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Updated: June 29, 2025
Reverting to the division itself, it should be said that every officer of these jolly-jack-tar soldiers has panegyrics galore to cast in the direction of General Sir Archibald Paris, K.C.B., who was in command of the division at Antwerp and the Dardanelles. He lost a leg before the Ancre fighting, and thus was disappointed of being with them for their great success in France.
He was succeeded by Major-General Cameron Shute, C.B. What the division has recently accomplished and the way it has terrorised the enemy, like Kipling's "Tyneside Tail Twisters," is a happy thought to General Shute. In one battalion it is estimated that 90 per cent. of the casualties in the Ancre fighting were caused by the closeness with which the sailors clung to the barrage fire.
The steady pressure of the British on the German positions along the Ancre since the beginning of the month brought results that surpassed Field Marshal Haig's most sanguine expectations. The Germans were forced to abandon their front on the Ancre, escaping to a new line of defenses along the Bapaume ridge.
The section selected for attack ran from north to south, covering Gommecourt, passing east of Hebuterne and following the high ground before Serre and Beaumont-Hamel, crossed the Ancre northwest of Thiepval. From this point it stretched for about a mile and a quarter to the east of Albert. Passing south around Fricourt, it turned at right angles to the east, covering Mametz and Montauban.
The trees in the Ancre River Valley made all that marshy meadow like a forest. Looking out on all this, the first thought of the soldier was that here he could really see something of the enemy's ground. It is true, that from this hill-top much land, then held by the enemy, could be seen, but very little that was vital to the enemy could be observed.
And there is a good hauen: and you may enter by an high Cape which lieth along toward the Northeast and within the distance of a pike and an halfe, because of a rocke which lieth on your larrebord side, and you may ancre in 10 fathome water ouer against a little nooke: and from the great headland vnto the place where thou doest ancre there is not aboue the length of 2 Cables.
The Germans during two days' fighting had displayed conspicuous courage, but the twelve attacks they made on Pressoir, where they gained a temporary advantage, cost them heavily. Certain regiments, among others the One Hundred and Eleventh Prussian, lost 60 per cent. of their effectives. On November 15 and 16, 1916, the British continued to make gains north of the Ancre.
But for this stricken wood, the eastern bank of the Ancre is a gentle, sloping hill, bare of trees. On the top of this hill is the famous Schwaben Redoubt. The Ancre River and the marshy valley through which it runs are crossed by several causeways. One most famous causeway crosses just in front of Hamel on the line of the old Mill Road.
Within one dayes sailing, we were out of the sight of land, and following our course directly North, till we came to the North Cape, we sailed for the space of twelue dayes with a prosperous winde, without tempest or outrage of sea: hauing compassed the North Cape we directed our course flat Southeast, hauing vpon our right hand Norway, Wardhouse, Lapland, all out of sight till we came to Cape Gallant: and so sailing betweene two bayes, the two and thirtieth day after our departure from Harwich, we cast ancre at Saint Nicholas road.
As in so many places on this old battlefield, the first thought is: "Why, they were in an eyrie here; our fellows had no chance at all." There is no wonder, then, that the approach is strewn with graves. The line stands at the top of a smooth, open slope, commanding our old position and the Ancre Valley.
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