We had to make such arrangements as
would give the appearance that we were doing nothing unusual, that we
were in fact excruciatingly normal. There must be neither more noise nor
less than on an ordinary night, and so the artillery and machine guns
must fire their accustomed bursts into the likely places in the German
lines.
It was a great success. By dawn there was a trench, continuous at least
in appearance along the whole front, at intervals there were rifle and
Lewis gun posts in it; and if there were places where it was preferable
to pass along in the attitude of the serpent after his expulsion from
the Garden of Eden and ever since, there was nothing to show the Germans
which they were. There was wire in front, and the troops got back
without more casualties than averaged as a result of the ordinary
nightly strafes.
Though we took on many tougher jobs later I was never again anxious as
to the result.
Our great days were:--
Stopping the Germans East of BUCQUOY--
March 23rd to 29th, 1918.
The advance West of MIRAUMONT--
21st August, 1918.
The Capture of MIRAUMONT and PYS--
24th August, 1918.
The Capture of VILLERS AU FLOS--
2nd September, 1918.
The Battle of the HINDENBURG LINE--
27th September, 1918.
The Battle of the SELLE RIVER--
20th October, 1918.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25