A HUH “JOKE."

Hokitika Guardian, 31 August 1918, Page 1

A HUH “JOKE."

In 1910 1 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 bis capture. “ 1 go up in a brand-new Fokker,” lie explained. “ I fly' over your lines, and my machine is too fast for you to catch. Over Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne I go ; then I should turn hack. But the sun shines, the sky is very 7 blue, and I forget. Too late I remember and turn back. The wind is against me and my 7 petrol nearly 7 gone. Soon petrol is finished, but I can see the trenches and 1 try to get back. Lower and lower 1 glide, and I have not far to go, when English machine gun 1 tnt-tut-tnt.’ Then I am finished !” He shrugged expressively. “And only two kilometres from home!”

He laughed good-lmmonredly, and we who were guarding joined in. All, that is except one man, a trench veteran whose face was disfigured by a scar. “Our Hun is a sportsman,” I remarked to this man. “He treats the whole affair as a joke.” “ Maybe,” my comrade drily commented, “ but I don’t joke with the Hun now. That,” indicating his disfigurement, “ is a Him • joke ’! w * * * * “It was in ’l4, when there were countless minor scraps and trenchsnatching episodes,” he proceeded. “ One day we were pestered by a Hun sap, so at nightfall, we went over and bagged it. Like many another place, it was easier to take than to hold, and at dawn the Huns countei-attacked and drove the 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 cigarettes. Presently a Hun shouted, 4 Hi, English ! You were in such a hurry to leave that you forgot your cigarettes. We like jam, and if yon have any we will give you the cigarettes if you throw the jam over first.’

“One man, Wilson, called out, “Done!’ and threw a tin of jam over. There was a delay, and we could hear the Huns laughing. We began to fear they would not keep their part of the bargain. Then one stood up and threw a tin of ‘ Goldflake.’ Wilson held out his hands to catch it. The tin exploded as lie canglit it! “ Poor Wilson ! I can still see his two Landless stumps outstretched and bleeding. I caught a fragment of the tin in my face. “ That, my lad, is a Hun 1 joke ! And also the reason I don’t joke with the Huu now. It is only by bitter experience that one learns the true nature of the beast.”