RATIONS TRAP

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 227, 13 June 1918, Page 6

RATIONS TRAP

GBIM TALE 01? A DUG-OUT.

Wounded reaching London from _ the buttle area continue to tell exciting stories of the early days of the great offensive of last Jlnrc.li and April. "Thei'o was very heavy fighting to the right and left o£ : us," said one, "and about i o'clock in the afternoon we were ordered to .withdraw from the sunk I'oad which had been our home for some days. The order came sio suddenly that we had no timo to destroy our deep dug-outs, which had been, built by.the Germans two years ago, or to remove our stores. The tea was 'eft boiling over the cooks' fires, and outside the quartermaster's store the next day's rations were ready for the mess orderlies. We could look down on all this from our new position, but were told not to move. After waiting a while we caught sight of the German advance guard coming through an orchard. A detached pnrty of about 50 came cautiously aoross the field, finally dropping down into the sunk road. An officer knocked out the cook's fire, kicked over the tea, but left a man On guard over the rations. The party then moved along the road peering into the dug-outs. . "At that moment one of our low-flying aeroplanes spotted the party, and dived straight at them. The whole crowd tumbled into the nearest dug-out. It was an opportunity not to be missed. A subaltern and about 10 of onr men with bombs (lashed down the hill to thoroad. The officer got there first, and, pointing his revolver clown the steps, called on the Germans to surrender. He was met ivith a rolley. That did it. Down wont hnlf a dozen bombs. It was a 40ft. deep (iug-outj with a long, sloping stairway and a turn at the bottom which must liavo sheltered tho Huns, for when tho ' sergeant started to go down a moment after the smoke had cleared lie was shot. It wag the corporal who solved the problem. Running to the quartermaster's store, he caught up three tins of petrol. [I'hese he stabbed with a bayonet, and ;vith the petrol streaming from the holes threw them down tho shaft of the duftput. It only needed one bomb after that, (rathering the remainder of tile ratioD6, the party dashed back to our lines just as t.he enemy's mass attack was launched from the orchard."

A, vivid description of the coolness ol tho stretcher-bearers was given by a man wounded after Jive days' and nights' continuous battle. "We had withdrawn," (io said, "to the high ground overlooking one of the most desolate and scarred depressions in the Soinnie. Our rifles were cocked and the machine-gun crews were rfndy to sweep the ridgo a thousand .yards away as soon as the enemy showed themselves. Rut over the ridge enme Jwo men carrying a stetcher. They were pat. Germans. A great shell burst right jigainst them. They'halted, turned their heads away until the smoke and gas had ■l.rifted past, and then came on again, tour times were they smothered with tho dust of burst'ne shells. Three hundred naces behind them came the German infantry. But they held grimly to their task. Not a shot was fired until they were safely behind tho shelter of our position."