BATTLE EPISODES.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 July 1917, Page 3

BATTLE EPISODES.

_COMEDY AND TRAGEDYBEER AND BAYONETS/ A QUEER BIRD. .. -...,. . London, May 2. War is a queer mixture of gruesome .horror and fantastic mirth. During the recent fighting in and around Lagnicourt certain x\ustralians troopers contrived to combine business with pleasure in a most satisfactory fashion, and produced at the same time a queer scene which is quite worthy of being reproduced on canvas. Mr Philip Gibbs thus described the incident:— "Some Germans were still hiding in their dug-outs, and the Australian troops searched for them with fixed bayonets. In some of these hidingplaces they found great stores of German beer, and it was a good find for men thirsty and glad of a smoke. So this "mopping-up" battalion, as it is called, mopped up the beer, which was very light and refreshing, and, with fat cigars between their teeth, a bottle of beer in one hand, and a bayonet in the other, continued their hunt for prisoners." !'• But comedy and tragedy were hand-in-hand hereabouts, for it was.(luring the fighting around this quarter Unit two hundred Germans came across under a white flag as a signal of surrender, but they were seen by their owVi ma-chine-gunners, who i-liot them ('.own withmit, m-rcr. And it was not far off that another and a much bigger batch of Germans found their graves in e, do=-i--' "'■ -i-ntcr-attack, To quote Mr. Gibbs <.:.ee more:—

I went alicnt three days ago with a young Ausir "in officer who wan the "r-t to -"t the new. of the enemy's (itlack. He was at Hcadouartcrs, awake, but sleepy, in "the r.mill hour--, of the morning. Presently the telephone bell tingled. 'Hullo!' said the Ar-:nl ! "Ti officer, and yawned. A small voi-e srioke: 'The enemv has broken (hr."ugh. lie lias got to Lagnieourt.' 'What's that?' said the officer at the phone. It

seemed a sillv joke at such nn hour. The message was repeated, and my friena was very wide awake, and what happened afterwards was very rapid. The Australian Gunner Genera! gave orders to stop up the gaps in the German wire through which the enemv had come. They were closed by shell fire. The at"c Viii" cMiiivn having failed in time to' do.strnv the field guns and to find cover elope bv. tried to escmc. lint found their retreat cut oil'.' Three thousand of them suffered appalling casualties." Mr. Gibhs does not say so, but T am told that in their attempts to retreat the attackers got mixed np with some of their own undestroyed wire entanglements near the British lines, and whilst "hung up" came under practically point blank fire from the maehii">-Qon'; ii 1 ". rifles of the troops hastily thrown forward to strength the threatened sector, with the result that scarcely a soul escaped out of the ",000 that 'made the assault at this point. THE BLUE BIRD. On another twrt of the line ■> q;ie"v jiird v."s pinfi-rod the other (lav. It was a bine bird in the form of a German officer wearing a gay uniform witli a big cloak and spurs, brought down by one of our airmen. He seemed sleepy when caught, and yawned politely behind his closed hand, and explained ilia cause ;>f his unfortunate advent behind our lines., It appears that the commanding officer of his squadron at Cambrai went en leave, and his officers and other friends consoled themselves by drinklm: good red wine. In the morning, after a late night, they decided to go out on reconnaissance, and the oflieer in the sky-bine cloak agreed that he als'o would make a flight, and so perform his duty to the Fatherland. A pilot took, him tip, but. instead of making a reconnaisance, he fell fast asleep, and saw nothing of a British aeroplane swooping upon him from a high cloud. A bullet in t'u- petrol tank drove him down, and the officer in the sky-blue cloak stepped out, saluted, surrendered, and a little later Ml asleep

again PRIVATE'S BAG OF 73. Instances of Bosehes surrendering wholesale to very small groups of British soldiers liave been not infrequent during the recent offensive, but the record for an individual collection has practically been made by a very young and somewhat small private of the Suffolks. An officer came across this youth march proudly at the head of a queue of 73 Germans. "What are you doing with those men?" asked the officer. "Why isn't there: a proper escort?" "They are my prisoners," said the boy' : "they've just surrendered to me, and I'm taking'em back to our camp!" He was little more than a child, and the officer, who could hardly believe the evidence of his own eyes, asked: "Do you mean to say you took all these men?" "Yes, sir, they're mine," replied the soldier. "How in the world did you do it?" asked the officer. "Well, sir," he answered, "I went up to the dug-out just as this German officer"-npointing to a dusty, hatless, wholly disgusted Prussian lieutenant behind'him—"was coming up the steps, fcsaid to him, 'Do you speak English?' and he said 'A little.' I said, 'Call vour men up!'—and when I counted them there were seventy-three, sir. Can you tell me the way to the collectin" cage, sir?"— Auckland Star,