View PDF - Brown Library

The Motor in Warfare 189
written of their adventures and achievements,
but for the present the world must
be content to wait, for no newspaper correspondents
are allowed at the front, and
countless deeds of daring go unchronicled.
Especially significant of this titanic war
is the total disappearance of the galloping
erally under conditions of great risk. As
the speed of their machines, however, is
five times as great as that of a horse, and
their distance capacities virtually without
limit, it follows that their sphere of usefulness
has been as vast as their services
have been priceless.
Again and again have officers paid testimony
to the extreme military value of
the work of these plucky riders, who have
enabled the allied commanders to maintain
constant communication along the
vast front from Belgium to Alsace-Lorraine.
Individual acts of the highest
bravery have been countless, but I may
The commander of the Fourth Flying Squadron, British, receiving a report
from an airman.
orderly; his place has been taken by the
motor-cyclist. Among British officers,
particularly, the motor-bicycle has long
been popular, and, in addition to what the
army could supply in the first instance on
its own account, a large number of riders,
many of them from the universities, and
specially chosen as despatch-bearers for
their skill and linguistic abilities, have
been recruited from the volunteer element
and sent out as required, the first contingent
being a thousand strong, with a
second thousand in reserve. Theirs has
been the most active, daring, and dangerous
work of any units of the forces, for
they have had to carry instructions from
point to point, often under fire, and gen­
mention two as typical. A despatchbearer
ran right into a party of fourteen
Uhlans. He braved them single-handed,
drew his revolver, and shot down an officer
and a private. The others turned and
fled, and the motor-cyclist was able to deliver
his despatch, which informed the
corps commander that the Germans were
in the vicinity, and thus prevented what
might have been a disagreeable surprise.
In another case, an intrenched British
company observed in the distance a French
regiment marching right up to a spot which
concealed German artillery. The Frenchmen's
fate was sealed unless they could be
warned. Out jumped a cyclist, but he was
promptly shot down. Another followed,
and he, too, fell immediately. Then a
third dashed out, bending low over his
machine, and managed to pass through a
hail of bullets unharmed and reach the
approaching regiment just in time. The
commanding officer immediately detached
a decoration from his own breast and
pinned it to that of the intrepid rider.