The Highland Division

by Eric Linklater

  The Germans were making full use of all their resources, including captured equipment. The Highlanders found it particularly galling to identify British machine-guns among the attackers’ weapons, and to see the enemy using British staff-cars, their dun camouflage distinguished by a large W to show the Wehrmacht’s ownership. But McCready is right in claiming for his battalion a day of notable execution in this area. The Germans, halted for a considerable time, suffered heavy losses not only from the Black Watch, but from the well-directed machine-gun fire of a French regiment between Bienfay and Moyenneville, and from artillery fire.

  But eventually the company at Lambercourt was driven in, the line swung back on Toeuffles, and the new position was held till night.

  Lothians in Action

  On the right of the front, on the high ground to the right of Mareuil-Caubert, “A” squadron of the Lothians and Border Horse, in anticipation of a hard day, had fortified themselves with French poultry and their position with a French tank. The tank had broken down, but its crew were standing by, and its guns—a two-pounder and a machine-gun—were in working order. At a quarter-past four there was heavy firing on the right: the German attack had opened on “C” squadron, at Bray. “C” squadron was hard pressed, but with the aid of the carrier-troop from “A” rebuffed the offensive.

  Then “A” squadron was surprised by the sudden appearance of German infantry. Two scouts came round a corner, and found themselves face to face with the French tank. The leading scout halted and put up his hands. The second man shot him in the back. Then someone in “A” squadron shot the second man. After this spirited opening, the attack developed on more conventional lines: from an opposite ridge and from a flank overlooking the Somme there came mortar-bombs and machine-gun fire. But the French tank’s two-pounder was very effective against the enemy’s machine-guns, and the position was held till noon. But by then the tank had used all its ammunition, and the German artillery was registering with accuracy: the northern posts were therefore evacuated. Skirmishing continued till the late afternoon, when orders were received to withdraw if possible.

  The squadron had for some time been out of touch with Regimental Headquarters, which by ten o’clock in the morning had, from the air, been blasted out of the Bois de Bailleul1 and compelled to retire to Doudelainville. The attack of the dive-bombers had been fierce, and all ranks had discovered the use of a hole in the ground: the deeper and narrower the better. Then, following the Regiment, an officer from “A” squadron arrived with a report on the forward position, and returned with instructions to retire. To retire—a sinister addition—if possible. Major Dallmeyer, indeed, commanding “A” squadron, had considerable difficulty in extricating his men, and a hazardous march before him. But he rejoined the Regiment before midnight with some twenty-five men, having lost forty in the day’s fighting. “C” squadron had returned some hours earlier.

  The rearguard action began. Orders were given for withdrawal to immediate positions on the line Limeux–Limercourt–Moyenneville–Valines–Escarbotin–Hautebut. This line would be held, if possible, till half an hour before midnight of the 5th, and preparations would also be made to offer resistance on the line of the river Bresle.

  The Germans had thrust hard against Valines, and their advance was most decisive along the coast. There, on our left front, the 8th Argylls had been driven back and lost touch with their two forward companies. “A” company, at Sallenelle, had been attacked by armoured vehicles and numerous infantry. When the enemy’s patrols penetrated to the main street of the village—from which, but a little while before, a wounded despatch-rider had been evacuated in a perambulator—the survivors, seventy men out of a hundred and thirty, persisted in a confused sort of street-fighting. A number of them, lining a wall in front of Company Headquarters, exchanged grenades over the opposite buildings with Germans gathered on the other side. Though the situation was desperate, it was not, it appears, regarded as unduly serious; for when Lieutenant Paton, who had been wounded in the leg while on patrol the day before, threw a bomb which fell short, hit a roof and bounced back, there was fairly general hilarity, and his further throwing was handicapped by facetious cries of “Careful, George!”

  When orders came to retire it was difficult to extricate the men from such close-quarter fighting, but orchards west of the village gave good cover, and most of them got out. They retired to Lanchères, then to Brutelles, where they met “B” company, and later to Hautebut. But there was no safety there, for by then our left wing had fallen back on the Ault–Tully–Friville line. The two companies were left behind.

  Camerons Dive-bombed

  Brigadier Stanley-Clarke, commanding the 154th Brigade, had by six o’clock withdrawn his headquarters to Dargnies, and the Brigade artillery had all gone back except two troops of the 17th Field Regiment caught at Ochancourt. The situation at dusk was summarised as follows: The 8th Argylls were believed to be holding the Ault–Tully–Escarbotin line, with the 7th Northumberland Fusiliers between Escarbotin and Fressenville, and the 4th Black Watch holding Fressenville to Feuquières. Contact had been lost with the 153rd Brigade on the right, and the enemy’s forward elements were already between Dargnies and the Bresle. Some of the bridges over the Bresle had already been blown.

  The 152nd Brigade, on the right, had fallen back to the railway line running north-west from Oisemont to the main road from Blangy to Abbeville. Their numbers gravely diminished in the battle for the bridgehead, and now tired by a long day’s rearguard action, the men were too exhausted to stop a serious attack. In the afternoon, not far from Martaineville, about two hundred men of the 4th Camerons were retiring in extended order across deep fields of clover when they were attacked, three times in succession, by three dive-bombers. There was no cover but the clover. The men lay down. They were thankful for the rest, and most of them fell asleep. They suffered no casualties—three bullets through an empty water-bottle made the nearest miss—but once they had gone to ground, even dive-bombers could not keep the men awake.

  The dive-bombers, indeed, though they made a most horrible and alarming din, caused curiously little damage to their legitimate targets. Against the civilian refugees, who made a heavy traffic all through these June days, they were more successful. They had a decided preference for refugees, among whom they did, with triumph, great feats of murder. But the troops, who had been taught to lie down, take cover where possible, and keep still, suffered little, and often had no more to complain about than the abominable noise.

  It is hardly possible to give a complete and orderly picture of the day’s fighting, but the nature of it is well illustrated by the following message—typical of many—received from a Company Commander of the 4th Black Watch: “Carriers in contact with enemy. Receiving casualties and state unable to contain enemy who are in large numbers. Consider we may be cut off on left. Any instructions?”

  Gunner’s Log

  Flux and uncertainty, encirclement and escape, and the dogged defence of isolated localities like Franleu, characterised all that hot summer day. Its incessant movement, and the typical feature of deep enemy infiltration—made possible by the excessive length of the Divisional front—are shown very clearly in the following extract from the War Diary of the 17th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery:

  5th

  June.

  0425

  hrs.

  Right O.P. reports Boche patrol coming from Neuville wood.

  0440

  „

  7th A. & S.H. report they are firing hard over their perimeter at Boches in direction Arrest.

  0442

  „

  Right O.P. reports evacuation just in time.

  0450

  „

  240th Med. Bty. surrounded and evacuated, taking locks of guns, escaping in tractors.

  0500

  „

  Report from 10/26th Fd. Bty. that “A” troop wagon-lines surrounded and captured.

  0510

  „


  “C” troop ordered up-sticks, go back to a hide. Officers and detachment of “C” troop sent up with rifles and Bren guns to help defend “A” troop gun positions, where firing at point-blank range.

  0520

  „

  Situation reported to H.Q., R.A., 51st, with request for help.

  0530

  „

  “A” troop reported surrounded and captured, and enemy advancing on Command Post.

  0540

  „

  Message from the 154th Bde. that Bren-carriers of 8th A. & S.H, coming to help 10/26th Fd. Bty.

  0600

  „

  Last communication with 7th A. & S.H. who report they are holding out in Franleu.

  0615

  hrs.

  Message sent with 2/Lt. Turner to get “C” troop into action about Fressenville.

  1630

  „

  No sign of carriers of 8th A. & S.H. Orders to 13/92nd Fd. Bty. to send two armoured O.P.’s under 2/Lt. Fisher to Ochancourt, to help 10/26th Fd. Bty. These got as far as Nibas and did excellent work for 2 hrs., holding the enemy till relieved by carriers of 8th A. & S.H. Mortar reported shelling Ochancourt church.

  0700

  „

  Last communication received from 10/26th Fd. Bty.—“Cheerio, coming to join you.”

  0810

  „

  Orders given that in case of withdrawal all batteries would come into action south of River Bresle, with H.Q. at Monchy.

  0820

  „

  Orders given to all batteries for withdrawal parties to proceed to cross-roads Beauchamps.

  0830

  „

  Enemy M.T. reported at 625914. Engaged by 13/92nd Fd. Bty. News that remnants of 10/26th Fd. Bty. from Ochancourt have reached Nibas.…

  All this before breakfast-time. And while this was going on, while the gunners were reconnoitring their possible withdrawal to the Bresle, and there was fighting round Ochancourt and Nibas and Franleu, “B” company of the 7th Argylls, in Saigneville, half a dozen miles to the east of Nibas, were indeed eating their breakfast in comparative peace. The Germans had gone on, and left them behind.

  The War Diary continues:

  0923

  hrs.

  “B” troop, 240th Med. Bty., reports that position is none too secure, but no undue cause for alarm.

  0946

  „

  “B” troop, 240th Med. Bty., still in action and firing continuously at rapid rate.

  0950

  „

  13/92nd Fd. Bty. report they are firing incessantly at rapid rate.

  0952

  „

  “B” troop, 240th Med. Bty., report enemy 700 yds. away on left. …

  Ten minutes later “B” troop reported that the infantry were retreating through them, and the enemy steadily advancing. They were ordered to withdraw. Regimental Headquarters closed down and withdrew to the rendezvous at Beauchamps.

  To their right, in the centre of the line, the guns of the 75th Field Regiment—Territorials from Aberdeen—had had similar narrow escapes. On open ground they had dealt heavy blows to the Germans, but despite their losses the Germans still came on. Two guns in “E” troop fired over eight hundred and fifty shells each during the day, and before it was over some of the gunners were unconscious under the strain of continuous noise and fatigue.

  7. The Fight at Franleu

  The village of Franleu became the scene of a very stubborn, heroic conflict.

  At daybreak, or soon after, a sergeant riding a motor-bicycle left Franleu to repair a telephone line. He was shot. The Regimental Sergeant-Major of the 7th Argylls went out with three men and found the Germans, in large numbers, astride the road from Arrest. The defence of the village was swiftly organised, Bren guns removed from half a dozen carriers for use in section-posts, and a patrol set out to deal with snipers. Then the telephone line to Brigade Headquarters was cut, but a subaltern, though shot at by Germans, in the southern parts of the village, got through to Hoquelus and reported the situation.

  At five o’clock Lieut.-Colonel Buchanan, commanding the 7th Argylls, ordered “A” company, holding the village of Quesnoy, to withdraw to Franleu to assist in its defence. No Germans had as yet been seen at Quesnoy, and “A” company at once put its Bren gunners and their guns into the cooks’ lorry and sent them off. The Company Commander followed in a utility truck, and the remainder marched. The Company Commander, getting out to reconnoitre the cross-roads north-east of Franleu, was shot in the back by a sniper.

  “A” company was disposed right and left of Battalion Headquarters, which were situated in the village school, some little distance from the village itself. Bren gunners lined the nearby hedges, and the defenders’ only mortar did good work. But the Germans had five-inch mortars, heavy weapons of great accuracy, and they were far superior in numbers. More of their lorry-borne infantry arrived, and four more mortars, horse-drawn, came into position. Their fire grew more intense, but they showed no inclination to come into the open.

  Water and chocolate were sent to the men outside. The only carrier that was still armed, under Lance-Corporal Currie, patrolled the streets, dealt with snipers, and brought in wounded. The school had a cellar, which became a dressing-station, and there the Chaplain, the Rev. Duncan McInnes, tended the growing number of wounded.

  Brigadier Stanley-Clarke obtained from Divisional reserve the 4th Black Watch and ten French tanks, and sent them to the relief of Franleu.

  But neither tanks nor infantry could make headway against the stream of Germans flooding south-west. By two o’clock in the afternoon the leading company of the Black Watch had already found Germans on the railway-line north of Feuquières. “B” and “D” companies were nominated for the relief, and the troop of light tanks available to support them was commanded by a French officer who was not only prepared but eager to attack. Before they were ready to go forward, however, the enemy was pouring down the road from Abbeville to Eu, and Saucourt—a village half-way between Feuquières and Franleu—was apparently held in strength. The tanks and a platoon of “D” company harassed the Germans in Saucourt, but the relief of Franleu was held to be impossible, and the attack was abandoned.

  Through the Besiegers’ Ring

  Franleu, in the meantime, was still holding on. The only mortar had done valiantly against the many German weapons, and the enemy had twice been driven back when, extended in double line, under cover of smoke they had tried to rush the village. But the German bombardment had done great damage, and there were many wounded in the cellar below the village school. A machine-gun section of the Northumberland Fusiliers had been particularly successful, but early in the afternoon it was silenced. And a little later in the afternoon the solitary invaluable mortar was put out of action by a direct hit. In the growing heat of afternoon—summer’s heat and the heat of burning houses—German reinforcements arrived—three tanks, motor-cycle troops, four hundred infantry. But still the enemy was held away, though no help came for the small and weary garrison.

  Then, about five o’clock, a mortar-bomb hit the last remaining ammunition-truck, which took fire and blew up, and made a wreck of Battalion Headquarters. Captain Robertson, who had organised the defence, was wounded, and so were Major Younger, Regimental Sergeant-Major Lockie, Company Sergeant-Major Dyer; they had, throughout the day, shown tireless energy and set for all a magnificent example. In the section-posts, in houses and on the outskirts of the village, there were by now many wounded men and many dead. There was no reserve of ammunition, no hope of reinforcement. An hour after the blowing-up of the ammunition-truck, Colonel Buchanan took stock and decided that the defence could not be maintained. He was unable to communicate with some of the outlying sections; but the others were told to use what vehicles they could find, and try to break through the German lines.

  By ditch and hedge the Colonel led his survivors to the farm buildings a hundred yards away, where tran
sport had been parked. Three or four trucks crammed with men, of whom many were wounded, and two carriers ran the gauntlet. They got through. They were hotly fired on as they broke out of Franleu, but once through the besieging ring and they were almost safe. For every German gun was pointed inwards, against the village.

  While the trucks were being loaded the Colonel’s batman, Allan Carswell, his left sleeve hanging bloodily by his side, came to ask the Colonel for the loan of his revolver. “What do you want it for?” asked the Colonel. “Can you not see that I’ve got a broken arm? I can’t use a rifle,” said Carswell. He was a quiet, shy man who had been a forester; but now, with his revolver and his one good arm, he set off on his solitary counter-attack, while the Colonel went back to the cellar under Battalion Headquarters, where there were about thirty badly wounded men. Before the others left, two volunteers had been asked to stay with them. Volunteers had immediately offered. The padre, the Rev. Duncan McInnes, also elected to remain. Throughout the day he had cared for the wounded with unceasing devotion, and when the German snipers were shooting with great accuracy into the precincts of the school, he had gone out against their fire to fetch water for his patients. Now, on all sides, there were buildings aflame, and though the last of its defenders had gone, the Germans were still lobbing their mortar-bombs into Franleu.