The motor-bus in war : $b being the impressions of an A.S.C. officer during two and a half years at the frontBeatson, A. M.
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The motor-bus in war : $b being the impressions of an A.S.C. officer during two and a half years at the front
Beatson, A. M.
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, English; World War, 1914-1918 -- Transportation
The Supply Column made two or three journeys up on its usual errand, but
the cavalry were sent back to the previous billets after a few days, it
being found that no opportunity for cavalry fighting had been effected.
Although this was the case it must not be thought that the Indian
Cavalry Corps were kept entirely in a state of idleness. The ——
Divisions of the Corps, under the command of Lieut.-General Rimington,
were directly under the orders of General Headquarters, and were
available to be attached to any army and sent to any part of the line
where it was considered that an opportunity for using them might arise.
Meanwhile they did their bit of reserve trench digging in various parts
of the line, and many a pleasant summer day I have spent in convoying up
the lorries of supplies for the different digging parties, and
off-loaded them at various points between Locon and Estaires. The
R.H.A. batteries attached to the Corps were almost continually in action
at different places, though more in the rôle of Field than of Horse
Artillery.
The most interesting journeys, from the Supply Column point of view,
were when the Indian Cavalry were sent up to the trenches, again in the
rôle of infantrymen, to the Ypres Salient. This was in the early summer
of 1915, when they reinforced the line immediately after the first
German gas attack, from which our line naturally suffered severely
through being unprepared for another new and previously unanticipated
form of German "Kultur."
It is interesting at this point to note that during this time a British
Cavalry Regiment, forming part of a Native Cavalry Brigade, assisted in
the attack and capture of Hooge Château, which has changed hands so many
times.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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