A DARING EXPLOIT.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 March 1916, Page 9

A DARING EXPLOIT.

FEAT OF RUSSIAN SCOUTS. HOW THEY CAPTURED A GENERAL. (By H. Hamilton Pyfe, special correspondent ef the Daily Mail). To hear the maa talk one would not think he had done anything particular. It was only when he warmed up over the exciting part of the story, the rousing of the heuse after they had crept into it, that he seemed to dwell upon the exploit with pleasure in recalling its incidents. Yet what he described was really the most dariag adventure which has been indulged in during the w*r. To penetrate thirteen miles deet> into the enemy's lir,es.. to attack the headquarters of a divisional sta*', and to carry off the general with sevewl of his officers, getting clear away again, prisoners and all—this is the kind »f raid with which we are all familiar in fiction ef the "Three Musketeers" type. But her* it actually happened:— Of that there i s ns manner of doubt— N» probable, passible shadow of doubt — No possible deubt whatever. It was mentioned in the official bulletin. It has been the talk of the—th Army and ef other armies for days past. The way of its happening was this. AN AMBITIOUS IDEA. In the Pinsk marshes there is a littl* town called Nevcl. Near this the Prussian general commanding the 82nd Division had made himself as comfortable as he could in a substantial country house. The house stands in a garden. Thera aro no other houses quite near. Of course the staff of the Russian division which lay to tho eastward knew all about it. They had local eyes and ears at their service. But it was not anyone upon the staff who conceived tho bold idea of raiding the Prussian general's headquarters. It was to the ambitious imagination of a young officer in cherge of a scouting party that the thought of this triumph presented itself. He know the country. Amonjr the swamps a small nnmHer of men might pass by paths knows on'y to the peasants, with aneh p. sfcret movement as would eeeaxHi tfce notice of any German outpost. The henso, he lc:irned, was not closely guarded: it would be seme few minute's before ' ■ ■'? could arrive. A kidn»ppi«s expedition would he risky. Its success cinst depeni upon the swift and ruthless energy with which the attack was made. Any deky weuld mean certain failure. It would !*i "touch and g»" in deadly carnejt. He resolved, however, to risk it. Others were easily f»und to share the peri!— and the hoped-for glery. Preparations were scarcely needed. This was fortunate, for if such plans are talked about they have a way of becoming known to outsiders; the enemy's gold can often bur the secret. All that had in he done was to secure a guide knowing every track across the marshes who could be trusted, and to wait fer a dark night. INTO THE ENEMY LINES. The night came, solidly black, with a low sky from which scattered snowflakes fell. The scouting party was paraded. Without being told that anything special was their night's work, they started off. Scouts generally put some food- -into theif haversacks, for they never know iow long they may be away. Sometimes they have to hide for days beforo they get a chance to return with their information, picked up literally "under the enemy's nose." They were "well protidftl this time, and when their guide joined them they were told to eat sotnelhii:£ and lo tea before they set off on tlioiv ''r>i>*H-mile tramp across the bitter i>v»l-ind. They were also taken now into their officers' confidence.

At last, after hours of tramping through desolation, they saw lights far away. There were, the lights of the little town. Again they took a bite, while the officer in command explained to them what each must do. They had crossed one river already. They had another to ford now. Then they would be close to the house which they had come to raid, the house where the general and his staff were probably asleep, unsuspicious, little thinking that before morning they w.r.ihl be prisoners in the Russian lines. Kow they moved mere carefully than ever. Beyond the Stokhod River they' were among the enemy's detachments. They had pierced deep into the country occupied by the "Niemfai" (Russian for "Germans," literally "the dumb ones," because long ago the first German? who were seen by the Russian peasants could not speak Russian and to them were therefore "dumb''). Here it is impossible to hold a continuous front. The marshes prevent it. This marsh which our scout had crossed seemed to the enemy to he uncrossable, and therefore a secure barrier. Very soon they were to be roughly undeceived. A GRIM MOMENT. There were no sentries outside the garden. The raiders got into it and had surrounded the house before they were noticed. Sentries back and front kept guard, unfearing. Suddenly death took them in the darkness. Before the life was out of them the Russians were in the house. The teller ef the story entered a roam where a «oldier sat with receivers over his cars sleepily waiting for a telephone message. This room wan lighted up. The rest of the ious# seemed to be dark. The soldier did not look round. He heard scmeone enter, but evidently thought it a comrade. There was a pause of half a minute. The house was so still that those who had got into the telephone-roam felt doubtful what to do next. Death stood by the German soldier's elbow. Then a voice in the next renin cried out sharply, "Wer da?" ("Who's that?"), and the German soldier's life was over. The telephone instrument was smashed at once. Next moment the whole place was in an uproar. Shot were fired. Shouts came frosa all sides. Soldiers appeared buckliag their belts. All who shswed themselT«s to the scouts left ouUide the house were either bayoneted or bcwibed. The bursting of th» hand-grenades, the yell* of the terrified Germans, the leaping S»«i»js of a fire started by an overturned In nip, the h»ars« belUwing of orders winch could not be obeyed, the hard br#.ttfting of those who were engaged in deathstruggles within the heuse—-all combined to make up a scene wilder and grimmer than any which could be imagined. A PITIABLE PLIGHT. Now picture the general's bedroom. It was next to the room where the soldier with the telephone sat. Our scouts running to see "a man no longer young," half-dresset, just as he had lain down on the bed. Half-asleep still, but sufficiently awake to be furiously angry, and very much "rattled" at the same time. A battle is one filing. To be kidnapped is quite another. A pitiable slij&t for "one no longer young,"

No escaping this ignominious fate, however.. . Seized is the, angry general and hustled out. With him three of his officers, one of them, like himself, of general rank, the headquarter's doctor; a few privates. Hustled out through the garden, down the river bank, 07er the river, now they caa g* mare gently. And now they hear the rattle of rite fire. Assistance has arriosd. They hear their men shouting. But they are beyond reach. 1 Those who had been .left behind soon followed. The Germans were arriving in numbers too formidable. Our scouts made for the river crossed it, and won' lost in the gloom of the farthest L*<r.k. Only two were left behind witu death wounds. Nine were wounded slightly. All got back safely before daylight.