The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-26
ALL MEN SUBJECT TO
 PANIC UNDER FIRE
Veteran War Correspondent Writes Interestingly of His Observations
 on Field of Battle

~" 'ttAio Pahic Will Rflp ana tenn porarily paralyze even the most sea soned troops. writes Frank Sondamore. the veteran war correspondent. in Lon don Times
 No fighting man in the world. the British bluejacket or British Tommy Atkins not excepted. is immune from the sudden, subtle attack of 'blue funk"
 However. so far as a comparison of tho fighting qualities of the various nations is possible--I have never found any material difference in mans cour- age be he white, brown or black, though 1t assumes different forms-I should say, without disrespect to our susceptible to panic.
 The Frenchmans imaginative qual- ities make him a bonny and enthusi- astic fighter. but. just because he has vivid imagination, is he peculiarly liable to lose his head-and to lose 1t very badly.
 I remember being with the French foreign legion during the Moroccan war when, late one night. the goums (na- tive scouts) came galloping back to camp with the news that the Moors were coming on in force.
 Panic will seize men in broad day 'ight, but certainly there is nothing more favorable to It's development than the actuality or fear of an attack in the small hours of the morning. The alarm. as it SC happened. was a false one. but the mischief was done. Sud denly, instantaneously. like the drop ptng of a great black pail. fear fell upon us and these hard-bitten, reck- less devils of the foreign legion broke and scattered
 I dare say to the mind of many a reader there will spring a picture of a disordered, yelling mob running this way and that, but the picture. if con- ceived. would be false.
 If one can lay finger on any sal iart characteristic of panic. 1t is that Ipanic-stricken men do not run. They walk, or rather stumble. along. heed les of whither they are going. so long as it Is away from the enemy. Also. men in the grip of a nameless fear do not cry out. Their tongues, like their limbs, are more or les paralyzed.
 When I meet a man who tells me that he has never been Afraid under fire l know him to be a liar. Perhaps, in ones first engagement, the novelty and excite ment of the occasion counterbalance fear But I am certain that the oftener man goes into action the more he is afraid and 1t is morale. discipline, and. above all. the fear of ebing exposed as cow ard. that keeps him from running away.
 Another curious characteristic of panic is the fact that, though the retreating men may be fired into, and harried and hustled, they will not retaliate. In fact, they seem to wish to be killed, and dur ing debacle one might say that every man hangs out placard on his back of "Please shoot mel
 Eighteen miles did the Foreign Legion walk and stumble across the desert. though no enemy pursued. Then, as sud denly as it had come, fear left them. and they pulled up. ashamed to look at their officers, ashamed to look at them selves.
 What stops panic? It is hard to say As often as not, it goes as mysterously, as inexplicably, as 1t came. It may be said, however, that it is always the offi- cers who save the situation, beating and taunting the men into manhood again
 During the last Zulu war the late Lord "Bilr' Beresford came upon a Tommy who had got bad attack of funk and was covering behind rock. Beresford looked at him. and then said: Your poor dear old mother would be proud if she could see you, wouldn't she?'
 With snarl the man leapt to his feet. rushed into the thickest of the fray and fought like tiger suffering from tooth ache.
 Of all fighting men the British blue jacket or soldier. is the least liable to panic. Still, even he does not always escape, although, in an experience as war correspondent which embraces nine teen campaigns and twenty pitched bat ties, I have only once seen the British Tommy thoroughly and utterly demoral- ized
 This was at the battle of Tamai, when. through blunder for which General Sir Gerald Graham, V. C., chivalrously as- the leading square was ambushed.
 It was so neatly trapped that before anything could be done. there were 5000 of the enemy insiS> the square. Then the men began to give.
 There was no shouting. no running, but just confused. struggling, aimless walk. or roll, to nowhere in particular. This lasted for seven or eight minutes, and then trflng incident caused the cord of fear to snap like a fiddle string.
 wounded Tommy, down in the sand. had got hold Of Dervish round the legs In such manner that the latter could not use his spear. Some of the men. catching sight of the struggle. called to others to turn and watch it. In few seconds the square was stationary, and facing inwards, watching the duel
 Slowly. pertinaciousiy, hanging on like bulldog. the Tommy-a very powerful man--dragged the Dervish down, stretched him across his knee. and broke his back in two.
 Cheer after cheer greeted the feat and then the late Bennett Burleigh ilfted up most unmusical voice and beloved forth. Rule. Britannia"
 l was in the first battle of El Teb, when Valentine Baker Pasha's force of 500 Egyptians and some 300 Europeans was cut to pieces. Over 4500 Egyptians were slain, while I was one of the six survivors out of 300 Europeans. The III formed square broke at the first Rodouin onslaught, and then ensued n horrible, panic stricken procession back to the sea.
 The enemy hung on for two or three miles. cutting, slashing. killing at will. for, as have said, characteristicalIy of panic. the men made no effort to defend themselves
 In this Armageddon there will be psnics
 will be the first to crack under the strain. At the same time no race has a monopoly of panic, for none escape our commIl heritage of fear. only some men have the panic sense more highly developed.
 What about the Teuton? The German soldier may either set an example of moral stamina, or he may prove to be ovortrained and stale. and therefore liable to the sudden onrush of sense- less fear.
 One thing. however, I can assert with confidence: If there be a man on earth who Is impervious to panic who can avert 1t, or stay 1t once 1t has deV,1oped. then that man Is fha Brit