A Pick and Shovel Charge

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 January 1916, Page 2

A Pick and Shovel Charge

How keen are the ni'jn in tifie tinitches to get at grips with the enemy is illustrated in this, letter from Corporal Lewis J ones, Ist Monmouth Regiment, to a relative in London:— \\ e were in rather a vicious attack, a lortnight ago. The King iiispeut-ed. us that week, but we were in quite, a diflcrent .state oil that occasion than, when he saw us at Cambridge before: we came out. We were Uien all spick and span, but we looted rough this; .journey. We came across the Welsh Guards the other diay, and we did seem puny mite beside them. It's getting warm over here now. Our artillery is ner than ever. When wa got to the German trench in u charge it was simply a hole in tho "ground and the parapets were all smashed to pieces. Germans lay dead everywhere. There is a joke among tho chaps in oui- regiment over that charge. As »■ pioneer battalion, we thought wo. would never see much trench fightingor any attacking, but tlie only difference there was in the assault was that we charged with rifle fixed in one hand! and a shovel or , pick in the othor. , Some «ven oajrriedi coils ol barbed wire. __ .—3