158
The Ypres Times.
for the hour to come. Not a shot on either side disturbed the stillness. Suddenly, at
7.5 p.m. the ground shook as in an earthquake, columns of earth burst from the top of
the hill, and the uproar of bombardment broke upon the silence. Two pairs and one
single mine were fired at 10 second intervals, and in one mighty crash the 15th and 17th
Field Artillery Brigades, the 9th Heavy Brigade, the 130th Howitzer Battery, and the
48th Heavy Battery, with two Batteries of French and three of Belgian Artillery, had
opened fire. As the last mine fired, C Company of the Royal West Kents sprang from their
trenches and stormed the Hill. The Sappers of the 1/2 Home Counties Field Company
followed with two lines of supports of the Royal West Kents, and the K.O.S.B.'s. So
absolute was the surprise that the German garrison was practically annihilated the two
British battalions took the Hill with hardly any casualties, and within 15 minutes of the
advance reported that they were consolidating. Their ordeal was yet to come.
The top of the Hill had been demolished, the trenches had given place to great craters,
and the working parties immediately started with vigour to dig in. At first the enemy
shelled wildly, but as night advanced, settled to shell the railway cutting and trenches
either side of the British battalions with what appeared to be lachrymatory shell, and
by 4 a.m. on the 18th counter-attacks began to be launched with strong artillery support.
The positionforming a small salientwas very vulnerable. Throughout the day the
fighting increased in violence, the enemy advancing in great waves to break before the
fierce repulse of irresistible rifle fire. On the left they worked up closer, and round the
craters the fighting was hand to hand, but with indomitable gallantry the front line held
unflinching throughout the day. As evening came they were overwhelmed by high
explosive and gas shell, and enfiladed by machine guns. They were gradually pressed
back from the brow, but a counter-attack by the Duke of Wellington's restored the position
and the crest was held.
In a lull during the following night the 13th Brigade was relieved by the 15th, with
the 1st Battalion East Surreys of the 14th Brigade attached. The East Surreys and
1st Bedfordshire Regiments took over the line reinforced later by a Company of Queen
Victoria's Rifles. During the day of the 19th the German bombardment continued,
causing much damage by cutting telephone lines and destroying parapets, and on the
20th furious fighting began again. Throughout the day the enemy attacked, mainly by
bombing, and followed by definite infantry attacks in the night. The top of the hill was by
now in an appalling state. Trenches had been battered out of existence, and the ground
was pulverised to a mire of mine and shell craters. All was strewn with broken limbers,
wire, debris, and dead bodies crushed in the mud, with the wounded lying in the midst.
The bursting of shells was incessant.
Deafened by the crash and clamour, blinded by gas fuses, flame and smoke, with
rifle and bomb, with enemy grenades snatched up and hurled back, with dwindling numbers,
with wounded officers still leadingthe marvellous defence continued. Acts of heroism
were many, and many the stories that might be told, but this short account only attempts
to give an outline which the regiments engaged could fill in, as Hill 60 is one of their proudest
memories. Throughout the desperate hours no ground was yielded, and the two front
line battalions held on at tremendous cost. During the night of the 20th the fury of
the battle died down, and on the 21st the Devonshires took over the Hill still held
intact.
On this day the 3rd and 48th Divisions of the II Corps and the V Corps were ordered
to create a semblance of preparations for an attack by cutting wire, shelling parapets,
and bombarding roads, to'distract enemy attention from the preparation of an attack
planned by the 1st Army for the 8th of May. But on the 22nd April the overwhelming
gas offensive in the north diverted all attention from Hill 60. On the 3rd of May the
Hill was lost in a gas attack, when the garrison was practically annihilated.
One hundred officers and threejthousand men were our losses in these few days.