DEADLY TRAPS

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20986, 13 December 1939, Page 12

DEADLY TRAPS

DEVILRY OF THE NAZIS (From a Correspondent) LONDON, Nov. 25 Wounded French soldiers, who are in hospital after fighting on the Western Front, have revealed the devilry the Nazis are employing. The Times correspondent with the French forces, Mr R. W. Cooper, says that an abominable story was told by a sergeant-major, whose hip was blown away by a shell. He, with his company, was holding a position in the Saar when a Nazi detachment emerged from a wood and rushed toward them shouting: “Don’t shoot!' 1 Believing them to be deserters, the French held their fire, but when they were close the Germans flung grenades and emptied their automatic? pistols on the French. One ward of the hospital contained many Moroccans, who, advancing toward Saarbrucken, fell foul of a German minefield among trees. The fuses were concealed in grass and dead leaves. Many men were blown up. Troops avoiding one trap stumbled on another. Finally the soldiers crawled on the ground and fumbled for fuses. . One sergeant cleared a patch of exploding mines with a large cudgel, taking the best shelter possible as he did so. He lost both eyes, but his regiment took their objective.