The Ypres Times.
137
THE LAST BATTLES IN THE SALIENT, 1918.
By JOHN BUCHAN.
(The following Narrative is taken from the fourth and last volume of The History
of the War," by Mr. John Buchan).Nelson, 10/6 net.
Ludendorff had dipped too deeply in the north to withdraw easily. He had incurred
huge losses without gaining any real strategical objective, and he could not bring himself to
write off these losses without another effort to pluck the fruit which was so near his grasp.
Accordingly he continued the northern fight, and struck again for Mont Kemmel-the
isolated eastern outlier of the range behind Bailleul. If the Germans secured it they
would broaden their comfortless salient and win direct observation over their northern
plain. They would make our front at Ypres, if not untenable, at least insecure, and they
would prepare the way for an advance westward along the ridge to Hazebrouck. An
attack there at the moment had one special attraction for them, for adjacent to Kemmel
was the junction of the British and French Lines, which they regarded as the weakest
spot in the front. The French lay from the Messines-Kemmel road, half-way between
Kemmel and Wytschaete, to the neighbourhood of St. Jans Cappelle, with, on their left,
the British 9th Division, and on their right the 1st Australian. From left to right their
troops were the 28th, 154th, 34th and 133rd Divisions.
On the morning of Thursday, 25th April, seventeen days since the battle began, the
enemy violently bombarded the whole front from Meteren to the Ypres-Comines Canal. At
5 a.m. he attacked with nine divisions, five of which were fresh. His aim was to capture
Kemmel by a direct assault on the French, and by a simultaneous attack upon the British
south of Wytschaete to turn their flank and separate the two forces. At first he succeeded.
At ten in the morning he had worked his way round the lower slopes, driven in the French
28th Division, and taken Kemmel village and the hill itself, though isolated French troops
still held out in both places. In the British area the 9th and 49th Divisions were heavily
engaged west of Wytschaete. Before midday the right of the 9th was driven back to
Vierstraat, but we still retained the Grand Bois on the slopes north of Wytschaete village.
In the afternoon the 21st Division, farther north, was also attacked, and by the evening
the whole line in this area had been forced back to positions running from Hill 60 by
Voormezeele and north of Vierstraat to the hamlet of La Clytte, on the Poperinghe-Kemmel
road, where we linked up with the French.
The next morning supports had arrived, and an attempt was made to recapture
lost ground. The 25th Division, along with elements of the 21st and 49th Divisions,
re-entered Kemmel village, but found themselves unable to maintain it against flanking
fire from the northern slopes of the hill, since the French had been unable to advance.
Then followed the second wave of the German assault. It failed to make ground owing
to thegallant resistance of the 49th Division, and of the 21st, 30th, 39th, and 9th Divisions,
all four of which had been fighting for five weeks without rest. That afternoon the French
recaptured Locre, on the saddle between Kemmel Hill and the heights to the west. Our
line in that quarter now ran just below the eastern slopes of the Scherpenberg, east of
Locre, and thence south of St. Jans Cappelle to Meteren. The loss of Kemmel and the
threat to Voormezeele made it necessary to adjust our front in the Ypres Salient.
Accordingly that night we withdrew to a line running from Pilkem to Voormezeele by
way of Wieltje and the west end of Zillebeke lake.
In the afternoon of the 27th the Germans captured Voormezeele, but were driven
out by a counter-attack early in the night. On the 28th the French were heavily in action
around Locre, but there was no material change in the situation. On the morning of
Monday, 29th April, after an intense bombardment, the enemy attacked the French and
British positions from west of Dranoutre to Voormezeele. The Allied front at the moment
ran around the eastern base of Mont Rouge, just covering Locre, across the low saddle of
the range to the meadows in front of La Clytte, and thence by Voormezeele to the Ypres-
Comines Canal. The British right was in the neighbourhood of the cross roads which we
