WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 August 1916, Page 5

WAR NOTES.

*» - ■ GALLANT PERTH (3APTAIN Captain Ross, of Perth, has Well awarded the Military Cross, and this i 9 how the Daily Mirror of June ,14 describes the exploit by which lie -won it: "During the night our Australian troops entered the German trenches east) of Bois Grenier, inflicting loss and bring' ing back prisoners. Such was the brief reference in the British official com".. munieation to the raid, but the Daily. Mirror is told that it was a much mora daring and dashing affair than the) meagre words of the communique indK cated. It, was a deed of outstanding heroism. Until recently the Anzacs had not actually come to close quarters with, the Germans. Then it was, that a. party was ordered to raid certain trenches. The men who received the or* der numbered about sixty or seventy, and it was around the midnight hour . when they started on their perilous adventure. Led by Captain Ross, who is only twenty-three years of age, but as brave in the face of death as the most seasoned they reached thq enemy's trenches without loss. Ross was i among the first to take a flying l*p in< . to them. He is a young giant fift 2in in height, and of immense strength. Aa he jumped into the German trench ha, pounced upon, an unfortunate German soldier and seized him by the hips with both bands. Then he lifted him bodily, off the ground and threw him backwards over his head and over the parapet of the trench towards the British lines. 'There's number one,' he cried. There was a struggle with bare firsts, besides other fighting, in the German trenches before the> Anzacs left with a small brftch of prisoners." THE GADAI) RAILWAY In an article on the railways of Asia. tic Turkey, X.r. Robert Machray snys: "It seems more probable that the lines are of much greater length and carrying capacity than had been imagined. It is known to be the case that German engineers, with the help of plenty of willing or forced laborers, have been hard at work m railway building in this, area for a long time past, and that a good deal of track has been constructed ~ and ironed since the outbreak of tho war. There seems to be some authority for the statement that the Anatolian line, the terminus of which was Angora, has been prolonged to Sivas. It is'almost certain that .with gaps here ami there, which, however, are bridged by specially made motor roads, the Bagdad railway is available for traffic as far east as Mosul; and the branch of it projected from Ras-el-Ain or some adjacent station north to Diarbekr may have been built. The enormous importance attached by Germany to the Bagdad! railway is a warrant for saying that'nothing lias been or will be left undone to) complete it at the earliest posible date.'J