132
THE YPRES TIMES
"A," B" and "D" Companies, under Captain A. Stevenson, M.C., Lieutenant
R. H. Ellis, and Captain R. L. Illingworth, respectively, were to attack, and
C Company, under Lieutenant A. L. Holland, was kept in reserve.
The wire had been previously cut by our artillery, and it may be mentioned that
this essential to success had been most admirably carried out, as was ascertained by
Captain Illingworth, who went out in the quiet before the storm shortly before
zero hourto inspect it.
The main attack by the 118th Brigade started at 5.45 a.m., after an intense
artillery bombardment, and, in accordance with the time schedule, we advanced at
6.13 a.m., under cover of a barrage of our own, put over by the 85th Battery,
18th Division. The mist added to the difficulty, which is felt in any operation, of
keeping direction. However, we pushed on through it, and the centre and left
companies successfully occupied the German trenches without opposition, for, as it
had been anticipated, the enemy, having good dug-outs, sought them as a refuge
from the artillery and rifle fire. The only resistance if such it could be called,
came from machine guns and rifles fired from the entrances to dug-outs behind us,
which had to be dealt with by a party detached for the purpose. The right"A"
Company, however, met with opposition from a garrison which was not so well
provided for in this respectand were held up, their difficulties being increased by
the mist, which prevented them from locating exactly from where the opposition
came. The Company Commander, Captain Stevenson, sent back information as to
his position, and by 6.30 a.m. the reserve company was moving up to his assistance.
This reinforcementwhich arrived with such timely and suspicious promptitude as
to give colour to the rumour, prevalent afterwards, that the two officers in charge of
it had anticipated the wish being father to the thought the necessity for their
immediate supportcleared the situation, and the two companies combined in driving
and bombing the Germans into their dug-outs. Thus, within half an hour of our
start, we had captured and were in absolute possession of our objectives and had
large numbers of the enemy safely bottled up in their dug-outs, to be dealt with
at leisure.
There was one disappointing feature of the battle up to this point. Tanks were
new to us. They had been used for the first time the month before, and we were
anxious to see one in action. The tank which had been allocated to assist us, how
ever, was very unfortunate. It had arrived at the rendezvous before the scheduled
timea mistake unlikely to be made by anything but a pachydermatous animal, in
view of the intensity of our artillery fireand the sight of this strange creature,
looking in the mist like some prehistoric monster, cheered us on. On coming up
with it, however, we found that owing to lack of visibility it had lumbered and
blundered along and had subsided into a dug-out, where it had to be left wallowing
and impotently snorting.
There was no sign of the 4th/5th Battalion Black Watch. Furthermore, it was
impossible in the mist to appreciate the general situation. We could, however,
thoroughly appreciate our own. We occupied all the German trenches in our
immediate neighbourhood, and the 118th Brigade had not turned up to take those
in front. Moreover, there seemed small chance that the Black Watch would find
us in this game of hide and seek." It was, in fact, clear that much more remained
to be done, while we, who were available and ready, were doing nothing. In such
circumstances it seemed almost an obligation to see if we could not lend a hand,
particularly as a situation which was not foreseen had arisen. In fact, if Nelson
could base a disregard of orders on one blind eye, surely we could do something on
these lines when all our 600 eyes were blinded by mist.
We therefore advanced again; indeed, it would have been difficult to stop us,
once the idea was mooted, so we pressed 011 through the mist, and in due course
