Royal Munster Fusiliers

who now lay under cover of the sand-bank on the other side of the beach it was almost certain death to try to leave the ship but all through the day men leaped from her with leave or without it to bring water or succor to the wounded on the boats or beach a hundred brave men gave their lives thus every man there earned the cross that day a boy earned it by one of the bravest deeds of the war leaping into the sea with a rope in his teeth to try to secure a drifting lighter the day passed thus but at nightfall the turk's fire paused and the men came ashore from the river clyde almost unharmed they joined the survivors on the beach and at once attacked the old fort and the village above it these works were strongly held by the enemy all had been ruined by the fire from the fleet but in the rubble and ruin of old masonry there were thousands of hidden riflemen backed by machine-guns again and again they beat off our attacks for there was a bright moon and they knew the ground and our men had to attack up hill over wire and broken earth and heaped stones and all the wreck and confusion and strangeness of war at night in a new place.

Some of the Dublins and Munsters went astray in the ruins and were wounded far from their fellows and so lost.

The Turks became more daring after dark.

While the light lasted, they were checked by the River Clyde's machine guns, but at midnight they gathered unobserved and charged.

Those ports were seized before the Russians knew that war was declared.

They were not defended by Russian soldiers, and the two small Russian cruisers caught there by the Japanese fleet were put out of action before the transports discharged.

the japanese were free to land as they chose on beaches prepared not with machine-guns and mines but with cranes gangways and good roads even so they did not press on the japanese do not press on unless they are attacking they are as prudent as they are brave they waited till they were ready and then marched on the americans landed at daiquiri and at guanica unopposed and in neither case engaged the enemy till next day in the preceding chapter i have tried to show why we did not press on at once after landing we did not because we could not because two fresh men strongly entrenched with machine-guns will stop one tired man with a rifle in nine cases out of ten our men had done the unimaginable in getting ashore at all they could not do the impossible on the same day i used to say this to draw the answer well other troops would have done it so that i might say what i know to be the truth that no other men on this earth either would have or could have made good the landing and that the men have not yet been born who could have advanced after such a feat of arms the efforts of men are limited by their strength the strength of men always easily exhausted is the only strength at the disposal of a general it is the money to be spent by him in the purchase of victory whether by hours of marching in the mud digging in the field or in attack losses in attack are great though occasional losses from other causes are great and constant all armies in the field have to be supplied constantly with fresh drafts to make good the losses from attack and exhaustion no armies can move without these replenishments just as no individual men can go on working after excessive labor without rest and food our losses in the landings were severe even for modern war even for the dardanelles the bloodiest battle of modern times is said to have been antietam or sharpsburg in the american civil war where the losses were perhaps nearly one-third of the men engaged At Vee Beach, the Munsters lost more than one-third, and the Dublins more than three-fifths of their total strength.

The Lancashires at W Beach lost nearly as heavily as the Dublins.

Anyway, over six foot tall, slender man, a great, great athlete.

Won his All-Ireland medal with Clare and a year later signed up for the Munster Fusiliers, Regiment of the Irish Guards.

It was actually recorded in the newspapers in July 1915.

It was something of a publicity coup that John Fox, the star Clare Hurler, had signed up to go to war.

It is conceivable that you may even have read some account of the matter.

It is the supposed murder of Colonel Barclay, of the Royal Munsters, at Aldershot, which I am investigating.

I have heard nothing of it.

It has not excited much attention yet, except locally.

The facts are only two days old.

Briefly they are these.

The Royal Munsters is, as you know, one of the most famous Irish regiments in the British army.

It did wonders both in the Crimea and the Mutiny, and has since that time distinguished itself upon every possible occasion.