THE CHARGE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 830, 7 October 1916, Page 8

THE CHARGE.

DASH FOR THE BOCHES.

BOMBS AND BEER

A wounded young company commander who lias come home to "Blighty" gives a vivid description of one of the incidents of the "(heat

Push." He says:— "Our adjutant came along about 3, checked up watches and gave us divisional lime. Mine was all right: never stopped once from the da\ 1 bought it till that left wrist of mine was hit. It registers my first hit, 3.2(i. I'll keep that souvenir, but I'm afraid it's done as a time-keeper. "Just before three I got my position, right in the middle of my company- We were going over a! 3.25, you know. The trench was deep there, villi a hell of a lot of mud and water, but there was no set parapet left —just a gradual slope of muck, as though car loads of it had !ji'(" dropped from the sky by giants —smiled porridge. "1 wanted: to be out first if I could —good effect on the men, you know hd I couldn't 'rust myself in all that muck, so I'd collared a rum ase from \s dug-out, and was nursing the blooming thin« so that when the time came 1 could plant it in the mud and gel a bit of a spring m • m that, (dad I did, too. "I passed the word along at a quarter-] nst to he ready . for my -.vi•;..!!< ; Sard i! was all you could do I-: im.ki ;.• fellow hear by shouting iii Ids ar. Our heavies were giving '.i lip then, 1 can tell you. Wniting the Order. "I v as in a devil of a stew lest a : c of my chaps would get over t'.Mi soon. They kept -wriggling up arid forward in the mud. They were fii'/htfully keen to get moving. I "athercd from my sergeant their one fear was that if we couldn't soon get going our artillery "old have left no 'strafing' for us to do. Little they knew their Bochc if they thought that. "On the stroke of the 25 I got a good jump from my rum box and fell head first into a little pool; wdiizz—bang hole, I suppose; something small. It loosened two of my front teeth pretty much. I'd my whistle in my teeth, you see. But I blew like blazes directly I got my head up. Never made a sound; whistle full of mud. "But it didn't matter a bit. They all saw me take my dive, and a lot were in front of me when I got going. But I overhauled them and got in front.

Hcll-for-Leathc-r. "We were going hell-for-leather. You think you're going strong and —woosh! You've got your faee deep in porridge. Fallen in a shell hole. You trip over some blame thing and you iurn a complete somersault and you're on again, wondering where your second wind is. Lord, you haven't a notion whether you're hit or not.

"I fell that smack on my left wrist,] along with a dozen other smacks] of one sort or another, but I didn't know'il was a wound lor an hour or. more. j "All you thought about was trying! to keej) your rifle muzzle up, and I guess the fellows behind must have' thought a bit about not sticking us with their bayonets more than the> could help. I was shouting ' —-,' the local name of the regiment, you; know. The boys like it. But my j sergeant, who was close to me, was' just yelling, 'Down 'em, boys!' and 'Stick 'em! Stick 'em!' for all he was worth. "My lot were bound for the second j line, you see. My No. 12 Platoon,! with 13 of i),' were to look after j cleaning up the Bochc first line.j There was no real parapet left in i that Boche front line. Their trench j was just a sort of gash, a ragged crack in the porridge. Where I was! there was quite a bit of their wire left; but, do you know, one didn't feel it a bit. You can judge a bit from my rags what it was like. We went at it like fellows in a race) charge the tape, and it didn't hurt us any more. ■nv thing that did worry us was! the porridge and the holes. Youri feet sinking down make you feel you're crawling, making no head-' way. I wish I could have seen, a bit j better. It was all a muddy blur toj me. Into the Ditch. "But I made out a line of faces in! the Boche ditch, and I know I gave a devil of a yell as we jumped for those faces. Lost my rifle there. "Afraid I didn't slick my man,, really, because my bayonet struck, solid earth. I just smashed my fel-l low. We went down in the muck to-! gether, and another chap trod on my neck for a moment. "Makes you think quick, I tell you.j I pulled that chap down on top of my other Boche, and just took one' good look to make sure he was a' Boche, and then gave him two rounds j from my revolver, with the barrel in his face. I think i killed the; under one, too, but can"! be sure. j

"Xexl thing I knew we were scrambling on to the second line. II was in the wire of the second line that I got my knock-out—in the shoulder, and some splinters in my head. Bomb! "I was out of business then; but as the light grew 1 could see my chaps having the time of their lives inside that second line. One of ilicni hauled me in alter a bit, and 1 got a drink of beer in a his Hoche dugout, down two separate (lights of sleps. My hat, that beer was good, though it was (icrman!"

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