HIGHLANDERS’ DASH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1343, 5 January 1915, Page 4

HIGHLANDERS’ DASH.

SKIRL OF THE BAGPIPES

* How a daring charge by a Highland battalion strikes a French observer is very well illustrated by a story which appears in a Paris newspaper. Incidentally, too, the story shows how Scottish regiments have a knack of getting into the thickest of the fighting. On the occasion in question the allied troops operating somewhere about Lille were advancing successfully under cover of a thick fog, when they suddenly found their progress arrested by the terrific artillery fire of the enemy. At this point the read ran parallel with the railway line, and the Germans had the range to a nicety. For the distance of a mile the direct way lay through “a peifect hell.” Moreover, the ground on either side was extremely marshy. The cavalry and infantry made no bones about facing the marshes, but the great difficulty was to get the artillery forward. It was accordingly vitally necessary to create a diversion of some sort, in order to enable the gunners to cross the fire-swept zone. It was the British commander who heroically undertook the task, claiming for his troops the honour of marching in front. Here the writer must be allowed to speak for himself. “At once,” he says, “we saw the Scotsmen defile on our left. Resolutely they crossed what had seemed impossible ground. They seemed to do it, too, without sustaining very much loss, and, fixing bayonets, they made straight for the German gunners. They charged to the shrill sound ot the bagpipe. They charged like heroes of Sir Walter Scott, with their ribboned bonnets and their dancers’ skirls. Neither ditch nor barbed wire could stop them. Their dash carried them right into the midst of the Prussian batteries. Shooting the gunners at their posts, they rendered the guns unserviceable, and, having completed their daring,mission, prepared to retire. The whole thing was over in less than ten minutes.” But not a moment too soon had the Highlanders turned to regain their own lines, which they eventually did. In the meantime the Germans had recovered from their stupor, and other guns in the rear were already ploughing up the ground which the gallant Scotsmen had just quitted.