LIVING BAYONETS
A Record of The Last Push
By Coningsby Dawson
London: John Lane, The Bodley Head New York:
1919
"Our spirits are living bayonets. The ideals which we carry in our hearts are more deadly to the enemy than any man-made weapons.”
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
THESE selections from collected letters of Coningsby Dawson have been edited by his sister, Muriel Dawson, and are published in response to hundreds of requests. Readers of his first volume of correspondence from the Front, issued under the title of “Khaki Courage,” have written from all over the country asking that a further series be given them. The generous appreciation and personal interest expressed by these readers have induced Lieutenant Coningsby Dawson's family to publish these letters. They take up his story at the point where “Khaki Courage” laid it down, at the time when America entered the war.
LIVING BAYONETS
A RECORD OF THE LAST PUSH
I
France April 14, 1917
THE other night at twelve your letters came to me just as I was climbing into my bunk, so recently tenanted by a Hun. I immediately lit another candle, stuck it on the wall in a manner peculiar to myself, and started on a feast of genuine home gossip.
What a difference it must make to you to know that the United States are at last confessedly our Ally. Their financial and industrial support will be invaluable to us and will make a difference at once. And the moral advantage of having them on our side is the greatest wound to the spirit of Germany that she has received since the war started. It will be real fun to be able to come back to New York in khaki, won't it?—instead of slinking in as a civilian. Besides, if I get wounded, I'll be able to come home to visit you on lea