Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-11-06
THE NERVE OF THE SOLDIER
Even the Bravest Subject to Mys-
terious Influence of Panic.

OF all the mysteries of war-and
there are many-none is more baf-
fling or more elusive to the student
of fighting human nature than the
way in which blind panic will grip
and temporarily paralyze even the
most seasoned troops.
No fighting man in the world, the
British bluejackets or British Tom
my Atkins not excepted, is immune
from the sudden, subtle attack OF
blue funk"
White, Brown and Black.
However, so far as a comparison
of the fighting qualities of the vari-
Gus nations is possible have never
found any material difference in
mans courage be he white, brown OF
black. though it assumes different
forms-I should say, without dis
respect to our allies, that the French
man is the most susceptible to panic.
The Frenchmans imaginative quail
tiles make him a bonny and enthu-
siastic fighter, but, just because he
has vivid imagination, is he peculi-
arly liable to lose his head-and to
lose it very badly.
1 remember being with the French
foreign legion during the Moroccan
war when, late one night, the goums
(native scouts) came galloping back
to camp with the news that the
Moors were coming on in force.
Panic will seize men in broad day
light but certainly there IS nothing
more favorable to its development
than the actuality or fear of an at
tack at the small hours of the morn
ing. The alarm, as it so happened,
was a false one but the mischief was
done Suddenly, instantaneously.
like the dropping of great black
pail. fear fell upon us, and these
hard bitten, reckless devils" of the
foreign legion broke and scattered.
1 dare say to the mind of many a
reader there will spring up a picture
Of a disordered, yelling mob running
if conceived, would be false.
If one can lay a finger on any sa-
lient characteristic of panic. it is that
panic-stricken men do not run. They
walk, or rather stumble, along, heed
less of whittier 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 less
paralyzed.
When l meet a man who tells me
that he has never been afraid under
fire I know him to be a liar. Per-
novelty and excitement of the occa-
sion counterbalance fear. But / am
certain that the oftener a man goes
into action the more he is afraid,
and it is morale. discipline, and,
above all. the fear of being exposed
as a coward, that keeps him from
running away.
Another curious characteristic of
panic is the fact that. though the re-
treating men may be fired into, and
harried and hustled, they will not re-
taliate. In fact, they seem TO wish to
be killed. and during a debacle one
might say that every man hangs out
a placard on his back of please
shoot me-"
Eighteen miles did the foreign
legion walk and stumble across the
desert though no enemy pursued.
Then, as suddenly as it had come,
fear left them, and they pulled up,
ashamed to look at their officers,
ashamed to look at themselves.
What stops panic? 1t is hard to
say. AS often as not, it goes as mys-
teriously, as inexplcably as it came.
1t may be said, however, that it is
always the officers who save the sit
uation, beating and taunting the men
into manhood again.
During the last Zulu war the late
Lord Bill" Bresford came upon a
Tommy who had got bad attack of
funk and was covering behind a
rock Beresford looked at him, and
then said: Your poor dear old