CHAPTER IX

THE BATTLES OF ARRAS

THE ACTIONS OF 9TH APRIL, 12TH APRIL, 3RD MAY, 5TH JUNE 1917

The preliminary bombardment of the German entrenched positions opened on the 5th April. Special attention was devoted to counter-battery work, and with the assistance of aeroplane observation and sound-ranging devices, a great many of the hostile guns were knocked out by direct hits. As a result, the reply was extraordinarily weak, and though a few shells were thrown into Arras, little damage was done. Our “Chinese barrages” not only made fine spectacles, but were most useful as the reply they provoked showed us where the German retaliation barrage would fall. The assembly of the Division was completed without difficulty during the night of the 8th/9th. On the front of the 26th and 27th Brigades the leading troops were accommodated in the trenches, but the South Africans made use of small craters, which had been blown by the sappers in front of their line.

Shortly before zero all hope of a fine day was dashed by a gentle drizzle of rain. At 5.30 A.M. our guns opened with a deafening crash. Overhead the rushing steel sounded like a frenzied discord combining the deep boom of the drum with the shrill shriek of the whistle, and where the shells landed, the earth leaped up in a mad barbaric dance. A gigantic wall of smoke and fire lay right along the enemy’s line, and sprays of coloured lights, shooting up from his trenches, betokened the anxiety and distress of the garrison. The hostile barrage was slow, and when it descended on our front line, eight minutes after zero, it was thin and ragged. During the first three minutes of our barrage the leading waves took up their position for the advance, the only trouble being on the extreme left, where the K.O.S.B., forming up, had some casualties through our smoke-shells falling short. With the first lift the khaki lines pushed forward. In spite of their training, the men had the greatest difficulty in recognising the hostile trenches, which had been so torn up that they hardly presented a break in the belt of churned-up soil that marked the devastating path of the artillery. The only serious resistance was encountered by the Seaforths, who stormed the Island near Blangy and killed a number of bombers among the rubble and cellars of Athies. Elsewhere the advance was carried on without check. A few casualties were inflicted by machine-guns, but the smoke-screen was most effective, and owing to this the enemy’s shooting was very erratic. The ardour of our troops could scarcely be restrained; flushed with success, they kept close up to the barrage and in many cases passed through it. The Bavarians had built up a worthy reputation during the war, but before they had time to show fight our men were upon them. On reaching the Black Line the Black Watch captured the regimental commander and the adjutant of the 8th Bavarians, who had not realised that a battle was in progress. On the left, Lieut.-Colonel Thorne of the 12th Royal Scots was killed when leading his men, but the battalion under Major Hay was irresistible and easily secured the Black Line. The K.O.S.B. shot past the first objective and stopped in a sunken road beyond it, where they found swarms of the 25th Bavarians crouching in the dug-outs. The whole of the Black Line was secured in the time allotted. During the advance a few of the South Africans bore too much to the north, but the Black Watch extended their left flank and the boundaries between the brigades were readjusted at the first objective.

Owing to the bad light and the obliteration of the enemy system, the “moppers” had great difficulty in recognising the various trenches and in some cases overran their objectives, consequently there were several instances of Germans emerging from their shelters and firing at the backs of our men. The most serious mishap took place on the front of the 27th Brigade, where a machine-gun suddenly came to life and opened fire on a party of the 9th Seaforths who had come up to dig a communication trench. The men dropped their shovels, picked up their rifles, and after killing its crew carried off the machine-gun as a trophy. The clearing parties found the front system full of Germans, most of whom had taken shelter either in the dug-outs or just in the doorway, and they were killed or taken prisoner.

The drizzle had developed into a steady downpour while the reorganisation and arrangements for the second advance were being carried out. The dispositions of the South African and 26th Brigades remained unchanged, but in the 27th Brigade the supporting and leading battalions changed places. At 7.36 A.M. the attack on the Blue Line (Arras-Lens Railway) commenced. The defenders had not yet recovered from their surprise, and their resistance, considering the strength of their position, was extremely poor, though a few stout-hearted groups held out to the last and inflicted casualties before they were killed. The right wing of the 26th Brigade was held up for a time by enfilade machine-gun fire from a post at the Railway Triangle on the front of the Fifteenth Division. But the artillery were prompt to assist, and, covered by an effective smoke-screen put down by “F” Battery R.H.A. from the Railway embankment north of the Scarpe, the Highlanders reached the Blue Line practically without a halt. Equally successful was the attack of the other brigades. The South Africans lost some men from snipers as they were struggling through the gaps in the wire in front of the Railway cutting, but the enemy’s machine-guns were dilatory in coming into action and the South Africans easily accounted for them when they reached the cutting. On the left, when the leading battalions of the 27th Brigade advanced into the valley, they came under hostile machine-gun and artillery-fire from the Railway and Maison Blanche Wood. Two of the machine-guns were rushed in the cutting, and two others, which were holding up the advance of the Thirty-fourth Division, were enfiladed by Lewis Guns and driven to earth. Of the garrison on the Railway not one escaped; all were killed or captured.

The four tanks allotted to the Division were very unlucky. Two were put out of action at the start by artillery-fire; a third broke down about 200 yards from the Railway on the front of the 27th Brigade; and the fourth failed to reach the Railway after the officer in charge of it was killed, but the surprise of the enemy was so complete that there was little need for them. South of the Scarpe a tank did good service by helping to clear the Railway Triangle, which had caused a great deal of trouble to the Fifteenth Division.

During the halt on the Blue Line, the only changes in disposition occurred in the 26th and South African Brigades, where the Camerons, Argylls, 1st and 2nd Regiments were placed in the lead. The four hours of waiting were not without anxiety. An enemy aeroplane came over our lines and as a result the German artillery opened on the Railway, 300 yards east of which our protective barrage was falling at that time. Fortunately this counter-barrage did not last long, and the majority of the leading men were already formed up some yards east of the Railway, but for a short spell nearly six battalions lay precariously between two fires in a space of 300 yards. At length the final attack began at 12.16 P.M. On the right, tough resistance by the enemy at the Railway Triangle left us with an exposed flank, and a quick and critical decision had to be made whether to advance on this wing or not. Brig.-General Kennedy decided to press on, and the movement was completely screened by the smoke-curtain put down by our guns. This prudently bold policy not merely prevented our own troops from being checked, but materially assisted the Fifteenth Division to capture the Railway Triangle. Elsewhere the last vestige of resistance had disappeared with the capture of the Blue Line, and the assault on the Brown Line took the form of an orderly procession. This was a happy occurrence, since the wire in front of the Point du Jour trenches had scarcely been damaged and was penetrated laboriously even by unmolested men. The spectacle of lines of men moving steadily forward with their rifles at the slope seemed more like a Salisbury Plain ceremonial manœuvre than an attack in grim earnest. As the troops pressed on, their eyes were gratified by the sight of scores of Germans fleeing in a wild panic. Fanned by the breath of victory and keen to grasp all its rewards, they broke into a smart run. The Thirty-fourth Division had been slightly delayed by Maison Blanche Wood, and there was an awkward space on the flank of the 11th Royal Scots, the left battalion of the Ninth, but this was filled by a company of the K.O.S.B. which rushed a machine-gun at the Point du Jour, destroyed the team, and devoured its lunch. With the capture of the Brown Line the Division had accomplished all its tasks.

Half an hour before the commencement of the attack on the Brown Line the leading battalions of the Fourth Division began to arrive. As they came down the slope of the valley from the first objective they suffered some casualties from shell-fire. They reached the Point du Jour-Athies line in good time, and at 3.10 P.M. passing through the Ninth pressed on to the Green Line, which they secured easily and swiftly.

Success had been gained without a check and at very small cost, and the uniform excellence of the work performed by the several arms of the Division was one of the noticeable features of the battle. The Sappers, Pioneers, and R.A.M.C. toiled steadily and efficiently. The infantry, including the wounded, were hyperbolical in their praise of the smoke and H.E. barrage, to which they attributed their own slight losses and the complete surprise of the enemy. The only criticism was that the barrage was too slow for eager men and that there was scarcely enough of smoke. Never at any previous time were the men so jubilant and so confident of a speedy victory. On that day the ground captured and the booty seized far exceeded all that had hitherto been secured in the same period by the British forces in France. In all, 51 officers, 2086 other ranks, 17 field-guns and howitzers, 24 machine-guns, and 3 trench mortars were the spoils of the Division.

But the decisive nature of the victory was due not so much to the surprise of the enemy as to the foresight with which arrangements were made to overcome all possible obstacles, and the readiness and resource which the infantry showed in attacking places outside their own area. Typical examples of the latter were the capture by the Seaforths of the Island and the storming of the Point du Jour by the K.O.S.B. It was too often the tendency during the war for a unit to keep to its own allotted task without making any effort to help its neighbours, and the facility and speed with which our men in this battle worked to their flanks were very important factors in contributing to the rout of the enemy. General Furse had repeatedly impressed on the officers of the Ninth the necessity and advantage of assisting their neighbours, and never was this practice exemplified on a finer scale by the Division than on the 9th of April.

It is impossible to praise too highly the forethought shown with regard to the Railway Triangle. Brig.-General Tudor learned just before our advance from the Black Line was resumed, that the Fifteenth Division was held up by the Triangle and had not won its first objective. Realising the disastrous result of this for the Ninth, since the enemy south of the Scarpe would see our infantry north of the river and would enfilade them with numerous machine-guns, he turned on a battery, which he had standing by for such an eventuality, to blind that enemy to our movement. This not only enabled the Ninth to make its advance undisturbed from the right, but further enabled its right brigade, after seizing the Blue Line, to turn its machine-guns and some infantry against the northern wing of the enemy opposing the Fifteenth south of the river, thus combining a flank with a frontal attack on that portion of the enemy and compassing his defeat and the advance of the Fifteenth Division. Without this prearrangement the whole fight would have been far less successful and far more costly.

The action of the 9th April was a very great triumph for British arms. Compared with the gigantic advances made after August 1918, the ground gained may seem insignificant and the number of prisoners meagre, but the true comparison is not with 1918 but with 1916. In 1917, as in the Somme fighting, the moral of the Germans was high and their resistance formidable, and there is substantial reason for regarding, as Professor Pollard[75] does, the capture of the Vimy Ridge and the advance to Fampoux as amongst the finest achievements of the war. But the impetus of our attack came to an end on the same day. It is possible that the magnitude of the first day’s success was so much more extensive than had been expected that the preparations for supporting it lagged in arrear, and that the Germans were able to concentrate more quickly for the defence than we were for the renewal of the onset. Wet weather, which figures so constantly in Sir Douglas Haig’s despatches as the marplot of British projects, was made chiefly responsible for our failure to follow up our victory, but though it greatly increased our difficulties, it is probable that ineffective Staff work rather than weather may have been the chief cause of our disappointment. The possession of the Vimy Ridge, the disengagement of Arras, and the obligation of the enemy to draw on his reserves had largely fulfilled the intentions of the Higher Command, but it is never satisfactory to lose chances of exploiting success. For a time the Germans were badly shaken, and Ludendorff admitted that the opening of the Arras Battle caused him considerable uneasiness. If cavalry had been available to go through on the afternoon of the 9th April they could not have failed to bring in many more prisoners, but they made no advance until the 11th, and by that time it was too late; the enemy had recovered from his fright and had brought up reserves. Nor were there large reserves of our infantry at hand to resume the attack at once. The infantry had become the handmaid of the artillery, and vexatious delays occurred until the latter could move up their guns.

Till late in the evening of the 9th the bulk of the Division remained in the trenches on the Brown Line, but after all danger of a counter-attack had passed, the battalions were withdrawn to the Blue and Black Lines. The weather, which had shown signs of improvement during the afternoon, utterly broke down, and blizzards of snow and sleet swept the ground. The wearied men spent a wretched night, as there was not sufficient shelter for all, and many had to lie in the open, unprotected from the drenching sleet. The next day was spent in cleaning rifles, replacing kit, and salvaging the battlefield. On the 11th, the Fourth Division was instructed to secure the slopes of Greenland Hill, a small ridge lying to the east of the village of Roeux, and the South African Brigade was sent up to support it. The attack was repulsed, and the Ninth was ordered to renew the attempt the following day.

The line, which was held by the Fourth Division, lay some distance east of the original Green Line[76] and included the village of Fampoux on the north bank of the Scarpe. From it a number of roads ran to the north-west and north, while the continuation of the Main Street joined the Roeux-Gavrelle road near the Station, close to which lay the Chemical Works of Roeux. The Railway crossed the Scarpe south-east of Fampoux and ran along a high embankment in a north-easterly direction to Douai. To the south of it the Scarpe broadened out into marshes and lagoons, which made approach to Roeux impracticable except from the north; beyond the Roeux-Gavrelle road the country ascended in a gradual rise to Greenland Hill. The line held by the enemy was the Roeux-Gavrelle road, and he had installed numerous machine-guns in the Chemical Works, the Station, and an Inn about 1500 yards north of it.

The Division received orders to capture this line from the Inn to the village of Roeux inclusive. There were two objectives. The first, to be carried by the South African and 27th Brigades, consisted of the ground north of the Railway embankment, and comprised the Station Buildings, the Chemical Works, and the line of the road as far as the Inn; the second, which fell to the 26th Brigade, entailed the capture of Mount Pleasant Wood, and the village of Roeux. There was to be the usual creeping barrage, which, commencing at 5 P.M., was to move forward at the rate of 100 yards every two minutes. The orders reached the brigades late during the night of the 11th, so that the time for preparation was very limited. It was understood that all the buildings held by the enemy were to be demolished by the fire of the heavy guns.

The enemy’s position was reconnoitred by brigadiers and battalion commanders on the morning of the 12th. A reference to the map suggested that the best place to form up was in the valley at the east end of Fampoux. But this was found to be out of the question, for the road lay under direct observation from the Chemical Works and was thickly sprayed with shells on the appearance of even the small reconnoitring party. The South Africans, being the right brigade, had really no choice except the village as an assembly place, but it was eminently dangerous, since it was a favourite target of the hostile guns. The 27th Brigade was compelled to choose the German trenches immediately north of Fampoux, which were sited on the horizon, and the approach to which from the west had to be carefully reconnoitred to find lines of advance that would reduce the probability of the oncoming troops being seen by the enemy. It was an evil position, for it entailed the advance of the brigade for 1700 yards down the slope into the valley in full view of the foe on the opposite slope, but there was no alternative. Brig.-General Maxwell recognised that to screen the movement, a barrage, with smoke if possible, would be necessary, but he failed to get into communication with General Lukin in time. As the barrage was to fall along the enemy’s line at zero, the 27th Brigade had to commence its advance from its forming-up position half an hour before zero, so as to reach the front held by the Fourth Division just before the barrage opened.

The action that followed was calamitous. The firing of the heavy guns during the day never rose to the intensity of a bombardment, and the large collection of buildings round the Station remained quite intact, only one shell being seen to fall near the Chemical Works. There was absolutely no chance of success from the outset, and the uncomplaining heroism of the men was on that account the finest feature of the battle.

Shortly before the attack was delivered, the Division learned from an air reconnaissance that the enemy had dug in to the west of the Roeux-Gavrelle road, but this news was received too late for action to be taken, and our barrage dropped behind the enemy’s front trench. On the right, the 2nd and 1st South African Regiments were in the van, with the 4th and 3rd in support and reserve. The assembly of the brigade in the shell-swept village of Fampoux was a costly business, but in spite of heavy losses the men were remarkably steady. As soon as the South Africans emerged from the shelter of the houses their ranks were scourged by accurate rifle and machine-gun fire, and it was possible to advance only about 200 yards from the positions held by the Fourth Division.

[Illustration: EAST OF ARRAS. BATTLE-GROUND OF APRIL 1917]

On the left the attack was carried on by the 11th and 12th Royal Scots[77] and the “Rifles,” the K.O.S.B. being in reserve. The advance of the brigade began at 4.25 P.M., and with incredible coolness the infantry pressed through the enemy’s barrage and reached the line held by the Fourth Division a few minutes before zero. At 5 P.M. our barrage opened and was excellent, but our men were checked almost at the start by very heavy machine-gun fire. In these circumstances nothing could be gained by throwing the 26th Brigade into the battle and the forward troops were accordingly withdrawn. The collection and evacuation of the wounded proved a difficult and harassing job, but this was accomplished before dawn through the untiring and unselfish efforts of the infantry and R.A.M.C.

Little can be said in defence of this battle, which the Division fought with great reluctance. The preparations and arrangements were hurried to a culpable degree, and though the basis of the action was understood to be the bombardment of hostile machine-gun emplacements by the Corps’ heavy artillery, the heavies might as well have remained silent for all the assistance they gave. Apart from the fact that the time for reconnoitring the enemy’s position, particularly by the artillery,[78] was miserably inadequate, defeat was practically inevitable when the 27th Brigade had to be formed up in full view of the enemy and at a distance of more than 1000 yards from the barrage line. Much of the haste was undoubtedly caused by D.H.Q.[79] being too far back, the time necessary for the issue of orders and the arrangement of preparations being thus unduly extended. The only possibility of success lay in the Ninth taking over the front line from the Fourth Division on the night of the 11th, but this was not done, because it was considered expedient to let the worn-out men have a good night’s rest.

After the battle the Ninth was withdrawn from the line and was concentrated in billets near Hermaville. The high spirits of the men, which had been at fever-pitch on the 9th, had been somewhat damped by the events of the 12th, but a short rest served to illustrate once more the amazing recuperative capacity of the British soldier. The South African and 27th Brigades had been hardest hit. The weakness of the former occasioned grave concern as its losses exceeded its drafts, and it was clear that, if its identity was to be preserved, it could not be available for immediate action.[80] More drafts were forthcoming for the 27th Brigade, which by the end of the month was ready for the field.

In the latter part of April strenuous fighting took place near Roeux and the Chemical Works, both of which, though we gained a good deal of ground, remained in the hands of the enemy. While the South Africans were employed on work at Arras, the other brigades relieved the Thirty-seventh Division on the nights of the 28th/29th and 29th/30th April. On the last day of April the Division lost Colonel F. A. Symons, the popular and efficient A.D.M.S., who was killed by a shell near Athies; Colonel Elsner of the 27th Field Ambulance was appointed his successor. There was now a welcome change in the weather, brilliant sunshine and warm breezes giving promise of a glorious summer. On the 2nd May instructions were issued for an operation on the 3rd. This was to be undertaken with the Fourth Division on the right, the Ninth in the centre, and the Thirty-first on the left, and the First and Fifth Armies were also to attack. It was believed to be of unusual importance, for on the evening of the 2nd the Division received a message that the battle was to be the biggest in which the British armies had yet taken part.

The 26th Brigade, with the Camerons and Black Watch in front, the Argylls in support, and the Seaforths in reserve, was on the right; and on the left was the 27th, with the “Rifles” and K.O.S.B. in front, and the 11th and 12th Royal Scots in support and reserve. In place of the South Africans the Division was supported by the 52nd Brigade, which was located at the Blue Line. The objectives were the line of trenches Weed-Weak and the Biache-Gavrelle road. The attack was to be under the customary creeping barrage, which was to open 200 yards east of our front line and, after a pause of four minutes, was to move forward at the rate of 100 yards every two minutes, while a machine-gun barrage was to keep 400 yards in advance of it. The time of zero, 3.45 A.M., was made known to the Division only a few hours before the battle.

The position held by the enemy lay on the western slopes of Greenland Hill and consisted of shell-holes and stretches of trenches hastily excavated after his defeat on the 9th April. His trenches therefore were not of the same elaborate and formidable nature as those he occupied on that date, but owing to their comparative indefiniteness they offered neither a clear target for the artillery nor an easily recognisable landmark for the infantry.

The night of the 2nd May was clear, with no hint of dawn when the hour of zero approached, though by the mellow sheen of the stars and the setting moon one could see about 50 yards along a path. At 3.45 A.M. the air reverberated with the crash of thousands of guns, their flashes forming an almost solid glow. On striking the dry earth the shells threw up a thick curtain of smoke and dust, which, owing to a north-east wind, drifted back towards our lines. At the same time, the Germans sent up showers of coloured lights and rockets in a wild appeal to their artillery for assistance.

As a result of the darkness, intensified by dust clouds, the attacking troops lost direction almost at the beginning. The Germans replied immediately with heavy machine-gun fire from trenches and organised shell-holes, which were closer to our front line than we expected and had escaped our barrage. The Camerons, misled by hostile lights sent up from short entrenched lines echeloned in depth, swung so much to the right that they crossed the front of the 2nd Essex Regiment (Fourth Division), who fired on them. The Black Watch also lost cohesion and only a few groups managed to reach the enemy’s front trench. The Argylls in support, who became heavily involved in the fighting, suffered serious casualties when they moved forward, and were subjected to persistent bombing attacks from the vicinity of the Gavrelle-Plouvain road. Most of them were compelled to take cover in shell-holes, from which they gradually worked their way back to our line. One company of this battalion, maintaining direction throughout, went straight to the first objective, but being unsupported and cut off only a few survivors managed to return. This effort was really a brilliant performance. In a second attempt the Black Watch succeeded in expelling the enemy from Charlie and Cuthbert Trenches, but they were unable to remain there owing to accurate machine-gun fire from the Railway embankment and the Chemical Works. When the 26th Brigade was reorganising in its original line, German aeroplanes displayed great audacity; three of them hovered persistently over our front until one was brought down by machine-gun fire.

The task of the 27th Brigade was complicated by the fact that the left battalion, the K.O.S.B., occupied a position beyond the “Rifles.” Before advancing, the former had therefore to wait for five minutes until the latter came into line, and as a guide to the “Rifles” a lamp was shown on the right flank of the K.O.S.B. When at zero the “Rifles” left their trenches they failed to pick up the lamp, which was to guide their left, and in spite of compass-bearings the two assaulting companies swerved to the right, with the result that the right flank reached Cuthbert Trench earlier than was intended. This trench, which had been scarcely damaged, was strongly manned, and here a stern hand-to-hand contest was waged. Some of the “Rifles” succeeded in pressing forward, but practically none of the two leading companies returned, the great majority being killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. When the supporting companies attempted to advance they came under heavy machine-gun fire and dug themselves in 200 yards beyond the front trench. The 11th Royal Scots, unable to see what was happening, pushed up two companies, which joined with the supporting companies of the “Rifles,” and dug in along with them.

The K.O.S.B. after waiting five minutes for the arrival of the “Rifles,” went on without them, according to orders. Three companies crossed the enemy’s front trench and passed on towards the objective. Lieut.-Colonel Smyth,[81] with a view to protecting his exposed right flank, sent out a platoon from the remaining company to block the south end of Wit Trench, but it was practically annihilated on leaving the parapet, though the Lewis Gun was brought back owing to the splendid coolness of Sergeant C. Hawthorn. A serious disaster had occurred, and Lieut.-Colonel Smyth, who was badly wounded in the shoulder, was unable to do anything to help the three forward companies; for the front of the 27th Brigade was swept from both flanks, and the position here was almost hopeless unless the 26th Brigade and the Thirty-first Division could clear the enemy in front of them. Later Lieut.-Colonel Fulton, commanding the “Rifles,” and Major Hamilton of the 90th R.E., ignorant of the check experienced by the rear companies of the “Rifles,” went up to the right of the K.O.S.B. in Wish Trench, and observing a party of 50 Germans, whom they took to be prisoners entering Wit Trench, sent an officer and two men to bring them in. These were fired at and hit. It was thus manifest that the enemy had reoccupied Wit Trench and that he now interposed between us and the three companies of the K.O.S.B. Some of these penetrated as far as Square Wood, but their plight was beyond hope and most of them were killed though a few were taken prisoner.

The only tidings to reach D.H.Q. were those of failure. Oppy on the north defied all assault, and the Thirty-first Division was driven back and counter-attacked by the Germans, who gained a footing in the outskirts of Gavrelle. Accordingly at 8.39 A.M. instructions were issued that the general onset was not to be pressed. Brig.-General Maxwell asked for artillery-fire to be directed on the portion of Wit Trench opposite his front, in the hope of clearing out the Germans, and so opening a way of retreat for the men who had been cut off. Unwilling to leave troops who had managed to advance, unsupported and cut off, he decided to attack Wit Trench with the object of holding it during the night to allow the K.O.S.B. to return under cover of darkness. Accordingly one and a half companies of the 12th Royal Scots were ordered to undertake this operation at 8 P.M., while the light was still good; they were to be covered on each flank by a barrage of artillery and machine-gun fire. These men, 150 in all, made a most determined charge, but though a few reached Wit the attack was broken by machine-gun fire. Only 30 of them returned, but their noble sacrifice enabled a considerable number of K.O.S.B., mostly from the right company, to come in.

The battle of the 3rd May showed up the training, especially of officers, in a bad light. The customary gallantry and keenness were exhibited in full measure, but the high degree of training essential for efficient leadership was absent. The difficulties of keeping direction were undoubtedly enormous, and had they been foreseen, would have given well-trained officers the opportunity of overcoming them by the application of knowledge and intelligence. But these difficulties had to be faced by officers and N.C.Os. without adequate warning. Word of the sudden decision of G.H.Q. on the 2nd May to launch the attack before instead of during daylight, as originally planned, was received by the Division only a few hours before the time of assault, when it was impossible to make the necessary arrangements for maintaining direction in the dark, and this ill-advised eleventh hour change was largely responsible for the failure of the attack. The battle also revealed a lamentable decline in initiative, largely due to the excessive dependence of the infantry on the artillery, fostered by the method of the limited objective and months of trench warfare. After the initial check the barrage was lost, and the men in general remained where they lay without making any serious effort to push on. This was strongly commented on by Brig.-General Kennedy in his notes on the battle. In the old Regular Army the men had been accustomed to help themselves and others to make headway by the skilful use of their rifles and by taking full advantage of folds in the ground, and it was now clear that subsequent training should be directed towards the recapture of this lost standard.

These remarks about the Division have a similar application as regards the attack generally. At a prodigious sacrifice the only places of importance carried were Fresnoy, Chérisy, and Roeux, and of these the two latter were regained by the enemy during the day. There was no doubt that the action cost the assailants many times more lives than it did the defenders. The short summary in Sir Douglas Haig’s despatches somewhat disguises the seriousness of the defeat, for the 3rd May was assuredly a black day for the British Army.

The action however was fought under constraint. The far-reaching designs of General Nivelle had fallen short of accomplishment, and the primary function of the British forces was to ease the pressure on the front of their allies. The surest method of effecting this was by means of an operation, and similar subsidiary enterprises had been undertaken in connection with the Battles of Loos and the Somme. But this method, while gaining its end, has the drawback of involving a sacrifice of men, and it is possible that the British Army, now that it was adequately equipped with guns and munitions, could have secured its object by the employment of artillery battle preparations without an infantry assault. In face of a vast concentration of guns and men, an enemy, who had the hardihood to hold his defences thinly, would expose himself to a deadly stab, but so profound was the dejection caused in France by the disappointment of her hopes that it would have been folly to take risks. The restoration of the nerve of France was worth a big sacrifice.

The Ninth remained in the line until it was relieved by the Seventeenth Division on the nights of the 9th/10th and 10th/11th May, and was employed during this period in improving trenches and communications. The 27th Brigade was assisted by a composite battalion of South Africans under Major Webber. On relief, the Division proceeded to billets near Ruellecourt, where it rested, drilled, and was reorganised. The training area at Monchy Breton was visited on the 26th May by General Allenby, who presented ribbons and decorations to officers and men.

At the end of May and beginning of June the Ninth once more returned to the line in relief of the Fifty-first Division. Those scenes of fierce encounters, Roeux and the Chemical Works, were now in our hands, and Arras was rapidly assuming a more settled and less minatory aspect, for many of the bigger emplacements were now empty and others showed preparations for removal. At this time the activity and boldness of the German aeroplanes were very marked. The bombing of Arras and its environs, which had been occasional, was now a regular practice; and after dusk the dovetailed planes of the enemy flying low over our hinterland dropped light bombs and fired machine-guns on our infantry and transport lines. In such enterprises our airmen had been the pioneers, but the Germans were quick to imitate them. At first, the men regarded these new disturbances as an amusing entertainment, but as the raiders became more proficient and expert, they realised that a fresh and deadly terror had been added to modern warfare, and the “purr” of the “Albatross” became a signal to rush for shelter. Anti-aircraft mountings for Lewis Guns were issued, and they enabled the infantry to keep the enemy’s machines at a respectable height.

We still retained the ascendancy in artillery, but the enemy was alert and pugnacious, and his retaliation came almost as the echo of our practice barrages. On the 5th June a minor operation was carried out by the 27th Brigade and the Thirty-fourth Division on its left. The object of the former was to advance its line up the western slopes of Greenland Hill on a front of 850 yards. It was in trenches north and south of the Arras-Douai Railway, which divided its front into two equal parts. Cupid Trench was to be taken north of the Railway, and south of it the line of the sunken road (leading from Roeux), while outposts were to be established on a more or less undefined shell-hole line occupied by the enemy some 200 to 250 yards beyond the objective in each case. The advance was to be covered by a creeping barrage, moving at the rate of 50 yards a minute, supplemented by a machine-gun barrage and a Stokes mortar bombardment.

The battalions detailed for the operation were the 11th and 12th[82] Royal Scots. The assembly was very difficult; entry into the front system could be effected only by night, on account of the almost continuous artillery-fire by day between it and the rear system, and because the traffic in the trenches, which were poor, was visible to the field-grey observers. As the attack was timed for 8 P.M., not only had the units, additional to the ordinary garrison, to be brought up to the front line on the night of the 4th/5th, but they had to remain crowded in its limited accommodation throughout a scorching day, and hidden as far as possible from the view of hostile air patrols. The question of concealment was of first-rate importance, since any shelling of the congested trenches must have caused heavy loss and would have rendered any operation difficult, if not impossible. To provide cover for the extra men, scoops were made in the parapets and wooden shelters were installed; fish-net screens were then hung in front of each hole, and the troops were allowed to emerge one at a time in turn from 4 A.M. till five minutes before zero, when they turned out in full strength.

To deceive the enemy, they waited for twenty seconds before going over the parapet. This raid ruse was eminently successful, since the enemy, seeing no infantry move with the barrage, took it to be a “Chinese Attack” and lay low. The men accordingly crossed “No-Man’s-Land” without a casualty, though subsequently there was brisk fighting, during which some gaps in our ranks were made by the more spirited of the defenders.

The right company of the 11th Royal Scots, on the south of the Railway, went up the sunken road and endeavoured to push out a strong post about 150 yards north-east of the bend in it, but, encountering a strong machine-gun nest, was brought to a halt. Ultimately this post fell to a combined attack by the company, assisted by two platoons of the reserve company, considerable havoc being wrought among the enemy’s garrison by volleys of rifle-grenades. The centre and the left companies reached their objective, the shell-hole line about 200 yards east of the sunken road, and two platoons went on to establish forward posts. One, moving along the Railway, pursued a body of retiring Germans and overshot its mark, but later withdrew to its proper position; the other, farther north, whose function it was to mop up an organised shell-hole area just east of the road, had been so slow in moving up that the enemy had time to recover his nerve and brought it to an abrupt halt, but a liberal dose of rifle-grenades, accurately directed, put the garrison out of action, 11 Germans being killed and 2 wounded.

North of the Railway the 12th Royal Scots attacked on a two-company front. There was no opposition except at the junction of Cambrian and Cupid Trenches, where the fighting was severe, for the unit on the left, detailed to attack Curly Trench, lost direction, and coming behind our left occupied Cupid along with the Royal Scots. The left company with great difficulty cleared the north end of Cupid and part of Curly, but about 70 of the enemy remained in the latter till next day, when they were induced to surrender to the Thirty-fourth Division, assisted by physical persuasion from the Royal Scots. Two advance posts were established, one on the Railway immediately opposite that held by the 11th Royal Scots and one farther north.

Under cover of darkness the 9th Seaforths arrived through a formidable barrage and dug trenches on the captured positions, with communication trenches to connect them with the original front line. In spite of persistent shelling and many casualties this most efficient battalion accomplished all its tasks. On their return the Seaforths had to pass through a gas barrage, and lost a number of men.

During the night the Germans made two spiritless thrusts against the 11th Royal Scots, but they were easily driven off by the fire of the advanced posts. Some of them lay out until dawn, presumably with a view to making another attempt. At 3.30 A.M. they retired, but by a stroke of ill-luck the barrage that had been arranged for that hour was cancelled, and they escaped with only the punishment that Lewis Guns and rifles could inflict in a poor light. On the night of the 6th/7th two further efforts at counter-attack, preceded by artillery-fire, were made. The first was broken up before the Germans had actually made a move, but the second along the Railway was determined, and succeeded in driving in the strong post on the Railway. But its impetus was so disturbed by the accurate shooting of the advanced posts that it failed to reach the main line of defence. The enemy withdrew in the early morning when our barrage came down, and the Royal Scots reoccupied the Railway posts.

The action of the 5th June was extremely satisfactory, for while our losses were slight, those of the enemy were exceptionally heavy for the forces engaged. The 11th Royal Scots considered that they had killed more Germans in this fight than they had in any previous engagement of the war. The barrage was perfect, and the machine-guns and trench mortars co-operated admirably with the infantry. Tactically, the most noteworthy feature of the operation was the effectiveness of rifle-grenades, when fired by volleys, in knocking out machine-gun posts.

A little more ground was gained in the neighbourhood of Greenland Hill by the Division, but this was done by peaceful penetration. Covered by the K.O.S.B.,[83] a large party of the Black Watch dug a trench to extend the line of Cuthbert and Cod south of the Railway before midnight on the 10th. On the 12th and the 13th the Ninth was relieved by the Fourth Division and marched to billets near Ruellecourt. The Division had spent its last day in the Arras sector, where it had experienced in almost equal measure the elation of triumph and the depression of defeat. Over 5000 casualties, chiefly among the infantry, had been suffered during the months of April and May, and the men were sorely in need of rest. There was some fear that the Division would lose the South African Brigade, as three fresh battalions[84] had been attached to it for instruction, but happily a prolonged stay behind the lines enabled the South Africans to fill up their war-worn ranks once more and take their place beside their Scottish comrades.