TRANSPORT OF TROOPS.
]'l;uM lililTAlX TO I'iIAXCK. C.U'TAIX'S DKSCKMi'TION*. WAR OI'TICK ("HiIAXISATIU.V. ] -'linedin, Tuesday. Captain Warren, of the Westnieaih. which v. ssel is at present lvinj.' at IVI Cbalnu rs, teak a definite part in the tran.-pi ri uf i'.ritish troops to . France, and in briii'en;; back Ccrinan pris-ee its in the < arly part of tin- war. Hiship l:"'l the honor of briiiL'in';' ihe Ik's: bio- ilraft of Cerman prisoners frnri Fre.nfe. The <.'r nisau soldiers : ee;ued quite eor.tent. bait, the (lerman otlicevs felt their posifinii very kecuke. Tli re was a (tfvnmn eiaint amongst I hem, who informed Caiitain Warren that if Germany did not finish the war in three months —this was in the middle of All!/ i(sl -the Allies wc.u'd take Hire' yearto finish it.
"Do yon know how many lirili -h seiilii'i's we hail as a j/nard for these prisoners." asknl Captain AVarren. "Only 1.1 wounded Tom niies, and a uiuuuh'd n;!ice;- of tin' Crenadier flnards. Of imui-s., the prbiuers could not lime -<lo;)v any tin::;,' in tb'' war of ,'n'i rpmverin.',' tnc ship, ava.l f'.ey made 110 trouble. | "'he most exciting tiuie f had v.;iwhen T was taking the prisoin rs in l<o;;rd. The Fri'iieli oliicer ; ; were afraid 'to allow their own so'diers to guard them, and a fcuard of British soldiers lev! to lie called in. Stories of atreeitie- !>,■ Corr.iaa" soldierj were just lieiug bruit 'd abroad, and we bad a hard tin.e to keep the Frenchwomen from attacking the prisoiuns. My word, didn't the \von;e:i make a Kcene" The Wo?tmeatli was one of 2ft stealers which sailed from Southampton for Zeebrugge to bring over refugees escaping from Antwerp. There was no esc.e.-f provided for these ships, but tlii'ee seaplanes hovered near to discover if any submarines were about. Each steamer took on board about 1000 lielginn refugees, and the scenes were most, distressing. Some of the mothers would come on hoard, sav, with two children out of four and not know w here the others were. The transports, however, could no!; wait. Their complement was hurried on board and the sleameers set out for I'nglish ports. The Wostmeat.li carried five lots of British soldiers to France from Dublin and Southampton. The numbers of men ranged from »ofl to 1800, ami there W"fe 500 horses on hoard on each trip. Caiitain Warren. speaks in high pra'so of the organisation of the British War OHiee in getting the mcij embarked. For instance, transports to the number or' .'lO, on one occasion, lay oil' a port;. Kaeli captain had his definite instructions. At five o'clock the first boat pulled inie) the wharf aial took nIT 1000 men. The next then steamed in, and so oil through the ni'/lit. till by nine o'clock next morning some .'IO,OOO me,, had been transferred to the ships and all with the greatesi sec.vecv. Troon trains jn=t ran on to the wharf, and the men walked on board. Very few people knew the men were being embarked, and not; even (lie ollieers knew where they were being taken, an i these would gather round the shiji's officers' for information on that point. Tho captain said the French peopl" were unanimous in their opinion that had it not been for the great lighting ability of the Pritish tr,jons, [pe Oeyleans would have pushed their wav to Paris.
Asked whether lie had any inform',iI ion about, the battleship Alidaciou-, which was reported to have been badlv damaged in the Xorth Sea. Captain "Warren said he believed that she had been
seriously injured, but. be could not say tr what e\-foiit. He had heard that she bad been taken ta the Chile docks—and. in fact, hie first officer had stated that he had soo n her there.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19150306.2.13
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 229, 6 March 1915, Page 3
Word count
Tapeke kupu
623TRANSPORT OF TROOPS. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 229, 6 March 1915, Page 3
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Taranaki Daily News. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.