The Doings of the Fifteenth Infantry Brigade | Page 8

but Cuthbert was not there, so it was a little
difficult to combine any action. However, we learnt that the other three
battalions of the 13th Brigade were distributed in front of us on the

north, and I received a message that the Dorsets and Bedfords had been
obliged to fall back during the night and were holding the railway
station at Wasmes and a bit east of that. The 13th Brigade had been
along the line of the Canal the previous day and had been driven back
by superior numbers, but had blown up some of the bridges. I heard
afterwards that young Pottinger, a subaltern of the 17th Co. R.E., had
been entrusted with blowing up one bridge, and that the charge had
failed to explode. Whereupon he advanced under heavy fire close to the
charge and had gallantly fired his revolver at it, which of course, as he
knew, would have blown him sky-high with the bridge had he hit it.
But either he missed the shot altogether or he hit the wrong part, and
the thing didn't explode. And then he found himself cut off by Germans
who had crossed elsewhere, and he had to leg it. So, unfortunately, that
bridge was left intact.
[Illustration: Boussu-Wasmes.]
I trotted ahead alone to try and find the Dorsets or the Bedfords,
leaving Weatherby with other instructions. It was a long way to the
station (Pâturages by name, but really in Wasmes), but I eventually
found Griffith (O.C. Bedfords) and most of his men thereabouts. The
Germans had apparently got round to the east, but we were holding
them. The Dorsets were a bit further to the south-east, and I found them
after a good many wrong turnings; and then there was little to do but
pick up connection with whoever I could. By this time my staff had
come up, and Weatherby and I cantered off to find General Haking,
who, I understood, had brought up his 5th Brigade from the 2nd
Division (1st Corps), and was somewhere towards Frameries. Him we
found after some trouble, with only one battalion in action in fairly
open country. It appeared that a message had been sent the night before
from the 3rd Division that the Germans were threatening Pâturages and
going to attack in force, and help was most urgently required; so
General Haig had despatched Haking in a great hurry. The 5th Brigade
made a forced march and arrived at Pâturages at 2 A.M., perspiring
profusely. Not a sound. Fearing an ambush, they walked delicately,
with scouts well out in front and to both flanks. Not a sign either of the
British or the Germans,--empty streets, no one about, all quiet as death.

So they bivouacked in the streets and were now thinking of falling back
on their own corps, as there were only a few Germans in front of them
and these wouldn't advance.
Where the 3rd Division exactly were I could not at first find out,
though I tried; but I knew that they were holding the country in the
direction of Mons. Anyway, except for a good many shells flying about,
there was very little of the enemy to see or hear, and Pâturages was safe
at all events for the present.
The Dorsets and Bedfords, however, had had a pretty bad time on the
previous evening, and had lost a number of men, though they had given
the Germans a good deal more than they got. The German shelling had
been fairly accurate, and their infantry had pushed on between the
slag-heaps and got their machine-guns to work under cover in a
horribly efficient manner. Eventually our battalions had to evacuate
their trenches as their right flank was being turned, and they fell back
on Wasmes and Pâturages, leaving most of their packs behind them in
the trenches. They had taken them off to dig, and, being hot, had fought
without them, and then this sudden outflanking movement had
necessitated a rapid falling back, so their packs and most of their
shovels had been left behind. This was awkward, more especially
hereafter, as, although the loss of the greatcoat did not matter much in
this hot weather, and certainly added to their marching power, still, the
loss of the pack meant loss of spare socks and spare shirt--besides other
things.
We snatched a little breakfast and coffee at an inn where the patronne
was still in possession, and then things began to get more lively. Shells
began to knock corners off the houses close by, and reports kept
coming in that the enemy appeared to be advancing, though the bulk of
his infantry was still some way off to the east. The Dorsets were
rearranging their line so as not to be cut off, and I was