The next morning battery and brigade commanders rode up to the line to reconnoitre the positions they were to occupy, and to inspect the work done by the advance parties, while on the 27th and 28th the guns of every battery were calibrated at the Coxyde Bains range, firing out to sea through electric screens, by which process the muzzle velocities of the guns were measured. On the night of the 28th/29th the 156th Brigade, with "A," "B" and C/162, moved up into action in the positions already prepared, and next night were followed by D/162. Considerable difficulty was experienced on both occasions owing to an enemy bombardment of the neighbourhood with gas shell throughout the night; respirators were worn for two and a half hours and casualties were thereby averted, but the difficulty of finding the way in the darkness on an unknown road was naturally greatly increased.
On July 30th, when the batteries had opportunity to review their new positions, they found themselves in surroundings totally different from any yet experienced. On their left lay the sea, all around them was sand broken up by huge dunes, and practically nowhere could any shell holes be seen. This did not, unfortunately, mean that there was no hostile artillery activity; on the contrary the enemy artillery, and in particular his high-velocity guns, showed the most amazing persistence in raking our battery positions. The reason for the absence of shell-holes was that the sand, continually kept shifting by the wind, silted up and filled in any hole within a few hours of its being made, leaving all the shell splinters lying on the surface like pebbles on a sandy beach. There arose from this the disadvantage of not being able to tell from the nature of the ground whether it was subject to enemy shelling or not, but on the other hand it offered real relief to eyes now physically wearied by the continual sight of torn and desolated country.
These coastal positions, indeed, offered many new and hitherto unexperienced features, but for every advantage there was at least one disadvantage. The sand, kept moving by the wind, removed the depressing sight of shell-holes; but the same sand blew into men's eyes, blinding them, and jammed the guns at almost every other round fired. The view of Ostend—visible on a clear day from the Grand Dune—with the German destroyers occasionally entering and leaving its harbour, offered an object of great interest; but the proximity of Ostend involved the presence of an infinite host of high velocity naval guns on land mountings, which blasted impartially infantry, batteries and roads right back to and beyond the wagon-lines. The sand was excellent in the wagon-lines for harness cleaning, and ensured dry standings for the horses; but it offered a constant threat to any animal which should eat of it, and necessitated the setting up of double picket-ropes for the horses, to prevent them from getting their heads down and contracting sand colic.
There was only one real consolation, and that was the presence of the sea. The sea, with its submerged wire entanglements, offered a zone free from the enemy; the sea occasionally provided the thrills of destroyers passing and of monitors bombarding Ostend and Westende. The sea, on a fine evening, somehow brought Home very near as it stretched in a glory of shimmering gold, unconcerned and utterly oblivious of warfare, back to and beyond the far horizon whither lay England. The land could be smashed, the land could be blasted and torn, but the sea remained ever the same, stronger and mightier than any war, the connecting link between Hell and the peace of an English home.
The batteries were very close to the sea, for they were on the extreme left of the whole of the line. Headquarters of the 162nd Brigade were established in the West Sand Dunes about 700 yards south of Groenendyk Plage. "A" and B/162 lay some 150 yards in rear of headquarters; D/162 was almost on the beach, for it took up a position in the East Dunes 150 yards from the water's edge, with C/162 not far off in the West Dunes about three hundred yards from the shore; both these batteries lay in front of headquarters and south of the Groenendyk Plage-Nieuport Bains road. The 156th Brigade was farther inland but still quite close to the coast, B/156, the southernmost battery, being 300 yards south of the Yser. Both brigades, since they were situated on the extreme left of the line, covered the left or Nieuport Bains sector, which ran from the Coast along the south side of the Yser and along New Trench to Barnes Bridge. In addition to the 33rd Divisional Artillery, the infantry of the 66th Division, who held this front with one infantry brigade (two battalions in the line), were also covered by the 66th Divisional Artillery and three Army Field Artillery Brigades, the whole being under the command of Brigadier-General D. B. Stewart, C.R.A. 66th Division.
It may seem strange that such a great mass of guns should cover a one-brigade front, and in the ordinary course of trench fighting this weight of artillery would far have out-reached requirements. The coastal zone, however, was not an ordinary part of the line; there was a great deal of mystery hanging around it, a great deal of "hush-hush" talk and, to give a hint as to the truth of this talk, a vast concentration of artillery. Ever since the batteries had detrained at Adinkerke and Dunkirk the men at the wagon-lines had seen, day after day and hour after hour, heavily laden trains pull in, disgorge batteries and battalions, shunt out and be replaced by more trains. Every day fresh batteries marched up the pavé road long the Nieuport canal to occupy positions amongst the sandhills; every day an inspection of the dunes around Nieuport discovered fresh batteries congregated in every hollow, in every depression of the ground, until there seemed to be no room for more.
It was, indeed, a mighty concentration; close up to Nieuport the field guns lay in tier upon tier; behind them the six-inch howitzers occupied every possible position and many that were almost impossible; eight-inch, sixty-pounders and 9·2 in. jostled each other for room further back, while over their heads rushed the shells of the long-range guns in action near Coxyde Bains. Clearly an offensive was impending, but how and where? The area immediately in front of the 66th Division was flooded and impassable, and on the left lay the sea. Was it from there that the blow was to fall, or was the right to attack and, piercing the German lines, force the enemy troops facing Nieuport to retire? Rumour held orgy.
Meantime the batteries of the 33rd Divisional Artillery to all outward appearances cared for none of these things. They were in action, there was certain destructive work to be done, and the enemy was making the doing of it very uncomfortable. From Dune 18 and the neighbouring O.P.'s targets were registered and bombarded, destructive and harassing fire was maintained on selected "sore" spots, and the front was kept in continual turmoil. On August 2nd the 49th Division on the right carried out a daylight raid with the assistance of the batteries, and on the night of the 7th/8th the guns supported two raids on the Lombardzyde and St. Georges sectors, both of which were successful. There followed, on the night after this raid, a projector gas attack which was launched on the enemy in the Nieuport Bains sector in conjunction with a barrage fired by all batteries, and it is scarcely surprising to record that the enemy's temper now became extremely frayed. Every battery was shelled by high-velocity guns, 5·9 in. howitzers and innumerable gas shells; the roads and approaches—especially the Coast road—were under continual bombardment, and the strain upon the detachments grew increasingly heavy. 162nd Brigade wagon-lines, in order to cope with the ever-increasing demand for ammunition, had moved up on July 31st to St. Idesbalde, and the 156th Brigade, which on August 1st had sent its horses back to La Panne, now, on the 5th, brought them up to Coxyde Bains once more.
The night of the 15th/16th saw another projector gas attack on the Nieuport Bains sector, during which the batteries fired on the areas around Golf Road and Polder Trench, and which was followed by increased enemy artillery activity. Nieuport and the batteries around it, Pelican Ridge and the roads running inland from the coast were all raked by enemy fire which increased in violence on the 18th, when a practice barrage on the right divisional front was carried out. There followed four more days of practice barrages and then, on the night of the 24th/25th, the 19th Infantry Brigade, supported by the guns, attacked and captured Geleide Post. It was only a small operation, however, and the batteries covering it merely fired on their S.O.S. lines; moreover it was a short-lived success, for the following night the enemy won it back again.
For four weeks now the batteries had carried out continual bombardments of the enemy; practice barrages had been fired, and an immense concentration of artillery had gathered together. An attack was clearly impending and it was evident that the enemy realised the fact, for his guns had shown the very greatest activity for some weeks; they were forever bombarding battery positions, roads and communications, usually with high-velocity naval guns on land mountings, but also with 5·9 in. and 8 in. howitzers, while of late a 17 in. howitzer had been in the habit of blasting the field batteries around Nieuport. Therefore the news came like a bombshell when, on the night of August 27th/28th, the batteries were ordered to withdraw to their wagon-lines. It seemed incredible that this great concentration of artillery should be broken up without being used for any offensive operations, and at first it was thought that the 33rd Divisional Artillery might be an isolated case. But no! Every day battery after battery—some heavy, some of field guns—pulled out from the sand dunes and headed for the rest area, their work over, their object unfulfilled. The mighty hosts of batteries, which for weeks now had been lying in every hollow and valley amongst the dunes, melted away and disappeared without ever learning the object of their coming.