76
THE YPRES TIMES
the figure of the Madonna and her babe leaning wildly out above the broken town,
was at once a symbol of sacrifice and an emblem of hope. Some days were spent
in bivouac at Dernancourt and later at Fricourt, and then, in the late afternoon of
September 13th, a Wednesday, the battalion moved out to what was to prove its
fiercest fighta fight from which only a few were to return. Down from the
great round hill of Fricourt they stumbled and straggled, along a deep, rough
rutted lane that led to the ruins of the village, and here they swung to the right
along that great highway of war that passed through the desolate remains of
Mametz way up to Montauban and the forward positions by Trónes Wood.
Once through Mametz the column took a smaller by-road that led past many
tumbled cottages and riven orchards and climbed steadily to the higher ground
near Montauban. Here were scattered the heavies and some of the long-range
naval guns, and as the men passed some hidden gun-pit there would come a sudden
sheet of yellow flame and a roar of fury, as the great shell went hurtling over many
a mile towards the distant enemy lines.
In front lay the great wood of DelvilleDevil's Wood as it had soon been
called, the graveyard of a hundred battalions, the great charnel house of the
Somme.
The night was black and heavy, and the heat oppressive, and as the battalion
neared the ruined village of Montauban the march began to tell and the ranks
straggled a little wearily. In Montauban itself there was a tense, strained atmos
phere. The night air was pregnant with mystery, the mystery of death that rushes
unseen and the glamour of great adventure when the odds are heavy against and
the stakes in the game are the highest.
The Portsmouth Battalion uncoiled itself into long thin columns that threaded
their way through the village by way of the roadside bank and the desolated front
gardens, and came to a halt in the old cemetery. Here for a time the men were
rested. Shells dropped at frequent intervals near by, and all the while the little
village was crowded with fighting men and the whole strange panoply of war.
Away over the valley Delville Wood and High Wood blazed in their fury as the
shell-bursts lit their battered tree stumps and the star shells climbed above them,
shedding a strange white radiance over the two spots of evil fame.
With the first grey light of dawn the battalion moved on again. Montauban
was left behind, and the column wound slowly down into the valley. Ahead, the
gleaming sides of a communication trench, cut out of the solid chalk, led up the
farther slope to the blackened desolation of Delville Wood. Into this trench
the Portsmouth Battalion threaded its way, A Company first, as befitted the
senior company, the others following at suitable distances. Gradually the daylight
spread, and far above the trench a flight of British aeroplanes droned eastwards.
Presently the trench climbed on to the higher ground, and the column found
itself among the field batteries that dotted the whole slope and were maintaining a
desultory fire upon the opposite lines. Ohthe torture of that trench, the long
trench that began with fair promise near Montauban and ended in foul horror
amid the stunted sticks that once were Delville Wood. The trench that led men
up to the brow of the hill, but so seldom led them back. Many gallant companies
had toiled with a great fatigue along that path that led but to the terrible grave
yard of Delville Wood and to imperishable renown, and not least among them was
the battalion that struggled into position along Milk Lane as a red sun climbed
into view on September 14th, 1916, prepared to hold fast until the coming of the
morrow's dawn should lead them east and north to seek death in new pastures.
The morning passed in comparative quiet; a few shells fell among the lines
held by "A" Company away to the right, but towards the late afternoon the
tentative shelling developed into a very fury of shell fire. The smoke writhed and
curled amongst the stunted tree stumps. The red of the shell-bursts flashed up
and down the whole line, and the 2nd Portsmouth Battalion lay deep down in their
