STORES THE WAR

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 127, 22 October 1914, Page 3

STORES THE WAR

TOU) BY TJIK WOUNDED. FIGHTING FOR THE GUNS. \ HIGHLANDER'S GRAPHIC ACCOUNT. Lonoon, September 2. A wounded Highlander has given the following account of the four days' fighting that began around Mons on the Sunday and ended on the road to Ainiens on the Wednesday evening:— "At first the Germans came on with easy confidence, as if they were out for a picnic, but vhen our fire began to tear I through their ranks, leaving ugly gaps ' a yard wide here and there, they apparently began to realise that a funeral march was more appropriate than a skip of the beanfeaster, and their apj proach was less conlident. When we beI gan our first retreat on Monday, the Germans pressed forward all available i arms to harass us, and they tried desperately to Bhepherd us into position to the soutb-west that we would have broken our communications with the main French army and enabled the Germans to force a thick wedge into the Allied line. We knew as well as they what was the game, and we fought all we knew to prevent tkcm achieving this end. That was why our losses were so heavy. We could have got away with comparative case had they gone the way they wanted us to go, but we would have uncovered the French left, and every man knew that the. safety of the whole French army depended on our stand. Therefore, we held on, and fought inch by inch, until back on the French left.

WHERE GUNS WERE LOST. 'The heaviest losses occurred in coverign the retreat on Monday and following days, for it was then that the Germans fought all thoy knew in a desperate effort to turn our retirement into a rout. It was here that our guns were lost. Halted out in the open, w'th weak infantry support, and doing their best to Stay the onward rush of the bluish-grey clouds of Germans, the artillerymen Buffered terribly. German marksmen picked oil the horses one by one, and then, when the German cavalry swooped down, the men could not get the guns away. So long as possible they stuck to their posts, but the officers realised that it was a useless sacrifice attempting to. save the guns, and they ordered their abandonment. I only saw one battery lost in this way.

In another case where the German lancers swooped down, and killed the last man of tl\e battery, the situation was saved by a couple of companies of an Irish Fusilier battalion—the Munslers, 1 think —who rushed at the Germans with fixed bayonets and put them to flight while the enemy's artillery poured a merciless fire on them. Many of tn.! Germans around that battery were killed, and, of course, the losses of our men were not light. The Fusiliers were furious when orders came that we were to abandon the guns as no horses were avai'able. You could sec them casting loving eyes on those guns all the rest of the day, and at night, when the time came for them to fall hack, the poor devils were dragging the guns with them, having captured a few German horses and supplemented them by men who were willing to become beasts of burden for the time.

WITH THE RED CROSS. How a German ambulance party eooperated with members of the British R.A.M.C. after the lighting on August 2(i wase told by a wounded soldier landed at Southampton. "I lay for three hours in a eircle of German dead and wounded before the bearer company picked me up. The R.A.M.C. worked under fire, and must have lost a lot of men. Two ambulance parties, British and German together, came up at the'same time. The British officer and the German saluted, and the German asked if our doctor had any iodine. They went off to look at one of the German wounded, and our doctor amputated his foot on the field, while the German chloroformed aim. Then they bad a good look at me, and the German said something in German, and our doctor laughed. "'He says you'll take a lot of killing!' said our doctor. "One wounded German told an artilleryman that before leaving Aix he. and 38 men were 'photographed —they all came from the same small town in Germany. 'I am the only man left alive; we were split up into different sections.' The Germans expected to envelop the British and French armies on the anniversary of Sedan (torday). From several sources it is made clear that the exact position of the British forces was known, and the men who swept forward to attack the British, lines were made aware of their mission. They were told that if they smashed the British force Britnin would ask for peace and desert her Ally. "Another man said that lis found himself 'mixed up with a French regiment on the right.' lie wanted to fall in with his French comrades, but the oflicer in charge smilingly shook hid bead. 'They will spot you in your khaki and put you out in no time,' he said in Eir,'- j iish. 'Make your way to the left—you'll find your fellows owithst hill.' "The Britisher mado his way alono through an avenue of trees. There he found a German lancer lying dead by the side of the road. Someone, had crossed his hands on his breast and put a little eelluolid crucifix in his hands.' Over his face there was a beautiful little hand-kerchief-—a lady's—-with lace edging. 'lt was a bit of a mystery,' added the soldier, ''because there wasu/M. ft lady for miles."

THE BOER WAR. A .PICNIC. "Altogether T was fighting for *e.vc.ntytwo hours before 1 was hit," said a corporal of the North Lancashire Kcgi- j ment, who arrived in London with a hatch of wounded. "Only about "00 of the thousands I was with got propcrlv entrenched. The flcrmans shelled in heavily, and I received a splinter in the leg. It is nearly right now, and 1 hope soon to go back again. We lost fairly heavily, nearly all from artillery firs. The German forces appeared to be never ending. They were around about us like a swarm of bees, and as fast as one man fell there wen. dozens to take his place. Our artillery did not half get it. They suffered most, and 6omc of them were terribly injured." The corporal, who went through the Pouth African war unwounded, added: ''The Boer War was a picnic to this. A large number of our invalids have not hecn hurt in the lie'd, lint are suffering from vari'-ose veins nnd trouble produced by hard marching. Jf they only knew in t.hU country how the flcrmaus were treating our wounded there would be the devil to-pay." A MODERN BATTLE. The men who have some home, as they themselves phrase it, "to bo patci*

«p," speak modestly of tluiir personal exploits. One fact clearly emerged from conversation with them—-that !.«n-i'<>m-missioncd officers and men, mid e.ven moat commissioned ollicers, hare but a vague and hazy idea of the. general fortunes of a modern battle. The [secret is with the General Connnander-in Chief and his staff. The viist body of serving officers attached to regiments :ir<: given orders, which in turn are communicated by them to the noncommissioned ollicers and filter down to the rank and file. Most of the wounded rankers who were in the battle of Mons speak of it as having come to them in the. nature of a surprise. "We thought," said one, "the Germans were about fifteen miles away, when suddenly some German aero planes wheeled over us, and soon afterwards the artillery opened fire, before my regiment "had time to take cover. We were badly mauled in the opening rounds, but there was no confusion in our ranks, and we were able to take up a good position and open fire on the German infantry when it advanced. You should just have seen that advance. The Germans came on in solid formation like a moving wall, and the fire from our magazine rifles mowed them down like grass. As fast as the men in the front rank fell the rear rank men stepped into their places. It was a murderous work, and wliatever may be said about them, the German* arc brave men."

Without exception, soldiers who were present at Mons and the days following speak with astonishment of what one of their number called the madheaded method of fighting adopted by I the German infantry. The advance in «lose order is entirely opposed to all the theories of warfare taugnt in Britain, and British soldiers lining trenches could hardly believe their eyes .when they saw the enemy crossing open country in massed formation well within the range of rifle fire. "I was in the trenches," said one man, "and we had suffered a good few casualties from shell fire. The gunnery of the German artillery certainly is very fine, and tbeir aeroplanes helped them greatly in finding the range. What fairly astonished us was to see the way the infantry came on. As fast as we could load and empty our magazines we saw men tumble down in heaps. But the advance was never really checked. At last, when they got close up to us, we rushed at them with the bayonet, and that fairly broke them up. The German Tommies seem to let off their rifles anyhow. I saw them rushing forward and apparently firing frem tkc lip without any sort of aim."