HEROES WHO ARE COWARDS

New Zealand Mail, 21 February 1901, Page 63

HEROES WHO ARE COWARDS

A GENERAL’S RECOLLECTIONS OF V.C. MEN. “There is perhaps no man about whom there is so much popular misconception as the hero who covers himself with glory on the field of battle/* said an old general who has seen half a century of and has himself been recommended for the Victoria Cross. “It is. usual to picture him as a man of iron nerve, to whom fear is absolutely unknown, a man who is ready to face death with as much equanimity as he would sit down to his breakfast. There could be no more misleading picture ofthe here, or at least of such heroes as t have known; and my memory takes me back to the First China War, several pears before some of our generals of today entered the army. “I have known many of" these men intimately, but I have not known one who has not scoffed at the idea of having no nerves 0r.... of being *a stranger to fear. One of the. bravest men I ever knew, a man whose reckless daring was the talk of the allied armies in the Crimea, and who won the Cross for' Valour at Inkerman, said to me once: Do you know, I really believe I am naturally the biggest coward in the army. I never go into action without literally' trembling all - overhand-feeling-!an almost' irresistible temptation t-qj bolt. But/- “curiously enough, this feelutg sVigiishes after tlfs first j few [bminiit©s)V and I forget all? about danger. This is my usual experience; but/on on©' ocoasiOii'F When I won pay Cross, I w r as, in .the, blugst of funks the' whole- 'time,, and. if it hadn’t for’ fear of disgracing myself before ijsy men' t almost .think. I / should have back.- ; If I showed anyi courage it was certainly the courage of cowardice.’ “Of course, this is really the highest form of courage; for the/ man wh<jj knows his .danger and faces it resolutely; whilesvqry .impulse urges him to rub away, from- it; is. a- 1 herb than the man who. does ..not, realise Jhis-danger, and has. no A physical “' weakness t-cLi fight _ | ; thing 1 Save observed —that

the man who performs deeds of valour in the field is usually the last man you would suspect of uncommon courage. I have never known a Victoria Cross or a Distinguished Service Order man who was not essentially a quiet, unassuming man, without a trace of brag about him . and I have never known a boaster or 'Swashbuckler who won any laurels in battle.

“In the Crimea positively the most unwarlike man in my regiment was a young subaltern who was little more than a schoolboy. He was a quiet, rd most sheepish, kind of boy, who hadn’t a word to say for himself, and was the butt of his fellow officers. We all liked him, though; for although we called him ‘Softy/ we recognised that he was a good-hearted kind of chap. “But he certainly looked anything but a warrior; and he made no secret of the fact that he wished himself back again in- the Norfolk rectory with his mother and sisters.

“But when the fighting came we soon altered our opinion of Softy, for the youngster underwent a complete transformation, and * was as fierce and reckless as any young lion, always the first in a charge or to volunteer for any specially hazardous duty: and when be fell at the storming of the Redan, fighting as bravely as any hero ever fought, his last words were, “You’ll tell mother, won’t you? She’ddike to hear it-/ Poor Softy! I can t think of him now, after nearly fifty years, without the tears coming to my eyes. T “Softy was- a very fair type of the hero of war, modest and diffident, but with an unsuspected-reserve of courage whic-h triumphed over every physical disability, and literally converted a seeming coward into a. brave man. •

“You would scarcely believe that a man whose business it is to kill men would faint at the sight of blood, and vet I have known a V.C. man do it. We were at- mess one day when a rifle shot rang out, and soon after an orderly came rushing in with the news that a sergeant had shot himself. “We all rushed to the spot, and the first- man to reach it was captain H— ~ a-man who had won his V.C. in the Mutiny, and was looked upon as one of the bravest men in our army.- Pushing aside the little crowd of men 'who had surrounded the fallen sergeant. Captain H. gave one glance at him as he lay in a pool of blood and, putting • his' hand to his head, lie reeled and tell' into my arms in a dead faint. When he came round I asked him why he had been so much affected, and he said. 'Oh, it was the blood that did it.’ And yet this man had literally lived for more than a year amid blood, and had himself shed more of it than most men. “I think absolutely the most‘nervous man X ever met was a wearer of the bronze' Cross. -Even among men be knew his nervousness was often quite painful, and h© would run a mile rather 1 than face a stranger if he could avoid . it. He had an especial dread of dogs ; . and I believe would rather have faced an army than a bull-dog. And yet this man was a lion in war, was wounded, half a dozen times in the Crimea, and. won the Cross at- the Siege of Sebastopol by an act of as reckless daring as any in the annals of war.” .