The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-05
WERE TRAPPED?
Americans Probably Forced To
Give Up or Be Blown Up.
Believe Sammies Caught in
DugOuts During Raid.

Washington, Nov. 5.-Ameriean
troops captured by the Germans in
the trench raid on the morning of
November 8, probably were trapped in
their dugouts and forced to surrender
or be blown to pieces with hand gren-
AIDES without a chance for their lives
This is the only explanation which
occurs to army officers today lacking
any details of the fighting.
General Pershing's brief report
merely stated that the German artil-
lery had dropped a heavy barrage
fire about a sector of the trench, cut
ting the men off from help. No eX-
PLANTATION of the eight casualties and
the twelve men taken prisoners was
receiv ed. The fact that one wounded
German was captured however, in
dicated that the trench had been re-
occupied by the American forces.
Bayonets or Bullets?
Whether the men killed and
wounded received eneir injuries in
hand to hand fighting with the raid
ing German infantrymen or were
struck down by shrapnel is not known.
A single shell, scoring a direct hit in
the trench might have caused all the
casualties That would not explain,
however, the surrender of the remain
ing twelve. Under anything short of
positive orders, the twelve would have
sistance to the Germans crawling up
thru the darkness to jump into the
trench and there probably would have
been more than one wounded German
left behind when the raiders retired.
The general practice of trench raid
ing all along the front. however, seems
to offer possible explanation. 1t has
been customary for French, British
or German raids to be carried out with
an intense barrage fire used to isolate
the small sector of the enemy line
which it was planned to invade. As
additional protection for the raiders
the artillery fire has covered far
wider portion of the front than that
which constituted the real objective of
the raid. The object of the fire is to
conceal from the defenders the exact
point of attack until the raiders arrive
there.
Probably an Advance Post.
Presumably the American trench
raide0 was an advance post. With
only twenty men in it, it could not
have had a front of. more than fifty
or sixty feet. Possibly it was the head
of a sap driven out into No Man S
Land at right angles with the general
and observation post. In that case
the barrage fire of a few guns could
cut the sector off absolutely from its
support. The thin line of the COM
municating trench would be unpass-
able under shrapnel shower.
With twenty men on a small front
provisions would undoubtedly be made
for the relief of the sentries posted on
the fire step of the trench and watch
ing for an attack
Under shell fire, the remainder
would seek shelter in dugouts. 1t ap-
pears possible that the three men
killed and five wounded may have
been the sentries, overwhelmed by the
rush of the German raiders in the
dark and that. the other twelve were
in their shelters to be hailed by an
unseen enemy and told to come out
or bombs would be hurled in among
them There would be no choice for
them but surrender. A majority of
the Germans captured by the British
and French in trench raids are taken
in this way