During September the battalion was sorry to lose its very popular Brigadier, Brig.-General E. F. Brereton, C.B., D.S.O., who had commanded them since the days of peace. When he returned home, Brig.-General L. G. Lewes, D.S.O., of the Essex Regt., took his place.
On leaving Thiepval the battalion at once marched northwards and took over the line near Fonquevillers, facing the German stronghold of Gommecourt, and for the remainder of the winter kept moving on from one bad line of trenches to another, working hard to drain and improve them for the benefit of their successors. At Fonquevillers the trench-mortaring was very heavy, and four N.C.O.’s in D Coy. were killed one night by a single shell. Here too 2nd Lieut. Wilson was mortally wounded by a chance bullet.
Shortly before Christmas the 6th moved out to rest at the little villages of Halloy and Grenas, near Doullens, and though the billets were not of the best the Duke’s were able to eat a good Christmas dinner without interruption from the enemy.
Early in the New Year, still moving slowly northwards towards Arras, the battalion went into a new line near Berles-au-Bois and then at last found some really good trenches in the solid chalk of Wailly. During this winter the game of “winkling” had come into vogue. The line on both sides was commonly held by detached posts, and small parties of resolute men would stalk one of these, surprise the sentry and then pick prisoners out of the dug-out behind him as one picks winkles out of shells. The 6th were never “winkled,” though they had to keep very alert, but at Wailly a small party of D Coy., headed by Sergt. Bury, D.C.M., took a hand in the game with great success. Raiding an enemy sap they inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. Pte. Scott, of Keighley, had the misfortune to lose his way when the signal was given to return and was captured. After being severely cross-questioned, about an hour later he took advantage of a moment’s inattention on the part of his captors and escaped back to his own lines with some useful information about the enemy’s dispositions. A raid on a grand scale was then planned and practised, but the battalion was again moved on before it could be brought off.
FROM NEUVE CHAPELLE TO NIEUPORT.
The next move was to a different area. The ⅙th (as it must now be called) was packed on to the railway at Doullens and, after a lapse of two eventful years, once again detrained at Merville, which it found in deep snow. The following day it moved into trenches at Neuve Chapelle. The historic redoubt of “Port Arthur,” so hotly contested in 1915, was in the battalion sector, and the famous La Bassée road ran through it. The Duke’s had an enormous stretch of line to look after and held it lightly in the outpost system; but, except for the trench mortars, which the enemy possessed in great numbers, their stay here was not an unpleasant one and they remained in the line for nearly three months.
At the end of March a raid was carried out by the battalion. The operation was carefully practised and on the night of March 28-29 the raiding party set off under the command of Capt. S. H. Clough, who was the first man to enter the enemy’s lines and the last to leave them. Strong opposition was encountered and no prisoners could be taken, but all ranks behaved with great gallantry. Capt. Clough and Lieut. J. W. Denison (afterwards killed while serving with the 9th Batt.) were both wounded; and 2nd Lieut. Butler and Pte. Pickup, D.C.M., were killed in the operation.
Two interesting events occurred during the stay at Neuve Chapelle. One was a visit from a special company of Royal Engineers, armed with a number of the new gas projectors, which discharged many large gas shells simultaneously into the enemy’s lines. To the great delight of the men, who remembered their own experiences at Ypres, from 200 to 300 of these shells were concentrated upon one sector of the enemy’s line and caused serious losses to the Germans. The other was the arrival of the 1st Portuguese Division which first came into the line in small parties to learn the art of war from the 49th, and finally, towards the end of May, took over the line from them.
After their long spell of trench work the battalion thoroughly enjoyed a fortnight’s rest at the aptly named village of Paradis. The quarters were excellent, and it was here that an officer of the battalion made his name famous throughout the B. E. F. by discovering a particular variety of billet. Brigade sports and a horse show were organized, in which the battalion more than held its own. In the latter it swept the board in the heavy draught section: and in the former it won the tug-of-war, and, largely thanks to the fine running of Pte. Carter, also did well in the field events. From Paradis the men could clearly hear the terrific shelling of the battle of Messines, when the new “creeping barrage,” employed thereafter with such great success, was first brought to perfection by our artillery.
The 147th Brigade was next lent for a fortnight to the 6th Division, old friends of the Salient days, to take the place of a brigade required elsewhere. The ⅙th Duke’s took over a sector opposite the famous quarries of Hulluch, towards the northern end of the battlefield of Loos. The defences occupied were of a remarkable character, for vast underground tunnels, large enough to take a battalion, stretched all along the line. In these secure quarters, fitted with electric light and other conveniences, the bulk of the troops passed the day. But on the surface the sniping was keen and the trench mortars, hidden in deep emplacements, were exceptionally active. 2nd Lieut. Darragh, a most intrepid officer who had lost two brothers earlier in the year, was wounded and died a few days later; and Sergt. Bell, of Haworth, was killed, again one of three gallant brothers who lost their lives for their country. In this sector, too, the battalion was called upon to assist an extensive raid carried out by the battalion on their right. A magnificent smoke screen was put up to hide the preliminary preparations from the enemy in Hulluch, while a plucky party under 2nd Lieut. J. S. Spencer created a spectacular diversion by exploding a Bangalore torpedo right under the German wire.