A GERMAN TRICK

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 201, 3 June 1940, Page 8

A GERMAN TRICK

DISCOVERED BY FRENCH. “One would imagine the Germans have special departments for ..thinking out stunts, and here’s the latest,” remarked a staff colonel at an army command post, holding out an old-time watchman’s wooden rattle, reports G. H. Archambault from France to the “New York Times.’ Certainly it did not look a lethal weapon, yet it represented one of those unexpected sidelines of the most highly mechanised warfare history has known. Here is the story: - .In a certain sector of the Western Front French outposts were mightily puzzled by an apparently new arm that made a noise like a sub-machine gun but never fired any bullets. The noise would come from a place in front of an outpost. After several volleys there would be e lull; then several minutes later different reports came from the flanks — from rifles this time—and occasionally men were wounded. It was all very mysterious. v The explanation was forthcoming one morning when a dead German was seen about a hundred yards in front of an outpost. His head was under a blanket, and his hand still clasped a wooden rattle. From this clue the whole process was reasoned out as follows: A German patrol crept up to the French lines. At a convenient spot it left a man with a rattle, while two groups circled around the French post. When all were in place, the rattle was sprung under a blanket to .make the sound even stranger. Hearing no whizzing bullets, the French at first hesitated. When the rattle was sprung again, they opened fire in its approximate direction. The flashes of their guns revealed their location, whereupon two flanking groups took pot shots at them. The French colonel described the trick as very ingenious but rather puerile. After the first surprise it fell flat.