GEESE OF KALE ZIR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17666, 19 December 1917, Page 9

GEESE OF KALE ZIR.

A SURPRISE FOR BULGAR RAIDERS. (By LIEUT. H. R. WAKEFIELD.) The 0.0. was a roan of few words, but his mind was definite and precise. ‘ r, l’m not at all sure that the Bulgara will ever attempt a crossing between here and Kale Zir,” he said to us, “ but it is quite on the cards they will. As you know, we are very isolated here; it would take several hours before we could hope for reinforcements, so we have got to be careful. I’m doubling the number of posts, and they might be able to warn us. Also, I shall keep patrol on the paths through the reeds from dusk till dawn. But the area we have to guard is so great that with our limited number of men we cannot rely on “ Distant signals ” altogether. So wq must have an organised system of defence for the camp itself. “ The line of reastance will be the officers’ lines, because it’s a commanding position and has cover. From there we can sweep a big angle for a long way. In the event of an attack the men. will fall back to that line, which must be held to the last. The attack is certain to be at night and at the darkest time. The confusion is likely to be considerable; But at the moment I think Appropriate I shall discharge a. Very pistol, to the probable discomfiture of-the foe. Well, then, to-night we’ll have a false alarm. Tell your platoons what I’ve told you, except about the false alarm (remember that, Thompson—you usually reverse my instructions), and practise it a bit by daylight.” . / When the Bulgars left their native and came down to the plains .with much flourishing of trumpets and discharge of shells, they found themselves up against the very formidable ■natural barrier of a certain famous river and an historic and venerable lake. There they stopped. At the tun© our company was holding the line of the lake, or, to be strictly accurate, the upper lake, for it wag divided into two parts connected by the river- We held, as I have said, the upper lake and five miles of the connecting stream. We had, thanks to the motor-boats, absolute command of the. lake, and a crossing there was inconceivable, but the river was a different matter. It flowed through a perfect maze ot reeds and swamps and forests, some parts of which were, so far as we knew, absolutely impenetrable from our side. We bad to, reconnoitre it m punts, without gaining much enlightenment, partly because its navigation had been extremely intricate. It may sound but certain parts of that stretch of river were as inaccesible a 3 the sources of the Amazon. The marsh was guseous and treacherous, and swarming with all forms of creeping and flying beastliness, especially mosquitoes On the Bulgar side the marshes were less difficult, and we had no doubt that they could easily get ■ a considerable number of men across them, but whether it was possible for them to break through and get at us vas a different matter. They had ..plenty , of expert local knowledge. We also had expert knowledge, with a tendency to be contradictory. Crossings : were known to exist, but the swamps were said to be largely quicksand, and 'apparently had engulfed many men m the past. ■ . The situation, therefore, was roughly this. - We were tinable to prevent a crossing if such was possible, but we could control to some extent the paths lip from the river to where we were situated, three miles back, on the first of the foothills of the coastal range. The Bulgar could see our camps perfectly well, and would no doubt bo tempted to raid us, but it was doubtful if they would think it worth while. As ordered by the C.O. we practised the manepuvre be had described. . the false alarm was amusing, if nothing else. After a day or two we got quite expert. We had one genuine alarm, when Thompson’s bivouac fired in tho middle of the night and aU hia revolver ammunition exploded? Bullets fairly hummed through the camp, and brave men were seen debouching sleepily from all directions, thoroughly under the impression that they were about to meet their doom. However, the Line of Resistance was occupied briskly and without confusion. Then a fortnight passed, and we began to disparage Bulgar enterprise. . i ■ One evening, being orderly officer, 1 set forth at 10.30 to visit two Mists, distant respectively one and a half and two miles from the camp. It was very .dark, all the stars were flaming fiercely ;'■/the lonely cries of the jackals .echoed down from the hills. On the mountains across the lake the Bulgar lights were unusually active. They were flashing their signals for miles along the riage. Swarms of night in- . sects flew into my face, and little beasts scuttled rustling away as _ l disturbed them. I took a path which .led through the high maize, which fenced it in like a wall. A few hundred yards from the first post, whioh was placed on a little mound, the maize, ended and the reeds began. There the air changed and was stifling and scented, and the mosquitoes rose ill chanting swarms around me. 1 climbed the little,mount, on the top vpf winch a sentry stood, so statuesque and vague that he seemed to be carved, on the sky. The sergeant heard me and came to meet me. “I want you to listen, sir,” he said. “I’ve noticed something during the last few minutes which I can’t make out.” I stood still and listened. A few fregs were barking lazily in tho reeds below us: somewhere to the eastward a dog was baying to the stars. The world seemed very vast, aloof, eternal. 1 was just going to say that I could hoar nothing unusual, when a great flock of birds swished past above me. And then I knew what the sergeant ha' heard.’ All the birds from the reeds ihead of us were on the move. I could’ pick out. though faintly, tho “ Honk ”, of myriads of geese, and then I felt the air was full of birds swinging by, unseen, around us. , < “I’ll take one man; sergeant, and

we’U cycle down and have a look; there’s certainly sometoing on the move down there.”

In a minute we were off. I told my orderly to keep thirty yards behind me. I swung my flash lamp, with the flap down, over my back, so that ho could just pick out the glow. If anything happened to me he was to ride back and give the alarm. Luokily T knew the path like Regent Street, otherwise to ride it at night would have been sudden death. We went fifty yards, and were then cut off from the world by the stifling fence of reeds. After a quarter of a mile the path ran into the forest and died there. We dismounted and listened I felt fairly certain that thero was a good chance that a raiding party would como this way. It was tho shortest and the quickest to our camp, end the’r puicle. through natural indolence, would probably take it. We waited for some time, and then heard the sharp crack of a breaking branch. Then silenec again. I began to be very uneasy, and started to think of all the things I ought to have done. If they were taking another route, I bad left too much, to tho sergeant’s discretion. He was on the alert, that was something.

Now that we were used to the darkness we could see fairly well for eighty yards or eo. Thanks to that, I just got warning in time, for that line of men in single file were almost on top of us. “Do exactly what I do.” I whispeerd to the orderly. I did not dare to mount for fear of the noise, so we walked the bikes back quickly and stealthily till the path turned a corner, and then I mounted, and we were off like the wind. Ba£k at the post I explained things hurriedly to the sergeant. “ I’ll stay here and keep them under observation,” I added; “I’m sending ah orderly back to the camp at once, and we’ll keep them informed of their movements.” It was rather a neat little operation. We got in touch with them easily, and I kept informing the C.O. of their progress. They seemed roughly about 200 strong. I told the C.O. that when they reached the line of the little wood 'at the botom of our hill, I’d fire four shots from my revolver. Up would go the Very light and things would begin. “ All happened according to plan.” They kept to the path till just before it left the maize. Then they halted and prepared to attack. They got into a loose sort of open order and came on quickly. At that moment I fired four shots. Immediately I light fizzed up. The glare was dazzling. There was a moment’s silence and then a roar of fire. My little party chipned in from tho flank. It was the finest surprise in h’story.. They were *» bit close when they got it. and they must have Imd fifty casualties straight off. They didn’t face it. but flung everything away and made for the maze. We immediately occupied the battlefield. It was a nasty sight. The first worsen wo picked un was the Troche officer in charge of the enterprise.. He was hit in the thigh and was cursing. Macedonia and his gallnnt allies with equal fluency and vigour. Altogether _we counted twenty-five dead and fi p ty-oighb wounded. Wo wired for ambulances, and bad them all away by ten next morning. We scent the thy s»arcirng for tho"rest of them. Thirty-five mir-ro-dered.at different places, and others kept giving themselves up for several dnys. Ve-y few can ever have got back. Wo learnt from prisoners that thov had crossed a place known only to a few smugglers, bv special boats brought down from Sofia. We got s a very nice mention in the communinue, nnd Thompson earn'd a tablet bearing a "hurt account event-sand stuck it up on the battlefield.