IN THE "Y" RAVINE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2986, 25 January 1917, Page 4

IN THE "Y" RAVINE

VALOROUS DEEDS BY SCOTTISH TROOPS

BOMBS, BAYONETS, PERISCOPE: AND CIGARS

The splendid part played by theScottish troops in the capture of Beau-mont-Hamel is the subject of the latest descriptions of the British successes in the region of the Ancro, particularly in relation to the dash they made into* what is known as the Y Ravine. Theravine is a, most formidable place' (writes Mr. H. Perry Robinson in tho "Daily News"), a great gash in the : earth, some 700 or 800 yards iii length.. It is shaped like a great Y lying on its side, tho prongs or top of the letter : projecting down to the German front' lino and the stem running back intothe hinterland connecting with the roadthrough the dip which goes from Beau- - mont-Hamel, on the north, to the; Ancre. At its western end—the forked; end projecting down to the front—the chasm is 30ft. and more in depth, with sides so precipitous that in spots they actually overhang. Down below, from this 30ft. level, the Germans had burrowed into the sides of the earth and dug their lairs to a lower level still. Not only were they impervious to any kind of shell fire, but the steepness of the sides of the nullah protected even the entrances, which wore traversed so as to bo unreachable. Some of the great caves hero hollowed out are big enough to shelter a battalion and a half of men in absolute security. Besides all this, the careful German had dug a. tunnel back from the forward end of tho ravine to his own. fourth line in the rear. Fifty Tamo Germans. Even after the mass had surrendered there still remained the dug-outs and the tunnel to bo dealt with, and it was then-that an enterprising Scots private who bad lived in Germany found his opportunity. A German officer sur- | rendered to him, hut tho private was too canny to take him back qmetfy ami turn him over. Instead, he led him along tho ravine to a suspected dugout, and bade the officer put his head into the entrance and order the men inside—if any there were—to come out. The officer thundered his order—and out came fifty tame Germans. While the strngglo for the ravine was going on, other Scottish troops higher up had swarmed over tho German lines and into the "dip of tho lull where Beaumont-Hamel lay; and hg,ore midday we were in possession of the site of the village—there is no vil age— and the mouths, at least, of all the subterranean hiding-places with wnioh it is underlaid. ' , At one sgsit a Scots lieutenant had penotrate'd far back through the German lines, stopping burrows as no went and dropping men to hold the bits of trenches. When ho reached lus last trench line ho had only two men left; and these ho posted in the trench while he investigated dug-outs. In one dug-out he found a. battalion commander—an Uhlan—and his staff, and called on them to surrender, which they did. On some pretext they went into an inner chamber of the dug-out, and he went with them. By this time it had dawned on the Germans that, their captor was alone, so they turned to him, and said that, instead of being his prisoners it looked to them that he must call himself theirs. Ho was forced to agree. Happily there was a man below with a periscope, and while tho German officers were still enjoying the way in which they had turned the tables on their, captor ho announced that the English were all round them up above, and that it -was usefcss to resist. "So," said the lieutenant, "I think I'll bo the gaoler again and you can he the prisoners." So once more they surrendered, and he marched them out in triumph. At another place a man of the Sig-i nals Corps was running telephone lines up (as they do while fighting is going on), and he had just reached his goal in a captured German trench when he was hit and collapsed at the mouth of: a dug-out. As he did so a German officer camo up from the depths below, and "Signals" could see that there were more behind. He pulled himself together and called on the first man to surrender. The German promptly did so. With' what strength he had left the Scotsman then "telephoned back over the line which ho had just laid and explained the situation. Then he stood guard over the German in the doorway, keening the others hlocked behind, until help came up. The Booty. In the ravine was found a hugo ration store, with immense quantities of tinned meat and other things, and in the dugouts of officers, were cigars and such alluring trifles. There are Teliable accounts of soldiers who went about their later work, even bayonet fighting, with, big German cigars in their mouths. Most of them picked up a meal of Gcrmau ra-' tions in between whiles', and some, who had found an ordnance store, were actually discovered in process of putting on clean shirts. But he is incorrigible and incomparable, tho Briti'sn soldier. There can hardly be a moment in a fight so hot that he will not stop to crack a solemn joke or pick up a "souvenir." When the Scotsmen came back, after the fight was over, and thev were relieved, there was scarcely 'a man who did not brme his quota of German helmets and goodness knows what else, and they were in the gayest spirits, as if the work that they had been on had been a holiday. As a matter of fact, it was very fine and gallant fighting, done with magnificent determination and. in perfect 'temper. Tho Scots as a whole took over 1400 prisoners, and fifty-four machine-guns have already been gathered in. Doubtless many more are yet to bo exhumed from where our guns have buried them. The German casualties were very, very heavy.