From Mons To Loos The Diary Of A Supply Officer Illustrated Edition

Includes with 21 illustrations and photos. A member of General French’s “Contemptible” little army recounts his tales of the opening two years of the First World War. Under shot and shell in the front lines with the gallant Tommies of the BEF from the first engagements until the bloody battle of Loos. “THIS little work does not profess to be a record of historical facts, but merely a series of impressions snap-shotted upon my mind as they occurred, and set down here in simple language; and if these snapshots can bring home to my readers some idea, however faint, of what war and its attendant miseries mean, then my labour will not have been in vain. “To those who may imagine that the British fighting man of to-day is not the equal of his forebears, who fought from Crécy and Agincourt to Albuera and Waterloo, I trust the story of Mons, the Aisne, Neuve Chapelle, and Ypres will set all doubts at rest.” STEWART, HERBERT ARTHUR, Major, was born 18 May, 1878, and was commissioned from the Militia 4 Jan. 1899, in the Suffolk Regt., from which he was transferred to the Army Service Corps 12 Feb. 1900. Capt. Stewart served in the South African War, 1899-1902, he received the Queen’s Medal with three clasps, and the King’s Medal with two clasps. He was Adjutant, Territorial Force, 1 Aug. 1911, to 31 July, 1914. He again saw active service in the European War from Aug. 1914, to the conclusion of hostilities, becoming Major the day war broke out. He was one of the very few British officers who entered Mons on Sunday, 23 Aug. 1914. For his services with the 3rd Division during the First Battles of Neuve Chapelle and Ypres in Oct. and Nov. 1914, he received a D.S.O. awarded "for services in connection with operations in the field.”

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ... 162 chapter X. ypres. The 9th Brigade marched to Neuve Eglise, where it formed part of a mixed force under General Allenby operating about Messines. The 7th Brigade marched to Merris, where it went into billets for a short rest. The 8 th Brigade and all the artillery were left behind at Neuve Chapelle to strengthen the Lahore Division. Headquarters moved to Meteren, a small town two miles from Bailleul on the BailleulCassel road. Bailleul and Meteren are about three miles from the Belgian frontier and twelve from Ypres, which lies to the northward. Both towns had suffered from the German occupation. Little or no damage had been done to the buildings, but each place had been subjected to Prussian "frightfulness" in the shape of outrages on the unfortunate inhabitants. The German Army, as the whole world knows, is under an iron discipline; the terrible crimes, therefore, which have been proved against it in the shape of criminal assaults on women and young girls, and of foul murder of tiny infants and defenceless men, can only have been committed with the deliberate and cold-blooded sanction of its highest officers. They cannot be excused on the plea that excesses are sometimes committed by the best disciplined troops in moments of mad lust and wild excitement. German officers, moreover, have themselves taken part in these cowardly atrocities; and whatever the result of this titanic war may be, from this time onwards the honour of the German Army, the pledged word of a Prussian and the glory of the German flag have been tarnished unredeemably. For these things, which mean so much in the community of cultured nations, every honest man in future can have nothing but contempt. How futile is the talk of many of those who demand punishment on...