STRUCK BY EIGHT BULLETS.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13913, 20 October 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

STRUCK BY EIGHT BULLETS.

LIEUTENANT STARNES'S NARROW ESCAPE.

(From "The Co'onist," Oct. 12.)

Writing to his parents under datp August 11th, Lieutenant Fred. Starnes, j Lower Moutere, says: —"I got the lot that I am suffering from now on August 7th, in our big forward move. Our battalion \m s attacking on theex- ■ treme right of this particular position. Leaving our bivouac area, at about midnight, we got to the position we hac' to attack at about 3.80 a.m. Well, the position was carried at the point of the bayonet, and things all along the line were successful. It was our job then to dig in, which was straight way carried out. We had to make our position secure at this point, and it was the job of another battalion to push through our lines and still carry on the attack. At 12 o'clock on Saturday-wo j hadn't enough trenches to hold us when they started to shell us properly. That was when I got mine. Dashed i± I didn't think my tame had come ami that with a vengeance. I had had bu.ilets 'pipping' around me and clipping dirt over me all morning, but to have a shell strike the ground and explode 3 yards from you is fairly hellish. Ihe fesult-^ix shrapnel bullets m the left arm from ■■■shoulder to just below' the elbow 'well peppered) and one entered just under left armpit, and came out through my left breast just above the heart 'narrow escape). That one has given mo very little trouble—and another one smashed up my forefinger ot my right hand, making a total of eighbullets catching me all at once (too many to be pleasant);; but fortunately lam getting along splendidly. Lieutenant Starnes has since embarked tor England