The British Campaign in France and Flanders—January to July, 1918Doyle, Arthur Conan
History
The British Campaign in France and Flanders—January to July, 1918
Doyle, Arthur Conan
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front
courage, starting out alone, and bringing across the river a train
full of ammunition which lay upon the farther side. The
Twenty-fourth Division had crossed at Falvy, the rearguard action
being fought by the depleted battalions of the 72nd Brigade. Colonel
Pope of the 1st North Staffords, Colonel Charlton of the 4th Yorks,
and Colonel Le Fleming of the 9th East Surreys were among those who
had fallen.
[Sidenote: Nineteenth Corps. March 23.]
The Nineteenth Corps was now covering a total front of 20,000 yards
along the western bank of the stream, which is shallow and marshy in
these reaches. Their line was from Rouy-le-Crane in the south to
near Peronne, with some small outposts to the east of the river. The
Eighth Division (Heneker) had come up on the morning of March 23, and
occupied the southern end of the line, with the remains of the
Twenty-fourth, the Sixty-sixth, and the Fiftieth extending to the
north. There we shall leave them while we return to the history of
the front line upon March 21.
[Sidenote: Eighteenth Corps. March 21.]
On the right of the Nineteenth Corps was Maxse's Eighteenth Corps
covering the ground from the Omignon valley to a point just west of
St. Quentin, with three divisions in the line. These were the
Sixty-first on the left, the Thirtieth in the centre, and the
Thirty-sixth in the south. The Sixty-first Division, under General
Colin Mackenzie, was one of those fine second-line Territorial units
which have done so well in the later stages of the war. All {99}
three brigades were in the line, the 183rd Brigade of Scottish troops
in the north, the 184th in the centre, and the 182nd in the south,
both of the last being from the South Midlands. The 2/4th Oxfords,
2/5th Gordons, and 2/8th Worcesters were the devoted battalions which
held the forward line, and so fierce was their defence that the
battle-line was able to maintain itself along the whole divisional
front, in spite of very valiant efforts upon the part of the German
stormers, who showed absolute contempt of death in their efforts to
cut the wire at those points where their artillery had failed to do
so. The story of the Enghien redoubt and its devoted defence has
already been told, but belongs to the record of this division. The
battle zone ran in the main along the eastern edge of the Bois
d'Holnon, and this was desperately defended from morning to night.
In the afternoon the high ground south of Maissemy, in the left rear
of the division and outside their area, had been captured, and the
2/4th Berkshires endeavoured to help the Twenty-fourth Division in
their counter-attack. The Berkshires lost heavily in this venture,
and their gallant Colonel, Dimmer, who had won the V.C. in the early
days of the war, was shot through the head leading his men on
horseback to the very lip of a trench full of Germans. Horse and
groom fell before the same volley. The Sixty-first resumed its line
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