One of these posts was located within one hundred yards of our
front line in Fusilier Trench, and this, it was decided, should be
raided. At 1 a.m. on the morning of June 16th a three minutes' shrapnel
barrage was opened on the enemy's trench, while a box barrage of H.E.
was placed all round the portion to be raided. At the end of this time
the boys leapt over in four parties, three to make for the trench and
the fourth to act as support and as a covering party for withdrawal.
Then it was found that the shelling had hardly been sufficient for
numerous enemy flares went up, throwing daylight over the whole scene,
and our men were greeted by heavy machine gun fire. Wender, who was on
the right, jumped over first and rapidly dashed off for the Boche
trench, leaving his men well behind. He was never seen or heard of
again, and it must be presumed that he was killed in the trench. Goodier
got his men across on the left and they jumped into the trench, only to
find it filled with concertina barbed wire, so they came out again and
worked their way along the top to the centre, being by this time heavily
bombed. They came to a party of Huns who immediately fled, but Goodier
seized one and he and his now tiny party returned triumphantly with
their prisoner and with fragments of bombs in their bodies. Milne,
having ranged over part of the Boche trench to find no one, covered the
withdrawal and then brought his party in. It was an extraordinary show
in which everyone had displayed considerable pluck, and the taking of
one prisoner had just converted it into a success, but we had sustained
a large number of casualties, most of them, fortunately, only slight.
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