QUEENS' TO THE RESCUE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 197, 28 January 1915, Page 8

QUEENS' TO THE RESCUE.

IIIfiHLANBERS BEL-EASED. 1 » LET 'EM HATE IT!" 1 In a letter to his sister at Kedhill, Private T. de I'aughn, Ist Queen's Royai 1 West Surrey Regiment, gives an interesting account of the way in which tin 1 regiment effected the release of a number of captured Highlanders. He says: 1 My regiment—snd I with it up to the time I got wounded—has been in every battle out here. We have got our third colonel. The regiment when it came out of the trenches numbered CO, and that included everybody, i Considering we came out here 1200 strong and have had several reinforcements since, you will see we have suffered a lot.

We have been in the thick of it every time About a week before I "was wounded we were relieved from the firing line and were in reserve. We were entrenched all night, and were taking it , quite easy, when, about 11 a.m., we had the order to advance, my platoon advancing in skirmishing order. Whilst wo were advancing bullets and shrapnel were coming amongst us and dropped a few of us, but we kept going, and advanced in front of the Camerons, who had been driven back the night before. When about thirty yards in front of

I,them we had to lay down in the open, i and von can tke my word for it, it was ] very hot. We had done the same thing | before plenty of times. >1 cannot describe the feeling. You hear a bullet j.ping in the ground near, and you feel , thankful that you are still right and .keep going on. As we were lying there the sergeant and captain talked about the position. "You see those buildings in front? Well, the captain has given us the job of charging them, as they are held by the Germans; so fix your bayonets, boys, , and let 'em have it when you get there." The buildings wore just 200 yds away. He gave us the order and away we went. I knew when I started my only idea was to get as far as I could without getting dropped; and, you know, I'm not half bad at running, even with 0011) of kit attached to somewhere.

Some of us got there, and we caught the Germans napping. We captured SB of them in these buildings, and released between GO and 70 of the Camerons the Germans had captured the night before.

They all had their hands tied together and some of them were wounded.

, You can take my word. for it, the Camerons won't forget us in a hurry. They were overjoyed when we got tliein out.

The sergeant has since been recommended for the D.C.'M. and the captain for the D.S.O. They both thoroughly deserve it; they were very brave "and cool.

The captain afterwards, got wounded in the forehead with a bullet when he went into action, but still kept going. The sergeant also got wounded four days later. It was hard lines. The captain has since been captured with the rest of his company.