The 74th Infantry Brigade of the 25th Division was attacking on the Battalion’s right. One of its battalions did extremely well, forcing its way right into Kemmel village, and taking about 150 prisoners there. But the battalion on the immediate right of B Company failed to get forward. The 4th Battalion had met with very little resistance up to that time. Enemy machine gun fire was extremely heavy, but, as the morning was misty, very few casualties were caused by it at first. There is no doubt that the Battalion could have advanced further without much difficulty, but its orders were to conform to the 25th Division, and, as the men on its right were not advancing, it halted. For several hours it was believed that the line of Sackville Street had been reached, and this was the situation reported by the Commanding Officer to Brigade H.Q. at 5.5 a.m. Later it was found that the men had only got as far as Cheapside.
For about an hour things were comparatively quiet, except for enemy machine gun fire. Soon after 6-0 a.m. the battalion on the right began to withdraw, and before long the situation was becoming serious on that flank. The mist had cleared considerably, and the enemy was making better use of his machine guns. Taking advantage of the weakness of the troops there, he began to work round the Battalion’s right flank, by Beaver Corner and R.E. Farm. To cope with this menace, first half, and later the whole, of C Company had to be sent over to the right to form a defensive flank, facing south-west. On the rest of the Battalion front there was little anxiety. All three companies were well in touch, and A Company was connected up with the 9th Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (21st Division) on its left. Enemy machine gun fire was heavy, but the troops had good cover.
As time went on, the situation on the right became more and more serious. Here enemy machine gun fire was particularly heavy, and his sniping very accurate. He was making determined attempts to advance to the west of the Milky Way, and there was great danger that he might get across the Battalion’s line of retreat. The whole of C Company had been committed to the defence of this flank, and later, two guns of the Machine Gun Company and a detachment of the 147th Light Trench Mortar Battery had also been sent up. Thus, the whole available battalion reserve, except a few H.Q. details, was engaged. C Company had done some very useful work. They had driven the enemy from R.E. Farm, though they were unable to occupy it themselves; but they were suffering heavily from the enemy’s very accurate sniping. At 9-25 a.m. a message was sent to the 6th Battalion asking it to send up a company to reinforce the right.
By about 11-0 a.m. the strength of C Company had been very much reduced. Man after man had been shot in the head by enemy snipers, among the casualties being Pte. A. Poulter, the stretcher-bearer who had so greatly distinguished himself two weeks before at Erquinghem. Lieut. W. G. Mackie, who was commanding C Company, was also wounded, and Sec.-Lieut. T. T. Gilroy assumed command. Soon after noon, two platoons of the 6th Battalion arrived and were sent up to strengthen C Company. This helped to restore the situation on the right flank, and, for a time, things were much quieter, though the enemy sniping and machine gun fire continued.
It was hoped that the 25th Division would take action to restore the situation on its left, and about 1-30 p.m. a message was received that a battalion of the South Lancashire Regt. was coming up to get in touch there. Meanwhile, there was great difficulty in supplying the forward troops with ammunition, owing to the heavy fire kept up by the enemy. Everything had to be carried across the open, and there was very little cover. In this connection, splendid work was done by some of the H.Q. batmen, who crawled up to the line with bandoliers slung over their backs.
During the afternoon the enemy made a further attempt to work round the right flank. Considerable numbers of them were seen moving along the side of a hedge, but the situation was satisfactorily dealt with by C Company. Sec.-Lieut. T. T. Gilroy had seen them himself. He quickly got two Vickers guns into position, and, when the enemy appeared at a gap in the hedge, so heavy a fire was opened at close range that the party was almost wiped out. This was the last attempt to advance that the enemy made that day.
By this time the discovery had been made that the Battalion was not in Sackville Street at all, but in Cheapside. This was at once reported to 147th Infantry Brigade H.Q., as it altered the situation considerably. The battalion of South Lancashires had come up, but was halted by the Milky Way and did not go into action. It was now night. Arrangements were made for wiring and other work to be done on the front; but this was not to be. The higher authorities had realised that the counter-attack had failed, and had decided to withdraw the troops, who had carried it out, from their advanced positions. About 11-0 p.m., the order for the withdrawal was received, and the operation began at 12-30 a.m. All went smoothly. The night was dark and the enemy remained inactive. A Company withdrew first, and was followed by the others in order from left to right, C Company moving last and bringing out with them the few men who were left of the next battalion. All the ammunition, which had been sent up during the day, was got away. The Battalion moved back along the Milky Way, through the line held by the 6th Battalion, and reoccupied the same positions near Millekruisse which it had left in the early morning of April 26th.
For the next two days the enemy made no further infantry attack, but his artillery was often active, particularly round Millekruisse cross roads. Not far from this spot Sec.-Lieut J. C. Whitaker, of A Company, was killed by a shell on April 28th. There can be no doubt that, between April 25th and 29th, the Germans were replenishing their ammunition dumps, and making preparations for their next big attack. During this time the Battalion was in Brigade Reserve. Much work was done on a new line a little to the south of Millekruisse, and A Company moved up to garrison it. Otherwise, there was no change in dispositions.
On April 28th the enemy put down a heavy barrage on the British front, from 7-30 p.m. to 9-0 p.m., and desultory shelling continued through the night. About 3-0 a.m. on the morning of April 29th this suddenly changed to a barrage, the intensity and depth of which can seldom have been equalled. From Mont Vidaigne on the right to Zillebeke Lake on the left, the whole front was ablaze. On the sector held by the 147th Infantry Brigade the whole country, from the front line to beyond Ouderdom, was deluged with shells. High explosive and gas literally rained down everywhere. Practically the first shell of the bombardment burst in the roof of the farm house, which was occupied by Battalion H.Q., and mortally wounded both the orderly room clerks; the R.S.M., who was in the same room, had a wonderful escape, and fragments actually penetrated the roof of the cellar, in which the Commanding Officer was sleeping at the time. By a great stroke of luck the barrage almost entirely missed the front line, so that its garrison, though extremely uncomfortable, was practically unharmed. No one doubted that this was the prelude to another mighty attack.
After about two hours of this bombardment, the German infantry advanced in great numbers to the attack. They gained nothing. Caught by the British barrage, mown down by Lewis gun and rifle fire, they suffered enormous casualties. It is said that, on one part of the front, they were so demoralised that they put out a white flag and tried to come in, but could not pass through the barrage. On the whole front attacked they only gained a footing in the allied line in two places, and from both of these they were ejected almost immediately by counter-attacks. All this time the barrage continued.