IN THE TRENCHES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 236, 15 March 1915, Page 6

IN THE TRENCHES.

MADE IN BIRMINGHAM."

tug-of-war With wire exiaxglements. , soldiers' letters specially, CONTRIBUTED TO Til tl F.YLXIXG NEWS. ''& . (From Private A. Watts, Ciiiuhire Regiment, to M. I). Blackburn, 77, Rattiayroad, Brixton, S.W.) I suppose there is no barm in telling yon about our use of hand grenades, as Ih ave seen reference to them m the papers you have sent. They are very tricky and effective. By tricky 1 mean that it requires knack and skill to throw tae'ii and while, some men become clia.iiptoiii übers dont seem to pick up the trick. I am one of those, though, as often happens when a mug lake* on a game he- does not understand I .nanaged to phut two beauties at ibjut fifteen yi.ids, which, judging by tne ixtilement cai'scd and the total topping of firing for a time, must have oomplev.c'.y caved in that part of the trench for several yards, and probably settled se.iral Germans, though you can be rarely sure of your bag. These grenades have another useful purpose. If they fall short, as some do, they are not wasted, as they make holes in the ground, ami make it easy to pull down the wire entanglements with a grippling iron tired from n rocket. The drawback of this sport is that there is not room in the trench to get the purchase necessary for a good pull. Sometimes we are able to pass the rope to a gang behind us, and then the wire comes in with a run. The beauty of this is that the wires cannot be replaced by the Germans without exposing- themselves, and many yards of trenches have been rushed and captured, by getting the wives awav.

TCG-OF-WAR,

But It is not an easy job to pull the captured wire out of the way. when we have got it, Slid there are. some ugly scratches got in passing the wire to the rear.

The worst of it is that this is a game that both sides can play at. They pulled down over a hundred yard of outwire the other night; but even allowing for that the balance is in our favor.

There was a fine tug-of-war the other night. We had got a grip on fifty yards, when the beggars got hold with some long hooked poles that they use for dragging in faggots and material for cover.

Wo sot five or six of thee f I lows at thu poles, and they got one of ours 1 , and it looked like being a draw until a couple of grenades thrown by one of our crack quoit player* eased the weight at the other end. ami with a shout and a steady hand-overhand pull we scored one to nil l and won the game . Some of those Germans are plucky, and no mistake. Several times they have picked up a grenade that we had droplied into their trench an dthrew it back at us, one bursting and hurting three of ours, but a third chap who tried the game, was just a littlo too late, and went home to the Fatherland on the instalment plan. We missed him, because he was an economic member of the troupe, lie spoke a sort of English that was very funny, and we often heard him scouting in the quietness of the night, "What o, Cocky! What price "made in Germany?" That was wr.at ne meant to say. but I can't put into writing his funny accent.

Another of his brilliant jokes when a shell broke over our trench was, ''Got him on the boko. How's that, umpire?" When he departed in peace (s) our funny men yelled out, "Made in Birmingham. How's that, umpire?" This grenaded German would shout out extracts from an English paper he had got hold of—at least be said it was English, though we could never recognise it when it was howled at the end of his bayonet for tig to see. It looked too small for an English newspaper.