Oct. 22.
Having been in the trenches for four days and nights, the King's and No. 4 Companies were relieved by No. 2 and No. 3 Companies. Aircraft reports that the enemy was massing troops near America seemed to presage an attack, but except for the inevitable sniping nothing happened in that part of the line, the attack that day being directed against the 22nd Brigade and also against the First and Second Divisions farther north. The relieved companies had not been long in their dug-outs, however, before two platoons of No. 4 Company under 2nd Lieutenant Walter and 2nd Lieutenant Somerset were ordered to occupy some trenches vacated by the 21st Brigade on the left, while the King's Company was sent up to Kruiseik to reinforce No. 2 Company.
Oct. 23.
The position of the Seventh Division was now becoming most precarious, holding doggedly on as it was to a line seven miles long, with every man in the trenches. General Lawford's 22nd Brigade had been attacked by a large force and obliged to give ground; this made an ugly dent in the line, and placed the 21st Brigade in an acute and perilous salient. To help the hard-pressed Seventh Division Sir Douglas Haig now sent along the Second Division, which had been relieved by the French Ninth Corps.
Owing to the heavy mist on the 23rd neither side could use artillery till 9 A.M., when the enemy began to bombard the Kruiseik salient. The day's attack was directed against the 21st Brigade, and the Wiltshire Regiment had some desperate fighting. The two platoons of the Grenadiers which had been sent up the night before were attacked by two battalions of Germans, but they held their ground and never gave an inch. They suffered severely, however, and 2nd Lieutenant Walter and 2nd Lieutenant Somerset were both killed before these platoons were withdrawn. The whole line of trenches was bombarded incessantly, and all day the German guns swept the rear of the line so as to catch the supports as they came up.
A message was sent to the Grenadiers about 2.30 from the Border Regiment on the right to say that their trenches had been blown in, and they might want help. Accordingly the King's and No. 4 Companies were ordered to move across to a position in rear of the Border Regiment, so as to support them if necessary. No sooner had they left their dug-outs and fallen in than they were heavily shelled, though they were well out of sight of the German gunners.
Incidents like this gave rise to stories of spies behind the British lines, who could telephone to the enemy's gunners the exact position of bodies of our troops. But had the Germans had any means whatever of obtaining information they could hardly have failed to know that, instead of the large forces they imagined to be opposed to them, there was nothing to bar their way to Calais but a single unsupported British Division.
When the leading platoons of the two companies of the Grenadiers reached the position indicated, which was the ridge in rear of the Borderers' trenches, they came under the concentrated fire of batteries from three different directions, and suffered some loss. So heavy was the fire that they found it impossible to remain on the ridge, and as the Border Regiment had not definitely asked for support the King's Company was ordered to retire. It retired in good order and in slow time, though under heavy fire all the way. Lieutenant H. L. Aubrey Fletcher and several men were wounded, but the casualties were not so heavy as might have been expected. Fortunately the enemy burst their shrapnel too high, and the ground was so soft that the high-explosive shells did little damage except when they got a direct hit.
Oct. 24.
A violent attack was made next day on the salient formed by the British line, which at last began to show signs of giving way. After some desperate fighting the Wiltshire Regiment was driven in, and the Germans got possession of Polygon Wood. Ruggles-Brise's Brigade was heavily engaged, as the enemy's attack was being pressed home with great vigour, especially on the left of the Battalion, where the Germans were trying to break through between the Grenadiers and the Yorkshire Regiment. No. 4 Company, under Major Colby, was therefore ordered to counter-attack. Great difficulties were added to its task by the tobacco-drying grounds—ready-made wire entanglements on which the men's packs and accoutrements caught while the German machine-guns were practically enfilading them. But, in spite of everything, Major Colby succeeded in driving back a much larger body of the enemy, and thus making that part of the line secure.