Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-08-20

work, and mighty useful It was thHt
we could do So Sometimes they would
keep US guessing. and would hold
their mines just as We did ours. Tor
several days. or even week or two
before firing them.
Although IL was our business as en-
gineers to carry on the work we were
responsible for, we would occasionally
find time to "strafe the Hun" We
were using on top at the time. the
yickers machine gun. the Lewis au-
tomato rifle and grenades and several
kinds and heights OF trench mortars
and a number of hand bombs.
The Mills hand bomb had not been
issued at that time, but we threw n
number OF other varieties. from the
old handle bombs with cloth stream
ers attached to guide their flight to
the cricket ball bomb with quick
match which is lit from brassard
on YOUR arm. Bomb throwing In
Il9l6 was not the comparatively safe
amusement that 1t is now.
| Our first trench mortars were made
OF pieces Of cast iron pipe. The trench
mortar fellows would always use
long lanyard and carefully take cover
themselves before they fired the
mortars: in fact, so often did the
mortar gun itself burst, that the In
variable question when any trench
| L., In thn trnnph was
Whose is it, ours or theirs?"
Breaking Through
In March, 1916, we had fired
camouflet when within few feet OF
an enemy party underground.
After the poisonous gas had been
pumped out, we started work again
on the face. The next day We broke
through into their old gallery and
found We had thoroughly wrecked 1t.
After leaving this tunnel alone for
few days, work was resumed at right
angles to the German gallery aha car
| ried Oh for distance of So feet when
we turned off to the left.
| Some two hours after l had been
relieved by Lieutenant q. and had re-
turned to the rest billet ut Sally,
received an ). o. =. call from the
trenches, broken into enemy gallery.
promptly rode up on my motorcycle
and reported to the mine shaft.
Enters Hun Galleries.
II appears that directly we broke
through Lieutenant G. had gone to
the magazine and connected up
portable charge Of 80 pounds OF gun
cotton and attached short piece OF
xLfety fuse to the detonator and
charge. The gallery, by the way, was
about four and one-half feet by two
and one half feet in size. Carefully
making his way to the face where
we had broken through and without
using his electric torch, he enlarged
the hole, carefully pushed the box
containing the guncotton through into
the Hun gallery, lit the fuse and
cleared out. The German gallery was
lit by electricity and he had heard
three German. miners' at work when
he lit the fuse,
| When | arrived at the mine dugout
fhe had finished this work. My section
commander, Captain B., had also
reached the scene and asked me to
20 below with an Irish Sapper In
Proto oxygen brrathing apparatus and
see what damage had been done. Sap
per Doherty and l soon got into the
apparatus and proceeded below. AS
We approached the enemy picked up
the end Of the air hose and carried
It on through with me. We found the
| remains OF three or more Boches who
had been sent west" by the explosion
of the portable charge. We left the
air hose In their gallery and came
back again and climbed out on top.
Raidins Below Ground.
We then proceeded to pump fresh
air into the gallery from the hand
pumps on the surface. ! reported that
there was no reason why we could
not get into the Hun galleries. Cap
tain B. then ordered us to make up
three raiding parties, with a view to
exploring their system. The three
parties were each composed OF an
officer, an N. c. o. and two sappers.
The N. c. O.'s each carried a portable
charge Of box containing 80 pounds
Of guncotton with them: the sappers
n few bombs each, and the officers
electric torchss and revolvers.
| It had beeH arranged that Captain
B. should station himself at the juno
tion of our tunnel with that Of the
Germans, and II anything went
wrong he would blow his whistle hard.
and on the signal we were instructed
to return to our shaft az quickly as
we could. happened to be the juni-
or officer, so had to wait to take my
party in last. We did not have much
luck with this stunt. The first two
parties got in and went up to the
gallery some distance. The Boche
opened up fire at once with auto
| mltlCS ana DOi1DS. ouT ieHo"s ic-
turned shot for shot. Then the whistle
blew. and discretion being the better
part of valor the first two parties
merely stopped long enough to fire
their portable charges and then came
out rs fast as they could and back to
the surface.
Dohcrty and at once again put on
the Proto apparatus and proceeded
below for q second investigation. This
time we carried the air hose IN fur
ther and got some distance up the
enemy gallery. also carried can
ary In a small cage in order to test
the air. The canary did not last
very long and soon toppled of his
perch.
We could not find any live Huns in
their gallery-much to the disgust of
friend Doherty. They may have been
crawling around in the dark some
where, but gave no sign Of life.
| nohorfy uaa a fynical pame little