In The Firing Line 7

In The Firing Line 7

One soldier told me a plain straightforward story, without any

embellishments. What made his tale doubly interesting was the fact

that he spoke with the experience of a veteran, having gone through the

South African War.

 

Where the Germans had the advantage, he said, was in the apparently

endless number of reserves. No sooner did we dispose of one regiment

than another regiment took its place. It just put me in mind of the

Niagara Falls--the terrible rush threatening to carry everything before

it.

 

No force on earth could have withstood that cataract, and the fact that

our men only fell back a little was the best proof of their strength.

At one stage there were, I am sure, six Germans to every one of us. Yet

we held our ground, and would still have held it but for the fact that

after we had dealt with the men before us another force came on, using

the bodies of their dead comrades as a carpet.

 

The South African War was a picnic compared with this, and on the way

home I now and again recoiled with horror as I thought of the awful

spectacle which was witnessed before we left the front of piled-up

bodies of the German dead. We lost heavily, but the German casualties

must have been appalling.

 

You must remember that for almost twenty-four hours we bore the brunt

of the attack, and the desperate fury with which the Germans fought

showed that they believed if they were only once past the British

forces the rest would be easy. Not only so, but I am sure we had the

finest troops in the German army against us.

 

On the way out I heard some slighting comments passed on the German

troops, and no doubt some of them are not worth much, but those thrown

at us were very fine specimens indeed. I do not think they could have

been beaten in that respect.

 

 

IN HOSPITAL.

 

(3) _At Birmingham._

 

About 120 English soldiers who had been wounded in and around Mons

arrived in Birmingham on September 1st, and were removed to the new

university buildings at Bournbrook, where facilities have been provided

for dealing with over 1,000 patients. The contingent was the first

batch to arrive. Though terribly maimed, and looking broken and tired,

the men were cheerful. About twenty had to be carried, but the majority

of them were able to walk with assistance.

 

In the course of conversation with a _Daily Telegraph_ reporter a

number of the men spoke of the terrible character of the fighting. The

Germans, one man said, outnumbered us by 100 to one. As we knocked

them down, they simply filled up their gaps and came on as before.

 

One of the Suffolk men stated that very few were injured by shot

wounds. Nearly all the mischief was done by shells. The Germans, he

said, fired six at a time, and if you missed one you got the others.

 

One poor fellow, whose head was so smothered in bandages that his

features could not be seen, remarked, “We could beat them with

bladder-sticks if it were not for the shells, which were appalling. The

effect could not be described.”

 

A private of the West Kent Regiment, who was through the Boer War, said

there was never anything like the fighting at Mons in South Africa.

That was a game of skittles by comparison.

 

 

They came at us, he said, in great masses. It was like shooting

rabbits, only as fast as you shot one lot down another lot took their

place. You couldn’t help hitting them. We had plenty of time to take

aim, and if we weren’t reaching the Bisley standard all the time, we

must have done a mighty lot of execution. As to their rifle fire, they

couldn’t hit a haystack.

 

 

A sergeant gunner of the Royal Field Artillery, who was wounded at

Tournai, owing to an injury to his jaw was unable to speak, but he

wrote on a pad:

 

I was on a flank with my gun and fired about sixty rounds in forty

minutes. We wanted support and could not get it. It was about 500

English trying to save a flank attack, against, honestly, I should

say, 10,000. As fast as you shot them down more came. But for their

aeroplanes they would be useless. I was firing for one hour at from

1,500 yards down to 700 yards, so you can tell what it was like.

 

 

IN HOSPITAL.

 

(4) _At London._

 

All the heroism that has been displayed by British troops in the

present war will never be known. A few individual cases may chance to

be heard of. Others will be known only to the Recording Angel. Two

instances of extraordinary bravery are mentioned by a couple of wounded

soldiers lying in the London Hospital in the course of a narrative of

their own adventures.

 

One of them, a splendid fellow of the Royal West Kent Regiment, told a

_Daily Telegraph_ reporter:

 

We were in a scrubby position just outside Mons from Saturday afternoon

till Monday morning. After four hours each of our six big guns was put

out of action. Either the gunners were killed or wounded, or the guns

themselves damaged. For the rest of the time--that is, until Monday

morning, when we retired--we had to stick the German fire without being

able to retaliate. It was bad enough to stand this incessant banging

away, but it made it worse not to be able to reply.

 

All day Sunday and all Sunday night the Germans continued to

shrapnel us. At night it was just hellish. We had constructed some

entrenchments, but it didn’t afford much cover and our losses were very

heavy. On Monday we received the order to retire to the south of the

town, and some hours later, when the roll-call was called, it was found

that we had 300 dead alone, including four officers.

 

Then an extraordinary thing happened. Me and some of my pals began to

dance. We were just dancing for joy at having escaped with our skins,

and to forget the things we’d seen a bit, when bang! and there came a

shell from the blue, which burst and got, I should think, quite twenty

of us.

 

That’s how some of us got wounded, as we thought we had escaped. Then

another half-dozen of us got wounded this way. Some of our boys went

down a street near by, and found a basin and some water, and were

washing their hands and faces when another shell burst above them and

laid most of them out.

 

What happened to us happened to the Gloucesters. Their guns, too, were

put out of action, and, like us, they had to stand the shell-fire for

hours and hours before they were told to retire. What we would have

done without our second in command I don’t know.

 

During the Sunday firing he got hit in the head. He had two wounds

through the cap in the front and one or two behind, and lost a lot of

blood. Two of our fellows helped to bind up his head, and offered to

carry him back, but he said, “It isn’t so bad. I’ll be all right soon.”

Despite his wounds and loss of blood, he carried on until we retired on

Monday. Then, I think, they took him off to hospital.

 

 

A stalwart chap of the Cheshires here broke in.

 

 

Our Cheshire chaps were also badly cut up. Apart from the wounded,

several men got concussion of the brain by the mere explosions. It

was awful! Under cover of their murderous artillery fire, the German

infantry advanced to within three and five hundred yards of our

position. With that we were given the order to fix bayonets, and stood

up for the charge. That did it for the German infantry! They turned

tail and ran for their lives.

 

Our captain cried out, “Now you’ve got ’em, men!” But we hadn’t. Their

artillery begins with that to fire more hellish than ever, and before

you could almost think what to do a fresh lots of the “sausages” came

along, and we had to beat a retreat.

 

During the retreat one of our sergeants was wounded and fell. With that

our captain runs back and tries to lift him. As he was doing so he was

struck in the foot, and fell over. We thought he was done for, but he

scrambles up and drags the sergeant along until a couple of us chaps

goes out to help ’em in. You should have seen his foot when he took his

boot off--I mean the captain. It wasn’t half smashed.

 

 

How a number of British troops made a dash in the night to save some

women and children from the Germans was told by Lance-corporal Tanner,

of the 2nd Oxfordshire and Bucks Light Infantry. On the Sunday the

regiment arrived at Mons.

 

 

We took up our position in the trenches, he said, and fought for some

time. In the evening the order came to retire, and we marched back to

Conde, with the intention of billeting for the night and having a rest.

Suddenly, about midnight, we were ordered out, and set off to march to

the village of Douai, some miles away, as news had reached us that the

Germans were slaughtering the natives there.

 

It was a thrilling march in the darkness, across the unfamiliar

country. We were liable to be attacked at any moment, of course, but

everyone was keen on saving the women and children, and hurried on. We

kept the sharpest lookout on all sides, but saw nothing of the enemy.

 

When we reached Douai a number of the inhabitants rushed out to meet

us. They were overjoyed to see us, and speedily told what the Germans

had done. They had killed a number of women and children. With fixed

bayonets we advanced into the village, and we saw signs all around us

of the cruelty of the enemy.

 

 

Private R. Wills, of the Highland Light Infantry, who also took part in

the march to the village, here continued the story.

 

 

We found that most of the Germans had not waited for our arrival, and

there were only a few left in the place. However, we made sure that

none remained there.

 

We started a house-to-house search. Our men went into all the houses,

and every now and then they found one or two of the enemy hiding in a

corner or upstairs. Many of them surrendered at once, others did not.

 

When we had cleared the village, some of us lay down on the pavements,

and snatched an hour’s sleep. At 3.30 we marched away again, having rid

the place of the enemy, and, getting back to camp, were glad to turn in.

 

A sergeant of the Royal Field Artillery, who was wounded by shrapnel

just outside Mons village, said that the German artillery fire was

good; once the enemy’s gunners got the range they did well.

 

Their shooting was every bit as good as ours, and although our battery

made excellent practice, three of our men were killed, and twenty out

of thirty-six were wounded. I lay on the field all night, and was

rescued the next morning. Fortunately, the Germans did not come and find me during those long hours of loneliness.