Shortly before zero all hope of a fine day was dashed by a gentle drizzle of rain. At 5.30 A.M. our guns opened with a deafening crash. Overhead the rushing steel sounded like a frenzied discord combining the deep boom of the drum with the shrill shriek of the whistle, and where the shells landed, the earth leaped up in a mad barbaric dance. A gigantic wall of smoke and fire lay right along the enemy’s line, and sprays of coloured lights, shooting up from his trenches, betokened the anxiety and distress of the garrison. The hostile barrage was slow, and when it descended on our front line, eight minutes after zero, it was thin and ragged. During the first three minutes of our barrage the leading waves took up their position for the advance, the only trouble being on the extreme left, where the K.O.S.B., forming up, had some casualties through our smoke-shells falling short. With the first lift the khaki lines pushed forward. In spite of their training, the men had the greatest difficulty in recognising the hostile trenches, which had been so torn up that they hardly presented a break in the belt of churned-up soil that marked the devastating path of the artillery. The only serious resistance was encountered by the Seaforths, who stormed the Island near Blangy and killed a number of bombers among the rubble and cellars of Athies. Elsewhere the advance was carried on without check. A few casualties were inflicted by machine-guns, but the smoke-screen was most effective, and owing to this the enemy’s shooting was very erratic. The ardour of our troops could scarcely be restrained; flushed with success, they kept close up to the barrage and in many cases passed through it. The Bavarians had built up a worthy reputation during the war, but before they had time to show fight our men were upon them. On reaching the Black Line the Black Watch captured the regimental commander and the adjutant of the 8th Bavarians, who had not realised that a battle was in progress. On the left, Lieut.-Colonel Thorne of the 12th Royal Scots was killed when leading his men, but the battalion under Major Hay was irresistible and easily secured the Black Line. The K.O.S.B. shot past the first objective and stopped in a sunken road beyond it, where they found swarms of the 25th Bavarians crouching in the dug-outs. The whole of the Black Line was secured in the time allotted. During the advance a few of the South Africans bore too much to the north, but the Black Watch extended their left flank and the boundaries between the brigades were readjusted at the first objective.
Owing to the bad light and the obliteration of the enemy system, the “moppers” had great difficulty in recognising the various trenches and in some cases overran their objectives, consequently there were several instances of Germans emerging from their shelters and firing at the backs of our men. The most serious mishap took place on the front of the 27th Brigade, where a machine-gun suddenly came to life and opened fire on a party of the 9th Seaforths who had come up to dig a communication trench. The men dropped their shovels, picked up their rifles, and after killing its crew carried off the machine-gun as a trophy. The clearing parties found the front system full of Germans, most of whom had taken shelter either in the dug-outs or just in the doorway, and they were killed or taken prisoner.
The drizzle had developed into a steady downpour while the reorganisation and arrangements for the second advance were being carried out. The dispositions of the South African and 26th Brigades remained unchanged, but in the 27th Brigade the supporting and leading battalions changed places. At 7.36 A.M. the attack on the Blue Line (Arras-Lens Railway) commenced. The defenders had not yet recovered from their surprise, and their resistance, considering the strength of their position, was extremely poor, though a few stout-hearted groups held out to the last and inflicted casualties before they were killed. The right wing of the 26th Brigade was held up for a time by enfilade machine-gun fire from a post at the Railway Triangle on the front of the Fifteenth Division. But the artillery were prompt to assist, and, covered by an effective smoke-screen put down by “F” Battery R.H.A. from the Railway embankment north of the Scarpe, the Highlanders reached the Blue Line practically without a halt. Equally successful was the attack of the other brigades. The South Africans lost some men from snipers as they were struggling through the gaps in the wire in front of the Railway cutting, but the enemy’s machine-guns were dilatory in coming into action and the South Africans easily accounted for them when they reached the cutting. On the left, when the leading battalions of the 27th Brigade advanced into the valley, they came under hostile machine-gun and artillery-fire from the Railway and Maison Blanche Wood. Two of the machine-guns were rushed in the cutting, and two others, which were holding up the advance of the Thirty-fourth Division, were enfiladed by Lewis Guns and driven to earth. Of the garrison on the Railway not one escaped; all were killed or captured.
The four tanks allotted to the Division were very unlucky. Two were put out of action at the start by artillery-fire; a third broke down about 200 yards from the Railway on the front of the 27th Brigade; and the fourth failed to reach the Railway after the officer in charge of it was killed, but the surprise of the enemy was so complete that there was little need for them. South of the Scarpe a tank did good service by helping to clear the Railway Triangle, which had caused a great deal of trouble to the Fifteenth Division.
During the halt on the Blue Line, the only changes in disposition occurred in the 26th and South African Brigades, where the Camerons, Argylls, 1st and 2nd Regiments were placed in the lead. The four hours of waiting were not without anxiety. An enemy aeroplane came over our lines and as a result the German artillery opened on the Railway, 300 yards east of which our protective barrage was falling at that time. Fortunately this counter-barrage did not last long, and the majority of the leading men were already formed up some yards east of the Railway, but for a short spell nearly six battalions lay precariously between two fires in a space of 300 yards. At length the final attack began at 12.16 P.M. On the right, tough resistance by the enemy at the Railway Triangle left us with an exposed flank, and a quick and critical decision had to be made whether to advance on this wing or not. Brig.-General Kennedy decided to press on, and the movement was completely screened by the smoke-curtain put down by our guns. This prudently bold policy not merely prevented our own troops from being checked, but materially assisted the Fifteenth Division to capture the Railway Triangle. Elsewhere the last vestige of resistance had disappeared with the capture of the Blue Line, and the assault on the Brown Line took the form of an orderly procession. This was a happy occurrence, since the wire in front of the Point du Jour trenches had scarcely been damaged and was penetrated laboriously even by unmolested men. The spectacle of lines of men moving steadily forward with their rifles at the slope seemed more like a Salisbury Plain ceremonial manœuvre than an attack in grim earnest. As the troops pressed on, their eyes were gratified by the sight of scores of Germans fleeing in a wild panic. Fanned by the breath of victory and keen to grasp all its rewards, they broke into a smart run. The Thirty-fourth Division had been slightly delayed by Maison Blanche Wood, and there was an awkward space on the flank of the 11th Royal Scots, the left battalion of the Ninth, but this was filled by a company of the K.O.S.B. which rushed a machine-gun at the Point du Jour, destroyed the team, and devoured its lunch. With the capture of the Brown Line the Division had accomplished all its tasks.
Half an hour before the commencement of the attack on the Brown Line the leading battalions of the Fourth Division began to arrive. As they came down the slope of the valley from the first objective they suffered some casualties from shell-fire. They reached the Point du Jour-Athies line in good time, and at 3.10 P.M. passing through the Ninth pressed on to the Green Line, which they secured easily and swiftly.
Success had been gained without a check and at very small cost, and the uniform excellence of the work performed by the several arms of the Division was one of the noticeable features of the battle. The Sappers, Pioneers, and R.A.M.C. toiled steadily and efficiently. The infantry, including the wounded, were hyperbolical in their praise of the smoke and H.E. barrage, to which they attributed their own slight losses and the complete surprise of the enemy. The only criticism was that the barrage was too slow for eager men and that there was scarcely enough of smoke. Never at any previous time were the men so jubilant and so confident of a speedy victory. On that day the ground captured and the booty seized far exceeded all that had hitherto been secured in the same period by the British forces in France. In all, 51 officers, 2086 other ranks, 17 field-guns and howitzers, 24 machine-guns, and 3 trench mortars were the spoils of the Division.
But the decisive nature of the victory was due not so much to the surprise of the enemy as to the foresight with which arrangements were made to overcome all possible obstacles, and the readiness and resource which the infantry showed in attacking places outside their own area. Typical examples of the latter were the capture by the Seaforths of the Island and the storming of the Point du Jour by the K.O.S.B. It was too often the tendency during the war for a unit to keep to its own allotted task without making any effort to help its neighbours, and the facility and speed with which our men in this battle worked to their flanks were very important factors in contributing to the rout of the enemy. General Furse had repeatedly impressed on the officers of the Ninth the necessity and advantage of assisting their neighbours, and never was this practice exemplified on a finer scale by the Division than on the 9th of April.
It is impossible to praise too highly the forethought shown with regard to the Railway Triangle. Brig.-General Tudor learned just before our advance from the Black Line was resumed, that the Fifteenth Division was held up by the Triangle and had not won its first objective. Realising the disastrous result of this for the Ninth, since the enemy south of the Scarpe would see our infantry north of the river and would enfilade them with numerous machine-guns, he turned on a battery, which he had standing by for such an eventuality, to blind that enemy to our movement. This not only enabled the Ninth to make its advance undisturbed from the right, but further enabled its right brigade, after seizing the Blue Line, to turn its machine-guns and some infantry against the northern wing of the enemy opposing the Fifteenth south of the river, thus combining a flank with a frontal attack on that portion of the enemy and compassing his defeat and the advance of the Fifteenth Division. Without this prearrangement the whole fight would have been far less successful and far more costly.