UNDER FIRE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 1220, 5 June 1919, Page 2

UNDER FIRE.

TERROR OF ANTICIPATION

The man who has not been under fire always desires eagerly to know what were the feelings of the man who has been during this ordeal. It is probable that be docs not frequently find the information given by veterans either satisfying or enlightening. It has been my good fortune, says the medical correspondent of the "Times," to enjoy many opportunities of with soldiers who have been wounded in action. I have visited Belgian, French, and British hospitals at various periods, and, r.3 a medical man, have been afforded special facilities for study. These opportunities have convinced me that no two men feel quite the same sensations whilst under fire for the first time, and alao that a man is capable of experiencing quite different emotions at different periods of the same day, though bis' circumstances have not changed.

For example, from the statement of a man who experienced shell fire for the first time in his life in the neighbourhood of Arras, 1 gathered that bis first feeling had been one of great interest and curiosity. A "Black Maria" fell some hundreds of yards away and mat up a great column of smoke, and at the same time shrapnel was bursting at no long distance. But suddenly there came home the realisation that these shells were intended to work havoc, and that, in fact, the position occupied was full of danger. "Then I felt exactly aa anybody would feel the moment after the discovery that he was in a field with an angry bull. Every instinct of mind and body prompted flight." A second man told me that from the moment he came under fire —in a trench —he experienced the most lively terror. "But the feeling passed away after a while, leaving me rather tired and only a little anxious." A third declared that he had been so nervous before going into action that the event put the anticipations of it to shame. He had regarded himself as a dead man, and woke up, under fire, to the realisation that his chances of coming through safely were very good.

The achievement of "second courage" Is of coarse a well-recognised stage in the seasoning process of war. I heard a little story from the lips of a British officer which seems to me to illustrate the genesis of it very convincingly—and the story is worth telling for its own sake. At a certain period of the war some new troops were sent to bold a particular trench. They suffered a really terrible bombardment with shells and shrapnel, and at last about 100 of them evacuated the position and retired. Presently they met a senior officer, who stopped them and inquired wbat had happened. On being informed the officer looked grave and told the men that be would be very sorry to have to use any coercive measures with men who he knew to be brave fellows. He spoke to them for a short time and steadied them. Then be pointed out that the way of duty lay backwards towards the position they bad left. "I'll walk back a part of the way with you." He did so. The men returned to their post, and gave a good account of themselves. In th( words of my informant, they "were all right after that."