The 1/4th West Riding Regiment takes with it the heartiest good wishes of my brigade.
Yours sincerely,
F. G. Guggisberg.
(c) St. Elie Sector.
The Battalion spent three nights in Estaires and then moved by motor bus to Sailly Labourse. The next day it marched to billets in Philosophe, a mining village north-west of Lens. Here the 147th Infantry Brigade came temporarily under the orders of the G.O.C., 6th Division, relieving a Brigade of that division which was required for an operation near Lens. The first days were spent in Brigade Reserve at Philosophe, time being occupied in training and in reconnaissance of the sector which the Battalion was soon to take over. The country was typical of the Lens mining district and not unlike the Barnsley coalfield. An excellent view of it was obtained from the top of a neighbouring slag-heap.
On the night of June 25/26th the Battalion relieved the 6th Batt. Duke of Wellington’s Regt, in the St. Elie Right Sub-Sector, where its right rested on the Hulluch-Vermelles Road. This sector was a most peculiar one, and quite different from any the Battalion had previously occupied. The country-side was all chalk, so that the trenches were comparatively easy to keep in order and were, on the whole, dry. The sector was approached from Vermelles by Chapel Alley, one of the longest communication trenches the men had ever seen, which ran alongside the road to Hulluch; but most people preferred to use the road or a cross-country route until they were about half way up to the line. The trenches lay entirely on the ground which had been captured from the enemy in the Battle of Loos. Battalion H.Q. was an old German dugout, just off the old German front line. From this point the route to the front line was up Devon Lane as far as St. George’s Trench, and then along one or other of the tunnels. These tunnels were wonderful works of engineering. Cut out of solid chalk, lit up by electric light, ventilated by electric fans, and lying thirty to forty feet below the surface, they gave one a feeling of absolute security, except against gas. Indeed, this feeling was so strong that they exercised rather a demoralising influence—once inside, one hardly liked to leave them, for the heaviest shell or trench mortar could scarcely shake them. Here and there stair-cases led up to posts, the parapets of which were constructed from the sandbags of “spoil” obtained in the excavation of the tunnels. Except on the centre company front, nearly every post was reached in this way. Most of the old front line was derelict, little being held except the posts at the tunnel exits, and a few great mine craters.
A Company was on the right, B Company in the centre, and D Company on the left. C Company was in Battalion Reserve, in deep dugouts off St. George’s Trench. Both the right and left companies lived almost entirely in the tunnels, but B Company had its H.Q. in a deep dugout, which was approached by the half-derelict Grimwood Trench, and its principal post in Newport Sap, a great mine crater garrisoned by one platoon by day and two platoons by night.
Fosse 8, an enormous slag-heap a little to the north of the St. Elie Sector, was the dominating feature of the district. Machine guns from this mound had been one of the main obstacles to the British advance in the Battle of Loos. Its possession gave the enemy excellent observation over a large area and was probably the main reason for his great artillery and trench mortar activity.
Never had the Battalion experienced such trench mortar activity. The Stokes mortar battery, which had been left in the line by the 6th Division, fired until its guns were red-hot. A heavy trench mortar, which had its home thirty to forty feet below the surface and fired up a sort of chimney, made things very lively for the Germans in Cité St. Elie with its “flying pigs.” The enemy too was very active in this department. Opposite the Battalion’s left were the St. Elie quarries and these were packed with trench mortars of all descriptions, which were able to carry on their deadly work in almost complete security. The enemy, when he thought fit, could put down such a trench mortar barrage as the Battalion had never known before. Deservedly, the sector bore a very bad reputation.
However, the first day passed quietly, and the night of June 26/27th was one of those glorious nights, with an almost full moon, which one sometimes gets at Midsummer. Dawn had almost come before the silence was broken. The Battalion was already standing to, and the additional platoon had just been withdrawn from Newport Sap, when, at 3-10 a.m., without any warning, the enemy opened a terrific bombardment. Trench mortar shells of all calibres rained down on the posts at Boyau 78, Newport Sap, “K” Dump and Devon Dump, and on the centre company H.Q. A heavy barrage of high explosive and shrapnel fell on St. George’s Trench and Devon Lane. At the centre company H.Q. Capt. J. G. Mowat, M.C., Sec.-Lieut. I. C. Denby and four other ranks were instantly killed by a heavy trench mortar shell, just after the first had sent up the S.O.S. signal. The entrance to “K” Dump was blown in and Sec.-Lieut. H. Pollard wounded. All quickly realised that an enemy raid on a large scale was in progress.