"March 14th. It was about four miles to our billets and we got in just at dawn--our billets are near to L----. After some food they started to get some rest, but at 12 noon we had to change to another house half a mile away. Poor fellows, they have had a time, but the whole regiment has behaved splendidly and they are as cheerful as ever. Many acts of individual bravery were performed. During the attack there was a house full of Germans, but the difficulty was to get them out. One of our fellows went in and called upon all of them to surrender--and he brought out nine of them. On another occasion some of our men had to bring up ammunition along a _nullah_ which was swept by machine-gun fire. One of the men was wounded, but another coming up behind stopped, put down the ammunition box he was carrying and dressed the wound, remaining under fire till he was killed. A Jack Johnson burst near one of our machine guns and buried every man except one, who was only buried up to the waist. He got out and dug out the others, and all were saved. Poor Major F---- was shot through the head during the German counter-attack and killed. In my own double company I had Major D---- wounded, 30 men wounded, and 9 killed. Our regimental casualties were 1 British officer killed, 2 Gurkha officers killed, and 39 rank and file killed, 3 British officers (Major B----, Major T---- and Captain S----) wounded, not seriously; 2 Gurkha officers and 170 rank and file wounded, 35 missing, probably killed or wounded. Losses in the other four regiments in the brigade were much the same. A great many of the Germans against us were found to have bullets on them with the tips snicked off with cutters, making them act like dum-dum bullets--in fact three were shot for this on the spot. Several of our wounded showed dum-dum wounds....
"You noticed perhaps that Sir John French's despatches, after the recent fighting, thanked the Worcesters 'a second time'--and everybody does not know that the first time was at Mons. Towards the end of that battle, Sir Douglas Haig came and said he thought they couldn't possibly hold on any longer. General French agreed reluctantly, and gave the order for a general retreat. But immediately Sir Douglas Haig came back in haste to report that the Worcesters were still holding on, and the General said, 'Then let us all hold on a little longer.' The tide turned and the Germans retreated--and so it was that a plain little company of Worcesters saved Europe! Three separate times General French started to go and thank the Worcesters, and three times he had to turn back--he couldn't speak for the choke in his throat...."