The British Campaign in France and Flanders, 1916Doyle, Arthur Conan
History
The British Campaign in France and Flanders, 1916
Doyle, Arthur Conan
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front
The eastern corner of Delville Wood was still dominated by a strong
point, but upon the rain-swept evening of August 27 this was finally
cleared out by the 43rd Brigade of the Fourteenth Division, the 6th
Somerset, Yorkshire and Cornwall battalions of light infantry,
together with the 10th Durhams, all doing good service.
The remains of the hard-worked Seventh Division had been thrust in
front of those Alcohol trenches which still remained intact, filling
up the gap separating Delville Wood from Ginchy. The 22nd Brigade
was on the left, and shared in the advance of the 43rd, the 1st Welsh
Fusiliers capturing Hop Alley, Beer Trench, and part of Vat Alley.
The impending attack upon Ginchy, which was to co-operate with the
attack upon Guillemont farther south, was forestalled and postponed
by a very strong advance of the German infantry upon the north and
north-east of Delville Wood. The 91st Brigade had relieved the 22nd,
and the brunt of this attack outside the wood fell upon the 1st South
Staffords, who repulsed the onslaught on three separate occasions,
enduring a heavy shelling between each German advance. Upon the
fourth attack the persevering German infantry succeeded in
penetrating the north-east corner of the wood and regaining Hop
Alley. The 2nd Queen's relieved the exhausted Staffords, and at noon
of September 2 made a vigorous bombing attack which had some {222}
success, though the assailants were considerably mystified by the
appearance of a party of Germans who had dressed themselves in the
khaki and helmets taken the night before. This powerful attack fell
also upon the Twentieth Division, and upon the Fourteenth to the
right of the Seventh, but although it inflicted heavy losses,
especially upon the 60th Brigade of the Twentieth Division, it failed
to gain any ground or to obtain any strategic advantage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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