South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-04-29
TEN ENGLISHMEN
OWE SAFETY TO
FRENCH LASSIE
HarbOrS and Feeds TOmmieS
For Three Weeks in Same
House With Germans, Who
Are Ignorant.

LONDON. April 2S.-Food for the
soldiers in the davanced trenches must
be carried long distances under cover
Of darkness. The men bearing their
precious burden often have unlucky
adventures and their provisions ar
rive in anything but an appetizing
state. Here is the account Of the eX-
perience of on-cOmmissioned OFF,
Ger in the Lancers. contained in
letter home:
] will relate little experience
(rather amusing and yet rather I'M
comfortably which befel me during
my last time on duty in the trenches.
Each night a number of men are de-
tailed for duty 10 fetch the ratiOns
from the stores TO our temporary
hotels" One night IL fell to my lot
TO go, so with about 10 other men [
set forth on my Grand
Our route lay behind the trenches,
and consequently all the German bull
lets that had missed their mark were
always TO be met with at this partic
ular spot. on the outward journey
we were lucky and passed without en-
counter'hg any spare bullets but all
along the rOSd we were being sniped
at. and every now and then we had to
duck oar heads
Ndffitu TIC Ddtol
Well, the store was reached and the
men were given their loads. Mine
was three pieces of bacon. / was lucky
enough TO find a sack, so ] put the
bacon in IL, and then We started off
on our journey 10 the trenches.
We had not gone many yards before
a terrible rifle fire commenced In the
vicinity of our line, and we realized
what a difficult task ii was to walk
behind the lines without getting hit
The wood was reached (thls was
where the danger lay and we decided
TO halt for "A blow.
Pingl Ping! Ping, was the music
which continually sounded IN our ears,
till at last some said:
This is getting a bit warm how
about "a mOve?"
So we started off again, cropping our
way through the wood. by this time,
the bullets were whistling past like
hail. and then suddenly a star-shell
was sent up. and OF course we had 10
drop as aft as possible upon the
ground in order 10 avoid being seen
by the enemy snipers. When the
light had vanished we all Jumped up
and ran as fast as possible until i
came to a sudden halt, having fallen
over a tree stump in my effort 10
dodge the bullets.
over / went two or three times after
this and always into ditch. How
ever. through it all / managed still to
cling to a squadron's bacon, although
once or twice il had a very narrow es-
cape of being lost.
After about 10 minutes of this sort
OF excitement we reached the COM
munication trench and here We halted
for a rest Someone called out,
Hello Jack where have you been
and. looking round / saw chap IN a
grand pickle. simply covered with
mud. He had fallen into ditch with
his load of biscuits. This caused
good deal Of amusement among the
party till off we started again TO reach
our own trench
struck mud again. and this made our
progress very slow. was tracklnS
along fine with the bacon on my BACK
and my head bent nearly touching my
knees. when suddenly "splash.'-my
foot had found deep hole covered up
bv mud. and over l went, bacon TOO!
You can imagine how happy 1 IelI:
Too happy. in fact, TO speak; SO 1
inst kent quiet and began TO feel about
i'm the mud. for the lost bacon whlch
had come out of the sack.
Digs Bacon From Mud
found first one piece. then an
other. until the original quantity ndu
been recovered. and l placed II IN the
sack again Had any of my chums
been there I am afraid they would not
have reIished their issue of meat the
following day However, Nv nat the
eve don't see. the heart don't grleVe
over" and il proved quite true on TINS
occasion.
with the bacon once again securely
i'm the sack. and my mead bent,
trudged on again, only to come 10
grief a few yards farther on IN the
same trench. This time i SUFFERED
more than my load. for l had one eye
6lled with nice thick mud. and the
task of removing it took me about III
minutes.
AFTER fixing myself up again / hur-
ried off and eventually reached my
dugout. 10 find myself TO my great
surprise the center OF laughter. My
cIothes were covered with the unde-
sirable mud. and SO was the bacon, In
fact il looked as though il had been
dished up with sauce before being
served on some gentleman's table.
Laughter reigned for about 20 MIN
utes and then we had 10 stand TO
arms but even then lad 10 keep on
Laughing at my evenings sport.