The Cordova daily times., 1915-02-20
HO W IRE INCHES ARE DUC BY
 GERMANS

(By Associated Press Correspondence)
 KARLSRUHE, Germany, Feb. & 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 their at tention, the human mole-the pioneer goes to work. The present war at close quarters have made it imposso- ble 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 lookout for a red or brown scar on the landscape that might show pio- neers busy at work digging trench es.
 Contrary to general belief, trenches are but seldom dug by the infantry men nowadays. The little spades they carry serve for the sole purpose l of throwing up cover when during an attack the firing line, owing to super iority of fire from the enemy's posi- tion, must lntrench itself superhcially until endorsements can be brought up. The trenches of the permanent positions are dug by the pioneers, as also the approach of trenches, bomb proofs and tunnels, which make up modern "position-fght' line. What it means to be a pioneer is we'll told in a letter which has just been published in the German press. The writer explains that the division staff had thought it advisable to ad- vance closer to the French position. Before this could be done a trench had to be dug; otherwise the infantry sent there would have. been moved down by the fire from the other side. The locality of the proposed trench lay between the French and German trenches.
 50 We left the half-ruined little will lage on the banks of the canal, reached the highway, and labored through the deep mud and around the holes blown in the ground by the shells" continues the pioneer. About us hummed bullets which seemed to have lost their way, and the spades beat gently against the rifles
 After wading through muddy fields we crossed a pontoon bridge, upon which our steps resounded in dull con- cussions. Later we entered along the sphere of the English bullets, and had to get into the ditch along the road to escape them. After that We cross ed more muddy fields, crept through barbed wire fences, and finally reached the spot.
 There we deployed and went to work. It had started to rain again and the ground we worken in became softer than it had been. We worked like maniacs to get cover against the fire of the enemy. Though is was dark the bullets hit the walls of a nearby house like hail.
 After a while the fire grew worse. Lay down' came the command. We rested soft enough in the mud, but there was nasty smell about it. For ten minutes we waited in this posi- tion, and then resumed our work Some of the ground we were on had been filled in, it seemed, for after a while we hit a layer of brick frag- ments, which seriously retarded our progress.
 'The trench we were digging was only 1SO 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.
 1 'But a winter thunder storm came to our aid its downpour caused the ardor 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 bombardment would develop into long. rolling cannonade, l Shrieking and bowling the projectiles rushed through the air above us, to explode on either side with terrific II crashes