THE FIGHTING ABILITY OF 



DIFFERENT RACES 



(Second Letter) ^ 



France, December 6, 1918. 



AvS I'VE told you before, the Nor- 

 mans and North French finally 

 made up the fighting troops of 

 France that could be depended 

 upon in disaster as well as victory, the 

 infantry that held and went forward. 

 The Bretons, too, were tough and stead- 

 fast fighters but seemed to lack some- 

 thing of the madness of the Normans 

 and North French on occasions for a 

 grand gesture. 



On the front the number of big, 

 burly, blond Frenchmen amongst the 

 officers seemed to me striking, while 

 blue eyes were almost in the majority — ■ 

 more than one of our officers and men 

 have remarked in my presence on this 

 fact and on the stature and blondness 

 of the French officers and fighting men. 

 It was so contrary to their preconceived 

 notions. 



Of course you know the British and 

 their qualities too well for me to have to 

 record them. The Scotch most of all 

 were the natural fighting men of the 

 war — the ones who actually took joy 

 in it more than any of the rest. The 

 love of fighting was a great source of 

 weakness to the British more than once, 

 as it was more than once with us, too, 

 The Scotchman seems to be a sort of 

 drunken madman in a fight. Fear of 

 death does not appear to bother him in 

 the least. And the few Scotchmen in 

 our regiment were the best and most 

 reliable noncoms we had. McKinzie 

 and Knox, two noncoms of my old 

 battery, particularly distinguished them- 

 selves in trying situations, acting with 

 coolness and courage that were highh- 

 commendable. 



Amongst our own highly heterogen- 

 eous troops the fighting ability of an 

 organization usually could be measured 



by its percentage of Americans of the 

 old stock. And as outfits were filled up 

 by draft "replacements" the fighting 

 ability perceptibly waned. This is 

 stated by the officers who commanded 

 the platoons and companies and battal- 

 ions in the fighting. Of course the 

 entire army was officered bv Americans 

 of the old stocks almost 100%. The 

 exceptions are quite neghgible. The 

 Irish are awfully good fighting leaders. 

 But the number of Irish names is not 

 conspicuously large. 



I am quite sure the New England 

 troops were our best — the northern 

 troops infinitely superior to the south- 

 ern in "guts," discipline and fighting 

 ability — though the southern officers 

 were conspicuously brave and able all 

 around with a fine faculty for true leader- 

 ship. 



The 77th Division seems to have been 

 a curious contradiction since it was 

 made up of the scum of New York City, 

 all drafted and of all races, Jews, Ital- 

 ians, Poles, and Russians. And it was 

 really a wonderful fighting outfit. It 

 was officered by American gentlemen, 

 however, and their leadership was 

 equal to anything shown in the war. 

 The things they did with their city scum 

 were really heroic, again and again, and 

 equalled any of the mad, forlorn hopes 

 that the mad Highlanders or the stub- 

 born English ever pulled. The Jews 

 seem to have displayed lots of "guts" 

 too (when they were in fighting units), 

 but they were wonders in getting into 

 the safer branches of the service. 



The Mediterranean peoples seem to 

 have been least able to stand shell fire, 

 gas and the general hell of the game. 

 It is more than a coincidence that 

 officer after officer has told me of 



'Received from Madison Grant. Written by an American Army Officer. For the first letter 

 and accompanying discussion see Journ.\l Of Heredity for January, 1919. 



17.3 



