RAIDING THE BOCHE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 792, 24 August 1916, Page 11

RAIDING THE BOCHE.

i. A SURPRISE PARTY. | EXPEDITION INTO ENEMY TRENCHES. [The following: account of one of ! those successful little expeditions into the enemy’s trenches, which, if ever | they are mentioned in the communi* : ques, are dismissed with a hare line. ! gives a vivid impression of how the adj venture appeals to the raiding: party. ; The account appears in the “Daily Express,” having been written by a former member of its staff.|

In the official communiques one reads:—"Our hoops made a very successful raid at , on the left of . A number of prisoners were brought in, including three officers." And mosl of you, I suppose, having digested this and a few other bald statements concerning artillery duels and unsuccessful enemy attacks with your bacon and eggs, forgel all about it and begin your day's work unconcernedly.

When I was informed that our company was to lake part in one of these raids, T was ndtabit unconceflied. I knew it wan dangerous work, and I am no! fond of doing dangerous things. Unlike most of my friends, who seem'to enjoy these hair-raising enterprises, I prefer lo sil quietly in my dug-out, far from all fatigues, reading the. latest novel sent from home or writing letters. Although 1 intimated lo my officer that I could be much heller employed in filling sandbags or cleaning up the trench, he insisted thai my presence was absolutely necessary. So 1 gave way.

Dosing the Foe. ()ui v artillery had been “dosing” the Germans for days with every kind of shell, large or small, and, since this terrible punishment was being carried out all along our line continuously and unremittingly, they could not possibly have known where or when the next raid would lake place. Shells in their hundreds screamed and screeched over our

heads and fell precision right in their front-line trenches some 200 yards away. The awful threatening drone of our monster projectiles was mingled with the air-splitting squeals of the smaller variety. Great masses of earth, sandbags, rifles, boxes of ammunition, and human fragments were flung high in the air. Trenches were demolished in a few minutes, and the ground in fronl of us took on new and ghastly shapes. Then our platoon officer howled at us through the din:— "When I go over, you chaps follow unless they get busy with machine guns. This is not an assault, but a surprise raid. If they don't notice me, it's all right. Don't worry about our 'souvenirs' (shells). They'll stop) before we get within range. Sergeant, take charge!"

We watched him examine his revolver and lake a drink of water. Calmly and methodically he took slock of his rations and readjusted his equipment, and then, brave boy that he was, he climbed quietly and fearlessly over the parapet. It is doubtful whether we should have heen able to distinguish the clatter of a machine gun or the hum of its bullets above that frightful uproar, but the sergeant soon overcame that difficulty. He stood on lop of the parapet to look for spurts of flame. Our guns were still hurtling death into the German lines when we went over at a signal from the hero on the top of the parapet. True, the German artillery was not silent, but, on Ihe other hand, it was not fierce and did not trouble us much. The Attack.

Wc advanced very cautiously at first, dropping down on our stomachs now and then at a signal from the officer in front. The men around me seemed highly delighted at the prospect of a raid, and one of them even went so far as to describe it as "heavenly." 1 expect he was comparing it to the charge at Loos. II did not exactly coincide with my expectations of heaven. So, in a series of creeps and crawls and sudden rushes, we advanced to within about 80 yards of the hostile trench. Here we had to stop, lying flat on our faces, to wait for the bombardment to abate, for our shells were throwing back great pieces of metal and .showers of stones and earth. I noted with great satisfaction that the barbed wire entanglements, some 4ft high and 20 yards deep, were absolutely smashed to pieces.

The local bombardment stopped suddenly, and the earth seemed to heave a sigh of relief. The guns on our left and right still thundered and roared, but that was not our business. Tins was our supreme moment.

A short rush and a leap and we were in among them, stabbing and clubbing them as Ihey rushed screaming from their dugouts. At first sight one could only distinguish dead bodies and debris, so awful had been the havoc of our guns, but we soon found their "J'unk-holes" deep down in the bowels of the earth, and bombed the occupants out o! them.

I went down into one of these dugouts, and was deeply impressed by their magnificence compared to our own. This one, in particular, was evidently the "residence*' of the Prussian officer whom we caught there, and, in the words of iny companion, "'e 'ad bin doin' 'isself pioud." It consisted of two separate chambers about 10ft square, the rear one being about sft deeper than the first. In the centre of the back wall of the first chamber a magnificent carved oaken door swung on welloiled brass hinges, and led down a rough wooden stairway to the rear chamber. The door had evidently been stolen from a neighbouring chateau. I have seen plenty more

of similar make in French mansions. The first room was evidently used as a dining and sitting-room, because there was a small deal table in the centre. Empty meal tins and beer bottles lay in heaps round the place, and photographs of ladies with fixed smiles, bul no fixed attire, adorned the. walls. Great quantities of tinned meals and fruits were stacked in one corner, and l.wo violins lay in another.

We look several prisoners and machine guns. Most of the captives were dazed lo a state of idiocy by the unprecedented lire, and quite a number were raving. The kindness

and consideration shown (o them by us quite surprised them, and, like curs escaped from an expected whipping, they whimpered and fawned on us.

We returned in great spirits to our own trenches with our prizes. Everybody was pleased with Ihe good evening's work, and the colonel most of all.

"You have done splendidly," he said. "And you will probably be entrusted with another job of the same sort later on. Some mention of this will be made in dispatches." And so it was—just one incident among many.