FUN IN THE TRENCHES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1341, 29 December 1914, Page 4

FUN IN THE TRENCHES.

FRENCH SOLDIERS’ JOKES,

A DUMMY QUICKFIRER

“ARE YOU THERE, FRITZ !”

Many amusing stories come from the front which show that the French soldier on service has not lost the sense of humour and the love of a good joke which has always been one of the predominant characteristics of his nation. When they are not fighting the soldiers in the trenches are always eager for some practical joke to play on the enemy. Their ruses are sometimes very ingenious. At one point near Rheitns, where the French trenches were only 200yds distant from the enemy’s position, the French troops had throughout the day been galled by a particularly effective fire from a German quickfiring gun installed at an angle of the trepches. The fight ceased just before nightfall, and a French sergeant noticed that the Germans bad neglected to take the quickfirer back behind their lines, but had merely put its canvass cover on it and left three men on duly near it. Owing to its position, the gun was partly out of sight of the Germans occupying the main line of trenches. In the middle of the night the sergeant and three volunteers crawled along the ground to the German trenches, silently disposed of one sentry they found—the others had evidently rejoined their comrades fifty yards off —and seized the gun. They were about to return, when a sudden idea struck the sergeant. He seized three or four small wooden props, used by the German in the construction of their trenches, and placed them under the canvas cover so that it looked as if the quickfirer were still there. The little party then made their way back to their own trenches and reported to the officer in charge. At dawn the French started a hot rifle fire aimed at the trenches where the quickfirer had been, and loud was the laughter all along the line as they heard the shouts of astonishment and anger from the Germans which revealed that their coup had been discovered.

THE GERMAN’S MISTAKE

At another spot a German soldier left his trench to fetch some milk from the neighbouring village behind the lines. When he came back he lost his way and made towards the French trenches. It was dark, and as he stumbled on his way be called out; “Are you there, Fritz ?” A French soldier with a knowledge of German shouted back, “Here,” and the German walked straight into the French trenches. He was much surprised when the French soldiers seized him and helped themselves to bis milk. They were good-hearted however, and filled the German’s tin cup for him. Then taking away his arms they told him to lie down in the trenches and keep quiet, “Tomorrow,” they said, “you will have a nice journey to the south of France.”

A party of German soldiers who left their trenches to fetch back a number of sheep which had strayed were less fortunate, for they were all shot, and the sheep, frightened by the sound of the faring, ran straight to the French trenches, whence a few hours later the most appetising odour of mutton stew was being wafted by the breeze to the hungry Germans a couple of hundred yards away.

IMITATING THE ENEMY’S OFFICERS

Some daring French officers have found it quite easy to cross the German lines, and even pass their sentries, at night without being discovered. When they are challenged they reply in German in a brutal tone of voice with an order to the sentry to keep quiet, The brutality ot the answer at

once convinces the German sentry that it is one of his officers, and the Frenchman passes on his way. On the plateau of Craonne, where the fighting has been very severe, a soldier named Expert has just earned the military medal for bravery and fifteen days’ imprisonment at the same time. In the fields near a small village there had been a very violent fight, and a number of wounded had not been brought in by the stretcher parties. The colonel of an infantry regiment asked for a volunteer to take a cart and horse into the zone of fire to rescue the unfortunate men who had been lying there for more than twenty-four hours.

PUXJ.ED HIS OWN CART. The soldier Expert at once offered his services. During three days he made many journeys, and had brought back most ot the wounded when his horse was shot. He unharnessed the dead horse and started to pull the cart back to the French lines himself. It was hard work, and when a few hundred yards further on Expert saw a transport waggon of another regiment which had been abandoned, be quickly commandeered the horse. When he got back to camp he was promised the military medal for bravery, but his colonel, on the technical offence of requisitioning a horse without permission, sentenced him to fifteen days’ detention. The punishment has been recorded in the orders for the day as an added distinction. Humorous anecdotes from the front are not limited to the doings of the soldiers. One French army corps has both a Catholic military chaplain and a Jewish rabbi with it. Father Narp and Grand Rabbi Ginsburger were frequently seen together on their common mission of seeking the wounded. One evening they had both been working hard helping the wounded and consoling the dying, and when they reached a village they found there was only one bed available. Both of them were worn out and lay down, fully dressed, to sleep. Father Narp, turning to the Grand Rabbi, said : “What a pity there is not a photographer here to take a snapshot of us —the Old Testament and the New sleeping in the same bed.’’