World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
While the battle was raging on the Vimy heights English and Scottish
troops of the 15th, 12th, and 3rd Divisions were fighting equally
fiercely, with more trouble to meet round about Arras. Beyond the facts
I have already written there are others that must be recorded quickly,
before quick history runs away from them.
Some day a man must give a great picture of the night in Arras before
the battle, and I know one man who could do so--a great hunter of wild
beasts, with a monocle that quells the human soul and a very "parfit
gentil knight," whose pen is as pointed as his lance. He spent the night
in a tunnel of Arras before getting into a sap in No Man's Land before
the dawn, where he was with a "movie man," an official photographer
(both as gallant as you will find in the Army), and a machine-gunner
ready for action. Thousands of other men spent the night before the
battle in the great tunnels, centuries old, that run out of Arras to the
country beyond, by Blangy and St.-Sauveur. The enemy poured shells into
the city, which I watched that night before the dawn from the ramparts
outside, but in the morning they came up from those subterranean
galleries and for a little while no more shells fell in Arras, for the
German gunners were busy with other work, and were in haste to get away.
The fighting was very fierce round Blangy, the suburb of Arras, where
the enemy was in the broken ruins of the houses and behind garden walls
strongly barricaded with piled sand-bags. But our men smashed their way
through and on. Troops of those old English regiments were checked a
while at strong German works known as the Horn, Holt, Hamel, and Hangest
positions, and at another strong point called the Church Work. It was at
these places that the Tanks did well on a day when they had hard going
because of slime and mud, and after a journey of over three miles from
their starting-point knocked out the German machine-guns, and so let the
infantry get on. Higher north at a point known as Railway Triangle,
east-south-east of Arras, where railway lines join, Gordons, Argylls,
Seaforths, and Camerons of the 15th Division were held back by
machine-gun fire. The enemy's works had not been destroyed by our
bombardment, and our barrage had swept ahead of the troops. News of the
trouble was sent back, and presently back crept the barrage of our
shell-fire, coming perilously close to the Scottish troops, but not too
close. With marvellous accuracy the gunners found the target of the
Triangle and swept it with shell-fire so that its defences were
destroyed. The Scots surged forward, over the chaos of broken timber and
barricades, and struggled forward again to their goal, which brought
them to Feuchy Well, and to-day much farther. A Tank helped them at
Feuchy Chapel, cheered by the Scots as it came into action scorning
machine-gun bullets. The Harp was another strong point of the enemy's
which caused difficulty to King's Own Liverpools, the Shropshire Light
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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