The Battlefield From the Inside.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 4, 8 January 1915, Page 3

The Battlefield From the Inside.

SOLDIERS’ AND SAILORS’ LETTERS. Seaman Woodhead, of the fated Cressy, tells how one of i !iis mates died : i “Those who were lost crossed j she River Jorfan witli smiling ! faces and a cheer on their lips. They died the true death of British tars. As the ship went down the guns were still firing, and one chap, smoking a cigarette at his post, said, “I’ll just have one last draw,” and so doing went clown with the ship.” BRAVE CAPTAIN AND BRAVE SAILOR. Here is an inspiring bit from a ] man-of-war’s man in an account of the sinking of the cruisers : “I heard our captain call to us something like this: Men, keep cool. We are sinking. We may have to take to the water soon, so throw away anything that may encumber you.’ ! Then we made for the side, and as we were all preparing to jump into the water the last words I heard him say were : “ It is now every man for himself.” I never saw a man so cool and collected as our captain was. “ When I got into the water I looked round and saw the poor old Hogue almost on a level with the sea. I saw her sink gently into the water and disappear from view, and the last of her I saw was the bridge, with the captain still standing on it. Then I saw the bridge go under the water and the captain washed away from it. That was the last I saw of our captain, who stuck to his ship, to the end. “Then the boat that had gone to the assistance of the Aboukir., came back and picked up a lot of our fellows. I was hauled into it with others, but it was a boat that usually held only about 70 men, and when I saw about 130 men in it, and felt that another man would sink her, I thought I would make room for one, so, being a good swimmer, I jumped into the sea again.” A HAPPY, CHATTERING, LAUGHING FAMILY. Here is a second document : It is less breezy that the Irishman’s, perhaps, because it is written by an officer, but in essence the picture is the same : “ Our mess is in a stone quarry that accommodates also some 400 men ; a weird and fantastic sight at night, a few candles stuck about and dim shapes of men, and on an alarm they emerge slowly like ants from, the earth and out to their appointed places. We’ve dug everywhere into this hill —trenches for this, trenches for that, caves on the hillside everybody grovels his place of safety in Mother Earth, and into it he dives when the shells arrive, I’m afraid there is little humour to be got, but were a happy, chattering, laughing family in our quarry, and life, though the same every day, goes fairly quick, what with getting your letters, papers, a new kind of food, some rumour, and sleep blessed sleep, we make up for what we lost, and save the daylight--bed at 9, up at 4 a.m., sleep at 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., dinner at 5.30, etc. “YOUR DUCK SUIT IS DRY.” And here is an instance of that astounding sense of fun which, everybody has remarked in the British soldier and sailor. The story is told by an Able Seaman YYm. Fay, of the Aboukir ; “We were told to jump for it and save ourselves. I never thought I was such a swimmer. I think I shall go in training-to swim the Channel after this . . . Many of our men went down, but 1 thought, ‘ Well, life is sweet,’ and swam out . . . “ Just before I was picked up I passed a chum in the water about done, the same as 1 was myself, who the night before had promised to wash my duck suit and have it dry for the morning. He just shouted, ‘ (loobye, old pad —I reckon your duck suit is dry ! ’ Then he sank.” SPOILING.FOR A FIGHT. The chief trouble o c our sailors is that they are “spoiling foi a fight, ” and they issue every challenge, even insult, they can to the German ships nestling behind their foils, as the story told by First-class Petty Officer Warden, of the Southampton, will show: — “ We have so upset the German feet that we cannot coax them out. We have knocked at their door reo ti n-s this week an : twic< last week, but there is no answt r. “ I expect wa shall have to open if and walk in before anyth:: g e’:-3 happens. We want to get i: finished, or we shall have people thinking the silent fleet Ims gone to sleep.

“ The commodore was nearly crying with disappointment on Thursday. After creeping right into their harbour and finding nothing, he blew our siren for five minutes to wake them up. But nothing happened, and he turned us round and cam 9 away and said, ‘ Men, I’ve nothing for you to do to-day. They won’t come out and I can’t risk you under their siege guns, whose range is eighteen miles. The big ships must deal with them.’ ”