AFTER THE RAID.

Taihape Daily Times, 21 March 1918, Page 3

AFTER THE RAID.

WANT MORE SUCH WORK.

(From Keith Murdoch, Sydney Sun's Special.

These are wonderful men. I have just returned —in the earliest hours of the .morning—from the thrilling spectacle of a large scale raid. The raiders are talking merrily and excitedly behind the lines, getting the Comfort Fund's steaming cocoa and biscuits and a little rum. They arc showing souvenirs. Their blood is still up. A little string of seared pale-faced, weedy German prisoners is wending its way through the happiest Australians I have ever seen. Four are holders of Iron Crosses, including a dapper captain.

The moon is at full, and the scene is animated. The raiders are begging their officers to give them more such work, and swearing to go anywhere behind such a barrage.

The glamour of fighting has them enthralled.

A few minutes before midnight they were waiting in the cold for the order to advance. Then the Australian front for half an hour awoke into its old battle fury, and nothing was visible except the dazzling lightning of the guns, but the rat-a-tat of the machine guns and the fury of the German flares told the tale of progress. We swept up two enemy posts north of Messines whilst here on the Lys our troops cleaned out the first two German lines, reaching Warneton. Their only trouble was that Fritz ran when the barrages opened on his fire. All our men say he ran so hard that he could not be caught. The ground was littered with rifles, helmets and packs, and some of his dead. About 30 Germans, too frightened to run, dived into the funk-holes, but- we had to kill some who began bombing, capturing only a dozen.