On 9th April the 4th Division, in reserve, had the role of passing through the three assaulting divisions (9th, 34th and 51st) after these had captured the first three systems and of assaulting part of the fourth system between Fampoux and Gravelle.
The 11th Brigade was formed up with two battalions in front - 1st Bn. Somerset Light Infantry and 1st Bn. Hampshire Regiment - and the 1st Bn. East Lancashire Regiment in support.
The role of the Battalion was to pass through this system and capture and consolidate Hyderabad Redoubt. "A" and "C" Companies were to do this, supported by "B" Company, whose job it was to occupy the sunken road between the Fourth German position (i.e. the Fampoux-Bailleul road) and the Redoubt and make a line of strong points along it. "I" Company was detailed for carrying purposes only and was under Brigade.
On the evening of the 8th we were in camp at Maroeuil Wood. Here there was an observation balloon up and when it came down we asked the observer if he could see the results of the bombardment. He said that although he had been observing there for over two years he could not recognise the first two German lines; that the fourth line was badly knocked about and he could not pick out the Hyderabad Redoubt at all. The accuracy of his observation will be apparent as the narrative proceeds.
We started off at about 5.30 a.m. (Zero hour) on the 9th, heavily laden with picks, shovels, bombs etc., Schiff's orderly carrying a football tied to his rifle.
The Battalion went into action with Head Quarters and three companies totalling thirteen officers and three hundred and fourty two other ranks distributed as follows:-
H.Q.: Colonel Fellowes, Green and Lole, with Dale our faithful M.O.
"A" Company: Cavendish, Wellard, Bridgeman, Day.
"B" Company: Jackson, Booth, Spencer.
"C" Company: Davidson, Waudby, Schiff.
After a two hours wait at our assembly area, during which we had a hot dinner, we left at 10.30 and in column of route, crossing the original No-man's land and halted for an hour behind the second German system under the Arras-Lens railway embankment (The Blue Line). By this time we knew that things were going well; masses of prisoners had passed us going to the rear and our artillery was moving forward to take up positions.
Our next move was in artillery formation on a two company front until we reached the third German system, where we had to halt for over two hours, to allow for a new bombardment. While we were sitting in the trenches here a German aeroplane came over and shot at us with his machine gun. The 34th and 9th Divisions told us that they had had practically no fighting for this third system. Prisoners still kept coming in and it was a strange sight to see the bodies of these Boches wandering about over the country with no escort and apparently nobody taking any interest in them.
Towards the end of this halt, at 3.10 p.m., the Somerset Light Infantry and Hampshires assaulted and captured the enemy fourth system whilst the East Lancashires formed a defensive flank facing north from the left of the Hampshire's to the Point Du Jour; reference to the map will show that the Green Line runs almost due west from north of the Hyderabad Redoubt.

Hyderabad Redoubt

"Our show" continues the narrative, "started at 3.40 p.m. and we moved in artillery formation of platoons ona one company front following behind the Somerset Light Infantry. After about one thousand yards we extended to battle formation. When we came over the ridge in front of the fourth system we came into the German barrage, and as it was extremely thin we hardly had any casualties at all. We had great difficulty in getting through the German wire, which was fourty yards thick in places, as yet again our artillery had completely failed to cut it. The Boche was so anxious to give himself up and we were so anxious to get in that the confusion which reigned was so bad that no-one could move either way through the gaps that did exist.
"It will always remain a mystery why the Boche put up no fight here. The wire was unbroken in front of them and a couple of machine guns could have held up the advance of the whole Division. One hundred and forty prisoners were taken in the fourth system."
Soon after getting through the fourth system "we came under machine gun fire from an inn on the Roeux-Gravelle road and from Gravelle. We soon managed to pick out the redoubt on the account of the masses of wire which surrounded it, which we could see was completely intact. On our way up to it a large black dog came galloping out to meet us. When we came within twenty yards of it the football was drop kicked by CorporalBancroft into the redoubt and the place was rushed. The various mopping up parties under Bridgeman started clearing the dug-outs and after a time seven officers and nine men appeared.
"A staff officer tried to bolt down the road to Gravelle and was at once shot by "C" Company's sniping corporal."
Meanwhile "B" Company had been dropped at the sunken road where it quickly mopped up the dug-outs and itself occupied trenches just east of the road which, incidentally, proved to be the enemy barrage line.
"The consolidating parties got into position quickly and outposts and patrols were sent out. These, however, and all parties outside the redoubt were heavily fired on by the Germans who were lying out in the open between the redoubt and the Roeux-Gravelle road and had organised their snipers very quickly.
In the brigde report on the operations, doubt is expressed whether troops so recently in a state of complete demoralization could have been re-organized so quickly; the view is put forward that these were fresh troops brought up from the rear who had rallied the retreating survivors of the garrison.

"The patrols could make no headway and the consolidating parties were being picked off one by one, so everyone was withdrawn inside the redoubt and all efforts were concentrated on consolidating the place. Schiff was most unfortunately shot through the heart just after having withdrawn his party.
"Up till dark we got several good targets for rifles and Lewis-guns and there is no doubt that the enemy suffered heavy casualties. These undoubtedly would have been considerably more had not the ammunition almost entirely run out. Rifleman Dumbrill distinguished himself bringing a wounded man in and then insisting on going out again to salve a Lewis-gun.
"B" Company in the meanwhile had consolidated its position. Unfortunately Jackson was hit and died on his way from the regimental aid post to the dressing station; a great loss to the Battalion. "B" Company's Headquarters were in an enormous dug-out with seven entrances, in the sunken road, which had been the H.Q. of a German artillery General, and was full of maps, documents, etc.
By this time it was getting dark. Germans were closing in on the north, south and east faces and had begun digging in in a semi-circle 200-400 yards off. The troops of the 12th Brigade on the right had not appeared and a counter-attack by two battalions was seen coming from the direction of Gavrelle. This attack was not pressed home and came under heavy fire from our artillery."
According to the Brigade and Battalion accounts machine-gun fire, as also rifle and Lewis-gun fire from both the redoubt and from the Hampshires on the left, contributed their share. Under the circumstances it is not suprising that this counter-attack came to naught.
"During the night somre half-hearted attempts by the enemy to advance were frustrated and a patrol of four Prussinas, who had been sent to recover some documents from the redoubt, was captured. Corporal Lodge spent most of the night patrolling in front of the wire and brought back some extremely useful information. He and Dumbrill and Rifleman Walker, who did wonderful work in bringing in the wounded, were all awarded the Military Medal, and Rifleman Greenwood was awarded the D.C.M. for bringing in Wellard who had been hit two hundred yards outside the wire. This gallant act was performed in spite of very heavy machine-gun fire.

"A" Company had lost all its officers and Serjeant Stanford took command and did good work in re-organizing the company and was awarded the Military Medal for his work. Davison was in command in the redoubt with Wauby as the only other survivor of the officers of "A" and "C" Companies.
The redoubt was occupied at about 4.30 p.m. and by 3 a.m. on April 10th the situation was fairly secure and touch had been gained with the 12th Brigade on the right. During the 9th a total of 10 officers - including a general and his staff - and thirteen other ranks had been captured, also three heavy howitzers, a travelling kitchen, a machine-gun and much telephone equipment and a mass of official documents, orders and maps.
"Our casualties that day were Jackso and Schiff killed, Cavendish, Bridgeman, Day and Wellard wounded (the latter unfortunateley died of wounds later), and one hundred and twenty three other ranks killed, wounded or missing.
"The total depth of the advance made was six thousand yards beyond the German front line and the Battalion reached and held the furthest point of the whole British advance.
"It was a great day full of excitement and interest and was chiefly remarkable for the utter demoralization of the Boches and more especially for the extraordinary way in which the advances were made exactly up to time, according to the time-table laid down; it seemed far more like one of the many rehearsals than one of the greatest battles of the War.
"At mid-day on the 10th we were relieved by the 1st Bn. Somerset Light Infantry and stayed for forty-eight hours in the fourth German system. During this time, under orders received from the 4th Division, on the afternoon of the 10th strong patrols of the Somersets and Hampshires attempted to reach the Roeux-Gravelle road; heavy machine-gun and rifle fire rendered the operation impossible, the Somersets patrols being practically annihilated. On the 11th, the 12th and 10th Brigade's attacked with Plouvain and Greenland Hill as their objectives, but once more machine-gun fire completely stopped the advance. In the 11th Brigade Diary there is a tragic map whereon one landmark is "line of dead Seaforth's". The 2nd Bn Seaforth Highlanders was in the 10th Brigade on the right of the 11th. During the attack cavalry patrols attempted to emerge from Fampoux; of those that were seen all became casualties within two or three minutes.

"On the 12th, the Battalion co-operated with the 9th Division on the right in an attack made on the German positions (over the same ground on which the 10th and 12th Brigades had failed the day before). "A" and "B" Companies assembled in a trench north of the redoubt with "C" Company in reserve. Zero hour was 5.30 p.m., but long before that time the Germans had spotted the advance of the 9th Division, who had come up across the open from a considerable distance back (1000 yards).
"Our own assembly trenches were heavily bombarded by heavy artillery and swept by machine-gun fire from the north and east. At zero the whole of "B" and the first wave of "A" Company climbed out of the trenches, but in the face of such fire progress was impossible and in less than two minutes two officers and fifty-one men were casualties. Spencer and Pattison died gallant deaths standing up upon the parapet helping the men out of the very deep and muddy trenches. Serjeant Earle also was conspicuous for his gallantry on this occasion; he was badly wounded and has won the D.C.M. for his splendid example.
The advance of the 9th Division could make no progress. Apart from the heavy fire we were subjected to, both in the trenches and getting over the parapet, the assembly trenches were very deep and the weather conditions made them almost impossible, the mud being knee-deep in places and very sticky, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the men scrambled up the slippery sides of the trench.
The next four days were spent holding the trenches which were heavily and consistently shelled day and night. On the 15th "B" Company was sent to support the 1st Hampshire Regt. in a bombing attack. This was not the first occasion upon which the latter battalion had been ordered to carry out such an attack during the past few days. How soon had Authority forgotten that axiom laid down by itself regarding bombing attacks !!!!!!!
"When the good show was done lives began to be wasted on a series of minor operations which proved hopeless. The weather conditions throughout were exceptionally severe and cover and shelter in the trenches practically non-existent. On the 9th we started off in pouring rain at a very early hour, and though it was fine by mid-day and in the afternoon, yet later on there were heavy rain, hail and snow storms. The same conditions existed on the 10th with a very heavy fall of snow at night, and the next two days were bitterly cold. The 13th and 14th were fine, but it rained all day on the 15th. The trenches were in an extremely bad condition with mud knee deep and very sticky.

From the 13th all communication trenches to the front were completely destryoed by shell-fire. One of the most amazing things of the whole show was that we received our rations anmd letters at 11 p.m. on the 9th - thanks to George Bland, who was commanding the carrying company. On the evening of the 16th we were relieved by the 1st Bn. Royal Warwickshire Regt. and we went back to dug-outs and shelters in the old German first-line system (north of St. Blagny)
Casualties for the week were:- four officers killed, five officers wounded, two hundred and twenty-nine other ranks killed, wounded or missing, twenty-three evacuated sick.
After four days refitting in the Black Line the Battalion was relieved by the 13th Bn. Rifle Brigade and moved back by stages to Villers-Sir-Simon, where it remained traing for a week.


From the Narrative in Lieutenant J.A. Davison's private Diary.