Strange to relate, the advance of the batteries, which of necessity was carried out through the outskirts of Arras, was not greatly hampered by shell fire. It was generally anticipated that the enemy would bombard the eastern exits of the town as soon as ever the attack was launched, for he must have known that troops would be issuing forth from there, and, as the route of the batteries lay over a bridge and through some very narrow streets, it was fully expected that casualties would be suffered in this operation. It was therefore with a feeling of relief that battery commanders saw the whole of their batteries in action in the new positions around the eastern edge of Blangy, bombarding throughout the afternoon the defences between Orange Hill and the river Scarpe.
Throughout that afternoon it did indeed seem as though British arms were winning the day. All around troops appeared to be pressing forward; up the road from Arras there suddenly came squadron after squadron of cavalry which wheeled into a big field in Blangy, dismounted, halted for a space while reconnoitring parties pushed on ahead, then mounted and pressed away on over the captured ground for some advanced objective. Long columns of infantry, transport, ammunition columns and all the necessary material of war poured steadily out of Arras and moved on ever towards the east, until it seemed as though the whole of the front were pushing forward. The batteries in Blangy, firing though they were upon the enemy as hard as they could, felt somehow that they were being left behind, and longed to receive the order to limber up and join more closely in the pursuit which was now going on.
Orders were not long in coming for the 162nd Brigade at any rate. Leaving the other brigade still in action around the eastern outskirts of Arras, it threw forward reconnoitring detachments in the middle afternoon, and by evening had begun to advance to new positions—the third occupied that day—around the Railway Triangle which, a few hours before, had been the scene of such close infantry fighting. All day it had been raining on and off; now it started to snow, and for the batteries of the 162nd Brigade there began a night of real heart-breaking work.
Ground which has been barraged, captured and counter-barraged a few hours previously, rained upon all day, trampled by cavalry and countless advancing reserves; ground which consists of shell-torn earth hastily shovelled down by a pioneer battalion to make a rough track, and carried over trenches by arched wooden bridges or not at all; ground of this nature churned up into deep sticky mud is, for tired horses and men, a difficult obstacle over which to drag guns and ammunition on a rapidly darkening night. Yet it had to be done; the infantry were thought to be still advancing, and unless they were covered by the guns they must, sooner or later, meet with disaster. All that evening the four batteries of the brigade struggled and fought their way through the rapidly increasing throng on the track; pushed their way past the inevitable broken-down wagons they met; manhandled each gun in turn through and over trenches which were not bridged, and ultimately, soaked with mud and perspiration, utterly worn out but victoriously aware of the fact that they were still the most advanced batteries and that there were none ahead of them, they arrived at the Railway Triangle and dropped into action, A/162 on the eastern side of the embankment, "B," "C" and "D" on the western. Here they remained throughout the night of the 9th/10th waiting for daylight to come for the advance to be resumed.
Thus ended the first day of the great Spring offensive. The infantry, pushing on all the evening towards the German third line, had established posts on the northern slopes of Orange Hill (N.W. of Monchy); the guns were still keeping touch with them despite the rapidity of the advance and the appalling weather conditions; many prisoners and guns had been taken, a considerable number of the enemy lay dead on the captured ground, and nothing, so far, seemed to be holding up the advance of our troops.
On the morning of Tuesday, the 10th, the infantry occupied the remainder of Orange Hill. They had, in the first day of battle, engaged in very heavy fighting; they had made a rapid advance and now, tired out, were unwilling to continue until all the batteries were not only in a position to give them close support, but were in better communication with them. For this purpose the 156th Brigade advanced up to the Railway Triangle, while the 162nd pushed forward once again, this time bound for positions on the western slopes of Orange Hill.
Fortunately there was very little fighting during the 10th; the infantry were busy consolidating, reorganising themselves and carrying out reliefs, and therefore it was possible to spend the day in getting all the guns well forward, replenishing ammunition and making arrangements for thorough support of the infantry in their next advance.
It was well that the whole of the day was available for this, or rather it was inevitable that it should be. So fearful was the mud east of the Railway Triangle, where the Scarpe had helped the rain and snow to form a bog, that the batteries had to make their way across country to the outskirts of Arras once again, and, crossing the railway, worked up towards Monchy along the Cambrai road. The congestion was terrible everywhere, and movement along the road, which was double-banked by traffic in both directions, proved maddeningly slow. Not till the early morning of the 11th did the batteries arrive in their new positions after a night of bogging and digging-out guns, of marching along chaotic roads, of urging tired men and tired horses to further work; but now, grouped on both sides of the road which ran from Feuchy to Feuchy Chapel cross-roads on the Arras-Cambrai road, they were right up close behind the advancing infantry on the western slopes of Orange Hill itself, and were in the best of positions for observation and close artillery support.
On Wednesday, the 11th, the battle broke out again. The 37th Division, who had been in reserve hitherto, took up the attack and assaulted Monchy-le-Preux from the north; at the same time the cavalry advanced on the village from Orange Hill, and after severe fighting Monchy was captured. This cavalry action was much criticized at a later date; it was an attempt to get through a supposed gap in the enemy line, and consisted of a mounted advance across some seven hundred yards of perfectly smooth and open ground dipping slightly and then rising again. In this advance fairly heavy casualties were suffered both from machine gun and shell fire—the latter being mainly time high-explosive burst the height of a man's head in the saddle—and the operation ended in a dismounted action around Monchy; it certainly proved a valuable distraction from the 37th Division attacking on foot, and, had not the cavalry put their horses in the village itself when they adopted dismounted action, it is probable that their losses would not have been so severe. While this operation, which advanced our line four hundred yards east of Monchy and up to the river Scarpe, was in progress, the flanks also tried to advance, but were held up and were forced to return to the trenches they had left.
During the 11th the 156th Brigade came on from the Railway Triangle and dropped into action slightly to the north of the 162nd Brigade, and between it and Feuchy. At the same time the wagon-lines of the brigades were brought forward and were kept right up close (in the case of the 162nd Brigade, 500 yards) behind the battery positions, for it was expected that the advance would soon be resumed. Although the Army on the right, which had captured Bullecourt and Riencourt, had been driven out again to its original positions, the Army on the left had taken and held the Vimy Ridge, and it seemed that, with the fall of this important feature, further progress must very soon be made.