WAR OF UNKNOWN HEROES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 67, 19 March 1915, Page 7

WAR OF UNKNOWN HEROES.

**' I HOW EIGHT BELGIANS HELD BACK GERMAN FORCE. SAVED THE ARMY. A correspondent in Northern France w-rites:— j Every day, among hundreds of miles of trenches, men are doing splendid deeds of courage that will never be made public, for this is the war of the "Unknown Heroes." Now and then the curtain of secrecy is accidentally blown aside, and one learns of such a "thrilling incident as I have now to tell. We will call it the Story of the Eight Brave Men. A few days ago the Germans, after careful scouting along the Belgian lines by aviators, decided that there v 'as a weak point a little west of Dixinude I which might be broken. They made preparations to hack a way through, and there were high hopes in the German forces. But they had reckoned without the Belgians—the phrase reads like a quotation from almost every page of this war's history! A patrol of eight Belgians, with a machine gun, saw a small column of Germans advancing to storm the trenches at the weak point. In moments like that a man must act quickly, and he must not always do the most obvious thing. In this case the gallant little handful of Belgians chose rightly. Instead of falling back to warn their comrades, they decided on the better plan of throwing themselves in the path of the Germans, and attempting to delay their advance long enough for the Belgian line to be reinforced at the critical place. A small deserted farmhouse, battered, and lonely, stood beside the road the (Germans must take. . The Belgians rushed in. and quickly made their preparations for a desperate j defence. Given heaps of fallen bricks ! and beams much can be done, and they soon had a machine gun in position. | GERMAN'S SURPRISED. Meanwhile, the Germans pressed on, | never guessing that their approach had I been seen. In solid formation, they marched along the road till they were i within 200 yards of the farmhouse with i its hidden heroes. Thus near they were allowed to come, for in the fight of the few with the many every shot of the former must tell. Suddenly, to the consternation of the grey-coated Germans, a rifle shot rang out from the lonely farm that had! seemed so silent. A man in the front rank fell with a surprised grunt. Then the Belgian gun took up the song of death and led the terrible chorus. The Germans pressed on bravely, their officers urging them forward with hoarse cries, but there came a time when discipline had to bow to death, and the first rush was stayed. Behind their rough shelters the Belgians fired steadily. They knew that every shot must tell, and they aimed coolly, as men who face a target for a prize. The German advance guard, with which they were now in action, outnumbered them by at least twenty i to one. but this fact only put the more | heart into them. A Belgian with a good mark to hit, | and a chance to wipe out a little of a gallant nation's sorrow and pain, is a ' trying fellow for a German to meet. I The Germans halted, and the men | took suc-h shelter 'as they could in : ditches beside the road. Then Degan I the next phase of the desperate fight. Every helmet that showed itself, every ■ arm that was raised above the ground, was the mark for a Belgian bullet. UNEQUAL FIGHT. For two hours the unequal fight raged, and still the Belgians picked off individual Germans or melted down any threatening rush with a machine gun spray of flame and death. But the end of the gallant little fort in tbe farmhouse was near. When it became evident that to storm this mere heap of bricks, with the garrison of heroe6, would cost too dear, the Germans sent word, back to a battery Presently shells began to fall'around. The first two went wide, a third burnt against a wall and killed one of the gallant Belgians, and then a fourth fell right in their midst. The Germans raised so much of a cheer as they had heart for. and jumped to tbeir feet. "But they were too late. The men of the farmhouse fort had snatched safety for tbeir fellows out of one of the most critical moments of the past few weeks, and reinforcements had now been rushed to the Belgian position. As the Germans came on they were met by a terrible volley, and a party of Belgain infantry greeted them with fixed bayonets. There was a short, desperate struggle, but in a few moments the German attack was a thing of the past. Their h*pe of rushing a small body of men against the weak place and making a breach for a bigger force to follow had been shattered. Xow there was breathing time, and the Belgians entered the ruined farmhouse. Three of the brave defenders were dead and the five who lived were desperately wounded. They were carried back to the Belgian lines, and now lie in a base hospital, all with a good chance of striking another blow at the enemy. Ask the five heroes of the farm as they lie in their hospital cots, and they, will say. "It was nothing: we happened to be there —that is all." And it is because in every crisis men of their type happen to be there that the task of beating back the Germans is carried, on with such courage and hope. !