ADVENTURE OF WAR

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1930, Page 4

ADVENTURE OF WAR

SERGEANT DICK TRAVIS MAN WHO KNEW NO FEAR. ' DARING SCOUT AND FIGHTER. An unlisted anniversary, but one that revives inspiring memories of the N.Z.E.F., falls to-day, the death by a stray shell on July 25, 1918, of Sergeant “Dick” Travis, V.C.; D.C.M., M.M., Croix de Guerre (Beige). The ironical gods that watched the nations fighting must have laughed, says the New Zealand Herald, when they saw that stray, a shell loosed into the blue away from its proper target by a careless German gunner, fell on to the spot where there was standing the man who knew no fear, who had looked death full in the eyes a hundred times and more and who cared less than a snap of the fingers for any party of the enemy. Had Travis been a second or two earlier or later in reaching the fatal spot, had the shell struck a yard in front or behind—but such is the chance of war. It was as “Dick Travis” that ho was known throughout the division and the familiar manner of address suggests the man he was. Of drill and parade ground work he knew little, nor could he he taught. Nominally he was attached to the Sth (Southland) Company of the 2nd Battalion, Otago Regiment, whose badges. and distinguishing . tunic patch he wore, but in billets and in tho line he. ate and slept where appetite and fatigue found him. MISSING FROM PARADE. On pay day any company commander of the battalion would place his name on the acquittance roll. Once, when he was required to parade before Sir Alexander Godley to receive his! military medal, a fruitless search of the battalion and of the trenches about to be taken over was made for him. Instead of resting in billets “Dick” had “lorry-hopped” from Bae St. Maur back to Armentieres, and was initiating the newly-arrived 3rd Australian Division into the mysteries of no man’s land in front of Houplines. It was in the Houplines sector before the division went down to the Somme in 1910 that Travis became greater than a battalion scout and attracted to him- £ If a little band of daredevils whose work justified the unofficial confirmation of the same privileges of wandering about that he enjoyed. With these feflows, he made no man’s land a misnomer. An enemy patrol or a wiring party outside the German line was a piece of impertinence.that must be corrected on the spot. Hence down the line would be passed the word, “Dick Travis and a patrol of six, out from. T. 84, working to the left.” No flares would go up from our line; Lewis guns and rifles would be stilled. Then out of the darkness would come a double boom and perhaps a few shots. Travis and his patrol had located the enemy and started a row.

A ONE-MAN JOB. .• . Later he would supply a report, but it would bo from one of the others that the real story- would be obtained. Then it would be found that after much whispering in a shell hole and threats by Travis to “knock their heads off” or appeals to reason, the remaining men had been disposed as a covering party while Travis alone crept forward and threw the bombs. - It was not selfishness on his part, but practical knowledge of the fact that one man would be able to crawl to bombing distance unobserved where half-a-dozen in the breathless stillness of no man’s land would make a noise akin to that of Piccadilly. “Dick” had early learnt this lesson. He once conceived the idea that he could give the Germans a nasty jolt if he could blow up a machine ?gun post without warning and he proposed that he should be allowed to use a dulled bayonet to bore a hole under a concrete base, insert a plug of gelignite, fix detonator and fuse and then crawl bad? to our line, where he would take a box seat to enjoy the fireworks , Although •it seemed ridiculous to believe that; the gelignite could be placed in position while the sentry was only a foot or two away, Travis was certain he could do it; and at last was given permission to try. However, his best men insisted on going with him, so did a company commander, and someone else in authority decreed that only an engineer ,'eould handle the explosive. The foray .was not a success, for the inevitable noise of half a dozen men creeping through grass and wire , aroused the enemy,\who opened a hot fire. LOCATING' ENEMY POSTS. Travis’ method of locating enemy posts simple in the extreme. By himself dr with some of his men-at-arms he would go out and look at the suspected position, and if the enemy failed to disclose himself he set about drawing fire. This was usually accomplished by throwing a bomb and then noting the places from which the alarmed Germans sent up flares or opened fire with rifles. Such information when an attack was contemplated was vital, but there were many occasions when a spirit of devilment provided the motive fc an excursion into the enemy line. In the neighbourhood of Rcutel, a destroyed village pn a hillside beyond the Butte de Polygon it was suspected that the Germans had a post near an abandoned tank,' ih'close proximity to a pillbox. Rifle grenades and other offensive action failed'"' td make the enemy disclose himself,; Travis cblldeted his band for a daylight reeoiinaissance. All known German posts in the locality were placed under cover of rifles and Lewis guns, for, howevef ; daring Travis might be when he established contact with the enemy" he "neter knowingly allowed himself tdbe’an easy mark for a sniper. Otago ifieii dyho'witnessed the show still laugh when’'they recall it. Jumping from shbir hole to shell hole, the scouts were soon the pillbox. In the best motion-picthre style the sentry raised his hand' as if to make sure that his eyes Were not deceiving him, and then calling but, " doubled along his small trench to summon his comrades. A few paces and he dropped with a bullet through his head. - Others manned the trench, but one remained in the pillbox to fire alarm flares through the ventilator; More fire from the Otago lino stopped ■■■ further hostile action and ! ■Travis and his men returned with the ' definite -information that only- the pillbox was "Occupied. A few nights later it was Mopped up.