"Lord Dunsany - Tales of War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

Tales of War

by Lord Dunsany

Tales of War was first published in 1918 and the text is in the
public domain. The transcription was done by William McClain
[email protected], 2002.

A printed version of this book is available from Sattre Press,
http://tow.sattre-press.com. It includes a new introduction and
photographs of the author.


The Prayer of the Men of Daleswood
He said: ``There were only twenty houses in Daleswood. A place you would scarcely
have heard of. A village up top of the hills.

``When the war came there was no more than thirty men there between sixteen and
forty-five. They all went.

``They all kept together; same battalion, same platoon. They was like that in
Daleswood. Used to call the hop pickers foreigners, the ones that come from London.
They used to go past Daleswood, some of them, every year, on their way down to the
hop fields. Foreigners they used to call them. Kept very much to themselves, did the
Daleswood people. Big woods all round them.

``Very lucky they was, the Daleswood men. TheyтАЩd lost no more than five killed and a
good sprinkling of wounded. But all the wounded was back again with the platoon.
This was up to March when the big offensive started.

``It came very sudden. No bombardment to speak of. Just a burst of Tok Emmas going
off all together and lifting the front trench clean out of it; then a barrage behind, and
the Boche pouring over in thousands. `Our luck is holding good,тАЩ the Daleswood men
said, for their trench wasnтАЩt getting it at all. But the platoon on their right got it. And it
sounded bad too a long way beyond that. No one could be quite sure. But the
platoon on their right was getting it: that was sure enough.

``And then the Boche got through them altogether. A message came to say so. `How
are things on the right?тАЩ they said to the runner. `Bad,тАЩ said the runner, and he went
back, though Lord knows what he went back to. The Boche was through right
enough. `WeтАЩll have to make a defensive flank,тАЩ said the platoon commander. He was a
Daleswood man too. Came from the big farm. He slipped down a communication
trench with a few men, mostly bombers. And they reckoned they wouldnтАЩt see any of
them any more, for the Boche was on the right, thick as starlings.

``The bullets were snapping over thick to keep them down while the Boche went on, on
the right: machine guns, of course. The barrage was screaming well over and
dropping far back, and their wire was still all right just in front of them, when they put
up a head to look. There was the left platoon of the battalion. One doesnтАЩt bother,