More than that, the line of trenches was open to enfilade fire from
a hidden battery, which did not unmask until the trench was filled
with soldiers. This Eighth Brigade had to retire in disorder.
The Fifth Brigade, attached to the First Army Corps under Sir Douglas
Haig, an Irish and Scotch group of regiments, were the most successful
of all. The bridge at Pont Arcy had been destroyed, but still one of
its girders spanned the stream. It would have been tricky walking,
even under ordinary circumstances, but nerve racking to attempt,
when from every hill and wood and point of land, Maxims, machine
guns and a steady rifle fire are concentrated on the man crossing
that one girder. By the afternoon, the engineers attached to the
First Army Corps had also established a pontoon bridge, and the
whole brigade crossed the river in the evening and dug itself in.
Late on Sunday afternoon, however, a weak spot showed itself in
the German line and Sir John French threw the First Division of the
First Army Corps across the river near Bourg. Some of the infantry
crossed by a small pontoon bridge and a brigade of cavalry started
to follow them. When they were in mid-stream, however, a terrific
storm of fire smote them. The cavalry pushed on, but could not
ride up the hill in the teeth of the bombardment. The infantry
were eager to go, but nothing was to be gained by the move, so
the cavalry returned over the pontoon, by a most extraordinary
occurrence not having lost a single member in the three hours it
had been scouting on the hostile side of the Aisne.
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