CALLANT SURGEON

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 152, 28 June 1915, Page 2

CALLANT SURGEON

08, MARTIN RETURNS. GRAPHIC STORY OF MONS RETREAT. KITCHENER IN FRIGE. UNPRECEDENTED STRATEGY. BRITISH BASE ON BAY OF BISCAY. NEW ARMY STILL IN ENGLAND OTTH HOPE THROUGH HOLLAND Amongst Xett , Zealand's son? who liave given tlicir sert-icee with honour and distinction to tin- Empire in its hour of need, there is none o! whom the littlfe Dominion is more proud than Dx. Arthur Martin, of Palmereton North, vvhoae letters, dharaeJterised by graphic phrase ami leavened ,by Hashes 6i wit, have been so interestedly read in the neivspupt-'ra oi prac■li.eally eyijry town. Dr. cMtu-tin, .who is one of the leading I surgeons of New Zealand, and who was -walking Oie- hospitals at Jioaio when wir .broke out. ha* uojv returned to JSew Zealand for a brie! apell to recuperate after his trying experiences in France, and Flanders. At; is generally known. Dr. ilart-hi, on volunteering for «ervieo at the outbreak of the war, was, in view of his previous .South African service, given a commission in the Royal iAnny Medical Corps. Twice his s allant conduct on the battlefield lias 'been mentioned in dispatches, but of the circumstances attaching to these incidents l>r. -Martin, when, seen by a '■Star' , representative, Jirnily declined to speak.

. .Nevertheless, the doetox iw*.s induced (to, tell a. general story of hie experiences at the front, and comment on vl.p following graphic and highly interesting summary of the events of the war is unnecessary. "To start from the very heginninfr,"' began tin- doctor. "Britain's Jittle army of Ofi.OOO man all told left and the eastern -ports in transports, protected by t-orpexio boats, and landed in France. These boats im--incdiately came.iack t-o fetch what were called the. first reinforcements, wibh vliicj) I..travelled. We landed at Havre •with the idea of joining iFVcneU's army, but immediately we arrived at the port we learned that the British had been thrown back at Jlons, (Those. English troops 'h-.ul oiAy been four hours out of the train when they were plseed in action. They were hurled rapidly .hack, and the reinforcement contingent of 18,000 men found iteelf in the position -of not being--aWe to link op with the main body, because it did not know whither the retreat would lead. TIIEN" KITCHENEK CAME. - •fThcnext Tirmour we heard, said Dr. Martin, "was that a (ierman raiding, column of 15,000. travelling on motorsupply wagons, lorries, and transports of all kinds, with full equipment of guns mounted on motor-lorries, was coming to sack Havre. Here X must explain that Havre was our l>ig base, and was, therefore, the'objective of the rumoured German advance. The reinforcements, -with 15.000 French troops, were sent to Harfleur, and we found ourselves on the identical battlefield on Kvhk-h Henry Y. .fought the Trench. Wa S°t.into, trenches there, .-and the French advanced with our cavalry to the Gcrtroorjs in front of them, but not knowing their retired.

"And now I come to an incident that ■has not yet been made public, and, as iur as I know, has not been mentioned in. any newspaper. At that critical mojnent Lord Kjtehnner arrived in Havre and promptly ordered that the town should lw evacuated. This was an -almost unprecedented' course in military history. £ajTs3e."3! Hie" niaxlifls of Napoleon was once an army was in the field the base cannot be changed. However. Kitchener said" it had to be changed, and the whole of our base supplies—stores, guns, ammunition, aeroplanes, hospital supplies, ambulances—were ordered to Saint Nazaire, in the Bay of Biscay. For four days we travelled by sea, and the whole of the British troops at Havre, including the men in the tranches at Ilarfleur, went to Saint Xafcaire, and thi.s was the new British baBC J'h-om thorn we went by train to Jjc Mans, the advanced British base today. I joined the army in the last three days of the retreat from Mons. We fell hack at Coulmires, to the east of Paris. The army waa then in perfect order, thonph a little hit down in the mouth, i The men were tired with marching, and the weather was terribly hot.

TIIE JOYFUL TIDINGS.

VVc halted one day, thinking that we had to retire further south. What was Qiir surprise when at two o'clock in the morning the whole army vas awakened, and we went at a quick march to discover that we were progressing in a north-easterly direction. Rumour spread rapidly through the army that we were advancing against the Germane Then the excitement was terrific. Kvory man pulled liis shoulders back and held his head erect and the army started singhig -winch they had' not been doing for many days. There was a tremendous change in the epirit of the army because it knew that it was attackin" Wk marched all day. and i n the' afternoon mot the--Germans-on the Ouren "We fought that day and the next and drove the Geianana back in terrible' disorder over the Manic. Our division crossed the rivo.r at Saccy. K or the next few day 3 we marched rapidly across country, covering 28 miles on the first day, IS on the second, and 4 on tinthird day, when the Germany were hold ing us up. On the fifth day wo only progressed two miles, and were then stuck up 01; the Aisno, where the German batteries met us. General SmithDorrien was with ua tTrroughr/ut the faarch, and wo constantly saw both him and General French, We were on the

Aisne until the end of September, and then we moved across France, maTching mostly by nijlht. and travelling ]>art of (he way 'by train, until we got to the North of France. Our division next met the. Germans at Txi Bassce. YVe encountered them in the morning near that village, and the {Icrmans threw us back with (crrihle losses towards the evening. Next day the Indian brigades joined us. Our nicn were terribly exhausted anil .nt up. and tho Indians took their places, but. they were thrown out of the trenches in great disorder ami with terrible losses. [Nearly all their officers were killed. The British soldiers, tired, worn-out men, again had to come up to Uike their places ill the trenches. The weather at that time was frightful rain, hail, and .-led. and the trenches were filled with water and mini. The country in front of I-α Baf-t-re was practically one big swamp, ami naturally wax difficult to light in. Then the brigade to which 1 was attached was sent to Ouderdon, in Handera. After ibis 1 was , in the trenches at Vpres for three weeks, and we all pot pretty well knoike.l up with rheumatism ami other ailments consequent upon the life in the trenehew. We went down to Rouen, and a new division from Kngland took our places while we recuperated." IiINNIM. , THE (";ArXTI.KT.

While declining t.i discuss matters in a personal sense, l>r. .Martin gave a" interesting description of the hazardous nature of the woTk of the lIA.M.C. He suid that lie was aUaehe/d to the 15th Reid Ambulance, and the duty of the aniluiiance «aci to follow the brigade into action. "Unth on the Maine and on the Aisne our duty consisted at night of going up in the trenches and taking out the wounded," continued Dr. Martin. This was ;ill done undfr sharp-shooting firing. and most of the casualties among the doc Lore wen- due to the German snipers. We used (o earrv little electric torches, hut w<- could not'show a li.sht until we were alongside a wounded man. Then we had to use the torch to discover the nature of the wounds, bandage the sufferer, and pet him to one of the stretchers. The regimental medical officer went into the trenches with his regiment, and lie ivas the man more exposed than anybody else, because he had to crawl about the trenches all day attending to the wounded.''

After explaining that there was n doctor attached to each battalion, of which four formed a brigade. Dr. Martin mentioned that there was one brigade which went into action and bad three of its doctors killed outright in one day. while the fourth was wounded, and had to have his U-lt amputated. That man, Dr. Uankin. got the V.C. THE HAMMER AND THE AXVIL. ''The people of France live in absolute and supreme confidence in General Joffre," proceeded the doctor. "Anything that he says it law to the nation to-day. The famous leader ha<s suid. 'Perhaps foT two months, perhaps for three months, perhaps fur a year, France will be the anvil, one day the will be the hammer, and it will only be necessary to bit once. ,,. Dr. Martin a tribute to the wonderfully bucecdsful manipulation of the railways by General JolTre, ivhiih had been a feature of the war. The French Army -was now equipped to th<- lust button, and had any amount of supplies and guns. Indeed, they had never failed in munitions, but at the beginning disorganisation was terrible. There were traitors at the head of the French Army, and there was incompetence. Joffre got rid of the traitors and the incompetents, and now most of his olli-

cers were young men. At the present time in Knjrland there wa« a <;reat (]r7l i ot - ta ] k a i>out the age of some of the senior officers, and the field to-day were in favour of bigger commands for young men. The doctor a/so paid a warm tribute to the heroism of the French priests under arms—for the French military law admits no distinctions between cleric and layman. One of the priest officers, the Aibbo Lemaire, one of the most brilliant ■preachers of France, was wounded at Charleroi. and while lying in pain was asked 'by a French soldier to administer Extreme Unotion. The Abbe painfully crawled over to him, performed the rite, and was again wounded in doing so. When 'he wan brought down to the hospital President Puincure met him, kissed him on both cheeks and pinned tlie orser of the of Honour to his breast. Fortunately the gallant Abbe survived, ibut will "limp for life. Another French priest, after smashing his men in a hollow, preached the gospel of peace on ea.rth anil jtoodwill towards men, told them to love their enemies and went bade to the charge of his 'battery, which dealt out death with renewed willingness. THE CHEERFUL TOMMY.

Speaking of Tommy Atkins as he round him, Dr. Martin sakl that the British soldier was splendid. He was very cheerful. ]I e was not afraid to die. Ho could march on although he, knew that tha-t march led to certain death. The only thing that really upsetliini w,i s the gas, and that was because ho did not understand it. The British Army wu« now supplied witli masks, but these were not quite effective, although very near it. There wan a <rreat deal of doubt as to what the gas consisted of. Some supposed it to , be a mixture of chlorine and bromine, but a famous Swiss scientist was of opinion that it was azotic acid, made from ammonia, and that the Germans could produce any quantity of it very cheaply. ]| c saw several of the men die from the poisoning, and it wan one of the most terrible .sights connected with even a military hospital. ''It is just as though an asthma sufferer, while in. his "worst paroxysm, were strangled by a cord," said the doctor. Most of the sufferers had died. The survivors would be crippled for life. Dr. Martin gpoko appreciatively of the magnificent work, of the famous French 7(i batter}', and of the reputation won by General Davis, Hie only New Zealand General in I'm nee.

ONUR HOPE THROUGH HOLLAND.

Questioned as In what was a fair esaimate of the proportion of Kitchener's army now in lli ( > field, L)r. Martin emphatically declared that, with the exception of a few companies, the 3,200-000 men placed under training since the war began, were still in England. The first million was completely equipped for war, but were still in the Old Land. It was frallert "Kitchener's Hammer." The hammer was supposed to strike at the end. of the spring. It had not deme so yet One idea was tliat at the last moment Holland would conn; in and the men would ho landed them to strike at Oormany Another wa d that Denmark wou ,1 declare war. and that the men would bo thrust through that country to attack the Kiel Canal. Speaking of the munition question, Dr. Martin said that the shortage was most palpable while the army was on the Aisno and the Marne. Had it been possessed of Dig pins and munitions it could Lave

got through. For the first time in the war the Germans were then short. Ho save general confirmation of the stories of German atrocities, and declared that after his experience, of seeing harmless old French farraer.s farmers lying with their skulk battered in at the doors of their cotagee lie could credit any story of German "frightfulnese."