkness and take coffee with the unfortunate but stout-hearted inhabitants.

The attack was launched in bright moonlight at 2 a.m. on the 20th October. The barrage was kept up for 23 minutes on the village and suburbs mentioned above, while the infantry forced their way across the river; it then crept up on each side of Solesmes at the rate of 100 yards in four minutes. The infantry followed it up closely and secured the ground on each side of the town, while specially detailed battalions turned in to the right and left and entered Solesmes, which they took possession of after some hard fighting. While the town was being "mopped up," the guns kept up a standing barrage beyond it for over an hour. At 4.20 a.m. the artillery ceased firing for a time, and some of the more distant batteries moved up to closer range. At 7.40 a.m. the creeping barrage began again, and moved north-east at the same rate as before, followed by a fresh infantry brigade up to a line about 500 yards short of Romeries. The victory was complete, not only on our immediate front, but along the whole army line. The 62nd Division took prisoner 12 officers and 539 men, and also three field guns, several trench mortars, and a large number of machine guns; its own casualties were under three hundred. The infantry were loud in their praise of the shooting of the guns, and I was proud to get the following note from Brig.-General J. L. G. Burnett, D.S.O., Commanding the 186th Infantry Brigade:

"As I know that you people like to know what the infantry who attacked thought of the barrage: both the left attacking battalion and the one which took the railway station wish me to say that it was the most accurate barrage which they have yet advanced under. Would you please convey our thanks to the men behind the guns who so largely contributed towards the success.

"Yours sincerely,
"J. G. Burnett."

The batteries advanced across the river as soon as crossings could be prepared for them, a work which was carried out by the sappers in a marvellously short time, and I found them already in action north of Solesmes when I visited that place next day, the 21st. Two or three thousand civilians were still in the town, and though a lot of shell were already beginning to fall there, they were parading the streets in great numbers, and there was a great doffing of hats and waving of handkerchiefs as we passed through. I saw a party of prisoners being marched along the main street; women and children were running alongside shaking their fists at them, and crying out, "Sales Boches! Sales Boches!" with all the strength of their lungs. When I thought of all their sufferings at the hands of the barbarous savages, I could hardly find it in my heart to blame them for this triumph over their humbled enemy. The civilians would all have gladly stayed where they were, but it was thought necessary in their own interests to get the women and children, and the old men, out of the place as long as the Boche guns remained within range. It was a very pathetic sight to see them arriving in Bevilly that afternoon. Groups of soldiers met the lorries as they arrived at the buildings reserved for the refugees, and it was pleasant to see the tenderness with which the men lifted out the children—and sometimes the old grand-mothers—and carried them across the sea of mud that lay between the roadway and the house. It was painful to think of the hell that these poor people had been through, crouching in their cellars while our shell crashed and screamed overhead, and later while our infantry hunted out the Boche from house to house and street to street. However, they looked happy, most of them, in spite of their discomforts; they were free at last and out of danger, and had the prospect before them of a speedy return to their own homes.

The 3rd Division took over our front during the night of the 22nd and attacked at 3.20 a.m. the next day. Our guns helped to support the attack, which resulted in the capture of Romeries and Vertain. Continuing their victorious progress on the 24th, the 3rd Division captured Escarmain, and reached the railway line north of Ruesnes.