True Stories of the Great War, Volume 4 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
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True Stories of the Great War, Volume 4 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
I waited no longer, but dragged out my rifle, flung down my entrenching
tool, jumped out of the trench, and went across. The Huns were a couple
of hundred yards away, and they could see me coming. One bullet went
"sss" through my steel helmet and four more through my jacket. There
was a sniper in a tree, but I soon counted him out. On I went, and
reached a "bay," or traverse, leading to the German trench. There were
three men in it, but, jumping in at the end of the trench, I had only
one at a time to deal with. I got my back to the wall, and they whipped
round on me. I always believe in firing from the hip, and very quickly
number one dropped dead.
Before the next man could recover his senses I had shot him as well,
slipped another cartridge in the breech, and got the old magazine
going on the third at a yard range. The other men fired at me from the
entrance to the dug-outs, but I managed to "get there" first every
time, which is a great thing in jobs of that kind. In the second
traverse there were five chaps standing behind one another. One of them
made for me with his bayonet, but I bowled him over like the others by
the old trick of shooting from the hip.
II--HOW THE GERMANS SURRENDERED
I got the five of them, and some of them made awful noises, screaming
and squealing. I stalked through the trench, storming and shouting,
and, hearing the firing and the commotion, the rest of the crowd bolted
into the dug-outs. Soon they had all "gone to earth," and I was there
alone. When they got into their dug-outs I had them. It was just as if
you were in a coal-cellar and I was in the street waiting to pot you as
you came up. They were shouting and screeching, and every time I saw a
movement I let fly.
Eventually they quieted down, and seeing some of their bombs, a pile
of them, on the floor of the trench, I picked up a couple and sent
them flying down the first dug-out, and they went off all right. Did I
tell you that I was a bomber? I think they felt that the game was up
when the bombs began to drop amongst them, for out rushed three fine
specimens with their hands up and the usual cry, "Mercy, kamerad!" They
had left their equipment behind them to show there was no monkeying,
and though I felt like laughing at being there all on my own, I
demanded, in a stern voice, if any one of them could speak English.
One of them called out, "I can."
"Well," said I, "what's it to be? Do you want to be killed or taken
prisoners? You can have it either way you like, for I'm not particular.
In fact, I would rather kill you."
And all, with one consent, actually cried out that they wanted to
become prisoners--and with Private Jones as their jailers, too!
I looked round and saw a hollow, so I told the English-speaking German
to order his two mates to get in there. They had to climb up to do it,
and I knew our chaps would see them from our trench as they got on top.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
True Stories of the Great War, Volume 4 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses — John Shaqi
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