The Cairo bulletin., 1914-09-27
SOLDIERS HAVE NO ILL
FEELINGS AGAINST ENEMY
To Be Wounded Is Not a Bad Ex-
perienee-F.ags and Drums
Are Useless

by an Austrian reserve officer, who
after having been wounded in an
| engagement with the Russians. gave
the following interview to an Hun
ealian journalist The officer ia
question was with General Dankl in
the fighting southeast of Krasnik.
"You +eel little or nothing while
in battle" he said. AT least you
forget how things affect your mind.
The eyes see and the ears hear, but
those are perceptions which do not
result in impressions one could or
dinate They do not even an ct
your sentiments But this is not
cynicism for all that, merely the
lack OF appreciation of what takes
place My captain. a most loveable
fellow whom | did not alone respec.
as an officer, but of whom | also
thought great deal personally, was
leading his company into fire when
three bullets hit him in the abdo-
men. l saw him fall, but thought
nothing of it and marched on.
In spite OF the fact that you have
no i'll feelings against the enemy,
and may not even fear him, you d.
stroy him as best you can. On the
evening before our first battle We
were sitting about the mess table
most of us officers Of the line. Nom
of us had ever killed man. l said
Friends. when | meet the first Rus
sian officer tomorrow my impulse
will be to shake his hand. My com
rades agreed with me. But on the
following day l was Obliged to lay a
number of Russians low.
MY slovacs are the most phleg-
matte people in the world, but excel
lent soldiers. They shoot without
anger. but simply because they are
fred upon One fights because one
IS on the battle field and can not do
any different The terrible thing is
that often you are shot at without
2eing able to return the fire But
his is not as fear-insp,ring as it is
diseouraeing. You learn to know
what fear is when you begin to
realize that you might be killed
without killing somebody first.
of course / have been scared
That was after | had been wounded
We had been firing a long time and
when next we advanced we came
into a deep sandy road, out of which
sc could not get be, ause of tn
uemy's terrible FIRE. We had to Ii
arfcctly still while bullets simply
cured over us That was awful"
The officer omitted to state thai
lille in this posi- ion he was she.
lroe times in the arm, but contin
ned to lead his troops throughout
the action.
1T is a well known fact that the
soldier sees very little of the battle
On August "a ea~ly in the morning
we received orders to occupy low
hill at the edge of track covered
with brush wood. Forming part Of
the reserve, we were expected to re-
main under cover In front Of us
was a large open battle field. To
each side of us were batteries which
rad Numbered away since early
morning. The result of this was
that many Of the enemy's shells
dropped right in front of us. l re-
member noticing that while the
mobe OF GU shells had a lilac color
hat OF the enemys was white.
50 far We had not been disquieted
hy the shells at all On the edge of
he brush wood had been planted
elIow-black flag. showing that
somewhcre in that vicinity was to
70 found our general staff. Our
colonel left us and walked towards
it, possibly to get orders, but just as
he got there a shrapnel exploded a
little ahead of him in the air and we
saw our commanding officer, in
whom we placed all orr confidence,
80 down. After that ii was terri |
BILE feeling to lie still. From that |
moment on, too, yeritable hail OF
shells began to come. Some sappers, |
who had been busy digging a trench |
for the protection of the general
staff, started to run. | feared that
my soldiers would follow the exam
PIE, and began to make fun of the |
poo- sappers, scolding them at the
same time, Thank God, my battal-
ion found that funny and began tn
laugh They lived through ter
rife shrapnel fire with not care
and even found occasion for laugh
ter.
"A rsajsr took. Command OF the