SIR U. HAIG’S MASS FIRE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 February 1917, Page 4

SIR U. HAIG’S MASS FIRE

Victpry by Violence

The Need of Men

Oi*r New Line Shelled

(From W. Beach Thomas.)

with the British Army in the Field, Dec 2Q Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday—each hour of each of these days and nights our artillery has not ceased to drum. The sound is as constant as the touch of the atmosphere. Near the front it kills all sleep, and ten, even twenty, miles behind men wake to wonder what giant event the tumult portends. What is life -ike where the shells buret? Prisoners taken to-day and yesterday give us some idea. One rather attractive German of good physique and lively spirit apologised to his captors lor his easy surrender. “ What were we to do ?*’ he said in effect. “ The barrage came down like a storm in the mountains. You could not see or hear, and then while we were blind and deaf the English bombs began to burst in the ravine through the mud and dust and smoke.” I have tried by observation and inquiry at every part of the line to test without prejudice the question whether or not those German gairisons surrendered with the readiness of a demoralised force. Many of our own men come from the battle persuaded that the enemy is done tor, but, when all is seen, I am inclined to judge that the victory was due wholly to the violence of the attack: not at all to the lack of spirit in the enemy. Instances there are, of course, of despair and cowardice. Out of twenty prisoners amassed by one unit ten were mere deserters —and { they cams from a regiment of high reputation. They had been hardly tried, and a third bout of the Battle of the Somme was more than their spirit oould endure. If men are not relieved often enough and for a long enough time the best regiments become the worst it artil* lery fire is constant.

ACRES OP HORROR ' We shall beat the enemy not by excess of numbers but by excess of freshness. We need men and more men,-not to outnumber the enemy on . the field but in order that our troopß shall not suffer the German ordeal. A German general’s order of the day, taken in this battle r urged the troops to stand firm fay the promise of revenge, “We will ssa to it that we exterminate the British and Frenoh armies by such a hell as they have themselves created.” His promise also confesses his plight. It is not only the bursting shell and fear of attack that the enemy has to endure. iThe sights of the battlefield weaken men’s fibre even more than the sounds. At an earlier date in the battle a German soldier wrote as follows: Trenches quite fallen in. . . . Dead and buried were to be seen in masses in and out of the trenches, , Six or eight mei were lying near piled one on top of the other. Oa the way to our 6oh Company, which we found after a search of two and a half hours, there were just as many corpses and men buried by shells and men who had not been properly buried, We saw terrible Bights. I have left out jtha worst passage?! but this is euough to hint whao the enemy’s soldiers have to endure, and the new battlefield reveals acres of such spectacles. A cumber of men have not been able to endure it, Almost all—l speak of men, not officers —are glad to be prisoners. But this alleged German demoralisation is physical, and the body recovers. When we relax the enemy reoovers quickly, and he is to-day defending well, except where aud when he has beeu attacked with exceptional wa ght and skill. In this advance along the Ancre considerable groups were quitß dazed, but even these showed how soon men recover. For example, in one trenoh in a sunken road batweeu 300 and 400 men gave themselves up to 16 men, who were accompanied by a padre.

Almost immediately that they saw tne smallness of the party the chief officer shouted an order to recover weapons and attack. He was instantly shot by one of the'soldiers and the “ mutiny ” was quelled. But the incident is a sort of parable. We can win only by keeping the enemy dazed and despairing. Within the compass of this great victory we have seen that where anything has checked the impetus of the attack, whether mud or uncut wire or undisturbed machine guns, the defence has been dbstinate. It was obstinate by Beau-mont-Hamel, and by the Butte de