GALLANT FUSILIERS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15343, 4 October 1917, Page 5

GALLANT FUSILIERS.

"THESE HARD TIMES." LONDON, September 29. Mr Pirrie Robinson, writing in the Times, says: "The rain is ceasing, and a strong wind is drying up the front, which is practically a marshland. A great extent of the area behind the enemy front consists of continuous shellholes filled with water. Both sides are using gas-shells largely, and we especially at Lens, where the ruined city reeks with gas, making the defenders' lives hideous. Our artillery fire has caused great damage to the German heavy guns, compelling their withdrawal on many parts of the front, leaving only field guns in forward positions. "The German guns recently caught the Royal "Fusiliers in a battered trench near Broenbek.', The troops were compelled to stick it till the British guns could beat .down those of the enemy. In the midst of the heaviest shelling troops have endured in this war the Fusiliers started singing, 'ln these hard times you've got to put up with anything.' Other voices joined- in from the whole line of shell-holes, where living, dead, dead, and wounded were huddled together in bloodstained water. While the eartn shook with shellrbursts and the air was thick with fumes, dirt, and 'debris, the chorus "swelled out mightily: "If you live to be ninety-four, And carry on to the end of the war, You may get leave, but not before, These hard times. "Other troops heard the singing and joined in, the great chorus swelling above the battle-din and reaching as far as the marvelling enemy. The Fusiliers attended to the dead and cared for the wounded, singing while the worked. On the following night the song was sung in a temporary lath and tarpaulin theatre, the chorus again being led by the Fusiliers who survived the previous day's hell. "The Germans are how fighting purely defensively, in terror of the British artillery, which, with the help of aeroplanes, is destroying 10 batteries compared with the Germans' one."