Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Thursday 13 January 1916, page 7


WAR DAY BY DAY.

Hohenzollern Redoubt.

Story of British Assault.

The Hohenzollern Redoubt is one of those places on the map of war which will be re-membered not for one engagement in which men have fought desperately for its winning, but for a long series of attacks and counter-attacks and a daily routine of violent shel-

fire (wrote Philip Gibbs to the "Daily Chronicle" on November 24).

To-day, even as I write, our men in trenches divided from the enemy only by

earth and sandbag barricades and dead bodies will be flinging another store of bombs to keep the Germans quiet in their dug-outs, and the enemy's artillery will ravage this neighbourhood with high explo-sives. It is by no means a health resort, as the soldiers say.

It was still less of a health resort on October 13, when a division of Midland men, whose personal deeds of courage make a heroic story—I hate the word "heroic," yet none other may be used for that day's tale —were ordered to assault and capture it.

The maze of trenches, called a redoubt, though utterly different from the old mean-ing of that term, and stuck out as a salient with a blunt nose beyond the German line to the south of Fosse 8 slag-heap, had been in our hands for a while.

During the bombardment, which had pre-ceded the great attack along our line, on September 25 storms of shells had made a frightful mess of its barren ground, cramp-ing up many of the trenches, smashing their parapets, and churning up the whitish earth in a volcanic way. Then the 9th Division got away from our front line, struggled across this infernal salient, killed large numbers of Germans, knocked out their machine-guns, and reached the black stump of Fosse 8.

BIG WILLIE TRENCH

Later some of the Guards and other troops fought over this ground, but the Fosse could not be held—it was under direct artillery fire in which no life could endure —and our men had to fall back to their original line, except that they managed to hold a part of one of the main communica-tion trenches on the south-east side of the

redoubt, nicknamed Big Willie.

The enemy had forced their way back into some of their old trenches in this salient with large numbers of machine-guns, and in spite of the chaos produced by our shell fire had built up new parapets, flung out barbed wire, and dug themselves into this graveyard where many German dead, and our own, were strewn. It was again

a stronghold of terrible power, from which machine-guns could sweep like scythes across the flat ground between its outer face and our front line.

It was to the division of Midland men that the order of assault was given on Octo-ber 13. I knew the look of a good many of these men, having met them soon after they came out to France several months

ago—I think that was in February—eager to prove their training in the Territorial army. They were first-class men, and I had seen their class and type at work in the Potteries—they were men of character in the Five Towns—and in the factories of Birmingham (how they used to cheer "Joe" Chamberlain!) and in the cattle mar-ket at Lincoln, and down the High streets at Leicester and Nottingham, where they went shopping m a prosperous way, as men with good trades and good homes, and a sense of independence.

MEN OF THE MIDLANDS.

Well, it was queer to find them all in khaki out there in the fields of France, and it is queerer still to think of these young Midland men who had been brought up to the peaceful arts and crafts of life, forcing their way up long ditches filled with the smoke and stench of war, attacking des-perately in the face of machine-guns which vomited out spluttering streams of bullets, smashing down barbed wire with the butt

ends of their rifles, while shells screamed above them, and hulling bombs for hours

at isolated positions, so that for a rare instance in this war the strength of man's right arm, the individual courage of his heart, his cunning in a tight corner, were the means of thrusting back the enemy.

These lace-workers of Nottingham and bootmakers of Leicester and potters from the Five Towns, who had learnt skill of hand and eye in the craftsmanship of peace, handled their bombs as though they had been born to the job, and in the tumult of that assault did astounding things.

The Midland men went into the trenches

on the night of October 12—various officers and men had previously visited them—and in the following morning our artillery con-centrated a tremendous fire upon the re-doubt, followed at 1 p.m. by volumes of smoke and gas. The notable features on this part of the German line are, on the night a group of colliers' houses known as the Corons de Pekin and a slag-heap known as the Dump, to the north-east of that big-ger dump called Fosse 8, and on the left another group of cottages and another black hillock farther to the right of the Fosse. These positions are in advance of the Hohen-zollern Redoubt, which our troops were to

attach.

It was not an easy task. It was, in fact, hellish. Intense as our artillery fire had been it failed to destroy the enemy's barbed wire and front trenches sufficiently to clear the way, and the enemy were still working their machine-guns when the fuses were

lengthened, the fire lifted, and the gas clouds had rolled away. The attack on the right was delivered by

a brigade of Staffordshire men, who ad-vanced in four lines towards the Big Willie trench which forms the south-eastern side

of the redoubt. The leading companies who were first over our own parapets made a quick rush, half-blinded by the smoke and the gaseous vapours which filled the air, and were at once received by a very deadly and persistent fire from many machine-

guns. It swept their ranks, and men fell on all sides. But others ran on in little

parties flung out in extended order.

lotmg officers behaved w ith ( vtreme gal j olly and as they fell cheered their men | Ptijailc others nn forwird shouting foi

»ralby numbers winch dwindled it every I gi BO th it only a few riached the Big

Wli trench in the fi-st assault I i bombing pirty of North Staffordslino1 MIBanaged to eleir 30 yards of the trench y the Tapidity and Bkill with which they «>! their hand grenades at the German «Mrs who endeavoured to keep thom »»t, ami ag un and again the} kept at bay Nbde of men who swirincd np the com Education trenches by a senes of explo «¡n huh blew thim to bits as bomb if ter tob was hurled into their mass by these P» dour fellows of ours who would not Mge from the ground they bad gained

RETREATED YARD BY YARD

Hey did not yield until nearly every ?n His wounded and many ivere killed "ra then they i etreated j ard bj yard, fal flinging grenades almost Avitli the "¡ihm of a sow ci who se liters his seed,

T motion of tin li ind and arm letting [» one of those steel pomegranates w bach ia W'"1 t'le ncust °* a "igh explosive

The survivors fell back to the other side J1 »barrie ide undo in the Big Willie «nch bi some of the St iff oi dshire men [."ira Ililnnd them ifeiin w is mother

"mer in lase the lirst should be rushed

It seunul as if they iiiieM be n "hod «.»for the Ccrmana wen swarming up »ia'"'i with slrong bombing paities, and .»lira =ooi bl ist a way tbroivli unless they *fi« thrust bij omi the range of hand gren ¡J" It w is lieutenant llawkct, with

wc bouth StalTordshire men, n ho Avent ward to meet this attick and with Bpcrb cour i¡,e 1 ept the enemy back until

'»cloçl m the afternoon when then I yyjjtu w is spent, and ii AVIS neccssaiy "'all bail lo the second barrie! | i fin , ,10w cu-pt ovcl tne battlefield' ¡M tiled the trenches and in the d-u-kness

»« »oundell men were cairied back to tho Wnbile those who hid escaped ivorkcd }jT to »trencillen their defences by sand TMd cailhwoils

i wlynixl morning in attempt was made »I »thor battalions to come to the relief r'SfosiiAlio luid on behind those bimi ra f'«g Willie trench they were Notting T mcn-"Iîobin Hoods and othei Slier "W lads-and they ernie across the open iT»! in two directions attacking the west SL. J" ""? e'ust cnda of 'be Geiman com jnicat.on trenches which form the face wT»c redoubt 1 lÄwere,«'PPOttod bj nile grenade lire, h^Ta\ advance was met bj intense fin S arT'erl «nd machine puns, so that wy suffered i terrible ordeal and could T reach their comrades in Big Willie

JJjMti in spite of a most determined cour

AT THE REDOUBT

B«t while one bngndo of the Midland »«had been lighting like this on the la» in0t,,er huS»de bad been engaged 2ÏÏ'e derations on the left It con ""»M Bherwood, leicester, and Lincoln

men who on the afternoon of October 13 went forward to the assault with very desperate endeavour Advancing in four lines the lending companies were successful in rciching the Hohenzollern Redoubt smashed through the btrbed wire, part of which was uncut and reached the Iossc trench which forms the north base of the Gai lent

Machine gun lire tried the first two lines severely but the two remaining hues were hea\ily shelled by German .n-tiflery It was nn hour in which the courage of those men was put to a supreme test They were e\ posed on naked ground swept bj bullets the atmosphère was heavj with gas nnd smoke all the ngonj of battle was around them and in front a hidden enemy with unlimited supplies of ammunition and a better position

DESPERATE FIGHTING WITH BOMBS

Nevertheless the Hobin Hoods nnd the j

men of Lincoln and the Leicestershire lids

did not lose their nerve nor the spirit' that has como tn them through the old yeoman stock in which their traditions nre rooted and those who had not fallen

went torwnrd past their wounded comrades (and that was hard), to the German

tienrhes behind the redoubt

At 215 pm Bome Monmouth men carne up in support and while their bombers were at work nome or the 1 incolns pushed up with a machmc-gun to a point within 60 yards from the losso trench where they stayed till dark when they were

forced to fall buck

Aleanwhilc Dirties of bombers itere trv,

ing to loree their way np the Little Willie trench on the extreme left of the redoubt and it was hero tint come of the moat desperate lighting took place Some of the I cicesters made a dash 300 yards up the trench, but were beaten bnck bv ovpr

powering numbers of German bombers andt

I nyonct men nr d ngain and ngain other I Midland Inds went up that allen way of death flinging their grenades until they fell or nntil few comrades wi.ro left to sup-port them

Single men held on throwing and throw ing until there wns no strength ID their arms to burl another bomb or until death came to the-n Yet the grim business went on through the darkness of the afternoon and into the deeper darkness of the night ht lundis at moments by the white illumination of Cermun flares and bj the flash of bursting rhells

Some of the Hobin Hoods up Little)

\\ illn. trencli were holding out desperately and almost at tht last gisp when thej were relieved by some other Shenvoods nnd it ivis here that Lieutenant (now Cap tain) Vickers wns found in the way that

won him hw V C

CAPTAIN VICKERS, VC

Charles Geoffrey Vickers is a Robin Hood in heart as well as m name us far ns the gallant!v and chivalry of that Ï nglish out In» is 1 nown lo tis in old ballads It is a pitv th-it he had to fight with bombs m stead ot with the good old bow which wns i eleanor wnj but that was not his fault and he made the best of his bombs and ti e viloui oí this young man mal es one forget the Inphtfulness of high explosives

which aro a dirtv business

] or hours ho stood there against t horde of men eager for his death enger to get ii the men behind mim But they could not approach He nnd his fellow bombers kept Ivventy yards or moro cleir before tht ni

and any man who flung hnmelt forward was the target of a hand grenade

1 rom Iro it mid from flank German bomba carne whiiving fillim, bhort some tunes with a blasting toar that tore down lumps of trenth and sometimes falling \ery c'ose-close enough to kill

Lieutenant Vickers saw some of his best men fill but he kept the barrier still mt-ict bv the tool nerve with which he still ki pt up his bombing

When many of his comrades weic dend or wounded he wondered how long the bninci would last and gave ordcis foi another to be built behind htm so tint when the rush came it would be stopped behind lum-and ovci lum

Men worked at that btmcado Piling up sandbags arid as it was biiilt J lculenant Viekers knew that his oivn retreat waa being cut off and that he was being coihned in that narrow space Ino othei men were with him-I have not yet leimt their names-and they were hardlv enough to lund up bombs as quiekly as he wished to

tluow them

Away there up the trench the Geimans were waiting for a pounec 1 hough wounded so that lie felt faint and Lidtly

lie called out for moro bombo Morel he said Moro' ' and his band was like a nuchine lc-iehing out ind throwing

Rescue carne none too soon, and the wounded officer was hauled over the barn eade winch lie had ordered to be built be lund lum closing up his way of escape The old Robin Hood did no more gallant

Leste

A NEW ATTACK

\\l through October li the Midland men held on to their giound, and some of the bhemoods made a new and successful at tack, clearing the enemy out of the east portion of the redoubt

It waa lueky that it coincided with a countci alt tck made by the enemy nt i different point, because it rebeved the .pressure there Bombing duels continued

hour after hour and human niture of the finest tyic could hirdly htvc endured so ' long an ordeil without latigue beyond the

strength of men

I So it BcLius yet when a brigade of I Gu irda caine up on the mrht of October

1516 the enemy ittieked alonL the whole 1 line of the redoubts and t! ( Midland men who were just about to leive the trenehes found themselves engaged m a new action Ihey had to fitht again before they could go ind they fought like fresh men and bombed the enemy back to their holes in I the ground

li was not a great victory It did not I gam mach new ¿round It left a position I which is still most elaborately un I lu ilthy, with the enemy on the other side ot our barricades in BIL, Willie and Little | Vi libe to closi that oi e m IJ heal them

cough and swc-ir in guttural whispeiB lint for sheer individu ti gallantry it is hard to be it the fighting of these And! ind men in their assault upon the Uolienzollern where i tliey left so much good blood