"DEAD AND BURIED."

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 72, 25 March 1915, Page 8

"DEAD AND BURIED."

A SOLDIER'S EXPERIENCES. "If I am able to tell my own story," said Private D. Lightfoot, of the 3rd Worcesters, now at home wounded, and whose remarkable experiences are given in the "Standard," "it is not the fault of the powers that be. (No man .has •been knocked about by them so much as I have been. At the present time I can't say whether I am alive or dead, with the regiment or missing. Last month my wife was advised that I had died in hospital at Havre, and was buried there. My grave may be seen with that of others. "Two days later she was informed that I had recovered and was back with my company, but there was ho explanation of how a dead man could recover. I expect that's one of the secrets that the Censor won't let out. By the same poet she got a letter from mc announcing my arrival at Liverpool, where I was in hospital. When I got home at last I found a letter from the War Office telling mc that I was ill in No. 12, General Hospital, at Havre. "I shudder to think what will happen to mc next. I had enough adventures out there, without these strange ones. I was buried in the trenches twice and captured by the Germans once. When captured I managed to hide a knife in my puttee, but this was taken from mc. I was taken to a trench where there were a sergeant and 12 British soldiers who had been captured. Our hands were tied behind our backs, and our feet were tied with ropes. While our captore were enjoying their wine we were left at the bottom of the trench. I managed to get to a bayonet and rifle that had fallen from the top of the tTench, and by working my hands up and down out the cords on the bayonet's edge. I quickly released the others, and at the end of the trench I hrougbt down the German Gentry by vaulting on to his back. He shouted, "Don't kill mc; I'D go with.yon.' And he did." .