Early in the morning the cavalry under General Allenby swept
out from the town of Braisne on the Vesle and harried in every
direction the strong detachments that had been sent forward, driving
them back to the Aisne. Over the high wooded ridge between the
Vesle and the Aisne the Germans were driven back, and the Third
Division, under General Hamilton, supported the cavalry in force,
so that, by the evening, General Hamilton's division was able to
camp below the hill of Brenelle, and even, before night fell, to
get their guns upon that height, from which they could reply to
the German batteries snugly ensconced upon the frowning ridge on
the northern bank of the Aisne.
The Fifth British Division, under Sir Charles Fergusson, found
itself in a tight place at the confluence of the Vesle and Aisne
Rivers, for at that point lay a stretch of flat bottomland exposed
to the German fire. By a ruse, which returned upon their own heads,
the Germans had preserved one bridge across the Aisne, the bridge at
Conde. This was done as a lure to Sir Charles Fergusson's forces,
but even more so it was intended as a sallying point as soon as
the German army deemed itself in a position to attack again. The
bridge was destined to figure in the events of the great conflict
when the grapple should come.
One of the most graphic of all the accounts of the fighting of that
day was from the pen of a major in the British field artillery,
and it presented in sharp and vivid colors how the field artillery
joined with the cavalry in clearing the German troops from the
hills between the Marne and the Aisne.
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