Show PRINCESS PATS LUST LAST STAND MADE S OF POISON 0 AS end of famous regiment in fume filled trenches at cypres ypres told by corporal william B kysh one of the survivors of the 1126 veteran fighters who joined the organization in canada how slim perry died Paris This Is tho the story of the beginning anil and tho the end of the princess patriciaa Patri cias clas canadian light infantry the finest fighting force tho the world hah bah seen it begins on a brij bright bit brisk day a year ago last september in quebec when tho the regiment ment with every avery man wearing a previous service ribbon swung on board a transport amid a babel of sound and riotous colors I 1 it t ends til in a crescent shaped trench at cypres ypres on tho the eighth day ot at last may amid a green vapor of 0 strangling poison end and gray surge of german in fantry cantry with bayonets fixed writhing over the broken sand bag ramparts there the men of pats own wrote their names into history and disbanded at the command of 0 the tha gea neatest test ot of all commanders command era death of 1126 picked men who stood proudly in review before king kang george cargo and lord kitchener at salisbury plains as they strode down the lines only 83 93 are uninjured theres still a regiment ot al princess pats own in the trenches on the west front but i in place of A the sturdy men garnered from the marts of tho the world aro are fresh faced youths just from the scholastic halla balls of mcgill university in canada aey I 1 te upholding the traditions so bo newly made of tho the men who went out before them yesterday corporal william D B kysh of princess pats own that regiment ment which went to the front a little more than a year ago told the story of its beginning and its end lie ile told it in jerky snatches between quick intakes of cigarette ct garetto smoke while a hand scaly and maimed from shrapnel stroked his yellow face A regiment of veterans im sorry I 1 cant tell y more of at this lie ho apologized 1 I never was much of a at lest best and ana now im rotten nerves gone y know cant cat cant sleep yet corporal kysh was a seasoned xea imea soldier IB as were all of 0 his hii comrades when he took the kings shilling in quebec and donned the british uniform lie ile waa was Bergt Sergt william kysh of twenty ninth united states volunteers in the spanish american war and corporal kysh of at the argyle and sutherland Sutherlan cl highlanders High landers ut at ashanti As hantl in between ho he has been a purser on board passenger steamships running to europe and the far east ile he was born bom in england but he is a naturalized american as wore were so many of the men who died at cypros cypres or before cypres ypres Y res was reached lPH pats own left quebec on Bep september 17 1914 atieh affet three weeks at salisbury plains the tha regiment ajas was attached to the eightieth brigade making up part of the twenty seventh division composed otherwise of british regulars just back from service in india the transfer followed the review by the king and lord kitchener the british held field marshal they say as aa ho he passed aown own tho the line and saw the service ribbons across the coats of pats own said cald softly now I 1 know where all my old fight erg era are into the trenches at once the first week in december saw tho the regiment oft off to the front there was a march from winchester to southampton and there the troops embarked on board the Cardigan shire for havre havre was waa reached in the darkness and after one nights stop atop the regiment marched to behind the firing line all day long they dug reserve trenches and then that night the word came to relieve Dickel busch all of these points are within a radius pt of twenty five flye miles from ypres cypres where the fiercest fighting on the western front was progressing twenty miles the regiment marched arriving at Dickel busch at night footsore and weary this was on december 18 and hardly had bad they messed when the command came to occupy the trenches tho the french who had bad been holding them needed relief so into the trenches the men crept crawling along flat on their stomachs when the star shells from the german lines made the heavens red rising and scooting when welcome darkness rode down again for 72 hours they crouched in the trenches of dickel busch under a rain of shell and shrapnel are with only emergency rations to sustain them this was their baptism of fire back into hell at hill 60 11 WH well ws we lt left of the trenches after 72 hours and in arched back to west outer where we rested for 48 hours then back into hell again for ahlo time that was wan whore where wo we went into trench 0 10 on rill hill CO 60 after 43 49 hours back we crept to west outer again to spend our christmas there we left some dead and some wounded behind beaird I 1 ruess guess it was 11 killed snipers and hand grenades got the he others so we went back and forth thinning the ranks ranka a little each time until february 28 then we made our first charge our arl artillery tillery she shelled aled the germans tor for two days while we lay in the tren trenches chea waiting tor for tile the word they answered back of at course and once in a while one of our follows fellows would to eo with an arm oft off or a head trashed la in at four in tho the morning the word came to charge we scrambled over tile tho trench and ran toward the germans 60 yards away they swept us ui with machine guns gulls and bored us with hand grenades dig big jack johnsons screamed from behind tho lines Alnes at us and over our heads beads went back our own artill erys answer the tha germans came caino up over tho the trenches to meet us and wo we used tho the bay bayonet onet wo we slipped and fell ell roso rose and tell ell again stabbing and cutting there was no chance to shoot cold steel routs germans then the germans germana gave way they cant cat cold stool steel they were piled up in the trenches dead and dying so BO thick that it was untenable and after a while wo we had to abandon tho the place wed won and go back to our own trench wo we loft left seven or eight men behind in n tho the little strip of twisted mud be tween tho the trenches and from 0 10 for days afterward wo we watched those follows lie thero thera and chango change from dead men into things I 1 wake vako up these theao nights and see ono one of oca am well wo we charged tho the germans again on march 4 wo we lott IOU moro more men and again had bad to abandon tilo tho trench wo we won the dead were to tooth lck and tile tho stench was too terrible what la Is meant when they say aay tho the trenches are untenable nuble 1 in this charge colonel fa farquhar arquhar of our regiment was killed wo we had to stay in C 10 tor for six days after this wo we were shelled shelled shelled day and night they rained about us and behind us cutting oft relief wo we lost 65 men killed and a number wounded then wo we got out and tho the kings royal rifles relieved us from then on until may 3 wo we went back and forth in and out at 0 trenches wo we mined oln cm and blew era cm up we sniped a little and threw hand grenades and then wo we were ordered to ypres cypres we marched into the trenches there without delay we wont went in in a rain ot of artillery fire and got caught in a vortex from our own artillery and tho the ger germans mans an observer gaye gave the range wrong to ta our artillery and we caught it one hundred and twenty of our men went down before the range was righted but wo we kept on and occupied tho the trench tho the germans wore were right across from us about yards away we hold held a crescent shaped trench and on may 6 5 we routed tho the germans but we had to duck back for tho the fire was too heavy and their trench was um loss for protection from then until may 8 the germans germane shelled us ua they poured tons of lead about us no one could leave the trench no one could stick hla his head out our nerves went dead from tho the concussions and our eyes were glazed from tho the sights bights about us tho the dead lay under our feet and tho the wounded crept back as best beat they could to where they coull could got get first aid first attack by poison gas early on the tha morning of may 8 the germans charged wo we know they were coming and we were waiting they came over their trenches in quarter columns a solid swaying mass of at blue gray they and ran forward as we mowed them down like grass our machine guns gulls four to the action just waved in a semicircle and waved back again we vvo fired our aco as fast baat as wo we could pump thorn them and no bullet was wait wasted ted they lay in piles in front at 0 the tha trenches and the piles wore always wriggling around as sovie of the injured underneath tried to creep out A whole battalion of them wore were put out of the way vay before they drew back and formed for another charge bohi hid d cover of beir tien trenches clies and this time we saw poison gas tor for tho the first time it was the second assault about eight ocl oc loc oct in n tile lie morning wo we could see ace that sonic some thing was coming coining off anil and tie then I 1 n a suddenly there up a thick green cloud that bild lild everything in front of us U 8 th the 0 fe fellows it owe under tho the german piles wriggled harder ever and everybody in ur ui trench asked wolli well bomin off anyhow the wind was wrong tor for 0 o m and tho the ger germans mans went back and there was quiet until ten this time their gas gaa came in it rolled along tile the ground like a moving wall about eight feet high behind it we know tho the germans were coming but wo we sea them to so wo we lot fire through tile the cloud the gos gas had holes blown in it and the force of tho the bullets swayed it a bit but before wo we know it the gas was rolling in the trenches trench es tho the end of princess pats own 1 I heard men cursing at one end ol of tho the trench whore where the gas struck first just as a shell burled buried mo and then 1 I got tho the gas myself I 1 got it light for I 1 was halt half burled buried but tho follows fellows about me screamed cam od a and rid rol rolled le d u up P as it if they were burned cursing and pray ing it caught you by the throat anil and burned its way into your lungs then you breathe wit out and you burst or slobbered ered I 1 crept back on my stomach for I 1 had ft a bit of at nol net in my stomach and a bullet in my log lust just as I 1 saw the germans dropping over tho the sand bags angs the fellows who could stand knifed lem cm with bayonets or bit ind fought them I 1 saw now four of my pals right follows they wore were lying almost over each other all of them with gas in them oh christ keshl one ern cm called get mo me a drink got me and aad a german drove a bayonet clear through 1113 thoat and lungs before ho he could finish it and then tile samo same gorman german knifed the other three boys that was the end of princess pats pals own long before the germans came the last time there sixteen men of tho the sixteen platoons of the regiment who could defend themselves I 1 fired rounds rounda myself from my loo lee ennead and sho she was so hot hof I 1 hold her I 1 crept back and somebody put mo me on a maltese cot and got me to Dickel busch 1 I spent six months in a hospital at deoch beach bury park and then came cama over to quebec whore where I 1 got my discharge and corporal kysh still moving tho the hand that was raked with ap nal over his yellow faco face lighted cigarette theres lots I 1 could tell you ho he said after a minute but im not much good at balki talking ng then my nerves are rotten I 1 tried to go to work today but I 1 had to call it olf oil I 1 just went down to tho the french line and told era cm id have to lay oft a bit until I 1 could got get eased up some how slim perry died and then he told the story of how slim perry died slim was tho the younger son of a well kno kanovi vit english family who had lived several years in new york at the start odthe war lie ho hurried up to quebec and enlisted ile ho was a sidekick side kick of mine finest lad ind over ever always out for tile the cats whenever the bully beet palled lie ile could pick up a chicken or fresh moat meat any old day we were side by side at ypres cypres and bo be just mo me and grinned after the first attack of germans lad haa failed 1 I got to see sea lem em run kysh lie ho said eald and peeked over A bit of shell got him right across tho the head and took it off to tile the mouth tie mo fell against me and I 1 laid him down when I 1 got out of tho the hospital I 1 went down to see his mother and sister ilia mother heard from him for a long time and asked me where ho he was well I 1 had bad to tell her rotten eli eh 7 oh they Ahey were a fine bunch of soldiers and gent gentlemen lemeno from old mickey welsh seer seen service in egypt in 82 to perry mickey was resting in a little scooped out hole bola at the bottom of a and he looked up at mo me corporal ho he says wo we thought wed od seen war what muckers duckers we wa worst when I 1 got get out of this im going to lead a quiet life and he got up and got a bullet through the eye took tho the eye clean out Cur corporal khoh Is still wearing his bla service shoes alir broad brogans brigans of oiled leather pretty kicks he ha observed and lighted another cigarette well I 1 guess ill eat some moro eggs cant havo have any solid but how bow id like a steak aleak eh ch |