As the months went by several changes took place in personnel. We lost Capt. Whitton, who after being Adjutant for 14 months, went for duty to the First Army Rest Camp at the end of June, and was succeeded by 2nd Lieut. Martin. Capt. Warner went to the Divisional Signal Company early in July, and D Company was then taken over by Capt. White. Second Lieuts. Bromham and Russell went down sick, and 2nd Lieut. Elphick to the Machine Gun Corps. New Officers who joined were 2nd Lieuts. E. J. Taylor, James Howard Smith, T. J. Sellis, H. M. Toyne, F. L. Harrap, J. F. Shackleton, F. T. W. Saunders, W. Pennington, S. A. Tebbutt, and S. Bradwell, D.C.M., and we were given a new Padre in the person of D. E. Sturt. Sergt. Bescoby, who had done excellent work in charge of the Stretcher Bearers, became Comp. Quarter-Master Sergt. of A Company, in place of Godfrey, who left to train for a commission. Our strength was kept fairly level by drafts, and we averaged throughout this period about 40 Officers, and 920 other ranks.
Our somewhat humdrum existence eventually came to an end about the middle of August. By this time the German offensive had finally ceased, having received its knock-out blow in the fruitless attack made against the French near Rheims on July 15th. On this occasion the French had received ample warning of the attack, and were consequently able to dispose their forces in such a manner as to inflict appalling casualties on the enemy with insignificant losses to themselves. This was followed up by a series of attacks by French, Americans, British, and Italians, which began on July 18th and finally drove the enemy out of the Marne Valley. Even before that time it had been realised that the Germans were not likely to make any further attacks on our part of the front, and about the middle of July we had gone so far as to contemplate an offensive in the Merville salient. Preliminary plans were actually made for the attack to be made on July 15th, by the Canadians and our own Division, but eventually the scheme was cancelled.
The offensive in the South met with extraordinary success at all points, and soon extended to the Third Army area, nearly as far North as Lens, with the result that in the end the Boche decided that he must take steps to withdraw from the Merville salient. His offensive on this front was, undoubtedly, from the first a serious strategic error. The unexpected ease with which the enemy had advanced on the Portugese front had induced him to push forward further than had been the first intention. Consequently, in holding the inner portion of a most pronounced salient on flat ground, overlooked from the high land south of the La Bassée Canal, he had at last experienced some of those difficulties and losses which had been for so long our experience in the Ypres salient. The many destroyed guns which we ultimately found on our subsequent advance bore witness, not only to the remarkable accuracy and efficiency of our own artillery, but to the folly of attempting to hold the salient when once the possibility of capturing Béthune and the area South of the Canal had disappeared. Owing to this mistake of tactics and strategy there is no question that the enemy's losses had been extremely heavy since his advance in April.
During the second week in August, whilst we were in the Gorre sector, we heard that the enemy were carrying out extensive demolitions behind the line, and our patrols were constantly out, so as to ensure keeping touch, should he begin to move back. He had already begun to do so on our left, but we were not actually affected until August 19th, by which time we had moved across to the Essars right sub-sector. About noon on that day, our left Company reported that the enemy had evacuated several of the front line posts astride the Rue-du-Bois. A and D Companies, which were in the front line, accordingly sent out strong patrols to keep touch, the remainder moving forward to the old German front line. Some 600 yards in front of our old line, lay the hamlet of Le Touret. This was cleared by the leading Companies with little opposition, except for a few snipers left to harass our advance, and by evening the line ran East of that place, a total advance of about 1,000 yards. The same night we handed over to the 6th North Staffords. On August 26th, the Battalion moved up to support in the Gorre sector, and was disposed about the Tuning Fork Breastworks, with Battalion Headquarters by the canal side, near Le Préol. Lieut. G. G. Elliott was badly wounded here during a bombardment of the position held by A Company, of which he was then in command. A battery of guns had been put in the orchard adjoining his Headquarters, in spite of many protests, and naturally drew a considerable amount of shelling. Several men were wounded at the same time. "G.G." had succeeded Capt. Andrews, who had recently been appointed Second-in-Command on Major Gingell's departure for a tour of duty at home, and the command of A Company now passed to Lieut. Thomas.
Re-adjustments of the Divisional front became necessary, owing to the continued withdrawal of the enemy, and on September 1st, we crossed over to relieve our 6th Battalion in the left Brigade sector. Here the withdrawal had been fairly rapid, Lacouture and Vieille Chapelle both having been evacuated, and the enemy were now holding a line roughly running from Richebourg St. Vaast through "Windy Corner" to Richebourg L'Avoué, the general direction of our advance being North-East. At the time we relieved them, the 6th Battalion were engaged in sharp encounters trying to dislodge the enemy from a number of posts just West of Windy Corner. We continued this hole and corner fighting, and on September 3rd, C Company occupied "Hens Post," Windy Corner, and "Edward's Post," after some sharp scrapping, taking one wounded prisoner, whilst B Company occupied "Dogs Post" without opposition.
Very gallant work was done during this fighting by Corpl. Mosgrove, who in spite of heavy fire established liaison with the Company on his right which was held up, thereby enabling the advance to continue; by Pvte. Stamford, a Stretcher Bearer, who on two separate occasions went forward into the open, in full view of enemy snipers at close range to help wounded comrades, and by L.-Corpl. Beech, who did exceptionally good work in charge of a Lewis gun team.
Those who had been with the Battalion in the Autumn of 1915, were now on familiar ground, as the fighting was taking place on what was then the area just behind the line that we held in the Richebourg sector. The capture of the posts about Windy Corner straightened out the line, and enabled us to obtain suitable jumping-off positions for an attack which was to take place the following day, as it had been decided to speed up the enemy's retreat in this part, and drive him back far enough to enable us to retake the old British front line near Neuve Chapelle, the enemy being at this moment about 2,000 yards West of that line.
Instructions for the attack were issued somewhat hurriedly during the night. B and C were to be the leading Companies, with A and D in support. The 5th Leicesters were attacking on our right, and the 19th Division on the left. There was little or no time to make any reconnaissance. Zero was 5.15 a.m. on September 4th, and the barrage came down on the stroke 200 yards East of a line through "Haystack," "Orchard," "Albert," "Dogs" and "Edward's" Posts. Having remained on this line four minutes it moved forward at the rate of 100 yards in two minutes, closely followed by the leading troops. The enemy made little resistance, and had evidently decided not to offer any serious defence to operations on a large scale, but to get out of the way as quickly as possible. The result was that within a couple of hours we had regained possession of the old British front line, and the "contact aeroplane" which cruised round a little later, saw our ground flares burning in the identical trenches we held in November, 1915. The 5th Leicesters met with equal success, and were abreast of us on the same line. The 19th Division on our left had met with considerable resistance at Neuve Chapelle, and did not get the whole of their objective until later in the day. The enemy had decided for the moment to stand on his old line running through the Bois-du-Biez, a strong position, from which it would be difficult to dislodge him. The troops on our left suffered several casualties in a fruitless endeavour to push platoons forward into the wood. Our casualties were negligible owing to the feeble resistance offered, and the weak counter-barrage put down. Battalion Headquarters moved immediately after the attack to "Lansdowne Post."
Communication had been well maintained during this and other recent advances, and we were seldom out of touch by telephone, either with advanced Companies or with Brigade Headquarters. In fact, on the advance into Le Touret, there was so much cover available, on or near the Rue du Bois that a forward Signalling Station, supplied by a South and a North line, was established only a few hundred yards behind the front line, within a few minutes of that line being consolidated, and of these two lines the North line was not a mere ground line, but a poled cable. We owed it to the untiring efforts of the Signal Section, under Lieut. Stephenson, ably backed by Sergt. Templeman, Corpl. Osborne and others, that communications were kept up so well.
The peace that we enjoyed for the rest of the day, was unfortunately not maintained, for on September 5th, the Boche made things unpleasant by shelling the various posts we were holding, which were nothing but isolated shallow trenches with a few corrugated iron shelters covered with earth. One of these, which was used as Battalion Headquarters, got a direct hit with a 4.2 whilst the whole of the Headquarters' staff, except the Medical Officer were in it. The result was disastrous. Every Officer in it was wounded, though "Andy" escaped with nothing worse than a few scratches. Col. Currin got a leg damaged, Martin the Adjutant, and Elly, Intelligence Officer, both got broken legs, and several other wounds. Stephenson and Taylor (Works Officer) were also wounded in the leg, whilst Spinney (Assistant Adjutant) and Salmon (Artillery Liaison Officer), sustained serious head and face wounds. Elly died the following day at the Casualty Clearing Station, at Pernes.