BRITISH SUCCESS AT ROYSTON
Arrests of alleged spies were reported from Manchester, Birmingham,
Liverpool, Sheffield, and other large towns. Most of the prisoners were,
however, able to prove themselves naturalised British subjects; but
several men in Manchester, Birmingham, and Sheffield were detained
pending investigation and examination of correspondence found at their
homes. In Manchester, where there are always a number of Germans, it is
known that many slipped away on Sunday night after the publication of
the news of the invasion. Several houses in Eccles and Patricroft,
outside Manchester, a house in Brown Street in the City itself, one in
Gough Street, Birmingham, and another in Sandon Place, Sheffield, were
all searched, and from the reports received by Scotland Yard it was
believed that certain important correspondence had been seized,
correspondence which had betrayed a widespread system of German
espionage in this country. Details were wanting, as the police
authorities withheld the truth, for fear, it was supposed, of increasing
the public alarm. At the house in Sheffield, where lived a young German
who had come to England ostensibly as pupil at one of the large
steelworks, an accumulation of newspaper cuttings was discovered,
together with a quantity of topographical information concerning the
country over which the enemy was now advancing from Goole.
In most of the larger Midland towns notices had been issued by the
mayors deprecating hostility towards residents of foreign origin, and
stating that all suspicious cases were already receiving the attention
of the police.
In Stafford the boot factories were idle, and thousands of despairing
men were lounging about in Greengate, Eastgate, and other thoroughfares.
In the Potteries all work was at a standstill. At Stoke-on-Trent, at
Hanley, at Burslem, Tunstall, and Congleton all was chaos. Minton’s,
Copeland’s, Doulton’s, and Brown Westhead’s were closed, and thousands
upon thousands were already wanting bread. The silk-thread industry at
Leek was ruined, so was the silk industry at Macclesfield; the great
breweries at Burton were idle, while the hosiery factories of Leicester
and the boot factories of Northampton were all shut.
With the German troops threatening Sheffield, Nottingham was in a state
of intense alarm. The lace and hosiery factories had with one accord
closed on Tuesday, and the great Market Place was now filled day and
night by thousands upon thousands of unemployed mill-hands of both
sexes. On Friday, however, came the news of how Sheffield had built
barricades against the enemy, and there ensued a frantic attempt at
defence on the part of thousands of terrified and hungry men and women.
In their frenzy they sacked houses in order to obtain material to
construct the barricades, which were, however, built just where the
fancy took the crowd. One was constructed in Clumber Street, near the
Lion Hotel; another at Lister Gate; and a third, a much larger one, in
Radford Road. Near the Carrington Station, on the road to Arnold, a huge
structure soon rose, another at Basford, while the road in from Carlton
and the bridges leading in from West Bridgford and Wilford were also
effectually blocked.
The white, interminable North Road, that runs so straight from London
through York and Berwick to Edinburgh, was, with its by-roads in the
Midlands, now being patrolled by British cavalry, and here and there
telegraphists around a telegraph post showed that those many wires at
the roadside were being used for military communication.
At several points along the road between Wansford Bridge and Retford the
wires had been cut and tangled by the enemy’s agents, but by Friday all
had been restored again. In one spot, between Weston and
Sutton-on-Trent, eight miles south of Newark, a trench had actually been
dug during the night, the tube containing the subterranean telegraph
lines discovered, and the whole system to the North disorganised.
Similar damage had been done by German spies to the line between London
and Birmingham, two miles south of Shipston-on-Stour, and again the line
between Loughborough and Nottingham had been similarly destroyed.
The Post Office linesmen had, however, quickly made good the damage
everywhere in the country not already occupied by the enemy, and
telegraph and telephone communication North and South was now
practically again in its normal state.
Through Lincolnshire the enemy’s advance patrols had spread South over
every road between the Humber and the Wash, and in the city of Lincoln
itself a tremendous sensation was caused when on Wednesday, market-day,
several bodies of German motor-cyclists swept into the Stonebow and
dismounted at the Saracen’s Head amid the crowd of farmers and dealers
who had assembled there, not, alas! to do business, but to discuss the
situation. In a moment the city was panic-stricken. From mouth to mouth
the dread truth spread that the Germans were upon them, and people ran
indoors and barricaded themselves within their houses.
A body of Uhlans came galloping proudly through the Stonebow a quarter
of an hour later, and halted in High Street, opposite Wyatt’s clothing
shop, as though awaiting orders. Then in rapid succession troops seemed
to arrive from all quarters, many halting in the Cathedral Close and by
Exchequer Gate, and others riding through the streets in order to
terrify the inhabitants.
Von Kronhelm’s famous proclamation was posted by German soldiers upon
the police station, upon the Stonebow, and upon the door of the grand
old Cathedral itself, and before noon a German officer accompanied by
his staff called upon the Mayor and warned him that Lincoln was occupied
by the German troops, and that any armed resistance would be punished by
death, as the Generalissimo’s proclamation stated. An indemnity was
demanded, and then the powerless people saw upon the Cathedral and upon
several of the public buildings the German flag rise and float out upon
the summer wind.
Boston was full of German infantry, and officers had taken up temporary
quarters in the Peacock and the other hotels in the market-place, while
upon the “stump” the enemy’s colours were flying.
No news came from London. People in Norwich, Ipswich, Yarmouth, and
other places heard vaguely of the invasion in the North, and of fighting
in which the Germans were careful to report that they were always
successful. They saw the magnificently equipped army of the Kaiser, and,
comparing it with our mere apology for military force, regarded the
issue as hopeless from the very first. In every town the German colours
were displayed, and all kinds of placards in German and in English made
their appearance.
The _Daily Mail_, on September 10, published the following despatch
from one of its war correspondents, Mr. Henry Mackenzie:--
“ROYSTON, _September 9_.
“Victory at last. A victory due not only to the bravery and exertion of
our troops, regular and auxiliary, but also to the genius of
Field-Marshal Lord Byfield, our Commander-in-Chief, ably seconded by the
energy and resource with which Sir William Packington, in command of
the IVth Army Corps at Baldock, carried out that part of the programme
entrusted to him.
“But though in this success we may hope that we are seeing the first
glimmerings of dawn,--of deliverance from the nightmare of German
invasion that is now oppressing our dear old England,--we must not be
led into foolishly sanguine hopes. The snake has been scotched, and
pretty badly into the bargain, but he is far from being killed. The
German IVth Army Corps under the famous General Von Kleppen, their
magnificent Garde Corps commanded by the Duke of Mannheim, and Frölich’s
fine Cavalry Division, have been repulsed in their attack on our
positions near Royston and Saffron Walden, and driven back with great
loss and confusion. But we are too weak to follow up our victory as it
should be followed up.
“The menace of the IXth and Xth Corps on our right flank ties us to our
selected position, and the bulk of our forces being composed of
indifferently trained Volunteers and Militia, is much more formidable
behind entrenchments than when attempting to manœuvre in a difficult
and intricate country such as it is about here. But, on the other hand,
we have given pause to the invaders, and have certainly gained a few
days’ time, which will be invaluable to us.
“We shall be able to get on with the line of fortifications that are
being constructed to bar the approaches to London, and behind which it
will be necessary for us to make our final stand. I do not conceive that
it is possible for such an agglomeration of amateur troops as ours are
in the main, to defeat in the open field such formidable and
well-trained forces as the Germans have succeeded in throwing into this
country. But when our Navy has regained command of the sea we hope that
we may, before very long, place our unwelcome visitors ‘between the
devil and the deep sea’--the part of the devil being played by our brave
troops finally concentrated behind the strong defences of the
metropolis. In short, that the Germans may run out of ammunition and
provisions. For if communication with the Fatherland is effectively cut,
they must starve, unless they have previously compelled our submission,
for it is impossible for an army of the size that has invaded us to live
on the country.
“No doubt hundreds, nay thousands, of our non-militant countrymen--and,
alas! women and children--will starve before the German troops are
conquered by famine, that most terrible of enemies; but this issue seems
to be the only possible one that will save the country.
“But enough of these considerations of the future. It is time that I
should relate what I can of the glorious victory which our gallant
defenders have torn from the enemy. I do not think that I am giving any
information away if I state that the British position lay mainly between
Saffron Walden and Royston, the headquarters respectively of the IInd
and IIIrd Army Corps. The IVth Corps was at Baldock, thrown back to
cover the left flank, and protect our communications by the Great
Northern Railway. A detached force, from what command supplied it is not
necessary or advisable to say, was strongly entrenched on the high
ground north-west of Helions Bumpstead, serving to strengthen our right.
Our main line of defence--very thinly held in some parts--began a little
to the south-east of Saffron Walden, and ran westwards along a range of
high ground through Elmdon and Chrishall to Heydon. Here it turned south
through Great Chrishall to Little Chrishall, where it again turned west,
and occupied the high range south of Royston, on which stands the
village of Therfield.
“The night before the battle we knew that the greater portion of the
German IVth and Garde Corps were concentrated, the former at Newmarket,
the 1st Division of the latter at Cambridge, the 2nd on this side of St.
Ives, while Frölich’s Cavalry Division had been in constant contact with
our outposts the greater part of the day previous. The Garde Cavalry
Brigade was reported
[Illustration: Positions of Opposing Forces Sept. 8th]
to be well away to the westward towards Kettering, as we suppose, on
account of the reports which have been going about of a concentration of
Yeomanry and Militia in the hilly country near Northampton. Our
Intelligence Department, which appears to have been very well served by
its spies, obtained early knowledge of the intention of the Germans to
make an attack on our position. In fact, they talked openly of it, and
stated at Cambridge and Newmarket that they would not manœuvre at
all, and only hoped that we should hold on long enough to our position
to enable them to smash up our IInd and IIIrd Corps by a frontal attack,
and so clear the road to London. The main roads lent themselves
admirably to such strategy, which rendered the reports of their
intentions the more probable, for they all converged on our position
from their main points of concentration.
“The letter ‘W’ will exactly serve to show the positions of the
contending forces. St. Ives is at the top of the first stroke, Cambridge
at the junction of the two shorter centre ones, Newmarket at the top of
the last stroke, while the British positions at Royston and Saffron
Walden are at the junctions of all four strokes at the bottom of the
letter. The strokes also represent the roads, except that from Cambridge
three good roads lead towards each of the British positions. The
prisoners taken from the Germans in the various preliminary skirmishes
also made no bones of boasting that a direct attack was imminent, and
our Commander-in-Chief eventually, and rightly as it proved, determined
to take the risk of all this information having been specially
promulgated by the German Staff to cover totally different intentions,
as was indeed quite probable, and to accept it as true. Having made up
his mind, he lost no time in taking action. He ordered the IVth Corps
under Sir William Packington to move on Potton, twelve miles to the
north-west, as soon as it was dark. As many cavalry and mounted infantry
as could possibly be spared from Royston were placed at his disposal.
“It ought to be stated that while the auxiliary troops had been busily
employed ever since their arrival in entrenching the British position,
the greater part of the regular troops had been occupying an advanced
line two or three miles to the northward on the lower spurs of the
hills, and every possible indication of a determination to hold this as
long as possible was afforded to the German reconnoitrers. During the
night these troops fell back to the position which had been prepared,
the outposts following just before daylight. About 6 a.m. the enemy were
reported to be advancing in force along the Icknield Way from Newmarket,
and also by the roads running on either bank of the river Cam. Twenty
minutes later considerable bodies of German troops were reported at
Fowlmere and Melbourn on the two parallel Royston-Cambridge roads. They
must have followed very close on the heels of our retiring outposts. It
was a very misty morning,--down in the low ground over which the enemy
were advancing especially so,--but about seven a gust of wind from the
westward dispelled the white fog-wreaths that hung about our left front
and enabled our look-outs to get a glimpse along the famous Ermine
Street, which runs straight as an arrow from Royston for twenty or
thirty miles to the N.N.W.
“Along this ancient Roman way, far as the eye could reach, poured a
steady stream of marching men, horse, foot, and artillery. The wind
dropped, the mists gathered again, and once more enveloped the invaders
in an impenetrable screen. But by this time the whole British line was
on the _qui vive_. Regulars, Militia, and Volunteers were marching down
to their chin-deep trenches, while those who were already there busied
themselves in improving their loopholes and strengthening their head
cover. Behind the ridges of the hills the gunners stood grouped about
their ‘Long Toms’ and heavy howitzers, while the field batteries waited,
ready horsed, for orders to gallop under cover of the ridge to whichever
set of emplacements should first require to be manned and armed. We had
not enough to distribute before the movements of the enemy should, to a
certain extent, show his hand.
“About seven o’clock a series of crackling reports from the outskirts of
Royston announced that the detachment of Mounted Infantry, who now alone
held it, was exchanging shots with the advancing enemy, and in a few
minutes, as the morning mistiness cleared off, the General and his
staff, who were established at the northern edge of the village of
Therfield, three or four hundred feet higher up than the German
skirmishers, were able to see the opening of the battle spread like a
panorama before them. A thick firing line of drab-costumed Germans
extended right across from Holland Hall to the Coach and Horses on the
Fowlmere Road. On their left moved two or three compact masses of
cavalry, while the infantry reserves were easily apparent in front of
the village of Melbourn. Our Mounted Infantry in the village were
indistinguishable, but away on the spur to the north-east of Royston a
couple of batteries of Horse Artillery were unlimbered and were pushing
their guns up to the brow of the hill by hand. In two minutes they were
in action, and hard at work.
“Through the glasses the shrapnel could be seen bursting, half a dozen
together, in front of the advancing Germans, who began to fall fast. But
almost at once came an overwhelming reply from somewhere out of sight
behind Melbourn. The whole hilltop around our guns was like a spouting
volcano. Evidently big high-explosive shells were being fired from the
German field-howitzers. In accordance with previous orders, our
horse-gunners at once ran down their guns, limbered up, and started to
gallop back towards our main position. Simultaneously a mass of German
cavalry deployed into attack formation near the Coach and Horses, and
swept down in their direction with the evident intention of cutting off
and capturing them. But they reckoned without their escort of Mounted
Infantry, who had been lying low behind the long, narrow line of copse
north of Lowerfield Farm. Safely ensconced behind this--to
cavalry--impassable barrier, the company, all good shots, opened a
terrible magazine fire on the charging squadrons as they passed at close
range. A Maxim they had with them also swept horses and men away in
swathes. The charge was checked, and the guns saved, but we had not
finished with the German reiters. Away to the north-east a battery of
our 4.7 guns opened on the disorganised cavalry, firing at a range of
four thousand yards. Their big shells turned the momentary check into a
rout, both the attacking cavalry and their supports galloping towards
Fowlmere to get out of range. We had scored the first trick!
“The attacking lines of German Infantry still pressed on, however, and
after a final discharge the Mounted Infantry in Royston sprang on their
horses and galloped back over Whitely Hill, leaving the town to be
occupied by the enemy. To the eastward the thunder of heavy cannon,
gradually growing in intensity, proclaimed that the IInd Corps was
heavily attacked. Covered by a long strip of plantation, the German IVth
Corps contrived to mass an enormous number of guns on a hill about two
miles north of the village of Elmdon, and a terrific artillery duel
began between them and our artillery entrenched along the Elmdon-Heydon
ridge. Under cover of this the enemy began to work his infantry up
towards Elmdon, obtaining a certain amount of shelter from the spurs
which ran out towards the north-east of our line. Other German troops
with guns put in an appearance on the high ground to the north-east of
Saffron Walden, near Chesterton Park.
“To describe the fortunes of this fiercely-contested battle, which
spread along a front of nearly twenty miles, counting from the detached
garrison of the hill at Helions Bumpstead--which, by the way, succeeded
in holding its ground all day, despite two or three most determined
assaults by the enemy--to Kelshall on the left of the British position,
would be an impossibility in the space at my disposal. The whole morning
it raged all along the northern slopes of the upland held by our gallant
troops. The fiercest fighting was, perhaps, in the neighbourhood of
Elmdon, where our trenches were more than once captured by the Magdeburg
battalions, only to be themselves hurled out again by the rush of the
1st Coldstream Guards, who had been held in reserve near the threatened
point. By noon the magnificent old palace at Audley End was in flames.
Art treasures which were of inestimable value and absolutely
unreplaceable perished in this shocking conflagration. Desperate
fighting was going on in the streets of the little town of Saffron
Walden, where a mingled mass of Volunteers and Militia strove hard to
arrest the advance of a portion of the German Army which was
endeavouring to work round the right of our position.
[Illustration: Battle of Royston]
“On our left the Foot Guards and Fusiliers of the 1st German Guard
Division, after receiving a terrible pounding from our guns when they
poured into Royston at the heels of our Mounted Infantry, had fought
their way up the heights to within fifteen hundred yards of our trenches
on the upper slopes of the ridge. Farther than that they had been unable
to advance. Their close formations offered an excellent target to the
rifles of the Volunteers and Militia lining our entrenchments. The
attackers had lost men in thousands, and were now endeavouring to dig
themselves in as best they could under the hail of projectiles that
continually swept the hillside. About noon, too, the 2nd Division of the
Garde Corps, after some skirmishing with the Mounted Infantry away on
our left front, got into attack formation along the line of the Hitchin
and Cambridge Railway, and after pouring a deluge of projectiles from
field guns and howitzers upon our position, advanced upon Therfield with
the greatest bravery and determination. They had succeeded by 2 p.m. in
driving our men from the end of the spur running northward near
Therfield Heath, and managed to get a number of their howitzers up
there, and at once opened fire from the cover afforded by several copses
out of which our men had been driven.
“In short, things were beginning to look very bad for old England, and
the watchers on the Therfield heights turned their glasses anxiously
northward in search of General Sir William Packington’s force from
Potton. They had not long to wait. At 2.15 the winking flash of a
heliograph away near Wendy Place, about eight miles up Ermine Street,
announced that the advance guard, consisting of the 1st Royal Welsh
Fusiliers, was already at Bassingbourn, and that the main body was close
behind, having escaped detection by all the enemy’s patrols and flank
guards. They were now directly in the rear of the right of the German
reserves, who had been pushed forward into the neighbourhood of Royston
to support the attack of their main body on the British position. A few
minutes later it was evident that the enemy had also become aware of
their advent. Two or three regiments hurriedly issued from Royston and
deployed to the north-west. But the guns of the Baldock Corps turned
such a ‘rafale’ fire upon them that they hesitated and were lost.
“Every long-range gun in the British entrenchments that would bear was
also turned upon them, leaving the infantry and field guns to deal with
the troops assaulting their position. The three battalions, as well as
a fourth that was sent to their assistance, were simply swept out of
existence by this terrible cross-fire. Their remnants streamed away, a
disorganised crowd of scattered stragglers, towards Melbourn; while,
still holding on to Bassingbourn, the Baldock force moved down on
Royston, driving everything before it.
“The most advanced German troops made a final effort to capture our
position when they saw what was going on behind them, but it was
half-hearted; they were brought to a standstill, and our men, fixing
bayonets, sprang from their trenches and charged down upon them with
cheers, which were taken up all along the line for miles. The Germans
here and there made a partial stand, but in half an hour they were down
on the low ground, falling back towards the north-east in the greatest
confusion, losing men in thousands from the converging fire of our guns.
Their cavalry made a gallant attempt to save the day by charging our
troops to the north of Royston. It was a magnificent sight to see their
enormous masses sweeping over the ground with an impetus which looked
capable of carrying everything before it, but our men, clustering behind
the hedges of Ermine Street, mowed them down squadrons at a time. Not
one of them reached the roadway. The magnificent Garde Corps was routed.
“The combined IIIrd and IVth Corps now advanced on the exposed right
flank of the German IVth Corps, which, fighting gallantly, fell back,
doing its best to cover the retreat of its comrades, who, on their part,
very much hampered its movements. By nightfall there was no unwounded
German south of Whittlesford, except as a prisoner. By this time, too,
we were falling back on our original position.”