"HULLO! YOU HERE?"

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 125, 24 December 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

"HULLO! YOU HERE?"

DAAHATIC MEETINGS ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE. The present war has yielded u rich crop ot unexpected meetings on the field of battle, but few more dramatic than that of which Captain Bruce AUnutt, R.A.M.C., tells the following story.

"A curious incident," writes Captain Allnutt, "occurred last week. The enemy started shelling the patch oi ground 1 was on. 1 hared for a little hole in the ground close by for shelter, and saw someone else there, but threw myself down with him as there was just room. When the hail of shells had burst round us, and for a moment wt could put our heads up, we both said, 'That was a close shave!' ;uid simultaneously recognised each other. He was at Bart's with me, and we had not met for five years until that moment, and neither knew that the other was '-t the front even." Ittte I* f- J WV " ; -' A TBAGIC RE-UNION.

A story of a strange romance and tragedy is told of a young French officer who, a few months ago, was sent out with a dozen of his men to reconnoitre in Alsace. Advancing towards a wood which lay between them and the German lines, the party crept stealthily through without catching a glimpse of the enemy; and were emerging from the wood when they suddenly found themselves face to face with a party of Huns twice their number. The Frenchmen, raising their rifles, were about to fire, when, to their amazement, they saw their lieutenant rush forward and fling Ins arms round the neck of the officer in charge of the enemy's force. The two young men, although fighting on opposite Bides, were brothers, who had met under such dramatic conditions for the first time for years. But the lieutenant's impulse of affection was to cost him dearly; for at the moment a company of French soliders dashed from the wood, surrounded both parties and carried them off prisoners. The lieutenant was tried by court-martial; and the following morning he was shot as a traitor to his country. A similar story rs told of a young Polish Jew who had covered himself wtih glory while fighting for Russia against the Austrian? in Galicia. One day, after an Austrian attack had been repelled, the bugle sounded the charge and the Czar's soldiers' dashed forward through a tornado of fire towards the Austrian trenches.

The young Jew. with rawed bayonet, was about to run it through one of the enemy, when the (loomed man cried nut the first words of a Jewish prayer, 'Hear, 0 Israel!'' In au instant the bayonet was lowered, the Pole lookin;: intently .it '.he Austrian, and, recognising his brother, lell unconscious at his feet. Half an hour later, when the Austrian was found, bending tenderly over his tstill unconscious brother, the* were taken back to the Russian lines where it was discovered that the gallant soldier had lost hip reason as the result of the shock.

THE COLONEL'S SON. The battlefield near Ypres was, a few weeks ago, the scene of a little less dramatic meeting. A platoon of Canadians wjms on its way to the trenches when it came uqioss a wounded colonel lying on the ground, unable to more; •ad two of the men were detached to

were comparing notes, the Australian mentioned that he had left a wife and two young children in Melbourne. "Why," exclaimed the Englishman, "I have a sister married there and she has two children; and, now 1 come to think of it, her husband's name is the same as yours, Davies !" " What was your sister's name?'' asked the man from Melbourne. "Annie Hughes." "That was my wife's maiden name," calmly said the Australian; "if your name's Jack, you must be her only brother, and my brother-in-law.'' And so he was! His sister had gone out to Australia a few years cnr'ier, and there had married a man, whom her brother first met in a ward of a hospital at th© other side of the world!

THE PAST FORGIVEN. A hospital in France was the scene of another meeting no less strange. A Devonshire girl had, a few years ago, married a man, from whom she had been obliged to part in consequence of his dissipated habits. When the war broke out he joined the army, and a few months later was sent to France to fight; she, who meanwhile become a trained nurse, was attached to a hospital near Boulogne. After the terrible battle at Hooge a number of wounded soldiers were sent to this hospital, at Etaples; and among her new patients the nurse was amazed to recognise her husband. , For days, in his secmi-unconscious condition, he failed to recognise the woman who ministered so tenderly to him; then one day his eyes dwelt on her with a look, first of curiosity, then of growing recognition.

Then, with a cry of gladness, full recognition came; the btricken man iield out his arms to the woman, who, wan streaming eyes, was bending over Jiim; and the next instant husband and w:ic were locked in a long embrace. That there is humour as well as tragedy and pathos in these meetings the following story, one of many, proves. At one point in the Flanders battleheld the British and German trenches were so near that conversation could be exchanged between them. One day a voice came from the German trenches, "Is there anyone there from Loehgelly?'' There chanced to be such a man there, who recognised the voice us that of a waiter who had brought him his meals in a restaurant there.

"Yes/' he shouted Oackj "there": lour of us.here." "Uood," wa6 the answer, " take chat between you"; and a weJl-a:med bomb riew into the trench, happily tailing to explode. The next instant the man from Lochgelly hurJed it back, with the words "Here's one for yourself. Karl!' A terrific explosion followed—and Karl's voice wus not heard again.