TALES OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2742, 10 April 1916, Page 9

TALES OF THE WAR

VALOUR AND HUMOUR

MR FREDERIC COLEMAN'S

TOUR'

| From "Ladies and gentlemen" till tho moment ho thanked them for being such very good listeners, Mr. Frederic Coleman kept a complete grip on tho audience which gathered to hear him on Saturday night. Mr. Coleman is a most unconventional lecturer, and sometimes he does not lecture at all. Saturday night was one of the occasions when ho quitted the lecture platform and got back to the battle arena, and took the audience with him. For two hours they sat in the bitter cold and saw (through .his eyes) tho things that were and the things that are on the Western front. In his semi-American way, Mr. Coleman related compressed stories, romances, tragedies, ana jokes from an apparently boundless fund. "Once when the lino retired, a spurt of ilame eamo from a trench recently occupied by the British. Gronfoll said: 'There's someone still left thoro-1' 'No,' was the reply, 'everyone is back.' Grenfell was sure someone was left behind, and headed a party to the rescue. What do you think they found? One Irish corporal with a machine-gun blazing away on his own. He had Stayed behind, and hidden his gun with a bush. He waited tiil some ot the Germans actually got into the far end of tlie trench, and then he wiped them out, and kept playing on those coming over the parapet. When the party 'rescued' him he was cursing because -his gun had just been hit and lie coUldn't fix it quickly enough. There were 300 dead Germans round about, and the lad got a V.O. for the job."

"An officer of. a Welsh regiment was lying near the top of a big crater that a high explosive shell had made between the, British and the German trenches. His men thought he was dead, till some one saw his 'arm move. Seemingly, the Germans could see the top of his shoulder, for they were potting at liiin. The AVelshmen blazed away at tho Germans to keep them busy, so that they wouldn't pay too much attention to the wounded officer, and they agreed that at night they must get him in. Late in the'afternoon a young Welshman said: 'Look here, I can't slick it any longer. If we leave it till night'they'll get liim. .They're nearer him than we are. I'm going to try to get bim now.' Ho crawled over tlie parapet, and sprinted across tho forty yards to the crater, and dived in,' without getting hit. 'Tlie Germans tried to bomb him out, but ho pulled tho officer down, and found that he had been only partly consoious most of the day.

After a bit ho stuck the ofiicor on his feet'and told him to run. Ho did run, and he got right in without another scratch. Later, the lad tried to get back. He had gone about eighteen yards when ho went down, hit. We thought he was finished, but in a little w'ljile he was up, running for safety. They bit him twice again before lie threw himself into the trench, but when the hoys examined him and found that his wounds were not likely to be 6erious, there was a. great reunion; ■ He was recommended for a V.C. I don't know if lie. ever got it, but. what he did is typical of the actions for which'it is being awarded in tins war."

The enemy's Intelligence Department —tlie Gorman ppy system—found its place among tho stories. The guns were getting into trouble wherever they moved, and at last the O.C. sent all hisjimen out; saying to them: "You've got!'to find someone." They had no luck till they visited a farm, and discovered the "peasant" who was working. 'it to be a fat German, who had a telephone connected up between, his place of business and the German guns. The British troops had been passing along a certain road for days; One eveping a soldier went across to • a haystack, and nearly dug his fork into a .•young German, wh<j had observed the operations all the while. They spent hours trying to find out how that man ■ got his' news away, and they failed. Sonie very good sniping was being practised on the British trenches, so a search, was instituted. When the searchers were crossing a liayiield, one of the bundles of hay got up, and be-.' gan to run away. They shot him down, but "it takes a terrible lot of nervo to do these things."

"Young von' Tirpitz, who was taken prisoner, was as mean a young German: as you could drop across. He spat-in one sentry's face. The sentry was a big Jock. He took off his gear, and sailed into young Tirpitz. He gave him just; as beautiful a hiding as ever was dealt out to a scion of a noble horjse, and finished by leathering him ''with his belt. Voii Tirpitz complained, and, of course, there had to bo a courtmartial. The sentence was pronounced with the utmost solemnity—twentyfour hours for taking off your accoutrements while on duty."

The Flying Corps, Mr. Coleman holds, deserves more credit than it will ever get. Its securing the supremacy of the air by the individual actions of the young airmen was one of tho finest things of the war. "The way these boys go up over the German lines day after, day shows that their courage is indomitable. They are mostly boys. It is a.boy's game. It is purely the having the best men to do the work that nas got us into the position wo are now in."