New Britain herald., 1916-12-07


 the present world-war is given by 1 Lieutenant Zinovi Pechl1off in a com | munication to the National Geograph- 1c society, a part of which was releas- l ed today by the society as a bulletin of | it's war geography series. Lieutenant l Pechkof, who was one of the first l volunteers to proffcr his services to 1 France at the ou-' ."k of the war in August, 1914, is Q aan subject who | was unable to to his own | country from ItG .n the first few days of the great struggle. He joined l the foreign legion as private and | after taking part in three thrilling bayonet charges was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, in which capacity he was leading platoon against an entrenched machine gun position when he received wound which cost his right arm. For his exploit in this charge, which reulted in the capture 1 of four lines of German trenches m the space of forty-seven minutes-the general staff had estimated that it would require two and a half hours l Lieutenant PeChkoff received the war | cross with palms (the highest of the l four classes of this order) and the | military medal for valor.
 1 The society's bulletin. based on ] Lieutenant Pechkoffs S communication l follows:
 l "The romance and the adventurous
 exploits associated with the name of | the foreign legion of France constitute l some of the most picturesque and | thrilling episodes in the history of
 that nation during a period extending
 over the greater portion of the nine- l teenth century, It is not surprising,
 therefore, that when the hour of
 Frances greatest trial arrived in | August, 1914, this notable organiza- 1 tion. then in service in Morocco and Algeria, should have heen among the l first bodies of troops to be rushed to l the front. nor Is it to be wondered at 1 that the legion should have formed l the nucleus to which eravitated thou l sands of eager spirits of other nation
 alities who felt that the cause of l France and French liberties was l their own cause.
 l "The French government was quick l to realize the potency in the appeal of the glorious past achievements of the I foreign legion. and each battalion of l the four regiments was made the cen
 tral unit of new volunteer regiment
 It should be explained to American 1 laymen that the French regient Is a
 much larger unit than the regiment of the American army. In France the l strength of a company is 25 men; there are four companies to battal- ion, four battalions to the regiment l So, with each battalion of four regi ] ments as a recruiting center for a new | regiment, the strength of the foreign 1 legion when it's sixteen regiments were 1 completed reached a total in excess
 of 6O,O00 men.
 l "When the legionaires first reached l the firing line trench warfare was in | its infancy. No one could then imag | inc into what it would develop. In l the early days of September those
 lines which afterward grew into the
 vast labyrinth of ditches. and com
 municating galleries were nothing 1 more than shallow 1rdividual holes
 in which each soldier sought to secure 1 some protection from bursting shrap-
 ne1 and the hail of steel messengers of l disfgurement and death. But when | the onrushing tide of the German in
 vasion was finally stemmed and the process of rolling it back began then 1 this revolutionary evolution of what | is now known as trench warfare was accom- plished
 1T have been asked many times 1 since I came to America, whether or not the life in the trenches is monot- 1 onous; how the men can stand the strain of living constantly in an at | m mosphere surcharged with danger, how the fighting men can endure the suspense of the expected attack every hour in the twenty-four; how the sol
 dier can school himself to undergo the torture of awaiting calmly the order to charge the enemy whom he I,r tn t,o @ front of him; how he can adjust himself to the hardships and inconveniences of living for a month at a time between earthen walls that suggest nothing more forcefully than the sides of a pridigious grave which he has had to dig for his own body?
 ITO all of these rational questions it is impossible to find reasonable answer except in the ll-embrac1ng reply that the modern soldier has been forced to adapt himself to wholely new existence which often outrages his sensibilities, which re- verses all his former hablts or thought, which distorts his preVlouS conceptions of creature comforts put withal. which does not make him any the less human, sympathetic, couia peous or self-sacri1cing. Indeed. , am convinced that this war, instead ot shattering moral codes and rutallzlnS the men who are the active partici- pants in it will develop ana crys'al- lize the noblest impulses or those "ho in the emotional madness or the charge sweep ruthlessly over the eii- emy The soldier does not thlnk or 1,is onnonent az another human being, as a living, breathing entity, with heart, brain. lungs and limbs like him self If he were so to consider the man against whom he raises his bay onet for the fatal lunge l do not be-