The Doings of the Fifteenth Infantry Brigade

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The Doings of the Fifteenth Infantry Brigade,?by Edward Lord Gleichen

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by Edward Lord Gleichen
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Title: The Doings of the Fifteenth Infantry Brigade August 1914 to March 1915
Author: Edward Lord Gleichen

Release Date: July 14, 2007 [eBook #22074]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Transcriber's note:
Obvious printer's errors have been corrected. All other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling has been preserved.
The missing word "in" has been added in the sentence: However, I detached the Dorsets to move along the canal bank from Gorre and get in touch with the French.
Weatherby, who had cantered off to get in touch with them,...

THE DOINGS OF THE FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE AUGUST 1914 TO MARCH 1915

[Illustration: L. de St. A. -- J. T. W. -- G. -- A. L. M.-B. -- R. E. B. photo by Lieut. H. M. Cadell, R.E. Some Of Brigade Headquarters.]

THE DOINGS OF THE FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE AUGUST 1914 TO MARCH 1915
by
Its Commander
Brigadier-General COUNT GLEICHEN, (now Major-General Lord Edward Gleichen), K.C.V.O., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.

William Blackwood & Sons Edinburgh and London 1917

NOTE.
The following pages--not in the first instance intended for publication--contain an expanded version of the very scrappy Diary which I kept in France from day to day.
The version was intended for private home consumption only, and has necessarily had to be pruned of certain personal matters before being allowed to make its bow to the public. I have purposely refrained from adding to it in the light of subsequent events.
I trust that the reader will consequently bear in mind the essentially individual and impressionist aspects of this little work, and will not expect to find either rigidly historical, professional, or critical matter therein.
G. 14th August 1917.

CONTENTS.
Pages Up to the Eve of Mons................................ 1-21
The Battle of Mons.................................. 22-38
Mons to Le Cateau................................... 39-43
Le Cateau........................................... 44-56
The Retreat......................................... 57-86
The Advance......................................... 87-93
The Marne.......................................... 94-102
To the Aisne...................................... 103-111
The Aisne......................................... 112-140
Westward Ho!...................................... 141-149
Abbeville to Béthune.............................. 150-157
Givenchy and Festubert............................ 158-198
To Bailleul....................................... 199-205
To Ypres.......................................... 206-208
The First Battle of Ypres......................... 209-248
Back to Locre..................................... 249-251
Trench Life Opposite Messines..................... 252-280
Giving Up Command................................. 281-283
SKETCH-MAPS.
Page Boussu-Wasmes.......................................... 28
Missy-on-Aisne........................................ 123
Givenchy-Violaines.................................... 167
The Footbridge over the Canal......................... 175
Beukenhorst (near Ypres).............................. 211
The Messines Front.................................... 255
ILLUSTRATION.
Some of Brigade Headquarters Frontispiece

The Doings of the Fifteenth Infantry Brigade.
August 1914 to March 1915.
In accordance with the order received at Belfast at 5.30 P.M. on the 4th, the 15th Brigade started mobilizing on the 5th August 1914, and by the 10th was complete in all respects. We were practically ready by the 9th, but a machine-gun or two and some harness were a bit late arriving from Dublin--not our fault. Everything had already been rehearsed at mobilization inspections, held as usual in the early summer, and all went like clock-work. On the 8th we got our final orders to embark on the 14th, and on the 11th the embarkation orders arrived in detail.
Brigade Headquarters consisted of myself, Captain Weatherby (Oxford L.I.) as Brigade Major, Captain Moulton-Barrett (Dorsets), Staff Captain, Captain Roe (Dorsets), Brigade Machine-Gun Officer, Lieutenant Cadell, R.E., Signalling Officer, and Lieutenant Beilby, Brigade Veterinary Officer. Military Police, A.S.C. drivers, postmen, and all sorts of odds and ends arrived from apparently nowhere in particular, and fitted together with extraordinary little effort. The battalions grew to unheard-of sizes, and by the time that all was complete the Brigade numbered 127 officers, 3958 men, 258 horses, and 74 vehicles.
Aug. 14th.
The Cheshires[1] and Bedfords[2] arrived by train in the early morning of the 14th from 'Derry and Mullingar and went straight on board their ships--Brigade Headquarters, Dorsets,[3] and half the Norfolks[4] being in one, Cheshires and the other half of the Norfolks in another, and the Bedfords in a third.
[Footnote 1: 1st Batt. (Lieut.-Col. D. C. Boger).]
[Footnote 2: 1st Batt. (Lieut.-Col. C. R. Griffith, D.S.O.).]
[Footnote 3: 1st Batt. (Lieut.-Col. L. J. Bols, D.S.O.).]
[Footnote 4: 1st Batt. (Lieut.-Col. C. R. Ballard).]
Great waving of handkerchiefs and cheering as we warped slowly out of Belfast docks at 3 P.M. and moved slowly down the channel.
Aug. 16th.
The weather was beautifully fine on the passage, and on the 16th we all arrived at our destination.
The Bedfords had arrived on the previous tide to ourselves, and were already fast alongside the