In his telegraphic despatch of 13th September, 1918, as to the work of various divisions, Sir Douglas Haig said: “The 47th was continuously engaged in March throughout the retreat, fighting successful rearguard actions from La Vacquerie to Albert. Going into line on August 13th, in the neighbourhood of Morlancourt, it fought its way forward to St. Pierre-Vaast Wood, which it cleared of the enemy, overcoming fierce hostile resistance and capturing many prisoners and several guns in the course of its advance. Included among the latter was a German field gun battery which was rushed while in action firing over open sights.”
The Division was then in the III. Corps, Fourth Army.
The despatch of 21st December, 1918, paragraph 21, shows that the III. Corps including the 47th, 12th and 18th Divisions attacked on 22nd August, during the “Battle of Albert, 1918”; the 3rd Australian and 38th Divisions co-operated. The left of the Fourth Army was brought forward and over 2400 prisoners and a few guns were taken.
Paragraph 22. The III. Corps again attacked on the 23rd and progress was made. At 1 a.m. on the 24th the latter was renewed, the 3rd Australian Division took Bray-sur-Somme and the 47th, 12th, and 18th Divisions carried the line across the high ground between Bray and La Boisselle and took prisoners.
Paragraph 24. In support of the operation against Mont St. Quentin “on the morning of 31st August the left of the Fourth Army (3rd Australian Division, 58th London, 47th and 18th) attacked towards Bouchavesnes, Rancourt and Frégicourt, and by successful fighting on this and the following day, captured these villages and several hundred prisoners.” The fighting 31st August-3rd September is now the “Second Battle of Bapaume.” See also under 58th Division.
In the History of the Fourth Army (Hodder and Stoughton) there will be found an account which correlates the doings of the III. Corps and the Australian Corps in the fighting between 22nd August and 4th September. On several occasions the task of the 47th Division was a very hard one as at the “Happy Valley” on 22nd August and subsequently. At page 111 there occurs the following sentence: “The operations of the III. Corps were also worthy of the highest praise. The advance of this Corps from the capture of Albert on August 22nd, until they crossed the Canal du Nord on September 4th, covers a distance, as the crow flies, of some fourteen miles, over the desolate, shell-pitted area of the old Somme battlefields. The operations require to be studied in greater detail than is possible here before the magnitude of the task the troops were asked to perform, and the demands on the officers and men which such an advance in face of determined opposition entailed, can be fully realised. The spirit, however, of the young soldiers of the 12th, 18th, 47th and 58th Divisions successfully overcame every difficulty, and well did they answer every call made on them, and uphold the best traditions of the British soldier by their cheerfulness and endurance.”
The Division left the III. Corps on 7th September and moved north to join the Fifth Army, and it was not thereafter in any hard-fought battle. Shortly thereafter Headquarters of the III. Corps also moved north to the Flanders area, where they were employed during the closing weeks.
For a time the 47th was in the line in the Lys area and after a short rest moved through Armentières to Lille, and, continuing to press and follow up the enemy, the Division was east of Tournai when the Armistice was concluded.
At Loos, in September 1915, the 47th Division had earned and received the praise of the Commander-in-Chief, Sir John French. In the next big battle—the Somme—at High Wood, September 1916, it had fought so well as again to be commended by the then Commander-in-Chief, Sir Douglas Haig, and at Bourlon Wood on 30th November, 1917, it “greatly distinguished” itself. Few if any divisions in the British Army received such recognition on three separate occasions. This most brilliant reputation remained, as will be seen from the foregoing extracts, absolutely untarnished to the end.
The 1/6th London Regiment, originally belonging to the 56th, but which served with the 47th Division, was selected for the Army of the Rhine.