Martin Lindsay's account of 1st Gordons action at Goch
Meanwhile O.C. D Company, with his platoon commanders, tried to find a way across the rubble and fallen houses towards his company's objective - the big building in the north-east corner of the Battalion area. He soon came up against snipers and one of his officers, Harrison, the eighteen-year-old who joined us only two days before, was hit in the head, though I hear it is only a graze. While this was taking place the troop of tanks was trying to find a side-turning which would take them up to D Company's objective. The leading tank, while still on the main street 100 yards beyond the square, was hit by a bazooka and all the crew became casualties.
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| 1st Gordons Attack on Goch |
It was clear that we couldn't make much progress towards our objective from the direction of the square, so I thought that my best plan was to attack with the other two companies, C and B, through the housing estate to the west. At this time C Company was under cover in the row of houses 200 yards north of the first Battalion Tac H.Q., and D Company was in houses off the main street. Both companies were therefore close to the road junction which was chosen as their start point. It took one and a half hours to mount this attack, as in addition to the time required for recce, a troop of tanks and a troop of crocodiles were to support it and a smoke-screen had to be laid on to defilade the right flank of the two attacking companies.
While this attack was taking place, the Brigadier who by this time had resumed command, told me that he wanted us to send a company to the cross-roads (D) south-west of the housing estate, and another to Thomashof, a very large farm with many outbuildings. I said that I would do so before first light next morning; we both agreed that, with this heavy mortaring, it was necessary to get across the open ground under cover of darkness. With this extra commitment, it was obviously not feasible to take all the buildings within the Battalion's original objective, so I told George Morrison and Alec Lumsden that B and C were to hold only the main street down to the road junction and such houses just east as could be conveniently occupied.
D Company hadn't done much, so I told Casey that they would have to go to the cross-roads. I had no worries about this as old Casey is a thoroughly experienced officer and the Divisional Reece Regiment had been almost as far in the afternoon and reported that they thought the area was unoccupied. Except for making him conform to our timings, I gave Casey a completely free hand.
I could not take B or C for Thomashof as they had borne the brunt all day, and Alec Lumsden and George Morrison had both done so much already. That left only A Company. But I wasn't at all happy about sending A Company off into the blue on this night attack. Bill Kyle is a stout-hearted lad, but not very experienced. That morning he had had the unnerving experience of seeing his company commander killed while talking to him. There was only one other officer left in the company, Charlie Howitt, whose first action it had been. And one of the three platoons was commanded by only a corporal.
I gave a lot of thought to it during the evening and finally decided to command the company myself. I asked Kyle if he minded, and he seemed quite pleased. In a way I was rather glad to have this opportunity, which I regarded as an act of self discipline. Of late I have been finding it increasingly difficult to leave the nice, safe command post when there has been shelling.
Nothing was known about Thomashof except what I could learn from the air-photos. From these I saw that our objective consisted of one very large building with five biggish outhouses round it. In addition there were two smaller houses detached from and about a hundred yards our side of the main group. Several enemy trenches could be seen.
I made the simplest plan possible. The medium artillery would shell Thomashof during the night, scale five from sixteen guns-eighty rounds, each a 100 lbs. We would take the shortest route from the cemetery just in front of B Company, who would be responsible for patrolling this area to secure our start point. The I.O. would layout white tape for the first 200 yards, after which it was 1,100 yards by compass across open country. Corporal Henderson's platoon would take the first two houses, then Howitt's platoon would go for the main building, and Sergeant Cleveland's platoon and Company H.Q. for the two nearest outhouses. Zero hour was set for 4.45 a.m., but I afterwards postponed it till 5.45, which I thought would get us across the open ground in darkness but give us the benefit of first light to clear the somewhat alarmingly large buildings. I had the two officers and all the N.C.O.s in the Battalion Command Post and took great trouble in briefing them, and they all had a good look at the air-photos.
I sent a note to the Brigade Commander explaining the shortage of officers and N.C.O.s in A Company, and that for this reason I felt I should take command of this company night attack, and therefore could Grant-Peterkin come up during the night and take over his Battalion. Later the Brigade I.O. came up and said that the C.O. was in bed with a bad cold, so I told Alec to come and take charge from 4 a.m.
It had been arranged that I should join A Company at 5.40 About half an hour before that I came up from our cellar and stood on the pile of rubble outside, to take stock of the night: the brightness of the moonlight; the effectiveness of the searchlights; the strength and direction of the wind; the amount of enemy shelling and mortaring (still considerable), etc. I heard a lot of heavy stuff crumping down in the direction of Thomashof, so I told our medium representative to stop his guns firing. Just before I left the command post he told me that they had not fired since 4 a.m.
I went round the corner and joined A Company just as it was falling in. But the same heavy-calibre shells could still be heard crashing down ahead, and in the stillness of the night the loud resounding bangs were undeniably somewhat frightening. I walked a few yards ahead to a clearing, and then took a compass bearing on where I heard the guns firing. When I plotted it on my map I saw that it was from the south-east corner of the Reichswald, just where I knew the Scottish Horse, the Divisional Medium Regiment, was in action. So I told Kyle to get the company back under cover and ran up the street to B' Company's H.Q. to speak to Alec on the telephone. I told him that there was no shadow of doubt that it was our guns firing, and I gave him the bearing I had just taken. Alec replied that he had just told the gunners that all the guns in Second Army were to cease fire. So I ran back to A Company. Hitherto there had been odd shells dropping about the place, all fairly close, but as I was on my way back, an imperial stonk came down all round. Cornish, my servant, and I dived into a house just in time.
A few minutes later, when all was quiet again, I emerged into the street, dusty and sweating, and began to look for Kyle. Then I heard those same guns crumping their stuff down once more along our route. Each explosion sounded like the crack of doom as it resounded and echoed all round in the darkness.
History Section Reference :
Reichswald
Museum Reference :
Documents - Reichswald
Black Watch - Reichswald.