to continue his retirement immediately. So he gave orders to fight on the ridge south of the Le Cateau-Cambrai road.
Before entering into a description of that action, two incidents of Sir Douglas Haig's retirement must be recorded. When established on their new line at about dusk on the evening of the 25th, rumours reached regimental officers that the Germans were approaching Maroilles and Landrecies, near which places lay
the two main
passages over the
Sambre. These
rumours, at first
discredited,
turned out to be
correct, and the
evening saw two
defensive actions.
At Maroilles,
about 6 p.m.,
German patrols
engageM our
cavalry patrol,
and with the
assistance of field
artillery forced
them to fall back.
Rein forcements
from the Berk-
shire Regiment,
when attempting to recover the lost bridge, found that it had
been heavily barricaded, and the only access to it was under fire of a field gun. After considerable losses they were obliged to abandon the attempt.
Meanwhile, at Landrecies, where reports of the proximity of the enemy had at first been disbelieved, the 4th Guards brigade were sharply attacked by an advance body of the 9th German corpswhohadcomeintothetownfromtheMormalforest. The fighting took place in the streets of the little town, and machine- guns were brought into play. The British, reinforced, finally drove the Germans froin the town after a six hours' battle. In both these actions the Germans secured some minor advantage by challenging and answering challenges in French,
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THE FIGHT AT LANDRECIES