CHAPTER VII
NIEUPORT
(October-November 1917)
On September 26 and 27 the Division took over the coastal sector of the Nieuport front, relieving the 66th Division, composed of the second line of the East Lancashire Territorials. The relief was therefore a hurried family gathering, a meeting of elder and younger brothers. The first-line and second-line battalions were keenly interested in each other’s doings and experiences. Friends met friends; many were related; more had friends and acquaintances in common; so they “swapped lies,” and the time was all too short to exhaust the store of anecdote, reminiscence, and inquiry. The 66th Division left for Ypres, and a fortnight later “made good” in the advance at Passchendaele.
D.H.Q. was at La Panne, a picturesque seaside village. The billets were very good, and for the first time since the Division’s arrival in France the excitement of shopping was experienced. The sea-bathing was excellent, and the Belgian Army baths (in a theatre) were well patronized. The Division now held the left of the Allied Line, Barrel Post, on the seashore at the mouth of the Yser, being the extreme left post. On October 1 Major-General Mitford proceeded to England on leave, and temporary command was assumed by Brig.-General W. W. Seymour. Nothing of importance occurred here, and on October 7 the Division was relieved by the 41st Division, and took over the neighbouring divisional front from the 32nd Division. The new sector included the town of Nieuport with the Lombartzyde and St. Georges sub-sectors. Belgian troops were on the right.
The Nieuport sector was a curious one, and those who had expected a comparatively “cushy” time were disappointed. The town itself had ceased to exist, for it had never a day’s immunity from the enemy artillery, and the bombing was hardly less continuous. It was also heavily gassed, the place being filled with gas on most nights. Here the large Gotha bombing-planes were first sighted, going to or returning from Dunkirk, where bombs had been dropped during twenty-three of the thirty nights of September, the enemy pilots being greatly assisted by the guiding lines of the canals and coast. The strained look, the expression of dull despair, on the faces of the war-harassed peasantry of all the devastated areas of France and Belgium, was particularly noticeable in this region. Nieuport had been very thoroughly tunnelled by the French during their occupation, and though at first the low, slimy, and very dark tunnels were distinctly unpopular, all ranks were thankful for them as they became more intimate with the situation. The tunnels, running parallel to the streets, had been made by connecting up the cellars. They were—at times—lighted by electric lights, but even then fully equipped troops found difficulty in passing through.
Canals, Bridges, and Floods
The left, or Lombartzyde, sub-sector lay to the north and north-east of Nieuport, across the wide and deep Yser canal. It was held by the 125th and 127th Brigades in turn. The less important St. Georges sub-sector, to the east and south-east, was in charge of the 126th Brigade, two battalions being in line and two in reserve. In each sub-sector the front line consisted mainly of breastworks and island-posts, as much of the area was below sea-level, and it was impossible to construct trenches in the flooded marshy ground. The front has been comprehensively described as “one big flood,” and when, as frequently happened, a big shell knocked in the bank of one of the many dams, this description was no exaggeration.
Just across the Yser were the Redan and Indiarubber House; the former being a large triangular redoubt—apex towards the enemy—with an artificial moat, the latter a barn-like structure apparently inviting demolition, but in reality built of solid concrete ingeniously disguised, from which the shells—so rumour says—rebounded harmlessly. This building, which was lighted by electricity, was used as headquarters of the battalions in line in the left sub-sector. The Redan was linked to the town by three wobbly duckboard bridges, laid on floats, without side-rails, and with many gaps between the boards. These bridges, Putney, Crowder, and Vauxhall, rose and fell several feet with the tide, at times making the approaches and exits, down and up very steep gradients of the Yser’s muddy banks, a matter of the greatest difficulty. They were shelled all day and machine-gunned all night, with the result that they were frequently smashed, for the Germans had the exact range. Troops, working-parties, and ration-parties had to make their way across the swaying planks, carrying full equipment, and often two petrol-tins full of water, or bags of rations, a trench-board, or a box of ammunition. It was therefore unhealthy to linger when crossing, and some who had to take frequent trips across began to think that Ypres was not so bad a place after all.
On the east of the town several smaller canals joined the Yser, and at this point the Five Bridges—so-called, though there were really six—had to be crossed. There were also other less important bridges over these canals, by which the front of the St. Georges sector was reached. This right sector included the site of one of the finest golf-links in Europe, but much of it was now under water. The destruction of dams and locks brought the tide into the canals, causing them to overflow and flood our defensive works; and the Boche amused himself at times by refraining from molesting the sappers while they repaired a dam, in order to knock it down as soon as completed and filled. The repairing and rebuilding of dams and bridges was a severe drain upon the resources of the Engineers and the infantry working under their supervision. The 428 and 429 Field Companies had each more than thirty bridges of various kinds under their charge. Infantry were attached to the Field Companies, and every unit supplied a permanent working-party of a platoon with an officer to serve with the Tunnelling Companies, which, among much other excellent work here, helped the R.A.M.C. to construct three deep A.D. Stations in the Nieuport cellars. The R.A.M.C. had their first experience of mustard-gas, and were also called upon to treat and evacuate several hundred cases of phosgene gassing.
There was little activity on these fronts other than artillery duels and aircraft bombing. The line was often under fire from heavy mortars, and the bridges, dams, roads, and back areas were constantly shelled. The enemy’s 15-inch guns bombarded Dunkirk, twenty miles behind the line, and the shelling of back areas increased in violence until on reaching the front line it frequently attained an intensity unsurpassed on any sector of the British front. The enemy had the advantage of slightly higher ground at Lombartzyde village, so his works and trenches were not affected by the floods. As he could see any movement on our side, and as on the least sign of this his machine-guns and “whizz-bangs” promptly opened fire, our men lay “doggo” behind the breastworks, or in small pill-boxes, during the daytime. This absence of movement gave one a sense of isolation and even the unpleasant feeling of being left behind by one’s comrades and forgotten. At night there had to be considerable movement, and the Lancashire men speculated on the length of stay that would be required to transform them into amphibians, and when they would begin to develop web-feet. Patrols sent out to reconnoitre posts alleged to be occupied by the enemy had a particularly difficult and nerve-testing task. Often they had to wade through the floods, and sometimes to swim across the canals, the one compensation being that as No Man’s Land was always flooded there was little chance of any surprise attack. Listening posts close up to the German lines were reached by means of duckboards resting on the marshes, and these at times crossed ditches eighteen feet deep. Shell-holes in the front areas were quickly filled with water and converted into ponds of varying depths. As at Ypres, the heavy shells tore great pits in the roads and blocked them. One night a guide was sent to conduct some transport past a newly-made and particularly deep crater. Presently he warned the drivers that the hole was close at hand—and a moment later disappeared. Out of the depths arose an agonized wail. “Stop! for heaven’s sake, stop! I’m down the ⸺ hole myself!”
