On the night of 5th June we marched up to the tunnels in fighting order and remained there until the attack was due to start. During these two days we got very restless, those of us who had been on the Somme did not want a repetition of that but we knew we were going to get it.
We had been told that our miners had dug tunnels under Hill 60 and along the Bluff sector. When the hour of zero arrived these places, which were charged with explosives, would go up, and over we would go. At last the fateful morning came, we were roused from our bunks, not that we were asleep, our minds were far too occupied that that. We had breakfast, got our kit ready and filed out onto the duckboard track, turned to the right and made our way up to the support trench just in front. My company was due to go over in the third wave and take the final objective, called ‘Spoil Bank.’ Zero hour was fixed for 3.20 a.m. We were all given a large rum ration. Soon after, the artillery barrage opened up, the noise was deafening, we could not hear ourselves speak. Jerry then got the wind up, he started to send up coloured very lights, (a signal for help from their own artillery.)
They began to shell us, but not for long, it soon faded away as our shells were dropping round their batteries, they were either knocked out or the gunners ran for cover.
At 3.20 the barrage lifted and began to fall farther over the enemy lines, at the same time we were ordered out of the trench to lay down in front of the parapet and suddenly we heard a might roar. Hill 60 had been blown up. That was the signal for the attack to start, the earth simply rocked like an earthquake. The first wave was now on its way over. The air was full of dust, it made my eyes smart. I admit that as I lay out there I trembled with fear and excitement. I knew that I had to face a terrible time. But in time the rum issue took effect and by the time the order was given to advance my self control had completely returned.
At the signal we got up and advanced. A few German machine guns were still firing in the distance and a few of the men were hit in the first few yards. Presently we came to our front line trench. It was empty save for a few dead men, we jumped over this and made our way to the German front line which was now occupied by the first wave, we passed on to the support line and this was occupied by the second wave. That trench was now our front line.
Those two waves had done their job, we had ours to do, we had to go on to capture our own objective, ‘Spoil Bank.’
On we went, entering the wood that we had seen so much of from our old front line and came up to the ‘White Chateau.’ German snipers were still busy potting at us from a trench nearby but our bombers soon mopped them up. Then to our great surprise we discovered the reason our shells had taken no effect on it. The four walls of the house were brick and inside they had strengthened with three feet of re-enforced concrete. The interior of the house had been used as a head quarters and first aid post. We captured a few prisoners here, the first was an officer and he told us in good English that our shelling had been awful and as our artillery had shelled their roads for the past week they had had no rations for the last three days. He said he would have been relieved days ago but for our shelling. As a matter of fact a relief was taking place at the time of the attack and half of them were casualties before they reached the trenches.
Well so much for the White Chateau.
We had to go on; soon we came to open ground again and could see our objective ahead. German machine guns and snipers had seen us and were giving us a rough time, casualties were occurring, and men were firing their rifles from the hip as they advanced. At last we came to the objective, it was a trench on the edge of a bank, the bank sloped down on the German side.
As we jumped in the trench, Germans were clambering out and running down the bank. We got our gun into position and swept the bank with heavy fire. The rifle sections were putting up a rapid fire also. The bombing sections clambered down the bank and entered the dugouts which were cut into the side, routed out prisoners and marched them back to the trench. These Germans were in a sad plight, dirty, unshaven and shaking from head to foot, they said they were glad to be taken; they were fed up with the war of late. They had spent longer periods in the line and it was getting on their nerves. They also knew that our attack was coming.
They were all marched back to our lines by a party of men and we began to repair the trench as it was almost flat in places, which showed the good shooting of our artillery. During the afternoon the enemy began to shell us, they had evidently taken up new positions. Their new front line was an old reserve trench a few hundred yards in front but we had the advantage of being on higher ground.
Later in the day it began to rain, just our luck, no dugouts, no greatcoats, we had left them behind at the stores. It was still raining at ‘stand to’ (dusk), water was settling in the bottom of the trench and we were wet through. Orders were passed along to ‘stand to’ all night and be prepared for counter attacks, which we knew were' sure to come. He would not lose all that ground without a fight to get it back.
The attack did not come till nearly midnight. They shelled us to hell for about half an hour and then over they came. We saw the crowd of dark forms advancing towards us. The officers were shouting orders down the trench and giving encouragement to our men. We soon got busy with our gun and Gus was putting over a traversing fire for all he was worth, while we supplied him with ammunition and reloaded the magazines as they became empty.
This work occupied our minds and saved us from getting the wind up, it is no good saying we did not get scared because we did and badly too at times. All the guns and riflemen were firing as fast as they could load. Our artillery was also hammering away at them.
Well we managed to repel them, but both sides had suffered casualties. We lost so many men that we were reinforced by men from the support trench. The shelling died down from the German side but our people still kept at it, putting up a heavy fire on their front trenches. For the next hour we were busy attending to the wounded and pitching the dead over the top to make room for the living who had to be prepared for another counter attack. Three times that night we repulsed their attacks and it rained nearly all the time. What a state we were in, wet to the skin, dog tired and hungry, we had had no rations up that night, and our water bottles were empty. The water in the trench was by now over our boot tops, it was difficult to walk about owing to the clay soil making the floor slippery.
More ammunition was sent up to us and we reloaded all the empty magazines, then cleaned up the gun a bit to prepare for another attack at dawn, which thank goodness did not take place.
We expected an early relief after all that strenuous work but we were unlucky. We lay there for six days before it came.
The night after the attacks a few of us went out on the scrounge in no-mans land to see what we could find in way of souvenirs. I badly wanted to obtain a German automatic pistol but was only fortunately able to find a dagger which I cut from an officer’s belt. It was a useful little weapon the blade was about six inches long and fitted into a metal scabbard with a leather loop attached for fixing to a belt. I have kept that souvenir till the present day and will never part with it.
The next day the weather cleared up and the sun came out. The water dried up and we dug ourselves some shelters to make things as comfortable as possible.
On the sixth night we got relieved. Back we tramped for a well deserved rest to a place called ‘Dickebushe,’ a shelled out village about three miles to the rear.
We found a camp there that consisted of wooden huts. Why they had not been shelled I did not know, it was so near the line which was a semi-circle around us. I could tell that by the position of the very lights which were rising and falling around us. A Belgium Farm lay near the camp and the only occupant was an old farmer. From him we could purchase bread and coffee etc. We were glad to buy bread as our own issue was very small, it averaged four men to a 1lb loaf for 24 hours, just enough for one meal, so you can guess he did a good trade with us.
This was not his only occupation, he attended to the farm and as we found out later he was a spy. A battery of field guns took up a position at the rear of the camp but although they had not fired a shot, they were soon shelled out. It was proved that the farmer had somehow given information to the enemy. He was taken away and we heard later he was shot.
The Germans were not long in discovering he was missing, no doubt owing to the fact that they were no longer receiving information. One night they shelled the camp with H.E. and gas shells. No wonder it had not been shelled before, as long as their spy was at work they were content to leave us alone.
The shelling got so bad that we had to leave the huts, don our respirators and take shelter in the ditches. We were shelled nearly all night and by morning the camp and the farm house were almost down to the ground. We had to shift into some old trenches near the line.
Our next appearance in the line was at Poligan Wood near Westoack Ridge. Troops had taken more ground during our rest. The night we went up was pitch dark, the trenches were so full of water that we walked on the top. A duckboard track had been laid down which led up to the new line. It was hard work walking on this track as the boards were wet and slippery and in some places they were missing, having been blown away by shell fire. I remember one chap slipped up on a twisted board, fell into a deep shell hole and landed on the stomach of a dead Jerry, in doing so he forced the air from the dead man’s lungs and he gave a big grunt.
This man was so overcome by the shock that he had to be sent back and report sick. This track crossed the Burr Cross Roads, here we passed a dressing station by the side of the road, dozens of wounded men were lying about, some on stretchers others on the ground. They were groaning and waiting for their wounds to be dressed. One poor fellow had both his legs blown off. He was crying and saying “Will I die, will I die?” I felt very sorry for him, he was covered in mud and blood. He had received first aid treatment but he needed urgent attention. I am afraid that poor fellow soon died. The few R.A.M.C. orderlies were working at top speed dressing the men and putting them into Red Cross ambulances which were waiting in the road.
Other wounded stragglers were coming along the road from the direction of the line, they were pitiful to see, some were bandaged, others their gaping wounds caked with blood.
German prisoners were carrying our men on stretchers, they were made to do this in order to clear away most of the wounded before dawn.
We continued our way along the Menin Road, thankful to get rid of the duckboard track and our destination proved to be in reserve for another Brigade. It was an old German trench with plenty of dugouts and we stayed there for some days. This was our last turn in the line at the Ypres Salient and our casualty list for the summer offensive, from official records were 380 killed, 1,840 wounded, 83 missing.