BOOTY AND MORALE.

Taihape Daily Times, 23 October 1918, Page 5

BOOTY AND MORALE.

0 WHAT ABANDONED STORES MEAN TO SOLDIERS IN RE-

TREAT,

The amount of booty Raptured during the’ closing of tlie Marne 'pocket’ Fas been no more than hinted at as yet, and even when fhe figures are made known it is doubtful if they will convey all that they should to the general redaer. There is, so to speak, more in the capture of material than the eye. If a raiding party returns to its happy home in a muddy trench with 50 machine guns, 50 new pests must bo drawn by the enemy from his nearest store, and from there a long chain stretches back to the manufacturer until the Status quo before the raid has been re-established. This spells additional labour in all directions. Men, pack, mules, transport drivers, motor-lorries, railways, base supply offices —all suffer under the added burden, What this means to lines of communication already taxed to their utmost may be easily imagined. Foch’s blow is being felt to-day throughout the entire German Command.

The mor.al effect oil the troops them-' selves who have abandoned the booty is great. Equipment to the soldier is a symbol of his manhood and His honour, and the loss of it produces in him a sense of nakedness which reacts disastrously on his morale. Though morally and physically shaken during an enforced retirement, and reduced to a state of pitiful irritation by' the slow,' congested movement of a retreat, his feeling of helplessness augmented' by the swelling volume of pursuing gunfire, the : soldier who retains his arms in the entirety is still a moral force. It is when equipment begins to be discarded that the full shock he has suffered is realised.

There is no more distressing and depressing sight to the man in the ranks than dumps of abandoned stores. They tell him his immediate base is threatened, his rations are problematical, his comfort and rest receding from him, Where is Brigade H.Q., and where Division? -He is alone and lonely in a crowd of jostling units—artillery On infantry roads, straggling infantry on cavalry tracks, all cursing, selfishly eager to get away —and his sense of discipline is outraged and undermined by the sight of forsaken and unguarded stores.

Among the morally weaker elements there follows, at such times, the discarding of. personal equipment—the final confession of defeat but among all ranks discipline slackens, and here a rifle and there a pannier of ammunition or the remaining clips in the pouches are furtively dropped, and the lightened soldier pushes rearward more desperately than before. The soldier is ashamed of actions such as these, yet in the turmoil of retreat they are of common occurrence. Any man in the ranks knows that when suck a “rot” sets in it is very hard to stop, and even when discipline is re-established morale remains weakened —the more so when, as in the German case, the ranks have been misled (in more senses tfhan one) by their leader’s glowing promises. What a sardonic chorus these promises must make to-day to the roar of the pursuing guns!