True Stories of the Great War, Volume 6 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
History
True Stories of the Great War, Volume 6 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
One would not call it fame exactly, even though I played the star-rôle.
But it is a source of some satisfaction to have helped a royal lot
of fellows to a first-class scoop. As the "authentic spy-picture
of the war," it has had a broadcast circulation. I have seen it in
publications ranging all the way from _The Police Gazette to Collier's
Photographic History of the European War_. In a university club I once
chanced upon a group gathered around this identical picture. They were
discussing the psychology of this "poor devil" in the moments before
he was shot. It was a further source of satisfaction to step in and
arbitrarily contradict all their conclusions and, having shown them how
totally mistaken they were, proceed to tell them exactly how the victim
felt. This high-handed manner nettled one fellow terribly:
"Not so arbitrary, my friend!" he said. "You haven't any right to be so
devilish cock-sure."
"Haven't I?" I replied. "Who has any better right? I happen to be that
identical man!"
But that little episode has been of real value to me. It is said that
if one goes through the motions he gets the emotions. I believe that I
have an inkling of how a man feels when he momentarily expects a volley
of cold lead to turn his skull into a sieve.
III--HOW CAMERA MEN RISK THEIR LIVES
Most of the pictures which the public casually gazes on have been
secured at a price--and a large one, too. The names of these men who
go to the front with cameras, rather than with rifles or pens, are
generally unknown. They are rarely found beneath the pictures, yet
where would be our vivid impression of courage in daring and of skill
in doing, of cunning strategy upon the field of battle, of wounded
soldiers sacrificing for their comrades, if we had no pictures? A few
pictures are faked, but behind most pictures there is another tale of
daring and of strategy, and that is the tale concerning the man who
took it. That very day thrice these same men risked their lives.
The apparatus loaded in the car, we were off again. Past a few
barricades of paving-stones and wagons, past the burned houses which
marked the place where the Germans had come within five miles of Ghent,
we encountered some uniformed Belgians who looked quite as dismal and
dispirited as the fog which hung above the fields. They were the famous
Guarde Civique of Belgium. Our Union Jack, flapping in the wind, was
very likely quite the most thrilling spectacle they had seen in a week,
and they hailed it with a cheer and a cry of "_Vive l'Angleterre!_"
(Long live England!) The Guarde Civique had a rather inglorious time
of it. Wearisomely in their wearisome-looking uniform, they stood
for hours on their guns or marched and counter-marched in dreary
patrolling, often doomed not even to scent the battle from afar off.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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