Tommy Atkins at War


Tommy Atkins at War

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Tommy Atkins at War, by James Alexander Kilpatrick
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Title: Tommy Atkins at War As Told in His Own Letters
Author: James Alexander Kilpatrick

Release Date: September 8, 2005 [eBook #16675]
Language: English
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TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR
"The English soldier is the best trained soldier in the world. The English soldier's fire is ten thousand times worse than hell. If we could only beat the English it would be well for us, but I am afraid we shall never be able to beat these English devils."
_From a letter found on a German officer._

TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR
As Told in His Own Letters
by
JAMES A. KILPATRICK
New York McBride, Nast & Company
1914

NOTE
This little book is the soldier's story of the war, with all his vivid and intimate impressions of life on the great battlefields of Europe. It is illustrated by passages from his letters, in which he describes not only the grim realities, but the chivalry, humanity and exaltation of battle. For the use of these passages the author is indebted to the courtesy and generosity of the editors of all the leading London and provincial newspapers, to whom he gratefully acknowledges his obligations.
J.A.K.

CONTENTS
I OFF TO THE FRONT 9
II SENSATIONS UNDER FIRE 18
III HUMOR IN THE TRENCHES 30
IV THE MAN WITH THE BAYONET 39
V CAVALRY EXPLOITS 46
VI WITH THE HIGHLANDERS 55
VII THE INTREPID IRISH 64
VIII "A FIRST-CLASS FIGHTING MAN" 73
IX OFFICERS AND GENTLEMEN 82
X BROTHERS IN ARMS 91
XI ATKINS AND THE ENEMY 100
XII THE WAR IN THE AIR 112
XIII TOMMY AND HIS RATIONS 121

TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR

I
OFF TO THE FRONT
"It is my Royal and Imperial Command that you concentrate your energies, for the immediate present upon one single purpose, and that is that you address all your skill and all the valor of my soldiers to exterminate first the treacherous English and walk over General French's contemptible little army."[A]
While this Imperial Command of the Kaiser was being written, Atkins, innocent of the fate decreed for him, was well on his way to the front, full of exuberant spirits, and singing as he went, "It's a long way to Tipperary." In his pocket was the message from Lord Kitchener which Atkins believes to be the whole duty of a soldier: "Be brave, be kind, courteous (but nothing more than courteous) to women, and look upon looting as a disgraceful act."
Troopship after troopship had crossed the Channel carrying Sir John French's little army to the Continent, while the boasted German fleet, impotent to menace the safety of our transports, lay helpless--bottled up, to quote Mr. Asquith's phrase, "in the inglorious seclusion of their own ports."
Never before had a British Expeditionary Force been organized, equipped and despatched so swiftly for service in the field. The energies of the War Office had long been applied to the creation of a small but highly efficient striking force ready for instant action. And now the time for action had come. The force was ready. From the harbors the troopships steamed away, their decks crowded with cheery soldiers, their flags waving a proud challenge to any disputant of Britain's command of the sea.
The expedition was carried out as if by magic. For a few brief days the nation endured with patience its self-imposed silence. In the newspapers were no brave columns of farewell scenes, no exultant send-off greetings, no stirring pictures of troopships passing out into the night. All was silence, the silence of a nation preparing for the "iron sacrifice," as Kipling calls it, of a devastating war. Then suddenly the silence was broken, and across the Channel was flashed the news that the troops had been safely landed, and were only waiting orders to throw themselves upon the German brigands who had broken the sacred peace of Europe.
And so the scene changes to France and Belgium. Tommy Atkins is on his way to the Front. He has already begun to send home some of those gallant letters that throb throughout the pages of this book. If he felt the absence of the stimulating send-off, necessitated by official caution and the exigencies of a European war, he at least had the new joy of a welcome on foreign soil. It is difficult to find words with the right quality in them to express