July 20,1916 The Story That Never Happened

July 20,1916 An amazing story printed in a Sefer, close to hundred years ago. Years later this story was reprinted in other Seforim The story also appeared in Mishpacha Magazine and other publications. I even heard a Godol repeating the story. The Mechaber in his Sefer writes," he read this story in a London Newspaper dated the 19th of Tammuz 5676  (July 20 1916). The UK newspaper quotes from the Hungarian newspaper called “Pesti Hirlap” the following story. "A Hungarian soldier sitting in the trenches wrote to his wife to find out from Chaim their Jewish neighbour about the Jewish prayer of “Shema Yisroel”. The Hungarian soldier claimed to have noticed that whenever the enemy fires at them, the Gentile soldiers get killed, yet the Jewish soldiers say the prayer of Shema Yisroel, all are saved and none get killed. He  would like to know how he too can be saved with this prayer.” As a skeptic, I would not have believed this story however this time I did believe it to be true since the Mechaber gives an exact date and the name of the original newspaper the story appeared in. (open for inspection) He also wrote that he was quoting word for word the exact text of the newspaper. Believing the story to be true, I was hoping to find a copy of this article, publicize it and be Mekadesh Sheim Shomayim.  The Times of London (1916) and the Pesti Hirlap are both available online. My nephew R.Ari  searched both newspapers. (Keywords in both  English & Hungarian were entered) not a single match or a slightly similar match came up). Not The Times nor The Pesti Hirlap have this story or anything similar to it. The Mechaber might have seen this story in another London newspaper quoting  The Pesti Hirlap. This story never appeared in The Pesti Hirlap and very likely never ever happened.   The Chasam Sofer in the Teshuvos* writes with frustration “We have a תורת אמת there is no need for שקר  to verify it" *Chelek 6 :59