1914 (British Ace) (6 page)

I was surprised at his morose attitude. “I didn’t know you had a garden
.”

“I don’t.  That is the point.  I should have one and I should be retired but I’m not but I’m not up to the job.”

“Then why stay in?”

“Because of you and the young lads.
I can pass on what I have learned and some of you might survive.  Others did it for me.”

“It’s ready!”

We wandered over to pick up our plates of hot steaming food. After we had laden the plates with even more food we went back to the table.

“I only know the cavalry.  I joined when I was fourteen as a bugler and it’s all I know. If I tried to retire and have a garden it would be a toss up who would die first; me or my spuds!” He began to eat. “And this is a good lesson.  Eat when you can; you never know when you will get the chance
to eat again.” I was learning that you ate when you could; who knew when your rations might dry up?  George was a wise old bird.

The food was hot and filling.  Despite the cook’s comments it was not bad.  It was not like mum’s cooking but I had eaten worse
during the Yeomanry training sessions. I was hungry and it filled a hole.

Before we stood
Sergeant Armstrong tapped out his pipe and said, “Today you ride at the front.  Choose the best three men to be with you.  Leave the lieutenant to me. I want you to assume there is a German behind every bush.  There won’t be but we will be safer that way.”

“Yes sarge.”

As reveille sounded we finished our food and we rode back to our tents. “Wakey, wakey rise and shine.  Come on you lovely boys, the sun is cracking the flags!”

I smiled at the sergeant’s words. Already a thin drizzle was in the air and it felt chilly despite the fact that it was August.
The men dragged themselves out of their beds. I had had the luxury of time but they would have to rush to be ready for the patrol. They would have to shave quickly and then wolf down their food.  I rode Caesar over to the stables.  I needed to be there when my troop prepared their horses. It would need to be my eagle eye which spotted what they might forget.

The bleary eyed troopers did need me.  Between me and the sergeant we made sure that our troop was equipped and ready to ride.

Lieutenant Ramsden was all polished leather and clean cut cheeks.  His servant, Carson, must have been up all night. “Well done chaps, good turn out.” As he turned to face the same way as us he said quietly, to the sergeant, “I think we’ll have to have a word about their appearance.”

Sergeant Armstrong turned around.  We had checked that everything was as it should be.  “Why sir, what’s wrong?”

“Some of them haven’t shaved very well this morning. We have to impress the locals.”

Sergeant Armstrong rolled his eyes, “Right sir, I’ll have a word with the lads.” He proffered two maps, one to me and one to the lieutenant. “I got these from the headquarters.  I thought the corporal here could scout out the land ahead of us.” I wondered if the lieutenant would argue but Sergeant Armstrong went on, “it will make it easier on us sir.  Besides the major thinks the corporal is good at this sort of thing.”

“Very well sergeant, but, Corporal Harsker, I want you to report to us the minute you spot anything.”

“Yes sir.” I turned to the troopers behind me, McGlashan, Brown and Brown, with me.”

I opened the map as I rode along. The sergeant had shown it to me earlier and I knew where we were going.  He had wanted the lieutenant to think he was in charge! We had decided to head for Ypres.  It was the largest place to the east of us.  It was about twenty seven miles away.  Even if we could not reach it the patrol would give Sergeant Armstrong and myself a better idea of how far we could travel in a day.  We knew that from England but there we knew the roads.  Here, everything was new.

I put the map away once I had confirmed that we were heading in the right direction.  I turned to the three troopers behind me. “Keep your eyes peeled. We are looking for signs of Germans.”

The early drizzle had stopped and the skies began to clear from the west. Within an hour we were feeling the effects of the sun. Caesar snorted and neighed.  That was his nose telling him that water was close at hand. I waved the men to the north and we found a stream heading towards the sea. As the horses drank I checked the map. I now knew exactly where we were.

“Doddy, ride back to the lieutenant and tell him where the stream is.  Their horses will be as tired
and thirsty as ours.  Then follow along the road until you catch up with us.”

He grinned, “Right Corp.”

I knew why he was happy; like me he enjoyed riding and he enjoyed speed.  He would gallop his horse back. We continued along the road.  This was an easy duty.  The sun was shining, the roads were flat and there were no Germans around. The rest of the day proved as uneventful.  We halted at Poperinge for we could see Ypres in the distance.

When the rest of the patrol arrived I could see that the lieutenant was a little more hot and bothered than he had been. I saluted as he rode up, “No sign of any Germans sir. Ypres is probably an hour or so down the road.”

The lieutenant took out his pocket watch, “Hm, I think that we will return to camp and make our report.  We can ride to Ypres in the morning.  Er, well done Corporal Harsker.”

I took my four men to the rear of the column and we ate the others
’ dust on the way back. I had learned much on that first ride but I wished we had seen a German.  The war just didn’t seem real.

When we reached our camp we saw that it had grown.  There was another Yeomanry regiment there, the Cumbrian Hussars.
We were now a brigade. The rest of the regiment had had an easy day organising the camp.  The lieutenant rushed off to report to the major while we led the men to the horse lines.  Unlike the lieutenant we still had a lot of work to do.  Carson took two horses.  I was glad that I was not an officer’s servant. One horse was enough for me. I never thought, back at Burscough, that I would think that but I had far more to do out here.

That even, in the mess, we discovered that our brigade was out on a limb.  The main BEF
was many miles away, close to Mons.  It was almost a hundred miles south east of us.  Colonel Mackenzie, according to the word around the camp, was not happy to be stuck out on the periphery of the war. We were just guarding an escape route back to Britain. Lieutenant Ramsden had obviously been chewed out when he sought the sergeant and myself after we had eaten.

“The colonel wants us to find the Germans tomorrow.  He was disappointed we didn’t reach Ypres.”

“Perhaps if we went south east we might have more luck sir?”

“You think so corporal? Well we will leave earlier and push the men on eh?”

After he had left I wondered what the men would make of it.  Another day in the saddle; we all liked riding but few of us had spent eight hours a day on the back of a horse. I smiled, “I’ll go and give the lads the good news eh sarge?”

“Aye.
  Still they might be better prepared tomorrow.” He grinned, “Don’t forget to tell them to shave a little better tomorrow eh?”

The men had learned their lesson and we were waiting patiently for the lieutenant to arrive.  I noticed that he was not quite as smartly presented: perhaps Carson had been tired too.  Like us Carson had spent all day in the saddle. We pushed hard towards the south east. An hour into the patrol we heard the unmistakeable thunder of guns.  Poor Tiny thought it was thunder and he looked at the cloudless sky and said to his
big brother, “Thunder?”

“Nay, you dozy bugger.
  That’s guns.  We know where the Germans are.”

Doddy was right it meant the two armies had collided; the question was where? “
Take out your rifles but keep the safety on.  We need to be prepared.”

There was urgency now to our ride.  I did not bother to send a message back to the rest of the patrol.  They could hear the same guns we could and would be drawing their own conclusions.  I just hoped that the lieutenant would remember to send the message back to the brigade. Failure to do so would result in more than a ticking off. We did not stop for a rest and another hour brought us just past the Belgian town of
Heuvelland.  The people there were busy packing their belongings into carts.  None of them spoke English but they kept pointing to the east and shouting, “Boche! Boche!” We all knew that meant Germans.

“I think we’ll wait here for the rest of the troop. Robbie, take the horses and water them.  You lads come with me.  We’ll go to the edge of town.”

It was a typical Belgian town.  The houses ended and then there were fields.  We found a house with a walled garden at the end of the road.  It appeared to be deserted. “Get behind the wall and keep your eyes peeled.”

I did not need to tell them to listen for the guns were cracking away in the distance.  I could now see smoke.  The clear blue sky helped.
We could now discern the sound of small arms fire.  There was a battle going on.  The BEF and the Germans had met. Robbie came running up.  “I found a river.” He pointed ahead. “I worked out it must run over there somewhere.”

That could be important.  “Are the horses secured?”

“Yes Corp, tied up and eating from their nosebags.”

“Good, come with me.  You two lads stay here.  I am going to see what is ahead.” We ran down the road. I had slipped
the safety catch off on my rifle.  I knew that there was a battle ahead.  Anything could happen.  There could be a German patrol just like ours.  At least our uniforms helped us to blend into the background; we had heard the Germans wore grey.

Robbie had been correct; the river did run to the south west of the town.  The bridge did not look to be in the best condition but soldiers could cross it. “You stay here and I will walk across to see how good it is.”

It was a stone bridge but looked old enough to have been built by the Romans. I was concentrating so much on my feet that I didn’t look up until I reached the other side. To my horror I saw grey uniformed horsemen; they were a mile away and heading towards me. I just turned and ran. “Robbie, get back! They are German cavalry!”

I know I should have counted and identified them but, to be honest, I was scared witless. I thought I was prepared but I wasn’t.  I heard their shouts
and the thunder of their hooves but I resisted the urge to turn around.  That would gain me nothing. I saw the village; it was two hundred yards away.  I watched as Robbie hurled himself over the wall.  I risked a look around.  I turned and saw that they were Uhlans, lancers, and they were two hundred yards away. I lifted my Lee Enfield and fired three shots in rapid succession.  Then I turned and ran without waiting to see the result. I honestly expected to hear the thundering hooves get closer and then feel a lance in my back. My three lads began to fire and I dived over the wall. My hat came off but I didn’t care.  I turned and lined up my rifle. I saw a horse and a German lying on the road.  The others had ridden a little way off.

“That was close, Corp!”

“It was. Who got the horse and the rider?”

“You got the horse and Doddy got the rider.”

“Well done Doddy!” I counted them.  There were just ten of them. We had full bandoliers and they were armed with a lance. “Let’s see how good these guns are.  Pick your targets.  I want accuracy not just blind firing.”

I aimed at someone who was gesticulating a lot. The range was over two hundred yards. I knew that the rifle would have a tendency to buck up and I aimed at the middle of his horse.  I squeezed the trigger. There was a puff of smoke and then I saw him pitched from the horse. I don’t think he was dead for he struggled to his feet.  The other three fired too.  I saw one man killed as someone’s bullet hit him in the head.  They had had enough and they withdrew to the bridge which was well out of range.

“Tiny, go with Robbie and bring up the horses.” As they ran off I wondered where the rest of the patrol was.  I had expected them before now.

Doddy spat, “How come they have
them lances, Corp?  Strikes me that they are neither use nor ornament.”

“I think they are quite handy if you are charging men who are running away or cavalry armed with swords.  They use the Uhlans like we use us; they are scouts, look.” I pointed at the rider who had detached himself and was riding south east from the bridge.

Just then I heard hooves behind us and saw Robbie and Tiny with the rest of the patrol fifty yards behind them.

The lieutenant reined in as I mounted Caesar. His voice seemed unnaturally high, “Report, Corporal Harsker.”

“We followed the sound of the guns and found the villagers leaving.  We had just found the bridge down there when the Uhlans appeared and they charged us.”

“Uhlans?
How do you know?”

“The lances sir, that was a bit of a clue.”

Someone sniggered and Sergeant Armstrong shouted, “Quiet in the ranks!”

“Well done corporal.  Get mounted. 
Right sergeant.  Let’s get after them.”

“Do you think that is wise sir?  Don’t you think we ought to get back and report to the colonel?”

“Nonsense.  These four have killed or wounded two or three of them and we need prisoners.” He stood in his stirrups. “Forward! Sound the charge!”