As the Dorsets tentatively edged out from Bézu-le-Guéry towards Hill 189 they came across the debris of the previous day’s firefight. Gleichen remembers the Germans “had left that field battery on Hill 189 behind them, surrounded by about twenty or more corpses and a quantity of ammunition.” The war diary claims “forty-seven dead Germans were found here afterwards, nearly all shot through the head”. It would be interesting to confirm these reports. It would also be interesting to read any German accounts of the previous day’s action.
The 15th Brigade continued on its advance, the weather getting colder and wetter throughout the day as Autumn took hold. They were pretty much unhindered by any action with the enemy. There was an incident at Dhuisy where an enemy transport column climbing towards Gandelu was spotted and subsequently shelled. The Brigade was also shelled by its own guns as it waited to enter billets and bivouacks for the night at the farm in “Saint-Quentin”. But other than that, it was a day of marching, passing through prisoners and booty captured by the marauding cavalry units ahead.
Throughout the day they passed piles of discarded equipment and smashed vehicles. Gleichen allowed the men to take food at one point for themselves and corn for the horses. He praises the German’s “gulasch” and “blutwurst” over the BEF’s “everlasting bully beef”.
Other transport wagons were filled with bounty, “cases of liquor and wine, musical instruments, household goods, clothing, bedding etc”. Gleichen accuses the Germans of being “a robber at heart, and takes everything he can lay his hands on”. This is from the same Count Albert Edward Wilfred Gleichen, son of Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.
The farm they end up in, which the Dorsets’ war diary calls St Quentin (as does Gleichen, the Cheshires and the Bedfords) is no longer on the map and I don’t, as yet, have access to an old 1912 map. So I’ve guessed where the farm was and placed it near a wood called Bois de Louvry, roughly on the path of their advance. I wondered if the farm could be this postcard.
Farm at Saint-Quentin Louvry
The British Army of 1914 has an annoying habit of shortening place names so it makes it very hard to find some of the villages mentioned in diaries. It also appears that a lot of the names have changed along the Aisne over the last hundred years or so. I have no idea why.
They had marched 16 miles. That night more reinforcements arrived. Two parties consisted of a total of 187 men under Lieutenant J.A.F. Parkinson and Second Lieutenant A.J. Clutterbuck.
In 1914 the commander of a battalion had access to a remarkable arsenal of technology to help them locate and fight the enemy. They had machine gun sections, long and short range artillery, plane spotters, telephones, metalled roads, railway lines, motorcycle dispatch riders and engineers. These were all used to help the soldier on the ground understand, outmanoeuvre and engage the enemy to his advantage.
On the ground, however, in the “fog of war”, it was often much more confused. There were many reasons why these new technologies failed the soldier in 1914. Planes couldn’t fly because of the weather. Artillery was unable to find a safe spot to fire from. Different units became mixed up in battle. Roads were blocked with all kinds of traffic. Telephone lines had been cut. The list goes on and on. Despite all these failings, offensives still went ahead. More often that not this had catastrophic results.
Today we’ll see this “fog of war” in action. And we’ll see, what I think is, the main failing of ground forces in 1914: Units carrying out unsupported full frontal attacks against concealed machine guns and artillery. This approach to offensive tactics was already killing soldiers by the tens of thousands*. The Dorsets experienced this for the first time on the 9th September 1914.
The Dorsets advanced in the morning, heading north through Saârcy-sur-Marne and crossed its bridge to Mery-sur-Marne. The 5th Division had established a bridgehead across the river at 9am. There was the sound of heavy gunfire up ahead of them where the 14th Brigade were pushing on ahead.
The River Marne, at this point in its course, runs in tight loops, through deep valleys which climb sharply through farmland up to heavily wooded hilltops. One of these hilltops, Hill (or point) 189 was reportedly in the possession of the 14th Brigade, away to their left. At least that’s what Divisional Staff told Gleichen when he met them for a “pow wow” at what he repeatedly called Merz, but must have been Mery(-sur-Marne). Here the 5th Division instructed the 15th Brigade to support the 14th Brigade who’d got hung up somewhere to their left towards the Montreuil Road.
The Brigade advanced east towards Le Limon, using the slope and the woods as a shield from possible enemy attack. Gleichen reports that “when we emerged from the woods there was a Prussian battery on the hill.” Here was the first mistake. Why did they assume that this was a “deserted” battery? The Dorsets’ war diary remembers “this battery had been reported as deserted”. Did Gleichen assume too much here? Whatever the mistake it would have been prudent to reconnoitre. But they didn’t. The 15th Brigade moved into the open in column file. As soon as “not more than a battalion had got clear, when the “deserted” battery opened fire and lobbed a shell or two into the Bedfords and Cheshires”. The Germans were cleverly concealed nearby, ran out fired their guns and then ran and hid again. Gleichen ordered a howitzer battery to return fire which he said silenced the battery.
The Dorsets were in the vanguard and Lieutenant Colonel Bols immediately volunteered to attack the hill, which was “only a rise” according to Gleichen. The enemy could be seen digging trenches on the ridge. After a reconnoitre it was agreed that the Dorsets would attack. By now, the Dorsets had formed up at a farm about half a mile north of Le Limon. They formed into attacking lines: D Company on the left and C Company on the right, with A Company and the Machine Gun Company in reserve. B Company was currently detached from the Battalion as vanguard to the Brigade Headquarters.
It took about an hour to reach their positions through a wood and by 2:20pm they had reached the road between Pisseloup and Genevrois. A message was sent by Bols to 15th Brigade HQ. “I shall attack shortly. What artillery support may I expect?”. None came. Undeterred, the Dorsets moved forward again into a firing line. B Company now rejoined the battalion, at the request of the Brigadier General, and started to edge its way around the west of Bois des Essertis.
At 3pm all hell broke loose. Machine guns and rifles opened up from Germans hidden in the surrounding trees. Shellfire rained down from the battery on Hill 189. The entire brigade was immediately pinned down. At this point the Dorsets tried their best to move forward under withering fire and return it as best they could.
B Company did well at first through the woods but the mortal woundings of its commander, Captain Roe, and of his newly arrived second-in-Command, Captain A.B. Priestley, whom we met on the 5th September, soon put a stop to their advance.
Athelstan Key Durance George in 1905
D Company was pinned down in open fields. Machine gun fire swept their attack lines and just after 4pm one of their platoon comanders, Lieutenant Athelstan Key Durance George (another Brixton-born Dorset), was shot in the head when he raised himself to look through field glasses. Major Saunders, the Company Commander, was also wounded but he carried on regardless. The war diary reports that he “behaved with great gallantry and exposed himself frequently”. The Dorsets simply couldn’t move under the amount of incoming fire. There was nothing at their disposal to overcome this situation they found themselves in. At no point did the Dorsets received any covering fire from supporting artillery. What happened to that howitzer battery Gleichen put to good use just a couple of hours before? There’s no mention of them in any other the other first hand reports.
A Company and Battalion HQ were also stuck where they lay, behind C and D Companies. At 4pm shellfire from an enemy Field Howitzer Battery added to their misery. At 5pm Bols received verbal orders from Gleichen for the Dorsets to retire once it was dark. The two sides exchanged fire like this until 6:30pm when the Dorsets withdrew from the deadlock to hastily dug trenches and bivouacs west of Bézu-le-Guéry to the east of Hill 189.
At 9pm the Battalion was informed that the enemy had now retired. The Dorsets received their order to march once more at 4:30am the next day. The Germans were now fighting a rearguard action and doing it very cleverly.
The diary records that the Battalion lost 3 officers (although none of them died that day), 1 wounded and 7 men killed with 31 wounded and 4 missing. A search of the CWGC shows 10 dead for the 9th September 1914.
* I’m not saying they were wrong in their approach. I think it is important that we don’t impose our knowledge of subsequent history upon people’s lives in 1914. There was no real experience of this kind of warfare at the time. Technology and tactics took a very long time to catch up on equipping a soldier against a modern army with such destructive power. There were no grenades or mortars for small scale attack like this one and the machine gun was seen as very much a defensive support weapon at this time. The British soldier didn’t even get a tin hat until late 1915.
At 7:07am men from the Dorsets and the Cheshires were assembled to witness a brutal side of Army life. Thomas Highgate, of the 1st Bn Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, had been found guilty of desertion two days previously and was sentenced to death by firing-party.
Brigadier-General Gleichen remembers that he had “the unpleasant duty to perform of detailing a firing-party to execute a prisoner.” Who made up that firing-party remains a mystery. But poor Thomas Highgate was made an example of at this critical time for the Allies. His execution was broadcast as part of Army Routine Orders for that day to the entire BEF.
Thomas Highgate – executed by firing-party
Thomas had thrown away his uniform and was dressed as a civilian. Fortune was not on his side. He was discovered by a gamekeeper in a barn. The gamekeeper happened to be English. Worse still, he was an ex-soldier. Thomas was immediately apprehended. He had no representation and called no witnesses. He was the first soldier to be executed in The Great War. He was pardoned in 2006* along with 306 other men.
The cruelest part of the story for me isn’t mentioned in any of the other documents I’ve read so far. Thomas Highgate was tried in Tournan-en-Brie. That’s almost 25 miles away from Boissy-le-Châtel. Was he purposely moved to the frontline so that his execution was witnessed by frontline troops?
No mention of this incident is made in the war diary for the Dorsets or the Cheshires.
The Dorsets marched with the rest of the 15th Brigade as rearguard to the 5th Division. The BEF was now arranged into Brigade Areas which complicated matters for the Staff officers (namely Staff Captain A.L. Moulton-Barrett) of the 15th Brigade who were charged with billeting and signalling. they were now dealing with lots of other units: artillery, Field Ambulance, cyclists, signallers, Royal Engineers etc.
The Brigade was in support of the 13th Brigade. Although they could hear and see (in terms of burning villages) fighting on both flanks, they didn’t engage the enemy, although Gleichen reports of friendly-fire once more. This was understandable with the heavily undulating and wooded terrain. Prisoners, transport, artillery and mixed up units all added to the confusion.
The Dorsets passed through Doue, Mauroy, down towards St Cyr-Sûr-Morin via Les Hameaux, where they halted at 5:30pm. The weather had turned from hot to wet; rain at last. By 6:30 the Dorsets had moved on again, up a steep hill, to billets in Charnesseuil. They had marched 10 miles.
* The facts on this BBC page are not very accurate. He wasn’t 17 when he died, he was 19, and his unit was fairly intact at that point. Indeed many of the facts surrounding this execution are hazy and lots of it need primary source reference. The Wikipedia entry also has quotes without sources.
As a drop the dead donkey item, the cap badge from the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment was used by the home guard in Dad’s Army.
A Company covered the Battalion during the night. Firing was heard from the right front at about 2am. At 4am officers were sent on patrol to the woods to the north, between Charnois and Carrouge. All was quiet.
The war diary notes several requests for orders throughout the morning. The Dorsets didn’t move until 12:45pm that day. It appears that movements were very confused at this time. If you look at the map you can see that the 15th Brigade moved in a westerly direction, across the general north westerly movement of the BEF. This almost certainly led to what we’d now call “friendly fire” incidents.
Captain Shore of the Cheshires firmly lays the blame of an nearby incident, which injured two of his men, at the feet of a 5th Division staff officer and Brigadier General Cuthbertson. The Dorsets report shelling at 3pm of their columns as they reached Mouroux. Gleichen also reports friendly fire that day in the same area.
There were still some Uhlans left in the woods, and I turned a couple of Norfolk companies off the road to drive them out. Some of our artillery had also heard of them, and a Horse battery dropped a few shells into the wood to expedite matters; but I regret to say the only bag, as far as we could tell, was one of our own men killed and another wounded by them.
Williams’ pears – super-excellent
Still, Gleichen seems more excited by “the gift of some most super-excellent “William” pears” than the advance on the enemy.
The densely wooded and gnarly terrain caused a lot of the problems as the BEF tried to manoeuvre itself into the attack position as directed by Joffre, as well as simultaneously clearing out German pockets of resistance. They were wasting precious time.
It’s important to take stock of what had been happening in the days since Le Cateau. The general retirement by the BEF appeared to have had no real plan other than to keep moving back.
Sir John French was considering defending Paris or even withdrawing from the field completely and making for the Channel ports. But all this was set to change. The previous day a battle had started almost by accident.
Joffre had been hastily assembling a scratch force, under General Michel-Joseph Maunoury. Moving troops from his eastern flanks by train and any vehicle that could carry them, Joffre created the French Sixth Army to screen Paris from the approaching German forces. The BEF was now no longer on the extreme left flank of the Allies.
The German Schlieffen plan had wanted to encircle Paris from the west, but their pursuit of the retreating French and British forces led them down the eastern edge of Paris. The Germans weren’t aware of the new Sixth Army on their right flank. They generally believed the BEF to be pretty much destroyed. And so they were drawn on by the pursuit, possibly hoping to draw the Allies into a pitched battle.
On the morning of the 5th September, the French Sixth Army started to advance east from Paris. At the River Ourcq they met the approaching German IV Reserve Corps. As the German First Army began to wheel eastwards to face this new threat to its right flank, the Allies spotted a potential gap between the German First and Second Armies. This gap opened up exactly where the BEF and the French Fifth Army were positioned.
Joffre gave the orders to attack early on the morning of the 5th September. The British Army HQ was informed but, unfortunately, as we saw yesterday, the BEF had already started continued to retreat with a night march, and so was 12-15 miles away from where Joffre thought they were.
So when the Dorsets set out at 5am to Villeneuve (sic) as advanced guard to the 15th Brigade, they could already hear the guns in the distance. Gleichen remembers the attitude of the men as they advanced.
What had happened, or why we were suddenly to turn against the enemy after ten days of retreat, we could not conceive; but the fact was there, and the difference in the spirits of the men was enormous. They marched twice as well, whistling and singing, back through Tournans and on to Villeneuve.
The 15th Brigade then marched, passing with some difficulty through the forest at Crécy, to Montcerf. Here the Brigade paused for an hour. While Gleichen met with General Smith-Dorrien, the Dorsets pushed C and D Companies into outposts. Later on at 6:45pm the advance continued to La Celle-Sur-Mourin. It was very difficult terrain to move through in the dark, with narrow streets, tight valleys and twisting roads. The Dorsets disturbed a German Uhlan patrol, who left after firing a few shots but nothing else was seen of the enemy.
The Brigade bivouacked in a stubble field and waited for their next orders, while guns rumbled to their right. The Third Division was engaged with the Germans at Faremoutiers. The Battle of the Marne had begun.
In an aside, I think I can confirm that Frank was in A Company. I recently found a conduct sheet marked with A Company. There are also a few other shards of evidence that confirm this but they appear further down the line. I’ll go back and elaborate any A Company action in previous posts.
