LUXURIOUS “DUG-OUTS.”

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 11, 14 January 1916, Page 2

LUXURIOUS “DUG-OUTS.”

A soldier in a letter to his friends in Scotland gave some interesting details regarding the German trenches captured in the advance towards Lens in September 25. One decent dug-out belonged, he says, to the German machine-gun crew, and we collared this *as our lawful prize. There was plenty of food inside, but we had orders not to touch it. I found a very decent box of cigars, cigarettes, etc. I took >.a German waterbottle tc replace mine. The men in this lino had heaps of souvenirs, as all dug-outs were there, and fine dug-outs they were, too, like i ( furnished rooms, with doors, table, chairs, sleeping-bunks, mattresses, looking glasses, etc., and one even had a piano in it. They had evidently made up their minds that they were there for the winter, and had made themselves Most of the prisoners taken were found in the dug-outs —induced to come out by the gentle persuasion of a bayonet. They had dropped all their arms and equipment, and, although badly scared .seemed glad to give in. Four were found calmly sitting down waiting to be taken prisoners. We must have looked fearsome objects—-grimy-faced and wearing smoke helmets, with goggle £ , over the eyes. Our dug-out was well built, and must have entailed considerable labour. A shaft had been sunk to a depth of 20 feet, and was well boarded up. Descending by means of a ladder, cne feund oneself in a room, high enough to stand up in, and lined with boards. In it was a table, chair, and four sleeping bunks, somewhat after the fashion of a ship’s cabin. It was nice and warm down there, plenty cf blankets, and spfe from the biggest shell. At the farther end a steep si aircase led up into another trench, but this entrance had been blocked up by a bomb thrown down when the trench was taken. At the top cf the shaft was a pulley arrangement fer letting down the ma-chine-gun into safety in the event of heavy shelling. It was indicative of the pains the Germans take and their thoroughness in n:itter s of this kind.