Elaborate measures were at once undertaken for strengthening the fortifications and especially the wire round the Farm. Daily progress of the Breakwater was studied on aeroplane photographs, and a raid was organised to discover the strength and purpose of the new trench. The raiding party of 5 officers and 83 other ranks was composed of selected volunteers from the whole brigade, and was led by Capt. E. B. Alley, of 2nd Otago Preceded by an intense local bombardment of 20 minutes' duration and protected by a covering barrage, the assault was made during the night 16th/17th June. The party was unlucky in crossing No Man's Land, where 4 officers, including Alley himself, were wounded, and 1 man killed and 5 wounded by shell-fire. The trench was found not yet advanced enough to be garrisoned except by outpost sentries. Half a dozen Germans had already been killed in the bombardment, but the raiders had the satisfaction of bayoneting 2 others. Unfortunately Alley succumbed to his wounds in the morning. The following night a patrol went out to ascertain whether attempts were being made to repair the damage. A large enemy party was detected at work, and was swept by artillery fire. The effect of these operations and subsequent bombardments was to discourage the enemy for the time from pursuing whatever object he had in view in developing the Breakwater,{30} In the light of after events it appears probable that the Germans were credited with a more sinister purpose than they actually entertained.
As an auspicious beginning to the raids delivered in connection with the offensive on the Somme, a highly satisfactory enterprise was carried out by the Rifle Brigade late at night on 25th June. At the same hour the 2nd Australian Division executed a not less successful raid to the south. A party of the 2nd Rifles, consisting of 3 officers and 70 other ranks, under Capt. A. J. Powley, raided the enemy trenches opposite Pont Ballot salient. As on the 16th, several Germans had already been killed in the prelude of artillery fire, but this time the enemy trenches were fully manned. Many were bombed in the darkness of their dugouts, and 29 were killed in the open trench. Nine prisoners, including a warrant officer, were brought back, together with rifles, bayonets, gas helmets, letters and papers. Two sappers attached to the party blew up a gas engine used for pumping, and destroyed the main dugout, which was fitted with electric light. 5 other ranks were wounded by the enemy retaliation, and a German bomb, which a rifleman was carrying homewards, exploded, killing him and wounding 3 others Powley was later awarded the Military Cross in recognition of his successful leadership, and 2 of his N.C.O.s the Military Medal for marked gallantry.
It was now the turn of the 1st Brigade, and on 1st July a raid was carried out by 1st Wellington on the trenches opposite Pigot's Farm. These marked the junction of the sectors held by 2 German Divisions.{31} The unusually excellent account rendered by the battalion to Brigade Headquarters is reproduced.
Particulars of Raid carried out on the Night of 1st/2nd July Reference Map 36 N.W.4 1/10,000
A raiding party under Capt. A. B. McColl, consisting of 4 officers and 77 other ranks, assaulted the enemy's trenches on the night of the 1st/2nd July at 1.17.a. 1½/5½.
The night was dark and the weather fine.
The scouts{32} moved out through the sally port as soon as it was dark, and at 11.45 p.m. two returned and led out the remainder of the raiding party to selected positions in No Man's Land.
The bombardment by the artillery and M.T.Ms. commenced at 12.30 a.m. Six M.T.Ms. were employed solely for cutting wire.
After 20 minutes' bombardment, the artillery firing at the assaulting point lifted and formed a semi-circular barrage.
The scouts went forward and found the wire had been thoroughly cut. They had only to clear the loose wire away. They were not fired on and encountered no opposition.
Where the wire had been cut, a listening sap had come out to the outer edge of the wire, and the centre party had an easy method of entry to the trench along this.
None of the parties met with the slightest resistance. What men were in the trench were cowed by our artillery fire and were crouching in shelters under the parapet. These were either passed up to the prisoner parties or killed if they refused to move.
The raiders remained 8 minutes in the trench, and at a whistle signal withdrew. Without waiting in No Man's Land they returned direct to battalion headquarters.
The artillery ceased fire at 1.24 a.m.
The enemy continued his bombardment until 1.45 a.m.
Telephonic communication was satisfactorily maintained throughout.
Our casualties were:—
1 officer died of wounds.
1 man killed.
9 men wounded.
Of these, one man was killed and four others were wounded by a shell bursting when waiting in No Man's Land. One man was wounded in our trenches after the return of the parties. Four were wounded during the course of the raid.
Capt. A. B. McColl reached our trenches, but returned to help our stretcher-bearers, who had got into difficulties in a ditch not far from our parapet. When getting back over the parapet he was caught by machine gun fire and severely wounded. He died before reaching the dressing station.
Prisoners—Ten prisoners were brought back, two of whom were wounded.
All the enemy that were in the trenches were taken prisoners or killed. It is not known how many were killed, as bombs were used and nobody took account of the dead.
Information Gained.
Entanglements—The entanglements were approximately 35 yards thick and about 4 feet 6 inches high. The wire, which was very strong, with heavy barbs close together, was erected on knife-rests and screw-stakes. Before the bombardment it had been in good order.
Parapet—The parapet was fully 20 feet wide at the base and 6 feet wide at the top. There were no sandbags, and the trenches were revetted with lattice work. There was a very shallow "Borrow Pit," completely clear of wire, in front.
Trenches—There were no dugouts under the parapet, but there were shallow shelters. At one point in the parapet there was a large bomb store with iron doors. Out of these doors three men came, a fourth remaining inside with the doors shut. These doors were blown in by an engineer when the raiders withdrew. In the front trench a pump shaft was found leading from a deep well to a pumping station some distance in rear. The shaft was demolished by an engineer, who followed the pipe line for 10 yards to the rear but could not find a pump. The trench was about 6 feet deep. It was narrow, strongly traversed, and floored with duckboards. There was a traffic trench at the back of the parados, through which about every 20 yards there was an opening to the front line.
Parados—The parados was not so high as the parapet. In it were a number of dugouts, several of which had beds. They were all very strongly constructed, with a thick solid roof supported by heavy iron girders. The floor of most of the dugouts was level with the floor of the trench, but a few were a little deeper from the trench level. In all of them it was possible to stand up. They were lighted by electricity, and the doors all faced towards the enemy's rear.
Machine Guns—No machine guns or snipers' positions were found.
The Enemy—An officer was taken prisoner but would not cross No Man's Land, and had to be shot. The enemy were evidently expecting to be relieved, for their packs were made up. A number of these, including one belonging to an officer, were brought away, and from them a. Corps Intelligence Officer obtained a number of useful papers. On account of the expected relief there was little in the dugouts.
The trench was not heavily held.
Our Artillery—Our artillery co-operation was very good. The parapet was in places much knocked about, and one dugout was considerably damaged. The parados was hit in many places, much damage having been done.
There were very few dead as the results of our shelling, but what men there were had no fight left in them.
Enemy's Artillery—The enemy's reply started 5 minutes after our bombardment had commenced. No. 1 Locality, Central and Port Egal Avenues and Graham's Post suffered a fair amount of damage.
Miscellaneous—No steel helmets were found, but spiked helmets with Prussian and Saxon badges, a quantity of clothing, a number of books, flares, rifles, bayonets, and a pair of field glasses were brought back.
The Division was not, however, to be exempt from the vicissitudes of war, and ill fortune attended the next few ventures A raid by 2nd Wellington, directed at the trenches near the Frelinghien Brasserie, on the following night, 2nd/3rd July, at 11.30 p.m. was unsuccessful. As soon as ever our bombardment started, the enemy put down on and in front of our parapet a heavy artillery fire which by accident or design fell with special weight on a drain in No Man's Land, where our party lay prior to the moment for moving forward. None the less at the appointed time the raiders advanced to the enemy's entanglements through machine gun fire, which caused further severe casualties. There only a gap of about 6 feet had been cut, and as the raiders dribbled through this and forced their way into the trench, they were bombed in detail by the Germans, who had evacuated their front line and threw their bombs from a close support trench. The artillery plan on this occasion was while shelling the flanks and encircling the position by the customary protective box barrage, to bombard the interior of the position only for the final 10 minutes so as to give the raiders a chance to capture a number of prisoners. Though well-conceived, however, this idea actually allowed the enemy time to collect smoke bombs and grenades, and was considered afterwards to have been a mistake. An enemy attempt to follow up the raiders was frustrated without difficulty. More serious, however, was the intense enfilade machine gun fire to which the withdrawal was exposed. But it was carried out with consummate steadiness and skill, and thanks to this the casualties proved less than had been with reason feared. An officer and 11 men were killed and 2 officers and 34 rank and file wounded. In addition, 5 men were missing. Where all behaved with courage, exceptional gallantry was shown by Coy.-Sergt.-Major W.E Frost{33}, who assisted Lt, R, E. V. Riddiford to cover the withdrawal. Paying no heed to the imminent danger to his own life, Frost twice returned under heavy fire to the German lines through the enemy wire and carried back 2 seriously wounded men who, lying within a few feet of the enemy's parapet, would certainly but for his action have been killed or taken prisoners. Frost was recommended for the V.C. and awarded the D.C.M. and Medaille Militaire.{34} Great devotion to duty was shown also by the regimental stretcher-bearers under Sergt. L. R. Nicholas who remained at their post in the front line under continuous heavy shelling for an hour and a half.
The Maoris were keenly anxious to emulate these achievements and revive in modern battle the traditions of their warrior stock. Fortune, however, was to be unkind. They proposed to raid the trenches opposite the locality called Pety Cury in our left brigade subsector on the night 9th/10th July. The enterprise was to be "silent" without artillery support but in combination with a dummy raid on Brune Rue to the south. With intense chagrin the Maoris found that a gap cut previously in the German wire by our artillery was now closed, and that the entanglements were too dense to permit of ingress. Attempting it again on the following night, 10th/11th July, while a diversion was carried out on a flank, they cleared a gap after some time and deployed silently inside the wire ready to rush the trench. But the German sentries had observed them, and strong German patrols crept out on either side to cut them off. The crawling forms of the enemy were, noticed just in time, and the raiders having no chance against their very superior numbers withdrew without confusion. The enemy followed them up with some deliberation over No Man's Land, wasting his bombs, till he reached within 70 yards of our trenches. Once the Maoris had clambered over our parapet, the garrison's machine guns and rifles lashed their pursuers, who could now be faintly discerned, and followed them up with fire as they retreated in disorder and with casualties to their own trenches.
The following night, 11th/12th July, a raid by 2nd Otago at Pont Ballot was also a failure. The wire was reported to have not been cut. On the 13th/14th, while gas was released on the 2nd Brigade subsector, a large raid by 1st Otago from the 1st Brigade trenches marked the high-water mark of our reverses. Assembled in No Man's Land, the raiders were swept by a tremendous concentration of shrapnel and machine gun fire which burst out the very instant our bombardment started. No regiment was less likely to be disheartened or deterred from a project by any form of hostile opposition than the hard-bitten soldiers of Otago. With their lines raked by fire, they pressed as far as the enemy's entanglements, and only then, after they had lost three-quarters of their strength, was the order to withdraw reluctantly given and as reluctantly obeyed. By the time that the party regained our trenches, 4 officers were killed and 4 wounded, and 50 other ranks killed and over 100 wounded. Only 6 men indeed returned unhurt out of the original muster. As in the case of the 2nd Wellington raid on 2nd/3rd July, such was the uncanny promptitude and deadly accuracy of the enemy retaliation that it seemed certain that the Germans had acquired information through unguarded conversation either in a town estaminet—for Armentieres was not without its German agents—or over the telephone. The shelling was extended to the batteries and about midnight caused the death of Capt. J. L. H. Turner, commander of the 4th Howitzer Battery.
This disaster was to some extent avenged on the night 14th/15th by a successful raid of the 4th Rifles at the Lille Road Salient. An excellent track 10 feet wide was cut through the wire by our trench mortars. The real attack was preceded half an hour previously by a dummy raid on the same spot. Intense havoc had been wrought by our artillery. The trenches were completely obliterated. The remains of several dead were so shattered that it was impossible to procure identification. The raiders lost only 1 man killed and 2 wounded. An effort by a German flank party to work round our rear was dispelled by the protecting scouts with bombs, and the enemy fled immediately.
Meanwhile the drain of the deadly struggle to the south was affecting the German garrisons in the same way as it had thinned our own. 1 It was calculated that since the beginning of the Somme operations 9 of the enemy's battalions had been withdrawn from the Lens-Lille area. Accordingly a threat against Lille was likely to embarrass him gravely. With this end in view operations were designed to take place just to the south of the New Zealand sector on 19th and 20th July. The attack was entrusted to the XI Corps under Lieut.-Gen. Sir R. Haking and carried out at 11 a.m. on 19th July by the 61st Division and the 5th Australian Division. The result was to fall much short of expectation. To assist the enterprise by way of diversion, smoke and gas were discharged on the night of the 19th/20th on the New Zealand front, and a violent bombardment, in which the Corps “heavies” co-operated, was directed from 8 p.m. till 11 p.m. on the whole of the enemy's trenches billets and batteries. In addition, 2 raiding enterprises were carried out simultaneously by the 1st and Rifle Brigades. 1st Auckland found only dead and debris, but on their right a party of 75 men of the 1st Rifles led by Capt. J. R. Cowles was more fortunate. A few Germans had been killed by our artillery, but there remained 35 alive in the 80 yards of trench assaulted. Utterly terrified, they would not leave their dugouts, so they were bombed and shot at leisure and afterwards counted. Numerous articles brought back, including shoulder-straps helmets and letters from the dead, yielded useful identifications. The return was made under heavy shell and machine gun fire, but thanks to Cowles' skilful dispositions, the raiders escaped with only 7 men wounded. At the same time the Germans, as we shall see, also made a raid. The ammunition expended on this night by the Divisional artillery alone in connection with these activities exceeded 12,000 rounds. Assistance was given to the 5th Australian Division in the evacuation their heavy casualties.
A period of comparative quiescence now followed, due mainly to a shortage of ammunition caused by a stupendous explosion in one of the great northern depots.{35} A final raid was made on 12th August, when Capt. G. C. W. Armstrong and a party of the-3rd (Auckland City) Company of 2nd Auckland captured 2 prisoners and a machine gun with insignificant casualties. The scene was again the Breakwater, and a powerful artillery diversion was made on Frelinghien. The trenches in front of the village, which also were subjected to concentrated shelling, were reported to have been strongly manned. It so happened that at the time of the raid a German patrol was in No Man's Land. All but 1 of the patrol were killed, and he lost his way and wandered into our trenches near by. These identifications were of importance as confirming the presence of the VI. Reserve Corps on this part of the front in place of the XIX. Corps which had been transferred to the Somme.
In addition to the infantry penetrations there were practised on several occasions so-called “dummy raids” when the artillery action, feigning to support an infantry assault, carried out a bombardment and box barrage for the purpose of confusing the enemy, lowering his morale, and inflicting casualties. Not the least successful perhaps was one delivered on the night 14th/15th August on the front line trenches opposite 2 projecting points in our lines called the Railway Salient and the Mushroom, while simultaneously on the right the 18th Divisional Artillery bombarded the enemy's Rue du Bois Salient. In this instance the intention was to make the enemy man his parapet between the 2 points under fire. At a given moment on the conclusion of the bombardment, 2 minutes' rapid 18-pounder fire was poured by both artilleries into the intervening sector. “Judging by the noise heard,” observes the Corps Diary drily, “considerable casualties were caused.”
If this offensive and aggressive policy did not fulfil its entire purpose, which indeed it was too much to hope for, it was none the less shown by manifold indications to have imposed an exhausting strain on German resources and to have seriously impaired German nerves. The Army Commander, ever ready to recognise merit, expressed his appreciation of the energy and devotion displayed by calling in person at the various brigade headquarters to express his satisfaction and thanks.
The German raids on the Divisional sector were neither so numerous as our own (4 as against 11), nor did they achieve as substantial success. The first was launched at 1st Auckland in the l'Epinette Salient on 3rd/4th July. An effort made on the same night against the Australians on the right was repulsed by machine gun fire. The assault on the l'Epinette was accompanied by a heavy bombardment from 10 p.m. till 11.45 p.m., and after an interval from midnight to 12.45 a.m. Just prior to the commencement of the bombardment the enemy fortified his nerves by a sing-song in his trenches. On the S.O.S. call our artillery put down a barrage on the enemy parapet and in No Man's Land, but shortly after midnight the raiders rushed through it and made for our trenches. In No Man's Land they were broken up by a listening post of 5 private soldiers who threw no less than 80 Mills Bombs at their adversaries. In the end 1 of our post was killed, 1 crawled back to the trenches severely wounded, and the other 3 were taken prisoners. Examined later, the ground showed signs of a desperate struggle. The efforts of these out-numbered but undaunted men prevented all but. a, handful of the enemy from entering our trenches. At these a machine gunner threw a bomb, and I of the party was wounded and fell into our hands. The rest after a brief show of fighting fled, leaving behind them 2 mobile charges. Apart from the 3 prisoners, our casualties, all inflicted by the bombardment, were 33 men killed and 3 officers and over 60 men wounded. The Divisional artillery fired over 4000 rounds in direct connection with the attack, The German casualties were unknown, but “several were heard to squeal,” and in the grey dawn of the following morning, the sentries reported that many killed and wounded were being taken over the enemy parapet. Under this ordeal the Aucklanders' behaviour was stolid and resolute. The commanding officer reported that he believed not a man had left his post without orders.
The second attempt was made on 8th/9th July, further south on the Mushroom just beyond the Lille-Armentières railway. On the whole sector this was the point where the irregular lines of trenches as dug under fire in 1914 most nearly approached each other. Long previous to the Division's arrival mines had been exploded here on both sides. The resultant craters, developed and protruding like bulbous excrescences into No Man's Land, had given its name to the locality. Only 60 yards separated the foremost saps. The spot had already won a notoriety in the Division for unpleasantness and been the scene of episodes that stood out from the monotonous routine of trench warfare. On a quiet afternoon towards the end of May a rifle grenade was fired into our trenches with a note attached: “What time is it, Anzacs?” The appellation in itself did not necessarily imply enemy knowledge that the sector was held by New Zealanders, since they had already obtained identifications from the Australians; and as late as the middle of June a Saxon, who was on reconnaissance and was captured by a 1st Otago patrol, thought that our trenches were held by Indians. On 2nd June the enemy placed a white board 5 feet by 4 feet on their parapet, opposite the Mushroom:—
English defeat at sea
7 cruisers sunk
1 damaged
11. small craft sunk
Hip Hip Hurrah!
This was the first intimation received by the troops in the line of the Battle of Jutland.{36} On receipt of the British official despatch a table was displayed by us showing the respective naval losses. This was left exposed for half an hour, and no shot was fired at it. Shortly after its removal the enemy put up a board on which was written “We beg of you to show again the table of the fleets.” At the same time 2 enemy heads were seen under brand-new “porkpie” caps. Another message was then hoisted, “Once more, will you let us see the message again?” This request was not complied with, but on 12th June a placard was displayed by us in German, giving details of the sea-battle and the news of the Russian successes won at this time. On this a number of Germans showed themselves taking hasty glances at the notice. They consoled themselves by calling out, somewhat prematurely, that Greece had taken sides with the Fatherland. Some 10 days later the Gorman garrison practised a gas alarm, ringing their bells and blowing their syrens, and a stentorian voice shouted in good English “Gas alarm! Are you going to advance?” and a few minutes later, for his own entertainment, ordered “Advance!” Towards the end of June the Mushroom was the scene of the one and only case in the history of the Division, of desertion to the enemy. 10/2719 Pte. W. P. Nimot crept unnoticed from the Mushroom across to the German lines. He was actuated mainly by a feeling of soreness over a recently awarded punishment and by an acute dislike of shell-fire and other dangers incidental to the trenches, but German blood was in his veins. It is worthy of note that later he wrote to the High Commissioner requesting his share of the parcels despatched to New Zealand prisoners in Germany. On the same day and at the same place 1st Wellington received in exchange a German deserter.
By this proximity and by its configuration the salient was marked out as a particularly vulnerable spot in our defences. In the first days of July our Engineers had destroyed a mine tunnel by a camouflet which probably caused the death of German miners and may have furnished an immediate motive for the raid. On 8th July the Mushroom was garrisoned by 1st Canterbury. A fierce bombardment was opened at 9.10 p.m. which lasted for 50 minutes. It completely destroyed the trenches and caused very heavy casualties. One 8-in. and several 5.9-in. unexploded shells were found next morning, At 10.15 p.m. 2 red rockets shot up in the German lines, and the enemy attacked. The first assault was repelled by the survivors in our trenches under Sergt. S. G. Brister. At 10.50 p.m. there was a lull. Soon after 11 p.m., however, the bombardment recommenced, and attacking on both flanks, the enemy by a prodigal use of bombs succeeded in forcing their way in. The German officer in command of the party haughtily summoned Brister to surrender, and when he refused fired at him point-blank with his revolver, wounding him in the face. Simultaneously Brister flung a bomb at the officer and was “certain that he got him.” But the garrison, losing heavily, was yard by yard forced down the communication trench till they reached a block. Here they stood at bay and continued to hurl their bombs into the Mushroom.
All the Canterbury officers on the spot had been killed or wounded, and the counter-attack was led forward by Lt. E. H. T. Kibblewhite, a machine gun officer, whose section was posted in rear of the Mushroom. With a mixed party of machine gunners, sappers and infantry he reoccupied the salient in half an hour from the time of the German entry. Flanking parties of the Battalion were sent into No Man's Land to cut off the raiders but without success. Our dead had not been searched nor had the dugouts been ransacked. A man who with 2 dead comrades was pinned under a wooden frame of the trench reported that the Germans had been fully occupied in carrying back their dead and wounded. The sandbags on the parapet indeed were marked with their blood-stains. They secured 3 prisoners. Our casualties were in addition 2 officers and 21 other ranks killed and 3 officers and 90 other ranks wounded. Throughout the attack our artillery bombarded the enemy's position and on his withdrawal concentrated on his communication trenches in order to harass the raiders' return. This activity, however, brought down a fresh storm of shell on our own area, preventing the rescue of the wounded. So the guns were asked to discontinue, and the remainder of the night was spent in excavating the buried, some of whom though shaken were still alive, and in repairing our trenches and opening communications. The breaches in the front line parapet were repaired by dawn.
Just before midnight on the feverish night 19th/20th July, only 500 yards away from the scene of the 1st Rifles' raid,{37} a large enemy party made an attempt on the Rue du Bois salient, which was at the time held by the 2nd Rifles. Our artillery fire in connection with our own 2 raids and the more ambitious operations of the XI. Corps was active on the enemy's line throughout the period, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that the Germans suffered casualties before reaching our trenches. The enemy bombardment was of exceptional fury, 8000 shells being flung into the area exclusive of trench mortar projectiles. The whole ground was turned over as if by a volcanic upheaval, and the local features altered so as to be unrecognisable. At the northern end of the salient, called the Dead End, the Germans effected a bare lodgment and captured 3 men out of a listening post. They were met at the “stop,” where the sap from No Man's Land ran into the trench, and were bombed back, leaving 1 wounded and 2 dead in our hands. At the apex 2 minenwerfer bombs made an enormous crater, which was at first supposed to be a mine, and buried 2 mortars and an officer and 12 men of the 3rd Light Trench Mortar Battery. On the southern tip the attack failed. Under the tornado of shells, trenches and parapets were heaped in mingled confusion, but the riflemen set an example of fortitude and dour resistance which it would have been impossible to surpass. The enemy left behind him 12 mobile charges and a quantity of raiding material. In addition to the 3 prisoners, the total casualties sustained, including those of the machine gunners and mortar battery personnel amounted to an officer and 16 men killed and 30 men wounded. As retaliation, a specially effective bombardment was delivered on the following evening by howitzers and trench mortars against the enemy position opposite the salient.