Royal Dublin Fusiliers ‘mown down while having tea’
Members of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers had just arrived in Mons and were drinking tea when they were mown down by a fusillade of bullets.
A first hand account of what happened has been provided by Private Andy Ford of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who survived the Battle of Mons in which other Irishmen lost their lives.
Prior to the outbreak of war, Pte. Ford worked on a dairy farm, but was also a reservist who was called up at the beginning of August and transferred to England and then to Boulogne, arriving there on a Sunday.
Having travelled to the front by means of a 14-hour train journey, the men slept in makeshift trenches on Monday and Tuesday night, while marching on both days at a rate of ten to twelve miles per day.
A view of the old quarter of Mons, where the British and Irish troops were engaged. (Image: Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie, EST EI-13 (386))
The Fusiliers arrived in Mons and, apparently believing they were safe from harm, began to make tea when a fusillade of rifle bullets was discharged from cover close by.
Pte. Forde was hit in the foot and was rendered unconscious. When he recovered consciousness, the battle was in full swing and his company was very heavily affected and suffered many losses.
Later, he was removed from the front and sent by train to Le Havre and then by boat to Southampton.
Tom Burke from the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association discusses the RDF and the response to war.
When he was considered well enough, Pte. Ford was given a fortnight’s furlough and has come home to Dublin where he visited his fiancée in Finglas.
Despite the injury, the couple plans to marry next week and then Pte. Forde will fulfill his ‘earnest desire’ to head back to the front.
Other members of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers had a miraculous escape when they were ambushed by Germans on the retreat from Mons. One said: ‘We walked right into a German ambush one morning. They were in the field on both sides of us, thousands of them to our hundred, and they shot us down by scores.’
Thirteen men escaped, however. They buried their uniforms and walked across country to avoid detection. Helped by friendly peasants they eventually made it to Boulogne and safety.
Reports are also reaching Ireland of other losses sustained in Belgium and France by Irish regiments. An eyewitness reported that one attack on members of the Royal Irish Regiment created a terrible scene: ‘They were having dinner when the Germans opened on them, and their dead and wounded were lying all around.’
