UNIQUE EXPERIENCES FOR A CLERGYMAN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9988, 26 January 1915, Page 8

UNIQUE EXPERIENCES FOR A CLERGYMAN.

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHTING. SEVERE BAYONET CHARGE. ' LONDON, Dec. 8. The R"v. Cuthbcrt T. Macloin (Russell and Devonport. Auckland), who has been attached for some months to a large .South London parish, and who volunteered for active service on the dec a rat ion of war. has been at the. front until the last few dajs. It will be remembered thai he held a commission in the New Zealand. Forces and that he was offered a commission as lieutenant in tho Royal Fusil.cn, whichlie iccented He was posted to the 7th HattJlion. then transferred to tha 4th Battalion, I which ho joined at the front, as a company officer, during the battle of the Aisne. At the present time L'aptom Msoloan is at Osborne, in the Tsle of ■ Wight u»der treatment, having hpen hit in the - a ii. fragment of shell arid in the leg A shrapnel bullet. This happened" on JOth « I November, after three d<r\e in the trenches { in heaw snow. But he looks forward to Do p able to get back to the Continent m about a month's time. . After the Aisne his battalion was sent to take part, in the fighting around Lille, and it took a prominent part in the capture <) La Fosse and Vielle Chapelle. At the latter place it captured a detachment of the .amous Death's Head Hufsars. During ho time that Vielle Chapelle was held by the Britishers, their Divisional General. General Hubert. Hamilton, was killed. Next, the battalion advanced oa Aubers, captured , and drove the Germans slowly back. Uii 17th October the Royal Uusihet*, witn the Lincolns, carried Herlieswiti 1 the bayone the village was strongly held *>y the ( ' ncni >' and General French congratulated the men on their success Four ot five daja were passed in the trenche* at Her ies, during which time several desperate Lrerinan attacks were repulsed. On one sion they left behind hundreds of dead. Tin' n< xt position taken up was in tr<tncnes at X uvc- Chapelle. where a wood -'» as taken and soifie trenches recaptured winch the- Germans had taken from the Gordon Highlanders. . It was while fighting there that Captain Maclean was promoted to be Macnine-Gun Officer and was attached to General M'Malmn's headquarters. During that week •i ■ ' Zealand clergvman took part in t u:i-u^.essfill bayonet charges. In on« 0 f • ihe British had a whole company .], ;Kii.:illv \wped out. only Captain Mochas and'-.-i:; men being left to return. The fo in: r had a vcit narrow escape, for he «a» !,it in the neck by a bullet. which, however, .c -.iC' ly more than grazed the skin. Xnrh again the regiment was sent, taking up trenches east of Ypres. where it was in o.i.istant action for just over a toit-TP-lr. On 11th November it took part in ii" n-iiul e of the Prussian Guards, and Jj -.'.as encountered the fiercest fighting in tie ■ 1 ole campaign. In one aiternoon alone ('ipiain Maclean's battalion kx-t ten officers ;uul about two hundred fire at Ypres was terrible. From i hen until the 20th they were in trenches, and it was on that date that the New received the wounds that necessitated hie removal to Osborne. ~,,,, STORY OF A LONDON TRAM-MAN, Private E. Collins, of the Royal Fusiliers., tells cheerfully to the Manchester Guardian the story of his experiences of less than three weeks in France, and it is pretty evident that he served under Captain Cuthbert Maclean. , , _ lie told of a fierce fight with a Germarr force greatly superior in numbers, who surprised them as they were advancing, and forced them to take cover in mangel-wurzol field*. The- Germane were finally driven back through a village, a wood, and another village, but Collins was wounded long before the end, and. with a rifle bullet in his thigh he gradually worked himself back through the riinngel-wurzels till he fell into a, pond, where he remained for five hours before he could get off to a farm house at the back. Here the wounded had been placed, while the Officer in Command, a New Zealand chap. tall, and dark, and very cool." who kept running between his men. at the front and his men at the farm, knocked the slates off the roof and set hk men to lire through the hole. The Germans got the range of the farm, and the wounded lay watching the maxim chipping holes in tin? wall, pattering away at one spot till they thought the whole place would be about their ears. "Will vou try t-o get away, or wait foT tho German«":'' said the officer, and all decided to "'op it." Collins himself offered to tako a message to the officer in charge of the guns,' behind the wood, and, using a pitchfork as a crutch, he hopped through a hail of rifle fire to the spot, nearly a mile away. There were more wounded in a house there. "Are you hungry?" asked the doctor. "There are potatoes and carrots; you know what to do." "And I did. too." said Collins. "I mado a decent stew with .bully beef. I remember a fellow whose thigh had been shattered by shrapnel laughed like anything as ho \vatched me. 'After you with some of that,' ihe said. So I put the saucepan beside him, .and he made a good meal."