The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-22


 of age, son of Michael PIenninger, 1iv- ing at 196 See1ey street, after serving
 over a year in the English armies be- fore Antwerp, guarding the Suez canal | and in the Dardanel1es and Ga11ipoli | peninsu1ar campaigns, has been dis | charged from service and is the first of the local veterans to return to Bridgeport.
 1 The experiences of young P1ennin- ger, who while studying in Brighton, l England, conceived the idea of enlist | ing with several of his comrades at l school are most interesting as well as l instruc ctive- His experiences have been | baried and he brings back to this
 country a host of anecdotes as we'll las military information which are en-
 tertaining his fellow mechanics in the Blue Ribbon garage.
 l Among the most striking reminis-
 censes gleaned from him in cursory | conversation are those which point to l the lack of preparation that modern
 military organizations will find them
 selves in should they be called into actual warfare, the reasons why Eng land has been so persistent in having l her passenger ships armed for de- l fensive purposes, and the great ad- vance in medical science as disclosed l on the batt1efeIds.
 Incidentally his descriptions of the
 
 | battIeships,s the death-dealing agency 1 of shrapne1 and the fear1essness of troops under fire of aeroplanes are l highly realistic and lend charm to the | ghastly truth of war. Of 13 cadets who enlisted in the I Royal Navy Volunteers at Brighton
 after the GaI1ipon campaign and the landing of the Essex Division on the Dardane11es but five returned to Eng land unscathed. Plenninger still l would have been in the service were it l not that his actual age was discover | ed, and his discharge enforced. There are thousands of mere boys serving ] in the armies of the Allies. whose en- | thusiasm. has carried them to the l front in the service that can only end in death, dfsab1ement or conclusion of hostilities-of England does not enlist
 today for a two or three year period.
 It is until ''the end of the war"
 When PIenninger left school at
 Brighton to enlist he gave a, false age. Almost immediately his battalion was equipped with side arms and machine guns and made into land batteries. On the transport Royal George they were rushed direstly across the chan mel in what was then believed to be
 the closing chapters of the war. They were hurried across Belgium and into. Antwerp. Plenninger says that as
 they approached Antwerp the bonn
 bardment was terrific. It was a, con
 stant below of thunder without shot
 being seen. They had only reached
 the trenches on the outside of the city when they were hurried back to the transports with as much dispatch as
 they advanced. The young sailor soldier later. learned that it was re-
 treat, because the city had been taken
 by the Germans.
 England had learned a lesson | +Jo% STao trained again for the exigencies of real war such as had never before been dreamed of by her military experts. Entire attachments were hurried back to. England where, at Salisbury and other camps they were given three months training in the art of sapping, charging in units and in tactics which were entirely new to all England's preparedness had been no prepared ness at all. After weeks of trench digging, sighting guns from trenches and other necessary adjuncts to war fare with aeroplanes the detachment to which P1enninger was enlisted en- parked on the transport Royal George, formerly a mail steamer of the Cana dian Pacific line and were landed at the Suez Canal. There they were transferred up and down. the canal zone doing guard duty with occasional skirrnishes with Arabs melted by the Turks.
 Again packed 1,5Oo strong on the Royal George they were transported to the DardaneI1es where they arrived on the second day of the landing. and immediately after the war>vesse1s had successfully bombarded the Turkish shore positions.
 It was at this juncture that the young soldier learned why England wants her passenger vessels equipped with deck guns. The battleship Ma jestic, at anchor. surrounded by trans | ports of the joint English and French armies saw a torpedo shot from a submarine. The deck guns of the Ma jestic were trained on the advancing i torpedo, shots were fired in an effort to explode the missile, but the aim was underestimated. In another instant the torpedo had struck the big ship i broadside and in three minutes she l had heeIed over at an angle of about l so degrees and went down immedi- l ately. Had the deck guns been effect 1 i've the batt1eship would. have been i saved. Aerop1anes and scout destroy | CTS were immediately sent out to To- cate the Turkish submarine which had | penetrated the outlying transports, 1 but without success in the capture. On | another occasion a torpedo was fired i at a transport but the torpedo itseh was successfully exploded. Many of the soldiers on the transport jumped l overheard and swann to the Royal George where many were rescued
 In the landing of troops young P1enninger describes the difficulties that have to be overcome. All shore | stretches are so we'll mined By the | Turks under the direction of their German advisers that battleships can not land even small boats. Along cliffs all the faces have been gaIIeried and are equipped with machine guns in the embrasures. Near the. shore six-foot entang1ements of barbed wire are sunk in such positions that the swimming horses are enmeshed and lost and line after line of trenches must be taken when the cliffs are 1 The graves of hundreds of English and French line the shores