CHARGE OF LANCERS.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13728, 17 March 1915, Page 2

CHARGE OF LANCERS.

A private in the 12th Lancers writes: —My first impression on arrival at the front was the way everything was smashed up, the result of shell-fire. We were dodging about for two or three days, looking for trouble, as the saying goes, and then we got in touch with the Germans. My word, they did let us have it going into action. That was at Soissons, near which a squad-, ron of ours charged in shirt-sleeves. We were having a wash at a stream, and suddenly one of our scouts came in and reported about two hundred German cavalry. By riding along the ridge we were able to dash through a gap and catch them by surprise. Wo got the order to form lino, and then the exciting moment of every British cavalryman came with the order to charge. We went through them twice, and there were very few left (Germans, I mean). One officer we captured called us a "howling lot of devils let loose from hell," and I don't think he was far wrong. Ours is a mad lot when they got away. The cavalry has been used for supporting the infantry in the trenches, and it was that way we got into a bayonet charge. We were supporting the London Scottish, and we heard they would be probably making a charge, so our commanding officer gave orders to join them. Just fancy, cavalrymen charging with bayonets. What Tommy doesn't do with his rifle and bayonet he does with his fists. You get glimpses of chaps punching and wrestling after having their rifles knocked out of their hands.