Ypres Cloth Hall on fire
Thursday
15th October 1914: The 2nd Bedfords have reached
Ypres and the front line for the first time in
this war. Private T. Farmer tells us that the unit has seen local people going
into Ypres from the outlying areas with their
belongings, which was "a pitiful sight". The battalion has taken up a
position on the Menin Road
The 1st
Battalion are still just west of Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée. Our contact tells us:
“Nothing much doing today except a good bit of heavy shell fire all round us
and sniping. A cow and her calf just by us were hit so I finished them off”.
A little
later he reported: “The farm, our headquarters, where all our mules are has
been very badly shelled. I went back to see if any damage had been done and
found chaos. The civilian, who had given us so much trouble, in spite of our
warnings, walked across his yard to get his horse away and on his way back,
when a short distance from us, a shell killed his horse and wounded him
severely in the knee. He refused to let them touch him and crawled away to a
crucifix which he clung to. After much persuasion I got him into a barrow and got his friend to wheel him to the hospital and he made me promise to look
after his house and farm before he went”.
Source: X550/2/5;
X550/2/7; X550/3/wd
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