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I BILLY MORGAN'S STORY

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I BILLY MORGAN'S STORY HOW HE "PUNCHED" GERMANS IN A STREET FIGHT. I (Passed by Censor.) Orchard-street, Swansea, was in gay garb when Billy Morgan, the well-known local boxer, returned home last week-end. He was wounded recently at Richelpourg. A bullet entered the muscle of the upper part of his left arm, and came out in the forearm. Billie is a. private in the 2nd Worcester Regiment. He has been out at the front about seven and a half months, and has been in action at Richebourg, Ypres, Festubert, and Givenchy. In a chat with a Herald reporter Billy Morgan said he could tell enough about his experlens to fill a "book." And from what we have heard from his friends we could well believe it. It was Billy Morgan who was rumoured to have stood on the parapet of his trench and shouted in a half jocular, half dc fiant manner: Have you got the Kaiser over there?" An affirmative reply being presumed, he sung out: "Send him over here, then." Billy denied this "yarn," and said he had no such luck as to see the Kaiser or "Little Willie." At Givenchy, which he nicknamed "The Brickfields," "the Ger- mans exploded a mine" he said, "four- teen yards short of our trench. But it all went back to the Germans, and goodness knows how many of them were killed and wounded. We had two companies of our regiment in the front line, and the rest were shoved into the fourth line. Only fourteen of our men were wounded, but most of us were plastered to our eyes with mud. The Scots Guards came to re- lieve us." According to Billy, General French said What the Worcesters cannot do nobody can." "He says so in his dispatch," he declared. "Then we went on to La Bassee," he continued. "We had street to street _fights there. The Germans were coming up one street and we were around another. We sent two companies to meet them, and we all kept like mice, waiting for them." Here Billy demonstrated by a gesture how they tackled the Huns. Rifles were not much use at such close quarters, ho said. He detached his bayonet, and with rifle in one hand and bayonet in the other he went for them and gave them one for luck," indicating something like one of those good punches of which he is capable. Passing to Neuve Chapelle, Billy took part in the fighting in the orchards there. It was a good scrap," he said. There were about 1,200 of our regiment at the start. It was a terrible business." Afterwards the Worcesfers went back to Richebourg, and occupied the same trenches as in October. The Irish Guards, who came to relieve them, had to take a very dangerous course. "We went back the same way as they had come," said Private Morgan. The Germans shelled us and poured their maxim guns on us, and we had to cover up. I covered up with other friends, as I thought, but I found they were dead Germans. We had to go nine miles to our digs: which was a barn. I didn't want a barn, because that is a mark for the German artillery. When I took off my kit I was ready to drop." We took a revolver off a German officer and gave him a cane," was one of Billy's witty sayings. We thought that would be more useful to him." We have got aotnfc gallant officers," he added, by way of contrast. It's all right talking about V.C.'s," he said, but the men who get them are those who are seen. We have been through our Tines over to the German barbed wire entanglements in the dark and fetched in our wounded. We wept within ten yards of the Gennnn trenches. If we have brought in the wounded, nobody knows who has doie it, because we hi ve not been seen. Asked the plaC3 where he was wotmded Billy replied it was Richebourg. Wo were making a charge at the time. I th'nk it was a Sunday, but we'don't know what time is out there." He was attended to at the Canadian Hospital at Boulogne, and later, after crossing to Dover, went to a hospita.1 at Leicester. Did you do any boxing out there in your spare time?" our representative asked. The only boxing I did." replied Billy, was what we did with the Ger- mans in the street fighting." Did you see or smell the Huns' poison gas ?" Yes. It is like a blue cloud, and as soon as we saw it we put our muzzles on, after dipping them in limewater ir something of the kind." Something was telling me," he added, that I would never get hurt." But Billy did get- hit after all. He has, however, lost none of his indomitable spirit. We can well imagine that the trenches were pretty lively where he was located.

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