The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-02-18

could continue to maintain this delib-
crate rate Of retirement with our for
nations still intact We could hope Tor
salvation. for we knew that reinforce
ments were due.
THE night of the 7th the Bulgars
made final attempt to smash our re-
sistance. They redoubled the force OF
their bombardment; they increased
still more the momentum of their In
fantry attacks. They came very near
to achieving their purpose. and there
were hours when one would have
asked prayers for the Tenth division
but British bulldog courage and OBJ
stinacy withstood all the fury of the
enemy's onset. and our mountain ar
tillery always found an easy target
BY the 9Th the force of the Bulgar at
tacks had spent itself. They still
shelled our line and sent forward their
infantry to the charge, but the sting
had gone out of their efforts and we
were able with comparatively little
difficulty to repel them, our machine
guns in particular doing bitter havoc
in their serried ranks. Later our hero
ic Tenth division was placed in Sec
ond line. The effect of our REINFORCE
ments was quickly felt on the enemy.
who as we continued our retirement
became more cautious, following US
only at a respectful distance.
Proved Their Mettle.
In the two days battle the Tenth
division inflicted on the enemy at least
four times their own number of cas-
ualties and, what is possibly equally
of importance. they taught him the
temper and morale OF British infantry.
The Bulgars were fighting on ground
which they knew as we'll as the lnnis-
killings knew Ulster. They had the
advantage of our men In artillery, and
! beyond all question in numbers. When
they commenced their attack on Mon
day they disposed Of at least three d.
visions, the whole of the first Bulgar
army and part of the second. BY the
end of the first day the remainder OF
the second army had formed up so
that one division of British was op-
posed to four Bulgar divisions. but the
Tenth division had been thinned down,
and it is no exaggeration to say that 1t
fought against odds of eight to one.
THE Tenth division outlived the
horrors of Sulva; it outlived the days
and nights Of biting cold on the Serb
ian frontier ranges. and it finished the
miracle. to quote the official phrase,
by sustaining violent attacks deliv'
cred by the enemy In overwhelming
numbers The slow, furnishing. rear
guard action It fought allowed the
allies to withdraw all their accupu.
lated stores and munitions and to fall
back without congestion into Greek
territory again.
1.-THE Tenth division saved the situa.
ton by display Of courage and dog
ged heroism that cannot be too highly
praised One of these days we shall
be told what the general said to the
thinned units when he met them again
at Saloniki. At the moment all that
can he said is that they were high
words of praise.
They have brought the wounded
Connaughts. MINISTERS, Inniskillings.
West Kents and the rest to Plymouth.
and you will find them distributed over
the various wards of the military hos.
pital A CHEEKY. good-humored body
of men they are, disposed to make
Light of their experiences.
1T is hard to explain how the Tenth
division, encompassed as it was. won
through, and perhaps the most salts
factory thing to do is to fall back on
the explanation of a Munster Fanger'
whose only grumble is that he was
kept twelve hours in those terrible
forty-eight hours fighting without
food: They beat Us with numbers We
couldn't hope to hold up against the
crowd they sent against US. a draft
clumsy gang of men. We gave EN-
hell, but their numbers beat US. But
two days wasn't much of time to
give themselves to make us see we
were beaten, and SO we got away with
them still coming after US. You'd got
to be. there to see what happened. II
sounds very much like an anti-climax'
but it is really what happened. The
Tenth division escaped because II
hadn't time to know that by all the
| ruloa n WAS beaten"