Kept the Guns
A battery advancing against the Germans during one of the hot fights was suddenly pounced on by the enemy from a position we never thought them to be in, and half the men and all the horses were shot down before you could have said the shortest of prayers, and the German cavalry came rushing out of a wood close by to seize the guns. Fortunately some of our own men were near at hand, and they were quickly formed up round the guns. They fired into the Germans, and drove them back. Then a big body of infantry had a try at getting the guns away, but our chaps tackled them with the bayonet, and for about an hour the fight round those guns was as hot as anybody could stand. The two sides kept swaying each other backwards and forwards like a couple of tug-of-war teams, and then, just for variety I suppose, the German artillery chipped in, and they cut up their own chaps much more than they hurt ours. Finally our infantry got disentangled from the Germans, were strongly reinforced, and with a grand bayonet charge cleared the whole lot of the Germans away from the guns. Horses were brought out and the guns were removed to a point of safety without further trouble: Pte. T. Molloy, Royal Garrison Artillery.