Thus matters stood when, on September 16th/17th, the 156th and 162nd Brigades moved into action. They had not gone into the line directly on arrival in the Army area but, on detraining at Petit Houvain, Frevent and Bouquemaison, had marched to billets around Rebreuviette and Roziere on the main Frevent-Avesnes-le-Comte road, where they remained for thirteen days. This period was spent in training, in the carrying out of tactical schemes and in general practising of open warfare, and on September 14th/15th the march into action began. Great secrecy was being maintained regarding the concentration of troops on any part of the front, for the element of surprise was proving a tremendous factor in the success of every attack; the march of the batteries up to the Line was therefore conducted by night, the brigades leaving their billets at evening on the 14th and, after an all-night march through Bouquemaison and Doullens, arriving at Acheux (156th) and Louvencourt (162nd) at 5 A.M. on the 15th. Next night the performance was repeated and, passing through Albert and Le Sars, the batteries reached Le Transloy in the early morning of the 16th. From here positions were reconnoitred in the V. Corps area around Heudecourt to support the 17th Division in an attack on the Gouzeaucourt-Peizière line, and wagon-lines were established on the afternoon of the same day in the neighbourhood of Bus.
On the night of the 16th/17th the batteries advanced into action north of Heudecourt in a tremendous thunderstorm; officers and men, after the long marches of the preceding nights, were completely exhausted and, as soon as the guns were unlimbered, literally dropped where they stood while awaiting daylight. They were all worn out with bodily fatigue and ached for rest, and a few hours they now obtained before, on the 17th, a rapid but accurate registration was carried out. There was little time for this latter to be achieved as the attack had been fixed for the next day, but twelve hours of daylight sufficed for the essential preparations to be made, and by nightfall on the 17th the batteries were ready to fulfil their part of the programme in the coming battle, despite the fact that the barrage table was not received until 11.0 P.M.
On September 18th at 5.20 A.M. the assault was delivered in heavy rain along the whole Corps front, the 156th and 162nd Brigades covering the infantry of the 17th Division, with the 38th Division on the left and the 21st on the right. The division on the left was held up, but the 17th, after fierce fighting, gained their objectives and consolidated a line north and east of Gauche Wood. Many prisoners and guns were captured, and during the whole afternoon the batteries of the 33rd Divisional Artillery were busy engaging numerous moving targets and silencing hostile machine-guns and trench mortars. Two counter-attacks were broken up by the fire of the guns, and at nine o'clock at night a further creeping barrage was put down under cover of which the 17th Division pushed north and consolidated a line just north of St. Quentin Redoubt.
Scale 1:40,000.
After three days of active artillery fire, during which the infantry of the 33rd Division (which had relieved the 21st on the 20th) slightly advanced its line, the batteries of the 156th and 162nd Brigades began to move up. On the night of the 21st the wagon-lines had been brought to the Equancourt area, and on the 23rd the guns themselves advanced, 156th Brigade to an area about 1,700 yards north of Peizière, 162nd Brigade to new positions about 2,000 yards S.S.E. This move was not carried out without loss, for the advanced guns moving up in the afternoon were subjected to the most intense shell-fire, but ultimately all guns reached the new line and from there the harassing of the enemy was continued.
It was on this day (23rd), or rather on the night of 23rd/24th, that a serious calamity befell the 162nd Brigade. An intense enemy gas bombardment put the whole of the Headquarters staff and "B" battery out of action, reducing the personnel of the Brigade by nearly a quarter; it was a very severe loss in view of the active operations which were being conducted, but Major Fetherston (A/162) from his own battery position commanded from midnight onwards the rest of the brigade in addition to his own guns, despite the fact that since the 18th he had been suffering from a severe wound in the back which had to be dressed twice a day. It was, indeed, a great feat of endurance and devotion to duty on Major Fetherston's part, for he carried on for a number of days in command of the 162nd Brigade, and took no notice of a wound which, of itself intensely painful, took a long time to heal when ultimately he was forced to go into hospital.
The period 25th/28th was one of much front trench and outpost fighting, bringing many calls for support to the batteries and keeping all guns actively engaged day and night. Pigeon Trench, Targelle Ravine and Honnecourt Wood were frequently bombarded at request of the infantry, while concentrations were continuously fired upon all hostile communications and approaches. On the 25th "A" and C/162 were strengthened by the attaching to them of one gun each from B/162 which owing to casualties on the 23rd was unable to man all its guns, while on the 26th yet another addition, and a strange one at that, was made to the same two batteries. Four captured German 77 mm. guns with a large supply of German "Yellow Cross" gas shells were allotted to them; with grim delight the detachments bombarded the enemy that very evening and far into the night with his own gas, and a particularly deadly form of it at that.
On the 29th the attack broke out afresh in conjunction with the whole of the 3rd, 4th and Debeney's French Armies. On the previous day battery commanders had reconnoitred the forward areas with a view to a possible advance should the forthcoming operations prove successful, and at 3.30 A.M. the assault was delivered. Covered by the guns of the 156th and 162nd Brigades, the 98th Infantry Brigade moved forward to capture Villers Guislain, one company working round on the north-west, one from the south-east and one making a frontal attack up the centre. With each company there went a Tank which latter, however, were all knocked out very early in the day or were blown up in our own minefield, and in front of the whole body an artillery barrage rolled through the village.
Villers Guislain was captured together with two hundred prisoners, but unfortunately the various enemy machine-gun posts, strong points and dug-outs were not mopped up, and the attacking troops found themselves with parties of Germans behind them. From here onwards the situation became very obscure; a second attack—a continuation of the first—was launched at 5.50 A.M. when the 100th Infantry Brigade assaulted the trenches east of Villers Guislain, the objective being the line Evett Copse-Crawford Crater, an attack which was accompanied by the advance of the 21st and 12th Divisions on the left and right respectively, but progress by the infantry was very irregular. Owing to the presence of Germans who had not been mopped up in the rear of the attacking infantry, and as a result of stiff resistance put up by the enemy all along the line, the day developed into one long hard fight, every battery being heavily engaged. A company of the 1st Middlesex was completely cut off by Germans whose dug-outs had been overlooked in the first assault, and, when our troops ultimately succeeded in capturing this ground next day, the whole of the company which had been surrounded was found lying dead all around. Whether the Middlesex had been captured and slaughtered in cold blood it was impossible to say, but their general appearance gave grounds for such an idea, and little mercy was shown to the enemy in the succeeding days' operations. By 2.30 P.M. the right infantry brigade was back on its original front line and the enemy had practically regained Villers Guislain, and by evening the whole of the attacking troops had retired once more to their starting point.