Despatch rider

To get to France without the dull preliminary drilling of a camp, that was my only object.

And when the special call came for university men to form a corps of motorcycle dispatch riders, I fought my way to the recruiting office like the rest.

It was quick work.

I passed the doctor, proved myself competent to handle a bike, went to Chatham to get my equipment, and now here I am, rigged out in His Majesty's regimentals, jeered at by his soldiers, looked askance at by his officers.

Grant is the spokesman.

What are all you people with bikes doing aboard? Grant informs him we are the motorcycle dispatch corps.

Dispatch riders? Why, I had no idea there were so many in the British Army.

How long have you two been in? Five days, sir.

The news reached me.

How? before the eyes of the initiated rises the picture of the despatch rider tissue paper strapped to his finger revolver strapped to his waist scurrying at his sixty odd miles an hour over a shell-shot and often enemy infested highway the motorcycle dispatch corps belongs to that branch of the british service which is known as the signal section of the royal engineers metaphorically and very happily this branch has been named the nerves of the modern army they supply the channels through which the brain of the command communicates its orders to the main body block those channels disconnect the mind from any single member immediately that member becomes paralytic so to speak unable to move or at least to make its movements articulate with those of the other members now suppose this huge body extended over a surface of some fifty miles suppose it at rest as we shall see it later in our narrative when the armies had settled down to the trench deadlock an elaborate nervous system composed of some thousand of telephone cables telegraph lines wireless aerials and the hundred other minor signalling apparatus keep all its parts in intimate intercommunication radiating over the whole line they all issue from a single point general headquarters the seat of army authority where is the fighting most stubborn the casualties most severe the supplies most scarce the men most exhausted a quivering nerve tells the tale of the strength or weakness of each individual member and the brain issues its orders accordingly a comparatively easy matter is this maintenance of the nervous system when the armies are comparatively speaking at rest but put the great body in continuous movement as it was in the retreat from mons or in the advance after marne or in the swift sweep forward from the somme or falling back again surely but slowly as it was in the great spring drive of nineteen eighteen immediately that elaborate system of cable and aerial communication collapses more or less according to the speed of the movement and the effectiveness of enemy fire individual effort of course is exerted to keep it intact but it is a shaky system at best ever on the verge of sudden collapse and yet now above all times such a system is essential if the success of the advance or retreat is to be maintained for if the body advances a foot on one section of the line while the other foot remains in its old position at once the stability of the whole body is threatened either the first foot must be withdrawn or it must receive adequate support else it will be cut off or become paralysed information reached me writes french concerning the battle of the aisne that the enemy had obtained a footing between the first and second army corps and threatened to cut off communications general haig was hard pressed and had no reserve in hand i placed a cavalry division at his disposal part of which he used skilfully to prolong and secure the left flank of the guards brigade some heavy fighting ensued which resulted in the enemy being driven back that information reached him through a despatch rider for when an army is in motion or under a fierce barrage or artillery fire only individual effort will maintain communications and that is supplied mainly by the motorcycle dispatch corps deliver your dispatch at all costs these are the instructions issued to the cyclist he fails through no fault of his own there are men to take his place five to a brigade nine to a division there is always an adequate reserve in hand if he does not return in a stated time another sets out automatically to cover the same ground that he traveled if he does return it is with evidence that he has accomplished his task there are three little dockets to every message one the rider leaves at his own headquarters to show he has been sent with the despatch one he delivers and a third signed by the commander to whom he has been sent he carries back with him to prove that his duty was duly done they take no chances of failure in this service death capture accidents any may overtake him on his road but none may deter or terrify him the daredevil that is the name he earned in the early days of the war when general french credited him with the salvation of the british forces And so I introduce him to you, reader, the daredevil, with his coadjutor, equally daring, the buzzer, the men who supply the nerves, and, to use your American slang, much of the nerve of the modern fighting army.

End of Foreword section one of the daredevil of the army experiences as a buzzer and dispatch rider by austin patrick kokorin this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter one the author starts for berlin on a motorcycle and finds himself presently on the marne part one we are awaiting our turn to get aboard the biscay which is lying at her berth in southampton it is seven in the evening and we have been riding all day covering the hundred odd miles between chatham and the sea our trip has left us dusty and damp with sweat and our reception is not tending to relieve our discomfort lined up beside us some two thousand tommies are scanning us with the frank criticism of their kind our bikes obviously provoke their amusement and we ourselves their half-tolerant contempt occasionally a fragment of their conversation floats towards us indicative of their general attitude of mind Who the hell are them blokes anyway, Nobby? One regular remarks to another.

Going to fight on bikes, be they? Gone, replies Nobby, with his air of superior wisdom.

They ain't going to war.

Rise, me eye.

Look at their uniforms.

and then evidently for the first time he looks at them closely himself and surprise replaces the disgust in his tone god almighty if they ain't two up gwine to ride over the kaiser sonny he puts the question impertinently to the man nearest him for answer he receives a silent scowl and almost voluntarily we all stiffen to attention only to be reminded somewhat sharply of our own rawness after all we are but amateurs at his professional game only a week ago it is still but august the seventeenth we were civilians with no thought of entering the service now though we wear the king's own coat and two corporal stripes adorn our sleeves we can scarcely claim the title of soldiers rigid and severe we are striving to hide our discouragement under an air of indifference when suddenly the voice of the sergeant-major comes booming across the dock now will you gentlemen a pause on the appellation emphasises its intended sarcasm kindly try to get those bikes of yours aboard instantly a shout goes up from the assembled regiment the sergeant-major has excellent lungs and amid general jeering we approach the gang-plank rotten blighters i hear a mutter in front of me so we the first civilians to take part in the great war leave england for france and the front at seven thirty after much shouting and shrill screeching of whistles we finally get under way my motorcycle stowed safely in the after-well deck i seek a quiet corner outside the marconi cabin on the hurricane deck and squatting on a coil of rope settle myself to think it is my first time in ten days to indulge in such exercise all round me is a buzz of conversation i can hear the clank of an occasional mess tin as some well-seasoned regular proceeds to make himself at home looking about i see some dozen of his kind coats open at the collar belt unloosened sprawling on benches or on the floor and the sight of them makes me horribly homesick you're a hot-headed idiot i decide to myself always rushing to the rescue before you know the house is afire and i heartily wish myself back in the cool grove of corrientes for it was at barcelona that the first mutterings of the storm found me austria and serbia on the brink of war the balkans did not interest me russia coming to the rescue i got a letter from home there was chance of our being caught in the whirlwind hot on the heels of this came the news that germany was mobilising and france preparing for her own defence i crossed to england just in time to hear the first cry for volunteers then it seemed to come as the answer to a prayer if there was any form of adventure which life had still to offer me i did not know it at the time i had hunted in the heart of africa had ranched in bolivia had sailed twice round the earth and seen all its civilisations but still i was only twenty-six and not yet surfeited with errantry what next war the greatest of all adventures i had not thought to find it in my time it was in such spirit that i joined the army no band played me into a recruiting office no call of patriotism stirred my heart or conscience i know i am only confessing my own sins but on my head be they just one consideration gave me pause for a moment again i reveal my lack of grace i know something of discipline in the navy i surmised it might be similar in the army and i had no desire to experience its tedium to get to france without the dull preliminary drilling of a camp that was my only object and when the special call came for university men to form a corps of motorcycle dispatch riders i fought my way to the recruiting office like the rest it was quick work i passed the doctor proved myself competent to handle a bike went to chatham to get my equipment and now here i am rigged out in his majesty's regimentals jeered at by his soldiers looked askance at by his officers a bloomin civilian buttonin on a soldier's business lonely old chap i feel a hand on my shoulder and look up into a pair of grey scotch eyes my name's grant he holds out his hand i take it and so meet my best friend a dundee lawyer about my own age he has joined for more serious considerations something of a student he saw a crisis was coming something of a sportsman he wanted to be in the thick of it so he handed his business over to a locum tenens a man too old to serve and hurried up to london to join for a while we talk on general topics then on that nearest our hearts can we undisciplined hastily picked men really stand the shock of a battle is a soldier's business just a matter of nerve or does it require training the powers that be have frankly acknowledged they are trying an experiment in thus choosing us the military men have scoffed at their confidence are we to set a precedent in favour of individual initiative or are we merely to be horrible examples it is ten o'clock before we realise that it is time we have food but where to get it our equipment does not include it just a tick says grant and leaves me for a moment to return with a package of sandwiches that he had carefully stowed away into the tool-bag of his machine those finished we nose round in search for more secluded corners we want to sleep and we have not yet learned to do it gregariously finally we decided in favour of one of the boats that has been turned in down we throw ourselves on the cover thanking heaven we have learned to rough it that ride has ensured us against the risks of insomnia dawn wakes us to a raucous sound of snoring and a distant vision of the french coast on which havre stands out a black dot on the dim grey line it is grant who rouses me to full consciousness come on let's look for a wash i follow him sleepily we trudge the ship over thoroughly upper deck lower deck middle deck all the other decks but no sign of water can we see nor do we meet others bent on a light quest we have decided that bathing is a luxury not allowed to soldiers and are proceeding to return to our nook when a sudden turn brings us up sharply against a spruce shining major whom we learn to be the second in command of the battalion on board we have saluted in our self-conscious rookie fashion and are passing when he halts us with a raised hand we stop and are thus ensnared into our first lesson in the nice etiquette of the army corporal yes sir grant is the spokesman what are all you people with bikes doing aboard grant informs him we are the motorcycle dispatch corps dispatch riders why i had no idea there were so many in the british army how long have you two been in five days sir whew the major whistles then looks us quizzically over five days and you're going straight into the fun rather risky eh we shrug our shoulders and he turns to go when grant brings him up abruptly with a query did he know where we could manage to get a wash the enormity of the crime in a corporal's thus addressing a major on matters of personal cleanliness hardly comes home to us even after his lecture we are rather hot under the collar when he finishes his harangue though he delivers it with all possible consideration but his next move more than makes up for the humiliation for he takes us to his own room for a regular wash he was a thoroughly decent sort that major by the time we have finished everyone is awake and the ship is tying up alongside the wharf all around is a din calculated to deafen tender ears the clang of accoutrements being adjusted mess tins rifles bayonets and then the mad cheering of the people on the dock half the civilian population of france or so it seems to me must have had word that les anglais were arriving they have gathered there with flags food tobacco though it pleases us still their excitement makes us sheepish what a fearfully demonstrative people they are we haven't yet realised the imminence of their peril and their sense of safety in being backed by the british fleet it is an hour before the biscay has disgorged her men and cargo a young officer meets us on the dock and lines us up away on the right telling us to await further orders meantime our critics the tommies have drawn up in company formation soon they are ready for their road where it leads heaven only knows just as they receive the order quick march there comes an irish voice bellowing from the bridge of the boat we are leaving behind so long mike a man in the ranks looks back and waves so long tim it's a long way to tipperary he shouts instantly a laugh goes up from the troop and a rollicking voice starts the song it's

The Daredevil of the Army.

Experiences as a Buzzer and Dispatch Rider.

By Austin Patrick Corcoran.

Forward.

The public reads the words every day, never once pausing to consider what they signify.

The news reached me.

How? Before the eyes of the initiated rises the picture of the dispatch rider, tissue paper strapped to his finger, revolver strapped to his waist, scurrying at his 60-odd miles an hour over a shell-shot and often enemy-infested highway.

The motorcycle dispatch corps belongs to that branch of the British service which is known as the signal section of the Royal Engineers.

The news reached me.

How? before the eyes of the initiated rises the picture of the despatch rider tissue paper strapped to his finger revolver strapped to his waist scurrying at his sixty odd miles an hour over a shell-shot and often enemy infested highway the motorcycle dispatch corps belongs to that branch of the british service which is known as the signal section of the royal engineers metaphorically and very happily this branch has been named the nerves of the modern army they supply the channels through which the brain of the command communicates its orders to the main body block those channels disconnect the mind from any single member immediately that member becomes paralytic so to speak unable to move or at least to make its movements articulate with those of the other members now suppose this huge body extended over a surface of some fifty miles suppose it at rest as we shall see it later in our narrative when the armies had settled down to the trench deadlock an elaborate nervous system composed of some thousand of telephone cables telegraph lines wireless aerials and the hundred other minor signalling apparatus keep all its parts in intimate intercommunication radiating over the whole line they all issue from a single point general headquarters the seat of army authority where is the fighting most stubborn the casualties most severe the supplies most scarce the men most exhausted a quivering nerve tells the tale of the strength or weakness of each individual member and the brain issues its orders accordingly comparatively easy matter is this maintenance of the nervous system when the armies are comparatively speaking at rest but put the great body in continuous movement as it was in the retreat from mons or in the advance after marne or in the swift sweep forward from the somme or falling back again surely but slowly as it was in the great spring drive of nineteen eighteen immediately that elaborate system of cable and aerial communication collapses more or less according to the speed of the movement and the effectiveness of enemy fire individual effort of course is exerted to keep it intact but it is a shaky system at best ever on the verge of sudden collapse and yet now above all times such a system is essential if the success of the advance or retreat is to be maintained for if the body advances a foot on one section of the line while the other foot remains in its old position at once the stability of the whole body is threatened either the first foot must be withdrawn or it must receive adequate support else it will be cut off or become paralyzed information reached me writes french concerning the battle of the aisne that the enemy had obtained a footing between the first and second army corps and threatened to cut off communications general haig was hard pressed and had no reserve in hand i placed a cavalry division at his disposal part of which he used skilfully to prolong and secure the left flank of the guards brigade some heavy fighting ensued which resulted in the enemy being driven back that information reached him through a despatch rider for when an army is in motion or under a fierce barrage or artillery fire only individual effort will maintain communications and that is supplied mainly by the motorcycle dispatch corps deliver your dispatch at all costs these are the instructions issued to the cyclist if he fails through no fault of his own there are men to take his place five to a brigade nine to a division there is always an adequate reserve in hand if he does not return in a stated time another sets out automatically to cover the same ground that he travelled if he does return it is with evidence that he has accomplished his task there are three little dockets to every message one the rider leaves at his own headquarters to show he has been sent with the despatch one he delivers and a third signed by the commander to whom he has been sent he carries back with him to prove that his duty was duly done they take no chances of failure in this service death capture accidents any may overtake him on his road but none may deter or terrify him the daredevil that is the name he earned in the early days of the war when general french credited him with the salvation of the british forces And so I introduce him to you, reader, the daredevil, with his coadjutor, equally daring, the buzzer, the men who supply the nerves, and, to use your American slang, much of the nerve of the modern fighting army.

End of Forward section one of the daredevil of the army experiences as a buzzer and dispatch rider by austin patrick kukorin this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter one the author starts for berlin on a motorcycle and finds himself presently on the marne part one we are awaiting our turn to get aboard the biscay which is lying at her berth in southampton it is seven in the evening and we have been riding all day covering the hundred odd miles between chatham and the sea our trip has left us dusty and damp with sweat and our reception is not tending to relieve our discomfort lined up beside us some two thousand tommies are scanning us with the frank criticism of their kind our bikes obviously provoke their amusement and we ourselves their half-tolerant contempt occasionally a fragment of their conversation floats towards us indicative of their general attitude of mind Who the hell are them blokes anyway, Nobby? One regular remarks to another.

Going to fight on bikes, be they? Gone, replies Nobby, with his air of superior wisdom.

They ain't going to war.

he hollers we hear him we would have heard if we had been miles off we make for it with all the haste of the really hungry and as i eat my omelette and drink my cafe au lait i have my first opportunity to size up en masse the men who are henceforth to be my companions an english poet commemorating the early deeds of the despatch rider named him perhaps appropriately the daredevil a less enthusiastic gentleman describing him since has called him a glorified messenger boy as a matter of fact he may be either one or both according to the character of the fighting In trench warfare he is more liable to be the latter.

But there were no trenches when we went to France.

The duty of a dispatch rider, as everyone knows, is to carry confidential messages of urgent importance from one staff officer to another.

Terms and points cap apply.

forward to the daredevil of the army this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org the daredevil of the army experiences as a buzzer and dispatch rider by austin patrick corcoran forward after the manner of a distinguished countryman i speak my own prologue not that i may the better explain the action of the coming peace but rather that i may tell the reason of its being i learned wrote sir john french concerning activities round mons that general longrezac was retreating on my right that at least three german corps were moving against our front and another german corps trying to turn our left wing whereupon it was decided to fall back i learned suppose he had not learned suppose that relying on french support he had stood at mons with his seventy five thousand men and two hundred and fifty guns to face a victorious army of at least two hundred thousand suppose he had defied von kluck quite unaware that von bulow also victorious was threatening his flank suppose it and you are supposing the annihilation of the british army due to the failure of its motorcycle dispatch corps i learned information reached me the public reads the words every day never once pausing to consider what they signify the news reached me how before the eyes of the initiated rises the picture of the despatch rider tissue paper strapped to his finger revolver strapped to his waist scurrying at his sixty odd miles an hour over a shell-shot and often enemy infested highway the motorcycle dispatch corps belongs to that branch of the british service which is known as the signal section of the royal engineers metaphorically and very happily this branch has been named the nerves of the modern army they supply the channels through which the brain of the command communicates its orders to the main body block those channels disconnect the mind from any single member immediately that member becomes paralytic so to speak unable to move or at least to make its movements articulate with those of the other members now suppose this huge body extended over a surface of some fifty miles suppose it at rest as we shall see it later in our narrative when the armies had settled down to the trench deadlock an elaborate nervous system composed of some thousand of telephone cables telegraph lines wireless aerials and the hundred other minor signalling apparatus keep all its parts in intimate intercommunication radiating over the whole line they all issue from a single point general headquarters the seat of army authority Where is the fighting most stubborn? The casualties most severe? The supplies most scarce? The men most exhausted? A quivering nerve tells the tale of the strength or weakness of each individual member, and the brain issues its orders accordingly.

comparatively easy matter is this maintenance of the nervous system when the armies are comparatively speaking at rest but put the great body in continuous movement as it was in the retreat from mons or in the advance after marne or in the swift sweep forward from the somme or falling back again surely but slowly as it was in the great spring drive of nineteen eighteen immediately that elaborate system of cable and aerial communication collapses more or less according to the speed of the movement and the effectiveness of enemy fire individual effort of course is exerted to keep it intact but it is a shaky system at best ever on the verge of sudden collapse and yet now above all times such a system is essential if the success of the advance or retreat is to be maintained for if the body advances a foot on one section of the line while the other foot remains in its old position at once the stability of the whole body is threatened either the first foot must be withdrawn or it must receive adequate support else it will be cut off or become paralyzed information reached me writes french concerning the battle of the aisne that the enemy had obtained a footing between the first and second army corps and threatened to cut off communications general haig was hard pressed and had no reserve in hand i placed a cavalry division at his disposal part of which he used skilfully to prolong and secure the left flank of the guards brigade some heavy fighting ensued which resulted in the enemy being driven back that information reached him through a despatch rider for when an army is in motion or under a fierce barrage or artillery fire only individual effort will maintain communications and that is supplied mainly by the motorcycle dispatch corps deliver your dispatch at all costs these are the instructions issued to the cyclist if he fails through no fault of his own there are men to take his place five to a brigade nine to a division there is always an adequate reserve in hand if he does not return in a stated time another sets out automatically to cover the same ground that he travelled if he does return it is with evidence that he has accomplished his task there are three little dockets to every message one the rider leaves at his own headquarters to show he has been sent with the despatch one he delivers and a third signed by the commander to whom he has been sent he carries back with him to prove that his duty was duly done they take no chances of failure in this service death capture accidents any may overtake him on his road but none may deter or terrify him the daredevil that is the name he earned in the early days of the war when general french credited him with the salvation of the british forces And so I introduce him to you, reader, the daredevil, with his coadjutor, equally daring, the buzzer, the men who supply the nerves, and, to use your American slang, much of the nerve of the modern fighting army.

End of Forward section one of the daredevil of the army experiences as a buzzer and dispatch rider by austin patrick kakorin this librivox recording is in the public domain chapter one the author starts for berlin on a motorcycle and finds himself presently on the man part one we are awaiting our turn to get aboard the biscay which is lying at her berth in southampton it is seven in the evening and we have been riding all day covering the hundred odd miles between chatham and the sea our trip has left us dusty and damp with sweat and our reception is not tending to relieve our discomfort lined up beside us some two thousand tommies are scanning us with the frank criticism of their kind our bikes obviously provoke their amusement and we ourselves their half-tolerant contempt occasionally a fragment of their conversation floats towards us indicative of their general attitude of mind Who the hell are them blokes anyway, Nobby? One regular remarks to another.

Going to fight on bikes, be they? Gone, replies Nobby, with his air of superior wisdom.

They ain't going to war.

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