MAD WITH THRIST.

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

MAD WITH THRIST.

SALVATIONIST SONGS ON THU BATTLEFIELD.

A motor driver in the R.F.A., who was a Salvation Army bandsman, states:—■

"We got everything ready for the enemy, the trenches dug fnd (the guns fixed, and then came the worst job of all—waiting. For thirty-six hours we lay there, watching and listening for the first sign of the Germans. Then lor live hours the battle lasted without cessation.

/Having brought my transport waggons up to the firing lines with my motor 1 bad to help load the guns. Shells were flying and bursting all round us. 1 was wounded by a splinter from one of the shells, but as it was only a flesh wound 1 bound it up and went on with my work.

"Now the 'jncuiy seemed to bo beating us, then again they retreated. All the time my comrades were ailing round me, ana the Germans were falling In hundreds, too. "So thick were tho enemy's dead that when the advance was given we simply had to force the motor up and over heaps of bodies—there was nothing else for it. "At last the battle, so far as the batteries in our neighbourhood were concerned, went in our favour, and we were ordered to follow the retreating Germans. In doing this six of us were lost, aud four days we »«>ro tramping nbout without a mouthful of food or drink!

"By day we lay concealed iu tli* coru or grass fields, and by night w» crept along, without any guide, only hoping and praying—I've prayed many times in the past, but never so much as on these nights—that all would como right. On the first day we were fairly well, on (ho second we were very hungry, on tho thirri our tongues were hanging out, and two of my comrades went mad. "On tho fourth night we fell it with a British ambulance {scctiou, and were taken into camp. As 1 was passing an ambulance tout 1 bear'/ someone singing:— "I'm a child of a King, I'm a child of a King, With Jesus my Saviour, I'm a child of a King." "I asked who it was, and was t<4 it was a Salvationist, in the stilV ness of another night from oue of the tents 1 heard:— Then we I( roll the old chariot along, And we won't drag on behind.' "I tell you it was thrilling. After the chorus had been sung once or twice I heard it taken up by other Salvationists in other tents, and presently from many parts of the camp could bo heard the old Salvation Army song."