Great Britain -- Defenses; Imaginary wars and battles
"From the steamers there continued to pour hundreds upon hundreds of
soldiers, who were towed to land, and then formed up in solid squares,
which got bigger and bigger. Horses innumerable--quite a thousand, I
should reckon--were slung overboard from some of the smaller steamers
which had been run high and dry on the beach, and as the tide had now
begun to run down, they landed only knee-deep in water. Those steamers,
it seemed to me, had big bilge keels, for as the tide ebbed they did not
heel over. They had, no doubt, been specially fitted for the purpose.
Out of some they began to hoist all sorts of things, wagons, guns,
motor-cars, large bales of fodder, clothing, ambulances with big red
crosses on them, flat-looking boats--pontoons I think they call
them--and great piles of cooking pots and pans, square boxes of stores,
or perhaps ammunition, and as soon as anything was landed it was hauled
up above high-water mark.
"In the meantime lots of men had mounted on horseback and ridden off up
the lane which leads into Weybourne village. At first half a dozen
started at a time; then, as far as I could judge, about fifty more
started. Then larger bodies went forward, but more and more horses kept
going ashore, as though their number was never-ending. They must have
been stowed mighty close, and many of the ships must have been specially
fitted up for them.
"Very soon I saw cavalry swarming up over Muckleburgh, Warborough, and
Telegraph Hills, while a good many trotted away in the direction of
Runton and Sheringham. Then, soon after they had gone--that is, in about
an hour and a half from their first arrival--the infantry began to move
off, and as far as I could see, they marched inland by every road, some
in the direction of Kelling Street and Holt, others over Weybourne Heath
towards Bodham, and still others skirting the woods over to Upper
Sheringham. Large masses of infantry marched along the Sheringham Road,
and seemed to have a lot of officers on horseback with them, while up on
Muckleburgh Hill I saw frantic signalling in progress.
"By this time they had a quantity of carts and wagons landed, and a
large number of motor-cars. The latter were soon started, and, manned by
infantry, moved swiftly in procession after the troops. The great idea
of the Germans was apparently to get the beach clear of everything as
soon as landed, for all stores, equipment, and other tackle were pushed
inland as soon as disembarked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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