Chapter IV: Armentières Up to Gas Attack (3)

On July 19th the battalion once more relieved the 2/7th K.L.R., "C," "B," "D," "A" being now the order in the line. The repair of the damage done by the raid, the erection of a complicated wire entanglement on the left (which was carried out, under Major H. K. Wilson's supervision, with some difficulty, owing to the heavy shelling and machine-gun fire), and the preparations for a two-company raid to be carried out under Captain Eccles, were quite sufficient to occupy our attention. In addition, one company of Portuguese was attached to us for instruction, forty men being handed over to each company. The relief of these men by another company on the night of the 20th produced rather an amusing scene. It had been arranged that the old company should not leave till the new company had arrived; but some time before the latter were due, the junction of Gloucester Avenue and the subsidiary line was packed with Portuguese, about half of whom went out on their own initiative. Suddenly the Germans opened a regular barrage of gas shells on Houplines Level Crossing, and the wind blew the gas back to our subsidiary line. The commencement of the barrage divided the relieving company into two halves, and likewise the old company, one half of whom, going back without orders, had just passed the Level Crossing. All those on the far side, relieving and relieved troops alike, hurried back to their billets in Armentières. The relieving troops, and a few others who had been stopped by the barrage, rushed into the trenches and mingled with those waiting to go out, thus producing the most complete confusion, to which the necessity of wearing small box-respirators added the finishing touch. It was a matter of no small difficulty to get them sorted out, especially as our only means of communication with the Portuguese was in bad French, and they all talked at once. However, eventually we got things straightened out somehow, and order was once more established.

On July 22nd, 1917, to keep up a pretence that we were going to attack Frelinghien, a practice barrage was put down on that place at 5 p.m. At 5.30 p.m. the enemy replied with a far heavier bombardment of our left company sector, which in a few moments was entirely concealed from view by smoke and dust. A Portuguese Commanding Officer and Adjutant arrived that day for instruction, and Battalion Headquarters was the centre of quite a heavy gas shell bombardment. Fortunately, the next day all the Portuguese were removed. It was not a sector calculated to give new troops a very favourable impression of the line. During that night the battalion north of the Lys dug dummy assembly trenches opposite Frelinghien, and the following day another bombardment was carried out. A second company of 2/7th K.L.R. was now brought into the subsidiary line, partly to enable more work to be done, partly in view of the continued threatening attitude of the Germans.

At 1.55 a.m. on the 26th we discharged two torpedoes in the enemy's wire on the left, and a dummy barrage was put down to divert attention from a 2/8th K.L.R. raid about to take place on our right. We ourselves were scheduled to do a two-company raid, under the command of Captain Eccles, in a short while, and took considerable interest in the reception accorded to the "Irish" raiding party. Our barrage was thin, and the enemy paid little attention to it, but his retaliation fell heavily on the 2/8th K.L.R.

The next two days brought intense artillery fire all over the sector, and on the 27th heavy "minnies" appeared and blew in Captain Burton's Headquarters with two direct hits, though, fortunately, he was not there at the time and no one was killed. The night of the 28th, the original night for relief, produced continuous shrapnel from about 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. all over the subsidiary line and communication trenches. About 3 a.m. an aeroplane bombed Houplines Level Crossing, and a deluge of heavy "minnies" descended on the left-centre company's line; but on the whole we congratulated ourselves on our luck, little dreaming of what was to happen on the real relief night, July 29th. The 2/7th K.L.R. came into the sector without a shell being fired. Colonel Slater and his Headquarters had just arrived, and the relief was progressing well, when, with a sudden rush and roar, a terrific bombardment of Armentières commenced. A regular semicircle of flashes could be seen running continuously round the rear of the enemy line. This was clearly no ordinary shoot, but a specially arranged show with artillery in proportion. The relief was promptly stopped, and all troops stood-to. Suddenly the S.O.S. went up from the right battalion, and our guns opened up. This, however, shortly afterwards proved to be a mistake, and as the German infantry made no move the relief continued. The din was terrific. Apart from the actual noise of the batteries firing and the unbroken rush and scream of shells overhead, the uproar in Armentières was tremendous as buildings were smashed and battered and the broken débris hurled about in all directions by this unceasing rain of shells. Lieutenant Evans rang up on the telephone from Rue Bayard, where he had gone to take over billets, and told us that the town was soaked with gas, and warned us not to come out at present. Fires now began to appear all over the town, but still the barrage did not slacken. At 12.15 a.m. it stopped, but began again with renewed firing at 12.45 a.m., though about 1.15 a.m. this was reduced to one or two areas and some general miscellaneous shooting, lasting until about 4 a.m., when it was further reduced to action by one or two heavy guns alone.

About 3 a.m. "B" Company began to thread its way down Buterne Avenue towards the town. They were caught by a heavy bombardment in the Houplines road, and had to take temporary shelter in odd cellars. "C" Company and Battalion Headquarters followed, but escaped with nothing worse than casual shelling. "A" and "D" Companies remained in the subsidiary line, and very glad they were to do so.

Our arrival in the area of our billets was anything but cheerful. A large part of the Rue de Lille, including the Quartermaster's Stores, was in flames. The house next to Battalion Headquarters was practically gutted, and both the company billets were blazing merrily. The streets were littered with gas shells and the grey powder which they had scattered. The houses also were full of gas, nor were any of the gas-proof cellars better off. The first casualties were being loaded up into the ambulances, the men gasping, vomiting, choking, and with bloodshot, streaming eyes. Lieutenant Wyatt, who gallantly carried a wounded man across Armentières through the bombardment, was especially bad; and Quartermaster-Sergeant Jackson, who had been found wounded and unconscious in the street, was little better. Most of our advance party were in various stages of collapse, and the road to the advanced dressing station was already marked by a small stream of casualties. The civilians were in a terrible state. Gas protection for them consisted merely of one or two "P.H." helmets per family, and many of the poor creatures were now in agony from the gas poisoning. Efforts to rouse the Town Major proved of little use, and a search was instituted to try and discover some part of the town where the gas was less pronounced. It need hardly be said that the Commanding Officer was tireless in his efforts to relieve the situation, and in company with Major H. K. Wilson searched the town from one end to the other. It was on occasions such as these that the ordinary man got a glimpse of what the Commanding Officer really was. After a prolonged search, the schools between St. Vaast Church and the Convent were found to be clear, and thither the remains of the battalion were removed. The men, utterly tired out, fell fast asleep, but only to wake up and find that they were blind. This was "mustard gas," till then unheard of by us; and processions of blind men, led by one who could still see, became more and more frequent. We did contrive to make some tea, but the rest of the food was splashed with gas and was unusable; otherwise there was little to be done. The shelling of the Place de la Republique now began from a heavy battery, and the shells came perilously near the open courtyard where we sat under the cloisters that surround it. A thunderstorm broke suddenly, and probably did more to clear away the gas than anything else could have done. That night and the whole of the next day the Germans shelled the town fiercely. Splendid work was done by Lieutenant Penrice, who had just gone to the Transport in place of Hutchinson; by Lieutenant Clarke, who had gone to join a Brigade Training School in course of formation; and by the transport drivers, who worked with unceasing energy and courage.

By July 31st the following had been evacuated: Colonel Fletcher, Major H. K. Wilson, Captains Eccles and Steward, Lieutenants Alcock, Collinge, Evans, Royle, Rothwell, J. R. Paul, 2nd-Lieutenants E. E. Paul, Pegge, Little, and Wyatt, the new Padre, Weaver, and the new Medical Officer, Robinson. The Adjutant, who went on leave on the 29th, before the far-reaching effects of the gas had fully revealed themselves, went into hospital on his arrival in England. Company Sergeant-Major Heyworth had started with him but had been compelled to remain behind at the M.D.S., Fort Rompu, being quite blind and delirious. The stream of ambulances, lorries, general service waggons, and farm carts pouring into and out of Armentières, was a sight that will long be remembered. The whole of "B" Company and the whole of "C" Company, except 2nd-Lieutenant Fell and one man, became casualties. Of Battalion Headquarters there remained only one policeman and one store-keeper. The rest, including the Regimental Sergeant-Major, Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant, orderly-room, medical, sanitary, and Quartermaster's staff, the cooks, the tailors, the bootmakers, and all the other details, were evacuated. The Battalion Orchestra, who were playing when the barrage opened, were badly gassed to a man, and their instruments destroyed. Captain Bowring suddenly found himself Commanding Officer, and his command consisted simply of "A" and "D" Companies and the transport. The total casualties, including the gassed, for July were: 17 officers wounded, of whom Lieutenant Collinge died from the effects of the gas, 12 men killed, and approximately 428 wounded. Of these a few died later, and more were invalided from the service, but a good many rejoined us in due course.

Before proceeding any further it will be as well to discuss briefly the cause of this disaster. In the first place, this was only the second concentrated bombardment with mustard gas that had occurred. The first had taken place at Ypres a month before, and caused extensive casualties, but the report of these did not reach us till the night of relief, when it came with the usual correspondence, which, owing to pressure of work, was not opened till after the disaster had happened. The significance of the new form of gas should certainly have been circulated earlier. With the dangers of ordinary gas we were familiar, and in any case no one could have lived for five minutes in the area most strongly affected without a respirator. The slightest breath of this new gas was like inhaling red-hot air and choked you immediately. After the first density of the gas had dispersed, the area became comparatively clear, and the insidious and silent evaporation, practically free from smell, caused no one inconvenience, and in some places was so slight as to be barely perceptible. It was this that affected the eyes, an entirely new phenomenon to us; and the comparatively small number that suffered from serious internal gassing proves that the ordinary precautions were taken. Moreover, most of those badly gassed were actually caught in Armentières itself by the original barrage, which began at the rate of hundreds of shells in a minute. When it is remembered that as late as the spring of 1918, after mustard gas had long been recognized and widely advertised, and every possible precaution taken against it, a concentrated bombardment still produced casualties running into hundreds, it is not so very surprising that on the second occasion when it was used, and the first as far as we were concerned, only about fifty escaped out of the total troops in Armentières, consisting of two half battalions, some field and heavy batteries, and some Royal Engineer, Machine Gun Corps, and Trench Mortar sections. Of the civilian population, it is probable that scarcely one single person got off unscathed.

This bombardment was the climax of our long period in Houplines. We had been instructed to be as offensive as possible, in order to divert the attention of the enemy by our aggressive tactics from the operations scheduled to commence on July 31st, and now known as the Third Battle of Ypres. Little glory attaches to a "feint" attack, whether it be stationary or by movement; but if successful it brings down upon you severe hostile attention, which has to be endured without any compensating chance of sharing in the glory of a great victory. That we succeeded in our allotted task, and that the 171st Infantry Brigade bore the brunt of it, we know not only from what our Army Commander said, but because the Intelligence showed that the Division kept two German Divisions pinned down opposite to it right till the end, and this notwithstanding the fact that the hostile artillery was about ten times as great as our own. The steady increase of destructive shooting on the area immediately north and south of the Lys, the regular "crashing" of all lines of communication, the intense shelling of Armentières, culminating in the great gas bombardment, prove conclusively that the enemy was daily expecting an attack on Frelinghien, for which he imagined a force was concentrating in Armentières. That our casualties were not greater was due to the scattered position of the posts holding such a large sector, and to our constant efforts to provide such protection as could best be constructed under the circumstances.