Mercy be damned. [WWI]

>Frank Crozier argued that the bayonet put killing spirit into a man. >>’Mercy, mercy,’ shouts a German ex-waiter on the left, as he sees the cold steel of a North Staffordshire potter quivering above his head, for he has just been felled by a rifle-butt swing by a Wolverhampton striker of past four-and-forty years. ‘Mercy be damned,’ shouts the potter, whose blood is up, and he thrusts to the windpipe in the most up-to-date manner. _________________________ **Source:** Holmes, Richard. "Steel and Fire." *Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, 1914-1918*. London: HarperCollins, 2004. 384. Print. **Original Source Listed:** Crozier *Brass Hat* p. 228. _________________________ **Further Reading:** [Francis Rossiter Crozier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_R._Crozier)