Uncommon Combats
The following curious bit of war-to-the-knife was related by a sergeant
to a newspaper correspondent: "I and four other wounded men got
together and hid under some wheat sheaves. Presently one man put out
his head to see if the coast was clear, and was spotted by a German
soldier. The fellow came towards us, and, grasping his rifle by the
barrel, was about to batter out my mate's brains, when I whipped this
out (producing a formidable jack-knife) and, springing up, jabbed it
into his throat. See, the blood stains are still there. He went down
and I with him, and by the time I had finished with this little weapon
he was done for. I kept at his windpipe so as not to give him a chance
to bawl for assistance. We managed to crawl or limp for some distance
in the wake of the army until we came upon Lieutenant B.M.B. Bateman,
of the Royal Field Artillery. He helped us to safety."
A knock-out blow was thus described by a young Frenchman, attached
to the Interpreters' Corps: "Last week my parents had a pleasant
surprise. I took home to supper one of your brave Tommies. I met
him as interpreter, and he told me his story. He fought the Boches
(nickname for the Germans) from the beginning of the war, and was at
Mons, Charleroi, Landrecies, Soissons, and the battles of the Marne and
Aisne. On October 15th he was captured by a German patrol, composed
of six Uhlans, and was disarmed, but kept his horse. Three of the six
went to get some tea, one went for an interpreter, and two watched
Tommy. After a short time one of the two lay down on the grass, while
the other stood by the side of their prisoner. Tommy was still for a
quarter of an hour, and he then suddenly gave the Boche an 'uppercut,'
and he fell exhausted. The other Boche got up and went for him, but the
English Tommy knocked him out with the first blow, and jumped on his
horse. The other Boches had heard the struggle, and as he rode off the
bullets whistled past his ears, but luckily he escaped. I asked him if
he was a boxer, and he answered me, 'Rather! I matched with my cousin
Fred Welsh, who is now a world champion in the light weights!'"
Corporal Isherwood, 2nd Manchester Regiment, when he came home wounded,
told how a boy led his regiment in a bayonet charge. "On October 20th
the Germans were all around us, and their fire enfiladed our trenches.
First our lieutenant was wounded, then the sergeant, and we were left
without a single officer to command the platoon. We were wondering what
to do when a drummer-boy, of eighteen, the baby of the company, threw
up his cap, and with a ringing cheer yelled: 'Fix bayonets, lads.'
We did, and charged the advancing Germans. The boy was in the act of
bayoneting a German when the latter shouted, 'For God's sake, don't
stick me.' 'It is too late,' returned the youngster, 'it is through
you.'"
Corporal Gleeson, of the Coldstream Guards, tells this story:
"At Soissons our attention was attracted by a young lad of the
Connaught Rangers. He was fighting single-handed against seven Germans.
He was doing nicely, but just as he was withdrawing his bayonet from
the fifth German to go down, one of them caught him, and he dropped. We
fought our way over, and finished the other two, and just managed to
catch the poor lad before his last breath went. 'You saw it,' he said,
and we said we had. 'You think I did my best, and they won't blame me
because seven was too many for me? I'm only a boy, and they were such
big chaps.' We told him if any man said or hinted he hadn't done his
best, and more, there wasn't one of us wouldn't kill him. He smiled
ever so sweetly, and then he died. We drew our coat sleeves across our
eyes to stop or hide the blinding tears that came in spite of us."
The London Scottish Regiment gave a good account of themselves in their
first fight, and showed that for pluck and dash this "crack" regiment
of Territorials--the first Territorial corps to take their place in the
firing line--has nothing to learn from even the pick of the Regulars.
They were ordered to dislodge from an important position a large body
of the much vaunted Bavarian troops, and they did it in a way that Sir
John French highly praised.
On one occasion the Kaiser, when addressing a Bavarian corps, said, "I
want the Bavarians to meet the British--just once!" The Bavarians have
met the British, represented by the London Scottish, "just once," and
it was once too often for them.
Before the war the Germans used to say that God had given British
soldiers long legs to run away with, and that men in kilts instead of
trousers could not fight. They know better now, and the London Scottish
greatly helped to enlighten them.
Shouting "Remember you're Scottish, give them the bayonet!" the London
Scottish rushed into the village they had to take. The defenders
resisted with great obstinacy, but at last they broke and fled.
On the next day the regiment had, without adequate cover, to hold a
position in face not only of infantry, but of artillery fire. At the
end of the day it was necessary to retire through a storm of lead, and
they marched back as steadily as on parade. "A perfect hell, it was,"
said an eye-witness, "and the wonder is that any of them got back."
The noise of bagpipes must be very terrifying to those who hear it for
the first time, and it seems on one occasion to have been instrumental
in winning for some men of another Scotch regiment a bloodless battle.
On a dark, rainy night the men making a detour of a field of roots
and, stalking their prey as silently as cats, got up to a position
from which the enemy had to be ejected. Then the Scots yelled, let off
rifles, rattled tins, and made the bagpipes speak up or rather squeal
up. The Germans were not soothed by the charms of this music, but were
seized with panic and fled.
Private S.A. Geary, R.A.M.C., wrote the following: "I was near the
trenches against which the Kaiser sent his crack Guard Corps, the
picked men of his army. Several times they got right up to the
trenches but were hurled back by the bayonet. One young officer did a
magnificent bit of work. Nothing could stop him; he jumped out of his
trench and yelled, 'Old England for ever! Follow me, lads.' With half
a company he dashed forward for quite 50 yards, and he and his men
simply performed miracles. As I watched them I was spellbound. They
seemed to possess superhuman strength. Caked from head to foot in mud
they presented the most fearful picture that could be imagined as they
attacked like wild beasts. The big Germans were rushing on four to one,
but they could not beat our fellows back. Those who were not killed or
wounded got away to shelter, and our boys returned to their trenches
cheering and shouting. Five minutes later the Germans came again and
again, but not a single man got within 10 yards of the trenches."
One of the Scots Greys, when invalided home, told of fighting with
frying-pans. "A dozen or so Germans who must have lost their way, came
stumbling into our camp after dark and received quite a warm welcome.
No guns were handy, but we grabbed hold of the first things handy,
and as it was supper-time there were plenty of domestic articles
which proved their worth. Dixey-tins and frying-pans, containing our
supper, were banged on their heads until they had had enough and gave
themselves up to our tender care."
A detachment of British cavalry, while playing water polo in the Oise,
suddenly spotted a patrol of German Uhlans. The British, naked as they
were, jumped on their horses and charged the enemy.
A private of the East Surrey Regiment recorded this grim experience:
"Suddenly, out of the darkness, a German appeared near, making straight
for me with a fixed bayonet. He came right above me as I stood in the
trench, and thrust his bayonet down towards my face. I just managed to
catch hold of it with my left hand pushing it from me, and at the same
time I thrust my own bayonet up into the German. His rifle went off as
he fell down on top of me, and the bullet went into my left hand."
It would seem from the following that a combat caused by love is very
severe. "There were two men of the Connaught Rangers who had a row
about a girl. Under ordinary circumstances they would have gone to
the back of the trenches and settled it with their fists, but the
regimental peacemaker intervened with a suggestion that struck both as
being reasonable. It was that instead of spoiling each other's beauty
they should take it out of the Germans, and let the girl decide which
was the better man of the two when the facts were put before her by a
comrade. They agreed, and that day they went into action with more than
usual eagerness. When it came to close quarters each of these chaps
fought all he knew against as many Germans as he could find to stand
up against him. We all knew what was behind it, and so did not go to
their assistance, but when the day was over everybody agreed that the
one who had downed eight Germans without getting a scratch was the
better man of the two. The girl thought otherwise, for she decided in
favour of the chap who got badly wounded in his fight with the sixth
German."
A corporal, named W.R. Smith, who has returned from the war, tells
of a chivalrous duel that took place between himself and one of the
enemy. On one occasion the corporal had got close to a German, and both
levelled their rifles. The corporal pulled the trigger first, but the
weapon jammed. The German, seeing what had happened, lowered his rifle
and offered to give him another chance. "Of course," says the corporal,
"there was nothing for it but to shake hands and walk away from each
other."
A Royal Engineer told this story in reference to the mole-like manner
of attacking the enemy's trenches: "We spent two days on a long mine
out towards the German lines, and just when we were getting to the
close of our job we heard pickaxes going as fast and hard as you like,
and then the wall of clay before us gave way, showing a party of
Germans at the same game! You never saw men more astonished in your
life, and they hadn't quite recovered from their shock when we pounced
on them. We had a pretty sharp scrap down there indeed, but we got the
best of it, though we had four of our chaps laid out. One German devil
was just caught in time with a fuse which he was going to apply with
the mad idea of blowing us all up!"