TH E FIFTY - FIR ST IN F R ANC E CAPTAIN R O BER T B. R O SS GGG G GG G GGG GG G G G G G ' ‘ LLUSTR AI ED BY JESSIE K . R OSS DEDICATION TO THE MEMORY MY FALLEN COMR ADES P R E F A C E I E E t o t hank fri en ds D SIR . the many who by kind words of c o u n sel and en co u r agem ent have help ed me to w r it e this b o ok of remi ni sce nce s . In particular my thanks are due o f R oss - shi r e Jou r n a l to Mr . D . M . Watt, the , for his permission to incorporate a few articles from my pen Whi ch appeared in that paper under the title of A Ross- shi re Gordon ’ o f Highlander s Diary the War . R . B . R . 1 1 C O NT E NT S PAR T I FR OM MAY TO DECEMBER 1 9 1 5 CHAPTER I PAGE FAIR STO O D THE WIND F O R F RANCE CHAPTER II TOMMY AND HIS TRENCH CHAPTER III THE FIRST SHO T CHAPTER IV THE SILEN T G UN S CHAPTER V EXTENDIN G THE LINE CHAPTER V I PILG RIMS IN PIC ARDY CONTENTS PAR T II MAY TO NO VEMBER 1 9 1 6 CHAPTER VII MINES AND MISERIE S CHAPTER VIII IN THE WAKE O F THE PU SH CHAPTER IX HIG H WO O D CHAPTER X A C ITY IN CELLARS CHAPTER XI THE GENE RATION O F C AIN CHAPTER XII AN ARMY ON LEASH CHAPTER XIII BEAU MONT -HAMEL 1 4 ILLUSTR ATIONS THE GILDED STATUE O F THE CAMPANILE O F THE EG ISE NOTRE DAME DE BRE IERES L B , ALBERT Fronti sp i ece DISEMBARKATION A R UINED FARMHOUSE NEAR R ICHEBOURG ARRAS THE CHURCH O F EsTAIR Es AND THE R IV ER LYS 1 04 THE SMOKE O F BATTLE THIEPV AL CHATEAU BEFORE THE WAR LA BOISSELLE MONT ST E OI . L THE S PECTRA SKE ETON O F FRICO RT HATEA L L U C U, NO W A HEAP O F POWDERED BRICKS ST. O MER THE SOMME AT ABBEV ILLE HEBUTERNE NEAR MAILLY-MAILLET 1 5 H F i Fi ence the a th and re within us , Me n who march away Er e the barn- cocks say Night is growing grey , To haz ards whence no tears can w in H F F i ence the aith and ire with n us , ” Me n who march away . H O MAS HAR DY T . 1 6 FAIR STOOD THE WIND FOR FRANCE ON the third day of May in the year o f o ur Lord nineteen hundred and fifteen , the seventh battalion o f the Gordon Highlanders fo r o n paraded the last time English soil . The companies marched to their appointed stations, every breast aching With pride and hopes realised at last . All the Windows were i n o t l ned with Spectators , and a few women were in tears . While the men were being marshalled and dressed, and until the rifles had come clattering down to the order, there was a sympathetic silence among the populace . At Colonel B ower rode The up . adjutant saluted with that peculiar salute o f his whi ch could n o t have been ex - pressly called half casual , but which had such individuality that it could never have been associated with any other officer The battalion came to attention . The final com o u t h - mands were rapped . T ree drum beats , 1 9 FAIR STOOD THE WIND FOR FRANCE and the pipes blew with a fie r ce r assur ance ur - than ever . O good byes were parched upon o ur lips, for B edford had mothered us and o wn we had grown up as her children . At Ampthi ll military siding a dense crowd had assembled to witness the departur e o f hi the troops . The men sang and w stled with fervour . Their enthusiasm was so contagious that cheeks yet glistening with tears were now wrinkled with smiles . For the men it was a gala day, but for the women it was sadder than death . At the long - o u t o f troop train steamed the station , and having looked for the last time at the scenes o f o u r ur battle rehearsals, we settled o selves o u r in compartments , so excited with the consciousness of strife ahead that we could do nothi ng except smoke feverishly and ’ laugh immoderately at each other s j okes . We stopped at none of the main stations of L ondon , which on this genial Sunday night seemed to be drowsed in sleep . Twenty minutes after midnight we ran smoothly into Folkestone and detrained on the pier . Moored alongside was a fast transport, the nwar d - O , belonging to the South Eastern and 20 FAIR STOOD THE WIND FOR FRANCE up in mass for the first time on French soil . fi she r w o m e n Some were already abroad . They regarded the bare knees and bronzed faces with but careless appreciation . The ’ en thou si asme populace was no longer . The j ubilant note of welcome was conspicuously wanting . No acclamations greeted us ! no o u r flowe rs fell in path . We arrived when the good B oulonnais were asleep, and, save for a few strands of thin smoke cur ling slowly up from the military posts, there was nothing in the city to proclaim it o ne of the o ur bases o f operations . When the town w a oke we were no longer in its midst . A very tortuous and intolerably steep road our - took us to resting place, the camp of ho ve O st r e . ’ We had entertained hopes o f a day s rest O st r e ho ve n at , had flung ourselves dow at haphazard in the tents that were provided for the comfort o f reinforcements ! but the altitude of the camp and its exposur e to every keen wind that blew, added to the our novelty of being on a foreign soil, and that soil France, made rest impossible . The t ur wind ou into o flesh like a knife . We tried 22 FAIR STOOD THE WIND FOR FRANCE to sleep , but only succeeded in dozing , heavy No w eyed . and again , hearing the humming o f aeroplanes , we would rush out to see them ! o r ur , unable to get the repose that tired nat e o f u s should have exacted , we would wander “ over the heath and fill o ur lungs with those glorious breezes ! and sometimes we were fain to plunge into stammering conversations with the chocolate sellers already come up from B oulogne to drive bargains with the Tommies . But we were destined to have no rest at O st r e hov e . That at length seemed final r Du ing breakfast, which we could hardly eat r for excitement, the rumou Spread that the battalion was to move early in the day . We ui our crammed hard bisc ts into haversacks, l and the tea, which we had swi led in our - F or mess tins, we drank to the lees . this o n e rumour was not an idle . The order to move had arrived . B efore the sun had climbed high into the heavens we had left the shining uplands far behind us, and the dust from a thousand feet hung like a cloud over the tortuous road that twisted snakily into Pont de Briques . t On the right, down below in the valley of he 23 FAIR STOOD THE WIND FOR FRANCE Liane, two hospital trains, heavily laden , t o B ou lo n e were crawling over the trunk line g , so slowly that they seemed scarce to move . ” o f The sight those bandages, said my comrade many months after (he was himself - killed at B eaumont Hamel) , and the silent endur ance on the faces o f the sufferers made a greater impression o n my mind than the ” sight of the dead lying in swathes . On the march to Pont de Briques the i n qu i sit ive m ind was constantly being st imu v e n lated by novel sights and sounds . E the advertisements did not fail t o attract interest . r It is said that an ardent Scot, on a riving im in France for the first time , was much pressed at finding a glorious advertisement ” for Black and White . One could hear the men asking among themselves ! Byrrh ? Fat ’ s Byrrh The quaint shuttering of the windows always provoked merriment, and many a man saw there for the first time a sign that must be for ever engrained in hi s ! memory Chocolat Menier . At the station there were many odious comparisons between the amenities of French and Scottish a railway st tions . The northern mind could 24 FAIR STOOD THE WIND F O R FRANCE not appreciate the strange disc and chequer signals ! and when the porter who was e n gaged in shunting Operations drew from the pocket of his dirty blue culottes a melancholy n o horn , the laughter and derision knew bounds . 9 m At a .