The British Campaign in France and Flanders, 1917Doyle, Arthur Conan
History
The British Campaign in France and Flanders, 1917
Doyle, Arthur Conan
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front
Passing to the 38th Welsh Division upon the right of the Guards,
their battle line consisted of the 113th Brigade upon the left,
consisting entirely of battalions of Welsh Fusiliers, while the {142}
114th Brigade, formed from the Welsh Regiment, was on the right. The
order of the foremost battalions taken from the left was the 16th and
13th Welsh Fusiliers, with the 13th and 10th Welsh. The experiences
of the division upon its advance were, as might be expected, not
unlike those of the Guards. "It was still dark," says one graphic
correspondent, "and all we had to guide us was our barrage moving
forward like a living line of fire, from left to right as far as the
eye could see." The first objective was captured with little loss, a
fair number of prisoners being taken in the Caesar Support Trench.
In attacking the second objectives the reserve line came through the
front one, so that the order of the troops, taken again from the left
in the 114th Brigade, was the 15th and 14th Welsh, while in the 113th
Brigade, which had a less difficult task, there was a mere change of
companies in the units already engaged. The opposition now became
fiercer and the losses more severe. Marsouin Farm, and Stray Farm on
the right, and the village of Pilkem upon the left poured bullets
upon the advancing infantry, who slipped from shell-hole to
shell-hole, taking such cover as they could, but resolutely pushing
onwards. Again and again the machine-gun forts were isolated,
surrounded, and compelled to surrender. The Welshmen had reached
their second objective in the scheduled time. The 15th Welsh
Fusiliers were now pushed into the firing-line upon the left, and the
advance went forward. A gap had formed between the Welshmen and the
Highlanders of the Fifty-first Division upon their right. In this
gap lay Rudolph Farm, spitting fire from every cranny and window. A
platoon of the 15th Welsh turned aside from their {143} path and
captured or killed all who were in the German post. To the immediate
left of this point lay another stronghold called Iron Cross. This
was rushed by the 14th Welsh, at considerable loss to themselves, but
twenty of the garrison were bayoneted, forty captured, and three
machine-guns secured. Just beyond the Iron Cross was a German
dressing-station which yielded forty more prisoners.
The 15th Welsh Fusiliers on the left had in the meanwhile a severe
ordeal, for so heavy a fire poured upon them from the clump of trees
known as Battery Copse that they were left with hardly an officer and
with their protective barrage rapidly receding into the distance.
The men were staggered for a time, but struggled forward again with
fine resolution, and at last established themselves upon the same
line as Iron Cross.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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