The History of the 33rd Divisional Artillery, in the War, 1914-1918.

by John Victor Macartney-Filgate

The 49th Division was holding the line at the time, and the batteries working under 33rd Divisional Artillery Headquarters (who in its turn was controlled by the 49th Division) covered the front from "The Z" to the south-west corner of Gommecourt Park, wire-cutting being carried out mainly just below and south of the Gommecourt-Fonquevillers road. From the 7th till the 11th, when the wire-cutting was finished, the work went on daily without interruption; on the 8th D/162 (Major Belgrave) had exchanged positions with a battery of the 48th Division and had moved into Hebuterne itself, while on the 9th the batteries were placed under control of VII. Corps direct, and were relieved of the responsibility of covering the 49th Divisional front as far as infantry support was concerned, but apart from these small interruptions no distraction of any importance was suffered. Hostile artillery was sufficiently active to be rather troublesome—the tactics employed being occasional short bursts of shelling and sniping rounds into the battery positions, a procedure which kept all ranks unpleasantly on the qui vive, and it was with a feeling of satisfaction that the report was made on the 11th that wire-cutting was complete.

Here the batteries had a slight rest from the continual firing of the previous days, but not so the brigade commanders. On the 12th orders were received that the brigade commanders of the 33rd Divisional Artillery should supervise the wire-cutting of the 79th Brigade, and no sooner was this done than positions had to be reconnoitred for the batteries on the neighbouring Serre front. The reconnaissance was carried out on September 18th, and the following day the batteries moved into positions from which they were destined to take part in the Battle of the Ancre. The move in this case was of no magnitude whatever; the batteries of the 156th Brigade lay east of Sailly-au-Bois, the 162nd Brigade took up positions south of Hebuterne, with the exception of "D" battery which was in Hebuterne itself, while the 166th Brigade shifted to the north of the same village. Once again wire-cutting was the order of the day. The front covered by the batteries, held at this time by infantry of the 31st Division, extended from west of Puisieux to as far south as Serre, and wire-cutting was concentrated on the zone stretching from the cross roads south-east of The Point to 300 yards north-east of John Copse, the batteries being under direct control of the XIII. Corps.

From October 20th until November 13th the batteries were kept in a state of high activity. Every day wire-cutting was continued, and bursts of fire were directed day and night upon the gaps cut in the wire to prevent the repair thereof. At the same time all the hostile approaches, communication trenches and trench junctions were constantly bombarded, and here again every endeavour was made to prevent the enemy from putting right such damage as had been done. These tactics naturally used up a large amount of ammunition, and as naturally evoked swift retaliation from the enemy. Every night, as the ammunition wagons toiled up from the wagon-lines around Couin and St. Leger with supplies for the guns, they met the blast of the German shells searching the approaches around Sailly, Colincamps and Hebuterne. Nightly did the Germans take their toll of men and horses engaged upon the work of ammunition supply, while an ever-lengthening casualty list in the battery positions showed that the enemy, provoked to wrath and apprehension by the obviously deliberate and premeditated cutting of his wire, was not replying in vain. He knew, from the destruction of his wire, that an attack was imminent, and realising this he turned the full blast of his attention upon the batteries; they were the chief danger at the moment, whereas the infantry could be attended to later when the day of assault grew nearer at hand.

The tactics of the enemy were as before; not usually long bombardments, but sudden short bursts of fire upon the battery positions, catching men unawares and making them dread even the narrow open spaces between the guns. Every day these bursts—sometimes only a few sniping rounds—cut down the effectives at the gun positions, until Hebuterne became a word of ill omen to all. Still the work continued; the back areas of the enemy system began to receive attention, Puisieux was bombarded on the 22nd in conjunction with the heavy artillery, and on the 26th the first infantry raiding party went over to obtain identification of the troops opposite and to examine the effect of the previous six days' wire-cutting. After two half-hour bombardments, with an interval of two hours between, a party of the 93rd Infantry Brigade set out to enter the hostile lines, but an enemy better known almost than the Germans and in its way equally deadly, the enemy Mud, prevented them from even reaching the German parapet. So heavy was the going in No Man's Land that it became a physical impossibility to get across, and after many efforts the infantry returned to our own trenches.

Once again wire-cutting and trench bombardment were resumed, and now the enemy became more violent still in his reply. Nightly did he pour thousands of gas shells into the battery positions, forcing the men to wear their box-respirators during what little rest they could achieve and depriving them of their badly-needed sleep. Practically every day the villages of Sailly and Hebuterne were shelled by 15 cm. and 10 cm. howitzers, while a deliberate bombardment of batteries and brigade headquarters was carried out during the last three days of the month. On November 2nd another attempt was made by the 31st Division to raid the enemy trenches east of Hebuterne, and throughout the night of the 2nd/3rd a heavy flank and covering barrage was kept up by the batteries to support the infantry in their hazardous task. Once again, however, failure had to be confessed. The utter impassability of No Man's Land, owing to mud and water-filled shell-holes, combined with very brisk enemy opposition forced the raiding parties back to their trenches again, and once more were the batteries left in ignorance of the effect of their work.

It was essential, however, that the enemy lines should be penetrated, for the non-success of the previous two raids had led to a lack of knowledge of the hostile troops opposite, and had prevented an examination being made of the German wire. Accordingly, on November 6th, a third and this time in part successful attempt was made. After a 20-minute bombardment during which three raiding parties crept into No Man's Land, a hurricane barrage for six minutes was carried out, under cover of which the raiders set out for the enemy trenches between The Point and the Sunken Road. Heavy machine-gun fire was encountered and the two raiding parties on the left were held up, but on the right the party covered by the 162nd Brigade forced its way into the enemy line, bombed dug-outs, examined the wire and returned safely to its own trenches bringing with it, for purposes of identification, five prisoners, of whom one died on arrival.

Matters now began to move rapidly. From the 7th to the 10th the enemy bombarded Sailly and Hebuterne heavily, and on the night of the 9th fired 4,000 gas shells into our battery positions; on the 10th also began the final three-day bombardment by our batteries before the launching of the assault to be known in history as the Battle of the Ancre. The 10th, 11th and 12th, designated in the secret operation orders as W, X and Y days, marked a doubling and trebling intensity of bombardment on the enemy trenches; the German front and support lines were pounded and flung in all directions, wire was cut, gaps and breaches were kept under constant bursts of fire to prevent repair, and when November 13th dawned it seemed that no more could be done, and that, in view of the bad visibility and weather existing during these days, every possible preparation had been made.

Zero hour on Monday, the 13th, was a quarter to six in the morning; sharp to the second the guns roared forth the barrage, the infantry advanced to the assault and the Battle of the Ancre, which for so long had been fomenting, burst out in all its fury. The 33rd Divisional Artillery was covering the extreme left of the battle line, its zone extending from John Copse on the right through the Touvert Farm-La Louverie Farm road to the left of the line of assault, and was supporting the infantry of the 31st Division by whom the attack was to be made. On the front of the batteries the wire was found to be completely and successfully cut, the barrage proved entirely satisfactory and the infantry, assaulting and passing over the German front line, advanced to their next objective—the German second line—along the whole of the front from Puisieux to as far south as Serre.

On the whole the hostile barrage was not severe until noon, when No Man's Land and our front system were very heavily bombarded. Every morning from 5.45 till 6 A.M. for the previous three days a heavy barrage had been fired on the German trenches so that, after the first two occasions, the enemy grew used to these barrages and could not tell whether an attack was coming or not. During the assault itself, which was helped by a heavy fog, the chief casualties were suffered from rifle and machine-gun fire coming from the German second line, while heavy mud in No Man's Land made the advance extremely tedious. The German front line, as already noted, was successfully captured in spite of these difficulties, the enemy in most cases being caught by surprise and surrendering on close fighting, and it was not until the advance on the second line began that real trouble was met.

The 3rd Division, to whom had been allotted the capture of Serre, was unable, owing to the mud and heavy enemy opposition, to reach its objective, and the 31st Division found itself with its right flank in the air. All day long fighting continued, our casualties being terribly heavy, while the batteries barraged with all their might in the hope of protecting the 31st Division until such time as the 3rd Division, by advancing on the right, should secure the flank. It was all of no avail, however; after twelve hours of raging battle orders were received from Corps Headquarters to evacuate the captured ground, and this was done in the evening under a protective barrage from the guns of the 33rd Divisional Artillery. Thus on this particular front no advance was made, while the casualties were so heavy that strong patrols had to be sent out during the night to cover the bringing in of the wounded. It should be remembered, however, that the operations described formed only the extreme left of a great battle, and that, although the flank was held up, the centre advanced with such success that Beaumont-Hamel was captured together with 3,000 prisoners, while an advance was made on to the outskirts of Beaumont village itself. Therefore, in considering the results of the Battle of the Ancre, the foregoing narrative which concerns only the batteries on the extreme flank must not be taken alone, but in connection with the history of the rest of that day along the whole front of assault.