Sniping and bombing with intermittent shelling were of constant occurrence. The sad news that some officer, sergeant, or private had been killed was passed down the trenches with wonderful rapidity, and was known at once by the whole Battalion. The line of trenches now occupied by the Battalion was much drier than those it had been accustomed to, and far more intricate. When the trenches were known the relief became easy, although it was always carried out in the dark, but at first, when the officers and N.C.O.'s took over the trenches for the first time, it was long before every one settled down.
The forty-eight hours' rest was spent in comparative comfort in billets at Beuvry, where the inhabitants still lived in spite of the proximity to the trenches. When the moment came to leave the billets and return to the trenches, the Battalion moved up in small parties at a time, in case the road should be shelled. Through endless transport of all kinds the men slowly wound their way. They usually met food going up, empties coming back, ammunition and supplies of all sorts, and as it became darker the road was more difficult. They often passed French troops on the way, with the secondary French transport, a motley collection of every conceivable sort of vehicle. Yet with all these different streams of men and wagons there was never any confusion or accident. As the platoons neared the trenches, stray bullets usually began to fly, and occasionally shells. Then each company, on reaching its allotted communication trench, disappeared, and so reached the firing line.
The Battalion Headquarters were in the cellar of the ruins of a house, and here the business part of the work was carried on by clerks and orderlies. Sometimes shells fell on the remains of the house, but the cellar was never reached. A motor canteen presented by Lord Derby to his old Battalion now arrived, and proved a great boon. It could provide hot drinks for 300 men at a time.
On the 7th Second Lieutenant H. A. R. Graham was badly wounded, and subsequently had to have his arm amputated. Captain A. B. R. R. Gosselin was bending down trying to dress his wound, when a piece of shell struck him in the neck and killed him instantaneously. On the 8th Second Lieutenant P. L. M. Battye was wounded in the leg, and Lieutenant Britten was sent to hospital with enteric fever.
On the 18th the Germans succeeded in taking a small portion of the French trenches on our right, and that evening the French sent a party to retake it. No report came, however, as to whether they had been successful or not, and considerable doubt existed as to whether this particular trench was in German or in French hands. In order to decide this point, the French sent a reconnoitring party down our communication trench on the right, and asked Captain P. A. Clive's permission to move down our trench. Captain Clive not only offered to help, but decided to go himself. Accompanied by Major Foulkes, R.E., he led the French reconnoitring party into the trench of doubtful ownership, and there found a dug-out full of German kit, with a lighted candle burning. This evidence of German occupation satisfied the French party, but Captain Clive insisted on making further investigation, and crept on in pitch darkness, followed by Major Foulkes. Suddenly he was challenged in deep guttural German by a sentry, not two yards off. "Français, Français," he replied in a voice to which he was uncertain whether he should give a French or German accent. "Halt, oder Ich schiesse," was the reply, and the nationality of the occupants of the trench was settled beyond dispute. Even Captain Clive was convinced, and as the bullets whistled past him when he retired, the nationality of their makers was forcibly impressed on his mind.
The shelling varied: on some days it was mild, and on others for no apparent reason it became very violent. The difference, however, between the shelling here and that which the Battalion had been accustomed to near Ypres was, that while the German gunners at first had it all their own way, they were now not only answered but received back as many shells as they sent over. A great deal of work was done by the Battalion during the month, and the digging was constant night and day. The Keep was strengthened, many new communication trenches were dug, all very deep, eight to nine feet, and the right of the line, near the French, was made very strong. Supporting trenches were dug, and eventually the whole line was straightened out and wired. The majority of the men thoroughly understood how to dig, and the newcomers very quickly learnt from the old hands. On February 20 Lieutenant R. D. Lawford and a draft of sixty men joined the Battalion, and on the 23rd Second Lieutenants A. H. Penn, O. Lyttelton, and Viscount Cranborne arrived.
March.
For the first ten days in March the Battalion rested, and remained in billets at Bethune, where it had concerts and boxing competitions. On the 10th it marched to a position of readiness east of Gorre, with the remainder of the 4th Brigade, to form the reserve to the 6th Brigade, which was the pivot on which the whole move at Neuve Chapelle hung, though it did not come into action. The attack made by the 6th Brigade proved a most gallant but disastrous business, and the casualties were very heavy. At 3 P.M. the 4th Brigade was ordered up to support another attempt, which, however, never came off, and it therefore returned to its billets at Bethune. On the 11th the 4th Brigade was again moved up to the same place, but again was not wanted.
Captain Ridley, who held the almost unique record in the 4th Brigade of having taken part in every engagement from the commencement of the war, and who had been constantly fighting for five months, having twice been slightly wounded, went home sick, as the Commanding Officer and the doctor insisted on his taking this opportunity of having a rest.
On the 12th the 2nd Battalion Grenadiers relieved the Irish Guards at Givenchy, where the trenches, which were comparatively new, were shallow and the parapet not bullet proof. The village was a complete ruin, the farms were burnt, and remains of wagons and farm implements were scattered on each side of the road. This part of the country had been taken and re-taken several times, and many hundreds of British, Indian, French, and German troops were buried here. The roads were full of shell-holes, bricks, tiles, cart-wheels, and debris of every description. The shelling and sniping went on intermittently, but the habits of the enemy were known, and when the shelling began it was generally easy to estimate how long it would last, and when it would begin again.