Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918: Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2 — John Shaqi
Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918: Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2Various
History
Current History: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times, May 1918: Vol. VIII, Part I, No. 2
Various
World War, 1914-1918
The British Army is playing the rôle which it often has played
before. It is fighting a Waterloo while Blücher is marching to
the battlefield.
The British Army is under a terrible hammering, but, providing
we stand that hammering without breaking down, and providing
Blücher is marching to the battlefield, there is no reason for
discouragement.
The enormous task which the British Army has performed and still
is performing may be shown by a few figures. In this battle of
Armentières the Germans thus far have engaged twenty-eight
divisions (392,000 men) and since March 21 they have engaged 126
divisions, (1,764,000 men.)
Of these the British Army alone has engaged seventy-nine,
(1,106,000 men,) the French alone have engaged twenty-four,
(336,000 men,) and the remainder, twenty-three, (322,000 men,)
have been engaged by the British and French together.
Of the German divisions which the British engaged, twenty-eight
have been fought twice and one thrice. Of the German divisions
which the French engaged, four have fought twice. Of the German
divisions which the French and British engaged together, fifteen
have been fought twice and one thrice.
It is unpleasant business standing the hammering, but so long as
we can stand it the only question to be asked is, What is
happening to Blücher--what has become of the reserves?
Thus the perilous situation stood at the time when this magazine went to
press--April 19--with the British fighting fiercely in Flanders and
waiting for Foch to strike with his reserve forces and relieve the
strain.
The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps
By JOHN OXENHAM
_Great work! State work!--willingly done and well,
For the men who are doing so much for us
Ay--more than words can tell!
Right work! White work! faithfully, skillfully done,
But the whole of the soul of it will not be known
Till the war is properly won._
They mend the men; they tend the men;
They help them carry on;
They drop a little veil upon
The woes they've undergone.
They feed the men; they speed the men;
They make their daily bread;
They mend them while they're living,
And they tend them when they're dead.
There's many a lonely man out there
They've saved from black despair;
There's many a lowly grave out there
Made gracious by their care.
They toil for them; they moil for them;
Help lame dogs over stiles,
And do their best to buck them up
With cheery words and smiles.
They're just a little bit of home,
Come out to lend a hand.
They're gleams of warm bright sunshine
In a dreary, weary land.
They are sweet as pinks and daisies,
Just the sight of them is good,
When you've lived for eighteen months or so
In a sink of Flanders mud.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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