CHAPTER VIII

ARRAS

NOVEMBER 1916 TO APRIL 1917

On the 23rd November the Division was transferred from the Fourth to the Third Army, commanded by Sir Edmund Allenby. Most of the training and reorganisation was carried out in the neighbourhood of St Pol, and during this period several important changes in command took place. On the 21st October, while the Ninth was still engaged at the Somme, Brig.-General Scrase-Dickins was promoted to the command of the Thirty-seventh Division. He had been somewhat unfortunate during his career with the Ninth. At Loos and at Longueval his brigade had the bad luck to run into the enemy’s defences where they had been least damaged by artillery-fire; but these calamities were due not to lack of foresight or leadership, but to circumstances that would have similarly affected any other brigade. The General was noted for his Spartan routine and his extraordinary personal bravery. He was able to subsist on less than most men and limited himself to two meals a day. When his brigade was in the front trenches, he paid a daily visit to the line, and of his gallantry many stories were current. During the fighting in July his H.Q. at Montauban were persistently shelled, but he was never seen to twitch a muscle or dive for shelter; not even under the fiercest bombardment did he forego his daily tub in the open square at Montauban. His departure was viewed with the greatest regret; for he had been with the Ninth since its formation, and he was loved and respected by all who served under him. But his promotion[64] was known to have been thoroughly well earned and he took with him the congratulations and good wishes of the Division. His successor was Brig.-General F. A. Maxwell, V.C., who came from the Eighteenth Division and had the distinction of having led the battalion that took Trones Wood.

There was a change also in the Highland Brigade. On the 4th December Brig.-General Ritchie was appointed to the command of the Sixteenth Division. His service with the Ninth had been attended with almost unbroken success, and both at Loos and the Somme his men had not only shown great brilliancy and dash in securing their objectives, but had proved themselves to be masters of the art of counter-attack. He was succeeded by Brig.-General J. Kennedy of the Argylls.

On the 1st December General Furse[65] was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance. It is safe to say that no name is more closely associated with the annals of the Ninth Division than that of General Furse. In the fourteen months during which he had been in command he had succeeded in effecting that organised co-operation which was the proof of the unity that bound Lowlanders, Highlanders, and South Africans into one complete whole. He loathed water-tight compartments and did his utmost to foster the closest intercourse and co-operation between the various arms—infantry, gunners, sappers, and mounted men—who only by acting in concert could realise severally their highest fighting efficiency. The fighting spirit had never been absent, but in training, in trenches, and in battle, he fostered and encouraged it until it became an instinct. He was a reservoir of power and ideas, and he had a natural _flair_ for striking phrases. Anxious and alert to increase the efficiency of his command, he was alive to the necessity of testing all new tactical appliances, and in his numerous conferences the principal motive was “not fault-finding but fact-finding.” An officer of the Division once remarked, “General Furse made the Ninth Division, and the Ninth Division made General Furse,” and there is much that is true in the statement. The leader had every reason to be proud of his men and the men of their leader. His appointment was viewed with both regret and gratification; regret, because a tried leader had gone, and gratification because his promotion was regarded as a tribute both to himself and to the Division. But though his connection with the Ninth was officially severed, he was able in his new capacity to render it useful service.

He was succeeded by Major-General H. T. Lukin of the South African Brigade, the command of which passed to Brig.-General Dawson of the 1st Regiment. Major-General Lukin had won a great name while in command of the South Africans, and much was expected of him in his new position.

In the course of the next five months there were a few changes among battalion commanders. In the Argylls the new C.O. was Lieut.-Colonel H. G. Sotheby. Lieut.-Colonel Connell was invalided to England after the action of the Butte de Warlencourt, and Lieut.-Colonel G. B. F. Smyth, who had been thrice wounded in the war, left the Sappers of the 90th Field Company to command the 6th K.O.S.B. In March 1917 Lieut.-Colonel Fargus went to England, and Lieut.-Colonel Thorne took over the command of the 12th Royal Scots. There were several adjustments in the South African Brigade. Lieut.-Colonel F. H. Heal became C.O. of the 1st Regiment; Lieut.-Colonel Tanner returned to the 2nd, and Lieut.-Colonel Christian took over the command of the 4th.

The training of the men followed the usual lines, but in one respect there was a significant change. The bomb had proved to be a very useful weapon, but it had been cultivated to such excess that the men were in danger of forgetting how to use their rifles. The rifle is the principal weapon of the infantryman, and practice in its use became the foundation of all our training. The bomb was discouraged, for it had been noted that a man with a rifle and bayonet in his hands was more enterprising and aggressive than one with his pockets full of bombs. About the end of the year a more efficient protection against gas, the box respirator, was issued and the men were drilled in the rapid adjustment of it.

[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL SIR HENRY TIMSON LUKIN, K.C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.]

On the 5th December the Division took over the line north and east of Arras. During the last week of November the battalions at dusk marched along the long, straight _pavé_ road from St Pol and entered the city through the majestic pylons of the Baudimont Gate. Arras had been damaged during the German onslaught of 1914, but since that time had been scarcely molested. This quaint old Spanish city, well known to artists and antiquarians, presented a harmonious blending of the mediæval and the modern. The eye was constantly surprised by new aspects that offered themselves on a ramble through the streets—the old, narrow, nubbly lanes, overlooked by ancient Hispano-Flemish houses, opening out into spacious and ordered boulevards with modern and opulent mansions, the commercial commodiousness of the Petite Place and the Grande Place, and the ramparts of Vauban. The natural centre was the two squares, Petite Place and Grande Place, both now bordered by the ruins of stately gabled houses and so often intermittently shelled that they were avoided by all except sightseers and souvenir hunters. Near them, massive ruins suggested a nobility and dignity of structure that the intact cathedral had never possessed. But the greatest example of German vandalism was the mound of masonry and dust that marked the site of the Hôtel de Ville, justly celebrated as a notable example of Spanish architectural art. Arras, skirted on the north by the River Scarpe, lay in a gentle hollow, overlooked on the west by a semicircle of low hills, and on the east by a ridge, which, farther north, passed into the Vimy Ridge. From the station the railway ran east to Douai, a branch swinging north to Lens, while towards the south it ran into Albert. The Arras-Lens railway and the eastern ridge were held by the enemy, whose guns commanded the greater part of the Albert-Arras line.

At the end of 1916 Arras seemed a city of the dead. On the long main roads the rumble of wheels and the clatter of hoofs were seldom heard, and the streets were deserted except for a few soldiers and some civilians who skulked along under the eaves of the houses. Few parts of the town were without the scars of war. In many houses the jumbled and disarranged furniture told a story of panic and hurried departure; in some cases the outside wall had been broken by a shell, revealing the inside of a house intact, like the model of a doll’s house. Here and there enterprising civilians ran excellent cafés, where the men could supplement their rations at prices that were not exorbitant. Near the station the Hôtel de Commers was the favourite rendezvous for officers.

The trenches taken over by the Division lay on the western slopes of the eastern ridge and extended from the south of the Scarpe as far north as Roclincourt. The area was divided into three sectors, “I,” “J,” and “K,” from south to north, and all three brigades were in the line, the 26th in “I,” the South African in “J,” and the 27th in “K.” This position, with certain changes, was held by the Division until the 9th April 1917, and the long spell enabled the men to make the trenches as perfect as they could be made. During this time the strictest discipline was maintained and the morning round of the battalion C.O. brought reproof or commendation according as each company did its duty. By 9 A.M. every man had to be washed and shaved, the rifles clean and polished, and the trenches neat and tidy. There was tremendous competition between the various companies in the desire of each to better its neighbour in the provision of comforts for the men; hot soup and cocoa were served late at night and early in the morning to those in the front trenches, but perhaps the last stage of luxury was reached when hot water was supplied for shaving.

Behind the lines the duties of the transport, located near D.H.Q. at Duisans, were neither rough nor unduly perilous. The busiest centre of activity was the Divisional Tactical School, near Givenchy, under the direction of Lieut.-Colonel Croft.[66] The cult of the rifle was assiduously inculcated, and officers and N.C.Os. were divided into sections, which competed with one another in all forms of warlike sport. A great effort was made to banish the deadening effects of trench warfare, and initiative and resource were stimulated by means of tactical schemes. Each course was wound up with a great display, in which the whole school carried out an attack, and the showers of Véry lights (representing the barrage), the rattle of the rifles and machine-guns, the line of flares, and a contact aeroplane gave a very fair impression of a real fight.

Training, however, was not confined to the school or the back areas. Though Arras itself was overlooked by the enemy, there was a wide stretch of dead ground between the city and the eastern ridge, where there were excellent facilities for training. Near Roclincourt a long bank provided a natural butt for Lewis Gun practice from any range up to 300 yards, and the valley offered ample scope for rifle-grenade instruction. More could and should have been done; but, since the days of 1914 when everyone that could be spared was needed to man the trenches, it had been customary to regard trench warfare and training as incompatible. Thus training as a rule had been confined to such periods as the men spent out of the line. As a matter of fact, battalions had often better chances of useful practice when in the line than when in back areas, and in 1917 the more satisfactory system of carrying on training at all times was begun. The vast importance of constant training as a primary factor of efficiency had been long neglected in France, but when the start was made development was continuous. Though belated, the issue of pamphlets which dealt with the action of the platoon (S.S. 143) and of the Division (S.S. 135) in attack, was none the less welcome. Hitherto, officers and N.C.Os. had been guided only by the general principles stated in Field Service Regulations, but the pamphlets provided illustrations showing the application of these principles to actual problems. The more junior the commander, the more desirable it was to make things clear to him by concrete cases, and in this respect S.S. 143 was invaluable. The adoption of these pamphlets ensured both a uniformity in training and organisation throughout the army and a practical knowledge of the methods of dealing with the problems of actual warfare.

During the winter, which was the driest one since the war began, the health of the men remained good. Every precaution was taken to prevent trench feet; each battalion in the line arranged for frequent supplies of clean socks, and each man’s feet were rubbed daily by the stretcher-bearers with whale-oil under the supervision of an officer. In January and February 1917 a hard frost set in, the most severe since 1839, and during this period men in the line were more comfortable than those in Arras. There was a great scarcity of fuel, and the strong temptation of men in windowless and draughty billets to loot wood and furniture from empty houses had to be sternly repressed. With the thaw came mud and hard work, but the trenches had been thoroughly revetted and any damage was quickly repaired.

In November 1916 the sector was reputed to be one of the quietest on the whole British front. “Even more peaceful than the Vimy” was the remark of men who had gone forward with working-parties, and the experiences of the first two or three days appeared to confirm the statement. The trenches had been previously held by the Thirty-fifth, a Bantam division, and were too shallow for people of ordinary stature. If the enemy had been vindictive, he could not have failed to snipe a number of our men, but happily he was not bellicose and was ready to lie low, provided he was not disturbed. In the course of a few days the trenches were deepened, so that one could walk along the front line without being exposed from his waist upwards, and after the Ninth Divisional Artillery relieved that of the Thirty-fifth on the 28th December, the Germans were annoyed to find that the peace of the sector had vanished. Peevish and fretful, the foe retaliated chiefly by means of heavy trench mortars and lighter ones, variously known by our troops as “aerial darts,” “pine-apples,” or “fish-tails.” Though the former made a terrific din and flattened the trenches, they did not cause much loss of life, but the latter were very sinister weapons, and were fired five or six at a time, so that, though they were visible, it was difficult to dodge one and avoid running into another. From these came most of our casualties, about 30 per week for each battalion in the front line, a fairly high total for what was regarded as a tranquil spot. The duel of hate however was much in our favour. The enemy trench system was divided into sectors for retaliation purposes, and so admirable was the co-operation between our infantry and gunners, that when a battalion was pestered by trench mortars, it only required a single code word such as “Dora” or “Minnie” to be ’phoned by the former to the latter to ensure prompt punishment for the offending sector.

Raids were the most outstanding feature of these months and they came to be regarded rather as a matter of course than as an adventure. Ten raids, the majority of them successful, were carried out between the 1st January and the 9th April. Many of the enemy were killed and 49 prisoners captured, while our casualties, chiefly wounded, did not exceed the number of the prisoners.

By far the most notable raid was that of the “Rifles” on the 14th February. The credit for the scheme belonged principally to Major M. N. Forsyth, M.C., who suggested it to Brig.-General Maxwell. The ground selected for the operation was well adapted for a daylight raid; it was east of Roclincourt and, lying in a shallow dip, could not be observed from either flank. The most painstaking care was given to organisation and arrangements. The raiding party, which consisted of 20 officers and 320 other ranks under the command of Major Forsyth, was divided into various groups, each with a special task to perform, such as clearing dug-outs, demolition of emplacements, blocking trenches, escorting and searching prisoners, cutting wire, and evacuation of wounded. No raider carried any identification mark either on his tunic or in his pocket. A plan of the enemy’s ground was mapped out behind the line, and here men and officers had a number of rehearsals. The general scheme was simple. After a one-minute barrage by the artillery and trench mortars, two groups were to leave our trenches and enter the enemy’s system through two gaps in the wire previously cut by trench mortars. The parties were to push rapidly up the communication trenches bounding the area and were to meet in the third line, shutting in all the garrison. Other groups were to follow and clear all the intermediate trenches and dug-outs. The whole party after remaining for forty minutes in the German lines was to withdraw at the end of that time through three gaps, the third being cut during the raid. While the raiders were busy, the artillery were to screen the area from observation by a “box”[67] barrage.

The operation met with the success[68] its careful preparations deserved. At 11 A.M. Major Forsyth led his party across “No-Man’s-Land” and entered the opposing trenches. In the skirmish that followed many of the enemy were killed and 43 were captured; 2 machine-guns, 1 trench mortar, and a large number of rifles and other material were brought back. The slight casualties of the “Rifles,” who well earned the praise[69] of the Commander-in-Chief, consisted of 2 killed, 15 wounded, and 1 missing.

All other raids, though on a smaller scale, were marked by the same particular care in organisation. At 3.8 P.M. on the 6th January a company of the Black Watch, under 2nd Lieut. Proudfoot, and one of the Argylls, under 2nd Lieut. Pardy, after a heavy preliminary bombardment and covered by a smoke-barrage, penetrated to the enemy’s third line and remained in his trenches for half an hour. The whole system was thoroughly smashed by the artillery, and only 4 men were found above ground, of whom 3 were killed and one was captured. The remainder of the garrison, which according to the prisoner consisted of 160 men, had sheltered in the dug-outs, where the greater number must have perished when these were demolished by Stokes shells thrown down by the raiders. This raid was undertaken at short notice by the Highland Brigade, and its objects were to test the efficiency of our heavy artillery in cutting wire, especially in front of the second and third lines, and to find out if good observation could be obtained from the hostile trenches on to a strong point in the enemy’s rear, known as “The Harp,” which was likely to be a formidable obstacle to our advance during the offensive that was being planned. These objects were fulfilled, and the general opinion was that the success[70] of the raid was due to the “heavies.” The Germans showed their annoyance by subjecting Arras to a gas bombardment so intense that it has been quoted by the gas experts as one of the heaviest concentrations of the war. Equal success attended dashing raids by the South Africans on the 2nd January and the 7th April, and by the 6th K.O.S.B. on the 11th January. The attempts of the enemy were feeble and half-hearted, a significant confession of nervousness and consciousness of inferiority. Between the 6th December and the 21st March four attempts to penetrate our trenches were beaten off with loss.

[Illustration: WEST GATE, ARRAS]

At the beginning of March, Arras awoke to vigorous life. After nightfall throngs of men jostled each other in the streets of the town, and from the great main roads rose the hum of constant traffic. In the faubourgs and wooded fields round the city numerous batteries of heavy guns, sinister and menacing engines of destruction, were ready in position, and amid bosky recesses and inviting orchards one often stumbled upon fresh emplacements that indicated the expected arrival of many more. The evidences[71] of a projected offensive were unmistakable, and these were confirmed by changes on our front. Until the 14th January, the Ninth was under the VI. Corps, but on that date it was transferred to the XVII., commanded by Sir Charles Fergusson. As a result, the 26th Brigade was shifted from the right of the line to “L” sector on the left, which was taken over from the Third Canadian Division, and until the 11th February the Division held the whole of the Corps front from the Scarpe to the Arras-Lille road. That day the Highland Brigade and part of the 27th were relieved by the Fifty-first Division from Roclincourt to the Lille road. On the 24th February the line was still further contracted when the Thirty-fourth Division took over the rest of “K” sector. This left to the Ninth only the “I” sector extending from the Scarpe to St Pancras Trench, lying to the north of the Arras-Bailleul road, the stretch of front amounting to some 1800 yards.

From the beginning of 1917 every man was hard at work on the preparations for the great offensive that had been planned at a conference held at the French G.H.Q. in November 1916. The general idea was to carry on a series of offensives on all fronts for the purpose of “depriving the enemy of the power of weakening any one of his fronts in order to reinforce another.”[72] The design of Sir Douglas Haig was to garner the fruits of the Somme struggle by pinching off the salient between the Scarpe and the Ancre, into which the enemy had been pressed as a result of that battle. With this object, a converging attack was to be carried out by the Third Army from Arras and the Fifth Army on the Ancre. Provided the situation remained unchanged, there was good reason to expect that this manœuvre would inflict enormous losses on the enemy and compel him to use up his reserves, and thus offer a greater assurance of success for the main object of the British Field-Marshal, which was to secure the control of the Flanders coast-line before the end of 1917. The attack of the Third and Fifth Armies was to be protected by an operation against the Vimy Ridge, which would also give us the command of the Douai plains and might even lead to the capture of Lens. Apart from these objects Sir Douglas Haig had no desire to carry on a protracted fight in the neighbourhood of Arras.

These important projects were considerably modified at the beginning of 1917. The striking power of the British forces was sensibly diminished by the fact that a considerable portion of the line, extending as far south as Roye, had to be taken over from the French. Again the British plans were made ancillary to those of General Nivelle, now in command of the French armies, who had planned an ambitious campaign in Champagne, and the Arras offensive was expected to assist his schemes by pinning down a large proportion of the German forces. Moreover, the enemy, realising his danger in the Ancre-Scarpe salient, anticipated the British attack by withdrawing from that area to new and formidable defences (the Hindenburg Line) in front of Cambrai, on the construction of which the Germans had worked like beavers during the winter months. This timely retreat largely eviscerated the hopes of the Arras campaign.

The plans of the Western Allies were marked by compromise and strategic vacillation, and this was particularly unfortunate, because 1917 was the period that was expected to produce the greatest disparity between the forces of the Entente and those of the Central Powers in favour of the former. The principal scheme of the British Higher Command was indefinitely postponed, and it would probably have been wise to replace it by another plan, which, while assuring the support promised for the schemes of General Nivelle, would yet offer a prize worthy of a big effort. This end would have been fulfilled by fixing Lens, and perhaps Douai, as the objective of the British Army. If the former place were carried before the summer, its possession by us would probably turn the north end of the Drocourt switch line, and would certainly give us control of the Douai plains and enable us to menace La Bassée from the south. The tremendously high moral of the British Army, stimulated greatly by the common talk about 1917 as the year of victory, deserved to be harnessed to ambitious and even heroic schemes. Events in Russia also, culminating in the Revolution while the preparations for the battle were being carried on, seemed to demand a big effort. It was futile to wait to see what the effect of the Revolution would be, and it was desirable to endeavour to affect it by events in France. An important success at the beginning of the year would probably strengthen the moderate elements in Russia, and preserve it as an effective ally for the Entente. But the Passchendaele project, which undoubtedly held out the most alluring prospects if successful, obsessed the British Higher Command too much to lead to any drastic alteration of plan. It is impossible to doubt the cordiality and genuineness of the co-operation between the British and the French armies, but both the schemes and the events of 1917 demonstrated that the strategical unity of plan necessary for success could be secured only by a single Command directing both forces towards a single end.

A perplexing point in the preparations for the battle lay in the fact that there was no approach to the trenches except through Arras, which was an obvious mark for artillery. In the town reasonable safety was provided by improving and strengthening the system of underground vaults and catacombs, which were capable of accommodating large bodies of troops. It was not so easy to form roads and routes in sufficient number to allow of a smooth distribution of stores and munitions, but in this respect the work of the Staff was so well performed that there was virtually no delay or congestion. With similar attention to details of organisation, communication trenches were dug and allotted, so that the attacking troops could reach their assembly position without hindrance. By the end of March the preparations on the front of the Division were practically completed with little interference from the enemy’s artillery, though numbers of trench mortar emplacements were repeatedly hit.

The rôle of the XVII. Corps was to capture the enemy’s third system of defences, running north from the Scarpe at Feuchy through the Point du Jour. After this was accomplished, a further advance was to be made south of the Point du Jour to secure the fourth system and the village of Fampoux. Three divisions were to lead the assault, the Ninth on the south, Thirty-fourth in the centre, and Fifty-first on the north, while the Fourth was to be in reserve. On the right of the Ninth the attack was to be carried on by the Fifteenth Division.

The Ninth was required to take the enemy’s third system from the Point du Jour to the Scarpe and to consolidate a line leading from the eastern end of the village of Athies to the Point du Jour. There were three objectives, marked on the map as the Black, Blue, and Brown Lines. From our front line the ground rose gently to the summit of the ridge, on the reverse side of which was the German main trench of the first system, protected by a triple row of strong wire, as our air photographs showed. This trench, called Obermayer, extended to the east end of the village St Laurent-Blangy and formed the Black Line. From this point the ground dipped to a shallow valley and rose again to the line of the Arras-Lens Railway (Blue Line), which on the left ran through a deep cutting, but towards the Scarpe went over a high embankment. From the Railway the ground sloped up to the plateau of the Point du Jour (Brown Line) thickly covered with wire. The fourth objective (Green Line), which included Fampoux, was to be secured by the Fourth Division. The attack, to be covered by a creeping barrage, was ultimately arranged for the 9th April and was to be preceded by a preliminary bombardment commencing on the 5th.

All three brigades, the 26th on the right, the South African in the centre, and the 27th on the left, were to take part, each on a frontage of approximately 600 yards. Two battalions in each brigade were to take the first and second objectives, after which the other two were to pass through and carry on the attack. Four tanks were to assist the Division by helping to clear the two villages of St Laurent-Blangy and Athies. No battalion was to attack with its full strength. Since the time of Loos never more than 20 officers per battalion had gone into battle, the remainder along with some men being left at the Transport Lines. The pamphlet S.S. 135 laid down the proportion of men and officers to be left out of action, so that even if a battalion received a shattering blow in battle there would be the nucleus of a new organisation.

The preparations of the C.R.A. were marked by unflagging industry and ingenuity. As the result of months of toil, the gunners had constructed positions that enabled the batteries to function under almost ideal conditions. There were no natural hidden positions to serve as emplacements for the guns, so ridges of screens were built up to conceal emplacements, situated in such a way that of the seven[73] brigades under the command of Brig.-General Tudor only one was more than 2000 yards from the enemy’s line. Arrangements were also made to construct emplacements in one of the forming-up trenches, so that when the infantry advanced batteries could move up in close support. Moreover, all the guns were virtually square with their tasks, so that the barrage would be formed by shells falling at right angles to the line of advance. The R.F.A. Brigades were in St Catherine, St Nicholas, and Roclincourt Valley.

Ingenuity and initiative were shown in the arrangements for the creeping barrage, which was to be formed by a combination of H.E. and smoke-shell. Brig.-General Tudor had consistently upheld that a smoke-screen offered the best form of support for infantry, and though smoke had received a bad name at Loos owing to men losing direction, he believed that this was due to the fact that on that occasion the smoke had been produced by candles and had necessarily been started on our own parapets. If the smoke-screen could be put down on the enemy’s line it would guide our men instead of confusing them, while it would still blind the enemy. At the end of 1915 he pressed for the manufacture of smoke-shells, but nothing was really done until General Furse took the matter up; as a result of his importunity smoke-shells were made, and they began to arrive in France about the autumn of 1916. The supply was limited, but as no other division desired them, the Ninth was able to get the whole quantity issued to the Third Army, about 4000 rounds. Smoke-shells were employed by the Canadians to cover their raids, and also by Brig.-General Tudor on the 6th January to support the raid of the Black Watch and the Argylls, but the 9th April was the first occasion on which they were used in a creeping barrage.

Zero was to be 5.30 A.M., and at that hour the barrage was to open 50 yards in front of the German front line trench. Where “No-Man’s-Land” was 200 yards or more in extent, the assaulting troops were to leave their trenches and form up in the open. One minute after zero the barrage was to lift on to the front line, where it was to remain for three minutes. The rate of advance between lifts varied from 50 yards every one and a half minutes to 100 yards every four minutes. The infantry was expected to reach the Black Line at 6.40 A.M., and the barrier-fire would then advance 300 yards beyond it, where it would remain until 7.36 A.M., by which time the leading battalions would be ready to resume the advance. In similar fashion the Blue Line was to be secured by 8.13 A.M., and the Brown Line by 1.20 P.M. At that time the Fourth Division was to pass through and go on to the Green Line. To prevent the enemy in the rear seeing the creeping barrage and countering it, a distant smoke-barrage was to be formed by two 18-pounder batteries.

The artillery bombardment was to be supplemented by a trench-mortar and machine-gun barrage. Forty 2-inch and fourteen 9·45-inch mortars and twenty machine-guns were to take part. The Division had been vastly strengthened both in Lewis and Vickers Guns; each battalion had now sixteen of the former, and the arrival of the 197th Machine-Gun Company had brought the Vickers Companies up to four. All machine-gunners had received constant training in indirect fire while in this sector, and during the battle the German positions were to be drenched by showers of machine-gun bullets. One hundred and twenty-six 18-pounders, forty-two 4·5 howitzers, and forty-seven guns of heavier calibre were to support our attack.

While the preparations were being made, it was noticed that the enemy’s aeroplanes had become very enterprising and aggressive. Up to the end of 1916 scarcely one had ventured to cross our lines, but from the first days of February there was a disquieting change. On every clear day swarms of German machines patrolled the air and penetrating far over our hinterland, boldly challenged conflict with our planes. Individual combats between the rival airmen were of frequent occurrence, and most of those that took place in the view of the infantry resulted in the triumph of the enemy. The most formidable and audacious of the hostile planes was a very fast one, which, being painted on the underpart with a brilliant red, was generally known as the “Red Belly.” It seemed to be much more capable of rapid manœuvre than any of ours, and on one occasion a single-handed “Red Belly” broke up and put to flight a squadron of six British planes. These German machines were believed to belong to Von Richtofen’s “Circus,” which became very famous in latter days and was moved from one point of the front to another as required; it consisted of from 30 to 50 planes, controlled by expert pilots. Amid these circumstances the persistence with which our airmen in unequally equipped and inferior machines rose daily to meet the enemy and observe his lines, was a convincing proof of their grit and devotion to duty. There was some hope, however, that the conditions of July 1916 would be restored when the new and speedy machines, which were being manufactured in great numbers, were ready to take the air.

The comparatively short line held by the Division after the 24th February provided a welcome opportunity for the training of the men on a more thorough scale than had been possible before any previous battle. While one brigade held the trenches, another located in “Y” huts on the Arras-St Pol road was engaged on work, and the third underwent a course of training near Monchy Breton. This arrangement allowed eight days’ training for each brigade in turn. From the photographs taken by the Royal Flying Corps, the enemy’s system was marked out accurately on the training area by tapes and shallow trenches made by ploughs, and the frequent practice that the men had over this course gave them a very fair idea of what they were expected to do on the 9th April. Exact models of the ground to be attacked were moulded in clay, and the men thus learned not merely the character of the country, but also the names of the German trenches.

When the preparations were nearing completion, the unwelcome news was received that the enemy had evacuated his positions in the Ancre-Scarpe salient. It was feared that he would evade our blow by withdrawing from his line in front of Arras. Rumours of a retirement had been circulated on the 24th February, and when the Third Division in the south reported on the 19th March that the foe had retired from his front line up to the Arras-Cambrai road, Sir Charles Fergusson resolved to test his strength in front of Arras by a daylight reconnaissance. This was entrusted to the 11th Royal Scots. The operation was timed for 3 P.M. on the 21st March, by which hour the infantry were assembled, but it had to be postponed for half an hour to allow the artillery to finish their preparations. Two or three hostile planes were hovering overhead, but it was impossible to say if they had spotted the assembly. A heavy German trench mortar opened fire during this period but the damage it inflicted was insignificant. The assailants, consisting of two companies commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Croft, jumping over the parapet, swept on under desultory machine-gun fire and entered the opposing trenches. A furious and intricate conflict ensued, and when some Germans counter-attacked across the open, they were shot down by the accurate rifle-fire of the Royal Scots. When at last Lieut.-Colonel Croft gave the signal to withdraw, his men returned to their own line without molestation. Though their losses—amounting to 5 officers and 70 other ranks killed, wounded, and missing—had been heavy, they had fulfilled their mission, and proved that the enemy was holding his line in strength opposite the XVII. Corps.

For the next few days Lieut.-Colonel Croft’s men had a surfeit of thrills. At 5 A.M. on the 22nd, after a short preliminary bombardment, the enemy dashed across “No-Man’s-Land” and secured 3 men from a Lewis Gun post. On the night of the 23rd, the Royal Scots replied in kind. Lieutenant Matthews with a small party entered the opposing trenches and killed 4 Germans, whose outcry alarmed the garrison. The raiders, however, did not escape without loss, one man being killed, another wounded, and Lieutenant Matthews was missing. Next day sentries reported that they saw a body believed to be that of Lieutenant Matthews lying in the enemy’s wire, and Lieut.-Colonel Croft issued orders for a patrol to go out after dusk and bring it in. 2nd Lieut. Storey, mistaking the instructions, did not wait for dusk, but went out alone in full daylight; though fired at continuously, he was able to crawl near enough to see that what had been taken for a body was only a piece of sacking.

The formations adopted and practised for the attack were the same in all three brigades. The men were to advance in a series of waves, a wave consisting of two lines, and each wave was to be followed by a line of “moppers-up,” who were to clear captured trenches and dug-outs of skulking foes, so that no damage might be done after the leading troops had gone on. From right to left the disposition of battalions was as follows: 7th Seaforths, 8th Black Watch, 3rd South African Infantry, 4th South African Infantry, 12th Royal Scots, and 6th K.O.S.B., and these were supported by the 5th Camerons, 10th Argylls, 1st South African Infantry, 2nd South African Infantry, 9th Scottish Rifles, and 11th Royal Scots. The infantry were reinforced by the sappers, machine-gunners, and the trench mortar batteries. The four tanks were to be assembled in the valley just east of the Candle Factory, and the noise of their approach was to be drowned by machine-gun fire. The enemy’s front wire had been entirely demolished by the 2-inch trench mortars, and constant patrolling had prevented the gaps being repaired. This wire-cutting feat was a great triumph for the 2-inch trench mortars; many people believed it was impossible for them to cut the wire, but they did it most effectively.

On the eve of the battle the men were in high spirits and very confident of success. The notion of a check was never entertained. Since the beginning of December they had achieved a marked and increasing ascendancy over the enemy,[74] who was known to be nervous and much perturbed as to our projects.