Ebook The 27th Division

The reader must keep in mind that particularly in the last phases of the war, an attack like that in which the Twenty Seventh took part depended for success always on the actions of the survivors. For weeks these men of the twenty-seventh who went over the top, as we are describing, had been taught that a position once captured must never be lost. They had been trained into the theory that killing and being killed was part of the game; that the bayonetting of a Boche had no rela tion to the saving of a man's own life for his own sake, but only for the sake ofthe objective. The attack was undertaken with a fixed determination to carry it through to success. One can never lose sight of the fact that after the beginning of an attack there is only one thing to do, and that is to go forward. A brief Outline showing the position of the twenty-seventh Division and the objects of its initial attack on September 27th will help to give an idea of the ultimate aim. On September asth, two days before the attack, the Division took over the sector lying directly Opposite that portion of the Hindenburg Line which began at Vendhuille and extended to a point a little north of Bellicourt. Just beyond the Hindenburg Line on this sector and running nearly parallel to it is the St. Quentin canal tunnel, which is 6000 yards long, built by Napoleon in 181 I.