SOME WAR BOOKS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2812, 1 July 1916, Page 6

SOME WAR BOOKS

Five, Fronts; ;Of the many ; clever aiid enterprising journalists-whs'Ka'vo described the war for the benefit of English or American newspaper readers; Mr, ltobert Dunn, tho v special correspondent of the New York "Evening Post," may fairly claim to liave excelled all his rivals, in tlio variety of his experiences. In his wok "Five Fronts" (Dodd, Mead, and Co.; per Gollin and Co.), Mr. Duiiu records experiences on the firing-line not only with English and' Freuch, but Austrian," German, and Bussian troops.He ipl-. loured, on his bicycle, the British, oijtheir retreat from Mods, and, witnessed the : great Battlo of the .Marne. Later ' on, he watched the progress of; the Aus-; trian defensivt in Giilicia, arid accompanied the Austrians on their .campaign in. Serbia. Another '"quiclr: change, this time to the Western front, found liim fn the German trenches in Flanders, and his final chapters describe, from the Eussian side, the. bloodthirsty struggle;which resulted-in.',tho Austrian . tboccupation of the Bufcqwina. . The author lias all the alertness,'shrewdness, ■end! "hustle" of the typical American, aid: is gifted with a special ability for observing the human aspects of the war and reproducing them - iii vivid and unforgettable .word pictures. He. has. a Bingulariy open mind, and it is difficult to gather, from his book, exactly where his sympathies ' lie—so far'as. the interests of the contending Powers are con- , cerncd. But no correspondent has been jnor» succcssfnl in picturing for us the awful'desolation caused by war, tho Buffering and misery inflicted upon the non-combatants, and the awful destruction and waste of useful industrial elements with which a suffering Europe has been cursed at' the behest of (he Kaiser and his advisors. It v is pleasant to .find Mr. Dunn ioting the splendid coolness of file British soldiers, the "utter .laclc of the chill' and; cringing, tho formality between men. and officers, ,iii whit one imagines is discipline." _ Specially interesting, , too,' if occasionally very gruesome, aro the author's- pen-pic-tures of the struggle as it raged in Galicia. As in France, tho peasant women went on with, their, farm work, astonishingly unconcerned with the turmoil and din. of battle. On one occasion (he is with an Ausfvian battery at the time) Mr. Duna tells how the Eussian artillery suddenly , ""spotted the position." . Instantly the Austrian gunners ceased firing:

The stout captain by the guns gave an order, and the crew ducked into the caverns. I walked over and asked why •wo had stopped firing;. "Why?" blurted he; "Another shot,of ours and they may eeo to drop their fire straight on us.' Tho game was olear then'. Some position, which wo had been shelling all day, at length had found ours. Cheek and coun-ter-check. It was the.,' Russians'. move now, and our cue, since, unharmed, they had found us, to keep .still and not be put. out.,of action. .The , Itujsian-3 were firing . s.alvoes o( granaten, in threes, sit about fivo, jTinmto intervals. ..Game a .vibrant,' . invisible, ■whirring crescendo; the'roar of explosions, and in the . field " at ".the corner .of ■ the grove, a fountain of inky wi l Thirty, forty feet, or,more, it kicked up; and soon invariably in tho same enot, not fifty yards beyond us, Tho shots were bunched perfectly; tha deflection was .cxact. for a hair's lowering of the range would have wiped us out clean. A grey group of'reserves under-■•a,:' big : empty straw-rick began rtorshoufcandscuttle out to the road. For me the moments Taced; in'the spaces between the ear-splitting, thumping roars, ; I : stoo'd~breathless,.""trying to count the salvoes, and keep my mind off tho inviting darkness .of tho. arched proofs'. I think that eight fell, 'filling a good half-hour, any-way, before they ceased. ; I did not -remember.it till afterwards, and then somewhat.-guiltily, but diiring all that trying time my unseeing eyes had been the woman in, the' yellow hood under' the "empty rick.' In her short skirt and high leather boots She had never once stopped feeding straw intoahay-cutter! And ail the time her Jittle girl in.a red dress, with.a pig-tail d(nyn her back, equally nerveless, equally undismayed, was working the handle of 'tho rude machine.

In his youth "liber" spent two happy years in the famous-old French Flemish city of : Lille,, and he is therefore specially delighted.-to find, by Mr. Dunn's account, that the good Lilleois scorn all th'e many attempts of the Germans to impress them with the magnitude and invincibility of the Hun !, fightin". machine. Lille-is in German hands to-day, but it; is more French at heart than ever. Mri Dunn describes, a grand review before tjio Crown Prince, in a great square ,of the city, on the'occasion of the old King af Bavaria's birthday. '-It was a very orgy of goose-stepping, of maßsedi troops singing old German war songs, as they filed past officers at still " attention, wasp-waisted - liko ' dancingmasters. Itank after rank of simple peasant faces, utterly blank with homage in democratic.eyes, turned jerkily to faoo them, like the; ■wooden automata of some vast meohaaical toy.'' \I turned' to look behind, to «ee : how many liilleois had gathered to' witness this paradigm ■ of power and aristocracy. Hardly ono. Only some'igamins lined 'the square, staring ae at some novel circus paxado. The adults, and especially all women, remained behind the closed doofs of shop or home. Mr. Diiflii'3 book possesses many novel features—the curious air of detachment which pervades, it-being rare, even ' in boots written by neutrals—and is a notable additiQn_.to .the literature of the 1 ■war. (New Zealand price, Gs.) Battery' Flashes. I ('Battery Flashes," by "Wagger" (Loudon, John Murray), is the title of a capi-tal-little book, whioh consists of a series of' letters written by a gunner, .describing his training (from raw recruit to sergeant) in "England, "and his'service', at the front, which he reached in March, 1915. The author has a pleasant, easy style, and is clearly a man of consider able powers of observation. A special arid valuable feature of tho book is the way in which the author explains the working of a battery and the duties and dangers generally of the gunners. gor-'does not neglect the humorous side of. tho war. Ho tells liow, on one occasion, the Germans put n slnefc of ' board on their' barbed wiie, inscribed "Gott mit uns,'' which onr men, of course, read through glasses tho next day'. So that night they crawled tip to the board and turned it round to face the German lines, •writing underneath, "Don't swank! We've 'got mittens,' too!" Like so many Englishmen, the author found his school-French was very different from tho real thing. He writes, in ' ono letter:

Went into tlio village to-day about a mile in tho rear. 1 astonished myself by tho cose with which I can converse with tho natives and understand them, and they n:ro as pleased as a dog 'with ten toils when they find a soldier who can under stand them as well as telle to them, aud seedless to say not a, slired of what I learned at school lias been of the remotest use, for so far I haven't had occasion to ask the keeper of a general storo if - she has "the pen of the gardener's aunt-." If I liad I would bot a gunner's nay sho would , answer, "No, but I have some food of the grandchild of my husband'!: brother." And how could one keep 'Cii . tho Entente cordiale on that .sort of .thing?

Elsewhere, the' author ' says it is a penny scream to go into an epicene and listen to Tommy buying his groceries.

'"Ere choom, waiter.- they", call ;them there things in them tins?" Of course, I generally do tho whole deal for him. . . .

Sometimes ho'will como in with a. worried hut doflant look on his face, and «slt in a.'loud tono, "Pang—'Unn loaf, yer know, maddermessol," at tho same time probably Wishing ho could make a- noise like a piece of broad for lier bohoof. The answer is generally the loaf and a murmured "Quatre vingt (centimes), m'sieu." "What tho blank, blank, does sho mean ,by that, choom? 'Ero. take it enter this ma cheery. Blimey, they'll diddle, yer any road"—<iddrcssinc mo and tho woman alternately. At. the end of "Waggor'a" lively and very' readable book aro somo sots of versos, appeals to "slackers," ctc., and a Jujiliiig-liko ballad, .''Lead V the Gun,"

which has a fine swing, and from which I make the following extracts: Sounding alarm, scuttle and scurry, Out with the guns—out in a hurry! Two leagues away guns aro : Covering flanks, someone's ' retired. Orders rapped out, coolly, yet tartly.' "Get a. move on! Harness up smaruy 1" Hook in tho teams, wait ior the shout, , "Advance from the right in column of route."

Bucking and jibbing, rattle and jingle, I Snorting' with fright, team-horse and | single, "Centres" and "Wheelers" join in the fun;: But a steady olii pair in "the lead o' tho gun," . i, ..; Plodding old. nodding old, lead ©' the gun. Jingle and trot, rumble and, grind. Guns to the front, wagons behind; Slip of a boy—little but true, Trained half a year—fighting for you; Liglit as a twig, not twenty-one, But fitted.to drive in the lead o' the gun; .Soon a shell bursts, the drivers reel, Two saddles bare, "Centre" and "Wheel," Still, though the shells shatter andi Eoroam, . , . • "Lead" drives on with his-sir-horse team; He falls at last, stern duty done, ; Falls with'liis pair in the.lead o' the gun,. Lying there,' dying there, lead o' the gun Someone must go. fighting the Huns, Spmobody's.darling drive our field guns; Someone must help to fill up the ranks, Scant though his pay, and scanter tho , thanks. ; . Honour costs naught (save by whom won), So honour the lads in the lead o- the gun, Slogging on, jogging on, Icjd o' tho gun, (New Zealand price 3s. 6d.) . .