BEFORE GUILLEMONT.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 872, 25 November 1916, Page 8

BEFORE GUILLEMONT.

IRISH PREPARE FOR BATTLE. I THE ROSARY RECITED AROUND GAMP FIRES. I Describing how the Irish troops prepared for battle on the night before their brilliant capture of Guillemont, an officer writes in a London journal:— The men encamped, or, rather, bivouacked, on the bare side of a hill, j They had no cover, no tents, and j simply lay upon the ground with ; such small shelter as their waterproof sheets afforded them. I It was a bleak and desolate scene, I relieved only here and there by the | bright sparkle of little fires around i which the men clustered. j Bleak and desolate as the prospect i was, the spirits of the men were high ! and buoyant. Some of them sang, ! others were busy in cleaning their | rifles and equipment. Bursts of | laughter rang out in the darkness. After a Long March. It was really wonderful passing . through the groups of soldiers to ! notice the entire absence of any- ! thing like depression. Yet these 1 men who lay about upon the bare j earth had but newly arrived after a I ■ long and weary march over a bad I road, and dming a perfectly terrible downpour of rain. Everybody knew that the next day was to be the day of battle—the day I for which for nearly two years the new battalions had trained, ever I since they first came together on the j banks of the Blackwater away in j Ireland. It really and truly seemed as if it ' were the very prospect of the struggle on the morrow which kept j these damp and travel-stained men in good heart! Yet each man knew, deep in his heart, that, by the next night, many of them would have gone for ever. At one side of* the hill where the men lay a fife and drum hand was playing well-known Irish airs, and they were listened to with keen appreciation and followed by cheers. Sure of Victory. There was no uncertainty in the minds of the men as to the result of the attacks which they were about to make. "It's all right—we shall have Guillemont to-morrow." That is what thev said, and they said it with a conviction which was impressive, i and still without boasting or arro- | gance.

At the same lime these men, so gay and light-hearted, are filled with the deepest and purest feelings of religion. The majority of these Irish soldiers are Roman Catholics, and, even those who cannot agree with the doctrines of that creed never fail to admire the devotion and steadfastness with which the Irishmen adhere to their faith under all circumstances. On the particular night the writer refers to, just as the camp fires were dying down and the men were preparing to wrap themselves in their coats for the rest which they might he able to snatch, an officer came over the side of the hill, and down to the centre of the camp. It was the Catholic chaplain—a devoted priest who had been with the Irish troops in Ireland, in England, and in France, and whose never-ceasing work is keenly appreciated by all ranks. In a moment he was surrounded by the men. They came to him without orders —they came gladly and willingly, and they hailed his visit with plain delight. He spoke to them in the simple, homely language which they liked. The Absolution. He spoke of the sacrifice which they had made in freely and promptly leaving their homes to fight for a cause which was the cause of religion, freedom, and civilisation. He reminded them that in this struggle they were most certainly defending the homes and the relations and friends they had left behind them in Ireland. It was a simple, yet most moving address, and deeply affected the sol- ! diers.

When the chaplain had finished his address he signed to the men to kneel and administered to them the General Absolution given in times of emergency. The vast majority of the men knelt, and those of other faith stood by in attitudes of reverent respect. The chaplain then asked the men to recite with him the "Rosary." It was most wonderful, the effect produced as hundreds and hundreds of voices repeated the prayers and recited the words "Bray for us now and at the hour of our death, Amen."