Connecticut western news. [volume] (Salisbury, Litchfield Co., Conn.) 1871-1970, 1918-06-06

routine. On the night that we were to
"carry out" bombing raid against the
German lines was pulled off. This raid
ing party consisted of sixty company
men, sixteen bombers, and four Lewis
machine guns with their crews.
The raid took the Boches by surprise
and was complete success, the party
bringing back twenty-one prisoners.
The Germans must have been awful
ly sore, because they turned loose a
barrage of shrapnel, with a few Min
MES" and "whizz bangs" intermixed.
The shells were dropping into our front
line like hailstones.
To get even, we could have left the
prisoners in the fire trench, in charge
of the men on guard and let them click
Fritz's strafeing but Tommy does not
treat prisoners that way.
Five of them were brought into my
dugout and turned over to me so that
they would be safe from the German
fire.
In the candlelight, they looked very
much shaken, nerves gone and chalky
faces, with the exception of one, a
great big fellow. He looked very much
at ease. I liked him from the start.
1 got out the rum jar and gave each
nip and passed around some flags,
the old reliable Woodbines. The other
prisoners looked their gratitude, but
the big fellow said In English, "Thank
you, sir, the rum is excellent and ap-
preciate 1t, also your kindness"
He told me his name was Carl
Schmidt, of the Sixty-sixth Bavarian
Light infantry; that he had lived six
years in New York (knew the city bet
ter than. I did), had been to Coney
island and many of our ball games. He
was regular fan. I couldn't make him
believe that Hans Wagner wasn't the
best ball player in the world.
From New York he had gone to Lon
don, where he worked as waiter In
the Hotel Russell. Just before the war
he went home to Germany to see his
parents, the war came and he was con-
scripted.
He told me he was very sorry to
hear that London was in ruins from
the Zeppelin raids. I could not con-
vince him otherwise, for hadn't he seen
moving pictures in one of the German
cities of st. Paul's cathedral In ruins.
I changed the subject because he
was so stubborn in his belief. 1t was
my intention to try and pump him for
information as to the methods of the
German snipers, who had been caus-
ing us trouble in the last few days.
I preached the subject and he shut
up like clam. After a few minutes
he very innocently said:
German snipers get paid rewards
for killing the English"
I eagerly asked, what are they?"
He answered:
"For killing or wounding an English
private, the sniper gets one mark. For
killing or wounding Gil English officer
he gets five marks, but If he kills Red
CsH - NEs ss!!:.sshi general, the sniper gets
twenty-one days tied to the wheel of a
timber as punishment fes his careless
ness"
Then he paused, waiting fse me to
bite, S1res~A
I bit all right and asked bra why the
sniper was punished for killing an
English general. With a smile he re-
piled:
''Well, you see, If all the English gen.
erals were killed, there would be no
one left to make costly mistakes"
shut him up, he was getting too
fresh for a prisoner. After a while he
winked at me and winked back, then
the escort came to take the prisoners
to the rear. I shook hands and wished
him '"The best of luck and safe jour
ney to Blighty."
I liked that prisoner, he was fine
fellow, had an Iron Cross, too. I ad-
vised him to keep 1t out of sight, or
some Tommy would be sending 1T home
| his girl in Blighty as a souvenir.
One dark and rainy night while on
guard we were looking over the top
from the fire step of our front-line
trench, when we heard a noise imme-
diately in front of our barbed wire.
The sentry next to me challenged,
Halt, who comes there?" and brought
his rifle to the aim. His challenge was
answered in German. A captain in the
next traverse climbed upon the sand
bagged parapet to investigated brave
but foolhardy deed-"Crack" went a
bullet and he tumbled back into the
trench with hole through his stomach
and died a few minutes later. A lance
corporal in the next platoon was so en-
ragged at the captains death that he
chucked Mills bomb in the direction
of the noise with the shouted warning
to us: 'Duck your nappers, my lucky
lads" A sharp dynamite report, a flare
in front of us, and then silence.
We Immediately sent up two star
shells. and in their light cnnld see two