WHAT WAR DOES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 169, 4 August 1937, Page 5

WHAT WAR DOES

Air Mail— Qwn Correspondent)

ModeJ Exhibited By Returned Man "HOME-MADE" WOUNDED

(By

LONDON, July 7. The live ambifion of Mr. A. W. G. Kerswell, of Tufnell Park, has been "to make clear to eivilians what war does to a peaceful countryside." To-day he achieves it hy putting on show at the Imperial "War Museum, Lambeth Road, a 54ft. x 5ft. model of what he saw during his three years ' service in the Rifle Bxigade on the Arras front, 1914-1917. Tons of plaster, gallons of paint, thousands of toy soldiers and horses, three years' lahour and 20 years qf "haunting" have gone into its construction, It was built in small seetions in a shed in Ms garden, and brought to the Museum in M(arch. •Since then he has worked every morning between 7 and 2.30 putting on the final touches. "I felt it had to be as realistic as possible to he of any use,'"' he told a reporter, "and I would work hours on. one wounded man or horse to make them look exactly as I saw them with iny own eyes. " For the trenehes he cut, sewed and fiHed with sand 5000 miniature sandhags, each Jin. by Jin. in size. Twenty-five feet of his frontage is occupied with a surprise attack - by the British, They have Just captured the Gexman frqnt-line trenches and are pnshing through the support linq prepared to wade a rivey to- attack the reserve. The Germans are shown in confused activity, Mr. Kerswell went over thq top ifc this action, and it is photographed on his memory, His detail makes the thing come alive. Hore is a wounded man leading three blinded men back, a Germap bayonetiug a Briton, a Briton shooting a German at foqt range, blpqd-drenched men half-buried by a trench landslide, a bQlting horse, engineers laying a new line, burating bombs, spitting maehinegnns, a crashed aeroplane — all the things he ^'cannot forget." Far b.ehind the lines, in a iandscape of hlasted trees and. yuined houses, are show31 dressing stations, field kitchqns, a hospital, prisoners working under . guard, railwiay gun, a F^ench farmer hqing shot as a spy against his own hous.e wall, anff a hundred other scenes. Mr. KersweU estimates that the model co&t him £2,00. He spent £100 on toy soldiers and ghns Waione. Most of thq dead and wounded were "home-! made" of plaster and paint.