THE "ZERO" HOUR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 122, 9 February 1918, Page 8

THE "ZERO" HOUR

WAITING FOR THE MOMENT TO ADVANCE THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SUSPENSE (By a Lieutenant in tho Infantry.) "Zero" is the moment when the artillery barrage which protects our advancing troops is timed to commence. (It is necessary to stato this because a worthy sister 'in one of the base hospitals thought it was some commodity or other sent up to tho front line with the rations.) At "zero" the long lines of soldiers get up out of trenches and shell-holes and move forward against the enemy. The long suspense is over. For good or evil all the preliminary details of the attack have been made. The complex forces which have been working for weeks at high pressure arranging the almost infinite details of that barrage and that infantry attack have finished their task. Nothing can now be cancelled, nothing' undone. The staffs of brigades, divisions, corps, and armies for several hours after "zero" aro impotent to influence the battle. Everything -depends upon tho spirit and skill of tho individual infantryman, the resourco and leadership of battalion officers, and the accuracy of the gunner in keeping to his range and his time-table. , No word in the English language is more full of meaning to tho soldier than this word "zero"—no word which he uses more often on tho evo of every attack. But the infantryman is the only one for whom this word has its full significance. For the/'gunners" and "medics" and all stationary services "zero" represents only tbo commencement of unrelenting and anxious toil. For tho transport service itis a name only occasionally heard, which represents nothing. But for thri _ infantryman it means a leap forward into tho unknown: a thrilling moment of adventure into a hitherto forbidden, land. If he fails in his task, everything fails; if he succeeds, the failure* of all other people will he forgotten. It is "his affair." For once, he is the most important man in the army, and everybody admits it. Army and corps | commanders come down and talk to him. Tho divisional general interests himself in tho detail's of his manoeuvres. The brigadier becomes even friendly. And tho infantryman approaches tho fateful hour with a growing feeling of importance. He is told that upon his individual courage and initiative depends the issue of the day. And in his own way he ponders over this thought a good deal, and comes to ' life, he loses the day.

He knows, first of all, that in the attack the unexpected is bound to happen. In defiance of the laws of the barrage, a small group of the enemy will possibly put up a sharp resistance in an unexpected quarter where no Bocho, he had been told, had ever before been seen. Or a hidden and unforeseen mass of barbed wire will stop his progress; or the ground at ono part trill have become an impassable morass. Or he will lose his officers and sergeants, and become mixed up with other units. Or more often still, in defiance of all the newspapers and all the messrcom talk, tho Roche will put up a _ stubborn resistance, and he will see his companions thinning cw/.y. It is then that ha realises the greatness of the task to which ho is called, tt is then'that the meaning of those words, "Upon your individual courage and initiative depends the issue of the day" comes home to him. If he is made of tho right stuff he advances, or holds his ground in the advance against all comers, till he becomes a casualty. If lie is of tho weaker sort he gives in, and either seeks shelter or does nothing, and thus, in thinking of his own life, ho loees the day.

The soldier who approaches "zero" has no absurd superstitious belief in the big gun merely, or the "fleets of aeroplanes." He is glad that the guns (ire behind him as well as in front of him; that above him the horn from the contact aeroplane sounds like a friendly voice. But he places most of his comfort on his own resolution, his own courage, which has to kreo him sane and to enable him to meet the evpr-incre«ing difficulties.

The chief thing which inmresws the i soldier about "zero" hour is its "fin- | nlity." Beyond it he can see notbinp. | Ft is like a thick curtain of mist which [ his eyes cannot pierce. In faoo of this 1 Unknown he makes all kinds of arvanpe- | merits, trivial and serious. Even if ho j lias had the luck to face three or four ! "zero" hours, familiarity 'breeds in him no contempt. He takes nothing vflluable with him into the line; Lis riflo nnd ammunition and rations in the haversack shins; on his back arc almost all lis equipment. He writes uno or two letters, often curiously non-. cha!aiit_ and undemonst;ntive, yet vontaining neajly always soiiieivliich reveals, to the initiated, Ins tension and his state of mind. ! As a point of honour he settles up his i trivial debts. For several days he has I never referred to anything in the fu- | tufts except with the words, spoken or understood, "aftor tjie show," "when : our little affair is over." In short,' the j underlying principle of his .vonduct has ! been the possibility that shortly he j might lose his life. He does not think j much about this, and never talks about | it. There is very little change in his i outer life. The ostaminets are more | crowded than usual dun'lls; the last few days in billets. The padres tell 113 that a few.more men take communion. I For the last few days about twice the i usual number of letters are written. Otherwise there is no -change. Yet each man feels that immediately in front of him a thick opaque curtain has fallen across his path, shutting off the road ahead. And he stands expectant and tense beforo that curtain, as though beforo the bursting artillery barrage, waiting for the moment when the- curtain shall lift and the future, onco more become more or less calculable, shall again lie open before him. It is within a few minutos of "zero" on the morning of the attack. In the corps and divisional offices there is 'unusual quietness. Everything has been done that can be done-. The only thing to do now is to wait patiently for the first telegrams. The brigadier-general comes up the steps of his dugout, and gazes into ithe morning mist. Ho has just received word his battalions aro all in position. He also can do nothing but wait for the first telegram or the lirst runner. The officers in the line, watches in their hands, give one look on the waiting lines of men, and then look steadily to their front._ Every. man is ready. A strange spirit of exaltation and awo ; takes hold of everyone. The weary waiting time is almost over! Then suddenly with an earthshaking roar the- barrage commences. The ear-splitting bark of the 18poundov guns dominates even the roar of the heavy calibres. And, above all, the- nittlo of the scores of machine-guns, forming our own machine-gun barrage gives confidence to the- infantry. Then, two hundred yards in front of them, our men see the long line of bursting shells. This is the barrage curtain which goes beforo them like the pillar of lire beforo the Israelites. "Zero" is past.—"Manchester Guardian."