SERGEANT AITKEN, D.C.M., FRENCH M.M.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17158, 10 November 1917, Page 11

SERGEANT AITKEN, D.C.M., FRENCH M.M.

■O ! EXPERIENCES IN THE TRENCHES. Shortly after tho outbreak of war two well known South Duncdin young menRobert Aifcken and Hugh EroVn—left for England to enlist. They had entered into partnership and purchased a. farm north of Auckland. When tho war commenced Brown enlisted with tho New Zealand Forces, bait was turned down, and Aitken then agreed to go to England with his mate, and they sold their farm. They joined up with the London Scottish, and after two weeks' training went to tho front in France, and were soon in the thick of tho fighting. Brown was rendered unconscious by tho concussion of a shell, was taken prisoner, and in no - v in Germany. Sergeant Aitken, however, carried on, received a bayonet wound in the leg, and gunshot and shrapnel wounds in the body, nnd was finally discharged from the Imperial Forces. He has just returned to Dunedin after an absence of over two years, and brings with him the D.O.M. and tho first class Military Modal, tho latter honour carrying with it a small annuity. Aitken was engaged in some fierce hand to hand fighting, but his dominant feeling now that ho looks back on his experiences is how any man could stand up to tho hardships of a winter in the trenches —this apart laltogethcr from the fighting—and live. Ho relates a vivid story of their gallant officers "bucketing" them back from tho front lines, using their canes on the men to urge them forward when, exhausted, they desired nothing more than to lie down in the slush and mud and eleep —and then probably death. Exhausted to tho last degree, the men reached an empty cow byre, in the dark, and fell down and slept as they were, some of them not awakening for 56 hours after. Asked how ifc felt to meet the Germans hand to hand, h<3 hesitated, and then remarked that they had "imposed their will" on the Germans and that they went into the battle buoyed up with the knowledge that a Britisher was equal to feveral Germans- The London Scottish had a fighting padre with Ihem. snd on ono occasion when the Germans were surging up to the trenches the minister of peace performed deeds of daring, urging the men to "stick it," rushing backwards and forwards to the sainmunition dump, and with feverish 1-asto handing up the bombs to carry death to the attackers.

Somo of tha atrocities perpetrated by the Germans as related by Sergeant Aitken verify tho very worst reports which have come to these shores. He says that on one occasion a demented nun made her war into their trenches from the German. occupied territory, and that one of tho soldiers was detailed to take her back to safety in tho rear. Tho soldier had gone some way when he stopped to light a cigarette, placing his bayonet beside him. In a moment the nun seized : t and threw herself on the point, dying instantly Both Aitken and Brown played in the Southern Football Club 'Juniors. Brown's brother (W. Brown, the well-known Otago representative and one-time captain of the Southern) is at tho front with the New Zealanders. '