SECOND ECHELON

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23818, 20 November 1940, Page 8

SECOND ECHELON

SOLDIERS IN BRITAIN IMPROVED BILLETS CHANGE TAKING PLACE MEN GOING INTO HOUSES (From the Official "War Correspondent attached to the Xew Zealand Forces in Britain) October 11 New Zealand soldiers are gradually being moved out of pigsties into new billets. A progressive, movement in billets is going on all the time, under pressure from senior officers, and/one platoon near here moved last week from a pigsty to an unoccupied house, where it luxuriates in kitchen cooking and abundant hot baths. Thoso sleeping in pigsties have not been in associ.ition with the regular occupants; nor is the accommodation nearly so had as New Zealand experience might lead one to suppose. A pig living with the English gentry would turn up his nose at the quarters offered his brethren on many colonial farms. As likely as not the pigsties in which New Zealand soldiers have been billeted are of brick, with a wooden lining and a concrete floor, on .which, no pig has lain for years, but which, nevertheless. was thoroughly fumigated before men were allowed to enter it. Finding Dover Quickly Since changing to new billets from the pigsties, some of the soldiers have decided that their former accommodation had advantages now denied to them. One is that the sergeant-major could not see so well into the far corners of the pigsties. The only reason for men being put in pigsties, and in other farm buildings equally open to some objection, was the necessity for getting them under cover quickly. We came here at the tail of the summer for an exercise, for which wo would have spread our beds in the open. Then the defence needs of the United Kingdom required us to stay here into the period when broken weather was to be expected. Within 24 hours all were under cover of some sort. Terms for "Use of Houses Whero furnishing, baths and so on are provided with the a householder receives 3s a night for one officer, 2s for every subsequent officer, and 6d for each man below officer rank. Meals are not included. Actually, the arrangement preferred by New Zealanders is living by themselves in unoccupied houses, and some sub-units have even taken houses on their own responsibility. at rents agreed with the landlords, but in excess of what the Army will 'pay officially. In these cases the balances are being made up either from unit funds or by striking a small levy, usually on officers only. Sometimes these houses are furnished. Where they are not, neighbours have been most helpful in lending furniture, and the New Zealanders are quick to show their gratitude by lending a hand in the neighbour's garden, in cutting firewood and in clipping hedges. OLD MAN SAVED ACTION OF SOLDIER * GERMAN BOMB BURST THANKS FOR NEW ZEALANDERS (From the Official War Correspondent attached to tho New Zealand Forces in Britain 1 ) October 4 A New Zealand corporal recently , saved an old man of 80 from possibly serious injury by flying masonry caused by a bomb explosion. Ever since then the old man, who lives in tho town where some of the New Zealanders are quartered, has been trying to find the corporal to express his gratitude to him. The New Zealander was walking in tho town one morning when a bomb fell about 40 yards away. The old man was almost abreast of the soldier. Startled, he stopped at the sound of the explosion, and simultaneously the soldier sprang toward him. "We were not affected by the blast," said a bystander afterward, "but the air was full of bits of brick and masonry, and I think street paving, too. Your man —I have never seen anyone act quicker —seemed to throw himself between tho old gentleman and the bomb. Ho held his arms up to make a shield and bent over to give tho other shelter from the flying debris. "Tho soldier himself was hit in tho back by what appeared to be a chunk of brick. I saw that myself, hut I am glad to say he was not hurt. Had that brick struck an old man of 80, and in the face, as it almost certainly would have done but for tho soldier's prompt protection, he would undoubtedly have been hurt. Ho might easily have died from the shock."

Tho corporal slipped away before the bystander could express Ins admiration or the old man his thanks. As a result of what he did there are several families in the neighbourhood—those of the sons and daughters of the old man —who will do anything at all for the New Zealand soldiers-