the 1st regiment of lancers
by staff deputy colonel e. joostens
the operations of the siege of antwerp commenced on the 28th of september. the enemy bombarded the forts, the resistance of which was compromised by the firing of cannon of 42 cm. at the same time the enemy endeavoured to force the escaut, between termonde and ghent, with the idea of cutting off the retreat of the belgian army. the river was defended by the 4th army division, which was posted chiefly in the vicinity of termonde. the 1st lancers were at the extreme right of the division. more to the west, towards wetteren, the 1st division of cavalry was spread along the whole left bank of the dendre.
the organisation of the belgian army, when at war, requires a cavalry regiment for every division. thanks to the hazards of this campaign, only the 1st and 3rd lancers remained permanently with the big units to which they were organically attached.
whilst the greater part of the men with our arm expected to keep their spurs, which are worn very high, and were preparing their flourish of trumpets, the 1st lancers, that is the mounted ones, could not have the same pretensions, as they were destined to share the fate of the 4th army division during nearly all the operations. there was plenty of good work to be done, nevertheless, and from the very commence[pg 141]ment, both on the banks of the meuse and around namur, our bold reconnaissances proved the value of this arm. in the northern sector, deputy staff major lenercier, at present a brilliant colonel of the 5th lancers, took the direction of the combats of boneffe and of the sauvenière mill. to the south, our regretted comrade, lieutenant moreau, made a most daring reconnaissance. at the head of two platoons, he went as far as ciney, which was full of germans. on his return, his little troop was completely surrounded, but the lieutenant was not to be intimidated. he assailed his adversary and, thanks to his own personal intervention, he saved the life, or at least the liberty, of one of his comrades, who was surrounded by uhlans, just as they were preparing to do him an evil turn.
the spirit of our mounted lancers is admirable. how many of them have given proof of individual prowess! i well remember, among a hundred instances, that of the gay trumpeter, who had specialised in hunting the boches. he would start off alone on his hunt, and he was very much cast down if he did not account for two or three in his day's work. sometimes he would account for about ten of them, and his eyes were brighter than usual on those days.
the evacuation of namur took place on the 23rd of august, and was a difficult and sorrowful retreat. the march was long, the horses exhausted, the temperature very high, and the uhlans sometimes very near indeed, but what did all that matter? we had to rejoin our fellow-soldiers with the fighting army. and after various incidents we reached coulommiers and la ferté. from there we went to havre, and had a few days of peaceful life, in the midst of a[pg 142] population whose hospitable welcome has left grateful memories in our belgian hearts. four steamers then took us back to our own country. we had time to re-equip ourselves and, after a few days at contich, we took part in the operations around the retrenched camp. there were reconnaissances to be carried out to the north of malines, and in the direction of louvain, lippeloo, etc. our officers kept surpassing each other in activity and daring, and the men were as brave as their chiefs.
at the beginning of october, the besiegers commenced the general attack of the position organised on the north bank of the nèthe. at the same time, they made some attempts to force the passage of the escaut at baesrode, termonde, and schoonaerde. the 4th army division and the 1st cavalry division stopped them. the r?le of the 1st lancers, at that time, was to send out reconnaissances beyond termonde, to gyseghem and audeghem and then, when the enemy was too insistent, to ensure the guarding of the escaut and, if necessary, the defence of the river between dyck and schoonaerde.
towards the 4th of october, the situation became rather critical. the following is an extract from an account given by captain commander cartuyvels de collaert, who depicts the situation faithfully as far as his squadron was concerned. the others had experiences just as critical.
"a company of infantry in the first line," he says, "and my squadron in the second line were to prevent the boches from passing the bridge, which had been partially destroyed, at schoonaerde.
"in the afternoon of the 4th of october, there was[pg 143] violent firing from the enemy. i evacuated the horses quickly. part of the little hamlet of dael, to the south of berlaere, where the horses then were, was literally shattered.
"during the bombardment, staff deputy colonel joostens, who was then major, arrived at berlaere on his way to the schoonaerde bridge. i was stopped by the shells at the last houses, to the south of dael, and had just time to fling myself into a ditch two yards to the east of the road, in front of a farm which received four or five projectiles. a little while after this, staff commander adjutant major yperman hastened up to me.
"'where is the major?' he asked.
"'there,' i answered, pointing to the escaut. just at this moment, an artillery salvo saluted his arrival. honour be to whom honour is due!
"'i fancy you want me to be killed,' said commander yperman, laughing.
"to my right, on the other side of the road, was a cultivated field, and then a little farm surrounded by hedges. i saw a firing effect there that seemed extraordinary. the shells were raining down. suddenly, a ball of fire, which looked about three or four yards in diameter, came along quickly, parallel with the road in the direction of the little farm, but close to the ground. it cleared the hedge, scarcely touching it, just as a horse might have done at a hunt. it was a very pretty sight!
"we had no losses that day, but alas, it was a very different thing the day following. towards evening, i received orders to fall back and occupy, with my squadron, the south border of berlaere.
"lieutenant roup was hit in the leg by shrapnel,[pg 144] but was not seriously wounded. at night, a fresh communication arrived. my brave lancers were to go into the trenches that i had been to inspect near the schoonaerde bridge. the boches were on the other side of the river.
"the following morning, the 5th of october, we were to be four or five hundred yards to the east of the bridge, in order to let our artillery shoot over schoonaerde. just at this point, the escaut makes a slight concave bend towards the north, that is on our side. i was, therefore, afraid of two things. first, there was the danger that the germans, covered by their own artillery, might cross the bridge without our seeing them, as we were rather far from it ourselves. then i feared that we might be surprised from behind, on account of the turn in the escaut, as boche sentinels were visible on a sort of cupola, at the top of a german manufactory near the schoonaerde station, a manufactory which we had not been allowed to destroy by fire the week before. towards 6.30, i went to the bridge, after telling my men to hide in the small trenches we had made during the night in the embankment of the escaut. on arriving as far as the church, i heard the roar of cannon. i had a pang at my heart, dreading lest the target should be my poor squadron. two minutes later, a formidable storm burst over our wretched little trenches, and this storm continued for half an hour.
"'not a single man will be left,' i said to myself, as the projectiles passed, one after another, twenty yards in front of me, with an infernal noise. the whizzing of the shrapnels and the roar of the shells were frightful. the air seemed to be torn by them and the commotion was terrible."
[pg 145]
the following is an episode of what took place in the trenches, according to a letter from lieutenant de burlet, which i received a few days later.
"at schoonaerde, i lost seven men of my platoon. one of them was a sub-officer and another my poor orderly, whom you saw by me in the trench. a shrapnel burst two yards away from us, taking off my poor tuitinier's face. i took refuge under his dead body from 6.30 to 7.45 when, after escaping a thousand dangers and feeling all the revulsions of the body which was protecting me, each time it was hit by the splinters from the shells, i beat a retreat on hearing your whistle."
"at about 7.30," continues commander cartuyvels, "the firing ceased. i left my shelter and heard german being spoken on the other side of the water. piff! paff!... a ball had hit me in the chest, but by a miracle had been turned aside by a pocket-knife. a second hit me in the left knee.
"i had received instructions to remain as long as i thought it possible. considering that the position could no longer be held, i gave orders to my squadron to beat a retreat. i tried to start as well as i could on all threes, as i could not use my fourth member. i got into a ditch, which was full of water, and then into a second one. i was up to my neck in water and i then dragged myself along on the wet grass. another ball broke my right thigh, near the hip. i was settled now and i pretended to be dead, but, in spite of this, these 'cultivated creatures' continued firing on me. what a mental retrospection one has time for when one has to stay for twelve or thirteen hours under the enemy's balls!
[pg 146]
"i wrote on my cuffs to my wife and to my mother, bidding them farewell, and i lay there waiting for death! the shells continued to rage over my head and the bullets to whizz through the air. a foot-soldier, crawling along a few yards away from me, was shot through the head. he uttered a hoarse cry and his soul passed away.
"in the afternoon, i either had a dum-dum ball or one that had been turned aside in my left thigh, and this caused me great suffering.
"when the darkness came on, thanks to a little whistle which i always used for giving orders, i was found by quartermaster de looz-corswarem and thibaut of my squadron. they were helped by a civilian and by a private belonging to the infantry, whose name i believe was ledent, and i was put on to a wheelbarrow and taken to dael. i was saved!
"under the direction of dr. godenne, de looz and thibaut brought in several other wounded men. they have since received a military decoration for their fine work. seventeen men were killed or reported missing that day, and seven were wounded and taken to the hospital. out of three officers engaged in the combat, two were seriously wounded, and one escaped by using the body of his orderly as a shield. the 4th squadron had proved itself worthy of its country!
"things were no better on the 6th. the reserve squadrons intervened in their turn and held out wonderfully. nothing whatever disturbed their equanimity. what brave men they were! they were told that if the enemy attempted to come to close quarters, they could defend themselves with the butt end of their guns, as they had no bayonets. they[pg 147] accepted this perspective with sang-froid and with that decision which had always been their characteristic.
"lieutenant-general michel sent them his warmest congratulations on the following day. i transmitted the same to my troop in the following words:
"'after the combats in the neighbourhood of schoonaerde and appels, the lieutenant-general in command of the 4th army division has begged me to convey his warmest congratulations to all the officers, sub-officers, brigadiers, and men of the regiment who, for several consecutive days, carried out an extremely difficult and exposed service in the trenches. the exceptionally firm and resolute conduct of the 1st regiment of lancers has won the admiration of lieutenant-general michel and i am proud and happy to transmit to all those who have merited it the testimony of his great satisfaction. we shall none of us ever forget those of our comrades who fell during these cruel days, nor any of those whom we have lost since the beginning of the campaign, and our courage and activity will be greater than ever now, in order to avenge and honour their memory.'"
the retreat led us in the direction of the yser, and we were frequently in close contact with the enemy's cavalry at thourout, moerbeke, vladsloo, and bovekerque, and finally, after the great battle, the squadrons, giving up for the time their spurs, mingled during long months with the foot-soldiers, in order to share with them in the work of organising and defending the trenches.
the king considered that the 1st regiment of lancers had specially distinguished itself at schoonaerde, at selzaete, and before dixmude, and rewarded[pg 148] a number of my brave officers by granting to them the following distinctions:
colonel a.e.m. joostens, major a.e.m. lemercier, captain commander cartuyvels: officers of the order of leopold.
major a.e.m. yperman, captain commander ch. de mélotte: knights of the legion of honour.
captain commander de thier, rosseels: knights of the order of leopold.
lieutenants pulincx, delfosse, deboek, laffineur, orban: knights of the order of leopold.
sub-lieutenants dugardin, cartuyvels de collaert, ch. de mélotte: knights of the order of leopold.
drs. brasseur, hallez, godenne: knights of the order of leopold.
lieutenants moreau, de kerchove, de denterghem: knights of the order of leopold and a citation in the minutes of the army.
lieutenant rolin: knight of the order of leopold and a decoration of the order of st. anne (3rd class).
lieutenant bertrand: knight of the order of the crown.
commander bosquet: a citation in the minutes of the army.
army doctor evrard. a citation in the minutes of the army.
lieutenants verhaegen, roup, fichefet, count d'ursel (georges): a citation in the minutes of the army.
sub-lieutenant baron sloet van oldruytenborg: a citation in the minutes of the army.
it would take too long to enumerate the rewards of the lower ranks and of the cavalrymen, but i[pg 149] would not finish this brief account without expressing to them my admiration and taking off my hat to all of them, whilst repeating the words of a great chief: "i would go down on my knees to them all."
wulpen, october, 1915.
