72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - Electric Scotland

SEAFOETH HIGHLANDERS OF CANADA
the Boche -had been pushing up battalion after battalion
throughout the afternoon. In the two villages mentioned
the Germans literally swarmed like bees. Into this attack
the 72nd could put, in all its four companies, but ten of
ficers and 240 other ranks. In other words,
force had been strung out across the Battalion s
if the whole
frontage,
it would have formed but a single line of men five yards
apart. So as the night of the 28th stole over the battle
field, the prospect for the next day looked decidedly in
teresting for the Kilties.
Promptly at 8 a.m. on September 29th, our barrage came
down on the line of the Douai-Cambrai road, and the 72nd
was at it again. The enemy s retaliating bombardment de
veloped instantly, and along the identical line of ours. The
once-stately poplars lining the highway, splintered by the
shell-bursts, showed phantom-like through the smoke of the
double barrage. By miraculous good fortune, the Battalion
crossed the road with scarcely a casualty ,and close be
hind the curtain of shrapnel, advanced on Sancourt.
On crossing the road the left "C"
Company was held
up by a heavy belt of barbed wire in front of a hastily-dug
trench. Swinging round this obstacle they fought their
way up the exposed side-hill to the west of Sancourt. Work
ing in extended order, taking advantage of isolated bits of
trench or folds in the ground, in short, making skilful
use of every bit of cover possible, the Company advanced
under heavy machine-gun fire to the line of the sunken
road which enters Sancourt from the N.W.. In this road
they captured 120 prisoners and 20 machine guns. Push
ing forward, despite the troops on the immediate left
not
being up, they managed to establish advanced posts on the
line of the road running N.W. out of the village of Blecourt.
"B"
Company, on the right of "C,"
crossed the line
of the Douai-Cambrai road, and in a spirited fight cleared
the village of Sancourt, capturing 250 prisoners or four
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