LETTERS FROM THE FRONT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144670, 3 May 1915, Page 8

LETTERS FROM THE FRONT.

IRISH COOLXKSS AND PLUCK. An officer nt the front in a letter home sends the following story, with tiie comment:—“t shall never now believe that there is on this earth any man to boat the Irish for coolness and pluck.” While eating my lunch to-day in my dug-out I saw one of our men chopping wood for fire, about six yards in front of my dug-out. just the opposite side of the road. The road is dangerous during the day because the German snipers can shoot over it from their trenches (enfilade}. "Well. 1 was watching the man and said to another fellow (an officer who was at Cooper’s Hill, by the w.ty) ; “By Jove, that man will gel shot if he isn’t careful.” No sooner had i. said it when a bullet splattered near his head. Then, another between his legs. I saw the mud fly where the bullet struck. The man, who is the eaptaiirs servant, turned round to the direction of tho sniper, looking towards the barrierway. and said. "Good shot, Kaiscrl only bojabbers you might ha’ hit mo though, for then I could ha’ gone homo.” He proceeded to carry on with -his remarks, and singing away quite unconcerned. until I had to shout to him and order him to come away, Rive minutes after he started roasting a fowl for our mess in the same place, singing away like a lark. "I often sigh for the silvery moon.” I could hardly speak with astonishment at the cool cheek of tho man. and just as I was shouting to him a bullet came and hit him—slap in the arm. He roared with delight and went on cooking, and said. “Olg 1 ain’t going to leave yrr in’ hirdy. but perhaps they will give me a pass home now.” By this time 1 had thundered to him to come in, which he did, and having wrapped up the wound and licked it lie asked for permission to get tho fowl, which he declared would bo overdone! Before I could say anything he had darted across and started singing while another bullet went whistling past Ids ear. This was enough for me, and I went to the door of mv dug-out and made him bring the whole tiling in. which he did. “Bogorra. but scat in’ soul if they ain’t some marksmen,” lie cheerily said, as ho enn:e in.

I think that ho is a wonderful fellow and can do anything. Ho told me that he lias had eleven narrow squeaks in thi' war, but that he i*n’t to-get hit in this war evidently! AN AWKWARD PREDICAMENT. An officer of the Army Service Corps writes; I don’t think T have told yon much about what sort of work we do. Of course, we carry ammunition, as you see by our address; but we carry other tilings besides, such as sandbags, bombmaking materials, consisting of guncotton. detonators, primer, etc. These wc take ns a rule direct to the Engineers, which gives us tho chance of getting much nearer tho front than when carrying ammunition, as the latter wo fetch from railhead and deliver to the divisional ammunition column, which is generally a considerable distance behind the firing line. A few evenings back cn/no an urgent order from the Engineers for a largo number of sandbags, rind I took charge of tho convoy which was to do biio work. We had first to go to railhead about 11) miles off and get them. That part of the work was easy enough, as the roads were good and I knew them well; all wont well until wo got about four miles from our destination. Then tlie roads began to got very narrow, with constant turns, in addition to which they were very greasy, [t was absolutely necessary for the lorries to keep right in tho centre of the road. The least deviation means their slipping sideways, as I lie road was very highly cambered, and several times they did slide sideways, although going very slowly, into the thick mud at the sides. This meant towing out the one stuck, which was not usually a difUcult job. but on one occasion the two leading lorries got stuck at once. The second one being heavily loaded and up to its axles could not be pulled out by the lorry behind until its load of 0000'sandbags had been taken off. It was then pulled out backwards; when free it proceeded to pull out the loading lorry, also backwards, of course, after which it loaded up. again. While this was going on several batteries situated at short distances fiom both sides of the road wc wore on opened (ire on the German linos, and for half an hour were very busy. We could see a good many of the shells bursting oyer the enemy’s lines, but the village directly in front of ns for which wo were making, obscured our view considerably. as most of the shells went over it. The Gormans began using their big searchlight while wo were freeing the lorries to locate our batteries, which were, however, too well hidden to be seen ; tho beams passed just over our convoy, so they did not discover it, which was fortunate. Owing to its inability to move it would have made a good mark for the German gunners, and probably all that could have been saved would have been my car. which was about 100 yards ahead* o t tho leading lorry. Eventually wo reached our destination in the village, in which nearly every house was more or less damaged. and which is shelled most days, delivered our load, and returned to our quaitors without further incident.