TRICKED THE SENTRY

Grey River Argus, 13 February 1915, Page 7

TRICKED THE SENTRY

DARING RUSE OF FRENCH COR PORAL.

The exploits of Corporal Philip, of the 24th Colonial Infantry, told in a en-line paragraph in the Journal Officiel, have secured . for him the coveted Military Medal, with which his colonel decorated him in the presence of his regiment. One day his colonel entrusted him with the perilous mission of creeping in the night, with twenty-five men to a ridge where Germans were entrenching. He was to report to the colonel what he saw. When the daring twenty-six arrived near the ridge Philip could sec the German sappers at work in the trench, while a sentinel walked backwards and forwards near by. The corporal concealed his men in a wood in the vicinity and crept forward with a single com rade, to whom he said: — "When we get close to the sentinel, and he challenges us, you scuttle off to the left and drop to the ground. Then make a noise with your bayouet, so that he may turn in your direction." The two men advanced. They were only a step or two from the sentinel, when Philip bore off to the* right. At the sound of his footsteps the sentinel snapped out: "Who goes there?" The other Colonial, faithful to his instructions, made a. slight noise with his bayonet, and «the sentinel turned round to the left. With a 'spring the corporal was on him, and j ran him through with his bayonet, in J a moment Phillip had annexed the dead soldier's mantle, helmet and rifle, and mounted guard in his place. The other Frenchman hastened back to his comrades, and when the Germans, having finished their woik, went off to rejoin the main body, the twenty-five Colonials came out of the wood and took their places. At break of day a company of Bavarians came to take possession of the trench. When they were but a fewpaces from it Philip and his men opened a murderous fire, killing them all but eighteen, who surrendered. The the 24th Colonials came up at the double, and the proud corporal, running out to meet them, handed the trench over to the colonel that he might, "see for himself" what he wished.