The 42nd (East Lancashire) Division 1914-1918

by Frederick P. Gibbon

TRESCAULT WATER POINT.

Bus, Ytres, Neuville-Bourjonval

With Metz-en-Couture as the objective the advance was resumed at 7 a.m. on September 4, the 5th L.F. leading. The night had been remarkable for the intensity of the enemy’s gas bombardment, and this continued throughout the day. Ytres, Bus, and indeed most of the positions in the divisional area were drenched with gas, and box-respirators had to be worn for hours at a time. In addition to the bombardment the troops were bombed by successive flights of enemy aircraft. Fighting patrols crossed the Canal du Nord without much opposition, but considerable resistance was met with at Neuville-Bourjonval, and the advance-guard was checked in the outskirts of this village. The division on the right had been held up at the Canal, which they could not cross, and until they could accomplish this it would be useless to incur heavy losses in capturing the village while the Division’s right flank was in the air. In the evening four strong patrols were sent out under a barrage to make good the village and the trench system beyond, and the two northern patrols penetrated the enemy’s trenches and took prisoners. On the morning of the 5th the village was cleared, but the enemy still held a trench system to the east. This was attacked in the afternoon by a company of the 7th L.F., in conjunction with an attack on the left by the New Zealand Division, and all guns of “B” Company, M.G. Battalion, assisted in placing a box-barrage round the objective. The attack was brilliantly successful, the trench system being captured and more than 100 prisoners taken, with very slight loss to the company. On the night of September 5-6 the Division, less the artillery which remained in the line, was relieved by the New Zealanders, and moved back to the Pys—Thilloy area, with D.H.Q. in a German ammunition dump at Riencourt. The Divisional Artillery had some strenuous days with the New Zealanders, the casualties at Metz-en-Couture being heavy. Some of the batteries fired 5000 rounds, and one battery nearly 6000, in a day.

The sixteen days from August 21st to September 5th had been a period of continuous victory in which every unit shared. The ease with which the troops shook out into open warfare after a long period in the trenches was remarkable, advanced artillery sections and often advanced batteries moving in close support of the infantry. The shooting of the artillery and the accuracy of their barrages earned the praise and the thanks of the infantry, and the gunner can hardly wish for a greater reward. The continual night work involved in bringing up the very large supplies of gun ammunition required in modern battles was most wearing for drivers and lorries, but the guns were fed. Light trench-mortars were frequently used in close support of advanced infantry, and when the ammunition was expended the men acted as infantry with marked success. The M.G. Battalion was consistently good. At critical moments officers and N.C.O.s showed admirable resource and initiative, and the guns were handled with skill and daring. The system of pack transport, to which great attention had been paid during training, enabled gunners, where their fire would prove a deciding factor, to take up positions in advance of the infantry.

The water-supply was the chief problem of the R.E., and the exceptional experience of the C.R.E., Lieut.-Colonel J. G. Riddick, with water difficulties in Gallipoli and Sinai proved invaluable to the Division.[19] This part of France had little surface water. There was none between the Ancre at Miraumont and the Canal du Nord at Ytres, and the shafts of village wells had been blown in by the enemy. By the capture of Miraumont control of the sources of the Ancre was obtained, and the engineers of the 42nd and New Zealand Divisions at once got to work on the erection of dozens of horse-troughs and a number of water-cart filling-points. During the advance beyond Miraumont all water had to be carried forward in Garford lorries to some improvised water-point as near the firing-line as possible. At this point canvas tanks of 2300 or 9000 gallons capacity were erected, and the lorries were at work at all hours of the day and night to keep the tanks filled. Lift-and-force pumps were then installed, and by their means the battalion water-carts were supplied. Credit is due to Lieut.-Colonel R. J. Slaughter, D.S.O., and the “Q” department for their excellent organization, upon which the advance depended. Artillery horses had to be watered at the occasional foul village ponds until damaged wells could be re-opened, a difficult task which the R.E. accomplished by working day and night. The need for water was so urgent that at times the Garford lorries had to be hurried forward along by-roads before the tunnellers and sappers had completed road reconnaissance, and one of these was blown to pieces by a road-mine, and its drivers killed.

The Signal Company established Visual Stations as far forward as possible, and also supplemented electrical communications by using wireless, pigeons, and Mounted Orderlies. The destruction of roads in the line of advance, and the multitude of shell-holes which pitted the face of the country, made conditions exceptionally difficult for the R.A.S.C., but supplies never failed, thanks to the energy and skill with which the 7th N.F. Pioneers repaired and re-made the roads, and to the expert work of the sappers and tunnellers who unearthed innumerable booby-traps on roads and in dug-outs. Supply tanks gave invaluable aid in bringing up trench mortars, water and ammunition of all kinds. The work of the R.A.M.C. was carried out skilfully and with creditable smoothness, casualties being treated and evacuated with a degree of comfort that could hardly have been expected under the conditions of constant movement, the Field Ambulances keeping up with the infantry, and setting up Aid Posts wherever they could find suitable shelter. Stretcher-bearers went through shell and machine-gun fire calmly and deliberately in the performance of their duties. Officers and men from the highest to the lowest, had complete confidence in one another.[20]

Captures and Casualties

In short, it was efficiency in all branches that enabled the Division to advance a distance of fifteen and a half miles in sixteen days, against a strong and desperate foe, across country which gave every advantage to the defence, and in that short period to capture the towns and villages of Miraumont, Pys, Warlencourt, Thilloy, Ligny-Thilloy, Riencourt, Villers-au-Flos, Bus, Barastre, Ytres, and Neuville-Bourjonval. One thousand two hundred and sixty-one prisoners passed through the Divisional Cages and Dressing Stations, 24 guns of all calibres up to 8-inch, 50 heavy and more than 100 light machine guns, 16 trench-mortars, and a large quantity of material of war were taken. The casualties of the Division were: 20 officers and 233 other ranks killed, 49 officers and 1256 other ranks wounded, but the loss inflicted upon the enemy was calculated at four times that number. It was a magnificent record which well deserved the Divisional Commander’s Special Order of the Day, of September 6, 1918—

“In March of this year I had the honour of congratulating you on the valour and good work displayed by all ranks of all arms and services in a defensive battle. To-day I am proud to find that my confidence in you to live up to the Divisional Motto in an offensive battle has been more than fulfilled.

“In seventeen days continuous fighting you have accounted for, at the very lowest computation, more than a whole enemy division.