The 3rd Battalion went into the line near Fampoux from the 2nd to the 4th, placing No. 2 Company under Captain Holbech and No. 4 under Captain Carrington south of the River Scarpe, with No. 3 under Captain Tufnell north of the river, and No. 1 under Lieutenant Fitzgerald in reserve. The front line was held by posts which were in good order, but it was bitterly cold, and there was snow on the ground. After two days in support the Battalion retired to Arras for eight days. On the 14th Lieut.-Colonel Thorne, in the absence on leave of the Brigadier, took command of the Brigade, and Major Cavendish
commanded the Battalion. On the 17th the Battalion returned to the trenches. A thaw having now set in, the trenches became mere drains, and required a great deal of work to keep them habitable. The four days subsequently spent in support were made unpleasant by the gas-shells, with which the Germans searched the back area.
Feb.
After four more days in reserve the Battalion returned to the trenches on February 1, when it came in for a severe bombardment with gas-shells, which caused 104 casualties; most of these occurred while the gas-shell holes were being filled in, as it had not been realised before that there was any danger of gas-poisoning while the men performed this work, and masks were therefore not worn. After the usual four days in support and four days in reserve, the Battalion began another tour of duty in the front trenches on the 15th. Patrols went out every night under Lieutenant Bedford or Second Lieutenant Durbin, to ascertain the effect of our trench mortar fire on the enemy’s wire, in view of a raid being undertaken. After four more days in reserve the Battalion again retired to Arras.
March.
The same routine was followed during the first three weeks in March, and the days spent in the front line proved uneventful. Rumours of a German offensive movement became more persistent every day, and it was perfectly clear that in the course of the next week the enemy would commence their great attack. Every possible precaution was therefore taken, and the
men in the front line were always looking out for any sign of hostile movement. The German attack actually began at dawn on the 21st, when the 3rd Battalion was in reserve at Arras. The companies were marching off to do their training, when several shells fell in the town, causing four casualties in No. 1 Company. Orders were then received that there was to be as little movement as possible in the town, so that training was confined to musketry and gas drill carried out in the barrack-rooms. At 5.30 on the same evening the Battalion was ordered to move at once to the Mercatel area. There it remained the next day, ready to move at a moment’s notice, and the Company Commanders took advantage of this pause to reconnoitre the third system of trenches, in front of Neuville Vitasse and north of Henin-sur-Cojeul. Meanwhile Brigadier-General Sergison-Brooke had been gassed, and the command of the Brigade had devolved on Lieut.-Colonel Follett.
Officers who took part in the Operations at the End of March 1918
At 3 A.M. on the 23rd Lieut.-Colonel Thorne received verbal orders to bring up the Battalion at once, and to relieve the remnants of the 93rd Brigade in the line, but on reaching Boyelles he found that this Brigade had only just taken over the line and required no relief. He therefore withdrew the front companies, Nos. 1 and 4, and placed them in the support trenches, occupied by the West Yorkshire Regiment, which consequently had to retire into reserve. This manœuvre was carried out under heavy shelling, during which Lieutenant Seymour was wounded. That evening No. 2 Company under Captain Holbech and No. 3 under Lieutenant Pauling went up into the front trenches, the remainder of the Battalion being in support. The next day these two companies moved back from the railway cutting, which was being heavily shelled, and occupied the support trenches. The Germans could be seen advancing by twos and threes with the object of forming a sufficiently strong line to attack, but they were scattered by our rifle fire before they could complete the assembly. At night patrols were sent out to obtain identifications but were not successful, since the enemy had had time to remove their dead and wounded.