THE HORRORS OF WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2948, 7 December 1916, Page 5

THE HORRORS OF WAR

HOW CORP. BERT FEAR, D.C.M., DIED

"A MOST EXCELLENT SOLDIER"

Sapper Claude Fear, sou of Mr. F. J. W. Fear, of Willis Street, lias written an affecting letter to his parents relating incidents surrounding tho death of his brother, Corporal Bert Fear, D.0.M., v.'ho did notably good work at Gallipoli, including tho performance of an act which many of his comrades thought ho should have received tho Victoria Cross for. Sapper Fear writes: —

"Sept. 26. —A week has slipped by sinco the eventful night, and it is only now that I have been able to summon courage to drop you a lino. . . .

To start with, the weather was pretty bad, raining all day, and everything in an awful mess. The roads and tracks were up to our knees in mud. The only way we could make any progress at ail was to keep well away from tho beaten track and risk stumbling into shell holes. We met a Tommy who was stuck in the mud, and he had actually given up in despair. We had to get' a couplo of shovels and dig him out. On | .the way to the job a little dog attached himself to our party, and it was pitiful to see the way ho struggled' on through the mud, determined at all costs, to come with us. We arrived on the job after three hours of strenuous walking, most of the way across country, which was pocked with shell holes. I guess there wasn't a squaro foot' that - hadn't been touched. For some reason or other wo had to wait about half an v hour in. the dark, and it wasn't until about 10.30 p.m. that we -started on the job, which was to make a communication trench from a sunken road up to the firing lino, two hundred. yards away. Each man was given his three yards of trench to make, and ■ was told to dig down as quickly as possible, as it was an important job. We had got down about a foot, when an officer came along and told us that our bombers were going to send Fritz\over a. few bombs, so that iwe ha 3 better get busy and dig in as deep as we could. ' Bert was working next to me, and we didn't waste any time. Sharp at 11 our bombers opened up, and Frit?; replied with machinegups, at the sßine time sending up two red flares. We knew too well what that meant—artillery open fire—and it did! You know you can't take cover in a trench only eighteen inches deep. An officer passed the word down to crawl out as quickly as possible. . That could noi) be done in a couple of- minutes, and there-we were with the H.E. shells bursting all round and above us. I hopped out .of the trench and scaled back to tho sunken road. A number of others did the same, and Bert, i thought, was amongst them. He must have been hit early in the bombardment. About a quarter of an hour'later word was 'passed to me that ho had been hit, so I crawled back and found it was only too true. He was hit in the left side. Thers were three killed and_ six wounded in our section. Wo buried them that night when things had quietened down, just after tho moon had risen. It turned out to bo a lovely night, and it was hard to realise that only a short time before we were, passing through an ordeal which ended in our losing Bert. Three of us are' going out to-nieht -to put a cross over the graves. The'place is about two hundred yards from the little village of Flers., where our men did so well. Bort said, when we were told that we were coming to this place, that he' was pretty certain that one of us would stop something. His prophecy was only too true I',' . . . Writing to the parents in Wellington, Captain A. C. M'Neil said, after offeriny sympathy: "He had been with the company. ever since its birth, and wo all' feel we lave lost a very old and dear friend. He was a most excellent soldier and non-commissioned officer. He would undoubtedly have risen further had he been spared. He was a gallant man and showed himself such on many occasions. The 1 honour he gained on Gallipoli was the reward for a very brave act—rnoio • brave than many a fino action done on tho spur of the moment, for your son went on a most hazardous expedition, well knowing the risks he ran. A cross has been mado for his grave, and will be put in position as soon as it has been painted. Ho lies buried a short way behind tho front line trenches."

lieutenant 0. W. Salmon, lias also written in tho same strain to Mr. Fear,bearing tho same testimony to the courage and fine soldierly qualities of tho late Corporal Fear, D.C.M.