The incident being closed, the colonel and myself strapped on belts and revolvers. The colonel glanced swiftly at the map position of the battery that the approaching Huns had scuppered, and then said quickly--
"Whatever happens, we shall have time for something to eat. Tell Manning to bring in lunch."
III. THE END OF A BATTERY.
We none of us exactly enjoyed that lunch. It was a nice lunch, too: the steak cut thin, like steak _a la minute_, and not overdone, with crisp onion sprigs--"bristled onions" the cook always called them; and, wonder of wonders! a pudding made by cribbing our bread allowance, with plum jam and a few strips of macaroni to spice it up. But the thought that the Boche had scuppered C Battery not a thousand yards away, and was coming on, did _not_ improve the appet.i.te. And news of what was really happening was so scant and so indefinite! The colonel commented once on the tenderness of the steak, and then looked thoughtful; the doctor remained dumb; for myself, I felt keyed up to the state that seems to clear the mind and to make one doubly alert in execution, but my hand did perhaps shake a trifle, and I drank two whiskies instead of my usual one. I thought of one or two things I ought to have done and had left undone. I remember feeling distinctly annoyed because a particular hair lotion on its way from England might not be delivered.
I made sure that a certain discoloured Edward and Alexandra Coronation medal--given me for luck--was secure in my pocket-book, and stuffed my breast-pockets with all the cigars they would hold.
Lunch was finished in about eight minutes, and the imperturbable Manning cleared away.
"What about these Defence File papers and the maps on the wall, sir?" I asked the colonel, my mind harking back to newspaper accounts of German strategic doc.u.ments captured by us in some of our advances.
"Tear them up and put them on the fire. We won"t destroy this map"--pointing to a neat and graphic piece of coloured draughtsmanship showing infantry and artillery dispositions--"until we have to."
I got to work, and the fire crackled joyously. "Don"t say we shall have to leave these to the Hun, doctor!" I said in shocked tones, picking up four copies of his adored "Sat.u.r.day Evening Post."
The doctor smiled vaguely, but answered nothing.
Hostile sh.e.l.ling had ceased in our neighbourhood. The sound our ears waited for was the "putt--puttr--putt" of machine-guns, always the indication of a near infantry attack. I went out and made sure that the look-outs at both ends of the quarry were doing their work, and found our little Headquarters army, twenty-five men all told, quiet and steady, and ready for the moment, should it come.
Half an hour slipped by. We spoke on the telephone to D Battery, who were on high ground. No, they could see no wave of German infantry approaching; but Bullivant, B Battery"s major, who for the time being was commanding C Battery"s rear uncaptured guns as well as his own rear and forward 18-pounders, said Huns were coming up _en ma.s.se_ from the south-west. "My guns are firing at them, and A"s forward guns are shootin" as well," he went on. "No! I have seen nothing of our infantry, but observation is still bad; pockets of mist still about.
About Bliss" (the signalling officer who had gone out in the morning and not returned). "Oh! he stayed some time at our forward position and then said he was going to get over to A Battery to see why they were cut off from communication. A lot of 42"s were coming over at the time, and there were snipers about. He had to duck three or four times on the way and then disappeared from view."
Dumble, captain of A Battery, who had come up from the waggon line, dropped in and hurried off, saying he was going forward to see if he could get anywhere near the Battery.
3 P.M.: No further developments. "I"m going over to see General ----,"
announced the colonel, naming the brigadier-general commanding the Infantry Brigade we were covering.
Five minutes later the adjutant of an infantry battalion on our left rang through and told me that large numbers of Germans were over the crest and advancing towards what the map showed me was our A Battery"s forward positions. I put A Battery"s rear position guns to fire on them by the map, and guessed that the Battery"s forward guns would be hard at it already.
The colonel came back from the Infantry Brigade, quiet and self-possessed as ever. "Defence in depth means forces more scattered, and greater difficulty in keeping up communication," he remarked, taking a chair and lighting a cigarette. "As far as can be gathered, the situation is this: The Boche got through in force on our left and the --th Division gave way. That bared our own Division"s left flank, and is the reason why the --rd Brigade had such a bad time and lost so many guns. The enemy is still coming on; and he"s doing too well, also against the --th Division on our right. Our own people say he has worked past their outposts, but that so far as is known they are holding out. The main battle positions are still safe, and a counter-attack is being arranged. No news at all of what is happening farther north!" This was the longest speech the colonel made on that 21st of March.
4 P.M.: I telephoned to the regimental sergeant-major and told him to come up with the mess cart and the G.S. waggon for remaining kit, and ordered the servants to pack up. Twenty minutes later Dumble returned, dusty and dispirited.
"Well, Dumble, what news?" inquired the colonel quickly.
"I couldn"t get to the Battery, sir--the enemy are round it, between it and our infantry," began Dumble in cut-up tones.
"The nearest I got was in a trench held by the 7th Westshires. An officer told me that an advanced party of the enemy came over the crest about 12.30. They fired Very lights in response to a Hun contact plane that flew towards the switch-trench leading N.E. towards the battery.
By 2 o"clock more enemy infantry were coming from the south, apparently to join up with the advanced party who had sat tight. Both A and B Batteries fired on this new body, and they seemed to me dispersed. But by half-past three, while I was there, Germans in small parties were crawling through the wire in front of A Battery, and getting into our trenches."
He paused and wiped his streaming face with his handkerchief.
"What were our infantry doing?" the colonel interrogated.
"There were only small parties of them, sir, and very scattered," went on Dumble. "The officer and myself, with a dozen men, got along a trench to within thirty yards of some Huns and fired on them. But another party, from almost behind us, came along and bombed us back. We had two killed and brought one wounded man back with us. Another lot came up on our left and we had to move farther back."
"Was the battery still firing when you came away?" demanded the colonel.
"Yes, sir, firing well, but mostly on fresh parties of Boche eight hundred yards away."
A knock at the door, and the entrance of a quick-eyed dapper bombardier from the very battery talked of prevented Dumble continuing.
"From Major Harville, sir," he said, saluting.
Just a slip from an Army Book 136, in Harville"s neat cramped handwriting. And the message itself was formal enough: a plain bald statement of a situation that contained heroism, drama, a fight against odds--despair, probably, were the truth known; but despair crowned with the halo of glory and self-sacrifice. The message ran--
"I have fired 2200 rounds, and have only 200 rounds left. My S.A.A. for Lewis guns and rifles is also running short. Can more ammunition be sent up immediately, please?
"The enemy has got through the wire in front of the battery, and is now on two sides of us. If the infantry can a.s.sist we can hold out until dark, when I will retire to rear position."
The note was timed 3.40 P.M. It was now 4.30 P.M. The colonel was never more collected or more rapid in acting than at this moment. In two minutes he had spoken to the Infantry brigadier, and asked whether immediate a.s.sistance could not be sent. Then he wrote this note to Major Harville--
"Your message timed 3.40 P.M. received at 4.30 P.M.
"Hold on: you are doing splendidly, and counter-attacks are being organised.
"Teams with limbers to withdraw your guns to rear position by 8 P.M. are being sent for."
"I hope the counter-attack is in time," he said to me with a certain sad thoughtfulness before handing the note to the bombardier. "Do you think you can get back to the battery, bombardier?" he added. "I"m afraid you"ll find more Boche there now."
"I"ll try, sir," replied the bombardier stoutly.
"Off you go then, but be careful!"
In the period of waiting that followed we seemed to have forgotten that three hours ago we were expecting every minute to have to turn out and face the Boche with rifle and revolver. Save for the colonel and two or three of the signallers and a couple of servants, none of us were experienced soldiers; all our previous experience had been in attack; it was something new this feeling that a powerful, energetic, determined foe was beating down our opposition and getting nearer and nearer. Yet, whatever they may have felt, not one of our little band showed signs of depression or nervous excitement. The signalling-sergeant was cursing the sanitary orderly for not having cleared up a particular litter of tins and empty cigarette packets; the officers" cook was peeling potatoes for dinner, and I heard the old wheeler singing softly to himself some stupid, old-time, music-hall ditty.
In the mess no one spoke a word, but each of us knew that our one thought was whether A battery would be able to hold out.
5.30 P.M.: The answer, a grim and saddening one. A sergeant came hurrying in.
"They"ve captured the battery, sir," he said bluntly, "and Major Harville is killed. I came to report, sir. I was the only one to get away."
I think sometimes of famous cases of tragedy and pa.s.sion I have heard unfolded at the Old Bailey and the Law Courts, and the intense, almost theatrical atmosphere surrounding them, and compare it to the simple setting of this story, told in matter-of-fact tones by a sergeant standing to attention. "We finished all our ammunition, sir," he began, addressing the colonel, "and took our rifles. Major Harville was shot by a machine-gun while he was detailing us to defend the two gun-pits farthest from the place where the enemy had got past our wire. He fell into my gun-pit, sir, shot in the head. Mr Dawes, who took command, said we would keep on with rifles, and Bombardier Clidstone was doing fine work with his Lewis gun. The Huns didn"t seem inclined to come close, and after a conference in my gun-pit with Mr Bliss, Mr Dawes asked for a volunteer to try and find the nearest infantry, and to tell them we"d hold on if they could engage the enemy and prevent him rushing us. I said I would try, and crawled on my belly, sir, through the gra.s.s to an empty trench. The battery fired several fine volleys; I heard them for a long time. It was slow work crawling away without being seen, and when I had got 600 yards and was trying to get my bearing--I don"t know what time it was.
"Then I noticed that no firing came from the battery. There was no sound at all for over ten minutes. Then about a hundred Germans rushed forward and started bombing the gun-pits, and some of our men came up.
I saw about a dozen of them marched off as prisoners."
"You are quite sure Major Harville was killed?" asked the colonel quietly.
"Yes, sir; he fell right in my gun-pit."
We all stood silent, looking on the ground. Poor Harville! The phrase that kept running in my mind was, "One of the best," but with a different meaning to that in which generally it is used. A gallant upright soul. The very best type of the civilian soldier who fought this war for England. Before the war a professional man who had given no thought to fighting: when he became a soldier it was because he understood thoroughly, and believed in completely, all that for which he was ready to give his life.
A clean-living, truly religious man too, who loathed loose talk and swearing, and lived up to his ideals even amid the slime and filth of war. And his bravery was that of the honest man who fears and yet faces danger, not the bull-headed heroism of the "man who knows no fear."