The Nenana daily news. (Nenana, Alaska) 1918-1921, 1918-09-04
MODERN FAKER
GETS MONEY ON
BATTLE FABLES

as narrated by Dumas in The Three
Musketeers, fade into comparative
insignificance when compared with
the achievements of Rene Bertrand
as told by himself Minus an arm
and leg with nine medals glittering
on his breast, and asserting that his
body bore more than 80 bullet and
bayonet wounds, "Private Rene Bert
rand of the French Colonel Infantry"
posed in Paris as the greatest hero
of the war.
Now he has been arrested as per-
haps one of the wars greatest fakirs
and the police authorities declare
that he lost his leg and arm in a
railway accident and that five i'm
prisonments instead of five citations
compose his record 1t was the pub
LEGATION of Bertrand's photograph in
French newspaper that led to his
undoing.
Meantime, while reveling in the
fruits of his own romance, Bertrand
enjoyed the confidence of army Off
GERS and the credit of the leading
Paris cafes. One famous and fear
less aviator made Private Bertrand
his godson and adopted" him for
the balance of the war.
The medals he wore included the
cross of the legion of honor, the
military medal, the war cross with
seven palms and five stars, the Brit
ish military cross, the Belgium war
cross, the colonial medal, the medal
of Morocco, and the medal for saw
ing life, and the medal for wounds.
In addition he wore the "fouragere"
of the legion of honor.
Where he got them has not been
disclosed, but to account for them
Bertrand constructed story of Won
derful incidents. According to this
tale he won the military medal by
saving the lives of two officers and
was himself wounded in the thigh
when surrounded by natives while
fighting with the French Territorial
Forces in Morocco, in 1913.
Then according to his own story,
Bertrand won the war cross in a
patrol exploit in the present war,
when, after his companions were
Killed he captured whole German
cooking outfit at Laon, having killed
most of the cooks Next, fighting
with the British on the Somme. he
won the military cross by capturing
II Germans single-handed. Mean
time he had been captured five
times by the Germans, but always
managed to escape.
In the next chapter of his biogra-
ply Bertrand appears in the fight
around Monastir on the Macedonian
front, where he simultaneously oper-
ated four machine guns and wrecked
such an awful havoc with the enemy
that their attack was beaten off.
At the battle of Monastir he essayed
to rescue an officer who lay wound
ed in No Mans Land and was him
self wounded in the abdomen De-
spite his pain he dragged the officer
back to safety and went out again
to rescue a wounded nurse. In the
last trip his arm was shattered by
bullet and later was amputated.
Next we find Bertrand passenger
on board ship bound for France.
The torpedo which hit the vessel
shattered one of Bertrand's legs.
Calmly amputating it with his knife,
Bertrand bound up the stump, draf-
ged himself to the rail, threw him
self overheard, paused long enough
to rescue the captain and swan to
a piece of drift-wood where he lived
for three days and three nights be-
fore being rescued by a Spanish YES
sci For this Bertrand said he re-
ceived the medal of the legion Of