To the Last Ridge by W. H. Downing

Author:W. H. Downing
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grub Street Publishing
Published: 2014-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

On 24 April 1918 the Germans captured Villers-Bretonneux on the Somme. In a brilliant counter-attack on Anzac Day, the 5th Division recaptured the village, effectively ending the great German offensive. To this day classrooms in the village school display the sign n’oublions jamais l’Australie—never forget Australia.

XIII

THE MIRACLE OF VILLERS-BRETONNEUX

25th April, 1918

ENGLISH BOYS of eighteen and nineteen with a very small leaven of older men took over the heavy responsibility of the sector. They were new to the line — drafts hurried over from England in a time of desperate need. The 8th and 14th Brigades occupied the trenches on their left, the former near Vaire Wood, the latter between them and the English. The 15th were immediately behind both, at Fouilloy and Hamelet and in the Aubigny line, from where they could give prompt aid to the front by Vaire, or Hamel, where the line curved back.

Next morning we stood to arms while French colonials attacked at Hangard Wood and Hangard-en-Santerre, a mile or two on the right of Bretonneux. Here there was heavy fighting, backwards and forwards, day by day. Then for several mornings we stood to arms in the expectation of an attack on the divisional front. It was known that a heavy onset was pending, so we waited every evening, and in the morning long before the dawn. For weeks the enemy had been drenching the whole area with gas — with phosgene, ‘Yellow Cross II’, ‘mustard’, ‘sneezing’, and ‘vomiting’ gas.

Early in the morning of the twenty-fourth of April there was a heavy bombardment. Where we were we had few casualties, but the thunder of doom rolled and boomed along the front.

Mid-morning grew calm. There was an insistent shelling of roads and approaches. Royal Berks. and East Lancs. came by with stretchers. They had been almost annihilated by the weight of metal. They had looked up and seen above them the iron prows of enemy tanks — used here for the first time on the Western Front — then the German masses had rolled like a Juggernaut over the remnants of the garrison. The Australian line had held, but the defenders of Villers-Bretonneux had been completely smashed. The town was lost.

At midday, horses were harnessed to our field-cookers and galloped away. We grumbled at losing our meal, then suddenly became aware that the opposite hill, was full of German infantry. Then came orders to stop all stragglers of whatever Allied nationality, and keep them with us. We were not sorry thus to reinforce our weak platoons. The Tommies proved themselves good men that night, and we thanked our stars we had escaped the hell that they had already endured. Nevertheless, we would have preferred Australians.

We heard one or two guns firing. That was some of the Australian artillery slamming at the enemy over open sights. Their fire and the existence of the long and elaborate Aubigny Line — of which the Germans already possessed the plans — alone appear to have bluffed the enemy from pushing forward then and there.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.