WHAT A BATTLEFIELD LOOKS LIKE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 249, 20 November 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHAT A BATTLEFIELD LOOKS LIKE.

FRANK SCTDAMORK, THE VKTKR--4.N WAP CORKESPONDKNT, DESCRIBES THE SCENE AFTER THE EIGHT.

I am not asked to describe a battlefield while the conflict rage*, and it is just as well. To do so would be almost impossible .for the conduct of any tight varies with the combatants, the weapons employed, and the nature of the country. But when one comes to the aftermath of '<attle, when the tide of victorious or defeated humanity has surged ahead or ebbed away, then one is on surer ground. . . .. Alwavs, whether the struggle hath been big or little, there lulls upon the now almost deserted battle-ground a great silence, and a most deep and abiding sense of peace. 1 know this is contrary to what has been written in fiction, to what has been painted m pictures of great battlefields. 1 speak, however, from whit 1 have seen, not from imagination. , Those lien or paint-brush pictures ot death in every hideous form ot distortion of wo unded men rending the skies with their cries and lamentations, ot blood dyeing the earth until the very heavens are redne-s as it by the reflection o. a great fire, do not r.ng true to anyc.e who knows what a battlefield loobi like. SOMETIMES THEY KNEEL. The client, the characteristic of men slain in battle is the lite. peaceful with which they slum or key s«mu to sleep hko happy. . hcalthv children, a halt smile playine on ther lips. It is hard to realise that they uic dead. How they lie depends upon c - cumstances such as the nature ot tho fire to which they have beensubjected. Sometimes they lie face downward , sometime they are on heir backs, sometimes thev sit hmldbd up against fence, or hummock; and sometimes they kneel. , Perhaps the most wonderful luttlefieldleversawwasatOmdurnuin when | io ,d Kitchener advanced o\e. tno ground across which the «v «d hurled himself in unavailing funduinj the earlier part oi the day. JhedWjJ did not He Cniifrht bv a tornado ot ire as mej clmrged.iheyhadquive.-ed staggered, Std^y^Stn^^ morning or evening payeis. so eeicne. fu °,|i Sotion from their aces. A delirious man In t. as a ..^ i.im^mft^Nlo^.is.ra'lways. always for w^ r - iy.woundn^vA taNandludehimed man is tociawl , ( sell. Therefore, even an noui taWo advance or to all crawled into some hiding-place-

OkUwu.ll>- ">''"'rX'n il»«n w pronounced rv Another |» the n nmil which prevails. lon « t wm^ forward or bacU«rd» iUtodlfi . the lighting n.aus 1 | lO card all imped ment or tW sultol triumphant nish of vk tti>oll t . V cn do,pairotdetwl,»« ;^l<hilt».terthings be m«ds. Hu w . ;l ~aIU,,, aIU ,, bottle. A,lcl r , his rifle-all will be nt *}***& ~., appearance u " '' ii liu k Ho .da) ~,«*; ot calm-fa u< (0(l pb ,i,l to »'»"' 'f°" „2,1U1111>^ 1 '"/Ir. mounded nun pa'^ l loSb>ll , a ml g" - .iiffering- and M ■ • hlimau belotii,iesquoly untul> \ { „. UB ; trifling and P"U