The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-01-14
HUMAN MOLES"
 PLAY BIG PART
 IN TRENCH WARS
Pioneers Hit About at Night Under Glare of Search
 lights on Eneny's Lines

l. Karlsruhe, Germany, Jan 15-At night, when the searchlights fit from trench to trench of the enemy and when gunners send shells into hostile works which during the day have been singled out for this atten- ton, the human mole-the pioneer goes to work. The present war at close quarters has made it imposst b1e for him to labor in daylight Not alone is every part of the field scru- tinized with powerful glasses by the observation officers, but men in aero- planes are also constantly on the look out for red or brown scar in the landscape that might show pioneers busy at work digging trenches
 Contrary to popular belief, trenches are but seldom dug by the infantry men nowadays. The little spad es of throwing up cover when during an attack the firing line, owing to SUI periority of fire from the eneny's DO sition, must intrench itself superficial- yunti1 reipforcements can be brought up. The trenches of the permanent positions are dug by the pioneers, as are also the approach of trenches, bomb proofs and tunnels, which make up a modern @posftion-dght'' line.
 What 1t means to be pioneer is we'll told in g. letter which has just been published in the German press
 
 staff had thought 1t advisable to ad- vance closer to the French trenches. Before this could be done a. trench had to be dug: otherwise the infantry sent there would have been moved down by the fire froTn the other side. The locality of the proposed trench lay between the French and German trenches M
 stso we left the ha1f-r,ained. little village on the banks of the canal reached the highway, and 1abored through the deep mud and around the holes blown in the ground by the shells, continues the pioneer About. us humnned bullets which seemed to. have lost their way. and the spades. beat gently against the rifles
 sAfter wading through muddy fields. we crossed a pontoon bridge, upon which our steps resounded in dull con- cussions. Later we entered along had to get into the ditch along the road to escape them After that we crossed more muddy fields, crept through barbed-wire fences, and ina Iy reached the spot
 There we dep1oyed and went to. work. It had started to rain again, and the ground we worked in became softer than it had been. We worked like naniacs to get cover against the fire of the enemy. Though it was dark the bullets hit the wall of a near by house like hail.
 After a while the fire grew worse. Lay downt' came the command. We rested soft enough in the mud, but there was a nasty smell about 1t. For ten minutes we waited in this posi- ton, and then resumed our work Some of the ground we were on had been filled in. it seemed, flor after a while we hit 9 layer Of brick frag- nents which seriously retarded our progress.
 ssThe trench we were digging was only 180 to 200 feet from the trench of the enemy, some of the bravest of whom had perched themselves in the crowns of some willow trees and were popping away at us.
 t'But a winter thunderstorm came to our aid; it's downpour caused the aFdour of the men in the trees to cool
 We kept on with our work to the accompaniment of the incessant heavy artillery fire from both sides Now and then the bombardments would de- Velop into a long, rolling cannonade shrfeking and bowling. the projectiIes rushed through the air above us, to explode on either side with terrifcg crashes.
 Meanwhile we had buried our-l