WITH THE BRITISH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 153, 24 November 1914, Page 8

WITH THE BRITISH.

LETTER FROM THE FRONT. GREYS AND GORDONS AGAIN. BELFAST BOY IN THICK OF WAR. Christchurch, Monday. Stanley Anderson is an artilleryman serving in the regular British forces at the front. Hi' is a Belfast boy, who worked for a time in the Christchurch Post Ofiice, played football, and was generally well known about the district. He went Home to widen his experience, and enlisted for the love of the game. ■ He did not know what was before him at the time, but he has a very emphatic baptism of fire since, the war broke out. A letter '"passed by the censor" has been received by Anderson's mother, Mrs J . D. Anderson, of Belfast. It is a precious document, written in pencil in the Frenches on regimental notepaper, with the motto, "Quo fas et gloria ducunt übique," a translation of which is '•Whither glory and duty lead." This is no faked letter, but one from a man who speaks of what he has seen. ''Just a line to let you know that so far I am all right," lie says, "except that I got a couple of teeth knocked out with a shrapnel bullet. We have been having a fairly busy time of it, and I think I have, given the Germans a fairly busy time of it too, with the rounds I have fired. We have got them on the retreat now, and they don't like standing up to trie little British Army. I can't give you much news of places I am in, as it is not allowed, but I can tell you we had a fairly hot time of it at Moiis and Le Cateau, but wc gave more than we got. The Germans came up in thousands and went back in hundreds. The Highlanders did well and so did the Scots Greys. They are a dare-devil crowd in that lot. The Gordons hung on to the Greys' stirrupirons and charged with the Greys right into the Germans. They got cut up a bit, but they did an awful lot of damage. Our division stopped it a bit, and so did my brigade, but the Germans got it four times worse. In a letter which was found on a German officer dead, it said the English artillery are fine, and they are very sly. They got into a position and dig themselves into the ground and wait patiently. Then if any Germans show themselves they get it like Hell. My chum stopped one in the 1 first day's fighting. He did not live long afterwards. God keep him. I will pay him back to the Germans. They are a dirty lot; burning villages and behaving like beasts and worse.

"Chaps that have been in South Africa say that war was a picnic compared to this. It is not like the old style; have a battle once a month. We have been fighting continuously or nearly so for the last live weeks, siecpin" beside the guns in trendies. Where we are now they (the Germans) have got a big siege gun, which we have christened Little Willie, and he is throwing shells around ns that make a hole in the ground you could bury a horse in. And they don't half whistle. In fact, one is whistling as I write. Tt has burst HOW.

"The Germans have taken everything worth taking when they retreated. In this division which lam in, t am now in the :!rd, we have a line general called Oeneral Wing. He is great and does his best for us, and the troops think the world of (leiieral French and are quite confident he will lead the troops through all right. I think the Kaiser bnows that he has bitten oil' more than he can chew. If he don't he soon will know." The artilleryman writes in a cheerful si l'ain, and proine-.es to bring back a Herman spy to his sister, just to show what [hey are like.