Evening star., 1916-12-12

| Copyright, 1915, by the Associated Press)
From stan Correspondent OF the Assoclateo
| Press.
WITH THE BRITISH ARMIES IN
FRANCE, December Z. via London, De-
cember 9.-The present phase OF the
fighting along the British front may be
| classed as essentially impersonal oy
day, but intensely personal, not to say
intimate, by night.
During the short gray winter day.
light big guns back of the nghthg
lines hurl tons of high explosives
against the German positions Tne tar
gets are far, far away, and on thlcK'
misty days the results Of this con-
tinuous, harassing fire are conjectured
rather than SEEN This is, the imper-
sonal side of war. - s.
| With the coming of night, however
all is changed. Then men meet race 70
| face and hand, and primitive
methods of mortal combat come agalh
into play in the midst of all the modern
machinery and genius OF war. Inc
long dark nights are ideal Tor trencn
| raids. and they are carried out py the
| British in great numbers. te" OF tnese
raids ever gain the distinction OF men
tion in the official communications, out
In the aggregate they represent noe
turnal offensive which yields most
Satisfying military results. NOT only is
there a cumulative effect upon the GER
man casualty list, but many prisoners
are taken and useful information OBJ
tained.'
Styles in Raiding Change
Styles in trench raiding change from
time to time Just now the popular
method seems to be to lombard
given section of trench and then
set up a barrage or curtain OF shells,
behind which the raiding party crosses
that perilous strip of shell-plowed
ground known as mo mans land"
The raiders dash into the trench.
clear 1t of it's defenders in any way
the exigencies require and then dash
home again for shelter from the in
evitable retaliatory shell fire from the
Germans. Many raiders come in drag
ging hapless prisoners behind them.
It is one of the strange pSy cholog1es
| of this strange war that. while grim
death rushed swiftly and surely. into
the German trenches with the raiders,
these same English tommIes or cana
dians or Australians. a few: minutes
later, may be sharing their hot mid
night rations with the very men who's
by good fortune or quick decision, es-
capped the fury of their deadly on
passed back behind the lines to join
their brethren from other raids.
Canadians Adopt Indian Tactics.
There was a time when the Canadi-
ans carried out raids in true American
| Indian fashion. Small parties would
creep snakelike over no mans land"
cut their way through the barbed wire
/ in yoff inc
behind the parapets of the trenches.
where they could hear all that was
said and all that was going on within.
Often it would take two or three hours
| to get across mo mans land. There
| have been many instances Where, aiter
work of this character. hot cocoa has
been sent out to raiders lying under
| the German parapets, to warm them
and refresh them for the attack.
| On raids of this sort men are allowed
to choose their own weapons. Few take
revolvers and none rifles. Rather terri
flying trench knives have been invented
| for the work. but hammers prove the
handy and popular weapon. There are
often cases where raiders reach over,
grab some half asleep German by the
| back of the neck. haul him out and
hustle him to the home line without
disturbing the peace of the Silly night.
| The captured men have been too star
| tied to utter an outcry until means
have been taken to prevent them from
doing SO.
Service Purely Voluntary.
Service on trench raids is purely
| voluntary. One of the greatest trou-
bles commanders have is to select a
| limited party from the excess of voIun
teers Some men volunteer time after
| time, but often have to wait their
turn while others are given an oppor-
tunity.
| Night life along the front line is
weirdly picturesque. There are flares.
flares, flares. as far as the eye can
reach, bursting into brief brilliance and
then leaving the night darker than
| ever. The slightest unusual movement
| or suggested alarm sets vari-colored
| signal rockets kissing from the
| trenches. Then comes the sputtering
voice of the vicious machine gun,
| spraying steel-jacketed pellets of death
with reckless fury.
| When driven back to new positions,
| the Germans endeavor to take advan-
|