IV
At about 3.30 a.m. heavy rain had begun to fall, and all day the armies fought amid intermittent storms of sleet and drenching rain.
[21]“Our bombardment was quite unimaginable—all that could possibly be desired, I should think, for accuracy, evenness and intensity. The final barrage was a really wonderful sight; just at dawn the grey sky ablaze with star shells and coloured rockets all along the line, nothing else to be seen.
“Then when it got a little lighter and the barrage had crept on, we could see thousands of our men popping up from their barely visible ‘assembly slits’ in the ground and pouring up the slope in a slow-moving, loose sort of crowd with no discernible formation, and with and among them, the Tanks.
“They had previously come up across an apparently deserted valley over the heads of our waiting infantry in their shelter trenches. They appeared breasting the hill and disappeared over the brow together with the attacking waves of troops. The enemy’s shrapnel and high explosives that came back were almost laughable in comparison with what we put over them, and our casualties were, on the whole, unusually light. Where I was watching was reported to be the hardest nut on the whole line.[22]
“What with the barrage and the Tanks the defence appears to have just collapsed, and a few minutes and a few casualties gave us possession of a wonderful redoubt that the enemy had lavished extraordinary ingenuity and industry in preparing for many months past.
“I saw it all from a hedge in a hillside about 1000 yards away. I had determined on the spot, and, as luck would have it, I found when I got there that there was a half-finished observation post with a lovely little pit to jump down into if things got hot. However, there was no need to use it. It was only getting into it that was rather exciting. I got spattered with débris time and again, but by tacking, waiting, and using the country, I got through without any real unpleasantness.
“It’s been a real thoroughgoing victory so far as we can see and hear—or rather hear, for I only saw the first phase. Good old Willies, it’s partly their victory, too, as all can see. Wonderful messages come in, a dozen or more to the hour, reports, telegrams, telephone messages, kite balloons, aeroplanes, pigeon letters, etc., and nearly all good, awfully good.
“‘We have reached Z.22.B.64 and are going strong.’
“‘Have taken Tilloy Village.’