THE GUARDS' TRIUMPH.

Mataura Ensign, 9 November 1916, Page 7

THE GUARDS' TRIUMPH.

OVER THE PARAPET. USED ONLY THR tt.VYOXET. v— • —~~ ' When we hear or road the names of the gaiiant men who have intight and died we (should .have somo picture in o"J' inincl ol Alia i nicy lace.i and oiiuiii.-u for homo and country —yes, and for the good of the world W. 'Reach Thomas, with the Bi.tish Army in i lie Field, on .September 11) to Tue Dailv A| ail'). Among others who earned equal fame the Guards have gone into action, have won nruv fame; and many names known through the length and hrondth of the land wi'.l be found in the roll of honor. Something of the spirit 01 that ng.n s.iould reach those w tio read the names. "Ir was worth living, even if I am killed ro-morrow. ju-t to have seen such * men charge," said one commanding officer, whoso speech to his men afier action will be- remembered all their lives, almost syllable by .syllable, by all who heard it. Nor in war at any time is any scene more moving than when, the buttle over, a regiment lines up under some shelter in the misty dawn to take toll of the mi'-sing. However gaily men light, at that moment thev love not war. And the Guards fought the gayest fight of which ever ! heard news or any troubadour dreamed ; and fought it against hitter odds, the odds of an onep flank; and won, inflicting more than they suffered. •F*or the first time in history three battalions ot the Coldstream Guard•went over in iine. They were swept and raked hv rillo and machine-gun fin from many direction*, and all the while the shells fell right and leu. For •_'<)(' yards the blast on their front and flank was enough to have stopped a locomotive. It did not stop the men. In the midst of this blast, of a sudden tlie.x crime upon a trench from which rank.of enemy rose. The sight was all they needed to add the last touch i;> Iheii fighting spirit. BATTLE RF.CO.AIFS A OH ASK, The enemy fired rifles and threw bombs. '1 lie-Guards used only the bayonet. Each man, they said, got his man. The enemy fought now in ihe open as well as below ground, and the sight ol ihese new regiments, body to body, hand to hand, stabbing, hitting, even wrestling, so stirred the Irishmen coming up in support thai they rushed forward at the double to take their part Men, non-commissioned officers, subalterns, commanding officers, doctors, artillery observers, buivq into an incredible shout, smothered by the noise of the guns, but like the swish of tin shells savagely inspiriting. The enemy had fought well. Hi thought he could stop the Guards; but the nayonet ivn« irresistible, and of a sudden the desperation of the .sirinrgii broke. "We Hushed 'em and they rosi like, a covey of partridges." The battle became a chase. Ihe prisoners who surrendered were just given leave to hiiriy back without escort to our lines, and took the permisision at the galii-p, to hi rounded -up like homing sheep. awa\ behind. One group went astray, headed off in its nervousness by other advancing troops, before it was again corralled off like any other half-wild animal. The light and the chase went on. morning, day and owning. Germans rose from mysterious holes and p.ok d ' off isolated men. One GuaMl-man had a duel at (50 yard-, with a Ravarian sniper. Each lired three shots. Tin ■ Guardsman's In-l went home a'n:l the German fell. "*• All this while, whether sulvano'ng or slopping in shell hobs or trenches, officers greeted one another as if thev , were meeting in Picadilly. with fami-, liar greetings and CbrisT,i„u names and the common chaff of the regiments. Unimaginable events made lirtle difference. A young .subaltern, in battle for , the 'first time, was transferred of a smitten "into a maze of glory," eonsciom that ho was dead, that was all. Presently he found himself at the bottom of a shell hole quite unhurt, when In continued his mission of .search for i i machine-gun officer. He met one at Jast and asked him his name. He asked I once, twice, three times, without elicit- : ing an answer. Ai last the man put his mouth to his ear, made a funnel >wi(h his hands and bellowed hit- loudest. Then first the subaltern understood , that the shell which had opened th. j f-arth beneath him had left, him stone j deaf. Hut the deaiimss, too, passed I He fought all day, and spent the night , at patrol work making posts in front | of the line. GER.AIAX GIN'S OALLOT OFF. Some golden moments were vouch ! safed in this immortal charge, which j earned the Guards over a mile ami ' more of shell-raked and bullet-rakou ] desert. "While they di"ve the Germans ; before them the sun, below the bori/,01. ! when they started, had reached high j noon. .It lit a new landscape. A Gor-j ~,.' man battery was seen in action, the j officers taking notes and the gunners, shovelling shells into the breech. Enonn j transport trailed along the roads. Undamaged steeples rose from the mid'st ot peaceful villages. But soon the panorama shifted like "the baseless labric of a vision." The German guns limbered up and galloped off. The transport- vanished, and just a little while later the village houses toppiod aim ' the homesteads merged into the general desolation of war. Some figures emerge from the ruck of battle in almost ghostly salience. An officer who felt then and aftenwards that he had never lived so splendid, so exhilarating a day in his life—such men do really exist-—took no coyer, hut 'Went exultingly forward to any nucleus of resistance he could discover. He killed man after man, some with the pistol, some with a stick. One of his men, as great an athlete, if less endowed with Valkyrie spirit, rushed a machine-gun post, shot two. of the men, bayoneted a third, arid r- i -—■ ■' ' - == I

I ''caught tho fourth a clip with my fist.' j Some rival of another company then claimed the captive machine gun; bin 'the Irishman mottled -ihe dispute bs I taking the weighty thing under his arm land carrying it hack deliberately across iiic open. ill- did not stop (ill he had j delivered i r personally to the hoadquar('lters of his unit. U'tiile officers greet]j ed one another with the natural oxri change of social phrase, the men called 1 I out n.lnr.ou.s ci.coiiragonioni, "Go it, ( , Lillywhites," "Go it. Ribs," using tin |, vocal ncs of playing field. Bui ,-ii c day and night ii was hi it or fighting. y as every man and every ollicer knoi\." P OHDF.I! RFJGXF.I) THROUGH ALL. j The enemy ran, but it was not allow(1 <>d to pursue th. m. I hoard an officer apo.ogi.-o. almo-l w th tea .-:, for r.e .! ueee-sity of forb iU\ ng te.o long pursuits. Tron: he> oecupitd wsrv o.ien shallow ami ve y lull—full of German-, | some gibbering, some obsequious, some wounded and cry ng mr food and water, -omo quite quit t ; full, too, ot lighters, some hale, some do: d, some wounded. * 'lhe padre was all day in the I'ont lino ] giving relig 011s conso'ation \vh< re he y eoii.d ; and at tight helping to Miry " the dead. St it'tohor-b:-aror.s tried to 1 push up, and when unable went into the open w.l limit fuss nr hurry. Shells 1 fell all the while—big shells and. some sheds smaller ih.in the .'hn. "j Wounded men we.e taken into the small I but deep dug-outs that, the eneinv had 1 J dug in th.s loamy soil. In some ooth ' j doctors and padres found hid ng G; r--1 mans and sent them bustling oil" to the i rear. ' i Through it all order n igm fl, though "; companies were mixed together; and 1 oik' bit of trench rmglu- b.- crammed ivnile another was in gle ti d. In s.p to of all this crumples were smoothed out. Officer-, with eompa-,-es and survey,tig tons quietly look bear : ngs, and ■ irdcrlios wfii' sent back w.th piecise ' messages. Our artilhry battered a ■olllllo'-attack and sent a Germ .mi Ivittalion scattering til it vanished like -team Irom an engine. I'atrols wont forward, (food digging was done. Wat r and, food were brought■ > up and here i .11.1 there a t 11 slung supjnies of -0.l 1water bre:id. and collie bians colli eterl n (li'i'iiinn tlug-outs. Xnnie nus prsoneis wore collected in the rear and safely <|. .spate.hi <l. The liiliult position was made firm, a great v.etory registered.