“We wakened just after dawn on August 25 to the sound of heavy firing, and without waiting even for breakfast we at once moved off. Early in our march we learned from a Staff Officer, who passed us at the gallop, that the British had fallen back, and were now holding the line of the Mons Canal, and that the odds against them were simply overwhelming. He urged us to push on, as there was a shortage of ambulances, and the casualty list was already very heavy. Shortly after we crossed the Belgian frontier, and there were met by the transport of our Division (the 5th) returning into France. As we urged forward our weary men and horses, our progress was constantly impeded by pathetic crowds of terror-stricken refugees—women, children, old men—coming along the road in droves, carrying their few valuables on their backs, weeping piteously, some dropping exhausted by the roadside, and all telling heart-rending stories of homes in flames, and some of outrages which made the blood run cold, and caused men to set their lips tight and talk in undertones of the revenge they hoped to take. I cannot describe it; it will not bear thinking about; but it has left a mark on our hearts and memories which nothing can efface.” The desperate character of the fighting at Mons is admitted by every survivor of that fierce struggle. Those who had also served in the Boer War say there never was any fighting in South Africa to compare with it. A sergeant gunner of the Royal Field Artillery, wounded in the jaw at Tournai, stated that he was on a flank with his gun and fired about sixty rounds in forty minutes. “We wanted support,” he said, “and could not get it. It was about 500 English trying to save a flank attack, against, honestly I should say, 10,000. As fast as you shot them down, more came. But for their aeroplanes they would be useless. I was firing for one hour at from 1,500 yards down to 700 yards.” Driver W. Moore, also of the Royal Field Artillery, wrote:— It was Sunday night, August 23, when we saw the enemy. We were ready for action, but were lying down to have a rest, when orders came to stand at our posts. It was about four a.m. on Monday when we started to fire; we were at it all day till six p.m., when we started to advance. Then the bugle sounded the charge, and the cavalry and infantry charged like madmen at the enemy; then the enemy fell back about forty miles, so we held at bay till Wednesday, when the enemy was reinforced. Then they came on to Mons, and by that time we had every man, woman, and child out of the town.... We were situated on a hill in a cornfield and we could see all over the country. It was about three p.m., and we started to let them have a welcome by blowing up two of their batteries in about five minutes; then the infantry let go, and then the battle was in full swing.