FIGHTING TO THE DEATH

Southland Times, Issue 17962, 13 December 1918, Page 6

FIGHTING TO THE DEATH

THE FIFTH ARMY’S HEROISM. (Major Cushman A. Rice, U.S. Army, in “Leslie’s.”) Then I was with the British Fifth Army, and I’ll tell you why they didn’t hold against the Huns—they simply couldn’t. They were outranged and outnumbered cruelly. Never in my life did I see such heroism and gallantry displayed against frightful odds as by those men, and if they didn’t fight then there never was any fighting anywhere upon the face of the eprth. Attacked by a tremendously superior German force, they lost almost all of their artillery of any weight the first day, but stuck on the Somme line until almost annihilated. For every inch of ground they gained the Huns paid the highest price in men, and I could tell five hundred instances,in which the British battlers proved to be magnificent heroes. I saw a captain who was in charge of a battery of six-inch howitzers have a hand shot away. He stopped fighting only long enough to have temporary dressing, and then returned to his post and assisted his men in removing the guns. He was lulled the next day. I was with a machine-gun company until all but three of the men had been killed or incapacitated. I told them that I was going to fall back, and urged them to do likewise. The leader, a little Lancashire sergeant, answered: “No, the Boches have chased us far enough. Here we stick.” And they stuck, and were killed to the last man. And these Canadian units. Man, I simply can’t tell you how they fought against odds for five days and six nights, going back only inch by inch. One division of 10,000 men, sent in to. replenish the line, fought continuously for three days and nights. A roll call then showed 916 left. And still there are those who ask if the British ran away. No, a thousand times no. With comparatively few reserves they hung on. They were sacrificed, but it was their duty to stay, and they did it. Too much cannot be' said in praise of the Fifth Army, for it saved the day, and prevented the Huns from breaking, through to Abbeville until the French came up.