December 7, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
17 
Spoils of War 
By Boyd Cable 
SOUVENIR Ininting and helmet collecting are 
not items that are expected to figure importantly 
in any Staff's plan of battle, and yet there is at 
least one instance where the final taking of a 
certain village, and no doubt the consequent operations, 
were largely affected by the ardour of an enthusiastic 
helmet collector, added to an ingrained reluctance in a 
battalion of Anzacs to make a retiring movement, and 
their eagerness to accept a reasonable excuse for advanc- 
ing instead. 
The village occupied a strong position in the long line of 
German front that was being attacked. The village 
itself had been obliterated by shell-fire, but the under- 
ground burrows that had taken its place, the trenches 
and deep dug-outs and fortified machine-gun emplacements 
had so far proved too strong to be taken by direct 
assault, and the attacking battalions had been severely 
handled, held up, and subjected to a fierce counter-attack, 
while the line that had pushed past to right and left 
of the village were suffering a good deal from machine-gun 
fire pelting out from strong points inside the flanks of 
the village position. When the German counter-attack 
was beaten off — and that too by a very narrow margin — 
an intense bombardment was renewed on the village, and 
at its close strong attacks were launched against the flanks 
of the village, the weakened battalions fronting the 
position being meant, meantime, to retire a little out of 
their precarious position in shell-holes and broken ground, 
to beyond immediate danger of another, and this time, 
perhaps, overwhelming counter-attack. 
This was the state of affairs when Private Ben Sneath 
obtruded his helmet-hunting activities on the plan of 
battle. He himself, of course, knew nothing of any plans 
or dispositions, and merely heard there was a village some- 
where in front that had to be taken, only knew 
that he had lain for a long time in a deep shell-hole with a 
few others, shooting occasionally, mixed up in an in- 
comprehensible and horrible turmoil of noise, burst- 
ing shells and drifting smoke, mud, and more noise. 
When the German counter-attack was beaten off he was 
too busy for some minutes helping to bandage a wounded 
man and get him away to pay much attention to what 
the Germans were doing. When a couple of stretcher- 
bearers had, after their ordinary miraculous use and wont, 
materialised out of the bullet and shrapnel riddled haze in 
answer to a lusty yell of " Stre-tcher ! " and had removed 
the casualty, Ben returned to his ownparticularbusiness, 
and, settling himself against the sloping wall of the crater 
nearest the Germans, took a cautious survey of the ground 
before him. At first he saw nothing but the rough 
churned up surface and a filmy curtain of smoke through 
which the resuming bombardment was again beginning 
to splash fountains of shell-flung earth, reek and dust. 
But as he looked a figure appeared, came forward at a 
scrambling run for a score of paces, and dropped out of 
sight. Instinctively at first sight of him Ben had thrust 
forward his rifle muzzle and snapped off a quick shot, 
but the man had run on apparently without taking any 
notice of it. Ben was a fair enough shot to feel some 
annoyance. " D'jer see that ? " he asked his neighbour, 
" Beggar never even ducked ; an' I'll bet I didn't go far 
off an inner on 'im." The neighbour was taking a long and 
careful sight over the edge of the pit. He fired, and 
without moving his rifle gazed earnestly in the direction he 
had shot. " Wot's that, Ben ?" he said at last, jerking out 
the empty shell and reloading. " Who ducked ? Ah, 
would yer ! " he exclaimed hastily, and pumped out a 
rapid clipful of rounds. Ben joined in with a couple 
of shots and the dodging figures they had shot at vanished 
suddenly. " Wot s their game now, I wonder," said 
Ben, " D'you think they're edgin' in for another rush ? " 
He had raised himself a little to look out, but the 
venomous hiss-zizz of a couple of bullets close past his 
head made him bob down hurriedly. 
" You gotter look out Ben," said the other man, 
" A lot 0' them bhghters didn't bolt when we cut up their 
attack. They just dropped into any hole that come 
handy, an' they're lyin' there snipin' pot shots at any 
one that shows." 
Ben banged off a shot, jerked the breech open and shut 
and banged off another. " See that. Chick," he said, 
" Same bloke I potted at afore. Not 'arf a cheeky 
blighter cither. Keeps jumpin' up an' runnin' in to'ards 
us. But you wait till ncx' time —I'll give 'im run." 
He settled himself nicely with elbow-rest, wide sprawled . 
legs, and braced feet, and waited with careful eye on his 
sights and coiled finger about the trigger. Two minutes he 
waited, and then his rifle banged again, and he exclaimed 
delightfully. " I gottim, Chick. I gottini that time. 
Sec 'im flop ? " But his exclamation changed to one of 
angry disgust as he saw the man he supposed he had 
"got " rise from behind his cover, beckon vigorously 
to someone behind him, and move forward again another 
few steps. 
Ben blazed another shot at him, and in response the 
man, in the very act of dropping to cover, stopped, 
straightened up, and after staring in Ben's direction 
for a moment, turned, and, lifting the helmet, from his 
head, repeated the beckoning motion he had made before. 
" Well of all the blinkin' cheek," said Ben wrathfully, 
" take that, you cow!" firing again. 
" Wot's up, Ben?" said his companion, " Is some bloke 
stringin' you ? " 
" Fair beats me," said the exasperated Ben, " I've 
'ad half a dozen clean shots at 'im, an' 'e just laughs at 
'em. But I've inarked the last place 'e bogged down 
into, an' if 'e just pokes a nose out once more, 'c'U get 
it in the neck for keeps." 
" Where is 'e ? " said the interested Chdck, " show us, 
an' I'll drop it acrost 'im too when 'e pops out." , 
" No," said Ben firmly, " Fair dinkum. E's my 'own 
private little lot, an' I'm going' to "see 'im safely 'ome 
myself. S-steady now, 'ere 'e comes again. . Just 'ayin' 
a look out, eh Fritz. Onight m'. son. . Keep on lookin', 
an', it'll meet yer optic, plunk," ■ and he lired again. 
" Missed again," he said sadly as he saw a spurt of mud 
flick from the edge of the German's cover. " But lumme 
Chick, di'jer see the 'elmet that bloke 'ad ? " The 
(ierman it may be remembered Ijad drawn attention to 
his helmet by taking it off and wan'ing it, but Ben at that 
moment had been too exasperated by the impudence 
of the man's exposure to notice the helmet. But this 
time a gleam of light caught tine heavy metal " chin- 
strap " that hung from it, andaltiiough the helmet itself 
was covered with the usual serviqe cover of grey cloth, 
Ben could see distinctly that it was one of the old pickcl- 
hauben type —one of the kind he eo greatly coveted as 
a " souvenir." 
" That settles it," said Ben firmly, " I'm goin' to lay 
for that bloke till I gets 'ira, an' then when we advance 
I'll 'ave 'is 'elmet." 
He lay for several minutes, watching the .spot where 
the German was concealed as a cat watches a rriouse- 
hole, and when his patience was rewarded by a glimpse 
of grey uniform he took steady aim, carefully si:iueezed 
the trigger until he felt the faint check 'Of its second pull- 
off, held his breath, and gave the fin;il squeeze, all in 
exact accordance with the school of musk:etry instructions. 
The patch of grey vanished, and B(;n could not tell 
whether he had scored a hit, but almost immediartely 
he saw the spike and the rounded to^o of the helmet 
lift cautiously into sight. Again Ben took slow and 
deliberate aim but then hesitated, " Tchick-tchicked " 
softly between his teeth, aimed again, and fired. The 
helmet vanished with a jerk. " Lookin.' over tiie edge 
of 'is 'ole, 'e was" said Ben, " An' at first I didrr't hke 
to shoot for fear of spoilin' that 'elmet. But artcr all," 
he conceded cheerfully, "I dunno' that it wouldn't 
maybe improve it as a fust-class sooven-ecr to 'ave a neat 
little three-oh-three 'ole drilled in it." 
" Did you drill it ? " asked his companion directly. 
" Dunno," admitted Ben, " But I'm keepin' a carcfuf 
eye on 'im, an' I'll soon know if 'e moves aigain." 
But in the process of keeping a carcfud eye Ben was 
