ATTACK PSYCHOLOGY.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXIX, Issue 3996, 20 November 1918, Page 3

ATTACK PSYCHOLOGY.

THE FIGHTING STATE OF MIND. The conditions are certainly net conducive to study, but there is no doubt that between our own trenches and the B~che you learn more abo.it the working of a man's brain than anywhere eise. -* We were called upon unexpectedly a week or so ago to go over the top in a surprise attack on a muchelated and wholly unsuspecting German corps, Our rest was rudelf cut short and we were hurriedly marched back to the line; so that one might have expected a certain amount of grousing. , I But no ; it was singing all the way : , with the strange antitheses, that all Tommies love—sentimental " stuff ?I like " The Long, Long Trail," bursting suddenly into a full chorus of " Who's Your Lady Friend ?" or " If You want to see the Se-geant-Major, I know where he is." And when wj camr near the line and I passed the order for less noise they began to hum the chorus, if not "sweet" at least " low." You couldn's say that the ordinary Tommy is superstitious; but he has some unaccountable ideas. You won't ' find him,, for example, lighting three cigarettes with the one match ; and he is more thon pleased to get a sprig of white heather from home or o jnascot from a kindly French madam-. His policy is to be on the safe side if there does happen to be any good luck going. Before going in I was carrying a rough stick cut from a hedge, which I intended to throw away in exchange for the more serviceable weapon, the rifle; but the company sergeantmajor approached me with a sheepish smilo. j "Excuse me, sir," he said, "but the j men feel that the company is going to come well through it as long as you hold on to your stick." So I have the stick yet. And I did seem to have extraordinary luck. Besides several shrapm-1 grazes I brought back a battered steel helmet j on which a Boche machine-gun from j close range had played an uncom-! fortabls tattoo. Perhaps, .after all, j "there are more things in Heaven and ea-th " ! At zero hour a man is probably the [most interesting psychological specimen imaginable, were there any students to take note. Up to the last five minutes the majority have probably been sleeping, but they are very quickly on the alert. Then as the whistle sounds and you go forward you suddenly discover that almost every man has a cigarette lit—how they lit them without being seen remains a mystery. It certainly is a wonderful distraction. I wonder how men die with a cigarette between their lips ? As the German barrage comes down the company wags begin to "get going." "They tell me Krupp's is on strike, Bill." "Ah, yes, I quite believe you, Bert" —as a 5.0 lands a few yards away with a tearing erash —"They's flinging stones at us now."—"P." in the Daily Mail. ' •