By far the most notable raid was that of the “Rifles” on the 14th February. The credit for the scheme belonged principally to Major M. N. Forsyth, M.C., who suggested it to Brig.-General Maxwell. The ground selected for the operation was well adapted for a daylight raid; it was east of Roclincourt and, lying in a shallow dip, could not be observed from either flank. The most painstaking care was given to organisation and arrangements. The raiding party, which consisted of 20 officers and 320 other ranks under the command of Major Forsyth, was divided into various groups, each with a special task to perform, such as clearing dug-outs, demolition of emplacements, blocking trenches, escorting and searching prisoners, cutting wire, and evacuation of wounded. No raider carried any identification mark either on his tunic or in his pocket. A plan of the enemy’s ground was mapped out behind the line, and here men and officers had a number of rehearsals. The general scheme was simple. After a one-minute barrage by the artillery and trench mortars, two groups were to leave our trenches and enter the enemy’s system through two gaps in the wire previously cut by trench mortars. The parties were to push rapidly up the communication trenches bounding the area and were to meet in the third line, shutting in all the garrison. Other groups were to follow and clear all the intermediate trenches and dug-outs. The whole party after remaining for forty minutes in the German lines was to withdraw at the end of that time through three gaps, the third being cut during the raid. While the raiders were busy, the artillery were to screen the area from observation by a “box”[67] barrage.
The operation met with the success[68] its careful preparations deserved. At 11 A.M. Major Forsyth led his party across “No-Man’s-Land” and entered the opposing trenches. In the skirmish that followed many of the enemy were killed and 43 were captured; 2 machine-guns, 1 trench mortar, and a large number of rifles and other material were brought back. The slight casualties of the “Rifles,” who well earned the praise[69] of the Commander-in-Chief, consisted of 2 killed, 15 wounded, and 1 missing.
All other raids, though on a smaller scale, were marked by the same particular care in organisation. At 3.8 P.M. on the 6th January a company of the Black Watch, under 2nd Lieut. Proudfoot, and one of the Argylls, under 2nd Lieut. Pardy, after a heavy preliminary bombardment and covered by a smoke-barrage, penetrated to the enemy’s third line and remained in his trenches for half an hour. The whole system was thoroughly smashed by the artillery, and only 4 men were found above ground, of whom 3 were killed and one was captured. The remainder of the garrison, which according to the prisoner consisted of 160 men, had sheltered in the dug-outs, where the greater number must have perished when these were demolished by Stokes shells thrown down by the raiders. This raid was undertaken at short notice by the Highland Brigade, and its objects were to test the efficiency of our heavy artillery in cutting wire, especially in front of the second and third lines, and to find out if good observation could be obtained from the hostile trenches on to a strong point in the enemy’s rear, known as “The Harp,” which was likely to be a formidable obstacle to our advance during the offensive that was being planned. These objects were fulfilled, and the general opinion was that the success[70] of the raid was due to the “heavies.” The Germans showed their annoyance by subjecting Arras to a gas bombardment so intense that it has been quoted by the gas experts as one of the heaviest concentrations of the war. Equal success attended dashing raids by the South Africans on the 2nd January and the 7th April, and by the 6th K.O.S.B. on the 11th January. The attempts of the enemy were feeble and half-hearted, a significant confession of nervousness and consciousness of inferiority. Between the 6th December and the 21st March four attempts to penetrate our trenches were beaten off with loss.
WEST GATE, ARRAS
At the beginning of March, Arras awoke to vigorous life. After nightfall throngs of men jostled each other in the streets of the town, and from the great main roads rose the hum of constant traffic. In the faubourgs and wooded fields round the city numerous batteries of heavy guns, sinister and menacing engines of destruction, were ready in position, and amid bosky recesses and inviting orchards one often stumbled upon fresh emplacements that indicated the expected arrival of many more. The evidences[71] of a projected offensive were unmistakable, and these were confirmed by changes on our front. Until the 14th January, the Ninth was under the VI. Corps, but on that date it was transferred to the XVII., commanded by Sir Charles Fergusson. As a result, the 26th Brigade was shifted from the right of the line to “L” sector on the left, which was taken over from the Third Canadian Division, and until the 11th February the Division held the whole of the Corps front from the Scarpe to the Arras-Lille road. That day the Highland Brigade and part of the 27th were relieved by the Fifty-first Division from Roclincourt to the Lille road. On the 24th February the line was still further contracted when the Thirty-fourth Division took over the rest of “K” sector. This left to the Ninth only the “I” sector extending from the Scarpe to St Pancras Trench, lying to the north of the Arras-Bailleul road, the stretch of front amounting to some 1800 yards.
From the beginning of 1917 every man was hard at work on the preparations for the great offensive that had been planned at a conference held at the French G.H.Q. in November 1916. The general idea was to carry on a series of offensives on all fronts for the purpose of “depriving the enemy of the power of weakening any one of his fronts in order to reinforce another.”[72] The design of Sir Douglas Haig was to garner the fruits of the Somme struggle by pinching off the salient between the Scarpe and the Ancre, into which the enemy had been pressed as a result of that battle. With this object, a converging attack was to be carried out by the Third Army from Arras and the Fifth Army on the Ancre. Provided the situation remained unchanged, there was good reason to expect that this manœuvre would inflict enormous losses on the enemy and compel him to use up his reserves, and thus offer a greater assurance of success for the main object of the British Field-Marshal, which was to secure the control of the Flanders coast-line before the end of 1917. The attack of the Third and Fifth Armies was to be protected by an operation against the Vimy Ridge, which would also give us the command of the Douai plains and might even lead to the capture of Lens. Apart from these objects Sir Douglas Haig had no desire to carry on a protracted fight in the neighbourhood of Arras.
These important projects were considerably modified at the beginning of 1917. The striking power of the British forces was sensibly diminished by the fact that a considerable portion of the line, extending as far south as Roye, had to be taken over from the French. Again the British plans were made ancillary to those of General Nivelle, now in command of the French armies, who had planned an ambitious campaign in Champagne, and the Arras offensive was expected to assist his schemes by pinning down a large proportion of the German forces. Moreover, the enemy, realising his danger in the Ancre-Scarpe salient, anticipated the British attack by withdrawing from that area to new and formidable defences (the Hindenburg Line) in front of Cambrai, on the construction of which the Germans had worked like beavers during the winter months. This timely retreat largely eviscerated the hopes of the Arras campaign.