WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 236, 15 March 1915, Page 7

WAR NOTES.

Ft;X OX A "PICCADir.FA' 'BUS." (From Private ,T. Mills, (0 235), OOtli Coy., Motor Transport, A.S'.C, to hi.) lather at Drayton Park, X.) -[ will try and explain what a "run out'' is in my job. :l>ieture yoursel. comfortably in bed, on a verv cold ni"nt, All of a sudden, at ].:«) a.n'i., come "uflicors, etc., shouting at the top of their voices, "Start your . ngincs." Well, out we get, start them liobj. our headlights, and move oil' to some unknown spot in the Xorth of France ov Belgium. There we pick up two or three thousin,! reinforcements canthem all lliromrli (]„. ni , r |,j (( , _, ) m (, - ( where our troops have been hard press-

Moll, perhaps wo will be a t that for 1-fty hour* at a time, without sire,) ho you can see tliat we are doing our And what a-lark the troops liave! You near hem say, "Piccadilly driver," or -Marble Arch driver." Then, perhaps, one will get up and ring the hell, and say \r will rc ; po r t yoll (U . iv(l| . i{ dont stop." And that's how they \ 0 along until we a-c-nearing the trenchA ami. my word, what a difference in them t1i,.,,! \le„ wl„, n few hours before weie playing ahout-now not a word out of one of them. They k„ow what they are going to. They have had S „„e lint, still, ,t-s war. We get iid -,f hem, and then start for Item, to awa't thenextcn.il. I ean toll you this nn,J,, dad, it 13 recognised that the 'lmsv/,,]! have "enved the situation times out of number," and I reckon the Germans would give anything to get hold or ~s. Vou sheiKl'sce the German airmen follow us about in the hopes of findin-r | where we are going. ° Then perhaps some English arnnn | w:.l come and give ch.ise, and there'.? a sight. It's worth seeing! A STORM IX THE DESERT. SOUTH AFRICAN SOLDIER'S TEX PICTURE. OF A TERRIPYIXG EXPERIENCE. A vivid picture of a desert dust and rain storm is given in a letter in The Tunes to-day from a member of the Defence Force operating in the north of Cape Colony. "It was a sight I would not have missed," lie says. "In the middle wi« the inky blackness of the rain clouds with the most wonderful lighting streaking in every direction three and four flashes at one time, and on the two flanks was the brick red of the mighty wall of dust. 'There was'hot a breath of wind here, but the, rate at which the wall ws hearing down upon u s one could tell that there was a regular gale behind it. "We were in the midst of a meal, and from the time that the red monster appeared on our horizon—a very low kopje about a mile off—till when it was upon us, men had no time to get their cloaks and put them on. "Well, down it came, and the camp, that is, as much as one could see—about ten yards in each direction—became a sort of tableau vivant. Men stopped dead_ just where they were, turned their backs on the wind and stood. Oni dared not open eyes or mouth. "After about five or ten minutes of this—when we began to wonder how the store of gravel and sand was lasting out will such a drain on it—pat, pat, *«mo the advance guard, and then we got it in the neck, full pelt it came, drops half the size of pigeons' eggs. "The wind did not drop one little bit. and the thunder and lightning was now over us, but it was a welcome change, (live me ten storms of any kind,, even treacle and onion peels, rather than one dust storm."