Battle of Mons revelations: ‘It was every man for himself’
'I hope my eyes will never look on anything so horrid again'
Further revelations of the appalling losses suffered by the Royal Dublin Fusiliers have emerged at Mons.
A weary band of 42 Fusiliers have arrived at Naas, Co. Kildare and their arrival could not have been more different than the nature of their departure.
On that occasions 600 men had left Naas with the cheers of the people mingling with the music of bands.
They had shouted slogans in support of Home Rule and sang ‘A Nation Once Again’ as they marched.
The merriment of that occasion has now been replaced by a smothering sense of gloom.
When asked of the fate of their missing colleagues, the responses were subdued and vague. Some, it was said, are in hospital in England. Many others, though, have been lost.
At Mons, a German attack had left the Fusiliers cut off and surrounded. They sought to resist, and then to rally, and then finally to cut their way through the Germans.
All failed and the instruction came that it was now every man for himself as they sought to escape the death trap.
The men at Naas explained their survival as being due to luck.
Testimony from the Inniskilling Fusiliers told a similar story. Lance-Corporal Preston from Banbridge in Co. Down described the retreat from Mons as disastrous and all around him men were killed as the Germans trained 100 guns on them.
‘They were all blown to pieces, men, guns and all. The whole plain was strewn with dead and wounded. I hope my eyes will never look on anything so horrid again.’
Lance-Corporal Preston was severely wounded himself: ‘My jaw is dislocated, my right arm broken and my right shoulder dislocated too.’
Meanwhile, battles in northern France continue with reports that the Germans have been driven back 40 miles at Marne.
Soldiers from the French and British armies have advanced over the last four days amidst heavy casualties on both sides, with heavy artillery prominent. There are also reports that many German soldiers have been captured.
