On the 27th September the Battalion returned to the same blighted region, now enveloped by dense autumn mists. The great attack of 20th September had rolled forward the tide of battle for more than a mile, and the British, now ensconced in the demolished farms on the east side of the Gravenstal Ridge, were preparing to carry out another stage of that painful and bloody progress. At dawn on 4th October the 143rd Brigade attacked through us, advancing some 1,500 yards. The Battalion spent the next three days in an uneasy reserve, changing their quarters every 24 hours, continuously soaked by the rain, which again fell pitilessly. On 7th October they regained the front line, pulling one another out of the trackless mire as they crawled up through the dripping night, plentifully sprinkled with gas on their way. Next night was even worse; the 7th Worcesters came up to relieve us under shell-fire; most of the guides we sent down to them were either killed or buried and the relief was long and arduous. The 144th Brigade attacked again on the 8th-9th October, under the worst possible conditions; our Battalion, in Divisional Reserve, was allotted to the Brigade, and lay out scattered by Companies until dusk on the 9th, ready to repel counter-attacks and to lend help as required, but was not actively engaged. The total casualties during this period amounted to 84, of whom 16 were killed. All who took part in these ten days' operations agree that the hardships suffered by the men exceeded everything yet endured on active service. The exhausted troops were taken back to Dambre Camp on the 9th by motor lorries. This was their last experience of that tremendous and ill-conducted battle, in which they had been engaged with but slight intermission for 70 days.[(Back to Contents)]
CHAPTER XIX
LAST DAYS IN FRANCE AND THE JOURNEY TO ITALY
On 15th October the Battalion left the Flemish swamps for good, and, returning south by rail, eventually settled for the remainder of the month in the huts at Villars-au-Bois, north-west of Arras. Here they rested in pleasant country behind the 2nd Canadian Division, one of whose regiments, the 27th, they replaced in reserve. The former were a splendid body of men, and very friendly. Their Quartermaster excited general admiration, being a man of over 60 years of age, two of whose sons were serving in the same Battalion as Second-in-Command and Adjutant. As usual, after active operations adequate drafts arrived of both officers and men; the former came mainly from the 3rd Wilts, the latter from the M.T., who, though practically ignorant of infantry work, soon developed in a very satisfactory way. From 2nd-10th November we occupied the sector in front of Vimy Ridge, the scene of the great Canadian victories in April, looking across to the devastated mining town of Lens. The Canadians had done all that was possible to improve the trenches, which the counter-bombardment of either side had levelled, and they were generally good except on the left, where all the soil had been shot away. The dugouts, as generally in ground captured from the Huns, were excellent; there was little fighting activity, and no more than three casualties were suffered. On the 8th the Battalion received the thanks of the 31st Division for their assistance in a daylight raid carried out by the latter on our right. Smoke-clouds were emitted from our trenches, while the skilful manipulation of life-sized dummies successfully produced the illusion of lines of men issuing from their trenches, who drew on their wooden bodies the desired effect of heavy enemy fire. On November 14th Savy and Villars Brulin received the Battalion. These little villages, some 12 miles from the firing line near the source of the Scarpe, were, though we knew it not, to be the last billets of the Battalion in France. Every autumn the enemy had replied to our offensive in France with a furious blow elsewhere. As in 1915 he had crushed Serbia, in 1916 occupied two-thirds of Roumania, so this year he fell upon the Italians at Caporetto on the 25th October. This enormous disaster, which cost the Italians 250,000 prisoners and a third of their artillery, brought the Austro-Germans by the beginning of November to the banks of the Piave, and it was decided that British and French forces should be dispatched to Italy to defend Venice and to give the Italian Army a breathing space for reorganisation. Therefore, when we were resting on the 21st, and speculating on the possibility of taking part in the Cambrai Battle so dramatically begun the day before, orders arrived for entrainment next afternoon with nine days' rations. The journey was made in two trains, under the command of Colonel Clarke and Major Aldworth respectively, which made for Italy by different routes, after leaving Troyes. Colonel Clarke's train reached Dijon on the second evening; Lyons early the next morning; throughout that day the exquisite and fruitful Rhone Valley passed before the delighted eyes of the men. The journey was slow, and when Avignon was reached at 2 a.m. on the 25th, the train was already twelve hours late. Still further time was then lost owing to an accident at Toulon, which station was only entered at dusk after a triumphant progress through crowds of excited southerners, who gathered along the line cheering and waving. Most of the famous places of the French Riviera were passed in darkness, but at 8.10 on the 26th the frontier was passed at Ventimille. The journey continued along the lovely Italian coast until Savona was reached at nightfall. The Italians showed little disposition to welcome their deliverers, and the unpopularity of the war in these districts was patent. Next dawn found the train at Pavia, whence it proceeded along the Po to Cremona, where a 16-hour halt enabled the men to stretch their legs. With band playing they marched through the streets, and succeeded in arousing the enthusiasm of the inhabitants. The local commandante, Cav. Vittorio, a very courteous gentleman, took the salute as the two Companies re-entered the station. The extreme congestion of the Italian railways now upset all timetables completely. Mantua was not reached until 1 a.m. on the 29th, but finally the two Companies detrained at Saletto; and in the afternoon billeting orders arrived, and the evening found them lodged in a private house, a theatre and a monastery at Noventa. The billets were shared with a detachment of the Italian Veterinary Corps, the miserable condition of whose horses and mules bore witness to the rigours of the recent retreat. An 8-mile march next day over roads slippery with frost ended in a most elegant billet, a gorgeous château, which belonged to a Colonel Cabely, killed near Gorizia. Part of its magnificence, however, consisted in marble floors, a cold bed for men wrapped up in only one blanket.
Major Aldworth's train travelled more rapidly; by midnight on the 24th it had crossed the Mont Cenis and was running through Italian territory. Early next morning everyone was peering out of the windows at the great snow mountains through which the train descended to the Piedmontese Plain. The bells of the village churches were ringing everywhere on this Sunday morning as the train moved towards Turin, which was reached at noon on the 25th November. This city provided a rousing welcome; ladies handed out chocolate, cigarettes and little silk flags from the platform; the train steamed out into the open country between vociferating crowds. The journey henceforth was slow and circuitous, the direction being first north-east to Milan, which was passed during the night of 26th-27th November; then south to Pavia, and from there along the Po through Mantua to Nogaro, where the men were comfortably installed in billets by 9 p.m. on 27th November. Both journeys were as comfortable as could be expected in the exceptional circumstances. The men were able to get a hot drink at least twice a day, which was often supplemented by the energy of Red Cross ladies on the platforms, particularly in France.[(Back to Contents)]