HORROR OF MODERN WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 20 February 1915, Page 8

HORROR OF MODERN WAR

"COLD-BLOODED BUTCHERY." A British officer, describing some of the fighting in Belgium, says, inter alia : The shelling commenced at half-past 7 on the morning of the 15th (Sunday), and went on without ceasing (except for a half-hour's break between half-past 12 and 1 p.m.) till half-past 4 in the afternoon. They fed us on two kinds of diet only—Black Marias and lyddite, Black Marias being the "piece de resistance." Our situation was a parlous one, as we were under direct shell. In the early afternoon it was reported to me that Captain and several others were wounded. It happened like this. About 9 a.m. a Black Maria dropped into a small trench containing three men close to . One of the peculiarities of this kind of shell was now illustrated, as en bursting the Maria lifted one of the three clean out of the trench, and buried the other two up to the waist, without hurting any cf the three. However, this wis too much for for the moment, st ho withdrew to the farm for a short time to soothe his shattered nerves., taking with him his servant and four other men, while the neighbouring trench was jbeing repaired. He went to an upper room and sat on thi edge of the bed, leaving the two men in the room directly below. Five minutes later a Maria came through the window of the room was in, burst by the fireplace, and passed through the floor into the room below. It laid out flat on the bed. knocked all the wind anj all the sense out of him ; he didn't speak up to the time he was taken away after dusk, but moaned continually. I haven't heard how he get on after. The shells, alas! reaped a rich harvest in the lower room. Poor little ( s servant), the brightest, merriest soul in the world, only 21 two days previously, was killed outright. A merry young lance-corporal, I fear, will lose his right 1 eye, and the ethers were all badly hurt; one fellow had fifteen different pieces of shell on his right side between his toe and chin. | It was then and there that I conceived such a horror of this modern warfare. Itis nothing but a cold-blooded, methodical, mechanical, bloody butchery. Just think of it! Here was a man. probably five miles away, out of sight, directed to lay bis gun at such and such an elevatioi. to point it at such and such an angle, and pull the string of the trigger. That is all he knows about it. The observing officer who telephoned the direction registers a hit on the house, and turn* his attention elsewhere, and that is all he knows about it. Six sorrowful homes in England know all about it on our side —and there we are. The gunner doesn't know who or what ho has hit—our poor devils don't know who hit them —and that is modern warfare. With infantry it is different —you can see Vour man if ho is careless or if yon are lucky—and he can see you under the same circumstances. That is fair play and in the game —but the other! It turned me positively sick, and it will take a lot of getting over.