72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada - waughfamily.ca

SEAFOETH HIGHLANDERS OF CANADAthe Boche -had been pushing up battalion after battalionthroughout the afternoon. In the two villages mentionedthe Germans literally swarmed like bees. Into this attackthe 72nd could put, in all its four companies, but ten officers and 240 other ranks. In other words,force had been strung out across the Battalion sif the wholefrontage,it would have formed but a single line of men five yardsapart. So as the night of the 28th stole over the battlefield, the prospect for the next day looked decidedly interesting for the Kilties.Promptly at 8 a.m. on September 29th, our barrage camedown on the line of the Douai-Cambrai road, and the 72ndwas at it again. The enemy s retaliating bombardment developed instantly, and along the identical line of ours. Theonce-stately poplars lining the highway, splintered by theshell-bursts, showed phantom-like through the smoke of thedouble barrage. By miraculous good fortune, the Battalioncrossed the road with scarcely a casualty ,and close behind the curtain of shrapnel, advanced on Sancourt.On crossing the road the left "C"Company was heldup by a heavy belt of barbed wire in front of a hastily-dugtrench. Swinging round this obstacle they fought theirway up the exposed side-hill to the west of Sancourt. Working in extended order, taking advantage of isolated bits oftrench or folds in the ground, in short, making skilfuluse of every bit of cover possible, the Company advancedunder heavy machine-gun fire to the line of the sunkenroad which enters Sancourt from the N.W.. In this roadthey captured 120 prisoners and 20 machine guns. Pushing forward, despite the troops on the immediate leftnotbeing up, they managed to establish advanced posts on theline of the road running N.W. out of the village of Blecourt."B"Company, on the right of "C,"crossed the lineof the Douai-Cambrai road, and in a spirited fight clearedthe village of Sancourt, capturing 250 prisoners or four146