114
THE YPRES TIMES
indeed known to have been dispatched, but which never turned up in time to be of any
use. In the midst of all this Mr. Winston Churchill walked in with special instructions
for providing extra comforts for the troops, and then went off to the front.
That evening we had our first taste of shell fire. Headquarters had been moved
to a house close behind the trenches, when the first shells came over about six o'clock
and several men were wounded. From then onward the shelling never really ceased for
any length of time till we got back within the walls of Antwerp a few days later.
Late that night an officer was sent with a carload of ammunition to an advanced
machine-gun post, and, having nothing particular to do at the moment, I decided to
accompany him. We went down the road to our trenches and then on for about half
a mile. My diary says a mile, but I can hardly credit that now. Anyhow, it seemed
a devilish long way, in the pitch dark, with snipers about, and we not knowing exactly
where the machine-gun was orwhat was more importantwhere the Germans were.
However, all went well we delivered the goods and got back safely to H.Q.
Next morning the bombardment was very heavy for a time and several more men
were wounded. As I was talking to one of them, Mr. Churchill passed us, walking down
the middle of the road towards the trenches, with shells falling all round. There
goes the right man in the right place," said the Marine.
The line had to be withdrawn 300 yards, and Headquarters moved back to a sort
of lay monastery or school run by monks, but a shell quickly found us and broke the
windows of the room where we were working. Things grew critical in the afternoon,
when the Germans made a heavy attack on the Belgians on our right the line broke,
but was restored later.
The position seemed rather better at nightfall, and the bombardment died down
for a time. But about 3 a.m. I woke to the now familiar sound of shells. Four or five
burst unpleasantly close to us one made a great hole in the garden and knocked a
piece out of the wall of the monastery.
Next morning I had to go down to our old Headquarters to get some stuff which
had been left behind. I found the place under a hail of shells, and every window
broken, so I lost no time in making a hurried search, during which two shells burst just
outside the door.
From now on things got steadily worse. The Belgians on our right were exhausted
and could hold the line, no longer. It became necessary to withdraw our troops a
couple of miles, and that night it was decided to withdraw all troops within the inner
line of fortifications, the movement to begin at 3 a.m. None of us got any sleep that
night.
This was the beginning of the end, for it enabled the Germans to move their big
guns forward within range of the city. Hitherto there had been a chance, even if a
remote one, of holding on till the promised reinforcements arrived now it was
becoming pretty hopeless, and it soon became a question, not whether the city could be
saved, but whether we could get our men away before the enemy closed the rapidly
narrowing exits to the west. Already the King and Government had left, and many
of the populace were fleeing, but many still remained shops and restaurants were still
open.
It was now Wednesday, October 7th, a lovely autumn day, and we had an interval
of peace while the Germans were getting their guns up. At 11 o'clock that night the
bombardment of the city began, and continued all night and the following day. By
5 p.m. on Thursday, the 8th, it had become evident that the city could not be held.
The Belgian troops were utterly exhausted and worn out, and our own men were too
few to make the difference. (We had by now three brigades instead of only one, but
the two new brigades were raw troops just out from England, untrained and ill-equipped.)
Accordingly, at 5.30 p.m. orders were issued for the withdrawal of the Naval Division
