Battle of Beachy Head

“ Narrowly escaping capture, [1] they succeeded in eluding the French fleet, and landed in Gibraltar Harbour on December 18. On the 23rd Prince George made a successful sortie at the head of his new troops, and destroyed a considerable portion of the siege-works; but the allies, having the land side open to them, were [5] able to bring up supplies and fresh troops without difficulty, whereas we were dependent entirely on our fleet—in fact, on our command of the sea. ”

“ This monster, and a twin gun on an elevation to the north, somewhere behind Anafarta village and known as Anafarta Anne, made the old amusement of beach bathing a deadly peril. Long before the final abandonment of the Anzac position a camp statistician had reckoned that the score of casualties due to the activities of Beachy Bill exceeded the total of 1,500, and on one bad day he accounts for sixty-four men. Many attempts were made by the warships to silence these guns and blow away their emplacements. ”

“ The details of the engagement are useless—there was a show of resistance and some well sustained firing for awhile; but the whole battle, so far as it can be called one, was fought by Barney. He had planted four guns, among them an eighteen pounder, so as to sweep the main road, and quietly sat beside them on his bay horse, allowing the column to come within close range before he gave orders to (p. 125) fire. The first terrible discharge cleared the road. Three times the British endeavored to advance in front, and as often were swept to destruction by that battery. ”

“ By elevating the small guns the curtain fell farther and farther into the enemy's territory, thus making it possible for the Allies to go on farther and farther across No Man's Land.
The infantry rushed forward, fighting and dying nobly in a noble cause. Position after position was consolidated as the Germans fell back before the rain of shot and shell. It is always this way in an offensive, small or large. The first rush of the attacking side, be it German, French, British, or American, carries everything before it. It is the counter attack that tells. ”

“ The dew on the grass caught a faint sparkle from a ray of sunlight that penetrated the eastern skies.
V. 'The Boches, sir! They're coming!'
The sergeant's warning rang out, and in an instant the air was shattered with battle. Protected by the fire from a nest of machine-guns, the Germans launched a converging attack towards the bridge. Waiting until the advancing troops were too close to permit the aid of their own machine-gun fire, the Americans poured a deadly hail of bullets into their ranks. The attack broke, but fresh troops were thrown in, and the line was penetrated at several points. ”

“ In the mounted combat against cavalry, every effort must be directed towards falling upon the enemy at full gallop in a serried mass, and thus to overthrow him. It is not sufficient to succeed in coming to blows with the enemy. His tactical formation must be destroyed, and he must be rendered incapable either of evolution or battle. And this must be done without losing cohesion or power of command. The material damage done to the enemy is a matter for the mounted pursuit, which need only be carried out by part of the troops, or, in default of this, by shrapnel. ”

“ Companies that had entered the battle 250 strong dwindled to fifty and sixty, with a sergeant in command; but the attack did not falter. At 9:45 o'clock that night Bouresches was taken by Lieutenant James F. Robertson and twenty odd men of his platoon; these soon were joined by two reënforcing platoons. Then came the enemy counter-attacks, but the marines held.
In Belleau Wood the fighting had been literally from trees to tree, stronghold to stronghold; and it was a fight which must last for weeks before its accomplishment in victory. ”

“ Yesterday afternoon our right wing there, which tried to relieve the position on Beach V by an enfilading attack on the enemy, got among wire, and was driven back. During the night the Turks came on in force, and we were compelled to fling our beach parties into the firing line, bluejackets and sappers armed with whatever weapons they could find. This morning the situation is easier, we have landed more troops, and are preparing to move forward.
At Beach V the landing is still in its first stage. Men are still sheltering on the deadly beach behind the sandbank. ”

“ With only 8000 men engaged in the fiercest battles, the Marine Corps casualties numbered 69 officers and 1531 enlisted men dead and 78 officers and 2435 enlisted men wounded seriously enough to be officially reported by cablegram, to which number should be added not a few whose wounds did not incapacitate them for further fighting. However, with a casualty list that numbers nearly half the original 8000 men who entered battle, the official reports account for only 57 United States marines who have been captured by the enemy. ”

“ Driving easily before them the regiments whose duty it was to protect the artillery, they moved swiftly forward. Barney's horse had been shot under him and he himself, prostrated by a wound, lay stretched in the road. Seeing that the battle was lost, he bade his seamen cut their way through the enemy and escape. Reluctant at first to obey him, they at last fled, and their gallant commander was taken prisoner. A few such determined men would have saved Washington from the flames.
The six hundred Virginians who had hastened to the rescue never joined the army at all. ”

“ It was fortified so strongly by the adventurers, as to resist an attack upon it by Sir James Head, the commander of the British forces. The president of the United States and the governor of the state of New York both issued proclamations, enjoining upon the inhabitants of the frontier to observe a strict neutrality.
"Notwithstanding these injunctions, arms and ammunition were procured, either by purchase or by stealth, and kept for the use of the insurgents. The party upon Navy island fired upon the opposite shore of Canada, and boats were destroyed by the force of their shot. ”

“ Accordingly, instead of being forced to run away, his rider is particularly afraid lest he should do so, simply because he knows that the remedy which would cure the wild horse, would probably kill him. In fact, the difference to the rider between an open and an enclosed field of battle is exactly that which a naval officer feels in scudding in a gale of wind out of sight of land, and in being caught among sandbanks and rocks in a narrow channel. ”

“ Toni throttled down, assured himself that everything was working well, and then, with a wave of his hand toward Jack, began to taxi across the field, to head up into the wind. All aeroplanes are started this way—directly into the wind, to rise against it and not with it. On and on he went and then he began to climb into the air. With him climbed other birdmen who were to do patrol and contact work with him, the latter being the term used when the airship keeps in contact through signaling with infantry or artillery forces on the ground, directing their efforts against the enemy. ”

“ The Goddess of War should stand with her left side to the audience, body bent forward, the head slightly turned towards the battle field, the countenance expressing animation and determination. A small quantity of smoke should be seen rising behind the breastwork, while the whole scene is illuminated by a red light burned at the side of the stage. The booming of distant cannon and martial music may be imitated behind the stage. ”

“ It is greatly to the credit of the men that under such circumstances they could be induced to continue the contest. But the men had actually grown reckless of consequences: filled with the lust of battle, the brute in them was uppermost. They fought where they stood, with what they had. When the American guns were silenced, the seamen struck at their British foes over their silent muzzles with ramrods and sponges. Some endeavored to subdue the flames which broke out on every side. Others joined the English prisoners at the pumps. ”

“ They continued carrying sail; and standing in for the enemy's fleet, in close line of battle. As all the officers of the squadron were totally unacquainted with Aboukir Bay, each ship kept sounding as she stood in.
"The enemy appeared to be moored in a strong and compact line of battle, close in with the shore; their line describing an obtuse angle in it's form, flanked by numerous gun-boats, four frigates, and a battery of guns and mortars on an island in their van. This situation of the enemy seemed to secure to them the most decided advantages ”

“ But as they got nearer, the carnage became awful. Every gun on board that privateer seemed aimed with the precision of a rifle, and the discharges were so rapid and incessant that it was with the utmost efforts the boats could be pushed on at all. The dead cumbered the living, and the oars were continually dropping from the hands of the slain, crippling and confusing all the movements. At length, however, they succeeded in reaching the brig, and cheered on by their officers, shouting "no quarter," began to ascend the sides of the ship. ”

“ The 3d Battalion, 2d Marines, and the 2d Amphibian Tractor Battalion suffered nearly 50 casualties; the two ships lost an equal number of sailors. Ironically, the division expected to have the least damage or casualties in the L-Day battle lost more men than any other division in the Tenth Army that day. Complained division Operations Officer Lieutenant Colonel Samuel G. Taxis: “We had asked for air cover for the feint but were told the threat would be ‘incidental.’”
A flotilla of LSM-Rs delivers final suppressive fires before assault waves hit the beach. ”

“ A reconnaissance proved that the defences of the city were far more formidable than had been reported, and on the 19th the Spaniards made a sortie, in which they displayed a gallantry which our men had by no means anticipated. Heavy guns were landed from the fleet, and breaching batteries erected within 1,000 yards of the citadel. The Admiral also landed upwards of 1,400 seamen and marines to assist the troops. The General did not possess the means for a regular siege, and, risky though the experiment was, he determined to carry the place by storm so soon as a practicable breach was effected. ”

“ The star shells were very brilliant and made No Man's Land almost as bright as when bathed in sunshine, a condition that had not prevailed of late. There was no guarantee that the Germans would not, in their suspicious hate, turn their rifles or machine guns on what they supposed were dead bodies. In that case-well, Tom, Jack and the others did not like to think about it.
But the brilliance of the star shells died away, and once more there was darkness. The lieutenant cautiously raised his head and in a whisper commanded:
“Forward! Is every one all right?” ”

“ No means existed of ascertaining the enemy's losses, but that they were most severe was undoubted. They abandoned their entrenched position, and recrossed the frontier, leaving seventy-three guns in our hands. But the campaign was not over. Reinforcements were called up from Meerut, Delhi, and Cawnpore, and on January 6 Sir John Grey arrived at headquarters with the 9th and 16th Lancers, the 10th Foot (Lincolns) , two regiments of native cavalry and three of native infantry, whilst the 53rd (Shropshire Light Infantry) was within a few days' march. ”

“ They fell rapidly, and their carcasses rising in front of the rifle-pits afforded added protection to the soldiers. There must have been a renegade white man among the savages, for in a lull of the firing the men on the island heard a voice announce in perfect English, “There goes the last of their horses, anyway.” Besides this, from time to time, the notes of an artillery bugle were heard from the shore. The casualties had not been serious while the horses stood, but as soon as they were all down the men began to suffer. ”

“ During all these days they had charged through villages, fought through morasses, forded swollen streams, bayoneted machine gunners at their posts, and used their rifles as clubs when they came to grips with the foe in the wire entanglements.
Hunger and thirst joined hands with the enemy. Gas attack followed charge, and charge succeeded gas attack. From overhead Boche planes rained bombs down upon them. Comrades fell on every hand, and the cries of the wounded rose above the shrieking of shrapnel and shell. ”

“ The sons of Loudoun, serving in these and other organizations, bore a distinguished part on every crimsoned field from Pennsylvania to the coast of Florida.
Garnett's Brigade, to which the 8th Virginia regiment was attached, was led into action during the memorable charge on the third day of the battle of Gettysburg. The brigade moved forward in the front line, and gained the enemy's strongest position, where the fighting became hand to hand and of the most desperate character. ”

“ If the enemy succeeds in destroying our fleet and landing with strong detachments on the North Sea coast, large forces of the land army would be required to repel them, a circumstance widely affecting the progress of the war on the land frontiers. It is therefore vitally necessary to prepare the defence of our own coasts so well that every attack, even by superior numbers, may be victoriously repelled. ”