"There"s a big house at the back, sir, with an artillery mess in it,"
said the sergeant-major, who had finished watering and feeding the horses. "Perhaps there"s a spare room there for the colonel."
I went round and came upon the officers of a 6-inch how. battery, who had reached the village two hours before, and were finishing their evening meal. They offered me dinner, which I refused, and then a whisky, which I accepted; but there were no spare rooms. They had got away from the neighbourhood of the ca.n.a.l with the loss of two hows., but told me of a 9.2 battery at ----, that it had been absolutely impossible to get out. "I believe it is true that we"ve done very well up north," replied their Irish captain cheerfully. "Lots of prisoners at Ypres, they say.... Have another whisky!"
"We have one tent, haven"t we?" I asked the sergeant-major when I got outside.
"Yes, sir, but there"s a cottage where Meddings has put the officers"
cook-house. It looks all right, and there might be something there for the colonel."
The cottage certainly looked clean and neat from the outside, but the door was locked, and it is the rule that British troops only enter French houses with the consent of the owners. However, I climbed through the window and found two empty rooms each with bed and mattress. Times were not for picking and choosing. "We"ll put the tent up," I decided, "and ask the colonel if he cares to take one of these beds or have the tent. You and I, Bushman, will take what he doesn"t want."
When I took a turn round to see if the men were comfortably settled for the night, I learnt that the skurried departure of the A.S.C. had provided them with unexampled opportunity of legitimate loot. There was one outbuilding crammed with blankets, shirts, socks, and underwear--and our men certainly rose to the occasion. Even the old wheeler chuckled when he discovered a brand-new saw and a drill. The sergeant-major fastened on to a gramophone; and that caused me for the first time to remember my Columbia graphophone that I had loaned to C Battery before I went home wounded from Zillebeke. Hang it, it must have been left behind at Villequier Aumont. The Germans had probably got it by now.
It was half-past twelve before the colonel returned. "I"ll have my camp-bed put up there," he said promptly, indicating an airy cart-shed, and he refused altogether to look at the empty cottage. So Bushman and I had beds made up in the tent, and then the three of us sat down to a welcome and memorable _al fresco_ supper opposite our horse lines. Our table was a door balanced on a tree stump, and Meddings provided a wonderful Lincolnshire pork-pie. He also managed hot potatoes as an extra surprise, and as it was our first set meal since 5.30 A.M.
breakfast, there was a period of steady, quiet, happy munching. One cigarette, then the colonel tucked himself up in his valise, and in three minutes was deep in his first sleep for three successive nights.
"I"ll tell you what I"m going to do," I said to Bushman when we got in our tent. "I"m going to take my clothes off and put on pyjamas. You never know these days when you"ll get another chance."
I had pulled off my jacket, when I heard a jingling sound outside and French voices. Looking out, I saw a couple of troops of French cavalry picketing their tall leggy horses on the village green. I just had time to rush out and prevent two troopers stabling their officers" chargers in the cart-shed where the colonel was resting. They seemed startled when I whispered that it was "mon colonel" who lay there, but they apologised with the politeness of their race, and I pointed out a much better stable higher up the street.
About 3 A.M. the piquet woke me to introduce an artillery officer with a Caledonian accent, who asked if I could tell him where a brigade I knew nothing at all about were quartered in the village. The next thing I remember was the colonel"s servant telling me the colonel was up and wanted me immediately.
VIII. A LAST FIFTY ROUNDS
5.30 A.M.: "No orders have reached me from Division yet," said the colonel, shaving as he talked, his pocket mirror precariously poised on a six-inch nail stuck in one of the props that held up the roof of his cart-shed boudoir. "And I"m still waiting for reports from A and D that they"ve arrived at the positions I gave them on the orders sent out last night. I want you to go off and find the batteries. I will wait here for orders from Division. Have your breakfast first. You"ll find the batteries somewhere along that contour," pointing with the little finger of the hand that held the safety razor to a 1/100,000th map on his bed.
Again I realised as I set out, followed by my groom, that the Boche had moved forward during the night. The village we had occupied at 11 P.M.
was now within range of his guns. Two 59"s dropped even at that moment within 200 yards of our horses. Moreover, I hadn"t ridden far along the main street before I met some of our divisional infantry. A company commander told me that the French had come through and relieved them.
His brigadier had arrived at Commenchon at 4 A.M., and was lying down--in the white house at the corner. "The Boche gave us no rest at all last night," he went on. "He"d got two fresh divisions opposite us, and shoved up thousands of men after ten o"clock. We killed hundreds of "em, but there was no stopping them. And aren"t they hot with the machine-gun? They must have been specially trained for this sort of warfare. They snipe you at 700 yards as if the machine-gun were a rifle, and their infantry hasn"t needed a barrage to prepare the way.
There"s so many of "em."
I trotted on, and at the top of the street leading out of the village recognised a mounted orderly of the battery I had belonged to before coming to Brigade Headquarters. He was riding hard, but pulled up when he saw me and handed me a note, saying, "Major Bartlett sent me with this to Brigade Headquarters, sir."
I recognised the brigade-major"s handwriting on an ordinary Army message form. It was a note stating that we were to remain in support of the French after our own divisional infantry had fallen back, but that the French Divisional General hoped to relieve our artillery by 9 A.M. We were to fire on certain points until that hour, and then withdraw to a village still farther south-west, and again co-operate with our own infantry.
"Do you know if Major Bartlett read this?" I asked.
"Yes, sir; I saw him read it."
"Is the battery in action?"
"Yes, sir; they were firing when I came away."
Good! I knew then that Major Bartlett, on his own initiative, was acting on the instructions contained in the brigade-major"s note, and that the other batteries would not be delayed in getting into action if I sent the note direct to the colonel.
I took the orderly another quarter of a mile along the road, so that he could point out the nearest way to Major Bartlett"s battery; and then told my groom to take him direct to the colonel, after which the pair of them would rejoin me.
I found the major in good fettle, and, as I had guessed, blazing off at the targets given by the B.M. As also he had pa.s.sed on the orders to B Battery, who were three hundred yards away, we at any rate had two batteries in action. He explained to me that the Division despatch-rider had somehow failed to find Brigade Headquarters, but had come across him. He had got his battery into position at about two o"clock, and they had dossed down beside the guns.
The major didn"t know the whereabouts of D and A Batteries, so I got on my horse again and searched a village that was farther south, but on the same map-contour. Judge of my relief when I encountered Fentiman, who told me that D and A would be along in ten minutes. I emphasised the need for despatch, and he told me that the previous night his battery"s waggon lines had been taken back farther than they should have been; the horses being thoroughly done, they had had a proper halt at midnight. "We"ll be firing in twenty minutes," he added optimistically. "I"ll dash along and work out the targets with Major Bartlett."
A couple of Horse Artillery batteries had come into action a quarter of a mile behind ours, and sh.e.l.ls began to fly in the direction of the enemy in business-like fashion. From the ridge we looked into a village that sloped up again to a thick belt of trees three thousand yards in front of us and to blue distances away on the right. Down the slopes tiny blue figures could be seen feverishly throwing up earth; parties of twenty and thirty men, khaki-clad, every now and then emerged from the wood, and in single file dipped down to the valley and came towards the village I had just left. The problem would undoubtedly be how far the retirement would proceed before French reinforcements made the line ma.s.sive enough for a proper stand. The colonel was now with the batteries, checking their lines of fire, and encouraging battery commanders to do their d.a.m.nedest until the French artillery came along.
My groom told me that the colonel had had a very narrow escape as he pa.s.sed through Commenchon. A sh.e.l.l dropped thirty yards from him, and a splinter had wounded his mare.
8.30 A.M.: The eternal machine-guns were spluttering devilishly in the wood opposite. Our infantry were coming back in larger numbers now, and I thought glumly of what the brigade-major had said the previous evening, "We are going to fight for this line." The colonel had conferred with the colonel of the Horse Artillery, who said that his orders were to pull out at 9.15, come what may. "The Corps are particularly anxious that no more guns should be lost." The veterinary sergeant of a Horse Artillery battery had dressed the colonel"s mare, although she was too excited for him to get the splinter out. "I think she deserves to have a wound stripe up," smiled the colonel, who was exceedingly fond of her.
9 A.M.: No signs yet of the French artillery. There seemed to be a curious lull in the fighting. Only the Boche long-range guns were firing, and their sh.e.l.ls were going well over our heads. And no more French infantry were coming up.
9.20 A.M.: The two Horse Artillery batteries were away. Our teams and limbers had come up, all except one team of C Battery. We waited for the colonel to give the word.
Suddenly the "chug-chug-chug" of a motor-cycle: a despatch-rider from Division! The colonel tore open the envelope. "A Battery ... Limber-up and retire," he ordered; "B and D will follow."
"The French artillery has been stopped," he explained shortly. "We are going to make the stand at Bethancourt, three miles farther back."
An officer of C Battery ran across to say that through the binoculars grey forms could be seen in the belt of trees opposite.
The colonel"s eyes gleamed. "Got any ammunition left after filling up the limbers?" he asked quickly.
"Yes, sir--about fifty rounds."
"Right; give it "em, and then pull out at once."
The officer saluted and hurried off. The colonel lighted a cigarette and stood under a tree. "One of the most difficult things to decide upon in war," he soliloquised, "is to know the exact moment at which to retire."
The sharp crack of C"s 18-pdrs. firing fifty rounds as fast as the guns could be loaded. Then silence. Still no sign of the missing team of horses. A corporal went by at the gallop to find out what had happened.
The colonel was now on the ridge searching the trees opposite with his gla.s.ses. Three guns had been limbered up. Every other battery had gone.
The battery commander looked puzzled and annoyed. "The guns that are ready can move off," said the colonel calmly. "An officer is to wait here until the team arrives to take away the other gun."
Even as the three guns took the road the missing team and limber came out of the village.
"The off-leader had cast a shoe, and they had to send back for the farrier, sir," reported the corporal.
"Good," observed the colonel, "but some of you fellows will have to remember that there"s a war on, and put more "nip" into your work."
IX. FASTER AND FASTER
11 A.M.: It needed cool counsels and a high and steadfast faith during the next twenty-four hours. The sunken track along which our own and other British Artillery brigades were retreating was full of ruts and choked with dust, and we thanked our stars that the weather had held.
That road churned into the mud-slime to which a few hours" rain could change it, would have become impa.s.sable for wheeled traffic. But the chief trouble was that the French "75"s" coming up to relieve us had had to turn and go back the same way as ourselves. For the best part of a mile both sides of the narrow roads were occupied, and only patience, forbearance, and steady command eased the block. The Boche could not be far behind, and there was just a possibility that we might be trapped with little chance of putting up a fight. It was a lovely day again, baking hot, and the birds were singing their gayest; but most of us felt savagely doleful. "I hope it is a strategic retreat," said Fentiman viciously, "but we"ve had no letters and no papers for days, and we know Blink All of what"s going on. A strategic retreat is all right, but if the fellow behind follows you close enough to keep on kicking your tail hard all the time, you may retreat farther than you intend. When the Boche retreated last year we never got close enough to kick his tail--d.a.m.n him."