"BAD ENOUGH FOR ANYTHING"

Grey River Argus, 31 December 1914, Page 6

"BAD ENOUGH FOR ANYTHING"

-» LONDON 'BUS-DRIVER'S ADVENTURES AT THE FRONT

Having- declared that he has seen more in a, month that he cou?d have imagined in a year, Private W. G. Davies A.S.C., Who until the outbreak of the war was .a London 'bus driver writing 1 to a fniend, adds : — I { am one of the fortunate ones. I , was always told I would never be killed, and I begin. to think I was born under a lucky star. I have been engaged in driving motor waggons to amd from the men lying" in the.treaches fighting" bur baN tle on the Aisne. -CertaiinHy I have seen very little of the fighting, but the roar of the big- guns has been my com panion night and. day. , I had not been on the job four days before I lost my first waggon, which T named the London, Croydon, and Purley Grow,ler. On my second journey, to il--e field of operations' we were ambushed by a body of Germans who pounced out of a wood, .but nq£ one of them got back to teJl the tale. It was a perfect eyeopener for me, and a nerve-tester, I can tell you. We were just congratulating" ourselves, when crash went a shell* on to the bownet. How I escaped I don't know. My growler was no good; she was a complete wreck. After trans f erring 1 the load to another lorry we abandoned her and got away, but not . before several of our fellows were winged . You have read of the treachery of the Germans, and thought perhaps some of the reports were exaggerated They are bad enough for anything That's my opinion of what I have actuaMy witnessed. We were returning empty the other night just- as it . was getting dark, when the sergeant of the escort spied some Germans. We halted and took cover n n dr * b^l't of trees. We soon found out! tEa? fh'ey wanted to sura-end er. There was a n.ice bunch of them, including an officer. Our fellows were dubious until they threw their rifles down and held up their hands as they appraoched us. ' The cad' of an officer handed his re- j voilver to our officer, and, speaking godo English said 1 : I part with it to a noble and generous foe. The next second he whipped out . another revolver from his .left-hand pocket and fired, wounding a poor old farmer. vSbme of the other treacherous dogs tried on the same game, and then there was rifle fire from behind a hay- j stack. Only two of them got away. The officer was riddled. In his pockets were a number of letters, which were taken possession of by our officer. I was told he was the son of a wellknown high official in Berlin. We left their dead bodies to be buried the fallowing morning, but dur ing the night this part of the country was over-run with Germans. The officer's body was taken away, and I suppose when it was found that we hsuT taken possession of has papers the Ge.r man newspapers would scream about robbing the dead."