BATTLES THAT HAVE ENDED IN MASSACRE.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7917, 11 August 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

BATTLES THAT HAVE ENDED IN MASSACRE.

FORCES WHICH HAVE BEEN WIPED OUT. All battles have something more or less gruesome in their composition, but there is a horrible fascination about the fight which results in every one of the losing side being relentlessly slaughtered. Americans s/till recall with a thrill of horror the awful fate of General Custer and his division in the uujl stand of the Red Indian —the battle o Big Little Horn” in 1876. It was on u balmy June morning that Custer’s command, consisting of nearly three hundred mounted men, parted compaiij with Major Reno’s division, and passted over the hill into the valley where a horrible doom awaited it, the gallant General himself gaily waving his adieus, which mayhap he had a. premonition were to be his last. Soon afterwards he was attacked by “ Crazy Horse” ana his brave .but merciless tribes'men, out not a single white man came out of that bloody hand-to-hand struggle iaJi,ve. Next morning they were all found stark and stiff, every man scalped except the redoubtable Custer himself, who it is thought the Indians would fain have spared, but he died fighting fiercely in a vain attempt to pierce an outlet through the ranks of his horribly painted foe*}. THE ALAMO.

Exactly forty years earlier America saw another massacre of iwar, which, however, more closely concerned the Texans, who then were fighting for tlieir independence against the brave but utterly implacable foes, the Mexicans. The glorious defence of the Alama, a building built for a convelit. is a household word in Texcb to this very day. But seventy odd years ago “ Remember th e Alamo” was a battle cry arousing the Texans to a, pitch o« fury which swept their foes like chaff before them. And little wonder: less than 200 gallant fellows held the convent for hours against 4,000 Mexicans. Desperately they fought, while the triumphant notes of Mexican kinds of music outside mingled with the incessant rattle of musketry—fought im every man, except five, wad dead, or mortally wounded. The five survivors were afterwards foully put to death. Unfortunately, our own modern history is not devoid of this? unspeakably horrible side of war; rather does ’t bristle with gruesome incidents. What the Big Little Horn is Jo the. Yankee, Isandhhvana is to the Briton, and'who amongst us whose recollecton reverts to fatal 1879 will forget the indescribable thrill of horror the news aroused. Not an unmounted man of the ill-fated 24th Regiment engaged in that fell struggle for existence ever saw home again, and when the Zulu impis had departed, their lust for blood satiated, 26 Imperial officers and over 600 British soldiers were lying dead on the field, side byside with their gallant Colonial brothers.

It was only a year later that a catastrophe of equal'intensity happened' at Mai wand, Afghanistan, where the 6th Regiment were absolutely wiped out at the hands of the treacherous and fanatioa lG'hazi. No less than 964 iof our gallant men on that fatal day fell never to ONE SURVIVOR. But Afghan soil saw another massacre, so fiendish and gruesome as utterly to ecil-p.se anything that a century of strife can dhow. This was the total destruction not merely of a British battalion but a British army of over 12,000 strong, inclusive of camp followers. Civilised times have surely never shown a worse example of base treachery ana ferocity. There was one survivor, however. Dr. Bryden, the subject of Lady Butler’s famous picture “ The Remnant of an Army.” Though much less deadly than any of the preceding horrors, there is another British tragedy of the battlefield which appeals even more strongly to the reader’s imagination, the fate of the Shanghai Patrol in the last Matabele War. What exactly happened to brave Major Wilson and hi-4 33 heroes will never be known, for not a man survived to te the tale. But this we know, they fell fighting desperately to the last and not in vain, for so terrible was the mark left on the enemy that the la/tter’s contempt for the white man turned to profound respect, and the sequel came in the speedy termination of the war. TRAGEDIES OF THE SUDAN. But for the pitched battles that resulted in the total annihilation of the iosters, the Sudan throws any other part of the world into the shade. During the yca'i’s 1883-1885, beginning with the awful disaster to Hicks Pasha’s force, and ending with the fall of Khartum oil that black day in January, there was an unparalleled succession of military massacres. The fate of gallant Hicks Pasha and \\h powerful force of men was a peculiarly horrible one. Led by treachery into a-n ambuscade, which promised from the first no escape, they fought death in the shape of a foe who never gave nor asked quarter, desperately for three days, the officers fighting on foot, for their horsles were soon shot down; but the end was extermination. Every man was killed. Mr. O Donovan, the “Daily News” intrepid correspondent, shared the common fate. The very last man to fall to the ground

At 8.30 one of the chaplains comes in and for a brief space—three or four minutes only—prayer is offered for the loved""ones far away and thanks given for preservation during the day. There is a post office in the hut where the boys can procure writing paper, envelopes and post cards free, buy stamps, post letters and parcels, change their New Zealand notes and Fr ench. money into the English equivalent and find out —this is the most important information—the date of the next incoming and out-going “home” mail. The hoys also come to this department with the *■ broken watches and our chauffeur takes them to he repaired and gets them hack again ill the shortest possible time. °\Ye are here to supply m far n.s wo possibly can the every not'd of the Lads in camp—to make the hut as l home-like as possible and to try and make up to them however feebly and inefficiently in a small degree for the absence of their own loved ones. Words of mine are totally inadequate to express our opinion of the N.Z. “boys” the neverfailing courtesy, kindnessi and consideration shown to my helpers and myself is beyond all praise. It is indeed a labour of‘lore to work for them, and we o:in never cease to thank the “Giver of all good gifts” that we are allowed to do

this. V cannot say how proud I .am that T have ‘>e?n allowed to be in charge of this hut for New Zealand lads. Tf 1, at this end, can do anything at all to help and assist the relatives of the lads here. 1 om honoured if they will let mo do it. Having lost all T held mast dear in this world in this terrible war, my

sole comfort i-J to serve in every way and any way the N.Z. lads in -Sling Camp and, if possible, their dear ones m tlieir far-away homes.