human
Oh, they are brave enough, poor devils; but they've got no heart in the fighting, he says. That is absolutely true. Hundreds of thousands of them have no notion of what they are fighting for. Some of the prisoners declared that when they left the garrisons they were
gpt
;
human
says a Royal Artilleryman,
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; according to a Highland officer, surrendering Germans said their fellows had been assured that
human
America and Japan were fighting on their side, and that another Boer war was going on ; and a final illusion was dispelled when those captured by the Royal Irish were told that the civil war in Ireland had been
gpt
They come on in close formation, thousands of them, just like sheep being driven to the slaughter, is the description that nine soldiers out of every ten give of the Germans going into action.
human
We just mow them down in heaps, says an artilleryman.
gpt
Lord, even a woman couldn't miss hitting them, is the comment from the Infantry. And as for the cavalry:
human
Well, we just makes holes in them, adds one of the Dragoons. At first they didn't take cover at all, but just marched into action with their drums beating and bands playing,
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as Atkins puts it. After the first slaughter, however, they shrank from the attack, and there is ample evidence of eyewitnesses that the German infantry often had to be lashed into battle by their officers.
human
I saw a colonel striking his own men with his sword to prevent them running away,
gpt
They faced round without attempting to fire a shot, and stood there like statues to meet the onslaught of our men. Our chaps couldn't help admiring their fine discipline, but there's not much room for sentiment in war, and we rode at them with the lance, and swept them away.
human
They are big fellows, and, in a way, brave, writes Private P. Case of the King's (Liverpool) Regiment, describing one of their attacks;
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human
Their officers simply won't let them surrender, says another writer,
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The essential difference between the German soldiers and our own is in the officering and training, and it is admirably expressed by Private Burrell, Northumberland Fusiliers.
human
They hate their officers like poison, and fear them ten times more than they fear death, says Private Martin King.
gpt
Most of the prisoners that I've seen are only fit for the hospital, and many of them will never be fit for anything else this side of the grave. Their officers don't seem to have any consideration for the men at all, and we have a suspicion that the heavy losses of German officers aren't all due to our fire. There was one brought in who had certainly been hit by one of their own bullets, and in the back too. Other soldiers say the same, and add that if it weren't for dread of their officers the Germans would surrender wholesale.
human
Take the officers away, and their regiments fall to pieces, is the dictum of one of the Somerset Light Infantry,
gpt
Their shooting is laughable,
human
and
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are how our men dispose of it. The Germans fire recklessly with their rifles planted against their hips, while Tommy Atkins takes cool and steady aim, and lets them have it from the shoulder.
human
We just knocked them over like nine-pins, a Highlander explained. As to the German cavalry, one Tommy expressed the prevailing opinion to nicety.
gpt
I don't want to be nasty, he said,
human
I can only figure it out as being something worse than the mouth of hell,