MONTH OF BATTLES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1734, 5 July 1917, Page 4

MONTH OF BATTLES.

MANY IIEKOIC DEEDS. DETEPMINATION OE THE MEN, . Writing' of the first month of the “battle of Arras,” Mr Phillip Gibbs says that for both sides the struggle has been a tiery ordeal, in which a great sum of human life has been burnt and blasted. On the gi’eat day of April 9th our losses were very light, as losses must be counted nowadays, and in comparison with our great gains. The enemy’s losses were on that day huge in prisoners, in killed, and wounded, in guns, and in all the material of war. Since then, after hours, and even days, of panic, lest our tide of men should break all barriers and overwhelm his Hiudenburg line, the enemy has been able to rally, to rush up great reserves, and to replace his

captured and battered guns by many new batteries. That has saved the Hindenburg line, for a time at least, but has not reduced his daily toll of life and -limb. To pretend that our own men have escaped scot-free would be a silly lie. The.casualty lists tell how many we have lost. For all our men if has been, and will be yet, hard, fierce lighting against a desperate and resolute-enemy, supported by violent gunfire, and by what is worse than high explosives —an incessant sweep of machinegun bullets. Without knowing that, one cannot understand the meaning of this battle nor the spirit of onr men. It is a spirit quite unconquerable, very grim, and in many cases admitting neither defeat nor retreat, whatever the odds against them may he. I know many eases lately when men of ours have ignored iifi orders to retire, and held out in small parlies when part of our line has fallen hack in the ebb .and How of the-battles. At Guemappe dozens of Scottish soldiers held isolaled posts like this. At Gavrelle English soldiers fought by the windmill and suHerod herioeally rather than surrender. All through our army, whatever the breed of the men —and they come of all our British stocks —onr soldiers show this same grim resolution to finish the job, as they call it, and have done with it. STEELED AGAINST TERROR. In (his battle of Arras there are individual aels of courage incredible almost in human nature, but wlnit to mo is more amazing is the general stolidity of all of them, this common valour of shop-boys and clerks and farmers' lads and factory bauds. To say'tbey arc always without fear would be' ridiculous. They are often very mneh afraid, as all men must be when high ex-' plosives come out of the blue sky with frightful noises for abominable slaughter. But, these lads arc, by some magic, steeled against ordinary apprehensiveness and againsl imaginative terror. Scenes of the battlefield, dead bodies that lie about, noises of the sky, and thunderclaps of bursting shells, are no longer the abnormal things of -life, but the normal, and our men pass through them ami live in them and become hardened to them. Even Ibe heroic net is no longer ext raordinary. There are so many heroic aels that military medals and military crosses are hard earned (hough scattered wide in all divisions. Each one of thou might have been a Victoria Gross in earlier wars. A Scottish division lighting in this battle of Arras Ims recorded a number of acts of special valour among its men which would fill a book if told in detail, and our boys from English counties .and our London men have done as well. It was a Scottish sergeant some days ago who saw a great bomb fall It) yards from his mortar owing to a faulty cartridge, and bad just a few seconds to decide between life and death. He sprang at (he live bomb, unscrewed the burning fuse, and hurled it away just before it exploded, so saving, beyond a doubt, the lives of his whole detachment. SPLENDID DEEDS OF COURAGE On the first day of the battle of Amis one of onr batteries \vas under (he fire of a. gas-shell barrage for 35 minutes. Two guns and several men wore knocked mil, but the officer steadied liis other men, and, although twice thrown down and wounded, kept four guns in action. Although hit live times, a sergeant of a Highland regiment continued to lead his men against the enemy’s lines, and a little Highland officer in the same action led his boys to two objectives, wont from point to point over open ground under incessant machine-gun tire, and, witli a small parly of his men, rushed one of the machine-guns and captured the team. On the same day a medical officer’s orderly behaved with most splendid courage, dressing and bringing in Avounded under fire until a shell burst close, killed the doctor and two assistants, and Avounded the orderly. But this man did not lea ve his Avork even then till he fainted ami fell. All through this month-long battle our gunners, infantry, stretcher-bearers, and transport men have Avorked in this way on ground searched by shrapnel, machine-gun bullets, and heavy shell, not only in the front line, but' far behind the lines. Runners go down with messages to battalion headquarters until at lust they arc hit or buried in shell-craters. Gunners Avork their batteries on forward slopes iis direct targets of hostile guns. It avus an officer’s cook the other day, a man already Jive times “over iheffiags,” avlio Avent over the parapet and out into “No Man’s Laud,” Avhere he found and bandaged a badly-wounded officer .and brought him buck. These are a I'cav individual acts. Give me time and I could tell hundreds of them, yet never tell all that have been done in these four Aveeks of the battle of Arras by English, Scots, Irish, Canadians, and Australians in that barren Avilderness Avhich is the battlefield from Loos to SE Quentin, Avhere there is never a silence of guns nor any safety for several miles deep behind the lines, nor any comfort for man or beast, nor any peace.’