WAR MUSEUM AT THE FRONT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 94, 14 January 1918, Page 5

WAR MUSEUM AT THE FRONT

RELICS TRAGIC AND COMIC.

In a quaint old place'some miles behind the battle lino are housed many curious rejics from famous battlefields and illustrations of phases of daily life in y tho trenches, destined in due course to'form part of tho National War Museum. Hero may bo seen, for example, tho old First Corps flag carried by the heroic Gough at Ypres, and tho hat and bayonet of the slain Australian soldier which were planted on the summit of the Pozieres Ridge. There is comedy in the scores of trench signs and dug-out legends, and—somewhat grimmer comedy this—in the specimens of the 6niper's camouflage. One may see the carved oak table from shelled Arras used by Sir Douglas Haig at his headquarters throughout the Battle of the Somme. There arc other memorials of Sir Douglas Haig. There is the First Corps Headquarters flag which he carried in the Mons retreat, his first flag as commander of the First Army, and souvenirs of the M'arne and the early Belgian campaigns. There is a British Red Ensign from Verdun, the gift of tho commandant of the citadel, which was suspended in that fortress during tho German attack last year; the Union Jack which the Warwick's brought into Poronne and placed in tho Grand Place, together with their crest and motto painted on a wooden panel. There are several other flags of great interests, of which one must not forget to mention the first tank's flag, the first Portuguese flag in the tronches, the first American flag to fly in France after the declaration of war by tho President, on the Hotel do Villc, Paris. There are German flags, too, as, for instance, a largo one unearthed in tho 'Hotel do Ville at Pororine, nriothw from Beaumont Hamel. But, in the matter of flags, the pride of placo must suroly be given to tho great Union Jack unfurled in the early days of August, 1914, from the Hotel do Ville at Boulogno, to greet our arriving troops, the first of our national banners to he officially flown in France. After flags come captured guns. But thero is only room here for the smaller engines of war, such as trench mortars, minonworfer and granatonworfer, with a few machine-guns damaged in battle. There is a great, ungainly minenwerfor captured at Vimy by the Canadians, and other pieces taken by the Scottish Rifles, the Royal Engineers, and other units in special circumstances of valour. There are dozens of onomy rifles, inscribed with tho names of villages in the Somme or Ai-ras region, where liand-to-hnnd conflicts were waged. One could WTito a long chapter on these rifles alone —from the first brought back from a dead German in the great retreat to ono wrenched from the hands of a Bavarian giant at St. Julien only the other day, not until he had slain several of our men. German material is here in profusion—shells of every calibre, shell cases and basket carriers, flammenwerfor, bombs, axes, knives, pistols, wirej-cutt'ers, and a unique- collection of trench clubs, including ono with a flexible handle and a heavy steel bead, positively devilish in its ingenuity. There are also to bo seen a scries j nf gas alarm gongs, a German field telephone with ?. history, and a German bicycle on which an adventurous Bosche rode up to our lines to the Menin Gates, Ypres. Scattered through this museum are ltfe-siw figures attired in enemy uniforms am! modelled and '•nloural by a colonel who is also a Royal Academician. In one case tho head and body armour has been scoured aiul burnished, so that tho white Kf.ill glitters, and makes tho figure look like n- representation of a medieval warrior. Over his shoulders ho carries n cross-bow, which discharged mrenndrs 'in the winter of 191'1-ln. ami behind him is one of o">- own oatnnnlts which saw service at Neuro Chapello.