Vokes nodded and ran.
“Runner!”
A boy appeared, carrying his Lee Enfield.
“Leave the rifle here. I need you to runhard.” Richard scrawled a message to Braithwaite. “If you lose the message, theverbal is that we need artillery on the bunkers. They cannot be taken withoutsupport.”
“Yes, sir.”
The boy ran, skipping across the old noman’s land. Richard wondered just how old he was. His voice was broken; if hethought he was eighteen there could be no argument.
He was called across to C Company, CaptainHolmes at the lip of the trench, peering out.
“In front of the third bunker, sir. Thereis a wiring party just visible to us. A dip in the ground uncovering them, doyou see?”
Possibly four hundred yards distant.Difficult for accuracy.
“All of your men up, Holmes. Ten roundsaimed fire.”
A minute and there were thirty rifles atthe aim and Holmes called the command.
Richard watched through his glasses, sawtiny figures dropping, being spun around by bullet strikes.
“Take cover!”
C Company slipped to the bottom of thetrench as machine guns opened up, crossing the lip, making it untenable.
“No losses, sir.”
“Good. I saw the whole party going down, adozen hit at least.”
There was a loud explosion from the front.
“Artillery?”
“Not ours, sir.”
Holmes risked raising his head, saw acloud of smoke at the location of one of the small guns.
“Ready use going up, sir. Might beMichaels again.”
Half an hour and Richard heard yellingfrom along the line, could not pick out the words. A few minutes and Michaelsappeared with two of his riflemen.
“Lost Brown Two and Carmody, sir.Destroyed two bunkers, some ammunition and one gun, two pounder pompom,thereabouts, sir.”
“Well done, Mr Michaels. Get some tea andwrite a report before you rejoin your company, sir.”
The youth saluted and marched off to therear.
“That is worth something, Hawkeswill. Abrave lad.”
“He has too much to prove, sir. He knowswhat Draper was as well as we do.”
“So he does. I shall write him up for theMC at least. Can you ask Caton to send me the names of the two surviving riflemenas well?”
“Will do, sir.”
The runner returned with Braithwaite’sreply.
“No artillery to hand. Cavalry brigadewill not release RHA in case of breakthrough elsewhere. Is night attackpossible?”
Richard wrote his answer – heavy wire infront of the bunkers made attack impossible without artillery.
An hour and there was sudden activity tothe left, the battalion there mounting a push to close the open flank. Richardran across to Major Vokes.
“Can we support them? Who is it, do youknow?”
“One of the London battalions. Dozens ofthem, it seems, volunteers from August ’14 with officers from the various TAand Volunteer companies. Most of them are good. One or two are badly led,according to the whisper.”
Vokes was old Army, could talk with hiscompeers, was part of the network of pre-war officers. The word did not reachRichard, always came to Vokes, knowing as he did the bulk of establishedofficers of his rank.
“What do you know of that lot?”
“Not a word, sir. Indicative in itself.Wouldn’t mind betting that their brigadier has been on the scene this morning,has superseded the colonel, sent him back, replaced him with a man with somefire in his belly.”
“Support them as we can, Vokes.”
They were able to fire across the face ofthe advancing battalion, did some good in suppressing the machine guns.
“They have found gaps in the wire, sir.The ones that were said not to exist this morning. Into the first line.”
“Good. Bring your companies up to ourfront, Vokes. The flank should be secure now. See if you can get men into thesecond line from our side.”
An hour and the line was secured, thedogleg gone and a gain of almost a quarter of mile in places.
Captain Hawkeswill was less than enthused.
“How far is Berlin from here, sir?”
“No idea! Five hundred miles?”
“Two thousand more advances like this andwe will get there, sir.”
“Don’t count how many casualties that willbe, Hawkeswill. I doubt I could stand it. Have we been able to get an idea ofthe wire around the bunkers?”
“A full thirty yard apron, sir, where wecan see it clearly. The new German lines are a little higher than ours, so wecan’t see too much.”
“Pass the word to dig in. We do not expectto move from here.”
There was an engine noise, an aeroplane comingtowards them, low.
“Don’t shoot! It’s one of ours!”
It was a two-seater, a figure in the frontcockpit standing up and throwing something over the side, a long streamerdangling from it.
“Bring that in!”
A cleaned out bully beef can with a lidtied on and a brick underneath to weight it, disclosed a written message.Hawkeswill pored over the handwriting, penned in a bouncing cockpit.
“’Mass of infantry to your northeast.Estimate six battalions. Field guns. Aligning for attack.’ That could be dodgy,sir.”
“Issue all Mills Bombs. Bring up our contingencystocks of three-o-three and issue them all. Parties to the rear to grab any ofour wire they can move and throw it out to our front. German wire as well. Justin rough entanglements, don’t worry about setting it properly. All walkingwounded who can use a rifle to take post. Lewis Gunners to ensure that allexpended pans are filled. ‘Major O’Grady!”
The Sergeant Major came at the run,glanced at the message Richard held out to him.
“Sure, and it’s busy chaps we shall be,sir.”
“So we shall, ‘Major. Make a rum issue, ifyou would be so good.”
In theory, the battalion did not carrystocks of rum. Spirits were brought up from the rear immediately before issue.
“Some will have to have gin, sir.Schnapps, to be more precise.”
“Just as long as they all have something, ‘Major.”
An unexpected, generous-handed issue woulddo morale a lot of good.
“I shall order them to eat as well, sir.No more than bully and biscuit with tea, being all that we have to hand. Itwill make them feel the better.”
Something would need to.
Richard sent his runner across to theleft, to inform the battalion there that a push was advancing towards theBedfordshires, would inevitably spill out onto their flank.
A single eighteen pounder battery began tofire probing shells out ahead, presumably guided by a spotter of some sort,possibly the aeroplane that had given them the warning. They suddenly fell intorapid fire, five
