Читать книгу The War History of the 1st/ 4th Battalion, 1914-1918. The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment онлайн

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Second Lieutenant Houghton and one man were wounded going up.

It is a queer sensation going up to one’s first battle. The bracing of the nerves to face the unknown—it is the essence of religion, voluntary self-sacrifice for a cause, made possible only by faith, and calling for the strongest effort of will to control the nerves. Happy the man who is not gifted with a vivid imagination—who, like Kipling’s oxen, can plod steadily along, living in the present—blind to the future. Those who fall do so at the moment of their highest endeavour; had they lived they had probably never risen so high again. Surely to them, if to anyone, is granted the peace which passeth understanding.

MONDAY, June 14th, 1915.

The Battalion had been warned for an attack, and operation orders issued from the Brigade in the morning made this clear. With the object of gaining ground in the direction of RUE D’OUVERT, the Fourth Corps was to attack the German positions in the north. The 51st Division, the 7th Division, and the Canadian Division were to attack simultaneously.