Wounded and a Prisoner of War, by an Exchanged Officer

Camp bef

embe

mr

ld wish in the action.... I have received a very bad shot in the head myself, but am in hopes, and please God, I

ed friend

n H

e Tatler, Oc

ole battle-line of Flanders is familiar. In 1709 the confederate armies, British, Dutch, Prussian, under Marlborough, numbering about 95,000 strong, succeeded by rapid marches

he opposing forces were approximately equal. Still it is interesting to note that in 1709 the French, although beaten and compelled to retire, suffe

709. From the dominating woods of Hyon the ground slopes very gradually, and is divided into irregular plots of cultivated ground, groups of farm buildings, and patches of woodla

ppointed spot on the main road from Mons. There had been rain in the night; the sun was already high, but as yet no summer haze impeded the distant view. Vainly did field-glasses explore the country for some sign of the e

lost the fear of cultivated ground, and at every halting-place precautions were taken to prevent troops straying off the highway; and when in billets, entrance into orchards, gardens, and fields surrounding the village was strictly forbidden. We had marched along many miles of long straight dusty road between the pleasa

er some thickly growing beetroot still wet with dew, and again without hindrance, for there was no fence on all the land; across yet another plot of stubble u

, with the road we had just left. At this point the angle of the roads held by C Company on our left flank was hidden from view by a piece of rising ground. On the right flank and at

d meadow. The distance at its nearest point to our trench, which is now traced out on the edge of the cabbage field, i

ad, forming a barrier to the searching of a field-glass at 1000 yards from our position. Away to the right the valley opens out like a map, with villages dotted here and there among green plantations in the middle di

ne the light, one can see farther yet to where fields and woods and villages fade together in the blue dist

nt patches of open country away to the right where the sun was shining remained still and deserted. Overhead the clouds had been gathe

house by the roadside, and at the same time get a look at o

Every house was shut up. The warm rain poured in torrents, and the village appeare

ure of this roadside inn as I saw it that

r playing bowls or ninepins. Beyond this a garden, or rather series of rose bowers, each with its seat, a green patch of long grass in the centre, and high hedges on the side nearest the road, and on the side nearest the cultivated fields and the woods beyond. In one of the rose bowers

did not quite fall from my eyes until I met the woman of the estaminet, a woman who came out of the white house weeping and complaining aloud, with her children clinging to

indeed, the first signs of war! I told her the truth that I knew nothing, and could give no advice as to whether it was safe to stay or flee, and as I left the tidy sanded garden and stepped on to the main road s

g cabbages along the top of our parapet. I watched his work for a moment through my field-glasses, and then turned and looked across the road at

o difficult it was then to realise the change that had already come upon the world. How incredible it

ation of the great change-the moment when material common things took on in real earnest their military significance, when, with the fu

of the rider bending low by the horse's neck, bending as if to avoid bullets. The single rider, perhaps bearing a despatch, followed after a short space by a dozen cavalrymen, not gall

gain. There was no stir around the white house, no peasants or chi

or to the sound of horses' hoofs, and crouched in the silence that followed. I returned slowly ac

curve thirty to forty yards in length, and sheltered three sections of the platoon. The fou

s, which we laid out in a straight line and covered

d to contradict the idea of war. Searching round the edge of every wood, searching in turn each field and road, my field-glasses could find no s

ound becomes more open, and here the sun throws a gleam of light. Here, it seemed, were many shadows. At that moment German snipers, unknown to us, were already lying somewhere on the edge of the wood. The sound of bullets is most alarming when wholly unexpected. Those German scouts must h

rst range-finding shell rather too low, and the shot

far as one could see, since the first shot was fired. An occasi

ver afforded by this house, the hedge and the ditch which ran alongside it, began to be a cause of anxiety. If the enemy s

ey carelessly and lazily grazing along the edge of the ditch. The section of my platoon who were in a small trench to our left rear, being farther away and not provided with very good field-glasses, suddenly opened rapid fire on the hedge and the donkey disappe

in men's faces and much unnecessary crouching in the bottom of the trench. Now the men were smoking, watching

unt of the battle of Mons, "because you have better in the prints," and because my confused recollection of what took place during the rest of the afternoon will not permit of recounting in their due order even events which took place on our small part of the front. The noise of bursting shells, the sound of hard fighting on our left, must have endured for nearly an hour

he hope of breaking up the column formation and thus delaying the reinforcement operations. "No. 1 Section, at 1200 yards, three rounds

od, and most of them turned and faced in our direction. With the second an

attempt to leave the wood in close formation, but presently advanced along the edge of the wood in

e grey clouds covering the earth, of "massed formation" moving across the ope

ck and defence of an open position in the days of pre-trench war, excepting always the noise of bursting shells, th

kly held. We had practically no supports. The German superiority at that part of

nce, hesitated, failed to push their action home, and lost an opportunit

have captured our position with comparatively trifling loss, t

e it clear that an attack on the village was in progress. Then the battery whose first shell had nearly dropped

tion now to such a detail when whole villages are bl

ar, a graceful puff of smoke, soft and snow-white like cotton-wool. In that sec

woods; and now the German shells, outnumbering ours by two or three to one, were bursting all along the woods behind our trenche

e less prolonged and at rarer intervals, so that the pressure of the German att

hole distance from this trench to the road being bare pasture-land, with scarcely cover for a rabbit. No. 14 Trench extends to within a few yards of the thick plantation whi

shed out of the woods and doubled across the open meadow. The sight of these men, coming apparently from behind our own line and making at such speed for the enemy, was so entirely unexpected that, although their uniforms even at the long ran

ent down to assist him, looking for a moment anxiously into his face as he lay back on the grass, then quickly turned and ra

aggered a few paces, only to fall at once and lie motionless; other two or three wriggled and crawled away; and one rose up

med to come almost from behind our trenches; but on neither left nor right could anything be seen of the fighting. The ceaseless tapping of our two machi

too hopelessly small a target for rifle fire at a 1000 yards' range. The conference was, however, cut short by a shell from our faithful battery behind the wood of Hyon. A few minutes later, the officers having skipped back into cover, a long line of the

en a shell on what had once been the red-tiled corner house, and now and th

o the white house; but as long as we could see to shoot, and while our shells were sprinkling t

rummed and rifles cracked, keeping the enemy from further advance. And now, far in the distant valley-perhaps fifteen or twenty miles away-the smoke o

om Charleroi, and the retreat of the British Army was in hast

h the house from the left flank. A remnant of the twilight remained when the Germans left the cover of the beetroot field, and with my field-glasses I could just manage to see when they passed in front of our prearranged targets, to see also the sudden hail of bullets spatter on the road and against the white wall among l

ing, and then a woman's screams-the brutal voice and piercing screams as of women being dragged along, and the French voice of a man loudly protesting, with always the hard staccato German words of com

ant the white house was a roaring bonfire. Fiercely danced the flam

re at work round the walls, and one shadow on the roof whose errand there was at first a mystery, but was quickly expla

the fringe of light in uncertain mist of mingled smoke and darkness, it seemed as if men were grouped revelling over the night's work. Now that the roof had fallen in, clouds of smoke hung low over the fields and the re

asant roadside inn where I had idly wandere

ried out with military precision under orders given by the officer in command, serving

ly told, but there can be little doubt-there is none in the minds of t

asted down to the hour of their return, for "it is in memory of the Huns," says an ancient chronicl

ns have risen and left a track in Eur

PTE

RETR

many hours in front of our trench with bayonets fixed, expecting an attack at any

relief in the companionable formation of fours f

we heard how C Company had suffered heavy casualties. Major

e right and joined on to the rest of the battalion. Here, by the roadside, close up against a grassy bank, a number of men were resti

e meadow. The order was given to lie down, and for the two or three hours

kyline in gentle undulations. Twenty yards below the crest of the hill, three hundred yards from a small plantation, two field-guns lay abandoned in the open. D Company, posted two hundred yards from the village, were scraping into some sort of cover by the roadside, w

mpse of the two abandoned field-guns, and of a team of horses galloping along the ridge under the blazing shell

the enemy began to shell the road from the wooded hills on our right flank. The battalion then crossed the railway, and two companies entrenched across

ind, the noise of the artillery duel was prodigious. On this occasion the heavy guns from Maubeuge did very useful work. The big shells could

ere bursting here and there, sometimes far in front, now far behind, along the railway line and only occasionally over the trench, for the Huns had not yet succeeded in locating our battery. Probably they were somewhat disturbed by the "Jack Johnsons" from Maubeuge. At eleven o'clock our guns retired an

avy motor-waggons, some French transport, staff officers' cars with blinding headlights, and vehicles of every description

orchard and bivouacked for the night, firs

e first duels between a British and a German aeroplane took place right over the road. The Taube, at about 4000 feet, was then following our march, having not yet observed, as we had, 7000 to 8000 feet up among the clouds, a tiny speck, gradually growing bigger. Then the Taube took alarm and turned at ful

ease the pack and rest the rifle and then on again, until the alternate marching and halting becomes the whole occupation not only of the body but of the m

illage pond a pedestrian might well sit a while and smoke his pipe, watching the children paddle in the brown water under the shade of ancient trees. Often a glimpse through open doors showed cool tiled kitchens with peasants at the midday meal. Many shops in the v

beer and wine, or cigarettes; others with large buckets of wine and water. Glasses of wine and water were quickly seize

y in the afternoon, and overhead

n advance-guard of the 4th Division was entrenching, for during all that day of our long marc

hill, and soon a smart shower cleaned the road of dust, giving

troops, a mere handful of men, making ready against the vast a

and, fighting odds of at least ten to one, held off the German advance, an

m where the dying soldier had been carried. Irvine was at the foot of the stairs and Sergeant -- still busied with the wounded soldier, when a violent knocking was heard at the street door. Just as the door burst open and the Germans were pouring in and up the stairs, the Sergeant came unarmed out on to the landing. Sergeant -- was a big powerful man, who had held a heavy-weight boxing championship. Without a moment's hesitation

ks began to serve out dinner. It was half-past five. The rain poured heavily. Major Duff and I sat by the roadside comparing not

e road left little enough space in the centre. The driver stopped and shared our wet seat on the bank. It was a strange meeting for the three of us. Now Duff and I sought information

ed estaminet stand by the roadside on top of

llside, Solesmes, hidden in the valley, shows the top of a church spire. The householders of Solesmes were putting up

and Voyage,' as "a point in the great warfaring system of Europe which might on some future

on dragged slowly along. During the long twenty-five miles from Bavai to Caudry, the longest day of the retreat, very few men had fallen out; though all were weary through want

and the position of No. 13 platoon was about half-way between Audencourt and Caudry, close to a small square-shaped plantation. The rear

at our end of the line, although some damage had been done up among the leading

nd a battery, placed behind Petit Caudry either during the night or very early in the morning, had ranged the little square-shaped wood from the map, and as soon as their observation man, who was probably in

ale Caudry-Le Cateau, which at this point runs on an embankment and is lin

ses at a fairly steep slope t

slightly decreasing slope down to a small wood; on the right of this is a stubble field, and to the right again, on the far ridge of the hill, are beetroot fields through which a telephone wire runs, the range being 1200 yards. Caudry was on our left, with the houses of Petit Caudry just visibl

e by house, the village itself came into the full light of the rising sun, whose rays soon reached our newly dug trench to cheer us with the

nergy and excitement. When the stooks had been laid low we made a very poor attempt to disguise the newly thrown-up earth by covering the top of the trenches with straw, which

everal shells hit the church tower; the fifth or sixth set fire to a large square white house near the church on the right. Our gunners made good practice at the two cows, and shell after shell burst over or near their paddock, from which they finally escaped to gallop clumsi

y idea of the intensity of confusion. On both our flanks machine-guns maintained a steady staccato. All other sounds were sudden and nerve-straining, especially the sudden rush of the l

s just behind us was most disturbing. Sometimes these shells pitched short of the wood; they were then less noisy, but far more unpleasant in other respects. Just when the uproar was at its highest a scared face appeared over the back of

ded in our favour, and, moreover, that it would not as at Mons end in a draw. I c

then for a space there was silence. Pipes and cigarettes, up to now smoked only by the fearless ones, for a short time appeared on every side, and conversational remarks were shouted from one trench to another. The respite was brief, and its explanation at once obvious when a T

d silenced our guns and obtained exact knowledge of the positio

n either of ours or of the Royal Scots (who were holding the other side of the village of Audencourt). It was not long before we had a chance of getting rid of some ammunition. German troops, debouching from the little wood where the cows had taken refuge earlier in th

The Germans hopped into cover like rabbits. Some threw themselves flat behind the corn stooks, and when the firing ceas

ccessfully crossed the stubble field in two short rushes without losing a man, and

n our right, so that we were able to pour upon them an enfilade fire. They were advancing in short rushes across pasture-land which provided no cover whatever, and they offered a clearly visible target even when lying down. Although our men were nearly all first-class shots, th

embankment behind which nothing but artillery could reach them. This was the situation on our front at about three o'clock in the afternoon. I happened to look down the line and saw Captain Lumsden looking rather anxiously to the rear. I then saw that a number of our people were retiring. There was not much time to think about what this might mean as the enemy were beginning to cross the road; we had fixed bayonets, and I thought we would have little chance agains

, and a machine-gun hidden in the village of Be

n the parapet I was about to sit down for a few minutes' rest, and indeed ha

w for one instant in my mind's eye the battlefield at which I had been gazing through my glasses the whole day. Then the vision was hidden by a scarlet circle, and a voice said, "Mr H. has got it." Through the red mist of the

struck, the questioning thought was present in my mind as vividly as if