STILL FALLING BACK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22192, 20 August 1935, Page 16

STILL FALLING BACK

BY DCFF COOPER

THUNDER ON THE LEFT anniversary of CRECY *

HAIG himself reached Landrecies in the afternoon, and was preparing to set up his headquarters there for the night, when a panic occurred among the inhabitants, who rushed into the room where he was sitting, crying that the enemy were upon them. Unaware how much truth there might be in these reports, he moved to the Mairie, as being in the most central position, and prepared to defend the town. Mounted patrols were eent out to reconnoitre, but did not succeed in finding any trace of the enemy. It seemed that the alarm had been entirely false until about seven-thirty, when a company of the Coldstream which was defending the road leading into the town, was violently attacked. About the same time, a few miles away to the north-east, a large party of the enemy emerged from the Forest of Mormal, captured a bridge over the Sambre, which was held by a troop of the loth Hussars, and resisted every effort to retake it. Secret Agents Foment Panic It is possible that from the information which reached them, Haig and his staff formed an exaggerated estimate of the forces that were opposed to them. Darkness had fallen, and the countryside, from which the civilian inhabitants had had no time to flee, was alive with rumours of the most alarming kind. Secret agents were doubtless engaged in fomenting panic. It is significant that on this same day a precisely similar panic occurred at Prisches, in the zone of the French Fifth Army. Confusion was increased by the action of the Germans who, relying on the British soldiers' lack of experience, on two occasions gained initial advantage by pretending to be French. Haig recognised such tactics as a legitimate ruse of war, and admired the courage of those who emploved them. About ten o'clock he considered the situation sufficiently serious to justify an appeal to G.H.Q. for reinforcements. French transmitted the request to Smith-Dorrien, who was compelled to reply that his troops were quite unable to move that night. At that very mpmcnt, in fact. SmithDorrien was engaged in taking the momentous decision to disregard the wishes of his superior office and to stand and fight at I*e Cateau. In ignorance of this important fact Haig issued orders for the continuation of the retirement in a southerly direction. General Landon, commanding the 3rd Brigade, whose headquarters were at Le Grand Fay't, was to be the first to move, and his troops were to take up a position west of Favril in order to cover the withdrawal of the 4th (Guards) Brigade from Landrecies. " Landon gave his men a meal, some tea. hiscuits, cheese, etc.. about 2 a.m., and I saw them start off about «3 a.m., just as it was getting light. The platoons of the South Wales Borderers gave a cheer as they went past me. Under Hot Shell Fire " Landon reached the |>osition ordered near Favril without "incident. A hot shell (ire was soon opened on him, but they held their ground without difficulty* By o a.m. I aeard that the Fourth (Guards) Brigade had .successfully withdrawn from Landrecies and was about) half-way between that place and Etreux. " At 6 a.m., when I was still at I<e Grand Fayt,'.Major Davvnay, Communication Officer between G.H.Q. and my H.Q., arrived from General Headquarters and gave me instructions that the First Corps was to retire either on St. Quentin or in a south-easterly direction in conjunction with the French. " tn the latter case it would have to rejoin the rest of the Expeditionary Force by train. I felt that I could not do more than 1 had already dono to comply with the spirit of these orders, and I considered it best to allow the movements of the Corps to proceed on the lines which I had already laid down.

" Unfortunately direct communication with the Second Corps was cut off, and touch was not regained until the First Corps reached Villers Cotterets on the Ist September." So tho First Corps passed in comparative calm the day of August 26, during which the Second Corps was fighting for its life at Le Cateau, and so it hnppened that the small British Army was cut into two halves and that for a whole week the one half had no knowledge of what tho other half was doing. Yet both were in communication with G.H.Q. At 8.30 on that same evening of August 26, Haig telegraphed to G.H.Q. " No news of Second Corps except sound of guns from direction of Le Cateau and Beaumont. Can First Corps be of any assistance P"

To this message G.H.Q. sent no reply, so that Haig telegraphed again, pending his message to the second Corps through G.H.Q., as the most rapid means of transmission. > " Please let me know your situation and news. Wo are well able to co-oper-ate with you to-day. We could hear the sound of your battle; but could get no information as to its progress, and could form no idea how we could assist you." Second Corps' Great Battle Again there was no reply. As the Official Historian justly observes, " At this hour G.H.Q. seem to have given up the Second Corps as lost." But in fact, the Second Corps had fought on that day, the anniversary of Crecy, a battle not loss remarkable as a feat of arms nor less important in its effect upon history. The morning oi August 27th broke grey and gloomy. Heavy storms of rain fell at intervals throughout the day, while the melancholy retreat of the First Corps continued. The soldiers know nothing of tho heroic battle that their comrades had fought the day before, they had never heard of the Schlieffen plan, nor could they understand the vast implications of the strategical situation; they only knew that they were weary to death, footsore and sleepless, and that they had still to retreat before the enemy, whom thej- longed to fight and who was pressing reientlessly on their heels. On this day a battalion of the Minister Fusiliers, acting as part of the rearguard, became detached from the main body, and after fighting for nearly twelve hours against overwhelming odds perished almost to a man. The situation was further complicated by the lack of roads and by the demands of the Fifth French Army, retiring on the right, for a fair share of them. Nevertheless good progress was made and tho troops bivouacked and billeted for the night on the high ground South of Guise as far as Mont d'Origny. That night Haig considered the situation so critical that he decided to resume the march at 4 a.m., although it was quite evident that many men would get little or no rest. Everyone Dead Tired

"1 rode off myself about 2.30 a.m., night dark and misty, and found some units (artillery and Koyal Engineers) without orders. Statf officers as well as troops were so dead tired it was most difficult to get orders understood and delivered to troops and then carried out. " As the sun rose the day became very hot. The men were daily beroming weaker from want of rest, and from not having sufficient time properly to prepare their food, and the strain of the daily skirmishes and of the continual retirement was beginning to be severely felt. " Anxiety and fatigue were also telling on the minds and bodies of commanders as well as on their staff officers. Nevertheless n march of nearly twenty-two miles was made by some units and at night the corps halted between La Fere and the St. Gobain Forest

"About 2 p.m. the C.-in-C. (Sir John French) came to La Fere and visited the tngops, giving them their first authentic account of the fighting at Le Cateau."

Jt is interesting to compare Haig's own account of the condition of his troops on August 28 with that of an independant foreign witness. Captain Helbronner, a member of the staff of General Lanrefcao, commanding the Fifth French Army, came with a message from his Chief to the effect that he intended to give battle to the enemy on the morrow and wished to know whether he could rely upon the support of his Allies. " The men of the First Corps," he reported, " were tired and suffering from the extreme heat, but they marched in perfect order. The regiments went by ceaselessly singing Tipperary. .. ." He later encountered some regiments of the Second Corps*— " which presented," he wrote, "a striking contrast to the First Corps. The men looked harassed, there was some disorder and some units were intermingled. Nobody was sinking. ..." News by Aeroplane

Ho found the Ist Corps Commander himself of Ribemont near the village of Lucy, and thus describes the interview: '' He was standing on n mound. A British airman was reporting to Sir Douglas, who was very animated and conveyed to me the news he had just received. . . This was tjiat important German columns had been observed advancing south-west, of St. Quentin. General Haig was good enough to mark these himself in pencil on my map. His words to me were: " ' Go quickly tr? vqur G -'eral and give him this information. Let him take advantage of it without delay. The enemy is exposing his ilank as he advances. Let him act. 1 am anxious to co-operate with him in his attack.' " Helbronner hastened back to Lnnre?.ac with the welcome news. Lanrezac had indeed already «decided to assume tho offensive on the morrow. He now sent Helbronner back to Haig in order to complete the arrangements for Anglo-French co-operation. With 10-morrow's Instalment the long retreat comes to an end with tho decision to counter-attack.