"WIPERS" " THE SERGEANT SPEAKS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14593, 1 May 1918, Page 5

"WIPERS" " THE SERGEANT SPEAKS.

They have chucked us off Messeens there, —as we chucked 'em bff/Jast year They have rolled us out of Passhendyle

with all our guns ancl gear. - Their heavies strafe old Wipers (poor old

Wipersi) day and night;- .7 -„-.,. As they did before we blew . 'em off the

ridge and out" of -sight. / ' „ They havo got us going backward through

; the- mad old- Sale-je-ent— - • Oh, tlie bloody,, mud^dy, Gawd-fqrsaken, weary months, we" spent' - . Hanging on to battered .^Wipers, Dodging slush and shells and snipers . . . And to, think \ we're here- at Wipers, slog- - ejng back the way we went. s

They have chucked us oft Messeens there, , though we smashed 'em by. the score, .Filled','- the v craters with greycoats till ' they* wouldn't hold no more. ' , • We spread their flaming .stormers (stub-borii-blighters!) > row oh row Like the sheaves the greedy reapers leave ;.'• behind *em as they go. But they .grew again m thousands with their ugly faces set Straight against the bullet blizzard, for ' - '• all our blood and sweat. So they pushed us back to Wipers '(Easy marks -'.for, shells and, snipers!) It was;bitter, i bitter travelling— but they haven't' bust us yet.

They have chucked us off Messeens there, : • Passhendyle and old . VVhitesheet, Where .we didn't half! expect : it— Lord.i they smacked us up a treat!" We were skittng all the ( winter what would -happen if ' they came— . Sudden „death •m - avalanches, fronts of ' : br'assVand walls of flame . . Tlien; the roof fell- in and hit us, and the trouble started flrie When a cog 'slipped near St. Quenttn,. and • the swarming German swirie Rolled tip Gough and^slammed at Wipers • (Dreary, -weary,- tireß old -W^ers!) Kicked us, stubborn, back to- Wipers, but they' never bust the line.

They have chucked us oft Messeeris there, by sanguinary- yard. All the chances were with Fritzie, but he •found tne going liardk When 'hje came m crimson masses to re- . i move' iisifrom «tlie -nian It : .vvas up to us- to make it just a willing v iittle scrap ..... You can bet we mixed it lively; they were , thick .as ants to kili-^-Bull's-eyes : for' the ' sweating gunnerscrawling \ up. < the blasted hill. .. . Bu.t-^we're : back beneath' old pipers ""• Chased by mxistara gas. and snipers,: ; On the "ropes, and >bleeding\ cruel,:' lik'e to' drop,'- but •' fighting . still. ... '

Yes, ! they chucked us off Messeens there, , but 'twas nothing -.like a 'rout,, .-... Four to'one> the blighters challenged, four . to ,anc we' laid V 'em. out. „'.>•.,. Side by-side;' we hacked-: and smashed 'em • ..tiirour.rtrmsbegan^to sag, ';«,. For. the* trembling wives' and childer m "•the shadow of the Flag. ■•" -. >\.^ ■ And we ripped. the stecl r home harder for : the lads we'd burled .• deep— • • Plumcr's boys-i-who stopped .' a» bullet »yhen the earthquake shook the heap (Gun-scarred ;heap) that looks on Wipers . (Shattered, blood-bespattered Wipers") Boys -.who climbed the ridge from Wipers, and m sight of .Wipers sleep.

Just forget about, Messflens there, and the squeeze we got at -HamWhile we're, on our feet and scrapping,

•nothing else is worth a damn, iitnflenburg may boast . his captures— 1 . "nmteen thousand men and' 'tuns," But we're with him all the time now,

and he's short whole squads of Huns. What we showed htm at Giyenchy, and at Neep (or something) Wood. VVe shall condescend to encore whon the

noche is m th.c mood:. . . . So— why worry over Wipers?

Littles neetj to grouse of Wipers, For the world's, safe while the line Holds, and you bet she's holding good! — C. A. Marris, m Chrlstchurch Sun.