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
Meanwhile, the subsidiary attack on the right flank had also been
successful up to a point. The New Zealanders on the immediate south
of the Fifth Division had gone forward in their usual workman-like
fashion, and had taken Puisieux. Upon their right, and next to the
Fifth Corps who were beginning their arduous crossing of the Ancre,
was the Forty-second Division (Solly-Flood), an ex-Palestine unit of
Lancashire Territorials which had won laurels in the March fighting.
It had come away with a flying start, and had got as far as the
important point named Beauregard Dovecote. There it remained until
the early morning of August 22, when the enemy regained it by a
spirited attack from a new division. The total effect of the day's
work along the whole front of the Fourth Corps had been the capture
of 1400 prisoners, of a number of guns, and of an extent of ground
which was important, though less than had been hoped for. The main
resistance had always been the railway, and the German guns behind
it, so that to that extent his line was really inviolate. Indeed
from his point of view the whole work of the Third Army on that date
might be represented as an attack upon a false front, the real
position remaining intact.
[Sidenote: August 22.]
The enemy was by no means abashed, and early in the morning of August
22 he showed that he did not propose to surrender the field until he
had fought to regain it. At dawn the Fifty-second German Division
deployed through Miraumont and fell upon the left of the Fifth
Division in one direction, and {123} the Forty-second in the other.
As already stated they succeeded in driving back the latter, and
Beauregard Dovecote remained as a prize of victory. Some three
hundred Germans pushed through between Third the Fifth Division and
the New Zealanders, but were at once attacked by a party of the 1st
Devons, assisted by some of the New Zealanders. Corporal Onions of
the Devons showed great initiative in this affair, which ended in the
capture of the whole of the intruders. He received the V.C. for his
gallantry.
It was a day of reaction, for the Sixty-third Division in the north
was strongly attacked, and was at one time pushed as far as Logeast
Wood. They rallied however and came back, but failed to regain the
railway at Achiet-le-Grand. Early in the morning of August 23 the
Beauregard Dovecote was finally captured by units of the Forty-second
and New Zealanders, the enemy falling back to Miraumont. About the
same hour in the morning the Sixth Corps in the north had taken
Gomiecourt as already described, which strengthened the general
position.
[Sidenote: August 23.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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