On the 8th the Battalion returned to the trenches, and that night the enemy attacked, but were easily driven off. On the 10th Lieut.-Colonel Jeffreys determined to take the enemy's bombing post by surprise, and to bomb up his trench as far as possible. No. 1 Company under Lieutenant H. A. Clive was selected for the task, and the whole scheme of attack was carefully planned and explained to every officer, N.C.O., and man who took part in it. Second Lieutenant Sandeman was ordered to command the party, but Lieutenant J. C. Craigie, the bombing officer, went first. It was a pitch-dark night and very quiet, so that every man had to be careful not to make any noise, more especially as every few minutes a light went up silently. Slowly thirty crawling figures went out, and made their way through the grass. A quarter of an hour went by in silence, and Colonel Jeffreys, fearing that there was some mistake, telephoned to Lieutenant Clive to ask why the attack had not begun, but at that moment the first bombs exploded. Lieutenant Craigie reached the German bombing post in safety, and as soon as the bomb-throwing began in earnest, whistled back, which was the signal for Lieutenant Grigg to come out with a chain of men carrying bombs.
The Germans, surprised by this shower of bombs, hastily retired, and were followed by Lieutenant Craigie and Lieutenant Sandeman up the trench. Having got 150 yards up the German trench, Lieutenant Craigie sent back for reinforcements, and Lieutenant Clive came up himself with another platoon carrying picks and shovels to consolidate the position. Meanwhile in front the Germans were making a stand, and soon a message came back for stretcher-bearers, but the narrowness of the trench made stretchers dangerous, as they might possibly block the trench, so the wounded were carried back over the top. A message had just been received that barbed wire was wanted in front, when the telephone wire was cut by a shell. With a narrow trench full of men filling sand-bags and making fire positions, barbed wire is an awkward thing to carry up, and Lieutenant Clive therefore gave orders that it was to come up over the top. Now carrying the wounded back over the top has a certain sentimental attraction, for anything connected with the wounded is associated in men's minds with the V.C., but carrying barbed wire up, although every bit as dangerous, is mere coolie work. Nevertheless the barbed wire arrived at its destination, and the farthest point taken was consolidated. One thousand five hundred bombs had been thrown, and there were no more available; so when Major Lord Henry Seymour came along, and ordered a second attack to begin at 1 A.M., he found there were no more bombs, and there was nothing else to do but to build up the trench. It was hardly to be expected that Lieutenant Craigie, who had been in front all the way, should escape unscathed, but he got off very cheaply with a piece of a bomb in his leg. Lieutenant Sandeman was untouched. No. 3 Company under Captain Cavendish had remained in support, feeding No. 1 Company with reinforcements as the situation developed. Almost immediately after the attack started, Captain Cavendish sent Lieutenant B. Ponsonby up with one and a half platoons to help No. 1, and soon after Lieutenant Beaumont-Nesbitt was ordered off to look after the Lewis gun. The remaining three platoons were therefore without officers, and were gradually sent up in small parties for various duties. Captain Cavendish himself was ordered not to go up, as he would have been senior to Lieutenant Clive, and would therefore have had to take command in the middle of these operations. Moreover, owing to the telephone wire to No. 1 Company being cut, he became the connecting link between the Commanding Officer and the bombing party. When, therefore, he was ordered at 4.30 to relieve No. 1, he had some difficulty in finding where all his Company had got to, but eventually collected it, and carried out the relief.
The Germans made a further counter-attack early next morning, but failed to regain any of their lost trench. They contented themselves with a heavy bombardment of our line.
The next day the Battalion received orders to cut the wire near the front line, to prepare the way for our attack, which was to take place two days later, but the men had not started when the Germans suddenly began to shell that particular portion of wire with shrapnel. There was something almost uncanny in their accuracy as regards time and place, and it conclusively proved that they must have tapped our telephone wires. After waiting until the Germans had finished, a party went forth, and carried out the orders.
On the 12th the 2nd Battalion remained in the same trench, and although in the morning there was only intermittent shelling the bombardment increased in intensity during the afternoon. The Germans made a severe bombing attack on the trench which had been taken from them, but were easily beaten off. Although at one time there was some anxiety on our part as to whether the supply of bombs would hold out, the enemy was not only driven off but our bombers succeeded in throwing bombs into his bomb stores, causing two violent explosions. During the whole attack our line was heavily bombed by aerial torpedoes, a particularly accurate and powerful form of trench mortar, but when it got dark the enemy's attack died gradually away. The new Mills grenades proved a great success, as they could be thrown farther than those of the enemy. The Battalion was to have been relieved at 6.45 P.M., but owing to this attack the relieving Battalions did not arrive until nearly midnight, and the relief was not completed until 3 A.M.
On the 13th Major Lord Henry Seymour left to take command of the 4th Battalion, and the same day Lieutenant T. A. Combe arrived. The casualties during the two days in the trenches were 150 killed and wounded.
In a private letter dated October 13, Major-General Lord Cavan wrote to Lieut.-Colonel Jeffreys:
I should like to come and thank all your Battalion for its splendid and glorious work of the past week, but I cannot leave Headquarters till the fight is ended, and I do not want to bother you and your officers and men, but simply wish them rest. In case I cannot manage to come, and we are wanted again quickly, I hope you will accept this letter of my profound gratitude for, and intense admiration of your splendid services. To the men who have repulsed attack after attack on the trench they took so gallantly, I simply could not say enough, and I hope you have already put in names for due reward of those who actually win our battles for us. My heartiest congratulations and undying thanks.
The Battalion went back into billets at Verquin on the 13th, and then to Sailly-la-Bourse. On the 19th it returned to the trenches opposite Big Willie, and owing to some mistake Nos. 1 and 2 Companies were crowded into a trench capable only of holding one Company, with the result that quite an unnecessarily large number of men were hit. On the 19th Second Lieutenant F. A. M. Browning arrived, and on the 21st Major A. St. L. Glyn joined the Battalion as second in command.
On the 22nd the shelling became so violent that a message was sent down the whole British line to the effect that at any moment an attack might be expected. On the 23rd the German artillery turned its attention to a communication trench called "King's Head," which it blew in in several places. Second Lieutenant H. Crookshank was wounded, and there was a certain number of casualties among other ranks.