The hostile pressure on our exposed flanks was steadily augmented. By 11 A.M. the Highlanders after suffering severe losses were obliged to withdraw to the main Menin-Roulers Railway, which they held for a distance of 1000 yards north of Ledeghem, whence their line ran back to a point about 500 yards south of St Pieter. This difficult retirement was carried out with the utmost coolness. Lieut.-Colonel French of the Black Watch, with great personal courage formed a defensive flank with his men and prevented the Germans from breaking our line. The French Cavalry Regiment arrived later; but the opportunity for its profitable employment had passed. The Belgians attacking at 11 A.M. took St Pieter, but failed to advance more than 100 yards east of it. Farther north their assault did not succeed, and their line ran in a north-west or west-north-west direction from the village. The machine-gun company in divisional reserve was moved up to reinforce the 26th Brigade, which had gained about 1000 yards on its right, while its left sloped back to the southern end of St Pieter.
On our right at 10.30 A.M. a hostile counter-attack from the south-east, gallantly led by mounted officers, withered away before the fire of four Lewis Guns in Ledeghem Cemetery, but two hours later a second attempt from the north-east as well as from the south-east expelled our troops from most of Ledeghem. An immediate counter-thrust by the 11th and 12th Royal Scots retook the northern end of the village, west of which the K.O.S.B. established a line along the Railway with their right flank thrown back to Manhattan Farm. From an observation post about 100 yards behind his front line, Lieut.-Colonel Smyth saw the Germans collecting troops for a great counter-stroke, and the K.O.S.B. were bracing themselves for a desperate resistance at Manhattan Farm, when the timely arrival of the 1st Inniskilling Fusiliers, who made a most heroic attack on Hill 41 from the north, scared the enemy and turned his efforts solely to defence. Though the Inniskillings failed to capture the Hill, their plucky effort probably saved the K.O.S.B., and so great was the admiration of the latter and the troops of the Ninth Division who witnessed the attack, that the G.O.C. at their request wrote at once to the Thirty-sixth Division expressing the admiration and thanks of the officers and men of the Ninth.
Throughout the whole of that trying time when the Division was fighting single-handed, the close and fearless support of the infantry by our gunners proved of inestimable value in breaking up counter-attacks. In spite of the continuous rattle of bullets on the shields, Lieut. Gorle of the 50th Brigade R.F.A. led two guns up to Ledeghem, and on four separate occasions under a veritable hail of lead brought single guns into action within a few hundred yards of the enemy. Providentially, though his tunic was combed with bullets, he escaped the death that seemed inevitable, and for his most opportune heroism he was worthily awarded the V.C.
Our gains on the 1st October were insignificant compared with those on the 28th and the 29th September, but in the old days of trench warfare they would have represented a very creditable achievement. And there is little doubt that they would have been much more remarkable but for the lack of co-operation which prevented a simultaneous attack along the whole front, for the Ninth had been stopped only by the want of support on its wings. Nevertheless, since the 28th September the Division[130] had crossed the tragic Passchendaele Ridge, left behind it the blighted wilderness created by more than four years of grisly strife, and established itself on the fringe of a landscape yet unscarred by war. In all, ten miles had been traversed since the beginning of the battle, and many prisoners and countless trophies had fallen into our hands.
The operations of the 1st October mark the end of the first phase of the Flanders offensive. It was clear that the enemy had strengthened his front, and that time would be saved and success more assured if the advance was resumed under cover of a thoroughly organised artillery barrage. This involved a certain amount of delay, as our advance had outstripped our facilities for sending forward stores and supplies, and roads and routes had to be constructed through the trackless jungle of the desolated region before heavy guns and ammunition could be brought up. Fortunately the line held by us was so well furnished with “Pill-boxes,” that during the lull our troops were more comfortably housed and protected than could have been anticipated.
Reverses in Flanders formed only a portion of the humiliations that were crowding on Germany. Before September had closed the Hindenburg Line, and with it all the hopes of the Fatherland, was broken by British forces, and the German armies were drawn back to the Selle. This success, together with the advance in Flanders, compelled the enemy to evacuate the Lys salient and draw back his front towards Lille and Douai. In the Woeuvre and Argonne, American and French forces were waging a grim struggle; for here the foe’s resistance was necessarily desperate, since the collapse of this flank was bound to involve the utter destruction of the German forces in France. But steady progress was made, though the Americans were hampered by commissariat difficulties, and it became exceedingly doubtful if the enemy could maintain the line of the Meuse, upon which his last chance of safety rested.
The result of the fighting till the 14th October was that deep dents had been made in the opposing line, which was left with inconvenient salients in the north round Lille and Douai, and farther south between the Oise and the Aisne. With a view to saving Lille and its industrial environs from the ravages of war, the policy of the Allies was to encircle the city and so cause its abandonment. To this end a further attack by the Belgian and British forces was planned for the 14th October.
In this operation the task assigned by the II. Corps to the Ninth was the Courtrai-Lendelede Railway, after reaching which, the Division was to make good the crossings over the Lys between Courtrai and Harlebeke. The railway was 9000 and the river 14,000 yards from our line. Since the 1st October the Division had experienced a fairly quiet time, but the Royal Scots Fusiliers had the bad luck to lose their C.O., Lieut.-Colonel Kelso being badly wounded by a shell; the command of the battalion was taken over by Major A. King.
On the 3rd the Germans counter-attacked under cover of a heavy bombardment, but were repulsed mainly through the agency of the Newfoundlanders, who, in their anxiety not to miss a fight, left their positions in the support line and hurrying forward to the front used their rifles and Lewis Guns with such effect that the attack lost all its sting. The Newfoundlanders had already proved their mettle on the first two days of the battle, and their prowess on the 3rd won them the sincere homage which good soldiers always pay to a brave feat of arms. The clannish Scots were proud to have them as brothers-in-arms.
While preparations for attack were steadily pushed on, each brigade was drawn back in succession for a short rest in the camps west of Ypres. The 104th Battalion of the Machine-Gun Corps, which had been attached to the Ninth since the 28th September, was reorganised into three companies, two of which were attached to the Twenty-ninth and Thirty-sixth Divisions respectively. Various minor changes were made on our front, which on the night of the 13th/14th extended from the north end of Ledeghem to a hundred yards south of the cross roads in St Pieter, the Twenty-ninth Division having again come into line on our right and taken over the position facing the village. Our chief annoyances during the period were caused by hostile area “shoots” and aerial bombing which did much damage in the transport lines, seventy-six artillery horses being killed in a single night. There were suspicions that the Germans were withdrawing, but constant and daring patrol work proved our fears to be groundless.