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[Page 5]
My Capture and subsequent sufferings
The morning of April 11th 1917 dawned with snow on the ground and about 4 a. m. orders were given to advance over the Hindenburg Line round Riencourt. We were exposed to heavy machine-gun fire and several of the men in the section I was commanding were hit, making it necessary to take cover in a shell hole for a short time. This was the first occasion on which tanks went into action with our division, the one in front of it getting a direct hit which put it out of action. Although orders had been given not to proceed beyond the tanks which were leading the attack, an officer upon being asked what to do, gave directions to go on and improve our position in the captured first line trench of the emeny. This being accomplished, we partook of our rations, meantime the emeny started to counter attack and bombed the communication trench running towards the village in the vicinity. Orders were given to clear the trench which involved hot fighting; after accounting for several of the enemy, further instructions came to put in two blocks and a machine-gun placed. All available bombs were passed round to defend a heavy counter attack on our right and to hand over our small arms and ammunition to the machine-gunners, In a short time it was found necessary to lead the remnant of my section into a roadway and take cover in a shell hole. Some of the men were hit through exposing themselves to the enemy's fire by running instead of crawling to a place of safety. Remaining here for a long time, trying to keep part of a trench clear, we were surrounded by the Germans who told us to stop firing, and seeing it was useless sacrificing more lives, we surrendered and were taken to a village