The Bulgars, the Austrians and the Turks had already accepted terms, but these had caused no excitement. The only terms that mattered to the troops in France were those to be imposed on the Bosches. A big sweepstake was organised in the Battalion at Cornet on the hour at which the Armistice terms to Germany would be signed. But before the prize was won the military situation in the immediate vicinity had undergone a change, and the Civil Service Rifles were pursuing the enemy in open warfare once more.
News was received on the 9th of November that the Scheldt had been crossed and the Germans had left Tournai. The Battalion immediately left Cornet and moved to Froyennes, Companies occupying their old billets. Pursuit of the enemy was slow owing to the fact that the pontoon bridge constructed by the Royal Engineers at Froyennes was the only passage across the river for the whole Division. The arrangement was for the two Infantry Brigades holding the front line to advance simultaneously, with the Reserve Brigade following close up.
The 140th Brigade on the right accordingly advanced on Melles, a village about six miles north-east of Tournai on the main road to Ath. The Civil Service Rifles, being the Reserve Battalion, did not move beyond Froyennes on the first day of the advance, but on the 10th of November the Battalion crossed the river and joined in the hunt. Although the advance was continued well beyond Melles the Germans had retreated so quickly that they were not seen even by the advanced guard, and the 140th Brigade halted for the night in the villages around Montroeul Au Bois, the Civil Service Rifles being billeted in the little hamlet of Barberie. The natives gave the troops a warm welcome, for it was only on the previous night that they had been compelled to shelter the retreating Bosches.
It was now decided that each Brigade in turn should furnish the advanced guard for the advance of the Division, and the 140th Brigade was detailed to act in that capacity on the morrow. The Civil Service Rifles would be the vanguard, and the details were explained to Company Commanders late on the night of the 10th. The Battalion scouts, on bicycles, were to move off at 6.45 a.m. and keep in touch with the cavalry screen furnished by the 19th Hussars. The Companies were to move off at 7.30 a.m. and the duty of the Battalion was to advance on the general line of the river Dendre and seize the bridges over the Dendre canal on the outskirts of Ath, not far from Brussels.
This would have given the Battalion its first experience of vanguards in real war, and the troops were eagerly anticipating a visit to Brussels during the next few days. These hopes, however, were never fulfilled, for at 2.30 a.m. on the 11th of November, the news reached the Battalion that the orders for the advance were cancelled. No explanation was given, and a rumour that the war was over was strengthened by an order received later in the morning for the Battalion to march back to Tournai.
The rumour was discredited when the Battalion got on the main road to Tournai and met a whole Division going in the opposite direction, but when a low-flying aeroplane appeared, gaily decorated with coloured ribbons and making a terrible noise with its Klaxon horn, there could be little doubt that the Armistice terms had been signed. This was confirmed by a passing officer in a motor-car, and the news was conveyed to the troops by the Regimental Band, who, by a happy inspiration of Sergeant Blackmore, the Bandmaster, struck up an air which had been popular throughout the British Army during the past four years:
“When this ruddy war is over
Oh, how happy I shall be.”
It should be placed on record that this was the only intimation of the armistice which reached the Battalion beyond announcements in the Press. The Civil Service Rifles received no official news that an armistice had been granted, although a telephone message from Brigade on the night of the 12th of November gave particulars of the various armaments, etc., which were to be surrendered.
Tournai was reached in the afternoon of the 11th of November, and the men were once more accommodated in a convent, where the nuns came out in a body and expressed their gratitude to the British troops.
So the Civil Service Rifles saw the end of the Great War, and a tamer finish it is impossible to imagine. There were many whose ambition it had been to be in the front line on the last day of the war, and many were the conjectures as to what it would be like, but none ever guessed that it would fizzle out in such a miserable and uninteresting fashion. To be left to read of it in the newspapers was about the feeblest finish that could have happened, and while there were jubilations in London and elsewhere on armistice night, there was absolutely nothing in the area occupied by the 140th Infantry Brigade in the nature of a celebration of so great a victory. The district was very gloomy, and its name, La Tombe, appeared a very appropriate one.