BISHOP CLEARY AT THE FRONT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3025, 12 March 1917, Page 6

BISHOP CLEARY AT THE FRONT

» EXPERIENCES IN THE FIRINGLINE. In a. lettor to tho clergy of his diocese Dr. Cleary, Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, gives particulars of his adventures at the front while doing duty as a chaplain to a brigade of Now Zealand troops. Bishop Cleary expresses surprise- that iu so wet a country "oven our. skilled engineers could have provided such dry shelters and sleeping places for our boys, and made it possible to go from one end of our present New Zealand front with comparatively little inconvenience from mud and water. There aro miles of duck-boards, really single and double traoks, and the men in our front lines, as a further precaution, arc supplied with rubber thigh boots, and are handed each morning clean and dry socks. Another highly-valued comfort is the brazier, generally made, from an oildrum. It is fed with dead wood( the trees being torn to splinters by _ shell firo). Indeed, front-line conditions are, all things considered, wonderfully comfortable. I spend the., greater part of each day in tho firing line. The roads leading to the trenches (near which I live) are all shelled from time to time by tho enemy's guns, but some risk also arises from the almost daily firing of anti-aircraft -artillery right overhead by friend and foe, but chiefly by foe, as our airmen aro more numerous and more daring than theirs. Fragments of bursting air projectiles come buraing ,< at a great velocity through tho air.with a musical note, and may inflict very, ugly wounds. One of these dropped between me and a young Aucklander, failing to get me by only a fraction of an inch. I now havo it as a souvenir. Our front lines aro more built up than dug down. I mako it my business each day to sec, personally," every Catholic along the sectors visited. This duty is done whilo tho air above is torn by the din of war, and the ground behind is thrown up in thickly-crowded geysers of earth, stone, and fragments of wood and Hying metal." Dr. Cloary continues:—"My own escape from a high explosive 5.9 German shell may, perhaps, present some point of intcrost to you. Tho shell, exploded only eight feet from where three of us (ono a young English artillery officorl were standing side by side iu "tho front lino in tho height of _ a bombardment. Tho shell' explosion mado a great hole, fortunately of soft earth. All three of us were thrown down, and great quantities of earth and mud wero cast over us. Thero was a highly unpleasant singing m my ears. Tho'young artillery officer never rose again. ' I drew him into cover as two other shells hurst near by, covering both of us with earth and rubbish. I looked at the wound in the officer's head, but found he was past all human aid, as a fragment of shell had taken off a great part of the left side of the head. During the bombardment in question, a piece of shrapnel struck my steel helmet iind dented if,, and a' '77' exploded right over tho head of a, liouteuaut and injsclf." ,