Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1917-08-14

battalion offered. l was lucky-or un-
lucky-enough to be among the sixty
who were chosen. I want to tell you
In detail about this bombing raid, 80
that you can understand what a thing
may really amount to that gets only
three lines or perhaps nothing at all
in the official dispatches, and, besides
that, it may help some Of the young
men who read this to know something
little later about bombing.
The sixty of us chosen to execute the
raid were taken twenty miles to the
rear for q weeks instruction practice.
Having only a slight idea Of what we
were going to try to do, we felt very
Jolly about the whole enterprise start
Ing off. We were camped In an old
barn, with several special instruction
officers In charge. We had oral In
struction the first day, while sSppers
dug and built an exact duplicate OF the
section of the German trenches which
we were to raid-that is, 1t was exact
except for a few details. Certain
skeleton trenches" In the practice Sec
ton were dug simply to fool the Ger
man aviators. II photograph taken
back to German headquarters had
shown an exact duplicate Of German
trench section suspicion might have
been aroused and our plans revealed.
We were constantly warned about the
skeleton trenches and told to remem-
Der that they did not exist In the Ger
man section where we were to operate.
Meanwhile our practice section was
changed little several times, because
aerial photographs showed that the
Germans had been renovating and
making some additions to the trenches
in which we were to have our frolic
with them.
We had oral instruction, mostly dur
ing the day, because we didn't dare let
the German aviators see US practicing
q bomb raid. All night long, sometimes
until 2 or 8 o'clock In the morning, we
rehearsed that raid, just as carefully
as a company Of star actors would re-
hearse play. At first there was a dis
position to have sport out Of It.
"Well," some chap would say, roll
ing into the hay all tired out II got
killed six times tonight S'pose it'll
be eight times tomorrow night"
One man insisted that he had discov-
cred in one Of our aerial photographs
a German burying money, and he care
fully examined each new picture, 90
that he could be sure Of finding the
dough and digging 1t up. The grave
and serious manner Of our officers,
however, the exhaustive care with
which we were drilled and, more than
ell, the approach Of the time when we
were to "go over the top" drove oil
sport out Of our minds, and ! can say
for myself that the very thought OF
the undertaking as the fatal night
drew near sent shivers up and down
my spine.
A bombing raid, something originat'
ed In warfare by the Canadians, u NOT
intended for the purpose Of holding
ground, but to gain information, to 90
as much damage as possible and 70
keep the enemy In Q state Of nervous.
ness. In this particular raid the chief
! object was to gain information. 0ul
hish command wanted to know what
troops were opposite us and what
troops had been there. We were ex'
psctsd to get this information from
prisoners and from buttons and papecu
a. Of the Germans we might KIN Il
va believed that troops were bsan1
relieved from the big tent show up q
the somme and sent to our side show
IN Belgium for rest Also It was sus
| pected that artillery was being with
drawn for the .Somme. Especially W
/ were anxious to bring back prisoners.
In civilized war Z prisoner can D!
compelled to tell only his Name ranl
"a RELIGION ppt this 4 4ot = civiliEee