Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-10-12
BRITISH OFFICERS
. DIE WITH MEN; LIST
SHOWS SIXTH LOST
eaders of Battle Victims of
German Fire - Casualties
1146 During Seven Weeks
of Fighting.
LONDON, oct, II.

british troops took their place In the
airing line on the Franco Belgian frontier
for the first time on August %. In the
seven weeks from that day to this Gen
.raI Sir John French has been bereft of
4he services of no less than 1i46 officers,
mt of force approximating not more
} tban $500 at the most. OF that number 257
have been killed, $50 wounded and 329
,nlssing or taken prisoners of war by tho
Germans.
II II is difficult even for military man
! 10 appreciate what a frightful loss 1t
must be to an army to have more than
one-sSth Of its leaders wiped away in
no short a period. Probably there is
only one man is England who is fully
alive TO the gravity of the problem en-
tailed by this fearful toll of battle, and
This is why Lord Kitchener is devotiny
his greatest energies to building UP the
frrhtful gaps that have been and are
being torn in the British lines by the
enemy.
FIRST LIST MEAGRE
When, during the first days of the
hshting rumors were banded about con-
corning alleged total destruction of GER
tain units In the expeditionary force,
London awaited in breathless fear the
Issuance of the casualty lists that would
confirm or deny those awful rumors. The
nrst list contained the names OF three
pflcers-Major Arthur Hughes Onslow,
OF the Tenth Hussars. killed, and Brig
adler General A. II. Shot, of the Royal
Artillery, and Colonel NJ. w. ]. Edge,
wounded-in an automobile accident.
This was on August 10, before the
British got under fire at Mons. But
everybody in England believed they
were facing the foe at that time, and
the long delay from August 10 to Sep
tember 9, when the second list was made
known through the War Office, bore down
very heavily indeed, upon the nerves of
an anxious public.
Before the arrival of that second list,
long heralded in Sir John French's dis
patches and briefly mentioned by Lord
Kitchener in the House of Lords as being
under way several days before, the name
of one officer wounded in a skirmish' with
Uhlans on August 90 leaked through to
England-Lieutenant the Earl of LeVen
and Melville of the Royal Scots Greys.
So far as can be learned he was the first
rank to get taste of the enemy's bull
lets.
roll OF HONOR" VICTIMS.
There was many a pale face among
those millions of folk who scanned the
tragic lists in the newspapers of Sep
tember 3. Parents and wives and sweet
hearts of the men in the ranks found
no relief from their suspense. for 1t was
impossible for the press to print more
than the names of officers In the roll of
honor'-there were l55 of those alone in
that second list Two days later came
another depressing array; 10 officer
casualties that time. Then there was a
brief lull-the interval between Mons and
Amiens-and after that the lists rolled
up almost every day, and every day
Britain's aristOcracy invested more deeply
in Grape.
Next to kim" whether of officers or of
the rank and file, are supposed to receive
the sorrowful tidings from the front be-
fore the lists are given to the press but
the War Office is overworked, and in
many cases an officers wife learns that
she Is widow orly when she reads her
newspaper In the morning. Nowadays,
she and her thousands of sisters in sOr-
row are the only persons deeply affected
by the published lists. Lord Kitchener
them In that sense, but he is watching
them very carefully, and probably he
already has foreseen the day when sub
stitute will stand In the place of almost
every officer now on the field of battle,
FEAR LOSS OF EVERY ONE.
Military experts have hinted-and Kitch- |
ener knows-that It is more than likely |
every one of the 1O.491 officers now in the
British army will be either killed, wound
ed or prisoner of war before Germany
is brought to her knees.
In the meantime that which IL of in
terest to the lay student of war In his
perusal OF the casualty list Is the op-
portunity 1t affords him of understand
ing the business of battle. Only through |
them can he obtain an tnkling as to the
movements of individual bodies of troops
One day he finds heavily sprinkled
Through the roll OF honor the legend |
'Gordon Highlanders." opposite the
names of officers dead or wounded or
missing. He knows then that the Cor
DON Highlanders have been in the thick
OF the fight.
The next day the Coldstream Guards |
pnlk large among the German shrapneps |
prey and he sees, as clearly as If he had |
oeen in the trenches himself. how the |
general commanding Withdrew the gal |
lant Gordons from the point OF most ex-
posure and sent the Coldstreams forward |
IN their stead
HlGHLANDERS IN FOREFRONT.
, True to their traditions. the High |
tshd regiments and those of the Foot |
Iuaids appear TO have been in the fore |
'front.' OF the fray through all that long |
FIreat from Mons TO the gates of Paris. |
All OF them-the Gordons. Camerons. |
.Argylls and Sutherlands, Black Watch |
shd e. the Coldstream. Grenadier, Irish and |
ncotS iuards-have suffered dreadfully. |
the Coldstreams go the mournful glory |
VI enduring the heaviest losses of all |
among their officers. AZ of a total of 50 |
81 S Mhom are ineffective at present. The |
uoIdons and the Irish Guards share sec |
osu place the former unit having lost 25 |
- ts ob ofticers, the latter 13 of its so.
~ Is probable the percentage of casual |
uss Is even greater than those statistics |
snow Tor there Is no way of knowing |
her " nether the full complement of officers !
'atScoihpanies each unit, and the figures |
streh above have reference 10 the full |
eisth OF the regiments as published |
80 he army list, In fact one cannot |
ss1ie ssate with certainty even how many bat
ssilohs OF any regiment have gone to the |
r,' except In the case OF the Irish |
61ITaIus-which has only one battalion.
OF instance, the total of So officers of
e,s rs Coldstream Guards means the full