Bite and Hold

Monday 21st October 1918

Today Second Army has been engaged in heavy fighting east of Ypres. It has had the impossible task of trying to bridge the Schelde Canal against vigorous opposition. Word is that this is a fight which may take some days to resolve.

Further south, following the successful attacks of yesterday, today has been a day to reorganise, plan, bring up guns and ammunition and rotate units. In a sense it is the same pattern we have seen on the Western Front since at least 1916, where our divisions attack, gain their objectives and then hold them whist preparing to fight off enemy counterattacks and prepare for the next attack. The tactics have become known as bite and hold.

In the past the tactic has been partially successful at best. Now it is resulting in effective attacks and significant advances. What has changed? Many things, of course, are different in this Autumn of 1918 but the overwhelming difference is that the fight is going out of the enemy. The German soldier has always been a formidable opponent. Well led, he has been tenacious in defence and ever ready to counter-attack with determination. In places that still applies, but across the battlefront we are seeing some German units giving up after perfunctory resistance and retiring from the fight. 

In many ways this great allied advance mirrors that by the enemy in the Spring. The one great difference was that their advance aimed to smash our armies by continuous assault, an unremitting series of attacks which gave little rest to the defender. The weakness of this plan was that it also gave no respite to the attacker so that after a week or so the enemy units attacking our men were approaching exhaustion, allowing our line to recover. The enemy also outran his supplies - food, water, ammunition. Bite and hold tactics allow units to be shuffled and, where necessary, replaced and allow all necessary supplies to be brought up for the next onslaught. All reasons why there is a very real belief here that the war will die with the light and that before Winter is upon us Peace will have returned to this scarred continent.

Thirty Ninth Day of the Third Battle of Ypres

Friday 7th September 1917

Yesterday, 1st/5th Lancashire Fusiliers alone of 125th Brigade managed an advance, which they consolidated. Today, we hear, the gain has been given up and the men returned to their original positions.

Amongst the armchair generals of His Majesty’s War Correspondents, I have to report, there has been significant grumbling about the small-scale and largely fruitless attacks which high command has ordered in the last few weeks. The last major attack was on 27th August. To those of us in the press these attacks seem to cost lives which are not commensurate with the results gained and there is a feeling that only a full-scale attack all along the line can hope to make significant progress.

This view is tempered by the realisation that the quagmire over most of the battlefield, reminiscent of the autumn stages of the Battle of the Somme last year, makes movement exhausting and slow. And, of course, we are not privy to the plans of General Plumer and his staff and so cannot know the reasons for the “drift” which some have identified in the actions of the last ten days.

I have heard senior officers say that correspondents have in place in the front line, that they are a distraction and a nuisance and that their opinions are of more benefit to the enemy than to the British Expeditionary Force.

Thirty Third Day of the Third Battle of Ypres

Saturday 1st September 1917

Two small, but stiff, fights have rent the air in different sectors of the Ypres battlefront today. 24th Division in the infamous Inverness Copse found themselves under attack, but managed to throw the attack back. Meanwhile 61st (2nd South Midland) Division further north launched an attack on Hill 35, managing to occupy a portion of it. As one of my football-minded colleagues put it - Great Britain 2, the Kaiser 0.

7th Battalion are hard at work practising for their next attack. They are at a village called Buysscheure well to the west of Ypres and in France. They have been undertaking a new form of attack, developed from experience in their recent fighting.

The 8th Battalion are in trenches south-east of Lens. Their total strength, the adjutant tells us, is 40 officers and 856 other ranks. They have received 22 men back from hospital but the grim weather in August has sent 45 of their fellows thither. 1st/5th Battalion, in far-away Palestine, reports that there are, on average 35 men in hospital at any one time at the moment, but thanks to reinforcements. Their strength has risen from 16 officers and 707 other ranks on 1st August to 27 officers and 855 other ranks as of yesterday.

Sources: X550/6/8; X550/8/1; X550/9/1

Instructions for an Advance

Monday 5th March 1917 from our correspondent in the field

Major E S M Poyntz, temporarily in command of 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment at Agny, south-west of Arras, whilst his brother acts as brigadier, has issued orders for an possible advance. As he said in his preamble: “In view of the possibility of the Germans withdrawing from the front now held by this Brigade it is possible that the Battalion (if in the line) may be ordered to advance at extremely short notice”.

The method of advance is detailed as follows: “the Battalion will advance on a front of two companies. Each Company will push forward a strong patrol of one Platoon and a Lewis Gun whose duty will be to keep in touch with the retiring enemy, these strong patrols must push forward as vigorously as possible, and their commanders must realize that every time they are delayed by a small post it gives the enemy more time to effect a withdrawal and lessens our chance of causing him casualties”.

“As soon as these patrols have occupied a position company commanders should immediately warn Battalion Headquarters who will give the order to push up their men and consolidate their position while the patrols will continue to push forward. The Battalion in support will be used to occupy and continue the consolidation of captured positions, when the leading battalion advances further”.

“Two signallers will move forward with the scouts and keep in constant communication with the fighting patrol who will relay to Company Headquarters. The greatest attention should be given to nettoyage(1), the men selected for this must be instructed not to leave any dugout unsearched or on any account whatsoever overlook any likely place of concealment for the sniper or machine gun”.

“After the front line of enemy trenches has been occupied, company commanders may find it advisable to push out stronger patrols. It is of paramount importance that patrols should keep in touch with their flanks. The importance of this cannot possibly be exaggerated”.

“It should be impressed on all officers, non-commissioned officers and men, that what appear to be small matters to them may be of vital importance to the higher authorities, so they should be warned to report anything of consequence”.

“One Lewis gun will proceed with each fighting patrol and one with each leading platoon. The support and reserve companies will each have three Lewis guns with them. This will leave four guns in reserve at Battalion Headquarters (providing we are issued with the extra two guns to make us up to sixteen)”.

Source: X550/3/WD

(1) French for cleaning up, British parlance was “mopping up”, applied to dealing with isolated enemy personnel and positions left in the rear of a British advance.