The History of the 2/6th (Rifle) Battalion, "the King's" (Liverpool Regiment) 1914-1919Wurtzburg, C. E. (Charles Edward)
History
The History of the 2/6th (Rifle) Battalion, "the King's" (Liverpool Regiment) 1914-1919
Wurtzburg, C. E. (Charles Edward)
Great Britain. Army. King's Liverpool Regiment; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
One morning the Corps and Divisional Commanders arrived at Crown Prince
House and immediately demanded a map showing the Fleury Switch. Every
conceivable map was produced, but in vain; nor had anyone the faintest
idea what the switch was to which they so repeatedly referred. In the
end the A.D.C. to the Corps Commander sped back to the car (left round
the corner out of sight), and in due course produced the precious map,
and the party proceeded on their way restored to a more amiable frame
of mind.
On the night of March 11th "D" Company relieved "B" Company in the
subsidiary line. A night or so before a German aeroplane had made a
determined effort to do them serious harm by dropping a number of heavy
bombs in their immediate vicinity. Oddly enough, that night, as the
Adjutant and Lewis Gun Officer were undressing in their bedroom, which
faced the line, they suddenly noticed that the shutters were not drawn.
A rush was made for the candle, which was hastily extinguished. At that
moment there was a deafening report, and we felt that here was the
reward for our carelessness. However, it was soon realized that the
noise was not shelling, but the above-mentioned bombing, the hum of
the aeroplane being clearly audible; but after depositing its load it
departed, and peace reigned once more. No casualties were caused, and
quite a number of "D" Company were sleeping so soundly that they knew
nothing of the matter till the following morning.
It was always a remarkable thing to us who lived there that Crown
Prince House was not shelled. It was a large house in full view of
the enemy, standing quite isolated at the side of a long straight
road. It must have been very tempting to the German gunners, who liked
to see the red dust rise from a direct hit on a house. There was no
sort of cellar accommodation worth mentioning. Signals had the only
cellar, and that was but half underground. We used to encourage one
another by saying that the Germans could not shell the house without
committing _lèse majesté_ (the Crown Prince was reputed once to have
made his Headquarters there), though some very recent shell-holes at
the entrance seemed to prove that they were prepared occasionally to
risk being guilty of that serious offence. As a matter of fact, the
Headquarters of a South Lancashire Battalion were soon afterwards
shelled out of the house, and a very unpleasant proceeding they found
it.
The only other excitement was the sudden arrival of a shell in
Armentières; not by the railway-station, a place not infrequently
shelled in retaliation for a 12-inch railway mounting gun which used to
come up there occasionally, but right into the town, and only just over
the Rue de Lille. This single shell caused quite a sensation, but as
nothing more happened we concluded that the enemy had let off a gun by
mistake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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