ANZACS' CONTEMPT OF WAR DANGERS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 13 November 1916, Page 6

ANZACS' CONTEMPT OF WAR DANGERS.

A traveller through the war zone, on his return to New York, a few days ago, availed himself of the opportunity to mention the absolute contempt for danger on the part of the Anzacs, bravery, he said, had no equal in the whole of the great war in Europe. As bearing on this, he said a commanding officer of the Royal Field Artillery told ‘him of one of his subalan Austmliaiybortn lad, wffio j had been acting as forward observe- ; tion officer for his battery recently, j The C.O. said; “The Boche put up a j terrific barrage soon after dark, and I was pretty anxious about our front i line, so I telephoned through to to . ask about it. ‘How is it in front j there?’ I asked. ‘All right, sir; notn- ; ing wrong.’ I was astounded. The barrage was most violent. I knew it must be a perfect hell up there. ‘Well " hut look here,’ I said, ‘what about this barrage?’ I could almost fancy I saw j the boy take his cigarette out of h»s ! mouth, ‘you know, up there in that j pulverised trench or ditch. ‘Oh, yes, j sir, there’s a bit of a barrage on, but it’s nothing to hurt. It’s only from the to —, you know, sir.’ I asked him bow he knew the limits of it, and he calmly said he/d' just been out to see. I found afterwards that directly it began he crawled along from one end cf 1? to the other to make sure. The ditch was levelled along half its length. It was overland travelling really, and one of the hottest barrages I’ve seen. And ’When that boy was so calmly talking to me down the telephone he’d just crawled in front of his reconnaissance. Heaven know r s why he was still alive. The particulars he gave me were precisely correct. ‘Yes,’ says he, ‘there’s a bit of a barrage on between and —, but otherwise the front’s ’quiet, sir! “Otherwise!’ You can’t beat that spirit, you now. That is real Australian grit.”