de in reserve at Venizel Bridge.

Gough's 3rd and 5th Cavalry Brigades: Chassemy.

On this day our casualties were heavy, amounting to between
1,500 and 2,000, including three Commanding Officers.

On the 15th my impression of the previous day, namely, that the enemy
was making a firm stand in his actual position, was confirmed also by
an intercepted German wireless message. It seemed probable that we had
the whole of the German 1st Army in front of us.

This being my appreciation of the situation, I was not satisfied with
my own position in two important respects. In the first place, our
losses were heavily accumulating, and I had not sufficient reserves to
reinforce dangerous points; the enemy had a great artillery
superiority, and at this time and for some days afterwards I badly
felt the want of the guns and machine guns which had been lost at Le
Cateau and were not yet made good. In the second place, I was most
anxious to get the 2nd and 3rd Corps forward and more in line with the
1st Corps on the right.

The 6th Division had now crossed the Marne, moving north, and orders
were sent to its Commander, General Keir, to come up as quickly as
possible. My idea was that the 6th Division should go to Haig, and
that, with this reinforcement, he should advance west and take the
pressure off the 2nd and 3rd Corps.

The 1st Corps was heavily counter-attacked on several occasions
throughout the 15th, and, although the enemy was most gallantly
repulsed everywhere, our losses were very severe.

Towards evening a retirement of both German infantry and cavalry took
place, and my hopes were revived of the continuance of the enemy's
retreat. On this I directed the 6th Division to join its own 3rd Corps
on the left.

However, the enemy showing no further signs of leaving the
position, my hopes for a further advance at last began to be founded
altogether upon the probability of a successful attack by the 6th
French Army.

On the 16th I went to see General Maunoury at his Headquarters. I
found him watching an attack of the 61st and 62nd Divisions on the
village of Nouvron and the plateau above it. The General and his Staff
were standing on a kind of grassy tableland on the edge of a wood. I
remember that a French Staff Officer who was there spoke English
fluently. I threw myself down on my face on the grass and watched the
battle taking place on the other side of the river. I spent an hour or
two with the General at this s