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
We will now hark back to 12.35 P.M., the hour of assault, and follow
the fortunes of the Eleventh or first English Division of the New
Armies which was advancing upon the right of the Eighteenth Division.
Within half an hour of the assault the 33rd Brigade and the 34th had
crossed both the Joseph and the Schwaben Trenches, the 6th Borders,
9th Sherwood Foresters, 8th Northumberland Fusiliers, and 9th
Lancashire Fusiliers forming the front line. Keeping some sort of
touch with Maxse's men on the left they pushed on until their right
wing was held up by violent machine-gun fire from the Zollern Redoubt
and from Mouquet Farm, the losses falling especially upon the 5th
Dorsets. Between six and seven in the evening a mixed body of troops
from the division, assisted by the machine-guns of two stranded
tanks, attacked Mouquet and finally carried it.
The Eighteenth Division had still a very formidable task before it to
be undertaken with the co-operation of the Eleventh upon its right.
This was the capture {273} of the formidable stronghold, made up of
many trenches and called the Schwaben Redoubt. It was a thousand
yards distant up a long broken slope. No time was lost in tackling
this new labour, and at 1 P.M. on September 28 the troops moved
forward once again, the same brigades being used, but the worn
battalions being replaced by fresh units drawn from the 55th Brigade.
The 53rd Brigade on the right had the undefeatable Suffolks and the
7th Queen's Surreys in the van with Norfolks and Essex behind. The
54th upon a narrower front had the 7th Bedfords in front, with the
5th West Yorks from the Forty-ninth Division in immediate support,
the Buffs and East Surrey being in Divisional Reserve. The Germans
had got a captive balloon into the air, but their gunnery was not
particularly improved thereby.
At the first rush the Suffolk and Queen's on the right took Bulgar
and Martin Trenches, while the Eleventh Division took Hessian. By
2.30 Market Trench had also fallen. The troops were now well up to
Schwaben, and small groups of men pushed their way home in spite of a
furious resistance. The Eleventh Division had won home on the right,
and the Suffolks were in touch with them and with the Queen's, so
that the position before evening was thoroughly sound. Part of this
enormous stronghold was still in German hands, however, and all our
efforts could not give us complete control.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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