It was at Mons in Belgium that the British soldiers first met the
Germans. They were outnumbered by three to one; and they were therefore
forced to fall back till fresh troops could be brought up to their
assistance.
But they put up a glorious fight as they fell slowly back to a better
position for making an advance; and the story of Mons and afterwards is
so full of accounts of brave deeds that it is not easy to choose from
among them.
The name of Captain Grenfell, however, stands out boldly on the roll of
honour; and the story of his winning of the Victoria Cross is one of
the finest in the history of the British Army.
At half-past ten one morning, the Second British Cavalry Brigade
received a welcome order. They were to “charge for the guns” as the
Light Brigade had been ordered to do at Balaklava in the Crimean War.
The order was received with the greatest glee, for the troopers had
waited for three days listening to the roar of the guns but taking no
part in the great fight.
The men were the 9th Lancers, 18th Hussars, and 4th Dragoons. On they
rode, singing, shouting, cheering; but they had not ridden far before
some of the riders dropped from their saddles while their horses
galloped away. The rest set their teeth, gripped their lances more
tightly and urged on their horses until the thunder of the iron-shod
hoofs seemed to drown that of the German guns.
All at once, a merciless fire broke out from a number of machine-guns
which had been cleverly hidden on their flank, about 150 yards away.
The withering fire swept their close-set ranks and men and horses fell
in scores; but there was no faltering among the rest. Onward they rode,
careless of the ceaseless hail of bullets and of the shells which now
burst round them from the heavy guns ahead.
At last they reached the German battery, and what happened there is
thus described by a German soldier:--
“We were outside Mons in open country,” he said, “with a clump of
hills before us, when a troop of howling, yelling men with lances came
racing round a hill and then straight for us. Your artillery and your
infantry, yes, they are like ourselves and we can fight them, but these
lancers;--ach!
“We were four to one of them, but in a flash they were on us and
through us! And there were not more than fifty of them. Every one of
them speared a man--I got this in the shoulder--and some of our horses
went over. Before we could re-form or get ready, they came dashing
back, yelling like furies, and they went through us again. This time
they stayed with us longer.... I will never meet them again, please
you!”
The stern work was over, but the British cavalry had paid a heavy price
to silence the German guns. The men who were left now looked about for
cover, and soon found it behind a railway embankment; but they also
found in this place a company of men of the Royal Field Artillery whose
guns had been knocked out of action.
Captain Grenfell was among the surviving officers of the 9th Lancers,
but he had been wounded in the thigh as well as in one hand. Weary and
hurt as he was, the news that British guns were in danger of capture
roused him to further efforts. Without a moment’s delay, he rode off
into the fire zone to make observations.
Having satisfied himself that the guns could be drawn off he came
back--at a slow pace, in order to give courage to his men. Then he
asked for volunteers for the job, and got them too, for British
soldiers always answer to the call to “save the guns.” “It’s all
right,” he said simply, “they can’t hit us. Come along!”
The men loosed their horses and followed the captain on foot. In a few
minutes they set off at the double heedless of the flying bullets and
bursting shells, and came at last to the first guns which they quickly
hauled out of danger. They went back again and again until all the
precious guns were safe.
It was for his bravery on this day that Captain Grenfell was awarded
the Victoria Cross--one of the first to be awarded in the Great War. At
a later period of the war he was killed in action.