France. Armée. Légion étrangère; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
Originally, there were two Darcy brothers. While making a machine gun
emplacement, they heard a noise in front. One of the brothers with half
the detachment went out to investigate. The other stayed at work. A
German shell dropped into the emplacement and killed, or knocked
senseless, every man. Red Cross workers, who gathered together the
mutilated and the shell-shocked Darcy, were startled to hear some one in
front. Looking around, they saw the other Darcy drag his shattered limbs
over the edge of a shell hole. He expired, saying, “The damned cowards
ran away and left me.” The others were all killed.
In June, 1915, after six months of constant warfare, poor food, no
furloughs, cold winter weather and scanty clothing had so brought down
the morale of the men that they didn’t care whether they lived or not.
They were absolutely fed up to the limit on misery.
Many Russian Jews volunteered, as had the English, to help France.
Russia later called her subjects to the colors. Negotiations were under
way in Paris to facilitate the exchange of Russians from the Foreign
Legion to the Russian Army. They were informed that the Colonel had
received orders to permit their return to their native land.
Possibly, the negotiations had been completed, perhaps not. Perhaps the
Colonel was not officially instructed. However, the Russian volunteers,
relying on their information, when ordered to dig trenches, refused to
do so. They demanded to be sent home. Officers argued with them and
pointed out the penalty of refusing to obey when in front of the enemy.
They didn’t care, would not work, and could not be forced. So ten of the
ringleaders were court-martialed, sentenced to death, taken out into the
woods near the little village of Merfy, blindfolded—shot. Tearing the
bandage from his eyes and baring his chest to the bullet, one cried out,
“Long live France; long live the Allies, but God damn the Foreign
Legion!”
Next morning the others refused to work again,—“You have killed our
brothers. Kill us also—we are not afraid to die.” They were not killed
but were court-martialed and sentenced to fifteen years’ penal
servitude.
The third morning, no one would work. These cheerful fatalists said, “We
are Russians—our country calls us—we demand to go, and you tell us go to
work. We will not work. You killed our brothers, kill us also. You may
mutilate our bodies, but you cannot crush our souls.” These also
court-martialed, were sentenced to ten years’ penal servitude.
There were many Russians. They showed no disposition to yield. The load
was getting too heavy,—even for the broad shoulders of officers of the
Legion. The underground wireless had been working. A sigh of relief went
up when a high Russian official, breast covered with decorations,
arrived from Paris. About the same time, orders came from the French
headquarters to stop proceedings. The penal servitude sentences were not
carried out; but they could not bring back the dead to life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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