Norwich bulletin., 1918-02-28
HOW CORPORAL HOLMES
 GOT GERMAN BELT
And How Wounded Hun Wrem He Had Bsfrisnded Shot Canadian SeI-
 dier in the Back.


 And How Wounded Hun Wrem He
 Had Bsfriended Shot Canadian Sol-
 dier in the Back.
 Corporal R. Derby Holmes, the I American who enlisted in the Cana dian army soon after the war broke out and Nho was one of the speak CTS at the patriotic dinner held at the Wauregan house Tuesday evening by. the Chamber of Commerce of Nor wich, Conn.,, Inc, has brought back with him from the trenches a German belt which he took from German soI- dier whom he found wounded On the field of battle. Corporal Holmes be- friended the wounded Hun and as soon as Corporal Holmes and his comrades and turned their backs on him the Heacherous and cowardly Hun picked up his own rife which was beside him on the ground and shot one of Cor poral Holmes comrades in the back Corporal Holmes wheeled round on hearing the shot and saw his com rade on the ground dying. Another comrade had crushed in the skull of the brutal Hun with the butt end of d rifle in. order to prevent him from further treachery. u
 Here's the yarn as Holmes tells it:s One of the most trying and irllsome jobs that a Tommy has to go through with out there is what is known as carrying parties. Of course these du-i ties have to be performed by some- one, though every battalion thinks, that his should not be the one to do it.
 It means that sometimes parties are, detailed from each company to go out on fatigues to carry different things up to the trenches; such as the "a ! tions, ammunition, bombs, trench nor :: tras and such truck. Now box of bombs weighs quite a bit-about 30; pounds and there are two of them: handed you to carry.
 A trench mortar or "Toffy-apple," ,", as it's known by it's shape weighs 60: pounds. It a large ball of iron screw :. ed into which is a long pipe err rod. Nothing that I know of can be more awkward. Imagine carrying one of these balanced on your shoulder when suddenly you are attacked by a i tcootie" on the side that you just can't reach with your free arm Then down, goes the apple" and up goes your vail and around goes yo,tr- now free hand to grab the offender. then up with the burden and on the journey. These trips up to the line often means miles of walking over un- familiar ground-this is especially true of the Sonlme front-wading through mud, ankle deep and sometimes near ly knee deep, rain pouring down and you are saturated to the skin. Can you wonder that they groW1?
 We'll, we had been detailed to go on one Of these parties and the first thing that came our way to carry was boxes, Of bombs, two to the man. I was leading she party for as usual l on that sort of thing we kept in single ] file. Behind me was one of the oldest and most chronic ''grousers" of the l whole "bat' and from time to time I l could hear him growing:
 "Gawd luume wot a. life. Why we're nottin' but a bloomin' bunch O blink i in awsses.'
 Well, in way, I agreed with him, l for we certainly did resemble a col ! umn of pack mules plodding through ] the mud. As we were short of men l had to give 8 hand in carrying a l thing I usually tried to avoid 1T pos sible: in fact it was about the opiv
 compensation of being a corporal the
 getting out of carrying.
 It was late in the afternoon when
 we started and it was about dusk when we had covered half of the distance 1 that we were required to go with our load. Old Morgan behind me began ] to grouse" some more about his feet and the 'bink1n' injustice of the
 whole bloody business an'ow' got l fed llp with his lire of talk so prompt 1 ly told him to shut up, which he didn't.
 Just then shell landed so near us ! +<, c.,
 at least 10 minutes. The shell got a fcfap named Mack. Parts of him were freely distributed along our way, but we carried on. Back of me I heard Higgins pipe up with Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag"
 I began to puzzle out some way that I could better carry the two boxes oi bombs that I had so far struggled
 with. Most of the men had removed their belts from around their waists I but not having one myself could no, do likewise.
 I I hoped that we might pass someone
 who had gone west so that could ffind an equipment belt.
 I You see the idea of the belt wax Ethis: On the ends of the boxes o' Ibombs were rope handles and by put. lting the belt through the handles o ,both boxes and swinging the be,t ontt jthe shoulder it left the two boxes hang, ing one in front and the other in back making the burden feel 50 per cent Lighter.
 Il So far had been disappointed ant began to think that I would have t.
 make the best Of it for the rest .sf tn. journey when right ahead of us I saw laimost in our path, a German ap. hparently dead and with his equipmen
 on. Now German belt is so stron, land the nature of the buckle is sl tsimple. that I knew from experienc, that they were considered ideal fo. lcaTyfng purposes. IF I asked the officer in charge of th, lparty to call halt for few minufei so that I could procure the belt. H !. did so and I made for the Hun.
 |, AS I turned him over I received tn. shock of my life when he opened hi . leyes. I quickly called the officer ant .l he running over to Fritz began 10 asl
 him in German what his trouble wa. Il and where he was wounded
 The Fritz replied in perfectly goot
 English that it wasn't necessary tt speak in German for he had received part of his education on the ether sidt lof the channel. He had been hit by , shrapnel on his left side and in tht shoulder
 II He had been lying there, he esti mated, for 36 hours. and had had nc Fr@r@1 JAA~ C