True Stories of the Great War, Volume 5 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
History
True Stories of the Great War, Volume 5 (of 6): Tales of Adventure--Heroic Deeds--Exploits Told by the Soldiers, Officers, Nurses, Diplomats, Eye Witnesses
World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
The lieutenant in charge of the patrol boat--a keen and alert young
officer--was not long in grasping the situation. He saw the boat drawn
up on the beach, and heard the prisoners shouting for aid. Therefore,
when the startled Bedouins hastily mounted and made off, this capable
young naval officer knew just what to do--and he did it.
A band of badly-scared Arab horsemen started off inland, using whip
and spur in desperate efforts to escape, but at that moment the patrol
steamer's machine-gun took a glad hand in the game. The gun rattled
briskly, streams of lead whistled shoreward, and the tall Arab chief
who rode the white horse pitched headlong from his mount to the earth;
then he lay quite still. He was as dead as salted herring; to use
colloquial English, he had got "all that was coming to him."
The remaining miscreants rode hard for safety, but the machine-gun did
good work, and during the following few minutes at least a dozen desert
marauders finished altogether with the joys and sorrows of this world.
Those who managed to escape disappeared, together with a number of
riderless horses, behind a distant sand-hill.
Captain Groome and his men were promptly taken on board the patrol
vessel. The bo'sun, poor fellow, was buried where he lay. The skipper's
wounds were dressed by the ship's surgeon, and under kind and skillful
treatment he soon began to mend.
The writer saw Groome about six weeks later. He moved stiffly, like
a man whose wounds have but recently healed; nevertheless, he looked
well, and was certainly very cheerful.
"How do I feel?" said he, in answer to my query. "Oh, my shoulder is
still a bit sore, but otherwise I'm feeling first class. Another week
or so, and I'll be fit and ready to join another ship."
WHAT THE KAISER'S SON SAW ON THE BATTLEFIELD
_Personal Experiences of a German Prince_
_Told by Prince Oscar of Prussia, Fifth Son of Emperor William_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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