The Flaming Sword in Serbia and ElsewhereStobart, M. A. (Mabel Annie)
History
The Flaming Sword in Serbia and Elsewhere
Stobart, M. A. (Mabel Annie)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
At Banya, our Artillery Major's double, who was also an artillery
officer, appeared, and he immediately arranged that our column should
follow his convoy, and others had to stand aside. Soon after that, the
Major arrived, and rode with me for a little while on his way again to
place his guns. He introduced me to another officer who had lately been
embarrassed by the arrival from Berlin of his German wife and seven
children, who were all now travelling with the convoy.
The cars, as usual, took the hill wonderfully, and went on and waited
for the column at Prepolatz, near the old Turkish fort. This was the
boundary of Old Serbia, the entrance to the newer Serbia of recent
conquests, and my heart ached for our Serbian comrades, who must
now say good-bye to the best-loved and most-prized portion of their
country, and leave it, with all that was most precious to them, in the
enemy's hands; knowing that the enemy would now eat bread from corn
which they had not sown, and drink wine from vineyards which they had
not planted; whilst the sowers and the planters, the owners of this
fertile soil, were fleeing, a spectral nation to a spectral land,
without clothes, without money, without food; but, all honour to them,
never without hope, because they were never without an ideal. Will the
day ever come, I wondered, when "the arrogance of the proud shall cease
and the haughtiness of the terrible be laid low?"
The Major and I were glad to rejoin the cars which carried the food,
and to eat a hurried sandwich. I had had nothing since the captain's
glass of tea in the early morning; the Major never seemed to eat.
We reached Dubnitz at 9.30 p.m.--a twenty-four hours' trek. Our
field-kitchen oxen had broken down, and we had to send others to help
bring the field kitchen in. It arrived next morning after we had left
for Dole Luzhan, and it followed us.
We left at 8 o'clock, on a twelve hours' trek. A snow blizzard, with
intense cold, made the conditions unpleasant for us, and deadly for the
beasts. Continued cold, exhaustion from forced marches, and increasing
lack of food, made the track a shambles. The well-aimed ball of death
was knocking down oxen and horses, like ninepins, all along the road.
One of our riding horses died also to-day from cold and exhaustion. It
was bad enough to see these poor beasts dead along the road, but it was
still worse to see them dying, and to know that all they needed for
restoration to life, was warmth and rest and food. I thought of the
Blue Cross Society, but even they could have done nothing, as there was
no time; enemies on three sides were always close behind us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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