PRUSSIANS BOMBED OUT.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLII, Issue 84, 28 April 1916, Page 1

PRUSSIANS BOMBED OUT.

CANADIANS' OLEAER KAID. The following stirring of a cutting-out expedition (trench raid) in France, a brief official report of which wa.s issued at the beginning of February, is given by a special correspondent of the Exchange. There had been

a certain liveliness in the Herman trenches and a bomb attack was planned. When darkness fell the bombers crept forward, making slow progress. A false move, a cough or a sound of any kind meant certain death. The I'rusriian Guards in the German trenches were apparently in merry mood, and snatches of a love song came occasionally from the trench.

At last the barbed-wire entanglements were reached. They were stouter than had been anticipated. It took a long time, but the harrier was cut. There was a delay. Another party farther along the line were not yet ready for the final rush. Patiently the partywaited; they even joked in whisper*. At length the signal came that the other party was ready to advance. The Canadians, bounded forward. A Prussian sentry started up to sound the alarut, but he wa.s shot dead by the officer.

The Prussians were now aromsed. Flares burst out all along the line and revealed a trench full of the Prussian Guard. The Canadians rushed in, thrownig their bombs and bayoneting freely. Their leader was already wounded. The Guardsmen had been taken by surprise, and rushed in confusion from their dug-outs. One of them held up his Jiands and shouted in English that he wished to .surrender, but a rifle pointing from behind through his upraised arm revealed the ruse. A revolver bullet settled the first man's account, and the second went down with a bavonet in his chest.

Farther up tlu> lino a machine gun was just beginning to got dangerous when a well-directed bomb sent it into space. Hand-to-hand, the Canadians exacted a heavy toll. They carried everything before them, and at the end could no mi further as a heap of dead hodies- and demolished trench barred the wav.

The return journey to the British trenches bad to be made across a bulletswept area. One man was dragging back tile body of a comrade, while another was supporting a wounded companion. The Canadians halted for an instant while a bomb was thrown, ft was the luckiest shot- of the whole night. It fell right on the machine gun which was most (langerou-, .silencing it. Twentythree of the 2o returned to their trenches, having accounted for about double their number and destroyed two machine guns and a- considerable portion of trench. They are enjoying a well-earned rest.