OUR DEATHLESS INFANTRY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 84, 3 January 1919, Page 6

OUR DEATHLESS INFANTRY

- (By. Sidney. Howard, in the "Daily. • -Mail/') - .. , .■ We weretold that this was a "war of machinery," an "airmtm's war," a "tank ■war/' and. a. "war of 'artillery," but the, infantryman has'.won it, . Flesh and : Wood have conquered machinery; man has proved mightier' than his weapons. Tho.axiom of: Napoleon's General llornnd- ''1/i.nfanterio c'est l'armee,"- has • again -been vindicated. . . '.' ' . The Lee-Enfield of the British soldier has proved-as deadly .as the long-bow his foiebears wielded at Crecy, his marks-' manship as effective as that of his greatgrandfather at Waterloo. ; Tho infantry is the queen of our arms. , The airman battling in the clouds is Buperb,: tho gunner slamming shells into 'the reeking ..gun-breech is. magnificent; ' the tank man voyages into Hunland in 'his' death-spitting, travelling) ;iort, the i . supply services bring up their convoys j to the very tick of time, no_ matter how [ hellish the shell-fire; but-it is to the [ \ man- in the trench that the palm of vic- ! • tory must : be given. |:,.' lFroni those dark days when with bleed-S-i ing feet'he limped from Mons hip spirit [ has been'indomitable. He has nev?r failed !' tW Empire. 1 His courage has trans-.' [. figured- that theatre of the politicians' f "i folly, Galipoli, into a shrine of fame. I The bones of many bleach in the desert | sun, the befdies of others rot in the j mire of the salient, but. as thoy foil, their comrades caught and held-aloft the ; flaming toroh of their unquenchable : valour. ' ! . In: the beginning we lacked aeroplanes, y 'machine-guns, and artillery, but we were (: not deficient in heroes. Whfn the GerS: mans descended in overwhelming hordes K the infantry 'stood'firm and slew them ! ' until the swamps of Flandera 6tank with l. their corpses. The Boehe made hand-grenades and ■ tossed them into the British trenches, but the infantry caught them and tossed them sizzling back to burst and blow the luckless throwers to pieces. There were bad days -when the Hun -Rwanmed the trenches with his devil's ..gas,, but the British soldier clapped wet J raes ; upon .his mouth and nostrils and killed his man before he lulled back frnthing blood. '• /, " The infantry waited while an unready Umpire forged its weapons. : The time ' came and they rose from the' trenches and stormed by frontal attack the greatest fortifications . that man ' has ever made. They paid a heavy price, but E thev broke th« field-grey's moral.' *- The tide of battle has ebbed and flowed. but in . triumph and adversity the j British soldier has never lost his ,head. He has fought in trenches and without them; ho has endured tortures more ox- ! crnciating than ever Torquemada devised: j be has 'fought, parched with thirst ; -with limbs rotting from frostbite. He I lias, suffered an iron discipline without ' complaint; his has hecn the' worst .paid I of any'branch of the sorvice. his casualj ties the'most grievous. . j But he has (mdured and won.