Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/202

172 Gen. Sordet, which all through the 25th was moving in rear of the battlefield to protect the British left. Then came the sth Div., which held the front from the southern outskirts of Le Cateau to Troisvilles, with the igth Bde. in support. The 3rd Div. held the centre as far as Caudry, and on the left lay the 4th Div., part of which had moved forward N. of the Cambrai-Le Cateau road the day before to protect the retirement of the II. Corps, but the left of which was now about Esnes. Thence to Cambrai was a gap filled by the 4th Cav. Bde., and later by Gen. Sordet's cavalry corps. The French 84th Territorial Div. was retiring slowly through Cambrai.

The German force on the heels of the British II. Corps was the I. Army, whose commander, Gen. von Kluck, at one time or another before, during, and after the battle was the victim of faulty conclusions. He believed that the whole of the British Expeditionary Force was opposite him; he diagnosed that it was holding a position running N. and S., whereas the line of the II. Corps was almost due E. and W., and he was sure that it was either retreating or about to retreat in a westerly direction. His plan was similar to that which had been tried at Mons, a frontal attack mainly with artillery followed by enveloping movements against both flanks. The II. Corps was to march through Cambrai and the IV. Reserve Corps to Catherieres, thus enveloping the British left. The IV. Corps was to make the attack on the British front from the W. of Le Cateau to Caudry. The III. Corps was to march W. of the Sambre on Le Cateau in order to envelop the British right. The II. Cav. Corps under Gen. von der Marwitz was to pin the British left until the German infantry should arrive upon the field.

Soon after daybreak the British were engaged upon both flanks. On the right some troops of the German IV. Corps entered Le Cateau and some confused fighting ensued, while on the left the 4th Div. became engaged with the II. Cav. Corps of the enemy. Here the 4th Div., after defending an advanced position for some time, fell back slowly to a second line and brought the enemy advance to an abrupt standstill. These events were but preliminaries, and the battle of Le Cateau proper opened with a heavy bombardment, which grew in intensity as the artillery of four German corps came into action. The British artillery made a spirited reply, though heavily outmatched in numbers and weight of metal, and dealt severely with attempts of the German infantry to push forward. These attempts were, however, practically limited to the ground near Le Cateau on the British right, and to the village of Caudry, which now formed a salient in the 'centre of the line. Throughout the forenoon constant in- fantry attacks varied by bouts of heavy shelling were made against the latter village, from which about noon the defenders were forced out by artillery fire; but a counter-attack at once regained part of it and the German infantry advance was held up.

It was now about i P.M. and the line of the II. Corps was still everywhere intact in spite of the superior numbers arrayed against it. But on the right the situation was becoming grave, for the 5th Div. with its right flank uncovered by the retirement of the I. Corps was being threatened by more and more German columns converging upon the field. Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien realized that the moment had come when at all costs the fight must be broken off if his force was to be saved. He was now faced with one of the most difficult operations of war that of extricating tired troops from contact with an enemy largely superior in force. Orders were, however, sent to break off the fight and to continue the retirement of the previous days, and the operation was very neatly accomplished with entire success, difficult though it was. Against the exposed flank of the 5th Div. the Germans were now vigorously pressing, and this to some extent precipitated matters, for before the orders for retreat had reached all concerned, the British right had given way before overwhelming superiority of numbers. But the Germans failed to exploit this success, and the withdrawal of the II. Corps, thanks largely to the devotion of the British artillery and to the arrival of Gen. Sordet's cavalry corps on the left, which held off the German enveloping movement in that quarter, was effected with less difficulty than had been expected. Sir Horace

Smith-Dorrien successfully withdrew his columns, and marched them swiftly to the Somme at and near Ham, and by the z8th had got the II. Corps safely across the river.

The losses of the British had been severe, and 38 guns had been taken by the enemy. The men were exhausted after the severity of the marching and fighting of the first stage of the war, and a vigorous pursuit by the Germans might have meant dis- aster for the British II. Corps. The retreat, however, was practically unmolested, for Gen. von Kluck hurried S.W. instead of S., and thus missed a chance not likely often to occur in war.

(F. E. W.*) FROST, ROBERT (1875- ), American writer, was born in San Francisco, March 26 1875. His father was a New Englander and his mother was born in Edinburgh. In 1885 he moved with his parents to Lawrence, Mass., studied in the public schools, and entered Dartmouth College in 1892, remaining there one year. During 1897-9 he was a student at Harvard. During 1905-11 he taught English in the Pinkerton Academy, Deny, N.H., and then for a year taught psychology at the N.H. Normal School at Plymouth. In 1912 he went to England, where he remained three years and published his first two volumes of verse. On his return to America he retired to a farm at Derry and gave much time to active farming. During 1916-20 he was professor of English at Amherst College. His poems portray in realistic fashion every-day country life in New England. Some of the work of his first volume had been denied publication for 20 years, and some of the second for 10 years. He was the author of A Boy's Will (1913); North of Boston (1914); Mountain Interval (1916) and A Way Out, a play (1917). FRY, SIR EDWARD (1827-1918), English judge (see 11.270), died at Failand, near Bristol, Oct. 19 1918. FRYATT, CHARLES (1872-1916), British sea-captain, was born at Parkeston, near Harwich, Essex, Dec. 2 1872. He entered the service of the Great Eastern Railway Co., and in 1904 became chief officer in their service of vessels plying between Harwich and Rotterdam, in 1913 becoming captain. He continued to navigate his ship, the " Brussels, " to Rotterdam and back for the first two years of the World War. At the end of July 1916 it was announced that the " Brussels " had been captured and the captain himself arrested and tried by court-martial on a charge of having attempted on March 28 1916 to ram the German sub- marine 1/33 near the Maas lightship. The German authorities stated that Captain Fryatt had confessed during his examination that he had acted under orders from the Admiralty, but the trial was suspiciously hurried and secret, an application for post- ponement being refused, and no intervention on the part of neutrals was allowed. The captain was condemned to death and shot at Bruges July 28 1916. Half an hour after the execution had been carried out a telegram arrived from the army headquarters at Berlin ordering the sentence to be postponed. The news of the execution aroused great indignation in England, and on two occasions it was stated by Mr. Asquith in the House of Commons that due reparation would be exacted for this and similar mur- ders. Ample provision was made for Captain Fryatt's family, his widow being awarded a pension of 100 a year over and above the amount to which she was already entitled under the Govern- ment compensation scheme, while the Great Eastern Railway Co. also gave Mrs. Fryatt an annuity of 250 a year for life. The captain's body was on July 7 1919 brought from Belgium to England. A memorial service was held at St. Paul's on July 8, and the body was buried at Dovercourt church, near Harwich. FUEL (see 11.274). Civilization on its physical side is based on fuel. Of all the powers of nature which have been turned by man to his use and convenience, fire stands out with a distinction which is unique. The kindling of the first fire of dried leaves and branches by our prehistoric ancestors marked the beginning of the transfer of this mighty power from the gods to man, and new possibilities of prodigious import were opened up. With fire at his command, a new dividing line was established between man and the lower animals, and a higher and more social standard of living became possible. The horrors and dangers of the darkness of night were greatly mitigated, social instincts were aroused