Cerny, South of Laon, Sept 14, 1914.
My Dear Parents: Our corps has the task of holding the heights
south of Cerny in all circumstances until the Fourteenth Corps on
our left flank can grip the enemy's flank. On our right are other
corps. We are fighting with the English Guards, Highlanders, and
Zouaves. The losses on both sides have been enormous. For the most
part this is due to the too brilliant French artillery.
The English are marvelously trained in making use of ground. One
never sees them, and one is constantly under fire. The French
airmen perform wonderful feats. We cannot get rid of them. As soon
as an airman has flown over us, ten minutes later we get their
shrapnel fire in our positions. We have little artillery in our
corps; without it we cannot get forward.
Three days ago our division took possession of these heights and
dug itself in. Two days ago, early in the morning, we were attacked
by an immensely superior English force, one brigade and two
battalions, and were turned out of our positions. The fellows took
five guns from us. It was a tremendous hand-to-hand fight.
How I escaped myself I am not clear. I then had to bring up
supports on foot. My horse was wounded, and the others were too
far in the rear. Then came up the Guards Jager Battalion, Fourth
Jager, Sixth Regiment, Reserve Regiment Thirteen, and Landwehr
Regiments Thirteen and Sixteen, and with the help of the artillery
we drove the fellows out of the position again. Our machine guns
did excellent work; the English fell in heaps.
In our battalion three Iron Crosses have been given, one to C.O.,
one to Capt. ----, and one to Surgeon ----. [Names probably
deleted.] Let us hope that we shall be the lucky ones next time.
During the first two days of the battle I had only one piece of
bread and no water. I spent the night in the rain without my
overcoat. The rest of my kit was on the horses which had been left
behind with the baggage and which cannot come up into the battle
because as soon as you put your nose up from behind cover the
bullets whistle.
War is terrible. We are all hoping that a decisive battle will end
the war, as our troops already have got round Paris. If we beat the
English the French resistance will soon be broken. Russia will be
very quickly dealt with; of this there is no doubt.
We received splendid help from the Austrian [Transcriber: original
'Austrain'] heavy artillery at Maubeuge. They bombarded Fort
Cerfontaine in such a way that there was not ten meters a parapet
which did not show enormous craters made by the shells. The armored
turrets were found upside down.
Yesterday evening, about 6, in the valley in which our reserves
stood there was such a terrible cannonade that we saw nothing of
the sky but a cloud of smoke. We had few casualties.
Recently a pilot and observer of the Royal Flying Corps were forced by a
breakage in their aeroplane to descend in the enemy's lines. The pilot
managed to pancake his machine down to earth, and the two escaped into
some thick under-growth in the woods.
The enemy came up and seized and smashed the machine, but did not search
for our men with much zeal. The latter lay hid till dark and then found
their way to the Aisne, across which they swam, reaching camp in safety,
but barefooted.
Numerous floating bridges have been thrown across the Aisne and some of
the pontoon bridges have been repaired under fire. On the 20th, Lieut.
[name deleted] of the Third Signal Corps, Royal Engineers, was
unfortunately drowned while attempting to swim across the river with a
cable in order to open up fresh telegraphic communication on the north
side.
Espionage is still carried on by the enemy to a considerable extent.
Recently the suspicions of some of the French troops were aroused by
coming across a farm from which the horses had been removed. After some
search they discovered a telephone which was connected by an underground
cable with the German lines, and the owner of the farm paid the penalty
in the usual way in war for his treachery.
After some cases of village fighting which occurred earlier in the war
it was reported by some of our officers that the Germans had attempted
to approach to close quarters by forcing prisoners to march in front of
them. The Germans have recently repeated the same trick on a larger
scale against the French, as is shown by the copy of an order printed
below. It is therein referred to as a ruse, but, if that term can be
accepted, a distinctly illegal ruse.
"During a recent night attack," the order reads, "the Germans drove a
column of French prisoners in front of them. This action is to be
brought to the notice of all our troops (1) in order to put them on
their guard against such a dastardly ruse; (2) in order that every
soldier may know how the Germans treat their prisoners. Our troops must
not forget if they allow themselves to be taken prisoners the Germans
will not fail to expose them to French bullets."
Further evidence has now been collected of the misuse of the white flag
and other signs of surrender. During an action on the 17th, owing to
this, one officer was shot. During recent fighting, also, some German
ambulance wagons advanced in order to collect the wounded. An order to
cease firing was consequently given to our guns, which were firing on
this particular section of ground. The German battery commanders at once
took advantage of the lull in the action to climb up their observation
ladders and on to a haystack to locate our guns, which soon afterward
came under a far more accurate fire than any to which they had been
subjected up to that time.
A British officer, who was captured by the Germans and has since
escaped, reports that while a prisoner he saw men who had been fighting
subsequently put on Red Cross brassards.
That irregular use of the protection afforded by the Geneva Convention
is not uncommon is confirmed by the fact that on one occasion men in the
uniform of combatant units have been captured wearing a Red Cross
brassard hastily slipped over the arm. The excuse given has been that
they had been detailed after the fight to look after the wounded.
It is reported by a cavalry officer that the driver of a motor car with
a machine gun mounted on it, which was captured, was wearing a Red
Cross.
Full details of the actual damage done to the cathedral at Rheims will
doubtless have been cabled home, so that no description of it is
necessary. The Germans bombarded the cathedral twice with their heavy
artillery.
One reason it caught alight so quickly was that on one side of it was
some scaffolding which had been erected for restoration work. Straw had
also been laid on the floor for the reception of the German wounded. It
is to the credit of the French that practically all the German wounded
were successfully extricated from the burning building.
There was no justification on military grounds for this act of
vandalism, which seems to have been caused by exasperation born of
failure--a sign of impotence rather than strength. It is noteworthy that
a well-known hotel not far from the cathedral, which was kept by a
German, was not touched.