With my regiment

by Arthur Mills

It was then decided that I should take out a patrol and go and scout the village. "Take a lance-corporal and a man with you," said Goyle; "and when you get to the village one of you go into the first house, leaving the other two outside; if the one who goes into the house does not come out, another is to follow him in, and if he stays too, the third is to come back and tell me. If we hear shots and none of you return we shall know the village is occupied."

"Very good, sir," I said; and, wishing I was anywhere else, I went off to get the patrol. I called my platoon together, explained the work on hand, and asked for volunteers. I got a N.C.O. without difficulty, but there was no response when I asked for a man. Much disgusted at the want of spirit in the men, I was preparing to go off alone with the lance-corporal rather than force anyone to go with me, when a man stepped out of the ranks and made the party complete. Afterwards Jenkins, my soldier servant, from whom I used to get tips about handling the men and various bits of barrack-room gossip, explained to me why I had got an N.C.O. easily enough, but had had difficulty in getting a man. It appeared that the men had a rooted dislike to patrols composed of an officer, a non-commissioned officer, and a man, as they considered the man was always made the victim of the enterprise, being sent on when the danger point was reached to draw fire. He said that had I asked for two men they would have come forward willingly, but, having got the N.C.O., no one cared to offer himself to take the place of the private.

I saw what Jenkins meant, and decided to remember the point for future guidance. As a matter of fact, I had decided that we should all go together, anyway until the occasion came for entering the houses, when it would be time enough to arrange who should go first.

Having got my N.C.O. and man together, I explained to them the work that was on foot, and said that at the first shot from the enemy each was to run for himself, and that no one was to wait to reply to the fire; all we had to do was to find out whether or not the place was occupied. Liking the job less each minute, we started off down the road. After going a little way it occurred to me that an old military rule was to keep a Maxim on a road at night, and that we should get rather in the way of this if the enemy had one and opened fire. Accordingly I ordered the patrol off the road on to the ploughland beside. This was a good manœuvre, as we were able to creep over the soft soil noiselessly. We felt our way on for some distance, until I saw two dark objects. These were the first of the houses we had to explore. Praying fervently that they might be empty, I led the way towards them. Suddenly there was a sharp burst of fire ahead along a front of about fifty yards. The shots could not have been fired from more than ten yards range. We had evidently all but walked into a German trench. The enemy had heard us, and blazed into the night. The effect of the shots suddenly fired out of nothing was most startling. As one man we all three turned and bolted in the opposite direction. The corporal dropped his rifle, I lost my cap; the private, being a fine sprinter, got slightly ahead, and we all three ran like mad. After a couple of hundred yards I went head over heels into a ditch. The corporal paused a moment to see if I had been hit, but continued as soon as I got up; the man kept an unchecked course for home, looking neither to the right nor the left. In the fall I slightly dislocated my knee, but this was as nothing, and, hardly hindered by a limp, I followed at full speed in the wake of the rout, the man now holding a good lead, the corporal lying second, and myself a bad third. I bethought me as I ran that we should probably draw the fire of our own men, who would think we were the enemy, and halloaed: "Goyle—Goyle—this is the patrol returning."

"Shut up, you blithering idiot," I heard his voice from the road; "do you want all Germany to know where we are?"

I flung myself on the ground beside him and breathlessly reported what had happened. "H'm," said Goyle, "just what I thought. I shan't try to occupy that village to-night."

Just then the Major commanding the regiment and Adjutant, who had been back with the reserve company, came up. "Well, what is it, Goyle?" said the Major testily; "why don't you push on into the village?"

The Major was a very gallant officer, with considerable war experience behind him. To his mind "dash" was the great thing. But the Major's experiences had been chiefly in savage warfare, and he had no knowledge of German methods. He had only come out from England two days before to take the place of our Colonel, who had been wounded.

Goyle pointed to me, said that he had sent out a patrol, and that the village was occupied. "Oh," said the Adjutant, "probably only two or three half-scared Uhlans. You ought to have tackled them and brought back their helmets"—this to me.

I offered with acid politeness to indicate the position of the "Uhlans" so that the Adjutant could go out himself and get their helmets.