CAPTAIN WALLINGFORD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16021, 13 September 1915, Page 8

CAPTAIN WALLINGFORD.

STORY OF HIS EXPLOITS • \ ' \ ■> -fajifi SHOOTS OVER 700 TUBKS. Most people have heard already of the prowess of Captain Wallinrford, who was and probably still is, the finest shot in* the British Army. The British Army claims that he is the greatest shot in the world. A member of his company, who has come back with a wound which al-' -~i most proved mortal, relates with pride P some of Captain Wallingford's exploit*. -f In a letter home, it may be remembered • that this officer wrote that after several ' - weeks at the front that day v.as the first -■"- on which he had not killed a Turk. This • man left the front on June 27. and ha - " claims that Captain Wallingford's tally '■"'• up to that time with the rifle alone, leaving out of account altogether the terrible - machine-gun, was over 700. As a marksman he is a wizard. One incident this soldier related. "Do you we that bush ' there?" said Captain* WaDingford one day, pointing to a harmless-looking bash about 60yds away. '• Well watch it." They watched, and saw that it moved - very slowly. " I think we'll give him a chance," said Captain Wallingford. which meant that instead of using his rifle he would use a revolver. He his revolver and fired quick as a flash. The animated bush collapsed, and the Turk that it hid rolled over quite dead. On another occasion Car tain Wallinrford played one of his practical jokes on the Turks in the opposing trenches. "I think we'll make the beggars waste some ammunition presently." he sa'd. Then he passed the word that when he shouted an order the company was to fire five rounds rapid, and then stop. As the narrator tells : 'We fired our five rounds rapid in five seconds or so. and they kept on firing for an hour and a-quarter. expecting us to attack. We stayed sung in our trench of course.* Afterwards Captain Wallinrford said. 'I guess we've got more ammunition left than they have.* This joke was pract'sed very often with good effect in the first months, but now the J Turk is more wary, and probably ammunition is more scarce."

CATCHING A TURK.

VERY UNHAPPY PRISONER.

DREAD OF COLONIALS.

Seven bullet -wounds in the right leg, the result of a few terrible moments of machine-gun fire, have been the cause of Private P. O'Connor, of Dunedin, being sent home, "I had bad luck," be said, telling bis own story; "I had been looking for 24 hoars for the brute that did it, but he 'found me first and I got seven big cuts in the leg. I was away getting soma water for our gun when he spotted me." Private O'Connor told with much amusement of the Turks* unreasoning fear of the Australians and New Zealanders. "A' Turk will stand up to anything but the bayonet, but they will never wait for us when they see the steel: but a Turk will never surrender to Australians or New Zealanders. They will surrender in hundreds to British troops, but they will do anything rather than let us take" them, I believe the Germans told them that we were savages, and that we would eat anv captives or torture them at least. < "One day I spotted a Turk right in front of our machine-gun, and only sixty yards or so away. I had only to press the trigger to settle him, but we decided to try to get him alive, and to find out something from him if we could. We eventually did get him alive, but he was the most wretched silent Turk in the worlcL He would say nothing and we found out nothing from him. For three days he sat cr lay on the beach, terrified of everybody, afraid to eat any of the food or drink any of the water we gave him. He was afraid of being poisoned, apparently. When he did at last eat and drink something he was overjoyed that he did not die, and was very thankful for everything we gave him.™

RELIGION IN TRENCHES.

SENSE OF PIETY IN WAR.

VIEWS OF A CHAPLAIN.

" The Lord's Prayer went up continually in the trenches from some of the men, 1 ' said Chaplain-Captain Clarksos, of Auckland.

" But a lot of cursing and swearing also •went up," interpolated a young officer standing close by, with a smile. "Weß, yes,"" admitted the chaplain, and from the conversation that followed, in which Chaplain-Captain Gavin, also of Auckland, joined, one gained sidelights on the pyschology of the soldier under fire. There were men whose whole bearing * was indicative of a sense within them of the awfulness of the experience through which they were passing. They went into battle with prayer on their lips. Others, again, were Keyed up to a high pitch of nervous excitability, and cursed and swore - when under fire. On the whole, however, the religious sense was quickened in the men and born, in many cases, where it had hitherto been non-existent. "The amazing tiling," the chaplain said, " was that many men who had taken so interest of any sort in religion in their own country developed real piety at the front.*' This war has effectually dispelled the , idea that a chaplain is a man who stands at the back under cover, and takes no risks. The chaplain, indeed, by the very nature of his calling, is compelled to be. more exposed than the actual Chaplain-Captain Clarkson has stood exposed for hours while he read the burial service over hundreds of men, and it was misfortune that, having escaped the bullets, he should have had to return owing to enteric

AUCKLANDEBS ENFILADED.

QUINN'S POST INCIDENT.

CATCHING BOMBS.

How he was wounded at Qtiinn's Post, a fortnight after landing, was the subject of the storv told by Private G. H. Rothery, of the North Auckland Infantry. The Aurklanders had been holding a line of trenches for some days and hsd_ received orders to proceed to the beech to embark for Cape Helles. The Royal Xlarines were the relieving force and were just coming into the trench and the Aucklanders were collecting their kits preparatory to moving out, when suddenly and unexpectedly the trench was enfiladed. The Turks had got a couple of machineguns into a position commanding the trench and in a few minutes 19 Auckland men were killed or wounded. The killed, said Private Rotherv, included two good soldiers — Carlton, of Wbangarei, and Private Donovan. Private Rothery himself did not immediately notice in the confusion that he had been wounded. His attention, he said, was taken up with a lad named Patersou, a North Aucklander, who had received somewhat fearful injuries in the face, but a bullet had entered Rothery's right elbow and his arm was useless." He spent some weary weeks in various hospitals and was then sent home while his friend Paterson, who had seemed so much more seriously hurt, recovered and returned to the "front. " Quinn's Post was then the warmest corner of the line," added Private Rothery. " The trenches were only a few yards apart, and we were fighting all the time with bombs. We used to give them more than they gave us and our boys became very expert in smothering the Turks' bombs as soon as they came. The Australians used to catch them as if they wore cricket balls and throw them back again, but that was risky. Yet I saw one big Australian catching them regularly and pluck- - ing oat the fuses quick and smart before * they could reach the explosive. He must have had 50 or 60 of these bombs piled ; on the bank behind him."