Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1917 — Canadians Raid German Dugout [ARTICLE]

Canadians Raid German Dugout

First Learned Enemy’s language Says Correspondent of London Times. PREPARE WITH GREAT CARE Affefr Moves on With Unfaltering Precl lion—Judgment of Officers Formed by Guesswork From Airplane Photographs. London.—A Times correspondent with the British army in the field writes the following description of a Nomine front: • A full account of the raid made by Canadians on the German lines near Calonne on January 17 serves to show that the raid, though soon over, received much care from the staff officersand IheTnen who carried it out. The Canadian lads were set to studying the German language and acquired some phrases, such as “Kaus” and another phrase explaining that if the i Germans stayed down they must exI pect - the worst immediately. i Our men —hate the necessity, of bombing deejp dugouts, full of the i frightened enemy, but the time is short •’ and bombing is necessary if orders are not obeyed at once. A modest CanaI dtan officer" said he called down one, ' dugout six times, shouting in German ion -this 1 occ.' sion. Burned Battalion Orders. i “I didn’t want to bomb,” he said. “I knew the number below. Every time II shouted a Voice replied, “yes,” in I good English. At last out came a German company commander, a sergeant major, with four others. He apologized for delaying and said he had been burning the battalion orders. He had only just time Chough.” Three men were detailed to stay behind and when the German wire was reached to cut paths. It happened that our guns made a beautiful mess of that wire. Nevertheless these three cut the tangle into short lengths and the shorter boys went over at eight in the morrting: After an Active walk of four minutes the first waves of raiders was at the first line. Iff -20 minutes the ] second .lino .was reached. The affair ! moved with unfaltering precision. The t

enemy’s front line had been strengthened and the assembly trenches manned with supports. Their losses were heavier in consequence. ' The judgments,of the Canadian officers were formed by guesswork from airplane photographs. All proved correct. Each Canadian by consulting his watch recognized each particular German trench and did his appointed work till all was over. A friendly snowstorm masked the homeward journey, which began one hour after the start. Said a German noncommissioned officer sadly: "If you had only come the day before you would have captured the corps commander.” The prisoners, many of them Silesians.stirremlered readily. Twosmall and one large ammunition dump-were blown up. The death roll inflicted was as high as 300, including, it is thought, a battalion commander. We took 100 prisoners, several machine guns and a trench mortar. Our casualties were light.