May 15.
On the 15th the Seventh Division moved up to the trenches north of Festubert, and the 1st Battalion Grenadiers marched to the assembly trenches in and around Dead Cow Farm. The attack was opened by the 20th Brigade. On the right was the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards, supported by the 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders, and on the left the 2nd Battalion Border Regiment, supported by the 1st Battalion Grenadiers, while the 6th Battalion Gordon Highlanders was in reserve. On the right of the 20th Brigade was the 22nd Brigade, and on the left the Second Division.
May 16.
The attack began at 3.15 A.M. on the 16th. The Scots Guards met with little opposition, and easily secured their objective, but the 2nd Border Regiment had hardly started when it came under a murderous machine-gun fire. It lost a large number of men and most of its officers, including the Commanding Officer, Lieut.-Colonel Wood, but it succeeded nevertheless in reaching the enemy's trenches. In the meantime, however, the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards had pushed on beyond the German support line, so that its left was in the air. Even in the support trenches, which were only thirty yards in rear of the front line, the 1st Battalion Grenadiers came in for a great deal of shelling, and one shell burst in the middle of No. 8 Platoon, killing four men and wounding many others, including Lieutenant Dickinson and Lieutenant St. Aubyn, who was struck in the face by a piece of shrapnel. All the time a stream of wounded from the front trenches was passing by, some walking and some on stretchers.
The machine-guns under Lieutenant Duberly were sent up to support the Scots Guards, and helped them greatly. With a view to protecting their left flank, the 1st Battalion Grenadiers was now ordered forward. It was about 10 A.M. Lieut.-Colonel Corkran, who saw clearly that his Battalion would share the same fate as the Border Regiment, if they advanced against the machine-guns, which had inflicted such loss, decided to move his Battalion farther to the south, and advance from the original forming-up trench of the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards, where a communication trench was being constructed by the Gordon Highlanders. Down this trench the 1st Battalion rushed, jumping over a mass of wounded men as it went, and when it reached the German front-line trench, the King's Company under Captain Maitland, and No. 3 under Captain Hughes, remained to consolidate it, while No. 4 under Captain Moss, followed by No. 2 under Captain Swaine, pushed on to prolong the left of the Scots Guards.
Lieut.-Colonel Corkran met Lieut.-Colonel Cator, commanding the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards, and discussed the situation, which was very obscure. One and a half companies of the Scots Guards had most gallantly pushed on right through the German lines, and had completely lost touch with the rest of the Battalion. It was afterwards discovered that they had been surrounded, and cut off by the enemy. The left of that Battalion was consequently in the air. It was determined that the Scots Guards and No. 2 Company Grenadiers under Captain Swaine should consolidate the line they had reached, namely, the German third line; No. 4 Company under Captain Moss was to advance over the open on the left, and attack a small house still held by the enemy about six hundred yards off; No. 3 Company under Captain Hughes, from the original German front trench, was to make a bombing attack down a German communication trench leading apparently to the small house; and the King's Company under Captain Maitland was to remain where it was in the German front trench in reserve.
Captain Hughes with No. 3 Company made a most successful advance down the German trench, clearing about three hundred yards of it, and killing a number of Germans, while the bombers under Captain Nicol were equally successful down another German communication trench in which they captured a large number of prisoners. But the advance of No. 4 Company was held up almost immediately by machine-gun fire from the small house. The leading platoon under Lieutenant E. O. R. Wakeman was practically annihilated, and its gallant commander, as he pluckily led his men on to this death-trap, was killed. Second Lieutenant C. Hope Morley was struck by a bullet in the eyes and blinded. Finding any farther advance impossible, No. 4 Company received orders to prolong the left of No. 2 Company, and keep in touch with No. 3 Company, which was in the German communication trench.
At 1 P.M. Lieut.-Colonel Corkran went back to the 22nd Brigade Headquarters, and got into communication by telephone with General Heyworth, who ordered him to push his Battalion as far forward as he could and assist any advance made by the 22nd Brigade on the right.
Rain began to fall at 6 P.M., and grew into a steady downpour. The two companies, which had been moved up on the left of the Scots Guards, found themselves in some old German trenches, which had to be reconstructed, as they faced the wrong way, and would have been lamentably weak if they had been left as they were. In these ill-covered trenches the men were soaked to the skin, and spent a miserable night, which was not improved by the fact that all the time the officers were busy in getting them into their right order, so that they might be ready to attack at daybreak. Everywhere the wounded, both British and Germans, lay about groaning.
Lieut.-Colonel Corkran, having returned to his Battalion, sent Major G. Trotter to the 22nd Brigade Headquarters as liaison officer, so that close touch might be kept with it.