BY INCHES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 98, 16 December 1931, Page 6

BY INCHES

BOYS TRAPPED BY STREAM OF MACHINE GUN FIRE. SYDNEY, Thursday. A stary of heroism in the face of machine gun fire underlies the wounding of Eric Bussell, aged 22 years, who was shot in the thigh as he was crawling to shelter at the Long Bay rifle range last night. As Bussell and his cousin lay flat on the ground a stream of machinegun bullets whizzed an inch above their heads. "We were standing near the target when bullets began to pop all round us," said Eric Bussell from his bed at the Coast Hospital to-day. "Awful Experience." "It was an awful experience. I heard the drone of the bullets as they cut through the grass, and they only cleared my head by about an inch. "I thought it was the end, as I expected to be struck at any moment. I had an old bag which I had placed over my head, but a bullet eventually caught me in the thigh. "When I was hit, my cousin Frank decided to -make a break for the target pit, where an officer was on duty. He crawled right through the line of fire and bullets tore a hole through his shoe. It is an amazing thing that both he and I are not riddled with the bullets." The bulelts were fired by trainees of the Randwick small arms school, who were out for night practice.