WITH THE ENGINEERS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2524, 27 July 1915, Page 6

WITH THE ENGINEERS

HOW A D.C.M. WAS WON.

Writing from Gaba Tcpe oil Juno 8 to his parents in ' Wellington; Lco.Corpl. Bert Fear, Now Zealand Field Engineers, who was recently awarded tho D.C.M., says:—"At present we are down., at the beach for a rest, the first spell wo have had since wo landed here, oyer five weeks ago. ,It was just about time they gavo us a few days off, as we wore beginning to got stale. We are leaving hero in three or four days for another position, which is a lot easier and safer than Quinn's Post (the death trap), whero you get bombs for breakfast, dinnor, and tea. I have been to Mr. Parker's dug-out for some of my, meals, and, say, they were meals 1 Ha&st beef, roast potatoes, onions,. and pudding. ... Wo are working on. a pier, putting cement on the bearers, it is a case of strip off and get into it. Luckily, the water is not very cold. Sometimes there is a great scatter amongst tho bathers when, a shell bursts in the water or just over it. They tell ma that I have been mentioned in dispatches. A chap nailed Hodge and I orawled out over our trench to . the Turks' block-house, and blew it to bits. I pity tho poor devils who were inside. I could hear them talking, and they, were sniping from one comer of it-.' Being the n.c.0., I bad the choice, so took the lead. Our luck was in, as we came 1 through, without a scratch, although I do not know how we managed it, as the bullets wero flying pretty close all the .time. lii fact, we had to lie still for five or ten minutes We wero out for just over thirty-five minutes. Sergeant Keg. Fear, of the Medical Corps Headquarters, and a brother of Lce.-Corpl. Fear, D.C.M., in tho course of a, letter mentions that his, brother has been doing great things'. "Ho blow up a bomb-proof .outlook or something like that tho other ■ night, r and I understand he is going to be reoommended for something—D.C.M., or the like. I had a very narrow escape three • days ago. A shrapnel burst and hit , .my haversack, smashing a tiiT'medicino box. It saved my skin. . Quite a number of my chums were' hit, and While fixing thorn up I had Bome close goes."