Pen pictures of British battles

[Skipman]

Pen pictures of British battles

Charge of the London Irish at Loos

during the charge :

" One set of our men keen footballers

made a strange resolution ; it was to take a

football along with them. The platoon officer

discovered this, and ordered the football to be

sent back which, of course, was carried out.

But the old members of the London Irish Football

Club were not to be done out of the greatest

game of their lives the last to some of them,

poor fellows and just before Major Beresford

gave the signal the leather turned up again

mysteriously.

"

Suddenly the officer in command gave the

signal,

' Over you go, lads !' With that the whole

line sprang up as one man, some with a prayer,

not a few making the sign of the Cross. But

the footballers, they chucked the ball over and

went after it just as cool as if on the field, passing

it from one to the other, though the bullets were

flying thick as hail, crying,

' On the ball, London Irishjust as they might have done at Forest

Hill. I believe that they actually kicked it right

into the enemy's trench with the cry,

' Goal !

'

though not before some of them had been picked

off on the way.

" When we reached the German trench, which

we did under a cloud of smoke, we found nothing but a pack of beings dazed with terror.

In a jiffy we were over their parapet and the real work began; a kind of madness comes over you

as you stab with your bayonet and hear the shriek of the poor devil suddenly cease as the steel

goes through him and you know he's ' gone west.

The beggars did not show much fight, most having retired into their second line of trenches

when we began to occupy their first to make itour new line of attack. That meant clearing

out even the smallest nook or corner that was large enough to hold a man.

"

This fell to the bombers. Every bomber is a hero, I think, for he has to rush on, fully exposed,

laden with enough stuff to send him to ' kingdom come ' if a chance shot or stumble sets him off. "

Some of the sights were awful in the hand to- hand struggle, for, of course, that is the worst part.

Our own second in command, Major Beresford, was badly wounded. Captain and Adjutant Hamilton, though

shot through the knee just after leaving our trench, was discovered still limping on at the second German

trench, and had' to be placed under arrest to prevent his going on till he bled to death.

'

They got the worst of it, though, when it came to cold steel, which they can't stand, and

they ran like hares. So having left a number of men in the first trench, we went on to the

second and then the third, after which other regiments came up to our relief, and together

we took Loos. It wasn't really our job at all to take Loos, but we were swept on by the

enthusiasm, I suppose, and all day long we were at it, clearing house after house, or rather

what was left of the houses stabbing and shooting and bombing till one felt ready to drop dead oneself.

We wiped the 22nd Silesian Regiment right out, but it was horrible to work on with the cries of the wounded all round."

Mike

[Adam Llewellyn]

Mike,

Great find and thanks for the link.

Regards. Llew.