THE BAPTISM OF FIRE

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 29 April 1915, Page 2

THE BAPTISM OF FIRE

The most brilliant pen-pictures of battle drawn by the looker-on and the most learned articles of arm-chair strategists have, for the average man, nothing like the appeal and facination of the simple stories told by men in the ranks who have fought under the shadow of death and with all human emotions at their highest pitch.

What do men in the battle-line feel; what are the emotions and thoughts that race through the brain-cells of the ordinary soldier as he stands, a panting unit in the swaying human line? What expression does his face wear as he loads and fires ; what are his' sensations as he sees the sparkling bayonet-points coming on him ;n fiercest charge, and how does he feel when he receives his first wound ? This is what everyone wants to know, and what none but the men themselves can tell us.

When, some time ago, the writer asked one of the bravest men who ever won the Cross for Valour, what were his feelings at the beginning of the battle he answered: "I have never gone into action without feeling an almost irresistable temptation to turn tail and bolt; and honestly I believe I should have done so more than once if it had not been for the shame of it, I was never in a worse funk in my life than when I won my V.0,; and if it hadn't been for fear of disgracing myself before my men I almost think I should have turned back. But, curiously enough, this feeling of cowardice has always vanished after the first .few minutes, and has entirely left me.