Message from Cam Finlay about John “Barney” Hines, 1917, 45th Battalion AIF, France and Belgium
John “Barney” Hines (photo) was a real thorn in the side of the German army during World War I, so much so that the Kaiser put a price on his head “dead or alive”. Hines had the happy knack of being able to wreck German pill boxes which threatened Australian troops using his favourite Mills bombs (grenades). On top of that, he became a master at souveniring, looting all sorts of items from dead and captured Germans and returning triumphant to the Australian lines. So good was he that he became known as the “Souvenir King”.
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Feb
19
2009
What is going on today ? I can not hear any artillery shot. No rifle firing. It seems that all my friends are dead and I have a strange feeling like I am the only one still alive. Since 1915 I have heard for the first time a bird singing. I have tried to see it but I can not. There is no place for a bird to rest a little over here. No trees, no hedgerow, nothing. Just the stinky soil of the battlefield. Just the dead, the putrefaction, the flees, the worms, the rats then mud, stinky water, and blackened blood.
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