Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-05-04


rying orders where telephone wires had
been smashed and there was no other
way OF getting through a message than
when man could get through with his
life.
"They Need Us"
The colonel, with grizzled mustache
and somber blue eyes. whom I met, took
pity on the men and said:
Take a rest for an hour or two. my
sons. You have Done well and are very
tired"
But these men said:
"Mcrci. Mon Colonel, mats ills ont
besoin de nous" C'Thank you. Colonel,
but they have need Of u.s. And they
set off again through the drumfire along
the tracks where many OF their comrades
lay and where at last they, too. perhaps.
stumbled and fell with bursts of flame
bringing death 20 them.
SO It was with the stretcher-bearers,
the heroic brancardiers. who for six
days went up and down the road to the
rescue of the wounded up and down
with some comrades. less one ambulance
man. one of the nlrmiers tended
wounded in an advanced dressing sta
tion until he was killed by she'll
The French transport men did we'll,
generously well. and all through this
fighting from April % to April 80, each
regiment had good meat and good
drink.
The Germans added one terror to the
battle. which was taught them by the
British i'm the battles of Flanders last
year from the air. They sent over
| swarms of low-hying airplanes from zen
to a hundred yards above the ground.
Their pilots fired on the French infantry
in the open with machine guns and
dropped heavy bombs.
'T counted some seventy-ninc airplancs
in the sky at one time over two battalion
fronts" said one Of the officers whom
met. and his friends bore out this fact.
They told me all these things frankly
and simply, with fine modesty and OPEN
'heartedness. Most Of them were amateur
soldiers before the war, but now they
seemed to me very wise in the science OF
war, understanding the strategy and tao
tics Of the enemy's attacks on them and
quick to see any weakness I'm their own
position. They were cool-headed fellows
without bravado. and utterly sincere, 'as
only men who have faced death often are
sincere, because to live near death strips
. the soul Of its conceit and foolishness
Reverence for Men
Their great pride was in the glory Of
/ their men They touched the papers
which had been delivered by runners
with reverence as relics of the brave
deed, and stood very silent when the old
colonel who was like a father among
them, took another paper out of his
! pocket, Smoothed IL out and clearing his
| throat a little, said
Il had this from a young lieutenant of
mine, commanding platoon, and would
! like to read 1t to you"
II was a message from a young French
officer who, with a little party Of men,
| was isolated for two DAYS, with the
enemy all around them. For two days
/ they kept the Germans At bay with
|machine-gun FIRE, fighting north and
/ south facing both ways and he had the
| honor to report. this boy of France, that
| he had not lost a foot Of ground nor
one man as prisoner.
There must have been many things
done like that" said the colonel. But
the men who did them did not come
/ back. and We shall never know"
Since the beginning of the war have
been recording heroic acts by English
ana an British troops--things done by
them that make ones spirit big with
wonder that youth should be so brave
and so they will not beErudgo the things
| have written about the French today
for they will like to know how those
comrades In blue we're fighting last Mon.
day when the British lines from Vor.
mezeele to east of Npres held firm
against all attacks; end OH the days
before then when they were gladdenet
10y the news that the French were com.
ing to their relief at the critical hour
when things looked worst.
1t Is good that the British peopl,
LII. 4 a
and get this glimpse of the spirit o
Frence, which is now minglng with tn,
spirit of their own men on the. sam,
battleields and as their bodies toucI
when they pass each other on the sam,
roads II is a lesson Of comradeshiJ
which should draw them very close.
New Troops Brave
on the same day as the French wer,
holding firm between Dranoutre anC
Locre,- the men Of the Twenty-first
Forty-ninth and Twenty-hfth British
divisions were sustaining the same or
deal. and afterward. between Vorme
zeele and Ridge Wood. l have already
given many details of this fighting, de
SCribing the colossal bombardment, tn,
| attacks of the enemy in waves and tn,
| slaughter Of his men, He was neve
able to get into Ridge Wood. and on tn,
previous night, when he tried to advanc,
on a big scale but was prevented by tn,
British gunfire, which broke up his as
semblies, the South Africans attacked
and drove him back by machine gun anc
rife fire. The Yorks and Lancaster
shires and Duke of Wellingtons received
the enemy with fixed bayonets and in
ncted heavy losses.
one fine feature of this battle, whicl
] 90 Ia, -,
extraordinarily gallant behavior o