as no village. I was in the village
below Observatory Ridge on the morning of April 11th when cavalry
was massed on that ground, waiting for orders to go into action. The
headquarters of the cavalry division was in a ditch covered by planks,
and the cavalry generals and their staffs sat huddled together with maps
over their knees. "I am afraid the general is busy for the moment," said
a young staff-officer on top of the ditch. He looked about the fields
and said, "It's very unhealthy here." I agreed with him. The bodies of
many young soldiers lay about. Five-point-nines (5.9's) were coming over
in a haphazard way. It was no ground for cavalry. But some squadrons
of the 10th Hussars, Essex Yeomanry, and the Blues were ordered to take
Monchy, and rode up the hill in a flurry of snow and were seen by German
gunners and slashed by shrapnel. Most of their horses were killed in the
village or outside it, and the men suffered many casualties, including
their general--Bulkely Johnson--whose body I saw carried back on a
stretcher to the ruin of Thilloy, where crumps were bursting. It is
an astonishing thing that two withered old French women stayed in the
village all through the fighting. When our troops rode in these women
came running forward, frightened and crying "Camarades!" as though in
fear of the enemy. When our men surrounded them they were full of joy
and held up their scraggy old faces to be kissed by these troopers.
Afterward Monchy was filled with a fury of shell-fire and the troopers
crawled out from the ruins, leaving the village on the hill to be
attacked and captured again by our infantry of the 15th and 37th
Divisions, who were also badly hammered.

Heroic folly! The cavalry in reserve below Observatory Hill stood to
their horses, staring up at a German airplane which came overhead,
careless of our "Archies." The eye of the German pilot must have widened
at the sight of that mass of men and horses. He carried back glad
tidings to the guns.

One of the cavalry officers spoke to me.

"You look ill."

"No, I'm all right. Only cold."

The officer himself looked worn and haggard after a night in the open.

"Do you think the Germans will get their range as far as this? I'm
nervous about the men and the horses. We've been here for hours, and it
seems no good."

I did not remind him that the airplane was undoubtedly the herald of
long-range shells. They came within a few minutes. Some men and horses
were kille