_Army Life With the Soldiers Along the Somme_
_Told by Frederick Palmer, American War Correspondent_
Mr. Palmer was the only accredited correspondent who had freedom
of the field in the Battles of the Somme. At the time of this
writing he has been officially appointed as a member of the staff
of General Pershing, with the American Armies in France. This
American has become a world figure. His life has been spent on the
battlefields of the modern wars: The Greek War, the Philippine
War, the Macedonian Insurrection, the Central American Wars, the
Russian-Japanese War, the Turkish Revolution, the Balkan Wars. At
the beginning of the Great War, he was with the British army and
fleet. His descriptions of the fighting are unsurpassed in the
war's literature--it is "the epic touch of great events." He has
made a notable historical record in his book entitled "My Second
Year of the War," in which he presents graphic pictures of the
grim fighting along the Somme, with admirable descriptions of the
heroism of the Canadians, the Australians and the fighters from all
parts of the Earth, who are giving their lives "to make the world
safe for Democracy." A single chapter from Mr. Palmer's book is
here reproduced by permission of his publishers, _Dodd, Mead and
Company_: Copyright 1917.
[7] I--STORY OF THE BATTLE RIDGE ON THE SOMME
Sometimes it occurred to one to consider what history might say about
the Ridge and also to wonder how much history, which pretends to know
all, would really know. Thus, one sought perspective of the colossal
significance of the uninterrupted battle whose processes numbed
the mind and to distinguish the meaning of different stages of the
struggle. Nothing had so well reflected the character of the war or
of its protagonists, French, British and German, as this grinding of
resources, of courage, and of will of three powerful races.
... It is historically accepted, I think, that the first decisive
phase was the battle of the Marne when Paris was saved. The second was
Verdun, when the Germans again sought a decision on the Western front
by an offensive of sledge-hammer blows against frontal positions; and,
perhaps, the third came when on the Ridge the British and the French
kept up their grim, insistent, piece-meal attacks, holding the enemy
week in and week out on the defensive, aiming at mastery as the scales
trembled in the new turn of the balance and initiative passed from one
side to the other in the beginning of that new era.
This scarred slope with its gentle ascent, this section of farming land
with its woods growing more ragged every day from shell fire, with its
daily and nightly thunders, its trickling procession of wounded and
prisoners down the communication trenches speaking the last word in
human bravery, industry, determination and endurance--this might one
day be not only the monument to the positions of all the battalions
that had fought, its copses, its villages, its knolls famous to future
generations as in Little Round Top with us, but in its monstrous
realism be an immortal expression, unrealized by those who fought, of a
commander's iron will and foresight in gaining that supremacy in arms,
men and material which was the genesis of the great decision.
The German began drawing away divisions from the Verdun sector,
bringing guns to answer the British and French fire and men whose
prodigal use alone could enforce his determination to maintain _morale_
and prevent any further bold strokes such as that of July (1916).
His sausage balloons began to reappear in the sky as the summer
wore on; he increased the number of his aeroplanes; more of his
five-point-nine howitzers were sending their compliments; he stretched
out his shell fire over communication trenches and strong points;
mustered great quantities of lachrymatory shells and for the first
time used gas shells with a generosity which spoke his faith in their
efficacy. The lachrymatory shell makes your eyes smart, and the Germans
apparently considered this a great auxiliary to high explosives and
shrapnel. Was it because of the success of the first gas attack at
Ypres that they now placed such reliance in gas shells? The shell when
it lands seems a "dud," which is a shell that has failed to explode;
then it blows out a volume of gas.
"If one hit right under your nose," said a soldier, "and you hadn't
your gas mask on, it might kill you. But when you see one fall
you don't run to get a sniff in order to accommodate the Boche by
asphyxiating yourself."
Another soldier suggested that the Germans had a big supply on hand and
were working off the stock for want of other kinds. The British who by
this time were settled in the offensive joked about the deluge of gas
shells with a gallant, amazing humor. Going up to the Ridge was going
to their regular duty. They did not shirk it or hail it with delight.
They simply went, that was all, when it was a battalion's turn to go.