The sun., 1916-08-27
BOMBING TRENCHES
ON BRITISH FRONT
English Officer Describes in q
Letter Incidents In the
Warfare.
MANY GERMANS KILLED
Machine Gun Fire Fails to
Reach the %"BOmbers" in
Their Shell Hole.
MANY NJ KILLED
Special Correspondence to TEE SIS,

LONDON. Aug. i5.-one OF the most
unusual tales Of trench warfare Is told
In . letter Of AL officer Of the new
armies serving In France:
ut happened like this. was looking
Sut from what was a little sheltered SPOT
alongside the entrance 20 what va call
6tinkins Sap. through a very fine new
telescope some enc had sent TO our C.. O.,
when suddenly I spied n shovel sticking
up against q little mound. ana close to It
Wa . gap in.the wet grasa
II stared jolly hard. and presently the
Bochcs had run out n new sap fully
nfty yards from their fire trench. which
at this point In over :oO yards from ours.
il was right opposite our Sinking Sap.
and not more tina 100 yards from the
head OF It.
II walked around to company head
quarters and Informed the G. o., who
was delighted. ! decided to take Corpo-
raj slado with me. because he's such a
6ne bomb thrower. besides being as cool
as u cucumber. | also agreed to take
one other man from my own platoon and
one man from each Of the other three
platoons.
Ready To Attack.
srhe G. O.'s idea was that We must
reach that shell hole close to the new
Hoches sap AZ soon AZ possible after
dark and before the Boches resumed
work there. As II turned out, we were
all lying In the shell hole for three-auar-
ters Of an hour before n single Boche
made u move. There was a fine rain
all the tim. and it was pitch dark. We
lay perfectly stl,l and nat, hands COW
cred and faces down.
"By and ~ Shade gave n little tug at
my jerkir ! listened hard and just
msdc out I otstcps. Two or three min
utes later six or eight Boches came
shuffling along the zap. carrying picks
and shovels and jabbering away nine
teen to the dozen. Eave the signal
with my left hand. There was a bomb
in INV right.
81 could distinctly hear the safety pins
come out Of our six bombs and could
even hear the breathed murmur Of the
man at my shoulder ~pugnaclous
draper. a hundred IN one. a hundred
an two. a hundred and three The was
timing the fuse OF his bomb. exactly as
Id told them)
VI lUcu tICy Ill Itt 30. guy I'm
bombs landed, one on the cdge and tho
other Ave plumb in the sap head before
10. right In the middle Ut the six or
eight Boobies digging there. Two Sec
Onds after they left our hands they did
their Job. And when the rending row
was over we heard only one Boche moan
ing. so | knew that at least six or seven
would 'strafe' no more Englishmen.
nupues. Esal Sn ulla
We again lay absolutely still while
Fritz rained parachute lights, stars,
mares and every kind of frework, and,
just as | Ia expected. swept his SAP
head with at least a thousand rounds
Of machine gun bullets, not one of which
&C much as grazed us. where We lay In
the mud OF that shell hole.
your bombs ready. lads I told
my fellows. A few seconds later We
heard the Boches streaming along theiI
narrow new sap. They took 1t FOL
lines, and they made no attempt to dis
guise their coming. We waited until the
near end of the sap was full and theI
we gave 'em our second Nolley, followed
Immediately by a third. 1t must have
been a regular shambles.
"a few seconds later we heard a fresf
lot start on their way down the sap. and
the draper and I let 'em have our las
two bombs we'll to the left. and our
selves made tracks like creased light
ming for Sinking Sap. The luck helt
perfectly, and Slade vas hauling thu
draper over the pafapet OF St.nking Sa
before a sound came from the Boch'
machine guns.
"And then. by Jove, they opened o.
~. They holed my oilskin coat for m
a. slid in, and spoiled II. hut not on
Of my crowd got a scratch. ana W
reckon TO have accounted for at the yer,
least twenty Boches. may be twice tina
number. Altogether "A splendid Job.
"And the best OF II Is our artilier!
has registered on that sap this morning
and this afternoon 10 just about goini
% blow II across tho Rhine