HOW MLLE. DULOS WON THE LEGION OF HONOUR.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 122, 17 December 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

HOW MLLE. DULOS WON THE LEGION OF HONOUR.

The two most romantic and brilliant features of the war, the two thngs that have relieved from being a dull record of close-range slaughter, have been the use of flying-machines and automobiles. Flying-machinee may appear more romantic and spectacular to the outsider, but those who have seen the war at close quarters are of the opinion that the most astonishing and brilliant feats of arms hav 6 been performed by motorcars.

The experience of Mile. Helene Duclos, who annihilated practically a whole German company with her automobile (says a Paris despatch of September 30), is one of the many amazing instances of the use of 'this comparatively novel instrument of war. Other cases in the various warring countries have, perhaps, been equally remarkable, but hers necessarily gains added interest from the fact that she is a woman, and a very attractive one. It has been shown that a high-power-ed armoured motor-car, running at sixty miles an hour, can, under certain conditions disorganise a whole army and slaughter scores of soldiers. If driven into a body of men in close formation and taken by surprise its powers of injury are unlimited. Mile. Duclos's motor exploit has made her the great heroine of the moment. She has been decorated by General Joffre with the cross ofthe Legion of Honour for her brilliant and heroic act. Here is her story "I was determined to do something for my country in the fighting field, something that the Germans would re-member-something more than soothing the fevered brow. My great grandfather was a captain of grenadiers under Napoleon, and the blood of generations of soldiers runs in my veins.

"My first ambition was to enlist in the fightng automoble service. I had been used to running all kinds of cars since my childhood, and was as fit for this work as any human being could be. But 1 found tho authorities obdurate. They s'mply would not let a woman into the combatant services. I the rigid physcal examinaton made this tried disguising myself as a man, but attempt useless. "Finally it seemed to me that the only way of reaching the front was to join a volunteer motor ambulance corps, as everal other women had done. I transformed a 60-horsepower eightseated touring car into a motor-ambu-lance for four badly wounded men or eight slightly wounded ones. I qualified for the service and was authorised to proceed to the front in Alsace, accompanied by a mechanician. "While performing my ambulance duties I had a good opportunity to watch the armoured automobiles, and realised that their work was the most exciting of tho war." One day Mile. Duclos, having taken some wounded men to tho field hospital, was returning once more to the fighting-ilne. Eager for • adventure, she drove her car up a mountain road, which was not included in the trench zone, and entered a wild, mountainous country, from which the Freuch wero desperately trying to drive the Germans by frank attacks, surprises, aiv raids, and other stratagems. Soon the rattle of rifle bullets caught her attention. A turn in the road brought her in sight of a big armoured French car that stood disabled in the nr'ddle of the road. The engine had been smashed by a shell. The Germans were firing at it from, cover some distance away. The French solidera were firing away from the protection of the armour with their machine-guns and their rifles, but they were handicapped by tlie immobility of the car, and the Germans were gradually encircling them. Three of the eight Frenchmen forming the crew of tho car lay dead in tho road, 1 died while they had exposed themselves in an attempt to repair the engine. Mile. Duclos saw luce German soldiens rise from co.cr and advance in an effort to rush the car. They were shot down, but she saw that in a Few more minutes the Frenchmen must- be overwhelmed.

Taking in the situation at a glance, tho experienced motorist sped up to the injured oar and backed up her machine before she 6topped.

"Get in," 6he cried to the soldiers, "or you will be taken other minute."

'lhe five Frenchmen jumper Mile. Duclos's car with their Lnder a ram of bullets fiheTwl

by the way sue had comet tney all escaped, and a turn zigzag road soon put them out ger.

The Germans must have tak< session of car m a ieiaurei; ner alter tile escape of the Fre' was precious booty to tbem. Pi they cried to repair it, and, that impossible, started to back.

The Frenchmen were not satu escape and leave their car t direction of the surrounding After runu4U' back a short d MUo Duclos had noted careful she found a road that would Igai to tho one that the Germans toilow on their way back.

The French officer m charge party insisted on taking the si wneel of the car, but Mile, demonstrated that sne wad lione who could get best speed her car. Thus she forced them her stay in tlx© place of dacg.;r Behmd a pile of rocks that 1 the meeting of the roads they wait tor the returning German;, Up the road came the Jeriuuu ging at a rope that drew the gn

abied French armoured car. were about forty of them, pra< half a company, minus the m< bad already fallen in the light. It was impossible for the live I men to cope with tnem in any 01 tight. Only surprise and btn could hope to meet the »ituati<nf Duclos immediately suggested fl should drive the car straight,# the unsuspecting Germans, fi portunity for a great action had She seized it. Down hill upon the toiling G< Hew the great 60-horsepowei Straight as an arrow it went, wi weight of its two tons multiplied dred times by its speed ana don course. All the Germans in its full pat! down like ripe corn before the 1 Straight it flew on without swerved in the slightest degree human obstacles in its way. "I felt like the very incarnai the spirit of destruction and rev say« Mile. Duclos, describing th scene. " I was not human."

The car flew on its path of des til it reached the captured Frei moured car. Mile. Duclos miss* by an incalculable fraction of a and then slowly brought her raci to a stop. The French soliders looked' Only a few German soldiers, wh out of the path of the auto, I caped death or maimifcg. F there were s'.x in all, and the; aghast at the demon of deqth tii swept through them. The French soliders" showen Germans with hand grenades, would probably have overcome tl of the party and recaptured thei when a party of Uhlans was seen along the road from the dired .the German lines. •

It appeared that scouting avii boths ides had witnessed the fig the armoured car and had carrii

bask to their respective foree*. Once more the gallant French fighters were in danger of beinjS out. Acting in co-operation m officer, MUe. Duclos ran her « again, putting it between the <ja of the first German party and*si reinforcement. This* move p former at a great disadvantag they were standing about in a.m place, but, of course, it expos Frenchmen to the newly arrurin man forces.

Tho Frenchmen with rifles ai tols disposed of the remnant first German party,' and then t to hitch their disabled car to Ml clos's machine. A shower of bullets from th man side warned tliem that the lant efforts would probably be u "Whir-r-!" came the fr scream of war cars from the di of the French lines.

Two powerful French armoure with machine guns spouting dea destruction, engaged the Germa: forcement*.

At the conclusion of th*s new the five French motor lighten able to secure their disabled ca Mile. Duclos at the wheel of hj( car led the glorious wreck back umph. Thus it happened that she r< the Military Cross of the Leg Honour and is the heroine of th<