BOATING TO BATTLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 August 1917, Page 6

BOATING TO BATTLE.

EXCITING TIMES IN FLOODED FLANDERS.

Hero and there as the Germans have retreated they have succeeded in lloodin" parts of the district in which thev were entrenched. This has'led |o ctii-ioui variations in tiip adventure of tnc Allied arms. A wel!-kno".\n correspondent writes:—;i oa ting („ battle is one of the novelties of fighting on this part of the Western front, where ti]e Allied and German lines are reparuial l»v miles of Hooded land. Trench raids arc almost unheard of here. The r.nlv thins approximating them are bombing expeditions carried out from skill's, which are .paddled skilfully under cover of darkness to (he enemy's lines. "■lnst at the edge' of the water in front of our trench," said a Belgian officer, '-we have two little nook's viicro our two hosts lio hidden, an.lmhen darkness lias come we set out on patrol Sometimes with muffled oars. sometinnM witU pant poles—for in most places the. water is unite shallow—we creep towards the German lines. At any moment a star shell may give vou'awav, the bullets spurt in? up the 'Water around you or whistling overhead warn von that rowing about in Xo Man's Sea is not always a healthy game. But the crownmg excitement comes when von meet a Genua!', patrol boat. Or.ee when 1 was out with a sergeant and two men we hoard the steady >p!ash of a punt pule In the water coming slowly towards us. We took out the sal'etv pins from our bombs and waited until they wore almost, on us. and then let fly." 'Look!'— mid he rolled up the sleeve'of hi:: tunic *o show n deep scar near his elbow—'[ pot this from a bit of one of our own bombs, so close did iwe let the Germans come. But not one of them could have escaped, for at least three of our bnmlis dropped right into the boat, and there were great bits of wood work drifting about next day. The strangest part of it all is that the follows in the trenches on both sides are afraid to fire for fear of hitting their own men. As a matter of fart, all four of us were slightlv hit in the run for home, but the Boschi's never got home at all."