A HUN "JOKE"
0 —■ TWO PEN SKETCHES. In ISI6 I was one of a number of soldiers detailed to guard a captured German airman. He was a dapper and affable prisoner, and amused us by the 'description of hie capture. "I go up in a brand-new Fokker," he explained. "I fly over your lines,, and my machine is too fast for you to catch. Over Dunkirk, Cajnis, and Boulogne I go; thqn 1 should turn back. But tho sun shine-s, the sky is very blue, and I forget. Too lafe I remember and turn back. The wind is against me, and my petrol nearly gone. Soon petrol is finished, but J can see tho trenches, and I try to gat back. Lower and lower I glide, and I hnvo not far to go, when English machine-gun 'tut-tut-tut.' Then lam finished!" Ho shrugged expressively. "And only two kilometres from home!" He laughed good-humoured))*, and »we who were guarding joined in. All, that l is, except ono<man, a trench veteran, whoso face was. disfigured by a scar. "Our Hun is a sportsman," I remarked to this man. "He treats the whole afi'air as a joke." "Maybe." my (lomrade drily commented, "but 1 don't joke with the Hun no-y. That.." indicating his disfigurement, is a Hun 'joke'! "It was in '11, when thero were countless minor sccraps and trench-snatching episodes," he proceeded. "One day we were pestered by a nun sap, so at nightfall we went over and bagged it Like many another plnce, it. was easier to take Hum to hold, and at dawn Ihe Huns ''counter-attacked and drove tho remnant of us back to our old position, distant some twenty-five yards. "We had some rations in our hole, but we were out of cigarette.-'. Presently a Hun shouted, 'Hi, English! You were in such a hurry to leave that you forgofc your cigarettes. We like jam, «nd if you have any we will give you tiie cigarettes if you throw tho jam over first.' "One man, Wilson, railed out, 'Done!' and throw a tin of jom over. There wan a delay, and we could hear Iho Huns laughing. . We began to frnr they would not keep their part of Iho bargain. Then one stood up and threw a tin of 'Goldfluke.' Wilson held out his hands to cnlch it. The tin exploded «s ho oauglit it! ■ "Poor Wilson! I can still see his two handles:! slumps outstretched and bleeding. I caught a fragment of the tin in my face. "That, my lad, is a Him 'joke'! And also the reason I don't joke with 11.0 Hun now. It is only by bitter experience that one learns the true nature nf the beast.'"-"5.H.," in tho "Daily
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Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 282, 17 August 1918, Page 8
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454A HUN "JOKE" Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 282, 17 August 1918, Page 8
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