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
On the same day on the right of the line the Black Watch and the
Camerons, the latter of whom had now been appointed to the 1st Brigade
vice the Munster Fusiliers, did some very fine work between Bellot and
Sablonière, and took a quantity of prisoners; but they had to fight
hard for them, and both regiments had a number of casualties, Captain
Dalgleish and the Hon. M. Drummond in the Black Watch being killed. The
1st C.B. co-operated with the two Scotch regiments by attacking the
village of Sablonière, which was finally captured, together with many
prisoners, by the 11th Hussars. In addition to this little cavalry
success, the 3rd and 5th C.B. each had an encounter this day with
German cavalry, and in both instances maintained the unquestioned
superiority of the British in this particular arm of the service.
At five o'clock on the morning of the 9th the 2nd A.C. started out for
the Marne. The whole A.C. had to cross by the one bridge at Chailly, so
the operation was a protracted one, but by dark they were all across
and had pushed ahead some miles north of the river. A German battery on
the heights above Nanteint was attacked with great determination and
captured by the Lincolns during this advance, the Germans sticking with
great gallantry to their guns till every man of the battery had been
killed or wounded.
The 3rd A.C, on the left of the 2nd, had considerable trouble in
crossing at La Ferté. Here the bridge had been destroyed, and the north
bank was strongly held by the enemy (with machine-guns as usual). The
R.E. came to the rescue with a pontoon bridge, but the German fire was
persistent, and it was night before the bridge was completed.
The 1st A.C. in the meanwhile had crossed at Chateau Thierry, but not
without some destructive opposition from machine-guns.
On the morning of the 10th the advance became a race between the 5th
and the 2nd Divisions. These two set out northwards at 5 a.m. covered
by Gough with the 3rd and 5th C.B. The 3rd Division had been stopped at
Germigny, and had consequently fallen behind, and the 4th and 6th
Divisions--as we have seen--had to put up with a long wait at La Ferté.
The advance was therefore in the shape of a wedge, the effect of which
was to threaten the flank of the Germans in front of the 6th French
Army and cause them to retire with considerable haste. By midday,
however, the 3rd Division on our left had all but come up into line,
and the formation became more orthodox again. Our aeroplanes, favoured
by beautiful weather, were now doing fine work, and, by the information
they gave, made it possible to push the advance right up to the line of
the Ourcq. There was little serious opposition, but desultory fighting
took place here and there all along the line, and at Montreuil the
Cornwalls suffered some serious losses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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