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Show Man-Eating Rats New War Terror British Trenches In France Are Ac tually Overrun With London, Jan. 8. A brand now enemy ene-my is opposing tho British nnd Belgian Bel-gian forces In somo sections of tho Flanders battle front. It-Is not German reinforcements. It Is rats. Big rats, llttlo rats, emaciated and fat rats, and In fact, man eating rats are seeking shelter In tho trenches from tho wind driven fields and shell swept structures of tho Immediate front. A War On Rats Shell proof but not rat proof officers offi-cers dugouts aro favorite haunts for tho Belgian Held rats. Tho less fortunate for-tunate Tommies who must keep to tho open trenches, however, aro not free from tho pest, nnd an entirely now brand of war tales Is tho ro-suit. ro-suit. Ono company almost forgot tho Germans In tho opposlto trench ono night whtlo all but tho sentinels went on a rat hunt which lasted for threo hours. Tho following morning, when tho major made his rounds, ho found 150 hoillnn nf thn enomv neatlv lnld out in rows for his Inspection. Ho ordered a rnt funeral en masso, and wont his way. False Alarms Scores of falso alarms, caused by rats rustling tho grass beforo tho trenches, havo caused much lend to bo discharged by tho British toward tho German trenches during tho last month. Tho Germans havo made no night attacks In this section for several sev-eral weeks. Ono regiment tells the story nbout a daring young second Ueutonnnt who left his trench and pursuod on uncanny nolso hundreds of yards. Ho finally brought It to bay ot the edge of a stream and emptied his automatic au-tomatic pistol In that direction. Tho lattor proved to bo a big woli proportioned pro-portioned rodent, amply perforated with bullet holes. Saved Man' Life Privates of another regiment quietly quiet-ly tell how a big rat savod one of their number from possible death. Tho death would havo boon Inflicted by a firing squad for tho soldlor wm nslcop whllo on sentry duty. The major appeared In tho trjonch, but still tho sentry Blept. Fortunately tho major frightened a number of rats as ho approached tho direction of tho sloopor and tho rats leaped ovor the face of tho recumbent ono not a moment mo-ment too soon. Rajv shooting Is a favorlto diversion In the trenches. Hundreds of dollars dol-lars worth ot British cartridges havo bcon fired lately at rats, and many a rat has met his doom. "But thoro seems no end to thorn," said a roturaed officer. "They're far moro bother than the Germans." t |
