Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 14, 12 October 1945, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

THE TRUCE

A STORY OF THE GREAT WAR

The snow lay deep over the ground where the war was being fought. It covered the. level fields and shell holes. The latter were half filled with water and frozen hard. In the trenches the troops were, muffled like Antarctic explorers. There were no great battles being fought during the winter, but the war never ceased. The guns roared and erashcd in the rear. At night the (lares from the German lines burned beautifully above the frozen waste'. The machine guns and every now and then came the sharp crack of some sniper's rifle. During daylight not a soul was anywhere to be seen. Tljere was no visible although the long trenches which ran more or less parallel to each other were lull of armed men ready at a moment's notice to fight with fury and hatred to 'kill and be killed * J as if there were no spark of brotherhood left in them. A New Zealand patrol crcpt out one night to explore the frozen level between the if possible, to enter the enemy lines. With great caution they over to the lines ol' wire in front of the German trenches. A foot slipped and a piece, of loose wire rattled. A German sentry ) alert heard the slight and peering into the darkness in front of him } saw men like shadows moving across the snow. A quiet word and a pointed fjnger ? then a sudden burst of machine gun lire sent the patrol Hying back into the darkness, towards- their own lines,. Two men fell in the enemy's wire. Another half-Avay across to safet}', was hit and lay helpless with a smashed leg. The others got in.

Next morning an officer was mak-> ing his tour of the trenches. Peering over the parapet he saw the

(Supplied by the Wliakatoiie Ministers' Association).

wounded man lying some 40 yards beyond the lines of wire in front of the New Zealand trenches. Badly hurt as he was in that freezing weather he could not live without food and shelter until the darkness came again and a stretcher party would be able to go out and fetch him in. The officer looked carefully. The German line Avas less than two hundred yards away. Anyone showing in the open would be surely shot down. There was a thousand to one chance that the enemy sentries might be so careless or so little expectant of such an act of madness that a bold venturing out on the level surface might pass unobserved. Plucking up his the officer took his chance knowing that J > if a .shot were fired it could hardly miss. The wire covered hiim for a few seconds then a slight depression, but ten yards from his man he came into view. He crept on. They were tense seconds. He reached his goal and then instead of the fatal shot for which all were wait-' ing ( a German soldier stood up on the edge of his trench and waved his arm. He was followed by another and another. They stood in. full view of our machine gunners as silent hostages for the security they freely offered to the brave man who had risked almost certain death for the sake of his comrade. Soon a stretcher bearer came out from the New Zealand lines and the wounded man was carried into safety. They would have brought in the other two who lay by; the Ger-man-line? but the Germans said that thev could take them in and care for them. Last ol all the officer came in from No Man's Land. As lie crossed the parapet of the trench the German soldiers stood down. A moment later no one was to be seen over all the wide white expanse of No Man's Land. * A machine gun rattled and the war went on. For a brief space a great deed had made all men brothers.