War Services of the 62nd West Riding Divisional ArtilleryAnderson, Austin Thomas
History
War Services of the 62nd West Riding Divisional Artillery
Anderson, Austin Thomas
Great Britain. Army. Division, 62nd; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
At 6 a.m. on the 27th the Corps launched a fresh attack. It was
completely successful, and by 11.30 a.m. we had captured the villages
of Espilly and Nappe. After the attack the batteries advanced one at
a time, and were all in their new positions before dark, the 310th in
the Bois du petit Champ, and the 312th close to and west of Pourcy. We
moved our headquarters to Nanteuil in the evening. It was raining hard,
and the move was rather a cheerless one, the more so as the enemy was
shelling the village hard when we entered it. Lieut. E. S. Lloyd gained
the Military Cross for gallant and distinguished conduct in this day's
action.
By this time I had under my command, in addition to my own artillery,
12 batteries of French Field Artillery and six French heavy batteries.
On the 28th the 312th Brigade moved forward at dawn to positions west
of Marfaux, and supported a successful attack by the 185th Infantry
Brigade on the Montagne de Bligny. The D.A.C. advanced to the vicinity
of Courtagnon.
On the 29th we consolidated and pushed patrols forward, and there
was some very hard fighting. The 310th Brigade moved at dawn to
positions north of Cuitron, and engaged many moving targets with
direct observation firing about 1500 rounds per battery during the
day. D/310 engaged three hostile batteries with great success. Shortly
after mid-day A/310 and C/310 advanced in full view of the enemy to
positions near the Moulin de Chaumuzy and engaged machine guns which
were annoying the infantry. The 312th also advanced two batteries in
close support; B/312 trotted into a position near Chaumuzy under heavy
fire, and suffered a few casualties.
Orders came in the afternoon for the British Corps to be withdrawn from
the line and entrained to another destination, and after supporting
a small operation from 7.45 to 8.45 p.m. the 310th withdrew to their
wagon lines.
The 312th Brigade fired, in the early morning of the 30th, in support
of a French advance, and then withdrew at 10 a.m. to St. Imoges and
thence to Aigny. Divisional Headquarters moved back to Hautvillers.
The Divisional Artillery then marched to Chalons and Coolus, where
they entrained on the 1st and 2nd August, and returned to our old
neighbourhood. Headquarters were in Pas, the 310th Brigade in Couin,
the 312th in Bus, and the D.A.C. in Authie St. Leger.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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