THE TRENCH RAIDERS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2868, 5 September 1916, Page 6

THE TRENCH RAIDERS

I —.— WITH THE ANZACS IN FRANCE MIDNIGHT AFFRAYS (From Malcolm Does, Official War Corn respondent with N.Z. Forces.)

Northern France, July 7. While great battles are being fought with a fierce and bloody determination farther south along: the line in France, the Anzacs have been harrying the enemy with their artillery and trench mortars, and almost nightly raids are being made. The Germans retaliate with their guns, and also try their hands at raiding, but so far tho honours have been entirely with the colonial forces. Those raids have undoubtedly been useful in deceiving tho enemy as to the actual point of attack in connection with tho great push, and apart from that they havo also had a deteriorating effcot upon his morale. When in the silences of the night he suddenly finds his trenches swept with a storm of high' explosive, and,, a few minutes later, a band of sturdy men, with bayonets gleaming in the flashes of the flares, come tumbling over the parapet into trench and dug-out, the bravest Boche is apt to quail and put up his hands. Added to all this is the bomb and tho cogwheel knobkerry, which makes the situation still more disconcerting. Quite recently I spent a night in a forward position observing one of these raids. We went in the darkness along the duck-board walks and through the fields, and eventually found ourselves in a deep trench. In a dug-out, moro or less shell-proof, we found an Australian Brigadier and other officers waiting. - Presently, ' with wonderful and dramatic precision the guns opened on the enemy's front trench. The crack of tho guns, the tearing noise of the shells overhead and the bursting of tho shells ahead, mado a terrific noise. Tho preliminary bombardment might well be called intense. We went outside, and, crouching on a mound of earth behind the trench, viewed the sceno. It was strikingly picturesque. A drizzle of rain and the-smoke from the shells added to the effect. The skv was aglow with bursting shell and flare. Clumps and lines of trees wero silhouetted against the flashing lights, now clearly, as there was a particularly bright illumination from a number of shells flares bursting to getlier at one point, and now ghostlike, as the intensity of the bombardment momentarily died down. German searchlights waving across the firmament added to _ tho general' pyrotechnic effect of the display.

The First Prisoner. . In this raid there were several par-. ties,' and soon after midnight we learnt that-they had got in and out of the German trench. A little later came the' message: ''One prisoner just arrived, sir!" The prisoner was a man who talked English very well. He had been a clerk in London. "Don't kill me —I'm a married man," ho said to the big Anzac who captured him. His captor give him a little pat on tho head and replied: "You're all right, soraiv! Don't you worry!" The prisoner said he reckoned this raid was very cleverly carried out. It was clever, ho said,, using an adjective with which the Anzacs are quite familiar. I. saw tho prisoner afterwards. Ho was a good-looking fellow. The searchers took quite a lot of letters off him, and photographs of his wife and children. He. had'a'pretty wife and pretty children. .There was also a recont letter, from his wife. It would be the last she would, Teceive for some days—until he could get a letter to her through a neutral country. The prisoner was anxious to keep the pictures-'of his family, and these were promptly handed back to him as soon as he was put in an adjoining dugout uuder guard. Ho was given cigarettes, and some of the men gave him of their own food. One could not help thinking of the contrast in tho treatment of our men, in the Ruhleben Camp!

For a considerable time there was no word of one party, and the artillery barrage was kept going. It was an anxious time, but the commander remarked that he was not worrying. Half an hour beyond midnight a report came that the enemy was dropping tear shells around one of our batteries, but the guns continued firing. After some waiting we heard that men from all three parties were coming safely back over their own parapet. There were also a few ■- killed and wounded to be taken in. Presently, .iu the small hours of the morning, the first of the returned raiders began to reach the dugout where we, were. They brought with them three prisoners. On comparing, notes, afterwards, it was found that, in all, they had killed about 80 Germans. On the way back through No-Man's-Land some of the raiders, when, the Germani sent up flares, flattened themsolvo* down into a ditch half-filled with dirty water, and when the shrapnel began to come over in another place five of them crowded into a shell crater that forcibly reminded them of Bairnsfather's famous' picture. "Well, if you knows of a better place you better go to it." Considering that, tho Anzacs had some 250 men out in this triple raid their casualties were not heavy, and tho enemy certainly suffered to an extent that made the excursion well worth while.

Cood Work by New Zealandors, One of tho mosE successful of all these Anzac raids was • made by the New Zealandors, who assaulted a section of the onemy'6 trench recently on a fine dark night. Tho preliminary bombardment by the artillery and trench mortars commonced at 0.30 a.m., and after twenty minutes the guns lifted to form a semi-circular barrage, during which the party went forward, and finding the German wire well cub by >6he high explosive from the trench mortars, got into the front German trench without great difficulty. Indeed, none of tho parties met. with the slightest resistance in Ihoir forward move. The raiders remained for, some timo in the trench, and then withdrew. They brought back with them much booty and ton prisoners. They killed 15 Germans in tho trench, and a number were also undoubtedly killed by our shell fire. Our artillery ceased firing, but the enemy continued his bombardment of our positions. Captain A. B. JfColl, the leader of the party, was mortally wounded whilo gallantly assisting his men. Apart from this, our casualties in this raid wore only one man killed and nine wounded. Of the nine only four wero wounded during tho course of ' tho raid.

Tho German wire entanglements wcro found to bo thirty-fire yards through and four feet six inches high, tho wire having very heavy barbs placed closo together. Their parapet was twenty foot wide at tho hnso and six feet at the top. The trench sides were riveted with lattice work and there were no sandhags. In the trenches there were no dug-outs under the parapet, 'but there were shallow shelters. At ono point there.was a large bomb store with an iron door. Out of this door three men came, a fourth remaining inside and shutting tho door. The fnor was blown in bv an engineer after the raiders bad withdrawn from the trench. A shaft was found leading from a deep well to a bombing station some distanco in tho rear. It was demolished by an engineer who followed the pipe-line for some yards, but could

not find tho pump. The trench six foefc deep, narrow, strongly traversed, and floored with duck-boards. The parados, which was not so high as tho parapet, contained a- number of roomy dug-outs. In sevoral there were beds. They were all very strongly constructed, with a thick solid roof, supported by heavy iron girders. They were sufficiently roomy to permit of a man's standing up in them. Amongst tho booty takon back by our men were a number "of Prussian and Saxon helmets. About this time a raid was also made by the Wellington Hegiment. This raid, however, was not so successful as was anticipated, the artillery not having been able, as on other occasions, to cut all the wire and silence the enemy's machine guns. Thus the raiders got through only in twos and threes and tho enemy' bombed them in detail. Apparently the raiders got into an outwork and not into the main trench. Some 60 or 60 of the enemy tried to follow the raiders, but were kept back by a Wellington lieutenant and his men. During the raid tho enemy searched No Man's Land with their machine-guns. Lieut. K. Munro was killed by shrapnel before the bombardment lifted. Lieut. Sheldon was wounded. Tho enemy's barrage on this occasion was heavy.' No men were found in the trench into which our men entered.