PATHOS AND HUMOUR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11216, 23 October 1914, Page 2

PATHOS AND HUMOUR.

A GUNNER'S WARY.

IN THE THICK OF THE WAR.

Only a few gunners were left, but they stood by, still firing at the enemy, and singing " Onward, Christian Soldiers." It was in the diary of a gunner that this pathetic passage appeared (says the Glasgow 7 "Mail )• The fighting—and ho was in the thick of heaps of it—does not seoiu to have moved him half so much as the disturbing fact that soon after ho got on soil the horses of which ho had (■!)!< took a bad epidemic of colic. (ho had to live most of the iiiiii' on rabbit,-; and apples, and that he had noiliing, or next to nothing, to. smoke. The diary. ;t.- faithful copy of which has been supplied by a "Daily News" correspondent, is as follows: "Wcl.l—we started off for Hendon on Saturday, August 21, to entrain at L J ark Royal, and we got to Southampton about two o'clock next morning. Uot horses on board all right, tliougn the friskiest of them kicked a lot. . .

Got to Havre safe.' Good passage and quick. My little lot camped in a village outside the town. Food goodrabbit and potatoes and plenty of beer, not our English sort, but the colour of cider. . . . Us four enjoyed ourselves with the family, had a good time, and left ten o'clock next day well filled up.

"Our objective was Compiegne. We got through all right, watering our horses on the way from pumps and taps at private houses. The people were awful kind, giving us quantities of pears and filling our water bottles ivith beer. That was all right. Our .velcome was splendid everywhere. At Jompiegne we got into touch with the Germans. Very hot work, all our guns in action all round and the people of ; ha villago flocking in a panic toward' ?aris. It made us feel downhearted what we saw there. We marched from Compiegne- about eleven o'clock on the 31st, which was Sunday. Our way was chrough a pretty little village, where the peoplo tore down the- heavy-laden branches of the damson trees and sent ns off munching the fruit and very ::hcerful. The way was hard, with terrible steep hills, which knocked out :mr_ older and weaker horses. Collick (colic) broke out among them, too, and that Was bad. We lost a good many. "We got within six hours of Paris t-hon tho Germans surprised tls and drove us back. We skooted quick and dodged them in the dark until one j'clock in the morning, when we lay >n the roadside, men and horses together, fagged out. Slept until 5 i.m.', and thc!n marched on again', still ■elreating. Hot as . Nothing to \at or drink. Plenty of tea, but riohing to boil it with. At last we got ome dry biscuits and some tins of marnalade. Bill -— } whose teeth were bad, went near mad with toothache if tor tho. jam. • But toothache is bctor than starvation, anyway

\Vo marched through Ralontir and L'iorreponds. Food on the way—apples and water. Now we make our .vay through the woods to.the ferry. :\o dead horse, thank God, to-day. I !iope we have checked that collick, but my horse fell into a ditch going through the wdod, and could not get nit for over an hour. I couldn't go for help because the Germans had got the range of the place and their- shells .rere ripping overhead like blazes. Poor old Dick (the horse). He was that fagged out by the strong march. A : last I got hiiu out and went on, and by luck managed to pick up my pals. '' The woods were tweu ty-threemjles long. We thought we should never get out—they seemed everlasting. "It Was night and moonshine when we at last got to Satiness (SatuernP). We were all stoiiybrolco, having-had no money yet since we left Southampton, which seems years and years. At 4 a.m. next morning we got to Iteary, and right into the midale_ of it with our tired horses, and us tireder still—nothing to eat and dry as bones. The Gel-mans were lambing in at us with their artillery, and poor old Dick got blowed out. Thank God, I was not on him just then. ...

" Half the horses of L Battery, Royal- Artillery, got smashed, and we had to bring in our poor old tired ones to fill up- Only a few gunners were left, but they stood by firing on still and singing ' Onward Christian Soldiers.' Then the Germans charged and our gunners did a bunk, but not before they had drove spikes into the guns so as to make tliera • useless to tho enemy. They said they guessed they would get them back in a day or two, and if they did they «ould repair them easy enough. _ The Germans don't know these tricks, and wo can do them down auy time. " September I.—The battle still going on very fierce. . . . "No morn is said about the fight, for ' collick' among the horses has again broken out, and our gallant driver is much more troubled about that and the job ho has in stopping it than the actual fighting. " September 2.—More fighting and worser than ever. I don't believe we shall ever get to Paris. . . . Now we come to Montagny, and fighting all the time. Kmbbits and apples to eat galore, but still no money and no good if wo had because we can't spend it. We' ve got nothing to smoke, so wo are not 'arf happy, I don't think! We had also captured a lot of German horses, mostly officers' chargers which have galloped into our lines. I suppose the officers are corpses. I stopped one and found a yellow packet of French cigars in one of the saddle-bags. It was not half all right, I tell you. "September 3.—We progressed this day foiir miles in twelve hours. Took the wrong road and had to crawl about the woods on our stomachs, like snakes, to docige the German snipers. We had one rifle beween four of us and took it in turns to have goes. Wo shot one blighter and took another prisoner. . " Outsido. Lagny thero was more fierce fighting—twenty miles of it—and the Germans wero shot down like birds. We got in another hot corner, but managed to get out just in time after mending the L Battery guns, which had been spiked by our chaps two minutes before the Germans collared them. We had just left our camp and some waggons there when the German shells foil into it and blow it all to bits.

" Sentemb'er 3 (continued). —Firing is still going on, but it is not' so fierce, though scouts have coma in and told us there are 70,000 Germans round us this day. To-iught I PJot 2oz of Nary Cut. It was prime. September 4~We marched from camp at 5.30 p.m., and kept on marching until 3 in the morning. . , . September S We wero_ inarching on further away from Paris. We shall never get there, I guess. September 11—Marching to Orcr.y. Passing hundreds of bodies lying about like rotten sheep. We ore behind the main army now, but can hear the guns going. September 12—In the village of Creey. Plenty of food and houses to sleep in. Here we have got to stay until further orders. Colic fttillrery bad."