ENGLISH SOLDIERS’ LOT IN GERMAN HANDS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 11644, 10 August 1916, Page 2

ENGLISH SOLDIERS’ LOT IN GERMAN HANDS.

cv ■■■■ - . D' FOUR DAYS WOUNDED AMONG THE DEAD. I gP»T UPON WHEN FOUND BY V ' GERMAN-OFFICER, “HOSPITAL TREATMENT” x THAT CRIPPLED FOR LIFE. Ri Shot through the body above the thighs, with both legs seemingly naralysed and useless, four days .and nirviitp on thebattlefieid'before being ■ discovered by the enemy, subjected to insult by bis captors, neglected f in hospital, and half-starved. 1 v?»r* some of the trials experienced by. Private David Pears, of the 15th ■- Lincolnshire Regiment, after the nallant charge which took the ■ Hfhenzollern Redoubt from the Gormans. An “exchange” prisoner from Germanv, he is now- in an Englisn hospital, hoping to regain ins power to walk. ... Never is he likely to forget what the word “German” means, for he * says that had they shown him any ■ , attention at all his injury would not have threatened to make him a cripple for’life. Only one man showed him kindness, and he was a German's, American doctor, who had been prevented from going back to America. Under his care he would have been well m three weeks, but the doctor, was not permitted to operate on - - L With the Linco’ns he marched irom Ypres to help in the~attack on the Hohouzollern Redoubt. He entered the front line trenches, and on October 13th, when the famous ‘ charge was made, he and others ;■ went over the parapet with their machine gun and got well in aci- ; vance. By 2.30, after the gun had done great execution, his comrades ,■ ware all down, and he himself rei coived a shot through the body. It ; took all power and feeling from his men would have got a stretcher to carry him to the rear, but that pan of the line had to ref tire, and he was left aloue betweefl V the English and'the German times. Ho lie remained J for four days and nights, suffering intensely from pain ; and exposure. Sometimes he - dragged Himself along the ground to f geek company. But only dead men I were around him. .But from their if water bottles he quenched his raging i| thirst! Food lie never thought of. t- TRUE HUNNISHNESS. | Having lost all sense of direction i he could not crawl far. On the i fourth day he beard voices, and | feigned death, for he recognised the. ’• enemy" tongue. One German officer fi turned him over and spat on him, £ with the expression, “Ach, English p swine!” i Peers says the young German5. American doctor was a “toff.” He -■ got the poor Englishman to the rear £ and looked after his wound. It h seems that the doctor was on holiday $ _in Germany when war broke out. | ' Ho was not allowed to return to ■ America, and was made to accom- ‘ puny the German army and use his I skill on the wounded Peers was ;! sout to a hospital in Cologne, and, except that a doctor called every “ morning, there was *uo medical * treatment. “‘There were no nurses and no t one to help us.” says Peers, We •, Lad to'attend on one another as best ; we could. .A Russian prisoner hclpj od me a lot, and, as I was helpless, I I needed plenty of help. And the I food gWell, we wero half-starvea. I But for food parcels from home we i should have been in had straits.” ■f- Peers did not know that he had ■ been posted as killed” in the action. J Nor did he know that his mother had been so notified.