Paragraph 46, “The forcing of the Selle River crossings, 17th-25th October,” now the “Battle of the Selle,” mentions the 66th as again employed by the XIII. Corps. “The enemy was holding the difficult wooded country east of Bohain and the line of the Selle north of it, in great strength, his infantry being well supported by artillery.... By the evening of the 19th October, after much severe fighting, the enemy had been driven across the Sambre and Oise canal at practically all points south of Catillon, whence our line followed the valley of the Richemont east and north of Le Cateau.” That town was taken by the 66th Division.
On the night of the 16th the 9th Gloucestershire, Pioneers to the Division, and the Divisional Engineers threw eight bridges across the Selle, here twenty feet wide and five feet deep, and the South African Brigade crossed to the east bank. Later they forced their way through the wire entanglements and carried their objectives. In the Story of the Fourth Army, p. 224, there occurs this sentence: “The position attacked by the 66th Division, and especially by the South African Brigade, requires to be studied on the ground before the difficulties overcome by the initiative and leadership of the regimental officers and non-commissioned officers, and by the gallantry of all ranks, can be fully realised. None but the very best troops could have attempted, let alone have succeeded in, such an enterprise, and the crossing of the Selle at Le Cateau will always remain, like the struggle in Delville Wood in 1916, a lasting testimony to the fighting qualities of the South African soldier.” A captured German order contained the sentence: “The English must not cross the Selle on our front.”
Sir A. Conan Doyle, vol. vi. pp. 187-190, gives a detailed and excellent account of the attack on 17th October. He says: “It had been a very desperate battle, the laurels of which rest with the South African Brigade, who had carried out so remarkable an assault, and also with the 50th Division which had held on with such a bull-dog grip to its purpose.”
The XIII. Corps was engaged in “The Battle of the Sambre,” commencing on 4th November, the 66th being in support of the 25th, which captured Landrecies. (See under 48th Division, three battalions of which did great work.) See also paragraph 50 of the despatch and map opposite p. 294 of Messrs. Dent’s edition.
On 7th November the 66th relieved the 25th and continued the advance beyond Avesnes, being practically advance-guard to the Fourth Army. At the date of the Armistice the Division held the front from Sivry to a point west of Beaumont.
The work of the 66th Division between 8th October and 11th November is fully described in The Story of the Fourth Army already referred to.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
Showing the Battles, as named in the Official List published in 1921, in which the Territorial Divisions took part.
Since the foregoing notes were put together there has been published “The Official Names of the Battles and other Engagements fought by the Military Forces of the British Empire during the Great War, 1914-1919, and Third Afghan War, 1919, being the Report of the Battles Nomenclature Committee, as approved by the Army Council.”