ATTACK PSYCHOLOGY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 43, 15 November 1918, Page 4

ATTACK PSYCHOLOGY

THE FIGHTING STATE OF MIND. The conditions are certainly not conducive to study, but there is .no doubt that between our own trenches and the Boche you learn more about the working of a man's brain than anywhere else. We were called upbh .unexpectedly a week or so ago to go over the top in a surprise attack on a much-elated and wholly unsuspecting German corps. Our rest was rudely cut short and we were hurriedly marched back to the line; so that one might have expected a certain amount of grousing.

But no; it was singing all ihn way, Iwlth the strange antitheses that all Tommies love—sontimontal "stnif" like "The Long, Long Trail," bursting suddenly into u full chorus of "Who's Your.Lady Friend ?"_pr "If you want to i-ee the Ser-geant-Major, I know where be is.".Antl When wo came near (ho line and I passed the order for less noiso they began to hum the chorus, if not "sweet," at least "low."

You couldn't say that the ordinary Tommy is superstitutious; but he has some unaccountable ideas. You won't find him, for example, lighting three cigarettes with one match; and lie is move than pleased to' get a sprig of white heather from home or a mascot from a kindlv French madame.

His policy is to 'bo on the safe side if there does happen to be any good luck going. Before going in I was carrying a. rough stick cut froni a hedge, which I intended to throw away in exchange for the more serviceable weapon, the rifle; but the company sergeant-major approached me with a sheepish smile.

"Excuse mo, sir," he said, "but the men feel that the company is going to come well through it as long is you hold on to your stick."

So I have the stick yet. And I did pcpm to have extraordinary luck. Besides several shrapnel grazes T brought back a battered steel helmet on which n Boche machine-gun from close range bad played an uncomfortable tattoo. Perhaps, after all, "there are more things in Heaven and earth —"

At zero hour a man is probably the most interesting psychological specimen imaginable, wore thc-ire any students to take note. Up to the la«t five minutes the majority have probably been sleeping, but they aro very quickly on tli« alert. Then as the whistle sounds and ydu.i'go forward you suddenly discover that almost every man has a cigarette lit—how they lit them without beimj seen remains a mystery. Tt certainly is a wonderful distraction. T "vender bow men dip with a cigarette between their lips? As the German barrage comes (low the eompanv wags begin to "get goiiur." "They tell me Kni.pp's is on strike, Bill." '

"Ah. yes. 1 quite believe \qu, Bert"— ns n 5.0 lavds n few yards away with a tearing crash—"Thev's flinging tfonei at us now."—"P." in the "Daily Mail."