With the Scottish Regiments at the Front — John Shaqi
With the Scottish Regiments at the FrontVivian, Evelyn Charles
History
With the Scottish Regiments at the Front
Vivian, Evelyn Charles
Great Britain. Army -- Scottish regiments; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Scotland
A man of the Royal Scots has told how Captain Price of the regiment
died. While in the trenches, and under a hot fire, Captain Price ran
forward to help a corporal who had been shot in the arm, and in kindly
fashion the captain was preventing the corporal from seeing his
wound--shielding the injured arm while it was being dressed. While so
engaged Captain Price was struck in the head by a piece of shrapnel, and
he died while being carried to the field hospital. On the testimony of
the men of the regiment, a braver or kindlier officer than Captain C. L.
Price, D.S.O., has never worn uniform.
With regard to the work of the regiment in the trenches of the Aisne,
and the enemy they have had to face, one man of the regiment speaks.
"The Germans are good range finders with their big guns," he says, "and
their fire is very effective--but you could get boys to give them points
with the rifle. One thing has made an impression on me, and that is that
the enemy has no respect whatever for the Red Cross. Our men were
proceeding along a road, when they came on a Red Cross waggon lying on
its side, with several Red Cross men lying dead beside it. There was one
brave incident I witnessed, and although I do not know the name of the
fellow who showed such pluck, I know he belonged to the Royal Scots. I
saw him carry one of his comrades across a field for about three hundred
yards, though the fire from the German ranks was simply awful at the
time."
Here, again, is an instance of the way in which the men tell of each
other's deeds but make no mention of their own. The French soldier, as a
rule, knows when he has done a brave action, and talks about it--the
quality does not make him less brave, but it is one that is inconsistent
with British character. The average British soldier is usually quite
unconscious that he has done anything worthy of note, and, even if he
knows the value of what he has done, he is very shy of speaking about
it, and usually prefers to talk about the things somebody else has
accomplished.
A certain Private Kemp, invalided home to Berwick, testifies to the way
in which tobacco and cigarettes have come to be regarded by the men in
the firing line. He tells how, when out scouting, he was captured by
three Uhlans, who took away his arms and equipment, and were just about
to take him away as a prisoner when a shot was fired, and the Uhlans
took to their heels. Kemp, wounded in the leg, fell, and after lying for
an hour and a half, he was picked up by advancing British troops. "One
great hardship," he says, "was the lack of tobacco all the time. I and
many of my comrades have been reduced to smoking dried tea-leaves
wrapped in old newspaper. A real smoke would have been a blessing."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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