RUSSIAN ADVANCE IN THE MIDLANDS.
Through the land the grey-coated hordes of the White Tsar spread like
locusts--their track marked by death and desolation.
Both French and Russian troops had taken up carefully selected positions
on the Downs, and, backed by the enormous reinforcements now landed,
were slowly advancing. Every detail of the surprise invasion had
apparently been carefully considered, for immediately after the fierce
battle off Beachy Head a number of French and Russian cruisers were
despatched to the Channel ports in order to threaten them, so as to
prevent many of the troops in Hampshire, Dorset, and Devon from moving
to their place of assembly. Consequently large bodies of British troops
were compelled to remain inactive, awaiting probable local attacks.
Meanwhile the invaders lost no time in extending their flanks
preparatory to a general advance, and very quickly they were in
possession of all the high ground from Polegate to Steyning Down, while
Cossack patrols were out on the roads towards Cuckfield and West
Grinstead, and demonstrations were made in the direction of Horsham,
where a strong force of British troops had hastily collected.
As the long hot days passed, the Volunteers forming the line of defence
south of London had not been idle. A brigade of infantry had been pushed
forward to Balcombe, and with this the British were now watching the
high ground that stretched across to Horsham.
The advance of the enemy had not, of course, been accomplished without
terrible bloodshed. A division of the Regulars from Parkhurst,
Portsmouth, and Winchester, which had been hurried down to Arundel to
occupy a strong defensive position near that town, had come into contact
with the enemy, and some desperate fighting ensued. Outposts had been
thrown across the river Arun, and about midnight a patrol of the 2nd
Cavalry Brigade from Petersfield, supported by infantry, had been
suddenly attacked close to Ashington village. Under a vigorous fire they
were unfortunately compelled to fall back fighting, and were almost
annihilated, for it was only then ascertained that the enemy were moving
in great force, evidently with the intention of obtaining possession of
the heights as far as Cocking, West Dean, and Chichester, and so
threaten Portsmouth from the land.
The survivors of this cavalry patrol succeeded in recrossing the Arun,
but their losses were exceedingly heavy.
At daybreak the enemy were visible from Arundel, and shot and shell were
poured into them from the batteries established along the hills to
Houghton. So heavy was the British fire that the Russians were compelled
to seek cover, and their advance in this direction was, for this time,
checked.
The defenders, although occupying an excellent position, were, however,
not sufficiently strong to successfully cope with the onward rush of
invaders, and could do little else beyond watching them.
On the other hand, the Russians, displaying great tactical skill, and
led by men who had thoroughly studied the geography of the South of
England, had gained a distinct advantage, for they had secured their
left flank from attack, so that they could now advance northward to
Horsham and Balcombe practically unmolested.
The first general movement commenced at noon, when an advance was made
by two enormous columns of the enemy, one of which proceeded by way of
Henfield and Partridge Green and the other by Cooksbridge and Keynes,
the third column remaining in Sussex to protect the base of operations.
Meanwhile, Horsham had been occupied by a portion of the 2nd division of
the 1st Army Corps with a 12-pounder, a 9-pounder field battery, and a
field company of the Royal Engineers, and had been placed in a state of
hasty defence. Walls had been loopholed, fences had been cut down, and
various preparations made for holding the town.
Our forces were, nevertheless, sadly lacking in numbers. A cavalry
patrol of one of our flying columns was captured by Cossacks at Cowfold,
and the neglect on the part of the commander of this column to send out
his advance guard sufficiently far, resulted in it being hurled back
upon the main body in great disorder. Then, seeing the success
everywhere attending their operations, the invaders turned their
attention to the British line of communication between Horsham and
Arundel, and succeeded in breaking it at Billinghurst and at Petworth.
Fierce fighting spread all over Sussex, and everywhere many lives were
being sacrificed for Britain. The defenders, alas! with their weak and
totally inadequate forces, could make but a sorry stand against the
overwhelming masses of French and Russians, yet they acted with
conspicuous bravery to sustain the honour of their native land. Villages
and towns were devastated, rural homes were sacked and burned, and
everywhere quiet, unoffending, but starving Britons were being put to
the sword.
Over Sussex the reign of terror was awful. The pastures were stained by
Britons' life-blood, and in all directions our forces, though displaying
their characteristic courage, were being routed. At Horsham they were
utterly defeated after a fierce and bloody encounter, in which the enemy
also lost very heavily; yet the cause of the British reverse was due
solely to a defective administration. Hurriedly massed in the town from
Aldershot by way of Guildford, they had, owing to the short-sighted
policy of the War Office, arrived without a sufficient supply of either
transport or ammunition. Night was falling as they detrained, and in the
hopeless confusion battalion commanders could not find their brigade
headquarters, and brigadiers could not find their staff.
This extraordinary muddle resulted in the fresh troops, instead of being
sent forward to reinforce the outposts, being kept in town, while the
jaded, ill-fed men, who had already been on the alert many hours, were
utterly unable to resist the organised attack which was made before
daybreak.
Though they made a gallant stand and fought on with desperate
determination, yet at last the whole of them were driven back in
confusion, and with appalling loss, upon their supports, and the latter,
who held out bravely, were at last also compelled to fall back upon
their reserves. The latter, which included half a battery of artillery
stationed at Wood's Farm and Toll Bar, held the enemy in temporary
check; but when the heavy French artillery was at length brought up, the
invaders were enabled to cut the railway, destroy the half battery at
Wood's Farm, turn the British right flank, and compel them to retreat
hastily from Horsham and fly to defensive positions at Guildford and
Dorking.
By this adroit manoeuvre the enemy succeeded in taking over two hundred
prisoners, capturing the guns of the 12-pounder field battery,--which
had not been brought into play for the simple reason that only
ammunition for 9-pounders had been collected in the town,--and seizing a
large quantity of stores and ammunition of various kinds.
This success gave the enemy the key to the situation.
As on sea, so on land, our blundering defensive policy had resulted in
awful disaster. Sufficient attention had never been paid to detail, and
the firm-rooted idea that Britain could never be invaded had caused
careless indifference to minor matters of vital importance to the
stability of our Empire.
The contrast between the combined tactics of the enemy and those of our
forces was especially noticeable when the cavalry patrol of the British
flying column was captured on the Cowfield road and the column defeated.
The commander of the column, a well-known officer, unfortunately, like
many others, had had very little experience of combined tactics, and
looked upon cavalry not merely as "the eyes and ears of an army," but as
the army itself. It was this defect that was disastrous. For many years
past it had never appeared quite clear whether British cavalry were
intended to act _en masse_ in warfare, or simply as scouts or mounted
infantry, therefore their training had been uncertain. The Home
establishment of our cavalry was supposed to be about 12,000 men, but
owing to a parsimonious administration only about half that number had
horses, and in some corps less than a half. Another glaring defect was
the division of many regiments into detachments stationed in various
towns, the inevitable result of this being that many such detachments
were without regimental practice for months, and there were many who had
not manoeuvred with a force of all arms _for years_!
Army organisation proved a miserable failure.
The supply of ammunition was totally inadequate, and a disgrace to a
nation which held its head above all others. It was true that depots had
been established at various centres, yet with strange oversight no
provision had been made for the work of ammunition trains.
Originally it had been intended that men for this most important duty
should be found by the Reserves, and that the horses should be those
privately registered; nevertheless it was found necessary at the very
last moment to weaken our artillery by detailing experienced men for
duty with the ammunition column. Many of the horses which were
registered for service were found to be totally unfit, and very few of
the remainder had been previously trained. In the case of those which
were required for the cavalry regiments--nearly six thousand--the best
men in the regiments had to be told off at the very beginning of the
invasion to hurriedly train and prepare these animals for service, when
they should have been available to proceed to any part of the kingdom at
twenty-four hours' notice. By such defects mobilisation was foredoomed
to failure.
The scheme, instead of being so arranged as to be carried out without
confusion, resulted in muddle and farcical humiliation.
Again, the infantry, owing to the recent departure of the Indian drafts,
had been considerably weakened, many battalions being found on
mobilisation very disorganised and inefficient. As an instance, out of
one battalion at Aldershot, which was on paper 1000 strong, 200 had been
sent away to India, while of the remainder more than half had only seen
twelve months' service, and a large percentage were either under
eighteen years of age or were "special enlistments," namely, below the
minimum standard of height.
Such a battalion compared very unfavourably with the majority of
Volunteer regiments,--those of the Stafford Brigade, for instance,--the
average service of the men in those regiments being over five years, and
the average age twenty-seven years. British officers had long ago
foreseen all these defects, and many others, yet they had preserved an
enforced silence. They themselves were very inefficiently trained in
manoeuvring, for, with one or two exceptions, there were no stations in
the kingdom where forces were sufficiently numerous to give the majority
of the superior officers practice in handling combined bodies of troops.
Thus in practical experience in the field they were far behind both
French and Russians, and it was this very serious deficiency that now
became everywhere apparent.
British troops, fighting valiantly, struggled to protect their native
land, which they determined should never fall under the thrall of the
invader. But alas! their resistance, though stubborn and formidable, was
nevertheless futile. Time after time the lines of defence were broken.
The Russian Eagle spread his black wings to the sun, and with joyous
shouts the dense grey white masses of the enemy marched on over the
dusty Sussex roads northward towards the Thames.
After the battle of Horsham, the gigantic right column of the invaders,
consisting mostly of French troops, followed up the defenders to
Guildford and Dorking, preparatory to an attack upon London; while the
left column, numbering 150,000 French and Russians of all arms, pushed
on through Alfold to Haslemere, then through Farnham and Odiham to
Swallowfield, all of which towns they sacked and burned, the terrified
inhabitants being treated with scant mercy. As the majority of the
defenders were massed in Kent, South Surrey, and Sussex, the enemy
advanced practically unmolested, and at sunrise one morning a terrible
panic was created in Reading by the sudden descent upon the town of a
great advance guard of 10,000 Russians.
The people were appalled. They could offer no resistance against the
cavalry, who, tearing along the straight high road from Swallowfield,
swept down upon them. Along this road the whole gigantic force was
moving, and the Cossack skirmishers, spurring on across the town, passed
away through the Railway Works, and halted at the bridge that spans the
Thames at Caversham. They occupied it at once, in order to prevent it
being blown up before the main body arrived, and a brisk fight ensued
with the small body of defenders that had still remained at the Brigade
depot on the Purley Road.
Meanwhile, as the French and Russian advance guard came along, they
devastated the land with fire and sword. The farms along the road were
searched, and afterwards set on fire, while not a house at Three Mile
Cross escaped. Entering the town from Whitley Hill, the great mass of
troops, working in extended order, came slowly on, and, followed by
140,000 of the main body and 1000 guns, carried everything before them.
No power could stem the advancing tide of the Muscovite legions, and as
they poured into the town in dense compact bodies, hundreds of
townspeople were shot down ruthlessly, merely because they attempted to
defend their homes. From the Avenue Works away to the Cemetery, and from
the Railway Station to Leighton Park, the streets swarmed with soldiers
of the Tsar, who entered almost every house in search of plunder, and
fired out of sheer delight in bloodshed upon hundreds who were flying
for their lives.
Men, women, even children, were slaughtered. The massacre was
frightful. Neither life nor property was respected; in every
thoroughfare brutal outrages and murders were committed, and English
homes were rendered desolate.
Almost the first buildings attacked were the great factories of Messrs.
Huntley & Palmer, whose 3000 hands were now, alas! idle owing to the
famine. The stores were searched for biscuits, and afterwards the whole
factory was promptly set on fire. The Great Western, Queen's, and George
Hotels were searched from garret to cellar, and the wines and beer found
in the latter were drunk in the streets. With the scant provisions
found, several of the regiments made merry during the morning, while
others pursued their devastating work. The banks were looted, St.
Mary's, Greyfriars', and St. Lawrence's Churches were burned, and Sutton
& Sons' buildings and the Railway Works shared the same fate, while out
in the direction of Prospect Hill Park all the houses were sacked, and
those occupants who remained to guard their household treasures were put
to the sword.
Everywhere the invaders displayed the most fiendish brutality, and the
small force of British troops who had engaged the Russian advance guard
were, after a most fiercely contested struggle, completely annihilated,
not, however, before they had successfully placed charges of gun-cotton
under the bridge and blown it up, together with a number of Cossacks who
had taken possession of it.
This, however, only checked the enemy's progress temporarily, for the
right flank crossed at Sonning, and as the main body had with them
several pontoon sections, by noon the pontoons were in position, and the
long line of cavalry, infantry, artillery, and engineers, leaving behind
Reading, now in flames, crossed the Thames and wound away along the road
to Banbury, which quaint old town, immortalised in nursery rhyme, they
sacked and burned, destroying the historic Cross, and regaling
themselves upon the ale found in the cellars of the inns, the Red and
White Lions. This done, they again continued their march, practically
unmolested; while Oxford was also entered and sacked.
True, scouts reported strong forces of the defenders advancing across
from Market Harborough, Kettering, and Oundle, and once or twice British
outposts had sharp encounters with the Russians along the hills between
Ladbrooke and Daventry, resulting in serious losses on both sides;
nevertheless the gigantic force of Russians still proceeded, sweeping
away every obstacle from their path.
On leaving Banbury, the enemy, marching in column of route, took the
road through Stratford-on-Avon to Wootton Wawen, where a halt for
twenty-four hours was made in order to mature plans for an organised
attack on Birmingham. Wootton Hall, after being looted, was made the
headquarters, and from thence was issued an order on the following day
which caused Warwick and Leamington to be swept and burned by the
invaders, who afterwards broke into two divisions. One body, consisting
of 50,000 men, including an advance guard of 5000, took the right-hand
road from Wootton to Birmingham, through Sparkbrook; while the remaining
100,000 bore away to the left through Ullenhall and Holt End to the
extremity of the Hagley Hills, intending to occupy them. They had
already been informed that strong defences had been established at
King's Norton, in the immediate vicinity, and knew that severe fighting
must inevitably ensue; therefore they lost no time in establishing
themselves along the high ground between Redditch and Barnt Green, in a
position commanding the two main roads south from Dudley and Birmingham.
That a most desperate stand would be made for the defence of the
Metropolis of the Midlands the Russian commander was well aware. After
the long march his troops were jaded, so, bivouacing in Hewell Park, he
awaited for nearly two days the reports of his spies. These were not so
reassuring as he had anticipated, for it appeared that the high ground
south of the city, notably at King's Norton, Northfield, Harborne,
Edgbaston, and along the Hagley Road, was occupied by strong bodies of
troops and a large number of guns, and that every preparation had been
made for a stubborn resistance.
It also appeared that at the entrance to the city at Sparkbrook, which
road had been taken by the right column, very little resistance was
likely to be offered.
That the positions occupied by the defenders had been very carefully
chosen as the most advantageous the Russian commander was bound to
admit, and although he possessed such a large body of men it would
require considerable tactical skill to dislodge the defenders in order
to prevent them covering with their guns the country over which the
Russian division, taking the right-hand roads, must travel.
[Illustration: THE BATTLEFIELD OF BIRMINGHAM.]
During that day an encounter of a most fierce description occurred
between hostile reconnoitring parties on the road between Bromsgrove
Lickey and Northfield. The road gradually ascended with a walled-in
plantation on either side, and the enemy were proceeding at a
comfortable pace when suddenly a number of rifles rattled out
simultaneously, and then it was discovered that the wall had been
loopholed, and that the British were pouring upon them a deadly hail
from which there was no shelter. The walls bristled with rifles, and
from them came a storm of bullets that killed and wounded dozens of the
invaders.
The latter, however, showed considerable daring, for while the magazine
rifles poured forth their deadly shower, they rallied and charged up the
hill in the face of the fearful odds against them. For ten minutes or
perhaps a quarter of an hour the fighting was a desperate hand-to-hand
one, the enemy entering the plantation with a dash that surprised the
defenders. Gradually, although outnumbered by the Russians, the British
at length, by dint of the most strenuous effort and hard fighting,
succeeded in inflicting frightful loss upon the invaders, and the
latter, after a most desperate stand, eventually retreated in confusion
down into the valley, leaving nearly two-thirds of the party dead or
dying.
The British, whose losses were very small, had shown the invaders that
they meant to defend Birmingham, and that every inch of ground they
gained would have to be won by sheer fighting. An hour later another
fierce encounter occurred in the same neighbourhood, and of the 4000
Russians who had advanced along that road not 900 returned to the main
body, such havoc the British Maxims caused; while at the same time a
further disaster occurred to the enemy in another direction, for away at
Tanworth their outposts had been completely annihilated, those who were
not killed being taken prisoners by the 3rd South Staffordshire
Volunteers, who, under Colonel E. Nayler, acted with conspicuous
bravery. In every direction the enemy's outposts and advance guards were
being harassed, cut up, and hurled back in disorder with heavy loss,
therefore the Russian commander decided that a sudden and rapid movement
forward in order to effect a junction with his right column was the only
means by which the position could be carried.
In the meantime events were occurring rapidly all over the country south
of the city. The commander of the Russian left column, deciding to
commence the attack forthwith, moved on his forces just before midnight
in order to commence the onslaught before daybreak, knowing the British
forces always relieve their outposts at that time. Again, it was
necessary to advance under cover of darkness in order to prevent the
defenders' artillery, which now commanded the road between Alcester and
Moseley, firing upon them.
Having received a message from the right column stating that their
advance guard had pushed on to Olton End with outposts at Sheldon and
Yardley, and announcing their intention of advancing through Sparkbrook
upon the city before dawn, the commanding officer, leaving some
artillery at Barnt Green, and sending on cavalry to Stourbridge and
Cradley to turn the English flank at Halesowen, manoeuvred rapidly,
bringing the main body of cavalry and infantry back to Alvechurch,
thence across to Weatheroak, and then striking due north, again marched
by the three roads leading to King's Norton.
The high ground here he knew was strongly defended, and it was about a
quarter to two o'clock when the British, by means of their
search-lights, discovered the great dark masses advancing upon them.
Quickly their guns opened fire, and the sullen booming of cannon was
answered by the Russian battery near Barnt Green. Over Birmingham the
noise was heard, and had volumes of terrible significance for the
turbulent crowds who filled the broad thoroughfares. The search-lights
used by both invaders and defenders turned night into day, and the
battle proceeded.
The enemy had carefully prepared their plans, for almost at the same
moment that they assaulted the position at King's Norton, a battery of
Russian artillery opened a terrible fire from the hill at Tanner's
Green, while the attacking column extended their right across to
Colebrook Hall, with intent to push across to Moseley Station, and thus
gain the top of the ridge of the ground in the rear of the British
positions, and so hem in the British force and allow the right column to
advance through Small Heath and Sparkbrook unchecked.
These simultaneous attacks met in the valley separating the parallel
ridges held by the Russians and British, and the fighting became at once
fierce and stubborn. A furious infantry fire raged for over an hour in
the valley between the excellent position held by the defenders at
King's Norton and the lower wooded ridge occupied by the Russians, who
had succeeded in capturing half a British battery who held it. Owing to
the bareness of the slope, the Russians went down into battle without
cover, cut up terribly by the British infantry fire, and by the shell
fire from the King's Norton batteries. From the British trenches between
Broad Meadow and Moundsley Hall a galling fire was poured, and Russian
infantry fell in hundreds over the undulating fields between the high
road to Alcester and the Blithe River.
From a ridge on the Stratford Road, near Monkspath Street, heavy Russian
artillery opened fire just before dawn, and played terrible havoc with
the British guns, which on the sky-line opposite afforded a mark. As
time crept on there was no cessation in the thunder on either side,
while away along the valleys a most bloody encounter was in progress.
The whole stretch of country was one huge battlefield. British and
Russians fell in hundreds, nay, in thousands.
The losses on every side were appalling; the fortune of war trembled in
the balance.