WITH RAWLINSON IN BELGIUM.
When Rawlinson's troops reached Ghent, on 7th October 1914, they fell in
with the first body of retreating Belgians, and also with a brigade of
French Marine Fusiliers, 6,000 strong, which had been hastily organized
and rushed northwards that very morning. Most of them were Breton[30]
reservists and recruits who had never fought on land before. Their chief
was Admiral Ronarc'h,[31] a big, broad-shouldered, cool seaman, with
eyes of Celtic blue. The Germans called these Bretons lads and
graybeards "the girls with the red pompoms."[32] They were soon to
discover that the Bretons were not playing at war, but that they were
fighters of iron resolution and fiery courage.
When the troops under Rawlinson were disembarking at Ostend and
Zeebrugge, fourteen transports, containing the 7th British Division,
which had been assembled on the borders of the New Forest, were on the
way to join him in Belgium. Just when the transports were off Ostend
they received a wireless message ordering them to recross the Channel to
Dover. A grain ship had just been blown up off Ostend, and it was
feared that the transports would be sent to the bottom too. They were
therefore ordered back to Dover to wait until the mines were swept up
along the Belgian coast. On the day when the retirement from Antwerp was
in full swing, the 7th Division disembarked at Zeebrugge, and marched to
the outskirts of Bruges. The agony of Antwerp was then over, and all
that could be done was to help to cover the retreat of the forces now
marching away from the city.
[Illustration: Bavarian Troops leaving Antwerp for the Dash on Calais.]
The Germans, as you know, strove hard to cut off the retreating
defenders, and in the villages to the east and south of Ghent the
British forces and the French Marine Brigade made a stand against an
army which numbered about 45,000. When they had checked the enemy, they
decided to retire westwards towards Bruges. That night, under a wintry
moon, a long march of twenty-six miles was accomplished, the 7th
Division and the French Marines acting as the rearguard.
After a brief rest the retreating forces turned south-south-east, the
cavalry scouring the country in advance, and on the following evening
reached Thielt,[33] where it was discovered that the pursuit had so
greatly slackened that the weary men were enabled to get the first good
sleep which they had enjoyed for several days. It is said that they owed
this piece of good fortune to the mayor of one of the neighbouring
towns, who deliberately sent the Germans off on a false scent. When the
Germans discovered that they had been misdirected, the mayor was
promptly shot.
On 13th October the Allies reached Thourout,[34] where they divided into
two parts. Admiral Ronarc'h and his Marines, along with the Belgian
forces which had been holding Ghent, moved west to the Yser, where they
joined the remnants of the Belgian army which had retreated through
Bruges. Here the undaunted King Albert, accompanied by his devoted wife,
Queen Elizabeth, rejoined the exhausted army, and helped to reorganize
it for the terrible struggles which lay before it. Meanwhile Sir Henry
Rawlinson's forces pressed on southwards, and arrived at Roulers,[35]
_en route_ for Ypres, on 13th October, the day on which Lille fell into
the hands of the Germans. By that time part of the German army which
had been besieging Antwerp, and had been released for other operations
when it fell, had swept through Bruges, and had occupied Ostend. German
soldiers were seen strolling on the sands which in the early days of
July had been crowded with laughing bathers and merry holiday-makers.
Many of the German soldiers had never seen the sea before, and they
gazed upon it with open-mouthed interest, straining their eyes in the
vain attempt to see the shores of that island kingdom which was so
steadfastly blocking their path to victory.
* * * * *
Mr. C. Underwood, an interpreter who was attached to the 7th Division,
which played such an important part in the fighting retreat from Ghent,
tells us[36] that it was the delay caused by sending back the transports
of his division to Dover that prevented Sir Henry Rawlinson from
marching to the relief of Antwerp.
"We left Roulers for Ypres," he says, "at 9.30 a.m. (October
14), and four Taubes flew over us on the road, but too high to
be shot at. We arrived at Ypres at 6.30, and that evening I saw
our first lot of allies, reserve dragoons dismounted in the
square to receive us. The Germans had been through and stayed
one night, the 7th, the day we landed at Zeebrugge. They had
taken up their quarters in the famous riding school, and the
first thing they had done was to break open the mess-room and
cellars, and take out all the wine, after which they broke up
everything and stole the mess-plate. When I saw it, a week
later, the school was strewn with broken bottles--champagne,
claret, port, etc., etc.--and every drawer and cupboard burst
open and ransacked. They had cut all communications at the
station, demanded an indemnity of 65,000 francs (£2,600), and
stolen all the money they could lay hands on from the Banque
National. Six thousand loaves were requisitioned in the evening
to be ready next morning, failing which there was a penalty of
£800 (20,000 francs). At 10.30 a.m. a Taube, with pilot and
observer, had been brought down; but they were not captured till
4.30, as they concealed themselves in a wood. They were both
brought in, furious with rage, as each was seized by the collar,
and a revolver pointed at their heads by Belgian officers. They
were driven off in a car at the rate of sixty miles an hour at
least!
"Next day the whole brigade marched out to Halte on the
Menin-Ypres road, dug trenches, and remained in them all night.
It was pitch dark in the morning when we were ordered to attack
a patrol of Germans towards Menin. About a quarter of a mile
beyond Gheluvelt[37] we engaged advance party of Uhlans at 8.30
a.m. in a thick fog. A file of the Bedfords brought in a
suspect, whose papers, not being in order, I escorted into
Ypres. He was there detained at the town hall, and I heard no
more of him. Had quite an amusing skirmish with the daughter of
the proprietress of the hotel of the Three Kings. Feeling very
hungry, I asked for lunch. She said she had nothing; asked for
an egg, same reply; bread, the same; finally, in a fury at such
disobliging conduct, I asked her whether she did not think
herself most ungrateful, considering we were there to defend
them against the Germans. This had the desired effect, and she
asked me to come in, cooked me a splendid omelet, brought out a
bottle of wine, and plenty of bread and cheese, for which she
only charged me two francs."
On Sunday, the 18th, Mr. Underwood's brigade had its baptism of fire at
a village a little to the north-east of Gheluvelt, where a British
battery silenced the guns of the enemy. All night they waited for an
attack, but the Germans left them alone until the morning. Then the
fighting was continued, and thus began that series of desperate
conflicts--"ten Waterloos a week"--known as the Battle of Ypres. I shall
give you a full account of this gigantic struggle in a later chapter.
The enemy against whom the 7th Division was now fighting consisted of
four reserve corps which had left Germany on 11th October. Three of the
corps had assembled in Brussels, and without losing an hour had been
sent on an eighty-mile march westwards. They largely consisted of
Landwehr[38] and new volunteers, and ranged from boys of sixteen to
stout gentlemen in middle life. Though quite new to the work of war,
they soon showed themselves as desperate in attack as the most seasoned
veterans. Mr. Underwood says: "On questioning one of the prisoners, he
informed me that they were all Landwehr men, fathers of families, about
the age of thirty-nine and forty, who had been called up quite recently.
There was no doubt that the Germans were well equipped; all their
clothes were in excellent order and brand new. They seemed relieved, and
evidently overjoyed, when I told them that they would probably be sent
to England. They were afraid that the report which had been made to them
that we shot all prisoners was true."
[Footnote 30: Inhabitants of Brittany, a former province of France,
forming the extreme north-west. The people are of Celtic stock, and
their language is allied to the Welsh. Brittany was partly settled from
England and Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries, and thereafter was
called Britannia Minor. Brittany has always been famous for its sailors.
Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of the St. Lawrence, was a Breton.]
[Footnote 31: _Ron´ark._]
[Footnote 32: French sailors wear a red pompom on the top of their
caps.]
[Footnote 33: _Teelt_, 15 miles south-east of Bruges.]
[Footnote 34: _Too-roo´_, 11 miles south-south-west of Bruges].
[Footnote 35: _Roo-lare´_, 20 miles south by west of Bruges, a textile
manufacturing town of 25,000 inhabitants.]
[Footnote 36: In _Blackwood's Magazine_, March 1915.]
[Footnote 37: Village on the Ypres-Menin road, four miles east of
Ypres.]
[Footnote 38: See Vol. I., p. 146.]