THE NEW DRAFT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2345, 30 December 1914, Page 6

THE NEW DRAFT

THEIR BAPTISM OF FIRE. MEN WHO FELL THE CAPS HOW THEY "GOT HOME AGAIN'» There are somo very big holes to be filled in some of the crack British regiments now ifighting in the north of France. They are being filled by some i of tho finest young men. England has j ever, sent to her wars (wrote Mr. G. C. Curnock in the "Daily Mail"). It is a sight to make every man's heart beat with pride and joy to see these new drafts on their way up to the battle. ,/They know they are "in for it now." They know that they will be asked before the sun has risen twice or thrice to give an account of themselvesand their. training. When they get -yitliin! sound of the guns the thrill, increases,- but the exuberance of the new draft lessens. Now they' are.out of the train and marchiug along a coiihtry road. Ambulance cars begin to pass them with their khaki curtains drawn. There are odd' eights.,to be seen on the -road. Shattered 1 houses and roofless churches. "That was a big fellow that made that hole," they say, and begin to wonder howr soon they will see the "Black Marias" and'"Jack Johnson's" of which they have heard and read. : Towards evening they have reached a village where they are to billet for tho night. It does not take long for them to find their billets or theirbeds. On the.-floors'of deserted houses they drop ■.into/ billowy masses of straw; a If they aro exceptionally lucky it will be new, { clean straw. • If noWwell, even straw ill which Germans were sleeping last night .is -.better than bare -boards. . I

j -Suddenly -/ a' man dreams . that tlie chimney stack of "t'owd mill" which has threatened to fall these five years has gone with a crash at last. Another is running to shelter down a country lane from a thunderstorm'which has' burst over his head. A third' that tho load of bricks he was carting has taken charge'and burst the back-board, falling into the road. One and all wake up and spring out of the straw. An infernal rattle is going on. What is it all about? .The; Germans! Yes, it is the Germans right enough, waking us out of the first decent sleep we've had since we left England. Where are they? Como along, lads, '.tumble out, the Germans are shellingus. No, it isn't shell: it's rifle-fire. Rifle-fire, you're all asleep; it's- quick-firers. Come on, anyway, stand "to arms, turn out ! So out into the blackness of the night the new draft tumbles, pell-mell.. On© man is cursing because he took his boots off in spite of tho sergeant's warning .to;:do. nothing of the sort. Another is . buttoning up liis tunic or wondering why he/gave away so many buttons yesterday., . • - Invisible Enemy. :. 1 They 'are - out in the dark village street now, this enthusiastic very new draft, blazing away at an invisible enomy, i taking cover "in the most approved /fashion behind houses and hedges, :;firing .blindly into tlie darkness:.. , For,/two hours the. din goes on. Then, word passes along that it is all useless. Nothing'in it. : . Yes, that's just tho way with the new draft.• Panic-stricken ? 'Not a bit.- Only raw and keeri'and ready to go for the German; and finish him off, even if he's a mile away-and the night as black as Hades. : .< The next day the general sends word 1 .that.he wantsa regiment,to j>ake a certain , village. •/: No ' good sending :a ' "sticnyV'. regiment, .he remarks with a' pleasant, emilo. Will the J —'s be good enough to do it? ■

; j So -the. new draft gets ,its chance to «hdw._what it is made of; and marches off ; with great good humour, along with four hundred of the old hands—some of them were new drafts • a. week ago— up an unending country road and into' a very, commonplace sort of beetroot ;field, where the regiment opens out in the approved text-book manner. . . ■ _ Now what happened to the new draft is just what happened to the old hands. They wont > up and took that village, according to orders,. and they lost a good many 1 of their number in doing it; and they accounted, according to the regular order, of things, for a good many more of- the enemy, especially those .who stayed long enough >to be shot and , prodded into forgetfulneas. After that they found the German shells, directed from a good many miles off upon the village ; a little too frequent and free, and retired to the beetroot fields again, where they dug f<jr themselves trenches. And the second night was not quite so enjoyable as"the,first, to the same extent that new-turned earth is not as comfortable as straw.

In the morning the now draft woke to find itself still in the.trenches, and a quaint, penetrating whirr overhead. An aeroplane passed—and a smoke bomb fell. The new draft remarked the ineffectiveness of the smoke bomb; but didi not stir. They had orders to lie still while the German aeroplane passed over.'

After the aeroplane passed there was a. good deal of shrapnel in the air. It came from a long way off and it fell remarkably close, so .close indeed that it kicked up the mud of the field behind and before the lines; and once or twice a man groaned quietly and turned over on his side in the trench, and the next man did what he could for, him until the doctor crept along and did better. Sometimes there was nothing to be done.'

The new draft began to wonder what it a'l meant. This was not quite what they had come out to do. They were a bit stiff after their night in the mud, and a good brisk Tun with a bit of bayonet work at the end of it would have been more to, their liking. Like Veterans. Still they stuck it like ' veterans, chewing a biscuit and taking a drink of water and- waiting for orders. They passed little jests along, and how. and then a man would -fire at a very distant object which he took to be a German sjcirmisher. Al' this time the sound of guns behind them and the whirr of shell overhead pleasantly reminded them that they were, to some extent, "supported by artillery." Meanwhile they had established com- 1 munications with their batteries and had passed word by telephone that they were in good order and the attack— ilcw complicated by distant rifle .fire— was not serious. That was about two o'clock in the afternoon.. What happened afterwards was, in tlie simplest and mo6t expressive of. all words, "hell."" The telephone was the first to go. Then the shelling becamo hotter and more accurate. And after that "the enemy attacked in force," as the official reports say, and a little later the usual German "frontal attack" came. And later , still, under cover of the frontal attack—(yes, they had "mowed them down" as usual, but German lives wero cheap that day and there were more behind)—the German quick-firing guns slewed round to the right and left of the trenches and life became a burden and the whole field filled with tho noiso aiul blood of lighting The new draft fought like (lemons. This they had come to do, and they did it. Their rifles grew hot in their hands and the air grew sulphurous. _ Not a man gave way. They lay oil their stomachs and fired with the steady aim and hard-bitten determination that come to Argwuvisß_iifeows_it.ia in..

a tight place. They did all they were asked to do and more.

It was nearly nightfall before the new draft got the order to fix bayonets. Out of the trenches they tosc, like dead men rising from the grave, and charged. 1-am told that the enemy, what was left of them, fell back in sfieer wondor. They had thought that there was none left to charge on that terrible field. And thug it was that some of the new draft and some of the old hands got home again.