IN "PRINCESS PAT'S."

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1915, Page 12 (Supplement)

IN "PRINCESS PAT'S."

EVERY MAX WAS A HERO. s A STORY THAT THRILLS. « 8. (By Frederick Palmer, in the. New ■ York Sun). y Corporal Christy, the bear hunter, took a particular pains with his shooting on the day of days, May 8, in the history of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in Flanders. Instead of standing in the trench and resting hia I rifle on the parapet when the Germans v charged, he crawled out on the parapet, c In keeping with Colonel "Fanny" Far- r quhar's instructions that the way to end c the war was by killing Germans he was I acting strictly according to instructions, f No danger of his getting "buck fever." t One bullet—one German! As he had no \ clerk along to keep account i we shall ] never know how many he got. ; Nor was he the only marksman of 1 the Princess Pats who could "shoot the eyes of an ant," as they say. The story * of the Princess Pats will be told many ] thousands of times in years to come be- j tween Halifax and Dawson. It is the ' story of a corps d'elite; of a group of \ personalities drawn together as kindred i fighting spirits from a continent's ] breadth; of a battalion which in the j midst of the vast impersonal machine i of modren warfare never forfeited the ( gay and daredevil spirit of the cavalier. , When they were mustered in Lans- , downe Park," Ottawa, and Princess Patricia of Corenaught gave them their ; colours, which she had embroidered with 1 her own hands, they meant to be worthy ■ of their colours, of themselves, and of the Princess, who i? something of a personality herself. Niven, who was , left in command during the ordeal of May 8, considered himself lucky to be a private in that exclusive organisation, when he had had no military experience and 040 out of 1200 wore war medals, mostly of the South African campaign. He has been hit to date only once. For a Princess Pat not to have been hit at least once is to have the luck of the man who draws the one blue chip out of a hundred whites. GET ACTION THEY SEEK. There was no holding such a regiment back in the dreary business of preparation in Salisbury Plain in winter slush. These veterans had had their drill before; they wanted action. Sir John French had action in plenty for t\tm waiting in Flanders. Their Colonel was Major Francis Farquhar, better known as "Fanny" Farquhar, who was-an aide to the Duke of Connaught at Ottawa when the war began, a type of Englishman at home either at court or in a mining camp. "When the Colonel looked at you," said his men, "you looked around to see what it was behind you that he was looking at." He knew Iris Canadians and he knew his British army. He had soldier brains and' soldier spirit, and the gift of making men like him. When the Princess Pats reached Flanders they i found a brougham in the stables of a I chateau and drove Colonel "Fanny" about behind a four-horse team in something of the style which befitted the | commander of Princess Patricia's CanI adian Light Infantry. ! "If a German fiare lighted at his feet," said one of his officers "illuminating liis fisure to the German sharpshooters, he did not seem so know that it was there. He went right on talking. Did he duck his head below the parapet of- the trench as-lie walked along' Not he. It never occurred to him. He was too interested in his work," German sharpshooters being particularly on the lookout for this kind of a target, it is surprising that Farquliar lasted until March. Hi- was shot through the head, which is whore most men "get it" in trench warfare. Armitage, who was a graduate of West Point, was also hit ir. the head. For of course there was a West Pointer in the Princess Pats. There is bound to be one in any legion of this kind. But Farquhar did not go till he had put his stamp on the Princess Pats —not till March, and after St. Eloi. His men will talk about him for hours. LEARN TRENCH WARFARE. From him they learned the A, B, C's of winter trench warfare in that salient of St. Eloi, the kind of trench where, if you laid down your rifle and went to pick it up again it had very likely disappeared in the mud, where at best a rifle would get foul with dirt in two or three days. They were stuck out in an angle, where they got an enfilading fire, yes, very much stuck, with the icy water up to their knees in places and in other other places up to their thighs. Steam-heated hotel rooms in Montreal and cosy corners in slippers with your evening paper under the lamplight sccm- ~~ ed far away. That salient must be held against the Germans, whose trenches were anywhere from thirty to sixty yards distant. Frostbite was a worse enemy than the German bullets. A Canadian knows how to battle with frostbite, too. The Princess Pats kept moving and exercising, they kept their blood circulating. Most of them were veterans of roughing it as well as war. They were used to taking care of themselves, and they were physically toughened examples of the survival of the fittest before they came to Fhtmlcrs. It was not in the nature of the Germans to sit quiet after the British tool; Neuve Ciiapelle. If they are hit 8 punishing blow they always try to conn back with one. Following the nsua method, they made the British trenches in front of St. Eloi untenable with artillery fire and their infantry swepl forward under its cover and took thai precious hill. No sleep, no drying the'u elotlies in tlioir quarters that night t'oi the Princess Pats, whose turn it was tc rest and sleep. They wore needed every British soldier in that vicinity wa: needed. It was in a big chateau that I iirsl heard the story of May S, and felt tin thrill of it as" told by' its participants There were twenty bedrooms in thai (lmtean. It I wished to stay all nigh I might occupy three or four, and a: for that bathroom, paradise to mei who have been buried in filthy iiiud bj high explosives, the Frenchman whi planned it had the most spacious idea: in imersion. A tub, or a shower, or : hose, as you pleased. The 4th of May was bad enough, s ghastly forerunner for the Bth. Oi the 4th the Princess Pats, after bavin; been under shell fire throughout tin second battle of Ypres, the "gas bat tie," were ordered forv. ird to a nev line to the south-west ot Ypres. To tin north of Ypres of British line had beei driven back by the concei .ration of shel \ fire and the roiling deadly march of thi )\ clouds of asyhyxiating gsi. J \ The Germans were still detcrminec / to take the town which they had show ered with 4,000,000d01. worth of shells It would be bjq news, ijie fall oi Xnre,

as a prelude to the fall of Przemysl and of Lemberg. A wicked salient was pro. duced in tiic British line to the southeast by the cavern to the north. It seems to be the lot of the Princess Pats to get into salients. On the 4th they lost twenty-eight men killed and ninetyeight wounded from a gruelling all day shell fire and stone-walling. That night they got relief, and were out for two days, when they were back in the front trenches again. The sth and the 6th were faintly quiet. Only three wen killed and seventeen wounded. START DAY WITH 035 MEN. On the night of May 7 the Princess Pats had a muster of 635 men. This was a good deal less than half of the original total in the battalion, including recruits who had come out to fill the gaps caused by death, wounds and sickness. Bear in mind that before this war a force was supposed to prepare for retreat with a loss of 10 per cent, and get under way for the rear with a loss of 15 per cent, and that with the loss of 30 per cent, it was supposed to have borne 'all that can be expected of the best . The Germans were quiet that night, suggestively quiet, At 4.30 the prelude began; by 5.30 the German gunners had fairly warmed to their work. They were using every kind of shell they had in the locker. Every signal wire the Princess Pats possessed had been cut. The brigade commander could not know what was happening to them, and they could not know his wishes, except that it may be taken for granted that the orders of any British brigade commander are always to "stick it." The shell lire was as thick at the Princess Pats' back as in front of them. They were fenced in by shell fire. And they were infantry taking what the guns gave in order to put them out of business, so that the way «would be clear for the German infantry to charge. In theory they ought to have been mangled beyond the power of resistance by

what is called "the artillery preparation" for the infantry to attack. Every man of the Princess Pats knew what was coming. There was relief in their hearts vrhen they saw the Germans break from their trenches and start down the slope of the hill in front. Now they could take it out of the German infantry in payment for what the German guns were doing to them. This wa9 their only thought. Being good sliot9, with the instinct of the man who is used to shooting at game, the Princess Pats "shoot to kill," and at individual targets. The light green of the German uniform is more visible on the deep green background of spring grass and foliage than against the tints of autumn. MEN BURIED BY SHELLS.

The Germans bad found the points in the Princess Pats trench occupied by the machine gun 3. At least, they could put these hornets' nests out of business, if not all the individual riflemen. So they concentrated high explosive shells on them. They did the trick; it buried them. But a buried maeliiue gun may .be dug out two or three times and keep on firing as long as it will work, and as long as there is any one to man it. The left half of th< right fire trench got three or four shells, one after another, bang into it. There was no trench left, only macerated (krth and mangled men. Those emerging alive were told to fall. back to the communicating trench that was also blown in in their face. By noon there were as many dead and wounded in the Princess Pats trench as there were men fit for action. Those unhurt did not have to be steadied by their superiors. Knocked down by a concussion, they sprang up with the promptness of disgust of one thrown off a horse or tripped by a wire. When told to move from one part of the trench to another where there was desperate need, a word was sufficient direction. They understood what was wanted of them, these veterans. Then went. They seized every lull to drop the rifle for the spade and repair the breaches. When they were not shooting they were digging.

REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE. At 1.30 o'clock a cheer rose from that trench. It was for a platoon of the King's Royal Rifles which had come as 1 reinforcements. Oh, but tjiat band of Tommies did not look good to the Princess Pats. And the little prize packet that the very reliable Mr. Atkins had with him, the machine gun! ! Now Niven got word by messenger to t go to the nearest point where the tele- 1 , phone was working and tell the brigade 1 > commander the complete details of the ' - situation. The brigade commander ask- ' i ed him if he could stick, and he said, r "Yes, sir," which is what Colonel 1 l 'Tanny" Farquhar would have said. That , trip was hardly what would bo called , r peaceful. The orderly whom Niven had r with him both going and coming was hit by high explosive shells. Niven is so 1 small—it is very difficult to hit him. r He had been worrying about his sup- - ply of rifle cartridges. There were not d enough to take care of another Gers man infantry charge, which was surely y coming. After repelling two charges e think of failing to repel the third for i- want of ammunition. But appeared ;- again Mr. Thomas Atkins, another pla- •- toon of him with twenty boxes of cartd ridges, which were rather a risky bur- "- den to bring through the shell fire. The y relief as these were distributed was that 3, of having something at your throat which threatenes to strangle you re- ;- moved Making another tour of his trenches i"- about four in the afternoon, Niven found k that there was a gap of fifty yards a between his left and the right of the adie joining regiment. Fifty yards is the il inch on the end of a man's nose in trench if) warfare on such an occasion. He was r- able to place eight men in that gap. At >t least they could keep a lookout and tell it him what was going on. ir >r GERMANS ADVANCE AGAIN. :o I; It was not cheering news either to is learn a little later that the regiments on his left had withdrawn to trenches about three hundred yards to the rear, ie a long distance in trencli warfare, s. But the Princess Pats had no time for it retirements. They could have gone only it in the panic, of men who think of nois thing in their demoralisation except to :n (Ice from the danger in front without ly thinking that there may be more dan--10 gors to the rear. They were held where is thev were under what cover they had a by the renewed blast of shells, putting the machine guns out of action again, a which suddenly ceased, for the Germans )n v/ere coming on again, ig Nov/ -vas the supreme effort. It was ie as a nightmare in which only the obt- jeetive of effort is recalled and all else w is a vague struggle of all the strength ie one can exert against smothering odds. ;n The Princess Pats shot at Germans, dl After a night without sleep, after a day ie among their dead and wounded, after the torrents of shell fire, after breathing id smoke, dust and gas, these veterans were v- in a state of exaltation, entirely uncons. seious of dangers of their surroundings, 33 mindless of what cams nsxt* automatic*

ally shooting to kill, as they were trained to do, even as a man pulls with every ounce of strength iie lias in him in the crucial test of a tug of war. Corporal Dover had to give up firing hia machine gun at last. Wounded, he had dug it out of the eartb after an ciplosion and set it up again. The explosion that destroyed the gun finally crushed his leg and arm. He crawled out of the debris towards the support trench which had become the fire trench, only to be killed by a bullet. The Germans got posession of a section of the Princess Pats' trench, where, it is believed, no Canadians were left alive. But the German effort died there. It could get no further. This was as near to Ypres as the Germans were to go in this direction. When the day's work was done, and there, in sight of the field scattered with German dead, the Princess Pats counted their numbers; of the ti.'lf) men who had begun the fight at daybieak 150 men and four officers, Niven, Pauinc-au, Clark, and Vandenberg, remained fit for duty. Darkness found all the survivors among the Princess Pats were in the support and comunication trenches. The fire trench had become an untenable dust heap. They crept out only to bring in any wounded unable to help themselves, and wounded and rescuers were more than once hit in the process. It was too dangerous to attempt to bury the dead who were in the fire trench. Most of them had already been buried by shells. For thera and for the dead in the support trench interred by their living comrades, Niven recited such portions as he could recall of the Church of England service for the dead, recited them with a tight throat.- Then the Princess Pats, unbeaten, inarched out, leaving the position to their relief, a battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps. "When you see how the Canadians fought in England," as one British soldier said, "how can any able-bodied Englishman at home fail to enlist?"