The British Campaign in France and Flanders—July to November, 1918Doyle, Arthur Conan
History
The British Campaign in France and Flanders—July to November, 1918
Doyle, Arthur Conan
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front
We have considered the advance of the three southern Corps of the
Third Army. In order to complete the record it is necessary to
return to October 13, and to trace the operations of Fergusson's
Seventeenth Corps, which were left on that date in front of the Selle
River. On October 14 the 72nd Brigade of the Twenty-fourth Division,
which was in the van, gained a footing at the edge of Haussy village,
which straddles the river. On October 16 this same brigade took the
whole village on either bank. The left of the line was held up,
however, by a particularly heavy gas screen. Later in the day the
Germans were into Haussy once more, but again were pushed out from
the western section of it, on which they gas-shelled it, to the
destruction of a number of unfortunate civilians who had been unable
to get away. 400 prisoners were taken during the day. October 17
saw the British line where it had been on the 15th, as the gas clouds
hanging low over the river valley made the position down there
untenable.
On October 20, a rainy and tempestuous day, the general advance of
the whole Third Army was resumed. The Nineteenth Division having
relieved the Twenty-fourth, carried out the advance on the front of
the Seventeenth Corps, having in touch with it the Fourth Division of
the Twenty-second Corps on the left, and the Guards of the Sixth
Corps on the right. The attack of the Nineteenth {251} Division had
for its first objective the bridging of the Selle, the capture of the
railway and high ground beyond, and of the village of East Haussy.
The second stage should be the ridge to the east. Two brigades
advanced--the 57th on the left and the 58th on the right--behind a
fine barrage from eleven brigades of artillery.
[Sidenote: Oct 20-25.]
The attack was started at 2 in the morning, and before 4 A.M. the
57th Brigade were in the whole of Haussy, the resistance having been
slight. At 6 o'clock the 8th Gloucesters, on the extreme right, had
reached their final objective, where they were endeavouring to get
touch with the Guards in the neighbourhood of Maison Blanche. The
10th Warwicks were held up on the left, but soon cleared out the
obnoxious pocket. By 9 o'clock the 58th Brigade was also on its
extreme limit, and an obstinate strong point was surrounded and
destroyed. In this brigade the 2nd Wiltshires had the worst ordeal,
but they won through at last. Patrols on the right had reached the
banks of the Harpies. The blow had, as must be admitted, been
delivered in the air, but the river line had been won, and that was
the essential.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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