mplored, and swore, and ordered them to follow us against the enemy,
but only one came, jumping on to the step of the last car. From this
corner a straight street four hundred yards long led to a bridge over
the canal, which bridge was held by the Germans. As we went along this
road I certainly thought that here was the end of our little party, and
I felt very guilty at bringing Armstrong, Coode, and the other fine
fellows to death for no purpose except to keep up the Pride of the
Service. The fact that the infantry would not come on after us made us
very fierce, and I am certain, speaking for myself, that this feeling of
anger made us far braver than we had felt at first. I took the cars to
the head of the bridge and then halted them, and we opened fire along
the roadways which ran on both sides of the canal and along the road
ahead of us. I ordered the marines out of the cars on to the roadway,
and told them to keep up a hot fire on the Germans who were on the
opposite bank. Going myself with one marine on to the bridge I saw some
Huns on board two barges which were alongside the far bank, and emptied
my magazine at them. I can remember to this day the sound one of their
bullets made as it hit the girder alongside my face. We were so excited
that I am afraid our fire was very wild, but it made up for lack of
accuracy by its volume, our three machine-guns firing like mad. We kept
up this game for about five minutes, when I saw the Germans clearing off
in all directions. I ordered, "Cease fire", and ordered all on board the
cars. I then led the cars at full speed along the main Henin-Lietard
road, intending to get to the position we had held in the morning, as
from there we could cover the retreat of the French and command the
approaches to the Pont d'Esquerchin.... I knew that in front of us there
was a double trench across the road, and which entailed cars stopping
and reversing to get through in the gap left between the two trenches.
Just short of this obstacle was a side road leading to Beaumont. I
determined, if we met the enemy at the trench, to hold the corner at the
side road as long as we could, hoping that the Infantry would follow on.
This side road would be the line of approach of the cavalry division
reported close to Beaumont. On arriving at the corner we encountered a
very heavy fire coming from the trench and the high ground close to it.
It would have been useless to have attempted to go on against that
vo