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Page 19
Divisional exercise is a great game of make-believe. All sorts of
liberties are taken, the clock is put forward or back at the command
of the general, a great enemy army is created in the twinkling of an
eye, day is turned into night and a regular game of topsy-turvydom
indulged in. On the occasion of which I write the whole division
was out. The time was nine o'clock in the forenoon, and an imaginary
forced march was nearly completed, and an imaginary day was at an end.
We were being hurried up as reinforcements to the main army, which was
in touch with the enemy ahead and an engagement was developing. Our
battalion came to a halt on the roadway, closing in to the left in
order to give full play to the field telephone service in process of
being laid.
Our officers went out in front to seek a position for a bivouac; the
doctor accompanied them to examine the place chosen, see to the
water supply, the drainage, and sanitation. In addition to this, our
commanders had to find the battalion a resting-ground easy to defend
and of merit as a tactical position.
At ten o'clock we lay down, battalion after battalion, just as we
halted: equipment on, our packs unloosened but shoved up under our
heads, and our rifles by our sides, muzzles towards the enemy. One
word of command would bring twenty thousand men from their beds, ready
in an instant, rifles loaded, bayonets at hips, quick to the route and
ready for battle. We would rise, as we slept, in full marching order,
and the space of a moment would find us hurrying, fully armed, into
battle, with the sleep of night still heavy in our eyes.
For miles around the soldiers lay down, each in his place and every
place occupied. Hardly a word was spoken; commands were whispered, and
our officers crept round explaining the work ahead. Two miles in front
the enemy was assembled in great strength on a river, and by dawn, if
all went well, we would enter the firing line. At present we had to
lie still; no man was to move about, and sentries with fixed bayonets
were stationed at front, flank, and rear, ready to give the alarm at
the first sign of danger.
Behind us were the kitchen, horse-lines, and latrines. The position of
these varies as the wind changes, and it is imperative that unhealthy
odours are not blown across the bivouac. The battalion lay in two
parallel squares, with a gangway, blocked up with baggage and various
necessaries, between. On these squares no refuse was to be thrown
down; the ground had to be kept clean; papers, scraps of meat, and
pieces of bread, if not eaten, had to be buried.
Even as we lay, and while the officers were explaining the work in
hand, the artillery took up its stand on several wooded knolls that
rose behind us. What a splendid sight, the artillery going into
action! Heavy guns, an endless line of them, swept over the greensward
and rattled into place. Six horses strained at each gun, which was
accompanied by two ammunition wagons with six horses to each wagon.
How many horses! How many guns! Out of nowhere in particular they
came, and disappeared as if behind a curtain barely four hundred
yards away. Thirty minutes afterwards I fancied as I looked in their
direction that I could see black, ominous muzzles peering through
the undergrowth. Probably I was mistaken. Anyhow, they were there,
guarding us while we slept, our silent watchers!
About eleven o'clock an orderly stole in and spoke to the colonel, a
hurried consultation in which all the officers took part was held,
and the messenger departed. Again followed an interval of silence,
only broken by the officers creeping round and giving us further
information. The enemy was repulsed, they told us, and was now in
retreat, but before moving off he had blown up all the bridges on
the river. The artillery of our main army in front was shelling the
fleeing foe, and our engineers had just set off to build three pontoon
bridges, so that the now sleeping division could cross at dawn and
follow the army in retreat.
Our dawn came at one o'clock in the afternoon; a whistle was blown
somewhere near at hand, and the battalion sprang to life; every unit,
with pack on back, cartridge pouches full, rifle at the order, was
afoot and ready. Only two hours before had the engineers set out to
build the bridges which the whole division, with its regiment after
regiment, with its artillery, its guns, ammunition wagons and horses,
its transport section, and vehicles of all descriptions, was now to
cross. The landscape had changed utterly, the country was alive, and
had found voice; the horse-lines were broken, and all the animals,
from the colonel's charger to the humble pack horse, were on the move.
The little squares, dotted brown, had taken on new shape, and were
transformed into companies of moving men in khaki. We were out on the
heels of the retreating foe.
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