BATTLEFIELD'S GRIM INCIDENTS

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 507, 9 February 1915, Page 2

BATTLEFIELDS GRIM INCIDENTS

A member of the Royal Army Medical Corps gives the following vivid picture of a battlefield after the. guns had ceased firing : — The last fight I was m the carnage had been fearful, and dead and dying of both sides were piled together. In one corner you would see a British Tommy with a bad wound lying with his head pillowed on the shoulder of a dying German, while a Frenchman near by was doing his best to cheer them up, and emptying his pockets m quest of some treasures to soothe the last moments of the other two. Close by a British Guardsman was propped against a tree smoking a cigarette and gazing intently at a photograph. Near to him was a wounded Frenchman holding a little glass m one hand while he tried to curl a straggling moustache with the other. Further along I saw two men, a French artilleryman and a British rifleman, quietly playing cards while awaiting their turn to be taken to hospital. Next to them was a man of the Cameron Highlanders, with both legs shattered, munching a stick of chocolate, and trying to hide the twitching of his face as the pain racked his body. I approached another Highlander. " It's ma birthday the day," was what he said, with a wry face, and before the words were right out of his mouth he was dead. Under a little cluster of trees we find a party of wounded Germans, English, and French men. They • were quietly praying for what they believed to be the last time on earth. Beyond them 1 a Seaforth Highlander was lying with his Testament open at the story of the Crucifixion. He was beyond human aid.