TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR




I

OFF TO THE FRONT


"It is my Royal and Imperial Command that you concentrate your energies,
for the immediate present upon one single purpose, and that is that you
address all your skill and all the valor of my soldiers to exterminate
first the treacherous English and walk over General French's
contemptible little army."[A]

While this Imperial Command of the Kaiser was being written, Atkins,
innocent of the fate decreed for him, was well on his way to the front,
full of exuberant spirits, and singing as he went, "It's a long way to
Tipperary." In his pocket was the message from Lord Kitchener which
Atkins believes to be the whole duty of a soldier: "Be brave, be kind,
courteous (but nothing more than courteous) to women, and look upon
looting as a disgraceful act."

Troopship after troopship had crossed the Channel carrying Sir John
French's little army to the Continent, while the boasted German fleet,