The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1915-07-23
SCOUTING between The LINES
81 ia - ID 81
UNDER The CLARE OF BOMB FLARES
BY FREDERICK PALMER.

BY FREDERICK PALMER.
BRITISH HEADQUARTERS. France
July 23.-Night is always the time in
the trenches when life grows more in
teresting and death more likely.
Its dark enough now" said the
young officer who was MY host We'll
go out with the patrol
By day the slightest movement OF
the enemy is easily and instantly de-
tected: the light keeps the combatants
to the warrens, which protect them
from shell and buttel fire At night
there is no telling what miscief the
enemy may be up to. At night you
must depend upon the ear rather than
the eye for watching. Then the hui
man soldier fox comes out of his war
rem and sneaks forth on the lookout
for prey. At night both sides are on
the prowl.
Trained owls would be the most
valuable scouts we could have" said
the young officer They would be
more useful than aeroplanes in locat-
ing the enemy's gun positions. A
properly reliable owl would come
back and say German patrol was out
in the wheat field at such point, and
we would wipe out that German pa
troll with a machine gun"
Scout in Pairs.
Those young officers who fill the
gaps left by the old do not leave their
fancy behind when they. enter the
trenches. We turned into a side
| trench-an alley off the main street,
| leading out of the front trench to-
| ward the Germans.
anybody out?" he asked soldier
who was on guard at the end of it.
| Yes, two"
OF course there were two any how.
! All proving is done in pairs at least.
One man can help his comrade if he,
| is wounded or bring back the news IL
| he is dead.
| 1t is the business of every man on
guard to know where the patrol goes,
so as not to fire in that direction.
Some times patrol hears fussilade
from both sides sweeping past him.
! Follow me-"
In the EntaneIements.
| We climbed out of the ditch and
| stopped low. We were in the midst
of a tangle Of barbed wire protecting
teh trench front, which was family
visible in the starlight. There was
break in the tangle, narrow cut in
the hedge, as it were, kept open for
just such purpose as this. When the
patrol returned it closed the gate
again.
Look out for that wire--just there.
Do you see it,
Everything to keep the Bochos off
our front lawn except keeFoff-the-
grass signs"
It was utterly still-a warm sum-
mer's night without catspaw OF
breeze stirring. Through the dark
curtain of the sky in parabola ris.
ing from the German trenches swept
brilliant sputter of red light-one of
the flares which the Germans used by
the millions to assist them in their
night watches. Machine guns. NOR
tars, bombs, flares and guns OF all
calibres-the Germans keep every
thing in their locker in mechanical ap
pliances which will economic human
| force. This was coming as straight
toward us as if It had been aimed at
US. l cast a searching, uncanny red
glare over the tall wheat in head be-
tween the trenches.
Get down. whispered the officer
| Take No Chances.
| It seemed sort of foolish to grovel
before a piece of fireworks. There
was no firing in our neighborhood,
nothing to indicate a state OF war be-
| tween the British empire and Ger
many, no visual evidence OF any Ger
many any where in France except
that flare However, if a guide who
knows as much about war as this one
knew says to get down when you are
out between two lines of machine guns
and rifles-between the fighting pow
ers of England and Germany-you
take the hint. The flare sank into the
earth a few yards away after last
insulting, ugly fling or red light In
our faces.
What is we had been SEEM
They'd have combed the wheat in
this neighborhood thoroughly-and
they might have got US
| Its hard to believe" I suggested.
| So it was, he agreed. That was the
exasperating thing about it. Always
hard to believe. perhaps until after
all the cries of the wolf, the wolf
came-until nineteen harmless flares
the twentieth revealed to the watching
enemy the figure of a man above the
wheat, when a dozen rifles and per-
haps a machine gun suddenly broke
the silence of night by concentrating
on target.
Why Care is Used.
Then there might be another name
on the British casualty list, which
meant an able bodied officer or sol
dier whom his country had trained
was transferred from the asset to the
liability column of the ledger. Keep
ing cover from German flares is part
of the minute, painstaking economy OF
war We crawled on slowly through
the wheat, taking care to make no
noise till we brough up behind two
soldiers lying flat on the earth with
their rifles in hand ready to fire in
stantly. 1t was their business not
only to see the enemy first, but to
shoot first-and to capture or Kill any
German patrol. The officer spoke to
them; they answered. 1t was unnec-
essary for them to say that they had
not seen anything. If they had we
should have known it.
He was out there less to scout him.
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