The army is full of dare-devils who are never happy unless they are
risking their lives in some extravagant way. Two men of the Leinster
Regiment had an argument about each other’s running powers. To settle
the dispute they had a hundred yards sprint outside the trenches under
German fire all the time. Both had some narrow escapes, but got through
without a scratch. They wanted to do it over again, but an officer
stopped them: _Pte. R. Collier, Sherwood Foresters_.
An Evil Eye!
You can see that the German hates you by the evil look in his eye. It
isn’t safe to go near him unless you have a bayonet in your hand. I
was trying to do something for one wounded German, and the next thing
I saw was his mate from behind him coming for me with a bayonet. He
was wounded, too, but he thought he was going to get a stick at me.
But I stuck first, and he did not want more than one, I can tell you.
You have got some funny jobs to do in fighting: _A Private of the
Coldstream Guards_.
Signed the Pledge!
Wine is offered us instead of water by the French people, but we are
refusing it. Some of the hardest drinkers in the regiment have signed
the pledge for the war. Some of the French tell of miraculous escapes.
One man was holding a glass of water to a wounded comrade when a bullet
shattered the glass. In another case a man came out of action with two
bullets in his pocket. One had travelled through a neighbour’s body
before being spent, and the other had struck a cigarette-case and had
been deflected: _A Private of Withington_.