Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1916-01-26

Fatrlc1a Canadian LlSnt lHldntIx
the finest fighting force the world
has SEEN" 1t begins on bright,
brisk day a year ago last September,
in Quebec, when the regiment, wsth
every man wearing a previous service
ribbon, swung on board transport
amid a babel of sound and riotous
colors.
1t ends in a crescent shaped trench
at Ypres, on the eighth day Of last
May, amid green Vapor Of strangllng
poison and gray surge of German in
fantry, with bayonets fixed, writhing
over the broken sand bag ramparts.
There the men Of Pats Own wrote
their names into history and disband-
ed at the command of the greatest Of
all commanders-Deat
OF 1,126 picked men who stood
proudly in review before King George
and Lord Kitchener at Salisbury
Plains as they strobe down the lines
regiment of Princess Pats Own"
in the trenches on the west front. But
in place Of the sturdy men garnered
from the marts of the world are fresh
faced youths, Just from the scholastic
halls of McGill university, in Canada.
They're UNFOLDING the traditions-so
newly made-of the men who went
out before them.
Yesterday Corporal William B. Kysh
OF Princess Pats Own"-that regi-
ment which went to the front little
more than year ago-told the story
OF its beginning and it's end. He told
1t in jerky snatches between quick
intakes of cigarette smoke, while a
hand, scaly and MANNED from shrap-
mel, stroked his yellow face.
A Regiment of Veterans.
I'm sorry l can't tell v more of
this he apologized. Il never was
much of spieler at best-and now,
I'm rotten. Nerves gone, y know
can't eat, can't Sleep"
Yet Corporal Kysh was a seasoned
soldier, as were all of his comrades,
when he took the kings shilling in
Quebec and donned the British uni
form. He was Sergt William Kysh of
L
unteers in the Spanish-American war,
and Corporal Kysh of the Argyle and
Sutherland Highlanders at Ashanti.
In between he has been a purser on
board passenger steamships running
to Europe and the far East. He was
born in England, but he is a natural
lied American, as were so many of the
men who died at Ypres or before
Ypres was reached.
Princess Pats Own left Quebec
on September II, 1914.
After three weeks at Salisbury
Plains the regiment was attached to
the Eightieth brigade, making up part
of the Twenty-seventh division, COM
posed otherwise of British regulars
just back from service in India. The
transfer followed the review by the
king and Lord Kitchener The Brit
lsh field marshal, they say, as he
passed down the line and saw the
service ribbons across the coats of
Pats own" said, softly:
Now | know where all my old fight
ers are"
Into tho Trenches at Once.
The first week in December saw the
regiment off to the front. There was
a march from Winchester to South
ampton, and there the troops embarked
on board the Cardiganshire for Havre.
Havre was reached in the darkness.
and after one nights stop the regi-
ment marched to Bleiringhen, behind
the firing line. All day long they dug
reserve trenches. And then that night
the word came to relieve Dickelbusch.
ali of these points are within radius
Of twenty-five miles from Ypres-
where the fiercest fighting on the west
ern front was progressing.
Twenty miles the regiment marched,
arriving at Dickelbusch at night, foot
sore and weary. This was on Deem
Ser IS, and hardly had they messed
~aen the command came to occupy
the trenches The French who had
been holding them needed relief.
: So into the trenches the men crept,
crawling along fat on their stomachs,
when the star shells from the German
lines made the heavens red; rising
and scooting when welcome darkness
rode down again. For Y hours they
crouched in the trenches of Dickel-
busch under rain of shell and shrap-
mel fire, with only emergency rations
to sustain them. This was their bap-
tism of fire.
"Rack Into He'll at Hill Co."
We'll, we left of the trenches after
70 hours and marched back to West
Outer, where we rested for As hours;
then back into hell again. For this
time that was where we went-into
trench c 10 on Hill so.
After 4S hours back we crept to
West-Outer again to spend our Christ
mas there. We left some dead and
some wounded behiLd. | guess it was
IL killed. Shippers and hand grenades
got the others. So we went back and
81,