South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-09-23
FORCED To FIGHT
WITHOUT WATER
Soldiers on Persian Gulf Expe-
dition Find Life Far From
Enjoyable.

CALCUTTA. Sept 2s.-some Of the
trials which the British are expert
encing in the Persian gluf expedition
are described in a letter from an Off
Ger published mere. He says:
The temperature IS 123 in the
in the shade. and it has even gone up
70 rs.
1T was a most sultry day when I
arrived at -. and we all knew that
a storm was brewing. At about $50
p. m, we saw q dense khak-cOlored
cloud right along the horizon to the
south.
When the storm actually burst it
was a perfect pandemonium, the tents
were blown down as easily as you
would kick a stone over II was i'm
possible TO face the blast of sand, so
we just hid ourselves under flaps Of
ten. holdings, boxes. or anything big
enough 20 protect the head.
THE storm lasted for about two and
One-half hours. Everything was &C
tually buried in sand, even our pre-
cious dinner.
Then the wind suddenly changed
from north to south-it was so orange
10 perceive a lull for a few minutes,
and then the wind came from the
north and grew stronger every min
ute.
well. we now had to face the sec
ond storm. and this time in utter dark
ness. l could not get any protection
from my tent, as # was well under
sand By this time, being oIly 40
pound one. so 1 crawled under the
flap OF the mess tent. This lasted till
early morning"
The horrors OF horrors" thirst was
experienced later.
No Water for Soldiers.
1--WE had marched all night in the
no. desert dcno our scrapping in the
morning, which meant chasing Arabs
and burning camps all over the coun-
try (miles in area), and then TO as
scmble only 10 find there was no water
to drink; by this time the sun was
terribly fierce, and we were ali abso-
lutely done The water we had in
our water bottles was finished during
the night. and early morning by z
o'clock the order was given TO march
TO the -- river.
The officers chargers had by this
time come up with the main body, and
we all just scrambled into the saddles.
We started our march, and 1 thanked
heaven that l was being carried. Oh,
! felt so sorry for the poor unfortu-
nate SepOys, and 1 could only enccur-
age them as much as possible.
After covering two miles matters
became serious, as men were falling
down with exhaustion, and every hun
dred yards we covered it looked black
er and blacker. The men who fell out
were picked up in ambulance carts,
baggage carts, and any spare mules
available until after going four miles
It was impossible to go any further,
because all the men could not drag
another leg forward.
tfrThp OrdRr was given nuTTipdlV 10
pitch our tents. while the generals
staff and cavalry went on to send
water back. The sights L saw were
awful.
'The British officers helped as
much as we could. until we were
done and then resigned ourselves to
wait patiently for the water. L
thought I was TO die.
at last 1 volunteered to take all
the W, n bottles on mules and fetch
water independently of the other lot.
j felt desperate. This is how i nearly
lost my life. We were six miles from
the river, but they appeared like so.
How I got to the river ] don't
know / just chung TO the saddle. and
balanced myself there the best way /
could, with bottles dangling all round
the saddle and my neck, with six
mules following me. When / got to
the river the horse plunged i'm, and I
rolled OF into the water. The cold
water revived me little. The
charger and 1 stood side by side CT
was TO my waist in water) and sucked
away until / thought / was going to
burst. but it was glorious; the water
was very muddy, but what cared L.
/ then filled up all the bottles I had
brought. had another long drink and
was off again back to our camp.
Il got back before the other water
arrived, and L think ! just saved a lot
Of fellows"