During the earlier part of the month patrolling had been very active, in spite of the bad condition of No Man’s Land. Little had been possible on the right company front, where the lines were so near together; but, further north, they were as much as five hundred yards apart in places. Sergt. J. Bancroft, of C Company, was particularly energetic. Twice he reached the enemy wire, reconnoitred it for several hundred yards, and brought back very valuable information as to its strength, the enemy dispositions, defences and working parties. On one occasion, finding his men rather “windy,” he fell them in in No Man’s Land, put them through some bayonet fighting drill, and then proceeded with the patrol. But the deed for which he won the Military Medal happened after the cold weather had set in, when the snow-covered ground shone white in the rays of the moon. Sec.-Lieut. G. Rawnsley, with Bancroft and two men, was out on patrol. He had reached a point about thirty yards from the enemy line when a flare revealed his presence, and he was shot through the head. In spite of the heavy fire maintained by the enemy, Bancroft remained with the body for some time, trying to get it back. Finding the task beyond his power, he returned to his own line, collected and led a party to the spot, and succeeded in bringing the body in. All this was done in the face of heavy fire, and his coolness and daring thoroughly merited the decoration which he received.
Before the frost set in, all work had been concentrated on keeping the trenches in a habitable condition. But, with the frost, such work became temporarily unnecessary, even had it been possible. Meanwhile, new theories of how a line should be held were developing. The gradual increase of fire power, due to the introduction of Lewis guns and the growth of the British artillery, made it unnecessary to keep so many men in the front line; the increase in the strength of the enemy artillery and trench mortars made it inadvisable to do so. Instead of a line in which practically every fire-bay was manned, the system of semi-isolated posts was coming in. To adapt the old trenches to this new idea of defence, now became the chief form of work. Derelict trenches had to be filled in; the trenches which were to be preserved had to be adapted for all round defence by platoon or section posts. This was mainly carried out by filling the disused trenches with wire, so that they could not be occupied by the enemy.
Bombing too had had its day, and the utility of the numerous saps, which covered most front lines, was discounted. Among other improvements in the Battalion’s sector, it was decided to fill in the T head sap which lay only about forty yards from the enemy, on the right company front. This was a delicate task. The order was to fill it in with earth; but it approached so near to the German line that the least stroke of a pick on that iron-bound ground could easily be heard. What was to be done? As luck would have it, the enemy was engaged in wiring his sap just opposite; and so it became the nightly custom to assemble a working party in the British front line and wait until the enemy party was heard. Then the work of filling in the T head sap would begin, for no fire was likely to come from the enemy while his own party was out. This went on for several nights without incident; but the work progressed very slowly, owing to the frozen condition of the soil. On the last night the Battalion was in the line it changed its tactics. Instead of sending out a working party, it trained a Lewis gun on the enemy sap and opened fire as soon as the wiring party was heard. Whether any casualties were caused cannot be said; but the wiring came to an abrupt conclusion.
Had the Battalion remained longer in that sector, it would probably have been called upon to do a raid on the enemy line. Much time had been expended on reconnaissance for that purpose, and the order was fully expected. Perhaps it was due to its own intentions that the Brigade was so nervous about the enemy; whatever the cause, it seemed most anxious to ascribe to the Germans designs on the British line. A sign of this nervousness was the great interest taken in a gap in the enemy wire near the Berles-Monchy Road. It is probable that the gap was an old one, which had escaped notice up till then; but the amount of paper that flew about on the subject was enormous. Of course, nothing happened.
The Battalion’s departure from the B1 Sub-sector was the result of a rearrangement of divisional fronts. The 46th Division was extending north and taking over the whole of the 147th Infantry Brigade sector, while the 49th Division was doing the same on its left. Hence, when the Battalion was relieved on January 30th, and moved to Humbercamps, it knew that it was not to return.
Brig.-Genl. R. E. SUGDEN, C.M.G., D.S.O., T.D.
(e) Riviére.
On February 1st the Battalion moved to Riviére, where it relieved the 8th Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps, in Brigade Reserve to the F1 Sub-sector. The 1/5th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regt. followed, and, throughout the next month, the two were inter-relieving as they had been at Berles. The accommodation in brigade reserve was very good, considering its nearness to the line. Three companies lived in billets in the village; the fourth garrisoned the Wailly Keeps, a reserve line of platoon posts. This latter was an ideal duty for an enthusiastic platoon commander. He had his own little command, nicely compact; he lived with his platoon, looked after its food, and supervised its work and training; and, except in one case, his company commander was not too near. What could a keen young subaltern want better? The bulk of the Battalion in Riviére found working parties, so there was little chance for training. But the Battalion had a tour in the line to do before it was really able to taste the joys of brigade reserve. On February 2nd it took over the F1 Sub-sector from the 7th Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps.
This sector was, in one respect, the most “perfect” the Battalion ever occupied. Students of the many official handbooks on “Trench Warfare,” which were produced in the first two years of the war, will remember the excellent instruction on the planning of trenches—how each system should have a continuous front line, supervision trench, support line and reserve line, with numerous communication trenches from front to rear. They will remember too how each of these, except of course the supervision and communication trenches, was to consist of alternate bays and traverses, etc., etc. And those of them who knew the Western Front will remember how seldom, if ever, they saw these theories put into practice. Well, the F1 Sub-sector was an exception. The supervision trench did not, indeed, run the whole length of the front; but there were the continuous front, support and reserve lines, properly traversed and supplied with fire bays, and connected by numerous communication trenches. In fact, an aeroplane photograph of the sector might almost have been reproduced in one of the textbooks, as a perfect example of what ought to be done. The bombing expert had also been at work, and the protection of the main communication trenches was “beautiful,”—but was it effective? Perhaps it was due to this theoretical accuracy of the sector that the authorities selected it as a training ground for embryo officers. At any rate, several privates from the Artists’ Rifles were attached to the Battalion for instruction while it was in that area. So much for theory!