Craven's Part in the Great War. John T. Clayton
from shelter to shelter. But this was a haven of rest compared to the front line. In front of the canal was sheer desolation, with ridges sloping upwards towards the enemy. Wet weather turned the whole country into a quagmire and many were drowned in the mud. Across this waste stretched the trenches, formed of sandbagged breastworks, with arms and legs of dead Frenchmen projecting from them at intervals. The enemy was too close for rebuilding. The line was curiously irregular, as one side or the other had bitten off a piece of the opposing defences, and at more than one place our men were only fifteen yards from the enemy. In some parts the bombing was worst, in others the trench mortars, and in others again the shells: but none were healthy and all smelt abominably. As for retaliation, a few rounds of shrapnel were all the ammunition our artillery could spare in those early days. No regular division had stopped in the line for more than six weeks, even in summer, and the West Ridings looked hopefully forward to an early move. They held that line against shelling and gas, in deepening mud and rising water, for six long months.
The 49th Division had a stormy welcome. In the first few days the Divisional commander, Major-General Baldock, was wounded by shrapnel at the door of Trois Tours Chateau, and was succeeded by Major-General Perceval; and a shell through his bedroom caused Brig.-General Brereton to leave his cottage for safer quarters. Before the 6th Battalion had finished its first turn in the line it had grievous losses to deplore. Among them the gallant Lieut. Slingsby had been killed by a sniper; Lieut. Supple mortally wounded by a shell, and 2nd Lieuts. Jaques and Brayshaw severely wounded. It was then, too, that Pte. Bracewell, a stretcher bearer, himself wounded, won the first D.C.M. for the battalion.
As the autumn wore on and worse conditions supervened, the battalion still stuck to its work, making its regular trips to the front line and always leaving behind some of the best of comrades. At the end of October, Lieut.-Col. Birkbeck, who had already suffered from rheumatism, was invalided home. Of the battalion commanders who had come out with the Brigade he was the last remaining, and there was general regret that he had not had the chance of leading the battalion in open warfare in which he had trained them and for which his experience of African campaigns had peculiarly adapted him. “Honest John” the men called him, and they were all sorry to lose one who had always given them fair play. Major Bateman had already been wounded and Lieut.-Col. J. Adlercron, of the Cameron Highlanders, took over the command.
The men took a little time to understand their new commander and he probably thought them a queer lot. But his wide military knowledge, his boundless energy, and, above all, his absolute fearlessness, soon won their admiration and respect and established a satisfactory mutual understanding that lasted throughout his command. It has been said of some leaders that they never sent their men where they would not go themselves; if Col. Adlercron sent men to a particularly nasty post he would commonly go twenty yards further himself and inspect the enemy’s wire in front of them.
Conditions grew steadily worse. “Trench foot” made its appearance among the troops, and though many precautions were taken there was much painful suffering. The mud difficulty and the fall of the leaves made the work of the Transport increasingly arduous, and Lieut. Churchman’s stores at Hospital Farm became a favourite target for shells from either side of the salient. The death of Lieut. T. S. Whitaker, always most cheery when times were worst, was a serious loss to C company. But through it all the spirits of the battalion never flagged. Sergt. Bury, with a few fellow bombers, was holding a peculiarly noisome forward post within bombing range of the enemy when he received word that he was to go on leave. He protested indignantly. “Who’s to look after my sap?” he cried. And it was only when Lieut. F. L. Smith promised to give the sap his own special attention that the sergeant, with some misgiving, consented to return for five days to civilization. And a like feeling animated all.
At this time the ⅙th Duke’s had the French as their next-door neighbours, and at the bridge over the Yperlys stream, where the two Armies met, an international post was established, consisting of an officer and a few men from each army, specially selected for their knowledge of their allies’ language.
THE GREAT GAS ATTACK.
On December 19th, in the darkness of the early winter’s morning, the Germans made another desperate attempt upon the line after discharging the deadly phosgene gas from cylinders. It was the strongest concentration of gas sent over by the enemy during the war: the ground over which the cloud passed was covered with powdered crystals like hoar frost, and Canadians on parade at Bailleul, twelve miles back, felt the effects. The 4th Duke of Wellington’s was in the front line, the 6th had B company and the machine gunners on the Canal Bank and the remainder in ruined farms a short distance behind. At 6–30 a.m. the battalion received orders to move forward through the clouds of gas to support the 4th. All reached their positions in perfect order and the men of the 4th were astonished at the speed with which the much-needed succour had reached them. The Germans, though they inflicted heavy losses on the 147th Brigade, reaped no tactical advantage from the outrage. The 6th had many casualties both from gas and shelling. The machine gunners, worn out by a particularly arduous time in the line, suffered very heavily, and among the eight who succumbed to gas was that excellent soldier Lance-Cpl. J. W. Willan, of Skipton, who had refused a commission elsewhere to serve in the ranks of the 6th.
The battalion, sadly reduced in numbers, had a last turn in the line and lost 2nd Lieut. T. Carson, mortally wounded on patrol, and Lieut. Malcolm Law, an admirable bombing officer, who was killed in the act of handing over to the incoming division.
Getting clear of the line by dawn on the last day of the year, the battalion, now little more than 200 strong, travelled by motor-bus to the neighbourhood of Herzeele and Wormhoudt for a month’s rest and reorganization. The Machine Gun Corps had recently been formed as a separate arm of the service, and the machine gunners under Sergts. J. Watson and F. Stork, who had both done sterling work for the battalion, were transferred to the brigade company under the new corps. At the beginning of February, 1916, the battalion moved by train to the neighbourhood of Amiens. It was a welcome change and the clean fields and green hills were a grateful sight to Craven eyes after the shellmarked flatness of the Salient. Though the Division was by no means up to strength it had temporarily to take over the line at Authuille, north of Albert, during a snowy spell at the end of the month. The share of the 6th Battalion was limited to two or three unpleasant days. Water up to the knees was no novelty, but the men have vivid recollections of some lively trench-mortaring, and of the droves of enormous rats that scampered over the snow at night like flocks of sheep.
THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME.
The great attack on the Somme had already been planned, and the 6th Duke’s were engaged for some months in digging assembly trenches, laying railway tracks, carrying material to the line, and generally assisting in the many preparations that had now become recognised as necessary to a successful offensive. They were quartered at different times in most of the villages from Toutencourt to the river Ancre, and in April and May went farther back to the pleasant village of Naours lying in a beautiful valley north of Amiens. Here vigorous training was carried on for the coming offensive, and replicas of the famous Thiepval defences were constructed and successfully attacked.
Conditions were now growing better. Expeditionary Force Canteens had come into being; Y.M.C.A. huts at times were encountered; organized entertainments were given. The general standard of living was much improved and wire beds were occasionally found in billets. The old days of scarceness had passed, and “rest areas” had become more worthy of the name and were visited with greater regularity.
But before the battle opened another change came in the command of the battalion. Lieut.-Col. Adlercron, D.S.O., received well-deserved promotion to the command of the 148th Brigade (in the same division), and Major C. M. Bateman, D.S.O., was appointed Lieut.-Colonel in his place. No more popular choice could have been made. Colonel Bateman had commanded the headquarters detachment of the Craven territorials