THE SOLE SURVIVOR.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16036, 22 January 1918, Page 5

THE SOLE SURVIVOR.

OFFICER’S ADVENTURES- IN FLANDERS. ;

A British officer now in hospital in Franco has- written a .description of a thrilling adventure during the £ghting in Flanders. After two days in shellholes without food, while working through a- wood he and five machinegunners wore buried) ,by a heavy shell. Three of the men were killed, but with a corporal and a man the officer set off to find company headquarters. Whilst struggling along, at times up to their waists' in mud, another shell carried away the gas mask strapped to the officer’s chest and killed the corporal. Eventually, after being four days in water without a moment’s sleep or rest, the officer, by now the sole survivor, found his company, but his feet became so bad that he bad'to make his way to the nearest dressing station—four miles away. ■ ‘Tt took eight sets of stretcherbearers —that is 16 men” —ho says, "three hours to carry me down. Each pair of men carrisd .me half a mile and were then relieved by another pair. That will give you some idea as to tfye state of the. ground.” . After his feet had been dressed ho was carried to a motor ambulance. “I began to think that at last my troubles were over, pro tom,” he adds, “but no, we had not gone a mile when a shell hit the ambulance, and the next thing I reme,mber was sitting up in the middle of the so-called road, without boots, socks, or trousers, and shells bursting all round ms. I crawled along as best I could for about half n. mile, when I was picked up by a Canadian ambulance, which took me to a Canadian dressing station,”