Adventures of a Despatch Rider

re strolling up and down the platform arranging the order of cakes from home and trying to gath

had not been attached to it, though our hearts spoke differently. Despatch riders have muddled thoug

port on the road-for it is not good for a despatch rider to think too much of what is before him. My instructions were to report to the general and make myself useful. I was also ch

th bandaged head. He had wandered into the street, and he had been cut about by shrapnel. The few wits he had ever possessed were gone, and he gave every few seconds little croaks of hate. Three telephone operators were working with strained faces at their highest speed. The windows had been smashed by shrapnel, and bits of glass and things cru

Officer, and the Veterinary Officer, came up to me and

ersuaded the general to work in some less unhealthy place. The telephone operators moved. A moment's delay as the general endeavoured to persuade the brigade-major to go first, and we found ourselv

ng shoot before putting u

nd place shells at discreet intervals until the other end of the village is reached. It is an unpleasant process

r just on our right. We puffed away at our cigarettes for a second, and a certain despatch rider wished he were anywhere but in the cursed village of Festube

vening shoot. We marched back very

and the third is the house inhabited not only by us but by an incredibly filthy and stinking old woman who was continually troubling the general because some months ago a French cuirassier took one of her chickens. The day

For true effect I suppose I should not tell you that the shrapnel is bursting about fifty yards the other side of the house

ver our heads. There are a couple of batteries near the farm. Two miles along the ro

s, and isolated cottages giving a precarious cover. It's all very dam

taff are lying about the floor looking at week-old papers. In the next room I can hear the general, seated at a table and intent on his map, talking to an officer that has just come from th

fed up with it. For one thing-after two months' experience of shell fire the sound of a shell bursting within measurable distance makes you start and shiver for a moment-reflex ac

discussing the chances while somebody else has started a musical-box. A man has gone out; I wonder if he will come

esent. No, there's a couple together. If they fire o

kippers. I don't think these long, lazy after-breakfast hours at Oxford were wasted. They are a memory and a hope out here. The shrapnel

ation of Cavalleria Rusticana. I guess we shall have to

ise the hopeless insignificance of the individual, creates in one such an immense regard for self, that so long as one does well it matters little if four officers have been killed reconnoitring or some wounded have had to be left under

of reflex fright. He becomes either cautious and liable to sudden panics, or very rash indeed, or absolutely mechanical in his actions. The first state means the approach of a nervous breakdown, the second a near death. There are very few,

rackling of a newspaper close to your ear. It makes a sort of deep reverberating crackle in the air, gradually lessening, until there is a dull boom, and a mile or so away you see a thick little cloud of white smoke in the air or a pear-shaped cloud of

hriek of shrapnel. The windows are broken and the tiles rush clattering into the street, while little bullets and bits of shell jump like red-

ling them to shell a certain village. Here am I wandering out, taking orders for the complete destruction of a village and probably

ne old church, with what appeared from the distance a magnificent tower, was no

at home. In a modern war there is little room for picturesque gallantry or picture-book heroism. We are all either animals or machines, with little gained except our emotions d

The lines to the battalions were at the moment working feebly, and what the operators could get through was scarcely intelligible. Ammunition limbers were hurried up, and I stood ready to dart anywhere. For twenty minutes the rifle-fire seemed to grow wilder and wilder. At last stretcher-bearers came in with a few wounded and reported that we seemed to be holding our own. Satisfactory so far. Then there were great flashes of shrapnel over our lines; that comforted us,

out letting us know, had attacked the Germans on our right, and the Germans

s guns will do the greater slaughter. And half gunnery is luck. The day before yesterday we had a little afternoon shoot at where we thought the German trenches might be. The Germans

nd the farm and left us nearly in peace. There I met Major Ballard, commanding the 15th Artillery Brigade, one of the finest officers of my acquaintance, and Captain Frost, the sole remaining o

uddenly there was a knock at the door and in walked Captain M--, who reported his arrival with 200 reinforcements for the Cheshires, a pleasant but irritating addition. The situation was further complicated by the general's disc

bridge. For me it was interesting because it was one of the few times I had ridden just behind

y because the fuse of a shrapnel had gone right through the door and the fireplace opposite. Except for a peppering on the walls and some broken glass the

by which the battalions of the brigade were to fini

d I was riding without a light. Twice I ran into the ditch, and finally I piled up myself and my bicycle on a h

was bringing up ammunition. We searched the surrounding cottages for men with knowledge, and at last discovered that the Devons had moved farther a

ear the rumble of their transport crossing the La Bassée bridge. We turned back, and a few yards nearer home some

rs to a house just opposite the inn by which the road to Givenchy turns off. It was not very safe, but

d had a good look at the red houses of La Bassée. Half an hour later a patrol went out to explore the sugar factory. They did not return. It seems that

, then I carried an observing officer to some haystacks by Violaines, from which he could get a good view of the factory. Finally I watched with supreme satisfaction the demol

deeper if I had known what was going to happen to the brigade. I was given

acked and broke through. They had been heavily reinforced and our te

y push-cyclist, or by despatch rider. Again, he dealt with all messages that came in over the wire. Copies of these messages were filed. This was our tape; from them we learned the news. We were not supposed to read them, but, as we often found that they contained information which was invaluable to despatch riders, we always looked through them and e

messages. When the order came for us to pack up, we had already made our preparations, for Divisional Headquarters, the brain controlli

nes had been stormed, and the Cheshires had been driven, still grimly fighting, to beyond the Rue de Marais. The Norfolks on their right and the K.O

ple of battalions against them. After desperate fighting Rue de Marais was retaken and so

til we were relieved the Germans battered at it with gunnery all day and attacks all night. How we managed to hold it is utterly beyond my understanding. The men were dog-tired. Few of the old officers were left, and they were "don

ge, and the remainder to hold sectors of the line farther south. Can you wonder that we despatch riders, in comparative safety behind the line, did all we could to help the most glorious and amazing infantry that the

ad been compelled to shift, hastily enough, from the Estaminet de La Bombe on the La Bassée-Estaires road. The estaminet had been shelled to destruction half an hour after

looked for what might come to pass. In the early dawn the poplars alongside the highway were grey and dull. There was mist on the road; the leav

tant. I replied that she could not go to them-that they, if they were content not to return, might come to her. But the family would not leave their chickens, and cows, and corn. So the old

inding our guns with uncanny accuracy. All our movements seemed to be anticipated by the enemy. Taking for granted the extraordinary efficien

t set about to make a fool of myself. This is the story-I have never

g, so clever in her cookery, and so modest in her demeanour that all the men of the brigade headquarters fell madly in love with her. They even quarrelled. Now this brigade was suffering much from espionage. The guns could not be moved without the Germans knowing their new positio

tle mockery not to be so foolish. This angered him, and in a minute he had rushed after her into the cellar, snorting with disappointed passion. Of course he slipped on the stairs and fell with a crash. The girl screamed. The fellow, his knee bruised, tried to feel his way to the bottom of the s

coloured signs which, whatever they were, certainly did not form letters or make sense in any way. I examined the document closely. One sign looked like a

formed portions of letters. I demanded the owner of the house upon which the document had been posted. She was frightened and almost uni

. HE IS NOT A L

here is another

was talking there was a little click and no further acknowledgment from the other end. The

f his guilt. He made no protest. It was stated that he had be

It is clear. Have

straight. Then he bowed

z pou

fence. So they

udinous turnips. No further damage was done, but the field was unhealthily near the Estaminet de l'Epinette. In the af

stories of fighting and love and fear, while the boys, squatting a little distance away, listened and looked at us in wonder. I came in from a ride about one in the morning and found those of the guard who were off duty and the t

out the Lahore Division which had just arrived on the line. I had, of course, seen Spahis and Turcos and Senegales

climate-but chiefly we were filled with a sort of mental helplessness, riding among people when we could not even vagu

rease, the night was pitch-black and I was allowed no light. I slithered along at about six miles an hour, sticking out my legs for a permanent scaffolding. Many troops were lying down at the side of the road. An officer in a strained voice just warned me in time for me to avoi

had come along the road, all the men had jumped like startled animals and a few had turned to take cover. Why, if a child had met one of these men she would have taken him by the hand instinctively and told

with a little manipulation we began to discuss musical comedy and the beauty of

disturbed night and experience those curious sensations which ar

ld have fought as finely as they could. I do not know whether my admiration

farm to another does not sound particularly strenuous. It was. In the first place, the neighbourhood of the advanced farm was not healthy. The front gate was marked down by a sniper who fired not infrequently but a little high. Between the back gate and the main road

nding country lanes. They were covered with grease. Every corner was blind. A particularly sharp turn to the right and the despatch rider rode a couple of hundred yards in front of a battery in action that the Germans were trying to find. A "hairpin" corner round a house followed. This he would take with remarkable skill and alacrity, because at t

usly with a shell. The shell hit the house, the house did not hit

ing to all their kit. One man was wounded in both his feet. He was be

I could not make them understand, but I tried

ercely together. At last they grasped their rifles fir

use during the greater part of the afterno

he driver of it was a reservist who had been taken from his battalion. Day and night he tended and coaxed that car. He tied it toge

ked of a move. There were rumours of hard fighting in Ypres. Soon the Lahore Division came down towards our line a

he canal by Béthune. As for Festubert, Givenchy, Violaines, Rue de