The British Campaign in France and Flanders, 1914Doyle, Arthur Conan
History
The British Campaign in France and Flanders, 1914
Doyle, Arthur Conan
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front
In this brisk little action the 50th R.F.A., and later the whole of
the 34th Brigade R.F.A., put in some fine work, the shrapnel-fire
being most deadly and accurate. The British had pushed their guns
freely forward with their cavalry and did much execution with them,
though they had the misfortune on this same date, the 10th, to lose,
by the answering shell-fire of the enemy, General Findlay, artillery
commander of the First Division. In this second action, in which the
German rearguard, infantry as well as artillery, was engaged, the 2nd
Sussex Regiment, which was leading the First Division, sustained
considerable losses near Courchamps or {154} Priez, as did the 1st
Northamptons and the 1st North Lancashires. Some 300 of Bulfin's 2nd
Brigade were hit altogether, among whom was Colonel Knight, of the
North Lancashires. The enemy came under heavy fire, both from the
infantry and from the guns, so that their losses were considerable,
and several hundred of them were captured. The country was very
hilly, and the roads so bad that in the exhausted state of men and
horses the pursuit could not be sufficiently pressed. Thirty large
motor cars were seen at Priez in front of the 2nd Brigade, carrying
the enemy's rearguard.
[Sidenote: 9th Brigade's capture of Germans at Vinly.]
On this same date the 9th Brigade captured 600 German infantry, the
survivors of a battalion, at the village of Vinly. This seems to
have been an incident of the same character as the loss of the
Cheshires or of the Munsters in the British retreat, where a body of
troops fighting a covering action was left too long, or failed to
receive the orders for its withdrawal. The defence was by no means a
desperate one, and few of the attacking infantry were killed or
wounded. On this date the Fifth and Sixth French Armies were hardly
engaged at all, and the whole Allied Force, including General Foch's
Seventh French Army on the right of the Fifth, were all sweeping
along together in a single rolling steel-crested wave, composed of at
least twelve army corps, whilst nine German corps (five of Von Kluck
and four of Bülow) retired swiftly before them, hurrying towards the
chance of re-forming and refitting which the Aisne position would
afford them.
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