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CHAPTER XX

FIRST DAY’S BATTLES

That first day of the battle of the Aisne, September 12, 1914, which was indeed rather preparatory than actual, was also marked by some unusually brilliant cavalry work in General Allenby’s division.  The German line was on the farther side of the Aisne, but all the hill country between the Marne and the Aisne had to be cleared of the powerful rear guards of the retreating German army, or perhaps it would be more correct to say the advance guards of the new German line.  Early in the morning the cavalry under General Allenby swept out from the town of Braisne on the Vesle and harried in every direction the strong detachments that had been sent forward, driving them back to the Aisne.  Over the high wooded ridge between the Vesle and the Aisne the Germans were driven back, and the Third Division, under General Hamilton, supported the cavalry in force, so that, by the evening, General Hamilton’s division was able to camp below the hill of Brenelle, and even, before night fell, to get their guns upon that height, from which they could reply to the German batteries snugly ensconced upon the frowning ridge on the northern bank of the Aisne.

The Fifth British Division, under Sir Charles Fergusson, found itself in a tight place at the confluence of the Vesle and Aisne Rivers, for at that point lay a stretch of flat bottomland exposed to the German fire.  By a ruse, which returned upon their own heads, the Germans had preserved one bridge across the Aisne, the bridge at Conde.  This was done as a lure to Sir Charles Fergusson’s forces, but even more so it was intended as a sallying point as soon as the German army deemed itself in a position to attack again.  The bridge was destined to figure in the events of the great conflict when the grapple should come.

One of the most graphic of all the accounts of the fighting of that day was from the pen of a major in the British field artillery, and it presented in sharp and vivid colors how the field artillery joined with the cavalry in clearing the German troops from the hills between the Marne and the Aisne.  He wrote: 

“We got the order to go off and join a battery under Colonel ——­’s orders.  We came en route under heavy shrapnel fire on the road.  I gave the order to walk, as the horses had hardly had any food for a couple of days, and also I wanted to steady the show.  I can’t say I enjoyed walking along at the head with old ——­ behind me, especially when six shrapnel burst right in front of us.  We got there just in time, rushed into action, and opened fire on a German counterattack at short range, destroying the lot so far as I could see.

“We then moved slightly to another position to take on a valley, down which they were attacking, and were at it the whole day, firing about 900 rounds into quantities of German attacks and counterattacks.  They cannot stand the shrapnel, and the moment I got one on them they turned and bolted back to the wood.