AFTER THREE YEARS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9824, 22 November 1917, Page 2

AFTER THREE YEARS

SOLDIER'S REMINISCENCES DETERMINED TO SEE IT THROUGH. The following interesting summary of his war experiences, during three years, written by Company SergeantMajor W. E. Smith, of Lyndhurst, appeared in a recent issue of tho Ashburton ‘G uardian’ ’: To look back on the war in. its various phases, after three years of service abroad, makes one wonder how he has so far managed to escape without a knock-out blow. Of course, there are ways, such as having a Base job, or ‘‘swinging the lead” in some of the various camps in England or Now Zealand, that will keep one clear of those little forms of amusement. in August, 1914, i was, as you know, working at Oorwar, and tremendously interested in the events happening m Europe, and, with a feeling of adventure in my blood, hoped that England would throw down tho gauntlet to Germany, so that we could, as i thought, ‘‘dish her up” in a tew months, and so settle a disturbing factor to our peaceful mind; so 1 was very pleased when tho papers, on August oth, told us that war had been declared, and, with a friend, I Jos* no time in sending in my name to the Defence authorities in Ashburton, so as to lose no chance of getting off »s soon as a force was raised. 1 1 never forget those few days that followed, wondering if my services would be accepted, as 1 was nob a Territorial. However, on August 12th I was called up and proceeded to Ashburton examination. Here the first disappointment awaited me, as my mate failed to pass the medical examination, and I realised that from now on I would bo more or less on my own. There was a hurried rush to get away after the examination m Asbburton, as wo were leaving for Timaru and the unknown next- day; but short as the time 'was, I stopped at ijyna hurst on my way homo for a few hours at a dance, and was accorded a hearty speech and God-epeed by the people, to whom I was almost a stranger. 1 wonder how many of them remember that night. It seems so long ago since I, the first one from their'district, was called away, and what a number of proud boys from tJi© same placo ikiyo since fallen. AFTER- THE FIRST WEARY WEEKS.

I will not dwell minutely on the first few weeks of military life, with its endless drills and fatigues. . Needless to say, wo had a groat send-off from Timaru, where we took the oath and were equipped, and 1 think 1 could almost write a book on tho fun I bad in getting that web equipment of mine together the first few times, and doubtless many others haro been in rno same fix, both before and since. The trip over or. the troopships was very docent after wo had got past Wellington and the dreary days tied up to the wharves . waiting to sail; hut an end comes to all things, and eventually we got away, and after calling at Hobart and Albany w© had, as you know, the little adventure with the Emden near the Cocos Islands. Things went on smoothly after this, the only breaks in the monotony being a short stay at Colombo, another at Aden, Suez, and Pori Said, and finally arrived at Alexandria on December 3rd, 1914, and the same night I was in a detachment sent up to Zeitoun as an advance party for tho battalion. This place was our home for the next few weeks, and till January 26th, 1915, wo thought we were doomed to stay here for the duration of the war. But a change was in store for us, and we were hastily shifted to Ismailia, on the Suez Canal, where the Turks, threatened to make an invasion; and here, we had our first baptism of fire. Of course, we thought we were just “It,” but have since found out that we didn't know what shell-fire was.

DRILL. HUMOURS, AND TEASING NIGGERS. From here we shifted back to Zeitoua, and got a hearty hearing Horn tho mounted boys, who hadn’t been away; but soon the glory part of it died out, and we settled down to drill, humours, and teasing the n.ggers. However, aJI this time there-was an Undercurrent of rumour that we were moving—exactly where, no one knew, bub wo hoped it would be to France. On April 2nd came tho Good Friday biota in Cairo, which afforded us a lot of fun while it lasted, but ended in leave to Cairo being stopped, and at the time this seemed the last straw But a few days after this life took on a fresh aspect, for one night we entrained for Alexandria, and boards?! a transport again, and here got deti finite no wo that we were hound for the Dardanelles. Every bit of this trip stands out clear in ray mind’s eye a» I look back: the vast concentration of boats and men at Lemnos, th« practice landings we carried outwhtle there, and the huge reception the French and British gave us as we left tho harbour for the final stage of. the journey. APRIL 25th, 1915. It was a wonderful sight wo woke up to on the morning of April 25th, 19i5 •—our warships, standing off the barren ooist and belching forth smoke and flame, the huge clouds of black smoke and dust rising from the ridges inland, huge sprays of water as Turkish shells landed, and the constant rattle of rifle and machine-gun tire as tho enemy resisted our Australian boys in front of us. It was agony wa.iing to land, and then tho trip on destroyers, and finally lighters, to the land, all the way under shrapnel and rifle fire, till finally we jumped out up to the armpits, and, for the first time in our lives, landed on a-hos-tile si ore. Too many abler pens than mine have described the land.ng, so 1 v. on’t attempt to, except that it was very exciting and interesting so far. as I got but my career was cut snort in the early evening by a Turkish bullet, fired at a range of about five yards, which went through my left elbow, and which cent me back to Egypt to hospital. I managed tn get back to Gallipoli again on June Ist, and spent the next couple of months round about Quinn’s Post, but eventually contracted enteric and was sent to Malta, where I spent the next few weeks, and was fhen sent on to England for convalescence, where 1 spent five months. in Leicester Hospital, Epsom Convalescent Camp, and own base, and missed the evacuation.

The trip back from England to Egypt was not without its spico of adventure, as’ a .German submarine .tired two torpedoes at our boat, but missedI eventually rejoined my company at Moascar Oamp early in 1916. As far as I am personally concerned, history repeats itself here, for we moved down to the Suez Canal to the spot where we had the scrap a year previously; but it was very quiet hero this trip, and we saw nothing but work, and plenty of that. THE BATTLEFIELDS OF FRANCE.

About this time rumours became very persistent that we were shortly leaving for France, but, of course, no one believed It; but when the Prince of Wales inspected us we began to think there might bo a little more in it than seemed to meet the eye; and in the middle of April we boarded the train and went to Port Said, where once more wo embarked, and I left Egypt for the third time. After a very .decent run we landed at Marseilles; the people gave us'a very enthusiastic reception, ’ but at this juncture came a very trying time. From the wharves we marohed to the railway station and entrained for the north. This journey occupied fifty-five hours, and landed us in a small village in Flanders, at the back of the front. For the nest five weeks wa stayed here, picking up tips on the new style of waging war ; also, we got to learn a few words of the language and the manners of the people. I must say that by this stage of the game our language .was getting very expressive and picturesque, for with the usual colonial phrases was mixed Arabic and French, forming a queer blond, better imagined than described. After our stay hero we moved by marches up to Arni.cntiores, where we entered on trench warfare as known on the Western front, and I for one was disappointed in it, after the fanciful tales the war correspondents wrote of shellblasted areas and hardships. I consider that after the East it is easygoing. _ Wo stayed in this sector for some time, and then came out chance to take part in the Somme offensive, so accordingly we got on the track once more; but again, as I am only giving you a summary of events, I’ll skip details, and, sufficient to say, I managed to get through the stunt and rc'°-!,iU'rd wire the battalion till we shifted north into a sector for the winter. Here for a time 1 was taken from my company and employed by the Division a* a bayonet instructor. This I found to be very interesting work, and I ’ remained at it _ till just before Christmas, when I again joined my unit, and remained with it all through the severe winter till the end of March, when by some sort of good luck X was .selected to go to England to assist in the work of forming a new Brigade. Accordingly I proceeded to Salisbury Plain and put in some very interesting experiences, among them being a course at Chelsea Barracks with the Grenadier Guards, and with this famous regiment I marched through different parts of London. The new Brigade was at last formed, and again we set sail for France, arriving in time for the Messines affair. WHAT OF THE FUTURE?

At the present moment I am sitting in a dug-out with a pen, looking as far as possible into the future as I’ve just been looking to the past. It’s a miserable wet night—a foretaste of the winter to come, but I can assure you this,' my friend, that I’ve a stronger determination to see the war through than I had three years ago when I was a newly-joaned-up recruit. _ You will have to excuse me for omitting to put in the names of any troopships, dates of battles, or names of many places of interest, both cf recent or ancient date; but I have only been running through events, not trying to make np any highly-toned tales of them, and many more of the first draft to leave A'hburton onn tell you practically the same story as mine, so I think I will turn my letter to stories of more recent date.”