40
The Yfres Times.
sent 2nd Lieut. Middlebrook of the 64th Light Trench Mortar Battery with his. guns to
support A Company. He put up a magnificent defence and was mainly responsible
for breaking up the attack temporarily by the fire of his mortars. On the right, Capt.
Green and the French had formed a united front, and held back successive waves of Germans.
By mid-day, the enemy, by renewed attacks, had forced his way between us and the 9th
K.O.Y.L.I. and was enveloping the Battalion from the rear by way of the communication
trenches. A Company, weak in numbers, was rapidly falling back the wounded from
C Company reported that part of C Company was cut off. Our reserve company, B
Company, had been split up as reinforcements to the threatened danger points. The
situation looked desperate and Col. Alexander withdrew what remnants could be con
centrated down the trench running rearwards from Battalion H. Q. to Hermonville,
about i.J, miles in rear. In the next communication trench to the left (i.e. north of us),
the enemy were bombing us in our progress. By 2 p.m. the Battalion was established
in a trench line, on the eastern outskirts of Hermonville. During the afternoon the
Battalion counter-attacked, under orders from Brigade H. Q., up the same trench as
the one down which it had withdrawn, in an attempt to retake the position. The old
Battalion H. Q. was reached, but the position co.Td not be held and in the second with
drawal a lot of casualties occurred from flank machine gun fire. About 100 all ranks
returned to Hermonville, where the survivors of C Company, a small party, rejoined us
from the French, from the direction of Villers Franqueux.
During the night Hermonville was shelled unmercifully, and was literally strewn
with dead horses, mules and vehicles. The 1st East Yorkshire Regt. was withdrawn
west of Hermonville and the men were fed from the transport by the roadside. Brigade
H. Q. were in a small cave in the hillside and here the C.O. learnt that the enemy was
making rapid progress on our left but that the positions about Rheims were still held.
Just before dawn on the 28th May, our so-called Battalion of about 100 all ranks
took up a position on 1,000 yards frontage on the edge of a wood at the head of a deep
re-entrant, facing N.E. about one mile N.W. of Hermonville. The re-entrant was full
of trees, over the tops of which our vision was unrestricted for several miles. Our instruc
tions were that a delaying action must be severely contested. On the right were the rem
nants of the Divisional
Imperial War MuseumCrown Copyright
ON THE EDGE OF THE WOOD.
Pioneers. On our left was
reported to be the 7th Bri
gade, but it subsequently
transpired that it was occu
pied in fighting elsewhere.
With the birds whistling
in the woods and a beautiful
sunrise, everyone was in
cheerful 'spirits, although
anxious as to what the day
would bring forth. About
6 a.m., through glasses from
the roof of the woodman's
hut, which was used as our
Battalion H.Q., we saw the
Germans advancing in artil
lery formation, the guns and
howitzers gèt into position,
and by 7 a.m. shrapnel was
bursting over our heads,
and rifle and machine-gun
fire seemed to be all round
