Adventures of a Despatch Rider

nd the battle of the Aisne-for my own use. What happened we shall be able to look up afterwards in some lumbersome

e old Division was still in hot cry on the heels of a rapidly retreating foe. News came-I don't know how: you never do-that our transport and ammunition were being delayed by the fearsome and lamentable state of the roads. But the cavalry was pushing on ahead, and tired

n number of French on our left. From the Order before the Marne I had learnt that a French Army had turned the German right, but the first news I ha

ed to help us. For all we knew the French Army had been swept off the face of the earth. We were just retiring, and retiring before three or four times our own n

ever being circulated: "We are luring the Germans into a trap." It was impressed upon us, too, by "the Div." that both at Mons and Le Cateau we were strategically victorious. We had given the Germans so hard a knock that they could not pur

because they didn't realise we kne

thought the game was up,-until the morning, when cheerfulness came with the sun. Then we

attery or a battalion were hard hit, the realisation of local defeat was always accompanied by a f

u and Là

ell serves

ed that the force opposite us was not merely a dogged, we

o trickle in from either flank. Our own attacks ceased, and we took up a defensive position. It was the beginning of trench-warfare, though owing to the nature of the country there w

s it will interest you at home to know what we thought out here on this great lit

rectly from the river bank. On the southern side lie the Heights of Champagne, practically a tableland. From the river this tableland looks like a series of ridges approaching the valley at an angle

earer if I take the three ma

cross, and fifty yards farther down a pontoon-bridge was built fit for heavy traffic. Missy was too hot: we managed an occasional ferry. I do not think we ever had a bridge at Sermoise. Once when in search of the C.R.E. I watched a company of the K.O.S.B. being ferried across under heavy rifle fire. The raft was made of ground-sheets stuffed,

r these bridges should be destroyed, the troops on the north bank would be irrevocably cut off from supplies of every sort and from orders. I often us

much so, that for a considerable time all communication across it was carried on by despatch riders, for a cable could never be laid. So if our across-the-river brigades had ever been forced to retire

angles to the river. The key to these was a spur known as the Chivres hill or plateau. This we found impregnable to the a

in front of us, we attacked. Bridges-you will remember the tale-were most heroically built. Two brigades (14th and 15th) crossed the river and halted at

we were to act on the defensive, and finally of our three brigades, one was on the right, one across the river, and one in a second line of tren

tiful work for despatch riders. I am

at a farm just off the Paris-Bordeaux" road. Starting out with these explicit instructions, it is very necessary to remember that they may be wrong and are probably misleading. That is not the fault of the Signal Office. A Unit changes ground, say from a farm on the road to a farm of

a unit has moved and before the message announ

er there. Prefer the information you get from your fellow despatch riders. Then find out the road along which the brigade is said to be moving. If the brigade may be in action, take a road that w

shell fire, he recalls where the shells usually fall, the interval between the shells and the times of shelling. For there is order in everything, and particularly in German gunnery. Lastly, he does not race along with nose on handle-bar. That is a trick practised only by desp

was certainly in dead ground. A fine road went to the west along the valley for three miles or so to the Soissons-Rheims road. For Venizel you crossed

that had crossed by the pontoon was at full gallop. I was riding fast-the road was loathsomely open-but not too fast, bec

would pitch shells on it with a lamentable frequency. Soon it became too much of a routine to be effective. On shelling-days three sh

le-Long and safety. The road swings sharp to the rig

the open I saw shrapnel over St Marguerite, but I could not make out whether it was German shr

p, with the engine barely turning over, you can hear everything. So I went slow and listened. Through the air came the sharp "woop-wing" of shrapnel bursting towards you, the most d

er the village, which meant that as 80 per cent of shrapnel bullets shoot forward the vill

e of the street. Just before they reached me the nose of one of the horses suddenly was gashed and a stream of blood poured out. Just a ricochet, and it decided me. Despa

d wrist and cursing. He was one of those dashing fellows. He had ridden alongside the transport swearing at the men to get a move on. He had held up

es the most ludicrously pitiful, and wound in and out of them, a witches' web, crawled the wire from the splintered telegraph posts. There was not a sound in the village except the gentle thump of my engine. I was forced to pull up, that I might more clearly see my way between two horses. My engine silent, I could only hear a little whisper from the hous

we were acting on the offensive, a section of 4.5 in. howitzers were put into position just at the side of the road by the corner. This the Germans may have discovered, or perhaps it was only that the corner presented a tempting target,

eadquarters" came to the corner. N'Soon and Grimers were riding slowly in front. They heard a shell coming. Grimers flung himself off his bicycle and dropped like a stone. N'Soon

eterinary officer had a theory that the safest place was next the General, because generals were rarely hi

stumbled to the postern-gate of a farm. I opened it and went in. A sentry challenged me in a whisper and handed me over to an orderly, who led me over the black bodies of men sleeping to a lean-to where the General sat with a sheltered lig

Missy. A field or so away to the left is a thick wood inhabited for the most part by German snipers. In the prec

k, ominous houses. I found a weary subaltern who put me on my way, a pitch-black lane between high walls. At the bottom of it I stepped upon an officer, who lay across the path asleep with his men. So tired was he that he did not wake. On ov

and we crawled along a shallow ditch at the side of a rough country road until we were two hundred yards from the farm. We endeavoured to get int

tom of the ditch. A little scrap of red-hot metal flew into the ground between me and the signal sergeant in front

were screened by some bushes, but I think the General's red hat must have been marked down, beca

age crowned with great lumps of smoke. Our men poured out of it in more or less extended order across the fields.

ards in front. Seven reached the top of the embankment, then three almost simultaneously put their hands before their eyes and dropped across the rails. The little man ran on until he reached us, wide-eyed, sweaty, and breathing in short gasps. The Brigade-Major shouted to hi

and started walking across the field. Then I discovered there is a great difference between motor-cycling under rifle fire, when you can hear only the very close ones, and walking acr

ft. When I explained to him where and how to go he blenched a little, and the bursting of a shell a hundred yards or so awa

that was making the passage to attract as many shells as it liked. The battery reached Venizel with the loss of two horses. Then, just

minutes the road should have been safe, but the German machine became human, and in a couple of minutes Colonel Seely and I returned covered with rich

along the foot of the hills and crossed the Aisne about three-quar

se between two and five there is not often work for the despatch rider. At three I awoke to much shouting and anxious hullabaloo. Th

y, that the same despatch was to be sent simultaneously to every unit in the Division. I asked somebody t

te. Away on the road at full speed I thought out what this meant. The enemy had broken through our line-opposite Condé there were no reserves-advance parties of the Germans might ev

sentries' shouts, on to St Marguerite. I dashed into the general's bedroom and aroused him. Almost before I had arrived the general and his brigade-major-both i

cknowledgment, and rattling through

Serches I passed a field-ambulance loaded up for instant flight; the men were standing about in little groups talking together, as if without orders. At Headquarters I found that a despatch rider ha

Our two ghastly sentinels still

at had gone wrong. As for the lieutenant who-it was said-first started the hare, his name was burnt with blasphemy for days and days. The only men who came out of it well were some of

ublished my paper, "The Battle of the Aisne," in the May 'Blackwood.'

n "officer's patrol" was organised (in addition to the "standing patrol" provided by the Cyclists) and supplied every night by different battalions

burning house about 200 yards beyond the bridge on the south side of it. In the flare of the house he was surprised to dis

the woods towards the bridge. Working his way back, he reported the matter perso

ttack had pushed forward two platoons across the bridge into the drain. Unfortunately one of our patrols disobeye

ne was surrounded, and, later still, Condé bridge passed out of

ause it was exceptional. It is the only scare we ever had in our Division, and amongst those who were on

uggie took a message early one morning, and continued to take messages throughout the day because-this was his excuse-he knew the road. It was not until several months later that I gathered by chance what had hap

staff took refuge behind the third. In my letters I have told you of the good things the other despatch riders in our Division have done, but to keep up conti

ace he would shell Ciry for a few minutes at any odd time, and in the second he knocked a gun out in three shells and registered accurately, when he pleased, upon the road that led up a precipitous hill to the edge of the Serches hollow. On this h

There was many a dull ride even to Bucy-le-Long. An expedition to the Div. Train (no longer an errant and untraceable vagabond) was safe and

sional Signal companies were not then provided with cars, and if the C.O. wished to go out to a brigade, which might be up to or over eight miles away, he was compelled to

Missy, which was then almost in front of our lines. They found the car, and examining it discovered that to outward appearance it was sound,-a great momen

he road under the shelter of the hedge nearest the Germans, and jumping down had taken cover. By all the rules of the game it was impossible to drive a car that was not exactly silent along the road from Missy to Hell's Own Corner. The searchlight shoul

ld not have been better pleased if we had captured the whole Prussian Guard. For prisoners

r forget a brave and obstinate inhabitant who, when a shell had gone through his roof and demolished the interior of

plying up and down the Aisne. Huggie and another made the excursion. The boat was in an exposed and altogether unhealthy position, but they examined it, and found that there was no starting-handle

but pleasant existence. Life on the Aisne was like a "reading pa

were taken, encamped at Ferme d'Epitaphe, for the flooded roads were impassable. There we found t

n; of potatoes there cannot be too many. As for the vegetables, a superfluity of carrots is a burden, and turnips should be used with a sparing hand. A full flavour of leek is a great joy. When the vegetables are n

d discussed, but never did a stew come up to the stew that we so scrupulously divided

ped, and we shared it with the Divisional Cyclists. So close were we packed that you could not turn in your sleep without raising a storm of curses, and if you were called out

r her husband (he had an ugly-sounding name that we could not understand), and literally tore her hair. The language of the Cyclists was an education even to the despatch riders, who once had been told by their Quartermaster

rs of tea. At any unearthly hour you might be gentl

tea-real 'ot and

sts squatting out in the gloom round a little bright fire of their own mak

my friend Sergeant Croucher insisted on sharing with

ugh ever pathetically eager to do anything for us, always charged a good round price. Candles were a great necessity, and could not be bought, but George always had candles for us. I forget at the moment

allow thyself

he came upon a heap of neatly cut, neatly piled wood. He loaded up until he heard shouts, then fled. That night we had a great fire, bu

take. So one night we warily and silently approached some hives with candles; unfortunately we were interfered with by t

George was often late, and, disdaining to take his place in the long line of those who were not despatch riders, would march straight in and demand b

er with vegetables to sell. But his greatest find was the chateau, which clung to the edg

then inhabited by a caretaker and his wife. They brought us great pails of hot water, and for the first time in a month we were clean. Then we had tea and talked about the Germans who had passed through. The Germ

we return;" but she laughed an

you re

the Eng

ermans shelling one of our aeroplanes, examined the German lines, a

likely-looking old man pass, D.H.Q. ran after him. In his best French-"Avez-vous pommes-de-terre à vendre?"

a delectable mixture of Yorkshire and the local dialect. Of course she was suspected of being a spy-in fact, probab

o long for the strenuous first days, and the Skipper, finding that we were becoming unsettled, put us to drill in our spare time and gave some of us riding lessons. Then came rumours of a move to a rest-camp, probably bac

practically at every stirrup there was a man inquiring after a pal, answering questions, and asking what they thought in England, and how recruiting was going. The air rang with crude, great-hearted jokes. We motor-cyclists stood aside