BEARERS BAEFLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 208, 3 September 1938, Page 11 (Supplement)

BEARERS BAEFLED.

" Corpse " Disappeared.

IN 1916, alongside Messines, two "new-chum" stretcher bearers came plodding along from somewhere out of No Man's Land, and as they lifted their burden (a wounded soldier) down into the trench, one said: "Blarst it," as he gazed at the occupant on the stretcher. "He's dead, I think," and as they were about to examine the body more closely an enemy strafe opened np on that particular spot, and the stretcher bearers immediately sought cover in a nearby traverse, leaving the apparently dead soldier behind. A sentry being on duty, he had perforce to stand his ground and dodge the strafe as best he could and, while doing so, a surprising thing happened. Up from the stretcher rose the apparently "dead" man and after rubbing his eyes and blinking a few times inquired of the gentry the nearest way to the dressing station. On receiving the information he limped off down the communication trench. It was well for him he did. A few seconds later the Hun renewed his strafe. A shell hit the parapet and hurled fully half a ton of debris on to the stretcher. When the etrafe died down the bearers returned and the language they used would shock an Australian bullocky, at having to shift the debris to regain their stretcher. "He's a cert goner this time," said one. The "Case" Disappears The sentry scented possibilities, chuckled to himself and esaid nothing. The bearers worked like Trojans and very soon had 'che stretcher uncovered, but their faces were a study in consternation a± the absence of their "case." They looked under sandbags, turned small heaps of dirt over, stood the stretcher up against the side of the trench in case the corpse might be playing "tiggy," looked under the duckboards as though he had been mean enough to be blown through a 3-inch opening between the treads. They eyed the parapet and the sky suspiciously. Each lit a cigarette and then put forth all possible and impossible ways in which their "corpse" could make an exit. As one last hope the sentry was appealed to. "Say, Dig, did you notice which \yay our "case" got blown to? Is there any of him over near you?" The sentry received more than his share of lurid and original abuse when he let the cat out of the bag, and no doubt the "corpse's" ears will tingle for many a long day. The "case" was stunned no doubt by some flying debris while being carried in from No Man's Land. L. V. M., 16 Coy., 2nd. AJ.B.