CHAPTER XII
The narrative of the Lahore Division brought us to after mid-day of the 20th December, at which hour the 129th Baluchis, on the left of the Ferozepore Brigade covering Givenchy, were retiring and their trenches were in occupation of the enemy, and the village was being attacked. In consequence General Carnegy’s orders were cancelled, and he was directed to secure this place; and two batteries from the Fifty-eighth Division were placed at Watkis’s disposal by the French.
By 3.30 P.M. on the 20th the Manchesters under Colonel Strickland, with a company of the 4th Suffolks in support, started their attack for the recovery of the lost Givenchy trenches. By 5 P.M. this gallant battalion, fighting often with the bayonet, had cleared the Huns out of the village and recaptured the trenches to the north-east; but they still retained possession of those to the north of the village; whilst to the east and southwards the company of the 9th Bhopals, the 57th Rifles, a portion of the 4th Suffolks, and the Connaught Rangers held their lines intact.
On the Sirhind Brigade front the right section at 3.30 P.M. was holding its reserve trenches; farther to the left, notwithstanding its considerable retirement, touch had been more or less established with the right of the Meerut Division, and the retired line of the Brigade was intact, though somewhat disorganised. The enemy at this stage did not appear to be making a further attack on this front.
Meantime General Macbean, with the Secunderabad Cavalry Brigade, consisting of the 7th Dragoon Guards, 20th Deccan Horse, 34th Poona Horse, and Jodhpore Lancers, under Brigadier-General Wadeson, and in addition the 8th Gurkhas and 47th Sikhs, had been ordered to move to a position near Marais and counter-attack. This movement was delayed from various causes, and it was not till midnight that the advance was actually carried out by the 7th Dragoon Guards and 47th Sikhs.
It was a hopeless attempt; the ground was deep in mud and a network of ditches, and the enemy’s fire very heavy. Nevertheless these gallant troops actually reached and entered our abandoned trenches, but were then subjected to a heavy flanking fire and occasionally to that of our own guns. Under such conditions it was no wonder they were driven back to their starting-point and suffered severely. Amongst the killed was Colonel H. Lempriere, commanding 7th Dragoon Guards, a very gallant gentleman and hard to replace. Captain J. L. Mansel was killed leading a rush on enemy machine-guns. Lieutenants R. L. Mann and S. Bryce were missing. The total casualties of the 7th Dragoon Guards during the short time they served with the Indian Corps amounted to twenty-six killed or missing and forty wounded. Sergeant R. Snelling and Private J. Crackett received the D.C.M.
Another counter-attack was carried out about 5 A.M. on the 21st December, under command of Colonel Grant, 8th Gurkhas. The troops under his command now consisted of the 8th Gurkhas, 47th Sikhs, 7th Dragoon Guards, and Jodhpore Lancers. Stumbling under a pitiless rain, over the ditches and through mire, this attempt, like the first, was unable to achieve its object, and eventually a retirement had to be carried out.
To return to Givenchy, where the Manchesters had retaken a great part of the village, General Watkis had sent the 59th Rifles to reinforce Carnegy, who had already despatched a company of the 4th Suffolks and one company of the 142nd French Territorials to Givenchy, as a support to Strickland in the attack he was about to make on our advanced abandoned trenches to the north of that village.
This attack was launched about half-past six on the morning of the 21st December, and carried out with the élan which distinguished that fine corps, the 1st Manchesters. All that men could do was done, but the hail of fire from machine-guns, etc., made it impossible to advance far. By 11 o’clock the enemy, after a severe bombardment with shell, pushed home an Infantry attack which forced us back from the village. Still the Manchesters again and again made vigorous counter-attacks, though enfiladed and gradually becoming enveloped, until at length after severe bayonet fighting the battalion was pushed back and Givenchy practically lost. Their heroic conduct had, however, saved the position in this part of our line, and held the enemy at bay just long enough to enable the fresh troops of a Brigade from the now arriving First Army Corps to stem and turn the tide. As the Manchesters met the Cameron Highlanders coming up, they must indeed have been thankful that their stubborn fight had enabled their Army Corps to still maintain its front and an almost lost local battle to be turned into a glorious episode.
The battalion in this fighting had two officers (Captain L. Creagh and Lieut. S. Norman) and sixty-four men killed, and forty-six missing, whilst three officers and 124 men were wounded. I have known many splendid Corps in the Army but not one to beat the 1st Manchesters, and I felt that a brilliant future awaited Strickland. He has since risen to Major-General and is a K.C.B.
At dawn on this morning I had ridden from Hinges, my Headquarters, to see one of my Generals, and on my way back I met a brigade of the First Army Corps now arriving to help us; it was marching towards Givenchy. I can never forget my feelings as these splendid battalions moved along—young, vigorous, fresh from a rest in reserve: 1000 strong each, eager for the battle, they were the very embodiment of certain victory, and I could not but feel proud of my own brave Corps, many of whom I had just seen, literally caked in mud and slime, worn out after long weeks of vigil and toil in the trenches, sadly needing some sleep and rest; battalions worn to mere skeletons in strength, a few with no more than a full company in the fight.
But notwithstanding all this they were still holding on, still keeping the flag flying and doing their duty. I would fain have wished the addition of some of the newcomers to my own Army Corps; they were my own flesh and blood, with great traditions and a great cause which all understood; but I would not have changed places with any living man. It was enough for me that I was Commander of the Indian Corps, and that that Corps was so nobly acquitting itself under extraordinary difficulties.
As stated before, the trenches to the south and east of Givenchy had during the battle been held by the Connaught Rangers, the 57th Rifles, and a company of the 9th Bhopal Infantry. During the 20th December the 57th and 9th were subjected to attacks which succeeded in laying the flank of the 57th open to enfilade fire and obliging the left to retire. Here my old friend Subadar Arsla Khan of the 57th was again to the fore, and by a plucky reconnaissance obtained useful information regarding the German barricades, and surprised and shot several Huns. Later, on the 22nd December, this fine Indian officer, a Malikdin Khel Afridi, led a charge on a party of the enemy, killing two officers and a number of men. He has many orders and distinctions for various campaigns.
After the Manchesters were forced back from Givenchy, on the afternoon of the 21st December, the pressure on this portion of our trenches increased very considerably and was only relieved by the arrival of a Brigade of the First Army Corps, and by nightfall the position was secured. On the 22nd December the whole of the trenches east and south of Givenchy were taken over by the First Corps, and our troops, at last relieved from their long vigil, were able to gain some urgently-needed rest.
My story left the Meerut Division at 2 P.M. on the same date, and just after it had been relieved by the First Army Corps, and although the Meerut troops remained at the disposal of that Corps for a few days longer until a new alignment had been taken up, they were not called on to make further efforts, and eventually, like the Lahore Division, were able to get back to billets and enjoy a sorely needed rest and to re-equip themselves.
By 1 P.M. on the 22nd December one Division of the First Army Corps had arrived and taken over a great part of our trenches, and the Second Division was in process of relieving the remainder of my Corps, and the responsibility was gradually becoming involved, hence I asked the G.O.C. First Army Corps to assume the command whilst I withdrew all the relieved battalions and Artillery. This he agreed to, and the Indian Corps was withdrawn.
During this long-drawn-out battle the losses of some battalions had been very severe. In the Sirhind Brigade alone, on which fell the main German onslaught, the H.L.I. had lost ten officers and fifty-four men killed, 276 men missing (mostly killed), and sixty wounded, and the total casualties numbered 400, about fifty per cent of those in action.
Such monuments shall last when Egypt’s fall.
The 1st Gurkhas suffered well over 200 casualties, including six British and Indian officers, and the 4th Gurkhas had seventeen British and Indian officers and a total of 300 of all ranks. In the 4th, Jemadar Lachman Sing Thapa, the Gurkha Adjutant, was amongst the killed, and Captain M. Wylie was missing.
To suffer such losses and be again ready for battle within a few weeks needs discipline of a high order, and I was lost in admiration of those gallant corps, which I had inspected only a few days previously in their full war strength, and saw again after their arrival in billets. The ranks were sadly thinned, but there was no sign of despondency and only determination on their faces. “Give us their hand-grenades and trench mortars,” said a Gurkha havildar to me, “and you will see some fun.”
During the attack by the Secunderabad Cavalry Brigade Captain Alan Ross, 20th Deccan Horse, performed a very gallant action, which in any other war would have been rewarded with a Victoria Cross; but I was informed that in France it could not be given to officers for saving life alone. Ross was one of the hardest men I ever knew: a brilliant polo player and a strong rider all round. He had been my own A.D.C. years before in India. Seeing an Indian officer was wounded and lying in the open, he with two of his N.C.O.’s, Duffadars Shankar Rao and Sardar Singh, ran under a terrific fire and carried him back. On reaching a ditch they lay down, and seeing the Indian officer was too badly hit to be moved further, Ross ran back, still under heavy fire, and fetched up a stretcher, in which they placed the wounded officer and got him away. Ross received a D.S.O. and his two companions the Indian Order of Merit.
Captain W. H. Padday, 47th Sikhs, was killed whilst bombing up a trench with some of his men. The 20th Deccan Horse, a Corps which I had known in years past when I commanded the Secunderabad Division, suffered over eighty casualties, including Captain J. S. McEuan and Risaldar Mir Hidayat Ali killed; Captain C. A. Mackenzie, Risaldar-Major Jharmal Singh, and one other Indian officer and thirty-five other ranks killed and missing; besides these, five officers and thirty-seven men were wounded. The 47th Sikhs, of whom I shall often have to write, had 130; the 34th Poona Horse fifty, including Major C. Loring, 37th Lancers, attached. The Jodhpore Lancers in this, their first fight as a unit on the Western Front, suffered eleven casualties. In the 8th Gurkhas one Indian officer was killed, and there were twenty-two other losses.
Generals Watkis and Anderson, in admirably written and concise reports, gave a very clear summary of the events which had been crowded into the four days’ fighting, and it is interesting to note the chief points brought out. After giving full credit to all who deserved it and not concealing faults such as must occur in all battles, in the Lahore Division Watkis brought specially to notice Major-General Carnegy, commanding the Jalandar Brigade, for his thorough grasp of the situation; General Brunker, Sirhind Brigade; and General Egerton, Ferozepore Brigade. He gave the greatest praise to Colonel Strickland and his fine battalion the Manchesters. Colonel Cauteau of the 142nd French Territorial regiment was reported as rendering valuable and noteworthy service; and Capitaine Salles, also of the 142nd, for gallantly leading a counter-attack, although twice wounded.
Anderson specially commended the Seaforths and 58th Rifles, whose “action, sustained over a period of three days and nights under extremely difficult conditions, was worthy of the highest possible commendation and reflects the greatest credit on officers, N.C.O.’s, and men of both regiments.”
The Ambala and Sialkote Cavalry Brigades had been brought up as reinforcements late during the battle; the former suffered thirty casualties. I had known both these splendid Brigades when commanding the Northern Army in India, and only regretted that this trench warfare gave them no opportunity of riding down the Huns, who assuredly would have had cause to remember that the Cavalry arm in India has a sword even sharper than the boasted German weapon.
It is one of my cherished recollections that our gallant French Allies did not fail to place on record their great regret at the departure of the Indian Corps from their immediate vicinity. For two months we had been able to afford each other assistance in men and guns on many occasions, and our relations had been those of friends and comrades. General de Maud’huy, commanding the Tenth French Army, and General Maistre, commanding the XXIst Corps d’Armée, wrote most cordial letters, wishing us every success as the war progressed and congratulating the men on their having so long victoriously sustained the “particularly difficult” conditions, especially of terrain, under which they had fought.
It would be impossible to serve with finer soldiers and gentlemen than composed the Army of France.
The battle was over, India had paid her dues, and this is what the Commander-in-Chief recorded:
The Indian troops have fought with the greatest steadfastness and gallantry whenever they have been called upon.
In these words Field-Marshal Sir John French summed up in his despatch of the 2nd February 1915 his opinion of the conduct of the Indian soldiers from the time they joined the Army in France until the close of the battle of Givenchy.
In his admirable book, “1914,” the great Field-Marshal has written on page 196:
Much has been said and written about the work of the Indian troops in France, and various opinions have been expressed. For my part I can only say that, from first to last, so long as they were under my command, they maintained and probably surpassed even the magnificent traditions of the Indian Army. In a country and climate to which they were totally unaccustomed, the exigencies of the moment required that they should be thrown into action successively by smaller or greater units before they could be properly concentrated.
I shall always gratefully remember the invaluable assistance they and their Commander, Sir James Willcocks, rendered under these difficult conditions in the most critical hours of the First Battle of Ypres, especially the Lahore Division, commanded by General Watkis.
This finally disposes of any criticisms of the Indians by lesser luminaries. No one had better opportunities of realising the difficulties connected with their employment in Europe during a very trying winter. No one was more generous in his public utterances and despatches to the soldiers of India. There was, it is true, another side to this picture, but I will refrain from the narration of such incidents, for I realise the enormous difficulties the Commander-in-Chief had to face and the unflinching courage and steadfastness with which he faced them; and I am convinced that no other soldier in our Army would have succeeded, to the same degree, in those tempestuous times.
The Indians were but a small unit in his complicated command, and that he has for all time plainly recorded his opinion is sufficient to disprove the criticisms of any others who are not possessed of his soldierly instincts.
This story of the Indian Corps is only a personal narrative and the opinions expressed in it may not be convincing to all who read it; however, it has one merit, and that is, it is compiled from notes and diaries kept by me from day to day, and in which I recorded the opinions and doings of the principal actors as I observed them at the time, and not from hearsay or memory alone.
We were now billeted in and about Lillers, and the first change in the reconstruction of the Army came at this time. Sir Douglas Haig had just received his well-merited promotion to General for his fine work as a Corps Commander during the retreat from Mons and the First Battle of Ypres. Two Armies were created, and he was appointed to command the First Army. I had up to then been senior to him, but now found myself junior and under his immediate command, as under the reorganisation the Indian Corps was attached to the First Army.
To the British soldier such supersession is a natural consequence of promotion for distinguished service in the field. To the Indian soldier it means something very different, when suddenly thrust on him in the field, and so it was in this case. To him his commander is everything, and he looks to him as at any rate his local commander-in-chief, and when he learns one morning that another, till then his junior, has been placed over him, he concludes something is wrong. Had the Corps gone to the Second Army, the Indians would have neither known nor cared what promotion had taken place, for Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien in command of it was already senior to me, but as it was I can best describe how they took it, in the words of an Indian officer who said to me, “Now we know the Government is displeased with our conduct in the recent battle.” They have very strong opinions in some matters which cannot easily be shaken.
Putting aside any personal feeling, in this case it was a pity it happened, for it wrongly gave them to understand that it had been done with a purpose. Of course the necessities of the Army as a whole were far superior to any personal considerations, but I should have been glad if it could have been otherwise arranged. However, it was now an accomplished fact, and from that day to the day I left France no man ever rendered more loyal or wholehearted service and support to his superior officer.
The first duty, now we were in billets, was to overhaul thoroughly, refit, and practically reconstitute the entire Corps. Our numbers had fallen very considerably below war strength, but this was partly remedied by adding Territorial battalions; these were brought on to the strength as they became available, until eventually five of our Brigades consisted of one Regular British, one Territorial, and three Indian battalions, and the sixth Brigade had a battalion of the Special Reserve; but even with these additions, owing to the limited reinforcements from India, the shortage in the Regular British battalions, and the weakness of the Territorial units, which occasionally amounted to no more than half war strength, the total of the Indian Corps, consisting of thirty-two battalions of infantry, was under 21,000 rifles when we again took over our trenches on the 15th January.
I have already told of the arrival of some of these Territorial battalions, but I would again repeat that they were to us all the surprise of the war—splendid officers and men suddenly transferred from civilians into veteran soldiers. They will enter frequently into this story.
Great changes took place in the commands of the Brigades, which will be seen by reference to the lists farther on, and I was indeed sorry to bid farewell to gallant comrades with most of whom I had served in India and for whom I had the greatest respect as soldiers. I have already explained the reasons for this, and so will not repeat myself.
Lieut.-General Watkis, who had commanded the Lahore Division throughout the past trying months and had borne the chief responsibility during the battle of Givenchy, was given the K.C.B., a well-merited honour.
The weather during January 1915 was very trying, being a succession of rain, storm, and snow, but this did not prevent us from carrying on systematic training of every kind—attack, defence, trench work, practice with grenades and mortars, then still in their infancy, and night operations. Route marching was done daily, gradually increasing until the men’s feet had recovered somewhat from the results of immersion in mud and snow. It was a real pleasure to watch the transformation taking place; limbs long dormant in the trenches were restored to their natural functions, and the knowledge that the worst was over and a warmer season would come at its own proper time, cheered all ranks. It was a very busy time for us all, but there is nothing like hard work to keep men fit and happy, and the absence of it kills all joy.
Personally I have seldom been more busy in my life; rain or storm I invariably rode from ten to fifteen miles a day, and often a lot more; and although this may not appear much it was a great deal through those bogs and along those cobbled and slippery roads. By the middle of January two Brigades had returned to the trenches, and before the 24th of the month the whole Corps was finally re-established once more about our old haunt, Neuve Chapelle. The arms, clothing, and necessaries had been thoroughly overhauled, boots refitted and extras issued, and when we again entered the trenches I do not think there were many individuals either in units, departments, or even among the followers, whom I had not seen. It gave us a fresh start, and the many new officers who had joined got to know something of their men.
On the last day of 1914 I gathered together nearly all the British and Indian officers in the Army Corps; it was a damp, misty day, but they came to my headquarters at Lillers by motor, lorry, or on horseback. It was a pleasant gathering, full of interest to us all. Amongst those present were a large percentage who had served with me in the field, a few in the Soudan and West Africa, and a great many on the Indian frontiers, and practically all had been under my command at one time or another as Brigadier, Divisional and Army Commander. Many a time also had I had the pleasure of entertaining them as my guests in other climes, and now they were assembled under one roof and under such different circumstances. It was for me a solemn occasion, for since we had last met at Orleans many had gone for ever, and I knew before we could meet again their ranks would be still further thinned. But no such passing thoughts prevented us from being a cheery party, and all Corps were enabled to exchange greetings, and fight their battles over again. I also took the opportunity of explaining to many of the Indians, who asked me about the recent changes, that the Indian Corps now formed part of a larger Army, and was under the command of a very distinguished soldier, who would assuredly lead us to victory. I am sure they felt relieved, for the notion had got abroad that they had fallen in the estimation of the Commander-in-Chief.
Any exotic when first transplanted must in its new soil be watched if it is to be a success; this was our task with the Indians, and it was succeeding by degrees, and at this gathering this was evident. They had been plunged into Europe, but Asia was assimilating itself with its new surroundings. It was a far more difficult task, however, than was realised by some of our superiors, who merely issued orders and expected them to be carried out. They did not realise that the pawns in the game had peculiarities and characteristics which must be respected, if they were to continue as a tangible entity. These matters were left to those of us who understood the material we had to deal with, and it is fortunate in some ways that it was so; for as time went on nothing was more evident than the fact that in the First Army the Indians were merely looked on as so many thousand men, who must just take their place in a certain portion of the line and carry on irrespective of their constitution or the changes which time was working in their ranks. But it was absolutely necessary for us in the Corps not to forget these things, and to so arrange that the machine would work smoothly and prove efficient on the day of battle.
It was a fine test of the value of the British officer and he came well out of it, and proved that the officers of the Indian Army are second to none in positions of responsibility and trust.