“The front of about 24,000 yards held by the IX. British Corps ran along the high ground about four miles north of the Aisne for the first” (left) “16,000 yards gradually bending S.E., on its right, to the important point of Berry-au-Bac, where the line crossed the river and continued on S.E. in the direction of Rheims for another 8000 yards. The right sector south of the Aisne was held by the 21st Division, in touch with the 36th French Division on its right; the 8th Division in the centre, and the 50th Division to the left, joining up with the 22nd French Division of the XI. French Corps, north of Craonne.”
The 50th, according to all accounts, put up a glorious defence. Its position made a withdrawal impracticable, even if that had been contemplated; it was overwhelmed where it stood. As a fighting force the Division was practically destroyed; to it little more remained than the splendid tradition it had created.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, vol. v., chapter xi., gives an excellent description, with many interesting details, of the magnificent stand made on 27th May, by the 50th, 8th, and 21st Divisions, aided each by a brigade of the 25th, and of the intense fighting which occurred down to 6th June when the enemy’s effort was spent. As on the Somme and Lys, his losses had been enormous. The 19th Division came into the line on the 29th May, when prospects were very gloomy, and their presence did much to establish a new line. On 6th June the 4th Shropshire, T.F., of the 19th Division gained the Croix de Guerre, with palms for the recapture of Mont Bligny.
A well-founded claim might be put forward that history records no instance where a large body of troops has come through, without loss of morale or fighting spirit, three such ordeals, within less than three months, as were endured by the divisions composing the British IX. Corps on the Aisne. Although one of them, the 8th, had not been on the Lys, it had very heavy fighting about Villers Bretonneux, which it assisted to recapture 24th/25th April, three weeks after the close of the March battle. The other divisions were in all three struggles. Whereas in old days a battle ended within twelve, or on exceptional occasions within forty-eight hours of its commencement, the St. Quentin-Somme battle, generally known as the March Retreat, raged night and day without cessation for ten days, that on the Lys for nearly three weeks, and that on the Aisne for over a week. The question will probably be discussed by the military historian or essayist of the future.
Before the “Advance to Victory” was commenced the 50th Division had been reconstituted. The battalions which had been destroyed were replaced as follows:—149th Brigade: 3rd Royal Fusiliers, 13th Black Watch, 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers; 150th Brigade: 2nd Northumberland Fusiliers, 7th Wiltshire, 2nd Royal Munster Fusiliers; 151st Brigade: 6th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 1st King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 4th King’s Royal Rifle Corps. See Story of the Fourth Army (Hodder and Stoughton), p. 322.
The 50th was again to do fine work, the tradition held.
As part of the XIII. Corps, Fourth Army, the Division was employed in the last great British offensive, and played a part worthy of its past.
In the despatch of 21st December, 1918, paragraph 37, Sir Douglas Haig said: “On the 3rd October the Fourth Army attacked between Sequehart and Le Catelet and captured those villages and Ramicourt (see 46th Division) together with the Beaurevoir-Fonsomme line on that front. In this operation the 50th Division took Gouy and Le Catelet after heavy and prolonged fighting, in which a number of counter-attacks were beaten off.” This is now the “Battle of the Beaurevoir Line,” 3rd-5th October, 1918.
The XIII. Corps was again employed in the “Battle of Cambrai, 1918,” on 8th and 9th October, and the 50th was engaged.
Paragraph 46 shows that the XIII. Corps employed the 50th and 66th Divisions in the successful “Battle for the Selle Crossings” 17th to 25th October. See also under 66th Division.