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Файл:The Great War. Part I
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THE GREAT WAR
Colonel Bols, of the same regiment, enjoyed one crowded hour of
glorious life, for he was wounded, captured, and escaped all on the
5
same evening. It was in this action also that Major Vandeleur
wounded and captured.
A section of guns which was involved in the same dilemma as
the Dorsets had to be abandoned after every gunner had fallen. The
15th Brigade was compelled to fall back for half a mile and entrench
itself for the night. On the left the 7th Brigade (McCracken’s) had
some eighty casualties in crossing the Lys, and a detachment of
Northumberland Fusiliers, who covered their left fl ank, came under machine-gun fi re, which struck down their adjutant, Captain
Herbert, and a number of men. Altogether the losses on this day
amounted to about twelve hundred men.
On the 14th the Second Corps continued its slow advance in the
same direction. Upon this day the Third Division sustained a grievous loss in the shape of its commander, General Sir Hubert Hamilton, who was standing conversing with the quiet nonchalance
which was characteristic of him, when a shell burst above him and
a shrapnel bullet struck him on the temple, killing him at once. He
was a grand commander, beloved by his men, and destined for the
highest had he lived. He was buried that night after dark in a village
churchyard. There was an artillery attack by the Germans during
the service, and the group of silent offi cers, weary from the fi ghting
line, who stood with bowed heads round the grave, could hardly
hear the words of the chaplain for the whiz and crash of the shells.
It was a proper ending for a soldier.
was
5
Major Vandeleur was the offi cer who afterwards escaped from
Krefeld and brought back with him a shocking account of the German
treatment of our prisoners. Though a wounded man, the Major was kicked
by the direct command of one German offi cer, and his overcoat was taken
from him in bitter weather by another.
181
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
His division was temporarily taken over by General Colin Mackenzie. On this date the 13th Brigade, on the south of the canal, was
relieved by French troops, so that henceforward all the British were
to the north. For the three preceding days this brigade had done
heavy work, the pressure of the enemy falling particularly upon the
2nd Scottish Borderers, who lost Major Allen and a number of other
offi cers and men.
The 15th was a day of spirited advance, the Third Division offering sacrifi ce in the old warrior fashion to the shade of its dead
leader. Guns were brought up into the infantry line and the enemy
was smashed out of entrenched positions and loopholed villages in
spite of a most manful resistance. The soldiers carried long planks
with them and threw them over the dykes on their advance. Mile
after mile the Germans were pushed back, until they were driven off
the high road which connects Estaires with La Bassée. The 1st Northumberland and 4th Royal Fusiliers of the 9th Brigade, and the 2nd
Royal Scots and 4th Middlesex of the 8th, particularly distinguished
themselves in this day of hard fi ghting. By the night of the 15th the
corps had lost 90 offi cers and 2500 men in the four days, the disproportionate number of offi cers being due to the broken nature of the
fi ghting, which necessitated the constant leading of small detachments. The German resistance continued to be admirable.
On the 16th the slow wheeling movement of the Second Corps
went steadily though slowly forward, meeting always the same stubborn resistance. The British were losing heavily by the incessant
fi ghting, but so were the Germans, and it was becoming question
which could stand punishment longest. In the evening the Third
Division was brought to a stand by the village of Aubers, which was
found to be strongly held. The Fifth Division was instructed to mark
time upon the right, so as to form the pivot upon which all the rest
of the corps could swing round in their advance on La Bassée. At this
182
THE GREAT WAR
date the Third Corps was no great distance to the north, and the First
Corps was detraining from the Aisne. As the Seventh Division with
Byng’s Third Cavalry Division were reported to be in touch with the
other forces in the north, the concentration of the British Army was
approaching a successful issue. The weather up to now during all the
operations which have been described was wet and misty, limiting
the use of artillery and entirely preventing that of aircraft.
On the 17th the advance was resumed and was destined to
reach the extreme point which it attained for many a long laborious month. This was the village of Herlies, north-east of La Bassée,
which was attacked in the evening by Shaw’s 9th Brigade, and was
carried in the dusk at the point of the bayonet by the 1st Lincolns
and the 4th Royal Fusiliers. About the same time the Scots Fusiliers
and Northumberlands had stormed Aubers. The 7th Brigade was
less fortunate at the adjoining village of Illies, where they failed to
make a lodgment, but the French cavalry on the extreme left, with
the help of the 2nd Royal Irish, captured Fromelles. The Fifth Division also came forward a little, the right fl ank still on the canal,
but the left bending round so as to get to the north of La Bassée.
The 1st Devons, who had taken the place of the Dorsets, pushed
forward with such fi re that they were half a mile ahead of the Army
and in great danger of being cut off, but by individual coolness and
resource they managed to get back to safety.
On the 18th, Sir Charles Ferguson, who had done good work
with the Army from the fi rst gunshot of the war, was promoted to
a higher rank and the command of the Fifth Division passed over to
General Morland. Thus both divisions of the Second Corps changed
their commanders within a week. On this date the infantry of the
14th Brigade, with some of the 13th Brigade, were within eight hundred yards of La Bassée, but found it so strongly held that it could
not be entered, the Scottish Borderers losing heavily in a very gal-
183
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
lant advance. The village of Illies also remained impregnable, being
strongly entrenched and loopholed. Shaw’s 9th Brigade took some
of the trenches, but found their left fl ank exposed, so had to withdraw nearly half a mile and to entrench. In this little action the 1st
Royal Scots Fusiliers bore the brunt of the fi ghting and the losses.
Eight offi cers and nearly 200 men of this regiment were killed or
wounded. A fresh German division came into action this day and
their artillery was stronger, so that the prospects of future advance
were not particularly encouraging. The British artillery was worked
very hard, being overmatched and yet undefeatable. The strain both
upon the men and the offi cers was constant, and the observation
offi cers showed great daring and tenacity.
On the 19th neither the Third nor the Fifth Divisions made
any appreciable progress, but one battalion was heavily engaged
and added a fresh record to its ancient roll of valour. This was the
2nd Royal Irish under Major Daniell, who attacked the village of
Le Pilly rather forward from the British left in co-operation with
the French cavalry. The Irish infantry charged over eight hundred
yards of clear ground, carried the village by storm, and entrenched
themselves within it. This advance and charge, which was carried
out with the precision of an Aldershot fi eld day, although 130 men
fell during the movement, is said by experienced spectators to have
been a great feat of arms. The 20th saw a strong counter-attack of
the Germans, and by the evening their two fl anks had lapped round
Le Pilly, pushing off on the one side the French cavalry of Conneau,
and on the other a too small detachment of the Royal Fusiliers who
were fl anking the Irishmen. All day the defenders of Le Pilly were
subjected to a terrifi c shell-fi re, and all attempts to get messages to
them were unavailing. In the evening they were surrounded, and
only two or three men of the battalion were ever seen again. The
gallant Daniell fell, and it is on record that his last audible words
184
THE GREAT WAR
were a command to fi x bayonets and fi ght to the end, the cartridges
of the battalion being at that time exhausted. A German offi cer engaged in this attack and subsequently taken prisoner has deposed
that three German battalions attacked the Royal Irish, one in front
and one on each fl ank, after they had been heavily bombarded in
enfi lade. Several hundred Irish dead and wounded were taken out
of the main trench.
There was now ample evidence that the Germans had received
large reinforcements, and that their line was too strong to be forced.
The whole object and character of the operations assumed, therefore, a new aspect. The Second and Third Corps had swung round,
describing an angle of ninety degrees, with its pivot upon the right
at the La Bassée Canal, and by this movement it had succeeded in
placing itself upon the fl ank of the German force which faced the
Tenth French Army. But there was now no longer any fl ank, for the
German reinforcements had enabled them to prolong their line and
so to turn the action into a frontal attack by the British. Such an attack in modern warfare can only hope for success when carried out
by greatly superior numbers, whereas the Germans were now stronger than their assailants, having been joined by one division of the
Seventh Corps, a brigade of the Third Corps, and the whole of the
Fourteenth Corps, part of which had already been engaged.
Third increased pressure was being felt by the Third Corps on
the Lys, as well as by the Second to the south of them; indeed, as only
a few miles intervened between the two, they may be regarded as
one for these operations. We have seen that, having taken the town
of Bailleul, Pulteney’s Corps had established itself across the Lys,
and occupied a line from Warneton to Radinghem upon October
18. The latter village had been taken on that day by the 16th Brigade
in an action in which the 1st Buffs and 2nd York and Lancasters lost
heavily, the latter being ambushed as it pursued the enemy and los-
185
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
ing 11 offi cers and 400 men. Colonel Cobbold fell back upon the
village and held it successfully. Pulteney was now strongly attacked,
and there was a movement of the Germans on October 20 as if to
turn his right and slip in between the two British corps. The action
was carried on into the 21st, the enemy still showing considerable
energy and strength. The chief German advance during the day was
north of La Bassée. It came upon the village of Lorgies, which was
the point where the South Lancashires, of McCracken’s 7th Brigade,
forming the extreme right of the Third Division, were in touch with
the East Surreys and Duke of Cornwall’s of the 14th Brigade, forming the extreme left of the Fifth Division. It is necessary to join one’s
fl ats carefully in the presence of the Germans, for they are sharp
critics of such matters. In this instance a sudden attack near Illies
drove in a portion of the 2nd South Lancashires. This attack also
destroyed the greater part of a company of the 1st Cornwalls in support. An ugly gap was left in the line, but the remainder of the Cornwalls, with the help of a company of the 1st West Kents and the
ever-constant artillery, fi lled it up during the rest of the day, and the
2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry took it over the same night, the Cornishmen retiring with heavy losses but a great deal of compensating
glory. The temporary gap in the line exposed the right fl ank of the
3rd Worcesters, who were next to the South Lancashires. They lost
heavily in killed and wounded, their colonel, Stuart, being among
the latter, though his injury did not prevent him from remaining in
the battle line. Apart from this action at Lorgies, the 19th Brigade
(Gordon’s), upon the fl ank of Pulteney’s Corps, sustained a very
heavy attack, being driven back for some distance. It had been ordered to occupy Fromelles, and so close the gap which existed at that
time between the left of the Second and the right of the Third Corps,
situated respectively at Aubers and Radinghem. The chief fi ghting
occurred at the village of Le Maisnil, close to Fromelles. This village
186
THE GREAT WAR
was occupied by the 2nd Argylls and half the 1st Middlesex, but
they were driven out by a severe shell-fi re followed by an infantry
advance. The brigade fell back in good order, the regiments engaged
having lost about 300 men. They took up a position on the right of
the 16th Infantry Brigade at La Boutillerie, and there they remained
until November 17, one severe attack falling upon them on October
29, which is described under that date.
On the morning of October 22 the Germans, still very numerous
and full of fi ght, made a determined attack upon the Fifth Division,
occupying the village of Violaines, close to La Bassée. The village
was held by the 1st Cheshires, who, for the second time in this campaign, found themselves in a terribly diffi cult position. It is typical
of the insolent high spirits of the men, in spite of all that they had
endured, that upon the Germans charging forward with a war-cry
which resembled, “Yip, Yip, Yip!” the British infantry joined in with
“I-addy-ti-ay!” – the whole forming the chorus of a once popular
Gaiety song. The Cheshires infl icted heavy losses upon the stormers
with rifl e-fi re, but were at last driven out, involving in their retirement the 1st Dorsets, who had left their own trenches in order to
help them. Both regiments, but especially the Cheshires, had grievous losses, in casualties and prisoners. On advancing in pursuit the
Germans were strongly counter-attacked by the 2nd Manchesters
and the 1st Cornwalls, supported by the 3rd Worcesters, who, by
their steady fi re, brought them to a standstill, but were unable to recover the ground that had been lost, though the Cornwalls, who had
been fi ghting with hardly a pause for forty-eight hours, succeeded in
capturing one of their machine-guns. In the night the British withdrew their line in accordance with the general rearrangement to be
described. Some rearguard stragglers at break of day had the amusing experience of seeing the Germans making a valiant and very
noisy attack upon the abandoned and empty trenches.
187
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
On this date, October 22, not only had Smith-Dorrien experienced this hold-up upon his right fl ank, but his left fl ank had become more vulnerable, because the French had been heavily attacked at Fromelles, and had been driven out of that village. An
equilibrium had been established between attack and defence, and
the position of the Aisne was beginning to appear once again upon
the edge of Flanders. General Smith-Dorrien, feeling that any substantial advance was no longer to be hoped for under the existing
conditions, marked down and occupied a strong defensive position,
from Givenchy on the south to Fauquissart on the north. This involved a retirement of the whole corps during the night for a distance of from one to two miles, but it gave a connected position
with a clear fi eld of fi re. At the same time the general situation was
greatly strengthened by the arrival at the front of the Lahore Division of the Indian Army under General Watkis. These fi ne troops
were placed in reserve behind the Second Corps in the neighbourhood of Locon.
It is well to remember at this point what Smith-Dorrien’s troops
had already endured during the two months that the campaign had
lasted. Taking the strength of the corps at 37,000 men, they had lost,
roughly, 10,000 men in August, 10,000 in September, and 5000 up
to date in these actions of October. It is certain that far less than
50 per cent of the original offi cers and men were still with the Colours, and drafts can never fully restore the unity and spirit of a homogeneous regiment, where every man knows his company leaders
and his platoon. In addition to this they had now fought night and
day for nearly a fortnight, with broken and insuffi cient sleep, laying down their rifl es to pick up their spades, and then once again
exchanging spade for rifl e, while soaked to the skin with incessant
fogs and rain, and exposed to that most harassing form of fi ghting,
where every clump and hedgerow covers an enemy. They were so
188
THE GREAT WAR
exhausted that they could hardly be woken up to fi ght. To say that
they were now nearing the end of their strength and badly in need
of a rest is but to say that they were mortal men and had reached the
physical limits that mortality must impose.
The French cavalry divisions acting as links between Pulteney
and Smith-Dorrien were now relieved by the 8th (Jullundur) Indian Infantry Brigade, containing the 1st Manchesters, 59th (Scinde)
Rifl es, 15th and 47th Sikhs. It may be remarked that each Indian
brigade is made up of three Indian and one British battalion. This
change was effected upon October 24, a date which was marked by
no particular military event save that the Third Division lost for
a time the services of General Beauchamp Doran, who returned
to England. General Doran had done great service in leading what
was perhaps the most hard-worked brigade in a hard-worked division. General Bowes took over the command of the 8th Infantry
Brigade.
On the night of October 24 determined attacks were made upon
the trenches of the Second Corps at the Bois de Biez, near Neuve
Chapelle, but were beaten off with heavy loss to the enemy, who had
massed together twelve battalions in order to rush a particular part
of the position. The main attack fell upon the 1st Wiltshires and
the 2nd Royal Irish Rifl es, belonging to McCracken’s 7th Brigade,
and also upon the 15th Sikhs, who seem to have been the fi rst Indians to be seriously engaged, having nearly two hundred casualties.
The 8th Brigade were also involved in the fi ght. The Germans had
some temporary success in the centre of the trenches of the Third
Division, where, in the darkness, they pushed back the 1st Gordon
Highlanders, who lost very heavily. As the Highlanders fell back,
the 2nd Royal Scots, upon their right, swung back its fl ank companies, covered the retirement, and then, straightening their ranks
again, fl ung the Germans, at the point of their bayonets, out of the
189
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
trenches. It was one of several remarkable feats which this fi ne battalion has performed in the war. Next morning the captured trenches were handed over to the care of the 4th Middlesex.
The pressure upon the exhausted troops was extreme upon this
day, for a very severe attack was made also upon the Fifth Division,
holding the right of the line. The soldiers, as already shown, were in
no condition for great exertions, and yet, after their wont, they rose
grandly to the occasion. The important village of Givenchy, destined
for many a long month to form the advanced post upon the right of
the Army, was held by the 1st Norfolks and 1st Devons, who defi ed
all efforts of the enemy to dislodge them.
Nevertheless, the situation was critical and diffi cult for both divisions, and the only available support, the 1st Manchesters from the
Lahore Division, were pushed up into the fi ghting line and found
themselves instantly engaged in the neighbourhood of Givenchy. It
was dreadful weather, the trenches a quagmire, and the rifl e-bolts
often clogged with the mud. On the 26th Sir John French, realising
how great was the task with which the weary corps was faced, sent
up two batteries of 47 guns, which soon lessened the volume of the
German artillery attack. At the same time General Maistre, of the
Twenty-fi rst French Corps, sent two of his batteries and two of his
battalions. Thus strengthened, there was no further immediate anxiety as to the line being broken, especially as upon the 26th Marshal
French, carefully playing card after card from his not over-strong
hand, placed the Second Cavalry Division and three more Indian
battalions in reserve to Smith-Dorrien’s corps. The German advance
had by no means spent itself, as on this day they came to close grips
with the 2nd Irish Rifl es and established themselves fi rmly in the
village of Neuve Chapelle, near the centre of the British line, infl icting heavy loss upon the Royal Fusiliers, who tried to restore the
position. A number of attacks were made to regain this village next
190
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