WAR NOTES

Taihape Daily Times, 8 December 1917, Page 6

WAR NOTES

TIGHT WITH SNIPER. " . HAD BEEN A WAITER. Here is how an officer writing home describes a desperate fight with a sniper. “It was rather like tom-cais coming to blows. I swear he spat. 'As you know, I’m rather heavy, and I think my spring, slightly to bis left knocked him off his balance. He hadn t any chance. But, though I got ha left wrist, and covered his mouth wit my chest, I was a bit uneasy about his right hand, which for the moment I couldn’t find. Lucky for me he hadn’t got a dagger in it, or he might have ripped me open. But my chum Hankin pretty soon found his right hand, and then we hauled him up to his feet. “X passed his rifle to the scout, and we just marched him along the front of our wire and so into our front trend*,, Hankin of hSs arms I taking the other, and the scout coming behind with the muzzle of the man’s own rifle in the small of his back. There was no need to crawl, the night being as black as your hat, and in three or four minutes we had that sniper in front of the 0.C., in the company dug-out.' “It was quite neat, wasn’t it? And all thanks to the ingenious Hankin’s careful observations and his chart.

Snipers are worth capturing, you know and this looked like an intelligent chap, whose cross-examination might be of some use. Queer thing about this sniper 5 he spoke English almost like a native.

“This fellow volunteered quite a little talk while we were getting the report made out. He ha'd spent nine years in London, part of the time as a waiter, and later as a clerk! He had lived at Kennington, and then in lodgings, on Brixton Hill. Extraordinary, isn’t it ? He’d been told that the Zepps. had made life there impossible. He also thought that we in "France were completely cut off from England the Channel being in the hands of the German Navy, and England isolated and rapidly starving? I gather the Bodies in the fighting line have no notion at all of the real facts of the war.’ ’

THRILLING ATTACK ON 40 ENEMY MACHINES.

All France is mourning her hero airman. Captain Guynemer, Every newspaper devotes columns to his life .story, for to all Frenchmen and French women he was the" Symbol of that glorious youth that is continually making the supreme sacrifice for the liberty of France. Officially, Guynemer is “missing/’ but every one except his mother believes him dead. She is hoping against hope ,and has written to the King of Spain asking him to try to get news of her son. Guynemer’s grandmother is an English lady who has been a resident in France for many years and is now seventy, quite blind, and suffering from heart disease. She was very devoted to her grandson, whom she brought up and is still in ignorance of his fate, as it is believed the shock of the news would kill her. To account for the absence of news of him the old lady has been told that he is away on an important mission. All that is known of Guynemer’s last fight is soon told. According to an eye-witness, the young hero’s squadron known as the “Storks” went up from near Dunkirk, about ten o’clock on the -morning of September 11, in rather foggy weather. Guynemer, who was the first to get away saw oversea five Albatross machines known as the “Tangos.” The Frenchman attacked single-handed, swooping down on them like a hawk There were forty German aeroplanes aloft at this moment including Baron von Eichthofen’s famous “circus.” Some Belgian airmen came to Guynemer’s assistance, but were too late. He fought desperately, and brought down two enemy machines, and then himself fell. Another eye-witness says he saw a machine falling softly, like a dead leaf. When about 250 f(ot from the ground he saw T an object thrown from it. The derelict machine believed to be Guynemer’s was brought in by a French patrol on the night of his disappearance. It was at first thought that he might have come down in Holland but all inquiries proved fruitless. Several times Guynemer was invited to give up flying and place his experience at the disposal of the Government aeroplane contractors, but he always refused. When Marcel Hutin asked him why, Guynemer, replied? “ Hunter of Boches I am, hunter I will remain. The other thing does not interest me.”

It is impossible to explain the almost mystic atmosphere which surrounded Guynomer’s personality. He seemed to boar a charmed life, and

lad extraordinary adventures, but

nearly always escaped unscathed. His o victims number officially fif + y-three, but this figure only applies to airmen brought down in the French lines. It it included those that fell behind the

enemy’s lines the total would be more than a hundred.

Guynemer was himself brought down seven times, and was twice wounded, It was wdien he was wounded the first time, and was in bed in the Japanese hospital here, thaT I obtained for the Daily Express the first interview he ever gave.

Guynemer was well known to Parisians and whenever he was'here on leave he was always followed by an admiring crowd but success never spoiled him. The left side of his tunic bore two rows, of medals. A lady once chaffiingly said to him, “You have won every cross your country can give you, and most of those of the Allies. What is there more to win?” “A wooden cross,’’ replied the famous airmen.

GERMANY AND HER SUBMARINES.

A German Jew, Cornielius Jacobs by name, a merchant of Hamburg, wrote to one of his local newspapers six weeks ago, a letter from which various extracts have been published in “The Morning Post” of October 3 last. He said: “Should the Allies succeed in gaining a victory In this war, a German merchant g&fng out into the world after the cohcliislon of peace will com 6 across ruins everywhere and if he takes measures to restore what has been destroyed he will find his path barred by a solid wall of hostility. Even the Leturn of the colonies would not" help Germany much,” he adds, “for only a faction of the German world commerce was conducted with them.” Herr Jacobs then points out further “that if the oversea trade is 'permanently trammelled industry must suffer, and, owing to lack of employment German workmen would be compelled to emigrate. “One resulf of this would be,” he observes, “that the German Empire would no longer be able to maintain a great army and a great navy, and must sink to the rate of a second-rate Power. “No voluntary promise on the part of England, and no sort of paper agreemefit would, in the opinion of Herr Jacobs, protect Germany against this fate,' and he maintains that “only the positive indubitable defeat of the English will compel them to abandon their plans and leave the road absolutely clear for German trade and commerce in the whole world, including England’s own colonies and splice of influence. “Only then,’ ’be adds. “would England’s allies and neutrals also, admit German merchants, shippers, technical experts, planters and tradesmen into their countries on equal terms with the inhabitants; only then would there be the possibility, though after years of labour, of reconstructing what ‘the envy and greed of our enemies’ have destroyed during this war. Consequently there must be no question of a verzicht pEace which would cripple German development for all time.” Herr Jacobs argues “that the only means of saving Germany from disaster and ruin is to force England to her knees with the help of submarines. Therefore,” says this estimable Hamburg merchant, in conclusion, “we must hold out until our incomparable submarines have done their work, relying on what our glorious Hindenburg has said, namely, “the submarine war is effectual; that is the main thing;’ and ‘the times are bard, but victory is certain.’ ”