Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-03-03
TRENCH RAID NOW
IMPORTANT. MOVE
One of Greatest Tactical De-
veIopments During
Progress of War.
"PRIS0MERS" ARE 0RIEcT
PRISONERS" ARE OBJECT
BY PAUL sCOTT MoWRER.

By PAUL SCOTT MOWRER.
CableEram to The Sunday Star and
Chicago Daily News. Copyright. 1913.
WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES. March
1.-The most astonishing development
since the beginning Of the war in 4
tactical way has been in the nature and
organization of trench raids. These
raids. the object of which is to pene-
trate the enemy's lines and bring back
prisoners, from whom the disposition
and strength of the enemy's forces can
be learned. have long been an essential
feature in modern warfare. With
aviation. they form the chief source of
information about the enemy. Thanks
to them the French knew continually
the approximate disposition of practi-
cally all of Germany's ESQ divisions.
For a long time raids were made at
night with body of less than 100 men
and lasted anywhere from ten minutes
to half an hour. The number of pris-
oners taken was usually about dozen.
But with the continual strengthening
of the defenses on both sides and the
increasing difficulty of enecting sur
prise. such small enterprises were grad
ually found to be insufficient.
Brought About Raids.
The tension on both sides which has
existed for the last two months, while
each army has been trying to divine
recently brought about a series OF
trench raids on a really formidable
| scale-raids which would have been
called battles in 1915. There is an ar
often lasting several hours. Hundreds
| of guns and thousands Of men take
part. The raids penetrate to a depth
of nearly a mile into the enemy's lines
and sometimes as many as 900 men are
captured. The attacking troops after
taking the enemy's trenches remain
several hours. search everything and
before they return to their own lines
carrying captured machine guns, destroy
| everything destructible by IRE or dyna-
mite.
trenches abandoned after they have
| been captured? The reason is that
to remain would be to expose the
| heavy counter attacks. The number
| of lives lost would be wholly out Of
| proportion to the advantage gained.
The time is past when either side
| vantages. The adversaries prefer to
| save human material for the moment
| of really great battles and for the rest
| limit themselves to trench raids.
Begin Making Raids.
/ During the last month the French
+, have been making such raids every rev
DAYS. On February IL they penetrated
\ the German lines north OF the Athletic
| and took twenty prisoners and two
machine guns. On the 18th they took
| $50 prisoners at Tahure. in the Cham :
payne. On the 18th they rained 5000
| shells of all calibers within fifteen
minutes on a point north of Rheims.
| dashed suddenly across and made
twelve prisoners. On the 10th tnsy
| in Lorraine. penetrated kilometer
| and a half (about mile) into the
enemy's lines and took 5SS prisoners.
seven machine guns and a number OF
machine rifles. which the Germans have
/ lately begun to employ.
| Recently witnessed a typical raid
| in Alsace. Standing with a general on
an observatory saw the concentrated
French artillery deluge the Germans
strong concrete defenses from o'clock
in the morning until o'clock In the
afternoon with projectiles OF all sizes
The roar Of the artillery resembled tina,
which finally left the trenches and ad-
vanced behind the rolling barrage were
merely intended to penetrate the Ger
man lines and bring back few pris'
| ceeded.
| Cost Is justified.
It may be imagined that the cost o.
such an undertaking in munitions Il
somewhat excessive. but when 1t 10 re-
mem bered that the destruction wrought
by the preliminary bombardment Is pro
found and may take the enemy weeks
to repair, then the expenditure seems
amply justified.
This, then, is the kind of lighting
which is now occurring almost dali,
on the French front. The losses are
relatively small. but the deeds Of in
dividual heroism are numerous. Those
who are inclined to think the from
stagnant would change their minds Il
they could hear the roar Of the guns
and see the wild flashing eyes of ths
raiders returning at nightfall with
prisoners and booty and carrying theil
own roughly bandaged wounded. These
raiders are to trench warfare what thu
cavalry was to the old.ttme armies
The information obtained through theil
nne dash and courage Is absolutely IN
valuable