FAA IAA 1 Ne | 18 PAGES 1 tne YEAR 8S, NO, 87 llI--Tragi Looking back on those years of war I remember many mornings of hope which ended in evenings of gloom and tragedy; the wornings of battle when large numbers of British troops assembled secretly for some great as- saulf upon the enemy's lings, know- ing * there' would be hard a&nd cost- ly fighting, but buoyed up by the be- Hef that they would smash a way through and inflict a bloody defeat Nearly always in those first three years of war our generals were over- confident and our men uplifted by an optimism due to a faith in their own courage This faith among the men was the quality by which after many frightful battles and fearful losses they did at last smash their way to victory Without that supreme con- viction in success they could never have attempted the things they did nor recovered from the disasters that befell them In my humble opinion some of our generals "should have tempered their own optimism due to the same racial qualities as that of their man--by more caution and a closer knowledge of the enemy's strength, because in many cases the "British troops were called upon fo at- tempt the impossible and to make a sacrifice of life on account of over- whelming hazards Criticism, how ever, is easy now We were an army of amateurs fighting the strongest professional army in the world, and our generals and their staffs had to learn by many bitter lessons, and our men had to suffer while they were learning. One of Our Worst Battles, One of our early battles and one of our worst was that of Loos, which began on September 25th, 1915. It was fought in conjunction with the French on our right who had decided to assault the Vimy Ridgeabove Ar- ras, and after its capture to go for- ward to the south and east of the city * ttt tine of Lens Our plan was to. capture the village of L and to encircle Lens on the north and west hy sweej ing over Hill 70 and getting into the suburbs of Loos, through the mining villages of St. Pierre and St. Auguste, Our information the enemy's strength was very inaccurate, and be- fore: the assault our men were told that they had only weak forces against them, so that they would have an easy break-through They were also told to go ahead as fast and as far as they could, with the promise as to held by close poorting troops follow- ing upon their heels Sir John French was then Commander- fn-Chief, and the main thrust was to be delivered by our First Army, com manded at that time by Sir Douglas Haig We had massed a large num ber of guns behind our lines and three days before the battle hegan | saw them open a terrific and de structive bombardment upon the en emy's defensive stems, and that fire never ceased day or n ght go that the village of Loos wi lung. nto a heap of ruins and the fr ning works around Lens were and mangled into fragments of twisted The town of Bethune on our sidd of the lines was the assembly A our men, and throughfits old Grand Place on a day of snow,_and sleet went a surging tide of men and horses and guns, The men Wore their 'hairies,' or goat skin coats, to which the snow clung, and they had white snow wreaths upon their steel hats They belonged to the infantry, artillery and transport of the 1st, 7th, Sth, 15th and 47th Divisions, who were to assault next day at dawn They were Scots of fhe Black 'Wateh among the English troops of the 1st Divi-| sion and the 15th Division was com-| posed entirely of Scottish Territorials, | who were about to fight their first big battle The 47th Division was | | a a ay | he steel A SPRING TONIC CREATLY | that all the ground they took would ; | sault { lies and BY PHILIP GIBBS Copyright, 1919, by the MeClure Newspaper Syndicate, ours, made up for the most part of amateur soldiers, could conduct war on this scale without many blunders, and much ignorance of modern condi- tions The higher cammand had had no real experience of Staff work dealing with large bodies of troops and conducting battles over a wide front. camposed of London Territorials, vol- unteer soldiers from the great old city who were inspired that day of battie with the old spirit of death or glory When the assault hegan at dawn the Scots went forward to the music of their pipes, screaming the charge under heavy shell fire, and the London boys, not outdone by this music, went over the top play ing mouth-organs to the music-hall song of "Hulloh, Hulloh, It's a Dif ferent Girl Again'; one company tually dribbling a football all the to Loos to show their contempt of | death The battle began with suc | enough behind our barrage fire, and | 88 a8 far as concerned the Scots of' Tattions were fought OW HO narrow af tthe 15th Division and the Londoners We learned in the first place | of the 47th The Gordons were first that unless men took the risk of keep- | through the and into 'ing close behind the moving wall of the enemy's where high explosives flung by our guns in | to be Two Fatal Mistakes. In the earhLer battles of the Somme ac way our generals now acknowledge. Our men were not taught to follow close front lines of German village Loo they made many prisoners, and they [front of them with inevitable casual i: Black Watch, |ties from shells that burst too close, | and Highland [they would suffer far greater casual- | ties because the German troops would | time to get out of their dug were follow hy the Seaforths, Camerons, Light Infantry Then they ed and captured Hill 70 beyond Londoners on the right were cessful, and kept pace with the Scots | fighting gallantly under frightful fire and against the desperate defence of the enemy Some parties of the Scots with Londoners among them went on to the mining village of St Auguste on the outskirts of Loos, but | none of that gallant band ever came back , assault The 81 have so fire had passed over them and sweep | our men to death with machine gun | fire In the second place it found that if a battle were against some isolated village, wood, or section of trenches, the en emy would quickly signal to all his| fought a4 wide area of artillery twenty miles or so on each side of our point of at tack there would be directed an an- | nihilating fire upon our advancing troops Before those lessons were learned the devastating losses They attacked and captitred the ruins of Contalmai son and fell in great yumbers. Again land again they captured Delville Wood and High Woced and had to re-| Gassed--Our Men Fell Gasping. Tragic things had happened on the left nid on the right On the left the 1st Division had prepared to as behind a wave of poison gas, and the heavy vapor rolled into gul then was swirled back to their own lines so that numbers of men were gassed and fell choking and gasping for breath German pris- oners told us that .day that our gas hardly touched them, and they even raid ,with insolent laughter, that they "rather .liked the scent of it," add- ing that the English always had to copy German methods, and copied then Jadly The 7th and 9th Divl- sions, attacking the Hohenznllern re- doubt and the quarries near Holluch, had severe and costly fighting gaining were slashed and man- gun fire, | hecause they |gled under. concentrated murderous in its effect, | I watched our men go into those | | places and my heart bled for them, | | and my spirit cried out in agony, {cause of the intolerable sight of that | {had entered. And [ saw them coma] |out again as when the 9th (Scottish) | | Division with the South KINGSTON. ONTARIO, SATURDAY. APRIL 1 two fatal mistakes werd made, as al | were The Daily- British 2 ~y 1919 begun the entire German population hose who were dead, were down on our side of the the right, out from Arras, the 15th Divi sion of Scots, and the 56th London her English troops, smash of vil He nin and Heninel, and pushed forward the fall in might But after that there battler, of the Ridge, except t lines as prisoners And on ers, with ot ed their way through a maze trenches, through many ruined lages, like Neuville Vitasse and valley of prisoners So far, we on each side of the Scarpe, thousands of Ing into their hands spite of our heavy claim success were many dreadful little fought as "team work' French, led to no great issue losses, for A Galant but a Rash Adventure. On April 11th the village of chy, on the hill beyond Arras, wi tacked and captured by our cav certain that it was to do by shell fire A few the cavalry were in men of the 10th Hussars, Essex Yeomanry and the Blue I saw them going over Obse Ridge on the way to Menchy; when ing at the gallop in a snow tles and crowned their steel hats of cavalry men .standing hy was there low While 1 German aerpplane flew guessed I guessed enemy's lines I would happen, and were ranged upon the' ground assembled and shells burst them, and the ground was the which cost us very dear ana Mon Iry That was a gallant but a rash adven outs and tunnels after the barrage|ture, and looking back upon it I am no job for cavalry Fhe village of Monchy, on was | the hill top, was still standing when I saw it that morning with roofs still or on its houses and unbroken walls and | a white chateau only a little scarred hours later it hatteries for miles around, and from | was wiped off the map, and that was They the and rion the British armies suffered | rush of splendid bodies of men rid storm which coxered them with white man | In the valleys below the hill was a mass their [treat from the ground they had won| horses, and stamping to keep them | selves warm a above [them and them whisked back to the what right be-| A few minutes later German guns in {tumult of fire upon the places they | which all these men and horses were among strewn African | with dead boys and mangled heasts | Brigade came out of Delville Wood | But the assaulting squadrons of cay |a poor thin remnant of this glorious alry rode on until they topped the | body of troops who had gone into| ridge and swept round the village of their first objectives, but being check bt ed and partly thrown back at the end ? of the day On t "» right the French intense through villag ¢ Qy by a troopers But the cavalry a dash to the northern of the village and the enemy fled them .- It 'is an astonishing hat two withered old Frencl stayed the village all the fighting When our rode in women came forward ) d, and though in When our men { they were full ot stretcher ruined party made on a carried ick the small of | l 3 side [from {thing women through jroper | l in the running ering fear of the enem) surrounded the joy, and. held to be kiss leaned over their ¢ greating Aft was filled with a that hardly a horse rem: and the cavalry suffered heavy 3, and had to come back on foot leaving the village on the hill to be attacked again and captured again by our infantry of the 15th and 37th Divisions, who wre mowed down by in the rround there were many other battles in which our men slashed with machine gun fire from sides of the Scarpe, and day after day I saw our walking wounded « back over. tho fields those tired, brave men whotbote their pain with most stoic endurance, that there was hardly a groan to be heard anywhere. They formed up in a long queue outside the dressing station beneath the citadel Arras, covered in mud, and too weary and pent to talk, outside in the sunlight, waiting their turn of the men lay down on the bank distorted attitudes very like death, and slept there Others came hob bling with each arm around the neck of the stretcher-bearers or stumbled forward, gropingly It was the whimper of those blind boys and the agony on their faces, which was most pitiful; those and the men smashed about the face and head so that only their eyes stared through the white masks of bandages A tragic pie- ture, which lives in my memory On May 3rd there was an attack in the dark, before dawn, and that was a fatal mistake for which our poor men paid a high price dawn came many of them found that they had passed through the enemy's Camarades" face who their chy 0 alive iso fire country were both oming streams of 50 to enter Some When c Battles on the British Front tried "It's up to the Buffs!" shout- ed a little leutenant, who waa one of the few officers left in command, and heading his men he attacked two lines of trenches filled with Germans, and that little band hacked their way through with the bayonet, and some, but not many, came back to our lines. The attack in the dark was a tragic affair As [| have said all this was *'leam work" for the French, but owing to the failure of the French offensive in the Champagne Sir Douglas Halg 1d the British armies were confront- with hard task when they set out, too late in the year, to capture the ridges of Flanders, around Ypres Because every time we smashedione German division a fresh one | was bought up from the Fremch front. We had one great and successful bat- tle at Wyshtschaefe and Messines on June 7th, beginning with 19 mine ex- plosions under the German lines, the most amazing and frightful spectacle ever seen in war, and ending with a march through of our troops to their dltimate objectives, with light losses and the capture of many thousands of prisoners But after that we had the worst of luck with the wea- ther As soon as, the battles be- gan beyond Ypres the rains began, and hardly ceased until the end of the year. In a previous article [ have already described the foul con- ditions through which our men had in queem; INCREASES YOUR EFFICIENCY Lay the Foundation of Good Health Now by Building Up Your Blood und Strengthening Your Nerves. The good old fashion of taking a tonic in the springtime, like most of the eustoms of ot sound common sense and good medical practice. how mild the winter it is'a trying time, ored climates, for those who are not in rm women and children go through the winter on re- Many men, serve strength they have stored up during the sunny. months, and grow increasingly ' I ard nerves at this time wutting color in the cheeks and ban-| proach. A tonie for the blood much for such people, by | ishing that tired feeling that w of the year. You can nol be energetic if if your ne with-others are losing weight. You nee efficiency now, as we And in all the realm d a make new rich, red blood, whie tion of the body, strengthening Jaded nervy organs, and bringing a feeling weak, easily tired, despondent CURED BLJAOUS HEADACHES. Mr. D. C. McClure, Heffley Créek, B.C., says: "Asa spring tonic I know of nothing else that can equal Dr Williams' Pink Pills. Last sprioag I felt weak and run down, and sufferca @& great deal from bilious headaches. I got a half dozen boxes of Dr. Wil- Hams' Pink Pills, and after taking them I felt like a new man. The las- situde from which I suffered had dis- appeared, 1 had a Detter appetite, and was in every way stronger and better than before 1 began the use of this medicine. Almost everyone needs a tonic in the spring, and for this purpose 1 can strongly advise Dr. Williams' Pink Pills." ------------------ NEVER FELT 80 WEI4. Miss Beatrice Bishop, Fendale, N. B., says: "I have never felt so well as I do since taking Dr. Williams' Pink Pills. When I began their use I was very much run down. I had ne color, no appetite, could not go up stairs without stopping to rest on the way. 1 had frequent headaches and a feel- «Ing of despondency. 1 took Pink "Pills regularly for about eight weeks and while I felt a benefit from them almost from the first, at the end of that time I was in betfer henlth than I had ever enjoyed be- fore. 1 freely give you permission to publish this letter as my experience may Be the means of pointing the Way to new health to some other weak and run down girl" {GAINED WONDPRFULLY, Mrs. Herbent Hanson, Lower Hainebville, N.B., says: "I have the vary highest regard for Dr. Williams' . Pink Pills. Before I began their use 1 suffered greatly with siek head- ache, dizxiness and a feeling of de- and tiredness. A short treat- ment with the pills fully restored my 'health. My daughter Blanche was 'sulfering from anaemia, and through the use of six boxes of Dr. Williams' Pink Pills gained inderfully in ight, strength and general health. fe think so much of Dr. Wiliams' Pink Pills that we are never with- 'them in the houve, and 1 con- er them my best friend." ! rves are frayed or shattered. if vou do not get refreshing slee I as to save you from sutfering later nn. e of medicine there is 1 tonic that Dr. Willtams Pink Pills for Pale p is based upon | No matter] even in the most fav-| 1igged physical health. ir grandparents, summer | days ap-| spring will do| pale as the orries thousands al this season | your blood is thin and weak, or You caniot compete p at night, or.if you tonic at this time to add to your 10 safer or betier eqple. These pills h cireulates-through every por-| and run-down| gth and energy to n and children. es of new siren men, wome HAS A BETTER APPETITE. Mrs. M. D. MacLeod, Caledonia, PEL, says: "I have used Dr. Wil liams" Pink Pills as a spring medi- cine with satisfactory results. Be] fore I began their use I was subject | to weak spells, but these have now | disappeared." I find that my appetite | is better, and 1 have every confidence in your pills as a. blood builder. trees re STRONG AND WELL AGAIN. | Mrs. H. H. McKelvey, Orono, Ont. Says: 'My experience with Dr. Wil- liams' Pink Pills has been of the most favorable kind. At the time I began their use | was so weak and run down that I could hardly go about. My stomach was also out of order and the food I took did . not seem to do me a bit of good. Then Dr. Williams' Pink Pills came to my rescue, and under thein use my stom. ach grew better, my general health improved, and I was sop as healthy and vigorous a man as 1 had ever been. Dr. Williams' Pink Pills, with the use of Pinklets as a laxative when needed, is now our faniily med- icine, and we would not be without them." -- ct tt ---- BUILD UP YOUR BLOOD. The purpose of Dr. Williams® Pink Pills is to build up the Blood. They do this one thing and they do it well. They are, for this reason, an invaly able remedy in diseases arising from bad or deficient blood, such as anhe- {the {and led forward small bodies of men | They were demoralized and stricken {who fought and died, but tho 'mass | ith terror because of the fury oti had attacked with WagnInsent one, | battle. led out by some pipers who age and had swept through Souchez as the lower slopes of the yu la lament for the dear dead they had Ridge. but after heavy losses . Of Left pehind; and again. when the French youth failed to wp he flo Division came back from Gullo heights By that failure all failed, | ont They, too, were but a little and was clear that Lens would not, | ph nd of comrades and some of thenr | ours. battalions were down to the strength After that black things happened |,¢ companies, and some of their com- | on the British battle front. The a8. { panies, but a handful of men, had lost saulting divisions, now on Hill 'Y1all their officers, and were led back | came under heavy German counter hy gorseants or corporuls. 1 stood | attacks by fresh divigions of the en- |ho50s their Brigadier -- General emy's réserves, and They Were Noa Ramsay---and he shouted out to them | in" nunibers after their hard fighting Bravo, Munsters® Bravo, Con- They looked back in vain for the sup- | naughts! You did darn. well, Dub- porting troops, but no battalions | ing1 and he had tears in his eyes as came to their relief. Two Divisions | thage poor, tired, boys of his pulled were on the way, the 21st and the |ihangelves up and marched past him 24th, but owing to a faulty time table | ity an effort at a jaunty air. In| they had started late and far back {capturing and holding the Posieres| from the fighting line. They became | piqge the Australians alone lost 20.-| hopelessly tangled up in traffic on 1000 men, and thei total losses of the | roads, and were Sthaisied q QY | British army in killed and wpinded | long marching and by hunger lon¥ |... 450,000 in the battles rof the volore they reached their place on ig,nme That was a fearful price the battlefield. They they took their |¢, nav for victory But it was vie- own transport and cookers too far iy... "and the Germans had also lost forward into a murderous place call- { zraat sums of life, and all these: fields ed Philosophe, and all their wagons [yore strewn with their dead. Many | were smashed to pieces by shell fire. | of their batteries were blown to hits Thess Wo Aivisiuns had REvST Sought land the gunners lay around them in before; the officers were inexperiefic- | ,,04 and ribbons of fles ed and had no knowledge of the |" ES 38 --gr-- ground, and when that evening 'the men were brought up to the support | "The Bload-Bath of the Somme." of the forward troops under heavy Under Loupart Wood, on a small fire and against a fierce German coun- {plot of ground, I saw 800 German ter attack, they became confused and | ead, and it was no wounder that the demoralized. Many of their officers | Gorman soldiers called these battles behaved with the greatest gallantry, |The RBlood-bath of the Somme." be jour gunfire and the unceasing se- aioe { quence of our infantry assaults, and Fault of Leadership. at Loos, | at the heginning of 1917 they made It was the fault of leadership and |iheir first retreat on a wide front he not of courage, because afterwards | rope the Britsih, going back twenty these two divisions did heroic things | mijes to the shelter of their great in many great battles, but this battle | yindenburg /1ine, which 'they had of Loos was for them a black tragedy. | heen digging for a year, It continued for several days and the Another series of attacks by the Guards were thrown in to re-capture | pujgigh began in April of 1917 as Hill 70 and a black slag heap called i part of 'a great strategical plan in fosse 8, but they were cut to pieces (copnection with the French under hy the German fire, and had to fall | General Neville, then for a short time back. They did so as though onigGeneralissimo of the French and parade, with perfect and glorious dis- | British armies. The French had cipline, but their losses were dread- [prepared a big offensive in the Gham- ful, and the battle of Loos failed in Inagne and he called upon Sir Doug- its objective. I saw Sir John French [yas Haig and the British armies to riding behind the lines on a white attack at Afras and draw in as many horse speaking to the walking wound- ed who came back and thanking thém. for their gallzntry. That was or a day when 1 walked up to Loos and saw the dead strewn in the trenches, and did not expect myself, to get hack alive. It was the Tast big battle commanded by 8ir John Frencly., and/shortly afterwards he re- linquighed /his position as Comman- der-in-Chié{ to Sir Douglas Haig upon whom\that responsibility had fallen. The t larger aspect was a dismal failure, but it proved one thing, and that was the superb courage of the private sok diers and battalion officers of the as- saulting divisions: and the splendor of tha Guards. The men were great soldiers. and needed only great fead- ership. The British armies learned of them fell back in disorder the French could attack _ German defence. Then Wis blow would, if successful, smash. through the enemy lines, put a' heavy strain pon the German reserves, and Sir uglas Haig would at that moment attack the ridges around Ypres and drive the Germans from the Belgian coast. it was a bold scheme, hut] unfortunately the French were not successful. . They came up against what they call a "bec de gaz," a gas- bracket, which is a expression for saying that they took a hdrd knock. H was so hard and cost the lives of so many thousands of men, owing to Hindeaburg's new system of "elastic" defence, that General Nivelle, very wisely, abandoned the offensive. But, to nse 4 vulgar mia, rheumatism, neuralgia, pains in the back or side and the after effects of influen r fevers. If you are suftering | any troubles due to { weak, watdry blood, or shaky nerxes, a fair use bf these pills will restore ¥ou to full health and strength. Dr. Williams' Pink Pilla are sold by ait m ne dealers or will be sent by Post paid, at 50c a box or six boxes for $2.50 by The Dr. Willlams' pression. it left the British "in {the cart." Sir Douglas Haig had lau od his attack against Arras with co plete success on the first days of tle. Following a Hutricane of irs which I saw sweeping enemy' as 4 th volcanoes their biggest lessons in the two bat- ties of the Somme. That ia to say our Divisional Corps. army and gen- eral staffs, learned their lessons, for the men had nothing to learn in hu man courdge, and what they were told in r method of attack, i were ously obedient to Ze discipline and training. Undodbt- edly many mistakes were made in the German divisions as possible so that] divided |- Monchy, while immediately {played the "Flowers o' the Forest" as shrapnel fire burst over them so that and Among them was the Cavalry General, Bulke- ly Johnson, and I saw his dead#hody! England," a they were slashed by . bullets many men and horses fell AA PP NN, WA line, and that they were cut off. Their only 'hope was to smash their.way through and back This they tried todo. The East Kents, or Buffs," young soldiers from .the "Garden of were among those wha to fight--that Twenty-mile belt of cratered land with every shell hole filled with water so that our men were stuck and drowned in bogs and when they went forward the German concrete block- houses Our losses were appalling in men an®¥ guns and tanks. But in spite of these losses our men fought on with grim, desperate valor, captur- ing ridge after ridge and destroying great numbers of the enemy. ------ Too Great a Sacrifice. It seems to me now, as it did then, that our' men were called upon for Loo great a sacrifice, and that these battles ought never to have been fought Some of the battles were just massacres of young flesh and blood--our flesh and blood---in those infernal swamps. One of the worst (ays of all came on Oct. 12th, when In storms of rain English, Australian and New Zealand troops made anoth- er desperatp attempt to gain the heights of Passchendaele. They fails ed, and were cut down in swathes by (Continued on Page 14.) swamps against ERHAPS that is call it" ¢ about it?" here in my grip. tion, it is the greatest in the medicine line." it. When 1 "I was on days. I © road, goods. "The doctor condition. I after talking way of command. It would be fan- Medicine Co., Brockville, Ont. tastic 'to suppose that an army like 4 "Well, do. you know anything "I certainly do, and have a box right Why, say, in my estima- thing ever invented "You seem to be rather enthusiastic. ; You are not selling Nerve Food, are you?" ¥No, I am not selling i like to tell others about it." "What did it ever do for you?" back with the 'Au' for two weeks, and when 1 got up was so weak that I did not get ot of the house for jon started out on my trip on the but did nof have the Terey to sell "What seemed ib be the matter?" my nerves were in bad not sleep nights, and * Customer 1 seemed to Na "What is This Nerve Food You See Ad- vertised in all the Papers, Some Kind of Patent Medicine ?"' be all in. There was so little nerve force in my system that I went all to pieces with } Jittle exertion. "I did not get right until I had used Dr. Chase's Nerve Food for about two 'weeks. By that time my appetite was good and 1 began to feel like myself again. "For a month I scarcely missed a dose of the Nerve Food, and I eat and gles pleasure when in good health." "You mugt be all right, then." I certainly appreciate what 'srve Food has done for me, what you 'might fine. 1 but I am recom- aay a good thing I "Yes, a Dr. Chase' for I tho road entir ht by it." - medicine if You like, - Lr. Chase's Nerve Food, 50 cents a box, 6 for $2.75, all dealers, or & Co., Ltd., Toronto. genuine you will find nature of A. W, Chase, Receipt Book author. { am now feeling well, and take the my work that I I would have to quit the You can call it a patent but, anyway, I swear Edmanson, Bates On every box of the the portrait and sig- M.D., the famous