OUR WONDERFUL INFANTRY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 6, 22 January 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR WONDERFUL INFANTRY.

.SAME OLD SIM HIT STILL EXISTS IN BRITISH. TERRIFYING COURAGE. TRIBUTE FROM THE FRENCH. By Colonel H. Foster, RE.. Director of Military Studies, Sydney University. A well-known French General of Napoleon's time ouca said: " The British infantry is the Lest in the world ; happily there ; s not much of it." Recent fighting has borne out his statement. In this connection, it may be interesting to quote the graphic description given by General Bugeand, of a French attack on British infantry. That General, who fought in the Peninsula, was twenty years later the commander r f the French army which conquered Algeria in 1830. He said: "The men began to get excited when still 1000 vards from the enemy; they talked to 'each other; the march became more and more hurried, and disorder appeared here and there in the columns. The British remained quietly at order arms; their calm demeanor was not without effect on our young soldiers. We approached closer, the men shouting, 'Vive l'Emperaur! En avant, a la baionette!' Shakos were raised on the points of bavonets; the march becamo a double; the ranks became mixed; the excitement caused confusion, and a fewshots were fired from the column. The British continued to stand immovable, and seemed to pay no attention to us, even when only 300 pace; away. WHAT A CONTRAST! •' The contrast was evid?nt. Everyono felt he had to deal with an- opponent tried in battle, and that the nr e 60 long withheld would be very unpleasant when it came. Our fighting ardor cooled; the moral power which calmness exercises over confusion seeking to cover itself by noi.se made itself felt in our ranks. " At this moment, when the highest tension had been reached, the British line came to the present—an indescribable feeling rooted many cf our pen to the ground—and began to fire. The volleys, coolly delivered against our narrow front, plough?d through our ranks; j wo wavered, decimated though ue were in order to recover; then three everpowering cheers from the opponents* liu?, rushing forward to the bayonet charge, and every one of us turned to seek safety in disorderly flight." This vivid picture is that of any of the battles of the Peninsula War, all of which were British victories. It reproduces, with allowance for changed weapons, tin action of the English archers at Ciecv. Poitiers, and Agincourt, or of the British musqueteer s of Marlborough and Blenheim. One volley and a charge overthrew the French at Quebec and wen Canada, and the terrible vollevs of the British infantry at Fontenoy and Minden have gone dpwn to history as the most devastating e ver de. livered. THE SAME OLD SPIRIT. Thj British, battles in France to-day present similar features, and show that British tactics are unchanged in spirit, and that the disciplined coolnes s which distinguished their ancestors still exists in British troops, and that they can await in thin lines as of old the onslaught of the enemy's masised thousands, let them get within range, and and then mow them down by their fire. and then charge their decimated and shaken ranks with the bayonet. As Sir John French reports, the Infantry, liko the other arms, have shown themselves superior to the enemy, and they are as confident of defeating his attack with their magazine rifles as Wellington's men with their Brown Bes^. The very words from the " Times " describing the defeat of the German attack near Ypres might have been written of Wellington's infantry: " Each assault was ea »ily driven back, our troops waiting until the enemy came to ' very close range before they opened fire" causing terrible havoc in the solid mass."