The history of the Twentieth (Light) DivisionInglefield, Valentine Erskine
History
The history of the Twentieth (Light) Division
Inglefield, Valentine Erskine
Great Britain. Army. Division, 20th (Light); World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
By the 10th of February the Division was once more in the line, this
time in the left sector of the XIVth Corps front. The right flank
rested at the point which had marked the left of the line in January,
a little north of Sailly-Saillisel; the left was 1400 yards south-west
of Le Transloy. Again the front was held by two brigade groups, the
right group consisting of the battalions of the 61st Brigade with the
6th Oxford and Bucks L.I. and the 6th K.S.L.I., the left group of the
battalions of the 59th Brigade with the 12th K.R.R.C. and 12th R.B.
The 83rd Field Company R.E. was in the right group and the 96th in the
left; two machine-gun companies were in the line and one in reserve.
Brigade headquarters, which relieved each other in a regular sequence,
each spent sixteen days in the line and eight at Carnoy. The Divisional
reserve, under the command of the Brigadier at Carnoy, consisted of two
battalions from each group, the 11th D.L.I., the 84th Field Company
R.E., and a machine-gun company. The C.R.A. commanded the 78th and 79th
Field Artillery Brigades and the 28th Heavy Group, as the brigades of
the 20th Divisional Artillery were still covering the centre sector of
the Corps front.
A few days after the Division came into this line German aeroplanes
dropped about 200 bombs around Maricourt and Carnoy. The chief damage
they did was to set on fire the Plateau ammunition dump. Two very
big explosions were heard by troops in the front line some hours
afterwards, and the fire, which began at 5.30 A.M., continued
till nightfall, some undetonated shells being thrown a distance of a
mile and a half.
As part of the front line defences taken over by the left brigade group
there was a very isolated post, known as “B” post, some 300 yards in
front of the trenches and out of sight from anywhere in the line. This
was a very difficult place to hold, and even to approach. Owing to the
constant fire of the enemy’s machine guns throughout the night, the
only way in which reliefs could be carried out was by sending up two
or three men at a time. Even then the men had to crawl on their hands
and knees for the last seventy or eighty yards, finally entering the
post through a gap in the wire at the rear. All reliefs sustained many
casualties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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