WHAT KITCHENER'S MAN WILL SEE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2376, 4 February 1915, Page 5

WHAT KITCHENER'S MAN WILL SEE

WHEN HE GOES TOTHEFRONf AN INTERESTING PICTURE . (By G. ,Ward Price, in the -"Daily Mail/') As the urgent question "When shall we go? draws nearer to settlement, iti Biws place to the equally pressing one: "What shall we see?" Between Waterloo Station aud the ultimate destination of a firing trench in the north of! l''rance there is clearly an intricate journey to be performed. And. from, boutnpmption onwards it is a curiottslyanonymous journey. There are no-time-tables and no guides. The silknattod statiouraaster at Waterloo otherwise au encyclopaedic authority in. travelling lore, knows nothing of its details. Ifefc the khaki-clad passengers who thus set out for that vague place: the front" have no doubts at ali about the certainty and regularity of their final arrival. ' It may be night when the battalion, or the draft, as the case may be, gete on board at Southampton. If bo, the* can turn in to sleep with a quiet mind,' for it is only, by daylight that they wilt get under way, and by the time they wake England is no more than, a memory and a coastline over the stein And yet they have left none of the security of England behind, for a mileaway on either side marches a lean, black destruyer to guard the King's soldiers whiiq they cannot guard them, selves, a line of cliffs, a big breakwater with a dose-built town behind it • that is the French seaport which in this Land of No Names is known as Coast Base No. -—. It is the funnel through which British troops are poured into the fighting line.

Sure of His Medal. Tho sensation of novelty that ordinarily belongs to a first landing ,in a foreign country is heavily discounted in L'ranca just now. There are so many English officials on tho quay that it might be supposed that tho Land of: No; Names had temporarily become a British colony. It is an officer in kliakf who hails tho transport through a mega- " pone as she comes alongside; there ar<l as many "red-caps" as you would se< at Waterloo Station; English motor* care.besides; perhaps a London, omnibus or two in its war paint of grey with' the windows boarded up. And so, kit on' back, rifle in hand,haversack and bayonet on left hip, water-bottle on the right, complete fropi cap-badge to boot-nails, Kitchener's soldier bumps down the narrow gangway and.steps on to the.soil of Trance, the country out of which he has'come to drive the Germans. Training i 6 over; active service has' .begun; he is sure ofi his medal already. Even if his equipment is still lacking in details, however, there is a last opportunity to complete it.' "The supply people are almost uncannily nice. 'Havo you got everything you want-? they say,-; and you can get anything you're short, 1 of from a horse to a tin of dubbin,. whereas in England you've'got to movei heaven and earth t-o get a toothpick."That is the amiable character they get! from the people who : have, passed' through their hospitable hands. For the lack even of a tin of dubbin in. the trenches may mean wet feet and a : sick soldier, one more man for the hospitals to. care for, one less rifle in the firing-line., • •••• , Tho Crlm Came. If it is a draft that is going .out they; may move on to the advanced base Noj — before going up- to-railkead; a complete battalion would possibly go there direct. Quite comfortable trains as a; general rule,. firsfrclass carriages , for the officers, third for- the inen. Not that soldiers going up to the front are as critical of railway comfort as they are accustomed to.be on their Soutfc-. London suburban line at home. Going from London to Paris a week or two ago I looked out of the window at Abbeville Station and saw a troop train filled witli horses and hn'ssars standing on a siding. It was one of those bitter, damp, cold days, 'ana inside out stuffy, heated compartment, with all the windows Hosed t-o please an old French lady, the passengers were wTajx ped in travelling rngs. Yet, the. hus-'. sars were standing' in their * shirt, sleeves surveying the drizzly view from!'' tho open doors of their trucks with tW most contented expressions. j ' And as the train draws, near to th<S? railhead, perhaps during the silence on " a stop_ on the- line, there comes out ofi .. Hie distance a faint, deep, ""sullen'} -. ""Woof!"_ Yon hardly notice the sound? 'at first; it might be anything—a horse< stamping on the floor of his truck per-' linns. A moment later it comes' again,/ "Woof!" like a, short, husky cough,, and then the idea suddenly dawns .almost with surprise. "Guns!" Cuns at Last!

The real thing at last! The anxioug. debates about enlistment, the of forms, the swearing of oaths, medical examination, the rough life of camp and barracks, the months of drill and field exercises, the long routemarches on muddy roads, the tryinjj time of saying good-bye, the journey,' tho new experience of a foreign coun-J try, have all led up to this. "Woof I'M —that is how Kitchener's Army willi come to the war. > From railhead you march up towardsf the trenches. Long, monotonously straight roads, lined with a double row of trees. The column must keep well to its own side, for the other is almost as busy as the Edgwaro Road with supply wagous going up and down, omnibuses, lorries of all the big manu-l facturing firms of England, and tour-* ing cars whose coachwork, which four.i you could see your face in,, ia lion , caked with the accumulated niudl of thousands of miles of road. Two or three officers have gone ott'i ahead to arrange billets. A whito-J washed French farm, with big ouW buildings, among them a dry,, bam.. Plenty of clean straw to sleeix on—what does it matter if you ar« tight packed? The officers have.shake-i downs of straw brought into the kit* chen and sleep on the floor round the stove, with their valises for pillow. Tim far-away cough of tho guns has be-; come by this time a distinct and pros-,' iir.ato bang, and it may even bo that; you will awake in the dark with' a start' at the crash of a random shell bursting! close by. , West morning there is kit and rifle? inspection, and perhaps a lecturo bv> the CO. on the things to be reuiom-; 'boredin tho trenches, to which the< battalion is going next night. The mew sleep during most of the day, for only! when it gets dark can tho work of re-, lieving the men who ore new in thtr treuches begin. It is an eerio experience, that march' out from tho farmhouse into, tho black dampness of the night. Silence and na smoking—the only thing to, occupy the ; attention is tho Vivid flashes and loud! reports towards which .the .battalion ismarching. Occasionally, with a peevish whistle, as if it were looking for ' the battalion and could not fiiid it, a stray shell will come and burst,in front, ' on the Hanks, even behind. It is ouri- : ous how soon one gets used to shell fire. On tlio way some of tho troops that are coming out of the trenches for a rest are mot, very wet and dog-tired, but srill cheerful. 'When they get to their barn they will fall down on tho floor and be off to slotp in fifteen seconds, wot to the skin us they are. That sort of thing would me&n pneumonia at : home, but war is a sure hardener. TEere are sevoral ways of getting iato . i-tnaifib^eoiaaiimfls.. onesjaajJUße

approach trenches thai stretch, a.bug' "way back j sometimes yon can.'come np to them under the shelter- of a wood,, or wEen, there is neither of these means o fprotection! you can crawl along the ditches bordering the fields behind thorn, •The disadvantage of this last method is tnat at the end of the.ditch you have lo debouch one after another and make *a dash for the trench, so that if the get an idea of what is going on, and open, iire with a Maxim on tho ■«pot where the men come filing ont, thoy -can do a tot of damage* If it is a- case ■of advancing to the trenches under '"fire, therefore, it is often well to do so tover the open ground, at wideiintervals Sja-" short rushes.. .' . '- : Ona: Man , to a-"YariJ. ;Well, here you awl These are tho Frenches at last. Tho first thing to be done is to improve them, if necessary. ■The Germans do. a bt of cannonading labout dusk, when they know the. reliefs come up and the parapet of soft soil taiay have been blown in by a shell, filling the trench behind it, so that fit roust be dug out again; perhaps tho •drainage gutter is blocked up, and must Übe cleared for the water to run off. One man to a yajd'is the rule. Here Wd-there a. man is told off to keep a {look-out towards the enemy, showing .Jas.little of himself as possible, for the KJerman snipers will/shoot even the foresight off your rifle if you leave it lying /on the parapet. Otherwise the order [taost frequentry- heard in tho trenches Us "Keep down," for it is very tedious, Bmddled into a ditch only, 4ft. 6in. deep an all, and lie temptation.to get up and Jiavo a stretch is very great. [ It is an odd spectacle to look at sideways, a British trench—the men to dropsical proportions by the enormous quantities of clothes they iave put on to keep the cold out. Not is uniform that would be allowed to pass the gates of any barracks in the country—sheepskin coats', Balaclava helmets, Jeggins made of sackcloth. Tho men !--«quat along the banquette of "earth and [■.punch the mud side of the trench in Kfront of them to keep warm. I "The safest place at this war is in Who firing line," said a soldier who came Jlhcmo on leave the other day. "It is (getting into the trenches or leasing /them ■ that men get hit; once -inside byou're pretty well all right." _ .;..'_ \ "When the Germans are not inclined ko attack it is Tather dull in the fe-enches except for the snipers, who are Ihidden in trees or ditches waiting always with finger on trigger for some incautious' head to .show itself. Sometimes when a look-out thinks he has the lair , of one of them rapid Iconcentrated fire is ordered on the spot. It is- at night that the work of these ■]ook-outs is the most trying-. Someitimes, as a result of hard watching, it-he posts that hold up the wire enHangfement thirty yards or so in front [of the trench begin to move. Strainling his eyes into the< dark the sentry isees them distinctly. There is a German! Another! Twenty! FortyT There are Germans ali down the line I 'And in the'excitement off goes his rifle. There was a.case like that some nights ■ago., .One of the, look-outs in a trench ia* night loosed off three rounds rapid at' "the "'-posts' of" the barbed wire on}tanglement"and instantly the firing ran 'down the whole British line for several (miles, the alarm spreading instantly Ifroni trench -to-, trench-until- several (thousand soldiers were firing, sighted !at 200 yards,, while' the "enemy was rn If act 1500 yards away. Of course it ebon stopped. There is nothing panicky 'about such incidents; they are just cases.of excess of zeal.

'" : "Brown "Em." ! Food is tjrougltt up once a day to the ißearest" cbrivenierif place behind;;the ;■ ilines, a, farm,or a shelter, specially rigi iged up; Two. men from each section • iaretoW off or volunteer to go back and I (get the supply for their, section. The I ii'aTomite plat is "not Haconachie, fi iwhich- everyone, who tastes it describes f- las glorious.- It is: a mixture' of hash hviand 'haricot beans and potatoes m a f itin, and when , it is-warmed up it makes i : la first-class Irish stew that'.sends awarmth stealing down tormumbed toes and frozen fingers. Then ; Ithere are biscuits—not very popular ■'■ khese—and bread and tea, and a ration I !of rum to be taken at night. A certain amount of cooking can be ■ j'done in the trenches over charcoal I braziers, made out of buckets with holes ; Lin. their sides. Empty petrol fans are 1 msed for saucepans. It is part of the ; 1 routine of the trenches now to dig a hole two feet deep by four square, fill tit -with wood, cover it over with earth, i tend leave it like that for twenty-four i iiours to smoulder into cliarcoal. i- And sometimes the twenty-four or « iforty-oight hours of duty in the trenches -~!is varied by a German attack. An odd i 'sight, as the men who have been Lj 'through it say, those denso lines commg ion, falling, wavering, breaking, closing jup again, lying down at the word of • i-command, rising on their knees to let 1 ioff a ragged volley, then down again, ' Hhen another advance, only to be stopped ! iat last by - tho absolute certainty of death for every man if the attack is not : i recalled. The British Maxims rattle ' like an office full of typewriters, the '■ -.men fire till the wood-casing of their : i rifles is hot to the hand. However close the wave of Germans .-straggles it does not worry the British i soldier now. All he asks for is twenty!fivo yards of clear ground in front of Ins ' trench, and then, with one rifle to every •yard, lie can beat off any possible ati tack that can be delivered. TRat is the : !new principle. In fact, the English ; '.Army has ceased to care much about : ''having a big field of fire in front of its - ! trendies. "Let 'em come _ and then I brown 'cm" is the maxim in this war.