To his immense pleasure, 2nd Lieut. R. E. Hemingway, our Battalion Grenade Officer, was put in charge of the Grenadiers attached to the 138th Brigade, the party also including the Battalion Grenadier Sergeant, G. F. Foster. Bombing was now entering on the period of its greatest importance—always in our humble opinion greatly exaggerated. The Mills bomb was rapidly ousting all other kinds, and shortly became almost the only one in normal use. Much time was put in at throwing practice, and every kind of artifice was adopted by instructors to make it interesting, and at the same time improve the aim and distance thrown. A "platoon" of "grenadiers," as they were at first called, was formed in each Battalion, consisting of a Grenadier Officer, a sergeant and 32 men, (eight from each Company), and to show how much we respected them, we put them when on the march at the head of the Battalion. There was a Brigade Grenadier Officer too, who made himself generally responsible for the training and work of Grenadiers throughout the Brigade. The first Officer appointed to this post in our Brigade was Lieut. A. Hacking, who had taken over the duties just before the Hohenzollern battle. The task allotted to the Grenadiers in this fight, was to bomb the various communication trenches leading from "West Face" to "Fosse Trench," clear dug-outs and establish blocks in "Fosse Alley."
Information regarding the enemy, gained by Corps Intelligence during the attacks of September 25th, and following days from our own Officers, and from the examination of prisoners, was to the effect that the enemy trenches in the Redoubt, with the exception of "Dump Trench" and "South Face," were badly damaged and not strongly wired, that previous attacks had been exposed to heavy enfilade fire from "Mad Point" or "Madagascar," that it was not thought there would be much enfilade fire from the South-East, and that it was not necessary to waste a lot of heavy shell on the Dump, as it could be made untenable by both sides. How far this was justifiable will be seen.
Our few days at Fouquières passed very quickly in the bustle of completing equipment, going again and again with all ranks through the maps and plans of attack, detailing and organising bombing squads in the place of those detached for duty with the other Brigades, and writing last letters home "in case——" There was little or no excitement. We had most of us seen too much by this time to be either unduly pessimistic or over-confident about our own chances, so that everything seemed to go quietly and smoothly. The first steel helmets had just arrived—quaint, antique, Japanese looking things, with ingenious corrugations to catch the bullets—and were issued to the Machine Gunners, who had also received the first supply of the new Box Respirator, issued in place of the Smoke Helmet. The Machine Gun section was now commanded by Lieut. Adams.
It was at 3.45 p.m. on October 12th, after making our final inspections and collecting blankets, packs and other surplus stores at a convenient barn, that we moved off from Fouquières on a fine Autumn afternoon, leaving behind only 2nd Lieut. Gray, and a few odd men, who were not fit to go into action. Transport marched in rear of the Battalion to temporary lines behind Noyelles, where it remained until after the battle.
We had a very pleasant and easy march up to Vermelles, where a halt was made for tea. Here we were passed by one of the Stafford Battalions who were to make the assault. It was too dark to see their faces, but their voices were full of confidence and cheeriness, which it did one good to hear.
A temporary Quarter-Master's Stores was fitted up at "Clarke's Keep," Vermelles, where Companies picked up their rations for the 13th, water in petrol tins, grenades, Vermorel sprayers, and other odds and ends likely to be required. An emergency ration of cold bacon and bread was also issued.
Eventually after a very slow march through Vermelles, which was a seething mass of men and transport, we arrived about 11 p.m. at our assembly position in "Sussex Trench," where space was allotted to us by Lieut. C. L. Hill, Signalling Officer, who had gone on ahead with a few Signallers for that purpose. We soon settled down and made the best we could of what remained of the night. This was not long, for the carrying parties for the 138th Brigade, and others had to report for duty at Clarke's Keep at 6 a.m. on October 13th. In all we provided a total of five Officers and 300 other ranks for this duty, and they were busy most of the morning taking up to the front line such necessary articles as rations, water, grenades, and rum. His devotion to the last-named duty was too much for one bloodthirsty, but very ill-disciplined member of the Battalion, who became "non-effective" in consequence, and was reported by someone, who saw him lying in the bottom of a communication trench, as "dead—shot through the head." He was "dead" right enough, but he lived to fight—and, it is feared to "die" again—another day!
Our artillery fire during the morning was normal, "so as not to arouse the suspicions of the Germans," who, as a fact, probably knew quite as much as most of us about the time and nature of our attack. But at 12.0 noon, every gun began in real earnest, and it was possible to stand on the firestep of our trench, and get an undisturbed, if rather distant, view of the shells bursting all over the German trenches. After half-an-hour of this most unusual, but very pleasing spectacle, one felt that there would be little left for us to attack.
At 1 p.m. the greenish yellow clouds of smoke and chlorine gas (known for some time as "The Auxiliary") discharged from cylinders in our front line began to roll towards the enemy lines, the breeze being exactly right both in strength and direction, and we became happier still at the thought of paying the Germans back in their own coin. During the whole of our bombardment we could hear very little reply from the German guns, though from time to time we could see a few "woolly bears" and other shell-bursts, at odd points about the forward trenches. Probably they were saving most of their fire for the actual assault, and except for a stray machine gun bullet or two, we ourselves were in no kind of danger. One of those, however, which must have dropped at a steep angle, slightly wounded Regimental Sergt-Major Mounteney, who was standing in the trench with the Officers of Battalion Headquarters. He had only rejoined from England a few days before, and was our first casualty in the attack.
At 1.50 p.m. the gas discharge ceased, but the smoke was continued until 2.0 p.m., when our guns "lifted" from the enemy front line, and the 137th and 138th Brigades began the assault. As the smoke cleared away, we could get a fair view of a portion of the attacking troops (Staffords) on the right as they went steadily, and apparently in excellent order over the top, but, almost at the same time we heard with surprise and dismay, the somewhat slow "tap-tap" of numbers of those enemy machine guns, which were to have been so completely silenced by our bombardment! We watched the Staffords for a few moments until they disappeared from view.