ooked as if he had been on short rations for a long
time. It was rather a repugnant job searching him whilst he was passing
away from this life, but it had to be done. Goldsmith, who could read
German, found from his papers that he belonged to the First Squadron of
the 26th Dragoons, Wurtemberg. He had a little child's atlas with which
to find his way about the country, and the map of France was about three
inches square, with only the names of half a dozen towns on it.'

The Naval Air Service now looked about for an advanced inland base, with
an aerodrome, for their aeroplane and motor-car reconnaissances. They
found one at the village of Morbecque, about three miles south of
Hazebrouck, and just north of the forest of Nieppe. There, on the 19th
of September, they established the headquarters of the unit. Most of the
officers and men were housed in an old chateau by the favour of Madame
la Baronne de la Grange, who had shown a fine example to her villagers
by remaining on duty, and had so impressed the Germans that they left
the village untouched. Two aeroplanes and six armoured cars and lorries
were the equipment of headquarters, and what in the navy is called the
lower deck personnel numbered 187 marines and 31 naval ratings. Most of
the work continued to be done by the motor-cars. Some of the lorries
were armoured with boiler-plate by the shipbuilding firm at Dunkirk, and
new armoured cars began to arrive in driblets from England. A cyclist
force was raised from the marines, and a number of French boys who knew
the country well were embodied in a boy scout unit. The main idea of
these preparations was to organize attacks on the German lines of
communication in the zone of country between Lille and Valenciennes. The
troops for this purpose were to consist of a brigade of French
territorial infantry with a squadron of Algerian cavalry, popularly
known as 'Goumiers', and a battery of the famous 'Soixante-quinze' field
guns. The Royal Naval Air Service were to operate, with as big a force
of armoured cars as possible, under the French general in command. On
the 22nd of September the French troops occupied Douai. The cars made a
reconnaissance to Aniche, between Douai and Valenciennes, and there had
a sharp engagement in the streets with German cavalry. Two days later
they had a stiff fight at Orchies, where a French territorial regiment,
detached to guard the route between Lille and Douai, was being heavily
attacked by t