Page 37 - Last Chargers example

guns, with the object of putting them out of action if possible or, at any rate, of diverting their attention from the rest of our Brigade.
Lieutenant Peploe, with the 1st Troop of B Squadron, was ordered to guard the left ank. Lieutenant Sparrow, with the 1st Troop of C Squadron, was to stay in touch with the Greys to his right. Lieutenant Colonel Edwards galloped forward with the remaining six troops to attack the guns. The three troops of C Squadron, under Captain Mangles, dis- mounted to come into action about 400 yards from the German Battery while B Squadron tried to nd a way in which to make a mounted attack. Barbed wire fences, how- ever, made it impracticable105 and the Colonel ordered Captain Little to retire with his squad- ron by a more or less covered route on the left ank. Despite the inability to engage the guns directly, the actions of the 20th Hussars achieved their object of keeping the enemy’s guns busy, with the dismounted troops of C Squadron monopolising their attention throughout106.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Sparrow’s Troop had joined in on the left of the main attack by the 12th Lancers, and several of his men had the satisfaction of getting home with their swords against some dismounted Germans. The French interpreter attached to the Troop – a man named Landier, though better known in the Regiment as ‘Chirby’ – achieved the ambi- tion of every Frenchman by killing a Boche when he shot him with his revolver. His intention was to stick the German with his sword, but it is recorded that his horse shied away three times. It can only be imagined that he was more than the regulation six inches from knee to knee with the rest of the Troop107.
As the action drew to a close, with the main attack a success and B Squadron 20th Hussars back to the rear, Captain Mangles was able to
105 Andrews 106 Darling p18 107 Darling p18
withdraw his three troops of C Squadron 20th Hussars back to their horses. It proved a very unpleasant manoeuvre with heavy shrapnel re108 tormenting them most of the way back as they doubled uphill in the sweltering heat. By the time they re-joined their horses the Brigade had begun its withdrawal from the battle eld109.
The retirement, covered by the 20th Hussars, took place without any interference from the enemy, and B Squadron was nally ordered to throw out a rear party. While a solitary German patrol could be seen following up for a short distance, it gave the Hussars no trouble and soon halted. The 20th’s casualties for the day were only one killed while the loss of the Orderly Room Sergeant’s horse, which was carrying the Regimental War Dairy as it had been written to date was, for the historian, an equally great blow110.
The Aftermath
Throughout the action Brigadier Chetwode, smoked cigarettes and was most unconcerned. He remained to the last, seeing that the wounded were put on the ambulances111.
Elsewhere there was less sang-froid on display. C Squadron, 12th Lancers came back down the main road past J Battery who stood by their guns and cheered a cheer that could be heard by the withdrawing German troops. Private Lawrence stated that they felt ‘very chin up with ourselves’112.
Paul Maze (who would later achieve renown as an artist113) was a French senior non-com- missioned of cer attached to the Greys as an
108 Andrews
109 Darling p18
110 WO95/1140/2 20th Hussars p1
111 Lawrence
112 Stewart p255
113 Paul Maze DCM MM* CdeG (1887-1979),Anglo-
French Painter
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