TOMMY ATKINS ON THE CONTINENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1317, 29 October 1914, Page 4

TOMMY ATKINS ON THE CONTINENT.

HOW THE FINEST FIGHT ING MAN OF EUROPE MAKES HISTORY.

Tommy Atkins is a person of individuality and undoubted character, he has a way of doing things that xs distinctively his own, his quips and foibles have, more than anything Gse, attracted his French confreres and the FteirH people, who respect ids low? for tea and shaving a > app; really thaUrlbutes uf genius ! But the French admiration for Tommy is well expressed iu the frequent ejaculation, “but they are magnificent they are superb, these soldiers !” In the following extracts various aspects of “Tommy” on service are given. lost, but cheerful.

Not until reaching Bonneville, 20 miles beyond Meaux, did I catch up with the Allies, says au American correspondent. There I met some English “Tommies” who were trying to find their column. They had no knowledge of the French language, of where they were, or,where their regiment was—but they were quite confident of finding it, and as cheerful as at manoeuvres. THE REAL IRISH SPIRIT We presently described a lonely figure hobbling along the long white road. When we came up it was a corporal of an Irish regiment. He had been wounded in the foot, and was using his rifle as a crutch. “ Where are you going ?” I said. “Sure and I’m going to the front,” he replied. “How do you expect to get there ? It’s about fifty mjlesaway.” “Ah, now, if I can get to the next village maybe I’ll be finding a waggon to give me a lift; if not, I’ll go on tramping 1” I gave him tobacco and a little money, and left him hobbling along, cheery and con tent. over- wrought. Some of the Tommies lost touch with the fighting line, and alter various adventures found their way to Paris partly on foot, partly by rail. There was one particularly poignant case of this kind. A French officer found a British infantryman exhausted and hungry by the roadside to the north of Paris, and took him to a restaurant. Returning a little later he found the poor fellow weeping like a child. He bad lost his regiment, and could not get it out of bis overwrought brain that be would be susj ecled of having run away and be court- mar flailed.

CONFIDENT IN DISASTER. Two Englishmen were met at the end of the twenty days' retreat. One was a young Lancer, who bad lost his horse. His sole grievance was that he must go back to a depot for another, and would then have some difficulty in finding his regiment. He looked thin and frail alter a touch of fever; but there might never have been anything but victory so far as his spirits were concerned. The other was a Cockney infantryman. He was perfectly happy with never a shadow of doubt about the justice or success of his job, and possessed more confidence than ever now that he has seen them through days of trial, in the competence of his chiefs. SO LONG AS WE WIN. At Neris-des Bains a young soldier with a severed artery, and small hope of getting better, was in delirium. Suddenly he became conscious. He looked up at the doctor with wistful eyes. “Do you want anything ?” the doctor bent down. “Are we winning doctor: ? I don’t mind the pain. I don’t mind dying, it I’ve got to, so long as we win.’’ When the doctor told the story there were tears in his eyes. BIVTONS WOT. TH MO’EH THAN MARKS. Aii imprvioned German aviator, guaroed by two Tommies, cheekily offered oucn-f them two marks for a coat button as a souvenir. The Briton did not smack him across the face, but simply declined the transaction. “You are as proud as a Frenchman,” said the prisoner, evidently

a man of a certain education. “Right you are,” was the smiling reply, “we are all Frenchmen while we’re here.” “THE 3RD. COLD STEEES.” Sergeant Griffiths, of the Welsh Regiment, has written home an interesting letter, stating that at M'.u. he enemy appeared as ten to one, He continues : Tiu.n beg: -‘i that awful retreat, wntch should, and will, go down in history as one of the greatest si.d must glorious retirements ever done. Let it he known we were not beaten, but had, for strategical reasons, to retire. We had to turn olten and give them cheek, which we always did well.

Our boys were cursing because out backs were towards them, but when the British did turn, my word, wbat a game 1 The 3rd Coldstreamers should be named the 3rd Cold Steels. Their bayonet charge was a beamy, accounting, we -are informed, for over 800 Germans, and losing only about eighty killed or wounded themselves. A SMOKE AND A PAPER.

I bad a talk with au English Hussar, wounded in the fighting at Compiegue. He showed me the bullet that had shattered his thigh—an ugly missile, with all ilm appearance ot an explosive bullet. The point was bored, and the lead behind had spread out and flattened. He got the man who fired it. He had been through all the fighting, from Mens to Compiegue. They bad seldom had more than a couple of hours’ consecutive sleep. We slept with our arms through our horses’ bridles. But it’s a grand life,’’ he said, with gusto, “and I want to be back at it.”

Pie has only contempt for the Uhlans- “We came upon a dozen of them one day in a village. We were seven, but as scon as they saw us up went their hards. We took them all.”

A packet of English cigarettes —the first he had smoked for a month —were a welcome boon. He lay back, and took his first inhalation with an infinite satisfaction. Our soldiers seem to find the French tobacco too harsh and strong. Newspapers, too, are always welcome, for in modern warfare it is the looker-on who sees most of the great gameBRITISH IN HOSPITAL.

“I asked a British officer whoar I met whether I could be ot any use to the British wounded. He replied that all those who were at the British hospital at Neuilly were well looked alter. He had heard that there were a few at the Military Hospital of Val de Grace. I went there, and found four British soldiers who were well cared for, though they seemed to be rather lost in the midst of 1500 Frenchmen. I asked them whether they wanted anything, and the articles they enumerated were tea, soap, sugar, razor, and an old pipe.

“The officer who looks after the station of Versailles told me that when the trains came in, the French - soldiers asked for wine, and the English soldiers for water to wash themselves,”