World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
There was severe fighting again to-day eastwards of St.-Julien (3-1/2
miles north-east of Ypres), extending south across the Zonnebeke, beyond
the Frezenberg Redoubt, while on the right our troops again penetrated
Glencorse Copse (due east of Ypres), and fought on that ugly rising
ground which the enemy is defending in great strength. The Divisions
engaged, from north to south, are the 29th, 38th, 11th, 48th, 18th,
61st, 15th, 19th, 47th, 14th, and 24th.
On the left progress has been made from the high road of St.-Julien to
the Zonnebeke-Langemarck road, which cuts across it, guarded on the
enemy's side by two strong points with the usual concrete shelters which
the Germans have adopted as their new means of forward defence. Below
them there is another strong position called Winnipeg, about which our
men were heavily engaged in the early hours of this morning, and below
that again the same series of pill-boxes and concrete blockhouses
against which the Irish battalions went forward with such desperate
valour on the 16th of this month, as I described in my message
yesterday.
Scottish troops of the 15th Division attacked to-day where the Southern
Irish were engaged six days ago. Before them they had those sinister
forts, Beck House and Borry Farm, and Vampire Point guarding the way to
the Bremen Redoubt, which will be remembered always in the history of
the Irish brigades as places of heroic endeavour, just as now this
morning they will take their place in the annals of our Scottish
fighting. To the left of them are other forts, round which the Ulster
men were fighting last week--Pond Farm, Schuler Farm, and others on the
way to the Gallipoli Redoubt. About these places Warwickshires and other
Midland troops of the 61st Division have been fighting, and have met
with the same difficulties, apart from the state of the ground, which
has dried a little. It has not dried much, for our shell-fire has broken
up the gullies and streams with which it was drained, and the country is
water-logged, so that the pools remain until the sun dries them up. The
shell-holes and these ponds are not so full of water as when the Irish
went across, and the surface of the shell-broken earth is hardening. But
it is only a thin crust over a bog, so that the Tanks which went forward
to-day here and there could not get very far without sinking in. One
Tank was taken by a gallant crew almost as far as a German strong point
nearly half a mile beyond our old front line very early in the morning,
and did good work up there. The enemy put down a furious barrage-fire
soon after the attack had started to-day, and kept the Frezenberg
Redoubt under intense bombardment. But as soon as the attack developed
he could not use his artillery against our men at many points, not
knowing what forts and ground were still held by his own troops. He
relied again upon the cross-fire of machine-guns, arranged very
skilfully in depth, for enfilade barrages, and upon the garrisons who
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