The corps commander, however, judged that his men were too tired and the enemy too strong to effect such a retirement as he was directed to carry out.
The General's reply was duly received at Headquarters. The Commander-in-Chief was deeply engaged in concerting plans with the French Commander-in-Chief, his Chief of the Staff, and General Lanzerac (the commander of the Fifth French Army). Orders were immediately sent to the Second Corps, informing the General that any delay in retiring would seriously compromise the plan of the Allied operations, and, in view of the general situation, might entail fatal results. He was directed to resume his retirement forthwith, and, to assist him, the cavalry and Fourth Division were placed under his orders.
At the conclusion of the conference, no positive information having been received of the commencement of the retirement, the Commander-in-Chief himself set out for Le Cateau; but the congestion of the roads with Belgian refugees, etc., made progress so slow that he had not accomplished half the distance before he found that his orders had been carried out and the retirement was in progress.
During the early part of the day, however, Sir H. Smith-Dorrien had, for the reason given above, waited at the Le Gateau position to engage the pursuing Germans. Of the three divisions of infantry thus engaged, the Fifth lay on the right, the Third in the centre, and the Fourth faced outwards on the left: the whole occupying the ridge south of the Cambrai-Le Cateau road, on the line Haucourt-Caudry-Beaumont-Le Cateau. The Nineteenth Infantry Brigade was in reserve and the cavalry operated on the flanks. With both flanks exposed, with three divisions of infantry to the enemy's seven, and faced by the massed artillery of four army corps, – an odds of four or five to one, – the Second Corps and Fourth Division prepared to make a stand. A few hours' sleep, and at dawn, with a roar of guns, the battle opened.
That the day was critical, that it was all or nothing, was realized by all ranks. Everything was thrown into the scale; nothing was held back. Regiments and batteries, with complete self-abandonment, faced hopeless duels at impossible ranges; brigades of cavalry on the flanks boldly threatened divisions; and in the half-shelter of their trenches the infantry, withering but never budging, grimly dwindled before the German guns. It was our first experience on a large scale of modern artillery in mass. For the first six hours the guns never stopped. To our infantry it was a time of stubborn and almost stupefied endurance, broken by lucid intervals of that deadly musketry which had played such havoc with the Germans at Mons. To our artillery it was a duel, and perhaps of all the displays of constancy and devotion in a battle where every man in every arm of the service did his best, the display of the gunners was the finest. For they accepted the duel quite cheerfully, and made such sport with the enemy's infantry that even their masses shivered and recoiled. By midday, however, many of our batteries were out of action, and the enemy infantry had advanced almost to the main Cambrai-Le Gateau road, behind which our men, in their pathetic civilian trenches, were quietly waiting.
The enemy attacked on the right of the Fifth Division, and were in the act of turning it when the order came to retire. This necessary order, for a gradual retirement from the right, was issued a little before 3 P.M., and was with great difficulty conveyed to all parts of the line. In the Fifth Division several companies, in covering the retirement, were practically wiped out. The story of "B" Company of the Second K.O.Y.L.I. charging the enemy with its nineteen remaining men, headed by its commander, is typical of the spirit which inspired the British regiments.
The Third Division had suffered comparatively little when the order reached them, and were justly priding themselves on having successfully repulsed a determined attack on Caudry, the apex of the position.
On the left of the line was posted the Fourth Division which had come in by train the previous day, and was personally placed by the Commander-in-Chief in the position he thought best to cover the retirement of the Second Corps.
Owing to the unexpected turn of events at Mons, and the unfortunate delay in the despatch of this division from England, the troops had to be pushed into action without a moment's delay, and before the detrainment of their artillery and other services was practically complete.
On the morning of the 26th they found themselves on the extreme western flank of the Allied forces, and splendidly did General Snow and his gallant men carry out the difficult and dangerous task assigned them.
The conduct of their retirement was no less efficient than their gallant fighting. Parts of this division, however, shared the fate of other units in the line engaged in covering the retirement, and, holding on into the night, either retired in the darkness (some to the British lines, others through the German lines to the sea) or, less fortunate, were cut off, captured, or destroyed. Many adventures befell them, and some tragedies, but none to equal the tragedy of the First Gordons, who marched in the darkness into a German division in bivouac some miles south of the battle-ground, and were shot or taken prisoners almost to a man.
The infantry retirement, though thus partial and irregular, was progressively carried out according to orders, and by four o'clock in the afternoon most of the line had been cleared. The retirement was covered by the artillery, still in action with the same unruffled courage and devotion which they had shown throughout the day, and there is no doubt that the reluctance of the enemy to engage in an energetic pursuit was partly due to this splendid opposition of our gunners, as well as to the undoubtedly heavy losses which they had suffered from our rifle and shell fire earlier in the day. At any rate, the pursuit was not pressed, and by nightfall, after another long and weary march, – how weary, after such a day, can scarcely be expressed, – the remains of the Second Corps and the Fourth Division halted and bivouacked. It was pouring with rain, but many slept where they halted, by the roadside, too utterly worn to think of shelter.
There is a pendant to this great action of the 26th which until recently has been missing from its place; and it has been a matter of much wonder, in consequence, how it was that things fell out as they did after the battle of Le Gateau, the weary British retiring before a numerous and victorious enemy which did not pursue. It was pointed out, indeed, that the enemy had suffered heavy losses; that they were tired and shaken by the unexpected violence of the British defence; but when every allowance had been made for the effect of weariness and loss, it was plain that some other reason must still be found to account for a decision so repugnant to the German temper and the German plans. Reference has already been made to the promise made by Generals Sordet and D'Amade to the British Commander-in-Chief. If history has been slow to record it, let the delay be put down to the exigencies of war. The enemy were not only tired and shaken. They were also threatened, and threatened, as they very quickly discovered, in the most sensitive tentacles of their advance. It was about 4.30 on the afternoon of the 26th (so the story runs), when the British retirement had been in progress about an hour, that a furious cannonading was heard out towards the west. This was Sordet's cavalry, tired horses and all, arrived and engaging the German right. The explanation was confirmed by airmen later in the day, who reported having seen large bodies of French cavalry, with horse artillery and some battalions of infantry, driving back the Germans out towards Cambrai. General Sordet and his cavalry, aided by General D'Amade's battalions, which had moved out from their station at Arras, were able to inflict upon the outflanking German right a blow which recoiled upon the whole of the First German Army, and by its threatened significance more than by its actual strength dominated the policy of that army for several days to come. The German advance wavered and paused, and for nearly twenty-four hours the British continued their retirement almost unmolested.
Whether on the early morning of the 26th the left of the British line could have followed the example of the First Corps and continued its retreat, is a question which cannot be satisfactorily settled until the whole history of the war is laid bare. But there can be no doubt that both troops and commander richly deserved the high tribute paid them in the despatch of the British Commander-in-Chief, who, after praising the behaviour of various arms, says: -
"I cannot close this brief account of the glorious stand of the British troops without putting on record my deep appreciation of the valuable services rendered by Sir H. Smith-Dorrien.
"I say without hesitation that the saving of the left wing of the army under my command on the morning of the 26th August could never have been accomplished unless a commander of rare and unusual coolness, intrepidity, and determination had been present to personally conduct the operations."
It is impossible to close the story of this, the most critical time of the great Retreat, without making mention of the inestimable services performed by the British cavalry under General Allenby. The moral superiority which they had so effectually established over the hostile horsemen during the enemy's first advance on Mons, was maintained and increased by every one of the many trials of strength which occurred all along the line between smaller and greater units of the two opposing cavalries. Invariably in all these encounters the German cavalry were driven behind the protection of their infantry and, thus hampering the latter's advance, assisted our troops to make good their retreat. The quality of the horses and equipment of the British, their unrivalled efficiency in dismounted fighting and in knowledge of ground, coupled with their intrepidity and dash whenever the smallest opportunity for mounted attack presented itself, enabled them effectually to prevent that which is most dreaded by a retreating army-the enterprises of hostile horsemen.
No praise can be too great for the British cavalry throughout this drastic initiation into the splendid work which they have invariably performed throughout the campaign.
It was in the early hours of the morning of the 27th that the commander of the Second Corps personally reported himself at Headquarters. He informed the Commander-in-Chief that the Second Corps and Fourth Division had suffered heavily and were very tired, but were now rapidly regaining order and cohesion. By dawn every available staff officer was en route for St. Quentin, and hour after hour, at their posts on the line of the Retreat, shepherded the troops towards their units, and the longed-for luxuries of food and drink and news. All through the morning detachments of every size and every conceivable composition kept filing past-some with officers, most with none-some hobbling and silent, others whistling and in step-but all with one accord most thoroughly persuaded (such are the fallacies of a retreat) that they were the last and only survivors of their respective commands. Many, after a brief halt, had marched all night, and up to one o'clock in the afternoon they were still coming in. A brief rest, some bread and coffee, and they were off once more, their troubles almost forgotten in the pleasure of rejoining their regiments and recovering their friends.
The general Retreat, which the battle of Le Cateau had so dangerously interrupted, resumed once more its normal tenor. Of the behaviour of the men during this trying period it is difficult to speak with moderation. They had passed through an ordeal, both physical and mental, such as few troops have ever had to face in their first week of war; and had displayed throughout a nobility of bearing and demeanour of which none who observed them can speak even now without emotion. Such courage and patience, such humorous resignation and cheerfulness in adversity, are to be paralleled only in the finest armies of history.
The resumption of the general Retreat and the restoration of march routine among the forces of the British left had one immediate and important consequence. It became possible to deal with the chief remaining weakness caused by the inability of the First Corps, as already pointed out, to reach its allotted position on the evening of the 25th. The First Corps had not been idle while the Second Corps fought; though never heavily engaged, it had been perpetually harassed, and was still, on August 27, suffering from the wide dispersion of its forces on the 25th. It was now moving south as best it could-keeping direction, but otherwise marching and bivouacking by brigades. On both flanks, indeed, throughout these early days of the Retreat, such was the imminence of the enemy, and such the variety of fortunes of the different brigades-and even battalions and companies-of the same division during any one day, that no strict uniformity of march or of line could be looked for. It speaks well for the commanders of brigade and regimental units that so unusually high a discretionary power was exercised so well, and with so little miscarriage either of individual units or of the general scheme. Some mishaps, of course, there were, of companies and battalions overtaken, cut off, or surprised. The capture of the greater part of the Second Munster Fusiliers at Bergues on the 26th is one of these incidents, to be set beside the destruction of the First Gordons, as part of the tragic waste inevitable in any continuous retreat before superior numbers. It is memorable, not only because, like the First Gordons, the regiment involved carried a famous name, but because it gave occasion to our cavalry to show once more in their Retreat their devotion to duty. It was entirely due to the skilful and audacious dismounted action of two troops of the Fifteenth Hussars that the battered remnant of the Munsters-about one hundred and fifty men-was saved from annihilation or surrender.