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From Bapaume to Passchendaele, 1917

Chapter 7 OUR ENTRY INTO GOMMECOURT

Word Count: 1833    |    Released on: 06/12/2017

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llowed the first patrols, who had felt forward and took possession of the sa

place will be haunted for ever by the memory of their loss and great endurance. At last the gates were open. The enemy's troops had stolen away in the dusk, leaving nothing behind but the refuse of trench life and the litter of trench tools. In order to keep the way open for their withdrawal, strong posts of Germans with machine-guns held out in a wedge just

s give our men greater trouble, but are being routed out from their hiding-places. There were a lot of them in the ruins of Pusieux, but last night, after sharp fighting and a grim man-hunt among the broken brickwork, the enemy was destroyed in this village, and our line now runs well beyond it to Gommecourt, on the left and down

up his reserves of ammunition in the dumps along the line of his retirement. Many of his heavy guns still remain on railway mountings behind Bapaume-we are now less than a mile from that town-and they are doing double duty by quick firing.

us, but, beyond all, by the fear that our fighting power in the spring might break his armies if they stayed on their old line. Now he is executing with skill, aided by great luck-for the foggy weather is his luck-a man?uvre desig

y or two, unless you have gazed at those places for months through narrow slits in underground chambers, and know that it would be easi

ove them. I had this thrill when I walked through Gommecourt-Gommecourt the terrible, and the graveyard of so many brave London boys who fell here on July 1-and up through Gommecourt Park, with its rows of riven trees, to a point beyond, and to a far outpost where a group of soldiers attached to the Sherwood Foresters of the 46th Division, full of spirit and gaiety, in spite o

guns had played hell with the place, though we could not capture it on July 1. Thousands of shells, even millions, had flung it into ruin-the famous chateau, the church, the great barns, the school-house, and all

h Gommecourt with me pointed out with pride the "top-hole" effect of all our gun-fire. To him, as a gunner, all this destruction was a good sight.

me," said the trench-mortar officer, who was a humo

merrier party than a little lot I found at a spot called Pigeon Wood, far beyond Gommecourt, where th

me up there and introd

t there was to be a trench-mortar "stunt" in half an hour or so, and he wanted me to see "the fun." Through the driving snow we went into the bit of wood, trampling over the broken twigs and stepping as

ry grigs I had come to meet, and in less than a minute they had made me welcome, and in less than five I was sitting on a German chair at a

he senior officer chased by two Boches, and roared again when the captain sent round to the "chemist's shop" next door for some more soda-water and a bottle of whisky. They had found thousands of bo

f the younger officers, "but you come a

y but a narrow stretch of shell-broken earth, and went away from the wood just as the enemy began shelling it again, and sat down under the bank with one of the officers when the enemy "bracketed" the road back with whiz-bangs, and stopped on the way to take a cup of tea in another dug-out, and to make friends with other men who were following up the enemy, and moving into German apartments for a night or so, before they go farther on, with that keen and spirited courage which is the

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1 Chapter 1 A NEW YEAR OF WAR2 Chapter 2 AN ATTACK NEAR LE TRANSLOY3 Chapter 3 THE ABANDONMENT OF GRANDCOURT4 Chapter 4 THE GORDONS IN THE BUTTE DE WARLENCOURT5 Chapter 5 THE BATTLE OF BOOM RAVINE6 Chapter 6 THE ENEMY WITHDRAWS7 Chapter 7 OUR ENTRY INTO GOMMECOURT8 Chapter 8 WHY THE ENEMY WITHDREW9 Chapter 9 THE AUSTRALIANS ENTER BAPAUME10 Chapter 10 THE MAKING OF NO MAN'S LAND11 Chapter 11 THE LETTER OF THE LAW12 Chapter 12 THE ABANDONED COUNTRY13 Chapter 13 THE CURé OF VOYENNES14 Chapter 14 THE CHTEAU OF LIANCOURT15 Chapter 15 THE OLD WOMEN OF TINCOURT16 Chapter 16 THE AGONY OF WAR17 Chapter 17 ARRAS AND THE VIMY RIDGE18 Chapter 18 LONDONERS THROUGH THE GERMAN LINES19 Chapter 19 THE STRUGGLE ROUND MONCHY20 Chapter 20 THE OTHER SIDE OF VIMY21 Chapter 21 THE WAY TO LENS22 Chapter 22 THE SLAUGHTER AT LAGNICOURT23 Chapter 23 THE TERRORS OF THE SCARPE24 Chapter 24 THE BACKGROUND OF BATTLE25 Chapter 25 HOW THE SCOTS TOOK GUéMAPPE26 Chapter 26 THE OPPY LINE27 Chapter 27 THE BATTLE OF MAY 328 Chapter 28 WYTSCHAETE AND MESSINES29 Chapter 29 THE SPIRIT OF VICTORY30 Chapter 30 AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE31 Chapter 31 THE EFFECT OF THE BLOW32 Chapter 32 LOOKING BACKWARD33 Chapter 33 THE AUSTRALIANS AT MESSINES34 Chapter 34 A BATTLE IN A THUNDER-STORM35 Chapter 35 THE TRAGEDY AT LOMBARTZYDE36 Chapter 36 BREAKING THE SALIENT37 Chapter 37 FROM PILKEM RIDGE TO HOLLEBEKE38 Chapter 38 THE BEGINNING OF THE RAINS39 Chapter 39 PILL-BOXES AND MACHINE-GUNS40 Chapter 40 THE SONG OF THE COCKCHAFERS41 Chapter 41 WOODS OF ILL-FAME42 Chapter 42 THE BATTLE OF LANGEMARCK43 Chapter 43 CAPTURE OF HILL SEVENTY44 Chapter 44 LONDONERS IN GLENCORSE WOOD45 Chapter 45 SOMERSETS AT LANGEMARCK46 Chapter 46 THE IRISH IN THE SWAMPS47 Chapter 47 THE WAY THROUGH GLENCORSE WOOD48 Chapter 48 THE SLAUGHTER-HOUSE OF LENS49 Chapter 49 THE AGONY OF ARMENTIèRES50 Chapter 50 THE BATTLE OF MENIN ROAD51 Chapter 51 THE WAY TO PASSCHENDAELE52 Chapter 52 THE BATTLE OF POLYGON WOOD53 Chapter 53 ABRAHAM HEIGHTS AND BEYOND54 Chapter 54 SCENES OF BATTLE55 Chapter 55 THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND56 Chapter 56 THE ASSAULTS ON PASSCHENDAELE57 Chapter 57 ROUND POELCAPPELLE58 Chapter 58 THE CANADIANS COME NORTH59 Chapter 59 LONDON MEN AND ARTISTS60 Chapter 60 THE CAPTURE OF PASSCHENDAELE