LETTERS FROM THE FRONT

Evening Star, Issue 15729, 17 February 1915, Page 3

LETTERS FROM THE FRONT

"The strain of the last 10 days has been tremendous on everyone. We hope tor good news soon, however. We are (staying at Headquarters; in the barn of a. farm at present, and are very comfortable. Our Headquarters is well within shell tire, but j out of tho range of rifle lire, and it. is only when ono goes up to the held companies thai ono hears the vicious little song ol rifle bullets. This war is utterly dift'creiH from anvone's conception of what a$ war is like, ami from all accounts quite different from South Africa. It is the artillery fire that lias changed things. When a ' battle' lasts for a week at a. time, and consists in lying down and being shelled by heavy artillery, y<;u will tmdeifdand that there is little'of what one imagines of the 'glamor and heat of battle,' except when there is an infantry attack on. I fear this sounds rather doleful, but do not imagine that we are downhearted. No'; uc* "are in the best of form anil spirits, and all looking forward to the time when we shall come marching home in triumph. I am writing this in a. little dug-out in the middle of a waxid. We get these holes dug deep down in the earth, put straw on the bottom, and have them covered over with boards, branches of trees, and earth. They arc quite comfortable little holes, and give protection against fragments of shells. I am up here with the —— Company, and am at present their CO., all the other officers having been killed or wounded. Another is coming to-night, however. We are having quite a strenuou<> time, and have our own and Germa-n wounded coming in. Some of the latter are tremendously big, strapping fellows. We are having real November weather now—.storms of'wind and rain, and the .roads up by the woods are. appalling. It is iia-d work for the horses in the ambulance waggons. Our infantry are simply wonderful in the way they stick it. out and hang on to their positions, and they are wonderfully cheerful in the worst of conditions. Fortunately we have had but little isickness among the troops so far. I am in the be.-t of health and spirits." — By an officer of a High land regiment. Entertaining tdtleligliU; on cooking in the tieiichcs an afforded by ihe following letter from Corpus al T. Harper, Com wail Light, Infantry : "We aie learning to make all sorts of fancy dishes that would make a lirsl class menu for any hotel. Have you ever tiled 'Jack Johnson' soup? You get, the usual stuff in tho pot, and .set it on to boil just within lange of the German guns. By and by a 'Jack Johnson' tshell ci.-m.rii along and drops into your soup, serving out. the contents very liberally among all who happen to be near enough, whether they said, they were going to t»kip the soup course of not. 'I hen there's 'Coal-box' cutlets. You get a tin of bully l>eef, and cut. out a few- ttrips with any old knife you can lay your hande on. You put the beef on to ?.. slice of bread, and before you have time to look around a 'Co ib''OX.' shell drops on you, and your beef i« nicely seasoned, if it is still "there. You will" have to start an association for brightening up mealtimes unless vnu want us to be terribly bored when we get back." "A few days ago a dozen or so Germans, who must, have lost their way, came stumbling into our cam]-) after dark. No guns were ha.idv, hut we simply grabbed hold of the very first, things handy, and as it \va.» suprier time there were plenty of domestic articles which ptoved their worth and strength. Dixie tiu.s and frying pants containing ouv supper were tdmply banged one way and another on their Iliads until they had had enough, and gave themselves up. to oar tender care."--From a private in the Scots Greys. "J got. here after a tedious journey with all the Tommies veiling :

Nobody knows how bored we are, Ami nobody seems to care, to the tune, of 'Here Wc. Co Gathering Nntfi in May.' No one can ever gei over the instinct to crouch and scurry when they hear tho ominous whistle of Jack Johnson. Conversations are carried on between the opposing trenches, ami tho jeers of our men after the capture of thei Findeu provoked an attack, repulsed with ease and great, 10-s."- An officer oi the R.A.M.C

"When (hey opened fire on us four of our party weul down wounded ; the remainder raced forward to the. trench. Myself. 1 just. got. on top of the ireiich when I got. it straight in the arm. 1 jumped into the trench, ami had jus! Strength enough in the aim to yun the bayonet through the German that fired ai. me. He was dead in. a seconds-. I found I bad a pieie of my aim blown out about, the size of the palm oi my hand and light into the. bonc."--Scigeam A. England. Ist Battalion Coldstream Guards.

"The ground was .-trewn wilh dead and wounded. We lost one lieutenani. an Indian subadai . and about ",5 rank and file. The bodies could mt l«. buried that night, as thev had enough to do to bring iiTall the wounded. Even some of these w-te mis-e.l in the biisii, with the l e,-uit that (hey -pent a most horrible night, sin rounded bv lions, leopards, and hyenas all night- long. As it war. iiinnv of the dead bodies "w re alnjc-:r cai,-,,.' ! M : - .J. Dohriiy. former Customs Ofrieer. ( 'owes, and now in the Biiiish l-'.atst African Piotectoraie. "We have hist 700 neti hilled and woumlid, but we have pushed them back at la-t. We can luridly walk the icecovered loads, ju-t now. They are just like a skating link. I-or 26 davs we have lived like w..--:ns in the trench.v. and. please thank God tonight that So far 1 have come ihmugh."-—-Coj ptual Johnson, Ist Middle-ex. to h,.s wife at. Hackney. '■The (iist lime wc inarmed the fiont trenches we h,,0 just got in- -it was. of couri.e piii hj dark and we were [meiing cautiously aboit*. p, -ee win-re we weie. Thcie we'-i a -fiv wei'd noise- and -Mange light- going on. am! 1 moved Kova.rds ctii corporal to as|; him .something, when suddenly a wild, uiica.ithly wail -.n-iil up, a pparcnti\- a! mv vote led. Mv blood I an .-old. 'and f g'ra.-ped him bv the hand. ■ Heavens'' i died : ' u ha; 'was that'. ' Yoii'i— .-landing on a cat, 1 think." he replied. And indeed I was! What it was doing there 1 don't, know . but- it remained v. hb ns ntf -ind on ail dav. Later on thai da\..»he 1 il in., dalk again. lllCic was i, German attack on . ur h'fl. We wci ■ dered to men .mr 4 Irench.-s, and limn c-ud-denlv the order came along: 'Sigiibs at zero, and die low." Wc waiud, quiv.-iing with exeitenr-ut, when suddenly i sa ,v romelhiiig fe.-liug ii.s way cautiously ov.-r 1 he trench ill fiont of inc. 1 spiaug up to l.a vopi I wlia'ever came. It was ma oidv a cat. but ihe ,-a m - old cat.! Twio. it had pulled my leg in 24 hours."'-- By a private in the Hon. Arlillmv Regiment. "We are -ciiv 50yaids or so fioin Ihe German treia lies, and on; .-peak to the em my if we care, hut we jnefei to k<« p ireu.-he... .pine close, and we can hcai ;■„ tune called ' Tim 1...-1 ( imid 1 quite dis'iuetlv. When they Marl to play, we. cemmi in.- to Hie at their loophole*-, and (hey have the cheek •<, put up a spade to signal if w-e aie on tiie m,irk. One of them did th it to me in answer to a shot 1 lil.-d. ami gave me the .-.edit of a. bull's eye ! must have got. there more than once, for lie .-non (stopped marking. We ni'.iM. not 'show our heads above the trenches, or el.se it's all up. as there, are a few good .shots among tiiem, and l hey are specially paid They are. called snipeis. and "go out alter dark, and then it's not. safe 'to leave the riemlie.. We have .lost a lor of n.-i* this »av, 0,.,,„ s ~„. water, etc., and straw to make the beds when dark.- -Captain F. G. M'Kenzio, 2nd Battalion Sc.otb Guards. "'There's a. horse of the. Royal Irish Lancers that ought, to havo a A'idoria Cross if every anybody ought. One day. in a hot action, its rider was sent, to earth with a. bullet, wound between his ribs. 'The troop was charging af the lime, but ne the man touched tho ground his horse, which had got, out of tho ranks-, nicked him up in its mouth by his clothes and carried him to some men of the regiment, who were re-Ming their horses while awaiting orders. He will null thiough all right- hut the doctor said that had lie been forced to lie. there all night -ho would have, been dead in the morning."— Trooper \V. Green, of tho Rifle Brigade.

"■We.got a great baptism of fire. After blundering along what appeared to be miles of communication trench we got into the front line, and were saluted with a tremendous fusillade of bullets. It was a. knee-rattler, especially when an order was'pafsed along to the company standing to ii.v bayonets. I thought we were 'up the greasy.' However, things quietened down, ami barring continual .-nipers there was not much excitement on. 'I lie worst thing was the cold. We got our feet wet. and it was impos.-ibio to watm them at al! till we got out of the trenches, and then thev were not half sore. It was a job trying to sleep in the dugouts with feet wi'thout feeling m them. If you could just keep vour feet warm it is not Mich a bad job. ' We had a great, view of our guns shelling some buildings occupied by Germans behind the lines. They fired right, over our heads, and you heard the shells scream, and then hang! and a great cloud of smoke and dust. Tiie re. was eome. great, shooting. They knocked a hoie right through a, tower, aid then after that more than one <dmll went through the fame hole. It was exciting, as whenever we looked up a sniper would have a go at us.' —By Private Arthur, of the sth Scottish Rifles.

"On November 11 the Germans started to shell lis at break of day, and kept it up for four hours, shelling the. tieuches. Our atiillerv pumped it back to them, but thev broke through on our right, and then it'was a light to a. finish. However, the old Black Watch stuck it. We were ■joing down like rabbite, and 1 just- g'"t beside our old colonel. He was in the u]K'n, bravo old fellow, rallying his men, and the Germans not moie than -10 yards from us. coming on with fixed bayonets, when ] was hit- on my .-boulder. The Bhnk Watch chaigcd again, and again, and again and drove them, back over the trenches, leaving 700 dead on the Held. It was an awful night. We captured 1.60.') pia/soneTs that day. I am .sure the Black Watch gave a good account, of themselves." l; v 'La-uce-corpora! Knshford, oi the Black Watch.

Pathetic interest attaches to a letter just, to hand from Trooper A. E. Pool, who has died in Rouen Ho-pital since he wrote the following to his mother :--" J was bit at 2.30, and lay in the trenches until 8.30 tho same night, on wet. sodden ground, bleeding. But here we are again. In my trench there was my pal on the right—he got shot through the head. Then Dick Wilson on my left: he wa< yelling: "Come on, my bonnie boys -my Somerset bovs '." and the next minute he was shot through the forehead—dead. There was un ly '.Mae' Sheppard and Ser-geant-major Smith left with me, and 'Mac' has his skull-cap blown through with a bullet, and another struck his linger. Eventually they carried me on eight "rifles about three-quarters of a mile—black as night, and an awful road." A cavalry officer, writing from the trenches, says:—"l can't speak too highly of 'Tommy '' at the front. Nothing depresses him, and under all circumstances be is cheerful, serene, and ready for anything. lam getting into close touch with my own Tommies now, and we are great pals. They are always coining to see whether there is anything they can do to make me more comfortable : and if they get hold of a little drop of tea or something of that, sort lob. what comfort you can get out of an old tin or a broken tablespoon on these occasions !) T must have the. first sip of it Although 1 can't pretend to like this nightmare. I cannot help thinking that it is doing something for tho-e of us who are going through it that we would otherwise have missed : it brings out either the best or the worst in a. man. and so far 1 have only met the best in those whom T have been with. It also make, one appreciate the. things in life that ordinarily one takes as a matter of course—in short, if makecharacter. . . . In the ruined farm

o!om> to our trenches there is ;i little blackdog, the last remaining living thing in a once large and prosperous farmhou.-e. He cm n't oat. and when tho -oldiers gather m the dark al (he back of (he charred walls pieparatory to tiling into tho trenches he run- from one to another, but when he finds .that they are not the people he used to know ami love he runoff again to continue his endless search from room to room, out to the barn- and stable-, and back again to the house." " Thii is a terrible war. granuv. When f «av terrible, f mean for the poor people who have had to suffer so much. Poor old women who could not walk have had to be 'hurled' away in hand barrow-, from the hated Germans. Mothers with young children in then arms and with oulv a few belonging; have been forced to have (he home.'wh-ue they have lived all (heir ■ lay-, without a moment'- delay. Fancy a wom-ii). such a- niv great-gramiv \va-. having to be taken ' from her bed am!

' hurled ' away .' That i- what, it amounts to here for the German i- no respecter ■ f persons, and all mii-f go before l.im ; but the poor, unoffending little coutitrv will yet have the solace of o-eing he,- big bully of a neighbor humbled. It will take time, you know. Gran, but after thi- war is over the Kai-cr'- race wili have been run. He will no longer bully anyone." - Bv a private in the Scots lire',- to his giandmotlmr at Edinburgh. " We were entrenched on the edge of a, AYe had the French on our left 'and the Leicester Yeomanry on our right. With the aid of two machine gnu- we kept the enemy af bay. but. they eventually broke through the Yeoman;y. 'and the l-'ivuch rebattalion, nearly surrounded by t-oiintie-s numbers of German-. We all gave our -elves up. for 10-t. but the otticer begged of us to .tick to it. ami nnlv 160 or 170 out of 1.200 got through. Von talk about murder. There were :■' poor fellow. I'egging you to gei them out of the way. but no one could stop, as wc were getting

.ladied up right ami left. I managed P. get through with the ii-v: other., but bow'l God know.: 1 don't. The next night (be Alio - were reinfoiecd by the Grenadiers, and succeeded in regaining the lo.t trmche-. causing a ieiriblo ni.--of the Pru.-ian Guard."--By Private Haggle. Ist Battalion ('old.t ream.. •■Major - lame up in the morning. ' and we ranged on a house that, v/as being j used by tho Germans, probabiy as an ob- j serration station lor ariillei;.. Wo always i t jvo against troop... bill i<-r wrecking material Ivddile : s far supciior. Well, the . high explosive, did the (rick. In a. few '■ svi-omls tin- house was iu-t about mv idea : . I heM. blazing awav 'like mad. and (he ' re I eoiug in. '1 iio'hre -tin-ad. and vol - an adjacent- building, which livalled the o'.h r in a .short I into. Our infantry was i av.Tniiv pit-ised with the bonfiic. After.' having '.lack .h,hnsons ' at then,, it was : something to see ns retaliating with the ; same tvpe of ! hing.''—An o||ieer of the i Royal Field Artillery. ! ■• In the lines the Genitalis have a large i noil-cope. Aj» (heir trenches are 100 or; lot) vaid.s from ours, we can see. bv f-ok- ! nig through firhl-glassos. the fare of i\w : Gcttuan who is it r<.<)eo!<<t in ihe! lop glass. Yesterday we could distinctly; .-ee the face of the observer. He was an ' ofli.vr. clean shaven, with a red cap. We j couid t*-e him exchanging jokes wilh some- I one over his shoulder, and laughing and ; .smiling. We have orders not >.<> lire at ;' it. ami perhaps the Germans are wonder- . ii.,g v.-hv we are unable to hit so large a mark at such a short- range. hj. is.' too \ useful a peel) hole into their trenches fori thi to damage." -Officer of the Royal En- ! gineers. , "If we worried about 'coa! boxes' or. '.lack Johnsons' we should all be up the ; pole. I admit that I have felt shaky j mauv a tini". hut the feeling is momon- ; tnry'. because someone L- .sure to s.a.v j something idiotic, which makes us all : laugh. There is no doubt what th" end j will be, because the (lernijiiis are beaten ' already. But the question is : How long; will thev prolong the war': Can't, the j fools see that- the. game is up'/"-- A | •'Tommy" to his family at Blackburn. ! "Curiously enough, my old and new i regiments have been fighting side by side j in"the trenches, and from each I hear no- I thing but praise of the. other. This means a great deal in the trenches, when | failure by any unit, means insecurity and j loss to its neighbors.. The total number , of ca.ina.lli.s in this regiment among oh; : cer- alone since the commencement of the I war amounts to over 70. which, with the j exception of the Coldstreains. is more j than in an_y other regiment. Of the men [

there are but few of Ihe original lot left, bnt tlio strain on the officers seems to bo far more wearing than on the men." —Major Armytn.ge, 3rd Worcester.*). —The Proper Spirit.— The spirit which is animating the British soklier may be seen in the subjoined ! extracts from the letter of a. youthful I member of the .Scot* Greys, who writes j thus to his mother in Edinburgh : i Yes, mother, von had live left on your hands when father went oft" to the Boer War. and now you have ilie same again. We all mana.ged to survive it all right all the same, mother, and here, we are, j men. now ready for anything. Well, i mother, ju.it don't work at all. just loo!; j forward to the time when this war will be I finished, and I will come and see you | a train. Oh. yes, mother. I remember how | worried yon were then, but, just you cheer | up. 1 know my mother, and I know that; the. youngsters will be all right. Wait til) j ! see them all again, bless them. 1 will j give them all a day out and the time of | their lives, and I am sure they will enjoy themselves with their .soldier brother. The oilier three soldiers will be there as weil. ! Do you know, mother. 1 am writing this ; in a trench. We have been in hero for a i week now. The Germans occasionally send . shells over our heads. They are doing so now. and they don't half scream, but they are like their Kaiser owner—there is a terrible amount of noise and bluster attached (o them. They can do a. hit of daina.ge all the same, mind you; but j Harry has> dodged them all richt, and he i hopes to continue, to do so. Yes. mother, j that is the proper spirit. You look for- j ward to tho time when vour four sons j and husband will be back beside you. and I so long as we soldier.-* have mothers like I you 10 German nations could not knock ini ; into submission. One thing, mother, you j should thank Heaven that you belong 1o | Britain, for if you had seen the sights i thai i have, witnessed in thi.-i countrv ': it would make your heart bleed. The \ poor people have been chased over hill i and dale by the hated Germans. The j word " haUi " does not express the feel-i ings of those people for the Germans, and '> the Kaiser's day of reckoning will be a ! terrible one. In ureal contrast to this is 1 the way they receive us. Thev would I give us absolutely anything, but 'the poor! .souls have now next u> nothing left to ■ them. I will write to Alec and father; to-day if those Germans in the opposite i trenches will give me peace to do so. Oil. i yes, mother, 1 can just imagine f can I liear my father, lie won't be aide to find j enough to stay about us ail. Your lowing son, Harry. B I —At Close Qtiaiu-rs.— j When J'rivates j.\ich ~,,<! Sneddon, of: the Black Watch, \v< ic wounded in ihej vicinity of La. Bassee. the tiem-hex. which \ Tommy ha*; christened the " l)c a ih Trap." '■■ were only seven or eight, yard* ironi tho.-e i of the enemy. Every 2'i Ikc.h.s the men ; in these noodles retire in a coinmunica- I lion trench to Uk> [support, line, where! they have less to fear fiom German at- ] tack. "We don't, dam to sleep in the j 'death trap," for we never know when a j bomb is going to tumble in amongst iiis." For short distances, such as in thie case, ; it appears that the Gorman/; have special- 1 ised in a hand-thrown bomb, small, and I not deadly, unless it bils a man full on 1 the. body. A continual watch is kept,' and the "shout "Bomb right'.'' or "Bomb; left !'' is the. signal for a dash in the op- ! po.tite direction into, safety. "When we see one coming, we simply pop our heads into the 'dnsj-out,' and we're faiily safe, j The nails and bullets don't, do much dam- ; a-e to (ho legs an,-1 arms, or ;ibo]it. the; bodv, and if we kept- our heads clear i we'ie all riirbt." ;