Why Highland kilts are not the ideal uniform for modern warfare is
concisely summed up by Private Barry:
Most of the Highlanders are hit in the legs. * * * It is because of
tartan trews and hose, which are more visible at a distance than any
other part of their dress. Bare calves also show up in sunlight.
Private McGlade, writing to his aged mother in County Monaghan,
bears witness to the oft-made assertion that the German soldiers
object to a bayonet charge:
I am out of it with a whole skin, though we were all beat up, as
you might expect after four days of the hardest soldiering you ever
dreamed of. We had our share of the fighting, and I am glad to say
we accounted for our share of the German trash, who are a poor lot
when it comes to a good, square ruction in the open.
We tried hard to get at them many times, but they never would wait
for us when they saw the bright bits of steel at the business end of
our rifles.
Some of our finest lads are now sleeping their last sleep in
Belgium, but, mother dear, you can take your son's word for it that
for every son of Ireland who will never come back there are at least
three Germans who will never be heard of again.
Before leaving Belgium we arranged with a priest to have masses
said for the souls of our dead chums, and we scraped together what
odd money we had, but his Reverence wouldn't hear of it, taking our
money for prayers for the relief of the brave lads who had died so
far from the old land to rid Belgian soil of the unmannerly German
scrubs.
Some of the Germans don't understand why Irishmen should fight so
hard for England, but that just shows how little they know about us.
Seven British soldiers who after the fighting round Mons last
week became detached from their regiments and got safely through
the German lines arrived in Folkestone to-day from Boulogne. They
belonged to the Irish Rifles, Royal Scots, Somerset Light Infantry,
Middlesex and Enniskillen Fusiliers, and presented a bedraggled
appearance, wearing old garments given them by the French to aid
their disguise.
One of the seven, a Londoner, described the fight his regiment had
with the Germans at a village near Maubeuge.
The British forces were greatly outnumbered by the Germans, but
held their ground for twenty-four hours, inflicting very heavy loss
on the enemy, although suffering severely itself.
He declared that the Germans held women up in front of them when
attacking. "It was worse than savage warfare."
Paddy, an Irishman, stated that the soldiers got little or no food
during the fighting. "When we got our bacon cooking the Germans
attacked us."
A Scotsman of the party said he saw a hospital flying the Red Cross
near Mons destroyed by shrapnel. "When we were ordered to retire,"
he continued, "we did so very reluctantly. But we did not swear.
Things are so serious there, it makes you feel religious."