A CLEVER RUSE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 253, 23 February 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

A CLEVER RUSE.

GERMAN WORKING PARTY.

GERMAN WORKING PARTY WIPED OUT.

A wounded machine-gunner, now in hospital in England, tells a remarkable story of how a p: ty of Brit'sh tommies lecilit!,- adopted a clever ruse which made Fritz look foolish. It is a characteristic incident of British methods on the Western front. Our men learned that it was the intention of the Huns to place nioro barbed wire in front of their lines that night. So about 15 lett tho British trench and formed links of a. human (';m reaching to the German lines, which were only about a hundred yards away. The enemy, who naturally v. ished to carry out their plans unobserved, were sending up no .star lights, .-o that the Tommies, wit!' a subaltern in charge of them, wort! able to crawl :iic- position quite unnoticed. They had scarcely completed tho l'( filiation of their chain lie-fore the German-, began to throw out of their trench on to the ground in front the various tools and materials they would require . First of all a number of iron stakes were pitched out. The first man in the British chain grabliod them, pissed them back u> the man behind linn, who in turn handed them on until they were safely landed in tho British trenches. Everything put cut by the unsuspecting Huns was disposed of in ilii same wav.

By tlio t : nio they had readied tlioir hvmh tln> (iernian working-party was in t!u> d|m ii and the mt*n ivfic lnisily i n]i!iiy<i( srarchinij for the missing wire ami tools. Suddenly a rocket likv.nl up from tlio licit Uh lines and revealed hy its piti!i>><! li}iht, tlio entire party was practically w'pod out hy a stream of lead from ii machine-pin. Later during tho Niiino night :i second Herman party attempted to get to work, with i ipially ili-;i-l roiis results.