WOUNDED AND ALONE FOR FIVE DAYS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 70, 21 November 1914, Page 2

WOUNDED AND ALONE FOR FIVE DAYS.

BRITISH SOLDIER SHOT THREE TIMES. William Henry Gallimore. of the Ist Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, is a standing and heroic example of the Englishman who "never says die.'' He !s at present in a hospital bed in Paris under the euro of distinguished French surgeons. A special correspondent of a London paper saw him on Thursday,

a curious bundle of bandages and splints, and heard his story of a terrible experience on the battlefield.

'i was first shot three weeks ago come next Monday. I was in a cornfield when a bullet got mc in the leg and fractured my thigh. I went down all in ;' heap, but managed to bind myself and stop the bleeding. There wore lots of dead Germans near me, and one living German officer, who was lying quite close. Be could understand a little English, and gave me a piece oi bread. That was the only food 1 had for five clays. "After I was shot two of our stragglers came along and tried to help me to get along } but the fire was too hot .or them and they let mc down again. Then a German ambulance came and picked up the officer. I asked him to tell them to take me too, but although lie was so kind about the piece of bread ho wouldn't do it. He only said, 'You are an enemy.' Safety in a Shell-Kole. "That was my first night on the battlefield. The next day was Tuesday. On this day 1 was shot for the second time, a stray bullet hitting my left hand while I was lying there. Seeing a hole in the ground made by one of those big shells the Germans fire, I rolled into if, and thought myself lucky to be there. They had trained a maxim on the part of the cornfield in which I lay and the bullets were ripping across the top of tlie hole and hitting the opposite side. I watched them for quite a time. "After I had been in the hole for a time I crawled out again to look for water, which I got from the water bottles of the dead Germans. But I could not find anything to cat. On this day two Crloucesters came and tried to mako a stretcher for me with their rifles, bat again it was too not, with the big shells and the maxim firing, and they had to give up. Tuesday night was my second night. On Wednesday I was shot again the third time —in the right foot, the bullet entering the sole of the foot as I lay there. I did nor think of much all this time except to call for help and to crawl round from one of the dead Germans to another looking for water. About a mile and a half away I could see a regiment—it turned out to be the Welsh—<l igging irenclies. "I was now very faint ana hungry, but I got through the night all right and next day, Thursday. I crawled SO yards in the direction of the trenches. For the rest of the day I lay quiet. All this day I saw no one. but at night I had my first piece of luck. In one of the German water bottles I found some nun. It was this, I think, that kept me alive that night. Ought to Get the V.C. "On the following day Friday—my fifth day in the cornfield —I felt better able to move, and I determined to make a last effort to save my life. I started crawling along in the direction of the trenches. It was very hard, seeing that my left thigh was fractured and my right foot wounded, but after several hours I covered 800yds. "I was about finished when a man of the Welsh Regiment saw me ami came out for me. That man ought to get the Victoria Cross. I didn't ask his name and I don't know what it was but he was a real god one and no mistake, lie got me up on his shoulders and he carried me right in. The Germans were firing all the time, and I was so near finished that I wanted him to drop me and let me die. It didn't seem right for him to bo worrying about getting me in. All lie said was, 'You hold tight, old man; I've got you all right and I don't intend to let you go!' " ' The surgeon's examination of the man when lie arrived bore out his statement of tliis remarkable escape.