TRENCH TRAPS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 11401, 21 November 1917, Page 7

TRENCH TRAPS.

HUNS’ LATEST DEVICE. “What do you think mode that wound:” asked an officer who was conductiiij; me through one of the advanced hospitals on the Somme, pointing to the badly swollen and lacerated ankle of a soldier that was just being dressed, says an English writer. The puffy and discoloured coloured flesh might have come from a severe sprain, but two or three black punctures on either side indicated that the injury was a more aggravated one. “If there was a tropical river about,” I replied, finally, “I should hazard a guess that the man hnd stepped into the mouth of an alligator or had been nipped by one while swimming. As I have never heard of tdligators in the Somme, I fear I shall have to give it up. What did do it:” “Trench trap,” was the laconic reply; “or, to be more exact, a wolf trap. Ever since the steady pressure of our advance began to tell—since the Boche began to realise that ho would have to continue backing up before our attacks—he Germans have been leaving them behind in the trenches or laid in inviting little run^ays through the wire entanglements. Not many of our men were caught after the first day or two—we have only had two or three eases here—but several scores of traps have been discovered, along with a lot more of diabolically ingenious contrivances designed to hamper our advance or to give us pause in the matter of occupying abandoned dugouts. In fact, the dodging of the trench traps has added quite 3 new interest anti zest to our latest attacks.” Scientific “tredch trappery” is, indeed, a now development of modern warfare and, like so many other things it has taken the methodical and thorough Teuton to bring out its refinements, to make a fine art of it. The wolf trap were only the first of a series of many devilish little devices left behind by the ousted Germans to deliver a Inst bow at the victorious “Tommy” or “Poillu,” a sort* of modernisation of the famous Parhian shot.