OLD ENGLAND'S WARRIORS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 222, 26 February 1915, Page 2

OLD ENGLAND'S WARRIORS.

WATERLOO AND Thw FIGHTING QUALITIES OF GREAT BRITAIN'S SOLDIERS. By Richard G. Conover. J 2lo\v much of a battler is the British . ioidier? What is the fighting pedigree of Tommy Atkins and what is his pos-> oible achievement measured by past performance in the field? Great Britain having cast her lot with France and Russia in their war with Germany and Austria, what standard of valorous morale and what prestige does the red-coated man of war bring to the fray? Immediately the army of John Bull is mentioned the mind runs to Waterloo. Beyond question that battle is popularly deemed the accomplishment. These significant facts and characteristics which can scarcely be percentaged or tabulated, should be borne in mind:—

The soil of Great Britain proper has never been trodden by an invading army since the time of William the Conqueror. France has on occasion sent a quota of troops to aid rebellion in Ireland, but never has an out and out French army landed on British soil to battle with a united British people. ' ■ It was the great orator, Daniel Webster, who pointed out in one of liTs eloquent periods that the drum beat of Great Britain circled the globe and that the sun never set on British dominion. Hasn't this special significance with regard to prestige? All over the.earth the Briton has spread himself most liberally and always through force of arms. No other nation has carried its flag farther and more variously to permanent possession. It has taken power, courage and oft tried endurance to raise her banner where it, (lies. When the eye lights on the British Jack there's a picture of prowess and prestige formed at once. Perhaps the picture is much more vivid than actual accomplishment warrants, but the. picture is there. This prestige cannot be standardized with respect to its sure effect.

Great Britain's soldier has travelled thousands of miles to fight, conquer and permanently possess. Other nations have sent their fighting men as far, but after a generation of warfare has been checked u]) it will be found that she holds the most, if not all, of what she fought for. In the magnitude and variety of military operations of which he his been the achieving agent there is no soldier on earth to be compared with the battler of the British Isles. This is a chronicle of fact entirely apart from praise.

Great Britain proper has a population of 40,03(1,570, and yet she controls territory inhabited by every race of man, containing 378,73!),5i10 human beings. Isn't the prestige in the war? Whenever you think of England you breathe prestige.

And remember this—only pne nation in the world ever went to battle with Great Britain without being in the end whipped completely or compelled to submit to subjugating compromise. Sooner or later a British army has defeated its adversary in a battle that meant finality of the quarrel. During intervals the British standard may have ocen trailed in the dust at infrequent reverses, but when the. treaty of peace was signed the successes of the British soldier dictated the terms. The gradual incorporation! of Normandy by France during three centuries of brawling is almost the only exception to England's successful "fight and keep" system. ' How did the British soldier behave at Waterloo? What sort of a man and a I fighter was he? How did lie compare with the soldiers of the other nations fighting with him? Never was there a better time to weigh him than at Waterloo, for he battled at the side ofthe Hutch, Belgian, Prussian, Hanoverian and miscellaneous. German troops. It is a curious fact that Wellington" himself did not have a ve'ry b,igh opinion of the British soldier's sense of duty or patriotism. He believed that he could make him fight and that he would fight hard. Wellington believed in Hogging in the army and many a British private was punished thus for derelictions. Letters are extant in the Iron Duke's handwriting in which lie says he commanded the ''damndest lot of rascals unhung" at Waterloo. In the famous Creevy papers there is evidence that Wellington dirt, not think the British soldjcr would have fought so well had not lie (the Duke) commanded him. The conversation between Wellington and Creevy the morning after Waterloo contains this:—'"The first thing I did, of course, was to put out my hand aTid congratulate him upon his victory. He made a variety of observations in his short, natural, blunt way, but with the greatest gravity all the time, and without the least approach to anything like triumph or joy. "It has been a (lamneft 'serious business," he said, "Blueher and I have lost 30,000 men. It has been a damned nice thing—the nearest run tiling you ever saw in your life. Blueher lost 14,000 on Friday night, and got so damnably licked I could not find him on Saturday morning, so I was obliged to fall back to keep up my communications with him.' Then, as v.c -.valkcd about, he praised greatly those guards who had kept the farm against the repeated attacks of the French; and then he praised all our troops, uttering repeated expressions of astonishment at our men's courage. He repeated so often its being 'so nice a thing—so nearly run a thing' that I asked him if the French had fought better than lie had ever seen them do before. 'Xo,' he said, 'they have always fought the same since I first saw them at Vimeria.' Then he said- 'By God, I don't think it would have been done if I had not been there.'"

Many of the British soldiers at Waterloo had been with Wellington in his Peninsula campaign. Sir Thomas Picton, the (ienoral on whom he, placed the greatest dependence at Waterloo, had boon with him in Spain and Portugal. Wellington said of Picton: "He's as rough and foul-mouthed a devil as ever lived."

Picton was killed at Waterloo—shot through the head—and he was commanding thousands of the same sort of men that lie had often sworn at.

I This is not to be an account of Waterloo—just a few words of description of the British soldier fighting there. In tabloid, the battle was fought at its most centralized" point by 1i5.,000 troops led by Wellington, and Napoleon with "2,0(10 men. The English commander had 150 guns, and the French 24(1. There. is eternal argument as to what the outcome would have been had not Blucher with 30,000 men arrived to reinforce Wellington at six p.m. Twelve miles or so away Napoleon's general (Irouchv with 33.0110 men had failed to march to the" aid of his Emperor. From noon until half-past seven p.m. on the iinmortal .Tune 18, 1815, the French hurled thousands against the allies and were as constantly repulsed. On "points" Napoleon would score because of having heoii the aggressor. Toward the last the left of the allies' line seemed to waver.

Wellington was heard to mutter: "Would that night or the Prussians would come!" But Blucher came. Na-1 poleon tried tin- Old Guard, last and they charged up to the "thin red line" awaiting their onslaught grimly determined. Repulse, and then a sanguinary inn-suit by moonlight of the fleeing Trench. The British losses were 13,000 and the Prussian 7000. The French sufferal \o the extent of 30,000.

No matter what Wellington thought of the animating spirit of British valor, it is a fact that in the battle of Waterloo he placed British troops at tke pivotal or crucial points. It was the liuartls of Maitland posted in the cornfield along Wellington's battle ridge that -prang to answer the Duke's famous uo-"mand, '"Up Guards, and at them!' when Napoleon's celebrated fighters were within twenty paces. The first volley by the British soldiers killed 30U French. The "red coate" fired with cool and steady aim. The French wavered. The .British soldier for the first tijne chat fatal day became the aggressor and drove Napoleon's crack battalions down the hill.

The bearing and behaviour of the British soldiers was illustrated at an important point of the battle when Ney gathered togther five thousand magnificent horsemen, and placing himself ai their head, charged. Instead of being appalled at the advance of this galloping host, it is recorded that the British soldiers felt rather relieved that it was ■ not infantry coming against them. Calm, ly the British were formed into squares, with their guns, placed on the crest of the ridge. Ney's men rode against the artillery and captured it. But the squares poured such a deadly and murderous fire in on them, they were forced to retreat down the slope. Wellington knew.the French impetuosity of attack from his Peninsular experiences. He had evolted a system of tactics specially to resist them. At Waterloo he placed his first line of infantry behind a ridge- so that it might be invisible before, the attack and during the attack itself. Not until the assailants had reached the very top of the ridge, confused by the fire of skirmish|ers and artillery, did the line of soldiers reveal itself, firing point blank at short rarige and following up with a bayonet charge. With the exception of one brigade, and a chain of skirmishers, all of Wellington's infantry was so arranged. While eating breakfast on the morning of Waterloo, Napoleon a'sked Genjjral Reille his opinion of the British soldier against whom he had so often foil edit in Spain. Reille replied:— "When.well posted, according to Wellington's usual manner, I consider tne English infantry invincible, on account of their calm tenacity and the superiority of their fire. Before you can charge with the bayonet,, you will have to wait until half the. attacking party is killed. But the British army is less agile, less supple and less able to manoeuvre than we are. If it cannot be conquered by a direct attack, it might be by manoeuvring." Napoleon is reported to have scoffed at this opinion, so unerringly confirmed before night. If was the first time Napoleon had come into direct conflict with English troops.

He said irritably to Soult: —"Because you have been beaten by Wellington you consider him a good general. But I tell you that Wellington is a bad general, that the British are ;bad troops, and that it will be all over bv dinner." This great battle that settled the fate of Kurope fairly bristles with instances of British valor. Horse and foot, they outfought the French at every point of the field. It has been said that they took less chances than the French and that their commander exposed them less. Well, veterans declare that it takes more real courage to remain calm under fire and not strike back until or* dered than it does to career hurrahing forward in a charge, buoyed up in excitement and passion. Some of the British, squares were charged no less than thirteen times by Ney without being penetrated". The great French • cavalryman, having three horses killed under him, was found by an aide standing in a bewildered fashion at the side of an abandoned British gun, striking its mouth with tiie fiat of his sword.

In a general way it can be said that all of the victories of Wellington over his French adversaries were due to a skilful use of the tw/>-deep line against the massed line which for many years was the fighting formation of France. The use of infantry in line was not his invention.. It was used from Marlborough to Frederick the Great, generally three or four deep. The French Revolutionary generals introduced the advance i n , heavy mass, relying upon its effect of impetus, the same as had been practised by the pikemen of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Napoleon was fond of this massed' formation, although if he had any out and out favorite, it was a blend, or ordre mixto, in which brigade or regiment was drawn up in alternate battalions in line three deep and in column, More dash is required with the mass, more steadiness with the line. The British soldier for more than 200 years has gained much of his prestige' through steadiness.

The British infantry at Waterloo used a nine pound flint lock musket, fitted with a pan, a*d not to be depended upon for accuracy for a range of more than 250 feet. The general volley effect was what'was expected. Each soldier carried sixty stout paper cartridges, about sixteen calibre and about twenty to a pound weight. The cartridge had to be torn open by the teeth, a splash of powder thrown into the pan to catch the igniting spark, and then driven down the musket barrel with an iron ramrod. To stand and reload in the face of fire required the steadiness that became part of the English soldier, most prominently.

So, according to the battling percentages or averages, it would seem that the British soldier leads the International War League list. He has been engaged oftener tlian all Europe. There is nothing that suggests decadence about his prowess; no highest point of greatness in his past history from which he has dwindled or declined. He is at his fighting zenith now as much as at any time of his career. Most of the other nations of the earth have had their more glorious days, but the British soldier's advance has been almost constant.