World War I Roll of Honour - The Clove Club Hackney Downs School

At the outset all went well. The Germans and Austrians were swept from dominating heights,
and the important positions, like Halicz and Kalusz, were captured, besides thousands of prisoners.
For about a week operations favoured the Russians, but now the effect of the German propaganda on
the Russian hosts became apparent. At the time most critical for Brussiloff’s plan his armies wavered,
and so was rent in a trice the strategic fabric so carefully prepared by him.
The 8 th Army abandoned Stanislav, making the best haste eastward. It was now the British
armoured car division showed its worth. Under Commander Lockyer-Lampson it remained behind the
retreating infantry, fighting a rearguard action. During this time, with fleeing Russians going
homewards, and the Germans slowly pursuing, the Britishers remained imperturbable. Three thousand
rounds were fired by each car, and invaluable aid was given in checking the enemy’s advance.
The severest fighting was in the villages to the west of Tremboola, where the cars ambushed in
houses and courtyards and riddled the enemy wholesale. This rallied the Russians in that district,
causing them to entrench and drive off the enemy from several positions. Commander Lockyer-
Lampson on July 24 th , owing to the precipitate flight of two divisions, was invited to fill up the gap 15
miles northward of Laskovce, as far as Trembiovia.
CARS INFLICT HEAVY LOSSES
Undertaking the task, the cars inflicted heavy losses on the advancing Austrians. Commanders
Lockyer-Lampson and Belt and the crews were often under severe shell-fire. A direct hit blew the
engine out of one car, And it was abandoned after the guns and material had been removed.
On July 26 th the cars routed the German cavalry between Czortkoff and Trembovia. Altogether
the Armoured division held up the Germans and Austrians on the whole front for 21 hours, affording
the Russian commander a useful respite.
The casualties among the armoured car men were slight. Three of the cars were abandoned
owing to Russian deserters climbing on them and impeding their progress:
Our cars were ordered back south of Moscow early in 1918. Lenin and Trotsky, who were then
in power, confiscated them, leaving us only our packs and rifles. We were allowed to return home, and
thus I found myself in London, after a long absence. You ask how we were regarded in the Russian
Army? Well, there was great competition for our services, as we stiffened the moral of the Russians.
But things were bad in the retreat. Why, the majority of the 23 rd Army Corps we were attached to,
simply bolted when the panic set in, and in the course of their retreat looted, pillaged and burnt.
MRS. BELT NURSES IN PETROGRAD
Mrs.Belt, who also arrived with her husband, was nursing on the French front soon after the
war commenced. She then went to Petrograd, where she nursed for 12 months, and thence to
Roumania. She was in Bucharest when the city was stormed by the Austrians and Germans. Many
narrow escapes came her way, but she safely reached England at the end of 1917.
At the invitation of the Y.M.C.A. she then went to America and toured many cities of the
United States on behalf of this organisation.
Commander Belt was in close association with the Grand Duke Nicholas, and found him
admired and feared by the men. The last he heard of the Grand Duke was that he and the Grand Duke
Michael (the Czar’s brother) were in the Crimea staying with friends.
On arrival in London Commander Belt was presented by the King with the D.S.O. This was
in recognition of his services in Russia.
For thirty years he has been big game hunting, and two years before the war did a fifteenmonths’
hunt, travelling from Kamschatka, in the Behring Sea, through Manchuria, to Siberia and
Turkestan, across the Caspian Sea, through the Caucasus to Armenia and Asia Minor, ending at
Constantinople. He has travelled all over Africa, and was through the South African War.
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