THE IMPERTURBABLE REGULAR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16190, 28 September 1914, Page 4

THE IMPERTURBABLE REGULAR.

The battle of the Aisne drags on, and is likely to do so, since the situation is described as comparable to " siege warfare." The conditions under which the troops are fighting have lately been rendered the more trying on account of the weather that has been experienced. The description of the hardships endured by the Allies' soldiers in the trenches indicates that their stamina is being subjected to a severe test. None the less we hear nothing but praise for their behaviour. The High Commissioner's recent lengthy report is particularly interesting in the impression it conveys of the coolness of the British troops in circumstances that might well seem calculated to shake their fortitude. The Germans pin their faith on their big guns, it would appear, for more reasons than one. Thoir artillery fire is designed to unnerve the enemy as well as to carry destruction into his ranks. When the continuous roar of the high explosives is considered to have done its nerve-shat-tering work the infantry attack is launched. In theory it sounds very well, but in practice the Germans seem to be finding that it involves another miscalculation—a vast expenditure of ammunition without quite the result desired. The British soldier refuses to answer German expectation in the way of being impressed by the roar and menace of the enemy's artillery fire. His sang froid has always been one of his excellent fighting qualities, and assuredly it has never been more needed than in enduring the terrific cannonade that is a feature of the action at the Aisne, as it was also of that at the Marne. The repulse of one German coun-ter-attack after another at the Aisne exemplifies how the enemy has bought further knowledge of British intrepidity and coolness. The account given in this morning's cablegrams of the exploit at Soissons of a Highlander, who with his companions had been surprised and cut off by the Germans, illustrates the quality of a valour that the menace of death cannot undermine. The Germans had yet to learn, as they are now doing, of the doggedness with which the British soldier has ever shown himself capable of facing overwhelming odds, of the spirit animating such deeds as those of the Fusiliers, who, caught, napping one foggy morning at Albuera, won the battle by deciding to go forward when by all the rules of war they ought to have gone back—the men of whom Napier wrote : " Nothing could stop that astonishing infantry. . . . Their 'flashing eye's were bent on the dark columns in front, their measured tread shook the ground, their dreadful volleys swept away the head of the enemy's formation, and the mighty mass at length giving way like a loosened cliff went headlong down the ascent." No monopoly of gallantry is, of course, to be claimed for the British regular. The records of this war, or of any war, for that matter, contain nothing finer than the account that is furnished this morning of the dauntless spirit in which a German regiment at a spot which is not specified defended its flag until the last man had fallen. The British and French soldiers paid a fitting tribute to the valour of their vanquished foes when, upon the capture of the flag, they uncovered to the memory of brave men. But of the unrivalled imperturbability of the British regular soldier the present war is providing its daily illustration. When we read of the barbarous order that it said to have been issued by a brigadier in the German Army that all who fall into the hands of his soldiers, whether armed or unarmed, whether wounded or_not, are to be killed, we are tempted to conclude that it is not appreciated by the enemy as highly as the bravery of the German soldier is appreciated by the Allies.