Tommy Under Fire.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 219, 20 October 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

Tommy Under Fire.

It has often been asked —"What ar* a solVier's emotions when under tire, especially for the first time?' A\e!l. ! soldiers are just like other human he- I ings, they differ temperamentally, an I it may truthfully lie said that 110 two soldiers feel just exactly alike when taking part in a charge. in the "big push," which began pre cisely to time-table 011 July Ist, remarkable unanimity of opinion is found in all the reports of the magnificent behaviour of our troops. The trib utes trom their officers bear eloquent testimony to Tommy's conduct under lire. "Never in all my life," said one " have I seen anything finer than the way our successive waves of men marched, singing and cheering, into that bath of lead. The more casualties they saw in front of them, the louder they cheered and sang, and the harder they pressed forward into it." "Our soldiers marched as if they were going to manoeuvres. They charged with cigarettes in their mouths, laughing, joking, and singing snatches of music-hall songs," sa'd another. " Thev went into it (is though it was a football scrum," proudly exclaimed an olhcer, with the light of battle still in his eyes, "and they wane out the other sido in the same spir't, even a lot w!i > had got pipped." THE INCOMPARABLE TOMMY

Is it any wonder it the officers term such men " the salt of the earth"? No; for Tommy is absolutely in a class by himselfj he is incomparable; and the very finest traditions of the Army reveal notlrng more splendid, nothing moro superb than the dauntless heroism and the complete disregard of personal danger wich the British soldier is showing in the world war of to-day. From the foregoing it is quite easy to see tho spirit :n which our bravo boys tackle the Huns; Tt is the spirit that will win the war. But to seek to analyse Tommy's individual feelings under fire is another matter. Tommy alone can tell you how i e feels under that trying ordeal, ani to that intrepid lighting man wo will leave the job. One of the .bravest men who evewen the Cross for valour, when asked what were his feelings at the beginning of a battle, replied : —" I hav« never gono into action without an almost irresistible temptation to turtl tail and bolt; and 1 honestly believe 1 should have done so more than on e if it had not been for tlie shame of it. I was never in a worse funk in my life than when I won my V.C.; and if it hadn't been for tear of disgracing myself before ray men I almost think I should have turned back. Curiouslv enough, this feeling ot cowardice Ins always vanished after tho first few minutes, and has left mo as cool as i n the parade ground." A famous sold or, f/'.mself a gallant leader of men, once sa"l: —" In a long experience of war 1 have found that the best fighters nave often been the most nervous before and at the commencement of a Ijattie. Some of the bravest men 1 know have confessed to mo that they never went into action wihouc literally trembling ail over; ani yet in every case when the need came they pulled themselves together and fought liko heroes. On the other hand 1 have known many men who have gono mi to battle as unconcernedly as they would' go to the'ir dinner, and they have distinguished themselves chiefly by the care tney took of th<- r precious skins!"' THE GHOSTLY SEARCHLIGHT, Even tlie shriek of shells, the whiste of bullets, and the falling of his comrades failed to shake the equanim rr of a Berkshire private in the fierce fighting before Mons. "I didn't like it,'' ho confesses, but it was the searchlights that scared me. To see the Uv, lane of light working round and round —and when it came to us and lit ns up so that we could see each other s faces, Lor', it made my blood tur-i cold —just like I used to feel when J was a child and saw a light ani thought it was a ghost, and lay there wondering what would happen next." "It is a curious sort of feeling," another man stated m a letter home, "to be under lire. It's —well, you feel thai war is really a dangerous thing." A private in the Royal Scots Eus'lie's said, "It- was my baptism of lire, and [ frankly confess that I thought my time had come. It was a nerv.e-iacknig experience. ] said a prayer to myself. But the fear soon wore away, nnd 1 recognised tlita to save my own skin I must beat the enemy."

Orio of the most interesting side- • lights on the human factor in modern ' warfare is found in the experience of j another Tommy undergoing his ba;)- | tism of lire. It differed in many e- | spects from what he had anticipate !, i He is quite frank 011 how he felt. "J. j had lead a good many stories of bat- j ties and fighting, of coolness and her >- : :sm, and, in consequence, concludvl ; that nothing c( uld startle me. 1 ha 1 ' even pictured to myself the smiling ; countenance, the contemptuous atti- • tilde with which 1 .would face any dan- i ger. And this is what actually hap- ; pence!: —Th ; detachment to which 1 J belonged—on *ts way to meet our regi- ; mem, which was somewhere in the lir'ng line- had halted by the side of .. 1 road. It was a bright, sunny morn- | ing, and if it had not been for the oc- 1 casional boom of guns that remindel us of war, we could easily have mis- j taken our expedition for an excursion. | 1 iwa.s talking at that moment with on • ; Lieutenant —the only man of the party ; who had been under lire before—when ! all of a sudden over our heads we hea-.l • the screech of a shell. In spite of nn preparedness I sat down 011 the grour. I rath-'r brusquely; the Lieutenar l iiadn't moved, but practically all th.' men had scattered 111 different direc- . tions. Tho shell—which, perhaps, w.u ; not intended for us—burst some hutdied yards away, and the men, reeov- , ering their wits, reassembled, joking ; and laughing at their instinctive flight. ! 1 looked into the eyes of my officer, | dreading to find an expression of 10- ! proach or a twinkle. But he looked grave, and I could see that even lie j although be hadn't turned a hair, bad not been unmoved. This was not the last time that I clipped.T>ut it was th--first and last time that 1 saw my com- , rades run away, and latci I saw them ; repeatedly sitting still under very i heavy fir ( >. smoking, talking, or laugh- : ing. Vet I knew ail the time that they, like iny.-.eit, laboured under th n . nightmare of vague apprehensions; I 1 could gather it from their nervous wa • j o r smoking, from their jerky laughs, j and above all. from the same in -ee i • j ant liraverv tliev all displaced.'* 1 . | Till] I (IK COMRA DES. One bronz al youn ; soldier i■ i<t ba ■'* | from I'M all d 1 - \ be l, ho h-!s been tc j the last nine months—.-liT-r comparing : notes with at- least a dozen frends, lias como to the com lrs'on that while '

HOW SOLDIERS FEEL IN BATTLE

the experience of the battlefield affect almost everybody differently, iu tv. j respects nearly a'l lighters foci alike. "It is i curious fact," he said reflectively, "that all of us seem to feel iar less the loss of a comrade who fall; before our eyes and in our compan; than the loss of one whose disappear ance we learn only at the end ot the day's gruelling, or after an interval even longer. 1 have not/eed this in so many cases 'iut I have come to think of it as a rule. Explanation ? I don t know. "In the second place, the most highly strung men seem 110 more attested by the lutual horrors of the liel.l than the strO' j;est nerved at the tim*» fighting is going on. But both the i-told and the unimaginative show the same sort of mental effect when they conjure up the thing afterwards —when they go down to the base for a change or come bacic home. It is only then that what they have seen seems to come home to them in its fulness and significance." THE CHANGED SERGEANT. More forceful probably than any gument on courage and cowardice i* the story of a commanding officer recently told to a contemporary Pressman : "One of my sergeants weakened - whimpered like a woman, refused to go further. Lay down on the road, and refused to go 011. When I lugged him up he was like an imbecile: teeth chattering, eyes staring—rotten sight. Well, lie had to go on, of course. I stuck my revolver under li s nose, and said: —'Now, sergeant, it's just a choice. If yoivgo on you mightn't be killed; if you don't go on you will be killed, because 1 11 shoot you myself I inarched him right into the trenches that way, and his teeth were go:n; like castanets ab the time. I wasn't a bit happy. Ihe chap might get killed He didn't though." Tho colonel paused as he told the story.

"l'vs recommended him for tho D.C.M. in my report," ho went on. "He'll get it, if there's any fairness about. Did as big a thing as ever I've seen. Mopped up a squafl of bombers and led 'ern into (th-o enemy trenches, bombed the devils out, and held the trench for three hours aftei he'd got it. Could hardly keep him back afterwards; he wanted to go on. A brave man! So you can't describe courage exactly, can you?'" Physical courage varies, not only n different men, but in the same man, to an extraordinary degree, under diffei - ent circumstances. Troops, after being rested at the end of a long march and supplied with a good meal, have fought with amazing bravery, and stood their ground under a raking fire, from which they probably would have fled in utter confu.yon had they gone into action tired and hungry. The Duke of Wei lington was no mean judge of Tommy Atkins, and his philosophy was, "'An army moves mainly on fts meals " DINNER DURING ACTION.

During a naval engagement of the Federals at the harbour of Port Royal the dinner-hour struck, and the annum] gave orders for rations to bo served as ustni', the men to cease loading their gins, and load themselves. He was satirised for : t, but he understood the closo connection between the stomach and tfie nerves, and gamed the victory all' the sooner, because n\; men had captured a dinner.

It is a common observation amo .t; officers that troops who he clown even for a temporary delay or rest under lire cannot !>e persuaded to advance a agin so (:;si!y as at the beginning. In the war in Cuba a National Guard regiment lay down under cover at the loot of the grassy slopes that led up to the hill of San Juan outside- Santiago de Cuba. When the order came for the filial rush they coufd not be moved, though they had done well hitherto and were indeed quite as good as other regiments which took part in the assault. Probably no single man in tho regiment felt that the responsibility was his. If eacii man had been alon > ho would certainly have gone on, on the principle tint, though he might be afraid, he was still more nfraul of heing seen puolicly to shirk. But th" spirit of hes'hition in the mass, vaguely shared and communicated throughout the battalion, was a thing that coull not he dealt with. The initiative ;:nd courage of a single man saved e similar situation m the Crimea. At Jnkerman our troops, numbering less than 5000 received and repul-od the attacks of 10,000 Russians with MK) guns. 'I lie men had been on duty for twenty-four hours. Exhausted, birgry, and plunging through ram and fog. they faced the Russian guns with mcrediolc courage.

A BRAVE LIEUTENANT

On.e only in tTiat long "private soldiers' light," as it has been called, was there a lack of hope. Lieutenant Acton was ordered to attack the western Russian batteries on Shell Hill. The other officers, in tho face of such a forlorn hope, declined to follow. "Then,'' said iic, "if you won't come I will attack wvh my own men. Forward lads!" But even the men shrank M'oin the gigant/c task. Seeing this he said, 'Then I'll go myself." That was enough. First one man sprang to bis side, and said, li »Sir. I'll stand by you!" then two more followed; and then he, With sixty men behind him. charged the Russian guns' and drove the gunners back. l'wo-o'-c!eck-in-the-morning" courage has again long been regarded by officers and men alike as "the very highest form of bravery. At that time, hours of fasting havng passed since tho last meal, .sleen has only been partial, tho nerves are not yet stilled and rested. . The d:.irkiv>ss jmd silence Rlrangely magnify the slightest sounds. To be startled out of sleep when m camp, and ordered to repel an attack or make one on the enemy, requires tremendous nerve and cool daring. General Sir Bindon Blood reccntl •- related an instance of a night "attack" which came withn his own experience. The origin of it was amusing enough, hs it transpired, but the consequence might easily ha - e been very serious. " As an extreme instance of the eflect of being under lire," he said. "1 call to mind how. 'll a liTglit- scare 111 •Zululand, in 1579, I came across a private screaming. I, of course. thought be was wounded, hut found he was un"iiebed: merely unnerved through being suddenly awakened by the tremendous fire which our panic-stricken M'oops bad opened 111 every direction. " I believe tliere is no doubt that th , ■liirlii'iilar scare was caused by the sud(l; 1 11 approach of a cow lo an oufpo.-t entry, who took the cow for a Zll l 1 army. If s. of rorr-e. unnecessary *n ''eniark tliat, (be 'troops concerned 'l ti;\ biisine-- wrre'raw and unreliabla." .M IST NOT LOSE IIIS PAY. To define adequately the genesis if valout is indeed a difficult—extrem?-

ly difficult —matter. On occasions it has been done. The Marquis of Tutlibardme can quote one instance fron personal exper.ence. He. had occasion to interrogate a hero who won distin •- tion in the South African campaiiM, and the revelation was, to say th > least of it, remarkable. A trooper ordered to retire aloig with his company :n face of overwhelming odds refused to do so. He took up a position under cover and continual to Uuze away with his rifle, content t 1 take all risks. The result in time was that others joined him, and what hao threatened to become an ignonrnio is and disastrous retreat became a dour defence and ultimately an advance and a victory.

The trooper was, ot" course, coinmended for exemplary conduct and duly rewarded. To the Marquis it occurred to interview him as to why 1 o had done what he did. What were tha motives that prompted his remaining when his comrades had retrod? What were his sensations when he found himself alone? It was only after much hesitation ho condescended to reply, and how he put it was in this way : —" Well, to tell yo i the truth, I had just got my arrears of pay that morning, and I had seven pounds in my hip pocket, and I was 1 d if the Boers were going to get that off .me!"