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

by John Victor Macartney-Filgate

Next day, after firing a dummy barrage in the early morning in co-operation with an attack further to the south, the batteries of the 33rd Divisional Artillery gave up their part in the Battle of the Ancre and began to retire to their wagon-lines. Two batteries per brigade—"C" and D/156 with "B" and "D" of 162nd and 166th—moved out on the night of the 14th/15th to the area around Couin and St. Leger, and on the following night were joined by the rest of the brigades. Here they remained till the 22nd, cleaning, reorganising and resting, with occasional very unwelcome returns to their old battery positions to remove ammunition; here with the most profound regret they bade farewell to Lieut.-Colonel Rochfort-Boyd, whose gallantry and personality had won for him a firm affection and friendship in the hearts of all ranks, and who now, on handing the command of the 156th Brigade to Major Bridges, went to take over a Horse Artillery Brigade with the 1st Indian Cavalry Division (there to meet his death while directing the batteries in the Cambrai offensive of 1917); and from here they marched on November 22nd through Villers Bocage and Talmas to Airaines, to enjoy in this, the middle of November 1916, the first rest which they had been granted, with the exception of ten days during the Battle of the Somme, since they had gone into action nine months previously.

At Airaines they remained till December 5th, when they set out once more with their faces turned towards the east to relieve the French and to hold, throughout the winter, the ground wrested from the Germans in the Battle of the Somme. The story of that long and trying winter in bitter cold and deep mud, the tale of how the Germans were so continually harassed by artillery fire that they were forced to carry out the retreat of February 1917 to the famous Hindenburg line, belongs to another chapter in the life-story of the batteries, and as such must be relegated thereto.

CHAPTER V.
WINTER ON THE SOMME 1916.

From November 23rd, the date of arrival at Airaines, until December 5th when the first units began the march back to the line again, a complete rest was enjoyed by the batteries, and badly was it needed. Clothing, harness and equipment had to be overhauled carefully, casualties amongst men and horses replaced, while many of the reinforcements lately arrived from England were not fit to take their place in the gun detachments or teams, and needed a thorough drilling to change them from the half-raw condition in which they had left England to something more nearly approaching the necessary smartness and accuracy required in the field. Moreover a certain staleness, the inevitable result of a long period of continuous fighting, had descended upon the batteries as a whole, and it needed a period of brisk training interspersed with half-holidays, concerts and games of every description to bring back the old spring and confidence.

On November 29th the first hint was received of the destination of the batteries when fighting should once more become the order of the day, for on that date Brig.-Gen. Blane set off for Maurepas—the extreme left of the French on the Somme—there to hold a conference with the French General commanding the artillery of the French XX. Corps. On December 1st the full facts were known, and a warning order was received that the 33rd Division was to take over the line from the French from Sailly-Saillisel to a point opposite Bouchavesnes, the batteries occupying the positions of the 127th French Regiment of Artillery. Further it was learnt that the artillery support of the line was to be carried out by the combined brigades of the 33rd and 40th Divisions, each Division keeping two artillery brigades in the line and one in rest.

On Tuesday, December 5th, the move began. A/162 and C/156 with No. 2 Section of the Divisional Ammunition Column set off early in the morning on what was to be a three-day march, and passing through Picquigny and Ailly-sur-Somme, halted for the first night at St. Sauveur. The second day saw them leave Vecquemont and Corbie behind them, and on the third day, after spending the previous night at Vaux-sur-Somme, they arrived at Camp 14 on the Corbie-Bray road some few miles west of Bray itself. So the move went on; on December 8th B/156 and C/162 shook the dust—or rather mud—of Airaines from off their feet and followed the first two batteries by the same stages; next day A/156 and B/162 followed suit, and on December 10th the two remaining batteries—D/156 and D/162—turned their backs upon the rest area, arriving at Camp 14 two days later.

ORDER OF BATTLE.

October 1916—February 1917.

H.Q.R.A.
C.R.A.		Brigade Major.	Staff Captain.
Brig.-Gen. C. F. Blane, C.M.G.		Major H. K. Sadler, D.S.O., M.C.	Capt. W. E. Bownass.
156th Brigade.
Lieut.-Colonel Bridges.
Adjutant: Lieut. E. H. Prior (until January).
Lieut. F. L. Lee.
"A" Battery.	"B" Battery.	"C" Battery.	"D" Battery.
Major S. Talbot.	Major M. A. Studd, M.C.	Major G. Lomer, D.S.O.	Capt. W. G. Pringle (till January).
			Major W. A. T. Barstow, M.C.
162nd Brigade.
Lieut.-Colonel O. M. Harris.
Adjutant: Lieut. R. H. Pavitt.
"A" Battery.	"B" Battery.	"C" Battery.	"D" Battery.
Major G. Fetherston, M.C.	Major V. Benett-Stanford, M.C.	Major A. van Straubenzee, M.C.	Major J. D. Belgrave, D.S.O.
166th Brigade.
Lieut.-Colonel C. G. Stewart, C.M.G., D.S.O.
Adjutant: Lieut. S. M. Wood.
"A" Battery.	"B" Battery.	"C" Battery.	"D" Battery.
Capt. H. A. Littlejohn, M.C.	Capt. Dust.	Capt. H. Freeman.	Capt. B. McCallum, M.C.

While this march was in progress matters had been moving up in front, for on December 8th the 156th and 162nd Brigade commanders (166th Brigade had been left in rest at Airaines) went up to take over from the French the headquarters and battery positions of the 127th Regiment of Artillery. Taking over from the army of another nation was a somewhat more lengthy business than an ordinary relief on the British front; the trouble of language was not insuperable, but the difficulty of reconciling their methods of communication and control with our own, and of making the alterations necessary to fall in with the usual practice of brigade and battery administration was by no means light, nor were matters simplified by the oft-recurring phrase "ça ne marche pas" when discussing some important telephone line from brigade to battery or O.P.