True Stories of the Great War, Volume 6 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
History
True Stories of the Great War, Volume 6 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
At the funeral of the 12th Lancer that afternoon we had an imposing
procession. The body was laid on a stretcher covered over with a Union
Jack and the French national flag. I led the way before the coffin,
robed in a cassock and surplice which had been presented to me by a
French priest to replace my own lost robes. After the coffin came the
three R.C. priests of the town and a number of the French Red Cross
nurses; then Major Collingwood and the men of the 4th Field Ambulance.
One of the nurses, noticing that I had no stole, on returning from the
funeral made me one of black material with three white crosses, and
presented it within a couple of hours.
The next day we were marched under escort to Mons. This is a large,
well-built town of about 35,000 inhabitants. We were paraded through
the cobbled streets to the barracks, then (evidently by a mistake) to
the station, and finally back again to the barracks, where, in some
dirty rooms over a filthy stable, we spent the night. Here we met the
Hon. Ivan Hay, of the 5th Lancers, who had narrowly escaped being shot
after his capture by the Germans, but he was not allowed to accompany
our party. The following morning we were marched once more to the
station, and were bundled into the station-master's office, which was
littered with looted papers. The men meanwhile were herded in a shed.
A sentry was posted at the entrance of the station to prevent anyone
going to the town. Just outside the station were the ambulance wagons
and our servants. Whyman, my soldier-servant, was amongst them with my
horse. That was the last I saw of either of them. I parted from them
with a very sad heart.
During the afternoon an ill-mannered under-officer bade us hand over
knives, razors, and sticks. At 6 P.M. we were entrained with about
1,000 wounded, of whom some forty or fifty were ours, the rest being
Germans. The train must have been a quarter of a mile long. In the
middle of the night we passed through Brussels, and in the early
morning through Louvain and Liège. Louvain seemed to be a heap of
ruins; hardly a house visible from the station was intact.... We looked
with great interest upon Liège as we passed through it, and recalled
the gallant defence of the town by the Belgians. A few more miles
brought us over the border into Germany.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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