Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

13 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

BIG GAME.

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

BIG GAME. [By LIEUT. F. J. SLEATH.] Q NIPER GEORDIE SAUNDERS could stop a hare on the run at three hundred yards with an ordinary service bullet from his rifle. But this is not the tale of how Geordie shot the hare. The incident is only men- tioned to show what a really great marks- man the sniper was. The story now to be told opens with Geordie seated at a loop- hole, keeping a sharp look-out for much bigger game. The clouds were hanging low over the ZD trench area; but the day was still, and above the leaden-tinted sky the air was full of the hum of unseen aeroplanes. Sometimes the rattle of machine-guns would be heard, telling the men who watched by the fire-step and parapet that their brethren of the air were keeping guard as faithfully. But of sniping there was none, for the very good reason that during the early part of the week the British snipers had given the Germans a more than usually drastic lesson; and the soul of Sniper Geordie was weary within him. It was then that the aeroplane appeared. The general hum ia the sky suddenly increased at a certain point to a roar, the unmistakable sound of an aeroplane diving with engine full on, an engine which gave forth the deep-throated chorus of the German Mercedes. Just beyond the bat- talion sector the clouds suddenly vomited downward, and out of the smoking spin- drift flashed an Albatross scout, with bulbous blue nose well down. and tailplane and rudder flicking rakishly high above the wings. It fattened out two hundred feet from earth, and came speeding along the firing- liRe, its guns sputtering viciously, the bul- lets whanging spitefully among the wire of the entanglements, thudding into and rip- ping the sandbags of parapet, traverse, and parados. The men dived for cover behind traverses and in side saps. But Sniper Geordie remained standing in the middle of the trench. Those crouching nearest spoke of him standing staring up at the hostile plane in amazement; even when a bullet neatly cut away the button of his shoulder-strap. Of all the brazen impidence," he was heard to say; and then he dived back into his sniping post. The Albatross had turned, and was swinging past overhead on its second sweep of the line, when he emerged again, bring- n In ing his rifle with him. An unlucky strand 0 y of telephone w;re entangled his foot and sent him floundering into the bottom of the trench. When he rose to his feet the plane was nearly four hundred yards away. The pilot was looking back at the scene of his exploit, waving his hand tantalisingly at its defenders. In civil ¡;fe Geordie had been a game- keeper, and his rifle came up to his shoulder with that easy movement which always marks out a man accustomed to the daily use of a gun. His eye hardly seemed to rest alon? the sights before his finger had pressed the trigger. With the report of his shot the German pilot stopped h:8 waving. He seemed to slip back into his cockpit a little, while the Albatross sped smoothly on its course. Geordie lowered his rifle and watched the retreating plane. "Got him after all!" he suddenly exclaimed. The Albatross had quivered slightly, so slightly that it was almost imperceptible except to a. trained eye. I've seen the same thing many a time when oot efter pigeons," Geordie afterwards explained to his friends. The machine suddenly shot up almost to the perpendicular, sat on its tail for a second or two, wobbled rockily. Then its nose came down like the head of a buck- ing horse, and the whole machine crashed to earth just beyond the lines.

VILLAGE THUMBNAILS.

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