Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-11-30
Warm Work at the Front

I
From cavalry officer Of the British
army:
We have had It pretty warm the last
few days. on Monday we reached a
town which the Germans were attacking
on the flank. Our squadron was advance
guard. The troop dlsmounted and got into
a ditch, right in front of our own bat
terry In action. The noise was terrific
After our guns had plastered the enemy
It was thought that they had retired and
we were ordered to mount and advance.
The country was very open, and the
Germans waited until we were from 80
to 100 yards away and then let us have
1t. But they shot very badly. / had n
lucky escape, as in turning sharp TO the
right to avoid n morass my saddle slipped
round and 1 took toss on my shoulder.
But they never hit either me or my mare.
and we got safely under cover.
we were forced to retire when the
Germans brought UP their guns against
us, but we only lost two horses and had
two men slightly hit
We remained in the town for four
hours while the Germans bombarded It,
but their chief object was to destroy the
church and clock tower.
Had another narrow squeak next morn
Ing. Found my shoulder too damaged to
ride. so went with the transport, and the
Germans brought guns up to within 300
yards of us. We moved pretty quickly,
but their shells chased us all down n
long straight road, bursting either side OF
us, but not doing much damage. Near
enough. thought
am resting my shoulder for a day or
two and am glad of a sleep and to get
my boots on 1t is getting raw and cold
now. l hope to be back in action in a day
or two.
Soldiers Find Money Useless
From Private Frank Forsyth, of the
Irish Guards, to his mother.
l received the box of cigarettes all
right. and L need not tell you they were
welcome Though we get money O0
francs) 1t Is absolutely useless, as the
Gers" made sure there was nothing left
In the villages in the way of food or
smoke. In fact, they did not leave the
houses standing in case they would pro-
vide shelter for us.
l was offered as much as a franc for n
Woodbine, and five, francs is a common
price to pay for loaf of civilians bread
IL is so scarce and money of so little
value. OF course, we get our rations of
bread "a lb) and two biscuits, but some
olokes like to supplement 1t.
l enclose cutting of paper describ-
Ing how we took up our present position.
When we reached the top of the hills
mentioned we lost six officers and about
80 men killed and wounded. We dug
trenches, and are here still Captain
Berners, Lord A. Hay. and Lord Guernsey
were killed In this action.
We are now well supplied with news.
In fact, The Daily Mail Continental Edl-
tion is given to us in the trenches on
the same day of publication. think this
is something in newspaper enterprise We
can see an account of what has been hap-
pening the day before in our own lines
We have proper shell-proof trenches
dug now, and our casualties for three
weeks have been only couple of
wounded
1 see Redmond is going to form an
Irish Brigade. 1 would not care to be a
German and face that lot I'm sure IL
has got quite reception in Dublin, and
should give great flip to recruiting
God help the Gers" when Kitchener
raises his million men, because with any
thing like even numbers we would swipe
them. Don't worry.
Faced Shells for Seven Hours
From an officer tOho AGs been loounded
In France:
We were supposed to be surrounded,
but we weren't certain. The colonel
called all the officers up and told us we
were in very tight corner, but we were
not to let the men know. He said that
we should be lucky II we got out, and
for the honor of the regiment and Eng
land TO fight to the last man. Well 1
was told off with my men, so altogether
to watch all night Nothing happened
until quite late in the morning, about
7 o'clock. Then 1 saw about a mile
away, on the horizon, the Germans COM
ing on in huge masses over a hill. At
the same time their big guns opened GrO
with extraordinary good range. There
We were under fire from these big guns
for seven hours, without being entrenched
and we didn't lose a man. The shells
fell as close as 10 yards away at times,
but God was with us.
We opened fire when they were about