The Third Battle of Ypres was drawing to its close. Though the weather had broken, Sir Douglas Haig pressed the attack and by the end of the month Passchendaele, the highest point of the ridge, had been taken and the salient flattened out. There was desperate fighting ere that feat was accomplished, in which the 4th Division (Major-General T.G. Matheson) played its usual gallant part. Early in October the 4th was stationed well tot he left of the line, having only the 29th Division on its left.The latter was astride the Ypres-Staden railway and the 4th Division was beyond Langemarck, facing the road which ran to Houthulst Forest from Poelcappelle. On the right was the 11th Division operating to the left of the latter village, and the line of assaulting divisions stretched thence as far as Gheluvelt. As a result of the movement the British line was established along the main ridge for 9,000 yards. On the extreme left the advance was most satisfactory, for the three divisions (29th, 4th and 11th)all reached their objectives, the two latter storming the western half of Poelcapelle, including the church. Notwithstanding the bad state of the weather, the British Commander-in-Chief decided to press still further forward and although the 12th Brigade was not involved in the contest on October 4th, it was fully employed in the obstinate encounter of October 9th, when British troops established themselves on the outskirts of Houthulst Forest. On this occasion, also, advance was most marked on the left, the 29th and 4th Divisions making equal progress along the Ypres-Staden railway and securing a line to the east of Poelcappelle-Houthulst Road." Stiff lighting took place around certain strong points, in the course of which a hostile counter-attack was repulsed. The weather conditions were appalling. " The last stages of the Third Battle of Ypres,"writes Buchan, " were probably the muddiest combats ever known in the history of war."
The attack, on October 9th, of the 4th Division (with 11th Division on the right and 29th Division on the lelft) was entrusted to the 12th Brigade, with the 10th in support and 11th in reserve. The Essex were on the right, with 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers on the left, the 2nd Duke of Wellington being in support, with 1st King’s Own in reserve; Brigade headquarters were in Langemarck. The object was to push between Poelcappelle on the right and the Ypres—Staden railway on the left, beyond the Poelcappelle-Houthulst road linking the two points. "A" and "B" Companies of the Essex led, with "C" in support and "D" in reserve. Just before zero hour (5.20 a.m.) the British artillery put down a very heavy stationary barrage for four minutes and then started to creep along at a rate of 100 yards in ten minutes. As the men went over they encountered severe rifle and machinegun fire from a point near the railway. In the early stages both Lieut.-Colonel A.G. Pratt and the Adjutant went down wounded,also the commanders of "A" and "C" Companies. The first objective was taken but the left was held up by machine gun fire from blockhouses (pill-boxes) at the north-east end of Poelcappelle,which had remained unsubdued owing to the advance of the 11th Division being stayed. Moreover,a gap of 200 yards separated the two divisions. Progress was resumed for some hundreds of yards and then the Battalion, short of the final objective, organized among the shell holes against counter-attack. The casualties were severe, 17 officers being hit, of whom seven were killed or died of wounds, viz., Captain L.W.L. Cadic, M.C., Captain R. H. Lowe,2nd Lieuts. G.P. Hobbs, W.L. Thompson, F.W. Legg, H.A. Keell and W.A. Ilieve. A separate list for the 9th is not available,but between the 9th and 14th 274 other ranks were returned as casualties, including 42 killed, 144 wounded, 25 missing, four" gassed," three wounded and remained on duty and 56 to hospital. The enemy barrage was five minutes late in coming down or the losses might have been still heavier.
The Battalion remained on the sodden ground it had won for the night, the hours of darkness being spent in reorganization. Touch was regained, too, with the division on the right. No counter-attack was made, although a good deal of enemy movement had been visible near to Requete Farm. With daylight came relief by the Household Battalion, though comfort was not to be had, for the Battalion occupied waterlogged shellholes in support. 2nd Lieut. F.W. Gilbert was killed during the relief.Lieut.-Colonel R.N. Thompson again assumed command of the Battalion on October 10th.The men suffered so considerably. From shell-fire on the 11th that the position was moved to 200 yards south of the Poelcappelle-Houthulst road. That same night the Essex were relieved by 1st Rifle Brigade and went into divisional reserve. They were not called upon for the attack on October 12th, although two other battalions of the 12th Brigade were employed. Then, in company with the 29th, the 4th Division made substantial progress along the Ypres-Staden railway, where at the troops again displayed "remarkable gallantry, steadfastness and endurance in circumstances of extreme hardship."
Bron: Essex units in the war 1914-1919 Vol.II 2nd Battalion; door Burrows J.
Private T.A.Bickerton, 2nd Batt., Essex Regiment.
Under the prevailing conditions the infantry had extreme difficulty moving forward ready to attack:
At 3 o’clock in the morning we were to move forward to take up our final positions before the attack, which was to be at dawn, started. While making this move, I had the misfortune to fall into a shell hole which was practically full of water. l was up to my waist. Every man was intent on looking after himself and the platoon filed past and l began to think that I was going to be drowned. l managed to hold the gun above my head. Fortunately, my platoon officer, who was bringing up the rear,saw me and shouted to the fellows to come back and pull our gunner out of the shell hole, as we could not do without him! It was hard work for three of them to pull me out and I was plastered with mud, my revolver holster being filled with mud and my revolver rendered useless. When we reached our final positions I endeavoured to scrape as much mud off as possible, but l’d got nothing really to remove it and I had to go over plastered.
However, further along the line the attack largely floundered deep in the liquid mud as the creeping barrage moving ahead of the troops proved ragged or almost non-existent. For the first time since August the artillery had completely failed to establish any kind of dominance over the battlefield. In consequence the unsubdued German batteries were able to pour shells into the stumbling troops, machine guns rattled from undisturbed pillboxes and thick belts of barbed wire were left uncleared. The accumulated tactical skills and initiative of junior officers and NGOs could count for little against such odds. The 4th Division attacked just to the left of Poelcapelle village itself:
Only three of us out of my machine gun section of eight, actually arrived. Fortunately Number 2, with a bag of spares and Number 3 with magazines. We had stopped just inside the corner of a ruined house at the side of the road and here we had another miraculous escape one of our own shells falling right amongst us, but for some reason or another although we were blown all over the place, none of us were hurt. Idecided that if the Germans counter-attacked we weren’t in a very good position to use the gun, so we had a consultation and made up our minds to move forward, into a shell hole about 20 yards immediately in front of us. We got up and ran and unfortunately my Number 2 got a bullet wound through his leg. This was only a flesh wound, but it was all that he wanted! It was a ‘Blighty’ one and he soon made his way crawling off to the rear. We had some difficulty in setting up the gun owing to the ground being so soil. It had rained all the night before and my Number 3 just eased himself up a little to adjust the bipod at the front of the gun a little, when he also got a `Blighty’ one. This left me on my own. I decided I would do much better to stay up and if the Germans did counter-attack I would try to do what I could with the gun on my own. Fortunately, no counter-attack developed, but nobody dared to move because the German snipers were so active. I watched a heavy machine gun team try to come up from the rear and all of them were either wounded or killed.
