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
The Sixty-second West Yorkshire Territorials on the right of the
Guards had an equally arduous day. They had found the same
difficulties in getting forward, but at 5 P.M. the enemy had the
indiscretion to counter-attack, and when once he masks his own {110}
machine-guns he has ceased to be formidable. His attack was near
Mory Copse and aimed at the junction between the two divisions, but
it was heavily punished and shredded away to nothing. About 7 P.M.
he tried another advance upon the right of the Sixty-second Division
and won his way up to the line, but was thrown out again by the 5th
West Ridings and driven eastward once more. The 186th Brigade,
forming the right of the division, co-operated with the Fourth Corps
in their attack upon Favreuil, which place was captured.
On the evening of August 25 Haldane's Sixth Corps, which had become
somewhat unwieldy in size, was limited to the north on a line just
south of Croisilles, so that the Fifty-second, Fifty-sixth, and
Fifty-seventh Divisions all became Fergusson's Seventeenth Corps,
which was thus thrust between the Sixth Corps and the Canadians, who
had not yet made their presence felt upon this new battle-ground.
The Seventeenth Corps was now the left of the Third Army, and the
Canadians were the right of the First Army. The immediate task of
both the Sixth and Seventeenth Corps was the hemming in and capture
of Croisilles, and the reoccupation of the old army front line.
August 26 was a quiet day on this front, but on August 27 the Guards
and the Sixty-second Division were ordered forward once more, the
former to attack Ecoust and Longatte, the other to storm
Vaulx-Vraucourt. The First German Division encountered was easily
driven in. The second, however, the Thirty-sixth, was made in a
sterner mould and was supported by a strong artillery, large and
small. The 2nd Grenadiers and 2nd Coldstream in the front line of
the Guards {111} 1st Brigade got forward for nearly a mile on each
flank, but were held up by a withering fire in the centre, so that
the flanks had eventually to come back. The Fifty-sixth Division of
the Seventeenth Corps had not yet captured Croisilles, from which a
counter-attack was made upon the left flank of the 2nd Coldstream,
which was handsomely repulsed.
On the whole, however, it had been an unsatisfactory day and the
Sixty-second had been equally unable to get forward, so that none of
the objectives had been gained. The Seventeenth Corps and the
Canadians in the north were both advancing, however, and it was
possible that the position in the south might alter as a consequence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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