Adventures of A Despatch Rider CDROM
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Adventures of A Despatch Rider
CAPTAIN W. H. L. WATSON
WITH MAPS
William Blackwood and Sons
Edinburgh and London
1915
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. ENLISTING I
II. THE JOURNEY TO THE FRONT . 12
III. THE BATTLE OF MONS .
. . 26
IV. THE BATTLE OF LE CATEAU ... 40
V. THE GREAT RETREAT . 51
VI.
OVER THE MARNE TO THE AISNE . . 76
VII. THE BATTLE OF THE AISNE . . .105
VIII. THE MOVE TO THE NORTH . .140
IX. ROUND LA BASSEE 167
X. THE
BEGINNING OF WINTER . . .197
XI. ST JANS CAPPEL 230
XII. BEHIND THE LINES
. . . '253
Adventures of A Despatch Rider.
CHAPTER I.
ENLISTING
AT 6.45 P.M. on Saturday, July 25, 1914, Alec and I determined to take
part in the Austro-Servian War. I remember the exact minute, because we
were standing on the "down" platform of Earl's Court Station, waiting for
the 6.55 through train to South Harrow, and Alec had just remarked that we
had ten minutes to wait. We had travelled up to London, intending to work
in the British Museum for our "vivas" at Oxford, but in the morning it had
been so hot that we had strolled round Bloomsbury, smoking our pipes. By
lunch-time we had gained such an appetite that we did not feel like work
in the afternoon. We went to see Elsie Janis. The evening papers were full
of grave prognostications. War between Servia and Austria seemed
inevitable. Earl's Court Station inspired us with the spirit of adventure.
We determined to take part, and debated whether we should go out as war
correspondents or as orderlies in a Servian hospital. At home we could
talk of nothing else during dinner. Ikla, that wisest of all Egyptians,
mildly encouraged us, while the family smiled.
On Sunday we learned that war had been declared. Ways and means were
discussed, but our great tennis tournament on Monday, and a dance in the
evening, left us with a mere background of warlike endeavour. It was
vaguely determined that when my "viva" was over we should go and see
people of authority in London. . . . On the last day of July a few of us
met together in Gibson's rooms, those neat, white rooms in Balliol that
overlook St Giles. Naymier, the Pole, was certain that Armageddon was
coming. He proved it conclusively in the Quad with the aid of large maps
and a dissertation on potatoes. He also showed us the probable course of
the war. We lived in strained excitement. Things were too big to grasp.
..........
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