THE ENGINEERS IN FLANDERS.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15268, 3 May 1915, Page 9

THE ENGINEERS IN FLANDERS.

(FROM OUn OV.X CORItESI'OXDEM.) LONDON. March IC. No branch of tho British service has distinguished itself more in this war than have tho Engineers, and it is most encouraging to know that tho newer troops now operating in Franco aro carrying on tbo traditions nobly. At a. certain point on tho British front recently one of these, companies of Engineers succeeded in digging a new trench, under a heavy rifle and gun fire, at a distance of only twenty-Qvo yards from tho German advanced trenches. Tho leat was accomplished by night, bin th.; On;!.-::-, employing star shells:, were able lo pour in an only too effective liro upon our plucky fellows. Some of tho latter wero on this occasion under fire for only the second tiun-. They had - had their Jirsfc experience tho previous*■ Jiight, when, however, the encoyV. »re ,vas too violent for them to teach the poitit at. which the trench had to bo dug. , Yet these otuck it out, and never flinched, though tho cost 'was, relatively speaking, heavy. They set out a party of about ono hundred; th-.-y brought bad; many wounded, and they lost their, Major, three other officers, a sergeant, and iome .sappers. "It was r.o sapping nut." said o:if of the men actually participating in tfTirs heroic c-uwrpriee. "It was just trench digging right under fire. -Major was {-hot in the head ovo yard*, from mc, and a bullet went, through my spado. We had to crawl tlirough tho mud to get at the place where the trench was to be made, and wo were shelled all *h R time. Sometimes we would stumble up to our waists in water in the ho'os made by the big German shells. But wo did our bit." When the men returned to their billet iv a neighbouring barn tho next morning, there was a pathetic t.ce'U , . The thinned, mud-stained ranks were paraded before the building, and tiic officer in rharjjp, in low tones, loiatcd to a superior tho dbiiipp of the night, aud what they had cost.