"It was not long before the German gunners found the range and began tearing up those rough fortifications, concentrating their fire on the British batteries, one of which was completely demolished. Another found itself with only six men. Both these disasters bore testimony to the excellent markmanship of the German gunners.
OFFICER, SPIKES THE GUNS
"As it became evident that we must leave these guns behind and continue the retreat, an officer was seen going around putting the guns out of action, so that they would be of no use to the Germans. His action required cool bravery, because the Germans, having found the range, continued firing directly at these batteries.
"Things rapidly got hotter, and the commanding officer ordered a double-quick retreat. We were not long in doing the retiring movement to save our own skins.
"I was wounded at this time by a Maxim bullet. For a moment I thought my head had been blown off, but I recovered and kept on running until I reached a trench, where I had an opportunity to bandage the wound. I rushed off to the ambulances, but found the doctors so busy with men worse off than I that I went back to my place in the line."
THE BATTLE AT CHABLEROI
The loss of life in the Franco-German battle near Charleroi was admittedly the greatest of any engagement up to that time. It was at Charleroi that the Germans struck their most terrific blow at the allies' lines in their determination to gain the French frontier. Though the tide of battle ebbed and flowed for awhile the French were finally forced to give way and to retreat behind their own frontier, while the British were being forced back from their position at Mons. The fighting along the line was of the fiercest kind. It was a titanic clash of armies in which the allies were compelled to yield ground before the superior numbers of the German host.
One of the wounded, who was taken to hospital at Dieppe, said of the fighting at Charleroi:
"Our army was engaging what we believed to be a section of the German forces commanded by the crown prince when I was wounded. The Germans at one stage of the battle seemed lost. They had been defending themselves almost entirely with howitzers from strongly intrenched positions. The Germans were seemingly surrounded and cut off and were summoned to surrender. The reply came back that so long as they had ammunition they would continue to fight.
"The howitzer shells of the Germans seemed enormous things and only exploded when they struck the earth. When one would descend it would dig a hole a yard deep and split into hundreds of pieces. Peculiarly enough the howitzer shells did much more wounding than killing. The other shells of the Germans, like cartridges, the supply of which they seemed to be short of, did only little damage.