Twenty Ninth Day of the Third Battle of Ypres

Tuesday 28th August 1917

11th (Northern) Division have had an unexpected windfall today. Yesterday they managed to advance up to the walls of a strong-point called Vielles Maisons, but could not breach it. Overnight the enemy decided the place was untenable and abandoned it and the 6th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment has occupied it with alacrity.

We understand that, after the recent fighting in this sector of the battlefront, there are many men alive in No man’s Land, too wounded to reach safety for treatment. Something of a truce seems to have descended and there are reports of stretcher-bearers from both sides bringing in the wounded while ignored by those with weapons in their respective front lines. There are reports of wounded Germans being brought in by our men and, it seems, the reverse has also been true. In a war in which killing sometimes seems to have achieved the cold ferocity of a machine this is, to this correspondent, at any rate, a welcome reminder of our shared humanity. 

Day Seventy Six on The Somme

Thursday 14th September 1916: From our Correspondent in the Field

This evening we can hear the heavy growl of artillery and the staccato popping of rifle fire away to the west in the vicinity of the ridge-top hamlet of Thiepval. We understand that 11th Division are attacking the ridge. Meanwhile the 56th (London) Division have been digging assembly trenches south of Leuze Wood.

Landings at Suvla Bay

Wednesday 11^th August: We understand that the 1st/5th Bedfords have landed this morning at Suvla Bay on the Gallipoli peninsula and will shortly begin disembarkation. German aeroplanes dropped bombs on shipping but hit nothing.

Initial landings in this bay took place on 6th August against negligible opposition, the idea being to drive in-land and link-up with the Australians and New Zealanders five miles to the south. The force here, IX Corps, is under Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Stopford. As well as 54th (East Anglian) Division, in which the Bedfords find themselves, it comprises 10th (Irish), 11th (Northern), 13th (Western), 53rd (Welsh) and 2nd Mounted Divisions. It appears that there was some confusion at first and that the beach is congested and progress inland slow, but hopefully things will soon sort themselves out(1)

Source: X550/6/8

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(1) In fact Stopford so badly handled the landing and subsequent lethargic advance that he was sacked on 15th August and another potentially promising move in the campaign ground into bloody stalemate.