Evening star., 1918-08-11
FOUR FIGHT |NDARK;
TWO HUNS KILLED.
Victims of Raid for Benefit of
American Intelligence
Officer.
POCKETS GIVE UP NEWS
BY HERBERT COREY.

BY HERBERT COREY.
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY
the dark last night. The Americans
won. The Germans died.
I'VE have located an enemy sentry
post on the edge of the woods. not
far from the Paris road" was the re-
port to the intelligence officer.
Two good reasons Immediately pre-
sented themselves for the obliteration
of that enemy sentry post. The first
was that it was a post of the enemy
and that the sooner the enemy is
killed of the sooner we shall all be
able to get home. The other is that
the intelligence officer of this Amer
lean division is a.young person of q
persistently inquiring mind.
Has Them All Mapped.
Since the fight began in the Marne
hills he has examined more than 3oo
boche prisoners. That is more enemy
prisoners than any American officer
has ever examined at one time since
the civil war. He stayed at the Job
without rest for three days and two
nights.
was spotted with Interrogation
marks, indicating that he did not
know the identity of the enemy di-
vision ahead Now he has them To-
Gated.
But the German divisions have been
moving lately and he wanted more IN
formation The British method In .
case Of this sort is to drop a box
barrage over a portion of the enemy
line and then go over and take some
prisoners or search the bodies OF the
dead.
But the boche is a repulsively In
telligent animal. Nowadays he
knows just what box barraye means
and as soon as it begins he skedad-
dies for cover. The resultant raid
may not be productive in consequence
or 1t may cost some valuable lives.
The Americans like to get their
information in an easier fashion. They
locate a German post and then they
Indian that post.
Crawling Up on Enemy.
we left our post at half-past 10
o'clock last night" is the fashion in
which the lieutenant who got the as
signment to get mess Of boche re-
crawled for forty-f1ve minutes across
plowed land. The night was very
dark"
That sort Of crawl is not made in
haste. Every movement is considered
before it is made. The crawlers felt
forward an inch at time. They
kept in touch by feeling rather than
by voice.
Between movements they held their
heads stifiy of the plowed ground and
listened. That attitude is most
a~L
pays
At last enemy voices" were heard
ahead. as the report states The lieu
tenant whispered his orders:
The corporal and the five men will
stay here Do not move unless you
The sergeant will come with me-"
The two men wriggled on. Whom
one lies on the ground in the dark
ness-even when the night is dark
outlined against the black sky.
They saw IAN enemy cross the
road" They heard the enemy talking
again They crawled on.
They were lying; quite motionles,
Of the lieutenant
It sounded like a crack Of gun to
the overstrained ears:
-Haite." shouted the German in the
darkness "Halte da."
Surrender" cried the lieutenant in
German. He had been drilled in the
German word to use by the intelli-
gsnce officer.
.Halte da," cried the German again.
Private Fritz's Pocket.
The other German came plunging
over toward his mate. AS he did so
he fred. Tho two Americans. lying
on the ground, opened fire with their
gats. An automatic pistol is an ex-
traordinarily hasty mechanism in ac-
tion.
The corporal and the five men lying
on the ground where they had been
ordered to stay saw the scene lighted
up by the flashes of the guns and
misunderstood. They thought they
did not.
Both Germans fired their rifles. and
both Germans fell. They must have
been dead when they struck the
So the lieutenant whistIed low and
the corporal and the five men hurried
to him. They carried the body of one
German to a safe distance and took
the contents of his pockets and his
shoulder tabs and the other things
from which naturalization might be
made. The lieutenant and the ser<
geant snuggled close to the dead man
in the darkness. for the alarmed
boche was playing machine guns in
their directiop. He was Johann Tratz.
by the way, of the 6th Company Of
tho I'd Battalion of tho 444th Regi-
mont 1t must have been a horrible
task in the dark.
states. the report. FOR it was too
heavy to be carried. Further, it was
in very. bad condition from the
wounds"
Johann Traits pocket contents arc
strewn today on the desk of the in
-telligence ofiicer. He is very pleased,
for Tratz was a most intelligent man
and had written many interesting
things. As for the lieutenant. he is
also pleased. He puts that fact in
his report:
II was pleased with the conduct Of
Corp. P and his men," said he, 'for
they obeyed orders and laid quiet, al
though they thought they saw me
RY.0UT FOR MARKSMEN.