68
THE YPRES TIMES
A retirement is a miserable business, but there can be nothing but praise for
the conduct of the men in this one; there was nothing approaching a "run," and
at every few yards they lay down and fired with the coolness of an Aldershot field
day at any Boches who could be seen coming over into our line. There was a
matter of 400 yards of open ground to be covered under a regular hail of machine-
gun and shrapnel fire, and I have always marvelled how any one got over it alive;
as it was, most of my fellows were hit during that half-hour's retirement.
Eventually I (literally) fell into the main communication trench about twenty yards
ahead of the support line (at point E), where my handful set to work to build a
barricade, for it was still expected that the Boche would come on. It was rather
ticklish work when we came to the upper part of the barricade, as the Boche was
using shrapnel very accurately, and there were a lot of rifle and machine-gun bullets
flying about. But the men in the support trenches behind us were having a worse
time, for Zouave Wood positively rocked with bombardment, and "B" and D"
Companies were suffering heavy casualties.
During this time McAfee, having got his survivors back to the supports, came
up to see how I had fared. He was very cool, but terribly unhappy at our losses
of men and ground, and especially at having been unable to get in touch with
Woodroffe. He went off almost at once to reorganize the remainder of
the company. We continued to stand by our barricade, and I tried to do a bit of
sniping; the Boche could be seen throwing up the earth in our front line, and it
now looked as if he were going to stay there. About this time came our first bit of
consolation. Our artillery had begun to retaliate, and we could see shells bursting
in our old front line; but the effort was feeble as compared with the continued
German bombardment. Some hour and a half later McAfee came back with the
grievous news that Michael Scrimgeour had been killed while reorganizing his
men in the wood. He also began to fuss about my wound, and eventually gave
me a direct order to go back to the dressing-station. I had to go, and that was the
last I saw of poor McAfee, who was killed that afternoon leading his men in a
counter-attack.
The dressing-station (at the edge of the wood farthest from the Boche) was full,
and wounded were standing and lying all round it, while the M.O. (Capt.
Dunkerley) was doing his work in dangerous circumstances, with admirable
coolness. I learned there that "C" Company had suffered the same fate as
ourselves, and that all their officers were either wounded or missing. But while I
was waiting for my turn, one joyful thing happened. Sidney Woodroffe strolled
up to have a slight wound dressed. He spoke casually of having got back quite
comfortably with most of No. 4 Platoon. What really happened was that he had
hung on to his trench for half an hour after he was cut off from us, and had
bombed the Boche, who were up level with him (at point C) until his bombs were
exhausted, and had then extricated his platoon in some miraculous way through
the far end of the trench. That afternoon he was killed while gallantly cutting
wire in front of his men in the counter-attack, and the V.C. was awarded him
posthumously.
The M.O. ordered me back to the field ambulance at Ypres, and by 6 p.m.
on the following day I was at Versailles. The rest of the story, therefore, I can
tell only briefly at second-hand.
The enemy had gained a footing on a commanding ridge, and Corps Head
quarters decided that the ground must be retaken without delay. The hour fixed
for the counter-attack was 2.45 p.m., and the artillery preparation was limited to
three quarters of an hour's" bombardment. The troops detailed for the main attack
were the four battalions of our Brigade. Of these, the 8th Rifle Brigade and the
7th King's Royal Rifles had been heavily attacked at dawn, and the survivors had
stood under a severe bombardment from that time onwards. Since 5 p.m. on the