188 The Ypres Times. back as soon as the trouble began. Among the unwounded officers we took was one battalion commander, but it was the regiment as a whole that suffered, and one of the younger prisoners, who had borne himself well up to that point, when he saw the masses of his comrades in the prisoners' cage and heard how many of them we had taken, simply broke down and cried like a child. This blotting out of a regiment, with all its pride, was like that of the 180th at Thiepval the year before, and is a truly pathetic thing. Up and Over Pilkem Ridge. I have said that prisoners surrendered in small detachments, and that fact summarises the story of the attack, for here the advance was just like what it was on other parts of the field. We had pounded the German fines unmercifully beforehand, and when the attack began the Welshmen themselves say with enthusiasm that our barrage was almost perfect. In the dark of the early morning it was the men's best guide as they went forward behind it. Just behind the actual front fine the Welsh Regiment got a bunch of prisoners, and in a strongly fortified position, called Mackensen Farm," not far beyond, they got more prisoners and a noble store of ammunition, with great stocks of rockets, Verey fights, trench mortars, and such odd trifles. On the left the Fusiliers, fighting along the south side of the railway fine to Thourout, had some trouble, and picked up a handful of prisoners at a strong position known as Zouave House." But here, as on the right, there was nothing like a serious check all the way to Pilkem village. The whole fine had, of course, to go up the slopes of the ridge, and, not unreasonably, had apprehended that there might be trouble as they topped the slope and enemy machine- guns could sweep the ridge. But the trouble was never formidable. Everywhere were scattered concrete pill-boxes and strong points, and in some the garrisons showed real fight. But the Welshmen were not to be denied. They stalked and bombed or rushed each fortress as they came to it, small units having little independent battles of their own, in which individuals behaved with the utmost gallantry. Julie Farm," halfway through the advance on the right, yielded two machine- guns and 16 prisoners. Rudolphe Farm," with the orchard surrounding it, produced another 30. Three officers and 47 other ranks came from a clump of buildings which was a telephone exchange and regimental intelligence headquarters, and 40 more were captured in a farm by the point known as the Iron Cross," on the other side of Pilkem at the extreme easterly point of the spur of the ridge. So it was Boches, Boches all the way, in small detachments or nests of Cockchafers." Perhaps the most interesting set of specimens taken was at the ruins of a large dressing station, near a regimental head quarters, where 16 wounded prisoners, too seriously hurt to be moved, were taken, and with them 22 unwounded men, who certainly were not the legitimate dressing station staff. They merely got under the Red Cross for refuge when oar men came along. The Cockchafers' Poem. The village of Pilkem itself, which, of course, was quite non-existent as a village, offered no difficulty, but around it was one of the most magnificent trenches the Germans have ever constructedsome 10 ft. across and 12 ft. deep, and full of concrete structures and dug-outs of the most elaborate nature. It was really a triumph of industry, but our guns had spoiled its looks badly, and, though some parties of the enemy in it fought here and there, it offered no more formidable resistance than many other points. In the later stages of the advance the South Wales Borderers did very fine work, and, with some Fusiliers, they carried the advance on right up to the Steenbeek. No troops, in fact, in all the battle did their job more thoroughly or with greater dash than the Welsh. They had had rather a trying time in the trenches before the attack, but it only hardened them and made them keener when the attack took place, and the Germans

HISTORISCHE KRANTEN

The Ypres Times (1921-1936) | 1927 | | pagina 10