Private Smiley, of the Gordons, describing the
German attacks, speaks of the devastating effects of the British fire.
"Poor devils!" he writes of the German infantry. "They advanced in
companies of quite 150 men in files five deep, and our rifle has a flat
trajectory up to 600 yards. Guess the result. We could steady our rifles
on the trench and take deliberate aim. The first company were mown down
by a volley at 700 yards, and in their insane formation every bullet was
almost sure to find two billets. The other companies kept advancing very
slowly, using their dead comrades as cover, but they had absolutely no
chance.... Yet what a pitiful handful we were against such a host!"
The fighting went on all through the night and again next morning, and
the British force was compelled to retreat. In the dark, Private Smiley,
who was wounded, lost his regiment, and was picked up by a battery of
the Royal Field Artillery who gave him a lift. But he didn't rest long,
he says, for "I'm damned if they didn't go into action ten minutes
afterwards with me on one of the guns."
Some fine exploits are also given to the credit of the Black Watch.
They, too, were in the thick of it at Mons--"fighting like gentlemen,"
as one of them puts it--and the Gordons and Argyll and Sutherlands also
suffered severely.
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