The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1914-09-27
JOKE AND PRAY
WHILE BULLETS
NOW EN- DOWN
TALE OF WAR FROM BRITISH
CAMP IN FRANCE, VIVID WITH
DESCRIPTION, TOLD BY FOR
MER CHAPLAIN.
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS,

New York, Sept. ga tale OF war
from the British camp IN France, vivid
with description Of the way the En-
glish forces faced death Oh the battle
field of the jokes they cracked and
the prayers they said with the bull
let's sweeping their ranks. was brought
70 New York today by the Rev. James
Mo1loy, a native Of Trenton, n J.. who
served as chaplain for several weeks
with one OF the British regiments in
France. He returned home today on
the Mauritania.
In a modern battle there is an
overpowering sense Of unreaIity" he
said. THE business Of seeing men
kill each other seems mechanical be-
cause Of the preponderance of the ma
chine element in the affair; the hu-
man element simply bleeds and dies,
but the machines continue in their per-
fsction of slaughter.
THE conduct Of the English and
Irish soldiers in the trenches was sur
pristng. There the men stood behind
shoulder high mounds of dirt, facing
level sDratns of death in front yet
cracking jokes and singing snatches
of music hall ballads between volleys.
Stupendous bravery. / call it, or stu
pendous absence OF nerves
I've heard men under the crashing
fire of the terrible German guns md
with comrades dropping all about
them unite IN roaring It's a Long Road
to Tipperary,' as If they were in bar
racks. Sometimes I'd hear a big Irish
man call out TO a neighbor in the
trenches, well, found that buchanan
all right The business of killing
with them, seemed personal and to
partaI1e somewhat of a sporting event
But how the Germans d1d pound
that British line at Mons! They came
on and on, never stopping, never fall
teripg. It was IFe the waves Of a
blue-gr sea rolling up through the
fog. One wave would break and die
away and another would be right be
hind it, pushing IN In exorably. The
German commanders threw their men
into the face OF British fire with alb
solute rAck1essness. counting on the
sheer weight of numbers to overwhelrn
us
To see those German lines move
forward through glasses was IKE
watching regiments of toy soldiers
pushing across a table You'd see a
long row IF pale blue blocks. to@ped
with spiked helmets break from cover
and come rushing at you Then a
British gun at your elbow would speak,
a shell would drop right in the midst
of that blue block a great hurting
MP of smoke and soil. and-the block
would be gone. Nothing left but a
few little men madly running back
through the haze of powder smoke.
But the German shells kept COM
ing and coming. They are terrible
those shells, have seen one shell
enter a little hill and there explode |
carrying away the whole top of the
hill. I have seer a company Of British |
wiped out by the explosion Of a single
shell
Perhaps the night fighting is most
weird and terrible to see In this the
forces Of the allies had the superb
GRITTY through their prepon Grant sup
ply Of aeroplanes. The allied forces
on the retreat from Mons tn SenliS |
had 80 aeropIanes which we're busy day
and night hut particularly at night.
You would hear q whirring Of in
visible propeIlers overhead and by
stratntnE your ears could trace the di-
reCtton of the night flyer over the
German positions. Gu1ners stand
ready behind their pieces. keyed up .
a wire pitch Of efficiency.
Suddenly spark appears in the
heavens: it falls The airman has dis
covered the position German bat
terry and his falling torch makes tie
range and the position. Instantly the
British guns rear and a shower OF
shells scars up to follow the line Of
that falling star"
"Everybody's" for School