STORIES OF ANZACS

Otago Witness, Issue 3315, 26 September 1917, Page 25

STORIES OF ANZACS

SAPPER WHO CHOSE DEATH. Mr Keith Murdoch, special representative of the Sydney Sun, who is at present at tho front, cabled a fortnight ago: A captain from Melbourne, who is now famous in Egypt and on this front as aft aviator, attacked throe Germans, bringing down one, and compelling the others to retreat. Ho followed one almost into the I Huns' aerodrome. A lieutenant in the Australian Flying I Corps flew the exceptional period of 12? i hours in four weeks. He brought down two Germans the other day, and found himself surrounded by a swarm of Huns. Hij machine .was nearly shot to pieces. Tho propeller had been knocked off, the strain* iiig wires were cut and were flying, and tha I struts and the under-carriage were smashed, 1 .tie fell 6000 ft, and awoke to the fact tha* 1 he was going to death, pie managed to 1 control his machine, and planed down jusi ? inside the British lines, crashing into a shell* i hole. Ho was slightly injured, but had a ■' remarkable escape from death. The Tunnellors' latest hero is a certain' Victorian sapper who dug out three Tom. v mies buried after a shell had burst and i buried them. The sapper climbed the para- g pet in full view of tho Germans. Ho carried H a spade, which was twice shot from hi* n hand. Ho was slightly wounded in two §1 places before he came down. After the com* ■ pletion of his gallant act he turned to tha 9 German lines and waved his hands in 9 triumph. Bapper Earl, of New South Wales, who I was buried for 40 hours after tho explosion I of a German counter-mine, could hear .tho JB Germans working within a few feet of him | underground, but gallantly decided to dio 8 rather than attract their notice. Rescue, ho S recognised, meant giving away to the Ger- B mans the secret of the Australian mining. 8 work.

When Earl wag dug out it was found thai | ho had kept exact records of eveythinjj h# I had heard during his long and hopeles* I vigil. He had tested all the leads. He died; I shortly afterwards in hospital. A certain division speaks of a sergeant I who volunteered for desperate work standing M in control of carriers and runners in a plaoft • j of terrible exposure, where bullets and shell I splinters were always falling. The sergeant B lasted for three nights, and his successor I only one night. Every unit could toll similar stories, but ß all are modest. The wonder is that so few nj are killed, and that so many wounds ar» 9 mere scratches. The men find that any oon» I ditiona are more than tolerable, provided I that they can find their enemy.