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The British forces had already taken Bapaume, Villers-au-Flos, and Riencourt, and the enemy were supposed to be retreating fast in the direction of the old Hindenburg Line which lay beyond Havrincourt Wood. Pte. King's party did good work; they went through Barastre and Bus in front of the advance guards of the infantry, and met with no opposition beyond occasional long-range machine-gun fire.
Like others before and others after it, the Battalion at Ypres gave its pledge to posterity. The Battalion's return to Arras. A quiet front. The Brigadier and his staff. A novelty in tactics. B Company's raid. A sudden move. The Cambrai front. Havrincourt Wood. Christmas at Suzanne. From Arras the 61st Division came to Ypres: to Arras it returned.
"What has happened?" I asked. He looked at me in surprise. "Don't you know? The enemy has broken through." "Broken through where?" The gunner officer pointed down the road. "At the present moment he's in Gouzeaucourt." I went northward, and saw that places like Hermies and Havrincourt, which had been peaceful spots for a few days, were under heavy fire. Bourlon Wood beyond was a fiery furnace.
Fighting had slackened when the Battalion went into the line in front of Gonnelieu. The trenches there ran oddly between derelict tanks, light railways, and dismantled huts; in No-Man's-Land lay several batteries of our guns. On December 7 the 183rd Brigade relieved the Battalion, which moved back to tents in Havrincourt Wood. It was bitter!
Around Lavasquere, formidable defenses, known as Welsh Ridge and Coutilet Wood, had been, captured. Flesquires had been invested and the Grand Ravine crossed. Havrincourt was in British hands. Trench systems north of Havrincourt and north of the west bank of the Canal du Nord also had been captured. The Masnieres Canal was crossed, and the British had stormed and captured Marcoing Neufwood.
It was the greatest and most successful surprise of the war. There was no preliminary bombardment to warn the enemy, and the advance continued steadily for two days, when the towns of Masnieres, Marcoing, Ribecourt, Havrincourt, Graincourt, and Flesquieres, long occupied by the enemy, all were behind the British lines. Just before dawn on the 20th there was absolute quiet along the whole line.
Havrincourt, Graincourt, and Anneux four and a half miles from the morning's front fell on the left; Ribecourt, Marcoing, Neuf wood, Noyelles, and Masnières in the centre; and La Vacquerie, Bonavis, and Lateau wood on the right.
From Drocourt, just to the northwest of Douai, the line stretched for forty miles in a fairly straight line down through Vitryen-Artois, Villiers, Cagnocourt to Queant and Pronville, thence on to Boursies, Havrincourt, Gour Zeacourt, Epehy and St. Quentin. The first, or upper section of this line from Drocourt to Queant was called the Wotan line.
The tanks went away through the breach they had made, with the infantry swarming round them, and captured Havrincourt, Hermies, Ribecourt, Gouzeaucourt, Masnieres, and Marcoing, and a wide stretch of country forming a cup or amphitheater below a series of low ridges south of Bourlon Wood, where the ground rose again.
This was the second and, as events turned out, the last casualty amongst my observers. I spent a long time the second day with the observers at the O.P. in Havrincourt Wood and we saw much German transport hurrying back south of Niergnes. On the night of September 29 the 42nd Division was relieved, and I received instructions to remain at our quarters near Bertincourt.
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