The British Campaign in France and Flanders, 1915Doyle, Arthur Conan
History
The British Campaign in France and Flanders, 1915
Doyle, Arthur Conan
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front
A very different fate had befallen the 26th Brigade upon their right.
The leading battalions of this brigade were the 5th Camerons on the
left, gallantly led by Lochiel himself, the hereditary chieftain of
{184} the clan, and the 7th Seaforths on the right. These two
battalions came away with a magnificent rush, closely followed by the
8th Gordons and the 8th Black Watch. It was a splendid example of
that _furor Scoticus_ which has shown again and again that it is not
less formidable than the Teutonic wrath. The battalions were over
the parapet, across the open, through the broken wire, and over the
entrenchment like a line of Olympic hurdlers. Into the trenches they
dashed, seized or killed the occupants, pressed rapidly onwards up
the communications, and by seven o'clock had made their way as far as
Fosse 8, a coal-mine with a long, low slag-heap lying in the rear of
the great work, but linked up to it in one system of defences. It
was a splendid advance, depending for its success upon the extreme
speed and decision of the movement. Many officers and men, including
Lord Sempill, the gallant Colonel of the Black Watch, were left upon
the ground, but the front of the brigade rolled ever forwards. Not
content with this considerable success, one battalion, the 8th
Gordons, with a handful of the Black Watch, preserved sufficient
momentum to carry it on to the edge of the fortified village of
Haisnes, in the rear of the German position. The reserve brigade,
the 27th, consisting of the 11th and 12th Royal Scots, 10th Argyll
and Sutherland Highlanders, and 6th Scots Fusiliers, swept onwards in
support of this movement. This brigade had varying fortunes, part of
it being held up by wire. It did not get so far forward as the
brigade upon its left, but it reached and took Fosse Alley, to the
immediate west of the Lens-Hulluch road. This position it held
against bombing attacks upon each flank until the morning of Monday
{185} the 27th, as will be described later. The Highlanders upon
their left, who had got nearly to Haisnes, dropped back when they
found themselves unsupported, and joined the rest of their brigade in
the neighbourhood of Fosse 8.
It should be mentioned that the field-guns of the 52nd Brigade R.F.A.
pushed up in the immediate rear of the firing line of the Ninth
Division, and gave effective support to the infantry. The fact that
they could do this across the open tends to show that infantry
supports could be pushed up without being confined unduly to the
communication trenches. The spirited action of these guns was
greatly appreciated by the infantry.
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