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                       THE STORY OF THE MUNSTERS




                             THE STORY OF
                             THE MUNSTERS

                                  AT

                          ETREUX, FESTUBERT,
                            RUE DU BOIS AND
                                HULLOCH

                                  BY

                          MRS. VICTOR RICKARD

         AUTHOR OF "DREGS," "THE LIGHT ABOVE THE CROSSROADS,"
            "THE FRANTIC BOAST," "THE FIRE OF GREEN BOUGHS"

                       _WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY_

                             LORD DUNRAVEN

            _Honorary Colonel, 5th Royal Munster Fusiliers_

                         HODDER AND STOUGHTON

                     LONDON    NEW YORK    TORONTO

                               MCMXVIII




                             DEDICATED TO
                            VICTOR RICKARD
                 AND HIS COMRADES IN ALL RANKS OF THE
                MUNSTER FUSILIERS, WHO FOUGHT AND FELL
                       IN THE GREAT WAR, 1914-15

       *       *       *       *       *

    "One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
    Never doubted clouds would break,
    Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
    Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, sleep to wake."

       *       *       *       *       *

The shamrock, which forms part of the cap badge of the Royal Munster
Fusiliers, was first introduced, in February 1915, by Lieut.-Colonel
Rickard, in the Second Battalion, with the object of giving a
distinctively Irish emblem to all ranks of the Regiment. It is now worn
by all the battalions of the Munsters.




                                PREFACE


I should like to express my thanks to the officers of the Royal Munster
Fusiliers, and also to the friends and relatives who have helped me
to collect and arrange this book. In the following accounts of the
engagements of Etreux, Festubert, Rue du Bois and Hulloch, I do not
wish in any sense to appear as an historian; that task awaits far abler
and more qualified hands. What follows has been threaded together as a
little tribute to the men who gave their lives for an Ideal, and who
were brave soldiers in the Great War.

The first three chapters of this book appeared in _New Ireland_ during
the summer of 1915, and were shortly afterwards republished by that
paper, together with the supplementary letters, as _The Story of the
Munsters_. A second impression was sold out by the end of the year,
since when no copies of the book have been obtainable. The new features
of the present edition are the historical Introduction specially
written by Lord Dunraven, to whom my best thanks are due, and the four
pictures and the account of the Munsters at Hulloch which have already
appeared in _The Sphere_. Its Editor, Mr. Clement Shorter, has a
special claim to the lasting gratitude of the Munster Fusiliers for the
deep interest he has always shown in all records of the Regiment; and
it is by his permission that the illustrations, which add incalculably
to the slender story itself, are here reproduced. My thanks are also
offered to Mr. Geddes, who has designed the colour plate on the cover,
and brought into the book a sense of the traditions which surround the
regimental flags.

                                                            L. RICKARD.




                             INTRODUCTION


The origin of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, like that of those other
great Irish Regiments, the Dublins and the Leinsters, is inextricably
bound up with those great movements of Imperial expansion which took
place in the eighteenth century. Of the Leinsters one battalion
was originally raised in Canada and another in India. Both regular
battalions of the Dublins were raised in India. Like them, the
1st and 2nd Battalions of the Royal Munsters (before the Caldwell
reconstruction the 101st and 104th Foot) were originally regiments
in the army of the East India Company, raised out of British-born
volunteers in India and only taken over as part of the British Army
when the control of India passed from the Company to the Crown. It
is for this reason that on the grenade which, in common with other
Fusilier battalions, is worn by the Munsters the royal tiger of India
is superimposed.

Until the present war, with the exception of the notable service
performed by the 1st Battalion in South Africa, all the battle
honours of the Regiment come from India or the surrounding countries.
The regimental colours record service for the 1st Battalion at the
following actions: Plassey, Condore, Masulipatam, Badara, Buxar,
Rohilcund, Carnatic, Sholinghur, Guzerat, Deig, Bhurtpore, Afghanistan,
Ghuznee, Ferozeshah, Sobraon, Pegu, Delhi, Lucknow and Burmah; while
for the 2nd Battalion, raised as we shall see eighty years after the
first, there are the Punjaub, Chillianwallah, Goojerat, Pegu and Delhi.
To trace these records in detail would be to write the history of the
steps by which we acquired our Indian Empire. They explain sufficiently
(with the regimental origin in the Company's forces) why there were no
Munsters in the Napoleonic wars.

The 1st Battalion dates its corporate existence from the 22nd December,
1756, when Clive, who had just returned to India and was about to begin
the most glorious epoch of his career, raised it under the title of the
Bengal European Regiment. The Regiment fought in his army at Plassey
and Condore and in every action of that war up to the great victory of
Buxar in October 1764. In 1779 it was sent to the Presidency of Madras
and under Eyre Coote fought at Windeywash; in 1794 it took part under
Abercrombey in the Rohilla wars; it was present (being known then,
after the fashion of the India Army, by the name of its Colonel--
Clark's Corps) at the occupation of Macao in 1808. In 1839 it served
in Afghanistan, when out of volunteers for it the 104th Regiment (now
the 2nd Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers) was formed. It served with
distinction in the Sikh War, and as a reward for its services was
raised to the dignity of a fusilier corps. The colours carried by the
Regiment at this period hang in Winchester Cathedral. It went through
all the fiercest engagements of the Mutiny and was present at the siege
and capture of Lucknow. In 1861 it went under the Crown and became the
101st Regiment (Royal Bengal Fusiliers). From 1868 to 1874 it served
in England, then abroad again, and in 1883 became the 1st Battalion
Royal Munster Fusiliers. In 1899 it had the distinction of being sent
to South Africa from Fermoy before mobilisation, being the first home
regiment to go out to the war. It served with great distinction
in Lord Methuen's force at Belmont, and afterwards on the march to
Pretoria, and in the latter period of the war supplied a mounted
infantry battalion.

The history of the 2nd Battalion is shorter, but no less glorious.
Formed during the first Afghan War in 1839 out of surplus volunteers
for its sister Battalion, it took part in the great victory of
Chillianwallah, went through the Burmese War 1851-53, and in the Mutiny
was part of the force which stormed Delhi. In 1861 it was brought into
the line as the 104th Regiment, but served for ten years more in India
before it came home. In 1887 it joined the Second Burmah Expedition,
and like the 1st Battalion served with great distinction in the South
African War in Natal, and later under Lord Kitchener in the Transvaal
and Cape Colony. The 2nd Battalion was sent to France at the beginning
of the present war. It suffered very severely and has been reinforced
by the 3rd, 4th and 5th Battalions. The 1st, 6th and 7th Battalions
have served at the Dardanelles, and after the evacuation of Gallipoli
the 1st Battalion went to France. They have also suffered heavy losses.
Both on the Western front and in the East the Regiment has splendidly
maintained its ancient renown. To go further into modern history
would be to trespass upon Mrs. Victor Rickard's admirable pages. I
write these few lines about the origin of the Regiment because they
may be interesting to her readers. We must not forget that though the
bones come from Bengal, the blood and sinews are Irish. It is as an
Irish regiment that the Munsters are celebrated in these pages. It is
Irishmen who have won its new battle honours. It is Irish men and
women who have suffered, Irishmen who have triumphed in the field. The
record of the Regiment is splendid, and I am proud to sign myself

                                                          DUNRAVEN,
  _Hon. Col. 5th Battalion_,
      _Royal Munster Fusiliers_.




                               CONTENTS


                                                                    PAGE
  THE STAND OF THE MUNSTERS AT ETREUX.                                 1

  THE MUNSTERS AT FESTUBERT                                           17

  THE MUNSTERS AT RUE DU BOIS                                         32

  THE MUNSTERS AT HULLOCH                                             45

  THE STAND AT ETREUX                                                 55

  APPENDIX                                                            67




                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


  THE MUNSTERS AT ETREUX
  (_Drawn by Christopher Clark_) _To face page_                        1

  MAJOR P. A. CHARRIER (_Photograph_)  "                               6

  THE MUNSTERS AT FESTUBERT
  (_Drawn by Philip Dadd_)  "                                         17

  LT.-COL. A. M. BENT, C.M.G.
  (_Photograph_)  "                                                   24

  LT.-COL. G. J. RYAN, D.S.O. (_Photograph_) "                        28

  THE LAST ABSOLUTION AT RUE DU
  BOIS.  (_Drawn by F. Matania_)  "                                  34

  LT.-COL. V. G. H. RICKARD (_Photograph_) "                          38

  CAPT. J. CAMPBELL-DICK (_Photograph_)  "                            40

  THE MUNSTERS AT HULLOCH
  (_Drawn by F. Matania_)  "                                          45

  MAJOR J. W. CONSIDINE (_Photograph_)  "                             49

  MAPS TO ILLUSTRATE THE STAND OF
  THE MUNSTERS AT ETREUX (_Sketch A_) _page_                          57
  (_Sketch B_) "                                                      63

  OFFICERS OF THE 2ND RL. MUNSTER
  FUSILIERS, MAY 1915 (_Photograph_) _To face page_                   66


[Illustration: THE MUNSTERS AT ETREUX, AUGUST 27TH, 1914

  _Drawn by Christopher Clark._]            [_To face p. 1._]




                           THE STAND OF THE
                          MUNSTERS AT ETREUX


                          _August 27th, 1914_


                 (WHICH TOOK PLACE DURING THE RETREAT
                              FROM MONS)

    "Then lift the flag of the last crusade,
     And fill the ranks of the last brigade,
     March on to the fields where the world's remade
     And the ancient dreams come true."
         "A Song of the Irish Armies." By T. M. KETTLE.


On the 13th of August, 1914, the 2nd Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers
left Aldershot on their way to an unknown destination "somewhere in
France."

The Expeditionary Force was reaching forward, as one of the officers
wrote, towards "a jolly in Belgium," and he also added, "some of us
will not come back." The same joy that was with Garibaldi and his
thousand when they went forth to the redemption of a small and gallant
race, went, we all know, with the men of the First Division. Each one
knew that an hour lay ahead when great issues were to be joined, and
the Munsters were proud to feel that the chance was with them to add to
the records of their Regimental history.

The Battalion embarked at Southampton, and the transport steamed out
shortly after noon, arriving at Le Havre at 3 a.m. on the 14th of
August. From there they marched to a rest camp on the ridge west of
Harfleur, where they remained until the 16th of August, and once more
they marched to Havre, where they entrained for the concentration
area at Le Nouvion. On Sunday, the 17th, Le Nouvion was crowded with
French troops, and the townsfolk, wild with enthusiasm, welcomed the
Munsters, and from thence the Regiment marched to Bouey, three miles
distant from Etreux. The dawn of the 22nd of August saw the Battalion
on the road again, marching towards Mons.

All of this is now like the fragment of a dream, and the troops who
marched and sang are many of them on the further side of the boundary;
but still the memory remains, though the rows and ranks of men are
gone, and, like the clerk in the old story, "Come to Oxford and their
friends no more."

    "It's a long way to Tipperary,
     A long wa-ay to go."

       *       *       *       *       *

All round and about Chapeau Rouge, a village near the river Sambre, and
not far from Le Cateau, the country is a bower of green hedgerows in
the month of August. In ordinary times, when trenches, deeper than any
grave, and wire entanglements, and all the devastation of war is not,
a country cut up into small fields has an intimate and friendly look.
It suggests little things, and is small and near and has none of the
sudden desolation of open space, stretching empty to the sky line. But
what is beautiful in times of peace may in one moment become terrible
in time of war, and the little hedgerows cost Ireland dear on the
morning of the 27th of August, 1914.

The morning broke sullen and heavy, and the distant electric
premonition of coming storm and coming battle vibrated in the air.
The Munsters were placed as the Right Battalion, next to them came
the Coldstream, further on the Scots Guards, with the Black Watch in
reserve. The frontage of the Munsters extended from Chapeau Rouge,
where the roads crossed, to another cross roads north of Fesmy. Major
Charrier (commanding the Munsters) had explicit orders to hold the
cross roads above Chapeau Rouge, unless or until he received orders to
retire. Dawn found the men of B Company, commanded by Captain Simms,
busily digging trenches and strengthening their position, while the air
was comparatively cool.

The German attack was expected in the course of the morning, and B
Company was the first company of the Battalion to receive its baptism
of fire.

For men whose record shows them proud, fiery, and dashing soldiers, the
task alloted to B Company was no easy one. It was necessary that their
position should be kept secret, and when at last the crackle and rattle
of German musketry broke the tension of this waiting, the Company
holding the outpost did not reply. The German patrol, whose business
it was to locate their position, kept up an intermittent fire, and
the small handful of Irish did the hardest thing of all for them--they
waited. The lulls and bursts followed one upon the other; tremendous
echoes repeated the volleys of sound, and the swinging shrill of flying
bullets continued overhead, punctuated now and again by spells of
intense quiet.

Suddenly the midsummer storm broke with a violence that is
indescribable. Torrents of drenching rain soaked the men to the skin
and collected in the trenches, and in the vortex of the storm the
Germans advanced to the attack. In one moment it was "War, war, bloody
war," and the first onslaught fell upon B Company, and D Company
(commanded by Captain Jervis) with Lieutenant Crozier and Lieutenant R.
W. Thomas.

[Illustration: MAJOR P. A. CHARRIER

2nd Royal Munster Fusiliers, killed at the head of his Battalion at
Etreux, near Mons, August 27th, 1914

Record of Service:--West Africa, 1900--Operations in Ashanti,
slightly wounded; Despatches, London Gazette, 8th March, 1901. South
African War, 1902--Employed with Imperial Yeomanry operations in
Cape Colony, May, 1902. Queen's Medal, with two clasps. East Africa,
1903-4--Operations in Somaliland on Staff (as Special Service Officer).
Employed on Transport (from November, 1903). Medal, with clasp.]

  [_To face p. 6._]

The Munsters repelled the attack with fierce determination, and the
little fields around Chapeau Rouge became a place of violent and
terrible memory, but the men held doggedly to their position until the
order came to withdraw a mile to the rear. B Company was at this point
detailed to act as right flank guard on the east, where the attack was
hottest, and in endeavouring to carry out this order, they were cut off
from the flank by the thick green hedgerows, and so to them came the
adventure of maintaining a little battle of their own.

The rain continued and the mud grew deep, and very slowly and without
heavy loss B Company fell back through Fes