“GOT STRAFE IRELAND.”

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 29 November 1915, Page 7

“GOT STRAFE IRELAND.”

“Gott Strafe Ireland” is a new note in German malediction, and to judge from the following letter from Sergt. J. J. Cunningham, of the Irish Guards, published by the Freeman’s journal,it is inspired by the fear that the Irish soldiers are putting into the hearts of the Huns:

One battalion of the Irish Guards has already given them a (rough time of it so Heaven help the Prussian Guards when they bob up against two battalions of I.G.’s —all Irish manufac-; hire. Wc had a little set-to with the Bavarians a few days ago. They were holding a sap quite close to our trench and at about 11 p.m. a platform of Irish Guards dashed in on top of them with fixed bayonets and fired them out of it. We had only three casualties, and the Huns were moaning on all sides One of the Huns was, apparently, a little pluckier than his comrades, for I distinctly heard him shout out, in plain English, “To h —-— Avith the Irish Guards. Then one of our fellows knocked the side off his head with a bomb. I think it was a very suitable reply to make. The Germans nearly ahvays knotv what regiment they a,re opposed to, and very often Avhen our trenches are close they shout out, “Gott Strafe Ireland.” I don’t knoAV ■what they’ll think of Ireland one of these days when the hour strikes for us to throw our full strength against them