All battery positions, whether they had been active or silent, were engaged, and, in addition, heavily gassed.
All villages were involved, particularly Beaumetz, Doignies, and Louverval, and the intermediate and Corps lines were also bombarded.
All battalion and brigade headquarters had been marked down and were continuously shelled, while high-velocity guns fired quantities of rounds into Beugny, Lebucquière, Velu, Fremicourt, and along the Bapaume-Cambrai road. The first shell falling in Fremicourt burst in Divisional headquarters, killing a signaller.
T. Major-General G. T. C. [CARTER]-CAMPBELL. C.B., D.S.O.
[Map IX].—The German Offensive: Disposition of 51st (Highland) Division, Morning, 21st March 1918.
In rear of the Divisional area places such as Bapaume, Albert, and even Doullens, Frevent, and St Pol were all shelled by long-range guns, while Paris was engaged by “Big Bertha.”
In a quarter of an hour practically all signal communications in the Divisional area had been destroyed; moreover, observation was made impossible by a thick ground mist, which did not rise until midday.
The bombardment continued for over four hours; by 7 A.M. it had quietened on most of the Divisional front, but it remained intense on the front of the 6th Division and on the left of the 153rd Brigade.