utenant, who spoke German and held conversations with
the enemy in the darkness, deceiving them as to the identity of his
force until they were able to take the German troops by surprise and
hack a way through. This lieutenant was hit in the face by a bullet,
and when he arrived back in Masnieres with his men in advance of the
rear-guard he was only able to make his report before falling in a state
of collapse.

Other small bodies of cavalry--among them the 8th Dragoons and 5th
Hussars--had wild, heroic adventures in the Cambrai salient, where they
rode under blasts of machine-gun fire and rounded up prisoners in the
ruined villages of Noyelles and Fontaine Notre Dame. Some of them went
into the Folie Wood nearby and met seven German officers strolling about
the glades, as though no war was on. They took them prisoners, but had
to release some of them later, as they could not be bothered with them.
Later they came across six ammunition--wagons and destroyed them. In the
heart of the wood was one of the German divisional headquarters, and
one of our cavalry officers dismounted and approached the cottage
stealthily, and looked through the windows. Inside was a party of German
officers seated at a table, with beer mugs in front of them, apparently
unconscious of any danger near them. Our officer fired his revolver
through the windows and then, like a schoolboy who has thrown a stone,
ran away as hard as he could and joined his troop. Youthful folly of
gallant hearts!

After the enemy's surprise his resistance stiffened and he held the
village of Fontaine Notre Dame, and Bourlon Wood, on the hill above,
with strong rear-guards. Very quickly, too, he brought new batteries
into action, and things became unpleasant in fields and villages where
our men, as I saw them on those days, hunted around for souvenirs in
German dugouts and found field-glasses, automatic pistols, and other
good booty.

It seemed to me that the plan as outlined by Gen. Louis Vaughan, not
to exploit success farther than justified by the initial surprise, was
abandoned for a time. A brigade of Guards was put in to attack Fontaine
Notre Dame, and suffered heavily from machine-gun fire before taking it.
The 62d (Yorkshire) Division lost many good men in Bourlon Village
and Bourlon Wood, into which the enemy poured gas-shells and high
explosives.

Then on November 30th the Germans, under the direction of General von
Marwitz, came back upon us with a tiger