The Long, Long Trail

We had orders to move past 6am in a northerly direction, but at 4am come orders saying that we must push off East at once. On the move at 5am, 3rd Brigade leading and ourselves as advance guard. Plenty of dirty thick woods to go through. Finally arrive at Villeneuve. Here we get information that the reason of our change of direction is that the French Army on our right defeated at German Army yesterday evening and that we are to arrive on the flank of the retiring and panic-stricken Germans. However as we only march about 10 miles and go into billets, there does not seem to be much truth in the story. What do we know? Nothing! We are expecting a mail today. Haven't seen one for last 10 days. Everything goes well with us. Mail and supplies arrive, but too late to dish it out completely, so we put it on the transport wagons again and load up.

Move at 5:30am. Reddie tore a coverlet belonging to the house and Madame arrived three different times in tears to see me about it. Reddie offered her 5 Francs, which she refused, much has Silas Wegg refused Mr Boffin’s offer. However, it was all settled at last. Our Brigade does advance guard to 1st Division. We march north-east. En route we get authentic news that the French are victorious again and that the Germans retire in disorder. Good business! We go via Fere-en-Tardenois, Loupeigne, Mont Notre Dame to Bazoche, where there is a good battle going on by the sound of guns and rifle fire. Welsh leading, Gloucestershire, Queen's and ourselves in rear. Welsh and Gloucester line high ground north of Paars, but nothing comes of it. It appears to be the 2nd Division on our left about Cereuil who are driving back the German force and we are too late to co-operate on the 2nd Division 's right and turn the Germans left, so we go into billets at Vaucere, and as it is raining as hard as it can well do we are thankful for a roof, although personally I spent that part of the night not spent in writing messages, orders, etc in sleeping in it upright chair. I am always reminded on these occasions of Pecksniff’s night ride in the coach to London, with Anthony and his son as companions. Dickens says then that one's legs get in one's way and are tiresome, and so it is. One kicks, etc, but to no purpose. The rest of the mail is opened. Nice parcel from mother of food and tobacco and several letters. Hope to get another mail soon, but they have not been running well lately. However, no grumbling allowed. We are lucky to be in a house on such a night is the general opinion of the headquarters mess. Very tired.

Map from British Official History, with positions at 25th September 1914

I have never spent and imagine that I can never spend a more ghastly and eart-tearing 48 hours than the last. Not a moment in which to write a word in my diary. We have been fighting hard ever since 8am on the 14th and have suffered much. At about 6am at Moulins we hear a good deal of firing going on and shells begin dropping about. We are then on the road moving north. The Queen's have been re-directed to the north-east some little time before and we are head of the Brigade. The 2nd Brigade is already engaged and we are sent to the high ground to the left to assist them. As we go we get some six shrapnels at us but mercifully are not touched. We reached the shelter of the high ground which rises quickly and steeply from the plain and then we advance over the crest and take up our position in a wood, ready to move out when required. Shrapnel and rifle fire fairly heavy. The first casualty is my mare who was shot in the head. Nothing very bad at present and she is able to go on carrying my stuff. Though I do not ride her. The General and Staff and CO and I watched the fight in the neighbouring valley in front.

It is a high ridge opposite, i.e west of us, that we have got to go for and nasty work it will be. Jenkinson, the Brigade Major, is killed, poor fellow, and soon afterwards we begin to suffer in the wood, chiefly from ricochets. We get several men down with small wounds, and then as C Company goes to attack, Lieutenant M T Johnson of A shot through the body. We hope he is not mortally wounded, but feared he is. C, D, and A Companies go out, leaving B in support. Swarms of the Germans on the ridge, rather massed. Our guns opened on them at 1800 yards, and one can see a nasty sight through one's glasses. Bunches of Germans blown to pieces.

We again suffered some casualties and eventually had to retire, or rather the Companies which have gone out have to come back to our ridge again. Here we stay firing and being fired at for some 8 hours and then another effort. Meanwhile our guns are having a huge duel. Not much success, and Germans are too numerous to really push back properly. Richards is hit in the arm and leg. Nothing very bad I fancy. Several men killed.

At dusk we are ordered to move up the valley towards the T of Troyon, which we did. As D Company was leading the wood a melanite shell burst at head of 1 Platoon. Poor young Vernon and a few men were knocked out. Vernon mercifully and miraculously not killed. On we go. It is now too late to be fired at by rifle fire and we go on well, but in the dark C and A Companies go ahead, and D lost touch. Most annoying. On reaching the ridge at the head of the valley we find only B and D companies, and as we were looking for the others, shots rang out and we were soon at it again. Short and sharp. Germans withdrew.

I have a horror of a night firing. One is so very likely to kill one's own men, and from wounds I have seen since, I am sure some of them were hit like that on this very occasion. The Brigadier and his staff came along and rode right past us, and in a few minutes they were fired on. General and Staff Captain of an Brigade Major, and one or two NCOs and men have got away, the rest were missing the next morning and have just been found by some of our search parties some distance ahead of our position. They have been fed by the Germans and looked after, but have been there for two days. We then spent the night in trenching our position, and at dawn a force of enemy was seen advancing. One of the officers called up to us that he wished to speak to an officer, but after the episode at Landrecies with the Guards, we weren't having any of that. I have no doubt that they really did wish to surrender but they must do it properly as one man did this morning and march up with his hands above his head and no arms upon him. So we opened fire, and although we lost some men we wiped them out at 200 yards, and there they lie in front of us. Poor devils. Later on the enemy's guns enfiladed us. We were told we were to hang on at all costs, and at all costs it had to be. We lost severely and it was a very bad business.

We were cheered on about midday by a message from Field Marshal French to say that we of the 1st Division had saved the situation and by holding on had allowed the crossing of the river to be made. Since then we have been under fire of all sorts, rifle fire from snipers, shell from enemy, shell (bursting short) from our own guns and we have not lacked experience. I am thankful that I and my particular friends have not taken a knock yet, but there is lots more to come. However, we have done and shall continue to do, please God, what we have to do and that is all about it. The sights were ghastly. Wounded crying all night for help and no one to help them. The doctors have done all they can, but the casualties are ever heavier than they can easily cope with. We have had a good few German prisoners and many Germans wounded have come through our hands, poor fellows, absolutely done and half-starved. I am certain that given a reasonable excuse they will surrender en bloc. Our total casualties are Yeatman and Johnson killed, Richards and Vernon wounded, and of the R & F 18 killed, 76 wounded and 122 missing, of whom I trust many may be found alive and well, as one must always lose some in the dark.

Here I sit outside our headquarters trench in the sun. The rain which we have had without a break for the past two days has now stopped and the world should look glorious. The battle has stopped here for a bit although in the distance we can here the 2nd English Army Corps guns and their battle generally. As I say all should be nice and peaceful and pretty. What it actually is is beyond description. Trenches, bits of equipment, clothing (probably blood-stained), ammunition, tools, caps, etc etc, everywhere. Poor fellows shot dead are lying in all directions. Some of ours, some of the 1st Guards Brigade who passed over this ground before us, and many Germans. All the hedges torn and trampled, all the grass trodden in the mud, holes where shells have struck, branches torn off trees by the explosion. Everywhere the same hard, grim, pitiless sign of battle and war. I have had a belly full of it. Those who were in that South Africa say that that was a picnic to this and the strain is terrific. No wonder if after a hundred shells have burst over us some of the men want to get back into the woods for rest. Ghastly, absolutely ghastly, and whoever was in the wrong in the matter which brought this war to be, is deserving of more than he can ever get in the world. Everyone very cheery and making the best of things. Men of course wonderful, as T. Atkins always is. I must try and write to mother now.

[Captain John Banks Jenkinson, psc, Rifle Brigade, is buried in Vendresse British Cemetery. He had been Brigade-Major of 3rd Brigade since April 1913, and was aged 33].

[Lieutenant Mervyn Taylor Johnson joined the regiment in 1907 and was aged 28. He happened to be in England on leave from 2nd Battalion when war commenced. He is also buried in Vendresse British Cemetery].

[Captain Marwood Edwards Yeatman, 30, was a Sandhurst graduate and a 1st Class Interpreter of Russian. He joined the regiment in 1903. Yeatman has no known grave and is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at La Ferte sous Jouarre].

We sit all day in the trenches being sniped at and were still being enfiladed by the German guns. The left of our line, ie the 2nd Army Corps, are not yet up on our left. And the position is roughly like this: the Welsh Regiment is on our left, then come our Companies A, B, D and C, with the Gloucestershire Regiment in reserve; the Queen's which is the other regiment of our Brigade has been sent away on some special job. Our right is connected with the left of the 1st Guards Brigade. The enemy seemed to have got some guns at the point marked X and therefore can enfilade our trenches, which they do. If only the left of our line could come up into line with us we should not have any more trouble. Luckily we have had time to do something to the trenches, and we only had about two killed and six wounded. Then there is a lull in the firing and we get an hour or so peace in which to get out of the trenches and stretch our legs. However, the next shell sends us all back and so we stay to the evening, when the battle stops and we have some peace.

At dawn the firing starts again, and this time we have to stay in our trenches the whole day long. I wonder how many thousands of shrapnel bullets must have been fired at us during the last 24 hours. It is a wearing, trying job and gets on one's nerves fearfully. We manage at daybreak to send out a search party to bring in any wounded that there may be out in front and we find some will have been a three days, wounded, with no water, no food and have shelter. And when found a large number say they are not half as bad as someone else close to them and will we look at the others first. Magnificent spirit, and people who say England is going to the dogs and that the men of England at the present day are inferior to those of the past do not know what they are talking about.

The rain comes down at about 9am and falls all day long in sheets. All the trenches of full of water. No draining any good. A cold wind on top of the hill does not improve matters. But again everyone tries to be as cheery as possible and so night comes on. The battle stops for a bit and again we have some rest. But little sleep, it is too cold really for that. At dawn, firing starts again. How long can it go on, I wonder, and how long can one's nerves stand it. Of course, one is safe enough as far as things go in trenches with cover, etc, but it is the noise and shock that tires one. A whistle and a bang, and the noise that sounds like a shower of hail as the shrapnel comes through the branches of the trees, and in all is over for a minute and then at it again.

We still sit in our trenches, being heavily shelled by enfilade fire from enemy's guns. Every now and then a man knocked out and nothing to shoot at. One does not mind losing men when one is doing something, but to sit still and be knocked over one by one without seeing a soul is trying. At last CO went to see the General. We were allowed to withdraw on to the ridge on the left of Gloucester's. Thank God. Total casualties: killed 35, wounded 131. One blessing is that the 68 missing have come back. They were lost and became attached to the Connaughts. Simonds, Gilbert and 190 men arrive. Third reinforcement.

At 3am we move away to left of Gloucesters. D and B Companies hold trenches and C and A to just west of Vendresse with Battalion headquarters as a general reserve. The 1st Brigade in Corps Reserve, and 2nd in Divisional Reserve. Here we sit under a cliff with shells coming thick and fast over us, but can't touch us, I am glad to say, as the slope is too steep. We square up various matters and get straightened out. We are able to communicate now with every Company under cover, which is good.

Still sit in the sun. Very restful. At 1pm, message comes that A and C companies are to be ready to move at once as 15th Brigade on our right expects an attack shortly. We prepare but presently things get quiet again. We spend some hours having shells over us. Some casualties. Swarms of messages arrive during the night and a few small attacks repulsed.

At 4am C and A relieved B and D in the trenches, a few extra posts put out. The mail comes regularly. Heaps of papers and parcels and letters. There is lots of news from people coming back from sick-list and with reinforcements. Now that we have some naval guns coming up that is what we want. Everything is going well. I managed to get into Vendresse for an hour and get a big hot bath from one of the few remaining families. Very delicious, and a change of underclothes makes a new man of me.

Nothing much doing. Shells and rifle fire every now and then. One or two casualties, but nothing much. One or two messages that the Germans are massing to attack some time soon. The posts and patrols out as usual.

The most ghastly day of my life and yet to one of the proudest because my Regiment did its job and held on against heavy odds. At 4.15am Germans attacked. Main attack apparently against my regiment, which is the left of our line. D and A Companies in the trenches. B and C hustled up to support, and soon the whole place alive with bullets. News comes that they are trying to work round our left. The CO asked the Welsh Regiment to deal with this, which it did. Poor D Company had to face the music more than anyone else.

Presently the news comes that the Germans are in a quarry in the middle of our line, i.e that our line was pierced. C Company drove them clean out. About 3pm, things began to quieten down, D and A companies had done their share of the work on the right and left. We were able to reorganise more or less, except for D Company’s far advanced trenches, and those we searched at night and found James wounded, Sills and Welby killed.

Total casualties. Killed Welby, Simonds, Coker, Sills and 86 men; wounded - Pritchard, James and Gwynn slightly, and 95 men; and missing 12. These 12 were of D Company, and apparently surrendered. May they be spared to reach England again and be tried by court martial and get what they deserve. Never has the 24th surrendered yet, and in spite of casualties the rest of the Regiment stuck to it and fought as Englishman and 24th men could fight.

We are now left with three Officers each in three companies, and only two in the fourth, instead of six in each. A sad, sad business, but everyone played up, and as the French say, “Qui perd, gagne”. We have lost men and officers, but have again won a name for doing what it is our duty to do and in this case we held a very important line without giving a yard.

[Second Lieutenant Charles Caldwell Sills, 20, has no known grave and is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at La Ferte sous Jouarre. He joined the regiment after graduating from Sandhurst in September 1913].

[41 year-old Major Glynn Everard Earle Welby, officer commanding D Company, had been serving with the regiment since December 1893, and had seen service in the war in South Africa. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at La Ferte sous Jouarre].

[ Lieutenant George Prescott Blackall-Simonds, Reserve of Officers, attached SWB. Saw service in South African War as a railway staff officer. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at La Ferte sous Jouarre. Aged 33].

[Second Lieutenant John Cadwallader Coker, 27, is buried in Vendresse British Cemetery. He joined the regiment in August 1908].

No rest last night at all as we expected another attack. However, all was quiet and we spent the day in our quarry again. Towards evening we get orders that we are to be relieved by the 1st Guards Brigade. The Camerons arrive at 9pm to take over our bit of the line. Poor devils, they have had a worse time than we have from the officers losses point of view. They are left with a Captain commanding them and three companies commanded by Second Lieutenants fresh from Sandhurst. We hand over our position, form up, and moved back to Oeuilly, where we billet with the Queen's and the Brigade Headquarters. A big fight goes on while we are on the march, mostly on the right of the English position where the 18th French Corps is. It continues far into the night and we are afraid we may have to go back to help. However it clears off and we learn that the Germans attacked but without success.

Stood up to arms at 4:30am, dismissed and spent the day trying to get matters squared up. Wash, wash clothes, change socks, clean rifles, etc etc, and make promotions to fill vacancies. Personally I am at it the whole day till 8:30pm when I swallow some food and get to bed and have a real good sleep till 4:30 again. We hear today of three of our cruisers being sunk by Germans, which I hope may not be true, but of course we are bound to have losses.

Today again standing to arms at 4:30am I discovered that I am in for one of my best colds in the head, which is a pity. The headquarters are together again at breakfast. Lately, of course, Hadley has been with his machine guns in the trenches, and Elliott has been at the hospital. Very excellent breakfast indeed. More office work and everything getting straight. Promotions about done.

A very peaceful night last night. Hardly any shooting at all, but we stand to arms as usual at 4:30am. Bed again at 5:30am. The nights are getting devilish cold. The morning's closing in. Watson of the Queen's sends off a pal in a motor-car to Paris, and we give him a list of what we want and a fair amount it comes to. All the news is good today and we hope we may do a general advance soon. A quiet night.