At daybreak the order came to advance. A and C Companies were to form
the firing-line, B and D Companies were to be in support. We formed the
right of the brigade, and had to get in touch with the Westshires, who
were on the left of the --th Brigade, on our right. The initiative of
the attack rested with A and C Companies; our task was to follow behind
over the ground they had gained and be ready to come up into line with
them should they lose many men or find themselves hard pressed. The
enemy we knew to be holding a group of houses about 700 yards away.
The ground sloped gently back from these houses to the outskirts of
the town. My company, B Company, under Goyle, had been extended during
the night, in a field to the right of the road, and had thrown up a
low earthwork parapet. We now lay behind this while A and C Companies
pushed through us to the front. The parapet proved none too high,
for as soon as the men in front showed themselves a brisk fire came
from the enemy in the houses. We all lay flat on the ground, and the
bullets came phzz-phzz over us, missing us, as it seemed, by an inch
or two. There is an old military adage that the man who thinks each
bullet he hears is going to hit him is making active service a torture
to himself. Now, it is all very well to preach the value of being
philosophical in warfare and to recommend the man under fire not to
think about being hit, but that peculiar sharp little whistle which a
bullet makes as it passes one's ear takes a good deal of getting used
to, and one's first instinct as one hears it is to slide as deep and
far into the ground as possible. We all lay there with our noses flat
in the earth, wondering how the fellows in front were getting on and
when it would be our turn to get up. The opportunity came pretty soon,
for, as the company in front seemed to be held up by the enemy in the
houses, Goyle decided to send round a flanking party, and sent off No.
7 and 8 platoons to work their way round on the right. This plan proved
successful, and A Company was able to get ahead. Goyle now signalled
for the two platoons, which had remained with him, to advance. We rose
and moved forward in extended order for 300 yards and then lay down
again.
After a few minutes Goyle exclaimed: