A WINTER MORNING IN FLANDERS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12065, 21 July 1917, Page 6

A WINTER MORNING IN FLANDERS.

THE STOR.Y OF A RAID. !>' " ■ t! Jj . (By AN ANZAC.) i(Qn a cold, wet morning in midFebruary, in the grey light of early dawn, 500 men stood silently in the fire b4ys and along tho travel trench of a 'certain "sector" in Northern Franco. (.Each man fully armed, with fixed bayonet gleaming clear through tho morning mie;fc. No buttoiu or badges of any description likely to furnish identification. In. each man's pocket a smajl card with his name only. Tho number ajpno showed that dirty work was afoot; there was little sign of it among the lads, save, here and thoro an unusual gleam in the eyo or a tightening oil the muscles round tho mouth. One man was. absently stroking a moustache that bad been shaved clean oil seven days before. Tall and hefty men tor tlie most' part, with the air and carriage of an open-air breed, their appearance betokened serious trouble for K{oneono«in the very near future. f A voung "sub" on the travel trench looke"d at the sky a tritlo anxiously, and. cn'oke low to the sergeant beside him. •Rather dark yet, Jackson, before dancing at his wristlet, watch, carefully a&t to olficial time some hours before. *5.40 a.m. Getting on! Ihe last few minutes'are the worst of this "stand and wait " period. 'i A LAST WORD OF CAUTION. *Two minutes Liter he took .a comprehensive glance- over his own platoon, lihting each weU-knovvn face with enm &fs!stac:ion, and said steadily, Geo lifeht away with me. lads, ana wnaiever yoai do, don't bunen. at tho wirel. Anu 'gdod luck'!" ' «" Righto, sirl" , :Xo uoubt. about' the following! At tlie far end of- his line, a cheerful, curiyhe'aded rascal, with a bag of bombs filing round his neck, muttered to his raato, a " dour and solemn Scot frao Gjlesca', "Not 'arf, Jockl What! I'll bet'a" franc I beat you across, old sport! Vfhat d'yer say?" '<Now. in ordinary times Jock was a ■ vqfxu ol few words and no jests, though ■nlfmighty man of his hands in a "scrap, b?t this was a special occasion 60 ho unbent. " ril'fetl five that yo beat mo across comin' back, laddie," said he. -On the tick came the curious coughing bang of the nearest mortar, followed instantly by the roar of--the "Hows" further back, while tiff 1 - deep boom of the sixty-pounders, wfitl behind, showed that tho barrage ,«s.s "on" in full concert. On such :W:asions as these, the limits of the are defined and made impassable to reinforcements by the lighter artillery, in addition to their deluging the doomed area with explosives; wnilo the heavier guns endeavour to; attract the attention of their Gormen vis-a-vis in rear. - j fw. OVER! \ 1*5.47 a.m. Right away. They're off! ! \&th a h'eavo and a'spring they'ro over tnb bags arid streaming down the outer s|«Spo of the parapet, through tho gaps .: ,ijj tJie- wiro cut tho night before, and ; weeping'across the "neutral country in line. Rifles at the high port ftkid tlireo paces between man and man. Alp along the German front line a contiguous burst of flamo vouches for tho speed, and accuracy of tho mortars, and tj'§brft is little, if any, machine-gun lire feci; far. Timber, corrugated iron, and i cijjckwalks flying in all directions. High 1 °f er sail ihe German flares, while a < . succession of S.O.S. rockets call franticfflly. for aid; The" opposing wire lies in : riobotls after tho continuous poundings of days previously, and presents no seri- • otjte obstacles. Just before tho raiders reach tho German linos, tho barrage lijfts and creeps forward towards the supports like a protecting screen, albeit a4u<ihly destructive one. Over tho bank aiTdTnfo tlie German i'iro trench witli ft whoop I-, and scarcely a casualty. But here the commence. By this time Fritz is well awake, ' and has had his morn'.ig coife-e, and is ready for business. When once the fact that. a. hostile raid is undoubtedly established, he gt. nerously does his garrison the honour of thinking that they would •as lief )j'.- iiiilod by a friendly sheil as by a foreign bayonet; which happy decision leaves him free to open up at onco and shower his attention indiscriminately all over his front lino and surrounding country. Ono officer saw but. a single Gorman that day in his particular objectivo—a flare boy in the ■ act of sending up a flare. Before ho could ' press tho trigger of his levelled revolver. thio boy and his flares went up together, assisted by a German shell. Doubtless they came down again later, ' but not "together" just. Another officer rushing on in tho half light, passed a German midway between front and support lints without fully realising it was an enemy. A bomb uncomfortably ■ near his feet settles, all doubts as to ( that, bo he rushed the offender, who turned out to be.a solid old landwehr, who was hoary enough to have known better. ' . The ancient warrior promptly fell on his knees and prayed piteously for mercy, and no doubt apologised profusely for his indiscreet carelessness in the matter of bombs. His captor was content to strip his weapons from him and leave him for tho following " waves." But that was no use to Dad. Once suro that he was not to be slain forthwith, ho took no chances with any other possible guardians, who might be more hastv and hot-headed ' than tho one he had; and no trusted body-servant could have kept closer to his lord than that old chap stuck to his owner during tho rest of that pleasant morning. By this time matters wero in full swing. The attackers allotted to-the support lines, and the flank blocking parties, were " up" and busily engaged in tne business of tho moment, with bomb and bayonot, assisted by German shells, which beat them fortheirtprizes more than once. Those of the garrison who cavetl-in immediately, and howled Kamerad with uplifted arms, nftor the proud and gallant fashion of the typical high-spirited German firewater when cornered; were spared, am! hustled across No Man's Land. Those who chose the opposite course are there amonc: the rains still, unless the German authorities, with the customarv attention to detail, prefer to huvo all their dead assembled in orderly burial grounds behind their lines; in which case tho bearers spent a heavy day. Several sappers wee in this affair, each loaded with slabs of gun-cotton, primers, detonators, etc., for the purpose of demolishing dug-outs, emplacements or any other structure likely to be encountered. Most of them found nothing, or were over-run bv battlemad infantry, or wero struck down before they could operate. . '• A SHAGGY feCOT FROM LANARKSHIRE. ; ' However, ono of them sA least found l& dug-out. Ho was a great shaggy gcot from Lanarkshire, where they ' treed them fierce, and wild, and you Shall hear how ha iorei -inta' that iux-T V' v », * ■ * u /

happy dug-out, or "dug-oot" as no would have it. litis humanity at leart has been unimpaired by tho vicissitudes of soldiering. The following conversation took place some two hours later when M'Millan had returned, covered with dirt, and a blood streak across one chock, and his thorL moustache filled solid with dried Flanders mud. "Well, M'Millan, I hear that you found a dug-out!" "Aye, Si it j I did that!" " How did that charge go; work nil right?" , " TVeel, sirr. I didna' use it. "he dug-oot wis "that fu' o'. Gnirmans. ' " All the better. What went. wrong with the charge?" " Weel, sirr, ye may laugh. but I couldna' dae it. They wis all bits oboys, eryin' and haudin' up their hnuns. And I soys ' Como oot!' and they wouldna come oot. So J. cried on (hem again, 'C'omo oot, daumn ye!' bur..they wouldna budge ava !" "Well, I'm damned! And what did you do then, "Naethin', sirr. Along comes yin o they infantrymen ui a bayonet, and he gave yin o' them a prick and dug him oot, and the rest a' cam oot thegither." " And then did you blow it up?" "No, sirr: I fetched nwa' the prisoners—ruo an Paddy O'Neill. An' it. was just as weel. because we found Gcoraio Dixon ccmin' across, lyin' shot through the stomach, and we fetched him in too. But I think he's for it, sirr!" concluded Mac in a low voice. He and Geordie were old friends. "Well, that was good work, anyhow, M'Millan; yon can have a pass, if you wish to go up and inquire about Dixon.'' But poor Geordie was " for it " right enouirh, and needed no assistance of any kind nny more. THE RETURN .'JOURNEY.

And now let us return to the German lines. Tho whistles blow rally, and thu most dangerous and difficult part of the whole operation commences--getting the men back a{;ain under concentrated fire- And the danger is by no means over when they do reach their own trench. Fritz knows the range to half a ; yard, and naturally as tin- raiders withdraw ho has all his available gunners workinfj overtime on it. One captain reached our line, shook hands with a friend in mutual congratulation, and five seconds later lay dead in his blood, with a German 77 through bis side. Our curly bomber and his friend the Scot went across, fought like tigers, and returned, and never five yards apart tho whole time, as each had known full well would be tho case when the preliminary wagers were being laid. T hey even got back as far as our support lino in safety, though the bomber had a bayonet, wound in the forearm. "All aboard for Blighty, Jock!" he chuckled. " You owe me five francs, and I'll spend it in that canny old country of yours that you're so "proud of." Bang! One of the la.st efforts of a German gunner two miles away took poor Curly " direct hit," and practically all that was left intact when tho smoke lifted was a small tin disc. 27826 R. G. BN. Z. R. . 0 or K. —which ho shouldn't havo been wearing at. all in any case. ." The Scot picked that up with a. lump in his throat, and it will ultimately reach a work-worn widow in the backblocks "'down under," whoso grief will be none tho less for tho fact, that in life her boy had been 'a roving blade, who bad brought her little but trouble and anxiety. THE BITTER ROLL CALL. • And then Roll Call—always a bitter moment. Tho sergeant calls some wellremembered name, but no cheery " Here Sir," follows on the words. For som'a were dead, and some were wounded, and others were none knew where. Alissing. One section in particular had been seen to overrun its mark, probably misled by tho poor light which was rendered worse by tho dense smoke. The young subaltern referred to in tho opening sentences did not return, and had last been seen loading his men on a "wired" machine-gun. Two days later our snipers were keenly interested

in a square board with lettering on it which appeared on the German parapot. Glasses were brought, and the board was seen to hold the following message:— Eng. Oberleutnant Gefallen .lir.ruht im fricdhof von . Which r/no authorities decided meant that ho wds dead, and laid away in tho churchyard of a certain village. Rather a d-a.ro attention that—coming from Germrnii. No doubt someone was hung i for it! j For a.n hour or two after tho affair j there were streams of dirty and wound- ; ed nu-n and Ked Cross cars passing to j th-rj rear of our lines. On the way they '• passed, so wo new troops com in;; up to .take, over---tbe'> maiden eilori what 'they had been told was a quiet and ord'-rly front. '1 hoy had been given no or any special doings, and ;-.o;)!o ill least, though:, this was a normal ; morning;, and began to wonder what a, ■ really dangerous place would be like. ! Their misgivings were not, assisted by a j dhsoluto warrior who had been in the ' ra'd and also in several estaiuinets following on tho usual rum issue- coming i out, and was pleasantly mellow. Standi ing on tho road, with a small piece of 'German stuck on the end of his bayo- | net. smothered in mud and streaked 'with gore, ho solemnly inspected a. halted platoon of his ."Hies, and assured ; them with drunken gravity that " shoi was some stunt, some stunt, by God I" ■ Then, as an aft eri bought, Bur. they'll knock —— out of you though !" And the unfortunate 'lommies looked I a,s though they almost, belie-,-rd it. They | are now old hands and have done well. | lot it be in p.vsinjr. I In one- ambulance a young sapper,- ; wounded in the neck, sat alone, with live wounded Germans, and by some, curious ehaneo had beside him a German lad whom he had shor, through the shoulder and taken prisoner some two hours prr- | viously. His was si, regular 1 i!iL:hty smile of one who had "done his bit." j Had ho not got'his "''bag'' there, to • prove it- Tin* "ba.u" and his mates I were not feeling very bright at the I time.

I']) tho road under guard name the main hodv of the German pris-oners, sonwi'smoking awl talking, and nil -woll v,'armed wi'.h rum. An aged Frenchman, "»vho might have been a " beau snbreur " in 187<'>, regarded tbein v/itii cold critical disfavour. When the. Inst, man had passed, lu) spat, carofully ijito the ditch, and do-iii-crid judgment:— " Os corhons la, ils no sonfc pas tres tristel" And T feci certain ho was rightThere were no better pleased men in Europe that dny than those German prisoners !