At sniping we more than held our own, though the enemy were very keen, and used to fire from steel plates fixed round the mine craters. We were unfortunate in losing at this period Sergt.-Drummer Clewes, who went home for discharge. He had done much excellent work in charge of the Brigade Snipers, his own "bag" being stated to amount to considerably over 100. As some recognition of his good work he was later awarded the D.C.M. His son, Corpl. G. W. Clewes, another excellent sniper, left at the same time. L.-Corpl. Hagues took over the duties of N.C.O. in charge of Snipers, and with 2nd Lieut. Marshall, did some splendid work, including the blowing-in of several loophole plates with Col. Fowler's Elephant Gun, which was now brought into use again.
Marshall's "pet," however, was the "dummy tree" on the Route de Béthune. This was a hollow tree about 20 feet high, formed of steel casing, and covered with imitation bark. Inside there were ledges to climb up by, and from it a most excellent view for a very long distance around, could be obtained. It had been erected by the enemy before they had been driven back.
Another item in the "Intelligence Department" which now came into use, was that extraordinary instrument known as the "I-Tok," intended for picking up enemy telegraphic and telephonic messages. We never were supposed to know where its operators performed, and rarely did know, but more often than not they placed themselves near Battalion Headquarters, and the sheaves of papers they sent to Brigade were mostly filled with scraps of our own messages. It is doubtful if much of value was picked up from enemy messages, but they certainly did good in keeping a check on our own conversations over the telephone, and were regularly used from now onwards. The "Fullerphone," which was introduced a little later, and largely superseded the ordinary telephone, was reputed to be capable of transmitting messages in such a way that they could not be picked up.
Our Firework Artistes, too, decided that they ought to have a show, and accordingly arranged for us one night to have a display of red rockets in the front line. These rockets had been issued for use for night S.O.S. When the time came for them to be let off, the only visible result to those behind watching, was one feeble rocket which made a short lob, and fell to the earth. Only one other went off at all, and it had a great tussle with John Turner, nearly knocking him through a traverse, and then fizzing itself out in the bottom of the trench.
Another brainy person, one of our German scholars, decided one day to try the result of putting up a placard to give the Boche the news that the L.15 had been sunk in the Thames. This was on April 2nd. Two days later a notice was put up opposite B Company's front, which said "Thanks for your news: you are all mad"—shewing, we thought, a lack of originality on his part. This was one of the very few occasions upon which we either sent or received a message in this way.
| Regtl.-sergt.-major A. Westerman. | Comp. Sergt.-major J. T. Slater And N.C.O.'s Of 'A' Company, 1917. |
Just about the same time, we had the pleasure of seeing a Hun plane brought down by one of our own, after a short sharp scrap in mid-air. Our man dived at the Hun and opened with Lewis gun fire, killing both the pilot and observer. The plane took charge of itself, and after a brief wild career, crashed near our Battalion Headquarters. It was no sooner down than it was shelled by the enemy and eventually set on fire. Various useful documents, however, were secured from it including some maps and a signalling code. The bodies of the pilot, Lieut. Ziemssen, and the observer were buried at Mont St. Eloy by Padre Hales, who a little later received an appreciative letter from the pilot's widow.
With these and sundry other excitements, we got through two six-day tours in the line, and also spent two periods of similar length at our rest huts cleaning, training, and reorganising, for we were continually losing Officers and men in various ways, and fresh ones were joining. Amongst the former we lost 2nd Lieuts. G. G. Elliott and Pitt, invalided to England, and the following Warrant Officers and N.C.O.'s who left us on completion of their term of service: Regimental Quarter-Master Sergt. Tomlin, Comp. Sergt.-Major Haywood, Comp. Quarter-Master Sergt. Shelton, and Sergts. Murden, Handford and Kettle. Arrivals included Major Ashwell, Capt. H. Kirby, Lieut. G. Wright, 2nd Lieut. W. P. Duff, and about 70 men, many of whom were returned casualties, and in some cases anything but fit to resume active service. Comp. Quarter-Master Sergt. Dench became Regimental Quarter-Master Sergt., Sergt. Bee Comp. Quarter-Master Sergt. of B Company, and Sergt. Hotson Comp. Quarter-Master Sergt. of C Company.
We were able to offer very little in the way of amusement just at this period, entertainers either being more or less non-existent, or somewhat shy. One afternoon, however, we succeeded in rousing sufficient enthusiasm to organise a boxing contest, one of the very few ever carried through by the Battalion. In the heavy-weight contest between those two stalwarts, Sergt. Slater and Corpl. Bryan, the latter retired after the third round with an injured hand. The middle-weight competition was won by Sergt. L. Green, and the lightweight by Sergt. Attenborough. The same evening, we managed an impromptu concert in one of the huts.
Our Transport Lines and Quarter-Master's stores during this period were back at Acq, and were fairly comfortable. Here for the first time we had the experience of taking rations and stores up to the line on the light railways, already constructed by the French, a system of transport in which both they and the Germans were much ahead of us. Stores were unloaded from the limbers at Ecoivres on to flat trucks, each of which was pulled by three mules. The "Decauville Track" ran past "Berthonval Farm," across the Béthune road, branching there right and left for the various Battalion dumps, ours being in the Talus des Zouaves, near Battalion Headquarters. At first, the system did not work well, and there was much confusion, but later it was properly organised so that rations went up first, and Royal Engineers' stores about midnight. When we first took over the sector, the French caused much alarm to our men by carrying their stores to and from the Béthune Road by electric trucks, actually the chassis and platforms of trains from Paris Plage, to which the bells used for warning pedestrians were still attached. One brakesman, Alphonse by name, like a wise person, usually went about his own business on arrival at the Béthune Road Dump, which was often a warm spot. The driver meanwhile got his load to take back, and anxious as all were who ever had a job of work at that particular spot, to get it done and be off, he adopted the practice which seemed to us rather foolish, of vigorously sounding his gong time after time, at the same time shouting "Alphonse, Alphonse," with the result that all our men vanished "tout-de-suite," leaving him and the errant Alphonse to face any whizz-bangs which might result. Truly, the French are a remarkable race!