British infantry, artillery, cavalry, and a tank, likely on the Arras front, 1917. From The Nations at War by Willis J. Abbot 1918 Edition.
British troops going to relieve their comrades in the front line trenches. A British tank is seen at the extreme left© Underwood & Underwood
". . . as soon as we went over I kept well back from the creeping barrage. I was very frightened, you could see the shells bursting only fifty yards in front. Then we came to the barbed wire and it wasn't properly cut . . . It was sheer murder, that was. There were paths cut through the wire and, like animals, we crowded into the paths. That's where most of our casualties came from, machine guns were trained on the gaps, blokes just fell in heaps. Somehow I got through that OK and kept on going, but then I looked to my left and right and couldn't see another soul. To my utter dismay, I was on my own. I panicked and dived into the nearest shell hole and stopped there till it was dark. That was one of the longest days of my life. When I crawled back, a Scots Regiment had taken over our bit of the line and were going to shoot me as they thought I was a German. I never saw a single German that day, yet the whole battalion was wiped out."
Private Reg Eveling of the 7th Border Regiment describing his part in the attacks on Gavrelle on April 23, 1917 in the Battle of Arras. The Regiment lost 15 of 19 officers and 404 of 505 other ranks. The same day, the British suffered further heavy losses attacking the Chemical Works in the village of Roeux including 2,000 dead, wounded, or missing Seaforth Highlanders.
Cheerful Sacrifice: The Battle of Arras, 1917 by Jonathan Nicholls, page 188, copyright © Jonathan Nicholls [1990 repeatedly renewed through] 2011, publisher: Pen and Sword, publication date: 2010
1917-04-23, April, 1917, Battle of Arras, Arras, Gavrelle, British infantry and artillery
