Papurau Newydd Cymru
Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru
4 erthygl ar y dudalen hon
/ SCENES FROM THE GREATEST…
SCENES FROM THE GREATEST OF BATTLES. Two Ways by which the Enemy were Held Back. —— v [British Official. British and ^French Infantry firing on the enemy. The Frenchman crouches in his shallow trench with his legs beneath him. The British soldier prefers to sprawl. _n- -U- [British Official. The British Artillery did superb work in stemming the onrush of the German storm troops. Many batteries fought till the enemy had surrounded them, and then fought their way out carrying the breech blocks with them.
A LOOK ROUND.
A LOOK ROUND. The Kaiser's Battle. [BY SENTINEL."] AS these words are written the second stage of the great battle is beginning. What its end will be we cannot foretell. But we may say now. with confidence, that, in the first round, the Germans did not get the best of it. They threw about a million and a-hall' of their best soldiers against the Third and Fifth British Armies, which together did not amount to more than a fifth of their numbers; they drove our men back, but they never broke them, and when the French and British reserves joined the men who had fought so gloriously, the German hosts could get no further. And they left between two hundred and fifty thousand and three hundred thousand of their number dead or wounded on the field. This is my battle," says the Kaiser. The ruler of Germany boasts that this slaughter of Germany's sons is his own special work. We know now that the whole war was his work. Prince Lichnowsky, the Kaiser's Ambassador to Britain before the A;U\ has told how he was sent here, an honest man, sincerely believing that he was sent to work for peace, and how Sir Edward Grey worked for peace with him. But the Prussian Generals had got the Kaiser on their side, and they and he were working for war. Lich- nowsky. himself, describes German policy at that time as "a sin against the Holy Ghost." Poor honest man His trouble.d conscience would not let him keep silence. He wrote the truth to a friend, and the truth has now been published to the world. Some of the German papers themselves admit that the story invented to rouse the hatred of the Germans against us—that Eng- land planned the war "—is a lie. The war was planned by the Kaiser and his Generals. It seems that on former occasions when there was trouble in Europe the Kaiser had been accused of being weak and vacillating. He was determined that the charge should not be repeated. So, when the dispute between Austria and Serbia arose, he told Herr Krupp von Bohlen, the husband of Bertha Krupp, who owns the great gun factory at Essen, that if Russia mobilized, he would declare war at once. This time people should see that he did not turn about. So now we know the truth. The manhood of Europe is being slain by the hundred thousand in order that the world may understand that the Kaiser can make up his mind and stick to it. It is a thought that may well appal us; but it is one which ought to make us quite determined that the lives of millions shall never again lie at the mercy of an ambitious tyrant.. We have tried to think, as kindly as we can of the Kaiser because he is the grandson of our dear Queen Victoria. We have hoped that he was a mere puppet in the hands of his Generals and the greedy traders of Germany. But we know differently now. We know that he and no other planned and plotted the war, and that he deceived even his own Ministers in order that he might catch us unaware and unready. Now, when his Generals have called up the whole remaining manhood of Germany and are driving it as sheep to the slaughter, he dares to proclaim: "This is niy battle!" It is. And the world will not forget it. It is his battle, and his shall be the shame of ruin and defeat, and the pun- ishment which shall follow. For defeat is surely coming to him, even though his millions may drive on a little further. He has aroused that temper in the British people which was never beaten yet. Come what may. we will set our teeth and go through with it for the sake of the future of the world. Tl'f will pay the price in this genera- tiOil and buy the happiness of our children and our children's children. We will give with both hands all we are asked to give, but never shall this horrible curse of Kaiserism blight the world again. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." The days may be darker yet before the light breaks forth, or the dawn may be very near. But the iniquity of the Kaiser as shown up in the disclosures of Prince Lichnowsky and Herr Krupp von Bohlen is not going to rule the earth.
OUR BUSY KING.
OUR BUSY KING. His Majesty a Full-Timer on War Work. [BY OBSERVER, "j It was my privilege not long ago to learn something at first-hand of 'the King's daily life in war-time, and one of the most sur- prising discoveries I made was that the wonderful programmes of royal visits here, there and everywhere, of which we read after they have taken place, are largely planned by King George himself. I do not mean that the King arranges the details of each pro- gramme, but it is often with him that the idea of a visit to a munition works, or a training camp, or a hospital originates. When, therefore, I read of his sudden trip to the front in the middle of the greatest of battles, I had a start of pleasure—who did not ?—but scarcely one of surprise. King George has shown in a hundred ways during the last three and a half years that he inherits a large share of his father's under- standing of his people. He is the King- Emperor and he discharges the duties of Kingship with unsurpassed dignity, but in all things he shows himself as ready to serve as to rule. Somebody has described the British Empire as a republic with a heredi- tary president—the King. Our present sovereign rejoices in that view of his great heritage. No professed democrat could be more jealous to preserve the democratic principle of our constitution than he is no monarch ever took more pains to respect 'the will and the wishes of his people. When the war broke out the King was swift to recognise that it meant great sacri- fices and hard work for everybody. Promptly he reduced the style of living in the Royal Household to the simplest plan, and the money that was saved he handed over for war pur- poses— £ 100,000 to the National Exchequer, large sums to the Red Cross, and so on. Personally, the King has one great joy in life—following the pursuits of a country gentleman, shooting, riding, fishing. He gave these all up, and except for two little "holidays" at Sandringham—holidays full of work-lie has made Buckingham Palace continuously his headquarters in order to be ever near his responsible Ministers of State and ready for any emergency that might arise. Nervous Londoners stampeded when the air raids began the King—and the Queen too—set the nobler example of remaining in town, thus sharing the same war risks that the humblest of their subjects were open to. The King was as fond of play as any typical Englishman in the days of peace. He loved a hard set at lawn tennis a hand at bridge was a favourite evening pastime. He has given up these things for the war. The day's work leaves him no time at all for play, and if the set programme of dealing with State documents and of performing all manner of State business leaves a blank at any time between breakfast and bed-time, the King himself quickly finds the task for filling it—the hospital, where wounded soldiers may be cheered by a word of royal sympathy, or the community of war-workers, who will carry 011 with greater zest because the first of the nation's war-workers drops in to en- courage them. Sometimes when he has had tea (a meal the King likes to take with his family and without interruption) the King telephones for one of his Ministers or for the Chief of the Imperial Staff to discuss war problems. The Chief of the Imperial Staff was at Bucking- ham Palace very frequently in the early days of the great German offensive. It is one of his duties to keep the King instantly in- formed of all happenings of importance at the front. He went to the Palace on Wednes- day before Good Friday to tell the King the day's news from the front, and when he had made his report the King quietly said that he wished to run over to France for a couple of days to see face to face the brave men who were stemming the German tide. It was characteristic of the King to insist that his going should make not the slightest difference to the disposition of any section of the fighting force in France. He only asked that a motor-car should meet him on the other side of the Channel, and having got there, he went about amongst the soldiers without the least ceremony or formality. When is Sir Douglas Haig going out?" was the telephone enquiry to G.H.Q. Half- past ten o'clock," came the answer. Please tell Sir Douglas the King will* call on him at ten o'clock." So much for the Commander- in-Chief. The King called on sundry of the rank and file with even less ceremony. I like best the story of how he climbed into a train and introduced himself to a wounded Cana- dian soldier. The Canadian, when he realised the identity of his visitor, just stretched out his hand, and said Put it right there, Sir," which is a phrase much used on the other side of the Atlantic when you offer your hand for a very hearty shake. It heartened the soldiers to know the King had run over to see them in the middle of the greatest of battles it heartened us at home to read about it. No man in the country has worked harder during the war than the King," Mr. Lloyd George said last year. He might have added that the King's work is not only hard work, but work that, by the force of its great example, inspires and stimulates hard work in others. The King himself has borne testimony to the inspiration which he gained from his short' but vivid experiences of the greatest of battles. He saw the troops resisting the enemy with, as he says, -1 indomitable courage and unflinching tenacity lie talked with units just withdrawn from the hottest part of the battle furnace and listened with won- der to what officers and men had to relate. He saw fresh troops going up to the battle line "eager to reinforce their comrades," and lie came back to England filled with a new pride in his—and our—gallant soldiers. But he came back, also, with a fuller knowledge of the great expenditure of force that is neces- sary to defeat the enemy's aim, and the weighty words he used in the letter he sent to Sir Douglas Haig must not be quickly forgotten. W e at home," the King wrote, "must ensure that the man power is adequately I maintained and that our workers, men and women, will continue nobly to meet the demands for all the necessities of war." iI
FROM THE FRONT. ..
FROM THE FRONT. Stories of Our Brave Soldiers in France. ft A Laugh at Death. A shell came over and hit a soldier on the head, killing him instantly. There," said his next-door neighbour (Was it Old Bill?), "I always did say these tin 'ats was no good His Old Brown Clay. A Lancashire weaver, as he lay in his cot on the hospital ship with a wound right through his side, was calmly smoking a well-coloured clay pipe. It has been with me all through the campaign," he said, and it's sweeter to-day than ever." The Odds Our Men Faced. In little more than one week the enemy hurled against our 3rd and 5th Armies more than 1,500,000 men in a fury of attack such as has probably never been seen before in the history of war. Once more the British Army stood in the breach in a defence the heroism and glory of which will live for ever. "-Gette,i-al Smuts. Cerman-But a "White" Man. It is pleasant to record any act of the Germans which is not barbarous. In the course of the attack four of our men were carrying back a wounded officer when they were overtaken by the enemy, and the German officer allowed them to go on, only taking their rifles from them and then letting- them go forward to our lines with their burden. Cood-Bye." A Brigadier-General was at one end of the telephone and a young captain in com- mand of a half-company at a redoubt was at the other. The captain was rung up at least every quarter of an hour to report. The fight grew hotter, and he reported Things getting hotter, General. Think we can manage," and described what he was doing. Getting very bad now, sir." Then They're all over us." The General said: Destroy your stuff and cut through as best you can. You're a glorious fellow." Then the voice said: Too late, sir—good- bye." Cavalry--But Unmounted. The work of the cavalry was splendid. At one place a composite organisation of troopers and infantry, under an ex-town mayor, went into action with a number of Lewis guns, drove back a strong force of Germans, took some prisoners, and, in the language of one of the participators, We had a ——— good show." A detachment of cavalry charged unmounted and took 150 prisoners and got in properly," while still other bodies of cavalry were fighting nearly twenty-four hours before the evacuation of Peronne. Most of the cavalry have fought unmounted. They held cross-roads, canal bridgeheads, and in some instances hung on to villages with only a few men until the infantry could retire to other positions. Battle in a Fog. The fog (says one correspondent) was our undoing. It was so thick on the morning of March 21st that our men could not see more than fifty yards from the trenches. The Germans were well around all the redoubts before the occupants knew that they were being attacked, and although troops behind had ^ron > to the battle positions, warned by the intense bombardment, the wires were cut i-i many places and they did not know when the enemy infantry advanced. One ■ )? the many inexplicable incidents of the battle was the recovery of a patrol which h?d been sent out of the redoubt just before the Ger- mans attacked. It wandered about in the fog, and enemy waves must have passed right through it; yet the officer and a few men got back to their brigade next dav Manchester Pals-" They Were Champion." d Mon, they fit well! They were cha pion. Ah ne'er would ha' thowt a soldiers could feight like th' Manchesti did. Ay, they fit well." This was a YO] shireman's tribute to a battalion of t Manchester Pals who fought to the la and died fighting for a point call Manchester Hill. Their gallantry was o of the actions that decided the whole coui of this battle. For hours after the line their flank had gone back these warehous men, clerks, and millhands held th( redoubt, with four German divisions bese ting them, and when hardly a man of thei remained unwounded their commande sent back a final message that th Manchester Regiment will defend Man Chester Hill to the last." The promis was not idle. These men were Pals, says the writer who describes their end; they died together, refusing to accept their lives as the price of surrender." Germans and the Scotties. The other day I met an officer who said to me: When you write about divisions in the first part of the battle, do not forget the old 51st-the Scotties." They were the victims of an unavoidable misfortune in this battle, almost hopelessly handicapped by an inundation of Germans up a valley on their flank. This was due to the curious situa- tion of their line astride the Bapaume- Cambrai road. The enemy pouring out of Queant cut through on the left and worked round the back with such swiftness that the first intimation the Highlanders had of the infantry attack was the machine- gun barrage pouring against the battalion "I In i ZD n headquarters' dug-outs from the rear. After days of desperate fighting, in which Doignies changed hands several times, they came back through the shapeless maze of trenches above the Ancre. The men were done. They simply shambled over the ground, almost unable to comprehend orders, dragging their feet like cripples, longing to lie down anywhere and sleep. No troops have survived a harder test of endurance. Even the Germans paid them a rare tribute of admiration. A paper balloon came drifting through shells above the Highlanders' rocking front as they fell back from the unequal struggle round Bapaume. It was shot down, and found to bear this message in English Good old 51st! Still sticking it! Cheeryo!