KING AT THE FRONT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17592, 24 September 1917, Page 6

KING AT THE FRONT.

TRIP IN A TANK

INTERESTING EXPERIENCES. (By 11. PERRY ROBINSON, in "Daily Nows.”) The King and Queen have returned to England after an extended and extremely interesting visit to the Armies in France. While tho Queen spent the greater part of her time in the area removed from the fighting line, visiting and cheering the wounded in the hospitals. showing a keen interest in all the beneficent and peaceful activities of war, the King passed his days chiefly with the fighting men He has. lived and moved among tho very realities of war. More even tlinn on his visit last summer, when his personal indifference to danger was notorious, he has been under lire and within range of the enemy’s guns. Nothing could have exceeded the enthusiasm and demonstrations of affection with whieii their Majesties have everywhere been greeted. The King and Queen arrived in Franco on July 3. The King’s first whole day at the front was spent with the Army of General Sir Herbert Plumer, which has so recently covered itself with glory, and the first steps he took on the battlefield wee along that dreadful road up to the Messines Ridge and the ruins of Wytschaete, so lately wrung from the enemy. On the day before the King was thero the enemy had been shelling very heavily tho area over which he walked, and'after he had left later in tho same day the process was repeated. King George, accompanied by the Prince of Wales, motored out through the region of desolation which fringes the battlefield in all directions through the ruined villages where the inhabitants, largely refugees from'the areas which the Germans have occupied, made pathetic efforts to give him a royal greeting with such few flags as o thev could muster. Much of tho route was also lined with the same troops as made themselves masters of the. ridge, bronzed and battle-worn. The King left his car and passed by tho forlorn crossroads of Yierstraat, and. under the guidance of General Sir Herbert Plumer, walked towards the ridge. He went up by the. ground over which the Irishmen had fought on June 7. THE MESSINES BATTLEFIELD. As they went Sir Herbert Plumer outlined the story of tho battle, calling the King’s attention to tho various landmarks, like the Red Chateau, the Hospice and the hummocks, which are all that now remain of Wytschaete Village and Wytschaete Wood. Among the shell-holes the King stopped now end again to examine some grisly relic of the fighting. There wero bits of German uniforms and equipment, broken rifles, unexplodeu bombs and such less warlike things as part of a pack of cards, with which the Germans had amused themselves. The King visited the heap which was cnee the Red Chateau, and walked nearly to tho Hospice, then skirted the acres of blackened stumps which we still call Wytschaete Wood, and so by the batterod trench line and round tho shell-holes to the Messiues road and the great mine crater at Maedelstede Farm. Thence he went, on to the even larger crater at Peckhant, with its huge mouth not less than a hundred yards across. Descending tho ridge the little party 7 crossed again the old German front line and No Man’s Land to a point where a toy train on a light railway was awaiting it, tho Roj’at carnage being an open truck over which a makeshift roof had been erected, and inside which were a chair for the King and wooden benches for the Prince and other members of the party. Along the winding, newlv-laid line the tiny’ tram ran between rows of cheering members of the Labour battalions which have done such good service in this war and other troops. The train stopped to allow the King to visit an advanced dressing station built of sandbags, where surgeons and medical stair have worked under fire since last winter, and where they were less busy than they had fared during the battle of Messines.

WENT ON WITH THE WASHINGFrom here the King went by underground electric-lighted ways to a certain fonvai'd observation # station, whence on clear days there is a wide view of tho enemy’s position and the land beyond. Not- far away a number of the officers of the Second Army, including tho Chief and members of the Army Staff, the divisional commanders, Generals of artillery, and engineers and commanders of brigades were assembled in an orchard attached to a small cottage. They were presented in turn, and with each the King chatted of his particular share in the great victory. While he did so the woman who lives in the cottage went on unconcernedly u ashing clothes and turning a mangle, and a little child played about her skirts. That woman has clung to her small home through all the turmoil and dangers of war. In the heavy artillery duels which preceded the battle ot Messines, a large shell carried away part of the cottage roof, and she had to be moved away for a time, but as soon as

the battle was over she returned, and while her husband is away in the French army, lives there now alone with her child, taking care of the little home, which shakes almost every hour of the day and night to the thunder ot the here, the King lunched with Sir Herbert Plumer, and then visited a town in the market square of which were displayed the guns captured l y

the Australians and. New Zealanders and by certain British troops in ’ the battle‘of Messines. Amongst those present here were Mr Holman, the Premier of New South Wales, who had so narrow an escape from death shortly afterwards, as w«ll as the officer who was killed then in his presence. During the afternoon tne King traversed the area occup'el. by the Australian and New Zealand troops, and they lined the roads and

stood packed upon the banks and climbed fences and trees to look at and cheer him. AIR FROLICS IN EXCEL3IS. The next morning, Thursday, July 5, the King motored to see tho Kit g ot the Belgians, and lunched with him. Tho rest of tho day was spent with the flying men. With King A**rt liis Majesty lunched in a. room which commanded a fine view of the sea, whereon vessels of his Navy were on patrol. The second half of the day was given to the airmen, and if there is anything which can be done in the sky that our flying men did not do that day for the Royal entertainment, it is something which lias never been described. They climbed straight upwards with their noses to tho skies, and came down again with their tails in the air. They came down straight and they came down spirally, end fell about like tumbler pigeons. They climbed decorously up-, wards and then forgot themselves, and began to loop, and they looped forwards and sideways and one over another. They romped and gambolled overhead like great dragon-flies gone mad. It was true skylarking—frolicing in exccisis. The. King inspected machines and talked to tho pilots and observers, in their costumes of Arctic explorers. Young airmen were presented and told stories of the things that go on up there ip the clouds. After leaving the aerodrome the King visited a. Canadian hospital, where ho was much impressed by the neatness and smartness of everything, and also a hospital devoted to the treatment. of patients suffering from gas. in which ho took great interest. But, though Ids Majesty had left the aerodrome, the airmen had not left him. They followed overhead and gambolled alongside the cars, dipped down from

the far reaches of tho skies, playing hide and seek among the clouds, to tell him that they uvero on guard. Seaplanes came in from the sea to frolic with their brothers of the air and land, and they made rings round the little procession and swept and swung and circled in great figures of eight against flic blue until the Germans from a distance must have thought that for once the British Royal Flying Corps had lost its head.

On Friday the King drove first' to the home of the high priests of the great mysteries of Camouflage, a magician’s palace in a Belgian farm, where nothing is what it seems to be. It is a bewildering place—a land on the other side of tho looking-glass where bushes are men and things dissolve when you look at them. THE KING "CAPTURED.”

Here the King was received by the chief magicians, who showed him their black arts and made him privy to all their secrets.

Then his Majesty saw the mimic capture of some German trenches. Drums simulated the uproar of the guns, and men on horseback with flags moved slowly forward iu advance of tho attacking troops just as a barrage moves. Tho slow advance, the sudden dash into tho trench, the check till the barrage moved on again, the tumbled appearance of prisoners from trench and stronghold running and returning with their hands held high, everything was there, and it made a really thrilling spectacle. Later the King saw an attack, but from the other side. Instead of being immediately behind our own front lino watching the backs' of our advancing men ho was now in the German trench., and ho saw what a British attack looks like to the enemy. The King stoqd in the second German line. He saw the barrage come creeping slowly toward him with the implacable lino of men. behind it, and he saw them the front line a hundred yards away. Nearer the barrage crept, and again tho linto came on till the barrage had passed tho place where the King was stationed. Then suddenly flinging stones for bombs, the wave was upon him and the trench in which ho stood was captured. Tho rest of the day was largely given up to inspection of the tanks, and for tho second time tho King had to stand assault and b© very nearly taken prisoner. With his party his .Majesty strolb ed across an open field, with no sign of danger anywhere except that close by on ono side was a little patch of woodland. Suddenly tho' woodland began to quake and move as Birnam Wood never did. Then one fair-sized tree began slowly to lean over towards the King, and bent down until its crown rested on tho ground, and' snapped. The undergrowth heaved and gave out strange rumblings, and with a crash and amid an ecstasy of swaying greenery out through the bushe9 came leviathan. It was very horrifying to see it as it came lurching and puffing out, first the hideous huge snout and then the ponderous shoulder lifting through tho bushes. Close beside it came its brother, if possible more ugly and grotesque. Together the twain primordial monsters rolled out into the open, grunting and searching round! for something to destroy. THE KING IN A "TANK.”

A trench had been prepared for them, a nice deep trench, with stout wire before it and dugouts such as the Germans love to shelter in. The brutes 6aw it all, and, lurching horridly round, they moved upon it. The stout wire went down like weeds before a garden roller. They came to the trench and nosed along it; then, smelling blood, they cuddled down upon the trench and rolled the parapet flat. It would have been bad for any German thereabouts. Then they attended to the dugout, moved up to it curiously, and hesitated at it, dallied doubtfully with it for a while, then laj’ down upon it, and the dugout opened out like a lily, and was a practicable dugout no more. The deliberate intelligence and ponderous mercilessness of the great beasts were dreadful to see. Then another tank arrived, but a friendly tank this, and the King and Prince of Wales climbed in through the hole in the side and went for as fantastic a ride as ever a king had. Yet ono more tank then gave a gymnastic displav of ground and lofty tumbling. The King stood facing a steep bank, almost as sheer as the side of a bouse. From the other side a Behemoth came lumbering up the slope- to tho bank’s crest, ana there it rested, peering down the abyss below. ,THE ROLLING LEVIATHAN.

While the spectators held their breath, the gigantic thing slowly lowered its blunt nose into space, and then headlong it plunged. Why it did not roll over on its back only tank experts know. For one moment it seemed as if it must, for the great bulk crashed against the ground and rocked right over on one side, to hang suspended for an instant, and then slowly swing back upon an even keel. Tli_e King ran up and met the young officer in command of the landship as he climbed out and came ashore. His Majesty asked him if he was hurt, and on receiving a laughing answer in the negative insisted on all the crew of the tank coming out that he might look at them and talk to them. So the Iron Horse of Troy opened its side, and the whole crew came scrambling out, to stand at attention, breathless and smiling, on the grass. Twice that dav the King passed the place where a West India company is stationed, and the men. looked very smart as they lined the road, but no discipline could prevent one universal grin and flash of white teeth in black faces as the car moved past, for it was the first time that most; of the men had ever seen their King.