Facing the Hindenburg Line; Personal Observations at the Fronts and in the Camps of the British, French, Americans, and Italians, During the Campaigns of 1917 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917. Excerpt: ... VIII TOMMY ATKINS UP TO DATE O ask what do you think of Tommy Atkins is like asking what do you think of the Democratic party, or the industrial classes, or the late subjects of the Czar. It might have been possible, before the war, to lump Tommy Atkins in a type, as Kipling could do--the type of the British regular, just as you could formerly classify the American soldier. But that time is now gone. There is really no such thing as Tommy any more, although we continue to refer to him as if there were. The private British soldier of to-day is a highly variegated and diverse individual. If you come into anything like close touch with him, get acquainted with large numbers of him--you see one will speak as if he were a type--you learn from what different origins he comes, or more properly they come. They may be reduced to outward similarity by the unvarying khaki; just as men would be so reduced if they were stripped of all clothing; but, within, by birth, training, environment, they differ all up and down the gamut of British society. An incident, told me by an officer, will admirably illustrate this. A woman in a certain town in the south was told by a sergeantmajor that three men were to be billeted in her house. "But I will not have them " indignantly cried the "lady of the house." "You'll have to, madam," softly responded the sergeant. "What, three common Tommies in my house It's an outrage; I'll not have it " "It's orders, madam, and the men will be here at 5 o'clock to-day." The sergeant left her, fuming and fussing. At the appointed hour the men came; but the "lady" would have nothing personally to do with them. They were turned over to the maids, ate in the kitchen, slept in the attic or the barn; they "jolly well" enjoyed themselves, too, for the...