Pte. Q. Bayes (Rushden), of the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers, arrived home last Saturday on fourteen days’ leave, after having been in the 5th General Hospital, Leicester, since March 6th with frostbitten feet and rheumatism. In addition to these disabilities he has also received a shrapnel wound in his left hand, and a bullet wound in the right leg. In all, he has put 7 months in the trenches going out to the front on August 13th, returning to England on March 16th. Interviewed by a representative of the “Rushden Echo” he said:

“I believe I saw the first German who came into view of British troops. I was in the advanced guard at Mons, and our chaps had barricaded the side of the road, but only one side of a wall which should by rights have been loopholed. Our Sergeant asked for a volunteer to sit on the wall and keep a look out, and I undertook the duty. After I had been there about an hour a woman of the village came along with a basket of pears and was just handing them up to me when I chanced to look up, and saw about 20 men approaching on my right. They were crawling along, and by their uniform I judged that they were Germans, and I knew that none of our men were on that side of the barricade. I at once informed the sergeant and he said “Get away, they are not Germans, there are none here,” but without any more palaver I let fly at the German officer who had then got to within twenty yards of me. He jumped up into the air, dropped his sword and rolled over. Then came a perfect fusillade of bullets and shrapnel, and I with my comrades at once retired to the main body, who were behind the barricade holding a canal nearby. I cannot say definitely, but it is probable that I fired the first shot at Mons. This occurred about 12.30 mid-day on a Sunday, and, the main body of Germans having turned out after this incident, we were hotly engaged for four hours. There must have been eight army corps of the Germans (320,000 men), and there were only about 160,000 of us. Naturally in the face of such numerical superiority we were compelled to retire, and we fell back through the main street of the town and entrenched at the back. All night long the enemy subjected us to a terrific bombardment, and at about 5 a.m. the following day they attacked us in force, some terrific hand-to-hand fighting taking place in the streets of the town.

“After about seven hours’ exciting scrap we were forced back and the Germans took possession of the town. We continued the retreat for another two miles and got into some new trenches. We then shelled the Germans for two hours, and they did not send us a single shot in return. It is probable that they were ‘on the booze,’ as whenever they take a town they loot every wine cellar they come across and get blind drunk, and owing to this fact several hundreds of Germans have been captured by the British troops.

“We continued our retirement until we came to a small village called Inchy, which we reached on Tuesday night. At about 5 a.m. the following day the Germans appeared on the sky line and our guns at once opened a terrific fire, and at 1,700 yards range we commenced firing with our rifles. The Germans were advancing in massed formation, and what with our shrapnel and rifle fire we cut ‘em down like corn, until they broke and retired at the double. After about an hour’s spell, however, the Germans again came up on our right flank, and the fighting became fiercer than ever.

“The French in the meantime, we discovered, had retired, otherwise the Germans would never have been able to attack our flank. As it was, we were engaged in a terrible hand-to-hand struggle for about ten hours, and then we received the order ‘Every man for himself.’ We were compelled to retire in disorder, but had the satisfaction of knowing that we had accounted for quite 30,000 Germans, the scene on the road was absolutely indescribable. It was a mix-up, I can tell you – infantry, artillery, supply columns, ambulances, etc., all jumbled up together. But on the next day we got the chance to re-form, and we continued our retirement until we got within 15 miles of Paris. Here we at once turned round and made a swooping attack on the enemy, with the result that we captured a three-mile convoy of theirs, made 2,000, prisoners and took a battery of six guns. This victory was entirely accomplished by British troops, although the Germans must have been quite 20 to our one.

“We then advanced to the Aisne, but on reaching the river we found that all the bridges had been blown up by

the enemy. The engineers at once repaired the bridges and the 7th, 8th, and 9th brigades at once crossed the river and got into contact with the Germans, who were in vastly superior numbers. We advanced into a wood, and by some mistake were shelled by our own artillery, with the result that we lost from 700 to 800 men. It was here that I received my first wound, which was the result of our own artillery fire. At the time we were charging through the wood, and a shell hit a tree just in front of me and wounded myself and two comrades. A shrapnel bullet passed right through my thigh, but I hardly realised I was wounded until I looked down and saw that my trousers were torn and that there was a lot of clotted blood all over them. One of my pals bound up my wound, and I continued fighting until 6 p.m., when I was taken into the field hospital and received proper attention.

“On the following day I was removed to the base hospital at Boulogne where I remained for three weeks. I then rejoined my regiment, which by that time had gone to Ypres. I had not been there many days before the Kaiser’s crack regiment, the Prussian Guards, made their famous but futile dash for Calais. That was the hottest fight I have been in. For three days they bombarded us incessantly, hundreds of shells dropped into our trenches every minute. Men were falling by one’s side constantly, and it was ‘hell with the lid off.’ Many men went clean raving mad, and deliberately threw their lives away through exposing themselves unnecessarily, as they didn’t know what they were doing.

Pte. Q. Bayes

“After this three days’ of hell fire, which had razed everything that was standing to the ground, the Prussian Guards charged us in massed formation at 9.30 a.m. We at once opened fire on them with machine guns and rifles, and evidently they didn’t expect such a hot reception, as after five minutes they turned and bolted, and we then knocked them down like ninepins. They are big chaps, some of them six feet eight inches tall, and they got to within ten yards of our trenches, when they got entangled in our barbed wire. We then called for reserves and put every available man in the field, and after about an hour, the Prussian Guards again made a charge and on this occasion they managed to break the line of the Royal Fusiliers. My regiment, however, at once cut them off and took several hundred prisoners, but lost severely in the undertaking. Before the battle we were about 1000 strong, but afterwards only 182 answered the roll call, and I was one of them. We had then been in the trenches 17 days without sleep or rest, and it wasn’t until two days later that I saw a bed, and that was on account of my having again got wounded. This was again due to one of our shells falling short. I was taking a rest when a British shell fell into our trench and burst, killing two of our men and wounding four others. I was one of the latter, a shrapnel bullet passed through my left hand.

“I was taken straight to Boulogne, and after five weeks there again returned to Ypres, where I discovered that my regiment was again at full strength, and I found when I got back and saw an English newspaper that I had been reported wounded and a prisoner in Germany. My pals were surprised to see me and wanted to know how I had managed to escape as, strange to say, they did not know that I had been in our own base hospital.

“It was Christmas Day when I rejoined my regiment, and I saw none of the reported handshaking and fraternising between British and German troops. Fighting was going on as usual at the point where I was, and all the shaking we did was to shake the Germans up as much as we could, and they tried their best to return the compliment. The only bit of Christmas we had was a small piece of Christmas pudding, Tickler’s jam, and a dry biscuit. For the next three months I was engaged entirely in trench work, three days in and three out, until I got laid up with rheumatism and frost-bitten feet. I was taken to the hospital at Le Treport and after eight days I was brought to England, landing at Dover, from whence I was taken to hospital at Leicester. I was kept there 15 days and have now been allowed to come home for what I feel is a well-earned rest.”

In reply to questions from our representative, Pte. Bayes said:- “We have got the Germans well whacked, and another two months will see the finish of the war, in my opinion.”

Both at Ypres and Braine he saw evidences of German barbarism. Women and girls had been outraged, some of them having been left quite naked, and horribly mutilated. In one village the Germans had taken 15 girls away with them to the trenches, and their relatives had given up hope of ever seeing them again. At Braine they were informed that no fewer than 160 girls employed at one factory were expecting to become mothers as the result of German barbarity. When he came away, Pte. Bayes informed our representative, only six of his regiment remained out of 1,500 which went to the front on Aug. 13.

The biggest surprise of his life, he said, was to meet on his return to Rushden, Lance-Corpl. Croft, of the Northumberland Fusiliers, who is now in the V.A.D. hospital at Higham Ferrers. Lance-Corpl. Croft is the man who carried Pte. Bayes out of the trenches after he received his wound at Ypres. Lance-Corpl. Croft was wounded in the shoulder four days after Pte. Bayes received his wound. They met outside the Royal Theatre, Rushden, last Saturday night.