New Britain herald., 1918-04-05
Sixty-ninc of roo Survive.
By Sergeant John Teehan

l <aIuIJ by bI9 htlSCt.l
 I got out of that fight at Marne 1 without a scratch, although the epau- | let was torn off my shoulder. A Huns | bayonet caught the strap and tore it | off, but it never touched me. Seven l hundred of us, the 9th Dragons, went | into that action; 69 of us came out I have been wounded seven times 1 in this war. I got the last "package' 1 at the Dardanelles. And since coming
 out of the hospital I've been on re- l cruiting duty. And We Irishmen are | going to prove to the world that our
 hearts are in the right place, even l though the Sim Feiners at home are l stabbing us in the back
 I was called back from South Africa when England first declared 1 war, and crossed the channel with the 1 9th Inniskillin Dragons. In short time we were in action at Mons; from there to the AIarne, then on to Ant werp. Since then I have fought on four fronts and seven brothers have been killed in this war; three at Dar- danelles, one in the Balkans, one at Ypres, another at LoOs.
 At Mons we met the flower of the German army. They came at us ill
 mass formation, stone wall or Prus- sians We fought from trenches only
 
 match them-just our Lee Enfield
 rifles But we know how to use them.
 We made mince meat of them at first.
 The rapidity of our firing gave tho Germans the impression that we had
 machine guns. We were told to hold
 our fire until they were within 300
 yards of us, where we could distin-
 guish their features. Then we opened
 on them. They could not understand
 how We did it. They halted, waited
 for a moment, advanced bit. Then
 our cavalry came up.
 We held out for about eight days
 at Mons. The French fell back right l and left of us. But we had orders from Gen. Smith Dorrien to hold our ground, and orders are orders to a i
 British soldier. By superhuman 1 effort he stemmed that attack. He held the line on the left until we got !! some field pieces which helped us to l break the advance of the Germans. | Then the cavalry had orders to ad- l vance on the right and take some
 guns that were bothering us. Among i the cavalry were the 17th Lancers, the 9th Dragons (my regiment, called l the Irish Die-Hards'D, the 11th Hussars, ca He'd the "cherry- -pickers,' We disabled the guns. Those were our orders. We could not bring back the prisoners nor the guns on account of the Germans fearful barrage fire.
 Our work there ended when General l Jotfre sent a telegram on the 23d co Sir John French to retreat. It was the only thing to be done. We could not hold the line after the French fell back. We retreated to the town of Mons and had just five minutes there to clean up, take our wounded and supplies and get out, the Germans were advancing so fast.
 Canada's Fighting Parson.
 By Major J. c. Biggs
 (Major Riggs has seen service Tn the South African War and since his return from the French front has been doing recruiting duty in various Brit ish-Canadian Recruiting Missions in the United States.)
 When the Sd Canadian Mounted Rifles was formed in December, 1914, one of the first applicants for a post with the regiment was a Church of England clergyman, A. Gillies- -Wilkin. At that time there was no provision made for a chaplain for the regiment, but this man was not to be denied and joined in the ranks. During the course of training at Medicine Hat, Alberta, he did the routine work of the cav- | enlisted men, grooming the horses, l cleaning his saddle, keeping bit and bright and doing all the work incident to a cavalry unit.
 When the regiment went over to in June, 1915, it was pos sibe to have him appointed chaplain with the honorary rank of captain. l This was very good news to the men with whom he had served for 50 long and with whom he had won a place. It was always noticed that the squad ron to which he was attached had a little higher physical and moral stand ard than other squadrons, largely due to his presence in the ranks.
 He accompanied the unit to France and was there met with the order that all chaplains get--to keep out of the front lines-but this did not deter him, and when the troops to which l he was attached took their turn in the front line. he was always found 1 with them. As the relief took place at night he would simply mingle with ; the men whom he knew so well and thus escape the vigilance of the off, { cers. When his presence was discov cred the next day, it was much sim 1 pier to keep him in the front line : trench than to send him back over land, where he would have an excel ( lent chance of being killed.
 He did this work constantly, and , on June 2, 1915, he was in the front . line in the Ypres salient when the Germans came over in some force detached his chaplain's badges from { his tunic, picked up a rifle and such l ammunition as he could find and used ] { 1t effectively. When the ammunition ] {