The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1918-05-24
Thrilling Story Related By
Private ]. Taylor
COOpED IN SMALL HOLE
Was Taken For Dead BY Some
Germans Who Visited His
Rendezvous
WEBB MILLER
from Fridays Daily.

from friodyS OdHy.
London, April "a. [By Maill-F
you have been thinking that dis
tinguished service" on the battlefield
means one grand dash, and then
quiet room, an attentive nurse, and
pleasant recuperation, consider the
case of Private j. Taylor, whose valor
is briefly recited in late issue OF
the official Supplement to the
London Gazette This official list OF
soldiers cited for decorations always
carries a short description of the act
of valor for which the citation is
made.
These two paragraphs accompany
announcement of the award of the
distinguished conduct medal to pri-
vate Taylor:
Having been cut off with his COM
pany he received bullet in the thigh,
causing a compound fracture. To
avoid capture he crawled into she'll
hole, where he remained for period
of over seven weeks, during the
whole os which time the surrounding
district was subjected to severe
bombardment by our artillery. He
subsisted on tins of bully beef collec-
ted at night from dead bodies, and
water which he obtained in water
PROCEED cape.
Enemy Visited His She'll Hole
"After some weeks three of the
enemy visited his shell-hole, but by
feigning death, he avoided capture
and eventually succeeded in crawling
back to our lines-a distance OF some
900 yards" In hospital near Lon
don where he is recuperating Taylor
diffidently amplified the story OF his
terrible experiences.
"It was during one Of our attacks
upon the Hindenburg line, he said
We had gone over the top, two
companies of us. We were met by
+, a terrific enemy fire and the fellows
were dropping like ninepins. / was
knocked out. 1t must have been a
couple of days before / recovered
consciousness. l found myself in a
shellhole, with another man who was
wounded but could move freely. Dur
| ing the days and part of the nights
bombardment kept up. Shells fell
all around but none happened to drop
in our shellhole. At night Peters
crept out and foraged among the
dead for scraps of beef, iron rations
and their waterbottles. After two or
| three days it rained. We collected
water in our caps.
Lasted For Over Five Weeks
| "That sort of existence lasted for
over five weeks. / was getting weak
er and weaker. One night Peters
crawled out and did not come back.
That left me without aid. Next night
| a party of Germans came into my
shellhole One lifted my eg-luckily
not the broken one or I'd have yelled
but they thought l was dead.
was covered with mud and looked
like the other bodies covering the
ground During the next fortnight l
managed to live on the reserve beer
Peters had collected. Then feeling
that nothing worse could happen l
resolved to try to get into our lines.
1t was an inky night. First crawled
by mistake right into German line.
They didn't hear me, 80 l turned back
and inched along for an hour. Then
/ got into some barbed wire. l was
mass of cuts, blood and rags before
IL got through. Just than Verey
| light shot up. / saw man peer1ng
over a trench He was about to
shoot when l shouted. Three of them
came out and dragged me into our
own trenches"
| Before the war Taylor was fac
toryhand. He is recovering rapidly
and looking forward to his return to
the trenches.