THE RETREAT FROM MONS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 249, 20 November 1914, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE RETREAT FROM MONS.

X.z. CHAPLAIN* WHO WAS ] WITH BRITISH. 1 graphic description OF modern war. WHAT FATHEITMOLLOY SAW. (Specially wrfcU-n lor this paper.) NEW YORK, Sept. 2». The Rev. Father James M°" oy ' JJ Catholic priest who ha ® lan ® } sm d friends hll weeks and five days who spent tw ° ? ee * q{ the with the«P« dlUo h n e a J r y t -b br aking w British on the neai d as treat from Mom parchaplain on Gen. fighting day ticipated in the h 1 404 pas . and night, was on Mauretasengers aboard JtortJJ L nia. in to-day tro ™, represetitative ot tne bad s6 en story of ar v i.J e fume s of lyddit* through the yell 0 f searchshells and under the B iar

lights. , c h ar acterizatlon ot JfS H sce ° >»"* ""*• The greatest sla B on bc lund world's history isg , r pranC(( . that censorship lear ns of the : ,W St?a ß beeßP»M.i'"'iU be fi "I had gone to » i Trcntnn i leave of absence, bplace . When N.J.. "which is niy ked t0 become In England I w regiments, and chaplain of one of the post . of night on Ag g convoyed by a fleet s!££&&£**• great flotilla of ste e gQine moved across the Cl a ' Qulogne at a, ~ ">"* days before He trans,.o.= !re aw covered. "Finally our three cor; unioei ing 150,000 men and un 'he su« preme command of Sir Jo'.n French, with Sir Horace Smith-Do Hen and Brig.-Gen. Allenby under Mm, disembarked and moved into Belgium to form the extreme left of the retreating French line. Wo came into conflict with the German* first at Mons. There our men fought blindly for two days a vastly superior force of Germans.

MODERN BATTLE SEEMS OVERPOWERINGLY UNREAL,

"I cannot begin to describe to you what a modern battle is like. There is an overpowering sense of unreality about it, this business of seeing men, kill each other with perfect machines of death. It seems mechanical because of the very preponderance of the machine element in the affair; the human element but bleeds and dies, while the machines conmue in their perfection of slaughtering. "The conduct of the English and Iri6h soldiers in the trenches was sur prising. There those men stood hj& hind shoulder-high mounds of dirt.; facing level sprays of death in front, yet cracking Jokes and singing snatches of music hall ballads between volleys. Stupendous bravery, 1 call it, or stupendous absence of nerves.

"I've heard men under the crash nig fire of the terrible German guns and with comrades dropping all about theni unite in roariug 'lt's a Long Way to Tipperary' as If they were in barracks.

"Sometimes I'd hear a big Irishman call out to a neighbour iu the trenches, 'Well, I winged that Dutchman, all right.' The business of killing, with them, semed personal, and to partake somewhat of a sporting event. "But how the Germans did pound that British line at Mons! They came on—and on—and on, never stopping, never faltering. It was like the waves of a blue-gray sea rolling tip through a fog. One wave woiild break and die away, but another would be right, behind it, pushing oti Inexorably. The German commanders threw their men into the faco -if British fire with absolute reckless ness, counting on the sheer weight oi numbers to overwhelm us.

SAW OXE SHELF, WiPE OUT WHOLE COMPANY.

"To sec those German lines move forward through glasses was like watching regiments of toy soldiers pushed across a table. You'd see a long row of pale blue blocks, topped with spiked helmets, break from cover and come rushing at you." Then a British gun at your elbow would Speak, a shell would drop right in the midst of that blue block, a great hurling up of smoke and soil —and the block would be gone. ( Nothing left but a few little men madly running back through the haze of powder smoke. "But the German shells kept coming and coming. They are terrible, those shells! 1 have seen one shell enter a little hill and there explode, carrying away the whole top of the hill. I have seen a company of British wiped out by the explosion of a elngle shell. "On the'r artilelry the Germans place their chief reliance. Their infantrymen are poor shots and they ran not. 'stand steel,' as the, Hritish kohlier puts it. Tiny break under a bayonet charge.

''Perhaps the night fighting is th« most weird and terrible to see. In this the forces of the Allies had the -.uperiority through their preponderant supply of aeroplanes. • The allied forces on the relruut from Mous to Senlis had ?,* aeroplanes, whjeh. we.;" liij!.' day an.j npbi l-ul |>yr|i. ijlirle at "u-.tii

invisible propellerfa overhead, and hj, j straining your cars could trace tinGerman positions. Gunne.rs stand ready behind their pieces, keyed up! to a wire pitch of efficiency. I

"Suddenly u sparl; appears in Hi"! heavens: it falls. The airman lia 1

111-,-,n ru-,1 Ihe position ol a < i<■ r 111 ;tn ; l.Mttory -:e| hr r.jlli.pe ••-■it !' mjil/ : | the rdiige au>l th* piMtion, Instant-;

ly the British guns roar and a shower of shells soars up to follow the lino of that falling star and smother [the Germans with death. I "The retreat of the British from Mons to Senliß was one long nightmare. No sleep for anyone; no rest from the harrying of the Germafl guns and cavalry. "Yet so stubborn was the spirit of the soldiers in the trenches that they rebelled against the order to retreat, failing to understand that the slow falling-back iu the face of the German ar'v-ice was in accordance with ,vp-p- ' ( ' I'lans of the French and British John French even ex- , I j omc of the private sol- - for his order %s retreat. Kluck turned away fP nn, i ' :to the south-eastward * i. - too soon. Had ho con-n-0t % ' :I, s drive to Paris twelve hrmrf ho would have been overwhel Iby 'be fresh troops or oc "\vE t° rees reached Sen , U ! ; iTh?fSnme"bo|sss u^S« t o< flchting, for we passed ovei the neia. 3f tte inburtcd dead. The o«jnj» had retreated so fast -he> att P nothing more than to take th. wounded with them, leaving then dead where they had talien. "To my last day I will ne%er get rrom mv mind the picture of ghastoath those battlefields presents. '•We picked up many Eng m wounded who had been cared ft bv the Germans and left behind 1 their retreat. The English ha nothing but praise of their trea rnent by the Germans. "Duriug all the time I was wit', the array I saw no dumdum bullet and heard no story of German .atrocity. "Gen. French is a general by rani and experience, but a private soldier at heart—a wenderful man! After • enduring all day the heat and nerve 'strain of battle I have seen him at night go through the field hospitals and talk with tho wounded. "I have seen him sitting on the couch of a dying man, soothing his passing or patting the shoulder of a man slightly wounded and telling him he was an honour to his country. "The soldiers idolise Gen. French."