R C Sherriff’s classic play begins on the night of Monday, 18 March 1918, when ‘a pale glimmer of moonlight shines down the steps into one corner of the dugout’. The officers of an Infantry Company arrive in their dugout, located in a support trench about fifty yards behind the front line, somewhere in front of St Quentin.
Almost from the moment the officers arrive they are made aware that the ‘big German attack’s expected any day now’, and that they’ll most likely be in its path during their six days in the line.
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Although the Infantry Company in the play is unspecified, Sherriff based his play on his own experiences with the 9th East Surreys. By the time of the German advance in March 1918 he had long since returned to England, wounded early in the Third Battle of Ypres in August 1917. His old Battalion, however, was based very close to the location of Stanhope and his fellow officers: from 11 March to the evening of the 17 March they were in the front line in Villecholes, about 3 miles from St Quentin.
The Battalion War Diary (written up afterwards, as the original was lost in the chaos following the German attack) reports the line being generally quiet (‘it was a most uneventful tour’), although it also notes that:
‘During the six days the Battalion was in the sector, there was a marked lack of artillery fire on the part of the enemy, it seemed as if he were waiting and saving his ammunition for some definite purpose.’
Of course, this prescience may be explained as the wisdom of hindsight, but intelligence reports at the time indicated movement behind the German lines that could be consistent with an imminent attack, and so British commanders were inclined to be alert to any possible threats. On 15 March, for instance, the War Diary for 72 Brigade (which incorporated the 1/North Staffordshire Regiment, the 8/Royal West Kent Regiment and the 9/East Surreys) reported that, owing to an expected enemy attack, a reserve company had moved up to fortify a position before dawn: ‘Everybody stood to as our artillery opened fire as before. Nothing happened.’
The 16 March was quiet as well, according to both the Battalion and the Brigade, although the Brigade Diary does note that ‘an enemy aeroplane was brought down in flames caused by the Lewis guns of the 9 East Surrey regiment – it fell just behind the enemy’s lines’.
Early on the morning of 18 March the East Surreys were relieved by the 1/North Staffs, and returned to the reserve camp at Vermand, about three miles away. The Diary reports that ‘Being the first day that the Battalion was out of the line, the day was devoted to Baths, kit inspection, re-equipping etc.’. But an abundance of caution was still in evidence, for ‘one company was standing-to every morning one hour before dawn in case of an enemy attack. This was carried out in turn by companies’. Meanwhile, back on the front line, the Battalion Diary reported that on the night of 18 March, ‘a gap was found cut in our wire in front of an advanced post of the right Company, right Battalion. The same thing had been done to left of Battalion on our right…all precaution was taken in view of possible raid but nothing followed.’
[Next post: 19 March]