British dead at le Cateau
Wednesday 26th August 1914: We have received this morning a letter from a
member of the Bedfordshire yeomanry: "It might interest many who have
their sons with us to know that all are well and very cheerful. Very few are
unable to take their full share of hard work".
Another man
writes: "We arrived here at Hatfield Peverel yesterday after having a
pretty rough time of it from Winslow. We have had to sleep in barns every night
except one when we slept in the Workhouse at Epping. We left Winslow on
Wednesday morning and arrived in Edlesborough at night Thursday, at Kimpton
Friday, at Hertford Saturday, at Epping Sunday, at South Weald Monday near Chelmsford. We have been
treated extremely well by the people residing in the different villages through
which we passed. These people stand by the side of the road and hand us fruit
as we pass. In one village practically the whole of a troop had bunches of big
black grapes given to them. When we were going into Hertford a lady gave us all
two cigarettes each. As we were going through a town some men made a remark about three old soldiers who are in the Yeomanry, and have not yet
received their uniform. They asked one of our fellows who they were, and he
replied that they were three spare colonels. It is not known how long we shall
stay here, and we don't know where we are going next".
No doubt
the Yeomanry think themselves lucky when compared with the 1st Bedfords who,
after a few days in continuous action have today fought a very important battle
at le Cateau. It has become necessary for the British Expeditionary Force to
retreat south-westwards owing to the overwhelming numbers the Germans have
brought to bear on our army. To do this successfully General Sir Horace
Smith-Dorrien, commander of II Corps, decided that a stand had to be made to
administer a bloody enough nose to the enemy to prevent him following too
closely on our army’s heels. That battle has been fought and, despite terrible
casualties, has been brought to a successful conclusion.
The 1st Bedfords were mostly in
good trenches, begun by French civilians and finished by our men the day before.
When the enemy attacked the troops on the battalion’s right were eventually
driven back leaving the right flank exposed. One of our sources in the
battalion reported: “The advance was a most wonderful sight and we got up and,
taking off our caps, watched it over the parapet. It was a splendid object
lesson and we could point out all the mistakes made in Company training when
advancing under fire. Their casualties were tremendous and our shooting
wonderful as shrapnel simply swept them away”.
“We saw the
guns of what must have been practically a German Army Corps appear on the high
ground away to our left and slowly and quite calmly unlimber and get into
position. There were simply hundreds of guns there and I started to open fire
on them but the range was too far. We then knew that we were very properly in
for it”.
“The
Germans had also begun to advance on our front so we kept our heads low and
opened fire at them. It was however very difficult shooting as the country in
front of us was littered with corn stooks and we could see very little. Each
corn stook concealed several Germans who made splendid use of them. A battery of
enemy guns also opened fire on us from a wood to our front”.
“Their
machine-guns opened on us then, mostly from the house on the road a few hundred
yards to our right front, which must have been filled with them and the whole
of our parapet so spattered with bullets that it was impossible to raise our
heads except at very short intervals”.
“At about
4.30 pm we discovered that everybody on our right and left had retired – there
was no chance of getting in touch – and we were apparently left all alone. I sent
a runner to verify this and then made arrangements to retire too”.
A
retirement in the face of a determined enemy is not easy. However, the
battalion had remained in the front line long enough to cover the retirement of
our artillery in the rear, which suffered considerably. The withdrawal from the
trenches was very difficult because the country is flat and open. Fortunately,
our source states, “the enemy's fire was rather wild”. Something of the
harum-scarum nature of the withdrawal is evident from my source’s continuing
account: “Sniping was going on at us from all sides and we could see nothing to
fire at. We had some more casualties, one man being hit beside me and rolled
over like a rabbit; one of my sergeants seized him and dragged him across the
road to some haystacks under cover”. Our informant then set off with a
colleague to try to find an officer who had been wounded but was unable to
reach him.
“Bullets
were getting a bit thick, about then a German Field Gun appeared at short
distance away and started to open fire so we started back. We had to run most
of the way and were peppered hard. I got a bullet through both my puttees. We
were so tired that at times we could not run so had to walk and eventually fell
into a trench. Here we found quantities of ammunition which we tried to bury
and a very welcome bottle of brandy. This we drained and then ran back to the
road and almost collapsed on it and were both as sick as cats! We remained on
the road for a bit but the shelling got a bit too thick and we decided to clear
out”.
“We beat a
retreat and Lilley [an officer in the Dorset Regiment] and I had to marshal a
small army of stragglers back which we picked up on the way. Some were very
badly wounded and some had their legs almost blown off so we had to carry them
in”.
“As the
roads were being shelled hard we had to keep to the fields and had to climb
walls and barbed wire fences by the score. I cursed the day I threw my wire
cutters away but emptied nearly all the contents of my haversack including my
Field Service Pocket Book”.
“We reached
a farm house and found in it a cart and horse in the stable which we promptly
tried to harness into it. The horse thought better and refused to go in so in a
rage I kicked it on the backside and sent it off! We dragged the cart with us
full of wounded men”.
“We had by
then quite a large party and pushed on and much to our relief crossed the
railway and then came across a lot of weeping Royal Scots
who told us that they had lost the whole of their Battalion”.
“We then
pushed on into a village where we found a Field Ambulance. Here we deposited
our wounded and warned the doctors that the Germans were close behind us, but
they said that they must stay where they were as they had such bad cases”.
“We then
marched on back and came across the rest of the Division with Sir Charles
Ferguson (commanding) at a crossroads directing the stream of troops in the
right direction himself. Most of the 15th Brigade got together and we marched
on into Estrées arriving about 9 pm. The sides of the roads were a most strange
sight, littered with material which we could not move and huge dumps of meat
which had to be left behind to make room on the wagons for the wounded”.
The
battalion has suffered one officer and about thirty other ranks as casualties. Altogether
the corps has lost about 700 dead, 2,500 prisoners and about 4,500 wounded. The
enemy must have lost around 5,000.
Sources: X550/2/5; X550/2/7;
Bedfordshire Times 28th August 1914
