FOR MENTION IN DISPATCHES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 276, 10 August 1918, Page 8

FOR MENTION IN DISPATCHES

HOW A GERMAN MINE WAS BLOCKED

VIVID SKETCH FROM THE BATTLEFRONT

(By IToutenant D\ J. S.lenth.)

Jackson was sniping and intelligence officer of the 2nd fiastshires; which meant that as well as keeping down tho oft'ortti of enemy snipers, and shooting every German who was indiscreet enough to show himself above Iho level of the parapet, ho had to keep in touch with every sort of activity going on in the, German lines,

Thus, if sandbags of a peculiar colour began to appear at any part, giving unmistakable evidence, under the action of wind and weather, that their contents were no honest surface mud and debris, but diggings from different strata deep down in the earth. Jackson would go off at once to his friends, the tunnelling officers, and acquaint them with the phenomenon. They would thank him for tho detailed information which lie brought them, and ask him earnestly for still further daily reports. But of their conclusions they would tell nothing —the driving of mine-shafts is one of tho greatest secrets of the line. And Jackson would n.sk them nothing; he, too, had little secrets of his own to keep. That is why they liked him and encouraged his visits to their dug-out. This watching for signs of hostile mining activity, however, was only one item in Jackson's multifarious duties. His careful examination of every fresh aeroplane photograph touching his sector also requires to be mentioned in this connection, because his faithful attendance to both items happened to result in certain developments not so very long ago. The discovery which ho made turned out. to be not only providential for his battalion, but exceedingly satisfactory from his own point of view; for it does not happen every day ihat an intelligence officer sees so direct a return for his labours.

In a certain sector of the trench area Jackson began to notice signs of mining ncxivity by the Germans over the way. Prom the eagerness with which the tunnelling officers received his report, he judged that the danger was, imminent. From his careful study of the aeroplane photographs he formed a pretty shrewd idea of the position of the mnin enemy shaft. Accordingly he set his whole section of suipere and observers on to the task of confirming his idea; and after a week of constant and intensive observation, including one or two discreet night patrols extending beyond the enemy wire, his conviction was definitely confirmed. Tho enemy shaft was right in (lie firingline, behind the thickest barbed-wire entanglements of the sector. During all this time he noticed that the tutfaellers on his own side of tho line wore working with feverish energy. By tho end of the week it had Ijot about. Hint one portion of tho British hring-line was mined, and might go up itito the air at any moment. In his visits to the tunnelling officer's dug-out ho felt an undercurrent of anxiety in all they said, lie knew they wero driving their hardest to cut the hostile gallery; he also gathered that they doubted their ability to arrive in time.

On the night wlipn .(his last idea impressed itself with more than usual fores on his mind, Juckson took counsel with tlio elders of his section. Sergeant Andrew- i'eiguson and old Ban llaggerty, tho corporal, wero the ablest or his advisers. They had been in intimate (ouch lrith tho Jloelic as snipers since tho beginning of the War, and out of their incessant stalking had grown an instinct, like that poicessed by creatures of tho wild, which warned ihein of certain danger in ways that they could not explain. What they- said spurred him to action. Hβ determined to strike at once, for they knew that Hie time of blowing tho wine was at hand. Half an hour after tho conference, Ferguson, Old Dan and himself were lying lit the base, of the German parapet, where the hostile mine, shaft had been driven. They we.ro stealthily dislodging sandbags'and burrowing into the ground, timing their every movement with tho creaking windlass inside the shaft, which drowned all sounds of their activity. At last tho burrow was deep enough, and into it Jackson carefully fitted sev : eral slabs of guncottou, 'detonated and fused with a length of "instantaneous," stretching yards away over No Jinn's Land. Jackson tramped the charge home with the sure conviction that a project so favoured hitherto was ■'bound to bo successful.

Now came the difficult retreat through tho wire belt, almost under the eyes of the German sentries. Biit to pntrollers so inured to tho ways of JJo Man's Land as they, the return was an easy undertaking. In the shelter, of a. shell-hole fifty yards outside the German wire, Jackson sparked his patent igniter and lighted the fuse. A lightning streak of fire darted across to the German line, lie had barely time ,to duck his head , under coyer before tho ground shook with a mighty explosion. A fauwork of flame Hashed up from the enemy parapet. Before the roar of • the discharge had ceased reverberating in the distance, tho sector was alive with gun flashes, and the turmoil of shell'bursts and machinegun fire. When the hubbub had, died away tho three crawled from their' hiding place into tho firing-line, and slipped away to their dug-outs, , without pausing to exchange n- word with their excited comrades..

An 'hour after tlayjiglit Jackson was awakened by the senior tunnelling officer. "I've coinq to inquire about* certain missing gitncottbn slabs, and -about teu miles of instantaneous fuse," said the tunneller. Jackson Assumed a look of injured innocence and went to sleep again. 'When lie went m> the- line an hour or two later, there was still no explanation current of the cause of the explosion which had blown a great gap in the German firing-line. Jackson said nothing. But that night the tunneller came to liis dug-out again, and told him a story. It concerned a scimid of miners who at last had come upon tho threatening galIcry. It ran right beneath tho British trench, and they found the explosive ready laid, with fuses set, and e'ectrie leads back to tho battery point, But nt tlie shaft end the leads ivero broken and the gallery blocked from the effects of a tremendous explosion. The Germans had been about to flro the mine vlion thn blocking Explosion had occurred.'

"I'vo told the etory to tho colonel," said the tiinnoller, looking shrewdly at Jackson. "Tho man who fired off my guncottoi\ slabs on tho enemy parapet is in for 6omething more than a mention in dispatches. I think that is the colonel sending for yon," ho added, as a headquarters orderly came iri at tho door.