SINKING GERMAN DESTROYERS.

North Otago Times, Issue 13236, 6 March 1915, Page 7

SINKING GERMAN DESTROYERS.

THRILLING EXPERIENCES, ; ;; THE ..UNDAUNTED IN ACTION. - : 'FIRING. ON; THE EED'CROSS. ; ''[Lsnce-OorporjlJ. Burnell, lu IMLS, ~ Undaunted; writes,lioiiie to Us motlier,] , ' Weighted the' German destroyers miles ahead of us, and-immediately we put; on "full-speeJ," and you can ' imagine the excitement. They'turned,'we turned;'they twisted ami dodged, we twisted and dodged. Every minute saw us creeping nearer and nearer to theni, till at last we got the range, aud baug! bang! bang! went .'our big .guns,: j The first shot was fired at between ! five and six inilM, aud a stiff fight followed, for they also let rip back at us. We were gradually closiug nearer and nearer to them,'' lighting all the'time, until we-simply peppered them as only Englishmen caii, and, we just pave them "OXO," I'll give them credit for fighting most, gamely to the very last, but they.are far. behind us in efficiency,, and. I never doubted from the beginning about the verdict. My ship had some awfully near shaves, for they fired seven*! deadly torpedoes at us, and, my word, two of them ran parallel with the ship! It only required one of these to hit us, and all would have been "up";- but, anyhow, mother, we are not going (to see the dangerous side of it, for we whacked them, and whacked them well. It is very exciting the way you attack the enemy, and, my word, my captain is a brick, and goes right into them.' I feel honoured to fight uude* : such a gentleman, Medical Officer's Shocking Experiences [A Royal Army Medical Corps officer writes to a friend cu October 6.] We had more thau we liked yesterday,' The brute's aeroplane followed our empty motor ambulances' which were coming up as usual td take our sick and wounded down the line. Three minutes after they arrived, the infernal black- ; guards sent shell after shell into the I middle of the barns which we have fit- ; ted tfp as a hospital for the wounded. j They smashed the glass of all the win- | (lows, showered shrapnel on roof and | through, windows, ami sent several 'shells clean through our roof.' j All the people we could we put in I the collars—wine cellars (every French j house has them, and these here'are very I spacious). A lull came, and we loaded; ! up very quickly and sent the convoy oil; j Just then the shelling began again vigjorously, direct at our'hospital—there is no question about it; gunners ami all who were watching us and the shells ' : said there is no doubt whatever they shelled us deliberately, 1 went round to our guard and found some of-our men very 'excited.". They said ' uuanimously they saw a red Hag run up and down several times on a large barge in the canal. Spy signalling; no question, • I jumped into a motor-ambulance and j told the driver to go for all he was worth to the canal. J brought one of my own men with me, We were just in time to catch two vil-lainous-looking men who were legging il away, We brought them back and haudeil them over to an armed guard for which I i sent to the provost-marshal. Scarcely had I I finished ami was entering the ambulance i when a gunner came galloping up and told me that a lot of the King's Royal Killes had been killed or wounded by a shell a little distance away. •We went off at great speed and found two dead in the house, one dying (the officer), three seriously wounded, aud two lightly wounded, We. dressed and took 1 tlieni off in a very short time, and now ', they are well on their way to Kugland, ! 1 was not. back loug when 1 got an | urgent message for a motor to go to a sta- ' Hon live miles away, where 1 have three. ; officers and a bearer section. The road to .the place is under both rifle and shell fire and no one can go along it in the day time. So at dusk wc started off. It soon began to rain and get pilch dark, and the road became terribly greasy; in addition, we were told we would have to put our lights out after the first two miles, The motor skidded, went sideways and every other way, and the wheels revolved without gripping, We could only get along four miles an hour. Tim road was full of shell holes, which nearly brought us to grief. There was nothing for it but to light (lie lamps again. This we did, and in a \'cw minutes both rides and guns were popping avyay at us for all they were worth. The rain made us a bad mark and we got safely to the 1 temporary hospital in a large chateau. The top of the house was literally blown away by shells and pitch darkness prevailed. At length a dicker of light appeared from the ground aud my officers conducted us to the large cellars below, where they could only live.. There was au officer with a bad abdominal shrapnel wouud; and a fine youug French girl about 19 years whose arm my officer had amputated only a few hours previously (the. poor girl did not know it had been done), as a shell had shattered it to ribbons from the elbow down. We loaded with difficulty in the dark, lit our lights, and made off down the in-. dim', "/ifti/invnrds," We were potted at constantly, but our backs were now to the woods, the rain increased, and we got back well pleased with our day at 3 a.m., very, very tired. The mother and father of the girl we brought away with her—and, oh!; how thankful they all were for our looking after them—iviih two more ! officers ami men. After "Some hot coffee and cocoa (made with new milk from my own herd of eows. I told you of) 1 bade farewell to the convoy as it started off down the lines of. communication to the large stationary hospital*. This is a sample of our work. We look after, in addition to our own people, wounded French soldiers. Zouaves, Turcos, etc., and villagers of all ages and both 36xos, We now have treated 4000 wounded officers and, men of oar own since we came here. ■ There is shell-firing close round us, but hot directly at us all day, the cowardly brutes! Oyoliet'a ftl'de Through .Rifle Fire, [From a corporal In the motor cyclist section of the Itoyal Engineers, dated Oetolar 20.] Thauk goodness, we dou't have to go into the actual firing Hue very often, but we occasionally have lively times with shells. The worst time I had was when I had tocross'a fie1d,,402 yards fi"ross, in order to deliver a dispatch to i general., The field was in full view of Germans, 3ut) yards from it, who had the.eiact lauge aud had been firing at and hittiujj many others who crossed it, I can tell you I ran with that dis-

.'■■ pa'teh, aii'A lueKlly tky. did not hll/nie, I althoughtbey find volley after volley, i/■ 1411 st before that !-. bad, had -to go ' .' three' tliiieß backwards and .' forwards. ) along a.'road under'heavy-rifle iiro,.b)it ! I did not mind that so much, lis I was I on my bike. '. lip at Mons I had n groat, time. "The first night T wrecked my'bike"during a-iiiarcli/ncrpM country.without lights •. and going at Vnlking pace. Karly in 1 the morning we reached our destination. : I) —- with me, attached tobrigade. ; : headquarters. He hail,his'bike, while , I-was minus mine. We remained under 1 shell illre for about eight hours. Then ' ; suddenly the 'firing'line retired to the 1. bridge, behind which I was with tho 1 general. , D— was sent back with a message !o sny we were cut off, and I was told to jeijte'a push-bike aud retire. As I did 10 I saw the gentle Germans advancing ap the road in crowds fifty yards away. Thank God they did' not reach the j bridge before J got away. A'shell did hurst five yards from me, but did not hurt, anyone. The whole of the retreat I did on foot, or push bike, or in a waggon, and when ;he column halted J borrowed' a motorbike and took my turn as dispatch rider. After much night riding one is inclined'to get nerves—sentries will fire it one, as one cannot hear them dialenge. Bargaining.for Germans, ' [setter of Mr A. Charles, who Is doing postal duty at'the front, to a friend at Kiugstou-on-Tiiaiiies.] At the place we arrived at yesterday ire.received a great reception from the, French people. They could not do iuough for us. 'The Germaus had oeeu' pied the town for about eight day's and bad played h — with it and the inbabitauis, ' What they could not take they, smashed, and, according to- the Preulh, they drained the town of champague; they acted like madmen, aud •rented the'people shockingly, especially {he/young girls. We obtained about thirty prisoners, ind they were inarched with our convoy, Ihroiigh the town. Had it not been for jur troops they would have been lynch>d, . The. people offered us money and other thingsto'harid them over so that [hey could treat'them aa they tnemlelves had been 'treated. Most towns we pass through tell the lame story, so you can guess how ►ager our lads are to get at the Gev«iaus, ;