Tommy Atkins at War: As Told in His Own Letters — John Shaqi
Tommy Atkins at War: As Told in His Own LettersKilpatrick, James Alexander
History
Tommy Atkins at War: As Told in His Own Letters
Kilpatrick, James Alexander
Great Britain. Army -- Military life; World War, 1914-1918
Narrow escapes were numerous. An Argyll and Sutherland Highlander got
his kilt pierced eight times by shrapnel, one of the Black Watch had his
cap shot off, and while another was handling a tin of jam a bullet went
clean into the tin. Jocular allusions were made to these incidents, and
somebody suggested labeling the tin "Made in Germany."
Even the most grim incidents of the war are lit up by some humorous or
pathetic passage which illustrates the fine spirits and even finer
sympathies of the Highlanders. Lance-Corporal Edmondson, of the Royal
Irish Lancers, mentions the case of two men of the Argyll and
Sutherlands, who were cut off from their regiment. One was badly
wounded, but his comrade refused to leave him, and in a district overrun
by Germans, they had to exist for four days on half-a-dozen biscuits.
"But how did you manage to do it?" the unwounded man was asked, when
they were picked up.
"Oh, fine," he answered.
"How about yourself, I mean?" the questioner persisted in asking.
"Oh, shut up," said the Highlander.
The truth is he had gone without food all the time in order that his
comrade might not want.
Then there is a story from Valenciennes of a poor scared woman who
rushed frantically into the road as the British troops entered the
town. She had two slight cuts on the arm, and was almost naked--the
result of German savagery. When she saw the soldiers she shrank back in
fear and confusion, whereupon one of the Highlanders, quick to see her
plight, tore off his kilt, ripped it in half, and wrapped a portion
around her. She sobbed for gratitude at this kindly thought and tried to
thank him, but before she could do so the Scot, twisting the other half
of the kilt about himself to the amusement of his comrades, was swinging
far along the road with his regiment.
This is not the only Scot who has lost his kilt in the war. One of the
Royal Engineers gives a comic picture of a Highlander who appears to
have lost nearly every article of clothing he left home in. When last
seen by this letter writer he was resplendent in a Guardsman's tunic,
the red breeches of a Frenchman, a pair of Belgian infantry boots, and
his own Glengarry! "And when he wants to look particularly smart," adds
the Engineer, "he puts on a Uhlan's cloak that he keeps handy!"
As another contribution to the humor of life in the trenches and,
incidentally, to the discussion of soldier songs, it is worth while
quoting from a letter signed "H.L.," in _The_ _Times_, this specimen
verse of the sort of lyric that delights Tommy Atkins. It is the work of
a Sergeant of the Gordon Highlanders, and as the marching song in high
favor at Aldershot, must come as a shock to the ideals of would-be army
laureates:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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