The Story of the "9th King's" in France Part 6

Christmas was spent here, and the Christmas dinner which took place in the school and a large barn was a great success, and demonstrated the good feeling that existed between the officers and men. A few days afterwards the Battalion was visited by Lieutenant-Colonel Luther Watts, O.B.E., V.D., the Town Major of St. Pol, and who had commanded the Battalion prior to the war, and at Dunfermline and Tunbridge Wells. Those of the officers and men who had served under him in England were pleased to see their former commanding officer once more.

While at Lisbourg efforts were made to induce the men to invest in War Saving Certificates. At first they were somewhat reluctant, saying that they did not wish to hand back their pay which they had earned. Lectures on the subject were delivered to them, and when the scheme was fully explained, and they understood the necessity for money in order to carry on the war, they readily responded, and over 1,000 was subscribed by the officers and men, which was the highest figure attained in the Division.

This was an achievement of which the Battalion was justly proud, and shows the keenness and interest the men displayed in their Regiment, and the cause for which they were fighting.

In consequence of the reduction of the number of infantry battalions in the organisation of the British division from twelve to nine, the "first ninth" being the junior battalion in the Brigade was split up. A selected party of the officers and men was detailed for the second line Battalion, and they were regarded with envy by the less fortunate. The remainder was split up into drafts for the 1st, 4th, and 12th King's. The day of the break up was a very sad one indeed. To a soldier his regiment is his home, and to be called upon to leave it, to sever his friendships and to lose his comrades of many a tragic day is for him very bitter. It is not untrue to say that as the drafts were leaving and comrades were saying "Goodbye,"

several of the soldiers, who had braved nearly inconceivable terrors, were almost in tears. As was feared at the time the "Goodbye" in many cases was for ever, as many were killed shortly afterwards by the German offensive in March. The Divisional Commander and several officers from other units came to say "Farewell" to the Battalion they were never to see again. A note of sadness is struck in the following order which was issued:--

55th (West Lancashire) Division,

Special Order of the Day.

31st January, 1918.

On the departure from the Division of three Battalions, the 1-8th The King's Liverpool Regt. (Liverpool Irish), 1-9th The King's Liverpool Regt., and 1-5th Loyal North Lancashire Regt., I wish to a.s.sure all officers, warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and men belonging to them, how greatly I, and I am sure, everyone in the Division, regrets their loss.

Some, I am glad to say, remain with us.

As to the battalions themselves, I refuse to regard the separation as permanent, and I look forward confidently to the day when they will rejoin their old Division.

They have had their full share in all the hard fighting of the past two years, and have helped to make and maintain the reputation which the Division has gained, a reputation which, I am sure, makes every member of it proud of belonging to it.

As for myself, to have commanded it during these years is the highest privilege.

I hope that eventually the Liverpool Irish, the 9th King's, and the 5th Loyal North Lancs. may rejoin our ranks, and that the final blow may be given shoulder to shoulder with them.

Till they come back again I wish them, on the part of the Division and myself, all good fortune and success, and can a.s.sure them that we shall watch their career as keenly as if they were still with us.

H.S. JEUDWINE, Major General, Commanding 55th Division.

Unfortunately the hopes of the Major General were not realised. He never saw this Battalion on parade again.

CHAPTER IV.

THE 57TH DIVISION.

The second line Battalion was formed at Blackpool in 1914, and on the departure of the first Battalion from Tunbridge Wells for France its place was taken by the second Battalion. For a considerable time it carried out training at Tunbridge Wells, Ashford, Oxted, Maidstone, Canterbury and Blackdown, from which place it departed on the 17th February, 1917, for France.

It was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Leggatt, and formed part of Brigadier-General Paynter's 172nd Infantry Brigade of the 57th Division, which was a Division composed entirely of Lancashire troops, and a sister Division to the 55th.

After being delayed for three days at Folkestone, it crossed to Boulogne on the 20th. The next day it was moved by train to the neighbourhood of Bailleul, and from there by stages to the village of Erquinghem, south of Armentieres. After a week spent in training, completing equipment, and reconnoitring the sector to be taken over, it went into the Bois Grenier sector. During the first tour in the trenches, the front held was twice extended and eventually it held a front of one and three-quarter miles.

Here the Battalion remained for nearly seven months. The sector had been held by the New Zealanders, and was one of the quietest on the whole British front, but orders were now given to liven things up in order to keep as many enemy troops opposite the sector as possible, and distract their attention from the impending operations at Messines on the left.

This object was achieved by considerable activity, patrols, and artillery bombardments. The extent of the front held entailed a good deal of exertion in the way of working parties, both to prevent the breast-works from falling into complete decay and to keep the trenches drained; and though the Battalion was very fortunate and suffered comparatively few casualties, the numbers steadily dwindled as no drafts were forthcoming.

The enemy had very little artillery opposite this sector, and relied mainly for his defence on minenwerfers which he used liberally and skilfully, hara.s.sing the Battalion with an exceedingly heavy bombardment about once a fortnight.

In August, the Commanding Officer left the Regiment and the command was taken over by Lieutenant-Colonel Manger. The following month the Battalion was taken out of the line for a rest, and was billeted in the village of Febvin Palfart. Here it remained for a month reorganising and practising the attack, special attention being paid to the method of taking "pill boxes" by encirclement.

In October the "Second Ninth" set out for the Ypres salient, and on arriving at Proven was accommodated in tents. There it was told that the Division was about to take part in an attack on Pa.s.schendaele, but the weather conditions were so bad that, after an attack by one of the other brigades in the Division, the offensive was finally abandoned. The Battalion then held the sh.e.l.l crater line in front of Langemarck for a few days at the beginning of November, sustaining a considerable number of casualties. The Division was then withdrawn and the Battalion was put into rest billets at Nielles. After about a month spent there in re-organisation and training for the attack, it moved up to Emile Camp, just outside Elverdinghe. The weather was bitterly cold and the ground frozen hard. On Christmas Day the Battalion went into the sh.e.l.l crater line at Poelcappelle, and spent four days there. The weather conditions were very severe, snow had fallen, the ground was wet and the machine gun fire very active. The first week in January the Regiment was once again in its original sector at Armentieres. Here things were comparatively quiet, though the trenches were in a very bad condition, and the danger of trench feet was considerable. The Battalion carried out a very successful raid on the 1st February. Several patrols had been sent out to locate the best place of entry into the enemy line. After an intense bombardment on the selected spot, a party was able to enter and secure a few prisoners. This was the most successful raid the Division had accomplished.

The remnants of the first Battalion left Lisbourg for Steenwerck, where they spent a few days awaiting the return of the second Battalion from the trenches. The two units met at Waterlands Camp outside Armentieres, and were united to form one battalion. The union, though imperative, was distasteful to some, as many officers and non-commissioned officers had to relinquish acting ranks which they had held for some time, and it perhaps gave rise to some jealousy which fortunately disappeared in time.

After a few days spent at Waterlands, the Battalion moved into support at Erquinghem, with one company in the Lunatic Asylum at Armentieres, and after a short stay it did one tour in the line near Houplines, and then went to Estaires, where it was in support to the Portuguese Army.

This was then a quiet country town in which the shops were still open, and incidentally doing a very good trade, and it had suffered little from the effects of artillery. During the next three months it was to be reduced to ruins. The Battalion was accommodated in a Nissen hut camp just outside the town, where the company commanders had an opportunity of completing the re-organisation of their companies.

On the 13th March the non-commissioned officers celebrated the anniversary of the Battalion's first arrival in France by arranging a kind of concert in one of the estaminets in Estaires. This was the last occasion before the Armistice on which such a celebration took place, and it has developed into an annual reunion of the senior non-commissioned officers.

Towards the end of the month the Battalion left Estaires for the Armentieres front, and on the 21st March Ludendorff's advance commenced on the 5th Army front, at which time the Battalion was in line in the Fleurbaix sector. Ten days later the unit was relieved and marched to Estaires, where it arrived on the morning of the 1st April. Leaving this town later in the day, it made Haverskerque that night, left there the next day for Steenwerck, and entrained for Doullens. Detraining at Doullens at 1 a.m. on the 3rd, the Battalion proceeded by night march to Sus St. Leger. The night was dark and the roads were in bad condition and a few men fell out, but on the whole, the march discipline was good. On the 5th the Battalion moved to Warluzel, where it remained for three days and then proceeded to Thievres, staying there four days. These moves meant a great strain on everyone. To march in full pack on bad roads with motor lorries splashing mud, day after day, is an ordeal. In each village a fresh start had to be made. Billets had to be found and allotted, fire orders put up and billet guards mounted. Latrines and cook-houses had to be improvised, and the usual foot inspections were made. Besides this the usual routine returns had to be rendered to people that sat in comfortable offices, and the men had to do ration fatigues and guards. Though the difficulties of the companies were great, the difficulties of the Quartermaster's department and that of the Transport Officer were much greater. The Quartermaster had not enough room to take the stores he wished, and the Transport Officer had as much as he could do to carry all the stores there were.

On the 12th a move was made to Sombrin, and the next day the Battalion left Sombrin late in the afternoon for an unknown destination. Even the Colonel did not know, and there was a vague rumour that the Brigade staff were to look after the unit. The men marched over bad roads and in the dark, and ultimately they were turned into a wood and told there were no billets, and they could bivouac for the night. Officers and men lay down on the damp earth where they were and slept. Fortunately it did not rain.

A few tents came up very late, and in the darkness they could not be pitched, but they were spread out and thrown over the men as they lay sleeping on the ground. Fires could not be lighted as the enemy aeroplanes would have used them as aiming marks. In the morning the Battalion on awaking found it was just outside Pas, in what was called Beaucamp Ravine.

Here it remained for two days, and then moved to Henu, where the men pitched a camp in a field, and there the Battalion remained for a little over a fortnight. But it was no rest camp. The weather was very bad and the ground became wet and sodden. Every alternate day large working parties, which consumed almost all the available men, were detailed for work on the rear lines of defence, that were being hastily constructed, in view of the imminence of a fresh enemy offensive. On the intervening days training took place. There was a thirty yards' range in a ravine just in the rear of the camp, where some very interesting compet.i.tions took place.

Rifle sections were pitted against Lewis gun sections and it was found that, in some platoons a rifle section of eight men was able to get as many shots on the target as the Lewis gun, and it was noticed incidentally that after two hundred rounds the Lewis gun became far too hot to handle.

It was a much over-rated weapon, and was only effective in the hands of highly trained men.

Several reconnaissances were made by the officers while at Henu. The forward area was visited again and again. Defence schemes were studied and prepared, but these tended to become a little too complex, and had it been necessary to put them into operation something would surely have gone wrong.

The morale at this time was low. The extent of the losses on the 5th and 2nd Army fronts were known. The enemy was using British 60-pounder guns against the area occupied by the Battalion, but as the enemy gunners did not thoroughly understand how to set the fuses, the sh.e.l.ls were all blind.

The Germans seemed to be able to advance whenever they wished, whereas the British had miserably failed at Ypres the last year. The men were not in very good fettle owing to the several recent marches, and the chance of complete victory seemed to be remote. Nevertheless there were many who kept cheerful and intended like game c.o.c.ks to fight to the last.

The first week in May the Battalion went into line at Gommecourt. The other two units in the Brigade were in the outpost line, and the 9th King's was in close support in Gommecourt Park. It was accommodated in what were formerly the front line enemy positions in 1916. It was an education in military engineering to examine them. The trenches were deep and wide, and there were traverses every few yards. They were revetted with hurdles and planks of timber which were kept in position by iron pickets, which were securely wired to anchor pickets driven sideways into the walls of the trench. So well anch.o.r.ed were the revetments that in spite of the continuous bombardments of the Somme Battle they were still in position. The whole line was stellated with concrete machine-gun emplacements, which gave a perfect command over the former British front line trenches. Armoured look-out posts for sentries were at the top of all the dugout stairs. The dugouts were deeply mined and well timbered, and would provide shelter for a large garrison.

In front of the trenches was a dense wire entanglement at least twenty yards broad, and although it had suffered much from artillery fire it was still an obstacle which was only pa.s.sable by infantry in certain places where lanes had been made. Anyone who saw this entanglement did not wonder why the British attack on the Somme on the 1st July, 1916, failed. Several graves of the fallen could be seen here and there in the wire.

It was very interesting to walk through the Park. Despite the bombardments it had undergone, the rides were clearly marked, and several trees were still alive, including one or two fine copper beeches. Wild hyacinths and other flowers were blooming in profusion, and a cuckoo, with doubtful wisdom, persisted in remaining in its usual haunts.

While in this position the whole Battalion was engaged in reclaiming old trenches, digging new ones, and putting the area in a position of defence and establishing a central keep.

On the 11th May the enemy sh.e.l.led Foncquevillers, a village immediately in rear of the Battalion's position, with gas sh.e.l.ls, most of which were charged with mustard gas, and some of the gas being inhaled by the men of the Battalion twenty-four casualties were sustained.

Three days later the Battalion took over the front line, the Headquarters still remaining at Gommecourt, but in another part of the village. The trenches were very wet, and reminded one of the Loos trenches in 1915. It was a time of great patrol activity. No one was quite sure where the Germans were and in what force. Daylight and night fighting patrols constantly left the British lines, and almost invariably came across parties of the enemy, but as the enemy was caged in by wire prisoners could not be obtained.

In this sector the enemy had full observation of the village from Rossignol Wood, and men from other units were in the habit of betraying the location of dumps and headquarters by walking along the roads in daylight instead of through the communication trenches. This enabled the enemy to note ways of approach which he could sh.e.l.l after nightfall, and so inflict casualties on working parties. To prevent this, two snipers were told off to lie in the gra.s.s and fire above the head of anyone who did not keep in the communication trenches. The scheme was efficacious; the men respected the snipers more than the enemy, and little trouble was given afterwards by the casual visitor to the sector.

One fine morning the enemy elected to sh.e.l.l Battalion headquarters, to the great amus.e.m.e.nt of the companies in the front line. Two out of the three mine entrances to the dugout occupied by the headquarter's personnel received direct hits and were blocked. The Second in Command then had the unpleasant duty of crawling out of the third entrance to see if all was well. Fortunately nothing untoward had taken place except three slight casualties.

On relief two companies went to the Chateau de la Haie, and the two other companies and Headquarters to Rossignol Farm, a large monastic farm of considerable age. There was an enormous byre part.i.tioned off into several pig styes, and this was allotted to the officers, one pig stye for each officer. The War Diary for the next three weeks gives an interesting and accurate account of what took place, so the following extract is included:--

May 24th.--Battalion headquarters moved up to Chateau de la Haie, and Lieutenant-Colonel F.W.M. Drew, D.S.O., being in need of a rest, was evacuated sick, and Major S.C. Ball, M.C., a.s.sumed command. While at this Chateau, Battalion headquarters had the pleasure of being closely a.s.sociated with the headquarters of the 1st Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers; and it is interesting to record that this was not the first time that the Battalion had the honour of working in conjunction with this ill.u.s.trious regiment. Many members of the Battalion could clearly remember how the 9th had the honour of relieving the 2nd Royal Munster Fusiliers, elements of which were incorporated in the 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers, after the Battle of Loos, in the 3rd Infantry Brigade of the 1st Division.

May 25th.--BEER TRENCH.--The Battalion relieved the 1st Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers in Beer Trench, where "A"

and "D" Companies and the Lewis gunners of "B" were accommodated. "B" and "C" Companies remained in the Chateau de la Haie Switch. There was heavy sh.e.l.ling in "A" Company's area during the evening, but no casualties were sustained. The Battalion came tactically under the orders of the 170th Infantry Brigade while in Beer Trench.

May 26th.--Gas sh.e.l.ls known as yellow cross sh.e.l.ls, were fired over "A" Company's sector in the early morning. The men quickly adjusted their masks, and no casualties were sustained. The rest of the day pa.s.sed quietly.

May 27th to 29th.--These days were fairly quiet.

May 29th.--RUM TRENCH.--The Battalion relieved the 2-4th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and occupied the reserve position in the Left Brigade Sector. "B" Company and Headquarters were in Gommecourt Wood. "A" Company was in the centre with posts in Gommecourt Trench, and "C" Company was on the left flank in Pigeon Wood. "D" Company was in reserve with orders to man a strong point, known as Julius Point, in case of an attack.