On the 8th, at dawn, Lieut.-Colonel Erskine, commanding the brigade, borrowed a hundred men under Lieut. Hoare from the 4th Battalion of the Grenadier Guards to assist in moving the remaining guns. This battalion was at the time in reserve, and the men showed extraordinary goodwill and keenness to do all they could, and worked with the greatest determination. Each man carried down with him two rounds of ammunition besides his own rifle and equipment. Then, with fifty men on each gun besides the men of the batteries and one team of horses, the whole brigade was got into action by mid-day, with the exception of one gun which was badly stuck upside down in a shell-hole. It was a fine piece of work, which earned the congratulations of the XIVth Corps and of Brig.-General F. A. Wilson, the C.R.A., Guards Division. Major Balfour, commanding C/91, a first-rate battery commander, was killed while actually man-handling one of the guns.
The last two actions in this battle in which the Divisional Artillery took part were fought on the 9th and 12th October, when attacks were launched on the British front from Zonnebeke to the left flank, and on part of the French front further north. The Guards on the extreme left of the British line attacked at 5.20 A.M. on the 9th. They made a brilliant advance in cold, wet weather and over sodden ground to a line close to the south-east end of Houthulst Forest. Further south the eastern outskirts of Poelcapelle were cleared and progress was made up the main ridge towards Passchendaele.[11] On the 12th, attacking again in rain and a high wind, the Guards reached the edge of the forest.
Forward positions for one brigade of the 20th Divisional Artillery were reconnoitered on the 14th, but the continued bad weather made the movement of guns impossible. Four days later the batteries were at last relieved.
For three whole months the 20th Divisional Artillery had been in the battle without any relief. Throughout this time, over ground sodden with rain, the men had fought continuously, practically without protection of any sort and under a continuous bombardment of gas and high-explosive shell. Casualties had been exceptionally heavy and the strain abnormal. It was the hardest time in the line that the Divisional Artillery ever spent, and the men were absolutely played out when on the 18th of October they moved out of action to entrain two days later for Peronne.
Chapter IX
THE BATTLE OF CAMBRAI
1st October to 16th December 1917
The Battle of Cambrai and the German counter attack.
(Vide [Map III.])
After three days in the Bapaume area the Division moved east to face the Hindenburg Line south-west of Cambrai. By the 10th of October, when this sector had been taken over from the 40th Division, headquarters was at Sorel, about 1000 yards south of Fins. All three brigades were in the line, the 61st on the right, east of Villers Guislains and Gonnelieu, the 59th in the centre from the outskirts of Gonnelieu to a line passing through Villers Plouich, and the 60th on the left, with its left flank between Beaucamp and Bilhem. Except for ten days towards the end of the month the Division was in the IIIrd Corps of the Third Army.
October passed quietly. By the 25th the Divisional Artillery had returned from the Ypres Salient and was in action, covering the Divisional front; the battery positions of the 91st Field Artillery Brigade lay in the area Villers Guislain-Gonnelieu-Gouzeaucourt, those of the 92nd Brigade about Gouzeaucourt and in the country to the north.
On the 27th Brig.-General Butler left to command an infantry brigade in the Guards Division and handed over command of the 60th Brigade to Brig.-General F. J. Duncan, C.M.G., D.S.O.