GLORIES OF WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 156, 27 November 1914, Page 8

GLORIES OF WAR.

ESCAPE OF THREE MEN. RESCUING A COMRADE. A member of the Salvation Army jumping into the carriage of a moving train at a London station, was told the following story:—"Good luck to you! ! God bless you and your people. The one I met in the firing-line was one of the pluckiest fellows I know of. Wo had been lying in the trenches firing 'for all we were worth. On my right, shoulder :to shoulder, were two Salvatiouista 1 1 remember them as having held a meet' ing with some of us chaps about a wecl( i before. As wo lay there, with the bullets whistling about us, these two were the coolest of the whole cool lot! "After we had had been fighting for some time, we had orders to fall back, and as we were getting away from the trenches, one of the Salvationists was hit and fell. His chum didn't miss him

I until we had gone several hundred yards, and then he says, "Where's —-?' calling him by name. 'I must go back and fetch him!' and off he hurried, braving the jhail of shot and shell. I admired his bravery so much, that I offered to go with him, but he said: 'Jv T o, the Lord will protect me; I'll manage it.' So I threw myself on the ground and waited. I saw him creep along for some yards, then run to cover; creep along, and then take shelter again; and finally, having found his chum, he picked him up and made a dash for safety. "How the bullets fell around him. Into the shelter of some trees he went; out again, and in once more; and when he did get to the last piece of clearing, I couldn't wait any longer, so I rushed out to help him. Then I got hit. mat do you think the brave fellow did? He just put his other arm around J»e and earned uaboth off, Darkness _Eaa fast nnmlxn. A» -_j -__..__ l«: .

forget that terrible night. "The three of us struggled on until, just as dawn was breaking, we all collapsed. How far we had gone, I don't know, for the next I remember was that I waß in a field hospital. I could find no trace of my brave rescuer nor his chum, and have heard nothing of them since. But he's a brave boy." BLOOD OP REAL' HEROES. Dr. Ludwig Tasker, London, who is at the front, speaks in eulogistic terms of the bravery of the British soldier. "If the people of the United Kingdom could see the conditions under which our fellows fight, how they fight, and how they die, I swear every head would uncover to the colors of any regiment bearing the name of a battle, because that name has been won through the blood of real heroes. Believe me, the Victoria Cross is won ever and over again in a single day. They are brave! What if you were to see how the wounded acted in the excitement of battle! They suffer their wounds, grt-*j and small, without a murmur; they get their wounds dressed, take chloroform, give consent to have their limbs amputated, just as if they were going to have their hair cut. They are gloriously brave. Men who have been in the thick of the fight all day, seen their chums wounded and killed, their own lives not worth a second's insurance, still these men eook their food and go off to sleep and, most wonderful of all, go back to the thick of it next day.

"An officer of the Bedfords while in the trenches was opening it parcel and a letter from his wife, and in the excitement of the moment I suppose the poor fellow forgot his cover, and lie was shot through the heart. A pathetic incident also occurred in the case of a Soldier whom he picked up. Tie had been shot in the chest. By a curious coincidence the bullet which killed him had also passed through a correspondin spot in the photgraph of his wife which lie carried with him.

AX IMPRESSIVE SERVICE. "It is Sunday, and we have had Holy Communion administered in a cowshed, and very impressive it was under the circumstances. In the . evening we had another service iii 'the tarn, conducted by the chaplain and the Wesloyan minister. A groat crowd of officers and* men collected. Some of the familiar soul-stirring hymns were 6ung, and the commanding officer read from the Book of Samuel about Jonathan going up against the hosts of the Philistines. The I scene was impressive, with the room only lit with camp candles, the soldiers rough and dirty with the work of war, some of them just returned from the trenches, and otheis going there the same night—some who in all probability would be dead befoic another night came along. ''The men sung heartily, but when the prayer for dear ones at homes was being offered there were few drv eves among those biave men who faced death daily, and all through the service one could hear the roar, of the cannon sending forth their messages of death and sorrow. It was terrible in its impressireness."

SERVING THE GUNS. The foiiov ing graphic description oi the heroic and gallant conduct of Captain E. K. Bradbury, who was killed while serving a gun, has been received by one of Captain Bradbury's brother officers:—"We are having a short res' r'ler ten or eleven days of hard trekafter ten or eleven days of hard trekking and fighting. The rest had lastcr now for 20 hours, and I hope may last for a day or two. I have a very sad piece of news to telj yon The battery Captain Bradbury was in was surprised by a German llattwy in a mist one early morning, and Door old Brad was killed. Brad served a gun him-. self, and during that time knocked out ont German completely; he first had one hip and leg shot away,fi' and still managed to fire off a round or two more, until the. other leg was takne from him just above the knee. The doctor who told me about it afterwards said that all he asked for was heaps of morphia! so that the men should not hear him screaming, andthat he might

be taken quickly to the rear. j The story is' that Brad died at one fet he would die. ... I was riding between two others-one after the other, and almost five or six yards apart .-when we got part of a bolt of bullets from a machine gun. The fellow behind me had his horse shot in the head It was the morning of the day when' old Brad was killed, and we were sent to extricate the brigade. Our artillery and some infantry inflicted tremendous 'losses on the Germans, and we capturer eight