Indescribable confusion reigned in Ostend. The whole country-side had swarmed in to see what was going on; the Cavalry Division was landing while the Seventh Division passed through to get to the railway station, and their movements were naturally hampered by the throngs of people which surged over the streets and quays. General Capper took with him the 20th and 22nd Brigades under Brigadier-Generals Ruggles-Brise and Lawford, leaving the 21st, under Brigadier-General Watts, to march back to Beernem, where it was to remain in reserve. Meanwhile, the Cavalry Division was to operate in the direction of Thourout.
When the two brigades arrived at Ghent, they found that a small force of French Marines and Belgian cyclists were already holding an outpost line in front of the town. The Germans, it was reported, had just crossed the Scheldt about ten miles to the east, and were moving north-west, with the object of cutting off the Belgian Army and the British and French Naval Divisions, which were evacuating Antwerp.
Route taken by the First Battalion Grenadier Guards through Belgium in October 1914.
A second outpost line was taken up by the two brigades in rear of the French Marines, the 1st Battalion Grenadiers being in reserve. There were no machine-guns, and the only ammunition was the 200 rounds carried by each man. Though the artillery had been sent on the night before, it did not arrive at Ghent till twenty-four hours after the infantry, owing to the confusion there was on the railway line, part of which was in the hands of the Germans.
No. 2 Company of the Grenadiers found one or two piquets blocking the main road, and had a very busy time with the Belgian refugees who were streaming out of Ghent all night long. The other three companies were sent into billets in some large dye-works, but there were so few exits that it was found it would take quite half-an-hour to evacuate the place, so that it was nothing but a death-trap. Accordingly No. 4 Company billeted in a timber yard close by, while the King's and No. 3 bivouacked in an orchard by the roadside.
The nights were cold, and when the Battalion requisitioned for blankets, huge rolls of velvet from the dye-works were issued by the Belgian authorities. Some ten thousand francs' worth of velvet, it was estimated, was damaged in this way. The men naturally did not mind what they looked like as long as they kept warm, but as they lay asleep in the yard, with rich velvet such as Velasquez might have painted wrapped round their khaki, they presented a spectacle decidedly incongruous.
Oct. 10.
Nothing much happened during the next day, though there were occasional alarms. Firing could be heard in the distance, but no shells or bullets came in the direction of our troops. When it was dark the Battalion was ordered to report to the commander of the outpost line. On the march they met scattered bodies of the French Marines, who had presumably been driven in, and when they got to Destelbergen it appeared that the Marines had been withdrawn from this section, which was now only thinly held by such men as could be spared by the Border Regiment on the left.
The King's Company was told to take over this section—by no means an easy task in the dark. The frontage was nearly a mile, with the platoons about six hundred yards apart, and the trenches were useless, being merely shallow rain-shelters, hastily covered over. By working all night the men succeeded in making some sort of a trench by dawn. Orders were received that there could be no retirement in case of attack, and that no support could be looked for.