wing of the army, had perforce to put up with the eastern line of
retreat on the far side of the Foret de Mormal, a circumstance
which--owing to the longer and more roundabout nature of the route
followed--was not without its effect on the subsequent battle of Le
Cateau. The six brigades belonging to the last named corps started at
all hours of the morning between 4 and 8.30, at which latter hour the
2nd Brigade--the last to leave--quitted its billets at Feignies and
marched to Marbaix. The 1st Brigade went to Taisnieres, the 4th to
Landrecies, the 6th to Maroilles, while the 5th got no farther than
Leval, having had a scare and a consequent set-back at Pont-sur-Sambre.
Here then we may leave the 1st A.C. on the night of the 25th,
considerably scattered, and separated by distances varying from ten to
thirty miles from its partner, which was at the time making
preparations to put up a fight along the Cambrai--Le Cateau road.
The original scheme agreed between the C. in C. and his two Army Corps
commanders, had been that the 2nd Division should pass on westward
across the river at Landrecies and link up with the 5th Division at Le
Cateau, blowing up behind it the bridges at Landrecies and Catillon.
This scheme was upset by the activity of the enemy on the east side of
the Foret de Mormal, rear-guard actions being forced upon each of the
three divisional brigades at Pont-sur-Sambre, Landrecies and Maroilles
respectively. These rear-guard actions, coupled with the longer and
worse roads they had to follow, in the end so seriously delayed the
retirement of the 2nd Division as to entirely put out of court any
question of their co-operation with the 2nd A.C. at Le Cateau on the
26th.
The 4th Brigade got the nearest at Landrecies, but it got there dead
beat and then had to fight all night. The 1st Division was a good
thirty miles off at Marbaix and Taisnieres, where it had its hands
sufficiently full with its own affairs. This division may, therefore,
for the moment, be put aside as a negligible quantity in the very
critical situation which was developing west of the Sambre. The
movements of the 2nd Division were not only more eventful in
themselves, but were of far greater practical interest to the commander
of the 2nd A.C. in his endeavour to successfully withdraw his harassed
Mons army. We may, therefore, follow this division in rather closer
detail during the day and night of the 25th.
In reckoning the miscarriage of the arrangements originally planned, it
must not be lost sight of that the march from the Bavai road to the Le
Cateau road was the longest to be accomplished during the retreat. From
Bavai to Le Cateau is twenty-two miles as the crow flies. It is
probable that the 5th Division, following the straight Roman road, did
not greatly exceed this distance, but to the route of the 3rd Division
it is certainly necessary to add another five miles, and to that of the
2nd Division, ten. In reflecting that the pursuing Germans had to cover
the same distance, the following facts must be borne in mind. The
training of our military schools has always been based to a very great
extent on the experience of the previous war. The equipment of our
military menage is also largely designed to meet the exigencies of a
war on somewhat similar lines to that of the last. Our wars for sixty
years past have been "little wars" fought in far-off countries more or
less uncivilized; and the probability of our armies fighting on
European soil has always been considered as remote. Germany, on the
other hand, has had few "little wars," but has, on the other hand, for
many years been preparing for the contingency of a war amidst European
surroundings. As a consequence, her army equipment at the outbreak of
war was constructed primarily with a view to rapid movements on paved
and macadamized roads; certainly ours was not. The German advance was
therefore assisted by every known device for facilitating the rapid
movement of troops along the roads of modern civilization. Later on, by
requisitioning the motor-lorries and vans of trading firms, we placed
ourselves on more or less of an equal footing in this respect, but that
was not when the necessity for rapid movement was most keenly felt. The
Germans reaped a double advantage, for not only were they capable of
quicker movement, but they were also able to overtake our rear-guards
with troops that were not jaded with interminable marching.
It must also be borne in mind that a pursuing force marches straight to
its objective with a minimum of exhaustion in relation to the work
accomplished, an advantage which certainly cannot be claimed for a
retreating force which has to turn and fight.
We may now return to the 2nd Division, setting out from La Longueville
on its stupendous undertaking. At first the whole division followed the
one road by the eastern edge of the Foret de Mormal, the impedimenta in
front, the troops plodding behind. This road was choked from end to end
with refugees and their belongings, chiefly from Maubeuge and district,
and the average pace of the procession was about two miles an hour. An
order came to hurry up so that the bridges over the Sambre could be
blown up before the Germans came; but it was waste of breath. The
troops were dead beat. Though they had so far had no fighting, they had
done a terrible amount of marching, counter-marching and digging during
the past four days, and they were dead beat. The reservists' boots were
all too small, and their feet swelled horribly. Hundreds fell out from
absolute exhaustion. The worst cases were taken along in the transport
wagons; the rest became stragglers, following along behind as best they
were able. Some of the cavalry that saw them pass said that their eyes
were fixed in a ghastly stare, and they stumbled along like blind men.
At Leval the division split up, the 4th Brigade taking the road to
Landrecies, and the 6th that to Maroilles. The 5th Brigade, which was
doing rear-guard to the division, got no farther than Leval, where it
prepared to put up a fight along the railway line; for there was a
scare that the Germans were very close behind. The Oxfordshire Light
Infantry were even sent back along the road they had already travelled
to Pont-sur-Sambre, where they entrenched. The Germans, however, did
not come.
THE FIGHT AT LANDRECIES
The 4th (Guards') Brigade reached Landrecies at 1 p.m. This brigade had
made the furthest progress towards the contemplated junction with the
2nd A.C., and they were very tired. They went into billets at once,
some in the barracks, some in the town. They had about four hours'
rest; then there came an alarm that the Germans were advancing on the
town, and the brigade got to its feet. The four battalions were split
up into companies--one to each of the exits from the town. The
Grenadiers were on the western side; the 2nd Coldstream on the south
and east; and the 3rd Coldstream to the north and north-west. The Irish
Guards saw to the barricading of the streets with transport wagons and
such-like obstacles. They also loop-holed the end houses of the streets
facing the country.
As a matter of fact the attack did not take place till 8.30 p.m., and
then it was entirely borne by two companies of the 3rd Battalion
Coldstream Guards. At the north-west angle of the town there is a
narrow street, known as the Faubourg Soyere. Two hundred yards from the
town this branches out into two roads, each leading into the Foret de
Mormal. Here, at the junction of the roads, the Hon. A. Monck's company
had been stationed. The sky was very overcast, and the darkness fell
early. Shortly after 8.30 p.m. infantry was heard advancing from the
direction of the forest; they were singing French songs, and a
flashlight turned upon the head of the column showed up French
uniforms. It was not till they were practically at arms' length that a
second flashlight detected the German uniforms in rear of the leading
sections. The machine-gun had no time to speak before the man in charge
was bayoneted and the gun itself captured. A hand-to-hand fight in the
dark followed, in which revolvers and bayonets played the principal
part, the Coldstream being gradually forced back by weight of numbers
towards the entrance to the town. Here Captain Longueville's company
was in reserve in the Faubourg Soyere itself, and through a heavy fire
he rushed up his men to the support of Captain Monck.
The arrival of the reserve company made things rather more level as
regards numbers, though--as it afterwards transpired--the Germans were
throughout in a majority of at least two to one. Col. Feilding and
Major Matheson now arrived on the spot, and took over control. Inspired
by their presence and example, the two Coldstream companies now
attacked their assailants with great vigour and drove them back with
considerable loss into the shadows of the forest. From here the Germans
trained a light field-gun on to the mouth of the Faubourg Soyere, and,
firing shrapnel and star-shell at point-blank range, made things very
unpleasant for the defenders. Flames began to shoot up from a wooden
barn at the end of the street, but were quickly got under, with much
promptitude and courage, by a private of the name of Wyatt, who twice
extinguished them under a heavy fire. A blaze of light at this point
would have been fatal to the safety of the defenders, and Wyatt, whose
act was one involving great personal danger, was subsequently awarded
the Victoria Cross for this act, and for the conspicuous bravery which
he displayed a week later when wounded at Villers-Cotteret.
In the meanwhile Col. Feilding had sent off for a howitzer, which duly
arrived and was aimed at the flash of the German gun. By an
extraordinary piece of marksmanship, or of luck, as the case may be,
the third shot got it full and the field-gun ceased from troubling. The
German infantry thereupon renewed their attack, but failed to make any
further headway during the night, and in the end went off in their
motor-lorries, taking their wounded with them.
It turned out that the attacking force, consisting of a battalion of
1,200 men, with one light field-piece, had been sent on in these
lorries in advance of the general pursuit, with the idea of seizing
Landrecies and its important bridge before the British could arrive
and link up with the 2nd A.C. The attack _qua_ attack failed
conspicuously, inasmuch as the enemy was driven back with very heavy
loss; but it is possible that it accomplished its purpose in helping
to prevent the junction of the two A.C.'s. This, however, is in a
region of speculation, which it is profitless to pursue further.
The Landrecies fight lasted six hours and was a very brilliant little
victory for the 3rd Coldstream; but it was expensive. Lord Hawarden
and the Hon. A. Windsor-Clive were killed, and Captain Whitehead,
Lieut. Keppel and Lieut. Rowley were wounded. The casualties among the
rank and file amounted to 170, of whom 153 were left in the hospital
at Landrecies. The two companies engaged fought under particularly
trying conditions, and many of the rank and file showed great
gallantry. Conspicuous amongst these were Sergt. Fox and Pte. Thomas,
each of whom was awarded the D.C.M. The German losses were, of course,
unascertainable, but they were undoubtedly very much higher than ours.
At 3.30 a.m. on the 26th, just as the 2nd A.C. in their trenches ten
miles away to the west were beginning to look northward for the enemy,
the 4th Brigade left Landrecies and continued its retirement down the
beautiful valley of the Sambre.
MAROILLES
On the same night the town of Maroilles further east was the scene of
another little fight. About 10 p.m. a report arrived that the main
German column was advancing on the bridge over the Petit Helpe and that
the squadron of the 15th Hussars which had been left to guard the
bridge was insufficient for the purpose. The obstruction of this bridge
was a matter of the very first importance, as its passage would have
opened up a short cut for the Germans, by which they might easily have
cut off the 4th Brigade south of Landrecies. Accordingly the 1st Berks
were ordered off back along the road they had already travelled to hold
the position at all costs. The ground near the bridge here is very
swampy, and the only two approaches are by means of raised causeways,
one of which faces the bridge, while the other lies at right angles.
Along this latter the Berks crept up, led by Col. Graham.
The night was intensely dark, and the causeway very narrow, and bounded
on each side by a deep fosse, into which many of the men slipped. The
Germans, as it turned out, had already forced the bridge, and were in
the act of advancing along the causeway; and in the pitch blackness of
the night the two forces suddenly bumped one into the other. Neither
side had fixed bayonets, for fear of accidents in the dark, and in the
scrimmage which followed it was chiefly a case of rifle-butts and
fists. At this game the Germans proved no match for our men, and were
gradually forced back to the bridge-head, where they were held for the
remainder of the night.
In the small hours of the morning the Germans, who turned out not to be
the main column, but only a strong detachment, threw up the sponge and
withdrew westward towards the Sambre, following the right bank of the
Petit Helpe. Whereupon the 1st Berks--having achieved their
purpose--followed the rest of the 2nd Division along the road to
Etreux.
THE LE CATEAU PROBLEM
It is necessary now to cast a momentary eye upon the general situation
of the British forces on the night of August 25th. The 3rd and 5th
Divisions, in spite of the severe fighting of the 23rd and 24th, and in
spite of great exhaustion, had successfully accomplished the arduous
march to the Le Cateau position. The 19th Brigade and the 4th Division,
the latter fresh from England, were already there, extending the
selected line towards the west. So far, so good. The 1st and 2nd
Divisions, however, owing to causes which have already been explained,
were not in a position to co-operate; and it was clear that, if battle
was to be offered at Le Cateau, the already battered 2nd A.C.
(supplemented by the newly-arrived troops) would have to stand the
shock single-handed.
A consideration of these facts induced the C. in C. to change his
original intention of making a stand behind the Le Cateau road, and he
decided to continue his retirement to the single line of rail which
runs from St. Quentin to Roisel, where his force would be once more in
line. This change of plan he communicated to his two Army Corps
commanders, Sir Douglas Haig and Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien. The former
fell in with it gladly; the latter, however, was not to the same extent
a free agent, and he returned word that, in view of the immense
superiority in numbers of the German forces, which were practically
treading on his heels, and of the necessarily slow progress made by his
tired troops, it was impossible to continue his retirement, and that he
had no alternative but to turn and fight. To which the C. in C. replied
that he must do the best he could, but that he could give him no
support from the 1st A.C., that corps being effectively cut off by
natural obstacles from the scene of action. As a matter of fact the 1st
Division was a good thirty miles away to the east at Marbaix and
Taisnieres. The 2nd Division was nearer, but very much scattered, the
5th Brigade--owing to rear-guard scares--being still twenty miles behind
at Leval, and quite out of the reckoning, as far as the impending
battle was concerned. The 4th Brigade, on the other hand, in spite of
its all-night fight at Landrecies, might, by super-human efforts, have
crossed the Sambre during the night at the little village of Ors, and
reached the flank of the Le Cateau battlefield towards eight on the
following morning; but the wisdom of such a move would have been more
than questionable in view of the complete exhaustion of the troops,
and, in point of fact, no such order reached the brigade. The orders
were to fall back on St. Quentin, and by the time the first shot was
fired at Le Cateau, the brigade was well on its way to Etreux.
Four miles further east, at Maroilles, the order to retire raised some
doubts and a certain difference of opinion among the various commanders
of the 6th Brigade as to the best route to be followed in order to
arrive at the St. Quentin position. Local opinion was divided, and, in
the end, the commanders assembled at midnight in the cemetery to decide
the point, with the result that it was arranged that each C.O. should
follow the road that seemed best to him.
It will be seen then that the disposition of the 1st A.C. was such that
the C. in C. by no means overstated the case when he told Sir Horace
that he could give him no help from that quarter. The position of the
2nd A.C. was now very nearly desperate, and it is to be doubted whether
Sir Horace or the C. in C. himself saw the dawn break on August 26th
with any real hope at heart that the three divisions west of the Sambre
could be saved from capture or annihilation.
On paper the extrication of Sir Horace's force seemed in truth an
impossibility. Three British divisions, very imperfectly entrenched,
were awaiting the onset of seven German divisions, flushed with
uninterrupted victory, and backed up by an overwhelming preponderance
in artillery. Both flanks of the British force were practically in the
air, the only protection on the right being the 1st and 3rd C.B. at Le
Souplet, and on the left Allenby with another two Cavalry Brigades at
Seranvillers. As a buffer against the German army corps which was
threatening the British flank from Tournai, two Cavalry Brigades were
clearly a negligible quantity. Desperate diseases call for desperate
remedies, and the C. in C. had recourse to the only expedient in which
lay a hope of salvation from the threatened flank attack, should it
come.
General Sordet was at Avesnes with three divisions of French cavalry,
and the C. in C.--with all the persuasion possible--put the urgency of
the situation before him. The railways were no help; they ran all
wrong; cavalry alone could save the situation; would he go? General
Sordet--with the permission of his chief--went. It was a forty mile
march, and cavalry horses were none too fresh in those days. Still he
went, and in the end did great and gallant work; but not on the morning
of the 26th. On that fateful day--or at least on the morning of that
fateful day--his horses were ridden to a standstill, and he could do
nothing.
LE CATEAU
The battle of August 26th is loosely spoken of as the Cambrai--Le
Cateau battle, but, as a matter of fact, the British troops were never
within half a dozen miles of Cambrai, nor, for that matter, were they
actually at Le Cateau itself. The 5th Division on the right reached
from a point halfway between Le Cateau and Reumont to Troisvilles, the
15th Brigade, which was its left-hand brigade, being just east of that
place. Then came the three brigades of the 3rd Division, the 9th
Brigade being north of Troisvilles, the 8th Brigade on the left of it
north of Audencourt, with the 7th Brigade curled round the northern
side of Caudry in the form of a horseshoe. Beyond was the 4th Division
at Hautcourt. The whole frontage covered about eight miles, and for
half that distance ran along north of the Cambrai to St. Quentin
railway.
The 4th Division, under Gen. Snow, had just arrived from England; and
these fresh troops were already in position when the Mons army
straggled in on the night of the 25th and was told off to its various
allotted posts by busy staff officers. The allotted posts did not turn
out to be all that had been hoped for. Trenches, it is true, had been
prepared (dug by French woman labour!), but many faced the wrong way,
and all were too short. The short ones could be lengthened, but the
others had to be redug. The men were dead beat: the ground baked hard,
and there were no entrenching tools--these having long ago been thrown
away. Picks were got from the farms and the men set to work as best
they could, but of shovels there were practically none, and in the
majority of cases the men scooped up the loosened earth with mess-tins
and with their hands. The result was, trenches by courtesy, but poor
things to stand between tired troops and the terrific artillery fire to
which they were presently to be subjected.
The battle of Le Cateau was in the main an artillery duel, and a very
unequal one at that. The afternoon infantry attack was only sustained
by certain devoted regiments who failed to interpret with sufficient
readiness the order to retire. Some of these regiments--as the price of
their ignorance of how to turn their backs to the foe--were all but
annihilated. But this is a later story. Up to midday the battle was a
mere artillery duel. Our infantry lined their inadequate trenches and
were bombarded for some half a dozen hours on end. Our artillery
replied with inconceivable heroism, but they were outnumbered by at
least five to one. They also--perhaps with wisdom--directed their fire
more at the infantry than at the opposing batteries. The former could
be plainly seen massing in great numbers on the crest of the ridge some
two thousand yards away, and advancing in a succession of lines down
the slope to the hidden ground below. They presented a tempting target,
and their losses from our shrapnel must have been enormous. By the
afternoon, however, many of our batteries had been silenced, and the
German gunners had it more or less their own way. The sides were too
unequal. Our infantry then became mere targets--_Kanonen Futter_.
It was an ordeal of the most trying description conceivable, and one
which can only arise where the artillery of one side is hopelessly
outnumbered by that of the other; and it is to be doubted whether any
other troops in the world would have stood it as long as did the 2nd
A.C. at Le Cateau. The enemy's bombardment was kept up till midday.
Then it slackened off so as to allow of the further advance of their
infantry, who by this time had pushed forward into the concealment of
the low ground, just north of the main road. By this time some of the
5th Division had begun to dribble away. That awful gun fire, to which
our batteries were no longer able to reply, coupled with the
insufficient trenches, was too much for human endurance. Sir Charles
Fergusson, the Divisional General, with an absolute disregard of
personal danger, galloped about among the bursting shells exhorting the
division to stand fast. An eye-witness said that his survival through
the day was nothing short of a miracle. It was a day indeed when the
entire Staff from end to end of the line worked with an indefatigable
heroism which could not be surpassed. In the 19th Brigade, for
instance, Captain Jack, 1st Cameronians, was the sole survivor of the
Brigade Staff at the end of the day, and this was through no fault of
his. While supervising the retirement of the Argyll and Sutherlands, he
coolly walked up and down the firing line without a vestige of
protection, but by some curious law of chances was not hit. He was
awarded a French decoration.
In spite of all, however, by 2.30 p.m., the right flank of the 5th
Division had been turned, the enemy pressing forward into the gap
between the two Army Corps, and Sir Charles sent word that the Division
could hold its ground no longer. Sir Horace sent up all the available
reserves he had, viz., the 1st Cameronians and 2nd R. Welsh Fusiliers
from the 19th Brigade, together with a battery, and these helped
matters to some extent, but the immense numerical superiority of the
enemy made anything in the nature of a prolonged stand impossible, and
at 3 p.m. he ordered a general retirement. This was carried out in
fairly good order by the 3rd and 4th Divisions, which had been less
heavily attacked. The withdrawal of the 5th Division was more
irregular, and the regiments which stuck it to the end--becoming
practically isolated by the withdrawal of other units to right and
left--suffered very severely.
This irregularity in retirement was noticeable all along the
battle-front, some battalions grasping the meaning of the general order
to retire with more readiness than others. Among those in the 5th
Division who were slow to interpret the signal were the K.O.S.B. and
the K.O.Y.L.I.