SAMMY AT CAMBRAI

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11752, 1 March 1918, Page 3

SAMMY AT CAMBRAI

I'iNGINKER'S A DV I^NTUiM'S. "THE !)()({(.ONKHT RXPKUIKNCK." Anions the troops surprised ry the enemy's counter-offensive «t Cnnrbrai lust month were a number of American railwaymon iiud engineers who were engaged in railway construction behind the British front, :uiti running up supplies in the neighbourhood oi' Villers-Phieh and Villers-(juislain. Mr Philip (»ihbn writes a. rally account oi' these adventures : I. saw these men, he says, after they had been surrounded by the enemy tor hours, and had then, with' great eunnng, made their escape to our lines They are a splendid body o( men, lcrd and keen and good hrmoured, who made a. joke ol' their tl rilling adventure and of their present danger, which was not of: ,ui end, as the enemy was putting over heavy shells at odd moments, and one hurst with an enormous explosion only A hundred yards or so away from them when 1 stood among thorn. >i'

"1. guess I had a. near call," s;jul one of them from St. scuri, and lie told me how, when 'fie was standing bj his train, wlifch l.t>J a Villi load of rations I'oj" the J'.ngli:;!' troops, he was suddenly startlbcl by shells bursting round his engitie and saw the enemy approaching over the ridge by Villers-Giiislrun. "One of your Tommies whs standing nehr by," said the American, "and lie bent down and picked jUp a hit of shrapnel and said, 'Dlowed if it ain't hoi,' and then ho looked up again and said, Tin blessed if old Fritz hasn't gone and broken Just as he said that a shell burst close, and the poor lad w?r\. killefl, »<•(• an ami's length away I'rojp ane. 1 guessed it was time to quit, ran hard and found the enemy a;!l round. So I took to hiding .in shell-hole, and lay there until this morning."

Four <>i his comrades -hi the engine crew had the aamo experience, and one was wounded in the thigh, but they all hud the luck to escape. Another American engineman whs first startled by a German areoplane, which came straight down the track near Villera-Fluch, flying very low and firing a machine gun. "I hadiiljfc steel hat handy," said this iniin, ' so 1 picked tip a petrol tin and put that on my head, and thought it might be better than nothing. Then I saw Germans, and thought to myself 'This is a queer kind of fix for a fellow from America laying rails behind the English lines,' so I crouched down behind the engine and hoped ■the (ujmmns wouldn't hoc iho. I guess tliey didn't, or 1 shouldn't Of. here." Another American came tip with a, grin on liis face. "I'm from Tonnes? see," lie said, and lie was a. tall, lean, swarthy fellow, as like a Mexican cow-boy as any fellow of that kind 1 have seen on the films. "What happened to you?" I asked, ;<iid lie told me that all sorts of things had happened to him since (> o'clock the previous morning, but lie hadn't time to toll the yarn, except that after his escape from the Germans, who were all round him, he got through and borrowed a Tommy's gun and fought all day with our infantry, and liked it. "It's not the first time I've held a. gun in my hairi," in said. "1 was in the SpanishAmerican War and other places. I guess I knocked out a, IV\* 'Roches fiK 1 you." One of the American railway (cams had their track blown np ahead of them by forward patrols of Germans, a,ml these also fell mo that they thought it time to quit, and quitted. Hut afterwards they formed part of seme patrols who volunteered for service witli our infantry, and so saw some very hard fighting with mi:' Guarr!!-'. at, Gouzeati-eourt. Among them was a number of New York men. All these Americans showed a high ami splendid spirit, and our men arc loud in praise of tl.eni. "It was the 'ioggonesl, experience I have ever had." saidacie them, "and a mighty close call an.vwav." They had some casualties among them, bat by good lu'ek only a few. . ~