FIGHTING FOR THE BRITISH

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3048, 9 April 1917, Page 6

FIGHTING FOR THE BRITISH

AMERICANS IN THE FIRING LINE

REPAYING A DEBT OF FIFTY v YEARS AGO In the heart of the Franco-British Army oil the Western front is a large, body of troops recruited from the great Dominion lying to the north of the United States, But they are not all Canadians. Among them are thousands of Americans who entered the service of the Allies from the very beginning of the war, and who have already engmfted themselves into the army as naturally if they had come from Piccadilly itself. Without knowing it, perhaps, they.are repaying the debt of fifty years ago, when : 20,000 or more Canadians fought under the ■Stars and- Stripes. Lord Northcliffe, writing in a series of letters to the New York "Evening Sun," pays a great tribute to these Americans in the Allied Army and their influence upon the European soldiers. It, is only another of the: revolutions in warfare produced by the United States, he remarks, speaking , of the American share of soldier life.' Of these other revolutions, he continues,: ■ The first and most important was the aeroplane, invented by the WriglTts: the second is the machinefeun. The third revolution/ is one I would hardly believe had. I not had ocular demonstration. It is the conversion of the British Tommy to faith in pork and beans instead of the beef on which he has foueht since the time of .the Norniar. conquest of England. These Americans in the British Army with whom, I. have just spent a day are a part of the topsyturvydom in which we are living, and when I saw' thenr marching back from the trenches to such tunes as "My Country, 'Tie of Thee," and-"The Star-Spangled Banner," with Jess classical and more modern ragtime music, it was wonderful. I propose telling you what the American soldiers in the British and French Armies are doing, where they come from, how they live, and why the Germans are particularly-bitter toward them and say that these splendid Americans were hired by the Allies. From the German point of view the pay of Americans who are fighting acainst Prussianism is doubtless princely. It amounts to exactly a dollar and a quarter a day. I leave people in the United States to judge whether that would he the sort of remuneration calculated to draw American university graduates, some with considerable private fortunes, business men, real estate men,.clerks, lumbermen, engineers, across the Atlantic. ■ How They Enlisted.

The Americans now serving were enlisted, in divers ways. Some went directly to Great Britain to enter the ranks at the outbreak of hostilities, some, who were residents or travellers in Europe, allied themselves with French or British residents, forming small corps of their own. There were some who came over later, adds the author, and went in for Hying. The sporting side of aeroplaning has proved a great drawing card. Tien, too, it.is the sort of thing which, among many who were not personally touched by the moral side of the conflict, would be considered "smart."

Early in the war, during the Battle of the Marne, I was billeted with a number of our dispatch-riders, and was much surprised to find the particular company with which. I was spending the' "night' were almost entirely'from the United States. It is almost impossible to estimate the number of Americans in these two armies, but including those engaged in the noble work of the Ambulance Corps in Paris, and its numerous'automobiles and convoys, it has been' estimated at quite a sufficient number to have made the American ' language, American' music, and Boston baked beans familiar. A great feature of the war on the Western front at this moment is the day-and-night raids. This.daeh and desperate form of individual fighting is . encouraged by. the "British leader, Sir Douglas Haig, and it is in this that the Canadians and; the British, who have considerable of Americans with them, aro adepts. Each one of these Taids is a miniature battle, and it was in studying this form of warfare tEat I had the pleasure, of seeing Americans who are serving with a Canadian regiment reviewed by a general on their return from the firing ,line for rest and, a festal dinner.

, By a curious coincidence, the setting of the scene was that of a thousand such in American and Canadian lumber camps —even down to the loghouse. Wβ were just out of shell range of the Germrin, guns, though the British artillery' was talking all the time. As the men came down the hillside and through tall pine-trees, it did not take long for one who has visited most of the States of the Union td detect, despite the mud and fatigue, from which of the world's continents they came. They wore in high spirits.. Released from the cramped tension of always shelled and water-logged trenches, they came tumbling over each other like schoolboys. All are in ptensant and happy relations with their. stt7ni> dian and- British officers —which make for good fighting and do not derogate from strict discipline, they were paraded for a moment or two for inspection, arid as company after, company formed into line I could not but admire the quicknessencumbered a.s thsv were with all sorts of equipment and an extra suit of caked mud—wjth which they came to attention and 'eyes right.' Perfectly Happy. If I had any doubt as to the home of these stalwiitl fcUJtersfor freedom it would have been settled by the steady movement of their jaws, betokening a habit which is rapidly spreading among • the English and French, and which is said by the doctors to be quite a useful relaxation when under thjs. fire q£ trench mortars and mine-werfers. Before each company ivas dismissed I was allowed to make them a short speech and to mix and mingle with £]]pgi as freely as I chose. I haafbroujjut with me newspaper clippings from a German source,' in which it was said that tho Americans complained of their treatment. I had only to' read it to the firjit group to have it hotly denied. Wβ are having a perfectly corking time despite the mud," voiced a. Californian with a tall figure and a voice as resonant as Eoosovelt's. "You'll not find a grouch in the whole outfit except that we had not expected to have to learn mud-swimming and that we don't see enough home newspapers. ■ "As' for that," replied another, "I want to see mine. Tho folks sent it along at first, but I stepped it, ifor it gave only Fritzy's side of the case."

These American hoys are proud, and rightly proud, of-the deeds of their own American men'and'officers. Tn the midst of this vast army—the British Army in France-lias now been publicly stated to exceed 2,000.000 men—they occupy an anomalous if a proud position. Among the heroic dea3 there is no greater story than that of a. gallant officer, for twelve years in the American wvalry who joined in the Rreat Canadian attack on the trench —i.»m?d .■.after Hie Canadian town of Regina, Though not engaged in that -particular operation,-he could

nob resist, the temptation to dash over ' the parapet .with the cry of "Come on, boys!" Terribly wounded ho endeavoured to struggle forward against tho Germans, but was carried back and then killed by'shell-fire. Hβ' was one of the many Americans whose daredevilry has endeared them to their Canadian and British, associates. A blue-eyed American from Wisconsin, with, I should say, Swedish blood in his veins, said: "bur people, at home do not seem to realise that talking peace terms with the Germans still in France means a German victory. The home folks do not know what we know._ In the matter of a fight the Prussians, brave as they are, are down and out."