The Great War. Part II

On August 14 the enemy counter-attacked with some vigour, and momentarily regained a trench near the windmill. On the 15th the line had been restored. On the 17th there was a strong attack in six successive lines upon the Forty-eighth British and the First Aus­tralian Divisions, but it had no result. On the 18th, however, the 5th and 6th Warwicks paid a return visit with great success, carrying three lines of trenches and capturing 600 prisoners. This was a very fi ne exploit, carried out at 5 P.M. of a summer evening.

shells. This nest of snipers and machine-guns was known as Mou­quet Farm. Upon the 19th, as part of the general attack along the line, which will be more fully dealt with elsewhere, not only was our Pozières front pushed forward past the windmill for 300 yards, but the 1st Wiltshires of the Twenty-fi fth Division, operating upon the left of the Forty-eighth, which in turn was on the left of the Australians, made an important lodgment on the high ground to the south of Thiepval. The Forty-eighth Division also made some advance, the 4th Gloucesters upon the night of the 19th capturing 400 yards of trench with 200 prisoners. Their comrades of the 6th Battalion had less fortune, however, in an attack upon the German trenches on August 22, when they had two companies partially de­stroyed by machine-gun fi re, while every offi cer engaged was hit, including Major Coates, who was killed. On this same day there was again an Australian advance near Pozières, whilst at the other end of the line, which was biting like acid into the German defences, the Twenty-fi fth Division began to encroach upon the Leipzig salient, and were within 1000 yards of Thiepval. In this entirely successful attack a new invention, the push pipe-line, was used for the fi rst time with some success, having the double effect of blowing up the enemy’s strong point, and of forming a rudimentary communica­tion trench in the track of its explosion. In this connection it may be stated generally that while the Germans, with their objects clear in front of them, had used before the War far greater ingenuity than the British in warlike invention, as witness the poison gas, Minenw- erfer and fl ame-throwers, their methods became stereotyped after War broke out; while the more individual Britons showed greater ingenuity and constructive ability, so that by the end of 1916 they had attained a superiority upon nearly every point. Their heavy ar­tillery, light machine-guns, aeroplanes, bombs, trench-mortars, and gas apparatus were all of the very best; and in their tanks they were

The Hindenburg Trench was the immediate object of these at­tacks, and on August 24 a stretch of it, containing 150 occupants, was carried. A pocket of Germans was left at one end of it, who held on manfully and made a successful resistance against a Company of the 8th North Lancashires, who tried to rush them. Ultimately, however, these brave men were all taken or killed.

and Mouquet Farm were cleared by Queensland on the right and by Tasmania on the left. It was a most spirited fi ght, where Austra­lian and Prussian stood up to each other within short bomb-throw. But nothing could stand against the fi re of the attack. The whole line of trench upon the right was captured. There was a dangerous gap, however, upon the the Tasmanian left, and this the Tasmanians were compelled to endure for two days and nights, during which they were hard pressed by never-ending shelling and incessant Ger­man attacks. It is on record that their constant reports of their par­lous state sent on to headquarters concluded always with the words: “But we will hold on.” If Tasmania needs a motto, she could fi nd no better one, for her sons lived and died up to it during those terrible hours. When at last they were relieved, their numbers were sorely reduced, but their ground was still intact. At the other side of the gap, however, the West Australians, hard pressed by an overpower­ing bombardment, had been pushed out from Mouquet Farm, which came back into German hands, whence it was destined soon to pass.

It was during this severe fi ghting that a little scene occurred which, as described by Mr. Bean, the very able Australian chron­icler, must stir the blood of every Imperialist. A single offi cer “of middle age, erect, tough as wire, with lines on his face such as hard fi ghting and responsibility leave on every soldier,” appeared in the Australian communication trenches, asking to see the offi cer-in­charge. He spoke the same tongue but with a different intonation as he explained his mission. He was the forerunner of the reliev­ing force, and the First Division of Canada was taking over the line from Australia – a line which was destined to bring glory to each of them. Surely a great historical picture might be made in more peaceful times of this fi rst contact of the two great nations of the future, Separated by half the world from each other, and yet coming together amid blood and fi re at the call of the race. An hour later,

This considerable victory was, as will afterwards be shown, typi­cal of what had occurred along the whole line upon that great day of battle and victory. It was followed, so far as the Canadians were con­cerned, by a day of heavy sacrifi ce and imperfect success. The Third Division, still operating upon the left of the Second, endeavoured to carry the formidable Zollern Trench and Zollern Redoubt to the north of Courcelette. The 7th and 9th Brigades were in the attack­ing line, but the former was held up from the beginning. The latter got forward, but found itself confronted by the inevitable barbed wire, which stayed its progress. No good was done, and two gallant battalions, the 60th (Montreal) and the 52nd (New Ontario), lost 800 men between them. The operation was suspended until it could be renewed upon a larger scale and a broader front.

AFTER the very hard fi ghting which accompanied and followed the big attack of July 14, continuing without a real break to the end of the month, there was a lull of a couple of weeks, which were em­ployed by the German commentators in consoling articles to prove that the allied offensive was at an end, and by the Allies in bringing forward their guns and preparing for a renewed effort. The middle of August heard the drum fi re break out again and the operations were continued, but on a local rather than a general scale. Many isolated positions had to be mastered before a general surge for­ward could be expected or attempted, and experience was to prove that it is precisely those isolated operations which are most diffi cult and costly, since they always mean that the whole concentration of the German guns can be turned upon the point which is endan­gered.

August 16 witnessed another attack by the Thirty-third Division upon High Wood, a position which had once already been almost entirely in their hands, but which had proved to be untenable on account of the concentration of fi re which the German guns could bring to bear upon its limited space. None the less, it was deter­mined that it should be once again attempted, for it was so situated that its machine guns raked any advance between it and Delville Wood. The attack upon this occasion was carried out on the eastern side by the 98th Brigade, strengthened for the work by the addition of the 20th Royal Fusiliers and a wing of the 1st Middlesex. It might well seem depressing to the soldiers to be still facing an obstacle which they had carried a month before, but if this portion of the British line was stationary it had gained ground upon either wing, and it might also be urged that in a combat destined to be ended by military exhaustion it is the continued fi ghting rather than the local result that counts. If High Wood had cost and was to cost us dearly to attack, it assuredly was not cheap to defend; and if their artillery had made it too deadly for our occupation our own guns must also