News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1919-01-08

"The captain says to stop that infer
nal noise"
Highly insulted, key stopped, with
"Some people ave no idea of mu'
sic"
We agreed with him.
Somewhat Modified, he started:
Corporal French is the same bloke
who just returned from Blighty and
Joined the Third section yesterday"
authors Note-The incident here re-
lated is a true happening. Corporal
French won the D. c. M. in the manner
described by Honey. l will not attempt
to give it in the cockney dialect)
eve were holding a part of the line
up Fromelles way, and were about
two hundred yards from the Germans.
This sure was a hot section of the
line. We were against the Prussians,
and it was a case, at night, of keeping
land was full of their patrols and ours.
and many fights took place between
them.
zone night we would send over a
trench-raiding party and the next night
over would come Fritz.
''There was a certain part of our
trench nicknamed Death alley, and the
company which held it was sure to
click it hard in casualties In five
nights in ] clicked for three recon-
nOiterlng patrols.
John FrenCh-he was a lance cor
pOral then-was in charge of our sec
ton. This was before | went to ma
chine gunners' school and transferred
to this outfit. This French certainly
was an artist when it came to scout
ing in No Mans land. He knew every
inch of the ground out in front, and
was like a cat-he could see in the
dark.
"On the night that he won his D. G.
NJ. he had been out in front with a pa
troll for two hours, and had just re-
turned to the fire trench A sentry
down on the right of Death alley re.
ported a suspicious noise out in front,
and our captain gave orders for an
other patrol to go out and investi-
gate.
Corporal Hawkins was next on the
list for the job but, blime me, he sure
had the wind up, and was shaking and
trembling like a dish Of jelly.
"a new leftenant, Newall by name,
had just come out from Blighty, and a
pretty fine officer, too. Now, don't you
chaps think because this chap was
killed that 1 say he was a good Off
Ger, because, dead or alive, you would
have to 20 a bloomn' long way to get
another man like Newall. But this
young leftenant was all eagerness to
get out I'm front. You see, It was his
first time over the top. He noticed
that Hawkins was shaky, and so did
French. French went up to the off,
Ger and said:
"'Sir, Corporal Hawkins has been
feeling queer for the last couple of
days. and 1 would deem it favor If
could go in his place.
snow, don't think that Hawkins was
a coward, because he was not, for the
best of us are Liable fc get the shakes
at times. You know, Hawkins was
killed at La Bassee d couple of months !
ago-killed while going over the top.
"There were seven in this patrol
Jeftenant Newall, Corporal French, my !
self and four more from b company.
about sixty yards from Fritz's |
french an old ditch-must have been |
the bed Of a creek, but at that time /
was drv-ran parallel with the Ger
man barbed wire. Lining the edge Of /
his ditch was a scrubby sort of hedge
Nbicb made a fine hiding place for /
D patrol. Why Fritz had not sent out /
i working party ana done away with /
his screen was a mystery to us.
"French leading followed by Leften-
mt NewaH. myself third, and the rest
railing behind. we crawled through a
;ap under our barbed wire leading out
q a listening post in No Mans land.
We each had three bombs. Newall 4
,arried revolver-one Of those
Yankee Colts-and his cane. Blime me,
believe that officer slept with that
-.ro. He never went without it. The
.azt g. as were armed with bombs and
4aes bavonets fixed We had pre-