THE FIRST SEVEN DIVISIONS

McCLELLAND, GOODCHILD & STEWART, Ltd.

Map showing the first seven days of the retreat fromMons, with the routes followed by each Division. The dates given referto the nights during which the troops rested, the days being spent inmarching.

• 1st Division Violet
• 2nd Division Green
• 3rd Division Blue
• 5th Division Red

Approximate scale 7 miles to an inch.

The First Seven Divisions

Being a detailed account of the fighting
from Mons to Ypres

By Ernest W. Hamilton
(Late Captain 11th Hussars)

WITH MAPS

TORONTO:
McCLELLAND, GOODCHILD & STEWART. Ltd.

Printed in Great Britain

PREFACE

The 1st Expeditionary Force to leave England consisted of the 1st A.C.(1st and 2nd Divisions) and the 2nd A.C. (3rd and 5th Divisions).

The 4th Division arrived in time to prolong the battle-front at LeCateau, but it missed the terrible stress of the first few days, andcan therefore hardly claim to rank as part of the 1st ExpeditionaryForce in the strict sense. The 6th Division did not join till thebattle of the Aisne. These two divisions then formed the 3rd A.C.

In the following pages the doings of the 3rd A.C. are only very lightlytouched upon, not because they are less worthy of record than those ofthe 1st and 2nd A.C., but simply because they do not happen to havecome within the field of vision of the narrator.

The 7th Division's doings are dealt with because these wereinextricably mixed up with the operations of the 1st A.C. eastof Ypres. The 3rd A.C., on the other hand, acted throughout asan independent unit, and had no part in the Ypres and La Basséefighting with which these pages are attempting to deal.

The main point aimed at is accuracy; no attempt is made to magnifyachievements, or to minimise failures.

It must, however, be clearly understood that the mention from time totime of certain battalions as having been driven from their trenchesdoes not in the smallest degree suggest inefficiency on the part ofsuch battalions. It is probable that every battalion in the BritishForce has at some time or another during the past twelve months beenforced to abandon its trenches. A battalion is driven from its trenchesas often as not owing to insupportable shell-fire concentrated on aparticular area. Such trenches may be afterwards retaken by anotherbattalion under entirely different circumstances, and in any case inthe absence of shell-fire. That goes without saying. It may, therefore,quite easily happen that lost trenches may be retaken by a battalionwhich is inferior in all military essentials to the battalion which wasdriven out of the same trenches the day before, or earlier in the sameday, as the case may be.

I wish to take this opportunity of expressing the great obligationsunder which I lie to the many officers who have so kindly assisted mein the compilation of this work.

CONTENTS