With the Scottish Regiments at the FrontVivian, Evelyn Charles
History
With the Scottish Regiments at the Front
Vivian, Evelyn Charles
Great Britain. Army -- Scottish regiments; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Scotland
These various accounts of the work of the regiment form a fairly
detailed description of the work at the Aisne. Of how the regiment was
moved up to the Flanders front there is no account to hand, but the work
done on the new front has been fairly fully described. First of all
comes the account of Captain Methven's death, which took place in the
fighting round Lille, where Captain Methven and his company were set to
drive the Germans from their trenches with the bayonet. The German
trenches were at the top of a steep little hill, and up this hill
Captain Methven rushed, with his men following. He paused at the edge of
the enemy's trenches and turned to wave the men on--they saw him
silhouetted against the skyline for a second, and then he fell, shot
through the heart at what must have been point-blank range. But the
trenches were won, the small force of Germans who had been holding them
surrendered--Captain Methven had not died in vain. "I had read about
this single-handed taking of a position," writes a spectator, "but until
I saw Captain Methven's action I thought these things only happened in
story-books."
A little later the brigade of which the 2nd Seaforths formed a part was
engaged in the storming of a position, an action in which they drove
back the enemy for several miles. For the greater part of the day the
British position had been commanded by the fire of the enemy, who held a
position on a hill in the neighbourhood and maintained a steady fire on
the British brigade. The brigade commander saw that if the enemy were
given time to bring up heavy artillery they would render their own
position impregnable and that of the British force untenable--the height
had to be taken that day, if at all. So the "Charge!" was sounded, and
the brigade advanced across the intervening ground, with the men
cheering and shouting as they rushed forward--and above all the rest of
the cries rose the "Caber-feidh," the rallying-cry of the Seaforths. The
German position was taken in about a quarter of an hour--and in rear
were a fleet of motor vehicles, in which the retreating Germans
decamped. Pursuit was out of the question, and there was only
snap-shooting at the flying enemy by way of consolation.
Beyond this the records of the regiment do not take us at present. There
remains, however, one record of "B" Company of the 2nd Battalion and its
work on the night of the 13th of October, a statement that may well be
included in this record of the doings of the Seaforths. It tells how the
company had to charge the enemy out of his trenches at the bayonet
point, which was done with some considerable loss of killed and wounded,
and the writer comments--"There was not a coward among us."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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