The final scene of Journey’s End opens with Mason softly shaking Stanhope awake: ‘Arf-past five, sir,’ he says. In a moment or two, Trotter wanders through, lathering up his face: ‘Sounds quiet enough out there,’ he remarks. As the scene progresses, the sounds of shelling commence, and Stanhope sends Trotter up first, followed by the others. Only Raleigh will return to the dugout, to die, before Stanhope slowly mounts the stairs to meet the oncoming German advance.
Sam Claflin as Stanhope in Journey’s End (2017), courtesy of Lionsgate UK
Sherriff, of course, was not in France for the opening salvoes of the Kaiserschlacht, having been wounded in the opening days of the third battle of Ypres the previous August. So he can be forgiven for not knowing that the German artillery started raining down on the British lines an hour earlier than it did for Stanhope and his fellow officers. The 72nd Brigade Diary notes that, on a very foggy morning, ‘Germans opened very heavy artillery and trench mortar fire at 4:30am. Essling Redoubt, Maissemy and Vadencourt Chateau heavily gas shelled for 6 hours.’ The North Staffords Diary noted that ‘there was a considerable amount of gas shelling, and Battalion HQ dugout soon became full of gas.’ The fog was so dense that it ‘prevented any idea of finding out enemy or our own movements by observation’.
Michael Lucas relates that the German bombardment was ‘of crushing intensity and remarkable precision’:
‘…the first 2 hours were devoted mostly to known enemy batteries, trench mortars, command posts and billets, with mixed high explosive and gas. The next 3 hours were devoted largely to the British infantry and their defences. At 9:40am the German infantry moved forward under a creeping barrage.’
Lack of visibility and destruction of communications meant that messages had to be relayed by runners, who were often wounded or delayed. Lt Lechmere Thomas – RC Sherriff’s friend, ’Tommy the Bomber’ – who had joined the 9th East Surreys at much the same age and at much the same time as Sherriff – was working at 72 Brigade HQ as Intelligence Officer when the attack began, and, leaving at 5:45am, didn’t reach the North Staffords, in the Brigade’s right sector, until 8:00am. He later asked to rejoin his Battalion.
From: Lucas, M., The Journey’s End Battalion, Pen & Sword, 2012
The Germans made rapid progress on the Brigade’s right, quickly making their way through the North Staffords in the Forward Zone. ‘B’ Company of the East Surreys, which had been posted the previous night to support them, sufffered some casualties in the inital bombardment, and then was eventually overrun, after very stout resistance, around about noon – so that ‘only around 30 made it back to the battalion’. The other 3 companies of the East Surreys moved up at 10:00am to Villecholes and were ordered to help in defence of Maissemy. Other units in the area were unsure of the enemy’s exact position, and while reconnoitoring forward Lt Col Le Fleming, ℅ of the East Surreys was killed by a sniper, leaving Major C A Clark (Sherriff’s old friend ‘Nobby’) in command.
On the left the West Kents put up more successful resistance, but even there, by 1:00 o’clock they were struggling:
‘Enemy broken through on right and advancing on Essling Redoubt. Vadencourt bridge blown up in face of enemy. Pontru trench has been occupied by enemy from right flank and remains of 2 forward companies holding on in Cookers Quarry…Enemy advancing from river. We are inflicting heavy casualties. Mounted men are coming over the sky line by Lone Tree Post. Several Battalions advancing against us…’
At 4:00pm the Brigade Diary reported that the East Surreys were holding a line from Villecholes east and then south, joining with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The Germans pressed hard over the next few hours to take the high ground to the south of Maissemy, engaging mainly 61st Division, and thus sparing the East Surreys the worst of their onslaught. As the evening wore on the Royal West Kents had to withdraw from their positions in Vadencourt, while the neighbouring 17th Infantry Brigade had given up Cookers Quarry.
By late evening the fighting had died down, but the Brigade Diary summed up a day of heavy losses:
‘Summary: The very thick fog of the morning undoubtedly enabled the enemy to break through our outpost defences as most of the posts and Machine Guns were taken in rear. The North Staffords were almost wiped out – only 3 officers and 20 other ranks came through. Battalion HQ apparently put up a magnificent fight…8 RW Kents put up a magnificent fight in defence of Vadencourt Chateau throughout the day and caused very severe casualties…’
According to the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (and remembering the inherent unreliability of precisely dating deaths in the face of the confusion of the battle on this and ensuing days), the North Staffords probably lost around 80 killed on the first day of the German advance, with the Royal West Kents losing over 40, and the East Surreys around 20, with several times that number wounded.
There would be many more casualties in the days ahead.
[Next post: 22 March]