The Doings 
 
 of the 
 FIFTEENTH 
 INFANTRY 
 BRIGADE 
 
 August 1 9 14 
 to March 1915 
 
 by 
 ITS COMMANDER
 
 CLIVEDEN LIBRARY 
 
 ShelJ.A 
 Number 
 Date .. .0^1-1^.
 
 The Doings of the 
 
 Fifteenth Infantry Brigade 
 
 August 19 14 to March 191 5
 
 The Doings of the 
 
 Fifteenth Infantry Brigade 
 
 August 1 9 14 to March 19 15 
 
 BY 
 
 ITS COMMANDER 
 
 Brigadier-General COUNT GLEICHEN, 
 
 (now Major-General Lord Edward Gleichen), 
 
 K.C.V.O., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. 
 
 William Blackv/ood & Sons 
 
 Edinburgh and London 
 
 1917 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The following pages — not in the first in- 
 stance intended for publication — contain an 
 expanded version of the very scrappy Diary 
 which I kept in France from day to day. 
 
 The version was intended for private 
 home consumption only, and has necessarily 
 had to be pruned of certain personal matters 
 before being allowed to make its bow to 
 the public. I have purposely refrained from 
 adding to it in the light of subsequent 
 events. 
 
 I trust that the reader will consequently 
 bear in mind the essentially individual and 
 impressionist aspects of this little work, 
 and will not expect to find either rigidly 
 historical, professional, or critical matter 
 therein. 
 
 G. 
 
 14th August 1917.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 UP TO THE EVE OF MONS 
 THE BATTLE OF MONS 
 MONS TO LB CATEAU 
 LB CATEAU 
 THB RETREAT 
 THE ADVANCE 
 THB MARNE 
 TO THE AISNE 
 
 THE AISNE 
 
 WESTWARD HO ! 
 
 ABBEVILLE TO BETHUNE 
 
 GIVENCHY AND FESTUBERT . 
 
 TO BAILLBUL ... 
 
 TO TPRES .... 
 
 THE FIRST BATTLE OF TPRES 
 
 BACK TO LOCRE 
 
 TRENCH LIFE OPPOSITE MESS1NE8 
 
 GIVING UP COMMAND . 
 
 PAGES 
 
 1-21 
 
 22-38 
 
 39-43 
 
 44-56 
 
 57 - 86 
 
 87-93 
 
 94-102 
 
 103-111 
 
 112-140 
 
 141-149 
 
 150-157 
 
 158-198 
 
 199-205 
 
 . 206-208 
 
 209-248 
 
 249-251 
 
 252-280 
 
 281-283
 
 SKETCH-MAPS. 
 
 BOUSSU-WASMES 
 MIS8Y-0N-AISNE 
 GIVENCHY-VIOLAINBS . 
 THE FOOTBRIDGE OVEP 
 BEDKENHORST (nEAR YPRES) 
 THE MESSINES FRONT 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 • • •   
 
 28 
 
 . 
 
 . 123 
 
 . 
 
 . 167 
 
 THE CANAL 
 
 . 175 
 
 PRES) 
 
 . 211 
 
 . 
 
 . 255 
 
 ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 SOME OF BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS 
 
 Frontispiece
 
 The Doings of the 
 
 Fifteenth Infantry Brigade. 
 
 August 1 9 14 to March 191 5. 
 
 In accordance with the order received at 
 Belfast at 5.30 p.m. on the 4th, the 15th 
 Brigade started mobilizing on the 5th 
 August 1914, and by the 10th was complete 
 in all respects. We were practically ready 
 by the 9th, but a machine-gun or two and 
 some harness were a bit late arriving from 
 Dublin — not our fault. Everything had 
 already been rehearsed at mobilization in- 
 spections, held as usual in the early summer, 
 and all went like clock-work. On the 8th 
 we got our final orders to embark on the 
 14th, and on the 11th the embarkation 
 orders arrived in detail. 
 
 Brigade Headquarters consisted of myself. 
 Captain Weatherby (Oxford L.I.) as Brigade
 
 2 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 Major, Captain Moulton - Barrett (Dorsets), 
 Staff Captain, Captain Roe (Dorsets), Brigade 
 Machine - Gun Officer, Lieutenant Cadell, 
 R.E., Signalling Officer, and Lieutenant 
 Beilby, Brigade Veterinary Officer. Military 
 Police, A.S.C. drivers, postmen, and all sorts 
 of odds and ends arrived from apparently 
 novehere in particular, and fitted together 
 with extraordinary little effort. The bat- 
 talions grew to unheard-of sizes, and by the 
 time that all was complete the Brigade 
 numbered 127 officers, 3958 men, 258 horses, 
 and 74 vehicles. 
 
 Aug. 14:th. 
 
 The Cheshires^ and Bedfords^ arrived by 
 train in the early morning of the 14th from 
 'Derry and Mullingar and Tvent straight on 
 board their ships — Brigade Headquarters, 
 Dorsets,^ and half the Norfolks* being in 
 one, Cheshires and the other half of the 
 Norfolks in another, and the Bedfords in a 
 third. 
 
 Great waving of handkerchiefs and cheer- 
 
 1 1st Batt. (Lieut.-Col. D. C. Boger). 
 
 2 1st Batt. (Lieut.-Col. C. E. Griffith, D.S.O.). 
 
 3 1st Batt. (Lieut. -Col. L. J. Bols, D.S.O.). 
 " 1st Batt. (Lieut. -Col. C. R. Ballard).
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 3 
 
 ing as we warped slowly out of Belfast 
 docks at 3 p.m. and moved slowly down the 
 channel. 
 
 Aug. 16th. 
 
 The weather was beautifully fine on the 
 passage, and on the 16th we all arrived at 
 our destination. 
 
 The Bedfords had arrived on the previous 
 tide to ourselves, and were already fast 
 alongside the quay. Orders were received 
 from the Disembarking Officer, and we dis- 
 embarked and formed up independently and 
 marched off to Rest Camp No. 8, six miles 
 off on the hills above Havre. 
 
 It had been pouring heavily on shore for 
 two days, though it was quite fine when we 
 landed; so the ground where we were to 
 encamp was mostly sopping. It was not 
 easy to find in the dark, especially as the 
 sketch-maps with which we were provided 
 most distinctly acted up to their names. 
 Added to these difficulties, a motor -lorry 
 had stuck on the way up and blocked our 
 transport for the night. I rode ahead alone, 
 but had immense difficulty in finding the 
 Brigade Headquarters Camp, which was 
 quite a long way from the other battalion
 
 4 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 camps. These were dotted on the open 
 fields at some distance from each other, 
 and pitched in no particular order, so that 
 by the time I had got my bearings and 
 brought in the battalions, it was about 
 11 P.M. There was of course no baggage, 
 nor anything to sleep on except the bare 
 ground under the tents, "with our saddles 
 for pillows ; and as a pleasant excitement 
 nearly all our horses stampeded about 2 A.M., 
 tore up their picketing-pegs from the soft 
 ground, and disappeared into the darkness 
 in different directions. 
 
 Aug. nth. 
 
 Daylight, however, brought relief, and a 
 certain amount of our transport ; and all the 
 horses were discovered in course of time 
 and brought back. Most of the morning 
 was spent, unsuccessfully, in trying to bring 
 up the remaining transport up a steep and 
 narrow road which was the only alternative 
 to the blocked one. But some of the horses 
 jibbed, and we had eventually to give it up 
 and bring up supplies by hand. 
 
 The battalions were comfortably settled 
 down under the expectation of another 
 night there ; but at 2.15 p.m. we got orders 
 to move off by train at night. This we did
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 5 
 
 from three different stations, at times vary- 
 ing from 12 midnight to 5.45 A.M., having 
 arrived according to order at the stations 
 four hours previously. This is the French 
 system, allowing four hours for the entrain- 
 ing of a unit. Although a lot of man- 
 handling had to be done, and the trucks 
 were not what we had been accustomed to, 
 we all entrained in about forty minutes, so 
 had any amount of time to spare. 
 
 Silver (my first charger) was very bobbery 
 as usual, and it took a good half -hour to 
 persuade him to enter his truck. Once in, 
 he slept like a lamb. 
 
 Aug. 18th. 
 
 We were comfortable enough, though 
 packed like sardines, and with three-quarters 
 of an hour's rest at Rouen for coffee, and 
 another rest at Amiens — where we heard 
 that poor General Grierson, our Corps Com- 
 mander, was dead — broke a blood - vessel 
 in the train — we arrived at Busigny at 
 2.15 P.M. Here we found Captain Hyslop ^ 
 (Dorsets), who had been sent ahead from 
 Belfast, and who gave us orders to detrain 
 at Le Cateau, a few miles farther on. I 
 
 1 Hyslop was very severely wounded six days afterwards 
 and taken prisoner, but exchanged later on.
 
 6 TPIE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 must say that all these disembarking and 
 training arrangements were extraordinarily 
 well done, and reflected great credit on the 
 Allied staffs combined. No hitch, no fuss, 
 no worry, everybody got their orders in 
 time, and all necessary arrangements had 
 been carefully thought out beforehand. 
 
 We arrived at Le Gateau at 3.10 p.m., and 
 detrained in half an hour, baggage and all. 
 The battalions marched off to their billets, — 
 Dorsets and Headquarters to Ors, the other 
 three battalions to Pommereuil : nice clean 
 little villages both of them. 
 
 When about halfway out to Ors — I was 
 riding on ahead of the Brigade with only 
 Weatherby — we were met by a motor bikist 
 with a cypher telegram for me. This stumped 
 us completely, as, not yet having reported 
 to the Division, we had not yet received the 
 local field cypher- word ; so, seeing a car 
 approaching with some " brass hats " in it, 
 I rode across the road and stopped it, with 
 a view to getting the key. To my horror, 
 Sir John French and Sir A. Murray de- 
 scended from the car and demanded to know 
 why I had stopped them. I explained and 
 apologised, and they were very pleasant 
 about it ; but on looking at the wire they
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 7 
 
 said that I could disregard it, as they knew 
 what it was about, and it was of no par- 
 ticular importance by this time; so we pur- 
 sued our way in peace. 
 
 The billeting had already been done for 
 us by our (5th) Divisional Staff, and we 
 found no difficulty in shaking down. 
 
 I was billeted on a small elderly lady of 
 the name of Madame W , who was kind- 
 ness itself, and placed herself and her house 
 at our disposal ; but I regret to say that 
 when our men, in search of firewood, picked 
 up some old bits of plank lying about in 
 the garden, she at first made a shocking 
 fuss, tried to make out that it was a whole 
 timber stack of new wood, and demanded 
 fifty francs compensation. She eventually 
 took two francs and was quite content. 
 
 Here it was that Saint Andre joined us, 
 having been cast off by the 5th Divisional 
 Staff at Landrecies as a superfluous inter- 
 preter. Looking like an ordinary French 
 subaltern with a pince-nez, he was in fact 
 a Protestant pastor from Tours, son of the 
 Vicomte de Saint Andre, very intelligent and 
 "cultured," with a great sense of humour 
 and extremely keen. I really cannot speak 
 too highly of him, for he was a most use-
 
 8 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 ful addition to the Staff. In billeting and 
 requisitioning, and in all matters requiring 
 tact in connection with the inhabitants or 
 the French Army, he was invaluable. I used 
 him later as A.D.C. in action, and as Officier 
 de liaison with the French troops. I don't 
 know what his knowledge of divinity may 
 have been, but if it was anything like 
 equal to his military knowledge it must 
 have been considerable. He had studied 
 theology at Edinburgh, and his English 
 was very fluent, luckily untouched by a 
 Scottish accent. He was always bubbling 
 over with vitality and go, and plunged 
 into English with the recklessness of his 
 race ; when he couldn't express himself 
 clearly he invented words which were the 
 joy of the Mess,— " pilliate," " whizzle," "con- 
 temporative,'' and dozens of others that I 
 can't remember ; and what used to charm 
 us particularly was that he so often went 
 out of his way to put the accent on the 
 wrong syllable, such as in bilyetting, bri- 
 gade, attack, ambassador, &c. He was, 
 indeed, a great acquisition to the Brigade.^ 
 
 1 He was subsequently awarded the D.S.O. and Croix 
 de Guerre (aux Palmes) for excellent and gallant work 
 achieved under fire.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 9 
 
 Aug. 19 th. 
 
 Next morning I rode across to have a 
 look at the other battalions. The trans- 
 port horses of the Cheshires were perhaps 
 not all they might have been, but it was 
 the particular stamp of Derry horse that 
 was at fault, and not the battalion arrange- 
 ments. Otherwise we were ready for the 
 fray. 
 
 Aug. 20th. 
 
 We had arrived on the Tuesday (18th), 
 and on the Thursday Sir C. Fergusson 
 (commanding 5th Division) paraded the 
 Brigade by battalions and made them a 
 short speech, telling us we were to move 
 on the morrow, and giving us a few tech- 
 nical tips about the Germans and how to 
 meet their various wiles, largely about 
 machine-guns and their methods of attack 
 in large numbers. The Bedfords were the 
 most interested audience, and interrupted 
 him every now and then with " 'Ear, 'ear,' 
 and a little handclapping at important 
 points. I think the General was a little 
 nonplussed at this attention : I know I 
 was. Whether it was due or not to the 
 audience being accustomed to attending
 
 10 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 political meetings at home, or to the air of 
 Bedfordshire being extremely vitalising I 
 don't know, but once or twice afterwards 
 when the battalion was addressed by General 
 Smith Dorrien/ and even by Sir J. French, 
 they showed their approbation in the 
 manner above set forth — somewhat to my 
 confusion. 
 
 Aug. 2lst. 
 
 Next day we moved off early. I already 
 found myself overburdened with kit — al- 
 though I had not even as much as the 
 regulation 150 lb. — and I left a camp-bed 
 and a thick waistcoat and various odds 
 and ends behind in Madame W 's cup- 
 board, under the firm belief that I might 
 at some future period send for it if I 
 wanted it. Alas ! the Germans have now 
 been at Ors for close on three years. 
 
 A hot march of about fifteen miles brought 
 us to Gommignies. Stragglers, I regret to 
 say, were already many — all of them re- 
 servists, who had not carried a pack for 
 years. They had every intention of keep- 
 ing up, of course, but simply could not. 
 I talked to several of them and urged 
 
 ^ Commanding of course the 2nd Corps (composed of the 
 3rd and 5th Divisions).
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 11 
 
 them along, but the answer was always 
 the same — " Oh, I'll get along all right, sir, 
 after a bit of rest ; but I ain't accustomed 
 to carrying a big weight like this on a 
 hot day," and their scarlet streaming faces 
 certainly bore out their views. To do them 
 justice, they practically all did turn up. 
 I was afraid that, in spite of great care 
 and the numerous orders I had issued 
 about the fitting and greasing of new 
 boots, it was the boots which were at 
 fault ; but it was not so, except in a very 
 few cases. 
 
 Our billeting parties had, of course, been 
 sent ahead and started on their work. It 
 was naturally quite new work to them, 
 and it took a lot of time at first — two and 
 three hours — before the men were settled. 
 Nowadays it takes half an hour, or at most 
 an hour, as everybody knows his job, and 
 also takes what is given him at once, 
 squash or no squash. After a little cam- 
 paigning men very quickly find out that it 
 is better to shake down at once, even in 
 uncomfortable billets, than to hang about 
 and try to get better ones. Here we got 
 first touch, though very indirectly, with 
 the enemy, in the shape of a French 
 patrol of Chasseurs a Cheval (in extra-
 
 12 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 ordinarily voyant light -blue tunics and 
 shakos), who had come in from somewhere 
 north after having seen some "Uhlans" 
 and hunted them off. I sent the news, 
 such as it was, on to the Division. 
 
 And here I must lay stress on the fact 
 that throughout the campaign we did not 
 know in the least what was happening 
 elsewhere. Beyond the fact that the 3rd 
 Division was somewhere on our right, and 
 that the French cavalry was believed to 
 be covering our left front, we did not 
 know at this period what the movement 
 was about or where the Germans were 
 supposed to be. We trusted to our 
 superiors to do what was necessary, and 
 plunged blindly into the " fog of war." 
 
 The usual proceedings on the ordinary 
 line of march were that, on receiving 
 "Divisional Orders," which arrived at any 
 time in the afternoon, or often at night, 
 we compiled "Brigade Orders" on them. 
 Divisional Orders give one first of all any 
 information about the enemy which it is 
 advisable to impart, then the intention of 
 the Divisional General — whether he means 
 to fight on the morrow, or march, or stay 
 where he is, &c., &c. ; and if he means to
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 13 
 
 march he gives the direction in which the 
 Division is to proceed, the order of march, 
 by brigades, artillery, divisional troops such 
 as R.E., heavy batteries, divisional cavalry, 
 &c., &c., and generally says where and 
 how the transport is to march, whether 
 with its own trooj)s or some way behind, 
 and if so, where ; and gives directions as 
 to the supplies, where the refilling-point, 
 rendezvous for supply carts, and railhead 
 are, and many other odds and ends, es- 
 pecially as to which brigade is to provide 
 the advanced- or rear-guard, who is to 
 command it, at what time the head of the 
 column and the heads of all the forma- 
 tions are to pass a given point, and so on. 
 On receiving these orders we have to make 
 out and issue similarly composed Brigade 
 Orders in detail, giving the order of march 
 of the battalions and Brigade Headquarters, 
 how much rations are to be carried on the 
 men and in the cook-waggons, what is to 
 happen to the supply and baggage waggons, 
 whether B transport (vehicles not absolutely 
 necessary in the fighting line) are to be 
 with the A transport in rear of their re- 
 spective battalions, or to be bunched up 
 by themselves behind the Brigade, with
 
 14 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 similar detailed orders about the advanced- 
 guard or rear-guard, and the time to a 
 minute as to when each detail is to pass 
 a given point, the position of the Brigadier 
 in the column, the point to which reports 
 are to be sent, &c., &c. These orders might 
 be written in anything from fifteen to fifty 
 minutes according to the movement re- 
 quired, and then had to be quadruplicated 
 and sent out to the battalions by their 
 respective orderlies, or by wire. By the 
 time the battalions had written out and 
 transmitted their own orders to their com- 
 panies it was sometimes very late indeed ; 
 but as the campaign went on, orders got 
 more and more simplified somehow, and 
 things got done quicker than at the be- 
 ginning of the premier pas. 
 
 The country through which we were 
 passing was that technically described by 
 novelists as " smiling." That is to say, it 
 was pretty, in a mild sort of way, clean, 
 green, w^ith tidy farmhouses and cottages, 
 and fields about ripe for the harvest. Plenty 
 of orchards there were too, with lots of 
 fruit - trees alongside the roads, and the 
 people were most kind in offering us fruit 
 and milk and water and coffee and even
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 15 
 
 wine as we went along. But this could not 
 be allowed on the march, as it would have 
 led to men falling out without permission, 
 and also to drinking more than was good 
 for them whilst marching. Except, therefore, 
 occasionally, and then only during the ten 
 minutes' halt that we had in each hour, I 
 did not allow these luxuries to be accepted. 
 Gommignies was a nice shady little town, 
 and the Notaire gave me an excellent bed- 
 room in his big house ; whilst I remember 
 that I made acquaintance there with the 
 excellent penny cigar of the country. 
 
 Aug. 22nd. 
 
 Off at cock-crow next day, the country 
 got uglier, blacker, more industrial, and 
 more thickly populated as we pushed on 
 through the heat, and by the time we 
 crossed the Belgian frontier we felt indeed 
 that we were in another land. 
 
 The beastly paved road with cobbles, just 
 broad enough for one vehicle and extremely 
 painful to the feet, whilst the remainder of 
 the road on both sides was deep in dust or 
 caked mud, was a most offensive feature ; 
 the people staring and crowding round the 
 troops were quite a different type from the
 
 16 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 courteous French peasants ; and whilst in 
 France not a single able-bodied civilian had 
 been visible — all having joined the Army — 
 in Belgium the streets were crowded with 
 men who, we felt most strongly, ought 
 to have been fighting in the ranks. 
 
 There was a great block in Dour, which 
 we reached after a fourteen - mile march, 
 and in spite of all attempts at keeping the 
 streets clear it was some time before we 
 could get through. Part of the Division 
 was halting there for the night, and the 
 municipal authorities were extremely slow 
 in allotting billets and keeping their civilian 
 waggons in order. 
 
 From Dour onwards it was a big straggling 
 sort of suburban town — tramways down the 
 side, dirty little houses lining the street, 
 great chimneys belching (I believe that is 
 the correct term) volumes of black smoke, 
 huge mountains of slag in all directions, 
 rusty brickfields littered with empty tins, 
 old paper, and bits of iron, and other 
 similarly unlovely views. The only thing 
 to be said in favour of this industrial scrap- 
 heap was that the smoke was not quite 
 so sooty as it looked, and things one touched 
 did not " come off " quite so black as might
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 17 
 
 have been expected. Otherwise there was 
 no attraction. 
 
 Half a mile on or more was Bois de 
 Boussu, and here we were halted to allow 
 of a cavalry brigade moving down the street. 
 We waited some time, and eventually it 
 arrived, not coming down the street but 
 across it from east to west. I am ashamed 
 to say that I have forgotten which it was, 
 but the 4th Dragoon Guards, I think, were in 
 it. They crossed at a trot, men and horses 
 both looking very fit and workmanlike, and 
 disappeared westwards through the haze 
 of the factories ; any more impossible 
 country for cavalry — except perhaps the 
 London Docks — I have never seen. 
 
 We shortly afterwards got orders to billet 
 in Bois de Boussu and Dour, the real Boussu 
 being another half mile on. But where 
 the whole countryside was one vast strag- 
 gling town, it was impossible to say where 
 one town ended and the other began. Even 
 the inhabitants didn't know. 
 
 Moulton - Barrett and Saint Andre had 
 already got to work on the billeting, and 
 the Norfolks and Cheshires were shortly 
 accommodated in some factories up the 
 road, whilst the Bedfords and Dorsets were 
 
 B
 
 18 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 moved back nearly into Dour, into a brew- 
 ery and some mine -offices respectively, if I 
 remember rightly. Brigade Headquarters 
 was installed in an ultra-modern Belgian 
 house and garden belonging to one M. Durez, 
 a very civil little man, head of some local 
 mining concern. There was a Madame 
 Durez too, plump and good-natured, and 
 a girl and a boy, and they were profuse in 
 their hospitality. The only drawback about 
 the meals, excellent as they were, was the 
 appalling length of time occupied in their 
 preparation and consumption ; it was almost 
 impossible to get away from them, even 
 though there was so much to do. 
 
 So much was there to be done that I feel 
 now as though we had been there a week, 
 or at least three days ; but on looking at 
 my diary I find we arrived there at midday 
 on Saturday the 22nd, and left at midnight 
 on Sunday the 23rd. 
 
 On the Saturday afternoon there were 
 rumours of the Germans being on the other 
 side of the Mons-Conde Canal, not far ofp. 
 The 13th and 14th Brigades were in front 
 of us, strung out and holding the Canal 
 line, ourselves being in Divisional Reserve. 
 Where the exact left of the 5th Division
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 19 
 
 was I cannot remember at this moment, 
 but I am sure that it was not farther west 
 than Pommeroeul bridge, with, I believe, 
 French or English cavalry on its left. 
 
 Saturday afternoon was spent in studying 
 the ground in our front and looking to 
 the approaches and the arrangements for 
 the Brigade. Our front was of course well 
 covered, but there were numerous little 
 matters to be seen to and a certain amount 
 of confabulation with the Divisional Staff, 
 which lived in the midst of a perpetual 
 va-et-vient at the railway station at Dour. 
 Our horses were picketed out in M. Durez's 
 garden and the grubby little fields close by, 
 and the Signal section and all the vehicles 
 were stowed away there as best could be 
 arranged ; but all was enclosed, cramped, 
 and unhandy, and the difficulty was to get 
 a clear space anywhere. I walked with 
 M. Durez in the evening to a tiny mound in 
 his garden, from which he assured me a 
 good view could be got ; but although the 
 sunset and colouring through the haze 
 was rather picturesque, one couldn't see 
 much. Durez was very apprehensive about 
 his family and himself, and was most urgent 
 in his inquiries as to what was going to
 
 20 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 happen. I could not tell him much beyond 
 the rumour that the German force in front 
 was reported not to be very big, and I 
 advised him to stick it out as long as he 
 could ; but he was restless, with good reason 
 as it turned out, and settled next day to 
 take himself and his family away whilst 
 there was yet time. 
 
 Aug. 23rd. 
 
 Next morning I got orders to go with 
 Lieut. - Col. Tulloch, the Divisional Com- 
 manding Royal Engineer, to select a defen- 
 sive position and entrench it. We got into 
 a car, and went buzzing about in front of 
 Boussu and round to the right as far as 
 Wasmes ; but I never saw such a hopeless 
 place. There was no field of fire anywhere 
 except to the left, just where the railway 
 crossed the Boussu road, where, strange to 
 say, the country opened out on to a " glacis- 
 like" slope of stubble. Going was bad, up 
 broken little roads over ground composed 
 of a bewildering variety of slag-heaps 40 to 
 150 feet high, intersected with railway lines, 
 mine heads, chimneys, industrial buildings, 
 furnaces, and usines of all sorts, and thicken- 
 ing into suburbs consisting of narrow wind-
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 21 
 
 ing little streets and grubby little work- 
 men's houses. Here and there were open 
 spaces and even green fields, but nowhere 
 could a continuous field of fire be obtained. 
 The only thing was to select various points 
 d'appui with some sort of command, and 
 try and connect them up by patches of 
 entrenchments ; but even this was very 
 difficult, as the line was so long and broken 
 that no unity of command was possible, and 
 the different patches were so separated and 
 so uneven, some having to be in front of 
 the general line and some in rear, that 
 they often could not flank or even see each 
 other. 
 
 At about midday several cyclists came 
 riding back in a great hurry from the 
 Canal, saying they had been attacked by a 
 big force of cavalry and been badly cut up ; 
 that they had lost all their officers and 
 20 or 30 men killed, and the rest taken 
 prisoners. This was hardly a good begin- 
 ning, but it eventually turned out that the 
 grand total losses were 1 officer (Corah of 
 the Bedfords) slightly wounded, 2 men 
 killed, and 3 missing. 
 
 Shortly after this the first German gun 
 was heard — at 12.40 p.m. I timed it — and
 
 22 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 for the rest of the afternoon there was 
 intermittent bombardment and numerous 
 shell-bursts in the direction of the Canal, 
 some of it our own Horse Artillery, but 
 mostly German. 
 
 When we had roughly settled on our line, 
 I shouted to a crowd of curious natives who 
 had come out to watch us, and did not seem 
 particularly friendly — as they were not at 
 all sure that we were not Germans — to get 
 all their friends together with pickaxes and 
 shovels and start digging entrenchments 
 where we showed them. It was Sunday 
 afternoon, and all the miners were loafing 
 about with nothing to do. The idea rapidly 
 caught on, and soon they were hurrying off 
 home for their tools, whilst we got hold 
 of the best-dressed and most authoritative- 
 looking men and showed them what we 
 wanted done. It was scratch work, in more 
 senses than one, as we had no time to lose 
 and could not superintend, but had to tear 
 from one point to another, raising men and 
 showing them where the lines were to go, 
 how deep the trenches were to be made, 
 which way the earth was to be thrown, 
 and all the rest of it. 
 
 On our way round we came also upon some
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 23 
 
 batteries of field artillery, disconsolately 
 wending their way through the narrow 
 streets, and with their reconnoitring officers 
 out in all directions looking for positions ; 
 but they found none, and the Artillery did 
 but little in the way of shooting that night. 
 With their present experience I expect they 
 would have done a good deal more. 
 
 Then we tore back, and I got the bat- 
 talions out, or rather two companies of each 
 battalion, set them to work, and sent out 
 their other two companies to support them. 
 The Norfolks were on the left, at the station, 
 and eastwards down the line. Then came 
 the Cheshires, a bit thrown back, in beastly 
 enclosed country for the most part. One 
 of the big slag-heaps had seemed to ofPer a 
 good command, but to our disgust it was so 
 hot that we could hardly stand on it, so that 
 had to be given up. Other heaps again 
 seemed to give a good position, and they 
 were fairly cool ; but when we scrambled 
 up there was always something wrong — 
 either there were more slag-heaps in front 
 which blocked the view, or the heap ran 
 to a point and there was not room for more 
 than two men, or the slag-ridge faced the 
 wrong way — it was a nightmare of a place.
 
 24 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 Beyond the Cheshires came the Dorsets 
 and Bedfords, pretty well together, and 
 occupying some trenches on a high railway 
 embankment, &c., but the position was not 
 really satisfactory, and if attacked in force 
 at night it would be very difficult to see or 
 guard against the approach of the enemy. 
 Nor, as I heard afterwards, had the in- 
 habitants dug the trenches anything like 
 deep enough, so that they formed but poor 
 protection against the rain of shells that 
 began to pour on them at nightfall. 
 
 All pointed to an attack by the enemy 
 during the night or next day, but even 
 then we had not the smallest idea of the 
 enormous forces arrayed against us. We 
 were told at first that there was perhaps 
 a corps in front of us, but as a matter of 
 fact there were three, if not four corps. 
 
 Having distributed the battalions as or- 
 dered — I had no Brigade Reserve in hand, 
 having to cover such a broad front (nearly 
 three miles, when my normal front, accord- 
 ing to the text-books, should have been 
 about 1000 yards) — myself and Brigade 
 Headquarters were left rather "by our 
 lone." M. and Madame Durez were packing 
 up hard all, and disappeared with their
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 25 
 
 friends and family before dinner in a big 
 motor-car, making in the direction of Bavai 
 St Waast, to the south, where they had 
 friends ; as, however, we retired through 
 there next day I don't expect they stayed 
 long, but continued their journey into 
 France. I don't know what became of 
 them. They had been most hospitable, 
 and placed the house and everything in it, 
 even a final dinner, at our disposal ; but the 
 poor people were, of course, in a great state 
 of perturbation, and there was not much 
 except the house itself that we could make 
 use of. 
 
 As we were finishing dinner further orders 
 arrived from the Division. Weatherby and 
 I cantered down to the Divisional Staff to 
 learn details, and we got them shortly, to 
 the effect that the Cheshires and Norfolks 
 were to be left under direct command of the 
 Divisional Commander, whilst Brigade Head- 
 quarters was to be at Paturages by sunrise 
 on the morrow, and to hold that with our 
 other two battalions on the right. 
 
 We "fell in" the Brigade Headquarters 
 about midnight and, after some trouble in 
 securing guides, moved off through a laby- 
 rinth of streets in the warm dark. Our
 
 26 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 guides were local men, and we did not take 
 long to get to Warquignies, in the main 
 street of which we met the Headquarters of 
 the 13th Brigade, minus their Brigadier. 
 Here also were the K.O.S.B.'s in bivouac, 
 acting as Brigade Reserve to their (13th) 
 Brigade. The night was peaceful, and we 
 pushed on after a short rest, getting at 
 dawn to a steep hill which led down into 
 Paturages. 
 
 Aug. 24:th. 
 
 The latter was a fine big town with paved 
 streets and prosperous-looking houses, very 
 different from the grubby streets of Boussu ; 
 but I was troubled about the hill street, as 
 it was very steep and bad and narrow. How 
 we should get the transport up it again in 
 a hurry if it had to retire I did not know, 
 and two eminently respectable inhabitants 
 assured me that there was no other way 
 back unless I went right up to Wasmes — 
 from which direction firing was already 
 beginning — and returned via the north. 
 That didn't look healthy for the transport, 
 so I left most of the Brigade transport at 
 the top of the hill and only brought down 
 the Signal section.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 27 
 
 At the entrance into Paturages we found 
 Currie, Cuthbert's (13th Brigade) Brigade 
 Major, but Cuthbert was not there, so it 
 was a little difficult to combine any action. 
 However, we learnt that the other three 
 battalions of the 13th Brigade were dis- 
 tributed in front of us on the north, and 
 I received a message that the Dorsets and 
 Bedfords had been obliged to fall back 
 during the night and were holding the 
 railway station at Wasmes and a bit east 
 of that. The 13th Brigade had been along 
 the line of the Canal the previous day and 
 had been driven back by superior numbers, 
 but had blown up some of the bridges. I 
 heard afterwards that young Pottinger, a 
 subaltern of the 17th Co. R.E., had been 
 entrusted with blowing up one bridge, and 
 that the charge had failed to explode. 
 Whereupon he advanced under heavy fire 
 close to the charge and had gallantly fired 
 his revolver at it, which of course, as he 
 knew, would have blown him sky-high with 
 the bridge had he hit it. But either he 
 missed the shot altogether or he hit the 
 wrong part, and the thing didn't explode. 
 And then he found himself cut off by 
 Germans who had crossed elsewhere, and
 
 28 
 
 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 he had to leg it. So, unfortunately, that 
 bridge was left intact. 
 
 I trotted ahead alone to try and find the 
 Dorsets or the Bedfords, leaving Weatherby 
 with other instructions. It was a long way 
 to the station (Paturages by name, but 
 
 Canal 
 
 
 i\ 
 
 Boussu 
 
 Germans 
 
 Warquignies 
 J)our to Pdlurages n.fioul 7 miles 
 
 Paturages Station 
 
 Fra merles 
 
 really in Wasmes), but I eventually found 
 Griffith (O.C. Bedfords) and most of his 
 men thereabouts. The Germans had ap- 
 parently got round to the east, but we were 
 holding them. The Dorsets were a bit 
 further to the south-east, and I found them 
 after a good many wrong turnings : and 
 then there was little to do but pick up
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 29 
 
 connection with whoever I could. By this 
 time my staff had come up, and Weatherby 
 and I cantered off to find General Haking, 
 who, I understood, had brought up his 5th 
 Brigade from the 2nd Division (1st Corps), 
 and was somewhere towards Frameries. 
 Him we found after some trouble, with 
 only one battalion in action in fairly open 
 country. It appeared that a message had 
 been sent the night before from the 3rd 
 Division that the Germans were threaten- 
 ing Paturages and going to attack in 
 force, and help was most urgently re- 
 quired ; so General Haig had despatched 
 Haking in a great hurry. The 5th Brigade 
 made a forced march and arrived at Patu- 
 rages at 2 A.M., perspiring profusely. Not a 
 sound. Fearing an ambush, they walked 
 delicately, with scouts well out in front 
 and to both flanks. Not a sign either of 
 the British or the Germans, — empty streets, 
 no one about, all quiet as death. So they 
 bivouacked in the streets and were now 
 thinking of falling back on their own 
 corps, as there were only a few Germans 
 in front of them and these wouldn't 
 advance. 
 
 Where the 3rd Division exactly were I
 
 30 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 could not at first find out, though I tried; 
 but I knew that they were holding the 
 country in the direction of Mons. Any- 
 way, except for a good many shells flying 
 about, there was very little of the enemy 
 to see or hear, and Paturages was safe at 
 all events for the present. 
 
 The Dorsets and Bedfords, however, had 
 had a pretty bad time on the previous 
 evening, and had lost a number of men, 
 though they had given the Germans a 
 good deal more than they got. The Ger- 
 man shelling had been fairly accurate, and 
 their infantry had pushed on between the 
 slag -heaps and got their machine-guns to 
 work under cover in a horribly efficient 
 manner. Eventually our battalions had to 
 evacuate their trenches as their right flank 
 was being turned, and they fell back on 
 Wasmes and Paturages, leaving most of 
 their packs behind them in the trenches. 
 They had taken them off to dig, and, being 
 hot, had fought without them, and then 
 this sudden outflanking movement had 
 necessitated a rapid falling back, so their 
 packs and most of their shovels had been 
 left behind. This was awkward, more es- 
 pecially hereafter, as, although the loss of
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 31 
 
 the greatcoat did not matter much in 
 this hot weather, and certainly added to 
 their marching power, still, the loss of the 
 pack meant loss of spare socks and spare 
 shirt — besides other things. 
 
 We snatched a little breakfast and coffee 
 at an inn where the patronne was still in 
 possession, and then things began to get 
 more lively. Shells began to knock corners 
 off the houses close by, and reports kept 
 coming in that the enemy appeared to be 
 advancing, though the bulk of his infantry 
 was still some way off to the east. The 
 Dorsets were rearranging their line so as 
 not to be cut off, and I was standing with 
 Bols (commanding Dorsets) and a few of 
 his officers by the estaminet when a shrapnel 
 burst with a tremendous crack close over 
 our heads, bringing down branches and 
 leaves in showers. Yet not a man or a 
 horse was hit. The shrapnel bullets whizzed 
 along the pavement in all directions, right 
 among our feet, like hail it seemed ; yet 
 the only result was a lot of bad language 
 from Saunders, who had got a nasty jar 
 on the heel from one of the bullets : but 
 it did not even cut the leather. 
 
 It now became time to get the Dorset
 
 32 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 transport away, as things were getting 
 rather hot, and the crackling of rifles was 
 getting distinctly nearer. I thought of that 
 horrible hill and I looked at my map. 
 Yes — there certainly was a way round 
 back by the south-east, via the road along 
 which Weatherby and I had just come 
 back from interviewing Haking. So I 
 directed the transport to move that way 
 — there was a road branching off to the 
 right only 400 yards on and quite safe, as 
 I thought, for the firing was up north and 
 north-east, and this road lay south-south- 
 east. 
 
 Roe covered the withdrawal with his 
 company and was very anxious to lay an 
 ambush for the enemy. But they did not 
 seem inclined to oblige him, but kept head- 
 ing off in a more southerly direction. There 
 was no sign from the 3rd Division who, I 
 knew, were on our right ; so, as my scouts 
 could not find them, I could only come to 
 the conclusion that the enemy had got in 
 between us, and if we didn't clear out soon 
 we should be in a bad way. 
 
 Suddenly there was a crackle of rifles 
 down the road along which the Dorset 
 transport had gone, and then nearly the
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 33 
 
 whole of tho transport came galloping back, 
 a dead horse being dragged along in the 
 shafts of one of the waggons. Margetts, 
 the transport officer, rode past, revolver in 
 hand, and streaming with blood from the 
 shoulder, and one or two of the men and 
 horses had obviovisly been hit. What had 
 happened was that a few Germans had 
 penetrated on to the road where Weatherby 
 and I had passed in perfect safety only 
 a short time before and ambushed the 
 transport. 
 
 Margetts had very gallantly ridden direct 
 at the ambush with his revolver, shot down 
 one or two and bewildered the rest, and 
 thus given time for the transport to turn 
 round on the (luckily) broad road and 
 gallop back. The Pioneer Sergeant of the 
 Dorsets was killed, and so was a Brigade 
 Policeman who happened to be with the 
 transport. Otherwise almost the only loss 
 was an ammunition - cart with two horses 
 killed, and some damage was done to a pole 
 and wheel or tw^o of the other vehicles. 
 Poor Nicholson (my servant), who should, 
 strictly speaking, have remained with the 
 Brigade transport and not come up at all, 
 had attached himself to the Dorset trans- 
 
 c
 
 34 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 port without orders — wishing, I suppose, 
 to be handy in case he was required— and 
 had been shot down with the two or 
 three others. I believe he was killed ; any- 
 way, I never saw him again, poor fellow. 
 Margetts was nearly falling off his horse 
 with pain, so he dismounted and was 
 bandaged by the Medical Officer. But by 
 that time the transport vehicles had dis- 
 appeared, and as he was fainting and was 
 not in a fit state to be carried, he had to be 
 left in the house of a Belgian doctor and 
 was taken prisoner shortly afterwards. We 
 heard of him later, and I am glad to say 
 his gallant action gained him a D.S.O. 
 
 Bols strung out half a company to defend 
 the place where we thought the Germans 
 would appear, but after waiting for ten 
 minutes we found we were practically "in 
 the air," as large forces of the enemy were 
 reported coming round our right flank, and 
 the firing on our left .front got more and 
 more to the left, thus proving that the 
 Bedfords had been pushed back and were 
 retiring via Wasmes — as they had been told 
 to do if overwhelmed. Weatherby, who 
 had cantered off to get touch with them, 
 confirmed this ; and as it was getting ex-
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 35 
 
 trcmely " hot " (shells) where we were, I 
 gave the order to withdraw — only just in 
 time as it turned out. 
 
 The Dorsets formed a proper rear-guard 
 and held off the enemy, who were by this 
 time trickling in large numbers into the 
 town ; but by good luck the Germans seemed 
 to funk coming on in formation, and by the 
 time we had got back to the foot of the steep 
 hill they didn't bother us any more except by 
 occasional shells. To my extreme annoyance 
 (in one way) we found another track lead- 
 ing round the hill, towards Warquignies, not 
 marked on the map ; so those two wretched 
 inhabitants had told us quite wrong, and we 
 could have retired the transport this way 
 after all. Of course we took advantage of 
 it, and fell back slowly via Warquignies on 
 Blangies, where we arrived, with very few 
 casualties, about two. 
 
 Here we got orders at first to bivouac 
 for the night, but hardly had the men had 
 time to cook a meal and eat it than we 
 were ordered to continue the retirement 
 on Bavai St Waast, via Athis. As we got 
 on to the main road here we found a large 
 column of our own troops moving down 
 it, and there were German mounted patrols
 
 36 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 at a respectful distance on both sides. We 
 fired at them occasionally, and they dis- 
 appeared and then turned up again in twos 
 and threes on the skyline, evidently keep- 
 ing touch with us. 
 
 Just beyond Athis we found the Nor- 
 folks, who had been fighting at Elouges all 
 the morning, and then we came across the 
 sad little remainder of the Cheshires — 
 only about 200 left out of 891 who had 
 gone into action that morning near Elouges. 
 It was horrible to hear of this appalling 
 loss. Shore was the only captain left, and 
 he was in command, w^ith two or three 
 subalterns only. His story was that his 
 company had been in reserve to the other 
 three and had gone to occupy a farm- 
 house as told, that he had seen the three 
 companies extending to his right, and then 
 lost touch with them as they advanced 
 rapidly over the brow of the low rolling 
 ground. There was very heavy firing all 
 along the line, and eventually a staff ofiicer 
 told him to fall back to his right rear and 
 rejoin his battalion. This he tried to do, 
 but he only came across a few wounded 
 and stragglers of his regiment, who told 
 him that the three companies had lost very
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 37 
 
 heavily, includiug Bogcr (commanding) and 
 all their officers, and that there was practi- 
 cally nobody left. Shore did his best to 
 find out and help, but a general retirement 
 took place, and he and his men were swept 
 back with the rest. Tahourdin, Stapylton, 
 Dyer, Dugmore, and lots of others were 
 reported killed, and poor Shore was in a 
 terrible state of mind. (It turned out 
 afterwards that all these officers were aliA^e 
 and prisoners, with a great number of 
 their men, but at the time I could not find 
 out exactly how it happened that the 
 battalion got so cut up and lost such a 
 desperate number.) 
 
 The Norfolks had lost poor Cresswell, 
 their Adjutant — such a good fellow — and 
 one or two other officers. But although 
 their losses had been serious they were 
 nothing like so bad as the Cheshires. It 
 appears that our left about Elouges and to 
 the west rear of Dour was heavily attacked 
 by the enemy ; that we were on the defen- 
 sive with the 14th Brigade (Rolt), and these 
 two battalions of the 15th, and the 2nd 
 Cavalry Brigade (De Lisle) ; and that Sir 
 C. F. called on the Cavalry to assist at a 
 certain moment. De Lisle thereupon very
 
 38 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 gallantly charged the German guns, but he 
 started from some distance off, and not 
 only were the horses blown before they 
 got there, but there was a lot of wire 
 between them and the Germans which 
 they couldn't get through. So, after 
 losing heavily, they wheeled to the right 
 to get out of the way. What happened 
 in detail to the 14th Brigade I frankly 
 don't know, but I fear the guns of the 5th 
 Division lost pretty heavily at this period. 
 
 Two companies of the Bedfords had joined 
 us by this time, but I was rather nervous 
 about the rest, including Griffith, for I had 
 had no word of him since Paturages. How- 
 ever, as we passed through Houdain he 
 turned up from a side road with the rest 
 of his battalion, having had a pretty rough 
 time in getting out of Wasmes. 
 
 By dusk we had got on to the open 
 country near St Waast, and here we 
 found that the Division was bivouacking. 
 Although it was nearly dark, and the 
 Brigade had been scattered, with its trans- 
 port, over a lot of country during the day, 
 it all came together again, including its 
 empty supply waggons, in a marvellous 
 way, and managed to find its way through
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 39 
 
 all the other troops in the dark to its 
 rightful bivouac space — some fields covered 
 with standing crops. Water was of course 
 the difficulty, but some was discovered in 
 the shape of a small stream half a mile off, 
 over hedges and ditches ; and after the 
 Norfolks had been put out on outpost to 
 cover our rear, and we had had some food, 
 we slept the sleep of the dog-tired. 
 
 I remember Cadell came out as cook that 
 evening, for he fried a lugubrious mess of 
 biscuits, jam, and sardines together in a 
 mess-tin, and insisted on all of us having 
 some. Up to this point our messing had 
 not been entirely happy, for an old soldier 
 whom I had taken on in Belfast, on his 
 own^ statement that he had been second 
 cook in his officers' mess, turned out an 
 absolute fraud. He could hardly even poach 
 an egg, and hadn't the smallest idea of 
 cooking. I am sure he had never been 
 inside an officers' mess either, for when he 
 was deposed from the office of cook to that 
 of mess waiter, he knew nothing about 
 that either, and could not even wash up. 
 Private Brown, w^ho was supposed at first 
 only to cook for the men of the Brigade 
 Headquarters, was therefore elevated to the
 
 40 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 proud status of Officers' cook, and made a 
 thundering good one (till he was wounded 
 at Ypres) ; and the Belfast man was given 
 the sack at the earliest opportunity and 
 sent home, — only to appear later in the 
 field as a corporal of the Irish Rifles! 
 
 Aug. 2bth. 
 
 Next morning the Brigade was on the 
 move before daylight, and was told off as 
 part of the main body of the Division, the 
 14th Brigade forming the rear-guard. We 
 had not had much to eat the night before, 
 or in fact the whole day, and as the rations 
 had not come up during the night, the men 
 had devilish little breakfast— nor we either. 
 
 We were told to requisition what we 
 could from the country, but though St 
 Andre and myself did our best, and rode 
 on ahead of the Brigade, routing out the 
 dwellers of the farmhouses and buying 
 chickens and cheese and oats wherever pos- 
 sible, there was very little to be had. 
 
 There were already a great many inhab- 
 itants on the road fleeing south-westwards, 
 pitiful crowds of women and old men and 
 children, carrying bundles on their backs, or 
 wheeling babies and more bundles in wheel-
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 41 
 
 barrows, or perambulators, or broken-down 
 carts. Some of the peasant women were 
 wearing their best Sunday gowns of black 
 bombazine and looked very hot and uncom- 
 fortable; children with their dolls or pet 
 dogs, old women and men hobbling along, 
 already very tired though the sun had not 
 been up more than an hour or two, and sturdy 
 young mothers carrying an extraordinary 
 quantity of household stuff, trooped along, 
 all of them anxiously asking how far off the 
 Germans were, and whether we could hold 
 them off, or whether they would all be 
 killed by them, — it was a piteous sight. 
 We warned all the people who were still 
 in their cottages to stay there and not to 
 run away, as their houses would only be 
 pillaged if they were not there, but I fear 
 that few took our advice. 
 
 It seemed a very long march that day, 
 down the perfectly straight road skirting 
 the Mormal forest and on to Le Cateau. 
 It was, as a matter of fact, only a little 
 over twenty miles, but the hot day, with 
 very little food, was most trying for the 
 men. We had one good rest at Engle- 
 fontaine, where we bought a lot of food — 
 bread and cheese, and apples and plums,
 
 42 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 and a little meat — but it was not much. 
 The rest of the road was bare and hot, 
 leading over down - like country past the 
 town of Le Cateau, and on to the heights 
 to the west of it. Many aeroplanes, British, 
 French, and German, were skimming about, 
 and numerous bodies of French cavalry 
 could be seen moving about the downs and 
 the roads in the rear. 
 
 We had received orders on the road to 
 occupy part of an entrenched position to 
 the west of Le Cateau, and Weatherby and 
 I rode ahead to look at it and apportion 
 it off as the battalions came up. The 
 trenches, we considered, were quite well 
 sited. They were about 3 feet deep, and 
 had been dug by the inhabitants under, I 
 think, French supervision ; but, judging by 
 our subsequent experience, they were nothing 
 like deep enough and placed on much too 
 exposed ground ; and the artillery pits were 
 far too close up — though correct according 
 to the then text-books. 
 
 I put a few men into the trenches as an 
 observing line, and sent the commanding 
 officers round to study them in case we 
 had to hold them in force on the morrow, 
 and bivouacked the rest of the Brigade
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 43 
 
 half a mile behind them. Although we 
 seemed to have done a good day's work 
 already, it was then only about 3 P.M., for 
 we had started about 3.30 A.M. We got a 
 good deal more food — bully beef and bis- 
 cuits — here, besides a cart-load of very 
 smelly cheeses and some hams and vege- 
 tables and fresh bread, and the men got 
 their stomachs fairly full by sundown. 
 
 The 13th Brigade came in a bit later 
 and formed up on our right, but the 14th 
 Brigade, who had been doing rear -guard, 
 did not get in till nightfall, and were much 
 exhausted. 
 
 The enemy, however, bar cavalry, had not 
 pressed on in any strength, and we were left 
 fairly well alone during the night. 
 
 It began to rain heavily in the evening, 
 and we had a wet dinner in the open. 
 There were various disturbances in the 
 night, especially when some men in the 
 trenches began firing at some probably 
 imaginary Germans ; but otherwise all 
 ranks got a fair amount of sleep. 
 
 Aug. 26th. 
 
 The orders overnight were that we were 
 to continue the retirement first thing in
 
 44 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 the morning ; but when morning came the 
 Germans were so close that it was decided 
 that it would be impossible to do so, and 
 fresh orders were issued to hold the position 
 we were in. 
 
 Accordingly we took up our positions as 
 we had settled overnight, and started all 
 necessary preparations — deepening trenches, 
 arranging telephone wires and communica- 
 tions, and putting the village of Troisvilles, 
 on our left, in a state of defence. 
 
 The Dorsets were to hold this village and 
 several hundred yards of trenches to the 
 east of it. On their right came the Bedfords 
 in trenches, with of course a proportion in 
 support, and the Cheshires were put in a 
 dip of the ground in rear of them. The 
 13th Brigade was on the right of the 
 Bedfords, with the K.O.S.B.'s touching them. 
 The Norfolks I put in a second line, in rear 
 of the right of the Bedfords and the left of 
 the K.O.S.B.'s, mostly along a sunken road 
 where they dug themselves well into the 
 banks. The 27th Brigade of Artillery, under 
 Onslow, ^vas put under my orders ; two 
 batteries of it w^ere in our right rear, and 
 the third was taken away by Sir C. F., to 
 strengthen the right I believe. A battery
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY lUlIGADE 45 
 
 of the 15th Artillery Brigade was also put 
 in close behind the Bedfords, in the dip of 
 ground afore-mentioned, whence they did 
 excellent execution without being seen by 
 the enemy. Divisional Headquarters were 
 at Reumont, a mile behind us, with a wood 
 in between ; but we were, of course, con- 
 nected up by telephone with them, as well 
 as with our battalions and our artillery. 
 We — i.e., the Brigade Headquarters — sat in 
 the continuation of the hollow sandy road, 
 in rear of the Bedfords and on the left of 
 the Norfolks. 
 
 The morning was distinctly cool after the 
 rain, and I remember that I wore my woolly 
 till about 11 o'clock. Our horses were stowed 
 away a few hundred yards to our left, in a 
 hollow ; and the extraordinary thing was 
 that neither they nor ourselves got shelled 
 as long as we were there, though some 
 shrapnel burst occasionally only a hundred 
 yards off or so in different directions. 
 
 We were in position by 7 o'clock, as far as 
 I can remember ; but unless one keeps a 
 record the whole time one is very liable 
 to err — and I won't swear that it was not 
 8 o'clock. Some shells began to arrive about 
 then, but did no harm. On our left was the
 
 46 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 9th Brigade (3rd Division), and the sheUing 
 began to develop pretty heavily in their 
 direction. Our guns were of course in action 
 by this time, and for the first two or three 
 hours the air was full of shells and very little 
 Infantry fire was heard. The 4th Division 
 had arrived only that morning, I believe by 
 train, and was guarding the left flank of the 
 line, assisted by our Cavalry. Behind the 
 town of Le Gateau, on the extreme right, 
 was the 19th Brigade. Then came the 14th 
 Brigade, then the 13th, then ourselves, and 
 then the 3rd Division ; so we were about the 
 right centre. 
 
 The Dorsets were hard at work putting 
 Troisvilles into a strong state of defence, 
 and were helped by some of our Divisional 
 Sappers, I believe the 59th Co. RE. (but it 
 might have been the 17th). 
 
 There was a local French ambulance — 
 civilian I think — in Troisvilles, and several 
 of our own R.A.M.C. personnel there; but 
 the Divisional ambulances were farther to 
 the rear, and as the wounded began to come 
 in from the right front we sent them back 
 towards Reumont. St Andre was very useful 
 in galloping backwards and forwards be- 
 tween Troisvilles and Brigade Headquarters
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 47 
 
 — I kept him for that, as I wanted my proper 
 staff for other staff work; but all of them 
 paid a visit or two there once or twice. The 
 enemy's shells were now falling fast on our 
 left about Inchy, but seemed to do extra- 
 ordinarily little damage there; and during 
 the first hours it was really more of a 
 spectacular piece for us than a battle. How- 
 ever, we were of course kept busy sending 
 and receiving wires from all parts, and every 
 now and then a few wounded came in from 
 our front. We were also bucked up by 
 hearing that a French Cavalry Division 
 was coming to help us from Cambrai ; but 
 I don't know whether it ever materialised. 
 
 As the day wore on, the Bedfords got 
 engaged with infantry in their front, but 
 neither they nor the Dorsets got anything 
 very much to shoot at ; and though a German 
 machine-gun or two pushed pluckily forward 
 and did a certain amount of damage from 
 hidden folds in the ground, I think we ac- 
 counted for them — anyway we stopped their 
 shooting after a short time. 
 
 Meanwhile the 13th Brigade and the 
 guns on our right were catching it very 
 hot. There seemed an enormous number 
 of guns against us (I believe, as a matter
 
 48 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 of fact, there were nearer 700 than 600), 
 and our batteries were suffering very 
 heavily. So were the 14th and 19th 
 Brigades — the latter being a scratch one 
 composed of units from the lines of com- 
 munication under Laurence Drummond. 
 
 At one moment — it must have been about 
 12 o'clock or later — I saw to my horror the 
 best part of a company of Bedfords leave 
 their trenches in our front and retire slowly 
 and in excellent order across the open. So 
 I got on my horse and galloped out to see 
 what they were doing and to send them 
 back, as it seemed to me that some of the 
 KO.S.B.'s were falling back too, in sym- 
 pathy. I'm afraid that my language was 
 strong ; but I made the Bedfords turn about 
 again, although their officer explained that 
 he was only withdrawing, by superior bat- 
 talion orders, in order to take up an ad- 
 vanced position further on the right; and 
 with some of the Cheshires, whom I picked 
 up on the way, they advanced again in 
 extended order. 
 
 They got back again to their trenches 
 without any casualties to speak of, and I 
 was much gratified by a message I received 
 shortly afterwards from my right (I think
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 49 
 
 Cutlibert or the gunners) thanking me 
 warmly for my most valuable counter- 
 attack, which had considerably relieved the 
 pressure in their front ! 
 
 On our immediate right the Norfolks 
 were occupied for several hours in trying 
 to cut down a very big tree, which was 
 about the most conspicuous feature in the 
 whole of our position, and formed an ex- 
 cellent object on which the enemy could 
 range. It was all very well ; but as soon 
 as they had cut it half through, so as to 
 fall to the south, the south wind, which 
 was blowing pretty strongly, not only kept 
 it upright but threatened to throw it over 
 to the north. This would have been a real 
 disaster, as it would have blocked com- 
 pletely the sunken road along which the 
 ammunition carts, to say nothing of artil- 
 lery and other waggons, would have had to 
 come. So it had to be guyed up with 
 ropes, with much difficulty ; and even when 
 teams hung on and hauled on the ropes, 
 they could make little impression — the 
 wind was so strong. Eventually they did 
 manage to get it down, but even so it 
 formed a fairly conspicuous mark. (It was 
 so big that it was marked on the map.) 
 
 D
 
 50 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 Inchy was now the centre of an appalling 
 bombardoient. A crowd of Germans had 
 got irito it, it appeared, and the village 
 was being heavily shelled by both sides — 
 British and German. Several houses and 
 haystacks caught fire, and the poor devils 
 inside must have had a terrible time. The 
 3rd Division was holding its own, but was 
 being heavily attacked by the enemy's in- 
 fantry. However, we eventually got the 
 better of it, and the 9th and 10th Brigades 
 drove the Germans away from their trenches 
 and pursued them some distance, much 
 assisted by the fire of the Dorsets and the 
 advance of one or two of their companies. 
 
 Things went on hammer - and - tongs for 
 another hour or two ; more and more 
 wounded began coming in from the 13th 
 Brigade, including a lot of K.O.S.B.'s. We 
 turned Beilby, our veterinary officer, on to 
 " first aid " for many of them and sent 
 them on ; but some of the shrapnel wounds 
 were appalling. One man I remember lying 
 across a pony ; I literally took him for a 
 Frenchman, for his trousers were drenched 
 red with blood, and not a patch of khaki 
 showing. Another man had the whole of 
 the back of his thigh torn away ; yet, after
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 51 
 
 being bandaged, he hobbled gaily off, smok- 
 ing a pipe. What struck me as curious 
 was the large number of men hit in the 
 face or below the knee, — there seemed few^ 
 body wounds in comparison ; but that may 
 of course have been because those badly 
 hit in the body were killed or unmovable. 
 But one would see men apparently at their 
 last gasp, with gruesome wounds on them 
 and no more stretchers available, and yet five 
 minutes afterwards they had disappeared. 
 
 Time was getting on, and the thunder 
 and rain of German shells seemed unceas- 
 ing ; they appeared to come now not only 
 from all along the front and the right front, 
 but from our right as well, and our guns 
 were replying less and less. Reports began 
 to come in from the right of batteries wiped 
 out (the 28th R.F.A. Brigade lost nearly all 
 their guns here, for nearly all the detach- 
 ments and horses were killed), and of a 
 crushing attack on the 19th Brigade and 
 penetration of our line thereabouts. And 
 soon afterwards the movement itself be- 
 came visible, for the 14th Brigade, and then 
 the 13th, began to give way, and one could 
 see the trenches being evacuated on the 
 right. The Norfolks stuck well to it on
 
 52 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 the right, and covered the retirement that 
 was beginning ; but they were taken out 
 of my hands by Sir C. F., and told off to 
 act as rear-guard for the brigades on their 
 right. 
 
 The 15th Brigade had really been very 
 lucky, and had neither been shelled nor 
 attacked very heavily, and consequently 
 we were pretty fresh and undamaged. I 
 forget if we got any definite message to 
 retire, and if so, when, but it was fairly 
 obvious that we couldn't stay where we 
 were much longer. The Dorsets were quite 
 happy in Troisvilles and thereabouts, but 
 the 9th Brigade on their left had had a 
 very bad time, and were already beginning 
 to withdraw, though in good order. 
 
 This being so, I sent orders to the battery 
 of the 15th R.F.A. Brigade in my front to 
 retire before they got cut off ; and they 
 executed it grandly, bringing up the horses 
 at a gallop, swinging round, hooking in, 
 and starting off at a canter as if at an 
 Aldershot field-day, though they were under 
 heavy shell and rifle fire all the time. 
 
 Only two horses and about two men were 
 hit altogether, and though all these were 
 apparently killed, the men got up after a
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIdADE 53 
 
 little and were brought safely oft' with the 
 Bedfords. 
 
 The K.O.S.B.'s were now falling back on 
 us from the right, and they were strung 
 out along the Norfolks' late position, and 
 almost at right angles to our line, for the 
 Germans were pressing us there, and heavy 
 rifle fire was breaking out there and nearly 
 in our right rear. Then I ordered the 
 Cheshires and after them the Bedfords to 
 retire, which they did quite calmly and in 
 good order; and lastly came the Dorsets, 
 very well handled by Bols and forming a 
 rear-guard to the rest of the troops here- 
 abouts. His machine - guns under Lieut. 
 Wodehouse had been doing excellent work, 
 and the shooting of both Bedfords and 
 Dorsets had had a great effect in keeping 
 off the German attack hereabouts. 
 
 By this time units had become a bit mixed, 
 and lines of troops belonging to different 
 battalions and even different brigades were 
 retiring slowly over the open ground and 
 under a heavy fire of shrapnel — which by 
 the same token seemed to do extraordinarily 
 little damage. It was difficult to give a 
 definite point for all these troops to move 
 on, for we had been warned against retiring
 
 54 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 through villages, as they were naturally 
 made a cockshy of by the enemy's guns. 
 Reumont was being already heavily bom- 
 barded, and though we had instructions to 
 fall back south-westw^ards along the road to 
 Estrees, this road passed through Reumont. 
 I did not know how to get comfortably on 
 to it without going through some village, 
 so gave a general direction off the road, 
 between it and Bertry, and struck across 
 country, together with a number of troops 
 on foot in various formations, all moving 
 quite steadily and remarkably slowly. 
 
 As the shrapnel were bursting in large 
 numbers overhead, I got the men well 
 extended, as best I could, but some of 
 course were hit. Just as we left the road 
 a man in charge of an ambulance-waggon 
 full of wounded ran up and asked what 
 he was to do, as some infernal civilian 
 had unhitched and gone off with the horses 
 whilst he was attending to the wounded. 
 Stephenson, commanding K.O.S.B.'s, was 
 lying wounded in the waggon, but this I 
 did not hear till afterwards. Some of the 
 K.O.S.B.'s thereupon very gallantly har- 
 nessed themselves to the waggon and towed 
 it along the road.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 55 
 
 It was hard work making our way mounted 
 across country, because of the numerous 
 wire fences we came across, not to men- 
 tion ditches and hedges. We worked rather 
 towards Bertry, avoiding woods and boggy 
 bits, but the line wasn't easy to keep. The 
 Germans had an unpleasant habit of plug- 
 ging bursts of four to a dozen shrapnel at 
 one range, then another lot fifty yards on, 
 and so on, so it was no good hurrying on, 
 as you only came in for the next lot. 
 Then they very nearly got us just when 
 we had got to a hopeless-looking place — 
 the railway, with thick fence and ditch on 
 each side of the track and a barbed -wire 
 fence as well, with signal wires knee high 
 just where you expected to be able to jump 
 down on to the track. Luckily Catley, 
 my groom, had some wire nippers ; but 
 just as he was cutting at the wire, and 
 we of the Brigade Staff were all standing 
 round close by, trying to get over or 
 through, whack came four shrapnel, one 
 close after the other, bursting just short of 
 us and above us — a very good shot if in- 
 tentional, but I don't think they could 
 possibly have seen us. Horses of course 
 flew all over tlie place ; Cadell and his horse
 
 56 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 came down, and I thought he was hit, but 
 he only lost his cap, and his horse only 
 got a nasty flesh wound from a bit of 
 shrapnel in his hindquarters. Again, why 
 none of these shrapnel hit us was most 
 extraordinary : there we were, seven or 
 eight of us mounted and close together, 
 and the shells bursting beautifully with ter- 
 rific and damnable cracks — yet not one of 
 the Brigade Staff touched. Beilby's horse, 
 by the way, also got a bullet in the 
 quarter. 
 
 These same shrapnel hit two or three 
 infantry standing round us, and the next 
 thing we saw was Dillon (of the Divisional 
 Staff) dismount^ed and staggering along sup- 
 porting two wounded privates and hoisting 
 them over the obstacles on to the rail track, 
 one man hanging heavily from his neck on 
 either side. He was streaming with sweat, 
 and said afterwards it was the hardest job 
 he'd ever had. Others of course helped him 
 and his men, and we wandered along over 
 the grass, and skirting the little woods and 
 coppices till we got to the main road again. 
 
 As we proceeded along the road we did 
 our best to get the troops collected into 
 their units, getting single men together into
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 57 
 
 bunches and the bunches into groups and 
 platoons, and so on. But many of them 
 were wounded and dog - tired, and it was 
 hard work. Ballard and his Norfolks joined 
 us in bits, and we heard that they had had 
 a hard time falling back through Reumont 
 and done very well as rear-guard. There 
 w^ere stories at first of their having suffered 
 terribly and lost a lot of men ; but it was 
 not in the least true, — they had had com- 
 paratively few casualties. 
 
 The country gradually grew more and 
 more open till by dusk — somewhere about 
 7 o'clock — we were traversing a huge rolling 
 plain with open fields and only occasional 
 farmhouses visible. The troops on the 
 road were terribly mixed, infantry and 
 artillery and waggons and transport all 
 jumbled up together, and belonging not 
 only to different brigades but even to 
 different divisions, the main ones being of 
 course the 5th and 3rd Divisions. 
 
 Darkness came on, and the night grew 
 cooler and cooler, yet still we pushed on. 
 As it got blacker, terrible blocks occurred 
 and perpetual unintentional halts. In one 
 place, somewhere near the Serains-Premont 
 road I think, we were halted for about three-
 
 58 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 quarters of an hour by a jam of waggons 
 just ahead. I gave the Norfolks leave to 
 worm their way through the press, but it 
 was no use, for before they had got through 
 the waggons moved on again and only divided 
 the men more and more, so that they lost 
 their formation again and were worse off 
 than before. 
 
 Companies or bits of companies of my 
 battalions were pretty close together, and 
 at one time the Brigade was pretty well 
 cohesive, but as the night wore on they got 
 separated again and mixed up with the 
 transport till it was quite impossible to sort 
 them out. It was a regular nightmare, and 
 all one could look forward to was the halt 
 at Estrees. 
 
 The German guns had long ceased to fire, 
 even before the sun went down, and there 
 didn't seem to be any pursuit at all, as far 
 as we could gather. Our men moved quite 
 steadily and without the vestige of a sign 
 of panic: in fact, they were much annoyed 
 at having to fall back. But I expect the 
 German infantry was even more tired than 
 ours, for they had marched all through the 
 previous night and certainly had frightfully 
 heavy casualties during the day. Anyway
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 59 
 
 they did not worry us, and we pursued our 
 way in peace. But men and horses were 
 desperately sleepy, and at these perpetual 
 halts used to go to sleep and block up the 
 road again when we moved on. 
 
 Luckily the road was as straight as a die, 
 and one could not possibly lose it ; but it 
 was difficult to know where we were, and 
 occasional twinkling lights in houses and 
 cottages on the road only made our where- 
 abouts still more deceptive. 
 
 At last we entered something that looked 
 in the pitch darkness more like a town. It 
 was Estrees right enough, but there were 
 no signs of a halt, though it was 1 A.M. or 
 so. We could not find any staff officers here, 
 even at the solitary local inn, to give us any 
 information, and the only rumour was that 
 w^o were to march on as far as we could go. 
 We had had no direct orders, and we did 
 not know where the Divisional staff were, 
 but as by this time we had pushed on and 
 were, as far as we knew, ahead of most of 
 the Brigade, Weatherby and I moved aside 
 into a field full of corn stooks, unsaddled 
 our horses, gave them a feed, and went 
 fast asleep in the wet corn. We had meant 
 to sleep only for half an hour, but were so
 
 60 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 dead tired that it must have been more like 
 an hour and a half. And even then we were 
 only awakened by a battalion (I think it 
 was the Northumberland Fusiliers) irrupting 
 into our field and pulling the stooks down 
 for their own benefit. So we guiltily saddled 
 up again, thinking that the whole Brigade 
 must have passed us in the dark. But, as 
 a matter of fact, it had not. 
 
 Aug. 27th. 
 
 Daylight came at last through the damp 
 grey mists, and we found ourselves still in 
 open country, with the road thickly covered 
 as before with troops of all arms and, in 
 places by the roadside, the remains of 
 bivouac fires and empty boxes and bully- 
 beef tins, and hunks of raw meat ; for the 
 A.S.C. finding that it was impossible to 
 supply the troops regularly, had wisely 
 dumped down their stores at intervals 
 alongside the road and let the men help 
 themselves. 
 
 This was all very well for the men in 
 front, but by the time we in rear had got 
 to the stores there was nothing left, and 
 we had to go hungry. 
 
 Somewhere about 4 a.m. I came on Sir
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 61 
 
 C. F. standing at the cross - roads near 
 Nauroy. I naturally asked him where we 
 were to retire on ; but he had not recently 
 received any definite orders himself ; so 
 after talking it over we came to the con- 
 clusion that our best line would be on 
 St Quentin, and we directed the men, as 
 they came up — 5th Division straight on, 
 Ith Division to the right to Bellicourt, and 
 3rd to the left to Lehaucourt, for thus we 
 should get the Divisions more or less in 
 their right positions. Of course a vast 
 quantity of troops had already preceded 
 us, probably towards St Quentin, but that 
 could not be helped. 
 
 It was a long way yet to St Quentin, 
 about eight miles, and on the road and off 
 it were men, waggons, and stragglers in 
 every direction. The jumble of the night 
 had disintegrated most of the formed 
 bodies, and the whole thing had the appear- 
 ance of a vast debdcle. Men moving on 
 singly but slowly, little bunches of three 
 and four men together, sometimes of the 
 same regiment, but of tener of odd ones ; men 
 lying exhausted or asleep by the roadside, 
 or with their packs off and sitting on the 
 grass, nibbling at a biscuit or looking hope-
 
 62 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 lessly before them. It was a depressing 
 sight, and I wondered how on earth the 
 formations would ever come together again. 
 Officers of course were doing their best to 
 get their own men together, but the results 
 were small. Whenever we passed men of 
 the 15th Brigade we collected them as far 
 as possible into bodies ; but it was very 
 difficult to know what units men belonged to 
 without asking them, for very many of them 
 had long ago, on arrival at Havre and else- 
 where, given their cap-badges and shoulder- 
 names as souvenirs to women and children, 
 and they were most difficult to identify. 
 
 A mile or two before getting into St 
 Quentin I passed Laurence Drummond, com- 
 manding the 19th Brigade, hobbling along 
 on foot, and offered him of course my second 
 horse. He had got damaged somehow — by 
 a fall, I think — and said he had his horse all 
 right, but it hurt him less to walk than to 
 ride. 
 
 As we approached the town the entrance 
 had got rather blocked with troops. This 
 was rather a good thing, as it enabled the 
 stragglers behind to close up and find other 
 portions of their own regiments ; and, extra- 
 ordinary as it seemed, whole companies had
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 63 
 
 now got together and in some eases had oven 
 coagulated into battalions. I found most of 
 the Norfolks collected together in a field by 
 the side of the road, and a stray Bedford 
 company or two looking quite fresh and 
 happy. 
 
 As it was necessary to get further orders, 
 I left Weatherby to do some more collecting 
 and pushed on by myself into the town, 
 where I found Rolt and some of his Staff; 
 but he knew nothing. There was a hopeless 
 block at this moment, so I slipped off my 
 horse for ten minutes and had a bit of 
 chocolate and biscuit, which were quite 
 refreshing. Rolt was somewhat depressed, 
 for his Brigade had lost heavily, but they 
 too were gradually coming together. At 
 last, in the middle of the town, I managed to 
 collect some instructions, and was told that 
 the 5th Division was to form up in a field 
 near the railway station the other side of 
 the town. There were also Staff officers at 
 different points, calling out " 5th Division 
 this way, 3rd that," and so on ; and as the 
 men, now more or less in columns of fours, 
 passed them, they perked up and swung 
 along quite happily. 
 
 We were now outside the region of our
 
 64 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 maps, so I asked my way to a stationer's, 
 which luckily happened to be open, though 
 it was barely 7.30 a.m., and bought all the 
 local maps I could get hold of : they were 
 only paper, not linen, but they proved ex- 
 tremely useful. And then I bought some 
 big rings of bread and some apples, and 
 made Catley carry them strung on the little 
 brigade flag that S. had embroidered, and 
 we filled up our haversacks with as much 
 food as we could buy and carry — for the 
 benefit of the men. 
 
 I found my way to the railway field all 
 right, but none of the Brigade had yet 
 arrived, so I w^ent back to look for them. 
 On the way I found that a number of the 
 13th Brigade had taken the wrong turning 
 and were plodding right away from the 
 tow^n, so I had to canter after them a 
 mile or more and turn them back. There 
 was a lot of transport further on, on the 
 move ; and fearing that they might belong 
 to us, whilst my horse was pretty tired, 
 I begged a nice-looking Frenchman with a 
 long beard — a doctor of sorts — in a motor- 
 car, to lend me his car to catch them. 
 This he willingly did, and drove me up 
 to them, but they turned out to be field
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 65 
 
 ambulances with orders of their own, so I 
 came back to the railway field, leaving a 
 man at the railway turning to turn the 
 others and show them the way. 
 
 Gradually bits of the 15th Brigade arrived 
 — a few Dorsets, half the Bedfords, and a 
 few Cheshires ; and to these I imparted the 
 Staff instructions that we were to bivouac 
 here for the night. The men had already 
 done twenty-four miles during the night, 
 and lay about, thankful to get a little rest. 
 Supplies, we were told, would be issued 
 shortly at the station, but before they came 
 
 1 got peremptory orders to march off at 
 
 2 o'clock, and withdraw further south to a 
 place called Ollizy, nine miles on. 
 
 It was then 12.30 p.m., and the men had 
 had no food since the previous morning ; 
 however, orders had to be obeyed. So I 
 distributed my bread and apples, for which 
 the men pressed round ravenously ; and 
 James, commanding the 2nd Manchesters, 
 who had been in my Brigade two years 
 previously, gave me a couple of most wel- 
 come big sandwiches and a drink. None of 
 my staff had yet turned up ; and though 
 I was told that supplies were just going to 
 arrive, none did arrive before we marched 
 
 E
 
 66 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 off. Five minutes before that time the 
 Norfolks, who had had a rest the other 
 side of the town, turned up ; and as the 
 rest of the Brigade marched off the rest of 
 the Dorsets marched up — rather disappointed 
 at having to go on at once without either 
 rest or rations. 
 
 Weatherby and the rest of Brigade Head- 
 quarters had trickled in by this time, and we 
 moved off in rear of the 13th Brigade. The 
 day was fairly hot by this time — luckily it 
 had been cool all the morning — and I ex- 
 pected to see whole heaps of the men fall 
 out exhausted ; but devil a bit, they moved 
 on, well closed up, good march discipline, 
 and even whistling and singing ; and for the 
 rest of the march I don't believe that more 
 than half a dozen fell out. 
 
 We expected some more fighting near 
 Ollizy, for a message had come through for 
 the 13th to push on and collar a certain 
 bridge before the Germans got it ; but all 
 was peaceful, and we got to Ollizy about five 
 o'clock. There I had to tell off a battalion 
 and some guns not belonging to me to take 
 up a line of outposts to guard our rear (I 
 quite forget what the troops were, or why 
 they were put under me), and the Brigade
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 67 
 
 pushed on over the bridge, and through the 
 swampy, marshy country beyond. 
 
 No halt yet, and I began to wonder whether 
 we were expected to do yet another night 
 march. However, after another two miles 
 I was told to put the Brigade in bivouac 
 round a farm and little village called Eau- 
 court, covering our rear with another line of 
 outposts. 
 
 There was some distant shelling during 
 the evening ; but we were too dog-tired to 
 worry about it, though bursts of rifle fire 
 did occur during the night, necessitating our 
 jumping up once or twice to see what it was. 
 
 The farm was quite a good one of the 
 usual form — i.e., the living-house forming one 
 end of a big oblong courtyard, whilst barns 
 and lofts and cowsheds filled up the other 
 three sides. In the middle, of course, was a 
 mass of dirty straw and manure, and pools 
 of stinking water in which ducks and pigs 
 and chickens disported themselves. The 
 people were most friendly, and supplied us 
 with eggs and straw and a kitchen fire ; but 
 it was rather a squash, as the headquarters 
 of an artillery brigade were already feeding 
 there, and we didn't get dinner till very late. 
 The men lay about in the lofts and sheds
 
 68 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 among the farm implem.ents and sheep, and 
 I should have expected them after a march 
 of over thirty-five miles, and no food or sleep 
 in the twenty-four hours, to curl up and go 
 to sleep at once, but they didn't ; they were 
 quite happy and lively now that at last 
 they'd got their rations, and made the most 
 of them. I had a bed to lie on, and actually 
 enjoyed a wash in a real basin, but the little 
 bedroom was not very sweet or clean, and 
 I'd as soon have slept with the others on 
 straw in the kitchen and living-room. 
 
 Aug. 28th. 
 
 Next morning we were off before the sun 
 rose, with orders to proceed towards Noyon. 
 We were well up to time as regards our 
 place in the column, but some of the rest of 
 the Division were very late — probably some 
 counter-order had been given ; anyway, we 
 had to wait a good extra half -hour by the 
 roadside. I remember that I occupied the 
 time in shaving myself ; and as there was no 
 water handy, I moistened the brush in the 
 dew on the grass. It did fairly well — 
 though removing two days' growth was 
 rather painful, I allow. 
 
 We plodded on through the heat of the ,
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 69 
 
 day, in rear of the 14th Brigade, and kept 
 our march discipline without trouble, though 
 the number of apple- and pear-trees on the 
 road was a great temptation. What had 
 happened or where we were going to was a 
 complete mystery ; all that we knew was 
 that we had had to leg it at Le Cateau, but 
 that we were distinctly not downhearted ; 
 nor did the Germans seem to be pursuing. 
 So we thought that we should probably soon 
 get the order to turn and either take up a 
 defensive position or advance again against 
 the enemy — though we also knew that we 
 must have lost a number of guns and a 
 good many men. 
 
 Soon after we started we w^ere asked how 
 many waggons we required to carry damaged 
 and footsore men, and at a certain point 
 there were some thirty or forty waggons 
 drawn up for that purpose. I felt rather 
 insulted, and said so, but eventually put my 
 pride in my pocket and said I'd have one per 
 battalion. The officer in charge at once 
 offered ten, but I did not accept them, and 
 I don't think we filled even one waggon all 
 day. 
 
 Somewhere about ten o'clock the message 
 was passed down from the front that Sir
 
 70 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 John French was on the roadside and 
 wanted to see battalion commanders. I 
 cantered on, and found him under a tree 
 with a few of his staff. I saluted and 
 asked for orders, but he said he only 
 wanted to see the C.O.'s. Then he took 
 me aside and said that he wanted to com- 
 pliment and congratulate the men on their 
 magnificent work ; that we had saved the 
 left flank of the French army, and that 
 Joffre had begged him to tell the troops 
 that they had saved France for the time 
 being, and more to the same effect. I 
 hastened, of course, to tell everybody; I 
 think the men got their tails up well in 
 consequence. But the British are an un- 
 demonstrative lot, and Thomas never lets 
 his feelings show on the surface. Anyway, 
 we were all pleased that our sacrifices 
 hadn't been for nothing, and hoped we'd 
 soon stop and turn round. 
 
 At Guiscard we turned into the main 
 road to Noyon. It was very hot, and we 
 had had no rest (except the regulation ten 
 minutes per hour) since starting. So when 
 we got to some nice shade on the left, and 
 big spreading trees dotted over some fields, 
 I turned the Brigade off the road, trans-
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 71 
 
 port and all, and we halted for an hour 
 and a half. We went to sleep after 
 luncheon, of course, and when it was time 
 to start I remember that Moulton- Barrett 
 went up to St Andre, who was lying fast 
 asleep, and shouted out, "The Germans are 
 on us ! " Poor St Andre jumped to his feet 
 with a yell and seized his revolver ; it was 
 a wicked joke. 
 
 The main road into Noyon was much 
 crowded, not only with a lot of French 
 cavalry going north, but a very large 
 number of waggons full of our own men 
 — of other brigades, mind you, for I don't 
 think there were any 15th Brigade men 
 there at all ; but then the others had had 
 a harder time. 
 
 The French cavalry were a dragoon 
 brigade — horses looking very fit and well, 
 and wonderfully light equipment on them ; 
 they do not go in for carrying half so much 
 on the saddle as we do — for one thing, appar- 
 ently they don't consider it necessary to carry 
 cleaning material on the horse. 
 
 There was again a considerable squash 
 in Noyon, and here St Andre was delighted 
 to meet some spick-and-span young friends 
 of his whom he affected to treat with
 
 72 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 great contempt, as not yet having seen a 
 shot fired. Having to cross the railway- 
 line also delayed us still more, as a long 
 supply -train was shunting and reshunting 
 and keeping the gates shut. 
 
 It was a lovely evening, and though 
 progress was slow, we eventually reached 
 Pontoise by about 7 p.m. The country 
 was thickly wooded and very pretty, and 
 the quarters into which we got after our 
 sixteen -mile march were most acceptable. 
 Here we were told we should probably be 
 for several days — to rest and recuperate; 
 but we were beginning to have doubts 
 about these perpetually - promised rests 
 which never came off. 
 
 The Brigade Headquarters put up at a 
 blacksmith's shop, and the old couple here 
 received us with hospitality ; but though 
 there were beds and mattresses for most 
 of us, there was very little to be had in 
 the way of vegetables or eggs or other 
 luxuries such as milk or butter. 
 
 Aug. 29th. 
 
 Next morning and afternoon were de- 
 voted to a little rest and cleaning up ; 
 but I had little leisure myself, for I had
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 73 
 
 to preside over a court of inquiry for 
 several hot and weary hours. 
 
 At 6 P.M. we suddenly received orders 
 to move at once to Carlepont, only three 
 miles back, and began to move by the 
 shortest and most unblocked way. Just 
 when we were moving off I received orders 
 to move the other way, but with the 
 sanction of the Divisional Staff I pre- 
 ferred going my own way, and went it. 
 
 The detail of the map, however, turned 
 out to be incorrect, and I found myself 
 at the far, instead of the near, end of 
 the village, with a lot of transport in 
 the narrow street between ourselves and 
 our billets. This was hopeless, and after 
 a prolonged jam in the dark I gave it 
 up, put the battalions on to the pavement 
 and down a side street, and told them to 
 bivouac and feed where they were. 
 
 Meanwhile St Andre had got a kind 
 Frenchman to give the staff some dinner, 
 but I misunderstood the arrangement and 
 could not find the place ; so I insisted 
 on digging out some food from our 
 cook's waggon on the wet grass of a 
 little park we found. And there we 
 ate it about midnight and went to sleep
 
 74 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 in the sopping herbage. I fear my staff were 
 not much pleased with the arrangement. 
 
 Aug. 30th. 
 
 Off again at 2.20 A.M., we pushed on 
 over pretty country via Attichy to Croiltoy, 
 a matter of eleven miles. It developed 
 into a roasting-hot day, and the last two 
 miles, up a very steep hill, were most 
 trying for the transport. We were at 
 the head of the column, and longed to 
 stop in the shady little village of Croutoy, 
 but we had to move on beyond to some 
 open stubble fields, where the heat was 
 terrific. And there we bivouacked till 
 about midday, when we were told we 
 might go back to Croutoy, and did. It 
 was a very pretty little village with a 
 magnificent view^ northwards over the 
 Aisne. We were very comfortably put 
 up in General de France's chateau, and 
 enjoyed there a real big bath with taps 
 and hot water, the first genuine bath we 
 had had since arriving at Havre. My 
 only contretemps here was that, having 
 when half - way to Croxitoy dismounted 
 Catley and lent his horse to a Staff officer, I 
 never saw the horse or my kit on him again.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 75 
 
 The Staff officer had duly sent the horse 
 back by a sergeant of gunners, but the 
 latter never materialized, and, strangely 
 enough, was never heard of afterw^ards. 
 So I thus lost my bivouac tent, mack- 
 intosh, lantern, and several other things, 
 besides Catley's complete possessions, all 
 of which were on the animal. Luckily 
 the horse was not my own, but a spare 
 one, as my mare Squeaky had had a 
 sore back, and Catley was not riding her. 
 
 Aug. 31st. 
 
 Next day was awfully hot again. We 
 were off by 7.30, and were by way of bil- 
 leting at a place called Bethisy, on the 
 south-west edge of the forest of Compiegne. 
 We passed by the eastern edge, close by 
 the extraordinary chateau of Pierrefonds, 
 built by Viollet le Due to the exact model 
 of the old castle of the thirteenth century, 
 a huge pile of turrets and battlements, like 
 one of Gustave Dore's nightmares ; and 
 then struck across the open towards Morien- 
 val. We were a long time on the march, 
 largely owing to the necessary habit that 
 the Artillery have of stopping to " feed 
 and water" when they come to water, ir-
 
 76 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 respective of the hourly ten-minute halt. 
 Then, having thus stopped the Infantry- 
 column in rear for twenty minutes, they 
 trot on and catch up the rest of the column 
 in front, leaving the Infantry toiling hope- 
 lessly after them, trying to fill the gap the 
 guns leave behind them. It is bad, of 
 course, but it is a cboice of evils, for one 
 way the Artillery suffers, the other the 
 Infantry ; but they both arrive together in 
 the end. 
 
 I had trotted ahead to Morienval, to 
 settle on the road, as there was a divergence 
 of opinion on the subject, and there a kindly 
 farmer asked me in to dinner with his 
 family — an excellent potage aux choux and 
 a succulent stew, with big juicy pears to 
 follow, all washed down by remarkably good 
 red vin du pays, I remember. There were 
 perpetual halts on the road, which we did not 
 understand, but soon after leaving Morien- 
 val we were abruptly ordered to turn sharp 
 off to the left and make for Crepy. The 
 fact was, a force of German cavalry had 
 turned up at Bethisy, just as our billeting 
 parties were entering it, and the latter had 
 only just time to clear out. 
 
 Our own cavalry cleared the Germans out
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 77 
 
 of Bethisy for the time being, but we con- 
 tinued on to Crepy-en-Valois, and arrived 
 there, rather done, at six o'clock — nearly 
 eleven hours to go fifteen miles, just the 
 sort of thing to tire troops on a very hot 
 day, — and with numerous apparently un- 
 necessary halts. However, we had few if 
 any stragglers, and we made our way to 
 some fields on the south-west of Crepy, 
 St Agathe being the name of the district. 
 I selected the bivouac myself, as I did not 
 get billeting orders in time, and I pre- 
 ferred open fields on a hot night for the 
 troops instead of stuffy billets in the town. 
 The Brigade Staff, however, occupied a 
 little house and grounds in the suburbs, 
 and I shall never forget arriving there 
 with St Andre after seeing to the bivouac 
 of the Brigade. There were two wine- 
 bottles and glasses on a table on the lawn, 
 with comfortable chairs alongside. Nearly 
 speechless with thirst, we rushed at them. 
 They were empty ! 
 
 Se'pt. 1st 
 
 The night was hot, and though I had an 
 excellent bed I remember I could not get 
 to sleep for ever so long. We were to
 
 78 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 have moved off early, but the sound of 
 the guns not far to the north stopped us, 
 and orders quickly arrived for the Brigade 
 to go and occupy Duvy, a village a mile or 
 so to the vs^est, and give what help we could 
 to General Pulteney's force of a Division 
 and a brigade, who were being attacked on 
 the north-west. 
 
 So we moved out rapidly and pushed out 
 two battalions to assist. Cavalry was re- 
 ported everywhere, but it was difficult to 
 know which was English and which German. 
 The latter's patrols were fairly bold, and 
 single horsemen got close up to us. Broad- 
 wood, of the Norfolks, bowled over one of 
 them at 700 yards — with a rifle, it was 
 reported, but it was probably his machine- 
 gun. Meanwhile our guns on the plateau 
 north of Crepy supporting the 13th Brigade 
 did good execution, three consecutive shells 
 of theirs falling respectively into a squadron 
 of Uhlans, killing a whole gun-team, and 
 smashing up a gun by direct hit (27th 
 Brigade R.F.A.) 
 
 The two battalions working up north-west 
 from Duvy had just extended and were 
 moving carefully across country, when I re- 
 ceived word that a large force of the enemy's
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 79 
 
 cavalry was moving on to my left rear. I 
 did not like this, and pushed ovit another 
 battalion (Norfolks) to guard my flank. But 
 we need not have been worried, for shortly 
 afterwards it appeared that the " hostile " 
 cavalry was the North Irish Horse, turned 
 up from goodness knows where. 
 
 About the same time w^e got a message 
 from General Pulteney thanking us for the 
 assistance rendered, and another one from 
 Sir C. Fergusson telling us to continue our 
 retirement towards Ormoy Villers as flank- 
 guard to the rest of the Division. This we 
 did, across country and partly on the railway 
 — very bad going this for horses, especially 
 as we might any moment have come across 
 a bridge or culvert with nothing but rails 
 across it. It is true that, if we had, we 
 might have slipped down into the turnip 
 fields on either side, but there were ditches 
 and wire alongside which would have proved 
 awkward. 
 
 We halted about Ormoy Villers station — 
 in ruins almost, and with its big water-tank 
 blown up, — and I put two battalions to 
 guard the flank whilst the rest of us had a 
 meal. Saint Andre had as usual managed to 
 forage for us in the ruins, and produced a
 
 80 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 tin of sardines and some tomatoes and 
 apples, which, with chocolate and biscuits 
 and warm water — it was another roasting 
 day — filled us well up. Then after a long 
 and dusty walk through the woods we 
 reached Nanteuil, where most of the Divi- 
 sion had already arrived. 
 
 We had to find outposts (Dorsets and 
 Norfolks) that night, covering a huge bit of 
 country. I borrowed a car in order to settle 
 how they should be put out, and ran out 
 much too far, nearly into the enemy. It 
 was not easy to place them, as connection 
 through the woods was most awkward. 
 However, we were not attacked, the German 
 cavalry and advanced guards not having 
 apparently come up. 
 
 I had sent Major AUason (of the Bedfords) 
 out earlier in the day to scout northwards 
 with a couple of mounted men, and he came 
 back at eventide, having collared a German 
 officer and his servant, but not brought them 
 in. They had just been falling back at a 
 walk with the information they had gathered, 
 when they heard a clatter of hoofs behind 
 them, and beheld a German cavalry officer 
 and his man trying to gallop past them — not 
 to attack them, — apparently bolting from
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 81 
 
 some of our own cavalry. Allason, who was 
 in front, stuck spurs into his horse and 
 galloped after the officer and shot his horse, 
 bringing the German down, the latter also 
 being put out of action. Then they bound 
 up the German's wound and took all his 
 papers from him, which proved to be very 
 useful, giving the location of the German 
 cavalry and other troops. Meanwhile the 
 officer's servant stood by, with his mouth 
 open, doing nothing. As they couldn't carry 
 the officer off, they left them both there and 
 came on. 
 
 Amongst other stories, we heard here that 
 a squadron of one of our cavalry brigades 
 had stopped to water in a wood. A lot of 
 German cavalry bungled on top of them, 
 and then bolted as if the devil were after 
 them. The row stampeded our horses, and 
 they dashed off through the wood in all 
 directions, leaving many of our men on foot. 
 But their steeds were soon recovered. 
 
 Sept. 2nd. 
 
 Off again next morning at 4.15 A.M. We 
 did rear-guard to the Division, but we had 
 an easy time of it, the Dorsets being in rear. 
 I had also the 27th Brigade R.F.A., the N.I. 
 
 F
 
 82 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 Horse under Massereene, and 70 cyclists to 
 help, but the Germans never pursued us or 
 fired a shot. It was awfully hot again, but 
 we had not far to go — only eleven miles — 
 into Montge. There we arrived at 10.45 a.m., 
 and should have been there much sooner if 
 it had not been for some of the Divisional 
 Train halting to water on the way. 
 
 Montge is a nice little village on a hillside, 
 almost within sight of Paris, which is only 
 about twenty-five miles oif ; and on a clear 
 day one can, I believe, see the Eiffel Tower 
 and Montmartre. We could not make out 
 why we were always thus retiring without 
 fighting, and imagined it was some deep-laid 
 plan of Joffre's that we perhaps were to 
 garrison Paris whilst the French turned on 
 the Germans. But no light was vouch- 
 safed to us. Meanwhile the retirement was 
 morally rather bad for our men, and the 
 stragglers increased in numbers. 
 
 The Brigade Headquarters billeted in a 
 tiny house marked by two big poplars on the 
 main road. The proprietor, a stout peasant 
 — I think he was the Maire — received us 
 very civilly, but his questions as to our 
 retirement were difficult to answer. How- 
 ever, we didn't trouble him long, and were
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 83 
 
 off next morning by 5.30 acting as flank- 
 guard again. 
 
 Sept. Zrd. 
 
 It was hotter than ever over those parched 
 fields, and the march was complicated, for 
 when we had reached Trilbardon down a 
 narrow leafy path, past a bridge over the 
 Marne which an R.E. officer was most 
 anxious to blow up at once, we were told to 
 act as rear-guard again. For this we had to 
 wait till all the troops had passed through 
 the little streets, and then we followed. We 
 overtook a good many stragglers, and these 
 we hustled along, insisting on their getting 
 over the other* side of the Marne before the 
 main bridges were blown up. We were 
 responsible for leaving no one behind, but 
 I'm afraid that several were left, as they had 
 fallen out and gone to sleep under hedges 
 and were not seen ; and one K.O.S.B. man 
 was suffering so violently from pains in his 
 tummy that he at first refused to stir, and 
 said he didn't care if he was taken prisoner. 
 There were a considerable number of these 
 tummy cases on the way — hot sun and un- 
 ripe apples had, I fancy, a good deal to do 
 with them.
 
 84 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 At Esbly we halted, gratefully, in the 
 shade for an hour ; it was a nice little town, 
 but strangely empty, for nearly all the in- 
 habitants had fled. 
 
 We put up for the night round Mont 
 Pichet, a beastly little hamlet, with the 
 Cheshires and one company Bedfords finding 
 the outposts. The Brigade Headquarters 
 billeted round a horrible little house, sur- 
 rounded by hundreds of ducks and chickens, 
 which ran in and out all over the place till it 
 stank most horribly. There was only one 
 room which wasn't absolutely foul, and that 
 I took. The others slept in the open. I 
 wish I had. 
 
 I went to visit the outposts by myself; 
 and my wretched pony, Gay, refused to cross 
 a little stream about two feet broad and two 
 inches deep. Nothing would induce her to 
 cross it, so I had to send her back and do it 
 all on foot, beyond a village called Ohevalrue 
 and back. By the time I got back, late, hot, 
 and hungry, I must have done four miles on 
 foot. 
 
 Sept. ith. 
 
 Having been told we should be here for 
 at least a day to rest, we received orders, I
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 85 
 
 need hardly say, at 7 next morning, to be 
 ready to move immediately. However, it 
 was rather a false alarm, as, except for a 
 Divisional "pow-wow " on general subjects, 
 at 10 A.M. at Bouleurs, we had little to do all 
 day, and did not move till 11.50 P.M. There 
 had been an alarm in the afternoon, by the 
 way, of German cavalry advancing, and I re- 
 inforced the Bedf ords with another company, 
 and got two howitzers ready to support, but 
 the " Uhlans " did not materialize. 
 
 I might here mention, by the way, that all 
 German cavalry, whether Lancers or not, 
 went by the generic name of Uhlans. But 
 it was perhaps not surprising, as all the 
 hostile cavalry, even Hussars, had lances. 
 They were, however, extraordinarily un- 
 handy with them, and our own cavalry had 
 a very poor opinion of their prowess and 
 dash. 
 
 Sept. 5th. 
 
 The Divisional Orders for the march 
 were complicated, and comprised marching 
 in two columns from different points and 
 meeting about ten miles off. Also, the 
 collecting of my outposts and moving to 
 a left flank was complicated. But it went
 
 86 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 off all right, aud we marched gaily along 
 in the cool night and effected the junction 
 at Villeneuve. Thence on through a big 
 wood with a network of rides, where the 
 two officers who were acting as guides in 
 front went hopelessly astray and took the 
 wrong turning. The leading battalion was, 
 however, very shortly extricated and put on 
 the right road, and after passing Tournans 
 we halted, after a sixteen -mile march, at 
 a magnificent chateau near Gagny (Chateau 
 de la Monture) at 7.30 A.M. 
 
 Here we made ourselves extremely com- 
 fortable in the best bedrooms of M. Boquet, 
 of the Assurance Maritime, Havre, and sent 
 him a letter expressing our best thanks. 
 Up to 6 P.M. we slept peacefully, with 
 no orders to disturb us, but then they 
 arrived and gave us great joy, for we were 
 to march at 5 A.M., not southwards, but 
 northwards again. 
 
 Sept. Qth. 
 
 What had happened, or why we were 
 suddenly to turn against the enemy after 
 ten days of retreat, we could not conceive ; 
 but the fact was there, and the difference 
 in the spirits of the men was enormous.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 87 
 
 They marched twice as well, whistling and 
 singing, back through Tournans and on to 
 Villeneuve. Here we had orders to halt 
 and feed, but the halt did not last long, for 
 a summons to the 5th Division Headquarters 
 (in a hot and stuffy little pot-house) arrived 
 at 1 P.M., and by 2 we were marching on 
 through the Foret de Crecy to Mortcerf. 
 It was frightfully hot and dusty, and the 
 track through the forest was not easy to 
 find. Although I had issued stringent 
 orders about the rear of one unit always 
 dropping a guide for the next unit (if not 
 in sight) at any cross-roads we came to, 
 something went astray this time, and half 
 the Brigade turned up at one end of the 
 village of Mortcerf, whilst the other half 
 came in at the other. We were on advanced 
 guard at the time, and so increasing the 
 frontage like this did no harm ; but it 
 caused rather a complication in the billets 
 we proceeded to allot. 
 
 A delightful little village it was, and the 
 Maire, in whose house we put up, was 
 extremely kind ; but by the time I had 
 covered the front with outposts and ridden 
 back, very hot and tired. General Smith 
 Dorrien turned up, and announced that
 
 88 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 we were to push on in an hour. He was, 
 by the way, very comphmentary about the 
 way in which the 15th Brigade had behaved 
 all through, and cast dewdrops upon us 
 with both hands. It was very pleasant, 
 but I was rather taken aback, for I 
 genuinely did not think that we had done 
 anything particularly glorious in the retreat. 
 However, it appeared that the authorities 
 considered that the Brigade was extremely 
 well disciplined and well in hand — for which 
 the praise was due to the C.O.'s and not to 
 me — and were accordingly well pleased. 
 
 So we made a hurried little meal at 
 the Maire's house, and Madame threw us 
 delicious pears from a first-floor window 
 as we rode away. 
 
 We had not far to go in the dusk, only 
 two or three miles on to the turning which 
 led to La Celle. The Dorsets were pushed 
 on into and beyond La Celle, in rather 
 complicated country — for there was a deep 
 valley and a twisting road beyond ; but 
 the few Uhlans in the village bolted as 
 they entered it, and no further disturb- 
 ances occurred in our front. On our right, 
 however, there was heavy firing, for the 
 3rd Division had come across a good many
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 89 
 
 of the enemy at Faremoutiers, and at 9.30, 
 and again at 11.30, general actions seemed 
 to be developing. But they died away, and 
 we slept more or less peacefully on a stubble 
 field with a few sheaves of straw to keep 
 us warm. Perpetual messengers, however, 
 kept on arriving with orders and queries 
 all night long, and our sleep was a broken 
 one. 
 
 Sept. 1th. 
 
 We awoke with the sun, feeling — I speak 
 for myself — rather touzled and chippy, and 
 waited a long time for the orders to proceed. 
 The cooks' waggon turned up with the 
 Quartermaster - Sergeant and breakfast — 
 and still we didn't move. Eventually we 
 fell in and moved off at noon — a hot day 
 again — very hot, in fact, as we strung along 
 on a narrow road in the deep and wooded 
 valley. Very pretty country it was ; but 
 what impressed itself still more on me was 
 the gift of some most super - excellent 
 "William" pears by a farmer's wife in a 
 tiny village nestling in the depths — real 
 joy on that thirsty day. 
 
 There were still some Uhlans left in the 
 woods, and I turned a couple of Norfolk
 
 90 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 companies off the road to drive them out. 
 Some of our artillery had also heard of 
 them, and a Horse battery dropped a few 
 shells into the wood to expedite matters; 
 but I regret to say the only bag, as far as 
 we could tell, was one of our own men 
 killed and another wounded by them. 
 
 At Mouroux we halted for a time, and 
 then pushed on, rather late, to Boissy le 
 Chatel — the delay being caused by the 
 motor-bikist carrying orders to us miss- 
 ing, by some mischance, our Headquarters 
 altogether — though we were within a few 
 hundred yards of Divisional Headquarters, 
 and had reported our whereabouts — and 
 going on several miles to look for us. 
 
 We were now again the advanced guard of 
 the Division, and had to find outposts for 
 it a mile beyond. It is always rather a 
 grind having to ride round the outposts 
 after a long day, but one can't sleep in 
 peace till one is satisfied that one's front 
 is properly protected, so it has to be done; 
 and as the Brigade Staff is limited, the 
 Staff Captain allotting the billets, and the 
 Brigade Major seeing that all the troops 
 arrive safely, one generally has to do these 
 little excursions by oneself. On the road
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 91 
 
 I came across Hubert Gough, commanding 
 the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, in a motor, cheery 
 as ever, with his cavalry somewhere on our 
 right flank keeping touch with us. We 
 put up in a little deserted chateau in Boissy 
 le Ohatel, but it was overcrowded with trees 
 and bushes and very stuffy. 
 
 Sept. 8th. 
 
 Next morning we had, before starting, 
 the unpleasant duty to perform of detailing 
 a firing-party to execute a deserter. I 
 forget what regiment he belonged to (not 
 in our brigade), but he had had rotten luck 
 from his point of view. He had cleared 
 out and managed to get hold of some civilian 
 clothes, and, having lost himself, had asked 
 the way of a gamekeeper he met. The 
 gamekeeper happened to be an Englishman, 
 and what was more, an old soldier, and 
 he promptly gave him up to the authorities 
 as a deserter. 
 
 We left at 7.25 A.M. as the last brigade 
 in the Division. I might mention here that, 
 for billeting, the ground for the Division 
 was divided into "Brigade Areas," each 
 area to hold not only an Infantry Brigade 
 but one or two Artillery Brigades, a Field
 
 92 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 Ambulance, and generally a company of 
 R.E., and occasionally some other odds and 
 ends, such as Divisional Ammunition Col- 
 umn, Train, Irish Horse, Cyclists, &c., and 
 for all these we had to find billets. The 
 troops billeted in these areas varied in com- 
 position nearly every day. It was very 
 hard work for the Staff Captain (Moulton- 
 Barrett), whose proper job would normally 
 have been limited to the 15th Brigade ; but 
 he and Saint Andre, who both worked like 
 niggers, somehow always managed to do it 
 satisfactorily. It would have turned my 
 hair grey, I know, to stuff away a conflicting 
 crowd of troops of different arms into an 
 area which "svas always too small for them. 
 But M.-B. would sit calmly on his horse 
 amid the clamour of inexperienced sub- 
 alterns and grasping N.C.O.'s, and allot the 
 farms and streets in such a way that they 
 always managed to get in somehow — though 
 occasionally I expect the conditions were 
 not those of perfect comfort. We w^ere 
 lucky in the weather, however, and many 
 times troops bivouacked in the open in 
 comparative ease when a rainy night would 
 have caused them extreme discomfort. 
 
 It was not always easy to find billets even
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 93 
 
 for our own Brigade Staff, for though we 
 were a small unit, comparatively, we had 
 a good number of horses and half a dozen 
 vehicles ; and besides this, we had to have 
 a decent room or place for the Signal section, 
 and rig up a wire for them to work in con- 
 nection with the Divisional Headquarters 
 or other troops. In this Cadell was excellent, 
 and we rarely had a breakdown. Some- 
 times, of course, we were too far off to get 
 a wire fixed in time, and then we had 
 recourse to our Signal " push-bikists " — no 
 motor cyclists being on our establishment. 
 The Signal companies, by the way, had 
 only been completely organized a month 
 or two before the war, and what we should 
 have done without them passes my imagin- 
 ation, for they were quite invaluable, and 
 most excellently organized and trained. 
 
 And sometimes when, after all this work, 
 we had settled down into billets for the 
 night, an order would come to move on at 
 once. Fresh orders had then hurriedly to 
 be written, and despatched by the orderly 
 of each unit (who was attached to our head- 
 quarters) to his respective unit, giving the 
 time at which the head of the unit was to 
 pass a given point on the road so as to
 
 94 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 dovetail into its place in the column in the 
 dark, and all with reference to what we 
 were going to do, whether the artillery or 
 part of it was to be in front or in rear, 
 what rations were to be carried, arrange- 
 ments for supply, position of the transport 
 in the column, compositions of the advanced 
 or rear-guard, «&c., &c. It sounds very com- 
 plicated, and still more so when you have 
 to fit in not only your own brigade but all 
 the miscellaneous troops of your " Brigade 
 Area." But Weatherby had reduced this to 
 a fine art, and, after all, we had had heaps 
 of practice at it ; so orders were short and 
 to the point, and issued in really an extra- 
 ordinarily short time. 
 
 To return. Our march that day was 
 through pretty country, with fighting always 
 going on just ahead of us or on both flanks, 
 but we were never actually engaged. At 
 Doue we halted for an hour or so, and then 
 received orders to push out a battalion to 
 hold the high ground in front. But when we 
 had got there ^ve only found a panorama 
 stretching out all round, dotted with troops, 
 and our guns firing from all sorts of unseen 
 hiding-places, with the enemy well on the 
 run in front of us. Soon the order came
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 95 
 
 for us to push on, and we moved forward 
 through Mauroy, down a steep hill into 
 St Cyr and St Ouen, pretty little villages 
 in a cleft in the ground, across the Petit 
 Morin river and up a beastly steep hill on 
 the other side. 
 
 Then came a "pow-wow" in a stiif shower 
 of rain, and on again slowly over the plateau, 
 in a curious position, for there was a big fight 
 going on amid some burning villages in the 
 plain far on our left — I don't know what 
 Division — probably the 4th — and a smaller 
 fight parallel to us on the right, not two 
 miles off ; and we were marching calmly 
 along the road in column. 
 
 Then a longer halt, whilst we got closer 
 touch with the 14th Brigade on our right. It 
 was a tangled fight there ; for when we 
 pushed forward some cyclists in that direc- 
 tion they were unintentionally fired on by 
 the East Surrey ; and the latter, who had 
 rounded up and taken about 100 of the enemy 
 prisoners, mostly cavalry, were just resting 
 whilst they counted them, when some of our 
 own guns lobbed some shells right into the 
 crowd, and five German officers and about 
 fifty of the prisoners escaped in the confusion. 
 
 A little farther on, near Charnesseuil,
 
 96 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 we got orders to billet for the night there, 
 and the Brigade Headquarters moved on to 
 Montapeine cross-roads. Here there was a 
 good deal of confusion, stray units of several 
 divisions trying to find their friends, and 
 the cross-roads blocked by a small body of 
 sixty-three German prisoners. We got the 
 place cleared at last, and the Staff occupied an 
 untidy, dirty, unfurnished house and grounds 
 at the corner. It had been used by the enemy 
 the night before, and they had luckily brought 
 great masses of straw into the house. 
 
 I stowed away the prisoners in the stables 
 — great big, docile, sheepish - looking men 
 of the Garde -Schiitzen-Bataillon (2nd and 
 4th companies) and machine - gun battery 
 attached. I talked to several of them, and 
 they said that the battalion had lost very 
 heavily and there were hardly any officers 
 left. One of the latter, Fritz Wrede by 
 name, I found wounded and lying on the 
 straw in a dark room in the basement. 
 Other wounded were being brought in here, 
 and all complained of feeling very cold, 
 although the evening was quite warm. I 
 made some men heap straw on them, which 
 was an improvement — but I believe that 
 wounded always do feel cold.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 97 
 
 Wrede had a bullet through the shoulder, 
 but was not bad, so I got him to sign a paper 
 to say he would not try to escape — other- 
 wise he might have made trouble. Our 
 men, as usual, were more than kind to the 
 prisoners, and insisted on giving them their 
 own bread and jam — though the Germans 
 had already been given a lot of biscuit. I 
 remember being struck with the extreme 
 mild-seemingness of all the prisoners, and 
 wondering how such men could have been 
 capable of such frightful brutalities as they 
 had been in Belgium — they looked and be- 
 haved as if they wouldn't have hurt a fly. 
 
 Sept. 9th. 
 
 Next morning we moved off at 7.30 and 
 went via Saacy across the Marne to Merz, 
 and thence up an extremely steep and bad 
 road through the woods. It was a very hot 
 day, and as there was no prospect of getting 
 the transport up I left it behind at Merz, 
 meaning to send it round another way when 
 the road was clear. Firing was going on to 
 the left front, and we halted for a council of 
 war with the Divisional Staff, which was 
 immediately in front of us. 
 
 The 14th Brigade was apparently hung up 
 
 G
 
 98 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 somewhere to our left front and couldn't get 
 on, so we were sent on to help them take 
 the high ground towards the Montreuil road. 
 They were, we w^ere told, already in posses- 
 sion of Hill 189 ; but when we emerged from 
 the woods there was a Prussian battery on 
 the hill. There did not seem to be any men 
 with it, as far as we could see, and it was not 
 firing. But we made a good target, and not 
 more than a battalion had got clear when 
 the " deserted " battery opened fire and 
 lobbed a shell or two into the Bedfords 
 and Cheshires. 
 
 They only lost a man or two killed and 
 wounded; but a Howitzer battery with us, 
 which was already on the look-out, came 
 into action at once and speedily silenced the 
 German guns for the time being. 
 
 Bols, who was leading, reported that the 
 hill was attackable — it was really only a rise 
 in the ground, — and after a reconnaissance 
 I gladly issued orders. So the Norfolks 
 and Dorsets proceeded to attack in proper 
 form, whilst I sent the Bedfords round to 
 the right towards Bezu to try and take 
 the rise in flank. The 14th Brigade were 
 meanwhile somewhere on the left, and we 
 got touch with them after a time ; but they
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 99 
 
 could not get forward, as a number of big 
 guns from much further off kept up a 
 heavy fire, and there was a body of 
 infantry hidden somewhere as well, to 
 judge from the number of bullets that 
 came over and into us. 
 
 That was rather a trying afternoon. 
 Dorsets and Norfolks were held up about 
 half a mile from Hill 189, and I went forward 
 to Bezu with the Bedfords to try to get 
 them on to the flank. Thorpe and his 
 company got forward into a wood, but lost 
 a number of men in getting there ; and the 
 lie of the ground did not seem to justify 
 my sending many more to help him, as the 
 space up to the wood was swept by a heavy 
 fire. Just about this time poor Roe of the 
 Dorsets, who had taken some of his com- 
 pany into this wood, was shot through the 
 head — as was also George, one of his 
 subalterns. 
 
 Meanwhile those horrible big guns from 
 somewhere near Sablonnieres were giving 
 us a lot of trouble, and knocked out also 
 several of the Cheshires, who had been sent 
 by the Divisional Commander towards the 
 left to support the 14th Brigade. The 
 latter — (I went to see Rolt, the Brigadier,
 
 100 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 but there wavS little we could combine) — 
 seemed at one moment to be a little un- 
 happy, as they were enfiladed from Chanoust 
 on their left ; but the Dorsets had worked 
 carefully forward on their tummies, and 
 with the Norfolks held a low ridge well to 
 the front, w^hence, though they could not 
 get forward themselves, they could do the 
 enemy a good deal of damage. So the 14th 
 Brigade stuck it out, and we kept up the 
 game till dusk, when we dug ourselves in 
 a little further back and posted outposts, 
 
 I might add that when Weatherby and I 
 went forward to see Bols and Ballard, 
 Weatherby had bad luck, for his horse 
 was shot in the body whilst he w^as leading 
 him, and died that night. 
 
 Meanwhile the 9th Brigade of the 3rd 
 Division was on our right, under Shaw, and 
 although his Lincolns, or some of them, 
 had got into the wood, and we tried a com- 
 bined movement, they also got hung up 
 there and we could not get on. 
 
 The Germans certainly fought this rear- 
 guard action remarkably well. We did not 
 know at the time that it was a rear-guard 
 action, for we thought a whole corps might 
 be occupying a strong position here and
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 101 
 
 intending to fight nex* day. But no more 
 fighting took place that night, and by next 
 morning they had cleared out. 
 
 The Germans had evidently only just left 
 B^zu, for on my going to see M'Cracken 
 (commanding 7th Brigade) there, I found 
 him in a house with the remains of an 
 unfinished (German) meal, including many 
 half-empty bottles, on the table. Then we 
 managed to get some supper in another 
 house, and were nearly turned out of it by 
 a subaltern of General Hamilton's staff, who, 
 seeing a light in the window, thought he 
 would save himself the trouble of hunting 
 for another house for his General, and 
 announced that it was required for the 3rd 
 Divisional Staff. I was inclined to demur 
 at first and sit tight ; but the ever-useful 
 Saint Andre, to save trouble, hurried out 
 and secured another house for us ; as a 
 matter of fact it was better and bigger than 
 the first one, and would have suited the 
 Divisional Staff much better. 
 
 After issuing orders for to-morrow's 
 attack or march we flung ourselves down 
 dead tired, and were awakened ten minutes 
 afterwards by a summons from General 
 Hamilton to come and see him at once, as
 
 102 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 he was going to hold a pow-wow on the 
 situation. I found him in a tiny, poky little 
 attic, and there we waited for three-quarters 
 of an hour whilst Rolt was being sent for. 
 Two hours did this pow-wow^ last, and we 
 had to write and issue fresh orders in con- 
 sequence. Just as they had been sent out 
 and we had flung ourselves down again for 
 a little sleep, an entirely new set of orders 
 arrived from the 5th Division, and for the 
 third time we had to think out and write 
 and distribute a fresh set of orders. By 
 that time it was 12.30 a.m., and we were to 
 move at 3.45 a.m., which meant getting up 
 at 2.30. Two hours broken sleep that night 
 was all we got — and lucky to get it. 
 
 Sept. 10th. 
 
 Off at 3.45 A.M., we moved out in careful 
 fashion towards Haloup, in the direction of 
 Montreuil. But our scouts reported all 
 clear, and in very truth the Germans had 
 left. What was more, they had left that 
 field battery on Hill 189 behind them, sur- 
 rounded by about twenty or more corpses 
 and a quantity of ammunition. 
 
 It was a damp day, and progress was 
 slow, as it was not at all certain where
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 103 
 
 the enemy was. At Denizy, a small village 
 on the way, we were told that a German 
 general, with his staff, had received a severe 
 shock there the day before by an unexpected 
 British shell dropping on his headquarters 
 whilst he was at luncheon. He had jumped 
 up with a yell and bolted up the hill, but 
 was driven dow^n again by another shell 
 which landed close by. He was reported 
 to have died almost at once, but whether 
 from fright or not was not quite clear. 
 
 When near Germigny we espied a German 
 column in the distance, and shelled it heavily 
 with the 61st howitzer battery attached to 
 us (Major Wilson), causing it to bolt in all 
 directions. The 3rd Cavalry Brigade now 
 turned up in our front (Hubert Gough's), 
 and with the 5th (Chetwode's) hustled the 
 enemy along. We were advanced guard 
 again, and it was difficult to get on, for 
 the Divisional Commander kept sending 
 messages from behind asking mo why the 
 deuce I wasn't going faster, whilst Gough 
 was sending me protests from the front 
 that I was treading on his heels, and not 
 giving him time to clear up the situation ! 
 
 We halted for some time the other side 
 of Germigny, and then pushed on to Gan-
 
 104 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 delu, a large village in a cleft of the hills, 
 from the heights in front of which the 
 German artillery might have made it ex- 
 tremely unpleasant for us. But none were 
 there, nor were there any at Chezy, which 
 would have made a perfect defensive posi- 
 tion for them, with a glacis-like slope in all 
 directions. 
 
 On the other side of Gandelu, in the wood, 
 we came across the first signs of the German 
 bolt. A broken motor-car was lying in the 
 stream, and dead horses and men were lying 
 about, whilst every now and then we passed 
 two or three of our troopers with a dozen 
 German prisoners in tow. 
 
 As we moved up the steep hill towards 
 Chezy, we came across packs, rifles, and 
 kit of all sorts flung away, broken-down 
 waggons, more dead Germans, and, at last, 
 on a whole convoy of smashed waggons, 
 their contents mostly littered over the fields 
 and road, and groups of our horsemen beam- 
 ing with joy. The 3rd Cavalry Brigade 
 had rounded up this convoy with their 
 Horse Artillery, scuppered or bolted most 
 of the escort, and captured the rest. Besides 
 this, they had attacked a whole cavalry 
 division and scattered it to the winds.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 105 
 
 Their first lot of prisoners numbered 348, 
 and their second 172. 
 
 We halted near the convoy for our usual 
 ten minutes, and examined it with much 
 satisfaction. There were all sorts of things 
 in the waggons — food and corn, to which 
 I allowed our men to help themselves, for 
 our horses were short of oats and our men 
 of rations, and some of the tinned meats, 
 "gulasch" and "blutwurst," were quite 
 excellent and savoury, much more so than 
 our everlasting bully beef. Other waggons 
 were full of all sorts of loot — cases of 
 liqueur and wine, musical instruments, house- 
 hold goods, clothing, bedding, &c., trinkets, 
 clocks, ribbons, and an infinite variety of 
 knick-knacks, many of which one would 
 hardly have thought worth taking. But 
 the German is a robber at heart, and takes 
 everything he can lay his hands on. There 
 was also a first-rate motor-car, damaged, 
 by the side of the road, and in it were a 
 General's orders and decorations, and 100 
 rifle cartridges (Mauser) with soft -nosed 
 bullets. To make certain of this I kept 
 one of the cartridges and gave it to Sir C 
 Fergusson. I think these were about the 
 only things (besides food) which we took
 
 106 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 from the whole convoy, though many of 
 the other things would have been well 
 worth taking. The men were very good, 
 and did not attempt even to leave the 
 ranks till allowed by me to take the corn 
 and food, 
 
 A short way on was the dirty village of 
 Chezy, and here we found a heap of cavalry 
 and many of the 3rd Division. So we 
 branched off to the left in a frightfully 
 heavy ten minutes' shower, and marched 
 away to St Quentin — marked as a village, 
 but really only a farmhouse in a big wood. 
 As we approached the wood Headlam's guns 
 began to shell it in order to clear it of 
 possible hostile troops, and continued until 
 I sent back to say that the shells were pre- 
 venting us from going on ; then he eased off. 
 
 We halted near St Quentin for half an 
 hour, and then came a message to say we 
 were to billet there. It was impossible to 
 billet a whole brigade in one farmhouse, 
 and that none too large. So we told off 
 different fields for the battalions to bivouac 
 in, and occupied the farm ourselves, first 
 sending out cyclists to clear the wood, as 
 there were rumoured to be parties of Uhlans 
 in it.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 107 
 
 It was a grubby farm with not much 
 water, but we made the best of it, and 
 settled down for the night. A starved- 
 looking priest was also sleeping there, and 
 he told me his story. 
 
 He and a fellow-priest, an Aumonier from 
 Paris, had been on their way to join the 
 French unit to which they had been allotted 
 for ambulance purposes, when they fell into 
 German hands and were treated as prisoners. 
 The priest was robbed by a sergeant of 1200 
 francs, his sole possessions, and both he and 
 the Aumonier were beaten black and bhie, 
 forced to march carrying German knap- 
 sacks, and kept practically without food or 
 drink. After three days the Aumonier 
 succumbed to ill usage and died, and the 
 priest only managed to escape because his 
 captors were themselves on the run. 
 
 The priest also told us that there were 
 some British prisoners in the column, and 
 that the Germans behaved perfectly brutally 
 to them, kicking them, starving them, and 
 forcing them to carry German knapsacks. 
 
 Sept. nth. 
 
 Next morning we did not move off till 
 9.25, for the supplies to the Brigades did not
 
 108 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 arrive as soon as we expected, and hence 
 the column was late in starting. We 
 dawdled along, forming the rear brigade, 
 in cool weather, and nothing in particular 
 happened beyond reports coming in from 
 the front that the Germans were quite 
 demoralised. It came on to pour as we left 
 Chouy, and at Billy we parked the transport 
 and prepared to billet there. But it was 
 already chokeful of other troops, and more 
 than half our brigade would have had to 
 bivouac in the sopping fields. So we pushed 
 on to St Remy, and, evacuating some 
 cavalry and making them move on to some 
 farms a bit ahead, — including Massereene 
 and his North Irish Horse, who, I fear, 
 were not much pleased at having to turn out 
 of their comfortable barns, — we billeted 
 there, headquarters being taken up in the 
 Cures house. Even here his poor little 
 rooms had been ransacked, drawers and 
 tables upset and their contents littered over 
 the floor, and everything of the smallest 
 value stolen by the Germans. 
 
 Sept. 12th. 
 
 Off at 5 A.M., we did only a short march 
 as far as the Ferme de I'Epitaphe, a huge
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 109 
 
 farm standing by itself in a vast and dreary- 
 plain of ploughed fields. Here we halted in 
 pouring rain all day, expecting orders to 
 go on. But we eventually had to billet 
 there, with the Divisional Headquarters, and 
 though we could only put up the Bed fords 
 and the Cheshires there was a terrific squash. 
 The Dorsets and Norfolks were sent back to 
 billet at Nampteuil, a village a mile or so 
 back, but even here there was some confu- 
 sion, as the 14th Brigade had meanwhile 
 arrived and begun to billet there. They 
 were, however, sent back likewise to Chrisy, 
 and the whole Division passed a. most un- 
 comfortable night. The rain never ceased 
 from pouring, and a gale sprang up, which 
 made matters worse. We slept in a loft with 
 a number of Cheshire and Bedford ofiicers, 
 and didn't get dinner till past nine. Some 
 gunner officers turned up, with no food at 
 all, and we fed them ; but there wasn't much 
 at the best of times, for we had no rations 
 and had to depend on the contents of our 
 Mess basket, which consisted only of Harvey 
 sauce, knives and forks, an old ham-bone, 
 sweet biscuits, and jam.
 
 110 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 Sept. I3th. 
 
 It was fine in the morning, but the farm- 
 yard was ankle-deep in water and slush, and 
 the sky was leaden with lurid clouds in the 
 east, when we started at 4.10 a.m. We 
 pushed on slowly in column for the few 
 miles to Serches, and there we halted at the 
 cross-roads on the top of the plateau and 
 parked the brigade whilst the situation was 
 cleared up by troops in front. Shells began 
 to drop unpleasantly near us, and a couple 
 of field batteries which got into action just in 
 front of us, together with a " cow-gun " ^ 
 (GO lb.) battery, only drew the hostile fire 
 still more. They were pretty big shells, 
 Black Marias mostly, and the heavy battery 
 being right out in the open suffered some- 
 what severely, losing eight horses and a few 
 men killed and wounded by one shell 
 alone. 
 
 So we prudently scattered the battalions 
 a bit, and the field batteries limbered up and 
 walked slowly back under cover of a slope. 
 But the cow-guns had one gun disabled, and 
 though they also moved back and got again 
 
 1 So called because similar guns in the South African 
 war had been drawn by oxen.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 111 
 
 into action they were evidently spotted and 
 bad rather a poor time. 
 
 Just about then, too, the transport of the 
 13th Brigade, which was necessarily follow- 
 ing the infantry over the crest towards 
 Sermoise, were noticed by the enemy, and a 
 few shells over them killed and disabled a 
 number of waggon-horses and men, making 
 a very nasty mess in the road. 
 
 There we sat all day whilst the sun came 
 out and dried us a bit. But we were not 
 very happy at luncheon ; for though hungry 
 and with plenty to eat now, those beastly 
 shells came nearer and nearer us, till our 
 bully and biscuit lost their charm entirely. 
 At last we got up, plates in hand, and moved 
 with dignity out of range, or, rather, more 
 under cover. 
 
 The Cheshires had meanwhile discovered a 
 curious cave in the hillside which sheltered 
 the whole battalion (though, in truth, the 
 latter was not large, only 450 men or so), 
 whilst the other battalions were well out 
 of sight in the folds of the ground. 
 
 The shadows grew longer and longer, and 
 we rigged up some comfortable little shelters 
 in the coppice for the night, thinking we 
 should bivouac where we were. But at 6 I
 
 112 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 was sent for to Divisional Headquarters at 
 Serches, and told to reconnoitre the road 
 towards the Aisne — only a mile or two 
 ahead. This I did in a motor-car, and 
 returned in time for dinner; but we had 
 barely got through it, about 8, when march- 
 ing orders came to the effect that we were 
 to push on and cross the Aisne by rafts to- 
 night, and the sooner the better. 
 
 So we moved off with some difficulty in 
 the dark, for there were no connecting roads 
 with the halting-places of the battalions, and 
 got on to the main road, whence all was 
 plain sailing, down to the Moulin des Roches, 
 an imaginary mill on the river bank. Over 
 some sloppy pasture fields in dead silence, 
 and we found ourselves on the bank, with 
 a darker shadow plashing backwards and 
 forwards over the river in our front, and 
 some R.E. officers talking in whispers. 
 
 The actual crossing of the Brigade was a 
 long job, and had to be carefully worked 
 out. The raft held sixty men at a time, 
 or thirty men and three horses ; but as 
 horses on a raft in the dead of night were 
 likely to cause a fuss, we left them behind, 
 to follow on in the morning, and crossed 
 without them, — four and a half hours it
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 113 
 
 took ; and whilst the men were crossing 
 we tried to get a bit of sleep on the wet 
 bank. It was not very successful, as it 
 was horribly cold and we had no blankets. 
 The staff crossed last of all, and we landed 
 in a wood on the far side, in a bog but 
 thinly covered with cut brushwood, and 
 full of irritating, sharp, and painful tree- 
 stumps. 
 
 Sept. Uth. 
 
 When we were across it was difficult to 
 discover the battalions asleep in the fields, 
 and when we had found them and it was 
 time to start it was difficult to wake 
 them. However, we moved off just as it 
 was getting light; but it was not easy to 
 find the way, for there was no path at 
 first. We had orders to go vid Bucy-le- 
 Long to Sainte Marguerite, and found the 
 villages right enough, for they were close 
 together. But as we moved into Sainte 
 Marguerite, with a good many other troops 
 in front of us, we became aware that there 
 was an unnecessary number of bullets fly- 
 ing about, and that our fellows in front 
 were being held up. 
 
 The village was held by the 12th Brigade 
 
 H
 
 114 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 (4th Division), and the 14th Brigade was 
 somewhere on our right. The Dorsets were 
 our leading battalion, and they were pushed 
 on to help the 12th, and filled a gap in 
 their line on the hill above the village front 
 at the eastern end. But there we stuck 
 for a long time. The enemy's artillery had 
 meanwhile opened on us, and shells began 
 to crash overhead and played the devil with 
 the tiles and the houses. But they did not 
 do us much harm. 
 
 We now received orders to move on to 
 Missy (not a mile off to the right) and clear 
 the Chivres ridge of the enemy and push on 
 to Conde and take that if possible — rather 
 a "large order." The difficulty was to get 
 to Missy, for the road thither was spattered 
 with bullets, and shells were bursting all 
 along it. However, by dint of careful work 
 we moved out bit by bit, cutting through 
 the gardens and avoiding the road, and 
 taking advantage of a slight slope in the 
 ground by which we could sneak to the 
 far side of the little railway embankment 
 which led to Missy Station. 
 
 It took a long time, and I made what 
 proved to be the serious mistake of stay- 
 ing to the end in order to see the whole
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 115 
 
 Brigade clear of Saintc Marguerite. I ought 
 really to have gone ahead with the first 
 party to reconnoitre ; for just as we were 
 starting after the rear company I stopped 
 to write a message to the Division in answer 
 to one which had just arrived, and at that 
 moment a hellish shrapnel, machine gun, and 
 rifle fire was opened, not only on the village 
 but on all the exits therefrom, and this fire 
 lasted for nearly two hours. One simply 
 could not make the attempt ; it would 
 have been certain death. And so we had 
 to sit in the tiny courtyard of one of the 
 houses, with our backs against the wall, 
 and listen to the inferno overhead, whilst 
 the proprietor's wife plied us with most 
 acceptable roast potatoes and milk. 
 
 I wrote a lot of messages during those 
 two hours, but whether they all got through 
 or not I do not know : some of the mes- 
 sengers never came back. Colonel Seely 
 turned up at one moment — from General 
 Headquarters, I think — demanding informa- 
 tion. This I supplied, and made use of him 
 to take some of my orders back; it really 
 was quite a new sensation giving orders to 
 a recent Secretary of State for War. 
 
 At one time two or three artillery waggons
 
 116 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 appeared in the little main street and re- 
 mained there quietly for a bit under a 
 heavy fire, but only losing a man or two 
 slightly wounded. Then suddenly there was 
 a loud crack overhead, and half a dozen 
 horses were lying struggling and kicking 
 on the ground, with great pools of blood 
 forming in the road and four or five pros- 
 trate men in them. It was a horrible sight 
 for us, for the shell had burst just opposite 
 the gate of our courtyard. But the gunners 
 behaved magnificently, and a farrier sergeant 
 gave out his orders as quietly and uncon- 
 cernedly as if he had been on parade. I 
 took his name with a view to recommenda- 
 tion, but regret that I have forgotten it 
 by now. 
 
 We also had some very unpleasant shaves 
 at this time in our own courtyard. Twice 
 did a shell burst just above the house and 
 drive holes in the roof, bringing down 
 showers of tiles ; the second time practically 
 all the tiles fell on me and nearly knocked 
 me down. I do not know why they did 
 not hurt me more — luckily the house was a 
 low one ; but they merely bruised my back. 
 
 At last, in a lull, we managed to get away, 
 and sneaked out at a run — through a yard
 
 FTFTEENTPI INFANTRY BRIGADE 117 
 
 and back garden, behind a farm, out at the 
 back behind a fold in the ground, then across 
 a wide open field and on to the low railway 
 embankment, behind which we ducked, and 
 made our way to the little station of Missy 
 and up behind some scattered houses to near 
 the church. 
 
 Here, after some trouble, we got the 
 commanding officers together, and arranged 
 to push on and attack the wooded ridge 
 above the town. The force was rather 
 mixed. I had met Rolt (commanding the 
 14th Brigade) on the way, and we had 
 settled that I should collect whatever of 
 his men I could get together in Missy and 
 join them to my attacking party. The 
 difficulty was that it was already getting 
 late — 4.30 p.m. — and that there was insuffi- 
 cient time for a thorough reconnaissance, 
 though we did what we could in that direc- 
 tion. However, my orders from the Divi- 
 sional Commander had been to take the 
 ridge, and I tried to do it. I had got to- 
 gether three companies of the Norfolks, 
 three of the Bedfords, two Cheshires (in 
 reserve), two East Surreys (14th Brigade), 
 and two Corn walls (13th Brigade, who had 
 arrived vid the broken bridge at Missy and
 
 118 TPIE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 some rafts hastily constructed there) — twelve 
 companies altogether. 
 
 But when they pushed forward it became 
 very difficult, for there turned out to be too 
 many men for the space. What I had not 
 known was that, though they could advance 
 up a broad clearing to more than half-way 
 up the hill, this clearing was bounded on 
 both flanks, as it gradually drew to a point, 
 by high 6-feet wire netting just inside the 
 wood, so that the men could not get properly 
 into the wood, but were gradually driven in 
 towards the point, where the only entrance 
 to the wood occurred. 
 
 Luckily the Germans had not noticed this 
 either — or there would have been many 
 more casualties than there were. As it was, 
 a company of the East Surrey and another 
 one (AUason's) of the Bedfords did get 
 through to the top of the wood and on to 
 the edge of the open plateau; but this I 
 did not hear of till later. When the greater 
 part of the force had got through the open- 
 ing into the wood they found a few Germans 
 there and drove them back, killing some. 
 Then they surged on to a horse-shoe-shaped 
 road further on in the wood, and some men 
 lost their direction and began firing in front
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 119 
 
 of them at what they thought were Germans. 
 But they were others of our own, and these 
 began firing back, also without knowing that 
 they were their friends. Consequently, al- 
 though casualties were few, an unpleasant 
 situation arose, and numbers of men turned 
 about and retired down the hill into Missy, 
 saying that our artillery was firing into 
 them. This may have been true, for some 
 shells were bursting over the wood ; but 
 whether they were English or German I do 
 not know to this day. 
 
 Anyhow, the stream of men coming back 
 increased. They fell back into the village, 
 and then came some certainly German 
 shells after them. For an unpleasant 
 quarter of an hour the little sloping village 
 of Missy was heavily shelled by shrapnel ; 
 but the walls of the houses were thick, and 
 though of course there were a certain 
 number of casualties, they were not serious 
 as long as the men kept close to the south 
 side of the walls. Beilby (our Veterinary 
 officer) for some reason would keep to the 
 wrong side of the street and was very nearly 
 killed, the fuse of a shell landing with a 
 whump on a door not two feet in front of 
 him, and a shrapnel bullet going through
 
 120 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 his skirt pocket ; but he was not touched. 
 The shrapnel were in bursts of four, and 
 luckily Moulton - Barrett noticed it, for he 
 calmly held up the stream of men till the 
 fourth shell had burst, and then let as many 
 as possible past the open space there till 
 the next bunch arrived, when he stopped 
 them behind cover, — just like a London 
 policeman directing traffic. 
 
 I remember one man falling, as we 
 thought dead, close to where the Staff were 
 standing. But he groaned, and Weatherby 
 ran to pick him up. There was, however, 
 no wound of any sort on him, and after a 
 minute he got up and went on. I think he 
 must have been knocked down by the 
 wind of a shell — for he certainly was as 
 much astonished as we were at finding no 
 damage on himself. 
 
 By this time I had given orders that the 
 troops were to retire to their previous 
 positions in and near the village, and it was 
 getting dusk. 
 
 Luard (Norfolks) and a party of twenty- 
 five men were well ahead in the wood, and 
 received the order to retire, for Luard was 
 heard shouting it to his men. But nothing 
 has since been heard of him, and I much
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 121 
 
 regret to say that he was either taken 
 prisoner with most of his men, or, more 
 probably, killed. 
 
 A message now came down from the 
 plateau saying that some East Surreys and 
 Bedfords were still up in the wood, and 
 should they retire or hold on? As it was 
 nearly dark and I consequently could not 
 support them — for if the men could not get 
 through the wire-netting in daylight they 
 could hardly do so at night — I told them 
 to retire. I gave this order after I had 
 consulted Rolt, who was somewhere west 
 of the village ; but even if Rolt had not 
 been there I should have given it, for it 
 would have been impossible to reinforce 
 them adequately in the circumstances. 
 
 So I issued orders for an early recon- 
 naissance and attack next morning, to be 
 led by the Norf oiks ; and the troops covered 
 their front with sentries and bivouacked 
 in and round the village. We were all 
 short of food that night, for none of our 
 supply carts, and not even a riding-horse, 
 had come with us. But all or most of the 
 men had an "iron ration" on them, and 
 this they consumed, with the " unexpired " 
 portion of their previous day's ration.
 
 122 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 The Bedfords took up their position along 
 the railway to the west, Cheshires on the 
 right, Norfolks right front of village, 
 D.C.L.I. left front. 
 
 As for the Staff, we retired to a farm 
 called La Bizaie, three-quarters of a mile 
 south of Missy, and close to the river, and 
 took up our quarters there. There was 
 not a whole pane of glass in the house, for 
 it had been heavily bombarded — being 
 empty, except for a few wounded — during 
 the day, and great craters had been formed 
 close by the walls by the Black Marias. But 
 except at one corner of the roof of an out- 
 house, no damage had been done to the 
 buildings — except the broken glass. 
 
 It was a very old farmhouse, as we found 
 out afterwards, part of it dating back to 
 1200 and something. Curiously enough, 
 there was a photograph of an English 
 Colonel (of the R.A.M.C.) on the sideboard — 
 a friend, so the farm servants told us, of 
 the owner, whose name I have forgotten. 
 The buildings were very superior to the 
 ordinary farm type, and more like a com- 
 fortable country house than one would ex- 
 pect, but there were plenty of barns as well, 
 and some pigs and chickens running about. 
 We bought, murdered, and ate an elderly
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 123 
 
 chicken, but otherwise there was devilish 
 little to eat except a store of jam, and we 
 had only a very few biscuits and no bread. 
 
 Sept. Ibth. 
 
 After writing out orders for the attack 
 next day we went to bed, dog-tired ; and 
 
 I was routed out again at 12.45 a.m. by 
 Malise Graham, who had come with a 
 message from the Divisional Commander 
 that he wanted to see me at once at the 
 broken bridge at Missy, a mile off through 
 long wet grass in pitch darkness. It was
 
 124 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 not good "going," but we got there eventu- 
 ally and crossed the river, sliding down steep 
 slippery banks into a punt, ferried across, 
 and up the other side. Cuthbert eventually 
 turned up from somewhere, and we had 
 a pow-wow in the dark, resulting in fresh 
 orders being given for the morrow's work. 
 
 This involved new orders being written, 
 and it was 4 a.m. by the time we turned 
 in again for an hour's sleep. 
 
 A careful reconnaissance was made by 
 Done and some other Norfolk officers as 
 soon as it was light ; but the result was 
 not promising. Fresh German trenches 
 had been dug commanding the open space, 
 and more wire had been put up during the 
 night. 
 
 The Norfolks were told off to lead the 
 assault, with the Bedfords in support and 
 the Cheshires in reserve. The Dorsets were 
 still above Sainte Marguerite, helping the 
 12th Brigade, and were not available. 
 
 We began by shelling that horrible 
 Chivres Spur, but it produced little effect, 
 as the Germans were in the wood and 
 invisible. The Norfolks pushed on, but 
 gradually came to a standstill in the wood, 
 and the day wore on with little result,
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 125 
 
 for the wood was desperately blind, and we 
 were being heavily shelled at all points. 
 
 The Brigade staff sat under a hedge half- 
 way between La Bizaie farm and Missy ; 
 but it was not a very happy place, for the 
 big shells fell nearer and nearer till we had 
 to make a move forward at a run for the 
 shelter of a big manure-heap. But even 
 here the Black Marias found us out, and 
 two of them fell within a few yards, their 
 explosion covering us with dirt. We were 
 also in view of German snipers half-way 
 up the hill, and bullets came thick whenever 
 we showed a cap or a leg beyond the muck- 
 heap, which, besides being distinctly unsweet, 
 was covered with disgusting-looking flies in 
 large numbers. 
 
 However, there we had to stay most of 
 the day. The village of Missy was inter- 
 mittently shelled by some huge howitzers, 
 and bunches of their shells blew up several 
 houses and nearly demolished the church, 
 a fine old 14th century building. A few 
 Norfolks were buried or killed by the falling 
 houses, but otherwise extraordinarily little 
 damage was done, and most of the shells 
 fell in the open, where there was nobody 
 worth mentioning.
 
 126 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 At 3 P.M. I got a summons to go to Rolt 
 at his farm just outside Sainte Marguerite ; 
 and a most uupleasing journey it was for 
 Weatherby and me. We separated, going 
 across the open plough and cabbage fields, 
 but snipers were on us the whole time, and 
 several times missed us by only a few inches. 
 We must have offered very sporting targets 
 to the Germans on the hill, for we ran all 
 the way, and — I speak for myself — we got 
 extremely hot. 
 
 I sprinted a good 400 yards under fire for 
 the shelter of a thick hedge, and when I got 
 there found to my disgust there was a young 
 river to be got over before I could reach the 
 cover. However, I squirmed along a fallen 
 bough and struggled through the fence — 
 to find myself face to face with Bols and 
 his Dorsets, whom he was bringing along 
 to hold the line of the fence. This gave a 
 certain "moral relief," and from there it 
 was easier going to Rolfs farm, all except 
 one point where the railway cut through 
 a hedge and crossed the stream. On this 
 point a German machine-gun had been laid, 
 and to cross it with a whole skin one had 
 to hurry a bit. Our Brigade machine-gun 
 officer, young D of the Bedfords, was
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 127 
 
 subsequently hit hero, in the back, but not 
 very seriously. 
 
 I concerted measures with Rolt for hold- 
 ing the line Missy-Sainte Marguerite, and we 
 began to dig in places. But at 7.40 p.m. 
 came orders for the 15th Brigade to evacuate 
 the north bank vid a new bridge near the 
 old raft one where we had crossed ; so we 
 issued fresh orders about the 14th Brigade 
 taking over our line, and prepared for an- 
 other night march, — no sleep again. 
 
 I forgot to mention that our horses had 
 arrived at La Bizaie early that morning, 
 having crossed by the raft bridge the day 
 before. Silver as usual made a desperate 
 fuss, and was eventually knocked into the 
 river by a mule who was crossing with him. 
 He swam up and down the river for twenty- 
 five minutes, refusing to come out — poor 
 Catley in desperation all the time. But he 
 was eventually hauled out, with my saddle 
 and bags, of course, sopping wet. His stable 
 shed was also shelled heavily during the day, 
 but strange to say none of the horses or 
 grooms were touched. 
 
 It poured in buckets that night ; and as 
 the Bedfords were streaming past the farm 
 in the dark about 11 p.m. a terrific fire
 
 128 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 broke out from the direction of Missy, ac- 
 companied by German flarelights and search- 
 lights. The word went round that it w^as a 
 German counter-attack, and we ran out and 
 halted the Bedf ords and put them into some 
 trenches covering the farm. But it turned 
 out to be a false alarm ; for the Germans, 
 hearing troops moving in the dark, thought 
 that they were going to be attacked, and 
 opened a heavy fire on Missy, whilst the 
 14th Brigade and the remainder of our men 
 still there replied to it. It eventually died 
 down, and we resumed our march in pitch 
 darkness and mud up to the men's knees 
 in the water meadows by the river. 
 
 Sept. IQth. 
 
 The Cheshires came last, and we of the 
 Brigade Staff followed them at 4 A.M. 
 through dripping fields and criss-cross hedges, 
 coming across the Scottish Rifles lying 
 asleep near the pontoon bridge. They 
 belonged to the 19th Brigade, but where 
 the rest of the Brigade was I do not know. 
 
 On the other side of the river we found 
 the Divisional Commander with a few of 
 his staff. It was beastly cold and just 
 getting light, about 5 a.m., and why Sir
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 129 
 
 Charles should be standing there I could 
 not at first make out. However, it turned 
 out that he had come down from Serches, 
 being somewhat anxious as to what might 
 be happening on the other side of the river 
 — with considerable justification, for if we 
 had been driven back on to the one bridge 
 which crossed the river we might have 
 been in a parlous state. 
 
 Half an hour later we arrived in Jury, 
 a tidy little village in and round which 
 most of the Brigade was already billeting, 
 and here, in a nice little house, belonging 
 to a worthy old couple, we took our rest, 
 thankful for a little peace and some sleep 
 at last. 
 
 And here we stayed for a week. 
 
 Not that it was all beer and skittles even 
 then. The lith Brigade was still holding 
 Missy over the river, and there were some 
 serious alarms on one or two nights, neces- 
 sitating troops being sent down to the river 
 at Rupreux, in case they were wanted. 
 
 Shells fell near Jury for a day or two, 
 but they gradually died away, until some 
 heavy guns of the 4th Division were brought 
 up close by and began banging away again 
 at the Chivres heights and beyond. Quite
 
 130 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 unnecessary we thought them, for they not 
 only made a hideous noise day and night, 
 but the enemy began searching for them 
 with Black Marias, some of which fell un- 
 pleasantly close to us. 
 
 It was a pretty little valley with wooded 
 hills, running northwards to the Aisne, and 
 on our right was a big plateau with huge 
 hay -stacks dotted about the corn-fields, 
 which served as excellent observing stations 
 for our artillery, of which by this time we 
 had a vast mass. The other (north) bank 
 of the Aisne was clearly visible from here — 
 in fact from the top of the biggest hay- 
 stack there was a regular panorama to be 
 seen, from the twin towers of Soissons 
 Cathedral on the left to the enemy's 
 trenches above Vailly and beyond — a 
 beautiful landscape typical of La Belle 
 France, even to the rows of poplars in the 
 distance, marking the Routes Nationales 
 from Soissons to other places of distinction. 
 
 Our business was to hold the line of the 
 river by digging a line of trenches from 
 Sermoise to near Venizel, and to cover 
 them with a line of outposts day and 
 night. This took about four companies, 
 and the rest were engaged in digging an-
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 131 
 
 other series of trenches on the plateau as 
 a supporting line to the first, flanking the 
 Jury Valley on one side and the ruins of 
 Sermoise and Ciry on the other. This was 
 really the first serious digging of trenches 
 we had had during the campaign, and I 
 remember, in the light of after experiences, 
 how futile they must have been at the 
 time, for they were nothing like as deep 
 as we subsequently found to be necessary, 
 nor had they any wire entanglements or 
 obstacles worth mentioning. However, I 
 expect that the French improved them 
 greatly during the subsequent winter. 
 
 Sermoise had been desperately shelled ; 
 there were no inhabitants left, and practi- 
 cally every house was a heap of ruins ; 
 but though our outposts in front of it 
 could not have been seen through the 
 woods, the Germans continued to shell it 
 most viciously. 
 
 On the right of Sermoise was the 13th 
 Brigade, extended towards the 3rd Division, 
 which had crossed the river at Vailly and 
 was holding the slopes above it. I believe 
 the 13th had a poor time of it, for they 
 were scattered over open ground and in 
 small woods which were perpetually being
 
 132 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 shelled, and they had, besides, to find a 
 battalion or so to help the 14th Brigade in 
 Missy. 
 
 On our left we joined hands with the 4th 
 Division, most of whom were on the other 
 bank, running from St Marguerite west- 
 wards ; on their left were, I believe, the 
 French, in and round Soissons. 
 
 It was a nice time for the Artillery ; for 
 guns were there in large numbers, and they 
 had some good targets to shoot at, over 
 Vregny and Chivres way, in the shape of 
 the enemy's batteries and lines, when they 
 could be seen. 
 
 The weather was mostly fine during that 
 week, but there were two horridly cold 
 days on which the rain came down in 
 torrents, and did not help us in our en- 
 trenching tasks. 
 
 At last came the day which I had been 
 expecting for some time ; and I was ordered 
 to send the Dorsets across, to begin reliev- 
 ing the 14th Brigade near Missy. 
 
 Sept. 24:th. 
 
 They left on the 23rd, and on the 24th 
 the Bedfords went over, preceded by the 
 Brigade Staff at 2.30 p.m. The Norfolks
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 133 
 
 had been sent off three days before to 
 strengthen the 3rd Division, so I had only 
 three battalions, and of these the Cheshires 
 were very weak. However, the K.O. Y.L.I, 
 and West Kents (of the 13th Brigade), 
 already holding the eastern edge of Missy, 
 were put under my orders, besides the 15th 
 Brigade R.F.A. under Charles Ballard (a 
 cousin of Colin's^), and a Howitzer Battery 
 (61st) of Duifus's 8th Brigade. 
 
 Weatherby and I walked across to Rolfs 
 farm, across a series of big fields, with only 
 an occasional bullet or shell pitching in the 
 distance. Lord, what a poor place it was ; 
 Rolt and his staff had lived there for the 
 last week, all lying together on straw in 
 one or two rooms : it must have been most 
 uncomfortable. The windows towards the 
 north-east had been plugged up with sand- 
 bags, so that the rooms were very dark, 
 and the floors were deep in caked mud and 
 dirt of all sorts. The only attraction in 
 the main room was a big open fireplace 
 with a huge sort of witches' cauldron 
 standing over the hot ashes, and this was 
 most useful in providing us with hot baths 
 later on. 
 
 ^ Commanding the Norfolks.
 
 134 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 Sept. 25th. 
 
 Rolt explained his position and the places 
 which the different battalions were occupy- 
 ing ; but beyond an occasional bombard- 
 ment of Missy and losses from German 
 snipers in trees and elsewhere, he had not 
 suffered overmuch. However, he and his 
 Brigade were not sorry to leave, and leave 
 they did at 4 A.M. next morning. The 
 awkward part of it was that one could 
 never go out in the daytime, as the road 
 in front of the farm leading towards Missy 
 was under perpetual rifle-fire directly any 
 one showed up, and several holes had been 
 made in the farmyard gate, windows, and 
 walls, not to mention bits of the roof taken 
 off by shrapnel. Why they did not shell 
 the farm more I cannot conceive. Perhaps 
 the enemy thought it was deserted, but 
 whilst we were there no shells fell within 
 a couple of hundred yards of it, though 
 some were pitched well over it, and ex- 
 ploded 500 yards to the rear. 
 
 I had gone to see the Dorsets and 13th 
 Brigade in Missy on the evening before, and 
 found them fairly well ensconced. The 
 Dorsets were in Missy itself, with their 
 headquarters in a really nice house with
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 135 
 
 carpets and big shaded lamps, and a cellar 
 full of excellent wine, and a nice garden 
 all complete, and charming bedrooms — in- 
 finitely superior to our pig- sty of a farm. 
 I seriously thought of turning them out 
 and taking the house for the Brigade Staff, 
 especially as our farm was not at all central 
 but quite on the left of our line ; but all 
 our cable -lines converged on to the farm, 
 and, in addition, the Dorset house would 
 have been impossible to get out of for 
 further control if Missy were shelled ; so 
 I settled to remain at the farm. The 13th 
 Brigade — i.e., K.O. Y.L.I, and West Kents, 
 were further on, the K.O.Y.L.I. on the 
 eastern outskirts, and the West Kents in 
 trenches beyond them. The K.O.S.B.'s were 
 still further south-eastwards, and reached 
 back to the river, but there were only one 
 or two weak companies of them. 
 
 Before dawn, and just after Rolt had 
 left, I went to inspect the Bedfords' position, 
 which was close to Rolfs farm, in the wood 
 in front of it, and a beastly position it was. 
 The wood was very damp, and when one 
 tried to dig trenches one struck water only 
 a foot below ground, so most of the line 
 had to be made of breast - works. There
 
 136 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 were German trenches within 20 yards of 
 our advanced trench there, and ours was 
 remarkably badly situated and liable to 
 be rushed at a moment's notice ; yet it was 
 impossible from the lie of the ground to dig 
 suitable ones unless we retired altogether 
 for 200 yards, which of course was out of 
 the question. So we chanced it and stuck 
 it out, and luckily were never attacked 
 there. The men suffered there from damp 
 and cold, I'm afraid, for every morning a 
 wet and freezing fog arose in the wood, 
 although the weather was clear elsewhere ; 
 but it could not be helped. 
 
 We stayed in Rolfs farm and in the 
 positions described for just a week. On one 
 day, the 27th, we had a false alarm, for 
 the enemy was reported as crossing the 
 Conde bridge at 4 A.M. in large numbers, 
 and everybody was at once on the qui vive, 
 the Cheshires, who were in bivouac behind 
 Rolfs farm, being sent back (by Sir C. 
 Fergusson's orders) to Rupreux, the other 
 side of the river. We rather doubted the 
 news from the start, as the Conde bridge 
 had, we knew, been blown up, and there 
 was only one girder left, by which a few
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 137 
 
 men at a time could conceivably have 
 crossed ; but the information was so cir- 
 cumstantial that it sounded possible. Even- 
 tually it turned out all to be owing to the 
 heated imagination of a Hibernian patrol 
 officer of the West Kents, and we turned 
 in again. 
 
 Missy was shelled particularly heavily 
 that day from 10 to 6, and it was painful 
 to watch great bouquets of 8-in. H.E. shells 
 exploding in the village, and whole houses 
 coming dow^n with a crash ; it seemed as 
 though there must be frightfully heavy 
 casualties, and I trembled in anticipation 
 of the casualty return that night. 
 
 But the Dorsets and K.O.Y.L.I. had dug 
 themselves in so thoroughly in deep funk- 
 holes and cellars that they did not have 
 a single casualty; and literally the only 
 men wounded were three K.O.S.B.'s and 
 six West Kents outside the village in a 
 trench, who were hit by about the last 
 shell of the day; whilst a Bedford sniper, 
 an excellent shot, one Sergeant Hunt, un- 
 fortunately got a bullet through two fingers 
 of his right hand. 
 
 During that week it was moderately quiet,
 
 138 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 with nothing like so many casualties as we 
 had expected. Our supply waggons rolled 
 up after dark right into Missy village and 
 never lost a man, whilst the village was so 
 thoroughly barricaded and strengthened and 
 scientifically defended — mostly Dorset work 
 — that we could have held out against any 
 number. The sappers too, 17th Co. R.E„ 
 worked like Trojans under young Pottinger, 
 a most plucky and capable youth wearing 
 the weirdest of clothes — a short and filthy 
 mackintosh, ragged coat and breeches, and 
 a huge revolver.^ 
 
 We put Rolfs farm and the mill (between 
 that and Missy) and La Bizaie farm in a 
 thorough state of defence, and dug hundreds 
 of yards of trenches. In fact we should 
 have welcomed an infantry attack, but it 
 never came — only artillery long bowls. 
 
 In this the two howitzer batteries, 
 especially Wilson's 61st, were splendid, and 
 spotted and knocked out gun after gun of 
 the enemy. He had an observing station 
 half-way up the hill above Ste. Marguerite, 
 to which I went occasionally, with a grand 
 view up to Vregny and Chivres ; but even 
 
 1 I grieve very much to see that he was fatally wounded 
 outside Ypres (15th May 1916).
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 139 
 
 here, although the O.P. was beautifully 
 concealed, one had to be careful not to 
 show a finger or a cap, for the German 
 snipers in the wood below were excellent 
 shots, and there were some narrow escapes. 
 
 The worst of it was that we could take 
 very little exercise. I used to go out nearly 
 every morning before sunrise to visit the 
 posts, but was often surprised by the sun 
 before I'd finished my rounds, and had to 
 bolt back under fire ; and after sunset I'd 
 go round to Missy, &c., and visit the troops 
 there. Otherwise, we could not go out at 
 all in the daytime — it was much too "un- 
 healthy," — and what with numerous meals 
 and little movement we grew disgustingly 
 fat. I put in a lot of time drawing careful 
 maps of the position. 
 
 The farm itself was cleaned up from roof 
 to cellar by Moulton- Barrett and his myr- 
 midons, but it was not perfect at first. My 
 bed was a mass of stale blood-stains from 
 the wounded who had lain there before we 
 came, and St Andre, whose bed was not of 
 the cleanest and exuded an odd and un- 
 pleasing smell, routed about below it, and 
 extracted the corpse of a hen, which must 
 have been there for ten days at least.
 
 140 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 We cleaned up the farmyard too — it was 
 perfectly foul when we came — but we could 
 not show much even there, although the 
 gate was always kept closed, for any sign of 
 life was generally greeted with a bullet. A 
 man got one through the knee when just 
 outside it, and the gate itself had several 
 holes through it. The Bedfords used to send 
 a company at a time there for hot tea in the 
 mornings and evenings, for they could not 
 light fires where they were, and shivered 
 accordingly. 
 
 Many were the schemes for improving 
 their wood - trenches ; and at last Orlebar 
 (killed later near Wulverghem), who had 
 been a civil engineer, drew up an arrange- 
 ment for flooding the wood and retiring to a 
 more satisfactory line. But before it could 
 be put into practice we got orders to retire, 
 and for the 12th Brigade on our left to 
 relieve us. 
 
 This meant, of course, thinning the line 
 terribly, and we were, with the 12th Brigade, 
 somewhat nervous about it, for we did not 
 know what it portended. But we got away 
 during the night in perfect safety; for 
 although there was a full moon there was 
 also a thick mist, and the Germans never
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 141 
 
 seemed to notice the movement, which 
 required most careful staff work on the 
 part of both Brigades. 
 
 Cuthbert, seedy, was reheved by Hickie in 
 command of the 13th Brigade to-day. 
 
 Oct. 2nd. 
 
 By some time in the early morning of the 
 2nd October — 1.40 a.m. it was, to be accurate 
 — the whole Brigade had got back to Jury, 
 and there w^e were told, as usual, that we 
 were to rest and recuperate for a week ; so 
 we were not surprised at getting orders in 
 the afternoon to move out at 6.30 p.m., our 
 destination being a place called Droizy. I 
 had caught a bad cold that day, due solely, I 
 believe, to taking a " woolly " into wear for 
 the first time ; and the cold fog in which we 
 marched did nothing to improve it. Above 
 us was a bright clear moon, but the fog 
 clung heavily to the valleys, and we marched 
 in it most of the time. Desperate secrecy 
 and quiet was observed, for we were evi- 
 dently doing secret marching at night for 
 some great object ; though what it was we 
 could only conjecture. But orders came 
 that for the next few days we were to 
 march at night, and during the daytime
 
 142 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 were to lie " doggo " and not show ourselves 
 for fear of the enemy's aeroplanes. 
 
 We reached Droizy at about 11 p.m. and 
 there found the Norfolks, who had been 
 taken away from us at Jury ten days before 
 and attached to the 3rd Division on our 
 right in the direction of Vailly. Much 
 pleased we were to see them again. They 
 had not suffered many casualties, though 
 they had had a stiff time at their chateau 
 of Chassemy, filling the gap between the 
 3rd and 5th Divisions, and had been attacked 
 several times. 
 
 The Dorsets in arriving here managed to 
 take a wrong turn in the village and went 
 careering off into the fog in the opposite 
 direction to where their billets had been told 
 off for them ; but they were shortly retrieved 
 and put on the right track. A brigade of 
 artillery, by the way — I forget which — was 
 attached to our brigade area that night, and 
 distinguished itself next day by taking up a 
 position in some open fields ; which led to 
 trouble. 
 
 Our headquarters were at a curious old 
 castle-farm belonging to one M. Choron, 
 right in the middle of the village, and looked 
 after by his father, a vice-admiral, late a
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 143 
 
 director of naval construction, a nice old 
 fellow, who had been brutally treated by the 
 Germans in their retreat. There was a very 
 old tower to the place, no surroundings 
 except a farmyard, and a little old kitchen of 
 most antique aspect, in which we had our 
 meals. 
 
 Oct. Srd. 
 
 For most of the next day we had a good 
 rest, and I stayed in bed to doctor my cold ; 
 but orders soon came to move on, and the 
 Brigade started in the evening for Long 
 Pont, a village about twelve miles off, 
 getting there about 11. The Divisional 
 Commander had kindly sent a motor - car 
 for me ; and Done, of the Norf oiks (who was 
 also rather seedy), and Tandy, R.A., a person 
 of large knowledge and always interesting, 
 accompanied me ; so we arrived at Long 
 Pont a long time ahead of the troops. 
 
 A great big chateau was gleaming in the 
 moonlight as we drove up, and I determined 
 that we should spend the night there, in 
 spite of the fact that the Divisional staff had 
 also that intention. But when I introduced 
 myself to the proprietor, a courteous and 
 frail old gentleman, the Comte de Montes-
 
 144 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 quiou - Fezensac, he bewailed the fact that 
 there was no room available, and this in 
 spite of the fact that there were dozens of 
 big windows outside, and long corridors in- 
 side, with heaps of rooms opening off them. 
 
 A visit to the village in search of a 
 lodging revealed its true state — i.e., that it 
 was choke-full and dirty. But even then it 
 required a good deal of persuasion before 
 the old gentleman at last grasped the fact 
 that I was not demanding twenty bedrooms, 
 but only one or two empty rooms in which 
 twenty men could lie for the night. Then 
 he kindly produced mattresses and straw, and 
 all was well. As for myself, he was good 
 enough to lead me to the chamber of his late 
 mother, a curious little room with a four- 
 poster and locks and hasps and cupboards of 
 Louis XIII. times, and bundles of magnifi- 
 cent old embroideries. As for washing ap- 
 paratus — that also was almost of that date. 
 
 Next day, being Sunday, we had Divine 
 Service in the ruins of a grand old four- 
 teenth-century abbey which adjoined the 
 chateau — wrecked in the French Revolution 
 and again in 1830. The park also was most 
 attractive, rather of the Trianon surround- 
 ings style ; but several brigades of artillery
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 145 
 
 which had to be tucked away under the 
 trees for fear of aeroplanes rather spoilt 
 the turf, I fear. We did, of course, as little 
 damage as we could, and after a friendly 
 farewell to the old couple I drove off, again 
 in a motor, with Henvey (A.P.M. of 5th 
 Division), and preceded the Brigade to a 
 place called Pontdron. Here I arrived at 
 10 P.M. ; but the Brigade, which had been 
 heavily held up by French troops on the 
 march, did not turn up till nearly 4 A.M. 
 
 Meanwhile I amused myself by getting 
 the chateau ready. It had, of course, been 
 occupied by Germans, and, equally of course, 
 it had been ransacked and partly wrecked 
 by them — though a good deal of furniture 
 had been left. There were even candles 
 and oil -lamps available, and of these we 
 made full use, as well as of the bedrooms. 
 I chose the lady's (Comtesse de Coupigny, 
 with husband in the 21st Dragoons) bedroom. 
 The counterpane was full of mud and sand, 
 through some beastly German having slept 
 on it without taking his boots off, but there 
 was actually a satin coverlet left, and 
 pillows. All the stud- and jewellery-cases 
 had been opened and their contents stolen, 
 and Madame de C.'s writing-table had also 
 
 K
 
 146 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 been forced open, and papers and the con- 
 tents of the drawers scattered on the floor. 
 Other unmentionable crimes had also been 
 committed. 
 
 Here we stayed for nearly two days, 
 cleaning up the chateau, picking up a lot of 
 stores in the shape of boots and caps and 
 clothing of all sorts — not to mention some 
 heavy mails from home, — and actually play- 
 ing lawn -tennis. At least I played with 
 Cadell two sets, each winning one, on a 
 sand court with an improvised net, and 
 racquets and balls somewhat the worse for 
 wear, with a lovely big hot bath to follow. 
 
 It was gradually borne in on us that we 
 were going to be moved off by train to take 
 part in a different theatre of the fighting 
 altogether; but where we should find our- 
 selves we had not the least idea. What 
 caused us much joy to hear was that we 
 had intercepted a German wireless message, 
 two days after four out of the six Divisions 
 had left the Aisne, to say that it was "all 
 right, all six British Divisions were still on 
 the Aisne ! " 
 
 Oct. Qth. 
 
 On the 6th we moved off at 2.15 p.m. and
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 147 
 
 pushed on to Bethisy St Pierre, where the 
 Bedfords and Norfolks and ourselves halted, 
 whilst the Dorsets and Cheshires pushed 
 on to Verberies, so as to save time for the 
 entraining on the morrow. We got our 
 time-table that night, and found that we 
 were to entrain at four stations — i.e., 
 Compiegne, Le Meux, Longueil Ste. Marie, 
 and Pont Sainte Maxence — on the following 
 day. Very careful arrangements and cal- 
 culations had to be made, so that the whole 
 thing should go without a hitch, and we 
 sat up for some time at the Convent, a sort 
 of educational establishment where Brigade 
 Headquarters was quartered, making out 
 the orders. 
 
 A " Brigade Area " command was allotted 
 to me, including, besides my own Brigade, 
 the 8th Brigade R.F.A. (howitzers), 59th 
 Co. R.E., 15th Field Ambulance, and 4th Co. 
 of 5th Div. Train. 
 
 Oct. 1th. 
 
 Then off at 5 a.m. next morning, ourselves 
 for Pont Ste. Maxence. Major Yandeleur 
 of the Scottish Rifles had just arrived to 
 take command of the Cheshires, who had 
 had nothing but a captain to command them
 
 148 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 since Lt.-Col. Boger was taken prisoner on 
 the 24th August. He seemed to me a first- 
 rate sensible fellow, but we were not 
 destined to keep him for long. 
 
 As the Brigade was still rather short of 
 socks, I bought as many as I could here for 
 the men, but not many were available. It 
 was a nice little town with a blown-up stone 
 bridge, but the French R.E. had already 
 constructed another of wood. 
 
 The French entraining orders are that 
 all troops have to be at the station four 
 blessed hours before the train starts, so as 
 to give time to load up properly. We thus 
 arrived at 8, and did not start till 12 ; but 
 the actual entraining of the Cheshires — 
 the only battalion with Brigade Head- 
 quarters — took only one hour and a quarter, 
 — not bad at all considering that there were 
 no ramps or decent accessories, and all the 
 vehicles had to be man-handled into the 
 trucks. 
 
 There were two sorts of trains — one 
 mostly for men, the other mostly for horses 
 and vehicles ; but although they were very 
 long — thirty-four to forty cars if I remember 
 right — they were not quite long enough 
 for us, and several men and vehicles had
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 149 
 
 to be left behind and brought on by other 
 trains, resulting in slight incompleteness for 
 a few days. 
 
 We rapidly reached Creil, where we were 
 to get our final orders. What on earth 
 would our destination be? Rumour had 
 it that we should go to Calais, or even to 
 Bruges ; but we had no such journey after 
 all, for we were only intended to go to 
 Abbeville as it turned out — rather a dis- 
 appointment, as we hoped it would be 
 further afield. 
 
 Abbeville — a two hours' journey as a rule 
 in peace time — was not reached till 8 p.m., 
 although we were due there at 6.3 p.m. We 
 halted by the way, for half an hour or more, 
 at Amiens, where we made the acquaintance 
 of a cheery crowd of "Fusiliers Marins," 
 sturdy naval reservists from Normandy and 
 Brittany, who covered themselves with glory 
 later on amid the Belgian dunes. 
 
 Oct. Sth. 
 
 We were not allowed to detrain at Abbe- 
 ville till 9,30 P.M., as the platforms were 
 already occupied by other troops. It was 
 wretchedly cold and pitch-dark by the time 
 we had got away from the station, and we
 
 150 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 marched in dead silence through the town 
 at 12.30 A.M. Not a soul was in the streets, 
 not even a policeman from whom to ask the 
 way, and we nearly lost our direction twice. 
 
 Our orders, which we received from Dunlop 
 (5th Divisional staff), who was ensconced in 
 a red-hot waiting-room in the goods yard, 
 were to the effect that we were to billet 
 near Neuilly, a village about six miles off. 
 Done (Norfolks) had been sent ahead on the 
 previous day to prepare the billets, but when 
 we got near the village, after a cold march 
 with a clear moon. Done was noTvhere to be 
 seen ; and I nearly ordered the battalion to 
 "doss down" in the road, as all the houses 
 near were full of men of other brigades. 
 However, Weatherby rode on, and eventu- 
 ally found Done in bed at the Mairie, he 
 having been officially told that the Brigade 
 would not be in till the following day. He 
 had had a trying time, having been deposited 
 by his train at a station about ten miles off, 
 and having to make his way across country 
 (riding) without a map and with very vague 
 ideas of where he was to go. However, he had 
 already told off billets for all the Brigade 
 Area, and the troops trickled in independ- 
 ently by battalions and batteries, arriving
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 151 
 
 by different trains and even at different 
 stations, up to 10 A.M. in the morning. 
 I thought it showed distinctly good work 
 on the part of all concerned that we con- 
 centrated our "Brigade Area" so quickly 
 and without being deficient of anything 
 except the few vehicles which had perforce 
 been left behind for want of trucks ; but 
 they turned up all right a day or two after. 
 The Brigade staff billeted at the chateau 
 (as usual !), a strangely ruined-looking little 
 place belonging to the Comte de Belleville, 
 now at the wars. We turned up there about 
 4 A.M., and were guided thither by an old 
 gardener, who thumped at the door and 
 shouted loudly for "Madame." A woman 
 soon appeared, and showed us most civilly 
 to our rooms — very plain and bare but very 
 clean. I could not quite make her out, for 
 though she was dressed in the plainest of 
 print clothes she did not talk like a servant 
 — in fact she talked like a lady ; so I put 
 her down as some relation perhaps who was 
 helping Mme. de Belleville. But later in the 
 morning I discovered that she was Madame 
 la Comtesse herself, who had kindly risen 
 at that unearthly hour to let us in, and that 
 there were no servants in the establish-
 
 152 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 ment at all except the old gardener and a 
 nurse. 
 
 Our movements were still by way of being 
 kept a dead secret, so we went off in the 
 afternoon at 6 P.M., reinforced now by some 
 divisional cavalry and divisional cyclists. 
 The road, in the dark, was an extremely 
 complicated one, as it involved about twenty 
 turnings and movement along narrow lanes 
 with high hedges and big trees, making it 
 quite impossible to see for more than a few 
 yards. So I took the guiding of the column 
 into my own hands, and distributed the rest 
 of my staff along it to see that the different 
 units did not miss the way and kept well 
 closed up. The result was good, and after 
 5 hours march, vid Agenvilliers and Gue- 
 schard, we reached the little village of 
 Boufflers about 11 p.m. Here, at an odd 
 little Nouvel Art " Chateau " — or rather 
 small country house, empty of its owners — 
 belonging to M. Sagebien, Prefet de Niort, 
 we of the Brigade staff put up, the rest of 
 the command being billeted in the tiny 
 villages lining each bank of the tiny stream 
 near — I have forgotten its name.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 153 
 
 Oct. 9th. 
 
 It was a nice sunny day on the morrow, 
 and we got our orders by midday that we 
 were to move off at 2 p.m. We wrote out 
 Brigade orders and prepared to start, when 
 suddenly post-haste came some orders can- 
 celhng these, and telling us that we were to 
 drop our transport and be moved off at once 
 in a series of motor-buses to a place called 
 Dieval. 
 
 And then began a lovely jumble, which 
 resulted (not our own fault) in getting to 
 Dieval rather later than we should have 
 done had we trusted to our own unaided 
 powers of locomotion. 
 
 We moved off at 2 p.m., only taking blanket- 
 waggons which were to dump blankets and 
 supplies into the buses. These were to have 
 turned up on the Haravesnes-Fillievres road 
 at 7 P.M. ; in any case it would have been a 
 complicated job getting into them in the 
 dark, but they did not arrive till midnight, 
 owing to some mechanical breakdowns in 
 the column. The first lot of "camions" 
 were to have taken six battalions — i.e., the 
 14th Brigade, which was just ahead of us, 
 and half of the 15th Brigade. But when 
 they did arrive, there were only enough for
 
 154 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 three and three-quarter battalions ; so we 
 bivouacked in more or less peace by the 
 roadside until this bunch had moved off and 
 returned from Dieval to fetch us. Horribly- 
 cold it was too, and we only kept moder- 
 ately warm by pulling down several straw 
 stacks — which we carefully put together 
 again next day — and covering ourselves up 
 in the straw. 
 
 I had, by the way, an extremely narrow 
 escape from being killed that night. I had 
 been lying down just off the road, when it 
 struck me that I should find out more of 
 what w^as happening and going to happen 
 if I went to the head of the camion column 
 and interviewed the officer in charge. It 
 was a tramp of a mile or more through the 
 14th Brigade, and I found out something 
 of what I wanted ; but when I returned to 
 the bivouac I heard that, not two minutes 
 after I had started, a motor-bus had swerved 
 off the road and passed exactly over the 
 place where my head had been. It very 
 nearly went over St Andre and Moulton- 
 Barrett, who were lying a few feet away, 
 as it was. Of course the driver could not 
 see any one lying down in the dark.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 155 
 
 Oct. 10th. 
 
 Next morning we had breakfast at 7.30 
 in the field, and still the buses had not 
 returned. We waited in that place till 
 11 o'clock before they turned up, and then 
 clambered into them as quickly as we 
 could — twenty-two men to a bus, sixteen 
 buses to 300 metres being the allowance. 
 Even then we had to leave about two 
 battalions behind for a third trip. 
 
 I got into the first bus — a very fast one, 
 — and reached Dieval some time before the 
 rest of the Brigade ; but there was no room 
 in the town for another Brigade, as it was 
 already full of the 14th. 
 
 I went to see Rolt, and got into telephone 
 communication with Divisional Headquarters 
 on the subject, and they gave me leave to 
 billet at La Thieuloye, one and a half miles 
 back and off the road. So W. and I walked 
 back and turned the buses off there just 
 as they were arriving. 
 
 A curious sight were the hundreds, or 
 even thousands, of French civilians whom 
 we met — all men of military age, whom the 
 French Army was sending away westwards 
 out of Lille ; for it was likely that Lille 
 would shortly be invested by the Germans,
 
 156 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 and they did not want this large batch of 
 recruits and reservists to be interned in 
 Germany. 
 
 The rest of the Brigade — transport, horses, 
 and all — rolled up by 6 p.m., the horses being 
 very tired after their long night march. 
 
 From what I could gather German cavalry 
 was trying to get round our north-west flank, 
 whilst a big fight was going on at Arras. 
 Lille, with a few Territorial battalions in 
 it, was still holding out, but w^as surrounded 
 by the enemy. Hence the hurry. But we 
 ought to have plenty of troops now to keep 
 the Germans off. It was very puzzling to 
 make out w^hat was happening, for we had 
 not even the vaguest idea where the rest 
 of our own Army was, let alone the French 
 or Germans. Nobody seemed to know any- 
 thing, except that we should probably soon 
 be fighting again. 
 
 Our quarters that night were a horrid 
 little chateau — empty, damp, and desolate, 
 in a deserted wilderness of a place, with no 
 furniture except some straw, a mattress or 
 two, and some packing-cases. So here we 
 tried to make ourselves comfortable, and 
 succeeded in lighting a fire and settling 
 down. But it was beastly cold and damp.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 157 
 
 Oct. nth. 
 
 We inarched at 7.20 A.M. in a thick damp 
 mist, myself being in charge of the right 
 column of the Division, consisting of the 
 Brigade, the 15th Brigade R.F.A., 108th 
 heavy battery (under Tyrrell, late Military 
 Attache at Constantinople), 17th R.E. Fd. 
 Co., and cyclists (who, by the vv^ay, did 
 not turn up, having been sent ahead). On 
 the way to Bethune we were evidently 
 coming into touch with the enemy, for I 
 received orders to detach two companies 
 (Cheshires) to our right flank at Fonquieres. 
 Verquin to support the French. But they 
 returned in the course of the afternoon, not 
 being wanted. 
 
 Outside Bethune we halted for some time, 
 and were regaled with soup and pears by 
 some hospitable ladies at luncheon - time. 
 And then we received orders to push through 
 the town and cover it along the bend of 
 the canal and across the arc of it (from 
 Essars due east) with three battalions, the 
 Norfolks being sent away to the east to 
 help the French about Annequin. 
 
 It w^as perfectly flat country and difficult 
 to defend, as it was so cut up by high hedges 
 and suburbs ; but I went round it in the
 
 158 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 afternoon, inspected it carefully, and posted 
 the battalions. Towards evening, however, 
 we had orders to fall back into the town 
 — the French taking over the outposts — and 
 billet there, our Headquarters being in the 
 Grande Place — a large square with a curious 
 old belfry in the middle — at a wine-shop, 
 No. 34. Here we were well looked after, 
 and had each of us a lovely hot bath, pro- 
 vided by a marvellous system of gas-jets 
 which heated the water in about five minutes. 
 
 Oct. 12th. 
 
 Off eastwards next morning at 8.30 A.M. 
 through a freezing thick fog — so thick that 
 one could not see twenty yards in front of 
 one. The big open space in the town 
 through which we passed was occupied 
 with masses of Spahis, Moorish troops, and 
 Algerians of all sorts, looking miserably cold 
 in their scarlet jackets and white burnouses. 
 The idea was that we were to push forward 
 to Festubert and act as a pivot, with our 
 right near the canal at Rue de I'li^pinette, 
 to the 3rd Division and the remainder of 
 the Corps, which were swinging slowly 
 round to their right so as eventually to 
 face south-east and take La Bassee.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 159 
 
 At first my orders directed me to leave 
 a gap between myself and the canal, the 
 gap being filled by French troops; but 
 shortly afterwards I was told that the 
 Brigade was to hold from Festubert to the 
 canal, relieving the French cavalry here, 
 who were to hold on till we got there ; 
 and I paid a visit to the French cavalry 
 General at Gorre to make sure that this 
 would be done. The line was a horribly 
 extended one — about two miles; and the pros- 
 pect was not entrancing. However, I de- 
 tached the Dorsets to move along the canal 
 bank from Gorre and get touch with the 
 French. Very glad I was that I had done 
 so, for they had severe fighting there that 
 day against a strong force of the enemy, 
 who tried to get in between us and the 
 French. 
 
 The Bedfords I ordered to hold Givenchy. 
 The first rumour was that the French had 
 evacuated Givenchy before we could come 
 up, and that the Germans had occupied it ; 
 but this turned out not to be true after 
 all. The Cheshires held Festubert, and the 
 Norfolks were in Divisional reserve some- 
 where in rear. 
 
 Meanwhile the Germans were attacking
 
 160 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 along the canal ; but the Dorsets checked 
 them most gallantly, losing poor Roper, 
 killed in leading a charge, and a number 
 of men. Lilly was wounded at the same 
 time. 
 
 The Headquarters passed most of that day 
 — and an extremely busy Staff day it was 
 — in a little pot-house in Festubert, and we 
 slept in a tiny house put at our disposal 
 by one Masse, gendarme, a gallant old 
 soldier, who was the only representative 
 of civilian authority in the place, the 
 Maire having bolted, and his second in 
 command being sick unto death in his own 
 house. 
 
 • 
 
 Oct. 13th. 
 
 The night went off fairly peaceably, but 
 early next morning we had a nasty jar, 
 for it was reported at 8 A.M. that Majors 
 Vandeleur (commanding) and Young (2nd 
 in command) of the Cheshires, together 
 with a company and a half, had all been 
 made prisoners or killed by the Germans 
 about Rue d'Ouvert. The circumstantial 
 story was that the early morning patrols 
 had reported that Rue d'Ouvert (about a 
 mile in front of Festubert) was free of
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY RKIGADE 101 
 
 Germans ; that Vandeleur and Young had 
 gone out with two platoons to make sure 
 of it, had got into Rue d'Ouvert and found 
 it empty at first, but had been subsequently- 
 fired at from the houses, surrounded by- 
 superior numbers, and had been taken 
 prisoners after losing half their men. As 
 for Shore's company, who were supporting 
 them, they had disappeared completely and 
 had apparently suffered the same fate. 
 
 I immediately sent out scouts to find out 
 the truth; but a very heavy fire was by 
 this time opened on the remainder of the 
 Cheshires, and the scouts could not get 
 through. No further news even came in 
 of Shore's company, but we could not 
 believe that it had really been scuppered, 
 or else there would have been much more 
 firing, and we must have had some news of 
 the disaster, if it had occurred. 
 
 And so it was. Towards 3 o'clock we had 
 news that the company was safely tucked 
 away in some ditches, holding its front, and 
 had had practically no losses, although it 
 could not move out without attracting a 
 heavy artillery fire. 
 
 Not till long afterwards did I hear what 
 had really happened to Vandeleur, and then 
 
 L
 
 162 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 it was from his own lips in January 1915, 
 he having escaped from Crefeld just before 
 Christmas. It appeared that he and Young 
 had gone up with about half a company in 
 support of some scouts who had reported Rue 
 d'Ouvert clear. The half company did not, 
 however, go into Rue d'Ouvert, for they 
 were violently attacked by superior forces 
 before they got there. They lost heavily, 
 but succeeded in getting into a farmhouse, 
 which they held all day against the enemy, 
 hoping that we should move out and rescue 
 them. But we, of course, had been told 
 circumstantially that they were already 
 prisoners at 8 a.m., so knew nothing of it 
 and took no action. 
 
 The enemy set the house on fire, and the 
 gallant little garrison put it out with wine 
 from the cellars, for they were cut off 
 from the water - supply. Their numbers 
 were reduced to about thirty, when they 
 were again attacked in overwhelming force 
 at 9 P.M., and many of the remainder 
 (including Vandeleur) wounded. Then there 
 was no choice, and they surrendered, being 
 complimented on their gallantry by the 
 Grerman General in command at La Bassce. 
 They were then sent off to Germany vid
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 163 
 
 Douai, and were most abominably treated 
 on the journey, wounded and all being 
 pigged together in a filthy cattle-truck three 
 inches deep in manure for thirty hours with- 
 out food or water, insulted and kicked by 
 the German escort and a brute of a lieuten- 
 ant at Douai, and finally sent to Crefeld, 
 where they were again ill-treated, starved, 
 and left in tents with no covering — their 
 greatcoats, and even their tunics, having 
 been taken away, — nothing to lie on except 
 damp and verminous straw, on muddy wet 
 ground. Many men died of this treatment. 
 The ofiicers were treated somewhat better, 
 but very harshly, and were never given 
 enough to eat. Vandeleur's escape is "an- 
 other story." 
 
 That day was a terrible day : Givenchy 
 was bombarded heavily by the Germans 
 for hours, and rendered absolutely unten- 
 able. The Bedfords held out there gallantly, 
 and stuck to one end of the village whilst 
 the enemy was in possession of the other; 
 but the heavy artillery was too much for 
 them, and after losing about sixty casual- 
 ties, many of them killed by falling houses, 
 they gradually fell back to trenches in rear 
 of the village. Griffith (commanding) and
 
 164 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 Macready (Adjutant) came to see me about 
 3 P.M., their clothes and faces a mass of 
 white dust and plaster, and explained the 
 situation ; but there was nothing to be 
 done, as we had no reserves, and had to 
 stick it out as best we could. 
 
 But by far the worst was what happened 
 to the Dorsets. The account of what 
 happened was rather confused, but it ap- 
 pears that, depending on their left being 
 supported by the Bedfords at Givenchy, 
 and their right by the K.O.S.B.'s (13th 
 Brigade) on the south side of the Canal, 
 they pushed forward for some distance and 
 dug themselves roughly in, after driving 
 the Germans back. Then suddenly their 
 front trench was attacked from the left 
 rear, and a heavy fire poured upon their 
 men as they retired on their supports. They 
 were also shot down from the embankment 
 on the south of the Canal — from just where 
 they had expected the K.O.S.B.'s to be. 
 
 At one place about twenty Germans ad- 
 vanced and held up their hands. The 
 Dorsets then advanced to take their sur- 
 render, when suddenly the twenty fell 
 down flat, and about 100 more who had come 
 close up under cover of the incident opened
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 165 
 
 a heavy fire on our men and killed a lot. 
 The battalion retired slowly, in admirable 
 order, to Pont Fixe and the trenches cover- 
 ing it, and put a big factory there in a 
 state of defence. But they had lost very 
 heavily : thirteen officers killed (including 
 Pitt and Davidson), wounded (including 
 Bols and Rathbone), and missing; and 112 
 men killed and wounded, and 284 missing — 
 most of these, I fear, being killed, for 
 numbers of bodies were discovered later 
 on between the lines. Bols was at first 
 reported killed, but he only had a bullet 
 through his back, narrowly missing the 
 spine, and another through his arm. He 
 fell unseen and had to be left behind when 
 the battalion retired, and was found and 
 stripped of all his kit by the Germans ; but 
 he recovered in the darkness, and managed 
 to scramble and crawl back to the English 
 lines. (From here he was sent to London, 
 arriving there only two days later.) 
 
 We also lost two guns there, which had 
 been brought up from the 15th R.F.A. 
 Brigade and could not be got away in time. 
 A gallant attempt was made by volunteers 
 to recover them next day, but it was use- 
 less and only cost more lives.
 
 166 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 The Dorsets as well as the Bedfords also 
 lost one of their machine-guns. Altogether 
 it was a damnable day, and we on the 
 staff were also pretty well exhausted by 
 the amount of staff work and telegrams 
 and messages going through all day. The 
 2nd Devons (or rather two companies of 
 them) were sent to the assistance of the 
 Dorsets in the evening ; but it was a diffi- 
 cult thing to carry out, as the banks of the 
 Canal, along which they had to go, were 
 soft and boggy, and they had much diffi- 
 culty in getting their S.A.A. carts along. 
 
 The Brigade Headquarters withdrew in 
 the evening from Festubert to a foul big 
 farm about half a mile back. This, from 
 a particularly offensive big cesspool in the 
 middle of the yard, we labelled Stink Farm 
 (it had 1897 in big red tiles on the roof). 
 It was a beastly place, and W. and I had 
 to sleep in a tiny room on a couple of beds 
 which had not seen clean mattresses or 
 coverings for certainly ten years or more. 
 There were, how^ever, plenty of barns and 
 clean straw for the men. 
 
 Oct. \Uh. 
 
 The general idea was to continue to push
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 1G7 
 
 3rd Oivn. 
 
 14th Brigade 
 
 Rough Sketch (about I' = I mile) 
 Quinque Rue ' 
 
 Rue d' 
 < Ouvert, 
 
 Rue de Marais 
 ^^^.. Violaine? 
 
 Stink Farm , 
 
 •n - ' ' Ci Festubert 
 
 (Cheshlres) 
 (NorfolKs) 
 
 (Bedfords) 
 
 '©Giwenchy 
 
 *,'Chap€lle 
 / St. Roch 
 
 
 ^'Canteleux 
 
 ^.■■ .g g/i'? Fixe 
 / (I3th Brigade) 
 
 /. mile 
 
 Ry. Triangle 
 
 I Annequin 
 
 © Vermelles
 
 168 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 forward, with our right on the Canal, to 
 let the 3rd Division swing round. But 
 though we did our best, we could not get 
 forward as long as the 13th Brigade on 
 our right, on the other side of the Canal, 
 were held up — for if we advanced that 
 would merely mean getting our right flank 
 exposed and enfiladed by the enemy. 
 
 Two more companies of the Devons 
 arrived, to support the remains of the 
 Dorsets, from the 14th Brigade, the bat- 
 talion being under Lieutenant - Colonel 
 Gloster. But we could not do any good, 
 and except for an immense number of 
 messages we did little all day. The enemy 
 was in some strength in our front, but 
 did not attack. 
 
 There was very heavy firing at 6.30 p.m. 
 and again at 9 p.m. all along our line of 
 outposts, and we thought at first it was a 
 night attack ; but it was only a case of 
 false alarm on the part of the Dorsets on 
 the right and the 14th Brigade on our left. 
 
 I forgot to mention that we were told to 
 advance with the 13th Brigade at 3 p.m., 
 but the latter were held up, and relieved in 
 the evening by the 58th French Brigade. 
 What immediately happened to the 13th I
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 1G9 
 
 do not remember ; but they were eventually 
 sent round on to the left of the 14th 
 Brigade, I believe. 
 
 Oct. 15th. 
 
 The French were meanwhile heavily at- 
 tacking Vermelles, and we were to be ready 
 to advance alongside them if they succeeded. 
 I sent Moulton-Barrett to the Canal to re- 
 ceive the message from the French through 
 Chapman (our Divisional Intelligence officer) 
 when it came. But it never came, for the 
 French made no progress ; so we did 
 nothing except dig proper trenches and 
 strengthen our positions. 
 
 In the evening came in reports that the 
 Germans were withdrawing and evacuating 
 posts in our front. The remains of the 
 Dorsets were withdrawn into reserve, and 
 the Devons came under my orders in their 
 place. 
 
 Oct. IQth. 
 
 There was a dripping thick mist nearly 
 all day, and we pushed on under its cover — 
 the Bedfords into Givenchy (losing poor 
 Rendall, killed by the retiring Germans), 
 and the Norfolks into Rue d'Ouvert and St
 
 170 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 Roch, whilst the Devons, ordered to make 
 the footbridge to Canteleux road " good," 
 pushed on in the afternoon. But it got so 
 absolutely pitch-dark that it was impossible 
 to make a cohesive advance ; so after getting 
 close to the footbridge and coming under a 
 heavy fire thence, the Devons fell back again, 
 all the more justified since Canteleux was 
 reported still occujjied by the enemy on 
 their left flank. A vast amount of staff 
 work all day. We returned to the Festubert 
 pothouse in the evening. 
 
 Oct. nth. 
 
 The first question was, Was Canteleux 
 occupied by the enemy ? Preparations were 
 made to shell it at 6 a.m., but figures were 
 seen strolling about there which did not 
 look very German. Shortly afterwards the 
 Norfolks reported that they had about sixty 
 men in it who had penetrated thither during 
 the night. The Bedfords at first were still 
 convinced that the men in Canteleux were 
 German, but we disabused them as soon 
 as we heard the truth for certain, and for 
 a change shelled some farms to our front 
 whence hostile machine-gun fire was pro- 
 ceeding, setting one on fire.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 171 
 
 In the afternoon we were ordered to 
 advance to the Kne : bridge — Canteleux — 
 Violaines ; and again the Devons pushed on, 
 slowly, in connection with the French, but 
 were again obliged to retire from the vicinity 
 of the bridge by heavy fire, and took up 
 their position in the advanced position that 
 the Dorsets had occupied on the 13th. 
 
 The Cheshires, under the three gallant 
 captains, Shore, Mahony, and Rich, mean- 
 while worked well forward and reported 
 their arrival at Violaines at 4 P.M., having 
 reached it vid Rue du Marais. 
 
 A desperate amount of work again, 5 a.m. 
 to 11 P.M. I only got out of the pothouse 
 for twenty minutes all day, and that was 
 at 5 P.M. 
 
 Thus we had pushed forward some way on 
 our line by the evening, and the 14th Brigade 
 was in touch with the Cheshires and moving 
 slowly forward — but very slowly. 
 
 Oct. 18th. 
 
 Next day the usual " general advance " 
 was ordered for 6 A.M., and the artillery 
 loosed off a lot of shells on to where we 
 thought the enemy were. But it was really 
 quite useless our advancing on the right
 
 172 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 unless the French did also, for the Germans 
 held the south bank of the Canal in front of 
 the latter, and any advance by us merely 
 exposed our right flank to a terrible enfilade 
 fire. 
 
 Major-General Morland, who had succeeded 
 Sir 0. Fergusson in command of the Division, 
 now turned up, and to him I explained these 
 things. The Railway Triangle was the 
 worst place, for it was heavily held by 
 Germans, who had dug themselves in behind 
 stockades of rails and trucks and defied even 
 our howitzers ; but it was difficult, very 
 difficult, for the latter to make good practice 
 at them here, as the country was so flat, yet 
 so cut up with high trees and fences that it 
 was almost impossible to get an observing 
 station or to see what one was firing at. 
 
 I shifted Brigade Headquarters about 1 
 P.M. to a nice little house with garden, close 
 behind the cross-roads half a mile west of 
 Givenchy, and here we stayed for four un- 
 pleasant days. We had to be very careful, 
 after dark, not to show a light of any sort 
 towards the enemy, and had to plaster up 
 the windows with blankets and things which 
 every now and then came down with a run, 
 causing rapid transition to total darkness
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 173 
 
 and discomfort. But it was a good little 
 place on the whole, and quite decently 
 furnished. 
 
 In the afternoon I went to observe what 
 I could from Givenchy. The village was 
 already in ruins, with most of the church 
 blown down, whilst the only place to observe 
 from was from between the rafters of a 
 barn on the eastern outskirts — most of the 
 roof having been carried away by shrapnel. 
 There was not much to see ; for although 
 Givenchy stood on the only little rise in the 
 country, a tree in one direction and a chapel 
 in the other blocked most of the view 
 towards La Bassc^e. In front of us lay the 
 Bedford trenches, with the Devons on their 
 right and the French on their right again. 
 One could just see the farm buildings of 
 Canteleux, and the spires of part of La 
 Bassee, but St Roch was invisible, and so 
 were the Norfolk trenches. 
 
 Later on I went to interview Gloster, 
 commanding the Devons ; but I did not find 
 him. With a French orderly and a Devon 
 officer I rode through Pont Fixe and turned 
 to the left along the Canal. Then we had to 
 dismount at a bend of the Canal, which 
 brought us into view of the enemy, and we
 
 174 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 bolted across bullet-swept ground into the 
 right of the Devon trenches. Here I waited 
 about an hour ; but Gloster did not turn up, 
 and meanwhile a heavy hostile fusilade 
 went on which effectually prevented my 
 putting my nose above ground. I don't 
 know whether they had spotted me going 
 into that trench, but I do know the parapet 
 received an unfair share of bullets. 
 
 When it was nearly dark I cleared out and 
 went to the Canal and whistled for my mare 
 (I had been riding Squeaky). The French 
 orderly turned up leading her, but his own 
 horse had gone, — as he ruefully explained, 
 " a cause d'un obus qui a eclate tout pres 
 dans I'eau." He was a good youth : he had 
 stuck to my mare and let his own go, as he 
 could not manage both. However, virtue 
 was rewarded, and he found his horse 
 peacefully grazing in the outskirts of Pont 
 Fixe. 
 
 When I reached Headquarters I found 
 Gloster there, for he had come to look for 
 me ; so I had the required interview with 
 him and settled about a rearrangement of 
 his trenches.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 175 
 
 Oct. 19th. 
 
 We actually had a quiet night — six and a 
 half hours' sleep without being disturbed 
 at all. 
 
 An attack was ordered for 7 a.m. in con- 
 junction with the French. But the French 
 were not ready at that hour. I was told 
 that" the 6th battalion of the 295th Regiment, 
 
 Devons 
 
 Germans 
 
 which had now been brought over to the 
 north of the Canal, was to be under my 
 orders ; but hardly had I heard this when I 
 received a message at 9.25 a.m. that the 
 French were going to attack at 9.30. At 
 noon they did so, and very pluckily. It was, 
 however, impossible to assist them, for they 
 (the 6/295) ran forward and attacked the 
 Canal and footbridge obliquely, completely
 
 176 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 masking any action possible by the Devons 
 They lost heavily, I fear, but it really was 
 not our fault, though at one time they 
 seemed to think it was. 
 
 I went to talk to Lieut. -Col. Perron, who 
 commanded the detachment (6/295 and a 
 few Chasseurs a Cheval), in the afternoon ; 
 but the interview did not enlighten me very 
 much. The commander of the 6/295, how- 
 ever, one Baron d'Oullenbourg, w^as most 
 intelligent, and a gallant fellow with plenty 
 of nous. He was badly wounded two days 
 afterwards in another attempt. 
 
 I was so much struck with the plucky 
 way in which the 6/295 pushed on under 
 heavy fire that I sent a complimentary note 
 both to the battalion and to General Joubert, 
 commanding the 58th Brigade on the other 
 side of the Canal — for the battalion belonged 
 (to start with) to his brigade. They pub- 
 lished both my notes in the Orch^e du Jour 
 of the Division, and d'Oullenbourg received 
 a Legion d'Honneur in consequence (so St 
 Andre told me). Anyway, he thoroughly 
 deserved it. 
 
 Meanwhile we heard that the Cheshires, 
 Manchesters, and K.O.S.B.'s were all held 
 up near Violaines by a beastly sugar factory
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 177 
 
 which the Germans occupied on the road 
 north of La Bassee, and they could not get 
 on at all. 
 
 Generals Morland and Franklin turned 
 up in the afternoon. We were perpetually 
 being urged to advance and attack, but 
 how could we? There was nothing to 
 attack in front of us except La Bassee, a 
 couple of miles oif , and we could not advance 
 a yard in that direction without exposing 
 our right flank to a deadly enfilade fire from 
 across the Canal, for the Germans were 
 still strongly holding that infernal railway 
 triangle, and nothing availed to get them 
 out of it.^ General Morland wisely, there- 
 fore, ordered me not to advance in force. 
 
 Later on we heard that the Cheshires had 
 made a gain of 800 yards, but had got 
 so extended that they asked for a Bed- 
 ford company to support them, and this 
 I sent. 
 
 In the evening I went to examine a 
 French 75 mm. battery, and had the whole 
 thing explained to me. The gun is simply 
 marvellous, slides horizontally on its own 
 axle, never budges however much it fires, 
 
 1 They are still there (August 1917) ! 
 M
 
 178 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 and has all sorts of patent dodges besides : 
 but it is no use painting the lily ! 
 
 Wilson, of the 61st Howitzers, was, by 
 the way, a little aggrieved by this French 
 battery coming and taking up its position 
 close alongside him and invading his observ- 
 ing stations. The captain also got on his 
 nerves, for he was somewhat excitable, and 
 his shells were numerous that burst pre- 
 maturely, whilst a house only 100 yards 
 off, which should have been well under the 
 trajectory of his shells, was several times 
 hit by them. However, he doubtless caused 
 much damage to the enemy. 
 
 On the 20th and 21st the Germans kept 
 us fairly busy with threatened attacks, espe- 
 cially on the Cheshires at Violaines ; but no- 
 thing definite happened, although we were 
 kept on the perpetual qui vive, and could 
 not relieve our feelings by attacking, for we 
 had orders to " consolidate our position." 
 
 By this time we occupied a line as 
 follows : — 
 
 Canal from crossed swords (v. map) to 
 300 yards North (French). 
 
 Thence to Canteleux (excl.) (Devons). 
 
 Canteleux to Ft. 21 ^ (Norfolks). 
 1 Nearly half-way to Violaiues.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 179 
 
 Pt. 21 to Violaines (Do. patrols). 
 
 Violaines (Clieshires and one company 
 Bedfords). 
 
 Givenchy, in reserve (three companies 
 Bedfords). 
 On the evening of the 21st there was 
 serious news on our left. Although the 
 Cheshires were still in occupation of 
 Violaines, it looked as if they might have 
 to retire from it very soon, as the right of 
 the 14th Brigade, on the Cheshires' left, was 
 being driven back, Violaines, however, was 
 very important, and to let the Germans get 
 a footing here was most dangerous. So, 
 with General Morland's sanction, and after 
 communicating with the Cheshires, who 
 cheerily said they could hold out all right, 
 I told the Cheshires to stick to Violaines, 
 throwing their left flank back in case the 
 line to their left was penetrated. 
 
 Oct. 22nd. 
 
 A very anxious day ensued. At 6 a.m. 
 the Cheshires were invaded in front and 
 flank by a surprise attack of the enemy in 
 great force, and had to fall back towards 
 Rue du Marais, losing heavily. Some 
 Dorsets (who had been for the last three
 
 180 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 days at Stink Farm and were sent as a 
 support to the 13th Brigade) were support- 
 ing them, but they could not do much, and 
 they also lost a number of men. From what I 
 could gather, the Cheshires had been digging 
 in the dark round the southern and eastern 
 flank of the village, and had their sentries 
 out, but apparently not quite far enough 
 out for such thick weather, and when the 
 Germans appeared rushing through the fog 
 they were taken at a disadvantage, for they 
 had cast their equipment in order to dig, and 
 the covering party was quickly cut down. 
 
 This, at all events, was what I made out 
 from the surviving officers, of whom one, 
 2nd Lieut. Pogson, was the senior. Mahony 
 and Rich, fighting gallantly, had been killed, 
 and Shore wounded and taken prisoner. 
 About 200 men were also killed and wounded 
 out of about 600, and a good many of the 
 Bedf ords with them, including poor Coventry 
 (late Transport officer) killed. 
 
 At 8.30 A.M. I was ordered to send my 
 three companies of Bedfords from Givenchy 
 to St Roch, to support the 13th Brigade, who 
 were hanging on about Rue du Marais. But, 
 besides thus depriving me of my only reserve, 
 these companies had great difficulty in get-
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY IJUIGADE 181 
 
 ting to their places, as the country over 
 which they had to pass was heavily shelled 
 by the enemy, and they took a long time 
 getting there, 
 
 I heard that the combined 13th and 14th 
 Brigades were to make a counter-attack on 
 Rue du Marais in the afternoon, and this 
 was certainly attempted. But owing to the 
 mix-up of their battalions in the enclosed 
 country it was impossible to arrange a 
 combined movement under the heavy fire, 
 and it was eventually given up — merely 
 confused fighting taking place during the 
 afternoon. It was, however, sufficient to 
 stop the Germans for the time being. One 
 reason for the difficulty — as I afterwards 
 heard — was that the officer temporarily 
 commanding the 13th Brigade had, by some 
 mischance, got stuck right in the firing line 
 with his staff and signal section, and could 
 not be got at, nor could he move himself 
 or issue orders, — a useful though unhappy 
 warning to Brigadiers. 
 
 I moved with the Brigade Staff from my 
 house at Givenchy to another house about 
 600 yards west of Festubert, so as to be 
 more behind the centre of my Brigade. 
 
 During the night, in pursuance of orders
 
 182 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 from the Division, we fell back on to a 
 somewhat undefined line of defence covering 
 the front of Festubert - Givenchy, and pro- 
 ceeded .to dig ourselves in along a line 
 entirely in the open fields, and very visible, 
 I fear, to the enemy. Some battalions could 
 not get sufficient tools, and were not half 
 dug in by daylight. However, the Germans 
 must have suffered considerably themselves, 
 for they did not attack us in the morning, 
 although their Field Artillery kept up a 
 heavy shrapnel fire. The West Ridings 
 (13th Brigade) were put under my orders. 
 
 Oct. 23rd. 
 
 We were shelled all the morning, but had 
 no serious casualties. 
 
 My Brigade now consisted of the Devons 
 (14th Brigade), West Ridings (13tli Brigade), 
 and the Norfolks (15th Brigade). The 
 remains of the Cheshires and Dorsets were 
 withdrawn and put into the Rue de Bethune 
 hamlet in rear of Festubert, under orders 
 of the 13th Brigade as their reserve, whilst 
 the Bedfords were attached to, I think, the 
 14th Brigade, somewhere Quinque Rue way. 
 It was a glorious jumble, and what happened 
 to the rest of the 13th Brigade I do not
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 183 
 
 know. I believe they combined in some 
 way with the 14th, but I know that two 
 days afterwards the Brigadier was left with 
 only one fighting battalion, the West Kents, 
 I think. 
 
 However, my command was shortly 
 increased considerably by the arrival of 
 Commandant Blanchard with the 2nd 
 Battalion of the 70th Infanterie de Ligne 
 (Regulars). Blanchard was a good solid 
 man, and I put him to hold Givenchy in 
 conjunction with the Devons, who were 
 now occupying the Bedford trenches there. 
 The French on the right of the 70th gave 
 us acute reason for anxiety by retiring 
 calmly from their trenches when they were 
 shelled ; but it was only their way, for half 
 an hour afterwards they trotted back into 
 them quite happily, much to the relief of 
 the Devons and their exposed flank. 
 
 I rode down to Givenchy in the afternoon 
 to see Blanchard and make arrangements 
 for holding the village, and here I met 
 Williams (now^ commanding the Devons 
 since his CO., Gloster, had been hit two 
 days before, not very seriously) and talked 
 matters over with him. 
 
 We expected a night attack, and were
 
 184 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 fcertainly not in a strong position to resist 
 it. Had we been driven in we should have 
 been jammed into the swamp in rear, 
 between the Canal and the Gorre-Festubert 
 road, which would have been extremely 
 unpleasant. So I issued orders to hold tight 
 at all costs, besides secret orders to certain 
 C.O.'s as to what they were to do if we 
 were badly mauled and had to fall back. 
 
 Luckily no attack took place, and we had 
 a fairly quiet night. 
 
 Oct. 2Uh. 
 
 At 7 A.M. I received the encouraging news 
 (from the 2nd corps) that we were going 
 to be heavily attacked to-day, and what 
 certainly gave colour to it was the arrival 
 of a large number of Black Marias during 
 breakfast, which exploded within an un- 
 pleasantly narrow radius of our house. It 
 is quite conceivable that the position of 
 our Headquarters had been given away 
 by some spy. Anyhow, it looked like it, 
 and we decamped at 9. .30 to a cottage half 
 a mile back. Perhaps it is as well that we 
 did so, for at 9.40 a big shell arrived through 
 the roof and exploded in my late bedroom, 
 tearing out the corner of the house wall
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTUY BRIGADE 185 
 
 and wrecking the stable ; whilst nearly at 
 the same moment another shell completely 
 wrecked the house just opposite, where 
 Ballard (commanding 15th Brigade R.F.A.) 
 had been spending the night. He also had 
 cleared out about an hour before. 
 
 Before I went I sent my senior officer, 
 Ballard (Norfolks), down to Givenchy to 
 take local command over the French and 
 English troops there, and am glad I did so, 
 for it introduced unity of command and 
 satisfaction. The Devons down there were 
 meanwhile getting exhausted after their 
 long spell in the trenches ; but I had no 
 troops to relieve them with, nor any reserve. 
 
 The "attack" did not materialize, and 
 we had a fairly quiet afternoon, the Germans 
 limiting their activities to digging them- 
 selves in and sniping perpetually. 
 
 It was an extraordinarily warm day, and 
 we sat in the cottage with windows and 
 doors wide open till long after dark. An 
 attack was made about 10 p.m. on the 
 French the other side of the Canal, but it 
 was too far off to interest us much. 
 
 Oct 2Uh. 
 
 Another lovely warm day of Indian
 
 186 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 summer. Also of many shells, some falling 
 pretty close to our cottage. The Germans 
 were seen making splendid use of the folds 
 in the ground for driving saps and connect- 
 ing up their heads into trenches getting 
 nearer and nearer to our lines. And we 
 could do nothing but shell them and snipe 
 them as best we could, but with little 
 result, for artillery observation-posts were 
 almost impossible, and snap-shooting at an 
 occasional head or shovel appearing above 
 ground produced but small results. 
 
 Three French batteries arrived during the 
 morning and were put under Blanchard's 
 orders in the swampy wood behind Givenchy. 
 Some spasmodic attacks occurred on the 
 trenches east of the village, and the French 
 lost rather heavily; for the Germans got 
 into some of their evacuated trenches and 
 killed the wounded there. A speedy counter- 
 attack, however, drove them out again. 
 The Devons lost two officers (Besley and 
 Quick) and ten men killed and thirty-eight 
 wounded. 
 
 At 4.50 P.M. I got a message saying large 
 columns of the enemy had been seen by 
 the French issuing from La. Basseo and 
 Violaines, and I was ordered peremptorily
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 187 
 
 to be ready to counter-attack at once, with 
 my whole force if required. 
 
 Sir Horace Smith - Dorrien arrived alone 
 an hour or so afterwards, and I pointed 
 out our situation to him ; he entirely con- 
 curred in my view, and heartened me up 
 considerably by quite recognising the state 
 of affairs and congratulating us, and especi- 
 ally the Devons, on sticking it out so well. 
 
 Maynard (Major in the Devons) arrived 
 about midnight and took over command of 
 the battalion, he having been ou the staff 
 of the 2nd Corps. 
 
 Oct. 26th. 
 
 Next morning I rode out again to Givenchy 
 to see Ballard and my fresh French troops ; 
 for the 6/285th (Captain Gigot), the 5/296th 
 (Commandant Ferracci — a typical little Cor- 
 sican and a good soldier), and a squadron 
 of Chasseurs a Cheval had arrived to 
 strengthen us, besides the three batteries 
 aforesaid (under Commandant Menuan). 
 The 2/70th (now under Captain de Ferron) 
 and the G/295tli (lately under Baron d'Oullen- 
 bourg, now wounded ; I have, I fear, for- 
 gotten his successor's name) were, of course, 
 also under me ; so I had a nice little com-
 
 188 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 mand now of three English and four French 
 battalions, four English and three French 
 batteries, and a French squadron. St Andre 
 as liaison officer was of the greatest possible 
 use to me, being both tactful and suggestive 
 as to dealing with my new command, and 
 keeping up splendid communication. 
 
 I then relieved the Devons by the 6/295th 
 — and well they deserved it after their bad 
 time for the last week, — and put the 296th 
 in reserve at various points during the 
 night, sending the Devons as reserve to 
 the Norfolks and West Ridings at Les 
 Plantins, between Givenchy and Festubert. 
 
 There was practically no shelling at all 
 during the whole day — I wonder w^hy ; nor 
 did the enemy make any movement. But 
 we heard of their bringing big guns on to 
 the rising ground at Billy and Haisnes, to 
 the south of La Bassee, and tried to " find " 
 them with our howitzers and heavy artil- 
 lery battery. 
 
 Oct. 27th. 
 
 The reliefs were not finished till 2.30 a.m. 
 — largely owing to some idiots, French or 
 English, loosing off their rifles as they left 
 the trench, which brought a heavy fire on us
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 189 
 
 from the enemy and delayed matters for a 
 long time. It was also not easy — although 
 we had made elaborate and detailed arrange- 
 ments — to relieve British by French troops 
 in pitch darkness, for, interpreters being 
 scarce, they could not understand each other 
 when they met. 
 
 We heard that there was an attack on 
 the 14th Brigade on our left about 1 a.m., 
 and that 200 Germans had got in behind 
 the K.O. Y.L.I, and were still there ; what 
 happened to them I do not know. The 7th 
 Brigade, on the left of the 14:th, had also 
 been driven in, and the 14th Brigade re- 
 ceived orders to make a counter-attack in 
 the evening, with the Devons held ready 
 to help them if required. 
 
 During the day one Captain Pigeonne 
 and his batch of gendarmerie arrived, with 
 orders to clear Festubert of its civilian in- 
 habitants. This was necessary, as the 
 Germans were pretty close up to it and 
 there were undoubtedly spies, and even 
 snipers were reported in and about the 
 village. But hardly any people were found 
 except the lunatic inhabitants of a small 
 asylum, together with their staff, who had 
 stayed there, both men and women, most
 
 190 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 devotedly for the last week, with practi- 
 cally nothing to eat in the whole place. 
 The inhabitants were ordered to clear out, 
 and some of them did. But others hid, 
 and yet others crept back again by night, 
 so the result was practically nil. One poor 
 old woman was hunted out three times, but 
 she returned yet once more, piteously say- 
 ing that she had nowhere to go to, and 
 wanted to die in her own house. 
 
 During the evening General Joubert, 
 commanding the 58th Brigade, arrived 
 with orders to take over command of all 
 French troops north of the Canal. So my 
 international command had not lasted long. 
 But they sent me a liaison N.C.O. of their 
 artillery — a most intelligent man with a 
 yellow beard — and I was still allowed to 
 call on the French batteries for assistance 
 whenever I needed them. 
 
 Oct. 2Sth. 
 
 Joubert was a typical French General, 
 white-moustached, short, courteous, gallant, 
 and altogether charming and practical, and 
 I w^ent again to see and consult him next 
 morning at Givcnchy, cantering through 
 the swampy woods at the back, where most
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 191 
 
 of our seven batteries were posted under 
 excellent cover. I also, before going to bid 
 him adieu, had written him what I thought 
 was a charming letter, congratulating him 
 on the "galanterie de ses troupes." Alas, 
 St Andre was out when I wrote the letter, 
 or probably I should have expressed it 
 differently ; I hear it was subsequently 
 published in orders, but I trust it was 
 edited first ! 
 
 The night had been extraordinarily quiet, 
 and after my visit to Joubert the situation 
 was so peaceful that I walked back a bit 
 to inspect a third line of trenches that 
 were being dug by civilians and spare 
 troops under R.E. supervision. I was not 
 much edified at the portion that the 15th 
 Brigade had been told off to, for it was 
 within 150 yards of a bunch of houses in 
 front, under cover of which the Germans 
 could have come up quite close ; and if 
 they had put a selection of their snipers 
 into them, we should have had a poor time. 
 But I quite allow that I was at a loss, 
 owing to the awkward ground, to suggest 
 anything better. We had also a mile of 
 front to cover, with three weak battalions 
 and a difficult line, whilst the four French
 
 192 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 battalions had been allotted altogether only 
 half a mile of excellent natural trenches 
 behind the Canal, or rather behind a broad 
 water-ditch which ran into the Canal. 
 
 The 2nd Manchesters, under Strickland/ 
 late of the Norfolks, a first-rate battalion 
 just arrived from India, had now been 
 attached to the 14th Brigade — where their 
 own 1st battalion were also — and had had 
 very heavy fighting during the last few 
 days just north of Festubert. The Devons 
 were therefore sent to relieve them, — rather 
 rough on them after barely forty -eight 
 hours out of the trenches. 
 
 Oct. 29th. 
 
 We had an extraordinarily quiet night — 
 a full eight hours' sleej) without any dis- 
 turbance, — and we were consequently feel- 
 ing much fitter. But the ball began full 
 early by a violent attack on the Devons 
 at dawn, and another at 7 on the 2nd 
 Manchesters, both hard pressed, but both 
 repulsed — the Manchesters, who were short 
 of ammunition, getting well in with the 
 bayonet. 
 
 ' Who had been with me as a Major in Belfast — a most 
 capable officer, now (1917) commanding a Division.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 193 
 
 I sent one company of the Norfolks to 
 support the Devons, but I could barely 
 aiford even that. The enemy was en- 
 trenching within 200 to 400 yards of all 
 my battalions, pushing out saps from their 
 trenches along the ditches and folds of the 
 ground, and connecting up their heads in a 
 most ingenious and hidden manner. The 
 French were not attacked, so they sent 
 a couple of companies at my request to 
 Les Plantins, behind the Norfolks. However, 
 after another attack between 9 and 10 A.M. 
 the Germans dried up for the present. 
 
 We knew that the Indian Divisions from 
 Lahore and Meerut were shortly coming 
 to strengthen this part of the line, and I 
 was therefore not surprised to hear that 
 Macbean, commanding one of their Brigades, 
 wanted to see Martyn ^ and me about the 
 relief of our respective Brigades. This was 
 distinctly satisfactory from our point of 
 view ; but I was not entirely happy, for I 
 w^as very doubtful how far these untried 
 Indian troops would stand up to what was 
 evidently going to be a very difficult situa- 
 tion if the Germans went on attacking as 
 
 1 Temporarily commanding 13th Brigade. 
 N
 
 194 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 they had been doing. Fresh troops, it is 
 true. But they had had no experience of 
 this sort of jQghting, nor of trenches, nor of 
 cold wet weather : and they were going to 
 have all three. 
 
 The relief of the West Ridings by the 
 Black Watch battalion of the Indian Divi- 
 sion was carried out on the same evening. 
 The relief of the Bedfords, Cheshires, and 
 Dorsets was also arranged for, but the Nor- 
 folks could not be relieved till the morrow. 
 The 2nd Manch esters were relieved, how^- 
 ever, by the 2/8th Gurkhas, who looked 
 very much out of place with their big hats 
 and tiny, sturdy Mongolian physique. 
 
 Oct. 30th. 
 
 After a very quiet night — except for 
 French guns which started shelling heavily 
 about 4 A.M., and kept us awake till day- 
 light — we had another unpleasant day. 
 
 There were repeated attacks on the 
 Devons and Gurkhas all day, and at 3 p.m. 
 Maynard reported that the Gurkhas had 
 lost all their British officers and were being 
 driven out of their trenches, and that 
 support was badly wanted. 
 
 The first story about the Gurkhas was
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 195 
 
 that they had come to an end of their 
 ammunition and wore fighting with the 
 bayonet, but were driven back by superior 
 numbers. But it turned out later that they 
 lost very heavily from shell fire, and, the 
 trenches being too deep for the little men, 
 they could produce no effect with their rifles, 
 and could see nothing. So, having lost all 
 their English officers, and being bewildered 
 by the heavy fire and totally new conditions, 
 and having no chance of getting in with 
 the bayonet, they cleared out one by one, 
 so as to get together into formation. The 
 Devons' last man was in the firing line by 
 this time, and so two Bedford companies and 
 the West Ridings, no longer under my com- 
 mand, were ordered to retake some Gurkha 
 trenches, into which the Germans had already 
 penetrated, alongside ours. 
 
 It w^as frightfully difficult to make out 
 what was happening, as not only were our 
 troops in process of being relieved by the 
 Indians, but there was very heavy fire as 
 well on all our supports and on the roads 
 leading up to the trenches, so that communi- 
 cation was all but impossible, most telephone 
 wires having been broken long ago and 
 found impossible to repair under such fire.
 
 196 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 The 58th (Wilde's) Rifles had arrived, and 
 were by way of reheving the Norfolks ; but 
 owing to this attack they were deflected in 
 rear of the Devons. Then we were called 
 on to send two companies to support the 
 Devons. But, considering that they now 
 had already two Bedford companies, four 
 of West Ridings, and four of the 58th Rifles, 
 to support them in enclosed country where 
 they could hardly move, and that to weaken 
 my already very thin line of Norfolks and 
 Black Watch meant leaving me no supports 
 at all, I respectfully protested, and gained 
 my point. 
 
 Elaborate arrangements were made by the 
 authorities for retaking the lost trenches by 
 the Bedfords, &c., at nightfall ; then the 
 movement was deferred till 1.30 a.m., and 
 then till dawn; but nothing happened at 
 all during the night except occasional fire- 
 bursts, which sounded like general attacks. 
 
 I might mention that during these " quiet " 
 nights there were numerous fire-bursts at 
 intervals, which used to bring me out of, or 
 rather off, my bed three or four times a 
 night, for the sentry on our cottage had 
 strict orders to call me in case anything 
 alarming occurred in our front. But they
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 197 
 
 always slacked off after 5 or 10 minutes 
 of my waiting in the cold, wet, muddy road, 
 and I crept to bed again till the next one 
 woke me. 
 
 It was a tiny cottage that we lived in 
 during those days, belonging to a poor 
 woman who, with her child, had been turned 
 out by some one else and sent to another 
 house half a mile off. She was perpetually 
 coming back and weeping to be readmitted, 
 but there really was not room, and we had 
 to soothe her with promises, and eventually 
 with cash in order to get rid of her. After 
 all, she was living with her friends, though 
 doubtless they were a bit crowded, and 
 she returned to her cottage when we 
 left it. 
 
 Everything in that country was mud, 
 thick clay mud, black and greasy, and the 
 country flat and hideous. And it rained 
 perpetually and was getting beastly cold. 
 Altogether it was a nightmare of a place, 
 even without the fighting thrown in, and we 
 prayed to be delivered from it, and go and 
 fight somewhere else. ' 
 
 Our prayers were destined to be answered, 
 for on this morning we were ordered, in 
 spite of the desultory fighting going on, to
 
 198 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 hand over to Macbean's Brigade and go 
 north. This only meant the Brigade Staff, 
 two companies Bedfords, and about 300 
 Cheshires and 300 Dorsets who had been in 
 reserve to the 14th Brigade ; but they were 
 not in a very happy condition, for they 
 had hardly any officers left and had been 
 extremely uncomfortable for the last week, 
 being hauled out of their barns on most 
 nights and made to sleep in the wet open as 
 supports in case of attack. 
 
 Our orders were, together with the 15th 
 R.F.A. Brigade, to move north and concen- 
 trate near Strazeele and Pradelles, where we 
 were to go into rest for five or six days. 
 
 I knew those rests. 
 
 So after handing over to Macbean at 
 10.30 A.M., and talking to General Anderson 
 (commanding the Indian Division) and the 
 Maharajah of Bikanir,^ we made devoutly 
 thankful tracks in the direction of Locon 
 and Merville. 
 
 We were but a small part of the 15th 
 Brigade after all who left the environs of 
 Festubert on that morning — only Head- 
 quarters, a very weak battalion of Cheshires 
 
 ' I was struck with his wonderful command of English — 
 not the trace of any accent.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 199 
 
 — not more than 300 all told — and two com- 
 panies of Bedfords. The remains of the 
 Dorsets had been ordered to join us about 
 Strazeele, and the whole of the Norfolks and 
 half the Bedfords were left in the trenches 
 to give a bit of moral and physical support 
 to the Indians. I did not at all like being 
 parted from them, but there was no help for 
 it. The West Ridings (Duke of Wellington's) 
 were attached to me from the 13th Brigade, 
 but that did not make up for the absence of 
 one and a half of my own beloved battalions. 
 Nevertheless it was with a feeling of ex- 
 treme thankfulness that we left the horrible 
 mud-plain of Festubert and Givenchy, with 
 its cold wet climate and its swampy sur- 
 roundings and its dismal memories, for 
 both Dorsets and Cheshires had suffered 
 terribly in the fighting here. And the 
 pleasantest feeling was to hear the noise 
 of the bursting shells grow less and ever 
 less as we worked north-westwards, and to 
 realise that for the present, at all events, 
 we need not worry about Jack Johnsons 
 or Black Marias and all their numerous 
 smaller brethren, nor to keep our attention 
 on the tense strain for bad new^s from the 
 firing trenches, but that we could, for
 
 200 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 several days to come, sleep quietly, not 
 fully dressed and on our beds or straw 
 with one eye on the wake all night, but in 
 our blessed beds and in our still more be- 
 loved pyjamas. 
 
 We trotted on ahead over the cold, wet, 
 muddy, level roads of those parts, with a 
 welcome break for luncheon at a real live 
 estaminet, till we got to Merville, and then 
 we slowed down. 
 
 Merville is a nice prosperous little town, 
 with canals and parks and a distinctly good 
 modern statue of a French soldier in the 
 middle — by whom, and of whom, I have 
 forgotten. It was, oddly enough, almost 
 like an extra - European bit of civilisation, 
 for the streets were swarming with Indians 
 and Africans of both armies — tall, solemn, 
 handsome Sikhs and Rajputs in khaki ; 
 Spahis, Algerians, and Moors in every 
 variety of kit — red jackets, cummerbunds, 
 and baggy breeches, bright blue jackets, 
 white breeches, blue breeches, khaki breeches, 
 dark blue vareuses, white burnouses, Arab 
 corded turbans, baggy crimson trousers, &c., 
 &c., even to Senegalese as black as night, and 
 Berbers from Mauritania and the Atlas. I 
 tried to talk to some of the latter, but it
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 201 
 
 was not a success, for they did not under- 
 stand my Arabic, and I did not understand 
 their Shlukh. 
 
 And so on vid Strazeele — where Saunders 
 and his Dorsets had already arrived — con- 
 tentedly to Fradelle, in which neighbour- 
 hood we billeted, and were met by a staff 
 officer, Cameron of the 5th Divisional Staff, 
 who gave us the welcome news that we 
 were to rest and recuperate for at least a 
 week — really and truly this time. 
 
 We put up at a nice, bright, ugly little 
 chateau belonging to an elderly lady who 
 was most civil and told us stories of what 
 the Germans had done when they passed 
 through a week or two ago on their retreat 
 eastwards. Amongst other abominations, 
 they had, on arrival, demanded of the old 
 cure the key of the church tower, on which 
 they wished to put a Maxim. The old man, 
 not having the key, had hobbled off to get 
 it from the garde champetre, who happened 
 to be in possession of it for the time being. 
 He could not, however, find him, and the 
 officer in command, being in a diabolical 
 temper, put the poor old priest up against 
 a wall and shot him dead on the spot. 
 This was recounted by the cure's sister, and
 
 202 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 there was not a shadow of doubt on the 
 matter, for it was confirmed by all. 
 
 Oct 31si. 
 
 Next day was a clear bright Sunday, and 
 before we had come down to breakfast, 
 looking forward to a nice lazy day, we 
 were ordered to send the Dorsets away 
 in motor -buses to Wulverghem (opposite 
 Messines), w^here heavy fighting was going 
 on. So much for our promised week's rest ! 
 And before 11 o'clock we had received an- 
 other urgent telegram telling us to fall in 
 at once and march eastwards through 
 Bailleul. 
 
 I was deputed to command the whole of 
 the remaining troops of the Division on 
 this march, and by a complicated series of 
 moves from their billets we got them strung 
 out on the road, and pushed on by 12.30. 
 The troops were mostly artillery, engineers, 
 and train, and the only other infantry that 
 joined me were the West Kent, now under 
 their own CO., Martyn. 
 
 Other troops were also on the move 
 through Bailleul, and we had a weary time 
 of it getting through. It was dark before 
 we had filed through the big market-square
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 203 
 
 with its old brick church tower and Town 
 Hall ; and even then, though billets had 
 been arranged for in the country beyond 
 for the rest of the troops, we had the 
 devil's own job before our own headquarters 
 could find a resting-place. We wanted to 
 put up at Dranoutre village, but the village 
 was full of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, and 
 we should have been in front of our own 
 lot ; so after a depressing wait in a tiny 
 pothouse near Dranoutre, whilst St Andre 
 and Weatherby and Moulton- Barrett scoured 
 the country, we eventually settled down in 
 a little farmhouse at Hille, a few hundred 
 yards inside the Belgian border. Not so 
 bad, but tiny, and crowded with not only 
 the proprietor and his numerous family, but 
 with a number of refugees from further east. 
 My own bedroom was about 6 feet square 
 and full of stinking old clothes, but I was 
 lucky to get one at all. 
 
 It seemed curious being amongst inhabit- 
 ants many of whom understood no French, 
 but only talked Wallon or Flemish, I found 
 my reminiscences of the South African Taal 
 came in quite usefully ; but the best com- 
 municators were the Lowland Scots, who, 
 thanks to their own strange dialect, managed
 
 204 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 to make themselves quite decently under- 
 stood by the natives. 
 
 Here we stayed for a few days — to be 
 accurate, until the morning of the 5th 
 November. My own "outfit" consisted of 
 the West Kent, Cheshires, and two com- 
 panies Bedfords, and the West Ridings 
 were subsequently added. At one period I 
 was given the K.O.S.B.'s as well, who were 
 in Neuve Eglise ; but they were taken away 
 from me on the same day, and so were the 
 West Kent. There was, in fact, a glorious 
 jumble, battalions and batteries being added 
 and taken away as the circumstances de- 
 manded. Even the two companies Bedfords 
 were spirited away for forty - eight hours, 
 leaving me with the decimated Cheshires 
 as the only representatives of the 15th 
 Brigade, but with two battalions of the 
 13th and one of the 14th superadded, as 
 well as an R.E. company (17th). Meanwhile 
 the 5th Divisional Staif was stranded and 
 almost troopless, for all the other battalions 
 of the Division were scattered among other 
 divisions — some even under the command 
 of the Cavalry Division ; and guns were 
 pushed up, almost piecemeal, as they were 
 wanted, to help in the attempt to retake
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 205 
 
 Mcssines, out of which our cavalry had 
 been driven some days before. French 
 troops were also there, in lumps. One 
 morning the country would be brilliant 
 with the white horses, sky-blue tunics and 
 red trousers, of the Chasseurs d'Afrique, 
 and the roads impassable with French 
 infantry and transport moving towards 
 Ypres ; and by the next evening nothing but 
 khaki-clad British were seen, besides patches 
 of Belgian infantry, largely stragglers and 
 mostly unarmed. 
 
 Meanwhile rumours of desperate fighting 
 up north came through — the critical time 
 when the 7th Division stuck heroically to 
 their crippled trenches and withstood the 
 ponderous attacks of the German masses ; 
 but it w^as difficult to make out what was 
 occurring, for one only gathered bits of 
 news here and there and could not piece 
 them together as a whole, for the links 
 were missing. 
 
 On the 4th November w^e received orders 
 that Sir Horace w^ould inspect us on the 
 following morning, and we made prepara- 
 tions to turn out as clean as we could in 
 the ever-prevailing mud. But in the even- 
 ing more important work was at hand, for
 
 206 TPIE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 we were notified to be ready to march on 
 the following morning to Ypres. So the 
 inspection fell through. 
 
 The idea was that we — that is, two com- 
 panies Bedfords (450 men), Cheshires (550), 
 and West Ridings (700) — were to combine 
 as the 15th Brigade with M'Cracken's 7th 
 Brigade (Wiltshires, Gordons, Irish Rifles, 
 and another battalion), and go to relieve 
 the 7th Division, which had, we heard, been 
 getting some terrific knocks. With us were 
 to go the two R.E. companies, the 17th and 
 59th, belonging to the 5th Division. 
 
 Nov. 5th. 
 
 We marched at 7.20 a.m. vid Locres and 
 Dickebusch, on the main Bailleul - Ypres 
 road, passing through many French troops 
 on the way. Not far on the other side of 
 Dickebusch we heard that the road was 
 being shelled by the enemy ; so M'Cracken 
 ordered the whole force to jiark in the fields 
 some distance down a road to the west, 
 whilst he went on to Ypres for instructions. 
 
 We had our midday meal whilst we 
 waited there, but it w^as not pleasant for 
 the men, for the fields were dripping wet 
 and very muddy ; they had, therefore, to
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 207 
 
 sit on their kits, whilst the transport had to 
 remain on the road, the fields being so deep. 
 
 M'Cracken came back at 3.30 p.m. with 
 instructions, and we moved on, myself being 
 in charge of the movement. We managed 
 to get to Ypres all right along the main 
 road, as the shells were rather diminishing 
 and not reaching so far, and we pushed 
 through the town, entering it by a bridge 
 over the nearly dry canal. Why the 
 Germans had not shot this bridge to pieces 
 before I cannot imagine, as it was well 
 within their range. There were numerous 
 big shell-holes in the open space near the 
 railway station ; one or two houses were 
 smouldering ; there were heaps of bricks 
 and stones from damaged houses in the 
 streets, and the extreme roof corner of the 
 Cloth Hall had been knocked off, but other- 
 wise the town was fairly normal - looking, 
 except, of course, that hardly any civilians 
 were visible. 
 
 At the other end of the town I came 
 across General Haig, and rode ahead with 
 him down the Menin road as far as the 
 village of Hooge, where the Headquarters 
 of the 1st Division were, under General 
 Landon. (He had succeeded General Lomax,
 
 208 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 who had been badly wounded by a shell 
 exploding at his headquarters, and subse- 
 quently died, 15th April.) Here we had a 
 cup of tea in a dirty little estaminet crowded 
 w^ith Staff officers whilst awaiting the arrival 
 of the Brigade. 
 
 No part of this Menin road was, in fact, 
 " healthy," and at night it was generally 
 subject to a searching fire by German shells. 
 The w^onder, indeed, w^as that more casual- 
 ties did not occur here, for after dark the 
 road was packed with transport and ration 
 and ambulance parties moving slowly and 
 silently back and forth. But the hostile 
 shelling was not accurate, and for one 
 " crumper " that burst in or over the road 
 twenty exploded in the fields alongside. 
 
 Only a day or two before, a couple of 
 heavy shells had burst just outside General 
 Haig's Headquarters at the entrance to 
 Yj)res. Luckily the General himself had 
 just left, but poor " Conky " Marker of the 
 Coldstream had been fatally wounded, and 
 several other officers, signallers, and clerks 
 had been killed. 
 
 My Brigade arrived in the dark by the time 
 that I had received further instructions in 
 detail, and was parked off the road (south
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 209 
 
 side) h<a,lf a mile further on, whilst Weatherby 
 went on to make arrangements for their 
 taking up the line, taking representatives 
 of the battalions with him. I met General 
 Capper (commanding 7th Division) at his 
 dug-out in the wood close by, and he told 
 me that his Division had been reduced to 
 barely 3000 men and a very few officers, after 
 an appalling amount of severe fighting. 
 
 Weatherby came back after a time, and 
 the battalions and ourselves moved off along 
 the road and branched off into the grounds 
 of Herenthage Chateavi — deep mud, broken 
 trees, and hardly rideable. Here we bade 
 adieu to our horses, who were, with the 
 transport, to stay in the same place where 
 we had had our dinners, right the other 
 side of Ypres and out of shell-range, whilst 
 we kept a few ammunition-carts and horses 
 hidden near Hooge village. All the rest of 
 our supplies and stuff had to be brought up 
 every night under cover of darkness to near 
 Herenthage, and there be unloaded and 
 carried by hand into the trenches. 
 
 In the chateau itself who should we come 
 across but Drysdale,^ Brigade -Major now 
 
 1 My late Brigade-Major at Belfast, now, alas ! killed (on 
 the Somme, 1916). 
 
 O
 
 210 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 of the 22nd Brigade, the one which, by the 
 law of chances, we were now relieving ; and, 
 still more oddly, the other battalion (2nd) 
 of the Bedfords was in his Brigade. It was 
 a cheerless place, this chateau — every single 
 pane of glass in it shivered, and lying, 
 crunched at our every step, on the floor. 
 
 We pushed on over the grass of the park, 
 through the scattered trees, and into the 
 wood, and so into the trenches. Even then, 
 as far as one could judge in the darkness, 
 the ground was a regular rabbit - warren. 
 By the time we had finished with the dis- 
 trict the ground was even more so ; there 
 seemed to be more trenches and fallen 
 trees and wire entanglements than there 
 was level ground to walk on. 
 
 Our own Headquarters were in a poky 
 little dug-out^ in a wood, not 200 yards from 
 our firing trenches. There was just room 
 for two — Weatherby and St Andre (Moulton- 
 Barrett having gone to settle about trans- 
 port and supplies, Cadell being away sick, 
 and Beilby being left with the transport 
 the other side of Ypres) — to lie down in 
 it, and there was a little tunnel out of it, 
 
 ' Really only a half roofed-in little trench, marked H on 
 the map.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 211 
 
 6 feet long and 2 broad and 2 high, into 
 which I crept and where I slept; but I 
 was not very happy in it, as the roof-logs 
 had sagged with the weight of the earth 
 
 Jromjiooge 
 
 SOO^ds^ 
 1 1 1 
 
 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 500 
 
 1 
 
 ABCDE 
 
 - 1'' position 
 
 
 ABCFG 
 
 2"<^ 
 
 
 ABHJG 
 
 - 3^^ 
 
 
 K - Herenthage Chateau. 
 
 
 L - Bei 
 
 ikenhorst. 
 
 
 on them, and threatened every moment to 
 fall in whilst I was inside. 
 
 The Bedfords were put into the trenches 
 on the eastern edge of the wood, the 
 Cheshires continued the line to the south 
 and for a couple of hundred yards outside 
 the wood, and the West Ridings were in
 
 212 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 reserve at the back of the wood, in rear 
 of our dug-out. 
 
 I did not like our place at all, for it 
 seemed to inc that, being so close to the 
 firing line, I should not be able to get out 
 or control the little force if there were 
 heavy operations on ; and this was exactly 
 w^hat did happen. 
 
 We had been told that the 6th Cavalry 
 Brigade was in trenches on our left, and 
 the 7th Infantry Brigade in ditto on our 
 right, and that was about all we knew of 
 the situation. 
 
 Nov. 6th. 
 
 Next morning there was a thick mist till 
 10 A.M., and I took advantage of it to visit 
 the trenches in detail. The left of the 
 Cheshires was within 40 yards of the 
 enemy, who were hidden in the wood in 
 front of them, so, there being no communi- 
 cation trenches, we had to be fairly care- 
 ful hereabouts. But it was desperately 
 difficult to make one's way about, what 
 with the fallen trees and telephone wires, 
 and little patches of open ground on the 
 slopes, and long, wet, yellow grass and 
 tangled heather in parts, not to mention
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 213 
 
 the criss - cross of trenches, occupied and 
 unoccupied, in all directions. Difficult 
 enough to find one's way in daylight, it 
 was infinitely worse in pitch darkness. No 
 wonder that our reliefs had not been accom- 
 plished till nearly 3 o'clock that morning ! 
 
 We were shelled pretty heavily all the 
 morning, and two of the shells burst so 
 close that they covered us with dirt. Two 
 officers — Langdale and O'Kelly, of the West 
 Ridings — had their legs broken by their 
 dug - out being blown in upon them, and 
 three Cheshires were buried by an explod- 
 ing shell and dug out dead. Another dozen 
 were killed or wounded in their trenches, 
 which were nothing like deep enough, 
 and could not be further deepened because 
 of the water which lay there only just 
 below the ground. About twenty Cheshires 
 were moved back to escape the shell fire, and 
 taken to a rather less -exposed place. At 
 4.30 the Bedfords reported a heavy attack 
 on their front ; but it was confined to rifle 
 fire, and nothing serious happened there. 
 
 The remainder of the Bedfords, under 
 Griffith, consisting of two strong companies, 
 turned up at 6 P.M., and the West Ridings 
 were taken away from me, so that my
 
 214 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 command was now reduced to two bat- 
 talions, one rather strong {1100 — just rein- 
 forced by a big fresh draft), and the other, 
 Cheshires, only about half that number. 
 
 On further consideration of the situation, 
 I settled to make Brigade Headquarters 
 at the Beukenhorst Chateau,^ half a mile 
 farther back, and started the R.E. and a 
 strange fatigue party to dig a funk-hole 
 for us in front of it in case it were badly 
 shelled ; but I remember as a particular 
 grievance that when the foreign fatigue 
 party heard they were to go somewhere 
 else, they went off, leaving their work half 
 undone, and with our Brigade tools, though 
 I had given them distinct orders to do 
 neither of these things. But they were 
 now out of my jurisdiction, so nothing 
 could be done except to send them a 
 message to return our tools — which they 
 never did. 
 
 Moulton- Barrett turned up in the after- 
 noon with a basket of cold food for us, 
 and took St Andre away ; it was not the 
 least necessary for him to stay, as the dug- 
 out was really only big enough for two, so 
 Weatherby and I settled down for the night. 
 
 > " Stirling Castle " on our present maps.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 215 
 
 We had wanted to move into the chateau 
 at 7 P.M., but we could not. For it was 
 not advisable as long as an attack was 
 imminent ; also, M. B. had not got our 
 message of that morning saying we wanted 
 him to clean up the chateau for us ; and 
 thirdly, the Bedford relief was taking 
 place. So we settled to move next day 
 instead. 
 
 But it was not very attractive living in 
 the tiny dug-out. We had no servants, we 
 had to prepare our own food and wash up 
 afterwards ; it was frightfully cramped, 
 and we were always getting half - empty 
 sardine-tins oozing over official documents, 
 and knives and forks lost in the mud and 
 straw at the bottom, and bread-crumbs and 
 fragments of bully beef and jam mixed up 
 with our orders and papers ; and it was 
 not at all healthy going for a stroll as 
 long as the sun was up because of the 
 bullets and shells fizzing about. Alto- 
 gether, although it was no worse, except 
 as regards size, than other dug-outs, it was 
 not luxurious ; and as for washing, a little 
 water in the bottom of a biscuit -tin was 
 about all we could manage, whilst a shave 
 was a matter of pain and difficulty.
 
 216 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 Nov. 1th. 
 
 We had now come under the 3rd Divi- 
 sion (under General Wing temporarily — a 
 very good and charming fellow, a gunner, 
 who had taken over General Hubert Ham- 
 ilton's command, the latter having been 
 killed, I forgot to mention, some time pre- 
 viously), whilst the 9th Brigade had re- 
 lieved the 6th Cavalry on the previous day. 
 The Division, therefore, now consisted of 
 the 7th, 15th, and 9th Brigades (the latter 
 comprising the Northumberland Fusiliers, 
 Royal Fusiliers, Lincolns, and Scots Fusiliers) 
 — in that order from right to left. It looked, 
 therefore, as if we ought to be soon relieved 
 by the 8th Brigade and return to our own 
 Division. Vain hope ! We were not destined 
 to be relieved for another fortnight. 
 
 There was a good deal of shelling of the 
 9th Brigade during the morning, but we 
 personally had not many shells into us, 
 and were fairly quiet till past 2 o'clock. 
 
 Suddenly, about 3, a hellish hostile fire 
 broke out in the wood — not in our front, 
 but close on our left. A hail of bullets 
 whizzed over our heads, responded to by 
 our fire trenches ; and then, to our horror, 
 we saw our Bedford supports, to our left
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 217 
 
 front, retiring slowly, but in some confu- 
 sion, on top of us — many of the men only 
 half-dressed, and buckling on their kits as 
 they moved. We jumped out of our dug- 
 out, and with the assistance of their officers 
 stopped and rallied them. They were cer- 
 tainly not running, and were in no sort of 
 panic ; but they all said that the word had 
 been passed from the right front that the 
 Bedfords were to retire, sq they had done 
 so — half of them being asleep or feeding at 
 the time the fire began. 
 
 We made them advance again, which they 
 were more than willing to do, and then 
 there was a cheer from the Bedfords in 
 front. Upon which the supports pricked 
 up their ears, rallied to the sound, and 
 charged forward like hounds rallying to 
 the horn. 
 
 Violent firing and confused fighting and 
 yelling in the wood for a space, and some 
 wounded began to come back. Then some 
 Germans, both wounded and prisoners, in 
 small batches, and at last the news that 
 the Bedfords had completely repulsed the 
 attack and taken about 25 prisoners, driving 
 the enemy back with the bayonet at the run. 
 
 Who it was that started the order to
 
 218 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 retire we could never find out. It certainly 
 was not Milling, who was commanding 
 in the front trench, nor was it any officer. 
 Quite conceivably it may have been started 
 by the enemy themselves. 
 
 What happened, as far as I could make 
 out, was that the right centre of the North- 
 umberland Fusiliers on our left had been 
 pressed back and the Germans had poured 
 through the opening. The right flank of 
 the Northumberlands had sat tight, so the 
 Bedfords in our front line had known 
 nothing of the German success till they 
 were fired at by the enemy in the wood 
 on their left rear. I do not fancy, however, 
 from what the prisoners told me, that the 
 attack was a very strong one — not more, 
 I expect, than three or four companies. 
 
 These belonged to the Frankfurt-am-Main 
 Corps (VII.). I examined one prisoner, a 
 regular "Schwabe" from Heilbronn, a jolly 
 man with a red beard, who told me that 
 his company was commanded by a cavalry 
 captain, who considered it beneath his 
 dignity to charge with infantry, and re- 
 mained snugly ensconced behind a wall 
 whilst he shouted encouragement to his 
 men.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 219 
 
 The Bedfords retook three of the North- 
 umborlands' trenches with them, but failed 
 to retake one of their own — together with 
 two machine-guns in it — that they had lost, 
 although they tried hard, A Company 
 (Milling's) making three bayonet charges. 
 They behaved devilish well, in spite of 
 heavy losses both in officers and men. 
 Macready, their Adjutant, was shot through 
 the liver (but recovered eventually) ; AUason 
 (Major) was hit twice — once through the 
 shoulder, and again, on returning after 
 getting his wound dressed, through the 
 thigh ; Davenport was shot through the 
 left elbow (w^e looked after him in our 
 dug-out) ; and two subalterns were killed, 
 besides twenty- four men killed and fifty- 
 three wounded. Of the Cheshires, PoUok, 
 Hodson, and Anderson (the latter a fine 
 runner and very plucky chap) were killed, 
 besides five men killed, nineteen wounded, 
 and eight missing. Altogether the losses 
 were rather heavy. The men were partic- 
 ularly good to the wounded Germans ; 
 I remember especially one man, a black- 
 bearded evil -looking scoundrel, who had 
 been shot through the lungs, and rolled 
 about in the mud at my feet, and him they
 
 220 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 looked after carefully. The last glimpse 
 I caught of him was being helped to a 
 stretcher by two of our own men, also 
 wounded. 
 
 There was again no chance of our getting 
 to the chateau to-night, so another basket 
 of food arrived, and we fed with what com- 
 fort we could. 
 
 We worked all night at strengthening 
 our lines, but the Germans had got up so 
 close to our weakest salient that I was a 
 bit anxious on the subject of a renewed 
 attack by night. 
 
 Nov. 8th. 
 
 A small reinforcement arrived at 7 a.m., 
 in the shape of the Divisional Mounted 
 Troops of the 3rd and 5th Divisions — about 
 250 men altogether, consisting of 70 of the 
 15th Hussars and 60 cyclists from the 3rd, 
 and 50 of the 19th Hussars and 70 cyclists 
 from the 5th Divisions, under Courage 
 and Parsons respectively. 
 
 These were distributed in rear of our 
 dug-out. 
 
 We had a fairly quiet day as far as we 
 ourselves were concerned, but both Brigades 
 on our flanks were heavily shelled. The
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 221 
 
 French on our right were attacking in 
 force, but although they were being sup- 
 ported by their IGth Corps, I do not think 
 there was much result about Klein Zillebeke. 
 
 At last, at 5.30 p.m., we started for our 
 chateau, and hardly had we gone 150 yards 
 when a terrific fire broke out. We got 
 behind a little ruined hut to escape the 
 bullets, and I made ready to return in case 
 it was a serious attack. But it died down 
 in ten minutes, and we pursued our way 
 in more or less peace, for it was only a case 
 of firing at reliefs, and I think the Germans 
 were rather jumpy. 
 
 The Chateau of Beukenhorst was a square 
 white block of a place, and merits perhaps 
 some description, as we were there for a 
 most uncomfortable fortnight — uncomfort- 
 able as far as events and fighting went, 
 though not so as regards living. 
 
 It belonged to some people whose name 
 I have forgotten — Baron something (Belgian) 
 and his German wife, and it was due to 
 this lady's nationality — so the story went — 
 that the place had suffered so little. Per- 
 sonally I think that it was due to the house 
 only being indicated on the map, whilst the 
 stables, 200 yards off', which were perpetu-
 
 222 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 ally being shelled, were marked in heavy 
 black, and were a cockshy for the German 
 guns, which were evidently laid by map 
 and not by sight ; yet the house was on a 
 fair elevation, and must have been visible 
 from certain points on the German side. 
 By the same token, General Capper had 
 had his Headquarters there for a few days, 
 but had cleared out, I believe, because of 
 shells. Half a dozen shrapnel had certainly 
 hit it, but they had only chipped off some 
 bits of stone and broken all the window^s 
 at the eastern end. 
 
 We lived in a room half below ground 
 at the western end, which must evidently 
 have been the housekeeper's room or 
 servants' hall, next to the kitchen. About 
 half the Signal Section lived in some sort 
 of cellars close by, the other half being 
 awaj'^ with the transport. Two of these 
 cellars Avere also used as a dressing station 
 for the 7th Brigade, and wounded used to 
 be brought in here frequently and tended 
 by a sanitary Highlander, a corporal whose 
 exact functions I could never discover, but 
 who worked like a Trojan. The wounded 
 were visited by a medical officer in the 
 evening, and removed on stretchers every
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTUY BRIGADE 223 
 
 night to tho ambulances who came to fetch 
 them. Our own wounded did not come 
 here, but were looked after just behind the 
 trenches near the Herenthage Chateau, and 
 taken away from there at night by our 
 own 15th Field Ambulance, who worked all 
 night in circumstances of much danger, but 
 were luckily hardly ever hit. 
 
 The owners had evidently had plenty of 
 notice before clearing out, for they had 
 removed all the smaller articles and most 
 of the furniture, and had rolled up the 
 carpets and curtains and blinds, leaving 
 only big cupboards and bare bedsteads and 
 larger bits of furniture. These were, oddly 
 enough, in very good taste — Louis XV. 
 style — and only sand - papered and not 
 polished or painted. There was a good 
 bathroom too, and a lavatory with big 
 basins, but much of it had been smashed 
 by shrapnel, as it was at the east end. Our 
 bedrooms were on the first floor, and most 
 of them had good beds and washhand-stands, 
 but no linen or blankets. I need hardly 
 say that we carefully selected those at the 
 western end of the house, whither few 
 bullets had penetrated. But the windows 
 there were mostly untouched, and consisted
 
 224 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 of good plate glass. Altogether the whole 
 place gave one the idea of comfort, money, 
 and good taste, and was an eminently 
 satisfactory abode — bar the shells. 
 
 I know that, as far as looking after the 
 Brigade was concerned, we got through 
 three times as much satisfactory work in 
 the morning after we arrived as we did 
 during all the three days we were in the 
 little dug-out. For we could now communi- 
 cate not only by wire but by messenger 
 and by personal contact with the authori- 
 ties and commanders in our rqar and on 
 our flanks, and could discuss matters re 
 artillery and defences and plans in a way 
 which had been quite impossible in our 
 advanced position. 
 
 General Wing^ used to come and see us 
 most evenings, and I used to communicate 
 personally with Shaw (9th Brigade), and 
 Fanshawe (Artillery), and M'Cracken (7th 
 Brigade), about combined movements, &c. 
 Every morning before daylight, and at a 
 good many other times besides, I, or 
 Weatherby, or Moulton-Barrett, used to go 
 down to the trenches and confabulate with 
 
 • To everybody's great regret, he was killed in October 
 1915.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 225 
 
 Griffith — always cool and resourceful, who 
 was in immediate command — or Frost 
 and Burfeild, who were running the Chesh- 
 ires excellently between them. It was not 
 always a very easy business getting down to 
 the trenches, for there were nearly always 
 shells bursting in the woods and on the open 
 field which lay between us and the trench 
 wood ; and we had generally to hurry in 
 order to leave the chateau precincts unpor- 
 ceived by the beastly Taubes who hovered 
 overhead, always on the lookout for head- 
 quarters to shell ; so we cut down orderlies 
 and staff to a minimum, and absolutely 
 forbade any hanging about outside. 
 
 It is no use going into or describing our 
 proceedings day by day : " Plus qa changeait, 
 plus c'etait la meme chose." I have the de- 
 tail of it day by day in my diary, but it 
 was always, in the main, the same thing — 
 minds and bodies at high tension through- 
 out the day and most of the night ; per- 
 petual artillery fire — if not by the enemy 
 then by ourselves ; shells bursting round 
 the chateau and hardly ever into it, mostly 
 shrapnel near the house and Black Marias 
 a bit farther off — chiefly into a walled 
 garden 200 yards off which, for some un- 
 
 P
 
 226 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 known reason, the Germans were convinced 
 held some of our guns, though, as a matter 
 of fact, our batteries were in our right rear, 
 in well-covered positions just inside (or even 
 outside, in some cases) the woods. But we 
 got shells on the other side of the house 
 as well, over the bare half -grown lawn 
 and flower-beds between the chateau and 
 the Hooge-Menin road. 
 
 It was rarely " healthy " to take a stroll 
 in the grounds, however much we might 
 be in want of fresh air. Even on days 
 which were exceptionally quiet — and there 
 were not many of them, — when one would 
 move out to look at the grounds with a 
 view to future defences in case we were 
 driven back, or with a desire to ease a 
 torpid liver, suddenly there would be a 
 loudening swish in the air and a crash 
 which would send one of the tall pine-trees 
 into smithereens, with a shower of broken 
 branches in all directions, followed by 
 another, or half a dozen more ; and we 
 would retire gracefully — sometimes even 
 rapidly — behind the shelter of our house. 
 
 There were some late roses in the garden, 
 or rather in the scattered flower-beds near 
 the house, which lasted out even when the
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 227 
 
 snow was on them ; but about the only live 
 beings w^ho took any interest in them were 
 three or four goats, who haunted the pre- 
 cincts of the chateau, and were everlastingly 
 trying to get inside. Indeed, when Moulton- 
 Barrett first came to take possession, there 
 were two goats in the best bedrooms up- 
 stairs, who peered out of the windows at 
 the undesired visitors, and had to be evicted 
 after a display of considerable force. 
 
 Also pigs ; for half a dozen great raw- 
 boned pink and dirty swine rootled about 
 in the woods near by for sustenance. They 
 were, however, shy, and did not seek the 
 shelter of the chateau. Stray cattle there 
 were too ; but neither these nor the pigs 
 paid any attention to the shells which fell 
 near them with impartial regularity, but 
 did them, as far as I could see, no damage 
 whatever. 
 
 There was a stable a couple of hundred 
 yards in rear of the house, and here at first 
 we put what horses there were in the 
 neighbourhood. Having Squeaky and Silver 
 there one night — I forget why, but I know 
 they were there — I put them into a couple 
 of loose-boxes. Silver went in all right, 
 but Squeaky, generally a most sensible
 
 228 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 mare, shivered and sweated with terror, 
 had almost to be forced in, and refused to 
 feed when there. So I let her out again, 
 and picketed her outside. Two nights after, 
 a doctor's horse which was in there was all 
 but killed, for a shrapnel burst through the 
 window and drove fourteen bullets into his 
 head and neck. They wanted leave to kill 
 the poor beast, but I refused permission, as 
 he was not hit in any vital spot, and he 
 recovered, more or less, in a few days. 
 
 As mentioned above, this stable was 
 marked in black on the map, whilst the 
 chateau — a far bigger building, of course — 
 was hardly indicated. I take it that this 
 accounted for our comparative immunity, 
 for the stable was shelled (and hit) with 
 great regularity, whilst the chateau was 
 hardly ever touched. We had, however, a 
 couple of small H.E. shell through the east- 
 ern end whilst we were in the western ; one 
 of these bored clean through the wall of a 
 room where there was a big cupboard against 
 it on the far side and exploded forthwith. 
 But the cupboard was not even scratched ; 
 it was blown into the middle of the room 
 and a table or two upset, but, strange to 
 relate, nothing serious in the way of damage
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 229 
 
 was dono.^ On another occasion, however, 
 a few shrapnel exploded just outside the 
 kitchen window. At the sound of the first 
 we all bolted to the other side of the house, 
 and called to the servants to do the same. 
 They came out ; but Brown, our excellent 
 cook, who had come out in his shirt-sleeves, 
 must needs go back, without orders, to fetch 
 his coat : for which he promptly received 
 a jagged piece of shell in his left arm, which 
 put a stop, alas, to his cooking for good and 
 all, as far as we were concerned, for he was 
 sent away, and, although he recovered, never 
 came back to us. 
 
 During the chief hours of the day, when 
 not (or whilst) being shelled, we were pretty 
 busy with telegrams and reports and queries 
 and excursions and alarums. We were com- 
 fortable enough in the housekeeper's room, 
 and got our meals " reg'lar," and we even 
 had two or three arm-chairs, and newspapers 
 and mails fairly well, and news from outside, 
 w^hich used to arrive with our rations at 9 
 P.M. or thereabouts. But a minor trial was 
 the fact that two out of our five panes of 
 glass had been blown in by shell, and let in 
 an icy draught on most days. So we got 
 1 This is a fact, though I cannot explain it.
 
 230 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 some partially-oiled paper, and made some 
 paste, and stuck up the panes. 
 
 The first shell explosion made the paper 
 sag, the second made it shiver, and the third 
 blew it out. The paste would not stick — it 
 was the wrong sort of flour or something. 
 
 Then we used jam — that glutinous sac- 
 charine mess known as " best plum jam " — 
 and blue sugar paper, and it stuck quite 
 fairly well. But it wouldn't dry ; and tears 
 of jam used to trickle down the paper panes 
 and mingle with the tin-tacks and the bread- 
 crumbs on the sill. 
 
 The room was even then fairly dark, but 
 the shell-bursts again shivered the jam 
 paper and burst it, and we had to take to 
 cardboard and drawing-boards. This made 
 it still darker, and was not even then 
 successful, for the explosions still shook the 
 boards down and eventually broke another 
 pane : it was most trying. On the last day 
 but one four panes had been broken, and on 
 the last day, as will be recounted, all were 
 broken and the whole window blown in. 
 Then we left. 
 
 But what was of much vaster interest, of 
 course, than these trifles, was the desperate 
 fighting which was being waged along our
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 231 
 
 front, not 1000 yards from the chateau. Our 
 two battalions, being entrenched in the 
 wood, did not receive such a severe hammer- 
 ing as the brigades on either side — the 7th 
 and 9th respectively on our right and left, — 
 who were more in the open. And the shell- 
 ing and attacks on them were incessant, as 
 well as on troops still further off on the 
 other side of them. 
 
 The 11th November was a typically un- 
 pleasant day. It started with a touch of 
 comedy, Weatherby arriving stark naked in 
 my room at 6.30 A.M., just when I was shav- 
 ing, saying, " I say, sir, may I finish my 
 dressing in here ? They're shelling the bath- 
 room ! " He had a towel and a few clothes 
 on his arm, et prceterea nihil. (He, M.-B., and 
 St Andre, though sleeping in different rooms, 
 used to dress in the bathroom, where there 
 were excellent taps and basins, though no 
 water was running.) 
 
 The shelling continued till 10. It was on 
 this morning that Brown was damaged and 
 lots of windows blown in. 
 
 About that time I saw, to my consterna- 
 tion, a number of British soldiers retiring to- 
 wards the walled garden. I sent out at once 
 to stop them and turn them back, thinking
 
 232 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 they were Chesliiros or Bedfords. To my 
 relief they were neither, but belonged to 
 a brigade on our right. They had been 
 heavily shelled, and, though in no sort of 
 panic, were falling back deliberately, though 
 without orders. There were no officers with 
 them — all killed or wounded, I believe. My 
 efforts were successful, though I grieve to 
 say that a nice boy, Kershaw of the 
 Signallers, who volunteered to carry a 
 message to them, was hit by shrapnel in the 
 thigh and brought in by our clerk. Sergeant 
 Hutchison, and another, bleeding profusely. 
 Burnett, commanding the Cyclist Corps, had 
 been knocked down by a falling tree and 
 his back damaged — also internal damage, I 
 believe (for he was not really fit a year 
 afterwards); he also was brought in, as 
 well as Cooper of the Royal Fusiliers. A 
 number of Zouaves and some more troops 
 also trickled slowly back from the left with 
 stories of appalling losses (mostly untrue) 
 and disaster to the trenches (ditto). They 
 were also stopped — the Zouaves by St Andre 
 — and sent back. Certainly the French- 
 men's nerve was not damaged, for I re- 
 member that several had playing-cards in 
 their hands, and when they got to what
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BKIGADE 233 
 
 they considered a fairly quiet spot they 
 stopped, sat down, and went on with their 
 game. Norman M'Mahon, commanding 
 Royal Fusiliers, had, however, been killed, 
 just as he had been appointed Brigadier to 
 another Brigade, besides a lot more good 
 men of the 9th Brigade. Shaw, command- 
 ing the Brigade, had also been wounded, 
 and Douglas Smith succeeded him. Both 
 the 1st and 9th Brigades had lost several 
 trenches, and intended to try and retake 
 them at night, but both had been pushed 
 back some distance. 
 
 A company of Wiltshires was sent to 
 reinforce us in case we were seriously 
 attacked. But they were not used by us 
 for fighting — only for digging extra trenches 
 near the chateau in case the front battalions 
 had to fall back. But the front battalions 
 had no intention of falling back, and the 
 Cheshires got in a very heavy fire on the 
 flank of some Germans who were attack- 
 ing the 7th Brigade, and, together with the 
 Gordons on our right, killed a great number. 
 The Cheshires reported afterwards that the 
 Germans walked slowly forward to the 
 attack without enthusiasm and in a sort 
 of dazed way, with their rifles under their
 
 234 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 arms, as if they were drugged. I wonder 
 whether they were : we several times re- 
 ceived reports to the same effect. 
 
 A particularly cheery item of intelligence, 
 on good authority, was that fifteen German 
 Guards battalions were being specially 
 brought up in order to break through our 
 line here at all costs. I thought at the time 
 that this was false news, and that nothing 
 like so many would be available, but it was 
 not far out. As part confirmation, some 
 papers taken off a dead German officer were 
 brought in ; they belonged to A. von Obernitz, 
 2nd Garde Grenadier Regiment, 2nd Division 
 Guard Corps, but there was nothing of in- 
 terest in them. 
 
 About that date Weatherby, who had been 
 seedy for several days, became seriously ill 
 with a sort of light typhoid fever, and had 
 to be evacuated. Moulton-Barrett therefore 
 added the duties of Brigade - Major to his 
 already heavy ones as Staff Captain, and did 
 excellently well in the double capacity. 
 
 To finish up with, the weather, which had 
 been calm and fine up to date, broke that 
 evening, and there were violent rain-storms 
 from the south-west all night. 
 
 We went to bed in no very happy state of
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 235 
 
 mind, expecting u serious night attack by 
 overwhelming forces. But no attack came, 
 for probably the enemy was as exhausted as 
 ourselves. All the same we had to fall back 
 by order, on the following night, for many 
 trenches on our right and left had been 
 driven in, and we did not want to be 
 cut off. 
 
 So we fell back about 200 yards through 
 the wood, and straightened up our line — in 
 a much worse defensive position as regards 
 our own bit, but it could not be helped. My 
 suggestions as to the line were overruled, 
 and we took up our second line of trenches 
 and constructed a little r^duit in the wood, 
 ringed around with barbed wire and holding 
 about twenty-five men, who would — we were 
 sanguine enough to expect — hold off any 
 serious rush that came. 
 
 I forgot to mention that Singer, command- 
 ing the 17th Fd. Co. R.E., had arrived, and 
 did an extraordinary amount of good work 
 with his company in circumstances of the 
 greatest difficulty and danger. He told me 
 that the first night he went out, in order to 
 put up some wire entanglement in a danger- 
 ous place, it was as black as pitch. He made 
 his sections hold on to each other's coats, but
 
 236 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 within ten minutes they had not only lost 
 each other in the dense black woods — chiefly 
 through tumbling into trenches and falling 
 over telephone wires, — but Singer had lost 
 the whole company, and after wandering 
 helplessly in what he thought the right 
 direction for some time, he discovered that 
 he had lost himself as well. He said he felt 
 inclined to sit down and have a good cry, 
 so utterly miserable did he feel ! 
 
 In falling back to the second line we had 
 a fairly easy job, but for the 9th Brigade it 
 was a regular Chinese puzzle, for by this 
 time some of their trenches were in German 
 hands at one end and English at the other, 
 whilst Northumberland Fusiliers, Lincolns, 
 Sussex, West Ridings, Cavalry, and even 
 part of the 2nd Grenadiers,^ who had turned 
 up from goodness knows where, were in- 
 extricably tangled up ; not to mention that 
 a party of Northumberlands, numbering 
 about 120, under one gallant subaltern 
 called Brown, had been holding out for 
 three days in front of our line, with no 
 food or drink, and Germans in trenches 
 only 30 yards off them. I believe this lot 
 eventually got away in safety, but the 
 ' My old battalion.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 237 
 
 retirement of all was about as difficult as 
 it could be. This was on the 13th. 
 
 On the 14th the Bedfords were heavily 
 attacked, and the Germans pushed a machine- 
 gun right forward through the wood and 
 enfiladed the Cheshire left. These stood it 
 for some time and then retired further down 
 their trench, being unable to let the Bedfords 
 know. Consequently this beastly gun got in 
 a heavy fire on the Bedfords right as well 
 and forced them to retire. The reduit was 
 no good — the wood was too thick — and 
 some of the garrison were captured. So 
 the Bedfords had to fall back, fighting, on 
 to their third line 50 yards back, where 
 they held the enemy. 
 
 Edwards, who commanded the advanced 
 Bedford company, came up to the chateau 
 to report, and gave a most cheery and 
 amusing account of the whole thing, but 
 the result was not at all amusing, as we 
 had lost ground and a lot of men. 
 
 Meanwhile the big attack by the German 
 Guards was being made on the brigades on 
 our flanks, but, as all the world knows, it 
 was completely repulsed, though the 15th 
 Brigade was not very heavily engaged as a 
 whole. The fighting w^as terribly confused
 
 238 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 in the woods, and nothing but the individual 
 grit of our men held the line, for it was 
 practically impossible to give directions or 
 exercise control in this horrible terrain. 
 
 During this period we got much " mixed " 
 as regards our machine-guns. We took over 
 some from the 7th Division and lost some 
 of those. Then we borrowed some more 
 from other units in rear and recovered some 
 of the lost ones. Sergeant Mart of the 
 Bedfords did a splendid thing, and recovered 
 two of the lost Bedford guns practically by 
 himself, stalking the Germans with only one 
 other man and rushing their trench, killing 
 the few men in it. I wanted to recommend 
 him for the V.C, but had such difficulty in 
 getting sufficient evidence about it that an 
 official recommendation would not have 
 held water. Meanwhile poor Mart was shot 
 through the neck. I got him a D.C.M., but 
 do not know whether he lived to receive it. 
 
 Then three out of our five guns got 
 damaged by shells and bullets and mud and 
 stopped work. So we borrowed some more, 
 and had some difficulty in working them, 
 as they were a new pattern. By the time 
 we understood them two other guns were 
 hors de combat, — it was a real nightmare,
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 239 
 
 and it needed strenuous efforts to keep even 
 one or two guns ^ going ; yet they were of 
 enormous importance, and accounted for 
 a lot of the enemy, especially on the right 
 flank of the Cheshires. 
 
 Meanwhile the weather had turned beastly 
 cold — snowstorms and sleet during the day 
 and a hard frost at night. The men suffered 
 terribly in the trenches — especially the 
 Cheshires, whose trenches were very wet. 
 Although we kept the wet ones occupied 
 as lightly as possible, we could not abandon 
 them altogether and dig others further 
 forward or back, as there was water every- 
 where only a foot below the ground. Breast- 
 works were attempted, but they were very 
 visible and attracted large numbers of 
 shells : altogether the Cheshires had a very 
 poor time, I fear. The Bedfords were rather 
 better off, their trenches in the wood being 
 on rather higher and sandy ground, but 
 they were not dry by any means. 
 
 It was very awkward getting to the 
 trenches, even in broad daylight, by this time, 
 
 ^ It does indeed seem extraordinary now that in those 
 strenuous days of 1914 we only had about three machine- 
 guns to two battalions. Nowadays wo should have at 
 least twenty !
 
 240 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 for such numbers of trees had been blown 
 down by the shells, there were so many shell- 
 holes and so much wire about, and the mud 
 and pools of water so universal, that it was 
 really quite a physical effort to get through 
 at all. 
 
 About this time — the 17th — the Germans 
 in our immediate front appeared to have 
 retired a bit, but they certainly had not 
 gone far, for our scouts on pushing on for 
 50 yards or so were greeted with a heavy 
 fire, so we were unable to get on as much 
 as we wanted. But though the rifle-bullets 
 wore rarer for a day or two, shells certainly 
 were not, and continued with the utmost 
 regularity. 
 
 On the evening of the 17th, by the way, 
 the enemy, annoyed perhaps at ovir scouts 
 pushing on, made what was probably meant 
 to be a counter-attack. It was not made 
 in much strength, and we repelled it with 
 ease. But it appeared to us at the chateau 
 to be more serious than it was, for a 
 messenger from the trenches arrived with 
 the information that the Bedfords were 
 being very severely pressed, and the 
 Cheshires had had very heavy losses, and 
 could not hold their trenches for more than
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 241 
 
 ten minutes unless they were supported at 
 once. I had no supports to send them. A 
 message to Griffith by telephone for con- 
 firmation of this alarm produced no result, 
 for the wires were, of course, broken at that 
 critical moment. So I wired to General 
 Wing asking him to send me some supports 
 if he could, and got 200 Royal Fusiliers 
 shortly afterwards. But I did not use them, 
 for the news of the messenger — who pro- 
 tested that he had been sent with a verbal 
 message (not likely) by an officer whose name 
 he did not know — turned out to be grossly 
 exaggerated, and by the time the Fusiliers 
 arrived the fighting was over. I never could 
 trace whether any officer was responsible for 
 the original message : I believe not. Any- 
 how, there was trouble for the messenger. 
 On the 18th and 19th we had compara- 
 tively quiet days — except for nervousness 
 about our left flank, where certain troops 
 who had joined the 9th Brigade were very 
 heavily shelled and lost one or tw^o of their 
 trenches. They managed, indeed, to get 
 most of the lost ground back, but I was 
 not entirely happy about it, for the ground 
 between us and them was extremely difficult 
 and could not be properly covered by either 
 
 Q
 
 242 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 of us. There was a pond hereabouts, with 
 a little island on it with a summer-house ; 
 and we found, on extending our left to 
 take it over, that there must have been a 
 German sniper there for several nights, for 
 many empty Mauser cartridge - cases were 
 found in the summer-house, and a very dicky 
 punt was discovered in the rushes. This 
 latter we sank, and were no more troubled ; 
 but it shows the cool pluck of the enemy's 
 snipers in getting right into our lines by 
 themselves (and also — I regret to add — 
 certain other things as well). 
 
 Rumours now came of an approaching 
 relief, and certainly troops had rarely been 
 more in want of it, for our two battalions 
 had been in the trenches for fourteen days, 
 with pretty stiff fighting — and nervous, 
 jumpy fighting in the dark at that — all the 
 time, and no chance of being comfortable 
 or quiet during the whole of this period. 
 Each battalion had had to find its own 
 supports or reserves ; but even the latter 
 had to be pretty close up to the firing line, 
 for in such cramped country one could not 
 afford the risk of a sudden rush which might 
 have succeeded before the reserves could 
 get up. Our line, it is true, was not a par-
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 243 
 
 ticiilarly long one ; but it was awkward, 
 and the troops were much cramped and 
 confined by nearly all being obliged to take 
 cover in the wood, which gradually grew 
 too small to hold them. 
 
 Nov. 19th. 
 
 On the 19th General Wing arrived and 
 told us that, after settling to relieve us 
 to-day, the French had been unable to find 
 the men and could not do it. This was a 
 disappointment ; but a later message arrived 
 to say that the Worcesters, coming from 
 the 5th Brigade, would arrive that after- 
 noon and relieve both of our battalions, 
 who by that time were reduced to 540 
 Bedfords and 220 Cheshires altogether (the 
 Bedfords having started with 1100 and the 
 Cheshires with 600 odd). 
 
 In the evening a battalion of Worcesters 
 — from goodness knows where — turned up 
 and announced that they were to relieve 
 us. We had already, as above mentioned, 
 heard that they were coming, and were 
 ready for them ; but it was funny that 
 they should arrive for only twenty -four 
 hours, for the French were going to occupy 
 our trenches on the morrow^.
 
 244 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 Anyhow, by midnight or so the Bedfords 
 and Cheshires had cleared out, thankful to 
 leave the horrible rabbit-warren where they 
 had been stuck for nearly three wet, cold, 
 and beastly weeks ; and they retired to the 
 wood and dug-outs close behind our chateau, 
 so as to be in reserve in case of necessity. 
 
 Nov. 20th. 
 
 But they were not wanted as such, and 
 the following day was fairly quiet as far 
 as trench fighting was concerned. 
 
 But not so for the staff. We were sitting 
 in the housekeeper's room after breakfast 
 working out our orders for the withdrawal 
 that night, when there was a terrific bang 
 just outside the chateau — nearer than ever 
 before. We looked at each other, and 
 would, I verily believe, have settled down 
 again to our work, so accustomed were we 
 to shells of all sorts, had not Naylor, who 
 had joined us two days before as temporary 
 signal officer (vice Oadell, gone sick with 
 light typhoid at Hille eighteen days before), 
 jumped up and run outside in order to 
 see where it had gone. Being Divisional 
 signal officer, he had not, perhaps, had 
 quite so much experience of shells as we
 
 FIFTP]ENTH INFANTRY BRKJADE 245 
 
 had, aud he wanted to get into closer touch. 
 The example was infectious, and we also 
 strolled out to see where the shell had 
 fallen. Hardly had we got outside into the 
 passage, and half-way up the basement steps 
 into the fresh air, when there was a roar 
 and an appalling crash which shook the 
 building. The concussion made me stagger, 
 and blew my cap off. St Andre's hat fizzed 
 away into the bushes, and, surrounded by 
 a cloud of red dust and stones and chips 
 of balustrades and hunks of wood and 
 branches, we held on to anything we could. 
 No damage to ourselves ; but a glance down 
 the passage showed US' that the shell, or 
 most of it, had exploded in or just outside 
 the kitchen, and blown that chamber, as 
 well as the housekeeper's room, which we 
 had just left, into absolute smithereens. 
 
 No time to look into further details ; a 
 hurried issue of orders, and we legged it 
 for all we were worth across the open and 
 into our funk - hole in the shrubbery 300 
 yards off, whilst the signal section and ser- 
 vants and orderlies made a bolt for the 
 stables in the opposite direction. 
 
 But the Germans seem to have been satis- 
 fied with this little exhibition of "hate,"
 
 216 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 and bombarded us no more — except casu- 
 ally, with shrapnel, as usual. We crept 
 back to the chateau at intervals during the 
 morning, and removed various possessions 
 and chairs and tables to our dug-out, which 
 was not a very luxurious abode, though dry 
 and fairly deep. Poor Conway, Weatherby's 
 servant, whom he had left behind, was the 
 only casualty; his dead body was found, 
 with both legs broken and an arm off, blown 
 down a cellar passage at the back. The 
 next most serious casualty was Moulton- 
 Barrett's new pair of breeches, arrived that 
 morning from England, and driven full of 
 holes like a sugar -sifter. Our late room 
 w^as a mass of wreckage — half the outer 
 wall and most of the inner one blown down, 
 tables and chairs and things overturned and 
 broken, and the floor knee-deep in plaster 
 and rubbish. Of the kitchen there was still 
 less ; and nothing was to be rescued from 
 the debris except one tin plate and one tin 
 mustard-pot. It would have taken days to 
 clear it, for a good deal of the room above 
 seemed to have fallen into it as well, and 
 one could hardly get in at the door, so full 
 was the place of plaster, wreckage, and 
 stones, and hot-water pipes and bits of iron
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 217 
 
 and twisted rails, and dust and earth and 
 broken laths and rafters. Luckily the con- 
 cussion put the fire out, or there might 
 have been still more damage. 
 
 We spent our day somewhat uncomfort- 
 ably in the dug-out, for there was a hard 
 frost and very little room to turn round 
 in, and though we had a brazier, its char- 
 coal fumes in the confined space nearly 
 poisoned us. In the middle of the day 
 three French officers turned up, and we 
 made mutual arrangements for the taking 
 over by them of this portion of the line, 
 Milling (of the Bedfords) guiding one party 
 and St Andre the other. 
 
 Food was rather a difficulty, for the mess 
 servants had disappeared, and had last been 
 seen hastening in the direction of Ypres — 
 for which we cursed them loud and long. 
 We did our best with small hunks of bully 
 and odd bits of chocolate and a modicum 
 of tea and biscuits in our haversacks — for 
 all the rest of our food had been buried by 
 that infernal shell, — but it was neither com- 
 fortable nor filling ; and, in truth, as the 
 dark winter evening came on w^ith only one 
 or two candle-stumps between us, we were not 
 as happy as we should otherwise have been.
 
 248 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 Help was, however, at hand ; for our ser- 
 vants, Inskip and Stairs, who we thought 
 had ignominiously run away, suddenly 
 turned up with heaps of food. They had 
 gone all the way to our cook's waggon three 
 miles the other side of Ypres for comestibles, 
 and whilst we were d — ing their eyes for 
 bolting, were trudging, heavily laden, along 
 the road back to us — good youths. 
 
 It was a lengthy business getting the 
 relief through. The French troops, due at 
 7.30 P.M., did not arrive till 9.15 p.m., and 
 even then it was difficult to pilot a lot of 
 troops, fresh to the ground, in pitch dark- 
 ness, over shell-holes and wires and broken 
 trees and stumps, and through mud and 
 undergrowth and dead horses, &c., &c., into 
 the trenches destined for them. The details 
 had to be very carefully arranged indeed, 
 and it was not till nearly 2 A.M. that we 
 had got the French into the trenches, the 
 Worcesters into reserve, and the Bed- 
 fords and Cheshircs on their way back to 
 Ypres. 
 
 Then, with a sigh of some thankfulness 
 apiece, we stumbled back in the darkness to 
 the chateau, where we waited to collect the 
 remains of the Signal Section and staff, and
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 219 
 
 then moved oil", mounted this time, down 
 the Meuin-Ypres road. 
 
 It was freezing very hard — as I think I 
 remarked before — and the road was fright- 
 fully slippery. Trotting was almost out of 
 the question, but I tried it on Squeaky for 
 a few yards, on a dry broken bit. She 
 pulled back on to the slippery part, slid up, 
 and sat down heavily, whilst I fell gracefully 
 off on to my shoulder. And she repeated 
 the performance the other side of the town. 
 Ypres, in the bright starlight, was still quite 
 impressive, and the Cloth Hall was still 
 almost intact. But there were many shell- 
 holes about, and some of the houses were 
 still smouldering. The town happened to be 
 respited from shells for the actual moment, 
 but I believe that the very next day a heavy 
 bombardment began again, and the Cloth 
 Hall was destroyed till hardly the skeleton 
 thereof was left. 
 
 Nov. 21st. 
 
 We were due to billet in Locre, and there 
 we arrived at about 7 a.m. It was fright- 
 fully cold, but, after we had seen the two 
 battalions billeted, the military policeman 
 who had been told to turn up and show us
 
 250 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 to our billets was nowhere to be found, so 
 we wandered on as far as the Convent, 
 staggering and slipping on the snowy ice 
 and blowing on our fingers as we went. 
 The thermometer must have shown ten 
 degrees of frost or more, but I only know 
 that I was very glad to reach our little 
 house at last (having passed it already once 
 half a mile before) and get in between the 
 sheets of an ancient but respectably clean 
 bed, covered by all the mackintoshes, 
 blankets, and rugs I could get hold of. 
 
 The Cheshires were billeted on the Mont 
 Rouge close by, and the Bedfords near us, 
 at the corner of the Westoutre road. They 
 had all struggled over the fourteen miles or 
 so that divided them from their trenches, 
 but having arrived and their feet having 
 swollen terribly during the long march, any 
 number of them could not get their boots 
 on again, and they went to hospital by 
 twenties and thirties, hobbling along the 
 road with their feet tied up in rags or socks, 
 for they were deformed with rheumatism 
 and swollen joints,^ and would not fit any 
 boot. The Cheshires, as I expected, were 
 much the worse of the two battalions, for 
 1 What would now bo known as "trench feet."
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 251 
 
 their trenches had been very wet, and most 
 of the men had sat with cold feet in water 
 for many days ; yet there was not a single 
 case of pulmonary complaint amongst them, 
 and hardly even a cough or a cold. 
 
 Here we stayed, at Locre, till the 25th, the 
 men enjoying a most well-earned rest, and fill- 
 ing up with hot baths, warm clothes, socks, 
 parcels from home, and comforts of all sorts. 
 The Divisional Headquarters were in the 
 Convent, a clean huge building which did 
 very well for the purpose, and here we went 
 almost daily, either on business or on a meal 
 intent. The Cheshires — only 230 of them 
 left — were of no practical value, alas, with 
 their bad feet ; so they were sent in to 2nd 
 Corps Headquarters (Sir H. S.-D.) at Bailleul, 
 nominally to "find" the Headquarters Guard, 
 but in reality to convalesce. 
 
 On the 25th we — that is, Headquarters and 
 the Bedfords, for that was all there was left 
 of the 15th for the moment — moved to St 
 Jan's Cappel, a nice little village only a few 
 miles behind Locre. We lived in the Cure's 
 (M. de Vos) house, clean and pleasant; and 
 the Cure, who liked the good things of this 
 world, brought his stout person to coffee 
 every evening, and did not disdain to make
 
 252 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 the acquaintance of an occasional tot of 
 British rum or whisky, except on Fridays. 
 Two days afterwards we were inspected 
 both by Sir Horace and, half an hour later, 
 by Sir John French, who were both pleased 
 to say complimentary things of the Brigade. 
 It did us good. The Bedfords again put me 
 to confusion by calling out "'Ear! ear!" at 
 telling points of the speeches — curious folk, — 
 the only battalion I ever heard do so. 587 
 men and 8 officers on parade, not one of the 
 latter of whom, except the Quartermaster, 
 had come out with the battalion. Griffith 
 was on leave, his place being taken by Major 
 Mackenzie, V.C, who had just joined. All 
 the other officers who had left Ireland with 
 me in August were either killed, wounded, 
 or sick. 
 
 We were under orders to go into the 
 trenches again shortly, taking over from 
 Maude,^ now commanding the 14th Brigade ; 
 he also had the Dorsets and Norfolks, 
 scraped up from various places, attached to 
 him. His line was in front of Dranoutre. 
 
 On the 29th November we took over there, 
 a most complicated arrangement which only 
 evolved itself clearly during the next week. 
 ' The victor of Baghdad.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 253 
 
 I had the East Surroys and Manchesters 
 under me for a time, and then the K.O.S.B.'s, 
 all interchanging and intershuffling with my 
 battalions, the main reason being that I had 
 not got the Cheshires, so had to shift as best 
 I could without them, picking up a battalion 
 of the 13th or 14th Brigade when one was 
 available. 
 
 The line was not exactly nice. We had, 
 it is true, got rid of the worst bit, Hill 73, on 
 to the 3rd Division, which was next door on 
 the left ; but it extended all the same for an 
 unpleasant length on our right, which was 
 south of the Wulverghem - Messines road, 
 the right of the Brigade on our right being 
 on the Douve. At the longest — the length 
 that the Brigade had to defend varied 
 according to circumstances — the line was 
 just over 2500 yards ; at its shortest it was 
 about 2200. Considering that the normal 
 frontage (defensive) of the Brigade at full 
 strength was 900 to 1300 yards, this was a 
 bit "thin" in more senses than one. 
 
 As we were here for three months, off and 
 on — from the beginning of December to the 
 end of February, — it may be worth while 
 trying to describe it, if I can. 
 
 Imagine a bit of rolling country — rather
 
 254 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 like parts of Leicestershire, — fair-sized fields, 
 separated mostly by straggling fences inter- 
 spersed with wire (largely barbed), and 
 punctuated by tall trees. Patches of wood 
 in places, spinney size for the most part. 
 Low hills here and there — Kemmel, Scher- 
 penberg, Ploegsteert Wood, — but all outside 
 our area. For villages, Dranoutre, Neuve 
 Eglise, Wulverghem, and Lindenhoek, of 
 which the two last were already more than 
 half shot to pieces and almost deserted. 
 Opposite our right was Messines — a mile and 
 a half in front of our line, — its big, square, 
 old church tower still standing ; it may have 
 had a spire on the top, but if so it had dis- 
 appeared before we came. Nearly opposite 
 our extreme left, but out of our jurisdiction 
 and in the sphere of the Division on our left, 
 was Wytschaete (pronounce Wich Khate), 
 one and a half miles off. The cavalry had 
 held both Messines^ and Wytschaete at the 
 end of October, but had been overwhelmingly 
 attacked here and driven out of them, so 
 that the two villages formed a hostile bulge 
 into our line. We had been in hopes of 
 driving attacks into the base of the bulge 
 and thus forcing a retirement. But the 
 * Locally pronounced Mersd.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 255 
 
 from 
 Ypres
 
 256 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 Germans reinforced the bulge and en- 
 trenched it heavily, and instead of our cut- 
 ting off the bulge, it became flatter and 
 flatter, without giving way at the point, so 
 that we had to retire slightly, on either side, 
 and not they. 
 
 Farms, nearly all of them roofless and 
 half - ruined, were dotted about over the 
 country. Small ones for the most part they 
 were, and of the usual type — a liquid and 
 stinking manure-heap surrounded on three 
 sides by a living-house and barns. Of the 
 roads, those from Dranoutre to Lindenhoek, 
 Dranoutre to Neuve Eglise, and Neuve 
 Eglise via Wulverghem to Messines, were 
 pavd — i.e., cobble-stones down the centre 
 and mud on both sides. Those joining Lin- 
 denhoek to Neuve Eglise and Wulverghem 
 were also mostly pave. The remainder were 
 mere field tracks for the most part, rarely 
 metalled, and in wet weather almost im- 
 passable for mud. 
 
 O that mud ! We have heard lots about 
 Flanders mud, but the reality transcends 
 imagination, especially in winter. Greasy, 
 slippery, holding clay, over your toes in 
 most places and over your ankles in all the 
 rest — where it is not over your knees, — it is
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 257 
 
 the most horrible "going" I know anywhere. 
 Whether you are moving across plough or 
 grass fields, or along lanes, you are perpetu- 
 ally skating about and slipping up on the 
 firmer bits and held fast by the ankles in 
 the softer ones. There is no stone in the 
 district, nothing but rich loamy clay, alias 
 mud. However much you dig, you never 
 come across stone, nothing but sticky mud 
 which clings to your shovel and refuses to be 
 parted from it — mud that has to be scraped 
 oif at almost every stroke, mud that absorbs 
 water like a sponge yet refuses to give it up 
 again. Every little puddle and rut, every 
 hoof-depression full of rain, remains like that 
 for weeks ; even when the weather is fine 
 the water does not seem to evaporate, but 
 remains on the surface. 
 
 And when it rains, as it did all that 
 winter (except when it snowed), the state of 
 the trenches is indescribable. Some were, 
 frankly, so full of water that they had 
 to be abandoned, and a breastwork erected 
 behind. But a breastwork is slow work, 
 especially if you are less than 100 yards 
 from the enemy. For weeks, indeed, the 
 garrison of one particular trench had to lie 
 out on the mud, or on what waterproofs
 
 258 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 they could get, behind a shelter two to 
 three feet high — always growing a little, 
 yet never to be made to a real six feet 
 height for reason of conspicuousness and 
 consequent clusters of Black Marias. 
 
 Other trenches varied from five inches to 
 five feet deep in mud ; in one a Dorset man 
 was literally almost drowned and drawn 
 forth with great difficulty. Many cases 
 occurred of semi - submersion, and as for 
 moving up the communication trenches 
 during the winter, it w^as generally an im- 
 possibility, for they were either knee -deep 
 in water or in mud, and simply refused to 
 be drained. So men preferred the risk of 
 a stray bullet to the certainty of liquid mud 
 to the knees and consequent icy discomfort 
 for twenty-four hours and more. And as 
 for the unfortunate ration-parties and men 
 bringing up heavy trench stores, their task 
 was really one of frightful labour, for, for 
 two men to cross a large and slippery muddy 
 series of fields carrying a 100 lb. box between 
 them was no joke. First one would slide up 
 and skate off in one direction whilst the 
 other did his best to hold on, generally 
 resulting in dropping his end of the box or 
 finding himself on the flat of his back. Then
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 259 
 
 the parts would be reversed, but they always 
 slid up in opposite directions — the mud 
 saw to that, — and they would arrive in the 
 trenches, after their stroll of a mile or 
 less, absolutely exhausted and dripping with 
 sweat. It was difficult enough, over much 
 of the ground, to avoid slipping up even 
 when burdened by nothing more than a 
 walking-stick ; that I know from personal 
 experience. Yet for many weeks the men 
 had to do this and suffer, for fascines and 
 bricks, besides sandbags, were only just be- 
 ginning to make their appearance in Dec- 
 ember ; and floor -boards and gratings and 
 gravel and trench stores and wire-netting, 
 and revetments and planks and iron sheeting 
 and trestles and hurdles of all sorts, did not 
 really materialize in anything like sufiicient 
 numbers till March. 
 
 The draining of the trenches was heart- 
 breaking. After a heavy day or two of 
 rain the parapets would fall down in hunks 
 into the foot of water or so in the trenches, 
 and would churn up into liquid mud, only 
 to be removed by large spoons, of which 
 we had none, or buckets, of which we had 
 but very few. It was too thick to drain 
 off down the very, very gradual slopes which
 
 260 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 were the best we could do, and too liquid 
 to be shovelled away ; so there it would 
 remain, and our strenuous efforts in re- 
 building the parapets (for at this period 
 we had no revetting material) would only 
 result, a night or two later, in still further 
 collapses. 
 
 The R.E. companies, both 17th and 59th, 
 worked like heroes, and so particularly did 
 the Norfolks and Bedf ords ; but it was 
 most disheartening work. No sooner was 
 one parapet fairly complete than another 
 fell in ; and when this was mended the 
 first one would collapse again under the 
 incessant downpour. And all this time wire 
 entanglements had to be put up in front 
 under hostile fire, trenches connected up 
 and drained, support trenches dug, com- 
 munication trenches improved, loopholes 
 made, defences thickened and strengthened, 
 saps pushed out, all under the fire of an 
 enemy anything from 60 to 200 yards off, 
 and always on rather higher ground than 
 ourselves, worse luck, so that he had the 
 whip-hand. 
 
 Soon came the period of hand grenades, 
 in which he had six to one the best of us 
 in numbers ; and then in rifle grenades
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 261 
 
 ditto ditto; and then in trench mortars, 
 flare - lights, searchlights, and rockets — 
 wherein we followed him feebly and at a 
 great distance ; for where he sent up 100 
 (say) light balls at night, we could only 
 afford five or six ; and other things in pro- 
 portion. Later on came the Minenwerfer, 
 an expanded type of trench mortar, and its 
 bomb, but up to the end of February his 
 efforts in this direction were not very seri- 
 ous, though I allow that he did us more 
 harm thereby than we him. For our trench 
 mortars were in an experimental stage, 
 made locally by the R.E., and constructed 
 of thin gas-pipe iron and home-made jam-pot 
 bombs, whose behaviour was always erratic, 
 and sometimes, I regret to say, fatal to the 
 mortarist. (Poor Rogers, R.E., a capital 
 subaltern, was killed thus, besides others, 
 I fear.) 
 
 Our reliefs varied. Normally the Brigade 
 was supposed to be, at first, eight days in 
 and four days out. Then this was rapidly 
 changed to twelve days in and six days out ; 
 then, as the 14th Brigade suggested that it 
 should hold Neuve Eglise, a quite short 
 front, in perpetuity, whilst the 13th and 
 15th Brigades relieved each other alternate
 
 262 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 eight days along the long front, it was 
 changed nominally to eight in and eight 
 out. But it was not always possible, and 
 our last tour lasted twenty days in and 
 only three out. 
 
 The reliefs made one's head whirl. It 
 was all right to start with, two battalions 
 in the trenches {i.e., fire-trenches, support- 
 trenches, and reserve - trenches), and two 
 battalions in reserve at Dranoutre or there- 
 abouts — four days about, each battalion, 
 in eight-day reliefs, or three days about in 
 twelve-day reliefs. This was simple. But 
 when our line was lengthened to a three- 
 battalion length it became much more diffi- 
 cult, especially when one battalion was much 
 weaker than the other three. And when, 
 eventually, the brigade was presented with 
 a Territorial battalion of great strength but 
 no experience, making five battalions of vary- 
 ing strengths to occupy a three-battalion 
 length, whilst one could only put the Terri- 
 torial one (at first) into a comparatively safe 
 place in the line which did not fit it, then 
 the problem of the wolf, the goat, and the 
 cabbage faded into complete insignificance. 
 
 It was very difficult to fit everything in so 
 that each battalion had its fair share of duty
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 263 
 
 and of rest. Even with the best intentions 
 matters did not always pan out straight, for 
 considerations of strength, of comparative 
 excellence, of dangerous and of safe localities, 
 of moral, of comfortable or uncomfortable 
 trenches, of spade-work and of a dozen other 
 things, had to be fitted together like a 
 Chinese puzzle. 
 
 There was a particularly dangerous and 
 uncomfortable length which was given to 
 the best battalion to hold. On its relief, 
 who should hold it ? the next best, who was 
 badly wanted somewhere else, or another 
 one weak in numbers and consequently 
 unfit? And when the relief came again, 
 was the best battalion always to be doomed 
 to the worst and most dangerous trenches, 
 merely because it ivas the best? Hardly an 
 incitement to good w^ork. And when the 
 battalions did not fit their length, were you 
 to add or subtract a company from some- 
 body else, or would you put some in reserve 
 out of their turn, thereby inflicting unfair 
 hardship on another battalion ? And would 
 you like to reinforce one battalion, in case of 
 attack, by another battalion? or would you 
 like to make it thin in front and deep 
 behind, and support itself? If the other
 
 264 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 thing was necessary, how could you do it 
 when the two battaKons were accustomed 
 to relieve their companies, internally, in 
 different ways, when perhaps the transport 
 of one was deficient, or one battalion pre- 
 ferred sandbags, whilst the other cherished 
 hurdles, as revetting material ? — for I always 
 found that giving the commanding officer 
 his head in such small internal matters 
 produced the best work. It was a matter 
 for deep study and wet towels, and there let 
 it rest. 
 
 We had much difficulty about quarters 
 outside the trenches, for all the farmhouses 
 anywhere within two miles of the enemy 
 were shelled pretty regularly as regards 
 quantity of explosive material devoted to 
 them — though, as regards dates, they varied 
 considerably. Battalion headquarters had 
 to be dumped down in farms half shot to 
 pieces, w^ith all window^s broken and howling 
 icy draughts tearing through the shell-holed 
 walls. If you did not like this, you could 
 go and dig a big hole in the side of a 
 road or a turnip-field and live in that. The 
 reserves were always the difficulty, and so, 
 for a long time, were even the supports. 
 For whatever and wherever the trenches
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 265 
 
 that we dug for them, the rain came steadily 
 down and broke away the sides of the dug- 
 outs and provided wet legs for those that 
 sat therein. Later on, more timber being 
 available, as well as iron sheeting, hurdles 
 and other things, they became a good deal 
 more weather-proof ; but at first the men 
 as well as the ofiicers were, I fear, very 
 uncomfortable. 
 
 In those days one could not dream of 
 going up to or into a trench except in the 
 dark, or, indeed, of moving about anywhere 
 near there except at night. Nowadays one 
 can visit all one's trenches in broad day- 
 light, and never care a rap for the occasional 
 bullets which whistle over the comfortable 
 deep communication trenches ; but up to 
 the spring of 1915 it was very different 
 almost throughout. 
 
 I used to visit the trenches every third 
 night or so ; at least I tried to, but it was 
 not by any means always possible. It meant 
 a three-mile ride there, putting up the 
 horses in Wulverghem or Lindenhoek, and 
 a walk of a mile or so to the trenches, then 
 a mile or less along the trenches. It was 
 lucky for you if there was any light of moon 
 or stars to see by, and lucky if you did not
 
 266 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 go over your knees in mud in the dark. 
 On one occasion it came down a pitchy dead 
 blackness just as I was arriving at the 
 trenches, so that you literally could not 
 see your hand in front, or the road, or any- 
 thing else ; so I gave it up and went back. 
 Other nights were impossible for the same 
 reason ; and occasionally the brilliance of 
 the moon was in fault, though not often. 
 So we had to select our nights carefully. 
 
 Johnston, V.O.,^ R.E., was in R.E. charge 
 of our trenches. (Poor fellow, he was killed 
 by a sniper near St Eloi on April 15.) He 
 must have worked something like eighteen 
 hours out of the twenty-four. For by 9 A.M. 
 he was collecting material near Dranoutre 
 and receiving reports, and settling his 
 company administrative work. At 11.30 he 
 came to see me, and we discussed and 
 settled the ensuing night's task. Then back 
 to his farm to give out instructions to his 
 sappers, and fifty other things to do before 
 he rode out about 6 P.M, to the trenches, 
 remaining there till 3 A.M. or even 6 A.M. 
 — to superintend the work and struggle 
 about in the mud all night. He never 
 
 1 He had received the V.C. for a particularly plucky 
 piece of raft work under heavy fire at Missy.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 267 
 
 spared himself an ounce. He was occa- 
 sionally so nearly dead with want of sleep 
 that I once or twice ordered him to take 
 a night's sleep ; but he always got out of 
 it on some pretext or other. 
 
 And with it all he was as plucky as the 
 devil — he seemed to like getting shot at. 
 One night he got a ricochet bullet over his 
 heart, but this only put him in a furious 
 rage (if you can use the word about such 
 a seeming mild person), and spent the next 
 twenty-four hours in collecting ammunition 
 and bombs and extra trench-mortars and 
 firing them himself ; this seemed to soothe 
 him. He was a wonderful fellow all round, 
 always full of expedients and never dis- 
 heartened by the cruel collapse of all his 
 plans caused by the wet weather ; and if 
 there was a dangerous piece of work on 
 hand, he was always first in giving the lead. 
 One very nasty place on the left there was 
 which was commanded by the enemy at 
 short range, yet we could not dig in it, as 
 the water was only a foot below the ground, 
 and breastworks there were practically im- 
 possible ; yet if the enemy had seized this 
 bit they would have enfiladed the rest of 
 the line; why they did not do so I do not
 
 268 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 know. He was always pressing me to 
 attack the Germans at this point and seize 
 a bit of false crest that they held ; but my 
 better judgment was against it, as, if we 
 had taken the bit, we should have been 
 commanded there from three sides instead 
 of one, and could not have held it for half 
 an hour. I know Johnston's private opinion 
 of me in this matter was that I was a funk, 
 but he was too polite to say so. After I 
 left, the following Brigade not only did not 
 attack the point, but fell back some distance 
 here, "on its own"; and I am sure they 
 were right. 
 
 Poor Johnston — he became Brigade-Major 
 after Weatherby left for the 5th Divisional 
 Staff (some time in April 1915, I think), and, 
 as I remarked, was killed shortly afterwards. 
 His death was a very heavy loss to the 
 Brigade. 
 
 At Dranoutre we — that is, the Brigade 
 staff — lived in a perpetual atmosphere of 
 mud and draughts. The Cure's house was 
 very small and very dirty, and was not 
 improved by the pounds of mud which 
 every one brought in on his boots at all 
 hours of the day and left on our best 
 drugget — a cheap, thin thing which I
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 269 
 
 bought in Bailleul (they had not such a 
 thing as a carpet in the whole town) where- 
 with to cover the nakedness of the brick 
 floor of the one tiny room in which we 
 all worked and ate. 
 
 Weatherby and I slept in the house, and 
 the others were billeted outside, but the 
 quarters were none of them more than 
 passable — poor villagers' rooms, with a 
 frowzy though comfortable bed, a rickety 
 washhand-stand, if you were lucky (I did 
 not even have that), no carpet on the dirty 
 wooden floor, and one small hard - backed 
 chair, generally minus a portion of a leg ; 
 never any chest of dra^vers or anywhere to 
 put your things, as if there by any chance 
 was such a thing in the room, it was sure 
 to be full of the inhabitants' rusty old black 
 clothes and dirty blue flannel shirts, and 
 petticoats, thick and musty, by the ton, — I 
 never saw so many petticoats per inhabitant. 
 
 Our mess had only had one change since 
 the beginning of the war, and that was in 
 the signal officer. Cadell had gone sick in 
 November, and Miles had replaced him in 
 December. For about a month, including 
 all the period at Ypres, we had had no 
 signal officer (except Naylor for two days).
 
 270 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 nor any Brigade - Major from about the 
 12th November (at Ypres) till the beginning 
 of December; so Sergeant King, a first-rate 
 signaller, though not the senior, had carried 
 on for Cadell, and Moulton- Barrett had 
 added the duties of Brigade -Major to his 
 own. But by the middle of December we 
 were complete again. Weatherby had re- 
 turned from his sick leave, and Miles, of 
 the K.O.S.B.'s, was now signalling officer. 
 A quite excellent one he was, too — very 
 silent, always an hour or two late for 
 dinner (owing to strenuous night work), 
 never asking questions, but always doing 
 things before they were even suggested, 
 and very thoroughly at that ; he was a 
 great acquisition. Moulton - Barrett was 
 still Staff Captain — very hard-working and 
 conscientious, and very thorough ; Weath- 
 erby was still Brigade-Major — keen and re- 
 sourceful ; Beilby was still veterinary officer 
 — capable and helpful; and St Andre was 
 still interpreter and billeting officer — cheer- 
 ful and most willing. His duties were 
 mostly to investigate the numerous cases 
 of natives who wanted to go somewhere 
 or do something — generally to fetch their 
 cows oif a shell - swept field, or to rescue
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 271 
 
 their furniture from a burnt village, or to 
 fetch or buy something from Bailleul — and 
 recommend them (or otherwise) to me for 
 passes — a most trying duty, wearing to the 
 temper ; but he was angelic in patience, 
 and, as a light recreation, used to accom- 
 pany me to the trenches fairly often. 
 
 One case there was where, for three 
 nights running, great fids of wire were 
 cut out of some artillery cables connecting 
 them with their observers — a most repre- 
 hensible deed. So I had patrols out to spy 
 along the lines, — no result, except that next 
 morning another 100 yards had gone. So 
 I made St Andre publish a blood - and - 
 thunder proclamation threatening death to 
 any one found tampering with our wires. 
 Spies were plentiful, and a gap in our 
 wires might be fatal. 
 
 And then the culprit owned up. It was 
 an old woman near whose cottage the 
 wires passed, and her fences required 
 mending. 
 
 Neuve Eglise, which we inhabited for a 
 fortnight or more, and where we spent 
 Xmas Day, was a good cut above Dran- 
 outre. Except for the first three days, 
 when we lived with a doctor, — and his stove
 
 272 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 smoked frightfully till we discovered a dead 
 starling in the pipe, — we dwelt in exceeding 
 comfort, comparatively speaking. It was a 
 brewer's house, about the biggest in the 
 village— which was three times the size of 
 Dranoutre, — with real furniture in it, a 
 real dining-room (horribly cold, as the stove 
 refused to work), and a most comfortable 
 series of highly civilized bedrooms. (Last 
 time I was in the neighbourhood — August 
 1915 — there was long grass in the streets, 
 not a soul in the place, half the houses in 
 absolute ruins, and our late quarters with 
 one side missing and three parts of the 
 house as well.) The trenches were much 
 less pestered with shells and bullets than 
 the Dranoutre lot, and it was easier work 
 altogether for the men. We quite enjoyed 
 it, and on Xmas Day so did the Germans. 
 For they came out of their trenches and 
 walked across unarmed, with boxes of cigars 
 and seasonable remarks. What were our 
 men to do? Shoot? You could not shoot 
 unarmed men. Let them come? You 
 could not let them come into your trenches ; 
 so the only thing feasible at the moment 
 was done — and some of our men met them 
 half-way and began talking to them.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 273 
 
 We got into trouble for doing it. But, 
 after all, it is difficult to see what we could 
 otherwise have done, unless we shot the 
 very first unarmed man who showed him- 
 self — pour encourager les autres ; but we 
 did not know what he was going to do. 
 Meanwhile our officers got excellent close 
 views of the German trenches, and we pro- 
 fited accordingly ; the Boche did not, for he 
 was not allow^ed close enough to ours. 
 
 Which reminds me that on one occasion, 
 w^hen going round the trenches, I asked a 
 man whether he had had any shots at the 
 Germans. He responded that there was an 
 elderly gentleman with a bald head and a 
 long beard who often showed himself over 
 the parapet. 
 
 " Well, why didn't you shoot him ? " 
 
 " Shoot him ? " said the man ; " why, Lor' 
 bless you, sir, 'e's never done me no 'arm!" A 
 case of "live and let live," which is certainly 
 not to be encouraged. But cold-blooded 
 murder is never popular with our men. 
 
 Talking of anecdotes, and the trend of 
 our men's minds, I heard that on another 
 occasion a groom, an otherwise excellent 
 creature, wrote home to his "girl" thus: 
 "Me and the master rode out to the 
 
 s
 
 274 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 trenches last night. We was attacked by 
 a strong German patrol. I nips off me 
 horse, pulls out my rifle and shoots two 
 of them, and the rest bolted." Not a single 
 atom of truth in the story, except that 
 he was nestling in a warm stable at an 
 advanced village, whilst his master was 
 shivering in the mud of the trenches that 
 night. 
 
 Another gem was a statement by a Trans- 
 port officer's servant that he had shot 1200 
 Germans himself with a machine-gun. This 
 was a man who, I verily believe, had never 
 even been within earshot of a gun, much 
 less seen a German, his duties being ex- 
 clusively several miles in rear of the firing 
 line. And, being a civilian up till quite 
 recently, I am sure he did not know the 
 muzzle of a maxim from its breech. 
 
 During our tours in " Divisional reserve " 
 we generally spent the time in St Jan's 
 Cappel (already described) or Bailleul. The 
 latter town, with its rather quaint old brick 
 fourteenth - century church, porched a la 
 Louis Quinze, was tolerable rather than 
 admirable. Nothing of civil interest, and 
 hardly anything to buy except magnificent 
 grapes from the " Grapperies," even in
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 275 
 
 November. We housed a battalion or more 
 in the man's series of greenhouses, and he 
 responded — after several more battalions 
 had been quartered there — with a claim for 
 2,000,000 francs. He could not prove that 
 a single pane of glass or any of his vines 
 had been broken, nor any grapes stolen, 
 for indeed they had not been, but he based 
 his claim on the damage done to them by 
 tobacco smoke (which I always thought was 
 particularly good for them), and by the 
 report of the big guns, which shattered the 
 vines' nerves so that he was sure they would 
 not produce again (also a fallacy, for I had 
 some more excellent grapes there nearly a 
 year afterwards — September '15). I did not 
 hear what compensation he got, but he 
 would have been lucky to get 20 francs. 
 
 I once went into a poorly furnished watch- 
 maker's shop, but the lady there could do 
 nothing for my watch. She told me that, 
 being an optician in a small way as well, 
 she had had a whole stock of spectacles and 
 glasses. When the Germans came through 
 the town in October, they demanded field- 
 glasses. The few ones she had they stole, 
 and then because she had no more they 
 stole her watchmaker's tools, and swept all
 
 276 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 the spectacles and glasses and watches on 
 to the floor and stamped them to powder. 
 
 There is really little more to relate about 
 our time at Dranoutre and neighbourhood. 
 It was a time of a certain amount of nerve- 
 strain, for we all knew that our trenches 
 were by no means perfect, and that if the 
 enemy did attack us we should have great 
 difficulty in bringing up reserves in time to 
 beat them off ; for we could not keep them 
 under cover within decent range — there were 
 no billets or houses, — and if we dug trenches 
 for them they were not only exposed to 
 the enemy's shell fire but were certain to 
 be half full of water in two days ; whilst 
 we could not get anything like enough 
 trench stores and timber, and what we did 
 get we had enormous difficulty in bringing 
 up to the trenches. 
 
 During all this time the artillery helped 
 us all they knew, and were extremely well 
 run, first by Ballard, then Saunders, and 
 then Sandys, as Brigade Commanders. 
 But they were badly handicapped by want 
 of shells, especially howitzer high explosives, 
 and we had to suffer a great deal of shell 
 fire without returning it. 
 
 We used to average about four casualties
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 277 
 
 a day in each battalion, say fifteen to twenty 
 a day in the Brigade, which made a big 
 hole in the strengths. Officers were always 
 getting killed — often, alas, their own fault, 
 through excess of zeal ; and men used per- 
 petually to lose their lives through getting 
 out of the trenches in order to stretch their 
 half -frozen limbs. Sickness was, strange to 
 say, almost negligible. There were far more 
 cases of arthritis and other things due to 
 cold wet feet than anything else ; and the 
 men were extraordinarily healthy, com- 
 paratively speaking, considering the des- 
 perately uncomfortable hard life. 
 
 General Morland was, of course, com- 
 manding the Division during this time, and 
 used to come nearly every morning in his 
 car to see us ; also Sir 0. Fergusson, now 
 Corps Commander, often came. 
 
 But during the whole of that winter there 
 was very little for the higher commands to 
 do, except to collect and send up material 
 for the trenches, and to try and keep pace 
 with the German developments — for we 
 could do little or nothing in the way of 
 offensive action. 
 
 I tried to get the thing neatly organised, 
 as to stores and times and amounts and
 
 278 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 transport for taking the things up to the 
 trenches ; but it was very difficult, as some- 
 times there were no engineer stores to be 
 had, or the wires got broken by shell fire 
 and took a long time to repair, or it was 
 more urgent to bring up rations or water 
 or ammunition, and the requisite transport 
 for all was not available. But all the same, 
 the trenches gradually improved. 
 
 At last, on the 18th February, we got 
 news that there was to be a move from 
 our present line. The fact was that the 
 28th Division (also the 27th), composed of 
 white troops from India and other tropical 
 places, had had an exceedingly nasty time. 
 Many of the men were rotten with fever, 
 and the cold wet weather had sent scores 
 and scores into hospital. They had been 
 put into the trenches round St Eloi to re- 
 lieve the French, who had held all the 
 line round here chiefly with their field 
 artillery and a very few men ; and the 
 trenches were, consequently, most sketchy, 
 according to British ideas, and the ap- 
 proaches under heavy fire. The French 
 did not mind, for, if they were shelled out 
 of their trenches, as often happened, they 
 just skipped out of them and turned their
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 279 
 
 guns on till the Germans were cleared 
 out ; and then they went back again. But 
 this sort of thing did not suit us ; and 
 when the Germans did attack our trenches 
 here they took a good many and we lost 
 a lot of men, especially when we tried to 
 counter - attack and retake them. So the 
 28th Division was hors de combat for the 
 moment, and was sent doAvn to recuperate 
 in a quieter area — which was that of the 
 5th Division. 
 
 Our orders were for the 13th and 15th 
 Brigades to move north to St Eloi and be 
 replaced by the 83rd and 84th Brigades. 
 This was done, — a most complicated move, 
 for the 84th Brigade, which fell to our lot, 
 was composed of four very weak bat- 
 talions, and we had five battalions, mostly 
 rather strong ; and by the 24th February 
 we had six battalions, including the 9th 
 Londons (an excellent battalion) and 6th 
 Cheshires (a strong and hard-working one). 
 
 We ought to have been relieved, in the 
 normal state of affairs, on the 17th Feb- 
 ruary, but we were kept on, as a matter 
 of fact, till the 27th, because of this new 
 arrangement. 
 
 On that morning I received word that
 
 280 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 an extraordinary lamp message had been 
 read during the night in the enemy's lines 
 by a signaller of the 6th Cheshires. It 
 was a long, confused message in English, 
 repeating that "the hill" was going to be 
 attacked at noon on that day, with mes- 
 sages about "B.C. codes" — whatever that 
 may be, — trumpery wire entanglements, the 
 unready English, good leading essential, &c., 
 and a lot of other undecipherable nonsense. 
 The whole message had lasted nearly two 
 hours, with interruptions and repetitions. 
 I did not know what to make of it. It 
 was probably a "leg-pull," or somebody 
 practising his English ; but as there was 
 a 1000 to 1 chance of its being sent by 
 some sympathiser in our front, and of 
 the projected " attack " being a real one, 
 I sent two companies down as a reserve 
 to the Bus Farm in our reserve line, and 
 held a battery ready before its time. But 
 nothing happened, and we were relieved 
 without incident. 
 
 Bols, by the w^ay, had, from commanding 
 the Dorsets, been appointed to command 
 the 84:th Brigade, and he took over before 
 leaving, on the day before we left. I was 
 very sorry indeed to lose him, but knew
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 281 
 
 that, once his foot was well on the ladder, 
 he would go right ahead — as he has.^ The 
 same applied to Ballard, who also had been 
 given a Brigade — the 7th. 
 
 The 15th Brigade thereupon retired into 
 billets at Bailleul, with orders to stay 
 there for three days only, and then to go 
 straight to St Eloi and take over these 
 trenches of the 28th Division. Not much 
 rest — twenty days in the trenches, three 
 out, and then trenches again. 
 
 As regards myself, however, my days of 
 connection with the Brigade were num- 
 bered. I had heard, with mixed but 
 pleasant feelings, that I had been pro- 
 moted Major - General " for distinguished 
 service" on the 18th February (Weatherby 
 got a brevet majority in the same ' Gaz- 
 ette '), and I was now ordered to go home 
 and report myself in London. My suc- 
 cessor was to be Northey, of the 60th 
 Rifles, from Givenchy way, and he turned 
 up on the 2nd March at our Headquarters, 
 which were then at 28 Rue de Lille. I at 
 once recognised that he would carry on 
 excellently well, and had no compunction 
 in leaving the command in his hands. All 
 1 He is now (1917) Major-General.
 
 282 THE DOINGS OF THE 
 
 that was left for me to do was to take 
 a tender farewell of the officers of the 
 Brigade and of my staff, and to publish a 
 final farewell order to the old Brigade. I 
 was very sad at leaving, and had I known 
 what an awful time they were going to 
 have at St Eloi and Hill 60, I should have 
 been sadder still.^ Of all the regimental 
 officers and men who had left Ireland with 
 me on the 14th August 1914, six and a half 
 months previously, I could count on my 
 ten fingers the number of officers left : — 
 
 Norfolks — Done 2 and Bruce (both ill in 
 hospital from strenuous overwork), 
 Megaw (killed later), Paterson. 
 
 Dorsets — Ransome, Partridge. 
 
 Bedfords — Griffith 2 (trustiest of C.O.'s, 
 who had been under heavier fire than 
 almost any one in the Brigade, yet never 
 touched), Allason (thrice wounded), Gled- 
 stanes (killed later). 
 
 Oheshires — Frost (killed later). 
 
 I do not think there was another officer 
 except the quartermasters — Smith (Nor- 
 
 1 They lost 2400 men out of not quite 4000 in a fortnight 
 in April. 
 
 2 Now (1917) commanding a Brigade.
 
 FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE 283 
 
 folks), Sproule (Cheshires), and Pearce (Bed- 
 fords) ^ ; and as for the men, there may have 
 been ten or so per battalion, but I really 
 do not think there were more. 
 
 I took the evening train at Bailleul and 
 spent an agreeable evening with Ker 
 Seymer, the train officer. I got to Boulogne 
 and on board the boat at midnight, and 
 next day, the 3rd March, saw me arrive 
 at 8.30 A.M. in London. 
 
 ^ The Dorset one had been promoted. 
 
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