The War Stories of Private Thomas AtkinsMilne, James
History
The War Stories of Private Thomas Atkins
Milne, James
World War, 1914-1918 -- Anecdotes
I saw some brave things done. “Tanker” Gillespie endeavoured three
times, at great risk, to aid a comrade who had been seriously wounded.
The first time he got up a bullet grazed his head, and I saw him
rubbing it with rather comical grimness, and then seizing hold of his
rifle, the barrel of which had nearly all been blown away, and firing;
three or four shots at the Germans. He tried a second time to reach
his comrade, but again had to duck, and the third time he succeeded,
only to find that the poor fellow had died. In returning to his place,
“Tanker” was struck by a bullet which took away some of the hair on his
head, and he had to retire: _Pte. McMahon, Gordon Highlanders_.
Custom!
German shell fire is not nearly so effective shot for shot and gun for
gun as ours, in spite of all the fine things they claim for it, and
where great accuracy in range is necessary they are hopelessly out of
it. Their infantry can’t stand half the shelling our men will put up
with, and they get awfully panicky under fire from our guns. It is a
favourite trick of the Germans to keep a battery well masked for hours,
and then when our infantry are deploying within range, without the
slightest notion of what is coming, the German shells begin to fall
round like the autumn leaves. That’s very trying to the nerves, or was
at first, but we are now getting used to it: _Gunner T. Wall_.
Buried and Burnt
There was one interesting sight I saw as the column was on the march,
and that was a duel in the air between French and German aeroplanes. It
was wonderful to see the Frenchman manœuvre to get the upper position
of the German, and after about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour the
Frenchman got on top and blazed away with a revolver on the German. He
injured him so much as to cause him to descend, and when found he was
dead. The British buried the airman and burnt the aeroplane: _A Private
of the 1st Royal Kent Regiment_.
“That Tired Feeling”
We are now getting into our stride and beginning to get a little of our
own back out of the Germans. They don’t like it at all now that we are
nearer to them in numbers, and their men all look like so many “Weary
Willies,” they are so tired. You might say they had got “that tired
feeling” bad, and so they have. Some of them just drop into our arms
when we call on them to surrender, as though it were the thing they’d
been waiting for all their lives: _Lance-Corporal T. Williams_.
Lucky Fellow!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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