SINGING INTO BATTLE!

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2890, 30 September 1916, Page 11

SINGING INTO BATTLE!

SPLENDID MORALE BRITISH STORIES. FROM PICARDY Reuter's special correspondent at the British Headquarters in the field, France, writes: "You can scarcely conceive the- effect which the recent fighting has had upon the spirits of our men," said an officer of the Kentish Battalion indicated in the official communique of Saturday night as'having taken part in the 10cen't successful advance north of l'oziercs. "They advanced singing, the.y went through- the enemy trenches singing, they used their bombs and bayouets singing, and they only stopped singing when they were told that tiiey must not go any further." There is 110 doubt about it. Our troops are noweverywhere imbued with .the' winning feeling.. They know that the.y are beating the Germans. What is perhaps even more important is that the. Germans are beginning to realise this, too. Their morale is ebbing. They, will go 011 fighting stubbornly, but no longer with tlis conviction of arrogant invincibility. The Anzacs played a line part in tha recent-'achievement.-but they were brilliantly supported by new army troops,and it was of the doings of these latter that I have been learning. The real iigliLing was all over in half ail hour. Some' parties of the enemy put up a sturdy resistance to the Kentish and Sussex men, but the supply of bomba was plentiful, and'gradually they were laid low, gave themselves up, or vanished into their dug-outs. Some remarkablo acts of heroism are recoiled. The leader of one of the bombing parties was twice' blown oif the fire .stepby German grenadesj but picked himself up, took possession of an enemy bomb store, and at the hcfid of his men used these weapons with such effect that he cleared the trench up to 'the point where he made a - junction with another party of his regiment. Tlis Comedian's Way. A ' strapping sergeant, who in civil life had .been a comedian in a wellknown ■ touring company, took numerous prisoners,- and his manner of dealing with them was a source of contagious merriment amongst the men of his' platoon. He would grip them 'by , the ear-lobes and -force them to caper down the communication trench shouting, out, "Parley-voos French. Jay am un offiseer vcos are unblooming'prisoneer savvey?"' A piltrol which had got several hundred yards beyond the main advance was assailed by a heavy double flank fire. A gallant fellow volunteered to ■return and report upon; the position and .aslc foij instructions. His figure silhouetted 'against flares, and Verey lights was incessantly sniped at as lie doubled back, but never hit; Charged .with a message to. direct the patrol to withdraw, he returned under the same cross fire. When the patrol' moved off prepared to fight its way through

tlie Germans, who were working round the rear, of it in considerable numbers, this valiant lance-corporal' brought up a Lewis gun and posted ■ himself in a favourable spot for covering the retreat. He is credited with having killed fifty of the enemy and enabled the patrol to retire in safety before lie made good his own escape. Just before tho advance reached tho enemy parapet a soldier was wounded in the knee-cap and fell into shell hole, where lie rested with his feet in the air, and evidently in the best of spirits until the stretcherbearers came to him some while afterwards singing " 'Mid shot and shell" at the top,of his voice. One officer told mo he had hardly got over the parapet when he was struck on the head by some object, which made but a slight, "biff" upon his "tin" helmet. A bright glare followed, and a cloud of nauseating' smoke came rolling over the brim of the. .headgear.' He put. it down as some kind of smoke, bomb. Another officer complained of what lie termed a "bit of dirty work." Two Germans appeared out of the darkness, and lie hailed therm One held up liis hands and cried "Kamerad," tho other dropped on liis knee behind his companion and tried to pot the officor. "It didn't really pay. them, however," he added (villi a significant tap of bis revolver bolster. The rounding up of the prisoners entailed throwing' <i bomb into the interior of the dug-outs when tho order to come forth was ignored. Apparently the result was like turning a ferret into a rabbit hole, and the favourite cry with tho Huns as they came scuttling forth was "Mo wounded ! Me mounded!" •