BATTLE STORIES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 9998, 15 June 1918, Page 9

BATTLE STORIES

THE WESTERN FRONT

THE SIGNAL SAPPERS DO THEIR

“It isn’t often that wo Signal Sappers get a whack at the enemy,' 1 said a wounded man from the Signal Service. "Our job is to bo shot at and carry on without hitting back. Sometimes you get a bit fed-up at not being able to got a bit of yonr own back, but you carry on all the same. The funny thing is that we have to do our share of infantry drill when we avo at homo, and wc have to pass out in musketry tho same as any foot-slogger./ The Field Sappers have to use the bayonet, but the Signal Corps don’t learn the weapon at all—we’re supposed to bo mounted troops, you see. I never learned the bayonet, anyhow, and for tho tl.,ee years I'd been in France I’d nsvei fired but two shots. I’ve been wounded twice—this is my second—but I always thought it pretty thick to bo nopped at by snipers, not to mention whizz-bangs, without having a go at Fritz. ‘The first time I had a pop at the enemy was about a year ago. I chummed up with a sniper of ours who had a cushy little dugout just behind the front line. I was laying a wire and the Fritzees turned an Emma-gee, machine-gun that is, on me. 1 got. a bit of wind-up, out I finished the job and started out for cover. I wasn’t so bad with funic that I was going to dive into a water-logged shell-hole, so I made off for the nearest trench. As I was running x heard a voice from out of the ground say. Tin hero, mate. Quick!’ I couldn’t make out where tho voice come from, but a band got hold of my leg just as I stopped to inquire. This was tho sniper in a dry hole with plenty of rations and ammunition.

“It was pretty decent of him to give himself away, because if Fritz had spotted where I wont he would have had that sniper weighed up. But this chap didn’t care, it -was near dark, anyway, 1 and he was going to clear from the post that night; While I wag waiting for things to quieten down,' wo had a long yarn, and he put me up to the game of sniping—told me all about it.

“After that I met this sniper in all sorts of places, and we got to he pais. I was telling him one day that I’d never fired a shot, and me a first-class marksman, so ho gave me a loan of his rifle, and let me have a go. Ha pointed out a gap in one of the German parapets, and told me to get a sight on it.

“ ‘She’s a good rifle,’ he says, ‘none of your fancy telescope businesses for me. You take that gap at 4 o’clock, and you’ll get a bull. Breathe through your mouth if your nose isn’t up to it’s job, and, whatever you do, . don’t get excited. I’ll spot for you.’ “Ho had a pair of glasses, and he lay down by my side to spot. ‘You won’t have, to wait long,’ , he. said, “and if you’re quickhycra’li likely get two. One fool will come into the gap, and another’ll come to see what’s the matter—maybe three altogether. Frit?, is like that.’

“We didn’t have much time to wait. My sniper pal gives a gentle hiss before long, and, right in the cup of the sight, with the bead bung on him, was A Fritz. I got him, and whacked in another charge. Just as my j>al said, there was another, and I’m almost sure I got him, too. .

“ ‘No more doin’ to-day, thanks,’ says the sniper. ‘You can shoot, mate, but it’s me for lying doggo for the rest of the day.’ Ho was a cautions beggar—X suppose that’s why he was such a good sniper. Anyhow, these were the only shots I’d fired in the war. Until a week ago, STOPPING THE HUNS.

“This German push started -with a short, sharp bombardment in the early morning—there was a lot of gas-going about from the German shells, and I woko .up in Bid morning just to put on my mask first thing. About 10 o’clock I could seo from the Signal Office that the line being, pushed in —we can always tell there how things are going—the keeping up of electric communication begins to got difficult. The operators were working like mad, and messages began to get a bit jerky. Then ray lino went dis. —that’s to say that the messages would neither go nor come, and 1 was sent out to seo if I could put it right. When I began to follow the wires, they seemed to ho all right-—until I got up near tho Brigade, whore I .found that one of the junctions had been strafed by a hig one. “The Brigade had sent hack a message by runner that they wore preparing to evacuate the position, since tho Germans had pushed tho lino right hack to tho reserves. There was a hell of a row. going on, and the fighting seemed to bo very heavy all along tho line. Away in the distance 1 could see the h'ritzos swarming until tho ground was grey with them. Our chaps were whacking it into tho masses ot them as gyxicldy as they could, and from what I could soo they were doing a lot of damage. ‘T reported to tho Brigade Signal Officer and ho told me to stand by to take hack a message if necessary. A runner came in from the lino, wounded, with a message that one of the battalions was just about slipping hold, and’ tho Signal Officer gave me a message for the Division. I thought there would be something doing, and I suggested that tho wounded runner should take it hack—l wouldn’t have dared to do it if I hadn’t Known the officer very well—but he saw tho idea I think, and gave it to the runner instead.

“The next tiling that "happened was that the Brigadier to collecting all tho spar© men about the Headquarter* as a fore© to fill up a gap. I fell In with tho other Signal Corps 1111111, an <l we tied up with a lot of Field Sap. pers. It was all done in a hurry, hut wo hopped off to tho lino with a load of small-arm ammunition. Tho Field Sappers had their and 1 felt incomplete, so I lifted a bayonet from a poor chap that had no further use for his and fixed it to my rifle. “Wo doubled up to tho line, and very soon got down to it. Tho fcTitaes were coming over in wave after wave, and I never thought it possible to lire «o many rounds. u e knoekokd out wavs after wave with our rifle and maohine-gun fire—my arms were aching with firing. \Vc stopped them all right, and tho waves disappeared for about an hour. Then they sud-

dcnly came over at ua again; they seemed to have been, taking a breather before coming on stronger than ever. “This time they came over so persistently, with so much weight, that wo’d to skin out of the line and got back I was so fed-up that wo cuau’t let ’em come right up to the trench—l wanted to see how 1 could do the bayonet stuff. Maybe it’s just as "'ell that I didn’t got the chance I wanted, for coming over in the ship I got yarning with an infantry sergeant, and from what ho told mo it seemed I would have tried to kill Gormans in the wrong way altogether. This line wo retired to was better to hold than,the other, and wo kept them back all day. It was heavy work all the time, and my face was all streaked whore the sweat had run through the dirt. I was a sight. “But give mo the Tommies of the Line for fighting. I never thought it possible for men to stick so much—the infantry are marvellous. Wo were relieved that night, and I got hack to ray job to cop out with- a stray bullet when tending a wire.”