A battery advancing against the Germans during one of the hot fights
was suddenly pounced on by the enemy from a position we never thought
them to be in, and half the men and all the horses were shot down
before you could have said the shortest of prayers, and the German
cavalry came rushing out of a wood close by to seize the guns.
Fortunately some of our own men were near at hand, and they were
quickly formed up round the guns. They fired into the Germans, and
drove them back. Then a big body of infantry had a try at getting the
guns away, but our chaps tackled them with the bayonet, and for about
an hour the fight round those guns was as hot as anybody could stand.
The two sides kept swaying each other backwards and forwards like a
couple of tug-of-war teams, and then, just for variety I suppose, the
German artillery chipped in, and they cut up their own chaps much
more than they hurt ours. Finally our infantry got disentangled from
the Germans, were strongly reinforced, and with a grand bayonet charge
cleared the whole lot of the Germans away from the guns. Horses were
brought out and the guns were removed to a point of safety without
further trouble: _Pte. T. Molloy, Royal Garrison Artillery_.