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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The British Campaign in France and Flanders
+1914, by Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The British Campaign in France and Flanders 1914
+
+Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+Release Date: April 09, 2021 [eBook #65042]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Al Haines
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE AND
+FLANDERS 1914 ***
+
+
+
+
+  THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN
+
+  IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS
+
+  1914
+
+
+
+  BY
+
+  ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
+
+  AUTHOR OF
+  "THE GREAT BOER WAR," ETC.
+
+
+
+  SECOND EDITION
+
+
+
+  HODDER AND STOUGHTON
+  LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
+  MCMXVI
+
+
+
+
+  TO
+  GENERAL SIR WILLIAM ROBERTSON
+  THIS CHRONICLE OF THE GREAT WAR
+  IN WHICH HE RENDERED
+  SUCH INVALUABLE SERVICE TO HIS COUNTRY
+  IS
+  DEDICATED
+
+
+
+
+{vii}
+
+PREFACE
+
+It is continually stated that it is impossible to bring out at the
+present time any accurate history of the war.  No doubt this is true
+so far as some points of the larger strategy are concerned, for the
+motives at the back of them have not yet been cleared up.  It is true
+also as regards many incidents which have exercised the minds of
+statesmen and of many possibilities which have worried the soldiers.
+But so far as the actual early events of our own campaign upon the
+Continent are concerned there is no reason why the approximate truth
+should not now be collected and set forth.  I believe that the
+narrative in this volume will in the main stand the test of time, and
+that the changes of the future will consist of additions rather than
+of alterations or subtractions.
+
+The present volume deals only with the events of 1914 in the British
+fighting-line in France and Belgium.  A second volume dealing with
+1915 will be published within a few months.  It is intended that a
+third volume, covering the current year, shall carry on this
+contemporary narrative of a tremendous episode.
+
+From the first days of the war I have devoted much of my time to the
+accumulation of evidence {viii} from first-hand sources as to the
+various happenings of these great days.  I have built up my narrative
+from letters, diaries, and interviews from the hand or lips of men
+who have been soldiers in our armies, the deeds of which it was my
+ambition to understand and to chronicle.  In many cases I have been
+privileged to submit my descriptions of the principal incidents to
+prominent actors in them, and to receive their corrections or
+endorsement.  I can say with certainty, therefore, that a great deal
+of this work is not only accurate, but that it is very precisely
+correct in its detail.  The necessary restrictions which forbade the
+mention of numbered units have now been removed, a change made
+possible by the very general rearrangements which have recently taken
+place.  I am able, therefore, to deal freely with my material.  As
+that material is not always equally full, it may have occasionally
+led to a want of proportion, where the brigade occupies a line and
+the battalion a paragraph.  In extenuation of such faults, and of the
+omissions which are unavoidable, I can only plead the difficulty of
+the task and throw myself upon the reader's good nature.  Some
+compensation for such shortcoming may be found in the fact that a
+narrative written at the time reflects the warm emotions which these
+events aroused amongst us more clearly than the more measured story
+of the future historian can do.
+
+It may seem that the political chapters are somewhat long for a
+military work, but the reader will {ix} find that in subsequent
+volumes there are no further politics, so that this survey of the
+European conditions of 1914 is a lead up to the whole long narrative
+of the actual contest.
+
+I would thank my innumerable correspondents (whom I may not name) for
+their very great help.  I would also admit the profit which I have
+derived from reading Coleman's _Mons to Ypres_, and especially Lord
+Ernest Hamilton's _The First Seven Divisions_.  These books added
+some new facts, and enabled me to check many old ones.  Finally, I
+desire to thank my friend Mr. P. L. Forbes for his kind and
+intelligent assistance in arranging my material.
+
+ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.
+
+  WINDLESHAM, CROWBOROUGH,
+      _October_ 1916.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE BREAKING OF THE PEACE
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE OPENING OF THE WAR
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE BATTLE OF MONS
+
+The landing of the British in France--The British leaders--The
+advance to Mons--The defence of the bridges of Nimy--The holding of
+the canal--The fateful telegram--The rearguard actions of Frameries,
+Wasmes, and Dour--The charge of the Lancers--The fate of the
+Cheshires--The 7th Brigade at Solesmes--The Guards in action--The
+Germans' rude awakening--The Connaughts at Pont-sur-Sambre
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE BATTLE OF LE CATEAU
+
+The order of battle at Le Cateau--The stand of the 2nd
+Suffolks--Major Yate's V.C.--The fight for the quarries--The splendid
+work of the British guns--Difficult retirement of the Fourth
+Division--The fate of the 1st Gordons--Results of the
+battle--Exhaustion of the Army--The destruction of the 2nd
+Munsters--A cavalry fight--The news in Great Britain--The views of
+General Joffre--Battery L--The action of Villars-Cotteret--Reunion of
+the Army
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE
+
+The general situation--"Die grosse Zeit"--The turn of the tide--The
+Battle of the Ourcq--The British advance--Cavalry fighting--The 1st
+Lincolns and the guns--6th Brigade's action at Hautvesnes--9th
+Brigade's capture of Germans at Vinly--The problem of the Aisne--Why
+the Marne is one of the great battles of all time
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE BATTLE OF THE AISNE
+
+The hazardous crossing of the Aisne--Wonderful work of the
+sappers--The fight for the sugar factory--General advance of the
+Army--The 4th (Guards) Brigade's difficult task--Cavalry as a mobile
+reserve--The Sixth Division--Hardships of the Army--German breach of
+faith--_Tâtez toujours_--The general position--Attack upon the West
+Yorks--Counter-attack by Congreve's 18th Brigade--Rheims
+Cathedral--Spies--The siege and fall of Antwerp
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE LA BASSÉE--ARMENTIÈRES OPERATIONS
+
+The great battle line--Advance of Second Corps--Death of General
+Hamilton--The farthest point--Fate of the 2nd Royal Irish--The Third
+Corps--Exhausted troops--First fight of Neuve Chapelle--The Indians
+take over--The Lancers at Warneton--Pulteney's operations--Action of
+Le Gheir
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES
+
+The Seventh Division--Its peculiar excellence--Its difficult
+position--A deadly ordeal--Desperate attacks on Seventh
+Division--Destruction of 2nd Wilts--Hard fight of 20th
+Brigade--Arrival of First Corps--Advance of Haig's Corps--Fight of
+Pilken Inn--Bravery of enemy--Advance of Second Division--Fight of
+Kruiseik cross-roads--Fight of Zandvoorde--Fight of
+Gheluvelt--Advance of Worcesters--German recoil--General result--A
+great crisis
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES (_continued_)
+
+Attack upon the cavalry--The struggle at Messines--The London Scots
+in action--Rally to the north--Terrible losses--Action of
+Zillebeke--Record of the Seventh Division--Situation at Ypres--Attack
+of the Prussian Guard--Confused fighting--End of the first Battle of
+Ypres--Death of Lord Roberts--The Eighth Division
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A RETROSPECT AND GENERAL SUMMARY
+
+Position of Italy--Fall of German colonies--Sea affairs--Our Allies
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE WINTER LULL OF 1914
+
+Increase of the Army--Formation of the Fifth Corps--The visit of the
+King--Third Division at Petit Bois--The fight at Givenchy--Heavy
+losses of the Indians--Fine advance of Manchesters--Advance of the
+First Division--Singular scenes at Christmas
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+
+
+MAPS AND PLANS
+
+Map to illustrate the British Campaign in France and Flanders, 1914
+
+Position of Second Army Corps at Mons, August 23
+
+First Morning of Retreat of Second Army Corps, August 24
+
+Sketch of Battle of Le Cateau, August 26
+
+Line of Retreat from Mons
+
+L Battery Action, September 1, 1914
+
+British Advance during the Battle of the Marne
+
+British Advance at the Aisne
+
+Diagram to illustrate Operations of Smith-Dorrien's Second Corps and
+Pulteney's Third Corps from October 11 to October 19, 1914
+
+Southern End of British Line
+
+General View of Seat of Operations
+
+Line of Seventh Division (Capper) and Third Cavalry Division (Byng)
+from October 16 onwards
+
+General Scene of Operations
+
+Sketch of Battle of Gheluvelt, October 31
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Map of north-east France and Belgium]
+
+
+
+
+{1}
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE BREAKING OF THE PEACE
+
+In the frank, cynical, and powerful book of General Bernhardi which
+has been so often quoted in connection with the war there is one
+statement which is both true and important.  It is, that no one in
+Great Britain thought seriously of a war with Germany before the year
+1902.  As a German observer he has fixed this date, and a British
+commentator who cast back through the history of the past would
+surely endorse it.  Here, then, is a point of common agreement from
+which one can construct a scheme of thought.
+
+Why then should the British people in the year 1902 begin to
+seriously contemplate the possibility of a war with Germany?  It
+might be argued by a German apologist that this date marks an
+appreciation by Great Britain that Germany was a great trade rival
+who might with advantage be crushed.  But the facts would not sustain
+such a conclusion.  The growth of German trade and of German wealth
+was a phenomenon with which the British were familiar.  It had been
+constant since the days when Bismarck changed the policy of his
+country from free trade to protection, and it had competed for twenty
+years without the idea of war having entered British {2} minds.  On
+the contrary, the prevailing economic philosophy in Great Britain
+was, that trade reacts upon trade, and that the successful rival
+becomes always the best customer.  It is true that manufacturers
+expressed occasional irritation at the methods of German commerce,
+such as the imitation of British trade-marks and shoddy reproductions
+of British products.  The Fatherland can produce both the best and
+the worst, and the latter either undersold us or forced down our own
+standards.  But apart from this natural annoyance, the growing trade
+of Germany produced no hostility in Great Britain which could
+conceivably have led to an armed conflict.  Up to the year 1896 there
+was a great deal of sympathy and of respect in Great Britain for the
+German Empire.  It was felt that of all Continental Powers she was
+the one which was most nearly allied to Britain in blood, religion,
+and character.  The fact that in 1890 Lord Salisbury deliberately
+handed over to Germany Heligoland--an island which blockaded her
+chief commercial port and the harbour of her warships--must show once
+for all how entirely Germany lay outside of any possible
+world-struggle which could at that time be foreseen.  France has
+always had its warm partisans in this country, but none the less it
+can most truthfully be said that during all the years that Britain
+remained in political isolation she would, had she been forced to
+take sides, have assuredly chosen to stand by the Triple Alliance.
+It is hard now to recall those days of French pinpricks and of the
+evil effects which they produced.  Germany's foreign policy is her
+own affair, and the German people are the judges of those who control
+it, but to us it must appear absolutely {3} demented in taking a line
+which has driven this great world-power away from her side--or,
+putting it at its lowest, away from an absolute neutrality, and into
+the ranks of her enemies.
+
+In 1896 there came the first serious chill in the relations between
+the two countries.  It arose from the famous telegram to Kruger at
+the time of the Jameson Raid--a telegram which bore the name of the
+Kaiser, but which is understood to have been drafted by Baron
+Marschall von Bieberstein.  Whoever was responsible for it did his
+country a poor service, for British feelings were deeply hurt at such
+an intrusion into a matter which bore no direct relation to Germany.
+Britons had put themselves thoroughly in the wrong.  Britain admitted
+and deplored it.  Public opinion was the more sensitive to outside
+interference, and the telegram of congratulation from the Emperor to
+Kruger was felt to be an uncalled-for impertinence.  The matter
+passed, however, and would have been forgiven and forgotten but for
+the virulent agitation conducted against us in Germany during the
+Boer War--an agitation which, it is only fair to say, appeared to
+receive no support from the Kaiser himself, who twice visited England
+during the course of the struggle.  It could not be forgotten,
+however, that Von Bülow, the Chancellor, assumed an offensive
+attitude in some of his speeches, that the very idea of an
+Anglo-German Alliance put forward by Chamberlain in 1900 was scouted
+by the German Press, and that in the whole country there was hardly a
+paper which did not join in a chorus of unreasoned hatred and calumny
+against ourselves, our policy, and our arms.  The incident was a
+perfectly astounding revelation to the British, {4} who looked back
+at the alliance between the two countries, and had imagined that the
+traditions of such battles as Minden or Dettingen, where British
+blood had been freely shed in Prussia's quarrel, really stood for
+something in their present relations.  Britons were absolutely
+unconscious of anything which had occurred to alter the bonds which
+history had formed.  It was clear, once for all, that this was mere
+self-deception, and as the British are a practical race, who are more
+concerned with what is than why it is, they resigned themselves to
+the situation and adjusted their thoughts to this new phase of their
+relations.
+
+But soon a new phenomenon engaged their attention.  They had already
+realised that the Germans, for some motive which appeared to them to
+be entirely inadequate, were filled with hatred, and would do the
+British Empire an injury if they had the power.  Hitherto, they had
+never had the power.  But now it was evident that they were forging a
+weapon which might enable them to gratify their malevolence.  In 1900
+was passed the famous German law regulating the increase of their
+navy.  The British, preoccupied by their South African War, took no
+great notice of it at the time, but from 1902 onwards it engaged
+their attention to an ever-increasing degree.  The original law was
+ambitious and far-reaching, but it was subjected to several
+modifications, each of which made it more formidable.  By a system as
+inexorable as Fate, year after year added to the force which was
+being prepared at Wilhelmshaven and at Kiel--a force entirely out of
+proportion to the amount of German commerce to be defended or of
+German coast-line to be protected.  The greatest army in the world
+was rapidly being supplemented by a fleet {5} which would be
+dangerously near, both in numbers and quality, to our own.  The
+British Admiralty, more influenced by party politics than the German,
+showed at times commendable activity, and at other periods
+inexcusable indifference.  On the whole, it was well ahead in its
+building programmes, for a wide circle of the public had become
+thoroughly awakened to the danger, and kept up a continual and most
+justifiable agitation for a broader margin of safety.  Fortunately,
+the two final rulers of the Navy--McKenna and Churchill--rose to
+their responsibilities, and, in spite of a clamour from a section of
+their own party, insisted upon an adequate preponderance of naval
+construction.  A deep debt of gratitude is owed also to the action of
+Lord Fisher, who saw the danger afar off and used all his remarkable
+powers of organisation and initiative to ensure that his country
+should be ready for the approaching struggle.
+
+Great Britain, being much exercised in mind by the menacing tone of
+Germany, expressed not only in her great and rapid naval
+preparations, but in an astonishing outburst of minatory speeches and
+literature from professors, journalists, and other leaders of the
+people, began from 1902 onwards to look round her for allies.  Had
+she continued to remain isolated, some turn of the political wheel
+might have exposed her to a Continental coalition under the
+leadership and inspiration of this bitter enemy.  But for the threats
+of Germany, Britain would in all probability have been able to keep
+aloof from entanglements, but as it was, the enemies of her enemy
+became of necessity her friends.  In an attempt to preserve her
+independence of action so far as was still possible, she refused to
+form an alliance, and only committed {6} herself in a vague fashion
+to an ill-defined _entente_.  By settling several outstanding causes
+of friction with France, an agreement was come to in the year 1903
+which was extended to Russia in 1907.  The general purport of such an
+arrangement was, that the sympathies of Great Britain were with the
+Dual Alliance, and that these sympathies would be translated into
+action if events seemed to warrant it.  An aggressive policy on the
+part of France or Russia would be absolutely discountenanced by
+Britain, but if France were attacked Britain would pledge herself to
+do her utmost to prevent her from being overwhelmed.  It was
+recognised that a victorious Germany would constitute a serious
+menace to the British Empire--a fact which neither the Pan-German
+fanatics nor the German national Press would ever permit us to
+forget.  In this policy of insuring against a German attack King
+Edward VII. took a deep interest, and the policy is itself attributed
+to him in Germany, but as a matter of fact it represented the only
+sane course of action which was open to the nation.  Germans are fond
+of representing King Edward's action as the cause of subsequent
+events, whereas a wider knowledge would show them that it was really
+the effect of five years of German irritation and menace.  This,
+then, was the political situation up to the time of the actual
+outbreak of war.  Upon the one side were the German and Austrian
+Empires in a solid alliance, while Italy was nominally allied, but
+obviously moved upon an orbit of her own.  On the other hand, Russia
+and France were solidly allied, with Britain moving upon an
+independent orbit which had more relation with that of her friends
+than Italy's with that of Central Europe.  It might clearly {7} have
+been foreseen that Britain's fate would be that of France, while
+Italy would break away under any severe test, for a number of open
+questions divided her vitally from her secular enemy to the
+north-east, The whole story of the campaign of Tripoli in 1911 showed
+very clearly how independent, and even antagonistic, were the
+interests and actions of Italy.
+
+Germany, in the meanwhile, viewed with considerable annoyance the
+formation of the elastic but very real ties which united France and
+Britain, while she did not cease to continue the course of action
+which had encouraged them.  It had been one of the axioms of
+Wilhelmstrasse that whilst the British occupied Egypt, no friendship
+was possible between them and the French.  Even now they were
+incredulous that such a thing could be, and they subjected it to a
+succession of tests.  They desired to see whether the friendship was
+a reality, or whether it was only for fair-weather use and would fly
+to pieces before the stress of storm.  Twice they tried it, once in
+1905 when they drove France into a conference at Algeciras, and again
+in 1911, when in a time of profound peace they stirred up trouble by
+sending a gunboat to Agadir in south-western Morocco, an event which
+brought Europe to the very edge of war.  In each case the _entente_
+remained so close and firm that it is difficult to imagine that they
+were really surprised by our actions in 1914, when the enormous
+provocation of the breach of the Belgian treaty was added to our
+promise to stand by France in any trouble not of her own making.
+
+Allusion has been made to the campaign of threats and abuse which had
+been going on for many years in Germany, but the matter is of such
+importance in its {8} bearing upon the outbreak of war that it
+requires some fuller discussion.  For a long period before matters
+became acute between the two countries, a number of writers, of whom
+Nietzsche and Treitschke are the best known, had inoculated the
+German spirit with a most mischievous philosophy, which grew the more
+rapidly as it was dropped into the favourable soil of Prussian
+militarism.  Nietzsche's doctrines were a mere general defence of
+might as against right, and of violent brutality against everything
+which we associate with Christianity and Civilisation.  The whooping
+savage bulked larger in this perverted philosophy than the saint or
+the martyr.  His views, however, though congenial to a certain class
+of the German people, had no special international significance.  The
+typical brute whom he exalted was blonde, but a brute of any other
+tint would presumably suffice.  It was different in the case of
+Treitschke.  He was a historian, not a philosopher, with nothing
+indefinite or abstract about his teaching.  He used his high position
+as Professor in the Berlin University to preach the most ardent
+Chauvinism, and above all to teach the rising generation of Germans
+that their special task was to have a reckoning with England and to
+destroy the British Empire, which for some reason he imagined to be
+degenerate and corrupt.  He has passed away before he could see the
+ruin which he helped to bring about, for there is no doubt that his
+deeds lived after him, and that he is one of half a dozen men who
+were prominent in guiding their country along the path which has
+ended in the abyss.  Scores of other lesser writers repeated and
+exaggerated his message.  Prominent among these was General von
+Bernhardi, a man of high standing and a very {9} great authority upon
+theoretical warfare.  In the volume on _Germany and the Next War_,
+which has been already quoted, he declared in the year 1911 that
+Germany should and would do exactly what it has done in 1914.  Her
+antagonists, her allies, and her general strategy are all set forth
+with a precision which shows that German thinkers had entirely made
+up their minds as to the course of events, and that the particular
+pretext upon which war would be waged was a matter of secondary
+importance.  These and similar sentiments naturally increased the
+uneasiness and resentment in Great Britain, where the taxation had
+risen constantly in the endeavour to keep pace with German
+preparations, until it was generally felt that such a state of things
+could not continue without some crisis being reached.  The cloud was
+so heavy that it must either pass or burst.
+
+The situation had been aggravated by the fact that in order to win
+popular assent to the various increases of the naval estimates in
+Germany, constantly recurring anti-British agitations were
+deliberately raised with alarms of an impending attack.  As Britain
+had never thought of attacking Germany during the long years when she
+had been almost defenceless at sea, it was difficult to perceive why
+she should do so now; but none the less the public and the
+politicians were gulled again and again by this device, which, while
+it achieved its purpose of obtaining the money, produced a
+corresponding resentment in Great Britain.  Sometimes these
+manoeuvres to excite public opinion in favour of an increased navy
+went to extreme lengths which might well have justified an official
+remonstrance from England.  A flagrant example was the arrest, trial,
+and condemnation of Captain Stewart {10} for espionage upon the
+evidence of a suborned and perjured criminal.  It is a story which is
+little to the credit of the Imperial Government, of the High Court at
+Leipzig, or of the British authorities who failed to protect their
+fellow-countryman from most outrageous treatment.
+
+So much for the causes which helped to produce an evil atmosphere
+between the two countries.  Looking at the matter from the German
+point of view, there were some root-causes out of which this
+monstrous growth had come, and it is only fair that these should be
+acknowledged and recorded.  These causes can all be traced to the
+fact that Britain stood between Germany and that world-empire of
+which she dreamed.  This depended upon circumstances over which this
+country had no control, and which she could not modify if she had
+wished to do so.  Britain, through her maritime power and through the
+energy of her merchants, had become a great world-power when Germany
+was still a collection of petty States.  When Germany became a
+powerful Empire with a rising population and an immense commerce, she
+found that the choice places of the world, and those most fitted for
+the spread of a transplanted European race, were already filled up.
+It was not a matter which Britain could help, nor could she alter it,
+since Canada, Australasia, and South Africa would not, even if she
+had desired it, be transferred to German rule.  And yet it formed a
+national grievance, and if we can put ourselves in the place of the
+Germans we may admit that it was galling that the surplus of their
+manhood should go to build up the strength of an alien and possibly a
+hostile State.  To this point we could fully see that grievance--or
+rather that misfortune, since {11} no one was in truth to blame in
+the matter.  It was forgotten by their people that the Colonial
+Empire of the British and of the French had been built up by much
+outlay of blood and treasure, extending over three centuries.
+Germany had existed as a united State for less than half a century,
+and already during that time had built up a very considerable oversea
+dominion.  It was unreasonable to suppose that she could at once
+attain the same position as her fully grown rivals.
+
+Thus this German discontent was based upon fixed factors which could
+no more be changed by Britain than the geographical position which
+has laid her right across the German exit to the oceans of the world.
+That this deeply rooted national sentiment, which for ever regarded
+Britain as the Carthage to which they were destined to play the part
+of Rome, would sooner or later have brought about war, is beyond all
+doubt.  There are a score of considerations which show that a
+European war had long been planned, and that finally the very date,
+determined by the completion of the broadened Kiel Canal, had been
+approximately fixed.  The importations of corn, the secret
+preparations of giant guns, the formations of concrete gun-platforms,
+the early distribution of mobilisation papers, the sending out of
+guns for auxiliary cruisers, the arming of the German colonies, all
+point to a predetermined rupture.  If it could not be effected on one
+pretext, it certainly would on another.  As a matter of fact, an
+occasion was furnished by means which have not yet been fully cleared
+up.  It was one which admirably suited the German book, since it
+enabled her to make her ally the apparent protagonist and so secure
+her fidelity to the {12} bond.  At the same time, by making the cause
+of quarrel one which affected only the Slavonic races, she hoped to
+discourage and detach the more liberal Western Powers and so divide
+the ranks of the Allies from the outset.  It is possible, though not
+certain, that she might have effected this in the case of Great
+Britain, but for her own stupendous blunder in the infraction of
+Belgian neutrality, which left us a united nation in our agreement as
+to the necessity of war.
+
+The political balance of the Great Powers of Europe is so delicately
+adjusted that any weakening of one means a general oscillation of
+all.  The losses of Russia in a sterile campaign in East Asia in 1904
+disturbed the whole peace of the world.  Germany took advantage of it
+at once to bully France over Morocco; and in 1908, judging correctly
+that Russia was still unfit for war, Austria, with the connivance and
+help of Germany, tore up the Treaty of Berlin without reference to
+its other signatories, and annexed the provinces of Bosnia and
+Herzegovina.  Russia immediately issued a futile protest, as did
+Great Britain, but the latter had no material interest at stake.  It
+was otherwise with Russia.  She was the hereditary guardian of Slav
+interests which were directly attacked by this incorporation of an
+unwilling Slav population into the Austrian Empire.  Unable for the
+moment to prevent it, she waited in silent wrath for the chance of
+the future, humiliated and exasperated by the knowledge that she had
+been bullied at the moment of her temporary weakness.  So great had
+been the indignity that it was evident that were she to tolerate a
+second one it would mean the complete abandonment of her leadership
+of the race.
+
+On June 28, 1914, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, {13} heir to the
+throne of the Austrian Empire, made a state visit to Sarajevo in the
+newly annexed provinces.  Here he was assassinated, together with his
+wife.  The immediate criminals were two youths named Princip and
+Cabrinovic, but what exact forces were at the back of them, or
+whether they merely represented local discontent, have never yet been
+clearly shown.  Austria was, however, naturally incensed against
+Serbia, which was looked upon as the centre of all aggressive
+Slavonic action.  Politics take fantastic shapes in this
+south-eastern corner of Europe, and murder, abduction, forgery, and
+perjury are weapons which in the past have been freely used by all
+parties.  The provocation in this instance was so immense and the
+crime so monstrous that had it been established after trustworthy
+examination that Serbia had indeed been directly connected with it,
+there is no doubt that the whole of Europe, including Russia, would
+have acquiesced in any reasonable punishment which could be
+inflicted.  Certainly the public opinion of Great Britain would have
+been unanimous in keeping clear of any quarrel which seemed to uphold
+the criminals.
+
+Austria seems to have instantly made up her mind to push the matter
+to an extreme conclusion, as is shown by the fact that mobilisation
+papers were received by Austrians abroad, bearing the date June 30,
+so that they were issued within two days of the crime.  An inquiry
+was held in connection with the trial of the assassins, which was
+reported to have implicated individual Serbians in the murder plot,
+but no charge was made against the Serbian Government.  Had Austria
+now demanded the immediate trial and punishment of these accomplices,
+she would {14} once again have had the sympathy of the civilised
+world.  Her actual action was far more drastic, and gave impartial
+observers the conviction that she was endeavouring not to obtain
+reparation but to ensure war.  It is inconceivable that so important
+a document as her ultimatum was launched without the approval of
+Berlin, and we have already seen that Germany was in a mood for war.
+The German newspapers, even before the Austrian demands were made,
+had begun to insist that in view of the distracted domestic politics
+of Great Britain, and of the declaration by M. Humbert in the French
+Senate that the army was unprepared, the hour for definite
+settlements had arrived.
+
+The Austrian ultimatum was such a demand as one nation has never yet
+addressed to another.  Indeed, it could hardly be said that Serbia
+would remain a nation if she submitted to it.  Some clauses, though
+severe, were within the bounds of reason.  That papers should not be
+allowed to incite hatred, and that secret societies which were
+supposed to be connected with the crime should be forcibly
+suppressed, were not unfair demands.  So, too, that all accessories
+to the plot, some of whom are mentioned by name, should be tried, and
+that certain measures to prevent a possible recurrence of such plots
+should be adopted.  All these demands might be justified, and each of
+them was, as a matter of fact, accepted by Serbia.  The impossible
+conditions were that Austrian judges should sit in Serbia upon
+political cases and that delegates of Austria should have partial
+administrative control in the neighbouring kingdom.  Even these
+outrageous demands were not rejected absolutely by the Serbian
+Government, though it {15} proclaimed itself to be unable to accept
+them in the crude form in which they were presented.  A humble and
+conciliatory reply concluded with an expression of the desire to
+submit any point still open to impartial arbitration.  The Austrian
+Government--or the forces behind it--appeared, however, to have no
+desire at all to find a peaceful solution.  So precipitate were they
+in their action, that on the receipt of the Serbian reply, in less
+than an hour the Austrian Minister had left Belgrade, and a
+diplomatic rupture, the immediate prelude to war, had taken place
+between the two countries.  So far only two figures were on the
+stage, but already vast shadows were looming in the wings, and all
+the world was hushed at the presentiment of coming tragedy.
+
+It has been shown that Russia, the elder brother of the Slav races,
+had once already been humiliated over Austrian policy and could not
+be indifferent to this new attempt to coerce a Slavonic people.  The
+King of Serbia in his sore need appealed to the Czar and received a
+sympathetic reply.  A moderate castigation of Serbia might have been
+condoned by Russia, but she could not contemplate unmoved a course of
+action which would practically destroy a kindred State.  The Austrian
+army was already mobilising, so Russia also began to mobilise in the
+south.  Events crowded rapidly upon each other.  On July 28 came the
+declaration of war from Austria to Serbia.  Three days later--days
+which were employed by Great Britain in making every possible effort
+to prevent the extension of the mischief--Germany as Austria's ally
+declared war upon Russia.  Two days later Germany declared war upon
+France.  The current ran swiftly as it drew nearer to Niagara.
+
+{16}
+
+The scope of this chronicle is more immediately concerned with the
+doings of Great Britain in this sudden and frightful misfortune which
+had fallen upon Europe.  Her peaceful efforts were thrust aside, for
+she was dealing with those who had predetermined that there should be
+no peace.  Even Austria, the prime mover in discord, had shown
+herself inclined to treat at the last moment, but Germany had
+hastened her onwards by a sudden ultimatum to Russia.  From that
+instant the die was cast.  The attitude of France was never in doubt.
+She was taken at a disadvantage, for her President was abroad when
+the crisis broke out, but the most chivalrous of nations could be
+relied upon to fulfil her obligations.  She took her stand at once by
+the side of her ally.  The one all-important question upon which the
+history of the world would depend, as so often before, was the action
+of Great Britain.
+
+Sir Edward Grey had proposed a conference of ambassadors to deal with
+the situation, a suggestion which was set aside by Germany.  So long
+as the matter was purely Balkan it was outside the sphere of special
+British interests, but day by day it was becoming more clear that
+France would be involved, and a large party in Great Britain held
+that it would be impossible for us to stand by and witness any
+further dismembering of our neighbour.  Thus the shadow which had
+settled so heavily upon the south-east of Europe was creeping across
+from east to west until it was already darkening the future of
+Britain.  It was obviously the German game, whatever her ultimate
+designs might be upon the British Empire, to endeavour to keep it
+peaceful until she had disposed of her Continental opponents.  For
+this reason a {17} strong bid was made for British neutrality upon
+July 29, through the Ambassador at Berlin, Sir Edward Goschen.  In an
+official conversation the German Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg,
+declared that Germany was ready to pledge herself to take no
+territory from France in case of victory.  He would make no promise
+as regards the French colonies, nor was anything said as to the
+French Fleet, nor as to the gigantic indemnity which was already
+discussed in some of the German papers.  In a word, the proposition
+was that Great Britain was to abandon her friend at the hour of her
+need on condition that she should be robbed but not mutilated.
+Subsequent experience of German promises may lead us to doubt,
+however, whether they would really have insured France against the
+worst that the victor could inflict.
+
+Sir Edward Grey answered with as much warmth as the iced language of
+diplomacy will permit.  His dispatch of July 30 begins as follows:
+
+"His Majesty's Government cannot for a moment entertain the
+Chancellor's proposal that they should bind themselves to neutrality
+on such terms.
+
+"What he asks us in effect is, to engage to stand by while French
+colonies are taken and France is beaten so long as Germany does not
+take French territory as distinct from the colonies.
+
+"From the material point of view such a proposal is unacceptable, for
+France, without further territory in Europe being taken from her,
+could be so crushed as to lose her position as a great Power, and
+become subordinate to German policy.
+
+"Altogether apart from that, it would be a disgrace for us to make
+this bargain with Germany {18} at the expense of France, a disgrace
+from which the good name of this country would never recover."
+
+At a subsequent period the Premier, Mr. Asquith, voiced the sentiment
+of the whole nation when he declared that the proposal was infamous.
+
+The immediate concern of the British Government was to ascertain the
+views of the rival Powers upon the question of Belgian neutrality,
+which had been solemnly guaranteed by France, Prussia, and ourselves.
+How faithfully this guarantee had been observed by France in the past
+is shown by the fact that even when an infraction of the frontier at
+Sedan in 1870 would have saved the French Army from total
+destruction, it had not been attempted.  There were signs in advance,
+however, that Germany proposed to turn the French defences by
+marching through Belgium.  The arrangement of the new German
+strategic railways upon the frontier all pointed to such a plan.  It
+was evident that such an action must at once bring Britain into the
+struggle, since it is difficult to see how she could ever hold up her
+head again if, after promising protection to a smaller nation, she
+broke her bond at the moment of danger.  The French, too, who had
+left their northern frontier comparatively unfortified in reliance
+upon the integrity of Belgium, would have rightly felt that they had
+been betrayed by Britain if they suffered now through their
+confidence in the British guarantee.  The Balkans were nothing to
+Great Britain, but she had more than her interests, she had her
+national honour at stake upon the Belgian frontier.
+
+On July 31 the British Government asked France and Germany whether
+they were still prepared to stand by their pledge.  France answered
+promptly {19} that she was, and added that she had withdrawn her
+armies ten kilometres from the frontier, so as to prove to the world
+that her position was defensive only.  From Germany there came an
+ominous silence.  Meanwhile, in Brussels the German representative,
+Herr von Below-Saleske, was assuring the Belgian Government that
+nothing was further from the intention of Germany than an infraction
+of the frontier.  These assurances were continued almost to the
+moment of the arrival of German troops in Belgium, and give one more
+instance of the absolute want of truth and honour which from the days
+of Frederick the Great has been the outstanding characteristic of
+German diplomacy.  Just as the Seven Years' War was begun by an
+attack upon an ally in times of peace, so her last two campaigns have
+been opened, the one by the doctored telegram of Ems, and the other
+by the perfidy to Belgium, which is none the less shameful because it
+has been publicly admitted by the Chancellor.
+
+Another incident of these crowded days deserves some record, as it
+has been quoted in Germany as an instance of Great Britain having
+stood in the way of a localisation of the war.  This impression is
+produced by suppressing a telegram in which it is shown that the
+whole episode arose from a mistake upon the part of Prince
+Lichnowsky, the German Ambassador.  On August 1 Sir Edward Grey,
+still feeling round for some way in which the evil might be
+minimised, suggested through the telephone to Prince Lichnowsky that
+if both Germany and France could see their way to stand out, the
+conflict would then be limited to Austria and Russia.  This practical
+and possible suggestion was transmitted to Berlin in {20} the absurd
+form that Britain would hold France out of the war, while Russia
+would be abandoned to Germany and Austria.  The Kaiser lost no time
+in assenting to so delightful a proposal.  It was at once pointed out
+to Prince Lichnowsky that he had made a mistake, and the Prince
+telegraphed to Berlin a correction of his previous message.  This
+second telegram was suppressed by the German Government, while, some
+weeks afterwards, they published the inaccurate dispatch in order to
+give the world the impression that Britain had actually made a move
+towards peace which had been withdrawn when it was found that it was
+eagerly welcomed by Germany.  The very idea that Britain could in any
+way pledge the actions of France is grotesque upon the face of it.
+Whilst making this false suggestion as to the action of Britain, the
+German Government carefully concealed the fact that Sir Edward Grey
+had actually gone the extreme length in the interests of peace, of
+promising that we should detach ourselves from our Allies if a
+conference were held and their unreasonable attitude was an obstacle
+to an agreement.
+
+Whether, if Belgian neutrality had been honoured, Great Britain would
+or would not have come into the war is an academic question which can
+never be decided.  Certainly she would never have come in as a united
+nation, for public opinion was deeply divided upon the point, and the
+Cabinet is understood to have been at variance.  Only one thing could
+have closed the ranks and sent the British Empire with absolute
+unanimity into the fight.  This was the one thing which Germany did.
+However great her military power may be, it seems certain that her
+diplomatic affairs were grievously mismanaged, and {21} that, in
+spite of that cloud of spies who have been the precursors of her
+Uhlans in each of her campaigns, she was singularly ill-informed as
+to the sentiments of foreign nations.  The columns of a single honest
+British paper would have told her more of the true views and spirit
+of the nation than all the eavesdroppers of her famous secret service.
+
+We now come to the critical instant as regards Britain, leading to a
+succession of incidents in Berlin so admirably described in Sir
+Edward Goschen's classical report that it seems a profanation to
+condense it.  Having received no reply to their request for a
+definite assurance about Belgium, the British Government instructed
+their Ambassador to ask for an immediate answer upon August 4.  The
+startling reply from Von Jagow, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, was
+that the German troops had actually crossed the frontier.  With a
+cynical frankness the German statesman explained that it was a matter
+of life or death to the Imperial Army to get their blow in quickly by
+the undefended route.  In answer to the shocked remonstrance of the
+British Ambassador, he could only assert that it was now too late to
+reconsider the matter.  About seven in the evening Sir Edward Goschen
+conveyed an ultimatum upon the subject to the German Government,
+declaring war unless by midnight a more satisfactory answer could be
+given.
+
+From Herr von Jagow the Ambassador passed to the Chancellor, whom he
+found much agitated.  He broke into a harangue in which he used the
+phrase, now become historic, that he could not understand the British
+Government making such a fuss about a mere scrap of paper, and
+declared that a breach of {22} territorial neutrality was a matter of
+no great consequence.  A recollection of the history of his own
+country would none the less have reminded him that it was precisely
+on account of an infringement of their frontier by the troops of
+Napoleon that Prussia had entered upon the ill-fated war of 1806.  He
+continued by saying that he held Great Britain responsible for all
+the terrible events which might happen.  Sir Edward pointed out that
+it was a matter of necessity that Great Britain should keep her
+engagements, and added with dignity that fear of the consequences
+could hardly be accepted as a valid reason for breaking them.
+
+Such in brief was the momentous interview which determined the
+question of peace or war between these two great Empires.  Sir Edward
+immediately forwarded a telegraphic summary of what had occurred to
+London, but this telegram was never forwarded by the Berlin
+authorities--one more of those actions for which the word "caddish"
+is the most appropriate British adjective.  Throughout all our German
+experiences both before the war and during it, we have always found
+our rivals to be formidable; they have usually proved themselves to
+be both brave and energetic; but hardly ever have we recognised them
+as gentlemen.  Three centuries ago the leading nations of Europe had
+attained something subtle and gracious which is still denied to the
+Germans.
+
+The populace of Berlin hastened to show these same unamiable
+characteristics.  Whereas the retiring Ambassadors in London, Paris,
+and also in Vienna, met with courteous treatment, the German mob
+surrounded the British Embassy and hurled {23} vituperations, and
+finally stones, at its occupants.  Defenceless people were hustled,
+assaulted, and arrested in the streets.  A day or two previously the
+Russian Embassy had been brutally insulted by the populace upon its
+departure--a fact which produced some regrettable, but very natural,
+reprisals in Petrograd, to use the new name for the Russian capital.
+The French Ambassador and his suite had also been very badly treated
+in their journey to the Dutch frontier.  Thus it was shocking, but
+not surprising, to find that the Berlin mob indulged in excesses
+towards the British representatives, and that shameful scenes marked
+the final hours of Sir Edward Goschen's official duties.  Truly, as
+Herr von Jagow admitted, such incidents leave an indelible stain upon
+the reputation of Berlin.  It is pleasant to be able to add that Von
+Jagow himself behaved with propriety, and did what he could to
+mitigate the violence of the populace.
+
+It is difficult for us to imagine how any German could possibly for
+an instant have imagined that Great Britain would stand by in silent
+acquiescence while the little country which she had sworn to protect
+was overrun by German troops; but that such a delusion existed is
+shown not only by the consternation of the Chancellor at Sir Edward's
+message, but also by the extreme irritation of the Emperor.  What
+part Emperor William had played in the events which led up to the war
+may possibly remain for ever the subject of debate.  There are those
+who argue that the Crown Prince and the military party had taken
+advantage of his absence on one of his Norwegian tours, and had
+hurried matters into such an impasse that he was unable to get them
+back to more peaceful {24} lines.  One would wish to think that this
+were true, and there is evidence that on previous occasions his
+influence has been exerted upon the side of peace to an extent which
+was unwelcome to many of his own subjects.  On the other hand, it is
+very difficult to believe that such a situation, led up to by many
+preparatory steps which included the _fons et origo mali_, the
+provocative and impossible Austrian ultimatum, could have been
+arranged without the assent of a man who has notoriously continually
+interfered directly in all large, and many small, transactions of
+state.  However this may be, it is beyond dispute that the action of
+Great Britain deprived him for the instant of his usual dignity and
+courtesy, and he dispatched a verbal message by one of his
+aides-de-camp in the following terms:
+
+"The Emperor has charged me to express to your Excellency his regret
+for the occurrences of last night, but to tell you at the same time
+that you will gather from those occurrences an idea of the feelings
+of his people respecting the action of Great Britain in joining with
+other nations against her old allies of Waterloo.  His Majesty also
+begs that you will tell the King that he has been proud of the titles
+of British Field-Marshal and British Admiral, but that in consequence
+of what has occurred he must now at once divest himself of those
+titles."
+
+The Ambassador adds feelingly that this message lost nothing of its
+acerbity by the manner of its delivery.  Some artist of the future
+will do justice to the scene where the benign and dignified old
+diplomatist sat listening to the rasping utterances of the insolent
+young Prussian soldier.  The actual departure of the Embassy was
+effected without {25} molestation, thanks once more to the good
+offices of Herr von Jagow.  On the same day, in the presence of a
+large but silent crowd, the German Ambassador left London and
+embarked for home in a vessel placed at his disposal by the British
+Government.  His voyage back, _via_ Flushing, was safely
+accomplished, but it is worth recording that it was only the warning
+from a British warship which prevented him and his staff from being
+blown up by the mines which had already, within a few hours of the
+outbreak of hostilities, been strewn thickly by his countrymen in the
+path of neutral shipping across the highway of commerce in the North
+Sea.  Should our kinsmen of America ever find themselves in our
+place, let them remember that it is "all in" from the beginning with
+the Germans.
+
+Let America also remember our experience that no pupil can go to a
+German school, no scholar to a German university, and no invalid to a
+German health-resort, without the chance of some sudden turn of
+politics leaving them as prisoners in the country.  Even the elderly
+heart patients at Nauheim were detained by the German authorities.
+An old admiral among them, Admiral Neeld, made a direct appeal as
+sailor to sailor to Prince Henry of Prussia, and was answered by the
+proverb that "War is war."  Our contention is that such actions are
+_not_ war, and that their perpetration will never be forgotten or
+forgiven by the nations of the world, who can have no security that
+when their subjects pass the German frontier they will ever get clear
+again.  Such practices are, of course, entirely distinct from that of
+interning reservists or males of fighting age, which was freely done
+by the Allies.  It is only fair to say that after {26} a long delay
+there was a release of schoolgirls, and afterwards one of doctors, by
+the Germans, but many harmless travellers, students, and others were
+held for a long period of the war at a time when tens of thousands of
+Germans were free in Great Britain.
+
+By a gross perversion of facts German publicists have endeavoured to
+show that Great Britain was to blame for the final rupture.  The
+pretence is too absurd to deceive any one, and one can hardly think
+that they believe it themselves.  One has only to ask what had Great
+Britain to do with the death of the Heir Apparent of Austria, with
+the sending of the fatal ultimatum, with the declaration of war
+against Russia and France, or, finally, with the infraction of the
+Belgian frontier?  She had nothing to do with any one of these
+things, which all, save the first, emanated from Vienna or Berlin,
+and were the obvious causes of the war.  Britain was only involved
+because she remained true to her solemn contract, a breach of which
+would have left her dishonoured.  It is mere effrontery to pretend
+that she desired war, or that she left anything undone which could
+have prevented it.  We lay our record with confidence before foreign
+nations and posterity.  We have nothing to conceal and nothing to
+regret.
+
+On the other hand, supposing that one were to grant the whole of the
+German contention, suppose one were to admit that Germany did not
+know of the terms of the Austrian ultimatum or foresee its effect
+upon the other nations of Europe, that she took her stand by the side
+of Austria purely out of motives of chivalrous loyalty to an ally,
+and that she was forced, by so doing, to find herself at variance
+with Russia and France--suppose so inconceivable a hypothesis {27} as
+this, even then it cannot in any way condone the admitted wrong which
+Germany did in invading Belgium, nor does it show any possible cause
+why, because Germany was false to her word in this matter, Britain
+should be so also.  This point is so unanswerable that the only
+defence, if it can be called a defence, which Germany has ever put
+forward is, that if she had not infringed Belgian neutrality,
+somebody else would have done so.  Not one shadow of evidence has
+ever been put forward to justify so monstrous an assertion, which is
+certainly not endorsed by the Belgians themselves.
+
+In this connection one may allude to the so-called secret military
+engagements which were found and published by the Germans at Brussels
+and which were supposed to show that Great Britain herself
+contemplated the infraction of Belgian neutrality.  One can only
+realise how bankrupt is Germany of all reason and argument when one
+considers such a contention as this.  For years the German threats
+had been obvious to all the world.  They had brought their strategic
+railways to the frontier of Belgium, and erected their standing camps
+there.  Naturally Belgium was alarmed at such preparations and took
+counsel with Great Britain how her pledge should be redeemed and how
+her soil could be defended in case Germany proved perfidious.  It was
+a simple military precaution which involved not the breach of a
+treaty but the fulfilment of one--not the invasion of Belgium but its
+protection after it was invaded.  Each successive so-called
+"revelation" about the actions of Great Britain has only proved once
+more that--
+
+  "Whatever record leaps to light
+  She never shall be shamed."
+
+
+{28}
+
+These attempts to confuse the issue irresistibly recall the message
+of Frederic to Podowils when he was about to seize Silesia even as
+William seized Belgium.  "The question of right," he said, "is the
+affair of ministers.  It is your affair.  It is time to work at it in
+secret, for the orders to the troops are given."  March first and
+find some justification later.
+
+Germany would have stood higher in the world's esteem and in the
+estimate of history if, instead of playing in most grotesque fashion
+the wolf to the lamb, and accusing her unprepared and distracted
+neighbours of making a surprise attack upon her at the moment when
+she was at the height of her preparations, she had boldly stated her
+true position.  Her dignity and frankness would have been undeniable
+if she had said, "I am a great power.  I believe I am the greatest.
+I am willing to put it to the test of war.  I am not satisfied with
+my geographical position.  I desire a greater seaboard.  You must
+give it to me or I shall take it.  I justify my action by the fact
+that the position of every state rests ultimately upon its strength
+in war, and that I am willing to undergo that test."
+
+Such a contention would have commanded respect, however much we might
+resent it.  But these repeated declarations from the Emperor himself,
+the Chancellor, and so many others that they were deliberately
+attacked, coupled with appeals to the Almighty, make up the most
+nauseous mixture of falsehood and blasphemy which the world has ever
+known.  The whole conception of religion became grotesque, and the
+Almighty, instead of a universal Father of the human race, was
+suddenly transformed into "our good {29} old God," a bloodthirsty
+tribal deity worthy of those Prussian pagans who as late as the
+fourteenth century offered human sacrifices to their idols in the
+Eastern Mark.  The phenomenon was part of that general national
+madness to which, it is to be hoped, the German of the future will
+look back with bewilderment and shame.
+
+One contention put forward by certain German apologists in connection
+with the war would hardly be worth referring to, were it not for the
+singular light which it casts upon the mental and moral position of a
+large number of the German public.  It was that some special culture
+had been evolved by Germany which was of such value that it should be
+imposed by force upon the rest of the world.  Since culture must in
+its nature be an international thing, the joint product of human
+development, such a claim can only be regarded as a conspicuous sign
+of its absence.  In spiritual and intellectual matters it could not
+be asserted that Germany since 1870 had shown any superiority over
+France or England.  In many matters she was conspicuously behind.  It
+might fairly be claimed that in chemistry, in music, and in some
+forms of criticism, notably biblical exegesis, she was supreme.  But
+in how many fields was she inferior to Great Britain?  What name had
+she in poetry to put against Tennyson and Browning, in zoology to
+compare with Darwin, in scientific surgery to excel that of Lister,
+in travel to balance Stanley, or in the higher human qualities to
+equal such a man as Gordon?  The fruits of German culture do not bear
+out the claim that it should forcibly supplant that of either of the
+great Western nations.
+
+We have now seen how the great cloud which had {30} hung so long over
+Europe burst at last, and the blast of war swept the land from end to
+end.  We have passed through the years of hopes and alarms, of the
+_ententes_ of optimists and the _détentes_ of politicians, of
+skirmishes between journals and wrestles of finance, until we reach
+the end of it all--open primitive warfare between the two great
+branches of the Germanic family.  In a purple passage Professor Cramb
+spoke of the days when the high gods of virility would smile as they
+looked down upon the chosen children of Odin, the English and the
+Germans, locked in the joy of battle.  The hour had struck, and it is
+a partial record of those crowded and heroic days which is here set
+forth with such accuracy of detail as diligence may command and
+circumstances allow.
+
+
+
+
+{31}
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE OPENING OF THE WAR
+
+There can be no doubt that if Germany had confined her operations to
+an attack upon France without any infraction of Belgian neutrality,
+the situation in Great Britain would have been extraordinarily
+difficult.  The Government was the most democratic that has ever been
+known in our political history, and it owed its power to an
+electorate, many of whom were passionate advocates for peace at
+almost any conceivable price.  The preparations for naval war,
+necessitated by the ever-growing German power, had been accompanied
+and occasionally retarded by a constant murmur of remonstrance which
+swelled periodically into a menacing expostulation.  McKenna and
+Churchill found their only opponents in the members of their own
+party, who persistently refused to look obvious facts in the face,
+and impatiently swept aside the figures of the German armaments while
+they indulged in vague and amiable aspirations towards international
+friendship.  This large and energetic party would certainly have most
+strenuously resisted British interference in a Continental war.  The
+statesmen who foresaw that the conquest of France would surely lead
+to the conquest of Britain {32} might have carried the country with
+them, but none the less they would have gone to war with such an
+incubus upon them as the traitorous Charles James Fox and his party
+had been in the days of Napoleon.  A disunited British against a
+united German Empire would have been a grievous disadvantage, be our
+allies who they might, for, as Shakespeare sang, "If England to
+herself be true," it is then only that she is formidable.
+
+This great misfortune, however, was obviated by the policy of
+Germany.  The most peace-loving Briton could not face the national
+dishonour which would have been eternally branded upon him had his
+country without an effort allowed its guarantee to be treated as
+waste paper by a great military nation.  The whole people were welded
+into one, and save for a few freakish individuals who obeyed their
+own perversity of mind or passion for notoriety, the country was
+united as it has never been in history.  A just war seemed to touch
+the land with some magic wand, which healed all dissensions and
+merged into one national whole those vivid controversies which are,
+in fact, a sign rather of intense vitality than of degeneration.  In
+a moment the faddist forgot his fad, the capitalist his grievance
+against taxation, the Labour man his feud against Capital, the Tory
+his hatred of the Government, even the woman her craving for the
+vote.  A political millennium seemed to have dawned.  Best and most
+important of all was the evident sign that the work done of late
+years to win the friendship of Ireland had not been in vain.  If the
+mere promise of domestic institutions has ranged all responsible
+Irishmen upon one side on the day of battle, what may we not hope for
+ourselves {33} and for the Empire when they have been fully
+established and Time has alleviated the last lingering memories of an
+evil past?  It is true that at a later period of the war this fair
+prospect was somewhat overcast by an insane rebellion, in which the
+wrongs of Ireland, once formidable and now trivial, were allowed by a
+colossal selfishness to outweigh the martyrdom of Belgium and the
+mutilation of France.  Still the fact remains (and it must sustain us
+in our future efforts for conciliation) that never before have we had
+the representative nationalists of Ireland as our allies in a great
+struggle.
+
+The leaders of the Unionist party, Lord Lansdowne and Mr. Bonar Law,
+had already, on August 2, signified to the Government that they
+considered Britain to be honour-bound to France, and would support
+without hesitation every practical step to give effect to the
+alliance.  Fortified by this assurance, the Government could go
+strongly forward.  But after the Belgian infraction, its position was
+that of the executive of a united nation.  Sir Edward Grey's analysis
+in Parliament of the causes which had brought us to war convinced the
+reason and claimed the sympathy of every political party, and even
+the most fervent advocates of peace found themselves silenced in the
+presence of the huge German aggression which could never admit of a
+peace founded upon mutual respect and equality, but only of that
+which comes from ascendancy on the one side and helplessness upon the
+other.
+
+Should Britain ever be led into an unjust war, she will soon learn it
+from the fearless voices of her children.  The independent young
+nations which are rising under the red-crossed flag will not be
+dragged, {34} in the train of the Mother-Country, into any enterprise
+of which their conscience does not approve.  But
+ now their assent was whole-hearted.  They were
+vehement in their approval of the firm stand made for the pledged
+word of the nation.  From every quarter of the world deep answered
+deep in its assurance that the sword should not be sheathed until the
+wrong was righted and avenged.
+
+Strong, earnest Canada sent her 30,000 men, with her promise of more.
+Fiery Australia and New Zealand prepared as many, Maori vying with
+white man in his loyalty to the flag.  South Africa, under the
+splendid leadership of Botha, began to arm, to speak with the foe in
+her own gates.  India poured forth money and men with a lavish
+generosity which can never be forgotten in this country.  The throb
+of loyalty to the old land passed through every smallest Dependency,
+and then beyond the frontier to those further lands which had known
+us as a just and kindly neighbour.  Newfoundland voted a contingent.
+Ceylon sent of her best.  Little Fiji mustered her company of
+fighting men, and even the mountains of Nepaul and the inaccessible
+plateaux of Thibet were desirous of swelling that great host,
+gathered from many races, but all under the one banner which meant to
+each a just and liberal rule.
+
+On the very eve of the outbreak of hostilities one man was added to
+the home establishment whose presence was worth many army corps.
+This was Lord Kitchener, whose boat was actually lying with steam up
+to bear him away upon a foreign mission, when, at the last instant,
+either the universal public demand or the good sense of the
+Government recalled him to take supreme charge of the war.  It was a
+{35} strange and a novel situation that a soldier who was no party
+politician should assume the role of War Minister in a political
+Cabinet, but the times called for decided measures, and this was
+among them.  From that day onwards until the dark hour which called
+him from his uncompleted task the passer-by who looked up at the
+massive front of the War Office was gladdened by the thought that
+somewhere in the heart of it those stern, immutable eyes were looking
+out at Britain's enemies, and that clear, calculating brain was
+working for their downfall.  Slow, safe, methodical, remorseless,
+carefully preparing the means at every stage that led him to the
+distant but preordained end, he had shown, both in the Soudan and
+South Africa, that the race of great British generals was not yet
+extinct.  He knew and trusted his instrument even as it knew and
+trusted him.
+
+That instrument was an army which was remarkably well prepared for
+its work.  It cannot be said that the Boer War had increased the
+prestige of the British forces, though only those who have studied
+the subject can realise how difficult was the task with which they
+were then faced, or how considerable an achievement it was to bring
+it to a success.  But the campaign had left behind it a valuable
+legacy, all the richer because so great a proportion of the land
+forces had been drawn into the struggle.  In 1914 a large proportion
+of senior officers and a considerable number of non-commissioned
+officers and reservists had passed through that ordeal, and learned
+by experience what can be done, and, even more important, what cannot
+be done, in face of modern rifles in skilful hands.
+
+The lesson had been well pressed home after the {36} war, and every
+general, from Lord Roberts downwards, had laid emphasis upon the
+importance of cover and of accuracy of fire.  Apart from the sound
+technical training of the soldiers, the administration of the Army
+had, after an experimental period, fallen into the hands of Lord
+Haldane, who has left his mark more deeply than any one since
+Cardwell upon the formation of the land forces.  A debt of gratitude
+is owing to him for his clear thought and his masterful dispositions.
+Had he been a prophet as well as organiser, he would no doubt have
+held his hand before he made the smallest decrease of our regular
+forces; but, on the other hand, by turning our haphazard, amateurish
+volunteers into the workman-like Territorials, in forming the
+invaluable Officers' Training Corps which tapped our public schools
+for something better than athletic talent, and in rigidly defining
+our expeditionary corps and providing the special reserves for its
+reinforcements, he did work for which he can never adequately be
+thanked.  The weapon which he had fashioned was now thrust into the
+strong right hand of the new Minister of War.
+
+It is well to survey this weapon before we show how it was used.  The
+total personnel of the Army with its reserves called up was about
+370,000 men.  Of this 160,000 were set aside as an expeditionary
+force, but only a portion of this number could be counted as
+immediately available on the outbreak of war, though the system of
+mobilisation had been brought to a fine point.  It was hoped that
+three army corps numbering about 110,000 men, with two divisions of
+cavalry, about 10,000 horsemen, would be immediately available, petty
+numbers as compared with the millions of the Continent, but highly
+trained {37} professional soldiers, capable, perhaps, of turning the
+balance in the clash of equal hosts.  The rest of the Regular Army
+had to provide garrisons for India, Egypt, Gibraltar, and other
+dependencies, but it was hoped that in time nearly all of it would be
+available for service.
+
+Behind these first-line troops was the special reserve, something
+under 100,000 in number, who were the immediate reinforcements to
+fill the gaps of battle.  Next in order came the Territorials, whose
+full complement was 340,000 men.  Unhappily at this time they were
+nearly 100,000 under strength, and there are many who think that if
+the National Service League in their earnest campaign, which was
+inspired by a clear vision of the coming danger, had insisted upon a
+great enlargement of this constitutional force, instead of agitating
+for a complete change which presented practical and political
+difficulties, their efforts would have been more fruitful.  These
+troops were raw, inexperienced, and only enlisted for home service,
+but with a fine spirit they set to work at once to make themselves
+efficient, and the great majority signified their readiness to go
+anywhere at the country's call.  Many brigades were sent abroad at
+once to relieve the regulars in Egypt and India, while others were
+ready to join the fighting line on the Continent after a few months,
+where, as will be shown, they acquitted themselves remarkably well.
+The enthusiasm for the war rapidly sent the numbers of the
+Territorials up to nearly half a million.  In addition to these
+troops there was the promise of 70,000 highly trained men (one
+quarter of whom were British regulars) from India.  Canada,
+Australia, and New Zealand came forward to offer some 60,000 {38} men
+between them, with the promise of as many more as should be called
+for.  Brave and hardy, these were splendid raw material, though their
+actual technical training was not, save in some special corps, more
+advanced than that of the British Territorials.  Altogether, the
+British War Lord could see, at the very beginning of hostilities,
+nearly 1,000,000 of men ready to his hand, though in very different
+stages of efficiency.
+
+But already he had conceived the idea of a campaign of attrition,
+and, looking forward into the years, he was convinced that these
+forces were insufficient.  Some entirely new cadres must be
+organised, which should have no limitations, but be as reliable an
+instrument as the regular forces of the Crown.  With a prescience
+which found no counterpart either among our friends or our foes he
+fixed three years as a probable term for the war, and he made
+preparation accordingly.  Early in August he called for half a
+million fresh volunteers for the war, and early in October he had got
+them.  Still unsatisfied, he called for yet another half-million, and
+before Christmas his numbers were again complete.  It was a wonderful
+autumn and winter in Britain.  Every common and green was loud with
+the cries of the instructors, and bare with the tramp of the men.
+Nothing has ever been seen in the world's history which can compare
+in patriotic effort with that rally to the flag, for no bounty was
+offered, and no compulsion used.  The spirit of the men was
+extraordinarily high.  Regiments were filled with gentlemen who gave
+up every amenity of life in order to face an arduous and dangerous
+campaign, while even greater patriotism was shown by the countless
+thousands of {39} miners, artisans, and other well-paid workmen who
+sacrificed high wages and a home life in order to serve for an
+indefinite time upon the humble pay of the soldier, leaving, very
+often, a wife and children in straitened circumstances behind them.
+It is at such times that a democratic country reaps the rich fruits
+of its democracy, for if you make the land such that it is good to
+live in, so also does it become good to die for.  These forces could
+not be ready, even with the best of wills, and the most intensive
+culture, before the summer of 1915, but at that date, including her
+sea forces, Great Britain had not less than 2,000,000 volunteers
+under arms and ready for immediate use, a number which had risen to
+4,000,000 by the end of that year, and 5,000,000 by the spring of
+1916.
+
+So much for the wise provisions of Lord Kitchener, which would have
+been useless had they not been supported by a stern and
+self-sacrificing national spirit.  The crisis was met with a cold
+determination which gave some superficial observers the impression
+that the nation was listless, when it was, in truth, far too earnest
+for mere shoutings or flag-waving.  "Wakened at last!" cried some
+foreign cartoon when a German outrage aroused the country for an
+instant to some visible gleam of wrath.  A deeper observer might have
+known that a country which finds 5,000,000 volunteer fighters, and
+which, instead of putting the expenses of the war upon future
+generations, as was done by Germany, elects to meet a considerable
+proportion of them by present taxation, is in grim earnest from the
+start.  The income tax was doubled without a remonstrance by a
+unanimous vote of the Commons, thus finding an extra £40,000,000 a
+year for the prosecution of the war.  Other taxes {40} were levied by
+which the working classes bore their fair share of the burden, and
+they also elicited no complaints.  Before Christmas no less than
+£450,000,000 had been raised by a loan, a gigantic financial effort
+which was easily borne at a charge of 4 per cent.
+
+But if Britain was able to face the future with confidence, both in
+finance and in her military preparation, it was entirely to her
+silent, invisible, but most efficient Navy that she owed it.  By wise
+foresight the Grand Fleet, numbering some 400 vessels, had been
+assembled for Royal inspection before the storm broke and when it was
+but a rising cloud-bank upon the horizon.  This all-important move
+has been attributed to Prince Louis of Battenberg, First Sea Lord of
+the Admiralty, but it could not have been done without the hearty
+concurrence and cooperation of Mr. Winston Churchill, who should
+share the honour, even as he would have shared the blame had we been
+caught unawares.  The so-called inspection had hardly been completed
+at Spithead before war was upon us, and the Fleet, ready manned,
+provisioned, and armed, moved straight away to take up its war
+stations.  The main fighting squadrons vanished into a strategic mist
+from which they did not emerge for very many months, but it was
+understood that they were assembled at centres like Scapa Flow and
+Cromarty Firth which were outside the radius of the German
+torpedo-boats and smaller submarines, while they were near enough to
+the enemy's ports to be able to bring him to action should he emerge.
+
+Numerous patrols of small vessels were let loose in the North Sea to
+keep in touch with our opponents, {41} who were well known to be both
+daring and active.  It is said that no less than 3000 ships, large
+and small, were flying the white ensign of St. George.  A portion of
+these were told off for the protection of the great commercial
+sea-routes, and for the hunting down of some score of German cruisers
+which were known to be at sea.  Some of these gave a very good
+account of themselves and others were innocuous; but the net result
+in loss, which had been discounted in advance as 5 per cent of the
+merchant fleet at sea, worked out at less than half that figure, and,
+by the new year, the marauders had been practically exterminated.
+
+Now as always--but now more than ever in the past--it was absolutely
+vital to hold the seas.  Who wins the sea wins Britain.  Of every
+five loaves in the country four come to us from abroad, and our
+position in meat is no better.  It is victory or starvation when we
+fight upon the sea.  It is ill to play for such stakes, however safe
+the game--worse still when it is a game where the value of some of
+the cards is unknown.  We have little to fear from a raid, nothing
+from invasion, everything from interference with our commerce.  It is
+one of the points in which our party politics, which blind so many
+people to reason, might well have brought absolute ruin upon the
+country.  The cultivation of British food supplies should never have
+been a question of free trade or protection, but rather of vital
+national insurance.
+
+Had the war come ten years later we might have been in deadly danger,
+owing to the rapidly growing power of the submarine.  These engines
+turned upon our food-carriers might well have starved us out,
+especially if we had continued our national folly in {42} being
+scared by bogeys from building a Channel tunnel.  But by a merciful
+Providence the struggle came at a moment when the submarine was half
+developed, and had not yet reached either the speed or the range of
+action which would make it the determining factor in a war.  As it
+was, the fruits of submarine warfare, in spite of a wise and timely
+warning on the eve of hostilities by Admiral Sir Percy Scott,
+astonished the public, but the mischief done was a very small thing
+compared to the possibilities which have to be most carefully guarded
+against in the future.
+
+In their present stage of development, the submarine could only
+annoy.  With the great fleet in existence and with the shipbuilding
+facilities of Great Britain, nothing could vitally harm her save the
+loss of a pitched battle.  The British superiority was rather in her
+small craft than in her large ones, but in capital ships she was able
+to place in line at the beginning of the war enough to give a
+sufficient margin of insurance.  There was never any tendency to
+under-rate the excellence of the hostile ships, nor the courage and
+efficiency of the men.  It was well understood that when they came
+out they would give a good account of themselves, and also that they
+would not come out until the circumstances seemed propitious.  They
+were under a disadvantage in that the Russian fleet, though small,
+was not negligible, and therefore some portion of the German force on
+sea as well as on land had always to face eastwards.  Also the
+British had the French for their allies, and, though the great ships
+of the latter were nearly all in the Mediterranean, a swarm of small
+craft was ready to buzz out of her western ports should the war come
+down-channel.
+
+{43}
+
+Yet another advantage lay with the British in that their geographical
+position put a six-hundred-mile-long breakwater right across the
+entrance to Germany, leaving only two sally-ports north and south by
+which commerce could enter or raiders escape.  The result was the
+immediate utter annihilation of Germany's sea-borne commerce.
+Altogether it must be admitted that Germany was grievously
+handicapped at sea, and that she deserves the more credit for
+whatever she accomplished, save when, as on land, she transgressed
+and degraded the recognised laws of civilised warfare.  It is time
+now to turn to those military events upon the Continent which were
+the precursors of that British campaign which is the subject of this
+volume.
+
+Want of space and accurate material make it impossible to do justice
+here to the deeds of our Allies, but an attempt must be made to
+indicate briefly the main phases of the struggle abroad, since its
+course reacted continually upon the British operations.  It may be
+shortly stated, then, that so far as the western theatre of war was
+concerned, hostilities commenced by two movements, one an attack by
+the French upon the occupants of those lost provinces for which they
+had mourned during forty-four years, and the other the advance of the
+Germans over the Belgian frontier.
+
+The former was a matter of no great importance.  It took two distinct
+lines, the one from the Belfort region into Alsace, and the other
+from Nancy as a centre into Lorraine.  The Alsatian venture gained
+some ground which was never wholly lost, and was adorned by one small
+victory near Mulhausen before it was checked by the German defence.
+The Lorraine {44} advance had also some initial success, but was
+finally thrown back on August 20 in a severe action in which the
+French were defeated.  Luneville, across the French frontier, was
+occupied by the Germans, but they made no headway, and their
+subsequent attempts upon Nancy were repulsed by the army of General
+Castelnau.  General Pau, a fiery, one-armed septuagenarian, was the
+French leader in the Alsatian invasion, but it was soon realised by
+General Joffre that he and the bulk of his men would be more useful
+at the vital point upon the northern frontier, to which early in
+September they were transferred.
+
+The main drama, however, quickly unfolded upon the Belgian frontier.
+Speed and secrecy were vital to the German plans.  On July 31, before
+any declaration of war, and while the German representative at
+Brussels was perjuring his soul in his country's service by
+representing that no infringement was possible, three German army
+corps, the seventh, ninth, and tenth, fully mobilised and highly
+equipped, were moving up from their quarters so as to be ready for a
+treacherous pounce upon their little neighbour whom they were pledged
+to defend.  Von Emmich was in command.  On the night of Saturday,
+August 1, the vanguard of the German armies, using motor traffic
+followed by trains, burst through the neutral Duchy of Luxemburg, and
+on August 3 they were over the Belgian line at Verviers.  The
+long-meditated crime had been done, and, with loud appeals to God,
+Germany began her fatal campaign by deliberate perjury and arrogant
+disdain for treaties.  God accepted the appeal, and swiftly showed
+how the weakest State with absolute right upon its side may bring to
+naught all the crafty plottings of the strong.
+
+{45}
+
+For time was the essence of the situation.  For this the innumerable
+motors, for this the light equipment and the lack of transport.  It
+was on, on, at top speed, that there be no hindrance in the path of
+the great hosts that soon would be closing up behind.  But time was
+life and death for the French also, with their slower mobilisation,
+their backward preparation, and their expectations from Great
+Britain.  Time was the precious gift which little Belgium gave to the
+Allies.  She gave them days and days, and every day worth an army
+corps.  The Germans had crossed the Meuse, had taken Vise, and then
+had rushed at Liége, even as the Japanese had rushed at Port Arthur.
+With all their military lore, they had not learned the lesson which
+was taught so clearly in 1904--that a fortress is taken by skill and
+not by violence alone.
+
+Leman, a great soldier, defended the forts built by Brialmont.  Both
+defender and designer were justified of their work.  On August 5 the
+seventh German Corps attempted to rush the gaps between the forts.
+These gaps were three miles wide, but were filled with entrenched
+infantry.  The attack was boldly pressed home, but it completely
+failed.  The German loss was considerable.  Two other corps were
+called up, and again on August 7 the attack was renewed, but with no
+better result.  The defenders fought as befitted the descendants of
+those Belgae whom Caesar pronounced to be the bravest of the Gauls,
+or of that Walloon Guard which had so great a mediaeval reputation.
+There were 25,000 in the town and 120,000 outside, but they were
+still outside at the end of the assault.
+
+Liége, however, had one fatal weakness.  Its {46} garrison was far
+too small to cover the ground.  With twelve forts three miles apart
+it is clear that there were intervals of, roughly, thirty-six miles
+to be covered, and that a garrison of 25,000 men, when you had
+deducted the gunners for the forts, hardly left the thinnest skirmish
+line to cover the ground.  So long as the Germans attacked upon a
+narrow front they could be held.  The instant that they spread out
+there were bound to be places where they could march almost unopposed
+into the town.  This was what occurred.  The town was penetrated, but
+the forts were intact.  General Leman, meanwhile, seeing that the
+town itself was indefensible, had sent the garrison out before the
+place was surrounded.  Many a Belgian soldier fought upon the Yser
+and helped to turn the tide of that crowning conflict who would have
+been a prisoner in Germany had it not been for the foresight and the
+decision of General Leman.
+
+The Germans were in the town upon the 8th, but the forts still held
+out and the general advance was grievously impeded.  Day followed
+day, and each beyond price to the Allies.  Germany had secretly
+prepared certain monstrous engines of war--one more proof, if proof
+were needed, that the conflict had been prearranged and deliberately
+provoked.  These were huge cannon of a dimension never before
+cast--42 centimetres in bore.  More mobile and hardly less effective
+were some smaller howitzers of 28-centimetre calibre said to have
+come from the Austrian foundries at Skoda.  Brialmont, when he
+erected his concrete and iron cupolas, had not foreseen the Thor's
+hammer which would be brought to crush them.  One after another they
+were smashed like {47} eggs.  The heroic Leman was dug out from under
+the debris of the last fort and lived to tell of his miraculous
+escape.  Liége was at last in the hands of the invaders.  But already
+the second week of August was at an end--the British were crowding
+into France, the French line was thickening along the frontier--all
+was well with the Allies.  Little David had left a grievous mark upon
+Goliath.
+
+The German mobilisation was now complete, and the whole vast host,
+over a million strong, poured over the frontier.  Never was seen such
+an army, so accurate and scientific in its general conception, so
+perfect in its detail.  Nothing had been omitted from its equipment
+which the most thorough of nations, after years of careful
+preparation, could devise.  In motor transport, artillery, machine
+guns, and all the technique of war they were unrivalled.  The men
+themselves were of high heart and grand physique.  By some twisted
+process of reasoning founded upon false information they had been
+persuaded that this most aggressive and unnecessary of wars was in
+some way a war of self-defence, for it was put to them that unless
+they attacked their neighbours now, their neighbours would certainly
+some day or other attack them.  Hence, they were filled with
+patriotic ardour and a real conviction that they were protecting
+their beloved Fatherland.  One could not but admire their
+self-sacrificing devotion, though in the dry light of truth and
+reason they stood forth as the tools of tyranny, the champions of
+barbarous political reaction and the bullies of Europe.  It was an
+ominous fact that the troops were provided in advance with incendiary
+discs for the firing of dwellings, which shows that the orgy of
+destruction {48} and cruelty which disgraced the name of the German
+Army in Belgium and in the north of France was prearranged by some
+central force, whose responsibility in this matter can only be
+described as terrific.  They brought the world of Christ back to the
+days of Odin, and changed a civilised campaign to an inroad of pagan
+Danes.  This wicked central force could only be the Chief Staff of
+the Army, and in the last instance the Emperor himself.  Had Napoleon
+conducted his campaigns with as little scruple as William II., it can
+safely be said that Europe as we know it would hardly exist to-day,
+and the monuments of antiquity and learning would have been wiped
+from the face of the globe.  It is an evil precedent to be expunged
+from the records for ever--all the more evil because it was practised
+by a strong nation on a weak one and on a defenceless people by one
+which had pledged themselves to defend them.  That it was in no wise
+caused by any actions upon the part of the Belgians is clearly proved
+by the fact that similar atrocities were committed by the German Army
+the moment they crossed the frontiers both of France and of Poland.
+
+The Allies had more than they expected from Liége.  They had less
+from Namur.  The grey-green tide of German invasion had swept the
+Belgian resistance before it, had flooded into Brussels, and had been
+dammed for only a very few days by the great frontier fortress,
+though it was counted as stronger than Liége.  The fact was that the
+Germans had now learned their lesson.  Never again would they imagine
+that the _Furor Teutonicus_ alone could carry a walled city.  The
+fatal guns were brought up again and the forts were crushed with
+mechanical precision, while the defenders between the forts, after
+{49} enduring for ten hours a severe shelling, withdrew from their
+trenches.  On August 22 the fortress surrendered, some of General
+Michel's garrison being taken, but a considerable proportion
+effecting its retreat with the French Army which had come up to
+support the town.  By the third week of August the remains of the
+Belgian forces had taken refuge in Antwerp, and the Germans, having
+made a wide sweep with their right wing through Brussels, were
+descending in a two-hundred-mile line upon Northern France.
+
+The French plans had in truth been somewhat disarranged by the
+Belgian resistance, for the chivalrous spirit of the nation would not
+permit that their gallant friends be unsupported.  Fresh dispositions
+had been made, but the sudden fall of Namur brought them to naught.
+Before that untoward event the French had won a small but indubitable
+victory at Dinant, and had advanced their line from Namur on the
+right to Charleroi on the left.  With the fall of Namur their long
+wall had lost its corner bastion, and they were at once vigorously
+attacked by all the German armies, who forced the Sambre on August
+22, carried Charleroi, and pushed the French back with considerable
+loss of guns and prisoners along the whole line.  There was defeat,
+but there was nothing in the nature of a rout or of an envelopment.
+The line fell back fighting tooth and nail, but none the less
+Northern France was thrown open to the invaders.  In this general
+movement the British forces were involved, and we now turn to a more
+particular and detailed account of what befell them during these most
+momentous days.
+
+
+
+
+{50}
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE BATTLE OF MONS
+
+The landing of the British in France--The British leaders--The
+advance to Mons--The defence of the bridges of Nimy--The holding of
+the canal--The fateful telegram--The rearguard actions of Frameries,
+Wasmes, and Dour--The charge of the Lancers--The fate of the
+Cheshires--The 7th Brigade at Solesmes--The Guards in action--The
+Germans' rude awakening--The Connaughts at Pont-sur-Sambre.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The landing of the British in France]
+
+The bulk of the British Expeditionary Force passed over to France
+under cover of darkness on the nights of August 12 and 13, 1914.  The
+movement, which included four infantry divisions and a cavalry
+division, necessitated the transportation of approximately 90,000
+men, 15,000 horses, and 400 guns.  It is doubtful if so large a host
+has ever been moved by water in so short a time in all the annals of
+military history.  There was drama in the secrecy and celerity of the
+affair.  Two canvas walls converging into a funnel screened the
+approaches to Southampton Dock.  All beyond was darkness and mystery.
+Down this fatal funnel passed the flower of the youth of Britain, and
+their folk saw them no more.  They had embarked upon the great
+adventure of the German War.  The crowds in the streets saw the last
+serried files vanish into the darkness of the docks, heard the
+measured tramp upon the stone quays dying farther {51} away in the
+silence of the night, until at last all was still and the great
+steamers were pushing out into the darkness.
+
+No finer force for technical efficiency, and no body of men more
+hot-hearted in their keen desire to serve their country, have ever
+left the shores of Britain.  It is a conservative estimate to say
+that within four months a half of their number were either dead or in
+the hospitals.  They were destined for great glory, and for that
+great loss which is the measure of their glory.
+
+Belated pedestrians upon the beach of the southern towns have
+recorded their impression of that amazing spectacle.  In the clear
+summer night the wall of transports seemed to stretch from horizon to
+horizon.  Guardian warships flanked the mighty column, while swift
+shadows shooting across the surface of the sea showed where the
+torpedo-boats and scouts were nosing and ferreting for any possible
+enemy.  But far away, hundreds of miles to the north, lay the real
+protection of the flotilla, where the smooth waters of the Heligoland
+Bight were broken by the sudden rise and dip of the blockading
+periscopes.
+
+It is well to state, once for all, the composition of this force, so
+that in the succeeding pages, when a brigade or division is under
+discussion, the diligent reader may ascertain its composition.  This,
+then, is the First Army which set forth to France.  Others will be
+chronicled as they appeared upon the scene of action.  It may be
+remarked that the formation of units was greatly altered with the
+progress of the campaign, so that it has been possible without
+indiscretion to raise the veil of secrecy which was once so essential.
+
+{52}
+
+  THE FIRST ARMY CORPS--GENERAL HAIG
+
+  DIVISION I.
+
+  General LOMAX.
+
+  1_st Infantry Brigade--General Maxse_.
+        1st Coldstream Guards.
+        1st Scots Guards.
+        1st Black Watch.
+        2nd Munster Fusiliers.
+
+  2_nd Infantry Brigade--General Bulfin_.
+        2nd Sussex.
+        1st N. Lancs.
+        1st Northampton.
+        2nd K.R. Rifles.
+
+  3_rd Infantry Brigade--General Landon_.
+        1st West Surrey (Queen's).
+        1st S. Wales Borderers.
+        1st Gloucester.
+        2nd Welsh.
+
+  _Artillery--Colonel Findlay_.
+        25th Brig. R.F.A. 113, 114, 115.
+        26th Brig. R.F.A. 116, 117, 118.
+        39th Brig. R.F.A. 46, 51, 54.
+        43rd (How.) Brig. R.F.A. 30, 40, 57.
+
+  _Engineers--Colonel Schreiber_.
+        23 F. Co.
+        26 F. Co.
+        1 Signal Co.
+
+
+  DIVISION II.
+
+  General Munro.
+
+  4_th Infantry Brigade--General Scott-Kerr_.
+        2nd Grenadier Guards.
+        2nd Coldstream Guards.
+        3rd Coldstream Guards.
+        1st Irish.
+
+  5_th Infantry Brigade--General Haking_.
+        2nd Worcester.
+        2nd Ox. and Bucks L.I.
+        2nd Highland L.I.
+        2nd Connaught Rangers.
+
+  6_th Infantry Brigade--General Davies_.
+        1st Liverpool (King's).
+        2nd S. Stafford.
+        1st Berks.
+        1st K.R. Rifles.
+
+  _Artillery--General Perceval_.
+        34th Brig. R.F.A. 22, 50, 70.
+        36th Brig. R.F.A. 15, 48, 71.
+        41st Brig. R.F.A. 9, 16, 17.
+        How. Brig. R.F.A. 47, 56, 60.
+        35th Batt. R.G.A.
+        R.E. 5, 11, Field Cos.
+
+
+
+  THE SECOND ARMY CORPS--GENERAL SMITH-DORRIEN
+
+  DIVISION III.
+
+  General HAMILTON.
+
+  7_th Infantry Brigade--General McCracken_.
+        3rd Worcester.
+        2nd S. Lancs.
+        1st Wilts.
+        2nd Irish Rifles.
+
+  8_th Infantry Brigade--General B. Doran_.
+        2nd Royal Scots.
+        2nd Royal Irish.
+        4th Middlesex.
+        1st Gordon Highlanders.
+
+  9_th Infantry Brigade--General Shaw_.
+        1st North. Fusiliers.
+        4th Royal Fusiliers.
+        1st Lincoln.
+        1st Scots Fusiliers.
+
+  _Artillery--General Wing_.
+        23rd Brigade 107, 108, 109.
+        30th Brigade (How.) 128, 129, 130.
+        40th Brigade 6, 23, 49.
+        42nd Brigade 29, 41, 45.
+        48th Batt. R.G.A.
+
+  _R.E.--Colonel Wilson_.
+        56, 57 F. Corps.
+        3 Signal Co.
+
+
+  DIVISION V.
+
+  General FERGUSON.
+
+  13_th Infantry Brigade--General Cuthbert_.
+        2nd K.O. Scot. Bord.
+        2nd West Riding.
+        1st West Kent.
+        2nd Yorks. Light Infantry.
+
+  14_th Infantry Brigade--General Holt_.
+        2nd Suffolk.
+        1st East Surrey.
+        1st D. of Cornwall's L.T.
+        2nd Manchester.
+
+  15_th Infantry Brigade--General Gleichen_.
+        1st Norfolk.
+        1st Bedford.
+        1st Cheshire.
+        1st Dorset.
+
+  _Artillery--General Headlam_.
+        15th Brig. R.F.A. 11, 52, 80
+        27th Brig. R.F.A. 119, 120, 121
+        28th Brig. R.F.A. 122, 123, 124
+        8 How. Brig. 37, 61, 65.
+        Heavy G.A. 108 Battery,
+
+  _R.E.--Colonel Tulloch_.
+        17th and 59th Field Cos.
+        5 Signal Co.
+
+
+The Cavalry consisted of four Brigades forming the first cavalry
+division, and one extra Brigade.  They were made up thus:
+
+1st Cavalry Brigade (Briggs).--2nd and 5th Dragoon Guards; 11th
+Hussars.
+
+2nd Cavalry Brigade (De Lisle).--4th Dragoon Guards; 9th Lancers;
+18th Hussars
+
+3rd Cavalry Brigade (Gough).--4th Hussars; 5th Lancers; 16th Lancers.
+
+4th Cavalry Brigade (Bingham).--3rd Hussars; 6th Dragoon Guards;
+Comp. Guards Re.
+
+5th Cavalry Brigade (Chetwode).--Scots Greys; 12th Lancers; 20th
+Hussars.
+
+D, E, I, J, and L batteries of Horse Artillery were attached to these
+Brigades.
+
+
+{53}
+
+Such was the Army which first set forth to measure itself against the
+soldiers of Germany.  Prussian bravery, capacity, and organising
+power had a high reputation among us, and yet we awaited the result
+with every confidence, if the odds of numbers were not overwhelming.
+It was generally known that during the period since the last war the
+training of the troops had greatly progressed, and many of the men,
+with nearly all the senior officers, had had experience in the
+arduous campaign of South Africa.  They could also claim those
+advantages which volunteer troops may hope to have over conscripts.
+At the same time there was no tendency to underrate the earnest
+patriotism of our opponents, and we were well aware that even the
+numerous Socialists who filled their ranks were persuaded, incredible
+as it may seem, that the Fatherland was really attacked, and were
+whole-hearted in its defence.
+
+The crossing was safely effected.  It has always been the traditional
+privilege of the British public to grumble at their public servants
+and to speak of "muddling through" to victory.  No doubt the
+criticism has often been deserved.  But on this occasion the
+supervising General in command, the British War Office, and the Naval
+Transport Department all rose to a supreme degree of excellence in
+their arrangements.  So too did the Railway Companies concerned.  The
+details were meticulously correct.  Without the loss of man, horse,
+or gun, the soldiers who had seen the sun set in Hampshire saw it
+rise in Picardy or in Normandy.  Boulogne and Havre were the chief
+ports of disembarkation, but many, including the cavalry, went up the
+Seine and came ashore at Rouen.  The soldiers everywhere received a
+rapturous {54} welcome from the populace, which they returned by a
+cheerful sobriety of behaviour.  The admirable precepts as to wine
+and women set forth in Lord Kitchener's parting orders to the Army
+seem to have been most scrupulously observed.  It is no slight upon
+the gallantry of France--the very home of gallantry--if it be said
+that she profited greatly at this strained, over-anxious time by the
+arrival of these boisterous over-sea Allies.  The tradition of
+British solemnity has been for ever killed by these jovial invaders.
+It is probable that the beautiful tune, and even the paltry words of
+"Tipperary," will pass into history as the marching song, and often
+the death-dirge, of that gallant host.  The dusty, poplar-lined roads
+resounded with their choruses, and the quiet Picardy villages
+re-echoed their thunderous and superfluous assurances as to the state
+of their hearts.  All France broke into a smile at the sight of them,
+and it was at a moment when a smile meant much to France.
+
+[Sidenote: The British leaders.]
+
+Whilst the various brigades were with some deliberation preparing for
+an advance up-country, there arrived at the Gare du Nord in Paris a
+single traveller who may be said to have been the most welcome
+British visitor who ever set foot in the city.  He was a short, thick
+man, tanned by an outdoor life, a solid, impassive personality with a
+strong, good-humoured face, the forehead of a thinker above it, and
+the jaw of an obstinate fighter below.  Overhung brows shaded a pair
+of keen grey eyes, while the strong, set mouth was partly concealed
+by a grizzled moustache.  Such was John French, leader of cavalry in
+Africa and now Field-Marshal commanding the Expeditionary Forces of
+Britain.  His defence of Colesberg at {55} a critical period when he
+bluffed the superior Boer forces, his dashing relief of Kimberley,
+and especially the gallant way in which he had thrown his exhausted
+cavalry across the path of Cronje's army in order to hold it while
+Roberts pinned it down at Paardeberg, were all exploits which were
+fresh in the public mind, and gave the soldiers confidence in their
+leader.
+
+French might well appreciate the qualities of his immediate
+subordinates.  Both of his army corps and his cavalry division were
+in good hands.  Haig, like his leader, was a cavalry man by
+education, though now entrusted with the command of the First Army
+Corps, and destined for an ever-increasing European reputation.
+Fifty-four years of age, he still preserved all his natural energies,
+whilst he had behind him long years of varied military experience,
+including both the Soudanese and the South African campaigns, in both
+of which he had gained high distinction.  He had the advantage of
+thoroughly understanding the mind of his commander, as he had worked
+under him as Chief of the Staff in his remarkable operations round
+Colesberg in those gloomy days which opened the Boer War.
+
+The Second Army Corps sustained a severe loss before ever it reached
+the field of action, for its commander, General Grierson, died
+suddenly of heart failure in the train between Havre and Rouen upon
+August 18.  Grierson had been for many years Military Attaché in
+Berlin, and one can well imagine how often he had longed to measure
+British soldiers against the self-sufficient critics around him.  At
+the very last moment the ambition of his lifetime was denied him.
+His place, however, was worthily filled by General Smith-Dorrien,
+another South African {56} veteran whose brigade in that difficult
+campaign had been recognised as one of the very best.  Smith-Dorrien
+was a typical Imperial soldier in the world-wide character of his
+service, for he had followed the flag, and occasionally preceded it,
+in Zululand, Egypt, the Soudan, Chitral, and the Tirah before the
+campaign against the Boers.  A sportsman as well as a soldier, he had
+very particularly won the affections of the Aldershot division by his
+system of trusting to their honour rather than to compulsion in
+matters of discipline.  It was seldom indeed that his confidence was
+abused.
+
+Haig and Smith-Dorrien were the two generals upon whom the immediate
+operations were to devolve, for the Third Army Corps was late,
+through no fault of its own, in coming into line.  There remained the
+Cavalry Division commanded by General Allenby, who was a column
+leader in that great class for mounted tactics held in South Africa a
+dozen years before.  It is remarkable that of the four leaders in the
+initial operations of the German War--French, Smith-Dorrien, Haig,
+and Allenby--three belonged to the cavalry, an arm which has usually
+been regarded as active and ornamental rather than intellectual.
+Pulteney, the commander of the Third Army Corps, was a product of the
+Guards, a veteran of much service and a well-known heavy-game shot.
+Thus, neither of the more learned corps were represented among the
+higher commanders upon the actual field of battle, but brooding over
+the whole operations was the steadfast, untiring brain of Joffre,
+whilst across the water the silent Kitchener, remorseless as Destiny,
+moved the forces of the Empire to the front.  The last word in each
+case lay with the sappers.
+
+{57}
+
+The general plan of campaign was naturally in the hands of General
+Joffre, since he was in command of far the greater portion of the
+Allied Force.  It has been admitted in France that the original
+dispositions might be open to criticism, since a number of the French
+troops had engaged themselves in Alsace and Lorraine, to the
+weakening of the line of battle in the north, where the fate of Paris
+was to be decided.  It is small profit to a nation to injure its
+rival ever so grievously in the toe when it is itself in imminent
+danger of being stabbed to the heart.  A further change in plan had
+been caused by the intense sympathy felt both by the French and the
+British for the gallant Belgians, who had done so much and gained so
+many valuable days for the Allies.  It was felt that it would be
+unchivalrous not to advance and do what was possible to relieve the
+intolerable pressure which was crushing them.  It was resolved,
+therefore, to abandon the plan which had been formed, by which the
+Germans should be led as far as possible from their base, and to
+attack them at once.  For this purpose the French Army changed its
+whole dispositions, which had been formed on the idea of an attack
+from the east, and advanced over the Belgian frontier, getting into
+touch with the enemy at Namur and Charleroi, so as to secure the
+passages of the Sambre.  It was in fulfilling its part as the left of
+the Allied line that on August 18 and 19 the British troops began to
+move northwards into Belgium.  The First Army Corps advanced through
+Le Nouvion, St. Remy, and Maubeuge to Rouveroy, which is a village
+upon the Mons-Chimay road.  There it linked on to the right of the
+Second Corps, which had moved up to the line of {58} the Condé-Mons
+Canal.  On the morning of Sunday, August 23, all these troops were in
+position.  The 5th Brigade of Cavalry (Chetwode's) lay out upon the
+right front at Binche, but the remainder of the cavalry was brought
+to a point about five miles behind the centre of the line, so as to
+be able to reinforce either flank.  The first blood of the land
+campaign had been drawn upon August 22 outside Soignies, when a
+reconnoitring squadron of the 4th Dragoon Guards under Captain Hornby
+charged and overthrew a body of the 4th German Cuirassiers, bringing
+back some prisoners.  The 20th Hussars had enjoyed a similar
+experience.  It was a small but happy omen.
+
+[Sidenote: The advance to Mons.]
+
+The forces which now awaited the German attack numbered about 86,000
+men, who may be roughly divided into 76,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry,
+and 312 guns.  The general alignment was as follows: The First Army
+Corps held the space between Mons and Binche, which was soon
+contracted to Bray as the eastward limit.  Close to Mons, where the
+attack was expected to break, since the town is a point of
+considerable strategic importance, there was a thickening of the line
+of defence.  From that point the Third Division and the Fifth, in the
+order named, carried on the British formation down the length of the
+Mons-Condé Canal.  The front of the Army covered nearly twenty miles,
+an excessive strain upon so small a force in the presence of a
+compact enemy.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+{59}
+
+[Illustration: POSITION OF 2nd ARMY CORPS AT MONS. AUG. 23rd]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+If one looks at the general dispositions, it becomes clear that Sir
+John French was preparing for an attack upon his right flank.  From
+all his information the enemy was to the north and to the east of
+him, so that if they set about turning his position it must be from
+the Charleroi direction.  Hence, his right {60} wing was laid back at
+an angle to the rest of his line, and the only cavalry which he kept
+in advance was thrown out to Binche in front of this flank.  The rest
+of the cavalry was on the day of battle drawn in behind the centre of
+the Army, but as danger began to develop upon the left flank it was
+sent across in that direction, so that on the morning of the 24th it
+was at Thulin, at the westward end of the line.
+
+The line of the canal was a most tempting position to defend from
+Condé to Mons, for it ran as straight as a Roman road across the path
+of an invader.  But it was very different at Mons itself.  Here it
+formed a most awkward loop.  A glance at the diagram will show this
+formation.  It was impossible to leave it undefended, and yet troops
+who held it were evidently subjected to a flanking artillery fire
+from each side.  The canal here was also crossed by at least three
+substantial road bridges and one railway bridge.  This section of the
+defence was under the immediate direction of General Smith-Dorrien,
+who at once took steps to prepare a second line of defence, thrown
+back to the right rear of the town, so that if the canal were forced
+the British array would remain unbroken.  The immediate care of this
+weak point in the position was committed to General Beauchamp Doran's
+8th Brigade, consisting of the 2nd Royal Scots, 2nd Royal Irish, 4th
+Middlesex, and 1st Gordon Highlanders.  On their left, occupying the
+village of Nimy and the western side of the peninsula, as well as the
+immediate front of Mons itself, was the 9th Brigade (Shaw's),
+containing the 4th Royal Fusiliers, the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers,
+and the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers, together with the 1st Lincolns.
+To the left of this brigade, occupying the eastern end of {61} the
+Mons-Condé line of canal, was Cuthbert's 13th Brigade, containing the
+2nd Scottish Borderers, 2nd West Ridings, 1st West Kents, and 2nd
+Yorkshire Light Infantry.  It was on these three brigades, and
+especially on the 8th and 9th, that the impact of the German army was
+destined to fall.  Beyond them, scattered somewhat thinly along the
+line of the Mons-Condé Canal from the railway bridge west of St.
+Ghislain, were the two remaining brigades of the Fifth Division, the
+14th (Rolt's) and the 15th (Gleichen's), the latter being in
+divisional reserve.  Still farther to the west the head of the newly
+arrived 19th Brigade just touched the canal, and was itself in touch
+with French cavalry at Condé.  Sundry units of artillery and field
+hospitals had not yet come up, but otherwise the two corps were
+complete.
+
+Having reached their ground, the troops, with no realisation of
+immediate danger, proceeded to make shallow trenches.  Their bands
+had not been brought to the front, but the universal singing from one
+end of the line to the other showed that the men were in excellent
+spirits.  Cheering news had come in from the cavalry, detachments of
+which, as already stated, had ridden out as far as Soignies, meeting
+advance patrols of the enemy and coming back with prisoners and
+trophies.  The guns were drawn up in concealed positions within half
+a mile of the line of battle.  All was now ready, and officers could
+be seen on every elevation peering northwards through their glasses
+for the first sign of the enemy.  It was a broken country, with large
+patches of woodland and green spaces between.  There were numerous
+slag-heaps from old mines, with here and there a factory and here and
+there a private dwelling, but the sappers {62} had endeavoured in the
+short time to clear a field of fire for the infantry.  In order to
+get this field of fire in so closely built a neighbourhood, several
+of the regiments, such as the West Kents of the 13th and the
+Cornwalls of the 14th Brigades, had to take their positions across
+the canal with bridges in their rear.  Thrilling with anticipation,
+the men waited for their own first entrance upon the stupendous
+drama.  They were already weary and footsore, for they had all done
+at least two days of forced marching, and the burden of the pack, the
+rifle, and the hundred and fifty rounds per man was no light one.
+They lay snugly in their trenches under the warm August sun and
+waited.  It was a Sunday, and more than one have recorded in their
+letters how in that hour of tension their thoughts turned to the old
+home church and the mellow call of the village bells.
+
+A hovering aeroplane had just slid down with the news that the roads
+from the north were alive with the advancing Germans, but the
+estimate of the aviator placed them at two corps and a division of
+cavalry.  This coincided roughly with the accounts brought in by the
+scouts and, what was more important, with the forecast of General
+Joffre.  Secure in the belief that he was flanked upon one side by
+the 5th French Army, and on the other by a screen of French cavalry,
+whilst his front was approached by a force not appreciably larger
+than his own, General French had no cause for uneasiness.  Had his
+airmen taken a wider sweep to the north and west,[1] or had the
+French commander among his many pressing {63} preoccupations been
+able to give an earlier warning to his British colleague, the
+trenches would, no doubt, have been abandoned before a grey coat had
+appeared, and the whole Army brought swiftly to a position of
+strategical safety.  Even now, as they waited expectantly for the
+enemy, a vast steel trap was closing up for their destruction.
+
+
+[1] An American correspondent, Mr. Harding Davis, actually saw a
+shattered British aeroplane upon the ground in this region.  Its
+destruction may have been of great strategic importance.  This
+aviator was probably the first British soldier to fall in the
+Continental War.
+
+
+Let us take a glance at what was going on over that northern horizon.
+The American Powell had seen something of the mighty right swing
+which was to end the combat.  Invited to a conference with a German
+general who was pursuing the national policy of soothing the United
+States until her own turn should come round, Mr. Powell left Brussels
+and chanced to meet Von Kluck's legions upon their western and
+southerly trek.  He describes with great force the effect upon his
+mind of those endless grey columns, all flowing in the same
+direction, double files of infantry on either side of the road, and
+endless guns, motor-cars, cavalry, and transport between.  The men,
+as he describes them, were all in the prime of life, and equipped
+with everything which years of forethought could devise.  He was
+dazed and awed by the tremendous procession, its majesty and its
+self-evident efficiency.  It is no wonder, for he was looking at the
+chosen legions of the most wonderful army that the world had ever
+seen--an army which represented the last possible word on the
+material and mechanical side of war.  High in the van a Taube
+aeroplane, like an embodiment of that black eagle which is the
+fitting emblem of a warlike and rapacious race, pointed the path for
+the German hordes.
+
+A day or two before, two American correspondents, {64} Mr. Irvin Cobb
+and Mr. Harding Davis, had seen the same great army as it streamed
+westwards through Louvain and Brussels.  They graphically describe
+how for three consecutive days and the greater part of three nights
+they poured past, giving the impression of unconquerable energy and
+efficiency, young, enthusiastic, wonderfully equipped.  "Either we
+shall go forward or we die.  We do not expect to fall back ever.  If
+the generals would let them, the men would run to Paris instead of
+walking there."  So spoke one of the leaders of that huge invading
+host, the main part of which was now heading straight for the British
+line.  A second part, unseen and unsuspected, were working round by
+Tournai to the west, hurrying hard to strike in upon the British
+flank and rear.  The German is a great marcher as well as a great
+fighter, and the average rate of progress was little less than thirty
+miles a day.
+
+It was after ten o'clock when scouting cavalry were observed falling
+back.  Then the distant sound of a gun was heard, and a few seconds
+later a shell burst some hundreds of yards behind the British lines.
+The British guns one by one roared into action.  A cloud of smoke
+rose along the line of the woods in front from the bursting shrapnel,
+but nothing could be seen of the German gunners.  The defending guns
+were also well concealed.  Here and there, from observation points
+upon buildings and slag-heaps, the controllers of the batteries were
+able to indicate targets and register hits unseen by the gunners
+themselves.  The fire grew warmer and warmer as fresh batteries
+dashed up and unlimbered on either side.  The noise was horrible, but
+no enemy had been seen by the infantry, and little damage done.
+
+{65}
+
+But now an ill-omened bird flew over the British lines.  Far aloft
+across the deep blue sky skimmed the dark Taube, curved, turned, and
+sailed northwards again.  It had marked the shells bursting beyond
+the trenches.  In an instant, by some devilish cantrip of signal or
+wireless, it had set the range right.  A rain of shells roared and
+crashed along the lines of the shallow trenches.  The injuries were
+not yet numerous, but they were inexpressibly ghastly.  Men who had
+hardly seen worse than a cut finger in their lives gazed with horror
+at the gross mutilations around them.  "One dared not look sideways,"
+said one of them.  Stretcher-bearers bent and heaved while wet, limp
+forms were hoisted upwards by their comrades.  Officers gave short,
+sharp words of encouragement or advice.  The minutes seemed very
+long, and still the shells came raining down.  The men shoved the
+five-fold clips down into their magazines and waited with weary
+patience.  A senior officer peering over the end of a trench leaned
+tensely forward and rested his glasses upon the grassy edge.
+"They're coming!" he whispered to his neighbour.  It ran from lip to
+lip along the line of crouching men.  Heads were poked up here and
+there above the line of broken earth.  Soon, in spite of the crashing
+shells overhead, there was a fringe of peering faces.  And there at
+last in front of them was the German enemy.  After all the centuries,
+Briton and Teuton faced each other at last for the test of battle.
+
+A stylist among letter-writers has described that oncoming swarm as
+grey clouds drifting over green fields.  They had deployed under
+cover whilst the batteries were preparing their path, and now over an
+extended front to the north-west of Mons they {66} were breaking out
+from the woods and coming rapidly onwards.  The men fidgeted with
+their triggers, but no order came to fire.  The officers were gazing
+with professional interest and surprise at the German formations.
+Were these the tactics of the army which had claimed to be the most
+scientific in Europe?  British observers had seen it in peace-time
+and had conjectured that it was a screen for some elaborate tactics
+held up for the day of battle.  Yet here they were, advancing in what
+in old Soudan days used to be described as the twenty-acre formation,
+against the best riflemen in Europe.  It was not even a shoulder to
+shoulder column, but a mere crowd, shredding out in the front and
+dense to the rear.  There was nothing of the swiftly weaving lines,
+the rushes of alternate companies, the twinkle and flicker of a
+modern attack.  It was mediaeval, and yet it was impressive also in
+its immediate display of numbers and the ponderous insistence of its
+onward flow.  It was not many weeks before the stern lesson of war
+taught very different formations to those of the grand Kaiser
+manoeuvres.
+
+The men, still fingering their triggers, gazed expectantly at their
+officers, who measured intently the distance of the approaching
+swarms.  The Germans had already begun to fire in a desultory
+fashion.  Shrapnel was bursting thickly along the head of their
+columns but they were coming steadily onwards.  Suddenly a rolling
+wave of independent firing broke out from the British position.  At
+some portions of the line the enemy were at eight hundred, at others
+at one thousand yards.  The men, happy in having something definite
+to do, snuggled down earnestly to their work and fired swiftly but
+deliberately into {67} the approaching mass.  Rifles, machine-guns,
+and field-pieces were all roaring together, while the incessant crash
+of the shells overhead added to the infernal uproar.  Men lost all
+sense of time as they thrust clip after clip into their rifles.  The
+German swarms staggered on bravely under that leaden sleet.  Then
+they halted, vacillated, and finally thinned, shredded out, and
+drifted backwards like a grey fog torn by a gale.  The woods absorbed
+them once again, whilst the rain of shells upon the British trenches
+became thicker and more deadly.
+
+There was a lull in the infantry attack, and the British, peering
+from their shelters, surveyed with a grim satisfaction the patches
+and smudges of grey which showed the effect of their fire.  But the
+rest was not a long one.  With fine courage the German battalions
+re-formed under the shelter of the trees, while fresh troops from the
+rear pushed forward to stiffen the shaken lines.  "Hold your fire!"
+was the order that ran down the ranks.  With the confidence bred of
+experience, the men waited and still waited, till the very features
+of the Germans could be distinguished.  Then once more the deadly
+fire rippled down the line, the masses shredded and dissolved, and
+the fugitives hurried to the woods.  Then came the pause under shell
+fire, and then once again the emergence of the infantry, the attack,
+the check, and the recoil.  Such were the general characteristics of
+the action at Mons over a large portion of the British line--that
+portion which extended along the actual course of the canal.
+
+It is not to be supposed, however, that there was a monotony of
+attack and defence over the whole of the British position.  A large
+part of the force, {68} including the whole of the First Army Corps,
+was threatened rather than seriously engaged, while the opposite end
+of the line was also out of the main track of the storm.  It beat
+most dangerously, as had been foreseen, upon the troops to the
+immediate west and north of Mons, and especially upon those which
+defended the impossible peninsula formed by the loop of the canal.
+
+[Sidenote: The defence of the bridges of Nimy.]
+
+There is a road which runs from Mons due north through the village of
+Nimy to Jurbise.  The defences to the west of this road were in the
+hands of the 9th Brigade.  The 4th Royal Fusiliers, with the Scots
+Fusiliers, were the particular battalions which held the trenches
+skirting this part of the peninsula, while half the Northumberland
+Fusiliers were on the straight canal to the westward.  To the east of
+Nimy are three road bridges--those of Nimy itself, Lock No. 5, and
+Aubourg Station.  All these three bridges were defended by the 4th
+Middlesex, who had made shallow trenches which commanded them.  The
+Gordons were on their immediate right.  The field of fire was much
+interfered with by the mines and buildings which faced them, so that
+at this point the Germans could get up unobserved to the very front.
+It has also been already explained that the German artillery could
+enfilade the peninsula from each side, making the defence most
+difficult.  A rush of German troops came between eleven and twelve
+o'clock across the Aubourg Station Bridge.  It was so screened up to
+the moment of the advance that neither the rifles nor the
+machine-guns of the Middlesex could stop it.  It is an undoubted fact
+that this rush was preceded by a great crowd of women and children,
+through which the leading files of the {69} Germans could hardly be
+seen.  At the same time, or very shortly afterwards, the other two
+bridges were forced in a similar manner, but the Germans in all three
+cases as they reached the farther side were unable to make any rapid
+headway against the British fire, though they made the position
+untenable for the troops in trenches between the bridges.  The whole
+of the 8th Brigade, supported by the 2nd Irish Rifles from
+McCracken's 7th Brigade, which had been held in reserve at Ciply,
+were now fully engaged, covering the retirement of the Middlesex and
+Gordons.  At some points the firing between the two lines of infantry
+was across the breadth of a road.  Two batteries of the 40th
+Artillery Brigade, which were facing the German attack at this point,
+were badly mauled, one of them, the 23rd R.F.A., losing its gun
+teams.  Major Ingham succeeded in reconstituting his equipment and
+getting his guns away.
+
+It is well to accentuate the fact that though this was the point of
+the most severe pressure there was never any disorderly retirement,
+and strong reserves were available had they been needed.  The 8th
+Brigade, at the time of the general strategical withdrawal of the
+Army, made its arrangements in a methodical fashion, and General
+Doran kept his hold until after nightfall upon Bois la Haut, which
+was an elevation to the east of Mons from which the German artillery
+might have harassed the British retreat, since it commanded all the
+country to the south.  The losses of the brigade had, however, been
+considerable, amounting to not less than three hundred and fifty in
+the case of the 4th Middlesex, many being killed or wounded in the
+defence, and some cut off in the trenches between the various
+bridge-heads.  Majors {70} Davey and Abell of the Middlesex were
+respectively wounded and killed, with thirteen other officers.
+
+It has already been said that the line of the 4th Royal Fusiliers
+extended along the western perimeter up to Nimy Road Bridge, where
+Colonel MacMahon's section ended and that of Colonel Hull, of the
+Middlesex Regiment, began.  To the west of this point was the Nimy
+Railway Bridge, defended also by Captain Ashburner's company of the
+4th Royal Fusiliers.  This was assaulted early, and was held for
+nearly five hours against an attack of several German battalions.
+The British artillery was unable to help much in the defence, as the
+town of Mons behind offered no positions for guns, but the 107th
+Battery in the immediate rear did good work.  The defence was
+continued until the Germans who had already crossed to the east were
+advancing on the flank.  Lieutenant Maurice Dease, five times wounded
+before he was killed, worked his machine-gun to the end, and every
+man of his detachment was hit.  Lieutenant Dease and Private Godley
+both received the Victoria Cross.  The occupants of one trench,
+including Lieutenant Smith, who was wounded, were cut off by the
+rush.  Captain Carey commanded the covering company and the
+retirement was conducted in good order, though Captain Bowden Smith,
+Lieutenant Mead, and a number of men fell in the movement.
+Altogether, the Royal Fusiliers lost five officers and about two
+hundred men in the defence of the bridge, Lieutenant Tower having
+seven survivors in his platoon of sixty.  Captain Byng's company at
+the Glin Bridge farther east had severe losses and was driven in in
+the same way.  As the infantry retired a small party of engineers
+under Captain Theodore {71} Wright endeavoured to destroy this and
+other bridges.  Lieutenant Day was twice wounded in his attempt upon
+the main Nimy Bridge.  Corporal Jarvis received the V.C. for his
+exertions in preparing the Jemappes bridge for destruction to the
+west of Nimy.  Captain Wright, with Sergeant Smith, made an heroic
+endeavour under terrific fire to detonate the charge, but was wounded
+and fell into the canal.  Lieutenant Holt, a brave young officer of
+reserve engineers, also lost his life in these operations.
+
+[Sidenote: The holding of the canal.]
+
+Having held on as long as was possible, the front line of the 9th
+Brigade fell back upon the prepared position on high ground between
+Mons and Frameries, where the 107th R.F.A. was entrenched.  The 4th
+Royal Fusiliers passed through Mons and reached the new line in good
+order and without further loss.  The 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers,
+however, falling back to the same point on a different route through
+Flenu, came under heavy machine-gun fire from a high soil heap,
+losing Captain Rose and a hundred men.
+
+The falling back of the 8th and 9th Brigades from the Nimy Peninsula
+had an immediate effect upon Cuthbert's 13th Brigade, which was on
+their left holding the line up to the railway bridge just east of St.
+Ghislain.  Of this brigade two battalions, the 1st West Kent on the
+right and the 2nd Scottish Borderers on the left, were in the
+trenches while the 2nd West Riding and the 2nd Yorkshire Light
+Infantry were in support, having their centre at Boussu.  The day
+began by some losses to the West Kent Regiment, who were probably,
+apart from cavalry patrols, the first troops to suffer in the great
+war.  A company of the regiment under Captain Lister was sent across
+the canal early as a support to some advancing {72} cavalry, and was
+driven in about eleven o'clock with a loss of two officers and about
+a hundred men.
+
+From this time onwards the German attacks were easily held, though
+the German guns were within twelve hundred yards.  The situation was
+changed when it was learned later in the day that the Germans were
+across to the right and had got as far as Flenu on the flank of the
+brigade.  In view of this advance, General Smith-Dorrien, having no
+immediate supports, dashed off on a motor to Sir Douglas Haig's
+headquarters some four miles distant, and got his permission to use
+Haking's 5th Brigade, which pushed up in time to re-establish the
+line.
+
+It has been shown that the order of the regiments closely engaged in
+the front line was, counting from the east, the 1st Gordons, the 4th
+Middlesex, the 4th Royal Fusiliers, the 1st Scots Fusiliers, half the
+1st Northumberland Fusiliers, the 1st West Kents, and the 2nd
+Scottish Borderers, the other regiments of these brigades being in
+reserve.  The last-named battalion, being opposite a bridge, was
+heavily engaged all day, losing many men, but holding its position
+intact against repeated advances.  On the left hand or western side
+of the Scottish Borderers, continuing the line along the canal, one
+would come upon the front of the 14th Brigade (Rolfs), which was
+formed by the 1st Surrey on the right and the 1st Duke of Cornwall's
+on the left.  The German attack upon this portion of the line began
+about 1 P.M., and by 3 P.M. had become so warm that the reserve
+companies were drawn into the firing line.  Thanks to their good
+work, both with rifles and with machine-guns, the regiments held
+their own until about six o'clock in the evening, when the retirement
+of the troops on {73} their right enabled the Germans to enfilade the
+right section of the East Surreys at close range.  They were ordered
+to retire, but lost touch with the left section, which remained to
+the north of the canal where their trench was situated.  Captain
+Benson of this section had been killed and Captain Campbell severely
+wounded, but the party of one hundred and ten men under Lieutenant
+Morritt held on most gallantly and made a very fine defence.  Being
+finally surrounded, they endeavoured to cut their way out with cold
+steel, Lieutenant Ward being killed and Morritt four times wounded in
+the attempt.  Many of the men were killed and wounded, and the
+survivors were taken.  Altogether the loss of the regiment was five
+officers and one hundred and thirty-four men.
+
+On the left of the East Surreys, as already stated, lay the 1st Duke
+of Cornwall's of the same brigade.  About four o'clock in the
+afternoon the presence of the German outflanking corps first made
+itself felt.  At that hour the Cornwalls were aware of an advance
+upon their left as well as their front.  The Cornwalls drew in across
+the canal in consequence, and the Germans did not follow them over
+that evening.
+
+The chief point defended by the 14th Brigade upon this day had been
+the bridge and main road which crosses the canal between Pommeroeul
+and Thulin, some eight or nine miles west of Mons.  In the evening,
+when the final order for retreat was given, this bridge was blown up,
+and the brigade fell back after nightfall as far as Dour, where it
+slept.
+
+[Sidenote: The fateful telegram.]
+
+By the late afternoon the general position was grave, but not
+critical.  The enemy had lost very heavily, while the men in the
+trenches were, in comparison, unscathed.  Here and there, as we have
+{74} seen, the Germans had obtained a lodgment in the British
+position, especially at the salient which had always appeared to be
+impossible to hold, but, on the other hand, the greater part of the
+Army, including the whole First Corps, had not yet been seriously
+engaged, and there were reserve troops in the immediate rear of the
+fighting line who could be trusted to make good any gap in the ranks
+before them.  The German artillery fire was heavy and well-directed,
+but the British batteries had held their own.  Such was the position
+when, about 5 P.M., a telegram from General Joffre was put into Sir
+John French's hand, which must have brought a pang to his heart.
+From it he learned that all his work had been in vain, and that far
+from contending for victory, he would be fortunate if he saved
+himself from utter defeat.
+
+There were two pieces of information in this fatal message, and each
+was disastrous.  The first announced that instead of the two German
+corps whom he had reason to think were in front of him, there were
+four--the Third, Fourth, Seventh, and Fourth Reserve Corps--forming,
+with the second and fourth cavalry divisions, a force of nearly
+200,000 men, while the Second Corps were bringing another 40,000
+round his left flank from the direction of Tournai.  The second item
+was even more serious.  Instead of being buttressed up with French
+troops on either side of him, he learned that the Germans had burst
+the line of the Sambre, and that the French armies on his right were
+already in full retreat, while nothing substantial lay upon his left.
+It was a most perilous position.  The British force lay exposed and
+unsupported amid converging foes who far outnumbered it in men and
+guns.  What was the profit of one {75} day of successful defence if
+the morrow would dawn upon a British Sedan?  There was only one
+course of action, and Sir John decided upon it in the instant, bitter
+as the decision must have been.  The Army must be extricated from the
+battle and fall back until it resumed touch with its Allies.
+
+But it is no easy matter to disengage so large an army which is
+actually in action and hard-pressed by a numerous and enterprising
+enemy.  The front was extensive and the lines of retreat were
+limited.  That the operation was carried out in an orderly fashion is
+a testimony to the skill of the General, the talents of the
+commanders, and the discipline of the units.  If it had been done at
+once and simultaneously it would certainly have been the signal for a
+vigorous German advance and a possible disaster.  The positions were
+therefore held, though no efforts were made to retake those points
+where the enemy had effected a lodgment.  There was no possible use
+in wasting troops in regaining positions which would in no case be
+held.  As dusk fell, a dusk which was lightened by the glare of
+burning villages, some of the regiments began slowly to draw off to
+the rear.  In the early morning of the 24th the definite order to
+retire was conveyed to the corps commanders, whilst immediate
+measures were taken to withdraw the impedimenta and to clear the
+roads.
+
+Such, in its bare outlines, was the action of Mons upon August 23,
+interesting for its own sake, but more so as being the first clash
+between the British and German armies.  One or two questions call for
+discussion before the narrative passes on.  The most obvious of these
+is the question of the bridges.  Why were they not blown up in the
+dangerous peninsula?  {76} Without having any special information
+upon the point, one might put forward the speculation that the reason
+why they were not at once blown up was that the whole of Joffre's
+advance was an aggressive movement for the relief of Namur, and that
+the bridges were not destroyed because they would be used in a
+subsequent advance.  It will always be a subject for speculation as
+to what would have occurred had the battle been fought to a finish.
+Considering the comparative merits of British and German infantry as
+shown in many a subsequent encounter, and allowing for the advantage
+that the defence has over the attack, it is probable that the odds
+might not have been too great and that Sir John French might have
+remained master of the field.  That, however, is a matter of opinion.
+What is not a matter of opinion is that the other German armies to
+the east would have advanced on the heels of the retiring French,
+that they would have cut the British off from their Allies, and that
+they would have been hard put to it to reach the coast.  Therefore,
+win or lose, the Army had no possible course open but to retire.  The
+actual losses of the British were not more than three or four
+thousand, the greater part from the 8th, 9th, and 13th Brigades.
+There are no means as yet by which the German losses can be taken out
+from the general returns, but when one considers the repeated
+advances over the open and the constant breaking of the dense
+attacking formations, it is impossible that they should have been
+fewer than from seven to ten thousand men.  Each army had for the
+first time an opportunity of forming a critical estimate of the
+other.  German officers have admitted with soldierly frankness that
+the efficiency of the British came to them as a revelation, which is
+{77} not surprising after the assurances that had been made to them.
+On the other hand, the British bore away a very clear conviction of
+the excellence of the German artillery and of the plodding bravery of
+the German infantry, together with a great reassurance as to their
+own capacity to hold their own at any reasonable odds.
+
+[Sidenote: The rearguard actions of Frameries, Wasmes, and Dour.]
+
+After a night of flames and of uproar the day dawned, a day of great
+anxiety to the British commanders and of considerable pressure upon a
+portion of the troops.  Sir John French had given instructions that
+the First Corps, which had been only slightly engaged the day before,
+should pretend to assume the offensive upon the extreme right wing in
+the direction of Binche, whilst the Second Corps began its
+retirement.  The enemy was following up rapidly, however, along the
+whole length of the British line, both flanks of which were exposed.
+Shortly after dawn the evacuated positions had been occupied, and
+Mons itself was in the hands of the advancing Germans.  The Second
+Corps began its retreat, helped by the feint which was carried out by
+General Haig upon the right, and by the bulk of the batteries of both
+corps, but the pursuit was vigorous and the shell-fire incessant.  A
+shell from the rear is more intimidating than twenty in the front.
+Hamilton's Third Division, including the 8th and 9th Brigades, who
+had done such hard work the day before, sustained the most severe
+losses, especially at Frameries, four miles south of Mons.  The 2nd
+Royal Scots of the 8th Brigade about midnight had been attacked by a
+heavy German column which got so near that the swish of their feet
+through the long grass put the regiment on the alert.  The attack was
+{78} blown back by a volley at close quarters.  The 9th Brigade
+(Shaw's), which covered the retreat, was closely pressed from dawn by
+the pursuing Germans, and was subjected to a very heavy shell-fire.
+A barricade, erected in the village and manned by Captain Sandilands,
+of the Northumberlands, with his company, held up the German advance,
+and they were never permitted to reach the line nor to hustle the
+retirement.  Butler's 23rd Artillery Brigade helped with its fire.
+The chief losses in this skilful covering action fell upon the 1st
+Lincolns and upon the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers, each of which
+lost about 150 men, including Captain Rose, Lieutenants Bulbe,
+Welchman, and others.  There was a stational ambulance in the village
+of Frameries, and a foreign nurse in its employ has left a vivid
+picture of the wounded British rushing in grimy and breathless to
+have their slighter wounds dressed and then running out, rifle in
+hand, to find their place in the firing line.
+
+The remaining brigade of the Third Division, McCracken's 7th Brigade,
+had detached one regiment, the 2nd Irish Rifles, upon the day before
+to reinforce the 8th Brigade, and this regiment had, as already
+mentioned, some severe fighting, holding back the German advance
+after the retirement from the Nimy Peninsula of the Middlesex and the
+Gordons.  It did not find its way back to its brigade until the
+evening of the 24th.  The brigade itself, during the first day of the
+retreat, held a position near Ciply, to the south of Mons, where it
+was heavily attacked in the early morning, and in some danger as its
+flank was exposed.  At ten o'clock it was ordered to retire _via_
+Genly towards Bavai, and it carried out this difficult movement in
+the face of a pushful enemy in {79} perfect order, covered by the
+divisional artillery.  The principal losses fell upon the 2nd South
+Lancashire Regiment, which came under heavy fire from German
+machine-guns posted upon slag-heaps.  This regiment was very hard
+hit, losing several hundred men.  The brigade faced round near Bavai
+and held off the pursuit.
+
+Cuthbert's 13th Brigade, keeping in line with their comrades on the
+right, halted at Wasmes, some four miles from the canal, where they
+prepared some hasty entrenchments.  Here, at the dawn of day, they
+were furiously attacked by the German vanguard at the same time that
+the 9th Brigade was hustled in Frameries, but for two hours the
+assailants were beaten back with heavy losses.  The brunt of the
+fighting fell upon the 2nd West Riding Regiment, who lost heavily,
+were at one time nearly surrounded, and finally, with dour Yorkshire
+pertinacity, shook themselves clear.  Their losses included their
+commander, Colonel Gibbs, their adjutant, 300 men, and all their
+officers save five.  The 1st West Kents also lost about 100 men and
+several officers, including Major Pack-Beresford.  For the remainder
+of the day and for the whole of the 25th the brigade, with the rest
+of the Fifth Division, fell back with little fighting _via_ Bavai to
+the Le Cateau line.
+
+On the evening of the 23rd the 14th Brigade, still farther to the
+west, had fallen back to Dour, blowing up the bridge and road over
+the canal.  After dark the Germans followed them, and Gleichen's 15th
+Brigade, which had not yet been engaged, found itself in the position
+of rearguard and immediately exposed to the pressure of the German
+flanking movement.  This was now threatening to envelop the {80}
+whole of Ferguson's Fifth Division.  The situation was particularly
+difficult, since this General had to make a flank movement in the
+face of the enemy in order to close up with his comrades of the Third
+Division.  He was soon compelled to call for assistance, and Allenby,
+with his cavalry division, was advanced to help him.  It was
+evidently the intention of the enemy to strike in upon the western
+side of the division and pin it to its ground until it could be
+surrounded.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+{81}
+
+[Illustration: 1st MORNING OF RETREAT OF 2nd ARMY CORPS AUG 24th.]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+[Sidenote: The charge of the Lancers.]
+
+The first menacing advance in the morning of the 24th was directed
+against the flank of the British infantry who were streaming down the
+Elouges-Dour high road.  The situation was critical, and a portion of
+De Lisle's 2nd Cavalry Brigade was ordered to charge near Andregnies,
+the hostile infantry being at that time about a thousand yards
+distant, with several batteries in support.  The attack of the
+cavalry was vigorously supported by L Battery of Horse Artillery.
+The charge was carried out by three squadrons of the 9th Lancers,
+Colonel Campbell at their head.  The 4th Dragoon Guards under Colonel
+Mullens was in support.  The cavalry rode forward amidst a heavy but
+not particularly deadly fire until they were within a few hundred
+yards of the enemy, when, being faced by a wire fence, they swung to
+the right and rallied under the cover of some slag-heaps and of a
+railway embankment.  Their menace and rifle fire, or the fine work of
+Major Sclater-Booth's battery, had the effect of holding up the
+German advance for some time, and though the cavalry were much
+scattered and disorganised they were able to reunite without any
+excessive loss, the total casualties being a little over two hundred.
+Some {82} hours later the enemy's pressure again became heavy upon
+Ferguson's flank, and the 1st Cheshires and 1st Norfolks, of
+Gleichen's 15th Brigade, which formed the infantry flank-guard,
+incurred heavy losses.  It was in this defensive action that the
+119th R.F.A., under Major Alexander, fought itself to a standstill
+with only three unwounded gunners by the guns.  The battery had
+silenced one German unit and was engaged with three others.  Only
+Major Alexander and Lieutenant Pollard with a few men were left.  As
+the horses had been destroyed the pieces had to be man-handled out of
+action.  Captain the Hon. F. Grenfell, of the 9th Lancers, bleeding
+from two wounds, with several officers, Sergeants Davids and Turner,
+and some fifty men of the regiment, saved these guns under a terrible
+fire, the German infantry being within close range.  During the whole
+long, weary day the batteries and horsemen were working hard to cover
+the retreat, while the surgeons exposed themselves with great
+fearlessness, lingering behind the retiring lines in order to give
+first aid to the men who had been hit by the incessant shell-fire.
+It was in this noble task--the noblest surely within the whole range
+of warfare--that Captain Malcolm Leckie, and other brave medical
+officers, met with a glorious end, upholding to the full the
+traditions of their famous corps.
+
+[Sidenote: The fate of the Cheshires.]
+
+It has been stated that the 1st Cheshires, in endeavouring to screen
+the west flank of the Second Corps from the German pursuit, were very
+badly punished.  This regiment, together with the Norfolks, occupied
+a low ridge to the north-east side of the village of Elouges, which
+they endeavoured to hold against the onflowing tide of Germans.
+About three in the afternoon it was seen {83} that there was danger
+of this small flank-guard being entirely cut off.  As a matter of
+fact an order had actually been sent for a retreat, but had not
+reached them.  Colonel Boger of the Cheshires sent several
+messengers, representing the growing danger, but no answer came back.
+Finally, in desperation, Colonel Boger went himself and found that
+the enemy held the position previously occupied by the rest of
+Gleichen's Brigade, which had retired.  The Cheshires had by this
+time endured dreadful losses, and were practically surrounded.  A
+bayonet charge eased the pressure for a short time, but the enemy
+again closed in and the bulk of the survivors, isolated amidst a
+hostile army corps, were compelled to surrender.  Some escaped in
+small groups and made their way through to their retreating comrades.
+When roll was next called, there remained 5 officers and 193 men out
+of 27 officers and 1007 of all ranks who had gone into action.  It
+speaks volumes for the discipline of the regiment that this remnant,
+under Captain Shore, continued to act as a useful unit.  These
+various episodes, including the severe losses of Gleichen's 15th
+Brigade, the attack of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade, and the artillery
+action in which the 119th Battery was so severely handled, group
+themselves into a separate little action occurring the day after Mons
+and associated either with the villages of Elouges or of Dour.  The
+Second German Corps continued to act upon the western side of the
+Second British Corps, whilst the rest of General von Kluck's army
+followed it behind.  With three corps close behind him, and one
+snapping at his flank, General Smith-Dorrien made his way southwards,
+his gunners and cavalry labouring hard to relieve the ever-increasing
+{84} pressure, while his rear brigades were continually sprayed by
+the German shrapnel.
+
+It is to be noted that Sir John French includes the Ninth German
+Corps in Von Kluck's army in his first dispatch, and puts it in Von
+Bülow's second army in his second dispatch.  The French authorities
+are of opinion that Von Kluck's army consisted of the Second, Third,
+Fourth, Seventh, and Fourth Reserve Corps, with two divisions of
+cavalry.  If this be correct, then part of Von Bulow's army was
+pursuing Haig, while the whole of Von Kluck's was concentrated upon
+Smith-Dorrien.  This would make the British performance even more
+remarkable than it has hitherto appeared, since it would mean that
+during the pursuit, and at the subsequent battle, ten German
+divisions were pressing upon three British ones.
+
+It is not to be supposed that so huge a force was all moving abreast,
+or available simultaneously at any one point.  None the less a
+General can use his advance corps very much more freely when he knows
+that every gap can be speedily filled.
+
+A tiny reinforcement had joined the Army on the morning after the
+battle of Mons.  This was the 19th Brigade under General Drummond,
+which consisted of the 1st Middlesex, 1st Scots Rifles, 2nd Welsh
+Fusiliers, and 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.  This detached
+brigade acted, and continued to act during a large part of the war,
+as an independent unit.  It detrained at Valenciennes on August 23,
+and two regiments, the Middlesex and the Cameronians, may be said to
+have taken part in the battle of Mons, since they formed up at the
+east of Condé, on the extreme left of the British position, {85} and
+received, together with the Queen's Bays, who were scouting in front
+of them, the first impact of the German flanking corps.  They fell
+back with the Army upon the 24th and 25th, keeping the line
+Jenlain--Solesmes, finally reaching Le Cateau, where they eventually
+took up their position on the right rear of the British Army.
+
+As the Army fell back, the border fortress of Maubeuge with its heavy
+guns offered a tempting haven of rest for the weary and overmatched
+troops, but not in vain had France lost her army in Metz.  Sir John
+French would have no such protection, however violently the Germans
+might push him towards it.  "The British Army invested in Maubeuge"
+was not destined to furnish the head-line of a Berlin special
+edition.  The fortress was left to the eastward, and the tired troops
+snatched a few hours of rest near Bavai, still pursued by the guns
+and the searchlights of their persistent foemen.  At an early hour of
+the 25th the columns were again on the march for the south, and for
+safety.
+
+It may be remarked that in all this movement what made the operation
+most difficult and complicated was, that in the retirement the Army
+was not moving direct to the rear, but diagonally away to the west,
+thus making the west flank more difficult to cover as well as
+complicating the movements of transport.  It was this oblique
+movement which caused the Third Division to change places with the
+Fifth, so that from now onwards it was to the west of the Army.
+
+The greater part of the Fourth Division of the Third Army Corps,
+coming up from the lines of communication, brought upon this day a
+welcome {86} reinforcement to the Army and did yeoman work in
+covering the retirement.  The total composition of this division was
+as follows:--
+
+  THIRD ARMY CORPS
+
+  GENERAL PULTENEY.
+
+  DIVISION IV.--General SNOW.
+
+  10_th Infantry Brigade--General Haldane_.
+        1st Warwicks.
+        2nd Seaforths.
+        1st Irish Fusiliers.
+        2nd Dublin Fusiliers.
+
+  11_th Infantry Brigade--General Hunter-Weston_.
+        1st Somerset L. Infantry.
+        1st East Lancashires.
+        1st Hants.
+        1st Rifle Brigade.
+
+  12_th Infantry Brigade--General Wilson_.
+        1st Royal Lancaster Regiment.
+        2nd Lancs. Fusiliers.
+        2nd Innis. Fusiliers.
+        2nd Essex.
+
+  _Artillery--General Milne_.
+  XIV. Brig. R.F.A. 39, 68, 88.
+  XXIX. Brig. R.F.A. 125, 126, 127.
+  XXXII. Brig. R.F.A. 27, 134, 135.
+  XXXVII. Brig. (How.) 31, 35, 55.
+  Heavy R.G.A. 31 Battery.
+  R.E. 7, 9 Field Cos.
+
+
+These troops, which had been quartered in the Ligny and Montigny
+area, received urgent orders at one in the morning of the 25th that
+they should advance northwards.  They marched that night to Briastre,
+where they covered the retreat of the Army, the Third Division
+passing through their lines.  The Fourth Division then retired south
+again, having great difficulty in getting along, as the roads were
+choked with transport and artillery, and fringed with exhausted men.
+The 12th Brigade (Wilson's) was acting as rearguard, and began to
+experience pressure from the pursuers, the Essex men being {87}
+shelled out of the village of Bethencourt, which they held until it
+was nearly surrounded by the German cavalry.  The line followed by
+the division was Briastre-Viesly-Bethencourt-Caudry-Ligny and
+Haucourt, the latter village marking the general position which they
+were to take up on the left of the Army at the line of Le Cateau.
+Such reinforcements were mere handfuls when compared with the
+pursuing hosts, but their advent heartened up the British troops and
+relieved them of some of the pressure.  It has been remarked by
+officers of the Fourth Division that they and their men were
+considerably taken aback by the worn appearance of the weary
+regiments from Mons which passed through their ranks.  Their
+confidence was revived, however, by the undisturbed demeanour of the
+General Headquarters Staff, who came through them in the late
+afternoon of the 25th.  "General French himself struck me as being
+extremely composed, and the staff officers looked very cheerful."
+These are the imponderabilia which count for much in a campaign.
+
+Tuesday, August 25, was a day of scattered rearguard actions.  The
+weary Army had rested upon the evening of the 24th upon the general
+line Maubeuge-Bavai-Wargnies.  Orders were issued for the retirement
+to continue next day to a position already partly prepared, in front
+of the centre of which stood the town of Le Cateau.  All rearguards
+were to be clear of the above-mentioned line by 5.30 A.M.  The
+general conception was that the inner flanks of the two corps should
+be directed upon Le Cateau.
+
+The intention of the Commander-in-Chief was that the Army should
+fight in that position next day, {88} the First Corps occupying the
+right and the Second Corps the left of the position.  The night of
+the 25th found the Second Corps in the position named, whilst their
+comrades were still at Landrecies, eight miles to the north-east,
+with a cavalry brigade endeavouring to bridge the gap between.  It is
+very certain, in the case of so ardent a leader as Haig, that it was
+no fault upon his part which kept him from Smith-Dorrien's side upon
+the day of battle.  It can only be said that the inevitable delays
+upon the road experienced by the First Corps, including the rearguard
+actions which it fought, prevented the ensuing battle from being one
+in which the British Army as a whole might have stemmed the rush of
+Von Kluck's invading host.
+
+[Sidenote: The 7th Brigade at Solesmes.]
+
+Whilst the whole Army had been falling back upon the position which
+had been selected for a stand, it was hoped that substantial French
+reinforcements were coming up from the south.  The roads were much
+blocked during the 25th, for two divisions of French territorials
+were retiring along them, as well as the British Army.  As a
+consequence progress was slow, and the German pressure from the rear
+became ever more severe.  Allenby's cavalry and horse-guns covered
+the retreat, continually turning round and holding off the pursuers.
+Finally, near Solesmes, on the evening of the 25th, the cavalry were
+at last driven in, and the Germans came up against McCracken's 7th
+Brigade, who held them most skilfully until nightfall with the
+assistance of the 42nd Brigade R.F.A. and the 30th Howitzer Brigade.
+Most of the fighting fell upon the 1st Wiltshires and 2nd South
+Lancashires, both of which had substantial losses.  The Germans could
+make no further progress, {89} and time was given for the roads to
+clear and for the artillery to get away.  The 7th Brigade then
+followed, marching, so far as possible, across country and taking up
+its position, which it did not reach until after midnight, in the
+village of Caudry, on the line of the Le Cateau-Courtrai road.  As it
+faced north once more it found Snow's Fourth Division upon its left,
+while on its immediate right were the 8th and the 9th Brigades, with
+the Fifth Division on the farther side of them.  One unit of the 7th
+Brigade, the 2nd Irish Rifles, together with the 41st R.F.A., swerved
+off in the darkness and confusion and went away with the cavalry.
+The rest were in the battle line.  Here we may leave them in position
+while we return to trace the fortunes of the First Army Corps.
+
+Sir Douglas Haig's corps, after the feint of August 24, in which the
+Second Division appeared to be attacking with the First in support,
+was cleverly disengaged from the enemy and fell back by alternate
+divisions.  It was not an easy operation, and it was conducted under
+a very heavy shell-fire, which fell especially upon the covering guns
+of Colonel Sandilands' 34th Artillery Brigade.  These guns were
+exposed to a concentration of fire from the enemy, which was so
+intense that a thick haze of smoke and dust blotted out the view for
+long periods at a time.  It was only with difficulty and great
+gallantry that they were got away.  An officer of the 6th Brigade,
+immediately behind them, writes: "Both going in and coming back the
+limbers passed my trench at a tearing gallop, the drivers lying low
+on the horses' necks and screaming at them to go faster, while on the
+return the guns bounded about on the stubble {90} field like so many
+tin cans behind a runaway dog."  The guns having been drawn in, the
+corps retired by roads parallel to the Second Corps, and were able to
+reach the line Bavai-Maubeuge by about 7 P.M. upon that evening,
+being on the immediate eastern flank of Smith-Dorrien's men.  It is a
+striking example of the historical continuity of the British Army
+that as they marched that day many of the regiments, such as the
+Guards and the 1st King's Liverpool, passed over the graves of their
+predecessors who had died under the same colours at Malplaquet in
+1709, two hundred and six years before.
+
+[Sidenote: The Guards in action.]
+
+On August 25 General Haig continued his retreat.  During the day he
+fell back to the west of Maubeuge by Feignies to Vavesnes and
+Landrecies.  The considerable forest of Mormal intervened between the
+two sections of the British Army.  On the forenoon of this day the
+vanguard of the German infantry, using motor transport, overtook
+Davies' 6th Brigade, which was acting as rearguard to the corps.
+They pushed in to within five hundred yards, but were driven back by
+rifle-fire.  Other German forces were coming rapidly up and
+enveloping the wings of the British rearguard, but the brigade,
+through swift and skilful handling, disengaged itself from what was
+rapidly becoming a dangerous situation.  The weather was exceedingly
+hot during the day, and with their heavy packs the men were much
+exhausted, many of them being barely able to stagger.  In the
+evening, footsore and weary, they reached the line of Landrecies,
+Maroilles, and Pont-sur-Sambre.  The 4th Brigade of Guards,
+consisting of Grenadiers, Coldstream, and Irish, under General
+Scott-Kerr, occupied the town of Landrecies.  During {91} the day
+they had seen little of the enemy, and they had no reason to believe
+that the forest, which extended up to the outskirts of the town, was
+full of German infantry pressing eagerly to cut them off.  The
+possession of vast numbers of motor lorries for infantry transport
+introduces a new element into strategy, especially the strategy of a
+pursuit, which was one of those disagreeable first experiences of
+up-to-date warfare which the British Army had to undergo.  It ensures
+that the weary retreating rearguard shall ever have a perfectly fresh
+pursuing vanguard at its heels.
+
+The Guards at Landrecies were put into the empty cavalry barracks for
+a much-needed rest, but they had hardly settled down before there was
+an alarm that the Germans were coming into the town.  It was just
+after dusk that a column of infantry debouched from the shadow of the
+trees and advanced briskly towards the town.  A company of the 3rd
+Coldstream under Captain Monck gave the alarm, and the whole regiment
+stood to arms, while the rest of the brigade, who could not operate
+in so confined a space, defended the other entrances of the town.
+The van of the approaching Germans shouted out that they were French,
+and seemed to have actually got near enough to attack the officer of
+the picket and seize a machine-gun before the Guardsmen began to
+fire.  There is a single approach to the village, and no means of
+turning it, so that the attack was forced to come directly down the
+road.
+
+[Sidenote: The Germans' rude awakening.]
+
+Possibly the Germans had the impression that they were dealing with
+demoralised fugitives, but if so they got a rude awakening.  The
+advance party, who were endeavouring to drag away the {92}
+machine-gun, were all shot down, and their comrades who stormed up to
+the houses were met with a steady and murderous fire which drove them
+back into the shadows of the wood.  A gun was brought up by them, and
+fired at a range of five hundred yards with shrapnel, but the
+Coldstream, reinforced by a second company, lay low or flattened
+themselves into the doorways for protection, while the 9th British
+Battery replied from a position behind the town.  Presently,
+believing that the way had been cleared for them, there was a fresh
+surge of dark masses out of the wood, and they poured into the throat
+of the street.  The Guards had brought out two machine-guns, and
+their fire, together with a succession of volleys from the rifles,
+decimated the stormers.  Some of them got near enough to throw hand
+bombs among the British, but none effected a lodgment among the
+buildings.
+
+From time to time there were fresh advances during the night,
+designed apparently rather to tire out the troops than to gain the
+village.  Once fire was set to the house at the end of the street,
+but the flames were extinguished by a party led by Corporal Wyatt, of
+the 3rd Coldstream.  The Irish Guards after midnight relieved the
+Coldstream of their vigil, and in the early morning the tired but
+victorious brigade went forward unmolested upon their way.  They had
+lost 170 of their number, nearly all from the two Coldstream
+companies.  Lord Hawarden and the Hon. Windsor Clive of the
+Coldstream and Lieut. Vereker of the Grenadiers were killed, four
+other officers were wounded.  The Germans in their close attacking
+formation had suffered very much more heavily.  Their enterprise {93}
+was a daring one, for they had pushed far forward to get command of
+the Landrecies Bridge, but their audacity became foolhardy when faced
+by steady, unshaken infantry.  History has shown many times before
+that a retreating British Army still retains a sting in its tail.
+
+At the same time as the Guards' Brigade was attacked at Landrecies
+there was an advance from the forest against Maroilles, which is four
+miles to the eastward.  A troop of the 15th Hussars guarding a bridge
+over the Sambre near that point was driven in by the enemy, and two
+attempts on the part of the 1st Berkshires, of Davies' 6th Brigade,
+to retake it were repulsed, owing to the fact that the only approach
+was by a narrow causeway with marshland on either side, where it was
+not possible for infantry to deploy.  The 1st Rifles were ordered to
+support the Berkshires, but darkness had fallen and nothing could be
+done.  The casualties in this skirmish amounted to 124 killed,
+wounded, or missing.  The Landrecies and Maroilles wounded were left
+behind with some of the medical staff.  At this period of the war the
+British had not yet understood the qualities of the enemy, and
+several times made the mistake of trusting surgeons and orderlies to
+their mercy, with the result that they were inhumanly treated, both
+by the authorities at the front and by the populace in Germany,
+whither they were conveyed as starving prisoners of war.  Five of
+them, Captains Edmunds and Hamilton, Lieut. Danks (all of the Army
+Medical Corps), with Dr. Austin and Dr. Elliott, who were exchanged
+in January 1915, deposed that they were left absolutely without food
+for long periods.  It is only fair to state that at a later date,
+with a few {94} scandalous exceptions, such as that of Wittenberg,
+the German treatment of prisoners, though often harsh, was no longer
+barbarous.  For the first six months, however, it was brutal in the
+extreme, and frequently accompanied by torture as well as neglect.  A
+Spanish prisoner, incarcerated by mistake, has given very clear
+neutral evidence of the abominable punishments of the prison camps.
+His account reads more like the doings of Iroquois than of a
+Christian nation.
+
+[Sidenote: The Connnaughts at Pont-sur-Sambre.]
+
+A small mishap--small on the scale of such a war, though serious
+enough in itself--befell a unit of the First Army Corps on the
+morning after the Landrecies engagement.  The portion of the German
+army who pursued General Haig had up to now been able to effect
+little, and that little at considerable cost to themselves.  Early on
+August 26, however, a brisk action was fought near Pont-sur-Sambre,
+in which the 2nd Connaughts, of Haking's Fifth Brigade, lost six
+officers, including Colonel Abercrombie, who was taken prisoner, and
+280 men.  The regiment was cut off by a rapidly advancing enemy in a
+country which was so thickly enclosed that there was great difficulty
+in keeping touch between the various companies or in conveying their
+danger to the rest of the brigade.  By steadiness and judgment the
+battalion was extricated from a most difficult position, but it was
+at the heavy cost already quoted.  In this case again the use by the
+enemy of great numbers of motor lorries in their pursuit accounts for
+the suddenness and severity of the attacks which now and afterwards
+fell upon the British rearguards.
+
+Dawn broke upon August 26, a day upon which the exhausted troops were
+destined to be tried to the {95} limit of human endurance.  It was
+the date of Von Kluck's exultant telegram in which he declared that
+he held them surrounded, a telegram which set Berlin fluttering with
+flags.  On this day the First Army Corps was unmolested in its march,
+reaching the Venerolles line that night.  There was woody country
+upon the west of it, and from beyond this curtain of trees they heard
+the distant roar of a terrific cannonade, and knew that a great
+battle was in progress to the westward.  It was on Smith-Dorrien's
+Second Corps and upon the single division of the Third Corps that the
+full storm of the German attack had broken.  In a word, a corps and a
+half of British troops, with 225 guns, were assailed by certainly
+four and probably five German corps, with 600 guns.  It is no wonder
+that the premature tidings of a great German triumph were forwarded
+that morning to make one more item in that flood of good news which
+from August 21 to the end of the month was pouring in upon the German
+people.  A glittering mirage lay before them.  The French lines had
+been hurled back from the frontier, the British were in full retreat,
+and now were faced with absolute disaster.  Behind these breaking
+lines lay the precious capital, the brain and heart of France.  But
+God is not always with the big battalions, and the end was not yet.
+
+
+
+
+{96}
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE BATTLE OF LE CATEAU
+
+The order of battle at Le Cateau--The stand of the 2nd
+Suffolks--Major Yate's V.C.--The fight for the quarries--The splendid
+work of the British guns--Difficult retirement of the Fourth
+Division--The fate of the 1st Gordons--Results of the
+battle--Exhaustion of the Army--The destruction of the 2nd
+Munsters--A cavalry fight--The news in Great Britain--The views of
+General Joffre--Battery L--The action of Villars-Cotteret--Reunion of
+the Army.
+
+
+Reference has already been made to the retirement of Smith-Dorrien's
+Second Corps, covered by Allenby's cavalry, throughout the 25th.  The
+heads of the columns arrived at the Le Cateau position at about 3
+P.M., but the rearguards were fighting into the night, and came in
+eventually in an exhausted condition.  The Fourth Division, which was
+still quite fresh, did good and indeed vital service by allowing the
+tired units to pass through its ranks and acting as a pivot upon
+which the cavalry could fall back.
+
+Sir John French had reconsidered the idea of making a stand at Le
+Cateau, feeling, no doubt, that if his whole Army could not be
+consolidated there the affair would be too desperate.  He had moved
+with his staff during the evening of the 25th to St. Quentin, leaving
+word that the retirement should be continued early next morning.
+Smith-Dorrien spent the afternoon and evening going round the
+position, but it was {97} not until 2 A.M. upon the morning of the
+26th that he was able to ascertain the whereabouts of all his
+scattered and weary units.  About that time General Allenby reported
+that his cavalry had been widely separated, two and a half brigades
+being at Chatillon, six miles east of Le Cateau, the other one and a
+half brigades being near Ligny, four miles west of the same town.
+General Smith-Dorrien was in the position that his troops were
+scattered, weary, and in danger of losing their morale through
+continued retreat in the presence of an ever-pressing enemy.  Even
+with the best soldiers such an experience too long continued may turn
+an army into a rabble.  He therefore made urgent representations by
+telephone to the Commander-in-Chief, pointing out that the only hope
+of checking the dangerous German pursuit was to stagger them by a
+severe counter.  "The only thing for the men to do when they can't
+stand is to lie down and fight," said he.  Sir John assented to the
+view, with the proviso that the retirement should be continued as
+soon as possible.  Smith-Dorrien, taking under his orders the
+cavalry, the Fourth Division, and the 19th Brigade, as well as his
+own corps, issued instructions for the battle which he knew must
+begin within a few hours.
+
+Owing to the gap of eight miles between the nearest points of the two
+corps, both flanks of the position were in the air.  Smith-Dorrien
+therefore requested the cavalry brigades from Chatillon to move in
+and guard the east flank, while the rest of the cavalry watched the
+west.  He was less anxious about the latter, as he knew that Sordet's
+French cavalry was in that direction.
+
+[Sidenote: The order of battle at Le Coteau.]
+
+The exhausted infantry, who had now been {98} marching for about a
+week, and fighting for three days and the greater part of three
+nights, flung themselves down where best they could, some to the
+north-east of Le Cateau, some in the town, and some along the line of
+very inadequate trenches hastily prepared by civilian labour.  In the
+early dawn they took up their position, the Fifth Division being to
+the right near the town.  Of this division, the 14th Brigade (Rolt's)
+was on the extreme right, the 13th (Cuthbert's) to the left of it,
+and the 15th (Gleichen's) to the left again.  To the west of the
+Fifth Division lay the Third, their trenches covering the villages of
+Troisville (9th Brigade), Audencourt (8th Brigade), and Caudry (7th
+Brigade).  Behind Caudry one and a half brigades of cavalry were in
+reserve to strengthen the left wing.  From Caudry the line was thrown
+back to meet a flanking movement and extended to Haucourt.  This
+portion was held by Snow's Fourth Division.  Sordet's cavalry had
+passed across the rear of the British position the day before, and
+lay now to the left flank and rear of the Army.  There were rumours
+of approaching French forces from the south, which put heart into the
+weary men, but, as a matter of fact, they had only their own brave
+spirits upon which to depend.  Their numbers, putting every unit at
+its full complement, were about 70,000 men.  Their opponents were
+four army corps at the least, with two divisions of cavalry--say,
+170,000 men with an overpowering artillery.  Subsequent reports
+showed that the guns of all five army corps had been concentrated for
+the battle.
+
+It has been said that Rolt's 14th Brigade was at the extreme right of
+the line.  This statement needs some expansion.  The 14th Brigade
+consisted of the {99} 1st East Surrey, 2nd Suffolk, 2nd Manchester,
+and 1st Cornwalls.  Of these four regiments, half of the East Surrey
+had been detached on escort duty and the other half, under Colonel
+Longley, with the whole of the Cornwalls, bivouacked in the northern
+suburbs of Le Cateau on the night of the 25th.  In the early morning
+of the 26th the enemy's advanced guard got into the town, and this
+detachment of British troops were cut off from their comrades and
+fired upon as they assembled in the streets of the town.  They made
+their way out, however, in orderly fashion and took up a position to
+the south-east of the town, where they fought an action on their own
+account for some hours, quite apart from the rest of the Army, which
+they could hear but not see.  Eventually the division of cavalry fell
+back from Chatillon to join the Army and picked up these troops _en
+route_, so that the united body was able to make its way safely back
+to their comrades.  These troops were out of the main battle, but did
+good work in covering the retreat.  The whole signal section of the
+14th Brigade was with them, which greatly hampered the brigade during
+the battle.  Two companies of the 1st East Surreys under Major Tew
+had become separated from their comrades after Mons, but they
+rejoined the British line at Troisville, and on the morning of August
+26 were able to fall in on the rear of the 14th Brigade, where, as
+will be seen later, they did good service.
+
+The 19th Brigade had also bivouacked in Le Cateau and was nearly cut
+off, as the two regiments of the 14th Brigade had been, by the sudden
+intrusion of the enemy.  It had been able to make its way out of the
+town, however, without being separated from the rest of the Army, and
+it took up its position on {100} the right rear of the infantry line,
+whence it sent help where needed and played the part of a reserve
+until towards the close of the action its presence became very vital
+to the Fifth Division.  At the outset the 2nd Argyll and Sutherlands
+were in the front line of this brigade and the 1st Middlesex
+supporting them, while the other two battalions, the 2nd Welsh
+Fusiliers and 1st Scots Rifles, with a battery of artillery had been
+taken as a reserve by the force commander.  No trenches had been
+prepared at this point, and the losses of the two front battalions
+from shell-fire were, from the beginning, very heavy.  The other two
+battalions spent a day of marching rather than fighting, being sent
+right across to reinforce the Fourth Division and then being brought
+back to the right flank once more.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+{101}
+
+[Illustration: Sketch of the Battle of Le Cateau, Aug. 26th]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+[Sidenote: The stand of the 2nd Suffolks.]
+
+It was the Fifth Division, on the right of the line, who first
+experienced the full effect of the heavy shelling which about seven
+o'clock became general along the whole position, but was always most
+severe upon the right.  There was a dangerous salient in the trenches
+at the cross-roads one mile west of Le Cateau which was a source of
+very great weakness.  Every effort was made to strengthen the
+trenches, the 15th Brigade and 59th Company R.E. working especially
+hard in the Troisville section.  The Germans were moving round upon
+this right wing, and the murderous hail of missiles came from the
+flank as well as from the front, being supplemented by rifle and
+machine-gun fire.  The 2nd Suffolks and 2nd Manchesters, the
+remaining half of Rolfs 14th Brigade, being on the extreme right of
+the line, suffered the most.  The guns immediately supporting them,
+of the 28th Artillery Brigade, were quite overmatched and were {102}
+overwhelmed by the devastating rain of shells, many of them being put
+out of action.  A heavy battery, the 108th, some little distance
+behind the line, kept up a steady and effective fire which long held
+back the German advance.  The pressure, however, was extreme, and
+growing steadily from hour to hour until it became well-nigh
+intolerable.  Especially it fell upon the 2nd Suffolks, who held
+their shallow trenches with splendid tenacity.  Their colonel, Brett,
+was killed, Major Doughty was wounded in three places, Captains
+Orford and Cutbill, with eight lieutenants, were on the ground.
+Finally, when the position of the brigade became untenable and it was
+ordered to retreat, the gallant Suffolks held on to their line with
+the desire of saving the disabled guns, and were eventually all
+killed, wounded, or taken, save for about 250 men, while their
+neighbours, the 2nd Manchesters, lost 14 officers and 350 of their
+men.  In this way the extreme right of the British line was
+practically destroyed.
+
+The 19th Brigade, in the rear of the 14th, were able to observe the
+fate of their comrades, and about mid-day the 2nd Argyll and
+Sutherland Highlanders, who had already lost a good many men from
+shell-fire, advanced in the chivalrous hope of relieving the
+pressure.  The battalion went forward as if on parade, though the
+casualties were numerous.  They eventually gained the shelter of some
+trenches near the remains of the 14th Brigade, but their gallant
+effort, instead of averting the threatened destruction, ended by
+partially involving them in the same fate.  They could do nothing
+against the concentrated and well-directed artillery fire of the
+enemy.  When eventually they fell back, part of two companies were
+cut {103} off in their trench and taken.  The rest of the regiment,
+together with the 1st Middlesex and two companies of the Royal Scots
+Fusiliers from the 9th Brigade, formed a covering line on a ridge in
+the rear and held back the German advance for a long time.  This line
+did not retire until 5 P.M., when it was nearly enveloped.  General
+Drummond, commanding the 19th Brigade, had met with an injury in the
+course of the action, and it was commanded during the latter part by
+Colonel Ward, of the Middlesex.
+
+[Sidenote: Major Yate's V.C.]
+
+The retirement or destruction of the 14th Brigade exposed the flank
+of the 13th (Cuthbert's) to a murderous enfilade fire, which fell
+chiefly upon the 2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry.  This brigade had
+defended itself successfully for six hours against various frontal
+attacks, but now the flank-fire raked it from end to end and
+practically destroyed the Yorkshiremen, who were the most exposed to
+it.  On them and on the 2nd Scottish Borderers fell the great bulk of
+the losses, for the West Rents and the survivors of the West Ridings
+were in reserve.  Of the two companies of the Yorkshire Light
+Infantry who held the foremost trenches, that on the right had only
+fifteen men left, with whom Major Yate attempted a final charge,
+finding his Victoria Cross in the effort, while the next company,
+under Major Trevor, had only forty-one survivors, the whole losses of
+the battalion being 600 men, with 20 officers.  Both the Yorkshire
+and the Scottish Border battalions lost their colonels in the action.
+Their losses were shared by the two companies of the 1st East Surreys
+under Major Tew, who had been placed between the 14th and 13th
+Brigades, and {104} who fought very steadily in shallow trenches,
+holding on to the last possible moment.
+
+Whilst the battle was going badly on the right, the Third Division in
+the centre and the Fourth Division on the left had held their own
+against a succession of attacks.  The 8th and 9th Brigades drove off
+the German infantry with their crushing rifle-fire, and endured as
+best they might the shelling, which was formidable and yet very much
+less severe than that to which the Fifth Division had been exposed.
+In the case of the 7th Brigade (McCracken's) the village of Caudry,
+which it defended, formed a salient, since the Fourth Division on the
+left was thrown back.  The attack upon this brigade from daylight
+onwards was very severe, but the assailants could neither drive in
+the line nor capture the village of Caudry.  They attacked on both
+flanks at short rifle range, inflicting and also enduring heavy
+losses.  In this part of the field the British guns held their own
+easily against the German, the proportion of numbers being more equal
+than on the right of the line.
+
+Whilst the right flank was crumbling before the terrific
+concentration of German guns, and while the centre was stoutly
+holding its own, farther to the west, in the Haucourt-Ligny
+direction, the Second German Army Corps was beating hard against
+Snow's Fourth Division, which was thrown back to protect the left
+flank of the Army, and to cover the Cambrai-Esnes road.
+Hunter-Weston's 11th Brigade was on the right, south of Fontaine,
+with Wilson's 12th upon its left, and Haldane's 10th in reserve at
+Haucourt.  As the German attack came from the left, or western flank,
+the 12th Brigade received the {105} first impact.  The artillery of
+the division had not yet come up, and the 1st Royal Lancasters,
+stretched in a turnip patch, endured for some time a severe fire
+which cost them many casualties, including their Colonel Dykes, and
+to which little reply could be made.  There were no cavalry scouts in
+front of the infantry, so that working parties and advanced posts
+were cut up by sudden machine-gun fire.  Some of the covering parties
+both of the Lancasters and of the 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers were never
+seen again.  At about seven the British guns came up, the 14th
+Brigade R.F.A. on the left, the 29th in the centre, and the 32nd on
+the right, with the howitzers of the 37th behind the right centre on
+the high ground near Selvigny.  From this time onward they supported
+the infantry in the most self-sacrificing way.  The German infantry
+advance began shortly afterwards, and was carried out by wave after
+wave of men.  A company of the 2nd Essex Regiment, under Captain
+Vandeleur, upon the British left, having good cover and a clear field
+of fire, inflicted very heavy losses on the Germans, though they were
+finally overwhelmed, their leader having been killed.  The 2nd
+Lancashire Fusiliers in the front line were also heavily attacked,
+and held their own for several hours.  About ten o'clock the pressure
+was so great that the defence was driven in, and two battalions lost
+their machine-guns, but a new line was formed in the Haucourt-Esnes
+road, the retirement being skilfully covered by Colonel Anley, of the
+Essex, and Colonel Griffin, of the Lancashire Fusiliers.  There the
+2nd Inniskilling Fusiliers, the 1st Royal Lancasters, the 2nd
+Lancashire Fusiliers, and the 2nd Essex held firmly on until the
+afternoon under very heavy and {106} incessant fire, while the 11th
+Brigade upon their right were equally involved in the fight.  Two
+battalions of the 10th Brigade (Haldane's), the 1st Irish Fusiliers
+and 2nd Seaforths, had dug themselves in on the high ground just
+north of Selvigny and repulsed every attack, but two others, the 2nd
+Dublins and 1st Warwicks, had got involved with the 12th Brigade and
+could not be retrieved.  The Signal Corps had not yet arrived, and
+the result was that General Snow had the greatest difficulty in
+ensuring his connections with his brigadiers, the orders being
+carried by his staff officers.  At two o'clock, as there was a lull
+in the German advance, Wilson of the 12th Brigade made a spirited
+counter-attack, recovering many of the wounded, but being finally
+driven back to the old position by intense artillery and machine-gun
+fire.
+
+It is worth recording that during this advance the Essex men found
+among the German dead many Jaeger with the same Gibraltar badge upon
+their caps which they bore themselves.  It was a Hanoverian battalion
+who had been comrades with the old 56th in the defence of the
+fortress one hundred and fifty years before.
+
+[Sidenote: The fight for the quarries.]
+
+The 11th Brigade (Hunter-Weston), on the right of the 12th, had
+meanwhile played a very vital part in the fight.  This brigade was
+defending a position called Les Carrières, or the quarry pits, which
+was east of Fontaine and to the north of the village of Ligny.  It
+was a desperate business, for the British were four times driven out
+of it and four times came back to their bitter work amid a sleet of
+shells and bullets.  Parties of the 1st Somersets and of the 1st East
+Lancashires held the quarries with the 1st {107} Hants and 1st Rifle
+Brigade in immediate support, all being eventually drawn into the
+fight.  Major Bickman, of the latter regiment, distinguished himself
+greatly in the defence, but was seriously wounded and left behind in
+the final retirement.  Besides incessant gun-fire, the defenders were
+under infantry fire of a very murderous description from both flanks.
+In spite of this, the place was held for six hours until the
+retirement of the line in the afternoon caused it to be untenable, as
+the enemy was able to get behind it.  The brigade then fell back upon
+Ligny under heavy shrapnel-fire, moving steadily and in good order.
+The Germans at once attacked the village from the east and
+north-east.  Could they have taken it, they would have been upon the
+flank of the British line of retirement.  They were twice driven
+back, however, by the fire of the infantry, losing very heavily upon
+both occasions.  About four o'clock, the Army being in full retreat,
+the brigade received orders to abandon Ligny and march upon
+Malincourt.  The effect of a heavy shrapnel-fire was minimised by
+this movement being carried out in small columns of fours.  A loss of
+30 officers and 1115 men in a single day's fighting showed how severe
+had been the work of Hunter-Weston's brigade.  The 12th Brigade had
+also lost about a thousand men.  Many of the guns had run short of
+shells.  A spectator has described how he saw the British gunners
+under a heavy fire, sitting in gloomy groups round the guns which
+they had neither the shells to work, nor the heart to abandon.
+
+Such was the general fortune of the British left.  At the extreme
+edge of it, in the gap between the left of the Fourth Division and
+the town of Cambrai, {108} Sordet's French cavalry had been fighting
+to prevent the British wing from being turned.  There was some
+misconception upon this point at the time, but in justice to our Ally
+it should be known that General Smith-Dorrien himself galloped to
+this flank in the course of the afternoon and was a witness of the
+efforts of the French troopers, who had actually marched 40 miles in
+order to be present at the battle.  The narrative has now taken the
+movements of the left wing up to the point of its retirement, in
+order to preserve the continuity of events in that portion of the
+field, but the actual abandonment of their position by Snow's Fourth
+Division was due to circumstances over which they had no control, and
+which had occurred at a considerable distance.  Both the centre and
+the left of the Army could have held its own, though it must be
+admitted that the attack to which they were exposed was a very
+violent one gallantly pushed home.
+
+All might have gone well had the Germans not been able to mass such
+an overpowering artillery attack upon the right of the line.  It was
+shortly after mid-day that this part of the position began to weaken,
+and observers from the centre saw stragglers retiring over the low
+hill in the Le Cateau direction.  At that hour the artillery upon the
+right of the British line was mostly silenced, and large masses of
+the German infantry were observed moving round the right flank.  The
+salient of the Suffolks was in the possession of the enemy, and from
+it they could enfilade the line.  It was no longer possible to bring
+up ammunition or horses to the few remaining guns.  The greater part
+of the troops held on none the less most doggedly to their positions.
+A steady downpour {109} of rain was a help rather than a discomfort,
+as it enabled the men to moisten their parched lips.  But the
+situation of the Fifth Division was growing desperate.  It was plain
+that to remain where they were could only mean destruction.  And yet
+to ask the exhausted men to retire under such a rain of shells would
+be a dangerous operation.  Even the best troops may reach their
+snapping point.  Most of them had by the afternoon been under
+constant shrapnel-fire for eight hours on end.  Some were visibly
+weakening.  Anxious officers looked eagerly over their shoulders for
+any sign of reinforcement, but an impassable gap separated them from
+their comrades of the First Army Corps, who were listening with
+sinking hearts to the rumble of the distant cannonade.  There was
+nothing for it but to chance the retirement.  About three o'clock
+commanders called to officers and officers to men for a last great
+effort.  It was the moment when a leader reaps in war the love and
+confidence which he has sown in peace.  Smith-Dorrien had sent his
+meagre reserve, which consisted of one battery and two battalions, to
+take up a rearguard position astride the Le Cateau-St. Quentin road.
+Every available detail, that could pull a trigger, down to
+Hildebrand's signallers of the Headquarters Staff, who had already
+done wonderful work in their own particular line, were thrust into
+the covering line.  One by one the dishevelled brigades were drawn
+off towards the south.  One section of the heavy guns of the 108th
+Heavy Battery was ordered back to act with two battalions of the 19th
+Brigade in covering the Reumont-Maritz road, while the 1st Norfolks
+were put in echelon behind the right flank for the same purpose.
+
+{110}
+
+[Sidenote: The splendid work of the British guns.]
+
+The Fifth Division, with the 15th Brigade as rearguard, considerably
+disorganised by its long hammering, retreated along the straight
+Roman road via Maritz and Estrees.  The Third Division fell back
+through Berthy and Clary to Beaurevoir, the 9th Brigade forming a
+rearguard.  The cavalry, greatly helped by Sordet's French cavalry
+upon the west, flung itself in front of the pursuit, while the guns
+sacrificed themselves to save the retiring infantry.  Every British
+battery was an inferno of bursting shells, and yet every one fought
+on while breech-block would shut or gunner could stand.  Many
+batteries were in the state of the 61st R.F.A., which fired away all
+its own shells and then borrowed from the limbers of other
+neighbouring batteries, the guns of which had been put out of action.
+Had the artillery gone the Army would have gone.  Had the Army gone
+the Germans had a clear run into Paris.  It has been said that on the
+covering batteries of Wing, Milne, and Headlam may, on that wet
+August afternoon, have hung the future history of Europe.
+
+Wing's command included the 23rd, 30th, 40th, and 42nd Brigades, with
+the 48th Heavy Battery; Headlam's were the 15th, 27th, 28th, and 8th,
+with the 108th Heavy; Milne's, the 14th, 29th, 32nd, and 37th, with
+the 31st Heavy.  These numbers deserve to be recorded, for every gun
+of them did great service, though many were left in ruins on the
+field.  Some, like those of the 37th R.F.A., were plucked from under
+the very noses of the Germans, who were within a hundred yards of
+them when they were withdrawn, a deed of valour for which Captain
+Reynolds of that battery received the Cross.  One by one those
+batteries which could move were drawn off, the cavalry covering {111}
+the manoeuvre by their rifle-fire, and sometimes man-handling the gun
+from the field.  Serving one day as charging cavaliers, another as
+mounted infantry in covering a retreat, again as sappers in making or
+holding a trench, or when occasion called for it as gun-teams to pull
+on the trace of a derelict gun, the cavalry have been the general
+utility men of the Army.  The days of pure cavalry may have passed,
+but there will never be a time when a brave and handy fighting man
+who is mobile will not be invaluable to his comrades.
+
+[Sidenote: Difficult retirement of the Fourth Division.]
+
+It was about four o'clock that the Fourth Division, on the left
+flank, who had been maintaining the successful defensive already
+described, were ordered to begin their retirement.  The 12th Brigade
+was able to withdraw with no great difficulty along the line
+Walincourt-Villiers-Vendhuile, reaching the latter village about
+nine-thirty.  The doings of the 11th Brigade have been already
+described.  There was considerable disintegration but no loss of
+spirit.  One of the regiments of the 12th, the 2nd Royal Lancasters,
+together with about three hundred Warwicks, from the 10th Brigade,
+and some detachments of other regiments, were by some mischance,
+isolated in the village of Haucourt with no definite orders, and held
+on until ten o'clock at night, when the place was nearly surrounded.
+They fought their way out, however, in a most surprising fashion, and
+eventually made good their retreat.  One party, under Major Poole of
+the Warwicks, rejoined the Army next day.  Captain Clutterbuck, with
+a small party of Royal Lancasters, wandered into Haumont after it was
+occupied by the Germans.  Summoned to surrender the gallant officer
+refused, and was shot {112} dead, but his men charged with the
+bayonet and fought their way clear to a post which was held by Major
+Parker of the same regiment, to the immediate south of the village.
+This officer, finding that he was the last rearguard, withdrew in the
+face of heavy German forces.  Being joined by Major Christie of the
+Warwicks with 200 men, they followed the Army, and, finally, by a
+mixture of good luck and good leadership, picked their way through
+the German advance guards, and on the third day rejoined the colours
+at Noyon.
+
+Haldane's 10th Brigade had got split up during the confused fighting
+of the day, half of it, the 1st Warwicks and 2nd Dublins, getting
+involved with the 12th Brigade in the fighting on the Haucourt Ridge.
+The other two battalions, the 2nd Seaforths and 1st Royal Irish
+Fusiliers, kept guard as a reserve over the left flank of the
+division.  Towards evening General Haldane, finding it hopeless to
+recover control of his lost regiments, collected the rest of his
+brigade, and endeavoured to follow the general line of retreat.  He
+lost touch with the remainder of the Army, and might well have been
+cut off, but after a most exhausting experience he succeeded in
+safely rejoining the division at Roisel upon the 27th.  It may be
+said generally that the reassembling of the Fourth Division after the
+disintegration they had experienced was a remarkable example of
+individualism and determination.
+
+It is impossible to doubt that the Germans, in spite of their
+preponderating numbers, were staggered by the resistance which they
+had encountered.  In no other way can one explain the fact that their
+pursuit, which for three days had been incessant, {113} should now,
+at the most critical instant, have eased off.  The cavalry and guns
+staved off the final blow, and the stricken infantry staggered from
+the field.  The strain upon the infantry of the Fifth Division may be
+gathered from the fact that up to this point they had lost, roughly,
+143 officers, while the Third Division had lost 92 and the Fourth 70.
+For the time they were disorganised as bodies, even while they
+preserved their moral as individuals.
+
+When extended formations are drawn rapidly in under the conditions of
+a heavy action, it is often impossible to convey the orders to men in
+outlying positions.  Staying in their trenches and unconscious of the
+departure of their comrades, they are sometimes gathered up by the
+advancing enemy, but more frequently fall into the ranks of some
+other corps, and remain for days or weeks away from their own
+battalion, turning up long after they have helped to swell some list
+of casualties.  Regiments get intermingled and pour along the roads
+in a confusion which might suggest a rout, whilst each single soldier
+is actually doing his best to recover his corps.  It is
+disorganisation--but not demoralisation.
+
+[Sidenote: The fate of the 1st Gordons.]
+
+It has been remarked above that in the widespread formations of
+modern battles it is difficult to be sure of the transmission of
+orders.  An illustration of such a danger occurred upon this
+occasion, which gave rise to an aftermath of battle nearly as
+disastrous as the battle itself.  This was the episode which
+culminated in the loss of a body of troops, including a large portion
+of the 1st Gordon Highlanders.  This distinguished corps had been
+engaged with the rest of Beauchamp Doran's 8th Brigade at Mons and
+again upon the following day, after which they {114} retreated with
+the rest of their division.  On the evening of the 25th they
+bivouacked in the village of Audencourt, just south of the Cambrai-Le
+Cateau highway, and on the morning of the 26th they found themselves
+defending a line of trenches in front of this village.  From nine
+o'clock the Gordons held their ground against a persistent German
+attack.  About 3.30 an order was given for the battalion to retire.
+This message only reached one company, which acted upon it, but the
+messenger was wounded _en route_, and failed to reach battalion
+headquarters.  Consequently the remainder of the battalion did not
+retire with the Army, but continued to hold its trenches, greatly
+helped by the flank (D) Company of Royal Scots, until long after
+nightfall, when the enemy in great force had worked round both of its
+flanks.  It should be understood that the withdrawal of the Royal
+Scots was under direct order emanating from brigade headquarters, but
+an officer of the Gordons, not knowing that such an order had been
+issued, and perceiving that their flank would be exposed if D Company
+left their trench, said a few words to them which had such an effect
+upon their fiery souls that they rushed back to stand by the
+Highlanders, their Captain being shot dead as he waved his men back
+into their trench.  From that time onwards this company of Royal
+Scots, finely led by two young lieutenants, Graves and Graham Watson,
+shared all the dangers and the ultimate fate of the Gordons, as did a
+handful of Royal Irish upon the other flank.  When it was dusk it
+became clear to Colonel Gordon, who was now in command of the mixed
+detachment, that he and his men were separated from the Army and
+surrounded {115} on every side by the advancing Germans.  At that
+time the men, after supreme exertion for several days, had been in
+action for twelve hours on end.  He therefore decided, as against
+annihilation in the morning, that retreat was the only course open.
+The wounded were left in the trenches.  The transport, machine-guns,
+and horses had already been destroyed by the incessant shelling.  The
+detachment made a move towards the south, the operation being a most
+difficult one in pitch darkness with the enemy within a few hundred
+yards.  The success attained in this initial stage was largely due to
+the way in which the Master of Saltoun conveyed the orders which drew
+in the flanks to the centre.  Having made good the Audencourt-Caudry
+road at 1 A.M. on August 27, the troops managed to traverse some
+miles of road, with blazing villages all about them, and had a fair
+chance of reaching safety when unfortunately at Montigny they took a
+wrong turn, which brought them into Bertry which was held by the
+Germans.  Some confusion was caused by the latter challenging in
+French.  A confused fight followed in the darkness, in the course of
+which many individual acts of great bravery and devotion were
+performed.  The enemy were now all round the Highlanders, and though
+the struggle continued for fifty minutes, and there was no official
+surrender, the little body of men was embedded in Von Kluck's army,
+and no escape could be found.  The utmost discipline and gallantry
+were shown by all ranks.  It must be some consolation to the
+survivors to know that it is freely admitted that their resistance in
+the trenches for so long a period undoubtedly facilitated the safe
+withdrawal of the Third, and to some extent of the Fourth Divisions.
+{116} Major Leslie Butler, Brigade-Major of the 8th Brigade, who had
+made a gallant effort to ride to the Gordons and warn them of their
+danger, was entangled among the Germans, and only succeeded six days
+later in regaining the British lines.
+
+[Sidenote: Results of the battle.]
+
+So ended the perilous, costly, and almost disastrous action of Le
+Cateau.  The loss to the British Army, so far as it can be extracted
+from complex figures and separated from the other losses of the
+retreat, amounted to between seven and eight thousand killed,
+wounded, and missing, while at the time of the action, or in the
+immediate retreat, a considerable quantity of transport and
+thirty-six field-pieces, mostly in splinters, were abandoned to the
+enemy.  It was an action which could hardly have been avoided, and
+from which the troops were extricated on better terms than might have
+been expected.  It will always remain an interesting academic
+question what would have occurred had it been possible for the First
+Corps to line up with the rest of the Army.  The enemy's
+preponderance of artillery would probably have prevented a British
+victory, and the strategic position would in any case have made it a
+barren one, but at least the Germans would have been hard hit and the
+subsequent retreat more leisurely.  As it stood, it was an engagement
+upon which the weaker side can look back without shame or dishonour.
+One result of it was to give both the Army and the country increased
+confidence in themselves and their leaders.  Sir John French has
+testified to the splendid qualities shown by the troops, while his
+whole-hearted tribute to Smith-Dorrien, in which he said, "The saving
+of the left wing of the Army could never have been accomplished
+unless a commander of rare and unusual {117} coolness, intrepidity,
+and determination had been present to personally conduct the
+operation," will surely be endorsed by history.
+
+It is difficult to exaggerate the strain which had been thrown upon
+this commander.  On him had fallen the immediate direction of the
+action at Mons; on him also had been the incessant responsibility of
+the retreat.  He had, as has been shown in the narrative, been hard
+at work all night upon the eve of the battle; he superintended that
+trying engagement, he extricated his forces, and finally motored to
+St. Quentin in the evening, went on to Noyon, reached it after
+midnight, and was back with his Army in the morning, encouraging
+every one by the magnetism of his presence.  It was a very remarkable
+feat of endurance.
+
+[Sidenote: Exhaustion of the Army]
+
+Exhausted as the troops were, there could be no halt or rest until
+they had extricated themselves from the immediate danger.  At the
+last point of human endurance they still staggered on through the
+evening and the night time, amid roaring thunder and flashing
+lightning, down the St. Quentin road.  Many fell from fatigue, and
+having fallen, continued to sleep in ditches by the roadside,
+oblivious of the racket around them.  A number never woke until they
+found themselves in the hands of the Uhlan patrols.  Others slumbered
+until their corps had disappeared, and then, regaining their senses,
+joined with other straggling units so as to form bands, which
+wandered over the country, and eventually reached the railway line
+about Amiens with wondrous Bill Adams tales of personal adventures
+which in time reached England, and gave the impression of complete
+disaster.  But the main body were, as a matter of fact, holding well
+{118} together, though the units of infantry had become considerably
+mixed and so reduced that at least four brigades, after less than a
+week of war, had lost 50 per cent of their personnel.  Many of the
+men threw away the heavier contents of their packs, and others
+abandoned the packs themselves, so that the pursuing Germans had
+every evidence of a rout before their eyes.  It was deplorable that
+equipment should be discarded, but often it was the only possible
+thing to do, for either the man had to be sacrificed or the pack.
+Advantage was taken of a forked road to station an officer there who
+called out, "Third Division right, Fifth Division left," which
+greatly helped the reorganisation.  The troops snatched a few hours
+of rest at St. Quentin, and then in the breaking dawn pushed upon
+their weary road once more, country carts being in many cases
+commandeered to carry the lame and often bootless infantry.  The
+paved _chaussées_, with their uneven stones, knocked the feet to
+pieces, and caused much distress to the tired men, which was
+increased by the extreme heat of the weather.
+
+In the case of some of the men the collapse was so complete that it
+was almost impossible to get them on.  Major Tom Bridges, of the 4th
+Royal Irish Dragoons, being sent to round up and hurry forward 250
+stragglers at St. Quentin, found them nearly comatose with fatigue.
+With quick wit he bought a toy drum, and, accompanied by a man with a
+penny whistle, he fell them in and marched them, laughing in all
+their misery, down the high road towards Ham.  When he stopped he
+found that his strange following stopped also, so he was compelled to
+march and play the whole way to Roupy.  Thus by one man's compelling
+{119} personality 250 men were saved for the Army.  But such complete
+collapse was rare.  The men kept their _moral_.  "Beneath the dirt
+and grime and weariness I saw clear eyes and grim jaws even when the
+men could hardly walk."  So spoke Coleman, the gallant American
+volunteer.
+
+Up to now nothing had been seen of the French infantry, and the
+exposed British force had been hustled and harried by Von Kluck's
+great army without receiving any substantial support.  This was
+through no want of loyalty, but our gallant Allies were themselves
+hard pressed.  Sir John French had sent urgent representations,
+especially to General Sordet, the leader of the cavalry operating
+upon the western side, and he had, as already shown, done what he
+could to screen Smith-Dorrien's flank.  Now at last the retiring Army
+was coming in touch with those supports which were so badly needed.
+But before they were reached, on the morning of the 27th, the Germans
+had again driven in the rearguard of the First Corps.
+
+[Sidenote: The destruction of the 2nd Munsters.]
+
+Some delay in starting had been caused that morning by the fact that
+only one road was available for the whole of the transport, which had
+to be sent on in advance.  Hence the rearguard was exposed to
+increased pressure.  This rearguard consisted of the 1st Brigade.
+The 2nd Munsters were the right battalion.  Then came the 1st
+Coldstream, the 1st Scots Guards, and the 1st Black Watch in reserve.
+The front of the Munsters, as it faced round to hold back the too
+pushful Germans, was from the north of Fesmy to Chapeau Rouge, but
+Major Charrier, who was in command, finding no French at Bergues, as
+he had been led to expect, sent B and D {120} Companies of Munsters
+with one troop of the 15th Hussars to hold the cross-roads near that
+place.
+
+At about 12.30 a message reached Major Charrier to the effect that
+when ordered to retire he should fall back on a certain line and act
+as flank-guard to the brigade.  He was not to withdraw his two
+companies from Chapeau Rouge until ordered.  The Germans were already
+in force right on the top of the Irishmen, the country being a broken
+one with high hedges which restricted the field of fire.  A section
+of guns of the 118th R.F.A. were served from the road about fifty
+yards behind the line of the infantry.  A desperate struggle ensued,
+in the course of which the Munsters, suffering heavily, overlapped on
+each flank, and utterly outnumbered, held on bravely in the hope of
+help from the rest of the brigade.  They did not know that a message
+had already been dispatched to them to the effect that they should
+come on, and that the other regiments had already done so.  Still
+waiting for the orders which never came, they fell back slowly
+through Fesmy before the attack, until held up at a small village
+called Etreux, where the Germans cut off their retreat.  Meanwhile
+the Brigadier, hearing that the Munsters were in trouble, gave orders
+that the Coldstream should reinforce them.  It was too late, however.
+At Oisy Bridge the Guards picked up sixty men, survivors of C
+Company.  It was here at Oisy Bridge that the missing order was
+delivered at 3 P.M., the cycle orderly having been held up on his
+way.  As there was no longer any sound of firing, the Coldstream and
+remnant of Munsters retired, being joined some miles back by an
+officer and some seventy men.  Together with the transport guard this
+brought the {121} total survivors of that fine regiment to 5 officers
+and 206 men.  All the rest had fought to the end and were killed,
+wounded, or captured, after a most desperate resistance, in which
+they were shot down at close quarters, making repeated efforts to
+pierce the strong German force at Etreux.  To their fine work and
+that of the two lost guns and of a party of the 15th Hussars, under
+Lieutenant Nicholson, who covered the retreat it may have been due
+that the pursuit of the First Corps by the Germans from this moment
+sensibly relaxed.  Nine gallant Irish officers were buried that night
+in a common grave.  Major Charrier was twice wounded, but continued
+to lead his men until a third bullet struck him dead, and deprived
+the Army of a soldier whose career promised to be a brilliant one.
+Among others who fell was Lieutenant Chute, whose masterly handling
+of a machine-gun stemmed again and again the tide of the German
+attack.  One of the most vivid recollections of the survivors was of
+this officer lying on his face in six inches of water--for the action
+was partly fought in tropical rain--and declaring that he was having
+"the time of his life."  The moral both of this disaster and that of
+the Gordons must be the importance of sending a message in duplicate,
+or even in triplicate, where the withdrawal of a regiment is
+concerned.  This, no doubt, is a counsel of perfection under
+practical conditions, but the ideal still remains.
+
+[Sidenote: A cavalry fight.]
+
+During the retreat of the First Corps its rear and right flank had
+been covered by the 5th Cavalry Brigade (Chetwode).  On August 28 the
+corps was continuing its march towards La Fère and the cavalry found
+itself near Cerizy.  At this point the pursuing German horsemen came
+into touch with it.  At about {122} five in the afternoon three
+squadrons of the enemy advanced upon one squadron of the Scots Greys,
+which had the support of J Battery.  Being fired at, the Germans
+dismounted and attempted to advance upon foot, but the fire was so
+heavy that they could make no progress and their led horses
+stampeded.  They retired, still on foot, followed up by a squadron of
+the 12th Lancers on their flank.  The remainder of the 12th Lancers,
+supported by the Greys, rode into the dismounted dragoons with sword
+and lance, killing or wounding nearly all of them.  A section of guns
+had fired over the heads of the British cavalry during the advance
+into a supporting body of German cavalry, who retired, leaving many
+dead behind them.  The whole hostile force retreated northwards,
+while the British cavalry continued to conform to the movements of
+the First Corps.  In this spirited little action the German regiment
+engaged was, by the irony of fate, the 1st Guard Dragoons, Queen
+Victoria's Own.  The British lost 43 killed and wounded.  Among the
+dead were Major Swetenham and Captain Michell of the 12th Lancers.
+Colonel Wormald of the same regiment was wounded.  The excited
+troopers rode back triumphantly between the guns of J Battery, the
+cavalrymen exchanging cheers with the horse-gunners as they passed,
+and brandishing their blood-stained weapons.
+
+On the evening before this brisk skirmish, the flank-guards of the
+British saw a considerable body of troops in dark clothing upon their
+left, and shortly afterwards perceived the shell-bursts of a rapid
+and effective fire over the pursuing German batteries.  It was the
+first contact with the advancing French.  These men consisted of the
+Sixty-first and Sixty-second {123} French Reserve Divisions, and were
+the van of a considerable army under General D'Amade.  From that
+moment the British forces were at last enabled, after a week of
+constant marching, covering sometimes a good thirty miles a day, and
+four days of continual fighting against extreme odds, to feel that
+they had reached a zone of comparative quiet.
+
+[Sidenote: The news in Great Britain.]
+
+The German cavalry still followed the Army upon its southerly march,
+but there was no longer any fear of a disaster, for the main body of
+the Army was unbroken, and the soldiers were rather exasperated than
+depressed by their experience.  On the Friday and Saturday, however,
+August 28 and 29, considerable crowds of stragglers and fugitives,
+weary and often weaponless, appeared upon the lines of communication,
+causing the utmost consternation by their stories and their
+appearance.  Few who endured the mental anxiety caused in Great
+Britain by the messages of Sunday, August 30, are likely to forget
+it.  The reports gave an enormous stimulus to recruiting, and it is
+worthy of record and remembrance that, in the dark week which
+followed before the true situation was clearly discerned, every
+successive day brought as many recruits to the standards as are
+usually gained in a year.  Such was the rush of men that the
+authorities, with their many preoccupations, found it very difficult
+to deal with them.  A considerable amount of hardship and discomfort
+was the result, which was endured with good humour until it could be
+remedied.  It is to be noted in this connection that it was want of
+arms which held back the new armies.  He who compares the empty
+arsenals of Britain with the huge extensions of Krupp's, undertaken
+during the years before the war, will {124} find the final proof as
+to which Power deliberately planned it.
+
+To return to the fortunes of the men retreating from Le Cateau, the
+colonels and brigadiers had managed to make order out of what was
+approaching to chaos on the day that the troops left St. Quentin.
+The feet of many were so cut and bleeding that they could no longer
+limp along, so some were packed into a few trains available and
+others were hoisted on to limbers, guns, wagons, or anything with
+wheels, some carts being lightened of ammunition or stores to make
+room for helpless men.  In many cases the whole kits of the officers
+were deliberately sacrificed.  Many men were delirious from
+exhaustion and incapable of understanding an order.  By the evening
+of the 27th the main body of the troops were already fifteen miles
+south of the Somme river and canal, on the line Nesle-Ham-Flavy.  All
+day there was distant shelling from the pursuers, who sent their
+artillery freely forward with their cavalry.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+{125}
+
+[Illustration: Line of Retreat from Mons]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+On the 28th the Army continued its retreat to the line of the Oise
+near Noyon.  Already the troops were re-forming, and had largely
+recovered their spirits, being much reassured by the declarations of
+the officers that the retreat was strategic to get them in line with
+the French, and that they would soon turn their faces northwards once
+more.  As an instance of reorganisation it was observed that the
+survivors of a brigade of artillery which had left its horses and
+guns at Le Cateau still marched together as a single disciplined unit
+among the infantry.  All day the enemy's horse artillery, cavalry,
+and motor-infantry hung on the skirts of the British, but were unable
+to make much impression.  The work of the Staff was excellent, for
+{126} it is on record that many of them had not averaged two hours'
+sleep in the twenty-four for over a week, and still they remained the
+clear and efficient brain of the Army.
+
+On the next day, the 29th, the remainder of the Army got across the
+Oise, but the enemy's advance was so close that the British cavalry
+was continually engaged.  Gough's 3rd Cavalry Brigade made several
+charges in the neighbourhood of Plessis, losing a number of men but
+stalling off the pursuit and dispersing the famous Uhlans of the
+Guard.  On this day General Pulteney and his staff arrived to take
+command of the Third Army Corps, which still consisted only of the
+Fourth Division (Snow) with the semi-independent 19th Infantry
+Brigade, now commanded by Colonel Ward, of the 1st Middlesex.  It was
+nearly three weeks later before the Third Corps was made complete.
+
+[Sidenote: The views of General Joffre.]
+
+There had been, as already mentioned, a French advance of four corps
+in the St. Quentin direction, which fought a brave covering action,
+and so helped to relieve the pressure upon the British.  It cannot be
+denied that there was a feeling among the latter that they had been
+unduly exposed, being placed in so advanced a position and having
+their flank stripped suddenly bare in the presence of the main German
+army.  General Joffre must have recognised that this feeling existed
+and that it was not unreasonable, for he came to a meeting on this
+day at the old Napoleonic Palace at Compiégne, at which Sir John
+French, with Generals Haig, Smith-Dorrien, and Allenby, was present.
+It was an assemblage of weary, overwrought men, and yet of men who
+had strength enough of mind and sufficient sense of justice to
+realise that whatever {127} weight had been thrown upon them, there
+was even more upon the great French engineer whose spirit hovered
+over the whole line from Verdun to Amiens.  Each man left the room
+more confident of the immediate future.  Shortly afterwards Joffre
+issued his kindly recognition of the work done by his Allies,
+admitting in the most handsome fashion that the flank of the long
+French line of armies had been saved by the hard fighting and
+self-sacrifice of the British Army.
+
+On August 30, the whole Army having crossed the Oise, the bridges
+over that river were destroyed, an operation which was performed
+under a heavy shell-fire, and cost the lives of several sapper
+officers and men.  No words can exaggerate what the Army owed to
+Wilson's sappers of the 56th and 57th Field Companies and 3rd Signal
+Company, as also to Tulloch's, of the 17th and 59th Companies and 5th
+Signal Company, whose work was incessant, fearless, and splendid.
+
+The Army continued to fall back on the line of the Aisne, the general
+direction being almost east and west through Crépy-en-Valois.  The
+aeroplanes, which had conducted a fine service during the whole of
+the operations, reported that the enemy was still coming rapidly on,
+and streaming southwards in the Compiégne direction.  That they were
+in touch was shown in dramatic fashion upon the early morning of
+September 1.  The epic in question deserves to be told somewhat
+fully, as being one of those incidents which are mere details in the
+history of a campaign, and yet may live as permanent inspirations in
+the life of an army.
+
+[Sidenote: Battery L.]
+
+The 1st Cavalry Brigade, greatly exhausted after screening the
+retreat so long, was encamped near Nery, {128} to the south of
+Compiégne, the bivouac being a somewhat extended one.  Two units were
+close to each other and to the brigade headquarters of General
+Briggs.  These were the hard-worked 2nd Dragoon Guards (the Bays) and
+L Battery of Horse Artillery.  _Réveillé_ was at four o'clock, and
+shortly after that hour both troopers and gunners were busy in
+leading their horses to water.  It was a misty morning, and, peering
+through the haze, an officer perceived that from the top of a low
+hill about seven hundred yards away three mounted men were looking
+down upon them.  They were the observation officers of three four-gun
+German batteries.  Before the British could realise the situation the
+guns dashed up and came into action with shrapnel at point-blank
+range.  The whole twelve poured their fire into the disordered
+bivouac before them.  The slaughter and confusion were horrible.
+Numbers of the horses and men were killed or wounded, and three of
+the guns were dismounted.  It was a most complete surprise, and
+promised to be an absolute disaster.  A body of German cavalry had
+escorted the guns, and their rifles added to the volume of fire.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+{129}
+
+[Illustration: "L" Battery Action, Sept. 1st, 1914]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+It is at such moments that the grand power of disciplined valour
+comes to bring order out of chaos.  Everything combined to make
+defence difficult--the chilling hour of the morning, the suddenness
+of the attack, its appalling severity, and the immediate loss of guns
+and men.  A sunken road ran behind the British position, and from the
+edge of this the dismounted cavalrymen brought their rifles and their
+machine-gun into action.  They suffered heavily from the pelting
+gusts of shrapnel.  Young Captain de Crespigny, the gallant cadet of
+a gallant family, {130} and many other good men were beaten down by
+it.  The sole hope lay in the guns.  Three were utterly disabled.
+There was a rush of officers and men to bring the other three into
+action.  Sclater-Booth, the major of the battery, and one lieutenant
+were already down.  Captain Bradbury took command and cheered on the
+men.  Two of the guns were at once put out of action, so all united
+to work the one that remained.  What followed was Homeric.
+Lieutenant Giffard in rushing forward was hit in four places.
+Bradbury's leg was shattered, but he lay beside the trail encouraging
+the others and giving his directions.  Lieutenant Mundy, standing
+wide as observation officer, was mortally wounded.  The limber could
+not be got alongside and the shell had to be man-handled.  In
+bringing it up Lieutenant Campbell was shot.  Immediately afterwards
+another shell burst over the gun, killed the heroic Bradbury, and
+wounded Sergeant Dorell, Driver Osborne, and Gunners Nelson and
+Derbyshire, the only remaining men.  But the fight went on.  The
+bleeding men served the gun so long as they could move, Osborne and
+Derbyshire crawling over with the shells while Nelson loaded and
+Dorell laid.  Osborne and Derbyshire fainted from loss of blood and
+lay between limber and gun.  But the fight went on.  Dorell and
+Nelson, wounded and exhausted, crouched behind the shield of the
+thirteen-pounder and kept up an incessant fire.  Now it was that the
+amazing fact became visible that all this devotion had not been in
+vain.  The cluster of Bays on the edge of the sunken road burst out
+into a cheer, which was taken up by the staff, who, with General
+Briggs himself, had come into the firing-line.  Several of the German
+pieces had gone out of action.  {131} The dying gun had wrought good
+work, as had the Maxim of the Bays in the hands of Lieutenant Lamb.
+Some at least of its opponents had been silenced before the two brave
+gunners could do no more, for their strength had gone with their
+blood.  Not only had the situation been saved, but victory had been
+assured.
+
+About eight in the morning news of the perilous situation had reached
+the 19th Brigade.  The 1st Middlesex, under Colonel Rowley, was
+hurried forward, followed by the 1st Scottish Rifles.  Marching
+rapidly upon the firing, after the good old maxim, the Middlesex
+found themselves in a position to command the German batteries.
+After two minutes of rapid fire it was seen that the enemy had left
+their guns.  Eight guns were captured, two of them still loaded.
+About a dozen German gunners lay dead or wounded round them.
+Twenty-five of the escort were captured, as was an ambulance with
+some further prisoners a mile in the rear.  The cavalry, notably the
+11th Hussars, endeavoured to follow up the success, but soon found
+themselves in the presence of superior forces.  New wheels and new
+wheelers were found for the injured guns, and Battery L came intact
+out of action--intact save for the brave acolytes who should serve
+her no more.  Bradbury, Nelson, and Dorell had the Victoria Cross,
+and never was it better earned.  The battery itself was recalled to
+England to refit and the guns were changed for new ones.  It is safe
+to say that for many a long year these shrapnel-dinted
+thirteen-pounders will serve as a monument of one of those deeds
+which, by their self-sacrifice and nobility, do something to mitigate
+the squalors and horrors of war.
+
+The success was gained at the cost of many valuable {132} lives.  Not
+only had the personnel of the battery been destroyed, but the Bays
+lost heavily, and there were some casualties among the rest of the
+brigade who had come up in support.  The 5th Dragoon Guards had 50 or
+60 casualties, and lost its admirable commander, Colonel Ansell, who
+was shot down in a flanking movement which he had initiated.  Major
+Cawley, of the staff, also fell.  The total British loss was not far
+short of 500 killed and wounded, but the Germans lost heavily also,
+and were compelled to abandon their guns.[1]
+
+
+[1] The German cavalry were the Fourth Cavalry Division, including
+the 2nd Cuirassiers, 9th Uhlans, 17th and 18th Dragoons.  They
+published in their losses for the "Combat of Néry" 643 casualties.
+This is not the complete loss, as the artillery does not seem to have
+been included.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The action of Villars-Cotteret.]
+
+The German advance guards were particularly active upon this day,
+September 1, the anniversary of Sedan.  Although the Soissons Bridge
+had been destroyed they had possession of another at Vic, and over
+this they poured in pursuit of the First Corps, overtaking about 8
+A.M. near Villars-Cotteret the rearguard, consisting of the Irish
+Guards and the 2nd Coldstream.  The whole of the 4th Guards Brigade
+was drawn into the fight, which resolved itself into a huge rifle
+duel amid thick woods, Scott-Kerr, their Brigadier, riding up and
+down the firing line.  The Guards retired slowly upon the 6th
+Infantry Brigade (Davies), which was aided by Lushington's 41st
+Brigade of Artillery, just south of Pisseleux.  The Germans had
+brought up many guns, but could make no further progress, and the
+British position was held until 6 P.M., when the rearguard closed up
+with the rest of the Army.  Lushington's guns had fought with no
+infantry in front of them, and it was a matter of great difficulty in
+the end to get them off, but it was {133} accomplished by some very
+brilliant work under an infernal fire.  After this sharp action, in
+which Colonel Morris of the Irish Guards lost his life, the retreat
+of the First Army Corps was not seriously interfered with.  The
+losses at that date in this corps amounted to 81 officers and 2180 of
+all ranks.
+
+So much attention is naturally drawn to the Second Army Corps, which
+both at Mons and at Le Cateau had endured most of the actual
+fighting, that there is some danger of the remarkable retreat
+effected by the First Corps having less than its fair share of
+appreciation.  The actual fighting was the least of the difficulties.
+The danger of one or both flanks being exposed, the great mobility of
+the enemy, the indifferent and limited roads, the want of rest, the
+difficulty of getting food cooked, the consequent absolute exhaustion
+of the men, and the mental depression combined to make it an
+operation of a most trying character, throwing an enormous strain
+upon the judgment and energy of General Haig, who so successfully
+brought his men intact and fit for service into a zone of safety.
+
+[Sidenote: Reunion of the Army.]
+
+On the night of September 1, the First and Second Army Corps were in
+touch once more at Betz, and were on the move again by 2 A.M. upon
+the 2nd.  On this morning the German advance was curiously
+interlocked with the British rear, and four German guns were picked
+up by the cavalry near Ermenonville.  They are supposed to have been
+the remaining guns of the force which attacked Battery L at Nery.
+The movements of the troops during the day were much impeded by the
+French refugees, who thronged every road in their flight before the
+German terror.  In spite of these obstructions, the rearward services
+{134} of the Army--supply columns, ammunition columns, and medical
+transport--were well conducted, and the admiration of all independent
+observers.  The work of all these departments had been greatly
+complicated by the fact that, as the Channel ports were now
+practically undefended and German troops, making towards the coast,
+had cut the main Calais-Boulogne line at Amiens, the base had been
+moved farther south from Havre to St. Nazaire, which meant shifting
+seventy thousand tons of stores and changing all arrangements.  In
+spite of this the supplies were admirable.  It may safely be said
+that if there is one officer more than another for whom the whole
+British Army felt a glow of gratitude, it was for Sir William
+Robertson, the Chief of the Commissariat, who saw that the fighting
+man was never without his rations.  Greatly also did they appreciate
+the work of his subordinates, who, wet or fine, through rainfall or
+shell-fall, passed the food forward to the weary men at the front.
+
+A difficult movement lay in front of the Army which had to cross the
+Marne, involving a flank march in the face of the enemy.  A
+retirement was still part of the general French scheme of defence,
+and the British Army had to conform to it, though it was exultantly
+whispered from officer to sergeant and from sergeant to private that
+the turn of the tide was nearly due.  On this day it was first
+observed that the Germans, instead of pushing forward, were swinging
+across to the east in the direction of Chateau-Thierry.  This made
+the task of the British a more easy one, and before evening they were
+south of the Marne and had blown up the bridges.  The movement of the
+Germans brought them down to the river, {135} but at a point some ten
+miles east of the British position.  They were reported to be
+crossing the river at La Ferté, and Sir John French continued to fall
+back towards the Seine, moving after sundown, as the heat had been
+for some days very exhausting.  The troops halted in the
+neighbourhood of Presles, and were cheered by the arrival of some
+small drafts, numbering about 2000, a first instalment towards
+refilling the great gaps in the ranks, which at this date could not
+have been less than from 12,000 to 15,000 officers and men.  Here for
+a moment this narrative may be broken, since it has taken the Army to
+the farthest point of its retreat and reached that moment of advance
+for which every officer and man, from Sir John French to the
+drummer-boys, was eagerly waiting.  With their left flank resting
+upon the extreme outer forts of Paris, the British troops had finally
+ended a retreat which will surely live in military history as a
+remarkable example of an army retaining its cohesion and courage in
+the presence of an overpowering adversary, who could never either cut
+them off or break in their rearguard.  The British Army was a small
+force when compared with the giants of the Continent, but when tried
+by this supreme test it is not mere national complacency for us to
+claim that it lived up to its own highest traditions.  "It was not to
+forts of steel and concrete that the Allies owed their strength,"
+said a German historian, writing of this phase of the war, "but to
+the magnificent qualities of the British Army."  We desire no
+compliments at the expense of our brothers-in-arms, nor would they be
+just, but at least so generous a sentence as this may be taken as an
+advance from that contemptuous view of the British Army with which
+the campaign had begun.
+
+{136}
+
+Before finally leaving the consideration of this historical retreat,
+where a small army successfully shook itself clear from the long and
+close pursuit of a remarkably gallant, mobile, and numerous enemy, it
+may be helpful to give a chronology of the events, that the reader
+may see their relation to each other.
+
+
+  HAIG'S FIRST CORPS.             SMITH-DORRIEN'S SECOND CORPS.
+
+  _August_ 22.
+
+  Get into position to the        Get into position to the
+  east of Mons, covering the      west of Mons, covering the
+  line Mons-Bray.                 line Mons-Condé.
+
+  _August_ 23.
+
+  Artillery engagement, but       Strongly attacked by Von
+  no severe attack.  Ordered      Kluck's army.  Ordered to
+  to retreat in conformity with   abandon position and fall
+  Second Corps.                   back.
+
+  _August_ 24.
+
+  Retreat with no serious         Retreat followed up by the
+  molestation upon Bavai.         Germans.  Severe rearguard
+  Here the two Corps diverged     actions at Dour, Wasmes,
+  and did not meet again till     Frameries.  Corps shook
+  they reached Betz upon          itself clear and fell back on
+  September 1.                    Bavai.
+
+  _August_ 25.
+
+  Marching all day.  Overtaken    Marching all day.  Reinforced
+  in evening at Landrecies        by Fourth Division.
+  and Maroilles by the German     Continual rearguard action
+  pursuit.  Sharp fighting.       becoming more serious towards
+                                  evening, when Cambrai-Le Cateau
+                                  line was reached.
+
+  _August_ 26.
+
+  Rearguard actions in morning.   Battle of Le Cateau.  German
+  Marching south all day,         pursuit stalled off at
+  halting at the Venerolles       heavy cost of men and guns.
+  line.                           Retreat on St. Quentin.
+
+{137}
+
+  _August_ 27.
+
+  Rearguard action in which       Marching south.  Reach
+  Munsters lost heavily.          the line Nesle-Ham-Flavy.
+  Marching south all day.
+
+  _August_ 28.
+
+  Cavalry actions to stop         Marching south, making
+  German pursuit.  Marching       for the line of the Oise near
+  south on La Fere.               Noyon.  Light rearguard
+                                  skirmishes.
+
+  _August_ 29, 30, and 31.
+
+  Marching on the line of the     Crossed Oise.  Cavalry
+  Aisne, almost east and west.    continually engaged.  General
+                                  direction through
+                                  Crépy-en-Valois.
+
+  _September_ 1.
+
+  Sharp action at Nery with       Retreat upon Paris continued.
+  German vanguard.  Later in      Late this night the
+  the day considerable infantry   two Corps unite once more at
+  action at Villars-Cotteret.     Betz.
+  Unite at Betz.
+
+  _September_ 2.
+
+  Crossed the Marne and began     Crossed the Marne and began
+  to fall back on the Seine.      to fall back on the Seine.
+  Halted near Presles.
+
+
+
+
+{138}
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE
+
+The general situation--"Die grosse Zeit"--The turn of the tide--The
+Battle of the Ourcq--The British advance--Cavalry fighting--The 1st
+Lincolns and the guns--6th Brigade's action at Hautvesnes--9th
+Brigade's capture of Germans at Vinly--The problem of the Aisne--Why
+the Marne is one of the great battles of all time.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The general situation.]
+
+There are several problems connected with the strategical opening of
+the great war which will furnish food for debate among military
+critics for many years to come.  One of these, already alluded to, is
+the French offensive taken in Alsace and Lorraine.  It ended in check
+in both cases, and yet its ultimate effects in confusing the German
+plans and deflecting German armies which might have been better used
+elsewhere may be held to justify the French in their strategy.
+
+Another remarkable and questionable move now obtrudes itself, this
+time upon the part of the Germans.  Very shortly after the outbreak
+of war, the Russians had pushed their covering armies over the
+frontier of East Prussia, and had defeated a German force at
+Gumbinnen, with a loss of prisoners and guns.  A few days later the
+left wing of the widespread, and as yet only partially mobilised,
+Russian army struck {139} heavily at the Austrians in the south near
+Lemberg, where after a week of fighting they gained a great victory,
+with prisoners, which amounted to over 70,000 men and a large booty
+of guns and supplies.  Before this blow had befallen their cause, and
+influenced only by the fact that the Russian right wing was
+encroaching upon the sacred soil of the Fatherland, a considerable
+force was detached from the invading armies in France and dispatched
+to the Eastern front.  These men were largely drawn from the Third
+(Saxon) Army of Von Haussen.  Such a withdrawal at such a time could
+only mean that the German general staff considered that the situation
+in France was assured, and that they had still sufficient means to
+carry on a victorious invasion.  Events were to show that they were
+utterly mistaken in their calculation.  It is true that, aided by
+these reinforcements, Von Hindenburg succeeded on August 31 in
+inflicting a severe defeat upon the Russians at the battle of
+Tannenberg, but subsequent events proved that such a victory could
+have no decisive result, while the weakening of the armies in France
+may have had a permanent effect upon the whole course of the war.  At
+the very moment that the Germans were withdrawing troops from their
+Western front the British and French were doing all they could to
+thicken their own line of resistance, especially by the transference
+of armies from Alsace and the south.  Thus the net result was that,
+whereas the Germans had up to August 25 a very marked superiority in
+numbers, by the beginning of September the forces were more equal.
+From that moment the chance of their taking Paris became steadily
+more and more remote.
+
+The first month of the war represented a very {140} remarkable
+military achievement upon the part of Germany.  In her high state of
+preparation as compared with the Allies, it was to be expected that
+the beginning of hostilities would be all in her favour, but the
+reality exceeded what could have been foreseen.  Her great armies
+were ready to the last button.  Up to the eve of war the soldiers did
+not themselves know what their field uniform was like.  At the last
+moment two millions of men filed into the depots and emerged in half
+an hour clad in grey, with new boots, equipment, and every possible
+need for the campaign.  On her artillery surprises she set special
+store, and they were upon a vast scale.  The machine-gun had been
+developed to an extent unknown by other armies, and of these deadly
+little weapons it is certain that very many thousands were available.
+From the tiny quick-firer, carried easily by two men upon a
+stretcher, to the vast cannon with a diameter of sixteen and a half
+inches at the mouth, taking three railway trucks for its majestic
+portage, every possible variety of man-killing engine was ready in
+vast profusion.  So, too, was the flying service, from the little
+Taube to the huge six-hundred-foot Zeppelin.  From these latter
+devices great results were expected which were not destined to
+materialise, for, apart from reconnaissances, they proved themselves
+to be machines rather for the murder of non-combatants than for
+honest warfare.
+
+[Sidenote: "Die grosse Zeit."]
+
+Making every allowance for the huge advantage which the nation that
+knows war is coming must always enjoy over those which merely fear
+that it may come, it would be foolish to deny the vast military
+achievement of Germany in the month of August.  It reflects great
+credit upon the bravery {141} and energy of her troops, as well as
+upon the foresight of her organisers and the capacity of her leaders.
+Though we are her enemies, our admiration would have been
+whole-hearted were it not for the brutalities which marked her
+advance both in Poland, in Belgium, and in France.  Consider that
+wonderful panorama of victory which was known all over the Fatherland
+as "Die grosse Zeit."  On August 10 fell the great fortress of Liége,
+on the 22nd the great fortress of Namur, early in September that of
+Maubeuge, while the smaller strongholds went down as if they were
+open cities.  On August 10 was a considerable victory at Mülhausen,
+on the 20th the Belgians were defeated at Tirlemont, on the same day
+Brussels was occupied.  On the 22nd the French central army of ten
+corps was defeated in a great battle near Charleroi, losing,
+according to the Germans, some 20,000 prisoners and 200 guns.  On the
+left flank the Crown Prince's army won the battle of Longwy, taking
+10,000 prisoners and many more guns.  On August 23 the Duke of
+Würtemberg won a battle in the Ardennes.  Upon the same date the
+British were driven from their position at Mons.  Upon the 26th they
+were defeated at Le Cateau.  Most of Belgium and the North of France
+were overrun.  Scattered parties of Uhlans made their way to the
+shores of the Atlantic spreading terror along the Channel coast.  The
+British bases were in such danger that they had to be moved.
+
+Finally, upon the last day of the month, a great battle took place at
+Tannenberg in East Prussia, in which the Russian invading army was
+almost completely destroyed.  I do not know where in history such a
+succession of victories is to be found, and our {142} horror of the
+atrocities of Louvain, Aerschot, Dinard, and so many other places
+must not blind us to the superb military achievement.
+
+It was not, it is true, an unbroken series of successes even in the
+West.  The French in the early days won a victory at Dornach in
+Alsace, and another smaller one at Dinant in the Ardennes.  They held
+the enemy in the neighbourhood of Nancy, fought a fairly equal battle
+at St. Quentin in taking the pressure off the British at the end of
+August, and had a success at Guise.  These, however, were small
+matters as compared with the sweeping tide of German victory.  But
+gradually the impetus of the rush was being stayed.  Neither the
+French nor the British lines were broken.  They grew stronger from
+compression, whilst the invaders grew weaker from diffusion.  Even as
+they hoped to reach the climax of their success, and the huge
+winning-post of the Eiffel Tower loomed up before their racing
+armies, the dramatic moment arrived, and the dauntless, high-hearted
+Allies had the reward of their constant, much-enduring valour.
+
+[Sidenote: The turn of the tide.]
+
+September 6 was a day of great elation in the armies of the Allies,
+for it marked the end of the retreat and the beginning of their
+victorious return.  It is clear that they could in no case have gone
+farther south without exposing Paris to the danger of an attack.  The
+French Government had already been transferred to Bordeaux and the
+city put into a state which promised a long and stubborn defence, but
+after the surprising rapidity of the capture of Namur there was a
+general distrust of fortresses, and it was evident that if only one
+or two of the outer ring of forts should be overwhelmed by the German
+fire, {143} the enemy would be in a position to do terrible damage to
+the city, even if they failed to occupy it.  The constant dropping of
+bombs from German aeroplanes, one of which had already injured the
+Cathedral of Notre Dame, gave a sinister forecast of the respect
+which the enemy was likely to show to the monuments of antiquity.
+
+Fortunately, the problem of investing Paris while the main French
+armies remained unbeaten in the field proved to be an insuperable
+one.  The first German task, in accordance with the prophet
+Clausewitz, was to break the French resistance.  Everything would
+follow after that, and nothing could precede it.  Von Kluck, with his
+army, comprising originally something over 200,000 men, had lost
+considerably in their conflicts with the British, and were much
+exhausted by rapid marching, but they were still in good heart, as
+the roads over which they passed seemed to offer ample evidence that
+their enemy was in full flight before them.  Knowing that they had
+hit the British hard, they hoped that, for a time at least, they
+might disregard them, and, accordingly, they ventured to close in, by
+a flank march, on to the other German armies to the east of them, in
+order to combine against the main line of French resistance and to
+make up the gaps of those corps which had been ordered to East
+Prussia.  But the bulldog, though weary and somewhat wounded, was
+still watching with bloodshot eyes.  He now sprang suddenly upon the
+exposed flank of his enemy and got a grip which held firm for many a
+day to come.
+
+Without going into complicated details of French strategy, which
+would be outside the scope of this work, it may be generally stated
+that the whole {144} French line, which had stretched on August 22
+from Namur along the line of the Sambre to Charleroi and had retired
+with considerable loss before the German advance, was now extended in
+seven separate armies from Verdun to the west of Paris.
+
+General Joffre had assembled Maunoury's Sixth Army, which consisted
+of the Seventh Regular Corps, one reserve corps, and three
+territorial divisions, with Sordet's cavalry, in the neighbourhood of
+Amiens, and at the end of the month they lay with their right upon
+Roye.  Thus, when Von Kluck swerved to his left, this army was on the
+flank of the whole great German line which extended to Verdun.  Next
+to this Sixth Army and more to the south-east were the British, now
+no longer unsupported, but with solid French comrades upon either
+side of them.  Next to the British, counting from the left or
+westward end of the defensive line, was the Fifth French Army under
+General d'Esperey, of four corps, with Conneau's cavalry forming the
+link between.  These three great bodies, the French Sixth, the
+British, and the French Fifth, were in touch during the subsequent
+operations, and moved forward in close co-operation upon September 6.
+Their operations were directed against the First (Von Kluck's) and
+Second (Von Bülow's) Armies.  On the right of the Fifth French Army
+came another extra, produced suddenly by the prolific Joffre and
+thrust into the centre of the line.  This was General Foch's Seventh,
+three corps strong, which joined to the eastward General Langlé de
+Cary's Fourth Army.  Opposed to them were the remains of Von
+Haussen's Third Saxon Army and the Prince of Würtemberg's Fourth
+Army.  Eastward of this, on the farther side of the great plain of
+{145} Chalons, a place of evil omen for the Huns, were the Third
+(Sarrail), Second (Castelnau), and First (Dubail) French Armies,
+which faced the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh German, commanded
+respectively by the Crown Prince of Prussia, the Crown Prince of
+Bavaria, and General von Heeringen.  Such were the mighty lines which
+were destined to swing and sway for an eventful week in the strain of
+a close-locked fight.
+
+[Sidenote: The Battle of the Ourcq.]
+
+The eastern portion of this great battle is outside the scope of this
+account, but it may briefly be stated that after murderous fighting
+neither the French nor the German lines made any marked advance in
+the extreme east, but that the Crown Prince's army was driven back by
+Dubail, Sarrail, and Castelnau from all its advanced positions, and
+held off from Nancy and Verdun, which were his objectives.  It was at
+the western end of the Allied line that the strategical position was
+most advantageous and the result most marked.  In all other parts of
+that huge line the parallel battle prevailed.  Only in the west were
+the Germans outflanked, and the shock of the impact of the Sixth
+French Army passed down from Meaux to Verdun as the blow of the
+engine's buffer sends the successive crashes along a line of trucks.
+This French army was, as already stated, upon the extreme outside
+right of Von Kluck's army, divided from it only by the River Ourcq.
+This was the deciding factor in the subsequent operations.
+
+By mid-day upon September 6, according to the dispatch of Sir John
+French, the Germans had realised their dangerous position.  The
+British Army, consisting of five divisions and five cavalry brigades,
+with its depleted ranks filled up with reinforcements and some of its
+lost guns replaced, was advancing {146} from the south through the
+forest of Crécy, men who had limped south with bleeding feet at two
+miles an hour changing their gait to three or four now that they were
+bound northward.  The general movement of the Army cannot, however,
+be said to have been rapid.  Von Kluck had placed nothing more
+substantial than a cavalry screen of two divisions in front of them,
+while he had detached a strong force of infantry and artillery to
+fight a rearguard action against the Sixth French Army and prevent it
+from crossing the Ourcq.
+
+The desperate struggle of September 6, 7, 8, and 9 between Von Kluck
+and Maunoury may be looked upon as the first turning-point of the
+war.  Von Kluck had originally faced Maunoury with his Fourth Reserve
+Corps on the defensive.  Recognising how critical it was that
+Maunoury should be crushed, he passed back two more army corps--the
+Seventh and Second--across the Ourcq, and fell upon the French with
+such violence that for two days it was impossible to say which side
+would win.  Maunoury and his men fought magnificently, and the
+Germans showed equal valour.  At one time the situation seemed
+desperate, but 20,000 men, odds and ends of every kind--Republican
+Guards, gendarmes, and others--were rushed out from Paris in a
+five-mile line of automobiles, and the action was restored.  Only on
+the morning of the 10th did the Germans withdraw in despair, held in
+their front by the brave Maunoury, and in danger of being cut off by
+the British to the east of them.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+{147}
+
+[Illustration: British Advance during the Battle of the Marne]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+[Sidenote: The British advance.]
+
+The advance of the British upon September 6 was made in unison with
+that of the Fifth French Army (D'Esperey's) upon the right, and was
+much facilitated {148} by the fact that Von Kluck had to detach the
+strong force already mentioned to deal with Maunoury upon the left.
+The British advanced with the Fourth Division upon the left, the
+Second Corps in the centre and the First Corps upon the right.  The
+high banks of the Grand Morin were occupied without serious fighting,
+and the whole line pushed forward for a considerable distance,
+halting on the Coulommiers-Maisoncelles front.  The brunt of the
+fighting during the day was borne by the French on either wing, the
+Third and Fourth German Corps being thrown back by D'Esperey's men,
+among whom the Senegal regiments particularly distinguished
+themselves.  The fighting in this section of the field continued far
+into the night.
+
+On September 7 the British and the Fifth French were still moving
+northwards, while the Sixth French were continuing their bitter
+struggle upon the Ourcq.  The British infantry losses were not heavy,
+though a hidden battery cost the South Lancashires of the 7th Brigade
+forty-one casualties.  Most of the fighting depended upon the
+constant touch between the British cavalry and the German.  It was
+again the French armies upon each flank who did the hard work during
+this eventful day, the first of the German retreat.  The Sixth Army
+were all day at close grips with Von Kluck, while the Fifth drove the
+enemy back to the line of the Petit Morin River, carrying
+Vieux-Maisons at the point of the bayonet.  Foch's army, still
+farther to the east, was holding its own in a desperate defensive
+battle.
+
+[Sidenote: Cavalry fighting.]
+
+Of the cavalry skirmishes upon this day one deserves some special
+record.  The 2nd Cavalry Brigade (De Lisle) was acting at the time as
+flank {149} guard with the 9th Lancers in front.  Coming into contact
+with some German dragoons near the village of Moncel, there followed
+a face-to-face charge between two squadrons, each riding through the
+other.  The American, Coleman, who saw the encounter, reckons the
+odds in numbers to have been two to one against the Lancers.  The
+British Colonel Campbell was wounded, and the adjutant, Captain
+Reynolds, transfixed through the shoulder by a lance.  While drawing
+the weapon out Captain Allfrey was killed.  The other casualties were
+slight, and those of the German dragoons were considerably greater.
+This example of shock tactics was almost instantly followed by an
+exhibition of those mounted rifleman tactics which have been
+cultivated of late years.  A squadron of the 18th Hussars, having
+dismounted, was immediately charged by a German squadron in close
+order.  About 70 Germans charged, and 32 were picked up in front of
+the dismounted Hussars, while the few who passed through the firing
+line were destroyed by the horse-holders.  It may fairly be argued
+that had the two squadrons met with shock tactics, no such crushing
+effect could possibly have been attained.  It is interesting that in
+one morning two incidents should have occurred which bore so directly
+upon the perennial dispute between the partisans of the _arme
+blanche_ and those of the rifle.
+
+On the 8th the orders were to advance towards Chateau-Thierry and to
+endeavour to reach the Marne.  The Germans were retreating fast, but
+rather on account of their generally faulty strategical position than
+from tactical compulsion, and they covered themselves with continual
+rearguard actions, especially along the line of the Petit Morin.  It
+is one of {150} the noticeable results, however, of the use of
+aircraft that the bluff of a rearguard has disappeared and that it is
+no longer possible to make such a retreat as Massena from Torres
+Vedras, where the pursuer never knew if he were striking at a
+substance or a shadow.  Gough's Second Cavalry Division, which
+consisted of the 3rd and 5th Brigades, swept along, and the infantry
+followed hard at the heels of the horses, Doran's 8th Brigade
+suffering the loss of about 100 men when held up at the crossing of
+the Petit Morin River near Orly, which they traversed eventually
+under an effective covering fire from J Battery, R.H.A.
+
+The First Army Corps upon this day forced the Petit Morin at two
+places, both near La Trétoire, north of Rebaix.  The First Division
+secured the passage at Sablonnières, where the Black Watch seized the
+heights, causing the German rearguard some losses and taking 60
+prisoners.  The Second Division met with considerable resistance, but
+the 2nd Worcesters got over at Le Gravier and the 2nd Grenadier
+Guards at La Forge.  The enemy was then driven from the river bank
+into the woods, where they were practically surrounded and had
+eventually to surrender.  Eight machine-guns and 350 prisoners, many
+of them from the Guards' Jaeger Battalion, were captured.  Six of
+these machine-guns fell to the Irish Guards.
+
+The Second Army Corps passed the Petit Morin near St. Cyr and St.
+Ouen, the 13th Brigade attacking the former and the 14th the latter,
+both being villages on the farther side of the river.  Such fighting
+as there was in this quarter came largely to the 1st East Surrey and
+1st Cornwalls, of the 14th Brigade, {151} but the resistance was not
+great, and was broken by the artillery fire.  To the soldiers engaged
+the whole action was more like a route march with occasional
+deployments than a battle.
+
+On the 9th the Army was up to the Marne and was faced with the
+problem of crossing it.  The operations extending over many miles
+were unimportant in detail, though of some consequence in the mass.
+The real hard fighting was falling upon the Sixth French Army north
+of Ligny, which was still in desperate conflict with the German
+right, and upon Foch's army, which was fighting magnificently at
+Fère-Champenoise.  The advance of the British, and their own
+exertions, caused the Germans to retire and cleared the passage over
+the Ourcq for our Allies.  The chief losses during the day upon the
+British side fell upon the Guards' Brigade, the 1st Lincolns, and the
+1st Cornwalls, most of which were inflicted by invisible quick-firing
+batteries shrouded by the woods which flank the river.  The latter
+regiment lost Colonel Turner, Major Cornish-Bowden, and a number of
+other killed or wounded in a brilliant piece of woodland fighting,
+where they drove in a strong German rearguard.  The 1st East Surrey,
+who were very forward in the movement, were also hard hit, having 6
+officers and about 120 men out of action.
+
+[Sidenote: The 1st Lincolns and the guns.]
+
+The British infantry was able on this day to show that woods may
+serve for other purposes besides hiding batteries.  The 1st Lincolns,
+being held up a rapid and accurate fire from invisible guns,
+dispatched two companies, C and D, to make in single file a detour
+under the shelter of the trees.  Coming behind the battery, which
+appears to have had no immediate support, they poured in a rapid fire
+at {152} two hundred and fifty yards, which laid every man of the
+German gunners upon the ground.  The whole battery was captured.  The
+casualties of the Lincolns in this dashing exploit, which included
+Captains Hoskyns and Ellison, with Lieutenant Thruston, were
+unavoidably caused by British shrapnel, our gunners knowing nothing
+of the movement.
+
+On this date (September 9) both the First and the Second Army Corps
+were across the Marne, and advanced some miles to the north of it,
+killing, wounding, or capturing many hundreds of the enemy.  The
+Sixth French Army was, as stated, fighting hard upon the Ourcq, but
+the Fifth had won a brilliant success near Montmirail and driven the
+enemy completely over the river.
+
+Pulteney's Third Corps, still a division short, had been held up by
+the destruction of the bridges at La Ferté, but on September 10 they
+were across and the whole Army sweeping northwards.  The cavalry
+overrode all resistance and rounded up a number of prisoners, over
+2000 in all.  It was a strange reversal of fortune, for here within a
+fortnight were the same two armies playing the converse parts, the
+British eagerly pushing on with a flushed consciousness of victory,
+while the Germans, tired and dispirited, scattered in groups among
+the woods or were gathered up from the roadsides.  It was a day of
+mist and rain, with muddy, sodden roads, but all weather is fine
+weather to the army that is gaining ground.  An impression of
+complete German demoralisation became more widespread as transport,
+shells, and even guns were found littering the high-roads, and yet
+there was really even less cause for it than when the same delusion
+was held by the Germans.  The {153} enemy were actually making a
+hurried but orderly retreat, and these signs of disaster were only
+the evidence of a broken rearguard resistance.  German armies do not
+readily dissolve.  There is no more cohesive force in the world.  But
+they were undoubtedly hard pressed.
+
+[Sidenote: 6th Brigade's action at Hautvesnes.]
+
+About eight o'clock upon the morning of the 10th the 6th Brigade
+(Davies') observed a column of the enemy's infantry on a parallel
+road near the village of Hautvesnes.  Artillery fire was at once
+opened upon them, and a vigorous infantry attack, the 1st Rifles
+advancing direct with the 1st Berkshires on their right, whilst the
+1st King's Liverpool worked round each flank in Boer fashion.  The
+2nd Staffords were in support.  The Germans had taken refuge in a
+sunken road, but they were mercilessly lashed by shrapnel, and 400 of
+them ran forward with their hands up.  The sunken road was filled
+with their dead and wounded.  Some hundreds streamed away across
+country, but these were mostly gathered up by the Third Division on
+the left.
+
+In this brisk little action the 50th R.F.A., and later the whole of
+the 34th Brigade R.F.A., put in some fine work, the shrapnel-fire
+being most deadly and accurate.  The British had pushed their guns
+freely forward with their cavalry and did much execution with them,
+though they had the misfortune on this same date, the 10th, to lose,
+by the answering shell-fire of the enemy, General Findlay, artillery
+commander of the First Division.  In this second action, in which the
+German rearguard, infantry as well as artillery, was engaged, the 2nd
+Sussex Regiment, which was leading the First Division, sustained
+considerable losses near Courchamps or {154} Priez, as did the 1st
+Northamptons and the 1st North Lancashires.  Some 300 of Bulfin's 2nd
+Brigade were hit altogether, among whom was Colonel Knight, of the
+North Lancashires.  The enemy came under heavy fire, both from the
+infantry and from the guns, so that their losses were considerable,
+and several hundred of them were captured.  The country was very
+hilly, and the roads so bad that in the exhausted state of men and
+horses the pursuit could not be sufficiently pressed.  Thirty large
+motor cars were seen at Priez in front of the 2nd Brigade, carrying
+the enemy's rearguard.
+
+[Sidenote: 9th Brigade's capture of Germans at Vinly.]
+
+On this same date the 9th Brigade captured 600 German infantry, the
+survivors of a battalion, at the village of Vinly.  This seems to
+have been an incident of the same character as the loss of the
+Cheshires or of the Munsters in the British retreat, where a body of
+troops fighting a covering action was left too long, or failed to
+receive the orders for its withdrawal.  The defence was by no means a
+desperate one, and few of the attacking infantry were killed or
+wounded.  On this date the Fifth and Sixth French Armies were hardly
+engaged at all, and the whole Allied Force, including General Foch's
+Seventh French Army on the right of the Fifth, were all sweeping
+along together in a single rolling steel-crested wave, composed of at
+least twelve army corps, whilst nine German corps (five of Von Kluck
+and four of Bülow) retired swiftly before them, hurrying towards the
+chance of re-forming and refitting which the Aisne position would
+afford them.
+
+On September 11 the British were still advancing upon a somewhat
+narrowed front.  There was no opposition and again the day bore a
+considerable {155} crop of prisoners and other trophies.  The weather
+had become so foggy that the aircraft were useless, and it is only
+when these wonderful scouters are precluded from rising that a
+general realises how indispensable they have become to him.  As a wit
+expressed it, they have turned war from a game of cards into a game
+of chess.  It was still very wet, and the Army was exposed to
+considerable privation, most of the officers and men having neither
+change of clothing, overcoats, nor waterproof sheets, while the
+blowing up of bridges on the lines of communication had made it
+impossible to supply the wants.  The undefeatable commissariat,
+however, was still working well, which means that the Army was doing
+the same.  On the 12th the pursuit was continued as far as the River
+Aisne.  Allenby's cavalry occupied Braine in the early morning, the
+Queen's Bays being particularly active, but there was so much
+resistance that the Third Division was needed to make the ground
+good.  Gough's Cavalry Division also ran into the enemy near
+Chassemy, killing or capturing several hundred of the German
+infantry.  In these operations Captain Stewart, whose experience as
+an alleged spy has been mentioned, met with a soldier's death.  On
+this day the Sixth French Army was fighting a considerable action
+upon the British left in the vicinity of Soissons, the Germans making
+a stand in order to give time for their impedimenta to get over the
+river.  In this they succeeded, so that when the Allied Forces
+reached the Aisne, which is an unfordable stream some sixty yards
+from bank to bank, the retiring army had got across it, had destroyed
+most of the bridges, and showed every sign of being prepared to
+dispute the crossing.
+
+{156}
+
+[Sidenote: The problem of the Aisne.]
+
+Missy Bridge, facing the Fifth Division, appeared at first to be
+intact, but a daring reconnaissance by Lieutenant Pennecuick, of the
+Engineers, showed that it was really badly damaged.  Condé Bridge was
+intact, but was so covered by a high horse-shoe formation of hills
+upon the farther side that it could not be used, and remained
+throughout under control of the enemy.  Bourg Bridge, however, in
+front of the First Army Corps, had for some unexplained reason been
+left undamaged, and this was seized in the early morning of September
+13 by De Lisle's cavalry, followed rapidly by Bulfin's 2nd Brigade.
+It was on the face of it a somewhat desperate enterprise which lay
+immediately in front of the British general.  If the enemy were still
+retreating he could not afford to slacken his pursuit, while, on the
+other hand, if the enemy were merely making a feint of resistance,
+then, at all hazards, the stream must be forced and the rearguard
+driven in.  The German infantry could be seen streaming up the roads
+on the farther bank of the river, but there were no signs of what
+their next disposition might be.  Air reconnaissance was still
+precluded, and it was impossible to say for certain which alternative
+might prove to be correct, but Sir John French's cavalry training
+must incline him always to the braver course.  The officer who rode
+through the Boers to Kimberley and threw himself with his weary men
+across the path of the formidable Kronje was not likely to stand
+hesitating upon the banks of the Aisne.  His personal opinion was
+that the enemy meant to stand and fight, but none the less the order
+was given to cross.
+
+September 13 was spent in arranging this dashing {157} and dangerous
+movement.  The British got across eventually in several places and by
+various devices.  Bulfin's men, followed by the rest of the First
+Division of Haig's Army Corps, passed the canal bridge of Bourg with
+no loss or difficulty.  The 11th Brigade of Pulteney's Third Corps
+got across by a partially demolished bridge and ferry at Venizel.
+They were followed by the 12th Brigade, who established themselves
+near Bucy.  The 13th Brigade was held up at Missy, but the 14th got
+across and lined up with the men of the Third Corps in the
+neighbourhood of Ste. Marguerite, meeting with a considerable
+resistance from the Germans.  Later, Count Gleichen's 15th Brigade
+also got across.  On the right Hamilton got over with two brigades of
+the Third Division, the 8th Brigade crossing on a single plank at
+Vailly and the 9th using the railway bridge, while the whole of
+Haig's First Corps had before evening got a footing upon the farther
+bank.  So eager was the advance and so inadequate the means that
+Haking's 5th Brigade, led by the Connaught Rangers, was obliged to
+get over the broad and dangerous river, walking in single file along
+the sloping girder of a ruined bridge, under a heavy, though distant,
+shell-fire.  The night of September 13 saw the main body of the Army
+across the river, already conscious of a strong rearguard action, but
+not yet aware that the whole German Army had halted and was turning
+at bay.  On the right De Lisle's cavalrymen had pushed up the slope
+from Bourg Bridge and reached as far as Vendresse, where they were
+pulled up by the German lines.
+
+It has been mentioned above that the 11th and 12th Brigades of the
+Fourth Division had passed the {158} river at Venizel.  These troops
+were across in the early afternoon, and they at once advanced, and
+proved that in that portion of the field the enemy were undoubtedly
+standing fast.  The 11th Brigade, which was more to the north, had
+only a constant shell-fall to endure, but the 12th, pushing forward
+through Bucy-le-long, found itself in front of a line of woods from
+which there swept a heavy machine-gun- and rifle-fire.  The advance
+was headed by the 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers, supported by the 2nd
+Inniskilling Fusiliers.  It was across open ground and under heavy
+fire, but it was admirably carried out.  In places where the
+machine-guns had got the exact range the stricken Fusiliers lay dead
+or wounded with accurate intervals, like a firing-line on a
+field-day.  The losses were heavy, especially in the Lancashire
+Fusiliers.  Colonel Griffin was wounded, and 5 of his officers with
+250 men were among the casualties.  It should be recorded that fresh
+supplies of ammunition were brought up at personal risk by Colonel
+Seely, late Minister of War, in his motor-car.  The contest continued
+until dusk, when the troops waited for the battle of next day under
+such cover as they could find.
+
+The crossing of the stream may be said, upon the one side, to mark
+the end of the battle and pursuit of the Marne, while, on the other,
+it commenced that interminable Battle of the Aisne which was destined
+to fulfil Bloch's prophecies and to set the type of all great modern
+engagements.  The prolonged struggles of the Manchurian War had
+prepared men's minds for such a development, but only here did it
+first assume its full proportions and warn us that the battle of the
+future was to be the siege of the past.  {159} Men remembered with a
+smile Bernhardi's confident assertion that a German battle would be
+decided in one day, and that his countrymen would never be
+constrained to fight in defensive trenches.
+
+The moral effect of the Battle of the Marne was greater than its
+material gains.  The latter, so far as the British were concerned,
+did not exceed 5000 prisoners, 20 guns, and a quantity of transport.
+The total losses, however, were very heavy.  The Germans had
+perfected a method of burning their dead with the aid of petrol.
+These numerous holocausts over the country-side were found afterwards
+by the peasants to have left mounds of charred animal matter which
+were scattered by their industrious hands on the fields which they
+might help to fertilise.  The heat of cremation had dissolved the
+bones, but the teeth in most cases remained intact, so that over an
+area of France it was no uncommon thing to see them gleaming in the
+clods on either side of the new-cut furrow.  Had the ring of
+high-born German criminals who planned the war seen in some
+apocalyptic vision the detailed results of their own villainy, it is
+hard to doubt that even their hearts and consciences would have
+shrunk from the deed.
+
+Apart from the losses, the mere fact that a great German army had
+been hustled across thirty miles of country, had been driven from
+river to river, and had finally to take refuge in trenches in order
+to hold their ground, was a great encouragement to the Allies.  From
+that time they felt assured that with anything like equal numbers
+they had an ascendancy over their opponents.  Save in the matter of
+heavy guns and machine-guns, there was not a single arm {160} in
+which they did not feel that they were the equals or the superiors.
+Nor could they forget that this foe, whom they were driving in the
+open and holding in the trenches, was one who had rushed into the war
+with men and material all carefully prepared for this day of battle,
+while their own strength lay in the future.  If the present was
+bright, it would surely be incomparably brighter when the reserves of
+France and the vast resources of the British Empire were finally
+brought into line.  There had never from the beginning been a doubt
+of final victory, but from this time on it became less an opinion and
+more a demonstrable and mathematical certainty.
+
+[Sidenote: Why the Marne is one of the great battles of all time.]
+
+The battle must also be regarded as a fixed point in military
+history, since it was the first time since the days of the great
+Napoleon that a Prussian army had been turned and driven.  In three
+successive wars--against the Danes, the Austrians, and the
+French--they had lived always in the warm sunshine of success.  Now,
+at last, came the first chill of disaster.  Partly from their
+excellent military qualities, but even more on account of their
+elaborate and methodical preparations, joined with a want of scruple
+which allowed them to force a war at the moment when they could take
+their adversary at a disadvantage, they had established a legend of
+invincibility.  This they left behind them with their cannon and
+their prisoners between the Marne and the Aisne.  It had been feared
+that free men, trained in liberal and humane methods, could never
+equal in military efficiency those who had passed through the savage
+discipline which is the heritage of the methods that first made
+Prussia great at the expense {161} of her neighbours.  This shadow
+was henceforth for ever lifted from men's minds, and it was shown
+that the kindly comradeship which exists in the Western armies
+between officers and men was not incompatible with the finest
+fighting qualities of which any soldiers are capable.
+
+
+
+
+{162}
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE BATTLE OF THE AISNE
+
+The hazardous crossing of the Aisne--Wonderful work of the
+sappers--The fight for the sugar factory--General advance of the
+Army--The 4th (Guards) Brigade's difficult task--Cavalry as a mobile
+reserve--The Sixth Division--Hardships of the Army--German breach of
+faith--_Tâtez toujours_--The general position--Attack upon the West
+Yorks--Counter-attack by Congreve's 18th Brigade--Rheims
+Cathedral--Spies--The siege and fall of Antwerp.
+
+
+[Sidenote: The hazardous crossing of the Aisne.]
+
+The stretch of river which confronted the British Army when they set
+about the hazardous crossing of the Aisne was about fifteen miles in
+length.  It lay as nearly as possible east and west, so that the
+advance was from south to north.  As the British faced the river the
+First Army Corps was on the right of their line, together with half
+the cavalry.  In the centre was the Second Corps, on the left the
+Third Corps, which was still without one of its divisions (the
+Sixth), but retained, on the other hand, the 19th Brigade, which did
+not belong to it.  Each of these British corps covered a front of,
+roughly, five miles.  Across the broad and swift river a considerable
+German army with a powerful artillery was waiting to dispute the
+passage.  On the right of the British were the French Fifth and
+Seventh Armies, and on their left, forming the extremity of the
+Allied line, was the French Sixth Army, acting in such close
+co-operation {163} with the British Third Corps in the Soissons
+region that their guns were often turned upon the same point.  This
+Sixth French Army, with the British Army, may be looked upon as the
+left wing of the huge Allied line which stretched away with many a
+curve and bend to the Swiss frontier.  During all this hurried
+retreat from the Marne, it is to be remembered that the Eastern
+German armies had hardly moved at all.  It was their four armies of
+the right which had swung back like a closing door, the Crown
+Prince's Fifth Army being the hinge upon which it turned.  Now the
+door had ceased to swing, and one solid barrier presented itself to
+the Allies.  It is probable that the German preponderance of numbers
+was, for the moment, much lessened or even had ceased to exist, for
+the losses in battle, the detachments for Russia, and the operations
+in Belgium had all combined to deplete the German ranks.
+
+The Belgian Army had retired into Antwerp before the fall of
+Brussels, but they were by no means a force to be disregarded, being
+fired by that sense of intolerable wrong which is the most formidable
+stimulant to a virile nation.  From the shelter of the Antwerp
+entrenchments they continually buzzed out against the German lines of
+communication, and although they were usually beaten back, and were
+finally pent in, they still added to the great debt of gratitude
+which the Allies already owed them by holding up a considerable body,
+two army corps at least, of good troops.  On the other hand, the
+fortress of Maubeuge, on the northern French frontier, which had been
+invested within a few days of the battle of Mons, had now fallen
+before the heavy German guns, with the result that at least a corps
+of troops under {164} Von Zwehl and these same masterful guns were
+now released for service on the Aisne.
+
+[Sidenote: Wonderful work of the sappers.]
+
+The more one considers the operation of the crossing of the Aisne
+with the battle which followed it, the more one is impressed by the
+extraordinary difficulty of the task, the swift debonair way in which
+it was tackled, and the pushful audacity of the various commanders in
+gaining a foothold upon the farther side.  Consider that upon the
+12th the Army was faced by a deep, broad, unfordable river with only
+one practicable bridge in the fifteen miles opposite them.  They had
+a formidable enemy armed with powerful artillery standing on the
+defensive upon a line of uplands commanding every crossing and
+approach, whilst the valley was so broad that ordinary guns upon the
+corresponding uplands could have no effect, and good positions lower
+down were hard to find.  There was the problem.  And yet upon the
+14th the bulk of the Army was across and had established itself in
+positions from which it could never afterwards be driven.  All arms
+must have worked well to bring about such a result, but what can be
+said of the Royal Engineers, who built under heavy fire in that brief
+space nine bridges, some of them capable of taking heavy traffic,
+while they restored five of the bridges which the enemy had
+destroyed!  September 13, 1914, should be recorded in their annals as
+a marvellous example of personal self-sacrifice and technical
+proficiency.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+{165}
+
+[Illustration: British Advance at the Aisne]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Sir John French, acting with great swiftness and decision, did not
+lose an hour after he had established himself in force upon the
+northern bank of the river in pushing his men ahead and finding out
+what was in front of him.  The weather was still very wet, {166} and
+heavy mists drew a veil over the German dispositions, but the advance
+went forward.  The British right wing, consisting of the First
+Division of the First Corps, had established itself most securely, as
+was natural, since it was the one corps which had found an unbroken
+bridge in front of it.  The First Division had pushed forward as far
+as Moulins and Vendresse, which lie about two miles north of the
+river.  Now, in the early hours of the 14th, the whole of the Second
+Division got over.  The immediate narrative, therefore, is concerned
+with the doings of the two divisions of the First Corps, upon which
+fell the first and chief strain of the very important and dangerous
+advance upon that date.
+
+On the top of the line of chalk hills which faced the British was an
+ancient and famous highway, the Chemin-des-dames, which, like all
+ancient highways, had been carried along the crest of the ridge.
+This was in the German possession, and it became the objective of the
+British attack.  The 2nd Infantry Brigade (Bulfin's) led the way,
+working upwards in the early morning from Moulins and Vendresse
+through the hamlet of Troyon towards the great road.  This brigade,
+consisting of the 2nd Sussex, 1st Northamptons, 1st North Lancashire,
+and 2nd Rifles, drawn mostly from solid shire regiments, was second
+to none in the Army.  Just north of Troyon was a considerable
+deserted sugar factory, which formed a feature in the landscape.  It
+lay within a few hundred yards of the Chemin-des-dames, while another
+winding road, cut in the side of the hill, lay an equal distance to
+the south of it, and was crossed by the British in their advance.
+This road, which was somewhat sunken in the chalk, and thus offered
+some cover {167} to a crouching man, played an important part in the
+operations.
+
+[Sidenote: The fight for the sugar factory.]
+
+Lieutenant Balfour and a picket of the 2nd Rifles, having crept up
+and reconnoitred the factory, returned with the information that it
+was held by the Germans, and that twelve guns were in position three
+hundred yards to the east of it.  General Bulfin then--it was about
+3.30 in the morning of a wet, misty day--sent the 2nd Rifles, the 2nd
+Sussex Regiment, and the 1st Northamptons forward, with the factory
+and an adjoining whitewashed farmhouse as their objective.  The 1st
+North Lancashires remained in reserve at Vendresse.  The attacking
+force was under the immediate command of Colonel Serocold of the
+Rifles.  The three advanced regiments drove in the pickets of the
+Germans, and after a severe fight turned the enemy out of his front
+trench, A Company of the Sussex capturing several hundred prisoners.
+A number of men, however, including Colonel Montresor and Major
+Cookson, were shot while rounding up these Germans and sending them
+to the rear.  The advanced line had suffered severely, so the North
+Lancashires were called up and launched at the sugar factory, which
+they carried with a magnificent bayonet attack in spite of a fierce
+German resistance.  Their losses were very heavy, including Major
+Lloyd, their commander, but their victory was a glorious one.  The
+two batteries of the enemy were now commanded by machine-guns,
+brought up to the factory by Lieutenant Dashwood of the Sussex.  The
+enemy made a brave attempt to get these guns away, but the teams and
+men were shot down, and it was a German Colenso.  The British,
+however, unlike the Boers, were unable to get away the prizes of
+their victory.  The factory {168} was abandoned as it was exposed to
+heavy fire, and the four regiments formed a firing-line, taking such
+cover as they could find, but a German shell fire developed which was
+so deadly that they were unable to get forward.
+
+A small party of Rifles, under Cathcart and Foljambe, clung hard to
+the captured guns, sending repeated messages: "For God's sake bring
+horses and fetch away these pieces!"  No horses were, however,
+available, and eventually both the guns and the buildings were
+regained by the Germans, the former being disabled before they were
+abandoned by their captors, and the factory being smashed by the
+shells.  Major Green and a company of the Sussex, with some of the
+Coldstream under Major Grant, had got as far forward as the
+Chemin-des-dames, but fell back steadily when their flank was finally
+exposed.  Two companies of the 1st Coldstream, under Colonel
+Ponsonby, had also pushed on to the road, and now came back.  Nothing
+could exceed the desperate gallantry of officers and men.  Major
+Jelf, severely wounded, cheered on his riflemen until evening.  Major
+Warre of the same regiment and Major Phillips rallied the
+hard-pressed line again and again.  Lieutenant Spread, of the
+Lancashires, worked his machine-gun until it was smashed, and then,
+wounded as he was, brought up a second gun and continued the fight.
+Major Burrows rallied the Lancashires when their leader, Major Lloyd,
+was hit.  Brigade-Major Watson, of the Queen's, was everywhere in the
+thick of the firing.  No men could have been better led, nor could
+any leaders have better men.  A large number of wounded, both British
+and Germans, lay under the {169} shelter of some haystacks between
+the lines, and crawled slowly round them for shelter, as the fire
+came from one side or the other--a fitting subject surely for a
+Verestschagin!
+
+[Sidenote: General advance of the Army.]
+
+Meanwhile, it is necessary to follow what had been going on at the
+immediate left of Bulfin's Brigade.  Maxse's 1st Brigade had moved up
+in the face of a considerable fire until it came to be nearly as far
+north as the factory, but to the west of it.  The 1st Coldstream had
+been sent across to help the dismounted cavalry to cover Bulfin's
+right, since the main German strength seemed to be in that quarter.
+The 1st Scots Guards was held in reserve, but the other regiments of
+the 1st Brigade, the 1st Black Watch and the 1st Camerons, a
+battalion which had taken the place of the brave but unfortunate
+Munsters, lined up on the left of the factory and found themselves
+swept by the same devastating fire which had checked the advance.
+This fire came from the fringe of the woods and from a line of
+trenches lying north-east of the factory on the edge of the
+Chemin-des-dames.  Up to this time the British had no artillery
+support on account of the mist, but now Geddes' 25th Brigade R.F.A.,
+comprising the 113th, 114th, and 115th Batteries, was brought to its
+assistance.  It could do little good in such a dim light, and one
+battery, the 115th, under Major Johnstone, which pushed up within
+eight hundred yards of the enemy's position, was itself nearly
+destroyed.  The 116th R.F.A., under Captain Oliver, also did great
+work, working its way up till it was almost in the infantry line, and
+at one time in advance of it.  The whole infantry line, including a
+mixture of units, men of the Rifles, Sussex, and {170} North
+Lancashires, with a sprinkling of Guardsmen and Black Watch from the
+1st Brigade, came slowly down the hill--"sweating blood to hold their
+own." as one of them described it--until they reached the sunken road
+which has been already mentioned.  There General Bulfin had stationed
+himself with the reserve, and the line steadied itself, re-formed,
+and, with the support of the guns, made head once more against the
+advancing Germans, who were unable to make any progress against the
+fire which was poured into them.  With such spades and picks as could
+be got, a line of shallow trenches was thrown up, and these were held
+against all attacks for the rest of the day.[1]  It was the haphazard
+line of these hurriedly dug shelters which determined the position
+retained in the weeks to come.  As this was the apex of the British
+advance and all the corps upon the left were in turn brought to a
+standstill and driven to make trenches, the whole line of the First
+Corps formed a long diagonal slash across the hillside, with its
+right close to the Chemin-des-dames and its left upon the river in
+the neighbourhood of Chavonne.  The result was that now and always
+the trenches of the 2nd Brigade were in an extremely exposed
+position, for they were open not only to the direct fire of the
+Germans, which was not very severe, but to an enfilading fire from
+more distant guns upon each flank.  Their immediate neighbours upon
+the right were the 1st Queen's Surrey, acting as {171} flank-guard,
+and a Moroccan corps from the Fifth French Army, which had not
+reached so advanced a position, but was in echelon upon their right
+rear.
+
+
+[1] Until an accurate German military history of the war shall
+appear, it is difficult to compute the exact rival forces in any
+engagement, but in this attack of the 2nd Brigade, where six British
+regiments may be said to have been involved, there are some data.  A
+German officer, describing the same engagement, says that, apart from
+the original German force, the reinforcements amounted to fourteen
+battalions, from the Guards' Jaeger, the 4th Jaeger Battalion, 65th,
+13th Reserve, and 13th and 16th Landwehr Regiments.
+
+
+It has already been shown how the 1st Brigade was divided up, the 1st
+Coldstream being on the right of the 2nd Brigade.  The rest of the
+1st Brigade had carried out an advance parallel to that described,
+and many of the Black Watch, who were the right-hand regiment, got
+mixed with Bulfin's men when they were driven back to what proved to
+be the permanent British line.  This advance of the 1st Brigade
+intercepted a strong force of the enemy which was creeping round the
+left flank of the 2nd Brigade.  The counter-stroke brought the flank
+attack to a standstill.  The leading regiments of the 1st Brigade
+suffered very severely, however, especially the Cameron Highlanders,
+whose gallantry carried them far to the front.  This regiment lost
+Lieutenant-Colonel MacLachlan, 2 majors, Maitland and Nicholson, 3
+captains, 11 lieutenants, and about 300 rank and file in the action.
+Some of these fell into the hands of the enemy, but the great
+majority were killed or wounded.  The 1st Scots Guards upon the left
+of the brigade had also heavy casualties, while the Black Watch lost
+their Colonel, Grant Duff, their Adjutant, Rowan Hamilton, and many
+men.  When the line on their right fell back, they conformed to the
+movement until they received support from two companies of the 1st
+Gloucesters from the 3rd Brigade upon their left rear.
+
+[Sidenote: The 4th (Guards) Brigade's difficult task.]
+
+The 4th (Guards) Brigade, forming the left of the Second Division,
+was across the river in battle array by ten o'clock in the morning
+and moving northwards towards the village of Ostel.  {172} Its task
+was a supremely difficult one.  Dense woods faced it, fringed with
+the hostile riflemen, while a heavy shell-fire tore through the
+extended ranks.  It is safe to say that such an advance could not
+have been carried out in the heavy-handed German fashion without
+annihilating losses.  As it was, the casualties were heavy, but not
+sufficient to prevent a continuance of the attack, which at one
+o'clock carried the farm and trenches which were its objective.  The
+steep slopes and the thick woods made artillery support impossible,
+though one section of a battery did contrive to keep up with the
+infantry.  The 3rd Coldstream being held up in their advance on the
+Soupir front, the 1st Irish were moved up on their right flank, but
+the line could do little more than hold its own.  Captain Berners,
+Lord Guernsey, Lord Arthur Hay, and others were killed at this point.
+The German infantry advanced several times to counter-attack, but
+were swept back by the fire of the Guards.
+
+At one period it was found that the general German advance, which had
+followed the holding of the British attack, was threatening to flow
+in between the two divisions of the First Army Corps.  The 3rd
+Brigade (Landon's) was therefore deployed rapidly from the point
+about a mile south of Vernesse where it had been stationed.  Two
+regiments of the brigade, the 2nd Welsh and the 1st South Wales
+Borderers, were flung against the heavy German column advancing down
+the Beaulne ridge and threatening to cut Haig's corps in two.  The
+Welshmen, worthy successors of their ancestors who left such a name
+on the battlefields of France, succeeded in heading it off and
+driving it back so that they were {173} able to extend and get in
+touch with the right of the Second Division.  This consisted of the
+5th Brigade (Haking's) with the 6th (Davies') upon its left.  Both of
+these brigades had to bear the brunt of continual German
+counter-attacks, involving considerable losses, both from shell and
+rifle fire.  In spite of this they won their way for a mile or more
+up the slopes, where they were brought to a standstill and dug
+themselves into temporary shelter, continuing the irregular diagonal
+line of trenches which had been started by the brigades upon the
+right.
+
+[Sidenote: Cavalry as a mobile reserve.]
+
+It is impossible not to admire the way in which the German general in
+command observed and attempted to profit by any gap in the British
+line.  It has already been shown how he tried to push his column
+between the two divisions of the First Corps and was only stopped by
+the deployment of the 3rd Brigade.  Later, an even fairer chance
+presented itself, and he was quick to take advantage of it.  The
+advance of the Guards Brigade to the Ostel ridge had caused a
+considerable gap between them and the nearest unit of the Second
+Corps, and also between the First Corps and the river.  A German
+attack came swarming down upon the weak spot.  From Troyon to Ostel,
+over five miles of ground, Haig's corps was engaged to the last man
+and pinned down in their positions.  It was not possible to fill the
+gap.  Not to fill it might have meant disaster--disaster under heavy
+shell-fire with an unfordable river in the rear.  Here was a supreme
+example of the grand work that was done when our cavalry were made
+efficient as dismounted riflemen.  Their mobility brought them
+quickly to the danger spot.  Their training turned them in an instant
+from {174} horsemen to infantry.  The 15th Hussars, the Irish Horse,
+the whole of Briggs' 1st Cavalry Brigade, and finally the whole of De
+Lisle's 2nd Cavalry Brigade, were thrown into the gap.  The German
+advance was stayed and the danger passed.  From now onwards the
+echelon formed by the units of the First Corps ended with these
+cavalry brigades near Chavonne to the immediate north of the river.
+
+The Third Division of the Second Corps, being on the immediate left
+of the operations which have been already described, moved forward
+upon Aizy, which is on about the same level as Ostel, the objective
+of the Guards.  The 8th (Doran's) Brigade moved north by a tributary
+stream which runs down to the Aisne, while the 9th (Shaw's) tried to
+advance in line with it on the plateau to the right.  Both brigades
+found it impossible to get any farther, and established themselves in
+entrenchments about a mile north of Vailly, so as to cover the
+important bridge at that place, where the 7th Brigade was in reserve.
+The three Fusilier regiments of the 9th Brigade all lost heavily, and
+the Lincolns had at one time to recross the river, but recovered
+their position.
+
+The attack made by the Fifth Division near Missy was held up by a
+very strong German position among the woods on the Chivres heights
+which was fronted by wire entanglements.  The regiments chiefly
+engaged were the Norfolks and Bedfords of the 15th Brigade, with the
+Cornwalls and East Surreys of the 14th Brigade, the remains of the
+Cheshires being in close support.  They crossed the wire and made
+good progress at first, but were eventually brought to a stand by
+heavy fire at close range from a trench upon their right front.  It
+was already dusk, so the {175} troops ended by maintaining the
+position at Missy and Ste. Marguerite, where there were bridges to be
+guarded.
+
+The Fourth Division of Pulteney's Third Corps had no better success,
+and was only able to maintain its ground.  It may be remarked, as an
+example of valiant individual effort, that this division was largely
+indebted for its ammunition supply to the efforts of Captain Johnston
+of the Sappers, who, upon a crazy raft of his own construction, aided
+by Lieutenant Flint, spent twelve hours under fire ferrying over the
+precious boxes.  The familiar tale of stalemate was to be told of the
+Sixth French Army in the Soissons section of the river.  Along the
+whole Allied line the position was the same, the greatest success and
+probably the hardest fighting having fallen to the lot of the
+Eighteenth French Corps, which had taken, lost, and finally retaken
+Craonne, thus establishing itself upon the lip of that formidable
+plateau which had been the objective of all the attacks.
+
+In the Vailly region the 5th Cavalry Brigade found itself in a
+difficult position, for it had crossed the stream as a mounted unit
+in expectation of a pursuit, and now found itself under heavy fire in
+the village of Vailly with no possibility of getting forward.  The
+only alternative was to recross the river by the single narrow
+bridge, which was done at a later date under very heavy fire, the
+troopers leading their horses over in single file.  This difficult
+operation was superintended by Captain Wright of the Engineers, the
+same brave officer who had endeavoured to blow up the bridge at Mons.
+Unhappily, he was mortally wounded on this occasion.  On the
+afternoon of the 14th--it being found that the British artillery was
+{176} shelling our own advanced trenches--Staff-Captain Harter of the
+9th Brigade galloped across the bridge and informed the gunners as to
+the true position.
+
+Towards evening, in spite of the fact that there were no reserves and
+that all the troops had endured heavy losses and great fatigue, a
+general advance was ordered in the hope of gaining the high ground of
+the Chemin-des-dames before night.  It was nearly sunset when the
+orders were given, and the troops responded gallantly to the call,
+though many of them had been in action since daybreak.  The fire,
+however, was very heavy, and no great progress could be made.  The
+First Division gained some ground, but was brought to a standstill.
+The only brigade which made good headway was Haking's 5th, which
+reached the crest of the hill in the neighbourhood of
+Tilleul-de-Courtecon.  General Haking sent out scouts, and finding
+German outposts upon both his flanks, he withdrew under cover of
+darkness.
+
+Thus ended the sharp and indecisive action of September 14, the
+Germans holding their ground, but being in turn unable to drive back
+the Allies, who maintained their position and opposed an impassable
+obstacle to the renewed advance upon Paris.  The battle was marked by
+the common features of advance, arrest, and entrenchment, which
+occurred not only in the British front, but in that of the French
+armies upon either flank.  When the action ceased, the 1st
+Northamptons and the 1st Queen's, sent to guard the pressure point at
+the extreme right of the line, had actually reached the
+Chemin-des-dames, the British objective, and had dug themselves in
+upon the edge of it.  From this very advanced spot the British line
+extended diagonally across the hillside for many {177} miles until it
+reached the river.  Several hundred prisoners and some guns were
+taken in the course of the fighting.  When one considers the
+predominant position of the Germans, and that their artillery was
+able to give them constant assistance, whereas that of the British
+and French was only brought up with the utmost difficulty, we can
+only marvel that the infantry were able to win and to hold the ground.
+
+The next day, September 15, was spent for the most part in making
+good the position gained and deepening the trenches to get some
+protection from the ever-growing artillery fire, which was the more
+intense as the great siege guns from Maubeuge were upon this day, for
+the first time, brought into action.  At first the terrific
+explosions of these shells, the largest by far which had ever been
+brought into an actual line of battle, were exceedingly alarming, but
+after a time it became realised that, however omnipotent they might
+be against iron or concrete, they were comparatively harmless in soft
+soil, where their enormous excavations were soon used as convenient
+ready-made rifle-pits by the soldiers.  This heavy fire led to a
+deepening of the trenches, which necessitated a general levy of picks
+and shovels from the country round, for a large portion of such
+equipment had been lost in the first week of the campaign.
+
+[Sidenote: The Sixth Division.]
+
+Only two active movements were made in the course of the day, one
+being that Hamilton's Third Division advanced once more towards Aizy
+and established itself a mile or more to the north in a better
+tactical position.  The 7th Brigade suffered considerable casualties
+in this change, including Colonel Hasted, of the 1st Wilts.  The
+other was that Ferguson's Fifth Division fell back from Chivres,
+{178} where it was exposed to a cross fire, and made its lines along
+the river bank, whence the Germans were never able to drive it,
+although they were only four hundred yards away in a position which
+was high above it.  For the rest, it was a day of navvy's toil,
+though the men worked alternately with rifle and with pick, for there
+were continual German advances which withered away before the volleys
+which greeted them.  By the 16th the position was fairly secure, and
+on the same day a welcome reinforcement arrived in the shape of the
+Sixth Division, forming the missing half of Pulteney's Third Corps.
+
+Its composition is here appended:
+
+  DIVISION VI.--General KEIR.
+
+  _16th Infantry Brigade--General Ing. Williams._
+        1st East Kent.
+        1st Leicester.
+        1st Shropshire Light Infantry.
+        2nd York and Lancaster.
+
+  _17th Infantry Brigade--General Walter Doran._
+        1st Royal Fusiliers.
+        1st N. Stafford.
+        2nd Leinsters.
+        3rd Rifle Brigade.
+
+  _18th Infantry Brigade--General Congreve, V.C._
+        1st W. York.
+        1st E. York.
+        2nd Notts and Derby (Sherwood Foresters).
+        2nd Durham Light Infantry.
+
+  _Artillery._
+        2nd Brig. 21, 42, 53.
+        12th Brig. 43, 86, 87.
+        24th Brig. 110, 111, 112.
+        38th Brig. 24, 34, 72.
+        R.G.A. 24.
+
+[Sidenote: Hardships of the Army.]
+
+This division was kept in reserve upon the south side of the river.
+The French Commander-in-Chief had intimated that he intended to throw
+in reinforcements upon the left of the Sixth French Army, and {179}
+so, as he hoped, to turn the German right.  It was determined,
+therefore, that there should be no attempt at a British advance, but
+that the Allies should be content with holding the enemy to his
+positions.  The two armies lay facing each other, therefore, at an
+average distance of about five hundred yards.  The pressure was still
+most severe upon the 2nd Brigade on the extreme right.  Bulfin's
+orders were to hold on at all costs, as he was the pivot of the whole
+line.  He and his men responded nobly to the responsibility, although
+both they and their neighbours of Maxse's 1st Brigade had sustained a
+loss of over 1000 men each upon the 14th--25 per cent of their
+number.  The shell-fire was incessant and from several converging
+directions.  German infantry attacks were constant by night and by
+day, and the undrained trenches were deep in water.  The men lay
+without overcoats and drenched to the skin, for the rain was
+incessant.  Yet the sixth day found them on the exact ground upon
+which they had thrown their weary bodies after their attack.  Nations
+desire from time to time to be reassured as to their own virility.
+Neither in endurance nor in courage have the British departed from
+the traditions of their ancestors.  The unending strain of the
+trenches reached the limits of human resistance.  But the line was
+always held.
+
+On September 16 occurred an incident which may be taken as typical of
+the difference in the spirit with which the British and the Germans
+make war.  Close to the lines of the Guards a barn which contained
+fifty wounded Germans was ignited by the enemy's shells.  Under a
+terrific fire a rescue party rushed forward and got the unfortunate
+men to a place of safety.  {180} Several of the British lost their
+lives in this exploit, including Dr. Huggan, the Scottish
+International footballer.  The Germans mock at our respect for sport,
+and yet this is the type of man that sport breeds, and it is the want
+of them in their own ranks which will stand for ever between us.
+
+September 17 was a day of incessant attacks upon the right of the
+line, continually repulsed and yet continually renewed.  One can well
+sympathise with the feelings of the German commanders who, looking
+down from their heights, saw the British line in a most dangerous
+strategical position, overmatched by their artillery, with a deep
+river in their rear, and yet were unable to take advantage of it
+because of their failure to carry the one shallow line of
+extemporised trenches.  Naturally, they came again and again, by
+night and by day, with admirable perseverance and daring to the
+attack, but were always forced to admit that nothing can be done
+against the magazine rifle in hands which know how to use it.  They
+tried here and they tried there, these constant sudden outpourings of
+cheering, hurrying, grey-clad men.  They were natural tactics, but
+expensive ones, for every new attack left a fresh fringe of stricken
+men in front of the British lines.
+
+[Sidenote: German breach of faith.]
+
+One incident upon the 17th stands out amid the somewhat monotonous
+record of trench attacks.  On the extreme right of the British line a
+company of the 1st Northamptons occupied a most exposed position on
+the edge of the Chemin-des-dames.  The men in a German trench which
+was some hundreds of yards in front hoisted a white flag and then
+advanced upon the British lines.  It is well to be charitable in all
+these white flag incidents, since it is always possible {181} on
+either side that unauthorised men may hoist it and the officer in
+command very properly refuse to recognise it; but in this case the
+deception appears to have been a deliberate one.  These are the
+facts.  On seeing the flag, Captain Savage, of B Company
+Northamptons, got out of the trench and with Lieutenant Dimmer, of
+the Rifles, advanced to the Germans.  He threw down his sword and
+revolver to show that he was unarmed.  He found a difficulty in
+getting a direct answer from the Germans, so he saluted their
+officer, who returned his salute, and turned back to walk to his own
+trench.  Dimmer, looking back, saw the Germans level their rifles, so
+he threw himself down, crying out, "For God's sake get down."
+Captain Savage stood erect and was riddled with bullets.  Many of the
+Northamptons, including Lieutenant Gordon, were shot down by the same
+volley.  The Germans then attempted an advance, which was stopped by
+the machine-guns of the 1st Queen's.  Such deplorable actions must
+always destroy all the amenities of civilised warfare.
+
+On the afternoon of the same day, September 17, a more serious attack
+was made upon the right flank of the advanced British position, the
+enemy reoccupying a line of trenches from which they had previously
+been driven.  It was a dismal day of wind, rain, and mist, but the
+latter was not wholly an evil, as it enabled that hard-worked
+regiment, the 1st Northamptons, under their Colonel, Osborne Smith,
+to move swiftly forward and, with the help of the 1st Queen's, carry
+the place at the bayonet point.  Half the Germans in the trench were
+put out of action, thirty-eight taken, and the rest fled.  Pushing on
+after their success, they found the ridge beyond held {182} by a
+considerable force of German infantry.  The 2nd Rifles had come into
+the fight, and a dismounted squadron of the composite cavalry
+regiment put in some good work upon the flank.  The action was
+continued briskly until dark, when both sides retained their ground
+with the exception of the captured line of trenches, which remained
+with the British.  Seven officers and about 200 men were killed or
+wounded in this little affair.
+
+[Sidenote: _Tâtez toujours._]
+
+The 18th found the enemy still acting upon the Napoleonic advice of
+_Tâtez toujours_.  All day they were feeling for that weak place
+which could never be found.  The constant attempts were carried on
+into the night with the same monotonous record of advance leading to
+repulse.  At one time it was the line of the 1st Queen's--and no line
+in the Army would be less likely to give results.  Then it was the
+left flank of the First Division, and then the front of the Second.
+
+Now and again there were swift counters from the British, in one of
+which an enemy's trench was taken by the 1st Gloucesters with the two
+machine-guns therein.  But there was no inducement for any general
+British advance.  "We have nothing to lose by staying here," said a
+General, "whereas every day is of importance to the Germans, so the
+longer we can detain them here the better."  So it seemed from the
+point of view of the Allies.  There is a German point of view also,
+however, which is worthy of consideration.  They were aware, and
+others were not, that great reserves of men were left in the
+Fatherland, even as there were in France and in Britain, but that,
+unlike France and Britain, they actually had the arms and equipment
+for them, so that a second host could rapidly be called into the
+field.  If these legions were {183} in Belgium, they could ensure the
+fall of Antwerp, overrun the country, and seize the seaboard.  All
+this could be effected while the Allies were held at the Aisne.
+Later, with these vast reinforcements, the German armies might burst
+the barrier which held them and make a second descent upon Paris,
+which was still only fifty miles away.  So the Germans may have
+argued, and the history of the future was to show that there were
+some grounds for such a calculation.  It was in truth a second war in
+which once again the Germans had the men and material ready, while
+the Allies had not.
+
+[Sidenote: The general position.]
+
+This date, September 18, may be taken as the conclusion of the actual
+Battle of the Aisne, since from that time the operations defined
+themselves definitely as a mutual siege and gigantic artillery duel.
+The casualties of the British at the Aisne amounted, up to that date,
+to 10,000 officers and men, the great majority of which were suffered
+by Haig's First Army Corps.  The action had lasted from the 13th, and
+its outstanding features, so far as our forces were concerned, may be
+said to have been the remarkable feat of crossing the river and the
+fine leadership of General Haig in the dangerous position in which he
+found himself.  It has been suggested that the single unbroken bridge
+by which he crossed may have been a trap purposely laid by the
+Germans, whose plans miscarried owing to the simultaneous forcing of
+the river at many other points.  As it was, the position of the First
+Corps was a very difficult one, and a reverse might have become an
+absolute disaster.  It was impossible for General French to avoid
+this risk, for since the weather precluded all air reconnaissance, it
+was only by pushing his Army {184} across that he could be sure of
+the enemy's dispositions.  The net result was one more demonstration
+upon both sides that the defensive force has so great an advantage
+under modern conditions that if there be moderate equality of
+numbers, and if the flanks of each be guarded, a condition of
+stalemate will invariably ensue, until the campaign is decided by
+economic causes or by military movements in some other part of the
+field of operations.
+
+There is ample evidence that for the time the German Army, though
+able with no great effort to hold the extraordinarily strong position
+which had been prepared for it, was actually in very bad condition.
+Large new drafts had been brought out, which had not yet been
+assimilated by the army.  The resistance of Maubeuge had blocked one
+of their supply railroads, and for some time the commissariat had
+partially broken down.  Above all, they were mentally depressed by
+meeting such resistance where they had been led to expect an easy
+victory, by their forced retreat when almost within sight of Paris,
+and by their losses, which had been enormous.  In spite of their own
+great superiority in heavy guns, the French light field-pieces had
+controlled the battlefields.  There is ample evidence in the letters
+which have been intercepted, apart from the statements and appearance
+of the prisoners, to show the want and depression which prevailed.
+This period, however, may be said to mark the nadir of the German
+fortunes in this year.  The fall of Maubeuge improved their supplies
+of every sort, their reserves and Landwehr got broken in by the war
+of the trenches, and the eventual fall of Antwerp and invasion of
+Western Belgium gave them that moral stimulus which they badly needed.
+
+{185}
+
+Some wit amongst the officers has described the war as "months of
+boredom broken by moments of agony."  It is the duty of the
+chronicler to record, even if he attempts to alleviate, the former,
+for the most monotonous procession of events form integral parts of
+the great whole.  The perusal of a great number of diaries and
+experiences leaves a vague and disconnected recollection behind it of
+personal escapes, of the terror of high explosives, of the excellence
+of the rear services of the Army, of futile shellings--with an
+occasional tragic mishap, where some group of men far from the front
+were suddenly, by some freak of fate, blown to destruction,--of the
+discomforts of wet trenches, and the joys of an occasional relief in
+the villages at the rear.  Here and there, however, in the monotony
+of what had now become a mutual siege, there stand out some episodes
+or developments of a more vital character, which will be recorded in
+their sequence.
+
+It may be conjectured that, up to the period of the definite
+entrenchment of the two armies, the losses of the enemy were not
+greater than our own.  It is in the attack that losses are incurred,
+and the attack had, for the most part, been with us.  The heavier
+guns of the Germans had also been a factor in their favour.  From the
+18th onwards, however, the weekly losses of the enemy must have been
+very much greater than ours, since continually, night and day, they
+made onslaughts, which attained some partial and temporary success
+upon the 20th, but which on every other occasion were blown back by
+the rifle-fire with which they were met.  So mechanical and
+half-hearted did they at last become that they gave the impression
+that those who made them had no hope of {186} success, and that they
+were only done at the bidding of some imperious or imperial voice
+from the distance.  In these attacks, though any one of them may have
+only furnished a few hundred casualties, the total effect spread over
+several weeks must have equalled that of a very great battle, and
+amounted, since no progress was ever made, to a considerable defeat.
+
+Thus on September 19 there was a succession of attacks, made with
+considerable vivacity and proportional loss.  About 4 P.M. one
+developed in front of the 4th and 6th Brigades of the First Corps,
+but was speedily stopped.  An hour later another one burst forth upon
+the 7th and 9th Brigades of the Second Corps, with the same result.
+The artillery fire was very severe all day and the broad valley was
+arched from dawn to dusk by the flying shell.  The weather was still
+detestable, and a good many were reported ill from the effects of
+constant wet and cold.
+
+The 20th was the date of two separate attacks, one of which involved
+some hard fighting and considerable loss.  The first, at eight in the
+morning, was upon Shaw's 9th Brigade and was driven off without great
+difficulty.  The second was the more serious and demands some fuller
+detail.
+
+[Sidenote: Attack upon the West Yorks.]
+
+On the arrival of the Sixth Division upon the 18th, Sir John French
+had determined to hold them in reserve and to use them to relieve, in
+turn, each of the brigades which had been so hard-worked during the
+previous week.  Of these, there was none which needed and deserved a
+rest more than Bulfin's 2nd Brigade, which, after their attack upon
+the Chemin-des-dames upon the 14th, had made and held the trenches
+which formed both the extreme right and the advanced point of the
+British line.  For nearly a {187} week these men of iron had lain
+where the battle had left them.  With the object of relieving them,
+the 18th Brigade (Congreve's) of the Sixth Division was ordered to
+take their places.  The transfer was successfully effected at night,
+but the newcomers, who had only arrived two days before from England,
+found themselves engaged at once in a very serious action.  It may
+have been coincidence, or it may have been that with their remarkable
+system of espionage the Germans learned that new troops had taken the
+place of those whose mettle they had tested so often; but however
+this may be, they made a vigorous advance upon the afternoon of
+September 20, coming on so rapidly and in such numbers that they
+drove out the occupants both of the front British trenches--which
+were manned by three companies of the 1st West Yorkshires--and the
+adjoining French trench upon the right, which was held by the Turcos.
+The West Yorkshires were overwhelmed and enfiladed with machine-guns,
+a number were shot down, and others were taken prisoners.
+
+[Sidenote: Counter-attack by Congreve's 18th Brigade.]
+
+Fortunately, the rest of the brigade were in immediate support, and
+orders were given by General Congreve to advance and to regain the
+ground that had been lost.  The rush up the hill was carried out by
+the 2nd Notts and Derby Regiment (Sherwood Foresters) in the centre,
+with the remainder of the West Yorks upon their right, and the 2nd
+Durham Light Infantry upon their left.  They were supported by the
+1st East Yorks and by the 2nd Sussex, who had just been called out of
+the line for a rest.  The 4th Irish Dragoon Guards at a gallop at
+first, and then dismounting with rifle and bayonet, were in the
+forefront of the fray.  The advance was {188} over half a mile of
+ground, most of which was clear of any sort of cover, but it was
+magnificently carried out and irresistible in its impetus.  All the
+regiments lost heavily, but all reached their goal.  Officers were
+hit again and again, but staggered on with their men.  Captain
+Popham, of the Sherwood Foresters, is said to have carried six wounds
+with him up the slope.  Fifteen officers and 250 men were shot down,
+but the lost trench was carried at the point of the bayonet and the
+whole position re-established.  The total casualties were 1364, more
+than half of which fell upon the West Yorkshires, while the majority
+of the others were Sherwood Foresters, East Yorkshires, and Durhams.
+Major Robb, of the latter regiment, was among those who fell.  The
+Germans did not hold the trenches for an hour, and yet the engagement
+may be counted as a success for them, since our losses were certainly
+heavier than theirs.  There was no gain, however, in ground.  The
+action was more than a mere local attack, and the British line was in
+danger of being broken had it not been for the determined
+counter-attack of the 18th Brigade and of the Irish dragoons.  To the
+north of this main attack there was another subsidiary movement on
+the Beaulne ridge, in which the 5th and 6th Brigades were sharply
+engaged.  The 1st King's, the 2nd H.L.I., and the 2nd Worcesters all
+sustained some losses.
+
+About this period both the British and the French armies began to
+strengthen themselves with those heavy guns in which they had been so
+completely overweighted by their enemy.  On the 20th the French in
+the neighbourhood of our lines received twelve long-range cannon,
+firing a 35 lb. shell a distance of twelve kilometres.  Three days
+later the {189} British opened fire with four new batteries of
+six-inch howitzers.  From this time onwards there was no such great
+disparity in the heavy artillery, and the wounded from the monster
+shells of the enemy had at least the slight solace that their fate
+was not unavenged.  The expenditure of shells, however, was still at
+the rate of ten German to one of the Allies.  If the war was not won
+it was no fault of Krupp and the men of Essen.  In two weeks the
+British lost nearly 3000 men from shell-fire.
+
+[Sidenote: Rheims Cathedral.]
+
+It was at this time, September 20, that the Germans put a climax upon
+the long series of outrages and vandalisms of which their troops had
+been guilty by the bombardment of Rheims Cathedral, the Westminster
+Abbey of France.  The act seems to have sprung from deliberate
+malice, for though it was asserted afterwards that the tower had been
+used as an artillery observation point, this is in the highest degree
+improbable, since the summit of the ridge upon the French side is
+available for such a purpose.  The cathedral was occupied at the time
+by a number of German wounded, who were the sufferers by the
+barbarity of their fellow-countrymen.  The incident will always
+remain as a permanent record of the value of that Kultur over which
+we have heard such frantic boasts.  The records of the French,
+Belgian, and British Commissions upon the German atrocities,
+reinforced by the recollection of the burned University of Louvain
+and the shattered Cathedral of Rheims, will leave a stain upon the
+German armies which can never be erased.  Their conduct is the more
+remarkable, since the invasion of 1870 was conducted with a stern but
+rigid discipline, which won the acknowledgment of the world.  In
+{190} spite of all the material progress and the superficial show of
+refinement, little more than a generation seems to have separated
+civilisation from primitive barbarity, which attained such a pitch
+that no arrangement could be made by which the wounded between the
+lines could be brought in.  Such was the code of a nominally
+Christian nation in the year 1914.
+
+Up to now the heavier end of the fighting had been borne by Haig's
+First Corps, but from the 20th onwards the Second and Third sustained
+the impact.  The action just described, in which the West Yorkshires
+suffered so severely, was fought mainly by the 18th Brigade of
+Pulteney's Third Corps.  On the 21st it was the turn of the Second
+Corps.  During the night the 1st Wiltshire battalion of McCracken's
+7th Brigade was attacked, and making a strong counter-attack in the
+morning they cleared a wood with the bayonet, and advanced the
+British line at that point.  A subsequent attack upon the same
+brigade was repulsed.  How heavy the losses had been in the wear and
+tear of six days' continual trench work is shown by the fact that
+when on this date the 9th Brigade (Shaw's) was taken back for a rest
+it had lost 30 officers and 860 men since crossing the Aisne.
+
+The German heavy guns upon the 21st set fire to the village of Missy,
+but failed to dislodge the 1st East Surreys who held it.  This
+battalion, in common with the rest of Ferguson's Division, were
+dominated night and day by a plunging fire from above.  It is worth
+recording that in spite of the strain, the hardship, and the wet
+trenches, the percentage of serious sickness among the troops was
+lower than the normal rate of a garrison town.  A few cases of {191}
+enteric appeared about this time, of which six were in one company of
+the Coldstream Guards.  It is instructive to note that in each case
+the man belonged to the uninoculated minority.
+
+[Sidenote: Spies.]
+
+A plague of spies infested the British and French lines at this
+period, and their elaborate telephone installations, leading from
+haystacks or from cellars, showed the foresight of the enemy.  Some
+of these were German officers, who bravely took their lives in their
+hands from the patriotic motive of helping their country.  Others,
+alas, were residents who had sold their souls for German gold.  One
+such--a farmer--was found with a telephone within his house and no
+less a sum than a thousand pounds in specie.  Many a battery
+concealed in a hollow, and many a convoy in a hidden road, were
+amazed by the accuracy of a fire which was really directed, not from
+the distant guns, but from some wayside hiding-place.  Fifteen of
+these men were shot and the trouble abated.
+
+The attacks upon the British trenches, which had died down for
+several days, were renewed with considerable vigour upon September
+26.  The first, directed against the 1st Queen's, was carried out by
+a force of about 1000 men, who advanced in close order, and, coming
+under machine-gun fire, were rapidly broken up.  The second was made
+by a German battalion debouching from the woods in front of the 1st
+South Wales Borderers.  This attack penetrated the line at one point,
+the left company of the regiment suffering severely, with all its
+officers down.  The reserve company, with the help of the 2nd Welsh
+Regiment, retook the trenches after a hot fight, which ended by the
+wood being cleared.  {192} The Germans lost heavily in this struggle,
+80 of them being picked up on the very edge of the trench.  The
+Borderers also had numerous casualties, which totalled up to 7
+officers and 182 men, half of whom were actually killed.
+
+The Army was now in a very strong position, for the trenches were so
+well constructed that unless a shell by some miracle went right in,
+no harm would result.  The weather had become fine once more, and the
+flying service relieved the anxieties of the commanders as to a
+massed attack.  The heavy artillery of the Allies was also improving
+from day to day, especially the heavy British howitzers, aided by
+aeroplane observers with a wireless installation.  On the other hand,
+the guns were frequently hit by the enemy's fire.  The 22nd R.F.A.
+lost a gun, the 50th three guns, and other batteries had similar
+losses.  Concealment had not yet been reduced to a science.
+
+At this period the enemy seems to have realised that his attacks,
+whether against the British line or against the French armies which
+flanked it, and had fought throughout with equal tenacity, were a
+mere waste of life.  The assaults died away or became mere
+demonstrations.  Early in October the total losses of the Army upon
+the Aisne had been 561 officers and 12,980 men, a proportion which
+speaks well for the coolness and accuracy of the enemy's
+sharp-shooters, while it exhibits our own forgetfulness of the
+lessons of the African War, where we learned that the officer should
+be clad and armed so like the men as to be indistinguishable even at
+short ranges.  Of this large total the Second Corps lost 136 officers
+and 3095 men, and the First Corps 348 officers and {193} 6073 men,
+the remaining 77 officers and 3812 men being from the Third Corps and
+the cavalry.
+
+[Sidenote: The siege and fall of Antwerp.]
+
+It was at this period that a great change came over both the object
+and the locality of the operations.  This change depended upon two
+events which had occurred far to the north, and reacted upon the
+great armies locked in the long grapple of the Aisne.  The first of
+these controlling circumstances was that, by the movement of the old
+troops and the addition of new ones, each army had sought to turn the
+flank of the other in the north, until the whole centre of gravity of
+the war was transferred to that region.  A new French army under
+General Castelnau, whose fine defence of Nancy had put him in the
+front of French leaders, had appeared on the extreme left wing of the
+Allies, only to be countered by fresh bodies of Germans, until the
+ever-extending line lengthened out to the manufacturing districts of
+Lens and Lille, where amid pit-shafts and slag-heaps the cavalry of
+the French and the Germans tried desperately to get round each
+other's flank.  The other factor was the fall of Antwerp, which had
+released very large bodies of Germans, who were flooding over Western
+Belgium, and, with the help of great new levies from Germany,
+carrying the war to the sand-dunes of the coast.  The operations
+which brought about this great change open up a new chapter in the
+history of the war.  The actual events which culminated in the fall
+of Antwerp may be very briefly handled, since, important as they
+were, they were not primarily part of the British task, and hence
+hardly come within the scope of this narrative.
+
+The Belgians, after the evacuation of Brussels in August, had
+withdrawn their army into the widespread {194} fortress of Antwerp,
+from which they made frequent sallies upon the Germans who were
+garrisoning their country.  Great activity was shown and several
+small successes were gained, which had the useful effect of detaining
+two corps which might have been employed upon the Aisne.  Eventually,
+towards the end of September, the Germans turned their attention
+seriously to the reduction of the city, with a well-founded
+confidence that no modern forts could resist the impact of their
+enormous artillery.  They drove the garrison within the lines, and
+early in October opened a bombardment upon the outer forts with such
+results that it was evidently only a matter of days before they would
+fall and the fine old city be faced with the alternative of surrender
+or destruction.  The Spanish fury of Parma's pikemen would be a small
+thing compared to the _furor Teutonicus_ working its evil deliberate
+will upon town-hall or cathedral, with the aid of fire-disc,
+petrol-spray, or other products of culture.  The main problem before
+the Allies, if the town could not be saved, was to ensure that the
+Belgian army should be extricated and that nothing of military value
+which could be destroyed should be left to the invaders.  No troops
+were available for a rescue, for the French and British old
+formations were already engaged, while the new ones were not yet
+ready for action.  In these circumstances, a resolution was come to
+by the British leaders which was bold to the verge of rashness and so
+chivalrous as to be almost quixotic.  It was determined to send out
+at the shortest notice a naval division, one brigade of which
+consisted of marines, troops who are second to none in the country's
+service, while the other two brigades were young {195} amateur sailor
+volunteers, most of whom had only been under arms for a few weeks.
+It was an extraordinary experiment, as testing how far the average
+sport-loving, healthy-minded young Briton needs only his equipment to
+turn him into a soldier who, in spite of all rawness and
+inefficiency, can still affect the course of a campaign.  This
+strange force, one-third veterans and two-thirds practically
+civilians, was hurried across to do what it could for the failing
+town, and to demonstrate to Belgium how real was the sympathy which
+prompted us to send all that we had.  A reinforcement of a very
+different quality was dispatched a few days later in the shape of the
+Seventh Division of the Regular Army, with the Third Division of
+Cavalry.  These fine troops were too late, however, to save the city,
+and soon found themselves in a position where it needed all their
+hardihood to save themselves.
+
+The Marine Brigade of the Naval Division under General Paris was
+dispatched from England in the early morning and reached Antwerp
+during the night of October 3.  They were about 2000 in number.
+Early next morning they were out in the trenches, relieving some
+weary Belgians.  The Germans were already within the outer enceinte
+and drawing close to the inner.  For forty-eight hours they held the
+line in the face of heavy shelling.  The cover was good and the
+losses were not heavy.  At the end of that time the Belgian troops,
+who had been a good deal worn by their heroic exertions, were unable
+to sustain the German pressure, and evacuated the trenches on the
+flank of the British line.  The brigade then fell back to a reserve
+position in front of the town.
+
+{196}
+
+On the night of the 5th the two other brigades of the division,
+numbering some 5000 amateur sailors, arrived in Antwerp, and the
+whole force assembled on the new line of defence.  Mr. Winston
+Churchill showed his gallantry as a man, and his indiscretion as a
+high official, whose life was of great value to his country by
+accompanying the force from England.  The bombardment was now very
+heavy, and the town was on fire in several places.  The equipment of
+the British left much to be desired, and their trenches were as
+indifferent as their training.  None the less they played the man and
+lived up to the traditions of that great service upon whose threshold
+they stood.  For three days these men, who a few weeks before had
+been anything from schoolmasters to tram-conductors, held their
+perilous post.  They were very raw, but they possessed a great asset
+in their officers, who were usually men of long service.  But neither
+the lads of the naval brigades nor the war-worn and much-enduring
+Belgians could stop the mouths of those inexorable guns.  On the 8th
+it was clear that the forts could no longer be held.  The British
+task had been to maintain the trenches which connected the forts with
+each other, but if the forts went it was clear that the trenches must
+be outflanked and untenable.  The situation, therefore, was hopeless,
+and all that remained was to save the garrison and leave as little as
+possible for the victors.  Some thirty or forty German merchant ships
+in the harbour were sunk and the great petrol tanks were set on fire.
+By the light of the flames the Belgian and British forces made their
+way successfully out of the town, and the good service rendered later
+by our Allies upon the Yser and elsewhere is the best justification
+of the {197} policy which made us strain every nerve in order to do
+everything which could have a moral or material effect upon them in
+their darkest hour.  Had the British been able to get away unscathed,
+the whole operation might have been reviewed with equanimity if not
+with satisfaction, but, unhappily, a grave misfortune, arising rather
+from bad luck than from the opposition of the enemy, came upon the
+retreating brigades, so that very many of our young sailors after
+their one week of crowded life came to the end of their active
+service for the war.
+
+On leaving Antwerp it had been necessary to strike to the north in
+order to avoid a large detachment of the enemy who were said to be
+upon the line of the retreat.  The boundary between Holland and
+Belgium is at this point very intricate, with no clear line of
+demarcation, and a long column of British somnambulists, staggering
+along in the dark after so many days in which they had for the most
+part never enjoyed two consecutive hours of sleep, wandered over the
+fatal line and found themselves in firm but kindly Dutch custody for
+the rest of the war.  Some fell into the hands of the enemy, but the
+great majority were interned.  These men belonged chiefly to three
+battalions of the 1st Brigade.  The 2nd Brigade, with one battalion
+of the 1st, and the greater part of the Marines, made their way to
+the trains at St. Gilles-Waes, and were able to reach Ostend in
+safety.  The remaining battalion of Marines, with a number of
+stragglers of the other brigades, were cut off at Morbede by the
+Germans, and about half of them were taken, while the rest fought
+their way through in the darkness and joined their comrades.  The
+total losses of the British in the whole {198} misadventure from
+first to last were about 2500 men--a high price, and yet not too high
+when weighed against the results of their presence at Antwerp.  On
+October 10 the Germans under General Von Beseler occupied the city.
+Mr. Powell, who was present, testifies that 60,000 marched into the
+town, and that they were all troops of the active army.
+
+It has already been described how the northern ends of the two
+contending armies were endeavouring to outflank each other, and there
+seemed every possibility that this process would be carried out until
+each arrived at the coast.  Early in October Sir John French
+represented to General Joffre that it would be well that the British
+Army should be withdrawn from the Aisne and take its position to the
+left of the French forces, a move which would shorten its line of
+communications very materially, and at the same time give it the task
+of defending the Channel coast.  General Joffre agreed to the
+proposition, and the necessary steps were at once taken to put it
+into force.  The Belgians had in the meanwhile made their way behind
+the line of the Yser, where a formidable position had been prepared.
+There, with hardly a day of rest, they were ready to renew the
+struggle with the ferocious ravagers of their country.  The Belgian
+Government had been moved to France, and their splendid King, who
+will live in history as the most heroic and chivalrous figure of the
+war, continued by his brave words and noble example to animate the
+spirits of his countrymen.
+
+From this time Germany was in temporary occupation of all Belgium,
+save only the one little corner, the defence of which will be
+recorded for ever.  Little did she profit by her crime or by the
+excuses and {199} forged documents by which she attempted to justify
+her action.  She entered the land in dishonour and dishonoured will
+quit it.  William, Germany, and Belgium are an association of words
+which will raise in the minds of posterity all that Parma, Spain, and
+the Lowlands have meant to us--an episode of oppression, cruelty, and
+rapacity, which fresh generations may atone for but can never efface.
+
+
+
+
+{200}
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE LA BASSÉE--ARMENTIÈRES OPERATIONS
+
+(From October 11 to October 31, 1914)
+
+The great battle line--Advance of Second Corps--Death of General
+Hamilton--The farthest point--Fate of the 2nd Royal Irish--The Third
+Corps--Exhausted troops--First fight of Neuve Chapelle--The Indians
+take over--The Lancers at Warneton--Pulteney's operations--Action of
+Le Gheir.
+
+
+In accordance with the new plans, the great transference began upon
+October 3.  It was an exceedingly difficult problem, since an army of
+more than 100,000 men had to be gradually extricated by night from
+trenches which were often not more than a hundred yards from the
+enemy, while a second army of equal numbers had to be substituted in
+its place.  The line of retreat was down an open slope, across
+exposed bridges, and up the slope upon the southern bank.  Any alarm
+to the Germans might have been fatal, since a vigorous night attack
+in the middle of the operation would have been difficult to resist,
+and even an artillery bombardment must have caused great loss of
+life.  The work of the Staff in this campaign has been worthy of the
+regimental officers and of the men.  Everything went without a hitch.
+The Second Cavalry Division (Gough's) went first, followed {201}
+immediately by the First (De Lisle's).  Then the infantry was
+withdrawn, the Second Corps being the vanguard; the Third Corps
+followed, and the First was the last to leave.  The Second Corps
+began to clear from its trenches on October 3-4, and were ready for
+action on the Aire-Bethune line upon October 11.  The Third Corps was
+very little behind it, and the First had reached the new
+battle-ground upon the 19th.  Cavalry went by road; infantry marched
+part of the way, trained part of the way, and did the last lap very
+often in motor-buses.  One way or another the men were got across,
+the Aisne trenches were left for ever, and a new phase of the war had
+begun.  From the chalky uplands and the wooded slopes there was a
+sudden change to immense plains of clay, with slow, meandering,
+ditch-like streams, and all the hideous features of a great
+coal-field added to the drab monotony of Nature.  No scenes could be
+more different, but the same great issue of history and the same old
+problem of trench and rifle were finding their slow solution upon
+each.  The stalemate of the Aisne was for the moment set aside, and
+once again we had reverted to the old position where the ardent
+Germans declared, "This way we shall come," and the Allies, "Not a
+mile, save over our bodies."
+
+[Sidenote: The great battle line.]
+
+The narrator is here faced with a considerable difficulty in his
+attempt to adhere closely to truth and yet to make his narrative
+intelligible to the lay reader.  We stand upon the edge of a great
+battle.  If all the operations which centred at Ypres, but which
+extend to the Yser Canal upon the north and to La Bassée at the
+south, be grouped into one episode, it becomes the greatest clash of
+arms ever seen up {202} to that hour upon the globe, involving a
+casualty list--Belgian, French, British, and German--which could by
+no means be computed as under 250,000, and probably over 300,000 men.
+It was fought, however, over an irregular line, which is roughly
+forty miles from north to south, while it lasted, in its active form,
+from October 12 to November 20 before it settled down to the
+inevitable siege stage.  Thus both in time and in space it presents
+difficulties which make a concentrated, connected, and intelligible
+narrative no easy task.  In order to attempt this, it is necessary
+first to give a general idea of what the British Army, in conjunction
+with its Allies, was endeavouring to do, and, secondly, to show how
+the operations affected each corps in its turn.
+
+During the operations of the Aisne the French had extended the Allied
+line far to the north in the hope of outflanking the Germans.  The
+new Tenth French Army, under General Foch, formed the extreme left of
+this vast manoeuvre, and it was supported on its left by the French
+cavalry.  The German right had lengthened out, however, to meet every
+fresh extension of the French, and their cavalry had been
+sufficiently numerous and alert to prevent the French cavalry from
+getting round.  Numerous skirmishes had ended in no definite result.
+It was at this period that it occurred, as already stated, to Sir
+John French that to bring the whole British Army round to the north
+of the line would both shorten very materially his communications and
+would prolong the line to an extent which might enable him to turn
+the German flank and make their whole position impossible.  General
+Joffre having endorsed these views, Sir John took the steps which we
+have already seen.  {203} The British movement was, therefore, at the
+outset an aggressive one.  How it became defensive as new factors
+intruded themselves, and as a result of the fall of Antwerp, will be
+shown at a later stage of this account.
+
+As the Second Corps arrived first upon the scene it will be proper to
+begin with some account of its doings from October 12, when it went
+into action, until the end of the month, when it found itself brought
+to a standstill by superior forces and placed upon the defensive.
+The doings of the Third Corps during the same period will be
+interwoven with those of the Second, since they were in close
+co-operation; and, finally, the fortunes of the First Corps will be
+followed and the relation shown between its doings and those of the
+newly arrived Seventh Division, which had fallen back from the
+vicinity of Antwerp and turned at bay near Ypres upon the pursuing
+Germans.  Coming from different directions, all these various bodies
+were destined to be formed into one line, cemented together by their
+own dismounted cavalry and by French reinforcements, so as to lay an
+unbroken breakwater before the great German flood.
+
+The task of the Second Corps was to get into touch with the left
+flank of the Tenth French Army in the vicinity of La Bassée, and then
+to wheel round its own left so as to turn the position of those
+Germans who were facing our Allies.  The line of the Bethune-Lille
+road was to be the hinge, connecting the two armies and marking the
+turning-point for the British.  On the 11th Gough's Second Cavalry
+Division was clearing the woods in front of the Aire-Bethune Canal,
+which marked the line of the Second Corps.  By {204} evening Gough
+had connected up the Third Division of the Second Corps with the
+Sixth Division of the Third Corps, which was already at Hazebrouck.
+On the 12th the Third Division crossed the canal, followed by the
+Fifth Division, with the exception of the 13th Brigade, which
+remained to the south of it.  Both divisions advanced more or less
+north before swinging round to almost due east in their outflanking
+movement.  The rough diagram gives an idea of the point from which
+they started and the positions reached at various dates before they
+came to an equilibrium.  There were many weary stages, however,
+between the outset and the fulfilment, and the final results were
+destined to be barren as compared with the exertions and the losses
+involved.  None the less it was, as it proved, an essential part of
+that great operation by which the British--with the help of their
+good allies--checked the German advance upon Calais in October and
+November, even as they had helped to head them off from Paris in
+August and September.  During these four months the little British
+Army, far from being negligible, as some critics had foretold would
+be the case in a Continental war, was absolutely vital in holding the
+Allied line and taking the edge off the hacking German sword.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+{205}
+
+[Illustration: Diagram to illustrate operations of Smith-Dorrien's
+2nd. Corps & Pulteney's 3rd Corps from Oct. 11 to Oct 19, 1914.]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The Third Corps, which had detrained at St. Omer and moved to
+Hazebrouck, was intended to move in touch with the Second, prolonging
+its line to the north.  The First and Second British Cavalry
+Divisions, now under the command of De Lisle and of Gough, with
+Allenby as chief, had a role of their own to play, and the space
+between the Second and Third Corps was now filled up by a French
+Cavalry Division under Conneau, a whole-hearted soldier always ready
+{206} to respond to any call.  There was no strong opposition yet in
+front of the Third Corps, but General Pulteney moved rapidly
+forwards, brushed aside all resistance, and seized the town of
+Bailleul.  A German position in front of the town, held by cavalry
+and infantry without guns, was rushed by a rapid advance of Haldane's
+10th Infantry Brigade, the 2nd Seaforths particularly distinguishing
+themselves, though the 1st Warwicks and 1st Irish Fusiliers had also
+a good many losses, the Irishmen clearing the trenches to the cry of
+"Faugh-a-Ballagh!" which has sounded so often upon battlefields of
+old.  The 10th Brigade was on the left of the corps, and in touch
+with the Second Cavalry Division to the north.  The whole action,
+with its swift advance and moderate losses, was a fine vindication of
+British infantry tactics.  On the evening of October 15 the Third
+Corps had crossed the Lys, and on the 18th they extended from
+Warneton in the north to almost within touch of the position of the
+Second Corps at Aubers upon the same date.
+
+[Sidenote: Advance of Second Corps.]
+
+The country to the south in which the Second Corps was advancing upon
+October 12 was an extraordinarily difficult one, which offered many
+advantages to the defence over the attack.  It was so flat that it
+was impossible to find places for artillery observation, and it was
+intersected with canals, high hedgerows, and dykes, which formed
+ready-made trenches.  The Germans were at first not in strength, and
+consisted for the most part of dismounted cavalry drawn from four
+divisions, but from this time onwards there was a constant fresh
+accession of infantry and guns.  They disputed with great skill and
+energy every position which could be defended, and the {207} British
+advance during the day, though steady, was necessarily slow.  Every
+hamlet, hedgerow, and stream meant a separate skirmish.  The troops
+continually closed ranks, advanced, extended, and attacked from
+morning to night, sleeping where they had last fought.  There was
+nothing that could be called a serious engagement, and yet the
+losses--almost entirely from the Third Division--amounted to 300 for
+the day, the heaviest sufferers being the 2nd Royal Scots.
+
+On the next day, the 13th, the corps swung round its left so as to
+develop the turning movement already described.  Its front of advance
+was about eight miles, and it met resistance which made all progress
+difficult.  Again the 8th Brigade, especially the Royal Scots and 4th
+Middlesex, lost heavily.  So desperate was the fighting that the
+Royal Scots had 400 casualties including 9 officers, and the
+Middlesex fared little better.  The principal fighting, however, fell
+late in the evening upon the 15th Brigade (Gleichen's), who were on
+the right of the line and in touch with the Bethune Canal.  The
+enemy, whose line of resistance had been considerably thickened by
+the addition of several battalions of Jaeger and part of the
+Fourteenth Corps, made a spirited counter-attack on this portion of
+the advance.  The 1st Bedfords were roughly handled and driven back,
+with the result that the 1st Dorsets, who were stationed at a bridge
+over the canal near Givenchy, found their flanks exposed and
+sustained heavy losses, amounting to 400 men, including Major Roper.
+Colonel Bols, of the same regiment, enjoyed one crowded hour of
+glorious life, for he was wounded, captured, and escaped all on the
+same evening.  It was in this {208} action also that Major Vandeleur
+was wounded and captured.[1]  A section of guns which was involved in
+the same dilemma as the Dorsets had to be abandoned after every
+gunner had fallen.  The 15th Brigade was compelled to fall back for
+half a mile and entrench itself for the night.  On the left the 7th
+Brigade (McCracken's) had some eighty casualties in crossing the Lys,
+and a detachment of Northumberland Fusiliers, who covered their left
+flank, came under machine-gun fire, which struck down their adjutant,
+Captain Herbert, and a number of men.  Altogether the losses on this
+day amounted to about twelve hundred men.
+
+
+[1] Major Vandeleur was the officer who afterwards escaped from
+Crefeld and brought back with him a shocking account of the German
+treatment of our prisoners.  Though a wounded man, the Major was
+kicked by the direct command of one German officer, and his overcoat
+was taken from him in bitter weather by another.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Death of General Hamilton.]
+
+On the 14th the Second Corps continued its slow advance in the same
+direction.  Upon this day the Third Division sustained a grievous
+loss in the shape of its commander, General Sir Hubert Hamilton, who
+was standing conversing with the quiet nonchalance which was
+characteristic of him, when a shell burst above him and a shrapnel
+bullet struck him on the temple, killing him at once.  He was a grand
+commander, beloved by his men, and destined for the highest had he
+lived.  He was buried that night after dark in a village churchyard.
+There was an artillery attack by the Germans during the service, and
+the group of silent officers, weary from the fighting line, who stood
+with bowed heads round the grave, could hardly hear the words of the
+chaplain for the whiz and crash of the shells.  It was a proper
+ending for a soldier.
+
+{209}
+
+His division was temporarily taken over by General Colin Mackenzie.
+On this date the 13th Brigade, on the south of the canal, was
+relieved by French troops, so that henceforward all the British were
+to the north.  For the three preceding days this brigade had done
+heavy work, the pressure of the enemy falling particularly upon the
+2nd Scottish Borderers, who lost Major Allen and a number of other
+officers and men.
+
+The 15th was a day of spirited advance, the Third Division offering
+sacrifice in the old warrior fashion to the shade of its dead leader.
+Guns were brought up into the infantry line and the enemy was smashed
+out of entrenched positions and loopholed villages in spite of a most
+manful resistance.  The soldiers carried long planks with them and
+threw them over the dykes on their advance.  Mile after mile the
+Germans were pushed back, until they were driven off the high road
+which connects Estaires with La Bassée.  The 1st Northumberland and
+4th Royal Fusiliers of the 9th Brigade, and the 2nd Royal Scots and
+4th Middlesex of the 8th, particularly distinguished themselves in
+this day of hard fighting.  By the night of the 15th the corps had
+lost 90 officers and 2500 men in the four days, the disproportionate
+number of officers being due to the broken nature of the fighting,
+which necessitated the constant leading of small detachments.  The
+German resistance continued to be admirable.
+
+On the 16th the slow wheeling movement of the Second Corps went
+steadily though slowly forward, meeting always the same stubborn
+resistance.  The British were losing heavily by the incessant
+fighting, but so were the Germans, and it was becoming a {210}
+question which could stand punishment longest.  In the evening the
+Third Division was brought to a stand by the village of Aubers, which
+was found to be strongly held.  The Fifth Division was instructed to
+mark time upon the right, so as to form the pivot upon which all the
+rest of the corps could swing round in their advance on La Bassée.
+At this date the Third Corps was no great distance to the north, and
+the First Corps was detraining from the Aisne.  As the Seventh
+Division with Byng's Third Cavalry Division were reported to be in
+touch with the other forces in the north, the concentration of the
+British Army was approaching a successful issue.  The weather up to
+now during all the operations which have been described was wet and
+misty, limiting the use of artillery and entirely preventing that of
+aircraft.
+
+[Sidenote: The farthest point.]
+
+On the 17th the advance was resumed and was destined to reach the
+extreme point which it attained for many a long laborious month.
+This was the village of Herlies, north-east of La Bassée, which was
+attacked in the evening by Shaw's 9th Brigade, and was carried in the
+dusk at the point of the bayonet by the 1st Lincolns and the 4th
+Royal Fusiliers.  About the same time the Scots Fusiliers and
+Northumberlands had stormed Aubers.  The 7th Brigade was less
+fortunate at the adjoining village of Illies, where they failed to
+make a lodgment, but the French cavalry on the extreme left, with the
+help of the 2nd Royal Irish, captured Fromelles.  The Fifth Division
+also came forward a little, the right flank still on the canal, but
+the left bending round so as to get to the north of La Bassée.  The
+1st Devons, who had taken the place of the Dorsets, {211} pushed
+forward with such fire that they were half a mile ahead of the Army
+and in great danger of being cut off, but by individual coolness and
+resource they managed to get back to safety.
+
+On the 18th, Sir Charles Ferguson, who had done good work with the
+Army from the first gunshot of the war, was promoted to a higher rank
+and the command of the Fifth Division passed over to General Morland.
+Thus both divisions of the Second Corps changed their commanders
+within a week.  On this date the infantry of the 14th Brigade, with
+some of the 13th Brigade, were within eight hundred yards of La
+Bassée, but found it so strongly held that it could not be entered,
+the Scottish Borderers losing heavily in a very gallant advance.  The
+village of Illies also remained impregnable, being strongly
+entrenched and loopholed.  Shaw's 9th Brigade took some of the
+trenches, but found their left flank exposed, so had to withdraw
+nearly half a mile and to entrench.  In this little action the 1st
+Royal Scots Fusiliers bore the brunt of the fighting and the losses.
+Eight officers and nearly 200 men of this regiment were killed or
+wounded.  A fresh German division came into action this day and their
+artillery was stronger, so that the prospects of future advance were
+not particularly encouraging.  The British artillery was worked very
+hard, being overmatched and yet undefeatable.  The strain both upon
+the men and the officers was constant, and the observation officers
+showed great daring and tenacity.
+
+[Sidenote: Fate of the 2nd Royal Irish.]
+
+On the 19th neither the Third nor the Fifth Divisions made any
+appreciable progress, but one battalion was heavily engaged and added
+a fresh record to its ancient roll of valour.  This was the {212} 2nd
+Royal Irish under Major Daniell, who attacked the village of Le Pilly
+rather forward from the British left in co-operation with the French
+cavalry.  The Irish infantry charged over eight hundred yards of
+clear ground, carried the village by storm, and entrenched themselves
+within it.  This advance and charge, which was carried out with the
+precision of an Aldershot field day, although 130 men fell during the
+movement, is said by experienced spectators to have been a great feat
+of arms.  The 20th saw a strong counter-attack of the Germans, and by
+the evening their two flanks had lapped round Le Pilly, pushing off
+on the one side the French cavalry of Conneau, and on the other a too
+small detachment of the Royal Fusiliers who were flanking the
+Irishmen.  All day the defenders of Le Pilly were subjected to a
+terrific shell-fire, and all attempts to get messages to them were
+unavailing.  In the evening they were surrounded, and only two or
+three men of the battalion were ever seen again.  The gallant Daniell
+fell, and it is on record that his last audible words were a command
+to fix bayonets and fight to the end, the cartridges of the battalion
+being at that time exhausted.  A German officer engaged in this
+attack and subsequently taken prisoner has deposed that three German
+battalions attacked the Royal Irish, one in front and one on each
+flank, after they had been heavily bombarded in enfilade.  Several
+hundred Irish dead and wounded were taken out of the main trench.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+{213}
+
+[Illustration: Southern End of British Line]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+There was now ample evidence that the Germans had received large
+reinforcements, and that their line was too strong to be forced.  The
+whole object and character of the operations assumed, therefore, a
+{214} new aspect.  The Second and Third Corps had swung round,
+describing an angle of ninety degrees, with its pivot upon the right
+at the La Bassée Canal, and by this movement it had succeeded in
+placing itself upon the flank of the German force which faced the
+Tenth French Army.  But there was now no longer any flank, for the
+German reinforcements had enabled them to prolong their line and so
+to turn the action into a frontal attack by the British.  Such an
+attack in modern warfare can only hope for success when carried out
+by greatly superior numbers, whereas the Germans were now stronger
+than their assailants, having been joined by one division of the
+Seventh Corps, a brigade of the Third Corps, and the whole of the
+Fourteenth Corps, part of which had already been engaged.
+
+[Sidenote: The Third Corps.]
+
+The increased pressure was being felt by the Third Corps on the Lys,
+as well as by the Second to the south of them; indeed, as only a few
+miles intervened between the two, they may be regarded as one for
+these operations.  We have seen that, having taken the town of
+Bailleul, Pulteney's Corps had established itself across the Lys, and
+occupied a line from Warneton to Radinghem upon October 18.  The
+latter village had been taken on that day by the 16th Brigade in an
+action in which the 1st Buffs and 2nd York and Lancasters lost
+heavily, the latter being ambushed as it pursued the enemy and losing
+11 officers and 400 men.  Colonel Cobbold fell back upon the village
+and held it successfully.  Pulteney was now strongly attacked, and
+there was a movement of the Germans on October 20 as if to turn his
+right and slip in between the two British corps.  The action was
+carried on into the 21st, the enemy still {215} showing considerable
+energy and strength.  The chief German advance during the day was
+north of La Bassée.  It came upon the village of Lorgies, which was
+the point where the South Lancashires, of McCracken's 7th Brigade,
+forming the extreme right of the Third Division, were in touch with
+the East Surreys and Duke of Cornwall's of the 14th Brigade, forming
+the extreme left of the Fifth Division.  It is necessary to join
+one's flats carefully in the presence of the Germans, for they are
+sharp critics of such matters.  In this instance a sudden attack near
+Illies drove in a portion of the 2nd South Lancashires.  This attack
+also destroyed the greater part of a company of the 1st Cornwalls in
+support.  An ugly gap was left in the line, but the remainder of the
+Cornwalls, with the help of a company of the 1st West Kents and the
+ever-constant artillery, filled it up during the rest of the day, and
+the 2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry took it over the same night, the
+Cornishmen retiring with heavy losses but a great deal of
+compensating glory.  The temporary gap in the line exposed the right
+flank of the 3rd Worcesters, who were next to the South Lancashires.
+They lost heavily in killed and wounded, their colonel, Stuart, being
+among the latter, though his injury did not prevent him from
+remaining in the battle line.  Apart from this action at Lorgies, the
+19th Brigade (Gordon's), upon the flank of Pulteney's Corps,
+sustained a very heavy attack, being driven back for some distance.
+It had been ordered to occupy Fromelles, and so close the gap which
+existed at that time between the left of the Second and the right of
+the Third Corps, situated respectively at Aubers and Radinghem.  The
+chief fighting occurred {216} at the village of Le Maisnil, close to
+Fromelles.  This village was occupied by the 2nd Argylls and half the
+1st Middlesex, but they were driven out by a severe shell-fire
+followed by an infantry advance.  The brigade fell back in good
+order, the regiments engaged having lost about 300 men.  They took up
+a position on the right of the 16th Infantry Brigade at La
+Boutillerie, and there they remained until November 17, one severe
+attack falling upon them on October 29, which is described under that
+date.
+
+On the morning of October 22 the Germans, still very numerous and
+full of fight, made a determined attack upon the Fifth Division,
+occupying the village of Violaines, close to La Bassée.  The village
+was held by the 1st Cheshires, who, for the second time in this
+campaign, found themselves in a terribly difficult position.  It is
+typical of the insolent high spirits of the men, in spite of all that
+they had endured, that upon the Germans charging forward with a
+war-cry which resembled, "Yip, Yip, Yip!" the British infantry joined
+in with "I-addy-ti-ay!" the whole forming the chorus of a once
+popular Gaiety song.  The Cheshires inflicted heavy losses upon the
+stormers with rifle-fire, but were at last driven out, involving in
+their retirement the 1st Dorsets, who had left their own trenches in
+order to help them.  Both regiments, but especially the Cheshires,
+had grievous losses, in casualties and prisoners.  On advancing in
+pursuit the Germans were strongly counter-attacked by the 2nd
+Manchesters and the 1st Cornwalls, supported by the 3rd Worcesters,
+who, by their steady fire, brought them to a standstill, but were
+unable to recover the ground that had been lost, though the
+Cornwalls, who had {217} been fighting with hardly a pause for
+forty-eight hours, succeeded in capturing one of their machine-guns.
+In the night the British withdrew their line in accordance with the
+general rearrangement to be described.  Some rearguard stragglers at
+break of day had the amusing experience of seeing the Germans making
+a valiant and very noisy attack upon the abandoned and empty trenches.
+
+On this date, October 22, not only had Smith-Dorrien experienced this
+hold-up upon his right flank, but his left flank had become more
+vulnerable, because the French had been heavily attacked at
+Fromelles, and had been driven out of that village.  An equilibrium
+had been established between attack and defence, and the position of
+the Aisne was beginning to appear once again upon the edge of
+Flanders.  General Smith-Dorrien, feeling that any substantial
+advance was no longer to be hoped for under the existing conditions,
+marked down and occupied a strong defensive position, from Givenchy
+on the south to Fauquissart on the north.  This involved a retirement
+of the whole corps during the night for a distance of from one to two
+miles, but it gave a connected position with a clear field of fire.
+At the same time the general situation was greatly strengthened by
+the arrival at the front of the Lahore Division of the Indian Army
+under General Watkis.  These fine troops were placed in reserve
+behind the Second Corps in the neighbourhood of Locon.
+
+[Sidenote: Exhausted troops.]
+
+It is well to remember at this point what Smith-Dorrien's troops had
+already endured during the two months that the campaign had lasted.
+Taking the strength of the corps at 37,000 men, they had lost,
+roughly, 10,000 men in August, 10,000 in {218} September, and 5000 up
+to date in these actions of October.  It is certain that far less
+than 50 per cent of the original officers and men were still with the
+Colours, and drafts can never fully restore the unity and spirit of a
+homogeneous regiment, where every man knows his company leaders and
+his platoon.  In addition to this they had now fought night and day
+for nearly a fortnight, with broken and insufficient sleep, laying
+down their rifles to pick up their spades, and then once again
+exchanging spade for rifle, while soaked to the skin with incessant
+fogs and rain, and exposed to that most harassing form of fighting,
+where every clump and hedgerow covers an enemy.  They were so
+exhausted that they could hardly be woken up to fight.  To say that
+they were now nearing the end of their strength and badly in need of
+a rest is but to say that they were mortal men and had reached the
+physical limits that mortality must impose.
+
+The French cavalry divisions acting as links between Pulteney and
+Smith-Dorrien were now relieved by the 8th (Jullundur) Indian
+Infantry Brigade, containing the 1st Manchesters, 59th (Scinde)
+Rifles, 15th and 47th Sikhs.  It may be remarked that each Indian
+brigade is made up of three Indian and one British battalion.  This
+change was effected upon October 24, a date which was marked by no
+particular military event save that the Third Division lost for a
+time the services of General Beauchamp Doran, who returned to
+England.  General Doran had done great service in leading what was
+perhaps the most hard-worked brigade in a hard-worked division.
+General Bowes took over the command of the 8th Infantry Brigade.
+
+{219}
+
+On the night of October 24 determined attacks were made upon the
+trenches of the Second Corps at the Bois de Biez, near Neuve
+Chapelle, but were beaten off with heavy loss to the enemy, who had
+massed together twelve battalions in order to rush a particular part
+of the position.  The main attack fell upon the 1st Wiltshires and
+the 2nd Royal Irish Rifles, belonging to McCracken's 7th Brigade, and
+also upon the 15th Sikhs, who seem to have been the first Indians to
+be seriously engaged, having nearly two hundred casualties.  The 8th
+Brigade were also involved in the fight.  The Germans had some
+temporary success in the centre of the trenches of the Third
+Division, where, in the darkness, they pushed back the 1st Gordon
+Highlanders, who lost very heavily.  As the Highlanders fell back,
+the 2nd Royal Scots, upon their right, swung back its flank
+companies, covered the retirement, and then, straightening their
+ranks again, flung the Germans, at the point of their bayonets, out
+of the trenches.  It was one of several remarkable feats which this
+fine battalion has performed in the war.  Next morning the captured
+trenches were handed over to the care of the 4th Middlesex.
+
+[Sidenote: First fight of Neuve Chapelle.]
+
+The pressure upon the exhausted troops was extreme upon this day, for
+a very severe attack was made also upon the Fifth Division, holding
+the right of the line.  The soldiers, as already shown, were in no
+condition for great exertions, and yet, after their wont, they rose
+grandly to the occasion.  The important village of Givenchy, destined
+for many a long month to form the advanced post upon the right of the
+Army, was held by the 1st Norfolks and 1st Devons, who defied all
+efforts of the enemy to dislodge them.  {220} Nevertheless, the
+situation was critical and difficult for both divisions, and the only
+available support, the 1st Manchesters from the Lahore Division, were
+pushed up into the fighting line and found themselves instantly
+engaged in the neighbourhood of Givenchy.  It was dreadful weather,
+the trenches a quagmire, and the rifle-bolts often clogged with the
+mud.  On the 26th Sir John French, realising how great was the task
+with which the weary corps was faced, sent up two batteries of 4.7
+guns, which soon lessened the volume of the German artillery attack.
+At the same time General Maistre, of the Twenty-first French Corps,
+sent two of his batteries and two of his battalions.  Thus
+strengthened, there was no further immediate anxiety as to the line
+being broken, especially as upon the 26th Marshal French, carefully
+playing card after card from his not over-strong hand, placed the
+Second Cavalry Division and three more Indian battalions in reserve
+to Smith-Dorrien's corps.  The German advance had by no means spent
+itself, as on this day they came to close grips with the 2nd Irish
+Rifles and established themselves firmly in the village of Neuve
+Chapelle, near the centre of the British line, inflicting heavy loss
+upon the Royal Fusiliers, who tried to restore the position.  A
+number of attacks were made to regain this village next day, in which
+as strange a medley of troops were employed as could ever before have
+found themselves as comrades in so minor an operation.  There were
+South Lancashires, Royal Fusiliers, 9th Bhopal Infantry, 47th Sikhs,
+Chasseurs Alpins, and other units.  In spite of--or possibly on
+account of--this international competition the village remained with
+the Germans, who were strongly reinforced, and {221} managed by their
+shell-fire to clear some of the nearest trenches and gain some
+additional ground, hitting the 1st Wiltshires and 2nd Irish Rifles
+hard and making a number of prisoners, two or three hundred in all.
+Again the times had become critical, the more so as the 8th Indian
+Brigade to the north had also been attacked and roughly handled.  The
+indomitable Smith-Dorrien was determined to have his village,
+however, and in the neighbouring French cavalry commander, General
+Conneau, he found a worthy colleague who was ready to throw his last
+man into the venture.  The Second Cavalry, now under General Mullens,
+was also ready, as our cavalry has always been, to spring in as a
+makeweight when the balance trembled.  The German losses were known
+to have been tremendous, and it was hoped that the force of their
+attack was spent.  On the 28th the assault was renewed, prefaced by a
+strong artillery preparation, but again it was brought to a
+standstill.  The 47th Sikhs fought magnificently from loopholed house
+to house, as did the Indian sappers and miners, while the cavalry
+showed themselves to be admirable infantry at a pinch, but the
+defence was still too strong and the losses too severe, though at one
+time Colonel McMahon, with his Fusiliers, had seized the whole north
+end of the village.
+
+Some 60 officers and 1500 men had fallen in the day's venture,
+including 70 of the cavalry.  The night fell with Neuve Chapelle
+still in the hands of the enemy, and the British troops to the north,
+east, and west of it in a semicircle.  The 14th Brigade, coming up
+after dark, found the 1st West Kent Regiment reduced to 2 officers
+and 150 men, and the 2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry at about the same
+strength, still holding on {222} to positions which had been
+committed to them three days before.  The conduct of these two grand
+regiments upon that and the previous days excited the admiration of
+every one, for, isolated from their comrades, they had beaten off a
+long succession of infantry attacks and had been enfiladed by a most
+severe shell-fire.  Second-Lieutenant White, with a still younger
+officer named Russell, formed the whole staff of officers of the West
+Kents.  Major Buckle, Captain Legard, and many others having been
+killed or wounded, Penny and Crossley, the two sergeant-majors, did
+great work, and the men were splendid.  These shire regiments, raised
+from the very soil of England, reflect most nearly her national
+qualities, and in their stolid invincibility form a fitting framework
+of a great national army.  Speaking to the West Kents of this
+episode, General Smith-Dorrien said: "There is one part of the line
+which has never been retaken, because it was never lost.  It was the
+particular trenches which your battalion held so grimly during those
+terrific ten days."
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+{223}
+
+[Illustration: General View of Seat of Operations.]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+These determined efforts were not spent in vain, for the Germans
+would not bide the other brunt.  Early on the 29th the British
+patrols found that Neuve Chapelle had been evacuated by the enemy,
+who must have lost several thousand men in its capture and fine
+subsequent defence.  In this village fighting the British were much
+handicapped at this time by the want of high explosive shells to
+destroy the houses.  The enemy's artillery made it impossible for the
+British to occupy it, and some time later it reverted to the Germans
+once more, being occupied by the Seventh Westphalian Corps.  It was
+made an exceedingly strong advance position by the Germans, {224} but
+it was reoccupied by the British Fourth Corps (Rawlinson's) and the
+Indian Corps (Willcocks') upon March 10 in an assault which lasted
+three days, and involved a loss of 12,000 men to the attackers and at
+least as many to the defenders.  This battle will be described among
+the operations of the spring of 1915, but it is mentioned now to show
+how immutable were the lines between these dates.
+
+The southern or La Bassée end of the line had also been attacked upon
+the 28th and 29th, and the 2nd Manchesters driven from their
+trenches, which they instantly regained, killing seventy of the enemy
+and taking a number of prisoners.  It was in this action that
+Lieutenant Leach and Sergeant Hogan earned the V.C., capturing a
+trench at the head of ten volunteers and disposing of some fifty
+Germans.  Morland's Fifth Division had several other skirmishes
+during these days, in which the Duke of Cornwall's, Manchesters, and
+1st Devons, who had taken the place of the Suffolks in the 14th
+Brigade, were chiefly engaged.  The Devons had come late, but they
+had been constantly engaged and their losses were already as great as
+the others.  For sixteen days they had held on with desperate
+resolution, their Colonel Gloster and a considerable proportion of
+the officers and men being hit.  When they were at last relieved they
+received the applause of the Army.  On the whole, the general line
+was held, though the price was often severe.  At this period General
+Wing took command of the Third Division instead of General
+Mackenzie--invalided home--the third divisional change within a
+fortnight.
+
+[Sidenote: The Indians take over.]
+
+The arduous month of October was now drawing to a close, and so it
+was hoped were the labours of the {225} weary Second Corps.  Already,
+on the top of all their previous casualties, they had lost 360
+officers and 8200 men since on October 12 they had crossed the La
+Bassée Canal.  The spirit of the men was unimpaired for the most
+part--indeed, it seemed often to rise with the emergency--but the
+thinning of the ranks, the incessant labour, and the want of sleep
+had produced extreme physical exhaustion.  Upon October 29 it was
+determined to take them out of the front line and give them the rest
+which they so badly needed.  With this end in view, Sir James
+Willcocks' Indian Corps was moved to the front, and it was gradually
+substituted for the attenuated regiments of the Second Corps in the
+first row of trenches.  The greater part of the corps was drawn out
+of the line, leaving two brigades and most of the artillery behind to
+support the Indians.  That the latter would have some hard work was
+speedily apparent, as upon this very day the 8th Gurkhas were driven
+out of their trenches.  With the support of a British battalion,
+however, and of Vaughan's Indian Rifles they were soon recovered,
+though Colonel Venner of the latter corps fell in the attack.  This
+warfare of unseen enemies and enormous explosions was new to the
+gallant Indians, but they soon accommodated themselves to it, and
+moderated the imprudent gallantry which exposed them at first to
+unnecessary loss.
+
+Here, at the end of October, we may leave the Second Corps.  It was
+speedily apparent that their services were too essential to be
+spared, and that their rest would be a very nominal one.  The Third
+Corps will be treated presently.  They did admirably all that came to
+them to do, but they were so placed that both flanks were covered by
+British troops, and they {226} were less exposed to pressure than the
+others.  The month closed with this corps and the Indians holding a
+line which extended north and south for about twenty miles from
+Givenchy and Festubert in the south to Warneton in the north.  We
+will return to the operations in this region, but must turn back a
+fortnight or so in order to follow the very critical and important
+events which had been proceeding in the north.  Before doing so it
+would be well to see what had befallen the cavalry, which, when last
+mentioned, had, upon October 11, cleared the woods in front of the
+Second Corps and connected it up with the right wing of the Third
+Corps.  This was carried out by Gough's Second Cavalry Division,
+which was joined next day by De Lisle's First Division, the whole
+under General Allenby.  This considerable force moved north upon
+October 12 and 13, pushing back a light fringe of the enemy and
+having one brisk skirmish at Mont des Cats, a small hill, crowned by
+a monastery, where the body of a Prince of Hesse was picked up after
+the action.  Still fighting its way, the cavalry moved north to
+Berthen and then turned eastwards towards the Lys to explore the
+strength of the enemy and the passages of the river in that
+direction.  Late at night upon the 14th General de Lisle, scouting
+northwards upon a motor-car, met Prince Alexander of Teck coming
+southwards, the first contact with the isolated Seventh Division.
+
+[Sidenote: The Lancers at Warneton.]
+
+On the night of the 16th an attempt was made upon Warneton, where the
+Germans had a bridge over the river, but the village was too strongly
+held.  The 3rd Cavalry Brigade was engaged in the enterprise, and the
+16th Lancers was the particular regiment upon whom it fell.  The main
+street of the village was {227} traversed by a barricade and the
+houses loopholed.  The Germans were driven by the dismounted
+troopers, led by Major Campbell, from the first barricade, but took
+refuge behind a second one, where they were strongly reinforced.  The
+village had been set on fire, and the fighting went on by the glare
+of the flames.  When the order for retirement was at last given it
+was found that several wounded Lancers had been left close to the
+German barricade.  The fire having died down, three of the
+Lancers--Sergeant Glasgow, Corporal Boyton, and Corporal
+Chapman--stole down the dark side of the street in their stockinged
+feet and carried some of their comrades off under the very noses of
+the Germans.  Many, however, had to be left behind.  It is impossible
+for cavalry to be pushful and efficient without taking constant risks
+which must occasionally materialise.  The general effect of the
+cavalry operations was to reconnoitre thoroughly all the west side of
+the river and to show that the enemy were in firm possession of the
+eastern bank.
+
+From this time onwards until the end of the month the cavalry were
+engaged in carrying on the north and south line of defensive
+trenches, which, beginning with the right of the Second Corps (now
+replaced by Indians) at Givenchy, was prolonged by the Third Corps as
+far as Frelingham.  There the cavalry took it up and carried it
+through Comines to Wervicq, following the bend of the river.  These
+lines were at once strongly attacked, but the dismounted troopers
+held their positions.  On October 22 the 12th Lancers were heavily
+assaulted, but with the aid of an enfilading fire from the 5th
+Lancers drove off the enemy.  That evening saw four more attacks, all
+of them {228} repulsed, but so serious that Indian troops were
+brought up to support the cavalry.  Every day brought its attack
+until they culminated in the great and critical fight from October 30
+to November 2, which will be described later.  The line was held,
+though with some loss of ground and occasional setbacks, until
+November 2, when considerable French reinforcements arrived upon the
+scene.  It is a fact that for all these weeks the position which was
+held in the face of incessant attack by two weak cavalry divisions
+should have been, and eventually was, held by two army corps.
+
+[Sidenote: Pulteney's operations.]
+
+It is necessary now to briefly sketch the movements of the Third
+Corps (Pulteney's).  Its presence upon the left flank of the Second
+Corps, and the fact that it held every attack that came against it,
+made it a vital factor in the operations.  It is true that, having
+staunch British forces upon each flank, its position was always less
+precarious than either of the two corps which held the southern and
+northern extremities of the line, for without any disparagement to
+our Allies, who have shown themselves to be the bravest of the brave,
+it is evident that we can depend more upon troops who are under the
+same command, and whose movements can be certainly co-ordinated.  At
+the same time, if the Third Corps had less to do, it can at least say
+that whatever did come to it was excellently well done, and that it
+preserved its line throughout.  Its units were extended over some
+twelve miles of country, and it was partly astride of the River Lys,
+so that here as elsewhere there was constant demand upon the
+vigilance and staunchness of officers and men.  On October 20 a very
+severe attack fell upon the 2nd Sherwood Foresters, who held {229}
+the most advanced trenches of Congreve's 18th Brigade.  They were
+nearly overwhelmed by the violence of the German artillery fire, and
+were enfiladed on each side by infantry and machine-guns.  The 2nd
+Durhams came up in reinforcement, but the Foresters had already
+sustained grievous losses in casualties and prisoners, the battalion
+being reduced from 900 to 250 in a single day.  The Durhams also lost
+heavily.  On this same day, the 20th, the 2nd Leinsters, of the 17th
+Brigade, were also driven from their trenches and suffered severely.
+
+[Sidenote: Action of La Gheir.]
+
+On October 21 the Germans crossed the River Lys in considerable
+force, and upon the morning of the 22nd they succeeded in occupying
+the village of Le Gheir upon the western side, thus threatening to
+outflank the positions of the Second Cavalry Division to the north.
+In their advance in the early morning of the 22nd they stormed the
+trenches held by the 2nd Inniskilling Fusiliers, this regiment
+enduring considerable losses.  The trenches on the right were held by
+the 1st Royal Lancasters and 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers.  These two
+regiments were at once ordered by General Anley, of the 12th Brigade,
+to initiate a counter-attack under the lead of Colonel Butler.  Anley
+himself, who is a hard-bitten soldier of much Egyptian fighting,
+moved forward his men, while General Hunter-Weston, the indefatigable
+blower-up of railway lines in South Africa, supported the
+counter-attack with the Somerset Light Infantry and the 1st East
+Lancashires.  The latter regiment, under Colonel Lawrence, passed
+through a wood and reached such a position that they were able to
+enfilade the Germans in the open, causing them very heavy losses.
+The action was a brilliant success.  The positions lost {230} were
+reoccupied and the enemy severely punished, over a thousand Germans
+being killed or wounded, while 300 were taken prisoners.  These
+belonged to the 104th and 179th Saxon regiments.  It was a strange
+turn of fate which, after fifteen hundred years, brought tribesmen
+who had wandered up the course of the Elbe face to face in deadly
+strife with fellow-tribesmen who had passed over the sea to Britain.
+It is worth remarking and remembering that they are the one section
+of the German race who in this war have shown that bravery is not
+necessarily accompanied by coarseness and brutality.
+
+On October 25 the attacks became most severe upon the line of
+Williams' 16th Brigade, and on that night the trenches of the 1st
+Leicesters were raked by so heavy a gunfire that they were found to
+be untenable, the regiment losing 350 men.  The line both of the 16th
+and of the 18th Brigades was drawn back for some little distance.
+There was a lull after this, broken upon the 29th, when Gordon's 19th
+Brigade was attacked with great violence by six fresh
+battalions--heavy odds against the four weak battalions which
+composed the British Brigade.  The 1st Middlesex Regiment was driven
+from part of its trenches, but came back with a rush, helped by their
+comrades of the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.  The Germans
+were thrown out of the captured trenches, 40 were made prisoners, and
+200 were slain.  This attack was made by the 223rd and 224th
+Regiments of the XXIV. German Reserve Corps.  It was not repeated.
+
+On the 30th another sharp action occurred near St. Yves, when
+Hunter-Weston's 11th Brigade was momentarily pierced after dusk by a
+German rush, {231} which broke through a gap in the Hampshires.  The
+Somerset Light Infantry, under Major Prowse, came back upon them and
+the trenches were regained.  In all such actions it is to be
+remembered that where a mass of men can suddenly be directed against
+scattered trenches which will only hold a few, it is no difficult
+matter to carry them, but at once the conditions reverse themselves
+and the defenders mass their supports, who can usually turn the
+intruders out once more.
+
+This brings the general record of the doings of the Third Corps down
+to the end of October, the date on which we cease the account of the
+operations at the southern end of the British line.  We turn from
+this diffuse and difficult story, with its ever-varying positions and
+units, to the great epic of the north, which will be inseparably
+united for ever with the name of Ypres.
+
+
+
+
+{232}
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES
+
+(Up to the Action of Gheluvelt, October 31)
+
+The Seventh Division--Its peculiar excellence--Its difficult
+position--A deadly ordeal--Desperate attacks on Seventh
+Division--Destruction of 2nd Wilts--Hard fight of 20th
+Brigade--Arrival of First Corps--Advance of Haig's Corps--Fight of
+Pilken Inn--Bravery of enemy--Advance of Second Division--Fight of
+Kruiseik cross-roads--Fight of Zandvoorde--Fight of
+Gheluvelt--Advance of Worcesters--German recoil--General result--A
+great crisis.
+
+
+It has already been seen that the Seventh Division (Capper's), being
+the first half of Rawlinson's Fourth first Army Corps, had retired
+south and west after the unsuccessful attempt to relieve Antwerp.  It
+was made up as follows:--
+
+[Sidenote: The Seventh Division]
+
+  DIVISION VII.--General CAPPER.
+
+  20_th Infantry Brigade--General Ruggles-Brise_.
+        1st Grenadier Guards.
+        2nd Scots Guards.
+        2nd Border Regiment.
+        2nd Gordon Highlanders.
+
+  2l_st Infantry Brigade--General Walls_.
+        2nd Bedfords.
+        2nd Yorks.
+        2nd Wilts.
+        2nd Scots Fusiliers.
+
+{233}
+
+  22_nd Infantry Brigade--General Lawford_.
+        1st South Staffords.
+        2nd Warwicks.
+        2nd Queen's West Surrey.
+        1st Welsh Fusiliers.
+
+  _Artillery._
+        22nd Brigade R.F.A.
+        35th Brigade R.F.A.
+        3rd R.G.A.
+        111th R.G.A.
+        112th R.G.A.
+        14th Brigade R.H.A. C.F.
+
+  _Engineers._
+        54, 55, F. Co.
+        7 Signal Co.
+        Divisional Cavalry.
+        Northumberland Yeomanry.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Its peculiar excellence.]
+
+It is not too much to say that in an army where every division had
+done so well no single one was composed of such fine material as the
+Seventh.  The reason was that the regiments composing it had all been
+drawn from foreign garrison duty, and consisted largely of soldiers
+of from three to seven years' standing, with a minimum of reservists.
+In less than a month from the day when this grand division of 18,000
+men went into action its infantry had been nearly annihilated, but
+the details of its glorious destruction furnish one more vivid page
+of British military achievement.  We lost a noble division and gained
+a glorious record.
+
+The Third Cavalry Division under General Byng was attached to the
+Seventh Division, and joined up with it at Roulers upon October 13.
+It consisted of--
+
+  6_th Cavalry Brigade--General Makings_.
+  3rd Dragoon Guards.
+  10th Hussars.
+  1st Royals.
+
+  7_th Cavalry Brigade--General Kavanagh_.
+  1st Life Guards.
+  2nd Life Guards.
+  1st Horse Guards.
+  1st Horse Guards.
+  K Battery, R.H.A.
+
+{234}
+
+The First Army Corps not having yet come up from the Aisne, these
+troops were used to cover the British position from the north, the
+infantry lying from Zandvoorde through Gheluvelt to Zonnebeke, and
+the cavalry on their left from Zonnebeke to Langemarck from October
+16 onwards.  It was decided by Sir John French that it was necessary
+to get possession of the town of Menin, some distance to the east of
+the general British line, but very important because the chief
+bridge, by means of which the Germans were receiving their
+ever-growing reinforcements, was there.  The Seventh Division was
+ordered accordingly to advance upon this town, its left flank being
+covered by the Third Cavalry Division.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+{235}
+
+[Illustration: LINE OF 7th DIVISION (CAPPER) & 3rd CAVALRY DIVISION
+(BYNG) FROM OCT 17th. ONWARDS]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+[Sidenote: Its difficult position.]
+
+The position was a dangerous one.  It has already been stated that
+the pause on the Aisne may not have been unwelcome to the Germans, as
+they were preparing reserve formations which might be suddenly thrown
+against some chosen spot in the Allied line.  They had the equipment
+and arms for at least another 250,000 men, and that number of drilled
+men were immediately available, some being Landwehr who had passed
+through the ranks, and others young formations which had been
+preparing when war broke out.  Together they formed no less than five
+new army corps, available for the extreme western front, more
+numerous than the whole British and Belgian armies combined.  This
+considerable force, secretly assembled and moving rapidly across
+Belgium, was now striking the north of the Allied line, debouching
+not only over the river at Menin, but also through Courtrai, Iseghem,
+and Roulers.  It consisted of the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 26th, and 27th
+reserve corps.  Of these the 22nd, and later the 24th, followed the
+{236} Belgians to the line of the Yser, but the other corps were all
+available for an attack upon the flank of that British line which was
+faced by formidable opponents--a line which extended over thirty
+miles and had already been forced into a defensive attitude.  That
+was the situation when the Seventh Division faced round near Ypres.
+Sir John French was doing all that he could to support it, and Sir
+Douglas Haig was speeding up his army corps from the Aisne to take
+his place to the north of Ypres, but there were some days during
+which Rawlinson's men were in the face of a force six or seven times
+larger than themselves.
+
+Upon October 16th and 17th the division had advanced from Ypres and
+occupied the line already mentioned, the right centre of which rested
+about the ninth kilometre on the Ypres-Menin road, the order of the
+brigades from the north being 22nd, 21st, and 20th.  On October 18
+the division wheeled its left forward.  As the infantry advanced, the
+covering cavalry soon became aware of grave menace from Roulers and
+Courtrai in the north.  A large German force was evidently striking
+down on to the left flank of the advance.  The division was engaged
+all along the line, for the 20th Brigade upon the right had a brisk
+skirmish, while the 21st Brigade in the centre was also under fire,
+which came especially heavily upon the 2nd Bedfords, who had numerous
+casualties.  About ten o'clock on the morning of the 19th the
+pressure from the north increased, and the 7th Cavalry Brigade was
+driven in, though it held its own with great resolution for some
+time, helped by the fine work of K Battery, R.H.A.  The 6th Cavalry
+Brigade was held up in front, while the danger on the {237} flank
+grew more apparent as the hours passed.  In these circumstances
+General Rawlinson, fortified in his opinion by the precise reports of
+his airmen as to the strength of the enemy upon his left, came to the
+conclusion that a further advance would place him in a difficult
+position.  He therefore dropped back to his original line.  There can
+be little doubt that, if he had persevered in the original plan, his
+force would have been in extreme danger.  As it was, before he could
+get it back the 1st Welsh Fusiliers were hard hit, this famous
+regiment losing a major, 5 captains, 3 lieutenants, and about 200
+men.  The order to retire had failed to reach it, and but for the
+able handling of Colonel Cadogan it might well have been destroyed.
+
+On October 20, the situation being still obscure, the 20th Brigade
+carried out a reconnaissance towards Menin.  The 2nd Wilts and 2nd
+Scots Fusiliers, of the 21st Brigade, covered their left flank.  The
+enemy, however, made a vigorous attack upon the 22nd Brigade to the
+north, especially upon the Welsh Fusiliers, so the reconnaissance had
+to fall back again, the 1st Grenadier Guards sustaining some losses.
+The two covering regiments were also hard pressed, especially the
+Wiltshires, who were again attacked during the night, but repulsed
+their assailants.
+
+[Sidenote: A deadly ordeal.]
+
+From this time onwards the Seventh Division was to feel ever more and
+more the increasing pressure as the German army corps from day to day
+brought their weight to bear upon a thin extended line of positions
+held by a single division.  It will be shown that they were speedily
+reinforced by the First Corps, but even after its advent the Germans
+were still able {238} to greatly outnumber the British force.  The
+story from this time onwards is one of incessant and desperate
+attacks by day and often by night.  At first the division was holding
+the position alone, with the help of their attendant cavalry, and
+their instructions were to hold on to the last man until help could
+reach them.  In the case of some units these instructions were
+literally fulfilled.  One great advantage lay with the British.  They
+were first-class trained soldiers, the flower of the Army, while
+their opponents, however numerous, were of the newly raised reserve
+corps, which showed no lack of bravery, but contained a large
+proportion of youths and elderly men in the ranks.  Letters from the
+combatants have described the surprise and even pity which filled the
+minds of the British when they saw the stormers hesitate upon the
+edge of the trenches which they had so bravely approached, and stare
+down into them uncertain what they should do.  But though the
+ascendancy of the British infantry was so great that they could
+afford to disregard the inequality of numbers, it was very different
+with the artillery.  The German gunners were as good as ever, and
+their guns as powerful as they were numerous.  The British had no
+howitzer batteries at all with this division, while the Germans had
+many.  It was the batteries which caused the terrific losses.  It may
+be that the Seventh Division, having had no previous experience in
+the campaign, had sited their trenches with less cunning than would
+have been shown by troops who had already faced the problem of how
+best to avoid high explosives.  Either by sight or by aeroplane
+report the Germans got the absolute range of some portions of the
+British position, pitching their heavy shells exactly into the {239}
+trenches, and either blowing the inmates to pieces or else burying
+them alive, so that in a little time the straight line of the trench
+was entirely lost, and became a series of ragged pits and mounds.
+The head-cover for shrapnel was useless before such missiles, and
+there was nothing for it but either to evacuate the line or to hang
+on and suffer.  The Seventh Division hung on and suffered, but no
+soldiers can ever have been exposed to a more deadly ordeal.  When
+they were at last relieved by the arrival of reinforcements and the
+consequent contraction of the line, they were at the last pitch of
+exhaustion, indomitable in spirit, but so reduced by their losses and
+by the terrific nervous strain that they could hardly have held out
+much longer.
+
+A short account has been given of what occurred to the division up to
+October 20.  It will now be carried on for a few days, after which
+the narrative must turn to the First Corps, and show why and how they
+came into action to the north of the hard-pressed division.  It is
+impossible to tell the two stories simultaneously, and so it may now
+be merely mentioned that from October 21 Haig's Corps was on the
+left, and that those operations which will shortly be described
+covered the left wing of the division, and took over a portion of
+that huge German attack which would undoubtedly have overwhelmed the
+smaller unit had it not been for this addition of strength.  It is
+necessary to get a true view of the operations, for it is safe to say
+that they are destined for immortality, and will be recounted so long
+as British history is handed down from one generation to another.
+
+On the 21st the enemy got a true conception of {240} the salient in
+front of the Seventh Division, and opened a vigorous attack, which
+lasted all day and assumed several different phases at different
+points.  The feature of the morning of the 21st was the severe and,
+indeed, disastrous artillery fire upon Lawford's 22nd Brigade.  The
+exact range of the British position seems to have been discovered
+with deadly results.  Men, trenches, and machine-guns were all blown
+to pieces together.  The 2nd Warwicks and the 1st Welsh Fusiliers
+were the two battalions upon which the storm beat hardest, and each
+of them had some hundreds of casualties.  In three days the Welsh
+Fusiliers, who were on the exposed left flank, lost three-quarters of
+their effectives, including twenty-three of their officers, and yet
+preserved their military spirit.  It became clearer as experience
+accumulated that the best trenches, if they are once fairly located,
+can be made untenable or turned into the graves of their occupants by
+the use of high explosives.  The German fire was so severe that it
+was reckoned that one hundred and twenty shells an hour into or round
+a trench was a not uncommon rate of fall.  The 2nd Queen's also lost
+seven officers and many men in this day's fighting.  In spite of the
+heavy losses from gun-fire the German infantry could make no
+progress, being held up by a flanking fire of the South Staffords.
+
+[Sidenote: Desperate attacks on Seventh Division.]
+
+In the afternoon of October 21 a strong attack was made upon the 21st
+Brigade in the centre of the line.  The brigade was holding a front
+of two and a half miles, and, although the attack was generally
+beaten back, a certain number of stormers got through between the
+trenches and into the woods beyond.  Here they lurked for a couple of
+days, during which time the 2nd Yorkshire Regiment, behind whose
+{241} line they were lying, were often compelled to have each
+alternate man facing a different way to keep down the fire.  The
+battalion sent itself reinforcements by hurrying its right company
+over to help to clear its left.  This movement was successful, but
+was attended with heavy losses, including several officers.  Some of
+the Royal Scots Fusiliers had been forced out of their trenches on
+the right, and made, under Major Ian Forbes, a gallant attempt to
+re-establish them, in which Captain Fairlie and many men were lost.
+The Wiltshires also endured a very severe attack, which they repulsed
+with great loss to the enemy.  On this same eventful day, the 21st,
+the Second Cavalry Division had been pushed back at Holbeke, and the
+Germans got round the right flank of the hard-pressed infantry.  It
+was then that General Rawlinson brought his Third Cavalry Division
+round and established it upon his right instead of his left flank.
+From this time until October 30 this cavalry division was holding
+Zandvoorde Ridge, sharing day by day in all the perils and the
+glories of their comrades of the Seventh Division.  There was no more
+dangerous point than that which was held by the cavalry, and their
+losses, especially those of the 10th Hussars, were in proportion to
+the danger.  In the course of a few days the Hussars lost Colonel
+Barnes, Majors Mitford and Crichton and many officers and men.
+
+On October 22 the Second Division of Haig's First Corps, which had
+been fully occupied to the north with operations which will presently
+be described, moved down to cover the ground vacated by the Third
+Cavalry Division and to relieve the pressure upon the infantry of the
+Seventh Division.  The 4th Guards Brigade took its position upon
+their {242} immediate left.  It was time.  For four days they had
+covered the enormous front of eight miles against at least four times
+their own number, with more than six times their weight of artillery.
+It was touch and go.  They were nearly submerged.  It was indeed a
+vision of joy when the worn and desperate men, looking over their
+shoulders down the Ypres-Menin road, saw the head of a British column
+coming swiftly to the rescue.  It was the 2nd Highland Light Infantry
+and the 2nd Worcesters, dispatched from the 5th Brigade, and never
+was reinforcement more needed.  Shortly afterwards further help in
+the shape of a detachment of the Munster Fusiliers, two troops of the
+ever-helpful Irish Horse, and one section of artillery appeared upon
+the scene.
+
+[Sidenote: Destruction of 2nd Wilts.]
+
+Upon this date (October 22) the 22nd Infantry Brigade of the Seventh
+Division had fallen back to the railway crossings near Zonnebeke.
+Thus the salient which the Germans had been attacking was
+straightened out.  Unhappily, the change caused another smaller
+salient farther south, at the point which was held by the 2nd
+Wiltshires.  On the 22nd and 23rd there was a tremendous shelling of
+this sector, which was followed on the 24th by an infantry advance,
+in which the Wiltshires, who had been previously much reduced, were
+utterly overwhelmed and practically destroyed.  The disastrous attack
+broke upon the British line just after daybreak.  The enemy pushed
+through behind each flank of the Wiltshires, elbowing off the Scots
+Fusiliers on one side and the Scots Guards on the other.  The Germans
+got in force into the Polygon Woods behind.  There were no reserves
+available save the Northumberland Hussars, a corps which has the
+honour of being the {243} first British territorial corps to fight
+for its country.  With the aid of some divisional cyclists, this
+handful of men held back the Germans until the 2nd Warwicks from the
+north were brought to stem the advance.  The Warwicks charged through
+the wood, their gallant Colonel Loring riding his horse beside them
+without boot or legging, having been wounded some days before.
+"Where my men go I go as well," was his answer to medical
+remonstrance.  He was killed by a bullet, but he died at a moment of
+victory, for his last earthly vision was that of his infantry driving
+the last Germans out of the wood.  Besides their colonel, the
+regiment lost many officers and men in this fine advance, which was
+most vigorously supported by the 2nd Worcesters, the only
+reinforcement within reach.  The Worcesters lost 6 officers and 160
+men, but did much execution and took a number of prisoners.
+
+[Sidenote: Hard fight of 20th Brigade.]
+
+At this time the 20th Brigade, being the extreme right of the Seventh
+Division, held an extended line from Kruiseik cross-roads, about a
+mile east of Gheluvelt village, to near Zandvoorde, with a salient at
+the village of Kruiseik.  On the night of the 25th the Germans
+planned a furious attack upon the whole salient.  The assailants, who
+were mostly Saxons, broke through the 2nd Scots Guards just north of
+Kruiseik and got behind the line, which was pushed back for some
+distance, though Captain Paynter, with the right-hand company, held
+his position.  A counter-attack by the Guards retook the line,
+together with 200 prisoners, including 7 officers.  On the morning of
+the 26th the Germans were back on them, however, and began by blowing
+in the trenches of the Border Regiment south of Kruiseik.  The German
+{244} guns had found the exact range of the trenches, and the
+defenders had the same terrible and intolerable experience which had
+befallen some of their comrades two days before.  It was simply
+impossible to stand up against the incessant shower of shattering
+shells.  So great was the concussion and the nervous strain that many
+of the men exposed to it got completely dazed or even became
+delirious.  Grenadiers, Scots Guards, and South Staffords, of the
+20th Brigade, held the line until the front trenches were carried by
+the Germans and many of the occupants made prisoners.  It was pitch
+dark, and it was impossible to tell friend from foe.  Major Fraser of
+the Scots Guards, going forward to reconnoitre, was shot dead and his
+party was destroyed.  A house in a field taken by the Guards yielded
+no fewer than 200 prisoners, but in the confused fighting in the
+darkness our losses were greater than our gains.  It was in this
+night-fighting that Lord Dalrymple, Colonel Bolton, and other
+officers, with some hundreds of men, fell into the hands of the enemy
+after a most heroic resistance to overpowering numbers and to a
+weight of artillery which was crushing in its effect.  The King's
+Company of the 1st Grenadiers was isolated and in great danger, but
+managed to link up with the British line.  The 1st South Staffords
+also lost some hundreds of men, and was only saved by fine handling
+on the part of Colonel Ovens.  Kruiseik was abandoned, and a new line
+taken up half a mile farther back.  It was a critical night, during
+which the energy and firmness of General Capper were splendidly
+employed in reforming and stiffening his sorely tried division.  On
+the 26th the 20th Brigade, which had been so heavily {245} hit the
+day before, was drawn out of the line for a rest, and the two other
+brigades closed up to cover a shorter line.  The work of the 20th at
+Kruiseik had been magnificent, but their losses were appalling,
+including their Brigadier, Ruggles-Brise, who was wounded.  Here, for
+the instant, we shall leave the Seventh Division, though their ordeal
+was by no means done, and we shall turn to those other forces which
+had been forming in the northern or Ypres section of the long battle
+line.
+
+[Sidenote: Arrival of First Corps.]
+
+The reader will remember, if he casts his mind back, that the whole
+British line, as it extended from the south about October 18,
+consisted of the Second Corps and the advance guard of the Indians
+near La Bassée; then, in succession, the Third Corps in the
+Armentières district, the First Cavalry and Second Cavalry near
+Messines and Wytschaete, the Seventh Division near Gheluvelt, and
+finally the Third Cavalry on their left, joining up with the French,
+who carried the line to where the Belgians were reforming on the
+Yser.  The First Corps had detrained from the Aisne, and was
+concentrated between St. Omer and Hazebrouck upon October 18 and 19.
+They represented a last British reserve of about thirty-five thousand
+men to set against the large new armies who were advancing from the
+north.  The urgent question to be decided was where they should be
+placed, since there were so many points which needed reinforcement.
+
+Sir John French has explained in his dispatch the reasons which
+swayed him in deciding this question.  "I knew," he said, "that the
+enemy were by this time in greatly superior strength upon the Lys and
+that the Second and Third Cavalry and Fourth Corps {246} (Seventh
+Division) were holding a much wider front than their strength and
+numbers warranted.  Taking these facts alone into consideration, it
+would have appeared wise to throw the First Corps in to strengthen
+the line, but this would have left the country north and east of
+Ypres and the Ypres Canal open to a wide turning movement by the
+Third Reserve Corps and at least one Landwehr Division which I knew
+to be operating in that region.  I was also aware that the enemy was
+bringing large reinforcements up from the east, which could only be
+opposed for several days by two or three French cavalry divisions,
+some French Territorials, and the Belgian Army."
+
+He proceeds to state his opinion that the Belgian Army was in no
+condition to withstand unsupported such an attack, and that if it
+were allowed to sweep past us it was very likely to wash away all
+opposition before it, and get into the Channel ports in our rear.
+With this consideration in his mind, Sir John French took the bold
+and dangerous, but absolutely necessary, step of leaving the long,
+thin, thirty-mile line to do the best it could, and prolonging it by
+another ten or twelve miles by forming up the First Corps on the same
+alignment, so as to present as long a British breakwater as possible
+to the oncoming flood.  There was nothing else to be done, and the
+stronger the flood the more need there was to do it, but it is safe
+to say that seldom in history has so frail a barrier stood in the
+direct track of so terrible a storm.
+
+In accordance with this resolution, Haig's First Corps moved, on
+October 20, through Poperinghe and Ypres and took their place upon
+the north or left side of the Seventh Division.  On their own left in
+this position was the French cavalry corps of {247} General de Mitry,
+while the Third Division of British cavalry was on their right.  As
+the movement commenced Sir John French had a personal interview with
+General Haig, in which he held out hopes that the greater part of the
+new German levies had been deflected to hold our southern advance,
+and that he would only find the Third Reserve Corps and some Landwehr
+in front of him to the north of Ypres.  His object was to advance
+upon the line of Bruges and drive the enemy towards Ghent.  Meanwhile
+the gallant little Belgian army, which was proving itself a glutton
+at fighting, was entrenched along the line of the Ypres Canal and the
+Yser River, where they held their own manfully in spite of all that
+they had endured.
+
+[Sidenote: Advance of Haig's Corps.]
+
+The first large landmark in the direction of Bruges was Thorout, and
+towards this the First Corps, with the Third Cavalry Division upon
+its right, took its first steps, little thinking that it was butting
+forward against an approaching army of at least double its own
+strength.  It was very quickly made to realise its position, however,
+and any dreams of a victorious entry into Bruges were speedily
+dispelled.  Only too fortunate would it be if it could hold its own
+line without retreat and disaster.  Upon the 21st Haig's men attacked
+Poel-Chapelle and Passchendaale, French cavalry and Territorials (the
+Eighty-seventh and Eighty-ninth Divisions) under General Bidon
+advancing on their left, while the Seventh Division, as already
+described, kept pace upon its right.  There was strong opposition
+from the first, but the corps advanced in spite of it until the
+pressure from the north became too severe for the French, whose flank
+was exposed to the full force of it.
+
+{248}
+
+The British attack upon the morning in question was planned as
+follows.  The Second Division was to advance upon Passchendaale.  The
+First had orders to take Poel-Chapelle.  The latter movement was
+headed by the 3rd Brigade, who were directed by General Landon to go
+forward about nine o'clock, the 1st Queen's having the station for
+their objective while the 1st South Wales Borderers attacked the
+village.  The 1st Gloucesters were in reserve.  The enemy met the
+attack with shell-fire, which it was difficult to locate, as the
+country was flat and enclosed.  The progress of the movement,
+however, was steady though slow.  About ten o'clock there were signs
+of a considerable hostile infantry advance from the north.  The
+attack, however, made good progress up to midday, when there was a
+general retirement of the French Territorials, followed later by the
+French cavalry upon the British left.  They moved back towards
+Bixschote.  The Gloucester Regiment, who had been thrown out to
+reinforce that flank, were also driven back, and were in turn
+reinforced by the Coldstream Guards.  This battalion executed a
+bayonet charge in clearing the small village of Koekuit, but later on
+had to retire, finding their flank exposed.  It should be mentioned
+that one French corps, the Seventh Cavalry Division, kept its
+position upon the British left, and it is also only fair to point out
+that as the German advance was mainly from the north, it was upon the
+left flank, covered by the French, that it would fall.  The 1st
+Camerons were now dispatched to the flank to stiffen the French
+resistance, taking up their position near the inn which is midway
+upon the road between Steenstraate and Langemarck, north of the
+village {249} of Pilken--an inn with which they were destined to have
+stirring associations.  With the support of the 46th Battery, the
+Highlanders held up a German brigade which was thrusting through
+behind our main line; but farther west, in the Steenstraate
+direction, the defence against a northern advance was miserably thin,
+consisting only of one company of the Sussex Regiment and the 116th
+Battery.  In the circumstances the more success Haig's troops
+attained in front, and the more they advanced, the more dangerous was
+their position upon the flank.
+
+About 2.30 the German advance from the north became more formidable,
+and the 1st South Welsh Borderers, between Langemarck and
+Poel-Chapelle, were heavily counter-attacked and suffered
+considerable loss, between two and three hundred in all.  Two
+companies of the 2nd Welsh were pushed up to their help.  It was
+clear, however, that the advance could not be continued.  The 1st
+Brigade was therefore ordered to hold the line between Steenstraate
+and Langemarck, with their centre at the inn north of Pilken, so as
+to face the German advance from the north.  Then from Langemarck the
+British line turned southwards, being carried on for two miles by the
+3rd Brigade to hold the enemy who were coming from the east.  The 2nd
+Brigade was in reserve at Boesinghe.  During this long and difficult
+day the Second Division, operating upon the right of the First, was
+not subjected to the same anxiety about its flank.  It advanced upon
+its objective in the face of severe opposition, ending more than once
+in a brief bayonet encounter.  Several counter-attacks were made by
+the Germans, but they were all beaten back with loss.  About two
+o'clock, however, {250} the Second Division learned of the flank
+pressure which was holding up the First Division, and also of the
+extreme need for help experienced by the 22nd Brigade of the Seventh
+Division on their right.  In these circumstances it was necessary to
+abandon the idea of further advance and to send south those
+reinforcements, the opportune arrival of which has been already
+described.
+
+As a net result of the two days' operations General Haig was not able
+to attain the line of Passchendaale-Poel-Chapelle, as originally
+planned, but he gained sufficient ground to establish himself from
+Langemarck to Zonnebeke, more than half-way to his objective.  The
+whole character of the operations during these days was more of the
+familiar British type, being conducted upon the surface of the earth
+rather than under it, and cavalry making its last appearance for many
+a long day.  Many fine deeds of valour were done.  In one of these
+Captain Rising, of the Gloucester Regiment, with ninety men, defended
+some point with such heroic tenacity that when, some days afterwards,
+the Brigadier attempted to get the names of the survivors for
+commendation not one could be found.  Quaintly valorous also is the
+picture of Major Powell, of the North Lancashires, leading his wing
+with a badly-sprained ankle, and using a cottage chair for a crutch,
+upon which he sat down between rushes.  It is hopeless, however, and
+even invidious to pick instances where the same spirit animated all.
+The result was definite.  It had been clearly shown that the enemy
+were in considerably greater strength than had been imagined, and
+instead of a rearguard action from weak forces the British found
+themselves in the presence of a strong German {251} advance.  All day
+large forces of the enemy were advancing from Roulers and were
+impinging upon different points of the Franco-British line.  These
+troops were composed of partially-trained men, volunteers and
+reservists, but they attacked with the utmost determination, and
+endured heavy losses with great bravery.  It is a remarkable proof of
+the elaborate preparations for war made by Germany that, behind all
+their original gigantic array, they still had ready within the
+country sufficient arms and uniforms to fit out these five new army
+corps.  He who plans finds it easy to prepare, and whoever will
+compare this profusion of munitions in Germany with the absolute lack
+of them in the Allied countries will have no further doubt as to
+which Government conspired against the peace of the world.
+
+On October 21, Sir John French began to feel that there were new
+factors in his front.  In the evening, at a meeting with Haig and
+Rawlinson, he discussed the unexpected strength of the German
+reinforcements and admitted that the scheme of an advance upon Bruges
+would become impossible in the face of such numbers.  Intelligence
+reports indicated that there was already a German army corps in front
+of each British division.  General Joffre had promised considerable
+French reinforcements upon October 24, and all that could be done was
+for the British troops to hold their ground to the last man and to
+resist every pressure until the equality of the forces could be
+restored.  Could they hold the line till then?  That was the
+all-important question.
+
+October 22 was the first day of that long ordeal of incessant attacks
+which the First Corps was called {252} upon to endure, until by
+constant attrition it had become almost as worn as the Seventh
+Division to the south.  On this day the German attack, which had not
+yet attained the full volume of later days, spent itself here and
+there along the extended lines.  Only at one point did the enemy have
+some success, which, however, was the prelude to disaster.
+
+[Sidenote: Fight of Pilken Inn.]
+
+The line from Steenstraate to Langemarck, defending the British left
+flank, was held by the 1st Brigade, the Scots Guards upon the extreme
+left, then the Cameron Highlanders, and the Black Watch in reserve.
+In the middle of the line north of Pilken was a solitary inn, already
+mentioned, round which trenches had been cut in horse-shoe fashion,
+the concavity of the shoe pointing southwards.  This point marked the
+junction between the Camerons and the Scots Guards.  About 3 P.M.
+this position was driven in and captured by a sudden and determined
+advance of the enemy.  The German charge was a fine feat of arms, for
+it was carried out largely by _Einjahrige_, who may be roughly
+compared to the Officers' Training Corps of our British system.
+These high-spirited lads advanced singing patriotic songs, and
+succeeded in carrying the trenches in the face of soldiers who are
+second to none in the British Army--soldiers, too, who had seen, much
+service, while the German cadets were new to the work.  The
+performance was much appreciated by British officers and men.
+
+The Black Watch endeavoured without success to restore the line, and
+the 1st Northamptons were called upon from divisional reserve, while
+from all parts troops converged towards the gap.  On the arrival of
+the Northamptons they pushed up towards {253} the interval which now
+existed between the Scots Guards and the remains of the Camerons, but
+found the gap broader than had been thought, and strongly occupied.
+It was then evening, and it was thought best to delay the
+counter-attack until morning and so have time to bring up
+reinforcements.  The 1st North Lancashires and the 2nd South
+Staffords were accordingly ordered up, together with the 1st Queen's
+Surrey and the 2nd Rifles, the whole operation being under the
+immediate command of General Bulfin.  The advance began at six in the
+morning, over very difficult ground which had been barb-wired during
+the night.  The progress was slow but steady, and at eleven o'clock
+an assault upon the inn was ordered.  The position was critical,
+since the enemy was now firmly lodged in the very centre of the flank
+of the British position, and was able to enfilade all the trenches of
+the First Division.  The Queen's Surrey, the 2nd King's Royal Rifles,
+and the 1st North Lancashires charged home with splendid energy,
+capturing the trenches round the inn, besides releasing sixty
+Camerons and taking over five hundred prisoners.  The trenches were
+carried by the North Lancashires, led by Major Carter.  It was the
+second time within six weeks that this battalion had made a decisive
+bayonet charge.  The price paid was six officers and 150 men.  The
+inn itself was rushed by Captain Creek's company of the Queen's,
+while Major Watson, of the same regiment, organised the final
+advance.  The fighting at this point was not finished for the day.
+In the late evening the enemy, with fine tenacity of purpose,
+attacked the inn once more and drove the Queen's out of a salient.
+The line was then straightened on each side {254} of the inn and
+remained firm.  Both the attack on the inn and the defence of the
+line were splendidly supported by the field artillery.
+
+Whilst the 1st Brigade had in this fashion got into and out of a
+dangerous position, there had been a severe attack upon two regiments
+of Landon's 3rd Brigade stationed at Langemarck.  The defending units
+were the 2nd Welsh Regiment and the 1st Gloucesters.  Aided by a
+strong artillery backing, they beat off these attacks and inflicted a
+very heavy loss upon the enemy.  The Allied line to the north was
+solid and unbroken.
+
+[Sidenote: Bravery of enemy.]
+
+The British losses during these operations of the First Corps
+amounted to 1500 men, while those of the Germans were exceedingly
+heavy.  These inexperienced troops advanced with an indiscriminating
+enthusiasm which exposed them to severe retaliation.  It is doubtful
+if at any time in the campaign the British fire found so easy a mark.
+One thousand five hundred dead were counted in the vicinity of
+Langemarck, and the total loss (including over six hundred prisoners)
+could not have been less than 10,000 men.  Correspondence afterwards
+captured showed that the Twenty-third Reserve Corps sustained such
+losses that for a time at least it was out of action.  The
+Twenty-seventh Reserve Corps was also hard hit.  A letter from a
+soldier in the 246th Regiment mentions that only eighty men were left
+of his battalion after the action of the 24th.
+
+On October 24 and 25 the arrival of French reinforcements allowed the
+British to shorten up their defensive line, which had been unduly
+extended.  The Seventeenth Division of the Ninth French Army Corps
+took over the line of the Second Division, which {255} was drawn back
+to St. Jean, and in turn took over part of the front of the Seventh
+Division.  French territorial troops, under General de Mitry,
+relieved the First British Division on the line
+Hannebeke-Langemarck-Steenstraate.  The First Division was drawn back
+to Zillebeke.
+
+[Sidenote: Advance of Second Division.]
+
+Meantime the Second Division, having the French Ninth Corps upon its
+left and the Seventh Division upon its right, made an attack towards
+Bacelaer, taking two guns and some prisoners.  This advance was
+renewed upon the 26th, this being the day upon which, as already
+described, the Germans pushed back the 20th Brigade of the Seventh
+Division at the Kruiseik salient, creating a situation which brought
+the Second Division to a standstill.
+
+In this movement forward of the Second Division from October 24 to
+26, the Guards' 4th Brigade were on the right, the 6th Brigade on the
+left, with the French to the left of them.  The 5th Brigade were in
+reserve.  Two small villages were taken by storm, the Germans being
+driven out of loopholed houses, though at a considerable cost of
+officers and men.  It was in this operation that Colonel Bannatyne,
+the gallant leader of the 1st King's Liverpool, was killed.  Ten
+other officers and several hundred men of this corps were killed or
+wounded.  The 1st Berkshires, fighting to the left of the King's,
+shared in its losses and in its success.  The Irish Guards were held
+up before Reutel and separated from the rest of the force, but
+managed to extricate themselves after some anxious hours.
+
+On October 27, Sir John French came in person to Hooge, at the rear
+of the fighting line, and inquired into the state of the hard-pressed
+troops.  He found {256} the Seventh to be now such a skeleton
+division that it was thought best to join it with Haig's First Corps,
+forming one single command.
+
+The attendant Third Cavalry Division was also attached to the First
+Corps.  These readjustments took place upon October 27.  They were,
+of course, of a temporary character until the eagerly awaited Eighth
+Division should arrive and so give General Rawlinson a complete
+Fourth Corps.  At present there was a very immediate prospect that
+half of it might be annihilated before the second half appeared.  The
+general arrangement of this section of the battlefield was now as
+depicted, the Seventh Division being entirely south of the
+Ypres-Menin roadway.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+{257}
+
+[Illustration: General Scene of Operations]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+This date, the 27th, was memorable only for an advance of the 6th
+Brigade.  These continual advances against odds were wonderful
+examples of the aggressive spirit of the British soldiers.  In this
+instance ground was gained, but at the cost of some casualties,
+especially to the 1st Rifles, who lost Prince Maurice of Battenberg
+and a number of officers and men.
+
+[Sidenote: Fight of Kruiseik cross-roads.]
+
+And now the great epic of the first Battle of Ypres was rising to its
+climax, and the three days of supreme trial for the British Army were
+to begin.  Early upon October 29, a very heavy attack developed upon
+the line of the Ypres-Menin road.  There is a village named
+Gheluvelt, which is roughly half-way upon this tragic highway.  It
+lay now immediately behind the centre of the British line.  About
+half a mile in front of it the position ran through the important
+cross-roads which lead to the village of Kruiseik, still in the
+British possession.  The line through the {258} Kruiseik cross-roads
+was that which was furiously assailed upon this morning, and the
+attack marked the beginning of a great movement to drive in the front
+continuing throughout the 30th and culminating in the terrible ordeal
+of the 31st, the crisis of the Ypres battle and possibly of the
+Western campaign.
+
+FitzClarence's 1st Brigade lay to the north of the road, and the
+battered, much-enduring 20th Brigade upon the south.  They were
+destined together to give such an example of military tenacity during
+that day as has seldom been equalled and never exceeded, so that the
+fight for the Kruiseik crossroads may well live in history amongst
+those actions, like Albuera and Inkermann, which have put the powers
+of British infantry to an extreme test.  The line was held by about
+five thousand men, but no finer units were to be found in the whole
+Army.  The attack was conducted by an army corps with the eyes of
+their Emperor and an overpowering artillery encouraging them from the
+rear.  Many of the defending regiments, especially those of the 20th
+Brigade, had already been terribly wasted.  It was a line of weary
+and desperate men who faced the German onslaught.
+
+The attack began in the mists of the early morning.  The opening was
+adverse to the British, for the enemy, pushing very boldly forward
+upon a narrow front and taking full advantage of the fog, broke a way
+down the Menin road and actually got past the defending line before
+the situation was understood.  The result was that the two regiments
+which flanked the road, the 1st Black Watch and the 1st Grenadiers,
+were fired into from behind and endured terrible {259} losses.  Among
+the Grenadiers Colonel Earle, Majors Forrester and Stucley, Lord
+Richard Wellesley, and a number of other officers fell, while out of
+650 privates only 150 were eventually left standing, the 2nd Gordons,
+upon the right of the Grenadiers, suffered nearly as heavily, while
+the 1st Coldstream, upon the left of the Black Watch, was perhaps the
+hardest hit of all, for at the end of that dreadful day it had not a
+single officer fit for duty.  The right company of the 1st Scots
+Guards shared the fate of the Coldstream.  The line was pushed back
+for a quarter of a mile and Kruiseik was evacuated, but the dead and
+wounded who remained in the trenches far exceeded in numbers those
+who were able to withdraw.
+
+Two small bodies who were cut off by the German advance did not fall
+back with their comrades, and each of them made a splendid and
+successful resistance.  The one near Kruiseik was a mixed party under
+Major Bottomley of the 2nd Queen's West Surrey.  The other was C
+Company of the 2nd Gordons under Captain B. G. R. Gordon and
+Lieutenant Laurence Carr.  These small islands of khaki, in the midst
+of a broad stream of grey, lay so tight and fired so straight that
+they inflicted very great damage upon the enemy, and were able to
+hold their own, in ever-diminishing numbers, until under the
+protection of darkness the survivors regained the British line.
+
+In the meantime, a number of small dashing counter-attacks by the
+indomitable infantry was bringing the British line forward again.
+South of the road the Gordons, under Colonel Uniacke, dashed
+themselves again and again against the huge host which faced them,
+driving them back, and then in their turn recoiling before the
+ponderous advance of {260} the army corps.  They were maddened by the
+sound of the rolling fire ahead of them, which showed that their own
+C Company was dying hard.  In one of these counter-attacks Captain
+Brooke brought every straggler into the fray, and died while trying
+to cut his way through to his comrades.  To the north of the road
+Captain Stephen, with the remains of the 1st Scots Guards, threw
+themselves upon the German flank and staggered it by their fire.  The
+Germans, who had almost reached Gheluvelt, were now worried in this
+way on either flank, while the 2nd Border battalion and the Welsh
+Borderers with the rallied remains of the broken regiments were still
+facing them in front.  The enemy was held, was stricken front and
+flank with a murderous fire, and recoiled back down the Menin road.
+Imperial eyes and overmastering guns were equally powerless to drive
+them through that iron defence.  Five thousand British soldiers had
+driven back an army corps, but had left more than half their number
+upon the scene of victory.
+
+The Second Division, to the north of the road in the direction of
+Reutel, had been ordered to counter-attack, and the other brigades of
+the Seventh Division to the south did the same.  While Haig had a man
+standing he was ready to hit back.  Between these two flanking forces
+there was a movement in the centre to follow the Germans back and to
+recover some of the lost ground.  Landon's Third Brigade, less the
+Gloucester Regiment, was pushed forward.  These troops moved past
+Gheluvelt and advanced along the line of the road, the 1st Queen's,
+their right-hand unit, linking up by a happy chance with their own
+2nd Battalion, who were now on the left of the 22nd Brigade of the
+Seventh Division.  Left {261} of the Queen's were the 2nd Welsh to
+the immediate south of the main road, while to their left again lay
+the 1st South Wales Borderers, in front of the village of Gheluvelt.
+By evening these troops had recovered some of the ground, but the
+village of Kruiseik, which had always constituted a salient, was now
+abandoned.  The cross-roads also remained in the hands of the enemy.
+Landon's Brigade continued to bar the further German advance
+preparing in stern resignation for the renewed and heavier blow which
+all knew to be in readiness, and which was destined two days later to
+bring them a glorious annihilation.
+
+It was clear upon the evening of the 29th that serious mischief was
+afoot, for there were great signs of movement on the German side, and
+all night the continual rattle of wheels was heard to the eastward.
+These menacing sounds were actually caused by a very strong
+reinforcement, the Fifteenth German Corps (Strasburg) of the regular
+army, which, followed by the Thirteenth Corps and the Second Bavarian
+Corps, were coming into the battle line with the declared intention
+of smashing their way through to Ypres.  Correspondence, afterwards
+captured, showed that the German Emperor had issued a special appeal
+to these troops, declaring that the movement was one which would be
+of decisive importance to the war.  It was, of course, not the
+venerable town of Ypres which had assumed such a place in the mind
+both of the Emperor and his people, but it was Calais and the Channel
+coast to which it was the door.  Once in the possession of these
+points, it seemed to their perfervid minds that they would be in a
+position to constrain Great Britain to an ignominious peace, a course
+which {262} would surely have ruined the cause of the Allies and
+placed the whole world under the German heel.  No less was the issue
+at stake.  The British Army from Langemarck in the north to La Bassée
+in the south were resolutely determined that the road was barred,
+while to left and to right they had stout-hearted comrades of Belgium
+and of France.
+
+[Sidenote: Fight of Zandvoorde.]
+
+At half-past six upon October 30 a very heavy attack developed, which
+involved the whole line of the First Corps and also the French Ninth
+Corps upon its left.  This attack upon the left was carried out by
+the Reserve Corps 26 and 27, with whom we had had previous dealings,
+and it was repulsed with considerable loss by the French and the 6th
+British Brigade.  To the south, however, the British were very
+violently engaged down the whole line of trenches from the position
+of the Seventh Division near the Ypres-Menin road, through
+Zandvoorde, where the Third Cavalry Division was holding on under
+great difficulties, and on southward still, past the position of the
+Second Cavalry down to Messines, where the First Cavalry Division was
+also heavily engaged.  The front of battle was not less than twelve
+miles in length, with one continuous long-drawn rattle of small arms
+and roar of guns from end to end.
+
+The British may have anticipated that the chief blow would fall at
+the same spot as had been attacked the day before.  As a matter of
+fact, it was directed farther south, at Zandvoorde, on the immediate
+right of the Seventh Division.
+
+The first sign of success for the strenuous German efforts upon
+October 30 was the driving in of Kavanagh's 7th Guards' Cavalry
+Brigade from their trenches at the Zandvoorde Ridge.  On this ridge,
+{263} which is not more than a hundred and twenty feet high, the
+Germans concentrated so tremendous and accurate a fire that the
+trenches were in many places demolished and became entirely
+untenable.  The survivors of the Life Guards and Blues who made up
+this brigade withdrew steadily through the reserve trenches, which
+were held by the 6th cavalry Brigade, and reformed at Klein Zillebeke
+in the rear.  Two squadrons, however, and Lord Worsley's machine-gun
+section were killed or taken by the assailants.  The unoccupied
+trenches were seized by the Sixth Bavarian Reserve Division, who
+advanced rapidly in order to improve their advantage, while their
+artillery began to pound the reserves.  The cavalry had been
+strengthened, however, by the Greys and 3rd Hussars upon the left,
+while the 4th Hussars lined up on the right, and C, I, and K Horse
+Artillery batteries vigorously supported.  In spite of great
+pressure, the position was held.  Farther south the First Cavalry
+Division was also at very close grips with the Twenty-sixth Division
+of the Thirteenth German Army Corps, and was hard put to it to hold
+its own.  Along the whole cavalry position there was extreme strain.
+A squadron of the 1st Royals were forced to evacuate the chateau of
+Holebeke, and the line in this quarter was pushed back as far as St.
+Eloi, thus flattening a considerable salient.
+
+The danger of a position which consists of so long a line with few
+reserves is that any retirement at any point immediately exposes the
+flanks of the neighbouring units to right and left.  Thus the
+evacuation of Zandvoorde threw open the right flank of the Seventh
+Division, even as its left had been in the air upon the day before.
+On getting through, the Germans were {264} on the right rear of the
+1st Welsh Fusiliers and enfiladed them badly, destroying all the
+officers and a considerable proportion of the regiment, which had
+already been greatly reduced.  Colonel Cadogan was among those who
+fell.  The 22nd Brigade was forced to fall back, and the 2nd
+Yorkshires and 2nd Scots Fusiliers, of the 21st Brigade, being left
+in a salient, suffered heavily, especially the latter battalion, the
+conduct of which from first to last was remarkable even among such
+men as fought beside them.  These two regiments held on with the
+greatest determination until orders to retire reached them, which
+were somewhat belated, as several orderlies were killed in bringing
+them.  The 2nd Bedfords, who had themselves sustained very severe
+losses from the German artillery fire, covered the retirement of the
+remains of these two gallant units.  The Seventh Division then
+covered the line from the canal through Klein Zillebeke and along the
+front of the woods to near Gheluvelt.
+
+The position was now most critical.  The Germans were in possession
+of Zandvoorde Ridge on the British right flank, a most important
+position whence guns could command a considerable area.  Ypres was
+only four miles distant.  There was nothing but a line of weary and
+partially broken infantry to protect the flank from being entirely
+pierced.  The whole of a German active army corps was attacking upon
+this line.  The order was given to hold the new positions at all
+costs, but on the evening of the 30th the situation was full of
+menace for the morrow.  The German flood was still thundering against
+the barrier, and the barrier seemed to be giving.  At about 2 P.M. on
+October 30 the 1st Irish Guards and the 2nd Grenadiers, who were in
+reserve to two battalions of the Coldstream {265} in trenches in the
+Polygon Wood, near Reutel Village, were ordered to help the Seventh
+Division.  General Capper subsequently directed them to take the
+place of the cavalry on the right of his division.  The Irish Guards
+were accordingly on the right of the Seventh Division from now
+onwards, and the Grenadiers were on their right, extending down to
+the canal in front of Klein Zillebeke.  The commander of the Ninth
+French Corps also, with that fine loyalty which his comrades have
+shown again and again during the war, easing many a difficult and
+perhaps saving some impossible situations, put three battalions and
+some cavalry at the disposal of the British.  Two regiments of
+Bulfin's 2nd Brigade were also brought across and thrust into the
+gap.  But the outlook that evening was not cheering.  The troops had
+been fighting hard for two days without a break.  The losses had been
+heavy.  The line had been driven back and was greatly strained.  It
+was known that the Germans were in great strength and that the attack
+would be renewed on the morrow.  The troops and their leaders faced
+the immediate future in a spirit of sombre determination.
+
+[Sidenote: Fight of Gheluvelt.]
+
+During the 30th Landon's Brigade had strengthened their position near
+Gheluvelt, and General Haig, realising that this was the key of his
+line, moved up the 2nd King's Royal Rifles and the 1st North
+Lancashires to form a reserve under the orders of General Landon.
+These regiments took a position south-west of Gheluvelt and connected
+up more closely between the Seventh Division and the 3rd Brigade of
+the First Division.  It was well that a closely-knitted line had been
+formed, for at the dawn of day upon the 31st a most terrific attack
+was made, {266} which was pushed with unexampled fierceness during
+the whole day, falling chiefly upon the centre and left of the
+Seventh Division and upon the 1st Queen's and 2nd Welsh of the Third
+Brigade.
+
+A weak point developed, unfortunately, in the front line, for the
+Seventh Division in its enfeebled condition was further weakened by
+forming somewhat of a salient in the Kruiseik direction.  They
+behaved with all their usual magnificent gallantry, but they were not
+numerous enough to hold the ground.  The line was broken and the
+remains of the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers, after being exposed to
+heavy fire from 5.30 A.M., were outflanked and surrounded in the
+early afternoon.  The bulk of the survivors of this battalion had
+been sent to reinforce the line elsewhere, but the remainder, some
+sixty in number, were killed, wounded, or taken, including their
+gallant colonel, Baird Smith, who had been hit the day before.  The
+Picton tradition which disregards wounds unless they are absolutely
+crippling was continually observed by these stern soldiers.  On the
+left of the Scots Fusiliers the 2nd Bedfords were also involved in
+the catastrophe, but drew off with heavy losses.
+
+The left wing of the Seventh Division began to retire, and the 1st
+Queen's upon the right of the 3rd Brigade had both their flanks
+turned and were reduced to a handful under Major Watson and
+Lieutenant Boyd, who still held together as a unit.  It was a great
+morning in the history of this regiment, as the two battalions had
+fought side by side, and their colonels, Pell and Coles, had both
+fallen in the action.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+{267}
+
+[Illustration: SKETCH OF BATTLE OF GHELUVELT OCT 31st.]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The line of the 3rd Brigade had been drawn up across the Menin road
+some four hundred yards to the east of the village.  The road itself
+was held by {268} the 2nd Welsh Regiment, supported by the 54th
+Battery (Major Peel), which was immediately behind the village.  Both
+the battalion and the battery fought desperately in a most exposed
+situation.  The Welsh Regiment were driven out of their trenches by a
+terrific shell-fire followed by an infantry attack.  They lost during
+the day nearly six hundred men, with sixteen officers, killed,
+wounded, or missing.  Colonel Morland was killed and Major Prichard
+badly wounded.  Finally, after being pushed back, holding every
+possible point, they formed up under Captain Rees across the open in
+a thin skirmishing line to cover the battery, which was doing great
+work by holding back the German advance.  One German gun was in
+action upon the Menin road.  Lieutenant Blewitt took a British gun
+out on to the bare road to face it, and a duel ensued at five hundred
+yards, which ended by the German gun being knocked out at the third
+shot by a direct hit.
+
+When the First Division at the centre of the British line were driven
+in, as already described, and the Seventh Division were pushed back
+into the woods, the situation became most critical, for there was a
+general retirement, with a victorious enemy pressing swiftly on upon
+the British centre.  The men behaved splendidly, and the officers
+kept their heads, taking every opportunity to form up a new line.
+The 2nd Rifles and 1st North Lancashires in immediate support of the
+centre did all that men could to hold it firm.  The German artillery
+lengthened their range as the British fell back, and the infantry,
+with their murderous quick-firers scattered thickly in the front
+line, came rapidly on.  Communications were difficult, and everything
+for a time was chaos {269} and confusion.  It looked for an hour or
+two as if Von Deimling, the German leader, might really carry out his
+War Lord's command and break his road to the sea.  It was one of the
+decisive moments of the world's history, for if the Germans at that
+period had seized the Channel ports, it is difficult to say how
+disastrous the result might have been both to France and to the
+British Empire.  At that moment of darkness and doubt a fresh
+misfortune, which might well have proved overwhelming, came upon the
+hard-pressed forces.  About 1.30 a shell exploded in the headquarters
+at the chateau of Hooge, and both General Lomax, of the First
+Division, and General Munro, of the Second, were put out of action,
+the first being wounded and the second rendered unconscious by the
+shock.  It was a brain injury to the Army, and a desperately serious
+one, for besides the two divisional commanders the single shell had
+killed or wounded Colonels Kerr and Perceval, Major Paley, Captains
+Ommany and Trench, and Lieutenant Giffard.  General Landon, of the
+3rd Brigade, took the command of the First Division at a moment's
+notice, and the battle went forward.  A line was hurriedly formed,
+men digging as for their lives, whilst broken units threw themselves
+down to hold off the rolling grey wave that thundered behind.  The
+new position was three-quarters of a mile back and about four hundred
+yards in advance of Veldhoek, which is the next village down the
+Ypres road.  The Seventh Division had also been rolled back, but the
+fiery Capper, their divisional chief, who has been described as a
+British Samurai, was everywhere among his regiments, reforming and
+bracing them.  The British soldiers, with their incomparable {270}
+regimental officers, rose to the crisis, whilst General Haig was
+behind the line at Hooge, directing and controlling, like a great
+engineer who seeks to hold a dam which carries an overpowering head
+of water.  By three o'clock the new line was firmly held.
+
+[Sidenote: Advance of Worcesters.]
+
+Now General Haig, seeking round for some means of making a
+counter-attack, perceived that on his left flank he had some reserve
+troops who had been somewhat clear of the storm and might be
+employed.  The 2nd Worcesters were ordered to advance upon Gheluvelt,
+the initiative in this vital movement coming from General
+Fitz-Clarence of the 1st Brigade.  On that flank the troops had not
+joined in the retirement, and, including the South Wales Borderers of
+the 3rd Brigade, were still in their original trenches, being just
+north of the swathe that had been cut in the British line, and just
+south of where the Second Division, extended to cracking point, with
+one man often for every eight or nine feet, and no supports, were
+defending the left flank of the Army.
+
+When the village of Gheluvelt and the trenches to the north of it had
+been captured by the enemy, a gap had been left of about five hundred
+yards between the northern edge of the village and these South Wales
+Borderers.  This gap the 2nd Worcesters were ordered to fill.  They
+were in reserve at the time in the south-west corner of the Polygon
+Wood, but on being called upon they made a brilliant advance under
+Major Hankey.  One company (A) was detached to guard the right flank
+of the advance.  The other three companies came on for a thousand
+yards.  At one point they had to cross two hundred and twenty yards
+of open under heavy shrapnel-fire.  One hundred men fell, but the
+momentum of the charge {271} was never diminished.  Their rapid and
+accurate fire drove back the German infantry, while their open order
+formation diminished their own losses.  Finally they dashed into the
+trenches and connected up the village with the line of the Welsh
+Borderers.  Their right platoons, under Captain Williams, held the
+village until nearly midnight.  Altogether the advance cost the
+battalion 187 casualties, including 3 officers, out of 550 who were
+in the ranks that day.  Up to dusk the Worcesters were exposed to
+heavy shrapnel-fire, and small detached parties of the enemy came
+round their right flank, but their position was strengthened and
+strongly held until the final readjustment of the line.  It was a
+fine advance at a critical moment, and did much to save the
+situation.  The whole movement was strongly supported by the guns of
+the 42nd Battery, and by some of the 1st Scots Guards upon the left
+of the Welsh Borderers.
+
+It has been stated that a line had been formed near Veldhoek, but
+this difficult operation was not performed in an instant, and was
+rather the final equilibrium established after a succession of
+oscillations.  The British were worn to a shadow.  The 2nd Queen's
+had 2 officers and 60 men left that night, the 2nd Welsh had 3
+officers and 93 men.  Little groups, who might have been fitted into
+a large-sized drawing-room, were settling a contention upon which the
+fate of the world might depend.  But the Germans also had spent all
+their force.  The rattle of musketry behind their advance was enough
+to tell them that the British were still in their trenches, and the
+guns were for ever playing on them with deadly effect.  Gradually
+they began to dissolve away among the thick woods which flank the
+road.  They were {272} learning that to penetrate the line of a
+resolute adversary is not necessarily the prelude to victory.  It may
+mean that the farther you advance the more your flanks are exposed.
+So it was now, when the infantry to the north on one side and the
+Third Cavalry Division on the other were closing in on them.  That
+long tentacle which was pushing its way towards Ypres had to be
+swiftly withdrawn once more, and withdrawn under a heavy fire from
+the 29th, 41st, and 45th field batteries.
+
+[Sidenote: German recoil.]
+
+The scattered German infantry who had taken refuge in the woods of
+Hooge, which lie to the south of the road, were followed up by
+mounted and dismounted men of the Royals, 10th Hussars, and 3rd
+Dragoon Guards, aided by some French cavalry.  These troops advanced
+through the woods, killing or taking a number of the enemy.  By
+nightfall the Germans had fallen back along the whole debated line;
+the various British units, though much disorganised, were in close
+touch with each other, and the original trenches had in the main been
+occupied, the Berkshire Regiment helping to close the gap in the
+centre.  The flood had slowly ebbed away, and the shaken barrier was
+steady once more, thanks to the master-hands which had so skilfully
+held it firm.  The village of Gheluvelt remained in the hands of the
+Germans, but the British trenches were formed to the west of it, and
+the road to the sea was barred as effectually as ever.  These are the
+main facts of the action of Gheluvelt, which may well be given a name
+of its own, though it was only one supremely important episode in
+that huge contention which will be known as the First Battle of Ypres.
+
+In the southern portion of the Ypres area at {273} Klein Zillebeke a
+very sharp engagement was going on, which swung and swayed with as
+much violence and change as the main battle on the Menin road.  The
+German attack here was hardly inferior in intensity to that in the
+north.  Having pushed back Lawford's weak brigade (22nd) it struck
+full upon part of Bulfin's 2nd Brigade, which had been detached from
+the First Division and sent to cover the right of the Seventh
+Division.  Its own flank was now exposed, and its situation for a
+time was critical.  The German advance was sudden and impetuous,
+coming through a wood which brought the dense mass of the enemy's
+leading formation almost unseen right up to the British line.  The
+position of the 2nd Brigade was pierced, and the two regiments
+present, the 2nd Sussex and the 1st Northamptons, were driven back
+with loss.  Their brigadier rallied them some hundreds of yards to
+the rear, where they formed up into a skirmish line in the open, and,
+though unable to advance, kept back the Germans with their
+rifle-fire.  The losses still continued, however, and the enemy came
+on again and again with numbers which seemed inexhaustible.  Suddenly
+there was a charging yell from behind a low slope covering the rear,
+and over the brow there appeared some three hundred survivors of the
+2nd Gordons, rushing at full speed with fixed bayonets.  At the same
+moment the dismounted troopers of the 6th Cavalry Brigade and a
+company of sappers ran forward to join in the charge.  The whole
+British force was not one to three of its opponents, but as the
+reinforcing line swept on, cheering with all its might, the survivors
+of the hard-pressed brigade sprang up with a shout and the united
+wave burst over the Germans.  Next moment they had {274} broken and
+were flying for their lives through the Zwartelen Wood.  The pursuit
+lasted for some distance, and a great number of the enemy were
+bayoneted, while several hundreds were taken prisoners.
+
+[Sidenote: General result.]
+
+There have been few more critical occasions in the British operations
+than this action upon October 31, when the Germans so nearly forced
+their way to Ypres.  It is the peculiarity of modern warfare that,
+although vast armies are locked in a close struggle, the number of
+men who can come into actual contact at any one point is usually far
+more limited than in the old days, when each host could view the
+other from wing to wing.  Thus the losses in such an action are small
+as compared with the terrific death-roll of a Napoleonic battle.  On
+the other hand, when the operations are viewed broadly and one groups
+a series of actions into one prolonged battle, like the Aisne or
+Ypres, then the resulting losses become enormous.  The old battle was
+a local conflagration, short and violent.  The new one is a
+widespread smoulder, breaking here and there into flame.  In this
+affair of Gheluvelt the casualties of the British did not exceed 2000
+or 3000, while those of the Germans, who were more numerous and who
+incurred the extra loss which falls upon the attack, could not have
+been less than twice that figure.  One thousand five hundred dead
+were actually picked up and six hundred prisoners were taken.  Some
+hundreds of prisoners were also taken by the enemy.  The British
+artillery, which worked desperately hard all day, had many losses
+both upon the 30th and the 31st.  The 12th Battery had all its guns
+silenced but one, and many others were equally hard hit.
+
+On the night of the 31st considerable French {275} reinforcements
+began to arrive, and it was high time that they did so, for the First
+Corps, including the Seventh Division, were likely to bleed to death
+upon the ground that they were holding.  It had stood the successive
+attacks of four German corps, and it had held its line against each
+of them.  But its own ranks had been grievously thinned and the men
+were weary to death.  The strain, it should be added, was equally
+great upon the Ninth French Corps to the north, which had its own set
+of assailants to contend with.  Now that the line of the Yser, so
+splendidly guarded by the Belgians, had proved to be impregnable, and
+that the French from Dixmude in the north had repulsed all attacks,
+the whole German advance upon Calais, for which Berlin was screaming,
+was centred upon the Ypres lines.  It was time, then, that some
+relief should come to the hard-pressed troops.  For several days the
+French on the right and the left took the weight of the attack upon
+themselves, and although the front was never free from fighting,
+there was a short period of comparative rest for Haig's tired men.
+In successive days they had lost Kruiseik, Zandvoorde, and Gheluvelt,
+but so long as they held the semicircle of higher ground which covers
+Ypres these small German gains availed them nothing.
+
+[Sidenote:  A great crisis.]
+
+Looking back at the three actions of the 29th, 30th, and especially
+of the 31st of October, one can clearly perceive that it was the
+closest thing to a really serious defeat which the Army had had since
+Le Cateau.  If the Germans had been able to push home their attack
+once again, it is probable that they would have taken Ypres, and that
+the results would have been most serious.  Sir John French is
+reported {276} as having said that there was no time in the Mons
+retreat when he did not see his way, great as were his difficulties,
+but that there was a moment upon October 31 when he seemed to be at
+the end of his resources.  To Sir John at Ypres converged all the
+cries for succour, and from him radiated the words of hope and
+encouragement which stiffened the breaking lines.  To him and to his
+untiring lieutenant, Douglas Haig, the Empire owed more that day than
+has ever been generally realised.  The latter was up to the firing
+line again and again rallying the troops.  The sudden removal of the
+two divisional commanders of the First Corps was a dreadful blow at
+such a moment, and the manner in which General Landon, of the 3rd
+Brigade, took over the command of the First Division at a moment's
+notice was a most noteworthy performance.  The fact that three
+divisions of infantry with brigades which resembled battalions, and
+battalions which were anything from companies to platoons, destitute
+of reserves save for a few dismounted cavalry, barred the path to a
+powerful German army, is one of the greatest feats of military
+history.  It was a very near thing.  There was a time, it is said,
+when the breech-blocks had actually been taken from the heavy guns in
+order to disable them, and some of the artillery had been passed back
+through Ypres.  But the line held against all odds, as it has done so
+often in the past.  The struggle was not over.  For a fortnight still
+to come it was close and desperate.  But never again would it be
+quite so perilous as on that immortal last day of October, when over
+the green Flemish meadows, beside the sluggish water-courses, on the
+fringes of the old-world villages, and in the heart of {277} the
+autumn-tinted woods, two great Empires fought for the mastery.
+
+Such was the British epic.  There was another to the north which was
+no less wonderful, and which will be celebrated by the poets and
+historians of the lands to which the victors belong.  It will tell of
+the glorious stand during this critical ten days of the Belgians, so
+weary, so battered, and yet so indomitable.  It will tell how they
+made head against the hosts of the Duke of Würtemberg, and how in the
+end they flooded their own best land with the salt water which would
+sterilise it in order to cover their front.  It will tell also of the
+splendid Frenchmen who fought at Dixmude, of Ronarch with his
+invincible marines, and of Grossetti, the fat and debonair, seated in
+an armchair in the village street and pointing the road to victory
+with his cane.  Not least, perhaps, in that epic will be the tale of
+the British monitors who, with the deadly submarines upon one side of
+them and the heavy German batteries upon the other, ran into the
+Flemish coast and poured their fire upon the right flank of the
+attacking Germans.  Ten days the great battle swung and swayed, and
+then here as at Ypres the wave of the invaders ebbed, or reached its
+definite flood.  It would be an ungenerous foe who would not admit
+that they had fought bravely and well.  Not all our hatred of their
+national ideals nor our contempt for their crafty misleaders can
+prevent us from saluting those German officers and soldiers who
+poured out their blood like water in the attempt to do that which was
+impossible.
+
+
+
+
+{278}
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES (_continued_)
+
+(From the Action of Gheluvelt to the Winter Lull)
+
+Attack upon the cavalry--The struggle at Messines--The London Scots
+in action--Rally to the north--Terrible losses--Action of
+Zillebeke--Record of the Seventh Division--Situation at Ypres--Attack
+of the Prussian Guard--Confused fighting--End of the First Battle of
+Ypres--Death of Lord Roberts--The Eighth Division.
+
+
+[Sidenote: Attack upon the cavalry.]
+
+Whilst this severe fighting had been going on to the north of the
+British position, the centre, where the dismounted cavalry were
+holding the line of trenches, was so terribly pressed that it is an
+extraordinary thing that they were able to hold their own.  The
+Second Corps, which at that time had just been withdrawn for a rest
+from the La Bassée lines, were the only available reinforcements.
+When news was flashed south as to the serious state of affairs, two
+regiments, the 2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry and the 2nd Scottish
+Borderers from the 13th Infantry Brigade, were sent up in motor-buses
+by road to the relief.  Strange indeed was the sight of these
+vehicles flying along the Flemish roads, plastered outside with the
+homely names of London suburbs and crammed with the grimy,
+much-enduring infantry.  The lines at Messines were in trouble, and
+so also were those at Wytschaete farther to the north.  To this
+latter place {279} went two battalions of Shaw's 9th Brigade, the 1st
+Northumberland Fusiliers and the 1st Lincolns.  Hard work awaited the
+infantry at Messines and at Wytschaete, for in both places Allenby's
+troopers were nearly rushed off their feet.
+
+It has already been shown that on October 30 a severe assault was
+made upon the Third Cavalry Division, when the 7th Brigade
+(Kavanagh's) was forced out of Zandvoorde by the Fifteenth German
+Army Corps.  Upon this same date a most strenuous attack, made in
+great force and supported by a terrific shell-fire, was directed
+along the whole line of the cavalry from Wytschaete to Messines.  No
+British troops have been exposed to a more severe ordeal than these
+brave troopers, for they were enormously outnumbered at every point,
+and their line was so thin that it was absolutely impossible for them
+to prevent it from being pierced by the masses of infantry, from the
+Twenty-fourth Corps and Second Bavarian Corps, which were hurled
+against them.  From the extreme left of the Second Cavalry Division
+near Wytschaete to the right of the First Cavalry Division south of
+Messines the same reports came in to the anxious General, of trenches
+overwhelmed or enfiladed, and of little isolated groups of men
+struggling most desperately to keep a footing against an ever-surging
+grey tide which was beating up against them and flowing through every
+gap.  In the north Gough's men were nearly overwhelmed, the 5th Irish
+Lancers were shelled out of a farmhouse position, and the 16th
+Lancers, shelled from in front and decimated by rifles and
+machine-guns from the flank, were driven back for half a mile until
+three French battalions helped the line to reform.  The pressure,
+however, {280} was still extreme, the Germans fighting with admirable
+energy and coming forward in never-ending numbers.  An Indian
+regiment of the 7th (Ferozepore) Brigade, the 129th Baluchis, had
+been helping the cavalry in this region since October 23, but their
+ranks were now much decimated, and they were fought almost to a
+standstill.  Two more British regiments from the Second Corps, the
+1st Lincolns and the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers of the 9th Brigade,
+together with their Brigadier, Shaw, who was a reinforcement in
+himself, were, as already stated, hurried off from the south in
+motor-buses to strengthen Gough's line.  Advancing into what was to
+them an entirely strange position these two veteran regiments
+sustained very heavy losses, which they bore with extreme fortitude.
+They were surprised by the Germans on the road between Kemmel and
+Wytschaete on the night of October 31, the same night upon which the
+London Scottish to the south of them were so heavily engaged.
+Colonel Smith succeeded in extricating the Lincolns from what was a
+most perilous position, but only after a loss of 16 officers and 400
+men.  The Fusiliers were almost as hard hit.  For forty-eight hours
+the battle swung backwards and forwards in front of Wytschaete, and
+in the end the village itself was lost, but the defensive lines to
+the west of it were firmly established.  By November the second
+strong French reinforcements had appeared, and it was clear that this
+desperate attempt to break through the very centre of the British
+position had definitely failed.
+
+[Sidenote: The struggle at Messines.]
+
+The struggle at Messines, some five miles to the south, had been even
+more severe and sanguinary than at Wytschaete.  In the early morning
+of the 31st the Bays and the 5th Dragoon Guards upon the left of the
+{281} Messines position, after a heavy shell-fire, were driven out of
+their trenches by a sudden furious advance of the German infantry.
+The front of the village of Messines was held by Wild's 57th Rifles,
+who were driven in by the same attack, every officer engaged being
+killed or wounded.  A reserve company of Wild's Rifles and a squadron
+of the 5th Dragoon Guards endeavoured to restore the fight, but could
+not hold the torrent.  The 9th Lancers, also in front of the village
+and to the right of the Indians, held on for a long time, repulsing
+the infantry attacks, until they were driven back by the deadly
+shell-fire.  At one time they were enfiladed on both sides and heard
+the Germans roaring their war-songs in the dark all round them; but
+they were able, owing to the coolness of Colonel Campbell and the
+discipline of his veteran troopers, to fall back and to reform upon
+the western side of the village.  Lance-Corporal Seaton distinguished
+himself by covering the retreat of his whole squadron, remaining
+single-handed in his trench until his maxim was destroyed, after he
+had poured a thousand shots into the close ranks of his assailants.
+
+The situation was so serious after dawn upon the 31st that General De
+Lisle had to call for help from Wilson's Fourth Infantry Division,
+holding the line upon his right.  The Inniskilling Fusiliers were
+extended so as to relieve his right flank.  The struggle within
+Messines was still going forward with fighting from house to house,
+but the Germans, who were coming on with overpowering numbers and
+great valour, were gradually winning their way forward.  The
+Oxfordshire Hussars, fresh from the base, were thrown into the
+combat.  A second line of defence {282} had been arranged a mile or
+so to the west, near Wulverghem, but if Messines must go the victors
+should at least pay the price down to the last drop of blood which
+could be wrung from them.  Reinforcements were within sight, both
+French and British, but they were scanty in quantity though superb in
+quality.  It was a most critical position, and one cannot but marvel
+at the load of responsibility which Sir John French had to bear upon
+this day, for from the left of Haig's First Corps in the north down
+to Neuve Chapelle in the south, a stretch of twenty-five miles, there
+was hardly a point which was not strained to the verge of cracking.
+Cool and alert, he controlled the situation from his central post and
+threw in such reinforcements as he could find, though, indeed, they
+could only be got by taking them from places where they were wanted
+and hurrying them to places where they were needed even more
+urgently.  He was strengthened always by the knowledge that General
+Joffre behind him was doing all that a loyal colleague could to find
+fresh columns of his splendid infantrymen to buttress up the
+hard-pressed line.
+
+For the moment, however, none of these were available, and Messines
+was still partly in British, partly in German hands.  Briggs's 1st
+Brigade--Bays, 5th Dragoon Guards, and 11th Hussars--with the
+Oxfords, held on to the western edge of the town.  To their left,
+linking up with Gough's men in the Wytschaete sector, was the 4th
+Dragoon Guards.  Late in the afternoon the 2nd Scots Borderers and
+the 2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry, the joint detachment under Major
+Coke, arrived from the south, and were at once advanced upon Messines
+to stiffen the defence.  {283} Under heavy fire they established
+themselves in the village.  Evening fell with desperate street
+fighting and the relative position unchanged.  Twice the Bavarians
+stormed into the central square, and twice they fell back after
+littering it with their bodies.  It seemed hopeless to hold the
+village against the ever-growing pressure of the Germans, and yet the
+loss of the village entailed the loss of the ridge, which would leave
+a commanding position in the hands of the enemy.  Village and ridge
+were mutually dependent, for if either were lost the other could not
+be held.
+
+As it proved, it was the ridge and not the village which could no
+longer sustain the pressure.  On the night of October 31 Mullen's 2nd
+Cavalry Brigade--9th Lancers, 4th Dragoon Guards, and 11th
+Hussars--took over the defence from Briggs.  Of these, the 4th
+Dragoon Guards were to the left of the village upon the ridge.  The
+London Scottish had been brought up, and they were placed upon the
+left of the 4th Dragoon Guards, forming a link of the defence which
+connected up the Second Cavalry Division with the First.  The
+right-hand regiment of the latter, the 6th Carbineers, of Bingham's
+4th Brigade, were upon the left of the London Scottish.  These two
+regiments held the centre of the ridge.  The London Scottish had
+already suffered considerable losses.  Hurried up from the lines of
+communication to St. Eloi, they were pushed forward at once into
+action, and were exposed for hours to all the nerve-racking horrors
+of a heavy shell-fire endured in most insufficient trenches.  A more
+severe ordeal was in store for them, however, during the grim night
+which lay before them.  The admirable behaviour of Colonel Malcolm's
+men excited the more attention as they {284} were the first
+Territorial infantry to come into action, and they set a standard
+which has been grandly sustained by the quarter-million of their
+comrades who have from first to last come into the line.
+
+[Sidenote: The London Scots in action.]
+
+On the early morning of November 1 there had been a strong attempt
+within the village to improve the British position, and some ground
+was actually gained by the cavalrymen, the Yorkshire Light Infantry,
+and the Scots Borderers.  What occurred, however, on the ridge to the
+north made all further effort a useless waste of life.  The Bavarian
+infantry had come with an irresistible rush against the thin British
+line.  The order to hold their ground at all costs was given, and the
+London Scots answered it in a way which gained the highest praise
+from the many soldiers who saw it.  It is not claimed that they did
+better than their Regular comrades.  That would be impossible.  The
+most that can be said is that they proved themselves worthy to fight
+in line with them.  After being exposed for several hours to heavy
+shellfire, it was no light task for any troops to be called upon to
+resist a direct assault.  From nine in the evening of October 31 to
+two in the morning, under the red glare of burning houses, Colonel
+Malcolm's Scottish and Colonel Annesley's Carbineers held back the
+Bavarian advance, an advance which would have meant the piercing of
+the British line.  At two o'clock the Bavarians in greatly
+predominant force were all round the Scots, and even the reserve
+companies found work for their bayonets, preventing the enemy from
+encircling their companions.  The losses were very heavy--400 men and
+9 officers, including their gallant doctor, M'Nab, who was
+villainously stabbed as he bandaged a patient.  In spite of the great
+pressure, {285} the ground was held all night, and it was not till
+dawn, when the regiment found that it was outflanked on both sides
+and nearly surrounded, that, under cover of the fire of E Battery
+R.H.A., it fell back.  The Carbineers and the Scots were close
+together, and the Germans, with their usual quick ingenuity,
+approached the former with a cry of "We are the London Scots."  A
+disaster might have occurred in the darkness but for the quickness
+and bravery of a young officer, Lieutenant Hope Hawkins, who rushed
+forward, discovered the identity of the Germans, and fell, riddled
+with bullets, even while he gave warning to his comrades.
+
+The Germans had won the ridge, but the British line was still intact
+and growing stronger every hour.  The village was held by the Scots
+Borderers and Yorkshiremen until nearly ten o'clock, when they were
+ordered to fall back and help to man the new line.  The shock had
+been a rude one, but the danger-hour was past here as in the north.
+
+The fateful November 1 had come and gone.  The villages of Messines
+and Wytschaete were, it is true, in German hands, but French
+reinforcements of the Sixteenth Corps were streaming up from the
+south, the line, though torn and broken, still held firm, and the
+road to Calais was for ever blocked.  There was still pressure, and
+on November 2 the 11th Hussars were badly cut up by shell-fire, but
+the line was impregnable.  Sir John French summed up in a few terse
+words the true meaning of the operations just described, when he said
+afterwards, in addressing the 9th Lancers, "Particularly I would
+refer to the period, October 31, when for forty-eight hours the
+Cavalry Corps held at bay two German army corps.  {286} During this
+period you were supported by only three or four battalions, shattered
+and worn by previous fighting, and in so doing you rendered
+inestimable service."  There have been few episodes in the war which
+have been at the same time so splendid and so absolutely vital.  The
+First Cavalry Division lost 50 per cent of its numbers between
+October 30 and November 2, and the Second Division was hardly in
+better case, but never did men give their lives to better purpose.
+Their heroism saved the Army.
+
+[Sidenote: Rally to the north.]
+
+Meanwhile the current of operations was evidently running strongly
+towards the northern end of the British line, where help was badly
+needed, as Haig's men had been fought almost to exhaustion.  There
+was no British reinforcement available save only the weary Second
+Corps, the remains of which from this date began to be drafted
+northwards.  It was already known that the German Emperor had
+appeared in person in that region, and that a great concentration of
+his troops was taking place.  At the same time the French were making
+splendid exertions in order to stiffen their own line and help us in
+those parts, like Messines, Wytschaete, and Ploegsteert, where the
+attack was most formidable.  It was a great gathering towards the
+north, and clearly some hard blows were to be struck.  Northwards
+then went General Morland, of the Fifth Division, taking with him
+four more weak battalions.  The whole line had moved upwards towards
+the danger spot, and these troops now found themselves east of
+Bailleul, close to the village of Neuve Eglise.  For the moment
+General Smith-Dorrien was without an army, for half his men were now
+supporting General Willcocks in the south {287} and half General
+Allenby or General Haig in the north.  The British leaders all along
+the line were, as usual, desperately endeavouring to make one man do
+the work of three, but they were buoyed up by the knowledge that good
+Father Joffre, like some beneficent earthly Providence, was watching
+over them from the distance, and that fresh trainfuls of his brave
+little men were ever steaming into the danger zone.  Day by day the
+line was thickening and the task of the Kaiser becoming more
+difficult.  It was hoped that the crisis was past.  If our troops
+were exhausted so also, it was thought, were those of the enemy.  We
+could feel elated by the knowledge that we had held our ground, while
+they could hardly fail to be depressed by the reflection that they
+had made little progress in spite of so many heroic efforts, and that
+Calais was as far from them as ever.
+
+The narrative must now return to the defenders of the Ypres
+approaches, who were left in a state of extreme exhaustion by the
+critical action of October 31.  On November 1 the First Corps was not
+in a condition to do more than to hold its line.  This line was now
+near to Veldhoek, to the west of Gheluvelt village, and to that
+extent the Germans had profited by their desperate fighting, but this
+was a detail of small consequence so long as an unbroken British Army
+covered the town that was still the objective of the enemy.  The
+Ninth French Corps to the north of the British had lost heavily, but
+to the south of the canal lay the Sixteenth French Corps, which was
+in comparatively good condition.  This corps now made an advance to
+take some of the pressure off the British line, while Moussy's
+regiments to the north of the canal were to co-operate with Bulfin's
+men upon their {288} left.  Upon the left of Bulfin's 2nd Brigade
+were two battalions of the 4th Brigade of Guards.
+
+One of these battalions had a terrible experience upon this morning.
+For some reason the trenches of the Irish Guards were exposed to an
+enfilading fire from the high explosives of the Germans, which
+wrought even more than their customary damage.  For hours the
+Guardsmen lay under a terrific fire, to which they could make no
+reply, and from which they could obtain no protection.  When at last,
+in the afternoon, they were compelled to fall back, their losses had
+been great, including their colonel, Lord Ardee, 7 other officers,
+and over 300 men.  It is the hard fate of the side which is weaker in
+artillery to endure such buffetings with no possibility of return.
+
+The French attack of the Sixteenth Corps had been brought to a speedy
+standstill, and a severe counter-attack, preceded by a heavy
+shell-fire, had fallen upon General Moussy's men and upon the half of
+the 2nd Brigade.  Help was urgently needed, so the remains of the 7th
+Brigade from the Third Cavalry Division were hurried forward.  The
+Germans were now surging up against the whole right and right-centre
+of the line.  It seems to have been their system to attack upon
+alternate days on the right and on the centre, for it will be
+remembered that it was on October 29 that they gained the Gheluvelt
+cross-roads, and on October 31 Gheluvelt village, both in the centre,
+while on October 30 they captured the Zandvoorde ridge upon the
+British right, and now, on November 1, were pressing hard upon the
+right once more.
+
+That morning the Army sustained a loss in the person of General
+Bulfin, who was wounded in the {289} head by shrapnel.  Fortunately
+his recovery was not a lengthy one, and he was able to return in
+January as commander of the Twenty-eighth Division.  Upon his fall,
+Lord Cavan, of the 4th Brigade, took over the command upon the
+hard-pressed right wing.  At half-past one the hundred survivors of
+the 2nd Gordons, on the right of the Seventh Division, and the 2nd
+Oxford and Bucks, were desperately hard pressed by a strong German
+infantry advance, and so were the remains of the Sussex and
+Northamptons.  The only available help lay in the 23rd Field Company
+of Royal Engineers.  Our sappers proved, as they have so often done
+before, that their hearts are as sound as their heads.  They pushed
+off the enemy, but incurred heavy losses.  The situation was still
+critical when at the summons of Lord Cavan the 2nd Grenadiers
+advanced and cleared the Germans from the woods in the front and
+flank, while the 10th Hussars supported their advance.  A gap had
+been left in the trenches from which the Irish Guards had been
+pushed, but this was now filled up by cavalry, who connected up with
+the French on their right and with the Guards upon their left.  The
+general effect of the whole day's fighting was to drive the British
+line farther westward, but to contract it, so that it required a
+smaller force.  Two battalions--the Gordons and the Sussex--could be
+taken out and brought into reserve.  The centre of the line had a
+day's rest and dug itself into its new positions, but the units were
+greatly mixed and confused.
+
+November 2 brought no surcease from the constant fighting, though the
+disturbance of these days, severe as it was, may be looked upon as a
+mere ground swell after the terrific storm of the last days of
+October.  {290} On the morning of the 2nd the Ninth French Corps upon
+the British left, under General Vidal, sent eight battalions forward
+to the south and east in the direction of Gheluvelt.  Part of this
+village was actually occupied by them.  The Germans meanwhile, with
+their usual courage and energy, were driving a fresh attack down that
+Menin road which had so often been reddened by their blood.  It was
+the day for a centre attack on their stereotyped system of alternate
+pushes, and it came duly to hand.  An initial success awaited them
+as, getting round a trench occupied by the Rifles, they succeeded in
+cutting off a number of them.  The 3rd Brigade was hurried up by
+General Landon to the point of danger, and a French Zouave regiment
+helped to restore the situation.  A spirited bayonet charge, in which
+the Gloucesters led, was beaten back by the enemy's fire.  After a
+day of confused and desultory fighting the situation in the evening
+was very much as it had been in the morning.  Both that night and the
+next day there was a series of local and sporadic attacks, first on
+the front of the Second Division and then of the Seventh, all of
+which were driven back.  The Germans began to show their despair of
+ever gaining possession of Ypres by elevating their guns and dropping
+shells upon the old Cloth Hall of that historic city, a senseless act
+of spiteful vandalism which exactly corresponds with their action
+when the Allied Army held them in front of Rheims.
+
+November 4 was a day of menaces rather than of attacks.  On this day,
+units which had become greatly mixed during the incessant and
+confused fighting of the last fortnight were rearranged and counted.
+The losses were terrible.  The actual {291} strength of the infantry
+of the First Division upon that date was: 1st Brigade, 22 officers,
+1206 men; 2nd Brigade, 43 officers, 1315 men: 3rd Brigade, 27
+officers, 970 men; which make the losses of the whole division about
+75 per cent.  Those of the Second Division were very little lighter.
+And now for the 25 per cent remainder of this gallant corps there was
+not a moment of breathing space or rest, but yet another fortnight of
+unremitting work, during which their thin ranks were destined to hold
+the German army, and even the Emperor's own Guard, from passing the
+few short miles which separated them from their objective.  Great was
+the "will to conquer" of the Kaiser's troops, but greater still the
+iron resolve not to be conquered which hardened the war-worn lines of
+the soldiers of the King.
+
+[Sidenote: Terrible losses.]
+
+November 5 was a day of incessant shell-fire, from which the Seventh
+Division, the 4th and the 6th Brigades were the chief sufferers.  On
+this day the Seventh Division, which had now been reduced from 12,000
+infantry to 2333, was withdrawn from the line.  In their place were
+substituted those reinforcements from the south which have already
+been mentioned.  These consisted of eleven battalions of the Second
+Corps under General McCracken; this corps, however, was greatly worn,
+and the eleven battalions only represented 3500 rifles.  The Seventh
+Division was withdrawn to Bailleul in the south, but Lawford's 22nd
+Brigade was retained in corps reserve, and was destined to have one
+more trial before it could be spared for rest.  The day was memorable
+also for a vigorous advance of the Gloucester Regiment, which was
+pushed with such hardihood that they {292} sustained losses of nearly
+half their numbers before admitting that they could not gain their
+objective.  A description has been given here of the events of the
+north of the line and of the cavalry positions, but it is not to be
+supposed that peace reigned on the south of this point.  On the
+contrary, during the whole period under discussion, while the great
+fight raged at Ypres, there had been constant shelling and occasional
+advances against the Third Corps in the Armentières section, and also
+against the Indians and the Second Corps down to the La Bassée Canal.
+
+The most serious of these occurred upon November 9.  Upon this date
+the Germans, who had knocked so loudly at Messines and at Wytschaete
+without finding that any opening through our lines was open to them,
+thought that they might find better luck at Ploegsteert, which is a
+village on the same line as the other two.  Wytschaete is to the
+north, Messines in the middle, and Ploegsteert in the south, each on
+the main road from Ypres to Armentières, with about four miles
+interval between each.  The German attack was a very strong one, but
+the hundredfold drama was played once more.  On the 3rd Worcesters
+fell the brunt, and no more solid fighters have been found in the
+Army than those Midland men from the very heart of England.  A
+temporary set-back was retrieved and the line restored.  Major
+Milward, of the Worcesters, a very gallant officer, was grievously
+wounded in this affair.  The counter-attack which restored the
+situation was carried out mainly by the 1st East Lancashires, who
+lost Major Lambert and a number of men in the venture.
+
+[Sidenote: Action of Zillebeke.]
+
+Upon November 6, about 2 P.M., a strong German advance drove in those
+French troops who were on {293} the right of Lord Cavan's
+Brigade--4th--which occupied the extreme right of Haig's position.
+point was between Klein Zillebeke and the canal, where a German
+lodgment would have been most serious.  The retirement of the French
+exposed the right flank of the 1st Irish Guards.  This flank was
+strongly attacked, and for the second time in a week this brave
+regiment endured very heavy losses.  No. 2 company was driven back to
+the support trenches, and No. 1 company, being isolated, was
+destroyed.  Their neighbours on the left, the 2nd Grenadiers stood
+fast, but a great and dangerous alley-way was left for the Germans
+round the British right wing.  The situation was splendidly saved by
+Kavanagh's 7th Cavalry Brigade, who galloped furiously down the road
+to the place where they were so badly needed.  This hard-worked
+_corps d'élite_, consisting of the 1st and 2nd Life Guards supported
+by the Blues, now dismounted and flung themselves into the gap, a
+grimy line of weather-stained infantry with nothing left save their
+giant physique and their spurs to recall the men who are the pride of
+our London streets.  The retiring French rallied at the sight of the
+sons of Anak.  An instant later the Germans were into them, and there
+was a terrific _mêlée_ of British, French, and Prussians, which swung
+and swayed over the marshland and across the road.  Men drove their
+bayonets through each other or fired point-blank into each other's
+bodies in a most desperate fight, the Germans slowly but surely
+recoiling, until at last they broke.  It was this prompt and vigorous
+stroke by Kavanagh's Brigade which saved a delicate situation.  Of
+the three cavalry regiments engaged, two lost their colonels--Wilson
+of the Blues and Dawnay {294} of the 2nd Life Guards.  Sixteen
+officers fell in half an hour.  The losses in rank and file were also
+heavy, but the results were great and indeed vital.  The whole
+performance was an extraordinarily fine one.
+
+[Sidenote: Record of the Seventh Division.]
+
+Early on the morning of November 7 Lawford's 22nd Brigade, which was
+now reduced to 1100 men, with 7 officers, was called upon to retake a
+line of trenches which the enemy had wrested from a neighbouring
+unit.  Unbroken in nerve or spirit by their own terrific losses, they
+rushed forward, led by Lawford himself, a cudgel in his hand, carried
+the trench, captured three machine-guns, held the trench till
+evening, and then retired for a time from the line.  Captains
+Vallentin and Alleyne, who led the two regiments into which the
+skeleton brigade had been divided, both fell in this feat of arms.
+After this action there remained standing the brigadier, 3 officers,
+and 700 men.  The losses of the brigade work out at 97 per cent of
+the officers and 80 per cent of the men, figures which can seldom
+have been matched in the warfare of any age, and yet were little in
+excess of the other brigades, as is shown by the fact that the whole
+division on November 7 numbered 44 officers and 2336 men.  It is true
+that many British regiments found themselves in this campaign with
+not one single officer or man left who had started from England, but
+these were usually the effects of months of campaigning.  In the case
+of the Seventh Division, all these deadly losses had been sustained
+in less than three weeks.  Britain's soldiers have indeed been
+faithful to the death.  Their record is the last word in endurance
+and military virtue.
+
+The division was now finally withdrawn from the fighting line.  It
+has already been stated that there {295} were reasons which made its
+units exceptionally fine ones.  In General Capper they possessed a
+leader of enormous energy and fire, whilst his three
+brigadiers--Watts, Lawford, and Ruggles-Brise--could not be surpassed
+by any in the Army.  Yet with every advantage of officers and men
+there will always be wonder as well as admiration for what they
+accomplished.  For three days, before the First Corps had come
+thoroughly into line, they held up the whole German advance, leaving
+the impression upon the enemy that they were faced by two army corps.
+Then for twelve more days they held the ground in the very
+storm-centre of the attack upon Ypres.  When at last the survivors
+staggered from the line, they had made a name which will never die.
+
+[Sidenote: Situation at Ypres.]
+
+The bulk of Smith-Dorrien's Corps had now been brought north, so that
+from this date (November 7) onwards the story of the First and Second
+Corps is intimately connected.  When we last saw this corps it will
+be remembered that it had been withdrawn from the front, having lost
+some twelve thousand men in three weeks of La Bassée operations, and
+that the Indian Corps had taken over their line of trenches.  Such
+fighting men could not, however, be spared in the midst of such a
+fight.  The hospital was the only rest that any British soldier could
+be afforded.  Whilst they had still strength to stand they must line
+up to the German flood or be content to see it thunder past them to
+the coast.  They were brought north, save only Bowes' 8th Brigade and
+Maude's 14th, which remained with the Indians in the south.  Although
+the Seventh Division had been drawn out of the line, its attendant
+cavalry division still remained to give its very efficient help to
+General Haig.  {296} The British position, though by no means secure,
+was getting stronger day by day, for General d'Urbal of the Eighth
+French Army to the north, and General Maud'huy to the south, had both
+been strongly reinforced, and with their usual good comradeship did
+all they could to strengthen the flanks and shorten the front of the
+British line.
+
+The men of the Second Corps who had come north from the La Bassée
+district were not left long unmolested in their new sphere of
+operations.  On the afternoon of November 7 there was a hot German
+attack upon that portion of the line which had just been vacated by
+the Seventh Division.  The trenches were now held by the Fifth
+Division (Morland's).
+
+The enemy may have hoped for some advantage from a change which they
+may well have observed, but they found that, though the units might
+be different, the same old breed still barred their path.  On this
+occasion, after the early rush had spent itself upon the 1st
+Lincolns, it was the 2nd West Ridings who led the counter-charge.
+The line, however, was never fully re-established.  A number of
+smaller attacks broke upon the front of the Second Division on the
+same day, leaving a few score of prisoners behind them as they ebbed.
+On the same day, November 7, the enemy got into the trenches of the
+2nd Highland Light Infantry and remained in them, for all of them
+were bayoneted or taken.  Upon this day the London Scottish were
+brought up into the Ypres line--a sign, if one were needed, that
+after the action described they were accepted as the peers of their
+comrades of the Regular Army, for no empty compliments are passed
+when the breaking of a unit may mean the enfilading of a line.
+
+{297}
+
+November 8 was a quiet day, but it was well known from every report
+of spy, scout, and aeroplane to be the lull before the storm.  One
+German brigade came down the Menin road, and went up it again leaving
+a hundred dead on or beside the causeway.  This attack inflicted some
+loss upon the 1st North Lancashires and on the 1st Scots Guards.  The
+1st Bedfords captured a trench that night.  The 9th and the 10th were
+uneventful, and the tired troops rested on their arms, though never
+free for an hour from the endless pelting of shells.  To the north
+and east the Eagles were known to be gathering.  There were the
+Emperor, the Emperor's Guard, and a great fresh battle of the Germans
+ready for one grand final dash for Calais, with every rifle in the
+firing line and every cannon to support it.  Grave messages came from
+headquarters, warning words were passed to anxious brigadiers, who
+took counsel with their colonels as to fire-fields and supports.
+Batteries were redistributed, depleted limbers refilled, and
+observation posts pushed to the front, while the untiring sappers
+gave the last touches to traverse and to trench.  All was ready for
+the fray.  So close were the lines that at many points the
+conversations of the enemy could be heard.
+
+[Sidenote: Attack of the Prussian Guard.]
+
+The Germans had already concentrated a large number of troops against
+this part of the British line, and they were now secretly reinforced
+by a division of the Prussian Guard.  Documents found afterwards upon
+the dead show that the Guard had had special orders from the Emperor
+to break the line at all costs.  The brigades which attacked were
+made up of the 1st and 2nd Foot Guards, the Kaiser Franz Grenadiers
+No. 2, the Königin Augusta Grenadiers No. 4, and {298} the battalion
+of Garde Jäger--13,000 men in all.  It was to be victory or death
+with the _corps d'élite_ of the German army, but it was no less
+victory or death with the men who opposed them.  After an artillery
+preparation of appalling intensity for three hours along the line of
+both the First and Second Divisions, the infantry advance began about
+9.30 on the morning of November 11 amid a storm of wind and rain.
+They are gregarious fighters, the Germans, finding comfort and
+strength in the rush of serried ranks.  Even now the advance was made
+in a close formation, but it was carried out with magnificent dash,
+amazing valour, and a pedantic precision which caused, for example,
+the leading officers to hold their swords at the carry.  The Prussian
+Guardsmen seemed to have lost nothing, and also to have learned
+nothing, since their famous predecessors lay dead in their ranks
+before St. Privat, forty-four years before.  The attack was directed
+against the front of the two divisions of the First British Army
+Corps, but especially on the 1st Brigade, so that Guardsman faced
+Guardsman, as at Fontenoy.  There were none of the chivalrous
+greetings of 1745, however, and a stern hatred hardened the hearts of
+either side.  The German Guard charged on the north of the Menin
+road, while a second advance by troops of the line was made upon the
+south, which withered away before the British fire.  Nothing could
+stop the Guards, however.  With trenches blazing and crackling upon
+their flank, for the advance was somewhat diagonal, they poured over
+the British position and penetrated it at three different points
+where the heavy shells had overwhelmed the trenches and buried the
+occupants, who, in some cases, were {299} bayoneted as they struggled
+out from under the earth.  It was a terrific moment.  The yells of
+the stormers and the shrill whistles of their officers rose above the
+crash of the musketry-fire and roar of the guns.  The British fought
+in their customary earnest silence, save for the short, sharp
+directions of their leaders.  "They did not seem angry--only
+business-like," said a hostile observer.  The troops to the immediate
+north of the Menin road, who had been shelled out of their trenches
+by the bombardment, were forced back and brushed aside into the woods
+to the north, while the Germans poured through the gap.  The 4th
+Royal Fusiliers of the 9th Brigade, upon the right of the point where
+the enemy had penetrated, were enfiladed and lost their gallant
+colonel, MacMahon, a soldier who had done great service from the day
+of Mons, and had just been appointed to a brigade.  The regiment,
+which has worked as hard and endured as great losses as any in the
+campaign, was reduced to 2 officers and 100 men.
+
+The German Guard poured on into the woods which lay in the immediate
+rear of the British position, but their formation was broken and the
+individualism of the Briton began to tell.  Next to MacMahon's
+regiment lay the 1st Scots Fusiliers, sister battalion to that which
+had been destroyed upon October 31.  With fierce joy they poured
+volleys into the flank of the Guard as the grey figures rushed past
+them into the woods.  Four hundred dead Germans were afterwards
+picked out from the underwood at this point.  The Scots Fusiliers
+were also hard hit by the German fire.
+
+At this period the Germans who had come through the line had skirted
+the south of a large wood of {300} half-grown trees, called the
+Polygon Wood, and had advanced into the farther one, named
+Nonnebusch.  At this point they were close to the British artillery,
+which they threatened to overwhelm.  The 41st Brigade R.F.A., and
+especially the 16th Field Battery, were in the immediate line of
+their advance, and the gunners looking up saw the grey uniforms
+advancing amid the trees.  Colonel Lushington, who commanded the
+artillery brigade, hurriedly formed up a firing line under his
+adjutant, composed partly of his own spare gunners and partly of a
+number of Engineers, reinforced by cooks, officers' servants, and
+other odd hands who are to be found in the rear of the army, but
+seldom expect to find themselves in the van of the fight.  It was a
+somewhat grotesque array, but it filled the gap and brought the
+advance to a halt, though the leading Germans were picked up
+afterwards within seventy yards of the guns.  Whilst the position was
+critical at this point of the front, it was no less so upon the
+extreme right, where the French detachment, who still formed a link
+between the canal on the south and the British right flank, were
+shelled out of their trenches and driven back.  Lord Cavan's 4th
+Brigade, their nearest neighbours, were too hard pressed to be able
+to help them.  To the north of the Menin road a number of British
+units were intact, and these held up the German flood in that region.
+There are two considerable woods--the Polygon to the north and the
+Nonnebusch to the south-west of the Polygon--the edges of which have
+defined the British position, while their depths have harboured their
+artillery.  Now the 1st King's Liverpool Regiment held firm to the
+south of the Polygon Wood, while north of them were {301} the 2nd
+Highland Light Infantry, with a field company of Engineers.  Farther
+to the south-west were the 1st Connaught Rangers, while on the other
+side of the Nonnebusch road was the 7th Cavalry Brigade.  In the
+afternoon of this day the enemy, skirting the south of the Polygon
+Wood, had actually entered the Nonnebusch Wood, in which it faced the
+artillery as already described.  In the Polygon Wood, when they
+penetrated the trenches of the 1st Brigade, they had the King's
+Liverpool Regiment on their right, which refused to move, so that for
+a long time the Prussian Guard and the King's lay side by side with a
+traverse between them.  "Our right is supported by the Prussian
+Guard," said the humorous adjutant of the famous Lancashire regiment.
+While the main body of the Guard passed on, some remained all day in
+this trench.
+
+The German Guardsmen had been prevented from submerging the 41st
+Brigade of Artillery, and also the 35th Heavy Battery, by the
+resistance of an improvised firing line.  But a more substantial
+defence was at hand.  The 2nd Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, which
+had been in divisional reserve near Ypres, had been brought forward
+and found itself at Westhoek, near the threatened guns.  This
+regiment is the old 52nd, of the Peninsular Light Division, a famous
+corps which threw itself upon the flank of Napoleon's Guard at
+Waterloo and broke it in the crisis of the battle.  Once again within
+a century an Imperial Guard was to recoil before its disciplined
+rush.  Under Colonel Davies the regiment swept through the wood from
+north-west to south-east, driving the Germans, who had already been
+badly shaken by the artillery fire, in a headlong rout.  {302} Many
+threw down their arms.  The loss to the Oxfords was surprisingly
+small, well under fifty in all.  As they emerged from the wood they
+were joined by some of the 1st Northamptons from the 2nd Brigade upon
+the right, while on the left there was a rush of Connaughts and
+Highland Light Infantry from their own (Haking's) brigade and of
+Engineers of the 25th Field Company, who showed extraordinary
+initiative and gallantry, pushing on rapidly, and losing all their
+officers save one and a number of their men without flinching for an
+instant.  A party of the Gloucesters, too, charged with the
+Northamptons upon the right, for by this time units were badly mixed
+up, as will always happen in woodland fighting.  "It was all a
+confused nightmare," said one who tried to control it.  The line of
+infantry dashed forward, a company of the Oxfords under Captain H. M.
+Dillon in the lead, and the khaki wave broke over a line of trenches
+which the Germans had taken, submerging all the occupants.  There was
+another line in front, but as the victorious infantry pushed forward
+to this it was struck in the flank by a fire from French batteries,
+which had been unable to believe that so much progress could have
+been made in so short a time.
+
+It was now nearly dark, and the troops were in the last stage of
+exhaustion.  Of the 1st Brigade something less than 400 with 4
+officers could be collected.  It was impossible to do more than hold
+the line as it then existed.  Two brave attempts were made in the
+darkness to win back the original front trenches, but it could not be
+done, for there were no men to do it.  Save for one small corner of
+the Polygon Wood, the Germans had been completely {303} cleared out
+from the main position.  At twelve and at four, during the night, the
+British made a forward movement to regain the advanced trenches, but
+in each case the advance could make no progress.  At the very
+beginning of the second attempt General FitzClarence, commanding the
+1st Brigade, was killed, and the movement fizzled out.  Besides
+General FitzClarence, the Army sustained a severe loss in General
+Shaw of the 9th Brigade, who was struck by a shell splinter, though
+happily the wound was not mortal.  The German losses were exceedingly
+severe: 700 of their dead were picked up within a single section of
+the British line, but the main loss was probably sustained in the
+advance before they reached the trenches.  Killed, wounded, and
+prisoners, their casualties cannot have been less than 10,000 men.[1]
+It was a fine attack, bravely delivered by fresh troops against weary
+men, but it showed the German leaders once for all that it was
+impossible to force a passage through the lines.  The Emperor's
+Guard, driven on by the Emperor's own personal impetus, had recoiled
+broken, even as the Guard of a greater Emperor had done a century
+before from the indomitable resistance of the British infantry.  The
+constant fighting had reduced British brigades to the strength of
+battalions, battalions to companies, and companies to weak platoons,
+but the position was still held.  They had, it is true, lost about
+five hundred yards of ground in the battle, but a shorter line was at
+once dug, organised, and manned.  The barrier to Ypres was as strong
+as ever.
+
+
+[1] The German returns for the Guard alone at this battle are
+reported at 1170 dead, 3991 wounded, 1719 missing.
+
+
+The strain upon the men, however, had been terrific.  "Bearded,
+unwashed, sometimes plagued {304} with vermin, the few who remained
+in the front line were a terrible crew," says the American, Coleman.
+"They were like fierce, wild beasts," says another observer.  They
+had given their all, almost to their humanity, to save Britain.  May
+the day never come when Britain will refuse to save them.
+
+[Sidenote: Confused fighting.]
+
+Glancing for a moment down the line to the south, there had been
+continuous confused contention during this time, but no great attack
+such as distinguished the operations in the north.  Upon November 7
+two brisk assaults were made by the Germans in the Armentières area,
+one upon the Fourth Division of the Third Corps and the other upon
+the Seaforth Highlanders, who were brigaded with the Indians.  In
+each case the first German rush carried some trenches, and in each
+the swift return of the British regained them.  There were moderate
+losses upon both sides.  On the same date the 13th Infantry Brigade
+lost the services of Colonel Martyn of the 1st West Kents, who was
+seriously wounded the very day after he had been appointed to a
+brigade.
+
+This attack upon November 11 represents the absolute high-water mark
+of the German efforts in this battle, and the ebb was a rapid one.
+Upon November 12 and the remainder of the week, half-hearted attempts
+were made upon the British front, which were repulsed without
+difficulty.  To the north of the line, where the French had held
+their positions with much the same fluctuations which had been
+experienced by their Allies, the German assault was more violent and
+met with occasional success, though it was finally repelled with very
+great loss.  The 14th was to the French what the 11th had been to the
+British--the culmination of {305} violence and the prelude of rest.
+The weather throughout this period was cold and tempestuous, which
+much increased the strain upon the weary troops.  Along the whole
+line from Ypres to Bethune there were desultory shellings with an
+occasional dash by one side or the other, which usually ended in the
+capture of a trench and its recapture by the supports in the rear.
+It was in one of these sporadic German attacks in the Klein Zillebeke
+section that the 2nd King's Royal Rifles held their trench against
+heavy odds, and their machine-gun officer, Lieutenant Dimmer, thrice
+wounded and still fighting, won the coveted Cross by his valour.
+Each gallant advance and capture of the Germans was countered by an
+equally gallant counter-attack and recapture by the British.  The
+long line sagged and swayed, but never bent or broke.  The era of
+battles had passed, but for thirty miles the skirmishes were
+incessant.  So mixed and incessant had been the fighting that it was
+a very difficult task during these days to tidy up the line and get
+each scattered group of men back to its own platoon, company, and
+battalion.
+
+On Tuesday, November 17, the fighting suddenly assumed a more
+important character.  The attack was again in the Ypres section and
+fell chiefly upon the battalions of the Second Corps, if so dignified
+a name as "battalion" can be given to bodies of men which consisted
+very often of less than a normal company, commanded, perhaps, by two
+junior officers.  The 4th Brigade of Guards was also heavily engaged
+this day, and so were the cavalry of the Third Division.  The general
+locale of the action was the same as that which had been so often
+fought over before, the Second Corps being to the south of the
+Ypres-Menin {306} road, with Lord Cavan's Guardsmen upon their right
+and the cavalry upon the right of the Guards.  After a severe
+shelling there was a serious infantry advance, about one o'clock,
+which took some trenches, but was finally driven back and chased for
+a quarter of a mile.  McCracken's 7th Brigade bore a chief part in
+this fighting, and the 1st Wiltshires particularly distinguished
+themselves by a fine charge led by Captain Cary-Barnard.  The 2nd
+Grenadiers did great work during the day.
+
+An even heavier advance was made in the afternoon to the south of
+that which was broken in the morning.  This involved an oblique
+advance across the British front, which was stopped and destroyed
+before it reached the trenches by the deadly fire of rifles and
+machine-guns.  Over a thousand dead were left as a proof of the
+energy of the attack and the solidity of the resistance.  Farther to
+the south a similar attack was beaten back by the cavalry after a
+preliminary shelling in which the 3rd Dragoon Guards suffered
+severely.  This attack was repelled by the Third Cavalry Division, to
+which the Leicestershire and North Somerset Yeomanry were now
+attached.  The latter did fine service in this action.  Altogether,
+November 17 was a good day for the British arms and a most expensive
+one for the Germans.
+
+[Sidenote: End of the first Battle of Ypres.]
+
+We have now reached the end of the Battle of Ypres, which attained
+its maximum fury, so far as the British line was concerned, from
+October 29 to November 11.  This great contest raged from the sand
+dunes of the north, where the Belgians fought so well, through the
+French Marine Brigade at Dixmude, and the Ninth French Corps, to
+General Haig's Corps, which was buttressed on the right towards {307}
+the latter part of the battle by the Sixteenth French Corps.  Farther
+south yet another French corps supported and eventually took the
+place of the British cavalry opposite the lost villages of Wytschaete
+and Messines.  From there ran the unbroken lines of the imperturbable
+Third Corps, which ended to the south in the trenches originally held
+by the Second British Corps, and later by the Indians.  Across the La
+Bassée Canal the French once again took up the defence.
+
+It is not an action, therefore, which can be set down to the
+exclusive credit of any one nation.  Our Allies fought gloriously,
+and if their deeds are not set down here, it is from want of space
+and of precise information, not from want of appreciation.  But,
+turning to the merely British aspect of the fight--and beyond all
+doubt the heavier share fell upon the British, who bore the brunt
+from the start to the end,--it may be said that the battle lasted a
+clear month, from October 12, when Smith-Dorrien crossed the La
+Bassée Canal, to November 11, when the German Guard reeled out of the
+Nonnebusch Wood.  We are so near these great events that it is hard
+to get their true proportion, but it is abundantly clear that the
+battle, in its duration, the space covered, the numbers engaged, and
+the losses endured, was far the greatest ever fought up to that time
+by a British Army.  At Waterloo the losses were under 10,000.  In
+this great fight they were little short of 50,000.  The fact that the
+enemy did not recoil and that there was no sensational capture of
+prisoners and guns has obscured the completeness of the victory.  In
+these days of nations in arms a beaten army is buttressed up or
+reabsorbed by the huge forces of {308} which it is part.  One judges
+victory or defeat by the question whether an army has or has not
+reached its objective.  In this particular case, taking a broad view
+of the whole action, a German force of at least 600,000 men set forth
+to reach the coast, and was opposed by a force of less than half its
+numbers who barred its way.  The Germans did not advance five miles
+in a month of fighting, and they lost not less than 150,000 men
+without any military advantage whatever, for the possession of such
+villages as Gheluvelt, Wytschaete, or Messines availed them not at
+all.  If this is not a great victory, I do not know what military
+achievement would deserve the term.  Ypres was a Plevna--but a Plevna
+which remained for ever untaken.
+
+[Sidenote: Death of Lord Roberts.]
+
+On November 15 Lord Roberts died whilst visiting the Army, having
+such an end as he would have chosen, within earshot of the guns and
+within the lines of those Indian soldiers whom he loved and had so
+often led.  The last words of his greatest speech to his
+fellow-countrymen before the outbreak of that war which he had
+foreseen, and for which he had incessantly tried to prepare, were
+that they should quit themselves like men.  He lived to see them do
+so, and though he was not spared to see the final outcome, his spirit
+must at least have been at rest as to the general trend of the
+campaign.  The tradition of his fascinating character, with its
+knightly qualities of gentleness, bravery, and devotion to duty, will
+remain as a national possession.
+
+[Sidenote: The Eighth Division.]
+
+About this time, though too late for the severe fighting, there
+arrived the Eighth Division, which would enable Sir Henry Rawlinson
+to complete his Fourth Corps.
+
+{309}
+
+The Eighth Division was composed as follows:--
+
+  DIVISIONAL GENERAL--General DAVIES.
+
+  23_rd Infantry Brigade--General Penny._
+        2nd Scots Rifles.
+        2nd Middlesex.
+        2nd West Yorkshires.
+        2nd Devons.
+
+  24_th Infantry Brigade--General Carter._
+        1st Worcesters.
+        2nd East Lancashires.
+        1st Notts and Derby.
+        2nd Northamptons.
+
+  25_th Infantry Brigade--General Lowry Cole._
+        2nd Lincolns.
+        2nd Berkshires.
+        1st Irish Rifles.
+        2nd Rifle Brigade.
+        13th London (Kensingtons).
+
+  _Artillery._
+        5th Brigade R.H.A., G.O.Z.
+        45th Brigade R.F.A.
+        33rd Brigade R.F.A.
+        Heavy Batteries 118, 119.
+        2, 5, F. Cos. R.E.
+        8 Signal Co.
+        Divisional Cavalry.
+        Northampton Yeomanry.
+        8th Cyclists.
+
+
+We have now arrived at what may be called the great winter lull, when
+the continuation of active operations was made impossible by the
+weather conditions, which were of the most atrocious description.  It
+was the season which in a more classic age of warfare was spent in
+comfortable winter quarters.  There was no such surcease of hardship
+for the contending lines, who were left in their trenches face to
+face, often not more than fifty yards apart, and each always keenly
+alert for any devilry upon the part of the other.  The ashes of war
+were always redly smouldering, and sometimes, as will be seen, burst
+up into sudden furious flame.  It was a period of rain-storms and of
+frost-bites, of trench mortars and of {310} hand grenades, of weary,
+muddy, goat-skinned men shivering in narrow trenches, and of depleted
+brigades resting and recruiting in the rearward towns.  Such was the
+position at the Front.  But hundreds of miles to the westward the
+real future of the war was being fought out in the rifle factories of
+Birmingham, the great gun works of Woolwich, Coventry, Newcastle, and
+Sheffield, the cloth looms of Yorkshire, and the boot centres of
+Northampton.  In these and many other places oversea the tools for
+victory were forged night and day through one of the blackest and
+most strenuous winters that Britain has ever known.  And always on
+green and waste and common, from Cromarty to Brighton, wherever
+soldiers could find billets or a village of log huts could be put
+together, the soldier citizens who were to take up the burden of the
+war, the men of the Territorials and the men of the new armies,
+endured every hardship and discomfort without a murmur, whilst they
+prepared themselves for that great and glorious task which the future
+would bring.  Even those who were too old or too young for service
+formed themselves into volunteer bands, who armed and clothed
+themselves at their own expense.  This movement, which sprang first
+from the small Sussex village of Crowborough, was co-ordinated and
+controlled by a central body of which Lord Desborough was the head.
+In spite of discouragement, or at the best cold neutrality from
+Government, it increased and prospered until no fewer than a quarter
+of a million of men were mustered and ready entirely at their own
+expense and by private enterprise--one of the most remarkable
+phenomena of the war.
+
+
+
+
+{311}
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A RETROSPECT AND GENERAL SUMMARY
+
+Position of Italy--Fall of German colonies--Sea affairs--Our Allies.
+
+
+There has been no opportunity during this somewhat breathless
+narrative of the great events which will ever be associated with the
+names of Mons, the Marne, the Aisne, and Ypres to indicate those
+factors which were influencing the course of the war in other
+regions.  They do not come properly within the scope of this
+narrative, nor does the author profess to have any special
+information concerning them, but they cannot be absolutely omitted
+without interfering with a correct view of the general situation.
+They will therefore be briefly summarised in retrospect before the
+reader is carried on into a more particular account of the trench
+warfare of the early winter of 1914.
+
+[Sidenote: Position of Italy.]
+
+The most important European event at the outbreak of the war, outside
+the movement of the combatants, was the secession of Italy from the
+Central Powers on the grounds that her treaty applied only to wars of
+defence whilst this was manifestly one of aggression.  Italian
+statesmen could speak with the more decision upon the point since the
+plot had been unfolded before their eyes.  A year previously they had
+been asked to join in an unprovoked {312} attack upon Serbia, and in
+refusing had given clear warning to their allies how such an outrage
+would be viewed.  The Central Powers, however, puffed up by their
+vainglory and by the knowledge of their own secret preparations, were
+persuaded that they had ample strength to carry out their intentions
+without aid from their southern ally.  Italy, having denounced the
+treaty, remained a neutral, but it was always clear that she would
+sooner or later throw in her strength with those who were at war with
+Austria, her secular enemy.  It was not, however, until May 1915 that
+she was in a position to take a definite step.  It should be
+remembered to her eternal honour that the time at which she did
+eventually come in was one which was very overcast for the Allies,
+and that far from fulfilling the cynical German prophecy that she
+would "hasten to the assistance of the conqueror," she took grave
+risks in ranging herself upon the side of her Latin sister.
+
+[Sidenote: Fall of German colonies.]
+
+Upon August 24 Japan also declared war, and by November 7 had
+completed her share of the common task, for Tsingtau, the only German
+colony in Eastern Asia, was captured by a Japanese expeditionary
+force aided by a British contingent.  Already the vast Colonial
+erection of Germany, those numerous places in the sun which she had
+annexed all over the globe, were beginning to crumble.  The little
+Togoland colony fell upon August 26.  New Zealand took over German
+Samoa upon August 31.  The Australians occupied the Bismarck
+Archipelago upon September 7, and New Guinea upon the 25th.  These
+smaller twigs were easily lopped, but the main boughs were made of
+tougher stuff.  A premature attack upon German East Africa by an
+expeditionary force from India {313} met with a severe check
+immediately after landing.  In South Africa the Germans succeeded in
+blowing into a small flame the smouldering ashes of the old Boer War.
+De Wet and others broke their oaths and took up arms, but the
+majority remained splendidly loyal, and by the beginning of December
+Botha had brought the insurrection to an end, and was able henceforth
+to devote his grand powers of leadership and organisation to the
+extinction of the enemy's south-western colony.
+
+[Sidenote: Sea affairs.]
+
+A word, too, about sea affairs before we turn to the further detailed
+account of the British winter upon the Continent.  In good time the
+Fleet had been ordered to her war-stations at the north and east of
+Scotland, with the result that German ocean commerce was brought to
+an immediate and absolute stop.  The German ships _Goeben_ and
+_Breslau_, which were cut off at the outbreak of the war in the
+Mediterranean, succeeded in a very clever fashion in reaching the
+Dardanelles and safety.  Having taken refuge at Constantinople, these
+ships played a prominent part in determining Turkey to take action
+against the Allies on October 31, a most disastrous decision both for
+Turkey, which met her ruin, and for the Allies, who found their task
+greatly increased through the excellent fighting power of the Turkish
+forces.
+
+A brisk action was fought upon August 28 in the Heligoland Bight,
+when Admiral Beatty with his cruiser-squadron and a number of light
+craft visited the enemy in his own waters, sinking three German
+warships and sustaining no losses himself.  Among the prisoners was
+the son of Chief Admiral Von Tirpitz.  Numerous minor actions led to
+no {314} noteworthy result, but the power of the submarine, already
+prophesied before the war, speedily made itself manifest.  Several
+small British cruisers were destroyed by these craft, and finally a
+considerable disaster occurred through the sinking of the three
+cruisers, _Hogue_, _Aboukir_, and _Cressy_, upon September 22.  This
+dashing and cool-headed exploit was brought off by a young lieutenant
+named Weddigen.  Much as we suffered from his action, it was
+recognised in Britain as having been a remarkable deed of arms upon a
+very different plane to those execrable murders of civilians with
+which the German submarine service was afterwards associated.  Some
+months later Weddigen's submarine rose amongst the Grand Fleet whilst
+it was in motion, and was rammed and destroyed by the _Dreadnought_.
+
+The outbreak of war had seen a considerable number of German cruisers
+at large, and these would undoubtedly have been strongly reinforced
+had it not been for the speed with which the British Fleet took up
+its war-stations.  As it was, the amount of damage to commerce was
+not serious, and by the New Year all the wanderers had been rounded
+up.  The most successful raider was the _Emden_, under Captain
+Müller, which captured and destroyed numerous British merchant-ships,
+bombarded the Madras gas-works, and sank by a surprise attack a small
+Russian cruiser and a French destroyer before it was finally cornered
+and sunk by the Australian cruiser _Sydney_ off Cocos Island upon
+November 10.  Captain Muller, though forced by circumstances to adopt
+certain measures not recognised in honourable naval warfare, behaved
+on the whole in the manner which one associates with the term naval
+officer.  The {315} _Karlsruhe_ had also considerable success as a
+naval raider, but met her end through an unexplained explosion some
+little time after her consort the _Emden_.  On the whole, the damage
+inflicted by German commerce destroyers was very much less summary.
+than had been anticipated.
+
+On November 1, Admiral Craddock's squadron, consisting of the
+_Monmouth_, the _Good Hope_, and two small vessels, was engaged by a
+superior squadron under Admiral von Spee at Coronel off the coast of
+Chili.  The result was a British defeat, the two cruisers being sunk
+by gun-fire with all hands.  This disaster was dramatically revenged,
+as within six weeks, upon December 8, a special cruiser-squadron
+dispatched from England under Admiral Sturdee entirely destroyed the
+fleet of Von Spee in the Battle of the Falkland Islands.  The British
+Fleet was considerably stronger, and little credit can be claimed
+save for the admirable strategy which enabled Sturdee to find the
+enemy in that vast waste of waters as promptly and directly as if the
+meeting had been by appointment.
+
+There were no other outstanding naval events in 1914 save a raid upon
+Cuxhaven by aeroplanes, escorted by light cruisers, which probably
+did little harm as the weather was misty.  This occurred upon
+Christmas Day 1914.  It had been preceded by an attack by German
+cruisers on December 16 upon West Hartlepool, Scarborough, and
+Whitby.  As the two latter towns were open watering-places, and as
+numerous civilians were the victims of the raid, it was recognised
+from this time onwards that the German Navy was as little trammelled
+by international law or by the feelings of humanity as the German
+{316} Army had shown itself to be in France, Belgium, and Russia.
+
+[Sidenote: Our Allies.]
+
+The general movement of the French armies has been touched upon in
+recording the experiences of the British, for after their glorious
+victory at the Marne and the hold-up at the Aisne, it was at Ypres
+that the real fighting was done, the rest of the long line down to
+the Swiss frontier playing a subsidiary part.  The Russians, however,
+had experienced both extremities of fortune, for their victory at
+Lemberg over the Austrians upon September 2 was of a very glorious
+character, while their defeat by the Germans at Tannenberg in East
+Prussia was no less decisive.  All the events of the outset of the
+war were inglorious for Austria, who received rapidly the punishment
+which she deserved for her wanton disturbance of the world's peace.
+Apart from the blows which she received from Russia, she was severely
+defeated by the Serbians on August 17, and her invading army was
+driven out of the country which she had wronged.  At the end of the
+year she had lost the whole of Galicia to the Russians, who in turn
+had been pushed out of East Prussia by the German armies under Von
+Hindenburg.  An invasion of Poland by the Germans was held up after
+very severe fighting, failing to reach Warsaw, which was its
+objective.
+
+These were the main incidents of the world's war during the months
+which have been under review.  As those months passed the terrific
+nature of the task which they had undertaken became more and more
+clear to the British, but further reflection had confirmed them in
+their opinion that the alternative course of abandoning their friends
+and breaking their pledge to Belgium was an absolutely unthinkable
+{317} one, so that however great the trials and sacrifices in blood
+and treasure, they were not further embittered by the reflection that
+they could possibly have been avoided.  Very greatly were they
+cheered in that dark hour by the splendid, whole-hearted help from
+India, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, help which was even more
+valuable from a moral than from a material standpoint.  With this
+brief synopsis we will now return to those operations which are the
+proper subject of this volume.
+
+
+
+
+{318}
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE WINTER LULL OF 1914
+
+Increase of the Array--Formation of the Fifth Corps--The visit of the
+King--Third Division at Petit Bois--The fight at Givenchy--Heavy
+losses of the Indians--Fine advance of 1st Manchesters--Advance of
+the First Division--Singular scenes at Christmas.
+
+
+The winter lull may be said to have extended from the great combats
+at Ypres of the middle of November 1914 to the opening of the spring
+campaign in March 1915; but we will only follow it here up to the end
+of the year.  It was a period of alternate rest and discomfort for
+the troops with an ever-present salt of danger.  For days they found
+themselves billeted with some approach to comfort in the farmhouses
+and villages of Flanders, but such brief intervals of peace were
+broken by the routine of the trenches, when, in mud or water with a
+clay cutting before their faces and another at their backs, they
+waited through the long hours, listening to the crack of the sniper's
+rifle, or the crash of the bursting shell, with an indifference which
+bordered upon thankfulness for anything that would break the drab
+monotony of their task.  It was a scene of warfare which was new to
+military experience.  The vast plain of battle lay in front of the
+observer as a flat and lonely wilderness, dotted with ruined houses
+from which no homely wreath of smoke {319} rose into the wintry air.
+Here and there was an untidy litter of wire; here and there also a
+clump of bleak and tattered woodland; but nowhere was there any sign
+of man.  And yet from the elevation of an aeroplane it might be seen
+that the population of a large city was lurking upon that motionless
+waste.  Everywhere the airman would have distinguished the thin brown
+slits of the advance trenches, the broader ditches of the supports
+and the long zigzags of the communications, and he would have
+detected that they were stuffed with men--grey men and khaki, in
+every weird garment that ingenuity could suggest for dryness and for
+warmth--all cowering within their shelters with the ever-present
+double design of screening themselves and of attacking their enemy.
+As the German pressure became less, and as more regiments of the
+Territorials began to arrive, taking some of the work from their
+comrades of the Regulars, it was possible to mitigate something of
+the discomforts of warfare, to ensure that no regiments should be
+left for too long a period in the trenches, and even to arrange for
+week-end visits to England for a certain number of officers and men.
+The streets of London got a glimpse of rugged, war-hardened faces,
+and of uniforms caked with the brown mud of Flanders, or supplemented
+by strange Robinson Crusoe goatskins from the trenches, which brought
+home to the least imaginative the nature and the nearness of the
+struggle.
+
+[Sidenote: Increase of the Army.]
+
+Before noting those occasional spasms of activity--epileptic,
+sometimes, in their sudden intensity--which broke out from the German
+trenches, it may be well to take some note of the general development
+of those preparations which meant so much for the {320} future.  The
+Army was growing steadily in strength.  Not only were the old
+regiments reinforced by fresh drafts, but two new divisions of
+Regulars were brought over before the end of January.  These formed
+the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Divisions under Generals Snow
+and Bulfin, two officers who had won a name in the first phase of the
+war.
+
+[Sidenote: Formation of the Fifth Corps.]
+
+The two Divisions together formed the Fifth Army Corps under General
+Plumer, the officer who had worked so hard for the relief of Mafeking
+in 1900.  The Divisions, composed of splendid troops who needed some
+hardening after tropical service, were constituted as follows, the
+list including territorial battalions attached, but excluding the
+artillery as well as the four original regular units in each brigade:
+
+  FIFTH ARMY CORPS
+
+  GENERAL PLUMER.
+
+  TWENTY-SEVENTH DIVISION.--General SNOW.
+
+  80_th Brigade--General Fortescue._
+        Princess Pat. Canadians.
+        4th Rifle Brigade.
+        3rd King's Royal Rifles.
+        4th King's Royal Rifles.
+        2nd Shrop. Light Infantry.
+
+  81_st Brigade--General MacFarlane._
+        9th Royal Scots (T.F.).
+        2nd Cameron Highlanders.
+        1st Argyll and Sutherlands.
+        1st Royal Scots.
+        2nd Gloucesters.
+        9th Argyll and Sutherlands (T.F.).
+
+  82_nd Brigade--General Longley._
+        1st Leinsters.
+        2nd Royal Irish Fusiliers.
+        2nd Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.
+        1st Royal Irish.
+        1st Cambridge (T.F.).
+        Army Troops, 6th Cheshires.
+
+{321}
+
+  TWENTY-EIGHTH DIVISION.--General BULFIN.
+
+  83_rd Brigade--General Boyle._
+        2nd E. Yorkshire.
+        1st King's Own York. Light Infantry.
+        1st Yorks. and Lancasters.
+        2nd Royal Lancasters.
+        3rd Monmouths (T.F.).
+        5th Royal Lancasters (T.F.).
+
+  84_th Brigade--General Winter._
+        2nd Northumberland Fusiliers.
+        1st Suffolks.
+        1st Welsh.
+        2nd Cheshires.
+        12th London Rangers (T.F.).
+        1st Monmouths (T.F.).
+
+  85_th Brigade--General Chapman._
+        2nd East Kent.
+        2nd East Surrey.
+        3rd Middlesex.
+        3rd Royal Fusiliers.
+        8th Middlesex (T.F.).
+
+Besides this new Fifth Army Corps, there had been a constant dribble
+of other territorial units to the front, where they were incorporated
+with various regular brigades.  The London Scottish, which had done
+so well, was honoured by admission to the 1st Brigade of Guards.  The
+Artists' Rifles, 28th London, had the unique distinction of being set
+aside as an officers' training corps, from which officers were
+actually drawn at the rate of a hundred a month.  The Honourable
+Artillery Company, brigaded with the 7th Brigade, was among the first
+to arrive.  Conspicuous among the newcomers were the London Rifle
+Brigade, the 4th Suffolk, the Liverpool Scottish, the 5th and 6th
+Cheshires, the 1st Herts, the 2nd Monmouthshires, Queen Victoria
+Rifles, and Queen's Westminsters.  These were among the earlier
+arrivals, though it seems invidious to mention names where the spirit
+of all was equally good.  Among the {322} yeomanry, many had already
+seen considerable service--notably the North and South Irish Horse,
+who had served from the beginning, the Northumberland Hussars, the
+North Somersets, the Oxford Hussars, and the Essex Yeomanry.  Most of
+the troops named above shared the discomfort of the winter campaign
+before the great arrival of the new armies from England in the
+spring.  There can be no better earned bar upon a medal than that
+which stands for this great effort of endurance against nature and
+man combined.
+
+To take events in their order: beyond numerous gallant affairs of
+outposts, there was no incident of importance until the evening of
+November 23, when the Germans, who had seemed stunned for a week or
+so, showed signs of returning animation.  On this day, some eight
+hundred yards of trench held by Indian troops in the neighbourhood of
+Armentières were made untenable by the German artillery, especially
+by the _minen-werfer_--small mortars which threw enormous bombs by an
+ingenious arrangement whereby the actual shell never entered the bore
+but was on the end of a rod outside the muzzle.  Some of these
+terrible missiles, which came through the air as slowly as a punted
+football, were 200 lbs. in weight and shattering in their effects.
+There was an advance of the 112th Regiment of the Fourteenth German
+Corps, and the empty trenches were strongly occupied by them--so
+strongly that the first attempt to retake them was unsuccessful in
+the face of the rifle and machine-gun fire of the defenders.  A
+second more powerful counter-attack was organised by General Anderson
+of the Meerut Division, and this time the Germans were swept out of
+their position and the line {323} re-established.  The fighting
+lasted all night, and the Ghurkas with their formidable knives proved
+to be invaluable for such close work, while a party of Engineers with
+hand-bombs did great execution--a strange combination of the Asiatic
+with the most primitive of weapons and the scientific European with
+the most recent.  It was a substantial victory as such affairs go,
+for the British were left with a hundred prisoners, including three
+officers, three machine-guns, and two mortars.
+
+[Sidenote: The visit of the King.]
+
+The first week of December was rendered memorable by a visit of the
+King to the Army.  King George reviewed a great number of his devoted
+soldiers, who showed by their fervent enthusiasm that one need not be
+an autocratic War-lord in order to command the fierce loyalty of the
+legions.  After this pleasant interlude there followed a succession
+of those smaller exploits which seem so slight in any chronicle, and
+yet collectively do so much to sustain the spirit of the Army.  Now
+this dashing officer, now that, attempted some deed upon the German
+line, and never failed to find men to follow him to death.  On
+November 24 it was Lieutenant Impey, with a handful of 2nd Lincolns;
+on November 25, Lieutenants Ford and Morris with a few Welsh
+Fusiliers and sappers; on November 26, Sir Edward Hulse with some
+Scots Guards; on the same day, Lieutenant Durham with men of the 2nd
+Rifle Brigade--in each case trenches were temporarily won, the enemy
+was damaged, and a spirit of adventure encouraged in the trenches.
+Sometimes such a venture ended in the death of the leader, as in the
+case of Captain the Honourable H. L. Bruce of the Royal Scots.  Such
+men died as the old knights did who rode out betwixt the {324} lines
+of marshalled armies, loved by their friends and admired by their
+foes.
+
+December 9 was the date of two small actions.  In the first the 1st
+Lincolns of the 9th Brigade, which had been commanded by Douglas
+Smith since the wounding of General Shaw, made an attack upon the
+wood at Wytschaete which is called Le Petit Bois.  The advance was
+not successful, the three officers who led it being all wounded, and
+forty-four men being hit.  The attempt was renewed upon a larger
+scale five days later.  The other action was an attack by the enemy
+upon some of the trenches of the Third Corps.  This Corps, though it
+had not come in for the more dramatic scenes of the campaign, had
+done splendid and essential work in covering a line of fourteen miles
+or so against incessant attacks of the Germans, who never were able
+to gain any solid advantage.  On this occasion the impact fell upon
+Gordon's 19th Brigade, especially upon the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland
+Highlanders and the 1st Middlesex.  It was driven back with heavy
+loss.
+
+[Sidenote: Third Division at Petit Bois.]
+
+On December 14 the second and more sustained effort was made to get
+possession of the Petit Bois at Wytschaete, which had been attacked
+by the Lincolns upon the 9th.  D'Urbal's Eighth French Army was
+co-operating upon the left.  The British attack was conducted by
+Haldane's Third Division, and the actual advance was carried out,
+after a considerable artillery preparation from the batteries of two
+Corps, by Bowes' 8th Brigade, with the 2nd Royal Scots and the 1st
+Gordons in the lead.  At 7.45 the guns were turned upon the big wood
+beyond Petit Bois, through which the supports might be advancing, and
+at the same hour the two regiments named swarmed forward, {325} the
+Lowlanders on the left and the Highlanders on the right.  The Royal
+Scots, under Major Duncan, carried Petit Bois with a rush, taking
+fifty prisoners and two machine-guns, while the Germans fled out at
+the other end of the wood.  The Scots at once entrenched themselves
+and got their own machine-guns into position.  The Gordons, under
+Major Baird, advanced with splendid dash and gained some ground, but
+found the position such that they could not entrench upon it, so they
+were forced to fall back eventually to their original position.  Both
+they and the 4th Middlesex, who supported them, lost considerably in
+the affair.  The total casualties in the Petit Bois action came to
+over four hundred, with seventeen officers, figures which were
+considerably swollen by the losses of the Suffolks and Irish Rifles,
+who continued to hold the captured position in the face of continued
+bombing.  The French in the north had no particular success and lost
+600 men.  The importance of such operations is not to be measured,
+however, by the amount of ground won, but by the necessity of beating
+up the enemies' quarters, keeping them pinned to their positions, and
+preventing them from feeling that they could at their own sweet wills
+detach any reinforcements they chose to thicken their line upon the
+Eastern frontier, where our Russian Allies were so insistently
+pressing.
+
+On the morning of December 19 an attack was made upon the German
+lines in the Festubert region by Willcocks' Indian Corps, the Meerut
+Division, under General Anderson, attacking upon the left, and the
+Lahore, under General Watkis, upon the right.  The object of the
+movement was to co-operate with the French in an advance which they
+had {326} planned.  The Meerut attack was successful at first, but
+was driven back by a counter-attack, and some hundreds of Indian
+infantry were killed, wounded, or taken.  In the case of the Lahore
+attack the storming party consisted of the 1st Highland Light
+Infantry and the 4th Ghurkas.  Both of these units belong to the
+Sirhind Brigade, but they were joined in the enterprise by the 59th
+Scinde Rifles of the Jullundur Brigade.  These latter troops had a
+long night march before reaching the scene of the operations, when
+they found themselves upon the right of the attack and within two
+hundred and fifty yards of the German trenches.  Judging the
+operations from the standard reached at a later date, the whole
+arrangement seems to have been extraordinarily primitive.  The
+artillery preparation for a frontal attack upon a strong German line
+of trenches lasted exactly four minutes, being rather a call to arms
+than a bombardment.  The troops rushed most gallantly forward into
+the dark of a cold wet winter morning, with no guide save the
+rippling flashes of the rifles and machine-guns in front of them.
+Many were so sore-footed and weary that they could not break into the
+double.  Some of the Indians were overtaken from behind by a line of
+British supports, which caused considerable confusion.  An officer of
+Indians has left it on record that twice running he had a revolver
+clapped to his head by a British officer.  All of the battalions
+advanced with a frontage of two companies in columns of platoons.
+Both the Ghurkas and Highlanders reached the trench in the face of a
+murderous fire.  The left of the 59th, consisting of Punjabi
+Mahomedans, also reached the trench.  The right, who were Sikhs, made
+an {327} equally gallant advance, but were knee-deep in a wet
+beetroot field and under terrific machine-gun fire.  Their gallant
+leader, Captain Scale, was struck down, as was every Indian officer,
+but a handful of the survivors, under a Sikh Jemadar, got into a
+German sap, which they held for twenty-four hours, taking a number of
+prisoners.
+
+Day had dawned, and though the British and Indians were in the enemy
+trenches, it was absolutely impossible to send them up reinforcements
+across the bullet-swept plain.  The 59th discovered a sap running
+from their left to the German line, and along this they pushed.  They
+could not get through, however, to where their comrades were being
+terribly bombed on either flank by the counter-attack.  It was an
+heroic resistance.  Colonel Ronaldson, who led the party, held on all
+day, but was very lucky in being able to withdraw most of the
+survivors after nightfall.  Of the hundred Punjabis who held one
+flank, only three returned, while thirteen wounded were reported
+later from Germany.  The others all refused to surrender, declaring
+that those were the last orders of their British officers, and so
+they met their honoured end.  It had been a long and weary day with a
+barren ending, for all that had been won was abandoned.  The losses
+were over a thousand, and were especially heavy in the case of
+officers.
+
+[Sidenote: The fight at Givenchy.]
+
+The Germans, elated by the failure of the attack, were in the mood
+for a return visit.  In the early dawn of the next day, December 20,
+they began a heavy bombardment of the Indian trenches, followed by an
+infantry attack extending over a line of six miles from south of the
+Bethune Canal to Festubert in the north.  The attack began by the
+explosion of {328} a succession of mines which inflicted very heavy
+losses upon the survivors of the Ghurkas and Highland Light Infantry.
+The weight of the attack at the village of Givenchy fell upon the
+exhausted Sirhind Brigade, who were driven back, and the greater part
+of Givenchy was occupied by the enemy.  General Brunker fell back
+with his Brigade, but his line was stiffened by the arrival of the
+47th Sikhs of the 8th Jullundur Brigade, who were in divisional
+reserve.  These troops prevented any further advance of the Germans,
+while preparations were made for an effective counter-stroke.
+
+[Sidenote: Heavy losses of the Indians.]
+
+Little help could be given from the north, where the line was already
+engaged, but to the south there were considerable bodies of troops
+available.  The situation was serious, and a great effort was called
+for, since it was impossible to abandon into the hands of the enemy a
+village which was an essential bastion upon the line of defence.  The
+German attack had flooded down south of Givenchy to the Bethune
+Canal, and a subsidiary attack had come along the south of the Canal
+with the object of holding the troops in their places and preventing
+the reinforcement of the defenders of Givenchy.  But these advances
+south of the village made no progress, being held up by the 9th
+Bhopals and Wilde's 57th Rifles of the 7th Ferozepore Brigade between
+Givenchy and the Canal, while the 1st Connaught Rangers of the same
+brigade stopped it on the southern side of the Canal.  Matters were
+for a moment in equilibrium.  To the south of the Canal energetic
+measures were taken to get together a force which could come across
+it by the Pont Fixe or road bridge, and re-establish matters in the
+north.
+
+{329}
+
+[Sidenote: Fine advance of Manchesters.]
+
+The struggle had broken out close to the point of junction between
+the British forces and those of General Foch of the Tenth French
+Army, so that our Allies were able to co-operate with us in the
+counter-attack.  It was directed by General Carnegy, and the assault
+was made by the 1st Manchesters, the 4th Suffolk Territorials, and
+some French territorials.  The Manchesters, under the leadership of
+Colonel Strickland, made a most notable attack, aided by two
+companies of the Suffolks, the other companies remaining in reserve
+on the north bank of the Canal.  So critical was the position that
+the 3rd Indian Sappers and Miners were set the dangerous task, under
+very heavy shell-fire, of mining the bridge over the Canal.  The
+situation was saved, however, by Colonel Strickland's fine advance.
+His infantry, with very inadequate artillery support, pushed its way
+into Givenchy and cleared the village from end to end.  Three hundred
+of the Manchesters fell in this deed of arms.  Not only did they win
+the village, but they also regained some of the lost trenches to the
+north-east of Givenchy.  This was the real turning-point of the
+action.  There was at the time only the one very wet, very weary, and
+rather cut-up Jullundur Brigade between the Germans and Bethune--with
+all that Bethune stood for strategically.  To the east the 9th
+Bhopals and 57th Rifles still held on to their position.  It was only
+to the north that the enemy retained his lodgment.
+
+But the fight to the north had been a bitter one all day, and had
+gone none too well for the British forces.  The Indians were fighting
+at an enormous disadvantage.  As well turn a tiger loose upon an
+ice-floe and expect that he will show all his wonted {330} fierceness
+and activity.  There are inexorable axioms of Nature which no human
+valour nor constancy can change.  The bravest of the brave, our
+Indian troops were none the less the children of the sun, dependent
+upon warmth for their vitality and numbed by the cold wet life of the
+trenches.  That they still in the main maintained a brave,
+uncomplaining, soldierly demeanour, and that they made head against
+the fierce German assaults, is a wonderful proof of their
+adaptability.
+
+About ten o'clock on the morning of the 20th the German attack,
+driving back the Sirhind Brigade from Givenchy, who were the left
+advanced flank of the Lahore Division, came with a rush against the
+Dehra-Dun Brigade, who were the extreme right of the Meerut Division.
+This Brigade had the 1st Seaforth Highlanders upon its flank, with
+the 2nd Ghurkas upon its left.  The Ghurkas were forced to retire,
+and the almost simultaneous retirement of the defenders of Givenchy
+left the Highlanders in a desperate position with both flanks in the
+air.  Fortunately the next Brigade of the Meerut Division, the
+Garhwal Brigade, stood fast and kept in touch with the 6th Jats, who
+formed the left of the Dehra-Dun Brigade, and so prevented the
+pressure upon that side from becoming intolerable.  The 9th Ghurkas
+came up to support the 2nd Ghurkas, who had not gone far from their
+abandoned trenches, and the 58th Indian Rifles also came to the
+front.  These battalions upon the left rear of the Highlanders gave
+them some support.  None the less the position of the battalion was
+dangerous and its losses heavy, but it faced the Germans with
+splendid firmness, and nothing could budge it.  Machine-guns are
+stronger {331} than flesh and blood, but the human spirit can be
+stronger than either.  You might kill the Highlanders, but you could
+not shift them.  The 2nd Black Watch, who had been in reserve,
+established touch towards nightfall with the right of the Seaforths,
+and also with the left of the Sirhind Brigade, so that a continuous
+line was assured.
+
+In the meantime a small force had assembled under General MacBean
+with the intention of making a counter-attack and recovering the
+ground which had been lost on the north side of Givenchy.  With the
+8th Ghurkas and the 47th Sikhs, together with the 7th British Dragoon
+Guards, an attack was made in the early hours of the 21st.  Colonel
+Lempriere of the Dragoon Guards was killed, and the attack failed.
+It was renewed in the early hours of the morning, but it again failed
+to dislodge the Germans from the captured trenches.
+
+[Sidenote: Advance of the First Division.]
+
+December 21 dawned upon a situation which was not particularly rosy
+from a British point of view.  It is true that Givenchy had been
+recovered, but a considerable stretch of trenches were still in the
+hands of the Germans, their artillery was exceedingly masterful, and
+the British line was weakened by heavy losses and indented in several
+places.  The one bright spot was the advance of the First Division of
+Haig's Corps, who had come up in the night-time.  The three brigades
+of this Division were at once thrown into the fight, the first being
+sent to Givenchy, the second given as a support to the Meerut
+Division, and the third directed upon the trenches which had been
+evacuated the day before by the Sirhind Brigade.  All of these
+brigades won their way forward, and by the morning of the 22nd much
+of the ground which {332} had been taken by the Germans was
+reoccupied by the British.  The 1st Brigade, led by the Cameron
+Highlanders, had made good all the ground between Givenchy and the
+Canal.  Meanwhile the 3rd Brigade had re-established the Festubert
+position, where the 2nd Welsh and 1st South Wales Borderers had won
+their way into the lost trenches of the Ghurkas.
+
+This was not done without very stark fighting, in which of all the
+regiments engaged none suffered so heavily as the 2nd Munsters (now
+attached to the 3rd Brigade).  This regiment, only just built up
+again after its practical extermination at Etreux in August, made a
+grand advance and fought without cessation for nearly forty-eight
+hours.  Their losses were dreadful, including their gallant Colonel
+Bent, both Majors Day and Thomson, five other officers, and several
+hundreds of the rank and file.  So far forward did they get that it
+was with great difficulty that the survivors, through the exertions
+of Major Ryan, were got back into a place of safety.  It was the
+second of three occasions upon which this gallant Celtic battalion
+gave itself for King and Country.  Let this soften the asperity of
+politics if unhappily we must come back to them after the war.
+
+Meanwhile the lines upon the flank of the Seaforths which had been
+lost by the Dehra-Dun Brigade were carried by the 2nd Brigade
+(Westmacott), the 1st North Lancashire and 1st Northamptons leading
+the attack with the 2nd Rifles in support.  Though driven back by a
+violent counter-attack in which both leading regiments, and
+especially the Lancashire men, lost heavily, the Brigade came again,
+and ended by making good the gap in the line.  Thus the situation on
+the morning of the 22nd looked very {333} much better than upon the
+day before.  On this morning, as so many of the 1st Corps were in the
+advanced line, Sir Douglas Haig took over the command from Sir James
+Willcocks.  The line had been to some extent re-established and the
+firing died away, but there were some trenches which were not retaken
+till a later date.
+
+Such was the scrambling and unsatisfactory fight of Givenchy, a
+violent interlude in the drab records of trench warfare.  It began
+with a considerable inroad of Germans into our territory and heavy
+losses of our Indian Contingent.  It ended by a general return of the
+Germans to their former lines, and the resumption by the veteran
+troops of the First Division of the main positions which we had lost.
+Neither side had gained any ground of material value, but the balance
+of profit in captures was upon the side of the Germans, who may
+fairly claim that the action was a minor success for their arms,
+since they assert that they captured some hundreds of prisoners and
+several machine-guns.  The Anglo-Indian Corps had 2600 casualties,
+and the First Corps 1400, or 4000 in all.  The Indian troops were now
+withdrawn for a rest, which they had well earned by their long and
+difficult service in the trenches.  To stand day after day up to his
+knees in ice-cold water is no light ordeal for a European, but it is
+difficult to imagine all that it must have been to a Southern
+Asiatic.  The First Corps took over the La Bassée lines.
+
+[Sidenote: Singular scenes at Christmas.]
+
+About the same date as the Battle of Givenchy there was some fighting
+farther north at Rouge Banc, where the Fourth Corps was engaged and
+some German trenches were taken.  The chief losses in this affair
+{334} fell upon those war-worn units, the 2nd Scots Guards and 2nd
+Borderers of the 20th Brigade.  Henceforward peace reigned along the
+lines for several weeks--indeed Christmas brought about something
+like fraternisation between British and Germans, who found a sudden
+and extraordinary link in that ancient tree worship, long anterior to
+Christianity, which Saxon tribes had practised in the depths of
+Germanic forests and still commemorated by their candle-lit firs.
+For a single day the opposing forces mingled in friendly conversation
+and even in games.  It was an amazing spectacle, and must arouse
+bitter thoughts concerning those high-born conspirators against the
+peace of the world, who in their mad ambition had hounded such men on
+to take each other by the throat rather than by the hand.  For a day
+there was comradeship.  But the case had been referred to the God of
+Battles, and the doom had not yet been spoken.  It must go to the
+end.  On the morning of the 26th dark figures vanished reluctantly
+into the earth, and the rifles cracked once more.  It remains one
+human episode amid all the atrocities which have stained the memory
+of the war.
+
+So ended 1914, the year of resistance.  During it the Western Allies
+had been grievously oppressed by their well-prepared enemy.  They had
+been over-weighted by numbers and even more so by munitions.  For a
+space it had seemed as if the odds were too much for them.  Then with
+a splendid rally they had pushed the enemy back.  But his reserves
+had come up and had proved to be as superior as his first line had
+been.  But even so he had reached his limit.  He could get no
+further.  The danger hour was past.  There was now coming the long,
+anxious year of {335} equilibrium, the narrative of which will be
+given in the succeeding volume of 1915.  Finally will come the year
+of restoration which will at least begin, though it will not finish,
+the victory of the champions of freedom.
+
+
+
+
+{337}
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Abell, Major, 70
+
+Abercrombie, Colonel, 94
+
+Agadir, 7
+
+Aisne, battle of the, 162-199
+
+Alexander, Major, 82
+
+Algeciras, 7
+
+Allen, Major, 209
+
+Allenby, General, 56, 80, 88, 96, 97, 126, 155, 204, 226, 279, 287
+
+Alleyne, Captain, 294
+
+Allfrey, Captain, 149
+
+Alsace, 43, 57
+
+Anderson, General, 322, 325
+
+Anley, Colonel, 105
+
+Anley, General, 229
+
+Annesley, Colonel, 284
+
+Ansell, Colonel, 132
+
+Antwerp, fall of, 193; Naval Division at siege of, 195
+
+Ardee, Lord, 288
+
+Army, the Russian, 138; at battle of Gumbinnen, 138; at battle of
+Lemberg, 139; at battle of Tannenberg, 139
+
+Ashburner, Captain, 70
+
+Asquith, Right Hon. H. H., 18
+
+Austin, Dr., 93
+
+Australia, offer of service, 34, 37; Bismarck Archipelago captured
+by, 312; German colony of New Guinea captured by, 312; 317
+
+Austria, Archduke Francis Ferdinand of, assassinated at Sarajevo, 12
+
+Austria-Hungary, annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1908, 2; presents
+ultimatum to Serbia, 14; declares war against Serbia, 15
+
+
+
+Baird, Major, 325
+
+Balfour, Lieutenant, 167
+
+Bannatyne, Colonel, 255
+
+Barnes, Colonel, 241
+
+Battenberg, Prince Louis of, 40
+
+Battenberg, Prince Maurice of, 256
+
+Bavaria, Crown Prince of, 145
+
+Beatty, Admiral Sir David, 313
+
+Belgians, King of the, 198
+
+Belgium, infraction of neutrality, 12
+
+Below-Saleske, von, 19
+
+Benson, Captain, 73
+
+Bent, Colonel, 332
+
+Berners, Captain, 172
+
+Bernhardi, General von, 1, 8, 159
+
+Bethmann-Hollweg, von, 17, 21, 23, 28
+
+Bidon, General, 247
+
+Bingham, General, 283
+
+Bismarck Archipelago, German colony, captured by Australian forces,
+312
+
+Blewitt, Lieutenant, 268
+
+Boger, Colonel, 83
+
+Bols, Colonel, 207
+
+Bolton, Colonel, 244
+
+Botha, Right Hon. Louis, 34, 313
+
+Bottomley, Major, 259
+
+Bowes, General, 218, 295, 324
+
+Boyd, Lieutenant, 266
+
+Bradbury, Captain, V.C., 130, 131
+
+Brett, Colonel, 102
+
+Bridges, Major Tom, 118
+
+Briggs, General, 128, 130, 174, 282, 283
+
+British Expeditionary Force: departure from England, 50; its
+composition, 52, 86; its arrival in France, 53; its reception by the
+French people, 54; advance into Belgium, 57
+
+Brooke, Captain, 260
+
+Bruce, Captain the Hon. H. L., 323
+
+Brunker, General, 328
+
+Buckle, Major, 222
+
+Bulbe, Lieutenant, 78
+
+Bulfin, General, 154, 156, 166, 167, 169, 170, 171, 179, 186, 265,
+273, 287, 288, 320
+
+Bülow, General von, 84, 144, 154
+
+Bülow, Prince von, 3
+
+Burrows, Major, 168
+
+Butler, Colonel, 229
+
+Butler, Major Leslie, 116
+
+Byng, Captain, 70
+
+Byng, General, 210, 233
+
+
+
+Cadogan, Colonel, 237, 264
+
+Campbell, Captain, 73
+
+Campbell, Colonel (5th Dragoon Guards), 281
+
+Campbell, Colonel (9th Lancers), 80, 149
+
+Campbell, Lieutenant, 130
+
+Campbell, Major, 227
+
+Canada, offer of service, 34, 37; 317
+
+Canneau, General, 144, 204, 212, 221
+
+Capper, General, 232, 244, 265, 269, 295
+
+Carey, Captain, 70
+
+Carnegy, General, 329
+
+Carr, Lieutenant Laurence, 259
+
+Carter, Major, 253
+
+Cary, General Langlé de, 144
+
+Cary-Bernard, Captain, 306
+
+Castelnau, General, 44, 145, 193
+
+Cathcart, Captain, 168
+
+Cavan, Lord, 289, 293, 300, 306
+
+Cawley, Major, 132
+
+Ceylon, offer of service, 34
+
+Chapman, Corporal, 227
+
+Charleroi, battle of, 141
+
+Charrier, Major, 119, 120, 121
+
+Chetwode, General, 58, 121
+
+Christie, Major, 112
+
+Churchill, Right Hon. Winston S., 5, 31, 40, 196
+
+Chute, Lieutenant, 121
+
+Clive, Hon. Windsor, 92
+
+Clutterbuck, Captain, 111
+
+Cobb, Irvin, American correspondent with German Army, 64
+
+Cobbold, Colonel, 214
+
+Coke, Major, 282
+
+Coleman, American volunteer, quoted, 119, 149, 303
+
+Coles, Colonel, 266
+
+Congreve, General, V.C., 187, 229
+
+Cookson, Colonel, 167
+
+Cornish-Bowden, Major, 151
+
+Coronel, naval battle off, 315
+
+Craddock, Admiral, 315
+
+Cramb, Professor, 30
+
+Creek, Captain, 253
+
+Crichton, Major, 241
+
+Crossley, Sergeant-Major, 222
+
+Cutbill, Captain, 102
+
+Cuthbert, General, 71, 79, 98
+
+
+
+Dalrymple, Lord, 244
+
+D'Amade, General, 123
+
+Daniell, Major, 212
+
+Danks, Lieutenant, 93
+
+Dashwood, Lieutenant, 167
+
+Davey, Major, 70
+
+Davies, Colonel, 301
+
+Davies, General, 90, 93, 132, 153, 173
+
+Davis, Harding, American correspondent with German Army, 62, 64
+
+Dawnay, Colonel, 293
+
+Day, Major, 332
+
+Dease, Lieutenant Maurice, V.C., 70
+
+De Crespigny, Captain, 128
+
+Deimling, General von, 269
+
+De Lisle, General, 80, 148, 156, 157, 174, 204, 226, 281
+
+De Mitry, General, 247, 255
+
+Denham, Lieutenant, 323
+
+Derbyshhe, Gunner, 130
+
+D'Esperey, General, 144, 146
+
+Dillon, Captain H. M., 302
+
+Dimmer, Lieutenant, V.C., 181, 305
+
+Doran, General Beauchamp, 60, 69, 113, 150, 174, 218
+
+Dorell, Sergeant, V.C., 130, 131
+
+Doughty, Major, 102
+
+Dour, action at, 79
+
+Drummond, General.  84, 103
+
+Dubail, General, 145
+
+Duff, Colonel Grant, 171
+
+D'Urbal, General, 296, 324
+
+Dykes, Colonel, 105
+
+
+
+Earle, Colonel, 259
+
+East Africa, German colony of, attack on, fails, 312
+
+East Coast, raid on, by German cruisers, 315
+
+Edmunds, Captain, 93
+
+Edward VII., 6
+
+Elliott, Dr., 93
+
+Ellison, Captain, 152
+
+_Emden_, exploits of the, 314
+
+Emmich, General von, 44
+
+
+
+Fairlie, Captain, 241
+
+Falkland Islands, naval battle off, 315
+
+Ferguson, General, 80, 177, 190, 211
+
+Findlay, General, 153
+
+Fisher, Lord, 5
+
+FitzClarence, General, 258, 270, 303
+
+Flint, Lieutenant, 175
+
+Foch, General, 144, 148, 150, 154, 202, 329
+
+Foljambe, Captain, 168
+
+Forbes, Major Ian, 241
+
+Ford, Lieutenant, 323
+
+Forrester, Major, 259
+
+Frameries, action at, 77
+
+Fraser, Major, 244
+
+French, General Sir John, 54, 58, 62, 74, 75, 76, 77, 84, 87, 96, 97,
+116, 119, 126, 135, 145, 156, 164, 183, 186, 198, 202, 220, 234, 236,
+245, 246, 247, 251, 275, 276, 282, 285
+
+
+
+Geddes, Lieutenant-Colonel, 169
+
+George V. visits the Army in France, 323
+
+Germany, Heligoland ceded to, 2; agitation in, against Great Britain
+during Boer War, 3; navy bill of 1900, 4; anti-British agitations in,
+9; root causes of hatred of Great Britain in, 10; and world-power,
+10; preparations for war by, 11; declares war against Russia, 15;
+against France, 15; proposes that Great Britain should remain
+neutral, 17; and Belgian neutrality, 19; character of her diplomacy,
+19, 20; invades Belgium, 21; Great Britain declares war on, 21;
+treatment of the departing Embassies, 22; the claim for culture in, 29
+
+_Germany and the Next War_, 9
+
+Gheluvelt, battle of, 265
+
+Gibbs, Colonel, 79
+
+Giffard, Lieutenant, 269
+
+Gifford, Lieutenant, 130
+
+Givenchy, fight at, 327
+
+Glasgow, Sergeant, 227
+
+Gleichen, General Count, 61, 79, 82, 83, 98, 157, 207
+
+Gloster, Colonel, 224
+
+Godley, Private, V.C., 70
+
+Gordon, Captain B. G. R., 259
+
+Gordon, Colonel, 114
+
+Gordon, General, 215, 230, 324
+
+Gordon, Lieutenant, 181
+
+Goschen, Sir Edward, ambassador at Berlin, 17, 21, 22, 23, 24
+
+Gough, General, 126, 150, 155, 203, 204, 226, 279, 280, 282
+
+Grant, Major, 168
+
+Graves, Lieutenant, 114
+
+Great Britain, cedes Heligoland to Germany, 2; sympathy and respect
+for German Empire in, 2; agreement with France, 1903, 6; agreement
+with Russia, 1907, 6; maritime power of, 10; efforts for peace by,
+16; reply to German proposal of neutrality, 17; declares war against
+Germany, 21; preparations for possible naval war in, 31; effect of
+German war policy in, 32
+
+Green, Major, 168
+
+Grenfell, Captain the Hon. F., 82
+
+Grey, Sir Edward (now Viscount), proposes a conference of
+Ambassadors, 16; replies to German proposal of neutrality, 17;
+suggests limitation of the conflict, 19; 20, 33
+
+Grierson, General, 55
+
+Griffin, Colonel, 105, 158
+
+Guernsey, Lord, 172
+
+
+
+Haig, General Sir Douglas, 55, 56, 72, 77, 84, 88, 89, 90, 126, 133,
+157, 173, 183, 190, 236, 239, 241, 246, 247, 249, 250, 251, 256, 260,
+265, 270, 275, 276, 282, 286, 287, 295, 306, 331, 333
+
+Haking, General, 72, 94, 157, 173, 176, 302
+
+Haldane, General, 104, 106, 112, 206, 324
+
+Haldane, Lord, 36
+
+Hamilton, Adjutant Rowan, 171
+
+Hamilton, Captain, 93
+
+Hamilton, General Sir Hubert, 77, 157, 177, 208
+
+Hankey, Major, 270
+
+Harter, Staff-Captain, 176
+
+Hasted, Colonel, 177
+
+Haussen, General von, 139, 144
+
+Hautvesnes, action at, 153
+
+Hawarden, Lord, 92
+
+Hawkins, Lieutenant Hope, 285
+
+Hay, Lord Arthur, 172
+
+Headlam, General, 110
+
+Heeringen, General von, 145
+
+Heligoland Bight, battle in, 313
+
+Heligoland ceded to Germany, 1890, 2
+
+Herbert, Captain, 208
+
+Hindenburg, General von, 139, 316
+
+Hogan, Sergeant, V.C., 224
+
+Holt, Lieutenant, 71
+
+Hoskyns, Captain, 152
+
+Huggan, Dr., 180
+
+Hull, Colonel, 70
+
+Hulse, Sir Edward, 323
+
+Hunter-Weston, General, 104, 106, 107, 229, 230
+
+
+
+Impey, Lieutenant, 323
+
+India, offer of service, 34; 317
+
+Ingham, Major, 69
+
+Italy secedes from the Central Powers, 311
+
+
+
+Jagow, von, Secretary for Foreign Affairs at Berlin, 21, 23, 25
+
+Japan declares war, 312; captures the German colony of Tsingtau, 312
+
+Jarvis, Corporal, V.C., 71
+
+Jelf, Major, 168
+
+Joffre, General, 44, 57, 62, 74, 76, 126, 127, 144, 178, 198, 202,
+251, 255, 282, 287
+
+Johnston, Captain, 175
+
+Johnstone, Major, 169
+
+
+
+Kavanagh, General, 262, 279, 293
+
+Kerr, Colonel, 269
+
+Kitchener, Lord, becomes Secretary of State for War, 34; his estimate
+of duration of war, 38; appeals for volunteers, 38; 54, 56
+
+Kluck, General von, 83, 84, 88, 95, 143, 144, 145, 146, 148, 154
+
+Knight, Colonel, 154
+
+Kruseik cross-roads, fight for, 256
+
+
+
+Lamb, Lieutenant, 131
+
+Lambert, Major, 292
+
+Landon, General, 172, 248, 254, 260, 265, 269, 276, 290
+
+Landrecies, engagement at, 90
+
+Lansdowne, Lord, 33
+
+Law, Right Hon. A. Bonar, 33
+
+Lawford, General, 273, 291, 294, 295
+
+Lawrence, Colonel, 229
+
+Leach, Lieutenant, V.C., 224
+
+Le Cateau, battle of, 96-137, 141
+
+Leckie, Captain Malcolm, 82
+
+Legard, Captain, 222
+
+Le Gheir, action of 229
+
+Leman, General, 45, 46, 47
+
+Lemberg, battle of, 139, 316
+
+Lempriere, Colonel, 331
+
+Lichnowsky, Prince, German ambassador to Great Britain, 19, 20, 25
+
+Liége, 45, 46, 47, 141
+
+Lister, Captain, 71
+
+Lloyd, Major, 167, 168
+
+Lomax, General, 269
+
+Longley, Colonel, 99
+
+Longwy, battle of, 141
+
+Loring, Colonel, 243
+
+Lorraine, 43, 57
+
+Lushington, Lieutenant-Colonel, 132
+
+Luxemburg, duchy of, 44
+
+
+
+MacBean, General, 331
+
+McCracken, General, 69, 78, 88, 104, 190, 208, 215, 219, 291, 306
+
+McKenna, Right Hon. Reginald, 5, 31
+
+Mackenzie, General Colin, 209
+
+MacLachlan, Lieutenant-Colonel, 171
+
+MacMahon, Colonel, 70, 221, 299
+
+M'Nab, Captain, 284
+
+Maistre, General, 220
+
+Maitland, Major, 171
+
+Malcolm, Colonel, 283, 284
+
+Manoury, General, 144, 146, 148
+
+Marne, battle of the, 138-161
+
+Martyn, Colonel, 304
+
+Maubeuge, fortress of, 85, 141, 163, 184
+
+Maude, General, 295
+
+Maud'huy, General, 296
+
+Maxse, General, 169, 179
+
+Messines, fight at, 280
+
+Michel, General, 49
+
+Michell, Captain, 122
+
+Milne, General, 110
+
+Milward, Major, 292
+
+Mitford, Major, 241
+
+Monck, Captain, 91
+
+Mons, battle of, 50-95, 141
+
+Mons, retreat from, chronology of events, 136-137
+
+Montresor, Colonel, 167
+
+Morland, Colonel, 268
+
+Morland, General, 211, 224, 286, 296
+
+Morris, Colonel, 133
+
+Morris, Lieutenant, 323
+
+Morritt, Lieutenant, 73
+
+Moussy, General, 288
+
+Mülhausen, battle of, 141
+
+Mullens, General, 80, 221, 283
+
+Mundy, Lieutenant, 130
+
+Munro, General, 269
+
+
+
+Namur, 48, 49, 76, 141
+
+Navy, the, mobilisation of, 40
+
+Neeld, Admiral, 25
+
+Nelson, Gunner, V.C., 130, 131
+
+Nery, combat of, 127
+
+Neuve Chapelle, first fight of, 219
+
+Newfoundland, offer of service, 34
+
+New Guinea, German colony of, captured by Australian forces, 312
+
+New Zealand, offer of service, 34, 37; captures German colony of
+Samoa, 312; 317
+
+Nicholson, Lieutenant, 121
+
+Nicholson, Major, 171
+
+Nietzsche, 8
+
+Nimy, defence of the bridges of, 68
+
+
+
+Oliver, Captain, 169
+
+Ommany, Captain, 269
+
+Orford, Captain, 102
+
+Osborne, Driver, 130
+
+Ourcq, battle of the, 145
+
+Ovens, Colonel, 244
+
+
+
+Pack-Beresford, Major, 79
+
+Paley, Major, 269
+
+Paris, General, 195
+
+Parker, Major, 112
+
+Pau, General, 44
+
+Paynter, Captain, 243
+
+Peel, Major, 268
+
+Pell, Colonel, 266
+
+Pennecuick, Lieutenant, 156
+
+Penny, Sergeant-Major, 222
+
+Perceval, Colonel, 269
+
+Petit Bois, fight at, 324
+
+Phillips, Major, 168
+
+Pilken Inn, fight of, 252
+
+Plumer, General, 320
+
+Pollard, Lieutenant, 82
+
+Ponsonby, Colonel, 168
+
+Pont-sur-Sambre, action near, 94
+
+Poole, Major, 111
+
+Popham, Captain, 188
+
+Powell, American journalist, quoted, 63, 198
+
+Powell, Major, 250
+
+Prichard, Major, 268
+
+Prowse, Major, 231
+
+Prussia, Crown Prince of, 145, 163
+
+Prussia, Prince Henry of, 25
+
+Prussian Guards, attack of, at Ypres, 297; Kaiser's order to, 297
+
+Pulteney, General, 56, 126, 152, 157, 175, 178, 190, 206, 214, 215,
+218, 227
+
+
+
+Rawlinson, General Sir Henry, 224, 232, 236, 237, 241, 251, 256, 308
+
+Rees, Captain, 268
+
+Regiments:
+
+_Artillery--_
+
+Royal Field Artillery, 69, 70, 71, 78, 82, 88, 89, 92, 100, 105, 110,
+120, 153, 169, 192, 249, 268, 271, 272, 273, 300, 301
+
+Royal Horse Artillery, 263; E Battery, 285; J Battery, 122, 150; K
+Battery, 236; L Battery, 80, 128, 130, 131, 133
+
+Heavy, 109, 110, 301
+
+Howitzer, 88, 105
+
+Honourable Artillery Company, 321
+
+_Cavalry--_
+
+1st Life Guards, 263, 293
+
+2nd Life Guards, 263, 293
+
+Royal Horse Guards (Blues), 263, 293
+
+2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays), 85, 128, 131, 132, 155, 280, 282
+
+3rd Dragoon Guards, 272, 306
+
+4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards, 58, 80, 118, 187, 188, 282, 283
+
+5th Dragoon Guards, 280, 281, 282
+
+6th Dragoon Guards (Carabineers), 283, 284, 285
+
+7th Dragoon Guards, 331
+
+1st Dragoons (Royals), 263, 272
+
+2nd Dragoons (Scots Greys), 122, 263
+
+3rd Hussars, 263
+
+4th Hussars, 263
+
+10th Hussars, 241, 272
+
+11th Hussars, 131, 282, 283, 285
+
+15th Hussars, 93, 120, 121
+
+18th Hussars, 149
+
+20th Hussars, 58
+
+5th (Royal Irish) Lancers, 227, 279
+
+9th Lancers, 80, 82, 149, 281, 283, 285
+
+12th Lancers, 122, 227
+
+16th Lancers, 226, 279
+
+Essex Yeomanry, 322
+
+Irish Horse, 242, 322
+
+Leicestershire Yeomanry, 306
+
+North Somerset Yeomanry, 306, 322
+
+Northumberland Hussars, 242, 322
+
+Oxfordshire Hussars, 281, 282, 322
+
+_Guards--_
+
+Coldstream, 90, 91, 92, 119, 120, 132, 168, 169, 171, 172, 191, 248,
+259, 265
+
+Grenadier, 90, 92, 150, 237, 244, 258, 259, 265, 289, 293, 306
+
+Irish, 90, 92, 132, 150, 172, 255, 265, 288, 289, 293
+
+Scots, 119, 169, 171, 242, 243, 244, 252, 253, 259, 260, 271, 297,
+323, 334
+
+_Infantry--_
+
+Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 84, 100, 102, 216, 230, 324
+
+Artists' Rifles (28th London), 321
+
+Bedford, 174, 207, 236, 264, 266, 297
+
+Berkshire, 93, 153, 255, 272
+
+Black Watch, 119, 150, 169, 170, 171, 252, 258, 259, 331
+
+Border, 243, 260
+
+Buffs (East Kent), 214
+
+Cameron Highlanders, 169, 171, 248, 252, 253, 332
+
+Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), 84, 100, 131
+
+Cheshire, 82, 83, 154, 174, 216, 321
+
+Connaught Rangers, 94, 157, 301, 302, 328
+
+Devon, 210, 219, 224
+
+Dorset, 207, 208, 210, 216
+
+Dublin Fusiliers, 106, 112
+
+Duke of Cornwall's, 62, 72, 73, 99, 150, 151, 174, 215, 216, 224
+
+Durham Light Infantry, 187, 188, 229
+
+East Lancashire, 106, 229, 292
+
+East Surrey, 72, 73, 99, 103, 150, 151, 174, 190, 215
+
+East Yorkshire, 187, 188
+
+Essex, 105, 106
+
+Gloucester, 171, 182, 248, 250, 254, 260, 290, 291, 302
+
+Gordon Highlanders, 60, 69, 72, 78, 113, 114, 219, 259, 273, 289,
+324, 325
+
+Hampshire, 106, 231
+
+Herts, 321
+
+Highland Light Infantry, 188, 242, 296, 301, 302, 326
+
+Inniskilling Fusiliers, 105, 158, 229, 281
+
+Irish Fusiliers, 106, 206
+
+King's Liverpool, 90, 153, 255, 300, 301
+
+King's Own Scottish Borderers, 61, 71, 72, 103, 209, 211, 278, 282,
+284, 285, 334
+
+King's Royal Rifles, 93, 153, 166, 167, 168, 169, 182, 188, 253, 256,
+265, 268, 290, 305, 332
+
+Lancashire Fusiliers, 105, 158, 229
+
+Leinster, 229, 230
+
+Lincoln, 60, 151, 174, 210, 279, 280, 296, 324
+
+Liverpool Scottish, 321
+
+London Rifle Brigade, 321
+
+London Scottish, 280, 283, 284, 285, 296, 321
+
+Manchester, 99, 100, 102, 216, 218, 220, 224, 329
+
+Middlesex, 60, 68, 69, 70, 72, 78, 84, 100, 103, 131, 207, 209, 216,
+219, 230, 324, 325
+
+Monmouthshire, 321
+
+Munster Fusiliers, 119, 120, 154, 169, 242, 331
+
+Norfolk, 82, 109, 174, 219, 323
+
+Northampton, 154, 166, 167, 176, 180, 181, 252, 273, 289, 302, 332
+
+North Lancashire, 154, 166, 167, 168, 170, 250, 253, 265, 268, 297,
+332
+
+Northumberland Fusiliers, 68, 72, 78, 208, 209, 210, 279, 280
+
+Oxford and Bucks, 289, 301, 302
+
+Queen Victoria Rifles, 321
+
+Queen's Westminsters, 321
+
+Queen's (West Surrey), 168, 170, 176, 181, 182, 191, 240, 248, 253,
+259, 260, 261, 266, 271
+
+Rifle Brigade, 106, 323
+
+Royal Fusiliers, 60, 68, 70, 71, 72, 209, 210, 212, 220, 221, 299
+
+Royal Irish, 60, 210, 212
+
+Royal Irish Fusiliers, 112
+
+Royal Irish Rifles, 69, 78, 89, 219, 220, 221, 235
+
+Royal Lancaster, 105, 111, 229
+
+Royal Scots, 60, 77, 114, 207, 209, 219, 323, 324, 325
+
+Royal Scots Fusiliers, 60, 68, 71, 72, 103, 210, 211, 237, 241, 242,
+264, 266, 299
+
+Seaforth Highlanders, 106, 112, 206, 304, 330, 332
+
+Sherwood Foresters, 187, 188, 227, 228, 229
+
+Somerset Light Infantry, 106, 229, 231
+
+South Lancashire, 79, 88, 148, 215, 220
+
+South Staffordshire, 153, 240, 244, 253
+
+South Wales Borderers, 172, 191, 192, 248, 249, 261, 270, 332
+
+Suffolk, 99, 100, 102, 108, 224, 321, 325, 329
+
+Sussex, 153, 166, 167, 169, 187, 249, 273, 289
+
+Warwick, 106, 111, 112, 206, 240, 243
+
+Welsh, 172, 191, 254, 261, 266, 268, 332
+
+Welsh Borderers, 260, 271
+
+Welsh Fusiliers, 84, 100, 237, 240, 264, 323
+
+West Kent, 61, 62, 71, 72, 79, 103, 215, 221, 222, 304
+
+West Riding, 61, 71, 79, 103, 296
+
+West Yorkshire, 187, 188, 190
+
+Wiltshire, 88, 177, 190, 219, 221, 237, 241, 242, 306
+
+Worcester, 150, 188, 215, 216, 242, 243, 270, 271, 292
+
+York and Lancaster, 214
+
+Yorkshire, 240, 264
+
+Yorkshire Light Infantry, 61, 71, 103, 215, 221, 278, 282, 284, 285
+
+
+Royal Engineers, 70, 100, 127, 164, 175, 289, 300, 301, 302, 323
+
+
+_Indian Army--_
+
+129th Baluchis, 279
+
+9th Bhopal Infantry, 220, 328, 329
+
+2nd Gurkhas, 330
+
+4th Gurkhas, 326, 328
+
+8th Gurkhas, 225, 331
+
+9th Gurkhas, 330
+
+58th Indian Rifles, 330
+
+3rd Indian Sappers and Miners, 329
+
+6th Jats, 330
+
+59th (Scinde) Rifles, 218, 326, 327
+
+15th Sikhs, 218, 219
+
+47th Sikhs, 218, 220, 221, 328, 331
+
+Vaughan's Indian Rifles, 225
+
+Wilde's 57th Rifles, 281, 328, 329
+
+Reynolds, Captain (R.F.A.), V.C., 110
+
+Reynolds, Captain (9th Lancers), 149
+
+Rheims Cathedral, bombarded by Germans, 189
+
+Rickman, Major, 106
+
+Rising, Captain, 250
+
+Robb, Major, 188
+
+Roberts, Lord, death of, while visiting the Army in France, 308
+
+Robertson, Sir William, 134
+
+Rolt, General, 61, 72, 98, 100
+
+Ronaldson, Colonel, 327
+
+Roper, Major, 207
+
+Rose, Captain (Northumberland Fusiliers), 78
+
+Rose, Captain (Royal Scots Fusiliers), 71
+
+Ruggles-Brise, General, 245, 295
+
+Russell, Second Lieutenant, 222
+
+Ryan, Major, 332
+
+
+
+Salisbury, late Lord, 2
+
+Saltoun, Master of, 115
+
+Samoa, German colony, captured by New Zealand, 312
+
+Sandilands, Captain, 78
+
+Sandilands, Colonel, 89
+
+Sarajevo, 13
+
+Sarrail, General, 145
+
+Savage, Captain, 181
+
+Scale, Captain, 327
+
+Sclater-Booth, Major, 80, 130
+
+Scott, Admiral Sir Percy, 42
+
+Scott-Kerr, General, 90, 132
+
+Seaton, Lance-Corporal, 281
+
+Seely, Colonel, 158
+
+Serbia, reply to Austrian ultimatum, 15; King of, appeals to the
+Czar, 15
+
+Serocold, Colonel, 167
+
+Shaw, General, 60, 78, 174, 186, 190, 210, 211, 279, 280, 303, 324
+
+Shore, Captain, 83
+
+Smith, Captain Bowden, 70
+
+Smith, Colonel (Lincoln), 280
+
+Smith, Colonel Baird (R.S.F.), 266
+
+Smith, Colonel Osborne (Northampton), 181
+
+Smith, General Douglas, 324
+
+Smith, Lieutenant, 70
+
+Smith-Dorrien, General Sir Horace, 55, 56, 60, 72, 83, 84, 88, 95,
+96, 97, 108, 109, 116, 119, 217, 218, 220, 221, 222, 286, 295, 307
+
+Snow, General, 89, 104, 106, 108, 126, 320
+
+Solesmes, action at, 88
+
+South Africa, offer of service, 34; insurrection in, 313
+
+Spee, Admiral von, 315
+
+Spread, Lieutenant, 168
+
+Stephen, Captain, 260
+
+Stewart, Captain, 9, 155
+
+Strickland, Colonel, 329
+
+Stucley, Major, 259
+
+Sturdee, Admiral, 315
+
+Swettenham, Major, 122
+
+
+
+Tannenberg, battle of, 139, 141, 316
+
+Teck, Prince Alexander of, 226
+
+Tew, Major, 99, 103
+
+Thomson, Major, 332
+
+Thruston, Lieutenant, 152
+
+Togoland, German colony, captured by British forces, 312
+
+Tower, Lieutenant, 70
+
+Treitschke, 8
+
+Trench, Captain, 269
+
+Trevor, Major, 103
+
+Triple Alliance and Triple Entente, 6
+
+Tsingtau, German colony, captured by Japanese, 312
+
+Tulloch, Colonel, 127
+
+Turner, Colonel, 151
+
+
+
+Uniacke, Colonel, 259
+
+
+
+Vallentin, Captain, 294
+
+Vandeleur, Captain, 102
+
+Vandeleur, Major, 208
+
+Venner, Colonel, 225
+
+Vereker, Lieutenant, 92
+
+Vidal, General, 290
+
+Villars-Cotteret, action of, 132
+
+
+
+Ward, Colonel, 103, 126
+
+Ward, Lieutenant, 73
+
+War Loan, success of the, 40
+
+Warre, Major, 168
+
+Wasme, action at, 79
+
+Watkis, General, 217, 325
+
+Watson, Lieutenant Graham, 114
+
+Watson, Major, 168, 253, 266
+
+Watts, General, 295
+
+Welchmann, Lieutenant, 78
+
+Wellesley, Lord Richard, 259
+
+Westmacott, General, 332
+
+White, Second Lieutenant, 222
+
+Willcocks, General Sir James, 224, 225, 286, 325, 333
+
+William II., Emperor of Germany, telegram to Kruger, 3; visits
+England, 3; 20; his message to Sir Edward Goschen, 24; 28, 48;
+special appeal to his troops at Ypres, 261
+
+Williams, Captain, 271
+
+Williams, General, 230
+
+Wilson, Colonel (Blues), 293
+
+Wilson, Colonel (R.E.), 127
+
+Wilson, General, 86, 104, 106, 281
+
+Wing, General, 110, 224
+
+Wormald, Colonel, 122
+
+Worsley, Lord, 263
+
+Wright, Captain Theodore, 70, 175
+
+Würtemberg, Duke of, 141, 144
+
+Wyatt, Corporal, 92
+
+
+
+Yate, Major, V.C., 103
+
+Ypres, first battle of, 232-310
+
+
+
+Zandvoorde, fight of, 262
+
+Zillebeke, action of, 292
+
+
+
+_Printed in Great Britain by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh._
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE AND
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+
+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The British Campaign in France and Flanders 1914, by Arthur Conan Doyle</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The British Campaign in France and Flanders 1914</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Arthur Conan Doyle</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: April 09, 2021 [eBook #65042]</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Al Haines</div>
+
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS 1914 ***</div>
+
+<h1>
+<br /><br />
+  THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN<br />
+<br />
+  IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS<br />
+<br />
+  1914<br />
+</h1>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3b">
+  BY<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="t2">
+  ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+  AUTHOR OF<br />
+  "THE GREAT BOER WAR," ETC.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+  SECOND EDITION<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+  HODDER AND STOUGHTON<br />
+  LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO<br />
+  MCMXVI<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+  TO<br />
+  GENERAL SIR WILLIAM ROBERTSON<br />
+  THIS CHRONICLE OF THE GREAT WAR<br />
+  IN WHICH HE RENDERED<br />
+  SUCH INVALUABLE SERVICE TO HIS COUNTRY<br />
+  IS<br />
+  DEDICATED<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="Pvii"></a>vii}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3b">
+PREFACE
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is continually stated that it is impossible to bring
+out at the present time any accurate history of the
+war.  No doubt this is true so far as some points of
+the larger strategy are concerned, for the motives at
+the back of them have not yet been cleared up.  It
+is true also as regards many incidents which have
+exercised the minds of statesmen and of many
+possibilities which have worried the soldiers.  But so far
+as the actual early events of our own campaign upon
+the Continent are concerned there is no reason why
+the approximate truth should not now be collected
+and set forth.  I believe that the narrative in this
+volume will in the main stand the test of time, and
+that the changes of the future will consist of additions
+rather than of alterations or subtractions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The present volume deals only with the events of
+1914 in the British fighting-line in France and Belgium.
+A second volume dealing with 1915 will be published
+within a few months.  It is intended that a third
+volume, covering the current year, shall carry on this
+contemporary narrative of a tremendous episode.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From the first days of the war I have devoted
+much of my time to the accumulation of evidence
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="Pviii"></a>viii}</span>
+from first-hand sources as to the various happenings
+of these great days.  I have built up my narrative
+from letters, diaries, and interviews from the hand or
+lips of men who have been soldiers in our armies, the
+deeds of which it was my ambition to understand and
+to chronicle.  In many cases I have been privileged
+to submit my descriptions of the principal incidents
+to prominent actors in them, and to receive their
+corrections or endorsement.  I can say with certainty,
+therefore, that a great deal of this work is not only
+accurate, but that it is very precisely correct in its
+detail.  The necessary restrictions which forbade the
+mention of numbered units have now been removed,
+a change made possible by the very general
+rearrangements which have recently taken place.  I
+am able, therefore, to deal freely with my material.
+As that material is not always equally full, it may
+have occasionally led to a want of proportion, where
+the brigade occupies a line and the battalion a
+paragraph.  In extenuation of such faults, and of the
+omissions which are unavoidable, I can only plead
+the difficulty of the task and throw myself upon the
+reader's good nature.  Some compensation for such
+shortcoming may be found in the fact that a narrative
+written at the time reflects the warm emotions
+which these events aroused amongst us more clearly
+than the more measured story of the future historian
+can do.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may seem that the political chapters are
+somewhat long for a military work, but the reader will
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="Pix"></a>ix}</span>
+find that in subsequent volumes there are no further
+politics, so that this survey of the European conditions
+of 1914 is a lead up to the whole long narrative
+of the actual contest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I would thank my innumerable correspondents
+(whom I may not name) for their very great help.
+I would also admit the profit which I have derived
+from reading Coleman's <i>Mons to Ypres</i>, and especially
+Lord Ernest Hamilton's <i>The First Seven Divisions</i>.
+These books added some new facts, and enabled me
+to check many old ones.  Finally, I desire to thank
+my friend Mr. P. L. Forbes for his kind and
+intelligent assistance in arranging my material.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  WINDLESHAM, CROWBOROUGH,<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>October</i> 1916.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3b">
+CONTENTS
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+THE BREAKING OF THE PEACE
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+THE OPENING OF THE WAR
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+THE BATTLE OF MONS
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+The landing of the British in France&mdash;The British leaders&mdash;The
+advance to Mons&mdash;The defence of the bridges of Nimy&mdash;The
+holding of the canal&mdash;The fateful telegram&mdash;The rearguard
+actions of Frameries, Wasmes, and Dour&mdash;The charge of the
+Lancers&mdash;The fate of the Cheshires&mdash;The 7th Brigade at
+Solesmes&mdash;The Guards in action&mdash;The Germans' rude
+awakening&mdash;The Connaughts at Pont-sur-Sambre
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+THE BATTLE OF LE CATEAU
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+The order of battle at Le Cateau&mdash;The stand of the 2nd
+Suffolks&mdash;Major Yate's V.C.&mdash;The fight
+for the quarries&mdash;The splendid work
+of the British guns&mdash;Difficult retirement of the Fourth
+Division&mdash;The fate of the 1st Gordons&mdash;Results
+of the battle&mdash;Exhaustion
+of the Army&mdash;The destruction of the 2nd Munsters&mdash;A cavalry
+fight&mdash;The news in Great Britain&mdash;The
+views of General Joffre&mdash;Battery L&mdash;The action of
+Villars-Cotteret&mdash;Reunion of the Army
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+The general situation&mdash;"Die grosse Zeit"&mdash;The turn of the
+tide&mdash;The Battle of the Ourcq&mdash;The British advance&mdash;Cavalry
+fighting&mdash;The 1st Lincolns and the guns&mdash;6th Brigade's action at
+Hautvesnes&mdash;9th Brigade's capture of Germans at Vinly&mdash;The
+problem of the Aisne&mdash;Why the Marne is one of the great
+battles of all time
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+THE BATTLE OF THE AISNE
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+The hazardous crossing of the Aisne&mdash;Wonderful work of the
+sappers&mdash;The fight for the sugar factory&mdash;General advance of the
+Army&mdash;The 4th (Guards) Brigade's difficult task&mdash;Cavalry as a mobile
+reserve&mdash;The Sixth Division&mdash;Hardships of the Army&mdash;German
+breach of faith&mdash;<i>Tâtez toujours</i>&mdash;The general position&mdash;Attack
+upon the West Yorks&mdash;Counter-attack by Congreve's 18th
+Brigade&mdash;Rheims Cathedral&mdash;Spies&mdash;The siege and fall of Antwerp
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+THE LA BASSÉE&mdash;ARMENTIÈRES OPERATIONS
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+The great battle line&mdash;Advance of Second Corps&mdash;Death of General
+Hamilton&mdash;The farthest point&mdash;Fate of the 2nd Royal Irish&mdash;The
+Third Corps&mdash;Exhausted troops&mdash;First fight of Neuve
+Chapelle&mdash;The Indians take over&mdash;The Lancers at Warneton&mdash;Pulteney's
+operations&mdash;Action of Le Gheir
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+The Seventh Division&mdash;Its peculiar excellence&mdash;Its difficult
+position&mdash;A deadly ordeal&mdash;Desperate attacks on Seventh
+Division&mdash;Destruction of 2nd Wilts&mdash;Hard
+fight of 20th Brigade&mdash;Arrival
+of First Corps&mdash;Advance of Haig's Corps&mdash;Fight of Pilken
+Inn&mdash;Bravery of enemy&mdash;Advance of Second Division&mdash;Fight of
+Kruiseik cross-roads&mdash;Fight of Zandvoorde&mdash;Fight of
+Gheluvelt&mdash;Advance of Worcesters&mdash;German recoil&mdash;General result&mdash;A
+great crisis
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES (<i>continued</i>)
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+Attack upon the cavalry&mdash;The struggle at Messines&mdash;The London Scots
+in action&mdash;Rally to the north&mdash;Terrible losses&mdash;Action of
+Zillebeke&mdash;Record of the Seventh Division&mdash;Situation
+at Ypres&mdash;Attack of the Prussian Guard&mdash;Confused
+fighting&mdash;End of the first
+Battle of Ypres&mdash;Death of Lord Roberts&mdash;The Eighth Division
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+A RETROSPECT AND GENERAL SUMMARY
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+Position of Italy&mdash;Fall of German colonies&mdash;Sea affairs&mdash;Our Allies
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+THE WINTER LULL OF 1914
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+Increase of the Army&mdash;Formation of the Fifth Corps&mdash;The visit of
+the King&mdash;Third Division at Petit Bois&mdash;The fight at
+Givenchy&mdash;Heavy losses of the Indians&mdash;Fine
+advance of Manchesters&mdash;Advance
+of the First Division&mdash;Singular scenes at Christmas
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<a href="#chap12">INDEX</a>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3b">
+MAPS AND PLANS
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+<a href="#img-001">
+Map to illustrate the British Campaign in France and Flanders,
+1914
+</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+<a href="#img-059">
+Position of Second Army Corps at Mons, August 23
+</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+<a href="#img-081">
+First Morning of Retreat of Second Army Corps, August 24
+</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+<a href="#img-101">
+Sketch of Battle of Le Cateau, August 26
+</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+<a href="#img-125">
+Line of Retreat from Mons
+</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+<a href="#img-129">
+L Battery Action, September 1, 1914
+</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+<a href="#img-147">
+British Advance during the Battle of the Marne
+</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+<a href="#img-165">
+British Advance at the Aisne
+</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+<a href="#img-205">
+Diagram to illustrate Operations of Smith-Dorrien's Second
+Corps and Pulteney's Third Corps from October 11 to
+October 19, 1914
+</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+<a href="#img-213">
+Southern End of British Line
+</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+<a href="#img-223">
+General View of Seat of Operations
+</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+<a href="#img-235">
+Line of Seventh Division (Capper) and Third Cavalry Division
+(Byng) from October 16 onwards
+</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+<a href="#img-257">
+General Scene of Operations
+</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="contents">
+<a href="#img-267">
+Sketch of Battle of Gheluvelt, October 31
+</a>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="capcenter">
+<a id="img-001"></a>
+<br />
+<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-001.jpg" alt="Map of north-east France and Belgium" />
+<br />
+Map of north-east France and Belgium
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a id="chap01"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">{<a id="P1"></a>1}</span></p>
+
+<h3>
+CHAPTER I
+<br /><br />
+THE BREAKING OF THE PEACE
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+In the frank, cynical, and powerful book of General
+Bernhardi which has been so often quoted in connection
+with the war there is one statement which is
+both true and important.  It is, that no one in Great
+Britain thought seriously of a war with Germany
+before the year 1902.  As a German observer he has
+fixed this date, and a British commentator who cast
+back through the history of the past would surely
+endorse it.  Here, then, is a point of common agreement
+from which one can construct a scheme of thought.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Why then should the British people in the year
+1902 begin to seriously contemplate the possibility of
+a war with Germany?  It might be argued by a
+German apologist that this date marks an appreciation
+by Great Britain that Germany was a great trade
+rival who might with advantage be crushed.  But
+the facts would not sustain such a conclusion.  The
+growth of German trade and of German wealth was
+a phenomenon with which the British were familiar.
+It had been constant since the days when Bismarck
+changed the policy of his country from free trade
+to protection, and it had competed for twenty years
+without the idea of war having entered British
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P2"></a>2}</span>
+minds.  On the contrary, the prevailing economic
+philosophy in Great Britain was, that trade reacts
+upon trade, and that the successful rival becomes
+always the best customer.  It is true that manufacturers
+expressed occasional irritation at the methods
+of German commerce, such as the imitation of British
+trade-marks and shoddy reproductions of British
+products.  The Fatherland can produce both the
+best and the worst, and the latter either undersold us
+or forced down our own standards.  But apart from
+this natural annoyance, the growing trade of Germany
+produced no hostility in Great Britain which could
+conceivably have led to an armed conflict.  Up to
+the year 1896 there was a great deal of sympathy
+and of respect in Great Britain for the German
+Empire.  It was felt that of all Continental Powers
+she was the one which was most nearly allied to
+Britain in blood, religion, and character.  The fact
+that in 1890 Lord Salisbury deliberately handed over
+to Germany Heligoland&mdash;an island which blockaded
+her chief commercial port and the harbour of her
+warships&mdash;must show once for all how entirely
+Germany lay outside of any possible world-struggle
+which could at that time be foreseen.  France has
+always had its warm partisans in this country, but
+none the less it can most truthfully be said that
+during all the years that Britain remained in political
+isolation she would, had she been forced to take
+sides, have assuredly chosen to stand by the Triple
+Alliance.  It is hard now to recall those days of
+French pinpricks and of the evil effects which they
+produced.  Germany's foreign policy is her own
+affair, and the German people are the judges of those
+who control it, but to us it must appear absolutely
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P3"></a>3}</span>
+demented in taking a line which has driven this great
+world-power away from her side&mdash;or, putting it at
+its lowest, away from an absolute neutrality, and
+into the ranks of her enemies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In 1896 there came the first serious chill in the
+relations between the two countries.  It arose from
+the famous telegram to Kruger at the time of the
+Jameson Raid&mdash;a telegram which bore the name of
+the Kaiser, but which is understood to have been
+drafted by Baron Marschall von Bieberstein.  Whoever
+was responsible for it did his country a poor
+service, for British feelings were deeply hurt at such
+an intrusion into a matter which bore no direct
+relation to Germany.  Britons had put themselves
+thoroughly in the wrong.  Britain admitted and
+deplored it.  Public opinion was the more sensitive
+to outside interference, and the telegram of congratulation
+from the Emperor to Kruger was felt to be an
+uncalled-for impertinence.  The matter passed,
+however, and would have been forgiven and forgotten
+but for the virulent agitation conducted against us
+in Germany during the Boer War&mdash;an agitation
+which, it is only fair to say, appeared to receive no
+support from the Kaiser himself, who twice visited
+England during the course of the struggle.  It could
+not be forgotten, however, that Von Bülow, the
+Chancellor, assumed an offensive attitude in some of
+his speeches, that the very idea of an Anglo-German
+Alliance put forward by Chamberlain in 1900 was
+scouted by the German Press, and that in the whole
+country there was hardly a paper which did not join
+in a chorus of unreasoned hatred and calumny against
+ourselves, our policy, and our arms.  The incident
+was a perfectly astounding revelation to the British,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P4"></a>4}</span>
+who looked back at the alliance between the two
+countries, and had imagined that the traditions of
+such battles as Minden or Dettingen, where British
+blood had been freely shed in Prussia's quarrel, really
+stood for something in their present relations.  Britons
+were absolutely unconscious of anything which had
+occurred to alter the bonds which history had formed.
+It was clear, once for all, that this was mere
+self-deception, and as the British are a practical race, who
+are more concerned with what is than why it is, they
+resigned themselves to the situation and adjusted
+their thoughts to this new phase of their relations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But soon a new phenomenon engaged their attention.
+They had already realised that the Germans,
+for some motive which appeared to them to be entirely
+inadequate, were filled with hatred, and would do
+the British Empire an injury if they had the power.
+Hitherto, they had never had the power.  But now
+it was evident that they were forging a weapon which
+might enable them to gratify their malevolence.  In
+1900 was passed the famous German law regulating
+the increase of their navy.  The British, preoccupied
+by their South African War, took no great notice of
+it at the time, but from 1902 onwards it engaged their
+attention to an ever-increasing degree.  The original
+law was ambitious and far-reaching, but it was
+subjected to several modifications, each of which
+made it more formidable.  By a system as inexorable
+as Fate, year after year added to the force which was
+being prepared at Wilhelmshaven and at Kiel&mdash;a
+force entirely out of proportion to the amount of
+German commerce to be defended or of German
+coast-line to be protected.  The greatest army in the
+world was rapidly being supplemented by a fleet
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P5"></a>5}</span>
+which would be dangerously near, both in numbers
+and quality, to our own.  The British Admiralty,
+more influenced by party politics than the German,
+showed at times commendable activity, and at other
+periods inexcusable indifference.  On the whole, it
+was well ahead in its building programmes, for a
+wide circle of the public had become thoroughly
+awakened to the danger, and kept up a continual
+and most justifiable agitation for a broader margin
+of safety.  Fortunately, the two final rulers of the
+Navy&mdash;McKenna and Churchill&mdash;rose to their responsibilities,
+and, in spite of a clamour from a section of
+their own party, insisted upon an adequate preponderance
+of naval construction.  A deep debt of gratitude
+is owed also to the action of Lord Fisher, who saw the
+danger afar off and used all his remarkable powers
+of organisation and initiative to ensure that his
+country should be ready for the approaching struggle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Great Britain, being much exercised in mind by
+the menacing tone of Germany, expressed not only in
+her great and rapid naval preparations, but in an
+astonishing outburst of minatory speeches and literature
+from professors, journalists, and other leaders of
+the people, began from 1902 onwards to look round
+her for allies.  Had she continued to remain isolated,
+some turn of the political wheel might have exposed
+her to a Continental coalition under the leadership
+and inspiration of this bitter enemy.  But for the
+threats of Germany, Britain would in all probability
+have been able to keep aloof from entanglements,
+but as it was, the enemies of her enemy became of
+necessity her friends.  In an attempt to preserve her
+independence of action so far as was still possible, she
+refused to form an alliance, and only committed
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P6"></a>6}</span>
+herself in a vague fashion to an ill-defined <i>entente</i>.
+By settling several outstanding causes of friction with
+France, an agreement was come to in the year 1903
+which was extended to Russia in 1907.  The general
+purport of such an arrangement was, that the
+sympathies of Great Britain were with the Dual Alliance,
+and that these sympathies would be translated into
+action if events seemed to warrant it.  An aggressive
+policy on the part of France or Russia would be
+absolutely discountenanced by Britain, but if France
+were attacked Britain would pledge herself to do her
+utmost to prevent her from being overwhelmed.  It
+was recognised that a victorious Germany would
+constitute a serious menace to the British Empire&mdash;a
+fact which neither the Pan-German fanatics nor the
+German national Press would ever permit us to forget.
+In this policy of insuring against a German attack
+King Edward VII. took a deep interest, and the
+policy is itself attributed to him in Germany, but as
+a matter of fact it represented the only sane course
+of action which was open to the nation.  Germans
+are fond of representing King Edward's action as
+the cause of subsequent events, whereas a wider
+knowledge would show them that it was really the
+effect of five years of German irritation and menace.
+This, then, was the political situation up to the
+time of the actual outbreak of war.  Upon the one
+side were the German and Austrian Empires in a
+solid alliance, while Italy was nominally allied, but
+obviously moved upon an orbit of her own.  On the
+other hand, Russia and France were solidly allied,
+with Britain moving upon an independent orbit
+which had more relation with that of her friends than
+Italy's with that of Central Europe.  It might clearly
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P7"></a>7}</span>
+have been foreseen that Britain's fate would be that
+of France, while Italy would break away under any
+severe test, for a number of open questions divided
+her vitally from her secular enemy to the north-east,
+The whole story of the campaign of Tripoli in 1911
+showed very clearly how independent, and even
+antagonistic, were the interests and actions of Italy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Germany, in the meanwhile, viewed with considerable
+annoyance the formation of the elastic but
+very real ties which united France and Britain, while
+she did not cease to continue the course of action
+which had encouraged them.  It had been one of the
+axioms of Wilhelmstrasse that whilst the British
+occupied Egypt, no friendship was possible between
+them and the French.  Even now they were
+incredulous that such a thing could be, and they
+subjected it to a succession of tests.  They desired to
+see whether the friendship was a reality, or whether
+it was only for fair-weather use and would fly to
+pieces before the stress of storm.  Twice they tried
+it, once in 1905 when they drove France into a
+conference at Algeciras, and again in 1911, when in
+a time of profound peace they stirred up trouble by
+sending a gunboat to Agadir in south-western Morocco,
+an event which brought Europe to the very edge of
+war.  In each case the <i>entente</i> remained so close and
+firm that it is difficult to imagine that they were
+really surprised by our actions in 1914, when the
+enormous provocation of the breach of the Belgian
+treaty was added to our promise to stand by France
+in any trouble not of her own making.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Allusion has been made to the campaign of threats
+and abuse which had been going on for many years in
+Germany, but the matter is of such importance in its
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P8"></a>8}</span>
+bearing upon the outbreak of war that it requires
+some fuller discussion.  For a long period before
+matters became acute between the two countries, a
+number of writers, of whom Nietzsche and Treitschke
+are the best known, had inoculated the German spirit
+with a most mischievous philosophy, which grew the
+more rapidly as it was dropped into the favourable
+soil of Prussian militarism.  Nietzsche's doctrines
+were a mere general defence of might as against right,
+and of violent brutality against everything which
+we associate with Christianity and Civilisation.  The
+whooping savage bulked larger in this perverted
+philosophy than the saint or the martyr.  His views,
+however, though congenial to a certain class of the
+German people, had no special international
+significance.  The typical brute whom he exalted was
+blonde, but a brute of any other tint would presumably
+suffice.  It was different in the case of Treitschke.
+He was a historian, not a philosopher, with nothing
+indefinite or abstract about his teaching.  He used
+his high position as Professor in the Berlin University
+to preach the most ardent Chauvinism, and above
+all to teach the rising generation of Germans that
+their special task was to have a reckoning with
+England and to destroy the British Empire, which for
+some reason he imagined to be degenerate and corrupt.
+He has passed away before he could see the ruin which
+he helped to bring about, for there is no doubt that
+his deeds lived after him, and that he is one of half
+a dozen men who were prominent in guiding their
+country along the path which has ended in the abyss.
+Scores of other lesser writers repeated and exaggerated
+his message.  Prominent among these was General
+von Bernhardi, a man of high standing and a very
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P9"></a>9}</span>
+great authority upon theoretical warfare.  In the
+volume on <i>Germany and the Next War</i>, which has
+been already quoted, he declared in the year 1911
+that Germany should and would do exactly what it
+has done in 1914.  Her antagonists, her allies, and
+her general strategy are all set forth with a precision
+which shows that German thinkers had entirely made
+up their minds as to the course of events, and that
+the particular pretext upon which war would be
+waged was a matter of secondary importance.  These
+and similar sentiments naturally increased the
+uneasiness and resentment in Great Britain, where the
+taxation had risen constantly in the endeavour to
+keep pace with German preparations, until it was
+generally felt that such a state of things could not
+continue without some crisis being reached.  The
+cloud was so heavy that it must either pass or burst.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The situation had been aggravated by the fact that
+in order to win popular assent to the various increases
+of the naval estimates in Germany, constantly recurring
+anti-British agitations were deliberately raised
+with alarms of an impending attack.  As Britain had
+never thought of attacking Germany during the long
+years when she had been almost defenceless at sea,
+it was difficult to perceive why she should do so now;
+but none the less the public and the politicians were
+gulled again and again by this device, which, while it
+achieved its purpose of obtaining the money, produced
+a corresponding resentment in Great Britain.
+Sometimes these manoeuvres to excite public opinion in
+favour of an increased navy went to extreme lengths
+which might well have justified an official
+remonstrance from England.  A flagrant example was the
+arrest, trial, and condemnation of Captain Stewart
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P10"></a>10}</span>
+for espionage upon the evidence of a suborned and
+perjured criminal.  It is a story which is little to the
+credit of the Imperial Government, of the High
+Court at Leipzig, or of the British authorities who
+failed to protect their fellow-countryman from most
+outrageous treatment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So much for the causes which helped to produce
+an evil atmosphere between the two countries.
+Looking at the matter from the German point of view,
+there were some root-causes out of which this monstrous
+growth had come, and it is only fair that these
+should be acknowledged and recorded.  These causes
+can all be traced to the fact that Britain stood between
+Germany and that world-empire of which she dreamed.
+This depended upon circumstances over which this
+country had no control, and which she could not
+modify if she had wished to do so.  Britain, through
+her maritime power and through the energy of her
+merchants, had become a great world-power when
+Germany was still a collection of petty States.  When
+Germany became a powerful Empire with a rising
+population and an immense commerce, she found
+that the choice places of the world, and those most
+fitted for the spread of a transplanted European race,
+were already filled up.  It was not a matter which
+Britain could help, nor could she alter it, since Canada,
+Australasia, and South Africa would not, even if she
+had desired it, be transferred to German rule.  And
+yet it formed a national grievance, and if we can put
+ourselves in the place of the Germans we may admit
+that it was galling that the surplus of their manhood
+should go to build up the strength of an alien and
+possibly a hostile State.  To this point we could fully
+see that grievance&mdash;or rather that misfortune, since
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P11"></a>11}</span>
+no one was in truth to blame in the matter.  It was
+forgotten by their people that the Colonial Empire
+of the British and of the French had been built up
+by much outlay of blood and treasure, extending over
+three centuries.  Germany had existed as a united
+State for less than half a century, and already during
+that time had built up a very considerable oversea
+dominion.  It was unreasonable to suppose that she
+could at once attain the same position as her fully
+grown rivals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus this German discontent was based upon fixed
+factors which could no more be changed by Britain
+than the geographical position which has laid her
+right across the German exit to the oceans of the
+world.  That this deeply rooted national sentiment,
+which for ever regarded Britain as the Carthage to
+which they were destined to play the part of Rome,
+would sooner or later have brought about war, is
+beyond all doubt.  There are a score of considerations
+which show that a European war had long been
+planned, and that finally the very date, determined
+by the completion of the broadened Kiel Canal, had
+been approximately fixed.  The importations of corn,
+the secret preparations of giant guns, the formations
+of concrete gun-platforms, the early distribution
+of mobilisation papers, the sending out of guns for
+auxiliary cruisers, the arming of the German colonies,
+all point to a predetermined rupture.  If it could not
+be effected on one pretext, it certainly would on
+another.  As a matter of fact, an occasion was
+furnished by means which have not yet been fully cleared
+up.  It was one which admirably suited the German
+book, since it enabled her to make her ally the
+apparent protagonist and so secure her fidelity to the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P12"></a>12}</span>
+bond.  At the same time, by making the cause of
+quarrel one which affected only the Slavonic races,
+she hoped to discourage and detach the more liberal
+Western Powers and so divide the ranks of the Allies
+from the outset.  It is possible, though not certain,
+that she might have effected this in the case of Great
+Britain, but for her own stupendous blunder in the
+infraction of Belgian neutrality, which left us a united
+nation in our agreement as to the necessity of war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The political balance of the Great Powers of Europe
+is so delicately adjusted that any weakening of one
+means a general oscillation of all.  The losses of
+Russia in a sterile campaign in East Asia in 1904
+disturbed the whole peace of the world.  Germany
+took advantage of it at once to bully France over
+Morocco; and in 1908, judging correctly that Russia
+was still unfit for war, Austria, with the connivance
+and help of Germany, tore up the Treaty of Berlin
+without reference to its other signatories, and annexed
+the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Russia
+immediately issued a futile protest, as did Great
+Britain, but the latter had no material interest at
+stake.  It was otherwise with Russia.  She was the
+hereditary guardian of Slav interests which were
+directly attacked by this incorporation of an unwilling
+Slav population into the Austrian Empire.  Unable
+for the moment to prevent it, she waited in silent
+wrath for the chance of the future, humiliated and
+exasperated by the knowledge that she had been
+bullied at the moment of her temporary weakness.
+So great had been the indignity that it was evident
+that were she to tolerate a second one it would mean
+the complete abandonment of her leadership of the race.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On June 28, 1914, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P13"></a>13}</span>
+heir to the throne of the Austrian Empire, made a
+state visit to Sarajevo in the newly annexed provinces.
+Here he was assassinated, together with his wife.
+The immediate criminals were two youths named
+Princip and Cabrinovic, but what exact forces were
+at the back of them, or whether they merely represented
+local discontent, have never yet been clearly
+shown.  Austria was, however, naturally incensed
+against Serbia, which was looked upon as the centre
+of all aggressive Slavonic action.  Politics take
+fantastic shapes in this south-eastern corner of
+Europe, and murder, abduction, forgery, and perjury
+are weapons which in the past have been freely used
+by all parties.  The provocation in this instance was
+so immense and the crime so monstrous that had it
+been established after trustworthy examination that
+Serbia had indeed been directly connected with it,
+there is no doubt that the whole of Europe, including
+Russia, would have acquiesced in any reasonable
+punishment which could be inflicted.  Certainly the
+public opinion of Great Britain would have been
+unanimous in keeping clear of any quarrel which
+seemed to uphold the criminals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Austria seems to have instantly made up her mind
+to push the matter to an extreme conclusion, as is
+shown by the fact that mobilisation papers were
+received by Austrians abroad, bearing the date June
+30, so that they were issued within two days of the
+crime.  An inquiry was held in connection with the
+trial of the assassins, which was reported to have
+implicated individual Serbians in the murder plot,
+but no charge was made against the Serbian
+Government.  Had Austria now demanded the immediate
+trial and punishment of these accomplices, she would
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P14"></a>14}</span>
+once again have had the sympathy of the civilised
+world.  Her actual action was far more drastic, and
+gave impartial observers the conviction that she was
+endeavouring not to obtain reparation but to ensure
+war.  It is inconceivable that so important a
+document as her ultimatum was launched without the
+approval of Berlin, and we have already seen that
+Germany was in a mood for war.  The German
+newspapers, even before the Austrian demands were made,
+had begun to insist that in view of the distracted
+domestic politics of Great Britain, and of the
+declaration by M. Humbert in the French Senate that the
+army was unprepared, the hour for definite
+settlements had arrived.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Austrian ultimatum was such a demand as
+one nation has never yet addressed to another.
+Indeed, it could hardly be said that Serbia would
+remain a nation if she submitted to it.  Some clauses,
+though severe, were within the bounds of reason.
+That papers should not be allowed to incite hatred,
+and that secret societies which were supposed to be
+connected with the crime should be forcibly suppressed,
+were not unfair demands.  So, too, that all accessories
+to the plot, some of whom are mentioned by name,
+should be tried, and that certain measures to prevent
+a possible recurrence of such plots should be adopted.
+All these demands might be justified, and each of
+them was, as a matter of fact, accepted by Serbia.
+The impossible conditions were that Austrian judges
+should sit in Serbia upon political cases and that
+delegates of Austria should have partial administrative
+control in the neighbouring kingdom.  Even
+these outrageous demands were not rejected
+absolutely by the Serbian Government, though it
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P15"></a>15}</span>
+proclaimed itself to be unable to accept them in the
+crude form in which they were presented.  A humble
+and conciliatory reply concluded with an expression of
+the desire to submit any point still open to impartial
+arbitration.  The Austrian Government&mdash;or the forces
+behind it&mdash;appeared, however, to have no desire at
+all to find a peaceful solution.  So precipitate were
+they in their action, that on the receipt of the Serbian
+reply, in less than an hour the Austrian Minister had
+left Belgrade, and a diplomatic rupture, the
+immediate prelude to war, had taken place between the
+two countries.  So far only two figures were on the
+stage, but already vast shadows were looming in the
+wings, and all the world was hushed at the
+presentiment of coming tragedy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has been shown that Russia, the elder brother
+of the Slav races, had once already been humiliated
+over Austrian policy and could not be indifferent to
+this new attempt to coerce a Slavonic people.  The
+King of Serbia in his sore need appealed to the Czar
+and received a sympathetic reply.  A moderate
+castigation of Serbia might have been condoned by
+Russia, but she could not contemplate unmoved a
+course of action which would practically destroy a
+kindred State.  The Austrian army was already
+mobilising, so Russia also began to mobilise in the
+south.  Events crowded rapidly upon each other.
+On July 28 came the declaration of war from Austria
+to Serbia.  Three days later&mdash;days which were
+employed by Great Britain in making every possible
+effort to prevent the extension of the mischief&mdash;Germany
+as Austria's ally declared war upon Russia.
+Two days later Germany declared war upon France.
+The current ran swiftly as it drew nearer to Niagara.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P16"></a>16}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The scope of this chronicle is more immediately
+concerned with the doings of Great Britain in this
+sudden and frightful misfortune which had fallen
+upon Europe.  Her peaceful efforts were thrust aside,
+for she was dealing with those who had predetermined
+that there should be no peace.  Even Austria, the
+prime mover in discord, had shown herself inclined
+to treat at the last moment, but Germany had
+hastened her onwards by a sudden ultimatum to
+Russia.  From that instant the die was cast.  The
+attitude of France was never in doubt.  She was
+taken at a disadvantage, for her President was abroad
+when the crisis broke out, but the most chivalrous of
+nations could be relied upon to fulfil her obligations.
+She took her stand at once by the side of her ally.
+The one all-important question upon which the
+history of the world would depend, as so often before,
+was the action of Great Britain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Edward Grey had proposed a conference of
+ambassadors to deal with the situation, a suggestion
+which was set aside by Germany.  So long as the
+matter was purely Balkan it was outside the sphere
+of special British interests, but day by day it was
+becoming more clear that France would be involved,
+and a large party in Great Britain held that it would
+be impossible for us to stand by and witness any
+further dismembering of our neighbour.  Thus the
+shadow which had settled so heavily upon the south-east
+of Europe was creeping across from east to west
+until it was already darkening the future of Britain.
+It was obviously the German game, whatever her
+ultimate designs might be upon the British Empire,
+to endeavour to keep it peaceful until she had disposed
+of her Continental opponents.  For this reason a
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P17"></a>17}</span>
+strong bid was made for British neutrality upon
+July 29, through the Ambassador at Berlin, Sir
+Edward Goschen.  In an official conversation the
+German Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, declared that
+Germany was ready to pledge herself to take no
+territory from France in case of victory.  He would
+make no promise as regards the French colonies, nor
+was anything said as to the French Fleet, nor as to
+the gigantic indemnity which was already discussed
+in some of the German papers.  In a word, the
+proposition was that Great Britain was to abandon
+her friend at the hour of her need on condition that
+she should be robbed but not mutilated.  Subsequent
+experience of German promises may lead us to doubt,
+however, whether they would really have insured
+France against the worst that the victor could
+inflict.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Edward Grey answered with as much warmth
+as the iced language of diplomacy will permit.  His
+dispatch of July 30 begins as follows:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"His Majesty's Government cannot for a moment
+entertain the Chancellor's proposal that they should
+bind themselves to neutrality on such terms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"What he asks us in effect is, to engage to stand
+by while French colonies are taken and France is
+beaten so long as Germany does not take French
+territory as distinct from the colonies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"From the material point of view such a proposal
+is unacceptable, for France, without further territory
+in Europe being taken from her, could be so crushed
+as to lose her position as a great Power, and become
+subordinate to German policy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"Altogether apart from that, it would be a
+disgrace for us to make this bargain with Germany
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P18"></a>18}</span>
+at the expense of France, a disgrace from which the
+good name of this country would never recover."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At a subsequent period the Premier, Mr. Asquith,
+voiced the sentiment of the whole nation when he
+declared that the proposal was infamous.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The immediate concern of the British Government
+was to ascertain the views of the rival Powers upon
+the question of Belgian neutrality, which had been
+solemnly guaranteed by France, Prussia, and
+ourselves.  How faithfully this guarantee had been
+observed by France in the past is shown by the fact
+that even when an infraction of the frontier at Sedan
+in 1870 would have saved the French Army from
+total destruction, it had not been attempted.  There
+were signs in advance, however, that Germany
+proposed to turn the French defences by marching
+through Belgium.  The arrangement of the new
+German strategic railways upon the frontier all
+pointed to such a plan.  It was evident that such an
+action must at once bring Britain into the struggle,
+since it is difficult to see how she could ever hold up
+her head again if, after promising protection to a
+smaller nation, she broke her bond at the moment
+of danger.  The French, too, who had left their
+northern frontier comparatively unfortified in reliance
+upon the integrity of Belgium, would have rightly
+felt that they had been betrayed by Britain if they
+suffered now through their confidence in the British
+guarantee.  The Balkans were nothing to Great
+Britain, but she had more than her interests, she had
+her national honour at stake upon the Belgian frontier.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On July 31 the British Government asked France
+and Germany whether they were still prepared to
+stand by their pledge.  France answered promptly
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P19"></a>19}</span>
+that she was, and added that she had withdrawn her
+armies ten kilometres from the frontier, so as to
+prove to the world that her position was defensive
+only.  From Germany there came an ominous silence.
+Meanwhile, in Brussels the German representative,
+Herr von Below-Saleske, was assuring the Belgian
+Government that nothing was further from the
+intention of Germany than an infraction of the
+frontier.  These assurances were continued almost
+to the moment of the arrival of German troops in
+Belgium, and give one more instance of the absolute
+want of truth and honour which from the days of
+Frederick the Great has been the outstanding
+characteristic of German diplomacy.  Just as the Seven
+Years' War was begun by an attack upon an ally in
+times of peace, so her last two campaigns have been
+opened, the one by the doctored telegram of Ems,
+and the other by the perfidy to Belgium, which is
+none the less shameful because it has been publicly
+admitted by the Chancellor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another incident of these crowded days deserves
+some record, as it has been quoted in Germany as
+an instance of Great Britain having stood in the way
+of a localisation of the war.  This impression is
+produced by suppressing a telegram in which it is
+shown that the whole episode arose from a mistake
+upon the part of Prince Lichnowsky, the German
+Ambassador.  On August 1 Sir Edward Grey, still
+feeling round for some way in which the evil might
+be minimised, suggested through the telephone to
+Prince Lichnowsky that if both Germany and France
+could see their way to stand out, the conflict would
+then be limited to Austria and Russia.  This practical
+and possible suggestion was transmitted to Berlin in
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P20"></a>20}</span>
+the absurd form that Britain would hold France out
+of the war, while Russia would be abandoned to
+Germany and Austria.  The Kaiser lost no time in
+assenting to so delightful a proposal.  It was at once
+pointed out to Prince Lichnowsky that he had made
+a mistake, and the Prince telegraphed to Berlin a
+correction of his previous message.  This second
+telegram was suppressed by the German Government,
+while, some weeks afterwards, they published the
+inaccurate dispatch in order to give the world the
+impression that Britain had actually made a move
+towards peace which had been withdrawn when it
+was found that it was eagerly welcomed by Germany.
+The very idea that Britain could in any way pledge
+the actions of France is grotesque upon the face of it.
+Whilst making this false suggestion as to the action
+of Britain, the German Government carefully
+concealed the fact that Sir Edward Grey had actually
+gone the extreme length in the interests of peace, of
+promising that we should detach ourselves from our
+Allies if a conference were held and their unreasonable
+attitude was an obstacle to an agreement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whether, if Belgian neutrality had been honoured,
+Great Britain would or would not have come into
+the war is an academic question which can never be
+decided.  Certainly she would never have come in
+as a united nation, for public opinion was deeply
+divided upon the point, and the Cabinet is understood
+to have been at variance.  Only one thing could
+have closed the ranks and sent the British Empire
+with absolute unanimity into the fight.  This was
+the one thing which Germany did.  However great
+her military power may be, it seems certain that her
+diplomatic affairs were grievously mismanaged, and
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P21"></a>21}</span>
+that, in spite of that cloud of spies who have been
+the precursors of her Uhlans in each of her
+campaigns, she was singularly ill-informed as to the
+sentiments of foreign nations.  The columns of a
+single honest British paper would have told her
+more of the true views and spirit of the nation
+than all the eavesdroppers of her famous secret
+service.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We now come to the critical instant as regards
+Britain, leading to a succession of incidents in Berlin
+so admirably described in Sir Edward Goschen's
+classical report that it seems a profanation to
+condense it.  Having received no reply to their request
+for a definite assurance about Belgium, the British
+Government instructed their Ambassador to ask for
+an immediate answer upon August 4.  The startling
+reply from Von Jagow, Secretary of Foreign Affairs,
+was that the German troops had actually crossed
+the frontier.  With a cynical frankness the German
+statesman explained that it was a matter of life or
+death to the Imperial Army to get their blow in
+quickly by the undefended route.  In answer to the
+shocked remonstrance of the British Ambassador, he
+could only assert that it was now too late to reconsider
+the matter.  About seven in the evening Sir Edward
+Goschen conveyed an ultimatum upon the subject
+to the German Government, declaring war unless by
+midnight a more satisfactory answer could be given.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From Herr von Jagow the Ambassador passed to
+the Chancellor, whom he found much agitated.  He
+broke into a harangue in which he used the phrase,
+now become historic, that he could not understand
+the British Government making such a fuss about a
+mere scrap of paper, and declared that a breach of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P22"></a>22}</span>
+territorial neutrality was a matter of no great
+consequence.  A recollection of the history of his own
+country would none the less have reminded him that
+it was precisely on account of an infringement of their
+frontier by the troops of Napoleon that Prussia had
+entered upon the ill-fated war of 1806.  He continued
+by saying that he held Great Britain responsible
+for all the terrible events which might happen.  Sir
+Edward pointed out that it was a matter of necessity
+that Great Britain should keep her engagements, and
+added with dignity that fear of the consequences
+could hardly be accepted as a valid reason for
+breaking them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such in brief was the momentous interview which
+determined the question of peace or war between
+these two great Empires.  Sir Edward immediately
+forwarded a telegraphic summary of what had
+occurred to London, but this telegram was never
+forwarded by the Berlin authorities&mdash;one more of
+those actions for which the word "caddish" is the
+most appropriate British adjective.  Throughout all
+our German experiences both before the war and
+during it, we have always found our rivals to be
+formidable; they have usually proved themselves
+to be both brave and energetic; but hardly ever
+have we recognised them as gentlemen.  Three
+centuries ago the leading nations of Europe had
+attained something subtle and gracious which is still
+denied to the Germans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The populace of Berlin hastened to show these
+same unamiable characteristics.  Whereas the retiring
+Ambassadors in London, Paris, and also in Vienna,
+met with courteous treatment, the German mob
+surrounded the British Embassy and hurled
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P23"></a>23}</span>
+vituperations, and finally stones, at its occupants.
+Defenceless people were hustled, assaulted, and arrested
+in the streets.  A day or two previously the Russian
+Embassy had been brutally insulted by the populace
+upon its departure&mdash;a fact which produced some
+regrettable, but very natural, reprisals in Petrograd,
+to use the new name for the Russian capital.  The
+French Ambassador and his suite had also been very
+badly treated in their journey to the Dutch frontier.
+Thus it was shocking, but not surprising, to find that
+the Berlin mob indulged in excesses towards the
+British representatives, and that shameful scenes
+marked the final hours of Sir Edward Goschen's
+official duties.  Truly, as Herr von Jagow admitted,
+such incidents leave an indelible stain upon the
+reputation of Berlin.  It is pleasant to be able to add
+that Von Jagow himself behaved with propriety, and
+did what he could to mitigate the violence of the
+populace.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is difficult for us to imagine how any German
+could possibly for an instant have imagined that Great
+Britain would stand by in silent acquiescence while
+the little country which she had sworn to protect was
+overrun by German troops; but that such a delusion
+existed is shown not only by the consternation of
+the Chancellor at Sir Edward's message, but also by
+the extreme irritation of the Emperor.  What part
+Emperor William had played in the events which
+led up to the war may possibly remain for ever the
+subject of debate.  There are those who argue that
+the Crown Prince and the military party had taken
+advantage of his absence on one of his Norwegian
+tours, and had hurried matters into such an impasse
+that he was unable to get them back to more peaceful
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P24"></a>24}</span>
+lines.  One would wish to think that this were true,
+and there is evidence that on previous occasions his
+influence has been exerted upon the side of peace to
+an extent which was unwelcome to many of his own
+subjects.  On the other hand, it is very difficult to
+believe that such a situation, led up to by many
+preparatory steps which included the <i>fons et origo
+mali</i>, the provocative and impossible Austrian
+ultimatum, could have been arranged without the assent
+of a man who has notoriously continually interfered
+directly in all large, and many small, transactions
+of state.  However this may be, it is beyond dispute
+that the action of Great Britain deprived him for the
+instant of his usual dignity and courtesy, and he
+dispatched a verbal message by one of his aides-de-camp
+in the following terms:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+"The Emperor has charged me to express to your
+Excellency his regret for the occurrences of last
+night, but to tell you at the same time that you will
+gather from those occurrences an idea of the feelings
+of his people respecting the action of Great Britain
+in joining with other nations against her old allies of
+Waterloo.  His Majesty also begs that you will tell
+the King that he has been proud of the titles of
+British Field-Marshal and British Admiral, but that
+in consequence of what has occurred he must now
+at once divest himself of those titles."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Ambassador adds feelingly that this message
+lost nothing of its acerbity by the manner of its
+delivery.  Some artist of the future will do justice
+to the scene where the benign and dignified old
+diplomatist sat listening to the rasping utterances
+of the insolent young Prussian soldier.  The actual
+departure of the Embassy was effected without
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P25"></a>25}</span>
+molestation, thanks once more to the good offices of
+Herr von Jagow.  On the same day, in the presence
+of a large but silent crowd, the German Ambassador
+left London and embarked for home in a vessel placed
+at his disposal by the British Government.  His
+voyage back, <i>via</i> Flushing, was safely accomplished,
+but it is worth recording that it was only the warning
+from a British warship which prevented him and his
+staff from being blown up by the mines which had
+already, within a few hours of the outbreak of
+hostilities, been strewn thickly by his countrymen in
+the path of neutral shipping across the highway of
+commerce in the North Sea.  Should our kinsmen of
+America ever find themselves in our place, let them
+remember that it is "all in" from the beginning
+with the Germans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Let America also remember our experience that no
+pupil can go to a German school, no scholar to a
+German university, and no invalid to a German
+health-resort, without the chance of some sudden turn of
+politics leaving them as prisoners in the country.
+Even the elderly heart patients at Nauheim were
+detained by the German authorities.  An old admiral
+among them, Admiral Neeld, made a direct appeal
+as sailor to sailor to Prince Henry of Prussia, and was
+answered by the proverb that "War is war."  Our
+contention is that such actions are <i>not</i> war, and that
+their perpetration will never be forgotten or forgiven
+by the nations of the world, who can have no security
+that when their subjects pass the German frontier
+they will ever get clear again.  Such practices are,
+of course, entirely distinct from that of interning
+reservists or males of fighting age, which was freely
+done by the Allies.  It is only fair to say that after
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P26"></a>26}</span>
+a long delay there was a release of schoolgirls, and
+afterwards one of doctors, by the Germans, but many
+harmless travellers, students, and others were held
+for a long period of the war at a time when tens of
+thousands of Germans were free in Great Britain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By a gross perversion of facts German publicists
+have endeavoured to show that Great Britain was
+to blame for the final rupture.  The pretence is too
+absurd to deceive any one, and one can hardly think
+that they believe it themselves.  One has only to ask
+what had Great Britain to do with the death of the
+Heir Apparent of Austria, with the sending of the
+fatal ultimatum, with the declaration of war against
+Russia and France, or, finally, with the infraction of
+the Belgian frontier?  She had nothing to do with
+any one of these things, which all, save the first,
+emanated from Vienna or Berlin, and were the
+obvious causes of the war.  Britain was only involved
+because she remained true to her solemn contract, a
+breach of which would have left her dishonoured.  It
+is mere effrontery to pretend that she desired war, or
+that she left anything undone which could have
+prevented it.  We lay our record with confidence before
+foreign nations and posterity.  We have nothing to
+conceal and nothing to regret.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the other hand, supposing that one were to
+grant the whole of the German contention, suppose
+one were to admit that Germany did not know of the
+terms of the Austrian ultimatum or foresee its effect
+upon the other nations of Europe, that she took her
+stand by the side of Austria purely out of motives of
+chivalrous loyalty to an ally, and that she was forced,
+by so doing, to find herself at variance with Russia
+and France&mdash;suppose so inconceivable a hypothesis
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P27"></a>27}</span>
+as this, even then it cannot in any way condone
+the admitted wrong which Germany did in invading
+Belgium, nor does it show any possible cause why,
+because Germany was false to her word in this matter,
+Britain should be so also.  This point is so unanswerable
+that the only defence, if it can be called a defence,
+which Germany has ever put forward is, that if she
+had not infringed Belgian neutrality, somebody else
+would have done so.  Not one shadow of evidence
+has ever been put forward to justify so monstrous
+an assertion, which is certainly not endorsed by the
+Belgians themselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this connection one may allude to the so-called
+secret military engagements which were found and
+published by the Germans at Brussels and which
+were supposed to show that Great Britain herself
+contemplated the infraction of Belgian neutrality.  One
+can only realise how bankrupt is Germany of all reason
+and argument when one considers such a contention
+as this.  For years the German threats had
+been obvious to all the world.  They had brought
+their strategic railways to the frontier of Belgium,
+and erected their standing camps there.  Naturally
+Belgium was alarmed at such preparations and took
+counsel with Great Britain how her pledge should be
+redeemed and how her soil could be defended in case
+Germany proved perfidious.  It was a simple military
+precaution which involved not the breach of a treaty
+but the fulfilment of one&mdash;not the invasion of Belgium
+but its protection after it was invaded.  Each
+successive so-called "revelation" about the actions of
+Great Britain has only proved once more that&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+  "Whatever record leaps to light<br />
+  She never shall be shamed."<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P28"></a>28}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These attempts to confuse the issue irresistibly
+recall the message of Frederic to Podowils when he
+was about to seize Silesia even as William seized
+Belgium.  "The question of right," he said, "is the
+affair of ministers.  It is your affair.  It is time to
+work at it in secret, for the orders to the troops
+are given."  March first and find some justification
+later.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Germany would have stood higher in the world's
+esteem and in the estimate of history if, instead of
+playing in most grotesque fashion the wolf to the
+lamb, and accusing her unprepared and distracted
+neighbours of making a surprise attack upon her at
+the moment when she was at the height of her preparations,
+she had boldly stated her true position.  Her
+dignity and frankness would have been undeniable
+if she had said, "I am a great power.  I believe I am
+the greatest.  I am willing to put it to the test of war.
+I am not satisfied with my geographical position.  I
+desire a greater seaboard.  You must give it to me
+or I shall take it.  I justify my action by the fact
+that the position of every state rests ultimately upon
+its strength in war, and that I am willing to undergo
+that test."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such a contention would have commanded respect,
+however much we might resent it.  But these repeated
+declarations from the Emperor himself, the Chancellor,
+and so many others that they were deliberately
+attacked, coupled with appeals to the Almighty,
+make up the most nauseous mixture of falsehood and
+blasphemy which the world has ever known.  The
+whole conception of religion became grotesque, and
+the Almighty, instead of a universal Father of the
+human race, was suddenly transformed into "our good
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P29"></a>29}</span>
+old God," a bloodthirsty tribal deity worthy of those
+Prussian pagans who as late as the fourteenth century
+offered human sacrifices to their idols in the Eastern
+Mark.  The phenomenon was part of that general
+national madness to which, it is to be hoped, the
+German of the future will look back with bewilderment
+and shame.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One contention put forward by certain German
+apologists in connection with the war would hardly
+be worth referring to, were it not for the singular light
+which it casts upon the mental and moral position of
+a large number of the German public.  It was that
+some special culture had been evolved by Germany
+which was of such value that it should be imposed
+by force upon the rest of the world.  Since culture
+must in its nature be an international thing, the joint
+product of human development, such a claim can
+only be regarded as a conspicuous sign of its absence.
+In spiritual and intellectual matters it could not be
+asserted that Germany since 1870 had shown any
+superiority over France or England.  In many matters
+she was conspicuously behind.  It might fairly be
+claimed that in chemistry, in music, and in some
+forms of criticism, notably biblical exegesis, she was
+supreme.  But in how many fields was she inferior
+to Great Britain?  What name had she in poetry to
+put against Tennyson and Browning, in zoology to
+compare with Darwin, in scientific surgery to excel
+that of Lister, in travel to balance Stanley, or in the
+higher human qualities to equal such a man as Gordon?
+The fruits of German culture do not bear out the claim
+that it should forcibly supplant that of either of the
+great Western nations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We have now seen how the great cloud which had
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P30"></a>30}</span>
+hung so long over Europe burst at last, and the blast
+of war swept the land from end to end.  We have
+passed through the years of hopes and alarms, of the
+<i>ententes</i> of optimists and the <i>détentes</i> of politicians, of
+skirmishes between journals and wrestles of finance,
+until we reach the end of it all&mdash;open primitive
+warfare between the two great branches of the Germanic
+family.  In a purple passage Professor Cramb spoke
+of the days when the high gods of virility would smile
+as they looked down upon the chosen children of Odin,
+the English and the Germans, locked in the joy of
+battle.  The hour had struck, and it is a partial record
+of those crowded and heroic days which is here set
+forth with such accuracy of detail as diligence may
+command and circumstances allow.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a id="chap02"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">{<a id="P31"></a>31}</span></p>
+
+<h3>
+CHAPTER II
+<br /><br />
+THE OPENING OF THE WAR
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+There can be no doubt that if Germany had confined
+her operations to an attack upon France without
+any infraction of Belgian neutrality, the situation
+in Great Britain would have been extraordinarily
+difficult.  The Government was the most democratic
+that has ever been known in our political history,
+and it owed its power to an electorate, many of whom
+were passionate advocates for peace at almost any
+conceivable price.  The preparations for naval war,
+necessitated by the ever-growing German power, had
+been accompanied and occasionally retarded by a
+constant murmur of remonstrance which swelled
+periodically into a menacing expostulation.  McKenna
+and Churchill found their only opponents in the
+members of their own party, who persistently refused
+to look obvious facts in the face, and impatiently
+swept aside the figures of the German armaments
+while they indulged in vague and amiable aspirations
+towards international friendship.  This large and
+energetic party would certainly have most strenuously
+resisted British interference in a Continental war.
+The statesmen who foresaw that the conquest of
+France would surely lead to the conquest of Britain
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P32"></a>32}</span>
+might have carried the country with them, but none
+the less they would have gone to war with such an
+incubus upon them as the traitorous Charles James
+Fox and his party had been in the days of Napoleon.
+A disunited British against a united German Empire
+would have been a grievous disadvantage, be our
+allies who they might, for, as Shakespeare sang, "If
+England to herself be true," it is then only that she
+is formidable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This great misfortune, however, was obviated
+by the policy of Germany.  The most peace-loving
+Briton could not face the national dishonour which
+would have been eternally branded upon him had
+his country without an effort allowed its guarantee
+to be treated as waste paper by a great military nation.
+The whole people were welded into one, and save for
+a few freakish individuals who obeyed their own
+perversity of mind or passion for notoriety, the
+country was united as it has never been in history.
+A just war seemed to touch the land with some magic
+wand, which healed all dissensions and merged into
+one national whole those vivid controversies which
+are, in fact, a sign rather of intense vitality than of
+degeneration.  In a moment the faddist forgot his
+fad, the capitalist his grievance against taxation, the
+Labour man his feud against Capital, the Tory his
+hatred of the Government, even the woman her
+craving for the vote.  A political millennium seemed
+to have dawned.  Best and most important of all
+was the evident sign that the work done of late years
+to win the friendship of Ireland had not been in vain.
+If the mere promise of domestic institutions has
+ranged all responsible Irishmen upon one side on the
+day of battle, what may we not hope for ourselves
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P33"></a>33}</span>
+and for the Empire when they have been fully
+established and Time has alleviated the last lingering
+memories of an evil past?  It is true that at a later
+period of the war this fair prospect was somewhat
+overcast by an insane rebellion, in which the wrongs
+of Ireland, once formidable and now trivial, were
+allowed by a colossal selfishness to outweigh the
+martyrdom of Belgium and the mutilation of France.
+Still the fact remains (and it must sustain us in our
+future efforts for conciliation) that never before have
+we had the representative nationalists of Ireland as
+our allies in a great struggle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The leaders of the Unionist party, Lord Lansdowne
+and Mr. Bonar Law, had already, on August 2, signified
+to the Government that they considered Britain to
+be honour-bound to France, and would support
+without hesitation every practical step to give effect
+to the alliance.  Fortified by this assurance, the
+Government could go strongly forward.  But after
+the Belgian infraction, its position was that of the
+executive of a united nation.  Sir Edward Grey's
+analysis in Parliament of the causes which had
+brought us to war convinced the reason and claimed
+the sympathy of every political party, and even the
+most fervent advocates of peace found themselves
+silenced in the presence of the huge German aggression
+which could never admit of a peace founded upon
+mutual respect and equality, but only of that which
+comes from ascendancy on the one side and helplessness
+upon the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Should Britain ever be led into an unjust war,
+she will soon learn it from the fearless voices of her
+children.  The independent young nations which are
+rising under the red-crossed flag will not be dragged,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P34"></a>34}</span>
+in the train of the Mother-Country, into any enterprise
+of which their conscience does not approve.  But
+  ow their assent was whole-hearted.  They were<br />
+vehement in their approval of the firm stand made
+for the pledged word of the nation.  From every
+quarter of the world deep answered deep in its assurance
+that the sword should not be sheathed until the
+wrong was righted and avenged.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Strong, earnest Canada sent her 30,000 men, with
+her promise of more.  Fiery Australia and New
+Zealand prepared as many, Maori vying with white
+man in his loyalty to the flag.  South Africa, under the
+splendid leadership of Botha, began to arm, to speak
+with the foe in her own gates.  India poured forth
+money and men with a lavish generosity which can
+never be forgotten in this country.  The throb of
+loyalty to the old land passed through every smallest
+Dependency, and then beyond the frontier to those
+further lands which had known us as a just and
+kindly neighbour.  Newfoundland voted a contingent.
+Ceylon sent of her best.  Little Fiji mustered her
+company of fighting men, and even the mountains of
+Nepaul and the inaccessible plateaux of Thibet were
+desirous of swelling that great host, gathered from
+many races, but all under the one banner which
+meant to each a just and liberal rule.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the very eve of the outbreak of hostilities one
+man was added to the home establishment whose
+presence was worth many army corps.  This was
+Lord Kitchener, whose boat was actually lying with
+steam up to bear him away upon a foreign mission,
+when, at the last instant, either the universal public
+demand or the good sense of the Government recalled
+him to take supreme charge of the war.  It was a
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P35"></a>35}</span>
+strange and a novel situation that a soldier who was
+no party politician should assume the role of War
+Minister in a political Cabinet, but the times called
+for decided measures, and this was among them.
+From that day onwards until the dark hour which
+called him from his uncompleted task the passer-by
+who looked up at the massive front of the War Office
+was gladdened by the thought that somewhere in the
+heart of it those stern, immutable eyes were looking
+out at Britain's enemies, and that clear, calculating
+brain was working for their downfall.  Slow,
+safe, methodical, remorseless, carefully preparing the
+means at every stage that led him to the distant but
+preordained end, he had shown, both in the Soudan
+and South Africa, that the race of great British
+generals was not yet extinct.  He knew and trusted
+his instrument even as it knew and trusted him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That instrument was an army which was remarkably
+well prepared for its work.  It cannot be said
+that the Boer War had increased the prestige of the
+British forces, though only those who have studied
+the subject can realise how difficult was the task
+with which they were then faced, or how considerable
+an achievement it was to bring it to a success.  But
+the campaign had left behind it a valuable legacy,
+all the richer because so great a proportion of the land
+forces had been drawn into the struggle.  In 1914
+a large proportion of senior officers and a considerable
+number of non-commissioned officers and reservists
+had passed through that ordeal, and learned by
+experience what can be done, and, even more important,
+what cannot be done, in face of modern rifles in
+skilful hands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The lesson had been well pressed home after the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P36"></a>36}</span>
+war, and every general, from Lord Roberts
+downwards, had laid emphasis upon the importance of
+cover and of accuracy of fire.  Apart from the sound
+technical training of the soldiers, the administration
+of the Army had, after an experimental period, fallen
+into the hands of Lord Haldane, who has left his
+mark more deeply than any one since Cardwell upon
+the formation of the land forces.  A debt of gratitude
+is owing to him for his clear thought and his
+masterful dispositions.  Had he been a prophet as well as
+organiser, he would no doubt have held his hand
+before he made the smallest decrease of our regular
+forces; but, on the other hand, by turning our
+haphazard, amateurish volunteers into the workman-like
+Territorials, in forming the invaluable Officers'
+Training Corps which tapped our public schools for
+something better than athletic talent, and in rigidly
+defining our expeditionary corps and providing the
+special reserves for its reinforcements, he did work
+for which he can never adequately be thanked.  The
+weapon which he had fashioned was now thrust into
+the strong right hand of the new Minister of War.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is well to survey this weapon before we show
+how it was used.  The total personnel of the Army
+with its reserves called up was about 370,000 men.
+Of this 160,000 were set aside as an expeditionary
+force, but only a portion of this number could be
+counted as immediately available on the outbreak
+of war, though the system of mobilisation had been
+brought to a fine point.  It was hoped that three
+army corps numbering about 110,000 men, with two
+divisions of cavalry, about 10,000 horsemen, would
+be immediately available, petty numbers as compared
+with the millions of the Continent, but highly trained
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P37"></a>37}</span>
+professional soldiers, capable, perhaps, of turning the
+balance in the clash of equal hosts.  The rest of
+the Regular Army had to provide garrisons for India,
+Egypt, Gibraltar, and other dependencies, but it
+was hoped that in time nearly all of it would be
+available for service.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Behind these first-line troops was the special
+reserve, something under 100,000 in number, who
+were the immediate reinforcements to fill the gaps
+of battle.  Next in order came the Territorials, whose
+full complement was 340,000 men.  Unhappily at
+this time they were nearly 100,000 under strength,
+and there are many who think that if the National
+Service League in their earnest campaign, which was
+inspired by a clear vision of the coming danger, had
+insisted upon a great enlargement of this constitutional
+force, instead of agitating for a complete change
+which presented practical and political difficulties,
+their efforts would have been more fruitful.  These
+troops were raw, inexperienced, and only enlisted for
+home service, but with a fine spirit they set to work at
+once to make themselves efficient, and the great
+majority signified their readiness to go anywhere at
+the country's call.  Many brigades were sent abroad
+at once to relieve the regulars in Egypt and India,
+while others were ready to join the fighting line on
+the Continent after a few months, where, as will be
+shown, they acquitted themselves remarkably well.
+The enthusiasm for the war rapidly sent the numbers
+of the Territorials up to nearly half a million.  In
+addition to these troops there was the promise of
+70,000 highly trained men (one quarter of whom
+were British regulars) from India.  Canada, Australia,
+and New Zealand came forward to offer some 60,000
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P38"></a>38}</span>
+men between them, with the promise of as many more
+as should be called for.  Brave and hardy, these were
+splendid raw material, though their actual technical
+training was not, save in some special corps, more
+advanced than that of the British Territorials.
+Altogether, the British War Lord could see, at the
+very beginning of hostilities, nearly 1,000,000 of men
+ready to his hand, though in very different stages of
+efficiency.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But already he had conceived the idea of a
+campaign of attrition, and, looking forward into the
+years, he was convinced that these forces were
+insufficient.  Some entirely new cadres must be
+organised, which should have no limitations, but be as
+reliable an instrument as the regular forces of the
+Crown.  With a prescience which found no counterpart
+either among our friends or our foes he fixed three
+years as a probable term for the war, and he made
+preparation accordingly.  Early in August he called
+for half a million fresh volunteers for the war, and
+early in October he had got them.  Still unsatisfied, he
+called for yet another half-million, and before
+Christmas his numbers were again complete.  It was a
+wonderful autumn and winter in Britain.  Every
+common and green was loud with the cries of the
+instructors, and bare with the tramp of the men.
+Nothing has ever been seen in the world's history
+which can compare in patriotic effort with that rally
+to the flag, for no bounty was offered, and no
+compulsion used.  The spirit of the men was
+extraordinarily high.  Regiments were filled with gentlemen
+who gave up every amenity of life in order to face an
+arduous and dangerous campaign, while even greater
+patriotism was shown by the countless thousands of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P39"></a>39}</span>
+miners, artisans, and other well-paid workmen who
+sacrificed high wages and a home life in order to serve
+for an indefinite time upon the humble pay of the
+soldier, leaving, very often, a wife and children in
+straitened circumstances behind them.  It is at such
+times that a democratic country reaps the rich fruits
+of its democracy, for if you make the land such that
+it is good to live in, so also does it become good to
+die for.  These forces could not be ready, even with
+the best of wills, and the most intensive culture, before
+the summer of 1915, but at that date, including her
+sea forces, Great Britain had not less than 2,000,000
+volunteers under arms and ready for immediate use,
+a number which had risen to 4,000,000 by the end of
+that year, and 5,000,000 by the spring of 1916.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So much for the wise provisions of Lord Kitchener,
+which would have been useless had they not been
+supported by a stern and self-sacrificing national
+spirit.  The crisis was met with a cold determination
+which gave some superficial observers the impression
+that the nation was listless, when it was, in truth, far
+too earnest for mere shoutings or flag-waving.
+"Wakened at last!" cried some foreign cartoon
+when a German outrage aroused the country for an
+instant to some visible gleam of wrath.  A deeper
+observer might have known that a country which
+finds 5,000,000 volunteer fighters, and which, instead
+of putting the expenses of the war upon future
+generations, as was done by Germany, elects to meet
+a considerable proportion of them by present taxation,
+is in grim earnest from the start.  The income tax
+was doubled without a remonstrance by a unanimous
+vote of the Commons, thus finding an extra £40,000,000
+a year for the prosecution of the war.  Other taxes
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P40"></a>40}</span>
+were levied by which the working classes bore their
+fair share of the burden, and they also elicited
+no complaints.  Before Christmas no less than
+£450,000,000 had been raised by a loan, a gigantic
+financial effort which was easily borne at a charge
+of 4 per cent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But if Britain was able to face the future with
+confidence, both in finance and in her military preparation,
+it was entirely to her silent, invisible, but most
+efficient Navy that she owed it.  By wise foresight
+the Grand Fleet, numbering some 400 vessels, had
+been assembled for Royal inspection before the
+storm broke and when it was but a rising cloud-bank
+upon the horizon.  This all-important move has
+been attributed to Prince Louis of Battenberg, First
+Sea Lord of the Admiralty, but it could not have
+been done without the hearty concurrence and
+cooperation of Mr. Winston Churchill, who should
+share the honour, even as he would have shared the
+blame had we been caught unawares.  The so-called
+inspection had hardly been completed at Spithead
+before war was upon us, and the Fleet, ready manned,
+provisioned, and armed, moved straight away to
+take up its war stations.  The main fighting squadrons
+vanished into a strategic mist from which they did
+not emerge for very many months, but it was understood
+that they were assembled at centres like Scapa
+Flow and Cromarty Firth which were outside the
+radius of the German torpedo-boats and smaller
+submarines, while they were near enough to the
+enemy's ports to be able to bring him to action should
+he emerge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Numerous patrols of small vessels were let loose
+in the North Sea to keep in touch with our opponents,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P41"></a>41}</span>
+who were well known to be both daring and active.
+It is said that no less than 3000 ships, large and small,
+were flying the white ensign of St. George.  A portion
+of these were told off for the protection of the great
+commercial sea-routes, and for the hunting down of
+some score of German cruisers which were known to
+be at sea.  Some of these gave a very good account
+of themselves and others were innocuous; but the
+net result in loss, which had been discounted in
+advance as 5 per cent of the merchant fleet at
+sea, worked out at less than half that figure, and, by
+the new year, the marauders had been practically
+exterminated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now as always&mdash;but now more than ever in the
+past&mdash;it was absolutely vital to hold the seas.  Who
+wins the sea wins Britain.  Of every five loaves in
+the country four come to us from abroad, and our
+position in meat is no better.  It is victory or starvation
+when we fight upon the sea.  It is ill to play for
+such stakes, however safe the game&mdash;worse still when
+it is a game where the value of some of the cards is
+unknown.  We have little to fear from a raid, nothing
+from invasion, everything from interference with our
+commerce.  It is one of the points in which our
+party politics, which blind so many people to reason,
+might well have brought absolute ruin upon the
+country.  The cultivation of British food supplies
+should never have been a question of free trade or
+protection, but rather of vital national insurance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Had the war come ten years later we might have
+been in deadly danger, owing to the rapidly growing
+power of the submarine.  These engines turned upon
+our food-carriers might well have starved us out,
+especially if we had continued our national folly in
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P42"></a>42}</span>
+being scared by bogeys from building a Channel
+tunnel.  But by a merciful Providence the struggle
+came at a moment when the submarine was half
+developed, and had not yet reached either the speed
+or the range of action which would make it the
+determining factor in a war.  As it was, the fruits of
+submarine warfare, in spite of a wise and timely
+warning on the eve of hostilities by Admiral Sir
+Percy Scott, astonished the public, but the mischief
+done was a very small thing compared to the
+possibilities which have to be most carefully guarded
+against in the future.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In their present stage of development, the
+submarine could only annoy.  With the great fleet in
+existence and with the shipbuilding facilities of Great
+Britain, nothing could vitally harm her save the loss
+of a pitched battle.  The British superiority was
+rather in her small craft than in her large ones, but in
+capital ships she was able to place in line at the
+beginning of the war enough to give a sufficient margin of
+insurance.  There was never any tendency to under-rate
+the excellence of the hostile ships, nor the courage
+and efficiency of the men.  It was well understood
+that when they came out they would give a good
+account of themselves, and also that they would not
+come out until the circumstances seemed propitious.
+They were under a disadvantage in that the Russian
+fleet, though small, was not negligible, and therefore
+some portion of the German force on sea as well as on
+land had always to face eastwards.  Also the British
+had the French for their allies, and, though the great
+ships of the latter were nearly all in the Mediterranean,
+a swarm of small craft was ready to buzz out of her
+western ports should the war come down-channel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P43"></a>43}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet another advantage lay with the British in that
+their geographical position put a six-hundred-mile-long
+breakwater right across the entrance to Germany,
+leaving only two sally-ports north and south by
+which commerce could enter or raiders escape.  The
+result was the immediate utter annihilation of
+Germany's sea-borne commerce.  Altogether it must
+be admitted that Germany was grievously handicapped
+at sea, and that she deserves the more credit
+for whatever she accomplished, save when, as on
+land, she transgressed and degraded the recognised
+laws of civilised warfare.  It is time now to turn to
+those military events upon the Continent which were
+the precursors of that British campaign which is the
+subject of this volume.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Want of space and accurate material make it
+impossible to do justice here to the deeds of our
+Allies, but an attempt must be made to indicate
+briefly the main phases of the struggle abroad, since
+its course reacted continually upon the British
+operations.  It may be shortly stated, then, that so
+far as the western theatre of war was concerned,
+hostilities commenced by two movements, one an
+attack by the French upon the occupants of those
+lost provinces for which they had mourned during
+forty-four years, and the other the advance of the
+Germans over the Belgian frontier.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The former was a matter of no great importance.
+It took two distinct lines, the one from the Belfort
+region into Alsace, and the other from Nancy as a
+centre into Lorraine.  The Alsatian venture gained
+some ground which was never wholly lost, and was
+adorned by one small victory near Mulhausen before
+it was checked by the German defence.  The Lorraine
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P44"></a>44}</span>
+advance had also some initial success, but was finally
+thrown back on August 20 in a severe action in which
+the French were defeated.  Luneville, across the
+French frontier, was occupied by the Germans, but
+they made no headway, and their subsequent attempts
+upon Nancy were repulsed by the army of General
+Castelnau.  General Pau, a fiery, one-armed
+septuagenarian, was the French leader in the Alsatian
+invasion, but it was soon realised by General Joffre that
+he and the bulk of his men would be more useful at
+the vital point upon the northern frontier, to which
+early in September they were transferred.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The main drama, however, quickly unfolded
+upon the Belgian frontier.  Speed and secrecy were
+vital to the German plans.  On July 31, before any
+declaration of war, and while the German
+representative at Brussels was perjuring his soul in his
+country's service by representing that no infringement
+was possible, three German army corps, the seventh,
+ninth, and tenth, fully mobilised and highly equipped,
+were moving up from their quarters so as to be ready
+for a treacherous pounce upon their little neighbour
+whom they were pledged to defend.  Von Emmich
+was in command.  On the night of Saturday, August
+1, the vanguard of the German armies, using motor
+traffic followed by trains, burst through the neutral
+Duchy of Luxemburg, and on August 3 they were over
+the Belgian line at Verviers.  The long-meditated
+crime had been done, and, with loud appeals to God,
+Germany began her fatal campaign by deliberate
+perjury and arrogant disdain for treaties.  God
+accepted the appeal, and swiftly showed how the
+weakest State with absolute right upon its side may
+bring to naught all the crafty plottings of the strong.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P45"></a>45}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For time was the essence of the situation.  For
+this the innumerable motors, for this the light
+equipment and the lack of transport.  It was on, on, at
+top speed, that there be no hindrance in the path of
+the great hosts that soon would be closing up behind.
+But time was life and death for the French also, with
+their slower mobilisation, their backward preparation,
+and their expectations from Great Britain.  Time
+was the precious gift which little Belgium gave to the
+Allies.  She gave them days and days, and every
+day worth an army corps.  The Germans had crossed
+the Meuse, had taken Vise, and then had rushed at
+Liége, even as the Japanese had rushed at Port
+Arthur.  With all their military lore, they had not
+learned the lesson which was taught so clearly in
+1904&mdash;that a fortress is taken by skill and not by
+violence alone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Leman, a great soldier, defended the forts built by
+Brialmont.  Both defender and designer were justified
+of their work.  On August 5 the seventh German Corps
+attempted to rush the gaps between the forts.  These
+gaps were three miles wide, but were filled with
+entrenched infantry.  The attack was boldly pressed
+home, but it completely failed.  The German loss was
+considerable.  Two other corps were called up, and
+again on August 7 the attack was renewed, but with
+no better result.  The defenders fought as befitted
+the descendants of those Belgae whom Caesar
+pronounced to be the bravest of the Gauls, or of that
+Walloon Guard which had so great a mediaeval
+reputation.  There were 25,000 in the town and
+120,000 outside, but they were still outside at the
+end of the assault.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Liége, however, had one fatal weakness.  Its
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P46"></a>46}</span>
+garrison was far too small to cover the ground.  With
+twelve forts three miles apart it is clear that there
+were intervals of, roughly, thirty-six miles to be
+covered, and that a garrison of 25,000 men, when
+you had deducted the gunners for the forts, hardly
+left the thinnest skirmish line to cover the ground.
+So long as the Germans attacked upon a narrow front
+they could be held.  The instant that they spread
+out there were bound to be places where they could
+march almost unopposed into the town.  This was
+what occurred.  The town was penetrated, but the
+forts were intact.  General Leman, meanwhile, seeing
+that the town itself was indefensible, had sent the
+garrison out before the place was surrounded.  Many
+a Belgian soldier fought upon the Yser and helped
+to turn the tide of that crowning conflict who
+would have been a prisoner in Germany had it
+not been for the foresight and the decision of General
+Leman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Germans were in the town upon the 8th, but
+the forts still held out and the general advance was
+grievously impeded.  Day followed day, and each
+beyond price to the Allies.  Germany had secretly
+prepared certain monstrous engines of war&mdash;one
+more proof, if proof were needed, that the conflict
+had been prearranged and deliberately provoked.
+These were huge cannon of a dimension never before
+cast&mdash;42 centimetres in bore.  More mobile and
+hardly less effective were some smaller howitzers of
+28-centimetre calibre said to have come from the
+Austrian foundries at Skoda.  Brialmont, when he
+erected his concrete and iron cupolas, had not foreseen
+the Thor's hammer which would be brought to crush
+them.  One after another they were smashed like
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P47"></a>47}</span>
+eggs.  The heroic Leman was dug out from under
+the debris of the last fort and lived to tell of his
+miraculous escape.  Liége was at last in the hands
+of the invaders.  But already the second week of
+August was at an end&mdash;the British were crowding
+into France, the French line was thickening along
+the frontier&mdash;all was well with the Allies.  Little
+David had left a grievous mark upon Goliath.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The German mobilisation was now complete, and
+the whole vast host, over a million strong, poured
+over the frontier.  Never was seen such an army, so
+accurate and scientific in its general conception, so
+perfect in its detail.  Nothing had been omitted from
+its equipment which the most thorough of nations,
+after years of careful preparation, could devise.  In
+motor transport, artillery, machine guns, and all the
+technique of war they were unrivalled.  The men
+themselves were of high heart and grand physique.
+By some twisted process of reasoning founded upon
+false information they had been persuaded that
+this most aggressive and unnecessary of wars was
+in some way a war of self-defence, for it was put
+to them that unless they attacked their neighbours
+now, their neighbours would certainly some day or
+other attack them.  Hence, they were filled with
+patriotic ardour and a real conviction that they
+were protecting their beloved Fatherland.  One
+could not but admire their self-sacrificing devotion,
+though in the dry light of truth and reason they stood
+forth as the tools of tyranny, the champions of
+barbarous political reaction and the bullies of Europe.
+It was an ominous fact that the troops were provided
+in advance with incendiary discs for the firing of
+dwellings, which shows that the orgy of destruction
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P48"></a>48}</span>
+and cruelty which disgraced the name of the German
+Army in Belgium and in the north of France was
+prearranged by some central force, whose responsibility
+in this matter can only be described as terrific.
+They brought the world of Christ back to the days of
+Odin, and changed a civilised campaign to an inroad of
+pagan Danes.  This wicked central force could only
+be the Chief Staff of the Army, and in the last instance
+the Emperor himself.  Had Napoleon conducted his
+campaigns with as little scruple as William II., it can
+safely be said that Europe as we know it would hardly
+exist to-day, and the monuments of antiquity and
+learning would have been wiped from the face of the
+globe.  It is an evil precedent to be expunged from
+the records for ever&mdash;all the more evil because it was
+practised by a strong nation on a weak one and on a
+defenceless people by one which had pledged themselves
+to defend them.  That it was in no wise caused
+by any actions upon the part of the Belgians is clearly
+proved by the fact that similar atrocities were
+committed by the German Army the moment they crossed
+the frontiers both of France and of Poland.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Allies had more than they expected from
+Liége.  They had less from Namur.  The grey-green
+tide of German invasion had swept the Belgian
+resistance before it, had flooded into Brussels, and
+had been dammed for only a very few days by the
+great frontier fortress, though it was counted as
+stronger than Liége.  The fact was that the Germans
+had now learned their lesson.  Never again would
+they imagine that the <i>Furor Teutonicus</i> alone could
+carry a walled city.  The fatal guns were brought up
+again and the forts were crushed with mechanical
+precision, while the defenders between the forts, after
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P49"></a>49}</span>
+enduring for ten hours a severe shelling, withdrew
+from their trenches.  On August 22 the fortress
+surrendered, some of General Michel's garrison being
+taken, but a considerable proportion effecting its
+retreat with the French Army which had come up to
+support the town.  By the third week of August the
+remains of the Belgian forces had taken refuge in
+Antwerp, and the Germans, having made a wide
+sweep with their right wing through Brussels, were
+descending in a two-hundred-mile line upon
+Northern France.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The French plans had in truth been somewhat disarranged
+by the Belgian resistance, for the chivalrous
+spirit of the nation would not permit that their gallant
+friends be unsupported.  Fresh dispositions had been
+made, but the sudden fall of Namur brought them to
+naught.  Before that untoward event the French had
+won a small but indubitable victory at Dinant, and
+had advanced their line from Namur on the right to
+Charleroi on the left.  With the fall of Namur their
+long wall had lost its corner bastion, and they were
+at once vigorously attacked by all the German armies,
+who forced the Sambre on August 22, carried
+Charleroi, and pushed the French back with considerable
+loss of guns and prisoners along the whole line.
+There was defeat, but there was nothing in the nature
+of a rout or of an envelopment.  The line fell back
+fighting tooth and nail, but none the less Northern
+France was thrown open to the invaders.  In this
+general movement the British forces were involved,
+and we now turn to a more particular and detailed
+account of what befell them during these most
+momentous days.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a id="chap03"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">{<a id="P50"></a>50}</span></p>
+
+<h3>
+CHAPTER III
+<br /><br />
+THE BATTLE OF MONS
+</h3>
+
+<p class="intro">
+The landing of the British in France&mdash;The British leaders&mdash;The advance
+to Mons&mdash;The defence of the bridges of Nimy&mdash;The holding of the
+canal&mdash;The fateful telegram&mdash;The rearguard actions of Frameries,
+Wasmes, and Dour&mdash;The charge of the Lancers&mdash;The fate of the
+Cheshires&mdash;The 7th Brigade at Solesmes&mdash;The Guards in
+action&mdash;The Germans' rude awakening&mdash;The Connaughts at
+Pont-sur-Sambre.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The landing of the British in France
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The bulk of the British Expeditionary Force passed
+over to France under cover of darkness on the nights
+of August 12 and 13, 1914.  The movement, which
+included four infantry divisions and a cavalry
+division, necessitated the transportation of
+approximately 90,000 men, 15,000 horses, and 400 guns.
+It is doubtful if so large a host has ever been
+moved by water in so short a time in all the annals of
+military history.  There was drama in the secrecy and
+celerity of the affair.  Two canvas walls converging
+into a funnel screened the approaches to Southampton
+Dock.  All beyond was darkness and mystery.  Down
+this fatal funnel passed the flower of the youth of
+Britain, and their folk saw them no more.  They had
+embarked upon the great adventure of the German
+War.  The crowds in the streets saw the last serried
+files vanish into the darkness of the docks, heard the
+measured tramp upon the stone quays dying farther
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P51"></a>51}</span>
+away in the silence of the night, until at last all was
+still and the great steamers were pushing out into the
+darkness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No finer force for technical efficiency, and no body
+of men more hot-hearted in their keen desire to serve
+their country, have ever left the shores of Britain.
+It is a conservative estimate to say that within four
+months a half of their number were either dead or in
+the hospitals.  They were destined for great glory,
+and for that great loss which is the measure of their
+glory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Belated pedestrians upon the beach of the southern
+towns have recorded their impression of that amazing
+spectacle.  In the clear summer night the wall of
+transports seemed to stretch from horizon to horizon.
+Guardian warships flanked the mighty column, while
+swift shadows shooting across the surface of the sea
+showed where the torpedo-boats and scouts were
+nosing and ferreting for any possible enemy.  But
+far away, hundreds of miles to the north, lay the real
+protection of the flotilla, where the smooth waters of
+the Heligoland Bight were broken by the sudden rise
+and dip of the blockading periscopes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is well to state, once for all, the composition of
+this force, so that in the succeeding pages, when a
+brigade or division is under discussion, the diligent
+reader may ascertain its composition.  This, then, is
+the First Army which set forth to France.  Others
+will be chronicled as they appeared upon the scene of
+action.  It may be remarked that the formation of
+units was greatly altered with the progress of the
+campaign, so that it has been possible without
+indiscretion to raise the veil of secrecy which was
+once so essential.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P52"></a>52}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+  THE FIRST ARMY CORPS&mdash;GENERAL HAIG<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  DIVISION I.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  General LOMAX.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  1<i>st Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Maxse</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Coldstream Guards.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Scots Guards.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Black Watch.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Munster Fusiliers.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  2<i>nd Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Bulfin</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Sussex.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st N. Lancs.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Northampton.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd K.R. Rifles.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  3<i>rd Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Landon</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st West Surrey (Queen's).<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st S. Wales Borderers.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Gloucester.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Welsh.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>Artillery&mdash;Colonel Findlay</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;25th Brig. R.F.A. 113, 114, 115.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;26th Brig. R.F.A. 116, 117, 118.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;39th Brig. R.F.A. 46, 51, 54.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;43rd (How.) Brig. R.F.A. 30, 40, 57.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>Engineers&mdash;Colonel Schreiber</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;23 F. Co.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;26 F. Co.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1 Signal Co.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  DIVISION II.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  General Munro.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  4<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Scott-Kerr</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Grenadier Guards.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Coldstream Guards.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3rd Coldstream Guards.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Irish.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  5<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Haking</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Worcester.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Ox. and Bucks L.I.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Highland L.I.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Connaught Rangers.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  6<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Davies</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Liverpool (King's).<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd S. Stafford.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Berks.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st K.R. Rifles.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>Artillery&mdash;General Perceval</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;34th Brig. R.F.A. 22, 50, 70.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;36th Brig. R.F.A. 15, 48, 71.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;41st Brig. R.F.A. 9, 16, 17.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;How. Brig. R.F.A. 47, 56, 60.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;35th Batt. R.G.A.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;R.E. 5, 11, Field Cos.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+  THE SECOND ARMY CORPS&mdash;GENERAL SMITH-DORRIEN<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  DIVISION III.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  General HAMILTON.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  7<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General McCracken</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3rd Worcester.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd S. Lancs.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Wilts.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Irish Rifles.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  8<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General B. Doran</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Royal Scots.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Royal Irish.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4th Middlesex.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Gordon Highlanders.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  9<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Shaw</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st North. Fusiliers.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4th Royal Fusiliers.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Lincoln.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Scots Fusiliers.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>Artillery&mdash;General Wing</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;23rd Brigade 107, 108, 109.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;30th Brigade (How.) 128, 129, 130.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;40th Brigade 6, 23, 49.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;42nd Brigade 29, 41, 45.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;48th Batt. R.G.A.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>R.E.&mdash;Colonel Wilson</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;56, 57 F. Corps.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3 Signal Co.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  DIVISION V.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  General FERGUSON.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  13<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Cuthbert</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd K.O. Scot. Bord.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd West Riding.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st West Kent.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Yorks. Light Infantry.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  14<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Holt</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Suffolk.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st East Surrey.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st D. of Cornwall's L.T.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Manchester.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  15<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Gleichen</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Norfolk.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Bedford.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Cheshire.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Dorset.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>Artillery&mdash;General Headlam</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;15th Brig. R.F.A. 11, 52, 80<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;27th Brig. R.F.A. 119, 120, 121<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;28th Brig. R.F.A. 122, 123, 124<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;8 How. Brig. 37, 61, 65.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Heavy G.A. 108 Battery,<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>R.E.&mdash;Colonel Tulloch</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;17th and 59th Field Cos.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;5 Signal Co.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p style="text-indent: 0%; font-size: 85%">
+The Cavalry consisted of four Brigades forming the
+first cavalry division, and
+one extra Brigade.  They were made up thus:
+</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent: 0%; font-size: 85%">
+1st Cavalry Brigade (Briggs).&mdash;2nd and 5th Dragoon
+Guards; 11th Hussars.
+</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent: 0%; font-size: 85%">
+2nd Cavalry Brigade (De Lisle).&mdash;4th Dragoon Guards;
+9th Lancers; 18th Hussars
+</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent: 0%; font-size: 85%">
+3rd Cavalry Brigade (Gough).&mdash;4th Hussars; 5th Lancers;
+16th Lancers.
+</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent: 0%; font-size: 85%">
+4th Cavalry Brigade (Bingham).&mdash;3rd Hussars; 6th Dragoon
+Guards; Comp. Guards Re.
+</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent: 0%; font-size: 85%">
+5th Cavalry Brigade (Chetwode).&mdash;Scots Greys;
+12th Lancers; 20th Hussars.
+</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent: 0%; font-size: 85%">
+D, E, I, J, and L batteries of Horse Artillery were
+attached to these Brigades.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P53"></a>53}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was the Army which first set forth to measure
+itself against the soldiers of Germany.  Prussian
+bravery, capacity, and organising power had a high
+reputation among us, and yet we awaited the result
+with every confidence, if the odds of numbers were
+not overwhelming.  It was generally known that
+during the period since the last war the training
+of the troops had greatly progressed, and many
+of the men, with nearly all the senior officers, had
+had experience in the arduous campaign of South
+Africa.  They could also claim those advantages
+which volunteer troops may hope to have over
+conscripts.  At the same time there was no tendency to
+underrate the earnest patriotism of our opponents,
+and we were well aware that even the numerous
+Socialists who filled their ranks were persuaded,
+incredible as it may seem, that the Fatherland was
+really attacked, and were whole-hearted in its defence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The crossing was safely effected.  It has always
+been the traditional privilege of the British public
+to grumble at their public servants and to speak
+of "muddling through" to victory.  No doubt the
+criticism has often been deserved.  But on this
+occasion the supervising General in command, the
+British War Office, and the Naval Transport Department
+all rose to a supreme degree of excellence in their
+arrangements.  So too did the Railway Companies
+concerned.  The details were meticulously correct.
+Without the loss of man, horse, or gun, the soldiers
+who had seen the sun set in Hampshire saw it rise in
+Picardy or in Normandy.  Boulogne and Havre were
+the chief ports of disembarkation, but many, including
+the cavalry, went up the Seine and came ashore at
+Rouen.  The soldiers everywhere received a rapturous
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P54"></a>54}</span>
+welcome from the populace, which they returned by
+a cheerful sobriety of behaviour.  The admirable
+precepts as to wine and women set forth in Lord
+Kitchener's parting orders to the Army seem to have
+been most scrupulously observed.  It is no slight
+upon the gallantry of France&mdash;the very home of
+gallantry&mdash;if it be said that she profited greatly at this
+strained, over-anxious time by the arrival of these
+boisterous over-sea Allies.  The tradition of British
+solemnity has been for ever killed by these jovial
+invaders.  It is probable that the beautiful tune, and
+even the paltry words of "Tipperary," will pass into
+history as the marching song, and often the death-dirge,
+of that gallant host.  The dusty, poplar-lined
+roads resounded with their choruses, and the quiet
+Picardy villages re-echoed their thunderous and superfluous
+assurances as to the state of their hearts.  All
+France broke into a smile at the sight of them, and
+it was at a moment when a smile meant much to
+France.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The British leaders.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whilst the various brigades were with some
+deliberation preparing for an advance up-country, there
+arrived at the Gare du Nord in Paris a single traveller
+who may be said to have been the most welcome
+British visitor who ever set foot in the city.  He was
+a short, thick man, tanned by an outdoor life, a solid,
+impassive personality with a strong, good-humoured
+face, the forehead of a thinker above it, and the jaw
+of an obstinate fighter below.  Overhung brows
+shaded a pair of keen grey eyes, while the strong, set
+mouth was partly concealed by a grizzled moustache.
+Such was John French, leader of cavalry in Africa
+and now Field-Marshal commanding the Expeditionary
+Forces of Britain.  His defence of Colesberg at
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P55"></a>55}</span>
+a critical period when he bluffed the superior Boer
+forces, his dashing relief of Kimberley, and especially
+the gallant way in which he had thrown his exhausted
+cavalry across the path of Cronje's army in order to
+hold it while Roberts pinned it down at Paardeberg,
+were all exploits which were fresh in the public mind,
+and gave the soldiers confidence in their leader.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+French might well appreciate the qualities of his
+immediate subordinates.  Both of his army corps
+and his cavalry division were in good hands.  Haig,
+like his leader, was a cavalry man by education,
+though now entrusted with the command of the First
+Army Corps, and destined for an ever-increasing
+European reputation.  Fifty-four years of age, he
+still preserved all his natural energies, whilst he had
+behind him long years of varied military experience,
+including both the Soudanese and the South African
+campaigns, in both of which he had gained high
+distinction.  He had the advantage of thoroughly
+understanding the mind of his commander, as he had
+worked under him as Chief of the Staff in his
+remarkable operations round Colesberg in those gloomy
+days which opened the Boer War.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Second Army Corps sustained a severe loss
+before ever it reached the field of action, for its
+commander, General Grierson, died suddenly of heart
+failure in the train between Havre and Rouen upon
+August 18.  Grierson had been for many years
+Military Attaché in Berlin, and one can well imagine
+how often he had longed to measure British soldiers
+against the self-sufficient critics around him.  At the
+very last moment the ambition of his lifetime was
+denied him.  His place, however, was worthily filled
+by General Smith-Dorrien, another South African
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P56"></a>56}</span>
+veteran whose brigade in that difficult campaign had
+been recognised as one of the very best.  Smith-Dorrien
+was a typical Imperial soldier in the world-wide
+character of his service, for he had followed the
+flag, and occasionally preceded it, in Zululand, Egypt,
+the Soudan, Chitral, and the Tirah before the campaign
+against the Boers.  A sportsman as well as a soldier,
+he had very particularly won the affections of the
+Aldershot division by his system of trusting to their
+honour rather than to compulsion in matters of
+discipline.  It was seldom indeed that his confidence
+was abused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Haig and Smith-Dorrien were the two generals
+upon whom the immediate operations were to devolve,
+for the Third Army Corps was late, through no fault
+of its own, in coming into line.  There remained the
+Cavalry Division commanded by General Allenby,
+who was a column leader in that great class for
+mounted tactics held in South Africa a dozen years
+before.  It is remarkable that of the four leaders in
+the initial operations of the German War&mdash;French,
+Smith-Dorrien, Haig, and Allenby&mdash;three belonged
+to the cavalry, an arm which has usually been
+regarded as active and ornamental rather than
+intellectual.  Pulteney, the commander of the Third
+Army Corps, was a product of the Guards, a veteran
+of much service and a well-known heavy-game shot.
+Thus, neither of the more learned corps were
+represented among the higher commanders upon the actual
+field of battle, but brooding over the whole operations
+was the steadfast, untiring brain of Joffre, whilst
+across the water the silent Kitchener, remorseless as
+Destiny, moved the forces of the Empire to the front.
+The last word in each case lay with the sappers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P57"></a>57}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The general plan of campaign was naturally in
+the hands of General Joffre, since he was in command
+of far the greater portion of the Allied Force.  It
+has been admitted in France that the original
+dispositions might be open to criticism, since a number
+of the French troops had engaged themselves in
+Alsace and Lorraine, to the weakening of the line of
+battle in the north, where the fate of Paris was to
+be decided.  It is small profit to a nation to injure
+its rival ever so grievously in the toe when it is itself
+in imminent danger of being stabbed to the heart.
+A further change in plan had been caused by the
+intense sympathy felt both by the French and the
+British for the gallant Belgians, who had done so
+much and gained so many valuable days for the
+Allies.  It was felt that it would be unchivalrous not
+to advance and do what was possible to relieve the
+intolerable pressure which was crushing them.  It
+was resolved, therefore, to abandon the plan which
+had been formed, by which the Germans should be
+led as far as possible from their base, and to attack
+them at once.  For this purpose the French Army
+changed its whole dispositions, which had been
+formed on the idea of an attack from the east, and
+advanced over the Belgian frontier, getting into touch
+with the enemy at Namur and Charleroi, so as to
+secure the passages of the Sambre.  It was in
+fulfilling its part as the left of the Allied line that on
+August 18 and 19 the British troops began to move
+northwards into Belgium.  The First Army Corps
+advanced through Le Nouvion, St. Remy, and
+Maubeuge to Rouveroy, which is a village upon the
+Mons-Chimay road.  There it linked on to the right of
+the Second Corps, which had moved up to the line of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P58"></a>58}</span>
+the Condé-Mons Canal.  On the morning of Sunday,
+August 23, all these troops were in position.  The 5th
+Brigade of Cavalry (Chetwode's) lay out upon the
+right front at Binche, but the remainder of the cavalry
+was brought to a point about five miles behind the
+centre of the line, so as to be able to reinforce either
+flank.  The first blood of the land campaign had been
+drawn upon August 22 outside Soignies, when a
+reconnoitring squadron of the 4th Dragoon Guards under
+Captain Hornby charged and overthrew a body of the
+4th German Cuirassiers, bringing back some prisoners.
+The 20th Hussars had enjoyed a similar experience.
+It was a small but happy omen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The advance to Mons.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The forces which now awaited the German attack
+numbered about 86,000 men, who may be roughly
+divided into 76,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and
+312 guns.  The general alignment was as follows:
+The First Army Corps held the space between Mons
+and Binche, which was soon contracted to Bray as
+the eastward limit.  Close to Mons, where the attack
+was expected to break, since the town is a point of
+considerable strategic importance, there was a
+thickening of the line of defence.  From that point the
+Third Division and the Fifth, in the order named,
+carried on the British formation down the length of
+the Mons-Condé Canal.  The front of the Army
+covered nearly twenty miles, an excessive strain upon
+so small a force in the presence of a compact enemy.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P59"></a>59}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="capcenter">
+<a id="img-059"></a>
+<br />
+<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-059.jpg" alt="POSITION OF 2nd ARMY CORPS AT MONS. AUG. 23rd" />
+<br />
+POSITION OF 2nd ARMY CORPS AT MONS. AUG. 23rd
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+If one looks at the general dispositions, it becomes
+clear that Sir John French was preparing for an
+attack upon his right flank.  From all his information
+the enemy was to the north and to the east of him,
+so that if they set about turning his position it must
+be from the Charleroi direction.  Hence, his right
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P60"></a>60}</span>
+wing was laid back at an angle to the rest of his line,
+and the only cavalry which he kept in advance was
+thrown out to Binche in front of this flank.  The
+rest of the cavalry was on the day of battle drawn in
+behind the centre of the Army, but as danger began
+to develop upon the left flank it was sent across in
+that direction, so that on the morning of the 24th it
+was at Thulin, at the westward end of the line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The line of the canal was a most tempting position
+to defend from Condé to Mons, for it ran as straight
+as a Roman road across the path of an invader.
+But it was very different at Mons itself.  Here it
+formed a most awkward loop.  A glance at the
+diagram will show this formation.  It was impossible
+to leave it undefended, and yet troops who held it
+were evidently subjected to a flanking artillery fire
+from each side.  The canal here was also crossed by
+at least three substantial road bridges and one railway
+bridge.  This section of the defence was under the
+immediate direction of General Smith-Dorrien, who
+at once took steps to prepare a second line of defence,
+thrown back to the right rear of the town, so that if
+the canal were forced the British array would remain
+unbroken.  The immediate care of this weak point
+in the position was committed to General Beauchamp
+Doran's 8th Brigade, consisting of the 2nd Royal
+Scots, 2nd Royal Irish, 4th Middlesex, and 1st Gordon
+Highlanders.  On their left, occupying the village of
+Nimy and the western side of the peninsula, as well
+as the immediate front of Mons itself, was the 9th
+Brigade (Shaw's), containing the 4th Royal Fusiliers,
+the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers, and the 1st Royal
+Scots Fusiliers, together with the 1st Lincolns.  To
+the left of this brigade, occupying the eastern end of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P61"></a>61}</span>
+the Mons-Condé line of canal, was Cuthbert's 13th
+Brigade, containing the 2nd Scottish Borderers,
+2nd West Ridings, 1st West Kents, and 2nd Yorkshire
+Light Infantry.  It was on these three brigades, and
+especially on the 8th and 9th, that the impact of the
+German army was destined to fall.  Beyond them,
+scattered somewhat thinly along the line of the
+Mons-Condé Canal from the railway bridge west of
+St. Ghislain, were the two remaining brigades of the
+Fifth Division, the 14th (Rolt's) and the 15th
+(Gleichen's), the latter being in divisional reserve.
+Still farther to the west the head of the newly arrived
+19th Brigade just touched the canal, and was itself
+in touch with French cavalry at Condé.  Sundry
+units of artillery and field hospitals had not yet come
+up, but otherwise the two corps were complete.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having reached their ground, the troops, with no
+realisation of immediate danger, proceeded to make
+shallow trenches.  Their bands had not been brought
+to the front, but the universal singing from one end
+of the line to the other showed that the men were in
+excellent spirits.  Cheering news had come in from
+the cavalry, detachments of which, as already stated,
+had ridden out as far as Soignies, meeting advance
+patrols of the enemy and coming back with prisoners
+and trophies.  The guns were drawn up in concealed
+positions within half a mile of the line of battle.  All
+was now ready, and officers could be seen on every
+elevation peering northwards through their glasses
+for the first sign of the enemy.  It was a broken
+country, with large patches of woodland and green
+spaces between.  There were numerous slag-heaps
+from old mines, with here and there a factory and
+here and there a private dwelling, but the sappers
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P62"></a>62}</span>
+had endeavoured in the short time to clear a field of
+fire for the infantry.  In order to get this field of fire
+in so closely built a neighbourhood, several of the
+regiments, such as the West Kents of the 13th and
+the Cornwalls of the 14th Brigades, had to take their
+positions across the canal with bridges in their rear.
+Thrilling with anticipation, the men waited for their
+own first entrance upon the stupendous drama.
+They were already weary and footsore, for they had
+all done at least two days of forced marching, and
+the burden of the pack, the rifle, and the hundred
+and fifty rounds per man was no light one.  They
+lay snugly in their trenches under the warm August
+sun and waited.  It was a Sunday, and more than
+one have recorded in their letters how in that hour of
+tension their thoughts turned to the old home church
+and the mellow call of the village bells.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A hovering aeroplane had just slid down with the
+news that the roads from the north were alive with
+the advancing Germans, but the estimate of the
+aviator placed them at two corps and a division of
+cavalry.  This coincided roughly with the accounts
+brought in by the scouts and, what was more important,
+with the forecast of General Joffre.  Secure
+in the belief that he was flanked upon one side by the
+5th French Army, and on the other by a screen of
+French cavalry, whilst his front was approached by a
+force not appreciably larger than his own, General
+French had no cause for uneasiness.  Had his airmen
+taken a wider sweep to the north and west,[<a id="chap03fn1text"></a><a href="#chap03fn1">1</a>] or had
+the French commander among his many pressing
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P63"></a>63}</span>
+preoccupations been able to give an earlier warning
+to his British colleague, the trenches would, no doubt,
+have been abandoned before a grey coat had
+appeared, and the whole Army brought swiftly to a
+position of strategical safety.  Even now, as they
+waited expectantly for the enemy, a vast steel trap
+was closing up for their destruction.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a id="chap03fn1"></a>
+[<a href="#chap03fn1text">1</a>] An American correspondent, Mr. Harding Davis,
+actually saw a
+shattered British aeroplane upon the ground
+in this region.  Its destruction
+may have been of great strategic importance.
+This aviator was probably
+the first British soldier to fall in the Continental War.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+Let us take a glance at what was going on over
+that northern horizon.  The American Powell had
+seen something of the mighty right swing which was
+to end the combat.  Invited to a conference with a
+German general who was pursuing the national policy
+of soothing the United States until her own turn
+should come round, Mr. Powell left Brussels and
+chanced to meet Von Kluck's legions upon their
+western and southerly trek.  He describes with great
+force the effect upon his mind of those endless grey
+columns, all flowing in the same direction, double
+files of infantry on either side of the road, and endless
+guns, motor-cars, cavalry, and transport between.
+The men, as he describes them, were all in the prime
+of life, and equipped with everything which years of
+forethought could devise.  He was dazed and awed
+by the tremendous procession, its majesty and its
+self-evident efficiency.  It is no wonder, for he was
+looking at the chosen legions of the most wonderful
+army that the world had ever seen&mdash;an army which
+represented the last possible word on the material
+and mechanical side of war.  High in the van a
+Taube aeroplane, like an embodiment of that black
+eagle which is the fitting emblem of a warlike and
+rapacious race, pointed the path for the German
+hordes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A day or two before, two American correspondents,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P64"></a>64}</span>
+Mr. Irvin Cobb and Mr. Harding Davis, had seen the
+same great army as it streamed westwards through
+Louvain and Brussels.  They graphically describe
+how for three consecutive days and the greater part
+of three nights they poured past, giving the
+impression of unconquerable energy and efficiency,
+young, enthusiastic, wonderfully equipped.  "Either
+we shall go forward or we die.  We do not expect to
+fall back ever.  If the generals would let them, the
+men would run to Paris instead of walking there."  So
+spoke one of the leaders of that huge invading
+host, the main part of which was now heading straight
+for the British line.  A second part, unseen and
+unsuspected, were working round by Tournai to the
+west, hurrying hard to strike in upon the British
+flank and rear.  The German is a great marcher as
+well as a great fighter, and the average rate of progress
+was little less than thirty miles a day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was after ten o'clock when scouting cavalry
+were observed falling back.  Then the distant sound
+of a gun was heard, and a few seconds later a shell
+burst some hundreds of yards behind the British lines.
+The British guns one by one roared into action.  A
+cloud of smoke rose along the line of the woods in
+front from the bursting shrapnel, but nothing could
+be seen of the German gunners.  The defending guns
+were also well concealed.  Here and there, from
+observation points upon buildings and slag-heaps, the
+controllers of the batteries were able to indicate
+targets and register hits unseen by the gunners
+themselves.  The fire grew warmer and warmer as fresh
+batteries dashed up and unlimbered on either side.
+The noise was horrible, but no enemy had been seen
+by the infantry, and little damage done.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P65"></a>65}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But now an ill-omened bird flew over the British
+lines.  Far aloft across the deep blue sky skimmed
+the dark Taube, curved, turned, and sailed northwards
+again.  It had marked the shells bursting beyond the
+trenches.  In an instant, by some devilish cantrip
+of signal or wireless, it had set the range right.  A
+rain of shells roared and crashed along the lines of
+the shallow trenches.  The injuries were not yet
+numerous, but they were inexpressibly ghastly.  Men
+who had hardly seen worse than a cut finger in their
+lives gazed with horror at the gross mutilations
+around them.  "One dared not look sideways," said
+one of them.  Stretcher-bearers bent and heaved
+while wet, limp forms were hoisted upwards by their
+comrades.  Officers gave short, sharp words of
+encouragement or advice.  The minutes seemed very
+long, and still the shells came raining down.  The
+men shoved the five-fold clips down into their
+magazines and waited with weary patience.  A senior
+officer peering over the end of a trench leaned tensely
+forward and rested his glasses upon the grassy edge.
+"They're coming!" he whispered to his neighbour.
+It ran from lip to lip along the line of crouching men.
+Heads were poked up here and there above the line
+of broken earth.  Soon, in spite of the crashing shells
+overhead, there was a fringe of peering faces.  And
+there at last in front of them was the German enemy.
+After all the centuries, Briton and Teuton faced each
+other at last for the test of battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A stylist among letter-writers has described that
+oncoming swarm as grey clouds drifting over green
+fields.  They had deployed under cover whilst the
+batteries were preparing their path, and now over
+an extended front to the north-west of Mons they
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P66"></a>66}</span>
+were breaking out from the woods and coming rapidly
+onwards.  The men fidgeted with their triggers, but
+no order came to fire.  The officers were gazing with
+professional interest and surprise at the German
+formations.  Were these the tactics of the army
+which had claimed to be the most scientific in Europe?
+British observers had seen it in peace-time and had
+conjectured that it was a screen for some elaborate
+tactics held up for the day of battle.  Yet here they
+were, advancing in what in old Soudan days used to
+be described as the twenty-acre formation, against
+the best riflemen in Europe.  It was not even a
+shoulder to shoulder column, but a mere crowd,
+shredding out in the front and dense to the rear.
+There was nothing of the swiftly weaving lines, the
+rushes of alternate companies, the twinkle and flicker
+of a modern attack.  It was mediaeval, and yet it
+was impressive also in its immediate display of
+numbers and the ponderous insistence of its onward
+flow.  It was not many weeks before the stern lesson
+of war taught very different formations to those of
+the grand Kaiser manoeuvres.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The men, still fingering their triggers, gazed
+expectantly at their officers, who measured intently
+the distance of the approaching swarms.  The Germans
+had already begun to fire in a desultory fashion.
+Shrapnel was bursting thickly along the head of their
+columns but they were coming steadily onwards.
+Suddenly a rolling wave of independent firing broke
+out from the British position.  At some portions of
+the line the enemy were at eight hundred, at others
+at one thousand yards.  The men, happy in having
+something definite to do, snuggled down earnestly
+to their work and fired swiftly but deliberately into
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P67"></a>67}</span>
+the approaching mass.  Rifles, machine-guns, and
+field-pieces were all roaring together, while the
+incessant crash of the shells overhead added to the
+infernal uproar.  Men lost all sense of time as they
+thrust clip after clip into their rifles.  The German
+swarms staggered on bravely under that leaden sleet.
+Then they halted, vacillated, and finally thinned,
+shredded out, and drifted backwards like a grey fog
+torn by a gale.  The woods absorbed them once
+again, whilst the rain of shells upon the British
+trenches became thicker and more deadly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a lull in the infantry attack, and the
+British, peering from their shelters, surveyed with a
+grim satisfaction the patches and smudges of grey
+which showed the effect of their fire.  But the rest
+was not a long one.  With fine courage the German
+battalions re-formed under the shelter of the trees,
+while fresh troops from the rear pushed forward to
+stiffen the shaken lines.  "Hold your fire!" was the
+order that ran down the ranks.  With the confidence
+bred of experience, the men waited and still waited,
+till the very features of the Germans could be
+distinguished.  Then once more the deadly fire rippled
+down the line, the masses shredded and dissolved,
+and the fugitives hurried to the woods.  Then came
+the pause under shell fire, and then once again the
+emergence of the infantry, the attack, the check, and
+the recoil.  Such were the general characteristics of
+the action at Mons over a large portion of the British
+line&mdash;that portion which extended along the actual
+course of the canal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is not to be supposed, however, that there was
+a monotony of attack and defence over the whole
+of the British position.  A large part of the force,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P68"></a>68}</span>
+including the whole of the First Army Corps, was
+threatened rather than seriously engaged, while the
+opposite end of the line was also out of the main
+track of the storm.  It beat most dangerously, as had
+been foreseen, upon the troops to the immediate west
+and north of Mons, and especially upon those which
+defended the impossible peninsula formed by the loop
+of the canal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The defence of the bridges of Nimy.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is a road which runs from Mons due north
+through the village of Nimy to Jurbise.  The defences
+to the west of this road were in the hands of the
+9th Brigade.  The 4th Royal Fusiliers, with the
+Scots Fusiliers, were the particular battalions which
+held the trenches skirting this part of the peninsula,
+while half the Northumberland Fusiliers were on the
+straight canal to the westward.  To the east of Nimy
+are three road bridges&mdash;those of Nimy itself, Lock
+No. 5, and Aubourg Station.  All these three bridges
+were defended by the 4th Middlesex, who had made
+shallow trenches which commanded them.  The
+Gordons were on their immediate right.  The field
+of fire was much interfered with by the mines and
+buildings which faced them, so that at this point the
+Germans could get up unobserved to the very front.
+It has also been already explained that the German
+artillery could enfilade the peninsula from each
+side, making the defence most difficult.  A rush
+of German troops came between eleven and twelve
+o'clock across the Aubourg Station Bridge.  It was
+so screened up to the moment of the advance that
+neither the rifles nor the machine-guns of the Middlesex
+could stop it.  It is an undoubted fact that this
+rush was preceded by a great crowd of women and
+children, through which the leading files of the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P69"></a>69}</span>
+Germans could hardly be seen.  At the same time, or
+very shortly afterwards, the other two bridges were
+forced in a similar manner, but the Germans in all
+three cases as they reached the farther side were
+unable to make any rapid headway against the
+British fire, though they made the position untenable
+for the troops in trenches between the bridges.  The
+whole of the 8th Brigade, supported by the 2nd Irish
+Rifles from McCracken's 7th Brigade, which had been
+held in reserve at Ciply, were now fully engaged,
+covering the retirement of the Middlesex and Gordons.
+At some points the firing between the two lines of
+infantry was across the breadth of a road.  Two
+batteries of the 40th Artillery Brigade, which were
+facing the German attack at this point, were badly
+mauled, one of them, the 23rd R.F.A., losing its gun
+teams.  Major Ingham succeeded in reconstituting
+his equipment and getting his guns away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is well to accentuate the fact that though this
+was the point of the most severe pressure there was
+never any disorderly retirement, and strong reserves
+were available had they been needed.  The 8th
+Brigade, at the time of the general strategical
+withdrawal of the Army, made its arrangements in a
+methodical fashion, and General Doran kept his hold
+until after nightfall upon Bois la Haut, which was an
+elevation to the east of Mons from which the German
+artillery might have harassed the British retreat, since
+it commanded all the country to the south.  The
+losses of the brigade had, however, been considerable,
+amounting to not less than three hundred and fifty
+in the case of the 4th Middlesex, many being killed
+or wounded in the defence, and some cut off in the
+trenches between the various bridge-heads.  Majors
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P70"></a>70}</span>
+Davey and Abell of the Middlesex were respectively
+wounded and killed, with thirteen other officers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has already been said that the line of the 4th
+Royal Fusiliers extended along the western perimeter
+up to Nimy Road Bridge, where Colonel MacMahon's
+section ended and that of Colonel Hull, of the
+Middlesex Regiment, began.  To the west of this point was
+the Nimy Railway Bridge, defended also by Captain
+Ashburner's company of the 4th Royal Fusiliers.
+This was assaulted early, and was held for nearly
+five hours against an attack of several German
+battalions.  The British artillery was unable to help
+much in the defence, as the town of Mons behind
+offered no positions for guns, but the 107th Battery
+in the immediate rear did good work.  The defence
+was continued until the Germans who had already
+crossed to the east were advancing on the flank.
+Lieutenant Maurice Dease, five times wounded before
+he was killed, worked his machine-gun to the end,
+and every man of his detachment was hit.  Lieutenant
+Dease and Private Godley both received the Victoria
+Cross.  The occupants of one trench, including
+Lieutenant Smith, who was wounded, were cut off by
+the rush.  Captain Carey commanded the covering
+company and the retirement was conducted in good
+order, though Captain Bowden Smith, Lieutenant
+Mead, and a number of men fell in the movement.
+Altogether, the Royal Fusiliers lost five officers and
+about two hundred men in the defence of the bridge,
+Lieutenant Tower having seven survivors in his
+platoon of sixty.  Captain Byng's company at the
+Glin Bridge farther east had severe losses and was
+driven in in the same way.  As the infantry retired
+a small party of engineers under Captain Theodore
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P71"></a>71}</span>
+Wright endeavoured to destroy this and other bridges.
+Lieutenant Day was twice wounded in his attempt
+upon the main Nimy Bridge.  Corporal Jarvis received
+the V.C. for his exertions in preparing the Jemappes
+bridge for destruction to the west of Nimy.  Captain
+Wright, with Sergeant Smith, made an heroic endeavour
+under terrific fire to detonate the charge,
+but was wounded and fell into the canal.  Lieutenant
+Holt, a brave young officer of reserve engineers, also
+lost his life in these operations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The holding of the canal.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having held on as long as was possible, the front
+line of the 9th Brigade fell back upon the prepared
+position on high ground between Mons and Frameries,
+where the 107th R.F.A. was entrenched.  The 4th
+Royal Fusiliers passed through Mons and reached the
+new line in good order and without further loss.
+The 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers, however, falling back
+to the same point on a different route through Flenu,
+came under heavy machine-gun fire from a high soil
+heap, losing Captain Rose and a hundred men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The falling back of the 8th and 9th Brigades from
+the Nimy Peninsula had an immediate effect upon
+Cuthbert's 13th Brigade, which was on their left
+holding the line up to the railway bridge just east
+of St. Ghislain.  Of this brigade two battalions, the
+1st West Kent on the right and the 2nd Scottish
+Borderers on the left, were in the trenches while the
+2nd West Riding and the 2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry
+were in support, having their centre at Boussu.  The
+day began by some losses to the West Kent Regiment,
+who were probably, apart from cavalry patrols, the
+first troops to suffer in the great war.  A company
+of the regiment under Captain Lister was sent across
+the canal early as a support to some advancing
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P72"></a>72}</span>
+cavalry, and was driven in about eleven o'clock with
+a loss of two officers and about a hundred men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From this time onwards the German attacks were
+easily held, though the German guns were within
+twelve hundred yards.  The situation was changed
+when it was learned later in the day that the Germans
+were across to the right and had got as far as Flenu
+on the flank of the brigade.  In view of this advance,
+General Smith-Dorrien, having no immediate supports,
+dashed off on a motor to Sir Douglas Haig's headquarters
+some four miles distant, and got his permission
+to use Haking's 5th Brigade, which pushed up in
+time to re-establish the line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has been shown that the order of the regiments
+closely engaged in the front line was, counting from
+the east, the 1st Gordons, the 4th Middlesex, the 4th
+Royal Fusiliers, the 1st Scots Fusiliers, half the 1st
+Northumberland Fusiliers, the 1st West Kents, and the
+2nd Scottish Borderers, the other regiments of these
+brigades being in reserve.  The last-named battalion,
+being opposite a bridge, was heavily engaged all day,
+losing many men, but holding its position intact
+against repeated advances.  On the left hand or
+western side of the Scottish Borderers, continuing the
+line along the canal, one would come upon the front
+of the 14th Brigade (Rolfs), which was formed by the
+1st Surrey on the right and the 1st Duke of Cornwall's
+on the left.  The German attack upon this portion
+of the line began about 1 P.M., and by 3 P.M. had
+become so warm that the reserve companies were
+drawn into the firing line.  Thanks to their good
+work, both with rifles and with machine-guns, the
+regiments held their own until about six o'clock in
+the evening, when the retirement of the troops on
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P73"></a>73}</span>
+their right enabled the Germans to enfilade the right
+section of the East Surreys at close range.  They
+were ordered to retire, but lost touch with the left
+section, which remained to the north of the canal
+where their trench was situated.  Captain Benson of
+this section had been killed and Captain Campbell
+severely wounded, but the party of one hundred and
+ten men under Lieutenant Morritt held on most
+gallantly and made a very fine defence.  Being finally
+surrounded, they endeavoured to cut their way out
+with cold steel, Lieutenant Ward being killed and
+Morritt four times wounded in the attempt.  Many of
+the men were killed and wounded, and the survivors
+were taken.  Altogether the loss of the regiment was
+five officers and one hundred and thirty-four men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the left of the East Surreys, as already stated,
+lay the 1st Duke of Cornwall's of the same brigade.
+About four o'clock in the afternoon the presence of
+the German outflanking corps first made itself felt.
+At that hour the Cornwalls were aware of an advance
+upon their left as well as their front.  The Cornwalls
+drew in across the canal in consequence, and the
+Germans did not follow them over that evening.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The chief point defended by the 14th Brigade upon
+this day had been the bridge and main road which
+crosses the canal between Pommeroeul and Thulin,
+some eight or nine miles west of Mons.  In the
+evening, when the final order for retreat was given,
+this bridge was blown up, and the brigade fell back
+after nightfall as far as Dour, where it slept.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The fateful telegram.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By the late afternoon the general position was
+grave, but not critical.  The enemy had lost very
+heavily, while the men in the trenches were, in
+comparison, unscathed.  Here and there, as we have
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P74"></a>74}</span>
+seen, the Germans had obtained a lodgment in the
+British position, especially at the salient which had
+always appeared to be impossible to hold, but, on
+the other hand, the greater part of the Army,
+including the whole First Corps, had not yet been
+seriously engaged, and there were reserve troops in the
+immediate rear of the fighting line who could be
+trusted to make good any gap in the ranks before
+them.  The German artillery fire was heavy and
+well-directed, but the British batteries had held their own.
+Such was the position when, about 5 P.M., a telegram
+from General Joffre was put into Sir John French's
+hand, which must have brought a pang to his heart.
+From it he learned that all his work had been in vain,
+and that far from contending for victory, he would
+be fortunate if he saved himself from utter defeat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were two pieces of information in this fatal
+message, and each was disastrous.  The first
+announced that instead of the two German corps whom
+he had reason to think were in front of him, there
+were four&mdash;the Third, Fourth, Seventh, and Fourth
+Reserve Corps&mdash;forming, with the second and fourth
+cavalry divisions, a force of nearly 200,000 men,
+while the Second Corps were bringing another 40,000
+round his left flank from the direction of Tournai.
+The second item was even more serious.  Instead of
+being buttressed up with French troops on either side
+of him, he learned that the Germans had burst the
+line of the Sambre, and that the French armies on
+his right were already in full retreat, while nothing
+substantial lay upon his left.  It was a most perilous
+position.  The British force lay exposed and
+unsupported amid converging foes who far outnumbered
+it in men and guns.  What was the profit of one
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P75"></a>75}</span>
+day of successful defence if the morrow would dawn
+upon a British Sedan?  There was only one course of
+action, and Sir John decided upon it in the instant,
+bitter as the decision must have been.  The Army
+must be extricated from the battle and fall back until
+it resumed touch with its Allies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it is no easy matter to disengage so large an
+army which is actually in action and hard-pressed by
+a numerous and enterprising enemy.  The front was
+extensive and the lines of retreat were limited.  That
+the operation was carried out in an orderly fashion is
+a testimony to the skill of the General, the talents of
+the commanders, and the discipline of the units.  If
+it had been done at once and simultaneously it would
+certainly have been the signal for a vigorous German
+advance and a possible disaster.  The positions were
+therefore held, though no efforts were made to retake
+those points where the enemy had effected a lodgment.
+There was no possible use in wasting troops in
+regaining positions which would in no case be held.
+As dusk fell, a dusk which was lightened by the glare
+of burning villages, some of the regiments began
+slowly to draw off to the rear.  In the early morning
+of the 24th the definite order to retire was conveyed
+to the corps commanders, whilst immediate measures
+were taken to withdraw the impedimenta and to clear
+the roads.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such, in its bare outlines, was the action of Mons
+upon August 23, interesting for its own sake, but
+more so as being the first clash between the British
+and German armies.  One or two questions call for
+discussion before the narrative passes on.  The most
+obvious of these is the question of the bridges.  Why
+were they not blown up in the dangerous peninsula?
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P76"></a>76}</span>
+Without having any special information upon the
+point, one might put forward the speculation that
+the reason why they were not at once blown up was
+that the whole of Joffre's advance was an aggressive
+movement for the relief of Namur, and that the bridges
+were not destroyed because they would be used in a
+subsequent advance.  It will always be a subject for
+speculation as to what would have occurred had the
+battle been fought to a finish.  Considering the
+comparative merits of British and German infantry as
+shown in many a subsequent encounter, and allowing
+for the advantage that the defence has over the attack,
+it is probable that the odds might not have been too
+great and that Sir John French might have remained
+master of the field.  That, however, is a matter of
+opinion.  What is not a matter of opinion is that the
+other German armies to the east would have advanced
+on the heels of the retiring French, that they would
+have cut the British off from their Allies, and that
+they would have been hard put to it to reach the coast.
+Therefore, win or lose, the Army had no possible
+course open but to retire.  The actual losses of the
+British were not more than three or four thousand,
+the greater part from the 8th, 9th, and 13th Brigades.
+There are no means as yet by which the German
+losses can be taken out from the general returns, but
+when one considers the repeated advances over the
+open and the constant breaking of the dense attacking
+formations, it is impossible that they should have been
+fewer than from seven to ten thousand men.  Each
+army had for the first time an opportunity of forming
+a critical estimate of the other.  German officers have
+admitted with soldierly frankness that the efficiency
+of the British came to them as a revelation, which is
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P77"></a>77}</span>
+not surprising after the assurances that had been
+made to them.  On the other hand, the British bore
+away a very clear conviction of the excellence of the
+German artillery and of the plodding bravery of the
+German infantry, together with a great reassurance
+as to their own capacity to hold their own at any
+reasonable odds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The rearguard actions of Frameries, Wasmes, and Dour.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After a night of flames and of uproar the day
+dawned, a day of great anxiety to the British
+commanders and of considerable pressure upon a portion
+of the troops.  Sir John French had given instructions
+that the First Corps, which had been only slightly
+engaged the day before, should pretend to assume
+the offensive upon the extreme right wing in the
+direction of Binche, whilst the Second Corps began
+its retirement.  The enemy was following up rapidly,
+however, along the whole length of the British line,
+both flanks of which were exposed.  Shortly after
+dawn the evacuated positions had been occupied,
+and Mons itself was in the hands of the advancing
+Germans.  The Second Corps began its retreat,
+helped by the feint which was carried out by General
+Haig upon the right, and by the bulk of the batteries
+of both corps, but the pursuit was vigorous and the
+shell-fire incessant.  A shell from the rear is more
+intimidating than twenty in the front.  Hamilton's
+Third Division, including the 8th and 9th Brigades,
+who had done such hard work the day before,
+sustained the most severe losses, especially at
+Frameries, four miles south of Mons.  The 2nd Royal
+Scots of the 8th Brigade about midnight had been
+attacked by a heavy German column which got so
+near that the swish of their feet through the long
+grass put the regiment on the alert.  The attack was
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P78"></a>78}</span>
+blown back by a volley at close quarters.  The 9th
+Brigade (Shaw's), which covered the retreat, was
+closely pressed from dawn by the pursuing Germans,
+and was subjected to a very heavy shell-fire.  A
+barricade, erected in the village and manned by Captain
+Sandilands, of the Northumberlands, with his
+company, held up the German advance, and they were
+never permitted to reach the line nor to hustle the
+retirement.  Butler's 23rd Artillery Brigade helped
+with its fire.  The chief losses in this skilful covering
+action fell upon the 1st Lincolns and upon the 1st
+Northumberland Fusiliers, each of which lost about
+150 men, including Captain Rose, Lieutenants Bulbe,
+Welchman, and others.  There was a stational ambulance
+in the village of Frameries, and a foreign nurse
+in its employ has left a vivid picture of the wounded
+British rushing in grimy and breathless to have their
+slighter wounds dressed and then running out, rifle
+in hand, to find their place in the firing line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The remaining brigade of the Third Division,
+McCracken's 7th Brigade, had detached one regiment,
+the 2nd Irish Rifles, upon the day before to reinforce
+the 8th Brigade, and this regiment had, as already
+mentioned, some severe fighting, holding back the
+German advance after the retirement from the Nimy
+Peninsula of the Middlesex and the Gordons.  It
+did not find its way back to its brigade until the
+evening of the 24th.  The brigade itself, during the
+first day of the retreat, held a position near Ciply,
+to the south of Mons, where it was heavily attacked
+in the early morning, and in some danger as its flank
+was exposed.  At ten o'clock it was ordered to retire
+<i>via</i> Genly towards Bavai, and it carried out this
+difficult movement in the face of a pushful enemy in
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P79"></a>79}</span>
+perfect order, covered by the divisional artillery.
+The principal losses fell upon the 2nd South
+Lancashire Regiment, which came under heavy fire from
+German machine-guns posted upon slag-heaps.  This
+regiment was very hard hit, losing several hundred
+men.  The brigade faced round near Bavai and held
+off the pursuit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cuthbert's 13th Brigade, keeping in line with
+their comrades on the right, halted at Wasmes, some
+four miles from the canal, where they prepared some
+hasty entrenchments.  Here, at the dawn of day,
+they were furiously attacked by the German vanguard
+at the same time that the 9th Brigade was hustled
+in Frameries, but for two hours the assailants were
+beaten back with heavy losses.  The brunt of the
+fighting fell upon the 2nd West Riding Regiment,
+who lost heavily, were at one time nearly surrounded,
+and finally, with dour Yorkshire pertinacity, shook
+themselves clear.  Their losses included their
+commander, Colonel Gibbs, their adjutant, 300 men,
+and all their officers save five.  The 1st West
+Kents also lost about 100 men and several officers,
+including Major Pack-Beresford.  For the remainder
+of the day and for the whole of the 25th the brigade,
+with the rest of the Fifth Division, fell back with
+little fighting <i>via</i> Bavai to the Le Cateau line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the evening of the 23rd the 14th Brigade, still
+farther to the west, had fallen back to Dour, blowing
+up the bridge and road over the canal.  After dark
+the Germans followed them, and Gleichen's 15th
+Brigade, which had not yet been engaged, found
+itself in the position of rearguard and immediately
+exposed to the pressure of the German flanking
+movement.  This was now threatening to envelop the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P80"></a>80}</span>
+whole of Ferguson's Fifth Division.  The situation
+was particularly difficult, since this General had to
+make a flank movement in the face of the enemy in
+order to close up with his comrades of the Third
+Division.  He was soon compelled to call for
+assistance, and Allenby, with his cavalry division,
+was advanced to help him.  It was evidently the
+intention of the enemy to strike in upon the western
+side of the division and pin it to its ground until it
+could be surrounded.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P81"></a>81}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="capcenter">
+<a id="img-081"></a>
+<br />
+<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-081.jpg" alt="1st MORNING OF RETREAT OF 2nd ARMY CORPS AUG 24th." />
+<br />
+1st MORNING OF RETREAT OF 2nd ARMY CORPS AUG 24th.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The charge of the Lancers.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first menacing advance in the morning of the
+24th was directed against the flank of the British
+infantry who were streaming down the Elouges-Dour
+high road.  The situation was critical, and a portion
+of De Lisle's 2nd Cavalry Brigade was ordered to
+charge near Andregnies, the hostile infantry being
+at that time about a thousand yards distant, with
+several batteries in support.  The attack of the
+cavalry was vigorously supported by L Battery of
+Horse Artillery.  The charge was carried out by
+three squadrons of the 9th Lancers, Colonel Campbell
+at their head.  The 4th Dragoon Guards under
+Colonel Mullens was in support.  The cavalry rode
+forward amidst a heavy but not particularly deadly
+fire until they were within a few hundred yards of
+the enemy, when, being faced by a wire fence, they
+swung to the right and rallied under the cover of
+some slag-heaps and of a railway embankment.
+Their menace and rifle fire, or the fine work of Major
+Sclater-Booth's battery, had the effect of holding up
+the German advance for some time, and though the
+cavalry were much scattered and disorganised they
+were able to reunite without any excessive loss, the
+total casualties being a little over two hundred.  Some
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P82"></a>82}</span>
+hours later the enemy's pressure again became heavy
+upon Ferguson's flank, and the 1st Cheshires and 1st
+Norfolks, of Gleichen's 15th Brigade, which formed
+the infantry flank-guard, incurred heavy losses.  It was
+in this defensive action that the 119th R.F.A., under
+Major Alexander, fought itself to a standstill with only
+three unwounded gunners by the guns.  The battery
+had silenced one German unit and was engaged with
+three others.  Only Major Alexander and Lieutenant
+Pollard with a few men were left.  As the horses had
+been destroyed the pieces had to be man-handled out
+of action.  Captain the Hon. F. Grenfell, of the
+9th Lancers, bleeding from two wounds, with several
+officers, Sergeants Davids and Turner, and some fifty
+men of the regiment, saved these guns under a terrible
+fire, the German infantry being within close range.
+During the whole long, weary day the batteries and
+horsemen were working hard to cover the retreat,
+while the surgeons exposed themselves with great
+fearlessness, lingering behind the retiring lines in
+order to give first aid to the men who had been hit
+by the incessant shell-fire.  It was in this noble
+task&mdash;the noblest surely within the whole range of
+warfare&mdash;that Captain Malcolm Leckie, and other brave
+medical officers, met with a glorious end, upholding
+to the full the traditions of their famous corps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The fate of the Cheshires.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has been stated that the 1st Cheshires, in
+endeavouring to screen the west flank of the
+Second Corps from the German pursuit, were very
+badly punished.  This regiment, together with
+the Norfolks, occupied a low ridge to the north-east
+side of the village of Elouges, which they
+endeavoured to hold against the onflowing tide of
+Germans.  About three in the afternoon it was seen
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P83"></a>83}</span>
+that there was danger of this small flank-guard being
+entirely cut off.  As a matter of fact an order had
+actually been sent for a retreat, but had not reached
+them.  Colonel Boger of the Cheshires sent several
+messengers, representing the growing danger, but no
+answer came back.  Finally, in desperation, Colonel
+Boger went himself and found that the enemy held
+the position previously occupied by the rest of
+Gleichen's Brigade, which had retired.  The Cheshires
+had by this time endured dreadful losses, and were
+practically surrounded.  A bayonet charge eased
+the pressure for a short time, but the enemy again
+closed in and the bulk of the survivors, isolated amidst
+a hostile army corps, were compelled to surrender.
+Some escaped in small groups and made their way
+through to their retreating comrades.  When roll
+was next called, there remained 5 officers and 193
+men out of 27 officers and 1007 of all ranks who had
+gone into action.  It speaks volumes for the discipline
+of the regiment that this remnant, under Captain
+Shore, continued to act as a useful unit.  These
+various episodes, including the severe losses of
+Gleichen's 15th Brigade, the attack of the 2nd Cavalry
+Brigade, and the artillery action in which the 119th
+Battery was so severely handled, group themselves
+into a separate little action occurring the day after
+Mons and associated either with the villages of Elouges
+or of Dour.  The Second German Corps continued
+to act upon the western side of the Second British
+Corps, whilst the rest of General von Kluck's army
+followed it behind.  With three corps close behind
+him, and one snapping at his flank, General
+Smith-Dorrien made his way southwards, his gunners and
+cavalry labouring hard to relieve the ever-increasing
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P84"></a>84}</span>
+pressure, while his rear brigades were continually
+sprayed by the German shrapnel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is to be noted that Sir John French includes
+the Ninth German Corps in Von Kluck's army in his
+first dispatch, and puts it in Von Bülow's second
+army in his second dispatch.  The French authorities
+are of opinion that Von Kluck's army consisted of
+the Second, Third, Fourth, Seventh, and Fourth
+Reserve Corps, with two divisions of cavalry.  If
+this be correct, then part of Von Bulow's army was
+pursuing Haig, while the whole of Von Kluck's was
+concentrated upon Smith-Dorrien.  This would make
+the British performance even more remarkable than
+it has hitherto appeared, since it would mean that
+during the pursuit, and at the subsequent battle, ten
+German divisions were pressing upon three British
+ones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is not to be supposed that so huge a force was
+all moving abreast, or available simultaneously at
+any one point.  None the less a General can use his
+advance corps very much more freely when he knows
+that every gap can be speedily filled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A tiny reinforcement had joined the Army on the
+morning after the battle of Mons.  This was the
+19th Brigade under General Drummond, which
+consisted of the 1st Middlesex, 1st Scots Rifles,
+2nd Welsh Fusiliers, and 2nd Argyll and Sutherland
+Highlanders.  This detached brigade acted, and
+continued to act during a large part of the war, as an
+independent unit.  It detrained at Valenciennes on
+August 23, and two regiments, the Middlesex and
+the Cameronians, may be said to have taken part in
+the battle of Mons, since they formed up at the east
+of Condé, on the extreme left of the British position,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P85"></a>85}</span>
+and received, together with the Queen's Bays, who
+were scouting in front of them, the first impact of
+the German flanking corps.  They fell back with the
+Army upon the 24th and 25th, keeping the line
+Jenlain&mdash;Solesmes, finally reaching Le Cateau, where
+they eventually took up their position on the right
+rear of the British Army.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the Army fell back, the border fortress of
+Maubeuge with its heavy guns offered a tempting
+haven of rest for the weary and overmatched troops,
+but not in vain had France lost her army in Metz.
+Sir John French would have no such protection,
+however violently the Germans might push him
+towards it.  "The British Army invested in
+Maubeuge" was not destined to furnish the head-line
+of a Berlin special edition.  The fortress was left to
+the eastward, and the tired troops snatched a few
+hours of rest near Bavai, still pursued by the guns
+and the searchlights of their persistent foemen.  At
+an early hour of the 25th the columns were again on
+the march for the south, and for safety.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may be remarked that in all this movement
+what made the operation most difficult and complicated
+was, that in the retirement the Army was not
+moving direct to the rear, but diagonally away to
+the west, thus making the west flank more difficult
+to cover as well as complicating the movements of
+transport.  It was this oblique movement which
+caused the Third Division to change places with the
+Fifth, so that from now onwards it was to the west
+of the Army.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The greater part of the Fourth Division of the
+Third Army Corps, coming up from the lines of
+communication, brought upon this day a welcome
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P86"></a>86}</span>
+reinforcement to the Army and did yeoman work in
+covering the retirement.  The total composition of
+this division was as follows:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  THIRD ARMY CORPS<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  GENERAL PULTENEY.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  DIVISION IV.&mdash;General SNOW.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  10<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Haldane</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Warwicks.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Seaforths.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Irish Fusiliers.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Dublin Fusiliers.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  11<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Hunter-Weston</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Somerset L. Infantry.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st East Lancashires.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Hants.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Rifle Brigade.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  12<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Wilson</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Royal Lancaster Regiment.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Lancs. Fusiliers.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Innis. Fusiliers.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Essex.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>Artillery&mdash;General Milne</i>.<br />
+  XIV. Brig. R.F.A. 39, 68, 88.<br />
+  XXIX. Brig. R.F.A. 125, 126, 127.<br />
+  XXXII. Brig. R.F.A. 27, 134, 135.<br />
+  XXXVII. Brig. (How.) 31, 35, 55.<br />
+  Heavy R.G.A. 31 Battery.<br />
+  R.E. 7, 9 Field Cos.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+These troops, which had been quartered in the
+Ligny and Montigny area, received urgent orders at
+one in the morning of the 25th that they should
+advance northwards.  They marched that night to
+Briastre, where they covered the retreat of the Army,
+the Third Division passing through their lines.  The
+Fourth Division then retired south again, having
+great difficulty in getting along, as the roads were
+choked with transport and artillery, and fringed
+with exhausted men.  The 12th Brigade (Wilson's)
+was acting as rearguard, and began to experience
+pressure from the pursuers, the Essex men being
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P87"></a>87}</span>
+shelled out of the village of Bethencourt, which they
+held until it was nearly surrounded by the German
+cavalry.  The line followed by the division was
+Briastre-Viesly-Bethencourt-Caudry-Ligny and
+Haucourt, the latter village marking the general
+position which they were to take up on the left of
+the Army at the line of Le Cateau.  Such reinforcements
+were mere handfuls when compared with the
+pursuing hosts, but their advent heartened up the
+British troops and relieved them of some of the
+pressure.  It has been remarked by officers of the
+Fourth Division that they and their men were
+considerably taken aback by the worn appearance of the
+weary regiments from Mons which passed through
+their ranks.  Their confidence was revived, however,
+by the undisturbed demeanour of the General
+Headquarters Staff, who came through them in the late
+afternoon of the 25th.  "General French himself
+struck me as being extremely composed, and the
+staff officers looked very cheerful."  These are the
+imponderabilia which count for much in a campaign.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Tuesday, August 25, was a day of scattered
+rearguard actions.  The weary Army had rested
+upon the evening of the 24th upon the general line
+Maubeuge-Bavai-Wargnies.  Orders were issued
+for the retirement to continue next day to a position
+already partly prepared, in front of the centre of
+which stood the town of Le Cateau.  All rearguards
+were to be clear of the above-mentioned line by
+5.30 A.M.  The general conception was that the inner
+flanks of the two corps should be directed upon Le
+Cateau.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The intention of the Commander-in-Chief was
+that the Army should fight in that position next day,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P88"></a>88}</span>
+the First Corps occupying the right and the Second
+Corps the left of the position.  The night of the 25th
+found the Second Corps in the position named, whilst
+their comrades were still at Landrecies, eight miles
+to the north-east, with a cavalry brigade endeavouring
+to bridge the gap between.  It is very certain, in the
+case of so ardent a leader as Haig, that it was no
+fault upon his part which kept him from Smith-Dorrien's
+side upon the day of battle.  It can only
+be said that the inevitable delays upon the road
+experienced by the First Corps, including the rearguard
+actions which it fought, prevented the ensuing
+battle from being one in which the British Army as
+a whole might have stemmed the rush of Von Kluck's
+invading host.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The 7th Brigade at Solesmes.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whilst the whole Army had been falling back upon
+the position which had been selected for a stand, it
+was hoped that substantial French reinforcements
+were coming up from the south.  The roads were
+much blocked during the 25th, for two divisions of
+French territorials were retiring along them, as well
+as the British Army.  As a consequence progress
+was slow, and the German pressure from the rear
+became ever more severe.  Allenby's cavalry and
+horse-guns covered the retreat, continually turning
+round and holding off the pursuers.  Finally, near
+Solesmes, on the evening of the 25th, the cavalry
+were at last driven in, and the Germans came up
+against McCracken's 7th Brigade, who held them
+most skilfully until nightfall with the assistance of the
+42nd Brigade R.F.A. and the 30th Howitzer Brigade.
+Most of the fighting fell upon the 1st Wiltshires and
+2nd South Lancashires, both of which had substantial
+losses.  The Germans could make no further progress,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P89"></a>89}</span>
+and time was given for the roads to clear and for
+the artillery to get away.  The 7th Brigade then
+followed, marching, so far as possible, across country
+and taking up its position, which it did not reach
+until after midnight, in the village of Caudry, on the
+line of the Le Cateau-Courtrai road.  As it faced
+north once more it found Snow's Fourth Division
+upon its left, while on its immediate right were the
+8th and the 9th Brigades, with the Fifth Division
+on the farther side of them.  One unit of the 7th
+Brigade, the 2nd Irish Rifles, together with the
+41st R.F.A., swerved off in the darkness and
+confusion and went away with the cavalry.  The rest
+were in the battle line.  Here we may leave them in
+position while we return to trace the fortunes of the
+First Army Corps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir Douglas Haig's corps, after the feint of August
+24, in which the Second Division appeared to be
+attacking with the First in support, was cleverly
+disengaged from the enemy and fell back by alternate
+divisions.  It was not an easy operation, and it was
+conducted under a very heavy shell-fire, which fell
+especially upon the covering guns of Colonel
+Sandilands' 34th Artillery Brigade.  These guns were
+exposed to a concentration of fire from the enemy,
+which was so intense that a thick haze of smoke and
+dust blotted out the view for long periods at a time.
+It was only with difficulty and great gallantry that
+they were got away.  An officer of the 6th Brigade,
+immediately behind them, writes: "Both going in
+and coming back the limbers passed my trench at a
+tearing gallop, the drivers lying low on the horses'
+necks and screaming at them to go faster, while on
+the return the guns bounded about on the stubble
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P90"></a>90}</span>
+field like so many tin cans behind a runaway dog."  The
+guns having been drawn in, the corps retired by
+roads parallel to the Second Corps, and were able
+to reach the line Bavai-Maubeuge by about 7 P.M. upon
+that evening, being on the immediate eastern
+flank of Smith-Dorrien's men.  It is a striking
+example of the historical continuity of the British
+Army that as they marched that day many of the
+regiments, such as the Guards and the 1st King's
+Liverpool, passed over the graves of their predecessors
+who had died under the same colours at Malplaquet
+in 1709, two hundred and six years before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The Guards in action.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On August 25 General Haig continued his retreat.
+During the day he fell back to the west of Maubeuge
+by Feignies to Vavesnes and Landrecies.  The
+considerable forest of Mormal intervened between the
+two sections of the British Army.  On the forenoon of
+this day the vanguard of the German infantry, using
+motor transport, overtook Davies' 6th Brigade,
+which was acting as rearguard to the corps.  They
+pushed in to within five hundred yards, but were
+driven back by rifle-fire.  Other German forces were
+coming rapidly up and enveloping the wings of the
+British rearguard, but the brigade, through swift
+and skilful handling, disengaged itself from what
+was rapidly becoming a dangerous situation.  The
+weather was exceedingly hot during the day, and
+with their heavy packs the men were much exhausted,
+many of them being barely able to stagger.
+In the evening, footsore and weary, they reached
+the line of Landrecies, Maroilles, and Pont-sur-Sambre.
+The 4th Brigade of Guards, consisting of
+Grenadiers, Coldstream, and Irish, under General
+Scott-Kerr, occupied the town of Landrecies.  During
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P91"></a>91}</span>
+the day they had seen little of the enemy, and
+they had no reason to believe that the forest, which
+extended up to the outskirts of the town, was full of
+German infantry pressing eagerly to cut them off.
+The possession of vast numbers of motor lorries for
+infantry transport introduces a new element into
+strategy, especially the strategy of a pursuit, which
+was one of those disagreeable first experiences of
+up-to-date warfare which the British Army had to
+undergo.  It ensures that the weary retreating rearguard
+shall ever have a perfectly fresh pursuing vanguard at
+its heels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Guards at Landrecies were put into the empty
+cavalry barracks for a much-needed rest, but they
+had hardly settled down before there was an alarm
+that the Germans were coming into the town.  It was
+just after dusk that a column of infantry debouched
+from the shadow of the trees and advanced briskly
+towards the town.  A company of the 3rd Coldstream
+under Captain Monck gave the alarm, and the whole
+regiment stood to arms, while the rest of the brigade,
+who could not operate in so confined a space, defended
+the other entrances of the town.  The van of the
+approaching Germans shouted out that they were
+French, and seemed to have actually got near enough
+to attack the officer of the picket and seize a
+machine-gun before the Guardsmen began to fire.  There is
+a single approach to the village, and no means of
+turning it, so that the attack was forced to come
+directly down the road.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The Germans' rude awakening.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Possibly the Germans had the impression that they
+were dealing with demoralised fugitives, but if so
+they got a rude awakening.  The advance party,
+who were endeavouring to drag away the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P92"></a>92}</span>
+machine-gun, were all shot down, and their comrades who
+stormed up to the houses were met with a steady
+and murderous fire which drove them back into the
+shadows of the wood.  A gun was brought up by
+them, and fired at a range of five hundred yards
+with shrapnel, but the Coldstream, reinforced by
+a second company, lay low or flattened themselves
+into the doorways for protection, while the 9th British
+Battery replied from a position behind the town.
+Presently, believing that the way had been cleared for
+them, there was a fresh surge of dark masses out of
+the wood, and they poured into the throat of the
+street.  The Guards had brought out two machine-guns,
+and their fire, together with a succession of
+volleys from the rifles, decimated the stormers.  Some
+of them got near enough to throw hand bombs among
+the British, but none effected a lodgment among the
+buildings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From time to time there were fresh advances
+during the night, designed apparently rather to
+tire out the troops than to gain the village.  Once
+fire was set to the house at the end of the street,
+but the flames were extinguished by a party led
+by Corporal Wyatt, of the 3rd Coldstream.  The
+Irish Guards after midnight relieved the Coldstream
+of their vigil, and in the early morning the tired
+but victorious brigade went forward unmolested
+upon their way.  They had lost 170 of their number,
+nearly all from the two Coldstream companies.
+Lord Hawarden and the Hon. Windsor Clive of the
+Coldstream and Lieut. Vereker of the Grenadiers
+were killed, four other officers were wounded.  The
+Germans in their close attacking formation had
+suffered very much more heavily.  Their enterprise
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P93"></a>93}</span>
+was a daring one, for they had pushed far forward to
+get command of the Landrecies Bridge, but their
+audacity became foolhardy when faced by steady,
+unshaken infantry.  History has shown many times
+before that a retreating British Army still retains a
+sting in its tail.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the same time as the Guards' Brigade was
+attacked at Landrecies there was an advance from
+the forest against Maroilles, which is four miles to the
+eastward.  A troop of the 15th Hussars guarding a
+bridge over the Sambre near that point was driven in
+by the enemy, and two attempts on the part of the
+1st Berkshires, of Davies' 6th Brigade, to retake it
+were repulsed, owing to the fact that the only approach
+was by a narrow causeway with marshland on either
+side, where it was not possible for infantry to deploy.
+The 1st Rifles were ordered to support the Berkshires,
+but darkness had fallen and nothing could be done.
+The casualties in this skirmish amounted to 124
+killed, wounded, or missing.  The Landrecies and
+Maroilles wounded were left behind with some of the
+medical staff.  At this period of the war the British
+had not yet understood the qualities of the enemy,
+and several times made the mistake of trusting
+surgeons and orderlies to their mercy, with the result
+that they were inhumanly treated, both by the
+authorities at the front and by the populace in
+Germany, whither they were conveyed as starving
+prisoners of war.  Five of them, Captains Edmunds
+and Hamilton, Lieut. Danks (all of the Army Medical
+Corps), with Dr. Austin and Dr. Elliott, who were
+exchanged in January 1915, deposed that they were
+left absolutely without food for long periods.  It is
+only fair to state that at a later date, with a few
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P94"></a>94}</span>
+scandalous exceptions, such as that of Wittenberg,
+the German treatment of prisoners, though often
+harsh, was no longer barbarous.  For the first six
+months, however, it was brutal in the extreme,
+and frequently accompanied by torture as well as
+neglect.  A Spanish prisoner, incarcerated by
+mistake, has given very clear neutral evidence of the
+abominable punishments of the prison camps.  His
+account reads more like the doings of Iroquois than
+of a Christian nation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The Connnaughts at Pont-sur-Sambre.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A small mishap&mdash;small on the scale of such a war,
+though serious enough in itself&mdash;befell a unit of the
+First Army Corps on the morning after the Landrecies
+engagement.  The portion of the German army who
+pursued General Haig had up to now been able to
+effect little, and that little at considerable cost to
+themselves.  Early on August 26, however, a brisk
+action was fought near Pont-sur-Sambre, in which
+the 2nd Connaughts, of Haking's Fifth Brigade, lost
+six officers, including Colonel Abercrombie, who was
+taken prisoner, and 280 men.  The regiment was cut
+off by a rapidly advancing enemy in a country which
+was so thickly enclosed that there was great difficulty
+in keeping touch between the various companies or
+in conveying their danger to the rest of the brigade.
+By steadiness and judgment the battalion was
+extricated from a most difficult position, but it was at
+the heavy cost already quoted.  In this case again
+the use by the enemy of great numbers of motor
+lorries in their pursuit accounts for the suddenness
+and severity of the attacks which now and afterwards
+fell upon the British rearguards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Dawn broke upon August 26, a day upon which
+the exhausted troops were destined to be tried to the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P95"></a>95}</span>
+limit of human endurance.  It was the date of Von
+Kluck's exultant telegram in which he declared that
+he held them surrounded, a telegram which set Berlin
+fluttering with flags.  On this day the First Army
+Corps was unmolested in its march, reaching the
+Venerolles line that night.  There was woody country
+upon the west of it, and from beyond this curtain of
+trees they heard the distant roar of a terrific
+cannonade, and knew that a great battle was in progress
+to the westward.  It was on Smith-Dorrien's Second
+Corps and upon the single division of the Third Corps
+that the full storm of the German attack had broken.
+In a word, a corps and a half of British troops, with
+225 guns, were assailed by certainly four and probably
+five German corps, with 600 guns.  It is no wonder
+that the premature tidings of a great German triumph
+were forwarded that morning to make one more item
+in that flood of good news which from August 21 to
+the end of the month was pouring in upon the German
+people.  A glittering mirage lay before them.  The
+French lines had been hurled back from the frontier,
+the British were in full retreat, and now were faced
+with absolute disaster.  Behind these breaking lines
+lay the precious capital, the brain and heart of France.
+But God is not always with the big battalions, and the
+end was not yet.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a id="chap04"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">{<a id="P96"></a>96}</span></p>
+
+<h3>
+CHAPTER IV
+<br /><br />
+THE BATTLE OF LE CATEAU
+</h3>
+
+<p class="intro">
+The order of battle at Le Cateau&mdash;The stand of the 2nd
+Suffolks&mdash;Major Yate's V.C.&mdash;The fight for the quarries&mdash;The splendid
+work of the British guns&mdash;Difficult retirement of the Fourth
+Division&mdash;The fate of the 1st Gordons&mdash;Results of the
+battle&mdash;Exhaustion of the Army&mdash;The destruction of the 2nd
+Munsters&mdash;A cavalry fight&mdash;The news in Great Britain&mdash;The views of
+General Joffre&mdash;Battery L&mdash;The action of
+Villars-Cotteret&mdash;Reunion of the Army.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+Reference has already been made to the retirement
+of Smith-Dorrien's Second Corps, covered by Allenby's
+cavalry, throughout the 25th.  The heads of the
+columns arrived at the Le Cateau position at about
+3 P.M., but the rearguards were fighting into the
+night, and came in eventually in an exhausted
+condition.  The Fourth Division, which was still quite
+fresh, did good and indeed vital service by allowing
+the tired units to pass through its ranks and acting as
+a pivot upon which the cavalry could fall back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir John French had reconsidered the idea of
+making a stand at Le Cateau, feeling, no doubt, that
+if his whole Army could not be consolidated there the
+affair would be too desperate.  He had moved with
+his staff during the evening of the 25th to St. Quentin,
+leaving word that the retirement should be continued
+early next morning.  Smith-Dorrien spent the afternoon
+and evening going round the position, but it was
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P97"></a>97}</span>
+not until 2 A.M. upon the morning of the 26th that
+he was able to ascertain the whereabouts of all his
+scattered and weary units.  About that time General
+Allenby reported that his cavalry had been widely
+separated, two and a half brigades being at Chatillon,
+six miles east of Le Cateau, the other one and a half
+brigades being near Ligny, four miles west of the same
+town.  General Smith-Dorrien was in the position
+that his troops were scattered, weary, and in danger
+of losing their morale through continued retreat in the
+presence of an ever-pressing enemy.  Even with the
+best soldiers such an experience too long continued
+may turn an army into a rabble.  He therefore made
+urgent representations by telephone to the
+Commander-in-Chief, pointing out that the only hope of
+checking the dangerous German pursuit was to stagger
+them by a severe counter.  "The only thing for the
+men to do when they can't stand is to lie down and
+fight," said he.  Sir John assented to the view, with
+the proviso that the retirement should be continued
+as soon as possible.  Smith-Dorrien, taking under his
+orders the cavalry, the Fourth Division, and the 19th
+Brigade, as well as his own corps, issued instructions
+for the battle which he knew must begin within a few
+hours.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Owing to the gap of eight miles between the nearest
+points of the two corps, both flanks of the position
+were in the air.  Smith-Dorrien therefore requested
+the cavalry brigades from Chatillon to move in and
+guard the east flank, while the rest of the cavalry
+watched the west.  He was less anxious about the
+latter, as he knew that Sordet's French cavalry was in
+that direction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The order of battle at Le Coteau.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The exhausted infantry, who had now been
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P98"></a>98}</span>
+marching for about a week, and fighting for three days and
+the greater part of three nights, flung themselves
+down where best they could, some to the north-east
+of Le Cateau, some in the town, and some along
+the line of very inadequate trenches hastily
+prepared by civilian labour.  In the early dawn they
+took up their position, the Fifth Division being
+to the right near the town.  Of this division, the
+14th Brigade (Rolt's) was on the extreme right, the
+13th (Cuthbert's) to the left of it, and the 15th
+(Gleichen's) to the left again.  To the west of the Fifth
+Division lay the Third, their trenches covering the
+villages of Troisville (9th Brigade), Audencourt (8th
+Brigade), and Caudry (7th Brigade).  Behind Caudry
+one and a half brigades of cavalry were in reserve to
+strengthen the left wing.  From Caudry the line was
+thrown back to meet a flanking movement and extended
+to Haucourt.  This portion was held by Snow's
+Fourth Division.  Sordet's cavalry had passed across
+the rear of the British position the day before, and lay
+now to the left flank and rear of the Army.  There
+were rumours of approaching French forces from the
+south, which put heart into the weary men, but, as a
+matter of fact, they had only their own brave spirits
+upon which to depend.  Their numbers, putting every
+unit at its full complement, were about 70,000 men.
+Their opponents were four army corps at the least,
+with two divisions of cavalry&mdash;say, 170,000 men with
+an overpowering artillery.  Subsequent reports showed
+that the guns of all five army corps had been
+concentrated for the battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has been said that Rolt's 14th Brigade was at
+the extreme right of the line.  This statement needs
+some expansion.  The 14th Brigade consisted of the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P99"></a>99}</span>
+1st East Surrey, 2nd Suffolk, 2nd Manchester, and 1st
+Cornwalls.  Of these four regiments, half of the East
+Surrey had been detached on escort duty and the
+other half, under Colonel Longley, with the whole of
+the Cornwalls, bivouacked in the northern suburbs of
+Le Cateau on the night of the 25th.  In the early
+morning of the 26th the enemy's advanced guard got
+into the town, and this detachment of British troops
+were cut off from their comrades and fired upon as they
+assembled in the streets of the town.  They made
+their way out, however, in orderly fashion and took
+up a position to the south-east of the town, where
+they fought an action on their own account for
+some hours, quite apart from the rest of the Army,
+which they could hear but not see.  Eventually the
+division of cavalry fell back from Chatillon to join
+the Army and picked up these troops <i>en route</i>, so that
+the united body was able to make its way safely back
+to their comrades.  These troops were out of the main
+battle, but did good work in covering the retreat.
+The whole signal section of the 14th Brigade was with
+them, which greatly hampered the brigade during the
+battle.  Two companies of the 1st East Surreys under
+Major Tew had become separated from their comrades
+after Mons, but they rejoined the British line at
+Troisville, and on the morning of August 26 were able
+to fall in on the rear of the 14th Brigade, where, as will
+be seen later, they did good service.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The 19th Brigade had also bivouacked in Le
+Cateau and was nearly cut off, as the two regiments of
+the 14th Brigade had been, by the sudden intrusion
+of the enemy.  It had been able to make its way out
+of the town, however, without being separated from
+the rest of the Army, and it took up its position on
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P100"></a>100}</span>
+the right rear of the infantry line, whence it sent help
+where needed and played the part of a reserve until
+towards the close of the action its presence became
+very vital to the Fifth Division.  At the outset the
+2nd Argyll and Sutherlands were in the front line of
+this brigade and the 1st Middlesex supporting them,
+while the other two battalions, the 2nd Welsh Fusiliers
+and 1st Scots Rifles, with a battery of artillery had
+been taken as a reserve by the force commander.
+No trenches had been prepared at this point, and
+the losses of the two front battalions from shell-fire
+were, from the beginning, very heavy.  The other two
+battalions spent a day of marching rather than
+fighting, being sent right across to reinforce the Fourth
+Division and then being brought back to the right
+flank once more.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P101"></a>101}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="capcenter">
+<a id="img-101"></a>
+<br />
+<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-101.jpg" alt="Sketch of the Battle of Le Cateau, Aug. 26th" />
+<br />
+Sketch of the Battle of Le Cateau, Aug. 26th
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The stand of the 2nd Suffolks.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was the Fifth Division, on the right of the line,
+who first experienced the full effect of the heavy
+shelling which about seven o'clock became general
+along the whole position, but was always most severe
+upon the right.  There was a dangerous salient in the
+trenches at the cross-roads one mile west of Le Cateau
+which was a source of very great weakness.  Every
+effort was made to strengthen the trenches, the 15th
+Brigade and 59th Company R.E. working especially
+hard in the Troisville section.  The Germans were
+moving round upon this right wing, and the murderous
+hail of missiles came from the flank as well as from
+the front, being supplemented by rifle and machine-gun
+fire.  The 2nd Suffolks and 2nd Manchesters,
+the remaining half of Rolfs 14th Brigade, being on the
+extreme right of the line, suffered the most.  The
+guns immediately supporting them, of the 28th
+Artillery Brigade, were quite overmatched and were
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P102"></a>102}</span>
+overwhelmed by the devastating rain of shells, many
+of them being put out of action.  A heavy battery,
+the 108th, some little distance behind the line, kept
+up a steady and effective fire which long held back the
+German advance.  The pressure, however, was
+extreme, and growing steadily from hour to hour until
+it became well-nigh intolerable.  Especially it fell
+upon the 2nd Suffolks, who held their shallow
+trenches with splendid tenacity.  Their colonel, Brett,
+was killed, Major Doughty was wounded in three
+places, Captains Orford and Cutbill, with eight
+lieutenants, were on the ground.  Finally, when the
+position of the brigade became untenable and it was
+ordered to retreat, the gallant Suffolks held on to their
+line with the desire of saving the disabled guns, and
+were eventually all killed, wounded, or taken, save
+for about 250 men, while their neighbours, the 2nd
+Manchesters, lost 14 officers and 350 of their men.  In
+this way the extreme right of the British line was
+practically destroyed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The 19th Brigade, in the rear of the 14th, were able
+to observe the fate of their comrades, and about
+mid-day the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who
+had already lost a good many men from shell-fire,
+advanced in the chivalrous hope of relieving the
+pressure.  The battalion went forward as if on parade,
+though the casualties were numerous.  They eventually
+gained the shelter of some trenches near the
+remains of the 14th Brigade, but their gallant effort,
+instead of averting the threatened destruction, ended
+by partially involving them in the same fate.  They
+could do nothing against the concentrated and
+well-directed artillery fire of the enemy.  When eventually
+they fell back, part of two companies were cut
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P103"></a>103}</span>
+off in their trench and taken.  The rest of the
+regiment, together with the 1st Middlesex and two
+companies of the Royal Scots Fusiliers from the
+9th Brigade, formed a covering line on a ridge in the
+rear and held back the German advance for a long
+time.  This line did not retire until 5 P.M., when
+it was nearly enveloped.  General Drummond,
+commanding the 19th Brigade, had met with an injury
+in the course of the action, and it was commanded
+during the latter part by Colonel Ward, of the
+Middlesex.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Major Yate's V.C.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The retirement or destruction of the 14th Brigade
+exposed the flank of the 13th (Cuthbert's) to a
+murderous enfilade fire, which fell chiefly upon the
+2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry.  This brigade had
+defended itself successfully for six hours against
+various frontal attacks, but now the flank-fire raked
+it from end to end and practically destroyed the
+Yorkshiremen, who were the most exposed to it.
+On them and on the 2nd Scottish Borderers fell the
+great bulk of the losses, for the West Rents and the
+survivors of the West Ridings were in reserve.  Of
+the two companies of the Yorkshire Light Infantry
+who held the foremost trenches, that on the right
+had only fifteen men left, with whom Major Yate
+attempted a final charge, finding his Victoria Cross
+in the effort, while the next company, under Major
+Trevor, had only forty-one survivors, the whole
+losses of the battalion being 600 men, with 20
+officers.  Both the Yorkshire and the Scottish Border
+battalions lost their colonels in the action.  Their
+losses were shared by the two companies of the
+1st East Surreys under Major Tew, who had been
+placed between the 14th and 13th Brigades, and
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P104"></a>104}</span>
+who fought very steadily in shallow trenches, holding
+on to the last possible moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whilst the battle was going badly on the right,
+the Third Division in the centre and the Fourth
+Division on the left had held their own against a
+succession of attacks.  The 8th and 9th Brigades
+drove off the German infantry with their crushing
+rifle-fire, and endured as best they might the shelling,
+which was formidable and yet very much less severe
+than that to which the Fifth Division had been
+exposed.  In the case of the 7th Brigade (McCracken's)
+the village of Caudry, which it defended, formed a
+salient, since the Fourth Division on the left was
+thrown back.  The attack upon this brigade from
+daylight onwards was very severe, but the assailants
+could neither drive in the line nor capture the village
+of Caudry.  They attacked on both flanks at short
+rifle range, inflicting and also enduring heavy losses.
+In this part of the field the British guns held their
+own easily against the German, the proportion of
+numbers being more equal than on the right of the
+line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whilst the right flank was crumbling before the
+terrific concentration of German guns, and while the
+centre was stoutly holding its own, farther to the
+west, in the Haucourt-Ligny direction, the Second
+German Army Corps was beating hard against Snow's
+Fourth Division, which was thrown back to protect
+the left flank of the Army, and to cover the
+Cambrai-Esnes road.  Hunter-Weston's 11th Brigade was
+on the right, south of Fontaine, with Wilson's 12th
+upon its left, and Haldane's 10th in reserve at
+Haucourt.  As the German attack came from the
+left, or western flank, the 12th Brigade received the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P105"></a>105}</span>
+first impact.  The artillery of the division had not
+yet come up, and the 1st Royal Lancasters, stretched
+in a turnip patch, endured for some time a severe
+fire which cost them many casualties, including their
+Colonel Dykes, and to which little reply could be
+made.  There were no cavalry scouts in front of
+the infantry, so that working parties and advanced
+posts were cut up by sudden machine-gun fire.
+Some of the covering parties both of the Lancasters
+and of the 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers were never seen
+again.  At about seven the British guns came up,
+the 14th Brigade R.F.A. on the left, the 29th in
+the centre, and the 32nd on the right, with the
+howitzers of the 37th behind the right centre on the
+high ground near Selvigny.  From this time onward
+they supported the infantry in the most self-sacrificing
+way.  The German infantry advance began shortly
+afterwards, and was carried out by wave after wave
+of men.  A company of the 2nd Essex Regiment,
+under Captain Vandeleur, upon the British left,
+having good cover and a clear field of fire, inflicted
+very heavy losses on the Germans, though they were
+finally overwhelmed, their leader having been killed.
+The 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers in the front line were
+also heavily attacked, and held their own for several
+hours.  About ten o'clock the pressure was so great
+that the defence was driven in, and two battalions
+lost their machine-guns, but a new line was formed
+in the Haucourt-Esnes road, the retirement being
+skilfully covered by Colonel Anley, of the Essex, and
+Colonel Griffin, of the Lancashire Fusiliers.  There
+the 2nd Inniskilling Fusiliers, the 1st Royal Lancasters,
+the 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers, and the 2nd Essex held
+firmly on until the afternoon under very heavy and
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P106"></a>106}</span>
+incessant fire, while the 11th Brigade upon their
+right were equally involved in the fight.  Two
+battalions of the 10th Brigade (Haldane's), the 1st Irish
+Fusiliers and 2nd Seaforths, had dug themselves in on
+the high ground just north of Selvigny and repulsed
+every attack, but two others, the 2nd Dublins and
+1st Warwicks, had got involved with the 12th Brigade
+and could not be retrieved.  The Signal Corps had
+not yet arrived, and the result was that General
+Snow had the greatest difficulty in ensuring his
+connections with his brigadiers, the orders being carried
+by his staff officers.  At two o'clock, as there was
+a lull in the German advance, Wilson of the 12th
+Brigade made a spirited counter-attack, recovering
+many of the wounded, but being finally driven back
+to the old position by intense artillery and
+machine-gun fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is worth recording that during this advance
+the Essex men found among the German dead many
+Jaeger with the same Gibraltar badge upon their
+caps which they bore themselves.  It was a
+Hanoverian battalion who had been comrades with the
+old 56th in the defence of the fortress one hundred
+and fifty years before.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The fight for the quarries.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The 11th Brigade (Hunter-Weston), on the right
+of the 12th, had meanwhile played a very vital part
+in the fight.  This brigade was defending a position
+called Les Carrières, or the quarry pits, which was
+east of Fontaine and to the north of the village of
+Ligny.  It was a desperate business, for the British
+were four times driven out of it and four times came
+back to their bitter work amid a sleet of shells and
+bullets.  Parties of the 1st Somersets and of the 1st
+East Lancashires held the quarries with the 1st
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P107"></a>107}</span>
+Hants and 1st Rifle Brigade in immediate support,
+all being eventually drawn into the fight.  Major
+Bickman, of the latter regiment, distinguished himself
+greatly in the defence, but was seriously wounded
+and left behind in the final retirement.  Besides
+incessant gun-fire, the defenders were under infantry
+fire of a very murderous description from both flanks.
+In spite of this, the place was held for six hours until
+the retirement of the line in the afternoon caused it
+to be untenable, as the enemy was able to get behind
+it.  The brigade then fell back upon Ligny under
+heavy shrapnel-fire, moving steadily and in good
+order.  The Germans at once attacked the village
+from the east and north-east.  Could they have taken
+it, they would have been upon the flank of the British
+line of retirement.  They were twice driven back,
+however, by the fire of the infantry, losing very
+heavily upon both occasions.  About four o'clock,
+the Army being in full retreat, the brigade received
+orders to abandon Ligny and march upon Malincourt.
+The effect of a heavy shrapnel-fire was minimised
+by this movement being carried out in small columns
+of fours.  A loss of 30 officers and 1115 men in a
+single day's fighting showed how severe had been the
+work of Hunter-Weston's brigade.  The 12th Brigade
+had also lost about a thousand men.  Many of the
+guns had run short of shells.  A spectator has
+described how he saw the British gunners under a heavy
+fire, sitting in gloomy groups round the guns which
+they had neither the shells to work, nor the heart to
+abandon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was the general fortune of the British left.
+At the extreme edge of it, in the gap between the left
+of the Fourth Division and the town of Cambrai,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P108"></a>108}</span>
+Sordet's French cavalry had been fighting to prevent
+the British wing from being turned.  There was
+some misconception upon this point at the time, but
+in justice to our Ally it should be known that General
+Smith-Dorrien himself galloped to this flank in the
+course of the afternoon and was a witness of the
+efforts of the French troopers, who had actually
+marched 40 miles in order to be present at the battle.
+The narrative has now taken the movements of
+the left wing up to the point of its retirement, in
+order to preserve the continuity of events in that
+portion of the field, but the actual abandonment of
+their position by Snow's Fourth Division was due to
+circumstances over which they had no control, and
+which had occurred at a considerable distance.  Both
+the centre and the left of the Army could have held
+its own, though it must be admitted that the attack
+to which they were exposed was a very violent one
+gallantly pushed home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All might have gone well had the Germans not
+been able to mass such an overpowering artillery
+attack upon the right of the line.  It was shortly after
+mid-day that this part of the position began to weaken,
+and observers from the centre saw stragglers retiring
+over the low hill in the Le Cateau direction.  At
+that hour the artillery upon the right of the British
+line was mostly silenced, and large masses of the
+German infantry were observed moving round the
+right flank.  The salient of the Suffolks was in the
+possession of the enemy, and from it they could
+enfilade the line.  It was no longer possible to bring
+up ammunition or horses to the few remaining guns.
+The greater part of the troops held on none the less
+most doggedly to their positions.  A steady downpour
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P109"></a>109}</span>
+of rain was a help rather than a discomfort, as it
+enabled the men to moisten their parched lips.  But
+the situation of the Fifth Division was growing
+desperate.  It was plain that to remain where they
+were could only mean destruction.  And yet to ask
+the exhausted men to retire under such a rain of
+shells would be a dangerous operation.  Even the
+best troops may reach their snapping point.  Most
+of them had by the afternoon been under constant
+shrapnel-fire for eight hours on end.  Some were
+visibly weakening.  Anxious officers looked eagerly
+over their shoulders for any sign of reinforcement,
+but an impassable gap separated them from their
+comrades of the First Army Corps, who were listening
+with sinking hearts to the rumble of the distant
+cannonade.  There was nothing for it but to chance
+the retirement.  About three o'clock commanders
+called to officers and officers to men for a last great
+effort.  It was the moment when a leader reaps in
+war the love and confidence which he has sown in
+peace.  Smith-Dorrien had sent his meagre reserve,
+which consisted of one battery and two battalions,
+to take up a rearguard position astride the Le
+Cateau-St. Quentin road.  Every available detail,
+that could pull a trigger, down to Hildebrand's
+signallers of the Headquarters Staff, who had already
+done wonderful work in their own particular line, were
+thrust into the covering line.  One by one the
+dishevelled brigades were drawn off towards the south.
+One section of the heavy guns of the 108th Heavy
+Battery was ordered back to act with two battalions
+of the 19th Brigade in covering the Reumont-Maritz
+road, while the 1st Norfolks were put in echelon
+behind the right flank for the same purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P110"></a>110}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The splendid work of the British guns.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Fifth Division, with the 15th Brigade as
+rearguard, considerably disorganised by its long
+hammering, retreated along the straight Roman road
+via Maritz and Estrees.  The Third Division fell back
+through Berthy and Clary to Beaurevoir, the 9th
+Brigade forming a rearguard.  The cavalry, greatly
+helped by Sordet's French cavalry upon the west,
+flung itself in front of the pursuit, while the guns
+sacrificed themselves to save the retiring infantry.
+Every British battery was an inferno of bursting
+shells, and yet every one fought on while breech-block
+would shut or gunner could stand.  Many batteries
+were in the state of the 61st R.F.A., which fired away
+all its own shells and then borrowed from the limbers
+of other neighbouring batteries, the guns of which
+had been put out of action.  Had the artillery gone
+the Army would have gone.  Had the Army gone
+the Germans had a clear run into Paris.  It has been
+said that on the covering batteries of Wing, Milne,
+and Headlam may, on that wet August afternoon,
+have hung the future history of Europe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wing's command included the 23rd, 30th, 40th,
+and 42nd Brigades, with the 48th Heavy Battery;
+Headlam's were the 15th, 27th, 28th, and 8th, with
+the 108th Heavy; Milne's, the 14th, 29th, 32nd, and
+37th, with the 31st Heavy.  These numbers deserve to
+be recorded, for every gun of them did great service,
+though many were left in ruins on the field.  Some, like
+those of the 37th R.F.A., were plucked from under the
+very noses of the Germans, who were within a hundred
+yards of them when they were withdrawn, a deed of
+valour for which Captain Reynolds of that battery
+received the Cross.  One by one those batteries
+which could move were drawn off, the cavalry covering
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P111"></a>111}</span>
+the manoeuvre by their rifle-fire, and sometimes
+man-handling the gun from the field.  Serving one
+day as charging cavaliers, another as mounted
+infantry in covering a retreat, again as sappers in
+making or holding a trench, or when occasion called
+for it as gun-teams to pull on the trace of a derelict
+gun, the cavalry have been the general utility men of
+the Army.  The days of pure cavalry may have
+passed, but there will never be a time when a brave
+and handy fighting man who is mobile will not be
+invaluable to his comrades.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Difficult retirement of the Fourth Division.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was about four o'clock that the Fourth Division,
+on the left flank, who had been maintaining the
+successful defensive already described, were ordered
+to begin their retirement.  The 12th Brigade was
+able to withdraw with no great difficulty along the
+line Walincourt-Villiers-Vendhuile, reaching the
+latter village about nine-thirty.  The doings of the
+11th Brigade have been already described.  There
+was considerable disintegration but no loss of spirit.
+One of the regiments of the 12th, the 2nd Royal
+Lancasters, together with about three hundred
+Warwicks, from the 10th Brigade, and some detachments
+of other regiments, were by some mischance,
+isolated in the village of Haucourt with no definite
+orders, and held on until ten o'clock at night, when
+the place was nearly surrounded.  They fought their
+way out, however, in a most surprising fashion, and
+eventually made good their retreat.  One party,
+under Major Poole of the Warwicks, rejoined the
+Army next day.  Captain Clutterbuck, with a small
+party of Royal Lancasters, wandered into Haumont
+after it was occupied by the Germans.  Summoned
+to surrender the gallant officer refused, and was shot
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P112"></a>112}</span>
+dead, but his men charged with the bayonet and
+fought their way clear to a post which was held by
+Major Parker of the same regiment, to the immediate
+south of the village.  This officer, finding that he
+was the last rearguard, withdrew in the face of heavy
+German forces.  Being joined by Major Christie of
+the Warwicks with 200 men, they followed the Army,
+and, finally, by a mixture of good luck and good
+leadership, picked their way through the German
+advance guards, and on the third day rejoined the
+colours at Noyon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Haldane's 10th Brigade had got split up during
+the confused fighting of the day, half of it, the 1st
+Warwicks and 2nd Dublins, getting involved with
+the 12th Brigade in the fighting on the Haucourt
+Ridge.  The other two battalions, the 2nd Seaforths
+and 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers, kept guard as a reserve
+over the left flank of the division.  Towards evening
+General Haldane, finding it hopeless to recover
+control of his lost regiments, collected the rest of his
+brigade, and endeavoured to follow the general line
+of retreat.  He lost touch with the remainder of the
+Army, and might well have been cut off, but after a
+most exhausting experience he succeeded in safely
+rejoining the division at Roisel upon the 27th.  It
+may be said generally that the reassembling of the
+Fourth Division after the disintegration they had
+experienced was a remarkable example of
+individualism and determination.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is impossible to doubt that the Germans, in
+spite of their preponderating numbers, were staggered
+by the resistance which they had encountered.  In
+no other way can one explain the fact that their
+pursuit, which for three days had been incessant,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P113"></a>113}</span>
+should now, at the most critical instant, have eased
+off.  The cavalry and guns staved off the final blow,
+and the stricken infantry staggered from the field.
+The strain upon the infantry of the Fifth Division
+may be gathered from the fact that up to this point
+they had lost, roughly, 143 officers, while the Third
+Division had lost 92 and the Fourth 70.  For the
+time they were disorganised as bodies, even while
+they preserved their moral as individuals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When extended formations are drawn rapidly in
+under the conditions of a heavy action, it is often
+impossible to convey the orders to men in outlying
+positions.  Staying in their trenches and unconscious
+of the departure of their comrades, they are sometimes
+gathered up by the advancing enemy, but more
+frequently fall into the ranks of some other corps,
+and remain for days or weeks away from their own
+battalion, turning up long after they have helped to
+swell some list of casualties.  Regiments get
+intermingled and pour along the roads in a confusion
+which might suggest a rout, whilst each single soldier
+is actually doing his best to recover his corps.  It is
+disorganisation&mdash;but not demoralisation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The fate of the 1st Gordons.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has been remarked above that in the widespread
+formations of modern battles it is difficult to be sure
+of the transmission of orders.  An illustration of such
+a danger occurred upon this occasion, which gave
+rise to an aftermath of battle nearly as disastrous as
+the battle itself.  This was the episode which
+culminated in the loss of a body of troops, including a
+large portion of the 1st Gordon Highlanders.  This
+distinguished corps had been engaged with the rest
+of Beauchamp Doran's 8th Brigade at Mons and
+again upon the following day, after which they
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P114"></a>114}</span>
+retreated with the rest of their division.  On the
+evening of the 25th they bivouacked in the village
+of Audencourt, just south of the Cambrai-Le Cateau
+highway, and on the morning of the 26th they found
+themselves defending a line of trenches in front of
+this village.  From nine o'clock the Gordons held
+their ground against a persistent German attack.
+About 3.30 an order was given for the battalion
+to retire.  This message only reached one company,
+which acted upon it, but the messenger was wounded
+<i>en route</i>, and failed to reach battalion headquarters.
+Consequently the remainder of the battalion did not
+retire with the Army, but continued to hold its
+trenches, greatly helped by the flank (D) Company
+of Royal Scots, until long after nightfall, when the
+enemy in great force had worked round both of its
+flanks.  It should be understood that the
+withdrawal of the Royal Scots was under direct order
+emanating from brigade headquarters, but an officer
+of the Gordons, not knowing that such an order had
+been issued, and perceiving that their flank would be
+exposed if D Company left their trench, said a few
+words to them which had such an effect upon their
+fiery souls that they rushed back to stand by
+the Highlanders, their Captain being shot dead as
+he waved his men back into their trench.  From
+that time onwards this company of Royal Scots,
+finely led by two young lieutenants, Graves and
+Graham Watson, shared all the dangers and the
+ultimate fate of the Gordons, as did a handful of
+Royal Irish upon the other flank.  When it was dusk
+it became clear to Colonel Gordon, who was now in
+command of the mixed detachment, that he and his
+men were separated from the Army and surrounded
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P115"></a>115}</span>
+on every side by the advancing Germans.  At that
+time the men, after supreme exertion for several days,
+had been in action for twelve hours on end.  He
+therefore decided, as against annihilation in the
+morning, that retreat was the only course open.
+The wounded were left in the trenches.  The
+transport, machine-guns, and horses had already been
+destroyed by the incessant shelling.  The detachment
+made a move towards the south, the operation being
+a most difficult one in pitch darkness with the enemy
+within a few hundred yards.  The success attained
+in this initial stage was largely due to the way in which
+the Master of Saltoun conveyed the orders which drew
+in the flanks to the centre.  Having made good the
+Audencourt-Caudry road at 1 A.M. on August 27,
+the troops managed to traverse some miles of road,
+with blazing villages all about them, and had a fair
+chance of reaching safety when unfortunately at
+Montigny they took a wrong turn, which brought
+them into Bertry which was held by the Germans.
+Some confusion was caused by the latter challenging
+in French.  A confused fight followed in the darkness,
+in the course of which many individual acts of great
+bravery and devotion were performed.  The enemy
+were now all round the Highlanders, and though the
+struggle continued for fifty minutes, and there was no
+official surrender, the little body of men was embedded
+in Von Kluck's army, and no escape could be found.
+The utmost discipline and gallantry were shown by
+all ranks.  It must be some consolation to the
+survivors to know that it is freely admitted that their
+resistance in the trenches for so long a period
+undoubtedly facilitated the safe withdrawal of the
+Third, and to some extent of the Fourth Divisions.
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P116"></a>116}</span>
+Major Leslie Butler, Brigade-Major of the 8th Brigade,
+who had made a gallant effort to ride to the Gordons
+and warn them of their danger, was entangled among
+the Germans, and only succeeded six days later in
+regaining the British lines.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Results of the battle.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So ended the perilous, costly, and almost disastrous
+action of Le Cateau.  The loss to the British Army,
+so far as it can be extracted from complex figures
+and separated from the other losses of the retreat,
+amounted to between seven and eight thousand killed,
+wounded, and missing, while at the time of the
+action, or in the immediate retreat, a considerable
+quantity of transport and thirty-six field-pieces,
+mostly in splinters, were abandoned to the enemy.
+It was an action which could hardly have been avoided,
+and from which the troops were extricated on better
+terms than might have been expected.  It will always
+remain an interesting academic question what would
+have occurred had it been possible for the First Corps
+to line up with the rest of the Army.  The enemy's
+preponderance of artillery would probably have
+prevented a British victory, and the strategic position
+would in any case have made it a barren one, but
+at least the Germans would have been hard hit and
+the subsequent retreat more leisurely.  As it stood, it
+was an engagement upon which the weaker side can
+look back without shame or dishonour.  One result
+of it was to give both the Army and the country
+increased confidence in themselves and their leaders.
+Sir John French has testified to the splendid qualities
+shown by the troops, while his whole-hearted tribute
+to Smith-Dorrien, in which he said, "The saving of
+the left wing of the Army could never have been
+accomplished unless a commander of rare and unusual
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P117"></a>117}</span>
+coolness, intrepidity, and determination had been
+present to personally conduct the operation," will
+surely be endorsed by history.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is difficult to exaggerate the strain which had
+been thrown upon this commander.  On him had
+fallen the immediate direction of the action at Mons;
+on him also had been the incessant responsibility of
+the retreat.  He had, as has been shown in the
+narrative, been hard at work all night upon the eve
+of the battle; he superintended that trying engagement,
+he extricated his forces, and finally motored
+to St. Quentin in the evening, went on to Noyon,
+reached it after midnight, and was back with his
+Army in the morning, encouraging every one by the
+magnetism of his presence.  It was a very remarkable
+feat of endurance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Exhaustion of the Army
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Exhausted as the troops were, there could be no
+halt or rest until they had extricated themselves from
+the immediate danger.  At the last point of human
+endurance they still staggered on through the evening
+and the night time, amid roaring thunder and flashing
+lightning, down the St. Quentin road.  Many fell
+from fatigue, and having fallen, continued to sleep
+in ditches by the roadside, oblivious of the racket
+around them.  A number never woke until they
+found themselves in the hands of the Uhlan patrols.
+Others slumbered until their corps had disappeared,
+and then, regaining their senses, joined with other
+straggling units so as to form bands, which wandered
+over the country, and eventually reached the railway
+line about Amiens with wondrous Bill Adams tales
+of personal adventures which in time reached England,
+and gave the impression of complete disaster.  But
+the main body were, as a matter of fact, holding well
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P118"></a>118}</span>
+together, though the units of infantry had become
+considerably mixed and so reduced that at least four
+brigades, after less than a week of war, had lost 50
+per cent of their personnel.  Many of the men threw
+away the heavier contents of their packs, and others
+abandoned the packs themselves, so that the pursuing
+Germans had every evidence of a rout before their
+eyes.  It was deplorable that equipment should be
+discarded, but often it was the only possible thing
+to do, for either the man had to be sacrificed or the
+pack.  Advantage was taken of a forked road to
+station an officer there who called out, "Third Division
+right, Fifth Division left," which greatly helped
+the reorganisation.  The troops snatched a few hours
+of rest at St. Quentin, and then in the breaking dawn
+pushed upon their weary road once more, country
+carts being in many cases commandeered to carry
+the lame and often bootless infantry.  The paved
+<i>chaussées</i>, with their uneven stones, knocked the feet
+to pieces, and caused much distress to the tired men,
+which was increased by the extreme heat of the
+weather.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the case of some of the men the collapse was so
+complete that it was almost impossible to get them
+on.  Major Tom Bridges, of the 4th Royal Irish
+Dragoons, being sent to round up and hurry forward
+250 stragglers at St. Quentin, found them nearly
+comatose with fatigue.  With quick wit he bought a
+toy drum, and, accompanied by a man with a penny
+whistle, he fell them in and marched them, laughing
+in all their misery, down the high road towards Ham.
+When he stopped he found that his strange following
+stopped also, so he was compelled to march and play
+the whole way to Roupy.  Thus by one man's compelling
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P119"></a>119}</span>
+personality 250 men were saved for the Army.
+But such complete collapse was rare.  The men kept
+their <i>moral</i>.  "Beneath the dirt and grime and
+weariness I saw clear eyes and grim jaws even when
+the men could hardly walk."  So spoke Coleman,
+the gallant American volunteer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Up to now nothing had been seen of the French
+infantry, and the exposed British force had been
+hustled and harried by Von Kluck's great army
+without receiving any substantial support.  This was
+through no want of loyalty, but our gallant Allies
+were themselves hard pressed.  Sir John French
+had sent urgent representations, especially to General
+Sordet, the leader of the cavalry operating upon the
+western side, and he had, as already shown, done
+what he could to screen Smith-Dorrien's flank.  Now
+at last the retiring Army was coming in touch with
+those supports which were so badly needed.  But
+before they were reached, on the morning of the 27th,
+the Germans had again driven in the rearguard of
+the First Corps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The destruction of the 2nd Munsters.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some delay in starting had been caused that
+morning by the fact that only one road was available
+for the whole of the transport, which had to be sent
+on in advance.  Hence the rearguard was exposed
+to increased pressure.  This rearguard consisted of
+the 1st Brigade.  The 2nd Munsters were the right
+battalion.  Then came the 1st Coldstream, the 1st
+Scots Guards, and the 1st Black Watch in reserve.
+The front of the Munsters, as it faced round to hold
+back the too pushful Germans, was from the north
+of Fesmy to Chapeau Rouge, but Major Charrier,
+who was in command, finding no French at Bergues,
+as he had been led to expect, sent B and D
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P120"></a>120}</span>
+Companies of Munsters with one troop of the 15th
+Hussars to hold the cross-roads near that place.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At about 12.30 a message reached Major Charrier
+to the effect that when ordered to retire he should
+fall back on a certain line and act as flank-guard to
+the brigade.  He was not to withdraw his two
+companies from Chapeau Rouge until ordered.  The
+Germans were already in force right on the top of
+the Irishmen, the country being a broken one with
+high hedges which restricted the field of fire.  A
+section of guns of the 118th R.F.A. were served from
+the road about fifty yards behind the line of the
+infantry.  A desperate struggle ensued, in the course
+of which the Munsters, suffering heavily, overlapped
+on each flank, and utterly outnumbered, held on
+bravely in the hope of help from the rest of the
+brigade.  They did not know that a message had
+already been dispatched to them to the effect that
+they should come on, and that the other regiments
+had already done so.  Still waiting for the orders
+which never came, they fell back slowly through
+Fesmy before the attack, until held up at a small
+village called Etreux, where the Germans cut off
+their retreat.  Meanwhile the Brigadier, hearing that
+the Munsters were in trouble, gave orders that the
+Coldstream should reinforce them.  It was too late,
+however.  At Oisy Bridge the Guards picked up sixty
+men, survivors of C Company.  It was here at Oisy
+Bridge that the missing order was delivered at 3 P.M.,
+the cycle orderly having been held up on his way.
+As there was no longer any sound of firing, the
+Coldstream and remnant of Munsters retired, being joined
+some miles back by an officer and some seventy men.
+Together with the transport guard this brought the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P121"></a>121}</span>
+total survivors of that fine regiment to 5 officers and
+206 men.  All the rest had fought to the end and
+were killed, wounded, or captured, after a most
+desperate resistance, in which they were shot down
+at close quarters, making repeated efforts to pierce
+the strong German force at Etreux.  To their fine
+work and that of the two lost guns and of a party of
+the 15th Hussars, under Lieutenant Nicholson, who
+covered the retreat it may have been due that the
+pursuit of the First Corps by the Germans from this
+moment sensibly relaxed.  Nine gallant Irish officers
+were buried that night in a common grave.  Major
+Charrier was twice wounded, but continued to lead
+his men until a third bullet struck him dead, and
+deprived the Army of a soldier whose career promised
+to be a brilliant one.  Among others who fell was
+Lieutenant Chute, whose masterly handling of a
+machine-gun stemmed again and again the tide of
+the German attack.  One of the most vivid recollections
+of the survivors was of this officer lying on his
+face in six inches of water&mdash;for the action was partly
+fought in tropical rain&mdash;and declaring that he was
+having "the time of his life."  The moral both of
+this disaster and that of the Gordons must be the
+importance of sending a message in duplicate, or even
+in triplicate, where the withdrawal of a regiment is
+concerned.  This, no doubt, is a counsel of perfection
+under practical conditions, but the ideal still remains.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+A cavalry fight.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the retreat of the First Corps its rear and
+right flank had been covered by the 5th Cavalry
+Brigade (Chetwode).  On August 28 the corps was
+continuing its march towards La Fère and the cavalry
+found itself near Cerizy.  At this point the pursuing
+German horsemen came into touch with it.  At about
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P122"></a>122}</span>
+five in the afternoon three squadrons of the enemy
+advanced upon one squadron of the Scots Greys, which
+had the support of J Battery.  Being fired at, the
+Germans dismounted and attempted to advance upon
+foot, but the fire was so heavy that they could make
+no progress and their led horses stampeded.  They
+retired, still on foot, followed up by a squadron of the
+12th Lancers on their flank.  The remainder of the
+12th Lancers, supported by the Greys, rode into the
+dismounted dragoons with sword and lance, killing or
+wounding nearly all of them.  A section of guns had
+fired over the heads of the British cavalry during
+the advance into a supporting body of German
+cavalry, who retired, leaving many dead behind them.
+The whole hostile force retreated northwards, while
+the British cavalry continued to conform to the
+movements of the First Corps.  In this spirited little
+action the German regiment engaged was, by the
+irony of fate, the 1st Guard Dragoons, Queen Victoria's
+Own.  The British lost 43 killed and wounded.
+Among the dead were Major Swetenham and Captain
+Michell of the 12th Lancers.  Colonel Wormald of
+the same regiment was wounded.  The excited
+troopers rode back triumphantly between the guns
+of J Battery, the cavalrymen exchanging cheers with
+the horse-gunners as they passed, and brandishing
+their blood-stained weapons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the evening before this brisk skirmish, the
+flank-guards of the British saw a considerable body
+of troops in dark clothing upon their left, and shortly
+afterwards perceived the shell-bursts of a rapid and
+effective fire over the pursuing German batteries.  It
+was the first contact with the advancing French.
+These men consisted of the Sixty-first and Sixty-second
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P123"></a>123}</span>
+French Reserve Divisions, and were the van
+of a considerable army under General D'Amade.
+From that moment the British forces were at last
+enabled, after a week of constant marching, covering
+sometimes a good thirty miles a day, and four days of
+continual fighting against extreme odds, to feel that
+they had reached a zone of comparative quiet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The news in Great Britain.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The German cavalry still followed the Army upon
+its southerly march, but there was no longer any fear
+of a disaster, for the main body of the Army was
+unbroken, and the soldiers were rather exasperated
+than depressed by their experience.  On the Friday
+and Saturday, however, August 28 and 29, considerable
+crowds of stragglers and fugitives, weary and
+often weaponless, appeared upon the lines of
+communication, causing the utmost consternation by
+their stories and their appearance.  Few who endured
+the mental anxiety caused in Great Britain by the
+messages of Sunday, August 30, are likely to forget
+it.  The reports gave an enormous stimulus to
+recruiting, and it is worthy of record and remembrance
+that, in the dark week which followed before the true
+situation was clearly discerned, every successive day
+brought as many recruits to the standards as are
+usually gained in a year.  Such was the rush of men
+that the authorities, with their many preoccupations,
+found it very difficult to deal with them.  A
+considerable amount of hardship and discomfort was the
+result, which was endured with good humour until it
+could be remedied.  It is to be noted in this connection
+that it was want of arms which held back the
+new armies.  He who compares the empty arsenals
+of Britain with the huge extensions of Krupp's,
+undertaken during the years before the war, will
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P124"></a>124}</span>
+find the final proof as to which Power deliberately
+planned it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To return to the fortunes of the men retreating
+from Le Cateau, the colonels and brigadiers had
+managed to make order out of what was approaching
+to chaos on the day that the troops left St. Quentin.
+The feet of many were so cut and bleeding that they
+could no longer limp along, so some were packed into
+a few trains available and others were hoisted on to
+limbers, guns, wagons, or anything with wheels, some
+carts being lightened of ammunition or stores to make
+room for helpless men.  In many cases the whole
+kits of the officers were deliberately sacrificed.  Many
+men were delirious from exhaustion and incapable of
+understanding an order.  By the evening of the 27th
+the main body of the troops were already fifteen miles
+south of the Somme river and canal, on the line
+Nesle-Ham-Flavy.  All day there was distant shelling
+from the pursuers, who sent their artillery freely
+forward with their cavalry.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P125"></a>125}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="capcenter">
+<a id="img-125"></a>
+<br />
+<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-125.jpg" alt="Line of Retreat from Mons" />
+<br />
+Line of Retreat from Mons
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+On the 28th the Army continued its retreat to the
+line of the Oise near Noyon.  Already the troops were
+re-forming, and had largely recovered their spirits,
+being much reassured by the declarations of the officers
+that the retreat was strategic to get them in line with
+the French, and that they would soon turn their faces
+northwards once more.  As an instance of reorganisation
+it was observed that the survivors of a brigade of
+artillery which had left its horses and guns at Le
+Cateau still marched together as a single disciplined
+unit among the infantry.  All day the enemy's horse
+artillery, cavalry, and motor-infantry hung on the
+skirts of the British, but were unable to make much
+impression.  The work of the Staff was excellent, for
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P126"></a>126}</span>
+it is on record that many of them had not averaged
+two hours' sleep in the twenty-four for over a week,
+and still they remained the clear and efficient brain of
+the Army.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the next day, the 29th, the remainder of the
+Army got across the Oise, but the enemy's advance
+was so close that the British cavalry was continually
+engaged.  Gough's 3rd Cavalry Brigade made several
+charges in the neighbourhood of Plessis, losing a
+number of men but stalling off the pursuit and
+dispersing the famous Uhlans of the Guard.  On this day
+General Pulteney and his staff arrived to take
+command of the Third Army Corps, which still consisted
+only of the Fourth Division (Snow) with the
+semi-independent 19th Infantry Brigade, now commanded
+by Colonel Ward, of the 1st Middlesex.  It was nearly
+three weeks later before the Third Corps was made
+complete.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The views of General Joffre.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There had been, as already mentioned, a French
+advance of four corps in the St. Quentin direction,
+which fought a brave covering action, and so helped
+to relieve the pressure upon the British.  It cannot
+be denied that there was a feeling among the latter
+that they had been unduly exposed, being placed in so
+advanced a position and having their flank stripped
+suddenly bare in the presence of the main German
+army.  General Joffre must have recognised that this
+feeling existed and that it was not unreasonable, for
+he came to a meeting on this day at the old Napoleonic
+Palace at Compiégne, at which Sir John French, with
+Generals Haig, Smith-Dorrien, and Allenby, was
+present.  It was an assemblage of weary, overwrought
+men, and yet of men who had strength enough of mind
+and sufficient sense of justice to realise that whatever
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P127"></a>127}</span>
+weight had been thrown upon them, there was even
+more upon the great French engineer whose spirit
+hovered over the whole line from Verdun to Amiens.
+Each man left the room more confident of the
+immediate future.  Shortly afterwards Joffre issued his
+kindly recognition of the work done by his Allies,
+admitting in the most handsome fashion that the flank
+of the long French line of armies had been saved by
+the hard fighting and self-sacrifice of the British Army.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On August 30, the whole Army having crossed the
+Oise, the bridges over that river were destroyed, an
+operation which was performed under a heavy shell-fire,
+and cost the lives of several sapper officers and
+men.  No words can exaggerate what the Army owed
+to Wilson's sappers of the 56th and 57th Field
+Companies and 3rd Signal Company, as also to Tulloch's,
+of the 17th and 59th Companies and 5th Signal
+Company, whose work was incessant, fearless, and
+splendid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Army continued to fall back on the line of the
+Aisne, the general direction being almost east and
+west through Crépy-en-Valois.  The aeroplanes, which
+had conducted a fine service during the whole of the
+operations, reported that the enemy was still coming
+rapidly on, and streaming southwards in the
+Compiégne direction.  That they were in touch was
+shown in dramatic fashion upon the early morning of
+September 1.  The epic in question deserves to be
+told somewhat fully, as being one of those incidents
+which are mere details in the history of a campaign,
+and yet may live as permanent inspirations in the life
+of an army.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Battery L.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The 1st Cavalry Brigade, greatly exhausted after
+screening the retreat so long, was encamped near Nery,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P128"></a>128}</span>
+to the south of Compiégne, the bivouac being a
+somewhat extended one.  Two units were close to each
+other and to the brigade headquarters of General
+Briggs.  These were the hard-worked 2nd Dragoon
+Guards (the Bays) and L Battery of Horse Artillery.
+<i>Réveillé</i> was at four o'clock, and shortly after that hour
+both troopers and gunners were busy in leading their
+horses to water.  It was a misty morning, and, peering
+through the haze, an officer perceived that from the
+top of a low hill about seven hundred yards away three
+mounted men were looking down upon them.  They
+were the observation officers of three four-gun German
+batteries.  Before the British could realise the
+situation the guns dashed up and came into action with
+shrapnel at point-blank range.  The whole twelve
+poured their fire into the disordered bivouac before
+them.  The slaughter and confusion were horrible.
+Numbers of the horses and men were killed or wounded,
+and three of the guns were dismounted.  It was
+a most complete surprise, and promised to be an
+absolute disaster.  A body of German cavalry had
+escorted the guns, and their rifles added to the volume
+of fire.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P129"></a>129}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="capcenter">
+<a id="img-129"></a>
+<br />
+<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-129.jpg" alt="&quot;L&quot; Battery Action, Sept. 1st, 1914" />
+<br />
+&quot;L&quot; Battery Action, Sept. 1st, 1914
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+It is at such moments that the grand power of
+disciplined valour comes to bring order out of chaos.
+Everything combined to make defence difficult&mdash;the
+chilling hour of the morning, the suddenness of the
+attack, its appalling severity, and the immediate loss
+of guns and men.  A sunken road ran behind the
+British position, and from the edge of this the
+dismounted cavalrymen brought their rifles and their
+machine-gun into action.  They suffered heavily
+from the pelting gusts of shrapnel.  Young Captain
+de Crespigny, the gallant cadet of a gallant family,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P130"></a>130}</span>
+and many other good men were beaten down by it.
+The sole hope lay in the guns.  Three were utterly
+disabled.  There was a rush of officers and men to
+bring the other three into action.  Sclater-Booth,
+the major of the battery, and one lieutenant were
+already down.  Captain Bradbury took command
+and cheered on the men.  Two of the guns were at
+once put out of action, so all united to work the one
+that remained.  What followed was Homeric.
+Lieutenant Giffard in rushing forward was hit in four
+places.  Bradbury's leg was shattered, but he lay
+beside the trail encouraging the others and giving his
+directions.  Lieutenant Mundy, standing wide as
+observation officer, was mortally wounded.  The
+limber could not be got alongside and the shell had
+to be man-handled.  In bringing it up Lieutenant
+Campbell was shot.  Immediately afterwards another
+shell burst over the gun, killed the heroic Bradbury,
+and wounded Sergeant Dorell, Driver Osborne, and
+Gunners Nelson and Derbyshire, the only remaining
+men.  But the fight went on.  The bleeding men
+served the gun so long as they could move, Osborne
+and Derbyshire crawling over with the shells while
+Nelson loaded and Dorell laid.  Osborne and Derbyshire
+fainted from loss of blood and lay between limber
+and gun.  But the fight went on.  Dorell and Nelson,
+wounded and exhausted, crouched behind the shield
+of the thirteen-pounder and kept up an incessant fire.
+Now it was that the amazing fact became visible that
+all this devotion had not been in vain.  The cluster
+of Bays on the edge of the sunken road burst out into
+a cheer, which was taken up by the staff, who, with
+General Briggs himself, had come into the firing-line.
+Several of the German pieces had gone out of action.
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P131"></a>131}</span>
+The dying gun had wrought good work, as had the
+Maxim of the Bays in the hands of Lieutenant Lamb.
+Some at least of its opponents had been silenced before
+the two brave gunners could do no more, for their
+strength had gone with their blood.  Not only had the
+situation been saved, but victory had been assured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About eight in the morning news of the perilous
+situation had reached the 19th Brigade.  The 1st
+Middlesex, under Colonel Rowley, was hurried forward,
+followed by the 1st Scottish Rifles.  Marching rapidly
+upon the firing, after the good old maxim, the Middlesex
+found themselves in a position to command the
+German batteries.  After two minutes of rapid fire
+it was seen that the enemy had left their guns.  Eight
+guns were captured, two of them still loaded.  About
+a dozen German gunners lay dead or wounded round
+them.  Twenty-five of the escort were captured, as
+was an ambulance with some further prisoners a mile
+in the rear.  The cavalry, notably the 11th Hussars,
+endeavoured to follow up the success, but soon found
+themselves in the presence of superior forces.  New
+wheels and new wheelers were found for the injured
+guns, and Battery L came intact out of action&mdash;intact
+save for the brave acolytes who should serve her no
+more.  Bradbury, Nelson, and Dorell had the Victoria
+Cross, and never was it better earned.  The battery
+itself was recalled to England to refit and the guns
+were changed for new ones.  It is safe to say that for
+many a long year these shrapnel-dinted thirteen-pounders
+will serve as a monument of one of those
+deeds which, by their self-sacrifice and nobility, do
+something to mitigate the squalors and horrors of
+war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The success was gained at the cost of many valuable
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P132"></a>132}</span>
+lives.  Not only had the personnel of the battery
+been destroyed, but the Bays lost heavily, and there
+were some casualties among the rest of the brigade
+who had come up in support.  The 5th Dragoon
+Guards had 50 or 60 casualties, and lost its admirable
+commander, Colonel Ansell, who was shot down in a
+flanking movement which he had initiated.  Major
+Cawley, of the staff, also fell.  The total British loss
+was not far short of 500 killed and wounded, but the
+Germans lost heavily also, and were compelled to
+abandon their guns.[<a id="chap04fn1text"></a><a href="#chap04fn1">1</a>]
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a id="chap04fn1"></a>
+[<a href="#chap04fn1text">1</a>] The German cavalry were the Fourth Cavalry Division, including the
+2nd Cuirassiers, 9th Uhlans, 17th and 18th Dragoons.  They published
+in their losses for the "Combat of Néry" 643 casualties.  This is not
+the complete loss, as the artillery does not seem to have been included.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The action of Villars-Cotteret.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The German advance guards were particularly
+active upon this day, September 1, the anniversary of
+Sedan.  Although the Soissons Bridge had been
+destroyed they had possession of another at Vic, and
+over this they poured in pursuit of the First Corps,
+overtaking about 8 A.M. near Villars-Cotteret the
+rearguard, consisting of the Irish Guards and the 2nd
+Coldstream.  The whole of the 4th Guards Brigade
+was drawn into the fight, which resolved itself into a
+huge rifle duel amid thick woods, Scott-Kerr, their
+Brigadier, riding up and down the firing line.  The
+Guards retired slowly upon the 6th Infantry Brigade
+(Davies), which was aided by Lushington's 41st
+Brigade of Artillery, just south of Pisseleux.  The
+Germans had brought up many guns, but could make
+no further progress, and the British position was held
+until 6 P.M., when the rearguard closed up with the
+rest of the Army.  Lushington's guns had fought
+with no infantry in front of them, and it was a matter
+of great difficulty in the end to get them off, but it was
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P133"></a>133}</span>
+accomplished by some very brilliant work under an
+infernal fire.  After this sharp action, in which Colonel
+Morris of the Irish Guards lost his life, the retreat of
+the First Army Corps was not seriously interfered
+with.  The losses at that date in this corps amounted
+to 81 officers and 2180 of all ranks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So much attention is naturally drawn to the
+Second Army Corps, which both at Mons and at Le
+Cateau had endured most of the actual fighting, that
+there is some danger of the remarkable retreat effected
+by the First Corps having less than its fair share of
+appreciation.  The actual fighting was the least of the
+difficulties.  The danger of one or both flanks being
+exposed, the great mobility of the enemy, the indifferent
+and limited roads, the want of rest, the difficulty
+of getting food cooked, the consequent absolute
+exhaustion of the men, and the mental depression
+combined to make it an operation of a most trying
+character, throwing an enormous strain upon the
+judgment and energy of General Haig, who so successfully
+brought his men intact and fit for service into
+a zone of safety.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Reunion of the Army.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the night of September 1, the First and Second
+Army Corps were in touch once more at Betz, and
+were on the move again by 2 A.M. upon the 2nd.  On
+this morning the German advance was curiously
+interlocked with the British rear, and four German
+guns were picked up by the cavalry near Ermenonville.
+They are supposed to have been the remaining
+guns of the force which attacked Battery L at Nery.
+The movements of the troops during the day were
+much impeded by the French refugees, who thronged
+every road in their flight before the German terror.
+In spite of these obstructions, the rearward services
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P134"></a>134}</span>
+of the Army&mdash;supply columns, ammunition columns,
+and medical transport&mdash;were well conducted, and the
+admiration of all independent observers.  The work
+of all these departments had been greatly complicated
+by the fact that, as the Channel ports were now
+practically undefended and German troops, making
+towards the coast, had cut the main Calais-Boulogne
+line at Amiens, the base had been moved farther south
+from Havre to St. Nazaire, which meant shifting
+seventy thousand tons of stores and changing all
+arrangements.  In spite of this the supplies were
+admirable.  It may safely be said that if there is one
+officer more than another for whom the whole British
+Army felt a glow of gratitude, it was for Sir William
+Robertson, the Chief of the Commissariat, who saw
+that the fighting man was never without his rations.
+Greatly also did they appreciate the work of his
+subordinates, who, wet or fine, through rainfall or
+shell-fall, passed the food forward to the weary men
+at the front.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A difficult movement lay in front of the Army
+which had to cross the Marne, involving a flank march
+in the face of the enemy.  A retirement was still part
+of the general French scheme of defence, and the
+British Army had to conform to it, though it was
+exultantly whispered from officer to sergeant and
+from sergeant to private that the turn of the tide was
+nearly due.  On this day it was first observed that
+the Germans, instead of pushing forward, were
+swinging across to the east in the direction of
+Chateau-Thierry.  This made the task of the British a more
+easy one, and before evening they were south of the
+Marne and had blown up the bridges.  The movement
+of the Germans brought them down to the river,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P135"></a>135}</span>
+but at a point some ten miles east of the British
+position.  They were reported to be crossing the
+river at La Ferté, and Sir John French continued to
+fall back towards the Seine, moving after sundown, as
+the heat had been for some days very exhausting.
+The troops halted in the neighbourhood of Presles,
+and were cheered by the arrival of some small drafts,
+numbering about 2000, a first instalment towards
+refilling the great gaps in the ranks, which at this date
+could not have been less than from 12,000 to 15,000
+officers and men.  Here for a moment this narrative
+may be broken, since it has taken the Army to the
+farthest point of its retreat and reached that moment
+of advance for which every officer and man, from Sir
+John French to the drummer-boys, was eagerly waiting.
+With their left flank resting upon the extreme
+outer forts of Paris, the British troops had finally ended
+a retreat which will surely live in military history as a
+remarkable example of an army retaining its cohesion
+and courage in the presence of an overpowering
+adversary, who could never either cut them off or break in
+their rearguard.  The British Army was a small force
+when compared with the giants of the Continent,
+but when tried by this supreme test it is not mere
+national complacency for us to claim that it lived up
+to its own highest traditions.  "It was not to forts
+of steel and concrete that the Allies owed their
+strength," said a German historian, writing of this
+phase of the war, "but to the magnificent qualities
+of the British Army."  We desire no compliments at
+the expense of our brothers-in-arms, nor would they be
+just, but at least so generous a sentence as this may be
+taken as an advance from that contemptuous view of
+the British Army with which the campaign had begun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P136"></a>136}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before finally leaving the consideration of this
+historical retreat, where a small army successfully
+shook itself clear from the long and close pursuit of a
+remarkably gallant, mobile, and numerous enemy,
+it may be helpful to give a chronology of the events,
+that the reader may see their relation to each other.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<table style="text-align: center; width: 80%">
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+HAIG'S FIRST CORPS.
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+SMITH-DORRIEN'S SECOND CORPS.
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table style="text-align: center" width="80%">
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: center" valign="top" colspan="2">
+<br />
+<i>August</i> 22.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Get into position to the<br />
+east of Mons, covering the<br />
+line Mons-Bray.<br />
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Get into position to the<br />
+east of Mons, covering the<br />
+line Mons-Condé.<br />
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table style="text-align: center" width="80%">
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: center" valign="top" colspan="2">
+<br />
+<i>August</i> 23.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Artillery engagement, but<br />
+no severe attack.  Ordered<br />
+to retreat in conformity with<br />
+Second Corps.<br />
+   </td>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Strongly attacked by Von<br />
+Kluck's army.  Ordered to<br />
+abandon position and fall<br />
+back.<br />
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table style="text-align: center" width="80%">
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: center" valign="top" colspan="2">
+<br />
+<i>August</i> 24.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Retreat with no serious<br />  
+molestation upon Bavai.<br />
+Here the two Corps diverged<br />
+and did not meet again till<br />
+they reached Betz upon<br />
+September 1.<br /> 
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Retreat followed up by the<br />
+Germans.  Severe rearguard<br />
+actions at Dour, Wasmes,<br />
+Frameries.  Corps shook<br />
+itself clear and fell back on<br />
+Bavai.<br />
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table style="text-align: center" width="80%">
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: center" valign="top" colspan="2">
+<br />
+<i>August</i> 25.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Marching all day.  Overtaken<br />
+in evening at Landrecies<br />
+and Maroilles by the German<br />
+pursuit.  Sharp fighting.<br />
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Marching all day.  Reinforced<br />
+by Fourth Division.<br />
+Continual rearguard action<br />
+becoming more serious towards<br />
+evening, when Cambrai-Le Cateau<br />
+line was reached.<br />
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table style="text-align: center" width="80%">
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: center" valign="top" colspan="2">
+<br />
+<i>August</i> 26.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Rearguard actions in morning.<br />
+Marching south all day,<br />
+halting at the Venerolles<br />
+line.<br />
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Battle of Le Cateau.  German<br />
+pursuit stalled off at<br />
+heavy cost of men and guns.<br />
+Retreat on St. Quentin.<br />
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P137"></a>137}</span>
+</p>
+
+<table style="text-align: center" width="80%">
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: center" valign="top" colspan="2">
+<br />
+<i>August</i> 27.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Rearguard action in which<br />
+Munsters lost heavily.<br />
+Marching south all day.<br />
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Marching south.  Reach<br />
+the line Nesle-Ham-Flavy.<br />
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table style="text-align: center" width="80%">
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: center" valign="top" colspan="2">
+<br />
+<i>August</i> 28.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Cavalry actions to stop<br />
+German pursuit.  Marching<br />
+south on La Fere.<br />
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Marching south, making<br />
+for the line of the Oise near<br />
+Noyon.  Light rearguard<br />
+skirmishes.<br />
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table style="text-align: center" width="80%">
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: center" valign="top" colspan="2">
+<br />
+<i>August</i> 29, 30, and 31.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Marching on the line of the<br />
+Aisne, almost east and west.<br />
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Crossed Oise.  Cavalry<br />
+continually engaged.  General<br />
+direction through<br />
+Crépy-en-Valois.<br />
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table style="text-align: center" width="80%">
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: center" valign="top" colspan="2">
+<br />
+<i>September</i> 1.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Sharp action at Nery with<br />
+German vanguard.  Later in<br />
+the day considerable infantry<br />
+action at Villars-Cotteret.<br />
+Unite at Betz.<br />
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Retreat upon Paris continued.<br />
+Late this night the<br />
+two Corps unite once more at<br />
+Betz.<br />
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<table style="text-align: center" width="80%">
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: center" valign="top" colspan="2">
+<br />
+<i>September</i> 2.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Crossed the Marne and began<br />
+to fall back on the Seine.<br />
+Halted near Presles.<br />
+</td>
+<td style="text-align: left; width: 50%" valign="top" >
+Crossed the Marne and began<br />
+to fall back on the Seine.<br />
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a id="chap05"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">{<a id="P138"></a>138}</span></p>
+
+<h3>
+CHAPTER V
+<br /><br />
+THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE
+</h3>
+
+<p class="intro">
+The general situation&mdash;"Die grosse Zeit"&mdash;The turn of the tide&mdash;The
+Battle of the Ourcq&mdash;The British advance&mdash;Cavalry fighting&mdash;The
+1st Lincolns and the guns&mdash;6th Brigade's action at
+Hautvesnes&mdash;9th Brigade's capture of Germans at Vinly&mdash;The
+problem of the Aisne&mdash;Why the Marne is one of the
+great battles of all time.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The general situation.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There are several problems connected with the
+strategical opening of the great war which will furnish
+food for debate among military critics for many years
+to come.  One of these, already alluded to, is the
+French offensive taken in Alsace and Lorraine.  It
+ended in check in both cases, and yet its ultimate
+effects in confusing the German plans and deflecting
+German armies which might have been better used
+elsewhere may be held to justify the French in their
+strategy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another remarkable and questionable move now
+obtrudes itself, this time upon the part of the Germans.
+Very shortly after the outbreak of war, the Russians
+had pushed their covering armies over the frontier
+of East Prussia, and had defeated a German force
+at Gumbinnen, with a loss of prisoners and guns.  A
+few days later the left wing of the widespread, and
+as yet only partially mobilised, Russian army struck
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P139"></a>139}</span>
+heavily at the Austrians in the south near Lemberg,
+where after a week of fighting they gained a great
+victory, with prisoners, which amounted to over
+70,000 men and a large booty of guns and supplies.
+Before this blow had befallen their cause, and
+influenced only by the fact that the Russian right wing
+was encroaching upon the sacred soil of the Fatherland,
+a considerable force was detached from the invading
+armies in France and dispatched to the Eastern front.
+These men were largely drawn from the Third (Saxon)
+Army of Von Haussen.  Such a withdrawal at such
+a time could only mean that the German general
+staff considered that the situation in France was
+assured, and that they had still sufficient means to
+carry on a victorious invasion.  Events were to show
+that they were utterly mistaken in their calculation.
+It is true that, aided by these reinforcements, Von
+Hindenburg succeeded on August 31 in inflicting a
+severe defeat upon the Russians at the battle of
+Tannenberg, but subsequent events proved that such
+a victory could have no decisive result, while the
+weakening of the armies in France may have had a
+permanent effect upon the whole course of the war.
+At the very moment that the Germans were withdrawing
+troops from their Western front the British
+and French were doing all they could to thicken
+their own line of resistance, especially by the
+transference of armies from Alsace and the south.  Thus
+the net result was that, whereas the Germans had
+up to August 25 a very marked superiority in numbers,
+by the beginning of September the forces were more
+equal.  From that moment the chance of their taking
+Paris became steadily more and more remote.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first month of the war represented a very
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P140"></a>140}</span>
+remarkable military achievement upon the part
+of Germany.  In her high state of preparation as
+compared with the Allies, it was to be expected that
+the beginning of hostilities would be all in her favour,
+but the reality exceeded what could have been
+foreseen.  Her great armies were ready to the last button.
+Up to the eve of war the soldiers did not themselves
+know what their field uniform was like.  At the last
+moment two millions of men filed into the depots and
+emerged in half an hour clad in grey, with new boots,
+equipment, and every possible need for the campaign.
+On her artillery surprises she set special store, and
+they were upon a vast scale.  The machine-gun had
+been developed to an extent unknown by other
+armies, and of these deadly little weapons it is
+certain that very many thousands were available.
+From the tiny quick-firer, carried easily by two men
+upon a stretcher, to the vast cannon with a diameter
+of sixteen and a half inches at the mouth, taking
+three railway trucks for its majestic portage, every
+possible variety of man-killing engine was ready in
+vast profusion.  So, too, was the flying service, from
+the little Taube to the huge six-hundred-foot Zeppelin.
+From these latter devices great results were expected
+which were not destined to materialise, for, apart
+from reconnaissances, they proved themselves to be
+machines rather for the murder of non-combatants
+than for honest warfare.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+"Die grosse Zeit."
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Making every allowance for the huge advantage
+which the nation that knows war is coming must
+always enjoy over those which merely fear that it
+may come, it would be foolish to deny the vast
+military achievement of Germany in the month of
+August.  It reflects great credit upon the bravery
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P141"></a>141}</span>
+and energy of her troops, as well as upon the foresight
+of her organisers and the capacity of her leaders.
+Though we are her enemies, our admiration would
+have been whole-hearted were it not for the brutalities
+which marked her advance both in Poland, in Belgium,
+and in France.  Consider that wonderful panorama
+of victory which was known all over the Fatherland
+as "Die grosse Zeit."  On August 10 fell the great
+fortress of Liége, on the 22nd the great fortress of
+Namur, early in September that of Maubeuge, while
+the smaller strongholds went down as if they were
+open cities.  On August 10 was a considerable
+victory at Mülhausen, on the 20th the Belgians were
+defeated at Tirlemont, on the same day Brussels
+was occupied.  On the 22nd the French central army
+of ten corps was defeated in a great battle near
+Charleroi, losing, according to the Germans, some
+20,000 prisoners and 200 guns.  On the left flank the
+Crown Prince's army won the battle of Longwy,
+taking 10,000 prisoners and many more guns.  On
+August 23 the Duke of Würtemberg won a battle
+in the Ardennes.  Upon the same date the British
+were driven from their position at Mons.  Upon the
+26th they were defeated at Le Cateau.  Most of
+Belgium and the North of France were overrun.
+Scattered parties of Uhlans made their way to the
+shores of the Atlantic spreading terror along the
+Channel coast.  The British bases were in such
+danger that they had to be moved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Finally, upon the last day of the month, a great
+battle took place at Tannenberg in East Prussia, in
+which the Russian invading army was almost completely
+destroyed.  I do not know where in history
+such a succession of victories is to be found, and our
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P142"></a>142}</span>
+horror of the atrocities of Louvain, Aerschot, Dinard,
+and so many other places must not blind us to the
+superb military achievement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was not, it is true, an unbroken series of successes
+even in the West.  The French in the early days
+won a victory at Dornach in Alsace, and another
+smaller one at Dinant in the Ardennes.  They held
+the enemy in the neighbourhood of Nancy, fought
+a fairly equal battle at St. Quentin in taking the
+pressure off the British at the end of August, and
+had a success at Guise.  These, however, were small
+matters as compared with the sweeping tide of
+German victory.  But gradually the impetus of the
+rush was being stayed.  Neither the French nor the
+British lines were broken.  They grew stronger from
+compression, whilst the invaders grew weaker from
+diffusion.  Even as they hoped to reach the climax
+of their success, and the huge winning-post of the
+Eiffel Tower loomed up before their racing armies,
+the dramatic moment arrived, and the dauntless,
+high-hearted Allies had the reward of their constant,
+much-enduring valour.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The turn of the tide.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+September 6 was a day of great elation in the
+armies of the Allies, for it marked the end of the
+retreat and the beginning of their victorious return.
+It is clear that they could in no case have gone farther
+south without exposing Paris to the danger of an
+attack.  The French Government had already been
+transferred to Bordeaux and the city put into a state
+which promised a long and stubborn defence, but
+after the surprising rapidity of the capture of Namur
+there was a general distrust of fortresses, and it was
+evident that if only one or two of the outer ring of
+forts should be overwhelmed by the German fire,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P143"></a>143}</span>
+the enemy would be in a position to do terrible damage
+to the city, even if they failed to occupy it.  The
+constant dropping of bombs from German aeroplanes,
+one of which had already injured the Cathedral of
+Notre Dame, gave a sinister forecast of the respect
+which the enemy was likely to show to the monuments
+of antiquity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fortunately, the problem of investing Paris while
+the main French armies remained unbeaten in the
+field proved to be an insuperable one.  The first
+German task, in accordance with the prophet Clausewitz,
+was to break the French resistance.  Everything
+would follow after that, and nothing could precede it.
+Von Kluck, with his army, comprising originally
+something over 200,000 men, had lost considerably
+in their conflicts with the British, and were much
+exhausted by rapid marching, but they were still in
+good heart, as the roads over which they passed
+seemed to offer ample evidence that their enemy was
+in full flight before them.  Knowing that they had
+hit the British hard, they hoped that, for a time at
+least, they might disregard them, and, accordingly,
+they ventured to close in, by a flank march, on to
+the other German armies to the east of them, in order
+to combine against the main line of French resistance
+and to make up the gaps of those corps which had
+been ordered to East Prussia.  But the bulldog,
+though weary and somewhat wounded, was still
+watching with bloodshot eyes.  He now sprang
+suddenly upon the exposed flank of his enemy and got a
+grip which held firm for many a day to come.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Without going into complicated details of French
+strategy, which would be outside the scope of this
+work, it may be generally stated that the whole
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P144"></a>144}</span>
+French line, which had stretched on August 22 from
+Namur along the line of the Sambre to Charleroi and
+had retired with considerable loss before the German
+advance, was now extended in seven separate armies
+from Verdun to the west of Paris.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+General Joffre had assembled Maunoury's Sixth
+Army, which consisted of the Seventh Regular Corps,
+one reserve corps, and three territorial divisions, with
+Sordet's cavalry, in the neighbourhood of Amiens,
+and at the end of the month they lay with their right
+upon Roye.  Thus, when Von Kluck swerved to his
+left, this army was on the flank of the whole great
+German line which extended to Verdun.  Next to
+this Sixth Army and more to the south-east were the
+British, now no longer unsupported, but with solid
+French comrades upon either side of them.  Next to
+the British, counting from the left or westward end of
+the defensive line, was the Fifth French Army under
+General d'Esperey, of four corps, with Conneau's
+cavalry forming the link between.  These three great
+bodies, the French Sixth, the British, and the French
+Fifth, were in touch during the subsequent operations,
+and moved forward in close co-operation upon
+September 6.  Their operations were directed against
+the First (Von Kluck's) and Second (Von Bülow's)
+Armies.  On the right of the Fifth French Army
+came another extra, produced suddenly by the
+prolific Joffre and thrust into the centre of the line.
+This was General Foch's Seventh, three corps strong,
+which joined to the eastward General Langlé de
+Cary's Fourth Army.  Opposed to them were the
+remains of Von Haussen's Third Saxon Army and
+the Prince of Würtemberg's Fourth Army.  Eastward
+of this, on the farther side of the great plain of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P145"></a>145}</span>
+Chalons, a place of evil omen for the Huns, were the
+Third (Sarrail), Second (Castelnau), and First (Dubail)
+French Armies, which faced the Fifth, Sixth, and
+Seventh German, commanded respectively by the
+Crown Prince of Prussia, the Crown Prince of Bavaria,
+and General von Heeringen.  Such were the mighty
+lines which were destined to swing and sway for an
+eventful week in the strain of a close-locked fight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The Battle of the Ourcq.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The eastern portion of this great battle is outside
+the scope of this account, but it may briefly be stated
+that after murderous fighting neither the French nor
+the German lines made any marked advance in the
+extreme east, but that the Crown Prince's army was
+driven back by Dubail, Sarrail, and Castelnau from
+all its advanced positions, and held off from Nancy
+and Verdun, which were his objectives.  It was at
+the western end of the Allied line that the strategical
+position was most advantageous and the result most
+marked.  In all other parts of that huge line the
+parallel battle prevailed.  Only in the west were the
+Germans outflanked, and the shock of the impact
+of the Sixth French Army passed down from Meaux
+to Verdun as the blow of the engine's buffer sends the
+successive crashes along a line of trucks.  This French
+army was, as already stated, upon the extreme
+outside right of Von Kluck's army, divided from it
+only by the River Ourcq.  This was the deciding
+factor in the subsequent operations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By mid-day upon September 6, according to the
+dispatch of Sir John French, the Germans had
+realised their dangerous position.  The British Army,
+consisting of five divisions and five cavalry brigades,
+with its depleted ranks filled up with reinforcements
+and some of its lost guns replaced, was advancing
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P146"></a>146}</span>
+from the south through the forest of Crécy, men who
+had limped south with bleeding feet at two miles an
+hour changing their gait to three or four now that they
+were bound northward.  The general movement of
+the Army cannot, however, be said to have been rapid.
+Von Kluck had placed nothing more substantial than
+a cavalry screen of two divisions in front of them,
+while he had detached a strong force of infantry
+and artillery to fight a rearguard action against the
+Sixth French Army and prevent it from crossing the
+Ourcq.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The desperate struggle of September 6, 7, 8, and
+9 between Von Kluck and Maunoury may be looked
+upon as the first turning-point of the war.  Von
+Kluck had originally faced Maunoury with his Fourth
+Reserve Corps on the defensive.  Recognising how
+critical it was that Maunoury should be crushed, he
+passed back two more army corps&mdash;the Seventh and
+Second&mdash;across the Ourcq, and fell upon the French
+with such violence that for two days it was impossible
+to say which side would win.  Maunoury and his
+men fought magnificently, and the Germans showed
+equal valour.  At one time the situation seemed
+desperate, but 20,000 men, odds and ends of every
+kind&mdash;Republican Guards, gendarmes, and others&mdash;were
+rushed out from Paris in a five-mile line of
+automobiles, and the action was restored.  Only on
+the morning of the 10th did the Germans withdraw
+in despair, held in their front by the brave Maunoury,
+and in danger of being cut off by the British to the
+east of them.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P147"></a>147}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="capcenter">
+<a id="img-147"></a>
+<br />
+<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-147.jpg" alt="British Advance during the Battle of the Marne" />
+<br />
+British Advance during the Battle of the Marne
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The British advance.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The advance of the British upon September 6 was
+made in unison with that of the Fifth French Army
+(D'Esperey's) upon the right, and was much facilitated
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P148"></a>148}</span>
+by the fact that Von Kluck had to detach the strong
+force already mentioned to deal with Maunoury
+upon the left.  The British advanced with the Fourth
+Division upon the left, the Second Corps in the centre
+and the First Corps upon the right.  The high banks
+of the Grand Morin were occupied without serious
+fighting, and the whole line pushed forward for a
+considerable distance, halting on the Coulommiers-Maisoncelles
+front.  The brunt of the fighting during
+the day was borne by the French on either wing, the
+Third and Fourth German Corps being thrown back
+by D'Esperey's men, among whom the Senegal
+regiments particularly distinguished themselves.  The
+fighting in this section of the field continued far into
+the night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On September 7 the British and the Fifth French
+were still moving northwards, while the Sixth French
+were continuing their bitter struggle upon the Ourcq.
+The British infantry losses were not heavy, though a
+hidden battery cost the South Lancashires of the
+7th Brigade forty-one casualties.  Most of the fighting
+depended upon the constant touch between the British
+cavalry and the German.  It was again the French
+armies upon each flank who did the hard work during
+this eventful day, the first of the German retreat.
+The Sixth Army were all day at close grips with Von
+Kluck, while the Fifth drove the enemy back to the
+line of the Petit Morin River, carrying Vieux-Maisons
+at the point of the bayonet.  Foch's army, still
+farther to the east, was holding its own in a desperate
+defensive battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Cavalry fighting.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of the cavalry skirmishes upon this day one
+deserves some special record.  The 2nd Cavalry
+Brigade (De Lisle) was acting at the time as flank
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P149"></a>149}</span>
+guard with the 9th Lancers in front.  Coming into
+contact with some German dragoons near the village
+of Moncel, there followed a face-to-face charge
+between two squadrons, each riding through the
+other.  The American, Coleman, who saw the
+encounter, reckons the odds in numbers to have been
+two to one against the Lancers.  The British Colonel
+Campbell was wounded, and the adjutant, Captain
+Reynolds, transfixed through the shoulder by a lance.
+While drawing the weapon out Captain Allfrey was
+killed.  The other casualties were slight, and those
+of the German dragoons were considerably greater.
+This example of shock tactics was almost instantly
+followed by an exhibition of those mounted rifleman
+tactics which have been cultivated of late years.  A
+squadron of the 18th Hussars, having dismounted,
+was immediately charged by a German squadron in
+close order.  About 70 Germans charged, and 32
+were picked up in front of the dismounted Hussars,
+while the few who passed through the firing line were
+destroyed by the horse-holders.  It may fairly be
+argued that had the two squadrons met with shock
+tactics, no such crushing effect could possibly have
+been attained.  It is interesting that in one morning
+two incidents should have occurred which bore so
+directly upon the perennial dispute between the
+partisans of the <i>arme blanche</i> and those of the rifle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 8th the orders were to advance towards
+Chateau-Thierry and to endeavour to reach the
+Marne.  The Germans were retreating fast, but rather
+on account of their generally faulty strategical position
+than from tactical compulsion, and they covered
+themselves with continual rearguard actions, especially
+along the line of the Petit Morin.  It is one of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P150"></a>150}</span>
+the noticeable results, however, of the use of aircraft
+that the bluff of a rearguard has disappeared and
+that it is no longer possible to make such a retreat
+as Massena from Torres Vedras, where the pursuer
+never knew if he were striking at a substance or a
+shadow.  Gough's Second Cavalry Division, which
+consisted of the 3rd and 5th Brigades, swept along,
+and the infantry followed hard at the heels of the
+horses, Doran's 8th Brigade suffering the loss of about
+100 men when held up at the crossing of the Petit
+Morin River near Orly, which they traversed eventually
+under an effective covering fire from J Battery, R.H.A.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The First Army Corps upon this day forced the
+Petit Morin at two places, both near La Trétoire,
+north of Rebaix.  The First Division secured the
+passage at Sablonnières, where the Black Watch
+seized the heights, causing the German rearguard
+some losses and taking 60 prisoners.  The Second
+Division met with considerable resistance, but the
+2nd Worcesters got over at Le Gravier and the 2nd
+Grenadier Guards at La Forge.  The enemy was then
+driven from the river bank into the woods, where they
+were practically surrounded and had eventually to
+surrender.  Eight machine-guns and 350 prisoners,
+many of them from the Guards' Jaeger Battalion,
+were captured.  Six of these machine-guns fell to the
+Irish Guards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Second Army Corps passed the Petit Morin
+near St. Cyr and St. Ouen, the 13th Brigade attacking
+the former and the 14th the latter, both being villages
+on the farther side of the river.  Such fighting as
+there was in this quarter came largely to the 1st
+East Surrey and 1st Cornwalls, of the 14th Brigade,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P151"></a>151}</span>
+but the resistance was not great, and was broken by
+the artillery fire.  To the soldiers engaged the whole
+action was more like a route march with occasional
+deployments than a battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 9th the Army was up to the Marne and was
+faced with the problem of crossing it.  The operations
+extending over many miles were unimportant in
+detail, though of some consequence in the mass.  The
+real hard fighting was falling upon the Sixth French
+Army north of Ligny, which was still in desperate
+conflict with the German right, and upon Foch's
+army, which was fighting magnificently at
+Fère-Champenoise.  The advance of the British, and their
+own exertions, caused the Germans to retire and
+cleared the passage over the Ourcq for our Allies.
+The chief losses during the day upon the British side
+fell upon the Guards' Brigade, the 1st Lincolns, and
+the 1st Cornwalls, most of which were inflicted by
+invisible quick-firing batteries shrouded by the woods
+which flank the river.  The latter regiment lost
+Colonel Turner, Major Cornish-Bowden, and a number
+of other killed or wounded in a brilliant piece of
+woodland fighting, where they drove in a strong
+German rearguard.  The 1st East Surrey, who were
+very forward in the movement, were also hard hit,
+having 6 officers and about 120 men out of action.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The 1st Lincolns and the guns.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The British infantry was able on this day to show
+that woods may serve for other purposes besides
+hiding batteries.  The 1st Lincolns, being held up
+a rapid and accurate fire from invisible guns,
+dispatched two companies, C and D, to make in single
+file a detour under the shelter of the trees.  Coming
+behind the battery, which appears to have had no
+immediate support, they poured in a rapid fire at
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P152"></a>152}</span>
+two hundred and fifty yards, which laid every man
+of the German gunners upon the ground.  The whole
+battery was captured.  The casualties of the Lincolns
+in this dashing exploit, which included Captains
+Hoskyns and Ellison, with Lieutenant Thruston,
+were unavoidably caused by British shrapnel, our
+gunners knowing nothing of the movement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On this date (September 9) both the First and the
+Second Army Corps were across the Marne, and
+advanced some miles to the north of it, killing,
+wounding, or capturing many hundreds of the enemy.
+The Sixth French Army was, as stated, fighting hard
+upon the Ourcq, but the Fifth had won a brilliant
+success near Montmirail and driven the enemy
+completely over the river.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pulteney's Third Corps, still a division short, had
+been held up by the destruction of the bridges at
+La Ferté, but on September 10 they were across and
+the whole Army sweeping northwards.  The cavalry
+overrode all resistance and rounded up a number of
+prisoners, over 2000 in all.  It was a strange reversal
+of fortune, for here within a fortnight were the same
+two armies playing the converse parts, the British
+eagerly pushing on with a flushed consciousness of
+victory, while the Germans, tired and dispirited,
+scattered in groups among the woods or were gathered
+up from the roadsides.  It was a day of mist and
+rain, with muddy, sodden roads, but all weather is
+fine weather to the army that is gaining ground.
+An impression of complete German demoralisation
+became more widespread as transport, shells, and
+even guns were found littering the high-roads, and
+yet there was really even less cause for it than when
+the same delusion was held by the Germans.  The
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P153"></a>153}</span>
+enemy were actually making a hurried but orderly
+retreat, and these signs of disaster were only the
+evidence of a broken rearguard resistance.  German
+armies do not readily dissolve.  There is no more
+cohesive force in the world.  But they were
+undoubtedly hard pressed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+6th Brigade's action at Hautvesnes.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About eight o'clock upon the morning of the
+10th the 6th Brigade (Davies') observed a column
+of the enemy's infantry on a parallel road near the
+village of Hautvesnes.  Artillery fire was at once
+opened upon them, and a vigorous infantry attack,
+the 1st Rifles advancing direct with the 1st Berkshires
+on their right, whilst the 1st King's Liverpool worked
+round each flank in Boer fashion.  The 2nd Staffords
+were in support.  The Germans had taken refuge in
+a sunken road, but they were mercilessly lashed by
+shrapnel, and 400 of them ran forward with their
+hands up.  The sunken road was filled with their
+dead and wounded.  Some hundreds streamed away
+across country, but these were mostly gathered up
+by the Third Division on the left.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this brisk little action the 50th R.F.A., and
+later the whole of the 34th Brigade R.F.A., put in
+some fine work, the shrapnel-fire being most deadly
+and accurate.  The British had pushed their guns
+freely forward with their cavalry and did much
+execution with them, though they had the misfortune
+on this same date, the 10th, to lose, by the answering
+shell-fire of the enemy, General Findlay, artillery
+commander of the First Division.  In this second
+action, in which the German rearguard, infantry as
+well as artillery, was engaged, the 2nd Sussex
+Regiment, which was leading the First Division,
+sustained considerable losses near Courchamps or
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P154"></a>154}</span>
+Priez, as did the 1st Northamptons and the 1st North
+Lancashires.  Some 300 of Bulfin's 2nd Brigade were
+hit altogether, among whom was Colonel Knight,
+of the North Lancashires.  The enemy came under
+heavy fire, both from the infantry and from the guns,
+so that their losses were considerable, and several
+hundred of them were captured.  The country was
+very hilly, and the roads so bad that in the exhausted
+state of men and horses the pursuit could not be
+sufficiently pressed.  Thirty large motor cars were
+seen at Priez in front of the 2nd Brigade, carrying
+the enemy's rearguard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+9th Brigade's capture of Germans at Vinly.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On this same date the 9th Brigade captured 600
+German infantry, the survivors of a battalion, at the
+village of Vinly.  This seems to have been an incident
+of the same character as the loss of the Cheshires or
+of the Munsters in the British retreat, where a body
+of troops fighting a covering action was left too long,
+or failed to receive the orders for its withdrawal.
+The defence was by no means a desperate one, and
+few of the attacking infantry were killed or wounded.
+On this date the Fifth and Sixth French Armies were
+hardly engaged at all, and the whole Allied Force,
+including General Foch's Seventh French Army on
+the right of the Fifth, were all sweeping along
+together in a single rolling steel-crested wave,
+composed of at least twelve army corps, whilst nine
+German corps (five of Von Kluck and four of Bülow)
+retired swiftly before them, hurrying towards the
+chance of re-forming and refitting which the Aisne
+position would afford them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On September 11 the British were still advancing
+upon a somewhat narrowed front.  There was no
+opposition and again the day bore a considerable
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P155"></a>155}</span>
+crop of prisoners and other trophies.  The weather
+had become so foggy that the aircraft were useless,
+and it is only when these wonderful scouters are
+precluded from rising that a general realises how
+indispensable they have become to him.  As a wit
+expressed it, they have turned war from a game of
+cards into a game of chess.  It was still very wet,
+and the Army was exposed to considerable privation,
+most of the officers and men having neither change
+of clothing, overcoats, nor waterproof sheets, while
+the blowing up of bridges on the lines of communication
+had made it impossible to supply the wants.
+The undefeatable commissariat, however, was still
+working well, which means that the Army was doing
+the same.  On the 12th the pursuit was continued as
+far as the River Aisne.  Allenby's cavalry occupied
+Braine in the early morning, the Queen's Bays being
+particularly active, but there was so much resistance
+that the Third Division was needed to make the
+ground good.  Gough's Cavalry Division also ran
+into the enemy near Chassemy, killing or capturing
+several hundred of the German infantry.  In these
+operations Captain Stewart, whose experience as an
+alleged spy has been mentioned, met with a soldier's
+death.  On this day the Sixth French Army was
+fighting a considerable action upon the British left
+in the vicinity of Soissons, the Germans making a
+stand in order to give time for their impedimenta to
+get over the river.  In this they succeeded, so that
+when the Allied Forces reached the Aisne, which is
+an unfordable stream some sixty yards from bank
+to bank, the retiring army had got across it, had
+destroyed most of the bridges, and showed every
+sign of being prepared to dispute the crossing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P156"></a>156}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The problem of the Aisne.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Missy Bridge, facing the Fifth Division, appeared
+at first to be intact, but a daring reconnaissance by
+Lieutenant Pennecuick, of the Engineers, showed
+that it was really badly damaged.  Condé Bridge was
+intact, but was so covered by a high horse-shoe
+formation of hills upon the farther side that it could
+not be used, and remained throughout under control
+of the enemy.  Bourg Bridge, however, in front of
+the First Army Corps, had for some unexplained
+reason been left undamaged, and this was seized in
+the early morning of September 13 by De Lisle's
+cavalry, followed rapidly by Bulfin's 2nd Brigade.
+It was on the face of it a somewhat desperate
+enterprise which lay immediately in front of the British
+general.  If the enemy were still retreating he could
+not afford to slacken his pursuit, while, on the other
+hand, if the enemy were merely making a feint of
+resistance, then, at all hazards, the stream must be
+forced and the rearguard driven in.  The German
+infantry could be seen streaming up the roads on the
+farther bank of the river, but there were no signs of
+what their next disposition might be.  Air
+reconnaissance was still precluded, and it was impossible
+to say for certain which alternative might prove to
+be correct, but Sir John French's cavalry training
+must incline him always to the braver course.  The
+officer who rode through the Boers to Kimberley
+and threw himself with his weary men across the
+path of the formidable Kronje was not likely to
+stand hesitating upon the banks of the Aisne.  His
+personal opinion was that the enemy meant to
+stand and fight, but none the less the order was
+given to cross.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+September 13 was spent in arranging this dashing
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P157"></a>157}</span>
+and dangerous movement.  The British got across
+eventually in several places and by various devices.
+Bulfin's men, followed by the rest of the First Division
+of Haig's Army Corps, passed the canal bridge of
+Bourg with no loss or difficulty.  The 11th Brigade
+of Pulteney's Third Corps got across by a partially
+demolished bridge and ferry at Venizel.  They were
+followed by the 12th Brigade, who established
+themselves near Bucy.  The 13th Brigade was held up at
+Missy, but the 14th got across and lined up with the
+men of the Third Corps in the neighbourhood of
+Ste. Marguerite, meeting with a considerable resistance
+from the Germans.  Later, Count Gleichen's 15th
+Brigade also got across.  On the right Hamilton got
+over with two brigades of the Third Division, the
+8th Brigade crossing on a single plank at Vailly and
+the 9th using the railway bridge, while the whole of
+Haig's First Corps had before evening got a footing
+upon the farther bank.  So eager was the advance
+and so inadequate the means that Haking's 5th
+Brigade, led by the Connaught Rangers, was obliged
+to get over the broad and dangerous river, walking in
+single file along the sloping girder of a ruined bridge,
+under a heavy, though distant, shell-fire.  The night
+of September 13 saw the main body of the Army
+across the river, already conscious of a strong
+rearguard action, but not yet aware that the whole
+German Army had halted and was turning at bay.
+On the right De Lisle's cavalrymen had pushed
+up the slope from Bourg Bridge and reached as far
+as Vendresse, where they were pulled up by the
+German lines.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has been mentioned above that the 11th and
+12th Brigades of the Fourth Division had passed the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P158"></a>158}</span>
+river at Venizel.  These troops were across in the
+early afternoon, and they at once advanced, and
+proved that in that portion of the field the enemy
+were undoubtedly standing fast.  The 11th Brigade,
+which was more to the north, had only a constant
+shell-fall to endure, but the 12th, pushing forward
+through Bucy-le-long, found itself in front of a line
+of woods from which there swept a heavy machine-gun-
+and rifle-fire.  The advance was headed by the
+2nd Lancashire Fusiliers, supported by the 2nd
+Inniskilling Fusiliers.  It was across open ground
+and under heavy fire, but it was admirably carried
+out.  In places where the machine-guns had got the
+exact range the stricken Fusiliers lay dead or wounded
+with accurate intervals, like a firing-line on a
+field-day.  The losses were heavy, especially in the
+Lancashire Fusiliers.  Colonel Griffin was wounded, and
+5 of his officers with 250 men were among the
+casualties.  It should be recorded that fresh supplies
+of ammunition were brought up at personal risk by
+Colonel Seely, late Minister of War, in his motor-car.
+The contest continued until dusk, when the troops
+waited for the battle of next day under such cover
+as they could find.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The crossing of the stream may be said, upon the
+one side, to mark the end of the battle and pursuit
+of the Marne, while, on the other, it commenced that
+interminable Battle of the Aisne which was destined
+to fulfil Bloch's prophecies and to set the type of all
+great modern engagements.  The prolonged struggles
+of the Manchurian War had prepared men's minds
+for such a development, but only here did it first
+assume its full proportions and warn us that the
+battle of the future was to be the siege of the past.
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P159"></a>159}</span>
+Men remembered with a smile Bernhardi's confident
+assertion that a German battle would be decided in
+one day, and that his countrymen would never be
+constrained to fight in defensive trenches.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The moral effect of the Battle of the Marne was
+greater than its material gains.  The latter, so far
+as the British were concerned, did not exceed 5000
+prisoners, 20 guns, and a quantity of transport.  The
+total losses, however, were very heavy.  The Germans
+had perfected a method of burning their dead with
+the aid of petrol.  These numerous holocausts over
+the country-side were found afterwards by the
+peasants to have left mounds of charred animal
+matter which were scattered by their industrious
+hands on the fields which they might help to fertilise.
+The heat of cremation had dissolved the bones, but
+the teeth in most cases remained intact, so that over
+an area of France it was no uncommon thing to see
+them gleaming in the clods on either side of the
+new-cut furrow.  Had the ring of high-born
+German criminals who planned the war seen in
+some apocalyptic vision the detailed results of their
+own villainy, it is hard to doubt that even their
+hearts and consciences would have shrunk from
+the deed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Apart from the losses, the mere fact that a great
+German army had been hustled across thirty miles
+of country, had been driven from river to river, and
+had finally to take refuge in trenches in order to
+hold their ground, was a great encouragement to the
+Allies.  From that time they felt assured that with
+anything like equal numbers they had an ascendancy
+over their opponents.  Save in the matter of heavy
+guns and machine-guns, there was not a single arm
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P160"></a>160}</span>
+in which they did not feel that they were the equals
+or the superiors.  Nor could they forget that this
+foe, whom they were driving in the open and holding
+in the trenches, was one who had rushed into the
+war with men and material all carefully prepared
+for this day of battle, while their own strength lay
+in the future.  If the present was bright, it would
+surely be incomparably brighter when the reserves
+of France and the vast resources of the British
+Empire were finally brought into line.  There had
+never from the beginning been a doubt of final
+victory, but from this time on it became less an
+opinion and more a demonstrable and mathematical
+certainty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Why the Marne is one of the great battles of all time.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The battle must also be regarded as a fixed point
+in military history, since it was the first time since
+the days of the great Napoleon that a Prussian army
+had been turned and driven.  In three successive
+wars&mdash;against the Danes, the Austrians, and the
+French&mdash;they had lived always in the warm sunshine
+of success.  Now, at last, came the first chill of
+disaster.  Partly from their excellent military qualities,
+but even more on account of their elaborate and
+methodical preparations, joined with a want of
+scruple which allowed them to force a war at the
+moment when they could take their adversary at a
+disadvantage, they had established a legend of
+invincibility.  This they left behind them with their
+cannon and their prisoners between the Marne and
+the Aisne.  It had been feared that free men, trained
+in liberal and humane methods, could never equal
+in military efficiency those who had passed through
+the savage discipline which is the heritage of the
+methods that first made Prussia great at the expense
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P161"></a>161}</span>
+of her neighbours.  This shadow was henceforth for
+ever lifted from men's minds, and it was shown that
+the kindly comradeship which exists in the Western
+armies between officers and men was not incompatible
+with the finest fighting qualities of which any soldiers
+are capable.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a id="chap06"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">{<a id="P162"></a>162}</span></p>
+
+<h3>
+CHAPTER VI
+<br /><br />
+THE BATTLE OF THE AISNE
+</h3>
+
+<p class="intro">
+The hazardous crossing of the Aisne&mdash;Wonderful work of the
+sappers&mdash;The fight for the sugar factory&mdash;General advance of the
+Army&mdash;The 4th (Guards) Brigade's difficult task&mdash;Cavalry as a mobile
+reserve&mdash;The Sixth Division&mdash;Hardships of the Army&mdash;German
+breach of faith&mdash;<i>Tâtez toujours</i>&mdash;The general position&mdash;Attack
+upon the West Yorks&mdash;Counter-attack by Congreve's 18th
+Brigade&mdash;Rheims Cathedral&mdash;Spies&mdash;The siege and fall of Antwerp.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The hazardous crossing of the Aisne.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The stretch of river which confronted the British
+Army when they set about the hazardous crossing of
+the Aisne was about fifteen miles in length.  It lay
+as nearly as possible east and west, so that the advance
+was from south to north.  As the British faced the
+river the First Army Corps was on the right of their
+line, together with half the cavalry.  In the centre
+was the Second Corps, on the left the Third Corps,
+which was still without one of its divisions (the Sixth),
+but retained, on the other hand, the 19th Brigade,
+which did not belong to it.  Each of these British
+corps covered a front of, roughly, five miles.  Across
+the broad and swift river a considerable German
+army with a powerful artillery was waiting to dispute
+the passage.  On the right of the British were the
+French Fifth and Seventh Armies, and on their left,
+forming the extremity of the Allied line, was the
+French Sixth Army, acting in such close co-operation
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P163"></a>163}</span>
+with the British Third Corps in the Soissons region
+that their guns were often turned upon the same
+point.  This Sixth French Army, with the British
+Army, may be looked upon as the left wing of the
+huge Allied line which stretched away with many a
+curve and bend to the Swiss frontier.  During all
+this hurried retreat from the Marne, it is to be
+remembered that the Eastern German armies had
+hardly moved at all.  It was their four armies of the
+right which had swung back like a closing door, the
+Crown Prince's Fifth Army being the hinge upon
+which it turned.  Now the door had ceased to swing,
+and one solid barrier presented itself to the Allies.
+It is probable that the German preponderance of
+numbers was, for the moment, much lessened or even
+had ceased to exist, for the losses in battle, the
+detachments for Russia, and the operations in Belgium
+had all combined to deplete the German ranks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Belgian Army had retired into Antwerp
+before the fall of Brussels, but they were by no means
+a force to be disregarded, being fired by that sense
+of intolerable wrong which is the most formidable
+stimulant to a virile nation.  From the shelter of the
+Antwerp entrenchments they continually buzzed out
+against the German lines of communication, and
+although they were usually beaten back, and were
+finally pent in, they still added to the great debt of
+gratitude which the Allies already owed them by
+holding up a considerable body, two army corps at
+least, of good troops.  On the other hand, the fortress
+of Maubeuge, on the northern French frontier, which
+had been invested within a few days of the battle of
+Mons, had now fallen before the heavy German guns,
+with the result that at least a corps of troops under
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P164"></a>164}</span>
+Von Zwehl and these same masterful guns were now
+released for service on the Aisne.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Wonderful work of the sappers.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The more one considers the operation of the
+crossing of the Aisne with the battle which followed
+it, the more one is impressed by the extraordinary
+difficulty of the task, the swift debonair way in
+which it was tackled, and the pushful audacity of
+the various commanders in gaining a foothold upon
+the farther side.  Consider that upon the 12th the
+Army was faced by a deep, broad, unfordable river
+with only one practicable bridge in the fifteen miles
+opposite them.  They had a formidable enemy armed
+with powerful artillery standing on the defensive
+upon a line of uplands commanding every crossing
+and approach, whilst the valley was so broad that
+ordinary guns upon the corresponding uplands could
+have no effect, and good positions lower down were
+hard to find.  There was the problem.  And yet
+upon the 14th the bulk of the Army was across and
+had established itself in positions from which it could
+never afterwards be driven.  All arms must have
+worked well to bring about such a result, but what
+can be said of the Royal Engineers, who built under
+heavy fire in that brief space nine bridges, some of
+them capable of taking heavy traffic, while they
+restored five of the bridges which the enemy had
+destroyed!  September 13, 1914, should be recorded
+in their annals as a marvellous example of personal
+self-sacrifice and technical proficiency.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P165"></a>165}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="capcenter">
+<a id="img-165"></a>
+<br />
+<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-165.jpg" alt="British Advance at the Aisne" />
+<br />
+British Advance at the Aisne
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+Sir John French, acting with great swiftness and
+decision, did not lose an hour after he had established
+himself in force upon the northern bank of the river
+in pushing his men ahead and finding out what was
+in front of him.  The weather was still very wet,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P166"></a>166}</span>
+and heavy mists drew a veil over the German
+dispositions, but the advance went forward.  The British
+right wing, consisting of the First Division of the
+First Corps, had established itself most securely, as
+was natural, since it was the one corps which had
+found an unbroken bridge in front of it.  The First
+Division had pushed forward as far as Moulins and
+Vendresse, which lie about two miles north of the
+river.  Now, in the early hours of the 14th, the whole
+of the Second Division got over.  The immediate
+narrative, therefore, is concerned with the doings of
+the two divisions of the First Corps, upon which fell
+the first and chief strain of the very important and
+dangerous advance upon that date.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the top of the line of chalk hills which faced
+the British was an ancient and famous highway, the
+Chemin-des-dames, which, like all ancient highways,
+had been carried along the crest of the ridge.  This
+was in the German possession, and it became the
+objective of the British attack.  The 2nd Infantry
+Brigade (Bulfin's) led the way, working upwards in the
+early morning from Moulins and Vendresse through
+the hamlet of Troyon towards the great road.  This
+brigade, consisting of the 2nd Sussex, 1st Northamptons,
+1st North Lancashire, and 2nd Rifles, drawn
+mostly from solid shire regiments, was second to none
+in the Army.  Just north of Troyon was a considerable
+deserted sugar factory, which formed a feature in the
+landscape.  It lay within a few hundred yards of
+the Chemin-des-dames, while another winding road,
+cut in the side of the hill, lay an equal distance to
+the south of it, and was crossed by the British in
+their advance.  This road, which was somewhat
+sunken in the chalk, and thus offered some cover
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P167"></a>167}</span>
+to a crouching man, played an important part in
+the operations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The fight for the sugar factory.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lieutenant Balfour and a picket of the 2nd Rifles,
+having crept up and reconnoitred the factory, returned
+with the information that it was held by the Germans,
+and that twelve guns were in position three hundred
+yards to the east of it.  General Bulfin then&mdash;it was
+about 3.30 in the morning of a wet, misty day&mdash;sent
+the 2nd Rifles, the 2nd Sussex Regiment, and the 1st
+Northamptons forward, with the factory and an
+adjoining whitewashed farmhouse as their objective.
+The 1st North Lancashires remained in reserve at
+Vendresse.  The attacking force was under the immediate
+command of Colonel Serocold of the Rifles.  The
+three advanced regiments drove in the pickets of the
+Germans, and after a severe fight turned the enemy
+out of his front trench, A Company of the Sussex
+capturing several hundred prisoners.  A number of
+men, however, including Colonel Montresor and Major
+Cookson, were shot while rounding up these Germans
+and sending them to the rear.  The advanced line had
+suffered severely, so the North Lancashires were called
+up and launched at the sugar factory, which they
+carried with a magnificent bayonet attack in spite of a
+fierce German resistance.  Their losses were very
+heavy, including Major Lloyd, their commander, but
+their victory was a glorious one.  The two batteries
+of the enemy were now commanded by machine-guns,
+brought up to the factory by Lieutenant Dashwood
+of the Sussex.  The enemy made a brave attempt to
+get these guns away, but the teams and men were
+shot down, and it was a German Colenso.  The
+British, however, unlike the Boers, were unable to
+get away the prizes of their victory.  The factory
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P168"></a>168}</span>
+was abandoned as it was exposed to heavy fire, and
+the four regiments formed a firing-line, taking such
+cover as they could find, but a German shell fire
+developed which was so deadly that they were unable
+to get forward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A small party of Rifles, under Cathcart and
+Foljambe, clung hard to the captured guns,
+sending repeated messages: "For God's sake bring
+horses and fetch away these pieces!"  No horses
+were, however, available, and eventually both the
+guns and the buildings were regained by the
+Germans, the former being disabled before they
+were abandoned by their captors, and the factory
+being smashed by the shells.  Major Green and
+a company of the Sussex, with some of the Coldstream
+under Major Grant, had got as far forward as
+the Chemin-des-dames, but fell back steadily when
+their flank was finally exposed.  Two companies of
+the 1st Coldstream, under Colonel Ponsonby, had
+also pushed on to the road, and now came back.
+Nothing could exceed the desperate gallantry of
+officers and men.  Major Jelf, severely wounded,
+cheered on his riflemen until evening.  Major Warre
+of the same regiment and Major Phillips rallied
+the hard-pressed line again and again.  Lieutenant
+Spread, of the Lancashires, worked his machine-gun
+until it was smashed, and then, wounded as he was,
+brought up a second gun and continued the fight.
+Major Burrows rallied the Lancashires when their
+leader, Major Lloyd, was hit.  Brigade-Major Watson,
+of the Queen's, was everywhere in the thick of the
+firing.  No men could have been better led, nor could
+any leaders have better men.  A large number of
+wounded, both British and Germans, lay under the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P169"></a>169}</span>
+shelter of some haystacks between the lines, and
+crawled slowly round them for shelter, as the fire
+came from one side or the other&mdash;a fitting subject
+surely for a Verestschagin!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+General advance of the Army.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile, it is necessary to follow what had been
+going on at the immediate left of Bulfin's Brigade.
+Maxse's 1st Brigade had moved up in the face of a
+considerable fire until it came to be nearly as far
+north as the factory, but to the west of it.  The
+1st Coldstream had been sent across to help the
+dismounted cavalry to cover Bulfin's right, since
+the main German strength seemed to be in that
+quarter.  The 1st Scots Guards was held in reserve,
+but the other regiments of the 1st Brigade, the
+1st Black Watch and the 1st Camerons, a battalion
+which had taken the place of the brave but
+unfortunate Munsters, lined up on the left of the
+factory and found themselves swept by the same
+devastating fire which had checked the advance.
+This fire came from the fringe of the woods and
+from a line of trenches lying north-east of the
+factory on the edge of the Chemin-des-dames.  Up
+to this time the British had no artillery support on
+account of the mist, but now Geddes' 25th Brigade
+R.F.A., comprising the 113th, 114th, and 115th
+Batteries, was brought to its assistance.  It could do
+little good in such a dim light, and one battery, the
+115th, under Major Johnstone, which pushed up
+within eight hundred yards of the enemy's position,
+was itself nearly destroyed.  The 116th R.F.A., under
+Captain Oliver, also did great work, working its way
+up till it was almost in the infantry line, and at one
+time in advance of it.  The whole infantry line, including
+a mixture of units, men of the Rifles, Sussex, and
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P170"></a>170}</span>
+North Lancashires, with a sprinkling of Guardsmen
+and Black Watch from the 1st Brigade, came slowly
+down the hill&mdash;"sweating blood to hold their own."
+as one of them described it&mdash;until they reached the
+sunken road which has been already mentioned.
+There General Bulfin had stationed himself with the
+reserve, and the line steadied itself, re-formed, and,
+with the support of the guns, made head once more
+against the advancing Germans, who were unable
+to make any progress against the fire which was
+poured into them.  With such spades and picks as
+could be got, a line of shallow trenches was thrown
+up, and these were held against all attacks for the
+rest of the day.[<a id="chap06fn1text"></a><a href="#chap06fn1">1</a>]  It was the haphazard line of these
+hurriedly dug shelters which determined the position
+retained in the weeks to come.  As this was the apex
+of the British advance and all the corps upon the
+left were in turn brought to a standstill and driven
+to make trenches, the whole line of the First Corps
+formed a long diagonal slash across the hillside, with
+its right close to the Chemin-des-dames and its left
+upon the river in the neighbourhood of Chavonne.
+The result was that now and always the trenches of
+the 2nd Brigade were in an extremely exposed
+position, for they were open not only to the direct
+fire of the Germans, which was not very severe, but
+to an enfilading fire from more distant guns upon
+each flank.  Their immediate neighbours upon the
+right were the 1st Queen's Surrey, acting as
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P171"></a>171}</span>
+flank-guard, and a Moroccan corps from the Fifth French
+Army, which had not reached so advanced a position,
+but was in echelon upon their right rear.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a id="chap06fn1"></a>
+[<a href="#chap06fn1text">1</a>] Until an accurate German military history of the war shall appear, it
+is difficult to compute the exact rival forces in any engagement, but in
+this attack of the 2nd Brigade, where six British regiments may be said
+to have been involved, there are some data.  A German officer, describing
+the same engagement, says that, apart from the original German force,
+the reinforcements amounted to fourteen battalions, from the Guards'
+Jaeger, the 4th Jaeger Battalion, 65th, 13th Reserve, and 13th and 16th
+Landwehr Regiments.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+It has already been shown how the 1st Brigade
+was divided up, the 1st Coldstream being on the right
+of the 2nd Brigade.  The rest of the 1st Brigade had
+carried out an advance parallel to that described, and
+many of the Black Watch, who were the right-hand
+regiment, got mixed with Bulfin's men when they were
+driven back to what proved to be the permanent
+British line.  This advance of the 1st Brigade
+intercepted a strong force of the enemy which was
+creeping round the left flank of the 2nd Brigade.
+The counter-stroke brought the flank attack to a
+standstill.  The leading regiments of the 1st Brigade
+suffered very severely, however, especially the
+Cameron Highlanders, whose gallantry carried them far
+to the front.  This regiment lost Lieutenant-Colonel
+MacLachlan, 2 majors, Maitland and Nicholson,
+3 captains, 11 lieutenants, and about 300 rank and
+file in the action.  Some of these fell into the hands
+of the enemy, but the great majority were killed or
+wounded.  The 1st Scots Guards upon the left of
+the brigade had also heavy casualties, while the
+Black Watch lost their Colonel, Grant Duff, their
+Adjutant, Rowan Hamilton, and many men.  When
+the line on their right fell back, they conformed to
+the movement until they received support from two
+companies of the 1st Gloucesters from the 3rd Brigade
+upon their left rear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The 4th (Guards) Brigade's difficult task.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The 4th (Guards) Brigade, forming the left
+of the Second Division, was across the river in
+battle array by ten o'clock in the morning and
+moving northwards towards the village of Ostel.
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P172"></a>172}</span>
+Its task was a supremely difficult one.  Dense woods
+faced it, fringed with the hostile riflemen, while a
+heavy shell-fire tore through the extended ranks.  It
+is safe to say that such an advance could not have
+been carried out in the heavy-handed German fashion
+without annihilating losses.  As it was, the casualties
+were heavy, but not sufficient to prevent a continuance
+of the attack, which at one o'clock carried
+the farm and trenches which were its objective.  The
+steep slopes and the thick woods made artillery
+support impossible, though one section of a battery
+did contrive to keep up with the infantry.  The
+3rd Coldstream being held up in their advance on
+the Soupir front, the 1st Irish were moved up on
+their right flank, but the line could do little more
+than hold its own.  Captain Berners, Lord Guernsey,
+Lord Arthur Hay, and others were killed at this
+point.  The German infantry advanced several times
+to counter-attack, but were swept back by the fire
+of the Guards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At one period it was found that the general German
+advance, which had followed the holding of the
+British attack, was threatening to flow in between
+the two divisions of the First Army Corps.  The
+3rd Brigade (Landon's) was therefore deployed
+rapidly from the point about a mile south of Vernesse
+where it had been stationed.  Two regiments of the
+brigade, the 2nd Welsh and the 1st South Wales
+Borderers, were flung against the heavy German
+column advancing down the Beaulne ridge and
+threatening to cut Haig's corps in two.  The Welshmen,
+worthy successors of their ancestors who left
+such a name on the battlefields of France, succeeded
+in heading it off and driving it back so that they were
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P173"></a>173}</span>
+able to extend and get in touch with the right of
+the Second Division.  This consisted of the 5th
+Brigade (Haking's) with the 6th (Davies') upon its
+left.  Both of these brigades had to bear the brunt
+of continual German counter-attacks, involving
+considerable losses, both from shell and rifle fire.  In
+spite of this they won their way for a mile or more
+up the slopes, where they were brought to a standstill
+and dug themselves into temporary shelter, continuing
+the irregular diagonal line of trenches which had
+been started by the brigades upon the right.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Cavalry as a mobile reserve.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is impossible not to admire the way in which
+the German general in command observed and attempted
+to profit by any gap in the British line.  It
+has already been shown how he tried to push his
+column between the two divisions of the First Corps
+and was only stopped by the deployment of the
+3rd Brigade.  Later, an even fairer chance presented
+itself, and he was quick to take advantage of it.
+The advance of the Guards Brigade to the Ostel
+ridge had caused a considerable gap between them
+and the nearest unit of the Second Corps, and also
+between the First Corps and the river.  A German
+attack came swarming down upon the weak spot.
+From Troyon to Ostel, over five miles of ground,
+Haig's corps was engaged to the last man and pinned
+down in their positions.  It was not possible to fill
+the gap.  Not to fill it might have meant
+disaster&mdash;disaster under heavy shell-fire with an unfordable
+river in the rear.  Here was a supreme example of
+the grand work that was done when our cavalry
+were made efficient as dismounted riflemen.  Their
+mobility brought them quickly to the danger spot.
+Their training turned them in an instant from
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P174"></a>174}</span>
+horsemen to infantry.  The 15th Hussars, the Irish Horse,
+the whole of Briggs' 1st Cavalry Brigade, and finally
+the whole of De Lisle's 2nd Cavalry Brigade, were
+thrown into the gap.  The German advance was
+stayed and the danger passed.  From now onwards
+the echelon formed by the units of the First Corps
+ended with these cavalry brigades near Chavonne to
+the immediate north of the river.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Third Division of the Second Corps, being on
+the immediate left of the operations which have been
+already described, moved forward upon Aizy, which
+is on about the same level as Ostel, the objective of
+the Guards.  The 8th (Doran's) Brigade moved north
+by a tributary stream which runs down to the Aisne,
+while the 9th (Shaw's) tried to advance in line with
+it on the plateau to the right.  Both brigades found
+it impossible to get any farther, and established
+themselves in entrenchments about a mile north of
+Vailly, so as to cover the important bridge at that
+place, where the 7th Brigade was in reserve.  The
+three Fusilier regiments of the 9th Brigade all lost
+heavily, and the Lincolns had at one time to recross
+the river, but recovered their position.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The attack made by the Fifth Division near Missy
+was held up by a very strong German position among
+the woods on the Chivres heights which was fronted
+by wire entanglements.  The regiments chiefly
+engaged were the Norfolks and Bedfords of the 15th
+Brigade, with the Cornwalls and East Surreys of the
+14th Brigade, the remains of the Cheshires being in
+close support.  They crossed the wire and made good
+progress at first, but were eventually brought to a
+stand by heavy fire at close range from a trench
+upon their right front.  It was already dusk, so the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P175"></a>175}</span>
+troops ended by maintaining the position at Missy
+and Ste. Marguerite, where there were bridges to be
+guarded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Fourth Division of Pulteney's Third Corps
+had no better success, and was only able to maintain
+its ground.  It may be remarked, as an example of
+valiant individual effort, that this division was largely
+indebted for its ammunition supply to the efforts of
+Captain Johnston of the Sappers, who, upon a crazy
+raft of his own construction, aided by Lieutenant
+Flint, spent twelve hours under fire ferrying over the
+precious boxes.  The familiar tale of stalemate was
+to be told of the Sixth French Army in the Soissons
+section of the river.  Along the whole Allied line the
+position was the same, the greatest success and
+probably the hardest fighting having fallen to the lot
+of the Eighteenth French Corps, which had taken,
+lost, and finally retaken Craonne, thus establishing
+itself upon the lip of that formidable plateau which
+had been the objective of all the attacks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the Vailly region the 5th Cavalry Brigade
+found itself in a difficult position, for it had crossed
+the stream as a mounted unit in expectation of a
+pursuit, and now found itself under heavy fire in the
+village of Vailly with no possibility of getting forward.
+The only alternative was to recross the river by the
+single narrow bridge, which was done at a later date
+under very heavy fire, the troopers leading their
+horses over in single file.  This difficult operation was
+superintended by Captain Wright of the Engineers,
+the same brave officer who had endeavoured to blow
+up the bridge at Mons.  Unhappily, he was mortally
+wounded on this occasion.  On the afternoon of the
+14th&mdash;it being found that the British artillery was
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P176"></a>176}</span>
+shelling our own advanced trenches&mdash;Staff-Captain
+Harter of the 9th Brigade galloped across the bridge
+and informed the gunners as to the true position.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Towards evening, in spite of the fact that there
+were no reserves and that all the troops had endured
+heavy losses and great fatigue, a general advance
+was ordered in the hope of gaining the high ground
+of the Chemin-des-dames before night.  It was nearly
+sunset when the orders were given, and the troops
+responded gallantly to the call, though many of them
+had been in action since daybreak.  The fire,
+however, was very heavy, and no great progress could
+be made.  The First Division gained some ground,
+but was brought to a standstill.  The only brigade
+which made good headway was Haking's 5th,
+which reached the crest of the hill in the neighbourhood
+of Tilleul-de-Courtecon.  General Haking sent
+out scouts, and finding German outposts upon both
+his flanks, he withdrew under cover of darkness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus ended the sharp and indecisive action of
+September 14, the Germans holding their ground,
+but being in turn unable to drive back the Allies, who
+maintained their position and opposed an impassable
+obstacle to the renewed advance upon Paris.  The
+battle was marked by the common features of advance,
+arrest, and entrenchment, which occurred not only
+in the British front, but in that of the French armies
+upon either flank.  When the action ceased, the 1st
+Northamptons and the 1st Queen's, sent to guard
+the pressure point at the extreme right of the
+line, had actually reached the Chemin-des-dames, the
+British objective, and had dug themselves in upon the
+edge of it.  From this very advanced spot the British
+line extended diagonally across the hillside for many
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P177"></a>177}</span>
+miles until it reached the river.  Several hundred
+prisoners and some guns were taken in the course of
+the fighting.  When one considers the predominant
+position of the Germans, and that their artillery was
+able to give them constant assistance, whereas that of
+the British and French was only brought up with the
+utmost difficulty, we can only marvel that the infantry
+were able to win and to hold the ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The next day, September 15, was spent for the
+most part in making good the position gained and
+deepening the trenches to get some protection from
+the ever-growing artillery fire, which was the more
+intense as the great siege guns from Maubeuge were
+upon this day, for the first time, brought into action.
+At first the terrific explosions of these shells, the
+largest by far which had ever been brought into an
+actual line of battle, were exceedingly alarming, but
+after a time it became realised that, however
+omnipotent they might be against iron or concrete, they
+were comparatively harmless in soft soil, where their
+enormous excavations were soon used as convenient
+ready-made rifle-pits by the soldiers.  This heavy
+fire led to a deepening of the trenches, which
+necessitated a general levy of picks and shovels from the
+country round, for a large portion of such equipment
+had been lost in the first week of the campaign.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The Sixth Division.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Only two active movements were made in the
+course of the day, one being that Hamilton's Third
+Division advanced once more towards Aizy and
+established itself a mile or more to the north in a
+better tactical position.  The 7th Brigade suffered
+considerable casualties in this change, including
+Colonel Hasted, of the 1st Wilts.  The other was
+that Ferguson's Fifth Division fell back from Chivres,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P178"></a>178}</span>
+where it was exposed to a cross fire, and made its
+lines along the river bank, whence the Germans were
+never able to drive it, although they were only four
+hundred yards away in a position which was high
+above it.  For the rest, it was a day of navvy's toil,
+though the men worked alternately with rifle and with
+pick, for there were continual German advances
+which withered away before the volleys which greeted
+them.  By the 16th the position was fairly secure,
+and on the same day a welcome reinforcement arrived
+in the shape of the Sixth Division, forming the missing
+half of Pulteney's Third Corps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Its composition is here appended:
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  DIVISION VI.&mdash;General KEIR.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>16th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Ing. Williams.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st East Kent.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Leicester.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Shropshire Light Infantry.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd York and Lancaster.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>17th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Walter Doran.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Royal Fusiliers.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st N. Stafford.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Leinsters.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3rd Rifle Brigade.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>18th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Congreve, V.C.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st W. York.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st E. York.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Notts and Derby (Sherwood Foresters).<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Durham Light Infantry.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>Artillery.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Brig. 21, 42, 53.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;12th Brig. 43, 86, 87.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;24th Brig. 110, 111, 112.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;38th Brig. 24, 34, 72.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;R.G.A. 24.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Hardships of the Army.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This division was kept in reserve upon the south
+side of the river.  The French Commander-in-Chief
+had intimated that he intended to throw in reinforcements
+upon the left of the Sixth French Army, and
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P179"></a>179}</span>
+so, as he hoped, to turn the German right.  It was
+determined, therefore, that there should be no attempt
+at a British advance, but that the Allies should
+be content with holding the enemy to his positions.
+The two armies lay facing each other, therefore,
+at an average distance of about five hundred yards.
+The pressure was still most severe upon the 2nd
+Brigade on the extreme right.  Bulfin's orders were to
+hold on at all costs, as he was the pivot of the whole
+line.  He and his men responded nobly to the
+responsibility, although both they and their neighbours
+of Maxse's 1st Brigade had sustained a loss of over
+1000 men each upon the 14th&mdash;25 per cent of their
+number.  The shell-fire was incessant and from
+several converging directions.  German infantry
+attacks were constant by night and by day, and the
+undrained trenches were deep in water.  The men
+lay without overcoats and drenched to the skin, for
+the rain was incessant.  Yet the sixth day found
+them on the exact ground upon which they had
+thrown their weary bodies after their attack.  Nations
+desire from time to time to be reassured as to their
+own virility.  Neither in endurance nor in courage
+have the British departed from the traditions of their
+ancestors.  The unending strain of the trenches
+reached the limits of human resistance.  But the line
+was always held.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On September 16 occurred an incident which may
+be taken as typical of the difference in the spirit with
+which the British and the Germans make war.  Close
+to the lines of the Guards a barn which contained fifty
+wounded Germans was ignited by the enemy's shells.
+Under a terrific fire a rescue party rushed forward
+and got the unfortunate men to a place of safety.
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P180"></a>180}</span>
+Several of the British lost their lives in this exploit,
+including Dr. Huggan, the Scottish International
+footballer.  The Germans mock at our respect for
+sport, and yet this is the type of man that sport breeds,
+and it is the want of them in their own ranks which
+will stand for ever between us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+September 17 was a day of incessant attacks upon
+the right of the line, continually repulsed and yet
+continually renewed.  One can well sympathise with
+the feelings of the German commanders who, looking
+down from their heights, saw the British line in a
+most dangerous strategical position, overmatched by
+their artillery, with a deep river in their rear, and
+yet were unable to take advantage of it because of
+their failure to carry the one shallow line of
+extemporised trenches.  Naturally, they came again and
+again, by night and by day, with admirable perseverance
+and daring to the attack, but were always forced
+to admit that nothing can be done against the
+magazine rifle in hands which know how to use it.  They
+tried here and they tried there, these constant sudden
+outpourings of cheering, hurrying, grey-clad men.
+They were natural tactics, but expensive ones, for
+every new attack left a fresh fringe of stricken men
+in front of the British lines.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+German breach of faith.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One incident upon the 17th stands out amid the
+somewhat monotonous record of trench attacks.  On
+the extreme right of the British line a company of
+the 1st Northamptons occupied a most exposed
+position on the edge of the Chemin-des-dames.  The
+men in a German trench which was some hundreds of
+yards in front hoisted a white flag and then advanced
+upon the British lines.  It is well to be charitable in
+all these white flag incidents, since it is always possible
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P181"></a>181}</span>
+on either side that unauthorised men may hoist it
+and the officer in command very properly refuse to
+recognise it; but in this case the deception appears
+to have been a deliberate one.  These are the facts.
+On seeing the flag, Captain Savage, of B Company
+Northamptons, got out of the trench and with
+Lieutenant Dimmer, of the Rifles, advanced to the
+Germans.  He threw down his sword and revolver
+to show that he was unarmed.  He found a difficulty
+in getting a direct answer from the Germans, so he
+saluted their officer, who returned his salute, and
+turned back to walk to his own trench.  Dimmer,
+looking back, saw the Germans level their rifles, so
+he threw himself down, crying out, "For God's sake
+get down."  Captain Savage stood erect and was
+riddled with bullets.  Many of the Northamptons,
+including Lieutenant Gordon, were shot down by the
+same volley.  The Germans then attempted an
+advance, which was stopped by the machine-guns of
+the 1st Queen's.  Such deplorable actions must
+always destroy all the amenities of civilised warfare.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the afternoon of the same day, September 17,
+a more serious attack was made upon the right flank
+of the advanced British position, the enemy reoccupying
+a line of trenches from which they had previously
+been driven.  It was a dismal day of wind, rain,
+and mist, but the latter was not wholly an evil, as
+it enabled that hard-worked regiment, the 1st
+Northamptons, under their Colonel, Osborne Smith,
+to move swiftly forward and, with the help of the
+1st Queen's, carry the place at the bayonet point.
+Half the Germans in the trench were put out of action,
+thirty-eight taken, and the rest fled.  Pushing on
+after their success, they found the ridge beyond held
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P182"></a>182}</span>
+by a considerable force of German infantry.  The
+2nd Rifles had come into the fight, and a
+dismounted squadron of the composite cavalry
+regiment put in some good work upon the flank.  The
+action was continued briskly until dark, when both
+sides retained their ground with the exception of the
+captured line of trenches, which remained with the
+British.  Seven officers and about 200 men were
+killed or wounded in this little affair.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+<i>Tâtez toujours.</i>
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The 18th found the enemy still acting upon the
+Napoleonic advice of <i>Tâtez toujours</i>.  All day they
+were feeling for that weak place which could never be
+found.  The constant attempts were carried on into
+the night with the same monotonous record of advance
+leading to repulse.  At one time it was the line of the
+1st Queen's&mdash;and no line in the Army would be less
+likely to give results.  Then it was the left flank of
+the First Division, and then the front of the Second.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now and again there were swift counters from
+the British, in one of which an enemy's trench was
+taken by the 1st Gloucesters with the two machine-guns
+therein.  But there was no inducement for any
+general British advance.  "We have nothing to lose
+by staying here," said a General, "whereas every day
+is of importance to the Germans, so the longer we can
+detain them here the better."  So it seemed from the
+point of view of the Allies.  There is a German point
+of view also, however, which is worthy of consideration.
+They were aware, and others were not, that
+great reserves of men were left in the Fatherland, even
+as there were in France and in Britain, but that,
+unlike France and Britain, they actually had the arms
+and equipment for them, so that a second host could
+rapidly be called into the field.  If these legions were
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P183"></a>183}</span>
+in Belgium, they could ensure the fall of Antwerp,
+overrun the country, and seize the seaboard.  All
+this could be effected while the Allies were held at the
+Aisne.  Later, with these vast reinforcements, the
+German armies might burst the barrier which held
+them and make a second descent upon Paris, which
+was still only fifty miles away.  So the Germans
+may have argued, and the history of the future was
+to show that there were some grounds for such a
+calculation.  It was in truth a second war in which
+once again the Germans had the men and material
+ready, while the Allies had not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The general position.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This date, September 18, may be taken as the
+conclusion of the actual Battle of the Aisne, since
+from that time the operations defined themselves
+definitely as a mutual siege and gigantic artillery duel.
+The casualties of the British at the Aisne amounted,
+up to that date, to 10,000 officers and men, the great
+majority of which were suffered by Haig's First Army
+Corps.  The action had lasted from the 13th, and its
+outstanding features, so far as our forces were
+concerned, may be said to have been the remarkable
+feat of crossing the river and the fine leadership of
+General Haig in the dangerous position in which he
+found himself.  It has been suggested that the single
+unbroken bridge by which he crossed may have
+been a trap purposely laid by the Germans, whose
+plans miscarried owing to the simultaneous forcing
+of the river at many other points.  As it was,
+the position of the First Corps was a very difficult
+one, and a reverse might have become an absolute
+disaster.  It was impossible for General French to
+avoid this risk, for since the weather precluded all
+air reconnaissance, it was only by pushing his Army
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P184"></a>184}</span>
+across that he could be sure of the enemy's dispositions.
+The net result was one more demonstration upon both
+sides that the defensive force has so great an advantage
+under modern conditions that if there be moderate
+equality of numbers, and if the flanks of each be
+guarded, a condition of stalemate will invariably
+ensue, until the campaign is decided by economic
+causes or by military movements in some other part
+of the field of operations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is ample evidence that for the time the
+German Army, though able with no great effort to
+hold the extraordinarily strong position which had
+been prepared for it, was actually in very bad
+condition.  Large new drafts had been brought out,
+which had not yet been assimilated by the army.
+The resistance of Maubeuge had blocked one of their
+supply railroads, and for some time the commissariat
+had partially broken down.  Above all, they were
+mentally depressed by meeting such resistance where
+they had been led to expect an easy victory, by their
+forced retreat when almost within sight of Paris, and
+by their losses, which had been enormous.  In spite of
+their own great superiority in heavy guns, the French
+light field-pieces had controlled the battlefields.
+There is ample evidence in the letters which have been
+intercepted, apart from the statements and appearance
+of the prisoners, to show the want and depression
+which prevailed.  This period, however, may be said
+to mark the nadir of the German fortunes in this year.
+The fall of Maubeuge improved their supplies of every
+sort, their reserves and Landwehr got broken in by
+the war of the trenches, and the eventual fall of
+Antwerp and invasion of Western Belgium gave them
+that moral stimulus which they badly needed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P185"></a>185}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some wit amongst the officers has described the
+war as "months of boredom broken by moments of
+agony."  It is the duty of the chronicler to record,
+even if he attempts to alleviate, the former, for the
+most monotonous procession of events form integral
+parts of the great whole.  The perusal of a great
+number of diaries and experiences leaves a vague and
+disconnected recollection behind it of personal escapes,
+of the terror of high explosives, of the excellence of
+the rear services of the Army, of futile shellings&mdash;with
+an occasional tragic mishap, where some group of men
+far from the front were suddenly, by some freak of fate,
+blown to destruction,&mdash;of the discomforts of wet
+trenches, and the joys of an occasional relief in the
+villages at the rear.  Here and there, however, in the
+monotony of what had now become a mutual siege,
+there stand out some episodes or developments of a
+more vital character, which will be recorded in their
+sequence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may be conjectured that, up to the period of the
+definite entrenchment of the two armies, the losses
+of the enemy were not greater than our own.  It is
+in the attack that losses are incurred, and the attack
+had, for the most part, been with us.  The heavier
+guns of the Germans had also been a factor in their
+favour.  From the 18th onwards, however, the
+weekly losses of the enemy must have been very much
+greater than ours, since continually, night and day,
+they made onslaughts, which attained some partial
+and temporary success upon the 20th, but which on
+every other occasion were blown back by the rifle-fire
+with which they were met.  So mechanical and
+half-hearted did they at last become that they gave the
+impression that those who made them had no hope of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P186"></a>186}</span>
+success, and that they were only done at the bidding
+of some imperious or imperial voice from the distance.
+In these attacks, though any one of them may have
+only furnished a few hundred casualties, the total
+effect spread over several weeks must have equalled
+that of a very great battle, and amounted, since no
+progress was ever made, to a considerable defeat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus on September 19 there was a succession of
+attacks, made with considerable vivacity and
+proportional loss.  About 4 P.M. one developed in front
+of the 4th and 6th Brigades of the First Corps, but
+was speedily stopped.  An hour later another one
+burst forth upon the 7th and 9th Brigades of the
+Second Corps, with the same result.  The artillery
+fire was very severe all day and the broad valley was
+arched from dawn to dusk by the flying shell.  The
+weather was still detestable, and a good many were
+reported ill from the effects of constant wet and cold.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The 20th was the date of two separate attacks, one
+of which involved some hard fighting and considerable
+loss.  The first, at eight in the morning, was upon
+Shaw's 9th Brigade and was driven off without great
+difficulty.  The second was the more serious and
+demands some fuller detail.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Attack upon the West Yorks.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the arrival of the Sixth Division upon the 18th,
+Sir John French had determined to hold them in
+reserve and to use them to relieve, in turn, each of the
+brigades which had been so hard-worked during the
+previous week.  Of these, there was none which
+needed and deserved a rest more than Bulfin's 2nd
+Brigade, which, after their attack upon the
+Chemin-des-dames upon the 14th, had made and held the
+trenches which formed both the extreme right and the
+advanced point of the British line.  For nearly a
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P187"></a>187}</span>
+week these men of iron had lain where the battle had
+left them.  With the object of relieving them, the
+18th Brigade (Congreve's) of the Sixth Division was
+ordered to take their places.  The transfer was
+successfully effected at night, but the newcomers, who
+had only arrived two days before from England, found
+themselves engaged at once in a very serious action.
+It may have been coincidence, or it may have been
+that with their remarkable system of espionage the
+Germans learned that new troops had taken the place
+of those whose mettle they had tested so often; but
+however this may be, they made a vigorous advance
+upon the afternoon of September 20, coming on so
+rapidly and in such numbers that they drove out the
+occupants both of the front British trenches&mdash;which
+were manned by three companies of the 1st West
+Yorkshires&mdash;and the adjoining French trench upon
+the right, which was held by the Turcos.  The West
+Yorkshires were overwhelmed and enfiladed with
+machine-guns, a number were shot down, and others
+were taken prisoners.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Counter-attack by Congreve's 18th Brigade.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fortunately, the rest of the brigade were in
+immediate support, and orders were given by General
+Congreve to advance and to regain the ground that
+had been lost.  The rush up the hill was carried out
+by the 2nd Notts and Derby Regiment (Sherwood
+Foresters) in the centre, with the remainder of the
+West Yorks upon their right, and the 2nd Durham
+Light Infantry upon their left.  They were supported
+by the 1st East Yorks and by the 2nd Sussex,
+who had just been called out of the line for a
+rest.  The 4th Irish Dragoon Guards at a gallop at
+first, and then dismounting with rifle and bayonet,
+were in the forefront of the fray.  The advance was
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P188"></a>188}</span>
+over half a mile of ground, most of which was clear
+of any sort of cover, but it was magnificently carried
+out and irresistible in its impetus.  All the regiments
+lost heavily, but all reached their goal.  Officers were
+hit again and again, but staggered on with their men.
+Captain Popham, of the Sherwood Foresters, is said
+to have carried six wounds with him up the slope.
+Fifteen officers and 250 men were shot down, but the
+lost trench was carried at the point of the bayonet and
+the whole position re-established.  The total casualties
+were 1364, more than half of which fell upon the West
+Yorkshires, while the majority of the others were
+Sherwood Foresters, East Yorkshires, and Durhams.
+Major Robb, of the latter regiment, was among those
+who fell.  The Germans did not hold the trenches for
+an hour, and yet the engagement may be counted as a
+success for them, since our losses were certainly
+heavier than theirs.  There was no gain, however,
+in ground.  The action was more than a mere local
+attack, and the British line was in danger of being
+broken had it not been for the determined counter-attack
+of the 18th Brigade and of the Irish dragoons.
+To the north of this main attack there was another
+subsidiary movement on the Beaulne ridge, in which
+the 5th and 6th Brigades were sharply engaged.  The
+1st King's, the 2nd H.L.I., and the 2nd Worcesters all
+sustained some losses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About this period both the British and the French
+armies began to strengthen themselves with those
+heavy guns in which they had been so completely
+overweighted by their enemy.  On the 20th the
+French in the neighbourhood of our lines received
+twelve long-range cannon, firing a 35 lb. shell a
+distance of twelve kilometres.  Three days later the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P189"></a>189}</span>
+British opened fire with four new batteries of
+six-inch howitzers.  From this time onwards there was
+no such great disparity in the heavy artillery, and
+the wounded from the monster shells of the enemy
+had at least the slight solace that their fate was not
+unavenged.  The expenditure of shells, however,
+was still at the rate of ten German to one of the
+Allies.  If the war was not won it was no fault of
+Krupp and the men of Essen.  In two weeks the
+British lost nearly 3000 men from shell-fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Rheims Cathedral.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was at this time, September 20, that the Germans
+put a climax upon the long series of outrages and
+vandalisms of which their troops had been guilty
+by the bombardment of Rheims Cathedral, the
+Westminster Abbey of France.  The act seems to
+have sprung from deliberate malice, for though it
+was asserted afterwards that the tower had been
+used as an artillery observation point, this is in the
+highest degree improbable, since the summit of the
+ridge upon the French side is available for such a
+purpose.  The cathedral was occupied at the time
+by a number of German wounded, who were the
+sufferers by the barbarity of their fellow-countrymen.
+The incident will always remain as a permanent
+record of the value of that Kultur over which we have
+heard such frantic boasts.  The records of the French,
+Belgian, and British Commissions upon the German
+atrocities, reinforced by the recollection of the burned
+University of Louvain and the shattered Cathedral
+of Rheims, will leave a stain upon the German
+armies which can never be erased.  Their conduct
+is the more remarkable, since the invasion of 1870
+was conducted with a stern but rigid discipline,
+which won the acknowledgment of the world.  In
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P190"></a>190}</span>
+spite of all the material progress and the superficial
+show of refinement, little more than a generation
+seems to have separated civilisation from primitive
+barbarity, which attained such a pitch that no
+arrangement could be made by which the wounded between
+the lines could be brought in.  Such was the code
+of a nominally Christian nation in the year 1914.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Up to now the heavier end of the fighting had
+been borne by Haig's First Corps, but from the 20th
+onwards the Second and Third sustained the impact.
+The action just described, in which the West
+Yorkshires suffered so severely, was fought mainly by the
+18th Brigade of Pulteney's Third Corps.  On the
+21st it was the turn of the Second Corps.  During
+the night the 1st Wiltshire battalion of McCracken's
+7th Brigade was attacked, and making a strong
+counter-attack in the morning they cleared a wood
+with the bayonet, and advanced the British line at
+that point.  A subsequent attack upon the same
+brigade was repulsed.  How heavy the losses had
+been in the wear and tear of six days' continual
+trench work is shown by the fact that when on this
+date the 9th Brigade (Shaw's) was taken back for a
+rest it had lost 30 officers and 860 men since crossing
+the Aisne.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The German heavy guns upon the 21st set fire to
+the village of Missy, but failed to dislodge the 1st
+East Surreys who held it.  This battalion, in common
+with the rest of Ferguson's Division, were dominated
+night and day by a plunging fire from above.  It
+is worth recording that in spite of the strain, the
+hardship, and the wet trenches, the percentage of
+serious sickness among the troops was lower than the
+normal rate of a garrison town.  A few cases of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P191"></a>191}</span>
+enteric appeared about this time, of which six were
+in one company of the Coldstream Guards.  It is
+instructive to note that in each case the man belonged
+to the uninoculated minority.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Spies.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A plague of spies infested the British and French
+lines at this period, and their elaborate telephone
+installations, leading from haystacks or from cellars,
+showed the foresight of the enemy.  Some of these
+were German officers, who bravely took their lives
+in their hands from the patriotic motive of helping
+their country.  Others, alas, were residents who had
+sold their souls for German gold.  One such&mdash;a
+farmer&mdash;was found with a telephone within his
+house and no less a sum than a thousand pounds in
+specie.  Many a battery concealed in a hollow, and
+many a convoy in a hidden road, were amazed by the
+accuracy of a fire which was really directed, not
+from the distant guns, but from some wayside
+hiding-place.  Fifteen of these men were shot and the
+trouble abated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The attacks upon the British trenches, which
+had died down for several days, were renewed with
+considerable vigour upon September 26.  The first,
+directed against the 1st Queen's, was carried out
+by a force of about 1000 men, who advanced in
+close order, and, coming under machine-gun fire,
+were rapidly broken up.  The second was made by
+a German battalion debouching from the woods in
+front of the 1st South Wales Borderers.  This attack
+penetrated the line at one point, the left company of
+the regiment suffering severely, with all its officers
+down.  The reserve company, with the help of the
+2nd Welsh Regiment, retook the trenches after a
+hot fight, which ended by the wood being cleared.
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P192"></a>192}</span>
+The Germans lost heavily in this struggle, 80 of
+them being picked up on the very edge of the trench.
+The Borderers also had numerous casualties, which
+totalled up to 7 officers and 182 men, half of whom
+were actually killed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Army was now in a very strong position, for
+the trenches were so well constructed that unless a
+shell by some miracle went right in, no harm would
+result.  The weather had become fine once more,
+and the flying service relieved the anxieties of the
+commanders as to a massed attack.  The heavy
+artillery of the Allies was also improving from day to
+day, especially the heavy British howitzers, aided
+by aeroplane observers with a wireless installation.
+On the other hand, the guns were frequently hit by
+the enemy's fire.  The 22nd R.F.A. lost a gun, the
+50th three guns, and other batteries had similar
+losses.  Concealment had not yet been reduced to a
+science.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this period the enemy seems to have realised
+that his attacks, whether against the British line or
+against the French armies which flanked it, and
+had fought throughout with equal tenacity, were a
+mere waste of life.  The assaults died away or became
+mere demonstrations.  Early in October the total
+losses of the Army upon the Aisne had been 561
+officers and 12,980 men, a proportion which speaks
+well for the coolness and accuracy of the enemy's
+sharp-shooters, while it exhibits our own forgetfulness
+of the lessons of the African War, where we learned
+that the officer should be clad and armed so like the
+men as to be indistinguishable even at short ranges.
+Of this large total the Second Corps lost 136 officers
+and 3095 men, and the First Corps 348 officers and
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P193"></a>193}</span>
+6073 men, the remaining 77 officers and 3812 men
+being from the Third Corps and the cavalry.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The siege and fall of Antwerp.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was at this period that a great change came
+over both the object and the locality of the operations.
+This change depended upon two events which had
+occurred far to the north, and reacted upon the great
+armies locked in the long grapple of the Aisne.  The
+first of these controlling circumstances was that, by
+the movement of the old troops and the addition of
+new ones, each army had sought to turn the flank of
+the other in the north, until the whole centre of
+gravity of the war was transferred to that region.
+A new French army under General Castelnau, whose
+fine defence of Nancy had put him in the front of
+French leaders, had appeared on the extreme left
+wing of the Allies, only to be countered by fresh
+bodies of Germans, until the ever-extending line
+lengthened out to the manufacturing districts of Lens
+and Lille, where amid pit-shafts and slag-heaps the
+cavalry of the French and the Germans tried
+desperately to get round each other's flank.  The other
+factor was the fall of Antwerp, which had released
+very large bodies of Germans, who were flooding over
+Western Belgium, and, with the help of great new
+levies from Germany, carrying the war to the
+sand-dunes of the coast.  The operations which brought
+about this great change open up a new chapter in the
+history of the war.  The actual events which
+culminated in the fall of Antwerp may be very briefly
+handled, since, important as they were, they were
+not primarily part of the British task, and hence
+hardly come within the scope of this narrative.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Belgians, after the evacuation of Brussels in
+August, had withdrawn their army into the widespread
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P194"></a>194}</span>
+fortress of Antwerp, from which they made frequent
+sallies upon the Germans who were garrisoning their
+country.  Great activity was shown and several
+small successes were gained, which had the useful
+effect of detaining two corps which might have been
+employed upon the Aisne.  Eventually, towards the
+end of September, the Germans turned their attention
+seriously to the reduction of the city, with a
+well-founded confidence that no modern forts could resist
+the impact of their enormous artillery.  They drove
+the garrison within the lines, and early in October
+opened a bombardment upon the outer forts with
+such results that it was evidently only a matter of
+days before they would fall and the fine old city be
+faced with the alternative of surrender or destruction.
+The Spanish fury of Parma's pikemen would be a
+small thing compared to the <i>furor Teutonicus</i> working
+its evil deliberate will upon town-hall or cathedral,
+with the aid of fire-disc, petrol-spray, or other products
+of culture.  The main problem before the Allies,
+if the town could not be saved, was to ensure that
+the Belgian army should be extricated and that
+nothing of military value which could be destroyed
+should be left to the invaders.  No troops were
+available for a rescue, for the French and British old
+formations were already engaged, while the new
+ones were not yet ready for action.  In these
+circumstances, a resolution was come to by the British
+leaders which was bold to the verge of rashness and
+so chivalrous as to be almost quixotic.  It was
+determined to send out at the shortest notice a naval
+division, one brigade of which consisted of marines,
+troops who are second to none in the country's
+service, while the other two brigades were young
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P195"></a>195}</span>
+amateur sailor volunteers, most of whom had only
+been under arms for a few weeks.  It was an
+extraordinary experiment, as testing how far the average
+sport-loving, healthy-minded young Briton needs
+only his equipment to turn him into a soldier who,
+in spite of all rawness and inefficiency, can still affect
+the course of a campaign.  This strange force,
+one-third veterans and two-thirds practically civilians,
+was hurried across to do what it could for the failing
+town, and to demonstrate to Belgium how real was
+the sympathy which prompted us to send all that
+we had.  A reinforcement of a very different quality
+was dispatched a few days later in the shape of the
+Seventh Division of the Regular Army, with the Third
+Division of Cavalry.  These fine troops were too late,
+however, to save the city, and soon found themselves
+in a position where it needed all their hardihood to
+save themselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Marine Brigade of the Naval Division under
+General Paris was dispatched from England in the
+early morning and reached Antwerp during the night
+of October 3.  They were about 2000 in number.
+Early next morning they were out in the trenches,
+relieving some weary Belgians.  The Germans were
+already within the outer enceinte and drawing close
+to the inner.  For forty-eight hours they held the
+line in the face of heavy shelling.  The cover was
+good and the losses were not heavy.  At the end of
+that time the Belgian troops, who had been a good
+deal worn by their heroic exertions, were unable to
+sustain the German pressure, and evacuated the
+trenches on the flank of the British line.  The brigade
+then fell back to a reserve position in front of the
+town.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P196"></a>196}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the night of the 5th the two other brigades of
+the division, numbering some 5000 amateur sailors,
+arrived in Antwerp, and the whole force assembled
+on the new line of defence.  Mr. Winston Churchill
+showed his gallantry as a man, and his indiscretion as
+a high official, whose life was of great value to his
+country by accompanying the force from England.
+The bombardment was now very heavy, and the town
+was on fire in several places.  The equipment of the
+British left much to be desired, and their trenches were
+as indifferent as their training.  None the less they
+played the man and lived up to the traditions of that
+great service upon whose threshold they stood.  For
+three days these men, who a few weeks before had been
+anything from schoolmasters to tram-conductors, held
+their perilous post.  They were very raw, but they
+possessed a great asset in their officers, who were
+usually men of long service.  But neither the lads
+of the naval brigades nor the war-worn and
+much-enduring Belgians could stop the mouths of those
+inexorable guns.  On the 8th it was clear that the forts
+could no longer be held.  The British task had been
+to maintain the trenches which connected the forts
+with each other, but if the forts went it was clear
+that the trenches must be outflanked and untenable.
+The situation, therefore, was hopeless, and all that
+remained was to save the garrison and leave as little
+as possible for the victors.  Some thirty or forty
+German merchant ships in the harbour were sunk
+and the great petrol tanks were set on fire.  By the
+light of the flames the Belgian and British forces
+made their way successfully out of the town, and
+the good service rendered later by our Allies upon
+the Yser and elsewhere is the best justification of the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P197"></a>197}</span>
+policy which made us strain every nerve in order to
+do everything which could have a moral or material
+effect upon them in their darkest hour.  Had the
+British been able to get away unscathed, the whole
+operation might have been reviewed with equanimity
+if not with satisfaction, but, unhappily, a grave
+misfortune, arising rather from bad luck than from the
+opposition of the enemy, came upon the retreating
+brigades, so that very many of our young sailors
+after their one week of crowded life came to the end
+of their active service for the war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On leaving Antwerp it had been necessary to
+strike to the north in order to avoid a large detachment
+of the enemy who were said to be upon the line
+of the retreat.  The boundary between Holland and
+Belgium is at this point very intricate, with no clear
+line of demarcation, and a long column of British
+somnambulists, staggering along in the dark after
+so many days in which they had for the most part
+never enjoyed two consecutive hours of sleep,
+wandered over the fatal line and found themselves
+in firm but kindly Dutch custody for the rest of the
+war.  Some fell into the hands of the enemy, but the
+great majority were interned.  These men belonged
+chiefly to three battalions of the 1st Brigade.  The
+2nd Brigade, with one battalion of the 1st, and the
+greater part of the Marines, made their way to the
+trains at St. Gilles-Waes, and were able to reach
+Ostend in safety.  The remaining battalion of Marines,
+with a number of stragglers of the other brigades,
+were cut off at Morbede by the Germans, and about
+half of them were taken, while the rest fought their
+way through in the darkness and joined their comrades.
+The total losses of the British in the whole
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P198"></a>198}</span>
+misadventure from first to last were about 2500
+men&mdash;a high price, and yet not too high when weighed
+against the results of their presence at Antwerp.  On
+October 10 the Germans under General Von Beseler
+occupied the city.  Mr. Powell, who was present,
+testifies that 60,000 marched into the town, and that
+they were all troops of the active army.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has already been described how the northern
+ends of the two contending armies were endeavouring
+to outflank each other, and there seemed every
+possibility that this process would be carried out until
+each arrived at the coast.  Early in October Sir John
+French represented to General Joffre that it would
+be well that the British Army should be withdrawn
+from the Aisne and take its position to the left of the
+French forces, a move which would shorten its line
+of communications very materially, and at the same
+time give it the task of defending the Channel coast.
+General Joffre agreed to the proposition, and the
+necessary steps were at once taken to put it into
+force.  The Belgians had in the meanwhile made
+their way behind the line of the Yser, where a
+formidable position had been prepared.  There, with hardly
+a day of rest, they were ready to renew the struggle
+with the ferocious ravagers of their country.  The
+Belgian Government had been moved to France,
+and their splendid King, who will live in history as
+the most heroic and chivalrous figure of the war,
+continued by his brave words and noble example to
+animate the spirits of his countrymen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From this time Germany was in temporary occupation
+of all Belgium, save only the one little corner, the
+defence of which will be recorded for ever.  Little
+did she profit by her crime or by the excuses and
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P199"></a>199}</span>
+forged documents by which she attempted to justify
+her action.  She entered the land in dishonour and
+dishonoured will quit it.  William, Germany, and
+Belgium are an association of words which will raise
+in the minds of posterity all that Parma, Spain, and
+the Lowlands have meant to us&mdash;an episode of oppression,
+cruelty, and rapacity, which fresh generations
+may atone for but can never efface.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a id="chap07"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">{<a id="P200"></a>200}</span></p>
+
+<h3>
+CHAPTER VII
+<br /><br />
+THE LA BASSÉE&mdash;ARMENTIÈRES OPERATIONS
+</h3>
+
+<p class="t3">
+(From October 11 to October 31, 1914)
+</p>
+
+<p class="intro">
+The great battle line&mdash;Advance of Second Corps&mdash;Death of General
+Hamilton&mdash;The farthest point&mdash;Fate of the 2nd Royal Irish&mdash;The
+Third Corps&mdash;Exhausted troops&mdash;First fight of Neuve
+Chapelle&mdash;The Indians take over&mdash;The Lancers at
+Warneton&mdash;Pulteney's operations&mdash;Action of Le Gheir.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+In accordance with the new plans, the great
+transference began upon October 3.  It was an exceedingly
+difficult problem, since an army of more than 100,000
+men had to be gradually extricated by night from
+trenches which were often not more than a hundred
+yards from the enemy, while a second army of equal
+numbers had to be substituted in its place.  The line
+of retreat was down an open slope, across exposed
+bridges, and up the slope upon the southern bank.
+Any alarm to the Germans might have been fatal,
+since a vigorous night attack in the middle of the
+operation would have been difficult to resist, and even
+an artillery bombardment must have caused great
+loss of life.  The work of the Staff in this campaign
+has been worthy of the regimental officers and of the
+men.  Everything went without a hitch.  The Second
+Cavalry Division (Gough's) went first, followed
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P201"></a>201}</span>
+immediately by the First (De Lisle's).  Then the
+infantry was withdrawn, the Second Corps being the
+vanguard; the Third Corps followed, and the First
+was the last to leave.  The Second Corps began to
+clear from its trenches on October 3-4, and were
+ready for action on the Aire-Bethune line upon
+October 11.  The Third Corps was very little behind
+it, and the First had reached the new battle-ground
+upon the 19th.  Cavalry went by road; infantry
+marched part of the way, trained part of the way,
+and did the last lap very often in motor-buses.  One
+way or another the men were got across, the Aisne
+trenches were left for ever, and a new phase of the
+war had begun.  From the chalky uplands and the
+wooded slopes there was a sudden change to immense
+plains of clay, with slow, meandering, ditch-like
+streams, and all the hideous features of a great
+coal-field added to the drab monotony of Nature.  No
+scenes could be more different, but the same great
+issue of history and the same old problem of trench
+and rifle were finding their slow solution upon each.
+The stalemate of the Aisne was for the moment set
+aside, and once again we had reverted to the old
+position where the ardent Germans declared, "This
+way we shall come," and the Allies, "Not a mile,
+save over our bodies."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The great battle line.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The narrator is here faced with a considerable
+difficulty in his attempt to adhere closely to truth
+and yet to make his narrative intelligible to the lay
+reader.  We stand upon the edge of a great battle.
+If all the operations which centred at Ypres, but
+which extend to the Yser Canal upon the north and
+to La Bassée at the south, be grouped into one episode,
+it becomes the greatest clash of arms ever seen up
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P202"></a>202}</span>
+to that hour upon the globe, involving a casualty
+list&mdash;Belgian, French, British, and German&mdash;which
+could by no means be computed as under 250,000,
+and probably over 300,000 men.  It was fought,
+however, over an irregular line, which is roughly
+forty miles from north to south, while it lasted, in
+its active form, from October 12 to November 20
+before it settled down to the inevitable siege stage.
+Thus both in time and in space it presents difficulties
+which make a concentrated, connected, and intelligible
+narrative no easy task.  In order to attempt this,
+it is necessary first to give a general idea of what the
+British Army, in conjunction with its Allies, was
+endeavouring to do, and, secondly, to show how the
+operations affected each corps in its turn.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the operations of the Aisne the French had
+extended the Allied line far to the north in the hope
+of outflanking the Germans.  The new Tenth French
+Army, under General Foch, formed the extreme left of
+this vast manoeuvre, and it was supported on its
+left by the French cavalry.  The German right had
+lengthened out, however, to meet every fresh
+extension of the French, and their cavalry had been
+sufficiently numerous and alert to prevent the French
+cavalry from getting round.  Numerous skirmishes
+had ended in no definite result.  It was at this period
+that it occurred, as already stated, to Sir John French
+that to bring the whole British Army round to the
+north of the line would both shorten very materially
+his communications and would prolong the line
+to an extent which might enable him to turn the
+German flank and make their whole position
+impossible.  General Joffre having endorsed these views,
+Sir John took the steps which we have already seen.
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P203"></a>203}</span>
+The British movement was, therefore, at the outset
+an aggressive one.  How it became defensive as new
+factors intruded themselves, and as a result of the
+fall of Antwerp, will be shown at a later stage of this
+account.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the Second Corps arrived first upon the scene
+it will be proper to begin with some account of its
+doings from October 12, when it went into action,
+until the end of the month, when it found itself
+brought to a standstill by superior forces and placed
+upon the defensive.  The doings of the Third Corps
+during the same period will be interwoven with those
+of the Second, since they were in close co-operation;
+and, finally, the fortunes of the First Corps will be
+followed and the relation shown between its doings
+and those of the newly arrived Seventh Division,
+which had fallen back from the vicinity of Antwerp
+and turned at bay near Ypres upon the pursuing
+Germans.  Coming from different directions, all these
+various bodies were destined to be formed into one
+line, cemented together by their own dismounted
+cavalry and by French reinforcements, so as to lay
+an unbroken breakwater before the great German
+flood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The task of the Second Corps was to get into
+touch with the left flank of the Tenth French Army
+in the vicinity of La Bassée, and then to wheel round
+its own left so as to turn the position of those Germans
+who were facing our Allies.  The line of the Bethune-Lille
+road was to be the hinge, connecting the two
+armies and marking the turning-point for the British.
+On the 11th Gough's Second Cavalry Division was
+clearing the woods in front of the Aire-Bethune
+Canal, which marked the line of the Second Corps.  By
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P204"></a>204}</span>
+evening Gough had connected up the Third Division
+of the Second Corps with the Sixth Division of the
+Third Corps, which was already at Hazebrouck.  On
+the 12th the Third Division crossed the canal,
+followed by the Fifth Division, with the exception
+of the 13th Brigade, which remained to the south of
+it.  Both divisions advanced more or less north
+before swinging round to almost due east in their
+outflanking movement.  The rough diagram gives
+an idea of the point from which they started and the
+positions reached at various dates before they came
+to an equilibrium.  There were many weary stages,
+however, between the outset and the fulfilment, and
+the final results were destined to be barren as
+compared with the exertions and the losses involved.
+None the less it was, as it proved, an essential part
+of that great operation by which the British&mdash;with the
+help of their good allies&mdash;checked the German advance
+upon Calais in October and November, even as they
+had helped to head them off from Paris in August
+and September.  During these four months the little
+British Army, far from being negligible, as some
+critics had foretold would be the case in a Continental
+war, was absolutely vital in holding the Allied line
+and taking the edge off the hacking German sword.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P205"></a>205}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="capcenter">
+<a id="img-205"></a>
+<br />
+<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-205.jpg" alt="Diagram to illustrate operations of Smith-Dorrien's 2nd. Corps &amp; Pulteney's 3rd Corps from Oct. 11 to Oct 19, 1914." />
+<br />
+Diagram to illustrate operations of Smith-Dorrien's 2nd. Corps &amp; <br />
+Pulteney's 3rd Corps from Oct. 11 to Oct 19, 1914.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+The Third Corps, which had detrained at St. Omer
+and moved to Hazebrouck, was intended to move
+in touch with the Second, prolonging its line to the
+north.  The First and Second British Cavalry
+Divisions, now under the command of De Lisle and of
+Gough, with Allenby as chief, had a role of their own
+to play, and the space between the Second and Third
+Corps was now filled up by a French Cavalry Division
+under Conneau, a whole-hearted soldier always ready
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P206"></a>206}</span>
+to respond to any call.  There was no strong
+opposition yet in front of the Third Corps, but General
+Pulteney moved rapidly forwards, brushed aside all
+resistance, and seized the town of Bailleul.  A German
+position in front of the town, held by cavalry and
+infantry without guns, was rushed by a rapid advance
+of Haldane's 10th Infantry Brigade, the 2nd Seaforths
+particularly distinguishing themselves, though the
+1st Warwicks and 1st Irish Fusiliers had also a good
+many losses, the Irishmen clearing the trenches to
+the cry of "Faugh-a-Ballagh!" which has sounded
+so often upon battlefields of old.  The 10th Brigade
+was on the left of the corps, and in touch with
+the Second Cavalry Division to the north.  The
+whole action, with its swift advance and moderate
+losses, was a fine vindication of British infantry
+tactics.  On the evening of October 15 the Third
+Corps had crossed the Lys, and on the 18th they
+extended from Warneton in the north to almost
+within touch of the position of the Second Corps at
+Aubers upon the same date.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Advance of Second Corps.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The country to the south in which the Second
+Corps was advancing upon October 12 was an
+extraordinarily difficult one, which offered many
+advantages to the defence over the attack.  It was so
+flat that it was impossible to find places for artillery
+observation, and it was intersected with canals, high
+hedgerows, and dykes, which formed ready-made
+trenches.  The Germans were at first not in strength,
+and consisted for the most part of dismounted cavalry
+drawn from four divisions, but from this time onwards
+there was a constant fresh accession of infantry and
+guns.  They disputed with great skill and energy
+every position which could be defended, and the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P207"></a>207}</span>
+British advance during the day, though steady, was
+necessarily slow.  Every hamlet, hedgerow, and
+stream meant a separate skirmish.  The troops
+continually closed ranks, advanced, extended, and
+attacked from morning to night, sleeping where they
+had last fought.  There was nothing that could be
+called a serious engagement, and yet the losses&mdash;almost
+entirely from the Third Division&mdash;amounted
+to 300 for the day, the heaviest sufferers being the
+2nd Royal Scots.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the next day, the 13th, the corps swung round
+its left so as to develop the turning movement already
+described.  Its front of advance was about eight
+miles, and it met resistance which made all progress
+difficult.  Again the 8th Brigade, especially the
+Royal Scots and 4th Middlesex, lost heavily.  So
+desperate was the fighting that the Royal Scots had
+400 casualties including 9 officers, and the Middlesex
+fared little better.  The principal fighting, however,
+fell late in the evening upon the 15th Brigade
+(Gleichen's), who were on the right of the line and in
+touch with the Bethune Canal.  The enemy, whose
+line of resistance had been considerably thickened by
+the addition of several battalions of Jaeger and part
+of the Fourteenth Corps, made a spirited counter-attack
+on this portion of the advance.  The 1st
+Bedfords were roughly handled and driven back, with
+the result that the 1st Dorsets, who were stationed at
+a bridge over the canal near Givenchy, found their
+flanks exposed and sustained heavy losses, amounting
+to 400 men, including Major Roper.  Colonel Bols,
+of the same regiment, enjoyed one crowded hour of
+glorious life, for he was wounded, captured, and
+escaped all on the same evening.  It was in this
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P208"></a>208}</span>
+action also that Major Vandeleur was wounded and
+captured.[<a id="chap07fn1text"></a><a href="#chap07fn1">1</a>]  A section of guns which was involved in
+the same dilemma as the Dorsets had to be abandoned
+after every gunner had fallen.  The 15th Brigade was
+compelled to fall back for half a mile and entrench
+itself for the night.  On the left the 7th Brigade
+(McCracken's) had some eighty casualties in crossing
+the Lys, and a detachment of Northumberland
+Fusiliers, who covered their left flank, came under
+machine-gun fire, which struck down their adjutant,
+Captain Herbert, and a number of men.  Altogether
+the losses on this day amounted to about twelve
+hundred men.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a id="chap07fn1"></a>
+[<a href="#chap07fn1text">1</a>] Major Vandeleur was the officer who afterwards escaped from Crefeld
+and brought back with him a shocking account of the German treatment
+of our prisoners.  Though a wounded man, the Major was kicked by the
+direct command of one German officer, and his overcoat was taken from
+him in bitter weather by another.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Death of General Hamilton.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 14th the Second Corps continued its slow
+advance in the same direction.  Upon this day the
+Third Division sustained a grievous loss in the shape
+of its commander, General Sir Hubert Hamilton, who
+was standing conversing with the quiet nonchalance
+which was characteristic of him, when a shell burst
+above him and a shrapnel bullet struck him on the
+temple, killing him at once.  He was a grand
+commander, beloved by his men, and destined for the
+highest had he lived.  He was buried that night after
+dark in a village churchyard.  There was an artillery
+attack by the Germans during the service, and the
+group of silent officers, weary from the fighting line,
+who stood with bowed heads round the grave, could
+hardly hear the words of the chaplain for the whiz
+and crash of the shells.  It was a proper ending for a
+soldier.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P209"></a>209}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His division was temporarily taken over by
+General Colin Mackenzie.  On this date the 13th
+Brigade, on the south of the canal, was relieved by
+French troops, so that henceforward all the British
+were to the north.  For the three preceding days
+this brigade had done heavy work, the pressure of
+the enemy falling particularly upon the 2nd Scottish
+Borderers, who lost Major Allen and a number of
+other officers and men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The 15th was a day of spirited advance, the Third
+Division offering sacrifice in the old warrior fashion
+to the shade of its dead leader.  Guns were brought
+up into the infantry line and the enemy was smashed
+out of entrenched positions and loopholed villages
+in spite of a most manful resistance.  The soldiers
+carried long planks with them and threw them over
+the dykes on their advance.  Mile after mile the
+Germans were pushed back, until they were driven
+off the high road which connects Estaires with La
+Bassée.  The 1st Northumberland and 4th Royal
+Fusiliers of the 9th Brigade, and the 2nd Royal Scots
+and 4th Middlesex of the 8th, particularly distinguished
+themselves in this day of hard fighting.  By
+the night of the 15th the corps had lost 90 officers
+and 2500 men in the four days, the disproportionate
+number of officers being due to the broken nature of
+the fighting, which necessitated the constant leading
+of small detachments.  The German resistance
+continued to be admirable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 16th the slow wheeling movement of the
+Second Corps went steadily though slowly forward,
+meeting always the same stubborn resistance.  The
+British were losing heavily by the incessant fighting,
+but so were the Germans, and it was becoming a
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P210"></a>210}</span>
+question which could stand punishment longest.  In
+the evening the Third Division was brought to a
+stand by the village of Aubers, which was found to
+be strongly held.  The Fifth Division was instructed
+to mark time upon the right, so as to form the pivot
+upon which all the rest of the corps could swing round
+in their advance on La Bassée.  At this date the
+Third Corps was no great distance to the north, and
+the First Corps was detraining from the Aisne.  As
+the Seventh Division with Byng's Third Cavalry
+Division were reported to be in touch with the other
+forces in the north, the concentration of the British
+Army was approaching a successful issue.  The
+weather up to now during all the operations which
+have been described was wet and misty, limiting the
+use of artillery and entirely preventing that of aircraft.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The farthest point.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 17th the advance was resumed and was
+destined to reach the extreme point which it attained
+for many a long laborious month.  This was the
+village of Herlies, north-east of La Bassée, which was
+attacked in the evening by Shaw's 9th Brigade, and
+was carried in the dusk at the point of the bayonet
+by the 1st Lincolns and the 4th Royal Fusiliers.
+About the same time the Scots Fusiliers and
+Northumberlands had stormed Aubers.  The 7th
+Brigade was less fortunate at the adjoining village
+of Illies, where they failed to make a lodgment, but
+the French cavalry on the extreme left, with the
+help of the 2nd Royal Irish, captured Fromelles.
+The Fifth Division also came forward a little, the
+right flank still on the canal, but the left bending
+round so as to get to the north of La Bassée.  The
+1st Devons, who had taken the place of the Dorsets,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P211"></a>211}</span>
+pushed forward with such fire that they were half a
+mile ahead of the Army and in great danger of being
+cut off, but by individual coolness and resource they
+managed to get back to safety.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 18th, Sir Charles Ferguson, who had done
+good work with the Army from the first gunshot of
+the war, was promoted to a higher rank and the
+command of the Fifth Division passed over to General
+Morland.  Thus both divisions of the Second Corps
+changed their commanders within a week.  On this
+date the infantry of the 14th Brigade, with some
+of the 13th Brigade, were within eight hundred
+yards of La Bassée, but found it so strongly held that
+it could not be entered, the Scottish Borderers losing
+heavily in a very gallant advance.  The village of
+Illies also remained impregnable, being strongly
+entrenched and loopholed.  Shaw's 9th Brigade took
+some of the trenches, but found their left flank
+exposed, so had to withdraw nearly half a mile and
+to entrench.  In this little action the 1st Royal Scots
+Fusiliers bore the brunt of the fighting and the losses.
+Eight officers and nearly 200 men of this regiment
+were killed or wounded.  A fresh German division
+came into action this day and their artillery was
+stronger, so that the prospects of future advance were
+not particularly encouraging.  The British artillery
+was worked very hard, being overmatched and yet
+undefeatable.  The strain both upon the men and the
+officers was constant, and the observation officers
+showed great daring and tenacity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Fate of the 2nd Royal Irish.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 19th neither the Third nor the Fifth
+Divisions made any appreciable progress, but one
+battalion was heavily engaged and added a fresh
+record to its ancient roll of valour.  This was the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P212"></a>212}</span>
+2nd Royal Irish under Major Daniell, who attacked
+the village of Le Pilly rather forward from
+the British left in co-operation with the French
+cavalry.  The Irish infantry charged over eight
+hundred yards of clear ground, carried the village by
+storm, and entrenched themselves within it.  This
+advance and charge, which was carried out with the
+precision of an Aldershot field day, although 130
+men fell during the movement, is said by experienced
+spectators to have been a great feat of arms.  The
+20th saw a strong counter-attack of the Germans,
+and by the evening their two flanks had lapped round
+Le Pilly, pushing off on the one side the French
+cavalry of Conneau, and on the other a too small
+detachment of the Royal Fusiliers who were flanking
+the Irishmen.  All day the defenders of Le Pilly
+were subjected to a terrific shell-fire, and all attempts
+to get messages to them were unavailing.  In the
+evening they were surrounded, and only two or
+three men of the battalion were ever seen again.
+The gallant Daniell fell, and it is on record that his
+last audible words were a command to fix bayonets
+and fight to the end, the cartridges of the battalion
+being at that time exhausted.  A German officer
+engaged in this attack and subsequently taken
+prisoner has deposed that three German battalions
+attacked the Royal Irish, one in front and one on
+each flank, after they had been heavily bombarded
+in enfilade.  Several hundred Irish dead and wounded
+were taken out of the main trench.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P213"></a>213}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="capcenter">
+<a id="img-213"></a>
+<br />
+<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-213.jpg" alt="Southern End of British Line" />
+<br />
+Southern End of British Line
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+There was now ample evidence that the Germans
+had received large reinforcements, and that their line
+was too strong to be forced.  The whole object and
+character of the operations assumed, therefore, a
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P214"></a>214}</span>
+new aspect.  The Second and Third Corps had swung
+round, describing an angle of ninety degrees, with
+its pivot upon the right at the La Bassée Canal, and
+by this movement it had succeeded in placing itself
+upon the flank of the German force which faced the
+Tenth French Army.  But there was now no longer
+any flank, for the German reinforcements had enabled
+them to prolong their line and so to turn the action
+into a frontal attack by the British.  Such an attack
+in modern warfare can only hope for success when
+carried out by greatly superior numbers, whereas
+the Germans were now stronger than their assailants,
+having been joined by one division of the Seventh
+Corps, a brigade of the Third Corps, and the whole of
+the Fourteenth Corps, part of which had already
+been engaged.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The Third Corps.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The increased pressure was being felt by the Third
+Corps on the Lys, as well as by the Second to the
+south of them; indeed, as only a few miles intervened
+between the two, they may be regarded as one for
+these operations.  We have seen that, having taken
+the town of Bailleul, Pulteney's Corps had established
+itself across the Lys, and occupied a line from
+Warneton to Radinghem upon October 18.  The latter
+village had been taken on that day by the 16th
+Brigade in an action in which the 1st Buffs and
+2nd York and Lancasters lost heavily, the latter being
+ambushed as it pursued the enemy and losing 11
+officers and 400 men.  Colonel Cobbold fell back
+upon the village and held it successfully.  Pulteney
+was now strongly attacked, and there was a movement
+of the Germans on October 20 as if to turn his right
+and slip in between the two British corps.  The
+action was carried on into the 21st, the enemy still
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P215"></a>215}</span>
+showing considerable energy and strength.  The chief
+German advance during the day was north of La
+Bassée.  It came upon the village of Lorgies, which
+was the point where the South Lancashires, of
+McCracken's 7th Brigade, forming the extreme right
+of the Third Division, were in touch with the East
+Surreys and Duke of Cornwall's of the 14th Brigade,
+forming the extreme left of the Fifth Division.  It is
+necessary to join one's flats carefully in the presence
+of the Germans, for they are sharp critics of such
+matters.  In this instance a sudden attack near
+Illies drove in a portion of the 2nd South Lancashires.
+This attack also destroyed the greater part of a
+company of the 1st Cornwalls in support.  An
+ugly gap was left in the line, but the remainder
+of the Cornwalls, with the help of a company of the
+1st West Kents and the ever-constant artillery, filled
+it up during the rest of the day, and the 2nd Yorkshire
+Light Infantry took it over the same night, the
+Cornishmen retiring with heavy losses but a great
+deal of compensating glory.  The temporary gap in
+the line exposed the right flank of the 3rd Worcesters,
+who were next to the South Lancashires.  They
+lost heavily in killed and wounded, their colonel,
+Stuart, being among the latter, though his injury
+did not prevent him from remaining in the battle
+line.  Apart from this action at Lorgies, the 19th
+Brigade (Gordon's), upon the flank of Pulteney's
+Corps, sustained a very heavy attack, being driven
+back for some distance.  It had been ordered to
+occupy Fromelles, and so close the gap which existed
+at that time between the left of the Second and the
+right of the Third Corps, situated respectively at
+Aubers and Radinghem.  The chief fighting occurred
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P216"></a>216}</span>
+at the village of Le Maisnil, close to Fromelles.  This
+village was occupied by the 2nd Argylls and half the
+1st Middlesex, but they were driven out by a severe
+shell-fire followed by an infantry advance.  The
+brigade fell back in good order, the regiments engaged
+having lost about 300 men.  They took up a position
+on the right of the 16th Infantry Brigade at La
+Boutillerie, and there they remained until November
+17, one severe attack falling upon them on October 29,
+which is described under that date.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the morning of October 22 the Germans, still
+very numerous and full of fight, made a determined
+attack upon the Fifth Division, occupying the village
+of Violaines, close to La Bassée.  The village was
+held by the 1st Cheshires, who, for the second time
+in this campaign, found themselves in a terribly
+difficult position.  It is typical of the insolent high
+spirits of the men, in spite of all that they had
+endured, that upon the Germans charging forward with
+a war-cry which resembled, "Yip, Yip, Yip!" the
+British infantry joined in with "I-addy-ti-ay!"
+the whole forming the chorus of a once popular
+Gaiety song.  The Cheshires inflicted heavy losses
+upon the stormers with rifle-fire, but were at last
+driven out, involving in their retirement the 1st
+Dorsets, who had left their own trenches in order to
+help them.  Both regiments, but especially the
+Cheshires, had grievous losses, in casualties and
+prisoners.  On advancing in pursuit the Germans
+were strongly counter-attacked by the 2nd Manchesters
+and the 1st Cornwalls, supported by the 3rd
+Worcesters, who, by their steady fire, brought them
+to a standstill, but were unable to recover the ground
+that had been lost, though the Cornwalls, who had
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P217"></a>217}</span>
+been fighting with hardly a pause for forty-eight
+hours, succeeded in capturing one of their machine-guns.
+In the night the British withdrew their line
+in accordance with the general rearrangement to be
+described.  Some rearguard stragglers at break of
+day had the amusing experience of seeing the Germans
+making a valiant and very noisy attack upon the
+abandoned and empty trenches.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On this date, October 22, not only had Smith-Dorrien
+experienced this hold-up upon his right
+flank, but his left flank had become more vulnerable,
+because the French had been heavily attacked at
+Fromelles, and had been driven out of that village.
+An equilibrium had been established between attack
+and defence, and the position of the Aisne was
+beginning to appear once again upon the edge of Flanders.
+General Smith-Dorrien, feeling that any substantial
+advance was no longer to be hoped for under the
+existing conditions, marked down and occupied a
+strong defensive position, from Givenchy on the
+south to Fauquissart on the north.  This involved
+a retirement of the whole corps during the night for
+a distance of from one to two miles, but it gave
+a connected position with a clear field of fire.  At
+the same time the general situation was greatly
+strengthened by the arrival at the front of the Lahore
+Division of the Indian Army under General Watkis.
+These fine troops were placed in reserve behind the
+Second Corps in the neighbourhood of Locon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Exhausted troops.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is well to remember at this point what
+Smith-Dorrien's troops had already endured during the
+two months that the campaign had lasted.  Taking
+the strength of the corps at 37,000 men, they had
+lost, roughly, 10,000 men in August, 10,000 in
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P218"></a>218}</span>
+September, and 5000 up to date in these actions of
+October.  It is certain that far less than 50 per cent
+of the original officers and men were still with the
+Colours, and drafts can never fully restore the unity
+and spirit of a homogeneous regiment, where every
+man knows his company leaders and his platoon.
+In addition to this they had now fought night and
+day for nearly a fortnight, with broken and insufficient
+sleep, laying down their rifles to pick up their spades,
+and then once again exchanging spade for rifle, while
+soaked to the skin with incessant fogs and rain, and
+exposed to that most harassing form of fighting,
+where every clump and hedgerow covers an enemy.
+They were so exhausted that they could hardly be
+woken up to fight.  To say that they were now
+nearing the end of their strength and badly in need
+of a rest is but to say that they were mortal men
+and had reached the physical limits that mortality
+must impose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The French cavalry divisions acting as links
+between Pulteney and Smith-Dorrien were now
+relieved by the 8th (Jullundur) Indian Infantry
+Brigade, containing the 1st Manchesters, 59th (Scinde)
+Rifles, 15th and 47th Sikhs.  It may be remarked
+that each Indian brigade is made up of three Indian
+and one British battalion.  This change was effected
+upon October 24, a date which was marked by no
+particular military event save that the Third Division
+lost for a time the services of General Beauchamp
+Doran, who returned to England.  General Doran
+had done great service in leading what was perhaps
+the most hard-worked brigade in a hard-worked
+division.  General Bowes took over the command of
+the 8th Infantry Brigade.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P219"></a>219}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the night of October 24 determined attacks
+were made upon the trenches of the Second Corps at
+the Bois de Biez, near Neuve Chapelle, but were
+beaten off with heavy loss to the enemy, who had
+massed together twelve battalions in order to rush a
+particular part of the position.  The main attack
+fell upon the 1st Wiltshires and the 2nd Royal Irish
+Rifles, belonging to McCracken's 7th Brigade, and
+also upon the 15th Sikhs, who seem to have been
+the first Indians to be seriously engaged, having
+nearly two hundred casualties.  The 8th Brigade
+were also involved in the fight.  The Germans had
+some temporary success in the centre of the trenches
+of the Third Division, where, in the darkness, they
+pushed back the 1st Gordon Highlanders, who lost
+very heavily.  As the Highlanders fell back, the
+2nd Royal Scots, upon their right, swung back its
+flank companies, covered the retirement, and then,
+straightening their ranks again, flung the Germans,
+at the point of their bayonets, out of the trenches.
+It was one of several remarkable feats which this fine
+battalion has performed in the war.  Next morning
+the captured trenches were handed over to the care
+of the 4th Middlesex.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+First fight of Neuve Chapelle.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The pressure upon the exhausted troops was extreme
+upon this day, for a very severe attack was made also
+upon the Fifth Division, holding the right of the line.
+The soldiers, as already shown, were in no condition
+for great exertions, and yet, after their wont, they
+rose grandly to the occasion.  The important village
+of Givenchy, destined for many a long month to form
+the advanced post upon the right of the Army,
+was held by the 1st Norfolks and 1st Devons, who
+defied all efforts of the enemy to dislodge them.
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P220"></a>220}</span>
+Nevertheless, the situation was critical and difficult
+for both divisions, and the only available support,
+the 1st Manchesters from the Lahore Division, were
+pushed up into the fighting line and found themselves
+instantly engaged in the neighbourhood of Givenchy.
+It was dreadful weather, the trenches a quagmire,
+and the rifle-bolts often clogged with the mud.  On
+the 26th Sir John French, realising how great was the
+task with which the weary corps was faced, sent up
+two batteries of 4.7 guns, which soon lessened the
+volume of the German artillery attack.  At the same
+time General Maistre, of the Twenty-first French
+Corps, sent two of his batteries and two of his
+battalions.  Thus strengthened, there was no further
+immediate anxiety as to the line being broken,
+especially as upon the 26th Marshal French, carefully
+playing card after card from his not over-strong
+hand, placed the Second Cavalry Division and three
+more Indian battalions in reserve to Smith-Dorrien's
+corps.  The German advance had by no means spent
+itself, as on this day they came to close grips with
+the 2nd Irish Rifles and established themselves
+firmly in the village of Neuve Chapelle, near the
+centre of the British line, inflicting heavy loss upon
+the Royal Fusiliers, who tried to restore the position.
+A number of attacks were made to regain this village
+next day, in which as strange a medley of troops were
+employed as could ever before have found themselves
+as comrades in so minor an operation.  There were
+South Lancashires, Royal Fusiliers, 9th Bhopal
+Infantry, 47th Sikhs, Chasseurs Alpins, and other
+units.  In spite of&mdash;or possibly on account of&mdash;this
+international competition the village remained with
+the Germans, who were strongly reinforced, and
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P221"></a>221}</span>
+managed by their shell-fire to clear some of the nearest
+trenches and gain some additional ground, hitting
+the 1st Wiltshires and 2nd Irish Rifles hard and
+making a number of prisoners, two or three hundred
+in all.  Again the times had become critical, the more
+so as the 8th Indian Brigade to the north had also been
+attacked and roughly handled.  The indomitable
+Smith-Dorrien was determined to have his village,
+however, and in the neighbouring French cavalry
+commander, General Conneau, he found a worthy
+colleague who was ready to throw his last man into
+the venture.  The Second Cavalry, now under General
+Mullens, was also ready, as our cavalry has always
+been, to spring in as a makeweight when the balance
+trembled.  The German losses were known to have
+been tremendous, and it was hoped that the force
+of their attack was spent.  On the 28th the assault
+was renewed, prefaced by a strong artillery
+preparation, but again it was brought to a standstill.
+The 47th Sikhs fought magnificently from loopholed
+house to house, as did the Indian sappers and miners,
+while the cavalry showed themselves to be admirable
+infantry at a pinch, but the defence was still too
+strong and the losses too severe, though at one time
+Colonel McMahon, with his Fusiliers, had seized the
+whole north end of the village.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some 60 officers and 1500 men had fallen in the
+day's venture, including 70 of the cavalry.  The night
+fell with Neuve Chapelle still in the hands of the enemy,
+and the British troops to the north, east, and west of
+it in a semicircle.  The 14th Brigade, coming up after
+dark, found the 1st West Kent Regiment reduced to
+2 officers and 150 men, and the 2nd Yorkshire Light
+Infantry at about the same strength, still holding on
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P222"></a>222}</span>
+to positions which had been committed to them three
+days before.  The conduct of these two grand
+regiments upon that and the previous days excited the
+admiration of every one, for, isolated from their
+comrades, they had beaten off a long succession of infantry
+attacks and had been enfiladed by a most severe
+shell-fire.  Second-Lieutenant White, with a still
+younger officer named Russell, formed the whole staff
+of officers of the West Kents.  Major Buckle, Captain
+Legard, and many others having been killed or
+wounded, Penny and Crossley, the two sergeant-majors,
+did great work, and the men were splendid.
+These shire regiments, raised from the very soil of
+England, reflect most nearly her national qualities,
+and in their stolid invincibility form a fitting
+framework of a great national army.  Speaking to the
+West Kents of this episode, General Smith-Dorrien
+said: "There is one part of the line which has never
+been retaken, because it was never lost.  It was the
+particular trenches which your battalion held so
+grimly during those terrific ten days."
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P223"></a>223}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="capcenter">
+<a id="img-223"></a>
+<br />
+<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-223.jpg" alt="General View of Seat of Operations." />
+<br />
+General View of Seat of Operations.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+These determined efforts were not spent in vain,
+for the Germans would not bide the other brunt.
+Early on the 29th the British patrols found that
+Neuve Chapelle had been evacuated by the enemy,
+who must have lost several thousand men in its
+capture and fine subsequent defence.  In this village
+fighting the British were much handicapped at this
+time by the want of high explosive shells to destroy
+the houses.  The enemy's artillery made it impossible
+for the British to occupy it, and some time later it
+reverted to the Germans once more, being occupied
+by the Seventh Westphalian Corps.  It was made an
+exceedingly strong advance position by the Germans,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P224"></a>224}</span>
+but it was reoccupied by the British Fourth Corps
+(Rawlinson's) and the Indian Corps (Willcocks') upon
+March 10 in an assault which lasted three days, and
+involved a loss of 12,000 men to the attackers and at
+least as many to the defenders.  This battle will be
+described among the operations of the spring of 1915,
+but it is mentioned now to show how immutable were
+the lines between these dates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The southern or La Bassée end of the line had also
+been attacked upon the 28th and 29th, and the 2nd
+Manchesters driven from their trenches, which they
+instantly regained, killing seventy of the enemy and
+taking a number of prisoners.  It was in this action
+that Lieutenant Leach and Sergeant Hogan earned the
+V.C., capturing a trench at the head of ten volunteers
+and disposing of some fifty Germans.  Morland's Fifth
+Division had several other skirmishes during these
+days, in which the Duke of Cornwall's, Manchesters,
+and 1st Devons, who had taken the place of the
+Suffolks in the 14th Brigade, were chiefly engaged.
+The Devons had come late, but they had been constantly
+engaged and their losses were already as great
+as the others.  For sixteen days they had held on
+with desperate resolution, their Colonel Gloster and
+a considerable proportion of the officers and men
+being hit.  When they were at last relieved they
+received the applause of the Army.  On the whole,
+the general line was held, though the price was often
+severe.  At this period General Wing took command
+of the Third Division instead of General
+Mackenzie&mdash;invalided home&mdash;the third divisional change within
+a fortnight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The Indians take over.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The arduous month of October was now drawing
+to a close, and so it was hoped were the labours of the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P225"></a>225}</span>
+weary Second Corps.  Already, on the top of all their
+previous casualties, they had lost 360 officers and
+8200 men since on October 12 they had crossed the La
+Bassée Canal.  The spirit of the men was unimpaired
+for the most part&mdash;indeed, it seemed often to rise
+with the emergency&mdash;but the thinning of the ranks,
+the incessant labour, and the want of sleep had
+produced extreme physical exhaustion.  Upon October
+29 it was determined to take them out of the front
+line and give them the rest which they so badly
+needed.  With this end in view, Sir James Willcocks'
+Indian Corps was moved to the front, and it was
+gradually substituted for the attenuated regiments of
+the Second Corps in the first row of trenches.  The
+greater part of the corps was drawn out of the line,
+leaving two brigades and most of the artillery behind
+to support the Indians.  That the latter would have
+some hard work was speedily apparent, as upon this
+very day the 8th Gurkhas were driven out of their
+trenches.  With the support of a British battalion,
+however, and of Vaughan's Indian Rifles they were
+soon recovered, though Colonel Venner of the latter
+corps fell in the attack.  This warfare of unseen
+enemies and enormous explosions was new to the
+gallant Indians, but they soon accommodated themselves
+to it, and moderated the imprudent gallantry
+which exposed them at first to unnecessary loss.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here, at the end of October, we may leave the
+Second Corps.  It was speedily apparent that their
+services were too essential to be spared, and that their
+rest would be a very nominal one.  The Third Corps
+will be treated presently.  They did admirably all
+that came to them to do, but they were so placed that
+both flanks were covered by British troops, and they
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P226"></a>226}</span>
+were less exposed to pressure than the others.  The
+month closed with this corps and the Indians holding a
+line which extended north and south for about twenty
+miles from Givenchy and Festubert in the south to
+Warneton in the north.  We will return to the operations
+in this region, but must turn back a fortnight or
+so in order to follow the very critical and important
+events which had been proceeding in the north.  Before
+doing so it would be well to see what had befallen
+the cavalry, which, when last mentioned, had, upon
+October 11, cleared the woods in front of the Second
+Corps and connected it up with the right wing of
+the Third Corps.  This was carried out by Gough's
+Second Cavalry Division, which was joined next day
+by De Lisle's First Division, the whole under General
+Allenby.  This considerable force moved north upon
+October 12 and 13, pushing back a light fringe of the
+enemy and having one brisk skirmish at Mont des
+Cats, a small hill, crowned by a monastery, where
+the body of a Prince of Hesse was picked up
+after the action.  Still fighting its way, the cavalry
+moved north to Berthen and then turned eastwards
+towards the Lys to explore the strength of the enemy
+and the passages of the river in that direction.  Late
+at night upon the 14th General de Lisle, scouting
+northwards upon a motor-car, met Prince Alexander
+of Teck coming southwards, the first contact with the
+isolated Seventh Division.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The Lancers at Warneton.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the night of the 16th an attempt was made
+upon Warneton, where the Germans had a bridge over
+the river, but the village was too strongly held.  The
+3rd Cavalry Brigade was engaged in the enterprise, and
+the 16th Lancers was the particular regiment upon
+whom it fell.  The main street of the village was
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P227"></a>227}</span>
+traversed by a barricade and the houses loopholed.
+The Germans were driven by the dismounted troopers,
+led by Major Campbell, from the first barricade,
+but took refuge behind a second one, where they
+were strongly reinforced.  The village had been set
+on fire, and the fighting went on by the glare of the
+flames.  When the order for retirement was at last
+given it was found that several wounded Lancers had
+been left close to the German barricade.  The fire
+having died down, three of the Lancers&mdash;Sergeant
+Glasgow, Corporal Boyton, and Corporal Chapman&mdash;stole
+down the dark side of the street in their stockinged
+feet and carried some of their comrades off under the
+very noses of the Germans.  Many, however, had to
+be left behind.  It is impossible for cavalry to be
+pushful and efficient without taking constant risks
+which must occasionally materialise.  The general
+effect of the cavalry operations was to reconnoitre
+thoroughly all the west side of the river and to show
+that the enemy were in firm possession of the eastern
+bank.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From this time onwards until the end of the month
+the cavalry were engaged in carrying on the north
+and south line of defensive trenches, which, beginning
+with the right of the Second Corps (now replaced by
+Indians) at Givenchy, was prolonged by the Third
+Corps as far as Frelingham.  There the cavalry took
+it up and carried it through Comines to Wervicq,
+following the bend of the river.  These lines were at
+once strongly attacked, but the dismounted troopers
+held their positions.  On October 22 the 12th Lancers
+were heavily assaulted, but with the aid of an enfilading
+fire from the 5th Lancers drove off the enemy.
+That evening saw four more attacks, all of them
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P228"></a>228}</span>
+repulsed, but so serious that Indian troops were
+brought up to support the cavalry.  Every day
+brought its attack until they culminated in the great
+and critical fight from October 30 to November 2,
+which will be described later.  The line was held,
+though with some loss of ground and occasional
+setbacks, until November 2, when considerable French
+reinforcements arrived upon the scene.  It is a fact
+that for all these weeks the position which was held
+in the face of incessant attack by two weak cavalry
+divisions should have been, and eventually was,
+held by two army corps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Pulteney's operations.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is necessary now to briefly sketch the movements
+of the Third Corps (Pulteney's).  Its presence
+upon the left flank of the Second Corps, and the fact
+that it held every attack that came against it, made
+it a vital factor in the operations.  It is true that,
+having staunch British forces upon each flank, its
+position was always less precarious than either of the
+two corps which held the southern and northern
+extremities of the line, for without any disparagement
+to our Allies, who have shown themselves to be the
+bravest of the brave, it is evident that we can depend
+more upon troops who are under the same command,
+and whose movements can be certainly co-ordinated.
+At the same time, if the Third Corps had less to do, it
+can at least say that whatever did come to it was
+excellently well done, and that it preserved its line
+throughout.  Its units were extended over some
+twelve miles of country, and it was partly astride of
+the River Lys, so that here as elsewhere there was
+constant demand upon the vigilance and staunchness
+of officers and men.  On October 20 a very severe
+attack fell upon the 2nd Sherwood Foresters, who held
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P229"></a>229}</span>
+the most advanced trenches of Congreve's 18th
+Brigade.  They were nearly overwhelmed by the
+violence of the German artillery fire, and were
+enfiladed on each side by infantry and machine-guns.
+The 2nd Durhams came up in reinforcement, but the
+Foresters had already sustained grievous losses in
+casualties and prisoners, the battalion being reduced
+from 900 to 250 in a single day.  The Durhams also
+lost heavily.  On this same day, the 20th, the 2nd
+Leinsters, of the 17th Brigade, were also driven from
+their trenches and suffered severely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Action of La Gheir.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On October 21 the Germans crossed the River
+Lys in considerable force, and upon the morning of the
+22nd they succeeded in occupying the village of Le
+Gheir upon the western side, thus threatening to
+outflank the positions of the Second Cavalry Division to
+the north.  In their advance in the early morning of
+the 22nd they stormed the trenches held by the 2nd
+Inniskilling Fusiliers, this regiment enduring
+considerable losses.  The trenches on the right were held
+by the 1st Royal Lancasters and 2nd Lancashire
+Fusiliers.  These two regiments were at once ordered
+by General Anley, of the 12th Brigade, to initiate a
+counter-attack under the lead of Colonel Butler.
+Anley himself, who is a hard-bitten soldier of much
+Egyptian fighting, moved forward his men, while
+General Hunter-Weston, the indefatigable blower-up
+of railway lines in South Africa, supported the
+counter-attack with the Somerset Light Infantry and the 1st
+East Lancashires.  The latter regiment, under Colonel
+Lawrence, passed through a wood and reached such a
+position that they were able to enfilade the Germans
+in the open, causing them very heavy losses.  The
+action was a brilliant success.  The positions lost
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P230"></a>230}</span>
+were reoccupied and the enemy severely punished,
+over a thousand Germans being killed or wounded,
+while 300 were taken prisoners.  These belonged
+to the 104th and 179th Saxon regiments.  It was
+a strange turn of fate which, after fifteen hundred
+years, brought tribesmen who had wandered up the
+course of the Elbe face to face in deadly strife with
+fellow-tribesmen who had passed over the sea to
+Britain.  It is worth remarking and remembering
+that they are the one section of the German race who
+in this war have shown that bravery is not necessarily
+accompanied by coarseness and brutality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On October 25 the attacks became most severe upon
+the line of Williams' 16th Brigade, and on that night
+the trenches of the 1st Leicesters were raked by so
+heavy a gunfire that they were found to be untenable,
+the regiment losing 350 men.  The line both of the
+16th and of the 18th Brigades was drawn back for
+some little distance.  There was a lull after this,
+broken upon the 29th, when Gordon's 19th Brigade
+was attacked with great violence by six fresh
+battalions&mdash;heavy odds against the four weak
+battalions which composed the British Brigade.  The
+1st Middlesex Regiment was driven from part of its
+trenches, but came back with a rush, helped by their
+comrades of the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland
+Highlanders.  The Germans were thrown out of the
+captured trenches, 40 were made prisoners, and 200
+were slain.  This attack was made by the 223rd and
+224th Regiments of the XXIV. German Reserve
+Corps.  It was not repeated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 30th another sharp action occurred near
+St. Yves, when Hunter-Weston's 11th Brigade was
+momentarily pierced after dusk by a German rush,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P231"></a>231}</span>
+which broke through a gap in the Hampshires.  The
+Somerset Light Infantry, under Major Prowse, came
+back upon them and the trenches were regained.  In
+all such actions it is to be remembered that where a
+mass of men can suddenly be directed against scattered
+trenches which will only hold a few, it is no difficult
+matter to carry them, but at once the conditions
+reverse themselves and the defenders mass their
+supports, who can usually turn the intruders out once
+more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This brings the general record of the doings of the
+Third Corps down to the end of October, the date on
+which we cease the account of the operations at the
+southern end of the British line.  We turn from
+this diffuse and difficult story, with its ever-varying
+positions and units, to the great epic of the north,
+which will be inseparably united for ever with the
+name of Ypres.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a id="chap08"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">{<a id="P232"></a>232}</span></p>
+
+<h3>
+CHAPTER VIII
+<br /><br />
+THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES
+</h3>
+
+<p class="t3">
+(Up to the Action of Gheluvelt, October 31)
+</p>
+
+<p class="intro">
+The Seventh Division&mdash;Its peculiar excellence&mdash;Its difficult
+position&mdash;A deadly ordeal&mdash;Desperate attacks on Seventh
+Division&mdash;Destruction of 2nd Wilts&mdash;Hard fight of 20th
+Brigade&mdash;Arrival of First Corps&mdash;Advance of Haig's Corps&mdash;Fight of Pilken
+Inn&mdash;Bravery of enemy&mdash;Advance of Second Division&mdash;Fight of
+Kruiseik cross-roads&mdash;Fight of Zandvoorde&mdash;Fight of
+Gheluvelt&mdash;Advance of Worcesters&mdash;German recoil&mdash;General result&mdash;A
+great crisis.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+It has already been seen that the Seventh Division
+(Capper's), being the first half of Rawlinson's Fourth
+first Army Corps, had retired south and west after the
+unsuccessful attempt to relieve Antwerp.  It was
+made up as follows:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The Seventh Division
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  DIVISION VII.&mdash;General CAPPER.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  20<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Ruggles-Brise</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Grenadier Guards.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Scots Guards.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Border Regiment.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Gordon Highlanders.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  2l<i>st Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Walls</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Bedfords.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Yorks.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Wilts.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Scots Fusiliers.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P233"></a>233}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  22<i>nd Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Lawford</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st South Staffords.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Warwicks.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Queen's West Surrey.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Welsh Fusiliers.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>Artillery.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;22nd Brigade R.F.A.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;35th Brigade R.F.A.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3rd R.G.A.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;111th R.G.A.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;112th R.G.A.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;14th Brigade R.H.A. C.F.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>Engineers.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;54, 55, F. Co.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;7 Signal Co.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Divisional Cavalry.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Northumberland Yeomanry.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Its peculiar excellence.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is not too much to say that in an army where
+every division had done so well no single one was
+composed of such fine material as the Seventh.  The
+reason was that the regiments composing it had all
+been drawn from foreign garrison duty, and consisted
+largely of soldiers of from three to seven years'
+standing, with a minimum of reservists.  In less than a
+month from the day when this grand division of
+18,000 men went into action its infantry had been
+nearly annihilated, but the details of its glorious
+destruction furnish one more vivid page of British
+military achievement.  We lost a noble division and
+gained a glorious record.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Third Cavalry Division under General Byng
+was attached to the Seventh Division, and joined up
+with it at Roulers upon October 13.  It consisted
+of&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  6<i>th Cavalry Brigade&mdash;General Makings</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3rd Dragoon Guards.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;10th Hussars.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Royals.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  7<i>th Cavalry Brigade&mdash;General Kavanagh</i>.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Life Guards.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Life Guards.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Horse Guards.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Horse Guards.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;K Battery, R.H.A.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P234"></a>234}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The First Army Corps not having yet come up
+from the Aisne, these troops were used to cover the
+British position from the north, the infantry lying
+from Zandvoorde through Gheluvelt to Zonnebeke,
+and the cavalry on their left from Zonnebeke to
+Langemarck from October 16 onwards.  It was decided by
+Sir John French that it was necessary to get possession
+of the town of Menin, some distance to the east of
+the general British line, but very important because
+the chief bridge, by means of which the Germans
+were receiving their ever-growing reinforcements, was
+there.  The Seventh Division was ordered accordingly
+to advance upon this town, its left flank being covered
+by the Third Cavalry Division.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P235"></a>235}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="capcenter">
+<a id="img-235"></a>
+<br />
+<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-235.jpg" alt="LINE OF 7th DIVISION (CAPPER) &amp; 3rd CAVALRY DIVISION (BYNG) FROM OCT 17th. ONWARDS" />
+<br />
+LINE OF 7th DIVISION (CAPPER) &amp; 3rd CAVALRY DIVISION (BYNG) <br />
+FROM OCT 17th. ONWARDS
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Its difficult position.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The position was a dangerous one.  It has already
+been stated that the pause on the Aisne may not
+have been unwelcome to the Germans, as they were
+preparing reserve formations which might be suddenly
+thrown against some chosen spot in the Allied line.
+They had the equipment and arms for at least another
+250,000 men, and that number of drilled men were
+immediately available, some being Landwehr who
+had passed through the ranks, and others young
+formations which had been preparing when war
+broke out.  Together they formed no less than five
+new army corps, available for the extreme western
+front, more numerous than the whole British and
+Belgian armies combined.  This considerable force,
+secretly assembled and moving rapidly across Belgium,
+was now striking the north of the Allied line, debouching
+not only over the river at Menin, but also through
+Courtrai, Iseghem, and Roulers.  It consisted of the
+22nd, 23rd, 24th, 26th, and 27th reserve corps.  Of
+these the 22nd, and later the 24th, followed the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P236"></a>236}</span>
+Belgians to the line of the Yser, but the other corps
+were all available for an attack upon the flank of
+that British line which was faced by formidable
+opponents&mdash;a line which extended over thirty miles
+and had already been forced into a defensive attitude.
+That was the situation when the Seventh Division
+faced round near Ypres.  Sir John French was doing
+all that he could to support it, and Sir Douglas Haig
+was speeding up his army corps from the Aisne to
+take his place to the north of Ypres, but there were
+some days during which Rawlinson's men were in
+the face of a force six or seven times larger than
+themselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Upon October 16th and 17th the division had
+advanced from Ypres and occupied the line already
+mentioned, the right centre of which rested about the
+ninth kilometre on the Ypres-Menin road, the order
+of the brigades from the north being 22nd, 21st,
+and 20th.  On October 18 the division wheeled its
+left forward.  As the infantry advanced, the covering
+cavalry soon became aware of grave menace from
+Roulers and Courtrai in the north.  A large German
+force was evidently striking down on to the left flank
+of the advance.  The division was engaged all along
+the line, for the 20th Brigade upon the right had a
+brisk skirmish, while the 21st Brigade in the centre
+was also under fire, which came especially heavily
+upon the 2nd Bedfords, who had numerous casualties.
+About ten o'clock on the morning of the 19th the
+pressure from the north increased, and the 7th
+Cavalry Brigade was driven in, though it held its own
+with great resolution for some time, helped by the
+fine work of K Battery, R.H.A.  The 6th Cavalry
+Brigade was held up in front, while the danger on the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P237"></a>237}</span>
+flank grew more apparent as the hours passed.  In
+these circumstances General Rawlinson, fortified in
+his opinion by the precise reports of his airmen as
+to the strength of the enemy upon his left, came to
+the conclusion that a further advance would place
+him in a difficult position.  He therefore dropped
+back to his original line.  There can be little doubt
+that, if he had persevered in the original plan, his
+force would have been in extreme danger.  As it
+was, before he could get it back the 1st Welsh Fusiliers
+were hard hit, this famous regiment losing a major,
+5 captains, 3 lieutenants, and about 200 men.  The
+order to retire had failed to reach it, and but for the
+able handling of Colonel Cadogan it might well have
+been destroyed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On October 20, the situation being still obscure,
+the 20th Brigade carried out a reconnaissance towards
+Menin.  The 2nd Wilts and 2nd Scots Fusiliers, of
+the 21st Brigade, covered their left flank.  The enemy,
+however, made a vigorous attack upon the 22nd
+Brigade to the north, especially upon the Welsh
+Fusiliers, so the reconnaissance had to fall back
+again, the 1st Grenadier Guards sustaining some
+losses.  The two covering regiments were also hard
+pressed, especially the Wiltshires, who were again
+attacked during the night, but repulsed their
+assailants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+A deadly ordeal.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From this time onwards the Seventh Division
+was to feel ever more and more the increasing pressure
+as the German army corps from day to day brought
+their weight to bear upon a thin extended line of
+positions held by a single division.  It will be shown
+that they were speedily reinforced by the First Corps,
+but even after its advent the Germans were still able
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P238"></a>238}</span>
+to greatly outnumber the British force.  The story
+from this time onwards is one of incessant and desperate
+attacks by day and often by night.  At first the
+division was holding the position alone, with the help
+of their attendant cavalry, and their instructions
+were to hold on to the last man until help could reach
+them.  In the case of some units these instructions
+were literally fulfilled.  One great advantage lay
+with the British.  They were first-class trained
+soldiers, the flower of the Army, while their opponents,
+however numerous, were of the newly raised reserve
+corps, which showed no lack of bravery, but contained
+a large proportion of youths and elderly men in the
+ranks.  Letters from the combatants have described
+the surprise and even pity which filled the minds of
+the British when they saw the stormers hesitate upon
+the edge of the trenches which they had so bravely
+approached, and stare down into them uncertain
+what they should do.  But though the ascendancy
+of the British infantry was so great that they could
+afford to disregard the inequality of numbers, it was
+very different with the artillery.  The German gunners
+were as good as ever, and their guns as powerful as
+they were numerous.  The British had no howitzer
+batteries at all with this division, while the Germans
+had many.  It was the batteries which caused the
+terrific losses.  It may be that the Seventh Division,
+having had no previous experience in the campaign,
+had sited their trenches with less cunning than would
+have been shown by troops who had already faced
+the problem of how best to avoid high explosives.
+Either by sight or by aeroplane report the Germans
+got the absolute range of some portions of the British
+position, pitching their heavy shells exactly into the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P239"></a>239}</span>
+trenches, and either blowing the inmates to pieces
+or else burying them alive, so that in a little time the
+straight line of the trench was entirely lost, and
+became a series of ragged pits and mounds.  The
+head-cover for shrapnel was useless before such
+missiles, and there was nothing for it but either to
+evacuate the line or to hang on and suffer.  The
+Seventh Division hung on and suffered, but no
+soldiers can ever have been exposed to a more deadly
+ordeal.  When they were at last relieved by the arrival
+of reinforcements and the consequent contraction of
+the line, they were at the last pitch of exhaustion,
+indomitable in spirit, but so reduced by their losses
+and by the terrific nervous strain that they could
+hardly have held out much longer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A short account has been given of what occurred
+to the division up to October 20.  It will now be
+carried on for a few days, after which the narrative
+must turn to the First Corps, and show why and how
+they came into action to the north of the hard-pressed
+division.  It is impossible to tell the two stories
+simultaneously, and so it may now be merely
+mentioned that from October 21 Haig's Corps was on the
+left, and that those operations which will shortly be
+described covered the left wing of the division, and
+took over a portion of that huge German attack which
+would undoubtedly have overwhelmed the smaller
+unit had it not been for this addition of strength.
+It is necessary to get a true view of the operations,
+for it is safe to say that they are destined for
+immortality, and will be recounted so long as British
+history is handed down from one generation to
+another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the 21st the enemy got a true conception of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P240"></a>240}</span>
+the salient in front of the Seventh Division, and
+opened a vigorous attack, which lasted all day and
+assumed several different phases at different points.
+The feature of the morning of the 21st was the severe
+and, indeed, disastrous artillery fire upon Lawford's
+22nd Brigade.  The exact range of the British position
+seems to have been discovered with deadly results.
+Men, trenches, and machine-guns were all blown to
+pieces together.  The 2nd Warwicks and the 1st
+Welsh Fusiliers were the two battalions upon which
+the storm beat hardest, and each of them had some
+hundreds of casualties.  In three days the Welsh
+Fusiliers, who were on the exposed left flank, lost
+three-quarters of their effectives, including twenty-three
+of their officers, and yet preserved their military
+spirit.  It became clearer as experience accumulated
+that the best trenches, if they are once fairly located,
+can be made untenable or turned into the graves of
+their occupants by the use of high explosives.  The
+German fire was so severe that it was reckoned that
+one hundred and twenty shells an hour into or round
+a trench was a not uncommon rate of fall.  The 2nd
+Queen's also lost seven officers and many men in this
+day's fighting.  In spite of the heavy losses from
+gun-fire the German infantry could make no progress,
+being held up by a flanking fire of the South Staffords.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Desperate attacks on Seventh Division.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the afternoon of October 21 a strong attack
+was made upon the 21st Brigade in the centre of the
+line.  The brigade was holding a front of two and a
+half miles, and, although the attack was generally
+beaten back, a certain number of stormers got through
+between the trenches and into the woods beyond.
+Here they lurked for a couple of days, during which
+time the 2nd Yorkshire Regiment, behind whose
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P241"></a>241}</span>
+line they were lying, were often compelled to have
+each alternate man facing a different way to keep
+down the fire.  The battalion sent itself reinforcements
+by hurrying its right company over to help to clear
+its left.  This movement was successful, but was
+attended with heavy losses, including several officers.
+Some of the Royal Scots Fusiliers had been forced
+out of their trenches on the right, and made, under
+Major Ian Forbes, a gallant attempt to re-establish
+them, in which Captain Fairlie and many men were
+lost.  The Wiltshires also endured a very severe attack,
+which they repulsed with great loss to the enemy.  On
+this same eventful day, the 21st, the Second Cavalry
+Division had been pushed back at Holbeke, and the
+Germans got round the right flank of the hard-pressed
+infantry.  It was then that General Rawlinson brought
+his Third Cavalry Division round and established it
+upon his right instead of his left flank.  From this
+time until October 30 this cavalry division was
+holding Zandvoorde Ridge, sharing day by day in all the
+perils and the glories of their comrades of the Seventh
+Division.  There was no more dangerous point than
+that which was held by the cavalry, and their losses,
+especially those of the 10th Hussars, were in
+proportion to the danger.  In the course of a few days
+the Hussars lost Colonel Barnes, Majors Mitford and
+Crichton and many officers and men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On October 22 the Second Division of Haig's First
+Corps, which had been fully occupied to the north
+with operations which will presently be described,
+moved down to cover the ground vacated by the
+Third Cavalry Division and to relieve the pressure
+upon the infantry of the Seventh Division.  The
+4th Guards Brigade took its position upon their
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P242"></a>242}</span>
+immediate left.  It was time.  For four days they
+had covered the enormous front of eight miles against
+at least four times their own number, with more than
+six times their weight of artillery.  It was touch and
+go.  They were nearly submerged.  It was indeed a
+vision of joy when the worn and desperate men,
+looking over their shoulders down the Ypres-Menin road,
+saw the head of a British column coming swiftly to
+the rescue.  It was the 2nd Highland Light Infantry
+and the 2nd Worcesters, dispatched from the 5th
+Brigade, and never was reinforcement more needed.
+Shortly afterwards further help in the shape of a
+detachment of the Munster Fusiliers, two troops of the
+ever-helpful Irish Horse, and one section of artillery
+appeared upon the scene.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Destruction of 2nd Wilts.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Upon this date (October 22) the 22nd Infantry
+Brigade of the Seventh Division had fallen back to
+the railway crossings near Zonnebeke.  Thus the
+salient which the Germans had been attacking was
+straightened out.  Unhappily, the change caused
+another smaller salient farther south, at the point
+which was held by the 2nd Wiltshires.  On the 22nd
+and 23rd there was a tremendous shelling of this
+sector, which was followed on the 24th by an infantry
+advance, in which the Wiltshires, who had been
+previously much reduced, were utterly overwhelmed
+and practically destroyed.  The disastrous attack
+broke upon the British line just after daybreak.
+The enemy pushed through behind each flank of the
+Wiltshires, elbowing off the Scots Fusiliers on one
+side and the Scots Guards on the other.  The Germans
+got in force into the Polygon Woods behind.  There
+were no reserves available save the Northumberland
+Hussars, a corps which has the honour of being the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P243"></a>243}</span>
+first British territorial corps to fight for its country.
+With the aid of some divisional cyclists, this handful
+of men held back the Germans until the 2nd Warwicks
+from the north were brought to stem the advance.
+The Warwicks charged through the wood, their
+gallant Colonel Loring riding his horse beside them
+without boot or legging, having been wounded some
+days before.  "Where my men go I go as well," was
+his answer to medical remonstrance.  He was killed
+by a bullet, but he died at a moment of victory, for
+his last earthly vision was that of his infantry driving
+the last Germans out of the wood.  Besides their
+colonel, the regiment lost many officers and men in
+this fine advance, which was most vigorously
+supported by the 2nd Worcesters, the only reinforcement
+within reach.  The Worcesters lost 6 officers and
+160 men, but did much execution and took a number
+of prisoners.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Hard fight of 20th Brigade.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this time the 20th Brigade, being the extreme
+right of the Seventh Division, held an extended line
+from Kruiseik cross-roads, about a mile east of
+Gheluvelt village, to near Zandvoorde, with a salient
+at the village of Kruiseik.  On the night of the 25th
+the Germans planned a furious attack upon the whole
+salient.  The assailants, who were mostly Saxons,
+broke through the 2nd Scots Guards just north of
+Kruiseik and got behind the line, which was pushed
+back for some distance, though Captain Paynter,
+with the right-hand company, held his position.  A
+counter-attack by the Guards retook the line, together
+with 200 prisoners, including 7 officers.  On the
+morning of the 26th the Germans were back on them,
+however, and began by blowing in the trenches of
+the Border Regiment south of Kruiseik.  The German
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P244"></a>244}</span>
+guns had found the exact range of the trenches, and
+the defenders had the same terrible and intolerable
+experience which had befallen some of their comrades
+two days before.  It was simply impossible to stand
+up against the incessant shower of shattering shells.
+So great was the concussion and the nervous strain
+that many of the men exposed to it got completely
+dazed or even became delirious.  Grenadiers, Scots
+Guards, and South Staffords, of the 20th Brigade,
+held the line until the front trenches were carried
+by the Germans and many of the occupants made
+prisoners.  It was pitch dark, and it was impossible
+to tell friend from foe.  Major Fraser of the Scots
+Guards, going forward to reconnoitre, was shot
+dead and his party was destroyed.  A house in a
+field taken by the Guards yielded no fewer than 200
+prisoners, but in the confused fighting in the
+darkness our losses were greater than our gains.  It
+was in this night-fighting that Lord Dalrymple,
+Colonel Bolton, and other officers, with some
+hundreds of men, fell into the hands of the enemy
+after a most heroic resistance to overpowering
+numbers and to a weight of artillery which was
+crushing in its effect.  The King's Company of the
+1st Grenadiers was isolated and in great danger,
+but managed to link up with the British line.  The
+1st South Staffords also lost some hundreds of men,
+and was only saved by fine handling on the part of
+Colonel Ovens.  Kruiseik was abandoned, and a new
+line taken up half a mile farther back.  It was a
+critical night, during which the energy and firmness
+of General Capper were splendidly employed in
+reforming and stiffening his sorely tried division.  On
+the 26th the 20th Brigade, which had been so heavily
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P245"></a>245}</span>
+hit the day before, was drawn out of the line for a
+rest, and the two other brigades closed up to cover
+a shorter line.  The work of the 20th at Kruiseik
+had been magnificent, but their losses were appalling,
+including their Brigadier, Ruggles-Brise, who was
+wounded.  Here, for the instant, we shall leave the
+Seventh Division, though their ordeal was by no
+means done, and we shall turn to those other forces
+which had been forming in the northern or Ypres
+section of the long battle line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Arrival of First Corps.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The reader will remember, if he casts his mind
+back, that the whole British line, as it extended from
+the south about October 18, consisted of the Second
+Corps and the advance guard of the Indians near
+La Bassée; then, in succession, the Third Corps in
+the Armentières district, the First Cavalry and Second
+Cavalry near Messines and Wytschaete, the Seventh
+Division near Gheluvelt, and finally the Third Cavalry
+on their left, joining up with the French, who carried
+the line to where the Belgians were reforming on the
+Yser.  The First Corps had detrained from the Aisne,
+and was concentrated between St. Omer and Hazebrouck
+upon October 18 and 19.  They represented
+a last British reserve of about thirty-five thousand
+men to set against the large new armies who were
+advancing from the north.  The urgent question to
+be decided was where they should be placed, since
+there were so many points which needed reinforcement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sir John French has explained in his dispatch the
+reasons which swayed him in deciding this question.
+"I knew," he said, "that the enemy were by this
+time in greatly superior strength upon the Lys and
+that the Second and Third Cavalry and Fourth Corps
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P246"></a>246}</span>
+(Seventh Division) were holding a much wider front
+than their strength and numbers warranted.  Taking
+these facts alone into consideration, it would have
+appeared wise to throw the First Corps in to strengthen
+the line, but this would have left the country north
+and east of Ypres and the Ypres Canal open to a wide
+turning movement by the Third Reserve Corps and
+at least one Landwehr Division which I knew to be
+operating in that region.  I was also aware that the
+enemy was bringing large reinforcements up from
+the east, which could only be opposed for several days
+by two or three French cavalry divisions, some French
+Territorials, and the Belgian Army."
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He proceeds to state his opinion that the Belgian
+Army was in no condition to withstand unsupported
+such an attack, and that if it were allowed to sweep
+past us it was very likely to wash away all opposition
+before it, and get into the Channel ports in our rear.
+With this consideration in his mind, Sir John French
+took the bold and dangerous, but absolutely necessary,
+step of leaving the long, thin, thirty-mile line to do
+the best it could, and prolonging it by another ten
+or twelve miles by forming up the First Corps on the
+same alignment, so as to present as long a British
+breakwater as possible to the oncoming flood.  There
+was nothing else to be done, and the stronger the
+flood the more need there was to do it, but it is safe
+to say that seldom in history has so frail a barrier
+stood in the direct track of so terrible a storm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In accordance with this resolution, Haig's First
+Corps moved, on October 20, through Poperinghe
+and Ypres and took their place upon the north or
+left side of the Seventh Division.  On their own left
+in this position was the French cavalry corps of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P247"></a>247}</span>
+General de Mitry, while the Third Division of British
+cavalry was on their right.  As the movement
+commenced Sir John French had a personal interview
+with General Haig, in which he held out hopes that
+the greater part of the new German levies had been
+deflected to hold our southern advance, and that he
+would only find the Third Reserve Corps and some
+Landwehr in front of him to the north of Ypres.
+His object was to advance upon the line of Bruges
+and drive the enemy towards Ghent.  Meanwhile
+the gallant little Belgian army, which was proving
+itself a glutton at fighting, was entrenched along the
+line of the Ypres Canal and the Yser River, where they
+held their own manfully in spite of all that they had
+endured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Advance of Haig's Corps.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first large landmark in the direction of Bruges
+was Thorout, and towards this the First Corps, with
+the Third Cavalry Division upon its right, took its
+first steps, little thinking that it was butting forward
+against an approaching army of at least double its
+own strength.  It was very quickly made to realise
+its position, however, and any dreams of a victorious
+entry into Bruges were speedily dispelled.  Only too
+fortunate would it be if it could hold its own line
+without retreat and disaster.  Upon the 21st Haig's
+men attacked Poel-Chapelle and Passchendaale,
+French cavalry and Territorials (the Eighty-seventh
+and Eighty-ninth Divisions) under General Bidon
+advancing on their left, while the Seventh Division,
+as already described, kept pace upon its right.  There
+was strong opposition from the first, but the corps
+advanced in spite of it until the pressure from the
+north became too severe for the French, whose flank
+was exposed to the full force of it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P248"></a>248}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The British attack upon the morning in question
+was planned as follows.  The Second Division was
+to advance upon Passchendaale.  The First had
+orders to take Poel-Chapelle.  The latter movement
+was headed by the 3rd Brigade, who were directed
+by General Landon to go forward about nine
+o'clock, the 1st Queen's having the station for their
+objective while the 1st South Wales Borderers
+attacked the village.  The 1st Gloucesters were in
+reserve.  The enemy met the attack with shell-fire,
+which it was difficult to locate, as the country was
+flat and enclosed.  The progress of the movement,
+however, was steady though slow.  About ten o'clock
+there were signs of a considerable hostile infantry
+advance from the north.  The attack, however, made
+good progress up to midday, when there was a general
+retirement of the French Territorials, followed later
+by the French cavalry upon the British left.  They
+moved back towards Bixschote.  The Gloucester
+Regiment, who had been thrown out to reinforce
+that flank, were also driven back, and were in turn
+reinforced by the Coldstream Guards.  This battalion
+executed a bayonet charge in clearing the small
+village of Koekuit, but later on had to retire, finding
+their flank exposed.  It should be mentioned that
+one French corps, the Seventh Cavalry Division,
+kept its position upon the British left, and it is also
+only fair to point out that as the German advance
+was mainly from the north, it was upon the left flank,
+covered by the French, that it would fall.  The
+1st Camerons were now dispatched to the flank to
+stiffen the French resistance, taking up their position
+near the inn which is midway upon the road between
+Steenstraate and Langemarck, north of the village
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P249"></a>249}</span>
+of Pilken&mdash;an inn with which they were destined to
+have stirring associations.  With the support of the
+46th Battery, the Highlanders held up a German
+brigade which was thrusting through behind our
+main line; but farther west, in the Steenstraate
+direction, the defence against a northern advance was
+miserably thin, consisting only of one company of
+the Sussex Regiment and the 116th Battery.  In the
+circumstances the more success Haig's troops attained
+in front, and the more they advanced, the more
+dangerous was their position upon the flank.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About 2.30 the German advance from the
+north became more formidable, and the 1st South
+Welsh Borderers, between Langemarck and Poel-Chapelle,
+were heavily counter-attacked and suffered
+considerable loss, between two and three hundred
+in all.  Two companies of the 2nd Welsh were pushed
+up to their help.  It was clear, however, that the
+advance could not be continued.  The 1st Brigade
+was therefore ordered to hold the line between
+Steenstraate and Langemarck, with their centre at the
+inn north of Pilken, so as to face the German advance
+from the north.  Then from Langemarck the British
+line turned southwards, being carried on for two
+miles by the 3rd Brigade to hold the enemy who were
+coming from the east.  The 2nd Brigade was in
+reserve at Boesinghe.  During this long and difficult
+day the Second Division, operating upon the right of
+the First, was not subjected to the same anxiety
+about its flank.  It advanced upon its objective in
+the face of severe opposition, ending more than once
+in a brief bayonet encounter.  Several counter-attacks
+were made by the Germans, but they were all
+beaten back with loss.  About two o'clock, however,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P250"></a>250}</span>
+the Second Division learned of the flank pressure
+which was holding up the First Division, and also of
+the extreme need for help experienced by the 22nd
+Brigade of the Seventh Division on their right.  In
+these circumstances it was necessary to abandon the
+idea of further advance and to send south those
+reinforcements, the opportune arrival of which has
+been already described.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As a net result of the two days' operations General
+Haig was not able to attain the line of
+Passchendaale-Poel-Chapelle, as originally planned, but he
+gained sufficient ground to establish himself from
+Langemarck to Zonnebeke, more than half-way to
+his objective.  The whole character of the operations
+during these days was more of the familiar British
+type, being conducted upon the surface of the earth
+rather than under it, and cavalry making its last
+appearance for many a long day.  Many fine deeds
+of valour were done.  In one of these Captain Rising,
+of the Gloucester Regiment, with ninety men, defended
+some point with such heroic tenacity that when, some
+days afterwards, the Brigadier attempted to get the
+names of the survivors for commendation not one
+could be found.  Quaintly valorous also is the picture
+of Major Powell, of the North Lancashires, leading
+his wing with a badly-sprained ankle, and using a
+cottage chair for a crutch, upon which he sat down
+between rushes.  It is hopeless, however, and even
+invidious to pick instances where the same spirit
+animated all.  The result was definite.  It had been
+clearly shown that the enemy were in considerably
+greater strength than had been imagined, and instead
+of a rearguard action from weak forces the British
+found themselves in the presence of a strong German
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P251"></a>251}</span>
+advance.  All day large forces of the enemy were
+advancing from Roulers and were impinging upon
+different points of the Franco-British line.  These
+troops were composed of partially-trained men,
+volunteers and reservists, but they attacked with
+the utmost determination, and endured heavy losses
+with great bravery.  It is a remarkable proof of the
+elaborate preparations for war made by Germany
+that, behind all their original gigantic array, they
+still had ready within the country sufficient arms and
+uniforms to fit out these five new army corps.  He
+who plans finds it easy to prepare, and whoever will
+compare this profusion of munitions in Germany
+with the absolute lack of them in the Allied countries
+will have no further doubt as to which Government
+conspired against the peace of the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On October 21, Sir John French began to feel
+that there were new factors in his front.  In the
+evening, at a meeting with Haig and Rawlinson,
+he discussed the unexpected strength of the German
+reinforcements and admitted that the scheme of an
+advance upon Bruges would become impossible in
+the face of such numbers.  Intelligence reports
+indicated that there was already a German army
+corps in front of each British division.  General Joffre
+had promised considerable French reinforcements
+upon October 24, and all that could be done was for
+the British troops to hold their ground to the last
+man and to resist every pressure until the equality
+of the forces could be restored.  Could they hold
+the line till then?  That was the all-important
+question.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+October 22 was the first day of that long ordeal of
+incessant attacks which the First Corps was called
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P252"></a>252}</span>
+upon to endure, until by constant attrition it had
+become almost as worn as the Seventh Division to
+the south.  On this day the German attack, which
+had not yet attained the full volume of later days,
+spent itself here and there along the extended lines.
+Only at one point did the enemy have some success,
+which, however, was the prelude to disaster.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Fight of Pilken Inn.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The line from Steenstraate to Langemarck, defending
+the British left flank, was held by the 1st
+Brigade, the Scots Guards upon the extreme left,
+then the Cameron Highlanders, and the Black Watch
+in reserve.  In the middle of the line north of Pilken
+was a solitary inn, already mentioned, round which
+trenches had been cut in horse-shoe fashion, the
+concavity of the shoe pointing southwards.  This
+point marked the junction between the Camerons
+and the Scots Guards.  About 3 P.M. this position
+was driven in and captured by a sudden and
+determined advance of the enemy.  The German charge
+was a fine feat of arms, for it was carried out largely
+by <i>Einjahrige</i>, who may be roughly compared to the
+Officers' Training Corps of our British system.  These
+high-spirited lads advanced singing patriotic songs,
+and succeeded in carrying the trenches in the face
+of soldiers who are second to none in the British
+Army&mdash;soldiers, too, who had seen, much service,
+while the German cadets were new to the work.
+The performance was much appreciated by British
+officers and men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Black Watch endeavoured without success
+to restore the line, and the 1st Northamptons were
+called upon from divisional reserve, while from all
+parts troops converged towards the gap.  On the
+arrival of the Northamptons they pushed up towards
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P253"></a>253}</span>
+the interval which now existed between the Scots
+Guards and the remains of the Camerons, but found
+the gap broader than had been thought, and strongly
+occupied.  It was then evening, and it was thought
+best to delay the counter-attack until morning and
+so have time to bring up reinforcements.  The 1st
+North Lancashires and the 2nd South Staffords were
+accordingly ordered up, together with the 1st Queen's
+Surrey and the 2nd Rifles, the whole operation being
+under the immediate command of General Bulfin.
+The advance began at six in the morning, over very
+difficult ground which had been barb-wired during
+the night.  The progress was slow but steady, and
+at eleven o'clock an assault upon the inn was ordered.
+The position was critical, since the enemy was now
+firmly lodged in the very centre of the flank of the
+British position, and was able to enfilade all the
+trenches of the First Division.  The Queen's Surrey,
+the 2nd King's Royal Rifles, and the 1st North
+Lancashires charged home with splendid energy,
+capturing the trenches round the inn, besides
+releasing sixty Camerons and taking over five
+hundred prisoners.  The trenches were carried by
+the North Lancashires, led by Major Carter.  It was
+the second time within six weeks that this battalion
+had made a decisive bayonet charge.  The price
+paid was six officers and 150 men.  The inn itself was
+rushed by Captain Creek's company of the Queen's,
+while Major Watson, of the same regiment, organised
+the final advance.  The fighting at this point was
+not finished for the day.  In the late evening the
+enemy, with fine tenacity of purpose, attacked the
+inn once more and drove the Queen's out of a
+salient.  The line was then straightened on each side
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P254"></a>254}</span>
+of the inn and remained firm.  Both the attack on
+the inn and the defence of the line were splendidly
+supported by the field artillery.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whilst the 1st Brigade had in this fashion got
+into and out of a dangerous position, there had been
+a severe attack upon two regiments of Landon's 3rd
+Brigade stationed at Langemarck.  The defending
+units were the 2nd Welsh Regiment and the 1st
+Gloucesters.  Aided by a strong artillery backing,
+they beat off these attacks and inflicted a very heavy
+loss upon the enemy.  The Allied line to the north
+was solid and unbroken.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Bravery of enemy.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The British losses during these operations of the
+First Corps amounted to 1500 men, while those of
+the Germans were exceedingly heavy.  These
+inexperienced troops advanced with an indiscriminating
+enthusiasm which exposed them to severe retaliation.
+It is doubtful if at any time in the campaign
+the British fire found so easy a mark.  One
+thousand five hundred dead were counted in the
+vicinity of Langemarck, and the total loss (including
+over six hundred prisoners) could not have been less
+than 10,000 men.  Correspondence afterwards
+captured showed that the Twenty-third Reserve Corps
+sustained such losses that for a time at least it was out
+of action.  The Twenty-seventh Reserve Corps was
+also hard hit.  A letter from a soldier in the 246th
+Regiment mentions that only eighty men were left
+of his battalion after the action of the 24th.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On October 24 and 25 the arrival of French
+reinforcements allowed the British to shorten up
+their defensive line, which had been unduly extended.
+The Seventeenth Division of the Ninth French Army
+Corps took over the line of the Second Division, which
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P255"></a>255}</span>
+was drawn back to St. Jean, and in turn took over
+part of the front of the Seventh Division.  French
+territorial troops, under General de Mitry, relieved
+the First British Division on the line
+Hannebeke-Langemarck-Steenstraate.  The First Division was
+drawn back to Zillebeke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Advance of Second Division.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meantime the Second Division, having the French
+Ninth Corps upon its left and the Seventh Division
+upon its right, made an attack towards Bacelaer,
+taking two guns and some prisoners.  This advance
+was renewed upon the 26th, this being the day upon
+which, as already described, the Germans pushed
+back the 20th Brigade of the Seventh Division at the
+Kruiseik salient, creating a situation which brought
+the Second Division to a standstill.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this movement forward of the Second Division
+from October 24 to 26, the Guards' 4th Brigade were
+on the right, the 6th Brigade on the left, with the
+French to the left of them.  The 5th Brigade were
+in reserve.  Two small villages were taken by
+storm, the Germans being driven out of loopholed
+houses, though at a considerable cost of officers and
+men.  It was in this operation that Colonel Bannatyne,
+the gallant leader of the 1st King's Liverpool,
+was killed.  Ten other officers and several hundred
+men of this corps were killed or wounded.  The
+1st Berkshires, fighting to the left of the King's,
+shared in its losses and in its success.  The Irish
+Guards were held up before Reutel and separated
+from the rest of the force, but managed to extricate
+themselves after some anxious hours.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On October 27, Sir John French came in person
+to Hooge, at the rear of the fighting line, and inquired
+into the state of the hard-pressed troops.  He found
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P256"></a>256}</span>
+the Seventh to be now such a skeleton division that
+it was thought best to join it with Haig's First Corps,
+forming one single command.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The attendant Third Cavalry Division was also
+attached to the First Corps.  These readjustments
+took place upon October 27.  They were, of course,
+of a temporary character until the eagerly awaited
+Eighth Division should arrive and so give General
+Rawlinson a complete Fourth Corps.  At present
+there was a very immediate prospect that half of
+it might be annihilated before the second half
+appeared.  The general arrangement of this section of
+the battlefield was now as depicted, the Seventh
+Division being entirely south of the Ypres-Menin
+roadway.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P257"></a>257}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="capcenter">
+<a id="img-257"></a>
+<br />
+<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-257.jpg" alt="General Scene of Operations" />
+<br />
+General Scene of Operations
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+This date, the 27th, was memorable only for an
+advance of the 6th Brigade.  These continual
+advances against odds were wonderful examples of the
+aggressive spirit of the British soldiers.  In this
+instance ground was gained, but at the cost of some
+casualties, especially to the 1st Rifles, who lost Prince
+Maurice of Battenberg and a number of officers and
+men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Fight of Kruiseik cross-roads.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And now the great epic of the first Battle of Ypres
+was rising to its climax, and the three days of supreme
+trial for the British Army were to begin.  Early upon
+October 29, a very heavy attack developed upon the
+line of the Ypres-Menin road.  There is a village
+named Gheluvelt, which is roughly half-way upon
+this tragic highway.  It lay now immediately behind
+the centre of the British line.  About half a mile in
+front of it the position ran through the important
+cross-roads which lead to the village of Kruiseik,
+still in the British possession.  The line through the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P258"></a>258}</span>
+Kruiseik cross-roads was that which was furiously
+assailed upon this morning, and the attack marked
+the beginning of a great movement to drive in the
+front continuing throughout the 30th and culminating
+in the terrible ordeal of the 31st, the crisis
+of the Ypres battle and possibly of the Western
+campaign.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+FitzClarence's 1st Brigade lay to the north of the
+road, and the battered, much-enduring 20th Brigade
+upon the south.  They were destined together to
+give such an example of military tenacity during
+that day as has seldom been equalled and never
+exceeded, so that the fight for the Kruiseik crossroads
+may well live in history amongst those actions,
+like Albuera and Inkermann, which have put the
+powers of British infantry to an extreme test.  The
+line was held by about five thousand men, but no
+finer units were to be found in the whole Army.
+The attack was conducted by an army corps with
+the eyes of their Emperor and an overpowering
+artillery encouraging them from the rear.  Many of
+the defending regiments, especially those of the 20th
+Brigade, had already been terribly wasted.  It was
+a line of weary and desperate men who faced the
+German onslaught.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The attack began in the mists of the early morning.
+The opening was adverse to the British, for the enemy,
+pushing very boldly forward upon a narrow front
+and taking full advantage of the fog, broke a way
+down the Menin road and actually got past the
+defending line before the situation was understood.
+The result was that the two regiments which flanked
+the road, the 1st Black Watch and the 1st Grenadiers,
+were fired into from behind and endured terrible
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P259"></a>259}</span>
+losses.  Among the Grenadiers Colonel Earle, Majors
+Forrester and Stucley, Lord Richard Wellesley, and
+a number of other officers fell, while out of 650 privates
+only 150 were eventually left standing, the 2nd
+Gordons, upon the right of the Grenadiers, suffered
+nearly as heavily, while the 1st Coldstream, upon the
+left of the Black Watch, was perhaps the hardest hit
+of all, for at the end of that dreadful day it had not
+a single officer fit for duty.  The right company of
+the 1st Scots Guards shared the fate of the Coldstream.
+The line was pushed back for a quarter of a mile
+and Kruiseik was evacuated, but the dead and
+wounded who remained in the trenches far exceeded
+in numbers those who were able to withdraw.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two small bodies who were cut off by the German
+advance did not fall back with their comrades, and
+each of them made a splendid and successful resistance.
+The one near Kruiseik was a mixed party under
+Major Bottomley of the 2nd Queen's West Surrey.
+The other was C Company of the 2nd Gordons under
+Captain B. G. R. Gordon and Lieutenant Laurence
+Carr.  These small islands of khaki, in the midst of a
+broad stream of grey, lay so tight and fired so straight
+that they inflicted very great damage upon the enemy,
+and were able to hold their own, in ever-diminishing
+numbers, until under the protection of darkness the
+survivors regained the British line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the meantime, a number of small dashing
+counter-attacks by the indomitable infantry was
+bringing the British line forward again.  South of
+the road the Gordons, under Colonel Uniacke, dashed
+themselves again and again against the huge host
+which faced them, driving them back, and then in
+their turn recoiling before the ponderous advance of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P260"></a>260}</span>
+the army corps.  They were maddened by the sound
+of the rolling fire ahead of them, which showed that
+their own C Company was dying hard.  In one of
+these counter-attacks Captain Brooke brought every
+straggler into the fray, and died while trying to cut
+his way through to his comrades.  To the north of
+the road Captain Stephen, with the remains of the 1st
+Scots Guards, threw themselves upon the German flank
+and staggered it by their fire.  The Germans, who
+had almost reached Gheluvelt, were now worried in
+this way on either flank, while the 2nd Border battalion
+and the Welsh Borderers with the rallied remains of
+the broken regiments were still facing them in front.
+The enemy was held, was stricken front and flank
+with a murderous fire, and recoiled back down the
+Menin road.  Imperial eyes and overmastering guns
+were equally powerless to drive them through that
+iron defence.  Five thousand British soldiers had
+driven back an army corps, but had left more than
+half their number upon the scene of victory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Second Division, to the north of the road in
+the direction of Reutel, had been ordered to counter-attack,
+and the other brigades of the Seventh Division
+to the south did the same.  While Haig had a man
+standing he was ready to hit back.  Between these
+two flanking forces there was a movement in the
+centre to follow the Germans back and to recover
+some of the lost ground.  Landon's Third Brigade,
+less the Gloucester Regiment, was pushed forward.
+These troops moved past Gheluvelt and advanced
+along the line of the road, the 1st Queen's, their
+right-hand unit, linking up by a happy chance with
+their own 2nd Battalion, who were now on the left
+of the 22nd Brigade of the Seventh Division.  Left
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P261"></a>261}</span>
+of the Queen's were the 2nd Welsh to the immediate
+south of the main road, while to their left again lay
+the 1st South Wales Borderers, in front of the village
+of Gheluvelt.  By evening these troops had recovered
+some of the ground, but the village of Kruiseik,
+which had always constituted a salient, was now
+abandoned.  The cross-roads also remained in the
+hands of the enemy.  Landon's Brigade continued
+to bar the further German advance preparing in
+stern resignation for the renewed and heavier blow
+which all knew to be in readiness, and which was
+destined two days later to bring them a glorious
+annihilation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was clear upon the evening of the 29th that
+serious mischief was afoot, for there were great signs
+of movement on the German side, and all night the
+continual rattle of wheels was heard to the eastward.
+These menacing sounds were actually caused by a very
+strong reinforcement, the Fifteenth German Corps
+(Strasburg) of the regular army, which, followed by
+the Thirteenth Corps and the Second Bavarian Corps,
+were coming into the battle line with the declared
+intention of smashing their way through to Ypres.
+Correspondence, afterwards captured, showed that
+the German Emperor had issued a special appeal to
+these troops, declaring that the movement was one
+which would be of decisive importance to the war.
+It was, of course, not the venerable town of Ypres
+which had assumed such a place in the mind both of
+the Emperor and his people, but it was Calais and the
+Channel coast to which it was the door.  Once in the
+possession of these points, it seemed to their perfervid
+minds that they would be in a position to constrain
+Great Britain to an ignominious peace, a course which
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P262"></a>262}</span>
+would surely have ruined the cause of the Allies and
+placed the whole world under the German heel.  No
+less was the issue at stake.  The British Army from
+Langemarck in the north to La Bassée in the south
+were resolutely determined that the road was barred,
+while to left and to right they had stout-hearted
+comrades of Belgium and of France.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Fight of Zandvoorde.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At half-past six upon October 30 a very heavy
+attack developed, which involved the whole line of
+the First Corps and also the French Ninth Corps
+upon its left.  This attack upon the left was carried
+out by the Reserve Corps 26 and 27, with whom we
+had had previous dealings, and it was repulsed with
+considerable loss by the French and the 6th British
+Brigade.  To the south, however, the British were
+very violently engaged down the whole line of trenches
+from the position of the Seventh Division near the
+Ypres-Menin road, through Zandvoorde, where the
+Third Cavalry Division was holding on under great
+difficulties, and on southward still, past the position
+of the Second Cavalry down to Messines, where the
+First Cavalry Division was also heavily engaged.
+The front of battle was not less than twelve miles in
+length, with one continuous long-drawn rattle of small
+arms and roar of guns from end to end.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The British may have anticipated that the chief
+blow would fall at the same spot as had been attacked
+the day before.  As a matter of fact, it was directed
+farther south, at Zandvoorde, on the immediate right
+of the Seventh Division.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first sign of success for the strenuous German
+efforts upon October 30 was the driving in of
+Kavanagh's 7th Guards' Cavalry Brigade from their
+trenches at the Zandvoorde Ridge.  On this ridge,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P263"></a>263}</span>
+which is not more than a hundred and twenty feet
+high, the Germans concentrated so tremendous and
+accurate a fire that the trenches were in many places
+demolished and became entirely untenable.  The
+survivors of the Life Guards and Blues who made up
+this brigade withdrew steadily through the reserve
+trenches, which were held by the 6th cavalry Brigade,
+and reformed at Klein Zillebeke in the rear.  Two
+squadrons, however, and Lord Worsley's machine-gun
+section were killed or taken by the assailants.  The
+unoccupied trenches were seized by the Sixth Bavarian
+Reserve Division, who advanced rapidly in order to
+improve their advantage, while their artillery began
+to pound the reserves.  The cavalry had been
+strengthened, however, by the Greys and 3rd
+Hussars upon the left, while the 4th Hussars lined
+up on the right, and C, I, and K Horse Artillery
+batteries vigorously supported.  In spite of great
+pressure, the position was held.  Farther south the
+First Cavalry Division was also at very close grips
+with the Twenty-sixth Division of the Thirteenth
+German Army Corps, and was hard put to it to hold
+its own.  Along the whole cavalry position there was
+extreme strain.  A squadron of the 1st Royals were
+forced to evacuate the chateau of Holebeke, and the
+line in this quarter was pushed back as far as St. Eloi,
+thus flattening a considerable salient.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The danger of a position which consists of so long
+a line with few reserves is that any retirement at any
+point immediately exposes the flanks of the neighbouring
+units to right and left.  Thus the evacuation of
+Zandvoorde threw open the right flank of the Seventh
+Division, even as its left had been in the air upon the
+day before.  On getting through, the Germans were
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P264"></a>264}</span>
+on the right rear of the 1st Welsh Fusiliers and
+enfiladed them badly, destroying all the officers and a
+considerable proportion of the regiment, which had
+already been greatly reduced.  Colonel Cadogan was
+among those who fell.  The 22nd Brigade was forced
+to fall back, and the 2nd Yorkshires and 2nd Scots
+Fusiliers, of the 21st Brigade, being left in a salient,
+suffered heavily, especially the latter battalion, the
+conduct of which from first to last was remarkable
+even among such men as fought beside them.  These
+two regiments held on with the greatest determination
+until orders to retire reached them, which were
+somewhat belated, as several orderlies were killed in
+bringing them.  The 2nd Bedfords, who had themselves
+sustained very severe losses from the German
+artillery fire, covered the retirement of the remains of
+these two gallant units.  The Seventh Division then
+covered the line from the canal through Klein Zillebeke
+and along the front of the woods to near Gheluvelt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The position was now most critical.  The Germans
+were in possession of Zandvoorde Ridge on the British
+right flank, a most important position whence guns
+could command a considerable area.  Ypres was only
+four miles distant.  There was nothing but a line
+of weary and partially broken infantry to protect the
+flank from being entirely pierced.  The whole of a
+German active army corps was attacking upon this
+line.  The order was given to hold the new positions at
+all costs, but on the evening of the 30th the situation
+was full of menace for the morrow.  The German
+flood was still thundering against the barrier, and the
+barrier seemed to be giving.  At about 2 P.M. on
+October 30 the 1st Irish Guards and the 2nd Grenadiers,
+who were in reserve to two battalions of the Coldstream
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P265"></a>265}</span>
+in trenches in the Polygon Wood, near Reutel
+Village, were ordered to help the Seventh Division.
+General Capper subsequently directed them to take
+the place of the cavalry on the right of his division.
+The Irish Guards were accordingly on the right of
+the Seventh Division from now onwards, and the
+Grenadiers were on their right, extending down to
+the canal in front of Klein Zillebeke.  The commander
+of the Ninth French Corps also, with that fine loyalty
+which his comrades have shown again and again during
+the war, easing many a difficult and perhaps saving
+some impossible situations, put three battalions and
+some cavalry at the disposal of the British.  Two
+regiments of Bulfin's 2nd Brigade were also brought
+across and thrust into the gap.  But the outlook that
+evening was not cheering.  The troops had been
+fighting hard for two days without a break.  The
+losses had been heavy.  The line had been driven
+back and was greatly strained.  It was known that
+the Germans were in great strength and that the
+attack would be renewed on the morrow.  The troops
+and their leaders faced the immediate future in a spirit
+of sombre determination.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Fight of Gheluvelt.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+During the 30th Landon's Brigade had strengthened
+their position near Gheluvelt, and General
+Haig, realising that this was the key of his line,
+moved up the 2nd King's Royal Rifles and the 1st
+North Lancashires to form a reserve under the
+orders of General Landon.  These regiments took a
+position south-west of Gheluvelt and connected up
+more closely between the Seventh Division and the
+3rd Brigade of the First Division.  It was well that
+a closely-knitted line had been formed, for at the dawn
+of day upon the 31st a most terrific attack was made,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P266"></a>266}</span>
+which was pushed with unexampled fierceness during
+the whole day, falling chiefly upon the centre and left
+of the Seventh Division and upon the 1st Queen's
+and 2nd Welsh of the Third Brigade.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A weak point developed, unfortunately, in the
+front line, for the Seventh Division in its enfeebled
+condition was further weakened by forming somewhat
+of a salient in the Kruiseik direction.  They behaved
+with all their usual magnificent gallantry, but they
+were not numerous enough to hold the ground.  The
+line was broken and the remains of the 2nd Royal
+Scots Fusiliers, after being exposed to heavy fire from
+5.30 A.M., were outflanked and surrounded in the
+early afternoon.  The bulk of the survivors of this
+battalion had been sent to reinforce the line elsewhere,
+but the remainder, some sixty in number, were killed,
+wounded, or taken, including their gallant colonel,
+Baird Smith, who had been hit the day before.  The
+Picton tradition which disregards wounds unless they
+are absolutely crippling was continually observed by
+these stern soldiers.  On the left of the Scots Fusiliers
+the 2nd Bedfords were also involved in the
+catastrophe, but drew off with heavy losses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The left wing of the Seventh Division began to
+retire, and the 1st Queen's upon the right of the 3rd
+Brigade had both their flanks turned and were reduced
+to a handful under Major Watson and Lieutenant
+Boyd, who still held together as a unit.  It was a great
+morning in the history of this regiment, as the
+two battalions had fought side by side, and their
+colonels, Pell and Coles, had both fallen in the action.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P267"></a>267}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="capcenter">
+<a id="img-267"></a>
+<br />
+<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-267.jpg" alt="SKETCH OF BATTLE OF GHELUVELT OCT 31st." />
+<br />
+SKETCH OF BATTLE OF GHELUVELT OCT 31st.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>
+The line of the 3rd Brigade had been drawn up
+across the Menin road some four hundred yards to
+the east of the village.  The road itself was held by
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P268"></a>268}</span>
+the 2nd Welsh Regiment, supported by the 54th
+Battery (Major Peel), which was immediately behind
+the village.  Both the battalion and the battery
+fought desperately in a most exposed situation.
+The Welsh Regiment were driven out of their
+trenches by a terrific shell-fire followed by an infantry
+attack.  They lost during the day nearly six hundred
+men, with sixteen officers, killed, wounded, or missing.
+Colonel Morland was killed and Major Prichard badly
+wounded.  Finally, after being pushed back, holding
+every possible point, they formed up under Captain
+Rees across the open in a thin skirmishing line to
+cover the battery, which was doing great work by
+holding back the German advance.  One German gun
+was in action upon the Menin road.  Lieutenant
+Blewitt took a British gun out on to the bare road to
+face it, and a duel ensued at five hundred yards, which
+ended by the German gun being knocked out at the
+third shot by a direct hit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the First Division at the centre of the
+British line were driven in, as already described, and
+the Seventh Division were pushed back into the
+woods, the situation became most critical, for there
+was a general retirement, with a victorious enemy
+pressing swiftly on upon the British centre.  The
+men behaved splendidly, and the officers kept their
+heads, taking every opportunity to form up a new
+line.  The 2nd Rifles and 1st North Lancashires in
+immediate support of the centre did all that men
+could to hold it firm.  The German artillery lengthened
+their range as the British fell back, and the infantry,
+with their murderous quick-firers scattered thickly
+in the front line, came rapidly on.  Communications
+were difficult, and everything for a time was chaos
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P269"></a>269}</span>
+and confusion.  It looked for an hour or two as if
+Von Deimling, the German leader, might really carry
+out his War Lord's command and break his road to
+the sea.  It was one of the decisive moments of the
+world's history, for if the Germans at that period had
+seized the Channel ports, it is difficult to say how
+disastrous the result might have been both to France
+and to the British Empire.  At that moment of
+darkness and doubt a fresh misfortune, which might well
+have proved overwhelming, came upon the hard-pressed
+forces.  About 1.30 a shell exploded in the
+headquarters at the chateau of Hooge, and both
+General Lomax, of the First Division, and General
+Munro, of the Second, were put out of action, the
+first being wounded and the second rendered
+unconscious by the shock.  It was a brain injury to
+the Army, and a desperately serious one, for besides
+the two divisional commanders the single shell had
+killed or wounded Colonels Kerr and Perceval, Major
+Paley, Captains Ommany and Trench, and Lieutenant
+Giffard.  General Landon, of the 3rd Brigade, took
+the command of the First Division at a moment's
+notice, and the battle went forward.  A line was
+hurriedly formed, men digging as for their lives,
+whilst broken units threw themselves down to hold
+off the rolling grey wave that thundered behind.
+The new position was three-quarters of a mile back
+and about four hundred yards in advance of Veldhoek,
+which is the next village down the Ypres road.  The
+Seventh Division had also been rolled back, but the
+fiery Capper, their divisional chief, who has been
+described as a British Samurai, was everywhere
+among his regiments, reforming and bracing them.
+The British soldiers, with their incomparable
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P270"></a>270}</span>
+regimental officers, rose to the crisis, whilst General Haig
+was behind the line at Hooge, directing and controlling,
+like a great engineer who seeks to hold a dam which
+carries an overpowering head of water.  By three
+o'clock the new line was firmly held.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Advance of Worcesters.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now General Haig, seeking round for some means
+of making a counter-attack, perceived that on his
+left flank he had some reserve troops who had been
+somewhat clear of the storm and might be employed.
+The 2nd Worcesters were ordered to advance upon
+Gheluvelt, the initiative in this vital movement
+coming from General Fitz-Clarence of the 1st
+Brigade.  On that flank the troops had not joined
+in the retirement, and, including the South Wales
+Borderers of the 3rd Brigade, were still in their
+original trenches, being just north of the swathe that
+had been cut in the British line, and just south of
+where the Second Division, extended to cracking point,
+with one man often for every eight or nine feet, and no
+supports, were defending the left flank of the Army.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the village of Gheluvelt and the trenches
+to the north of it had been captured by the enemy,
+a gap had been left of about five hundred yards
+between the northern edge of the village and these
+South Wales Borderers.  This gap the 2nd Worcesters
+were ordered to fill.  They were in reserve at the
+time in the south-west corner of the Polygon Wood,
+but on being called upon they made a brilliant advance
+under Major Hankey.  One company (A) was detached
+to guard the right flank of the advance.  The other
+three companies came on for a thousand yards.  At
+one point they had to cross two hundred and twenty
+yards of open under heavy shrapnel-fire.  One
+hundred men fell, but the momentum of the charge
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P271"></a>271}</span>
+was never diminished.  Their rapid and accurate fire
+drove back the German infantry, while their open
+order formation diminished their own losses.  Finally
+they dashed into the trenches and connected up the
+village with the line of the Welsh Borderers.  Their
+right platoons, under Captain Williams, held the
+village until nearly midnight.  Altogether the advance
+cost the battalion 187 casualties, including 3 officers,
+out of 550 who were in the ranks that day.  Up to
+dusk the Worcesters were exposed to heavy shrapnel-fire,
+and small detached parties of the enemy came
+round their right flank, but their position was
+strengthened and strongly held until the final readjustment
+of the line.  It was a fine advance at a critical moment,
+and did much to save the situation.  The whole
+movement was strongly supported by the guns of
+the 42nd Battery, and by some of the 1st Scots Guards
+upon the left of the Welsh Borderers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has been stated that a line had been formed
+near Veldhoek, but this difficult operation was not
+performed in an instant, and was rather the final
+equilibrium established after a succession of
+oscillations.  The British were worn to a shadow.  The 2nd
+Queen's had 2 officers and 60 men left that night,
+the 2nd Welsh had 3 officers and 93 men.  Little
+groups, who might have been fitted into a large-sized
+drawing-room, were settling a contention upon which
+the fate of the world might depend.  But the Germans
+also had spent all their force.  The rattle of musketry
+behind their advance was enough to tell them that
+the British were still in their trenches, and the guns
+were for ever playing on them with deadly effect.
+Gradually they began to dissolve away among the
+thick woods which flank the road.  They were
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P272"></a>272}</span>
+learning that to penetrate the line of a resolute
+adversary is not necessarily the prelude to victory.
+It may mean that the farther you advance the more
+your flanks are exposed.  So it was now, when the
+infantry to the north on one side and the Third
+Cavalry Division on the other were closing in on
+them.  That long tentacle which was pushing its
+way towards Ypres had to be swiftly withdrawn
+once more, and withdrawn under a heavy fire from
+the 29th, 41st, and 45th field batteries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+German recoil.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The scattered German infantry who had taken
+refuge in the woods of Hooge, which lie to the south
+of the road, were followed up by mounted and
+dismounted men of the Royals, 10th Hussars, and 3rd
+Dragoon Guards, aided by some French cavalry.
+These troops advanced through the woods, killing or
+taking a number of the enemy.  By nightfall the
+Germans had fallen back along the whole debated
+line; the various British units, though much
+disorganised, were in close touch with each other, and
+the original trenches had in the main been occupied,
+the Berkshire Regiment helping to close the gap in
+the centre.  The flood had slowly ebbed away, and the
+shaken barrier was steady once more, thanks to the
+master-hands which had so skilfully held it firm.
+The village of Gheluvelt remained in the hands of
+the Germans, but the British trenches were formed
+to the west of it, and the road to the sea was barred
+as effectually as ever.  These are the main facts of
+the action of Gheluvelt, which may well be given a
+name of its own, though it was only one supremely
+important episode in that huge contention which
+will be known as the First Battle of Ypres.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the southern portion of the Ypres area at
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P273"></a>273}</span>
+Klein Zillebeke a very sharp engagement was going
+on, which swung and swayed with as much violence
+and change as the main battle on the Menin road.
+The German attack here was hardly inferior in
+intensity to that in the north.  Having pushed back
+Lawford's weak brigade (22nd) it struck full upon
+part of Bulfin's 2nd Brigade, which had been detached
+from the First Division and sent to cover the right
+of the Seventh Division.  Its own flank was now
+exposed, and its situation for a time was critical.
+The German advance was sudden and impetuous,
+coming through a wood which brought the dense
+mass of the enemy's leading formation almost unseen
+right up to the British line.  The position of the 2nd
+Brigade was pierced, and the two regiments present,
+the 2nd Sussex and the 1st Northamptons, were driven
+back with loss.  Their brigadier rallied them some
+hundreds of yards to the rear, where they formed up
+into a skirmish line in the open, and, though unable
+to advance, kept back the Germans with their rifle-fire.
+The losses still continued, however, and the enemy
+came on again and again with numbers which seemed
+inexhaustible.  Suddenly there was a charging yell
+from behind a low slope covering the rear, and over
+the brow there appeared some three hundred survivors
+of the 2nd Gordons, rushing at full speed with fixed
+bayonets.  At the same moment the dismounted
+troopers of the 6th Cavalry Brigade and a company
+of sappers ran forward to join in the charge.  The
+whole British force was not one to three of its
+opponents, but as the reinforcing line swept on, cheering
+with all its might, the survivors of the hard-pressed
+brigade sprang up with a shout and the united wave
+burst over the Germans.  Next moment they had
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P274"></a>274}</span>
+broken and were flying for their lives through the
+Zwartelen Wood.  The pursuit lasted for some distance,
+and a great number of the enemy were bayoneted,
+while several hundreds were taken prisoners.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+General result.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There have been few more critical occasions in
+the British operations than this action upon October
+31, when the Germans so nearly forced their way to
+Ypres.  It is the peculiarity of modern warfare that,
+although vast armies are locked in a close struggle,
+the number of men who can come into actual contact
+at any one point is usually far more limited than in
+the old days, when each host could view the other
+from wing to wing.  Thus the losses in such an action
+are small as compared with the terrific death-roll of
+a Napoleonic battle.  On the other hand, when the
+operations are viewed broadly and one groups a
+series of actions into one prolonged battle, like the
+Aisne or Ypres, then the resulting losses become
+enormous.  The old battle was a local conflagration,
+short and violent.  The new one is a widespread
+smoulder, breaking here and there into flame.  In
+this affair of Gheluvelt the casualties of the British
+did not exceed 2000 or 3000, while those of the
+Germans, who were more numerous and who incurred
+the extra loss which falls upon the attack, could
+not have been less than twice that figure.  One
+thousand five hundred dead were actually picked up
+and six hundred prisoners were taken.  Some hundreds
+of prisoners were also taken by the enemy.  The
+British artillery, which worked desperately hard all
+day, had many losses both upon the 30th and the
+31st.  The 12th Battery had all its guns silenced
+but one, and many others were equally hard hit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the night of the 31st considerable French
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P275"></a>275}</span>
+reinforcements began to arrive, and it was high time
+that they did so, for the First Corps, including the
+Seventh Division, were likely to bleed to death upon
+the ground that they were holding.  It had stood
+the successive attacks of four German corps, and it
+had held its line against each of them.  But its own
+ranks had been grievously thinned and the men were
+weary to death.  The strain, it should be added, was
+equally great upon the Ninth French Corps to the
+north, which had its own set of assailants to contend
+with.  Now that the line of the Yser, so splendidly
+guarded by the Belgians, had proved to be
+impregnable, and that the French from Dixmude in the
+north had repulsed all attacks, the whole German
+advance upon Calais, for which Berlin was screaming,
+was centred upon the Ypres lines.  It was time, then,
+that some relief should come to the hard-pressed
+troops.  For several days the French on the right
+and the left took the weight of the attack upon
+themselves, and although the front was never free
+from fighting, there was a short period of comparative
+rest for Haig's tired men.  In successive days they
+had lost Kruiseik, Zandvoorde, and Gheluvelt, but so
+long as they held the semicircle of higher ground
+which covers Ypres these small German gains availed
+them nothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+A great crisis.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Looking back at the three actions of the 29th,
+30th, and especially of the 31st of October, one can
+clearly perceive that it was the closest thing to a
+really serious defeat which the Army had had since
+Le Cateau.  If the Germans had been able to push
+home their attack once again, it is probable that they
+would have taken Ypres, and that the results would
+have been most serious.  Sir John French is reported
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P276"></a>276}</span>
+as having said that there was no time in the Mons
+retreat when he did not see his way, great as were
+his difficulties, but that there was a moment upon
+October 31 when he seemed to be at the end of his
+resources.  To Sir John at Ypres converged all the
+cries for succour, and from him radiated the words of
+hope and encouragement which stiffened the breaking
+lines.  To him and to his untiring lieutenant, Douglas
+Haig, the Empire owed more that day than has ever
+been generally realised.  The latter was up to the
+firing line again and again rallying the troops.  The
+sudden removal of the two divisional commanders
+of the First Corps was a dreadful blow at such a
+moment, and the manner in which General Landon,
+of the 3rd Brigade, took over the command of the
+First Division at a moment's notice was a most
+noteworthy performance.  The fact that three
+divisions of infantry with brigades which resembled
+battalions, and battalions which were anything from
+companies to platoons, destitute of reserves save for
+a few dismounted cavalry, barred the path to a
+powerful German army, is one of the greatest feats of
+military history.  It was a very near thing.  There
+was a time, it is said, when the breech-blocks had
+actually been taken from the heavy guns in order
+to disable them, and some of the artillery had been
+passed back through Ypres.  But the line held
+against all odds, as it has done so often in the past.
+The struggle was not over.  For a fortnight still to
+come it was close and desperate.  But never again
+would it be quite so perilous as on that immortal
+last day of October, when over the green Flemish
+meadows, beside the sluggish water-courses, on the
+fringes of the old-world villages, and in the heart of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P277"></a>277}</span>
+the autumn-tinted woods, two great Empires fought
+for the mastery.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was the British epic.  There was another
+to the north which was no less wonderful, and which
+will be celebrated by the poets and historians of the
+lands to which the victors belong.  It will tell of the
+glorious stand during this critical ten days of the
+Belgians, so weary, so battered, and yet so indomitable.
+It will tell how they made head against the
+hosts of the Duke of Würtemberg, and how in the end
+they flooded their own best land with the salt water
+which would sterilise it in order to cover their front.
+It will tell also of the splendid Frenchmen who
+fought at Dixmude, of Ronarch with his invincible
+marines, and of Grossetti, the fat and debonair,
+seated in an armchair in the village street and pointing
+the road to victory with his cane.  Not least, perhaps,
+in that epic will be the tale of the British monitors
+who, with the deadly submarines upon one side of
+them and the heavy German batteries upon the
+other, ran into the Flemish coast and poured their
+fire upon the right flank of the attacking Germans.
+Ten days the great battle swung and swayed, and
+then here as at Ypres the wave of the invaders
+ebbed, or reached its definite flood.  It would be an
+ungenerous foe who would not admit that they had
+fought bravely and well.  Not all our hatred of their
+national ideals nor our contempt for their crafty
+misleaders can prevent us from saluting those German
+officers and soldiers who poured out their blood like
+water in the attempt to do that which was impossible.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a id="chap09"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">{<a id="P278"></a>278}</span></p>
+
+<h3>
+CHAPTER IX
+<br /><br />
+THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES (<i>continued</i>)
+</h3>
+
+<p class="t3">
+(From the Action of Gheluvelt to the Winter Lull)
+</p>
+
+<p class="intro">
+Attack upon the cavalry&mdash;The struggle at Messines&mdash;The London Scots
+in action&mdash;Rally to the north&mdash;Terrible losses&mdash;Action of
+Zillebeke&mdash;Record of the Seventh Division&mdash;Situation at
+Ypres&mdash;Attack of the Prussian Guard&mdash;Confused
+fighting&mdash;End of the First
+Battle of Ypres&mdash;Death of Lord Roberts&mdash;The Eighth Division.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Attack upon the cavalry.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whilst this severe fighting had been going on to the
+north of the British position, the centre, where the
+dismounted cavalry were holding the line of trenches,
+was so terribly pressed that it is an extraordinary
+thing that they were able to hold their own.  The
+Second Corps, which at that time had just been
+withdrawn for a rest from the La Bassée lines, were
+the only available reinforcements.  When news was
+flashed south as to the serious state of affairs, two
+regiments, the 2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry and the
+2nd Scottish Borderers from the 13th Infantry Brigade,
+were sent up in motor-buses by road to the relief.
+Strange indeed was the sight of these vehicles flying
+along the Flemish roads, plastered outside with the
+homely names of London suburbs and crammed with
+the grimy, much-enduring infantry.  The lines at
+Messines were in trouble, and so also were those at
+Wytschaete farther to the north.  To this latter place
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P279"></a>279}</span>
+went two battalions of Shaw's 9th Brigade, the 1st
+Northumberland Fusiliers and the 1st Lincolns.
+Hard work awaited the infantry at Messines and at
+Wytschaete, for in both places Allenby's troopers
+were nearly rushed off their feet.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has already been shown that on October 30 a
+severe assault was made upon the Third Cavalry
+Division, when the 7th Brigade (Kavanagh's) was
+forced out of Zandvoorde by the Fifteenth German
+Army Corps.  Upon this same date a most strenuous
+attack, made in great force and supported by a terrific
+shell-fire, was directed along the whole line of the
+cavalry from Wytschaete to Messines.  No British
+troops have been exposed to a more severe ordeal
+than these brave troopers, for they were enormously
+outnumbered at every point, and their line was so
+thin that it was absolutely impossible for them to
+prevent it from being pierced by the masses of
+infantry, from the Twenty-fourth Corps and Second
+Bavarian Corps, which were hurled against them.
+From the extreme left of the Second Cavalry Division
+near Wytschaete to the right of the First Cavalry
+Division south of Messines the same reports came
+in to the anxious General, of trenches overwhelmed
+or enfiladed, and of little isolated groups of men
+struggling most desperately to keep a footing against
+an ever-surging grey tide which was beating up against
+them and flowing through every gap.  In the north
+Gough's men were nearly overwhelmed, the 5th Irish
+Lancers were shelled out of a farmhouse position, and
+the 16th Lancers, shelled from in front and decimated
+by rifles and machine-guns from the flank, were driven
+back for half a mile until three French battalions
+helped the line to reform.  The pressure, however,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P280"></a>280}</span>
+was still extreme, the Germans fighting with admirable
+energy and coming forward in never-ending numbers.
+An Indian regiment of the 7th (Ferozepore) Brigade,
+the 129th Baluchis, had been helping the cavalry in
+this region since October 23, but their ranks were now
+much decimated, and they were fought almost to a
+standstill.  Two more British regiments from the
+Second Corps, the 1st Lincolns and the 1st Northumberland
+Fusiliers of the 9th Brigade, together with
+their Brigadier, Shaw, who was a reinforcement in
+himself, were, as already stated, hurried off from the
+south in motor-buses to strengthen Gough's line.
+Advancing into what was to them an entirely strange
+position these two veteran regiments sustained very
+heavy losses, which they bore with extreme fortitude.
+They were surprised by the Germans on the road
+between Kemmel and Wytschaete on the night of
+October 31, the same night upon which the London
+Scottish to the south of them were so heavily engaged.
+Colonel Smith succeeded in extricating the Lincolns
+from what was a most perilous position, but only after
+a loss of 16 officers and 400 men.  The Fusiliers were
+almost as hard hit.  For forty-eight hours the battle
+swung backwards and forwards in front of Wytschaete,
+and in the end the village itself was lost, but the
+defensive lines to the west of it were firmly established.
+By November the second strong French reinforcements
+had appeared, and it was clear that this desperate
+attempt to break through the very centre of the
+British position had definitely failed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The struggle at Messines.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The struggle at Messines, some five miles to the
+south, had been even more severe and sanguinary than
+at Wytschaete.  In the early morning of the 31st the
+Bays and the 5th Dragoon Guards upon the left of the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P281"></a>281}</span>
+Messines position, after a heavy shell-fire, were driven
+out of their trenches by a sudden furious advance of
+the German infantry.  The front of the village of
+Messines was held by Wild's 57th Rifles, who were
+driven in by the same attack, every officer engaged
+being killed or wounded.  A reserve company of
+Wild's Rifles and a squadron of the 5th Dragoon
+Guards endeavoured to restore the fight, but could
+not hold the torrent.  The 9th Lancers, also in
+front of the village and to the right of the Indians,
+held on for a long time, repulsing the infantry
+attacks, until they were driven back by the deadly
+shell-fire.  At one time they were enfiladed on both
+sides and heard the Germans roaring their war-songs
+in the dark all round them; but they were able, owing
+to the coolness of Colonel Campbell and the discipline
+of his veteran troopers, to fall back and to reform
+upon the western side of the village.  Lance-Corporal
+Seaton distinguished himself by covering the retreat
+of his whole squadron, remaining single-handed in his
+trench until his maxim was destroyed, after he had
+poured a thousand shots into the close ranks of his
+assailants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The situation was so serious after dawn upon the
+31st that General De Lisle had to call for help from
+Wilson's Fourth Infantry Division, holding the line
+upon his right.  The Inniskilling Fusiliers were
+extended so as to relieve his right flank.  The struggle
+within Messines was still going forward with fighting
+from house to house, but the Germans, who were
+coming on with overpowering numbers and great
+valour, were gradually winning their way forward.
+The Oxfordshire Hussars, fresh from the base, were
+thrown into the combat.  A second line of defence
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P282"></a>282}</span>
+had been arranged a mile or so to the west, near
+Wulverghem, but if Messines must go the victors
+should at least pay the price down to the last drop of
+blood which could be wrung from them.  Reinforcements
+were within sight, both French and British,
+but they were scanty in quantity though superb in
+quality.  It was a most critical position, and one
+cannot but marvel at the load of responsibility which
+Sir John French had to bear upon this day, for from
+the left of Haig's First Corps in the north down
+to Neuve Chapelle in the south, a stretch of
+twenty-five miles, there was hardly a point which
+was not strained to the verge of cracking.  Cool and
+alert, he controlled the situation from his central post
+and threw in such reinforcements as he could find,
+though, indeed, they could only be got by taking them
+from places where they were wanted and hurrying
+them to places where they were needed even more
+urgently.  He was strengthened always by the
+knowledge that General Joffre behind him was doing all
+that a loyal colleague could to find fresh columns of
+his splendid infantrymen to buttress up the
+hard-pressed line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the moment, however, none of these were
+available, and Messines was still partly in British,
+partly in German hands.  Briggs's 1st Brigade&mdash;Bays,
+5th Dragoon Guards, and 11th Hussars&mdash;with the
+Oxfords, held on to the western edge of the town.
+To their left, linking up with Gough's men in the
+Wytschaete sector, was the 4th Dragoon Guards.
+Late in the afternoon the 2nd Scots Borderers and the
+2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry, the joint detachment
+under Major Coke, arrived from the south, and were
+at once advanced upon Messines to stiffen the defence.
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P283"></a>283}</span>
+Under heavy fire they established themselves in the
+village.  Evening fell with desperate street fighting
+and the relative position unchanged.  Twice the
+Bavarians stormed into the central square, and twice
+they fell back after littering it with their bodies.  It
+seemed hopeless to hold the village against the
+ever-growing pressure of the Germans, and yet the loss of
+the village entailed the loss of the ridge, which would
+leave a commanding position in the hands of the
+enemy.  Village and ridge were mutually dependent,
+for if either were lost the other could not be held.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As it proved, it was the ridge and not the village
+which could no longer sustain the pressure.  On the
+night of October 31 Mullen's 2nd Cavalry Brigade&mdash;9th
+Lancers, 4th Dragoon Guards, and 11th Hussars&mdash;took
+over the defence from Briggs.  Of these, the
+4th Dragoon Guards were to the left of the village upon
+the ridge.  The London Scottish had been brought
+up, and they were placed upon the left of the 4th
+Dragoon Guards, forming a link of the defence which
+connected up the Second Cavalry Division with the
+First.  The right-hand regiment of the latter, the
+6th Carbineers, of Bingham's 4th Brigade, were upon
+the left of the London Scottish.  These two
+regiments held the centre of the ridge.  The London
+Scottish had already suffered considerable losses.
+Hurried up from the lines of communication to
+St. Eloi, they were pushed forward at once into action,
+and were exposed for hours to all the nerve-racking
+horrors of a heavy shell-fire endured in most
+insufficient trenches.  A more severe ordeal was in store
+for them, however, during the grim night which lay
+before them.  The admirable behaviour of Colonel
+Malcolm's men excited the more attention as they
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P284"></a>284}</span>
+were the first Territorial infantry to come into action,
+and they set a standard which has been grandly
+sustained by the quarter-million of their comrades who
+have from first to last come into the line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The London Scots in action.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the early morning of November 1 there had
+been a strong attempt within the village to improve
+the British position, and some ground was actually
+gained by the cavalrymen, the Yorkshire Light
+Infantry, and the Scots Borderers.  What occurred,
+however, on the ridge to the north made all further
+effort a useless waste of life.  The Bavarian infantry
+had come with an irresistible rush against the thin
+British line.  The order to hold their ground at all
+costs was given, and the London Scots answered it in a
+way which gained the highest praise from the many
+soldiers who saw it.  It is not claimed that they did
+better than their Regular comrades.  That would be
+impossible.  The most that can be said is that they
+proved themselves worthy to fight in line with them.
+After being exposed for several hours to heavy shellfire,
+it was no light task for any troops to be called
+upon to resist a direct assault.  From nine in the
+evening of October 31 to two in the morning, under
+the red glare of burning houses, Colonel Malcolm's
+Scottish and Colonel Annesley's Carbineers held back
+the Bavarian advance, an advance which would have
+meant the piercing of the British line.  At two o'clock
+the Bavarians in greatly predominant force were all
+round the Scots, and even the reserve companies
+found work for their bayonets, preventing the enemy
+from encircling their companions.  The losses were
+very heavy&mdash;400 men and 9 officers, including their
+gallant doctor, M'Nab, who was villainously stabbed as
+he bandaged a patient.  In spite of the great pressure,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P285"></a>285}</span>
+the ground was held all night, and it was not till
+dawn, when the regiment found that it was outflanked
+on both sides and nearly surrounded, that, under
+cover of the fire of E Battery R.H.A., it fell back.
+The Carbineers and the Scots were close together, and
+the Germans, with their usual quick ingenuity,
+approached the former with a cry of "We are the London
+Scots."  A disaster might have occurred in the
+darkness but for the quickness and bravery of a young
+officer, Lieutenant Hope Hawkins, who rushed
+forward, discovered the identity of the Germans, and
+fell, riddled with bullets, even while he gave warning
+to his comrades.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Germans had won the ridge, but the British
+line was still intact and growing stronger every hour.
+The village was held by the Scots Borderers and
+Yorkshiremen until nearly ten o'clock, when they
+were ordered to fall back and help to man the new
+line.  The shock had been a rude one, but the
+danger-hour was past here as in the north.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fateful November 1 had come and gone.  The
+villages of Messines and Wytschaete were, it is true,
+in German hands, but French reinforcements of the
+Sixteenth Corps were streaming up from the south,
+the line, though torn and broken, still held firm, and
+the road to Calais was for ever blocked.  There was
+still pressure, and on November 2 the 11th Hussars
+were badly cut up by shell-fire, but the line was
+impregnable.  Sir John French summed up in a few
+terse words the true meaning of the operations just
+described, when he said afterwards, in addressing the
+9th Lancers, "Particularly I would refer to the
+period, October 31, when for forty-eight hours the
+Cavalry Corps held at bay two German army corps.
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P286"></a>286}</span>
+During this period you were supported by only three
+or four battalions, shattered and worn by previous
+fighting, and in so doing you rendered inestimable
+service."  There have been few episodes in the war
+which have been at the same time so splendid and
+so absolutely vital.  The First Cavalry Division
+lost 50 per cent of its numbers between October
+30 and November 2, and the Second Division was
+hardly in better case, but never did men give
+their lives to better purpose.  Their heroism saved
+the Army.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Rally to the north.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile the current of operations was evidently
+running strongly towards the northern end of the
+British line, where help was badly needed, as Haig's
+men had been fought almost to exhaustion.  There
+was no British reinforcement available save only
+the weary Second Corps, the remains of which from
+this date began to be drafted northwards.  It was
+already known that the German Emperor had
+appeared in person in that region, and that a great
+concentration of his troops was taking place.  At the
+same time the French were making splendid exertions
+in order to stiffen their own line and help us in those
+parts, like Messines, Wytschaete, and Ploegsteert,
+where the attack was most formidable.  It was a
+great gathering towards the north, and clearly some
+hard blows were to be struck.  Northwards then went
+General Morland, of the Fifth Division, taking with
+him four more weak battalions.  The whole line had
+moved upwards towards the danger spot, and these
+troops now found themselves east of Bailleul, close to
+the village of Neuve Eglise.  For the moment General
+Smith-Dorrien was without an army, for half his men
+were now supporting General Willcocks in the south
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P287"></a>287}</span>
+and half General Allenby or General Haig in the north.
+The British leaders all along the line were, as usual,
+desperately endeavouring to make one man do the
+work of three, but they were buoyed up by the
+knowledge that good Father Joffre, like some beneficent
+earthly Providence, was watching over them from the
+distance, and that fresh trainfuls of his brave little
+men were ever steaming into the danger zone.  Day
+by day the line was thickening and the task of the
+Kaiser becoming more difficult.  It was hoped that
+the crisis was past.  If our troops were exhausted
+so also, it was thought, were those of the enemy.  We
+could feel elated by the knowledge that we had held
+our ground, while they could hardly fail to be
+depressed by the reflection that they had made little
+progress in spite of so many heroic efforts, and that
+Calais was as far from them as ever.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The narrative must now return to the defenders
+of the Ypres approaches, who were left in a state of
+extreme exhaustion by the critical action of October
+31.  On November 1 the First Corps was not in a
+condition to do more than to hold its line.  This line
+was now near to Veldhoek, to the west of Gheluvelt
+village, and to that extent the Germans had profited
+by their desperate fighting, but this was a detail of
+small consequence so long as an unbroken British
+Army covered the town that was still the objective
+of the enemy.  The Ninth French Corps to the north
+of the British had lost heavily, but to the south of the
+canal lay the Sixteenth French Corps, which was in
+comparatively good condition.  This corps now made
+an advance to take some of the pressure off the British
+line, while Moussy's regiments to the north of the
+canal were to co-operate with Bulfin's men upon their
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P288"></a>288}</span>
+left.  Upon the left of Bulfin's 2nd Brigade were two
+battalions of the 4th Brigade of Guards.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of these battalions had a terrible experience
+upon this morning.  For some reason the trenches of
+the Irish Guards were exposed to an enfilading fire
+from the high explosives of the Germans, which
+wrought even more than their customary damage.
+For hours the Guardsmen lay under a terrific fire, to
+which they could make no reply, and from which they
+could obtain no protection.  When at last, in the
+afternoon, they were compelled to fall back, their
+losses had been great, including their colonel, Lord
+Ardee, 7 other officers, and over 300 men.  It is the
+hard fate of the side which is weaker in artillery to
+endure such buffetings with no possibility of return.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The French attack of the Sixteenth Corps had
+been brought to a speedy standstill, and a severe
+counter-attack, preceded by a heavy shell-fire, had
+fallen upon General Moussy's men and upon the half
+of the 2nd Brigade.  Help was urgently needed,
+so the remains of the 7th Brigade from the Third
+Cavalry Division were hurried forward.  The Germans
+were now surging up against the whole right and
+right-centre of the line.  It seems to have been their
+system to attack upon alternate days on the right
+and on the centre, for it will be remembered that it
+was on October 29 that they gained the Gheluvelt
+cross-roads, and on October 31 Gheluvelt village,
+both in the centre, while on October 30 they captured
+the Zandvoorde ridge upon the British right, and
+now, on November 1, were pressing hard upon the
+right once more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That morning the Army sustained a loss in the
+person of General Bulfin, who was wounded in the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P289"></a>289}</span>
+head by shrapnel.  Fortunately his recovery was not
+a lengthy one, and he was able to return in January
+as commander of the Twenty-eighth Division.  Upon
+his fall, Lord Cavan, of the 4th Brigade, took over the
+command upon the hard-pressed right wing.  At
+half-past one the hundred survivors of the 2nd Gordons,
+on the right of the Seventh Division, and the 2nd
+Oxford and Bucks, were desperately hard pressed by
+a strong German infantry advance, and so were the
+remains of the Sussex and Northamptons.  The only
+available help lay in the 23rd Field Company of
+Royal Engineers.  Our sappers proved, as they have
+so often done before, that their hearts are as sound
+as their heads.  They pushed off the enemy, but
+incurred heavy losses.  The situation was still critical
+when at the summons of Lord Cavan the 2nd
+Grenadiers advanced and cleared the Germans from
+the woods in the front and flank, while the 10th
+Hussars supported their advance.  A gap had been
+left in the trenches from which the Irish Guards had
+been pushed, but this was now filled up by cavalry,
+who connected up with the French on their right
+and with the Guards upon their left.  The general
+effect of the whole day's fighting was to drive the
+British line farther westward, but to contract it, so
+that it required a smaller force.  Two battalions&mdash;the
+Gordons and the Sussex&mdash;could be taken out and
+brought into reserve.  The centre of the line had a
+day's rest and dug itself into its new positions, but
+the units were greatly mixed and confused.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+November 2 brought no surcease from the constant
+fighting, though the disturbance of these days,
+severe as it was, may be looked upon as a mere ground
+swell after the terrific storm of the last days of October.
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P290"></a>290}</span>
+On the morning of the 2nd the Ninth French Corps
+upon the British left, under General Vidal, sent eight
+battalions forward to the south and east in the direction
+of Gheluvelt.  Part of this village was actually
+occupied by them.  The Germans meanwhile, with
+their usual courage and energy, were driving a fresh
+attack down that Menin road which had so often been
+reddened by their blood.  It was the day for a centre
+attack on their stereotyped system of alternate
+pushes, and it came duly to hand.  An initial success
+awaited them as, getting round a trench occupied by
+the Rifles, they succeeded in cutting off a number of
+them.  The 3rd Brigade was hurried up by General
+Landon to the point of danger, and a French Zouave
+regiment helped to restore the situation.  A spirited
+bayonet charge, in which the Gloucesters led, was
+beaten back by the enemy's fire.  After a day of
+confused and desultory fighting the situation in the
+evening was very much as it had been in the morning.
+Both that night and the next day there was a series
+of local and sporadic attacks, first on the front of the
+Second Division and then of the Seventh, all of which
+were driven back.  The Germans began to show
+their despair of ever gaining possession of Ypres by
+elevating their guns and dropping shells upon the old
+Cloth Hall of that historic city, a senseless act of
+spiteful vandalism which exactly corresponds with their
+action when the Allied Army held them in front of
+Rheims.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+November 4 was a day of menaces rather than of
+attacks.  On this day, units which had become
+greatly mixed during the incessant and confused
+fighting of the last fortnight were rearranged and
+counted.  The losses were terrible.  The actual
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P291"></a>291}</span>
+strength of the infantry of the First Division upon
+that date was: 1st Brigade, 22 officers, 1206 men;
+2nd Brigade, 43 officers, 1315 men: 3rd Brigade,
+27 officers, 970 men; which make the losses of the
+whole division about 75 per cent.  Those of the
+Second Division were very little lighter.  And now
+for the 25 per cent remainder of this gallant corps
+there was not a moment of breathing space or rest,
+but yet another fortnight of unremitting work,
+during which their thin ranks were destined to hold
+the German army, and even the Emperor's own
+Guard, from passing the few short miles which
+separated them from their objective.  Great was the
+"will to conquer" of the Kaiser's troops, but greater
+still the iron resolve not to be conquered which
+hardened the war-worn lines of the soldiers of the
+King.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Terrible losses.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+November 5 was a day of incessant shell-fire,
+from which the Seventh Division, the 4th and the
+6th Brigades were the chief sufferers.  On this day
+the Seventh Division, which had now been reduced
+from 12,000 infantry to 2333, was withdrawn from the
+line.  In their place were substituted those
+reinforcements from the south which have already been
+mentioned.  These consisted of eleven battalions of
+the Second Corps under General McCracken; this
+corps, however, was greatly worn, and the eleven
+battalions only represented 3500 rifles.  The Seventh
+Division was withdrawn to Bailleul in the south, but
+Lawford's 22nd Brigade was retained in corps reserve,
+and was destined to have one more trial before it
+could be spared for rest.  The day was memorable
+also for a vigorous advance of the Gloucester Regiment,
+which was pushed with such hardihood that they
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P292"></a>292}</span>
+sustained losses of nearly half their numbers before
+admitting that they could not gain their objective.
+A description has been given here of the events of
+the north of the line and of the cavalry positions, but
+it is not to be supposed that peace reigned on the
+south of this point.  On the contrary, during the
+whole period under discussion, while the great fight
+raged at Ypres, there had been constant shelling and
+occasional advances against the Third Corps in the
+Armentières section, and also against the Indians
+and the Second Corps down to the La Bassée Canal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The most serious of these occurred upon November
+9.  Upon this date the Germans, who had knocked
+so loudly at Messines and at Wytschaete without
+finding that any opening through our lines was open
+to them, thought that they might find better luck at
+Ploegsteert, which is a village on the same line as the
+other two.  Wytschaete is to the north, Messines in
+the middle, and Ploegsteert in the south, each on the
+main road from Ypres to Armentières, with about
+four miles interval between each.  The German
+attack was a very strong one, but the hundredfold
+drama was played once more.  On the 3rd Worcesters
+fell the brunt, and no more solid fighters have been
+found in the Army than those Midland men from
+the very heart of England.  A temporary set-back
+was retrieved and the line restored.  Major Milward,
+of the Worcesters, a very gallant officer, was grievously
+wounded in this affair.  The counter-attack which
+restored the situation was carried out mainly by the
+1st East Lancashires, who lost Major Lambert and
+a number of men in the venture.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Action of Zillebeke.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Upon November 6, about 2 P.M., a strong German
+advance drove in those French troops who were on
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P293"></a>293}</span>
+the right of Lord Cavan's Brigade&mdash;4th&mdash;which
+occupied the extreme right of Haig's position.
+point was between Klein Zillebeke and the canal,
+where a German lodgment would have been most
+serious.  The retirement of the French exposed the
+right flank of the 1st Irish Guards.  This flank was
+strongly attacked, and for the second time in a week
+this brave regiment endured very heavy losses.
+No. 2 company was driven back to the support
+trenches, and No. 1 company, being isolated, was
+destroyed.  Their neighbours on the left, the 2nd
+Grenadiers stood fast, but a great and dangerous
+alley-way was left for the Germans round the British
+right wing.  The situation was splendidly saved by
+Kavanagh's 7th Cavalry Brigade, who galloped
+furiously down the road to the place where they were
+so badly needed.  This hard-worked <i>corps d'élite</i>,
+consisting of the 1st and 2nd Life Guards supported
+by the Blues, now dismounted and flung themselves
+into the gap, a grimy line of weather-stained infantry
+with nothing left save their giant physique and their
+spurs to recall the men who are the pride of our London
+streets.  The retiring French rallied at the sight of the
+sons of Anak.  An instant later the Germans were into
+them, and there was a terrific <i>mêlée</i> of British, French,
+and Prussians, which swung and swayed over the
+marshland and across the road.  Men drove their
+bayonets through each other or fired point-blank
+into each other's bodies in a most desperate fight,
+the Germans slowly but surely recoiling, until at last
+they broke.  It was this prompt and vigorous stroke
+by Kavanagh's Brigade which saved a delicate situation.
+Of the three cavalry regiments engaged, two
+lost their colonels&mdash;Wilson of the Blues and Dawnay
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P294"></a>294}</span>
+of the 2nd Life Guards.  Sixteen officers fell in half
+an hour.  The losses in rank and file were also heavy,
+but the results were great and indeed vital.  The
+whole performance was an extraordinarily fine one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Record of the Seventh Division.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Early on the morning of November 7 Lawford's
+22nd Brigade, which was now reduced to 1100 men,
+with 7 officers, was called upon to retake a line of
+trenches which the enemy had wrested from a
+neighbouring unit.  Unbroken in nerve or spirit by their
+own terrific losses, they rushed forward, led by Lawford
+himself, a cudgel in his hand, carried the trench,
+captured three machine-guns, held the trench till
+evening, and then retired for a time from the line.
+Captains Vallentin and Alleyne, who led the two
+regiments into which the skeleton brigade had been
+divided, both fell in this feat of arms.  After this
+action there remained standing the brigadier, 3
+officers, and 700 men.  The losses of the brigade work
+out at 97 per cent of the officers and 80 per cent of the
+men, figures which can seldom have been matched in
+the warfare of any age, and yet were little in excess
+of the other brigades, as is shown by the fact that
+the whole division on November 7 numbered 44
+officers and 2336 men.  It is true that many British
+regiments found themselves in this campaign with
+not one single officer or man left who had started
+from England, but these were usually the effects of
+months of campaigning.  In the case of the Seventh
+Division, all these deadly losses had been sustained
+in less than three weeks.  Britain's soldiers have
+indeed been faithful to the death.  Their record is
+the last word in endurance and military virtue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The division was now finally withdrawn from the
+fighting line.  It has already been stated that there
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P295"></a>295}</span>
+were reasons which made its units exceptionally fine
+ones.  In General Capper they possessed a leader of
+enormous energy and fire, whilst his three
+brigadiers&mdash;Watts, Lawford, and Ruggles-Brise&mdash;could not be
+surpassed by any in the Army.  Yet with every
+advantage of officers and men there will always be
+wonder as well as admiration for what they
+accomplished.  For three days, before the First Corps had
+come thoroughly into line, they held up the whole
+German advance, leaving the impression upon the
+enemy that they were faced by two army corps.
+Then for twelve more days they held the ground in
+the very storm-centre of the attack upon Ypres.
+When at last the survivors staggered from the line,
+they had made a name which will never die.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Situation at Ypres.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The bulk of Smith-Dorrien's Corps had now been
+brought north, so that from this date (November 7)
+onwards the story of the First and Second Corps is
+intimately connected.  When we last saw this corps
+it will be remembered that it had been withdrawn
+from the front, having lost some twelve thousand
+men in three weeks of La Bassée operations, and that
+the Indian Corps had taken over their line of trenches.
+Such fighting men could not, however, be spared in
+the midst of such a fight.  The hospital was the only
+rest that any British soldier could be afforded.  Whilst
+they had still strength to stand they must line up
+to the German flood or be content to see it thunder
+past them to the coast.  They were brought north,
+save only Bowes' 8th Brigade and Maude's 14th,
+which remained with the Indians in the south.
+Although the Seventh Division had been drawn out
+of the line, its attendant cavalry division still
+remained to give its very efficient help to General Haig.
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P296"></a>296}</span>
+The British position, though by no means secure,
+was getting stronger day by day, for General d'Urbal
+of the Eighth French Army to the north, and General
+Maud'huy to the south, had both been strongly
+reinforced, and with their usual good comradeship did
+all they could to strengthen the flanks and shorten
+the front of the British line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The men of the Second Corps who had come north
+from the La Bassée district were not left long
+unmolested in their new sphere of operations.  On the
+afternoon of November 7 there was a hot German
+attack upon that portion of the line which had just
+been vacated by the Seventh Division.  The trenches
+were now held by the Fifth Division (Morland's).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The enemy may have hoped for some advantage
+from a change which they may well have observed,
+but they found that, though the units might be
+different, the same old breed still barred their path.
+On this occasion, after the early rush had spent itself
+upon the 1st Lincolns, it was the 2nd West Ridings
+who led the counter-charge.  The line, however, was
+never fully re-established.  A number of smaller
+attacks broke upon the front of the Second Division
+on the same day, leaving a few score of prisoners
+behind them as they ebbed.  On the same day,
+November 7, the enemy got into the trenches of the
+2nd Highland Light Infantry and remained in them,
+for all of them were bayoneted or taken.  Upon this
+day the London Scottish were brought up into the
+Ypres line&mdash;a sign, if one were needed, that after the
+action described they were accepted as the peers of
+their comrades of the Regular Army, for no empty
+compliments are passed when the breaking of a unit
+may mean the enfilading of a line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P297"></a>297}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+November 8 was a quiet day, but it was well
+known from every report of spy, scout, and aeroplane
+to be the lull before the storm.  One German brigade
+came down the Menin road, and went up it again
+leaving a hundred dead on or beside the causeway.
+This attack inflicted some loss upon the 1st North
+Lancashires and on the 1st Scots Guards.  The 1st
+Bedfords captured a trench that night.  The 9th
+and the 10th were uneventful, and the tired troops
+rested on their arms, though never free for an hour
+from the endless pelting of shells.  To the north and
+east the Eagles were known to be gathering.  There
+were the Emperor, the Emperor's Guard, and a great
+fresh battle of the Germans ready for one grand final
+dash for Calais, with every rifle in the firing line and
+every cannon to support it.  Grave messages came
+from headquarters, warning words were passed to
+anxious brigadiers, who took counsel with their
+colonels as to fire-fields and supports.  Batteries were
+redistributed, depleted limbers refilled, and
+observation posts pushed to the front, while the untiring
+sappers gave the last touches to traverse and to
+trench.  All was ready for the fray.  So close were
+the lines that at many points the conversations of
+the enemy could be heard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Attack of the Prussian Guard.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Germans had already concentrated a large
+number of troops against this part of the British line,
+and they were now secretly reinforced by a division
+of the Prussian Guard.  Documents found afterwards
+upon the dead show that the Guard had had special
+orders from the Emperor to break the line at all costs.
+The brigades which attacked were made up of the
+1st and 2nd Foot Guards, the Kaiser Franz Grenadiers
+No. 2, the Königin Augusta Grenadiers No. 4, and
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P298"></a>298}</span>
+the battalion of Garde Jäger&mdash;13,000 men in all.
+It was to be victory or death with the <i>corps d'élite</i>
+of the German army, but it was no less victory or
+death with the men who opposed them.  After an
+artillery preparation of appalling intensity for three
+hours along the line of both the First and Second
+Divisions, the infantry advance began about 9.30
+on the morning of November 11 amid a storm of wind
+and rain.  They are gregarious fighters, the Germans,
+finding comfort and strength in the rush of serried
+ranks.  Even now the advance was made in a close
+formation, but it was carried out with magnificent
+dash, amazing valour, and a pedantic precision which
+caused, for example, the leading officers to hold their
+swords at the carry.  The Prussian Guardsmen
+seemed to have lost nothing, and also to have learned
+nothing, since their famous predecessors lay dead in
+their ranks before St. Privat, forty-four years before.
+The attack was directed against the front of the two
+divisions of the First British Army Corps, but
+especially on the 1st Brigade, so that Guardsman faced
+Guardsman, as at Fontenoy.  There were none of
+the chivalrous greetings of 1745, however, and a
+stern hatred hardened the hearts of either side.  The
+German Guard charged on the north of the Menin
+road, while a second advance by troops of the line
+was made upon the south, which withered away
+before the British fire.  Nothing could stop the
+Guards, however.  With trenches blazing and
+crackling upon their flank, for the advance was somewhat
+diagonal, they poured over the British position and
+penetrated it at three different points where the
+heavy shells had overwhelmed the trenches and
+buried the occupants, who, in some cases, were
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P299"></a>299}</span>
+bayoneted as they struggled out from under the earth.
+It was a terrific moment.  The yells of the stormers
+and the shrill whistles of their officers rose above the
+crash of the musketry-fire and roar of the guns.  The
+British fought in their customary earnest silence,
+save for the short, sharp directions of their leaders.
+"They did not seem angry&mdash;only business-like," said
+a hostile observer.  The troops to the immediate
+north of the Menin road, who had been shelled out
+of their trenches by the bombardment, were forced
+back and brushed aside into the woods to the north,
+while the Germans poured through the gap.  The
+4th Royal Fusiliers of the 9th Brigade, upon the right
+of the point where the enemy had penetrated, were
+enfiladed and lost their gallant colonel, MacMahon, a
+soldier who had done great service from the day of
+Mons, and had just been appointed to a brigade.
+The regiment, which has worked as hard and endured
+as great losses as any in the campaign, was reduced
+to 2 officers and 100 men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The German Guard poured on into the woods
+which lay in the immediate rear of the British position,
+but their formation was broken and the individualism
+of the Briton began to tell.  Next to MacMahon's
+regiment lay the 1st Scots Fusiliers, sister battalion
+to that which had been destroyed upon October 31.
+With fierce joy they poured volleys into the flank of
+the Guard as the grey figures rushed past them into
+the woods.  Four hundred dead Germans were
+afterwards picked out from the underwood at this
+point.  The Scots Fusiliers were also hard hit by the
+German fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this period the Germans who had come through
+the line had skirted the south of a large wood of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P300"></a>300}</span>
+half-grown trees, called the Polygon Wood, and
+had advanced into the farther one, named
+Nonnebusch.  At this point they were close to the
+British artillery, which they threatened to overwhelm.
+The 41st Brigade R.F.A., and especially the 16th
+Field Battery, were in the immediate line of their
+advance, and the gunners looking up saw the grey
+uniforms advancing amid the trees.  Colonel Lushington,
+who commanded the artillery brigade, hurriedly
+formed up a firing line under his adjutant, composed
+partly of his own spare gunners and partly of a
+number of Engineers, reinforced by cooks, officers'
+servants, and other odd hands who are to be found
+in the rear of the army, but seldom expect to find
+themselves in the van of the fight.  It was a somewhat
+grotesque array, but it filled the gap and brought the
+advance to a halt, though the leading Germans were
+picked up afterwards within seventy yards of the guns.
+Whilst the position was critical at this point of
+the front, it was no less so upon the extreme right,
+where the French detachment, who still formed a
+link between the canal on the south and the British
+right flank, were shelled out of their trenches and
+driven back.  Lord Cavan's 4th Brigade, their nearest
+neighbours, were too hard pressed to be able to help
+them.  To the north of the Menin road a number of
+British units were intact, and these held up the
+German flood in that region.  There are two considerable
+woods&mdash;the Polygon to the north and the Nonnebusch
+to the south-west of the Polygon&mdash;the edges
+of which have defined the British position, while
+their depths have harboured their artillery.  Now
+the 1st King's Liverpool Regiment held firm to the
+south of the Polygon Wood, while north of them were
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P301"></a>301}</span>
+the 2nd Highland Light Infantry, with a field company
+of Engineers.  Farther to the south-west were the
+1st Connaught Rangers, while on the other side of
+the Nonnebusch road was the 7th Cavalry Brigade.
+In the afternoon of this day the enemy, skirting the
+south of the Polygon Wood, had actually entered the
+Nonnebusch Wood, in which it faced the artillery
+as already described.  In the Polygon Wood, when
+they penetrated the trenches of the 1st Brigade, they
+had the King's Liverpool Regiment on their right,
+which refused to move, so that for a long time the
+Prussian Guard and the King's lay side by side with
+a traverse between them.  "Our right is supported
+by the Prussian Guard," said the humorous adjutant
+of the famous Lancashire regiment.  While the main
+body of the Guard passed on, some remained all day
+in this trench.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The German Guardsmen had been prevented from
+submerging the 41st Brigade of Artillery, and also the
+35th Heavy Battery, by the resistance of an
+improvised firing line.  But a more substantial defence
+was at hand.  The 2nd Oxford and Bucks Light
+Infantry, which had been in divisional reserve near
+Ypres, had been brought forward and found itself
+at Westhoek, near the threatened guns.  This regiment
+is the old 52nd, of the Peninsular Light Division,
+a famous corps which threw itself upon the flank of
+Napoleon's Guard at Waterloo and broke it in the
+crisis of the battle.  Once again within a century an
+Imperial Guard was to recoil before its disciplined
+rush.  Under Colonel Davies the regiment swept
+through the wood from north-west to south-east,
+driving the Germans, who had already been badly
+shaken by the artillery fire, in a headlong rout.
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P302"></a>302}</span>
+Many threw down their arms.  The loss to the
+Oxfords was surprisingly small, well under fifty in
+all.  As they emerged from the wood they were
+joined by some of the 1st Northamptons from the
+2nd Brigade upon the right, while on the left there
+was a rush of Connaughts and Highland Light
+Infantry from their own (Haking's) brigade and of
+Engineers of the 25th Field Company, who showed
+extraordinary initiative and gallantry, pushing on
+rapidly, and losing all their officers save one and a
+number of their men without flinching for an instant.
+A party of the Gloucesters, too, charged with the
+Northamptons upon the right, for by this time units
+were badly mixed up, as will always happen in
+woodland fighting.  "It was all a confused nightmare,"
+said one who tried to control it.  The line
+of infantry dashed forward, a company of the Oxfords
+under Captain H. M. Dillon in the lead, and the khaki
+wave broke over a line of trenches which the Germans
+had taken, submerging all the occupants.  There
+was another line in front, but as the victorious
+infantry pushed forward to this it was struck in the
+flank by a fire from French batteries, which had
+been unable to believe that so much progress could
+have been made in so short a time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was now nearly dark, and the troops were in
+the last stage of exhaustion.  Of the 1st Brigade
+something less than 400 with 4 officers could be
+collected.  It was impossible to do more than hold
+the line as it then existed.  Two brave attempts
+were made in the darkness to win back the original
+front trenches, but it could not be done, for there
+were no men to do it.  Save for one small corner of
+the Polygon Wood, the Germans had been completely
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P303"></a>303}</span>
+cleared out from the main position.  At twelve and
+at four, during the night, the British made a forward
+movement to regain the advanced trenches, but in
+each case the advance could make no progress.  At
+the very beginning of the second attempt General
+FitzClarence, commanding the 1st Brigade, was
+killed, and the movement fizzled out.  Besides
+General FitzClarence, the Army sustained a severe
+loss in General Shaw of the 9th Brigade, who was
+struck by a shell splinter, though happily the wound
+was not mortal.  The German losses were exceedingly
+severe: 700 of their dead were picked up within a
+single section of the British line, but the main loss
+was probably sustained in the advance before they
+reached the trenches.  Killed, wounded, and prisoners,
+their casualties cannot have been less than 10,000
+men.[<a id="chap09fn1text"></a><a href="#chap09fn1">1</a>]  It was a fine attack, bravely delivered by
+fresh troops against weary men, but it showed the
+German leaders once for all that it was impossible
+to force a passage through the lines.  The Emperor's
+Guard, driven on by the Emperor's own personal
+impetus, had recoiled broken, even as the Guard of
+a greater Emperor had done a century before from
+the indomitable resistance of the British infantry.
+The constant fighting had reduced British brigades
+to the strength of battalions, battalions to companies,
+and companies to weak platoons, but the position
+was still held.  They had, it is true, lost about five
+hundred yards of ground in the battle, but a shorter
+line was at once dug, organised, and manned.  The
+barrier to Ypres was as strong as ever.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+<a id="chap09fn1"></a>
+[<a href="#chap09fn1text">1</a>] The German returns for the Guard alone
+at this battle are reported
+at 1170 dead, 3991 wounded, 1719 missing.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+The strain upon the men, however, had been
+terrific.  "Bearded, unwashed, sometimes plagued
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P304"></a>304}</span>
+with vermin, the few who remained in the front line
+were a terrible crew," says the American, Coleman.
+"They were like fierce, wild beasts," says another
+observer.  They had given their all, almost to their
+humanity, to save Britain.  May the day never come
+when Britain will refuse to save them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Confused fighting.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Glancing for a moment down the line to the south,
+there had been continuous confused contention during
+this time, but no great attack such as distinguished
+the operations in the north.  Upon November 7 two
+brisk assaults were made by the Germans in the
+Armentières area, one upon the Fourth Division of
+the Third Corps and the other upon the Seaforth
+Highlanders, who were brigaded with the Indians.
+In each case the first German rush carried some
+trenches, and in each the swift return of the British
+regained them.  There were moderate losses upon
+both sides.  On the same date the 13th Infantry
+Brigade lost the services of Colonel Martyn of the
+1st West Kents, who was seriously wounded the
+very day after he had been appointed to a brigade.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This attack upon November 11 represents the
+absolute high-water mark of the German efforts in
+this battle, and the ebb was a rapid one.  Upon
+November 12 and the remainder of the week,
+half-hearted attempts were made upon the British front,
+which were repulsed without difficulty.  To the
+north of the line, where the French had held their
+positions with much the same fluctuations which
+had been experienced by their Allies, the German
+assault was more violent and met with occasional
+success, though it was finally repelled with very
+great loss.  The 14th was to the French what the
+11th had been to the British&mdash;the culmination of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P305"></a>305}</span>
+violence and the prelude of rest.  The weather
+throughout this period was cold and tempestuous,
+which much increased the strain upon the weary
+troops.  Along the whole line from Ypres to Bethune
+there were desultory shellings with an occasional dash
+by one side or the other, which usually ended in
+the capture of a trench and its recapture by the
+supports in the rear.  It was in one of these sporadic
+German attacks in the Klein Zillebeke section that
+the 2nd King's Royal Rifles held their trench against
+heavy odds, and their machine-gun officer, Lieutenant
+Dimmer, thrice wounded and still fighting, won the
+coveted Cross by his valour.  Each gallant advance
+and capture of the Germans was countered by an
+equally gallant counter-attack and recapture by the
+British.  The long line sagged and swayed, but
+never bent or broke.  The era of battles had passed,
+but for thirty miles the skirmishes were incessant.
+So mixed and incessant had been the fighting that
+it was a very difficult task during these days to tidy
+up the line and get each scattered group of men back
+to its own platoon, company, and battalion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On Tuesday, November 17, the fighting suddenly
+assumed a more important character.  The attack
+was again in the Ypres section and fell chiefly upon
+the battalions of the Second Corps, if so dignified a
+name as "battalion" can be given to bodies of men
+which consisted very often of less than a normal
+company, commanded, perhaps, by two junior officers.
+The 4th Brigade of Guards was also heavily engaged
+this day, and so were the cavalry of the Third Division.
+The general locale of the action was the same as that
+which had been so often fought over before, the
+Second Corps being to the south of the Ypres-Menin
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P306"></a>306}</span>
+road, with Lord Cavan's Guardsmen upon their right
+and the cavalry upon the right of the Guards.  After
+a severe shelling there was a serious infantry advance,
+about one o'clock, which took some trenches, but was
+finally driven back and chased for a quarter of a mile.
+McCracken's 7th Brigade bore a chief part in this
+fighting, and the 1st Wiltshires particularly
+distinguished themselves by a fine charge led by Captain
+Cary-Barnard.  The 2nd Grenadiers did great work
+during the day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An even heavier advance was made in the afternoon
+to the south of that which was broken in the morning.
+This involved an oblique advance across the British
+front, which was stopped and destroyed before it
+reached the trenches by the deadly fire of rifles and
+machine-guns.  Over a thousand dead were left as a
+proof of the energy of the attack and the solidity of
+the resistance.  Farther to the south a similar attack
+was beaten back by the cavalry after a preliminary
+shelling in which the 3rd Dragoon Guards suffered
+severely.  This attack was repelled by the Third
+Cavalry Division, to which the Leicestershire and
+North Somerset Yeomanry were now attached.  The
+latter did fine service in this action.  Altogether,
+November 17 was a good day for the British arms
+and a most expensive one for the Germans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+End of the first Battle of Ypres.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We have now reached the end of the Battle of
+Ypres, which attained its maximum fury, so far as
+the British line was concerned, from October 29 to
+November 11.  This great contest raged from the
+sand dunes of the north, where the Belgians fought
+so well, through the French Marine Brigade at
+Dixmude, and the Ninth French Corps, to General Haig's
+Corps, which was buttressed on the right towards
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P307"></a>307}</span>
+the latter part of the battle by the Sixteenth French
+Corps.  Farther south yet another French corps
+supported and eventually took the place of the
+British cavalry opposite the lost villages of Wytschaete
+and Messines.  From there ran the unbroken lines
+of the imperturbable Third Corps, which ended to
+the south in the trenches originally held by the
+Second British Corps, and later by the Indians.
+Across the La Bassée Canal the French once again
+took up the defence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is not an action, therefore, which can be set
+down to the exclusive credit of any one nation.  Our
+Allies fought gloriously, and if their deeds are not set
+down here, it is from want of space and of precise
+information, not from want of appreciation.  But,
+turning to the merely British aspect of the fight&mdash;and
+beyond all doubt the heavier share fell upon
+the British, who bore the brunt from the start to the
+end,&mdash;it may be said that the battle lasted a clear
+month, from October 12, when Smith-Dorrien crossed
+the La Bassée Canal, to November 11, when the
+German Guard reeled out of the Nonnebusch Wood.
+We are so near these great events that it is hard to
+get their true proportion, but it is abundantly clear
+that the battle, in its duration, the space covered,
+the numbers engaged, and the losses endured, was
+far the greatest ever fought up to that time by a
+British Army.  At Waterloo the losses were under
+10,000.  In this great fight they were little short of
+50,000.  The fact that the enemy did not recoil and
+that there was no sensational capture of prisoners and
+guns has obscured the completeness of the victory.
+In these days of nations in arms a beaten army is
+buttressed up or reabsorbed by the huge forces of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P308"></a>308}</span>
+which it is part.  One judges victory or defeat by
+the question whether an army has or has not reached
+its objective.  In this particular case, taking a broad
+view of the whole action, a German force of at least
+600,000 men set forth to reach the coast, and was
+opposed by a force of less than half its numbers who
+barred its way.  The Germans did not advance five
+miles in a month of fighting, and they lost not less
+than 150,000 men without any military advantage
+whatever, for the possession of such villages as
+Gheluvelt, Wytschaete, or Messines availed them
+not at all.  If this is not a great victory, I do not
+know what military achievement would deserve the
+term.  Ypres was a Plevna&mdash;but a Plevna which
+remained for ever untaken.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Death of Lord Roberts.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On November 15 Lord Roberts died whilst visiting
+the Army, having such an end as he would have
+chosen, within earshot of the guns and within the
+lines of those Indian soldiers whom he loved and had
+so often led.  The last words of his greatest speech
+to his fellow-countrymen before the outbreak of that
+war which he had foreseen, and for which he had
+incessantly tried to prepare, were that they should
+quit themselves like men.  He lived to see them do
+so, and though he was not spared to see the final
+outcome, his spirit must at least have been at rest as
+to the general trend of the campaign.  The tradition
+of his fascinating character, with its knightly qualities
+of gentleness, bravery, and devotion to duty, will
+remain as a national possession.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The Eighth Division.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About this time, though too late for the severe
+fighting, there arrived the Eighth Division, which
+would enable Sir Henry Rawlinson to complete his
+Fourth Corps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P309"></a>309}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Eighth Division was composed as follows:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  DIVISIONAL GENERAL&mdash;General DAVIES.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  23<i>rd Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Penny.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Scots Rifles.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Middlesex.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd West Yorkshires.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Devons.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  24<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Carter.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Worcesters.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd East Lancashires.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Notts and Derby.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Northamptons.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  25<i>th Infantry Brigade&mdash;General Lowry Cole.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Lincolns.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Berkshires.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Irish Rifles.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Rifle Brigade.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;13th London (Kensingtons).<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <i>Artillery.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;5th Brigade R.H.A., G.O.Z.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;45th Brigade R.F.A.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;33rd Brigade R.F.A.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Heavy Batteries 118, 119.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2, 5, F. Cos. R.E.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;8 Signal Co.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Divisional Cavalry.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Northampton Yeomanry.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;8th Cyclists.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+We have now arrived at what may be called the
+great winter lull, when the continuation of active
+operations was made impossible by the weather
+conditions, which were of the most atrocious description.
+It was the season which in a more classic age of
+warfare was spent in comfortable winter quarters.
+There was no such surcease of hardship for the
+contending lines, who were left in their trenches face to
+face, often not more than fifty yards apart, and each
+always keenly alert for any devilry upon the part
+of the other.  The ashes of war were always redly
+smouldering, and sometimes, as will be seen, burst up
+into sudden furious flame.  It was a period of
+rain-storms and of frost-bites, of trench mortars and of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P310"></a>310}</span>
+hand grenades, of weary, muddy, goat-skinned men
+shivering in narrow trenches, and of depleted brigades
+resting and recruiting in the rearward towns.  Such
+was the position at the Front.  But hundreds of miles
+to the westward the real future of the war was being
+fought out in the rifle factories of Birmingham, the
+great gun works of Woolwich, Coventry, Newcastle,
+and Sheffield, the cloth looms of Yorkshire, and the
+boot centres of Northampton.  In these and many
+other places oversea the tools for victory were forged
+night and day through one of the blackest and most
+strenuous winters that Britain has ever known.
+And always on green and waste and common, from
+Cromarty to Brighton, wherever soldiers could find
+billets or a village of log huts could be put together,
+the soldier citizens who were to take up the burden
+of the war, the men of the Territorials and the men
+of the new armies, endured every hardship and
+discomfort without a murmur, whilst they prepared
+themselves for that great and glorious task which
+the future would bring.  Even those who were too
+old or too young for service formed themselves into
+volunteer bands, who armed and clothed themselves
+at their own expense.  This movement, which sprang
+first from the small Sussex village of Crowborough,
+was co-ordinated and controlled by a central body
+of which Lord Desborough was the head.  In spite of
+discouragement, or at the best cold neutrality from
+Government, it increased and prospered until no
+fewer than a quarter of a million of men were mustered
+and ready entirely at their own expense and by
+private enterprise&mdash;one of the most remarkable
+phenomena of the war.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a id="chap10"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">{<a id="P311"></a>311}</span></p>
+
+<h3>
+CHAPTER X
+<br /><br />
+A RETROSPECT AND GENERAL SUMMARY
+</h3>
+
+<p class="t3">
+Position of Italy&mdash;Fall of German colonies&mdash;Sea affairs&mdash;Our Allies.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+There has been no opportunity during this somewhat
+breathless narrative of the great events which will
+ever be associated with the names of Mons, the Marne,
+the Aisne, and Ypres to indicate those factors which
+were influencing the course of the war in other regions.
+They do not come properly within the scope of this
+narrative, nor does the author profess to have any
+special information concerning them, but they
+cannot be absolutely omitted without interfering with
+a correct view of the general situation.  They will
+therefore be briefly summarised in retrospect before
+the reader is carried on into a more particular account
+of the trench warfare of the early winter of 1914.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Position of Italy.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The most important European event at the
+outbreak of the war, outside the movement of the
+combatants, was the secession of Italy from the
+Central Powers on the grounds that her treaty applied
+only to wars of defence whilst this was manifestly
+one of aggression.  Italian statesmen could speak
+with the more decision upon the point since the plot
+had been unfolded before their eyes.  A year
+previously they had been asked to join in an unprovoked
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P312"></a>312}</span>
+attack upon Serbia, and in refusing had given clear
+warning to their allies how such an outrage would
+be viewed.  The Central Powers, however, puffed up
+by their vainglory and by the knowledge of their
+own secret preparations, were persuaded that they
+had ample strength to carry out their intentions
+without aid from their southern ally.  Italy, having
+denounced the treaty, remained a neutral, but it was
+always clear that she would sooner or later throw
+in her strength with those who were at war with
+Austria, her secular enemy.  It was not, however, until
+May 1915 that she was in a position to take a definite
+step.  It should be remembered to her eternal honour
+that the time at which she did eventually come in
+was one which was very overcast for the Allies, and
+that far from fulfilling the cynical German prophecy
+that she would "hasten to the assistance of the
+conqueror," she took grave risks in ranging herself
+upon the side of her Latin sister.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Fall of German colonies.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Upon August 24
+Japan also declared war, and by November 7 had
+completed her share of the common task, for Tsingtau,
+the only German colony in Eastern Asia, was captured
+by a Japanese expeditionary force aided by a British
+contingent.  Already the vast Colonial erection of
+Germany, those numerous places in the sun which
+she had annexed all over the globe, were beginning
+to crumble.  The little Togoland colony fell upon
+August 26.  New Zealand took over German Samoa
+upon August 31.  The Australians occupied the
+Bismarck Archipelago upon September 7, and New
+Guinea upon the 25th.  These smaller twigs were
+easily lopped, but the main boughs were made of
+tougher stuff.  A premature attack upon German
+East Africa by an expeditionary force from India
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P313"></a>313}</span>
+met with a severe check immediately after landing.
+In South Africa the Germans succeeded in blowing
+into a small flame the smouldering ashes of the old
+Boer War.  De Wet and others broke their oaths and
+took up arms, but the majority remained splendidly
+loyal, and by the beginning of December Botha had
+brought the insurrection to an end, and was able
+henceforth to devote his grand powers of leadership
+and organisation to the extinction of the enemy's
+south-western colony.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Sea affairs.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A word, too, about sea affairs before we turn to the
+further detailed account of the British winter upon
+the Continent.  In good time the Fleet had been
+ordered to her war-stations at the north and east of
+Scotland, with the result that German ocean
+commerce was brought to an immediate and absolute
+stop.  The German ships <i>Goeben</i> and <i>Breslau</i>, which
+were cut off at the outbreak of the war in the
+Mediterranean, succeeded in a very clever fashion in
+reaching the Dardanelles and safety.  Having taken
+refuge at Constantinople, these ships played a
+prominent part in determining Turkey to take action
+against the Allies on October 31, a most disastrous
+decision both for Turkey, which met her ruin, and
+for the Allies, who found their task greatly increased
+through the excellent fighting power of the Turkish
+forces.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A brisk action was fought upon August 28 in
+the Heligoland Bight, when Admiral Beatty with
+his cruiser-squadron and a number of light craft
+visited the enemy in his own waters, sinking three
+German warships and sustaining no losses himself.
+Among the prisoners was the son of Chief Admiral
+Von Tirpitz.  Numerous minor actions led to no
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P314"></a>314}</span>
+noteworthy result, but the power of the submarine,
+already prophesied before the war, speedily made itself
+manifest.  Several small British cruisers were destroyed
+by these craft, and finally a considerable disaster
+occurred through the sinking of the three cruisers,
+<i>Hogue</i>, <i>Aboukir</i>, and <i>Cressy</i>, upon September 22.
+This dashing and cool-headed exploit was brought
+off by a young lieutenant named Weddigen.  Much
+as we suffered from his action, it was recognised in
+Britain as having been a remarkable deed of arms
+upon a very different plane to those execrable murders
+of civilians with which the German submarine service
+was afterwards associated.  Some months later
+Weddigen's submarine rose amongst the Grand Fleet
+whilst it was in motion, and was rammed and
+destroyed by the <i>Dreadnought</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The outbreak of war had seen a considerable
+number of German cruisers at large, and these would
+undoubtedly have been strongly reinforced had it
+not been for the speed with which the British Fleet
+took up its war-stations.  As it was, the amount of
+damage to commerce was not serious, and by the
+New Year all the wanderers had been rounded up.
+The most successful raider was the <i>Emden</i>, under
+Captain Müller, which captured and destroyed
+numerous British merchant-ships, bombarded the Madras
+gas-works, and sank by a surprise attack a small
+Russian cruiser and a French destroyer before it was
+finally cornered and sunk by the Australian cruiser
+<i>Sydney</i> off Cocos Island upon November 10.  Captain
+Muller, though forced by circumstances to adopt
+certain measures not recognised in honourable naval
+warfare, behaved on the whole in the manner which
+one associates with the term naval officer.  The
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P315"></a>315}</span>
+<i>Karlsruhe</i> had also considerable success as a naval
+raider, but met her end through an unexplained
+explosion some little time after her consort the
+<i>Emden</i>.  On the whole, the damage inflicted by
+German commerce destroyers was very much less summary.
+than had been anticipated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On November 1, Admiral Craddock's squadron,
+consisting of the <i>Monmouth</i>, the <i>Good Hope</i>, and two
+small vessels, was engaged by a superior squadron
+under Admiral von Spee at Coronel off the coast
+of Chili.  The result was a British defeat, the two
+cruisers being sunk by gun-fire with all hands.  This
+disaster was dramatically revenged, as within six
+weeks, upon December 8, a special cruiser-squadron
+dispatched from England under Admiral Sturdee
+entirely destroyed the fleet of Von Spee in the Battle
+of the Falkland Islands.  The British Fleet was
+considerably stronger, and little credit can be claimed
+save for the admirable strategy which enabled Sturdee
+to find the enemy in that vast waste of waters as
+promptly and directly as if the meeting had been by
+appointment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were no other outstanding naval events
+in 1914 save a raid upon Cuxhaven by aeroplanes,
+escorted by light cruisers, which probably did little
+harm as the weather was misty.  This occurred upon
+Christmas Day 1914.  It had been preceded by an
+attack by German cruisers on December 16 upon
+West Hartlepool, Scarborough, and Whitby.  As the
+two latter towns were open watering-places, and as
+numerous civilians were the victims of the raid, it
+was recognised from this time onwards that the
+German Navy was as little trammelled by international
+law or by the feelings of humanity as the German
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P316"></a>316}</span>
+Army had shown itself to be in France, Belgium, and
+Russia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Our Allies.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The general movement of the French armies has
+been touched upon in recording the experiences of
+the British, for after their glorious victory at the
+Marne and the hold-up at the Aisne, it was at Ypres
+that the real fighting was done, the rest of the long
+line down to the Swiss frontier playing a subsidiary
+part.  The Russians, however, had experienced both
+extremities of fortune, for their victory at Lemberg
+over the Austrians upon September 2 was of a very
+glorious character, while their defeat by the Germans
+at Tannenberg in East Prussia was no less decisive.
+All the events of the outset of the war were inglorious
+for Austria, who received rapidly the punishment
+which she deserved for her wanton disturbance of
+the world's peace.  Apart from the blows which she
+received from Russia, she was severely defeated by
+the Serbians on August 17, and her invading army
+was driven out of the country which she had wronged.
+At the end of the year she had lost the whole of Galicia
+to the Russians, who in turn had been pushed out
+of East Prussia by the German armies under Von
+Hindenburg.  An invasion of Poland by the Germans
+was held up after very severe fighting, failing to
+reach Warsaw, which was its objective.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These were the main incidents of the world's war
+during the months which have been under review.
+As those months passed the terrific nature of the task
+which they had undertaken became more and more
+clear to the British, but further reflection had
+confirmed them in their opinion that the alternative
+course of abandoning their friends and breaking their
+pledge to Belgium was an absolutely unthinkable
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P317"></a>317}</span>
+one, so that however great the trials and sacrifices
+in blood and treasure, they were not further embittered
+by the reflection that they could possibly
+have been avoided.  Very greatly were they cheered
+in that dark hour by the splendid, whole-hearted
+help from India, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand,
+help which was even more valuable from a moral
+than from a material standpoint.  With this brief
+synopsis we will now return to those operations which
+are the proper subject of this volume.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a id="chap11"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">{<a id="P318"></a>318}</span></p>
+
+<h3>
+CHAPTER XI
+<br /><br />
+THE WINTER LULL OF 1914
+</h3>
+
+<p class="intro">
+Increase of the Array&mdash;Formation of the Fifth Corps&mdash;The visit of
+the King&mdash;Third Division at Petit Bois&mdash;The fight at
+Givenchy&mdash;Heavy losses of the Indians&mdash;Fine advance of 1st
+Manchesters&mdash;Advance of the First Division&mdash;Singular scenes
+at Christmas.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+The winter lull may be said to have extended from the
+great combats at Ypres of the middle of November
+1914 to the opening of the spring campaign in March
+1915; but we will only follow it here up to the end of
+the year.  It was a period of alternate rest and discomfort
+for the troops with an ever-present salt of danger.
+For days they found themselves billeted with some
+approach to comfort in the farmhouses and villages
+of Flanders, but such brief intervals of peace were
+broken by the routine of the trenches, when, in mud
+or water with a clay cutting before their faces and
+another at their backs, they waited through the long
+hours, listening to the crack of the sniper's rifle, or
+the crash of the bursting shell, with an indifference
+which bordered upon thankfulness for anything that
+would break the drab monotony of their task.  It was
+a scene of warfare which was new to military
+experience.  The vast plain of battle lay in front of the
+observer as a flat and lonely wilderness, dotted with
+ruined houses from which no homely wreath of smoke
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P319"></a>319}</span>
+rose into the wintry air.  Here and there was an
+untidy litter of wire; here and there also a clump
+of bleak and tattered woodland; but nowhere was
+there any sign of man.  And yet from the elevation
+of an aeroplane it might be seen that the population
+of a large city was lurking upon that motionless waste.
+Everywhere the airman would have distinguished
+the thin brown slits of the advance trenches, the
+broader ditches of the supports and the long zigzags
+of the communications, and he would have detected
+that they were stuffed with men&mdash;grey men and
+khaki, in every weird garment that ingenuity could
+suggest for dryness and for warmth&mdash;all cowering
+within their shelters with the ever-present double
+design of screening themselves and of attacking their
+enemy.  As the German pressure became less, and
+as more regiments of the Territorials began to arrive,
+taking some of the work from their comrades of the
+Regulars, it was possible to mitigate something of the
+discomforts of warfare, to ensure that no regiments
+should be left for too long a period in the trenches,
+and even to arrange for week-end visits to England
+for a certain number of officers and men.  The streets
+of London got a glimpse of rugged, war-hardened
+faces, and of uniforms caked with the brown mud
+of Flanders, or supplemented by strange Robinson
+Crusoe goatskins from the trenches, which brought
+home to the least imaginative the nature and the
+nearness of the struggle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Increase of the Army.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before noting those occasional spasms of
+activity&mdash;epileptic, sometimes, in their sudden
+intensity&mdash;which broke out
+from the German trenches, it may be
+well to take some note of the general development
+of those preparations which meant so much for the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P320"></a>320}</span>
+future.  The Army was growing steadily in strength.
+Not only were the old regiments reinforced by fresh
+drafts, but two new divisions of Regulars were brought
+over before the end of January.  These formed the
+Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Divisions under
+Generals Snow and Bulfin, two officers who had won
+a name in the first phase of the war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Formation of the Fifth Corps.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two Divisions together formed the Fifth Army Corps under
+General Plumer, the officer who had worked so hard
+for the relief of Mafeking in 1900.  The Divisions,
+composed of splendid troops who needed some hardening
+after tropical service, were constituted as
+follows, the list including territorial battalions
+attached, but excluding the artillery as well as the four
+original regular units in each brigade:
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  FIFTH ARMY CORPS<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  GENERAL PLUMER.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  TWENTY-SEVENTH DIVISION.&mdash;General SNOW.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  80<i>th Brigade&mdash;General Fortescue.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Princess Pat. Canadians.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4th Rifle Brigade.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3rd King's Royal Rifles.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4th King's Royal Rifles.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Shrop. Light Infantry.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  81<i>st Brigade&mdash;General MacFarlane.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;9th Royal Scots (T.F.).<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Cameron Highlanders.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Argyll and Sutherlands.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Royal Scots.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Gloucesters.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;9th Argyll and Sutherlands (T.F.).<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  82<i>nd Brigade&mdash;General Longley.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Leinsters.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Royal Irish Fusiliers.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Royal Irish.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Cambridge (T.F.).<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Army Troops, 6th Cheshires.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P321"></a>321}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  TWENTY-EIGHTH DIVISION.&mdash;General BULFIN.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  83<i>rd Brigade&mdash;General Boyle.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd E. Yorkshire.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st King's Own York. Light Infantry.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Yorks. and Lancasters.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Royal Lancasters.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3rd Monmouths (T.F.).<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;5th Royal Lancasters (T.F.).<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  84<i>th Brigade&mdash;General Winter.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Northumberland Fusiliers.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Suffolks.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Welsh.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd Cheshires.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;12th London Rangers (T.F.).<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1st Monmouths (T.F.).<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  85<i>th Brigade&mdash;General Chapman.</i><br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd East Kent.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;2nd East Surrey.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3rd Middlesex.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3rd Royal Fusiliers.<br />
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;8th Middlesex (T.F.).<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p>
+Besides this new Fifth Army Corps, there had
+been a constant dribble of other territorial units to the
+front, where they were incorporated with various
+regular brigades.  The London Scottish, which had
+done so well, was honoured by admission to the 1st
+Brigade of Guards.  The Artists' Rifles, 28th London,
+had the unique distinction of being set aside as an
+officers' training corps, from which officers were
+actually drawn at the rate of a hundred a month.
+The Honourable Artillery Company, brigaded with
+the 7th Brigade, was among the first to arrive.
+Conspicuous among the newcomers were the London
+Rifle Brigade, the 4th Suffolk, the Liverpool Scottish,
+the 5th and 6th Cheshires, the 1st Herts, the 2nd
+Monmouthshires, Queen Victoria Rifles, and Queen's
+Westminsters.  These were among the earlier arrivals,
+though it seems invidious to mention names where
+the spirit of all was equally good.  Among the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P322"></a>322}</span>
+yeomanry, many had already seen considerable
+service&mdash;notably the North and South Irish Horse,
+who had served from the beginning, the Northumberland
+Hussars, the North Somersets, the Oxford
+Hussars, and the Essex Yeomanry.  Most of the
+troops named above shared the discomfort of the
+winter campaign before the great arrival of the new
+armies from England in the spring.  There can be
+no better earned bar upon a medal than that which
+stands for this great effort of endurance against
+nature and man combined.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To take events in their order: beyond numerous
+gallant affairs of outposts, there was no incident of
+importance until the evening of November 23, when
+the Germans, who had seemed stunned for a week or
+so, showed signs of returning animation.  On this day,
+some eight hundred yards of trench held by Indian
+troops in the neighbourhood of Armentières were
+made untenable by the German artillery, especially
+by the <i>minen-werfer</i>&mdash;small mortars which threw
+enormous bombs by an ingenious arrangement whereby
+the actual shell never entered the bore but was
+on the end of a rod outside the muzzle.  Some of
+these terrible missiles, which came through the air as
+slowly as a punted football, were 200 lbs. in weight
+and shattering in their effects.  There was an advance
+of the 112th Regiment of the Fourteenth German
+Corps, and the empty trenches were strongly occupied
+by them&mdash;so strongly that the first attempt to retake
+them was unsuccessful in the face of the rifle and
+machine-gun fire of the defenders.  A second more
+powerful counter-attack was organised by General
+Anderson of the Meerut Division, and this time the
+Germans were swept out of their position and the line
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P323"></a>323}</span>
+re-established.  The fighting lasted all night, and the
+Ghurkas with their formidable knives proved to be
+invaluable for such close work, while a party of
+Engineers with hand-bombs did great execution&mdash;a
+strange combination of the Asiatic with the most
+primitive of weapons and the scientific European
+with the most recent.  It was a substantial victory
+as such affairs go, for the British were left with a
+hundred prisoners, including three officers, three
+machine-guns, and two mortars.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The visit of the King.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first week of December was rendered memorable
+by a visit of the King to the Army.  King
+George reviewed a great number of his devoted
+soldiers, who showed by their fervent enthusiasm that
+one need not be an autocratic War-lord in order to
+command the fierce loyalty of the legions.  After
+this pleasant interlude there followed a succession of
+those smaller exploits which seem so slight in any
+chronicle, and yet collectively do so much to sustain
+the spirit of the Army.  Now this dashing officer,
+now that, attempted some deed upon the German line,
+and never failed to find men to follow him to death.
+On November 24 it was Lieutenant Impey, with a
+handful of 2nd Lincolns; on November 25, Lieutenants
+Ford and Morris with a few Welsh Fusiliers
+and sappers; on November 26, Sir Edward Hulse
+with some Scots Guards; on the same day, Lieutenant
+Durham with men of the 2nd Rifle Brigade&mdash;in each
+case trenches were temporarily won, the enemy was
+damaged, and a spirit of adventure encouraged in the
+trenches.  Sometimes such a venture ended in the
+death of the leader, as in the case of Captain the
+Honourable H. L. Bruce of the Royal Scots.  Such men
+died as the old knights did who rode out betwixt the
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P324"></a>324}</span>
+lines of marshalled armies, loved by their friends and
+admired by their foes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+December 9 was the date of two small actions.
+In the first the 1st Lincolns of the 9th Brigade, which
+had been commanded by Douglas Smith since the
+wounding of General Shaw, made an attack upon the
+wood at Wytschaete which is called Le Petit Bois.  The
+advance was not successful, the three officers who led
+it being all wounded, and forty-four men being hit.
+The attempt was renewed upon a larger scale five days
+later.  The other action was an attack by the enemy
+upon some of the trenches of the Third Corps.  This
+Corps, though it had not come in for the more dramatic
+scenes of the campaign, had done splendid and
+essential work in covering a line of fourteen miles or so
+against incessant attacks of the Germans, who never
+were able to gain any solid advantage.  On this
+occasion the impact fell upon Gordon's 19th Brigade,
+especially upon the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland
+Highlanders and the 1st Middlesex.  It was driven back
+with heavy loss.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Third Division at Petit Bois.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On December 14 the second and more sustained
+effort was made to get possession of the Petit Bois at
+Wytschaete, which had been attacked by the Lincolns
+upon the 9th.  D'Urbal's Eighth French Army was
+co-operating upon the left.  The British attack was
+conducted by Haldane's Third Division, and the actual
+advance was carried out, after a considerable artillery
+preparation from the batteries of two Corps, by
+Bowes' 8th Brigade, with the 2nd Royal Scots and
+the 1st Gordons in the lead.  At 7.45 the guns were
+turned upon the big wood beyond Petit Bois, through
+which the supports might be advancing, and at the
+same hour the two regiments named swarmed forward,
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P325"></a>325}</span>
+the Lowlanders on the left and the Highlanders on
+the right.  The Royal Scots, under Major Duncan,
+carried Petit Bois with a rush, taking fifty prisoners
+and two machine-guns, while the Germans fled out
+at the other end of the wood.  The Scots at once
+entrenched themselves and got their own machine-guns
+into position.  The Gordons, under Major Baird,
+advanced with splendid dash and gained some ground,
+but found the position such that they could not
+entrench upon it, so they were forced to fall back
+eventually to their original position.  Both they and
+the 4th Middlesex, who supported them, lost considerably
+in the affair.  The total casualties in the Petit
+Bois action came to over four hundred, with seventeen
+officers, figures which were considerably swollen
+by the losses of the Suffolks and Irish Rifles, who
+continued to hold the captured position in the face of
+continued bombing.  The French in the north had no
+particular success and lost 600 men.  The importance
+of such operations is not to be measured, however,
+by the amount of ground won, but by the necessity of
+beating up the enemies' quarters, keeping them pinned
+to their positions, and preventing them from feeling
+that they could at their own sweet wills detach any
+reinforcements they chose to thicken their line upon
+the Eastern frontier, where our Russian Allies were so
+insistently pressing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the morning of December 19 an attack was
+made upon the German lines in the Festubert region
+by Willcocks' Indian Corps, the Meerut Division,
+under General Anderson, attacking upon the left,
+and the Lahore, under General Watkis, upon the
+right.  The object of the movement was to co-operate
+with the French in an advance which they had
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P326"></a>326}</span>
+planned.  The Meerut attack was successful at first,
+but was driven back by a counter-attack, and some
+hundreds of Indian infantry were killed, wounded,
+or taken.  In the case of the Lahore attack the
+storming party consisted of the 1st Highland Light
+Infantry and the 4th Ghurkas.  Both of these units
+belong to the Sirhind Brigade, but they were joined
+in the enterprise by the 59th Scinde Rifles of the
+Jullundur Brigade.  These latter troops had a long
+night march before reaching the scene of the
+operations, when they found themselves upon the right
+of the attack and within two hundred and fifty yards
+of the German trenches.  Judging the operations
+from the standard reached at a later date, the whole
+arrangement seems to have been extraordinarily
+primitive.  The artillery preparation for a frontal
+attack upon a strong German line of trenches lasted
+exactly four minutes, being rather a call to arms
+than a bombardment.  The troops rushed most
+gallantly forward into the dark of a cold wet winter
+morning, with no guide save the rippling flashes of
+the rifles and machine-guns in front of them.  Many
+were so sore-footed and weary that they could not
+break into the double.  Some of the Indians were
+overtaken from behind by a line of British supports,
+which caused considerable confusion.  An officer of
+Indians has left it on record that twice running he
+had a revolver clapped to his head by a British
+officer.  All of the battalions advanced with a
+frontage of two companies in columns of platoons.  Both
+the Ghurkas and Highlanders reached the trench in
+the face of a murderous fire.  The left of the 59th,
+consisting of Punjabi Mahomedans, also reached
+the trench.  The right, who were Sikhs, made an
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P327"></a>327}</span>
+equally gallant advance, but were knee-deep in a wet
+beetroot field and under terrific machine-gun fire.
+Their gallant leader, Captain Scale, was struck down,
+as was every Indian officer, but a handful of the
+survivors, under a Sikh Jemadar, got into a German
+sap, which they held for twenty-four hours, taking a
+number of prisoners.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Day had dawned, and though the British and
+Indians were in the enemy trenches, it was absolutely
+impossible to send them up reinforcements across
+the bullet-swept plain.  The 59th discovered a sap
+running from their left to the German line, and
+along this they pushed.  They could not get through,
+however, to where their comrades were being terribly
+bombed on either flank by the counter-attack.  It
+was an heroic resistance.  Colonel Ronaldson, who
+led the party, held on all day, but was very lucky
+in being able to withdraw most of the survivors after
+nightfall.  Of the hundred Punjabis who held one
+flank, only three returned, while thirteen wounded
+were reported later from Germany.  The others all
+refused to surrender, declaring that those were the
+last orders of their British officers, and so they met
+their honoured end.  It had been a long and weary
+day with a barren ending, for all that had been won
+was abandoned.  The losses were over a thousand,
+and were especially heavy in the case of officers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+The fight at Givenchy.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Germans, elated by the failure of the attack,
+were in the mood for a return visit.  In the early
+dawn of the next day, December 20, they began a
+heavy bombardment of the Indian trenches, followed
+by an infantry attack extending over a line of six
+miles from south of the Bethune Canal to Festubert
+in the north.  The attack began by the explosion of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P328"></a>328}</span>
+a succession of mines which inflicted very heavy losses
+upon the survivors of the Ghurkas and Highland
+Light Infantry.  The weight of the attack at the
+village of Givenchy fell upon the exhausted Sirhind
+Brigade, who were driven back, and the greater
+part of Givenchy was occupied by the enemy.  General
+Brunker fell back with his Brigade, but his line was
+stiffened by the arrival of the 47th Sikhs of the 8th
+Jullundur Brigade, who were in divisional reserve.
+These troops prevented any further advance of the
+Germans, while preparations were made for an
+effective counter-stroke.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Heavy losses of the Indians.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Little help could be given from the north, where
+the line was already engaged, but to the south there
+were considerable bodies of troops available.  The
+situation was serious, and a great effort was called
+for, since it was impossible to abandon into the
+hands of the enemy a village which was an essential
+bastion upon the line of defence.  The German attack
+had flooded down south of Givenchy to the Bethune
+Canal, and a subsidiary attack had come along the
+south of the Canal with the object of holding the
+troops in their places and preventing the
+reinforcement of the defenders of Givenchy.  But these
+advances south of the village made no progress, being
+held up by the 9th Bhopals and Wilde's 57th Rifles
+of the 7th Ferozepore Brigade between Givenchy and
+the Canal, while the 1st Connaught Rangers of the
+same brigade stopped it on the southern side of the
+Canal.  Matters were for a moment in equilibrium.
+To the south of the Canal energetic measures were
+taken to get together a force which could come
+across it by the Pont Fixe or road bridge, and
+re-establish matters in the north.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P329"></a>329}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Fine advance of Manchesters.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The struggle had broken out close to the point
+of junction between the British forces and those of
+General Foch of the Tenth French Army, so that our
+Allies were able to co-operate with us in the
+counter-attack.  It was directed by General Carnegy, and
+the assault was made by the 1st Manchesters, the
+4th Suffolk Territorials, and some French territorials.
+The Manchesters, under the leadership of Colonel
+Strickland, made a most notable attack, aided by
+two companies of the Suffolks, the other companies
+remaining in reserve on the north bank of the Canal.
+So critical was the position that the 3rd Indian
+Sappers and Miners were set the dangerous task,
+under very heavy shell-fire, of mining the bridge over
+the Canal.  The situation was saved, however, by
+Colonel Strickland's fine advance.  His infantry,
+with very inadequate artillery support, pushed its
+way into Givenchy and cleared the village from end
+to end.  Three hundred of the Manchesters fell in
+this deed of arms.  Not only did they win the village,
+but they also regained some of the lost trenches to
+the north-east of Givenchy.  This was the real
+turning-point of the action.  There was at the time
+only the one very wet, very weary, and rather cut-up
+Jullundur Brigade between the Germans and Bethune&mdash;with
+all that Bethune stood for strategically.  To
+the east the 9th Bhopals and 57th Rifles still held on
+to their position.  It was only to the north that the
+enemy retained his lodgment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the fight to the north had been a bitter one
+all day, and had gone none too well for the British
+forces.  The Indians were fighting at an enormous
+disadvantage.  As well turn a tiger loose upon an
+ice-floe and expect that he will show all his wonted
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P330"></a>330}</span>
+fierceness and activity.  There are inexorable axioms
+of Nature which no human valour nor constancy
+can change.  The bravest of the brave, our Indian
+troops were none the less the children of the sun,
+dependent upon warmth for their vitality and numbed
+by the cold wet life of the trenches.  That they still
+in the main maintained a brave, uncomplaining,
+soldierly demeanour, and that they made head
+against the fierce German assaults, is a wonderful
+proof of their adaptability.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About ten o'clock on the morning of the 20th
+the German attack, driving back the Sirhind Brigade
+from Givenchy, who were the left advanced flank of
+the Lahore Division, came with a rush against the
+Dehra-Dun Brigade, who were the extreme right of
+the Meerut Division.  This Brigade had the 1st
+Seaforth Highlanders upon its flank, with the 2nd
+Ghurkas upon its left.  The Ghurkas were forced to
+retire, and the almost simultaneous retirement of
+the defenders of Givenchy left the Highlanders in a
+desperate position with both flanks in the air.
+Fortunately the next Brigade of the Meerut Division,
+the Garhwal Brigade, stood fast and kept in touch
+with the 6th Jats, who formed the left of the
+Dehra-Dun Brigade, and so prevented the pressure upon
+that side from becoming intolerable.  The 9th
+Ghurkas came up to support the 2nd Ghurkas, who
+had not gone far from their abandoned trenches, and
+the 58th Indian Rifles also came to the front.  These
+battalions upon the left rear of the Highlanders gave
+them some support.  None the less the position of
+the battalion was dangerous and its losses heavy,
+but it faced the Germans with splendid firmness, and
+nothing could budge it.  Machine-guns are stronger
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P331"></a>331}</span>
+than flesh and blood, but the human spirit can be
+stronger than either.  You might kill the Highlanders,
+but you could not shift them.  The 2nd Black Watch,
+who had been in reserve, established touch towards
+nightfall with the right of the Seaforths, and also
+with the left of the Sirhind Brigade, so that a
+continuous line was assured.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the meantime a small force had assembled
+under General MacBean with the intention of making
+a counter-attack and recovering the ground which
+had been lost on the north side of Givenchy.  With
+the 8th Ghurkas and the 47th Sikhs, together with
+the 7th British Dragoon Guards, an attack was made
+in the early hours of the 21st.  Colonel Lempriere of
+the Dragoon Guards was killed, and the attack failed.
+It was renewed in the early hours of the morning, but
+it again failed to dislodge the Germans from the
+captured trenches.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Advance of the First Division.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+December 21 dawned upon a situation which was
+not particularly rosy from a British point of view.
+It is true that Givenchy had been recovered, but a
+considerable stretch of trenches were still in the
+hands of the Germans, their artillery was exceedingly
+masterful, and the British line was weakened by
+heavy losses and indented in several places.  The
+one bright spot was the advance of the First Division
+of Haig's Corps, who had come up in the night-time.
+The three brigades of this Division were at once
+thrown into the fight, the first being sent to Givenchy,
+the second given as a support to the Meerut Division,
+and the third directed upon the trenches which had
+been evacuated the day before by the Sirhind Brigade.
+All of these brigades won their way forward, and by
+the morning of the 22nd much of the ground which
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P332"></a>332}</span>
+had been taken by the Germans was reoccupied by
+the British.  The 1st Brigade, led by the Cameron
+Highlanders, had made good all the ground between
+Givenchy and the Canal.  Meanwhile the 3rd Brigade
+had re-established the Festubert position, where the
+2nd Welsh and 1st South Wales Borderers had
+won their way into the lost trenches of the Ghurkas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was not done without very stark fighting,
+in which of all the regiments engaged none suffered
+so heavily as the 2nd Munsters (now attached to the
+3rd Brigade).  This regiment, only just built up
+again after its practical extermination at Etreux in
+August, made a grand advance and fought without
+cessation for nearly forty-eight hours.  Their losses
+were dreadful, including their gallant Colonel Bent,
+both Majors Day and Thomson, five other officers,
+and several hundreds of the rank and file.  So far
+forward did they get that it was with great difficulty
+that the survivors, through the exertions of Major
+Ryan, were got back into a place of safety.  It was
+the second of three occasions upon which this gallant
+Celtic battalion gave itself for King and Country.
+Let this soften the asperity of politics if unhappily
+we must come back to them after the war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Meanwhile the lines upon the flank of the Seaforths
+which had been lost by the Dehra-Dun Brigade
+were carried by the 2nd Brigade (Westmacott), the
+1st North Lancashire and 1st Northamptons leading
+the attack with the 2nd Rifles in support.  Though
+driven back by a violent counter-attack in which
+both leading regiments, and especially the Lancashire
+men, lost heavily, the Brigade came again, and
+ended by making good the gap in the line.  Thus
+the situation on the morning of the 22nd looked very
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P333"></a>333}</span>
+much better than upon the day before.  On this
+morning, as so many of the 1st Corps were in the
+advanced line, Sir Douglas Haig took over the
+command from Sir James Willcocks.  The line had
+been to some extent re-established and the firing
+died away, but there were some trenches which were
+not retaken till a later date.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such was the scrambling and unsatisfactory fight
+of Givenchy, a violent interlude in the drab records
+of trench warfare.  It began with a considerable
+inroad of Germans into our territory and heavy
+losses of our Indian Contingent.  It ended by a
+general return of the Germans to their former lines,
+and the resumption by the veteran troops of the
+First Division of the main positions which we had
+lost.  Neither side had gained any ground of material
+value, but the balance of profit in captures was upon
+the side of the Germans, who may fairly claim that
+the action was a minor success for their arms, since
+they assert that they captured some hundreds of
+prisoners and several machine-guns.  The Anglo-Indian
+Corps had 2600 casualties, and the First Corps
+1400, or 4000 in all.  The Indian troops were now
+withdrawn for a rest, which they had well earned by
+their long and difficult service in the trenches.  To
+stand day after day up to his knees in ice-cold water
+is no light ordeal for a European, but it is difficult
+to imagine all that it must have been to a Southern
+Asiatic.  The First Corps took over the La Bassée
+lines.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="sidenote">
+Singular scenes at Christmas.
+</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About the same date as the Battle of Givenchy
+there was some fighting farther north at Rouge Banc,
+where the Fourth Corps was engaged and some German
+trenches were taken.  The chief losses in this affair
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P334"></a>334}</span>
+fell upon those war-worn units, the 2nd Scots Guards
+and 2nd Borderers of the 20th Brigade.  Henceforward
+peace reigned along the lines for several
+weeks&mdash;indeed Christmas brought about something
+like fraternisation between British and Germans,
+who found a sudden and extraordinary link in that
+ancient tree worship, long anterior to Christianity,
+which Saxon tribes had practised in the depths of
+Germanic forests and still commemorated by their
+candle-lit firs.  For a single day the opposing forces
+mingled in friendly conversation and even in games.
+It was an amazing spectacle, and must arouse bitter
+thoughts concerning those high-born conspirators
+against the peace of the world, who in their mad
+ambition had hounded such men on to take each
+other by the throat rather than by the hand.  For
+a day there was comradeship.  But the case had been
+referred to the God of Battles, and the doom had not
+yet been spoken.  It must go to the end.  On the
+morning of the 26th dark figures vanished reluctantly
+into the earth, and the rifles cracked once more.  It
+remains one human episode amid all the atrocities
+which have stained the memory of the war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So ended 1914, the year of resistance.  During it
+the Western Allies had been grievously oppressed by
+their well-prepared enemy.  They had been
+over-weighted by numbers and even more so by munitions.
+For a space it had seemed as if the odds were too
+much for them.  Then with a splendid rally they
+had pushed the enemy back.  But his reserves had
+come up and had proved to be as superior as his first
+line had been.  But even so he had reached his limit.
+He could get no further.  The danger hour was past.
+There was now coming the long, anxious year of
+<span class="pagenum">{<a id="P335"></a>335}</span>
+equilibrium, the narrative of which will be given in
+the succeeding volume of 1915.  Finally will come
+the year of restoration which will at least begin,
+though it will not finish, the victory of the champions
+of freedom.
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a id="chap12"></a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">{<a id="P337"></a>337}</span></p>
+
+<h3>
+INDEX
+</h3>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Abell, Major, <a href="#P70">70</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Abercrombie, Colonel, <a href="#P94">94</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Agadir, <a href="#P7">7</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Aisne, battle of the, <a href="#P162">162-199</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Alexander, Major, <a href="#P82">82</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Algeciras, <a href="#P7">7</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Allen, Major, <a href="#P209">209</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Allenby, General, <a href="#P56">56</a>, <a href="#P80">80</a>, <a href="#P88">88</a>, <a href="#P96">96</a>, <a href="#P97">97</a>, 
+<a href="#P126">126</a>, <a href="#P155">155</a>, <a href="#P204">204</a>, <a href="#P226">226</a>, <a href="#P279">279</a>, <a href="#P287">287</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Alleyne, Captain, <a href="#P294">294</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Allfrey, Captain, <a href="#P149">149</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Alsace, <a href="#P43">43</a>, <a href="#P57">57</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Anderson, General, <a href="#P322">322</a>, <a href="#P325">325</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Anley, Colonel, <a href="#P105">105</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Anley, General, <a href="#P229">229</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Annesley, Colonel, <a href="#P284">284</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ansell, Colonel, <a href="#P132">132</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Antwerp, fall of, <a href="#P193">193</a>; Naval 
+Division at siege of, <a href="#P195">195</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ardee, Lord, <a href="#P288">288</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Army, the Russian, <a href="#P138">138</a>; at battle 
+of Gumbinnen, <a href="#P138">138</a>; at battle 
+of Lemberg, <a href="#P139">139</a>; at battle of 
+Tannenberg, <a href="#P139">139</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ashburner, Captain, <a href="#P70">70</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Asquith, Right Hon. H. H., <a href="#P18">18</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Austin, Dr., <a href="#P93">93</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Australia, offer of service, <a href="#P34">34</a>, <a href="#P37">37</a>; 
+Bismarck Archipelago captured 
+by, <a href="#P312">312</a>; German colony of 
+New Guinea captured by, <a href="#P312">312</a>; <a href="#P317">317</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Austria, Archduke Francis Ferdinand 
+of, assassinated at Sarajevo, <a href="#P12">12</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Austria-Hungary, annexes Bosnia 
+and Herzegovina, 1908, <a href="#P2">2</a>; 
+presents ultimatum to Serbia, <a href="#P14">14</a>; 
+declares war against Serbia, <a href="#P15">15</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Baird, Major, <a href="#P325">325</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Balfour, Lieutenant, <a href="#P167">167</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bannatyne, Colonel, <a href="#P255">255</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Barnes, Colonel, <a href="#P241">241</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Battenberg, Prince Louis of, <a href="#P40">40</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Battenberg, Prince Maurice of, <a href="#P256">256</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bavaria, Crown Prince of, <a href="#P145">145</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Beatty, Admiral Sir David, <a href="#P313">313</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Belgians, King of the, <a href="#P198">198</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Belgium, infraction of neutrality, <a href="#P12">12</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Below-Saleske, von, <a href="#P19">19</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Benson, Captain, <a href="#P73">73</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bent, Colonel, <a href="#P332">332</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Berners, Captain, <a href="#P172">172</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bernhardi, General von, <a href="#P1">1</a>, <a href="#P8">8</a>, <a href="#P159">159</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bethmann-Hollweg, von, <a href="#P17">17</a>, <a href="#P21">21</a>, <a href="#P23">23</a>, <a href="#P28">28</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bidon, General, <a href="#P247">247</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bingham, General, <a href="#P283">283</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bismarck Archipelago, German 
+colony, captured by Australian 
+forces, <a href="#P312">312</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Blewitt, Lieutenant, <a href="#P268">268</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Boger, Colonel, <a href="#P83">83</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bols, Colonel, <a href="#P207">207</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bolton, Colonel, <a href="#P244">244</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Botha, Right Hon. Louis, <a href="#P34">34</a>, <a href="#P313">313</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bottomley, Major, <a href="#P259">259</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bowes, General, <a href="#P218">218</a>, <a href="#P295">295</a>, <a href="#P324">324</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Boyd, Lieutenant, <a href="#P266">266</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bradbury, Captain, V.C., <a href="#P130">130</a>, <a href="#P131">131</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Brett, Colonel, <a href="#P102">102</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bridges, Major Tom, <a href="#P118">118</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Briggs, General, <a href="#P128">128</a>, <a href="#P130">130</a>, <a href="#P174">174</a>, <a href="#P282">282</a>, <a href="#P283">283</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+British Expeditionary Force: 
+departure from England, <a href="#P50">50</a>; its 
+composition, <a href="#P52">52</a>, <a href="#P86">86</a>; its arrival 
+in France, <a href="#P53">53</a>; its reception by 
+the French people, <a href="#P54">54</a>; advance 
+into Belgium, <a href="#P57">57</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Brooke, Captain, <a href="#P260">260</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bruce, Captain the Hon. H. L., <a href="#P323">323</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Brunker, General, <a href="#P328">328</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Buckle, Major, <a href="#P222">222</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bulbe, Lieutenant, <a href="#P78">78</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bulfin, General, <a href="#P154">154</a>, <a href="#P156">156</a>, <a href="#P166">166</a>, <a href="#P167">167</a>, 
+<a href="#P169">169</a>, <a href="#P170">170</a>, <a href="#P171">171</a>, <a href="#P179">179</a>, <a href="#P186">186</a>, <a href="#P265">265</a>, 
+<a href="#P273">273</a>, <a href="#P287">287</a>, <a href="#P288">288</a>, <a href="#P320">320</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bülow, General von, <a href="#P84">84</a>, <a href="#P144">144</a>, <a href="#P154">154</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Bülow, Prince von, <a href="#P3">3</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Burrows, Major, <a href="#P168">168</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Butler, Colonel, <a href="#P229">229</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Butler, Major Leslie, <a href="#P116">116</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Byng, Captain, <a href="#P70">70</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Byng, General, <a href="#P210">210</a>, <a href="#P233">233</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Cadogan, Colonel, <a href="#P237">237</a>, <a href="#P264">264</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Campbell, Captain, <a href="#P73">73</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Campbell, Colonel (5th Dragoon 
+Guards), <a href="#P281">281</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Campbell, Colonel (9th Lancers), 
+<a href="#P80">80</a>, <a href="#P149">149</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Campbell, Lieutenant, <a href="#P130">130</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Campbell, Major, <a href="#P227">227</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Canada, offer of service, <a href="#P34">34</a>, <a href="#P37">37</a>; <a href="#P317">317</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Canneau, General, <a href="#P144">144</a>, <a href="#P204">204</a>, <a href="#P212">212</a>, <a href="#P221">221</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Capper, General, <a href="#P232">232</a>, <a href="#P244">244</a>, <a href="#P265">265</a>, <a href="#P269">269</a>, <a href="#P295">295</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Carey, Captain, <a href="#P70">70</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Carnegy, General, <a href="#P329">329</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Carr, Lieutenant Laurence, <a href="#P259">259</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Carter, Major, <a href="#P253">253</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Cary, General Langlé de, <a href="#P144">144</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Cary-Bernard, Captain, <a href="#P306">306</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Castelnau, General, <a href="#P44">44</a>, <a href="#P145">145</a>, <a href="#P193">193</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Cathcart, Captain, <a href="#P168">168</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Cavan, Lord, <a href="#P289">289</a>, <a href="#P293">293</a>, <a href="#P300">300</a>, <a href="#P306">306</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Cawley, Major, <a href="#P132">132</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ceylon, offer of service, <a href="#P34">34</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Chapman, Corporal, <a href="#P227">227</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Charleroi, battle of, <a href="#P141">141</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Charrier, Major, <a href="#P119">119</a>, <a href="#P120">120</a>, <a href="#P121">121</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Chetwode, General, <a href="#P58">58</a>, <a href="#P121">121</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Christie, Major, <a href="#P112">112</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Churchill, Right Hon. Winston S., 
+<a href="#P5">5</a>, <a href="#P31">31</a>, <a href="#P40">40</a>, <a href="#P196">196</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Chute, Lieutenant, <a href="#P121">121</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Clive, Hon. Windsor, <a href="#P92">92</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Clutterbuck, Captain, <a href="#P111">111</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Cobb, Irvin, American correspondent 
+with German Army, <a href="#P64">64</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Cobbold, Colonel, <a href="#P214">214</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Coke, Major, <a href="#P282">282</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Coleman, American volunteer, 
+quoted, <a href="#P119">119</a>, <a href="#P149">149</a>, <a href="#P303">303</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Coles, Colonel, <a href="#P266">266</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Congreve, General, V.C., <a href="#P187">187</a>, <a href="#P229">229</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Cookson, Colonel, <a href="#P167">167</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Cornish-Bowden, Major, <a href="#P151">151</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Coronel, naval battle off, <a href="#P315">315</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Craddock, Admiral, <a href="#P315">315</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Cramb, Professor, <a href="#P30">30</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Creek, Captain, <a href="#P253">253</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Crichton, Major, <a href="#P241">241</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Crossley, Sergeant-Major, <a href="#P222">222</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Cutbill, Captain, <a href="#P102">102</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Cuthbert, General, <a href="#P71">71</a>, <a href="#P79">79</a>, <a href="#P98">98</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Dalrymple, Lord, <a href="#P244">244</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+D'Amade, General, <a href="#P123">123</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Daniell, Major, <a href="#P212">212</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Danks, Lieutenant, <a href="#P93">93</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Dashwood, Lieutenant, <a href="#P167">167</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Davey, Major, <a href="#P70">70</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Davies, Colonel, <a href="#P301">301</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Davies, General, <a href="#P90">90</a>, <a href="#P93">93</a>, <a href="#P132">132</a>, <a href="#P153">153</a>, <a href="#P173">173</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Davis, Harding, American 
+correspondent with German Army, 
+<a href="#P62">62</a>, <a href="#P64">64</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Dawnay, Colonel, <a href="#P293">293</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Day, Major, <a href="#P332">332</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Dease, Lieutenant Maurice, V.C., <a href="#P70">70</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+De Crespigny, Captain, <a href="#P128">128</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Deimling, General von, <a href="#P269">269</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+De Lisle, General, <a href="#P80">80</a>, <a href="#P148">148</a>, <a href="#P156">156</a>, <a href="#P157">157</a>, 
+<a href="#P174">174</a>, <a href="#P204">204</a>, <a href="#P226">226</a>, <a href="#P281">281</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+De Mitry, General, <a href="#P247">247</a>, <a href="#P255">255</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Denham, Lieutenant, <a href="#P323">323</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Derbyshhe, Gunner, <a href="#P130">130</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+D'Esperey, General, <a href="#P144">144</a>, <a href="#P146">146</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Dillon, Captain H. M., <a href="#P302">302</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Dimmer, Lieutenant, V.C., <a href="#P181">181</a>, <a href="#P305">305</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Doran, General Beauchamp, <a href="#P60">60</a>, <a href="#P69">69</a>, 
+<a href="#P113">113</a>, <a href="#P150">150</a>, <a href="#P174">174</a>, <a href="#P218">218</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Dorell, Sergeant, V.C., <a href="#P130">130</a>, <a href="#P131">131</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Doughty, Major, <a href="#P102">102</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Dour, action at, <a href="#P79">79</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Drummond, General. <a href="#P84">84</a>, <a href="#P103">103</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Dubail, General, <a href="#P145">145</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Duff, Colonel Grant, <a href="#P171">171</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+D'Urbal, General, <a href="#P296">296</a>, <a href="#P324">324</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Dykes, Colonel, <a href="#P105">105</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Earle, Colonel, <a href="#P259">259</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+East Africa, German colony of, 
+attack on, fails, <a href="#P312">312</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+East Coast, raid on, by German 
+cruisers, <a href="#P315">315</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Edmunds, Captain, <a href="#P93">93</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Edward VII., <a href="#P6">6</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Elliott, Dr., <a href="#P93">93</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ellison, Captain, <a href="#P152">152</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+<i>Emden</i>, exploits of the, <a href="#P314">314</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Emmich, General von, <a href="#P44">44</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Fairlie, Captain, <a href="#P241">241</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Falkland Islands, naval battle off, <a href="#P315">315</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ferguson, General, <a href="#P80">80</a>, <a href="#P177">177</a>, <a href="#P190">190</a>, <a href="#P211">211</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Findlay, General, <a href="#P153">153</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Fisher, Lord, <a href="#P5">5</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+FitzClarence, General, <a href="#P258">258</a>, <a href="#P270">270</a>, <a href="#P303">303</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Flint, Lieutenant, <a href="#P175">175</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Foch, General, <a href="#P144">144</a>, <a href="#P148">148</a>, <a href="#P150">150</a>, <a href="#P154">154</a>, 
+<a href="#P202">202</a>, <a href="#P329">329</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Foljambe, Captain, <a href="#P168">168</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Forbes, Major Ian, <a href="#P241">241</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ford, Lieutenant, <a href="#P323">323</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Forrester, Major, <a href="#P259">259</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Frameries, action at, <a href="#P77">77</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Fraser, Major, <a href="#P244">244</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+French, General Sir John, <a href="#P54">54</a>, <a href="#P58">58</a>, <a href="#P62">62</a>, 
+<a href="#P74">74</a>, <a href="#P75">75</a>, <a href="#P76">76</a>, <a href="#P77">77</a>, <a href="#P84">84</a>, <a href="#P87">87</a>, <a href="#P96">96</a>, <a href="#P97">97</a>, 
+<a href="#P116">116</a>, <a href="#P119">119</a>, <a href="#P126">126</a>, <a href="#P135">135</a>, <a href="#P145">145</a>, <a href="#P156">156</a>, 
+<a href="#P164">164</a>, <a href="#P183">183</a>, <a href="#P186">186</a>, <a href="#P198">198</a>, <a href="#P202">202</a>, <a href="#P220">220</a>, 
+<a href="#P234">234</a>, <a href="#P236">236</a>, <a href="#P245">245</a>, <a href="#P246">246</a>, <a href="#P247">247</a>, <a href="#P251">251</a>, 
+<a href="#P275">275</a>, <a href="#P276">276</a>, <a href="#P282">282</a>, <a href="#P285">285</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Geddes, Lieutenant-Colonel, <a href="#P169">169</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+George V. visits the Army in France, 
+<a href="#P323">323</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Germany, Heligoland ceded to, <a href="#P2">2</a>; 
+agitation in, against Great 
+Britain during Boer War, <a href="#P3">3</a>; 
+navy bill of 1900, <a href="#P4">4</a>; 
+anti-British agitations in, <a href="#P9">9</a>; root 
+causes of hatred of Great 
+Britain in, <a href="#P10">10</a>; and world-power, 
+<a href="#P10">10</a>; preparations for 
+war by, <a href="#P11">11</a>; declares war 
+against Russia, <a href="#P15">15</a>; against 
+France, <a href="#P15">15</a>; proposes that 
+Great Britain should remain 
+neutral, <a href="#P17">17</a>; and Belgian 
+neutrality, <a href="#P19">19</a>; character of her 
+diplomacy, <a href="#P19">19</a>, <a href="#P20">20</a>; invades 
+Belgium, <a href="#P21">21</a>; Great Britain 
+declares war on, <a href="#P21">21</a>; treatment 
+of the departing Embassies, <a href="#P22">22</a>; 
+the claim for culture in, <a href="#P29">29</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+<i>Germany and the Next War</i>, <a href="#P9">9</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Gheluvelt, battle of, <a href="#P265">265</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Gibbs, Colonel, <a href="#P79">79</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Giffard, Lieutenant, <a href="#P269">269</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Gifford, Lieutenant, <a href="#P130">130</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Givenchy, fight at, <a href="#P327">327</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Glasgow, Sergeant, <a href="#P227">227</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Gleichen, General Count, <a href="#P61">61</a>, <a href="#P79">79</a>, <a href="#P82">82</a>, 
+<a href="#P83">83</a>, <a href="#P98">98</a>, <a href="#P157">157</a>, <a href="#P207">207</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Gloster, Colonel, <a href="#P224">224</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Godley, Private, V.C., <a href="#P70">70</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Gordon, Captain B. G. R., <a href="#P259">259</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Gordon, Colonel, <a href="#P114">114</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Gordon, General, <a href="#P215">215</a>, <a href="#P230">230</a>, <a href="#P324">324</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Gordon, Lieutenant, <a href="#P181">181</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Goschen, Sir Edward, ambassador 
+at Berlin, <a href="#P17">17</a>, <a href="#P21">21</a>, <a href="#P22">22</a>, <a href="#P23">23</a>, <a href="#P24">24</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Gough, General, <a href="#P126">126</a>, <a href="#P150">150</a>, <a href="#P155">155</a>, <a href="#P203">203</a>, 
+<a href="#P204">204</a>, <a href="#P226">226</a>, <a href="#P279">279</a>, <a href="#P280">280</a>, <a href="#P282">282</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Grant, Major, <a href="#P168">168</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Graves, Lieutenant, <a href="#P114">114</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Great Britain, cedes Heligoland to 
+Germany, <a href="#P2">2</a>; sympathy and 
+respect for German Empire in, 
+<a href="#P2">2</a>; agreement with France, 
+1903, <a href="#P6">6</a>; agreement with 
+Russia, 1907, <a href="#P6">6</a>; maritime 
+power of, <a href="#P10">10</a>; efforts for peace 
+by, <a href="#P16">16</a>; reply to German 
+proposal of neutrality, <a href="#P17">17</a>; 
+declares war against Germany, 
+<a href="#P21">21</a>; preparations for possible 
+naval war in, <a href="#P31">31</a>; effect of 
+German war policy in, <a href="#P32">32</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Green, Major, <a href="#P168">168</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Grenfell, Captain the Hon. F., <a href="#P82">82</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Grey, Sir Edward (now Viscount), 
+proposes a conference of 
+Ambassadors, <a href="#P16">16</a>; replies to 
+German proposal of neutrality, <a href="#P17">17</a>; 
+suggests limitation of the 
+conflict, <a href="#P19">19</a>; <a href="#P20">20</a>, <a href="#P33">33</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Grierson, General, <a href="#P55">55</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Griffin, Colonel, <a href="#P105">105</a>, <a href="#P158">158</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Guernsey, Lord, <a href="#P172">172</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Haig, General Sir Douglas, <a href="#P55">55</a>, <a href="#P56">56</a>, 
+<a href="#P72">72</a>, <a href="#P77">77</a>, <a href="#P84">84</a>, <a href="#P88">88</a>, <a href="#P89">89</a>, <a href="#P90">90</a>, <a href="#P126">126</a>, <a href="#P133">133</a>, 
+<a href="#P157">157</a>, <a href="#P173">173</a>, <a href="#P183">183</a>, <a href="#P190">190</a>, <a href="#P236">236</a>, <a href="#P239">239</a>, <a href="#P241">241</a>, 
+<a href="#P246">246</a>, <a href="#P247">247</a>, <a href="#P249">249</a>, <a href="#P250">250</a>, <a href="#P251">251</a>, <a href="#P256">256</a>, <a href="#P260">260</a>, 
+<a href="#P265">265</a>, <a href="#P270">270</a>, <a href="#P275">275</a>, <a href="#P276">276</a>, <a href="#P282">282</a>, <a href="#P286">286</a>, <a href="#P287">287</a>, 
+<a href="#P295">295</a>, <a href="#P306">306</a>, <a href="#P331">331</a>, <a href="#P333">333</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Haking, General, <a href="#P72">72</a>, <a href="#P94">94</a>, <a href="#P157">157</a>, <a href="#P173">173</a>, 
+<a href="#P176">176</a>, <a href="#P302">302</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Haldane, General, <a href="#P104">104</a>, <a href="#P106">106</a>, <a href="#P112">112</a>, <a href="#P206">206</a>, 
+<a href="#P324">324</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Haldane, Lord, <a href="#P36">36</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hamilton, Adjutant Rowan, <a href="#P171">171</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hamilton, Captain, <a href="#P93">93</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hamilton, General Sir Hubert, <a href="#P77">77</a>, 
+<a href="#P157">157</a>, <a href="#P177">177</a>, <a href="#P208">208</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hankey, Major, <a href="#P270">270</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Harter, Staff-Captain, <a href="#P176">176</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hasted, Colonel, <a href="#P177">177</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Haussen, General von, <a href="#P139">139</a>, <a href="#P144">144</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hautvesnes, action at, <a href="#P153">153</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hawarden, Lord, <a href="#P92">92</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hawkins, Lieutenant Hope, <a href="#P285">285</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hay, Lord Arthur, <a href="#P172">172</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Headlam, General, <a href="#P110">110</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Heeringen, General von, <a href="#P145">145</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Heligoland Bight, battle in, <a href="#P313">313</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Heligoland ceded to Germany, 1890, <a href="#P2">2</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Herbert, Captain, <a href="#P208">208</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hindenburg, General von, <a href="#P139">139</a>, <a href="#P316">316</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hogan, Sergeant, V.C., <a href="#P224">224</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Holt, Lieutenant, <a href="#P71">71</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hoskyns, Captain, <a href="#P152">152</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Huggan, Dr., <a href="#P180">180</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hull, Colonel, <a href="#P70">70</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hulse, Sir Edward, <a href="#P323">323</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Hunter-Weston, General, <a href="#P104">104</a>, <a href="#P106">106</a>, 
+<a href="#P107">107</a>, <a href="#P229">229</a>, <a href="#P230">230</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Impey, Lieutenant, <a href="#P323">323</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+India, offer of service, <a href="#P34">34</a>; <a href="#P317">317</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ingham, Major, <a href="#P69">69</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Italy secedes from the Central 
+Powers, <a href="#P311">311</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Jagow, von, Secretary for Foreign 
+Affairs at Berlin, <a href="#P21">21</a>, <a href="#P23">23</a>, <a href="#P25">25</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Japan declares war, <a href="#P312">312</a>; captures 
+the German colony of Tsingtau, 
+<a href="#P312">312</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Jarvis, Corporal, V.C., <a href="#P71">71</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Jelf, Major, <a href="#P168">168</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Joffre, General, <a href="#P44">44</a>, <a href="#P57">57</a>, <a href="#P62">62</a>, <a href="#P74">74</a>, <a href="#P76">76</a>, 
+<a href="#P126">126</a>, <a href="#P127">127</a>, <a href="#P144">144</a>, <a href="#P178">178</a>, <a href="#P198">198</a>, <a href="#P202">202</a>, 
+<a href="#P251">251</a>, <a href="#P255">255</a>, <a href="#P282">282</a>, <a href="#P287">287</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Johnston, Captain, <a href="#P175">175</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Johnstone, Major, <a href="#P169">169</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Kavanagh, General, <a href="#P262">262</a>, <a href="#P279">279</a>, <a href="#P293">293</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Kerr, Colonel, <a href="#P269">269</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Kitchener, Lord, becomes Secretary 
+of State for War, <a href="#P34">34</a>; his 
+estimate of duration of war, <a href="#P38">38</a>; 
+appeals for volunteers, <a href="#P38">38</a>; <a href="#P54">54</a>, 
+<a href="#P56">56</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Kluck, General von, <a href="#P83">83</a>, <a href="#P84">84</a>, <a href="#P88">88</a>, <a href="#P95">95</a>, 
+<a href="#P143">143</a>, <a href="#P144">144</a>, <a href="#P145">145</a>, <a href="#P146">146</a>, <a href="#P148">148</a>, <a href="#P154">154</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Knight, Colonel, <a href="#P154">154</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Kruseik cross-roads, fight for, <a href="#P256">256</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Lamb, Lieutenant, <a href="#P131">131</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Lambert, Major, <a href="#P292">292</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Landon, General, <a href="#P172">172</a>, <a href="#P248">248</a>, <a href="#P254">254</a>, <a href="#P260">260</a>, 
+<a href="#P265">265</a>, <a href="#P269">269</a>, <a href="#P276">276</a>, <a href="#P290">290</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Landrecies, engagement at, <a href="#P90">90</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Lansdowne, Lord, <a href="#P33">33</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Law, Right Hon. A. Bonar, <a href="#P33">33</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Lawford, General, <a href="#P273">273</a>, <a href="#P291">291</a>, <a href="#P294">294</a>, <a href="#P295">295</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Lawrence, Colonel, <a href="#P229">229</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Leach, Lieutenant, V.C., <a href="#P224">224</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Le Cateau, battle of, <a href="#P96">96-137</a>, <a href="#P141">141</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Leckie, Captain Malcolm, <a href="#P82">82</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Legard, Captain, <a href="#P222">222</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Le Gheir, action of <a href="#P229">229</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Leman, General, <a href="#P45">45</a>, <a href="#P46">46</a>, <a href="#P47">47</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Lemberg, battle of, <a href="#P139">139</a>, <a href="#P316">316</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Lempriere, Colonel, <a href="#P331">331</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Lichnowsky, Prince, German 
+ambassador to Great Britain, <a href="#P19">19</a>, 
+<a href="#P20">20</a>, <a href="#P25">25</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Liége, <a href="#P45">45</a>, <a href="#P46">46</a>, <a href="#P47">47</a>, <a href="#P141">141</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Lister, Captain, <a href="#P71">71</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Lloyd, Major, <a href="#P167">167</a>, <a href="#P168">168</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Lomax, General, <a href="#P269">269</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Longley, Colonel, <a href="#P99">99</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Longwy, battle of, <a href="#P141">141</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Loring, Colonel, <a href="#P243">243</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Lorraine, <a href="#P43">43</a>, <a href="#P57">57</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Lushington, Lieutenant-Colonel, <a href="#P132">132</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Luxemburg, duchy of, <a href="#P44">44</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+MacBean, General, <a href="#P331">331</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+McCracken, General, <a href="#P69">69</a>, <a href="#P78">78</a>, <a href="#P88">88</a>, <a href="#P104">104</a>, 
+<a href="#P190">190</a>, <a href="#P208">208</a>, <a href="#P215">215</a>, <a href="#P219">219</a>, <a href="#P291">291</a>, <a href="#P306">306</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+McKenna, Right Hon. Reginald, <a href="#P5">5</a>, <a href="#P31">31</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Mackenzie, General Colin, <a href="#P209">209</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+MacLachlan, Lieutenant-Colonel, <a href="#P171">171</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+MacMahon, Colonel, <a href="#P70">70</a>, <a href="#P221">221</a>, <a href="#P299">299</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+M'Nab, Captain, <a href="#P284">284</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Maistre, General, <a href="#P220">220</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Maitland, Major, <a href="#P171">171</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Malcolm, Colonel, <a href="#P283">283</a>, <a href="#P284">284</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Manoury, General, <a href="#P144">144</a>, <a href="#P146">146</a>, <a href="#P148">148</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Marne, battle of the, <a href="#P138">138-161</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Martyn, Colonel, <a href="#P304">304</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Maubeuge, fortress of, <a href="#P85">85</a>, <a href="#P141">141</a>, <a href="#P163">163</a>, <a href="#P184">184</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Maude, General, <a href="#P295">295</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Maud'huy, General, <a href="#P296">296</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Maxse, General, <a href="#P169">169</a>, <a href="#P179">179</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Messines, fight at, <a href="#P280">280</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Michel, General, <a href="#P49">49</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Michell, Captain, <a href="#P122">122</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Milne, General, <a href="#P110">110</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Milward, Major, <a href="#P292">292</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Mitford, Major, <a href="#P241">241</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Monck, Captain, <a href="#P91">91</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Mons, battle of, <a href="#P50">50-95</a>, <a href="#P141">141</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Mons, retreat from, chronology of 
+events, <a href="#P136">136-137</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Montresor, Colonel, <a href="#P167">167</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Morland, Colonel, <a href="#P268">268</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Morland, General, <a href="#P211">211</a>, <a href="#P224">224</a>, <a href="#P286">286</a>, <a href="#P296">296</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Morris, Colonel, <a href="#P133">133</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Morris, Lieutenant, <a href="#P323">323</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Morritt, Lieutenant, <a href="#P73">73</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Moussy, General, <a href="#P288">288</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Mülhausen, battle of, <a href="#P141">141</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Mullens, General, <a href="#P80">80</a>, <a href="#P221">221</a>, <a href="#P283">283</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Mundy, Lieutenant, <a href="#P130">130</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Munro, General, <a href="#P269">269</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Namur, <a href="#P48">48</a>, <a href="#P49">49</a>, <a href="#P76">76</a>, <a href="#P141">141</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Navy, the, mobilisation of, <a href="#P40">40</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Neeld, Admiral, <a href="#P25">25</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Nelson, Gunner, V.C., <a href="#P130">130</a>, <a href="#P131">131</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Nery, combat of, <a href="#P127">127</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Neuve Chapelle, first fight of, <a href="#P219">219</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Newfoundland, offer of service, <a href="#P34">34</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+New Guinea, German colony of, 
+captured by Australian forces, <a href="#P312">312</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+New Zealand, offer of service, <a href="#P34">34</a>, <a href="#P37">37</a>; 
+captures German colony of 
+Samoa, <a href="#P312">312</a>; <a href="#P317">317</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Nicholson, Lieutenant, <a href="#P121">121</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Nicholson, Major, <a href="#P171">171</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Nietzsche, <a href="#P8">8</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Nimy, defence of the bridges of, <a href="#P68">68</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Oliver, Captain, <a href="#P169">169</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ommany, Captain, <a href="#P269">269</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Orford, Captain, <a href="#P102">102</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Osborne, Driver, <a href="#P130">130</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ourcq, battle of the, <a href="#P145">145</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ovens, Colonel, <a href="#P244">244</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Pack-Beresford, Major, <a href="#P79">79</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Paley, Major, <a href="#P269">269</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Paris, General, <a href="#P195">195</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Parker, Major, <a href="#P112">112</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Pau, General, <a href="#P44">44</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Paynter, Captain, <a href="#P243">243</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Peel, Major, <a href="#P268">268</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Pell, Colonel, <a href="#P266">266</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Pennecuick, Lieutenant, <a href="#P156">156</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Penny, Sergeant-Major, <a href="#P222">222</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Perceval, Colonel, <a href="#P269">269</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Petit Bois, fight at, <a href="#P324">324</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Phillips, Major, <a href="#P168">168</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Pilken Inn, fight of, <a href="#P252">252</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Plumer, General, <a href="#P320">320</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Pollard, Lieutenant, <a href="#P82">82</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ponsonby, Colonel, <a href="#P168">168</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Pont-sur-Sambre, action near, <a href="#P94">94</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Poole, Major, <a href="#P111">111</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Popham, Captain, <a href="#P188">188</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Powell, American journalist, quoted, 
+<a href="#P63">63</a>, <a href="#P198">198</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Powell, Major, <a href="#P250">250</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Prichard, Major, <a href="#P268">268</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Prowse, Major, <a href="#P231">231</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Prussia, Crown Prince of, <a href="#P145">145</a>, <a href="#P163">163</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Prussia, Prince Henry of, <a href="#P25">25</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Prussian Guards, attack of, at 
+Ypres, <a href="#P297">297</a>; Kaiser's order to, <a href="#P297">297</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Pulteney, General, <a href="#P56">56</a>, <a href="#P126">126</a>, <a href="#P152">152</a>, <a href="#P157">157</a>, 
+<a href="#P175">175</a>, <a href="#P178">178</a>, <a href="#P190">190</a>, <a href="#P206">206</a>, <a href="#P214">214</a>, <a href="#P215">215</a>, <a href="#P218">218</a>, <a href="#P227">227</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Rawlinson, General Sir Henry, <a href="#P224">224</a>, 
+<a href="#P232">232</a>, <a href="#P236">236</a>, <a href="#P237">237</a>, <a href="#P241">241</a>, <a href="#P251">251</a>, <a href="#P256">256</a>, <a href="#P308">308</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Rees, Captain, <a href="#P268">268</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Regiments: 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+<br />
+<i>Artillery&mdash;</i> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Royal Field Artillery, <a href="#P69">69</a>, <a href="#P70">70</a>, <a href="#P71">71</a>, 
+<a href="#P78">78</a>, <a href="#P82">82</a>, <a href="#P88">88</a>, <a href="#P89">89</a>, <a href="#P92">92</a>, <a href="#P100">100</a>, <a href="#P105">105</a>, <a href="#P110">110</a>, 
+<a href="#P120">120</a>, <a href="#P153">153</a>, <a href="#P169">169</a>, <a href="#P192">192</a>, <a href="#P249">249</a>, <a href="#P268">268</a>, <a href="#P271">271</a>, 
+<a href="#P272">272</a>, <a href="#P273">273</a>, <a href="#P300">300</a>, <a href="#P301">301</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Royal Horse Artillery, <a href="#P263">263</a>; E 
+Battery, <a href="#P285">285</a>; J Battery, <a href="#P122">122</a>, 
+<a href="#P150">150</a>; K Battery, <a href="#P236">236</a>; L 
+Battery, <a href="#P80">80</a>, <a href="#P128">128</a>, <a href="#P130">130</a>, <a href="#P131">131</a>, <a href="#P133">133</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Heavy, <a href="#P109">109</a>, <a href="#P110">110</a>, <a href="#P301">301</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Howitzer, <a href="#P88">88</a>, <a href="#P105">105</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Honourable Artillery Company, <a href="#P321">321</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+<br />
+<i>Cavalry&mdash;</i> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+1st Life Guards, <a href="#P263">263</a>, <a href="#P293">293</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+2nd Life Guards, <a href="#P263">263</a>, <a href="#P293">293</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Royal Horse Guards (Blues), <a href="#P263">263</a>, <a href="#P293">293</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's 
+Bays), <a href="#P85">85</a>, <a href="#P128">128</a>, <a href="#P131">131</a>, <a href="#P132">132</a>, <a href="#P155">155</a>, 
+<a href="#P280">280</a>, <a href="#P282">282</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+3rd Dragoon Guards, <a href="#P272">272</a>, <a href="#P306">306</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards, 
+<a href="#P58">58</a>, <a href="#P80">80</a>, <a href="#P118">118</a>, <a href="#P187">187</a>, <a href="#P188">188</a>, <a href="#P282">282</a>, <a href="#P283">283</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+5th Dragoon Guards, <a href="#P280">280</a>, <a href="#P281">281</a>, <a href="#P282">282</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+6th Dragoon Guards (Carabineers), 
+<a href="#P283">283</a>, <a href="#P284">284</a>, <a href="#P285">285</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+7th Dragoon Guards, <a href="#P331">331</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+1st Dragoons (Royals), <a href="#P263">263</a>, <a href="#P272">272</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+2nd Dragoons (Scots Greys), <a href="#P122">122</a>, <a href="#P263">263</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+3rd Hussars, <a href="#P263">263</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+4th Hussars, <a href="#P263">263</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+10th Hussars, <a href="#P241">241</a>, <a href="#P272">272</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+11th Hussars, <a href="#P131">131</a>, <a href="#P282">282</a>, <a href="#P283">283</a>, <a href="#P285">285</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+15th Hussars, <a href="#P93">93</a>, <a href="#P120">120</a>, <a href="#P121">121</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+18th Hussars, <a href="#P149">149</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+20th Hussars, <a href="#P58">58</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+5th (Royal Irish) Lancers, <a href="#P227">227</a>, <a href="#P279">279</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+9th Lancers, <a href="#P80">80</a>, <a href="#P82">82</a>, <a href="#P149">149</a>, <a href="#P281">281</a>, <a href="#P283">283</a>, <a href="#P285">285</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+12th Lancers, <a href="#P122">122</a>, <a href="#P227">227</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+16th Lancers, <a href="#P226">226</a>, <a href="#P279">279</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Essex Yeomanry, <a href="#P322">322</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Irish Horse, <a href="#P242">242</a>, <a href="#P322">322</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Leicestershire Yeomanry, <a href="#P306">306</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+North Somerset Yeomanry, <a href="#P306">306</a>, <a href="#P322">322</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Northumberland Hussars, <a href="#P242">242</a>, <a href="#P322">322</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Oxfordshire Hussars, <a href="#P281">281</a>, <a href="#P282">282</a>, <a href="#P322">322</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+<br />
+<i>Guards&mdash;</i> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Coldstream, <a href="#P90">90</a>, <a href="#P91">91</a>, <a href="#P92">92</a>, <a href="#P119">119</a>, <a href="#P120">120</a>, 
+<a href="#P132">132</a>, <a href="#P168">168</a>, <a href="#P169">169</a>, <a href="#P171">171</a>, <a href="#P172">172</a>, <a href="#P191">191</a>, <a href="#P248">248</a>, 
+<a href="#P259">259</a>, <a href="#P265">265</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Grenadier, <a href="#P90">90</a>, <a href="#P92">92</a>, <a href="#P150">150</a>, <a href="#P237">237</a>, <a href="#P244">244</a>, 
+<a href="#P258">258</a>, <a href="#P259">259</a>, <a href="#P265">265</a>, <a href="#P289">289</a>, <a href="#P293">293</a>, <a href="#P306">306</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Irish, <a href="#P90">90</a>, <a href="#P92">92</a>, <a href="#P132">132</a>, <a href="#P150">150</a>, <a href="#P172">172</a>, <a href="#P255">255</a>, 
+<a href="#P265">265</a>, <a href="#P288">288</a>, <a href="#P289">289</a>, <a href="#P293">293</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Scots, <a href="#P119">119</a>, <a href="#P169">169</a>, <a href="#P171">171</a>, <a href="#P242">242</a>, <a href="#P243">243</a>, <a href="#P244">244</a>, 
+<a href="#P252">252</a>, <a href="#P253">253</a>, <a href="#P259">259</a>, <a href="#P260">260</a>, <a href="#P271">271</a>, <a href="#P297">297</a>, <a href="#P323">323</a>, 
+<a href="#P334">334</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+<br />
+<i>Infantry&mdash;</i> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 
+<a href="#P84">84</a>, <a href="#P100">100</a>, <a href="#P102">102</a>, <a href="#P216">216</a>, <a href="#P230">230</a>, <a href="#P324">324</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Artists' Rifles (28th London), <a href="#P321">321</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Bedford, <a href="#P174">174</a>, <a href="#P207">207</a>, <a href="#P236">236</a>, <a href="#P264">264</a>, <a href="#P266">266</a>, <a href="#P297">297</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Berkshire, <a href="#P93">93</a>, <a href="#P153">153</a>, <a href="#P255">255</a>, <a href="#P272">272</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Black Watch, <a href="#P119">119</a>, <a href="#P150">150</a>, <a href="#P169">169</a>, <a href="#P170">170</a>, 
+<a href="#P171">171</a>, <a href="#P252">252</a>, <a href="#P258">258</a>, <a href="#P259">259</a>, <a href="#P331">331</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Border, <a href="#P243">243</a>, <a href="#P260">260</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Buffs (East Kent), <a href="#P214">214</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Cameron Highlanders, <a href="#P169">169</a>, <a href="#P171">171</a>, 
+<a href="#P248">248</a>, <a href="#P252">252</a>, <a href="#P253">253</a>, <a href="#P332">332</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), <a href="#P84">84</a>, 
+<a href="#P100">100</a>, <a href="#P131">131</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Cheshire, <a href="#P82">82</a>, <a href="#P83">83</a>, <a href="#P154">154</a>, <a href="#P174">174</a>, <a href="#P216">216</a>, <a href="#P321">321</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Connaught Rangers, <a href="#P94">94</a>, <a href="#P157">157</a>, <a href="#P301">301</a>, 
+<a href="#P302">302</a>, <a href="#P328">328</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Devon, <a href="#P210">210</a>, <a href="#P219">219</a>, <a href="#P224">224</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Dorset, <a href="#P207">207</a>, <a href="#P208">208</a>, <a href="#P210">210</a>, <a href="#P216">216</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Dublin Fusiliers, <a href="#P106">106</a>, <a href="#P112">112</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Duke of Cornwall's, <a href="#P62">62</a>, <a href="#P72">72</a>, <a href="#P73">73</a>, <a href="#P99">99</a>, 
+<a href="#P150">150</a>, <a href="#P151">151</a>, <a href="#P174">174</a>, <a href="#P215">215</a>, <a href="#P216">216</a>, <a href="#P224">224</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Durham Light Infantry, <a href="#P187">187</a>, <a href="#P188">188</a>, 
+<a href="#P229">229</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+East Lancashire, <a href="#P106">106</a>, <a href="#P229">229</a>, <a href="#P292">292</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+East Surrey, <a href="#P72">72</a>, <a href="#P73">73</a>, <a href="#P99">99</a>, <a href="#P103">103</a>, <a href="#P150">150</a>, 
+<a href="#P151">151</a>, <a href="#P174">174</a>, <a href="#P190">190</a>, <a href="#P215">215</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+East Yorkshire, <a href="#P187">187</a>, <a href="#P188">188</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Essex, <a href="#P105">105</a>, <a href="#P106">106</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Gloucester, <a href="#P171">171</a>, <a href="#P182">182</a>, <a href="#P248">248</a>, <a href="#P250">250</a>, 
+<a href="#P254">254</a>, <a href="#P260">260</a>, <a href="#P290">290</a>, <a href="#P291">291</a>, <a href="#P302">302</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Gordon Highlanders, <a href="#P60">60</a>, <a href="#P69">69</a>, <a href="#P72">72</a>, 
+<a href="#P78">78</a>, <a href="#P113">113</a>, <a href="#P114">114</a>, <a href="#P219">219</a>, <a href="#P259">259</a>, <a href="#P273">273</a>, <a href="#P289">289</a>, 
+<a href="#P324">324</a>, <a href="#P325">325</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Hampshire, <a href="#P106">106</a>, <a href="#P231">231</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Herts, <a href="#P321">321</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Highland Light Infantry, <a href="#P188">188</a>, 
+<a href="#P242">242</a>, <a href="#P296">296</a>, <a href="#P301">301</a>, <a href="#P302">302</a>, <a href="#P326">326</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Inniskilling Fusiliers, <a href="#P105">105</a>, <a href="#P158">158</a>, 
+<a href="#P229">229</a>, <a href="#P281">281</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Irish Fusiliers, <a href="#P106">106</a>, <a href="#P206">206</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+King's Liverpool, <a href="#P90">90</a>, <a href="#P153">153</a>, <a href="#P255">255</a>, 
+<a href="#P300">300</a>, <a href="#P301">301</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+King's Own Scottish Borderers, 
+<a href="#P61">61</a>, <a href="#P71">71</a>, <a href="#P72">72</a>, <a href="#P103">103</a>, <a href="#P209">209</a>, <a href="#P211">211</a>, <a href="#P278">278</a>, 
+<a href="#P282">282</a>, <a href="#P284">284</a>, <a href="#P285">285</a>, <a href="#P334">334</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+King's Royal Rifles, <a href="#P93">93</a>, <a href="#P153">153</a>, <a href="#P166">166</a>, 
+<a href="#P167">167</a>, <a href="#P168">168</a>, <a href="#P169">169</a>, <a href="#P182">182</a>, <a href="#P188">188</a>, <a href="#P253">253</a>, 
+<a href="#P256">256</a>, <a href="#P265">265</a>, <a href="#P268">268</a>, <a href="#P290">290</a>, <a href="#P305">305</a>, <a href="#P332">332</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Lancashire Fusiliers, <a href="#P105">105</a>, <a href="#P158">158</a>, <a href="#P229">229</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Leinster, <a href="#P229">229</a>, <a href="#P230">230</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Lincoln, <a href="#P60">60</a>, <a href="#P151">151</a>, <a href="#P174">174</a>, <a href="#P210">210</a>, <a href="#P279">279</a>, 
+<a href="#P280">280</a>, <a href="#P296">296</a>, <a href="#P324">324</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Liverpool Scottish, <a href="#P321">321</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+London Rifle Brigade, <a href="#P321">321</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+London Scottish, <a href="#P280">280</a>, <a href="#P283">283</a>, <a href="#P284">284</a>, 
+<a href="#P285">285</a>, <a href="#P296">296</a>, <a href="#P321">321</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Manchester, <a href="#P99">99</a>, <a href="#P100">100</a>, <a href="#P102">102</a>, <a href="#P216">216</a>, <a href="#P218">218</a>, 
+<a href="#P220">220</a>, <a href="#P224">224</a>, <a href="#P329">329</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Middlesex, <a href="#P60">60</a>, <a href="#P68">68</a>, <a href="#P69">69</a>, <a href="#P70">70</a>, <a href="#P72">72</a>, <a href="#P78">78</a>, 
+<a href="#P84">84</a>, <a href="#P100">100</a>, <a href="#P103">103</a>, <a href="#P131">131</a>, <a href="#P207">207</a>, <a href="#P209">209</a>, <a href="#P216">216</a>, 
+<a href="#P219">219</a>, <a href="#P230">230</a>, <a href="#P324">324</a>, <a href="#P325">325</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Monmouthshire, <a href="#P321">321</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Munster Fusiliers, <a href="#P119">119</a>, <a href="#P120">120</a>, <a href="#P154">154</a>, 
+<a href="#P169">169</a>, <a href="#P242">242</a>, <a href="#P331">331</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Norfolk, <a href="#P82">82</a>, <a href="#P109">109</a>, <a href="#P174">174</a>, <a href="#P219">219</a>, <a href="#P323">323</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Northampton, <a href="#P154">154</a>, <a href="#P166">166</a>, <a href="#P167">167</a>, <a href="#P176">176</a>, 
+<a href="#P180">180</a>, <a href="#P181">181</a>, <a href="#P252">252</a>, <a href="#P273">273</a>, <a href="#P289">289</a>, <a href="#P302">302</a>, <a href="#P332">332</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+North Lancashire, <a href="#P154">154</a>, <a href="#P166">166</a>, <a href="#P167">167</a>, 
+<a href="#P168">168</a>, <a href="#P170">170</a>, <a href="#P250">250</a>, <a href="#P253">253</a>, <a href="#P265">265</a>, <a href="#P268">268</a>, 
+<a href="#P297">297</a>, <a href="#P332">332</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Northumberland Fusiliers, <a href="#P68">68</a>, <a href="#P72">72</a>, 
+<a href="#P78">78</a>, <a href="#P208">208</a>, <a href="#P209">209</a>, <a href="#P210">210</a>, <a href="#P279">279</a>, <a href="#P280">280</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Oxford and Bucks, <a href="#P289">289</a>, <a href="#P301">301</a>, <a href="#P302">302</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Queen Victoria Rifles, <a href="#P321">321</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Queen's Westminsters, <a href="#P321">321</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Queen's (West Surrey), <a href="#P168">168</a>, <a href="#P170">170</a>, 
+<a href="#P176">176</a>, <a href="#P181">181</a>, <a href="#P182">182</a>, <a href="#P191">191</a>, <a href="#P240">240</a>, <a href="#P248">248</a>, 
+<a href="#P253">253</a>, <a href="#P259">259</a>, <a href="#P260">260</a>, <a href="#P261">261</a>, <a href="#P266">266</a>, <a href="#P271">271</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Rifle Brigade, <a href="#P106">106</a>, <a href="#P323">323</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Royal Fusiliers, <a href="#P60">60</a>, <a href="#P68">68</a>, <a href="#P70">70</a>, <a href="#P71">71</a>, <a href="#P72">72</a>, 
+<a href="#P209">209</a>, <a href="#P210">210</a>, <a href="#P212">212</a>, <a href="#P220">220</a>, <a href="#P221">221</a>, <a href="#P299">299</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Royal Irish, <a href="#P60">60</a>, <a href="#P210">210</a>, <a href="#P212">212</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Royal Irish Fusiliers, <a href="#P112">112</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Royal Irish Rifles, <a href="#P69">69</a>, <a href="#P78">78</a>, <a href="#P89">89</a>, <a href="#P219">219</a>, 
+<a href="#P220">220</a>, <a href="#P221">221</a>, <a href="#P235">235</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Royal Lancaster, <a href="#P105">105</a>, <a href="#P111">111</a>, <a href="#P229">229</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Royal Scots, <a href="#P60">60</a>, <a href="#P77">77</a>, <a href="#P114">114</a>, <a href="#P207">207</a>, <a href="#P209">209</a>, 
+<a href="#P219">219</a>, <a href="#P323">323</a>, <a href="#P324">324</a>, <a href="#P325">325</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Royal Scots Fusiliers, <a href="#P60">60</a>, <a href="#P68">68</a>, <a href="#P71">71</a>, 
+<a href="#P72">72</a>, <a href="#P103">103</a>, <a href="#P210">210</a>, <a href="#P211">211</a>, <a href="#P237">237</a>, <a href="#P241">241</a>, <a href="#P242">242</a>, 
+<a href="#P264">264</a>, <a href="#P266">266</a>, <a href="#P299">299</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Seaforth Highlanders, <a href="#P106">106</a>, <a href="#P112">112</a>, 
+<a href="#P206">206</a>, <a href="#P304">304</a>, <a href="#P330">330</a>, <a href="#P332">332</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Sherwood Foresters, <a href="#P187">187</a>, <a href="#P188">188</a>, <a href="#P227">227</a>, 
+<a href="#P228">228</a>, <a href="#P229">229</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Somerset Light Infantry, <a href="#P106">106</a>, <a href="#P229">229</a>, 
+<a href="#P231">231</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+South Lancashire, <a href="#P79">79</a>, <a href="#P88">88</a>, <a href="#P148">148</a>, <a href="#P215">215</a>, 
+<a href="#P220">220</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+South Staffordshire, <a href="#P153">153</a>, <a href="#P240">240</a>, <a href="#P244">244</a>, 
+<a href="#P253">253</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+South Wales Borderers, <a href="#P172">172</a>, <a href="#P191">191</a>, 
+<a href="#P192">192</a>, <a href="#P248">248</a>, <a href="#P249">249</a>, <a href="#P261">261</a>, <a href="#P270">270</a>, <a href="#P332">332</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Suffolk, <a href="#P99">99</a>, <a href="#P100">100</a>, <a href="#P102">102</a>, <a href="#P108">108</a>, <a href="#P224">224</a>, 
+<a href="#P321">321</a>, <a href="#P325">325</a>, <a href="#P329">329</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Sussex, <a href="#P153">153</a>, <a href="#P166">166</a>, <a href="#P167">167</a>, <a href="#P169">169</a>, <a href="#P187">187</a>, 
+<a href="#P249">249</a>, <a href="#P273">273</a>, <a href="#P289">289</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Warwick, <a href="#P106">106</a>, <a href="#P111">111</a>, <a href="#P112">112</a>, <a href="#P206">206</a>, <a href="#P240">240</a>, 
+<a href="#P243">243</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Welsh, <a href="#P172">172</a>, <a href="#P191">191</a>, <a href="#P254">254</a>, <a href="#P261">261</a>, <a href="#P266">266</a>, 
+<a href="#P268">268</a>, <a href="#P332">332</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Welsh Borderers, <a href="#P260">260</a>, <a href="#P271">271</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Welsh Fusiliers, <a href="#P84">84</a>, <a href="#P100">100</a>, <a href="#P237">237</a>, <a href="#P240">240</a>, 
+<a href="#P264">264</a>, <a href="#P323">323</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+West Kent, <a href="#P61">61</a>, <a href="#P62">62</a>, <a href="#P71">71</a>, <a href="#P72">72</a>, <a href="#P79">79</a>, <a href="#P103">103</a>, 
+<a href="#P215">215</a>, <a href="#P221">221</a>, <a href="#P222">222</a>, <a href="#P304">304</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+West Riding, <a href="#P61">61</a>, <a href="#P71">71</a>, <a href="#P79">79</a>, <a href="#P103">103</a>, <a href="#P296">296</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+West Yorkshire, <a href="#P187">187</a>, <a href="#P188">188</a>, <a href="#P190">190</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Wiltshire, <a href="#P88">88</a>, <a href="#P177">177</a>, <a href="#P190">190</a>, <a href="#P219">219</a>, <a href="#P221">221</a>, 
+<a href="#P237">237</a>, <a href="#P241">241</a>, <a href="#P242">242</a>, <a href="#P306">306</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Worcester, <a href="#P150">150</a>, <a href="#P188">188</a>, <a href="#P215">215</a>, <a href="#P216">216</a>, <a href="#P242">242</a>, 
+<a href="#P243">243</a>, <a href="#P270">270</a>, <a href="#P271">271</a>, <a href="#P292">292</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+York and Lancaster, <a href="#P214">214</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Yorkshire, <a href="#P240">240</a>, <a href="#P264">264</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Yorkshire Light Infantry, <a href="#P61">61</a>, <a href="#P71">71</a>, 
+<a href="#P103">103</a>, <a href="#P215">215</a>, <a href="#P221">221</a>, <a href="#P278">278</a>, <a href="#P282">282</a>, <a href="#P284">284</a>, <a href="#P285">285</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Royal Engineers, <a href="#P70">70</a>, <a href="#P100">100</a>, <a href="#P127">127</a>, 
+<a href="#P164">164</a>, <a href="#P175">175</a>, <a href="#P289">289</a>, <a href="#P300">300</a>, <a href="#P301">301</a>, <a href="#P302">302</a>, <a href="#P323">323</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+<br />
+<i>Indian Army&mdash;</i> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+129th Baluchis, <a href="#P279">279</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+9th Bhopal Infantry, <a href="#P220">220</a>, <a href="#P328">328</a>, <a href="#P329">329</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+2nd Gurkhas, <a href="#P330">330</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+4th Gurkhas, <a href="#P326">326</a>, <a href="#P328">328</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+8th Gurkhas, <a href="#P225">225</a>, <a href="#P331">331</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+9th Gurkhas, <a href="#P330">330</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+58th Indian Rifles, <a href="#P330">330</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+3rd Indian Sappers and Miners, <a href="#P329">329</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+6th Jats, <a href="#P330">330</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+59th (Scinde) Rifles, <a href="#P218">218</a>, <a href="#P326">326</a>, <a href="#P327">327</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+15th Sikhs, <a href="#P218">218</a>, <a href="#P219">219</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+47th Sikhs, <a href="#P218">218</a>, <a href="#P220">220</a>, <a href="#P221">221</a>, <a href="#P328">328</a>, <a href="#P331">331</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Vaughan's Indian Rifles, <a href="#P225">225</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index2">
+Wilde's 57th Rifles, <a href="#P281">281</a>, <a href="#P328">328</a>, <a href="#P329">329</a> 
+<br /><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Reynolds, Captain (R.F.A.), V.C., 
+<a href="#P110">110</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Reynolds, Captain (9th Lancers), <a href="#P149">149</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Rheims Cathedral, bombarded by 
+Germans, <a href="#P189">189</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Rickman, Major, <a href="#P106">106</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Rising, Captain, <a href="#P250">250</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Robb, Major, <a href="#P188">188</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Roberts, Lord, death of, while 
+visiting the Army in France, <a href="#P308">308</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Robertson, Sir William, <a href="#P134">134</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Rolt, General, <a href="#P61">61</a>, <a href="#P72">72</a>, <a href="#P98">98</a>, <a href="#P100">100</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ronaldson, Colonel, <a href="#P327">327</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Roper, Major, <a href="#P207">207</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Rose, Captain (Northumberland 
+Fusiliers), <a href="#P78">78</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Rose, Captain (Royal Scots Fusiliers), 
+<a href="#P71">71</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ruggles-Brise, General, <a href="#P245">245</a>, <a href="#P295">295</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Russell, Second Lieutenant, <a href="#P222">222</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ryan, Major, <a href="#P332">332</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Salisbury, late Lord, <a href="#P2">2</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Saltoun, Master of, <a href="#P115">115</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Samoa, German colony, captured by 
+New Zealand, <a href="#P312">312</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Sandilands, Captain, <a href="#P78">78</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Sandilands, Colonel, <a href="#P89">89</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Sarajevo, <a href="#P13">13</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Sarrail, General, <a href="#P145">145</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Savage, Captain, <a href="#P181">181</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Scale, Captain, <a href="#P327">327</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Sclater-Booth, Major, <a href="#P80">80</a>, <a href="#P130">130</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Scott, Admiral Sir Percy, <a href="#P42">42</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Scott-Kerr, General, <a href="#P90">90</a>, <a href="#P132">132</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Seaton, Lance-Corporal, <a href="#P281">281</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Seely, Colonel, <a href="#P158">158</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Serbia, reply to Austrian ultimatum, 
+<a href="#P15">15</a>; King of, appeals to the 
+Czar, <a href="#P15">15</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Serocold, Colonel, <a href="#P167">167</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Shaw, General, <a href="#P60">60</a>, <a href="#P78">78</a>, <a href="#P174">174</a>, <a href="#P186">186</a>, <a href="#P190">190</a>, 
+<a href="#P210">210</a>, <a href="#P211">211</a>, <a href="#P279">279</a>, <a href="#P280">280</a>, <a href="#P303">303</a>, <a href="#P324">324</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Shore, Captain, <a href="#P83">83</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Smith, Captain Bowden, <a href="#P70">70</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Smith, Colonel (Lincoln), <a href="#P280">280</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Smith, Colonel Baird (R.S.F.), <a href="#P266">266</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Smith, Colonel Osborne (Northampton), <a href="#P181">181</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Smith, General Douglas, <a href="#P324">324</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Smith, Lieutenant, <a href="#P70">70</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Smith-Dorrien, General Sir Horace, 
+<a href="#P55">55</a>, <a href="#P56">56</a>, <a href="#P60">60</a>, <a href="#P72">72</a>, <a href="#P83">83</a>, <a href="#P84">84</a>, <a href="#P88">88</a>, <a href="#P95">95</a>, 
+<a href="#P96">96</a>, <a href="#P97">97</a>, <a href="#P108">108</a>, <a href="#P109">109</a>, <a href="#P116">116</a>, <a href="#P119">119</a>, <a href="#P217">217</a>, 
+<a href="#P218">218</a>, <a href="#P220">220</a>, <a href="#P221">221</a>, <a href="#P222">222</a>, <a href="#P286">286</a>, <a href="#P295">295</a>, <a href="#P307">307</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Snow, General, <a href="#P89">89</a>, <a href="#P104">104</a>, <a href="#P106">106</a>, <a href="#P108">108</a>, 
+<a href="#P126">126</a>, <a href="#P320">320</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Solesmes, action at, <a href="#P88">88</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+South Africa, offer of service, <a href="#P34">34</a>; 
+insurrection in, <a href="#P313">313</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Spee, Admiral von, <a href="#P315">315</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Spread, Lieutenant, <a href="#P168">168</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Stephen, Captain, <a href="#P260">260</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Stewart, Captain, <a href="#P9">9</a>, <a href="#P155">155</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Strickland, Colonel, <a href="#P329">329</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Stucley, Major, <a href="#P259">259</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Sturdee, Admiral, <a href="#P315">315</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Swettenham, Major, <a href="#P122">122</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Tannenberg, battle of, <a href="#P139">139</a>, <a href="#P141">141</a>, <a href="#P316">316</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Teck, Prince Alexander of, <a href="#P226">226</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Tew, Major, <a href="#P99">99</a>, <a href="#P103">103</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Thomson, Major, <a href="#P332">332</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Thruston, Lieutenant, <a href="#P152">152</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Togoland, German colony, 
+captured by British forces, <a href="#P312">312</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Tower, Lieutenant, <a href="#P70">70</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Treitschke, <a href="#P8">8</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Trench, Captain, <a href="#P269">269</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Trevor, Major, <a href="#P103">103</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Triple Alliance and Triple Entente, <a href="#P6">6</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Tsingtau, German colony, captured 
+by Japanese, <a href="#P312">312</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Tulloch, Colonel, <a href="#P127">127</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Turner, Colonel, <a href="#P151">151</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Uniacke, Colonel, <a href="#P259">259</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Vallentin, Captain, <a href="#P294">294</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Vandeleur, Captain, <a href="#P102">102</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Vandeleur, Major, <a href="#P208">208</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Venner, Colonel, <a href="#P225">225</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Vereker, Lieutenant, <a href="#P92">92</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Vidal, General, <a href="#P290">290</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Villars-Cotteret, action of, <a href="#P132">132</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ward, Colonel, <a href="#P103">103</a>, <a href="#P126">126</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ward, Lieutenant, <a href="#P73">73</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+War Loan, success of the, <a href="#P40">40</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Warre, Major, <a href="#P168">168</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Wasme, action at, <a href="#P79">79</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Watkis, General, <a href="#P217">217</a>, <a href="#P325">325</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Watson, Lieutenant Graham, <a href="#P114">114</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Watson, Major, <a href="#P168">168</a>, <a href="#P253">253</a>, <a href="#P266">266</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Watts, General, <a href="#P295">295</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Welchmann, Lieutenant, <a href="#P78">78</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Wellesley, Lord Richard, <a href="#P259">259</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Westmacott, General, <a href="#P332">332</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+White, Second Lieutenant, <a href="#P222">222</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Willcocks, General Sir James, <a href="#P224">224</a>, 
+<a href="#P225">225</a>, <a href="#P286">286</a>, <a href="#P325">325</a>, <a href="#P333">333</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+William II., Emperor of Germany, 
+telegram to Kruger, <a href="#P3">3</a>; visits 
+England, <a href="#P3">3</a>; <a href="#P20">20</a>; his message 
+to Sir Edward Goschen, <a href="#P24">24</a>; <a href="#P28">28</a>, 
+<a href="#P48">48</a>; special appeal to his troops 
+at Ypres, <a href="#P261">261</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Williams, Captain, <a href="#P271">271</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Williams, General, <a href="#P230">230</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Wilson, Colonel (Blues), <a href="#P293">293</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Wilson, Colonel (R.E.), <a href="#P127">127</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Wilson, General, <a href="#P86">86</a>, <a href="#P104">104</a>, <a href="#P106">106</a>, <a href="#P281">281</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Wing, General, <a href="#P110">110</a>, <a href="#P224">224</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Wormald, Colonel, <a href="#P122">122</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Worsley, Lord, <a href="#P263">263</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Wright, Captain Theodore, <a href="#P70">70</a>, <a href="#P175">175</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Würtemberg, Duke of, <a href="#P141">141</a>, <a href="#P144">144</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Wyatt, Corporal, <a href="#P92">92</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Yate, Major, V.C., <a href="#P103">103</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Ypres, first battle of, <a href="#P232">232-310</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Zandvoorde, fight of, <a href="#P262">262</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p class="index">
+Zillebeke, action of, <a href="#P292">292</a> 
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+<i>Printed in Great Britain by</i> R. &amp; R. CLARK, LIMITED, <i>Edinburgh.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS 1914 ***</div>
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author	nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org>	2025-01-23 03:53:55 -0800
committer	nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org>	2025-01-23 03:53:55 -0800
commit	7034766c143f4595bc76d9c32c1dc46a730030a1 (patch)
tree	aba4172e4b0e055190e5b19366c5d8431d8944aa