GERMAN MURDER TRAPS

Taihape Daily Times, 24 October 1918, Page 6

GERMAN MURDER TRAPS

PAY OF MACHINE-GUN. FORWARD WITH AMERICANS] New murder traps have "been set by tie ' Germans to catch unwary Americans'in the towns and cities from •which 1 the (enemy had been driven, writes the special correspondent of the Times. On the floors in the houses er© found glass bulbs, also bladders, full of phosgene gas, to poison our men when entering. Other deposits of the same gas were left in tiny bags under helmets as the Germans know that souvenir collecting is a passion of Americans. •

The captain who led the advance patrol of 30 American soldiers into a captured town saw in diningroom of a small hotel a loaf of bread upon the table, with a knife sticking in it. Suspecting a snare, ho called upon a German prisoner just captured to withdraw the knife. The effect, was a violent explosion. A small bomb had been left within the loaf of bread, but only the prisoner was injured. When the captain first reached the hotel a German officer came out, speaking excellent English, and said that he desired to surrender. The American pulled out his revolver and jumped back barely in time to escape a rain of bullets from an enemy machine-gun hidden under an adjacent cellar door, ■and operated by arrangement with the German officer.

A curious discovery in the operating room of a hospital left by the enemy -was some little rolls of crepe paper, which, the Germans have been using for dressing wounds, showing that they have little cloth left. We also discovered that some burned bits of harness left behind, instead of leather, were made from composite paper and hemp. Machine-guns, which have practically supplanted rifles with the Germans, are undoubtedly the bane of the overseas soldier, yet the Americans throw themselves against the pernicious weapons with almost superhuman audacity. These machine-guns set up in rocky .nests, clumps of bushes, : 0T along ridges commanding fields of Uncut grain, are handled by an experienced enemy, who keeps his presence of mind, and offers the most desperate type of resistance More his opponents can come to hand-to-hand conflicts, where the superiority of the fresh and well-fed American troops always manifests itself. TALE OF A GERMAN -AMERICAN I reached the edge of the ancient town of Eismes, levelled flat by artillery fire, with the same hardy lumber 'Jacks who had taken their first bite of triumph over the enemy back at Cierges, their subsequent special chain of progress with the French on the right and other Americans on the left including the capture of Bellevue Farm HOI 230, Ruddy Farm/and the towns of Chaunery, Coulonges, Cohan, Dravegny and St. Gilles. Their particular path in the drive had a depth of 12i. miles in continuous fighting lasting four days and nights, and they went at one period for 48 hours without cooked rations. Ruddy Farm has a particular interest, having been .the field headquarters of Prince Eitel IPriedrich, the son of the Kaiser. One captain led his men shouting **Let ns go in smiling” during the fight at does quarter at Hill 230. A sergeant, with a rifle in one hand and a trench knife in the other, stood like a Roman gladiator over a huge German he had beaten to his knees. His lieutenant said: “When I reached him it looked for a moment as if the German was done for. He was begging for ■ mercy, and the sergeant was cursing

Rim in his own language for following the Kaiser. We have many boys of German-American ancestry in our-

Tanks. They are splendid men. Wo * need prisoners during an advance sc as to got the positions of machine-gun nests farther on. The hig German proved to be valuable in that connection. ’ ’

- .Upon the highway north of Clicry and Chartreuve I came across three youngsters busy under a terrific shell fire burying two fallen comrades. There was no chaplain about, so one of the trio 'said a few words of the burial service, and with his comrades standing uncovered beside him made an impressive and unforgettable picture. v ENORMOUS QUANTITIES OF SUPPLIES BURNT. f I observed that a number of motorcars burned and abandoned by the Germans in their flight had iron tyres, indicating that the enemy was completely out of rubber. The flame of the burning ammunition dumps in the area that the Germans were fleeing from was so bright that one could almost read a newspaper inside our lines. Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of German supplies have been destroyed by the retreating enemy. The whole horizon at night is a succession of gigantic red patches, with occasional roars of touchc.d-off ammunition which they could not remove. The exceptional daring and fearlessness. of the American troops in France is exp 1 lined by a stern, good-matured

competition, between the descendants of different races. Fighting‘side by side in our small units. Each is determined to outshine his rival in the ranks besides him. This matching of individual fighting capacity is believed by our generals to produce a higher range of personal valour than the Germany army system, which pits the Bavarians, Saxons, Prussians, and other in large groups, engendering bitter sectional hostilities.