CHAPTER XIV
METEREN AND HOEGENACKER RIDGE
May to September 1918
The moral of our troops was a subject of frequent notice in the Press during March and April, and it was so persistently stated that it had not been affected by reverses and disasters that suspicions were aroused about the value of a moral which required so much loquacity to convince people of its soundness. As a matter of fact the men in France were calmer and less nervous than our “Home Front,” as the Germans would call it. It is true that both in March and April there had been instances of unseemly panic, but this was inevitable in an army numbering many thousands. But though here and there a few weaklings succumbing to exhaustion and despair lost heart, the vast majority of the men of the Fifth, Third, and Second Armies never faltered; they fully realised that on their devotion and sacrifice depended the fate of civilisation. Greater nervousness was in fact apparent after the crisis had passed, and during the summer of 1918 there was a regular epidemic of self-inflicted wounds, but it was very noticeable that practically all the culprits were fresh soldiers who had never been in any fighting, and a few weeks’ careful training in the trenches led to a rapid diminution of this feeble-hearted device.
A clear gain early in 1918 was the greater reliability of our official communiqués. The garbled and misleading accounts of the battles since the time of Loos were not calculated to elevate the moral of those fighting in France, and men who had taken part in such an action as the “3rd May” 1917 were exasperated to find it reported in the Press as a great British victory. “British official,” formerly the hall-mark of truth, became a dubious phrase, and the practice of soothing the timid by toning down reverses was more than counter-balanced by a loss of faith in the veracity of the British Government. The method now adopted of publishing full accounts of events was as wholesome as it was satisfactory, and undoubtedly helped to improve the moral of the Army.
The Germans in two offensives had seized a vast extent of territory, and made huge captures in prisoners and material, but they had failed to overwhelm the British forces and to break our liaison with the French. During the panic in March and April the British Government extended the scope of the Military Service Act, and sought, without adequate consideration, to introduce conscription into Ireland. From these measures no real gain was to be expected; for the men in Britain now drawn into the Army were more necessary for the upkeep of industry at home, and were too old to be of much service as soldiers, while the attempt to bring Ireland under conscription delivered the country to the Sinn Feiners, and compelled the Government to divert to that island large forces which could have found more useful employment on the Western Front. A more solid compensation was derived from the energy and celerity with which America came to the assistance of the Entente, and the rapid and continuous transportation of its soldiers across the Atlantic to France was the most signal illustration of the failure of the German submarine campaign. Unless Germany could intercept American reinforcements her position was hopeless; and her capacity for interference was at least curtailed by the dashing naval operations which blocked the harbours of Ostend and Zeebrugge.
Even success on land added to her embarrassments; for her length of front had been greatly augmented and portions of her line, especially in the north, were difficult and costly positions to defend. Moreover, the attack had taxed her strength to the utmost, and it was not till the end of May that she was able to strike a fresh blow. The new offensive directed against the Chemin des Dames with the object of widening the German front towards Paris, marked the final abandonment of the strategical conception with which Ludendorff had commenced the campaign, though our front near Amiens probably remained for the enemy the most profitable point of attack. The rush on the 27th May, which chiefly affected the French, at first swept everything before it, and by the end of the month the enemy had reached the Marne between Château Thierry and Dormans. Near that point the line became stabilised, and the resistance of the French was supported by British and American troops.
During the greater part of May, the Ninth after leaving Poperinghe was resting and reorganising near St Omer. D.H.Q. were at Blaringhem, and the brigades were in neighbouring villages except the 27th, which was in a camp at Lumbres. After three weeks of constant training and good weather, the Division, now largely composed of youths little more than eighteen years of age, was ready to return to the line, and on the night of the 25th May the 26th Brigade with the 9th Scottish Rifles attached, relieved the Thirty-first Division near Meteren. On the following day the South African Brigade took over the right sector from the 26th.
The position held by the Ninth was essential for the safety of the important railway centres of Hazebrouck and St Omer, and had therefore to be maintained at all costs. The main feature was the narrow isolated ridge of the Meteren Hill running north and south from Fontaine Hoek towards Meteren; on the east it overlooked the French and German lines towards St Jans Cappel and Bailleul, and on the west the valley of the Meteren Becque as far as the Flêtre-Roukloshille Ridge which lay behind the Hill. The enemy was in possession of the village, which, standing on high ground, afforded him observation of all approaches to the west of Meteren Hill and almost all the ground in our area east of the Flêtre-Roukloshille Ridge, thus preventing any movement on the part of our men in daylight.
In the early summer the initiative still remained with the enemy, and there was anxious speculation as to the place where his next blow would fall. Prince Rupprecht was known to have large forces in reserve and the Mont des Cats and Hazebrouck seemed to offer tempting prizes. Our aeroplane observation showed that extensive preparations for an attack had already been made, and throughout May and June our vigilance was never suffered to relax. Rows of trenches were dug back to St Omer; in the forward area a continuous front trench was excavated, covered by isolated advance posts, while there was a strong support line hinging on Phineboom and a reserve position near Flêtre. On the 27th May the “Rifles” secured a wounded prisoner, who informed us that the enemy was going to make a big attack on the 29th, but that day passed without any untoward occurrence. The German operations near the Chemin des Dames were now in full swing, but the foe on our front continued to form dumps and depots, and not until the end of June was it clear that his projected offensive on the Mont des Cats and Hazebrouck had been given up.
On the whole, the Ninth found the sector a very pleasant one to hold and our casualties from the enemy’s artillery-fire were not very high. The landscape was typically agricultural and consisted of wide fields of long waving corn, coloured in patches by the bright red of the poppy, with a few substantial farmhouses interspersed here and there. So hurried had been the flight of the civilians from the district that at many of the farms some live-stock had been left, and in one portion of the line two cows were regularly handed over on reliefs as part of the trench stores.