The British Campaign in France and Flanders ...: 1917Hodder and Stoughton, 1919 - World War, 1914-1918 |
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Common terms and phrases
121st Brigade advance Anzac Corps April April 23 Army Arras Sector artillery attack barrage battalions Battle of Arras Battle of Cambrai Battle of Messines Battle of Second Battle of Ypres Bourlon British line Bullecourt Canadians canal captured carried cavalry centre CHAPTER Colonel command comrades counter-attack defence east enemy Farm fell Fifteenth Division Fifty-first fighting Fontaine forward Fourth Division front line full objective gained Gavrelle German German line ground Guards Guémappe guns held Highlanders Hindenburg Line Irish July 31 Lancashire Lancashire Fusiliers London machine-gun fire Menin Road Mesnières Messines Middlesex miles Monchy morning Ninth Division obstacle officers operations Paschendaale Phase position prisoners pushed railway Regiment resistance Ridge Rifle Brigade Royal Fusiliers Scarpe Sept Seventh Corps side Sixth splendid stormed stormers strong points success taken tanks third Battle trenches troops Twelfth Division Twenty-ninth Division victory village Welsh whole wire Wood yards Zonnebeke
Popular passages
Page 244 - ... south. Every company of the advancing units had been instructed to fall in behind its own marked tank. At 6.20, just after dawn, in a favoring haze, General Ellis gave the signal, his iron-clad fleet flowed forward, the field of wire went down with a long splintering rending crash, the huge fagots were rolled forward into the gaping ditches, and the eager infantry crowded forward down the clear swathes which the monsters had cut. At the same moment the guns roared out, and an effective smoke-barrage...
Page iv - THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. THE STARK MUNRO LETTERS. THE EXPLOITS OF BRIGADIER GERARD. UNCLE BERNAC : A Memory of the Empire. THE TRAGEDY OF THE
Page 238 - ... camouflaged. The French had been apprised of the attack, and had made arrangements by which, if there were an opening made to the south, some of their divisions should be available to take advantage of it. The tanks were about four hundred in number and were under the separate command of General Ellis, a dashing soldier who inspired the utmost enthusiasm in his command. It had always been the contention of the tank designers in England that their special weapon needed, what it had never yet found,...
Page 238 - ... method of attack was experimental, and that to advance without artillery fire against such a position would appear to be a most desperate venture. On the other hand it was known that the German line was thin and that their man-power had been attracted northwards by the long epic of the Passchendaele attack. There was a well-founded belief that the tanks would prove equal to the task of breaking the front, and sufficient infantry had been assembled to take advantage of any opening which might...
Page 297 - ... history of the regiment, and will be remembered as a devoted example of the greatest of all sacrifices. It runs: " Of the heroism of the rearguard it is " difficult to speak. Captain Stone and " Lieutenant Benzecry, although ordered " to withdraw to the main line, elected " to remain with the rearguard. The " rearguard was seen fighting with " bayonet, bullet, and bomb to the last. " There was no survivor. Captain Stone " by his invaluable information as to " the movements of the enemy prior...
Page 238 - ... attack. There was a well-founded belief that the tanks would prove equal to the task of breaking the front, and sufficient infantry had been assembled to take advantage of any opening which might be made. The prize, too, was worth a risk, for apart from the possibility of capturing the important center of Cambrai, the possession of the high ground at Bourlon would be of great strategic value. The enterprise was placed in the hands of General Byng, the famous leader of the Third Cavalry Division...
Page 204 - October our advance was renewed, in accordance with plan, against the main line of the ridge east of Zonnebeke. The front of our principal attack extended from the Menin Road to the Ypres-Staden Railway, a distance of about seven miles.
Page 244 - ... it was impossible for the guns to register properly without arousing suspicion. It was left to the gunners, therefore, to pick up their range as best they might after the action began, and this they did with a speed and accuracy which showed their high technical efficiency. North of the main battle the Fifty-sixth Division kept up a spirited Chinese attack all day. The real advance was upon a frontage of six miles which covered the front from Hermies in the north to Gonnelieu in the south. Every...
Page 250 - ... without their horses, but with a sample of the forces which they had encountered. It was a splendid deed of arms, for which Lieutenant Henry Strachan, who led the charge after the early fall of the squadron leader, received the coveted cross. At Marcoing the bridge was captured intact, the leading tank shooting down the party who were engaged in its demolition. At Mesnieres, which is the more important point. the advancing troops were less fortunate, as the bridge had already been injured and...
Page 264 - Middlesex got into the village, but their flank was always bare, and the best they could do was to hold on to the southern edge.