Evening star., 1915-01-21

had the German position. and about
1900 Germans surrendered; about bOO
were killed or wounded. The Gefmanss : 3
were taken completely by surprise Rr1Tn 1ho aho
was in command, said 1t was one OF the
finest pieces of work done by our
division"
Thought His Time Had Come.
Private James Bowyer of the 5th
Scottish Rifles. in a letter dated Mon
day last, from the front to his father,
writes. II am pleased to be able to tell
you that I am still well and happy.
though for a minute or two the other
night 1 thought my time had come 1
was in the trenches, and during the
night we were attacked by the Ger
mans. Early in the evening we stood
at our posts for some time, but as
there was nothing III ed doing rsowss.r we were ore
had only into our "dugouts" when
there was a sudden blaze of fire in
front. 1 Immediately jumped out and
ssaed sse y ns of the aed asnes hrns
Soon the firing was general along
the line to right and left. and the
shells were whistling overhead and
bursting just behind our trenches. They
and a half. but to my mind 1t seemed
about twenty minutes. Our officers
were simply splendid. They walked up
as sey ag
would follow them anywhere after
that. / must say our boys were very
cool. too. There wasn't one of them
funked 1t.
"A shell burst just on the edge Of our
trenches and killed two Of our fellows.
one of them being my chum, Barney
Devine. whom l introduced you to at
Larbert:; He, was fine fellow. and
care a toss for the rifle fire, but
hate those shells. Altogether. it was
the hottest ninety minutes have ever
spent. / wish YOU could see US after
we came out of the trenches. You
would laugh. We are covered in mud
looking crowd you never, saw"
Queen Mary's Timely Gift.
In a letter to his mother Private
Bowyer writes: Since I wrote last
we have again been in the trenches.
You will be pleased to know that
we have had complete new outfit
issued to US. This was Queen Mary's
gift. We also had a clean rigout CIV
en- to US after we had had a bath.
That bath. I think, was about the best
experience I have had since 1 have
been out here. We were all marched
down to a big building. where there
was a number of big tubs, each big
enough for ten men to get in at once,
and the water came up to our chests.
While we were in our uniforms were
taken away and ironed. You have no
idea of how comfortable we felt aft
erward.
aA+ ora r,o,o,%,y , ~o-..a. ,,>,.a
ed in the cheek. was brought in. He
had very long beard, and the r. A.
NJ. c. men were about to shave it
off when he stopped them with the
remark: 'Ye maunna dae that, for I
hae bet WI ma officer as to wha
night.''
The soldier who tells the story
writes:
we were relieved. and went down
to - for short rest. AS soon as
we got within mile of the town
the people came out to meet us. and
they rushed at us like beings pos
sessed. The women and girls hugged
US till we were nearly strangled, and
the old men cheered with their hoarse
cover that last mile. and the colonel
was mighty angry. l can tell you. We
were all very tired when it was
through. and when we did get to our
billetS we agreed that we would rather
meet the Germans ten times over than
these friends of ours who were so
eager to thank u.s. for what we had
done.
''One day in the trenches the talk
turned on medals. The chap who
started 1t was worried about how many
medals we would get and where we
would wear them. It's no use count
ing your medals before they are
earned said Tommy Griffin. and just
by way of emphasizing his remark a
German shell came along. and the first