Machine Gun Corps at Montauban.

When about 100 yards off our original front line, we saw that the enemy was putting up a barrage in
No-man’s-land and a lot of our infantry were knocked out going through. When we got right up to
this barrage we made a dash and, as far as I could make out, lost very few men. One of the section
officers, however, was wounded rather badly in the back.(LC)
We found the Boche wire, when we got up to it, had been blown to pieces by our artillery fire and the
trenches themselves had suffered so terribly that it was difficult to tell in what direction they ran.
[Described as nothing more than a shallow ditch in other sources] I had my first rest here; it was a
hot day, and the packs were beginning to tell on us.(LC)
As it looked as if the Boches were shortening their range, we thought it best not to make too long a
stay at this spot and therefore pushed on as far as the [former German strongpoint behind the 2 nd
line] Glatz Redoubt [held by the 19 th Manchesters]. In a few minutes No. 2 section came up [Capt
Grundy must have been with 4 Section]; so far they had only lost three men. (LC)
We lost about 25 men including the attached on the way. (WD)
At this point a party of about 30 Boche prisoners were marched past; all of them apparently in great
fear of their lives! They had all, seemingly, been very much shaken by our bombardment, and in the
trench we were occupying there were many of them lying badly wounded. After a few minutes we
mounted our guns and opened fire on the Boches to the left of Montauban [Breslau Point], as the
[55 th ] Brigade there did not seem to have
attained its objective.(LC)
All this time our heavy artillery had been
keeping up an intense bombardment on
Montauban, and we could see our infantry
waiting in the open in a long line [in
Railway Valley], ready to go in when the
artillery fire lifted. Later there seemed to be
some slackening of the fire and our troops
immediately went forward. The whole thing
was done as if on parade. They went over
at a steady walk, keeping their dressing all
the time. As far as we could see, there was
no hostile rifle fire from Montauban at all
and, as yet, no shell fire was falling on
them. [Sustained machine fire from the
approaches to the village caused significant
casualties to the Manchester
Battalions](LC)
I then decided that this would be the time
to get our machine-guns into Montauban,
so we went forward…(LC)
War Illustrated July 1916