FUN IN THE TRENCHES

Grey River Argus, 13 March 1915, Page 7

FUN IN THE TRENCHES

A CHAPTER OF MISHAPS NEW ZEALAND OFFICER'S BREEZY LETTER. AUCKLAND, Marc hlO. Advice has been received by Mr H. C. H. Walker, of Raglan, that his son, Lieut. H. J. I. Walker of the Ist Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, has been promoted to the rank of captain. In his latest letter dated January 22nd Captain Walker give an amusing account of the successful attempt to render fn"e trenches more comfortable. - • "Not much news to-day," he writes. "Just as much rain as ■over, and the trenches full of slimy mud. But today for the first time for weeks we have had the sun out, and it i3 glorious. "As a portion of our trench had about 2feet of water in it, we set up the rummiest pump you've ever seen. It was about 12ft high and had long spidery legs,' and looked more like an armour-plated grasshopper than anything else. First of all Ave couldn't get the thing into the trench at all, but an energetic Tommy with great zeal fitted it in. Then Lieut. , who thinks he is a bit of a nut at engineering, got to work to mount it. He put sandbags on, the bottom of the trench to stand on, and after much screwing and hammering he pronounced the engine all right. It had a handle for two to work so Lieut. balanced himself on the end of the sandbags and told his worthy platoon sergeant to go and do likewise. Then he seized the handle, and with great zeal started to work it backwards and forwards. The poor sergeant was not quite ready, and was groping in the dark for the handle, when all of a sudden he got it right in the chest. With a loud yell he fell backwards into the water and disappeared. After a few minutes' search he was dragged out and put on one side. Then another chap took his I place, and the operation was repeated, : wth the same result, but this time the Lieut, caught it and was nearly drown ed. A third attempt was made with more success, but by this time tue pump had caught cold and made an aAvful noise. It rumbled and growled and coughed, and coughed and growled. It was a pitch-black night, and very cold. The Germans, 75 yards away, heard these weird and awful rows, and sent '. over a number of star shells, but they could not seo anything. Then they started to shoot. Three machine-guns and many rifles hurled 'nickel birds' at our trenches, with no result. Still these awful rumbles and still more lire. The Germans apparently thought that some awful engine of war was being brought up against them. Then the pumpers could stand it no longer They sat down in the mud and laughed, and the whole company laughed with them. The German seemed to realise they had been fooled ,and slowly ceased firing. Having pulled ourselves together, we got to work 'again, and pumped hard, but we noticed that the water did not decrease, j Our dismay was pitiful to hear. A j search wji sorganised to find the trouble. | leut. in his hurry to get to work had thrown the hose over the parapet, but had left the end in the trench, so the water had boon doing a round trip at -our expense. Again more pitiful exclamation. We eventually got the trench dry, and lived in it happily ever afterwards. It is little incidents like | this th.it i'lnusi: us, and brighten up j our days in the trenches." ' j __; I