Raid near Reutel.
13.3.18.
On the evening of March 12th the raiding party came up by light railway, and was accommodated with the reserve company for the night. During the night final preparations were made; steps for each of the four sections were cut in the parapet of the front line trench opposite the pill-box, and four gaps were cut in the wire. By dawn on March 13th the whole party was assembled in the front line, waiting for the barrage to open. There too was the Commanding Officer, in communication with Battalion H.Q. by a telephone wire, laid specially for the occasion.
At 7-0 a.m. the barrage opened, and the raiding party went over in line of sections in file. From the start, the flanking sections went well and reached their positions without difficulty; but the section under the direct command of the platoon commander, whose special objective was the pill-box, was delayed by the short firing of one of the barrage guns. In the meantime, about twenty of the enemy got out of a trench in rear of the pill-box and tried to escape. They were heavily fired on by the flanking sections, and many were brought down. As soon as the barrage lifted off the pill-box, two of the enemy mounted a light machine gun on the top; but both were shot down before they could open fire. By this time the centre section had got forward, worked round the pill-box, and captured one or two prisoners in rear of it. The pill-box itself was then attacked. A Mills bomb was inserted through a loophole and a M.S.K. grenade was dropped down the ventilating shaft. The latter immediately had its effect, about thirty Germans coming out with their hands up. How so many had been able to crowd into so small a space cannot be conceived. They were immediately directed to run across to the British line, where now the greatest excitement prevailed; everywhere men were standing on the parapet waving to them to come in. A Stokes shell was thrown into the pill-box and then, about 7-20 a.m., the withdrawal was ordered. A few minutes later the raiding party, with the exception of two dead near the pill-box and some wounded still in No Man’s Land, was back in its own lines.
When the captures came to be totalled up it was found that there were no less than 37 prisoners, and, in addition, three enemy machine guns had been brought back by the raiding party. Among the prisoners was the little bald-headed man, who had been the source of so much amusement to the front line troops the previous tour. Also, many dead and wounded were lying about round the pill-box, not counting a number who had certainly been wounded in escaping to the rear. All this had been accomplished by a total force of one officer and thirty-three other ranks—less than the total number of prisoners—with a loss of only two killed and eight wounded. Unfortunately, two of the wounded afterwards died. The greatest loss to the Battalion was Cpl. H. Kane, D.C.M., M.M., who was severely wounded in the back and, after dragging on for several weeks in hospital, died. He was one of the most gallant N.C.O’s the Battalion ever had—the sort of man who would have won the Victoria Cross had the chance come his way.
Major W. C. FENTON, M.C.
Capt. N. T. FARRAR, M.C.
