Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1918-09-21 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

FTIMELY THEMES.  cooked it makes a very appetising dish, much appreciated by Tommy. Cooking at any time in the army is an unthankful job, and amidst a. hail of she:ls you can just gather a small idea of what we put up with. " Tommy " was not destined to have a dinner, as a, big shell crashed through the roof. wrecking the oven and covering us all with debris. Wheu the smoke and fumes cleared away, and I looked around at the wreckage, and one of my comrades laid mutilated befiee my eyes, I began to have strange misgivinge or ever getting OUT alive. As shell after shell splashed its torrent of iron upon us we began to halve the appearanee of men who had scrawled up a chimney, and then gone to live on a desert island for a few years, towsy hair and dust begrimed faces, and ragged torn clothes; can any of you picture the appearance we preented. As it was getting too warm altogether I decided to go and find a °eller. I searched I gave Aup in despair and returned, making a hopeless gesture to my pals, showing only too plainly 'what I felt. It. is some consolation to die fighting for it, rather than be killed like rats in a trap, so after a brief council we decided to run the gauntlet of the shell; and bullets. As the Germans were already pouring into the village there was not any time to be lost. We had to gain the Canal bridge 200 yards away. and as we doubled out into that tornado, leaping piles of debris and slain, I fully expected that before long for one would be posted as "missing." We wcre soon made a target, of by snipers and machineguns, and the bullets were spitting viciously past our ears. It was then that I saw them deliberate.). shoot an aged Frenchman who was trying to escape. Leis such callousness as this that makes us wonder whether they are men. or beasts. Gaining the Canal we speedily crossed and sped rapidly away, keeping a sharp look out for any sians of our unit. 1 shall never forget that race with death. We ran, I think, fully si% hundred yards before we started to breathe freely. We decided to rave a short rest, and squatted down by the road(eic, orny to have a German 5.9 dropped hot beside 'as, vhich made us quickly make up our minds to "carry en" heedless of exhaustion. I-. was late next morning when we eventually carne across what was left of our unit, after havrag slept out in the rain all night. They were mighty glad to see us, as they made sure that we had all been. killed or wounded. They had had a pretty rough time, but from the aspect of the ground in front of them I knew that "someone else" 'had caught it hot as well. They were guarding an " estaminet" and a. cluster of farm buildings when we joined them, and from the appearance of these buildings they looked to have changed hands many times during the tigbt.  g. As I looked round the haggard dragyn but determined fac-:s a strange numbness o'erearne me. my pals had gone west, and all our best officers and I felt as if I had nothing el to live for. it was in the dusk of the third day's fighting when a terrible mass of grey came forward again to the attack, and simultaneously the heavens were rent asunder by an ear-splitting rattle of heavy guns and achine-guns. Faced by this, and the depletion of our ranks, it was not long before we had to fall back again; but before retiring we had wrecked terrible havol amongst them. We fell gradually back, leaving a mangled pile of grey in front of us. They seemed never ending. God! but we killed sonic in those murderous hours of fighting! Fighting for life and death, fighting on empty stomachs, fighting with gas helmets on for hours at a stretch. You peoph- at home should have a thrill run through your veins e.very time you read about it. Those days of fighting saved France, saved England, and held the enemy at bay until the arrival of .the Americans. such tenacity never before was displayed by Englishmen, and the Motherland should be proud of everyone of her sons who participated in those first five days' fighting that saved the freedom of the world. There they are now ! coming back for a rest along the shell-torn road , laughing, ragged, dishevelled "boys." as if they , were returning from a garden party. - May God bless and keep every one of them.—Pte. Edward aaowball.  •