The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light InfantryRose, Geoffrey Keith
History
The Story of the 2/4th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
Rose, Geoffrey Keith
Great Britain. Army. Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
On August 25 the Battalion, and with it the rest of the Brigade, moved
back from Goldfish Chateau to Query Camp, near Brandhoek. The weather,
which had been fairly fine for several weeks, now again broke in
thunderstorms and rain. Trees were blown down along the main road to
Ypres. The clouds hung low or raced before the wind, so that no
aeroplane nor kite-balloon could mount the sky. This meteorological
revulsion stood the Germans in great stead. Mud and delay, fatal to
us, were to them tactical assets of the highest value. As can easily
be appreciated, to postpone a complicated attack is a proceeding only
less lengthy and difficult than its preparation, nor can attacks even
be cancelled except at quite considerable notice. Thus it befell that
some of our attacks, before they had commenced, were ruined by deluges
of rain when it was too late to change the plans. On August 27 a
further attack upon Gallipoli, Schuler Farm and Winnipeg was made by
the 183rd Brigade in co-operation with the 15th and 48th Divisions.
The mud and enemy machine-gun fire alike proved terrible. The contact
aeroplane soon crashed, the advance failed to reach the 'pill-boxes'
from which the Germans held out, and before night a return had to be
made to the original line.
On August 30 the Brigade went forward once again to Goldfish Chateau.
The camp had not been improved by our predecessors, who had attempted
to dig in. Holes filled with water were the result, and nearly all the
tents and shelters had to be moved. Since the stagnation of the battle
German shelling in the back area had much increased. The field where
the camp lay was bounded on three sides by railways or roads. Some of
our 12-inch howitzers were close in front. Despite our best attempts
to sever association with such targets we had a share in the shells
intended for them. One night especially the long howl of German shells
ended in their arrival very near our tents. The latter had been placed
at one side of the field in order to escape, as we expected, the
shells more likely to be aimed by German gunners at the main road and
railway as targets. We changed our 'pitch,' but the next morning came
a pursuing shell on an old line of fire, which made it clear that the
best place was the deliberate middle of the field.
The passage overhead of German aeroplanes made nights uneasy. Darkness
was lit by those huge flashes in the sky, which denoted explosions of
our dumps of shells. The ground shook many times an hour with great
concussions. Sometimes the crash of bombs and patter of machine-guns
firing at our transport lasted till pale dawn appeared or its approach
was heralded by the bombardment of our guns, whose voice pronounced
the prologue of attack.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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