Thursday April 25th, 1918
Stood down 5:15. Routine – much as usual so nothing to report.
Heavy Brigade
The following film clip shows the Heavy Brigade – first bringing up the guns, then the ammunition and finally demonstrating their fire power. It is a short clip from a longer film from British Pathé, a link to which is provided at the foot of this post.¹ The footage is echoed almost exactly by a passage written by Captain Stewart. He describes horse-drawn 18 pounders being brought into action on the Western Front in 1916:
‘Facing the road, we saw right away to our right a battery of eighteen-pounders coming along at the trot with mounted officers and NCOs in front and alongside; when they were opposite us they broke into a canter; the guns swaying about as they went over shell-holes and the gunners clinging on like grime death. They quickened their pace and swung round to their left when they came to the road leading up towards the wood. The officer leading then yelled out ‘right wheel’ and leaving the road, still at a sharp canter, they went on to the open ground.
On another order each team of horses wheeled right and halted, another officer galloped to the flank and dressed the guns so that they were perfectly level and facing the enemy; the horses were then unhitched and taken away and immediately all guns opened fire. The whole movement was done in a surprisingly short time and with the greatest precision although several shells exploded near them during the operation. As the shelling was only intermittent nearly all the orders could be clearly heard by all the troops on each side of the valley.’ ²
13th (Service) Battalion War Diary – 25th April 1918 – Crow Hill
Our artillery was somewhat more active than usual. Enemy artillery was active elsewhere, but only fired 4 rounds of shrapnel on Tomato in this sector. Five of our planes carried out a bombing raid on enemy back area between 07:00 – 07:30 hrs, Individual planes were over enemy lines all day. At 10:30 hrs enemy planes patrolled their own lines, one detached itself and fell low along our line Dirk-Kidney afterwards rejoining the others.
A patrol of 4 OR heard enemy troops when on left bank of Shem Ravine, 3 enemy were seen on W side of Handle moving in direction of White Scar Hill. Patrol reached top of Anvil and posted a proclamation on a tree there, returning without encountering any enemy. The Turtle Ravine Post saw a patrol of about 8 men on the E slope of Goldies IV. It ascended the slope, grouped and retired at 20:45 hrs. The sunken part of the trench at W foot of Spotted Dog has been screened. New wire has been put up in from of the sangar on W slope of Flat Iron and in front of White Scar.
References & Further Reading
¹ Complete Footage of ‘Royal Horse Artillery in Training (1910-1919)’, copyright British Pathé
² ‘A Very Unimportant Officer’ by Alexander Stewart, Captain & Cameron Steward (2008) Locn 966