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Файл:The Great War. Part I
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THE GREAT WAR
fi nd the enemy in that vast waste of waters as promptly and directly
as if the meeting had been by appointment.
There were no other outstanding naval events in 1914 save
a raid upon Cuxhaven by aeroplanes, escorted by light cruisers,
which probably did little harm as the weather was misty. This occurred upon Christmas Day 1914. It had been preceded by an attack
by German cruisers on December 16 upon West Hartlepool, Scarborough, and Whitby. As the two latter towns were open wateringplaces, and as numerous civilians were the victims of the raid, it was
recognised from this time onwards that the German Navy was as
little trammelled by international law or by the feelings of humanity as the German Army had shown itself to be in France, Belgium,
and Russia.
The general movement of the French armies has been touched
upon in recording the experiences of the British, for after their glorious victory at the Marne and the hold-up at the Aisne, it was at
Ypres that the real fi ghting was done, the rest of the long line down
to the Swiss frontier playing a subsidiary part. The Russians, however, had experienced both extremities of fortune, for their victory
at Lemberg over the Austrians upon September 2 was of a very glorious character, while their defeat by the Germans at Tannenberg in
East Prussia was no less decisive.
All the events of the outset of the war were inglorious for Austria, who received rapidly the punishment which she deserved for
her wanton disturbance of the world’s peace. Apart from the blows
which she received from Russia, she was severely defeated by the
Serbians on August 17, and her invading army was driven out of the
country which she had wronged. At the end of the year she had lost
the whole of Galicia to the Russians, who in turn had been pushed
out of East Prussia by the German armies under Von Hindenburg.
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ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
An invasion of Poland by the Germans was held up after very severe
fi ghting, failing to reach Warsaw, which was its objective.
These were the main incidents of the world’s war during the
months which have been under review. As those months passed
the terrifi c nature of the task which they had undertaken became
more and more clear to the British, but further refl ection had confi rmed them in their opinion that the alternative course of abandoning their friends and breaking their pledge to Belgium was an
absolutely unthinkable one, so that however great the trials and
sacrifi ces in blood and treasure, they were not further embittered
by the refl ection that they could possibly a have been avoided. Very
greatly were they cheered in that dark hour by the splendid, wholehearted help from India, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, help
which was even more valuable from a moral than from a material
standpoint. With this brief synopsis we will now return to those operations which are the proper subject of this volume.
XI.
THE WINTER LULL OF 1914
Increase of the Army – Formation of the Fifth Corps – The visit
of the King – Third Division at Petit Bois – The fi ght at Givenchy –
Heavy losses of the Indians – Fine advance of Manchesters – Advance of the First Division – Singular scenes at Christmas
THE winter lull may be said to have extended from the great
combats at Ypres of the middle of November to the opening of the
spring campaign in March 1915; but we will only follow it here
up to the end of the year. It was a period of alternate rest and discomfort for the troops with an ever-present salt of danger. For days
they found themselves billeted with some approach to comfort in
the farmhouses and villages of Flanders, but such brief intervals of
peace were broken by the routine of the trenches, when, in mud
or water with a clay cutting before their faces and another at their
backs, they waited through the long hours, listening to the crack of
the sniper’s rifl e, or the crash of the bursting shell, with an indifference which bordered upon thankfulness for anything that would
break the drab monotony of their task. It was a scene of warfare
which was new to military experience. The vast plain of battle lay
in front of the observer as a fl at and lonely wilderness, dotted with
ruined houses from which no homely wreath of smoke rose into
the wintry air. Here and there was an untidy litter of wire; here and
there also a clump of bleak and tattered woodland; but nowhere was
there any sign of man. And yet from the elevation of an aeroplane it
273
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
might be seen that the population of a large city was lurking upon
that motionless waste. Everywhere the airman would have distinguished the thin brown slits of the advance trenches, the broader
ditches of the supports and the long zigzags of the communications,
and he would have detected that they were stuffed with men – grey
men and khaki, in every weird garment that ingenuity could suggest for dryness and for warmth – all cowering within their shelters
with the ever-present double design of screening themselves and
of attacking their enemy. As the German pressure became less, and
as more regiments of the Territorials began to arrive, taking some
of the work from their comrades of the Regulars, it was possible to
mitigate something of the discomforts of warfare, to ensure that no
regiments should be left for too long a period in the trenches, and
even to arrange for week-end visits to England for a certain number
of offi cers and men. The streets of London got a glimpse of rugged,
war-hardened faces, and of uniforms caked with the brown mud of
Flanders, or supplemented by strange Robinson Crusoe goat-skins
from the trenches, which brought home to the least imaginative the
nature and the nearness of the struggle.
Before noting those occasional spasms of activity – epileptic,
sometimes, in their sudden intensity – which broke out from the
German trenches, it may be well to take some note of the general
development of those preparations which meant so much for the
future. The Army was growing steadily in strength. Not only were
the old regiments reinforced by fresh drafts, but two new divisions
of Regulars were brought over before the end of January. These
formed the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Divisions under
Generals Snow and Bulfi n, two offi cers who had won a name in the
fi rst phase of the war. The two Divisions together formed the Fifth
Army Corps under General Plumer, the offi cer who had worked so
hard for the relief of Mafeking in 1900. The Divisions, composed of
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THE GREAT WAR
splendid troops who needed some hardening after tropical service,
were constituted as follows, the list including territorial battalions
attached, but excluding the artillery as well as the four original regular units in each brigade:
FIFTH ARMY CORPS $ GENERAL PLUMER.
27th Division – General Snow.
28th Division – General Bulfi n.
80th Brigade – General Fortescue.
Princess Pat. Canadians.
4th Rifl e Brigade.
3rd King's Royal Rifl es.
4th King's Royal Rifl es.
2nd Shrop. Light Infantry.
8lst Brigade – General MacFarlane.
9th Royal Scots (T.F.).
2nd Cameron Highlanders.
lst Argyll and Sutherlands.
1st Royal Scots.
2nd Gloucesters.
9th Argyll and Sutherlands (T.F.)
82nd Brigade – General Longley.
1st Leinsters.
2nd Royal Irish Fusiliers.
2nd Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.
1st Royal Irish.
1st Cambridge (T.F.).
Army Troops, 6th Cheshires.
83rd Brigade – General Boyle.
2nd E. Yorkshire.
1st King's Own York. Light Infantry.
1st Yorks. and Lancasters.
2nd Royal Lancasters.
3rd Monmouths (T.F.).
6th Royal Lancasters (T.F.).
84th Brigade – General Winter.
2nd Northumberland Fusiliers.
1st Suffolks.
1st Welsh.
2nd Cheshires.
12th London Rangers (T.F.).
1st Monmouths (T.F.).
85th Brigade – General Chapman.
2nd East Kent.
2nd East Surrey.
3rd Middlesex.
3rd Royal Fusiliers.
8th Middlesex (T.F.).
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ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
Besides this new Fifth Army Corps, there had been a constant
dribble of other territorial units to the front, where they were incorporated with various regular brigades. The London Scottish, which
had done so well, was honoured by admission to the 1st Brigade of
Guards. The Artists’ Rifl es, 28th London, had the unique distinction
of being set aside as an offi cers’ training corps, from which offi cers
were actually drawn at the rate of a hundred a month. The Honourable Artillery Company, brigaded with the 7th Brigade, was among
the fi rst to arrive. Conspicuous among the newcomers were the London Rifl e Brigade, the 4th Suffolk, the Liverpool Scottish, the 5th
and 6th Cheshires, the 1st Herts, the 2nd Monmouthshires, Queen
Victoria Rifl es, and Queen’s Westminsters. These were among the
earlier arrivals, though it seems invidious to mention names where
the spirit of all was equally good. Among the yeomanry, many had
already seen considerable service – notably the North and South
Irish Horse, who had served from the beginning, the Northumberland Hussars, the North Somersets, the Oxford Hussars, and the
Essex Yeomanry. Most of the troops named above shared the discomfort of the winter campaign before the great arrival of the new
armies from England in the spring. There can be no better earned
bar upon a medal than that which stands for this great effort of endurance against nature and man combined.
To take events in their order: beyond numerous gallant affairs
of outposts, there was no incident of importance until the evening
of November 23, when the Germans, who had seemed stunned for
a week or so, showed signs of returning animation. On this day, some
eight hundred yards of trench held by Indian troops in the neighbourhood of Armentières were made untenable by the German artillery, especially by the Minenwerfer – small mortars which threw
enormous bombs by an ingenious arrangement whereby the actual
shell never entered the bore but was on the end of a rod outside the
276
THE GREAT WAR
muzzle. Some of these terrible missiles, which came through the air
as slowly as a punted football, were 200 lbs. in weight and shattering
in their effects. There was an advance of the 112th Regiment of the
Fourteenth German Corps, and the empty trenches were strongly
occupied by them – so strongly that the fi rst attempt to retake them
was unsuccessful in the face of the rifl e and machine-gun fi re of the
defenders. A second more powerful counter-attack was organised by
General Anderson of the Meerut Division, and this time the Germans were swept out of their position and the line re-established.
The fi ghting lasted all night, and the Ghurkas with their formidable
knives proved to be invaluable for such close work, while a party of
Engineers with hand-bombs did great execution – a strange combination of the Asiatic with the most primitive of weapons and the
scientifi c European with the most recent. It was a substantial victory
as such affairs go, for the British were left with a hundred prisoners,
including three offi cers, three machine-guns, and two mortars.
The fi rst week of December was rendered memorable by a visit
of the King to the Army. King George reviewed a great number of
his devoted soldiers, who showed by their fervent enthusiasm that
one need not be an autocratic Warlord in order to command the
fi erce loyalty of the legions. After this pleasant interlude there followed a succession of those smaller exploits which seem so slight in
any chronicle, and yet collectively do so much to sustain the spirit of
the Army. Now this dashing offi cer, now that, attempted some deed
upon the German line, and never failed to fi nd men to follow him to
death. On November 24 it was Lieutenant Impey, with a handful of
2nd Lincolns; on November 25, Lieutenants Ford and Morris with
a few Welsh Fusiliers and sappers; on November 26, Sir Edward
Hulse with some Scots Guards; on the same day. Lieutenant Durham with men of the 2nd Rifl e Brigade – in each case trenches were
temporarily won, the enemy was damaged, and a spirit of adventure
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ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
encouraged in the trenches. Sometimes such a venture ended in the
death of the leader, as in the case of Captain the Honourable H.
L. Bruce of the Royal Scots. Such men died as the old knights did
who rode out betwixt the lines of marshalled armies, loved by their
friends and admired by their foes.
December 9 was the date of two small actions. In the fi rst the
1st Lincolns of the 9th Brigade, which had been commanded by
Douglas Smith since the wounding of General Shaw, made an attack upon the wood at Wytschaete which is called Le Petit Bois. The
advance was not successful, the three offi cers who led it being all
wounded, and forty-four men being hit. The attempt was renewed
upon a larger scale fi ve days later. The other action was an attack
by the enemy upon some of the trenches of the Third Corps. This
Corps, though it had not come in for the more dramatic scenes of
the campaign, had done splendid and essential work in covering
a line of fourteen miles or so against incessant attacks of the Germans, who never were able to gain any solid advantage. On this occasion the impact fell upon Gordon’s 19th Brigade, especially upon
the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and the 1st Middlesex.
It was driven back with heavy loss.
On December 14 the second and more sustained effort was
made to get possession of the Petit Bois at Wytschaete, which had
been attacked by the Lincolns upon the 9th. D’Urbal’s Eighth
French Army was co-operating upon the left. The British attack was
conducted by Haldane’s Third Division, and the actual advance
was carried out, after a considerable artillery preparation from the
batteries of two Corps, by Bowes’ 8th Brigade, with the 2nd Royal
Scots and the 1st Gordons in the lead. At 7:45 the guns were turned
upon the big wood beyond Petit Bois, through which the supports
might be advancing, and at the same hour the two regiments named
swarmed forward, the Lowlanders on the left and the Highlanders
278
THE GREAT WAR
on the right. The Royal Scots, under Major Duncan, carried Petit
Bois with a rush, taking fi fty prisoners and two machine-guns, while
the Germans fl ed out at the other end of the wood. The Scots at
once entrenched themselves and got their own machine guns into
position. The Gordons, under Major Baird, advanced with splendid
dash and gained some ground, but found the position such that they
could not entrench upon it, so they were forced to fall back eventually to their original position. Both they and the 4th Middlesex, who
supported them, lost considerably in the affair. The total casualties
in the Petit Bois action came to over four hundred, with seventeen
offi cers, fi gures which were considerably swollen by the losses of
the Suffolks and Irish Rifl es, who continued to hold the captured
position in the face of continued bombing. The French in the north
had no particular success and lost 600 men. The importance of such
operations is not to be measured, however, by the amount of ground
won, but by the necessity of beating up the enemies’ quarters, keeping them pinned to their positions, and preventing them from feeling that they could at their own sweet wills detach any reinforcements they chose to thicken their line upon the Eastern frontier,
where our Russian Allies were so insistently pressing.
On the morning of December 19 an attack was made upon the
German lines in the Festubert region by Willcocks’ Indian Corps,
the Meerut Division, under General Anderson, attacking upon the
left, and the Lahore, under General Watkis, upon the right. The
object of the movement was to co-operate with the French in an advance which they had planned. The Meerut attack was successful at
fi rst, but was driven back by a counter-attack, and some hundreds
of Indian infantry were killed, wounded, or taken. In the case of
the Lahore attack the storming party consisted of the 1st Highland
Light Infantry and the 4th Ghurkas. Both of these units belong to
the Sirhind Brigade, but they were joined in the enterprise by the
279
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
59th Scinde Rifl es of the Jullundur Brigade. These latter troops had
a long night march before reaching the scene of the operations,
when they found themselves upon the right of the attack and within two hundred and fi fty yards of the German trenches. Judging
the operations from the standard reached at a later date, the whole
arrangement seems to have been extraordinarily primitive. The artillery preparation for a frontal attack upon a strong German line
of trenches lasted exactly four minutes, being rather a call to arms
than a bombardment. The troops rushed most gallantly forward
into the dark of a cold wet winter morning, with no guide save the
rippling fl ashes of the rifl es and machine-guns in front of them.
Many were so sore-footed and weary that they could not break into
the double. Some of the Indians were overtaken from behind by
a line of British supports, which caused considerable confusion. An
offi cer of Indians has left it on record that twice running he had
a revolver clapped to his head by a British offi cer. All of the battalions advanced with a frontage of two companies in columns of
platoons. Both the Ghurkas and Highlanders reached the trench
in the face of a murderous fi re. The left of the 59th, consisting of
PunjabI Mahomedans, also reached the trench. The right, who
were Sikhs, made an equally gallant advance, but were knee-deep
in a wet beetroot fi eld and under terrifi c machine-gun fi re. Their
gallant leader, Captain Scale, was struck down. as was every Indian
offi cer, but a handful of the survivors, under a Sikh Jemadar, got
into a German sap, which they held for twenty-four hours, taking
a number of prisoners.
Day had dawned, and though the British and Indians were in
the enemy trenches, it was absolutely impossible to send them up
reinforcements across the bullet-swept plain. The 59th discovered
a sap running from their left to the German line, and along this
they pushed. They could not get through, however, to where their
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