BRAVE DEEDS ON LAND AND SEA.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 253, 4 December 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

BRAVE DEEDS ON LAND AND SEA.

BATTLE STORIES FROM THU

FIGHTING LINE,

BUGLER BOY ANT) HERO

Ho is only a busier boy of sixteen, and he he's in the Royal Herbert Military Hospital. Woolwich, with his left arm off and his head and both lege swathed in bandages. But to quote tho words of one of Ins comrades, " Ho is a little hero and deserves a dozen medals. Th little fellow stuck it till he had four bullet wounds in hun before he left off sound'ng his bugle." PRODIGIOUS VALOUR.

More like a passage from a war novA reads tho story of a certain trooper at Marne. With his 6hirt in ribbons ho stooped from his saddle during a charge and snatched a wounded comrade from death at the hands of a powerful German. Then, having swung the man right round to the near side, ho made him hung on to his stirrup-leather while he lunged h's sword clean through the German's neck, killing him instantly.

WITH LACE AND REVOLVER. A wonderful feat is that related by a British cavalry officer, who has taken part in many engagements in France. He tells how a young Lancer, certainly not ni( re than twenty, stripped of tunic and fchirt, and lighting in his vest, charged a German who had fired on a wounded man and pierced him to the heart. Seizing the German's horse aR he foil, he exchanged it for his own, which had got badly damaged. Then, his sword sheathed like lightning, he swung round and shot u German clean through the head and silenced him fur ever.

HEROIC HIGHLANDERS. At the foot of the hill of Jouarre, near La Kerte, is a simple wooden cross, bearing the inscription, "T. Campbell, Seafortlas." It marks tho grave of a bravo Higldander who. even alter receiving a mortal wound, accounted for three of the enemy. Campbell was with a small detachment of Highlanders who encountered a score of " Death's Head Hussars," and somehow became separated form the others. Nothing daunted, however, ho dashed alone into the middle of tho Germans, who fired a volley at him. Mortally wounded, he still managed to kill one Hussar and wound two others beforo he was finally dispatched by the enemy. "THE OLD SPIRIT."

That o»r men aro animated by tlio old spirit which has made the Empire what it is i« dlustrated by tlio story of a couple of men <»f the Argyll and Sutherland Hghlanders who had been cut oft at Moiis. One was badly wounded, but his companion had stuck by him all the timo in a country swarming with Germans, and. though they had only a few I biscuits between them, they managed to ' pull through until picked up. "I pressed tho unwounded man." savs LanceCorporal Edmonson, of the Royal Irish Lancers, who tells the story, "to tell mo how they managed to get through four days on six biscuits, but he always got angry and told me to shut up. I fancy he went without anything, and gave* tho biscuits to the wounded man."

FISITERMAN HEROES. The name of Skipper Harris, captain of the Grimsbv trawler Kilmarnock, which was blown up by » mine in the North vSea, must lie writ large on the roll of heroic deeds; for it was his patriotic action which led to the destruction of his vessel and himselt. Alter reaching the North Sea. he observed somefloating mines. Ho located them, and ordered the crew to put out a buoy in order to mark where they were. Alter this had been done the skipper decided t 0 briii" the vessel back until he fell m with some of tho British warships in order that he could inform them where the mines were, and thus have them blown up and prevent the possibility of any vessels fouling them. As she was proceeding the Kilmarnock struck another mine right under tho engine-room, and she split completely m twain, sinking like a stone. TRAPPING THE SPIES.

There is a humorous element in the storv of how a couple ot German spies were trapped at Soissons. It is a labourite trick of the Germans to dress up as women and, speaking Irene*, get I into the British lines, lwo oi these, who I had beeu overheard asking some of our 'soldiers what they got to eat. arouse. I the suspicions of a sergeant. "I nipped across quick to say something to pile ot 'our officers." be says. "Ho heard, came , t ,oss behind the two peasant women got one neck iu each hand, and just whacked their heads together before tb'vknewii. Heprettv well stunned them, and then we had em mto brigade Souarters. They turned out to be two llViman.U. and I.th.nk it w,s a bullet for each soon afterwards.

' THE BUY WHO WENT BACK. ' "God hkvs vour son! If it had not hccn for hiiu I should not be. here in hospital) to tell the tale. «m«GunIctv, to tho parent* of a oonuado. - da s acro» the Mcuso." hj«; «.<*. «■■•« I „JVewlv wounded l»> !>hnipn<d, „ 'el" Wc'l-hJ mroln-t. I.nt »j -.o.l.!ornnn r lu Vr:; ;- Co|i 1.-ll imam, .md ■ " ■■ y>w j ~ir 1 > urn -.'ii md 1 had |ho noblo lad 1.1"- "•" '• *- NV ", i,l vdVll ninona tlieGjTi.mil*, ' " I \ t ill.- lin« vn« wuW •"'«' l;"" 1 '''!. ~„ \. n , h,d.,; ilu- -"""•'• »f, iSl'ihroßtlu^.ner.ellßiahon*.

lUISHMAN'SIiiELK^ACUIFIfB. liocau.-o tiny did not wish tho Gormaue to «ie»k Mie.r vengeance ou the

house and tho village which had sheltered them, two troopeds of the Jrisfi Dragoons sacrificed tlicir lives in tho most heroic circumstances. One of them had carried his chum, who was slightly wounded to a farm-house under fire, and when the retreat came got left behind. Suddenly a German patrol appeared. There were only the two, oue wounded, against a dozen Uhlans, hut behind a harrier of furniture the two Irishmen kept the Germans at bay, wounding or killing half of them. The Germans then made off and brought a machine-gun to (ho house and threatened to destroy i(. Tho two soldiers, not unmindful of the kindness shown them by the owners of the farm, and rather than bring loss on them or the village, made n rush out with some mad idea of taking tho gun. But in vain. Just over the threshold of tho door they fell dead, their blood bespattering the walls of the house. GUNNER AND A BABY.

When a Russian artilleryman, wounded in the Leniberg battle, was brought to tho hospital at Kieff, ho carried, to tho astonishment of the muses, a baby girl of eighteen months. It was then that they learned of one of the most heroic acts in the annals of war. The man's battery had been nil but pulverised by the enemy, aud at last had been ordered to retire. As tho soldiers sullenly retreated the artilleryman saw a baby girl creeping from the doorway of one of the houses oi the village into the path of tho battery. Amid a rain of .shell and shrapnel the bravo fellow went to the baby's rescue whilst his comrades gave liim up for lost. As ho reached (ho child a shrapnel shell burst overhead, and throwing himself down, the man'shielded tho child's body with his own. One bullet passed through his back, injuring him so badly that bo could not regain his feet. Two of his comrades immediately went to his «s----si.skmco and carried him, with his litUe protege, t<> the battery, whence they were removed to hospital. All three men have received tho Cross of St. George for their bravery.