With a fairly extensive experience of shelling, it was acknowledged by all ranks that never before had such a bombardment been endured. In the battery positions it was hell, the gunners working their pieces in a perfect hailstorm of shell fire, while, to add to this tremendous test of endurance, a large proportion of the barrage consisted of gas shell which necessitated the wearing of gas helmets by all ranks. How any of the guns or gunners survived that terrible morning remains to this day a mystery, yet survive it they did and to most excellent effect. The barrage which enveloped the guns was also beating down upon the front line system, and the batteries, in order to show the infantry that they were not forgotten, opened fire on their S.O.S. lines. It was soon very clear, however, that an attack was imminent, and accordingly "counter-preparation" was begun and continued for several hours.
From 2.0 A.M. until 5.30 A.M. the barrage did not relax, but from 4.30 A.M. onwards high explosive gradually superseded gas shell until the bombardment became one almost entirely of high explosive. Although this change did even more to wreck the battery positions than had the chemical shell, it at least dispersed the gas and enabled the men ultimately to remove their respirators; they were by now almost dropping with the physical exhaustion of firing their guns at top speed in gas helmets, combined with the nervous strain of this terrific bombardment, and a breath of fresh air came to them as a blessed relief.
At 5.30 A.M. a considerable bombardment was maintained on the battery positions, but the full fury of the barrage dropped back on to the infantry and, after resting on the trenches for about forty-five minutes, began to creep forward towards the batteries once more. Under cover of this creeping barrage the enemy infantry advanced to the assault, and as it rolled up inexorably towards the guns again—who all this time were being pounded and smashed by the enemy artillery—the Germans advanced swiftly over the front line and began to approach the battery area. Thick fog enveloped their movements, practically every telephone wire was cut and, as the same fog prevented any visual signalling at all, the situation became extremely obscure. With a visibility of only fifty yards it was impossible for battery commanders to know when the enemy might not be right up to and amongst the guns.
At 6.10 A.M. the infantry got through their last message to the guns; on a buried cable to 156th Brigade Headquarters the company commander of a front-line company stated that he was still being shelled, but that the Germans had so far made no movement. Shortly afterwards the cable was destroyed and a terrible silence, as far as information was concerned, set in. It would appear that, very shortly after the despatch of that last message, the enemy assault was delivered.
At about 7.0 A.M. Lieut.-Colonel MacCullock of the 9th K.O.Y.L.I. rode up to the battery positions. His battalion had been lying in support in the valley of the Kemmel-Beek, where it had been heavily gas shelled, and he now decided to move up to a line of disused trenches on the forward slopes of Hill 44, just in front of the guns. While his men were settling down into position, Colonel MacCullock rode up along the main road to find out what was happening towards Wytschaete, and, penetrating as far as the Grand Bois, he discovered that this was still in our hands, whereupon he returned to complete his dispositions for the defence of Hill 44. While this was still in progress, Lieut. Phipps (156th Brigade) returned from Desinet Farm at about 7.50 A.M. and reported that the enemy's rifle fire had got very near. Owing to the fog he had been unable to see any Germans, but there was no doubt but that they were rapidly approaching; he further added that there were practically no French troops to be seen in that area. Even while he was making his report some French infantry retired through the line of guns, shouting that the enemy were in Kemmel village and were coming on fast. It was therefore clear that there now remained no infantry between the guns and the enemy except for the K.O.Y.L.I. whose right flank terminated in front of B/156, there being from there southwards an ominous gap.
At 8.45 A.M. patrols sent out reported that there were no British troops to be seen on the other side of the Kemmel-Vierstraat road, and following almost immediately upon this news small parties of Germans were seen coming across the road. These were immediately engaged by such of the guns as were still serviceable, but by 10 A.M. the enemy had pushed across the road and, although he did not appear to have made much progress in the visible ground near Godizonne Farm, had got beyond Siege Farm further to the south and was within five hundred yards of the batteries.
Shortly before this last period a decision had had to be come to as to the withdrawal of the guns. The only infantry in the neighbourhood were the 9th K.O.Y.L.I. and some stragglers of the late front-line battalion whom Major Barker (C/156) had collected to form an escort to his guns; the line held by these troops ran about one hundred yards in front of the batteries, but stopped on the right at Hill 44, and south of this point no troops were to be seen at all. Northwards the left of the K.O.Y.L.I. was continued by some other infantry, but the whole line was terribly thin and could not hope to stop a determined rush by the enemy. Lieut.-Colonel Butler and Lieut.-Colonel Skinner were therefore faced with this problem:—Hill 44, a slight rise in the ground on the Ridge-Wood—Kemmel road, had a surprisingly good command over the country from Dickebusch Lake round by the west to the northern slopes of Mount Kemmel; it was, therefore, very important to hold it. For this purpose the only infantry available were the 9th K.O.Y.L.I., but they were in the best of spirits. On the other hand, reconnaissance showed that, whereas the Germans were only using volatile gas on Hill 44, they were using mustard gas some 700 yards to the rear, and the natural deduction was that Hill 44 was part of the enemy objective. If, therefore, the enemy gained the hill he would capture the guns en bloc, and there would be no further obstacle to impede his progress. It was accordingly decided to withdraw, one by one, a proportion of those guns which were still undamaged, but to keep the remainder in action in their present positions until the retired guns, from a line further back, could open a full volume of covering fire upon the enemy opposite Hill 44.
Hitherto the tactical continuity of the narrative has been maintained in order to relate, as clearly as possible, the true story of the attack by which the Germans captured Kemmel Hill, but now a digression must be made so as to follow closely the action of the batteries in their withdrawal. To do this, the story of each Brigade will be taken separately, beginning with the 156th.
At 9.0 A.M., shortly after the first crossing of the Kemmel-Vierstraat road by the Germans, the order to prepare for a withdrawal was issued from Lieut.-Colonel Butler's headquarters. Since as early as 6.0 A.M. A/156 had in its main position only one gun capable of firing, and by 8.45 A.M. this gun also had been silenced; therefore, on receipt of Colonel Butler's message, the battery withdrew from its main position and moved to a fresh line in the direction of Ouderdom. Shortly afterwards a section of Major Barker's battery (C/156) was also withdrawn.
By 11 A.M. practically all the ammunition in B/156 southern position had been expended, and moreover the guns were unable, owing to trees, to fire at ranges of less than 1,200 yards. Major Studd therefore removed the breech-blocks and dial sights from these guns and, sending back a portion of his detachments to the wagon-lines to hurry up the teams which had already been sent for, concentrated his efforts on the two guns which he had kept in a position 300 yards further north. Of these two guns, one was taken away by a team belonging to C/156 to a previously reconnoitred spot north of La Clytte; the other was run forward by hand, with the assistance of nine men of the K.O.Y.L.I., for a distance of some one hundred yards to the crest of the hill, whence Major Studd and his four remaining gunners engaged the enemy over open sights at a range of 300 yards.