BATTLE STORY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16397, 17 December 1918, Page 8

BATTLE STORY.

ON SNIPER'S TRACK.

(Br Captain R. P. W.- Ree.) "No," said the follow who had half his back blown away, nodding towards a nearbv bed to indicate the object o£ his remarks, "he won't tell you anything about it. He's as modest as a prehistoric flapper." "He" was a seoond-lientenant of Jttis Majesty's regular army, commissioned for good work in the field A .and bearing the reputation of being a hard and a fearless fighter. He looked anything but that at the moment. The poor fellow was actually blushing, and if he had not had one arm in plaster of Paris I imagine he'd have thrown things at the other chap. "Yes," went on the man who had elected to be his trumpeter, "I'll tell

you about it. It happened In the first stages of the Cambrai stunt. He'd' only just been gazetted, and he was a Teal nuisance. We couldn't keep him out of danger. He was a glutton for night patrols and anything of the sort that took bim nearer the Boche.

"He went out one night with a party to reconnoitre some machine-gun positions that Fritz had fixed up on our front. He had left the job until pretty late, so as to take advantage of tho first light of dawn. When he was about two or three hundred yards from the enemy a mpchine-gun opened fire. "Nojv, it was still pitch-dark. He very foolishlyipressed on b~ himself for a few yards to have a look round, and l then, being unable to see anything us©» ful, turned back. H© could not see a sign of his party! The night had swallowed them up completely, Mid after spending ten minutes or so in a Train endeavour, to locate them, ho gave it up as a had job; but, instead of going back to our lines as any sane man would have done, _ ho needs must go forward with the idea of scuppering a Boche post on his 6woet little ownt "Very soon it bogan to get light. Presently he oould make out something about Wo hundred yards ahead of him. He got under cover behind a tree, and waited for more light. At last .he could distinguish that it was a sniping machine-gun, manned by three* hofty Teutons —ana at tho same, moment they saw him and let fly. The tree was too good a mark to be ploasant, and so ho threw himself forward, but as ho did so two shots took him in the right shoulder., and. as the doctors discovered afterwards, absolutely smashed up the collar bone. You'd hove thought that would have satisfied his appetite for danger P Not a ■ bit of it. "He went forward cautiously under cover of folds in tho ground. When ho got within twenty yards he yelled and rushed forward like a battalion. charging. "The Boches kameraded just- ci moment too late—or, rather, thought about it a moment too long, for the three of - them were very deed Boches. He took no chances. And .ho shot them, with his right hand, which was practically useless! He.saysiti never occurred to him to shift his leaver into his left hand:! A "His troubles would hsve been $11 over then, if it hadn't been for a sEgnti ground mist which . blurred visibility considerably. He shouldered the Bocho machine-gun and 'started back for tljo local substitute for England* home, and beauty, never expecting that ha .would get anything but a warm welcome.. "He got his worm wefoome all right, although not in the sense he'meant. | All our sentries saw xraa a figure armed with a Boche machme-gtm coming out of the mist, and they did not waste time in challenging. Such a thing could only mean a v surprise attack and so our Lewis guns opened out, and a bullet got him in the right arm. That just about put . the tin nat on things. He went down and out, and when a party of our fellows went out to see what tho enemy was doing, they, found only one of theifr own officers lying, very whitefaced and still, over a German machinegun! They got him in one-time, and when he-woke up he found himself.in a nice white bed, in a C.C.S. And then the C.O. came along and told him the had recomrrfonded him for the D.S.O. - "Yes, he's getting better now —and I think He's sorry. Why? Oh, just because he's such a darned coward. "Whilo he's in bed he's quite safe, bat as soon as he's fit to get out he's got to go to Buckingham Palace and be invested!"Oh, I give you my word he's got a proper wind up!"