The Benson signal., 1916-08-26


young fellow whose name I don't
know. l wish did, for he was GER
tainly the nerviest man l ever saw.
No. z was hardly out Of the officers
mouth before he had his dispatch and
was on his way. About five minutes
later the signal came that the dis
patch had been delivered.
"My officer told me afterward that
the French general to whom he had
handed the dispatch had taken the
Medaille Militaire off his own breast
and pinned it on that of this young
dispatch rider. He was also later
awarded the Victoria Cross and given
commission. 1t is things like this
that make one proud to belong to
such an army"
Sniping Sniper.
After spending Christmas, 1914, in
the Ypres trenches, Robinson helped
second lieutenant in the Royal Engi-
neers to snipe German sniper on the
Dickebusch-Holl road. AS they
rode over a wooden bridge bullet
whistled. Neither spoke, but on the
way back, three hours later, the Off
Ger said: "That blasted sniper has
potted at me once too often. Well
leave the road here and sneak down
opposite the hedge under cover of the
trees"
lettering their horses, they crept
near the bridge, waited until wagon
passed and heard the sniper's shot,
from behind. They crawled hum
dred yards and waited, Soon they
heard the rife crack again, not far
away. Creeping little further, they
waited again, watching the trees.
They came so close to the sniper,
without seeing him, that next time he
fired they heard the ejectOr fly back
and the bolt snap. Then they spotted
him. He was we'll up tree, with his
rifle fitted on a tripod, so that when
ever he heard anyone on the wooden
bridge he had only to pull the trig-
ger. But he had ended his sniping.
The lieutenant and Private Robinson
fired together, and ''Mr. Sniper came
down like a thousand Of bricks"
The British Tommy" of those days,
according to William j., was "great
gambler as we'll as a great fighter.
One of his forms of gambling was
kind of tontine, known as trench
pool"
"About ten fellows got together,
and each put ten francs In pool just
before they went into action. They
left this money with someone behind
the lines, for they would be In action
anywhere from six days to three
weeks. The idea of the pool was this:
Those who lived to get back would
take the money and split it evenly
among themselves. If only one lived
he woulc have the whole lot.
Daredevil Officer.
The TOmmies kept canaries, rats,
mice, dogs, cats, goats, and even pigs,
as pets, and would go hungry before
the pet hungered.
The "biggest daredevil" that Robin
son heard of was known as the Mad
Major''-an artillery officer who kept
his own aerOplane for range finding
purposes. When he wanted to cor
rect a range he just flew over and
dropped smoke bombs on the partfcu-
lar spot he wanted his guns to hit.
Then he went back and set the guns
to work. One day, being annoyed
with German 17-inch howitzer, he
flew over with 1OO-pound bomb, nose
dived to within 400 feet, dropped the
bomb and blew the howitzer to atoms.
He returned with his planes riddled
with bullets.
Mr.. Robinson indicates in q few
words what happened to two men, a
Taube dropped bomb in the square
at Poperinghe. 1t is enough here to
say that they were killed. and that
the bicycle one Of the men was rid
ing was found twisted and bent on
lamppost about fifty yards away.
He also describes briefly the killing
of two officers in mOtOrcar by a
German 15-inch shell on the road 60
ing into Ypres. The driver escaped,
but was sent nearly mad by the shock.
His nerve was gone and he had to be
discharged.
This was during the second battle
Of Ypres, when the city was being
destroyed by shell fire and the houses
were burning.