SPIRITED AMERICANS.

Taihape Daily Times, 19 November 1918, Page 5

SPIRITED AMERICANS.

ENCOUNTERS WITH ENEMY. WILY GERMANS OUTMATCHED In a certain sector the American troops who hold the line have - every opportunity for practising their favourite form of warfare, wrote Mr H. Warner Allen, correspondent of the Moning Post, recently. There is a very broad belt of “No Man’s Land,” over a mile wide, thickly covered with brushwood and-'Seamed with ravines. In the middle of this debatable country there are two knolls facing one another at a distance of 100 yds or so; on the one of them the Germans, on the other the Americans, have established an advanced post. These isolated posts are the centre of much scouting and desultory fighting. An American platoon will crawl out from the line at night and make its way with all the caution of Red Indians right behind the > German knoll. Then there will be some brisk shooting, and the Americans will fall back on their trenches before daylight with a prisoner or two. On one occasion, as they crept BaCk through the bushes with the light of dawn just breaking, they were astonished to hear a rustling and crackling of sticks, which seemed to show that a body of men was coming towards them from the American trenches. A scout listened intently, and then remarked in a whfsper to his companions, "Boys, those are never Americans; they are too clumsy and are making too much noise.” It was not clear how Germans could have got round between the American patrol and its lines, but ths Americans were taking no risks, and they dropped where they stood with ready rifles waiting ofr the enemy - to Blunder into & | them. A guttural exclamation from a German who stumbled in the nhueTgrowth gave a signal for the combat. There was, a smart hand-to-hand struggle, and' the Bodies, taken by ' surprise, were soon mastered. A prisoner explained that they had come forward from their tenches on the north of the knells, while the American patrol was working its way along on the south. They had attempted to return on the south, and so found the Americans between them and their trenches.

One night an American on patrol got separated from his companions, in the undergrowth he came across ! fresh barbed wire that had evidently just been put up by the enemy. Suspecting a trap he followed it along, anxious to find exactly where it ran. He had skirted it for some time, crawling on all fours, when suddenly there came a breaking of sticks and the earth gave way beneath him. He was precipitated into a deep pit. Alter he had recovered himeslf from the shock he tried ‘to clamber out, but the sides'Were sheer and too high for him to reach thei|- edges. It was clearly a trap dug by some peculiarly ingenious German on the principle of ■the elephant trap. He soon discovered that the hunter was watching his trap for a voice called out in excellent English, “Pass youfweapons up here or we shall throw a grenade down on

you. ; ’ There was nothing for it but to obey. Then in the dim light of dawn the disarmed American saw a head peering over the edge of the pit, A' rope was dropped to him, and as he hauled himself up he saw that one German was covering him with a riflo while a second stood by the pit and gave him a hand. Once outside he sat down suddenly and began to rub his ankle, muttering something about a strain. Then he rose painfully to his feet. The two Germans came up to secure their prisoner. Suddenly a jab from the American’s elbow sent one tumbling backwards, into the pit which he had digged, while the other found himself clasped in grip that he could not break.

Two minutes later the American was marching his prisoner off in the direction where he Sad left his companions. He met them on their way back to the trenches, and after hand-*, mg over the prisoner he went out with a couple of men to 'bring in the Gcr man left in the pit.