PADDY REARDON'S MATE.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 September 1915, Page 6

PADDY REARDON'S MATE.

SIGHTING AT GABA TEPE, ENDING A COMRADE'S AGONY. SHORT SHRIFT FOR BOGUS OFFICER." (W. 0. Fitt in the Weekly Despatch). Queer things happen in war —strange and wonderful little incidents that you only hear about when the returned soldiers have filled their pipes and settled down to chat and "swop" experiences. They are not mentioned in official despatches, for these have to describe a vast panorama of movement and space, and cannot deal with isolated incidents that are infinitesimal in their effect on the whole battle, and are often only known to the few men concerned. The author of the following article has been listening to the talk of Australian soldiers back from the Dardanelles, and what he writes should be read in connection with Sir lan Hamilton's great despatches detailing the achievements of the overseas soldiers at Gaba Tepe. I had been told that "school was in," and knew I had only to sit and listen. About a score <«f convalescent Australians back from Gaba Tepe were already sitting and listening with an air of bored indifference. A Queenslander, a long, lean man, with a sergeant's stripes, was shredding tobacco from a hard plug and Milking spasmodically. "Yes," he s»id, "the fellow was correct down to the last detail. 'At 11 o'clock to-niglit,' he says, 'you will be ready to advance. The signal will be a blue flare from the rise on your right. Then you will rush the trench in front of you, and you must stay there, whatever happens.' "Excuse me, captain,' I says, 'what battalion do you belong to?' 'The Twenty-second,' says he. 'And what ship did you come over on?' He drew himself up and looked me hard in the face, he never batted an eyelid. 'There's no need,' he says, very quiet, 'for you to cross-examine your superior officer.' Well,' I says, 'I see no harm ' "Just then something went crack. Down went" the fellow, and Paddy Roardon steps across with his rifle'at the ready. " 'Bit sudden, ain't you ':' I cays. "'Go on,' says Reardon. 'Twentysecond battalion! Don't know what ship he came on! Whore's his papers?" "Well, we found enough to crucify him for, all in German. But Paddy Reardon had saved us the trouble." There was a long silence. SHOOT FIRST, LOOKED AFTER. "Paddy wasn't quite so ready with his gun after he shot the Indian," remarked a new speaker. "What was that T - asked a voice, "Why, over nn the right we were working with an Indian regiment, and it didn't do to Ut drive whenever you saw a black man hopping through the scrub. We had strict orders about it. Paddy was a sharpshooter and the best natural shot I ever saw. He was a snapshot with a rifle, just as you'd shoot rabbits with a shotgun, you'd see a head, and hear his rifle crack in the same second, and you could count his hits by the cartridge cases.

"The Germane knew about the Indians, and it was a nuisance. Onca a whole bunch of Turks came tearing down tho gully, yelling 'lndians! Indians' and if it hadn't been for Reardon they'd have got to us. He emptied his magazine twice before anyone else tumbled to them. "But something was bound to happen, because be ftilpt first and looked afterward ;. One day he 14 gP; then lie says, 'Cripes! I've shot an Afghan,'

"You see, he'd i-ivii n {canister out West, and been up against the Afghan camel-men. So all Indians \vei\> Afghans to tiling f don't think he liked thorn much.

"Sure enough, he'd got an Indian through the thigh, only a flesh woiind, but there was as much fuss about it as if he'd wiped out a regiment of them. Paddy was taken off the sliarpshooting, and told off and he was really sorry about it. He'd watch other chaps taking aims at beads, and letting go just a scrap too late, you know. Then he'd say, 'Cripes! I am sorry I shot that Afghan!'" ''THE CHAP WHO SHOT HIM." As the chuekiiiijj ceased a tall, whitefaced man rose abruptly fl/id walked noisily out of the room. There was a constrained silence. "That was Paddy Rearcjpn's mate" said somebody softly. "What! The chap who shot him?" "Yes," said a loud assertive voice. "An' a flaming good mate, too,"

There was another uneasy silence, a long one,

"How did tiuit happen?" I ventured to ask. "Tom .brought Jiij lieutenant out o; that business; he'll tell you." Ton), who wore the D.C.M., started in broken, uneven sentences:—' One afternoon we got oniuirs to f-urn the Turks out of a trench about ft.'O yards i'.i fl'pjlt of iw. We hadn't got half-way when they turned on a machine gun from the right, and another from the other side, sweeping right along the line. 80 wc had to get back —those of us who could.

"We'd left a Jot of men out there, and one of them was poor Paddy Reardon. This man you <*atv, he get back all light. He was Paddy Reai'don'u matt, Wp could see Paddy lying out there in a clea* patch, spread on a buncfi of little boulders, quite still. "PADDY MY STILL." "His m:ite couldn't take bis pyps. off him. (letting along to dusk, ho s]ioi)ted out: 'He moved!' And he was half out of i lie trench before the sergeant got him ai.d pulled him back. Then lie had to sit tight; you never saw such a spraying of bullets in your life. "Of course, it was suicide to move. This man kept saying, 'l'll get him after dark.' But the mmm, came u;i 1,.■!'..«■ it was dark—the full |i" .v>. ■:. - -.■ i.':- and clear as an Austi\ili.»ri i/ighl. They wouldn't let him go, and ipiiU right, too; there wasn't a scrap of euvor vvitllin 30 yards of where Paddy was lying.

'"Next day was a scorcher. I tell you, it was hot in the trei.uh. We could see poor Paddy was still alive, because he'd lift a hand, feebly now and again to try to brush away (he flies. "His mate looked fl.wfu.jly bad. All of a sudden he picked up his rifle am} drew a line. AVo all looked away, we had to. AA r e waited a long time. At last I looked at him; his eyes were shut and his hands all trembling. The sweat was rolling oft his face. Then be threw down the rifle and burst out sobbing, ft was awful. '•'Then I heard his rifle go tnree times. Paddy was still enough after that. But this chap has never been the same man since that happened; he would hardly take the trouble to get w#U in hospital. You gee, he waß Paddy Rearifwi's mate." "An* a flamin' good mate, too," ?§- peated the assertive volca. AVe let it so at ih&i.