The War Service of the 1/4 Royal Berkshire Regiment (T. F.) | Page 4

On April 15th we moved up again, and took
over for the first time our own line from the 2nd Hants at Le Gheer.
The trenches ran here with singular angles and salients along the east
face of Ploegsteert Wood; many disconnected posts, which could only
be relieved by night, strong points in ruined houses with such
suggestive names as First and Second German House were reminiscent
rather of outposts than orthodox trench warfare. The weather was bright,
the enemy entirely inactive, and the wood, with its oxlips and other
spring flowers, its budding branches unscarred by shell fire, was a
picture of charm rare in modern warfare. Forty-eight hours only were
spent in this idyllic spot before we returned to Romarin to the
accompaniment of the roar of mines, artillery, and concentrated rifle
fire and machine gun fire, which heralded the sudden outbreak of the
Battle of Hill 60, 4 miles to the north, just before sunset on April 17th.
Our relief of the 4th Division was now complete, and our instructors
marched to billets in Bailleul, only to be thrown within a few days into
the furnace of the second Battle of Ypres. Before leaving they placed a
great board just outside the Regent Street entrance to the wood, stating
that it had been taken by the 4th Division on October, 1914, and
handed over intact to us.
[Illustration: Berkshire Line At Ploegsteert.]
CHAPTER III
HOLDING THE LINE AT 'PLUGSTREET'
The line held by the Division for the next two months was wholly
within Belgian territory, with a frontage of about 5,000 yards, which
stretched from a point about 500 yards south-east of Wulverghem on
the north to just below Le Gheer. The 143rd Brigade were on the left,
145th in the centre, and the 144th on the right. We were on the left of
the 145th, and worked on a self-relieving system by which two
Companies spent alternate periods of four days in the trenches and in

local reserve. B and C Companies on the right shared trenches 37 and
38, also named Berkshire and Argyll; A and D in turn inhabited
trenches 39 and 40, or Sutherland and Oxford, with a total frontage of
700 yards. The trenches ran along low ground between the wood and
the River Douve; on the left the famous hill of Messines peered into
our positions, and though itself barely 200 feet above sea-level loomed
like a mountain among the mole-heaps of Flanders. The distance
between the opposing lines varied from 450 to 250 yards. Reliefs could
be carried out by day across the open on the right to Prowse Point
(called after Major Prowse, of the Somerset L.I., who here organised a
successful counter-attack in November, 1914, and afterwards was
killed as a brigadier in the Somme battles); but the left was much in the
air, as the only communication trench led up to some reserve
breastworks near the Messines road, barely shoulder high, and
themselves incapable of secure daylight approach, and all rations,
stores, etc., had to be brought up overland by night over bullet-swept
ground, but with negligible casualties.
The amenities of trench life depend almost wholly on the enemy and
the weather. In both these respects we were fortunate. The Saxons who
faced us lived up to their reputation, and apart from some accurate
sniping which did more damage to periscopes than to human life, made
no attempt to annoy us. No gas was ever emitted against us, though but
a few miles to the north the enemy was using this new weapon
incessantly. Throughout the end of April and for many days in May the
wind blew steadily out of a cloudless sky from the north-east, and
every morning we anxiously sniffed the breeze as we fingered the
inadequate and clumsy respirators of those times. Every day a new
pattern arrived with a new set of instructions. Then our sappers were
ordered to make boxes of gun-powder which were to be fired by fuse
and thrown over the parapet to dissipate the gas. In doing this they
succeeded in blowing up several of their own number in their infernal
den at Doo-Doo Farm. Scarcely, however, were these boxes ensconced
in their weather-proof niches in each traverse than they were
condemned, and the sweating infantry who had brought them up
returned them with many curses to store.

The guns also left our sector in peace, which was the more fortunate as
our artillery was not in a position to reply effectively to even a modest
bombardment. Every now and then a little gun, apparently mounted on
an armoured car which ran along the avenue just behind the German
lines at dusk, would loose off half a dozen shells which burst without
any warning, like a pair of gigantic hands