BURYING THE GENERAL.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 265, 28 October 1911, Page 4 (Supplement)

BURYING THE GENERAL.

“ Stop making your graves, you eight men, get your picks and shovels and go and bury the General!” shouts the or<lei ly-sergeant. This sounds weird, but was a common or ! r previous to the relief of (,'hitral in

It was the rule at dusk, or after a hard day's light or march, to halt if possible near a river for the night.

The General was the only officer to have a tent, and eight men were told off, before it was pitched, to dig a welllike hole eight feet deep, place the General’s iicld equipment at the bottom, end then pitch the tent over the holo. This made it safer for the General and iiis chief-of-staff to consult together well into the night, without the risk of Icing struck by the shots of the nightsnipers.

How necessary this was may be seen by the fact that the night-snipers had a very crude cannon made from one or more British Field Telegraph poles. Being hollow steel in tht>»e telescopic parts which fitted into the other for easy transit, it must nave taken the snipers all day to load it, and they gave us one shot each night. The nroicstiles were mostly stones. It will be easily seen, therefore, how necessary it was to “ Bury the General” each night, as his tent would offer such a good target,, esneciallv when there was a light.

The men's graves were macle by . 01. looting all the large stones and pieces of lock porta’ile and placing them round coffin wise to the height of their bodies when prone. It. was a common experience to hear the bullets from over I he Parmkorn River striking our twelveinch high forts every night.