DESPERATE ARMY DESERTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 252, 24 October 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

DESPERATE ARMY DESERTERS.

MEMORiLS OF WAR DAYS IN FRANCE.

CROOKS PROVED COWARDS IN FACE OF DANGER—CRIMES OF VIOLENCE NEVER YET REVEALED— MURDER NO OBSTACLE TO PERSONAL GAIN- HIGHWAY ROBBERY A COMMON OFFENCE WORK OF SCOTLAND YARD DETECTIVE.

fßy EDWIN T. WOODHALL, late of Scotland Yard.—Copyright, "Auckland Star.")

During the war I was attached to the Intelligence, and my duties were very largely similar to those of my purely Scotland Yard days. It is highly probable that few people know anything whatever about the crime and its detection which. w£a t on in France. Towards the latter part of the war especially, much trouble ffas experienced by the military authorities in all the great base camps and along lines of communication through deserters, many of whom were desperate characters.

Conscription had been introduced, and along with the honest men so enlisted were Ban y undesirables. Some were criminals of the worst type,, automatically roped in. it these were crooked under peaceful conditions, it is not difficult to understand that they reacted very poorly to discipline, and that in war time their lawless natures were given extraordinary scope for .demonstration.

Your crook is generally a buTly and a coward, and cowardice was the chief reason for the desertion of such men as I have described. ■ They deserted. They were unable to get back to England, so they started playing their old games—only much more violently—in France. The deserters had wide opportunity for concealment, and when you consider that in and around these base camps were thousands of men, dressed alike, engaged on different duties —often separated from their units, either to take some course, to recover from wounds or for a dozen other reasons—it will be appreciated that detection of criminals was a difficult task.

In the late months of 1917 I was attached to the Provost Marshal's Department of General Headquarters, with my field of operations centred on Etaples. My area of action included such places as Camiers, Paris Plage, Berg Plage, Le Touquet, etc., all places "known probably to thousands of readers. Rounding Up Deserters. Tie assistant provost marshal was responsible for' the rounding .up of deserters. His headquarters were at Etaples, and he had charge of the huge military prison, called the Field Compound -a great square block of huts surrounded by wooden palisades covered and interwoven with barbed wire entanglements of tie most formidable character. Armed sentries guarded the compound at night, and during the day military police kept armed watch over the prisoners. Outside the compound was a big hut where the sergeant of, warders received and dispatched all prisoners. All deserters and absentees were brought to this place, and from it .they were dispatched with the armed escorts which had come to take them'back to their units, who, of course, were responsible for court-martial and punishment.

So much for- the general scheme, of things. There were many deserters, and all too many of them lived on their wits. Bobbery with violence was a common occurrence; A great game was to chum up with a decent soldier in some estaminet, find out' his financial status, lure him away, knock him out, and steal everything he had. Wholesale thefts from officers, doctors', and nurses' quarters caused us endless trouble, but the greatest trouble of all was brought about by armed gunmen, who held up civilians and soldiers on the high roads at night—and elsewhere of course—and robbed them. It was Quite like the Georgian highwaymen, except that horses were not used. '

Percjr Topliss gave me a lot of trouble over offences of this type, but the most notorious of the khaki gunmen,. with the exception of Topliss, was a bad man inown as "Anzac Gus." Readers will understand why I do not give his actual name. Hig career would fill a book, but i must say of him, at once, that in the end he made good, and met his death near aniens a month or two before the Armistice.

" 'Anzac Gus' Gets Busy." Anzac Gus" first came under notice at Kouen. In this case, along with another desperate deserter, he was dressed as a sergeant of the Army Service Corps, stole a Sunbeam car, drove it 40 or Miles away, broke into an army hostel, carried out the small iron safe containing ® terge sum j n cas } 1) an( j drove back to •imiens, where the rifled safe and deserted car were eventually found. From Amiens ne made his way toward Boulogne, and we next complaint was received from vvimereux, where _an officer had been neld up at the point of the revolver by Mother "officer" and relieved of his Met.

A lew days later word came from Boranv.ers—this time through the French « ~ 80n „ Department—that a British omcer had held up a well-known local armer with a gun and stolen a large sum 1 Money he was carrying. I was ordered to arrest him, and after anous attempts to get on his trail, I as successful. In and about Etaples and amiers there are a number of chalk aves, The Assistant-Provost Marshal frwu e time raided these places, , j tkey were not used by troops. Just In! e vn a lender or a light-covered alv Wcu ld leave the compound, with w?jl ? dozen of us inside. Each of us oulcl be dressed differently. I, perhaps, ■ a c °l° n ial, another as an infantry ser- , a third, perhaps, wearing the GlenT? ri 7 and kilt of some Scots regiment, aco °f us carried a pair of handcuffl ™Dcneon, flash lamp and loaded revolver. "/. i Wou M proceed to the scene of the ™>°ut,» and, upon the word, we sw ,? n t er and by prearranged plan tt eep through the caves, challenging at fn, e P Ol , n t the revolver every person InU- *%re. We were fully justified in on l+i em U P this manner, for obvilf ? tney were up to no good sleeping or ' 8 in such places. r ,£ v fy man so found was arrested, hand-n-nJu a , nc * amoved to the lorry. Many for k w fight. I can testfy to this, a I went to my dentist some time mv f me that the loosening' _of T : / r °nt teeth was due to my having WtT t a violent blow in the mouth. i told him that on one occasion I u., "® en kicked there, he remarked: "Oh, ITel '> that explains it!"

"You're Covered." Can? SUC k an occasion, in a cave, near m ® lei VI flashed my.lamp on a sleeping form' 1 Was ful] y dressed and his unikim to be a sergeant-major dm j Royal Engineers. As the light liio 1? on him, he awoke and in a flash . , an d darted under the roll of clothes ( ch served him as a pillow. r . m Y .°u're covered!" I barked. His hand rigid, and my corporal, who was full i lm > bent down and snatched a J'y-loaded Webley from under the We took him away and I found Trift t was a deserter from the line, }~■ ,™ e death sentence hanging over ~ 'cowardice in the face of the toonth" kad been adrift for 18

bm, Uring time he had lived by rob.J? an d violence and he admitted a very offence near Hazebrouck. More- ■ admitted that he had been the E i® P£ ®i°n of "Anzac Gus" on the occaroiot i car and safe-stealing I have stih j", "Gus is a game 'un," he declared: i ® a aded that he was "potty on a French tat afc Pari 3 Plage." The man was ken to the .compound, and, later on. j , escort came down the line after him. S° ow what happened afterwards. Pis same day found me in Paris A„P e ', an d after some inquiries I found where the "French Jane" lived. The

. Immediately, I spotted Cus. He was sitting at a, table with a girl, and was dressed as a company sergeant-major. One of the Tommies sitting beside me entered into a scrappy conversation with me, and presently I learned that the sergeantmajor was a good sort, and that he was taking a special machine-gun course at Le Touquet. „ ,

At 9 p.m. all troops had to be clear of cafes and estaminets. I left the place a few moments before nine, and waited in a doorway for Gus to come out. A little after nine, sure enough, out he came, and I silently attached myself to him. It was a very dark night, and as I felt very uncertain of the probabilities in case of action, I signalled to the corporal, who had instructions to assist me, to follow.

Gus was making for the woods of Le Touquet—a - weird and haunted place by night. During the war many awful crimes were committed in these dense woods, and quite recently a well-known English .lady was murdered there—and the murderer has never been found.

However, Gus was not suspicious, and as I had certain other matters which I was compelled to attend to that night, I waited for the corporal and told him to follow the man to his lair.' "Find out where_Jie is sleeping and report to me, and we'll arrest him early in the morning."

But the night passed away and -no corporal came to, report to me. In the morning I became very uneasy, and eventually,. taking a number of men with me, I went out to search for him. We searched the whole of that day through those woods, and it was getting towards evening when one of my men called out, and, near a small shooting lodge, we found the body of the corporal. While one of the squad dashed back to the waiting Crossley tender to fetch a doctor, I searched the vicinity. But when the doctor arrived I had found very little. My corporal had been shot at close quarters just over the heart, the bullet coming through the shoulder blade*

I entered the deserted shooting lodge, and in one of the small rooms I found a piece of candle, a few rounds of Webley ammunition, and a khaki jacket bearing the'appointments of a company sergeantmajor. On the Trail.

And as with reverent care they, took back the body of my corporal I went ou the trail of his murderer. I was determined to get "Anzac Gus" dead or alive. Still, I had the idea that he would not leave the "French Jane" without at least a "gbod-bye," and I felt thai I should not waste time if I kept a careful watch on the cafe. In this I was right, and it brings me to one of the strangest things I have ever witnessed in a life' crowded with unusual events. I took three men with me, two of them champion boxers, whose names have been before the public recently.

At about half-past nine we had been round the door for three-quarters of an hour. I wanted the plaice quiet, then I intended to enter the cafe and to isearch it from floor to ceiling for the man I felt sure was probably hidden there. The street was in darkness—no lamps, of _ course—and I was on the point of going forward, when fate took a hand. From the side door came two women. One was Marcelle, the "French Jane." the other was a somewhat taller woman, whose face was invisible. Only dimly could we make out their forme as they came towards me, arm in arm. They walked in the middle of' the roadway, and I let them pass, turning to peer after them. They were walking in the direction of the nigh, street of the place, and as they! passed one of.my men he'switched on his light full in their faces. 1

Last Desperate Struggle. Before one could realise what was happening, the taller woman was running for all she was worth; and Marcelle was screaming her head off. "After them!" I shouted. And the running woman picked up her skirts and showed a pair of puttees!" We raced like the wind. Gus clung to his skints li&e Charlie's Aunt, and as he ran he wag tugging for all he worth kis underclothes. I knew what they meant. He was trying to get his gun. With a final burst I overhauled „ f, my eyes and leaped for the girls back. Down we came together. Snarling and cursing, Gus fought like a wildcat, but I had gripped his right hand and I meant never to let it go—my life depended on it. The skirt he was wearing hampered him, and the scrap was soon over. Gus was our prisoner. Well, we took him back, but when his court-martial was held I could offer no real evidence against him, and he was acquitted on the charge of murder, but found guilty of desertion. He pleaded for a chance to go up the line, which was granted, and, as I have said, he died a soldier s death in the fighting around Amiens. !

place was an estaminet used largely by troops, particularly in the evenings, and 1 decided to visit this place that night to see what I could discover. I had a general description of "Anzac Gus," and knowing that he was a gunman, I decided to take no risks. I went as a corporal of an infantry regiment and in the early part of the evening took a seat and ordered a drink. I had a revolver in a concealed

pocket and, making sure that this was handy, I looked about me. Murder In Dense Wood.