Four days later the Battalion relieved the 1/6th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regt. in the Molenaarelsthoek Sector, which extended from opposite Justice Wood to about Flinte Wood. The relief was a stormy one. The tracks were heavily shelled and one platoon had eight casualties going into the line. The front was rather a long one and required three companies in the line. As it lay on the forward slope of the Broodseinde Ridge, which was under observation from the Keiberg Spur opposite, no movement was allowed by day. Accommodation was poor and there were no continuous trenches. At night much work was done, joining up front line posts, constructing supporting posts to the west of the ridge, digging a defensive communication trench on the right, and wiring. The influence of the battle further north made the front a lively one. Army barrages were continually being put down in the vicinity, in an endeavour to distract the enemy’s attention from the real point of attack. Judging from the Battalion’s experiences, these had a fair amount of success, for the enemy artillery was very active; frequently parts of the line were heavily shelled, and barrages on No Man’s Land during the night were common. These latter greatly interfered with the work of patrols, which were out nightly. Fortunately, casualties were not heavy; but it was during this tour that Sec.-Lieut. J. S. Watson, a most promising young officer of B Company, was killed.
The Battalion transport too had a very rough time. The enemy was doing a great deal of back area shelling, and night after night the ration convoys had to pass through it. During this tour the transport lost the first of its number killed in action. But all ranks behaved with great gallantry, and, in spite of casualties to men and animals, rations were invariably delivered nightly.
There is no doubt that, by this time, the enemy had settled down to a defensive policy for the winter. The collapse of Russia had come too late to prevent the British gaining the Passchendaele Ridge, though German reinforcements from the Eastern Front had made that task far more difficult. For the next few months the enemy was content to leave things as they were, and quietly to perfect his plans for a great offensive the following spring.
On November 27th the Battalion was relieved by the 1/5th Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, and, after a night spent near Gordon House, moved to Vancouver Camp The day after its arrival Capt. H. Hanson, O.C. D Company, was so seriously wounded by a shell, just outside Vlamertinghe, that he died two days later in hospital. His death was a great blow to everyone. He was one of those men whom no one can help liking, possessing a most equable temper, and, though unsuited by age to the rigours of trench warfare, always trying to remain cheerful and to make the best of things. Sec.-Lieut. P. Donkersley was also severely wounded by the same shell.
In the next camp was a New Zealand Cyclist Battalion against whom a very vigorous “rugger” match was played. The result was one casualty—Sec.-Lieut. F. Irish with a dislocated elbow—and a win for the Battalion by two tries to a try. Little training was possible for, a few days after arrival at the camp, practically every available man was moved to Lancer Camp, near Potijze, for working parties. Little more than Battalion H.Q. remained at Vancouver Camp. Three days later the Battalion was again concentrated in Dragoon Camp, and the next night took over the Keerselaarhoek Sector from the 4th Battalion Suffolk Regt. (33rd Division).
This sector deserves more than a passing mention as it was one of the worst, if not the worst, ever held by the Battalion. The usual route to the line lay along a gridded track which seemed endless to the weary and heavily-laden soldier. The track was far from “healthy,” particularly where it wound round Abraham Heights; at this point several casualties were suffered by the advanced party, when the Battalion was first taking over the sector. But it was after Seine that the real trouble began. Just beyond that point the grids came to an end,[13] and for the rest of the way, over a mile in distance even if a direct line were followed, the troops simply wallowed among mud and shell holes, appalling even in that country. The front line posts were on either side of the Ypres-Roulers Railway, and their condition beggars description. Originally shell holes, attempts had been made to improve them by digging; but so water-logged was the ground that all excavations filled with water almost at once, while the sides caved in as quickly as they were dug out. To the south of the railway another difficulty presented itself; as often as digging was started anywhere, dead bodies, in a state of decomposition, were uncovered, and the hole had to be filled in quickly. It was extremely difficult to get R.E. material up to the front line at all. Owing to enemy observation no movement was possible by day, and the nights were so black, and usually wet, that a man could hardly see a yard in front of him. The man who had carried up one trench grid or revetting frame from Battalion H.Q. to the front line, had done a really hard night’s work. The Ypres-Roulers Railway, which ran through a deep cutting and should have been an easy and direct route to the line, was absolutely impassable owing to the thick mud which covered it. No fires could be lit, and the only hot food or drink that could ever be obtained was that heated over Tommy’s cookers. In short, the state of discomfort and misery in which the men lived had never been equalled in the history of the Battalion, except possibly in those ghastly days on the extreme left sector in December, 1915. An American officer, who was attached to the Battalion at this time, expressed amazement that men could exist at all under such conditions.
The front system was held by two companies, one on each side of the railway. A third company was in support round Hillside Farm, a prominent pill-box just below the crest on the west side of the ridge. The other company was in reserve in a number of shelters not far from Tyne Cottage. Battalion H.Q. was near Seine.
Fortunately the enemy was not very active on this front. His artillery made good practice on and around the village of Passchendaele, a little further to the north, but comparatively little attention was paid to the Keerselaarhoek Sector. Probably he realised that an attack there was practically impossible for either side. Patrols which pushed out in the direction of Tiber Copse and along the Railway reported the ground impassable; sheets of water covered much of No Man’s Land, and where there was no water the mud was almost bottomless. The only route by which the opposing forces could come in contact was in the direction of Assyria, on the Keiberg Spur, and even there the ground was in an appalling condition. Only in the event of hard frost would an attack be possible anywhere. So, apart from harassing fire, there was little activity.
Three days were considered a long enough spell for any troops to hold that line, so, on the night of December 10/11th, the 1/5th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regt. came up to relieve, and the Battalion returned to Dragoon Camp. It was not much of a rest. The camp was, on the whole, comfortable, considering that it was to the east of Ypres. But nearly every man was required for working parties daily, and these were often in badly shelled areas. Rather to the surprise of everyone, the Battalion remained at Dragoon Camp for five days. The 1/5th Battalion had asked and been allowed to remain in the line for an extra two days, preferring to do this rather than have the fatigue and discomfort of going out and then coming in again for another tour. But every man was heartily sick of it by the time his five days were over.
One point in connection with the relief is worthy of note. The advantages of the Zonnebeke Road, as a route to the line, had been so much praised by one officer of the Battalion that the Commanding Officer determined to try it. All went well until he was nearing Zonnebeke, and then, without any warning, a 5.9 burst in the middle of the road about seventy yards away. It was almost immediately followed by a second, which burst within ten yards of the party, luckily just off the road. That was enough! With one accord everyone made off straight across country as fast as he could go. This was not very fast, for all were heavily laden and often sank up to the knees in mud. But they got away from the road, over country which no one would have dreamed of attempting in ordinary circumstances. And none of them ever tried the Zonnebeke Road again.