An Argyll and Sutherland Highlander got
his kilt pierced eight times by shrapnel, one of the Black Watch had his
cap shot off, and while another was handling a tin of jam a bullet went
clean into the tin. Jocular allusions were made to these incidents, and
somebody suggested labeling the tin "Made in Germany."
Even the most grim incidents of the war are lit up by some humorous or
pathetic passage which illustrates the fine spirits and even finer
sympathies of the Highlanders. Lance-Corporal Edmondson, of the Royal
Irish Lancers, mentions the case of two men of the Argyll and
Sutherlands, who were cut off from their regiment. One was badly
wounded, but his comrade refused to leave him, and in a district overrun
by Germans, they had to exist for four days on half-a-dozen biscuits.
"But how did you manage to do it?" the unwounded man was asked, when
they were picked up.
"Oh, fine," he answered.
"How about yourself, I mean?" the questioner persisted in asking.
"Oh, shut up," said the Highlander.
The truth is he had gone without food all the time in order that his
comrade might not want.
Then there is a story from Valenciennes of a poor scared woman who
rushed frantically into the road as the British troops entered the
town. She had two slight cuts on the arm, and was almost naked--the
result of German savagery.
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