Countryside at Rue d'Ouvert
Thursday
22nd October 1914: We hear today from Bury Saint Edmunds Magistrates that a man
from Luton serving in the 5th Battalion,
Bedfordshire Regiment, has been sent to prison. His name is Rudolph R. Baukey
and he is a German. He had failed to register as required by the Aliens’
Registration Order 1914. When challenged Baukey said: “I know I have done
wrong. I am a German and have not taken out naturalisation papers. I saw about
it in the papers and did not like to let the people know I was a German and put
it off until it was too late”. As Luton is a
centre of the straw hat trade there are a great many Germans in the town and it
has not been unusual for them to join the Territorial Army. Baukey is a good
clarinet player and was a great addition to the battalion’s band. Baukey
pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, half the
maximum term for such an offence.
The
adjutant of the 1st Bedfords tells us that they
have been ordered to move from Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée north-east to Chapelle Saint-Roch
and report to 13th Brigade where they will be ordered to assist in an attack on
the village of Violaines
Our contact
with the battalion has just spoken with us to tell us about an abortive
operation which has cost the lives of seventeen men. It appears that the
Germans pre-empted our planned attack: “I could just see Germans rushing
towards us and off fights going on in various places and shouts of “Don’t fire,
we are your own men!” evidently from the Germans”.
“I ran back
pursued by a batch of Germans through a barn and came up against a barbed wire
fence about seven feet high. I got through this somehow, being pulled from the
other side by Company Sergeant Major Sharpe who turned up torn, and torn, bleeding
and with all my breeches torn off, got to ground”.
“We
collected a party of men and then I made for a cross-roads where I reorganised
what was left of the Company and got up to hold the Main Line of Defence. The
whole thing was a tremendous muddle but for the time being the Germans never
got further than our temporary line”.
“It appears
that the Germans had rushed the 1st Battalion, Cheshire Regiment in the
darkness and had managed to clear them out of Violaines almost without a shot
being fired, as it was done so quickly. Few of the Cheshires got back to us.
The Germans had then rushed on to us about a mile back with a few of the Cheshire
“We
eventually worked our way collecting stragglers and got a semblance Company
back consisting of various units. We then reformed and when we had the men
together, started to try and get the trenches back. Of the whole Company I can
only muster about forty. Any form of advance was met by appalling fire so we
lay low and were eventually relieved by the Manchesters and Worcesters. We then
collected as many of the Company as possible, about sixty all told, and got
into ditches in support of the Manchesters in the village of Rue
No comments:
Post a Comment