DARING BRITISH RAID.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 14153, 15 April 1916, Page 2

DARING BRITISH RAID.

ATTACK WITH HOMES. SURPRISING THE GERMANS. incident: of a dark xight. A British despntr!) from the western front, dr..•;.'-■::• JVcu:;:r_y 31st, stated •-- -"liast night a party entered the Gonimu trenches about the Kemniel-Wytsehaeto Road. These trenches were found to tie full of men. About 40 casualties wore inflicted on tlio enemy, tluve prisoners were, brought back, nnd two of their machine-guns were destroyed." A correspondent1 of the "London Tunes'-" gives an account of tho incident. It happened during the dead of a revy dark and misty night. Tie weather v as not wholly what the raiders would have chosen could they have commanded the conditions. They would have preferred a wild Mind and a stashing rain, something to keep the Germans crouching in their dug-outs. But it was good enough for men trained as well as these. A space between the op-posing trenches, averaging about 150 yards in width, had to be crossed without detection, for detection here would hove spelt annihilation for the whole party. Barbed wire entanglements, which n. presented the fruits of months of perfecting, had to bo silently got through. The raiders tell of a sentry with a nasty cough who continually came nearer to choking himself i:i his efforts to suppress his paroxysms vMien his instinct warned him that somethingwas astir out in the silent blackness. An unseen 'bayonet jjhrust cured Uir poor wretch of his Grouping for all time. 'The roomy front-line trenches woro full of shaclo,w figures when, with a marvellous ' unanimity, tho invaders loomed over the parapet and bombs Hashed crimson--death to right and loft. Amid the squealing .confusion

the invaders did their work with grim prompitude. Having emptied his revolver point blank, 0110 officer snatched up a, German's rifle and either bayoneted or clubbed half a score of foes. Men came tumbling out of dug-outs, bawling in panic, with blankets wrapped around them. In. several cases, before thoy 4 could get clear, bombs were bursting in the interiors of these same dug-outs. HAMMER ASA WEAPON. 'Some of the assailants showed a weird tasto in weapons. One--.had.Ex-pressed-a particular desire to become possessed of a 21b hammer before starting, and, as concession was the order of the day towards men . thus taking lives in their hands, his request was gratified. On being afterwards interrogated as to why he wanted this Hammer, he explained that in tho course of his regular business at home ho had handled a 21b hammer almost ciaily for years, and that somehow he felt that he could do better with it than with.any other weapon ha could think of. There is. little reason to doubt that he mado good his opinion. The whole fierce- affair only lasted a few minutes. The assailants wore recalled by pre-arranged signal and withdrew with parade like orderliness. BRITISH ARTILLERY SPEAKS. The German trench men s-warmel around two of their machine-guns and trained these upon the invaders, only to discover that they had been hopelessly crippled. Wild rifle fire broke out all along the enemy front. But the only casualties which befell tho gallant party were caused by the devetion of a couple of men who were assisting a wounded comrade, over the parapet. Scarcely were the raiders well cl'J.vr of the trench, which no-.v began.to blaze with flares and coloured signal lights, and was packed with riflemen seeking revenge, than our artillery opened fire. With thunderous intensity they barraged the level, bursting a regular stream of shells right over tho German line. The devastation caused by that play of firo. upon the crowded trenches must have been terrible. The slogan of our armies is-., that tho way to win the war is by killing Germans, and tho exploit of the valorous raiders has called . forth a cheer from the Yser to the Sommo.