LANCERS FATAL CHARGE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2254, 14 September 1914, Page 5

LANCERS FATAL CHARGE

HEAVY LOSS AT COMPIEGNE CONCEALED GERMAN GUNS London, September 11. Details of the fatal charge of the 9th Lancers during the British action at Compiegne show that .the Lancers went into action against the German guns singing and shouting'like schoolboys,,--.;, The artillery fire had emptied but a few saddles, and the guns seemed' to ba within reach of the leaders, when suddenly the tragedy came. Full in the face of the oncoming cavalry, the Germans opened a murderous fire from twenty concealed machine guns, at a distance of not more than ISO yards. The Visoomtp de Vauvineux, who rode with the brigade as interpreter, was instantly killed. The bulk of the brigade swerved to the right for a hundred yards across the face of the guns; a' few men ( roda desperately on, as if bearing charmed lives, but only for a few yards. Wire entanglements wereburiea in the grass thirty yards in front of the guns, and riding full into these, the riders fell and were taken prisoners. Three regiments of the best of the British cavalry, numbering each about 550 men, went into the charge ;-finally .there were mustered but 220 of the Lancers regiment. " * The' 18th Hussars and the 4th Dragoons also suffered severely, but not to the same extent.