Gleichen - Memoirs from the British Expeditionary Force, 1914-1915

This edition published in 2014 by
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This book was first published as The Doings of the Fifteenth Infantry Brigade - August 1914 to
March 1915 by William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh & London, 1917.

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Published under licence by Pen & Sword Books Ltd.

ISBN: 9781783462490
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AUTHORS NOTE

T HE FOLLOWING PAGES - not in the first instance intended for publication - contain an expanded version of the very scrappy Diary which I kept in France from day to day.

The version was intended for private home consumption only, and has necessarily had to be pruned of certain personal matters before being allowed to make its bow to the public. I have purposely refrained from adding to it in the light of subsequent events.

I trust that the reader will consequently bear in mind the essentially individual and impressionist aspects of this little work, and will not expect to find either rigidly historical, professional, or critical matter therein.

G.
14 TH AUGUST 1917.

CONTENTS

L. DE ST A. J.T.W. G. A.L. M.-B. R.E.B. Photo by H. M. Lieut. Cadell, R.E.

THE DOINGS OF THE FIFTEENTH INFANTRY BRIGADE

AUGUST 1914 TO MARCH 1915

I N ACCORDANCE WITH the order received at Belfast at 5.30 P.M . on the 4th, the 15th Brigade started mobilizing on the 5th August 1914, and by the 10th was complete in all respects. We were practically ready by the 9th, but a machine-gun or two and some harness were a bit late arriving from Dublin - not our fault. Everything had already been rehearsed at mobilization inspections, held as usual in the early summer, and all went like clock-work. On the 8th we got our final orders to embark on the 14th, and on the 11th the embarkation orders arrived in detail.

Brigade Headquarters consisted of myself. Captain Weatherby (Oxford L.I.) as Brigade Major, Captain Moulton-Barrett (Dorsets), Staff Captain, Captain Roe (Dorsets), Brigade Machine-Gun Officer, Lieutenant Cadell, R.E., Signalling Officer, and Lieutenant Beilby, Brigade Veterinary Officer. Military Police, A.S.C. drivers, postmen, and all sorts of odds and ends arrived from apparently nowhere in particular, and fitted together with extraordinary little effort. The battalions grew to unheard-of sizes, and by the time that all was complete the Brigade numbered 127 officers, 3958 men, 258 horses, and 74 vehicles.

Aug. 14th.

The Cheshires being in one, Cheshires and the other half of the Norfolks in another, and the Bedfords in a third.

Great waving of handkerchiefs and cheering as we warped slowly out of Belfast docks at 3 P.M . and moved slowly down the channel.

Aug. 16th.

The weather was beautifully fine on the passage, and on the 16th we all arrived at our destination.

The Bedfords had arrived on the previous tide to ourselves, and were already fast alongside the quay. Orders were received from the Disembarking Officer, and we dis- embarked and formed up independently and marched off to Rest Camp No. 8, six miles off on the hills above Havre.

It had been pouring heavily on shore for two days, though it was quite fine when we landed; so the ground where we were to encamp was mostly sopping. It was not easy to find in the dark, especially as the sketch-maps with which we were provided most distinctly acted up to their names. Added to these difficulties, a motor-lorry had stuck on the way up and blocked our transport for the night. I rode ahead alone, but had immense difficulty in finding the Brigade Headquarters Camp, which was quite a long way from the other battalion camps. These were dotted on the open fields at some distance from each other, and pitched in no particular order, so that by the time I had got my bearings and brought in the battalions, it was about 11 P.M . There was of course no baggage, nor anything to sleep on except the bare ground under the tents, with our saddles for pillows; and as a pleasant excitement nearly all our horses stampeded about 2 A.M ., tore up their picketing-pegs from the soft ground, and disappeared into the darkness in different directions.

Aug. 17th.

Daylight, however, brought relief, and a certain amount of our transport; and all the horses were discovered in course of time and brought back. Most of the morning was spent, unsuccessfully, in trying to bring up the remaining transport up a steep and narrow road which was the only alternative to the blocked one. But some of the horses jibbed, and we had eventually to give it up and bring up supplies by hand.

The battalions were comfortably settled down under the expectation of another night there; but at 2.15 P.M . we got orders to move off by train at night. This we did from three different stations, at times varying from 12 midnight to 5.45 A.M ., having arrived according to order at the stations four hours previously. This is the French system, allowing four hours for the entraining of a unit. Although a lot of manhandling had to be done, and the trucks were not what we had been accustomed to, we all entrained in about forty minutes, so had any amount of time to spare.

Silver (my first charger) was very bobbery as usual, and it took a good half-hour to persuade him to enter his truck. Once in, he slept like a lamb.

Aug. 18th.

We were comfortable enough, though packed like sardines, and with three-quarters of an hours rest at Rouen for coffee, and another rest at Amiens - where we heard that poor General Grierson, our Corps Commander, was dead - broke a blood-vessel in the train - we arrived at Busigny at 2.15 P.M . Here we found Captain Hyslop (Dorsets), who had been sent ahead from Belfast, and who gave us orders to detrain at Le Cateau, a few miles farther on. I must say that all these disembarking and training arrangements were extraordinarily well done, and reflected great credit on the Allied staffs combined. No hitch, no fuss, no worry, everybody got their orders in time, and all necessary arrangements had been carefully thought out beforehand.

We arrived at Le Gateau at 3.10 P.M ., and detrained in half an hour, baggage and all. The battalions marched off to their billets, - Dorsets and Headquarters to Ors, the other three battalions to Pommereuil: nice clean little villages both of them.