The Road to Passchendaele by Richard Van Emden

Author:Richard Van Emden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2017-04-09T04:00:00+00:00

Lieutenant Martin Evans, 9th The Welch Regiment

10 June: An artilleryman has promised to post this [letter] with others. I wrote to you yesterday from near the Grand Boise, which for years we have been looking at and now it is ours. It was thought we were to go further up, after much discussion, reorganizing and redistributing of material we had orders to come back to our old front line. Got in at 11.00 pm and slept the sleep of the just and today we had intervals of ‘dosses’.

We go forward tonight only to hold on until relief arrives. Will write when we get out. The chief need is water. Most of the morning has been spent in writing recommendations as some medals will be on their way; I put forward Saunders and Morris, but for the others I had largely to rely on what the sergeants could tell me, as in the hurly-burly I could not see everywhere. The next need is a wash, it is a risk which I take, using water from any shell hole, at the moment they are dry. The other Morris had lent me a razor. Three days without. Different from when I first came out, the Colonel had me on the mat for not growing a moustache. It just could not be done then. The papers say Haig has pushed, they ought to say Plumer, it was entirely his affair; we gained every objective, it has been a model attack; the most complete within defined limits, in history.

I suppose I have to tell you some time, I can hardly bring myself to do so. Words fail me when I say that my most loyal, devoted companion and friend, my Platoon Sergeant Owen was killed. It goes without saying that my batman Davies was wounded, how badly is not known. Among the ten killed are Corporal Manning and little Waggett from my platoon. God bless you. I trust we shall all get home someday.

Major William Watson, D Battalion, Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps

The attack was a complete and overwhelming success. The whole of the ridge, which for so many weary months had dominated our lines, was captured at a low cost. A and B battalions of tanks were useful but not indispensable. The ground was difficult and in places impossible. Many tanks became ditched. Certain tanks retrieved a local situation finely by the stout repulse of a strong counter-attack. We received the impression that, if the weather had been wet, tanks could not have been used. …

The taking of the Messines Ridge was encouraging, and for a time we cast covetous eyes on Lille; but, thinking it over, we began to rate Messines at its true value – a very notable but local success.

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