THE INFURIATED SCOTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 179, 7 January 1915, Page 3

THE INFURIATED SCOTS.

Germans bayo::t:t the ayouvd-■ ED. THE LONDON SCOTTISH CHARGE. Following tile vivid accounts published of till- recent charge of the London J Scottish, it is interesting to reail ill the "Scotsman" the opinion of a wounded member of that famous regiment who is now lying in a military hospital. In the first wild moment of tlu> charge against great odds, the solid bodies of German troops proved impenetrable. By sheer mass they drove back the fighting Scots, and the rifle fighting at close quarters caused many casualties in the kilted regiment The first charge, whilst it wrought much damage in the lines of the enemy, left him unbroken, and the large German columns swept hack the Scottish for some distance. Many wounded London Scots lay in the path of the enemy, and at this stage of the fight there were perpetrated deeds which the wounded man related with fierce indignation. The Germans relentlessly bayoneted the wounded men who lay out of action. The London Scottish, as they steadied for the second rush, saw the 'enemy methodically and with merciless purpose seek out tlie wounded men iind bavonet tlicin.

The rage which was surging in the Territorials as they burst into the second charge found expression less in the vengeful yell of the Scots than in the terrible execution with their bayonets did amongst those men whom they now regarded as murderers. To the great satisfaction of the attackers, the Germans stood up to the rush, using their rifles, but hardly ever using the bayonet in the melee.

"The instinct to get in witli the stee'i lias not come to the Herman yet," remarked the wounded soldier who described the charge. "They fire as often as they can; no aim at all; .just low down and anywhere. We couldn't shift them at first. so many were they. But the ratlins 'Seotlies' were busy writing 'London Scottish —their mark' on the brutes who e:in only u°c their bayonets on tlm men lying alone and wounded. There we.s bayoneting in the mix-up, all right; it was we who did it. And the account isn't sqnarred yet.

"It will be found,'' lie concluded, "that most of our fellows went down to bullet wounds. To say that the Germans charged with the bayonet is iaaei-urate. When we got them moving, our fellows fought like veritable fiends, and I reckon that little bit of the Herman Army paid something on account for a lot of vile murderers."