ST. QUENTIN IN 1914.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15194, 14 April 1917, Page 7

ST. QUENTIN IN 1914.

EARLY WAR INCIDENT

Now that St. Quentin is so much in the public eye, it is interesting to recall the fact that the British established their general haedquarters in this important town for a brief period in August, 1914, during the famous retreat from Mons. In. a small volume entitled, "On the Road from Mons," the commander of a British Army Service Corps train has given us a few glimpses of what the town of St. Quentin was like at that time. The writer had lost touch with the brigade to which his train was supposed to be attached, and had motored into St. Quentin to find out what had become of it. "I arrived at general headquarters at St. Quentin," he says, "to find most of the staff had already gone, and from those who were left hastily packing up the things they wanted I could get no information whatever. . . .

Anxiety was written largely on their faces, and none hid from me the fact that our army was in a tightcorner. . . . Outside, the town was in the greatest state of excitement. It was in the air that we had been completely annihilated at Le Cateau, and the populace stood about like frightened sheep, bleating and baaing; some literally too terrified to move. Apprehension and the fear consequent of the worst, could never have been more vividly pourtrayed on the faces of mankind than it was on those of the home-forsaking civilians in the square at St. Quentin that day. "There was a French officer there who was dressed in the magnificent uniform of a crack French cavalry regiment. . . . He told me he had just come from watching the battle. . . . and if I stopped much longer there I should witness the most terrible sight that can be seen on this earth—an army in retreat, routed, hopelessly beaten, men streaming panic-stricken, utterly war-worn, dismay written in every line of their faces, to be ridden clown and cut up by the enormous masses of the enemy in their remorseless pursuit. . . . It was dark when suddenly a big car rolled up. By its light I recognised General Sir H. Smith-Dor-rien sitting in it. ... I went straight up to him and automatically said, 'Are you looking for general v headquarters, sir?' He said, 'Yes.' I said, 'They have gone.' He repeated 'Gone!' 1 have never seen a man's face express so much a; his did. . . . He told me to march my train to Noyon. So once more our jaded horses moved off, and the men were unutterably relieved to be moving out of that panic-stricken square."