Delphi Complete Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Illustrated) (1330 page)

On this same day the battle raged from Ginchy along the whole right of our line through Waterlot Farm, Guillemont and Falfemont Farm to the left flank of the French. The annexed diagram will give some idea of the forces engaged and their several objectives on September 3.

Attack on German Left Flank, September 3, 1916

As will be seen by this plan, the Fifth Division formed the unit next to the French, and the 13th Brigade were ordered to help our gallant allies in attacking the extreme southern point at Falfemont, while the 95th Brigade covered the ground between their comrades of the 13th and the village of Guillemont. The advance was made shortly after mid-day, and though the operations were long, bloody, and difficult, the famous old division, inheritors of the glories of Mons and Le Cateau, was not to be denied. The resistance was very strenuous, and only the most devoted constancy could have eventually overcome it. To follow the fortunes of the 13th Brigade first it may be briefly stated that upon Sunday, September 3, they first gained the Falfemont Farm, and then lost it again. That night they were reinforced by three battalions of the 15th Brigade, and were able next day to push in between the Farm and Guillemont, pressing the defenders upon every side. It was a widespread building, with many loopholed outhouses, and one of these fell after the other until only the central ruin, still spouting fire like an anchored battleship, remained in the hands of the defenders. Their position was hopeless, however, and by the morning of September 5 the changes in the line to the north of them, and especially the loss of Guillemont, caused them to evacuate the position.

The advance of the 95th Brigade upon the left of the Fifth Division had been a very gallant one, though the objectives which they so bravely won were nameless lines of trenches and a sunken road. The first line of the attack was formed by the 1st Duke of Cornwall’s on the left, and the 12th Gloucesters upon the right, closely followed by the 1st Devons and 1st East Surreys. They were in close touch with the 69th Brigades of the Twentieth Division, who were attacking Guillemont upon their left. Within two hours of the first attack all three objectives had been captured, and the remains of the victorious battalions were digging in upon the line Ginchy — Wedge Wood. The losses were heavy in each battalion, but particularly so in the 12th Gloucesters. For a time they were under fire from both the British and the German batteries. Yet they held on to their ultimate objective, and the following extract from the impression which they produced upon an experienced regular colonel is worth quoting, if only to show the pitch of soldiership to which our amateur volunteers had reached.

“The battalion came on in their extended lines as steadily as on parade, and, without wavering, though suffering heavy losses, passed through a hot German barrage in the most gallant manner. The lines were also much troubled by long-range machine-gun fire from the direction of Fallemont, but although gaps appeared and the fines were rapidly thinning out, I never saw the slightest sign of wavering. No troops could have carried through such a difficult task with more indifference to consequences.” Gloucestershire was once the favourite forcing-ground for the champions of the British ring. The old fighting breed still lives. Altogether the 95th Brigade advanced
3000 yards
in this action, and was responsible for the capture both of Wedge Wood and of Leuze Wood.

Upon the left of the Fifth Division the difficult task of storming Guillemont had been entrusted to the Rifle and Rifle Brigade battalions of the 59th Brigade upon the right, and to the 47th Brigade of the Sixteenth Irish Division. This brigade had come temporarily under the command of General Douglas Smith upon the left, taking the place of the 60th Brigade, which had lost heavily in strength from cold, wet, and continual German gassing and bombardment. The 61st was in divisional reserve. The attack was ordered for noon. Profiting by previous experiences it was planned that the whole village should not be rushed at once, but that the attack should proceed with method in three definite stages. The guns of the Sixth and of the Twenty-fourth Divisions joined in the preliminary bombardment. At noon, the infantry leapt over their parapets and charged home. The enemy was taken unawares. The 10th and 11th Rifle Brigade with the 10th and 11th King’s Royal Rifles, supported by the 6th Oxford and Bucks, carried all before them on the south and west of the village, while the Leinsters, Connaughts, and Royal Irish did as much in the north. The Quarries, which was a nest of machine-guns, was taken in their stride. No more valiant or successful advance had been seen during the War, and it may take a place beside the attack of the 36th Brigade at Ovillers as a classical example of what British infantry can do with all the odds against them. The Riflemen fought in grim silence, but the Irish went through with a wild Celtic yell which, blending with the scream of their pipes, must have added one more to the horrors of the shaken and hard-pressed garrison. Neck and neck the two brigades, English and Irish, went through the German line. Hand-to-hand fights took place in the village, but all resistance was soon beaten down. By 12:30 the first objectives were solid, and at 1:20 the whole village was taken and the survivors of the enemy streaming out to eastward. The English losses were heavy and equally distributed. The Irish were also heavy, especially in the case of the 6th Connaughts, who also lost their colonel. At this time, through the failure of recruiting in Ireland, these brave battalions were below full strength, in spite of which within six days they stormed or helped to storm two of the strongest villages upon the line. One hardly knows which emotion is stronger — one’s pride in those who went, or one’s contempt for those who bided at home. No one admired the splendid dash of the Irish stormers more heartily than the British Riflemen, who kept pace with them in their desperate venture. Equally brave, they were more deliberate in their methods, with the result that more than once pockets of fighting Germans who had been overrun by the Irish, but were still venomous, were cleared up by the Riflemen on the flank. So infectious, however, was the fiery dash of the Irish, that Mr. Philip Gibbs has left it on record in one of his admirable letters that an English sergeant of Rifles complained that he had almost blown his teeth away in whistling his men back from overrunning their objectives. The garrison, it may be remarked, were chiefly Hanoverian, and once again our men were amused and amazed to see “Gibraltar” printed upon their hats, a reminiscence of the days when they formed part of the British army.

Whilst the attack had been in progress, two battalions of the 61st Brigade, the 7th Somersets and 12th King’s Liverpools, were in close support, advancing steadily through the German barrage. The enemy were, as already shown, strongly held at Ginchy on the left flank of the Guillemont advance, but in spite of their preoccupations they made strong attempts at a counter-attack from this direction, which fell upon the Connaughts, who had been reinforced by two companies of the 12th King’s. This small flanking force pushed out posts which behaved with great gallantry, holding off the enemy until evening, though at considerable loss to themselves. One of these posts, under Sergeant Jones of the 12th King’s, was cut off by the Germans and held out for two days without food or water — a deed for which the sergeant received the Victoria Cross. On September 4 the positions were put into a state of defence, and on the 5th the Twentieth Division drew out of the line after their fine deed of arms.

The Fourteenth Division had been in support upon the left during the attack upon Guillemont, and the 43rd Brigade had moved up to the northern edge of the village itself, losing a number of officers and men, including the colonel of the 6th Somersets, who, though badly wounded, remained with his battalion until it had consolidated its new position. A German advance was attempted at this point about 8 P.M., but the 43rd Brigade helped to drive it back. It may be said that the whole of September 3 was a series of small victories, making in the aggregate a very considerable one, and breaking down the whole of the flank German defences.

The Irish Division was now brought up to face Ginchy, the one point still untaken upon the second line, whilst the Fifth Division pursued its victorious way up to Leuze Wood and to the lower corner of Bouleaux Wood, always in close touch with the French upon their right. The 47th Brigade of the Irish had already lost near half its numbers, and other units of the division, both infantry and sappers, especially the 7th and 8th Irish Fusiliers, had lost heavily in supporting the Fifth Division in its attack, but the battalions were still full of fight.

In the late afternoon of September 9 the final attack upon Ginchy by the Irish tore that village from the close grip of its Bavarian and Pomeranian garrison. The Fifty-fifth Division made a supporting attack upon the left, but the main advance was left for the now depleted but indomitable division. It dashed forward upon a two-brigade front, the 47th upon the right and the 48th upon the left, the brigades being strengthened by three battalions of the 49th, so that practically all the reserves were in the line from the start, but the commander had the comforting assurance that the Guards were moving up in his rear. On the right the first wave consisted of the 6th Royal Irish and the 8th Munsters, who dashed forward with great gallantry but were held up by machine-guns. The same fire held up the 1st Munsters upon the right of the 48th Brigade, but some natural cover was found which enabled them to continue to advance. On their left the 7th Irish Rifles and 7th Irish Fusiliers had broken into the German line in the first determined advance.

By six in the evening the 8th and 9th Dublins had reinforced the attack and had pushed on into the village, where the 156th Field Company Royal Engineers at once consolidated — a swift measure which was fully justified since two attacks stormed out of the darkness of the night and were beaten back into it again. Next morning the Sixteenth Division was relieved by the Guards and returned for the time from the line which they had so materially helped to enlarge and consolidate. Their losses had been heavy. Five battalion commanders were among the casualties. They fell out of the line upon September
10. A
few days earlier the Fifth Division had been relieved by the Fifty-sixth.

The total effect of these operations had been to extend the whole British position for several thousand yards in frontage and nearly a mile in depth. At least 2000 more prisoners had fallen into our hands. The attack of July 14 had broken in the centre of the German second line, but the two flanks had held firm. The fall of Pozières upon our left before the Australians and the Forty-eighth Division, and of Guillemont upon our right before the Twentieth and Fifth, meant that the flanks also had gone, and that the whole front was now clear. A third strong line ran through Warlencourt and Le Transloy, but very numerous impediments — woods, villages, and trenches — lay in front of the army before they could reach it. It proved, however, that the worst impediment of all — vile weather and a premature winter — was to be the only real obstacle to the complete success of the army.

In order to complete this description of these widespread operations, which are difficult to synchronise and bring into any settled plan, one must return to what was going on upon the left of Delville Wood. Towards the end of August the Thirty-third Division, which had covered the line between Delville and High Woods, was relieved by the Twenty-fourth. Upon the left of the Twenty-fourth the First Division was still continuing that series of operations upon High Wood which have been already described. On their left in turn was the Fifteenth Scottish Division, the left unit of Rawlinson’s Army. They were busy from this time onwards in digging their assembly trenches for the great assault.

The first incident which calls for attention was a very sudden and violent German attack upon August 31 upon the Twenty-fourth Division. The German onslaught met with some success at first, as it burst through the line of the 13th Middlesex, a battalion which had lost heavily in the attack upon Guillemont ten days before, and was for the moment more fit for a rest-camp than the forefront of the battle. The 9th Sussex, who were on the right of the Middlesex, stood firm, and the German advance, which had penetrated some distance down the long communication trench which is known as Plum Street, was eventually brought to a halt. This result was partly brought about by the initiative and determination of a 2nd Lieutenant of the Middlesex, “a little pale-faced fellow,” who carried off a Lewis gun, and worked it from different positions down the trench, continually holding up the Germans and giving time for the Sussex men to gather such a force at the end of Plum Street as prevented the Germans from debouching into the larger trenches which led down towards Longueval. The attack had been equally severe upon the 72nd Brigade, who held the right of the division, which included the northern end of Delville Wood. They entirely repulsed the Germans with great loss, the 8th Queen’s Surrey being the battalion which bore the brunt of the fight.