"KING OF NO MAN'S LAND"

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 42, 17 August 1918, Page 4

"KING OF NO MAN'S LAND"

SERGEANT TRAVIS, D.C.M., M.M,

A COMRADE'S APPRECIATION.

Q.M.S. Alexander Glass, a well-known southern Labour leader, who has just returned after over three years «sof service, contributes to the Southland Times a .bright sketch of the late Sergeant Richard C. Travis, D.C.M., M.M., Belgian Croix de Guerre, of the Bth (Southland) Company of the 2nd Ofcago Battalion.

Sergeant Travis "was bora 1 in Texas about thirty years ago, but, being at an early age left an orphan, he emigrated' to Victoria, later crossing to, and settling in, New many years ago. He enlisted from Ityal Bush (Southland) in the Main Body,, Iraving been a horso trainer up to that time. Sergeant Travis was on Gallipoli from the time the Otago Mounteds landed until the evacuation. When the New Zealand Division was organised, in Egypt, early in 1916, several squadrons of mounted men were disbanded and Travis was transferred to the Bth (Southland) Company, 2nd Otago Battalion. With 1 that unit he proceeded to France. Q.M.S. Glass writes:—"lt has been said of Travis that he could make a brave man of a coward. However true that may be, it is a fact that everyone who has gone out with him to harry Hun patrols or do a little scouting work con. fesses to a feeling of security and a desire to do something big, a feeling rarely felt on other occasions when patrolling No Man's Land.

"In outward a-ppearance Dick Travis was the antithesis of everything which is supposed to mark the soldier. The parade ground with its precision and uniformity struck terror to his heart, and he was always on the look-out for a fatigue job when a parade was called. In the trenches he wore a uniform several sizes too big for him, a balaclava cap instead of a steel helmet, and he rarely carried a ga6 mask. He never mastered the art of putting on his puttees properly, and he invariably appeared with these articles of apparel gravitating towards his boots. "When the battalion occupied the Armentieres sector his work as a scout and, sniper proved of invaluable assistance to Headquarters. Each night he was oi;t in No Man's Land-, guiding and instructing patrols and establishing listening posts. After that he would probably go on a scouting expedition by himself, returning with much useful information. In broad daylight he was equally daring. He would' crawl over to the Hun's wire, take particulars of gapsi (a very handy thing to know when raiding enemy trenches) and bring back speciments of wire. On a few occasions he reconnoitred, their line for machine-gun positions. "Travis got out of many an awkward scrape by his ability to take in a situation at a glance and act quickly, as the following incident will show :—-Before putting out ' his listening poetß_, for the night Travis, as was his invariable custom, reconnoitred the position alone. ons of the posts was in a shell crater between our barb wire and the enemy's, and was reached by a tunnels' loading from the trench. This tunnel had air shafts, small boles through the earth's crust, just sufficient to let in a current of air. On this particular night Travis went through the tunnel alone, and on emerging at the other end was 1 surprised to find part of a Hun patrol in occupation and apparently waiting on him. They discovered each other sinwdtanemisly and a-s Travis was outnumbered by six to one, he doubled like a rabbit by the way he came. "The Huns immediately gave chase, not along thei tunnel, but on the surface, firing their revolvers down the air shafts in the hope of potting him. As Dick drew near the second air shaft an idea struck him. He knew he was snghtly in front of the patrol, so, drawing the pin from a Mills bomb, which he always carried in his pocket, he reached up and pushed the bomb through the air shaft and doubled off again. The bomb evidently caught the Huns square on, as one of our patrols coming on the scene were in time to take charge of a wounded Hun, while one of his comrades lay near ithe opening dead. "In the 1916 Somme campaign the Second Otago Battalion was given, a definite objective to be taken on the morning of 16th Sept-ember. On the evening of the 13th September Battalion headquarters was at its wits' endy for although they had sent out several patrols to reconnoitre the ground and locate the enemy, they came back without the necessary information. Travis stepped into the breach, and volunteered to get the information required. He went out, taking one man with him, and returned five hours later with all the information necessary, which led to the position being carried the following morning without a hitch.

"He came through that campaign unscathed, and was next heard of at Bois' Greniev and Laventie. His famous skating exploit over the ice-bound shell craters in No Man's Land at Bois Grenier in full view of the Hun lines, with a full moon shining, will long bo remembered by the Bth (Southland) boys as a most superb act of daredevilry. IHck's mad frolic on this occasion came to an untimely end through the ice giving way and immersing him to the neck in ice-cold water.

"In the Messines battle he reconnoitred Swain's farm redoubt, previous to its capture by the 10th Otago Company, a strong point of great strength ■on. the left of the town. The information which ha gathered on this occasion undoubtedly saved the battalion from, greater casualties.

"At La Basse Ville, Ploegsteert, and Passchendaele, or wherever a new sector was taken over, Travis was the first man on the spot and went over the ground methodically and thoroughly before the battalion took possession. To the last he maintained the title which he had earned so well as 'King of No Mail's Land.'"