PERSONAL SIDE OF WAR.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 7 August 1917, Page 2

PERSONAL SIDE OF WAR.

WOUNDED ’AND PRISONERS. SPIRIT OF NEW ZEALANDERS. BELGIUM, June 8. Down an emergency track that had been a good deal shelled came numbers of our walking wounded) It was surprising how many were lightly and how few were seriously wounded in this day’s battle. Two days afterwards hundreds who had gone through the dressing stations were able to rejoin their units. It was perhaps to be accounted for by the fact that our own shelling had so churned up the ground that it was no longer firm and solid, but isimply Ifoose eajrth(,, which the Germans high explosive shells buried themselves before exploding, with the result that many of our men were buried or half-buried, their wounds befrequontly being nothing more than bruises. Some there were who -could not walk, and for these the motor-am-bulances came. With marvellous celerity the wounded were cared for and cleared from one post to another right along the line. The prisoners captured by the New Zealanders were a mixed lot —some tough-looking soldiers, and others rather weedy. They all testified to the terrible effect of our drumfire and the men, at least, seemed glad to have been captured. Numbers of them were employed in assisting to bring in their own wounded, under escort. Some of the wounded prisoners had to be brought in through their own shelling, after our men had passed on. There are many brave men among them. The Briton, though his morale is on a high level, does not hold a monopoly in courage. Some of the Germans fought to a finish; others almost to a finish. Among the latter were the mac-hine-gunners. They have the trick of firing at our. men till the last possible moment, and of then putting up their hands and crying “Mercy! Mercy Kamerad!’’ Some endeavour to clinch their plea by the production of photographs of their wives and children, They shoot our men down to the very last, But tney always seem to have their little stock of family pictures handy. But our men in general are wonderfully forbearing and certainly extraordinarily forgiving. Generally speaking one must admit that the spirit of our men is truly splenoften finds officers and men who redid. On the eve of a big battle one fuse to go sick, though suffering from ailments that at uneventful times would send them into hospital. So it has been on the occasion of the present battle. The more I see of our men the more I admire the splendid spirit with which they go into battle. One thought that there could be nothing finer than their dash and bravery on the Somme, but in this Battle of Messines I think they excelled even their former record.On every hand one hears the oft-repeated sentence: “Our men were simply splendid! ” And the statement is made with a sincerity and an emphasis that give a meaning the mere words of themselves cannot convey.