THE RUMANIAN SOLDIER

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2973, 10 January 1917, Page 5

THE RUMANIAN SOLDIER

$ BRAVE AND INDOMITABLE AND A GOOD FIGHTER He, or those who makes him, do not intend him for show (writes a correspondent to "Tho Chronicle'")- The .primary idea is work, and this idea is followed to the last. As.a marching man, I do not suppose there is any : soldier of any other land to whom he ■oannot, when necessary, give .points \ and a beating, and no will do it on a scrap of maize-meal boiled but a few minutes, and a;little On ; servioe, it is toiie, he is fed. on black i bread and soup, made of beans with i a little, a very little, meat, and when i he has this, be, the peasant soldier at "least; thinks ho is faring royally,.for ; at home the aforesaid maize porridge is all he eats, with, perhaps, an onion ' or so now and then, and if he is very laoky, a bit of meat on Sundays and holidays. The Rumanian peasant does not speak of meal times; he lias no specific word for breakfast, dinner, or supper. He says it is time for "mamaliga," bis word for the maize food he is- ever ready for. He will march,- if he ie ordered to, till ho . drops, and this carrying more in the way of. equipment and ammunition than any other European soldier, with .no music of the. band to cheer him; only, perhaps, some of the soldiers may play their native wooden whistles, or they will join in chorus in the old war songs of long ago or in their peasant ditties. * , His Fighting Kit. He is not very beautiful, ibis Rumanian soldier, but he looks workmanlike, and immensely so. He wears a uniform for campaigning of a "migno-: nette" green-grey. Iu summer he wears a loose hollaed blouse; at other seasons the tunic arid trousers are of •a thick serge. The blouse and tunio ■have two breast pockets with buttons, and two in the skirt, slanted to meet his hands. His footgear is a pair of heavy, comfortable lace boots, _ reaching over his ankles, in which his troupers, narrowed 1 down for the purpose, • find a home. This idea is borrowed from his neighbour and arch enemy, the Hungarian, with whom he is now at grips. In fact, his whole equipment is tho outcome of oareful . study of that of other nations. . His haversack is of strong canvas, : the water bottle (of tin), fitting too a 'pocket on the outeide of it, and thus saving a strap. His knapsack is of strong canvas, much the colour of his uniform, and he carries his ammunition in four clip pockets, much as his now ally, the British Tommy, does. His weapon is the Mannlicher and short bayonet. I said his footgear was the ankle-boot, but he also wears in preference, when his commanders and the weather allow, tho native sandal with thongs tied half-way up his calf; and admirable for marching it is, except in wot weather, when it slips. The cavalry, too, have adopted putties, always of the same colour as tho uniform. He is as brave as a lion, this. Butrianian soldier, and whether he be the very spick and span officer from Calea. Victoria/ or the rough peasant from the Baragan or the Olt, all have in . their veins a certain amount of tho . same blood as flowed in Trajan's legionaries, for it is from these Bom'an colonists that they descend, and of which they are so justly proud; wherefor ho is a bonny fighter. Only now at Turtukai, against five times their number of Bulgars and Germans, for : four days ' and nights they fought unceasingly, most of them, it is proudly related, never able to stop to .eat or drink .'for three days, and three'nights, only get-; .' ting an occasional drink' passed along when a lull in the frightful fighting occurred, never having a moment's rest fo touch the food brought to them. "If we stopped firinc a moment they were on us," I was told by one of the wounded back from the' great fight. The dead Bulgars and Bpchos, it is slated by eye-witnesses; were piled up breasthigh before the Rumanian trenches, for tho inundating system of the Germans was used here once again, with disastrous effects on the attackei's. No official figures are given, but anything 1 like ten to fifteen thousand dead is talked about, and cannot, if not abs9- i lutely correct, be far short of tho mark. ; One wants no better proof of valour than this. It was only when • very ' heavy artillery was brought up and i turned on the devoted Rumanian : trenches that a withdrawal waß necessary, and even then the remnants of 1 those who had fought _so stubbornly 1 begged with tears in their eyes to have 1 "just another volley" at the brutes of i Bulgars,. their ever-hated enemy.' 1 Courage and Cheerfulness. ~ ■ i Nor is it only the peasant who is ' such a good soldier. Among tjio ] regimentsat Turtukaiwas one recruit- | cd in Bucharest, in tho ranks of which I aro to be found all the apaches, J corner lads, and "such-like wildfowl" of Bucharest. No one regiment J did better than this one—whatever he • he—Boyar, peasant, judgo, or criminal, J the moment ho puts on the uniform '• lie is a soldier not On the outside only, < but through and through. Nor is tho ] dandy officer, whom the tourist or '. occasional visitor to the capital always ! «aw, any but a fighter. Ho is proving j n, splendid leader of his mon, and, • whore necessary, displays reckless cour- ( age, as a. dozen talcs from both fron- f tiers confirm. _ T The wounded, back in some hundreds ' from Turtukai, show a wonderful spirit, and all ask to bo cured of their wound's ' to get back at the "brigands of Bui- ' gars," as they term them. There is J reason for this adjective. In Rumanian '• Wobrudja, in tho Bulgarian villages', J whon it was known that war Avas de- j clared against Austria, Anstria,_ let it he noted, and not Bulgaria—the inhabi- ' tants,-- without previous warning, at- ! tacked the weak parties of Rumanian I soldiery in them with scythes, hatchets, ' knives or what not, inflicting hundreds ' of fearful wounds, the women and oven ' children joining in tho butchory of tho ? military, who wero helpless against j these latter. Ono other trait of this Rumanian * soldier is his wonderful patience and good spirits under pain. During the. ' last few days hundreds of wounJed s . have come into tho Bucharest hospitals ' with every imaginable kind of wound. They have travelled all the way _by motor rail, yet no word of complaint. J They all quietly bear their agony, and ' are deeply grateful for all that is dono r for them. Let me tell one fact.. A. < doctor'was. about to remove tho arm. of •' a. soldier, shattered by.a. shell. "Now the chloroform," said the surgeon. "Ah, n °j never mind, sir," replied the a soldier. "The Bulgars did not give S me chloroform before they fired the ' shell at me, did tbey?" T Arms have been chopped off and ' other nameless horrors perpetrated by 1 theso fiends in human forni. A heavy ' toll is taken in tho fighting for this, but not on the women nnd children, for- the Rumanian soldier is a clean fighter, if a terrible fierce one, when ho I gets to grips with his traditional ' enemies. - E '~~ . ' . .. I