THE YPRES TIMES 133 reached the tunnel dug-outs. Captain Illingworth himself tackled the biggest having placed guards at the five entranceswhile the remainder of the company began consolidating. Revolver in hand and accompanied only by his orderly, Private H. Farnath, he entered, and found no one. They were in a long deep tunnel opening out into a marvellous dug-out panelled with wood and lighted by electricity. There was no sign of life. They passed on farther and still found no one. Cautiously they advanced till they were a hundred yards from the entrance, and found no sign of anyone yet. They began to be afraid the birds had flown, or perhaps that they themselves were in a trap. Undeterred, however, by these disagreeable considerations, they pressed on with increasing caution for another fifty yards, when their persist ence was rewarded by hearing shouts of Kamarad reverberating down another passage. Private Farnath ran to the entrance to warn the company outside. The ceremonial of sur render was protracted. The Germans came along in single file, roaring Ifi Kamarad in chorus and insisting on offering a welcome to Captain Illingworth by shaking hands with H him. After each of the 81 members of H the garrison had thus satisfied the con ventions, he passed down the passage and was duly unarmed at the - 1° the meantime Second-Lieut. ~Vi —i*- Holland and a small party had Mj 43MMM advanced further forward, and arrived a TT - JSu at t^le ru'ns St. Pierre Divion, T where they found the German battalion Cjk» j headquarters. Before the occupants Wt knew what was happening the whole headquarters staff was captured60 other ranks, including several officers, the Battalion Commander, the Adju- Itant and another Medical Officer. Many of the prisoners seemed re- the ancre valley. lieve(J at bf.inS taken, as they were so demoralized by our shell hre. They said that for the last few weeks they had scarcely dared move out of their dug-outs, and the state of their refuge certainly bore this out, for they were in a filthy condition and full of rubbish and garbage of every description. The smell was appalling. But if there was much debris, there was plenty of booty as well, e.g., revolvers, field glasses, champagne and Rhine wine, besides a fully equipped aid post, with enough aspirin and other drugs to last a battalion for six months. Breakfast was being prepared in one room, and a grim relic in the shape of a dead German was stretched on the table of the Medical Officer; his Iron Cross (First Class) lay on his desk. The main body of the 4th/5th Battalion Black Watch had lost direction, but in the course of Lieutenant Holland's advance beyond St. Pierre Divion, 2 officers and 10 men of that battalion loomed out of the clouds of vapour and joined his

HISTORISCHE KRANTEN

The Ypres Times (1921-1936) | 1931 | | pagina 11