On the 9th Seymour’s Brigade was not called upon to fight, and after reaching Wood 15 remained in shell-holes and abandoned gun-pits. Lieutenant Ingleby, the acting Quartermaster, brought up hot soup in the morning, and bivouac sheets were given to the men to protect them from the rain which now came down heavily. On October 10 the 3rd Brigade was sent up to take over the whole line, and relieve the other two Guards Brigades. The 4th Battalion was to be in the centre, with the 1st Battalion Grenadiers on the right, the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards on the left, and the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards in reserve. Lieut.-Colonel Lord Gort and Lieut.-Colonel Maitland went up to ascertain the exact positions their Battalions were to take up, and as there seemed a good deal of uncertainty about the position on the right, the Brigade-Major suggested they should wait until the contact aeroplane had dropped its report. This would have entailed some delay, and the Commanding Officers decided to bring up their Battalions at once to Vee Bend. In order to
ensure the close co-operation of the 1st and 4th Battalions, it was agreed to have one Headquarters for both Battalions. On arrival in the front line, No. 3 Company under Captain Burke, and No. 2 under Second Lieutenant Pryce, were placed in the front line with the remainder in reserve. The relief was arduous, as the ground was a mass of shell-holes full of water, with the sides slipping and crumbling. On the 11th detailed orders for the attacks on the next day were issued, and the position of the enemy was carefully studied. In the morning German aircraft came over flying at 300 feet: the pilots were clearly visible leaning over the edge of their fuselages, and dropping Véry lights on to the trenches to indicate them to their artillery. They were received with a fusillade of Lewis-gun and rifle fire, and No. 3 Company succeeded in bringing one down in flames at the southern end of Houthulst Forest; but the enemy’s artillery had received sufficient information to shell the front trenches with considerable accuracy, and shells began to fall in large numbers. That night a good deal of difficulty was experienced in bringing up the rations, for it was extremely dark and the mud on the sand-bags made it almost impossible to distinguish the marking. No. 4 Company under Lieutenant H. H. Sloane-Stanley were told off for this task, and worked very hard under great difficulties. Sergeant Billings of No. 3 Company, observing an enemy patrol approaching our lines, ran out and captured the officer and his orderly, from whom much valuable information and some maps were secured.
At 5.25 A.M. on October 12 the attack was launched. The task allotted to Seymour’s Brigade was small compared with that of the troops on the right, as the direction of the advance of the Division was half left. Nos. 2 and 3 Companies under Second Lieutenant Pryce and Captain Burke consolidated their positions on the new objective during the previous night, although No. 3 Company had to withdraw to its original line at daybreak, as it was in the direct line of the creeping barrage. The Welsh Guards on the left remained stationary while the forward movement was being made on the right, and No. 3 Company of the 4th Battalion had only to go about 100 yards, so that these units were in position before zero hour. The object of the attack was to bring the whole line to within 150 yards of Houthulst Forest. As soon as our barrage came down, two platoons of No. 3 under Lieutenant Nash advanced and captured their objective with comparative ease, while two platoons from No. 1 Company occupied the old front line in close support. Not long afterwards Lieutenant Pryce reported that his two platoons had also reached their destination. The whole advance had been attended with but few casualties, as the enemy offered very little opposition. While coming up to inspect his two front platoons, Captain Pixley was killed by snipers, who had been left behind when the enemy retired to harass the advance. Any movement immediately drew the fire of these snipers, and after some of them had been located and killed it was easier to move about. About 11.30 A.M. the
enemy’s barrage died down, and as there were no signs of any counter-attack, the rest of the day was spent in consolidating the position and in attending to the wounded. Two patrols were sent out into the fringes of Houthulst Forest, and returned with reports of the enemy’s defences and the condition of the ground, obtained from some prisoners they captured. Since it was clear that the enemy knew the range of the taped tracks, repeated hits having been registered on it, a party was detailed to lay out a new course on the 13th. The construction of this course was fully justified later by the absence of casualties when the Battalion was relieved. Including the two days in bivouacs on the east side of the canal, the Battalion had spent seven days in the open, exposed to the rain, and lying on waterlogged ground with little or no shelter.
The total casualties in the Battalion were 20 killed, 4 missing, and 64 wounded. On the night of the 13th the Battalion was relieved, and travelled by train from Boesinghe to Ondank Station, where it went into billets at De Wippe Corner.
CHAPTER XXVI
CAMBRAI AND GOUZEAUCOURT
Diary of the War, October, November, December 1917
Successful operations were carried out by Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig in front of the Passchendaele Ridge at the beginning of October, when a large number of prisoners were captured, and, in spite of repeated counter-attacks by the Germans, the British forced their way to Houthulst Forest. The French made a successful advance on the Aisne front across the Soissons—Laon road, and penetrated the German line in several places. At the beginning of November the Germans retreated from the Chemin des Dames, and were closely followed by the French.