A "RISE" FOR THE HUN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2981, 19 January 1917, Page 6

A "RISE" FOR THE HUN

FIRING A BIG MINE ON THE BRITISH FRONT

SERIO-COMIC SUSPENSE

Mysterious coinings and goings happened round, tho jealously-guarded mine-shaft, littered with sandbags. Tlio R.E. Tunnelling Section, had been very busy for days past, and great thiiigs .woro felt to be ill tho air. '"Don't go down tho mine, Daddy!" Baid a muduy-lookiug scutry to a weary tuuncljer. ■'■'Think yer, funny, don't yer?" said the tunneller, disappearing S'Swn the sliaft. ... .-.. :. •-. ' ' : the mine-shaft was about to ■justify its existence by ceasing to exist. 'And nothing in its life became it half so much as tho leaving of it. For the tired-looking tunnellers had finished their preparations; that night the exjilosivo in air-tight bags was to be. carried down by a fatigue party, and-the

nico largo hole was to be filled up. , Thus far tho" engineers. . From this ',}■ point tho infantry continued the story. 'First there would ho a crater party. Next thero would he a wiring party. Thirdly, there would bo a sandbag party. And in the end there would be . a burial party, although -it was hot ' mentioned .at the Conference^ The "Waits.'» .. Back in tllo R.E. mess in a little village.'Second Lieutenant Halls, of the ; R.E. Tunnelling Section, asked irritably ; for a whisky_ and soda. : ( it going? asked another tunneller. ' "All right. We're ready now. Devil of a job. Tamping up when I left. Pass tho paper over." And Second Lieutenant Halls, having directed the packing of some thousands of pounds of into a largo hole, which act would in time in-. 1 volvo large'changes in the landscape, - proceeds to look at the pictures. ■ Later Lβ stood in the orderly-room. v ."Everything's ready, I -understand," said the O.R.E. ,

HIT • I! ' Yessir. I"j ''I've seen the infantry people. Let „ it'rip at 4 p.m. to-morrow. Report by , code word. If all serene, 'Cabbage.' If •'■ anything goes 'Bilge. , Syiir chronise watches with brigade at 2 p.m. to-morrow, luck." , Halls went to his billet and'slept. , - The R.E. Dump, always a scene of much profane activity, since most work- , injr parties call was in a state f of super-excitement. There were huge . pijes. of concertina-pattern barbed .wire, .: bundles of corkscrew stakes, > and bales of sandbags, all demanded by ono company, and the demand was -hacked by the hrigade and given wecedenco over nil ojher demands. The R.E. Dump asked itself curiously: "What the Mazes was, iro?" as the carrying parties rolled off, into the night, steadily depleting the stock-in-trado., Outside, in the rain, a wistful •iiid somewhat damp lieutenant waited - . . with a carrying .party from another battalion, hoping against hope that the stock would run out, so that he need ''not hother about'the wiring party someone had arranged for him. •: "Where the 'ell it's all goin' to I dunno," said one of the R.E. Dumpers, confidentially. "They're took' enough :. concertinas an' posts to wire the 'ole Ijloomin'. front, Back an' both sides." ' But tho supply did not.give out,' and the lieutenant had fcis party, wnich was perh.a'ps just as well. , _ Higher up the road the Brigade Store was also having an anxious ' . time. Half the neighbourhood seemed to. bo. carrying trench mortar.. bombs that night, and the trenches were a ■ delirious welter of people trying to get pastbomb parties, wire .parties, ration parties, and what not. ■ "They've arsked for a nice littlo ■ ? ] ™ tlus tlme, " 6aid ■*"•»' storeman Them- trench, mortar fellers is the 7 . boys." - "Somebody's goin' to We a. Guy ■ Foqks, that's about it," said his assistant. "An, ,, I'm glad it ain't me," said the , sto . r f™ a . n . who was all in favour of a ■cyfiiet life. ' ' \ ■'■,-■■ -.:. .Among 'other people m'ore or less mixed.up, were:the.R.F.A., who spent soveral hours'the day before registering and several hours that night, cartine m> extra rounds of H.E. and shrapnel- the , machine-gun officer who was to go with the crater party, and had to arrange ' ?r« hl , s of ammunition; the // M.0., who. had an advanced dressing ■/ stabon to arrange; and last, but not - least, the company sergeant-major,.who .cud. most of the arranging of the various parties, looked after the stores as they came- upland in general was a very present kelp in trouble, as ho usually is. . • In a large sand-Lagged chateau the nest day the Brigade Major and the Brigadier were lunching. "Going to see the balloon go up?" suggested the B.M. , ... "I think so;--Should lie exciting The R.F.A ; 's the best O.P. I t'rrink we'll have an early tea. Orderly!" "Yessir." "Tea at'three this afternoon sharp.'" "Yessir." And so even the ouierly was dragged, in. - ' Down in a dug-out, -by the light of a ' ' candle. O.C. Trench Mortars consulted his map and made notes. Then lie went to give his last instructions to tho gun team. As he- went out au orderly returncd_ with his watch. "Brigade time, sir, and a note for ; you." . . ..- •■'■•■■ : "Thank you."

■/ Hβ opened the note and' »cad: "Zero time, 4 p.m." Hβ passed on to the ; bomb store and looked at the pile of "tolfeo apples" or "plum duffs," as some call them. Over the doorway a notice had been tacked—"lt is more Messed to give. than..to receire." . The'"Balloon' Goes Up. ■ " It' wants but six minutes to four, f Second-Lieutenant Jones lies'in waiting with his party. The wirers, under Second Lieutenant Wills, also strain aw the leash under their load of concertinas. O.C. Trench Mortars waits, ' watch in hand. 0.0. Company has his ear to the telephone. The Brigadier sits aloft in a draughty 0.P., with liis eye glued to a telescope. Second Lieutenaut Halls, of the E.E. Tunnellcrs, strikes a match-head em- * bedded in the fnso onthobox. There is a slight fizz and a thinSvisp of blue, smoke rises. ' Thero is no sound save an occasional . fav-off explosion down the line. "Four minutes," says Halls. A lark rises from No-Man's Land. Higher and higher it climbs, singing in : tho sunshine. "Threq minutes. , . , Jones is twistirie a bit of wire in his fingers mechanically. "Two minutes." ( Tho lark' sings on. "One minute." 'A vision of the spark creeping nearer and nearer through the long black fuso in tho deserted mine. "Ten seconds," says Halls. .';'• The lark is still singing. ' "TTMEP , ' • Lark, sky, sun,- trench, and every- , thing blotted out by a, huge column of ' climbing earth that shoots up, spreading as it goes. Things whirl out of. 1 .tho column and bits hum through the 'air. The earth shakes, tho trenches! ■ seem , to shrug themselves, and bits of, earth roll down from tho sides. ' The terrific rending roar of tho explosion : is muffled, or else tho cars cannot grasp it. The black shadow of tiitj column hangs still for an instant, then begins.

to pour down again. out of tho air with a clumping, pattering noise round the edges of the gaping white holo in the earth, Over tho top.- go the crater party and the sandbaggers. Down to company headquarters ,goes Second, Lieutenant Halls, and asks to bo put on to tho C.R.E. His message is brief: "Cabbage, 4 p.m."' Then he goes home to tea. , The Deluge—and After. The sandbaggers have.built a- sort of barricade, which they are rapidly improving. Meanwhile Second Lieutenant Jones has divided his party into two, half creeping round each edge of the crater. They roacli, tho farther edge, and, peeping over, Jones sees tho Boche crater party, hastily gathered together, rushing forward. As they get to close quarters he gives the signal, a short whistle-blast, and from all around tho crater Mills bombs fly, bursting viciously among the advancing Bodies. Tho machine-gun rattles madly among them as they hesitate and break for cover. Soon after the shells arrive, and the chalk begins to fly. One, pitching close to tho sandbaggers, blows one of the party into the hottom of the crater minus an arm and a foot. Tho .centre of the crater is a death-trap/for everything tends to roll there, most things drop there, and the explosions of shells on the sides bring down the loose 'chalk, so that it is dangerously easy to be buried. Yet tho sergeant sandbagger is a worthy man, and slides , down the , side to the poor devil at tho bottom, managing somehow to got him out and into safety. And as that is hardly part of his ordinary duties, in tho fullness of time he has a Military Medal.

Our trench mortars, the first of which sailed over at i p.m. precisely, are living up to their motto, and the "toffee apples" are curving over in fine style. Then Second Lieutenant "Wills leads out ]iis wiring party on to the far lip of the crater, which is , perhaps rather more than was expected of him, for it is still daylight, and in entire disregard of all the. enemy . can do, which of course is not too much while the T.M.B.'s are toisy, the party proceeds to put lip wire. The only paiiso is tJiat needed from time to time to carry casualties to tho rear round the edge of the crater. , And by nightfall Hall's Crater, as it was called, was part of the line. , i In the communique the next day appeared the following blow a mine in tho R sector this afternoon and occupied the lip of the crater withoxit difficulty." Which does not sound very much, but which means quite a lot really.—O.C. Platoon, in the "Manchester Guardian."