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
The Camerons came, with the greater part of the British force in France,
to the fighting in the north-west which foiled the German attack on
Calais, and from this part of the battle line one account has come
through. "We were fairly giving it to the Germans," says a wounded man
from this quarter. "In the morning we started advancing in single line
by sections at three paces interval across open fields at the double,
and the shells were landing all round us as fast as the enemy could fire
them, but we managed to get into our positions. We had a bad time of it
there, but we managed to put a stop to the German advance, and then we
took up another position, and held it. When the enemy were within about
eighty yards of us the officer in charge of the company gave the order
to fix bayonets, and we charged, at which the Germans ran away. We
opened fire on them, and at about two o'clock on that day I was wounded.
I was lying in a hollow of the ground which we had just cleared, and I
had to lie there for hours until the enemy were driven back by a British
regiment. Shortly after I was wounded the Germans gained the crest of a
hill, and one of the Scots Guards lying there wounded put up his hands
for them not to shoot, but one of them came to within two yards of him
and shot him through the stomach, and he rolled over again and died
about two hours afterwards."
Against this cold-blooded savagery must be set the account given by an
officer of the 1st battalion of the Camerons, who states that he was
shot through the leg just before the enemy charged in great numbers and
drove the British out of their trenches. One of the men tried to get the
officer along in the retirement, but could not do so, and he was made a
prisoner. "They banged me about a bit at first, and tied my hands behind
my back, and tried to get me to walk, but of course I could not. At last
one splendid German came forward and took me off to their own wounded in
a farmhouse. He stayed by me the whole time, and was most wonderfully
good to me. They dressed my wound and got me some water, and did what
they could for me. Next day, at two in the afternoon, my company charged
back at the house and drove the enemy back, rescuing me and the one or
two other wounded prisoners in the house."
Another officer writes, concerning the time on the Aisne: "The way the
Germans treat property is disgusting. While passing through a village
not long ago the greater part of the furniture of all the houses had
been dragged out and broken up, all the crockery smashed, all the
bedding dragged out into the open street, and there left to be soaked by
the rain. It is awful to see the poor peasants wandering about, homeless
and starving.
"Everywhere is the fearful smell of dead horses. It seems to saturate
the atmosphere, and one marches through miles of it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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