THE GUARDS DIVISION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXVII, Issue LXXVII, 3 June 1919, Page 7

THE GUARDS DIVISION.

ENGLAND'S CRACK TROOPS,

London aud New York have each lately celebrated the return of the crack division of the British and the American Armies respectively (says the Christchurch Press). The Guards Divi- ? *°n made a ceremonial march through the City, the King taking the salute, and a myriad cheering Londoners giving their own troops the heartiest of w^fomes. New York's reception of the 27th Division was of an sven more enthusiastic character. The streets were lavishly decorated, on one part of the route a grandstand a mile and a half fong had been erected, and all accounts ■agree that the crowds numbered millions, America, less accustomed than England of welcoming the return of victorious troops, and quite justifiably •proud of the work of her men, seemed just a little inclined to speak, through her newspapers, as though no body of troops in the war had put up such a record of sacrifice and accomplishment. A Canadian paper, jealous of the reputation of the Guards, gave a com•parison of the losses of these two divisions. The total casualties, including 1711 deaths, of the 27th American Division, which left New York 25,000 strong, numbered 8237, or just about .one-third. The Guards Division, numbering at full strength about 16,000, lost 13,671, while 30,179 were wounded, and 915 are missing. The division's total casualties, therefore, number -; 44,765, or nearly three times more than its original strength. It says much for the tradition of the Guards that the naen. who from time to time stepped into the depleted ranks proved worthy of their company. Mr Boyd Cable, who fought in the war and has written some of the best of the war literature, watched the Guards on their march through London with proud memories of days when he had seen them at the front. He tells of the first judgment he heard of the famous division. It came from his own battery commander in the early days of the war, at a time when none in that battery knew when the enemy might not break through the thin British line. "The major," he says, "had talked over the 'phone to headquarters, and turned from it to tell us with a sigh of relief: 'Thank Heaven, we can sleep with our boots off tonight for a change. We're all right. The Guards are in front of us.' And that is a feeling we never ceased to have throughout the campaign: 'We're all right. The Guards are in front.' " The drill precision of the Guards is unequalled—no.other body of troops can match it for smartness and cleanness. It is the "last, word." in military movement and discipline*, and they never lose it. As Boyd Cable watched the ranked battalions swing down the Strand, his thoughtsj went back to a day when he saw the Guards marching to very different music from that of th© crash of bands and the rolling cheers of London. It was at Loos. "We had an anxious time for a bit; and then we saw the Guards come in. They had to cross a wide open space, and had hardly deployed before they came under a pelting shell-fire. The lines opened out very quietly, very steadily, and moved forward as straight as on a parade practice, the sergeants shouting at the men —and dressing the line as they advanced!" Death whistled through the air at every step they took, but if they had to die, they were 'going to fall as Guardsmen. There is something that thrills the heart at this supreme example of the strength of the Guards' tradition, that compelled them to preserve an unfaltering and correctly aligned front in the imminent presence of death.