to the north-east, in order to make a diversion from that flank. This
they were able to do to a certain extent, though at some cost, Col.
Ansell being shot through the head and killed at the very outset. The
regiment, however, were not strong enough, single-handed, to make more
than a demonstration, and the whole situation was far from promising
when, by the mercy of Providence, the 4th C.B. most unexpectedly
arrived on the scene from the direction of Compiegne. These lost no
time in dismounting and joining up with the 5th Dragoon Guards, the
four combined regiments pouring a steady fire into the flank of the
enemy.
This new development entirely changed the aspect of affairs, and,
finding the situation getting rather too hot for them, the Germans made
off hurriedly in the direction of Verrines, abandoning eight of their
guns and a maxim.
They tried in the first instance to man-handle their guns out of
action, but the steady fire of the cavalry on their flank, supplemented
now by a frontal fire from the Bays, who had by this time installed
their machine-gun in the Sugar Factory to the west of the village,
proved too much for them, and they abandoned the attempt. The whole
affair had so far lasted little over an hour; but the last word had yet
to be said, for the 11th Hussars jumped on to their horses, galloped
off in pursuit and captured fifty horses and a number of prisoners. The
German casualties in killed and wounded were also considerable, and on
our side the troops in the open orchard suffered very severely. The
Bays showed great daring and activity throughout, Mr. de Crespigny
particularly distinguishing himself. They lost seven officers, and out
of L Battery only three men emerged unwounded. To the survivors of this
battery, however, it must for ever be a source of gratification to
reflect that the last shot in that preposterous duel was fired by the
battered and bloodstained thirteen-pounder down in the apple-orchard,
and that it was fired at the backs of the enemy.
Captain Bradbury, Sergt.-Major Dorrell and Sergt. Nelson were awarded
the Victoria Cross, the former posthumously. The last two named were
also given their commissions. Lieut. Gifford got the Cross of the
Legion of Honour, and the entire battery earned a name which will live
as long as history.
There is a sequel to this gallant little affair which is sufficiently
satisfactory to record. The 1st and 4th C.B. billeted that night at
Borest, and continued their progress south next day through the Foret
d'Ermenonville. Here, abandoned among the birch trees of the forest,
they found two of the guns which the Germans had succeeded in getting
away from Nery. It was a small incident, but very satisfactory as a
finale.
THE ADVANCE TO THE AISNE
On the following day, September 2nd, the British Force found itself
facing the Marne from the north bank, and the whole of September 3rd
was occupied in getting the troops across, an operation of some little
delicacy, as it involved in many cases the exposure of our flank to the
enemy. During the process of transit the whole of the British
cavalry--which had hitherto been distributed along the length of our
line--was concentrated by the river side in the open ground at Gournay.
By nightfall the whole force was on the south side and the bridges had
been blown up.
The following day saw the end of the great retreat. There was, it was
true, a further retirement of some twelve miles to a line running from
Lagny to Courtagon, but this last proved to be the southernmost point
of France which our troops were destined to see.
The British Army had now in twelve days covered a distance from Mons of
140 miles as the crow flies, and of considerably more as troops march.
During these twelve days two pitched battles had been fought, in
addition to many rear-guard actions and cavalry skirmishes. The bulk of
the fighting had so far fallen on the 2nd A.C., whose casualties
already amounted to 350 officers and 9,200 men. However, the long,
demoralizing retreat had now at last reached the turning-point. At
Rebaix we picked up 2,000 fresh troops belonging to the 6th Division.
These had been trained up from the mouth of the Loire, Havre being no
longer reckoned safe, and were a welcome stiffening to the footsore
veterans from Mons.
The period that follows is familiarly known as the battle of the Marne,
a broad classification which--as such--is allowable, but which is apt
to mislead. In the strict sense there was no battle during the British
advance. The fighting that took place between September 5th and
September 14th was desultory, and was chiefly in the nature of
independent and--to a great extent--disconnected engagements, mostly of
the advance guard and rear-guard type. The tributaries of the Marne,
the Grand Morin and the Petit Morin were each defended, the latter as
stubbornly as was the Marne itself, and, in point of fact, some of the
hardest fighting which the advancing army met with was on the 10th,
after the Marne had been left well behind.
The advance at first was slow and cautious. When an army has for
fourteen days been systematically falling back before an enemy, the
only casualties within its ken are its own. It may be assumed--and with
every right--that there are also killed and wounded among the pursuing
force. But they are never seen. Only khaki-clad figures fill the field
ambulances; only khaki-clad figures are left behind in the hospitals,
and in the cemeteries and roadside trenches. The ever-swelling roll of
"missing" is all on one side. There are no missing among those who
pursue. In such circumstances, to the tired soldier-mind the pursuing
enemy becomes in time invested with a species of invulnerability. At
the end of fourteen days that enemy has assumed an altogether
fictitious value for evil; it becomes a death-dealing engine,
relentlessly sweeping up wounded and stragglers, and itself showing no
scars; it inspires an all but superstitious dread. To such a frame of
mind the sight of a few grey-clad figures stretched upon the ground and
a few groups of grey-clad prisoners marching to the rear acts as a very
salutary tonic. The scales drop from the eyes; the glamour of the
unknown fades away, and the enemy sinks from its apotheosis to the
level of mere mortal clay.
It took two days for this new spirit to get hold of the British force
feeling its way northward. Then it got confidence and began to push;
and in exact ratio to the vigour of its push was the tale of prisoners
and guns captured.
The turn of the tide came on September 5th. On that day General Joffre
told the C. in C. that he was going to take the offensive. The German
advance had--as all the world now knows--swerved off from Paris towards
the south-east, thereby half exposing its right flank to the 6th French
Army. Gen. Joffre quickly made the exposure complete by wheeling that
army towards the east, at the same time throwing forward the left of
his line. Von Kluck was quick to realize that he was in a tight place,
and with characteristic promptitude cleared out northwards.
The pursued army spun on its heels and followed, but followed at first
with an excess of caution which was perhaps excusable in a tired army
to whom anything but retreat was a new experience.
At the moment of the above surprising change in the tide of war, the
6th French Army line ran due north and east from Ermenonville to Lagny.
This line was pressing eastward. The British force lay between Lagny
and Courtagon, facing north, and in a continuation of the same line on
our right came Conneau's cavalry and the 6th French Army.
September 6th, which was practically the first day of the advance, saw
little fighting, our troops advancing some ten miles only to the line
of the Grand Morin, which was not defended with any great show of
vigour. We took a few prisoners only, and some maxims.
On the 7th there was much more doing, but it was chiefly cavalry work.
McCracken's 7th Brigade, however, met with a fairly stubborn resistance
at Coulommiers, in the course of which the S. Lancs sustained a good
many casualties. De Lisle's 2nd C.B. was, as usual, in the forefront of
all that was doing. This brigade got in touch with the enemy soon after
leaving Fretoy. The 9th Lancers, who were doing advance guard to the
brigade, pushed on, however, with great boldness, till they reached the
village of Moncel, which was found to be in occupation of German
cavalry. Without a moment's hesitation, and without any knowledge of
the strength opposed to it, the leading troop took the village at a
gallop and cleared it of the enemy. They were, however, themselves
compelled shortly afterwards to withdraw, as two fresh squadrons of the
enemy--who proved to be the 1st Guard Dragoons--came down on the
village from the north. At the same time a third squadron appeared to
the west of the village. These new arrivals were at once charged by
Col. Campbell and Major Beale-Brown at top speed with a troop and half
of the 9th Lancers. They rode clean through the Germans, who faced the
charge, and then--wheeling to the right--the Lancers joined up with the
troop that had already entered the village.
The Germans now retreated to the north side of the village. In
anticipation of this movement a squadron of the 18th Hussars had
already been posted dismounted among the corn stooks on that side.
These now opened fire on the retiring Germans, some seventy of whom
turned and charged the dismounted Hussars in line. The latter with
great nerve and steadiness let the Dragoons get within 100 yards of
them, and then practically annihilated them with a volley. Only a dozen
escaped.
The casualties among the 2nd C.B. were not heavy, but Col. Campbell,
while leading the charge south of the village, was wounded in the arm
by a lance. Captain Reynolds at the same time was very badly wounded in
the shoulder, and Lieut. Allfrey, while trying to extract the lance
from the wound, was killed.
The general order was now for the British Army to advance to the
north-east in the direction of Chateau Thierry and so try and reach the
Marne. The country round here, however, was very difficult, especially
in the thickly-wooded neighbourhood of the Petit Morin, and the advance
was at first slow and cautious. The 8th Brigade on reaching the valley
of the Petit Morin met with a strong resistance, which gave it some
trouble before it managed to cross at Orly, where the enemy had left
six machine-guns strongly posted on the opposing slope. However, after
J Battery R.H.A.--which had displayed the greatest gallantry throughout
these operations--had pounded the position for some time, the 4th
Middlesex under Col. Hull (now the only colonel left in the 8th
Brigade) and the R. Scots drew up on the edge of the wood topping the
narrow valley, and at a given signal dashed down the slope to the
bridge and up the far side; whereupon the Germans made off, abandoning
their machine-guns, and the position was won.
In the course of this advance the R. Scots lost 2nd Lieut. Hewat, who
was killed, and Lieut. Hay, who was badly wounded by two bullets in the
side, but the casualties among the rank and file were not heavy. They
captured some 200 prisoners in the village of Orly. The 2nd Division at
La Tretoire met with a very similar resistance, but here the 2nd and
3rd Coldstream and some of the cavalry managed to get across higher up
at La Force, and turned the flank of the resistance. The enemy's
defence--as at Orly--proved to emanate from few men but many mobile
machine-guns, which, by the time the passage had been forced, were far
beyond pursuit or capture, but which had been as effective for purposes
of obstruction as a brigade. The Coldstream did not dislodge the enemy
without casualties, among those wounded being the Hon. C. Monk, Lieut.
Trotter, Sir R. Corbet and 2nd Lieut. Jackson.
On the same day on the right of the line the Black Watch and the
Camerons, the latter of whom had now been appointed to the 1st Brigade
vice the Munster Fusiliers, did some very fine work between Bellot and
Sabloniere, and took a quantity of prisoners; but they had to fight
hard for them, and both regiments had a number of casualties, Captain
Dalgleish and the Hon. M. Drummond in the Black Watch being killed. The
1st C.B. co-operated with the two Scotch regiments by attacking the
village of Sabloniere, which was finally captured, together with many
prisoners, by the 11th Hussars. In addition to this little cavalry
success, the 3rd and 5th C.B. each had an encounter this day with
German cavalry, and in both instances maintained the unquestioned
superiority of the British in this particular arm of the service.
At five o'clock on the morning of the 9th the 2nd A.C. started out for
the Marne. The whole A.C. had to cross by the one bridge at Chailly, so
the operation was a protracted one, but by dark they were all across
and had pushed ahead some miles north of the river. A German battery on
the heights above Nanteint was attacked with great determination and
captured by the Lincolns during this advance, the Germans sticking with
great gallantry to their guns till every man of the battery had been
killed or wounded.
The 3rd A.C, on the left of the 2nd, had considerable trouble in
crossing at La Ferte. Here the bridge had been destroyed, and the north
bank was strongly held by the enemy (with machine-guns as usual). The
R.E. came to the rescue with a pontoon bridge, but the German fire was
persistent, and it was night before the bridge was completed.
The 1st A.C. in the meanwhile had crossed at Chateau Thierry, but not
without some destructive opposition from machine-guns.
On the morning of the 10th the advance became a race between the 5th
and the 2nd Divisions. These two set out northwards at 5 a.m. covered
by Gough with the 3rd and 5th C.B. The 3rd Division had been stopped at
Germigny, and had consequently fallen behind, and the 4th and 6th
Divisions--as we have seen--had to put up with a long wait at La Ferte.
The advance was therefore in the shape of a wedge, the effect of which
was to threaten the flank of the Germans in front of the 6th French
Army and cause them to retire with considerable haste. By midday,
however, the 3rd Division on our left had all but come up into line,
and the formation became more orthodox again. Our aeroplanes, favoured
by beautiful weather, were now doing fine work, and, by the information
they gave, made it possible to push the advance right up to the line of
the Ourcq. There was little serious opposition, but desultory fighting
took place here and there all along the line, and at Montreuil the
Cornwalls suffered some serious losses.
We captured a number of prisoners during this advance to the Ourcq. The
9th Brigade alone took 600 north of Germigny, and at Haute Vesnes the
6th Brigade captured 400 and put as many more _hors de combat_,
the 1st K.R.R., who were well supported by the 50th Battery R.F.A.,
being the main contributors to this result. In all, we took over 2,000
prisoners that day and many guns. The woods were everywhere full of
stragglers, many of whom were only too glad to surrender. Others,
however, put up a fight and were only taken after a stubborn
resistance.
On the 11th Gen. Joffre shifted the advance half a point to the east,
the effect of which was to narrow the front of the British troops and
so cause a good deal of congestion on the few roads at our disposal.
On this day a sudden and very abominable change came over the weather,
the wind chopping round to the north-west, and the temperature dropping
in one day from great heat to bitter cold. Rain fell continuously, and
there was wide-spread lamentation over the greatcoats thrown away in
the heat of the Mons retreat.
THE PASSAGE OF THE AISNE
On September 12th the battle of the Aisne may be said to have begun.
The first and second stages of the war, the retreat from Mons, and the
advance from the Grand Morin, were of the past. The third stage--the
passage and occupation of the Aisne by our troops--covers a period of
some four weeks, the greater part of which was, comparatively speaking,
barren of incident. The first three days, however, were eventful, and
the 14th saw one of the most stubbornly contested battles of the war.
This will be dealt with in its place.
The 12th saw the first real check to our fifty-mile advance. Very early
in the day it became apparent to our commanders that the retreat of the
Germans had been in accordance with a plan pre-arranged (in the event
of certain happenings) and that the pursued now definitely stood at
bay. The situation was not one to encourage a reckless offensive. A
wide valley some two miles across, down the centre of which wound the
sluggish Aisne, now swollen and discoloured by the rains; steep
down-like bluffs on either side of the valley, furrowed by deep-cut
roads that twisted down to the lower ground--the bluffs in many places
thickly and picturesquely wooded. To the west Soissons, to the east
Rheims; and in face, on the opposite slope, the great German Army. It
was not known at the time that, on the Craonne plateau crowning the
slopes opposite, the forethought of the Germans had prepared in advance
a complete system of very elaborate trenches, of a kind then new to
warfare, but since horribly familiar. These were supplemented in many
cases by the old stone quarries and caves which run the length of the
heights.
Such was the scene in which the German and the Allied armies were
destined to face one another for over a year, dealing out ceaseless
death, desolation and pain, and gaining no fraction of military
advantage for either side. That this was so is now history, but on
September 12th, 1914, the future was still the future, and neither side
had as yet had experience of the dead-wall method of fighting which has
ever since characterized the Great War. The British commanders
therefore, and the troops under them, prepared to push on with all the
enthusiasm inspired by the events of the past week.
The first honours in the opening of this new act of the war-drama fell
to the 1st C.B. who in the early hours of the morning were ordered to
get possession of the village of Braine, a place of some importance, as
it commanded the only road down to Missy on the southern side of the
valley. The place was held by a battalion of German infantry, the
houses loop-holed, and the streets barricaded. The 1st C.B. advanced
from Cerseuil to the edge of the valley, and, leaving their horses on
the high ground, made down the slope to the river on foot. The place
was stubbornly defended, and was not taken without a certain amount of
loss on our side, Captain Springfield in the Bays being killed, and
Captain Pinching wounded, but after some rather fierce house-to-house
fighting in the main street, the place was eventually captured and
cleared of the enemy by nine o'clock, the German casualties amounting
to some 300.
Sir Hubert Hamilton thereupon advanced the 3rd Division to Brenelle,
while Sir Charles Fergusson passed on with the 5th Division through the
captured village of Braine to Sermoise. Away on the right the 1st and
2nd Divisions advanced as far as Courcelles and Vauxcere.
The first infantry division to come into action in the Aisne valley
was the 4th, under Gen. Snow, who--having crossed the Ourcq
unopposed--arrived at Buzancy on the morning of the 12th and found the
right of the 6th French Army bombarding the Germans, who were in
occupation of the Mont de Paris, just south of Soissons. Snow at once
chimed in with his own guns, and a tremendous artillery duel resulted,
in which the Germans after a time threw up the sponge and made off
across the Soissons bridge, which they destroyed behind them.
The 3rd and 5th C.B. were in the meantime at Chaudun awaiting
developments.
The south side of the Aisne was now clear of the enemy, and the problem
arose as to how best to get our troops across. The weather was still as
bad as could be, with a bitter cold driving rain from the north-west
which made any air reconnaissance an impossibility. It was essential,
however, to learn the state of the bridges, so other means had to be
devised. The Missy bridge was of especial importance, and Lieut.
Pennycuik, R.E., volunteered to find out all about this by floating
down the river on an improvised raft. This he succeeded in doing, at no
little risk to himself, and reported the bridge practically destroyed,
the north end having been blown up. The bridge at Conde was intact but
inaccessible, the long, straight approach to it being open to
concentrated machine-gun fire throughout. It had obviously been left as
a bait, and to have attempted it would have been to have played
straight into the enemy's hands. The question was, in fact, discussed
between the C. in C. and Sir Horace, but they decided that, as its
capture could only be effected at a great sacrifice of life, and as its
possession was strategically of very little value to the enemy, it
should be left alone.
On our extreme right near Bourg there was no trouble about crossing,
the aqueduct, which here carries the canal across the river, having
survived the attempts of the enemy to blow it up; and by this the 1st
Division and some of the cavalry and artillery crossed easily enough
during the middle of the day on the 13th, and pushed forward some three
or four miles along the Laon road. The rest of the cavalry crossed
further up the river at Villers. This wing of the army met with very
little systematic opposition, but desultory shell-fire and machine-gun
fire was going on all the time, and the 1st Scots Guards had some
casualties, Houldsworth being killed and Monckton and Balfour wounded.
By nightfall the 1st Brigade had reached Moulins, the 2nd and 3rd
Brigades being at Geny. The 5th Brigade had succeeded in reaching Pont
d'Arcy by 9 a.m., but found the bridge there destroyed, one solitary
girder partly submerged alone remaining, and by this they scrambled
across in single file, with a blind shell-fire playing all around.
Single girders, however, are not recognized as a military means of
communication, so the R.E. set to work to build a pontoon bridge
alongside.
The 4th Brigade, on the left of the 2nd Division, had the worst time
this day; they made an attempt to cross at Chavonne itself, but were
vigorously opposed, the enemy being in possession of the village, and
keeping up a ceaseless machine-gun fire which cost us some good men.
The Irish Guards were the chief sufferers, especially in officers,
Captain Berners, Lord Guernsey and Lord Arthur Hay being killed.
However, late in the afternoon, some of the 2nd Coldstream got
themselves ferried across in a small boat which was found--minus
oars--higher up the river, whereupon the enemy, who as usual were weak
in numbers, but strong in machine-guns, made off. The rest of the
brigade then crossed in single file by the remains of the bridge,
which--like that at Pont d'Arcy--still offered a shaky foothold from
shore to shore.
[Illustration: Map showing line occupied by British troops after the
battle of the Aisne. Approximate scale 3 miles to an inch.]
TROYON
The 14th of September probably saw more real fighting in the
old-fashioned sense than any other day in which the British troops had
been engaged. The whole line covering a frontage of twenty miles was
involved, but the fiercest conflict was always on the right with the
1st A.C. This day's fighting is sometimes referred to as the battle of
the Aisne, and sometimes as the battle of Troyon. The former is too
indefinite, in view of the protracted fighting on the river of that
name; the latter is too parochial. In real truth there were four
distinct but synchronous battles taking place that day along our front,
viz., at Troyon, Verneuil, Soupir and Chivres. The most sanguinary,
and undoubtedly the most important as far as results go, was the first
of these. It may fairly be said that the British victory at Troyon on
September 14th was one of the most brilliant achievements of the War.
The generalship displayed was of a high order, and the troops engaged
behaved with the greatest steadiness and courage.