Lives of the First World War

On April 10th I was moved from Sailly Labourse to the village of Burbure, near Lillers. Here another officer and I went into a billet at the house of a small farmer, Madame Tailly. She was very good to me and did what she could for my comfort – a typical French woman of the old school who loved her land. Burbure and the district around, was full of our troops so we quickly came in for enemy action both with shell fire and bombing. I had a near escape from a 5.9 inch shell which, luckily for me, fell in some soft ground which smothered the force of the explosion; I was spattered with some of the flying earth. One night we were heavily raided; it was estimated that something like 300 bombs were dropped on our locality. Fortunately most of these bombs fell in the fields; the casualties and damage caused were negligible. During this raid we took refuge in Madame’s cellar. Near-by Lillers was heavily bombarded with gas shells and, on these occasions, we also had the “Gas Alert” and donned our ugly gasmasks until the “All Clear” was given. Poor old Bethune came in for heavy punishment whilst this enemy offensive was in progress; the centre part of the town suffered severe damage; there was practically nothing left but a heap of rubble and ruins. On June 25th I left Burbure and joined the headquarters staff of Colonel Watts-Smythe at Monchy Cayeux. At this rural place our Medical Officer, Fitzgerald and I were billeted with the local Cure. Fitzgerald was Irish and a Roman Catholic so he naturally got on well with the kindly Cure. The village had so far escaped the ravages of war so it was a great relief to get into this comparatively peaceful atmosphere. During this period I was associated with Captain D R Bennett who was our Adjutant. He was a fine officer and first class organiser, who later became a Lieut. Colonel. Here I also met and became friendly with Lieut. Vic Tuley, an officer I kept in touch with in the coming years. Another splendid fellow was Captain Ball, a native of Northern Ireland, and one of nature’s gentlemen. He was awarded the Military Cross for gallant conduct in saving a 9.2 inch railway mounted gun when the Germans had surged through the Portugese lines in front of Lestrem. The tide was now beginning to turn and we were exceptionally busy making preparations for our offensive. Our headquarters was established in specially fitted railway trucks so we were extremely mobile; this also applied to various Railway Construction Companies. Our attack was launched and the enemy commenced to retire in the August. During this retirement our group of Companies were feverishly busy repairing the damaged lines, bridges etc. to push forward the vital railway communications in the rear of our advancing troops. It was a hectic time at our headquarters with very little rest for anyone. My own special duty was to see that our Companies were kept properly supplied with the necessary construction materials. Many train loads of permanent way, bridging materials etc. were urgently required and it was really marvellous how efficiently our organisation operated – delays or hitches of any kind were few and far between. Our Royal Engineers Railway Operating Division, who were responsible for the transport of the various materials, gave us a very fine service in connection with these operations. As we advanced in the wake of the retreating Germans a scene of devastation awaited us, all through the country they had occupied. Their demolitions of bridges, permanent way etc. had been very thorough so that heavy work was involved in temporary bridging, restoring broken tracks etc. to enable the railway communications to be pressed forward. The enemy also left behind him many delayed action mines which we had to deal with. In connection with the bridging work over the waterways we utilised a very efficient piling equipment which had been devised by Captain Matthews of the 296th RE Bridging Company. This pile driver was mounted on a 45-ton flat railway wagon and was arranged so that the piling frame could be cantilevered out and drive a row of piles 15 feet ahead. This fine officer had had a good bit of experience on bridge work in Canada – standing about 6 feet 3 inches in height he bore the nickname “Tiny Matthews” a man of powerful physique and striking personality. In some cases where heavy, girders were employed to bridge the wider spans, 36-tons steam locomotive cranes were utilised for the erection work. It is interesting to note that my friend, Jack Case, with whom I was to be closely associated in the coming years, was the driver of one of these particular cranes. He was with our competent 118th Mechanical Engineering Company under Major Ewart.

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