TRENCHES WON BACK.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 20 May 1915, Page 2

TRENCHES WON BACK.

BKY THE KING'S ROYAL RIFLE . CORPS.

, A private of the King.'* Royal Kifle Corps, in hospital in England, writing oa March. Hi describes as follows how naif, a battalion, of his regiment recaptured by a gallant charge,, at heavy cast, trenches which had been taken by the enemy: —' ; Am in England once n-ore.. How I Kave survived the last six weeks I ; hardly know myself, but the main point is that I am here, and very contented, and ought to be too. 1 am a iucky fellow to have got through.' Not | a chum of mine in our company survived that charge. Up to then none of our little clique from Sheerness had received a scratch. The. Germans had captured 800 yards of trenches. Some 6000 men were massed in the early hours of the morning for the counter- . attack. About five o'clock order* came through cancelling this,, and the various battalions started to move back to Vickebaske, where our division, billeted when not in the trenches. This- went on. till the 3rd Battalion KMLR.'s was • left. Fresh orders ai-rived that the trenches must be taken after all, and at all cost. There was only our battalion left to carry out the orders, weakened by heavy losses to only half strength, 500 men, and it was already light in the east when we advanced to the attack. ! Our company,, 125 strong,, had. to attack a 300 yards stretch of trenches, projected by barbed price and, a machine gun, and occupied by about 300 '• Germans, and it was rapidly getting light, it was madness. I said my prayers and crawled forward with the rest. We covered about 30 yards all right. Then came the rattle of a ma>chine gun and the crackle of rifle fire. "Charge!" shouted the captain, and, making enough noise for a thousand, we charged; it was only an eight seconds rush to the low bank in front of the trenches- where we could have a breather,, but two men dropped for every one who got there. The machine gun wiped out two or three men at once in rows. My feelings I wonder at now. Men weree falling, like- flies-.. Everybody but me seemed to be hit. I was filled with-an intense' curiosity as to where I should, be hit and what it would feel like. I felt two- sharp tugs- at my coat-skirts, and a second later o crash and heavy thud on my right side. "I am hit," I thought, and staggered the last five yards and threw myself down before the bank.. I looked, to my right—gone, my platoon, lieutenant, sergeant, corporal—just an oddiman here and there left. On the left, the same fate. Behind, the most awful shrieks and groans.. "Charge!" came the cry again, and with terrible fierceness our little handful dashed across the 80 yards stretch straight for the gaps in the wire. Including, the captain 28 men; reached those four trenches. Myself and five others went into a trench like six fiends. The Germans were pouring out of the back like rabbits. It was the light that saved us. They must have thought half the- army were1 charging them.. We jumped over the parapet, and eight ©f them showed! fight and paid. The remainder, ten men, threw down their arms and grovelled for mercy. It was a pitiful sight. Still, they were only lads from eighteen to twenty-two. We took forty odd prisoners in the four trenches, and within five minutes they were marched off with an escort of only two men. Their bayonets, like mine, were red, and this was enough. How I got stuck in the trench you already know. We had two men killed during the forty-eight hours, and when I came out of*the supports I went into hospital with; seven; more.1 leaving the company eighteen strong-. I learnt later that they were reinforced by a draft from Sheerness the day before I left Vickebaske,