The First Seven Divisions: Being a Detailed Account of the Fighting from Mons to YpresHamilton, Ernest, Lord
History
The First Seven Divisions: Being a Detailed Account of the Fighting from Mons to Ypres
Hamilton, Ernest, Lord
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Western Front
The Zandvoorde trenches passed into the hands of the enemy soon after
nine, and the Germans at once swarmed into them and began making their
way along towards the north, till they reached a position from which
they could get the Welsh Fusiliers in flank. Then began the
annihilation of this very gallant regiment. From the moment that the
Zandvoorde trenches went, its position was hopeless, its right flank
being completely unprotected, and its own trenches disconnected and
ill-adapted for mutual protection. The regiment, however, fought as it
had fought on the 19th and again on the 20th and 21st. It fought, in
the words of the C. in C., "till every officer had been killed or
wounded; only ninety men rejoined the brigade." As a matter of fact,
the exact number of survivors out of a battalion which a fortnight
earlier had numbered 1,100 was 86, and these were shortly afterwards
absorbed into the 2nd Queen's, their only remaining officer being the
Quartermaster.
Among those that fell on that day were Captain Barker, Col. Cadogan and
his Adjutant, Lieut. Dooner. The latter was killed in a very gallant
attempt to cross the interval which divided the trenches, and
investigate the state of affairs on the right; and the Colonel fell in
an equally gallant attempt to rescue his subordinate after he had
fallen.
The position was now--as may be supposed--extremely serious, the enemy
being in complete possession of the Zandvoorde ridge. The 7th C.B.
(Household Cavalry), when it had fallen back in the morning, had
retired through the 6th C.B. and formed up in rear.
Its retreat had been greatly assisted by the magnificent work of the
two Horse Artillery Batteries attached, viz., "C" Battery, under Major
White, and "K" Battery, under Major Lamont. Both displayed the greatest
daring and activity, and the latter succeeded in completely knocking
out a German battery which was just coming into action on the
Zandvoorde ridge.
In the meanwhile, the only force which stood in the way of the enemy
was the 6th C.B., that is to say, three cavalry regiments, all
considerably weakened by fighting. The gravity of the situation lay in
the fact that if the Klein Zillebeke position went, there was nothing
further to prevent the enemy marching straight into Ypres, only three
miles distant, in which case the 1st A.C. and 7th Division would have
been irretrievably cut off from their base and supplies, and the
capture or annihilation of these three divisions would have inevitably
followed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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