WHEN ANTWERP FELL.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 364, 10 April 1915, Page 8

WHEN ANTWERP FELL.

BRITISH FALL BACK FROM BRUGES. VIVID STORY OF RETREAT. FINAL STAND BEFORE YPRES. MYSTERY OF SPY AND A DUKE. "Blackwood's Magasine" for March publishes a remarkably vivid account of the British fighting in Belgium after the fall of Antwerp up to the "final stand before Ypres." The narrative, entitled "With Kawlinson in Belgium," is by 2nd Lieutenant C. Underwood, interpreter to the Headquarters Staff, 21st Infantry Brigade, 7th Division.

This complete division left the New Forest on Sunday, October 4, for the front. Embarking at" Southampton, they found themselves back in Dover If arbour on Tuesday morning, waiting for the Channel to be swept of mines. That evening they crossed to Zeebrngge and went on to Bruges:—

"At supper General Watts informed us that we w r ere under the orders of the 4th Army Corps, commanded by Lieut.General Sir If. S. Rawdinson, of Ladysmith fame. Later that evening we received orders that we should have to leave early next morning for the coast to s cover the retreat from Antwerp, which Ave were intended to have saved, but failed to do Owing to our delayed departure from Dover." After some marching and countermarching to Ost'eniTand back to Bruges, the division was moved on to Eoulers and Ypres owing to the threatening advance of the Germans. Fighting began in earnest in the Glieluvelt-Beeelaere region on October 17 and 18. A retiring engagement was fought on the 21st. We quote the following passages from the narrative after that point:— "At 9.30 a.m. the shells started drop: ping all round us, and ..while the colonel and I were crossing over to the "rear farm a shrapnel burst rather closer than before, and we were surrounded with bullets. One stuck Colonel Lambert on the legging; and .proved .to be a most wonderful escape. It actually cut a piece out of the calf of the legging and did no injury to the riding-breeches inside. ■ ' •'

"When I advised the colonel to.take it off to see if he were injured at all, a bullet dropped out from the bottom of the "legging inside. He was in no way injured. " The '.neighbourhood surrounding Becelaere became Aistinctly unh.ea.lthy. During one of the lulls Sir Frederick Ponsonby and Colonels Montgomery and Stewart arrived'on the scene with a message' from Divisional Headquarters to General Watts. They were standing near the corner of the farm, watching the shells bursting over the trenches, when one got so close that we were all peppered, but none struck. Colonel Montgomery then advised Sir Frederick.to retire.to headquarters, suggesting that it might be more salubrious. "They accordingly rode off at a gallop, making straight across: a ploughed field to the corner of a wood surrounding a 'chateau on the Gheluvelt-Ypres Eoad. Just, as they were reaching this point a shrapnel "burst over and behind them, and one of their was emptied and the horse brought down. "We all thought it was Ponsonby, but it turned out to be Stewart, who was very badly hit and died later from the effects in Ypres. Next day Sir Frederick received a wire from the Kin*" calling him back to an appointment as Keeper of the Privy Purse. . .

20»000 Against 150,000,

"The position was most critical, as we had not one man left to support the firing.Hue, which was, being very hardly pressed, and might give way at any moment. At last, then, the long-expect-ed supports were arriving! Our men had behaved like heroes all. This was the seventh day since we first engaged the Germans, one division extending over an unheard-of front of eight miles and holding up what I understood, from one of our prisoners yesterday to be a hostile force of three army corps—i.e., 15-20,000 men up against 150,000!!! "The ordeal of the last three-days had been terrible. These brave fellows; actually had no sleep for seven days, and had never left the trenches, fighting night and day, sticking to them until they were literally blown out of them or buried alive. ' They were now becoming pieces of wood, sleeping standing up, and firing almost mechanically, with the very slightest support from our guns, which were now outclassed, as we had no howitzers with the division, having left Lyndhurst in a Imrrv to accomplish a task which never came off through no fault of ours. "Having got on to the road, I found the Northumberland Hussars coming through the gates of the chateau, evidently having been brought up with the idea" of their taking • possession of the trenches if the supports were not up in time. In ten. minutes I sighted the head of a battalion swinging up the road, and rau-down as directed to hurry them up. Found them to be the Highland Light Infantry and King's Own Scottish Borderers.

"I told the' commanding officer the position, and he doubled them round the wood to the trendies our fellows were holding with their last gasp. I then returned to the chateau and found a signalling private ... named Shepherd posted on the gates. This man had been left with me at the chateau at Beernem, when I was told to keep up communications by telephone between headquarters .and the division as they advanced on Coolscamp. Royal Scots Marked Men.

''He asked me whether I had seen an ambulance pass, as it contained a captain of the Scots Fusiliers, and that his batman had told him that their interpreter had just been shot as a spy. I .asked him for further details, which were as follow:—Observing that the

Royal Scots Fusiliers Avere being particularly marked out by the German gunners Avherever they moved, the captain began to suspect the interpreter who had been attached to them recently and was a Belgian. He was therefore watched, and the night before had been followed to a farm close to their trenches. . •. - '

'<At four the sergeant reported that he was signalling to the German lines with an electric lamp. On the captain going up with a file of men, and suddenly Coining upon him signalling, he turned round, and when he found he was : caught shot the captain in the shoulder Avith his revolver: He'was subsequently shot down where he stood." Afterwards the Avriter learned that "a, German officer was known to be driving round in a motor-car disguised as a British Staff officer." Next day he rode into Ypres. '*;... Leaving the Intelligence Department, I strolled over to the Cafe do Flahdres and ordered a bock. : I had hardly been there five minutes when a young staff officer accompanied by a French ar.tilJe.ry officer entered.. "I' hailed the French officer, whom I took for a captain, in French, and told him lioav pleased I AA r as to see the French dragoons again. To my surprise he utterly ignored hie. I then asked the : British officer who his friend was who was so uncommonly rude for a Frenchman.

"To my amazement he replied in broken English, 'He is not a capitaine; he is a commandant.' I then asked him to do me the honour of sitting next to me, and I then apologised in French to the French officer, explaining that I had only seen three stripes on his cape in-, stead of four.

"To tins'-he merely gave a grunt, and I noticed that his collar: bore the number; —, while, I noted also that he was a major. On looking at the soi-distant English Staff, officer I noted that he only wore two stars. I then asked him where he had come from, and he again replied in broken English, 'I come from London, and have only just been appointed to the Staff by Lord Kitehinaere.'

"Due d'Orleans!" "This appeared to me extraordinary. An English Staff officer unable to speak English except with a French accent accompanied by a French officer of artillery who refused to speak at" all! y£ then thought of the general's statement the;-day before. 'A German officer is known to be going about in a car in a British .Staff officer's uniform.' Stilly I. could not : account for the French accent.

''Then it dawned upon me that perhaps he might be a German speaking with a French accent to put me oft the scent. I decided that it was good enough to have them arrested' for enquiry.

"I therefore got up, and, strolling quietly to the door, opened it, and told the first Tommy I saw to stop every pal he came across, as there were spies in the cafe. As I was about to re-enter I saw both my men, looking very uncomfortable,, rise and call f or the bill. "By this time I had 20 Tommies under the first,'and I told them to wait and folloy? f the two men coming out, as I suspected them of being spies. They were all on tiptoe, and when the pair came out my men followed them down the square for ; '2oyds, when they both got into a private car! This settled it. "I ordered my'men to surround the car, and they did so in a second. Just as I was congratulating myself on a fine capture and saw visions of reward and honour, etc., out came the "Staff officer's head and enquired, 'Vat is zis?' At the same time I felt a tap on my shoulder, and, turning round, found it was an infantry captain, who whispered, ' It's all : right, - old chap.' "Du'c d 'Orleans!' The French accent, Kitchener, and all was accounted for. "I stepped forward, apologised, saluted, and withdrew my men, and off went the car J. ' On' turning' round to explain the circunistahces to the captain, to my ■ amazement he had disappeared, 1 although the whole thing had not taken a minute.

"I felt absolutely 'done'; saw a clever plant in the English captain, and, had the satisfaction of fee'liug that I had the finest chance in my power of promotion and congratulation, and had been fooled into losing both. I risked a vow and went over to the-Intelligence Department and reported what had taken place.

"The officer in charge was extremely interested, although it/ was nearly 1 o'clock, and asked me to describe'the French artillery officer; I did so. and he seemed relieved; then he asked for the description of the young Staff officer, which I gave himj and he then, smilingly said, 'lt is quite right, and it Avas the Due - d'Orleans!'... . .

"With the morning a report came in that the 7th Division was being very hardlv The German guns were heavily shelling Gheluvclt. ' 'A captive balloon was up all day, observing .from the French lines. . As I was watching the woods on our left front towards the Gheluvelt-Menin road, T saw the Yorks. retiring ami the Gor* dons advancing. I pointed this out to the geuqral.. who immediately sent out to find out by whose orders they were retiring; Presently, to our consternation, the Gordons came back farther down the road towards Gheluvelt; before wo could do anything the Yorks came streaming over the, open ploughed land, crossing in front of the Kruiseck WOOds.

German Order to Gordons,

"The general galloped down the road to stop the Gordons, and I tried to stop the Yorks, who persisted that the order had been given them to retire. We concluded that it must have been a German officer, and forced them up along the Zandvoorde-Gheluvclt Road under a terrible shrapnel fire, and they were being bowled over like ninepins, as the Germans must have seen them crossing the open. ."We tumbled them into the ditch alongside the road, and it was a pitiable sight to sec the poor fellows who were Jtill in the open and badly hit trying to crawl along towards our headquarters to take shelter from the hail of shrapnel bullets.

"They dragged themselves along, some with arm or leg shot off or broken, and others streaming with blood from' head or face wounds. They were by now all lying out under the wall of a farm, and the place looked like a shambles.

"It was a splendid sight to see Jardine (Lieut., R.A.M.C.) running out under a hail of bullets and bringing in one wounded man after another on his back. His mackintosh in ten minutes Avas covered with blood, and he looked like a butcher. Presently the shell fire died down a bit, and the men in the ditches alongside the road, having had time to recover, advanced once more to regain the ground they had lost; but they left dozens of corpses lying in all sortft of positions on the field at the side or* our headquarters. , yl"The general immediate!}'. had ordered out two machine guns which, were on the waggon, and under Bruce they

gave the advancing Germans, such -a peppering that they were forced .to retire, and we thus recovered our trenches and saved the situation."

He returned to Ypres. "One poor chap of the Wavwiefcs'whom I spoke to, and had .been very badly mau'ed, said: 'Well, sir, England can't say we did not stick it to the last. I don't thiuk I shall get home,. an# I Avanted to tell the padre that I am!;not afraid to die. I used to be afraid of hell, but hell can't possibly be AvOrse than what AA r e have been through the last feAV 'days!" All that were liefti-; u ; [^ Later the Avriter heard "thatijie' Avas to start for Bailleul. "General Watts being most particular and jealous of the impression our troops Avould create on arriving in a French town, ordered an inspection. As . I followed him round .we came into the field occupied by the Royal Scots Fusiliers. Here they Avere drawn up, erect and grim, as usual, but what a different regiment from the one Avhich had swung out of Lyndhurst camp less than five weeks before. "That magnificently smart regiment" of over 1000 men was iioav reduced to about 70 men, Avitli the junior subaltern in command. Tne men were mostly without caps, coats, or even .putties, war-stained and ragged,' but still full of British pluck and pride; .wiifck ; 'a ' never-sa3 r -die' look about th.em which made the heart swell with pride a'tl>eing connected AA r ith such splendid specimens of manhood.

"As my place had always- been .fust behind the general and brigade-major, right at the head of the column, I hail really never had an opportunity of "seeing the extent to which our brigade' had suffered, tmtil uoav. • As we ■ slowlyJ advanced, seeing this remnant of what . had been a regiment at full strength-so short a time before, with now; ; buly.ia fair, curly-headed junior subaltern (the only officer left) in command, the pathos of the Avhole thing occurred/! to me, reminding me of .that fine picture of Lady Butler's, 'ThcEoll-caby and a choking lump arose in my -throat, giving as much as I could do to restrain the tears from .rolling down my cheeks."