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
On Saturday afternoon, October 16th, a mounted orderly from
Headquarters brought, in the usual white, square envelope, the order
to move on to Barchinatz. We left at 3.15, and arrived at 7 p.m.,
pitched our tents, in the dark and the rain, and had supper at nine. We
heard, to our intense satisfaction, that the Germans had been beaten
back, and that the French and English were fighting the Bulgars. But
our joy did not last long. On Sunday, October 17th, the mounted orderly
arrived; he brought with him the order to evacuate the camp; I signed
the envelope, and he left. Then, as usual on these occasions, I took
out the sectional map, provided by Headquarters, to see the direction
and the distance of the place to which the column must be moved.
Hitherto the direction had been northerly, and that meant, of course,
that we were advancing, and approaching the enemy's country. That was
good, and the officers and we had sometimes joked about the restaurants
we should patronise when we reached Vienna or Buda-Pesth. But now,
to my dismay, the map showed that Dobrido, the village to which we
were to move, was in a southerly direction. This meant retreat. We
hoped, of course, that this was only a temporary check; but from the
moment of that first retreat, we never advanced again. But, it must
be remembered, to the everlasting credit of the Serbian Army, that
though the retreat continued for nearly three months, the Army did not
content itself with retreating, but fought rearguard actions all the
time. Military experts will appreciate the wear and tear to body and
mind entailed in such a performance. We, of course, also, throughout
that time, put up our hospital tents, and received and evacuated the
wounded. Colonel Terzitch looked in on his way to new Headquarters; he
was as cheery as usual. He said that we were making a slight retreat,
because one of our regiments, composed of elderly soldiers, with poor
guns, had given way. He thought all would soon be well again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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