The whole operation was very well carried out, and all ranks showed extraordinary keenness and determination to make the raid a success.
Among the many honours awarded to officers and men of the 6th K.S.L.I. for their services on this occasion were the following: M.C., Captain H. M. O’Connor, Lieut. D. S. A. McKimm; D.C.M., Cpl. R. Richards.
All these raids and bombardments entailed harder work on the troops behind the front line. R.E. material was constantly required for the trenches, but owing to the operations transport for it was difficult to obtain. The ammunition requirements, too, during June were heavy. Great credit must be given to the officers and men of the Divisional Ammunition Column, who were kept working at very high pressure during the whole month.
On the 5th and 6th of July the 59th Brigade relieved the 61st in the left sub-sector.
On the night of the 10th a minor operation was carried out by the 59th Brigade. Gas was turned on at 10.30, accompanied by a smoke screen and an artillery and trench mortar barrage, while four raiding parties formed up ready to go forward. This time the enemy seemed to be well prepared. As soon as the gas was discharged he lighted fires along his parapet to make the cloud rise. Severe artillery, rifle and machine-gun fire prevented the raiding parties from reaching his lines except at one point. This was at the Mound, where Second-Lieut. Rudd and a party of the 11th K.R.R.C. successfully bombed their way up one of the communication trenches.
On the 12th the Germans severely shelled the Wieltje salient. Great damage was done, and one company alone—“A” Company of the 10th R.B.—lost 25 casualties, one-third of its whole strength. On the 12th and 14th the town of Poperinghe was heavily bombarded; over 200 shells fell near the square and railway station on the 12th, so that on the 14th, under the orders of the Corps Commander, all troops moved out of the town. Divisional Headquarters moved to a camp about 1000 yards to the north.
On the night of the 13th/14th, orders were received directing the 60th Brigade to move to Steenwerck, to be placed under the orders of the IInd Anzac Corps. The brigade, with its machine gun company and light trench mortar battery, entrained next morning at Poperinghe, which was being shelled at the time, but fortunately got away without casualties. The troops detrained at Steenwerck, and marched from there to Erquinghem. The 12th R.B. went straight into the trenches, the 6th K.S.L.I. and 6th Oxford and Bucks L.I. extending the line to the left on the 15th, when Brigade Headquarters and the 12th K.R.R.C. went into billets at Fleurbaix. The Brigade held a line running north-east and east from La Cordonnerie Farm on the right to just north of Le Bridoux; covering this line were three attached batteries of the 24th Field Artillery Brigade, of the 6th Division.
The next two days were spent in registering the guns and in cutting the wire, in preparation for an attack which was to be made by the 61st Division and the 5th Australian Division on the right of the 60th Brigade. On the 19th, after a bombardment during the day, a mine was sprung opposite La Cordonnerie Farm at 7 P.M., and the assaulting troops went forward. Delangre Farm was the left of the attack, so that the 60th Brigade was not involved in these operations beyond firing on the Germans, who stood to in their trenches north of the farm and offered a good target for the machine guns. The ground gained could not be held by the attacking troops, who were back in their own trenches by 6.15 A.M. on the 20th.
On the night of the 22nd/23rd the 60th Brigade was relieved and marched back to billets about Bailleul.
Meanwhile, the rest of the 20th Division, with the exception of the artillery, had been relieved between the 14th and the 18th by the 6th Division, and had moved to an area west of Poperinghe, with headquarters at Esquelbecque. Here a warning order was received on the 17th that the Division, less artillery, would be required in the next few days to move to the area of the Vth Corps, to which the 84th Field Company R.E. had been attached since the 15th. On the 19th the move began, and on the 20th Major-General Douglas Smith took over from the G.O.C. 24th Division a line facing Messines and Wytschaete, and extending from the river Douve a little west of the Ploegsteert-Messines road to a point just south-west of the cross-roads at Kruisstraat.