THE YPRES TIMES
78
were to the effect that we must advance, capture the factory and assist the 1st Guards
Brigade, 2nd K.R.R.C., and the Royal Sussex Regiment, who were held up.
In the position where we had halted, we were in comparative shelter beneath a bank
bordering the road, but a terrific fire of all kinds swept over our heads and we realised we
should be exposed to it in a very few moments. The signal to advance was soon given,
and I watched the leading platoon jump over the bank and move forward into the
inferno.
A minute or two passed before it was my turn, and then I gave the signal to advance.
We leaped on to the bank and rushed forward widely extended. As soon as we topped
the bank we were exposed to a devastating fire. Many of the men were struck down at
once, but nevertheless we went on by rushes of from sixty to eighty yards. Almost
at once two 8 in. shells pitched into the left half of my platoon and seven or eight men
disappeared entirely. We were bewildered by the noise of battle and as yet could see
nothing of the enemy, but continued to dribble forward, passing through scores of our own
dead and wounded. Many of the latter were calling for water and stretcher bearers,
but it was not possible to help them as we had to go on. Suffering severe losses, we at
last reached the firing line and mixed up with the regiments in the Guard's and our own
brigades. Here the casualties were appalling, our men were lying on the ground in heaps.
It was impossible to get on any further, so heavy had been the losses during the advance,
and, as we were entirely in the open without a vestige of cover, I ordered the men to dig
themselves in with their entrenching tools.
The noise of battle was so great that I had to crawl up and down the line to issue
instructions. By this time the rain had ceased altogether and visibility was good, so
I was able to look round to see if I could take in the situation, and almost at once I spotted
the movements of several groups of Huns doubling forward towards us, and also saw
others trying to work round our right, near the sugar factory.
I ordered the men to fire at the different targets and had the satisfaction of seeing
many of the enemy fall, whilst the remainder stopped and lay down to engage us with
rifle fire.
By this time I had only some thirty men left out of the original fifty-six with whom
I started the advance, but several men from the units of the Guards' brigade had attached
themselves to me. After about an hour, during which time many more men were hit, the
Germans brought some fresh batteries of machine guns into action and so accurate was
the shooting that we dared not show a head. It was nerve-racking to hear the machine
gun bullets traversing up and down the line, especially during the few seconds when they
passed directly over us. Meanwhile, under cover of these machine guns and also of several
fresh batteries of artillery which had got our exact range, the Germans launched a strong
counter attack, and it took us all our time to bring them to a standstill. They came on
bravely, surging forward in mass formation, although scores of them were shot down.
It was a target of a life-time
They managed to get to within two hundred yards of our firing line, but the reception
they got was too much for them, and the survivors fell back rapidly to their original
starting point. Once again the Germans poured a terrific fire of all arms into us. Our
numbers diminished, but we hung on grimly, digging ourselves farther and farther into
the ground, until the whole of our bodies were under cover of mother earth.
By this time my platoon was reduced to about twenty men unwounded and ammuni
tion was beginning to run short. In anticipation of a fresh effort on the part of the
Germans I ordered the men to husband their ammunition and to collect what they could
from the dead and wounded as there was no other method of obtaining fresh supplies.
The duel continued until about 2.30 p.m., when the expected attack developed.
It met with the same fate as the previous one on my particular section of the battlefield,
but succeeded in forcing back the troops on the right, thus enabling the Germans to break
through, and I watched them sweep on in dense masses far to the rear. It was an awful
moment. I thought nothing could prevent us being captured if we were fortunate enough