“None are less given to talk of what they have done than the very men
whose deeds thrill others. They just saw the thing that was needed;
they seized the flying moment, and did the deed that makes men’s
hearts stand still. They came out of it with something akin to the
elation of the sportsman who has scored a goal. They saved their side
in the game. That was what they aimed at, and they were satisfied.
“In my last battalion were two men who, working together, did
breathless things without themselves being breathless. They enjoyed
them. After one ‘stunt’ our people in the trench observed a man hanging
on the enemy’s wire. His hand was slowly moving to and fro. They
watched carefully, and saw clearly that he was signaling to them. A
little group of officers gathered and considered the matter. But it
was entirely impossible, they thought, to dream of attempting a rescue
before darkness. So they resolved to get together a rescue party in the
night and save. Meanwhile, however, these two worthies slipped away,
crawled over No Man’s Land, and brought the poor fellow in. Rebuked
for their temerity, their reply was, ‘We couldna thole the sicht o’ a
chum oot yonder like that.’ Another time, after a bitter struggle in
a patch of woodland between our line and the enemy’s, they came and
reported that a man in khaki was to be seen moving from tree-stump
to tree-stump, evidently in distress. ‘I think he’s daft,’ said one.
And in the gloaming over they went, found him, and brought him in to
safety. He had been wounded in the head and side, and left behind. The
first day he had kept himself alive by drinking from the water-bottles
of the dead; but he had lost his reason and his bearings, and was in
despair when our brave fellows got him. And these men were killed later
on by a slight accident down behind the lines.
“It was difficult to get away from the touch of one’s environment and
to overcome that unwelcome realization of the grim surroundings. One
morning we had a weird reminder. When we opened the door of our hut,
there, on the threshold, lay an unexploded ‘dud’ shell which had fallen
in the night. Had it done what had been intended, we should have been
very suddenly off somewhere among the stars. It made one think a little
of solemn and strange things, and feel more than a little thankful to
behold again the light of the sun.
“People speak a good deal about the lust for blood and the
fever-passion of battle. But our boys are not bloodthirsty.