In the week’s fighting the battalion had lost heavily. Besides Capt. Coulthurst, 2nd Lieut. Ricroft, a most promising young officer, had been killed; also Company Sergt.-Major McDermott, D.C.M., one of the best N.C.O.’s the battalion ever turned out; Sergts. Godwin, M.M. and Midgley, M.M., Corporals Haw and Stanley, and many other good fellows. On the night before the relief, a gas shell, falling on the roof of the cellar which served as orderly room, placed almost all our battalion headquarters hors-de-combat. Lieut.-Col. C. M. Bateman, D.S.O., with Lieuts. Stewart and Thrackray, was taken to hospital; Lieut. A. P. Smith, M.C., the Acting Adjutant, left alone in the cellar, was just able to hold on and give the necessary instructions before he, too, had to be helped out of the line. Major A. B. Clarkson, M.C., took over the command of the battalion and Major F. L. Smith, M.C., who had been attached to the Divisional Staff, returned as second-in-command, with Lieut. A. Lacy as adjutant.
THE FINAL VICTORY.
After a short rest at Naves and Hordain the Battalion found itself again in the battle line on the night of Oct. 28th-29th, when it took over the front near Famars, south of Valenciennes. The floods to the west and north of Valenciennes prevented a direct attack upon that city; and the task set the 49th Division with Canadians on their left and the 4th Division on their right, was to break through the strong series of defences on the hills and valleys to the south and so render the city untenable.
The 49th Division attacked on a two battalion front. To the ⅙th Duke of Wellington’s was assigned the honour of leading the attack on the right, with the 7th Duke’s in support and the 4th Duke’s in reserve. The 146th (West Yorks.) Brigade attacked on the left in similar formation, and the 148th was held in reserve for a further push northwards the following day. Within the ⅙th Batt. A and B companies had to attack first; their task was to rush the German first line and the posts in front of it, descend into the valley, cross the river Rhonelle and ascend the opposite slope as far as a deeply sunken road on the next ridge. C and D companies were then to push through them and if possible reach the line of the Preseau-Marly road some 800 yards beyond. The whole arrangements were most carefully worked out and explained by Lieut.-Col. Clarkson, M.C., and a splendid supporting barrage was organized by Colonel Duncan, of Otley, who was in command of the artillery brigade covering the ⅙th front and had one 18-pounder gun for every twelve and a half yards of frontage, without counting those of heavier calibre behind.
The attack, which opened at 5-15 a.m. was a most successful one. The men were delighted to start a clean show of their own, planned by their own officers, instead of their usual task of going in to retrieve the fortunes of a day of failure: though they numbered little over 320, they captured about 600 unwounded prisoners (including twelve officers), a great store of machine guns and trench mortars, and left many hundred German dead upon the field.
A company on the left, under Capt. Farrar, M.C., went off with a rare dash and rushed a number of hidden machine gun posts found unexpectedly near their line; crossing the Rhonelle river by fallen trees and by footbridges placed in position by parties of the 19th Lancashire Fusiliers, they accomplished their task in spite of severe casualties, and came unexpectedly upon the sunken road, which was found full of surrendering Germans and of pack-horses which had just come up with their rations. B company on the right had an even stiffer time; all their officers had been put out of action within five minutes of the start, and flanking machine gun fire raked them all the way. Company Sergt.-Major T. Limmer, D.C.M., at once took charge and led the company with the greatest skill and gallantry to its objective, thus winning the only M.C. awarded to a Company Sergeant.-Major of the battalion during the campaign.
After a short pause C company, under Lieut. W. Spratt, M.C., who had taken command in place of Capt. Willink, wounded, moved forward from the sunken road and after stubborn fighting reached their furthest objective. D company under Capt. Hart, M.C., attacked on their right but soon suffered very heavy casualties, for the 4th Division, on their right again, had met with a severe check and had been driven back from Preseau. At the critical moment Capt. Hart and practically all his head-quarters staff were killed by a burst of machine gun fire, and the company was forced to dig in a few hundred yards short of their objective. As the West Yorks. were also unable to get quite to their objective, this isolated Lieut. Spratt, who was still holding his ground with Sergt. Woodhead, M.M., Sergt. Burns, M.M., Corporal Maude, M.M., and a handful of other stalwarts; and Lieut.-Col. Clarkson, who managed to visit the whole front line during the hottest fighting, ordered him to retire a short distance to make the line more secure. But the high ridge had been won and the enemy was forced to retire from his cunningly constructed defences. The 7th Battalion advanced next day with very little opposition and Valenciennes was restored to France.
The battalion had lost a big proportion of its small numbers. Besides Capt. Hart, M.C., 2nd Lieuts. Cartwright and Oughton had been killed and Capt. Willink succumbed to his wounds a few days later. Sergts. Upton and Davies and Corporal Maude, M.M., all of whom had done gallant work, were also among the fallen. Lieut. Claridge had been wounded shortly before the battle, and Sergt. Fredericksen, M.M., commanded the signallers most successfully throughout the attack.
On the night of November 2nd, the Battalion moved out of the line for what proved to be the last time. Taken in motor ‘buses back to the mining village of Auby, near Douai, they were engaged in reorganizing and training new drafts when news of the Armistice arrived. There was little material for any form of feasting, but a most successful concert was held and the Battalion store of S.O.S. rockets and flares was found to be lamentably deficient next morning.
There was plenty of good fare for the Christmas dinner, for which four live pigs were obtained, regardless of expense, from the other side of Arras. And shortly after, while football and education became main topics of interest, the battalion began to dwindle. Demobilized men began to go home and retainable men and volunteers were transferred to the 13th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regt. at Dunkirk. The numbers were already very small when the battalion moved into the city of Douai, on March 20th, and on June 7th, the cadre, consisting of four officers and twenty-three other ranks, left for Dunkirk, with colours and stores, on its homeward way.