24 AWARDED FOR VALOUR
plateau, where the crowd of battered soldiers made way for their fresh
and unblooded brothers.
‘Are you ready,’ again rang out the voice of Colonel Matthias, and a
mad, wild cheer, bred of the courage which lies deep in the hearts of
men, was the response. ‘Come on,’ shouted the Colonel.
Then the pipers skirled forth the regimental war song, ‘and with the
lilt of a big parade’ the gay Gordons stepped forth. The gallant Colonel
led his troops, offering the first mark to the enemyThe terrific roar
of the guns, and the silence which followed, coupled with the stir-
ring appeal of the Colonel and the roar of the slogan, had a wonderful
effect. It was not ordinary enthusiasm, bred of natural courage. On,
up the corpse-strewn steep, the Highlanders charged, whilst from the
heights above, which commanded every soul of the advancing regi-
ment, the enemy poured forth a blighting fire. The Gordons were seen
dashing along the bullet-swept zone, and whilst men dropped in all
directions the dust came up and hid the warriors momentarily from
view.
On swept the undaunted band. Loud screeched the pipes, and the strains
of ‘Cock O’ the North’ and the ‘Haughs O’ Cromdale’ – the charging
tune of the Gordons – further infused the mad spirit of heroism into
the storming party. Faster, more vivid, more tumultuous grew the music.
The men saw their officers fall on all sides. The colonel at their head was
shot; Lieutenant Lamont received his death wounds; and Major Forbes
MacBean was shot in the abdomen, but even the whilst lying on the
ground cheered on his men to the assault.
It was a maddened, infuriated scene. There was no halt in the advance.
Wounded on the ground, shot in the legs, the pipers skirled on their
compatriots to death and victory, and over the tumult of battle could still
be heard the regimental war marches
As Colonel Matthias, who had been outpaced in the final climb, came
up, a tremendous cheer went up from all the Gordons, in which the men
of other regiments and natives joined, while the native officers of the
Sikhs and Gurkhas crowded round him to shake his hand.
Near the top of the hill the Colonel complained aloud about being
blown, when Colour-Sergeant Mackie gave him a helping hand and
exclaimed, ‘Ye’re gaun verra strong for an auld mon.’^73
The Gordon charge up the heights of Dargai brought praise from the far
corners of the empire, through official channels and from proud Scotsmen
both in and out of uniform.^74
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