Deeds that will never die Author:John Foster Fraser Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III WHEN THE BRITISH FELL BACK Fine as the moral of the British had been when in face of the withering German fire for the first time, there was no... more » less fine a spirit as they fell back day by day before vastly heavier odds. Great must have been their anxiety to keep at grips with the foe. But what wonderful restraint they displayed in carrying out the order to fall back without knowing, or even being in a position to guess, the reason why! However, Tommy took his orders cheerfully, did what was required of him, and showed himself just the same sterling soldier in that line of " scientific retreat," as we now know it, as he had shown from the start. All along the line until the fortifications and ramparts of Paris came in sight that standard of moral was maintained. An illustration of this class of typical British spirit is forthcoming from the experience of a pri-' vate of the Royal Irish Regiment to whom the arduous task of assisting to cover the retreat of the main body from Mons to Cambrai was assigned. So continuous was the German attack that the Irishmen and their comrades could only snatch sleep by half-hour stretches, while meals frequently consisted of apples plucked while on the road. The Royal Irish This particular man had many hairbreadth escapes. On one occasion his rifle was carried away except for the part in his hand, which remained intact. On another occasion the roof of the building containing the stores at Valenciennes, blown up by the Germans, fell at his feet without injuring him, which caused him to chuckle at the thought of the Germans destroying, instead of seizing, the stores. On the fourth day of the march he was wounded in the elbow and in the knee, while a comrade fell beside him wounded in both legs. But as the men moved on sho...« less