BACK FROM THE FRONT

Taranaki Daily News, 2 July 1915, Page 5

BACK FROM THE FRONT

DR. MARTIN'S EXPERIENCES. WITH THE BRITISH FORCES IN >'RANCH. j li.il.liiNi: THE MI X IN CHECK. Auckland, .1 nni! 28. Amongst Now Zealand's sons who have given their services with honor svnd aistiiw-tion to the Empire in i-ts hour of need there is none of whom the little Dominion is more proud than Dr. Arthur Martin, of I'almcrston North, whose letters, characterised by graphic phrase and leavened by flashes of wit, have lieeii so interestedly read ill the newspapers of practically every town. Dr. Martin, wlio is one of the leading sur-■•i-ons of New Zealand, and who was "walking the hospitals" at Home when war broke cut, lias now returned to New Zealand for :> brief spell to l'ocuncrnle after his tryoing experiences ill France a::d t'laiulcrs. As is generally kno"'i,. Dr. Martin, on volunteering for service i at the outbreak of the war, -was, in view ] of his previous South African ecrvi.".', given a commission in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Twice his gallant conduct oil the battlefield has been mentioned in despatches, but ot tin- circumstances attaching to these incide.Vo ftMartin, when seen by a " Star" representative, firmly declined to speak. Nevertheless, the doctor was iiulu'eed to tell a general story of his experiences at the front, and comment on the following graphic and highly interesting summary of the events of the war is unnecessary. EAR I A' DAYS OF THE WAR. '• To start from the very beginning," began the doctor, " Britain's little army of (!,"),000 men all told left Southampton and the eastern ports in transports protected by torpedo boats, and landed in France. These boats immediately came back to fetch what was called the "first reinforcements, with which I travelled. We landed at Havre, with the idea of joining Heneral French's army, but immediately we arrived at the port we learned that the British had been thrown lmck at Mons. Those English troops had only been four hours out of the'train when they were placed ill action. They were hurled rapidly back, and the reinforcement contingent of 18,000 men found itself in the position of not being able to link up with the main body because it did not know whither the retreat would lead. AT HAKFLEUR. ''The next rumour we heard was that a (Ternum raiding column of 15,000, tra- | veiling on motor supply wagons, lorries, and transports of all kinds, with full equipment of guns mounted on motor lorries, was coining to sack Havre. Here I must explain that Havre was our big base, and was therefore the objective of reinforcements, with 15,000 French troops, were sent to Harfleur, and we found ourselves on the identical battlefield on- which Henry V. fought the French. We got into trenches there, and the French advanced with our cavalry to the (iernian raiding eo'lumn, and seeing the troops in front of .them, but not knowing their strength, retreated. KITCHENER SPEAKS. " And now I come to an incident that has not yet been made public, and as fur us I know has not been mentioned in any newspaper. At that critical moment Lord Kitchener arrived in Havre and promptly ordered that the town should be evacuated. This was an almost unprecedented course in military history, for one of the maxims of Napoleon was that once an army was in the. field the base could not be changed. However, Kitchener said it had to be changed, and the whole of our base supplies, stores, guns, ammunition, aeroplanes, hospital supplies and ambulances were railed to Saint Naizare, in the Bay of Biscay. For four days we travelled by sea, and the whole of the. British troops at Havre, including the men in the trenches at Harden]', went to Saint Naizare, and. it was the new British base. From there we went by train to Le Mans, the advanced British base. The day 'I joined the Army, in the last three days of the retieat from Minis, we fell back at Collimires, to the east of Paris. The army was then in perfect order, though a little hit down in the mouth. The men were tired with marching, and the weather was terribly hot. WHEN TOMMIES START KINOINH? "We halted one day thinking that we had to retire further south. What was our surprise when at "2 o'clock ill the morning the whole army was awakcneJ and we went at a quick march to discover that we were progressing in a north-easterly direction. Rumour spread rapidly through the army that we were advancing against the Hermans. Then the excitement was terrific. Every man pulled his shoulders back and held his iiead erect, and the army started singing, which they had not been doing for many days. There was a tremendous change in the spirit of the army, because, it knew that it was attacking. We marched all day, and in the afternoon met the Hermans on the Ourcq. DUOVIC HERMANN BACK. "We fought that day and the nexf. and drove the Hermans back in terrible disorder over the Manic. Our diusiuii crossed tin l river at Saecy. For the next few days we inarched rapidly across country, covering twenty-three mih's on the lirs) day, eighteen on the roe- ril and four on the third day, when the Hermans were holding us up. (In flie fifth day we only progrescd two miles, and were men stuck, up on the Aisne, where fhe Herman batteries met us, (•■••m.-ral Smith-Do vrien was with lis throughout the march, and we constantly saw both him and Heneral French. FJio.M AisNE TO LA BASSKE. "We Wee" on (lie Aisne until the end of September, anil then we mo.ved acres. France, marching mostly by night and travelling part ol tin* way by train, until we gof to the north of France. Our Division next met the Hermans at I.a Bassce. \\ e encountered them in the morning near that village, anil the Herman-' threw us had; with terrible losses. Towards the evening nf next day the Indian Naval Brigade joined us. Our men Weri' terribly exhausted and cut up. and the Indians took their places, but tle-v Were thrown out of the trenches in great disorder ami with terrible losses. Nearly all their oll'iecrs were killed. The llriti'.h soldier.; -tire;!, worn-out men - again had to come up and take their places ill the trenches. The weather at that time was frightful -rain, hail, a"d sleet and (lie t rein-lies were tilled wiih water and mud. The country in fneii of l,ii F.as-a-r was practically one big swamp, and i.nlurally was difiiciilt to tight, in. "Then the brigade fo which I was attached was sen! to-O.Merdiv. in l-iaril-ers. After this J was in the. trendies at Vpres for I li>-.weeks, and we all got pretty well chocked up with rheumatism and other ailments consequent upon the 1 life in the trenches'. We went down to

Rouen, and a new division from England took our j'l.u 1 i'.i.P'.W.od.* \ MEDICAL, CORPS' FINE WORK. While declining to discuss mutters in a personal sense, Dr. Martin gave 1111 interesting description of the hazardous naturo of the work of the Royal Army Medical Corps. He said that he was attached to the l.ith Field Ambulance and the' duty of the ambulance was ro i follow the brigade into action. , "Both on the .Maine and on the Aisne our duty consisted at night of going up to the trenches and taking out tli-3 wounded," continued Dr. Martin. "This was all done under firu from sharpshooters, 'and most of the casualties among the doctors was due to the Herman snipers, We used to carry little electric torches, but we could not show a light until we were alongside a wounded man. Then we had to use tho torch to discover the nature of the wounds, bandage the sufferer, and get him to one of the stretchers. The regimental medical officer went into the trenches with his regiment, and lie was the man more exposed than anybody else, because he had to crawl about the trenches all day, attending to the wounded." THUKE DOCTORS KILLED. After explaining that there was a doctor attached to each battalion, of whi'il four formed a brigade, Dr. Martin mentioned that there was one brigade which went into action and had three of its doctors killed outright ill one day, while the fourth was wounded and had to have his leg amputated. That mail, Dr. Rankin, got the Victoria Cross. CONFIDENCE IN HENERAL .101'FRE. ''The people of France live in absolute and supreme confidence in (leneral .loll're," proceeded the doctor. "Anything that lie says is law to the nation to-day. The famous leader has said, for two months, perhaps for three months, perhaps for a year, France will be the anvil. One day she will be the hammer, and it will only be necessary to hit once." Dr. Martin paid a tribute t.o the wonderfully successful manipulation of the railways by Heneral JolVre, which had been a feature of the war. The French army was now equipped to the last button and had any amount of supplies and guns. Indeed, they had never failed in munitions, hut at the beginning the disorganisation was terrible. There were traitors at the head of the French army, and there was incompetence, Joffre got rid of the traitors and the incompetents, and now most of his officers are yourg men. At the present time in England there was a great deal of talk about the age of some of the senior officers, and opinions to-day were in favour of bigger commands for young men. BRAVE PRIESTS. Dr. Martin paid a tribute to the heroism of the French priests. They were under arms, for the French military law admits no distinction btAjveen clergy and layman. One of the priest-officers—-the Abbe Lcmaire, one of the most brilliant preachers of France—was wounded at C'harleroi, and while lying in pain was asked by a French soldier to administer extreme unction. The Abbe , painfully crawled over to liiui and performed the rite, and was again wounded in doing so. When he was brought down to the hospital President Poineare met him, kissed him on both cheeks, and pinned the Order of the 'Legion of Honour to his breast. Fortunately the 'gallant Abbe survived, but. will limp for life. Another French priest, after smashing ii]> a Herman battery, held a service for his men in a. hollow, preaelied the gospel of peace oil earth and goodwill towards men, told them to love their enemies, and went back to the charge of his battery, which dealt out death with renewed willingness. "SPLENDID TOMMY ATKINS. Speaking of Tommy Atkins as found him, Dr. Martin said that the Ttritisli soldier was splendid. He was very cheerful, -ho was not afraid to die, he | could march on although he knew that that march led to certain death. The only thing that really upset him was the gas, and t'hat was because he did not understand it. The British Afmy was now supplied with masks, but these were not quite effective, although very near it. There was a, great deal of doubt aa . to what the gas consisted of. Some supposed it to be a mixture of chlorine and bromine, but a famous Swiss scientist. was of opinion that it was azotio acid, made from ammonia, and that the, Hermans could produce any quantity of it very cheaply. HORRORS OF OAS .POISONING. He saw several of the men die from the poisoning, and it was one of the most terrible sights connected with even a military hospital. "It is just as though an asthma sufferer, while in his worst paroxvsm, were strangled by a cord,, .said the doctor?. Most of the sufferers had died; the survivors would be crippled for life. Dr. Martin spoke appreciatively of tnc magnificent work of the famous French "Til" battery, and of the reputation won by Heneral' R. IT. Davies, the only New Zealand general in France. KITCII ENER'S HAMMER. Ouestioned as to what was a fair estimate of the proportion of Kitchener a armv now in the field. Dr. "Martin emphatically declared that, with the of lew coinp-mit':-, t.lio i5._00.0w men placed under training since the war be,.an were still in England. The first million were eonipT^toly war. hut were still in the Old Land. T'nev we>e called ' Kitchener's Hammer. The hammer was supposed to strike at end el the spvir.g. It h».l not, done V et line id.-a was that at the last „..>ment Hoil.n'i would come in. snd the would v.- l'eded there fo strike at Hermanv. Another was that Denmark would declare, war. and that, the wen would be thrust through that country to attack |he Kiel Canal .-VM'MI'NTTION NEEDED, ! peahin" e! the ammunition question, Dr Marl in said that the shortage was most va! pa hie wliil- fhe army was on the Aisne and the Manie. Had it been possessed of big guns and munitions it cr-uld have got. through. For the first time ill the war the Hermans were then n jroiiml confirmation of of flenmin atrocities, and ileelirel that, after his experience of seein - i'.ermle-s old French farmers lying with their skulls battered in at the doors nf their cottages he could credit anv story of Herman "frightfnlness."