To the Last Man by Lyn MacDonald

Author:Lyn MacDonald
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241972182
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2014-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

Witherow’s brigade HQ was in the village of Villeselve, south of Ham, south of the Somme canal and south of the main road that ran for seven miles from Ham to Flavy-le-Martel and on across the fields beyond Jussy where Maier and Spengler had watched the British streaming back and their own German reserves advancing to pursue them. But the advance had not been plain sailing. The wooded country beyond gave ample cover, and the British rearguards had opposed them all the way. But the British were few, and the Germans were many. Slowly but inexorably they pressed on, taking heavy casualties, but filtering always forward into the wood and inching steadily onwards.

Earlier that morning, the 10th Essex had marched thankfully down the forest track from Frières, meeting cheerful parties of French infantry and exchanging jovial shouts of greeting as they passed. The sight of the French was comforting. At last, at long last, the Tommies believed, they were going to be relieved. This had also been the hope of General Gough, but events had moved too quickly for the plan to be methodically carried out, and the French were plunged into the fighting almost from the moment of their arrival. Already part of their first two divisions had been rushed up to assist the beleaguered 58th Division in the fight at Tergnier on the right extremity of the British line. Bill Ballard met them in the early hours of the morning as his wagon lumbered along congested roads to reach the gun battery.

945278 Driver Bill Ballard, Royal Field Artillery, 58th Division

Our guns were at Tergnier. That was a big railway depot, but it had been blasted by the Germans. The houses were all blown to bits and the cellars were open, so we were using these ruined cottages as flash cover. We always did that, because eighteen-pounders had a more or less low trajectory. We had our wagon lines and our billets in Chauny, which was a bit south of Tergnier, and it was really cushy there. We had beds and everything in our farmhouse. Wonderful it was after coming down from Passchendaele! Our front lines were somewhere near La Fère, almost running through it, and there was the Gobain Forest, where our infantry were. My brother was in the 6th London Regiment. I found out where he was and went to see him, and I found him in the front line in the Gobain Forest. The 6th and 7th Londons were on the extreme right of the Division, where the British line ended and the French line began.

When we got down from Passchendaele and took over that part of the line, we thought what a hell of a lovely time the French had had in these good billets, though the defences were nothing to write home about. We were just on the outskirts of Chauny in a big farm, and one of our chaps said, ‘There’s a big dump in the town – food and all sorts of stuff.

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