6th Dragoons

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How Private James Meston, Of The 6^th Dragoon Guards (The Carabiniers), Won The D.C.M. At Messines

The British trooper of today is also a mounted infantryman, and can fight with a rifle as well as with a sword. It is most fortunate for us that such is the case, for in the early months of the war, and particularly during the First Battle of Ypres, when with utterly inadequate forces we had to hold a long line against an enemy possessing an enormous superiority both in numbers and weight of metal, we should indeed have fared badly but for the splendid courage and tenacity shown by our dismounted cavalry. "With little or no experience of trench work, exposed to every vagary of weather, and under a persistent and concentrated shelling, the regimental officer’s N.C.O.’s and men have undertaken this most arduous and demoralising work with a keenness and courage which I place on record with the greatest pride." So wrote Major General Byng, at the end of November 1914, of the work of the 3^rd Cavalry Division, and the same might have been said of the other divisions. The last days of October were a terribly trying time for our dismounted troopers. In the early morning of October 30^th, the Germans concentrated a mass of artillery against the Zandvoorde ridge, held by the 3^rd Cavalry Division. So terrific was the shelling that their trenches won became untenable, one troop being buried beneath the debris of their parapet, and soon the whole division was compelled to fall back to the ridge of Klein Zillebeke on the north, which, with the assistance of the Scots Greys and the 3^rd and 4^th Hussars, who had been sent up as a reserve, they succeeded in holding until the evening, when the 4^th (Guards) Brigade arrived and took over the line. Farther south, the 2^nd Cavalry Division was driven out of Hollebeke and had to retire to St. Eloi on the Ypres-Armentieres road, while around Messines the 1^st Cavalry Division was subjected to a heavy bombardment by the German howitzers.

On the evening of October 30^th, the London Scottish, who two days before had been brought to Ypres in motor buses-the familiar London "Generals" painted grey-were ordered up to support the sorely tried cavalry. On the morning of the 31^st, they marched from St. Eloi to Wytschaete, but were spotted on the way by a German Taube, with the result that when they reached Wytschaete the village was fiercely shelled. In these circumstances they did not enter Wytschaete, but turned to the south and formed up at the back of the woods near Messines. That day was the most critical in the whole first Battle of Ypres, and at one time it looked as though our line must give way before the overwhelming numbers and weight of gunfire directed against it. The 1^st Division was driven back, with terrible losses, from Gheluvelt to a line resting on the junction of the Frezenberg Road with the Ypres-Menin highway. On its right, the 7^th division was forced back to the Klein Zillebeke ridge, while to the south of it the 2^nd and 4^th Brigades, which had been brought there from the First corps, and the troops of the French 9^th Corps had to struggle desperately to keep their line intact. Farther south still, the 1^st and 2^nd Cavalry Divisons, who had the whole line to hold from Klein Zillebeke to south of Messines, with no reinforcements save two battalions of the 7^th Indian Brigade, were in sore straits, and though part of the 3^rd Cavalry Division was sent up to their support, the situation remained a critical one. In the course of the morning, a squadron of the 6^th Dragoon guards (the Carabiniers), in the 1^st Cavalry Division, received orders to retire from the dug outs which they were occupying a little to the east of the Wytschaete-Messines road into the ditch running parallel with the road, while a party of the Royal Engineers were digging a trench for them in a field about fifty yards on the other side of the highway. Owing, however, to the heavy shelling to which they were subjected, the Engineers had to leave the trench incomplete, and the Carabiniers were obliged to finish it themselves. All the forenoon they were heavily bombarded, and sustained a goodly number of casualties, the enemy’s artillery fire being unpleasantly accurate.

About 1 p.m. they saw the London Scottish advancing over the open country to the support of the cavalry. The Scottish had entered the field where the Carabiniers were entrenched, and were marching down the hedge, which flanked it, when they were met by a heavy artillery and machine gun fire. Many of the Territorials ran towards the Carabiniers trench for shelter, but long before they reached it several of them fell more or less severely wounded. Perceiving this, Private James Meston, of the Carabiniers, sprang out of the trench, and quite regardless of the risk he was incurring, ran to the wounded men and dressed their hurts, after which he carried two of them and dragged half a dozen others behind the shelter of the hedge. Owing to the impossibility of digging trenches so long as daylight lasted, the Scottish were obliged to lie all day in the open under a heavy fire until darkness fell, when they dug themselves in, prolonging the line of cavalry trenches wherever there was gaps. About 7 p.m. the bands of the Germans started playing national airs, presumably with the intention of inspiring the enemy to a more than usually determined effort. About ten o’clock the Germans attacked in great strength, and succeeded in forcing their way into the Scottish first line trenches, where they bayoneted Captain McNab, the regimental medical officers and several of his stretcher-bearers, while they were attending to the wounded. It was bright moonlight, and Captain McNab had a white badge and red cross on his arm, and was even wearing a blue tunic, so that it was impossible that any mistake could have been made. A little later the Scottish counter attacked in brilliant fashion, and the Huns were drive out and the trenches reoccupied.